BILL2K24
Monday, May 15, 2023
The second song of the training-centric 32E is...
I have moved beyond Sunday's fat fast and its 220/3.3 macros. This morning, I carried out the first day of my new implementation: a 3 AM alarm. I felt it was time to hand over an additional 30 minutes to my mornings. It came about very organically.
Amusingly, I was five minutes late to my garage workout. Eh, it was one thing after another: did not grab stuff the night before, forgot to print out this week's resistance sheet, etc. I was going to start something else new today, a 5-minute shadowboxing with my 16 oz gloves, but that will just have to start tomorrow.
Everything felt good. I remember thinking that my body responded to lifting weights just as it does when it absorbs sunlight: there are natural processes that are flipped on in response that just make me happy. Shrugs were good, though I think I will double the reps next week to 40. The incline rows were edging toward the redline, which is good.
But the straight-leg deadlifts...wow. At the time I was doing them, it felt more like...a cardio endeavor. Everything is controlled, not bouncing. It is so easy to wreck myself there, right? I am bending down and not using my legs of all things! Honestly, I felt like I could do more weight than these 20 lbs dumbbells, but I recognize the value of form and (continued) function. So, it is 5x20. Or, I am bending over with my back and picking up 40 lbs some 100 times. I felt really good at the time, though a little taxed. Now 5 hours later, I totally feel my spine! In the moment, I felt empowered. I felt alive.
And thus the time came for me to go to the gym for as it has been said,
You wanna be startin' somethin'
You got to be startin' somethin'
I warmed up with the arc trainer. Set it to its greatest height and got my heart rate up. Ran it through its paces for 20 minutes. Typically, I will go for an hour, but NOT today. I spent the night before configuring my Garmin watch for something new...
I climbed up the stairs and fiddled with my watch's GUI for a bit. OK, for about 10 minutes I walked around and could not figure it out! I even did a preset interval thing and started, but that just would not satisfy me.
I finally was able to kick off the program I set out to do and began an interval approach based on a couch-to-5K program: 5-min warmup with 1-min run / 1.5 walk sets. Honestly, I did not even know if I could run. It was not that long ago in March I held no claim in my ability to walk. And I had quite the audience. There must have been 20+ doing circuit training below me—I immediately regretted not bringing my earplugs inside for my Aftershokz. There may have been 5-6 others on the track.
But like Taylor Swift, I Begin Again.
I knew I had the stamina to pull it off. I possess the mental fortitude to pull off each set. The question mark I had was my wheels. Could I do it?
Oh, I was slow. SO SLOW. But, THIS was whether I could go the distance. It was four weeks ago to the day where after just walking a couple of laps around this track, my shin ached terribly.
Well, I did it.
I finished 25-30 minutes later then immediately afterward, I climbed atop the spin bike and set the seat height to 11 because...
I began pedaling. I did not use my Garmin this time because I had no plans today to get familiarized with the bike and the training approach. I chose to use intervals again but applied 30 seconds out of the saddle followed by a 1-minute return. I did this for 10 minutes, knowing I could continue, though I spent 8 minutes of that time figuring out how I could bump up the resistance!
I ended my morning by going down the stairs. Normally, this would not be a big thing, right? And yet, for the first time in a very long time—since August, some 8 months ago—I did not use handrails to safety net myself.
I did all of that on a fat fast which was broken afterward by 5 oz of canned salmon fillet, 3.3 oz of cooked bacon, 2 eggs and a tablespoon of bacon drippings.
Things are changing.
Like the opening song references, I was a monster. It was the best workout I have had in years, maybe the best on this side of 30 in context to everything and challenging myself.