Regrets, I've Had A Few

I was hoping to beat my hubs to bed last night because I can't sleep when he turns his audio book on. He like to sleep to the soothing voices. I just lie awake until the hour has passed. If I happen to be in bed before him, he puts his headphones on. Last night I fell asleep watching TV in the livingroom, waiting for nothing but silence to emanate from the bedroom. Watching the 3rd episode of Instinct, I realized that the program is trying to emulate, not very successfully I'm afraid, popular shows like Castle and Lucifer. They all have attractive female police detectives, and decidedly atypical male partners. Unfortunately, I suspect the pitch for Instinct included the "but he's openly gay" twist. That's not really novel, except maybe in cop shows. And he's a professor and author, and oh yes, he has a CIA history and contacts in the Intelligence community. Well, he has one contact who is his go-to for all answers to secret files. It's lazy writing, even if it is based on a series by James Patterson.

At midnight, I roused myself and went to bed. Still, morning came too early. Especially since I had a Visual Field test at 10 am. If I'm tired, I worry that I won't see the tiny flashes of light and my test will read more poorly than it should. It's ironic that my right eye, the dominant one, has sharper vision than the left. It also has a slight yellowy tinge which is noticeable to me only when I'm looking at snow, or white paper, with my left eye shut. Which means the right eye, the good eye, has a thicker cataract with more discoloration. I told the doc to do the left eye first for the cataract surgery, now scheduled for early June. It's got the fuzzier vision, but just by a skosh.

The tests are done in record time and I'm headed to the gym by late morning. On a busy local road, I see a vehicle in the middle of an intersection. The driver side door is open. Oncoming traffic creeps past. A big black pick up sit parked on the oncoming shoulder. As the car in front of me gingerly pulls around to the right, we see several men behind the stopped vehicle. There is a bicycle crushed underneath the front passenger wheel. A man is lying in the road, flat on his back with one leg bent and his eyes wide open. I'm 50 yards past when a rescue vehicle barrels down the oncoming road. The driver ahead and myself both pull off to the right. With a wailing siren and flashing lights, the EMT is stuck behind a white sedan who doesn't know how to pull over. WTF? Later, I read online that the fellow has been hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. Whew.

I make it to the gym still thinking about the bicyclist. I don't remember seeing a helmet. I'm still looking to see what happened to the white car that got pinned by a huge flatbed just down the street from our house. We have some horribly windy, twisty roads that don't have shoulders due to either steep drop-offs into wetlands, or rocky outcrops. The westbound flatbed appeared to have clotheslined the eastbound white sedan, just by dint of their unfortunate positioning on the road. I was less that a quarter mile from my house, but I had to turn around and drive into town just to find an alternate route home. But there's nothing in the local news about it, so all must be well...

The gym is mostly empty and that makes me happy. Yesterday, a woman I casually greet in the locker room intercepts me between cardio and the Stretch Rack. She's recounting a friend's tales of woe. Another story of broken toes. This is the 2nd tale of toes I've heard this week! The woman just won't stop talking, and I feel myself cooling down. Ugh. Can I inch over to the Stretch Rack without seeming too rude and indifferent? I can't help it if people are stupid and won't turn the lights on when stumbling around in the middle of the night. I can't help it if people won't see medics, continue to put stress on broken digits and then wonder why they're in so much pain and not healing. At that moment, I instantly regret ever speaking to the woman at all. (I'm really glad she's not at the gym today.) I almost laughed when she said that she offered to help carry stuff for her friend, because she said, "I lift weights. I'm strong." I've seen the weights she lifts. She's not strong. Maybe she's stronger than she used to be, but she's not strong. Still, she's probably stronger than the supermarket cashier who had trouble lifting a 9 lb pork shoulder into a bag. "Oh my gosh, that's soooo heavy." She was using both hands and still couldn't manage. I don't think I smirked when I grabbed it with one hand and tossed it into my shopping bag. But I'm rambling. Because today is Cardio Day. Or Leg Day. Or both.

