Adarq.org

Very interesting and insightful as always.
Yes, we are not far off. Gaining strength and muscle with minimum fat gain was the idea. And then use more activity to both lean-out and get more 'functional' when the weather is better. I do hate indoor cardio stuff, you got me. Silly excuse, I know, but I do. Willing to try to fight through it it though. Already did a start with stationary bike if you noticed, no HIIT yet though, just LISS as a finisher after weights.
As for the leanness, i was never really lean indeed but i don't know if i can be. My point about the 20s era was that i should be ripped back then. I would go to the gym ( which had a track and a swimming pool ) and i would do ~4km jog, then lift and then do 20-40x50m swim tempos. 2-3 hours. 4 to 5 times a week. And yet i wasn't ripped. I was lean, but average lean. Bringing it further back, in my teenage years, i was a roadkill, around 15yo i would be about 5'9''/175cm and weigh... 52kg/115lbs. Even then, no abs! I am the definition of skinny fat, got tiny wrists and ankles, yet never ever looked really lean. So the point was i don't think it is realistic to expect some serious leanness. But yeah, all that history doesn't mean anything. Ok, i can't look lean. So what? looking lean does not mean the same with being lean. I gotta get as lean as i can and that is all to it, it does not matter what it looks like. Do i have excess fat to lose? Yes i do, i should try to lose it, period.
So I ( you ) already made up my mind, i will adjust my diet with the goal of maintaining current weight for now, or even lose a little. I trust i can achieve both as you say, keep gain some good strength and muscle and lose some fat too. I do like being on caloric surplus when i lift. Makes me feel more confident. Maybe it is placebo but it works, as soon as i restrict calories on workout days, strength suffers. My daily program fits well for daily zig-zag AND same-day overfeeding too. I train late (9pm or so ) , so i can have a heavy lunch ( 1000+kcal ) 7-8 hours earlier, a pre-workout snack ( ~500kcal ) 1-2 hours earlier and then a big post-workout meal ( 1500+ ). No-gym days is the same plan but adjusted portions to get to the desired kcal deficit ( numbers mentioned are just indicative ). And i have been on that daily zig-zag with good results in the past, so it is trustworthy. +500/-500 is a cut scheme for me, i will go for something like +300/-300 to keep it steady and adjust on the way.
I do reckon that cut-bulk-cut would be a better choice than recomp-cut that i am set to do, the latter just feels/fits better currently. And i do feel i want to push strength for a while currently and don't feel at all like going in a cut. I don't think the difference will be serious. Let's see, is that a fact so i am up to some serious shit, or is it just wishful thinking & no-reason stubbornness so i will just spin my wheels? 

Is that 325 wearing the vest? So you actually did 4 (flying up) singles with ~340??? 
( still worthy of icons and props even without the vest! )

run:
- 10.69 mi in 1:25:42
- pace: 8:01 min/mi
- FAIL
- wanted to hit sub 8 min/mi every mile.. actually thought I was on pace. I need to better figure out how my virtual pacer works.
- 1st mile was 6:xx, 2nd & 3rd were 7:xx, 4th-10th were 8:xx, 11th (10+) was 7:xx

Over 17km now, niiiiice, approaching half marathon distance. Isn't this some kind of distance PR?
8mins mile average pace is pretty good too for first attempt.

Very nice reply, thanks!
I don't disagree with anything. Also my bad for mentioning 'bulk', it is not called bulk that i have in mind, it is rather re-composition. Eating a little above TDEE on gym days and a little below all other days. Keeping it at +500kcal on gym days and -500 all other days has proven to lead me to a steady weight loss, while adding some muscle mass too. It is like a repeated bulk-cut daily micro-cycle. Not even sure if such a thing exists, just something i have done in the past and works great for me. So for the GPP period i would just up the off-days kcals a bit ( still keeping it below or at most equal to TDEE ) to lead to a small weight gain. I am willing to change that plan though if it is nonsense.
As for the bodyfat numbers, yes, i am very well aware that bulking while being over 15% is considered nonsense. However, 15% is pretty much very lean for me. I do my cuts, I eat very clean, high protein, i keep active, yet those calculators and BI scale wont give me under 15%. To be honest and play the devil's advocate on myself, i never went under 80kg the recent years to see what would happen. But back in my mid 20s, being extremely active ( working out 4-5 times a week, running, swimming, playing basketball ) and weighing around 75kg, i never ever saw more than a faint 4-pack, the same that i can do now when i cut. I was leaner than ever last year at 82kg, felt an looked like 14% and calculators agreed.
So, if we forget the number per se ( 17% ) and just suppose i am around 3% more than my very-lean status, would you still be against doing that 'recomp' thing during my upcoming GPP phase? And going on a cut to reach 'as lean as possible' right after that? Note that all this planning is also very well timed with the weather here ( aka ability to go out and run ).

Didn't know about those videos either, i found them searching for some kind of fancy f1 vs anything overlay.

Apparently it is something they like doing:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uuwbRPWnWU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uuwbRPWnWU</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYCgWkAdmlo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYCgWkAdmlo</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kaMBMckmtk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kaMBMckmtk</a>

Very fun. Got crazy soreness too everywhere as if I wa not training regularly.
No ski, I wish. Just Xmas off, consuming stupid quantities of deadly poisons, mostly in the form of whiskey and cigars. Back to gym next Monday.

Thought this was too good to stay just a journal post, pasting it here.

T0ddday if you think it is incomplete or misleading please edit/add what is needed.

