As I’ve said before, I only started my running and swimming programs few weeks ago. Of course, I’ve been fairly active for the last few months, but this is first time when I’m actually on fitness program and I’ve learned few lessons already. So, let me summary last two weeks.
Weight
Long story short, I’ve lost another kg, which puts me at 76. It seems that despite having few cheat meals (thank you, darling) and M&M’S (thank you again :p), I’ve managed to stay below my calorie needs. Unfortunately I didn’t measure body fat percentage when I started, so I don’t know what is the progress there. On the other hand, I’m starting to care less and less about weight and more about performance and physical fitness.
Recovery
You don’t have to sit on your ass in order to recover, nor you have to skip training session. It’s enough to slow down a little, shifting normal session to recovery one. In order to save energy for more challenging sessions, like interval run on Thursday, I had to shift few exercises to zone two (111 - 129 BPM). Working out on lower BPM, beside not killing you, has another advantage as well - it makes your organism burn fat instead of carbohydrates, thus preserving glycogen storage. Fits me!
Nutrition
I said before that I will try to cut pasta and rice in my prepared meals. Well, bad, really bad idea. Low carb diet is just simply not enough. I was out of energy on Wednesday and had to skip swimming session in order to recuperate. Turns out, you cannot have around 10 training sessions per week with no fuel! That’s why this week I’m having some sort of carbs (sweet potato, rice or pasta) in every lunch meal while still keeping them on low on dinner and supper. We will see how it goes.
Progress
Two weeks are enough to see changes in both performance and attitude. Despite being quite tired, I’ve managed to finish last week with two running sessions (on Saturday and Sunday) and also start this week normally. I was also surprised how easy it was to swim 1400m yesterday, especially since I’ve managed to use front crawl for most of the session. Yet, while I like my progress, I feel that some of my goals (especially these around running) will be very difficult to met this year. Well, world belongs to the brave!