Building Cornering Skills

Garage

Executing on the Fat Loss Plan

OTH 2022/02/29

2022 OtH Winter Series #2 (Int, 40-49): 11th

Garage Gym

Prioritizing Fat Loss

OtH #5 (Intermediate, 40-49): 17th

OtH #6 (Intermediate, 40-49): 16th

OtH #7 (Intermediate, 40-49): 15th

OtH #8 (Intermediate, 40-49): 13th

Chris during 2021 OtH 5

2021 OtH #4-8, Season Wrap-Up

Starting My 2022 Strength Build

OtH #2 (Intermediate, 40-49): 12th

OtH #3 (Intermediate, 40-49): 22nd

OtH #4 (Intermediate, 40-49): 18th

Me riding my bike

Results: 2021 OTH #2

Results: 2021 OTH #3

Results: 2021 OTH #4

2021 OtH #2-4 (Intermediate, 40-49)

Results: 2021 OTH #1

OtH #1 (Intermediate, 40-49): 9th

Over the Hump #1: 9th (Intermediate, 40-49)

Seatpost

Training Update: Upgrades & Saddle Sores

2021 Goals, Recovery Methods

Whiteboard

Body Measurements


<table border="1" cellspacing="0">
 <tbody><tr>
 <th>&nbsp;</th>
 <th>October 2019</th>
 <th>Today</th>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <th>weight</th>
 <td>187.2#</td>
 <td>196.4</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>calf</th>
 <td>15.5''</td>
 <td>16''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>thigh</th>
 <td>22.5''</td>
 <td>26'' (!)</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>hips</th>
 <td>40''</td>
 <td>40.5''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>waist</th>
 <td>38''</td>
 <td>39''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>chest</th>
 <td>39.5''</td>
 <td>40.5''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>biceps</th>
 <td>12.5''</td>
 <td>14''</td>
 </tr> 
</tbody></table>

 I'm really happy with all that. And look at that growth in my
 thighs! F$%# yeah!


 Strength Benchmarks


<table border="1" cellspacing="0">
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <th>&nbsp;</th>
 <th>October 2019</th>
 <th>Today</th>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <th>bench press</th>
 <td>95#</td>
 <td>140#</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>squat</th>
 <td>~115#</td>
 <td>195#</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>deadlift</th>
 <td>165#</td>
 <td>255#</td>
 </tr> 
 </tbody>
</table>
 
 I feel good about those strength gains. But I feel like the time I
 spend in my so-called <a href="archive/3405">strength build</a>
 was mostly maintaining, rather than building. 


 I got my game together during the quarantine, and pushed my bench
 press, deadlift, and squat strength way up. I hit numbers
 that mark excellent progress, and that I can live with for
 now. I'll head back into a hypertrophy block in October-December
 (might as well put those holiday calories to work...), and build
 on that success.


 Bike Performance


 I explicitly set out my goal to play the long game, to
 work steadily toward my long-term goals, even at the expense of
 short-term gains. For me, that means steadily working
 toward <a href="archive/3405">strength</a> and body composition
 benchmarks first. It's increasingly clear that those are table
 stakes for success in local races.


 With the 2020 OtH series first postponed, then postponed again, I
 pretty quickly saw which way the wind was blowing and wrote off this
 summer entirely. That, together with the shelter-in-place orders, made
 strength work the clear best way to spend my training time between
 March and July. 


 So I'm not too concerned with my on-bike performance. I'm not as
 quick as I was this time last year, but I'm almost as
 quick on short climbs, and I know from experience that I can
 extend that to build more endurance &amp; repeatability. I'm doing
 a good job of maintaining a base of cardio/endurance fitness.


 What data I do have on my bike tells me that I'm pretty much on
 par with where my training rides were this time last year. Given
 the great progress I've made building strength in the last 8
 months, I call that a win.

