No injuries, some skating, a lot of cycling. One long break in July and right back to the workouts. I'm on the way to 2500 miles on the bike this year. I doubt 3000 miles is possible at my pace.
August. Made it through the whole month. August in South Florida can be punishingly hot. The peak of that was stop at the car and dump a 20 ounce bottle of water all over myself and use the skin suit as an air conditioner.
Think of it as a big yellow swamp cooler. Yeah, that's what I will call it, my spandex swamp cooler.
What this nonsense is all about is that my "Support Team" is on the way to London. Right now, my feet are on the coffee table (don't tell 'Mom'), and the Team is in the Miami Airport waiting on an overnight flight.
I seem to get about a five or six month run between breaks so I am right on time now. The next three weeks, I have to figure out what to do with myself so that I don't go nuts.
Also, the normal pattern is well and truly shattered.
I tell people that I am an athlete. Trainer level. Dual Sport Athlete, Elite Inline Skater, Intermediate Cyclist. I'll pause that since I don't want to give myself a bruise patting myself on the back.
What this blather all means is that I have to play hard with the rules of nutrition. I am a fan of the theory of "Macronutrients". Of course everyone has their own fine definitions of what that means, but in a nutshell, I have a tuned diet.
40% of calories from Protein.
30% each from Carb and Fat.
1 gram of Protein per KG of ideal body weight. 81 g protein.
Except that these next three weeks, I have to reduce the intake. I'm doing a soft landing so I am reducing the food intake.
The truth be told, I have been doing this literally for decades. When I was competitive inline skater "back in the day" in Philadelphia, I would get to October and begin to cut back of calories. Going from the usual 700 calories per meal plus 200 for snacks, I would cut that back to about 550x3 and lose a snack. Philadelphia winters were way too cold to inline skate even if I was stubborn.
One "last workout" I was on the Fairmount Park trail and hit an ice patch. Nearly ended up in the Schuylkill River with an air temp of 25F. On inline skates. That would make it difficult to swim to shore, trust me.
The next year I spent the winter in the gym and it worked out well.
This year on The Break, I'm going to do long walks. Today is only going to be about 12000 steps. Tomorrow, I am dusting off the Bowflex and see if I can get an upper body workout going. Weightlifting is always a good idea whether it is a substitute to a normal training regimen, or if it is actually your training regimen.
We will see. I partially disassembled the thing when the house was being remodeled and I lost the assembly instructions. I am good at fixing things even without documentation, but with all the injuries I have had over the last couple years, I have been hesitant to begin weightlifting.
Yeah, I know. Weight bearing exercises build bone mass. With the 18 or so screws I have holding my two clavicles and the titanium in my shoulder, I have a right to be hesitant.
So remember, fellow babies, if you are going to make a drastic change in your level of exercise, reduce your food intake. You will hate it, but if it is a temporary pause, your body will thank you.
Besides, my legs were getting a bit large lately. The three time weekly marathons on the bike built the quads and calf muscles up, and my muscle weight has been growing.
The spandex compression shorts aren't compressing as much so I think it's been a good thing.
Stay tuned. Until then, I have a lot of podcasts and comedy programming to get through.
If you are an Outdoor Sports kind of person, you know what I am getting at. February in the Northern Hemisphere is not your friend.
But a pause is sometimes necessary whether for overtraining or for waiting for the support team.
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