Get Fit, Stay Fit, Feel Good - 2026

[stangmx13]

The coach is once again reminding me that we don't bother to do the same thing over and over again.

Last week was Monday lifting at RPE5 and Wednesday 2x15min @ 280w. I suspect a succeeded too well at those intervals. He wrote "Beautiful" in my workout comments. Now this week is Monday lifting at RPE6 and Wednesday 2x20min @ 280w. It was definitely harder. I was a little sore from the harder lifting and it was a little warmer, so that extra 5min took quite a bit of focus. I gave the intervals RPE9 in the end. But I still nailed it and now I fear what next week will bring, lulz.

I PR'd the TT lap that I use for these last week. This week was a few seconds behind. This segment is 3.86mi with 393ft of climbing and no flat road. I think it's cool to get that 20mph avg. And I still have gravel tires on, albeit smaller ones (40mm).

Segment: https://www.strava.com/segments/40743622

 

[two wheel tramp]

You pedal a lot. I’m at about 950 miles for the year.

 

[Killroy1999]

Funny you say that about bench. I recently switched from wide to narrow and picked up strength. I think it's a stability / activation thing for me. I get better muscle control with the narrower grip.

WRT to losing weight while pushing weight around: I believe daily weight loss starts with how one starts their first meal/ morning. When meals are evenly spaced throughout the day, there's an insulin spike at each meal point. The spike in insulin blocks fat burning and overworks the pancreas. That spike is what's likely prompting retained fat cells. If you can start your first meal around 11am/ 12pm, and then do one at say 3-4pm and one at 6-7 pm, you'll have a far greater window for fat burning (8pm-12pm = 16 hours). The mini fasts are great for us, IMO. Dr. Berg on YouTube goes over this stuff frequently...I refer to him regularly. Lots of good stuff IMOr: https://www.youtube.com/@Drberg

Intermittent fasting is how I went from 170+lb to 140 lb

Sounds like a 4-hour eating window, 20-hour fast (Warrior Diet) is the most fasting you can do while trying to maintain muscle
+
high protein diet -- at ~ 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight or more
+
Resistance training

I will let you know when I get shredded!

 

[Holeshot]

Excited for the results!

 

[stangmx13]

You pedal a lot. I’m at about 950 miles for the year.

I do now. From 2014-2021, my longest year was 1600mi. I suspect you are gonna beat that.

I’m at 5165mi YTD.

The wife wants to go bike touring for her bday at the end of the month. We’ll be taking the train to San Luis Obispo and riding home, about 350mi. That’ll be a big week.

 

[two wheel tramp]

I do now. From 2014-2021, my longest year was 1600mi. I suspect you are gonna beat that.

I’m at 5165mi YTD.

The wife wants to go bike touring for her bday at the end of the month. We’ll be taking the train to San Luis Obispo and riding home, about 350mi. That’ll be a big week.

We will see. I’ve been a lazy lady and walking a lot recently. But there are a couple of good months left!

 

[Mike95060]

I do now. From 2014-2021, my longest year was 1600mi. I suspect you are gonna beat that.

I’m at 5165mi YTD.

The wife wants to go bike touring for her bday at the end of the month. We’ll be taking the train to San Luis Obispo and riding home, about 350mi. That’ll be a big week.

Ya both made me look. You definitely pedal a lot Robert

 

[two wheel tramp]

Ya both made me look. You definitely pedal a lot Robert
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Rookie luck!

 

[Ridley]

Yeah @stangmx13 you do peddle a lot. I think you could nudge 10k in 2026. Do you think you’ll have more miles driving your car or on your bike this year?

 

[Mike95060]

So today I was sitting on the couch with my 15 year old and overheard him on the phone say to his classmate, “Yeah I would 100% advise against that..”

I raised an eyebrow an then tried to not make it obvious I heard him.

He hung up a minute later and told me,”So ___ is gonna start taking peptides.”

My boy has really gotten into lifting and I’m proud of him. It’s all self motivated. We talk about lifting and exercising but he would rather go to the gym with his friends than with his old man which is fine. I have been in his ear for years about being natty. He tells me he thinks it’s stupid to be on gear and I have no reason to think he’s experimenting with it. But it’s all there. 15 year olds can get their hands on it. I’m sad and pissed about this reality.

Make doping shameful again.

 

[Ridley]

@Mike95060, PEDs have been available to kids for a long time, this isn’t some recent phenomenon. Heck I remember kids snorting coke in class in high school (early 90s)…my point is, if they want it they’ll get it.

