December 23rd

I ached today, but not too badly so I suppose that’s something.

Diet

Breakfast: 1 apple and a glass of milk

Lunch: Bacon and butterbean stew I made

Snack: 2 apples

Dinner: Bacon and butterbean stew again, 2 glasses milk

So still on the ‘low fat, high protein’ kick, and certainly eating a lot less than I’m used to. However, I was hungry late afternoon, so I might need to eat more. I’ve completely cut out things like biscuits and sweets, and I miss those a little.

Exercise

I went to the driving range with a friend after work, so the workout started slightly later than normal.

Warmup: 1 Km low speed rowing, followed by stretches. This was notably absent from my routine yesterday and I’m maybe suffering for it now. An injury would really screw up what is a very tight timetable, so I need to make sure I warm up and cool down properly in future.

Pressups: 20 x 2 (small improvement, probably because I did them before my main row)

No situps today, I decided to do some planks instead. 40 seconds front, 40 seconds left side, 40 seonds right side x 2 repeats. I read somewhere that these things are better than situps for strengthening core muscles. Then I did some Russian twists with a 3 Kg medicine ball. I couldn’t do many.

Also did some work with 1 Kg hand weights. With a weight in each hand, stand with your arms up in a basic boxing guard. Slowly extend each hard in turn so that your elbow is almost straight, then pull slowly back to starting position and extend the other arm. Hard work on the shoulders. 3 intervals of 1 minute. Could have done more I think.

Rowing: 2min/1min x 10 intervals, same as yesterday. 4.2 Km total

I was planning to swim but because I didn't finish my workout until 8.45 I was too exhausted. Felt a little dizzy until I had something to eat.

Overall I’m happy with my progress so far, such as it is. At least I’ve started. Hopefully by the time the proper training starts my body won’t be too shocked that its being asked to do something more active than type e-mails.

108 days to go…