In the early weeks of this 20 week challenge I was being hit left, right and centre by new ideas, new food options, new schedules and new ways to do what I have already been doing. We're well past half way now, on the ragged downward slope to the finish line, and it seems that routine has started to set in. This is both a good and bad thing.
It's been over a week since I last updated, and I have done 5 more sessions in the park since then. Some have been pretty hard, involving repetition of an exercise to enable pain in targeting of a single area of your body, to running about and exercising to Hairy McLeary, to resistance exercises that have made my butt muscles ache, not to mention buckets of toys and trading exercises. So far there has not been a single session repeated, Tracey is doing damn well there, and none of the participants have been trying to find excuses to skip the sessions (so far).
I'm still enjoying these short bursts of activity, and while I don't notice it all the time, there have been a few occasions where I have seen some muscle popping out to say hi, or looking a little more defined than when I saw it last. While I don't feel stronger yet, I know I am. I can do chin-ups now! I can do way more pushups in a minute than I have ever been able to do.
My cardio is still pretty bad and needs a lot more work. I find that I tend to slacken off once I start puffing and blowing. I need more mental training in this area, as I know my body will work harder than my mind is saying it will. For example, when riding up a hill, as I start to blow, my mind starts trying to convince me that I should slow, or stop, and soon! Sometimes I can get around this by asking questions of myself - "am I gasping for breath?" or "are my legs screaming with white-hot pain?" - if neither of these (usual causes) is a definite 'yes' then it's my brain not my body that wants to stop, and far too often it demands a reassessment and rest over and over again.
Tonight, I go for a jog. Yes, it's gonna hurt my shins, and when the pain is bad I will stop, but it's going to be a little different as I will be jogging with a companion. Tonight Logan and I go for a run to size each other up. He might be too fast, or get his second wind before I do, or want to do a lot more distance than I can, but either way, we'll both be jogging in the dark tonight. This is part of the training for the Twizel Hard Labour weekend in 5 months time. By then I'll have to be able to run 19km, in the hills, and follow it up with a 90km road ride, and follow that up with a 44km mountain bike ride. Gawd I hope I can learn to run.
So, what about the bad thing about being in a routine? Exercise wise it's fine. More fitness for not much extra time commitment, however my diet is shabby again. I blame Tracey (as you would) but my incidental junk-food consumption has built up to pre-20-weeks levels. Cupcakes, banana bread (with choc chips) and Belgium slice have all featured in my daily food diary over the past few weeks, more than once. My weight is still over 100kg and my tummy is still there, and diet is the only real fix for that. Alcohol consumption is way down, carb consumption is down below previous levels (despite the cakes) but both of these are still too high. I might have to do a very restrictive diet for a few weeks to knock a few kilos off and trim the gut, avoid all of my favourite ingestibles and see if there's improvement. If there's none, then it's back to cakes and pies as diet is obviously not the cause of my wobbly tummy :)
If you have 20 minutes, why not join me in the park one lunchtime?
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