[DaemonCorax]

So I joined in for the last challenge and then promptly had to leave town for a very exhausting trip back east. For those of you that have been following along:

 

The passage of time has brought some big changes for our protagonist. She has left her much loved desert in search of less arid pastures. To get there she has to cross a mountain range, traveling overland, with no horse, and carrying a heavy load. After taking a long time to find a rhythm, shes cleared the talus field and reached a saddle. Gaining the ridge will come in the weeks to come, but good little mountaineers know the most dangerous part is the descent. After spending a long time on the ridge, coming down will require the most care, before hopefully reaching hills, and woods, and the river delta on the other side.

 

Not my image, but this is what the ridge on Snowmass looks like. I was there 2015 and went back 2017 for the summit.

 

I'll hit the mid-way part of this pregnancy in a couple weeks, during this challenge. Things are mostly ok, but babysitting my core/abs/what have you, to keep my old scar tissue's lack of stretchiness from pulling apart other parts of my midsection has been a constant problem. When I exercise regularly, just the right amount, I can keep everything behaving itself. When I don't, the scar tissue wins and my mid line hurts in all the wrong ways. It doesn't help that apparently becoming a rounder human happens faster in the second pregnancy and we just got back from a 9 day trip in which no workouts were had.

Last week I DID make it to the gym three times.

Yesterday I was able to ride my bike in the trainer in the basement for an hour and doing some core exercises on the floor. I have recovered the ability to do some legs-only dead bug and alternating legs work that was causing trouble about 7 weeks ago. This is mostly a neurological thing, where I have been practicing keeping the motions working properly.

 

Goals for the January challenge:

1.  Get a workout 5 days a week - this could be a climb+lift combination or a bike trainer + core work combination. If I have a chance to do something outdoors for a big endurance day, yay! (This will happen this week while the university is closed for the week, but unclear after that.)

1b.  Protect my core

2.  Eat well - for me this means pile on the veggies and protein and avoid the easy carbs. I gained more weight last month than I probably should have (although there is some debate about giant sneakers being on/off) and while it's not a huge deal, cookies as an emergency snack aren't doing me any favors beyond a little energy. I got a new cookbook for Christmas, so I'm hoping there's a little more excitement to cook new things.

3.  Manage work time and expectations and guilt around getting "enough" done while still taking care of my workouts. If I don't stay in shape everything else will be so much worse - the scars, the stretching, the post-surgery recovery, my mental health, everything. It's worth having a wonky work schedule to make it happen.

4. Something something mental health. We'll see how this goes.

 

[DaemonCorax]

As usual, it's going to take me a couple of days to come up with a points system. I'll try to get it in the next day or two.

[DaemonCorax]

Wednesday was my day to go ski on my own. I decided to test out (for the second time, once last year), the "new" to me AT (alpine touring) setup on a road I've skied many time sin my Nordic backcountry setup. However, skiing with my heels locked in is NEW to me! And the snow in the mid part of the road was thin and fast. I ended up taking a much steeper but fluffier cutoff trail and put the skins back on my skis to make it much much easier to keep my speed down. And I left my heels unlocked. That last bit is weird. I shouldn't. But it felt comfy, and the faster snow had made my middle tired and my brain tired, so this was the easiest thing for me to do safely and efficiently. Technically speaking skiing downhill on an AT binding with your heels unlocked is probably a dumb no-no, but no more dangerous than skiing downhill in Nordic backcountry bindings. The AT ski is stiffer and more responsive, even though there's not much forefoot platform. But neither configuration allows for emergency release of ski in a crash. My big motivations for learning AT are (1) to ski bigger stuff in a ski configuration that I am less likely to break a leg in during a crash, (2) ski bigger stuff where my nordic skis won't hack it anyway and (3) occassionally go to resorts in a soft-ish touring boot rather than subjecting my [previously frostbitten] feet to rental alpine boots.

