It looks like I've been a very good girl

This morning was a scheduled check-up on the ankle and maybe, if I was good, I'd get out of the plaster cast and into an air boot, but definitely no weight bearing still.

So here's the air boot; I must have been good.  Complete with a lovely sock and integrated pump to add air should it be needed and a valve to let air out.

But it doesn't stop there!

I must have been very good indeed.  Once the boot was adjusted to fit and on, and I'd been shown the exercises I need to do and the massaging around the ankle and over the cut, I was told to get off the couch and walk to reception!  OK, with crutches, and it'll take 7-10 days to wean off the crutches and then I'll likely be good get started on rehabilitation exercises.

But still.

I'm on my feet again!

(Yeahhh, the air boot has a much thicker sole than my shoes, so I'm gonna be wonky ;o))

Another learning - again, the hard way

Virgin Active Bank has a new masseuse since I last had one.  This one is -good-.  I had a deep tissue massage today with her and for the first time, I felt utterly beaten up afterwards.  Thing is, I had a training session with Jez booked for 2 hours later.  Biiiig mistake!

Jez started me off on a cycling intervals, 5 minutes sprint, 2 minutes single leg each side then 2 minutes out of the saddle.  I managed the first sprint and the first single leg, then swapped legs and things started to feel odd.  The power went out of my leg and it got a lot harder very quickly.  I banged through the hill climb drill then back into the sprint again and my legs drained of power even faster.  My heart rate wouldn't go up over 158 - usually I'd be banging around the high 170s to low 180s at this point - and it was clear something was not right.  My legs were burning and lacking in any power and I just couldn't get my heart rate any higher, then suddenly I felt like I was going to throw up.  So we stopped.

Turns out that with a proper deep tissue massage, you can end up shunting a whole bunch of crap out of your muscles and into your blood stream and if you try to push it hard with all of that going 'round before it's processed out properly, stuff Doesn't Work.

So there we are.  From now on, no deep tissue massages within 24 hours  before a training session of any kind.  Ideally I'd have it right after a training session on the day before a rest day, but that may not be do-able as I want Mondays to be my rest day.  We'll see.

*ache*

OK, so I may not have burned a zillion calories at PUNCH yesterday, but my arms are telling me about it all in great detail today; forearms and triceps, hello!  DOMS! That, along with the dodgy wrist meant I ditched the Swiss Ball jack-knives today for fear of the wibblyness in my wrist meaning I wouldn't be able to support myself properly. I swapped them for the utterly appropriate oblique crunches, 'cause, yeah, they're totally equivalent (*cough*).

I am really very very tired today, I only got 471kcals out of gyammage (usually get just under 500 for the same time spent) and I'm absolutely knackered.  The tube journey this morning involved falling asleep instantly and waking upvery grumpy when I had to change at Kennington because my lovely Bank train had morphed into a Charing Cross one.  One more weights session this week, one more cardio one on Sunday, a massage tomorrow and I'll dial it down next week.  It's been lots of weeks since I had a gentle week without being ill from those dodgy beans and I think my body would like a bit of a rest now. Plus, it's skiing the week after next and I don't want to be totally shattered for that!

...which reminds me, I must get some goggles!

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - small banana
*gym*
S - 1 scoop in skimmed milk
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes, capers, smoked salmon and lemon juice
S - tangerines and a skinny latte
S - beef jerky
S - a pear
D -  plum tomato and basil sausages with mashed butternut squash and sweet potato

Exercise - 53 minutes gymmage

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1669 2194]
Protein (g)	151.1 (37.1%)
Carbohydrate (g)	166.7 (38.4%)
Fat (g)	44.5 (24.6%)
Fruit &Veg	12.5

Hamstring twang

Damn. So the pain down the back of my left thigh appears to be a hamstring strain. So, in order to make sure I don't do myself any long-term damage -and- I've got a fighting change of training properly soon, I'm laying off running and weight training for a good few days.

Bit of a bugger as it means I get to eat less and it throws out my eating plan for the rest of this week at least. And I've had to reschedule my first PT session with my new trainer for next Friday rather than this Friday. Bah.

I am consoling myself with a skinny caramel macchiato and will aim just to stay within maintenance kcals for the rest of the week rather than any deficit. And this afternoon, I'm booked in for a deep tissue massage to help things on their way to mending. (expect whining about how much that hurts later ;o))

I may have over-done it on Wednesday

I did my new routine in full for the first time on Wednesday and had to guess some of the weights as the markings are different on the machines in my new gym compared with the old one. Two days later and my shoulders are still really quite sore, even to the touch. I did get a sports massage yesterday but it didn't get to the sore bits on the tops and fronts of my shoulders. However, the knots around my shoulder blades are a lot better than last time.

Anyhoo... too sore to swim yesterday and too ill to do anything today (which is good as my shoulders are definitely too sore and weights training would have been a bad idea). My throat is sore and partially closed, making me feel queasy a lot of the time, but eating seems to quell the vileness so I've been eating all blimmin' day. If my throat improves tomorrow, I'll go to the gym, if not, I might go for a gentle swim, but the showers at the local gym aren't all that warm so it's not an enticing prospect.

I think I need to go back to posting my food and nutrition stuff here as it's been slipping and I've been convincing myself that I've been eating non-trivially less than maintenance calories (including exercise calories) and it's simply not the case. I'm hoping being more public about it will make me see that better and maybe get some hints from people on alternative foods to help even out the hunger throughout the day. I've got very used to my breakfast, morning snack, exercise, chocolate milk after exercise, lunch, early afternoon snack, late afternoon carrot and houmous, dinner and sometimes supper. I've got very used to eating pretty much every 3 hours throughout the day and on plain maintenance kcals with no exercise, that's pretty hard to do.

I -have- been losing fat, slowly, but I'm keen to get to my target, dammit! 1.3% to go and no access any more to the fat monitor that I've been being measured with for the last 5 months. I have tried to compare it with the one I bought - a "proper" full body analyser, 4 point bio-impedance jobbie - but I can't tell whether it is simply offset at 1.8% higher than the one at my old gym, or whether it's more complicated than that. I suspect the latter, mostly seeing as bio-electrical impedance is very sensitive to hydration levels and electrode positioning, but what can I do? As long as I'm consistent going forward, that's what matters. So, I will assume a 1.8% offset and work from there.