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Monster Cardio continued

I want to clear up a couple things about my diet and why i chose to go about it the way i did.

There are 3 major forms of energy burned in order: Carbs, fat, protein..

As a very overall perspective: When you run out of carbs your body will burn fat. When you run out of fat your body will burn protein (catabolism). There are certain areas where these overlap, but for the purposes of this post, it is sufficient. If you don't take in enough fat your body will eat your muscle for energy, this is why a low fat diet is not smart for athletes like speed skaters and cyclists. What matters more is the type of fat you intake. Good fat: animal fat, omega fatty acids, etc. Bad fat: most oils, unsaturated fats. (this info courtesy of my buddy craig, thanks)

 
Now that you have a little better idea of the process, I'll explain what i wanted to do and how i went about it exactly. The goal was to trim off the 'baby fat' i had built up from eating fast food and neglecting cardio, but more importantly than shedding baby fat was to trim down some muscle mass from my legs; i built up too much mass from the static plyos i had been doing and as a result, was having a hard time crossing- there simply just wasnt enough room. I knew that to do this i would have to limit my carb and fat intake and force my body to go through the stages to start actually burning muscle. I chose to eat a very light amount of turkey and chicken (i had to have SOME muscle fuel), lots of vegetables, high fiber cereals with soy milk, and cut out as much fat (good or bad) as i possibly could.
 
The results were fantastic; within just a week of that diet and upping the cardio quite a bit (cycling and skating) i shed about 13 pounds. The problem with this diet is that if you stay on it while trying to continue a brutal training schedule, you will eventually hit a wall and your body will shut down.
 

Now that I've dropped the weight and muscle mass i set out to, i decided to add the required carbs and good fats back into my diet; now more lenient with breads, nuts, natural peanut butter, eggs, and eating quite a bit more fish and poultry as well. Like i said before, i don't break down my diet to the exact number of carbs or anything, i just cut out all the fast foods, sodas, bad sugars, chips etc. and listen to my body... if i feel thirsty, i drink more... if i feel tired and my muscles are a little more sore than normal, i eat more protein.

 
So far i can tell a pretty significant difference in my lung ability and lactic thresholds, which i contribute mostly to diet and proper hyrdration.
 
 
Today's 30 min cardio:
 
 

This photo is of stadium high school in tacoma, you can see the stairs to the right of the track and there is another taller, longer set on the opposite side. If you look close you can see strips that go from the top to the bottom, those are the aisles that we run up and down. Up one aisle, jog to the next, down that aisle, jog to the next, up that one etc.  Each lap of stairs takes about 11 minutes on average to complete.


Workout:

1 lap of stairs- alternating single/doubles- jogging - aprox 9 min
4 laps around the track- fast jog - aprox 6 min
1 min foot switches on bench
1 lap around track- fast jog - aprox 1.5 min
1 min side crunches
1 lap around track- fast jog - aprox 1.5 min
1 lap of stairs- alternating single/doubles- jogging aprox 10 min

The running has become much easier for me and my body is learning how to actively recover without actually doing a zero effort rest... Compared to how hard the stairs were, the running felt like a zero effort recovery. By the end of the 2nd stair lap, i could barely make it to the top from my heavy breathing and legs burning, but it felt really good to hit that threshold and push past the point where i wanted to quit

Monster Cardio!

A few months ago i took a step back and analyzed my strengths and weaknesses; i came up with this:

my strengths are long build ups, marathon field sprints, elimination races, starts, and accels

my weaknesses are intervals, long consistent grinds without rest, and efficient corners

One of my goals has been to win the points race at worlds and with that you have to either race incredibly smart and be gifted good opportunities OR just be in better physical shape than all your competitors... admittedly, I've never been a racer of impeccable tactics, which means the majority of the time, i was better prepared than my adversaries, EXCEPT in the points races. That being said, i decided to bite the bullet and start doing the long boring, painful cardio that it takes to properly prepare.

With that comes responsibility of diet. You get out of your body what you put in... If my plan was going to be to reach a high amount of combined miles each week, my body deserved to have the correct fuel. I realized this when i started doing 2 hour+ bike rides and about 1h10m into the ride my calves cramped, then 30m later my hamstrings and quads... obviously a red flag. Now, ive always been known as the fat kid that just eats a million calories a day and relies on my metabolism to pick up the slack; with age comes wisdom i suppose, as i realised not only is it a detriment to your heath to eat fast food for every meal, but its also a LOT harder to do cardio with grease in your gas tank. I cut out all fast food from my diet, and started on a lean system of low fat and fat free everything. No soda. I now eat a TON of fruits and vegetables, chicken breast, i eat high fiber cereals (kashi), i still eat eggs but not every day because im trying to keep cholesterol down. I've been drinking g2 gatorade because when you do long workouts, water is not the best thing you can be drinking as its deprived of electrolytes that keep the body functioning properly when pushing the thresholds of exhaustion. I did order accelerade (before and druing workouts) and endurox (post workout) which will replace the gatorade when it arrives.

Not only have i been watching WHAT i eat, but also how much and when. I cut all my meals in half and double the amount of times i eat in the day. I try not to eat anything within 2 hours of going to sleep. I have been doing my first light workout of the day before i eat a full breakfast because when the body sleeps it burns calories so i wanted to continue that burning into my first workout- usually i'll just eat a piece of fruit and be on my way.

Something to remember when doing cardio is this- Its quality over quantity. By this what i mean is that its better to do a 1 hour bike ride at 85-90% ability than it is to loligag on a 3 hour ride at 60%. Same thing goes for running or skating. Don't waste your time if you're not going to make yourself hurt.

Heres the first workout i did today:

Each exercise is consecutive, no rest between.

Treadmill- 6.0 incline @ 7.5mph - i kept it running for the whole workout and just hopped off and on

1. 5 min treadmill
2. 1 min 2 foot box jumps at waist height
3. 2 min free squats
4. 5 min treadmill
5. 1 mid side crunches
6. 1 min jump, squat, thrust, push-up
7. 5 min treadmill
8. 1 min skating jax
9. 1 min foot switchs on box at knee height
10. 5 min treadmill
11. 1 min high knees

With the jogging to and from the treadmill the workout lasted exactly 30 minutes and i was drenched. I like doing things like this because it teaches the body how to recover while still moving and being active, obviously geared towards interval training.

Later i have a 35 mile bike ride through the hills

Racing Is An Art

There is neither a map not a manual that explains exactly how to create a masterpiece, the possibilities are limitless. From the preparation until the final moment that my first wheel crosses the finish line, I alone hold the brush and the palette.