When You Know It's Going to Hurt

Horrible lighting here

I spent yesterday running errands and sitting in the waiting room of my son's dermatologist for an hour. He's always overbooked. Eventually we get in to see him, and the nurse seems surprised when I tell her about my son's bout of impetigo. The doc says that my son's skin is healing normally. What concerns both of us is the red spot on his cheek. Because it's not behaving like a normal pimple. It doesn't help that my son has scratched at it. I've seen enough scary photos of children with MRSA infections to be worried. The doc thinks it's the trauma of being scratched. And he prescribes a strong steroid cream for that spot. For the acne, the doc says a gel containing benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin should work since I don't want my son taking the oral antibiotics anymore.

The CVS is out of stock for the steroid ointment. And my insurance refuses to cover the acne treatment. WTF? If we switch to a generic, and the health insurance service rep names DUAC brand, then it's a $45 copay. Without insurance, a 30-day supply is almost $300. WTF? Is having decent adolescent skin only for the wealthy now? The dermatology office says they'll investigate and get back to me later. Yep... later. Like maybe next week?

It's a cute dress!

I get to the gym and do my routine warm up for Whack the Machine Day. But today I decide to give the machine with the new parts a go. I actually put extra padding on under my gloves. But the new parts are so stiff and the angle is set for a person taller than I am. Which is, like, everyone else. Ugh. I only do 5 rounds Beginner, and 5 rounds Intermediate. Because my knuckles are stinging under the gloves, tape and wraps. When I peel everything off later, my knuckles are bruised and pink. Ugh. Still it was a good workout. And I still got my hammer grip pull ups done. The Mayor and Big Mustache are chatting loudly. I see Little R from the back. He always takes his T-shirt off once he gets going. Wearing just a white "wife-beater" and sport pants, he's got that beautiful V-taper and nice shoulders. Well, at least there's one guy who qualifies as eye-candy here.

Yesterday I went to Kmart to buy my son a new pair of inexpensive sneakers. He tends to wear his footwear into the ground, until he's got huge holes in the soles and elsewhere. I remember being like that as a kid too. My son's got wide feet, and hates shoelaces. Luckily Kmart has white leather extra-wide Everlast brand sneakers with velcro straps. Once he asked me if they were old people shoes. I asked him if that was a problem. Otherwise I'd have to buy him lace ups. Not a problem. I saw $12 dresses and had to try one on. It fit pretty good so I bought it. Not sure where I'd wear it to, but it's not risqué and cheap enough. Yay for me.

Thursday

10 min xtrainer
Calories 48
Miles 1.33
Average Heart Rate 152

T, Y & I DB Raises
3lbs x 15
5lbs x 15

Mid Band Pulls 15
High Pulls 15

Nexersys
Follow Me
5r Beginner
5r Intermediate 

HGPU 26

Formulating a Plan of Sorts

The power went out just as I got back from the school bus stop. It was a bit drizzly, but the wind has been gusting up to 50 mph. Yesterday there were entire fleets of bucket trucks all along the major roadways. I just assumed they were taking advantage of the nice weather. But perhaps they were just trying to get ahead of this nameless weather system? I leave for the gym just as the power flickers back on. I made my son put on a raincoat, and later, when he returns from school, he's actually thankful that I made him wear it. Because it's raining sheets. And he laughs about the other kids who are ill-prepared, because what 12-yr old really wants to listen to his mom anyway? Well, mine does.

Again, I can't get on the cross-trainer I favor because someone else is using it. Ugh. I get on the same one I used yesterday. It feels even harder to pedal today. Part of me decides that it's just not worth the aggravation, so I'm perfectly content to actually log in less mileage today. Except I log in more. Not a lot more, but definitely more. Weird. My legs feel like tired lumber. Great day for RDLs. It's crowded too, because it's raining outside, and because I'm here earlier than usual. I do a set of pull ups and then head directly for the Smith.