 

I ended up doing about 5 mi and about 600 ft of ascending (I think). The road up by the reservoir was bare from wind, so I got some fun tree navigatin in, and the better float of the AT skiis was super nice. The boots fit well enough, although I'm going to get the liners custom molded at some point this year for more toe room and less heel space. I also got a little ego boost. There was a group of AT skiers (some new I think) heading up the road in front of me to ski a nearby peak (NOT in my pregnant comfort zone this year). I tried to stay back and not interfere with their group, but ended up passing them about 1/5 mi into the climb. My little ride along is going to get some super awesome red blood cells I think Altitude and I are still friends. (The road is at about 10k.)

 

Thursday MFH and I took the small one out to try proper cross country skis for the first time. We had a big dump of snow and didn't even have to drive up in to the mountains. In fact, the first trail system we went too was so deep he was overwhelmed. We redirected to the lake and playground across the street from our neighborhood and he was able to figure it out. He had a blast.

 

Spoiler

We also had a bad moment yesterday evening. I was carrying the small one mid-little kid flail/fuss and he pushed his foot off our dining table and squished my middle pretty roughly. Since I was already holding him, my core was engaged so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it hurt. It also woke up a lot of bad memories in my body. The spine of a 3.5 year old is pretty firm, as is the little creature in my belly. Not a great feeling. I crashed on the couch for a little while, but made it back up to eat dinner and cuddle the wild small one at bed time so he knew things were going to be ok.

 

Today MFH is out skiing again too. (I get a solo day on Sunday and haven't picked which skis I'm taking.) I'm going to try to get a trainer rid or a trip to the climbing gym in.

 

Our protagonist stares at the ridgeline. It should take about 2 weeks to get there. One step at a time. Her pack wriggles.

 

And yes, if y'all are curious I'll try to find a ski dictionary link.

[DaemonCorax]

New challenge goal: up date at least every other day!

 

So today is Tuesday already.

 

Friday MFH was out on a ski day with a friend, so the small one and I amused ourselves with an errand and a trip to a big playground in town. He swore up and down I shouldn't bring the sled. I brought the sled. Guess what? He wanted to sled when he saw all the kids on the big sledding hill.

Somewhere in the afternoon, while we were playing in our gym of a basement (we have hanging rings and a swing and crash pads all over the place), my middle informed me it was TIRED and hadn't been to the real climbing gym in a while. MFH fortunately took over for me when he got home. I was feeling pretty rough.

 

NYE I went to the climbing gym straight after lunch. The unhappy midsection is correctable with climbing I think because it gets everything talking again. I climbed 6 autobelay routes, sort of: I fell off a 10+ and a 10 I've done a million times about 3/4 of the way up, and I did a 7 up AND down for endurance. Then I went up to the weight room:

Front squat 45 x7, 65 5x5

OHP 45 3x5

 

My quads definitely noticed the the "front" part of the front squat, but I think it's good for my abs too.

 

Sunday was fun. Sunday was my second day to go skiing on my own. I took the Nordic touring skis. The stats were:

Elevation 8300-9300 ft or so

Singletrack ski trail with only a few people above the 3 mi mark

7.5 mi round trip

800 ft of climbing

One spooking corner with a severe drop into a creek that I walked on the way down

A couple dumb but gentle crashes that drove home that OMG I NEED NEW SKIS (my skis have been used to the point of being very noodly)

Lots of snacks

Enjoying that my new ski bibs fit my belly and have a chest snack pocket

Enjoying the fact that my pregnant body apparently gives zero <insert unit here> about elevation

 

Actual photo by me of where I actually got to go exploring Sunday

 

Yesterday was another day home with the small one. Today I am WFH. I WAS going to feel great about working most of the day and then getting a workout in on the bike trainer, but a friend is coming by to help with a plumbing repair, so there goes that plan. Still. Never refuse free plumbing expertise.

 

Wednesday is a gym day for sure.

 

I feel like my grad school demon is back, sitting on my shoulder and lecturing me about taking a week off and not finishing my work to do list in the evening when I have been either relaxing or going to sleep early. Dude needs to back off. Seriously.

