Once A Gym Rat...

I actually slept okay last night for the first time in a week. I'm taking so many pills, it's like Easter candy spread across the table. This morning I decide to add lysine to the cocktail because if it's good for cold sores, which is a herpes virus, then maybe it's good for shingles as well. It can't possibly hurt. There's the giant horse pill to take with 3 ibuprofens that I wash down with coffee this morning. I'll take my vitamin mix when I get back from the gym. And another vitamin mix with dinner (because I'm suppose to take 4 Optic Nerve vitamins daily but spread out through the day).

Then I have to remember to take the acyclovir and ibuprofen this afternoon, and before bed. At bedtime I'll add the gabapentin. I forgot the ZMA last night and my bowels aren't very cooperative today. Or it could be totally the gabapentin, because side effects include both diarrhea and constipation. Oh joy. The last thing you want with sciatica-like pain emanating from your hip/glute area is to strain.

My leg still hurts but less so. I'm not limping anymore! The rash is actually worse now, spreading across the outside of my shin. All the little red bumps are extremely tender to the touch. At least they haven't blistered yet. No shorts for me until these go away! I get my gym clothes on, drive my son to his Scout group project just a half mile down the road, and head off to the gym. I don't usually go on the weekends so I wasn't sure how crowded it was going to be. I see some regulars just wrapping up their routines. And creepy PJ Pants is back from someplace warm because he's got a tan. I haven't seen SnowBird though, but he was 73 a few years ago, so it's possible he's not coming back.

Cross-trainers are busy so I get on the elliptical and tell myself I'm going for a leisurely pace. I punch in Program 1 and turn up Billy Idol. Stretching at the Cage, I look at the roof bars and wonder if I can do pull ups with my hand further apart. At my Physical Therapy appt last week, the fellow told me that my delt muscles were very strong, but the smaller inner muscles were weak. It's the muscles that contract when you squeeze your shoulder blades together. Pull downs and and wide grip pull ups work for that. Ugh. He gave me a green plastic band to do two exercises twice a day with. I wedge one end into a doorjamb and pull my arms to my sides with elbow bent, concentrating on squeezing my shoulder blades together. 15 reps in the middle jamb, and 15 reps from over the top of the door, twice a day. Okay, I can do that.

I save the pull ups for later. Instead, I do knee-ins for lower abs, then push ups. Crunches and planks follow. Okay, time for more cardio. The cross-trainer I like is free now so I do 30 minutes there, calculating in my head how many miles I need to break 6. Because I'm competitive with myself. I don't really feel my leg. But my toes have gone numb. The knee is only noticeable when I stretch, almost as if it was swollen. The rest of me feel fairly limber though.

Moment of truth. I take a deep breath and position my hands a foot apart on the Stretch Cage roof bars and see if I can pull myself up. Again I have to arc my body so I don't smack my head into the Cage. I can meet the edge of the roof with my chin. And my body hangs straight down without flailing so that's good. I get to 21 before my elbows complain. The left one felt tender like it'd been burned so I'm cautious. Burning and tingling are signs of nerve damage. It's my left side that's got the shingle flare-up. Bad enough it has gotten my hip to my ankle. Don't need it running up my upper body as well. But I'm supremely happy that I can do a reasonable amount of pull ups at 12 inches. The plan is to work my way to past shoulder's width apart if I can do it without injuring my joints.

Tomorrow I'm either dragging my son off to the Humane Society for volunteer work (he needs 8 hours of non-Scout charitable volunteer work for his Citizenship in the Community merit badge), or we're going to the gym. There's no school next week due to the Easter break. But we have a full week scheduled. Or at least I do.

Saturday
6.41 total miles

30 min elliptical
Program 1
Calories 284
Miles 2.53
5070 steps

Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 50, 30, 20
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Crunches 3 x 50

30 min x-trainer
Calories 143
Miles 3.88
Average Heart Rate 155

HGPU 12" apart 21 reps

Cutting Back Is Harder Than It Looks

Winter Storm Sparta seemed gentle enough with the constant precipitation of tiny, rain-like snow flakes. Shoveling Sunday night while the snow was still falling was probably a bit silly, but my son and I wanted to get some sort of head start. We figure there would be a 2-hr delay and I wasn't disappointed by the 5 am text and subsequent prerecorded phone call. I've learned to keep the phone close to my pillow on nights like that. This morning I spent an hour and a half re-shoveling the walkway, the driveway, clearing my car and then moving it so I could shovel up everything that fell off it. We got a good 8 inches of powder so dry it doesn't always stay put in your shovel. That makes it difficult to catapult over the snow banks lining the driveway. Worse yet, cleared snow has a tendency to blow back with the wind, causing minor white-outs along portions of the roadways.

