Long Weekends Are Long

I'm getting to this blog a bit late because frankly, at nearly 9 pm Monday evening, this is the first time I've been able to sit down at my computer all day. Make that all weekend. Between classes, birthday parties and play dates, it's hard to fit in the household chores and still have time to write coherent sentences. Today is Monday and there's no school because it's Veterans Day. There's a line of flags along the lake across from the courthouse and it's a stirring sight as we drive up the main street toward the gym this morning. It's not as crowded as I feared. Good for me, but my son is disappointed because he's looking for play mates and fellow gamers.

I get on my favorite elliptical and feel surprisingly energetic considering the hectic weekend. Hubby was away at a 2-day Practical Primitive bow-making course, and gone again for a business trip to Boston. I've promised my son a trip to the Mall to visit Santa, and to get a holiday photo. It's been the same Santa for the past several years and I appreciate the consistency. Now I have a series showing my son and Santa, my son larger and more shy in each photo. At some point he'll stop believing and then he won't be a little boy anymore. Right now he still is. I glance at the Precor display and I'm very pleased at the mileage reading.

The free weight area is crowded but I manage to secure a flat bench. But I'm not sure who I can get to spot me when the time comes. I don't worry about it and make my progression from bar to a few plates to heavier plates. When I finally get to 125 lbs, I look around. No Mayor today. No Slav. I see Jude by the Squat rack and another fellow who is chatting with him between sets on the Decline Bench. He's vampire pale, small and wiry with close-crop hair and bad tats on his calves. I walk up to them to ask for a spot and the smaller fellow volunteers. I think Jude is disappointed. Again, I can get five all by myself, and then I sputter at number six. After a few minutes, I toss another pair of fives on and ask for a spot again. "Do you need a lift off?" he asks. "Naw. Well," I say, reconsidering. "Last week I got two. But that was last week." I can lift off fine. It doesn't even feel that heavy, not until the bar descends. I can get two with a lot of effort. And then I try for one more. Well, he's a good spot.

Two drop sets and it's time for a brief stretch at the Cage. Only two more exercises to do! Yay! Incline rear delt flyes. I used to like these. Now, not so much. Probably because I've upped the weight to as far as I can go so now I'm just working on reps. I don't think my wrists and elbows will let me go heavier than 30 lbs. 30 lbs is pretty damn heavy. I stand up and drop the weights back down to 20 for Lateral Raises. I used to like these too. Before I got ambitious. R walks in and I give him a brief nod. There's a gal to the left of me taking up a lot of floor space doing DB lunges. That doesn't bother me as much as the fact that she rests her DBs, water bottle and towel on a bench. But she's not actually using the bench. I don't think you should drape your crap on stuff you're not actually using.

R and I try not to get in each other's way. He's rolling the 110 DBs to a bench to do DB flyes. Then he grabs a 45 lb plate, holds it over his head, arms extended while he does leg lifts. I'm almost done being scary with the 30 lb DBs when he points to the Inclined Bench. I pull out my earpiece. "What?" "Using this?" "Oh no," I motion, but then I ask him how his wife is doing. She's eight and half months pregnant now and I want to hear that she's doing well. He's all smiles and proceeds to tell me how she's working out here on Saturdays, how she doesn't even look pregnant from behind, but how the doc's told them the baby might be breech. I reassure him and tell him about my own son causing back labor, getting stuck and eventually needing to be delivered C-section. We laugh over names and nicknames because he's coined one combining his and his wife's name, but he doesn't actually want to burden the child with a silly name. It's just a nickname. He's sweet, telling me how he sings to his wife's belly and his son moves towards his voice. "I can't wait to meet him," he gushes. After a few more minutes of chatting, I tell him I gotta finish up before I cool down too much.

A set of crunches and some torso twists, Mat Stretch and I'm done! Yay! The gym scale reads an unfortunate 112.0 lbs. Whoa. That's cause for pause. But my son is actively engaged in a game with another boy roughly his age and he doesn't want to leave until I remind him of our date with Santa.

Monday Workout:
35 min Hill 5 = 4.05 miles Yay!
Bench Press: 12 @ 45 / 8 @ 75 / 6 @ 95 / 6 @ 115 / 5+1 @ 125 / 2+1 @ 135 lbs / 6 @ 115 / 12 @ 95
Cage Stretch
Inclined Reverse DB Flyes: 15 @ 25 lbs / 12, 13, 15, 15 @ 30 lbs
Lateral DB Raises: 15 @ 20 lbs / 12 @ 25 / 12 @ 27.5 / 3 x 10 @ 30 lbs
Ab Crunch Station: 120
Torso Twist Machine: 2 x 25 @ 50 lbs
Mat Stretch (I wish the 20 second plank would get easier but it hasn't)

Week Five Day One: Abbreviated Push

Wineberries AKA Wine Raspberries

I was sore the entire weekend, and learning how to split firewood with a 9-lb maul didn't help when the split wood flew off the stand and hit me in the shin. Luckily I had long pants and gloves on. We were at a day-long seminar on the art of Ash and Coal Fire Cooking at Practical Primitive in Hackettstown NJ. It was there that I learned that the wild raspberries we've been gathering (and eating) these last few weeks are also known as Wineberry or Wine Raspberries, an invasive Japanese variety that's taken hold in the northeast US. Well, it's the first invasive species I actually approve of, because, damn those berries are tasty! The bushes themselves seem extremely prolific, and we're surprised the birds haven't eaten them all. Sshhh!

