You ever notice how the universe seems to have a sixth sense (I see sleepy people) for screwing with your sleep? This week was supposed to be my big “rest and recharge” week — a de-load before kicking off Phase 2. Instead, I got a parade of late-night curveballs: heartburn from poor pizza choices, multiple dog puke alarms, and even a 1 AM flash flood alert.
So yeah — not exactly the deep, restorative slumber I had in mind. But here’s the funny part: even with garbage sleep, my body still moved (sloooooowly, stubbornly) in the right direction.
The Numbers Don’t Lie (Even if the Scale Does)
- Weight: Bounced around thanks to salty meals (210.4 → 209.6 lbs range), but my waist shrank another notch to 38.4 inches.
- Body Fat % (tape): 27.3 → 27.1% (small but steady drop).
- Lean Mass: Holding steady around 153 lbs.
- Soreness: Never above 1/10 all week.
Translation: the scale noise was water retention, not fat gain. The waistline is still trimming down, and the fat % (via tape) is sliding in the right direction. That’s the exact outcome I wanted from de-load week — joints fresh, body still trending leaner, ready to push harder again.
Training on Cruise Control
The gym sessions this week were short and sweet, everything was about form and blood flow, not weight.
Add in:
- Daily calf rehab walks (2.5–3.5 miles).
- Dog walks every day (about a mile).
- Steam room recovery 3x.
Basically: I stayed moving, but never pushed the gas pedal. And my calves didn’t mutiny, which is a big win in itself.
The Real Limiter: Sleep
Every night was something, between eating too much salt later in the day (but so damned tasty), to eating cheap pizza and waking up with heartburn all through the night, my food choices and timing could have been better. And then the dogs decided that this week was a great time to puke. Or go outside. I mean, they did have to go to the bathroom, so I can’t be upset. I’d rather them wake me up then to make a mess inside, but it really messed up the sleep I was hoping for.
The result? Sleep averaged about 5.5–6 hours/night, with broken chunks instead of long, restorative cycles. Energy during the day was “meh” at best, “dragging” at worst. But here’s the kicker — even with that, my waist still shrank, and the fat % still ticked down. That means the system’s working.
Phase 2: What’s Next
De-load week wasn’t glamorous, but it did its job: let the joints and muscles recover, hold my body comp steady, and mentally reset. Now it’s time to move forward.
Here’s the Phase 2 game plan:
- Strength Progression: Back to heavier lifting, pushing the main lifts toward true RPE 8–9 sets. More structured progression in shorter blocks.
- Running Base: Transition from intervals and rehab walks into consistent 5K runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Saturday long runs creeping past 3 miles into real endurance territory.
- Nutrition Tweaks: Keep protein high, but add carbs on run days to fuel endurance (no more skimping here). Sodium awareness stays in play so the scale doesn’t gaslight me.
- Recovery Insurance: Naps when I can sneak them in, hydration buffers around salty meals, and earlier wind-downs whenever possible.
- Milestones in Sight: Sub-10:00 mile pace, 5K continuous running, push-ups and dips climbing past Phase 1 marks, waistline continuing its slow march down toward 38 → 37.
The Verdict
Deload week wasn’t pretty. The workouts were light, the sleep was trash, and the scale was lying to me. But the signals underneath all that noise? Leaner, tighter, and primed for Phase 2.
Phase 1 was about getting consistent again. Phase 2 is where the results start compounding — heavier weights, longer runs, and smarter recovery.
And if the universe could stop sending me early morning dog puke, that’d be great too.
Still Lifting. Still Losing. Still Showing Up. (Usually)
The Recomp Chronicles 