Happy GroundHog Day! 6 More Weeks of Winter!

It's remarkably warm for February although I still wear my beat up, old down coat outside. And a fleece hat, and gloves. There's still large swathes of snow covering unpaved areas in spite of the 35+°F temps. I wake up to a gray sky and I'm happy that mornings will come sooner and brighter. The half moon window in the bedroom faces east and during the late Spring, the sun pokes you in eye as you lay in bed. But not yet. At least it's not dark as night when I take the dog out.

My shoulder still hurts when I get up, but not as badly as yesterday. I rethink my desire to whack the machine and reschedule that workout for tomorrow. Another day might be better for the joints. But I'm still headed to the gym. Normally I'd do a light Push Day, or a LeftOvers workout but I'm shying away from things that hurt, like Pressing. Even the DB Laterals were causing some unexpected distress in my upper arms. And because I really want to smack the Nexersys at some point this week, I'm okay with resting. And by resting, I mean doing just a cardio day, with body weight exercises.

My favorite cross-trainer is occupied so I slip into the one next to it. It's a bit rougher on the knees and feet, but I can manage to do 30 minutes. When I get off, my toes are numb and tingly. Then pull ups. I feel weak today. My glutes and thighs are a teensy sore. I only make it to 34 reps. Ugh. That's a bit disappointing, but still better than 31! The Stretch Cage faces the cardio platform where the treadmills are all lined up. A fellow looks surprised when my face pops up past the top of the Stretch Cage, and Maroon, who is on the adjacent treadmill, laughs. I can clear the bar to get my chin up past the roof for a good 20 reps. The next 12 have me pulling to my nose. The last two have me struggling to get my eyes past the bar. Ugh! But I'm still counting them!

There is a new regular young woman in the gym. She watches with doleful eyes and I wonder if she's trying to figure out how to do pull ups. I see her on the various machines, always by herself. SadEyes seems relatively thin and athletic so I hope at some point she breaks away from Machine City and plays with the free weights. There's a lot of new faces. I don't know how many of them will last the year. Many regulars don't seem to make any progress...

The local HS must have Thursdays off because suddenly a swarm of boys crowds the gym. I'm glad I've already knocked out my push ups, crunches and knee-ins. Because regular push ups didn't hurt, or not until the very last set when I cut it short, I do the Bird Dog and Side Planks. They don't bother my shoulder either. I can hear The Mayor long before I spy his orange polo shirt. He always works out in a polo shirt. And for a time, he did a few minutes of cardio after pushing weights. But not lately. Someone calls out to him something about not hurting himself again. But why can I hear all this when I'm plugged in? I'm wearing the A8 Bluetooth earbuds today.

I'm alternating between the U8s (which sound fantastic and are easy to use) and the A8s, which sound better than the first pair I bought, but are still difficult to charge and control. They are a tad more comfortable, but the wire between the two earbuds is so long that I wind up wrapping it around my hairbun after I clip the braid to my head. If only they had made that wire shorter, and the charging wire longer. I still haven't written my revised review for Amazon yet. It's a bit finicky and I don't quite trust it... will it charge this time? will it turn on this time? And while it sounds better, I still detect a slight hissing with certain songs. Maybe it's the song? I'll have to listen with my wired Sonys to know for certain. Ugh...

Wil Wheaton

I see a new guy who looks like Wil Wheaton's younger, thinner-faced brother, only with a full sleeve of tats on his right arm, and half a sleeve on the left. Tats on his legs too. He's the only fellow I've ever seen wear bike pants that crop to the knees. Okay, he WAS just on the Espresso Bike for 15 minutes, but usually he's in the free weight area. And I'm impressed because he's the only guy I've seen so far who, after wiping down the equipment, actually applied hand sanitizer from the bottle at the front desk. Heck, even I didn't know that was there!

Just for fun, I decide to do 15 min on the Step Mill. It wasn't hard so I probably should've done 20 minutes. But it IS boring... even when I'm mixing things up by side-stepping or cross-stepping every 3 minutes or so...  The gym scale reads 110.4 lbs. Well, that's better but not great. So much work to do, but at least there's time to do it. 

Thursday
6.18 miles

30 min x-trainer
Calories 132
Miles 3.59

HGPU 34
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 100
Crunches 3 x 50

30 min elliptical
Program 2
Calories 295
Miles 2.59

HGPU 36
Push Ups 80
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Push Ups 50

15 min StepMill
Total steps 639
Calories 97
39 flights climbed