Fall Used to Feel More Festive

Today is Halloween  but it's chilly and damp although not actually raining like it's been for the past two days. I skipped the gym yesterday since I had to take my car to the shop. I'd been dreading the diagnostics because I knew it wasn't just going to be broken wheel bearings. And it wasn't. On the drive there, the check tire pressure light comes on so I have the shop look at that wheel as well, telling them that Mavis Tires says they can't find any leaks so I suspect they didn't look at the stem or the rim. After an hour, I get told the bad news first: the head gasket is leaking oil. Not blown. Yet. Front rotors are warped due to stuck brackets. Need new brake pad & rotors. Bearings need to be replaced. Tire valve stem is leaking. 

And, since my car is old (2010), they have to order the parts. They also don't have any non-electric loaners, and very few of us have the ability to charge an EV at home (unless you own a Tesla, but then you wouldn't be at a Subaru shop). It's going to cost a big chunk of change, but less than buying a new car, or even a new used car. Because dammit, there's still a dearth of used vehicles and most of them are cramped hybrids that cost what I consider new car prices. Sooo, I'll have to bring my car back next week...

It's Halloween but other than some empty spaces in the candy section of the grocery, today doesn't feel very festive. The gym is virtually empty but there's a bowl of one-bite candies like Snickers and Hershey's at the front desk. My triceps aren't sore anymore from Friday's Skull Crusher-Rip Skull routine. Which was more sore than my arms ever were from the push-up challenge. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed that doing 155 push-ups didn't result in any soreness, not even in the pecs. (Is this a good thing or bad?) 

Cardio was really good, maybe because it's cold. Temps were 37F when I took pups to the park and they were happy to race through slippery, wet leaves. It warms up to low 50s by the time I leave the gym. I feel so good that I accidentally go to 27 push-ups because I'm in a rhythm. I wish pull-ups were that easy! Fifteen reps are good and the next two are a bit of a struggle. I only get to 15 the second time around. I think. Because at this point, after 90 seconds of Wall Squats, I feel kind of blown out and spacey and I'm having trouble keeping track of the count. Bleah. 

My hubs and I did go to the Battle of White Plains re-enactment in White Plains, NY and speak to a bunch of folks about the colonists, wool-dyeing, British regiments, life during the mid-1700s... It was a lot of fun, except that it was raining and cold, and we were mostly outdoors, standing under pop-ups. I'm not sure I want to spend Father's Day weekend at the Battle of Monmouth in Monmouth NJ State Park next summer... 

I didn't buy any Halloween candy for tonight because we never get trick-or-treaters. Besides, I can probably buy the candy half-price tomorrow, if I wanted to stock up on Kit Kats, Snickers, and Heath Bars. Because it's just me and the pups for the next two weeks as the hubs is working through next weekend. The child isn't home until Thanksgiving. And dogs don't get to eat candy...

31 October 2023 11:25-12:49
Halloween Tuesday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30+5 (5726)
Distance: 2.88
Cal: 322
Avg Hr: 149, 190-85

HGPU 17

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
DeadBugs 20/20/20/20 alt/ss = 80
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 27 oops
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga
Wall Squats 90s

HGPU 15

Balmy Friday

Temps peaked at 77F today. Yesterday it might've hit 80 but I wasn't really paying attention. After doing a bunch of chores, including watching on-demand videos about purchasing bonds, CDs, and Treasury bills, and the potential of genetic testing for glaucoma varietals. At one point, I did fall asleep and napped for a few minutes during one of the videos. I also had my windows open and was perpetually annoyed by the incessant whine of leaf blowers. First one neighbor, then another. Ugh.

It's warm again today and after taking dogs to the park to play with pup pals, I head to the gym. It's more crowded than I expected, probably because the overcast skies threaten rain although the forecast says no precipitation until Sunday. Sunday we plan to drive down to White Plains for a historic battle re-enactment: The Battle of White Plains at the Jacob Purdy National Historic Site. Temps are also supposed to drop down to the more seasonably appropriate 50s.

