post Winter Storm Wayne workout

The meteorology department has gotten better at forecasting winter storms. Snow started falling at exactly 5 pm on Sunday and didn't let up until the wee hours Monday morning. Because there was at least a foot of wet, heavy snow school got canceled. But people still had to get to work, so the roads were pristine. My hubs left for Boston and I had to unbury my car so my son could join his friends sledding later. It took me an hour to clear the snow down to the pavement. Temps rose into the high 30s with crisp blue skies and blinding sunlight. Today I woke to 7F. At least it was still brilliantly sunny.

I tend to spend a lot of time on things I enjoy (don't we all?) and that includes working out, writing this blog, and fussing over semi-creative projects like materials for our Scout Troop. Which means I went to bed much too late last night while wrestling with a preliminary Troop newsletter, a new item I'd like to see incorporated into our communications. When the alarm goes off, I want to hit the snooze and sleep for another hour, but that's not possible if I'm to drive my son to school.

I am more tired than I should be, but I've never let that stop me from a planned routine. HIIT cardio first, then pull-ups, push-ups, core and then I see if the Smith is available or not. I've been reading up on Raynaud's syndrome, and I seem to fall into the atypical category. My fingers and toes don't turn purple but they do become electrically numb in the cold. I recently experienced painful spasms in my fingers because the wash water was too hot. That's never happened before. I get cold if I sit too long. Poor circulation? Get more exercise? Get serious!

Connective tissue disorders would appear to explain my genetically-linked compression issues, but I don't think a rheumatologist would be helpful because they're so focused on arthritis and osteoporosis. Those are not issues for me. Having my hands and feet go numb all winter long is. When you say that, the first thing people think of is diabetic neuropathy. But I'm not diabetic. At least I don't have EDS (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome)! I've become much more sensitive to compression, and that's not at all convenient. Especially lifting weights. Today my right center palm hurts when I hold the BB over my head. That's never happened before either. Ugh. 

During HIIT cardio, I notice my toes going numb during the peak phase. Sometimes my fingers go numb as well. I'm still fascinated by the pulse rate monitor dropping from 179 to 129 in a matter of seconds. At one point, all the numbers across the dashboard are the same and I wish I had one of those Google glasses that takes a photo of what you're viewing because the SPMs (strides per minute), calories and pulse rate are all 183. I think that's kind of cool. Probably not so cool that my pulse is up over 180. Keeping my pulse down around 159 is boring as hell, and I don't actually feel as if I'm getting a decent aerobic workout. I just hope I'm not damaging my heart.

My warmup routine is routine. I got to the gym late so I have to do core in the stretch area near the utility closet instead of the classroom. WannaBe is stretching out, and I admit that she does have a good one, getting her elbows to the floor (like I can) and then reaching with an elbow to the opposite foot. Because I'm not supposed to keep my head below my heart due to my glaucoma, the movement is only something I'm interested in looking at, but not doing. I'd rather sit on the floor with my legs spread out wide and reach over each leg with an opposing elbow. This keeps my head above my heart but still stretches my back and shoulders.

I catch a better look at her face and am shocked to see how hollow her eyes are under the brow bone. That's a sign of age (as is a wrinkly throat -- the reason Karl Lagerfeld always wore stiff white collars to hide his neck). Hmmm. Perhaps WannaBe is older than I thought? Either that, or she's not aging well. Later, as I'm doing my Inclined Presses at the Smith, I see that WannaBe has a hapless woman in tow. The woman is morbidly obese, but gamely trying to do a few reps on the Breaker Bench. The Oly bar weighs too much so WannaBe puts a 30 lb BB in her hands. She might've also tried to have her do Inverted Rows at the MaxRack but I can't imagine forcing a newbie to try that.

I do an extra set of high rep-low weight pressing at the Smith to confirm my suspicions that I need to add a few pounds to this next week. I'm not quite as confident about my DB supersets. I did 22.5 lbs last week, but I'm still worried that it'll be too heavy this week. Got to ignore that little voice of doubt. Weirder is the fact that while 20 lbs felt heavy, adding the 2.5 lb discs did not. By the last reps of the last set, the DBs felt pretty good. Am I slow to warm up or what?! I return the magnetic discs to the front desk where I got them from, but there's only 3 now. I suspect one has been "misplaced."

I bail on the V-bar press downs. My elbows are too precious, and the Rip Skulls are punishment enough. Hollywood is bouncing between doing declines with a 25 lb plate on her belly and something with the 40 lb BB on a flat breaker bench. She's going to have to choose one, especially since she's gabbing with PO Goatee and M for an extended length of time. She graciously lets me have both the BB and the bench while saying she wanted to move up to 50 lbs anyway. Uh, okay. Whatever. Our sons are roughly the same age, but I bet I have at least 10 years or more on her. Probably more. Damn, I keep forgetting that I'm almost 60.

As I'm leaving, I see WannaBe behind the front desk with a Gold's Gym hoodie on. I guess she got herself hired as a trainer. I wonder how long that will last. She strikes me as the type to gather a few desperate clients and then move on. The gym has also posted for a position that starts at 4:30 AM. The other trainer usually gets in at 5 AM so this is new. I laugh to myself. During snowstorms, my street is one of the last to be plowed and salted. If there's no school, we won't see a town truck until early afternoon.

Oh, I've been testing out different software to keep track of spelling and grammar errors. Can't quite trust them. Grammarly was promising and does catch glaring comma errors. But it insists on reading sentences in a certain way just so it can obey certain grammatical rules. For example, in this post, the 5th paragraph down, Grammarly wants to put the preposition "of" in the 3rd sentence so that it will read "...because of the SPMs...calories and pulse rate...are all 183" but that makes absolutely no sense. If I ignore the suggestion, it tells me that I've made an Advanced Grammar error and need to upgrade to the premium software. Uh, no thanks.

Tuesday Post Winter Storm Wayne

Norwegian 4x4
5 min w/u (4 min on / 3 min off) x 4
5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30, 33
Calories 275
Miles 2.60
HR 238189 (97, 115)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 23

Push Ups 50
Crunches 30/40
Scissors 50
Bicycles 50
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Smith Inclined Press
(60degree)
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
90 x 12 x 3
60 x 25 x 2

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

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

Mat Stretch