Iron rails & iron weights

11:29:41 AM EDT
Some more-than-respectable iron work today.  I started out with deadlifting, showing some progress over last session: 6 x 225, 6 x 255, 6 x 275, 4 x 295, 4 x 305, 3 x 315.  Then I did some bench pressing, improving on last session's 5 x 5 at 225 by adding a sixth set at that weight: 6 x 135, 4 x 185, 2 x 205, 6 x 5 x 225, 2 x 8 x 185.  Now that the seated calf raise machine is back in service I did some of them, 3 x 15 x 165.  Seated calf raises aren't what you'd call a vital exercise, but they supposedly help one's deadlifting, so that why I do them.  I also worked the speed bag for a while, which was quite difficult at first because the bag has been re-inflated and moves much faster than before.  It took several minutes before I could get the hang of it and build up a decent rhythm.  I finished the session with a one-mile run on the treadmill at 6.0 mph.


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6:53:21 PM EDT
At least it seemed to take forever

Back to routine today after yesterday's drive to Ronkonkoma.  I got the shuttle at Medford, then the 6:56 Flatbush Avenue train from Ronkonkoma to Jamaica.  The 6:56 didn't seem too crowded, and I was hoping that no one would sit next to me.  Unfortunately I had to endure a bit of squishing from Mineola to Jamaica, courtesy not of an elephantine SCA as is usually the case but by a rather wide-hipped woman in her 30's.  Wide hips may confer certain evolutionary advantages but they are most assuredly not adapted to the obscenely small seats on LIRR trains.  I suppose Darwin couldn't have predicted that.  At least Mineola to Jamaica is a short run, and I got off at Jamaica to get the 8:01 dual mode to Penn.  My trip on the 1 train to Houston Street definitely left much to be desired.  Though I didn't wait long, the train went into 14th Street very slowly and arrived on the express track.  The conductor announced that there was a disabled train at Canal Street and the next stop would be Chambers.  Okay, I figure, I'll get off at Chambers and take a Bronx-bound 1 back to Houston Street.  What I did not anticipate was that it took almost ten minutes to crawl to Chambers.  To add insult to injury, the disabled train must have gotten underway again because there was nothing at Canal.  I then had to wait several more minutes at the obscenely crowded uptown platform at Chambers just to get back to Houston Street.  When all was said and done it took me over 30 minutes to get from Penn Station to Houston Street.  I could have walked it in about the same amount of time.

Getting home was a close encounter with a time warp.  I got to Penn quickly enough thanks to a fast transfer at 14th and got the 5:41 to Ronkonkoma.  A tall but slim young woman sat next to me and I thought I'd have ample room, but just before departure she abruptly got up and left the train, she must have realized she was on the wrong train.  I figured that a huge SCA would take her place, but fortunately I was lucky and a man of no more than 200 pounds sat there.  Didn't he realize he was supposed to be a blob?  While there were no significant delays to Ronkonkoma and the shuttle, we might've been four or five minutes late but no more, the ride seemed utterly interminable.  Either I was in a time warp of the sort Einstein theorized, or I was just so eager to get home after a long workweek that it merely seemed endless.  You be the judge.


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12:29:35 PM EDT
The women's train

Some cars on the Tokyo subway are restricted to women during rush hour, as some men apparently never learned the elementary-school lesson about keeping their hands to themselves.  Riding in a women-only car lets a woman take the subway without having to worry about roving hands.  Gender segregation of this sort would never happen on an American transit system.  Discrimination laws, and all that.  Yet this isn't to say that gender balances are going to be equal on all trains, as my LIRR riding over the years has shown.  Trains leaving Penn Station very early in rush hour tend to have largely male ridership.  Many of their passengers are construction workers or other types of skilled tradesmen, jobs held mostly by men.  Trains leaving Penn very late in the rush hour also tend to be your typical fiesta de chorizo, which makes sense because they attract nose-to-the-grindstone Type A personality sorts who work long hours, once again mostly a male thing.  On the other end of the gender-balance spectrum is the 7:32 from Ronkonkoma to Penn, which I took this morning instead of going from Medford.  I've noted in the past that it has a disproportionately high number of women, and today was no exception.  My (very rough) estimate is that women comprised at least two-thirds of the riders in the car where I sat.  Keeping in mind that men outnumber women among commuters in general, an imbalance especially pronounced on the Ronkonkoma line, this indeed was quite remarkable.  The 7:32 is one train where you won't see puddles of testosterone sloshing around on the floor, but instead have clouds of estrogen wafting through the air.  It was no surprise that a tall but slender woman in her 30's took the seat next to me.  Her slenderness meant that I had plenty of room, and indeed I was scarcely aware of her presence at all ... which would not have been the case had I been stuck next to an elephantine SCA.  We got to Penn on time, and although the 1 train platform was jammed a train came along in less than a minute and wasn't at all crowded.  That in fact was a bit unusual, as the crowded platform was a sign that there had been a lengthy gap since the prior train and that generally means that the next train to arrive will be packed.  Hey, I wasn't about to complain.

