It took 3 workouts for me to admit it, but I’m just not physically capable at the moment of doing Stage 7. After 3 workouts I recognize that my knees are killing me and I’m starting to have foot pain. It’s not simply post-workout pain, but it does appear to be getting slightly worse with each workout. The 4×15-20 reps is just too much for me. So, for the moment I’m going to call my time with NROL4W over. Maybe in another 50-lbs I’ll give it a shot.

I’m basically just having a bad day today. I did my walking in 20 min shots as my right leg was just killing me. The blistered skin is off my right heel (it was the left I was having troubles with before), although it’s clean and dry. So I think I’m going to take a rest break until Tuesday afternoon. I’m going to start Power Training’s Strength training workout. I did look at the general fitness one, but decided I liked the lower reps for the strength training section. I like like Jane is doing I’ll do 5xA and 5xB workouts, which will take me a little over 3 weeks. So when I log them I’ll just log them as Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 instead of using week numbers. In the end it will be 40 workouts, but I will take my rest/maintenance break when I had planned to (which should let me get 12 workouts done first).

I spent some time picking movements for the first stage, although I’ll double-check them all before next week. Now it’s just a case of making up some logs and picking some starting weights.

I don’t know where the day went. I zipped through logs and blogs on fast forward. I think I’m trying to stay away from the computer (ie. sitting down) and that just kind of forces me in the late evening to sit down for longer. Sigh…

Anyway, I had to split up the cardio this morning as my leg/foot was killing me. Oddly enough it was usually my right foot/left leg. The foot is still bugging me tonight and the muscles around both knees feel tight. So nothing but gardening and walking around until Tuesday night when I start Power Training. Yikes, that means 4 lower calorie days in a row.

After the walking this morning I spent most of the morning (and part of the afternoon) trying to put the pussy willow back into some semblance of order. I cut it back hard last year (perhaps too hard) and it’s got a lot of soft growth. That wouldn’t be so bad but I’ve got a number of dead branches in the middle of it. So I cut out part of the center today to see if it’s an air flow issue or not. We’ll see how it winters. The silly thing is that it was put in to attract bees to the garden in early spring… to pollinate the apricot tree we took out last year. So although I hope it’s just a minor issue, it’s not a catastrophe if it had to be cut down. Although, a lot of work!

From the HR monitor:

Food for the day:

Total: 2147 (31% fat, 31% carbs, 32% protein)

Breakfast: two fried eggs, zucchini bread, jam, peaches (436)
AM Snack: fruit & nut square, blueberry bran muffins (272)
Lunch: whole wheat tortilla, eye of round roast, cheese, peaches (404)
PM Snack: hummus, carrots, jack daniels & lemonade (205)
Dinner: grilled lamb chops & sausage, bean/carrot mix, butter, salad w/dressing (578)
Late Snack: protein shake, peaches (251)