When Less is More

Since I had a 9 AM doc appointment, I cut my routine short today. The threat of freezing rain and snow didn't help and just made me more anxious (which didn't help my blood pressure or heart rate). I hate driving in bad weather! And my sciatica plagues me especially when I'm driving or sitting for any length of time. I cut my cardio to 25 minutes (saving me 10 minutes) and skipped the Step Mill (another 10 minutes!). However, core, push-ups, air squats, and pull-ups remained in the routine.

I was worried about the pull-ups since it's been 3 days (plenty of time to fall out of condition and put on a few more pounds). I'd skipped Friday because I didn't trust myself on the roads although I later heard that the roads had been well-salted. It was only after dusk that the ice really built up everywhere. When the weather cleared and I had defrosted my car and spread salt and ash from the wood stove all over the walkway and driveway, I hauled a few loads of firewood into the house: my exercise for the weekend! It's starting to remind me of spelunking because the ancient tarp covering the furthest wood rack is porous and now frozen stiff like a precarious overhanging shelf. 

A lot of the underlying firewood is glazed with ice and stuck together forming a big glassy wall. But further inside the double rack, there are loose dry pieces probably ten years old. Which means duck squatting low enough to get under the solid ice-infused tarp, knocking the inner stack loose with a handy log and dragging them out piece by piece to stack on a hand cart. The wood racks are about 20 yards from the house but it's a circuitous route where I'm trying to maneuver the loaded hand cart through and around potholes of frozen footprints several inches deep.

Come Monday morning and I'm not all that confident in my pull-up abilities because I feel thick and lugubrious. I'm also really hungry since I needed to do a fasting blood work, which meant no coffee today. Because I like my coffee with everything in it, i.e., cream and sugar. Instead, I just have a cup of Morning Thunder (black tea with roasted maté). I am very pleasantly surprised that I'm able to knock out my pull-ups today. Perhaps because I cut my cardio short? Or maybe it was the tea? 

By late morning, me and my pups are the only ones at the dog park. Even with Yaktrax grippers on my boots, the icy slope is treacherous and I make my way to the top (where the shed and water bowls are) by clinging to the the perimeter fencing. Better than slipping and potential breaking something. (My doc is nagging me about doing an osteoporosis treatment plan, but first let's deal with the sciatica.) Dogs don't care and they get a half hour of run time. Exercised pups are happy pups so we'll do this again tomorrow...

7 February 2021
Annual Exam Monday

Precor elliptical
Program 2
Time: 20 min + 5 min cd (4030 steps)
Distance: 2.03
Cal: 226
HR: n/a

HGPU 20

Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

HGPU 19