Had a busy weekend, with a Star Gazing event two towns north of us. A lovely group of people brought their own telescopes, some manual and others connected to phone apps and motors to track the movement of the earth's rotation in order to keep the target (Saturn, a double star system, a gas nebula) in focus. That was Saturday night. Sunday afternoon, we ventured west to a historical museum (the old schoolhouse of the West Point Foundry from the 1800s) in the town of Cold Spring (adjacent to the Hudson River) to hear a Native American lecture about life of the Eastern Woodlands Indian.
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| Drew Shuptar-Rayvis |
Glad we dressed warmly as it was held outdoors. The speaker, Drew Shuptar-Rayvis (Pekatawas MakataweU "Black Corn"), however, was wearing much less; just strategically placed buckskin and a deerskin mantle! He claimed that he wasn't cold as he was acclimatized to the weather. He has a melting pot lineage but can trace his people back 350 years and spoke in an Algonkian dialect.
Today is a Cardio Day. I get to the gym late (dragging a bit) and see Wind Breaker on elliptical #2. Weird. Machine #3 is missing the bottle holder. I wonder why he's not on #1 but don't think too much about it when I climb on #1. As I pedal, I hear and feel a grinding noise. The plate covering the gears between the pedals has slipped down. I know how to fix this: I angle my foot and point the tip of my toe to push the metal sheet back into position. There's probably a missing screw that would have held it in place, but this is an easy if temporary fix. No more grinding vibration or noise. I don't know if Wind Breaker took notice or not, but I got to pedal on the better elliptical so it was all good.
I'm starting out tired so not surprised that I don't make it to 2.8, especially since I find myself unable to keep my speed over 150 SPM (strides per minute). I've done worse. Pull-ups seemed to appreciate the extra time off and I got one more rep than I was expecting. I leave it at that, although afterward I was second guessing myself, thinking I should've just gotten as many as possible. Then I thought better of it and realized that if I'd done that, I might not get a second and third set.
A bunch of old guys are chatting loudly next to one of the step machines, so of course, I choose the other machine. I punch in the usual settings (speed 5, 8 minutes) and let the machine do its thing. (It will give me an automatic 2-minute cool down.) Which means I have no control as to how many steps I climb. It's a bit more than last week, but not because I did anything different. Those 10 minutes though, certainly have me breathing hard with sweat pouring off my nose.
I get my 15 reps for the second set of pull-ups and then tackle the cross-trainer. I try to conserve some energy by only using the moving handles for the middle 5 minutes. Which means holding the stationary handles (for balance) for the first and last 5 minutes. I am pedaling at a decent clip though, so it's not surprising that I still feel blown out by that last set of pull-ups. Thankfully the count is automatic in my head.
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| from ssc.vu.lt |
Got a doc appointment on Wednesday as a follow-up to my hypertension issue. It's not looking great. While my BP isn't super high, it is higher than what it should be to qualify as normal. And mild hypertension is probably still a problem. I'm expecting the doc to raise the dosage of the losartan, but I'm just guessing.
