Day 52

DVD - Max Cardio Conditioning
DVD - Cardio Abs

Well, I didn't get to test my "leave work right at 5:00" resolve today, because I woke up with one of my lovely combination migraine-sinus headaches and decided to stay home, medicate, and sleep it off. My always testy sinuses have been funky for a couple of weeks and I've suffered almost monthly migraines since I was a teenager. Every so often both hit me at once and my head feels like a big, painful balloon. Painkillers, allergy meds and sleep while avoiding as much light, sound and smell as possible are usually the best remedies, as long as the pain and pressure are no so intense as to make me nauseous and unable to hold down any medication. I was lucky this time because the pain was bad, but not so bad it made me sick to my stomach. So I medicated and slept.

When I woke up in the late afternoon the pressure in my head had subsided, but I was feeling a little sniffly (still am). I ate a little something, waited an hour or so, and got my ass in gear to do the workouts, determined to give them both my all in keeping with the new resolve I discussed in my Days 50 & 51 post.

I think I was right when I said yesterday that I have more physical and mental energy to push myself through the workouts on days when I am able to start earlier. The fact that I was able to start tonight at 5:30 pm instead of close to 7:00 pm as with previous nights this week, combined with my new resolve meant I was able to do more of this workout than I have on any of my previous attempts even though I'd woken up earlier today feeling like crap.

If not for the flagging energy and its effect on my mental and emotional state, I can't explain why I respond better to the challenge of working out when I didn't feel well earlier in the day vs. when I've had a long day at the office. Unless! Maybe it's that my body understands that getting my heart rate up and the blood pumping through veins full throttle helps with circulation which in turn helps with an overall feeling of well-being? Or maybe my body craves the adrenaline rush from the exertion and that somehow masks any sense that I don't feel well?

At any rate, tonight I made it all the way through the warm-up on Max Cardio Conditioning without a break for the first time this week. I didn't feel the need to watch the workout clock and pray for the minutes to tick away faster. I pushed myself through more of the workout than I had in the past. I still took breaks, but I tried to keep them to a minimum and see if sometimes just slowing down and being more deliberate in my moves rather than stopping completely was something I could manage. In many cases, I was able to keep myself moving in this manner even if I wasn't going balls out in terms of speed. Sometimes though, an all-out stop for a few seconds is the only thing that will do to reset my ability to finish out a particular exercise or interval. As Shaun says in one of the workouts "A break can fix you!" He's right.

After Cardio Conditioning I did the Cardio Abs DVD again and like the last time I skipped the cool down stretch at the end of Cardio Conditioning. I still don't feel bad about this adjustment given it's only 4 minutes, is not cardio, and I'm just going to warm-up again at the start of the Ab workout.

Before the end of the 63-day program, I will do this workout combination 2 more times and I'm pretty certain my performance will only improve.