Is It the Season?

Walking around Bear Mountain Park with my son's class was a lot of fun last week, but I noticed my sciatica flared a bit on the uphill portion. Temps dropped into the teens on Friday and my son and I both stayed inside. Periodically I have trouble with my eyes in that they feel really stiff. I'm not sure if it's the side effects of the glaucoma medication I'm taking, or something else, but it's hard to focus on reading when eyeball movement seems strenuous. It's not eye strain as the muscles don't ache. Maybe it's super dry eye? I use some OTC eye lubricating drops, which helps a bit.

My reading glasses are a last resort for making faint gray type legible. (If I use them too long, I have a lot of trouble refocusing my eyes for distance, which is a big problem when I'm driving my son back from kung fu now that it's dark so early. I don't have as much trouble if I don't use the glasses. Weird, right?) But my nose is drippy and drat! I've got a mild case of vertigo. Again. Ugh. My ear plugs and pops repeatedly, then clears. I still have vertigo, but only when I bend over. Well, this is really inconvenient.

My drippy nose is irritated and I worry about the irregularity at the tip of one of my nostrils. The skin is just slightly thickened there and I keep mistaking it for snot I've got to remove. I dab it with a cotton swab dipped in tea tree oil. My nose is pink at the rim, but I don't think anyone notices except me. My son has an appointment with a new dermatologist this week, and I'm thinking of making an appointment for myself to get this skin in my nose checked out. I'm worried it's a wart or some other viral entity that might lead to something potentially disfiguring and lethal. Because I'm a hypochondriac. And if HPV can cause cervical and oral cancers as well as genital warts, then who knows what other viruses can do? It's bad enough that I have a dark spot that bloomed on my cheek a few years ago. And a skin tag that appeared this year in the crease of my eyelid. I'm prone to cold sores, and apparently shingles so maybe I'm not being silly.

When I get to the gym, I overhear some ladies, who are probably a tad older than me, discussing the fact that they get seasonal bouts of vertigo. I keep my mouth shut because I don't have anything to add. Maybe it's some sort of late season allergy? I've had vertigo during the summer months, but not this summer. I'm thinking it was February before that, but maybe my memory is faulty. Perhaps it's the sudden change in temperature? Regardless, there's not a lot I can do about it, except be really careful not to fall.

The cardio area is surprisingly empty for a Monday. I'm here a bit earlier than normal, and only creepy PJ Pants is on the treadmill. I do my cardio session and then pull ups and push ups. All the weight-training advice forums state to do cardio AFTER weights, but that doesn't work for me. I have to do the thing I hate most first or else I won't do it. And that's cardio. Plus, doing 10 reps at a light weight isn't a warm up. Not for me anyway. I'm just a contrarian.

The Smith looks abandoned except for the 25 lb plates on the bar. No one's been there for the past 10 minutes so I claim it by draping my hoodie over the inclined bench under it and stripping off the plates. I see the smaller flat bench, but I don't want to lay flat down, especially now that I'm prone to nasty dizzy spells. Ugh. The rest of my workout is routine. I do my Reverse Inclined Flyes inside the Smith because that's where the 2nd adjustable inclined bench is. The Mayor is on the one in the DB area, and I tend to avoid any place he's to be found chatting. He and LoudMouth are mind-numbingly loud. (I'm ordering some sleep ear plugs too, because the best sleep I've had in weeks was the one night my hubs was camping with my son. My hubs doesn't always snore, but after a few beers something gets loose and sloppy in his throat and the noise is ridiculous. I hope the ear plugs work.)

My sciatica seems stalled. Not better, not worse. At least it's not spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal column that puts pressure on nerves. (Oh, hey, just like the sciatic nerve! Ugh.) My dad developed that as he got older. He'd been extremely active as a young man, and he had liked to walk a lot (he was a terrible driver). He wasn't one to complain much, but after he passed away, we discovered fentanyl patches in his nightstand. It didn't look like he had ever used them, and we tossed them in the trash. My dad was acutely uncomfortable being dependent on any sort of chemical or drugs. He liked to say he was too proud. It's probably where I get my stubbornness from. Luckily, there appear to be treatment options for this ailment, should it come to that. Of course, I'm seriously hoping that this is just me getting too ambitious with the RDLs. So, I'm taking it easy and laying off these types of stressors.

Tomorrow I'm planning a Cardio and Core day, even though, miraculously, the other Nexersys seems to be working. Perhaps Gym Owner got nervous when he saw me snap a few photos of the broken machine last week? I'm not sure that the Cross and Jab are working properly though, but I won't find out until I give it a whack. I hope I'm not disappointed.

Monday

35 x-trainer
Calories 168
Miles 4.62
Average Heart Rate 156

HGPU 26
Push Ups 60

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
80 x 12
90 x 8 x 3 sets
60 x 26
50 x 25

BB Front Raises s/s Upright Rows
20 lbs x 12/15
25 x 12/15reps x 3 sets

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes
20/25lbs x 12/15reps x 3 sets

Rip Skulls
40lbs x 12reps x 3sets