With three weeks left, I know the pressure is on to get the best results I can, and hopefully not look like a bit of a mug, in the inevitable mug shot.
Which is why the week started promisingly, football on the Monday followed by a decent diet with workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday. I also did some interval training on Wednesday too, to keep the fitness up.
I also knew that ahead of a very well organised and planned ‘lads’ golfing weekend – with night out involved – I would need to work and prepare as best possible.
Which is why I was dealt a big blow Thursday morning.
I woke up and couldn’t move my neck left. I think it’s something everyone gets at some point. It’s that horrible pain in your neck when you either tilt or turn your head to one side, which shoots down to your shoulder. Thursday was my rest day luckily anyway, and I was praying for some respite on Friday.
It didn’t come. I tried my utmost to do a crunch, but lifting my head proved nigh on impossible.
Along came Saturday morning, I rubbed a muscle relaxant into my neck and managed to squeeze out a few crunches while holding my head, but it was a weak attempt at a workout.
Somehow I managed to get round the 18 holes, I think this is partly due to the head staying still during the swing. It only hurt at the highest point of my backswing and when people called out my name, forcing me to turn sharply.
It also meant I was out of action again on Sunday. As it goes, it was probably one of the worse injuries one can have when doing exercises like this. The worst part was that I didn’t even know how I did it, whether it was in my sleep or a strain caused through the exercises, it will remain a mystery.
Much like my neck, my diet followed a similar path, the weekend didn’t hold back, but I tried to avoid eating fatty foods as much as possible. After the round of golf I ate ham, egg and chips, these were the first potato chips I had eaten in eight weeks. I convinced myself I had burnt enough over 18 holes carrying a full bag of clubs to make room for these.
As for exercises, see right.
Three sets of 20 in-out crunches is tough work, but nowhere near as tough as 60 seconds of plank jacks. Doing your planks as normal, you now need to jump your legs out wide, then jump them back in, just like jumping jacks. When it gets to the 50 second mark things are really hurting, and when you tell yourself to do one more jump, you then realise how much you actually use your stomach muscles, causing agonising pain before collapsing.
They’re fun really…
As I enter the final two-week mark there will be only one home improvements left, combining this week and next week’s in one big finale, dubbed ‘Home improvements – the results’.
I’ll leave little room for reflection that’ll be next week.
