And Another Month Goes By…………....

Here we are in our third month of the Endurance Macro. We are running faster and farther than we have in a long, long while. We’re gaining in performance and in perseverance when completing the Triple Pec and the Triple Leg sets. So are we making progress? I think we are. And you need to progress if you ever hope to gain on that Last 10 Pounds.

One of the gages you can use to see if you’re progressing as far as endurance is heart rate. The lower your resting heart rate the better your oxygen utilization or VO2 max. My resting heart rate went from 57-59 at the end of the Power Macro to 52-53 at the end of the second month of the Endurance Macro. We had a slight resting heart rate increase (55-57) when we started the nicotine trials but has since subsided back to 52-53. I’m shooting for under 50 by the end of the macro. Ah, progress.

Nicotine Update………..

So as originally planned, we started the nicotine patch trials on the first Tuesday of the third month of the Endurance Macro. The patch was applied after my Tuesday evening shower, about 8:30 pm. I decided to use a 7 mg patch instead of a 15, this gives you a continuous blood serum dose of about 3 ng/ml; this is my attempt to minimize sleep disturbance. I had also cut back on my evening alcohol consumption and used chamomile tea to intervene with any sleep issues. However, no joy on that front; very restless night. The Wednesday morning walk seemed OK; I left my 30 lb sandbag at the house. And during the day no ill effects, just heightened attention. The second night, Thursday, again minimizing alcohol and adding chamomile to my beddy-by routine, failed open at about 3:00 am, a good hour before my normal wakeup time. At 4:30 am, wondered off to the gym and completed a modified SLOG. It was actually a pretty good run, good distance, faster pace and minimal fatigue. The evening upper body split routine went very well also. As the weeks progressed, the am and pm workouts flowed as expected and the sleep issues pretty much vaporized.

To make sure I do not desensitize myself to any of the good effects, I am cycling the patch application. Since the patches come as a 14 day supply; on for 2 weeks, off for 1 week. This seems to work pretty well. The only issue when cycling off, you may find yourself feeling very, very lethargic at mid-day the first day and fatiguing a bit faster during the morning cardio. My story, I cycled off on a Tuesday evening, slept very well but by Wednesday afternoon, my butt was dragging. And my Thursday morning run, it was off, not so much muscle fatigue but more of a nervous system, overall sluggishness. Final note; as far as hangovers or ravenous nicotine cravings, there were none. By Friday everything was back to normal.

During this trial there are a couple of things I really need to pay attention to. One is dehydration; both nicotine and chamomile are diuretics. And between the morning cardio and the afternoon work outs, I generally sweat buckets. Just need to stay on top of the water situation. The other thing is that nicotine limits insulin response and thereby may cause an increase in blood glucose levels, especially after a carb heavy meal. So I bought a blood glucose monitor and test strips. I haven’t used one of these in a long time; there hasn’t been a need to. But since I have had insulin sensitivity problems in the past I will add it to my collection of monitoring gadgets. The object here would be to keep blood sugar to below 100 mg /dl fasted and below 140 mg/dl 2 hours after a meal.

We’ll discuss some of the data I have collected in my next blog entry. Plus well discuss the potential use of glucose monitoring to get more out of your exercise routines.

The Gym Closed; Say It Aint So………..

So the little gym I go to, Fitness Edge in Harrodsburg Kentucky, was closed for a few days during the second week of this months routine. It was closed while they moved from one store front to another. So what did I do with the time? I took an extra day off and ran a Widow Maker plus an additional SLOG. Gotta say busy, right? The Widow Maker; I have not run one of these in over a year, ever since I broke my foot last year. How did we do? It was great, a little slow on the sprints but otherwise a good run. When I started the Endurance Macro, in the 1^st part of May, I wouldn’t have dared run one of these. Two and a half months later, they feel like I do them daily. Basically this means I’m probably ready for a Tempo run, just got to get out there and do it.

If you need to see what a Widow Maker looks like, this previous article details the run;   http://loosefatassweight.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-07-17T22:51:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=11&by-date=false

Just to be sure I get the results and benefit I’m looking for I added a Monday and Tuesday routine to my third rest week, a short rest week. I’ll shoot for another Widow Maker here also; maybe.

So we killed another month, learned some things about nicotine and based on self-evaluation, figured we are indeed making progress. Life is good and loosing that Last 10 Pounds is just around the corner; hopefully.

MMJennings