Because this is a training blog after all

It's been a bit quiet here the last couple of days. My brain has mostly been busy trying to digest the fact that the move is actually happening. It's one thing to know it and another to really know it. What's been helping me realise it is going public about it to the people around me. Seeing the reactions. Feeling the pangs of sadness at having to part from some of them, and the happiness at getting to see more of others.

I've spent an hour this morning doing strengthening exercises for my whole body, some of them for the first time in weeks. Except for walking, I have been taking it easy with training to give my body a chance to rest. So imagine my surprise when I found I could do the plank for 3 minutes and 20 seconds, which is how long I usually do it for. I do it with certain variations, which I suspect is cheating, in a way: after one minute in the classic plank position, I stretch one arm in front of me for 15 seconds, then the other. Then I do the same with my legs. Finally, I stretch one arm and the opposite leg, and then the other pair. I finish off with the classic position. That way, I can sneak in some balance training and give my shoulders some rest.

The plank is kind of a mystery to me. My abs, invisible though they may be under all that skin and fat that's covering them, are apparently strong enough to keep this position. What fails me is my shoulders. My upper body is just not as strong as the lower part. So while I'd love for my abs to get stronger, the plank is by the looks of it not the way to go about building them, because my shoulders might as well belong to a chicken trying to lift a whale.