Today is the 2nd day I've decided not to wear my wedding band while working out. It feels weird. But I still have the hairline cut on the inside of my ring finger, and I don't want to make it worse. Yesterday I forgot to put the ring back on until much later in the day. I can't wear gloves when I use the Versa Gripps (VGs) because my hands are just too small. The gloves I use for pull ups and stretching are slowly disintegrating. The thicker blue gloves I use for lifting have better padding, but the fingers are too big and cause painful chafing when I do pull ups... Sigh. It's always something. (I have discovered that Suave makes a lovely inexpensive skin cream that's not sticky. Yaaay! It won't dissolve scaly skin, but it's nice for after doing the dishes, and general moisturizing.)

Even though I don't feel as if I can, I actually do make all my sets for the RDLs. And all my reps for the RG BB Rows. Where I slack is at the One-Arm DB Rows, because my elbows feel a bit off. And since this isn't an elbow workout, I figure 3 decent sets at a moderate weight is good enough. The Mayor and Big Mustache seem to turn up the volume when they start chatting at the next bench over. I turn up my tunes. Because I'm so not interested in what they have to scream at each other.

A trainer I've never seen before is guiding a middle-age man through some exercises on the Stretch Mats. I don't want to disturb or distract them so I wander into the big mirrored classroom. But it's a thousand degrees in there, as if they'd just had a Hot Yoga class. Yes, there was a yoga class in there, but it was regular, normal yoga. I try a few Pistol Squats to see if I can still do them. I can, but normally I'd do this after cardio when the legs are more warmed up, so I worry about pulling something. I feel the strain in my front thighs and wonder if my quads are going to get bigger because of this? I hope not. They're already too big. I used to be able to do 6-10 in a session so I'd have to work up to that number again if I wanted. But again, I'd like my pants to fit properly, and Pistol Squats or Squats of any kind are not going to help me.

What's going to help is cutting calories. Fat and carbs most likely. It's not going to be fun, but I'd feel a lot better about myself if I dropped a few pounds of fat. I look at myself in the mirror, and come to the same conclusion as yesterday. Damn, I'm big. I bet I'm scary too. Not a bad thing...

Tuesday

35 xtrainer
Calories 154
Miles 3.91
Average Heart Rate 141

HGPU 26

Smith RDLs
Bar (30) x 15
80 x 12
120 x 12
140 x 12
160 x 8 x 3

Smith RG BB Rows
80 x 25 reps
100 x 25
120 x 25

DB 1-Arm Rows
45lbs x 12reps x 3 sets

Pistol Squats 2 ea leg

Is Bigger Better?

We had lovely weather this weekend and tried to spend most of it outdoors. Saturday we finally set up the deer target my hubs had purchased a few years ago. I haven't shot my bow all summer and subsequently lost an arrow over the target and into the woods. I heard it thwang as it hit either the pallets under the tree, or the fence behind it. Lost forever, cause I'm not going back into the barberry, skunk cabbage and poison ivy swamp to look for it.

My son is much better at it, but he's got a compound bow. I can shoot it, but I find it heavy to hold. I have a traditional. My hubs was switching between the two he had made: one made of shaped PVC pipe, and the other was oak. He got material for both at the Home Depot. But the problem with living where we live is that we have neighbors. And neighbors are noisy. Last summer I listened to a pile-driver blasting out rock three houses down the road so the folks could put in a salt water pool. The fellow across the street has a septic problem with a rental shack so there's a mini backhoe excavating in the morning. Then the people next door decide that they can't possibly speak on their cell in the house. The guy has to yell into his phone in Spanish while pacing his parking area, which coincidentally is next to our driveway. Which is next to our front yard. So I'm listening to this idiot blathering like he's standing in front of me, and all I want to do is smack him in the head with a brick. After he finally leaves, his dad decides it's a good time to mow and then leaf blow their yard.

I'm really happy when no one is doing anything, and the only noise I hear are birds scolding in the trees. Sunday we decide to drive an hour north to the Sheep and Wool Festival just to check it out. It's a beautiful day for it, and there's lots of fun things to look at. The food was not so great, with traditional fairground venues (fried dough, burgers, kielbasa, hot dogs, etc), and some specialty items, like raw milk cheese and lamb soup. My son of course refused to eat anything with lamb in it, just out of principle. I'm okay with that. The weather was beautiful, and we had a great time, even watching the weird Canadian dance troupe Corpus perform a Les Moutons, a surreal theatrical piece.

