Winter Solstice

It's been a week since I was at the gym last. In the interim, we got a lot of snow. Fifteen inches which my son and I shoveled over a period of days on the days that he didn't have school. I consider all the hours of sweating while moving the white stuff a combination of cardio and weight-lifting. 

It's overcast today so there's no chance of catching the once-in-800-year-stellar event, the Christmas Star on the Winter Solstice. Jupiter and Saturn visually align and appear to be one massive bright star in the southwest sky. But it's always raining or overcast when fabulous things like meteor showers or the great conjunction. 

I get to the gym close to 1 pm. At least I've avoided the crowds. The dogs have been going to the park almost daily and after two hours, they're sated. But dog friends don't actually show up until 10 and we've been there since 9:15. I haven't discovered warm enough boots that can accommodate my problem feet and I leave because my toes have gone numb. When I get home, I discover the Bogs kids boots have arrived and they are extremely promising: waterproof and rated to -30F. My son wasn't so lucky. I'll have to send his boots back: too tight in the foot and too loose in the heel. It's a classic problem for those of us with wide feet but not fat or thick feet. I'm happy the kid boots fit me.

I do a standard routine: cardio, core, and move some weights. Shoveling hasn't made me sore, nor has it aggravated my sciatica. But stretching and reverse pedaling hurt. If I move the wrong way, my foot goes numb. Sitting on the locker room bench hurts my glute. At least the bruise is fading. My finger looks okay but still feels stiff and maybe a tad swollen. All this handwashing coupled with the cold weather has made my super dry skin extremely fragile. My cuticles are splintering and I've accrued a series of cuts and punctures from ridiculously mundane items like the polycarbonate lid of boxed salad. While I'm thankful that bandaids are made of comfortable and flexible cloth instead of plastic, they fray into a stringy mess after a day. Yuck. It's also hard to apply skin cream when your bandaids are cloth... 

Even weirder, after a week of intermittent shoveling and not going to the gym, I've dropped two pounds. No one is more surprised than me. 

21December2020
Solstice Monday

Precor elliptical
35 min
Program 3
HR 85, 149-186
Cal 316
Distance 2.84

Crunches x 60 x 2
Piriformis Stretch
Plank 60s
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Plank 60s
Pushups 50
Quick Mat Stretch

Seated Cable Row
70 lbs x 15 reps
85 x 12
92.5 x 10, 10, 10