Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Weekend extravaganza

This last weekend I flew up to Napa valley to meet up with old friends from grad school as one friend was in the SF area interviewing and the other lives up there. We had a great weekend, wine tasting, spa treatment, shopping...a great weekend all around. Sadly I lost my digital camera on the adventure. Fortunately I had recently pulled all my photos off the camera so I only lost pictures from the weekend. Still is a bummer.

Last Thursday I was all excited as I had done a crossfit workout without any modifications. It was my first time trying to see how strong my back was deadlifting...while the actual workout didn't seem to bother me and during the work out I didn't seem to be 'failing' during the lifting, later was another story. Last Thursday I started to get the tell tale sign of slight spasming in the back. I heated, stretched, repeated. Friday I was sore and also spasming so I kept a heater thingy on my back all day. I even stopped by the grocery store and picked up one of those Thermaheat things that you can wrap around your back. Saturday I was planning on running prior to the wine tour we were going on, but my back was having non of that. By the end of the day the back was fine. I think the wine cured it, either that or I just didn't care by the end of the day :-)

But the experience has brought up an interesting thing I am seeing a little bit with weights...I don't know how to reconcile how heavy I should lift with the level of soreness I will have the next day. I know it will come with time before I can figure out that edge, but it is sort of frustrating to me at the moment because during the workout I wish my muscles would just 'fail' earlier or give indication of "ohhhh that's gonna hurt tomorrow". Currently I'm at the stage of "hmmm...that was doable" and then needing to be scraped off the floor for my next workout. I even had a workout last week on Tuesday that was the opposite where I thought I wouldn't be able to use my arms the next day, and then I was a little sore, but it was fine. With time I will figure it out I am sure.

Training this week has been everything short of a fiasco between lack of sleep, forgetting shoes for a run at work and having to reschedule. I am trying not to be frustrated with the way things have been but sometimes that doesn't seem to be an option with me. I tend to run hot or cold with things, and finding a middle ground sometimes doesn't work too well for me. I do try to work on that, but with training trying to find a middle ground when things don't go well tends to make me annoyed more than I'd like to admit. But I've got some plans on for tomorrow and the rest of the week so i'm looking forward to pushing forward and getting back at it.

4 comments:

Bullet said...

Sorry to hear things aren't so peachy. I hear ya on the weights. I'm very cautitous about the weight training that I do (although it's very necessary). Finding that happy middle ground is tough.

Runner Leana said...

Sounds like a great weekend in Napa with the spa and the wine tasting. That is terrible about your camera though. At least you had grabbed some of the pictures off of it. I hope your week improves though!

Sunshine said...

OH GREAT! The wine tasting cure! Good job.

So sorry about the camera, though. What a disappointing aspect of the weekend.

Seems to me there is a rule of thumb that you should use enough weight that you have to stop at 15 repetitions. Is that any help?

Speed Racer said...

Did you do any scoping out of the Vineman course as you were driving from winery to winery? Remember, you have the very important role of being my lab rat in this whole thing! You can call it a business trip next time you go up to visit.

As far as weights, your body will get used to the soreness, but in the meantime it will certainly help if you quit kicking the shit out of yourself quite so severely. I mean, you say "failure" like it's a good thing!