Redefining Challenge

I went to bed at a reasonably hour but was awoken by massive discomfort in my back and stomach. Uh oh. I know that feeling. It's something I ate that is just sitting in my stomach, causing my back to spasm, and a terrible burning feeling to spread through my diaphragm. There's only one way to get relief, and that means a trip to the bathroom to barf up the offending and apparently indigestible food. I'm back in bed by 2:20 but I can't sleep until my muscles calm down. By 6:20, I've hit the snooze button twice because I'm still exhausted. And it's chilly outside.

I need coffee but don't have time to brew it before getting the dog walked, and my son on the school bus. He's been experimenting with using his phone as an alarm clock, but it'll ring for 3 full minutes before I finally say, "Get up and shut off your phone." Apparently, he needs a human voice to rouse him. Maybe I should switch his alarm to something like a quacking duck. The barking dog noise only sounds like our dog or the neighbor's dog and he'll ignore it. He's not a light sleeper like I am.

Today is an "Active Rest Day". I have things I need to get done before my son gets back from school. I also have swim class tonight. So, I go to the gym anyway, but only do 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical. I wanted to do the cross-trainer, but the easy one is occupied, and I'm too tired to wrestle with the other machines. Ellipticals don't put my feet to sleep so I'm happy about that. I do one set of Hammer Grip Pull Ups, skip the 100 push ups because I'm saving myself for the "challenge", and go straight to Core. There's a yoga class in the classroom so I have to wait a bit anyway.

I make a point of counting aloud, but somewhere between 11 and 16 I lose track of where I am. I think I've done 22 but when I review the video, I count 24. Ugh. In the locker room, I run into A who teaches BodyPump and a few other classes. She suggests that the "challenge" isn't a challenge for me, so it's easy for me to lose count. That's probably true. It's not a challenge. But I could make it one by doing T-push ups instead. When I do that variation, I usually only get to 25 reps, 30 at most. Or I could pause after each 5 push ups and then just add 2?

I'm still tired. Swim class tonight isn't going to make that any better. Oh well...

Angles make the difference

Thursday

30 min elliptical
Prgm3
280 cal
2.50 miles

HGPU 31
Knee-In 50
Crunches 3 X 50
Bird Dog 2 X 60 sec
Elbow Planks 2 X 30s

Day 8  22 push-ups? Oops... 24