Pentagenarians & Beyond: W/B 7/24

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Cathlete
Hey gang!

Printing our boarding passes here at the hotel and thought I would check out what is going on.

Can't wait to get back, but then again, heading right to DC so no real hurry to get home.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Take care,
 
Hi Deb and any later posters--

This morning I did Squeeze Stronger, legs and abs (43 min.).

Hope your vacation has been fun, Deb. It's been HHH here, but a bit of relief today. Tell those idiots in D.C. to get the debt ceiling passed so that all of our 401Ks don't crash. I also hope it's cooler there than it's been.

Nothing much to report here. Next weekend it's back to Jacob's Pillow.
 
good morning. I got back top STS on friday and re-did disk 27. I think that's the one where my shoulder for injured. I still have discomfort on the cross body tricep extensions so decreased the weight on that exercise on my right, otherwise all Ok.
we did a "serious" hike on saturday, about 7-8 miles RT. loads of snow remaining, like 20 feet. and this was a low elevation hike! Need route finding skills, an ice ax, and tolerance for extremely wet and muddy conditions. lots of places won't melt out at all this year. and a 25 mile bike ride sunday and will do yardmax today.

yes, we need to get the debt ceiling business taken care of. who knows ( or understands or claims to understand) what damage could be caused if it isn't taken care of. enough of the obstruction politics. get it done.
 
Hi Deb and Valerie--

This morning I did Sweat Express II (58 min.).

Quite cool here today--only in the 70s--and much-needed rain.

Valerie, take care of that shoulder. It was the cross body triceps extensions that caused the injury? Have you looked at the clip Cathe put up for the new workouts. It looks like a very interesting new way to work out with those disks, keeping it low impact. I'm really looking forward to these.

Have my new Boden fall catalog. Hmmm--what will I buy at 15% off and free shipping?
 
I don't know what caused the injury but the spot... inside front of my shoulder on rt... is stressed by the cross body move. so went to 10 lbs instead of 15 and went carefully. It's not sore after doing that. I'll continue to go light until it doesn't bother me anymore.

I also thought the new disk slider workouts looked very interesting. I am open to buying a couple disks but probably not the whole set. got another 2 days to think about it at the best price ... but I don't want the barre or yoga ones so will probably buy individual ones later on.

cool and raining here again. 2 days of summer and back to dismal.
 
After 2 or 3 weeks of 100 degrees I thought 90's would feel cool. Unfortunately the humidity got even higher. Feels like more than 100% but I know that's not possible.

Yea I finished disc 25. I was able to lift much heavier (for me) because I was using my son's barbells and he was spotting me. I usually only use dumbbells.

Joan
 
My sympathies on the heat & humidity. I hate HATE that kind of weather. hope you get some relief, like 75 and dry!
Strong work Joan. we are almost the same place. I just did 27 and my shoulder didn't protest so will move ahead. sometimes the cure is to lighten the weight and go back to regular moves. yoga this morning.

Did yardmax yesterday & build a retaining wall next to one of our outdoor sheds. used those diamond wall bricks. they must weigh 60 lbs apiece. wow, hauling those around is a workout, plus shoveling gravel. I estimated we needed 20 but need 3 more to finish the job. Hopefully they will sit OK in the Subaru. Wasn't supposed to rain until late yesterday but DH thought they were wrong and we didn't go anywhere. he was right it was raining by 10 am.

do you have slugs in your gardens? I don't remember them from the midwest but I wasn't doing gardening then either. they have been totally out of control this year. incredible numbers and eating everything in sight.
 
Good morning,

We got in around 5:30 last night, then an hour to get the car and baggage, unbelievable. We picked up Keegan and chatted with them for another hour, didn't get home until 8:30, and of course I could not fall asleep, being on west coast time. I am exhausted. Now to repack to leave for DC today.

Valerie, my in-laws did comment a bit on the weather in Seattle, but I think they just are so used to it, it doesn't even phase them any more. My SIL who is a breast cancer survivor is doing that 2 day walk for the cure, where they walk 20 miles each day, and sleep in tents etc. She is doing it with my neice. Be careful with that shoulder, it's not worth re-injuring just to do an exercise on a dvd.

