Gonna Feel It Tomorrow. Maybe.

West Point
in the distance

Yesterday was too hot and humid to actually do any yard work. Plus there was that threat of thunder, lightning and torrential rains. Not a good time to be outside with an electric weedwacker! I know the gas ones are cheaper and more efficient, but I'm just not big enough to handle one. (Picture giving one to your 10 year old!) Instead, I sat down and did a few chapters on the coursework I've been procrastinating to finish. Never mind the fact I've had the materials for nearly a year. Well, at least I'm getting it done. The rains did come, with wind, noise and flashes of electricity. Luckily, the storms didn't impact our grid although counties to the north and west got hit pretty hard.

It's a torrential downpour behind the tree
character. Tiny lights to his left are actually
on the other side of the Hudson River.

Later, the weather seemed to clear up so I went out to a theater production called The Heart of Robin Hood with a girlfriend. It was held in a big, open tent at Boscobel in Cold Spring, NY. You can see the Hudson, and even West Point from the vast gardens. After the intermission, the winds kicked up and the dark sky opened. Torrents of rain continued throughout the rest of the play. Sometimes so loudly that we couldn't actually hear any of the dialogue! It was still raining when we left. Thank goodness I always carry a flashlight, and was actually wearing boots and a raincoat. I'd also thoroughly sprayed myself with DEET and picaridin, because when it's not raining, the bugs are biting. Especially me: I have over a dozen bites on just my legs and feet from being inside my own house. Gnats, no-see-ums and sneaky mosquitoes all wend their way inside. It also doesn't help that we live on wetlands. Yesterday I tossed a couple of "mosquito dunks" into the standing water behind my house.

Today it's actually nice outside! But I'm headed to the gym. I can weedwack tomorrow. I don't actually get to the gym until a quarter past noon. Not as crowded today, probably because it's nice out. There's no one on the ellipticals so I get on the 2nd one, which is also the best of all 4. These machines are old and in need of servicing, but they'll probably get replaced with something less accommodating. Like what happened to the cross-trainers last year. Lately I've been refilling a disposable 20 oz water bottle. At least that fits in most of the cup holders, unlike my 3 liter one. Today I just about suck it dry. Even thought there's plenty of A/C inside, I'm still busting a sweat with all my exertions. Yeah, so much for easing back into my routine. It's that Gym Rat nature...

I confess that I was the tiniest bit sore yesterday from Monday's workout. That could've been so much worse! Elliptical Program 2 is a bit hard and I'm annoyed again that the heart rate monitor seems very sporadic in taking readings. I'm trying to stay within the accepted guidelines but find that nearly impossible when the monitor can't tell me what my heart rate is half the time. Ugh. And I don't wear trackers because nothing stays on without having a limb go numb.

At the Stretch Cage I decide that I ought to see how many pull ups I can do. But not necessarily all at once. I've never tried this approach before with pull ups. But it is how I used to do my push ups back in college. Start with getting 20 or 25. Rest. Try to get 15. Then 10. Maybe 5 next time? It adds up. (I told my brother to use this approach but of course, he didn't listen and consequently has injured himself. But at least the dietary advice seems to have made an impact, and he's less "skinny fat" although I'm sure his wife is upset that's he's lost 4 lbs. He's 6' 2" and barely 170 lbs. Well, less now.)

Baby weights on the Smith

For the 2nd round of HGPUs, I get to 10 and drop down. In the back of my mind I think I could've done 12, but not entirely certain of the form. I rest for a minute and go back for 8 more. Okay, that's more than I normally do in one set, so I feel pretty good. Push ups don't feel so great though. When I put my arms in their proper positions, my left elbow clicks painfully until I rotate it out. It's not totally perpendicular, just about 45° from the body. I only do 25 to save some energy for planks and the rest of my routine. I had my coffee this morning, and I had a dose of SuperBeets before anything else. But again, a scoop in 6 oz of water was tasty, but made me a little queasy afterwards. It did pass before I left the house though. But I wasn't in any mood to actually consume food. (Which of course meant my stomach was growling loudly before I get to shower later.)

There's not many people in the free weight area, and no one at the Smith. I decide I'm going to do RDLs there, but super light weight. Super light is all I can handle! I have to be careful with bouncing the plates off the Smith base at the bottom of the movement. Even though I'm pulling slightly less than my body weight, I'm sweating profusely, and breathing hard. Damn am I out of shape! Luckily, I don't feel that way when I move on to RG BB Rows. Breathing hard because it's 25 reps, but it's still the same 80 lbs I did 6 weeks ago. My arms feel quite tired by the time I get to the Seated Cable Row so 30 lbs is quite enough for me. I decide to stretch a bit afterwards to let my arms recover before attempting my last set of pull ups. Because I didn't quite make 50 reps today, and I'd really like to.

I don't even know if Gym Owner is going to replace the big blue mats. But stretching out on the tiny memory foam ones really kind of suck. And doing splits on the wood floor sucks too. My knees feel all bruised up so I stop after just a few stretches. Time for one more set of pull ups. And I'm so happy that I get more than 10, more than 12. Yeah, I'm probably gonna feel this tomorrow.

Solo Wednesday Pull

30 elliptical
Program 2
Calories 235
Miles 2.75
Average Heart Rate 132 (79%) /171 Oops!

HGPU 20, 10, 8

Push Ups 25
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Elbow Plank 60
Bicycles 50
Crunches 30/20

Smith RDL
Bar (30lbs) x 15
80 lbs x 12 reps
100 x 12 x 2 reps
80 x 12

Smith RG BB Rows
80lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets

Seated 1-Arm Cable Rows
30lbs x 12 reps x 3
(Surprisingly tired after set1)

HGPU 15