That is so great to have those workouts that are actually something to look forward to. I could imagine its nice to work the upper body when the legs get their work during the running anyways...i hope i will get to that place of looking forward to strengthening!
To have the gym to yourself (or even with just one other dedicated guy) sounds really nice and peaceful.
I really like the gym I attend--at least I like it in dark and early time frames that I'm typically there. It's one of those 24-hour entry ones, and it's relatively small--no more than one of any machine other than the standard cardio ones, and even those are pretty small in number (like 5 treadmills, 4 ellipticals, and 4 bikes, I think.) And of course the arrive-before-5am crowd is really small. There are basically just six guys, four girls, and two trainers that are regular or semi-regular at the time I'm there. I've been going there 5-6 days most weeks since January, and it's to the point that when I pull up in the parking lot, I know who is there because I know the vehicles of the three people who sometimes arrive before I do.
I think because it's a small number of the same people, there's an extra level of respect and camaraderie, despite the fact that, well, people who come to the gym that early (myself included) are ALL business, just wanting to get in, get it done, and get to the day. There's no one taking long rests scrolling their phones, very little conversation apart from "how many sets you got left," and every one of us wears headphones pretty much the whole time. But at the same time, I'm pretty sure everyone there at that time is totally comfortable asking someone to spot them if necessary.
Oh wow, that's such a big difference in two months!
Y'know, when I first took the pics I didn't see it that way. I was disappointed. Then I looked at how my face has shrunk during the first 75% of this cut. Nice!
Good nutrition day today. Spot-on with calories once I eat my evening snack. Buoyed primarily by the run of almost six miles and the walk to and from the car and Greenway, I'm at 20.1K steps and haven't done the evening dog walk yet. No complaints here.
My 10K step streak (currently at 527 days) is in some jeopardy this Friday, though. It's not a run day, and I have a 7ish-hour drive to my original home town planned. Were it not for the existing streak, there's basically no way I'd get 10K steps on that day. With the streak, there's at least a chance that I will, but I'll have to be intentional about it. I won't be walking the dog, going out to the garden to grab veggies, or doing much of anything after I leave the gym early in the morning if I'm not focused on getting the steps. (I usually get somewhere in the 12K-14K range on Fridays mainly from those activities combined with my 10-minutes-of-walking-on-the-treadmill gym warmup.)
There will be one "eat whatever they serve me, and I have no idea what that is going to be" meal on Friday night. Everything else while I'm traveling is under my control. (I'm going solo, so no other considerations there.)
