Wonky Weights

Hey peeps

It’s Friday! Hooray! I am sat here enjoying a cup of tea (“real” tea too, eg loose leaf black tea from The Quilliam Brothers) and some Lord Poppington’s Popcorn, and warming up after a 3 mile post work run.

My sweatshop run on Wednesday was ace! We did “the hill” route (it is really flat around here, and the hill is not even half a mile long, but it is fairly steep) and each time we reached a roundabout the front runners had to run back to the back runners, which worked really well as we didn’t get too spread out. They added a loop on at the end, so we did over 4 miles (it is meant to be a 5k-ish) which I did in about 38 mins 🙂 With the run there and back it was nearly 6 miles in all- a good midweek run.

I mentioned in my last post that my shoulder has been sore this week. I have no idea why, and I can’t quite remember when it started, but it was some time last week. Anyway, I could not decide about pump, as I didn’t want to make it worse. In the end I went, but made a deal with myself that I would use lighter weights for all the tracks. I know that otherwise I would be tempted once I was there to load up, but things like holding the bar on my shoulders for the squats could have been quite sore.

I was quite conscious of my shoulder, but it was fine during the warm up, squats and chest track. During the triceps I used a lower dumbbell for my right arm (as it is my right shoulder), and I lowered the weights quite a lot for the back track as we have to do the lift (the clean and press?) where we push the bar above our heads, and it is when I lift my arm right up that it is more sore.

Anyway, it was going fine. I did think I would be fine to do my usual biceps weight, but my shoulder was feeling it a bit, so I had my usual one for my left arm, and a lighter one for my right. I felt like I stood out as they are different colours, but the great thing about pump is that everyone just focuses on their own form etc, and no-one is bothered by what anyone else is doing. The wonkiest one was the shoulders track, as by that point I was struggling with even a lighter dumbbell, so I finished the track with my right hand empty (but doing the moves as I think movement helps, plus I find it hard to do one thing on only one side of my body). The abs track was tough too, as we have to go on to one side (I have no idea what it is called, maybe a side plank?) so I only managed it properly on my good side. I still enjoyed the class, and the lunges were still tough, and I felt I got a workout, but it was not as challenging as usual, and I wasn’t really that sweaty compared to normal. I do like the fact that we all do the same moves, but can vary the challenge by using different weights, and I think doing that was better than just sitting around at home.

Today my shoulder has been much better, so hopefully whatever it was will be fine by next week.

This weekend I am looking forward to doing a lot of relaxing. I have a long run planned- I thought I was going to do 6 miles, but when I looked on marathon talk I have pledged 8 miles, and I feel pretty good (plus no rain forecast) so I think I’ll go for that. I have some work to do, but I am also going to do some baking- hooray! Oh, and car insurance shopping- the joy!

Have a lovely weekend – any plans?