Highland Games Training Week 7 of 15 Done 2

Highland Games Training Week 7 of 15 Done

A mid-workout shot taken with the phone using a timer.  This is a reminder to me - this guy doesn't look like he used to, and that motivates me a lot.  I also look exceedingly silly in this photo.
A mid-workout shot taken with the phone using a timer. This is a reminder to me – this guy doesn’t look like he used to, and that motivates me a lot. I also look exceedingly silly in this photo.

Well, I’m now at the half-way point for my Wichita Highland Games training.  Lemmie say this – I’m still not ready for it.  Hopefully, after the next 7 weeks, I’ll feel I’m ready for it, but I have my doubts 🙂

Workouts sucked this week.  Tonight, for instance, on pull downs, I grabbed the bar and started to finish the set (50-40-30-20-10-20-30-40-50), and felt a stabbing sensation in my right shoulder (the one I injured weeks back, which hasn’t really healed).  OK, time to be done for the night – there’s never a reason to push myself to injury (I keep saying this, because I have to remind myself.)  Two days before, I aborted my workout way early – something wasn’t “right”.  I’m not sure what it was, but something was way off feeling – it may have been staying up until 4:30 AM (because of a drunk in the neighborhood causing the dogs to go off from time to time) and sleeping in really late, or something else.  It’s hard to tell.  But, if it feels seriously off, it’s time to stop – that’s another time when injuries can happen.

I can’t say it’s been super-easy to stay motivated, but at the same time it hasn’t really been that hard, either.  I decided to do something ultra-random, and have the camera snag a shot of me mid-workout.  I have two mirrors setup to help me keep form (another injury cause during workouts is bad form – I’m bad about hurting my back, so I literally watch my form during workouts.)  I took a shot, because seeing myself working out has become it’s own form of motivation.

That guy in the picture there?  That’s not who he used to be.  I’m bigger and stronger than I used to be.  I’m still fat around the center – and even if I lost weight down to the 7% body fat range, I’d probably look overweight.  I’m just no longer built for a flat stomach, I think (however, I’m gonna give it a shot after the Highland Games.  We’ll see what happens 😉 ) And, while I’m sure most people don’t see it, I do.  And it makes it a lot easier for me to stay motivated, seeing those changes.  Looking at the other pictures, there’s changes in there, too – some of them “little things” like the veins popping out in my arms, or the flattening of my pecks when flexed up.  Again, most people wouldn’t see it – heck, probably not even with side-by-side pictures, unless they’re really looking for them.  But, for me, it’s all there.  And it’s fun.

I was going to change things up a bit for week 7, and it never happened.  I think I’m going to try and make it happen for week 8.  Plus, time to see about breaking the workouts into slightly different schedules, because a full workout is getting ridiculously long.

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