On Friday, I made a conscious effort to cut my daily calories and to measure my daily intake. My goal was to stay below 2000 calories per day for 3 weeks and see what happens. My secondary goal is to do as many of my scheduled workouts as I feel I can do in those three weeks. I've been expecting to "hit the wall" any moment now.
On Friday, I ran twice, for an hour each time. But, it was the first day, so I got through things OK. Saturday and Sunday were ski days, and I was tired by the end of the day, but not unusually so. My turns weren't getting sloppy or less precise due to tiredness. (Some might argue that my turns lack precision on a regular basis, but any lack of precision on Sunday was not due to a calorie deficit).
Yesterday morning, lifting was tough, but I got through it. I figured last night on the treadmill would be when it hit me. So, I walked for a while - 35 minutes at 4mph, 2% grade. I got bored and sped up until I got to 6 miles. It was somewhat hard, but I survived.
This morning, I had a great 7 miler on the treadmill, which surprised me very much.
Maybe it's the fact that I base my running efforts this time of year on Phil Maffetone's work, and I run very slowly during base building. The theory is that running very slowly uses a higher percentage of fat for energy than faster running, which uses blood glycogen (carbs) for energy. So right now, despite being in a somewhat carb-depleted state, maybe I can continue to do Maffetone-like mileage. Or maybe it will all fall to pieces any day now.
But, my weight is coming down, I'm getting into the routine of the lower calories, I'm not feeling too hungry, and I'm still working out. So, I'd have to say I'm off to a decent start. But, I'm only on day 5 of this planned 21-day experiment.
Thursday will be another weight workout, which will be a challenge.
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