So I think it's good to document where I started from. As part of this, I want to write down my starting points. I am a generally active person and have been for all my life, although lately I am a little heavier than I would like. However, weight loss isn't a huge drive, although I could do with losing a few kilograms.

What I would like to focus on more would be the two sports that I enjoy doing as hobbies. Powerlifting and Cycling. Both of these sports I don't do competitively in any sense of the word, but there are a few things that I would like to track. I don't think 75 days is enough to make huge improvements in either of these sports, but I would like to track where I start in both of these and continue to track where I get to as I go throughout the year.

In the introduction, I talked about not getting any younger and goals that I would like to achieve. For these two sports, I have the following:

It's always been a goal of mine to hit the 1000lb club, for those that aren't aware the 1000lb club is having a powerlifting total of 1000lb+. This means between the three main barbell lifts (Bench, Squat, Deadlift) you can do a 1 rep max in each of the lifts that adds up to 1000lbs, or in metric 453.5kgs.

So with this goal in mind, a good starting point is to measure my current one rep max's in those lifts. In addition to the three main barbell lifts, another lift that is worthwhile keeping track of it the overhead press. It's not a powerlifting lift measured in competition, but it's the other barbell lift that makes up the big four lifts.

Cycling is a little harder to make goals for. I do however enjoy mountain biking and road cycling, for me, mountain biking is about skills and road cycling is about fitness, although both benefit from one another.

The thing that you can measure to check your fitness with cycling is twofold your FTP (Functional Threshold Power), and your Watts per Kilogram. While Watts per Kilogram, is dependent on your FTP, it is a better measure of overall cycling fitness. You could put out 300 watts as your FTP, but if you weigh 160 kg, then you have a W/Kg of 1.875 W/Kg. Wear as if you had an FTP of 180 watts but only weighed 60kgs, you would have a W/Kg of 3. Over 50% higher than our 160 kg rider.

My starting point for these two measures are:

So on top of the above, I would like to document how my general health stats improve as I go through out the year and throughout the 75 Hard challenge.

My starting point is measured from my Garmin watch.

Starting Point

The general idea here is to document my journey going through the 

The 75 Hard challenge is essentially the consistent completion of 5 or 6 (depending on how you count them) things daily without any days off etc.

Drink 4L of water every day (plain, unflavoured water)

Perform two 45-min workouts (at least 3 hours apart and at least one must be outside)

Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book (something that will help you in your personal or professional life)

No cheat days or alcohol (This is the iffy one if it should be counted or not)

So those are the general rules. You must do each of those things every day without missing a single one for 75 days. If you miss even a task, you need to start at the beginning again.

Well, at it's core I think a lot of the reason behind this blog can be explained by the fact that I am a software engineer and I love playing with tech, so this is really just an excuse for me to play with some new tech.

Other than the opportunity to play, I wanted to write this blog more as a way to document my plans and then be accountable to them.

I have tried to complete the 75 hard a few times in the past, with varying levels of success. The best I have done was get to day 28 when I failed due to running out of time to do two workouts with the proper separation between them.

So I like to think I know what I am in for a little. The biggest thing that I learnt from failing last time was that you should plan for things not to go right. Many people reading this would be familiar with the quote attributed to Mike Tyson:

Everyone Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth

Last time I attempted 75 Hard I realised that life really likes to punch you in the mouth sometimes and, you better have a plan for not just when everything goes perfectly, but also for when things start to fall apart.

I mentioned that last time I failed due to not being able to have a large enough space of time between my two workouts. This is only partially true. I had gone well for three weeks, I was getting everything does quite easily during the day, but then one day I slept in a little missed a morning workout, the missed workout became a lunch workout, which pushed my after work workout to after dinner, and this started a domino effect that made workouts, reading, and water consumption getting later and later into the night, and I just couldn't keep on top of it.

So I want to document here what I plan on doing, what happens if something goes wrong, and then how I did at executing this.

I also wanted to document, here in the introduction, some of my motivations behind doing this. There is the general, get fitter, live healthier etc. These are all great, but when talking with my brother-in-law during the Christmas holidays about my previous attempts, he mentioned something that I thought was quite profound.

If someone is always telling you they will do XYZ thing and never following through with actually doing it, you lose trust in that person and believe what they say less and less. Well, this same phenom can happen to ourselves.

I feel like for me, I have had a few things on my "to achieve" list for some time now and each year they just get pushed back and pushed back. I will be turning 30 this year, during the timeframe of this challenge, actually. I think enough is enough, and I should actually start ticking some of these things off my list, or they may never get done.

For me, 75 Hard is a way to kick-start these goals, the year, and my 30s in general.

Follow along here to see how I am progressing.

Introduction

My plan for the workouts is to do 531 at the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Along with Trainer Road cycling workouts (outdoors) on Tuesday and Thursday. This covers my morning workouts during the week, and then my evening workouts I will choose one of the following based on how I am feeling:

Obviously for the Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning work this is within the gym so doesn't count as outdoors, necessitating the evening workout to be outside.

My diet plan for the week is to keep under 2100 calories for the day, while hitting close to my macro targets.

For snacks, I am planning on having protein shakes with water, as an easy way to make sure I am hitting my protein goals (2.2g per kg) while also not blowing out total calories.

For reading, I will be reading The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape.

To get 4L a day, I have divided my day into 4 segments starting at 6:30 when I wake up and finishing after work at 6pm, with reminders for when I should have finished the 1L bottle that I carry with me. The aim is to keep ahead of these reminders.

For the progress photo I have set a reminder and intend to take this in the same place and time each day so I don't forget.

75 Hard Blog.

Week 1 Plan

Workouts:

Diet:

Breakfast

Bacon, Egg & Cheese Frittata Muffins

Low Carb Cheddar Bacon Muffins

Lunch

No Sugar Ginger Beef & Broccoli

Brow Rice:

Dinner

Steak & Broccolini

Snacks

Reading

Water

Progress Photo

More Stories

Starting Point

Introduction