Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

I'm taking a break from watching my Redskins get beat up on by Dallas to update you all on the past few weeks of my life and preview the next few as well. To start off, I had a fantastic albeit long trip to and from Clemson, but they put on a great show and I got to enjoy some quality time with a close friend so that did a lot to give me an emotional boost. Physical therapy has also been going great for me and I've had some noticeable progress in terms of my strength and movement capabilities. I'm still far from where I want to be, but I'm glad that the exercises have been working. My doctor at Fort Bragg put me in for some more weeks so I will be able to continue to progress under their supervision and guidance. I can't thank the kind folks at Viquest enough. Sadly I can't be in Clemson this upcoming weekend to see them take on the 'Noles, but I'll definitely be cheering them on!

Both Damarius and myself have seen some gaps in our training lately, but my travels to Clemson and then Fall Break are to blame. Let's call it a Fall Training Break. Before the break, he had two good sessions and then a fantastic one. First I had him 4 x 1k @ 4:00 with 2:30 rest, followed with 4 x 400m @ 1:15 with equal rest. The following day, I had him do 12 x short hills, followed by 4 x 200m @ 33 with 60 rest. Of course he went a little fast but those were both quality mixed sessions. That Wednesday before break I had him repeat a previous session; 6 x 300m @ 800m pace off 2:00 rest followed by a 150m fly @ 400m after 3:00 rest. Previously he had averaged 51.5 and ran 19 low. I wanted him to average 50 and hit 18 high. He averaged 48.5 and went 17 high. Very good session.

As for myself, I took a break from the elliptical but I started back Thursday. I didn't go over the weekend but I'll be sure to get in plenty of sessions during the week while I'm on campus. I'm back to doing 30 minutes per session but I think I'll be able to get in several double days over the coming weeks, so that has be excited about improving my fitness slowly, but mainly maintaining and dropping my weight down. In addition to getting in more weekly training hours, being here consistently until Thanksgiving will allow me to do my physical therapy exercises on a regular basis, to improve and speed up my recovery. A lot of the things they have me doing will benefit me even after I'm fixed, as it focuses on strengthening your core, sometimes dynamically. 

My diet should be an easier thing to improve. I've been drinking water like a fish and an striving to cut out junk foods and fast food when at all possible. I picked up some weight loss shakes and shake mix this weekend but I'll be getting a non-soy powder next, as research on soy protein has shown to have some negative side effects. While obviously shakes are usually used for muscle gain, I'm looking for meal replacement and additional ways to get nutrients. It will be difficult cooking more regularly and turning down all the fast food and restaurant requests from my friends, but I need to work on self discipline in this regard. However, cutting out sweet coffee isn't going to happen. I'll just to have work harder on the elliptical to counteract my obsession for Starbucks. I need to work hard or this plan will be hardly working.

I had two midterms last week in my history courses, but I feel like I did pretty decent on them, BECAUSE I didn't study and stress out about them. I actually relaxed over Fall Break and let my mind unwind and just took the tests cold, preventing my mind from being stressed. Hopefully my strategy works out. I have to start planning out what should be my final undergraduate semester here at ECU, as well as start my graduation preparations and start work on applying for graduate school and taking the requisite tests. While I don't want to get started on all that, it will be well worth it when I have my diploma in hand and an headed to my first Masters course.

Well it looks like the Redskins are making a bit of a comeback, hope you enjoyed the read, catch up with you later!