The cardio section is unduly crowded around the one elliptical I like to use: two guys on the upright bikes (the rest are recumbent) and a guy on the rower immediately to the left. It's like being boxed in on the highway! But I like this one elliptical better than the other 3 so that's the one I use. And with my tunes and earbuds volume up, I happily pedal for 35 minutes and pleasantly surprised with the mileage considering Program 1 has always been less productive than 2 or 3. It's a matter of how much of the course is hills and valleys and how much is just boring flat plateaus. 

The pull-ups feel less daunting and I'm not kipping until the last 2-3 reps. There are a lot of craggy, old guys in the gym today. There's one on the Assisted Pull-Up machine and I'm surprised because usually I see women on that, not dudes. Of course, if you're an old, out-of-shape guy I guess that machine is quite tempting. But as I've written before (from personal experience), that machine does nothing to help your body learn how to do pull-ups. It doesn't adequately work the right muscles, and it messes with your mind-body connection. It's not your arms pulling you up, it's your back. Specifically, your lats. 

I'm happy that the Aerobics Room is cool and empty. The additional 20 reps I added to Dead Bugs is less challenging now although I'm still flummoxed for a rep when I switch from same-side to alternating sides. Push-ups and air squats are routine. The Wall Squat still kicks my butt even when I distract myself by trying to take selfies from across the room. 

Today I've decided to do some tricep work and head to a flat bench. It's not hard but I feel a twinge in my left armpit where the bicep inserts under the pectoral muscle. Slower reps mean less chance of injury. The twinge is disconcerting but doesn't feel like an actual injury, so I finish the sets and decide against another go at pull-ups. Let's not push my luck! 

Tiny tick on paper towel

I'm already feeling lucky having pulled a tiny tick nymph out of my hair right at the scalp line. Later, I feel a small bump and aim my phone at the back of my head to snap a pix. I probably ripped the tick right out of my scalp just as it was biting me. Lucky me. I'm not sure I need a prophylactic dose of doxy. There's still a bump because that's how my body reacts to any insect bite, but I doubt if I've contracted Lyme.

You don't usually get Lyme or other tick-borne diseases until the tick has been there for several hours. I tend to feel all the insects that bite me because my super dry skin is also super sensitive. I can only recount one other tick bite when I felt severe pain as a tick nymph bit the underside of my nipple. Which meant I couldn't see it until I looked in the mirror. I went to the ER and a shot of anesthesia (so the doc could remove the tick) actually caused the nasty little creature to disengage. My dogs, on the other hand, have ticks bite them and die because they're on Simparico Trio. Nothing like finding dead baby ticks on the dog. Much better than finding live ones. 

27 October 2023 11:14-12:54
Crowded Cloudy Friday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 1
Time: 30+5 (5666)
Distance: 2.86
Cal: 318
Avg Hr: 141, 191-81

HGPU 17

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
DeadBugs 20/20/20/20 alt/ss = 80
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
Wall Squats 90s

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

Fall Chores

Yesterday, after taking my dogs to the park where they played with dog friends, I had every intention of going to the gym. I usually have an hour to kill between returning from the park and heading out, so I decide to collect the mostly ripe milkweed pods from my yard and then cut back the hollow stalks. 

While doing this, I noticed that part of a small woodpile had fallen, probably due to the recent high winds, or the feral cats sunning themselves atop the pile and scampering off. Which means I need to fix that. Which means pulling half of it apart to stabilize the stacks. But first, I should make room inside the house so that I have adequately dry wood when I want to use my wood stove.

There's still an armful of super dry aged wood in the rack inside so I need to set that aside so I can burn that first. It doesn't do any good to have it under a pile of "new" wood. Which also means sorting the pile of newspapers accumulated over the summer. Because newspapers make good kindling. Okay, now I'm ready to fill my wheelbarrow and bring a load into the house. We've had frost warnings the past two days, never mind that temps will hit the high 70s by week's end.

After taking care of that, I can start stacking the firewood again. I'm so hot and sweaty that I have to remove all the layers I wore when I took the dogs to the park (it was 42F). When I'm done, I'm too tired to go to the gym. Plus, I need to find some canned pumpkin, and because I'm curious about a recipe for homemade pumpkin latte, a jar of pumpkin butter. 

