Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Spring is Here and So Are the Bugs

I'm so certain that the warm weather is no fluke I purchased two basil seedlings and two parsley seedlings to plant in my raised bed. I read that they make good companion plants for asparagus. I have some Mary Washington asparagus seeds, but apparently I need to soak them first. I may buy marigolds and tomatoes as well, but I'm not sure they'll survive the onslaught of grasshoppers that's sure to follow. Tiny grasshoppers decimated all the broccoli and bok choy two summers ago. And one summer we had weeks of several dozen dragonflies circling our yard so that all my son had to do was run about with a butterfly net and he'd be sure to catch a few. Of course, we always let them go after examining them. But we never know who's going to be in abundance. Except for the annoying gnats and flies that circle our heads, buzz our ears and get inadvertently inhaled. Yuck.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the 15 min warm up on the Cross-trainer. Today I got fairly warm, probably because it's warm out and all the doors to the gym are open. I start with Smith RG BB Rows and then move to the Oly bar for RG BB Rows. I feel tired, but not enough for me to change my routine. The Mayor, Tattoo Tank, Skinny J, Loud Mouth, Ollie are all here. Chatty Guy shows up without Venus and spends a lot of time talking to The Mayor. Then I watch him load the Trap Bar with 3 big plates each side. He's tall and I wonder how he's going to get his knees past the bar when he stands up. But I don't want to stare so I move on.

The Mayor is doing a modified Rip Skull, barely able to bring his arms over his head and dropping the bar into the cradle of a preacher bench set up behind him. I think he's missing the point to the movement without the drop behind his head, but I don't want to get into a discussion about it. He's put on a lot of weight since he's been away. There are a few women who seem to have made tremendous progress over the past several months, dropping girth and gaining confidence and shape. Women are showing more progress here than men. Men tend to already be in shape, or never seem to progress. Perhaps it's just maintenance. Perhaps that's what my routine is these days: maintenance.

I'm overdue for a "back selfie" so I don't even know if I'm making any noticeable progress. Seated Cable Rows are still hard at 120 lbs. And I'm always uncertain when I start sets on the Lower Back Extension. But everything's good and I get all my reps and sets. I set the elliptical for 30 minutes. Today I do 12 minutes of HIIT and 18 minutes of LISS. I'm still unsure how to measure LISS and that's troublesome. How much over resting should my heart rate be? Does it matter? I'm sweating profusely when I stop.

There's a old man in shorts on the big Mat, rolling his legs over his head. I'm kind of disgusted so I walk into the vacant classroom and do some stretches there instead. Because it's an air conditioned room, I keep my hoodie zipped up. Done. I'm cutting back on my Mat Stretches. It might seem counter-intuitive at first, but it's easier to drop into a split if I haven't done it in a few days. Puzzling. My best guess is that as easy as these stretches feel, there's still some stress and inflammation that follows. Doing these stretches every day actually makes me less limber.

Tomorrow I get to Whack the Machine, and I'm happy about that. But tomorrow is also the day I have to drive my son to school early, pick him up early to take him to kung fu, then rush home to make and eat dinner and feed/walk the dog before rushing off to a Cub Scout Pack Meeting. The one where we're delivering 50 paper robot kits for the boys to assemble. Meanwhile, the parents of the child who is always hungry, has reached out to our Cub Master to get a ride for their son to the Pack Meeting. I've already declined. They live across town, in the opposite direction of our school. They actually don't go to our elementary school but attend our Cub Scouts Pack because their school doesn't have Scouts. My husband, who is still in Boston, thinks we should retrieve the child for the meeting. I'm not at all happy about this. We'll see if he even makes it home in time. At least I get to whack the machine. That makes me happy.

Wednesday Back and Biceps Workout
(4.05 miles cardio; 37.142.5 lbs moved)

Calorie :   72 CAL
Distance: 1.85 mile
Speed :    7.38 mph
Duration : 00:15:03
140
Set 1 : 30x12
Set 2 : 80x12
Set 3 : 100x12
Set 4 : 100x12
Set 5 : 100x12
232.5
Set 1 : 45x15
Set 2 : 135x20
Set 3 : 155x15
Set 4 : 155x15
Set 5 : 155x15
Set 6 : 135x20
152
Set 1 : 90x12
Set 2 : 105x10
Set 3 : 120x8
Set 4 : 120x8
Set 5 : 120x8
315
Set 1 : 210x15
Set 2 : 210x15
Set 3 : 210x15
56.25
Set 1 : 17.5x15
Set 2 : 37.5x13
Set 3 : 37.5x15
Set 4 : 37.5x15
79.17
Set 1 : 37.5x25
Set 2 : 47.5x20
Set 3 : 47.5x20
12 min HIIT 18 min LISS
Calorie :   220 CAL
Distance: 2.2 mile
Duration : 00:30:00

No comments:

Post a Comment

Still Got DOMS

I'll admit that I'm a bit surprised to still be experiencing DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) a day after a set of Walking Lunge...