#25: 4 days out......the point of no return

Today was my last day of work before heading out.  It was a busy day......so busy in fact that I could only squeeze in a powerbar and a bag of pretzels until I got home at dinner time......not exactly the carbo-load of choice, but that doesn't officially begin until tomorrow anyway so we'll just strike it up as a "lean" eating day.....yeah, that's what we'll call it....around 430P I got my reminder email from the airline "it's time to check in".  It actually gave me some goosebumps.....I'm almost there, this thing is going to happen.....and so I set the auto-responder on my email.....and THAT makes it official!

After cramming some dinner in and rushing a kid to soccer, I made my way to the pool for a final prep swim......30 minutes with about 10 minutes of hard swimming.  Felt pretty good.  Adjusted my rotation just a bit to make sure my shoulders (esp the R one) didn't take any extra stress.


IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING.....


And the winner is: Blog #8 "The wasting away diet". 


Just an interesting stat for anyone who's been reading on a relatively regular rate.  #8 had a lot to do with the rapid weight loss associated with the ballooned training volume and it was by far my most popular; 2 to 1 against the average and 60% higher than the post with the next highest # of hits.....I think this is funny a little, so many people along the way have mentioned to me that I'm looking rather trim, which on the one hand is a nice complement, but on the other hand doesn't seem surprising.  In the month of February alone (so says my training log) I burned 32,207 calories via training (about the equivalent of 9.2 lbs of fat).  


What's really wild for me is that at this point, I am at 157 lbs and pretty stable (about 2 lbs heavier than my goal of 155)......which is only about 8lb weight loss from where I was previously.  Based on my bioimpedence though, I've lost about 6.5% body fat since January......which on straight math equates to roughly a 10.5 lb weight loss......so if the math works out (not an exact science, but interesting I suppose) I've lost 10.5lbs in fat and gained back 2.5 in "lean" mass.....and although my goal was far more function related (be able to complete this thing) than physique related.....coming from somebody who has been able to maintain an "almost athletic cut" for years (old story...ask me about it sometime), I'm not complaining.


In fact the change is so significant (and because I want to make sure I stay focused after this thing), I finally broke down today and bought some jeans that actually fit......2 inches down in the waist......it was sort of weird to not have them almost falling off.


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Alright, enough of this for tonight.....need to pack my carry on and make sure I'm not missing anything for my "dawn's early light flight".


Tomorrow's report from Utah.....


Mike E.