Remember that the main benefit to sprinting for fat loss is muscle-sparing despite low bodyfat levels.   So, it's a great tool for men at or below ~10% bf or women at or below ~18% bf***.  One effect of the muscle sparing nature of sprinting i
As you move farther away from these body fat levels a calorie deficit will result in primarily fat loss as long as nutrition is adequate.   It's not that sprinting won't help the overweight BUT sprinting does involve a lot more shock and there is increased injury risk relative to walking/cycling/etc.   IMO it's still always better than jogging though!

**Note that the effectiveness of sprinting has some people who look at the scale too much actually become disappointed.  The reason being that if you are lean (say 8% bf) and start to sprint for fat loss you will not lose weight as quickly as if you do a lot of marathon jogging...  But that's because you lose weight slower when it's primarily bodyfat!

That said for a woman I would probably time here in an all out 100m sprint.  If her fastest 100m is between 20 and 25 seconds I would have her do something like the following at a track: 

1) Run 100m in under 30 seconds.   Walk 300m in under 2.5 minutes.  Repeat.   Thats a 12 minute mile pace.  Work up to the ability to do this for about an hour at which case there will be 5 miles completed in 1 hour which includes "20" sprints.    The benefit here is the total distance but for someone this slow there they are probably not super lean OR they are so inexperienced in running that they shouldn't use it until they have a tiny bit of efficiency.   If they are even slower I would reduce total distance modify the goals (eg run 100m under 40 seconds, walk 300m under 3 minutes). 

For everybody faster than that (given that they are not actual sprinters and don't compete in a power/explosive activity) I would recommend the following:

Calculate your distances ran with time but do your workouts with distances.  We don't want to prescribe specific distances because energy systems are largely time dependent rather than distance dependent.  That means someone doing 200m repeats in 25 getting into moderate lactate while someone doing them in 45 seconds is deep into aerobic respiration.   This is why Clyde Hart has his world class 400m men running 350's while the women run 300's.  Keeping them at a distance which they can keep under 40 seconds allows repeats to be run at a high intensity (once you approach 50 seconds aerobic respiration produces so much h+ that the lactic acid is paralyzing).   So that said here is the basic guide to energy systems and sprinting for fat loss:

1) Under 6 seconds  =       alactic anerobic respiration (free ATP, creatine phosphate)
2) 6-15   seconds      =       initial stages of fermentation (lactate) that can be cleared with moderate rest
3) 15-25 seconds      =       significant lactate produced so without longer rest intervals each rep will effect the next
4)  25-40  seconds    =       lactate threshold reached and aerobic respiration starts to contribute
5) Above 40 seconds =      Aerobic respiration becomes primary pathway.  If intensity is high enough to produce lactate then the bout may be somewhat paralyzing without a rest interval too long to include in a single workout. 

* Note that the second pathway (fermentation) can be skipped.  If you run a lap at 50% your body will use alactic anerobic respiration (ATP stores) first, there is no way around this (that's why even distance runners always run fast for the beginning of race - they say first 6 seconds are free).  However, after it exhausts free ATP it will only go into fermentation IF the demand for ATP is great (you are running fast).  If your going at 50% you body will just shift to aerobic respiration and produce slow consistent ATP which it can keep up for a good 2 hours until you hit the wall...  Since there isn't any lactate produced this won't be painful.  This is why all distance runners follow the same strategy  - run very fast for 6 seconds, run the pace just slow enough to keep lactate from creeping up, and then with about 20 seconds to go GO all out and just fight the lactate because your almost done.   If they ran the first lap hard and got into lactate the acid produced from aerobic respiration would be paralyzing...   Our goal is designing training is to never skip lactate, we define sprinting as the use of the energy systems in the following order (alactic anaerobic, lactate) if we go alactic anaerobic to aerobic we are jogging.     

**Also Understand that these times are variable and trainable (especially time #3 and #4 - you can increase lactate tolerance and efficiency to a great degree).

Given those rules we want to rule out any repeats of over 40 seconds because learning to do multiple reps efficiently will be achievable only by jogging.  However, that doesn't mean we can't do 1-2 reps at the end of a practice session.

I think the information provided here is enough for you to design a template.   Here is a sample template for fat loss from sprinting that occurs 3x a week.

1) Find the distances you can cover in a sprint for 10,15...45 seconds.   Or just run a 100m, 150m, 200m, 300m, 400m.   Assume you get the following times:

100m = 12.5
150m = 20
200m = 27
300m = 50
400m = 66

Your distances would be 100m (< under 15 seconds) , 150m (< 25 seconds) and 250 (< 42 seconds).   Here is a MWF template:


M: 1x100m time trial THEN 4x2x150  under 25 seconds, rest 5-10 minutes between sets, walk half the curve between reps in 30 seconds or less.  Total workout should be about 35 minutes  and total distance covered is 1 mile.    Time the 100m and watch it drop slowly each week.

W: 3x4x100m   attempt under 15 seconds for each 100m, rest 5-10 minutes between sets, walk the curves in 1-1.5 minutes between reps, total workout should take around 45 minutes, total distance ~ 1.5 miles.

F:  3 x (250, 100) 1x400.   Run a 250 in under 42 seconds.  Rest for 15 seconds.  Run a 100m in under 16 seconds.  Or try.  Rest for 5-10 minutes between repts.  Then rest 15 minutes.  Run an all out 400m.   Then recover with the weekend.  Time the 400m and watch it drop quickly each week.  Whole workout will be about a mile and should take about an hour.     

That's a protocol you can't go wrong with.