An Extra Set or Two

It's colder than I expect when I walk out to the car this morning. Although minimally frosted, I still need to direct heat to the windshield before my son and I can leave for the school bus stop. The gym is oddly populated as I only see some of the regulars. Spring Break means a lot of families are traveling for the Easter holiday, some to visit family and others to vacation in warmer climes. Lazy Pedals is on the reclining bike in front of me, and soon he's joined by other regulars who just want to hang out and chat. Ugh.

I tap the Intervals program and set it for 20 minutes. Troughs are preset for incline 4 and resistance 1, while Peaks rise to incline 10 and resistance 8. Eight is too hard on my knees and I manually lower the resistance to 3. There's still a 5-minute cool down afterward. Ten minutes (or halfway) in and I switch direction and pedal backward, changing again at the cool-down. It's a lot less steps, a lot less distance and calories, but it's also 10 minutes less time which I can use later.

There's no one in the Aerobics Room when I enter. Then suddenly there's a fellow doing DB lunges, and a lady stretching on a mat. And then they're gone. And then Lazy Pedals is on a mat in the corner doing some stretch and his buddies M and Tank are there chatting with him. WTF? I have never ever seen him in this room before. I turn my earbuds up higher and leave because I have time for DB Shoulders. 

There's literally no one in the DB area. And then suddenly M, Tank and 2-3 other people are there grunting on benches, or draped over equipment chatting loudly. I turn up my earbuds again. Like I've said before, I like my wired earbuds because I can crank up the music and drown out all this annoying and mindless chatter. Can't do that with the AirPods I have (and only use as a last resort). 

Mindless is listening to a woman drone on about needing to get her hair done because her roots are showing when her hair is clipped up and how dead it all looks. Honestly, I don't care. I don't care that baseball season has started. I don't care about church functions and who's volunteering to make baskets. I'm at a gym, dammit. (I'm gratified to read that my perpetual lack of adequate sleep might be mitigated by exercise. Click here to learn more. I've gifted the article so you don't need to be a subscriber to read it.) 

I have time to include an extra set to the DB mix but remember that after 3 sets on Monday, the "cool down" set seemed light. So today I do 4 sets before the cool down, and this feels much better. Driving home from the gym, I see wild turkeys single file walk across the road into the conservation area from a front yard bird feeder. There are still a dozen birds on the lawn. I look again and a big tom is crossing the road. When he reaches the other side, he ruffles his feathers and gives me a show. Why did the turkey cross the road? To tell you he's the boss.

31 March 2023
Before the Storm Friday

Precor elliptical #1
Program Intervals 4/1 & 10/3
Time: 20 + 5 (3888)
Distance: 2.07
Cal: 230
Avg Hr: 142, 198-80

15 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
15 Hip Bridges
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

Incl DB Press s/s Lateral Raises s/s Rev Incline Flys
10 lbs x 25/15/25 warm up
15 lbs x 25/15/25
20/15/20 x 25/15/25 x 4
15 lbs x 25/15/25 "cool down"