Cardio. It Gives Me The Excuse To Eat Stupid Amounts of Food While the Dog Watches

I have been training to get in shape for twice as long as I have not.  

Or longer.  Decades.

I do crazy amounts of cardio.  8 hours of cycling a week, 6 miles of walking per day.

It gets to the point where I am not eating for regular reasons.  It is done to fill the empty hole, and when done, I'm typically ready to start over.

3000 calories a day.  It's balanced, all a part of a plan.  40% of calories from Protein, the remainder from fats and carbs.

Typically on a "Workout Day", more carbs than fat but it all varies.

To get that many calories, I'm in and out of the kitchen more times a day than I care to count.

Walking through to the laundry on wash days like today, I tend to grab a "Little Something" to keep things going.  I need to get the wash done on "Off Days" because "On Days" all bets are off whether I will have the interest to do anything other than go around in circles at high speeds.

There was a conversation once with a restaurateur.  She was surprised that I wanted the last piece of chocolate cake.  I told her about the 30 miles I had done that day on inline skates and that the cake was already burned.  Oh, and I need to stop myself from having a second.

She had an excellent chocolate cake, really, It's part of the reason why I have so many recipes for chocolate cake and other baked goods.

I am famous for sitting on the front bumper of my Jeep and having a mid workout snack.  Those brownies are really nice after an hour of drafting someone else getting their cardio on.

In this heat that we get in South Florida, it's a requirement that you take frequent breaks.  Water stop, snack, Sunblock, in that order.  I learned years back that every hour you need a break even if you don't want one.  High Summer here is as high as 96F and 80% humidity.  Call that 36C in "New Money".

Add to that a water dousing.  All 6'4" (193cm) of me standing in a parking lot, pouring a large water over my head and down my shirt and back to cool me down enough for the next hour.

Basically it's a lot of planning, a lot of food prep, and everything has to be just so.

All those trips through the kitchen have trained the dog as well.  A McNab dog is about as smart as a dog can get.  That is why I call him Rack the McNab SuperDog (TM).  He's just that smart.  

I did not realize I had trained him as well.  

Walk through the kitchen, there is a good chance that I'm going to grab something and stuff it down into the furnace where the afterburners will convert it into fuel.

Since it's a long way to the floor and since there's almost always music playing when I am at home, I may not hear when that potato chip hits my left foot.  That intelligent furry little knucklehead learned.  Come into the kitchen and follow me around.

So any time I am in there, he's in there staring me down looking to see what I can give him.  I even can shake my head no and he will accept that and walk away but he wants the chance.

If you think Old Dog, New Trick, you would be right.  There is no such thing as you can't teach that old dog, they learn even if you don't like the results.

So as I walk in making a Cheeseburger with toasted shallots on a homemade brioche bun, there's the little furry monster wanting some of the Velveeta that is perched on the counter.

I'd tidy up things so it's a little easier to work in there, but there are so many bags of carbs off to the right that it gets a little embarrassing how crowded things get.

Don't judge me, it is Athlete's Prerogative.

Even at my age, there's mess, and "Lived In".  

And besides, training sessions are available, 8AM at the park.  Look for the soon to be wet giant setting up the bike next to the Jeep.  For a nominal feel, of course.