Friday, January 13, 2006

When life hands you lemons – make bitter faces…

I’m kidding!! Yesterday morning my fiancé let me know that he was going to have to work late.

How late?

8:00PM late – yuck!

Visions of missing yet another workout flashed through my head. But then he offered to come pick me up at the ferry, drop me off at the gym and go back to work.

Let me tell you, the temptation to say, “No, don’t bother,” flashed through my mind SEVERAL times. But, eventually I talked myself into going. I ended up missing my ‘night’ ferry though, doing things at work and had to take the next one which put me into my ‘port’ at 6:20. My fiancé picked me up and then announced his good news. By delaying a little I had given him the time to do a few extra things and they had let him go for the day instead of keeping him until 8:00PM – YAY!

When I stepped inside the gym though, it was all I could do not to back out the door and say “No WAY!” Every single dingle cardio machine was full, and the weight room? Well maybe you have, but I’ve never seen so many MEAT HEADS in one place in my life. I’m not talking about the nice guys who are interested in having a great body and word hard for it. I’m talking about the DORKS who’s only intent is to lift more then the guy next to him while preening in front of the mirror and then slamming the weights to the floor as hard as he can so everyone knows he just lifting the equivalent of a car. THEN walk around the gym for 10 minutes talking smack to all the other meat heads, being sure to drop the “F” Bomb as many times as many times as possible.

I was so disgusted!

Add on top of that the five or so people who are there to see how many numbers they can get. The fiancé and I are trying to do shoulders and he needs the 35lb dumbbells. This knuckle head (he’s not a meat head because he didn’t have enough muscle to be one) is sitting with a pair of 35’s AND a 25 next to him while he sits and chats with the girl next to him. He even has the gall to get up and follow her over to the water fountain and when my fiancé stops him while he’s walking away to see if he could use the 35’s he says, “Only one set, right?”

We could have done three in the time the guy sat there and gabbed. When my fiancé was done another guy came over ALSO needing the 35’s. My fiancé pointed out Mr Romeo and said – I was just borrowing them from him. You’re welcome to them as far as I’m concerned.

GAAAAAAAAAH!

Despite all that we managed a decent workout albeit a little weird as we had to workaround the people waiting in line for equipment.

Back:
Seated Rows: 120 x 6 / 120 x 6 / 120 x 6
Bent Rows (+ bar): 50 x 6 / 60 x 6
Lat Pulldown: 120 x 6 / 120 x 6

Shoulders:
Military Press (+Bar): 50 x 6 / 50 x 6 / 50 x 6
Arnold Press: 25 x 6 / 30 x 6 (should have done 35’s but _I_ got sick of waiting for them and just did thirties instead)
Side Raises: 20 x 6 / 20 x 6t

By the time we were finished I swore to NEVER sleep in again because I could not handle going through another workout like that one.

I didn’t run because frankly I couldn’t stand to be in the place a moment longer.

After all of that we still made it home be 9:00 which was kind of amazing. I had my last meal for the day and finished THAT off perfectly. The only downer being – I was so charged up from working out – you could forget about falling asleep. I laid in the dark from 9:30 to about 1:00 before finally drifting completely off. Ugh!

Needless to say 4:00AM came REALLY early. Luckily, because of my schedule I allowed myself to sleep a bit longer cause I wasn’t going to catch the ferry but was driving into work instead.

We ended up hitting the gym by 5:30.

I was thinking that I would run tonight because I have a few hours to kill before I can go home while I wait for the ex to meet me and exchange the kids. So after warming up I headed right over to the weight area to do Bi’s and Tri’s

Straight Bar Curl: 50 x 6 / 50 x 6 / 50 x 6
Alt Dumbbell Curl: 20 x 6 / 25 x 6
Cable Curl: 80 x 6 / 80 x 6

Tri Pushdowns: 100 x 6 / 110 x 6 / 110 x 6
Bent over Tri Extensions: 60 x 6 / 50 x 6
Dip Machine: 165 x 6 / 195 x 6

To my surprise I was done with arms and still had 30 minutes left – so I jumped on a treadmill and did my run.

I still can’t believe hard it is to run those first few minutes. I literally have to talk myself into keeping going and not backing the speed down. It frustrates me. But, I didn’t give in and kept my 5MPR pace almost the entire time! I ended up running my 1.5 miles in 18.58 minutes – a new record! Whoop! (yes I know I’m slow – just humor me) This brings me up from my slowest pace of 13:28 to today’s pace of 12:38 - Since Jan 1st.

That means I’ve done all my weight workouts for the week and all I have left for the weekend is a 1.75 mile run. I SOOOO hope that the weather is nice this weekend so I can run outside.

