Back-back-back...
That back workout I did... oh, when was that? Wednesday?

Here it is. It was Power Week then, so tempo was 313, rest about 2 minutes.

Deadlifts, short Olympic bar
WU 79.5lbs x6
Work 169.5lbs x7, 7, 7
Notes: used straps.

Wide-Grip Chin
2 full + 4 negative, 1 full + 5 negative, 2 full + 4 negative
Notes: One day... one day, I will be able to do a half-dozen chin-ups. In a row. Also, I am using the lat bar straddled between the rafters for these.

Bent-over Barbell Row, short Olympic bar
WU 59.5lbs x6
Work 84.5lbs x6, 6, 6
Notes: Used straps. Last 2, last set, not so good -- not fully up to plexus, more like tum.

Barbell Shrug, short Olympic bar
Work 109.5lbs x8, 119.5lbs x8, 8
Notes: With straps.

Partial Dragon Flags
6
Notes: These sucked so badly that I switched to hanging leg raises because I was afraid I'd hurt myself.

Hanging Leg Raises
6, 6
Notes: Real ones. Legs straight. Ow.

Cable Crunch
45lbs x8, 8, 50lbs x8
Notes: I have written "v. painful!" after these...

Quiz-O-Rama
Oh, I do like me an online quiz. Because, you know, it is all about Me, all the time. Hah. And I am so fascinating. This edition stolen from
Mouse Words.

1. Your name spelled backwards.
Enirahtak
2. Where were your parents born?
My father was born in Reading, UK, my mother in Lubling, Poland.
3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer?
An upgrade from Murkysoft for Windows. And it seems to have farked something, too; my laptop has been crashing catastrophically ever since. I think I will have to do that XP reboot thing tonight.
4. What's your favorite restaurant?
My favourite locally is the Korean-Japanese place up by the university, because no matter how nasty my diet is, I can go and get some variation of delicious, fresh, luscious raw fish, with or without rice, which is nutritionally acceptable and a tasty treat.

