Bellinghamgolfer.com

I've just completed two one-hour long workouts in the space of three days. Now a lot of you are shrugging your shoulders thinking 'What do you want, a medal?' But there will be plenty of others who silently nod their heads in appreciation and wonder what that might feel like.
Well, I'll tell you. During Monday's workout, I could barely finish the ten-minute 'warm-up' on the elliptical machine. Not only did my heart rate jump into the 160s (my target is 144bpm), I also developed a not inconsiderable pain down my left thigh which made applying pressure to the left pedal? platform? thingy? rather uncomfortable. It ceased hurting as soon as I stopped though, so the remainder of the session wasn't a problem. But knowing I would be back in two days to do it all again gave me pause.
What I also took from Monday's visit was never to choose green Powerade ever again. At several points during a one-hour long workout (did I mention this session lasted a full hour, 60 minutes, 3,600 seconds?), you are going to want to take on liquid so having a chilled, fruity beverage to hand is a good thing. And if said beverage boasts a formulation that contains four key electrolytes - sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium - in the same ratio typically lost in sweat, then so much the better.
But it doesn't work if that beverage makes you wince and you want to spit it out the moment it passes your lips. From now on, it's Orange, Fruit Punch or Mountain Berry Blast for me.
Anyway, back to the more important issue of training. Reading that your average person's typical recovery time following a one-hour workout is a few hours was somewhat discouraging as the whole of Tuesday was pretty much a write-off. I wasn't in any pain certainly, but neither did I have much energy.
I'll be frank; I wasn't much looking forward to yesterday's training. Though I'm actually enjoying working out and benefitting from Brian's (Brian Hargrove my trainer) expertise, I couldn't help thinking this session was coming too soon after the last one, and that I'd really struggle.
But get this; after ten minutes on the old ellliptical machine, I felt like I could have gone ten more. There was no discomfort and I felt, if not full of energy, then certainly less exhausted than expected. It would be foolish to suggest the strength-training, floor work and stretching that followed was a breeze, but it all felt a lot easier than it had done on Monday.
By the time I finished yesterday's session, the gym was filling up with fit young people who lift twice as much weight in half the time as I do and who run twice as fast for twice as long. Two weeks ago, you may recall I had some reservations about this and entering a gym at all, and I'm still fairly certain my main role there is to make those around me feel better about themselves. But I'm beginning to feel noticeably stronger and more flexible and can't wait to get back out on the golf course to see the results (I've not played for two weeks). No, four sessions are not going to have much of an effect, if any, but I'm enthusiastic about the training and feel confident the results will begin appearing in due course.