More importantly, you’re a good dad and have done a great job instilling responsibility and values in your son. Big huge fat thumbs up to you. I really think you should be proud of him and yourself.

 

[Das MotorRad]

you are doing good @Mike95060 if he is sharing that information with you sucks that this is a reality where kids can get their hands on suspect chemicals that may have lifelong consequences before they are old enough to realize the choices they are making

 

[stangmx13]

Yeah @stangmx13 you do peddle a lot. I think you could nudge 10k in 2026. Do you think you’ll have more miles driving your car or on your bike this year?

Tthe bike wins every year for a while now. I got my truck in March 23’ and it has 20620mi on it. That includes the big road trip I did to Tahoe and CO. In the same time, I’ve ridden 26600mi.

 

[stangmx13]

The looksmaxxing trend among young easily-influenced men is def concerning. PEDs, bone damage, overdoses, a death, and prob more I haven’t heard. The boys have joined the unrealistic “beauty” standards club that women have dealt with for so long. Influencer culture needs to go away.

And GLP-1s are bringing back heroin chic

 

[Mike95060]

The looksmaxxing trend among young easily-influenced men is def concerning. PEDs, bone damage, overdoses, a death, and prob more I haven’t heard. The boys have joined the unrealistic “beauty” standards club that women have dealt with for so long. Influencer culture needs to go away.

And GLP-1s are bringing back heroin chic

Yup. While it's true that gear has always been around, It is much more socially acceptable now than it ever was in the 90's. It's also pervasive in social media. You are Spot On about young men now facing the same unrealistic beauty standards young women have been up against forever.

 

[two wheel tramp]

Yup. While it's true that gear has always been around, It is much more socially acceptable now than it ever was in the 90's. It's also pervasive in social media. You are Spot On about young men now facing the same unrealistic beauty standards young women have been up against forever.

Maybe this will be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back and people will start accepting a wider range of body types.

 

[Holeshot]

So today I was sitting on the couch with my 15 year old and overheard him on the phone say to his classmate, “Yeah I would 100% advise against that..”

I raised an eyebrow an then tried to not make it obvious I heard him.

He hung up a minute later and told me,”So ___ is gonna start taking peptides.”

My boy has really gotten into lifting and I’m proud of him. It’s all self motivated. We talk about lifting and exercising but he would rather go to the gym with his friends than with his old man which is fine. I have been in his ear for years about being natty. He tells me he thinks it’s stupid to be on gear and I have no reason to think he’s experimenting with it. But it’s all there. 15 year olds can get their hands on it. I’m sad and pissed about this reality.

Make doping shameful again.

Peptides aren't "doping". PED's are. There's several ways to increase HGH naturally, but most don't know how to do this or aren't committed enough. Peptides have been studied for decades now, but big Pharma can't patent them; hence the campaign to discredit. Not all peptides are beneficial and may be detrimental. I agree that kids don't need peptides, but the message that they're a PED is incorrect.

Our food intake and Pharma industry does more damage to our bodies, especially WRT scripts to "manage" every problem. Our traditional food source and eating schedules are far worse than even the PED's themselves. If kids can learn how to manage food intake, what to eat, and when; combined with fasting and insulin education (something they'll never teach kids in school), they'll live twice as long as us. If you can get your son interested in best practice self care, he'll own his own health. Our generation's health owns us....

 

[stangmx13]

The American diet and PEDs can both be bad. It’s not a competition. We can strive to be better with both.

IMO, the less-regulated nature of supplements is bothersome. I keep thinking about that post about lead in protein shake. Also, I had a convo with someone at the gym and he said he found info that some products are just lying in the ingredients list. It’s fucking challenging to produce good quality food of all kinds for a huge population. Society is screwing up some parts of that.

I’m getting so cynical these days. The harder the world tries to sell me something, the more I assume it’s bad or those people are fucked. So pretty much all influencers and what they are peddling.

 

[stangmx13]

Maybe this will be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back and people will start accepting a wider range of body types.

I hope the current trends in body standards are a two steps forward one step back situation. I fear this is a one step forward two steps back situation.

Social media is making it really easy to judge everyone. I don’t know how much progress we can make until that goes away.

 

[Holeshot]

The American diet and PEDs can both be bad. It’s not a competition. We can strive to be better with both.

IMO, the less-regulated nature of supplements is bothersome. I keep thinking about that post about lead in protein shake. Also, I had a convo with someone at the gym and he said he found info that some products are just lying in the ingredients list. It’s fucking challenging to produce good quality food of all kinds for a huge population. Society is screwing up some parts of that.