Last night driving home it was beautiful. An (almost) full moon and clear skies, and it was almost 50 degrees. The only thing that kept me from jumping out of the car and running part of the way home is that I was wearing dark brown and no reflective gear or flashers. It’s just TOO dark (even with an almost full moon) to run in the dark near my house without a big flashing sign on your ass to warn the cars that you are there.

It’ll be interesting to see how it goes this weekend if I get the chance to run outside. How my body holds up.

So that’s it for me! If I don’t see you before – have a great weekend!

13 comments:

  1. That's EXACTLY the reason I've been dragging myself out of bed in the morning, too. I went in one afternoon last week for cardio and it was awful, just awful. Yesterday morning there were 7 cars in the parking lot when I got there, lol. MUCH better. Now if I could just convince that leg press hog to switch to afternoons, it would be perfect! ;)

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  2. Shawn. Big way to go on staying the course, and not being put off.

    You know what I said about my moment of mental confusion yeatserday, and I tell you now, to have stayed the course, finished the workout, and ended up managing at some point to pull that treadmill run out of the bag, in those circumstances, well what can I say but........

    WELL DONE. You really do inspire people like me, and you do some awesome things, especially on the weights.

    You are such a dedicated, rock solid person Shawn. I admire your attitude to your lifestyle so, so much.

    You make us all proud of you misses.

    I think out of all the blog folk I happen to comment on, all of which are awesome, you are definitely now my favourite.

    You're also the one I believe is capable of mammoth achievements, and that's why I made my predictions for you, because I've come to realise what an incredible person you are, and what you can do.

    I hope you have a great weekend, and the weather holds for you.

    Misses, you are just out of this world, and you're showing all of us, what a brilliant person and achiever you are.

    Look out 2008, because by then you will look jawdropping :-).

    Keep up the awesome results, and as ever thanks for your continuing to comment on my goings on, and never stop being the special woman we all know you are.

    You definitely rock every likeminded bloggers world :-).

    Matt

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  3. Wow you are awesome. You always seem to talk yourself into doing what you planed. I am proud of you for not running for the door. I think I would have. Keep up all the hard work. You are an inspiration.
    wonderfully done,
    Mari

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  4. Mari - I don't manage every day. (see my pervious post about sleeping in two days in a row! - bleh)

    But I figure the more times I talk myself into something - the less I'll have to argue about it. What's scary is how quickly I can go from where I am NOW to the point where the other me wins more often - that's a downward spiral I don't want to see happen again :P

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  5. WOW shawn, you never cease to amaze me girl with your dedication.. i've been catching up on your last few days & I'm tired just reading about it!!!
    Good for you hon! & I am still jealous that your other half is such a rock of support for you! -- but that is so very cool & bodes well for the years to come!


    take care
    Lala*

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  6. I don't have that problem so much with the gym rats (as I call them) but this personal trainer who just comes in with her clients, puts her stuff on two different benches and then goes to a third bench to work with a client. I've asked her numerous times to please move her stuff and she just gives me the evil eyes. She's a contractor though and I made a complaint today to the front desk that her gym manners needed improvement. Apparently I'm not the only person as they said that her contract was up at the end of this month and she isn't going to be allowed back.

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  7. How typical! That's one of the main reasons I go to the gym at 5am. During daylight hours and evenings it seems to be more a social event for the masses. In the wee hours before the sun rises, I never stand in line for anything. What I find to be very cool is that there are about a dozen of us regulars that go in early every day. We don't socialize or say much more than 'good morning'. We're all there to hit it hard and do our thing.

    Oh well, at least you stuck to your plan and got it done. Sometimes that's what it takes. Keep up the great work! You are doing an awesome job.

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  8. Way to go on the new running record! I think every town should have a special "meathead gym" so that the meatheads of the world can unite and leave everyone else alone! Hmm, then again, there might not be enough mirrors out there to build such a gym...

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  9. I have to do my cardio in the evenings at the gym...or run outside in the wet cold..the gym is the lesser evil. It wasn't that bad before christmas. I went on Thursday...it was a complete ZOO. Fortunately I was able to get a treadmill immediately and it was entertaining to watch the interaction among the throngs!

    Julie...your comment about the mirrors made me spit water everywhere...still giggling. I think they should offer a special deal for people who are willing to go early in the morning. It might encourage more people to get out of bed earlier and leave more gym space for the people who can't go early. Hmmm..maybe something for the suggestion box at my gym.

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  10. LOL. I am SO glad I don't go to a gym! Much more calmer here at home! I would probably hyperventilate from all the masses! Great job on getting it done!

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  11. Doing Great! I wish I could run outside right now....I truly miss that!

    Hey chickie...keep up the good work!

    Stef :-)

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  12. Way to stay focused about getting to the gym. Your going to get to those goals in no time with that determination.

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  13. I hate dealing with people like that in the gym!! You are doing great with your workouts! I need to write down and record them more like you!!

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