Week Three Day One

My shoulder is actually still a tad sore from Friday's bout with the Nexersys station, but I don't let that slow me down. Indulging over the weekend, and the 90+ degree weather makes me sluggish today so it's important that I kick into gear with at least 30 minutes of cardio. I know I'm not making my 4 mile quota. The question is by how much? Precor #3, the smooth glider, is free because someone has inadvertently kicked the power switch off. It's simple enough to kick it back on and punch in Hill #5. I find that on Mondays I don't sweat much even with my hoodie up. It takes me so much longer to get into gear, at least 20 minutes before I feel vaguely warm. Amazing what a weekend of relative inactivity will do for you! (Spending hours crouched in the blazing sun picking organic raspberries doesn't actually count as an activity.)

The Manchurian is using the Smith and I ask him how many sets he has left. "Oh, uh, two or three," he says hesitantly. I guess he doesn't actually know how many he's going to do, so I walk away to the Cage Stretch because it's not worth waiting for, and besides, I don't want to pressure him. When I return, the bench and bar are all set up perfectly for me. He's doing something with dumbbells but I'm in my own world and fairly oblivious to everyone else. The gym is oddly empty for a Monday morning, and doesn't start to fill up until noonish. I see The Mayor looking disheveled and frantic as ever as he spots a much younger guy. Maybe, like myself, they all have other things to do and places to be. Although the gym is nicely air-conditioned, no one wants to spend all day here!

My right shoulder feels odd on the heavier lifts, especially the front deltoid. I still lift my routine but toss in an extra set of reps at the end to give my chest and arms a pump. Today I don't feel the benching in my chest at all. Delts are probably going to suck. I'm a bit dismayed that they're still recuperating from Friday. Recuperation shouldn't take so long!

Week Three Day One: Chest and Delts
35 min cardio hill #5 = 3.92 miles bleah!
Cage Stretch with BW heel dips and side kicks. Because of an ancient IT injury in my right quad, I'm careful not to push the side stretch too far: I've felt my kneecap slip painfully, on the verge of dislocation doing this stretch.
Smith Bench Press: 12 @ bar / 12 @ 95 / 10 @ 115 / 8 @ 135 / 3 x 6 @ 155 / 12 @ 135 / 21+5 @ 115 / 25 @ 95 lbs
I toss the last set of reps in because I'm so annoyed at having to pause with the previous set.
Bent Over DB Raises: 6 x 15 @ 25 lbs
Standing Lateral DB Raises: 6 x 12 @ 25 lbs
I certainly like the way my arms look when I'm doing these! 
Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 150
Ab Crunch Station: 100
Torso Twist Station: 2 x 25 @ 50 lbs
I don't even consider doing Decline Presses today because suddenly the gym is crowded and I'm not in the mood to wait for the one decline bench. 
Mat Stretch: I'm worried that my legs will be really stiff and that the splits will be painful because I'm not really warm anymore, but everything is relatively good. I don't even attempt a full horizontal split where I roll forward because it's Monday and I want to ease into that particular move.

I see V while I'm doing abs and I make sure to walk a wide circle around him as unobtrusively as possible. The gym scale reads a reasonable 111.6 lbs. It's what I weighed last Monday. Psychologically, as long as I'm below 112 lbs, I don't really feel bad for weighing more at the beginning of the week. But I'd feel bad if it was Friday. Ah, the mind games we play with ourselves!

While I'm dressing, one of the trainers comes in with a 3-pack of boxing wraps. It's actually 6 wraps because each of the three colors (red, white, black) is a pair. "They're $25 for the package," she says. I tell her that's way too much money, especially since I don't even know if I want to use them, much less 3 pairs of them and she agrees with me. I tell her I'll probably stick to putting band-aids on under adhesive tape before I don my gloves. She suggests ACE bandages. Then she tells me she used to teach a kickboxing class here, and that an instructor she knew used to have the class wrap their hands even though they weren't actually hitting anything. That's odd. She said people just liked to feel as if they were boxing, even if they didn't actually make contact. That's funny. And a bit sad.

This year must be a good year for the deer because they haven't eaten the wild day lilies like they did last year. The heat is wilting my snow peas but the zucchinis have large beautiful leaves and I'm hoping they provide some shade for the peas. Cilantro, basil and thyme are also in the garden, as well as a pot of bok choy. We'll see if baby grasshoppers wipe them out as in previous years. I was looking forward to the cicada invasion, especially after all the hoopla, but we've heard nothing and now it's passed. But this is the first year I've put black oil sunflower seeds out for the summer, and I'm pleased to see all the finches, purple and gold, and others I haven't identified yet, along with what I thought were winter birds: downy woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, cardinals and tufted titmice (or is it titmouses?)... robins, jays, sparrows, mourning doves, grackles and starlings round out the rest.