I’m less and less a fan of hot weather living. I went back in May of last year and thought I was going to die of exposure or dehydration by the time I made it out of the airport. The two location setup is the dream but that sounds expensive and logistically difficult. Maybe global warming will make Upstate tolerable by the time I’m ready to leave and I can just stay here
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Very true, the novelty wears off too quickly lol
You’ll make it out one day! 
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A little piece of me dies knowing that every summer where I live, which is already brutal, is not as bad as the next summer will be. 
I start whining when it hits 80 degrees lol
I was desperate to leave at the time, but now I think I would not mind staying in the Midwest for a while. I’d still like to live in a different region, but there are still some amazing cities here, even if they are much more scattered. The west and east coasts feel to me like they’re not real places, even though I’ve been to the former a couple of times. Plus the costs of living there scare me.
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Maybe next summer will be better! Maybe you’ll get a little drought or some wind lol
I get that. Every few years I start freaking out about being stuck in a location and have to spend a lot of effort to not get sucked in, I usually just move. I’m glad you found some peace though.
They are real places, Seattle was pretty weird though. And the costs are insane. I was paying nearly 3k in rent there and it went up like $500 when we left. Zillow says it’s rent is valued at ~3650, for an older 2 bedroom townhouse on a fairly busy road.
Haha… ha…
There are places I adore in this region for sure, places to which I would move back in a heartbeat. Humans like novelty though, and I also want to hike for real regularly.
Oh yeah, at this point I don’t see myself ever living in a house either 
you guys must do well enough for yourselves at least!
While I am here, I must say that the amount of new music in the past two weeks is overwhelming me… maybe you can relate?
Ive been seeing a bunch of stuff come out but really haven’t listened to much, I’ve looped back to The Baby (Samia) and Home Video plus a few others over the last few weeks and been stuck on those. I’m listening to the new Mitski album currently. You found stuff you’ve liked?
I really don’t know how the Midwest is even defined I occasionally try to tell my partner she’s from it, to rile her up. She’s from Denver, so obviously not actually but I feel like it’s not that outlandish. I’ve been to Ohio and Minnesota but never been anywhere else in the region (is Minnesota Midwest?!?) except when driving through. Minnesota was beautiful, Ohio can keep whatever secrets it might have, I don’t need to live there.
I feel like the world nudges me more and more to Mitski’s music, but for some unknown reason – despite adoring music from her peers – I can’t get into it very much. I’ve listened to the new album a little bit.
Right now I think Bad Suns have earned AOTY from me, unless another favorite artist of mine releases an album on a whim. Lucy Dacus’s new single is super fun. Hippo Campus’s new album is growing on me.
Edit: Also, the new album from FKA Twigs is great. Not really my type, but I am bopping to it more than expected.
You are not alone. There are several “core” states that fit the definition according to most of the population, but I think others elicit confusion in people who have never lived here (and understandably so). At this point I feel like it’s more about a mindset than precise geographic boundaries.
I’ve been to Minnesota and Ohio. Ohio sucks. Denver absolutely does not fit the definition. It is too physically and even more culturally distant. What, your partner would not be proud to have grown up in The Land of Corn and Ranch Dressing?
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Conditioning day
Treadmill:
3 min walking
3 min jogging @5.6
2 min walking
4 min jogging @5.7
1 min walking
5 min jogging @5.8
2 min walking
4 min jogging @6.0
3 min walking
3 min jogging @6.5
Wiped the treadmill off and walked to see if the prowler was open, it unfortunately was
3 rounds
Prowler 180lbs pull 50 feet, push 150
5 pull-ups
Calf raises 90 x 20
Fucking wrecked. In other news, Winifred did a great job at her first puppy class, much calmer than expected.
Some form of stretching tonight and squats tomorrow, should be an easy week incoming so I’ll try and push conditioning.
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I enjoy mitski, don’t love her but what you described is roughly how I feel about Japanese Breakfast. I liked the singles off of Laurel Hell and enjoyed the album the first time through, worth giving it a shot imo.
Agreed on the single and the corresponding video! I’ll check those other albums out, I listened to Apocalypse Whenever when working out today, nothing stuck, was breathing too hard lol. Will give it another listen though.
This is the opinion that I hear from her too lol. Her mother is from an old manufacturing town in Indiana, so she has much more insight into the region than I do and wants to keep as much distance as possible! I went to Pittsburgh last year and thought of it as sort of Midwest, thoughts? Closer culturally than Denver, at least.
