Cramming has begun

On Saturday we started the last 2 weeks of the diet plan, meaning I could eat some dairy again, and have a glass of wine with dinner. I don't miss my potatoes, pasta, rice or bread, but it's often damn hard to snack without the carbs. Stupid convenience. We did some measurements and I'm still losing my tummy, which is good news, and my weight has remained under 100KG, which is also good news. My head cold is pretty much gone, and fitness levels are way up.

Sunday was supposed to be a hill walk/jog up Rapaki to compare to our times 18 weeks ago, but just as we were about to head out we got a phone call saying it was hailing and minutes later we received a downpour as well. So, we postponed. Instead, I asked Tracey to give me an upper/middle body workout. Her eyes lit up, she rubbed her hands together and made a weird cackling noise and slunk away to the exercise equipment. Moments later I was give a short circuit to do. Just 3 laps, 60 seconds on, 15 seconds off. I only have a hazy memory of the order of the activities, I was pretty busy sweating and swearing at the time. 15 seconds to collapse, recover and relocate is nowhere near enough time!

I started with mountain climbers, an exercise that is easy for 30 seconds, and not so easy from that moment on. Being that it's a prone hold with actions, I suck at it, but managed it for the full 60. From there we moved on to some kind of squatting, dumbbell swinging thing which wasn't too bad and allowed a bit of recovery time. Then a new one, push-up T's where you have a dumbbell in each hand, using them to do a push-up, and once up you lift one arm up into the air as far as you can, then back down again, alternating arms each time. This was tough. Then we have barbell raises/rows using a bar with a ton of weight on it. Again, 30 seconds is fairly easy, 60 is unbearable. Back down and doing more push ups, but this time raising the dumbbells to your chest after each one, left then right. My core was screaming at this point. Almost impossible... Explosive squats with dumbbells, ahhh, only mildly painful, almost peaceful. Then it was pull-downs, an exercise I find relaxing, until 45 seconds have rolled by, then I find it painful. Then the last exercise of the circuit, inclined push ups. With feet on the bench, hands on the ground, do push ups. Stupidest exercise ever. Despite it being actually impossible, I managed to do several, about 15, before I expired. 

Then I had to do it all again.

And again.

3 laps was deadly. My arms and guts knew I'd been working them hard, very hard, and were advising me they wanted to rest now. During the session I hated it, but afterwards I couldn't help thinking that it had been over pretty quickly (under 30 minutes)

Would I do it again? Yup. Tonight in fact. When I get home I'll be back on the floor sweating and swearing. I think a week of hard-out sessions like this, then a week of more gentle sessions should have me well prepared for the final weigh & measure. Hopefully I'll retain the use of my arms, time will tell!