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Thursday, November 06, 2003
The hubris. I worked out at the gym on campus this morning. My first morning workout in a while. I'd been sort of lazy and working out inconsistently in the afternoons this quarter. And, with the fires, I hadn't worked out at all for a couple weeks.

Everything was going pretty well -- isometric benchpress, sit-up, chin-up, 10 minutes on the cross-trainer, feeling good -- so I thought I'd finish with a few show-off reps on the benchpress at 180lbs. (Believe me, no one was going to be impressed, but I like to do a couple reps at the higher weight just to get me used to handling it -- I didn't realize it was quite that much weight when I was doing it.)

I got the weight up. It was a little shaky, but I figured that was just because I hadn't used the free weights in a couple weeks. I let it down, got it halfway up, then hit the wall. Inexorably, back down it came. And there I was pinned under the bar like a bug on its back. I looked helplessly around, called out for help a couple times. Finally, someone nearby noticed me and helped me get it up.

I've helped other people in a similar situation before, but this was the first time for me. Felt pretty stupid. And now that kink in my neck is back. Lowered the weight to 150lbs and did a couple reps.

Of course, I blame it all on the fires.