Happy Feast Day

I'm not going to the gym today, but I did manage to whack the machine yesterday. Because I had waaay too many errands on my list, I cut a few rounds out of my routine. My son also had early dismissal, which basically meant he got on the school bus at 7:13 and came home at 10:30. Each of his classes lasted all of 15 minutes, so it was basically a "no learning day" which allows the schools to collect Federal funds, but not actually provide anything except a vaguely social setting for kids. I tell my son I'll still be at the gym by the time he gets home. The truth is, I've barely arrived at the gym at that point, having had to sort laundry, dishes and cook a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread to handfeed the dog. I'm not sure if it's senility, but sometimes it takes a bit of coaxing to get him to eat. It's a good thing eggs are cheap again! (For lunch, I myself had two eggs over a bed of farro and it was delish!)

The dog is feeling much better now, but until this morning, he'd been getting up every night to pee and poop in the kitchen. Thank goodness we always have newspaper down under his food and water bowls, so it hasn't been horrible, but I'm tired of my kitchen smelling like a kennel. Yuck. Last night I put Tylan powder (that I keep on hand) in his chicken dinner. It's a bacteriostatic antibiotic that has worked to cure his runny poops in the past. Unfortunately, it doesn't taste very good, so afterwards, he wasn't very receptive to taking any pain meds by mouth. He actually spat the Metacam out. Sigh. So much for my dog sitter/vet tech telling me that dogs like the taste of it. Not my picky eater!

I'll need to try a different approach to his medications now that he's feeling more like himself again. But his head is still tilted slightly to the left, and the hip harness seems awfully loose around his rear. I need to feed him more and hope to gradually put some kibble back into his meals. He has a tender mouth, probably from chewing through chain link fencing in his younger days, so the kibble needs to be softened in water or broth. But it's good to see his tail wagging again!

Yesterday, I got slightly warm with 10 minutes on the elliptical. I always do 5 rounds of Beginner Follow Me on the Nexersys as an actual warm up. I find that my raspberry Asics have an internal seam that's chafing my bunion so I go back to plastering a big patch of moleskin on my foot before working out. Moleskin, paper tape, cloth wraps and then my pink Everlast kickboxing gloves are all I need to protect my hands. It seems like a lot of precaution, but at least my knuckles aren't bruised when I'm done. My hands are a bit sore though. I rub dit da jow on them in the evening, but I forget to file down my callouses. Ugh.

The machine is still flaky and penalizes me for striking when it gives a phantom prompt. It's harder to distinguish between valid commands and glitches when the pace picks up for the Intermediate and Advance rounds. I blank the machine a few times. Oh well...  I rarely see anyone on these machines, although the other day, a sweaty old guy stood in front of the machine and tossed a few quick combinations. When he left, the timer still had a minute and a half to go. Rounds are 3 minutes long so he left before the round was up. How old was he? Well, I'm guessing 65 from the head of gray hair and stocky build. But we all age differently, so he could've been older. Or younger. I'm lucky. So is my husband, because other than the expanding beer gut he's developing, he's fairly youthful looking.

I don't have time for the elliptical after whacking the machine, but I manage to muscle through pull ups. Since punching and kicking don't really exhaust the biceps and lats, I'm happy to get a few more reps. Yaaay me! Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday Workout

10 min elliptical
Miles 0.84
Calories 95.3

Nexersys kickboxing
Follow Me
5 r Bgn
3 r Intm
3 r Adv

HGPU 36

Photos posted for actual stats:

5 rounds Beginner
Always a great way to warm up!

3 rounds Intermediate
Phantom prompts mess with my Accuracy score!

3 rounds Advance
There are just some combinations that really throw me!