Thursday, August 20, 2009

Easy run and nutrition update

My wife and I did a slow, easy 4 miler last night after work. It was warm, by Vermont standards anyway, and we took it easy. The dogs wanted to come along, but it was too hot for them. They just don't handle heat well at all these days. Then, on the way home, they'll suddenly spy some mud and start rolling in it to cool themselves off. Considering that they sleep in our bed, that behavior is not acceptable.

After the run, my wife had a meeting and my son was at a friend's house. So, my daughter and I went for a short swim and then went out for dinner. The restaurant had some nice beers on tap and I really wanted one, but I abstained. It's now been 3 months since I've had any alcohol, and I'm going to continue to abstain for at least 3 more months. Perhaps a lot longer.

Tonight is a lower body lifting night. Tomorrow morning, I have an upper body lifting workout. At that point in time, my current lifting cycle is complete and I won't see the next schedule until Monday. I'm getting a new workout schedule from the people at Precision Nutrition every four weeks right now.

We are about halfway through the current six-month coached program at Precision Nutrition, and unlike the last time I tried this, things are going really well. Last time I tried the program, in my opinion, I failed badly. I tried to do my workouts instead of their workouts. I justified eating differently than prescribed because of my endurance work. And, I was drinking alcohol through the program. Essentially, I paid for a program that I didn't follow. Because of that poor effort, I decided to try the actual program, instead of my own pseudo-program.

This time around, I'm following the food and exercise prescriptions. Well, to be honest, the first month was June, and I used WS as an excuse to do things a bit differently than I should have. But, since I got home from the trip to CA, I've been doing everything right. I'm slowly incorporating new habits into my eating and adding a new habit every couple of weeks. So far, I've managed to stick with all of those habits and the results are starting to show.

I have gotten permission from my coach to add easy runs or bike rides into some of our scheduled rest days, but I make sure that I do every prescribed workout just as it's laid out.

Yesterday, someone told me that I was clearly losing weight. I can see changes in the mirror. In reality, my weight has come down very little, but I have clearly added muscle mass and lost fat mass. My clothes are fitting me better. And, I'm getting stronger.

The program ends at the end of November and I expect to see a lot more changes between now and then.

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