Eye on the Prize

Ever wonder why people hate Millenials? You probably have your own stories. Here's mine. It's posted here because texting back and forth added a substantial amount of time to my workout and detracted from my workout focus. I did go to the gym with the intention of doing an intense cardio workout. That got done, but it's hard to constantly redirect your focus toward the task at hand when you feel that people are working against you.

As you probably know, we agreed to adopt a dog who was in danger of being put into a shelter because his parents had divorced. The dog was never able to adapt to a new home life in spite of our best, persistent and gentle efforts. Luckily, his parents reconciled and the dog's mom was able to secure permission from her landlord to have a dog again. After 7 weeks of needing to be handfed, the dog has been reunited with his family and is once again a happy pup. But we are dogless. The house feels really empty again.

First, we were told that we should adopt two dogs to make the air travel from overseas more bearable as well as the transition to home life easier. Currently, all the dogs live in a big group home. Okay, that makes sense. The rescue presented two dogs who are not the type we want. We agreed to one because we are familiar with the Chow breed, but not the other. We suggested two other dogs, young Jindos. The rescue then had another "adoption committee" member suggest a completely different dog who was totally foreign to us. What is it? A 4-year old poodle-mix? When I demurred, they said they thought this dog would be more suitable for us. Why? Well, because the first dog never gave us a chance to show them how well he would be cared for. What?!

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Now they'd like photos and videos of us with our former dogs on adventures to show them what a great life the dogs will have if we adopt them. This is truly a Millenial thing, right? Our last dog was 16 when he passed. He didn't go on any adventures with two ruptured CCLs. He was a homebody who hated car rides and anything different or new. I had a dog who traveled well and got into a lot of adventures, but 30 years ago we didn't have cell phones!

We have a few photos and videos of when our dogs were much younger playing in the snow, say 10 or 15 years ago. I told them as much. And then I offered to shoot a cell video of what a walk around my neighborhood would be like, with a ride to the dog park (because there's no shoulder to the road and it's not safe to walk), a park trail and the beach at the lakefront. But they're not getting it until after the Holidays.

All this chatter in between my cardio exercise and pull-ups. I'm not only distracted, I'm also pissed off. It takes me a few minutes to refocus and calm down because my first impulse is to text something snarky. Ugh. That's not going to be productive so I bite my tongue, calm my fingers, and take several deep breaths.

For the third cardio movement, I get on an Expresso bike. The one that fits me best has a big sign stating Under Repair. The next bike has a seat that doesn't adjust forward quite enough. I can use it if I keep my arms fully extended. The buttons and controls are slightly different so I spend 5 minutes playing Dragon Island just to get the feel of the bike again. Then another 10 minutes actually playing. So I only have data for 10 minutes, not that it matters. It's really late by the time I leave the gym. The painters are still working on the trim. Some walls are still the original orange. Then I see the painters have changed into gym clothes and are working out instead. No wonder this is taking sooooo long.

Pre-Turkey Cardio Wednesday

30 min elliptical + 5cd
Program 3
Miles 2.91
Calories 327
HR 164-200 (135)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 25

Elbow Plank 60s
Crunches 60/60
Leg horizontal scissors 60
Bicycles 60
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

20 Step Mill
Level 4
Calories 129
Total steps 851
Floors 53
HR 109

HGPU 26

10 Expresso Bike + 5
45 cal
1.67 m
116/133 HR

2:1 Seated Leg Curls
15lbs x 12
30 x 12
35 x 12
40 x 12

HGPU 25

Quick Stretch