So it surprises me this morning when I wake up filled with anxiety and dread. I have a mammogram scheduled this morning, but that's not a reason. It's just a test. The only thing that makes sense in a vague way is that being out all day meant I didn't take any of my vitamins. And I find that if I don't take my vitamins, especially the B12 and B6, not only do I feel tired and depressed, but I seem to experience a worsening sense of anxiety. Ugh.

There's a lot of speculation about anxiety in the news these days. We're just beginning to see how pervasive it is, and how it might be the seed of all sorts of problems. It invariably leads to self-medication, and erratic behavior. Because if you're medicated enough to be calm, are you too calm to be productive?

I read about people having psychotic breaks. Usually it's reported that they've been prescribed a mood-altering psycho pharmaceutical. But there are people who fall down the rabbit hole of irrational thought without any prescribed help. How can you tell if you're succumbing to a mental illness? Who can you trust to confide in? If you answer Yes on the questionnaire "Have you experienced depression?", what black mark does your doc check off on your file? Let me state upfront that I don't trust doctors, because I don't trust pharma companies. Who can tell how beholden the doc is to their rep? Let me also state that Yes, I've had some very dark thoughts (not recently). But I'm the type who sits and analyzes everything. Every thought and action. It's probably not helping my anxiety, but I'm also not impulsive. But that's not to say I haven't had very weird thoughts leading to bizarre conclusions that in the end, just didn't pan out. Thank goodness for inertia.

Inertia makes today's workout a bit tough. I'm at the gym at the usual time, having had a mammogram and ultrasound earlier. The tech is cheerful when she announces that there are no changes to my scans when she compares them with those from 2014. Yaaay me. There's someone on the noisy cross-trainer so I get on the one next to it. It glides silently, but I can't lower the resistance past 1, like I can on the other machine. That machine goes to 0 resistance. 15 minutes to go and my right foot starts to hurt. First the big toe itself, and surprisingly not the bunion, and then the bones along the outside of my foot. My foot goes numb, which is annoying because I'm wearing my soft and squishy Ryka cardio shoes. I feel tired and weak when I do my pull ups. Ugh. I get my 26 reps but I don't feel strong at all today.

I knock out push ups, and then see a fellow vacate the Smith machine. Yes! Inclined Benching is first on my routine. Of course, all the plates are haphazardly re-racked, Ugh. I hate that. It makes it nearly impossible to get the plates I want to use without removing both heavier and lighter plates that have been stacked all together. Who the hell re-racks 45 lb plates with 5s and 2 1/4s? Have I told you how much I hate other people?

The Mayor makes his grand entrance as I set up my BB for Front Raises and Upright Rows. I haven't been able to hear him over my headphones, so I'm mildly pleased by that. The power goes out while I'm in the middle of my first set. Only those of us doing free weights keep moving. Eventually the lights reset and come back on. I seem to be standing near the only light that comes back immediately. Lucky me. I knock out my DB Lateral Raises, and do the Reverse Inclined Flyes on the bench in the Smith because I'm just not in the mood for The Mayor and his posse who are congregated in the DB area. I see a few other regulars though: guys who work solo and silent. I appreciate those guys.

After V-bar press downs, I realize that I haven't done core in a long time. There's a trainer with a senior lady on the Stretch Mat but I don't feel like becoming a distraction so I go into the empty big mirrored classroom. There are individual yoga mats stacked in the corner and while they're not big enough to do my Mat Stretch, they're fine for doing crunches and planks. I catch a glimpse of myself as I walk across the floor, and realize that I'm godawful huge. I think it's time to cut out some fat, not just for my cholesterol, but for aesthetics too.

Monday

35 xtrainer
Calories 153
Miles 3.85
Average Heart Rate 142

HGPU 26
Push Ups 60

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
80 x 12 x 3
60 x 25
50 x 25

BB Front Raise s/s Upright Rows
20lbs x 15/15 reps
25 x 12/15, 15/15, 15/15

DB Laterals s/s Rev Inclined Flyes
20/25lbs x 12/15reps x 3 sets

V-bar cable press down
40lbs x 12reps x 3 sets

Scissors 50
Bicycle 50
Crunches 50
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s

And the Results Are In...