A Year of Progress

Training Update: Quarantine

Priority: Fat Loss

MTB Saddle Bag Contents

Trail Saddle Bag 2020

Squat rack

Measurements



 <table border="1" cellspacing="0">
 <tr>
 <th>&nbsp;</th>
 <th>Before</th>
 <th>After</th>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <th>weight</th>
 <td>198.2</td>
 <td>195.0</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>calf</th>
 <td>15.75''</td>
 <td>15.75''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>thigh</th>
 <td>25.25''</td>
 <td>25.25''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>hips</th>
 <td>41''</td>
 <td>40''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>waist</th>
 <td>39''</td>
 <td>38.25''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>chest</th>
 <td>42''</td>
 <td>41''</td>
 </tr> 
 <tr>
 <th>biceps</th>
 <td>14''</td>
 <td>14''</td>
 </tr> 
 </table>


 I'm pretty happy with that. I've managed to trim down a bit
 without losing the mass I built during the hypertrophy block. My
 waist got trimmer, I dropped ~4#, and everything else got
 stronger.


 Strength


 I feel a bit silly, but I managed to put together a workout that
 made it pretty difficult to quantify progress.


 I pushed my deadlift from 165# to 235#. That's pretty clear. But
 box jumps and pull-ups are harder.


 I can feel how much stronger the box jumps are. I don't
 have a proper plyo box, so I'm jumping onto a 16'' bench. However,
 over the course of the last 6 weeks, I've jumped from farther and
 farther away onto the bench, and felt stronger and stronger doing
 it.


 And the barbell complex I've been doing now feels like a warm-up
 at 85#. 


 Ditto for planks, farmer walks, and Jefferson curls. The objective
 loads haven't changed, but the RPE has gotten steadily easier.


 So, I feel really good about the progress I've made, even
 if I can't really quaitify it. The proof will be in how the
 on-bike training shakes out.


 When I started this block, I was noticing a lot of fatigue & some
 discomfort in my low back, and that's now completely gone. (I
 credit the Jefferson curls &amp; farmer walks.)


 And my body weight has dropped from 198# to 194#, so I'm down four
 pounds in 6 weeks, which is fine. (I'm watching my waist
 measurement and my weight, so as long as I'm getting
 leaner, I can deal with the number on the scale not being what I
 planned on.)


 Nutrition


 I did not supplement with protein for this block. I added
 more fat than I wanted during
 the <a href="archive/3402">hypertrophy block</a>, and I that got
 in my head a bit. I probably traded some strength gains to get
 leaner, but the strength gains I did make were plenty.


 Aside from that, I just kept to my normal diet: minimal sugar,
 protein at breakfast, etc.


 Long-Term Goals


 The Cyclist's Training Bible lists target loads for some
 fundamental exercises as a guage of progress:


<ul>
 <li> squat: 1.3 - 1.7 x BW
 </li>
 <li> leg press: 2.5 - 2.9 x BW
 </li>
 <li> step-up: 0.7 - 0.9 x BW
 </li>
 <li> seated row: 0.5 - 0.8 x BW
 </li>
 <li> standing row: 0.4 - 0.7 x BW
</ul>

 At the moment, I'm well below those targets. So I've got something
 to shoot for.

Strength Block Review

Caja China

In the box:


<ul>
 <li> 1 lamb leg
 </li>
 <li> 1 6# chicken
 </li>
</ul>

 Procedure:

<ul>
 <li> Started with ~12# Kingsford charcoal, in 2 5# piles.
 </li>

 <li> 60&deg; &amp; breezy so, had a hard time getting the coal
 started. Solution: rigged a tarp as a windbreak &amp; used
 lots of lighter fluid.
 </li>

 <li> Once the coals went gray, spread them into a bed.
 </li>

 <li> Let everything cook for ~1hr, then put on ~6# more coal.
 </li>
</ul>

 Results:


<ul>
 <li> Chicken is slightly tough, but flavorful & not dry.
 </li>

 <li> Same for lamb. Overcooked, but delicious.
 </li>
</ul>

 Changes for Next Time:


<ul>
 <li> Less coal to start, unless there's substantially more meat.
 </li>

 <li> Make heat adjustment with the second wave of coal-- add more
 if cooking is slow, less if meat is browning too quickly.
 </li>
</ul>

First Attempt at Using The Caja China

Barbell Set

Strength Build

Squat

Hypertrophy Block Notes

<h3>Nutrition</h3>

 I decided to mostly stay off the bike during this block. I wanted
 a break after finishing the local race season, and I found that
 the barbell workouts maxed out my recovery capacity anyway. From a
 purely caloric perspective, the fuel that I was no longer burning
 on the bike was plenty to let me grow some muscle.


