Monday, August 24, 2009

Double Down

As it turns out, today wasn’t that different for me, but then I had only had two days off and not two months. I hit the gym early and decided to increase the dosage of pain. Legs were on the schedule today, and I decided to do a double dose of cardio. I don’t lift heavy with my legs anymore because I’m old and falling apart. I kind of miss the rush of the near death experience I get from a set of heavy squats, but all that’s gotten me since I turned thirty-five is injury and frustration. I went light weight with high repetitions and I discovered a whole new Marquis de Sade level of pain. I’ve been lifting (semi)seriously for almost twenty-five years and it never occurred to me what would happen if I forced a bunch of oxygen depleted blood into my thighs. I’ve done this to every other major muscle group and I’ve learned to like it. I don’t know if I can do that with my thighs. The muscles take up too much space and I can’t really rest them since I have to use them to walk. Pride is the only thing that stopped me from falling down and curling up into the fetal position. I only did one set of these and then moved on to leg curls. I spent two hours on the elliptical. Mainly because I ate too much over the weekend and needed to jump start my weight loss. It’s something that I needed to do anyway. An hour a day isn’t going to get me ready for a triathlon. The workout was easier than my normal workout because I paced myself so I could get through the whole two hours. I cruised through the first 115 minutes. The last five minutes were frustrating because I hit a bad patch of music. I’m good for ninety minutes no matter what mood I’m in, but that last half hour gets dicey. I found myself counting minutes and wishing songs would hurry up. I’m going to have to figure something out. I’m really tired but my legs don’t hurt yet. I’m keeping hydrated and I stretched for a full half an hour. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

2 comments:

JSG said...

2 hours on the elliptical machine sounds like pure hell, no matter the soundtrack. Don't know how you do it.

Christina said...

You were semi-pro when I was 4. That is really strange to think about. I can't believe you've been lifting almost all my life. Weird!