Garance, the weather was perfect in Los Gatos. The blue sky without any clouds, and little humidity. Los Gatos is a "dog friendly" town, all kinds of people walking around shopping with their dogs in tow. The shops keep large water dishes outside for the dogs, and some even have hooks built into the front of the buildings so people can hook the leashes on them, sit and chat on benches with others. It's so nice there. All the coffee shops have people sitting outside drinking coffee, with their dogs.

Joan, how was the test? or is it coming up this week? Good job on STS!

Valerie, we have some slugs, they are rampant with wet weather. We had rain almost every day in May and I think that is how we got them this year. With your weather, I am not surprised to hear you have them now.

HI to Cathy, and Josie,

Take care,
 
Hi Deb, Joan, and Valerie--

This morning I did STS disk 4 (55 min.) for ch, sh, and bis.

Deb, have you ever been to Paris? A very dog-friendly city, with a lot of outdoor cafes, and even some restaurants that welcome dogs. Los Gatos sounds lovely. I bet Keegan was happy to see you.

Valerie, for me it's the Japanese beetles this year and I hate picking them off, but that's the only way to get them off my zinnias and basil. Last year was slugs, but not many this year at all. Something new every year. Can't remember their name, but a few years ago, the trees were full of these worms in the spring that were awful. You'd walk along to class and end up with a few in your hair. And they would plop down on cars and stick. Really hard to get off. Yuk! Then, some years ago the tentworms in the trees in the fall with big ugly cocoons and deforestation. Chomp, chomp!

Hi Joan! Good for you on the STS. I'm just starting after a yearlong hiatus. How is your mom doing? Have you learned anything more about Crohn's?

ttfn
 
That's always so fun to get home and see how glad your dog is to see you! my cat is happy to see us but it passes pretty quickly, being a normal cat. That's a tough schedule Deb, with such a short turn around time. we used to have meetings in Los Gatos and it was lovely. If your in laws are "outdoor" people or garden much, they should be complaining big time. Bad year. we are a bit north of seattle in what's called the convergence zone, so tend to be a little wetter than seattle proper. all will be forgiven if august and september are nice. for gardening though, we are past the peak growing time and things are puny. everything slows down noticeably in september even if the weather is good. sun is not strong enough that late.

Tent caterpillars? some years we have them but haven't seen any for several. they're horrid with their webs and falling down and twitching . Ugh. We always have slugs because of the dampness and lack of hard freezes but this year they are especially prevalent. no warm dry periods to slow them down. they love it wet and just slide all over. I finally bought some basil plants to keep on the deck. my regular garden crop was planted 3 times and protected with slug bait but disappeared anyway.

Great yoga class this morning. need to do next upper body disk and a little cardio. hiking tomorrow.
 
I've read about the breast cancer walks ... haven't heard about one this year but newspapers don't always get as good coverage as they used to. I've sponsored people but never did it myself.

Did disk 28 yesterday. shoulder is working OK. If I strain or hurt something I need to let it rest for a while and then restart exercising it, gently at first. It's as if the discomfort will not go away completely until I exercise it again.
yesterday I wasn't too gentle but I was careful. not sore today so back on track. I got stuck on chest presses where I did 6 reps and couldn't get the bar back on the rack on the 7th one. had to set it on the bench. remove 5 lbs before I could get it back up on the tower.

cloudy and drizzling again today but supposed to clear off later. not very summer-like.
 
Hi Deb and Valerie--

This morning I did TLC, both workouts (60 min.).

Valerie--how heavy was the barbell loaded? Must be impressive if you could only do 6 reps.

Our weather is beautiful here--sunny, not too humid and about 80 degrees. It sounds like it may get a bit hotter, but I really cannot complain. I feel most deprived when there is no sun, so I don't think I could deal with your weather, Valerie.

Gosh, Project Runway is starting up again tomorrow night. Love that show and Heidi Klum, the German dominatrix of fashion. "One day you are in, the next day you are out." Say it with clenched jaw and guttural sounds on the o's. Also love Tim Gunn--"Make it work!"

Tomorrow disk 5 of STS.
 
