Halloween is For Pushing

I feel like I look tiny here

An unnamed nor'easter took out a lot of trees and with that, power lines up in my neck of the woods. We didn't suffer any damage, but a friend had a tree fall across her parking area, taking out both her old minivan and her husband's brand new sedan. Our 20-year old generator kept our essentials running so we had water, heat, the fridge and a single light in the kitchen. Because we use a propane stove, we could also cook. Most of the houses on our road are totally dependent on electric, which is just crazy. Unless you also have a generator, like we do. But it also means no phones, no internet, no tv, no computers, no washer and dryers. There was also no school because downed trees had blocked major roadways. My hubs went to work and said all the roads to the highway were just fine. But as of this morning, several thousand residents are still without power in Putnam County. We got power back yesterday afternoon, although it blipped again in the evening. Just as well... it was time for bed anyway. I'm so glad that our smart phones keep time automatically as long as they're charged.

This is more like it!

My son went to school in his Halloween costume. I went to the gym, in holiday-appropriate clothes. There's no such thing, really, as Halloween workout clothes, so I grabbed my cotton skull tank from the Evolution store (online and in NYC), and a pair of orange skull pajama pants I got at Kmart some years ago. Ah yes, now who's wearing creepy pajama pants, right? I also pack clean clothes to change into later: striped XL girls leggings (also from Kmart) with matching half gloves, and a long sleeve spider web tank from Old Navy. Yup, that's the extent of my holiday costume these days.

At the gym, I note a few fun ladies who are wearing festive head wear: a tiny glittery witches hat, and a pair of large red horns. The big old WW2 vet (I don't know that he is or isn't) is wearing a T-shirt with cartoon ghouls and candy corn on the front. Well, at least some of us remember what day it is. I'm happy that I'm able to get on my favorite cross-trainer, and do my 30 minutes plus 5 minute cool-down. But I never use it to cool down. After push ups and pull ups, I see the Smith is empty. And whoever used it last is an idiot in re-racking plates. 5 lb plates behind 45s all haphazardly tossed onto the rungs. I guess as long as the plates aren't on the ground, it's considered good? Ugh.

I do a bunch of Smith Inclined Presses. There's a tiny bit of twinging in the right shoulder. Serves me right for not really warming up. I'm happy to do sets at a slightly higher weight than usual. And then finish with high-rep sets. The BB Front Raise also causes my right shoulder to twinge slightly. Ugh. I still add 5 lbs to the solid BB. Upright Rows don't seem to bother me at this light weight so I'll keep them in the routine for now. The DB area is empty so I head over there to do my DB Lateral superset with Reverse Inclined Flyes. And as soon as I set up on an Inclined Bench, I'm surrounded by guys. The Mayor, Little R, the middle-age guy who kept trying to catch my eye a few weeks ago, a younger tatted guy I see all the time, and at the very end of the line, a skinny late-30s woman doing multiple movements with plastic orange DBs. WTF? Is everyone doing a Push Day today?

A woman said I was cute.
Not sure if that's good.

It's hard not to trip over everyone. Ugh. When I'm finally done with my 3 supersets, I move my gear over to the breaker bench behind the Smith. The Mayor is on the Decline Bench across the way. I think Little R is done and might be on the machines. Hooded tat dude is doing cables. And the big middle-age guy has disappeared. I think I did V-bar press downs last time, so today is Rip Skulls. Then I see The Mayor place a plate on the Seated Press Machine directly in front of the bench I'm on. I'm surprised. He just did flat benching (I saw him spotting Little R earlier), then declined benching. Now he's doing machine presses? WTF? Perhaps I frown because then he walks away, and Maroon adjusts the plates and uses the machine for a few sets. That was weird.

I finish with a Mat stretch because it's been 3 days and I'm kind of stiff. The gym scale is not kind today and tells me 113.0 lbs! Ugh! Too much salt in my diet: mac and cheese and bratwurst yesterday. I did make a lovely turkey chili on Saturday with a packet of spice mix I found in my cupboard. I was worried, but the mix retained decent flavors. I remember buying it when I lived in Brooklyn NY. Still, I was surprised to see a 1984 date on the pricing label. I've lived in a few places in Brooklyn but I'm not remembering this particular store. Oh well... This was before websites were common enough to be listed on the back of packages. Now everyone has a website. I look up the brand, The Spice Hunter, and am pleased to see that not only do they still exist, but they sell their spice mix online and in stores like Walmart. Of course, Amazon is out of stock, but there's a chance my local grocery chain carries it. I've just never looked before.

