This is a mirror of my diary that I keep at mono.org, under the same nickname. If you have a mono.org account, you can view it there. Otherwise, here you go! Newest updates are at the bottom. vertov's Diary -------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Aug 7 18:55:30 2014]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Cycle-challenging climb completely conquered! I'm proud to say that I've conquered one of the local hills that has been giving me grief on my bike. No more walking up the hill for me! Oh, I know that it's not much of a hill-- just a 10% grade over 300 feet-- but the approach to the hill is a long, shallow climb that is barely perceptible until you enjoy a slight dip near the base of the hill and are then confronted by the fact that your legs are not pleased. Then it's up the hill. Cresting that hill and having some nice momentum for a cruise through some twists and turns is nice, but what's most fun is the return trip. The hill's not so vexing on the return, but once you crest it, it's all down that barely-perceptible grade for the next four miles! If my GPS on my phone is to be believed (and I don't, that little liar) I've reached 20mph on that stretch, which isn't bad for a hybrid bike with mismatched tires (street slick on the back, somewhat knobbly hybrid tire on the front) and my out of shape, blobby self. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Aug 15 15:05:01 2014]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: More bike progress! I am pleased to report that not only have I been regularly summiting that blastaed hill sitting down (taking a page from Sheldon Brown's book-- spin, don't push!) but my average speed has... gone down. Going up the hill, that is. I think that an average of 16mph going up a long grade isn't that bad. It's not where I want to be, but then again I'm doing so much better than when I started out. And my total average speed gets bumped up because I do push down that hill. I got up to 40mph, if my GPS is to be believed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Sep 5 03:13:34 2014]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Uuurgh. My first day at the gym was yesterday. The results aren't good. 40 pounds overweight, systolic is prehypertension. But the human body is a system of interconnected processes, and like any system it can be learned and made to work better. Of course, there is a painful learning curve, but if I can teach myself Unix, I can fix myself in 12 weeks. But feeling like I've got the flu after a day at the gym is a total downer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue Oct 21 05:31:56 2014]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Gym, etc. It may not be much of a progress marker, but I've been tracking my performance on the rowing machine over the weeks I've been going to the gym. The first day, well, was bad. 18 strokes per minute, ~6500 meters per / 30 minutes or so. The trainer told me that he generally rows around 8000. Of course, I'm assuming that he's rowing for the full half hour, instead of up to 500m like I'm doing, but with that in mind, I've thus far not only cracked 8000m per 30 minutes, I reached 29 strokes per minute, hit 500m under two minutes *and* cracked 9000m. Now, like I said, that's only up to 500m and only for 1:50 minutes, but it's clear progress, and I'm damned proud of it. Suffice to say, my biking has indeed improved-- I won't say I'm cruising up that horrible hill, but I'm not dying once I crest it and my recovery time --how long I rest at the turn-around-time-- has diminished greatly. In fact, I didn't even need to rest the last time, which is a bit of a shame as my rest area is a tranquil park with a lovely babbling brook meandering through it. But this isn't about me goofing off in a park, it's about me becoming stronger so I can goof off on a bicycle! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue Jan 13 03:36:41 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Gym etc I haven't updated in a while. My gym progress is... proceeding. Not with grace or poetry, but with steady work. I haven't been on the rowing machine in a few weeks, but I can say that my average resting heart rate has gone down and I've dropped ten pounds. It's progress. It's progess of the sort that doesn't seem like progress, but is inching along just enough to show that it's still worth doing. I think I will be adding some time on the spin machines to my workouts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed Jan 14 06:50:53 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Goals Look, everyone needs a tangible goal, right? Something less vague than a general sense of where we want to be. It's not enough to go to the gym to "lose weight" or "get fit" because those could mean anything. You weigh yourself in the morning and have a particularly impressive bowel movement before weighing yourself near noon and you'll have completely accomplished the former goal without (much) physical exertion. No, the tangible goal exists both to be a carrot on a stick and to keep us from cheating. Instead of setting vague goals that could be fulfilled at any point ("Eh, I put boxes in the attic, that's a workout, I guess!") they are clearly delineated pass/fail points. Either you do them or you don't. So my vague goal is to keep up with my local Critical Mass. My tangible goal is a pretty, not terribly grueling 35 mile bike ride that's generally downhill. It goes from 600 ft msl to 100ft msl, with some climbs and drops here and there. The toughest part seems to actually be the nasty hill I've been mentioning before. The rest of the trail follows an old railroad grade, so the going shouldn't be too strenuous. I can see definate progress with my endurance now, and I'm thinking that by the middle of May (five months) I should be in some shape to accomplish this. My only reservation is SWMBO. She has panic attacks when we bike too far from the house, and I don't know if she can handle this. But we'll see. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed Jan 28 01:45:54 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Nausea as a performance marker Our old trainer, D, has moved on to greener employment pastures, so the gym matched us up to a deceptively laid back woman, A. Where D favored no more than ten minutes of cardio, interspersed with active recovery sessions, A is balls-out cardio. So yes, I am pleased to report that not only can I do five minutes on the rowing machine at 25 strokes per-minute AND crack 1,000 meters, I can do it while being able to hold a conversation. But that's the first five minutes of a thirty-minute cardio workout. So after that it's squats, ropes, rows, squats, ropes, rows, squats, ropes, rows. Or, in my case, leave off the last set of rows because my still gelatinous stomach fitfully protests being transformed into anything resembling a shape. But this is still good. This is always a learning experience, and I'm still learning where my walls are. It's just that now instead of spotting the wall loming ahead, I charge headlong into them and flatten myself. But I will get there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Feb 20 07:32:11 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: It's a good thing! Enjoy it! Ropes, rowing, ropes, rowing, TRX straps, rowing... it's a grind, but it's a grind with (barely) perceptible results. You don't look in a mirror and see your heart rate going down, but there it is. Had a session on the spin machine today, my heart rate during five minutes of reasonable cycling (10-13 mph) my heart rate stayed between 97 and 108, which is happily down from my resting heart rate when I started this endeavor (120) The weight may not be tumbling off, but it's going. My lung capacity is rising, my heart rate is falling and my blood pressure is dropping. Not by leaps and bounds, but steadily. I know exactly how I got to this point and I know exactly how I came to be in the place where I was when I started. And I have no plan to return to the beginning. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Mar 13 13:30:29 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: The proof of a successful arm day It's having everything from your fingertips all the way through your shoulderblades turn into jelly. Aching jelly. The plus side for you, dear reader? Typing aches. Using the mouse aches. So this update will be mercifully short. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sat Mar 28 13:57:59 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Mid-way through the six-month mark And I'm pleased to report that I've not only lost but managed to keep off five pounds (or 0.357143 stone) and my BMI has dropped from 30 to 29.5. Ok, it's not a fantastic result, but I'm technically now under the line of what constitutes obesity. No, scratch that, it is a fantastic result. Now that I've got a more sadistic trainer and have started to scrutinize my nutritional needs far more rigorously, I think this trend will continue to go down. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue Mar 31 23:29:19 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Boring This may get tedious. One week and I'm down 2.5 pounds to 222.5. All thanks to cardio three times a week and fastidious logging of my food intake! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Apr 2 05:43:11 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Bikes! Finally got the bike onto the trail today. The winter was kind to the bike, minus a few psi. As for me? Well, I wasn't getting passed by joggers whilst trying to go up that bloody hill, if that's any indication. And I didn't need any rest or recovery time at the midpoint of the ride like I used to do before I started going to the gym. Sadly, I can't report on if my speed increased because in my months of not using them, I started the wrong bike app and didn't manage to track a single thing. So, going off the very last track I entered, I can assume an average speed of 12-14 mph, wth the fast parts being, well, damned fast. Frighteningly fast, actually-- I wasn't prepared for how fast I was able to push. So let's cap that around 23 mph. Fast and 500 some calories burned. Not bad! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Apr 3 03:00:03 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: HIP DRIVE Oh yes, we've started on squats and deadlifts. Not much, only 45 pounds, but YOW! Everything from my waist to my knees felt like numb gelatin afterwards. They feel great now, but the last four hours were an interesting time of new sensations. And yes, the old advice still rings completely true: drive through your damn hips. Not your thighs, not anything else, but the main axis of rotation is your hips. Stick your butt out when you go down and imagine someone's glue a rope to it and is pulling you up by that butt. Keep your weight on your heels and drive straight down. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed Apr 22 05:08:50 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Down 2.6 to 219.4. That 2.6 is a fantastic motivator. You do all this work and you don't feel like you're getting anywhere... and then the numbers don't lie. Yes, killing yourself like this is worth it. Yes, it works, no, don't ever stop. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Apr 24 22:03:44 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Woosh! Thanks to a number of factors, including but not limited to: -Judicious experimentation with seat height -A strong tailwind that was a strong headwind for the first half of the ride -A downhill slope -Going to the gym twice a week and doing HIIT on the rowing machine -Not to mention squats and deadlifts -And being lighter I was able to push the bike up to 30 miles per hour today. But man, I could have kicked myself. The difference two inches of seat height makes is phenomenal! Usually when I pull myself to the top of the hill, I feel like I've been trying to kick through sandy, silt-ridden water; the ride down isn't much better, I've never truly been able to "spin" the highest gears.[1] Today? I wasn't kicking through sludge so much as plowing through it. A little resistance, yes, but at the bottom of the hill... spinning! Spinning through the 21st gear! Aaaaaand it's gone at the crest of the next rise. But I had it! And I have the GPS track to prove it! [1]As in, your pedaling effort exceeds the efficiency of the gears so instead of "pushing" the pedals, you "spin" them. Spinning at a too-high RPM will tire you out, pushing will exhaust your muscles. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue May 5 00:42:37 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: I'm (not) built for speed Last friday I was blessed with a solid four hours of nothing to do. Oh, but I can find something-- like taking the bike out. I now usually complete my circuit in under 30 minutes, but with the extra time I thought "why not see how far I can go?" So I did, or at least until my phone decided to intervene and bother me with work-- and then I had to head back. But I headed out for five miles and back in an hour. What's most important is that at no point was I winded or feeling like I was going to explode-- and I was going "up" the trail. The trail follows an old railroad grade, and begins in Purcellville, Virginia. From there, it drops 600 feet (over 30 miles and a lot of dips and hills) to the Potomac River. Going west on the trail is going "up." Apart from having to toughen up my butt to deal with +4 hours of saddle time, I think I'm relatively fit to tackle going "down" the trail. The true test of endurance is to bike the 30 miles out and then the 30 miles back. In one go. Which will probably be eight plus hours of biking. And there aren't any hotels, motels, hostels or B&B's in purcellville, so it's not like I can bike out there and sleep over night-- no, I've got to get to purcellville, immediately turn around (well, after a meal) and bike back to Leesburg for the closest lodging. But so is the road to fitness. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed May 6 05:23:48 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Not much. Weigh in today, down another 1.8 pounds to 217. I had thought about taking branched chain amino acids as a supplement to combat muscle fatigue after workouts, but a simple perusal of the back of my Spirutein can showed me that it had all of the BCAAs I want. Purchase averted! Hooray! