Getting Back Into It

I have been going to the gym regularly now since the marathon finished. I'm still pushing the same weights, but this time I will approach weight training a lot more smarter now.

One thing I noticed from my long absence was my form on some of the exercises was still very poor, such as the lateral raises and the bicep curls. On the lateral raises my shoulder and trapezius muscles would seize up after around 4 repetitions. One of the supervisors suggested that I lock my shoulder blades together, and I noticed that it made lifting the weight easier without my trapezius locking up as quickly. I will have to try this later on!

Also instead of doing just circuit exercises, I will make a point to do some supplementary exercises to work out those favourite body parts. Legs, shoulders, chest, arms, everything really!

I also met Al today, who I haven't seen in the gym for a long time. He does not work at the gym anymore, but he still trains as a member. He was the one that actually got me pushing very hard, and to this day I still train under that policy (well I try to).

Suffering From PMS

I am now going through Post-Marathon Syndrome. It's a complex time, so to speak.

Immediately after the race I felt a sense of euphoria conquering 42.195 km. Then as the pain went through my leg muscles, a thought of "I am not doing that ever again" came over me.

Hours after the race, my body went through a slow transformation. Even though you should eat high-carbohydrate foods to replace all the lost glycogen, I had a weak appetite. My pulse was weaker than normal. And even though I had very little sleep in the hours prior to the race, I could only grab a few hours of sleep after the race as I found sleep to be uncomfortable.

Walking was uncomfortable, especially going up and down stairs. I had an obvious stagger which I tried to hide. If I moved the legs slowly for a prolonged period of time, walking became easier. I found that not moving your legs for a couple of hours tended to bring more discomfort when I tried to walk.

Then the pain started to subside, and the thought of "I am not doing that ever again" turned into "I can't wait for the next marathon!". In fact, I have made a goal to run at most two marathons a year, which is a very good goal. I'm still young and I can fit in a lot of marathons in my life, provided the body stays in shape and I can stay injury free. One day I may be able to run a prestigious marathon, such as Boston or New York.

However, preparing for marathons takes a lot of time and energy. There's a whole lot of other stuff that I want to do as well, so I need to be careful in allocating my time towards certain activities. For example today I was considering whether I should prepare for another Java certification, listing out the pros and cons for each decision. I'm still undecided on whether I will do another certification. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks to see what kind of things I want to do, and what I will end up doing.

It's all part of the PMS, I assure you.