Day 33

I'm in a bad way today.
Whatever I did to my neck got worse overnight... didn't really sleep as every movement, including deep breathing was super painful.

This morning I couldn't move my neck at all and even glancing down or over to my many monitors made me grunt in a very manly way.

I've heatpacked and hot bathed and jacuzzi'd the absolute bageezes out of it, and it's definitely loosened up and isn't painful at all... now there's only a couple of weird angles that cause me to pause and really consider if I truly need to look over there.

On top of that the tendonitis in my triceps and forearms in both arms has flared up like crazy... it's been nuts all day, which is really unusual. It's been great the last month and before that would only hurt after doing something, and then calm down with rest. It hasn't been this bad for over a year.

Which begs the question...

Is my training working?

• In November, my goal was to get back to consistent training that I had lost after the move and the onset of winter.
• In December, my goal was to get on top of my tendonitis issues, which I did but became worried I wasn't getting strong enough or developing technique.
• In January, so far I've concentrated on skills development and strength.

The problem is, I think, that I swung the pendulum too far, and my body still needs to be looked after. Jerk.

I have 4 weeks until my first comp... 5 weeks until my first real big exciting comp.

My body falling apart today is good... it's reminded me that I need to balance tendonitis conditioning with strength building and skills development and capacity and endurance. I know that's a lot of 'and''s but it's a complex sport.

It's fallen apart early enough for me to adjust and do something about it.

I realise now it was actually very likely me neck would have seized up during or after the comp in 4 weeks... totally stuffing me up for the comp in 5 weeks and our hiking trip to the Grand Canyon.

Last week I tackled obstacles on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday..... it's probably been 5 months since I went that hard... over-enthusiasm has always been my biggest downfall.

So... I'm adjusting my training week thusly:

Monday	Endurance and hill sprints
Tuesday	Tendonitis conditioning
Wednesday	Obstacles and skills development
Thursday	Tendonitis conditioning
Friday	HIIT
Saturday	Tendonitis conditioning with weight vest
Sunday	Grip strength and forearm exercises

This will be my base. Over the next two months I'll do a weekly recap to see how the body is coping. If I'm struggling I decrease the load, and if I'm breezing I'll add small amounts here and there.

My mistakes this week were going too hard on Thursday after a mega session on Wednesday... trying to do big moves when I was tired on Friday and not doing the proper conditioning and warming up. I felt completely fine going into Sunday night... but I hadn't done the proper conditioning in lead up and so my body has crumbled.

The mini comp on Wednesday taught me that I'm nowhere near being fit enough, and so while Tendonitis Conditioning is my highest priority, Endurance is definitely a close second. Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be all about increasing the tank. The mini comp on Wednesday was probably only a quarter of what I can expect in 4 weeks.

I'd rather be spending more time on skills development... but at this point I'll have to trust that if I'm conditioned enough and fit enough, I'll be fine. If I fall because I just don't know how to tackle something, then I'll work on that in the second half of Feb.

Normally I'd consider tapering down for a comp (taking it easy the whole week before) but I'm not going to worry about that this time... all 3 events coming up are really just gauges for me. The serious comps will be later in the year.

My neck requires some work on my scapula mobility.. which is a problem rock climbers have. To work on this I need to hang from a bar... and pull my body up an inch only using my shoulders... and then do the same from a tricep dip bar. I used to do these as a warmup... and totally forgot about them when I moved. So, clearly relying on visual cues isn't the way to go, so I've whipped up a schedule. It's full on, but I'll see how I go.

I've added some P90X3 stuff in there too... which I haven't done for a while, so I'll hit that only when I'm feeling rad.

Anyway, thanks for reading all these words.