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue May 12 22:22:30 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Hay! With walking 5 miles every other day and moderating my food and caloric intake, you'd think I'd have dropped some weight this week. Nope. Only half a pound? And even then, I'm being generous, I'm rounding up from .4843. Harrumpf. Oh well, I know that there will be days like this and I'm not going to let it discourage me. And really, 216.5 is a lot better than where I was. It has to be. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sun May 17 06:57:20 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Another 10! Another ten mile ride today, in heat that I was not expecting. I had planned for 80 degrees, but got 94 instead. I was 2/3 done with my water when I was done, but I completed my ten mile circuit in under an hour again and with minimal pain and discomfort. Oh, my legs were still burning and aching from A's murderous leg day on Thursday, but around the 4.5 mile mark, the pain suddenly snapped and died. Again, I wasn't able to truly kill it down my hill, but I still did get up to 26 MPH, and I was cooking right along on the flats on the first leg. I've still got to tackle a few other things, including but not limited to: -spinning faster in higher gears -spinning faster longer -greater leg strength for plowing up hills. -the pinky and ring fingers on both hands were numb and tingly after the ride, this is due to the bike having its old mountain bike handles with no vertical grips and my hands being positioned incorrectly so as to pinch nerves. If I don't fix this, it could lead to carpal tunnel. I can also report that I'm really starting to feel the difference between various types of breakfast foods. Last time, I had a green smoothie and a protein bar and I felt pretty great-- this time, I had a canned coffee and a roast beef sandwich. The difference is as notable and significant as putting 83 octane fuel in your 93 octane car. It'll run, but not as smoothly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed May 20 03:25:25 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Proceed A few new updates. I've upgraded to the Samsung S6. I wanted very dearly the S6 edge in turquoise, but such as things tend to go, they were all out of everything but the S6 in plain black. It's going into a protective case anyway, so I don't mind the color. The lower battery life of the S6? That's not that great. But I also did take the time to order a car mount and a bike mount, so tracking my rides will be a lot easier. Now to buy a solar panel backpack so I can charge the thing while I'm out! The S6 also has a heartrate monitor, blood oxygen monitor and stress monitor. I don't know how accurate it is, but if it's anything to go off of, all of the time at the gym has really paid off-- my resting heartrate is now down to 68 bpm and my post workout heartrate is 92. Not bad! Today was weigh-in day again, and yes, down again 1.5 pounds to 212.5. Fantastic! L has decided to move on from A to get back into Pilates. I support this entirely-- her frozen shoulder has begun to loosen and become more free after her sessions. But this has the side effect of A being free to REALLY kick my ass. I saw A's eyes light up with a sinister fire when she realized I would be the focus of her efforts. So that's what we did today: weighted squats, plank rows, pushing the weight sled around, alternate knee hugs, and an exercise that I can't remember the name of but it involved me doing the following: -back flat on the floor -legs rotated so the knees are straight up -lower legs bent at 90 degrees -dipping my heels to the floor by engaging my lower abs and rotating downwards for ten reps. Everything else was strenuous, but this last exercise really started the burning. And it burrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnneddddddd. But in a good way! So now what we're doing is this: L does pilates on monday and wedesday and I do cardio while she's doing that; I have the trainer on tuesdays and thursdays and L does cardio while I'm doing that. In addition to our usual cardio of two-to-five mile walks everyday we can manage it. -----------------------------------------------------------[Sun May 24 22:33:23 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Further down the path I think I may be hitting a wall with my cardio. From my house to my parents house is 2.5 miles, and I used to do it at roughly an average 10 mph. This time around it was 8.92. It's either that I was somewhat tired because this ride happened on a Saturday and Friday saw me knock out another 5 mile walk, and a 5 mile walk *and* training on Thursday. Today (Sunday) I wanted to have a rest day, but L dragged me out for yet another 5 mile walk. I really do desperately need a rest day. I haven't had a chance to rest any of my muscles below my waist. I'm talking with J to see when we can get out and do some hiking, because L hates the outdoors (honestly, the only reason I can get her outside is because the bike trail we walk on is both paved and pretty.) On 6 and 7 June, Norfolk Southern is going to be running their freshly restored J Class Locomotive from Manassas to Front Royal and back, so I'll be chasing the train back and forth in the morning to try and snag some stunning shots. (alliteration!) And check it out-- they're not just throwing a bunch of old tires into the burner and setting them on fire while the locomotive is unceremoniously shoved by a Dash-8-- the locomotive is back to 100% running steam power! And today's weight is down to 210.5. YAY! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue May 26 15:10:41 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: If.. If everything goes well, if my bathroom scale isn't too far off from the health club's scale, if I've properly calculated the tare weight of my clothes (apparently my utilikilt is 5 pounds?), I will be able to officially report that my weight has dropped to 210 pounds. This is tremendous. Considering that I was around 220 pounds at the end of April(to say nothing of being 230 when I started going to the gym last August), this much progress in a month is really truly amazing. And I can really feel the difference. I'm not getting winded as much, I'm not dying and drenched in sweat after mowing the lawn, I can actually complete a ten mile bike ride without much difficulty (albeit pretty slowly) and my clothes are all starting to fit much looser. But now that I'm well and truly on my way to completing my first fitness goal (weight loss), what's next? Well, performance, naturally. This is something that's shaping up to be a little more cerebral than I had thought. I want to be able to bike and hike more efficiently. I don't want to go down the route of bodybuilding or pure strength training-- because those avenues tend to sacrifice cardiovascular fitness for the silly practice of "getting big" or "I can lift a lot." My dad is overweight-- not as much as he used to be, but he's still too heavy for his height and for his health. He's got a pacemaker, stents, a quadruple bypass and diabetes, to say nothing of the fact that he takes so many pills he rattles when he walks. I know one of the sad facts of life is that you do end up having to go on medications when you're older, but shouldn't the aim of fitness be to avoid having to go on them in the first place? When I look at the diets of bodybuilders or other meatheads who are posessed with the concept of "gettin swole," the ony thing I can think of is "coronary artery blockage." Do I want more well defined muscles? Sure, who doesn't? Do I want to lift more, run faster, bike longer and carry heavier packs? You bet your ass I do. Do I want to sacrifice my long term health for short term gains that'll probably see me ending up as one of the disgusting old men at the health club who resemble lumpy meatballs on sticks? Fuck no. I have a short term goal (if you want to call it that) and that's to participate in and keep up with the August Critical Mass bike rally in DC. Hundreds of bicyclists crossing town in the evening as a protest against car culture-- hell yeah, sign me up. But they go fast, and they don't stop. And if I'm going to be a part of that, I need to be in better shape. I'm in far better shape now than I was when I started, but I'm not there yet. Which brings me to another point. Actually, this next point has nothing to do with anything I've been writing about in this post (well, maybe) but I can't be arsed to come up with a witty joining phrase. There's a group of racist "heathens" an hour south of me who are a hodgepodge of every ridiculous stereotype of "metal asatru" "weightlifter" and "bored suburban teen angst satanist" that you can come up with-- they all have their cutesy "viking" names, names, they all built a "viking longhall," they drink animal blood, they're all in black metal bands, they all practice their own form of "viking crossfit" and they're great friends with what I like to call "jacket and tie white supremacists" (white supremacists who, instead of dressing up like Hogans Heroes rejects or EDL thugs, try to appear as rational and respectable as possible). Why I'm bothered by these jokers is that they've got a fair amount of media discipline-- whenever reporters or journalists go to interview them, they're very good about putting the nazi shit away and they wax poetic about their "folk" and "building a better world out of the ashes of the old," and a bunch of buff pseudo-viking-looking shirtless dudes generally plays well in the eyes of the media. But in their self-produced work (which no one ever bothers to look at, apparently) their members are walking around with SS patches on, their "Schwarzersonne" tattoos are all out, the Germanophilia is on full display and the Thorak-esque solipsistic adoration of the "proud individual folkisch heathen" is in abundance. And part of me wants to take my antifa, chaote, subgenius, discordian self and build a body that can challenge them on both the physical and astral planes. But then I remember that, for all of their emphasis on mixed martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, none of their members has ever won a single MMA bout and Antifa still have the imposing, hulking figure of Jeff "The Snowman" Monson who could crush them into a fine powder. Course, if there were more Jeff Monsons out there... well.. I've gone on long enough. Off to the gym! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue May 26 20:00:41 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: YES! More assumptions, but on the whole, positivity. Assuming my 15 pound barbel is 15 pounds and assuming my wholly unscientific method of placing said barbel on my bathroom scale and verifying that it is in fact 15 pounds, I am now officially (I guess) UNDER 210 pounds! Ok, it's 209.699999999999999999999999 (probably, the needle on the scale isn't extremely accurate down to the decimal point) but it's still under 210 pounds! That needle went to and stayed just shy of the 210 mark, so I'm counting that as a success! Of course, the gym scale said 213, but that was with shoes and before I had a pee (look, discussions about fitness deal with bodily functions. deal with it) but this is still a great day. Especially considering that yesterday was memorial day and I had more than my fair share of veggie burgers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sun May 31 22:09:03 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: This stuff is great! On one of my admittedly infrequent trips to the health food store (I go once every two weeks; I should be going every week) I picked up a bunch of Vega sport nutrition samples. Today I tested them out on my five mile circuit (I didn't test them on the ten mile circuit because it's 90 degrees and with 100% humidity) and despite the fact that everything (save the coconut protein bar) tasted like wallpaper paste, my performance was pretty good. The last time I went out, my average speed was (if I round up) 9 mph, with a top speed of 20mph. Lots of factors contributed to this, like the fact that I didn't have much in the way of carbs beforehand, I was working in lower gears, tires weren't properly inflated, I had gone out the day after a killer leg and cardio day so I was worn out; all true, more or less. But this time out everything felt somewhat easier-- My legs weren't burning at any point, I wasn't feeling dehydrated around mile 4 and I wasn't taking any "breaks" in coasting along. And I spun up the hill again! Both ways! Thanks to my new bike mount, I could see what my rough speed was, and again I was shocked-- ten miles an hour UP the hill! Twenty six down! Let's be honest, most of that was *me* and the results of the training I've been doing, but the slightly better nutrition helped somewhat. I hope it would at least provide some benefit for the cost of imbibing some pretty tasteless powder. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue Jun 2 13:44:58 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Something's not right. Weighed in this morning, after my coffee, smoothie and loathesome bathroom rituals and... I gained 5 pounds? The hell? That can't possibly be correct. My clothes don't weigh that much, my smoothie wasn't that heavy and I've been waaaaaaaaaaay under my calorie count for the week. So either the scale is wrong or I'm retaining water or.. .something. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Jun 4 23:25:09 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Water, water everywhere Yep, retaining water. I'm now back down to 208.5 / 209 lbs, but let that be a lesson: NO MORE FUCKING COMBOS. Ok, digression time. Last week, L and I decided to go check out the Virginia Rennaisance Faire. It's in the middle of nowhere, 90 miles from our house, 45 minutes from the nearest major city, located at a winery that happens to be located to the north of the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant. Right. Middle of nowhere. We finally get there, take one look around and head back home. In the realm of Ren Fests, there are Ren Fests that are permanent and resemble theme parks with a medieval bent; there are other Ren Fests that are more like a collection of tents and merchants with a far more laid back, lax attitude. VA Ren Faire is of the latter. It's no matter to me, really, any adventure with L is a happy one, but we have to drive another two and a half hours BACK HOME. And you get tired, and you get hungry, and the only things at truck stops in the middle of extremely rural Virginia that a vegan and a goat can eat and share are these American snacks called Combos. They're a hard pretzel shell surrounding some sort of filling; barbecue ranch cheese, "salsa," "pizza" and other dubiously named "foodstufs." They're also packed to te gills with salt. the pretzel has it, the filling has it, and the outside of the pretzel is studded with large grains of the stuff. So yes, it's a recipe for disaster. No more of that crap! It's almost a week later and I'm now finally hovering around where I was two weeks ago, weight-wise! FUCK THAT! Ok, digression over. Today was arm day. Low Row, Mid Row and High Rows, pushups into side planks, and pullups + tricep dips on the assisted pullup machine. I did pretty well until it came to the pullups, and I only just barely completed them with full assistance. A calls me a work in progress; I think that's pretty fair, even if I see myself more in the demolition phase than the rebuilding phase. Whatever! L and I are going to go out into the rain and try to get two miles of walking in tonight, too. I slacked off on cardio this week, and that's probably also contributing to my inability to lose the water weight. UGH. NO MORE FUCKING COMBOS EVER. