A few life updates:

• We’re finally getting some rain and I’m glad, though it keeps ruining our weekend plans. It’s a shame that we can’t cancel office jobs because of rain.
• Wednesday and I have banded together to fight some mice that thought it would be cool to move into our garage. So far it’s Wednesday: 1, Dad: 0, but I’ll catch up.
• My Substack has gained some pretty serious traction thanks largely to a repurposed post about losing respect for Anti-Flag’s former lead singer that I almost didn’t post.
• I briefly unpublished my book and republished it so I could own the ISBN and made it available via IngramSpark so it can be made available to retailers a bit easier. It’s currently on shelves at Kingsport bookshop Haven Booksellers and rumor has it I’ll be doing an author event in Kingsport in the next month or two!
• I’m about to start entering my new screenplay into a handful of contests. Most don’t announce winners until 2026 so that gives me plenty of time to forget about it.
• Thanks to the Tennessee Department of Treasury, I am about to receive over $100 in unclaimed funds from businesses who have owed me, I just didn’t know about it. $20 of it is coming from O’Charley’s – money they’ve owed me since 2008!
• I just want to take a week off and do nothing but eat pizza and write folk-punk songs. Alas, retirement isn’t as far away as it once was.

Alright. The current lifting and running programs are complete and there are many things to discuss. I’ll start with the lifting program – Arnold’s “Next Level” program from the Pump app.

The program lasted two months and I treated it like a short bulking phase to add some mass. I began supplementing with creatine again and was hitting the iron pretty hard. And while I stuck with my meal plan pretty closely, I think I should have eaten a little more (which is to say consumed more calories). I’ve gained noticeable size and gained some positive weight, but it wasn’t the change I was hoping for. In fact, my weight fluctuated from week-to-week instead of consistently climbing like I’d hoped. I think my calorie requirement was too close to maintenance for me to get the full effect. Either way, I’m still overall happy with the end result. Table now:

Body Comp Tracker, Week of Aug 3, 2025
Measurement	Value	Monthly Change	Change Overall
Weight (lbs)	229.4	+1.2	+5.4
Body Fat %	18%	+0.2%	+0.4%
Neck	15.75″	-0.1″	0″
Arms (L/R)	15.5″/15.5″	+0.25″/+0.25″	+1″/+1″
Chest	43.5″	+0.5″	+1″
Waist	38.5″	-0.5″	-0.75″
Hips	40.5″	+0.25″	+1″
Quads (L/R)	24″/24″	+0.5″/+0″	+1″/+0.5″
Calves (L/R)	16.25″/16.25″	+0″/+0″	+0.25″/+0.25″
Blood Pressure	136/97	-13 / -9	-13 / -9

Starting Monday, I’ll begin a cut phase that will last three months. I’m cutting my calorie requirement by 15% and beginning Arnold’s Foundation Repeat program with a fat loss focus. It has three phases, the first of which drops me down to three lifting days per week, which is cool because I’m going to be restarting my running program. 

Speaking of running:

When I started this new running program about eight weeks ago, I’ll admit that I was more than a little pessimistic about the prospect of ever speeding up my 5K time. My original test day resulted in a 37:34 finish time and an average pace of 12:07/mile and an average heart rate of 160bpm. Today, after eight weeks of training (and admittedly not following the program exactly), I braved the wind and rain to test my progress and I’m happy to announce I cut 2:13 off time time! My finish time was 35:21 today with an average pace of 11:25/mile and an average heart rate of 149bpm. Not only was my pace better, but I like seeing that it wasn’t as taxing on my body either (though 149 is still in “Hard (Anaerobic)” heart rate zone for me).

The great thing about the running program I’m following is it’s designed to start over every eight weeks, each cycle utilizing your most recent 5K test time. You repeat until you hit your desired time. I’ll be doing just that now. My new program is as follows:

Oppdrag: Norge Programming, Phase 4.1

Monday: Strength Training, Cardio, Mobility
Foundation Repeat, Phase 1 – Full Body Focus
Speed Training Run
Daily Mobility

Tuesday: Cardio, Mobility
Recovery Run
Daily Mobility

Wednesday: Strength Training, Cardio, Mobility
Foundation Repeat, Phase 1 – Full Body Focus
Speed Training Run
Daily Mobility

Thursday: Cardio, Mobility
Recovery Run
Daily Mobility

Friday: Strength Training, Mobility
Foundation Repeat, Phase 1 – Full Body Focus
Daily Mobility

Saturday: Cardio, Mobility
Weekly Long Run
Daily Mobility

Sunday: Rest, Mobility
Daily Mobility, Long Session

Program tracker follows, but there’s more below that so keep reading, plz?

Road Trip Tracker
Road Trip Mileage	Total Mileage	Percentage Complete
1,284.37	464.6588	36.18%
Miles to Kristiansund	Leg Mileage	Percentage Complete
121.167	67.0584	55.34%
Date	Type	Distance (Miles)
6/30/2025	Strength Day Cycle	3
6/30/2025	Recovery Run	1.93
7/1/2025	Speed Run	2.8
7/2/2025	Recovery Run	1.85
7/4/2025	Speed Run	2.47
7/7/2025	Recovery Run	2.12
7/8/2025	Speed Run	1.5
7/10/2025	Speed Run	2.63
7/14/2025	Recovery Run	2.75
7/16/2025	Speed Run	1.5
7/18/2025	Speed	2.5
7/22/2025	Recovery Run	2.44
7/24/2025	Tempo Run	1.75
7/29/2025	Recovery Run	3.1
8/2/2025	5K Test	3.1

In news that relates to neither fitness nor meal planning, the Slice Riot project continues on in the form of the following four sourdough-based pizzas! I spent about a week working on my starter (that I named Darby) and he got his first shot in pizza recently. It tasted great but it wasn’t as airy and aesthetically pleasing as I was hoping. I have a few things I hope to change on my next batch, but until then, here’s the most recent additions to the menu:

Pie 1: “The Philthy Phil” – Philly Cheesesteak Pizza – Sourdough crust, Alfredo base, steak grilled with Hardcore Carnivore Black seasoning, green bell peppers, onions, portobello mushrooms and provolone.

Pie 2: “The Richard Allen George” – Sourdough crust, Alfredo base, grated sharp cheddar, mozzarella pearls, feta crumbles, shaved parmesan, garden-fresh basil.

Pie 3: “L’Inferno” – Sourdough crust, tomato sauce, mascarpone cheese, speck, Cinque Terre sea salt, garden-fresh basil.

Pie 4: “The Malto Pub” – Sourdough crust, tomato sauce, crispy fried pancetta, sliced portobello mushrooms, bourbon white cheddar, garden-fresh basil.

That’s it. Enjoy the graphic and see you in a couple weeks UNLESS…

• You want to follow me on Instagram
• You want to follow my Substack
• You want to follow me on Bluesky
• You want to follow Slice Riot on Instagram
• You want to buy my book on Amazon
• You want to buy my book on IngramSpark
• You want to buy my book directly from me (hit me up)

54.1122 miles to Kristiansund! 

Alltid Videre!

-JTF