Born Again Gym Rat: Priorities

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Priorities

I was almost late to the school bus stop yesterday so I gave myself more travel time today. Today traffic is exceptionally crazy. Thursday seems to be the day all the big trucks come through town, and everyone else is out celebrating the end of the school year. The town is also fixing potholes and painting new road lines all over the place. Yep, I feel like I'm stuck behind a parade going to the gym this morning.

The gym itself is relatively quiet even though there's a few classes on the schedule. Today is the day I get to totally ignore everyone because after a 10 minutes warm up, I'm fixated on the Nexersys kickboxing machine for an hour. That leaves me more than enough time to shower and change and get back to the house in time for Early Dismissal.

My right shoulder felt a bit achy when I got up so I put a dab of Penetrex cream on it, and hoped that would be enough. It was. The only discomfort I felt today was in my left pointer finger, and I worried that the proximal phalanges might've suffered a stress fracture. Yeah, maybe I do punch too hard? Later, when I unwrapped my hand, everything felt okay though. Maybe I'm taping my fingers too tight? Hmmm. The only other bodily discomfort I suffer are my feet. By the end of 14 rounds, they are battered even though I take pains to wear leather cross-trainers for protection. The mesh shoes are too lightweight. Today I wore the larger Asics. Last week I wore the true-to-size Rykas and the bunion on my right foot chafed. Today, my left foots seems a bit bruised. But my knuckles are fine.

Warming up with 6 rounds feels right. I stop the machine a few times but don't actually blank it out. However, there's several blows that don't register which drops my Accuracy rating, especially in the Intermediate Program. Oh well, there's not much I can do about that. Eight rounds is probably my limit for this level right now. I'd have to improve my cardio stamina to go further. And maybe try and find better footwear. It's so frustrating though, since you can't really tell if a shoe is going to work for you until you actually wear it during a workout. Well, I haven't broken any toenails lately, so that's good. It took months for that one on my left foot to grow out all the way from the nail base to get to the point where I could actually trim it off.

I don't have enough time to do anything except unwrap my hands and do a quick lower back stretch. My shoulders and upper back will probably stiffen up later today. Tomorrow is Leg Day but I will have my son with me, so it'll have to be a super-abbreviated workout. Perhaps an hour of cardio and just some Smith Split Squats and GHRs at the Lat Pull Down station.

I make it to the school bus stop with time to spare, and watch the town's line-painting truck go by. There's a cluster of pretty brown fritillary butterflies and lots of bumblebees on the milkweeds near the intersection. Tiny green clusters of wild grapes hang under hand-sized leaves. Too bad there's so much poison ivy that every foraging foray is fraught with danger. Well, it's summer. I keep finding dead dragonflies too so I take their photos. If I was organized, I'd collect them and make 3-D collage boxes with them and other found items. I knew someone who made beautiful image boxes out of butterflies and flowers, shells and tree bark. But I'm not that organized.

Thursday Kickboxing Workout