Lost Time

I'm as bad as my son in that I never listen to myself when I know I need more sleep. I actually skipped the gym yesterday with every intention of taking a nap. Or getting some writing done. Instead, I did a bunch of house chores, watched TV and shot a few photos. At least the light was good, changing from harsh direct sun to bright overcast. Perfect for my current project.

In the locker room today

Today I actually had my head down on my pillow for a nap when I suddenly remembered that today is an A day on the school schedule, and my son had neither his sneakers nor his viola. Since gym is first period, there wasn't anything I could do about that. And he was wearing his rubber-soled camo comfort mocs, which are nearly as good as sneakers. But orchestra class is 7th period, so I got my gym gear packed up and drove over to the middle school. Because once I'm up, I am up.

Last night's swim class was a lot of fun. I didn't drink too much pool water, and I find that I excel at the backstroke, mostly because I don't have to worry too much about catching a breath. I need to experience for myself the fact that keeping your chin down as you lay on your back raises your hips in the water. I do this several times so that I can create a sort of muscle memory of this position. I'm not a natural at this swimming thing and it's a lot of work, a lot of unlearning bad habits. But I'm making progress. And next week I'll be the only student in the class for the rest of the term, which runs until mid-December. I really need to sleep more!

I haven't whacked the Nexersys machine in over two weeks, and I felt a tad rusty going at it during the Beginner rounds. The machine was mostly behaved, except during Beginner rounds when it would arbitrarily ignore power (right-side) kicks and digs. Hence, my scores are lower than I expected. During the first round of Intermediate, the machine goes a bit batty and flashes strike commands that don't match the body parts lit on the screen avatar. That's a bit confusing, and I lose Accuracy points. Of course. On the other hand, the machine tells me that I'm over-powered and out-pacing it for the Advance Level and I should add rounds. Huh? Overall, I have an excellent work out and feel totally awesome afterwards.

After I strip off all my hand protection, I do 30 minutes on the elliptical and then a set of pull ups. I'm wearing the raspberry and grey Asics I normally reserve for Pull Day workouts because my leather trainers eventually hurt my feet the longer my workout goes. What's becoming disturbing is the vague numbness in toes on the right foot. Again, it only happens when I'm on the elliptical, but previously, it'd only happened when I was on the cross-trainer. I've stopped using that piece of equipment, but if my toes are going to go numb anyway, then maybe I'll start up again.

I'm really looking forward to the end of Daylight Savings, when clocks drop back for an hour. I could really use another hour of sleep, if only I'd go to bed on time. Right. I recently found one of my favorite short story anthologies, Cold Snap by Thom Jones. I'd just read his obituary a few days ago and dug up the copy I'd bought way back in the 90s. Critics raved about his style, and the incredible way he was able to drag you along in his mania. I find a lot of comfort and dark humor in works like Thom Jones, Augusten Burroughs, and even Lauren Slater before she decided to take herself too seriously. Welcome to My Country was wonderful. Her later works, not so much. I loved Running With Scissors. My sister was horrified by the tone and the subject matter. The movie didn't really do it justice. Oh well...

Friday Workout

10 min elliptical
Warm up
0.82 miles
92 cal

15 rounds Nexersys
5 rounds each level

30 min elliptical
Program 3
2.45 miles
272 cal

HGPU  31

Photos posted for actual stats:

5 rounds Beginner
I'm quite disappointed in the Accuracy Score,

5 rounds Intermediate
The first round was crazy! And there was no coming back from it enough to compensate, number-wise anyway.

5 rounds Advance
It's nice the machine is telling me to Add Rounds and that I'm maximizing my workout. Some rounds are easier than others though.