Lost Time

I'm as bad as my son in that I never listen to myself when I know I need more sleep. I actually skipped the gym yesterday with every intention of taking a nap. Or getting some writing done. Instead, I did a bunch of house chores, watched TV and shot a few photos. At least the light was good, changing from harsh direct sun to bright overcast. Perfect for my current project.

In the locker room today

Today I actually had my head down on my pillow for a nap when I suddenly remembered that today is an A day on the school schedule, and my son had neither his sneakers nor his viola. Since gym is first period, there wasn't anything I could do about that. And he was wearing his rubber-soled camo comfort mocs, which are nearly as good as sneakers. But orchestra class is 7th period, so I got my gym gear packed up and drove over to the middle school. Because once I'm up, I am up.

Last night's swim class was a lot of fun. I didn't drink too much pool water, and I find that I excel at the backstroke, mostly because I don't have to worry too much about catching a breath. I need to experience for myself the fact that keeping your chin down as you lay on your back raises your hips in the water. I do this several times so that I can create a sort of muscle memory of this position. I'm not a natural at this swimming thing and it's a lot of work, a lot of unlearning bad habits. But I'm making progress. And next week I'll be the only student in the class for the rest of the term, which runs until mid-December. I really need to sleep more!

I haven't whacked the Nexersys machine in over two weeks, and I felt a tad rusty going at it during the Beginner rounds. The machine was mostly behaved, except during Beginner rounds when it would arbitrarily ignore power (right-side) kicks and digs. Hence, my scores are lower than I expected. During the first round of Intermediate, the machine goes a bit batty and flashes strike commands that don't match the body parts lit on the screen avatar. That's a bit confusing, and I lose Accuracy points. Of course. On the other hand, the machine tells me that I'm over-powered and out-pacing it for the Advance Level and I should add rounds. Huh? Overall, I have an excellent work out and feel totally awesome afterwards.

After I strip off all my hand protection, I do 30 minutes on the elliptical and then a set of pull ups. I'm wearing the raspberry and grey Asics I normally reserve for Pull Day workouts because my leather trainers eventually hurt my feet the longer my workout goes. What's becoming disturbing is the vague numbness in toes on the right foot. Again, it only happens when I'm on the elliptical, but previously, it'd only happened when I was on the cross-trainer. I've stopped using that piece of equipment, but if my toes are going to go numb anyway, then maybe I'll start up again.

I'm really looking forward to the end of Daylight Savings, when clocks drop back for an hour. I could really use another hour of sleep, if only I'd go to bed on time. Right. I recently found one of my favorite short story anthologies, Cold Snap by Thom Jones. I'd just read his obituary a few days ago and dug up the copy I'd bought way back in the 90s. Critics raved about his style, and the incredible way he was able to drag you along in his mania. I find a lot of comfort and dark humor in works like Thom Jones, Augusten Burroughs, and even Lauren Slater before she decided to take herself too seriously. Welcome to My Country was wonderful. Her later works, not so much. I loved Running With Scissors. My sister was horrified by the tone and the subject matter. The movie didn't really do it justice. Oh well...

Friday Workout

10 min elliptical
Warm up
0.82 miles
92 cal

15 rounds Nexersys
5 rounds each level

30 min elliptical
Program 3
2.45 miles
272 cal

HGPU  31

Photos posted for actual stats:

5 rounds Beginner
I'm quite disappointed in the Accuracy Score,

5 rounds Intermediate
The first round was crazy! And there was no coming back from it enough to compensate, number-wise anyway.

5 rounds Advance
It's nice the machine is telling me to Add Rounds and that I'm maximizing my workout. Some rounds are easier than others though.

Yaaaay Friday!