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sun Jun 7 20:29:46 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: The Blessed Hellride The thing about progress is that it rarely happens in great leaps, and then not without a great deal of pain. This is not to say that any and all progress is painless, it's just the exact same amount of pain, spread out over a longer timeframe. The pain seems lessened when progress occurs in evolutionary rather than revolutionary steps. Perspective is a necessary element of progress. You don't know how far you've come until you see where you were. So today I pushed myself .32 miles further than I normally do and.. well damn, I just made an 11 mile bike ride. Neat, huh? The fact that I can nonchalantly claim that now is proof of just how far I have come. One year ago today, I could not complete a five mile bike ride without huffing and puffing through it. I could not go a mile and a half without stopping for fifteen minutes while I caught my breath. My maximum speed (a poor marker, admittedly, but a marker nonetheless) capped out at 18mph.[1] When I got home, I spent an hour on the floor spread out and looking at the ceiling. Now? My maximum speed going UP HILL was 10mph and my fastest downhill speed was 24.7, at which point I was encountering aerodynamic drag. I'm sitting on my couch, typing this out after that ride and I certainly don't feel like my heart is about to explode. Progress. Anyway, you all like numbers, don't you? I recorded both halves of my ride today, so here's some lovely statistics. Leg 1 Duration: 0:37:0 Distance: 5.32 mi Calories Burned:295 cal Avg. Speed: 8.4 mph Max Speed: 17.7 mph Avg. pace: 07'03" /mi Max. pace: 03'22" /mi Highest Elev.: 530.1 ft Elev. Gain: 390.9 ft Tot. Ascent: 0.42 mi Tot. Descent: 0.14 mi Weather: Cloudy Temp: 78.0F Wind Dir.: S.180.0 Wind Speed: 11.5 mph Humidity: 53% Leg 2 Duration: 0:31:0 Distance: 5.3 mi Calories Burned:273 cal Avg. Speed: 10.1 mph Max Speed: 24.7 mph Avg. pace: 05'53" /mi Max pace: 02'25" /mi Highest Elev.: 494.9 ft Elev. Gain: 114.2 ft Tot. Ascent: 0.14 mi Tot. Descent: 0.37 mi Weather: Cloudy Temp: 78.0F Wind Dir.: S.180.0 Wind Speed: 11.5 mph Humidity: 53% Next post: Does Spirutein Sport Protein Powder Taste Like Shit? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Jun 11 21:10:11 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Spirutein Sport Protein Powder Doesn't Taste Like Shit Title says it all. /post Seriously though, it tastes pretty good. I don't have to add any vanilla stevia to my shakes like I did with the Pea Protein[1]. Felt effects are nothing exciting. I had the reccomended amount the morning before my Tuesday workout with A and didn't feel like I was having a heart attack or like I was going to throw up, so that's positive. This is also my first experience with creatine, which this powder has in 2000mg amounts. My admittedly cursory research into creatine implies that the effective dose resides between 2000mg and 5000mg, so I'm at the lower end of the spectrum. I'm fine with this, since my current goal is to lose weight and creatine-- while a great many things-- is either not conducive to weight loss or may actually help you gain weight, since it is a muscle *building* supplement. If my understanding is correct, the dosage that I'm at is proper for assisting muscle repair and recovery. My typical warmup consists of stretching [2] and five minutes of vigorous cardio on the stationary bike.[3] Please understand that my data is anecdotal and is not presented with any scientific rigor outside of a qualitative comparison of workouts before and after trying this stuff. Typically, after I'm done with the cardio my legs feel like they're burning or are otherwise experiencing what I can only describe as sparks-- like the way a diesel-electric locomotive buzzes and pops when it's idling. The last two warmups I noticed that this "sparking" sensation was entirely absent and, instead of burning, my legs merely felt warm and well worked. How much of this is "me" and my progress versus how much of it is the creatine is up for debate. Then again, it IS all me, because I'm the one doing the pedaling. But whatever. Stuff tastes good, my warmups didn't leave me feeling fatigued and my average RPM went up from 78 (pre creatine) to 85-105 (same resistance; level 10). And now that I'm thinking about it, today was arm day and while I did feel like jelly immediatley afterwards, 30 minutes later I'm not feeling very achey. Hungry as hell, though. I just had a small turkey sandwich to get my energy level back up[4]. Decent stuff for now, but let's see how I do with another 10.321 mile bike ride. [1]Typical smoothie for me: two cups of baby spinach, two bananas, a handful (~1 cup) of strawberries and a handful of blackberries. Protein powder, 8oz of unflavored almond milk and some water to thin the mixture out. Using pea protein, I add two droppers full of vanilla stevia to the mix before blending. [2]A refers to it as "World's Greatest Stretch" and an internet search will give you reams of data on why this really is a killer stretch. I won't add to those but to say that yes, it is and yes, you should do it. [3]I haven't been on the rowing machine in 2 months (I think). It's effective and a good way to warm up, but it's such an unforgiving peice of equipment that I think my appetite for it has waned. It'll be back, I imagine. [4]500 calories. Before dinner, I'm currently at 1,363 calories today, which is ~1000 under my caloric limit. Still, I'm not going to go nuts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed Jun 17 00:24:09 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Whee! Down another pound or so to 205.67. Another leg day, more jelly-legs. But no aches, no soreness and no pain. And I can say that I really did work until failure, which is something new. I can't say I still feel anything different with the new protein powder, so I'm giving up on looking for any tangible benefit from that over the normal Spirutein. A made the point that creatine is good for fast-twitch / explosive muscle growth, like for one-rep sets or sprinters. So my self-experimentation should probably end and I should focus more on just getting the weight down. For the first time, MyFitnessPal finally forecast me down to below 190 pounds within five weeks. And I'm feeling pretty good! Here's todays work: 5 minutes stationary bike, 80rpm (avg 16mph) 50(2x25 plate) lb hex bar deadlift, 3 sets of 10 10(2x10 dumbbell) lb split squats, 3 sets of 8 pushups, 3 sets of 10 single leg squats on the TRX (ARGHHH) 3 sets of 10 on each leg aaaaand this week's bike stats: Leg 1 Duration: 33:48 Distance: 5.29mi Calories: 287 cal Avg Speed: 9.2 mph Max Speed: 20.5 mph Avg Pace: 6'28" mi Max Pace: 2'55" mi Highest Elev: 516.8 ft Elev. Gain: 368.1 ft Ascent: .34 mi Descent: .1 mi Weather: partly sunny Temp: 88 f Wind: N / 4.6 mph Humidity: 56% Leg 2 Duration: 29:40 Distance: 5.28 mi Calories: 271 cal Avg. Speed: 10.6 mph Max Speed: 21.7 Mph Avg Pace: 5'38" mi Max Pace: 2'45" mi Highest elev: 513 ft Elev gain: 105.8 Tot Ascent: .14 mi Tot descent: .31 mi Weather: Partly Sunny Temp: 89 f Wind: NA Humidity: 51% Allowing for certain discrepancies with the mapping software, obviously. Not bad! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Jun 18 19:54:33 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: And so on It's never easy to swap trainers. You develop a rapport with your trainer, you get into a rhythm and, even though they're being *paid* to hang out with you for 30 minutes, you develop a friendly relationship with them. And yes, it can be an intimate relationship, of sorts-- you're grunting, groaning and excreting various bodily fluids and odors in close proximity to someone and outside of a completely clinical environment, a certain level of interpersonal comfort has to be reached to do that. And when you swap trainers, you have to go through the entire introductory process all over again, there's ice to be broken and all sorts of formalities to be taken care of before you can actually get to work. A has the next week off, so she's set me up with J. My typical social anxiety and exasperation with dealing with a new trainer had me not looking forward to this, especially since I do get along well with A and I find her to be a good person to be around in general. Well, it HAD me not looking forward to this, until I met J. So I'm doing Wall Angels[1] and from across the gym floor, a trainer with a red beard and a buzz cut points at me and shouts "IS THAT A BLACK TUSK T-SHIRT?!" "Yeah!" "AWESOME! MY BAND TOURED WITH THEM!" "KICKASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS \m/" "\m/ PARTY ONNN" At which point A pipes in "Oh, that's J, he's taking over for me next week." Right. Ice broken. Next week will be fun. So today: 2x WGS Rogue stick stretches 5 minutes exercise bike 2x15 Wall Angels 3x10 45lb barbell curls 3x10 55lb tricep extension 3x10 TRX Flys 3x6 burpees w/ pushup (I was supposed to do 10x burpees + pushup, but 6 was failure for me.) My homework: shorter bike rides with greater intensity. two days, one five mile bike ride each, going harder each time. I can do this. [1]Wall Angel: Back and head pressed flat against a wall, arms out against the wall, hands up and palms out, you raise your arms while keeping contact with the wall the entire time. Don't let your back raise off the wall. Deceptively hard! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue Jun 23 18:31:53 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: I don't think A has much to worry about With all due respect to J, A has nothing to worry about. When A says "ok, it's leg day!" you know you're in for it. J on the other hand, well, we did some leg stuff on the squat rack and then... shoulders, arms, deltoids, abs... That's not say he's not good and optimitics and everything a good trainer should be, which he is, but A has this sort of focus that I can only liken to a type of blood-lust, much the same way a panther stalks its prey. My arms certainly were burning on the way home, but I don't have that jellied, toneless sensation after a workout with A. Which means at some point today I need to get some more leg work in. Maybe sumo squats. We'll see. Where J did do very well in was helping me get my form down on the lat pulldown machine. I routinely forget to pack my shoulders down, which leads to bad form, which leads to lower efficiency, which leads to muscle aches, et cetera. J's still a pretty chill dude, though, so he's a good guy to have around. No weight lost this week. Must be retaining water again, I guess. But that's not all bad, because that at least means I didn't GAIN anything. Still holding at 206. Homework though, that's been blown out of the water. Friday: 5.41 miles; Sunday: 11.95 (.05 away from 12? YGBSM) Duration: 31:23 71:26 Calories: 288 623 Avg. Speed: 10.2mph 10.1mph Max. Speed: 24.1mph 23.8mph Avg. Pace: 5'52/mi 6'1/mi Max. Pace: 2'29/mi 2'3/mi Max Elev: 360.1 ft 493 ft Elev. Gain: 254.5 ft 377 Tot. Ascent: .32 Mi .35 Tot. Descent: .21 mi (wtf) .33 Weather: Cloudy Clouds and Sun Temp: 84 F 89 F Wind: WNW 293/16.1mph W 270/12.7 Humidity: 54% 61% Sweet! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sat Jun 27 03:35:13 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Time to punch through a plateau. That's all I can offer as a possible explanation for what's going on. Well, how to do it when you're already cutting down on your food intake? More cardio. But I'm sad to say that my cardio for this week has been... well, it hasn't been, really. I'm supposed to do at least two miles of walking every day. This week, I did: 4.9 miles of walking and half a mile of jogging. All of the jogging was uphill, but really wan't all that much. Biking may have to take a powder this week. After last week's 17 miles, my wrists were killing me and I couldn't take it anymore-- so I ordered a set of drop-bar ends and grip tape. They'll be here next Thursday. J worked me out this last Thursday. Pushed the sled with 25 pounds, pulled it back, he added another 25 plate. Pushed it out and pulled it back, he added ten pounds, and the last time with an extra five pound plate. Sixty five pounds? Not bad, I guess. Tricep kickbacks, TRX rows and flys. Not bad, all in all. And I tested out the idea of using the spin machine with a more folded posture. I was able to bump up my maximum RPM to 85, my average RPM to 85 and my average speed to 16.5 mph on resistance 11. Which, again, isn't anything stunning or world changing, but it's something that'll probably convince me to invest in a set of aero-bars for the bike. The other thing probably knocking me off the bike this week is the weather. Its summer in DC, and DC is built on a swamp. It gets humid and sticky and... really, the heat doesn't bother me on a bike. If I'm moving, I've got wind and I can keep cool. When it's really humid, it actually gets somewhat cloudy here, so the sun isn't ever really that bad. No, the problem is the rain. It's never consistent! The forecast will predict torrential downpours for the whole metro area, then when the storms come charging across the Blue Ridge, they hit the Beltway and split in half. Rare enough to not be predictable, but happens often enough to be expected. And so, I can never really be sure about the state of the weather. Oh, I know it's an excuse, but no one likes to ride in the rain and it's really not good for the bike or my phone. Oh well. I'm also getting somewhat frustrated with L. I want to go out and walk or run, she's tired or busy. I want to go on a ride, she starts to talk about how she'd *LIKE* to come with me, but she can't because of or and then about how she doesnt want to hold me back, et cetera. It's slightly passive aggressive and it's annoying. And there's nothing I can do about it except for simply just going out and getting my cardio in. She's also starting on a new diet consisting of mostly (90%) carbohydrates. I think it shakes out to be 90% carbohydrates, 7% protein and 3% fat. There's also supposed to be no calorie limit on this diet. I don't think this is a healthy diet for me, so I don't want to participate. The problem, again, is that when L makes food, she makes enough for both of us, and it has, as I said, no protein and no fat. That does not work for me. I don't want to look like I do anymore! I have the time, I have the trainer, I have all the tools needed to finally get a body in the shape that I want it to be in. I can't let anything stop me! