The Palindrome Week Started Yesterday

One of my friends posted on social media that yesterday began a week of numeric palindromic dates. What? Well, yes, today is September 11th, also known as 9/11. But it's also 2019, and in American, we write our dates Month Day Year (as compared to other countries where the date is written Day Month Year). So yesterday was 9/10/19 and today is 9/11/19... which if you love patterns, looks like 9119. My husband and I had wanted to get married on October 11 so that our wedding date would read 101101, but we didn't think we could get anyone to attend on a Thursday.

Today, of course, is also the 18th year anniversary of the infamous destruction of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, 4 passenger jet planes, and countless lives. A solemn remembrance of all the individuals lost is televised for several hours in the gym locker room. All the flags are flying at half-mast. I remember walking through the train station in the following days, weeks, and months where hundreds of posters of missing people were plastered to all the concourses. "Have you seen?" "Missing!" "Please come home!" I remember all the photos with desperate pleas attached to them. There is nothing worse than not knowing.

Today is still Wednesday and it's still a Pull Day workout. A tiny voice in my head tries to convince me to do one of the elliptical fitness programs instead of HIIT cardio. I do the Norwegian 4 x 4 program anyway. I'm tired and my legs feel like logs, but I'm not yawning. Yet.

A quick refresher on what the Norwegian 4 x 4 is: warm up for 5 minutes, then go full tilt for 60 seconds, slow down slightly for the next 3 minutes, then slow down a lot for 3 minutes. Repeat going as fast as humanly possible for 60 seconds again (you'll be slower and it'll be harder), drop your speed slightly (so you can catch your breath) for 3 more minutes, then drop to a jog for 3 minutes. Repeat two more times. So it's basically 4 strenuous minutes done 4 times with 3-minute rests in between.

Outside it's positively summery with temps hitting 86F by late afternoon. Tomorrow the numbers invert and temps peak at 68F. Crazy, right? The humidity makes me sweat with everything I do. I have to count aloud to keep my place while doing Core. I do two sets of pull-ups too, although the second set was at the very end and my arms were kind of spent. I'm happy that I'm strong but really unhappy that jeans I wore two months ago are so tight I can barely button them close. Ugh. I feel hungry when I'm doing my second cardio session, then realize that I might be experiencing acid reflux instead. Yuck. Solution? Swig more water.

Super comfy clown shoes

Tomorrow will just be another "mild cardio" day but I'm already thinking of light shoulder exercises that don't involve me laying on my belly. Friday is supposed to be a Cardio Plus Day, which is just three sessions of cardio machines with pull-ups interspersed. So maybe I will do shoulders tomorrow... it's hard to keep a gym rat out of the gym!

9/11 Wednesday Pull

Norwegian 4x4
5 min w/u (4 min on / 3 min off) x 4
5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30, 33
Calories 289
Miles 2.65
HR 136-195 (112, 93, 84)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 21

Elbow Plank 60s
Crunches Legs Up 60
Bicycles 60
Crunches knees bent 60
Horizontal Scissors 60
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Lat Pull Downs Close Neutral
70 x 12 warm-up
85 x 12
100 x 12
115 x 12

Seated Cable Rows
70 x 12
85 x 12, 12, 12

RG BB Curls
40 lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets

20 elliptical + 5cd
Program 3
Calories 231
Miles 2.06
HR 152-200 (131, 87)

HGPU 20

Mat Stretch