First Rest Day...

I woke up this morning "tired" and not acutely sore, but sore enough to know today's scheduled rest day was just what I needed. It took me a while to push myself out of bed to shower. 

In the past, I didn't have rest days, partly because I was in world-class shape for my age group and partly because I was too macho to take a rest day unless my body and mind forced me to due to overtraining. 

I'm glad it was a rest day. I needed it both for physical and mental reasons. I don't want to overdo it physically or burn myself out mentally. 

My first long bike ride and brick run are scheduled for tomorrow. Even though the ride is only 1 hour and 25 minutes, I'm worried about how much and to what severity my neck will hurt. I'm not worried about the legs or lungs, just my neck. 

What's amazing is that my body is becoming stronger so quickly in just four days. It's incredible and very surprising. I anticipated it would take 3 - 4 weeks. Even my resting heart rate tonight was already down to 58 beats per minute, where it was in the high 60s and lower 70s prior to starting. 

My diet is very low in calories, and by and large, I've followed it faithfully. The only time I've deviated is after a training session. I'll have some carbs like a banana. On my first ride on Tuesday, I felt so weak that I had a baked potato before the ride. 

I'm sure that if someone saw how little I'm eating, they would tell me to increase my calories. I know, and I don't care. At the end of the day, dropping weight will have more impact on getting faster and improving the probability that I'll finish the half Ironman with less pain and suffering. 

With that said, I know my body well enough that if I need more food based on how I feel, I'll eat more.I looked at the full training schedule from now until the race on December 15th, and I was surprised that I am doing much less training than I have in the past for Half-Ironmans. I didn't do the exact calculations, but it's between 6 and 9 hours per week, which is civilized.

Already, I'm saving money on restaurants. Before starting this program, we ate out a lot at primarily sports bars. On average, we would spend $2500 monthly on going out to eat (and drink) or ordering Uber Eats.

Tonight was the first night we went out to a restaurant. I could have stayed home, but it's not fair to my wife; it's a Friday. I could still closely follow my diet plan and had a 7 oz filet steak at Chucks Roadhouse. It was the first time since last March/April that I didn't have an alcoholic beverage. 

In fact, these last five days, I've had no alcohol, the longest string since last March/April, when I had drinks nearly every day. Yes, nearly every day. 

Today, the gels and Gatorade I ordered from Amazon arrived. My prior go-to nutrition was old-school PowerBars, but it looks like they stopped making those, and I need to get my body adjusted over time to the gels. I have always used Gatorade, and it works well for me. I'm so old that I remember using Exceed, which got me through my Ironman back in the day, my first half Ironman in 1986, and my first full Ironman in 1987 in Penticton, Canada, and Kona in 1988.