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Jul 2 19:54:35 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Oh god she's back A is back from her vacation, and back with a vengeance. Tuesday was upper body, and I wound up having my arms fully jellied. I learned a new exercise which completely killed me: plank rows! Simple: get into a plank, take your dumbell by one hand and do ten rows. Easy, right? Ha! Do three sets of those. That activates your core, your arms, your shoulders and triceps. And it KILLS THEM. So after that, it's battle ropes, tricep pushdowns and... something else that I forget right now. Why do I have difficulty recalling Tuesday's set? Because today was leg day and it was like being put through a meat tenderizer. I have not done foam rolling on my legs for a while, and HOLY JUMPING JESUS CHRIST my quads were tight. I spent a goodly amount of time working out those knots, but afterwards my legs felt a lot more loose. But there's no time to rest, because after that it was off to the... uh.. well, actually I have no idea what this thing is called, but I guess I'll call it a standing leg press machine. Three sets of eight reps, starting with two 25 pound plates, then moving to 30, then to 35 pounds (70 pounds I think?). 15 calf raises with 45 pounds, three sets. Then, a big step up for me today-- the squat rack! Split squats, 3x8, 70 pounds, then 3x8 single leg bench bridges. And then that's today's workout. We're walking over to the stairs leading out of the gym and I'm feeling pretty good and kinda buzzed, but then it comes time to actually climb the stairs and... NOPE.JPG Muscle tone? ALL GONE! Everything from my waist down was complete jelly. And A is just at the top of the stairs having a good chuckle. As I'm starting to find my legs again, we run into A's boyfriend, C, who I've only heard stories about, and A introduces me as "This is Vertov, I've just killed his legs, which is what I'm gonna do to you in five minutes." "oh god, really? I'm going to go cry in a corner then." No mercy! In bike news, I was able to install my drop bars AND tape them up properly. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, I'll be able to get L outside tomorrow and we'll go on a bike ride. Not a twelve mile killer, but a bike ride nonetheless. She won't get better unless she's proactive, and there's only so much I can do to pull. Here's last week's bike data: Leg 1: Leg 2: Duration: 37:28 29:28 Distance: 6.09 mi 6.1 mi Calories: 331 319 Avg. Speed: 9.6 mph 12.3 Max speed: 22.6 24 Avg. Pace: 6'12/mi 4'51 Max pace: 2'39/mi 2'29 Elev: 514.4 509.7 (odd, I came back the same way) Gain: 415.3 180.7 Ascent: .5 mi .27 Descent: .27 mi .31 Weather: Cloudy Part Sun Temp: 73 F 70 F Wind: 225/6.9 203/8.1 Humidity: 75% 83% I don't know how to account for the odd discrepancies, considering I followed the exact same route back as I did going out. The discrepancy in calories burned is probably correct, though, considering that it's far less effort to bike DOWN in elevation than it is to bike UP. Well, whatever, my speed is going up, my speed on the stationary bike is also going up (16.8 mph / 81 RPM on setting 11!), I'm down to 205 and I'm not getting as winded as I used to. Everything is proceeding nicely. Time to keep going! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue Jul 7 19:49:24 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Eking it out July 4th weekend and what do we do but sit inside and watch the whole Lord Of The Rings triology (super extended director's cut with extra extended extra footage!) for twelve hours! Don't get me wrong, this is exactly how I want to spend my holiday. Pizza too! Ok, I paid for it at weigh-in today, with only half a pound lost, but it's going down and that's what counts. Well, the pizza was half of the cause. The other half was that I didn't get my twelve mile bike ride in. L wants to bike, and this is a great thing! The problem is that she is absolutely in no way, shape or form ready for a twelve mile bike ride. Or a six mile bike ride, for that matter. So this week, I got a grand total of five miles in through two 2.5 mile rides. Those wiped L out. So, if I can look at this through the lens of relativity, L is now where I was at this time last year. And this is good. This time next year, we'll both be doing the full W&OD trail, if that's the case. The problem, if there is one, is that whenever I talk about wanting to go and do my long bike ride, L still comes back with puppy dog eyes and the whole "well, I want to do that, but I'll hold you back" line. Well, no, if you're trying to get in shape to go on a long bike ride with me, you're not holding me back, I'll just find some other time to get it in. More puppy dog eyes. I can't win. The only thing for her to do is more cardio. Today at the gym it was: World's Greatest Stretch Rouge stick stretches Quad strteches bicep and chest stretches 5mins on the bike ~85RPM / setting 11, average speed was 17.1! 60lbs x 10 / 3 lat pulldowns (my form is still bad!) 55lbs x 10 / 3 tricep pulldowns 10x / 3 inverted rows on the smith machine (well, no, doing those really ripped up my hands and, even though I suppose I should build up those callouses, it still hurts, and my form sucked so I did one set of rows, then two sets of shoulder flexing from that inverted position. Still hard) 20lbs x 10 / 3 incline dumbell presses (AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHH) 10x / 3 tempo pushups (slowly go down for a count of 4, hold for 1, pop up) Upper body completely jellified. And I have homework. Thursday's going to be leg day, so I need to foam roll... well, basically everything legs. I think she's going to destroy my legs again. And you know what? I kinda like it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Jul 10 15:07:43 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Who devised these exercises, the Marquis de Sade? Leg day yesterday and yes, like I suspected, she really killed them. The problem (if you want to call it that) is not the weight, it's the pace-- but I do that. That's all entirely up to me. So here's what I did: -Foam rolled everything below the waist! -World's greatest stretch -5 minutes 84RPM (16.8 mph) stationary bike, setting 11. -Squats (yes! finally! squats on the squat rack!) two 15lbs, 4 sets of 10 -Weighted lunges (2x20lb dumbells), 3x10 -Single leg back bridges .At rep. number 6 of 10 during set 2 of 3, I felt myself approaching that wall of "Hey, you can quit now and A won't be disappointed, you had a great workout up to this point" but punched right through it and completed the set and the next one. -Some strange exercise that had me laying on my side on the floor, upper legs at a 90 degree angle, lower legs bent again at 90 degrees (like you're sitting in a chair) with a 25 pound plate on the upper leg. The exercise is to raise your leg, leading with your knee, then rotate your foot upward. This is to work your glutes, and apparently it did work because AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH MY ASS IS SO SORE TODAY D: Good workout, though. Next week I need to ask her about: 1. Pressure point massage using massage balls on your back (since I know I can mess stuff up if I do it wrong) 2. Fitbit. Is it worth it? As for biking, my official homework from A is that I must-- MUST, I SAY-- get my 12 miles in. I will be doing this without L probably, because our last bicycle outing didn't go very well. We tried for five miles, but we only got 2.5 in. It turns out that L's bike is badly sized for her, and it's hurting her back. Hurting it to the point where she can't actually ride it anymore. Ok. That's not a problem. Biking should not be painful. Today, therefore, we're going to the bike shop and we're going to get her properly fitted for a bike that she can comfortably use. If that ends up being a recumbant, so be it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sat Jul 11 04:45:18 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: The difference! Took L to the bike shop today and let her loose. With no input from me, mind you. The type of bike she wants and the type of bike I like are vastly different. So, after some browsing she settled on a yellow Electra three speed cruiser, with dyno-powered lights, an internal gearbox and a plethora of gaudy hippie flowers all over the bike. Perhaps "gaudy" is a word that has some negative connotations, but they're loud, the bike is yellow with green rims and red fenders and it's an upright townie cruiser. You won't miss this bike. And that's the most important part. She took the bike on a test-ride around the bike shop's block and came back with the biggest grin on her face-- that there's a sale. So we went out on the trail tonight and... 6.23 miles! That's not at all bad for her, even though she needed to stop a couple of times and was feeling pretty worn out at the end. I'm still going to get my twelve miles in either tomorrow or the day after, but I'm quite impressed. With a little more work, I may see her keeping up with me on my big rides. I didn't keep track with both bike computer apps this time, so I don't have any climate data or pace data, but it's: 6.23 miles Max speed: 17 mph Avg. speed: 9.2 mph Total time: 40:45 minutes Act time: 32:31 minutes That was my data. I don't have any data for L, but it appeared that she was spinning more than I was cruising, so our calorie burns are probably different. Her max and average speed were both probably slightly lower, but not by any appreciable amount. The only problem I have with her bike is that it DOES. NOT. FIT. PROPERLY. ON. MY. BIKE. RACK. Seriously! A step-through bike trying to fit on a rack made for diamond-frame bikes? Forget it. But she's happy and without pain, and that's what counts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sat Jul 11 20:50:56 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: A big week! With my legs still a bit sore from that killer leg day on Thursday, I went out for a long ride today. And I kept going! I'll get to the total distance in a minute, but oh, what a difference those drop bar-ends make. Much higher top speed, going up hills was (something of) a dream, handling was pretty neat. So, the numbers: Wedesday: 2.86 miles (discovering that L's bike was painful for her to sit on) Friday: 6.75 miles (I know it's different from what I said previously, but this is the corrected number) Saturday: 17.65 miles (woohoo!!!) And assuming I don't go for a ride with L later tonight (which I may), this week's mileage comes up to: 27.26 MILES. Holy SHIT. So let's get down to data: Leg 1 Leg 2 Duration 51:32 45:32 Distance 8.44 Mi 8.37 Mi Calories Burned 441 427 Avg. Speed 9.7 mph 10.9 mph Max speed 23.4 mph 22.1 mph Avg. pace 6'10/mi 5'27/mi Max. pace 2'33/mi 2'42/mi Highest Elevation 502.4 ft 504.8 ft Elevation gain 423.3 ft 285.8 ft Total ascent .34 mi .21 mi Total descent .25 mi .38 mi Weather: Cloudy Mostly Cloudy Temp 81 F 77 F Wind: NE 45/6.9 N 0/4.6 Humidity 57% 68% And now some less than delicate talk about something very delicate: balls. Namely, it's a bad idea to bike for an extended period of time with boxer shorts and not tights/compression garments/form fitting boxer briefs. Last night my balls felt like they were getting squashed flat every time I started to use the lower portion of the drop bars, and it was directly the fault of my boxer shorts allowing things to shift around. Today I put on some tight boxer-briefs and... voila! No more smashed balls! I may actually have to bit the bullet and purchase some of those ridiculous looking bike shorts if I want to keep this distance up-- and I do. Eh, what the hell, my legs are looking pretty nice nowadays... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue Jul 14 17:30:51 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Quick one A quick update before I go off to arm day. I count the beginning of my exercise week as Tuesday, because that's the first day of the week I work out with A. So, with that in mind, I did 6.5 miles this morning with L, which brings my weekly total mileage up to... uh.. I'm not so great with math so give me a econd.. 33.76 miles? Yeah, that works out right. This is a half mile more than L and I did last time (or so) and it's a good mileage for her. It's just far enough that she's completely worn out by the end of the ride, but not to the point of vomiting. Me on the other hand... well, I'm not counting it as calorie burning exercise because I didn't actually break a sweat. L, on the other hand, downed a full 33 oz water bottle. I can also happily report that my weight is now down to 202 lbs / 91.6257 kg / 14.426 stone. I believe that this roughly comes out to 17 pounds lost while training with A. Fantastic! This weekend is going to see me do a road trip, so I don't know if I'll be able to get my miles in. Maybe on Thursday, maybe at the hotel if they have a fitness center. Who knows! Now time to get my arms killed! