Time Well Spent

I keep finding garbage to toss into the dumpster and will probably continue to do so until either the dumpster is picked up by the carting company, or I run out of room. But the dumpster is packed so imperfectly that there always seems to be room to slide a few old futon railings, or toss another ancient pet carrier. I skipped the gym yesterday but managed to get myself organized enough to go today, albeit much later than I'd like. 

Three out of four elliptical machines were occupied when I arrived even though the rest of the gym wasn't busy. I took a gamble and decided to flip the order of my cardio programs, figuring that machine #1 would be free at some point. Wind Breaker was already on #3 and I didn't want to ride the machines to either side of him. 

I started with 15 minutes on the Life Fitness cross-trainer. I've thought about skipping use of the arm handles since it affects my pull-ups immediately afterward. But I never do. Probably because the cross-trainer is boring just foot pedaling. There's no program with backward movement. And I don't like any of the other programs available because most of them want to manage your heart rate, and we all know how unreliable these handle-based HR monitors are. (My HR appears unresponsive to pedaling slower or faster according to these machines so there's little point in using them.)

My first set of pull-ups is abysmal and requires kipping within the first dozen reps. Still, anything over a dozen is good in my book. I do my 10 minutes on the stair climber. Then back to the Stretch Cage for another round of pull-ups. Slightly better, but still needing to use a bit of lower body kipping to finish the set. I see that elliptical machines #1 and 2 have opened up. I choose #1 even though it clunks. It's further away from Wind Breaker and his old paper & dried mushroom odor. Halfway through my program, a big fellow clambers onto elliptical #2. He's got a bit of cologne on, which is better than locker room stink, or old pantry items so... All together, it's an hour of cardio, just broken up into bite-size, much less boring chunks, with pull-ups in-between. 

My last set of pull-ups surprises me. I'm actually too tired to curl my lower body up, and the dead hang pull-ups feel okay. I'm extremely pleased and very surprised to make it all the way to rep 18! Then I trot off to the Aerobics Room, which is not as cold as I wanted it to be. There's a couple of HS guys in there doing roller stretches and some body weight movements. Eventually I stop sweating. I do everything on my list and realize that I haven't added back items like Wall Sits or Walking Lunges. Maybe next week.

I might not make it to the gym tomorrow as the town building inspector is scheduled for some time in the morning to sign off on the new oil tank. There's a 3-hour window so I have time to take puppers to the park. The fellow could come right at 9:30. But he could also lollygag and not show up until noon. Regardless, I have to be home for it. 

Saturday, we drive to Charlton NY to attend my sister's wedding. It's just a day trip, and I hope that the food will be good. There might even be music and dancing since my sister's new hubs plays in a band (they're both retired) but I'm not sure if it's dancing music. Of course, pretty much anything is danceable, right? I mean, he doesn't play in a string quartet so chances are good it'll be alright. 

I stopped at the grocery before heading home. The store had baby Venus flytrap plants for sale. I've never seen them sold there before, and for $5, that seemed reasonable. So I bought one and sent a pix to my kid at college. They wanted to know if this would take care of the tiny ant problem in the bathroom, and I had to confide that I'd already laid out a line of ant poison gel and those ants were gone. My kid expressed relief. There's a lot of yellow jackets in the yard and some smallish bumblebees and flies. I might have to catch a few ants from the lawn to feed the plant... Should I name it Seymour? 

4 Sept 2025 12:39-2:36

Thursday All Cardio

Late so cardio reordered

Life Fitness X-Trainer #3

12:40-12:55

Program Manual L1

Time: 12 (+3 min cool down) = 15

Distance: 1.50

Cal: 118

Avg Hr: n/a

HGPU 17 w/ kipping last 1/3

Matrix StairMaster (R) (1:06-1:16)

Manual timer 8+2 cool down

Minimum 5 minutes

Speed 5 (48-45) / 2 (36) / 1 (29)

Steps 440

Floors 27

Cal 66

Hr 117

HGPU 18 w/ kipping last 1/3

Precor elliptical #1 (1:28)

Program 1

Time: 30 + 5 (5514)

Distance: 2.81

Cal: 311

Avg Hr: 149, 190-84

New FB: 40-162

HGPU 18! (2:11) no kipping!!

20 Hip Bridges (2:17)

20 Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

10 Piriformis stretches

Child’s Pose

Cat/Cow stretch 12

Child’s Pose

Fire Hydrants 25 x 2

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Push-Ups 25

Arm rotations 20

Air Squats 25

Stretch / eye yoga