Looking Great but Blurry

It was good to be in the water again. It's amazing how much you forget when you don't practice simple things like changing from an I form to the L form and laying your head on your extended arm to breathe. There's only 3 ladies in the Intermediate Swim class, which occurs simultaneously with the Adult Beginner class. There's three times as many people in that class, and surprisingly, none of them are from this past summer. We also practiced a flat backstroke, moving from I to T to X forms in the water. It was dark by the time my son and I got back to the house. Wow, I wasn't expecting daylight to fade so fast, but in a just over a week it will be the Autumnal equinox.

Today, my shoulders are sore. Not painfully, but enough to remind me that I have shoulders. I put on my old mesh Asics because today's going to be a cardio day. Yeah, I'll do push ups and pull ups, but those are now part of the warm up routine. Maybe I'll push a few light weights just to keep things interesting. My favorite cross-trainer is occupied so I look at the 3rd one down the row. Uh, the interface is all funky and won't let me select any programs. I could just blindly pedal, but I won't be able to record any data. Then I see that the "good" cross-trainer being vacated. Yaaay me!

Pull ups are okay. I wish I could do more than 31. I have done more than 31, but that's when I wasn't quite so tired. I really hate how my body swings. Steadying oneself saps energy from the movement. I'm not having much success going to sleep earlier. I am waking loads earlier, but at some point this is all going to catch up with me. Going to bed earlier does not mean sleeping more. Lately it means lying in bed wide wide awake. Plus, my phone is acting possessed ever since I upgraded the IOS.

The upgrade was suppose to patch several security issues that allowed malware to take over your phone if you clicked on a bad text or email link. But now my phone mysteriously turns itself on and does weird stuff. Like send data from the Sleep Cycle app to FaceBook. What? Or play a YouTube video at 2 am, like it did last night. I had all my apps shut down except for Sleep Cycle. Two nights ago, it turned on music and the flashlight app. I would completely shut the phone down if I didn't rely on it for the morning alarm. I've disabled the Sleep Cycle app, so now I get to see if that solves the issue. Or if it's something else. I also just wish stores would realize that people like me just don't want every single store app on their phone. CVS keeps trying to bribe me with $3 coupon incentives. Ugh, the last thing I want is anther app.

I do some light inclined benches on the Smith machine. Normally I have the incline set to 30 degrees, but today I try it at 45. Then I do a few sets of RG BB Rows, just to loosen up all the tightness in my back and chest. There's no class in session, so I wander into the class room to do my Day 2 video. I feel a little self-conscious even though there's no one in there. My elbows are angled out asymmetrically, but I only see that in the video afterwards. I also realize that I not only do more than 22 push ups, but that I move really fast. Well, no point in dawdling. I snap a few selfies. The difference in lighting across the room makes the photos interesting. Plus, you can angle yourself to look great, or not so great.

Looking Not So Great

Old people love hanging off the Stretch Cage. I guess it's a good thing. I like it because it's the only place where the bars are small enough to get my hands around, and close enough together so I can pull myself up. Regular chin/pull up bars are too thick, and spread too far apart. I have tiny hands. But if I can get my hands around the bars, then I'm golden. Other people don't have that excuse. I'm not even sure they know why they're at the Assisted Pull Up machine. It's certainly not helping them develop the muscles they need to perform an actual pull up. But I'm not going to tell them that...

The Day Two video is nearly 77 mB so I'm not going to post it to the Blog. It's on my FB page. I talked my first "victim" into participating. I'm not sure I can get 22 people to participate, but I'll give it a shot. The best I can do is try.

Friday Workout (thank goodness I can sleep late tomorrow!)

30 min X trainer
139 cal
3.86 miles
7.72 average speed

HGPU 31
Push Ups 100
Crunches 3 X 50

Bird Dog Planks
2 X 60 sec

Elbow Planks
2 X 30 sec

Smith 45° incline bench
15 X bar (30 lbs)
50 X 15
70 X 15
80 X 15

Smith RG BB Rows
20 X bar
80 lbs X 20 reps
100 X 20 reps
80 lbs X 20

22 push ups 22 Days Challenge

30 min elliptical
Intervals
2.63 miles
299 cal

HGPU 34!