 

 

[Rurik Harrgath]

On 12/27/2022 at 6:25 PM, DaemonCorax said:

So I joined in for the last challenge and then promptly had to leave town for a very exhausting trip back east. 

 

Now that is an adventure.  😆

 

On 12/27/2022 at 6:25 PM, DaemonCorax said:

 

Not my image, but this is what the ridge on Snowmass looks like. I was there 2015 and went back 2017 for the summit.

 

[DaemonCorax]

2 minutes ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

It looks amazing, but the rock is junk. It waggles at you.

[Elastigirl]

Very cool advice. And I 100% agree with you on never refusing free plumbing expertise. Mr. Incredible is quite handy around the house, but he hates dealing with plumbing problems.

[DaemonCorax]

15 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

Very cool advice. And I 100% agree with you on never refusing free plumbing expertise. Mr. Incredible is quite handy around the house, but he hates dealing with plumbing problems.

 

Yeah I'm a pretty good electrician and painter, and MFH is good with carpentry stuff and we've both managed to do some plumbing, but this it totally one of those "probably takes me hours, would take friend 30 min" type situations.

He's stuck at work though, so I may shuffle the week around anyway.

[DaemonCorax]

Thursday workout (I'm actually updating!). I got super dizzy after waking up, but coffee and breakfast helped. So that was fun. In generally a pretty dread-y mood today though. The fact that the gym is my "peace and quiet" time for the day meant that it felt good to go though:

 

Climbing:

2 5.7 (super easy) routes that I climbed up and downclimbed

1 5.8 that I climbed twice. The last move was overhanging in a way that made me fold up uncomfortably, so I failed in the first time but did it differently and got it the second time

1 5.10

1 5.10+ that I screw up the sequence and fell off of 3/4 up

1 5.9 to end on a high note.

Total: 7 routes roughly

 

Lifting:

Gorilla rows 35lb kb 5x3, 44lb KB 5x2

Curls 15lb 7x3

Some weighted squats and stretches. Friday will be back squat day.

 

Food is treating me wrong. Dinner wasn't very big but I still got heart burn. Was loopy this morning but couldn't finish my oatmeal, so I'm just now getting around to the second half of my breakfast now, 4 hours and a workout later. I felt fine at the gym, but its not great.

 

Also yesterday afternoon I got about an hour in on the bike trainer and did some core work after all. I also weighed myself at 2 pm in workout clothes (because we now own a scale). Clocked in at 152.3 lbs. This doesn't mean much but its a good relative starting point for tracking weight gain at home. It's about what I weighed at the dr's office a couple weeks ago, with shoes on, after traveling, when she warned me gently to keep and eye on it. A pound or two fluctuation here and there is probably nothing, but I know I'm moving better than I was the week we traveled. If I believe the numbers, it means at 19 weeks pregnant I'm up about 12 lbs, which is just fine I think.

[DaemonCorax]

Today's update.

I don't think I really conveyed the extent of my mental hole yesterday.

 

Fast forward to this morning, and the internet is showing me articles about pandemic work burnout. Yes dear, I know.

[DaemonCorax]

MFH and I got to the gym today and it felt great! So great that I did deadlifts. I’ve been told not to “lift heavy,” but….. if it feels good it’s ok right? Front quay isn’t going to be getting any heavier any time soon. And I remember form last time that pull-ups pull in a bad way. But the deadlifts felt ok today so I just rolled with it:

 

Climbed w MFH, 5 routes all 10s

Couldn’t pull a pocket overhand move and fell off a messed up 10+

Back squat 85 5x5

Dumbbell fly 10 7x5

Front squat 65 5x

Deadlift 135 x5 155 x3 175 x3

 

so what am I left with?

I NEED some better shoulder and lat exercises. Seriously. I wouldn’t mind more definition, but also my body just eats my lats when they aren’t heavily used. I know I’m going to lose all of my strength (or it will feel like it) while recovering from my second c section, but I still want to try.

