80 - Some thoughts about the exercise....

Feeling tired today for the first time in a while. I wrote about food yesterday, so heres some thoughts on the exercise...

The current sets are getting on the long and boring side. I know I'm getting probably the best results from these at any time in PCP, but I can't help but think that 5 or more sets of something is too many and I'm finding the repetition a bit tedious. After PCP, I will probably use the time to do more exercises and smaller sets with higher resistance (as in earlier PCP).

Niggling aches and pains are starting to accumulate and increasingly just about everything hurts a bit, although I will admit it is partially from pushing it a bit too hard in squash training. Looking forward to having the odd complete rest day here and there....probably this will be Sunday.

I still haven't touched the skipping rope since week three and really quite pleased about it. The joints are holding together nicely and I'm managing to space out my squash matches so that the knees don't swell. After PCP I will try and play roughly every other day. AND I will try and incorporate a strength training session after every match (which was previously unthinkable). Skipping would never have been something I do after PCP, so I'm glad I've managed to do things which I'm interested in doing anyway....although....

The eliptical trainer thing has proven to be a revelation as I used to hate it with a passion and now I quite enjoy watching a bit of sport while churning away on the thing. I viewed it as the ultimate gerbil wheel, but I do miss watching sport on TV and this is my chance to catch up. And I am so amazingly a lot better on thing since day 1 that I never stop surprising myself, so I may even keep using it after PCP. Depends a bit on when I play squash and how often Mimi wants to go to the gym! (?).

Overall my basic fitness and strength has improved substantially, and this (injuries permitting) has made a huge differnce to my performance at squash - this is really great. It's a sport I've been involved in for nigh on 30 years now, so its quite important to me and doing PCP has pushed me back to being in touch with my best.

But lets face it, after three months of PCP, I'm still not exactly skinny, so there is still a load I can do to improve my power to weight ratio. As I said before, given my shabby condition at the beginning of PCP, 3 months was never going to be enough, so after a brief hiatus after PCP I will be back on the case. If I can be playing the best squash of my life while pushing 40, then that would be quite something...