Iron rails & iron weights

Morning commute: LIRR 6:56 from Ronkonkoma to Flatbush Avenue, M-1, fourth car from end, window seat in a three-across.  A routine ride on a surprisingly uncrowded train.  As the end of the year gets closer, maybe some people are using up vacation time to take long weekends, seems as likely an explanation as any.  A woman occupied the aisle seat in Farmingdale or Bethpage, dunno which, but the middle seat remained unoccupied the whole trip (yay!)  The car was a bit noisy, however, due to some high schoolers who boarded in Deer Park and got off in Mineola, IIRC there's a Catholic high school in Mineola that draws students from pretty far.  I had my CD player and didn't really mind.  One amusing thing happened as we approached Flatbush.  I heard, over the PA, the following exchange: (Engineer) "Conductor, [Track] 21 to Westside.  (Conductor) "Roger."  Er, somebody oughta tell this crew it's pretty hard to get to Westside Yard from Flatbush, and we won't even mention the Track 21 part :)

Boarded a moderately crowded 3 train at Atlantic, head car as usual.  A pretty quick ride until just short of Chambers, at which point we crawled into the station, I normally wouldn't mind but we missed a connection with a 1 (it closed its doors almost exactly as we opened ours).  Fortunately, a 9 came along within a couple of minutes and I was at Houston within a few minutes.  The 9 was very crowded, must've made a connection with the S.I. Ferry.

Evening commute: The subway trip from Houston Street to Penn was one of those rare ones that goes perfectly well.  I boarded a not-too-crowded 9 almost immediately after arriving at Houston, and at 14th made a quick transfer to a moderately crowded 2.  The whole trip including the transfer couldn't have taken more than five minutes.

As for the LIRR, I got the 5:22 to Ronkonkoma.  It usually pulls into Track 15 about eight to ten minutes before departure, but today it didn't arrive until right at 5:22 and departed about five minutes late.  No big deal, in the grand scheme of things - and five minutes late isn't even "late" according to the LIRR's rules - but it was one of those minor annoyances, the cumulative effect of which really sours one's attitudes toward the LIRR.  And let me tell you, the train's (almost) late arrival at the platform meant that the cows-at-the-slaughterhouse-chute half-moons were massive!

I took the aisle seat on a three-across, and fortunately no one took the middle seat even though the train was quite crowded.  A bunch of SCA's nearby were quite loud, babbling about the weekend's football games (but of course!), however I was able to tune them out pretty well.  As usual, the train crawled through Jamaica even though it didn't stop at the station; one would *think* that the LIRR would have been able to figure out how to get expresses through the Jamaica area at a semi-decent speed, considering they've had 90+ years to work out the bugs.  Of course, we're talking about the LIRR ...  Otherwise, the trip was uneventful.

Pumping iron: I got to the gym (Ultimate Fitness, Medford NY) about 7:30.  It was the usual Monday evening madhouse, with at least 50 people in the weights area.  Also as usual, it was a very young crowd, with an average age probably not much over 20 and what looked like no more than a handful of over-30's.  I don't know, maybe Ultimate Fitness is somehow atypical, but it seems as if weight training is very much a young man's activity.  Which is strange in a way, as it's one of the relatively few athletic endeavors in which ability doesn't really diminish with age - a 55-year-old, for example, can be competitive with 25-year-olds.  But I see a very young age distribution each time I hit the gym, and at 40-plus I sort of feel like a father figure.  Guess most men my age consider "athletic activity" to consist of changing channels on the TV remote and *maybe* an occasional round of "cartball" :(

As for my workout, I was doing a modifed version of a bench routine, which calls for alternating sessions of flat and decline bench twice a week.  Tonight was decline bench, an exercise I like because it's a bit easier on my shoulders than flat bench.  Also some auxiliary back and rear deltoid work.

Decline bench: 8 x 45, 6 x 95, 4 x 135, 3 x 165, 3 x 185, 2 x 205, 4 x 235, 2 x 4 x 225, 8 x 205.  All went well except the last rep of the second set at 225, which was a bit ugly (but I made it).

Hammerstrength high rows: 6 x 270, 2 x 6 x 280.  I generally don't like machines, but this one is pretty good.  I really feel it in my lats and biceps.

Dips (bodyweight): 3 x 8.  Not actually part of the routine, but I like doing them.  I can rep with up to 45 pounds added weight, but tonight I did just bodyweight given all the bench work.

Rear lateral raises: 3 x 8 x 20/20.  I was going to do some abs work - the bench routine calls for 200 reps of abs work per week - but I think I'll do it tomorrow along with some treadmill or elliptical work.

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