2 km swim. Will probably do more swimming tomorrow, probably just 800m of drills. Technique is sloppy right now.
Some extra thoughts: have been eliminating all alcohol - not even a single drink at dinner. Also trying to improve the quality of my sleep, which the alcohol goes hand in hand with. Here’s a fantastic podcast about sleep:
It’s 3 hours long - I listened an hour at a time on a bike/walk/run over a few days, but it’s VERY interesting and gives a lot of insight into sleep, especially how little people pay attention to it these days. Matthew Walker’s a neuroscientist, not just some ‘sleep guru’ or anything, so he goes into depth on the effects of bad sleep patterns. I can function on very little sleep - just get up and go - and I think that tricks me into thinking it’s not as important, but it’s something I need to pay more attention to. Bad sleep habits are ‘maintainable’ for a long period of time, but they lead to so much more than just being tired - heart problems, cancer, high blood pressure, etc. I’ll tag @T3hPwnisher with the usual disclaimer of yes, I know you may not watch it and your job dictates your sleep schedule so it’s not like you could fix it if you wanted. Definitely less of a “HEY DO THIS” thing since that’s useless with you, it’s more out of a place of seeing you tackle any health issues you’ve had head-on, so it might give you some extra perspective the next time a doctor sees something and tries to throw medication at you when it could be caused by sleep patterns.
Also, Rich Roll is a great interviewer and an ultra-endurance athlete who had David Goggins on for a great podcast as well, so to anyone who likes good content, give it a listen!
Yeah, they mention college students a bunch too. Also med students and young resident doctors being made to work 24+ hour shifts, etc.
Also, as a side note, I should probably do a sleep study because my wife and a couple other people who have been around me while I’m dozing have mentioned that I might have sleep apnea, haha.
Yeah, for as long as I’ve been going to commercial gyms I’ve always been one of the only people doing pushups, and there honestly aren’t a lot of people doing pullups either. I can’t say that that’s how I want to workout all the time personally, but it’s a damn shame that so few people put stock in calisthenics. There are a LOT of strong powerlifters and jacked bodybuilders that I would never in a million years want to look like, but I don’t know of any high level calisthenics (planche, handstand push-ups, front levers, etc.) guy who doesn’t have an awesome physique.
Really appreciate the tag and the consideration dude. Funny enough, it’s not the job that gets me: it’s the dogs. I just got back from a week away from home and got some of the best sleep I’ve gotten in a LONG time. Same thing when I work night shift and sleep during the day. I used to be a VERY heavy sleeper, but between “an call” sorta job and being a parent, I’ve become an incredibly light sleeper and tend to come to pretty instantly. Morbidly enough, I think the gameplan at this point is to try to outlive the dog, haha.
Definitely worth taking into consideration the second and third order effects. “Sleep issues” are a trump card I have, but it’s also a VERY short ride to forced separation of employment from there in my careerfield, which I imagine you understand when I say it vaguely enough like that. Fingers crossed it won’t come to that.
I’m super interested to hear your thoughts on this class. How is “nutrition” being presented? Is it more of a general overview (protein does X, carbs do Y, lipids do Z, macro and micronutrients, etc etc)? Do they get into current recommendation models?
They definitely present a lot of dietary ‘recommendations’ in terms of macro breakdowns, and they are definitely more carb vs. fat-centered, but the overarching theme is “eat a variety of whole, minimally processed foods”, and I’m all for that. There’s certainly work to be done in the fats department, but it also focuses on chronic nutrition-related diseases, some anatomy & physiology, and just seeking for healthier alternatives in general, so it’s palatable. Better and less rigid, I imagine, than it would have been a couple decades ago.
30 mile ride. Absolutely smoked it. Had stamina like crazy despite having worked 10 hours and it being 95 degrees still at 6 pm. Leg power is coming back in a big way. Made the hills my bitch.
Got sick while at work. Been building for a couple days I guess. Decided to do my “sweat it out” technique and went for a run in the rain. Kept almost telling myself “okay, next street you’re done”, but I had listened to a damn podcast featuring a navy seal today and the phrase “don’t give your pain a voice” kept echoing in my head, and so I ended up doing somewhere around 6 miles, coughing up snot and drenched in sweat. Voicing weakness into reality is real.
Jeez. I know I’ve been slacking in logging. Still super, super busy. In the past week, I’ve gotten in a push workout, a pull workout, a 5 mile run, a 4 mile run, a 35 mile bike, and a 2km swim. So, something almost every day, and plenty of movement on the 2 days where I didn’t. My lung capacity continues to improve. Need to up my run frequency a bit and be more consistent - my shins and and calves fatigue before my lungs, which shouldn’t be the case, but is easily fixable by just running more (within reason) and keeping up on my shin/calf prehab work.
My nursing entrance exam is in 11 days, too. Just an across-the-board aptitude test, reading/math/science/vocab, and is surprisingly broad in scope, so there’s definitely some stuff I’ve had to relearn, but my studies are coming along nicely and I should do fine.
Got flank steak marinading in soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, honey, ginger, garlic, and pepper, gonna grill it over some wood charcoal and make some fluffy white rice with stir-fried veggies to go along with it.
A teeny bit past medium rare, as I was juggling 3 things at once - steak outside on the grill, rice and stir fry on the stove - but I don’t like my flank steak as rare as I do my ribeyes and it just fell apart when you cut it. The stir fried veggies were delicious and the basmati rice was fluffy. Perfect meal.
Yesterday was a 40 mile bike ride. I think my biking is pretty solid at this point for the race. So, just running speed and swimming. Guess I’ll go swim today.