I have a dentist appointment late morning so my gym time is necessarily abbreviated. I'm hoping to get in cardio and some body weight exercises. Ideally, I'd do an actual Cardio Day, but I don't really have time for that.

I skipped the gym yesterday, and spent most of my time on the phone with my insurance company, or various doctor offices trying to get an appointment for my son. I finally get a second opinion consultation for my son, but it's not until November. I hope that's not too late. He's still keeping his regular appointment with his current dermatologist but I don't want to put him back on antibiotics. The impetigo seems to be better, but it's not completely gone. That worries me.

In the interim, the results for my blood work came in. I was surprised that it was so quick! So my blood pressure and sugar is good and within normal range (120/70, and 93), but I have borderline high cholesterol at 229. Jeeze, that's high! While my HDL is great at 78 (anything over 50 is good for women), the LDL is bad at 135 and really shouldn't be over 130. But that's only 5 points and doesn't explain the 29 points above 200, (total cholesterol should be below that). I don't have all the numbers though. Some literature suggests that it's the type of LDLs that really matter: fluffy vs dense means a greater or not likelihood of causing issues. I'm hoping to access my total test results online, assuming the doc posts them. I'll have to call and ask.

My real concern is regarding strokes since that runs in my mother's side of the family. But everyone afflicted also had high blood pressure. The fact that my arm doesn't bleed at all after the tech takes blood samples (and I later go to the gym to whack the machine) makes me wonder about my "sticky blood." I had a doc once tell me that I was "stingy" because it was so hard to get samples from me. The Red Cross said the same thing when I was heavier and used to attempt to donate blood. (Red Cross guidelines state you must be over 110 lbs and pass a hemo test to make sure you're not anemic.) I'm just not a bleeder.

There's not a lot I can actually do, except maybe cut way back on red meat and dairy fats like butter. I already eat oatmeal and beans, exercise and don't consider myself overweight. At least no one's suggesting medication. Whew! Maybe I should add the extra cardio back in? Maybe losing another 5-7 lbs would be good? I have until next year to put this into effect. I could also try Intermittent Fasting on a rest day. Once a week wouldn't be too bad. Maybe a Wednesday?

While I'm home, I brew up a cold and sore throat tonic. I got the recipe online, but since I couldn't find red chili peppers, I used green serranos. They're pretty damn spicy. Into a glass jar, put half a chopped onion, 5 chopped garlic cloves, 3 chopped peppers, a tablespoon of fresh chopped ginger, juice from one lime (lemon is fine too), and as much organic apple cider vinegar as it takes to fill the jar. Shake and let marinate overnight. Store in the fridge after a day. Take a tablespoon or two each day if feeling poorly.

I bought a box of Banza chickpea pasta just to try. It's all over the supermarket, and I remember reading about it online. I might've seen it on Shark Tank as well, but I'm not 100% sure. I don't have a gluten issue, but I'm always curious about anything that purports to have more protein and fiber. What I'm surprised about is the amount of unappetizing foam that boils to the surface as I cook the pasta. The foam sticks to everything like a skin. There's no warning about this anywhere on the box. Ugh. The noodles taste a bit gummy. I mix them with a can of Annie's Lentil Soup and eat that for lunch.

Today I do 35 minutes on the cross-trainer. It still makes a terrible grinding noise, but perhaps not quite as loud. I guess the repair guy couldn't really fix it. Pull ups and push ups, and then a few planks. My ring finger has a weird injury that's hard to bandage. Somehow, in spite of wearing gloves, I might've caught skin between my ring and the pull up bar last time, and there's a painful but nearly invisible tear. It worries me when I attempt to do pull ups, but luckily, not too painful today. I don't have time for another 35 minutes of cardio so I opt for 15 minutes on the Step Mill. I see a few regulars like PJ Pants, who is wearing a polo shirt. Some people just don't exert themselves enough to actually wear gym clothes. That's certainly not me, in spite of doing an abbreviated session. I'm drenched when I'm done.

Monday I go in for the annual boob smush. But I can hit the gym afterwards. And I'm making slow but steady progress in my editorial studies. Still on Book 1: Grammar Basics, but dang I'm learning more about the technical structure to sentences than I ever thought possible. It's a real brain challenge.

