Okay...that REALLY hurts.

Saturday, January 5, 2013
I wasn’t feeling particularly frisky as I began my Survival Workout in the horse trailer parking lot in the North Chagrin Reservation, but as my push-up count reached 90, I thought I had a chance.  I struggled mightily for the next four reps and had to settle for my second highest total ever.  Pleased, I sat on the icy surface of the gravel parking lot and did my bicycle crunches for the next sixty seconds before moving to my dip station.  I felt the twinge in the left rib cage after about 20 dips and then a sharp, piercing pain at 28, which took my breath away and told me to stop…now.

Something was wrong and it’s hard to figure why.  I’ve been doing the same dip exercises for over two years and to suddenly have it causing such pain is puzzling.  Never the less, it is.  I moved on to doing some uphill karaoke and high knees until I reached my log lifting station.  I could feel the pain in my rib, but grabbed the log and heaved it overhead anyways.  Mistake.  I quickly returned it to the ground and moved on again.  I wanted to reach the cabins and see if I’d be able to do push-ups now.  Once there, I began…and completed…another 81without pain.  I went to my rock, frozen to the ground and covered in snow, broke it loose and heaved it overhead…again without pain.

After completing another abdominal exercise, I moved to a picnic table to attempt some dips and after doing only three, knew it wasn’t a good idea.  I completed the workout, but didn’t try to do anymore dips, substituting instead more sprints through the snow.  I managed to hit big numbers in each of my remaining push-up sets and achieved a new 4-set pr of 310…a whopping 25 more than I’d ever done before.

Obviously, I don’t know what the problem is and clearly it doesn’t affect some of the lifts I perform.  I’ll give it a couple of days and hopefully I’ll be back in full swing.  If not, I think I’ll need to visit the doc again.  I’m already limited by the tennis elbow and this would be a major setback into what I can do in the Survival Workout.  I don’t like succumbing to these nagging injuries dictating what I can and can’t do.  I returned home and took out my frustration on the trainer for 60 minutes.

Holly and I went to a holiday party hosted by one of her clients that evening.  It was at Pickle Bills in Grand River and offered and extensive, fatty menu.  I chose the Lake Perch, breaded and with tartar sauce but passed on the potato, dessert and everything else with nasty calories.  I’d had a smoothie before leaving the house, which helped my ability to say ‘no’ when it mattered most.

Survival Workout:  60 minutes.  Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm for  SW and 120 bpm on the bike.
Calories burned during workout:  600 for SW and 850 on the bike.