The latter is ridiculously hard to find, but today I found it at the 3rd store I searched. Yeah, I've got some OCD issues... The canned pumpkin is for my oatmeal because I keep reading that it's a great nutritional source of fiber, beta-carotene, vitamin B6... I also dug up some recipes for pumpkin butter that even I could make if I wanted to spend time and effort. Not sure about that yet. 

It's 11:30 when I get to the gym but there are very few members present even though it's mid-week. But it's also sunny and mild outside, so people who like to run are on the bike trails snaking through the woods instead of trodding the treadmills. Cardio feels decent and I'm not disappointed in the "mileage" considering how sporadically I've been exercising. Even pull-ups are okay. Not great, but not bad either. Anything over a dozen is really good as far as I'm concerned. 

There's people in the Aerobics Room but everyone is doing their own thing. So nice when it's not crowded and no one's being an idiot! I stick to the new Dead Bug routine which totals 80 reps, and I keep the 90-second Wall Squat, even though I'm silently screaming at myself for the last 20 seconds, telling myself only 15 seconds to go, only 10 more, only 5 more. Whew! In the gym proper, the Stretch Cage is free and I get my second set of pull-ups. Done! 

Not sure if I'll hit the gym tomorrow, but if I do, I'll entertain the idea of working either triceps or maybe delts. I guess I'll see how I feel... And it'll be fine as long as I go to the gym on Friday.

25 October 2023 11:35-12:57
Wednesday Bright & Brisk

Precor elliptical #1
Program 3
Time: 30+5 (5678)
Distance: 2.86
Cal: 319
Avg Hr: 148, 195-91

HGPU 17

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
DeadBugs 20/20/20/20 alt/ss = 80
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
Wall Squats 90s

HGPU 15

Brisk Weather

The annual Sheep & Wool Festival was this past weekend an hour north of us at the Dutchess County Fair Grounds. We go every year, usually with our kid, but since he's at school we just sent him a few photos. It was windy and cold but better than the previous day when it was warmer because it was raining. We got to watch the Sheep Parade and learned a lot about each breed being displayed. I had no idea that hair sheep exist, i.e., sheep that don't produce wool, but instead shed hair. Like the White Dorp.

White Dorp hair sheep

Then we wandered through all the craft tents and the livestock pens. Sad to say the food we bought off the Wurst and Pierogie truck wasn't very good, but the roasted Brussels sprouts (different food stand) sprinkled with parmesan cheese was absolutely delicious, like no other roasted sprouts we've ever had before. Rumor is that they deep fry it but somehow the veggies are seasoned all the way through and don't taste greasy. Amazing. 

It's cold and windy at the Dog Park today but at least there are other dogs to play with and my pups are happy, although I have to bribe one to leave with two pieces of chicken jerky (treats for dogs) in quick succession. I also have a few errands to run before finally heading to the gym. I ordered new hoodies from Lands End but again, they're too tight in the arms so I'm returning them. 

There's no order form inside the shipment. Instead, online I'm told to take the items to GameStop with the QR code they've emailed me. Well, that's new. Since Sears doesn't exist anymore, there's no actual store to return LE items to, except for odd stores that don't have anything to do with LE. Like Sephora, another store I can go to, but that's even further away so I go to GameStop. 

I get to the gym around 11:30 and there's not a lot of members so I can hop right on the elliptical. I do better than I expect, and even pull-ups aren't too bad. I had been worried because the right forearm is sporadically twingey. It's hard to explain but it makes me nervous that the tendons are now more susceptible to injury. Luckily, my arms behave themselves for the rest of the workout.

Everything else is routine, except for the Dead Bugs. After months of doing 60 reps alternating arms and legs, I've been adding variety. Maybe 20 alternates, then 20 same side arms and legs, then back to 20 alternates. I find that switching from alternate to same side is easy. But same side to alternate always makes me hesitate. Today I add another set of 20 so that the alternates and same-sides are of equal rep amounts. Push-ups feel easy. Air squats are never as easy. And wall squats really have me squealing (in my head) by the time 75 seconds passes. Happy to make it to 90 without uttering a peep.

I'm game to do a second set of pull-ups but as I exit the Aerobics Room, I see the Grand Dame in the Stretch Cage. I think she's like 90 years old and always very pleasant, but I'm so totally non-confrontational that I just skip that second set. I'm not going to sit around waiting for the Stretch Cage and I have no idea how long she's going to be using it. There's also a dude draped over one of the Step Machines, so I'm not about to do 10 minutes there either. Nope. Time to shower and change and go home.

