Premature Expiration Notice

I woke up to 26F, a black ice advisory and frost on the windshield. The only nice thing about cooler weather is the ability to have a toasty fire in the woodstove. The maple outside our front door has already begun dropping leaves without transitioning from green to red. Some of the other trees of the same variety are a brilliant flame red, but not ours. I don't know why. It might be the unusually wet, warm October we've just had has inhibited the anthocyanins responsible for the red leaf color. Our microclimate might only affect our tree and not the others up the road.

The gym is still only half-painted. Two fellows with extension ladders show up halfway through my workout to finish painting the stretch area. I'm freezing and don't feel warm until more than 15 minutes into Program 3. Even in the Aerobic Room, I'm cold while pumping through crunches and planks.

I start to sweat again on the Step Mill, but only after I'm three-quarters of the way done. A fellow gets on the adjacent Step Mill but he's on it for less than 5 minutes. I guess that's his version of a warmup. All my pull-ups feel good and I'm happy with my 25 half-reps. Especially since I get three sets. You can call them girl pull-ups. (Yes, I'm making fun of those pushups.)

I walk past the Nexersys machines on the way to the Octane and realize that the screen is lit. It's not dead! Rumors of its demise were premature. Immediately I make plans to whack the machine at my next earliest convenience. Monday is a holiday so the gym will be extra crowded, never mind that it's Universal Bench Press Day and I'll never get on the Smith machine. Seems like a good time to go a few rounds with the old fellow before it's permanently retired.

I haven't done the Octane in several weeks but today I remember to change the lateral width setting from the default 5 to a narrower stance at 3. I'm a small person with short legs! Still, the Octane leaves both my feet tingly and numb. Ugh. Because I want to give my arms as much recovery time as possible, I drop myself into the Seated Leg Curl before my last set of pull-ups. This time I'm able to complete all my sets even at 40 lbs. Oddly, my right leg, the stronger leg, nearly wimps out during the last set. It's that wonky hamstring, the one affected by sciatica so much it clenched into a charleyhorse while I was lying on a bench doing Rip Skulls some years ago. It's always been sensitive after that incident.

The painters make using the stretch area impossible and there's a class in the Aerobic Room. I grab a mat and plop down in the CF area. There's another woman also stretching there. Luckily no's one actually doing CF. I still have errands to run after the gym. At the CVS, while waiting for my Rx to be filled, I notice several large boxes by the counter.

For a mere $95 and change (not including local taxes), you can own an automatic nasal irrigation system that uses suction to flush dirt, dust, and grime from your sinuses with saline. Separately, you can buy sea salt pods. It does not, however, sterilize the water you use. Potential death via brain-eating amoeba introduced into your sinuses via tap water (which is far from sterile), is still a danger. It's not any safer than a cheap Neti pot, but it's a lot more expensive and takes up more counter space. You can sell people anything!


Frigid Cardio Friday

30 min elliptical + 5cd
Program 3
Miles 2.90
Calories 325
HR 156-197 (81, 85)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 25

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

20 Step Mill
Level 4
Calories 129
Total steps 851
Floors 53
HR 112

HGPU 25

15 Octane + 2 cd
Program manual
Calories 110
Miles 1.10
Floors 36
HR 118-172 (68, 71)
(Both Feet numb/tingly)

2:1 Seated Leg Curls
15lbs x 15
30 x 12
35 x 12
40 x 12 (Rt leg weaker)

HGPU 25

Quick Mat Stretch