Moving On

I felt a little bad this morning, watching the sap drip off the red maple like tears. I know that a tree really should be pruned during the late fall when the sap stops running, but winter seemed to have come too quickly for me to get my act together. I figure I'd prune the branches before they sprouted those tiny red flowers followed by the whirlagig samaras and then lacey red leaves. It's a vigorous tree, transplanted as a 4 inch seedling from the swamp behind my house, nourished by the bodies of two of my best dogs. Still, I'm glad when the sap stops pouring from the open bark of the missing limbs. Yesterday was Easter and we had a quiet day at home with my son reveling in Easter basket goodies, my husband preparing a new round of home-made beef jerky and whole-grain honey cakes, the dog basking lazily in the sun while snapping at bees.

Today is just as sunny. I read that there might be shooting stars (Lyrid meteor shower) visible tonight. We're rarely lucky enough to see anything, especially with rain in the forecast. At least the rain will be good for the snow peas and zucchini seeds I set out in the raised bed. The gym parking lot is really crowded but it's Monday. Everyone is guilty of feasting over the weekend. Still, the Precors are free and I get my 20 minutes done. My shoulders have been twingey all weekend so I'm a bit wary of benching today. But because I'm planning to cut back on weights over the next several months, I try to stick to my routine today. There's not a lot of people in the free weight area and at 125 lbs, which really, I can handle myself, I finally ask M to spot me. I hate asking him. Maybe he can tell because he offers to spot me at 135 lbs but it's a very sullen abrupt offer. I'll be happy to drop my benching weight because then I won't need to ask for a spot. I get six reps but the last rep really started to bother my right shoulder. Not a great set. But done.

I do a few sets of Inclined BB Presses and then settle on doing sets of 12 reps at lower weight for the remainder of my DB exercises: Inclined Flyes, DB Lateral Raises, and Bent-Over Reverse Flyes. I'm good with sets of 12 at 25 lbs for the first two movement, but I realize today that I really should move back to 30 lbs. Because after three sets, I increase the reps for each subsequent set. Until I've done 25 reps for set 6. Which means the weight's too light.

I backload my additional cardio today by climbing back onto the Precor for another 20 minutes. Not LISS but Steady State "jogging" that nets a bit over two miles. My plan is to go back to the 4-5 miles a day of cardio, and to drop my weights but keeping high reps. So, hopefully I don't lose too much strength or muscle, but kickstart a fat burn. I already know that I'm fighting my body's natural inclination. After the second course on the elliptical, I do a full Mat Stretch and end it all with 100 crunches. I see R and chat with him briefly. He always surprises me with how much thought he puts into things I don't normally think men think about: like what it's like to be pregnant and carry a baby inside your body.

The gym scale is definitely not my friend today when it reads 114.6 lbs. I already know I'm big but this is probably water weight from the Easter ham we've been munching on this weekend. The supermarket periodically rewards its loyal shoppers with free hams or turkeys. I had my husband put this 12 lb ham on his smoker for 4 hours at 300 F. It's probably the best ham we've ever eaten. Tomorrow is Back Day. I'm debating whether to gradually add the cardio back in to the front by starting with 30 min and ending with 10 min afterwards, or just getting it all out of the way. I guess I'll see if I even get on an elliptical tomorrow.

Monday Workout

20 min Precor = 1.91 miles

Flat BB Press
15x45 lbs (bar)
12x95 lbs
10x115 lbs
8x125 lbs
6x135 lbs (last rep felt off)
10x115 lbs
20x95 lbs (for fun)

Inclined BB Press
12x45 lbs (bar)
12x65 lbs
10x85 lbs
3x8x95 lbs

Inclined DB Flyes
5x12x25 lbs

Standing Lateral DB Raises
6x12x25 lbs

Bent-Over DB Reverse Flyes
3x12x25 lbs
15x25 lbs
20x25 lbs
25x25 lbs (yep, increasing the weight back to 30 lbs next week)

20 min Precor = 2.07 miles

Mat Stretch with 2x12 DBPUs, 60 sec plank, splits, upper and lower back stretches
100 crunches