Solid month to kick off the year, even though I did brake the rules on introducing more than one new stress to training at a time. Not only did I jump up the volume this month a bunch but also added a lot of quality workouts both with the GOMs and within the long runs with the Boulder Track Club. If I can hold this together for the next 10 weeks, the Boston Marathon looks to be very promising. Here is an example of one of the workouts I did with the GOMs this week https://www.strava.com/activities/479092669 and one that I did today with BTC https://www.strava.com/activities/482969817. Lots of good work happening as long as I can stay injury free and hold it together. Looking at the graph below I noticed that it has been a while since I have taken a day off from running so I think tomorrow (Monday) will be that day with all the snow we are supposed to get in the next 48 hours. But then again if we get enough maybe I will dig out the racing snowshoes I have and take them out for a spin tomorrow night, it has been a few years since they have been used.
I have not talked about this on here at all or with friends much but I have also done a diet challenge through my gym this month just to see what happens. I mean we are all an experiment of one right? Basically I did Whole 30 all month which is Paleo with fruit and potatoes allowed, basically no processed food or added sugar. It went very well. The only complaint is the amount of food one has to eat to get enough calories when you are only eating whole foods and doing all this endurance work. At times it felt like all I was doing was eating or pooping, lots of fiber that is for sure.
When I started the challenge I did underwater body fat % measure on Jan 2nd and then did it again yesterday on Jan 30th to truly measure any progress or lack of. Here is my results for both times.
I went from 9.9% body fat at 165lbs to 8.3% bodyfat at 162.6 pounds losing 3 pounds of fat and gaining 1 pound of muscle. The fact that I gained muscle and not lose muscle shocked me. I thought for sure with all the cardio I would lose muscle but most likely the 15 hours in the weight room this month and the high protein prevented that from happening. I did focus on making sure I ate at least my body weight in grams of protein everyday which I am sure made the difference. I was going to add a selfie mirror shot but realized I am not a 20 year old dude showing off on Facebook, so no. But I will say that I have never been this lean or have had abs like this. Fun experiment...
Not sure where it will go from here. There is no way I am going to stay this strict with my diet moving forward but think I can find a good balance. Still pondering that and thinking over a few ideas.
Anyways on wards and upwards. Here are some photos from the month and yes I had to include another baby photo of my sister's family and the new nephew that was born this month. Have a great Feb everyone!
About how I feel tonight.
