908, it's not just an area code!

Whoot! Leg pressed 908 today. As I was getting ready, some dude wanders by, kind of snickers and says "wow, i guess you'll do a set of 2?" He then proceeds to lean on the machine next to me to watch. I blasted out a set of 20. At some point, he exclaimed "wow, excellent!" gave a thumbs up and wandered away. heh....set of 2.

Overall, excellent training this weekend. There were no 30 lb dumbbells available while I was doing my flys so, I had to do 35 lbs. (don't you hate when that happens?) I also had a personal best on my calf raises.

The rest of the day was cooking - a chicken, a roast beast for the big guy, a pork roast (all for during the week) and then todays dinner - boneless pork braised with leeks, mushrooms, white wine, bay and Herbes de Provence. Yummy!

Ohhhhh! Grand Opening!

Well, this weekend was the grand opening of a gym in the old space that I used to train in. It used to be a NYSC, and considering how the different locations could vary so much, this one was a pretty hardcore gym. Much to my dismay, it closed about 2 years ago - leaving us with the option of switching to a different location (which had virtually no free weights!!!!) or changing to a different gym entirely. We ended up opting for Retro Fitness. Now, we've both been pretty happy there. The closest one to our house is REALLY small. But we work around that by going to another location on Saturdays and it all works out really well. (I actually use yet another location during the week since it's close to my job)
So, back to the grand opening of Club Metro USA. Weeks ago, we were promised 2 things by the sales staff. Bumper plates and lifting platforms. Really? When we heard that we were so happy. Bumper plates seem to be a mythical beast in the gyms around here. When we went to check out the brandy new gym did we get any of those things? Nope.
They did have a leg press machine that barely holds enough plates for me AND has the added benefit of having a start point that is too long for my legs AND is not adjustable. Nice, huh?
They're also missing a large number of plate loaded machines that we use at Retro Fitness. Large portions of my workouts would be missing. Could I work around it? Yes. If I came across this gym while on vacation or traveling, I'd be pretty happy, I guess. But for everyday? Nope. Not a good fit at all. I don't need a giant smoothie bar that takes up valuable space for equipment, I don't need a giant boxing ring (nice but not necessary.) I DEFINITELY don't need an "in the dark movie theater" cardio studio. (I friggin' hate those things. Waste of space)
Tomorrow, I will go to my local Retro Fitness, I will train my legs on machines that fit my average length body and I will not whine about the small size of the gym space because at least the have the equipment that I need/want/love.

858!!!

Whoot! smashed a 858 lb leg press today, 1 set of 20 reps. So Happy! The whole training session was really intense.
Sunday is usually a massive "cooking for the week" day to get all my meals in order, but i did so much cooking last week and packaged all the meals like a good thrifty gal should so i am covered for this upcoming week. In the bag for next week is: butternut squash with apples, roasted chicken, roasted pork shoulder, sweet potatoes, cauliflower curry with coconut milk. i'll mix that up those meal potentials with a ton of fresh greens, and the only thing i'll be cooking today is a pot of vegetable soup made with a fantastic home made stock.
The big guy, who is not paleo/primal, yet - will be cooking up a pot of brown rice for his lunches at work, a london broil (also for lunch) and a pile of chicken breast tenderloins for his mid-afternoon meals.
Off to eat my steak and sweet potato post training meal and then head off to my studio to get so Art made today.