Pre-Dawn Monday

My son had in-person classes today after several weeks of online only. It was quite the dreaded shock to wake in the dead of night just to walk the dogs before warming up the car. Temps hit a low of 19F so there was plenty of frost on the windshield. I am ever grateful for heated car seats, especially waiting for a school bus that is 20 minutes late. Drivers have called out sick and there are subs unfamiliar with the route. 

This, of course, means I'm at the gym a bit later than I planned. I still do my routine even though now it's the left leg that's bothering me with sciatic pain, not that the right leg is completely healed. It's hard to focus on more than one discomfort at a time and for the past several days the left leg has screamed the loudest. I worry about doing my routine program on the elliptical because pedaling backward made my back over the left hip ache. But today I can pedal just fine. Weird. I do my stretches and core exercises, knock out push-ups, and see that the Smith machine is available. It's been a few weeks since I last did Inclined Presses!

The smaller adjustable inclined bench doesn't have a footrest and my feet don't touch the floor. I'm worried about how my lower back and sciatic nerves will handle this. Surprisingly well, as it turns out. No issues except for a tiny bit of soreness in the shoulder. This makes me brave enough to do a few minutes on the ClimbMill. I believe that last week's side-stepping is what's caused the left leg sciatica so I won't be doing that movement. After 3 minutes at Speed 6, I realize that the machine is barely moving at 52 steps per minute. Increase to Speed 7 and now the machine is doing 60-62 steps per minute. The hip and legs feel okay! 

I need to pick up some eggs and milk and then home to pack up the pups for the Bark Park. It feels warmer today even though it isn't. It's because I'm still revved up from my workout. Next time though, I'll remember to use hand-warmers, because boney little fingers get cold even if everything else is warm. 

11 January 2021
PreDawn Monday

Precor elliptical
35 min
Program 3
HR 115, 144-188
Cal 312
Distance 2.82

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

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30) x 20
+20 x 20
+40 x 15
+50 x 15
+40 x 20

Matrix Step
Speed 3min@6, 7min@7
Min 10
HR 117
Cal 83
Steps 575
Floors 35