Diet and Fitness

True. That was in response to a clearly ridiculous overload though :stuck_out_tongue: particularly hilly century ride on two consecutive Sundayā€™s

I canā€™t cope with a massive jump in volume over that baseline, but then thatā€™s not surprising, eh? :wink:

Seriously though, what do you suggest?

Iā€™d like to keep 2 runs a week to build up some conditioning there. Once the baby comes Iā€™d like to be able to choose to go for a run rather than cycling since takes less time. My tues night ride will always be guaranteed because of childcare (in-laws donā€™t fucking leave on a Tues evening :wink: ) but wonā€™t be able to guarantee getting out more than every second Sunday

Iā€™d also like to improve upper body strength but in no particular rush- ideally Iā€™d be at 30/40 push ups and 10 chin ups by Dec before the baby

Iā€™d like to maintain the cycling fitness I have bit hopefully see improvement through improving all round fitness conditioning, lowering body fat and ideally weight

I think your eyes are bigger than your belly!

You can probably do this for a few weeks, maybe couple of months, but youā€™ll burn out at some point and/ or youā€™ll binge out uncontrollably.

In my experience you can focus on 2 main goals, and keep 2 other wheels spinning. After which you can switch them around. If you go after 4 youā€™ll most likely achieve none of them or at best minimal progress on any of them.

Iā€™m not disputing that itā€™s possibly trying to do too much, but:

Do chin ups and push ups count as two goals?

I quickly reached my running goal- be able to run 5k without being sore the next day- and I feel like a couple of times a week at a low intensity is reasonable for keeping things ticking over? Or is building up conditioning still a goal? Is 5k too much? I could drop it to 3k twice a week?

Diet wise Iā€™m not actively trying to lose weight, and with the amount of protein and veg Iā€™m eating donā€™t feel THE HUNGER unless I go out and do something clearly ridiculous- Iā€™m happy to just see what happens body fat wise, and hoping that it follows from the strength stuff and not over eating

Cycling- I do think that a 40 mile midweek ride is probably too much and not necessary, or even the best idea, for maintaining cycling fitnessā€¦probably two shorter midweek rides would be better

I think keeping up the (gentle!) lunchtime walk is for the best and probably not a consideration in terms of workload?

Not burning out is number one priority

Experience beats theory every time so why donā€™t you try it and see what happens.

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I will drop the length of my midweek rides (i enjoy them, but itā€™s getting dark earlier anyway!), and Wed run will be lower intensity than I was doing

I was taking an easy week cycling every 4th week, I might change that to every 3rd week- so on those weeks I wouldnā€™t do midweek rides but keep running and strength stuff

I think that I have a good awareness these days of warning signs that Iā€™m overdoing it

Upper body session last night.

Chins, 5 sets of 4 reps, supersetted with-
BB bench press 3 sets of 10 but failed on 3rd set
Military BB press - 2 sets of 10

Weigh in this morning - 12 st 3 lbs at 13% bf

Have been stuck at 19% bf for a while with weight going down, so was expecting to be below 12 st. Instead pleased to see itā€™s bf% that has reduced and lean mass gone up.

I put this down to some consistency over the last 2-3 months and focus on incremental progression.

New goal is to get to 10% by Christmas and to keep it there sustainably.

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Great work.

Iā€™d like to get down to 10%

Mine doesnā€™t look like itā€™s changed much since measured at 18%ā€¦weight been stuck at 10.5 stone most of the year. I have visibly put on muscle so maybe itā€™s come down a touch, I dunno

21 push ups this morning

Reading your post again I probably didnā€™t try hard enoughā€¦i wasnā€™t struggling for the last rep

Nice! Was that a single set?

Yup, single set.

Iā€™m going to do it again tomorrow, then rest sat/sun to bring me into sync. Iā€™ll then do it for two weeks. I want to keep Saturday as a total rest day.

Thatā€™s a great effort. I thought from your sets and reps you might be closer to your 30 target and get around 20 first time out.

Donā€™t fret if you donā€™t get the same reps tomorrow, just keep plugging away. Form and tempo are everything.

I canā€™t remember what I got up to earlier in the year for a single set- I think it was 22/23 max

It means Iā€™ve managed to keep a fairly consistent level of upper body strength all year whilst focusing on building up the cycling

If Iā€™d been better about diet then I would probably have shifted fat and weight, but heyā€¦

@crimsondonkey 21 again. Fought like fuck for 22 but arms gave out :stuck_out_tongue:

I started out for a ride after work last night and really wasnā€™t feeling it so just headed home

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Keep pushing! Get your protein and cals up. And get more sleep - forgot to say you really need 8 hrs a night.

I have been making an effort to get to bed in time to get 8 hours, but sometimes life gets in the way :wink: (getting to bed isnā€™t the problem)

As difficult at is it for me Iā€™mā€¦gulpā€¦deprioritising cycling. Depending on how tonight plays out with the germ factories Iā€™ll skip Sundayā€™s ride

Ran into work this morning. 4.1 miles at 8:09 min/mile including 5k in 25:05 mins :+1:

Longer than 5k because I was running late due to the kids- not planning on making a habit of >5k

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Had my 3 month checkup with the surgeon today, am now officially down 37Kg (5 Stone 12 Lbs). I have to say the whole thing has been completely and utterly worth it, even if I am still having to take 7 pills each night at the moment!

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7 pills! Amateur (or lightweight given the 37 Kg loss)

Keep it up!

Wow!

Congratulations.