Tuesday Halloween

35 xtrainer
Calories 169
Miles 4.65
Average Heart Rate 158

HGPU 26
Push Ups 60

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 13
70 x 12
80 x 12
90 x 8 x 3
60 x 25
50 x 25

BB Front Raises s/s Upright Rows
20lbs x 15/15 reps
25lbs x 15/15 reps x 3 sets

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes
20/25lbs x 12/15reps x 3 sets

Rip Skulls
40lbs x 12reps
45 x 12 x 2 sets

WTF does not mean 3X weekly

I'm in a mad rush today but got some cardio in so all's not lost. Only did 4 minutes of Tabata in my 10 min cardio warm up on the elliptical before venturing to confront the Nexersys machine. It's on a slow progressive decline. I tape and wrap my hands before stuffing them into my old kickboxing gloves. But my right pinky knuckle gets bruised on Round 2, and coincidentally that is also the round when the machine decides it's not going to register any of my Cross punches. Hence the abysmal score of 58% Accuracy and 79% Strikes. I must've knocked a sensor loose because the machine just ran a bunch of incoherent sequences while I stood and watched for 20 seconds before whacking it hard enough again to shake some sense into it. (I drew arrows on the photo to point out where the machine just went crazy for a bit.)

I got a good workout, but my pinky knuckle is a bit bruised. I finish with 11 min on the elliptical because I wanted to do 10 min of HIIT but I need the first minute to get my pace going properly. Then a quick stretch before running off to my son's elementary school to help with the Halloween festivities. And I got to bring home a few slices of leftover pizza. Now, I only need to finish framing one more photo and then create labels for the backs them all. After we go Trick or Treating. My son went to school in his Halloween costume. Everyone driving past had to take a second look. When he boarded his bus, I heard it erupt with laughter. It's been a pretty good day so far.

Halloween Workout

10 min elliptical = 3 min steady state + 4 min Tabata + 3 min steady state = 0.8 miles

Nexersys 12 rounds Beginner Follow Me (48 min)
  Accuracy 92% / Strikes 97% / Average Power 134%

11 min elliptical = 1 min steady state + 10 min Tabata  = 0.78 miles

photo posted for actual stats: 

Trick or Treat

Today is Halloween and I've uncharacteristically worn clothes that are not black or grey, but orange. Halloween Orange. I guess I'm dressed like a pumpkin. I've got puffy Joe Boxer flaming skull pajama pants on, and an oversized orange tank top. It's a size Small, but this brand must run large. I don't really care as long as the clothes don't impede my workout. The waistband is tighter than I'm comfortable with so I keep moving my iPod from the back to the side until finally I clip it to the edge of the on-seam pocket. I'm nearly run over by the stampede of ladies en route to Zumba. Or was it Body Pump? All the same to me as long as they're not where I want to be which is on the elliptical.

Yay! My favorite Precor is free. Actually, they're all free because no one is doing cardio today. Very odd. I punch in Interval 7 and lose myself in my tunes. And lost I am because the program ends, the warm up ends, and I'm still peddling. Well, that's never happened to me before! Maybe because I've just added two new tunes to my mix? I'm like my 8-year old in that I can listen to the same 10 songs relentlessly, just as he watches the same episodes of SpongeBob over and over again. I went to bed earlier, hit the snooze three times this morning and still feel a tad tired, but I went back to tossing an egg into my oatmeal for breakfast. So I'm surprised that I make my quota when the little naysaying voice behind my ear whispered, "well, you probably won't even make three and a half."

Today is Arm Day and I like to begin with Decline Bench Presses. Except there's only one Decline Bench, and The Mayor, Tall Pace and Jude are hanging on it. Well, yes, one of them is actually benching, and the rest are chatting and hanging off the other free weight bench. So I pick the bench furthest from them and set up for regular presses. I'm about to do my fourth set when B stops by to chat briefly. She at least notices my pants before running off to do errands. By this time, the chatty crowd has moved to the Squat rack so I peel the plates off my bar and claim the Decline by tossing my towel on it, not that anyone else was interested in it.

