Just don't feel like doing anything

As the title of this post says, just don't really feel like doing anything today. Work is really dragging today and to top it off I need to stay overnight. It wouldnt have been so bad if the Hotel I was booked into had a gym or a pool but it doesn't even have that so I won't be able to workout tonight, which is just adding more to the general feeling of meh! Days like this are rubbish as you can't work up the enthusiasm for what you are doing but you feel really bad about not achieving anything. Not a lot I can do, will do some reps when I get back to the Hotel room just as a statement of 'no matter how crap I feel I will still do something!'

Who says they don't like Mondays?

Interesting day today, managed to oversleep, was only by 20 mins but really woke up feeling refreshed, oddly this was even after being woken up by next doors dogs barking at 5am. Had a couple of meetings today which meant I was zipping about in the car a bit and then a medium drive back home in the afternoon, all was ticking along nicely until my answer machine called me and played a message from a new member of staff who only started with me last week. Unfortunately her father had died that morning and she was just letting me know, it's things like that, that do bring home some of the personal petty worries we fret over sometimes, like "oh I didn't get to do my press ups last week' kind of thing.

When I got back I decided to stretch out with a good blast on the treadmill so made sure I got a protein drink down me and jumped on, today was a blast. I felt really good and decided from the get go to push myself again so set the treadmill to 8 miles an hour from the start, after about 7 mins I had a good rythm, the breathing was good so I decided to kick it up to 8.8 miles an hour, I kept this pace up and came out from the 1.5 miles with a time just under 11 mins, 10mins 58 secs to be exact. That is a real result and is giving me a massive buzz, something that traditionally I have been very poor at is something that dare I say it, I might actually be enjoying!

On another matter I totally cocked up today, I went to Holland and Barrets meaning to get some Carnitine and ended up getting some Creatine, one I wanted to help with lean muscle and weight loss, the other is for strength building but does retain water so isnt so good for taking the weight off, doh!

A day to remember

This weekend has been a nice relaxing time which is great as the old batteries were getting a bit run down, didn't do too much yesterday, got up late and then managed to arrange a short notice bike ride, typically my mate turned up we jumped on and I noticed a flat on my back tire. Rather than give up I picked the bike up and ran into Wotton to get the tube changed, 10 mins later we were on the road for a good 15 miler. My friend Dave has also just embarked on a fitness campaign and he has just started getting into a gym and swimming regime so I will probably need to up my game in a month or two as his results should be pretty good with an organised regime of cross training. I have been finding the 15 miler easier of late but yesterday was so cold that my muscles really didnt get a good opportunity to warm up, and that was with pushing Dave to some 1/2 km sprints, but he said he enjoyed getting pushed and we completed it in 1hr 15mins which was 25 mins better than the last time I went out with him on that route.

Today I am off with Eleanor (my eldest daughter) to the remembrance service so time to polish the medals and remember thos epeople who make the ultimate sacrifice to allow us to enjoy the way of life we currently have. To continue the theme of relaxation I am going to run through my patterns this afternoon with Ele and ensure that I am comfortable with them.

Feeling odd continued

After posting on Wednesday I got to thinking why I might be feeling out of sorts. With the increase in exercise over the last few weeks and the focus on strength and stamina my body is most likely complaining by bringing on some aches and pains. Having never really thought too much about what is needed to support a really aggressive fitness regime I have started to think more about bringing sports nutrition into my daily routine. I asked Rich (my instructor) for some advice and he directed me as a minimum to go for a protien drink, he also suggested I take a look at the Maximuscle website http://www.maximuscle.com/ which had some really good training and food plans. So today I am going to take the plunge and get a good protein drink and start taking it 3 times a day to support my training, hopefully I will see the benefits over the coming weeks.

Training last night was really good as it is always a balst to have a session on leg strength and jumping kicks, one of the key things I picked up last night when it comes to any sort of turning or reverse kicks is the concept of target acquisition. The idea is that if you keep your focus on the target and as you turn, get the target back into focus as quickly as possible it enables you to get strikes in much more effectively and also can reduce the disorientation or dizzyness you might expect.

This week has been pretty good so far, was disappointed in not being able to get to training Monday night but the positives are still my cardio training and hopefully the introduction of some sports nutrition will help to to continue and build up on these activities and support my goal of increasing my strength and stamina.

KAIZEN!!

Feeling odd

Think I might be coming down with something as I was feeling very run down last night, decided to get a good nights sleep but have woken up this morning still feeling funny. Had a good chat with Rich and Shirley last night, was really good just to look back on the last month and think about the successes and the challenges faced. Having to make sure that I don't let things slip as I have just over 4 months left, which on the one hand is over 16 weeks but will be arriving before I know it.

Due to how I am feeling I will decide wether or not to do some exercise this afternoon, just need to make sure I don't overextend myself.

Too good to last

As I suspected the past few weeks have been good as I have been able to get to all the sessions in the week and get some good training in but today was a pain as a meeting originally scheduled until 5.30pm went on until much later. I was so annoyed that by the time I got home I had decided to not let it be a negative and got straight on the running machine to at least salvage something from tonight. The problem was I hadn't had the opportunity for a decent lunch so my energy levels were really low, still managed a sub 12 min mile and a half so that is my positive for the day. Will look at maximising training opportunity tomorrow night instead.

Some thoughts so far...

I was hoping when I started this blog to get some interesting comments and interaction from other students in the school but perhaps that was rather niave. I think people believe that doing training is more of a personal thing and that we all just get on with it. I would like to state that I personally believe that training in any endeavor worthwhile of your time and efforts usually involves a strong element of teamwork. This belief is borne out by many things in my life but especially mith my 10 years in the military, it is only through personal effort that challenges are started but most likely it is down to the encouragement and support of others that they are completed successfully. Even the solo yachtsman or woman has a support team that helps them through the rough times, the times when they just want to jack it all in and go home, that is what I believe is going to help me through my journey to black belt. I have many challenges in my life every day, busy job, hectic family life and to make sure I keep the motivation high for my training I need the support of others, I try to support and help others in the school and this blog was designed to show the personal thoughts, the successes, failures highs and lows of 5-6 months of quite intense training to achieve something worthwhile. As you can probably tell the frustration is coming out in this post.