Friday

35 xtrainer
Calories 170
Miles 4.75
Average Heart Rate 141

HGPU 26
Push Ups 60
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s

Step Mill
15 min
Level 6
Steps 803
Floors 50
Calories 118

Maybe I'm Just Always in a Bad Mood

I have a 9:45 annual physical this morning which means no coffee. It's a 6 hour fast, but more like 12 since I'm not gnoshing at 3 am. I have a cup of super strong black tea, but that's not particularly satisfying. I'm hungry by 9 am, and I decide to get on my home scale since my hair's dry. 109.2 lbs, which is what it was last month, but the body fat was better then. It's been creeping up. Today read 15.7% which is 1/2% higher. I've noticed that my pants feel tighter around the belly. Ugh.

My doc wants me to get a Bone Density scan again. It's been 3 years and I have a mild case of osteopenia (new bone isn't being made as quickly as old bones are dissolving). It runs in my family, and since I'm a tiny, small-boned Asian, that's not unusual. I don't really feel the need for the test. No one has ever broken any bones in my family (well, except for my brother who cracked a rib sneezing), so it's highly unlikely that this test will tell me anything new.

I don't need a colonoscopy for another 3 years, and I have a mammogram scheduled for next week. Sigh. Everyone wants to do an ultrasound because I have "Type C" dense breast tissue. Which would be a problem if I had big boobs. Or even normal sized boobs. But I can barely justify a bralette with triple-As so I'm not worried. Still, since insurance says it's covered with a doctor's "pre-authorization" ('cuz we wouldn't want to be getting tests just for the fun of it) well I figure I can get it done this once... but when this is done, I'm seriously thinking of never doing it again.

I suck down an Ensure High Protein RTD in the parking lot because low blood sugar is making me light-headed, and in a foul mood. Maybe today's just the day to hate people? How about the skank who left a bloody vagina print on the bench inside the locker room? You can't tell me she didn't know she was having her period. Luckily, one of the female trainers was in the bathroom and could don rubber gloves and disinfectant wipes after I pointed the smear out to her. What the hell is wrong with people?!

Of course, yesterday there was the fat smelly guy, reminiscent of Comic Book Guy (The Simpsons), who not only reeks like he never washes his clothes, but decides to do air squats between sets of curls on the Preacher Bench. Not too bad until you realize that the Stretch Mats are 5 feet from the Preacher, and he steps back so his butt is literally a foot from me as I stretched out. Ugh. I rotate myself so that I'm facing the storage closet instead of his stinky fat butt. And for future reference, I'm avoiding any space he occupies like he's got the plague. Because he does.

I warm up on an elliptical, and realize that it's broken. I can still pedal on it, but the manual functions are non-responsive. It's probably a computer chip or something. In the free weigh area, I do baby bell shoulder warm ups. Little R is doing DB curls superset with ab work on the latest gym toy: a sliding ab glider near the Stretch Cage. He's a regular who doesn't spend too much time chatting, and he's got a nice trim muscular physique to show for all his hard work. I would tell him that I think he's looking good, except all the other guys would notice that I actually spoke to a guy, and that would be uncomfortable for me. And him. Because middle-age guys are like teenage girls. Seriously.

The Mayor is back today, and spends half his time chatting while strolling on the treadmill. He's never on a cardio machine unless he's got someone's captive ear. At the Nexersys, I realize too late that I still have issues with keeping my left wrist straight, and my right fist tight. At least I don't cause myself any serious injury. The Cross pad looks worn, and gives a tad too much. That tells me that the arm is loose, and might need repair soon. Or replacement. Gym Owner has a service guy in and they've disassembled the cross-trainer. I wonder if I should tell them about the elliptical. I'm such a pain in the butt...

I haven't touched the "fixed" machine because 1) it's too close to the Espresso Bikes; 2) the trophy bike wheel and list of participants is but 3 feet directly behind it; 3) there's no other way to get to the CF stations on the other side of the Espresso bikes. It's bad enough when people hover behind me, chatting. Worse when they're on their cell and we can all hear their honey screaming back "I Love You Baby!" over the ambient gym music, and my own plugged in tunes. Good grief!

