The Post-Sandy Workout

The locker room was a raucous mess of women catching up on who had power and who didn't yet. I saw B. She looked tan but complained that while vacationing with her husband for the last 10 days, all she exercised was her mouth. She looked fine to me. I, on the other hand, felt large and bloated, having exercised nothing at all for the past 9 days. Even this morning's walk up and down the hill to the bus stop with my son left me a bit winded, and my butt a tad sore. It's amazing how completely out of shape the human body becomes when it's forced into an ursine hibernation state.

Okay, I could've done something over the last 9 days. Perhaps a couple of push ups, or maybe some crunches every day. Perhaps a dozen deep-knee bends every morning. But I didn't. Of course, today I'm paying for it in spades!

45 minutes on the elliptical gives me 4.8 miles which is better than I expected. But I'm disappointed that I barely bust a sweat. It leaves me wanting. When I get to the Smith, I can't decided whether I'm doing Heavy or Reps. I start out with 25 reps at 95 lbs, and quickly realize that I don't really feel like doing reps. So I up the weights by 20, do a set and then up the weights again. Three sets of 12 reps at 135 lbs seems unnaturally hard today.

I have no high hopes for the rest of my workout. B stops by to chat while I'm wrestling with the Decline Press and by the time she leaves, I'm cold. The Mat stretch is painful, especially my left hamstring. Which is odd considering that my left leg has a much better kick, and it was my right inner thigh and knee that complained barely 5 minutes into cardio. I had to elongate my stride a tad to stretch out my legs but that seemed to have fixed the problem then. Now, the only thing that's going to fix this sore hamstring, which I bruised playing rugby back in college (yikes!) is consistent cardio and stretching. Of course.

Today's Total Workout: 
45 minutes cardio = 4.8 miles
Smith Bench: 12 @ bar / 25 @ 95 / 12 @ 115 / 3 x 12 @ 135 / 12 @ 115 / 15 @ 95
Cage stretch & kicks
Front & Lateral Dumbbell Raises: 12 @ 15 / 2 x 12 @ 20 lbs
Lateral Dumbbell Raises: 3 x 12 @ 20 lbs
Seated Rear Inclined Dumbbell Raises: 5 x 12 @ 20 lbs (yes, I wimped out)
One-Arm Tricep Dumbbell Extensions: 3 x 12 @ 20 lbs
Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 100 (started feeling a rug burn again)
Lower Ab Kick Outs: 150
Decline Benching: 25 @ bar / 12 @ 65 / 3 x 12 @ 85 / 12 @ 65 / 25 @ bar (45 lbs)
Mat Stretch

The scale reads a whopping 111.4 lbs before it beeps a plaintive Low Battery warning. I'm not horribly surprised. I've been a slug all week. My face is puffy, and the skin over my belly and thighs is noticeably thicker. Secretly, I'm hoping that the 1.5 liters of water I sucked down today can account for at least 3 lbs and that I don't really weigh this much! 

The home scale reads 107.8 lbs (after I've peed about 6 times). That seems right since it's more than I weighed preSandy, but not that much more. I still feel fat though. Especially since the scale tells me that my body fat reading is now 19.6 (which, yes, I know, is still pretty low). TBW reads 52.1,  muscle 38.1, and bone 4.6. It does seem consistent. Well, at least my shoes still fit although I'm thinking that perhaps I am a size 5.5 and not a 6. (Unless I can find some silicone heel-grips. Of course, I can find them on Amazon.com because, as my husband likes to point out, you can find anything on Amazon.) And as promised, here are a few bad photos of those shoes. Now, I just need a haircut I can live with because my hair is making me crazy. Everyone tells me that it looks nice. But I don't like it. I'll admit it's hard to cut your hair when the mercury's dipping into the 20s. It's too long, it's in my face and it's making my skin blemish. Unless that's the periomenopause.