Sizzling Summer

It's been over a week since I last hit the gym, not that I've been totally sedentary, although the drive to Buffalo was a good 6 hours. We did take a break halfway and stood outside Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse for an hour waiting for a table. Yep, it's a very popular place to eat. Walking around the University at Buffalo gave me roughly 11,500 steps for the first day and a bit more than half as much for the second day. In Canada, wandering through the Butterfly Conservatory was good for 5,000 steps and the Niagara Power Station Museum and underground Tunnel doubled those steps. 

We left right before our town got hit with over 8" of rain so we didn't know if our how our house fared. Friends sent pictures of a local park so flooded that people were swimming in it. Giant (2-foot plus) carp washed out of a local lake into the gazebo and picnic area. Roads were closed. Lake Mahopac got bigger. Our basement is perpetually wet with underground streams running through the property, so we have a sump pump. Our only casualty was some of the tall spindly milkweeds that are now secured to stakes to hold them upright. 

I was eating a lot of ibuprofen at the beginning of the trip, but eventually that started to upset my stomach and I stopped taking NSAIDs altogether. My sciatica, ever present, isn't nearly as bad anymore. It feels like it's been months when in actuality, as I check my notes, it's barely been a month. But a month is a long time to not be able to put your socks on without wincing and groaning because your glute feels like it's bruised and on fire. Getting in and out of the car causes a temporary limp but once I start walking around, everything is better.

What's really bugging me are the bugs. The teeny tiny no-seeum biting ones that make me scratch the skin off the top of my hands. Because it's hot (85F) and humid and any exposed skin is a tasty meal. Like my hands when I'm not wearing gloves. Or my face. My dogs might be getting fat at the pet boarding luxury spa. Well, not really fat. But they got baths and seem happy and not horribly stressed. I take them for a walk at 7:30 this morning, and then realizing how much hotter it's going to get with worsening air quality (thanks to Canadian wildfires--which weren't a problem when we visited just a few days ago), I take them to the park at 8. We leave before 9, and I can make it to the gym by 10. I feel so productive!

The parking lot is very crowded but I suspect half the cars belong to folks catching an early show at the movie house next door. The gym is moderately crowded but I can still access the equipment I need. And the a/c works but you can't tell that from my beet-red face after 35 minutes of cardio. Class is over when I get to the Aerobics Room, and unfortunately, the a/c has been turned off there. But it's pleasant enough to get all my core exercises done. Planks, push-ups, cat-cow all still bother my sciatica with a burning sensation from my glute down the back of my thigh. Otherwise, everything else feels okay. Except I'm feeling weak about my pull-ups. I can still do a dozen the first time. No strain in the forearms. But it's a struggle to do the second set once I get past 8. 8 reps! Ugh. I'm feeling old and fat. I guess I'll have to work back up to a reasonable number!

17 July June 2023
Been A Long While Monday w sciatica

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30 + 5 (5520)
Distance: 2.82
Cal: 312
Avg Hr: 146, 180 maximum

HGPU 12 easing back in

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60 knees bent
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
   Hurts Sciatica Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
   Hurts Sciatica Cat stretch 6
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
   Hurts Sciatica Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

HGPU 12 (barely!)