Hi Friend!
Happy free grass watering Friday to you!
Summer time brings back a lot of fond memories for me as it may for you as well. One fond, trend I like to revisit is all the successes I've had in my life that started from what I did in the summer.
When I think about all those successes (and when you think about your successes, it sure makes you feel good, doesn't it!), I think about how I used my time during those summers and that was to work on myself.
When life gets a little quieter and slower, that's the perfect time to work on yourself EVEN MORE and leapfrog forward towards your goals. Every success I relive can be attributed to my decisions to make a change and the consistent time and effort I put in to show up and get better.
Now that summer time is here, kids are out of school, roads are lighter, traffic is less except for maybe Cape Traffic, it's the perfect time to reflect on your goals, regroup, re-light your fire and take massive action. If you can use this time in July & August to get better while thinking about all the challenges coming up in the fall, you can prepare for them and have a huge finish to your 2019. Wouldn't that be amazing if you achieved all your goals? What if you exceeded them? Wouldn't that be a fun story to tell, how you set your goals too low?
The summer training is the most challenging AND the most rewarding. You can make the FASTEST CHANGES and PROGRESS during the summer quarter if you take advantage of this opportunity. ESPECIALLY when you consider the peaking phase in September when we cut the intensity and switch from strong training to fast training. That's like building a Tsunami up against the Hoover Dam and then blowing up the dam in September and letting the waters of momentum and change rush through.
Work + Rest
When I reflect back on my best summers, they weren't consistent every year and a big part of it was because of all the partying I did. Beer, pot, concerts, tailgating, parties, trips, junk food, weddings, late nights ... so many excuses to kick back and have fun.
Sure I still trained during these times, but I spun my wheels and didn't really move forward. Alcohol is a depressant and so is pot. Alcohol borrows tomorrows happiness, is liquid courage and liquid calories and you have to drink more and more to keep getting the same buzz. Pot is great if you're too high and you need to come down, but it made me lazy. Plus it leads to the munchies. When you're looking to get big & put on size after being a size slim growing up, beer, pot, no cardio and lifting weights is a great way to do it.
What does this mean. If you enjoy beer & pot or anything that doesn't compliment your GOALS, practice moderation. Save it for your splurge days or maybe even ask if it still fits your life. Wanna lose weight fast and keep it off. Stop drinking alcohol. Drink more water or seltzer and start saying, "no thank you. I don't drink".
You'll sleep better, recover better and work on your goals more. Yes alcohol gives you liquid courage, but so do happy hormone highs, feeling body confident and personal records. Plus if you game your life by timing your workouts so you can peak for special events, you'll present your best self to those events w/o alcohol. You'll still do stupid and crazy things that lead to stories you'll tell again and again, but not the kinds of things you'll regret in the morning.
Work + Rest: Recovery The above was my soap box. Now give me a porch fest or a Leinenkeugel Summer Shandy and don't judge me. I'm kidding, ... , partially.
Your Q3 workouts are going to be challenging. Some days they're going to make you tired, tight, stiff, sore and slow. Some days you're going to clean out your basement, wash your walls and do all those things you'd get around to some day after kicking butt all day, because you've got so much energy and brain power.
On the stiff & sore days, you're going to have to do extra stretching and/or yoga, drink a lot of water, eat a lot of greens and do a lot of low intensity cardio (walking & swimming and some cycling and rowing) to help you recover faster. Plus you're going to have to sleep more, longer and take naps outdoors in the sun (with sunscreen and not too long) and/or shade and chill out. Plus you're going to have to BBQ because nothing says relaxing like grilling something with a cold drink in your hand. And shucking corn. And eating some ice cream because it could be a great post workout recovery food, though there's no research on it, but if chocolate milk is a good choice for post workout recovery, maybe chocolate chip cookie dough in a waffle cone with rainbow sprinkles is good too.
In any event,
Now's the perfect time to set up your fall and finish strong towards your 2019 goals. Work hard on yourself AND rest & recover hard. You have to try with both.
Also, find the right balance for you with your joy foods & drinks that aren't compliments to your training & life goals, so they don't set you back, and only provide a short break from your intensity so you're not all work and no play, dull Johnny / no fun Judy.
Your coach,
Mike
p.s. you earned 24min / workout this week. 48 / 2-days, 72 / 3-days.
p.p.s. This week's 4 for 4's are: Marisa (3), Pete, Alicia, Mimy, Stephanie, Liz, Christine M, Michaela, Julie T, Marc and Colleen!
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