I have two very specific goals for this coming year with regards to my exercise:
- Lose weight (and maintain it)
- Improve overall fitness (strength & endurance)
There is a third element here that is really a subset of #2 in that I want to improve on my mountain bike. This is the benchmark by which all of this will be measured.
To do this I want to really prioritise my exercise and design a plan that covers all of these bases. This, of course, has to build upon my ideas around creating a regular schedule and routine and ultimately cutting out all the sugar, alcohol and processed crap that has crept in to my diet.
Lose Weight
Assuming everything else is dialled in this one should be easy enough.
- Drop all alcohol, sugar and processed carbs
- Stick to my exercise schedule
- Utilise a reduced eating window (8 hour on, 16 hours off IF style)
- Eat a high nutrient density diet
- Keep all carbs in the post workout window (evening)
Components
I need to do a couple of things here:
- Lose weight – so burn some calories
- Get stronger – so lift some weights
- Improve my endurance – do some cardio
- Improve my anaerobic (high intensity) fitness – do some high intensity interval training
With the weights I want to improve raw strength and strength endurance so I need two different workouts in there. My high end cardio (anaerobic) is merged with my strength workouts + one short but high intensity dedicated session. My endurance is tackled by a ride to work and back on Tuesday + my Saturday bike ride.
As I am 41 I also need to allow for some recovery in there somewhere so there are two days when I only walk the dog!
Weekly Plan
My goal here is to improve on the mountain biking I do on a Saturday morning so I top load the week and reduce volume and training frequency to recover for the ride.
Version 1.0 of my plan looks like this:
- Monday – high volume strength & HITT training at the gym (90 mins)
- Tuesday – bike to work (1 hour each way)
- Wednesday – pure strength workout (5 x 5 style) + bike tabata
- Thursday – 12 minute metcon + stretches and recovery work
- Friday – rest: 60 minute dog walk
- Saturday – big bike ride at trail centre (measure results)
- Sunday – rest: 60 minute dog walk
Getting started
I am starting this program on the 9th January 2017 so will keep you posted on my progress and tweak the program as needed.