TLDR: Do What You Can

Too Long Dad Recap

This time of year is always jarring, with back to school and prime time for work. I hear folks saying this year is especially hard. I don’t think its any harder. I don’t have a commute, and am not traveling for business. There is no coordinating of school drop off and pick up, no social events with the kids to plan around.

But this year does present unique challenges. This year everything is happening at home, but it still means I need to be finished training early enough to participate in morning routines for the kids. 

So in the next few weeks, as the kids transition back into school and work gets busier, my training or my sleep has to suffer. And I have to be O.K. with that.  It may mean shorter sessions. It may mean I have to break up a session into parts and get some on my lunch break. 

But the added stress of these weeks isn’t an excuse to do nothing and let your nutrition go to shit. Just cut yourself a little slack and get do what you can, when you can. Get something done, stay active, and hold yourself accountable on nutrition.

Things I Watched this Week:

• Video by Will Tennyson on walking 25,000 steps a day for a week
  • Will is a popular YouTuber who does a ton of challenge videos, including one where he walked 100,000 steps in a day
  • But this one where he walked 25,000 steps every day for a week from last year was pretty interesting

I hit 15,000 plus steps each day this week, and I plan to do it again this week. I’m trying to continue to ramp up steps as I get towards the end of my cut. Progressive overload for walking is tough, because it’s not feasible to go over 20k a day all the time.

But keeping step count high is a good way to make sure I keep my activity levels up even as I reduce calories for the home stretch of my cut. The body wants to fight back when you eat less by slowing down your activity levels, and steps help me counteract that in a track-able way.

Things I Read this Week: Resolute…Again

• On the reading front, I set out a lofty goal of writing a page a day and reading 10 pages a day for 15 days. I was doing okay, and hit the goal for the first 4 days. But then on the fifth day I didn’t do it. Then I didn’t do it again for a week.
• So, I started again yesterday with just the reading. I realized I can’t do everything, even if I want to. That’s not a new lesson, but it’s always humbling when it gets relearned. Being a good employee, husband, dad and staying in good shape doesn’t leave time for much else. Those are things I can’t sacrifice for the next few years.  
• That’s okay (as discussed above), but I should be able to read 10 pages a day, goddamn it!  Hell, if I put my phone down and pick up a book while I take a shit, that basically gets me to my goal. 

Things I Ate this Week: Meat & Potatoes

As noted above, time was an issue this week. That meant experimenting with fun “anabolic” recipes wasn’t really “on the table” (no pun intended).  Instead, it was a week of the basics.

• Once a week or so I bake an entire large package of boneless skinless chicken breast with no seasoning in the oven, boil 20 eggs in a big pot, and steam a bunch of broccoli and brussel sprouts.
• I keep bags of baby spinach and carrots around
• I keep quest bars and plain Greek yogurt on hand

These elements are the “meat and potatoes” of my typical diet, the staples.  On busy days, it becomes easier to stick to my calories, because I can be too busy to eat. If I work all day, train for 1.5 hours and coach baseball after work for 2 hours, the feeding window gets very small naturally. 

By having these staple foods around, I can make sure to have high quality sources of fuel to keep me going without screwing things up. 

Things I Lifted this Week

Nothing special happened in the gym this week.

Squat form has improved and is feeling good. Squat strength is improving even as body weight continues to drop (slowly). I hit a smooth 325lbs squat single at a body weight of 168lbs. My all-time PR for squat is 355lbs when I weighed 190lbs. In about 5 weeks, I’ll push for a fresh PR.

Deadlift felt good overall, but I did pinpoint a need to improve lat tightness in my setup so at the lockout my shoulders aren’t so far forward. That can be fixed with more intentionality in training.

Bench press and overhead press are good, but not improving very quickly. 225lbs was my top single for bench press this week, which puts my estimated 1RM at around 245lbs, which is about 25 pounds off my best. The mass lost in this cut phase probably had the biggest negative impact on my bench press “leverages”.

Dad Report: Finding Balance

This summer, I spent a lot of time coaching and practicing baseball with my boys. That came at the cost of spending less time with my teenage daughter. She and I have been looking for more ways to spend time together. Having a daughter that age who wants to hang out is a blessing for sure.

Sports is probably the easiest way for us to spend some quality time. This weekend, my wife decreed that working on pull ups and jogging on the treadmill in the garage is not enough of a sport. Therefore, we have settled on a sport for her to practice and eventually play when sports are back: soccer.

Daughter has played soccer casually since she was 5 years old, and played on the 7th grade team last year. There’s no soccer team this year for her. But we are buying fresh soccer gear, and I have committed to working with her to get her skills up for next year. I’m also thinking of reaching out to a Villanova Women’s soccer team player to come for an hour a week of coaching. If anyone has any soccer training tools they like, let me know.

That’s all for this week, hope everyone is out there putting in work towards their fitness and dad goals. I’ll be over here keeping it on the DL…