Better Than Nothing

Some days I have too many items on my schedule. Today it's 80F with the threat of hail and tornadoes. Last week there was a frost warning. Happy Spring! I barely have enough time for a workout before I need to sign on to a live webinar given by Glaucoma.org and it's something I don't want to miss. That gives me less than an hour but I can still do a quick workout.

I do a bit better on the elliptical than last time which surprises me. It's about 10 degrees cooler in the garage than outside so it's only a few minutes before I start sweating. No need to bundle up in fleece today! I really do wish I could drop the resistance down to zero. Even at level 1, my quads and hamstrings are stressed. And I really miss the StepMill!

I have just enough time to do core and a few other movements. Just for kicks, I  alternate between leg-up crunches and bent knee crunches. It's less stressful to do three sets of this combo than doing 60 reps of leg-ups followed by 60 reps of bent knees. I set up my phone to record pushups because I'm not entirely certain of my form. I guess next time I should do them slower and more deliberately as my quick bouncy reps are quite sloppy!

The hammer grip pull-ups are fine until I get to rep 14, then it all goes south. I muscle my way through the next two reps but just barely. There's just enough time for some air squats and split squats. And a few quick stretches. Something buzzes my ear as I walk back to the house. It's Spring and the bugs are all out! My son and I saw two tiger swallowtails this morning while walking the dogs. And there's a lone peeper holdout in the pond, down from the dozen last week. Scout Camp has just announced that they're not opening for the summer. School might continue online next Fall. We're just playing it all by ear. My anxiety level is at an all-time high. No surprise there!

Quick Friday workout 81F

Vision elliptical

Program: manual

20 min

Miles: 1.83

Calories: 169

HR 74-100

Crunches 20/20 x 3 sets

Elbow Plank 60s

Knee-Ins 60

Bicycles 60

Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Pushups 31

HGPU 16

Bodyweight squats 25

Split Squats 12

Quick Stretch

Splinter Hemorrhage

I had a good quick session, proving to myself that I can indeed accomplish a fairly inclusive workout in roughly an hour. Of course, that meant I completely skipped moving any weights other than my own body, i.e., pushups and pull-ups and core. And I'm so used to punching in 33 minutes for time on the elliptical (for HIIT cardio) that it becomes automatic, even when I meant 30 minutes just to do Fitness Program 2.

I still did the 5-minute cooldown that follows, but I didn't actually slow my pace very much for that. However, my pulse rate dropped dramatically, which I wasn't expecting. I was still red-faced and sweaty when I left to shower and change.

The dermatologist looked at my toe under a special lens and said he thought it looked more like splinter hemorrhages, which are due to trauma, like kickboxing. I told him that I initially thought that but it's been several weeks and I still have that dark line. He said that toenails grow so slowly that it takes months for an injury to grow out and he suspected that those dark areas were microscopic blood clots under the nail. He brought up images of splinter hemorrhages on his laptop to show me how similar they looked to toenail melanoma. He's seen the real thing in real patients and his gut instinct was telling him that this wasn't it. (I'm soooo relieved. There's a Scout white water rafting trip at the end of this month that I plan to attend with my family!)

Splinter hemorrhage

I do have a follow-up appointment in two months to make sure that the dark lines and spots have actually moved on. Because, unfortunately, if it is subungual melanoma, a plastic surgeon must perform the biopsy by removing the nail itself and peeling back the skin at the cuticle to sample cells from both the nail bed and the matrix where the nail germinates from. The nail itself will grow back albeit usually with a notch or crease in it (as per my doc), but it's still quite an ordeal.

Trauma from kickboxing isn't the only way to inflict this type of damage. Apparently, heart infections, nail fungus, skin afflictions like psoriasis, organ diseases that affect the circulatory system, even Raynaud's disease or chemotherapy can cause these microscopic blood clots. The fact that my nails have become ridged and discolored enhances the brownish black line and spots. Those are factors due to aging and nothing more.

from Healthline.com

I'm so relieved that I'm actually thinking about going to the gym tomorrow to whack the kickboxing machine for a few rounds in celebration.

Hump Day Rush

33 Elliptical + 5cd! Oops!
Program 2
Calories 359
Miles 3.19
HR 157-194 (87, 97)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 22

Push Ups 60
Crunches 30/50
Scissors 50
Bicycles 50
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Quick Stretch