I’m getting so cynical these days. The harder the world tries to sell me something, the more I assume it’s bad or those people are fucked. So pretty much all influencers and what they are peddling.

Me too, regarding cynicism. I trust anyone at a gym less than the coyote I saw at my office park last night. Not having been to a public gym in awhile, If I've known them a long time and know them well, it's different...but anyone who doesn't understand the basics of our food system and anything about self care / the basics is insulin and cortisol, I start to tune out. Oddly, it took 2020 to get me to shift my thinking. I agree that many ingredients from unreviewed companies are likely bullshitting. The shocking one for me was the heavy metals in cocoa powder which defeated the purpose of taking it in my morning blend. It was a sad reality....and there seems to be little places to turn for purity for much of anything.

Ugh. I Eeeyored on that one.

 

[stangmx13]

I think I've been nailing my sleep this summer. We got a portable AC and I plumbed the vent out our patio door. I run hot and rarely use a blanket, even in SD "winter". Previous summers we leave the door open and hope the room cools down and the mosquitos stay out. Now, having the room at a consistent 74-75F this summer is making it sooooo much easier to sleep.

The sleep metrics have been interesting though. Check this:

F* A, my HRV is unbalanced as 'too high'. Data on this is very limited compared to 'too low'. One resource suggested "working to recover", which fits with how my training block is going. I'm not too far outside my range. Maybe a week or two of >100 will change my baseline so I won't be unbalanced.

 

[Dubbington]

Oddly enough, not eating and getting 10-12k steps in a day working construction and you lose weight!

From June 14th until August 5th I was remodeling the house wife and I bought, remodeling it with my dad. Didn't think he'd push his clients off for the summer but he did. Sooo.....that meant I'd get to the house around 830, he'd be there 30-40min already and work until 5pm sometimes 8pm or come home for dinner and go back after kids were asleep and work more from 8-11pm.

My dad hauls ass, non stop, no breaks. Early 70s mind you. Luckily it was not a hot summer BUT tearing out 400sqft of 3/4" oak on top of 3 layers of linoleum, probably the most physically exhausted I ever felt in my life, mainly because it 4-5 hours of continuous hard work. Coudn't stop cuz the work had to get done too, deadline was August 1st to move in. I'd only have time to throw down a cold chicken apple sausage and a some trail mix later in the day. Several bottles of powerade and water and energy drinks.

Early August my phone alerted me in a sudden "lifestyle change". My average 6500 steps jumped to 11k for 8 weeks and all done around 2100sqft.

Had no time to hit the gym all summer. Didn't think I was losing weight but hit the doctor and a week ago and sure enough dropped 12lbs from June to August.

Now that I'm back at work and less active I gotta refocus on the diet and hope to get 2-3 days of gym in a week. Might start with some 5ams just to get it out of the way.

 

[Sharxfan]

Only got to the gym twice last week due to other obligations and then did yardowrk this weekend. Gotta love it when you lose 3 lbs of water weight over the weekend. I swear Sunday I drank over 2000z of liquid but still felt dehydrated once I was back in the house and this was over a 5 hour period maybe I should have tried to drink more as I was sweating a lot gotta love 100 degree southern days.

 

[Mike95060]

I have been trying to up my volume recently. I'm about 30-40% off my peak training volume from 2 years ago. Last week was my best week in a long time. I put in about 7.5 hrs. That included some "fluff" time for late night, easy walks. It's kind of breaking my brain how difficult it really is to do 10+ hours a week and have enough life left over for anything else. I guess what is bothering me is even though my volume numbers are way down, I don’t FEEL like I’m taking it “easy.” Fitness it a challenge yo.

 

[Sharxfan]

I have been trying to up my volume recently. I'm about 30-40% off my peak training volume from 2 years ago. Last week was my best week in a long time. I put in about 7.5 hrs. That included some "fluff" time for late night, easy walks. It's kind of breaking my brain how difficult it really is to do 10+ hours a week and have enough life left over for anything else. I guess what is bothering me is even though my volume numbers are way down, I don’t FEEL like I’m taking it “easy.” Fitness it a challenge yo.


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Man I have it down to 2 hours a day at the gym and it is hard to do anything else. by the time I get off work at 5pm throw down some grub then do some work around the house it's time to head to the gym. then I get home and its pretty much straight to bed and rinse and repeat all week. gets hard to find time to spend with the wife other than at dinner time.