Eating Well and Feeling Well

You know you're tired when you get up at 5:30 am to pee, blink your eyes and it's suddenly 7:30. I stayed up too late, once again, exploring TV shows on Hulu. TV shows that I'd never seen before or even heard of, probably because they're Japanese or Taiwanese, but with subtitles. The first one was a peculiar (aren't all Japanese animé?) murder mystery that uses a junior high school kid (gender indeterminate) as protagonist. The second, called Tiger Mom, explores the parental anguish of the working mother of a "princess", and princess isn't a good thing. So I didn't get enough sleep, and worse, my son wasn't asleep when I went to check on him. Instead, I wound up reading him the first chapter of the deluxe iBook edition of Winnie the Pooh, because I'd read this to him when he was 4 yrs old but he didn't remember it at all. He just wants to hear my voice telling him stories.

I'm not surprised that my mileage is terrible on the cross-trainer warm up. I do a quick stretch next to the CF area just as Scruffy walks by. He's using the cable station there. I really don't know what guys expect from me by walking by so close. I'm there to work out, so I tend to keep my eyes to myself and just focus on the next exercise. And if you're nothing to look at, well, I'm not going to be looking either. I'm not mean. I'm just not chatty. I see The Mayor in the free weight area. He's not as loud today, probably because he's lecturing a boy on something. I'm not sure if it's even his kid, but the boy, tall, blonde and skinny, looks really bored.

At the Smith, I do my standard routine. Today my right shoulder doesn't feel bad at 130 lbs so I go ahead and put another 5 lbs on the bar. I get 6 reps at 135 lbs. It's not horrible. I could probably do another set. But I don't want to stain the shoulder too much. I drop down to 100 lbs, hoping for 25 reps but okay with only 23. I really feel the back of my upper right arm during Inclined Smith Presses. I'm not sure why though. Because it's hard for me to catch my breath during this movement, I'm okay with just sets of 8 reps today.

One-Arm Lying Lateral Raise

The DB area is a zoo with random bodies and equipment littering the floor. There's a pair of 25 lb DBs at the OHP station but no one is there. That's my cue to grab a pair of 20s and use that area for my delt supersets. The short beefy Latino kid who's always smacking the weights down is quieter lately. Instead it's Ponytail who's busy throwing the bar down. His brown hair is longer than mine, almost down to his waist. Sometimes he wears a singlet. He focuses on power-lifting moves and he doesn't talk to anyone. But this tossing the bar down is a new thing. There are signs that say "Please Don't Drop the Weights". Perhaps they should amend them to say "Please Don't Throw The Weights Around No Matter How Frustrated You Are With Your Weakness"?

I can't find the 8 lb Beauty Bells anywhere so I start off with the 5 lb DB to do One-Arm Lying Lateral Raises. It's an awkward movement, and my right shoulder struggles to do this with the heavier 10 lbs DB. I'll give this movement another week before I look for something else to replace it. A movement that might not bother my shoulder as much.


Still, I feel pretty good today. Maybe it's because we spent Saturday at a Practical Primitive wild edibles foraging class in NJ. Once we got home, I was able to pick wood sorrel along with the kale in our garden and have them both with our dinner. Wood sorrel is my new favorite green thing: it's refreshingly lemony and I love the tiny heart-shape leaflets that children always think are shamrocks. We also had some salmon our neighbor caught in Alaska last summer and had flash frozen. It was delicious pan-fried in butter, dusted with salt, white pepper and garlic powder. Sunday, I finally cooked up the 10 pints of blueberries that's been hibernating in my fridge, and made jam. I use a little sugar, about 1/5 the amount called for in most recipes, the zest of one lemon, and half its juice. That's it. No pectin means there's an intense flavor which only comes from cooking it for 3 hours on the stove, stirring to prevent scorching. Yum!

After a few sets of RIP Skulls, I decide to do Close Grip Benching for reps. I always fail on the 3rd set with 75 lbs so today I decide to drop that last set back to just the bar. 50 reps isn't really that hard. But I weird out the guy on the bench next to me. I don't know why since he's pressing for weight with plates on his bar. I'm just a small woman, with admittedly sizeable arms, doing reps. I really don't want to do HIIT cardio but I find myself on the elliptical anyway. I do 5 minutes, then 5 minutes of LISS to get my heart rate back down before another 5 minutes of HIIT (Tabata style). Then a leisurely 15 more minutes of LISS. After most of the Mat Stretch (because I won't have any time tomorrow) I'm ready for a cool shower. I'm still finishing with cold water for as long as I can stand it. At least I'm not sweating when I leave the locker room and head out into the 80° parking lot.

Monday Push Day Workout
(4.03 miles cardio; 20,860 lbs moved)

Cross Trainer

Warm Up

Calorie :   74 CAL
Distance: 1.86 mile
Speed :    7.38 mph
Duration : 00:15:08

Smith Machine Bench Press

176.67

Set 1 : 30x15
Set 2 : 80x12
Set 3 : 120x10
Set 4 : 130x8
Set 5 : 135x6 Yaaay!
Set 6 : 100x23

Smith Machine Incline Bench Press

114

Set 1 : 30x15
Set 2 : 70x12
Set 3 : 90x8
Set 4 : 90x8
Set 5 : 90x8

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

35

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 20x12
Set 3 : 25x8
Set 4 : 25x8
Set 5 : 25x12
Set 6 : 25x12 SuperSet with

DB Seated BO
Reverse Fly

37.5

Set 1 : 20x15
Set 2 : 20x15
Set 3 : 25x12
Set 4 : 25x12
Set 5 : 25x15
Set 6 : 25x15

Dumbbell Lying One Arm Lateral Raise

13.33

Set 1 : 5x12
Set 2 : 10x8
Set 3 : 10x10

Barbell Reverse Grip Skullcrusher

52.5

Set 1 : 15x12
Set 2 : 37.5x12
Set 3 : 37.5x12
Set 4 : 37.5x12
Set 5 : 37.5x12

Barbell Close Grip Bench Press

120

Set 1 : 45x25
Set 2 : 65x25
Set 3 : 45x50 Yaaay!

Elliptical Training

Calorie :   215 CAL
Distance: 2.17 mile
10 min HIIT
20 min LISS
Duration : 00:30:00