Day 44: Struggling ever Onward

Hey all,

Weeks ago, when I would finish a PCP workout, I felt refreshed, but these days I feel like I'm enduring a ten mile hike every day. My aching muscles are back, especially in my legs. Although nowhere near as bad as day four, I am back to no longer looking forward to climbing or descending stairs. In short, I feel I'm enduring the exercises, not enjoying them.

I'm trying real hard, but with exercises like the floor jumps and the creep, I end up having to argue with myself to get crouched down to get sets started, which results in too long of a rest. The voice that wants to go home and relax is a bit stronger these days than my 'Com'on let's exercise!' voice. The former voice hasn't won a battle, but it definitely slows me down, and my workouts from start to shower end up being close to two hours.

My jump rope form is off. I rarely have an uninterrupted set of 100 these days. It's a bit disheartening after having set a record of 300 uninterrupted. I'm thinking maybe my aching and stiff left-side trapezius muscle may have something to do with this. I think I'm protecting my left arm too much, not raising it as high as I need to do. I'll have Patrick check my form on Thursday when I hit the studio.

Also, I seem to have less energy during the workouts then before. Maybe I need more sleep? But, I've always had problems going to bed early. I just lie there and end up thinking until midnight and beyond. I'm not one of those guys who can just fall asleep when I hit the pillow. My father was. My brother was. But, my mother and I--no way.

Also, I've been coming up a bit short on the fruit portions of my diet. This may have something to do with my low energy during exercises. It's just, I get so full so quick now, I don't feel like shoving another apple, orange, peach, or whatever down my throat. Of course, it doesn't help that I've never been a big fruit fan to begin with. To be honest,I have yet to find my perfect fruit in life. They're either too sour, or too sweet, the list goes on. Maybe someday. I've never found a fruit I can just munch on happily. There's always a bit of mental effort required to get it down. Although, now that I think about it, bananas and I get on pretty well. But, they are not a part of my PCP diet, so the quest goes on.

What really sucks is I can't seem to use my postive experiences on the PCP to give me enough extra juice. Yesterday, I got a flash flood of the greatest compliments I could have asked for. My junior high school students gushed over how good I looked. They repeatedly said the Japanese words for cool and good-looking while commenting on how uniform my body looked. I also got an ego boost when I told them I do 1500 J-ropes in sets of 100 every day now and other exercises. They couldn't believe it, and I felt great knowing it was all true. And, I thought, as I listened to it all, I was going to use this high for my workout the next day. But, all I eneded up focusing on today was. "Com'on, one more set." "Com'on one more set." over and over again. This mind set of setting small goals to finish the big ones works, but it doesn't do much for the exercise's entertainment value.

But I will endure. I'm sure this is just my body and mind getting used to a tougher regime. Soon, I'll be feeling like a new man all over again. I hope.