Post Orson

Winter Storm Orson was actually worse than Storm Niko, if only because the light fluffy snow was capped with a layer of heavy frozen rain. They call that sleet and it left a hard candy shell on everything including cars, trees and garbage bins. After the snow and rain had come and gone, alerts went out for a High Wind advisory, which in some ways is scarier because you never know which tree will drop a limb or fall over across the road. I shoveled my car out this morning, making good use of the two-hour school delay. My hubs had to go to his office, and then to Boston overnight for an early morning meeting tomorrow. So much for Valentine's Day. I have a red Old Navy T-shirt that says Heartbreaker on it. Maybe I'll wear that tomorrow?

My right shoulder and hip definitely don't like shoveling these days. But I get done what needs to be done. I drive my son to the school bus stop because all the slush and ice make walking down the hill a bit precarious, especially since he's carrying his viola and his backpack. The gym parking lot is virtually totally free of snow and I'm impressed. Management must've contracted with a better snow removal company because usually the lot is icy and only partially plowed. I've forgotten to pack my Bluetooth earbuds today although I have several pairs of wired headphones. But the case on my new iPod makes it difficult to manually adjust the volume so I opt to use my old square iPod with the unevenly wired Sony MDR-J20s.

I can't get on the cross-trainers at first so I do Program 1 on the elliptical for 30 minutes. I'm a space case today, having left my gear bag with my gloves inside my locker. Ugh. I can't do pull ups without gloves to protect my hands, especially the crease where fingers adjoin the palms. My arms are already tired from shoveling so I'm not surprised that pull ups are strenuous. All I'm asking for is more than 31, and I get it so I'm happy enough. Regular push ups don't bother me but I don't want to test my luck by pushing past 80 reps. Crunches and planks are fine too.

I drag the small flat bench over to the Smith, but it's a waste of time. I can bench the bar okay, but add a little weight and my shoulder complains vociferously. It's only 80 lbs and barely more than a dozen reps. So that's a no-go for high reps, low weight flat benching today. I swap out the flat bench for the bigger adjustable inclined bench. At first the warm up feels painful and I wonder how far I'm going to get. But as I add weight, my shoulder seems to settle down. Of course, I'm not pushing my luck here either and let it go with just a single set at 80 lbs. I already know that the DB Raises aren't going to be fun, so like last week, I use both a pair of 20s and 25s to get my delt work done.

Frankenstein is at the DB rack and I stop a good dozen feet behind him to let him put his weights back. At first he's about to drop the 25 pounders in the nearest slot, which is actually where the 15s go, but he pauses a moment and slides the DBs into the correct slot. Good boy! Maybe this Jedhi mind control thing works? Afterwards, he lumbers back to Machine City to finish his workout. I'm glad he's not lingering and staring.

There's a couple of new faces here today. One is wearing a form-fitting spandex long sleeve shirt and leggings. He's got quite the V-taper, like he's wearing a Superman suit. Because he's also wearing a watch cap low over his brow, I'm not sure if he's the blonde bodybuilder dude who usually comes in the evenings, and who I've seen at the local beach occasionally during the summer. There are other guys I recognize from the past few months... no one creepy though, so that's reassuring.

The power goes out and all the machines stop. Well, all the treadmills stop. You can still pedal the cross-trainer and the elliptical even without power, but you lose all your data. A few emergency lights come on. It's enough for the muscle heads to keep pushing weights. After Rip Skulls, I find the cross-trainer I like best and punch in 30 minutes. 7 minutes into it and the power goes out. So there goes my data, but I'm still pedaling... the power comes back on after 5 minutes and I try to adjust by tapping in 26 minutes. 7 minutes into it and that's 0.75 miles to add to my cross-trainer mileage. The treadmill people start running or walking again.

The lady who seems to have had a stroke is in the Stretch Cage. I know she won't be there too long but I don't want to rush her. I sit in the adjacent Torso Twist machine and do a set of 25 reps for each side with minimal weight. That happens to be 30 lbs. My shoulder is tired although not horribly achy by the time I get to my second set of pull ups. I catch myself miscounting and make up for it. Still, I manage to make it to 36 reps, although again, the last 4 are definitely not pretty. I see the Latin Lovebirds in a corner of the gym. He's coaching her on Preacher curls and her long skinny arms look like they need all the help they can get.

I do a quick modified Mat stretch routine to get the kinks out of my shoulders. A tall slender guy drops onto the end of my mat to do some flexibility moves. He's not bad. It's unusual to see younger guys doing that. Usually it's old guys who can barely bend over. I'm hoping the power stays on long enough for me to take a nice hot shower. The gym scale reflects this weekend's over-indulgences: 111.4 lbs. Ugh. It's hard for me to eat proper when my hubs is around because I want to make meals that the entire family enjoys, and he's a meat at every meal kind of guy. Oh well...

Monday
6.75 miles est

30 min elliptical
Program 1
Calories 289
Miles 2.56

HGPU 35
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 80
Crunches 3 x 50
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s

Smith Flat Bench
Bar x 15
80 x 15 right shoulder
Smith Inclined Bench
Bar x 16 hands placed shoulder width
50 x 13 slight discomfort
60 x 13 less discomfort
70 x 12 okay / gym lights go out
80 x 13 shoulder ok

DB Laterals s/s Rev Inclined Flys
20/25 lbs x 12/15 reps x 3 sets

Rip Skulls
40 lbs x 12 x 3

30 min x-trainer + 7 min
Calories 125 +
Miles 3.46 + .73 = 4.19 miles
Average Speed 7.97
Average Pace 7:31

Torso Twist
2 x 30 lbs x 25

HGPU 36