I want to do a post about how much better my fitness has gotten recently (basically bragging). Seriously though, I had two moments this last week where I’ve shocked myself and it’s been a big eye opener to how unfit I was so I want to capture this in case future me ever drifts back to where I was.
1
Some friends visited me while I was back at university this week and we decided to walk past our old house to see what it looked like now. Now where I go to university is very, very hilly and this house is basically at the top of the biggest hill. I distinctly remember the first time I walked there, in 2017, that I had to take a break on the way up and by the time I got there I was sweating buckets and my legs were on fire. It got easier as I did it every day but was never easy. I used to always take off a layer at the bottom so I didn’t get home dripping with sweat.
Anyway, this week when we went it may as well have been flat. I honestly didn’t really notice the added difficulty of the hill. If anything I was overdressed for the weather and I hadn’t even broken a sweat by the top. My friends were both asking me to slow down, having to strip off and were out of breath. We got to the top and they asked to sit down for 10 mins before we went anywhere else. In the past I was embarrassed to do cardio with these because I was so bad compared to them, now they were in disbelief how comfortable I was.
I really could not believe the difference between then and now. I felt like I was using cheat codes or something.
2
At university again, the day after walking up the hills with my friends. This time I was late to a meeting and had about half a mile walk up a hill to get there. Since I had my trainers on and was feeling good about the previous evening I decided to run. It took me 4-5 minutes to get to where I needed to be and it was by no means a max effort. This was another hill where I had to take a layer off before I walked up it in the past, just so I wasn’t soaked at the top. Now I was running up it faster than I would have been able to run on the flat and without running for a couple of months.
Obviously I’m getting better at cycling and quickly too but I kind of expected that. It’s like lifting newbie gains. Getting lighter definitely helped too but I just did not expect things to have such an effect on my normal life. I was thinking, I’m working hard a few hours a week but when it makes the rest of my life easier, overall is it even hard work?
Taking a bit of a different approach with this day - focusing more on compound movements and less on destroying individual muscles. My squat has been feeling terrible the past few weeks so I’m starting from scratch with it and going to work my way back up. The upper body volume is a bit less too since I felt like I was struggling to recover. I added the adductor work in because I’ve been feeling them when cycling recently and think they might be a weak point.
Good session. They’re 2021 PRs on the OHP, RDL, bench and pull-down. Been a bit busy this last week so I’ve been a bit absent and I didn’t get out on my bike because of the weather. I did half an hour on the spinning bike at the gym on Friday but didn’t think it was worth logging.
@dagill2 hmm it’s alright. Life has kind of got in the way a bit the last few weeks and I’ve also just fallen off the bandwagon a little bit. I’ve maintained my weight for about 6 weeks now which is actually pretty good because it’s taken hardly any effort and I’m about 8kg under where that used to happen. Hopefully I’ve recomped a little rather than nothing but honestly I doubt it. Still been a great experience though - more of a it’s the journey than the destination sort of thing. I’ll be throwing my after up in the next few days. I hope things are going alright for you.
@ChongLordUno cheers mate, you’ll have to get back out on the road it’ll complement all your BW work well. You’re doing great recently mate.
Life Update and Some Musings
I’ve been a bit absent around here recently. I had two big university deadlines today and last Friday which have had me working basically non-stop. I went on a mini-holiday last weekend for three days too meaning I really had to make the most of the days I could do work. They’re all done now though and apart from a few small bits of work over the next couple of weeks, I’m done with university too. I start a full-time job in September and will probably only work part-time until then so I’ll have a lot of spare time these next few months.
I’ve been trying to decide what I want to do, weight and training wise, and I still haven’t made my mind up. I think I’ve decided on something then change my mind the next day. I have a two week holiday abroad booked in early August so it’d be good to be as lean as possible for that but I’m fairly sure I won’t be going which obviously changes things. I don’t really want to push weight gain unless I can push hard in the gym at the same time to build as much muscle as possible and I think during the summer months I want to be out cycling as much as possible which means I can’t push too hard in the gym. That basically eliminates gaining weight. I could maintain as I basically have been doing, but that makes me feel like I’m wasting time that I could spend building muscle or losing fat.
At the moment I’m leaning towards trying to lose weight but not being super anal about it and if I maintain it’s no big deal. It’s easy for me to maintain a deficit most days but I also like to go out for food with friends a lot and this allows that. I’ve been considering the idea of effectively a six day split with three days on the bike, two days of full body 5/3/1 and another for easier conditioning, maybe some BW stuff or even just an hour walk. If I don’t change my mind before Monday I’ll probably start this then.
Finally, to be honest I don’t feel like logging as much as I used to, at least my cycling, but that’s the majority of my training right now. I don’t think many people read this and obviously it’s a lifting forum so those that do probably aren’t too interested in cycling. Then in terms of my own reference, all my rides are recorded with my Garmin and Strava so there’s no need to record them here too. My lifting isn’t exactly interesting either actually. Maybe I’ll just do like a weekly post about the cycling and carry on with lifting posts like usual. Come winter I suspect I’ll be cycling much less and lifting a lot more so it might be more interesting again, who knows.
Anyway if anyone is reading this sorry for putting you through that. It’s good for me to put my thoughts out on ‘paper’ like this.
This second ride is a big deal for me. It’s the furthest I’ve ever ridden solo, the furthest I’ve ever ridden without stopping and also the highest average speed I’ve had by 0.6mph so triple PR. One of the best things is I don’t even feel that tired out afterwards like I sometimes do after a big ride.
One more other exercise related thing to log: the mini-holiday I mentioned was in England’s Lake District (basically lots of hills and lakes for those who don’t know about it) and I walked about 10 miles up several mountains for two of the days. Definitely felt like a workout so I’m definitely logging it. Another eye opener though to how good my cardio is right now compared to the past. A few times we got lost and I happily ran ahead to the top of the next hill or something to see where to go.
Tomorrow I’m planning to go to the gym for upper body then Sunday I’ve my first bike ride with the group one level up from my usual one which should be good.
First ride with the next difficultly level up and apparently it was more like the one above that speed wise. I kept up fine the whole time so I’m happy with myself for that.
Bench superset with RDL. First workout of the 5/3/1 plan I mentioned.
I forgot how tiring this sort of work is. Not necessarily the actual work sets, if anything they’re easier because they’re sub maximal, but walking across the room to the plate stacks constantly, lots of volume on compound exercises and supersetting them.
Whole workout took me about 30 mins. I missed out some minor assistance stuff so I could leave the gym early. I was hoping I could get away without a shower until this evening but my shirt is soaked through so I’ve gotta go home and shower now which means 30 mins less before I’ve got to be somewhere else.