Still, I'm missing going to a dance party. There are suddenly a lot of local venues offering DJs and costume contests for the Friday night before Halloween. I don't care about costumes. I just want to go dancing. That's one of the few things I really miss about college: going to a mixer and suddenly some great song comes on and everyone's on the dance floor. Of course, I don't need other people to be dancing. I'm perfectly fine Dancing with Myself...



Wednesday

10 min warm up
Calories 95
Miles 0.84

T, Y & I DB Raises
3lbs x15
5lbs x 15

Mid Band Pulls 15
High Band Pulls 15

Nexersys Follow Me
7r Beginner
8r Intermediate

HGPU 26

Sometimes You Need to Skip the Baby Steps

I took the car to my auto shop this morning. Apparently the combination "Check Engine light with the disable Traction Control and flashing Cruise control" is a fairly common issue among later Subaru models. I've had Subies since 1997 and never this particular problem. The shop says that the error code tells them it's a solenoid issue. They reset the sensors but tell me that it will eventually come on again, and that I'll need about $600 worth of work and parts to replace the sensor and affected parts. What the heck is a solenoid?! Well, it's basically an electric conductor wound as a coil. Ugh.

The car is totally driveable, and I'm not sure if it's the last oil change (which, granted, was months ago) that caused an oil leak that's freaking out the solenoid sensors. There are a lot of car chat forums that discuss this possibility. But I'm not mechanically inclined, especially when it comes to cars. And especially not ones involving computer chips, as they all do these days. So I guess I'm at the mercy of my auto mechanic. Sigh.

I actually get to the gym earlier than usual, and it's crowded. Ugh. But the noisy cross-trainer I favor is vacant so I do my 35 minute warm up there. I get less mileage today. I'm tired. But I'm wearing my Saucony trainers because I think I might be doing a Pull Day. It all depends on what stations are open. Pull ups and push ups are standard routine today. When I look throughout the free weight area, I see that there's plates on half of the stations, but no one actually on them. Like the lazy MFers just walked away without bothering to re-rack. Ugh.

The Mayor makes a grand appearance today and spends a lot of time gabbing. The haircut suggests he was at a family event. Of course, having less hair just makes his body profile much more pyramidal, and that's not a compliment. I pull the 45 lb plates off the Smith and stake my territory. There are a lot of regulars whom I normally don't see at this time, like M and Skinny J. A lot of guys lose their size if they don't work really hard. Or they get fat.

Yes, that's a 25 lb plate followed by four 10s.
I count the bar as 30 lbs because it's on a Smith.

I decide cut my reps as I approach the heavier sets of RDLs. And instead of inching up with 5s, I tell myself, "Fuck it" and drop another pair of 10s on the bar. I know I've pulled heavier, but that was when I was younger. I haven't pulled this heavy in over a year or two. But it doesn't actually feel that hard, although breathing is always a challenge. Seriously. Maybe I'll cut the reps back even further, and up the weight again. Maybe...

RG BB Rows are standard. Then I decide to up my weight at the One-Arm DB Rows. I always start with the weaker arm first. That would be the left arm. Surprisingly, my right arm gets really tired. Before my left arm. Weird. Weirder is that Spider Grandpa seems to be hovering. Uh oh... I'm bad at determining how old people are. He might not be that much older than me. He might be younger than me. I have no idea. And I don't actually care. Because I come here to work out! 

Tuesday

35 xtrainer
Calories 165
Miles 4.45
Average Heart Rate 149

HGPU 26
Push Ups 60

Smith RDLs
Bar x 15
80 x 12
120 x 12
140 x 10 cut reps purposely
160 x 8 x 3 Yaaaay!

Smith RG BB Rows
80 x 25
100 x 25
120 x 25

DB Rows One-Arm
(Left arm, weaker arm always first)
45 lbs x 12
50 x 12
55 x 10, 10, 8

Doofus Alert

It took me at least an hour on my son's laptop this morning to get all the records updated for this past weekend's Boy Scout Thunderbird Games. Not every Scout camped overnight. Not every Scout participated in manning the Bridge of Doom, which credits a boy with Service Hours. And not every Scout received the same 7.5 hours of Service Credit because some boys came later, and some left early. Both my son and my hubs forgot their sleeping bags. Luckily it was so warm that sleeping in their clothes with a light fleece blanket was enough coverage inside their tents. Tonight there's a frost alert! Temps are suppose to climb back up into the 70s by the end of the week. We live in interesting times, as the old Chinese curse goes.

