Day 8: Evaluation 1

Blargh, I neglected to update this bad-boy in two days. That being said, even though I missed my Sunday re-evaluation date, amidst my freelance-related work, I found some time to block out some of my goals more explicitly and figure out what needs to be done to achieve them.

Exercise Goals
Until this week, my regimen was three days per week, beginning with a very generalized workout plan that I did every day, later evolving into a three way split in which Monday was endurance training, Wednesday was strength, and Friday was explosive power. Starting with this week, that has been modified to six days per week. Those previously mentioned days remain my 'heavy' exercise days, but now Tuesday is a lighter-load power day, Thursday a lighter endurance day and Saturday a lighter strength day.

In addition, on these lighter days, I'll be throwing in some general skill work starting next week, since I have some time left in the 'exercise' time slot. Tuesday and Thursday will be focused, for the time being, on sprinting, with an ultimate goal of being able to run an aggressive 1.5 km. On Saturdays I'll work on technique-specific training for the handstand, the planche, the pistol squat, front lever and one-armed push-up.

My approach to the sprints will be focused on building sheer explosive speed first, then working on sustaining it over distances as I reached particular speed milestones. As my running progresses, I'd subdivide the workload between a speed day and an endurance day. That would look something like this:

Phase 1: 10 runs of 50 meters (Target = 6.2 s)

Phase 2: Tuesday - 10 runs of 50 meters
Thursday - 8 runs of 100 meters (Target = 11 s)

Phase 3: Tuesday - 8 runs of 100 meters
Thursday - 6 runs of 200 meters, (Target = 22.5 s)

Phase 4: Tuesday - 8 runs of 100 meters
Thursday - 4 runs of 400 meters, (Target = 56 s)

Phase 5: Tuesday - 8 runs of 100 meters
Thursday - 3 runs of 800 meters (Target = 1:58)

Phase 6: Tuesday - 8 runs of 100 meters
Thursday - 2 runs of 1500 kilometer (Target = 4:25)

I expect this progression to take me quite some time. Similarly, I know what sort of work I want to do on my 'feats of strength' on Saturday.

Handstand: Wall-Assisted Handstand Holds (60s) => One-Leg Free Handstand Holds (60 s) => Freestanding Handstand Hold (60s) => Handstand Press (20 reps) => Fingertip Handstand Press (20 reps) => One-Arm Handstand Hold (15s)

Planche: Frog Stand (60s) => Advanced Frog Stand (60s) => Tuck Planche (60s) => Advanced Tuck Planche (60s) => Straddle Planche (60s) => Planche (60s) => Planche Ups (20 reps) => Fingertip Planche Press (20 reps) => One-Arm Planche (15s)

Pistol Squat: Two Arm Assisted Pistol Squat (10 reps) => One Arm Assisted Pistol Squat (10 reps) => Pistol Squat (10 reps) => Jumping Pistol Squat (10 reps) => Reclined Pistol Squat (5 reps)

Front Lever: Tuck Lever (60s) => Advanced Tuck Lever (60s) => Straddle Front Lever (60s) => Front Lever (60s) => Front Lever Pull Ups (15 reps) => 1-Arm Front Lever (60s) => 1-Arm Front Lever Pull Ups (5 reps)

One-Armed Pushup: One-Arm Wide-Feet Plank (60s) => One-Arm Close-Feet Plank (60s) => One-Arm Plank, Feet Together (60s) => One-Arm Pushup (15 reps) => One-Arm Fingertip Pushup (5 reps)

Again, this stuff will take a while, but will thankfully be supplemented by my primary exercise routine. Acquiring these skills isn't a matter of show, but it's also true that I have a secondary motive beyond my fitness goals, which is efficiency. For example, incorporating the handstand press, planche up and front-lever pull-up puts enough focus on my core stability across those motions that I could justifiably cut my exclusively core-focused work, while achieving a single-arm push-up allows me to blitz my triceps without the need for often rather unnatural isometrics.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy bodyweight exercises; they're definitely a lot more fun than anything iron-oriented to me. I'd still like to get the most bang for my buck though, and currently my heavy strength day (Wednesday) comprises a ~90 minute routine before you factor in the mobility/stretching work. Take a look, bearing in mind that for strength gain with minimized size gain, there is a 3-minute rest between sets.

Pike Press x 4 x 4

Pull Up x 2 x 4

Chin Up x 2 x 4

Push Ups (Narrow) x 4 x 4

Tiger Claw Hold (Knees Far) x 2

Plank (High) x 3

Side Plank (High) x 2 per side

Split Squats x 4 x 4

 So in total, I'm counting 87 minutes of rest. Each plank set is also 60 seconds long, so even before we add up the time for the actual sets, we're looking at 92 minutes. Ouch! Adding in my pre-work-out stretching and my post-workout stretching, that bumps us up to about 2 hours, 15 minutes. Long-term, I'd love to get it looking like this:

Handstand Press x 4 x 4

One Arm Front Lever Muscle Up x 4 x 4

Tiger Claw Planche Ups x 4 x 4

Human Flag x 2

Reclined Pistol Squats x 4 x 4

That is, of course, a long way away for me, but a routine like that would hit everything brutally hard in ~60 minutes. With sufficient strength in the right places, I could even combine the planche ups and handstand press, cutting the time down to more like ~45 minutes.

Man, that turned into quite a lengthy diversion. Anyway!

Dietary Goals
So far, I haven't had any problem getting the amount of protein I want in a day, but I continue to succumb to the temptation of artificial, carb-loaded garbage (read: soda), which is holding me back in a variety of ways. It's keeping me from getting more useful calories, the kind that come with micronutrients. It's also causing the thin-but-present layer of excess fat around my core and glutes to remain, rather stubbornly.

I've also observed a recent change in my eating behavior, which is an increasing tendency toward eating earlier in the day--around 10:00. It used to be unheard of for me to eat before 13:00, having last eaten around 20:00 the previous night. I have also pushed my snacking later and later, to the point that I now often eat as late at 01:00 in the morning. The end result is that whereas I once was unwittingly intermittently fasting day to day and inducing a fat-burning state, I am now almost perpetually locked in a satiated state.

My diet in general is actually decent, though there are certainly improvements to be made, but simply starting with cutting out the soda entirely and returning to my original fast-like pattern will help a great deal. The next step--being the cheapest dietary improvement I could make--would be to start drinking my protein shakes on a daily basis. I'll need to revise my schedule a bit to reflect this pattern, but I feel confident it's a sound investment of effort.

As far as the actual weight/body fat measurements are concerned, I need to get my hands on an electronic scale that can measure the latter.

Career Goals
This past week has seen me doing very little writing, focusing instead on something more immediately pressing in my freelance career that, when finalized, should actually open up a fair bit of my time on a weekly basis, and allow me to put most of my mental energy where it belongs; in my writing.

Prior to that priority shift, my principle was simply to 'write more today than yesterday' to approach the goal of 5,000 words per day. Tomorrow, I'll resume that process.

As far as the singing is concerned, I've made efforts at the practice routine, but my allergies have made a point of being especially nasty, meaning my results on breathing exercises were less than stellar. I'm dissatisfied enough to not want to count the attempts.

Overall
I'm still trying to get my general situation aligned with this more concrete pursuit of goals, so for this week, so I'm only going to add the 'feats of strength' goals at this time. Expect the first reports on that tomorrow.

Still learning,
~L