The good and the bad....

As planned went for a late(ish) run around the Tan at 7am. Still doing intervals: 7 minute warmup followed by 3 x 7 minute intervals with 1 minute recovery. In the first 14 minutes (warmup and first interval) I manage to make up to the top of Anderson Street. Heart rate hit 181bpm - hmm a bit high. Struggled thru the run, legs were just not coping after the big 'return' to training on Monday night. Bumped into Eat 'Em from Coolrunning as I walked back to the car from the last interval. Nice to put faces to names (or forum handles as the case may be) and get a little encouragement along the way. Into the office for a shower and coffee with the boys at work before heading into the city for my 2 doctor's appointments.

First up was Ben Baressi, the sports doc. He asked how my elbow felt in the days after the shot and I explained about how much my arem ached after the local wore off. This is normal - most of his patients would have called him being in so much pain, but he siad this was a good sighn that the injection was in the right place. So he was quite happy with the progress of my elbow, although he feels I may be back at some time for a 2nd shot - I hope not! Never the less he has given me the all clear to train. Normally he would tell his patients to go back slowly, only do light weights, but he felt this message would be wasted on me... so his advise was to strap it while training, strap up my wrists also and then to ice it for 15 minutes after training.

On to the next appointment. Now I thought I had booked in with Joe, but the receptionist said I had an appointment with Roger??? Funny. I've never seen Roger before, so I just thought Jow was not available. Then I saw Joe come out and he saw me sitting there and it all just seemed at bit weired. He must have thougth something was up too 'cos he was looking at the schedule, I think he was trying to work out who I was seeing and when I was supposed to come back to see him. When Roger called me in, he thought I was there about my elbow, so I explained that I thought I had an appointment with Joe. Just nearby was Joe and one of the receptionists - still checking out the appointment schedule... 'Ahhh - that explains things.... Joe was wondering what was going on....' he said and then jokingly 'he was very upset that you werent here to see him....' All sorted out and he handed me over to Joe.

So, now with Joe.... but I'm in trouble 'cos I havent kept off my toe...(see photo - above right - actually its not looking too bad - not as swollen) Squats are a no-no and what was that I was doing Monday night? Errrr… box squats at 110kg? Running around the Tan?? (As evidenced by the nasty blister rising in the arch of my foot again - see photo on the right) Oh-oh.... Not happy with me. So I got the whole lecture about having to give the treatment a chance so that we can see if its making progress and if its not then we can investigate further with xrays etc but no use doing that if I’m not my bit….. etc etc….

Ok ok ok…. I’ll stop running (for a bit) at least then I can say ‘See, it made no difference!’ I hope. Then I hear this familiar voice…. It’s Shaz! Those cheeky girls at reception conned Shaz into changing her appointment time to coincide with mine – she DOES see Roger for her elbow problem. LOL. So we had a great ole time chatting thru the curtains, poking fun at our therapists…. After our treatments we went and had coffee together and a long chat about our plans for next year and Shaz also told me off for running. Same as Dirk said… If I am going to run then it should be sprinting or sprinting with weights and pulling sleds…. Yeah yeah…. When I conquer the 5k run I’ll switch to sprinting…. That is, when I get the all clear to run from Joe! Spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for trinkets to put under the tree for Leah and Madi. Cant wait for them to open these on Christmas morning!

Phew…. Well, training that night, with the blessing of Ben, first up benching with chains. What a strange feeling, the bar swings a little, feels a little less stable. Worked up to a one-rep max of 60kg plus the chains. Must be another 10 or 15 kg with the chains on. Must remember to ask Dirk tonight when I go in to do my speed training. This will really add the kilo’s to my raw benching. Next week I’m going to try using the bench shirt WITH the chains!! Accessory work was mostly concentrating on triceps, California press, reverse grip pushdown and then inverse dumbell shoulder raise. Had to change one exercise tho’. We had put down reverse bicep curls, but I immediately felt this was going to cause trouble for my elbow so after consulting with Dirk, we changed this to concentration curls. Definitely a much easier session than Monday’s max squat workout!

Quiet day yesterday, Wednesday, just another day. I’ll say no more on that subject….. ‘What the…?’ You all must be thinking. LOL.

Today – should have been a run day… but being good, I stayed in bed. Feel a bit odd having not gone for my scheduled run. Like missing a run is going to completley destroy my plans… right, missed one run…. Now I’m never gonna be able to get back into a rythym of running. I thnk that’s what scare’s me about missing a run, that if I don’t keep to the schedule, I’ll start making excuses and not running because of this or that…. Like it has to be a rigid plan, same as my powerlifting training, or I will lose my ‘mojo’ for it. Is that a symptom of OCD?? Ha ha ha. Anyway, now there is a gap in my POLAR graphs, bugger it! Well, I’m trying to be good.

Ok that’s it for now, will report on my progress later in the week.

Love

Vicki xxx

PS. Louise, thanks for the vote of confidence! Shaz and I have this theory that we are dyslexic anorexics… LOL. We see skinny girls in the mirror and want to be bigger!