April Team Update: Iceland Recovery, New Protocols, and Back to Work

I just got back from Iceland. Running in a place where the weather cycles through hail, rain, sleet, snow, and sunshine in a single 60-minute run will recalibrate your sense of what "hard" means. We snorkeled between tectonic plates in 32-degree water, ice-climbed a glacier, and hiked black sand beaches made of lava. The Icelandic architecture style is literally called "resilient" — built to survive earthquakes, volcanoes, and horizontal rain. There's a metaphor in there somewhere.

More importantly: I maintained weight through the trip. 215 before, 215 after. For a guy who really likes beer and was surrounded by Icelandic snacks (some genuinely disgusting, for the record), holding steady through a vacation is a win. The secret? I just didn't drink. One beer the whole trip. My wife was not thrilled.

Training: Right on Plan

Alan Couzens, our head coach, opened the call with the words every athlete wants to hear: "Everything is going very, very well." The pace-versus-heart-rate numbers are tracking exactly where they need to be for a Boston qualifier by November.

We peaked at 40-mile weeks last month before dialing it back for a consolidation phase — which lined up perfectly with the Iceland trip and recovery from the Rock 'n' Roll half marathon. The fitness kept improving even on reduced volume. Now we're entering what Alan calls the "back to work" phase. Mileage ramps back up. Cross-training expands to 5-7 hours per week across rowing, elliptical, and incline walking (plus strength training).

The breakthrough I keep marveling at: as I've consciously slowed down, my efficiency factor numbers have gone up. I can now run 5.5 miles at a heart rate of 125 and feel like I didn't even do anything. That's not just "going slower" — that's genuine aerobic base expansion. Six months ago, that heart rate would have had me shuffling. Now I'm trotting along at a solid pace and my body barely notices.

Nutrition: The Hardest Phase Begins

Casey Thomas, our dietitian, laid out the new macro targets: 90 grams of fat, 150 grams of protein, and carbs that cycle with training intensity — 200g on easy days, 300g on medium days, 400g on long run days. That puts easy days around 2,200 calories.

Here's the uncomfortable truth Casey delivered: I can't lose 25 more pounds of pure fat, because I don't have 25 pounds of expendable fat left. The abs are there. Some muscle mass has to go. For someone who's been eating a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight for 20 years — often 250-300 grams a day — dropping to 150 grams feels like being asked to breathe less. But the physics are the physics.

The plan: two aggressive cut cycles with a break in between, targeting 190 pounds in about four months. Then, as mileage peaks through September and October, calories come back up to 3,000-5,000 per day. Alan says I'll eventually struggle to eat enough. After decades of the opposite problem, I'll believe it when I see it.

Medical: Fixing the Hormone Rollercoaster

Let me be honest about this one: I went off the reservation. I knew stretching my testosterone dosing to every 14 days wasn't optimal — but I wanted to see if dropping the frequency would help me lose weight faster. It was me doing something unreasonable (fitting, I guess) and experimenting on myself without telling the team. Dr. Alec Weir's reaction when I told him: "That's nuts." Fair.

Alec brought me back to reality in the best way possible. The fix: same total biweekly dose, but split into 25mg twice a week (Monday and Thursday). Steady levels instead of the peaks and crashes I'd been white-knuckling through. My mood had been terrible — and mood affects training quality, sleep, recovery, everything. Sometimes doing the unreasonable thing means knowing when to stop being unreasonable. This should stabilize within a few weeks.

I asked about coming off TRT entirely. Alec's answer was direct: no advantage. We've already committed to doing this on TRT. Coming off just to be smaller when we haven't exhausted the dose-adjustment toolkit would be working backwards. Minimize the dose, optimize the schedule, keep going.

Body Work: Protocols Paying Off

Tom Broback, our PT and movement specialist, got the good news: the hip tightness that had me limping after the Rock 'n' Roll half marathon has resolved with his protocols. The cyclist squats on a slant board are building knee and quad strength. Single-leg glute bridges and lateral step-ups are progressing.

One thing I flagged: all this forward-only running is making me feel less athletic laterally. Tom agreed — we're going to add multi-planar warm-up movements to preserve that east-west capability. Marathon training is linear by nature, but general movement quality still matters.

Gear Notes

The Nike Vomero Plus has been an incredible daily trainer — everything the reviews said it was. And I pulled the trigger on race day shoes: the New Balance Super Comp Elite 5 in 13 wide (the only super shoe in a wide). Got them 50% off. They're sitting on a shelf looking pretty. 20-50 miles in them before November and that's it.

What's Next

Cherry Blossom 10-miler this Saturday. C race — just running it chill around 9:00 pace. No heroics. Then it's grind time. Base phase done. The build toward November starts now.

The other day, I woke up early and went for a run. No music, no podcast, no nothing. Just needed to clear my head. That's never happened before in my life. I'm a whole new person and this team has been incredible. Blood pressure: 116/70-something. Everything is moving in the right direction.

Seven months to go.