For less stringent times, I like the Ethiopian place (mmm, injera!) and the new East Indian restaurant A. and I were at t'other week. Also Fressen on Queen West in Toronto.
5. Last time you swam in a pool?
Can't even remember. Um... I think it was Spring 2003 that I made a short-lived effort to include swimming in my workout plans. It failed because not only am I a lousy swimmer, my bodyfat at the time was so low that I was spending most of my time just trying not to sink like a stone to the bottom.
6. Have you ever been in a school play?
Have I not! I was always cast in school plays, not because of any surpassing talent but because I could reliably memorise any number of lines. Then I took Drama and Theatre Arts in university, and was in more plays, for credits. Now I frequently appear in local amateur productions. Being on stage is fun.
7. How many kids do you want?
None. Not one. And I would like best if any loud and obnoxious ones produced by others would stay well away from me.
8. Type of music you dislike most?
"Today's Hits and Yesterday's Favourites -- music everyone at work can agree on!" Adult (bluch) Contemporary.
9. Are you registered to vote?
I am indeed, though I do not usually vote, as such.
10. Do you have cable?
No. I'm one of those horrible no-TV snobs.
11. Have you ever ridden on a moped?
Sadly, no.
12. Ever prank call anybody?
I have vague memories of standing uncomfortably around on the sidelines of slumber parties while this sort of thing went on. It never seemed terribly thrilling to me, but I pretended that it was.
13. Ever get a parking ticket?
Yes. In Toronto. Because I did not see the sign qualifying the "park here between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m." with "excepting this hour in the morning and this hour at night." Fifty dollars! I was livid.
14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?
Yes!
15. Farthest place you ever traveled.
Northern Scotland.
16. Do you have a garden?
We have a sort of thick and unsightly tangle of Austin roses, various interesting perennial herbs, and bindweed. Our little plot is very discouraging, as it is full of killer bindweed. We keep telling each other how we're going to dig out everything we want to keep, put it in pots, and scorch the remaining earth with Roundup, but it's so goddam much work.
17. What's your favorite comic strip?
I only read four regularly: Dykes to Watch Out For, For Better or for Worse (although it's gotten really boring these days now that it's all about Michael and whatserface breeding), Get Fuzzy and 9 Chickweed Lane. I really miss Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes.
18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem?
Sher do -- even the French ones.
19. Bath or Shower, morning or night?
We only have the Bath option available at the moment. Daily in the morning (because I have the kind of hair that can't go out in public after it's been slept on, no matter how short or long it is), and otherwise as necessary.
20. Best movie you've seen in the past month?
Watched altogether, probably The Butterfly Effect.
21. Favorite pizza topping?
I tend to like "pretentious thin crust" types of toppings... shaved Parmesan, artichokes, roasted peppers, prosciutto, that kind of thing. Strong, interesting flavours, and lots of garlic, basically.
22. Chips or popcorn?
Caramel popcorn. Kernels' Double Double Butter or Creamy Caramel, specifically.
23. What color lipstick do you usually wear?
I don't usually wear lipstick, but when I do it's usually in the rust, burgundy or dried blood colour family.
24. Have you ever smoked peanut shells?
Hunhyunh?
25. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?
I suppose so, since bodybuilding competitions probably count.
26. Orange Juice or apple?
Neither. I like mango juice or peach nectar if I'm going to waste calories on beverages.
27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you dine?
A., and we went to the new East Indian restaurant. Competition dieting does not particularly lend itself to going out to dinner.
28. Favorite type chocolate bar?
Dark, black, savage ultra-cocoa-solids types, like Michel Cluizel's 99%. I started to qualify this answer, then realised that I like most good chocolate. I do not, under any circumstances, like Hershey's. It tastes burnt and stale, which I understand is intentional.
29. When was the last time you voted at the polls?
I actually did vote in our last national election. Normally I decline my ballot, which is the only way, in Canada, to make a protest vote that will be, somewhere, counted.
30. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato?
Few months ago, wasn't it? A. brought home that bunch of tomatoes from our friends' garden.
31. Have you ever won a trophy?
I used to win scholarly ones... History and English are two that I recall. I got a couple of monstrously ugly ones in the bodybuilding show.
32. Are you a good cook?
Reasonably. I can be overly experimental, which sometimes leads to failure.
33. Do you know how to pump your own gas?
Are there still people (with cars, that is) who don't?
34. Ever order an article from an infomercial?
No.
35. Sprite or 7-up?
Either, if they're diet. I don't really taste a difference. I wish that wacky new Sprite Purple or whatever it is came in a sugar-free variant.
36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work?
Yes. I remember it well. Marks & Spencer, and it was polyester. I was once disciplined because my uniform belt had spun round my waist so that the buckle was at the back.
37. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy?
The latest issue of Oxygen Magazine, yesterday.
38. Ever throw up in public?
Is there anyone who hasn't? Even I, who hate to throw up and will do almost anything to avoid it, have thrown up in public at least twice that I recall.
39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love?
I have true love, or so I fancy, so I'll take the cash, please.
40. Do you believe in love at first sight?
For some people, some of the time. "Believe." How silly.
41. Ever call a 1-900 number?
No.
42. Can ex's be friends?
Depends on the exes, and the circumstances of the breakup.
43. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital?
Our friend who had a stroke on my birthday, while he was in the rehab centre.
44. Did you have a lot of hair when you were a baby?
I don't think so; not that anyone has ever mentioned, anyway.
45. What message is on your answering machine?
A., sounding formal. "You have reached..."
46. What's your all time favorite Saturday Night Live Character?
I do not recall that I have ever even watched an entire episode of Saturday Night Live.
47. What was the name of your first pet?
Clea. She wasn't mine, I suppose... she was the family cat. I'm told that when I was born, she thought I was one of her kittens, and later would follow me round the garden keeping watch over me while I played.
48. What is in your purse?
I don't have a purse. My backpack contains (at least -- I'm going on recollection, not opening it to check) my DayTimer, my workout binder, a couple of notebooks, a bunch of pens and pencils and things, three sets of keys, several packages of sugarless gum, a Swiss Army knife, a small Japanese change purse with a cat face on it, a package of Bandaids, a tin of Altoids Strips, a bunch of single-use eyedrop dispensers (contact-lens safe!), my tax return which I will be mailing (obscenely late) later today, and my wallet, containing only ID and no bank cards of any kind. Oh, and a windbreaker, because today's sky is ominous.
49. Favorite thing to do before bedtime?
Read.
50. What is one thing you are grateful for today?
Um... that's a toughie. I am not feeling particularly grateful today. A. was lovely to me all morning. I think he still likes me even though I am terribly, terribly tired and very cranky, and have been all week. And I am glad to have four fuzzy cats and a dog, even though they sleep on top of me all night long so that I can't move and wake up stiff.