I stayed on the 1 all the way to Penn after work, there being too much of a crowd at 14th, yet still arrived just in time to get the 5:22 to Ronkonkoma.  As is normal for that train, its gender balance was close enough to parity that I really took no notice (the 5:41 is more heavily male most days).  I found an aisle seat next to a 50ish woman who spent almost the entire trip babbling away on her cell phone as if she were being paid by the word.  While I couldn't hear what she was saying thanks to my trusty iPod, it's a very safe assumption it was sheer twaddle, as the British would say.  It was a delay-free trip to Ronkonkoma.

Gym: I must be getting stupid or something.  While on my way to the gym it never occurred to me that given today's unseasonably warm weather the temperature in the gym would be approaching steam bath levels.  No sooner did I cross the threshold of Ultimate Fitness that it became apparent that yes, the temperature indeed was at excruciatingly high levels.  I would guess about 85 degrees F, which is utterly ridiculous for a place in which people will be engaging in heavy physical activity.  I nearly turned and left, that's how bad it was.  But somehow I pushed on regardless, running 1.5 miles on the treadmill at 6 mph, which made 7.5 miles for the week, and then ellipted for 30 minutes.


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10:36:45 PM EDT
SCA Shuffling

An easy enough morning today.  The shuttle was on time at Medford as usual, and in another sign that my masochism is lessening its grip on my psyche I took the 6:56 Flatbush Avenue train at Ronkonkoma rather than the cattle-carish 7:04 express.  It wasn't too crowded, and no one sat next to me until Hicksville.  It of course was an SCA who took the seat, and I noticed he had the  typical SCA physique - not obese, in fact only slightly overweight, but soft, with zero muscle tone.  He was about 40, and while he might've been reasonably fit in his younger days it was obvious that for the past several years his sole physical activity has been the weekly round of cartball.  I got off at Jamaica to get the 8:01 dual mode to Penn.  No sooner did I get onto the platform than an M-3 consist on Track 1, a through train that (supposedly) does not stop at Jamaica, stopped halfway down the platform.  Several LIRR workers went up to the train and began keying doors open, and there was a lot of stuff being said on their walkie-talkies about getting the passengers off.  It was evident that the train had experienced some major mechanical meltdown and wouldn't be moving anytime soon.  That would be a problem for the 8:01 I was planning to catch, as it uses Track 1 and was supposed to arrive in a few minutes.  Fortunately the 8:01 was re-routed onto Track 3 and arrived on time. I waited maybe five minutes for a 1 train to Houston Street, which was within the acceptable range if perhaps a shade longer than I would have preferred.

I walked to Penn after work and boarded the 5:41 to Ronkonkoma.  Second later, a large SCA plopped next to me.  Oh no.  Just as I prepared myself for a miserable trip to Ronkonkoma, he apparently re-thought his decision and got up to sit elsewhere.  Thank God.  Well not too much thanks, because within ten or 15 seconds after his departure another, even larger (but of course!) SCA took his place.  This time I got really jammed good and hard into the sidewall and knew that the ride would be a chamber of horrors.  But the Deity hadn't totally forsaken me, because after about 30 seconds the SCA, like his predecessor, got up to go elsewhere.  Two strokes of magnificent luck in a row!  Of course a third SCA then took the seat, but unlike the first two he weighed under 250 pounds and I had (just) enough room.  It was a tolerable if not pleasant ride to Ronkonkoma and the shuttle.

Gym: Some good back work and some rather uninspired leg work.  Cable rows: 4 x 8 x 180, 2 x 8 x 175.  No complaints about these.  I then did some squats, but quickly ran out of energy and couldn't do much: 8 x 135, 8 x 225, 8 x 255, 6 x 275.  Ugh.  Not wanting to pull the plug on leg work I then finished with some seated leg extensions, 2 x 8 x 180.  Better than nothing, sort of.


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11:22:25 PM EDT
Appetizing?  Not in a million years.

Today I dropped the masochism routine and avoided taking the 7:04 Penn express from Ronkonkoma.  No running the risk of a cattle-car SCA crush today, whew.  After arriving on the shuttle from Medford I took the 6:56 Flatbush Avenue train, changing to the 8:01 dual mode at Jamaica.  The 6:56 was actually a shade more crowded than usual, with the seat next to me being taken at Farmingdale.  It was an SCA, but fortunately he wasn't as elephantine as your typical SCA.  I waited less than a minute for a 1 train to Houston Street, though no seats were to be found.