20 min restorative yoga
50 band pull aparts
25 dislocations
25 face pulls
Yoga is hard, I’m not flexible enough, or strong enough in the flexible positions, I’m terrible at focusing on my breath, and significantly worse at calming my mind. It takes a completely different type of fortitude to get through these. I almost always find it’s worth it in the end. This one was literally 3 laying poses, essentially meditation.
Did the upper band work to get blood flowing, my shoulders have been creaky since that set of 400, I don’t want to drop pushups so I figured I’d get some blood in them to see if that helps resolve the issue.
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I’ll definitely give her a few more chances. I’ve been a big fan of Bad Suns since they started, so I am at least a little biased lol
Some people consider Pittsburgh as part of the midwest. I personally don’t think it counts. Just not the right vibe. I joke that Pittsburgh is the furthest “northeast” I’ve ever been, which is still true.
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Squats
Treadmills were full enough I didn’t bother with a warmup walk, going to take a long tromp through the snow in a bit.
Shoulder warmup, goblet squats, hip stretching, good mornings
Pull-ups: 1x7, 1x3
Box jumps: 4x5 (24” except one at ~38”, which was fine just too much effort, will work up to it)
Duffalo: 145 x 5, 195 x 5, 235 x 3, 255 x 5, 295 x 5, 330 x 5, 255 5x5
Lunges: 3x10
Kettlebell row: 45 2x15
Leg press: 200 1x50
Lat straight pulldown: 40 1x20
Pec deck fly: 90 1x20
Back extension: 3x10
Used the rows and lunges as work between squat sets, added some intensity to a relatively easy day. Assistance is all over the place but I figure as long as I’m doing something it’s fine and some of the movements are bound to be beneficial. My legs and low back were feeling rough going into this but were fine, wouldn’t set anything close to a PR in this condition but good for a 5s week with no PR sets.
Some college (I assume) student who was doing paused deadlifts came and chatted to me for a few min about the benefits of the duffalo bar. She had better form than me on deads so I’m not sure I was super helpful but nice to see people doing hard work amidst the grunty chest fly and half-rep bench bros.
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Press
Was planning on just doing the main + supp work and leaving but the racks were all taken, so I started a bit different.
Lat pulldown: 110 x 10, 130 x 10, 150 x10
CG Cable row: 100 x 10, 120 x 10
Shoulder warmup
Pullups: 1x5
Jumps: 1x5, 24" box, 2x5, 30" box 1x5
OHP: bar x 10, 135 x 5, 160 x 5, 180 x 5, 135 5 x 5
Face pulls: 70 3 x 20
Cable front raises: 20 3 x 10
Some random gym bro I’ve chatted with a few times let me in his rack that he just finished with and was doing deadlifts in front of, let me get to work a little quicker, which was nice. I then overheard he and his partner (I assume) discussing whether baked ziti was pasta… great stuff.
Will get some more work in tonight via the bike, yoga, pushups, or some combination thereof.
30 pushups and 5 min core
Right shoulder is still a bit off, will avoid all activity except band work on it until bench day. My right quad (vastus lateralis) had weird, deep muscle cramps or something last night into this morning, fine now but was a new one for me.
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Hard conditioning
Peloton HIIT Ride 20 min @152 watts
40 pull aparts
20 dislocations
40 face pulls
20 upright rows
Legs are the limiting factor here, on a fresh day this could be pushed much further
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Peloton 30 min @179 watts (old PR was 177 for 20 min, 150 for 30)
Legs still sore but less so, cardio actually limited me a bit here, was huffing and puffing, could probably add a bit more with sore legs but 200 watts isn’t there yet. Did this class with a friend, she’s had a peloton for about 1.5 years and she beat my output, I could see it the whole time and she was going to beat me the whole time but I kept it close. Good ole competition.
Will stretch or yoga tonight
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I know a few more are using weight vests but I can’t think of any of you, sorry. Do y’all think this would be fine?
Photo in case you don’t have FB
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What activities are you wanting to do with it?
Mostly just walking, maybe some bodyweight squats. Nothing violent or explosive is in the plans
Should be good dude!
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Nice, thanks for the input. Going to see if she’ll do it for $50 since it’s been on there forever and it’s a bit of a drive.