86. So strong

Guys we are so strong. I was doing the workout yesterday and I was struck by the fact that at the beginning, I would have never been able to do this. Like at first I really struggled with teh shoulder raises and could never get my arms up as high as Patrick's in the picture and now with a lot of struggling I can do 6 sets of them. That's crazy. The progression of the exercises is so slow/small that I didn't really realize it was happening; I mean intellectually I knew that today we were doing 17 instead of 15 or 6 sets instead of 5 but it never felt like there was a huge jump in hardness. Just a consistent hardness the whole time, although this past week has been really hard, but I might just be working harder in a burst of pre-finishing enthusiasm. But yeah we are so so so strong now!

I also did my homework. I'm starting school in January (I don't know if I told you guys that, but I got in to an accelerated bachelor's of nursing program and so will be doing that for a year and a half) and so I went over to check out the rec center under the guise that I wanted to see if I wanted to buy a membership for the three months before I start school. I was actually pretty impressed. It's brand new, spacious, bright and airy, which is a 180 from the gym I currently belong to (I got suckered into paying a flat rate for like 3 years, because you got a bunch of free personal training (turns out their trainers are jerks)) which is in the basement of a building downtown and feels cramped and stinky. There weren't a ton of people there, but there were some, just your general student types with a few older folks mixed in. There was the gaggle of skinny blondes yapping away while running on the ellipticals, there were some muscle-y looking dudes lifting weights, then a smattering of regular sized to overweight people using various cardio machines, but most of the people were playing basketball and there were two people playing squash or maybe raquetball. I forgot to ask about if I could jumprope there, but I'd assume I could because there was a ton of space. They offer classes too, not just like the normal cardio classes, but kung fu, boxing, ballet, belly dancing, and yoga. Being a member of gym also gets you access to the olympic sized pool and the smaller pool. What I noticed most was that I didn't feel the crippling insecurity that I felt at my gym that usually resulted in me fleeing halfway through my workout. Everyone seemed either very nice or like they could care less about you, which I don't mind at all. I probably won't join before school starts because I'm cheap and can workout at home just as well, but once school starts I might take a class and use the pool and maybe see if I can learn to play sqaush.

So yeah the gym wasn't totally filled with gym bunnies and muscleheads, and a lot of people could stand to get off the treadmill and with a jumprope, but it wasn't all bad and it was nice to see people playing.

34.5 With visions of pcp weekend dancing in my head

Best workout I've had in a long time. Felt strong again. Hoorray! That's crazy to say, that I feel strong, I've never really felt strong before. Despite feeling strong almost everywhere, my triceps are pretty much non-existent it seems. Triceps dips then double katanas is total torture.

And to clarify, an hour and a half is total time for everything workout related: getting dressed, finding music, setting up chairs and bands, working out, and laying on the floor moaning afterwards. The working out part is pretty consistently just under an hour, unless I'm having a super crappy jumping day.