 

And I got head butted in the belly again. I carried the small one up the stairs and he jumped and head butted me as I put him down. We were heading for bedtime (peak threenager) but after a few minutes it sunk it that it really hurt. Now all my muscles are in “protect” mode and my diaphragm won’t open enough to take a deep breath because it hurts so much right above my belly button. I tried not to make a big deal of it this time, but MFH caught on I was hurting and took over for me. I need the small one to stop doing this but I don’t want to scare him or make him fearful of my body or resentful of the pregnancy or something vaguely long term damaging. But this is no fun. I felt great the first few hours after the gym and now I hurt.

[DaemonCorax]

Today is a different kind of mental health day. MFH has bought me a bunch of kid-free quiet time to work on the painting project I started 6 months ago. Our avocado green bathroom got painted a vanilla white this summer but I never finished the trim, the colorful stripes, or the shelves to go behind the tub. Onward with that today.

 

Trim takes FOREVER. Especially when you're covering green, green, and more green. The new trim color is a black/navy.

[DaemonCorax]

Had a little chat with myself today about why I’m feeling rough in the afternoon. A cookie or a glass of juice kinda helps but not really. The thing is, even before the pregnancy I wasn’t really eating my favorite way because work was so overwhelming. When I start training without a second human living off me, I would like to lean out a bit an bulk up my upper back and shoulders. The thing is, training shoulders is also something I can do safely now. But. I’m not eating right. I’m in a rush. I grab what’s handy. And that’s always more carbs than my body prefers. Time to set things right.

 

for lunch today, Flipper and I were craving an old simple dish that I love: rice with fried eggs and kimchi. My egg flipping mojo was a bit off and a broke a yolk, but still. This HIT the spot. Especially with the end of this morning’s coffee reheated with some chai.

 

[DaemonCorax]

And dug around in my cabinet and found the protein powder. It’s old and I need to buy more, but hey:

4 oz chai

8 oz milk

1 scoop powder 

meet my little friend, the immersion blender. It’s pretty delicious! 
 

protein: 28 g

 

 

[DaemonCorax]

I slept terribly last night. Flipper had a growth spurt or something and spent the whole night informing me that my belly isn't roomy enough. I dunno. But it hurt and was very hard to stay comfortable.

 

I met one of my climbing friends at the gym today anyway and while I was planning on taking it a little easy, I ended up taking it even easier becuase her pace in the morning is just slower. I'm turning into MFH I guess, but the fact that she takes her shoes off and then has to put them back on and retie them every route was quietly bugging me as I watched the clock. Still, she's a really nice person to climb with in the morning, from her puzzle solving on climbs to the fact that my preggo self trusts her as a belayer.

 

Climbed 4 routes, all 10s. Fell off a really confusing one repeatedly at the end.

Upstairs she and I were talking about power lifting between my sets

Gorilla rows, 44 lb KBs, 7x3

 

And that was it for today.

Wednesday will be squats and flys or curls.

 

I'm trying to get over my "the squat is king" mentality from 5x5 as I want to focus on upper body and not over stress my abdominal wall as I get bigger. Lol. So far total fail.

 

I am switching it up though so it doesn't just become about increasing weight. I'm playing with unweighted split squats on my couch. My right knee makes an amazing noise when I straighten it out. 🤣

 

Tomorrow is the day. The weather is clear. It's the day to meet the ridgeline. The halfway point in her journey, our protagonist will spend a week traversing the rocky spine before the technical descent down into more arable terrain toward the river delta. Her stop on the lower slopes at the tavern was lovely, but it tipped her hand a bit. Her pack contains live cargo. And its a race against the clock to get to the lowlands before it hatches. She misses her horse, but the horses wanted nothing to do with this load and its strange smell and the magic is carries. The pack has felt heavier, but maybe it just wriggles more. Her game of carrying JUST enough provisions to move the the weight is tenuous. If she gets stuck in bad weather or doesn't move fast enough , she'll be in dire straits. Passing through the ridgeline, she's giving her live cargo a tour of what will be its home later in life, but the river delta, with its plentiful food and people to support her efforts, must be her first roost.