While taking the subway to Penn after work I was (reluctantly) treated to a sight that ranked very low on the esthetic scale.  I stayed on the 1 all the way to Penn because the express platform at 14th seemed quite crowded.  Among the passengers on the 1 was a grossly fat, sort of ghetto-ish young woman who was shoveling greasy fried chicken into her gaping pie hole like she was a highly motivated contestant in a college sorority's bulimia party who had forgotten to vomit.  It was the sort of sight that was so gross that I could not help but watch.  Of course I was half-nauseated by the time we got to Penn.  Ah, the lovely sights of the subway.  Once at Penn I got the 5:22 to Ronkonkoma, which unlike the morning's train was less crowded than it usually is. In fact I thought I'd have an empty seat next to me the whole way, but just before we got underway a 50ish woman sat next to me.  She was neither large nor noisy, so I had no reason to complain.  Thanks to many games of cell phone Tetris the ride went by very quickly, and the wait for the shuttle wasn't too long.

Gym: I got a late start and had a rather unusual bench-only session.  6 x 135, 4 x 185, 2 x 205, 5 x 5 x 225, 8 x 185, 2 x 6 x 185.  It was nice to get five sets of five at 225.


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11:36:56 PM EDT
Maybe the sheeple were right ... or were they?

Ugh, Monday mornings.  They're bad enough under the best of circumstances, today my latent masochism almost made things much worse.  I got the shuttle from Medford as usual, but once at Ronkonkoma decided for some inexplicable reason to take the 7:04 cattle train, er, express, rather than the usually less crowded Flatbush Avenue train.  Yep, must be masochism.  Riding the 7:04 puts me at great risk of being squashed by SCA's.  I really dodged a bullet today, however, with a man who was only slightly larger than average taking the seat next to me at Deer Park.  Like many SCA's, he was soft, if not quite overweight.  He left me with enough room, though it was a close call, and I cell phone Tetris'ed most of the way into Penn.  I missed a 1 train to Houston Street by a few seconds, but it worked out okay because another train came along in just a few minutes and, not surprisingly given the close spacing, was nicely uncrowded.

I walked to Penn after work, nearly getting run over in the station concourse by a disfigured skell - he scarcely had anything remotely resembling a human face - who was pushing his wheelchair across the floor using his feet.  You really get some characters in Penn.  As I was heading to Track 19 to get the 5:41 to Ronkonkoma, the station PA announced that the next train to arrive on Track 19 would be going to the yards, with the 5:41 to be the following train.  Pretty clear, right?  Moments later, which was about 5:30 or so, a train arrived from the east on Track 19 and discharged its passengers.  As always, there were hundreds of people waiting on the platform to board the 5:41, clustered in their cows-at-the-slaughterhouse-chute half-moon.  No sooner did the last people get off the train than almost all of the waiting passengers rushed onto the train to claim their "prime" seats.  But wait!  Hadn't the station PA announced, several times by now, that this train would be going to the yards?  Why was everybody boarding.  I stayed on the platform, along with a disturbingly small number of other people, figuring that the people who'd rushed onto the train would have to get off when the train crew announced that it was going to the yards.  They didn't listen to the station PA, hopefully they'd pay more attention to the train crew.  Well, after a minute or so, the train conductor announced over the train PA that there'd been a change of plans and that the train indeed would be going to Ronkonkoma after all.  The people who'd boarded it, sheeple-style in disregard of the station PA announcements, were right after all.  Superior knowledge, or just dumb luck?  Whatever the case, I boarded the train hoping against hope that I wouldn't have to stand the whole way.  I was lucky, finding an aisle seat next to an older woman, and spent the ride to Ronkonkoma pondering whether I'd been smart or dumb to have listened to the station PA.  It was an easy enough ride to Ronkonkoma and the shuttle.

Gym: Today turned out to be a clone of yesterday.  After some work on the speed bag I started running on the treadmill at my usual 6.0 mph.  After 2.5 miles yesterday I figured I'd do 1.5 miles today.  As I approached that mark I had enough energy that I decided to go for two miles, and as that greater mark came within sight I still had enough in me to go a bit more.  When all was said and done I did 2.5 miles, just like yesterday, and met my 6-mile weekly quota after just three days.


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3:14:55 PM EDT
A pretty simple gym session today, 2.5 miles running on the treadmill at 6.0 mph.


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3:14:15 PM EDT
My second back-to-weights session featured some deadlifting.  I didn't try for any high weights but instead concentrated on form and higher reps: 6 x 225, 6 x 255, 6 x 275, 4 x 295, 4 x 305, 2 x 2 x 315, 6 x 265.  I also did some work on the speed bag, ran one mile on the treadmill at 6.0 mph, and ellipted for 30 minutes.  The ellipting included some sprints, or the elliptical version of sprints.  It's difficult and slightly dangerous to sprint on a treadmill.