23 October 2023
Brisk Busy Monday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30+5 (5662)
Distance: 2.86
Cal: 319
Avg Hr: 149, 194-85

HGPU 17

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
DeadBugs 20/20/20/20 alt/ss = 80
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
Wall Squats 90s

When the Twinge is Nothing At All

It's weird to me that I wake up sore and achy even though I skipped the gym yesterday. It's so foggy in the morning that there's a visibility warning on the weather app. I take the dogs to the park and then I get ready for the gym. While looking for different sneakers, I find bags in my closet and I don't remember what's in them. 

I'm delighted to find a lot of my kid's baby clothes from when he was 4-5 years old and they're in mostly excellent condition from Baby Gap, LLBean and Old Navy. I text a dog park friend with toddler grandchildren and she's interested. So much better than taking all these much-loved items to GoodWill or Once Upon A Child, both resellers.

I get to the gym at half past 11 and hop on the elliptical. I'm worried about a persistent twinge under my right elbow that only makes itself known as I pedal and grip the elliptical handles. An elbow injury is going to make pull-ups difficult and I try to do pull-ups every other day if possible. Doing them today means I don't do them tomorrow because my joints can't handle that type of abuse. 

I'm not sure why the back of my arms, triceps, are sore. It's not as if I did any manual labor yesterday, although I did spend several hours hammering tiny nails into heel taps I put on the new boots I ship to my kid. It's hard not to hammer fingers when you've got a boot sandwiched between your thighs. The nails are too small to hold with normal pliers so fingers it is. 

Pull-ups aren't easy but at least I get more than a dozen reps. The twinge has mysteriously disappeared. My body is like that: one moment patches of skin feel burnt or tingly, then nothing. I'm sure it's just upset nerve pathways. The Aerobics Room is empty but peopled sporadically. At one point, a HS girl clad in a sports bra and high-waist leggings stands in front of the mirrored wall while snapping phone pics. She's posing with her face turned over her shoulder and maybe a duck-face expression. Influencer? Maybe... 

I put my hoodie back on to do Wall Squats and leave it on when I exit the Aerobics Room. There's no excuse not to do another set of pull-ups, so I do them. I'm still utilizing kipping for the last 5, but I can tell the movement is different now, somehow smoother. Besides cardio and core, I'm not sure what else I'll be doing before the weekend. The forecast has changed from a deluge tomorrow and Saturday to a lot of wind and maybe some rain. Just in time for the annual Sheep & Wool Festival...

Because Google is requiring my Firefox browser to accept cookies in order to import pix into my blog, and DuckDuckGo refuses, I use Google Chrome just for the blog. Coincidentally, I don't need to convert the HEIC files to jpgs when I'm in Chrome. Everything used to download from iCloud as jpgs, but Windows claims HEIC preserves better details and data. I'm sure it's tracking data for marketing purposes. Just like Google. Because while everyone gets junk email, the amount in a gmail account is ridiculous... Sorta like subscribing to AARP (haven't done that). 

19 October 2023 11:29-1:04
Thursday Before the Nor’easter

Precor elliptical #1
Program 1
Time: 30+5 (5588)
Distance: 2.83
Cal: 314
Avg Hr: 146, 182-96, 79

HGPU 17

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
Dead Bugs 40 alt + 30 same-sided = 70
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
Wall Squats 90s

HGPU 15

Post-Travel

I haven't been to the gym in a week so I wasn't sure how bad today was going to feel. Last Wednesday my lower eyelids were burning, which for me, is a sign that I'm worn out and on the verge of getting sick. Uh oh. I take a double dose of black elderberry and skip the gym. We drove up to Buffalo on Thursday and it's an all-day trip. We're able to deliver various items to our son on campus on Friday but we can't take him to dinner because he has an evening calculus exam. Saturday we take him for a late lunch/early supper before returning to campus to watch a magic show. The finale was extremely entertaining!

