Loss of Focus

I took my car to the Valvoline because not only was it sort of due for an oil change, but I figure they could check my tire pressures since the dashboard sensor light came on last night. I also asked them to flush the engine and use a cleaner before replacing the oil. I'd read in online forums that it might the gunky oil residue that causes the Check Engine warning. The tires are barely below pressure, but at least there are no obvious punctures. I normally don't take my car in for an oil change until close to 7000 miles. I'm barely at 3, because I don't drive a lot. But I'm not handy enough to do my own oil change and flush. And what would I do with all the refuse? I was in a relationship once where he insisted that I change my own oil. What a miserable experience trying to drive my car up onto ramps, then climbing underneath to unscrew the oil filter with a drain pan to catch the mess. No thanks!

I'm better off getting the grease monkeys to do this. But of course, they have to try to upsell me on a transmission flush as well. Uh no, it's not called for as per Subaru's service manual guidelines. The tech persists and I tell him 4 times "No, I don't want it." I do have a coupon that takes 10% off the bill, and $8 off the oil change so I leave the place relatively unscathed. If this works, then I've saved myself $717 for a complete crank case replacement, which is what the auto repair place quoted to me after resetting my Check Engine sensor. They also could've suggested doing an engine flush with a cleaner, but they didn't. And I noticed.

I get to the gym mid-morning. The cross-trainer is surprisingly smooth and QUIET. What? It wasn't like this yesterday when a lady on the treadmill upfront kept looking over her shoulder and giving my machine the evil eye. Something got fixed! I do pull ups and push ups and then head over to the Smith for RDLs. Everything goes according to schedule, except that I either wait too long between sets or lose focus, or both when I get to my heaviest set. On rep 3 I feel my lower back start to radiate little strings of distress. I tighten my body and finish two more reps. Because this makes me really nervous, but I don't want to just walk away defeated, I drop the weight slightly and do another minimal set. And again. These other reps don't feel bad, but I can already feel a disturbance echoing through my lower back and hip. Ugh.

I still knock out my RG BB Rows, but I'm very careful about how I position myself. The gym is getting really crowded, especially the DB area. I decide to skip DB Rows and opt to do some light One-Arm Seated Cable Rows. I make the mistake of approaching one of the seated rowing stations attached to the cable complex. It looked empty. Suddenly Napoleon comes running over, frantically yelling he's got one more set. I don't care. I tend not to be very expressive when I'm focused on getting my workout done. I wave him off and I drop my gear on the other rowing station. There's one particular handle that I like because it's lighter and smaller than all the others but I can't find it, so I use the one already attached to the 2nd station.

Toward the end of my first set, Napoleon materializes with the double handle that had been attached to the rowing station he was on. I'm in mid-row for godsakes. WTH? He's mouthing something about if I wanted to use it. But I don't. And I'm not in the mood to pull out my earbud and explain this to him. He stalks off defeated. I call him Napoleon because he's short. But he's not the only short guy at the gym. I call him Napoleon because he was the idiot who interrupted me while I was on the Stretch Cage some time ago. I was getting myself psyched to do some pull ups. He's trying to show off to some girl. He doesn't actually do anything at the Stretch Cage except dangle from one arm. As soon as he got done with whatever that was, I did my pull ups. He was surprised, and embarrassed. And I didn't see him at the gym for a good year. Now he's back. And I assume, trying to make up for being an ass. But if you want to apologize, then actually apologize! (Of course people don't know how to do that anymore. Just like they don't teach etiquette in school anymore.) Maybe he thinks I don't remember what a jerk he was? Or maybe, I'm at the gym to work out and when I focus on my workout, I'm not interested in chatting or hanging out. How about that?

Of course, there's probably a fine line between being rude and just being oblivious. I don't mean to be rude. I re-rack all my weights. I wipe down my bench. But I don't share. Because sharing means you have to have a conversation. Ugh. The gym is crowded with regulars. I see The Mayor, for the first time, warming up on the Arm Bicycle. Little R always does some 5lb plate shoulder rotation warm ups. I see a few other regulars do 10-15 minutes of cardio beforehand. I'm the only crazy doing a full sweaty 35 minutes of cardio before hitting the weights. My lats are sore even before I do weights today. Odd though, because yesterday was a Push Day. Except for the pull ups. Well, there's always pull ups... The gym scale says 111.4 lbs today. Still too much but so much better than yesterday. I'm not sure about tomorrow. It'll be either Cardio or Kickboxing. It's a coin toss...

Wednesday

35 xtrainer
Calories 169
Miles 4.65
Average Heart Rate 155

HGPU 26
Push Ups 60

Smith RDLs
Bar(30) x 15
80 x 12
120 x 12
140 x 12
160 x 6 (lower back rep 3!)
150 x 5 (cautious)
140 x 6

Smith RG BB Rows
80 x 25
100 x 25
120 x 25

Seated 1-Arm Cable Rows
45lbs x 12
Left arm twinges lower rt hip
52.5 lbs x 12 (elbows feel funky)
45 x 12