My son and I got to the gym an hour later than normal because we both needed the sleep after a hectic weekend. He's not old enough to be onsite at the seminar so first we headed east to Connecticut to drop him at a friend's house for an extensive play date which included a trip to the Bronx Zoo and an impromptu water gun fight. Then we drove back through NY to NJ. It makes for a very long day, especially since we didn't get to retrieve our son until 10 pm.

This morning, all the Precor's were available so I got on my favorite machine and punched in Hill #5. Again, I don't actually feel warm until the 20 minute mark, and barely bust a sweat on Mondays. It's as if I need a few days of cardio before my body can rev up to proper speed. I don't make my quota either and the Smith machine is occupied by a pair of college boys who look as if they're going to be there all day. I don't want to lose momentum so I do reps on a standard flat bench. By my 3rd set, the Smith is free and I hurry over to claim it. I know I'm going to regret doing so many reps but I have to at least try to hit the heavy weights. What starts to fail on my heavy lift isn't my pecs or triceps, but my hands. Specifically, my right thumb and palm. My right front delt strains a bit and I know that there's nothing I can really do to improve my hand strength. I cut my sets short and do a few drop sets so I don't feel as if it's been a total waste of time.

Later, at home, my 8 year old son playfully tries on my wedding band and engagement ring, discovering to his horror that even though his hands are smaller than mine, his fingers are bigger. The rings get stuck on his knuckles! I have very small fingers and hands, and that is a big obstacle in my strength training. My right pinky and ring finger periodically lose their grip strength but then recover. I haven't been able to determine any causality for it. I'll have to look harder because I'm sure there is something that I'm missing. I can hang onto the dumbbells as I do Bent Over DB Rear Flyes, perhaps because I'm more focused on the back of my shoulders than my hands. The free weight area is really crowded today. By the time I start my sets of Lateral DB Raises, most of the guys have moved on to other stations. Finally, some breathing room!

B said Hi on her way out as I was signing my son in. She was actually smiling today, perhaps because she recognized that my spacey distractedness isn't personal. I see Mo from across the room but she's in and out so quickly that I don't have any opportunity to greet her. I don't recognize too many regulars, except for R. I think his wife is using the cables because he's spending an inordinate amount of time explaining forms to a tall, thin young woman with skinny long arms and long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. R looks distressed. I sense discord and keep my distance.

Today is an abbreviated workout because the Child Care room closes at 1 pm. I can only squeeze in cardio, benching, stretching, two delt exercises and some abs before showering. I claim my son at 12:58 pm and he is the only child left in the room.

Week Five Day One: Abbreviated Push
35 min cardio hill #5 = 3.91 miles Bleah!
Olympic Flat Bench: 25 reps @ bar / 25 @ 65 lbs / 15 @85 lbs
Smith Machine Bench Press: 12 @ bar / 25 @ 95 lbs / 10 @ 115 / 8 @ 135 / 2 x 6 @ 155 / 10 @ 135 / 12 @ 115 / 25 @ 95 lbs
Cage Stretch with BW Heel Dips and Side Kicks
Bent Over DB Raises (chest in lap): 6 x 15 @ 25 lbs
Standing Lateral DB Raises: 6 x 12 @ 25 lbs I can do 8 reps for each set without any problems then have to slow down to muscle up the last 4 reps for each set.
Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 150
Ab Crunch Station: 100
Mat Stretch: even though my legs and back are stiff and a tad sore, my splits are good today and I'm surprised enough to attempt another horizontal roll forward. It's better on days when I do limited cardio because the double cardio days see too much tightness in the hamstrings.

The gym scale reads 111.4 lbs which is good considering the feasting I partook in yesterday. It started with cinnamon rolls (Pop'n Fresh) stuck to a clay vessel and placed on a bed of coals while a chicken roasted overhead, followed by coal-grilled corn, sweet and white potatoes, clams on the half shell, whole catfish laid directly on the coal bed, tomatoes drenched in olive oil grilled on a granite slab, peppers (directly on the coals), salmon (cooked on a section of ash bark), pork chops cooked directly on an ash bed, vegetable soup (placed in a clay vessel and heated with stones from the fire until the soup came to a furious boil), baked garlic, baked eggs, and for dessert, ash cake (patted thin like a tortilla and placed on hot white ash) made from wheat flour, acorn flour, eggs and water, topped with wineberries, butter and rosehip jelly. Yum!

Again, I didn't have time to incorporate Upright Rows into my workout. I'll have my son tomorrow so that's another abbreviated workout, but perhaps I'll try to do a Back session. Friday is the wild card day because I have an eye doc appointment in the morning with my old eye doc just to renew my eye drop prescription. I have a consultation with a glaucoma specialist in Philadelphia at the end of next month but I don't have enough eye drops to see me through till then. I could just blow off the gym, or I could come to the gym AFTER my appointment and perhaps do a bit of cardio...