Fabric Color is Everything

Today is HumpDay, aka Wednesday, mid-week. And the gym crowd is like the tide on days with popular classes. Today is Boot Camp with the gym owner. I schedule myself so that I'm not doing core in the Aerobics Room too close to the start of the 9:30 class. I'd rather wait until after they're done. So there's a ton of folks in the gym when I arrive, and barely anyone at all when I leave.

Today is also another Heat Advisory Warning, meaning the humidity high enough to make cooling through perspiration difficult. So, 85F feels like 95F. I take the dogs to the park at 7:40 this morning, and temps are already 72F. Pups aren't very happy and once they've done all their sniffing, marking, peeing and whatnot, they're lying in the dirt to cool off. We're back home in cooler temps (we only have one a/c unit upstairs and count on fans to blow coolness throughout the house) within 35 minutes.

It's hot enough that I put a dress into my gym bag to change into afterward. (I need to buy some vegetables from the grocery.) Never mind it doesn't have pockets. It's comfortable and looks okay enough that I'm not self-conscious wearing it. Most of these dresses are ones I bought in Hawaii years ago. Lovely patterns, comfortable fabrics, sleeveless and loose enough to not make me worry about belly rolls and panty lines. The one I wear today is black with beige monstera leaf prints. 

Monstera leaf

I'm also testing out another new sport tank top, but this one is black. The gray one was very soft and comfortable, but the black one, exact same size, brand, cut, style feels rougher. It's the fabric. I wasn't expecting that to be so different. With T-shirts, we all know that the heather colors are blended materials and usually softer than the solid colors. I like the way this tank looks: it's just long enough to cover my butt, it's not tight or clingy. But the arms holes feel tight and since the fabric doesn't have as much stretch, it does chafe a bit under the arms. Doing crunches also causes the neckline to pull up against my throat. This didn't happen with the gray tank. 

I pace myself doing Rip Skulls and Skull Crushers and have no problems completing all my sets. The tank top doesn't give me any issues. Besides feeling tired, my workout is good. I don't think I slept well, and part of that might be that I was trying a new sleep aid: a binaural recording played on YouTube on my phone. It was a suggestion made by a dog park friend. Normally, I put on BetterSleep, formerly Relax Melodies, and let the sound of peepers and bird lull me to sleep. Or, it might've been because it's been too hot even though I have a fan blowing on the bed.

I'm so tired that I cut my planks back to 60 seconds and skip the wall squat. There are barely half a dozen members in the gym at this point. Earlier I recognized a fellow whom I call (in my mind since I've never spoken to him), Plastic Bertrand, not that he's particularly peppy. But he always seems to wear the oddest clothes, and has long, messy sun-baked beach bum hair. I've seen a woman (don't know if she was a wife, girlfriend or sister), speak loudly and meanly to him in public at the gym. I don't know if he deserved it since I don't know anything about him, but I do kind of feel bad about it. 

Meanwhile, here's the song Plastic Bertrand is famous for. (It always makes me smile.)

 

6 Sept 2023 10:27-12:05
Tidal Hump Wednesday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30 + 5 (5594)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 315
Avg Hr: 152, 194-93


20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12
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
Skip Wall Squats 120s

Rip Skulls / Skull Crushers
30 lbs x 12/12 reps x 3 sets