Boring summation of day
Consumption: 1369 calories, 139g protein, 112g carbs (28g fibre), 36g fat, 868mg sodium.

Other meals:
four, 1/2 cup egg sub, 75g tuna, 2 tablespoons Pindjur (omelette); 1/3 cup dry measure barley with English Caramel syrup and Molly McButter and a splash of soymilk;

five, 3 oz chicken, oven-fried with nutritional yeast and dipped in That Sauce, 3.5 oz broccoli with garlic juice and dill; mush made of a scoop of flax fibre, a tablespoon almond butter, some almond syrup, a couple tablespoons soymilk. Glass of KoolAid made with stevia.

Exercise: none. Grocery shopping has been done, chicken has been purchased, and... sigh, so has a small stepper machine, which is now squatting in the living room. Double cardio, here I come. I can't be excited about this today; I'm too tired.

I've also cancelled my useless gym membership. The whole point was that it was within walking distance of home and work, so that I could go in nasty weather. Now that they've moved, I'd have to drive, which is not only silly (drive to work out?), but not always practical since we've only got the one car.

Caffeine, please
Today's weight: 127 pounds. Today's temperature: unchronicled. Today's brain: mush.

I also realised that yesterday's adventures peeled a certain amount of epidermis off the tender inner sides of my arms. I now look as though I recently suffered a patchy sunburn. At least I don't seem to have latex allergies, though. (I should've shaved my arms, and that I knew as soon as I started ripping rubber, last night. Although apparently Bedhead's Hair Wax, smoothed on generously in the direction of growth, will serve as well.)

Consumed, or to be consumed, thus far today:
one, frittata of spaghetti squash and flaxseed, with tofu mayo and sugar-free pancake syrup (I felt that since I was eating oats and whey protein at one in the morning, I probably didn't need to start right out with carbs);

two, pumpkin oatcake with pumpkin/Jello pudding glop (it was quick and easy);

three, salad with tomato, red pepper, 3 oz chicken, 1/4 cup edamame, balsamic vinegar.

And after that, mystery!

Speaking of food, the last time I was in Sobey's I saw (among the l*w c@rb items spreading through the shelves like a rash) the much-lauded Dreamfields pasta.

US dieters have been singing the praises of this stuff for a while now, in my online experience: "Tastes great! Lose weight!" So I brooded upon it for a bit, wondering if perhaps it might make a nice treat... Then I looked at the nutrition information. For a serving the same weight as a regular pasta serving, it has 100 more calories, more grams of carbohydrates ("protected" carbs my buttocks, but I will leave my "net carbs is crap" rant for now)... and, as if that weren't enough, the ingredients read like a chem lab, and include, among other things, my nemesis, sugar alcohols.

Yeah. Sure we can market you something for the new trend, we'll just add some sugar alcohols. In pasta, for pity's sake.

Anyway, I prefer the Nutrition Kitchen soy pasta. Half carbs, half protein, no ingredients at all but soybeans, and though the texture isn't quite like ordinary "white" pasta, it is good and satisfying to the tooth. Plus, it comes in exciting colours, yellow, green and black. Eat that, Dr. bloody A$$kins.

Rubber girl
I spent last night doing something foolish and fun. There is a regular Goth Night at a local club, and last night happened to feature an industrial band called Dym who have, it seems, always had a yen to add a couple of performers to their stage act.

Well, my friend R. and I are nothing if not finely-aged ham, willing to do almost anything in the service of Art (or mere exhibitionism). So, when R. suggested it to me, I hesitated, but only briefly.