 

After all, baby griffins like fish.

 

 

I've been trying to find a way to characterize our protagonist's quest that fits with where my life is right now. Traveling across inhospitable lands to hatch the egg of a rare, thought to be extinct by some, magical beast with a long non-draconic mythology behind it seems about right. So here we are. This is why the pack wriggled in the tavern.

 

Tomorrow is "Week 20." In a week I have the all-important anatomy ultrasound to make sure the incubating small one is a-ok beyond the blood tests we've already had.

 

 

[DaemonCorax]

And another night of bad sleep. This time I woke up in the wee hours of the morning because my hips hurt. I thought this hit later in pregnancy last time? I also remember after the first small one was born, about six weeks later, my hips reverted back to their previous shape (a circumference difference of 4" !!! human bodies are crazy) so fast that that hurt too. Urgh. I'm working on site today and hope that extra walking around will help. I'm going to go home early and either rest or ride my trainer depending on where my mood is and how sleepy I am.

This morning I weighed myself again in honor f the start of Week 20. Last weigh in was at 2 pm in workout clothes. This time was similar clothes in the morning. I weighed 151.2 lbs. (Which is 11-12 lbs or so above my base weight) That confuses me a bit. I guess Flipper ate all the extra that was sitting around from 9 days of traveling? And of course I'm probably a little dehydrated in the morning. It's been 6 days. I SHOULD be up a lb? I do feel like I'm eating a lot better since I got back, and the loss in weight makes me feel pretty validated about adding protein powder back into my diet.

I'm adding in a little meal tracking to this challenge. Not so much focused on dinner, but the other stuff throughout the day. Dinner at our house is usually some sort of stew+carb situation. Last night was a mexican chicken stew with apples, chiles, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes in it over rice and a slice of warm bread. This will be roughly repeated through the week because in my house "home-cooked" and "from scratch every night" don't happen in the same sentence during the work week.

 

Breakfast this morning was:

2 eggs w cheese

A small bowl of cereal with whole milk

1/2 a banana

coffee

 

I'm having lunch with a friend today that will probably involve eggs and potatoes or something similar. When my doc asked if I was eating "home cooked food" more on our trip I sort of didn't know how to answer. I cook as well, but differently. It's easy to avoid junk sweets at my house because they aren't everywhere. Even though I try to avoid them on family trips, when there are cookies in three rooms of the house, I end up eating some. Not a ton, but definitely more than my usual habits. At our house right now all I have are some snickerdoodles from making cookies with the small one when school was closed. Being back in my usual rhythms (and at my usual elevation I think) just makes me self-regulate a lot more easily without thinking about it much.

[DaemonCorax]

Well I had a very tired week and didn't post much. 😕

 

Things in the sleep department continued to deteriorate to the point where Wednesday I just felt sick, super nauseous all morning, compounded it by not eating enough breakfast, and spent the day half asleep on the couch. Not great.

 

MFH's shop was moving across town this week, so this meant a little extra kid time for me, which was fine, but meant some slightly fewer workouts. I did manage to ride my bike on the trainer for a while Friday. Saturday morning we hit the climbing gym but I only climbed a few routes because we were in family mode. All fine.

 

Yesterday was the big ultrasound for our new addition and everything looked great Yay. After a rather dysfunctional phone call with my mom, I was feeling pretty low, but managed to drag myself to the gym. BUT it was a holiday, in January (gym noobs), around lunch time. I didn't climb at all and had to wait a bit for a barbell. I WILL say, I walked into the gym in a terrible mood, picked up some heavy stuff, and walked out in a great mood.