Although our son expressed interest in visiting the Buffalo AKG Art Museum on Sunday, he's so tired that he sleeps in. My hubs and I visit the museum on our own and spend a few hours walking through the new wing and a Clyfford Stills exhibit. So, I do get some walking in over the trip, but mostly, a lot of sitting while we drive.

I'm tired, of course, when the alarm sounds this morning and in mid-dream. I take the dogs to the park, we meet dog friends. I get a text from my son that his boots (that he wears literally every day) are dying. Which means he needs me to mail him the new boots I bought him over the summer. Why couldn't he have told me this last week when I asked him what else he needed for us to bring up to him? Because he didn't even notice the state of his footwear until I pointed out how worn they looked. Then he notices the seams are pulling apart. I'm going to send him some shoe glue, pop sticks, and of course, a new pair of Chelsea boots. But I'll put heel taps on them first.

I get to the gym after 11:30 and drop off a set of car keys with a gym tag on it. We found it on the shoulder of a local road when we were checking our car tires. It doesn't have any identification except for the gym tag. There was no car parked in the vicinity so very weird. I'm tired and I don't make it to 2.8 miles today. I'm lucky I can get a few pull-ups, twice. Everything else is routine: planks, dead-bugs, push-ups, air squats... I even get 90 seconds of Wall Squats. And after my second set of pull-ups, I'm done...

The roof of my mouth is sore and that's another warning sign that I'm on the verge of getting sick. Ugh. So, I might or might not exercise tomorrow. And now Google isn't allowing me to access my own images to my own blog. So the workaround is to use Google Chrome (not my favorite) just for this. Grrrrr.

17 October 2023
Brisk Cloudy Tuesday (& I might be getting sick)

Precor elliptical #1
Program 3
Time: 30+5 (5426)
Distance: 2.78
Cal: 306
Avg Hr: 137, 176-115

HGPU 15

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
Wall Squats 90s

HGPU 14

Abbreviated Workout

I promised to drop by my friend's house around 1 pm so I couldn't dawdle at the gym. Except that it always seems to take me a long time to get to the gym when I have errands to do before the gym, because no one wants to be trapped behind a school bus (after the gym) and that's very likely once 2 pm hits on a school day. 

I get everything done that I need to do but that meant I skipped any extras. I can do those tomorrow since we'll be driving those painful 6 hours to Buffalo for parents weekend on Thursday. Which means no gym until next week. 

What's a bit worrisome is the weather channel's feature about a storm currently brewing on the West coast of the US. The forecast shows the same storm traveling eastward and dumping the first snow of the season on the mid-West before hitting the East coast and pelting the northeast with up to 3" of cold rain. What great weather for a homecoming football game, which we will not be attending.

 
While the humidity is still high, temps have been dropping and I enjoy the lack of biting insects. However, my skin isn't as forgiving and my thumb is starting to fissure. Band-aids and vaseline are a necessary staple in winter in the northeast.

10 October 2023 11:17-12:27
Brisk Sunny Tuesday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30+5 (5444)
Distance: 2.80
Cal: 308
Avg Hr: 137, 175-115

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

Autumn's Really Here

I have the thermostats turned down to 50F so the heat shouldn't kick on even with temps reading in the low 40s. I actually put a winter parka on to take the dogs to the park, but I didn't have to zip it up since I was well-layered with a hoodie, hat, flannel shirt and long sleeve T. The ground is saturated so Bogs go on the feet for trudging through mud. Dogs meet up with other pups and everyone is happy.

I get to the gym later than I'd like but it's a holiday so a lot of places like schools, the post office and banks are closed. I worry that there will be a lot of kids, but I guess they slept in today. I always seem to wake up feeling stiff and sore and that could be due to the 30-year old mattress that's in desperate need of replacing, or that my husband and I trod all over the last day of the NY Renaissance Faire yesterday (the phone tells me over 9,000 steps).

The gray hoodie I own seems to be heavier than the blue ones I favor. Without looking at the tag, I'm sure that the gray ones are 100% cotton while the colored items are a cotton/poly blend. It's chilly and I keep my hoodie on for most of cardio, but eventually I'm too sweaty. Especially by the time I get to the Stretch Cage for pull-ups. I realize that I'm not doing myself any favors by skipping that second set, so today I decide to add it back in. It's not pretty or pleasant, but I get it done.

