Nude Numbers are my weekly progress reports on my fitness goals. See About Running Naked for the philosophies involved.

Summary

Week 9 of the winter plan. Coming off a rest week things were a lot harder than I expected. But mid-week I decided to increase how much I ate and then things got much much better. Looks like it’s back to big-eating again.

Subjective Data

After the week off last week, and the fact that this was a light-ish lifting week (50% of my 1-rep max weight), I expected things to be easy. But starting off on Monday, my first day back, I found the lifting to be exhausting. By Wednesday it was clear I hadn’t recovered as much as I thought. So I tried something wacky; I increased how much I was eating.

As you can see from the weight data, my weight had been stabilizing and actually decreasing. But with the intensity of my current program, I was wearing down quickly. So I upped to about a 3,000 calorie diet on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday my lifting session was awesome – I got all the lifts done, spent almost 2 hours at the gym, and only left because I had a salsa-dancing event I had to go to that night. And Saturday, I absolutely rocked all over my spin and short-run.

Lastly, I didn’t get as many swimming drills as I wanted to get in on Saturday due to a little sleep-in, but salsa was fun so that was worth it.

Objective Data

Blue lines == actuals; Gray areas == my target range for that week.

Assessment

With the exception of swimming, I hit all my goals for the week. But only because I decided it was time to eat more.

I think the moral of this week was I need to prioritize my goals and allow some constraint to relax; and that constraint is going to be my diet.

My big goals are to by March 31^st: gain weight to 168; swim 1,000 yards without stopping; and keep my waist in check. For now, I’m going to relax the last constraint, and figure I’ll cut-calories after March if things get out of control.

Plan

This week is an even lower lifting week: 40% of my 1-rep maximum weight, and the week after is a hard 90% week. I’m going to continue the basic plan, keep my spinning workouts light (not too heavy on the climbing), and increase my calories to gear up my body for the 90% week. Hopefully I’ll end up next Sunday less tired than I feel right now, and ready to rock all over a 90% week (yikes).

Reminders

I’m still undecided between running a marathon in New York (November) or in Dublin Ireland. If you’re interested in running either with me, let me know. I’m not going to decide until around April. Also, if anyone is interested in doing the Philly Triathlon (June) with me, you’re welcome to join the team!

Presentation Notes

These notes are always presented in SOAP Note format. Click here for all the Nude Numbers posts.

Thanks for reading.

– Art