The performance? Strip to the waist, get painted up in liquid latex, and for the first half of the set, stand ominously motionless to either side of the band wearing gas masks. Then, at a critical moment, become animated, and "rip our skins off." Yes, I flailed about a filthy dance-club floor ripping latex off my body in gruesome strips and improvising rather Diamond-Dogs-ish plague victim floor dances.

And despite our exhibitionism, R. and I are both heavily laden with body-image issues, so we spent the hour or so leading up to our stage appearance prodding anxiously at our respective tums and assuring each other that even if we weren't models of physical perfection, the audience would be so impressed with our sheer guts and charismatic personalities that no one would notice.

Probably not... I shall probably always be remembered among certain segments of the night-dwelling subculture as "that girl who really shouldn't be wearing liquid latex"... but I did have a good time. Note that if you spend any time wearing liquid latex, you smell unappetisingly like a damp balloon afterwards. I had to take a bath before I could stand to go to bed.

Other than that, yesterday was Back Day, with a little extra ab work (trying to, you know, get a pump on for my later appearance en deshabille). After that, twenty sweaty minutes (ugh!) on the rowing machine. The thing with rowing is that any sustained time period is too long to be doing movements so repetitively uncomfortable. And I see that I do not have my workout notes at present, so the details must wait.

Yesterday was a High Carb Day, and I consumed a total of 1893 calories. 184g protein, 223g carbohydrate (38g fibre), 26g fat, 1130mg sodium. Weight yesterday was 128.5 pounds, and temperature 97.2?F.

That included:
one, 1/3 cup barley flakes with soymilk and sugar-free syrup, and a cup of scrambled egg substitute with That Sauce;
two, another cup egg substitute, scrambled with onions and peppers, wrapped in an Ezekiel tortilla with salsa;
three, red cabbage braise with a can of low-sodium tuna and extra hot sauce, and 3.5 ounces sweet potato mashed with sugar-free caramel syrup, cinnamon and butter sprinkles;
four, 2 slices Ezekiel bread with 2 tablespoons each of sugar-free apricot jam and tofu mayonnaise, topped with 3 ounces chicken, next to a small salad of lettuce and tomato with balsamic vinegar, and followed by sugar-free lemon Jello and sugar-free white chocolate pudding;
five (post-workout), protein shake mixed up thick with only a little soymilk, poured over a cup of Kashi Crunch;
six (post-latex), a few pickled beets, and another protein shake likewise mixed thickly, stirred into 1/3 cup rolled oats.

Wound up
Let's see... Weight 129 pounds (drat). Temperature 97.8F.

Eaten: 1293 calories, 130g protein, 126g carbs (41g fibre), 31g fat, 1512mg sodium.

Which was:
one, oat pancakes with tofu cream, apricot sugar-free jam or syrup, remaining cup egg sub scrambled with That Sauce. Green tea.

two, pumpkin oatcake, pumpkin/sugar-free pudding goo. Cafe noir.

three, Subway chicken salad, balsamic vinegar, fish oil.

four, shiratake noodles, seven ounces broccoli, some water chestnuts, three ounces chicken, Bragg's, garlic, ginger juice, Udo's oil. Diet Pepsi.

five, scoop protein powder, more sugar-free pudding, some soymilk, lemon Jello, a bit of the red cabbage. Green tea.

Sigh. I'm pretty bored of my food right now.

A. and I went for a longish run/walk this morning, forty-five minutes. It was bloody cold -- wintry, indeed. And there has been a new addition to our gym -- I mean house. A. found himself a used Concept Two rowing machine, the which he has desired for years, used and cheap, and bought it. It is now taking up a lot too much of the computer room... What I have learned about it: do not use the Concept Two barefoot. I got on it for fifteen minutes, and only realised as I peeled my sweaty self off the thing that (ow!) the straps had chafed the skin off both my little toes. Er, yes. I'll have that "loser" sign, thanks.

I rented The Butterfly Effect, and have just now finished watching it. My head is... somewhat furry. Distressing movie, that. Reminds me of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven -- never one of my favourites of hers, because it was so depressing. Only Butterfly Effect is more so. Much more so.