 

Workout was:

Started doing goblet squats with a 35 lb dumbbell, one set of 7, next set interrupted because a barbell came available

Dumbbell curl to press, 15 lb ea hand 5x5

Back squat 85 5x2, 95 5x3

Gorilla rows again, adjusting to a more sumo stance, 44 ea hand 5x3

 

This was nice. I felt better. Interestingly turning the core engagement on in the gym had me not hurting my belly bending down to feed the cats later in the evening, which was really nice. Taking a week off was BAD.

 

I have more to write, but just wanted to get the update in for now.

[DaemonCorax]

I SAID I was going to post more. Holy cats, this pregnancy I am SO much more tired. I say that knowing full well my 3.5-yo woke us up at 11:25 and then we got up at 5. So.....yeah no mystery there. I'm sure I was tired the first time around. Just not THIS tired. And the core damage from the first kiddo seems to be making managing keeping my abs healthy a lot harder. Again... no mystery there but ugh.

 

There is ONE thing better about this pregnancy: I discovered maternity jeans with FRONT POCKETS and BELT LOOPS (looking at you, car keys on a carbiner). I like the snuggly full belly panel style, but the ones I had from Target last year lacked these features. I came across such full featured jeans at Walmart but they had a bunch of detroyed holes in them, so I bought them but then treated myself to two more work-appropriate pairs from Gap. Wheeee. Much better.

 

Yes, that is totally irrelevant to my quest, but it does help me hate getting dressed a little less.

 

 

[DaemonCorax]

Ok actual workout update.

 

My hips hurt. They've moved out a bit. The hormones are making them complain. SO, yesterday evening I rode the trainer for only about 35 minutes or so, but I focused a lot on keeping my hips and knees inline throughout the pedalstroke. That was worth doing. They still woke me up in the morning, but it was a bit better. I finished my ride feeling really down on myself for how much harder this pregnancy feels and how much more everything hurts and how much I feel like I'm coming up short. Yeah, I need a better perspective.

 

This morning I had a late morning gym session. The route setters were out so I repeated some routes that weren't blocked off.

5.8 repeat 2x, 5.10 repeat 2x, 5.11- attempted 2x (got 1/2way), 5.7, new 5.10- fell off last move due to doing something dumb.

Then:

Bulgarian split squats 7x3 with no additional weight. Talk about a way to highlight how much I need to stabilize my joints! This was a great one. I think I had my back a bit vertical for the true move with weight, but otherwise it went pretty well

OHP 45 5x5, man I felt weak today. Not in the force to get the bar up, but something just felt off, so I didn't move up to 55 lbs.

 

Tomorrow I have to go take the truck to pick up a piece of furniture a ways north of us, so I may not get a workout in. We'll see. The drive will be relaxing though. It's a good truck. It will be some nice quiet time.

 

 

[Elastigirl]

Sorry about your hips. Different problem, ( mine is just age ) but I've found the best thing for my hips is the single leg strength stuff like the Bulgarian Split Squats. Also, a new mattress made a world of difference.

[DaemonCorax]

48 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

Also, a new mattress made a world of difference.

 

We did in fact get a new mattress right before this whole saga started, and it DOES help. Also, I'm assuming that this is temporary, but depressingly sleep-depriving.

[Elastigirl]

1 hour ago, DaemonCorax said:

 

We did in fact get a new mattress right before this whole saga started, and it DOES help. Also, I'm assuming that this is temporary, but depressingly sleep-depriving.

Yes, it is temporary. It may just be  hormones are making them extra sensitive, and soon it will feel better.

