Born Again Gym Rat: Oh No, Not Again

Monday, January 25, 2016

Oh No, Not Again

The lyrics from Bowie's Ashes to Ashes run through my head when I pull my trainers out of my gym bag this morning. "Oh no, not again..."

Yep, I have two black gym shoes, but one is mesh and one is leather. One is an Asics and one is Ryka. Ugh. At least they're both black. I doubt if anyone will even notice because really, no one looks at anyone's feet unless there's a screaming neon reason to. I'm also hoping that the shoes aren't too different in height. My sciatica is still bothering me and I mostly feel it in the ball of my right foot, the outside ankle, up the outside of my calf and my butt. It's a persistent dull pain.

The cross-trainer has always bothered my right foot, usually the ball of my foot and a few toes go numb by the time 30 minutes is up. That foot also tends to slide a bit which says there's some sort of muscle weakness. I don't have this issue with the other foot. Doing hammer grip pull ups really bothers my sciatica when I cross my left ankle over my right as I pull up. I curl my knees up slightly to lessen the discomfort. After 20 reps, I drop to a full extension and do one more pull up. Now, sets of 21 reps have become the norm. Oh well... But it's very satisfying to feel the back do the work, not the arms. I worry my arms will get puny from lack of bicep curls. Kidding.

I have to shovel out the road drain on my property, and the alternate parking spot that's been walled in by the snow plow. So not looking forward to doing this. It's work. So I'm careful with how much I do at the gym. I want to maintain progress with my delts and lats so I'll continue with those routines. But I really have t stop "stress eating" over the weekend. My husband hasn't been home in nearly 3 weeks so what's my excuse? I do two sets of wide hand push ups and 3 sets of planks. Both make my right leg and butt hurt. When I look up from my last set of push ups, a pimply-faced twenty-something year old man is lounging on the the mat across from me. Ugh.

He's been watching me, and over my head phones, I can hear some thing like, "Good work." What? Is he talking to me? I look at him for a moment like he can't possibly be talking to me and then I turn away, because it just makes me mad. If I look at him I'll be tempted to blurt out a loud FU. Honestly. WTF? Who the hell is this fat kid to say anything at all to me? Maybe it's because he's a guy. Guys are such total idiots in the gym.

I do my DB lateral raises and up the reps slightly when I up the weights to the 25s. I see a lot of regulars, and some new faces. Hollywood is looking good with her shapely arms and mad housewife hair-do. The Mayor spends most of his workout holding court. I think he might get 3 sets in the entire hour and a half he's at the gym. But I guess that's all he needs to maintain his less than illustrious middle-age shape.

I pace the entire length of the gym looking for either a free mat to stretch out on, or a vacant elliptical. Finally one frees up and I do 30 minutes of Program #1. I like the Performance Programs because they automatically include level variations, and backward pedaling. My legs don't hurt doing this type of cardio. I skip most of the Mat Stretch and concentrate on the simple piriformis stretch. Then finish with another set of pull ups. Done!

I have to get some mini-cupcakes for my son to bring to school tomorrow. It'll be his birthday. And when I get home, I'll have to shovel snow again. At least it'll be warm at 37F. Winter Storm Jonas dumped about 8-10 inches on us, depending on where you stand. I've lived through a few snow storms, and this wasn't any blizzard. At least up here.

Monday Workout
(6.39 miles total)