I do skip the Wall Squats today. I'm not sure I'll do another push-up challenge this week. While I was quite pleased to get to 155 last week, I'm not entirely convinced that I'm not causing damage to my eyes because there's probably not enough rest time between sets to negate any potential rise in IOPs. There's literally no way for me to check my own eye pressures unless I make an appointment to see my glaucoma doc, and I already have one for early December. So, now I'll have to amuse myself some other way... 

Meanwhile, I notice that one of my favorite tanks (it's really old) is wearing so thin that it's developing holes. And I can't find this style anywhere anymore. Which is why it's not crazy to find something you really like and then want to buy a dozen of them, hoping that you won't outgrow whatever it is you stocked up on. I have this style workout tank in black and it's in good shape, only because I had forgotten I owned it so it hasn't been worn very much. It's not so much the wearing that kills clothing; it's the laundering and drying. 

Yes, clothes dryers eat your clothes, but living on wetlands means hanging your clothes to dry just makes everything smell moldy. Today, I keep the lavender tank inside a lingerie bag to wash, AND to dry. (I normally dry those bags in the electric dryer anyway otherwise they start to smell of mildew.) This way, the garment won't be subjected to abrasion from other garments, zippers, buttons, the walls of the dryer itself.

9 October 2023 11:36-12:57
Brisk Monday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 1
Time: 30+5 (5524)
Distance: 2.81
Cal: 311
Avg Hr: 140, 183-85

HGPU 17 whew!

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

HGPU 15

An Easy Friday

I see to have defaulted to a 3X a week routine, which isn't bad. Not great, but it's workable and just frequent enough for maintenance. I won't become a slug/sloth after all. Not that I was housebound yesterday. After scrubbing the tub yet again (97% done), I went to the post office (to verify that a weird email I got was actually a phishing scam) and then the Tractor Supply Store (just to look around) because it had opened in spite of all the construction vehicles and workers surrounding the immediate area. I got really excited that I finally found leather work gloves that actually fit my tiny hands, because they're kids' gloves. (It's refreshing to have gloves where the fingertips aren't an inch too long and get caught in everything.)

Then my oldest friend (cuz she's 80) texts me that she's taking her lopsided shoes to the cobbler to get the lifts removed since now both her legs are the same length. She had her second hip replacement in August and now (only 11 years later) she's not lopsided anymore. So now she needs her shoes fixed, or she'll have to toss and buy new hundreds of pairs of shoes. Or close to a 100. I bring my 20-yr old Keen sandals which are my house shoes, and the soles are so broken and cracked that dog hair accumulates in them and creates weird fuzzy pads on the bottoms. He can fix them. Yaaay. 

But we don't return home. Since we're in Connecticut, she wants to go to Costco. Okay. I'll go shopping with her. Plus, since she's 80, I don't expect she can lift a lot of stuff even though she's taller and bigger than I am. Because she's 80. And I'm soooo much younger than her at 63. But first, she wants to go to Petco (literally across the road from Costco) to buy cat food, and a replacement for her old 2-story cat tower. One of her pets literally shredded the burlap covering off the poles and not only is the exposed wood splintered, there's staples coming loose all over the carpeted areas. 

She eyes a bigger 3-story kitty tower and gets the store to sell her the floor model so that she won't have to assemble it from a kit. The kitty tower fits in her car since she already has the back seats folded down. I buy a vibrant pot of wheat grass greens because my dog really seemed to enjoy the last one I got him. Then we go to Costco. When I get home hours later, my dogs jump all over me 'cuz I'm not usually gone all day. 

I check the step tracker that's built into the iPhones and it registers over 8,800. That's from wandering all over Petco and Costco yesterday! I usually ignore the tracker because it doesn't take into account the cardio I do at the gym. Like today I have over 5.000 steps from the elliptical. My pull-ups aren't getting any better. I'm actually kind of tired from hauling the old cat tree out of my friend's house and into the trash bin, and bringing in the rest of her groceries. I got a few things too, like paper towels and a big bag of dried tart cherries (great in hot oatmeal). It's a routine workout, except I add the Wall Squats back in today. And because distraction makes time pass quicker, I kill a few seconds by trying to shoot some selfies from across the room.

