I'm sure he's looking for the feral cats. Or roadkill. He's good at dragging me off to examine the latest smushed little body. The last one was a victim of feline foul-play, because what else would behead and disembowel a vole, and leave it out on the leaf litter for all to see? Wild animals are usually hungry animals, and hungry animals eat their kills. This is someone's house pet. At least my dog keeps watch over the bird feeder and barks an alarm should he see something slinking through the hedges. When he's not sleeping.
I get to the gym after the morning rush. My favorite cross-trainer is available and I pedal 20 minutes there. Today is a Cardio Day and I want to take advantage of all the available machines. At some point I'll have to try the new treadmills. The gym owner says it's quite the workout when angled at the proper 30° (that not one user is doing). Afterwards, I actually do a set of pull ups at the Stretch Cage, but I'm careful to keep my elbows flexed the entire time so as not to put undue stress on my injury. It seems to work because I don't feel any discomfort. At the Mat, I do my push ups first, then core. Whew! Got my 80 done without too much worry. It's been easier in the past, when I used to do push ups every day. I should go back to that. (If my hubs would clear the lumber and ladders from under the pull up bar in the garage, I'd actually consider working out at home on more temperate days. But I'd miss the great hot water and water pressure at the gym. Plus, I don't have to clean the shower there!)
I feel the need to work shoulders today so I revise my workout to include Front DB Raises. Nix on any sort of pressing movement. Because I haven't done these in literally years, I start off very light with a pair of 15 lb DBs. A set of 12 has a wee bit of initial discomfort in the right shoulder but it fades. Then I grab the 20 lb DBs and do 12 lateral raises. Last, I grab a pair of 25s for Reverse Inclined DB Flyes. So I have 3 separate pairs of DBs all at my feet, and my hoodie draped over the Inclined Bench. Thank goodness the gym is virtually empty. I'm being a DB Hog today!
I see Flirty Girl doing squats and lunges at the other end of the gym. She's gotten lean and her back and shoulders have nice definition. Perhaps she's working on a physique show? She's been chunkier in the past. But her leanness is coming at a cost: her arms are looking awfully skinny today. I'd like to be a bit leaner, and somehow I don't think I'd lose all that much muscle. But I look back on photos from 5 years ago when I was at my lightest (106 lbs), and dang, I was scrawny! Privately, I flex my arms to see if I still have biceps. Yep, hard little baseballs nestled between elbows and shoulders. I'm sure eating liverwurst and swiss didn't help the body fat cause, but I'm less married to the idea of being shredded than I am to being strong and injury-free. Of course, I still want to look good though.
I do 20 minutes of Intervals on the elliptical. Then move down the line for 15 minutes of Octane Laterals. I feel a bit uncoordinated doing this machine because I just barely fit. And then I move down to the Step Mill. There are two and one is occupied by a young fellow who started when I was on the elliptical. I plan to do another 15 on the Step Mill, but I get bored and need to spice up the stepping with variations, like side-stepping or cross-stepping. He's just plodding. But when he's done, he spends an impressive amount of time spraying down the machine and wiping it off. I have to skip the Stretch Cage when I'm done because the old guy who spends 20 minutes staring into his phone while bending his leg is now planted there.
The guy from the Step Mill is actually on the adjacent side Mat. There's a middle-age lady foam rolling her entire body on the other side Mat. I have the big Mat in front, which is my preferred mat anyway. I do most of my routine, but skip the end where I have to pull out my hair clip in order to lay flat on my back. Meanwhile, older regulars have appeared for their lunch hour workouts. Frankenstein's greasy shoulder length crown of hair has been shorn short enough so that it sticks out reminiscent of Bozo the Clown. Except it's not orange. Yesterday the Whil Wheaton doppleganger jogged on the treadmill in front of me wearing faded camo shorts. When he adjusted his waistband I could see the word MARINES printed in big block letters across his back side. There are Marine insignias on the back of each thigh. Now I really wonder what kind of ink he's got all down his arms. Hhhmmm, I never took WWd to be a Marine, but I'm not totally surprised. There's a sizeable number of guys here wearing FD T-shirts. That stands to reason since firefighters have to be in awesome shape, not that these guys are. But some of them are fairly impressive. The gym scale reads 109.7 lbs. I'm okay with that. I haven't been trying to lose body fat lately although I should probably take this more seriously. I read the obits and realize that no matter how wealthy you are, no matter how brilliant you are, if your time is up, well, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Of course, you don't need to hurry it along, and maybe all those little life choices actually do help you to live a long and active life. My grandmother lived to be 93. Will I? Dunno. She needed to be cared for by my uncle and his family during the last years, so I'd say really, she lived to be 88. I guess it's whatever helps you sleep at night... Or not.
Friday St Pats Cardio Day
5.94+ miles
20 min x-trainer
Calories 95
Miles 2.52
Average Speed 7.51
Average Pace 7:59
Average Heart Rate 152
HGPU 31
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 80
Crunches 3 x 60
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
DB tri-set Front Lateral Rear
15/20/25 lbs x 12/12/15 reps x 3 sets
20 min elliptical
Intervals
Calories 209
Miles 1.82
15 min octane + 2 min cool down
Calories 118
Miles 1.60
37 floors
15 min StepMill
Floors 48
Calories 114
775 steps
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