Born Again Gym Rat: Managing Expectations

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Managing Expectations

Post Workout

My son and I went out to look at the night sky around 11:15 last night. The sky was brimming with constellations and stars I hadn't seen before. A literal Milky Way! We only saw a few "shooting stars" before we went inside, but at least we saw a few. My son was unnerved by the raucous sounds of cicadas, crickets and other nocturnal creatures. An hour later, I went outside and discovered that the stars were obscured by heavy cloud cover. It was the same two hours after that. My son was disappointed. He'd expected the Perseid Meteor Shower to be a real show, a virtual shower of shooting stars. At least he's learning to manage expectations. I'm afraid he's growing up too soon.

It was hard waking my son this morning, but I wanted to get to the gym before 11 am. Child Care ends at 1 pm and has a two-hour limit. We get there at 10:30 so I'm happy to have enough time for my favorite activity: whacking the Nexersys machine. Again, I've already affixed moleskin patches to my knuckles. After a 10 minute warm up on the LifeFitness cross-trainer, I quickly stretch my hamstrings and hips, then apply white tape to my knuckles and specific fingers. For a moment I panic and don't remember how to wrap my hands properly, but I take a breath and the wrap falls into place. Wrist, hand, pinky, wrist, hand, ring finger, wrist, hand, index finger, wrist, hand, pointer. I only have enough wrap this time because I've forgotten to wrap my thumb! I only wrap the pinky and ring finger (as well as wrist and hand) on my right hand because it's not as critical. I have a wicked Right Cross, but my hand doesn't hurt from the impact.

Back Selfie

I'm too enthusiastic and it's not until round 3 of the Beginner session that I decide to pull my Cross and Power Dig because I'm tired of stopping the machine every third and fourth blow. 5 rounds is just a warm up, but it's a good warm up. 9 rounds is a great workout at the Intermediate Level, even if the machine tells me that I'm over-powered and out-pacing this level and should "add rounds". There aren't too many distractions today. Actually, the gym is kind of empty even though I can see regulars at the other end, in the free weight area. There is only one round which gets the better of me, and my accuracy plummets to a lowly 77%. It's the round with Cross-Power Sweep and Jab-Power Sweep combinations. However, I have figured out how to score the Lead Sweep. Finally! The Power Sweep is so much easier. And more natural, though.

I've rediscovered barrettes and they are a marked improvement from what I remember as a little girl. These actually stay in my hair after a fashion, and come in cool colors. So I've taken to tying my hair back in a ponytail, and fixing the loose ends to my head with shiny metal clips. This way they're not in my nose, eyes and mouth and I'm so much less annoyed. With enough barrettes, I can clip the entire enchilada to my head and it's like having short hair again!

Mirror is
very distorted

I have just enough time to do a quick lower back stretch before hitting the shower and changing. My son and I have a bunch of errands to do, and then we plan to meet up with friends at a local park with a small beach. It's not until I get home and compare today's stats with last weeks that I can see improvements. That makes me really happy! Tomorrow is Leg Day. And there is only one more week of camp so I'll have to revise my workouts to be much shorter. Perhaps whacking the machine twice a week, and doing some body weight exercises. And cardio, of course.

My glaucoma doctor calls me today to tell me that tests show my left eye has progressed. But she'd like me to take another test just to make sure before recommending further, more aggressive treatment, like SLT (selective laser trabeculoplasty). It's not that I have high pressure in my eyes, except at night. Tests show that my eye pressure rises in low light conditions. And even an IOP of 14-17, which is considered low for normal people, is too high for someone like me. My docs want my pressures down to 10-12. I have to call my regular eye doc to schedule another test, but at least it'll be closer to home.

Thursday Whacking the Machine Workout