Training
I took the morning off from training today.
At midday, I worked in a short 40 minute dreadmill session, getting 3.8 miles in.
By 5pm, I was in the gym, doing a strength session before hopping on the bike for 90 minutes.
The 4th Discipline
Today’s focus was on nutrition – otherwise known as the fourth discipline of a triathlete. This, by far, is the weakest part of my game (and that is definitely saying something, as my blood type is Ben & Jerry’s triple chocolate brownie). So what I decided to do today was to jack up my metabolism by doing a midday workout, while dropping the total amount of calories consumed for the day. The lack of calories would make a strong performance in my evening training session more challenging, so I eliminated the high quality portion of the session (an endurance swim) from the schedule, electing to perform some strength (to build up muscle mass), following by a cycling session (which burns calories efficiently).
By the time I got home, I was definitely hungry, and wanted to basically chow down on an entire package of tortellini (damn those things are tasty). However, I remembered the old saying:
What I desire most is to shed the unnecessary fat and replace it with lean muscle. The more weight I drop, the quicker I will get…and long as I keep training hard. This is the tricky part of the game, as the body craves calories when you amp up the effort – and yet, in order to lose weight you basically need to take in less than you burn for the day. I can’t fast and train – this much I know (plus, if I fast, I’ll become even more obnoxious than I already am). So I am going to do two things:
- I’ll continue to eat healthier, and…
- I’ll distract myself midday (when I get cravings for empty calories) by going for a midday run or completely immersing myself in my work at my desk and removing references to a clock on my desktop (which distracts me from the actual time of day, thereby allowing me to work through those cravings without my stomach knowing that “It’s 2pm: time for junk!!!!)
Yes, I am going to bed slightly hungry – but I knew the beginning of this transition was going to be a challenge. And what do I want most? It sure isn’t another Oreo. Not. Any. More.
Game on.
