Look, I don’t know it all and have never claimed to but after doing this for over 30 years sometimes you do get to the point that you FEEL you should always have the answers. When you don’t, it can really whey on you (you see what I did there).
Last week I was pretty beat up mentally because I didn’t like how things were going and how I was feeling with the last fat burner run. I ended up cutting the run short by 4 days, only running it a total of 10 days this time. I just had had enough of the massive water retention and was feeling that it was possible this run just wasn’t going to end up being very productive. Scale weight was you considerably and I just felt like a bloated pig.
I initially blamed the water retention for this run on the Skiploading but … the Skiploading ended up not being the issue, at all. I am a little embarrassed to admit what it was but I will explain:
I wasn’t taking in enough water.
That probably sounds REALLY stupid but hear me out. I am almost always well hydrated but knew that I needed more while running the fat burner to keep temperature down or controlled. I never really had a problem with heat as my temperature was never all that high. Sure, I would feel warm from time to time but it wasn’t a big deal unless I was training and then I was pretty warm and sweat a lot so I would increase my water intake.
This is still not the problem, though.
The problem was hydration due to the Skiploading.
I retained a massive amount of water after the first Skipload of this fat burner run. I was sure it was the Skipload but as I was closing in on the next weekend where I was supposed to Skipload again, I had decided to skip it because I just didn’t want to deal with the massive water retention. As I lay in bed Saturday night I couldn’t get the situation out of my mind and was just mulling everything over when I asked myself if I were to increase my water intake, maybe that would at least help with the water retention. I had already decided to pull the plug on the fat burner run and figured I might as well load at least a little bit.
I started the day off with 1 liter per hour for the first 3 hours (total of 4 liters at that point) and then started the Skipload where I would still keep the load moderate fat and moderate carb because I knew that even though I stopped the fat burner the day prior, blood levels would still be high and I wanted to be careful with body temperature.
I loaded almost exactly the same as the previous week but pushed a lot of water throughout the day and even woke up during the night after the Skipload and kept the fluids going.
Instead of waking up the day after the Skipload waterlogged, I woke up looking retarded. Well, not retarded like Corky retarded but retarded like my condition was insane. I was holding very little water but was very full and tight.
I still have to get some water off as I am still holding water from the fat burner – how much, I honestly don’t know. I will know by the end of the week, though. I haven’t even weighed myself and won’t until the weekend.
I have to wonder if I had been running more water during the week, if I would not have been holding as much water and looking like shit. The answer is almost certainly “yes”. Where I was thinking I likely will never load again while on the fat burner, it is possible that after I get this water off, I will be considerably tighter and if that is the case, I don’t see much of a reason to not Skipload while on the fat burner.
None-the-less, I have switched from being disappointed to intrigued by how much better my condition will be by the weekend. Today is even better than yesterday so I look forward to the next few days. I should know definitively by my next coach log this weekend as to how well (or not) this run was.