Regular readers of the blog and journal will have noticed a lack of posting activity in the past week. It all started with a decision to NOT train, due to aches, pains and general unwellness.
At the time, I thought it would be a simple case of taking a day off, recovering and getting back into things on the Friday. Turns out I was wrong!
a reminder that I’m not invincible
I’m really pleased that I got through half a year before being taken offline by illness of any kind. Compared to last year, it shows considerable improvements in my overall health. I’d also been pretty cocky about the fact I’d managed a lads’ night out, drank plenty of beer, got to bed in the early hours of the morning and showed no real signs of suffering…
Looks like there WAS a price to pay after all; the immune system was clearly compromised sufficiently, at just the wrong time of year (winter) and with a 3 year old son whose nose hasn’t stopped running for a few weeks now…
So, yeah, turns out I’m not invincible after all lol.
great time for some downtime
In the tradition of turning negatives into positives, I think this week has been useful. I’d just reached the 20kg weight-loss milestone (leaving just under 23kg to hit the goal of getting under 100kg) and the bio testing had come back with a great result (39, compared to my real age of 43).
Things had also hit a bit of a rut, I think; I’d started getting a bit “sloppy” in terms of what I was eating, was giving myself too much slack and had probably lost a lot of the energy and focus that had helped drive things so far.
The reality is, the success to date was starting to make me a little complacent – and I was forgetting that there was at least as much work left to do, as had been done already.
half time break?
I think there was also an element of simply needing a short break – it’s been a busy year, a lot of effort has gone into this and a lot has been achieved.
With the weight loss getting close to the halfway mark, it is quite reasonable to think that the mind and body would like a quick rest, a chance to regroup, and then begin the assault on the next phase.
Of course I could just as easily be talking nonsense, but either way I now feel much better placed to take things forward…
the second half
I still have a niggling tickly throat, blocked up nose and the occasional ache and twinge, so the regime and journal will resume on Monday. That gives me a few days to get back to being 100%, but more importantly it gives me a specific starting point for the next phase.
I’m pretty sure that there could be signs of neglect already, so I fully expect a weight gain, a drop in rowing times etc. I’ll need to peg the weights back to where they were a couple of weeks ago (I had recently pushed them up across the board).
So the strategy is:
- Recommence training on Monday 9th July
- Drop weights back a little and work back up to current levels
- Get back into the rowing groove and get back up to speed as quickly as possible
- Sharpen up my focus in terms of food and water intake
- Start recording my weight in the journal (as recorded at the gym, wearing shoes)
- Rediscover the enthusiasm, energy and momentum that existed until recently…
I’m pretty sure Britt will want to make some training plan changes in the near future, but this is my own “get back into” strategy for the immediate future.
Oh and in the past, I reckon this cold would have resulted in me not going to the gym for several months, paying for membership, and then finally cancelling. So some things have definitely changed!