Getting Leg Day Outta the Way

I wasn't prepared for 18°F when I took the dog for his walk this morning. Neither was the potted rosemary shrub sitting on our front steps. Oh well. It's probably too late to bring it in and over-winter it in the kitchen. Besides, temps promise to rise into the 50s later in the week. Of course, the rosemary will probably be dead by then. It's rarely used because my son doesn't care for it's flavor but I love how the air smells when you gently brush their pine needle branches. Walking down the hill to the school bus stop, I see what looks to be a giant brown holiday ornament hanging forlornly from a skinny bare branch. Snow caps the top of its irregular egg shape. It's actually an abandoned paper wasp nest, delicate strands flutter where the nest has been breached. Our privet hedges are full of chattering birds sniping at each other. When those branches become bare, all the nests will be apparent, a virtual apartment complex of avian life.

Pretty good considering I wasted 4 minutes
fiddling with my iPod and
then resorted to plugging into my cell.

I get to the gym late and hope that I can get on an elliptical. Today is Leg Day. Today is Double Cardio Day. The cardio area is moderately busy and I wind up on Precor #3. At least it's not The Tractor! But as I punch in the program, my iPod starts to act up. Or rather, it shuts itself down. I start it up again and after a minute, it goes into pause mode. It's never acted this weird before, but I know it's starting to have issues. The gyroscope doesn't work anymore so the face doesn't automatically right itself when you rotate the player. Today is much more serious, and after 4 minutes have passed on Interval 7, I yank out my headphones and plug them into my cell. I don't have a lot of tunes there, but enough to power a workout. This is one of the few times that I'm actually thankful that my iTune purchases are in the Cloud, and I was able to download these tunes onto my cell rather effortlessly. Of course, I don't have a holder, armband or pockets so my cell is sitting on the little shelf above the Precor display. I debate whether to drive to the Mall and the Apple store later to see if this can be fixed. Meanwhile, I've logged in a bit over 4 miles and I'm happy. Normally I then do a Hill program but I'm feeling ornery, so I punch in another interval program instead. Yep, glutton for punishment. But my mileage is better the second go round, and I'm very happy. Even if I am annoyed at my iPod.

The Smith Machine is vacant and I wander over to it, then remember I was going to give real squats a go. Except that there's someone in the Squat rack. My gym only has one squat rack, and one Smith machine. Okay, I can always go there when it's vacant sometime later. I do speed squats, add weight, do more with the Butt to Heels. At the 3rd set, with 80 lbs, I can only get to 6 reps before I have to modify my form and only go to parallel. I add weight and continue until I hit my max, then I start drop sets. When I get to 60 lbs, I try speed squats again. This time I can only get 12. My last set of 25 reps with just the bar is not painful, but it certainly leaves me a bit breathless. I guess that's good. My cell is wedged uncomfortably in my waistband with the excess cord wrapped around it. Good thing I have that fancy mil-spec waterproof case for it.

ZZ is hovering but I'm ignoring him and mostly everyone else. The gym is getting busier. I grab the step platform from the middle of the free weight area where someone abandoned a carefully composed setup of steps, platform and a half dome atop it. Not quite sure why but half the members leave their DBs and stuff all over the place as if mom was going to pick up after them. I check last week's Jefit log to see what's next. Ah yes, SLDLs. The idea of doing 3 sets of 10 reps seems a bit daunting but since I did them last week, I figure I can do them this week. And I do. I'm actually surprised that my lower glutes and hammies aren't sore from yesterday's Lower Back Extensions. My upper back's a little stiff, but not painful. Of course, the massage I got from my husband last night probably helped a lot too. I know what you're thinking, but I did get a real arnica oil backside massage.

I do a short stretch at the Cage because I've already spent too much time at the gym. Normally I head to the Leg Curls next, but that's busy so I grab the Seated Leg Extensions. I cut my sets down and start at 105 lbs instead of 90. At 135 lbs, I do sets of 12. I don't think I can go heavier, so my plan is just to up the sets. Maybe next week I'll just warm up at 90 lbs and do four sets at 135 lbs. The Seated Leg Curl is finally free so I amble over. After a warm up set at 87.5 lbs (there was a 7.5 lb brick on the stack, but it was set to 75 lbs so I left it there), I move right into 127.5 lbs because I know that's the heaviest I can go. I'm trying to get sets of reps, figuring I should still be able to do this. I'm good until the 3rd set, when I can actually feel the tank go empty. It's a weird feeling. I got my 10 reps but suddenly my eyes feel a little hollow. I go back to the free weight area to check out the Squat rack, figuring I could at least try it with just the bar, but again, someone's in it. Okay, maybe a quick set of Torso Twist and then the Mat. I don't find the Mat taxing or difficult even though the pacing does make me a bit breathless and sweaty. Again, the 20 second plank is my least favorite part of it, but I must be getting used to it, because today it doesn't bother me as much.

The gym scale reads 110.4 lbs. Well, at least it's moving in the right direction. My clothes reek so badly that I hold my breath until I've got them safely stashed in my dirty laundry bag. I've resorted to using a sports stink-away detergent to make my synthetics unoffensive. Nothing worse than pulling clean clothes out of the hot dryer only to have them smelling like you just fished them out of the sewer. Yuck! Right now I'm testing 2Toms Stink-Free Sports Detergent I got from Amazon. I'm really happy that today is Wednesday because that tells me I've gotten all the major body parts done for the week. The next two days are just for fun.

Leg Day Workout:
35 min Interval 7 = 4.24 miles + 35 min Interval 8 = 4.31 miles  Grand Total = 8.55 miles YAY!

Smith Machine Squats: 25 @ bar (30 lbs) Butt to Heels as fast as I can go / 12 @ 60 lbs Butt to Heels as fast as I can go / 12 @ 80 lbs / 12 @ 100 lbs / 12 @ 120 lbs / 12 @ 60 lbs Butt to Heels as fast as I can go / 25 @ bar (30 lbs) Butt to Heels as fast as I can go 

Smith Machine Stiff Legged Dead Lifts: 12 @ bar (30 lbs) / 12 @ 80 lbs / 12 @ 100 lbs / 3 x 10 @110 lbs it's not as taxing as it's been in the past so I hoping that means I'm improving! Yay!

Cage Stretch

Seated Leg Extension: 12 @ 105 lbs / 12 @ 120 lbs / 3 x 12 @ 135 lbs
Seated Leg Curl: 12 @ 82.5 lbs / 3 x 8 @ 127.5 lbs

Torso Twist Machine: 2 x 25 @ 50 lbs
Mat Stretch (20 second plank between a dozen DBPUs), splits, etc