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed Jul 22 00:20:50 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Aa;lsfdjlj Back from the road trip. We went down to Columbia, South Carolina, to cover a KKK rally. The maps all say it's a 7 hour drive, but when you have to deal with our horrible traffic it winds up being close to 9 hours. That's AWFUL. We left the house around 11 and got to the hotel around 9. The way back was a few hours less, thanks to it being the weekend, but still, that's just a horrific commute. We'll find a better way next time. Anyway, the temperatures in Columbia were hovering around 100f (37c) with 100% humidity and not a cloud in the sky. We got a hotel about a half-mile away and walked out at 11 am into a steaming sauna that immediately fogged my glasses and made me start sweating profusely. I was self conscious of this for all of thirty seconds until I realized that when you're in South Carolina, you sweat. Everyone sweats! You sweat and you keep on sweating in the shade and even when a breeze kicks up. The problem isn't sweating, it's NOT sweating, because when you stop sweating that's when heat exhaustion and heat stroke set in. And I'm pleased to say that neither I nor L succumbed to the heat (although L was pretty close near the end) AND I remembered to keep myself well-covered in sunblock. L... did not. She's got a nasty burn on one of her shoulders and her nose is slightly pink, but I'm glad she chose to wear a long-sleeved blouse for the day. So, the step tracker on my phone registered 4 miles of walking on Saturday in the heat. I drank copious amounts of water and felt like I was about to turn into a human sprinkler system, but my weight... didn't budge. Eh? Water retention! Because the first night down there, I decided to have room service and had the most stereotypically southern dinner I could think of: Fried catfish, deep fried okra and baked cheese grits. GOD DAMN that was tasty. It was also packed to the gills with sodium, which was probably not all THAT bad of a choice considering how much sweat I lost. But still, that's a lot of salt and salt loves to hold on to water, so that's probably why I'm holding steady at 202. Well, that and the Chinese food the next night. Oh come on, like you haven't done the same? I'm just happy that my weight didn't go UP. Oh well, I got a disappointed look from A today, but other than that Arm Day went well enough-- I'm doing more inverted rows than I had been before, but they're still extremely hard to do. But that's the point, I guess. Ran out of the creatine-infused protein powder, so I picked up some regular chocolate Spirutein and some Beta Alanine. What the hell, why not give it a shot? It was half off anyway. Anyway, back to the rally. We stepped out at 11 and checked out a farmers market that was outside the hotel and got to talking with a good number of people. Southern hospitality, perhaps? Well, they were chatty and happy regardless, and the general sentiment was one of "I really hate to see South Carolina being portrayed as a dumb hick state because of those idiots and their flag." Which was actually pretty refreshing. Columbia... seems to be a pretty neat city. Nothing to do there, obviously, but a nice place to spend a week, I guess. Picked up a big bag of 100% authentic South Carolina pencil cob grits, which I'll be devouring in no time, it seems. After the farmer's market, we headed over to the statehouse to cover a black power rally that was scheduled to be between 12 and 4. The KKK rally was scheduled on the other side of the statehouse between 3 and 5. That means... hoo boy. Well, the black power rally was generally a chill affair, with a few chuckleheads walking through the crowd with confederate flags trying to start shit, but no one was biting. They got bored and scurried off to the edges of the crowd where all the police were hiding in the shade. A fine, generally positive event, really. You've probably seen the reports and footage (some probably mine!) of the KKK rally. 30 to 40 dopes walked up onto the stage with several thousand counter-demonstrators booing them. The KKK was joined by members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) which is an American neo-nazi group. They all shouted at the crowd and taunted like they are want to do and after an hour of that... they left! That's right, no speeches, no preaching, no ceremony, no podium, no microphone, no bullhorns, no sound system, NOTHING. They just headed down the stairs and left behind a 3-man-deep ring of SWAT cops. Or at least, that's what they tried to do until they got outside of the main bulk of the crowd, because when they reached the street the whole situation turned into a gigantic shitstorm and saw the group of nazis fragment and a large crowd start to follow them. By this point, I was shooting with L's gigantic 50-500 lens and I was in absolutely no shape to run, so I had to let them get ahead of me. The KKK received a generous amount of thrown bottles, rocks and batteries, and some reports claim that the KKK also had some of their cars smashed up with bricks. Any day the Klan gets a beatdown is a good day. We oozed back to the hotel and just jammed on our photos for the next five hours. I got some nibbles from freelance publications who'd like to publish my work and so did L, and our mission was complete. Now to figure out how to drop the water weight and get some cardio in this week. ay. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Jul 24 01:37:07 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Level up! Resistance band glute activation; 3x10 85lb on the squat rack; 2x10 20lb suitcase lunges; 2x10 55lb weighted back bridges. Legs are jelly again and I'm recovering pretty quickly. A made the point of telling me that I'm at the point where I need to start coming into the gym three times a week. Two times to get my butt kicked by her, and the third now to do a full body workout, arms and legs. But without her there, I should be doing everything as I already have been but ten pounds less. So 75 pounds on the squat rack, you get the idea. Doing this will apparently cause me to see more rapid gains in my strength and weight loss, so I'm on board. I've started to experiment with taking beta alanine. Worst case scenario: it does nothing outside of make me feel tingly. Best case scenario: muscle fatigue will be lessened and recovery time will decrease. I don't see much to risk with this. My upcoming business trip may be postponed, so if that's the case I will probably be able to get some serious biking in on sunday. If not, well, maybe some on saturday. But now I also need to figure out where to cram in another gym day. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sat Jul 25 00:44:30 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: A quick one I am dreading / anticipating when A goes on vacation, because it is invariable that the last session I have with her before she leaves, she puts me through a meat tenderizer. Then when she comes back, she REALLY gives me a thrashing. But I've come to enjoy the aches. They go away after a day or so and some light calisthenics get my muscles running smoothly. It's just that the first mile and a half on the bike after a killer of a leg day like yesterday is pure torture. Then I pass through the veil of physical reality and am able to work on a much higher plane of existance. Flowery gibberish aside, it really does seem like after a certain distance, all of the muscle aches just vanish and I feel realy, really good. But I haven't been on the bike in over a week now, and today has been mostly sedentary. So I'm in a world of aches. Feels good though ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed Jul 29 06:39:09 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Milestones! I wouldn't have believed it unless I tried it with three different scales, but the numbers don't lie-- I've finally, FINALLY, hit 200 pounds. That's tremendous. I was hovering around 225-230 at the beginning of March and now, roughly five months later, I've dropped 25 pounds! All through cardio, watching my caloric intake and drastically cutting back on my salt intake. Really, food trackers, even though I stridently hate the way that they are essentially generating income through the apparent marketing of their clients userdata, are a useful tool. Yes, I DO want to know if I'm getting proper nutrients with my food intake! Speaking of milestones, immediately after I wrote my previous post, I decided that I wasn't doing much that day so it was onto the bike. I started riding...riding... and more riding... and soon I realized that I had been going out in one direction for over an hour. Whoops, L will be mad! But at the end, I had biked from my neighborhood and out and past the little town of Vienna. As numbers testify more starkly, let's cut to the chase: Leg 1 Leg 2 Duration: 37:38 66 min Distance 6.46 mi 13.03 mi Calories: 337 665 Avg speed: 10.2 mph 11.7 Max speed: 26 (!!!) mph 23.6 Avg pace: 5'51 5'06 Max pace: 2'17 /mi 2'31 elev: 516.2 ft 516 gain: 411.2 ft 374 ft ascent: .35 mi .3 descent: .27 mi .32 weather: cloudy, 84f same Wind: 158/8.1 same Humidity: 47% same I'll add more about my session with J after I wake up in the morning. Suffice to say, it was tiring. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed Jul 29 22:40:45 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Milestone pt II Tiring. yes. J seems to be more of the same school that my old trainer D was, in that I certainly left the gym feeling like I had a good workout, but the day after I am conspicuously lacking the aches and burning feeling in all of my muscles like I am used to. J is working me out, but not to momentary muscular failure, which is A's practice. That's ok. I can feel that he's incorporating more cardiovascular work than just strength work, and that too is fine. So today instead of feeling lik been put through a clothes wringer, I just feel tired. Kinda like everything's getting on my nerves. Angst, ennui, weltschmerz, meh, whatever. I could chalk this up to any number of things, most likely my body is detoxing (for lack of a better term) from all of the delicious fried / boiled / baked food I had on my business trip. Southern cooking may be the best goddamned food around, but I can really see why obesity runs rampant through the south. Deep fried okra, baked whitefish, macaroni salad, hush puppies, turnip greens (seasoned with ham hock, naturally), fried whitings, fried chicken and basically the entire menu of K&W Cafeteria at dirt-cheap prices equals a recipe for overeating. Calories certainly are cheaper in the south, but at the cost of lower nutritional content. It'll take time to burn that shit out of my system, but I'm certain J can do it before I want to do any major bike rides this weekend. And I'll have something to boast about to A when she gets back. Neat! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Mon Aug 3 00:07:27 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: And off we go Not much of an update today, knocked out a 22 mile (Ok, ok, 21.76) ride today, had a nice nap, drank a lot of water, et cetera. Here's the numbers: Duration 1:04:37 56:07 Distance 10.9 mi 10.86 Calories 557 541 Avg. Speed 10 mph 11.5 mph Max Speed 26.3 mph 22.8 mph Avg. Pace 5'59 5'10 Max Pace 2'16 2'37 Highest Elev 503.6 521 Elev gain 427.8 429.3 Tot. Ascent .44 .25 Tot. Descent .28 .49 Weather Partly Sunny Partly Sunny Temperature 85 82 Wind 4.6/23 3.5/315 Humidity 47% 48% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Aug 6 01:57:51 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Finally! After over a year at the gym, after over a year of biking, I am now officially (as of 8am Tuesday morning) below 200 pounds for the first time in... oh god, fifteen years? I am now 198. That was roughly my weight in high school, after marching band and a generally lazy lifestyle. Then college and a whole lot of "life" happening in the intervening time, including a bad, sometime physically abusive relationship and I ballooned up to 250 pounds. I find that hard to believe now, but I really was there. Then some more life happened, a great relationship happened and I whittled myself down to 210, but without any semblence of training or an ability to track my food intake and a generally sedentary lifestyle, I ended up maintaining at 230. But now that's a thing of the past. I still have a soft, undefined midsection, my arms aren't anything to brag about but my legs are starting to feel like steel pipes and I can at least start to feel muscles underneath all my skin. Tuesday was arm day and with A back, I finally hit momentary muscular failure during my session. Bicep curl to overhead press, rep 4 of 10, set 3, my arms finally were expended of all of their energy. Oh, I certainly finished the set-- rests are OK, quitting isn't-- but that was a new sensation. My arms are still sore. Fantastic. A, back from her vacation, also brought back a kidney infection. L thinks it's due to A's protein intake. I don't know what that is, but L is starting to become a little paranoid about MY protein intake now. That can be annoying. I'm just sticking with the principle that the human body can't absorb more than 30 grams of protein per meal, and no more than 90 grams of protein a day (I generally top out at no more than 70). We'll see how this shakes out, anyway. A had to stop me during my third set of inclined overhead chest press-- I made the offhand remark that I expected failure around rep 8, but she stopped me and made me start all over again-- my mindset was all wrong. If I go into it expecting failure, failure is what I'm going to get. Another reality check, really, no matter how well you think you've trained your brain (or re-trained it), there's always room for improvement. Oppurtunities for advancement. I'll have to be more mindful. But she's quite right, I went into the last set of the day, my muscles dead and aching and I damn well did bang out a full set. Tomorrow is leg day. I love leg day! My legs are going to become jelly, I'm going to become stronger and I LOVE THAT. