Moving On

The weather is ridiculous lately. It's currently 57F as I type, up 30 degrees from when I drove my son to school with fog and black ice warnings. This sunny warmth isn't going to last though, as the temps are forecast to drop back into winter later this week. I decide today's a good day to haul some extremely aged firewood into the house.

The gym isn't as crowded as I expected. Perhaps everyone is hung over from what I hear was a rather dull and unexciting Super Bowl game, commercials and half-time show included. This whole year already feels like a big rut, and not least because the Chinese food market we go to a few times a year has closed down. Apparently, the mall where they were located is slated to be torn down. Figures. And the store did not relocate. They just closed their doors. Ugh.

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year (of the Boar) and we normally buy dumplings, pork buns, roast pork, and roast duck. The next closest place was H-Mart, which I'm not overly fond of because they are expensive, and they're Korean. Which means they don't have all the items we would buy for Chinese New Year. I buy different brands of frozen dumplings but I'm not hopeful. There's no pork buns, no egg custard tarts, no red bean cakes or boxes of taro-filled mochi (sticky rice cakes). My husband is in Boston anyway, but I'd still like to make something a little special for my son.

I get on the elliptical and do the 4 x 4 HIIT cardio program. At least I'm warm when I'm done. Routine pull ups, push ups and core work. The trick to doing pull ups? Get your hands completely around the bars so that you can focus on your back. I have tiny hands, so most bars are too wide for me to get a good grip. That's why I love the Stretch Cage. It is the only place I can get my fingers completely around the top bars.

Class doesn't start for another 15 minutes so I have time to do my core workout. There are several women there already, with mats and DBs, doing their own communal routines. Some stay for the class, some like me, don't. The Smith is free so I do my standard Smith Inclined Press routine. At some point I'll get bored with it, but not when I do this only once a week. The Smith bar seems to stick in the tracks and both my left shoulder and right elbow complain. I haven't even put any weight on the bar yet! The bar glides better once I've added plates. My joints stop complaining.

Lazy Pedals and M are noisily chatting with a large middle-aged woman. I click my earbuds to increase the volume. The DB area is crowded with B and her gym hubs and his son, and a few other guys. Luckily, by the time I get there for DB supersets, they've moved on to another part of the gym. Then B comes back and M shows her core movement I've seen Spider Grandpa do. You grab overhead bars and pull yourself parallel, then twist your hips back and forth. This is called Hanging Wipers and variations of this movement can be found on the Redefining Strength website. Click here to visit that page.

from Redefining Strength 

Regulars like Ballet and PO Goatee bounce between stations. There are also a few women like Hollywood and tall, thin Ruffles. Ruffles has a monochrome tat of what looks to be curtain or petticoat ruffles on her left shoulder. She's been coming regularly for the past several weeks and spoke loudly about her impending divorce in the locker room. Uh, TMI!

The DB superset and Rip Skulls are routine today. I thought about doing V-bar press downs but my elbows weren't bothering me by the time I got to the skull crushers, and the wrong handles were attached to the pushdown stations. I suppose I could've grabbed someone tall to help me replace the handle, but when I looked around, there wasn't anyone in the area. I also could've dragged the big metal platform over to the station, but I've done that before, and it's no fun. Maybe I'm just lazy today, or maybe I haven't decided to move on yet. The last two reps of the last set were a bit tenuous, as were the last two reps of the Inclined Press. It's probably time for a change.

Change is hard. I'm an overthinker, so change is really hard. I'd been stuck in a holding pattern since last week until I got word about my last quiz. Sadly, I didn't quite make the cutoff so that's both a disappointment and a relief. Now I can move on. I'm easily distracted by things I think I should be doing, especially if they're physical. Actual physical actions like doing laundry, cleaning dishes, shopping for groceries, hauling firewood are all so much easier to accomplish than sitting at my laptop to study, or write. And I find it impossible to write if someone's in the same room as I am. Crazy, right? My house is so small that I don't have a place to close the door literally and figuratively, and I'm not typing in the bathroom. I can manage this blog, but it takes me a while. Writing other things takes much longer and needs more quiet. I think I'm becoming a hermit. If we ever move, I'd like a room where I can close the door just to write. Didn't Virginia Woolf famously write about that?

Post SB 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 2.57
HR average 134 maximum194 (105-115)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 23

Push Ups 50
Crunches 30/30
Bicycles 50
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
90 x 12, 12, 12
60 x 25

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

Rip Skulls
(Happy with 8+)
40 lbs x 12, 12, 12

Mat Stretch