Getting closer

First of all apologies - it's been brought to my attention that, once again, people are having problems leaving comments. I'm sorry for that, it's frustrating for all concerned. I would say give me a shout if you're having problems, but how you gonna do that huh? Hopefully it'll be ironed out soon but in the mean time, try leaving the check box for keeping yourself signed in unchecked (blogger equivalent of giving it a frustrated kick).

Lots going on here at the moment. After bemoaning my photographic woes, it appears that someone may have come to my rescue. Never mind a tripod and a timer, a rather kind soul has offered their photographic services (yes they are a real photographer, no they're not just a random pervert). I do want a really good set of superhero pics and we're having a (creative - haha!) meeting tomorrow to discuss things. The shoot may well include some proper rooftop posing as befits a catwoman and if that's the case, I'll be getting to work on some kind of mask because that's going to be kind of public. Like actual public as opposed to pretendy internet public. And I need to stop thinking about that before I psyche myself out.

Training is going well at the moment. I have a slight niggle in my right leg which is annoying but not too much of a hindrance. Aside from that, I feel as strong as an ox. I'm running well, lifting really well and spinning like there's no tomorrow! I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying the spin classes. I took one years ago (when admittedly I was a lot less fit) and it killed me ... for days! Now I'm finding I can go hard, really hard and not have it kill me at all. I'm doing double sessions twice a week and this is doing a couple of things for me. Firstly, much more power through the hips and my core is now rock solid and secondly, I am getting lean. Like, if you didn't know it was me, you'd think it was a proper athlete in this body. I don't mean that in an arrogant way - I can't quite believe it's me in this body either! I have to keep poking and prodding in front of the mirror to make sure. Of all the incarnations of my body there have been so far, this one is absolutely hands down my favourite both in terms of aesthetics and also how it functions. I feel like the bloody terminator! Being made of metal would explain why my swimming still sucks but I'll get there in the end.

The final benefit to the double spin sessions is the extra amount of calories I get to eat. I spin in the middle of the day which means rearranging my eating a bit so I'm having an extra bowl of cereal/toast with my beloved peanut butter before bed the night before a class then my usual breakfast and mid-morning snack before the class. When I get out, I have my protein shake and a banana and then another small meal when I get home as a late lunch (it varies but usually a prawn, chilli, red onion and brocolli omelette or similar). I'm currently on six or seven small meals a day and that's working just fine. What's surprising to me is that I'm not putting that much thought into it, I'm eating fairly intuitively and it has taken a lot of the stress out of it. It seems that I might be far enough down the recovery road to trust myself and my food choices. I wasn't sure I would ever see that day so that in itself is worth celebrating.

Once the superhero challenge is done and dusted, I'll be hitting up the gym for some serious max rep attempts. I haven't done this for about ten months so I'll be interested to see where I'm at. I know I'm stronger, I can feel it but I'm nosy enough to want to know the stats and get them written up in my progress file (yes, I am sad enough to keep a spreadsheet for these things, despite my eternal hatred of Excel).

There are a few other things in the works but I'm keeping them under my hat for now. The main thing is that despite some large and utterly bloody bumps in the road, it's full steam ahead. I'm excited about things again and that feels good. It feels more like me :)