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Aug 7 06:05:24 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Little things, big things Leg day, starting squats out at 85 (that's two tens on each side of a 45 pound bar), with four sets of 8 reps. Since I don't do squats every leg day, I'm still trying to get my form down so the first set went slowly as I tried to remember all of the things I'm supposed to do when squatting. It's not as easy as it looks! Feet have to be in the proper position, I can't lower too fast, I have to keep the weight off my toes and drive entirely with my hips down through my heels, I have to keep my abs engaged so as to protect my back, I have to make sure the bar isn't resting on my spine but on the fleshy part of my shoulders, et cetera. Knocked 8 reps of 85 pounds right out-- so we added a five pound weight on each side. 95 pounds now. Three sets of 8 reps with 95 pounds? No problem! I'm surprised. A said that it's best when you surprise yourself, and I started talking about my experience on tuesday with the scale-- I could not believe it was under 200. I got a 15 pound dumbell, put it on the 40 year old scale and... it was accurate. So it's not the scale, it must be me! The first time in 15 years I'm under 200 pounds, you've read the rest. As I was relating all of this to A, I could see her eyes lighting up. She's actually genuinely, demonstrably elated with my progress! Then the much hated suitcase lunges (if I hate them, they must be working) at 25 pounds each. Then weighted back bridges (75 lb = 2x 15 plates on a 45 lb bar) at 3 sets of 10. A made the observation that I'm getting to the point where I'm getting much stronger than I was when I had drawn up the schedule for training, and that I should consider making it two hour long sessions a week, instead of two half hour sessions. Of course, this is going to be significantly more expensive (560 instead of 390) and I am not yet sure my budget can bear that. L is starting a three-month session of pilates classes in addition to her current twice-weekly pilates private sessions; she will be doing her classes at 8 am (!!!) on Mondays, then private sessions on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Since I need to incorporate an extra hour-long workout on my own, I think what I'm going to do is hit the gym after L is done with her class on Monday morning. I don't know what the traffic will be like, but I'm assuming that I'll probably be starting my workout at around 10 am. Oh, did I mention? L's pilates is at the gym /across town/ so I need to drive her there, hang out for an hour or so, drive back home, drop her off and then make my way to "my" gym. But this is for the best, I think, because L will probably be tired after Pilates and want to sleep or rest; I will have ample time for my breakfast to digest and I can get my workout in while she's resting. Then the day can begin after noon. Don't you wish you were an independent mechanical consultant? (You don't, this is my niche industry and it's feast or famine to begin with, so shove off!) My reasoning is that I should ease myself into the greater workload that this gym schedule will bring (from 1 total hour at the gym per week to 2 hours, ultimately to 3 hours a week). A also pointed out that due to the fact that I am getting stronger and the more weight needed for a proper workout, more time needs to be spent on getting my form down in order to prevent injury. Fair enough. And I probably talk too much too-- which I'm conflicted about-- because I'm really enjoying this newfound confidence and A IS pretty interesting to talk to and a font of knowledge of things I want to know all about; and it's also a way I'm cheating myself because the more time I spent blabbing about whatever it is, the less time I have for actual work. I do recognize that I'm doing that, and I do try and cut that out whenever I can. An hour session WOULD allow for a slightly less frenetic pace, but like I said, I just hope my budget can allow it. This weekend I'm thinking about trying a different bike trail. The Mount Vernon trail, which is 18 miles in total length and is almost perfectly flat. It is also mostly shaded and has some sections of street running through Old Town Alexandria. The stationary bikes at the gym say I can average 17.1 mph for 5:30 minutes, so the flatness of the Mount Vernon trail may be a perfect testing ground to see just how fast I really can go. This winter I plan on having the bike shop do a complete overhaul on the bike, replacing its sprockets and chains, fitting a set of toe cages on the pedals, the whole nine yards. I think it deserves it. Now's also the time for me to plan how I'm to keep up my cardio during the foul weather months. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Mon Aug 10 21:09:12 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: On my own A wants me to bump up my gym attendance, and I agree. I've been doing 2 half hour sessions at the gym with a trainer for almost a year now, and I most certainly have become stronger and more confident in my ability to perform well doing all of the things I should be doing. To that end, she wants me to add an extra hour of gym time and increase my time with her to a full hour. My current budget cannot (YET) support the increased cost (It ends up being 170 dollars more) but I certainly can go an extra day. So today was my extra day. But first, biking: Yesterday I biked down the W&OD and took the Four Mile Run trail to where it intersects with the Mount Vernon trail. I took a right and headed upriver, passing National Airport (No one here calls it "reagan national" and the concept of naming an airport after a man who fired tens of thousands of union air traffic controllers makes about as much sense as naming a synagogue after smithfield ham, but I digress), passing Gravelly Point and I stopped at the Navy memorial. I also started using a new route tracking app called MapMyRide. It's supposed to link with MyFitnessPal, but it doesn't, really. Whatever, it gives me a lot of pretty graphs to look at and that's nice. I'll still run the Samsung S Health bike tracker during my rides, though. Here's the data from the S Health tracker: Leg 1 2 Duration 47:58 54:12 Distance 8.94 mi 8.72 Calories 446 442 Avg. Speed 11 mph 9.5 Max Speed 20.3 mph 17.6 Avg. Pace 5'25/mi 6'17/mi Max Pace 2'57/mi 3'24/mi Highest Elev 284.3 ft 259.2 ft Elev gain 208.3 ft 450.1 ft Tot. Ascent 0.21 mi .34 mi Tot. Descent .2 mi .18 mi Weather Cloudy Partly Sunny Temperature 83 F 84 F Wind 180/9.2 180/10.4 Humidity 48% 45% MapMyRide gave me: Distance: 17.79 mi Duration: 1:44:03 Speed: 10.3 mph Calories: 793 Elev. Gain 520 ft Max alt: 271 ft On second thought, why do I need MapMyRide again? Apart from it underestimating my calorie burn (which, I should say, I like because it's better for factoring in my caloric allotment for the day; I'd like to think I burned 888 calories, but believing that puts me in the mindset that I'm working harder than I might be.) Anyway, that was a fun ride and one that was deceptively tiring. Yes, it was mostly flat, but that was part of the problem-- without hills to provide areas where I could coast at speed and give my legs a chance to rest, there was no such luck here. Coming down the W&OD, it's basically a long coast because the elevation is favorable. Even going UP the W&OD is fun because even though you're gaining elevation, proper conservation of momentum means you may have to push harder, but it's shorter. The Mount Vernon Trail, being almost perfectly flat, has long stretches of pedaling with very little break. Still, a good ride. I'll do it again. Weight is now down to 197. Hooray! Gotta keep going! Now for today's gym report: I am incredibly lucky and incredibly spoiled with A. A has a perfect plan, she sticks to it and she knows exactly what to do to really tear up my muscles. I, on the other hand, have a "plan?" that I didn't particularly stick to and I felt like I could have done a little more. But it's still a learning process. Like this: pick a different time to go to the gym instead of noon! Everyone is there! That isn't so much of a problem as J was there working out on his break and A at least saw me there, so she knows I'm committed to it-- but everyone was using the weights! Everyone was using the bikes! Everyone was using the machines! ARGH! So I did something today that I haven't done in months-- the rowing machine! Total time: 5:07 avg 25 s/m 1:49 /500m 2:12.3 ave/500 1157 m 2:30.0 split 7992m projected Which is... I think... uh... roughly similar to the last time I was on the rowing machine? Maybe a little better? This was without HIIT intervals. So call today drop set day, because that's what I did. Leg extension machine: 10x 90lb; 10x 75lb; 10x 65lb Leg press machine: 10x 160lb; 10x 140lb; 10x 120lb Seated row: 10x 80lb; 10x 70lb; 10x 60lb Lat pulldown: 10x 80lb; 10x 80lb; 10x 80lb I'll do 3 sets of 20 seconds of plank and 3 sets of 10 tempo pushups tonight. Like I said, a little unfocused, but nothing I can't hammer out. I didn't get that coveted "jelly" feeling, but that's a secret I'll have to extract from A. Somehow. Some day. Maybe tomorrow! I'm also doing this as much as I can today because tomorrow is going to be a composition assessment, where my body fat percentage (anything under 100% and I should be pleased) will be calculated, I'll be properly weighed on a scale that isn't 40 years old (even though it is pretty accurate) and we'll re-assess my training regemine. I'm hoping my blood pressure and heart rate will be lower (I know my pulse will be; I've been tracking that on my own) but I have no idea what my body fat will be. At the very least, I do know that my BMI has dropped down below "obese" and that's at least something to cheer about. Because of all of that, I probably won't have much time left in the session for any actual training with A tomorrow (outside of some core stuff that she thinks we might have time for) so I really needed to get some work in today. I don't have much hope.... no, I do have hope! Fingers crossed... no, no fingers crossed, I quite literally worked my ass off for the past 7 months, and I'm going to be happy with the result tomorrow! Even if.. no, ESPECIALLY if it's not 120% perfect tomorrow because that means I have THAT MANY MORE oppurtunities for improvement! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Tue Aug 11 20:10:42 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Going...down? Composition assessment today! Bodyfat DOWN to 22%, which is in the middle of the "fair" range. When I started last year, it was at 26%, which is, obviously, well in the "poor" range. Gym scale put me at 198.6, which is off from my bathroom scale, which I expected-- after all, this IS after lunch and I'm wearing pants. If you don't recall, the "right way" to weigh yourself is first thing in the morning, before breakfast and after you're done pooping. That's how I've been judging my weight progress, so this is acceptable. I was also expecting to have my blood pressure taken today, so I spent all morning meditating, listening to calming music and not having a drop of coffee. I didn't have my blood pressure checked. I GOT ALL CALM AND CENTERED AND ONE WITH THE UNIVERSE FOR NOTHIN'?! LKSDJLFKJSDL:FKJDSLFJK ... Pardon me. In any event, all of the numbers that count are going down. We also chatted about what my goals should be, now that the vague "get fit" and "lose weight" ones are coming under control. So, spartan race. A did that this year and completed it in three and a half hours. Other members of the health club team (you can run this race as a team) completed it in 4 hours. It's supposed to be hard, and it looks hard. Well, scratch that, it looks *difficult.* But then again, it LOOKS no more difficult than what I used to hike. Old Rag, for example, isn't the highest peak in Shenendoah National Park, but it's the most popular and it can be a grueling hike. It's a meat grinder, where if your hands aren't scuffed up and you don't have scrapes and some minor cuts, you did it wrong. I've done that with a 50 pound pack in 7 hours, which is on the slow side, but I did that when I was at my heaviest ~and~ without proper hiking boots. Spartan race seems to be on that level of intensity. Seems to be, I say, because I have never run one, all I know about it are from pictures and from A's experience, and I do not know the full length and breadth of A's experiences so I can't immediately relate what she's gone through to my own life experiences. But she is my trainer, she's an excellent trainer and she's apparently dedicated enough to this that she does a lot of planning for each session with each and every one of her clients. So there's going to be a bit of a changeup in the workout routine and nutrition plan. The nutrition plan will be fully revealed to me on Thursday, and there's a little change in the workout routine so far: Instead of starting out with the stationary bike, I'm supposed to warm up with the Curve treadmill. This thing is a self-powered treadmill that's made up like a tank track, with individual track links. The track is slack and you run on the top part of the track run (If you think of it like a tank with "dead" links, you'd run on the top, between two return rollers). The point of this is that the closer you run to the fore end of the track run, the faster you go, and the further back you are the slower you go. All unpowered, so it's quite responsive to your efforts. I'm to walk for thirty seconds, jog for 15 and run for 15, and do this for five minutes or a half mile. I can do that. I am, however, woefully ignorant in ~how~ exactly to run. When I would do a lap with D, he would routinely remark to me every time we passed the treadmills about the constant "WHAM WHAM WHAM" people produced when running. "You know what that sound is? Joint damage." I must learn to run properly. My walking retains remnants of my days in marching band-- glide stepping and walking with my toes pointing up as high as possible. This may be OK for walking, but it isn't for jogging or running. Jogging I believe I have to strike with the middle of my foot and running necessitates running with my toes. I have not ever run. I've jogged a little and I've walked, but running has never ever been my forte. This is not a bad thing, mind you-- I am a blank slate, devoid of misconceptions badly-formed preconcieved notions and bad habits. I will learn how to do something and I will learn how to do it the right way. This is similar to what my dad told me about his experiences in basic training with the army. During rifle qualifications, guys from the inner city and suburbia regularly performed better than and earned more "marksman" badges than guys who grew up on the farm or out in the country where guns were a common, every day occurance. The reason for this? The guys from the city never had any chance to learn how to do something the wrong way. They learned exactly how to clean a rifle, how to hold it, how to aim, how to shoot, the whole BRASS (breathe, relax, aim, slack, squeeze) routine and they learned how to do all of that from a professional who has devoted their life to knowing how to do it AND how to teach others how to do it. The same goes for me with running. The rest of the (admittedly truncated) workout today was core stuff. 