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11:17:10 AM EDT
Risk/reward calculation

Friday afternoon commuting offers a unique perspective on the risk/reward balance.  Heading home after a long workweek I have even less desire than usual to deal with the LIRR's frequent delays.  Being 15 minutes late on a Friday afternoon is the equivalent of being 30 minutes late on any other day.  Incidentally, this applies only to Fridays, there being relatively little difference in being late on other days of the week.  Fridays are an outlier.  Balancing this high risk, however, is an equally high reward.  Maybe even a specially high reward.  A delay-free trip home on a Friday afternoon provides a level of satisfaction unmatched on any other day.  All of this is a preamble to saying that today was, fortunately, on the high-reward side of the equation.  Even the morning was pretty decent too.  The Medford shuttle was on time as usual, and once at Ronkonkoma I decided - no real reason, just variety - to take the 7:04 Penn Station express rather than the 6:56 Flatbush Avenue train.  This is the sort of decision that can blow right up in my face, as the 7:04 is often a cattle train and usually gets packed full of SCA's.  Today was a lucky exception, with ridership not too high.  No one sat next to me until Farmingdale - usually, the train's nearly SRO after Deer Park - and the person who took the seat was a tall but fairly thin man.  I really had nothing to complain about ... how unusual!  There was an on-time arrival at Penn, though my wait for a 1 train to Houston Street was borderline annoying, somewhere in the range of five to seven minutes.

I had an easy time getting to Penn after work, with very short waits for the subway at both Houston Street and 14th.  The one annoying part was the crowding in getting off the express platform at Penn, as the northernmost staircase is half blocked off for repairs.  It's been this way all week and probably will stay partially blocked for weeks or months to come. The Transit Authority takes absurdly long amounts of time to effect simple repairs that private businesses do - sometimes literally - overnight.  I had enough time to make the 5:41 to Ronkonkoma with no trouble, and sat in one of the cars closer to the head of the train than usual.  Once again, I had no real reason for doing so, just variety's sake.  An older woman, certainly well past normal retirement age, sat next to me but got off at Hisckville.  I had an empty seat next to me for the remainder of the delay-free ride.  One sign that summer isn't far off was the shuttle, which was packed.  Friday afternoons in warm weather are by far its busiest time.

Gym: It hasn't been quite a week, but I got back to weights tonight.  In part it's because I have gotten so bored with the treadmill and the elliptical!  To ease back into things I did some relatively light work.  Bench press: 6 x 135, 4 x 185, 2 x 205, 2 x 5 x 225, 4 x 225, 2 x 8 x 185, 2 x 4 x 205, 2 x 2 x 230.  This up-and-down-and-up pattern is a bit unusual, but I decided to mix things up a bit.  Cable rows: 3 x 8 x 180, 2 x 8 x 170.  That was enough for tonight.


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4:24:12 PM EDT
That made for a different topic

I've often noted that most overheard conversations on the train involve (a) the NFL or (b) cartball.  At least that's true when SCA are doing the yakking.  But, as always, there are exceptions.  Not in the morning, mainly because my iPod prevented me from hearing just about anything.  I took the 6:56 Flatbush Avenue train after arriving at Ronkonkoma on the Medford shuttle, and was fortunate enough to get an M-3 single seat.  In fact I decided to go into Brooklyn rather than change for Penn, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake.  I had a long wait for a 2 express at Atlantic Avenue and then another long wait for a 1 train at Chambers.  Each wait was the better part of ten minutes.  It ended up taking almost 40 minutes to get to Houston Street, nearly double what it should have taken. 

I walked to Penn after work and got the 5:41 to Ronkonkoma.  It was an M-7 consist, though a not-too-large man sat next to me and left me with sort of enough room.  That was the good news, the bad news was that my iPod charge quickly ran out.  What made the bad news not so bad, however, was the fact that the two women sitting in front of me were having a lively conversation about ... knitting.  Yes, knitting.  From what I gathered they didn't know one another, but both took out some knitting work to pass the time and fell into a conversation about it.  One of the women, who was about 35 or 40, appeared to be a novice at the task, and the other woman, who was about 60, was giving her some tips and advice.  I didn't at all mind listening to them even though it was a topic that didn't interest me in the least.  It's such a relief to hear people talk about something other than the NFL or cartball!  We got to Ronkonkoma on time, and the shuttle was on time too.

Gym: A nice varied session.  I started out with some work on the speed bag, then four 3-minute rounds on the heavy bag. I finished up with one mile on the treadmill at 6.0 mph, making nine miles for the week.  It would've been nice to have done another mile to make ten for the week, but after the bag work I was pretty much finished after just one.


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