And just like last week, I start from scratch, with just the bar to get a feel for it. At 115 lbs, I get 8 reps. I can tell that the guys are watching from the Squat rack which is only 12 feet away. I see Jude move the bar with three big plates, a 25 and a 10. Just a little shy of 4 big plates. He's a lot stronger than he looks. He also moves a lot more weight than either Tall Pace or The Mayor. Probably because he's younger. Or at least he looks younger, even if he has the least amount of hair out of all of them.

The Mayor uses the Squat rack to do Over Head Presses with the bar and 25 lbs on each side. I think Tall Pace just chats and moves DBs instead. I'm not really paying attention. Because it's Arm Day, I'm comfortable dropping the weight from there and doing another two sets. Done! I wander across the gym to the Cage to do my stretches and kicks, then return to the DB area for the remainder of my workout. Meanwhile there is hammering and banging galore as several staff members and the owner make repairs to the equipment. First a treadmill is disassembled. Then flooring appears to be replaced or removed. A few spin bikes are being adjusted.

I claim a flat bench, sitting at one end to do alternate DB curls. I have a BB at the other end for Skull Crushers. I'm not brave enough to up the weight so I do three hard sets of 12 reps at 45 lbs. Between sets I see The Mayor doing what seems to be a variation of Skull Crushers, except he's got plates on an EZ bar, and his bench is perpendicular to the preacher curl seat. He's using the preacher bar holder as his safety. Well, that's different.

I re-rack everything and grab a 20 lb DB just to do one set of Tricep Extensions for the stretch. My wrists and right thumb have felt delicate lately so I'm careful to minimize stress there. I haven't done Tricep Kickbacks in a while and though I don't really think they do much, I do enjoy watching the muscles dance across my arm so WTH. The Jefit app doesn't seem to have a listing for Kickbacks so I put my stats in with the Tricep Extensions. Some ding-dong has put the 50 and 60 lb barbells on the wrong racks so the only spot left for the 40 is at the bottom. I'm not going to rearrange the BBs although I did get frustrated and sorted the 30 and 25 lb DBs. The only things left to do are BB curls and Reverse Grip BB Curls. My elbows are not as happy with me this week so 45 lb curls hurt a little. I lean forward slightly and keep my elbows tight to minimize the pain inside the bottom of my joints. The RGBB Curls actually don't hurt at all and I knock out three sets without any issue. Done.

Okay, not quite. Some abs first. And then Mat Stretch. And if I don't fall asleep during the plank, then a nice hot shower. Yay! The gym scale reads 110.8 lbs, a skosh better than yesterday. I'm not nearly as tired now, but I'm hoping my son will've had enough candy and "trick or treating" at school so that we don't have to walk up and down our road in the rain this afternoon. There are very few kids his age on our road so no one expects Trick or Treaters. We have candy at the house, just in case, because we usually get at least one or two families. I'm all dressed for the event too, although I still have to take my son to tae kwon do class this evening. I've got a pair of leggings I scored for $10 that I'm really happy with and since this isn't NYC, this is the only holiday where it's okay to look a little goth. LOL!

Arm Day Workout:
35 min Interval 7 = 4.47 miles Yay!

Olympic Flat Bench: 12 @ bar (45 lbs) / 10 @ 75 lbs / 8 @ 95 lbs
Decline Bench: 12 @ 45 (bar) / 10 @ 75 lbs / 10 @ 95 lbs / 8 @ 115 lbs / 12 @ 105 lbs / 12 @ 95 lbs

Cage Stretch with BW heel dips & calf raises and side kicks

Alternating DB Curls: 12 @ 25 lbs / 10 @ 27.5 lbs / 3 x 8 @ 30 lbs
last three sets superset with 
Skull Crushers: 12 @ 40 lbs / 3 x 12 @ 45 lbs

One-Arm Tricep DB Extension: 12 @ 20 lbs
Tricep DB Kickbacks: 12 @ 22.5 lbs / 3 x 12 @ 25 lbs

BB Curls: 12 @ 40 lbs / 3 x 12 @ 45 lbs
RGBBCurls: 3 x 20 @ 40 lbs

Ab Crunch Station: 100
Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 150

Mat Stretch with 12 wide-legged DBPUs, 3 rolling, 12 DBPUs, 20 second plank, splits, upper back, neck and shoulder stretches, lower back/hip bridges, hamstring stretches, etc