Unexpected

It's the first day of the school Spring break so I let my son sleep in. I also slept in until about 9:30. Still, it took me quite a while to get myself together enough to head to the gym. I have to rush because I scheduled my son's annual physical exam for 1:30 and I always underestimate how long it will take me to complete mundane tasks like my gym workout, showering, etc.

The weather is Spring crazy, torrential rain one minute and blinding sunshine the next. I don't know how to dress for the season. Should I pack flannels and fleece? It's already late morning when I start with HIIT cardio. Humidity means I'm sweating easily so I just drag my hoodie around to drape over the benches. I could just bleach spray all the benches I use, but that requires additional effort because half the time the paper towels have run out and the bleach spray bottles are either empty or misplaced.

After pull-ups, I slip into the classroom to do core and actually remember that I was doing to time myself doing pushups. I'm nervous that this will take me an embarrassingly long time so I am kind of rushing my pushups. I needn't have worried. Next time I'll try to see how many I can do in a minute. Because after I count to 50 and look up at the stopwatch feature on my phone, I'm surprised. It reads 34:13 seconds!

I complete the core exercises and then do my standard Smith Inclined Presses. No surprises there although my joints are still a bit wonky. Yesterday, my right wrist throbbed and I thought for certain that it was a carpal tunnel flare-up. But it's passed so I'm not quite so worried. I'm chalking it up to the increased humidity lately.

Because I'm at the gym a bit later than usual, there are a lot more people in the free weight area, including The Mayor. Ugh. He's not as loud today, probably because he has no posse to kibbitz with. But he is constantly in my way, and I'm paranoid enough to think it's on purpose. It doesn't help that I think my family and I walked past him and his wife and in-laws at a local sushi place last night. My husband decided to treat my son to his favorite food, sushi, after completing the Boy Scout NYLT second weekend. And of course, I had to have Hot & Sour soup and pan-fried pork dumplings as well. Salt galore!

I don't have time to muse as I move from Inclined Press to DB superset to Skullcrushers. Then a super quick mat stretch and I'm off to shower. I bought myself a new towel because the old one, with daily laundering, started to unravel in the dryer, leaving highly-electrostatic threads attached to everyone's clothes.

The new towel adds a pound to the scale, which is better than the last new towels I bought which added 3 lbs to the scale! My threadbare towel added nothing, but of course, it's unraveling as well so now it's trash. (I'd be lying if I didn't admit to feeling guilty about adding it to the landfill trash problem, but that's what makes hoarders out of us these days.)

I'm trying to convince myself to get up super early tomorrow and hit the gym at 6 am but in my heart, I know that's not going to happen. I'm meeting up with a friend at 9:15 for a work project. I'll just push my Pull Workout off until Wednesday and do another HIIT cardio session. Nothing offers more stress relief than intense cardio! But nothing helps you age better and live longer than pushing weights to increase your muscle power. (Click on the links to read the original articles.)

Spring Break Monday Push

Norwegian 4x4
5 min w/u (4 min on / 3 min off) x 4
5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30, 33
Calories 286
Miles 264
HR 140-192 (87)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 22

Push Ups 50 (34 sec)
Crunches 30/50
Scissors 50
Bicycles 50
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Smith Inclined Press
(60degree)
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
90 x 12, 12, 12
65 x 25

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

Rip Skulls
40 lbs x 12 x 3

Quick Stretch