Today is my 22nd wedding anniversary. The husband is on his way back from Boston where he's been for the past several weeks. Since we never know how bad traffic will be, especially on a Friday before a "holiday" weekend (no school Monday), we've decided to eat out tomorrow. We're going to check out a new place that opened up last month, in lieu of a place that had had a great reputation and excellent reviews last year. 

Something's changed this summer, and now there are horrible references to bad food, insect infestations in the food, and the restaurant is now difficult to book, having removed themselves from the Open Table online system. You have to call them when they're open and hope they answer the phone. Uh, there's plenty of restaurants that we haven't tried yet so we'll pass on this one. Sadly, I guess we've missed their prime days...

It's rainy and gray today and tomorrow, with promises of cool dry weather on Sunday. (Just in time for the last day for the NY Renaissance Faire.) It's cool enough out for me to don flannel shirt and pants, and also rain boots even though it's just drizzly. Three quarters of my clothes are kid hand-me-downs, including the Bogs boots. Some of us are lucky like that!

6 October 2023 11:26- 12:46
Misty Friday Wedding Anniversary

Precor elliptical #2
Program 3
Time: 30+5 (5580)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 315
Avg Hr: 135, 178-78

HGPU 17 w/ some kipping last 3 reps

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
Wall Squats 90s

Self Challenges Are the Best

It's been over 80F for the past two days so I'm surprised that there's not a crowd at the gym today. Of course, I'm arriving a bit later than usual. Dogs went to the park, then I logged into a zoom presentation about the national power grid and efforts to expand it to allow greater electric use for transportation, residential and commercial buildings, etc. It starts at 9:30 and I'm able to pay attention for the first hour while I'm packing my gym gear and sorting other household items. 

The bathroom is 95% done, but there's a few really stubborn spots that elude my ability to scrub off. I might have to resort to general all-purpose baking soda but only after I rinse off the dried cleaning gel. And an 80+ degree day is not the day I want to spend scrubbing the tub. At least my house feels cooler than outside and I haven't resorted to flipping the a/c on...

I stop off at the Job Lot to pick up a new tarp to drape over the outside basement doors which are weathered and irreplaceable because they were custom-made to fit the odd angle. Then off to the gym! It's nearly noon and I need to get done before the local HS lets out and the gym is swamped with kids. Cardio is decent enough, and pull-ups are only a struggle at the end, where once again, I resort to a few kipping reps. Not proud, but it's done.

There's one person already in the Aerobics Room when I enter. The room isn't super cold so I assume that the Boot Camp class held a few hours earlier might've been held in the gym proper. Usually the classroom is nicely cold after class full of sweaty, chatty senior women. I'm doing my basic routine and it feels routine. Until I get to push-ups. Today is my challenge to myself: how many sets can I do and not spend all day at the gym? Cuz it's possible to keep doing sets of push-ups for a long time if I rest enough in between. I call it "low-strength stamina" and women have loads of it.

I'm curious enough to mark the time on my phone every time I finish a set. The first two sets of 25 reps were relatively easy. (I often find myself going over my 25 rep limit to 26 or 27 as a part of my core routine.) The 3rd set is harder and I slow down. The next set [third] ends at 20 reps and that is a relatively easy number of reps to handle, so much so that I question myself after the sixth set. The only way to check is to do a seventh set and see how hard or easy it is to get to 20. I can see from the time that I am spending more time between sets than I had estimated, but part of that time is also the performance of the actual push-ups.

I'm having trouble doing math at that point, but easily guess I've achieved my goal of more than 150 reps today. Yaaay me! Yes, this is the result of boredom and exercise limitations. I mean, what do you do if you're not supposed to lift weights and cardio just isn't enough? (Cuz it's not.)

As I'm sitting in my car waiting for the a/c to kick in and sucking down a cold strawberry-flavored protein (30 gms whey) beverage, I see swarms of kids descend from the sidewalk down into the parking area. It's 2 pm and they're all headed to the gym. I got out just in time! But that was a close call and I need to get to the gym earlier in the day.

