Damn, I'm Such a Cardio Junkie

I wake up this morning and promptly hack up gobs of nastiness. Blech! Still, I toss my gym bag into the car and head off to my "home away from home." B tells me I should take it easy. She'd stay home, but that never works for me. I get panicky if I don't work out. I miss the endorphin rush too much. I'm not sure how my body will hold up but what the hell. Halfway through the first leg, I'm sweaty and happy. The second leg only gets better. 4.04 miles for hill #6, and 4.37 miles for interval #7 gives me a total of 8.41 miles. And I'm soaked like I've been caught in a summer downpour, and I'm grinning from ear to ear. But I'm not panting. I'm not even tired.

Cage stretches are next without the kicks because, yes, I'm wearing those shorts again. I did have sweats on over them this morning at the bus stop because it was a nippy 46°F. But I want to see where my knees are positioned when I do Squats, and I want to see my quads when I do Leg Extensions. So I wear shorts on Leg Day. Smith Squats and Dead Lifts are next. I take my hoodie off to put my elbow braces on for the Dead Lifts (because I bend my elbows to bring the bar up to my chest), but put it right back on again even though it's cold and wet, and probably smelly.

Afterwards, there are Seated Leg Curls, which are feeling fairly easy, and Leg Extensions, which never feel easy. Or good. They're just painful. And they're the exercise on which I use the least amount of weight. Pathetic. But I have bad knees, and my quads are big enough as it is, and I don't want them any bigger. So sets at the measly 45 lbs are okay.

Today's Total Workout:
35 min hill #6 = 4.04 + 35 min intervals #7 = 4.37 Totals 8.41 miles
Cage stretch
Seated Leg Curls: 12 @ 75 / 3 x 12 @ 90 lbs
Smith Squats: 12 @ bar / 12 @ 95 / 5 x 12 @ 115 lbs
Smith Dead Lifts: 5 x 12 @ 95 lbs
Seated Leg Curls (again): 3 x 12 @ 90 lbs
Seated Leg Extensions: 5 x 12-15 @ 45 lbs
Mat stretch with 2 sets of knee to chin ab curl-ups

I see R and ask him how his doctor appointment went. He's got an Rx for pain meds if he needs them but otherwise he's sticking to physical therapy, exercising and making sure he doesn't do anything stupid. He's the one I watch for innovative exercises because he does stuff I've never seen anyone do for core, shoulders, arms.

But I must be a terrible person: as he's telling me what his doc said, and what his plans are regarding this injury, I find myself inadvertently glancing at the Smith because I'm still in the middle of sets there and I'm worried that someone will want to use it. I'm a terrible person because, really, I should only talk to people when I'm done with my work out because I can't really focus on other people until I"m done. I'm a terrible person because, honestly, all I keep thinking is, wow, he can talk up a storm. Except that if I wait until I'm done working out, I might miss the opportunity to be vaguely social, and polite. And I'm trying to be nicer, in a vaguely social way. If it doesn't interfere with my workout.

The scale reads 107.4 lbs and I'm good with that. It's a tad more than I expected, but I also realize that we went out to eat last night: miso soup, wasabi gyoza, ginger sesame dressing and the chicken & noodles I ate last night were laden with sodium, and probably a bit of MSG. My cheeks flush and feel too tight when I eat food with high amounts of MSG. My cough has been temporarily abated (at least until later this evening). I'll be back tomorrow. Same Bat Time. Same Bat Channel.