My workout regimen the last couple of weeks has definitely not been Scottish, it's been crap. Last week, a combination of electrical storms and work chaos prevented me from getting in more than one swim - I'll take some credit for not trying hard enough to get stuff scheduled in, but seriously, a lot of it wasn't within my control.
This week, it's been mostly electrical storms, with a big dose of traffic last night, and a touch of last week thrown in throughout for bad measure. I did all of my situps on Monday night, and I technically did all of my pushups, but I think my form was lousy on some of them (if I'm doing it for my own sake, I may as well push myself to do good form, as opposed to the half-assed job of it that we all used to do in the Navy just so we'd pass the PRT). During the last two sets (out of four sets of twenty pushups), I faltered near the end, and had to make them up. I finished out strong, and I think I technically did three or four more than I needed to, but like I said, the form wasn't stellar on all of them. I think a big part of the problem is that since I didn't do any last week, I don't benefit from continuous improvement - pushup capability tends to atrophy if you don't keep up with the gradual pyramid.
My hope is that the weather will clear a bit tomorrow, and since I'll be getting off work about half an hour earlier than expected to begin with (earlier if I can get there early), I'm hoping that I'll beat the afternoon and/or evening storm that we've had the last few nights. I'm still annoyed that the YMCA closes the indoor pool at the first flash of lightning - everyone I've mentioned this to has said that's stupid, and since they include a Navy P-3 Orion pilot and a diesel engine mechanic, I'm guessing that their backgrounds indicate that my initial reaction of "WTF? Closing an indoor pool for lightning?" was right on the money. What can I say, it's Virginia, even if it's not the deep south, there's still that pesky Mason-Dixon line.
Against my wishes, but following my better judgment, I think my best bet is to spend next week repeating the Week 1 plan, and go into week two the week after. All of the aforementioned chaos at work should be largely done after this week, and if I can get back on a regular post-work swim schedule that beats the average time of the electrical storms, I should be in pretty good shape. If I'd gotten a good go this week, I think I would have been okay, but with two cancelled swim workouts and a horrible showing on the pushups, I think a repeat of Week 1 is probably my best long-term bet, no matter how much I hate it.
As far as Arabic goes, I've been slacking on the flash cards over the last couple of days because I haven't had time to re-stack them after memorizing those words I'd been having trouble with. On the plus side, I've done listening/reading exercises from the Quran this week: سورة الواقعة (Surat al Waqiah, "the Inevitable", "the Event") on Tuesday, and سورة الحديد (Surat al Hadid, "The Iron") tonight. By the end of the weekend, I'm going to set my textbook and CD wallet up on my kitchen table with the hope that next week, I can spend an hour on Tuesday night and an hour on Thursday night doing a sura each night, followed by a lesson out of the textbook, plus flash cards in the morning and at night. Part of my recent success/pseudo-success in doing pool workouts has been preparing at night for the next morning in order to get to work early and leave early. My hope is that by doing a little bit of preparation and staging, I can facilitate more aggressive Arabic study by having the resources staged before me.
So, that's my status so far for this week: satisfactory on the Arabic, unsatisfactory on the workouts, but with the potential to improve by the time I rack out on Sunday evening.
Chops! I'm lapping you, buddy! You've done a great job of keeping me accountable, now it's my turn - time to get back to it! If you're already doing it (which I know you are from our brief conversations), it's time to post a few lines so that we know what's going on in Chopsland.
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