THIS WEEK’S STORY
Week 10 started clean. Three solid sessions — bench heavy volume, legs, bench speed work. The program was running exactly as it should. Then on Wednesday night, something crept into my throat. By Thursday morning it was a full blown cold.
No top single this week. No 132.5kg consolidation. Just rest, nutrition, and the decision to treat the interruption for what it actually is — not a setback, just part of the process.
This issue is about that. Plus the full logs from the three sessions that did happen, what I ate while sick, and a gluten-free cake that genuinely surprised me.
THIS WEEK’S STORY
WHAT YOU DO WHEN THE PLAN BREAKS
Three sessions in. Everything on track. Then the cold hit.
By Wednesday I already knew something was off — a familiar scratch at the back of the throat that anyone who trains seriously knows immediately. You try to ignore it. You do the session anyway. By Thursday morning it had fully arrived: sore throat, congestion, fatigue, the works. Coincidentally, Thursday was my planned recovery day, which gave me some brief optimism that I might rest through it and still hit Friday's planned top single — the 132.5kg consolidation session I'd been building toward all week.
Friday was a no-go. Saturday too. As of writing this, I'm somewhere around 65–70% recovered heading into the weekend.
Here's what I've learned about handling this kind of interruption: the worst thing you can do is treat it as time lost. It isn't. When I first realized I was sick, my instinct was frustration — the program was going well, the timing was poor, the momentum felt like it was about to break. But that reaction doesn't hold up.
Four full days of rest is something my joints and CNS probably needed and weren't going to get any other way. I don't take voluntary deload weeks. I don't schedule rest beyond what the program calls for. A forced stop like this, as inconvenient as it is, likely has real recovery value that doesn't show up in any training log — and never would have if the cold hadn't forced it.
The plan for next week isn't to make up for lost time. There's nothing to make up. It's a re-entry week — re-establish rhythm, confirm bar speed, make sure the strength that was there before the cold is still there. No heroics. No trying to compress two weeks of work into one. Just get back in the groove and let the program continue.
The 132.5kg consolidation will happen. Just not this week.
FOUR DAYS OF FORCED REST IS SOMETHING
YOUR JOINTS AND CNS NEEDED ANYWAY.
YOU JUST WOULDN’T HAVE TAKEN IT VOLUNTARILY.
FULL TRAINING LOG · WEEK 10
MAR 2–4, 2026
NUTRITION · WEEK 10
EATING WHILE SICK. AND A CAKE.
One thing that didn't change this week was nutrition. Even through the cold — supplements kept, meals kept, sleep prioritized. Creatine, protein, joint support, multivitamins — all of it continued on schedule. When the body is fighting something, pulling back on nutrition isn't the answer.
I'll also say something that might be counterintuitive: most of what you see in the photos this week would not qualify as "clean eating" by conventional fitness standards. Hamburg curry. Katsudon. A mixed bowl with yakisoba noodles and kimchi. And a frosted cake.
Here's my position on that. I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm trying to gain it. My goal is to sit consistently above 80kg — ideally 82kg — while getting stronger. Through a year of eating largely the same rotation of meals, I've learned how my weight behaves: add a 4th meal and it goes up, pull back to 3 meals and it returns to baseline. No calorie counting required. And despite eating this way, the physique check from last week showed I'm getting leaner anyway. The training is doing that work.
Normal meals, the occasional guilty pleasure, consistency in the gym — that combination is working. I've only come to really understand that recently.
Week 10 · Hamburg curry · Katsudon · Mixed bowls · Gluten-free cake · Sapporo, Japan
The cake deserves its own mention. Pillsbury gluten-free yellow cake mix — baked by me, frosted at home during the sick days. My wife and kids both loved it. I wouldn't have known it was gluten-free from the taste. If you're navigating gluten intolerance and have written off baked goods, this one is worth tracking down. Will be buying more.
WEEK AT A GLANCE
ONE THING WORTH YOUR TIME
WHAT I’M READING & USING
UNTIL NEXT WEEK
Three sessions, one cold, four days of rest. Not the week I planned. Exactly the kind of week that separates people who are building something sustainable from people who are just training when it's convenient.
Back Monday. Same program. Same target. Week 11 starts clean.
— Paulo · Sapporo, Japan