Day Five is a Boxing Day

I always get a late start when I don't actually have to leave the house, say, to take my son to school or camp. I blame inertia. Times like these require a stubborn adherence to mindless routine, like walking the dog regardless of what the weather's doing. Because the New Plan only requires each body part to be worked once a week, Day Five is a Wild Card and I can do whatever I feel like. Of course, I still feel the need to do at least 30 minutes of cardio, just to warm up. I've got tractor #2 again but I don't let that bum me. I've loaded a few new tunes on my iPod and I'm excited to listen to them full blast. Okay, some of them aren't actually new in a relative sense. They're just new to my iPod: Angel With a Shotgun is actually new and I can't stop listening to it (The Cab); Hall of Fame (The Script); Start a Fire (Ryan Star) I'd never heard of before but found it suggested when I purchased Angel; and I've been meaning to add this song for ages, The Fighter (Gym Class Heroes).


The elliptical isn't too bad in spite of the roughness of the glide and I'm surprised that doing 30 minutes of Intervals program 8 actually lands me decent mileage. I don't want to cool down too much though. The A/C is on full blast and the gym is actually a bit more crowded than I expect. Because I find stretching an absolute necessity, I move right to the Cage Stretch. Then to the Mat. Again, I skip abs because I simply don't have time. That'll make 4 days straight by the time Monday rolls around. Doing the Mat Stretch is so much more comfortable on a mat! When I finish, I notice M doing abs across from me. He was on the adjacent Precor earlier as well. I see the Mayor, all sweaty and hoarse chatting with Skinny J. R and Ranger Rick are also chatting. Too much chatting for me!

I slip back into the locker room, stash my iPod, towel and lifting gloves in the locker, apply a few band-aids under the tape I wrap twice around my knuckles and then slip my stupid pink gloves on.  I only do 3 rounds again at a Beginner Female level for the Avatar Follow Me and Avatar Sparring. At least I'm getting better at following directions because I have a tendency to ignore the right (facing me) side of the Avatar. Probably because my favorite combination is a left jab, right cross. It's much harder for me to do a right jab, left cross because my right arm is dominant here.
Yep, I'm only a lefty when it comes to writing and drawing. Everything else is right-handed. Afterwards, I note that my 2nd joint has bled through the band-aid under the glove, probably because I neglected to tape it. The rest of my hands look okay though. Still I inquire about wraps at the front desk. They don't know what the owner wants to charge for them. I don't even know if they're in stock or just on order. I don't really care because I'm not going to hit the Nexersys again until next week.

Day Five Workout:
35 min Interval #8 = 4.51 miles Wahoo!
Cage Stretch with Body Weight Heel Dips and Side Kicks
Mat Stretch: splits are pretty good today!
Nexersys Boxing Station: 3 rounds Beginner Female Follow Me Avatar; 3 rounds Beginner Female Sparring Avatar. I'm still punching the pads too hard and constantly get beeped (scolded) by the system and have to hit the Reset button. Oh well...

The gym scale reads 108.6 lbs and I'm pretty happy. Again, the shower smells briny and I know it's me, not the water. My hands aren't even all that beat up, although my right shoulder is a tad sore. It's been a good week! It only gets better when I take my son shopping with me and we witness Mud Swallows nesting in the overhang outside the stores. It's a blistering 92°F but stores are air-conditioned, and my son doesn't mind being towed from store to store because he's got a new game on the iPad to keep him occupied. The weekend promises to be exhausting, and I'm glad I'm a slug on those days, without any requirements for exercise. It's just the way I like my weekends.