February is Certainly An Odd Month

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, a greeting card holiday that supposes we all have disposable income to toss at florists, supermarkets and candy makers. It's permeated the schools as well since my son came home yesterday and decorated the house with hearts he drew and cut out of red paper that he then taped to the leather sofa and various cabinets. It's the thought that counts. He's a sweet boy. Good thing he's only 8 or I'd be kind of worried. To do my part, I bought him two huge bags of Twizzler candies (chocolate and rainbow), as per his request, for a treat to share with classmates. I'm not a cupcake kind of mom.

Today, however, is Leg Day and I dutifully pull on my shorts and tank and punch in two rounds of cardio on the Precor. My distance is usually better on the Intervals than on the Hill, but today I decide to actually do Intervals the way everyone says you're suppose to do them: faster on the peaks (190-212 spm) and slower in the troughs (170-180 spm), instead of as fast as you can go regardless of what the terrain is. (I prefer doing the latter but that's only because I'm a glutton for punishment.) My distance isn't as good on Intervals today. But it sure made me tired, and hot and sweaty. I keep my drenched royal hoodie on throughout the entire workout until I get to the Mat stretch. It's nearly impossible to stretch properly with a sopping hoodie on, but this is the broken zipper hoodie so I have to pull it off over my head and hope that my head phones don't come off with it. Meanwhile, my hair and clothes are completely sodden. No wonder I do laundry every day!

Today's Total Workout:
35 min hill #6 = 4.05 miles + 35 min Intervals #7 = 3.99 miles  Grand Total = 8.04 miles (Anything over 8 miles always deserves a Wahoo!)
Smith Squat: 12 @ bar / 6 x 12 @ 95 lbs (I suspect M is leaving the bar set up for me, but I'm not sure why. He chats with a lot of people. He certainly chats with B. But the few times I've interacted with him, granted it was over a year ago, it seemed that he and his lifting bud J just couldn't be bothered. But it's really odd to come across a deserted Smith station with the bar set just so, with just the plates you need on it. However, it could just be coincidence because guys leave stations with weights all over all the time.)
Smith Stiff Legged Dead Lift: 12 @ bar / 6 x 12 @ 95 lbs (these are getting easier!)
Smith Thrusters: 12 @ bar / 3 x 12 @ 55 lbs (My left ankle and right knee are both clicking as I descend. It could signify an imbalance. These Thrusters are killer. I console myself that I at least finished complete sets of 12 reps even though I want to puke after the last one)
Cage Stretch
Seated Leg Curls: 6 x 15 @ 90 lbsPistol Squats: 6 each leg, and I hold the extended leg by the foot as I descend and rise. I keep my balance by focusing on my knee and ankle while staring into a mirrored wall.
Seated Leg Extensions: 6 x 15 @ 60 lbs (boy do these hurt!)
Torso Twist: 2 x 25 @ 50 lbs
Mat Stretch

As I leave the mat area, I see Mo stretching out and we chat for a few minutes. She's a few years older than I am and she says that if she'd continued working out during her "Change", then she'd probably not have so much trouble getting into shape now. She's been doing a rendition of a "juice fast", eating one solid meal a day with lots of veggies, fruits and juice. She's lost about 13 lbs so she feels better but isn't quite sure when she'll revert to normal eating. It's a fear we all have: reverting back to our fat selves.

I remark on the piece I just read in the NYTimes yesterday entitled Menopause: The Movie and how I couldn't related to any of it. I don't have night sweats or hot flashes, and I'm certainly not less interested in sex. She tells me that 1) I have a husband and 2) I started working out before I started to lose my period, so in a way, she thinks I've protected myself from the most extreme of these events. I'd like to think so. Of course, now today's newspaper reports that working out a leisurely 4x week is better than 6x. Yes, yes, any excuse to work out less. We're all lazy by nature! But I'm not giving up my 5x routine so easily. It feels too damn good!

The gym scale reads 108.6 and my home scale reads 106.2 lbs. I check, and every Leg Day seems to read about 106 lbs. It's probably all the cardio. My butt is sore, but only where I think I have issues. And by that, I mean the droopy saggy part, the pantyline. That part of the glutes seems to be filling out a tad but I'm not happy about all the saggy skin there. No way you're catching me in a bikini bottom with a butt like that!

February is an odd month. Between the near blizzard conditions less than a week ago, and the balmy 45°F sunny afternoon I'm currently enjoying, it's no wonder that I'm not surprised by a bizarre "friend request" on a body building site. Most friend requests are usually other strong women, or skinny teenage dudes looking for encouragement. I don't know this person and when I investigate further, the avatar is a close up shot of a man's naked hip and navel. Nice. But, no thanks. It's not a full moon so I'm not quite sure if it's just cabin fever or the promise of an early spring but nothing surprises me now... You might wonder what I'm looking for then. Well, I'm looking for people like me. People who love working out as much as I love working out. But I'm not a bodybuilding fanatic. I'm not even a body builder. I'm just a Gym Rat.