The Crowds Are Back

I wish I could say that I got caught up with my sleep deficit this weekend, but that would be a lie. I almost got 7 hours Saturday night but I was up until 4 am compiling Boy Scout awards for our upcoming Court of Honor this week. The BSA changed its website over the summer: it has always been difficult to navigate.

The update makes it seem bright and friendly, but in reality, it's even more challenging to find and do the things you need to do, mostly because now everything is position-sensitive. If you don't hold the proper authorization due to your rank in the unit (troop for Boy Scouts, den for Cubs), you can't access areas that are critical to your function. Bureaucracy prevails! Even when permissions are granted by the Unit Leader, it will take up to three days for the change to take effect. Meanwhile...

Again, the Sleep Cycle app baffles me by stating that even though I got nearly 7 hours of sleep Saturday night, it rates my sleep quality at 80%. Friday night, which saw me awake for nearly 2 hours of my time in bed, rates 89%. I don't get it. Which means there's no way in hell I'd ever consider buying their premium app because I can't trust their free one. It's also the way I feel about the grammar-spelling-checking app Grammarly. It catches typos and adds and deletes commas, but a lot of the time, it flags errors that aren't. Worse, the word it wants you to use to fix this phantom error makes absolutely no sense in the context of the sentence. I've been noting them with screenshots and at some point, I'll actually write a post about them. Yeah, that'll be one of those "slow news" days.

Pants will be a hard fit

I'm tired enough to catch myself yawning during both core exercises on the mat and at the Smith machine. I've already done HIIT cardio as a warmup! I should be well-oxygenated so there's no excuse, except I keep having to bump up the volume on my tunes. School is fully in session; all the seniors and regulars are back from summer vacation. It is damn noisy this morning with all the chatter. I do remember to start my core exercises with a 60-second elbow plank. Even though I'm fairly fresh, my abs ache a little, but at least my arms aren't shaking.

I move through all the sets in my Push Day routine without any issues. My right elbow has some residual soreness that benching and pull-ups only make worse. Afterward, my elbow seems fine. My left knee twinges while I'm on the elliptical and it's worse when there's barely an incline. It's the vastus medialis, an inner quad muscle that ends in a lovely teardrop-shaped curve just over the inside top of the kneecap. It doesn't bother me much except when I'm stepping off the elliptical, and then I have to catch myself because the sudden stab of pain buckles my leg and takes me by surprise. I'll be doing a different cardio machine tomorrow.

It's been about a week since I returned to my normal routine and I feel fairly strong. I just wish my body wasn't so happy at its newer, heavier weight. But I also hate being hungry. Lately, there's been a movement among some "social media influencers" to stop being famine hungry and anorexically thin. One has subscribed to a program called "All In" where you eat until you feel full, which for some people is thousands of calories. She puts on weight but continues to work out. And then, her body decides that it's finally satiated, she loses her ravenous appetite and drops down to a normal, healthy body weight. She has to buy bigger clothes, but she feels better. Frankly, it's not a program I could do, but it might be right for others. If you're curious, check out Stephanie Buttermore's YouTube videos.

Meanwhile, I'm working on adapting back to an early morning schedule. It's wreaking havoc on both my sleep and digestive systems, but I have 10 months to adjust before sliding back into my natural nocturnal state. Coffee helps but it's still a shock to wake up in the dark right now.

Monday Push

Norwegian 4x4
5 min w/u (4 min on / 3 min off) x 4
5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30, 33
Calories 290
Miles 2.66
HR 146-180 (111)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 21

Elbow Plank 60s
Crunches 60/60
Bicycles 60
Horizontal Scissors 60
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30) x 12
50 x 12
70 x 25 x 3 sets

DB Laterals s/s Rev Inclined Flys
20 lbs x 12/15 reps x 4 sets

Rip Skulls
40lbs x 12 x 3

20 elliptical + 5cd
Program 1
Miles 2.07
Calories 232
HR 150-180 (91, 98)

Mat Stretch