Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Today my son wore a new purple T-shirt to school to support the Relay For Life cause. It cost us a dollar, and faulty members $3 to wear purple. Local stores have affixed purple ribbons to their doors and posts. Last year the town actually contracted to have a purple stripe painted down the center of the double yellow line of the main road. It's suppose to be the color of Cancer Awareness, just as pink now signifies breast cancer, and bright blue promotes Autism Awareness. I wore a lavender tank over a blue sports bra to the gym today. Purple enough.

Today is Leg Day and my plan to is do a lot of cardio, and then lift some weights. I like simplicity. I get on the Precor elliptical and play with the Heart Rate program but after 6 minutes, I abort. There's no way to control the ever increasing resistance although I can drop the incline at will. At Level 8 my knees start to ache but the program doesn't allow me to make any adjustments. It also tells me that, at age 54, a heart rate of 179 is 96% of my maximum, which it estimates is 186. It wants me to cruise at 140, which is impossible if I can't lower the resistance. Reset the machine to Manual and start again. It's hard to trust the heart rate monitor on the elliptical. One minute is reads 89 BPM, then it hiccups as if it's just woken up, and the next thing it's reading 170 BPM. All the while I've been keeping a steady 170 Strides Per Minute pace. Maybe my heart beats erratically? I would've thought that the quickie EKG conducted during my annual would've picked something like that up. Maybe not.

It takes me 48 minutes to make 4 miles. I figure I should go lift some weights instead of hogging the cardio although the gym is half empty. A high school girl is just getting done doing Smith Squats. I'm glad to see more women at the gym these days, but the older ones always seem so tentative about using BBs and DBs. As I hunt for plates to put on the bar, I feel a tap on the shoulder. I have my hoodie on, and my iPod blasting so I'm fairly oblivious to everyone. When I look up, it's K, the woman who spotted my benching several weeks ago. She's guiding another woman (a skinny middle-aged woman who does a lot of running) through some DB exercises.

"Great legs," she teases me. Because it's Leg Day, I'm wearing shorts to see my knee position when I squat. Not the lined running shorts, but the loose floppy, just-above-the knee, sweatpants-like Danskins. I like them because they don't creep up the inside of my thighs when I work out. I have to pull my earpiece out to hear K. "You're looking pretty good for, what, 53 years old," she continues. "54," I correct her. "54? When did that happen?" "Uh duh, in March." "Oh, just tell everyone you're 29," she laughs. "Yeah, okay."

I know Smith SLDLs are going to suck. Not as bad as I thought, but still, at 160 lbs, I lose my grip on the 8th rep. For all 3 sets. Even with VGs on. After the first time, I decided that I could at least get sets of 8. And I do. Today I didn't bother using the Step platform and just pulled the bar from mid-shin height. I feel a tiny bit queasy after the 2nd set, but it passes quickly. I'm tempted to try this with a reverse grip to see if I can't hang on to the bar better. Next time.

A quick Cage Stretch before tackling the auxiliary stuff: Leg Extensions and Leg Curls. I don't see anything that looks like a Glute Ham machine, and I'm not comfortable yet attempting the Lat Pull Down for that movement. I'll work up to it. Right now I'm good using a low weight for the Seated Leg Curl and my max weight for the Leg Extension. I just don't want to wind up with Tom Platz thighs. (Mine are big enough as they are.) But I figure Leg Extensions are good to stabilize the knees. I've dropped the weight on Leg Curls to just 75 lbs because that's where I can get 3 sets of 12 in good form. I still feel the arch of my right foot curl slightly, but it's a lot better with this lighter weight.

Balans by Mariko skinny strap
sports bra $13 at Marshall's

I knock out a quick set of twisting sit ups and then head to the cardio platform. Both step machines are in use so I get back on a Precor. I'd like to finish the day with a 5 mile total and I figure 15 minutes should be enough time if I keep to the heart rate guidelines. I also like to end the week with a full Mat Stretch to forestall soreness. The only thing I skip is the 60-second plank.

The gym scale reads 112.2 lbs and that makes me feel pretty good. What also feels good is the new sports bra I bought because it's probably the first time I haven't had to yank it back down under my tank during my workout. Of course, today was Leg Day so it's not a completely fair assessment. I'm not happy that I can feel the hook and eye closure in the back when I lay on the Mat to do hip/lower back stretches, but at least I don't feel like I'm being strangled by an octopus.

Friday Leg Workout

48 min Precor elliptical (keeping heart rate below 180 BPM) = 4.02 miles

Smith machine Squats
25 x 30 lbs (bar) speed squats BTH
12 x 80 lbs (thighs parallel for rest of sets)
12 x 120 lbs
12 x 140 lbs
12 x 160 lbs
15 x 80 lbs

Smith machine SLDLs
12 x 30 lbs (bar)
12 x 80 lbs
12 x 120 lbs
12 x 140 lbs
3 x 8 x 160 lbs

Cage Stretch

Seated Leg Extension
12 x 90 lbs
3 x 12 x 135 lbs

Seated Leg Curl
12 x 60 lbs
3 x 12 x 75 lbs

100 Twisting Sit Ups

15 min Precor elliptical = 1.22 miles