Ha Ha.. the bar was 60 lbs total, including the bar. my bar weighs 15 lbs so I can't act like it's not a part of things. it was the 3rd set of reps and I just couldn't get it back quite high enough to set it on the hooks! I didn't want to strain anything with weird gyrations so set it down on the bench. we had done this project monday building a retaining wall with concrete "diamond wall" blocks.. 66 lbs each. moved 20 of them between DH & myself. we didn't get enough so I went back for 3 more and loaded them in the car myself, and then hauled them out & put them in place too, so I guess I was a little tired to begin with. that so far is my max. I can do a whole bunch of reps at 55, but get to 60 and I poop out quickly.

weather was so-so today, so took our truck in for service and did a 2 hr, 25 mile bike ride instead of sitting at the dealer waiting. good pleasant workout, wonderful flower gardens and commercial fields growing corn, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage. fun riding in farmsey areas like this.

we've been watching 'Breaking Bad' and "In Plain Sight". lots of episodes. both are sometimes really good, and sometimes not great, but I like series where the characters become kind of like real people over season after season... watched 'Biutiful" with javier Bardem a few nights ago but didn't care for it. depressing, dirty, dismal. hard to like anyone in it. the actign was good, very gritty and realistic. subtitles. not an advertisement to increase tourism there...
 
Good morning,

A great night's sleep! Finally after 2 bad ones. DC was uneventful, the meeting with the Commissioner was ok, nothing out of the ordinary.

Garance, have never been to Paris, but heard about the dog friendly restaurants there. Two dogs on the plane with me yesterday coming home. They were little and could fit in carriers under the seat. No way Keegan could do that!

Valerie, who takes care of your cat when you go away? good thing your DH was there to spot you on those chest presses! What was "In Plain Sight" about again? It sounds like a novel I read a bit ago about the Amish. Was that it?

Hi to Joan, Cathy & Josie,

Take care,
 
Good morning,

I left for the hospital at 9:15 am and got home after 5pm. We did stop to eat on the way home since I couldn't eat since midnight. I'm almost as confused as I was before I went.

Good news is I don't have active inflamation. I was correct and did start Crohn's when I was 23. I also have a fistulae (sp?) from end of small colon to end of large colon. This could cause problems. Choices are to do nothing or have surgery to remove the inflamed area. Doctor seemed unable to decide for herself which was the better option so left it up to me. There is an increased risk for cancer with the mass in me but "probably" less than 1%.

I did do first leg disc of meso 3.

Joan
 
Deb, our cat stays home. big bowl of food, autofeeder, 3 litterboxes. we used to take our other cats to the kitty kennel but lots of barking dogs, howling cats, pay a lot for a 10x4 foot enclosure. the cats were always stressed by the drive to /from the place. at home, he has his usual 4000 sq feet to roam,. look out windows sleep and eat at will. it seems less traumatic. he meows a lot when we first get home so we don't let him go outside til he's settled down. he follows us around a lot at first, and I need to sleep in the guest room with him to keep him quiet. he probably gets lonely but overall kennels were worse in different ways.

"In Plain sight" is about the US Marshalls witness protection program. there's a complete story in each episode, some better than others. It's pretty much the same formula for each but it's watchable if you like the characters. each is about an hour so good for when we need something not as long as a movie. some TV things are ongoing stories and sometimes they're hard to follow from season to season. Breaking Bad is the one about the high school chemistry teacher who ends up cooking meth for a living. It's a pretty complex story, not as simple as it sounds here. we enjoyed Mad Men, Sopranos, West Wing and several others but prefer to rent them from netflix rather than try to catch them as they're broadcast. the timing is usually bad for us and we're not great about recording to watch later.

Nope, didn't have DH to spot me this time. for chest presses I don't try to go heavier unless he's available. It was a real struggle to get the bar up on the hooks from a standing position.

Too bad while you were in
DC you couldn't give congress the swift kick in the arse that it needs. I can't believe they seem willing to burn down the house instead of compromise.

Joan we posted at the same time so I didn't ignore your situation. more later.
 
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Hi Deb, Joan, and Valerie--

This morning I did disk 5 STS for back and tris (59 min.).