 Aside from that, I've eliminated sweets from my diet and breakfast
 usually consists of two boiled egg whites and a high-fiber cereal.


<h3>Supplements</h3>

 Protein: I added 90g of protein to my diet each day. I'd
 have a protein shake with lunch (30g), and one after dinner (60g).


 Here's the recipe:


<ul>
 <li> 1 cup almond milk
 </li>
 <li> 1 scoop (30g) protein powder (2 scoops at night)
 </li>
 <li> 1 spoonful of smooth peanut butter
 </li>
 <li> 1 squeeze Hershey's syrup (~2tbsp)
 </li>
 <li> 1 banana
 </li>
 <li> 6 ice cubes
 </li>
</ul>

 Creatine: I followed Mass Made Simple's recommendation to
 supplement with ~5g of creatine each day during the program. I
 took it all at once in tablet form with my nightly protein shake,
 and I've experienced no ill effects, and it seems to help with
 recovery between sets, and my ability to do longer sets.


 Fish Oil: I continued my normal routine of taking a
 multivitamin tablet and several capsules of fish oil with dinner
 every night.


<h3>Subjective Notes</h3>

 I can absolutely feel that I'm stronger than when I started, and
 comparing workouts from the beginning &amp; end of the program
 bears that out.


 During the last two weeks of the program, I definitely
 felt the fatigue accumulating. Once again, it's clear that adequte
 sleep is absolutely key for me. If I slept well, I'd feel good
 about recovering &amp; finishing out the program. If I didn't
 sleep enough (late night, work, dad life), I found my motivation
 &amp; recovery both flagging.


 During the first half of the program, I was drinking 2 protein
 shakes a day, for a total of 60g of protein. That felt like
 enough, but as the workouts got tougher, I started putting 60g of
 protein in my nighttime shake after workouts, and that boosted my
 recovery &amp; muscle gain.


 I intentionally did not track my measurements during the
 program, mostly because I didn't want to overthink it. I wanted to
 just do the program as written (as much as possible), and see
 where I ended up. 


 As the squats got heavier, I really did feel my posterior chain
 start to work as a single unit. I feel like that's a nice
 progression from the very quad-dominant squat form I had in the
 past.


 Before the beginning of the program, I'd been feeling some extra
 fatigue in my low back, and I worried that the sheer volume of
 squatting (and the loads) might be a Bad Idea for me. I maintained
 squat form at all times, and I've felt my low back get
 progressively stronger.


 If I do a similar training block next year, I'll refine my
 nutrition a bit. Now that I know I can put on muscle, I'd like to
 get to a position where I have less fat to shed going into the
 season.



<h3>Looking Ahead</h3>

 In the past, I've made excellent progress in the weight room only
 to find it tough to translate those gains to the bike. I'm going
 to make sure I hold onto whatever gains in work capacity I've
 earned over the last two months.


 I've had good results in the past by shifting to a slightly taller
 gear than what feels right. As my legs adapt, I shift again. I'm
 hoping that training like that over the next few months will build
 my ability to push taller gears &amp; move faster.


 Whether I repeat this program next season will hinge both on my
 race results and on my body composition when I get
 there. Honestly, I feel like my squat & deadlift numbers are small
 for my size, so I might be better off focusing on strength.


 I honestly couldn't be happier with my results. I put on lots of
 muscle & got much stronger. Last year at this time I weighed
 ~186#, so I've got more fat to shed this year than last year. But
 I'm fine with that. If I'm a few pounds heavier that last year,
 pbut I'm a couple of percentage points leaner, I'm happy with
 that.


<h3>Long Game Goals</h3>

 Fat loss. I really want to get leaner. So the next
 training block will involve getting my body used to
 spending time on the bike again, but the primary goal will be to
 shed fat.


 Strength maintenance. I've pushed up my numbers quite a
 bit, so I want to keep them where they are &amp; start at
 next season's training where I've finished this
 season's. It would be awesome to be able to do this program 100%
 as-written.

Hypertrophy Block Review

Weight Room

Older & Wiser: Nasty Cough

Measurements: Before

DeathB4Decaf