10 incline situps, 20.. uh... side situps? I don't know, you position yourself in this padded frame and bend from side to side while holding a weight. Tough and I enjoyed it. Then... uh.. russian twist medicine ball passes? Tap the medicine ball on one side and then throw it over the other side, A catches it, throws it back to you, and you repeat. Pretty good stuff. The rest of the workout plan will be revealed to me on Thursday, but A did hint at something that I'm supposed to already know with all of my hiking (but don't, because all I know about this is from youtube videos that don't really show it properly): The Turkish Get-Up. She chuckled menacingly and sent me on my way. I'm scared, but I'm beginning to like it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Aug 13 19:55:08 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Things were worse than I thought. So remember when I said I was happy that I was down from 26% body fat? Well, I was very, very wrong. It wasn't 26%, it was THIRTY. I am now still at 22% body fat, but the progression is much, much better and far more drastic than I had thought or hoped. I saw the sheet that D had filled out when I first started, and there, plain as day, was "BODY FAT: 30%". That, combined with my 230 pound weight firmly cemented me in the "obese" camp. According to most charts, I'm now definitively in the "average" range. I never thought I'd be happy to be "average" in my life, but here I am. 198 lbs is still overweight, though, but with everything proceeding in a downward direction I forsee myself getting out of the overweight and average range. I don't know when, but it'll happen and I'm going to enjoy the ride. Nutrition wise, A is knocking me back to 2000 calories. That's fine, I struggle to reach 2170 calories anyway. I also need to incorporate a fourth meal, something like a large snack. I'm also apparently under-cutting my protein intake; my friend K, who did do professional bodybuilding for a number of years, told me that the human body can't absorb more than 30 grams of protein per meal; A said it was 50. Following K's advice, I get roughly 90 grams of protein a day. According to A, I should be getting around 160-180. Well... that seems slightly high. If I still follow K's advice and add in the fourth meal, that'll put me up to 120 grams of protein. That should be the happy medium between L's proteinphobia and the almost certain kidney stone or kidney infection I'm going to get with too much protein. L is still continuing with her low protein, low fat diet. I don't agree with that at all, but she doesn't listen to me and it is her life and her body. There's only so much you can do to try to convince someone that they're doing something the wrong way before you just have to let them see the error of their ways themselves. Treadmill, box squats and single leg hip bridges today. I'm now at two 25s on each side of the bar, which brings that weight up to... duh.. (does math) 95 pounds. If I recall correctly, this translates to the leg press machine as 134 pounds: if you squat X, Y should be the weight on the leg press: X/(cos45)=Y (assuming the angle of the leg press machine is 45 degrees). Hence, 95/(cos45)= 134.3502884 That'll be my Monday! J ran into me at the end of my workout, as I was regaining my breath. "Tame the beast, don't let the beast tame you!" he said. "There's no taming A," I panted. A cackled. Turkish Get-Ups on Tuesday, because we both forgot today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sat Aug 15 03:13:38 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: FOOD After a little light reading, I'm starting to get a handle on this protein thing. K is correct. A is correct. The amount of protein absorption is determined by the TYPE of protein. Casein based protein is absobed at roughly 30g per hour, which is apparently pretty slow. Other forms of protein are absorbed more readily. So casein-based protein sources should be limited to no more than 30g per hour-- whey, cheese, milk and dairy products all need to be capped at around 30g. As far as kidney issues, high-protein diets are apparently beneficial to renal runction and it appears that up to 2.8g of proein per kg of bodyweight, there have been "no serious harmful effects from high dietary protein intake." High protein intake is also not indicated in a prevalence in bone degredation and osteoperosis. This is where it gets funny, as previous studies that examined links between osteoperosis and protein intake performed their tests by using a refined version of protein that was *only* protein without any of the associated nutrients that are typically consumed along with the relevant dose of protein. Namely, phosphorus. However, most protein powders (like my spiru- -tein) have plenty of phosphorus. A little knowledge (in this case, "little" referring to "incomplete") can be a dangerous thing. I don't think I can get up to A's suggestion of 150g (roughly .8g / lb) but viewing that as a hard cap and as something to strive towards, well, that could work out. As I'm still trying to get my weight DOWN, I'm not interested in bulking up at the moment. I have plenty of mass, it will just take time to convert that into muscle; and the idea of utilizing larger amounts of protein as an ersatz painkiller (shortening recovery times, decreasing soreness, et cetera) is quite attractive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sun Aug 16 22:51:08 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: HOLY SHIT What the hell happened to me? Is this a result of protein? Or the killer squat day I had on thursday? Maybe it's from all the carbohydrates I had yesterday. Had a 17.17 mile bike ride today, just out to Vienna and back. This was a little different. Start out like normal and I get to the first slope, the one that's been the nasty shock for the past year where it slowly wears you out before hitting the big hill. Starting up the hill and... power? I've got power! I'm just pedaling along in... wait, I forgot to change my gear... 3+3? I'm going up a hill in 3+3? Well, there's someone ahead of me I... wait, I'm passing him! I'm passing a bike, going up a hill! And here's the big hill, he'll probably pass me... any minute now... any second now... where is he? I passed someone on a bike, I crested the top of the big hill without thinking about it and I'm still ahead of the guy I passed! Holy SHIT! The rest of the ride was very much like that. Lots of "HOLY SHIT" moments where I shocked the hell out of myself. I've never had this much energy nor have I ever been able to just GO. My average speeds don't seem to suggest this, but there are stunning outliers in today's dataset. Like my maximum speed, which I achieved going down the 66 hill to the 495 overpass. I just put my head down, cranked the gears up to 3+5 (I wasn't even in the highest gear!) and pushed. It's obvious now that my earlier records of hitting 40mph are totally extraneous and are a product of poorly calibrated motion sensors, but I have more reason to believe this dataset. Passed a lot of bikes today. Not bikes being ridden by elderly people or people lacking situational awareness, but seemingly fit people who were, I guess, in much of the same place as I was last year. Hooray for progress! Passed two such people on the approach to the big 66 hill on the way back; they passed me going up the hill, but when I reached the hill they were sprawled out on a bench, panting and gasping for air. I kept going. Another "HOLY SHIT" moment for today, one of many. That's one good reason to keep doing this: the "HOLY SHIT" moments where you shock yourself by proving to yourself and to your self-deprecating ego that yes, you are more than capable of doing what you set out to do. The only thing that put a slight damper on today was L calling me up near the end of the ride to ask if I had any plans on coming home. Look, I tried to get L out on her bike every day this week, picking times where she wouldn't be groggy and the temperatures wouldn't be too horrible for her, and I got rejected every time. I need to get my cardio in or I'm not going to hit my goal of losing one pound a week, and if she's going to complain about how I don't go biking with her, well, the ball is entirely in her court. I am NOT going back to 230 pounds and 30% body fat! Not now, not ever! Speaking of which, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about my diet. Yesterday we went out for a drive and stopped at a gas station/sandwich shop called Wawa. They're all over the mid-atlantic, primarily centered around southern New Jersey and Philadelphia. I got a ten inch tuna salad hoagie (sub) which weighed in at around 900 calories (!?). Bad choice, but I was still under my calorie limit for the day. That was extra impetus to do two hours of cardio today, and for breakfast I made a shake consisting of two scoops of chocolate spirutein protein powder, 16 strawberries, 3 cups of spinach and about 8 ounces of almond milk (give or take). At the end of the first leg I had a protein bar, then some scrambled egg whites when I got home. Total calories for today (less dinner, which won't be too extravagent) is 552. Since I generally under-count my calorie burn and over-count my calorie intake, the average amount of calories that I burned today is 595. I have 58g of protein, 70g of carbs, 11g of fat, 5g of cholesterol, 777g of sodium, 1054 of potassium, and I'm well-stocked in vitamin A, C, B and calcium. Iron is almost to my daily limit. Leg 1 2 Duration 50:31 44:42 Distance 8.59 mi 8.58 mi Calories 435 422 Avg. Speed 10 mph 11.4 mph Max Speed 28.8 mph(!) 25.3 mph Avg. Pace 5'56/ mi 5'15/mi Max Pace 2'04/ mi 2'21/mi Highest Elev 521 ft 514 ft Elev gain 429.3 ft 311.7 ft Tot. Ascent .37 mi .24 mi Tot. Descent .17 mi .41 mi Weather Part Sunny Part Sunny Temperature 85F 90F Wind 158/6.9 0/0 Humidity 58% 46% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Wed Aug 19 01:28:16 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Movement! No deep training today, it was a functional movement screening. In the future, A will be doing the body composition and movement screen on the same day so we don't split up workouts. The functional movement screen is a test that rates your mobility through various exercises. You score it from 0 to 3, 0 equating to a "did not finish" because of pain and 3 being excellent. 1 is fair, 2 is average. The purpose of this test is to pinpoint specific areas for improvement, as I'll explain while presenting my data. With this data, you can then proceed to craft a more targeted workout plan and to focus on areas where form might suffer due to specific behavior and prevent injury. So let's get started: Test: Score: Comment: Deep Squat 2 Left knee pushes out, arms fall forward Hurdle step 2LR Left: Knee and hip externally rotates; Right: balance / hip externally rotates Inline Lunge 2LR Left and Right: Hips come off, back foot external rotation, wobble Shoulder mob. 2 [1] Impingement N [2] Straight leg 2LR Left: Right foot rotates out, 2nd position clean Trunk stab. 2 Slight snaking while hands are forehead level Press up clear N [2] Rotary Stab. 2 Can't get elbow to knee, rotation in hips Rocking clear N [2] Total score: 14 What this data tells me is that I have to work on balance, obviously, but my hamstrings are still a little tight as are my calves. My core is apparently much better developed than A had expected (impressing your trainer will ALWAYS make your day) and I'm otherwise dead average. The "rotary stability" exercise is a bit of a bitch though-- you have to set up on all fours, and extend your right leg and right arm out at the same time, then touch the right elbow to the right knee. Nope! Aint gonna happen today! I did the modified version, which is alternate arms and legs. The total score gives an easily quantifiable value with which to track progress. I should be between 16 and 18, but A has also devised a workout plan for the next year (yes, really! We're both in this for the long haul!) that will not only address all of the aforementioned issues, but also condition me for both Spartan Sprint and a shorter "warm-up" race called Warrior Dash. L is still having an unpleasant and irrational reaction to my attempts at upping my protein intake, and I finally got A's revised nutrition schedule: 40 protein/ 30 carbohydrate/ 30 fat and 2100 calories. That works out to 210g protein, 157.5g carb, 70g fat. Fat's doable since L is doing the McDougal diet (very low protein, very low fat, very high carbohydrate) but, predictably, this will cause issues with my protein and carb intake. It's also slightly annoying in that I happen to like carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables, but we must do what we have to do. If I can figure out a way to up my protein intake without having to endure yet another argument about "YOULL RUIN YOUR KIDNEYS" [3], I will be good. I might not make it to 210g of protein a day, but I'll certainly up it thanks to my performance on Sunday. Gotta make it into the gym tomorrow, though. [1] The measurement for shoulder mobility is that with your arms outstretched, you should bring your left fist up and behind your head and your right fist down and behind the small of your back and attempt to make them touch, and then repeat for the other side. The closer they are to touching, the higher the score. Ideally, their distance should be within the length of your outstretched hand (8 inches for me). So I have some stiffness and tightness in my right shoulder (9 inches apart) but more in my left shoulder (11.5 inches apart). [2] Wherever "N" shows up, that is a notation to determine if pain is felt. No pain, so N. [3] It's an oft-cited concern about very high protein diets, but this does not hold up under scrutiny. Yes, the kidneys excrete more waste product, but there no data that suggests any link to decreased renal function and very high protein diets in persons with healthy kidneys; the only people who were at risk were older and elderly women and people with pre-existing kidney conditions. Furthermore, the studies (National Institute of Health, Cambridge, Harvard, no "naturalnews.com quackery" here) referred to a "high protein diet" as one that was over 300g of protein a day. I am nowhere near that now, and even if I did make it up to 210 I'm a healthy male with no kidney issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Thu Aug 20 04:08:18 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: General maintenance General maintenance / extra gym session today. I made it to the gym a little before 6, which is a bad time. Crowded parking lot, crowded gym, lots of huge dudes doing fast rep sets with large weights, but I got my routine in. Nothing terribly ground breaking, so here's the data: 5 minutes on the curve treadmill Lat pulldown: 80 3x10 Seated row: 70 3x10 Tricep pushdown: 60 3x10 Plank: 3 x 20 seconds Leg press: 160 3x10 Leg extension: 65 3x10 Didn't get anywhere near that 210g of protein goal, over my carbohydrate limit, et cetera. Shifting this diet around is going to be difficult, especially with L's protein-phobia. Sigh. I'll figure out how to make this work. Tomorrow is... uh... probably leg day? I hope it is, I didn't do anything terribly excessive with legs and I was somewhat compensating for the lack of a workout yesterday. