Thursday, May 15, 2025

Rain and then Momentary Sun

It's been raining a lot and the hedges I trimmed last weekend look as if they'd never been touched. I had an appointment with the periodontist's hygienist who cleaned my teeth and then recommended that I see my regular dentist right away because there's some nerve inflammation visible in the lone x-ray taken. I'm familiar with nerve inflammation. That's the cause of my chronic sciatica, and the reason I only had one dose of the shingles vaccine even though I've had shingles more than once, each time worse than the last. I'm pretty sure the first dose precipitated a sciatica attack that lasted for weeks.

Lately the sciatica only bothers me first thing in the morning, usually as I'm taking my dogs to the park. After an hour of tramping around up and down the hillside, and then sitting to read my phone and enjoy all the ambient noises of passing traffic and local songbirds, my sciatica virtually disappears. It's the sitting on the picnic table that helps because I can sit with my heels flat and my knees slightly above my hips. Because I'm really short with super short calves, I have trouble sitting comfortably on regular benches and chairs, meant for the average human, but not for me. Sshhhh. I'm literally child-size and very comfortable with a kid's chair at home. 

On the drive home yesterday, a very slow truck pulled in front of me. I had to get closer to find out what was hanging off the back bumper and only pulled out my phone when we hit a lengthy red light in town. Well, I've never seen that before. Hoping it gets donated to the Wolf Conservatory cuz those beasties need raw meat, and tend to scavenge when appropriate.

Today, I discovered a showy flowering plant in the obstacle course section of the dog park. According to Google Image Search, it's a Spanish bluebell, an invasive plant that is actually widely available to gardeners through big box retailers. It's not in my yard so I'm not worried about it. It'll most likely get trampled by all the other dogs that visit the park... there's no one today, well, because it's raining.

The parking lot has few cars in it when I arrive at the gym, probably because it's Thursday which isn't traditionally a popular exercise day. I get to the gym so much later than I'd like. I always plan to arrive around 11-11:30 and wind up lucky to show up somewhere past noon. At least it's not raining hard this morning. I got on the elliptical #1 and it made a lot of noise while I was pedaling. It's old and needs maintenance. I had wet my head before I left the house so I wasn't itching nearly as badly today, but I still had to grit my teeth when I felt pinpricks on my spine and shoulder blades. 

I did one set of pull-ups and was mildly disappointed that I couldn't match last week's 19 reps. On the other hand, I did feel the pull-ups in the center of my back, which was unusual. Then I went in search of a Nautilus bench so I could do the the rest of my routine. I found one in one of the many combination bench/squat cages lining the periphery of the free weight area, so I dragged it out to the center of the space to use. I don't care as long as I have room to do my own thing and no one gets in my way. As the day wears on, the area gets very crowded with HS kids. Ah, classes are over.

I added more reps to the heavier sets and that wasn't bad at all. Maybe I'm getting stronger? It's very humid and warm so sweat is raining off the tail of my braid like a wick. All those extra DB Press and Reverse Fly reps take their toll later when I attempt to do push-ups. I did them but it was a struggle and they were not pretty. I avoided doing Walking Lunges because I need to be able to help move my kid out of his dorm room this weekend. Plus, a 6-hr drive to Buffalo and back is hard on the glutes anyway. I don't understand people who can drive for hours. Maybe I just envy them. 

I had two ultra ripe bananas and no desire to make banana bread. I had used a recipe using ripe bananas with oatmeal. It was okay. This one adds peanut butter, but again with the caveat that it's not very sweet (even though there's sugar in the peanut butter). The recipe suggested adding chocolate chips. I didn't buy chocolate chips but take out the brown sugar that I already have. However, I forgot to add brown sugar (actually wasn't sure how much to use). The cookies turned out nice and chewy, but absolutely not sweet. I'm thinking I need to make a simple orange icing (orange juice, powdered sugar, butter) to drizzle over the cookies. That'll work.

15 May 2025 12:49-2:45
Thursday — Cardio et al
Weird Weather & I need more sleep

Precor elliptical #1 
Program 1
Time: 30 + 5 (5582)
Distance: 2.83
Cal: 314
Avg Hr: 156, 194-79
New FB: 44-131

HGPU 17.5 (center back feels it)

Incl DB Press s/s Lateral Raises s/s Rev Incline Flys 
10 lbs x 25/15/25 
15 lbs x 25/15/25
20/15/20 lbs x 30/15/30; 30/15/32; 30/15/35 reps (3 sets total)

20 Hip Bridges 
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
DeadBugs 20 x 5
Piriformis stretches
Child’s Pose
Cat/Cow stretch 12
Child’s Pose
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
Push-Ups 40
Arm rotations 20
Air Squats 25
Neck stretch / Eye yoga


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