First Week December 2019

I didn't work out on Monday in spite of the gluttonous 4-day long holiday weekend. Instead, we snickered at the winter storm blowing up all the online headlines, and then I went to my doctor's appointment to get a blood test and ECG as required for pre-surgical clearance for my toe biopsy later this month. My blood pressure was unsurprisingly on the high side. My pulse was actually on the low side at 62 considering how anxious I am these days.

But what really bothers me is that my doctor, an extremely pleasant South East Asian woman, also has a dark pigmented line running through her nail bed on her pointer finger. It doesn't bother her so she hasn't had it looked at. Ugh. She's had it for years. I gently remind her that if this is subungual melanoma, the fatality rate is high because people wait too long before getting it looked at. She tells me that yes, she should probably see her dermatologist to get it checked out.

Schools had a 2-hour delay on Tuesday to give everyone a chance to unbury their vehicles. Actually, snow would've been easy. Ice is hard. Hard to chip off the car so you can get the door open enough to start the ignition and get the windows defrosted! I did make it to the gym but skipped the second cardio session, thinking I'd have more shoveling and chipping to do when I got home. It was a typical Push Day session except once again, I couldn't access the Smith Machine.

This time it was Latin Dance King who kept bouncing between the Smith, barbells, cable station and dumbbells. Worse, he never reracked his weights so no one could tell when he was actually done. The painters appear to have finished, but that doesn't explain the entire lower wall of old orange paint by the Squat rack and Max Rack and tiered DB racks.


Post Storm Tuesday Push

30 elliptical + 5cd
Program 1
Miles 2.84
Calories 315
HR 145-194 (122, 87, 84)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 25

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

Breaker Inclined Bench
Bar (45) x 20
55 x 15
65 x 15, 15, 15

DB Laterals s/s Rev Inclined Flys
20 lbs x 12/20 reps x 1
20/25 lbs x 12/20 reps x 3 sets

Rev Inclined Flys
25lbs x 20 reps x 3 sets

Rip Skulls (left elbow)
40 x 8,8, 8

Mat Stretch

Wednesday I actually made it to the gym parking lot in a few minutes but couldn't get motivated to actually enter the gym for a good 20. Might have something to do with waking up at 4:30 because hubs needed to be in Boston by 9 for a meeting. Once I'm awake, it's really hard for me to go back to sleep.

I'm dragging my butt but I do manage to finish both cardio sessions today and pull decent weight, actually increasing my Smith RDL slightly and skipping a set on Seated Cable Rows because I used the 7.5 lb block instead of inching up with 5 lb increments like the last two sessions.

Still, I'm annoyed. By whom? By Kickboxing Girl telling B in the locker room that the hat she's wearing is something she stole from a girl who actually doesn't own a car and has to walk to work in the freezing cold. She's laughing and thinks it's cute funny that she's got a nice warm car and this hatless girl doesn't. B doesn't have enough morals to say anything other than, "I don't look good in hats. I've tried but I'm not a hat person." Seriously? Or maybe my sleep deprivation is making me humorless? Is it me?

Cold Wednesday Pull

30 elliptical + 5cd
Program 2
Miles 2.91
Calories 327
HR 164-200 (97, 85)

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

Smith RDL
Bar (30) x 15
80 x 12
100 x 12
120 x 12

Smith RG BB Rows
80 x 25 x 3 sets

Seated Cable Rows
70 x 12
77.5 x 12
85 x 12
92.5 x 12
100 x 12

RG BB Curls
40 lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets

20 elliptical + 5cd
Program 2
Miles 2.06
Calories 230
HR 147-194 (87)

Cage Stretch
Quick Mat Stretch



Someone, please clean the Smith machine! There are dust spiders in the cable tracks. Ugh.




I spent a lot of time on Thursday taking phone videos and rifling through old photo albums to satisfy the rescue dog group's request: they say they want to know what kind of dog parent I'd be. The best, obviously. My first photo is of me and my best dog at a park over 30 years ago. The last one is of our last dog before he passed away. But just in case these fickle people find some other reason not to let me adopt, I've also applied to adopt locally at the new pet supply store in town. They host monthly adoption events and I promised my son that we could go check the puppies and kittens.

Friday I'm back at the gym but feeling sluggish and tired even though the most taxing thing I did on Thursday was walk through the deserted local park at 7 am shooting a video. Well, several short videos. And lots of laundry. And vacuuming. So, basically housework.

Friday is a Cardio Plus workout day and that's what I do. I'm on the elliptical, the stair climber and the Octane. The latter still makes my feet numb. I'm not going really fast or accomplishing great mileage, but I am getting it done. I even get all my reps plus one at hammer grip pull-ups. The gym has put up holiday lights but the painting is still not finished. Worse, corners are splitting apart, leaving a gaping white seam in the graphite gray paint. I also learn that there will be no gym Holiday Party this year because of "the incident" last year. Wait. What? I was there but left after two hours. All anyone can say is there was too much drama and a lot of drunk people. Well, that figures.

When I get home, with groceries to boot, I discover that the washer needs to be replaced. Because it has lost the ability to spin dry. Ugh. I pull wet towels out and hand-wring them before tossing them into the dryer. The machine is old and worn but it worked yesterday. I guess doing a load of blankets just did it in. At least next week's forecast promises temps in the 50s. In December.

Post-Snow Cardio Friday

30 min elliptical + 5cd
Program 3
Miles 2.84
Calories 316
HR 155-190 (87)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 26

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 126
Total steps 824
Floors 51
HR 136

HGPU 26

15 Octane + 2cd
Program manual lateral 3
Floors 33
Calories 104
Miles 1.02
HR 124-176 (80)
Numb feet!

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

HGPU 26

Mat Stretch