21 Days

                This is the prologue post of what I am going to call the 21 days of Christmas.  During the next 21 days starting tomorrow I am going to attempt to be as strict as humanly possible with what goes into my mouth as well as how closely I stick to my training plan.  I have been pretty relaxed about both since the end of August.  As a case in point, I’m working on some delicious veggie chips and my second tasty Sierra Nevada beer tonight and I didn’t do my scheduled run.  To be fair, I did have to write a presentation tonight which required a couple of bottles of creativity and ate  up most of my evening.  I haven’t really gone off of the deep end since August eating wise (I’m up about 4lbs with a lot of that being muscle), but I’ve got work to do to be in a really good spot for the real beginning of the 2013 Xterra season. 

                So, why now?  Well I haven’t exactly been motivated about getting back into regimented training.  I’ve actually enjoyed just doing different stuff and not being anal about everything I eat.  I’ve also realized that to a certain extent I have sacrificed a lot of the things I love to do outside of Xterra.  Don’t get me wrong, I love training for and racing Xterra.  I have rediscovered my love for strength training, going for just fun mountain bike rides, and I can’t wait to hit the slopes and rekindle that fire.  So again, why now?  Honestly, I think I have let the pendulum swing a bit too far away from structured training and I need to get it into the center again.  You see, I like improving when racing and training for Xterra’s.  The challenge that the sport presents, whether intrinsic or external, and the victory over or die trying approach to those challenges is what makes this sport so rewarding.

                So, what does the 21 days of Christmas entail?  It will actually be 24 days, so from tomorrow, 11/28 to 12/21.  I have built in 3 “cheat” days for scheduled holiday parties.  During those other 21 days the rules are as follows: 

                Complete every scheduled workout

                Ski or go for fun mountain bike rides whenever possible

                Run a 500-750 calorie deficit/day.  This should result in 3-5 lbs of fat loss over this time.

                Eat strictly Paleo/Primal (that means no more bottles of creativity)

Keep carbs between 50-100 grams/day to facilitate higher % of fat loss and promote metabolic efficiency.

                My hope is that this will not be a complete shit show.  I’m going to write every day about how things have gone.  I promise to keep it honest and funny because I think trying to do things like this can be kinda fun, if a bit OCD.  Hopefully 21 days will get the ball rolling again and I won’t need to do silly challenges with myself about getting off my ass and achieving some goals.  Now that I’ve finished my second Sierra Nevada, I’m going to go rock some twinkle twinkle little star on the piano.