Squeezing It All In

After I got my son off to school, I sorted laundry, cleaned a few dishes and then separated the one giant bag of unloved clothes into three smaller, more manageable kitchen garbage bags. That's my first stop because it's the one farthest from the house, in the opposite direction from the gym. I stop off at my dentist and drop a few postcard invitations on them. I also need to cash a check so I can have cash in my wallet. My bank insists that I use my debit card at least 10 times a month or they charge me a service fee. So I use it for the smallest of purchases, even if it makes more sense to use cash. But after sending out birthday and graduation cards, I'm cash poor. Chinese like to send money, not checks.

Then off to the one grocer that carries our beloved Chabasco ciabatta bread baked fresh in New Haven. The store windows are haphazardly bare and I know it's finally happened: the store is closing. Their lease expired at the end of March, but unlike the surrounding stores, they chose to fight to stay open. However, the store that is replacing them is exponentially bigger, with greater resources, and sway over the Town Planning board.

At the other end of the strip is the struggling Kmart. My son needs pants that aren't plaid flannel. I can't find any black ones that are lightweight enough, so I pick up two gray ones. One is a boy's XL, and the other a men's Small. I have no idea which one will fit him so I buy both. The price tag for the boy's pants says $14.99 and the men's $24.99. I'm not happy with the huge difference in price, but I am totally surprised and pleased that they ring up together for under $20. What?

I'm finally on my way to the gym and get there a bit before lunch time. The gym is again oddly empty. There are a few regulars. I'm one of them. I'm also tired. The heat makes it hard to sleep even with cooler night time temps and a fan blowing over my bed. I cut my warm up cardio to just 15 minutes, and it's enough to make me both sweaty and have numb toes. A set of pull ups makes me happy. Then knee-ins. I should do crunches, but I don't. Instead, I just do one set of push ups. Some bozo has left 45 lb plates on the Smith, and walked away. I don't see anyone near the equipment so I strip the plates. The racks are haphazardly loaded. That always annoys me.

Today I remember to warm up my shoulders with the T, Y and I baby dumbbell exercises. I should probably add face-pulls to my routine but the cable station is too difficult to rearrange to my height. And I hate having to ask for help just because I can't reach. Yep, height-challenged and pissed off about it.

I grab a flat bench and after using just the bar, decide to start with a pair of 25s. It feels fine so I keep pressing, all the way to 25 reps. That didn't feel bad at all. But now what? I'm wary of stressing the shoulder, so I do something totally different. I go for sets of high reps today. Which means I should be able to get 25 reps next week when I do a regular ascending routine. No promises though. I do a few sets of Inclined Presses, but the shoulder's not happy with those. Okay, that's more normal. I did delts yesterday, so looks like I can either do something big, like RDLs or small, like Rip Skulls. I choose small. Because I'm actually kind of tired. So tired that I only do 20 minutes on the elliptical. But I can still get a last set of wide hammer grip pull ups, although today I'm struggling with the last 2 reps. My back is also a tad sore. I'm not sleeping all that well.

Next week is the last week before we go white water rafting with the Scouts. It's also the last full week I'll have to get my prints matted and framed. It's too hot to do this now, but once temps drop into the more reasonable 60s, I'll be like a machine.

Friday
3.57 miles

15 min x-trainer
Calories 70
Miles 1.85

HGPU 26
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 50

T, Y & I Raises
3lbs x 15
5lbs x 15

Smith Flat Bench
Bar x 15
80 lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets

Smith Inclined Bench
Bar x 15
50 x 15
70 x 15 right shoulder twinge

Rip Skulls
40lbs x 8 reps x 3

20 min elliptical
Program 3
Calories 195
Miles 1.72

Wide HGPU 15