I start with the cross-trainer. After 18 minutes, the machine finally registers a number (142) under the HR window. But at the end, it doesn't give me average or maximum heart rates. I'm actually a little sore all over. Including my legs. Because I still haven't decided exactly what I'm doing, I do the next easiest thing: pull ups. Then basic core stuff. There's a fellow on the Smith so I decide to do Intervals on the elliptical. But I always cut the time on my second and third cardio events to 20 minutes or less. These are hard. I'm tired. But only momentarily. The Smith is empty now so I can try out positioning myself better under the bar. I put my hoodie back on because I don't want the squat bar or the pad touching my bare skin. Yucky. I've read several pages of Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength and note his advice regarding bar, shoulder, back, toes and hand positioning.

I have major issues with my right shoulder so I don't have the flexibility it takes to put my arm into the right position to hold the bar properly. My hand is at the far end of the bar and my shoulder and elbow hurt. My wrist is bent oddly because I can't get the angle of my elbow in the correct position. My left arm is fine. The stress of these attempts not only makes my shoulder ache, but strains my elbow and wrist. Ugh. I have to move the bar higher up my back. I do the movement with the bar at first, but the Smith behaves better with a little weight so I add a pair of 10s. I keep adjusting the angle of my back and feet until I feel the push upwards less in the front quads and more in the hams and glutes. Actually, I never really feel the glutes. After each super light weight set, I have to shake out my right arm. (I suppose I could just do Air Squats. Those are super easy ATG.) When I switch to Split Squats, with the bent back leg, foot on the floor, my knees are what complains. But I've always had funky, finicky knees...

I have had a bad right shoulder for decades, injured from bad form and heavy weights years and years ago. I've done behind-the-neck-lat-pull-downs and other ruinous movements. There's a lot of scar tissue there and I've never found a chiropractor willing to tackle its limitations. Because for most normal use, the shoulder works just fine. I don't flat bench press anymore either. Because when I go heavy, I tend to injure my right shoulder. So, I'm perfectly happy with doing monster reps at an incline. And maybe I'll up the push ups from 60 to 80. I used to knock out a 100, but suffered an injury trying a push up variation. So now it's just plain ol' boring push ups. At least I can still do those! I'm past making gains. Now I'm trying to avoid injury and maintain strength and flexibility.

I'm halfway up the Step Mill when the old guy finally gets off the one Expresso Bike I actually fit into. The other bikes are older, and don't adjust for someone as short as I am. Now that I've figured out what the ride descriptors mean, I can choose more intelligently. I select Fruitdale because it's double the length I normally pedal, but with a slight elevation rise (39 ft). I'm staying clear of rides that show triple digit elevation (350 ft) because those are too hard on my knees. I feel good when I cross the virtual finish line with enough bouncy energy for a Mat Stretch. Even the gym scale is nicer today, reading 110.8 lbs.

When I get home, I pull the black memory-foam tips off my MPow ear buds. Even though they are super comfy, they adjust to my ear canals in such a way that causes the whole hanger to rotate forward. When I replace the foam with the standard silicone ear tips (3 different sizes), I don't have any issues with the hangers. Now I'll have to test the standard tips in actual gym conditions to see if they'll still block annoying ambient voices. Probably not tomorrow though. We're forecast to get snow and rain. And the electrician is suppose to pour a concrete pad for the new generator. Yep. Happy Spring!

Cardio Thursday

30 x-trainer
Calories 241
Miles 3.50

HGPU 26
Push-ups 60
Elbow Plank 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Elbow Plank 60s

20 elliptical
Intervals
Calories 205
Miles 1.80
Average Heart Rate 148 / 190

Smith Squats
Super light for positioning
Bar (30) x 12
Definite lack of right shoulder and elbow mobility. Leads to hurt wrist.

Higher back position (quads)
Bar x 12
50 x 12 x 3
(Adj bar position each set to activate glutes and hams)

Smith Split Squats
Bar x 12 ea leg

Expresso Bike
Fruitdale 4.43 miles / 39 ft
Time: 22:40
118 calories