[DaemonCorax]

Monday update. Hey guess what, hips still hurt. It's intermittent. Exercise helps SO much. But, MFH has a cold coupled with this funky and terrible autoimmune thing that attacks his mouth periodically, so we're not firing on all cylinders. I didn't make it to the gym Saturday because I adopted a piece of furniture on Friday and we moved it into the house Saturday and it needed a little work. We ended up spending an unexpected amount of time on the floor in the living room shimming and gluing the draw support in a wood buffet cabinet that will be starting a new life as blanket and toy storage. On the other hand it turned out awesome. Thank you Marketplace muses! We can't figure out if its SUPER old and someone repainted the red part and the inside of the doors at some point - I found painters tape on a door latch. Or if it's not that old, but made partly out of old barnwood. It's a strange mismatch of nicely crafted drawers but some totaly janky-but-works nailing and gluing inside for the rails the drawers slide on. The shelf in the back looks like a pressure treated something that you could park a truck on, and the back is mismatch pine board and plywood. Totally weird. But it's really pretty, and I was able to adjust the door latches so that a three-year-old can easily open and close the doors, but they still stay closed. It won't tip over and it doesn't have any glass in the front either. So after a little TLC, it looks like it will do us very nicely for many years to come. Just because I have a ton of toys in my living room, doesn't mean I don't also want it to look nice without much effort.

 

 

 

Anyway, that saga meant no workout Saturday.

 

Sunday was a family cross country skiing day with a friend riding along to learn to ski and help us kid-wrangle (she's the best!). The small one got wiped out very easily because his skis don't have edges and there was enough crust that he was sliding a lot. But we brought the truck, with a crash pad and blanket and camp stove in the back. So I took him back and set him up with hot chocolate, soup, people watching, and some cartoons on the tablet. He was a very happy camper, and giving him this safe space to chill out and enjoy being outside meant the adults got to rotate skiing and hanging out duties for a couple more hours. I probably only skied a mile, but it was better than nothing. And we got super lucky with NO wind. So I'll take the win.

 

 

[DaemonCorax]

So I managed a very rare multiple days in a row of workouts.

 

Monday I rode my bike trainer in the basement for ~35 minutes. With my hips feeling really off, I focused more on riding in a little harder gear and keeping my knees aligned in the correct plane.

 

Yesterday I went to the gym. I was super late getting out the door (because kiddo), so I curtailed the climbing and allowed myself to take my first meeting from my car on my way in.

 

Climbed 4 routes: 5.8 and 5.10 that I've done before and a new 5.8 and 5.10.

Back squat 45x5, 95 5x3, 105 5x2

Bent over dumbbell flys - ROM felt a bit funky - 10 lb ea hand 7x, 15 7x3

Seated curls full ROM (moved a leg out of the way to allow my arms to straighten all the way down) 20 lbs ea 7x3

 

Today MFH was home sick (unfortunately) so I got to head to the gym earlier (fortunately)

Climbed 6 routes - one 5.7, and the rest all 10s, although I fell off both the 5.10+ routes about 3/4 the way up.

Incline press 15 lbs ea 10x, 20 lb ea 7x3

Bulgarian split squat - tried holding 20 lb dumbbells for a few reps right side, but too wobbly. Unweighted 7x3.

Deadlift 135 7x, 155 5x2, 175 3x

 

The incline press felt like a better challenge than OHP. The OHP felt a little weird the other day and the incline press with dumbbells can be bailed from. Also it's a pretty targeted exercise, which is cool.

 

I did something super dumb unloading the barbell at the end of today and woke up an old injury on the right top corner of my sacrum. I swung the plate off the barbell too far away from myself. I'm putting heat on it. The initial injury was almost 20 years ago, but I had ticked it off in 2015. It hasn't done anything since then and I'm sure it will settle down.

 

[DaemonCorax]

Oh man I got lucky. The twinge on the right corner of my sacrum quieted down very nicely. I got two rounds of heat on it - I went home early and worked sitting cross legged on the couch with some heat, and then again after putting the small one to bed. MFH's autoimmune thing that destroys the inside of his mouth has flared so badly he hasn't been able to talk much (new meds, drs, yes, all being done to try to make things better, but still terrible and painful) or eat much, so I've been carrying more of the small one's evening routine. This is tiring, but it's just where we are right now. I woke up this morning with the usual mess of hip pain and a little generalized lower back stiffness but nothing that a shower and walking around didn't fix.

 

Today is a rest day. Tomorrow I hope to get to the gym.