I am annoyed though that freaking Microsoft's updated Windows system now requires a HEIF extension to convert HEIC files to jpgs. The extension costs $0.99 which isn't a lot. It's the principle of the matter! Because now my carefully adjusted and cropped images on my iPhone show up on my desktop in their original un-cropped form, so I have to edit this all over again, and the image enhancements for color/light aren't nearly as good as those on the phone. Ugh. It's a lot of extra work for no perceivable benefits. 

4 October 2023 11:53-1:22
Sunny Hot Wednesday & I still have more to clean

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30+5 (5574)
Distance: 2.83
Cal: 314
Avg Hr: 148, 179-94

HGPU 17 w/ some kipping last 3 reps

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-Up Challenge: time 1:05; 1:06; 1:09; 1:12; 1:13; 1:15; 1:17
   25, 25, 25, 20, 20, 20, 20 = 155!
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

Housecleaning Is A Full-Body Workout

It finally stopped raining yesterday (NYC had a record-breaking deluge with flooded subways and roads with suburbs unable to access parkways due to the high water levels) and the sun came out. My headache went away and I felt less tired from my double vaccinations on Thursday. Which meant it was the perfect day to tackle the one big project I've been avoiding for weeks: scrubbing the bathroom. We only have one and I don't use the shower because the water pressure is so dim. But my kid had spent the past year or so, showering for hours at a time with steamy hot water to the point that the walls appeared to be sweating. Ugh. 

We live on wetlands anyway so everything is always damp regardless. Which means the mildew in the bathroom is everywhere and needs to be scrubbed off with a brush and bleach, disinfectant wipes for the ceiling, and bleach gel cleanser for the oversized tub. Because it's a jacuzzi-type tub, I wind up straddling the edge for a time, and other times, I'm laying on my stomach, perched on the side. The ceiling spots are another story: I can only reach the edge of the ceiling while standing on tip-toe on a two-step stool, but only if I steady myself against the wall. Spots over the toilet, the tub, or directly overhead in the center of the room are more problematic. I wind up using the Swiffer stick and roughly attaching a few pieces of disinfectant wipes (which aren't quite the right size for a proper sturdy fit). It's quite the shoulder workout with arms extended over my head pressing and sweeping.

I've got a flat non-abrasive scrubber with a plastic handle to muscle through the deepest grime and soap scum and I wear rubber gloves, which I hate because they make my hands stink no matter how often I wash them. After a few hours, the bathroom is 90% clean with just a few stubborn spots left for a good soak in bleach gel. I have trouble sleeping until I put on one of the many YouTube channels dedicated to relaxing, sleep-inducing sounds. I also found a brown noise, blueberry noise, and a black noise channel which I might try out later when I need to focus on my laptop.

I get to the gym a tad earlier than usual and I'm surprised at how crowded it is. Of course, it is Monday. And it's nice out. (So why are there so many people here?) I relieved to get my cardio done, although I do have doubts about pull-ups. I get 17 but the last 3-4 there's some kipping to get my nose up over the bar. I don't usually use kipping but I'm not usually this sore from doing housework! Even the push-ups feel a bit tenuous. And I skip the wall squats and think about spending some time on the step machine. Except there's a dude on one and suddenly I'm not interested in doing the stairs. Nope. Done. 

I need to shop for cough syrup to send another care package to my kid. The sore throat has become a bad cough with congestion. I ask if he wants face masks and he says yes so I pack the re-usable cloth ones I bought from Januu years ago, and a bunch of disposable surgical masks. I also include mentholated chest rub, a box of super soft tissues, plastic teaspoons, ibuprofen, and yes, there's room for cookies. The post office says it'll likely be delivered by Thursday. Well, so much for 2-day delivery...

If I put off finishing the bathroom, and spend more time wrestling with the rubber broom as I "brush" the embedded dog hair in the upstairs carpet, I might or might not do another push-up challenge and attempt to total 150 reps. Last week I got to 130, and other than mildly sore lats, I felt pretty good. Hopefully, this isn't affecting my glaucoma as there's no way for me to take my own IOPs. Consumer hand-held tonometers are becoming more available but are still really pricey.

2 October 2023 10:57-12:18
Sunny Warm Monday & I’m sore from scrubbing my bathroom

Precor elliptical #1
Program 1
Time: 30+5 (5596)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 315
Avg Hr: 147, 178-85

HGPU 17 w/ some kipping last 3 reps

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