Weight: 10st 6lbs
Blood Pressure: 132/71
Resting Heart Rate: 59
I haven't lost any weight at all so far this year! I'm still the same weight that I was on New Year's Eve! I'm sure that all this exercise must be having an effect somehow...but obviously not on my belly! I'll give it another couple of weeks and then I may have to tweak the training plan if I don't see any progress.
Today I cycled my poorly bike in to work and then, at the end of the working day, I dropped it off at Scott's Cycles. Unfortunately, as well as the ruined bottom bracket, Pete the mechanic also found that my headset bearings were shot, so he has to change those too. Lucy took me home in the Multipla.
I cooked a healthy meal for the family and drank tea.
I'm still aching after all the karate, cycling and weight training at the weekend. I decided that a rest day was in order.
Rest day, no junkfood, no alcohol.
Tuesday
Weight: 10st 5lbs
Blood Pressure: 155/72
Resting Heart Rate: 61
I cycled in to work and back on the horribly heavy £100 mountain bike. It was raining all the way home and I got soaked. Happily, when I got home, I received a call from Pete to tell me that the Specialized was ready!
Today's session was a mix of kihon, kata and kumite. Sensei Gary and Sensei Mark kept the pace high and, although it was too cold in the dojo to get a sweat on, I felt that I'd had a decent workout.
I went home to eat healthily and drink tea.
Karate, no junkfood, no alcohol.
Wednesday
Weight: 10st 4lbs
Blood Pressure: 155/70
Resting Heart Rate: 60
I drove into work and then, after lessons, went to collect the Specialized from Scott's Cycles. It now has a new bottom bracket and new headset and the bike feels steady as a rock.
After making dinner for everyone I did a late night weight lifting session before meeting Martha from work at 11pm.
Weight training, no junkfood, no alcohol.
Thursday
Weight: 10st 4lbs
Blood Pressure: 161/67
Resting Heart Rate: 53
Convinced it was too icy on the roads to ride, I drove into work today.
Tonight, I went on my weekly run. It was cold, but not too cold. I managed to run for 29 minutes and 5 seconds without stopping. I was slow and only covered 2.8 miles. More than last week, however! The ankle felt a little week but not painful. The back held.
I hate running.
In the evening, I relaxed in front of the TV with the family and sipped a coffee.
Running, no junkfood, no alcohol.
Friday
Weight:10st 3lbs
Blood Pressure: 148/68
Resting Heart Rate: 42 in bed, 57 after breakfast
I remembered to measure my resting heart rate in bed! It was 42. According to charts I found on the internet that means I'm a "highly trained athlete." Erm...
I cycled in to work and back on the monstrously heavy mountain bike. I was hot and sweaty when I got home.
At tonight's karate session, Sensei Ronnie and Sensei Russell drilled us in some ippon sparring and then kata. I got the chance to do Basai Dai which Sensei Ronnie seemed reasonably pleased with. He said it was "quite close."
Back at home, I enjoyed the first beer of the week, followed by another, followed by a third! Hydro and Mouse provided the entertainment by dancing to Backstreet Boys and Tenacious D while I giggled into my ale.
Karate, no junkfood, 3 bottles of ale
Saturday
Weight:10st 5lbs
Blood Pressure: 153/70
Resting Heart Rate: 53 in bed, 57 after breakfast
I woke up with a banging head after a terrible night's sleep. I guess I'm not used to drinking much anymore and those three beers affected my sleep badly. My raised heart rate upon waking indicates how unsettled I was.
I eventually got up at about 7:30 and made breakfast for Lucy and myself.
I then shuffled around Morrison's with Lucy for the week's big shop. My head was killing me. Back at home, another cup of tea with some homemade cake went someway to making me feel better. By the time I'd had a shower and got in the car to go to the dojo I was feeling fine.
This afternoon, Sensei Gary asked Martha and me to teach! Martha was given free rein to do whatever she wanted with the lower grades. She was awesomely confident and managed to keep them entertained and training hard for the whole hour. I was seriously impressed. Meanwhile, I was working under the supervision of Sensei Gary and getting it completely wrong. I was asked to take the rest of the class through Heian Shodan and found myself going through Kihon Kata instead! I was so embarrassed. It's not easy being in front of people who are paying for a service and then find themselves being taught the wrong stuff! I tried to redeem myself when taking the class through another two kata but the damage had been done to my confidence. I was trying to remember moves in advance while correcting students and demonstrating what they should be doing. I was rather more nervous than I've been in a long while!
It brought back memories of early on in my teaching career 16 years ago when I was stumbling over my words at the front of the class, with my knees trembling so badly that I had to sit on the edge of a desk to steady myself!
I now have even more respect for the Ruach instructors (and those from other clubs I've trained with) who stand at the front of a class several times a week and make it look easy.
Once I was home I realised that I'd strained my right shoulder. I don't remember hurting myself in this afternoon's lesson. However, the pain got worse until an hour later when it became difficult to raise my head! The only comfortable position is when my right arm is hanging straight down with my head bowed looking at the floor. Hardly dignified.
Later, even a few beers and Lucy's homemade curry didn't make me feel better.
I went to bed early to try to get comfortable.
Karate, junkfood, 3 beers
Sunday
Weight:
Blood Pressure:
Resting Heart Rate:
I had a terrible night's sleep. The pain in my neck/shoulder kept waking me up. There was just no way I could get comfortable while lying down. I rolled out of bed at 7, covered my shoulder in Deep Heat, swallowed some painkillers and then climbed up on the bike.
Jonnie, Roger and I set off at 9am aiming to cover 36 miles at 13.3mph as part of our Mad March Hare training. Trouble was, the lanes were very wet and there was a howling crosswind! I struggled with the descending even more than usual. The wet lanes and the buffeting winds made me extra cautious and I only felt comfortable when climbing. By the time we got to Snitterfield, the average was a disappointing 13.6mph. I managed to lead along the Armouries until Jonnie took over on Featherbed Lane. We crawled along Aston Cantlow Road, utterly spent, at 10mph!
We were extremely glad to reach the cakestop. While we recovered, I checked the weather report: According to the BBC, we were battling against 40mph winds!
 |
| A bit windy, then? |
We started off into a stiff wind and just had to keep going. Jonnie and I were glad to get behind Roger for a lot of the route back! At one point, we were caught in a hailstorm but had to keep going even though it was stinging our faces. Unfortunately, we didn't achieve our 13.3mph target but rolled into Jonnie's drive with a 13.0mph average. Although disappointed, we were still pleased with our efforts and the fact that we got up and out of the house when most cyclists would have been put off by the conditions.
I went home to clean the bike, eat leftover curry and drink beer. (The shoulder did actually feel a lot better after the bike ride and I considered going to the dojo this afternoon. However, I decided I'd better rest it, just to make sure.)
So, another week when I managed to stick to my training plan. As I stated at the start of this post - if I don't see an improvement soon I'll have to adjust the plan and make it a little stricter...
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