For his latest fitness challenge, YouTuber Will Tennyson spent a day following the diet plan and training regime of Ironman triathlete Nick Bare. The schedule includes consuming 5,000 calories and running 11 miles, in addition to a lifting workout—and it all starts with a 4:30 a.m. start.
Will’s first meal of the day is an English muffin with peanut butter, after which he hits the treadmill for the 11-mile run, broken down into a 2-mile warmup, then 4 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile, and a 2-mile cool-down. “It looks pretty crazy,” he says. “I haven’t done cardio in a while, at least this type of cardio, so it’s going to suck. But if we can learn anything from Nick, it’s to embrace the suck.”
Will already knows he probably won’t be able to match the speeds that Nick achieves during his runs, so from the very start he avoids drawing comparisons. “The minute you start competing with other people is when you become bitter, the moment you start competing with yourself is when you become better.” Even going at his own pace, Will admits to feeling “wrecked” by the end of the workout.
The post-workout meal is a bagel with more peanut butter, a protein shake and a banana, shortly followed by a lunch of beef and white rice. Will notes that Nick’s meal plan is so carb-heavy as the endurance work that goes into preparing for a triathlon requires easy fuel.
After another pre-workout meal (ground chicken with more white rice), Will heads back to the gym to do Nick’s compound lift workout, which comprises 5 sets of 5 barbell squats, 4 sets of 10 hip thrusts, 3 sets of 10 lying leg curls, 3 sets of 10 dumbbell step-ups, and 3 sets of 10 walking lunges. “The pros are, I have a couple thousand calories in me,” he says. “The cons are it’s leg day, I ran 11 miles, and I woke up at 4:30 this morning.”
But it’s not over. Following a post-workout dinner (salmon, sweet potato, sprouts and 2 slices of white bread), Will then spends 40 minutes on a stationary bike, to get blood flow into his legs and aid recovery so that his muscles won’t be stiff or sore the following day. All in all, Will’s take on Nick’s routine is that it is “brutally challenging.”
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