I done dooed it. I went back to the gym. I dropped Indy at school and hurried for the bus and caught it and went and worked out and I’m glad I did. So there. :p

I was in a pretty terrible mood, actually, when I got to the gym, because Indy had been obstreperous about breakfast and I thought I’d miss the bus and catching it didn’t really improve my mood.

But there’s a punching bag in the gym’s dance studio, and there was nobody around to mock me, so I put on “Under Pressure” and punched the bag for four minutes, which was EXTREMELY, *EXTREMELY* satisfying and improved my mood considerably. And then I took a jump rope off the wall and gave that a shot, and I tell you, nobody with big boobs, even encased in a quite solid sports bra, should ever have to watch themselves jump rope in a mirror. I looked like a frickin’ elephant. But once I found a rope long enough it turned out I could do 30 seconds straight without quite dying, which was a bit more than I expected, especially since I’d fumbled through a minute of jumping with a shorter rope before.

Did 10 minutes on the exercise bike and 6 minutes on the whizgig thing, the, uh, the rowing machine, and planned to do a quick hard upper body workout but got started and hit about 30 minutes of exercise total and went WOO I FEEL LIKE PUKING LET’S STOP NOW, so apparently a fairly all-out workout breaks me down at about the half hour mark. Which is okay, really, since I have 40 minutes max to work out and still be sure to catch the bus.

Which I did, and found a meditation app to use on the ride home, although I didn’t find it fast enough to use it and I have to find some good guided meditations on it, but the fact that I managed that much on the first day of school seemed like a triumph, so yay me.

So I hurt my back while carrying books on Wednesday morning and thought it was the better part of valor to not go to the gym. (It was, too.) I had not been looking forward to going at all, but once I couldn’t I was really annoyed, so that’s…perverse.

Friday the bus ran so late that by the time I got to the gym it was time to leave again, pretty much. I mean, in between arriving and going I had my first follow-up consultation about how the workout was working for me, but basically I didn’t work out.

Gym review consultation lady: So one of your goals is stress relief?
Me: Yeah, but let’s face it, I’m not gonna get anywhere on that as long as Trump is in office.
Lady: O.O

I did tell the nice lady who consulted with me that the walking lunges were not working for me, and that I wanted to give leg extensions a try to strengthen my left quad. She wanted me to do leg press, too, and since I’ll do leg press all day long any day of the week, I was down with that.

She took me over to the leg press machine and put it on 50 pounds. I began to object, but realized she was showing me the ropes and thought ‘well okay’. Then it turned out the foot plate stays still and the chair moves, so it appears you’re also moving body weight, so I was a bit more like “well okay,” but also said we’ll need to move that down for me, 50 pounds is not going to be enough.

She put it at 70. I was like “–okay,” and sat down and did a few reps to show her that I could, in fact, just about literally do that all day long. “So we’ll need to move it down some more,” she said, obviously a little surprised even though I’d told her we’d need more weight, and started to move it to 90. I was like, “Put it at 150, we’ll start there.”

She gaped, honestly, but did as she was told and I did a set of 15 reps while she continued to gape. I might not be so phlegmatic at the end of a leg-heavy workout, but really, I used to make the big dudes at the weight room gawk at my leg press, and while I’m way the hell off *that* game, my legs are still stronger than your average bear’s. And frankly, I’ll be embarrassed if I can’t do 3×15 even at the end of a workout, although if I’m right about the body weight being included I’m moving, uh, well over 300 pounds there. And if I’m wrong about that I’m completely humiliated by my wimpy legs.

The leg extensions were not so cool, actually. I mean, I can do the weight and all, but there’s some uncomfortable grinding going on around the outside of my kneecap, in a totally different place from the walking lunge pain. I was somewhat disappointed by that, because while I don’t like leg extensions I didn’t expect them to be borderline painful to the joint, and I’ll have to consider how to go forward there. (Yes, E, I will talk to the PT about it when I see her next.)

Anyway, so that’s basically all the exercise I’ve done since Monday, so I’m afraid whenever I go back (probably Monday again) I’ll be starting all over again with the AAAAAAAGONY cycle, which sucks.

So going to the gym on Friday was definitely a good move. Today, after yesterday’s 3rd gym session, I feel stiff but not really sore, whereas I’d have been crippled if I’d started all over again.

That said, I didn’t really cover myself with glory in yesterday’s session. My left knee (and obviously quads, because the knee bone connected to the etc) really is MUCH weaker than my left. I’ve obviously been compensating with my right leg ever since I fell off the sidewalk in Y2K and screwed up my left knee and back incredibly badly. Now that I’m aware of it I’m making an effort to make sure my left leg is pulling its weight (as it were) in the workouts, but there’s clearly some work to be done there.

Point is I dropped weight on the walking lunge on Friday because I couldn’t keep form with the heavier weight, and today I couldn’t even do half a set without actual pain. My left knee just won’t take it. So I’m going to ask for a different exercise. I see some leg extensions and curls in my future.

I also just collapsed trying to do the up-down plank thing. I’m allowed, if necessary, to use my knees to help try to get up and down, but I find collapsing more efficient. :) Anyway, IDK if I just gained five pounds over the weekend (I’ve been eating steadily since Thursday) and can’t handle my own body weight or if I was just having an incompetent day, but resistance-workout-wise, it was not the best workout.

OTOH my cardio improved visibly. I managed, with only a minor degree of difficulty, to get the machines set properly, and did 10 minutes on the frigging crosstrainer without quite dying. (I brought my own music and did most of it with my eyes closed, which I found helped.) The cycling was fine, and I remembered to put the resistance on the rowing machine up to 10, supposing it would slow me back down again. Except I cut another 15 seconds off my 1K time instead, so that was a sort of nice surprise.

(evidence of eating steadily since Thursday: I was out to lunch with my dad and sister on Thursday and ordered potato soup, “To make up for my plan to eat an entire pizza later today,” I said to my sister. “Um,” she said, “how does that make up for it…?”

Me: IDK but

)

Oh, also on a triumphant note, I’ve actually walked 10K+ steps every day for the past 7 days. And my shoes are on their last legs (as it were) and I’m feeling it in a not-good way, but I did it, and I’m pleased about that. :)