New lifting routine and other miscellany

I started the NROL Fat Loss 3 program today. The workout has two main parts - a pair of giant sets.

In the first giant set, you do 10-12 reps of four different lifts. You do one set of each and then you get a 60 second break, rather than a break between each set. You do four of the giant sets.

Then you do a second giant set of four lifts, but this time you are doing 20 reps. You only do this set twice though. The lifts in each set are "parallel" to the same lift in the other set.

The first lift in each set today was a deadlift variation, the second was a push variation, the third was a lunge variation, and lastly, a pull. I deliberately kept the weights low, knowing that each movement type would have at least 80 reps by the end of the workout.

Last night, I never did run, because the meeting I went to after work lasted almost 2 hours. This was another Select Board meeting about our town's municipal offices and I was expecting a very short meeting, with a quick vote against one option. Instead, it became a long public comment session and it was nearly dark by the time the meeting ended. I'll run 9-10 after work today and modify my schedule for the rest of the week so I still (hopefully) get to 60 miles.

Over the weekend, I nearly finished Gary Taubes's "Good Calories, Bad Calories". In many ways, the book is a very long and detailed elaboration of a NY Times article he published in 2002:

What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?

There are many web reviews of the book, and I am not planning to do a complete review here. I will say that the book will certainly lead to changes in my diet and I'll have to see if this leads to changes in my weight or other health markers. I find the research analyses and detail very compelling, but the conclusions contrary to current dogma seem to still be under-researched. The author contends that this is because the conclusions are so antithetical to the widely endorsed government and medical community perspectives that funding for research is difficult to obtain (my paraphrasing).

Without a doubt, it's one of the most compelling dietary books that I've ever read. If the theories in the book are correct, our government and the medical establishment should be ashamed of themselves. On the other hand, at times, I feel like my head will explode from all the contradictions that exist in the world of nutrition.

In some ways, this book takes me back to the Paleo Diet for Athletes as a model. The Taubes book doesn't really address the unique dietary needs of an endurance athlete, but the "Paleo" book does. But even there, I wonder if the carb timing theories in the Paleo Diet for Athletes could contradict what I've read in the Taubes book.

If this post is no longer making sense, it's because my brain is having a hard time processing so much contradictory information.

It's supposed to hit 60F here today, and I may run outside in a short sleeve shirt today. It's been a long time since I've done that.

Less than 12 weeks to WS. Yikes! The next two months of training will be very intense.