The Busy Frigid Season

I went to the gym yesterday, didn't break a sweat but still felt pretty good. After taking pups to the park, then retrieving my son from school, I had to change into something presentable to sit through a long drive to my husband's office. It's that time of the year: annual reviews followed by the holiday "office" party. But in this case, it was held at the yacht club a few roads away. 

Much nicer than last year which was just cocktails and appetizers. This event had a full cocktail hour with hors d'oeuvres, followed by a sit down meal: a nice salad, rib eye steak (with asparagus and half a twice-baked spud) and chocolate cake for dessert. There was also salmon and chicken but mostly everyone had steak. My husband's been sober for the past several days, which makes me happy. But whenever I start to hope that this will last, he goes on a binge. So I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop and that's really stressful.

We didn't get home until late so my son had to deal with the dogs himself after getting rides to and from his Boy Scout Troop meeting. I was worried about the long drive so I popped two ibuprofens and a gabapentin before we went. And it worked like magic. Today, however, my sciatica is bugging me a lot even though I've been to the gym. But I didn't get on my standby elliptical (occupied) so I hopped on the cross-trainer. For only 18 minutes. And while it didn't hurt while I pedaled, my toes went numb and stayed numb for a good half hour afterward. I don't like the cross-trainer and it doesn't like me. 

I do curl ups and feel as if the movement is stressing my neck more than my abs. I'm probably doing it wrong. Sitting on the mat is still uncomfortable enough for me to prefer kneeling, and there's only so much kneeling before other parts of my legs and feet go numb. The free weight area is busy but my preferred bench is empty so I do a few Skull Crushers before getting on the step machine to get a bit warmer.

Meanwhile, my car's shifter acted weird this morning: too loose and sloppy, and the car never got out of 1st for several miles before things fell into place and the transmission behaved like it should. Nothing like hearing your car whine and struggle to make 30 mph (morning commuters behind me on a single lane road) with no place to pull over. By the time I hit the main road, the car sounded more normal and I was able to drop off a holiday gift at a friend's house before heading to the gym. 

When I got home, my husband checked the transmission fluid. I still had some in the car (so it's not like it's leaking out like the power steering fluid did some months ago), The car is 13 years old with under 80k miles on it. I got it "pre-owned" by someone who barely drove it (5 yrs old and 25k miles). Hell, I barely drive it, but I do depend on it. As a matter of fact, I've got to pick my kid up from school in an hour.

14 December 2022
Frigid Sciatic Wednesday

LF x-trainer #2
Program Manual 1
Time: 15+3
Distance: 1.87
Cal: 144
This machine makes my toes numb

Curl Ups 10 each side
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 / Cobra Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga (kneeling)

Skull Crushers
30 lbs x 15 warmup
35 x 15 x 15 x 3 sets
30 x 20

StepMill (L)
Manual 10 min
Speed 6 (52-55)
Steps 538
Floors 33
Cal 79
Hr 135

*************************************************************

13 December 2022
Frigid Sciatic Tuesday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 3
Time: 30 + 5 (5526)
Distance: 2.81
Cal: 311
Avg Hr: 140, 192-76

HGPU 23

Curl Ups 10 each side
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 / Cobra Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga (kneeling)

StepMill (L)
Manual 10 min
Speed 6 (52-55)
Steps 527 / 542
Floors 33
Cal 79
Hr 138