Went to Anytime Fitness to see about ending my membership there. My year contract ends January so I'd have to pay this month anyways. So, I'll have two gyms for a short time. I give up my little key fob thing by January 13th there. Since I drove out there, I spent 45 minutes on the treadmill with 30 of it being jogging.

Dawn, I can't even imagine getting 90lbs over my head, well, maybe.
Aigre glad mom is ok. What are you interviewing for? How's ETP going for you.

Speaking of gyms...I live in a very densely populated area considering it's the suburbs. There is no shortage of gyms in the area. In fact, there is a Planet treadmill, I mean Fitness, across the street from my LA Fitness. When I was working out during Prime Time, I counted no less than three people wearing PF t-shirts, and one was a PF staff member. I guess he doesn't feel he can get his "I'm a trainer" look without free weights. Wonder what the story is with the others. I love my LA. I love it more when it's empty

It's the week after my period, so I have crazy amounts of energy. I cleaned the house like a crazy woman on Sunday including 10 loads of laundry and sweeping cobwebs etc. Last night I hit the gym, came home, cleaned som more and just got a bunch of stuff done. I have to take the opportunities when they come because the week before my period, I'm useless.

Started Strong Stage 5 last night. Feeling the "New routine DOMS" today.
Slide Mtn. Climber: 40 and 45. (That was pretty tough. I couldn't do a full minute.)
SL RDL 2x12@25dbs
Push-ups 2x12
Cable BOR 2x12@23
Front Squat 2x12@65
I really thought that my Front Squat would have increased by now. Apparently not.

Aigre - Yeah, it's nice to just walk over from work and lift when I want, though a little odd having my lifting belt with me at work since sister is using my car so need whatever I'm going to use with me. Sleep is nice. It's good to get a little catch up on occasion.

Sam - Thanks. I was hoping for 100 but didn't lift much in November so that didn't work out but hopefully will get there some day.

Deadlifts!

Thought I'd check out the gym after 11 pm since that's when I get off work from an evening shift. Still had to wait but that's because there are only 2 squat racks in the massive gym. One is a regular one with moveable safeties and the other has the built in safety that isn't moveable. It's a little too tall for me to squat unless I moved away from it but it's not caged so easy to just back up. Not one for max testing but easier to use for deadlift as there is the padding right in front of it.

front squat - 2x10 @ 45, 1x8 @ 75 and 3x8 @ 85
deadlift - 1x8 @ 135, 1x6 @ 165 and with belt 4x6 @ 185
calf raises (cause i haven't done them in many months) - 3x10 @ 70

Not bad. Easy to get to with just walking across the street and down the block a little from work. Not busy busy late but I probably won't want to go and use the racks if I'm in a hurry. Waiting may be common. Need to try out the location near home soon and see what it is like.

So....it seems I have 10 pages to catch up on! eek.....

I'm still lifting, still working at it, but internet issues prevent me from doing much more than nipping on at work to log my food, hence being MIA from the forums.

I've been doing ok - I've got down to 146lbs, having finally seeming to have sussed the whole food thing. That's 11kg gone since this time last year. 2 jeans sizes difference, and a whole bunch of people now commenting on my figure, which is nice.

I'm fairly happy at this weight - I've still got some tightening up to do, but now that I'm getting the hang of IIFYM I'm hoping to still be pleased with my progress by the summer when I have a couple of weddings and a 2 week sunshine holiday to be looking forward to.

I'm also training for a marathon - not until beginning of October, so time is on my side, but I can now comfortably run 7 miles, so for this stage of the proceedings, I'm more than happy. The weight loss and the strong glutes and hammies are obviously helping with this, so there is NO chance of me stepping away from the weights.

Hope everyone is ok - I'll now go back 10 pages and see if I can gradually catch up, although with access still limited, it may take me a while.

Seasonal greetings one and all (just in case I don't make it back this side of Christmas....!!)

Jo - Yay for combat. Maybe I should try bodycombat some time. New gym has different classes available.

Kimi - Good to see you.

Checked out the gym location closer to the apartment. This one has three squat rack spots and they aren't hex plates. Only trouble was no 2.5 plates, which made it difficult with the numbers I was supposed to lift but that was okay. Being lower weights, increasing by 5 wasn't difficult.

Squat - 2x10 @ 45, 1x10 @ 95, 1x8 @ 135 and with belt 4x5 @ 155
Overload - 225 @ 20 count
Pause squat - 2x5 count of 8 @ 110

Then went to small park and jogged for about 35 minutes.

Good effort on the baking Sam. My sister and I have been baking also, while I have left the boys at home to sort out decorating - eeek!

Felt the need to squat yesterday - nailed the form! So pleased. If only I could do that every squat day

Bench today then out for dinner. Going to an Ethiopian restaurant..... looking forward to something new.

I feel rubbish - had one of my back teeth removed following a long history of abcesses, on Thursday afternoon, and have stitches in for the next week or so. I've got ulcers, I've got headaches, and I haven't been anywhere near to the gym for what seems like ever (only a few days in reality!).

I've brought my running kit into work and am aiming to go for a steady jog at 5.30 before I send myself into a negative spiral of toothache/painkiller driven meh-ness!

I've got lots of things to look forward to in 2017 - lots that I want to look and feel fab for.....I am therefore going to start planning my next course of action as part of trying to avoid said spiral of despair!

bah....!

Well done on the sub 10 mins running AigreDoux!

~Yes, I am with you right there - my last marathon was at consistent 11 min miles (5 years ago) and was the fastest I had run for that distance - I could do shorter runs quite a bit faster, but never anything over about 6 miles without losing the pace. Since re-starting my running this year, I've been feeling much stronger and I am sure it is the strength training that is helping. Problem is, now I want to run my next marathon at 10 min miles throughout.....not that I am putting pressure on myself or anything.......haha!!

On another note - think I have found my next programme to follow - from Tom Venuto's book, Burn the fat, feed the muscle - the 28 day workout for intermediates looks good to me. A 4 day split, so I am going to give my glutes a kick and make myself start it tomorrow......watch this space.

So.....I did a run after work last night - 4.5 miles including some hill work. It was tough because I am not used to hills but I am very glad I did it.

Then got to the gym this morning, AT LAST!

Round 1. Day 1/28 Upper body Strength:

Barbell rows - 4x4 @40kgs
Assisted Chin ups - 3x8 @-33kgs
Bench Press - 4x4 @40kgs
Incline dumbell press - 3x8 @10kgs (x2)
OHP - 3x6 @ 25kg
Dumbell lateral raise - 3x8 @6kg (x2)
Skullcrushers - 3x8 @ 10kg
Barbell curls - 3x8 @20kgs

My stitches in my mouth pulled a LOT - you don't realise how much you grimace when lifting until you have stitches in such places!!!!! Hopefully they will dissolve before the weekend.