At 7:27 there is no bus. By 7:35 I call and ask where the bus is. A few more minutes the woman on the phone tells me. It's already late. Ugh. The bus arrives at 7:42. The driver tells me that she'll be 5 minutes earlier tomorrow. Uh, that's 7:37, which is 10 minutes later than the official schedule. Ugh. And 5 minutes later than the original scheduled pick up time of 7:32 back in September, which, by-the-way, the bus has never been able to meet. Back at the house, I complain to the Transportation Dept. They don't understand why the drivers can't meet the schedule. They have new drivers and more buses now. I don't understand who wrote up the new schedules without, apparently doing a test run and consulting the drivers. Tomorrow I'm back to driving my son to school again.
The parking lot is more crowded than I'm used to. But I don't see a lot of the regulars, and not just because it's later in the morning. The Gym hosted a Holiday Party at a local bar last Saturday, and while my son and hubs were out doing a Boy Scout camping and hiking event, I forced myself to be sociable and meet a friend there. The gym handed out poker chips good for one drink, so I didn't have to spend any money. Unfortunately, the drink I truly desired seems to have fallen out of favor. The barkeep sympathized because he also likes Campari. I wasn't sure what else to order in place of Campari and soda. I've heard you can substitute Aperol (which at 11% has half the alcohol content), but honestly, I don't know what Aperol tastes like, or even if the bar would have that in stock. I asked for a Mojito. Oops, sorry we don't have any mint leaves. Ugh. I get a glass of cabernet, which I nurse for two hours. And then a glass of ice water, because I'm a fly-weight and it's Saturday night, which means there's a lot of cops and drunk people out there.While I'm at the party, I do speak to a few people that I've seen regularly. One was fellow who won the Gold's Gym challenge a few years ago. It turns out that right afterwards, he suffered a heart attack! Now he eats oatmeal everyday, and takes statins, but he's looking for some oatmeal variety. I tell him about poaching an egg in my microwave oatmeal. Savory! (Personally, I also like adding some arugula to the mix for a pleasantly bitter contrast.) My girlfriend and I also tell him about an Oatmeal cafe in the Village that we both saw on TV's Shark Tank.
A few minutes later I hear a woman exclaim, "She can do 20 pull ups!" Uh oh. That's probably me. It's the tall Brazilian woman I see most mornings. She always wears shorts, but she also has very long legs. I remember her complaining about how the gym should have a body bag for kickboxing. When Gym Owner installed one, I saw her at that station exactly once. Mostly she's on the treadmill. At the bar, she's surrounded by a bunch of women and one fellow who might be related to her somehow. They complain that their arms are too weak to do pull ups. I tell them it's not arms, but their back and core that needs to do the pulling. It's, as Spongebob will tell you, technique! They like the assisted pull up machine. I tell them it's bullshit and no one ever graduated to real pull ups from that. I also advise them to find a grip that works for them, because pull ups aren't about elbows. I doubt if any of them remember anything I told them, but that's okay.
The bar seemed almost like a HS mixer, except no dancing and way too many TV screens with a different football game on each. The Mayor hung out with Big Tank Guy, Little Pace and a few other guys at the actual bar. There were clusters of women. There were couples, because people brought their spouses and SOs. I didn't see M and Lazy Pedals though. I didn't see them this morning either. Last week, M was showing LP how to do DB Lateral Raises.
I do my Norwegian 4 x 4, pull ups, push ups and core before looking around the free weight area. The Smith is free, which is odd for a Monday. I switched to starting the week with a Pull Day because I couldn't get near the Smith (Mondays being Universal Bench Press Day). People may have gone on holiday already. I like the RDLs not just for back, but also for hamstrings. This week T Nation's Weekly Dose has an article about hamstrings that suggests pre-working them with leg curls before doing dead lifts. I'm toying with the idea, but today is not the day I put that into action. Instead, I revert back to old favorites: Smith RDLs and Smith RG BB Rows. I also do a few Lat Pull Downs, but I know I can't maintain my grip at the heavier weight. To compensate for hand fatigue, I skip the Seated One-Arm Cable Rows and finish with the RG BB Rows for forearms.And just to mix it up a tiny bit further, I skip the Mat Stretch and instead, spend a lazy 15 minutes on the cross-trainer. I call it LISS, even though, technically, you should do the Low Intensity Steady State cardio for 30 minutes, at 60% of max heart rate. When I figure out the numbers, it's a ridiculous 100 bpm (60% x 167.4). Hell, my heart rate is 120 just getting on the stupid machine. It also hovers in the 120-125 range for the entire 15 minutes. Ugh.
I hope I can get on the Smith tomorrow for Push Day... not that I need much help. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and thought, I do have some meaty arms!
Post-Party Monday
Norwegian 4x4
5 min w/u (4 min on / 3 min off) x 4
5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30, 33
Calories 270
Miles 2.56
HR 138, maximum 176 (low 109)
HGPU 25
Push Ups 50
Crunches 30/30
Bicycles 50
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Smith RDLs
Bar (30) x 15
80 x 12
100 x 12
120 x 12 x 3
Smith RG BB Rows
80 x 25 x 3
Lat Pull Downs (close neutral grip)
70lbs x 12
85 x 12
100 x 10
115 x 8
RG BB Curls
30lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets
15 min LISS Cross-trainer
Miles 0.88
Calories 100
HR 120-125
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