DOMS and magical numbers

Tracey has always been annoyed that she can put me through my paces and exhaust me physically (and often mentally too) and yet the next day I am fine. No sore muscles, not aches, no pains. Her other victims clients all seem to be in some lesser of greater stage of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness but I have been getting away scot free. Well, not this week. I'm not sure which exercises did it, but after the Tuesday session I was a bit sore in the calves, and after Wednesdays session it got worse. Yesterday and today they have been seizing  up whenever I'm idle, like sleeping, or sitting at my desk, and causes much hilarity when I stand up again, like going for a coffee. So it was with a small amount of happiness when I saw Tracey in the park at lunchtime and she informed the ragged group (5 of us today) that she had a treat for us, and my sore legs wouldn't be tortured.

So, a quick warmup jog, then 12 pushups, then 12 squats, then 12 pushups, then 12 lunges, then 12 pushups... Hmmm... spotting a trend here. Sure enough, over the next 20 minutes we squatted, lunged, jumped and jogged, and between each of them, dropped and did 12 pushups. At the end of the 20 minutes I was shattered. My shoulders were screaming, I could barley hold my weight in the pushup position any longer, but we had made a pretty big achievement - 120 pushups! Crikey. That's a lot. So, I'm thinking tomorrow morning I'll be suffering DOMS in my legs and arms. Cheers for that.

A semi-midway goal update. In the first week I did the fitness test and managed to do 7 pushups in a minute (7! pah!) and on Tuesday I managed to do 23 in a minute. That's a pretty good improvement. I wonder how many I'll be able to do at the end of the 20 weeks? While my tummy isn't shrinking, my strength does seem to be improving. I don't really notice it though because I always work to 90% of my max anyhow, and I've never done the same workout twice so have no comparison between then and now. But that's a good improvement in my pushups, so something is defiantly going right. Roll on the next 10 weeks!