Monday 18 August 2008

Day 4 : The Start of a new Working Week

The feedback has been great so thanks to Nate for pointing out that I could fool my back by doing the push-ups first and to Amy for explaining about DOMS (I have never taken an exercise physiology class so this was all news to me - I just knew that lactic acid had something to do with the stiffness).

The alarm went off as set at 6.15 so I immediately reset it for 6.30 (I'm not an early morning person although this may be something PCP2 will change). I eased my way downstairs (this was before I knew about DOMS) and checked for Patrick's email (you will note clear avoidance behavior creeping in) before opting for Nate's advice.

And he was right! Caught my back completely unawares and, admittedly doing the push-ups from my knees only, managed the first set so easily, I went up to eight. Bad move because that meant that I felt honour bound to do eight in each set. On the third set I realised that I had already done enough push-ups for 4x5 and I really struggled through the fourth set with my back beginning to work out it had been fooled. This left me feeling a bit dizzy (may be back to sets of five tomorrow).

Then onto the skipping. The weather was still cool this morning after yesterday's rain but I had a bit of a reaction to doing the push-ups, feeling a bit shaky and I had a lot of trouble getting a rhythm started. But I managed to get a few good sequences together and decided to finish off just above yesterday's total, today I did 660.

Both the squats and crunches I do only to the extent I am able - that hopefully will be more and more with time. I managed 5x20 squats and 4x15 crunches. The crunches still don't curl too far but after all was done, I lay on the floor feeling wrecked.

All this took time. After a soak in the bath and a bowl of cereal, I headed off for the office far too late. I think I said that I live on the top of a hill and the DOMS aches were certainly felt on the way down the slope. Fortunately, the trains remained delightfully uncrowded with lots of people still on holiday (unless it was because I was so late).

Eating will be easier to control during the week. It was tough prowling round the house yesterday and not continuously nibbling. Today I had the smaller size bowl of cereal (brown rice flakes with some dried cranberries and soy milk); a banana mid-morning, a lunch box from an organic restaurant 30 seconds from the office (quantity bigger than I expected but still much less than I would normally eat); another banana for mid-afternoon (I was hungry by 2.30); and salad in the fridge for this evening.

I solved the blister mystery - I bought the expensive the skipping rope that is supposed to count how many skips I do (it isn't very accurate, I only have to shake it for it to count one so I'm counting in my head anyway). The handle has some battery instructions on it in raised print and it was these that were rubbing a hole in my finger - now healing well.

I gave my office team the blog address so I now have an audience inside the company.

5 comments:

Patrick said...

Great work Tim, getting all of that in before heading into a long day at the office working for the man!

Tim said...

I'm the man, aren't I? lol

Patrick said...

That's right, you are the Man!

Amy said...

Japan has the coolest gadgets - there were no automatic counting jumpropes in sight at Target!

Just think, it's only day 3 (maybe day 4 for you). Already the pushups are getting easier. I just know you are going to feel so much better by the first 90 days! Especially after the DOMS goes away.

Tim said...

Thanks Amy, you're are right about the slopes - going up is more difficult than level and going down is more difficult than going up. As to the push-ups getting easier, I guess I can't disagree with the comparative!!