I must say, the kid playing Young Evan (John Patrick Amedori, I see from the website) has quite the presence, for a kid. Impressive.

Solitary tea
I'm drinking it. Bengal Spice. A.'s gone to visit his mother. I'm going to update this, put away the latest batch of pumpkin oatcakes, and go to bed.

Total calories: 1377. 134g protein, 117g carbohydrate (28g fibre), 30g fat, 1016mg sodium.

I ended up coming home and going to bed for a nap. Then I had a salad for supper (pretty much the same as yesterday: Romaine, 3 oz chicken, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, Asian teriyaki stuff, rice vinegar and fish oil), and did a sort of patched-together Arms and Legs workout. Then I had the originally-projected oatcake with pumpkin/Jello pudding topping glop.

Arms, Legs
First day of third Power cycle. Tempo 313, rest about 2 minutes.

CG EZ Bench
WU 35.5lbs x6
Work 60.5lbs x6, 6, 6
Notes: This was a five-pound boost from the last round, and apart from the difficulties in getting the bar in position without help, went up pretty easily. I should've tried adding another 5.

Bench Dip
WU b/w x6
Work 45lb DB in lap x6, 6, 6
Notes: Again, I should have boosted the weight, but didn't.

Zottman Curls
WU 10lb DB x6
Work 17.5lb DB x6, 20lb DB x6
Notes: The last rep with the 20s was rather a struggle to go up.

Drag Curl, EZ bar
WU 25.5lbs x6
Work 35.5lbs x6, 6, 40.5lbs x5

Ski Squats
Work b/w (minutes) 2:45, 3:00, 2:05
Notes: I alternated these with the deads below. Time was getting on.

SL Deadlift, short Oly (straps)
WU 79.5lbs x6
Work 134.5lbs x6, 6, 6
Notes: I should probably start increasing the weight on these at last.

Total workout time: an hour.

I feel very low today for some reason.

Bless you!
It's warmer today, and damper, and as a result, I'm allergic to everything. Achoo!

Today's weight: 129 pounds. Temperature: 97.2?F.

We went running this morning in the cemetery, three times round in about 25 minutes. The dog got bored halfway through the second time, and started trying to herd me... bashing me in the leg. He was running into my bad leg, annoying me mightily. I don't much like going round and round the cemetery; I get bored, and lose my oomph much faster than I do on my usual out-in circle runs.

"But the cemetery is a measured distance," A. protested.

"We have Mapper!" I keep telling him. This little piece of ware, for a mere few dollars, lets you pull in a map image (from any of the many map sites around the net, or one you scan) and draw out your route(s) -- then you simply enter in a scale for that map, and there you are. Distance automatically calculated. It's a magic little toy, and I like it -- but A. actually got in the car and drove around the cemetery to get his distance with the odometer...

He also pointed out that in the cemetery we can let the dog run free. However, since he wants to boost his run-time up to 40-45 minutes, and the dog is growing bored and tired at twenty (he -- the dog -- is a sprinter for sure, not an endurance athlete) that's not going to be such a big deal.

And, most important, it is just more interesting to get out there and do big runs with changing scenery, lovely though an old cemetery is. (I remember when I was still contemplating ultras, there was one held round here in a -- relatively -- small park. Fifty or a hundred kilometres, run on a five-kilometre loop of trail. I would go mad.)

Starving. I've been taking occasional doses of Lean System 7, a "fatburner", primarily for a bit of energy in the morning while I do (ugh!) fasted cardio. And, unlike ephedrine-containing products, this one appears to make me ravenously hungry, all the time. Who knows if it is doing any fatburning? I'm just in it for the guarana. I suppose I could simply pop a couple of caffeine tabs instead.

Eaten, or doomed to be eaten, thus far today:
Meal one, 1/4 cup 8-grain cereal, mixed with some almond sugar-free syrup and a couple tablespoons sugar-free apricot preserve; omelette of a half-cup egg sub, a 75g can smoked tuna, and some Pindjur. Green tea.