The school bus is late because the substitute driver is unfamiliar with the route. I get to the gym and realize that I've forgotten my blue hoodie. I'd cleared the snow wearing my gym clothes under my winter parka, and I didn't want to overheat, so I hadn't worn the hoodie. Bummer. I choose the cross-trainer farthest from the front door. My paranoia kicks in and I think everyone is staring at me. Normally I've got my hoodie pulled down over my eyes and I don't really see anyone. I wonder if there's something wrong with my clothes.

I'm tired from shoveling so I tell myself it's okay if I only do 5 miles today. When 30 minutes is up, I realize that I've logged 4.01 miles already. The Smith is free so I do my standard Smith Bench Press. At first my left elbow is achy. Probably from shoveling. But as the weights progress, the elbow feels fine and it's my right shoulder that starts to ache. I have to be careful because benching heavy inevitably causes an issue with that joint. Surprisingly, 25 reps at 90 lbs feels really good. I used to be able to do this on the free bench with 95 lbs, but since the gym installed over-sized Matrix Breaker Benches that are too tall and too wide for me, I haven't been comfortable doing free weights.

It takes me a few moments to swap out the small flat bench for the adjustable inclined bench but I want to do a few sets of Smith Inclined Presses. I'm able to up my weights here so I'm excited. Then I move on to the Super Set movement: DB Lateral Raises and DB Reverse Flyes. I cut my reps on the heavier 25 lb sets until the last set. That one, I grind out. Because I can. Because I know that the fatigue I felt in the first 3 sets was just in my head. And 12 reps at the 6th and last set proves it.

I like to finish with more cardio to warm up before I do any sort of Mat Stretch. 30 minutes on the elliptical on Performance Program #1 gives me another 2.54 miles. Wahoo! That's a total of 6.55 miles. Pretty good for feeling kind of tired. I'm having a really hard time cutting back to 5 miles. I'm not sure I know how to do it other than cutting back on the time I spend doing cardio. And yet, endurance is something I've worked so hard to achieve that I am absolutely loathe to give it up. I must be feeling better. I found a nearly pristine bottle of l-lysine in my cabinet so I've started taken 3 capsules (500 mg ea) 3 times a day. The Livestrong.com website suggests taking 3,000 to 9,000 mg daily in divided doses. I definitely think it's helping me recover.

When I get home, I cut apart a black plastic garbage bag and cover my cellar doors with it because tomorrow's forecast is for snow, rain and maybe sleet. There is a flood warning alert, especially since storm drains are inaccessible due to several feet of icy snowbanks. Winter Storm Thor is a monster system that reaches across the country, raining hail and ice everywhere within it's reach. The hose from the sump pump protrudes from a pillow of fiberglass insulation between the doors, and insulation does not work well wet. I also don't need any more water getting into my basement than what already seeps in through the walls. It's a wet basement, and even though I live on a big hill, the water table is extremely high. The entire county can suffer a drought, and my well would be fine.

My son is bummed that the impending storm means his MineCraft meetup might be cancelled. If the storm lasts the projected three days, Cub Scouts, Chess class and Kung Fu will also be impacted. I can't wait until Spring, although I am enjoying mosquito-free life right now. Sigh.

Monday Cardio and Workout
(total miles = 6.55; 12,810 lbs moved)

Cross Trainer

Calorie :   152 CAL
Distance: 4.01 mile
Speed :    8.18 mph
Duration : 00:30:07

Smith Machine Bench Press

165

Set 1 : 30x12
Set 2 : 80x12
Set 3 : 100x10
Set 4 : 120x10
Set 5 : 130x8
Set 6 : 90x25

Smith Machine Incline Bench Press

126

Set 1 : 30x12
Set 2 : 70x12
Set 3 : 80x12
Set 4 : 90x12

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

35

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 20x12
Set 3 : 25x8
Set 4 : 25x8
Set 5 : 25x8
Set 6 : 25x12 SuperSet with

Dumbbell Reverse Flyes

35

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 20x12
Set 3 : 25x8
Set 4 : 25x8
Set 5 : 25x8
Set 6 : 25x12

Elliptical Training

Calorie :   286 CAL
Distance: 2.54 mile
Duration : 00:30:10