Born Again Gym Rat: You Don't Know Until You Ask

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

You Don't Know Until You Ask

It's finally cooled down but only because it drizzled a bit this morning and the skies have been mostly overcast. It takes me a while to get out the door because I have to cut and position my little squares of moleskin first. The roadwork adds at least 10 minutes to the 17 it takes to get from my house to the gym. I see a young woman boxing the Nexersys when I walk in. Her punches are unsure and tentative. Hopefully she'll enjoy what she's doing and continue to improve. Later I see her at the cable station. After I stash my gear in a locker, I'm chagrined to find that for all my prep, I've forgotten my gloves and wraps. Again! Ugh. Well, before I resign myself to losing an hour driving back to my house to retrieve my gloves, I'll ask the front desk for a loaner pair. You never know what's possible if you don't ask. The gal produces a pair of grey kickboxing gloves with UFC printed across the top. "They should fit. The other ones we have are huge."

I wrap white tape around my knuckles and my pointer fingers. There's no way of knowing where the chafing will be in an untested pair of gloves. My hands swim inside but they offer adequate protection. However, halfway through the Beginner rounds I feel a sting on the inside edge of my left pinky finger. The seam is rubbing it raw. It takes me another round before it dawns on me that I have a roll of white tape at my feet. I don't normally bring that out from the locker room with me. Today I can actually remedy the chafing between rounds. And I do with a piece of tape. But not before I notice that there's a bit of blood inside the glove now. Oh well...

Two middle-aged women are chatting while pedaling the Cross-trainers behind me. They're so loud that I can hear them over my tunes and the Country Western music the gym is blaring. I'm not sure what kind of workout they accomplished other than their mouths. Maybe LISS? My husband shared his copy of Bastille's song Pompeii with me so now it's part of my workout mix. But of course, everytime I hear it I think of the earthquake in Nepal. It doesn't keep me from singing along though. Thank goodness I'm pretty much just lip synching so no one can actually hear me. But the beat of songs like that help me find my rhythm when I'm whacking and kicking the machine.

My left side tends to knot up from this endeavor so stretching is required unless I'm really short on time. I'm suppose to do HIIT cardio today, but I just can't bring myself to do it after whacking the machine for a good hour. If I'd been lifting weights, it would've been a no-brainer. Instead, I go straight for 30 minutes of LISS. I keep an eye on my heart rate while pedaling the elliptical. It's pretty much a steady 110 bpm, occasionally dropping to 105 so I have to speed up a bit. Oddly, the elliptical registers erratically, sometimes with an alarming 190 bpm even though I'm pedaling a steady 100 SPM. I think I'd notice if my heart rate suddenly zoomed from 110 to 190, right?

I feel cold so I'm happy to be wearing my hoodie, but I'm worried that this will affect my stretch routine. Splits are still easy. My lower back needs the stretch. My shoulders especially tend to tighten after a bout with the kickboxing machine. I hear back from my son's teacher that I'm most likely accompanying the class to the Locust Grove Historic Museum. I'm quite pleased, but now I'm trying to figure out whether I'll have time to do some HIIT cardio in the morning beforehand.
I finally hear the Barred Owl hooting after a long winter of silence, but it's 3 pm, not the middle of the night. Perhaps he's just marking his territory. They don't migrate and are apparently the only North American owls with brown eyes. All the other species have yellow eyes. Their vocalization has been likened to the phrase: Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all.

Wednesday Workout