Valerie, the highest I've gone on chest presses is 50, so I am really impressed. Maybe I will do heavier stuff on this round of STS now that I have 25 and 30 lb dumbbells. I bought them last year, started using them a little bit, and then broke my elbow. I have written to about 20 key players in this debt ceiling fight to let them know how irresponsible I think they are. I just plain don't get it. Why have elected representatives if they make unbreakable pledges to Grover Norquist, who couldn't win an election to save his life? Infuriating. (Sorry--I just finished watching the press conference with Jay Carney, followed by an idiot Tea Party nut from Oklahoma.) I've heard about Breaking Bad--that it's very good--but I have a feeling I'd not be able to just start watching it now. Friends from Baltimore keep trying to get me to watch The Wire. Could not get into Mad Men, but loved the Sopranos.

Joan, I can only imagine how frustrating it is when your doctor is uncertain about how to proceed. I guess if I were symptom free, I'd just leave it alone. Wow--you were there for a whole day, waiting around or being poked and prodded?

Deb, are you getting everything ready for the new pup? Next week, right?

ttfn
 
Joan, since you're symptom free and on no meds, what do they say about 'watchful waiting". there are always risks of difficulties/ complications, no procedure is risk free. What would be the course of action if you chose to do nothing at this time. what kind of rechecks and how often? what would be indications of increased inflammation? How would you know something was changing?

Lynda, I wrote my reps also but not until the day everyone else must have decided to do it! The Tea Party members appear crazy to me. compromise is a part of politics. (I always recall the saying that the two things you don't want to see being made are laws and sausage) I hope we don't have to learn the hard way what the end result could be.

You can't just start watching Breaking Bad. you'd need to rent the disks and start from the beginning or none of it will make sense. I watched The Wire and it was good but I had more trouble with the dialogue on that one. sometimes not easy to follow. Subtitles help so much and sometimes they are available, other times not. seems like an expense cutting measure to drop english subtitles. I enjoyed Mad Men though not so much at first. got better later. having a whole season and watching in a short time window helps with some of these series .
 
Valerie I think the doctor's point was there are no tests to see if I had this type of cancer. There is also a chance I will "feel better" having it out. That I am maybe just used to how I am feeling and think it is normal.

Garance you have to fill out paperwork and then you wait. You change clothes and then you wait. They put an iv in and then you wait. They give you a bottle of lemon stuff to drink. Fifteen minutes later you get another bottle of lemon stuff to drink. Another fifteen minutes passes and you get another bottle of lemon stuff to drink and then you wait.

Then they take you down to the mri but it is in use so you wait. They finally are ready to set you up on mri but now I have to go to the bathroom because I was freezing in the hall and had just drank the equivalent of 6 cups of liquid. Back to the mri and we had to wait until doctor injected something in iv (they had to call him in from somewhere else). The mri took a little over 1/2 hour.

We then went to doctor's office and waited. Assistant then took weight and asked questions that were already in questionaire I had filled out. She put me in examining room and then I waited. Two other assistants (probably one a student) did the taking of my life history. They did a good job and this took a very long time. They were very thorough. One of them did look in eyes, at skin and in my mouth. I guess the inflamation can take many forms. And then I waited. Nurse popped her head in to say that doctor had gone down to radiology to look at mri results and get them read a little faster. That probably took the longest time but it did seem that the assistants who went down with her did at least fill her in on my life history. The doctor then came in and spent at least an hour talking to me and giving me options.

I can't fault the time it took too much because the most important interactions with the doctor was not rushed. I could have asked another hour's worth of questions if I had considered surgery and I don't think she would have minded.

On Monday I had no problem with 55lb on a flat bench press but on incline I needed spotting on the 3rd and 4th set for the last 2 reps.

Joan
 
Morning all,

Finally Friday. This week has been hell, I am so glad the weekend is almost here.

Joan, I don't know much about what you have going on, I feel for you having to make this decision. I guess if it was me, and the surgery was not too bad, I would have it taken out. I would be imagining all sorts of stuff if it was in there, that's just me though. I am not surprised about all the waiting involved, it's goes with just about anything you have done now a days.

Valerie, yep, if I could have stomped up to Congress to give them a kick I would have! Bunch of losers, all sides.

Garance, yes, next week we get the pup. I need to get the stuff together, we have everything, maybe get her a new toy or something. Of course that is going to be a challenge with Keegan. Everything here is his, and he won't understand sharing, at least for a while.

Off to shower and get something to eat. It's raining here now, debating on whether to take K for his walk today.

later....
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