- How much less I've got, and
- How quickly it goes
Yesterday was my first day back to the Planet Fitness gym after the week off for Thanksgiving, and I was seriously sucking wind. In times past, I would return from an occasional week off reinvigorated and have a really good work-out. Yesterday I couldn't finish my usual warm-up. OK, it was a warm-up 5K on 8.2mph, but still, it's only been a week.
It could be that this break involved a steady diet of Stew Leonard's cheese bagels and ice cream sandwiches with an all-out Thanksgiving gorging, coupled with mostly a lot of lying around on the couch. Hopefully yesterday I was just working the last of the tryptophan out of my system.
It does concern me that a more rapid loss of gains could be part of a larger downward trend. I'm definitely sure I can't lift as much as I used to. The hard thing is that the memory lasts longer than the body. Years ago I met my thesis adviser at school's gym one morning just getting back into it (guy was probably only a few years older than I am now), and he lamented to me that "you can remember what you used to be able to do", but if you start with that weight again, you're straining out the second rep.
Heading back today of course for some cardio - consistency is the key - my muscles weren't too sore this morning so I think it's mostly my stamina that went. December is a weird month and I'm already looking at the calendar for when I'll have to miss - it looks like I'll be back home for the last third of the month in the same routine as last week. It's sad to think at best now at the gym I'm only lessening what the December holidays are going to do to my body. Playing for keeps starts in January.
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