Fog Atmospheric and Otherwise

I woke up feeling hung over, achy and disturbingly tired. I even hit the 5-minute snooze! Atmospheric pressure is in flux with rapidly changing weather forecasts and is wreaking havoc on my bodily systems: joints, sinuses and a sense of balance. There's fog inside and out this morning. The news will blame it on a high pollen count, and the smoke from Canadian wildfires. Apparently a lot of the forests surrounding Quebec are burning. And Nova Scotia, a place renowned for rocky coastlines and deep impenetrable forests has lost over 20,000 hectares. (Hectares? One hectare = 2.47+ acres.)

Once I get to the gym I find that my earbuds have disconnected from my iPod and I can't reconnect them. Luckily I have those backup AirPods. I just can't use the step machine like I had planned because they might fall out of my head and be lost. Again. The gym music is too loud and sounds like caterwauling. I can't increase the volume of my own music wearing AirPods and the iPod is set to max volume already.

I need a change so I choose the Intervals program for 20 minutes. And this time I actually "walk" during the troughs and run up the "hills". The HR monitor drops to the lowest I've seen it for me: 67. Of course, it also zooms up to just shy of 190, so everything's normal. My forearms and shoulders are slightly sore but the rest of me is fine. As I cross the free weight area to get to the Aerobics Room, I'm suddenly aware of a slim black tripod in front of one of the stations. Yep, "Bob Paris" filming himself on a machine... I've taken a hard look at him and sad to say, he seems all upper body. I don't think I've ever seen him work legs... Only working those "mirror muscles." Too bad.

The gym is crowded in waves. There's a lot of people in the DB free weight area. And then there's just me. And then three or four more people. Again. Maybe I'm just there a long time because my routine has 3 components and is extremely high rep. When you read high rep, you tend to think 12-15. I'm looking at 15-25, and then 25-50. Today I make a special effort to focus on counting reps, especially since my AirPods are doing such a bad job of keeping the "ambient" gym music out of my head. (It feels like women screaming and banging tin drums. Is that what they call singing!?)

I get a nice pump and feel good when I leave. I still wish I was 10 lbs lighter though, so my clothes would fit better. Short and stout isn't a good look, especially for a middle-aged woman. I call myself that since I'm not ready to consider myself old yet. I'm only claiming "Senior Discounts" when they're worth it and I actually qualify. Some places, like my local parks and recreation department, give it to anyone age 60 and older. Some places insist you be 65. And AARP wants you once you hit 50. Not even close to being old! 

Meanwhile, we've received this year's HS yearbook and of course I'm leafing through it to see all of my son's friends, current and former classmates, teachers, etc. My son is rather camera-shy so he's not in a lot of photos. What surprises me though is the spread showing the valedictorian and salutatorian, because on the opposite page are photos of all the students in the top 10% of this year's class. And my son is one of them! We had no idea!

In total, there are 24 girls and only 6 boys. Two more boys (identical twins) apparently made the list but didn't have photos taken, probably because of the cost. They don't appear in the graduating class section at all, as if they never existed! (Typical Chinese immigrant family not spending money on frivolous items. They probably didn't buy the yearbook either.) We have three sets of identical twins (all boys) and a set of fraternal (boy & girl) in this year's class. We're predominantly a Caucasian town with a lot of Latin American immigrants and a smattering of blacks and Asians. Four of the eight boys are Asian, and only my son is an Eagle Scout out of the entire 32 of them. Yes, I'm super proud of him.

6 June 2023
Disoriented Achy Tuesday
(and my earbuds won’t pair!)

Precor elliptical #1
Program Intervals
(4/1-10/4-7/1; 105-170 spm)
Time: 20 + 5 (3540)
Distance: 2.00
Cal: 217
Avg Hr: 132, 188-67

Skip HGPU 20

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 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 2
20/15/20 x 30/25/35!
15 lbs x 50/25/50 AMRAP! Yaaay