Sun, February 13th

Morning Walk: 3.26 miles. Did some balancing work afterwards.

Calories: 2091, Protein: 141 g.

Mon, February 14th

• Recumbent Bike: 30 Minutes, Level 5, RPMs 75 – 80, Hill Program
• Evening Walk: 3.28 miles. Did some balancing work afterwards.

Calories: ~2200, Protein: ~125 g.

Valentine’s Day was nice. I always buy my husband some flowers every year and this year it was roses. I also saw him looking at an interesting coffee cup at a grocery store we go to a lot but he didn’t buy it. So I pretended not to notice and went back later in the week and got it for him as a gift. We made a nice meal at home together, so it was a good day.

Tues, Feb 15th

• I did one round of the MV Steel Mace Workout with my 5 lb. mace as a (strenuous) warm-up.
• (Giant Set x 5 Sets) I had 60 seconds to do each exercise. I could rest after each exercise if and only if there was time left. There was no rest, other than this, at the end of each set.
  • Low Bench Taps for 60 seconds, Bench Dips: 10 reps, Marching High Hip Bucks: 10 (2-ct) reps, Seated Scapular Push-ups: 10 reps
• (Super Set) Arnold Press: 15 lbs. x 8 reps x 2 sets, 20 lbs. x 8 reps x 2 sets, 25 lbs. x 8 reps x 2 sets +
  • CoC Grippers: (Guide, 60 lbs.) x 8 reps x 4 sets, Sport (80 lbs.) x 5 reps x 2 sets
  • Rest at the end of each set by stretching for 30 seconds.
• (Super Set): Incline Push-ups using stairs: (4th step) x 8 reps x 4 sets, (3rd step) x 8 reps x 2 sets +
  • CoC Grippers: (Sport 80 lbs.) x 5 reps x 2 sets, (Trainer 100 lbs., partial reps) x 5 reps x 3 sets (was able to close once on the second set with my right hand)
  • Rest at the end of each set by stretching for 30 seconds.
• (Giant Set):
  • Lateral Raises: 10 lbs. x 8 reps x 3 sets
  • Tricep Pushdowns (v-handle): 35 lbs. x 8, 12 reps, 40 lbs. x 12 reps
  • Cross Body Hammer Curls alternating reps with Hammer Curls: 10 lbs. x 12 reps, 12 lbs. x 12 reps, 15 lbs. x 12 reps
  • Light Spring Bar: 8 reps x 3 sets
  • Rest at the end of each set by stretching for 30 seconds
• (Tri Set):
  • Seated BB Wrist Curls: 44 lbs. x 8 reps x 3 sets
  • Seated BB Rev Wrist Curls: 31 lbs. x 8 reps x 3 sets
  • (Set 1) Heavy Spring Bar 8 reps; (Sets 2-3) 2 lb. Indian Club work for one minute
  • Rest at the end of each set by stretching for 30 seconds
• Evening Walk: 3.26 miles.

Calories: 1943, Protein: 160 g.

Back to our friend the dead tree. I took a closer picture of the trunk so you can see how it has rotted away. Not a very encouraging pillar of support. Much like some early American poetry, I often look for symbolism and lessons in nature and this tree seems to provide quite a few possibilities, at least to my thinking. What those are I’ll leave to the reader’s discernment, since such things are often different for each of us.

So my husband kept going on about the tree as we stood there having some water and debating whether it would fall over on him this time or not. Never being one not to pour gasoline on a fire, I pointed up and said that the way those branches were all pointed in the same direction, conveniently toward the trail too, they looked like stegosaurus tail spikes.

Thus the name “Thagomizer Tree” was born. The reference comes from a story about how the semi-formal name of thagomizer was used for the beast’s spiked tail based on a Gary Larson cartoon, and even made it into some scientific journals. You can read more about that here if you are interested.

Wed, Feb 16th

Took a rest day today because I was pretty sore. For the past couple of months, I’ve been doing mostly dumbbell and barbell work for my chest, and going back to including push-ups tends to make my lats sore. Also, I only did one set of the barbarian squats, but I have forgotten how much those things get to my legs when I haven’t done them in a while. Ouch!

I plan on keeping the rest of the week light because my first wrestling class is on Monday and I don’t want to be sore.

Calories: ~2000, Protein: ~150 g.

Thur, Feb 17th

• Recumbent Bike: 30 Minutes, Level 6, RPMs 70 – 85, Hill Program. Afterwards, I did Dead Bugs (2-ct) and Crunches for 20 reps.
• Stretched for 30 minutes. I used to do this 3-4 days a week when I was wrestling. On the days that I didn’t do the full half-hour, and often even when I did, I would stretch here and there throughout the day. I’m sorry that I ever got away from doing this (“lack of time” … laziness, really) because I was amazed how good I felt afterward. In addition to the static stretching, I also worked in some dynamic stretches such as Cat-Cow and Cobra Poses.
• Afternoon Walk: 3.26 miles. Did a little balancing work afterward.

Calories: 1925, Protein: 156 g.

Fri, Feb 18th

I used to enjoy following along with the exercises when I’d happen to be around when The Jack Lalanne show would come on during the summer when I was a kid. The rest of the year I only got to watch the show on vacations and such because of school. (There was no easy way to record television programs back then.)

Apparently, Youtube seems to think I like exercise videos for some reason (I wonder why?) and suggested this one to me. I followed along with the episode, doing some dynamic stretching and such when Jack would talk to the audience. I’m going to add this exercise to the ones I do regularly. I like this one too.*

Sometimes things from the past end up being kind of a disappointment when one sees them years later, but not this show. It was just as much fun and as full of energy as I remembered. And I had forgotten that Lalanne could sing!

I also stretched for a little over a half-hour after following along with the video.

Calories: 1960, Protein: 163 g.

Sat, Feb 19th

• Morning Recumbent Bike: 30 Minutes, Level 6, RPMs 80+, Hill Program. Afterwards, I did Dead Bugs (2-ct), Standing Calf Raises, Crunches, Supine Leg Windmills (each direction) for 21 reps. Later in the day , I stretched for 30 minutes.
• Afternoon Walk: 4.28 miles.

Calories: 1724, Protein: 120 g.

I lost 3 lb. this week. This is my first week tracking again so my total loss is 3 lbs. In general, I’m going to look for a loss of 1-2 pounds per week and adjust accordingly as needed.

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* I have no idea what to call these exercises so I think I’ll call them Lalane-1 and Lalane-2 respectively for future reference.