Meal two, spaghetti squash and flaxseed smokey frittata with tofu cream and sugar-free syrup. (While at Sobey's, I also went to the customary shelf of the Mori-Nu tofu. And there it was, as usual. Clearly, A. was in his occasional "I see nothing" mode, and whoever the staff person was who told him they didn't stock it anymore was stupid, on crack, or both.)

Meal three, red cabbage braise, 3 oz chicken, and a new kind of hot sauce (roasted hot peppers!); aduki bean/vanilla mush with some tofu cream.

Meal four, which should be post-workout, should be a pumpkin oatcake with probably pumpkin-y frosting.

Fishy, fishy, fishy -- OOO!
I had the best bit o' salmon for supper tonight. We went to Sobey's this morning so I could pick up some contact lens protein remover tablets (my left lens being very gunky as a result of whatever's going on with my eye, and I was out). I cruised past the fresssh fisssh cooler, and spotted one single, tempting-looking fillet of wild Atlantic salmon, which I couldn't resist.

I cooked it using an adaptation of a Cooking Light recipe: baked it at 425F for ten minutes, then brushed it with a glaze composed of a teaspoon of hot mustard powder, a dash of Braggs, a dash of rice vinegar, and some English Caramel sugar-free syrup, and broiled it for another three minutes. Oh! So good! With it, I had seven ounces steamed broccoli with more Braggs and a little gomasio, and a dessert of the rest of the Jello and more tofu cream. I'm still starving (always happens after high-carb day) but boy, that was some yummy salmon.

Meal four was an oatcake with tofu cream/Jello pudding powder glop on top.

No further exercise was had. I'm just... tired. Blargh.

Total calories: 1154. 117g protein, 94g carbs (24g fibre), 29g fat, 1244mg sodium.

On a related food-ish note, I am vaguely irritated by this article in the Globe and Mail. So if you are very very good, and also not obese, the Powers will allow you a little dessert, will they?

This seems wrong to me in many, many ways, just fostering the increasingly disordered thinking about food currently being drilled into our collective brains.

A splendid day
Yes, it is cold enough for early October; yes, one of Edvard Munch's four versions of The Scream was stolen from an Oslo museum (for the second time!) by armed bandits; yes, Canada's prairie canola crop looks likely to fail due to unseasonable frost; and yes, I appear to have some sort of infection in my left eye, and it is itchy and crusty... but still, it is a lovely day.

A.and I went out this morning to the ski hill, where I ran up the slope three times and the dog rolled luxuriantly in the dew-wet grass. Then, after breakfast, I met a friend for coffee, and we sat outside at the sidewalk tables and talked at random for an hour or so. Now, I'm lounging about. I should do some leg stuff, but what with the slope running, I wouldn't feel too terrible if I blew it all off.

Today's weight: 128.5 pounds (which stuns me). Forgot to take temperature.

Eaten thus far: 1/3 cup dry measure barley with almond extract and a dash of soymilk; 1 cup egg substitute, scrambled, with a couple tablespoons Pindjur on top of it. Green tea.

Large cup of dark-roast coffee with sugar-free hazelnut syrup. Free sample of teeny espresso cup full of chai.

Heap of Romaine lettuce with some raw bean sprouts and canned waterchestnuts, 3 oz chicken, teriyaki marinade, teaspoon fish oil, splash of rice vinegar. Sugar-free raspberry Jello with some tofu cream.

Cold fizzy drink made of a spoonful of instant coffee, some sugar-free chocolate syrup, dash of cinnamon extract and sparkling mineral water.

Pumpkin oatcake with tofu cream/Jello pudding powder icing; small plate of red cabbage braise.

I've been labouring my way through Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, which has a wonderfully seductive cover, skilfully rendered eighteenth-century prose style, and a lot of rather dense pages. I like it, rather in the way that I sometimes like pushing my way through dense wilderness undergrowth, but it is not a breezy read. Although sometimes it hooks me, and pulls me along.

In between, I'm picking up and putting down Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, which by contrast is very breezy, particularly since I've read it several times before. The sum of this book is very much greater than either author's parts; Pratchett is like a budget Douglas Adams on his own, and Gaiman (at least back then) seemed to be not entirely confident about carrying an entire work of fiction without attendant pretty pictures.