Birthday

Beginning this past Monday, I was dreading my birthday. Why? Because last year at this time, my birthday was the day I was suspecting that my Dad was in bad shape, and in fact, the next day, he was admitted to hospital and you can go back and read all about that, culminating in his death on 11/4/2007.

Sometime yesterday, though, I decided I should do some form of "birthday workouts" to commemorate my 52nd birthday (I know, I know, even I can't believe I'm that old). Initially, I was just going to swim/bike/run each for 52 minutes, since I'm not exactly training lately, and was not up for a mega training day, especially since I'd be working. Then, this morning, I got the bright idea that I'd try and do 52 exercise-related things each for some form of "52," like 52 minutes or 52 repetitions or 52 seconds. I started making a list, and it included the swim/bike/run thing, but also a lot of strength exercises that I typically do, only 52 reps is nearly twice what I usually do.

When I woke up this morning, I felt well-rested, and I had eaten a good dinner last night assuming I'd be working out some today. So I got to it early before heading to the pool. I had wanted to do 52 actual exercises, but after working and doing quite a bit and hitting 30 things, I decided that the remaining 22 would be stretches, lest I be so sore tomorrow that I can't do much of anything! I feel like I wimped out, but it is what it is, and I must be old because I didn't do all 52 things, but I totally enjoyed the day even though the contractors were beginning to put together a new bathroom downstairs and work was a little messy.

This afternoon I received these from Cindy:


Isn't the arrangement beautiful? And it smells really nice. I really love flowers, and was pretty happy to get these. I wish Cindy could make it down to PCB to hang with me cheering for my peeps at IMFL. We'll see...

Anyway, below is what I ended up doing today, listed in order of how I did things. When it says, "52 Pickup" the pic below is what I did. Believe me, picking up the cards after what I had already done was another "thing" to do. But the stretching felt really great!

1. Pushups: 52 (regular style not girlie shit on knees). Not so hard.
   
2. Air Squats: 52. Not so hard. I do more than this in a typical strength workout.
   
3. Crunches on Stability Ball w/12 lb. Medicine ball: 52. Not so hard.
   
4. Side Twisting Crunches w/feet on Stability Ball w/12 lb. Medicine ball: 52. Not so hard--my core is in good shape.
   
5. Single-leg Calf Raises: 52 each leg w/30 lb. dumbbells. Not so hard at all.
   
6. Swim: 52 minutes (2800 yards). Fucking easy.
   
7. Vertical Kicking in Pool: 52 seconds. First time I did it without fins. Not very hard.
   
8. Assisted Pullups: 52 (at various amounts unweighted). This was hard, considering I've only gone as high as 10 in the last 4 weeks. I did a pyramid set starting hard, going to easy and then ending with the last one nearly unweighted, and that one hurt. It was pretty funny to sense people watching me do this many, especially since I was wearing hot pink shorts, a pink shirt and pink shoes. Not my usual gym attire!
   
9. Dead Hang: 52 seconds. Felt good after all those pullups.
   
10. Hanging Leg Raises: 52. Not very hard at all. I like these because they really hit my lower abs.
    
11. Side Bridge: 52 seconds each side. Easy!
    
12. Center Bridge: 52 seconds. Easy!
    
13. Jumping Jacks: 52. Easy!
    
14. Standing Hamstring Curls: 52 each leg (30 at 15 lbs; 22 at 10 lbs.). Not hard; not easy.
    
15. Dumbbell Side Raises: 52 each side (30 at 20 lbs; 22 at 15 lbs). OK by this point my abs are starting to feel it.
    
16. Standing Overhead Triceps Extensions: 52 at 20 lbs. Sort of hard. Triceps were already toasty from the pushups and pullups.
    
17. Standing Triceps Pulldowns: 52 at 25 lbs. More torture for my triceps, and they were feeling it during this bout.
    
18. Run: 52 minutes. Since I hadn't really done much leg work, I was able to run fairly decently, but I did notice my upper body was pretty full of lactic acid (I started at noon). So I'll say this was moderately hard, since I need my upper body to run well. Oh and I was drinking Coke (flat leftover from NothingMan) because I knew I had more to do and could tell I was on the verge of bonking. After I finished this, I drank 1/2 bottle of Endurox R4 and ate a gel before heading out to bike.
    
19. Bike: 52 minutes. Relatively easy. Started about 15 minutes after finishing the run. It got colder and I had a good headwind on the way home.
    
20. Jump Rope: Skip both feet 52 times. Easy. Way back before I ran and just did gay aerobics, I would sometimes jump rope (lots of variations) for an hour straight. I'm sure I could still do that--it's just a matter of acclimating my calves, but other than that, jumping rope is all about core strength, and I have plenty of that!
    
21. Wall Squats w/Stability Ball and Small Ball between Knees: 52. Now I could tell my quads were getting fatigued, but still not too nasty.
    
22. Hyperextensions on Stability Ball: 52. I was wondering how these would feel at this point. Really not bad at all, which is good and means my back is in good shape.
    
23. Reverse Hyperextensions on Stability Ball: 52. Again, I thought my back would start to rebel at this point, but it didn't. YAY!
    
24. Reverse Crunches w/12 lb. Medicine Ball between Knees: 52. These got to be hard. My abs were telling me I'd already done enough, and having to lift my hips up on top of it was not too easy.
    
25. Seated Machine Crunches w/Rope: 52 (30 at 50 lbs.; 22 at 45 lbs.). Um...abs were already toasty by this point, but I got it done.
    
26. Knee Extension on Stability Ball; Thighs on Ball: 52. Pretty easy. More pelvic thrusting!
    
27. Knee Extension on Stability Ball; Ankles on Ball: 52. Still easy; hips are still working quite well.
    
28. Suitcase Crunch w/Legs at 90° Angle on Stability Ball, holding 12 lb. Medicine Ball: 52. Pretty easy although abs are tired.
    
29. Hamstring Curls on Stability Ball: 52. Moderately hard. My hammies were not too happy, even though I hadn't done much to them except curls, run and bike.
    
30. Fifty-two Pickup. This was just plain fun. I had to go find playing cards. Of course, I counted them as I picked them up just to be sure it was a full deck!
    
31. through 52: 22 different stretching exercises for a total of 30 minutes. This felt great, great, GREAT!