Day 77: one PCP cycle a year, but what to do in between?

Aren't we all close to feeling a deep burn in the brain? I feel about PCP as my left leg on rep 7 of the final set of pistol squats this week. Deep muscle burn sends a dual signal to my head, a) a great and pleasurable satisfaction, b) a great and painful yearn to put an end to it. To be honest, this is seldom the case for planks, which send only capital "B" signals.

PCP coming to an end raises so many questions. Certainly keeping the muscles stimulated 4 or 5 times a week with a mild routine that I pray Patrick will gift-wrap for as as a graduation present, will be useful. The hard part will be sticking to it. While PCP has proven me that I can finish what I start, rigurously sticking to the plan and observing strict rules and parameters, it has also proven to me the value of being obedient and accountable to a regimen. Two things that will fade right after Day 90 when the trainer no longer sends instructions and the PCPeers go on with their lives. All there will be left will be our-selves against powerful and antagonising enemies like restaurants and butter, as well as dwellers of our brains like temptation and other propensities to take the short way to satisfaction, gradually undermining and deviating from longer term goals. I confess I have this fear. As much as I feel physically strong, I believe the real test of self discipline is about to start, not to end, as 90 days is nothing compared to the aspiration of life-long commitment to wellness.

Today's question time video was ambiguous. Patrick talked about cycles and gave the example of a professional athlete: three months of intensive training, maintenance, competition, rest and recovery, back to intensive training. This sort of virtuous cycle allows the body to break through barriers and push limits; something that cannot be achieved if we kept on going without some rest. It is comforting to know that we can keep growing our condition if we kind of follow this cycle. Right after I finished watching the video, my initial thought was "good news! It will be easy keeping the muscle I've built". A few minutes later, while I was typing up a report in my office, the thought assaulted my mind "(...) but to keep in peak condition and grow from there, a yearly PCP cycle is inevitable".

And then I thought: Competition is the main difference from us, "normal" people (not so normal anymore, thank god!) and athletes. So, in absence of this incentive, I'm thinking I'll need to seriously pick up a sport, which is not so easy to fit in my routine though also not impossible, or to explore more individual alternatives: I'm thinking Kung Fu Body in three months (?). And then, right after Christmas, do a PCP cycle every year.

Thinking about this made my brain feel like my arms and upper body, specially my back, during those 20 seconds of micro-rest before the next set of pull ups!

The beauty of looking ahead of Day 90 as finishing part of a cycle that I will come back to instead of void, is that it reaffirms the value of PCP, dissipates my fear of the future and let's me know that stopping for "20 seconds" is necessary to keep going. Now the deal is to decipher how to go about the rest of the cycle.