Long Weekends Are Long

I'm getting to this blog a bit late because frankly, at nearly 9 pm Monday evening, this is the first time I've been able to sit down at my computer all day. Make that all weekend. Between classes, birthday parties and play dates, it's hard to fit in the household chores and still have time to write coherent sentences. Today is Monday and there's no school because it's Veterans Day. There's a line of flags along the lake across from the courthouse and it's a stirring sight as we drive up the main street toward the gym this morning. It's not as crowded as I feared. Good for me, but my son is disappointed because he's looking for play mates and fellow gamers.

I get on my favorite elliptical and feel surprisingly energetic considering the hectic weekend. Hubby was away at a 2-day Practical Primitive bow-making course, and gone again for a business trip to Boston. I've promised my son a trip to the Mall to visit Santa, and to get a holiday photo. It's been the same Santa for the past several years and I appreciate the consistency. Now I have a series showing my son and Santa, my son larger and more shy in each photo. At some point he'll stop believing and then he won't be a little boy anymore. Right now he still is. I glance at the Precor display and I'm very pleased at the mileage reading.

The free weight area is crowded but I manage to secure a flat bench. But I'm not sure who I can get to spot me when the time comes. I don't worry about it and make my progression from bar to a few plates to heavier plates. When I finally get to 125 lbs, I look around. No Mayor today. No Slav. I see Jude by the Squat rack and another fellow who is chatting with him between sets on the Decline Bench. He's vampire pale, small and wiry with close-crop hair and bad tats on his calves. I walk up to them to ask for a spot and the smaller fellow volunteers. I think Jude is disappointed. Again, I can get five all by myself, and then I sputter at number six. After a few minutes, I toss another pair of fives on and ask for a spot again. "Do you need a lift off?" he asks. "Naw. Well," I say, reconsidering. "Last week I got two. But that was last week." I can lift off fine. It doesn't even feel that heavy, not until the bar descends. I can get two with a lot of effort. And then I try for one more. Well, he's a good spot.

Two drop sets and it's time for a brief stretch at the Cage. Only two more exercises to do! Yay! Incline rear delt flyes. I used to like these. Now, not so much. Probably because I've upped the weight to as far as I can go so now I'm just working on reps. I don't think my wrists and elbows will let me go heavier than 30 lbs. 30 lbs is pretty damn heavy. I stand up and drop the weights back down to 20 for Lateral Raises. I used to like these too. Before I got ambitious. R walks in and I give him a brief nod. There's a gal to the left of me taking up a lot of floor space doing DB lunges. That doesn't bother me as much as the fact that she rests her DBs, water bottle and towel on a bench. But she's not actually using the bench. I don't think you should drape your crap on stuff you're not actually using.

R and I try not to get in each other's way. He's rolling the 110 DBs to a bench to do DB flyes. Then he grabs a 45 lb plate, holds it over his head, arms extended while he does leg lifts. I'm almost done being scary with the 30 lb DBs when he points to the Inclined Bench. I pull out my earpiece. "What?" "Using this?" "Oh no," I motion, but then I ask him how his wife is doing. She's eight and half months pregnant now and I want to hear that she's doing well. He's all smiles and proceeds to tell me how she's working out here on Saturdays, how she doesn't even look pregnant from behind, but how the doc's told them the baby might be breech. I reassure him and tell him about my own son causing back labor, getting stuck and eventually needing to be delivered C-section. We laugh over names and nicknames because he's coined one combining his and his wife's name, but he doesn't actually want to burden the child with a silly name. It's just a nickname. He's sweet, telling me how he sings to his wife's belly and his son moves towards his voice. "I can't wait to meet him," he gushes. After a few more minutes of chatting, I tell him I gotta finish up before I cool down too much.

A set of crunches and some torso twists, Mat Stretch and I'm done! Yay! The gym scale reads an unfortunate 112.0 lbs. Whoa. That's cause for pause. But my son is actively engaged in a game with another boy roughly his age and he doesn't want to leave until I remind him of our date with Santa.

Monday Workout:
35 min Hill 5 = 4.05 miles Yay!
Bench Press: 12 @ 45 / 8 @ 75 / 6 @ 95 / 6 @ 115 / 5+1 @ 125 / 2+1 @ 135 lbs / 6 @ 115 / 12 @ 95
Cage Stretch
Inclined Reverse DB Flyes: 15 @ 25 lbs / 12, 13, 15, 15 @ 30 lbs
Lateral DB Raises: 15 @ 20 lbs / 12 @ 25 / 12 @ 27.5 / 3 x 10 @ 30 lbs
Ab Crunch Station: 120
Torso Twist Machine: 2 x 25 @ 50 lbs
Mat Stretch (I wish the 20 second plank would get easier but it hasn't)