I get to the gym by mid-morning. My hubs left at 4 am to catch a 6:20 flight to Dallas. He won't be back until Friday if all goes well. So it's just me, my son and the dog. I'm really tired, but napping is not in the schedule. Instead, I leave my plans for after 35 minutes of cardio, when I'm thinking more clearly. Gym Owner says he's got the service guy scheduled to look at the cross-trainer. Because I think we can all hear it grinding. I knock out my hammer grip pull ups afterwards, and realize that I could probably do more than 26. But I'm not motivated. Oh well...

Push ups are fine. I see that the Smith is open, and I'm eager to use it now that it's been serviced. But only for Inclined Presses. No need to wreck the shoulder with flat benching today. The week is still young! It's late enough in the morning that the gym is fairly empty. Except for a few old guys who come mostly every day. One guy is newer. He's middle-aged but doesn't look quite as old as the others. I don't really care who works out as long as they're not idiots. And today, this guy is a doofus. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who works out directly in front of a weight rack so that absolutely no one else can use any of the stacked equipment there, is a doofus.

The moron doesn't even have the excuse that he's plugged in and thus oblivious. Nope. He's standing with his back inches to the rack, with a 50 lbs barbell in his hands, doing wrist curls. This is almost as bad as the idiots who bring the barbells over to the stretch mats to curl. (Why the hell do you need to stand on a 2" mat to curl? Wouldn't you prefer to have stable, solid ground under your feet?) At first I'm nice, and wait a minute. But he's grinning to himself like an idiot and he's not wearing earbuds. I'm holding a 20 lb BB which I want to re-rack so I can do something else.

I have to fight the urge to say "Yo, Doofus, move your newbie ass away from the goddamn rack. What the hell? You think you're the only one using barbells?" I don't, but it's running through my head. Lifting weights naturally requires a certain amount of internal aggression, but I try to be civil. Finally, I get impatient, and after speaking in a normal tone, I actually yell a loud "Excuse me" to get him to move forward. I might've been cursing under my breath too. I have my headphones on, but I can still hear myself. Between him and LoudMouth and Big Mustache, there's a posse of old guys who I'd rather worked out at a different corner of the gym. Big Mustache tends to stare a lot and I don't know why because he's been at the gym long enough to know better. LoudMouth desperately needs someone to tell him to use a hearing aid. Even at the gym. The only one missing is The Mayor.

There's only two other women here. One I see quite regularly, and she's making great progress shaping herself. Today I'm wearing an old tank so it affords more coverage than most of my gym gear. I used to wear it all the time when I first started here, but it fits me differently now. It used to feel bigger, and since I don't think it shrank, it must be me that got bigger. I'm tempted to up my weight on the DB Laterals and Reverse Inclined Flyes. Today, I only up the weight on the Barbell Front Raises and Upright Rows. I even keep Rip Skulls the same weight even though I still had the 5 lbs of magnetic discs. Maybe next time....

On the way home, my car dashboard suddenly lights up with Check Engine, Disabled Stability and Cruise control flashing. WTH? The manual is absolutely no help because all it says is go to the nearest Subaru dealership for service. Yeah, right. I cancel my son's doc appointment this afternoon because I have no idea if this is serious or not. It's distracting as all hell though. I make an appointment with my local repair shop and look online. It could be anything from a software update (seriously?!) to a faulty gas cap, to a bad gas sensor, to a bad brake sensor. Ugh...

I'm still packing my gym bag so if I get the chance, I'll go work out after the repair shop fixes whatever the heck is wrong with this car. It's a 2010, but I've barely put 15,000 miles on it in two years. Because I really don't like to drive much... but I want to be safe when I do. Is my age showing?

Monday

35 xtrainer
Calories 168
Miles 4.62
Average Heart Rate 150

HGPU 26
Push Ups 60

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
80 x 12 x 3

BB Front Raises s/s Upright Rows
20lbs x 15/15reps
25lbs x 15/15 x 2 sets

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes
20/25lbs x 12/15reps x 3 sets

Rip Skulls
40lbs x 12reps x 3 sets