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Aug 21 03:02:22 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: LEG day? Ha! BALANCE day! Today is the first day of a year long training regemine to get my body in shape to do Spartan Race and Warrior Dash. Building on the data gleaned from the FMS test, today and the next two months will be devoted to building lower body balance. Lots of foam rolling, lots of using the massage ball. My calves, quads, hamstrings, hip extensors and glutes are all still very tight, as are my lats and neck. So foam rolling every day and that's fine with me. If I progress well enough with this, in two months we'll be moving to the next stage of training. So no real workout today (and probably no lifting or strength training with A for the next two months). That's ok, I'll be doing my general maintenance workout on my extra hour day. I know I haven't gained much in the realm of strength, but part of this is developing the discipline to work out on my own without the prompting from someone else. After a year with a trainer, I should have a good idea how to do this stuff by myself. And I do! Anyway, today to build balance was an exercise that A referred to as a single leg deadlift. No weight is actually used, but you need to go into a general deadlift pose with one leg off the ground behind you. Then, by squatting and rotating your hips, bend down and touch your toes. Do three sets of ten of those with each foot. Ankles were definitely burning after that! The next exercise is a one-armed plank with resistance band. It's as it sounds: get into a plank with your legs wide and come off the ground with one hand to support you. Take the resistance band that's fastened to something sturdy and draw it back with your free arm. Draw it back with a flat hand, palm down, and pull up to where your head is. The trick: keep your back flat! Don't snake, don't torque and don't twist your butt! Do that ten times for each arm, for three sets. This workout doesn't make me feel like jelly, but I'll leave that to my hour days. Talked to A about protein levels, she said the 210g limit is really a *limit* and not a *goal* and if I get my protein intake to be around 150g it'll be fine. "Well, the problem with getting that much protein is the only thing that really blends the powder that well is the Vitamix, and that sounds like a rock crusher, so whenever I start it up I'll get into another argument with L about protein ruining my kidneys" "You got a blender bottle? That's quiet..." she started laughing-- "...sorry! It's like you've got to take protein like you'd take drugs!" We had a good laugh over that. A's apparently lactose intolerant as well, which is interesting to know-- that's a good way to find out non-whey sources of protein. A's been using Carnivor, which is apparently a beef-based protein, and that gives me some pause. I'm keeping vegan as far as supplements go. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Fri Aug 21 15:59:07 2015]-- From: NO CARRIERATH0 (vertov) Subject: Happy Birthday to ME! I would be remiss if I didn't start this whole wall of text out without first addressing personal trainers. It's true that the biggest motivator to your progress should be your own self, but it's also true that the biggest obstacle to your progress can also be yourself. In those cases, it can help and it may almost be entirely necessary to have someone help you get started and negotiate tough spots. There is absolutely nothing dishonorable or undignified about having someone help you. You are and will be a better person for recognizing areas where you are deficient and where someone else's expertise can fill in those gaps. You don't have to take everything they say as gospel, though-- if you build a respectful dialogue with them, they will be far more in tune with your capabilities, your limitations and know how to expand them. Otherwise they're just going to drag you along and you won't get anything out of the experience. It's like the Bakunin quote: "Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult the architect or the engineer. For such special knowledge I apply to such a "savant." But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor the "savant" to impose his authority on me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. I do not content myself with consulting a single authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions and choose that which seems to me soundest. But I recognize no infallable authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, the tool of other people's will and interests." I've had three personal trainers so far: D, a nice guy who used to work as a government accountant before he decided to have a career change and become a trainer. Pleasant and very mindful of the fact that when I started out, I was in bad physical shape. He didn't go through a mobility test with me, nor did he really work towards any goal with me. He left the gym after five months. A, who took over for D. A is an extremely motivated woman who is quite devoted to nutrition and kinesiology, and is working on degrees in physical therapy. Her approach is very rigorous and very goal-oriented. She ran a Spartan Race this year, and put the worm in my ear about me running in one-- I asked if I could or would be in any physical condition do it, and she, without hesitation, said yes, absolutely. She is demonstrably elated when I tell her about my meeting my weight loss and fitness goals, and seems to spend a good deal of her free time doing the math and devising the most effective workout plan for me. Presented me with a detailed, twelve month training plan for Spartan Race, with specific goal points and nutrition information. A is, understandably, one of the more popular trainers at the gym and I feel incredibly fortunate to have her as my trainer. Incredibly motivating and positive, her good attitude is wearing off on me, and she really projects the image of someone who doesn't see you as a means to a paycheck. We've really hit it off, and I will keep her as my trainer for as long as she's doing personal training, which it seems will be quite long time. J, who takes over for A when A is on vacation or has a scheduling conflict. J is one of only a few other metalheads at the gym (if you can believe that) and generally doesn't have any clients during the times that I'm able to make it there for my extra hour of work, so we end up spotting each other. Awesome guy, will get me through a tough set through sheer force of his voice alone. It's now one year since I started on my fitness journey. Let's see where I was and how far I've progressed! -The hill- This is the thing that was the greatest motivator for me. A dinky little 10% grade hill that last year regularly kicked my ass. And I mean really kicked my ass-- I would have to shamefully walk my bike up that fucking hill, huffing and puffing the whole way. I'd get to the top and have to take a moment to catch my breath. Several moments, really. I'd bike down and rest at a nice little park, but that five mile round-trip circuit was all I could do and wind up being worn out for the rest of the day. That had to change. Now? I can top that hill without getting off my bike, without having to get out of my saddle, without panting, without feeling dizzy or winded at the top and if I'm feeling extra sprightly, I can even pass other bikers going up that hill. And all of that is before I crush another 15 miles on a 17 mile bike ride. -Performance- My initial GPS readings were, as I suspected, wildly off the mark. Now that I have three apps running to track my ride metrics, I can see that my average speeds are staying... well, average. Disregarding some outliers, I'm keeping steady around 10 mph. What's more of a marker for me is just how FAR I can go. My longest ride to date has been 22 miles. I've been pushing myself to go just a bit farther each and every time. My maximum speed is now 28.6 MPH, which I achieved on a long, steep decline-- the astonishing thing about that is I didn't even get into the highest gear, meaning I KNOW I've got faster speeds in me. I've come to really anticipate a good, long cardio "soak" for a couple of hours every weekend. I wouldn't want to do this on a stationary bike, though, that's boring. We'll see how I fare once the weather gets cold, but screw it-- I've got coats, I've got hats, I've got thermals, I'll bike in the goddamn cold if I have to. -Weight- When I started out at the gym, I marked myself down as being 40 pounds overweight, which would put me at 230. That's actually incorrect-- I was FIFTY pounds overweight, because a healthy weight for me is supposed to be 180. Right now? I'm between 195 and 194 pounds. That's 35 pounds! That's 35 pounds that I lost and I'm KEEPING off. I'm still on my way to getting down to 180, but I'm going to get there. I'm still too big for a 34 inch waist, but a 36 inch waist feels like clown pants. -Health- My body fat is down from 30% to 22%. That puts me around 155 pounds of lean muscle. I'm well out of the obese category and am, finally, average. My pulse is now down to 59-61bpm resting, and I can sustain 160bpm without feeling like I'm going to die. A simple way to monitor exertion is to see how easy it is to maintain a conversation while performing an exercise; I can now actually converse with people while I'm on the stationary bike. My skin has cleared up because I've meticulously documented everything I eat and I stay right on top of my nutrient intake. Aches and pains that I thought were just a fact of getting older (what I now know to be mild plantar fasciitis, tension in my right gracilis, both hamstrings, both deltoids and trapezius) were actually caused by inactive, shortened and tightened muscle groups. Now that I stretch every day, they're entirely gone. I'm noticing definition in places I've never seen it before; my legs and ass look amazing. My Functional Mobility Screen test put me in the average group for all mobility areas, but there are elements in those areas that need to be improved. My hamstrings used to be so tight I couldn't bend over and touch my toes. Now, I can easily go into a deep forward fold and rest the backs of my hands on the floor with slack in my arms. My chest, lats, butt and neck are still quite tight, but I'm going to be targeting them now that I know what to do. -Nutrition- Obviously, I wasn't watching what I ate. I was following a mostly vegan diet with some dairy and some fish here and there, but it was heavily weighted towards carbohydrates and fat. My first trainer, D, didn't really focus much on nutrition since he was more focused on getting me out of the "pre-training" body type and into some form that could do thirty minutes of cardio without keeling over. My current trainer, A, is dedicated to both nutrition and kinesiology, and has certificates coming out of her ears. She got me into meticulously recording everything I eat and tracking my macronutrient intake. Obviously this has had a profound effect on me, since with keeping my daily intake just under 2000 calories and engaging in some form of cardiovascular exercise every day (outside of my 2 hour cardio soaks) my weight and body fat have all declined. A has now re-mapped my diet to be a 40-30-30 diet, with 40% of my daily caloric intake being made up of protein, 30% carbohydrates and 30% fat. This is new and somewhat difficult, but A has stipulated that those percentages are to be a ballpark and the gram amounts (210g of protein, eg) are more like "do not exceed" hard caps than goals to be hit every day. This is a little more reassuring since I regularly get into arguments with L, with her claiming "too much protein will damage your kidneys." The studies that I've read say that 300g/day diets of protein that has been refined to contain no other nutrients (specifically phosphorus) are the ones that possibly damage your kidneys; I don't use a protein source unless I can verify it is high in other nutrients. -Self worth- Look, I know I can be a self-deprecating, sullen jerk sometimes, but lately, I'm just not feeling the urge to indulge in that side of my psyche anymore. I've been digging myself into my own hole, convincing myself that I could do all sorts of things if I wanted to, but I just didn't want to. No, I couldn't do everything I wanted to do because I hadn't built myself a solid structure from which to branch out and DO all of the things I wanted to do. I didn't build that structure because I thought: I wasn't worth it; the effort wasn't worth it since we're all going to grow old and die anyway; I'll do it tomorrow; I didn't want to invest any momentary discomfort for greater glory[1]. I had convinced myself that having a negative self-image was the same thing as being humble; that people who were "cheery" and peppy were just poseurs faking their happy emotions because there's no way life could be anything but a massive mountain of shit and pain. Well, life CAN be a massive mountain of shit and pain but ONLY if YOU make it that way. This outlook doesn't diminish the legitimacy or authenticity of suffering elsewhere in the world, but it does place into perspective the amount and intensity of suffering that you go through-- and that most of the time the instrument of your oppression is your own mind, run amok with no checks on it and no brakes. This is not humbleness, this is not modesty, this is cancerous asceticism, self-inflicted mental and emotional suffering for no other purpose but to suffer. I never thought I could do the things I'm doing now-- until I went out and did them. And kept on doing them, and pushed myself a little farther, a little longer ever time. -Progress- I can now safely do: 95lbs box squats 80lb lat pulldown 70lb seated row 60lb tricep pushdown 160lb leg press 65lb leg extension 2x25lb suitcase lunges Which is a big improvement from when I started, which was none of that. -The future- If you had told me last year at this time that I'd be seriously training for a Spartan Race now, I'd have laughed in your face and gone to Chipotle or Smashburger for some junk food therapy. But here I am, and I'm doing it. My body today is a present the old me has been working on. Now to keep working on it. I can't wait to see what else I'll be able to do in a year! [1]Even though, yes, glory is fleeting and the mindless pursuit of glory comes at a detriment to your own self and the people around you, but living a life wholly devoid of experiencing relevatory, spiritual moments as a result of your own sole effort is bland and meaningless. Running a race should never be about winning, but completing it. There is no race to the top of the mountain, all that counts is to get to the top and get back in one peice-- if you can do it with other people, if you can assist other people in getting up there, if other people help you getting there, you all benefit. The glory, the satisfaction and the honor belongs to all of you.