3-30-13

Tate and I hiked today, looking for remnants of a very early coal transport system hidden in the middle of PA State Gamelands 207. Never found the rail remains but had a nice 8 mile walk on a sunny spring day. When the trail we were following ended at the edge of a sheer rock face, we had to scramble down a steep mountainside, cross the valley at the bottom and then climb out the other side via a power line cut. Not pretty but a good dust flusher. Had to abort the mission to get home to make the salads for Uncle Dick's Saturday-Before-Easter dinner. Looking forward to going back soon to find the old rail works dating back to the early 1800s.

Use it or lose it

My Dad had a small number of incisive sayings that he repeated tirelessly. My personal favorite was "use it or lose it". As I get older I have this sense that if I can just keep on doing what I am doing I will be able to keep it going indefinitely. But as soon as I back off, its all downhill. Ironically, I see by looking back that I have already gone agood way down the slope without feeling like I gave in to anything. Maybe that's as good as it gets. Inevitability aside, with the possible exception of health issues that people just don't deserve, and erectile dysfunction, one does seem to improve the probability of a decent quality of life by determinedly staying active. How active is a good question. Susceptibility to injury definitely increases, from a lower level of exertion, as we age. At the same time, it gets easier to talk myself into taking a pass on a workout, every year. There is some apparent sweet spot I suspect. I don't anticipate competing in the Ironman in the future, but I am damn sure going to work to avoid getting bedsores on my ass. I remember how Pop used to sit on a rock to rest at the half way point between the back door and the mailbox, as he walked to get the newspaper. I remember urging him to push it a little more, not realizing that he had in fact found his sweet spot. Just another thing that he understood that I didn't I guess.

3/27/13

Weighted vest, and no real plan.

Half mile on the Dreadmill for warmup.

8 super-set, 8 reps each hand, 25lb dumbbell bench press, on a big ball, and 40lb dumbbell bent over row

push up burpee jump to a pull up, super-set with o-bar good-mornings, 5,4,3,2,1

3 sets of 20 cable crunches, 150lb

run half mile on the dreadmill

3 sets of 12 cable crunches, 150

3/26/2012

Waddled, lumbered, floundered 3 miles on the Dreadmill with the 13lb vest.  A lot of pep talk from mile 2 to 2.5, but, kept on.  Probably be sore tomorrow.  I'm sure the ManCub will mock me mercilessly for both time and distance -- nah, don't care.   

Work has been interesting, stressful, and I just had to get away and fit a workout in.  It was the right thing to do personally.  I'll let the politics land where they may.  So, I'm back in the saddle.  I like the progress I'm seeing and I don't want to lose that.  I'm just short on rants of late don't have the energy to spend. 

3-24-13

Tough week in Monterrey, MX. Fell off the plant based diet bandwagon. The only workout I made was a dash down 14 flights of the emergency exit stairs in the hotel after a kid pulled a fire extinguisher at 2am as a prank. You don't mess with that stuff in MX. Finally today Tate and I went for a hike in Mountain Top, PA at a former site of a unique coal hauling system active during the anthracite mining era in northeast PA. It used steam powered pusher cars to move 8-10 coal cars up the mountain that was too steep for conventional locomotives. Many remains are still there. Cool local history, beautiful mountain streams and a good workout on what felt like an early spring day. It's great to be home.

3:20:13

Went on a run with my XC running roommate. She showed me some new trails in Tryon. It was hard running with her, but the pressure of running with someone else and the awesome feeling after finishing the entire run without stopping made it worth it!

3-17-13

Tate and I hiked today in the 7 Tubs Natural area near Wilkes Barre, PA. There is a cool and popular area there with tumbling mountain streams and glacial remnants, but we went to the more isolated natural area west of the main attraction. 2 1/2 hours of hard walking with numerous climbs including a couple of scrambles. Fresh snow made the tracking possibilities interesting. Coyote track and sign everywhere. Saw one ruffed grouse. Also stumbled onto what looks like a survivalist shack deep in the forest with fresh ATV tracks leading up to it. Happily the resident didn't seem to be there. Also, came upon remnants of an old Wilkes Barre city park, called Mountain Park. Stone foundations are about all that's left of a major park from the halcyon days of WB and the PA anthracite industry. Felt good. We both took naps this afternoon.

3-16-13

The usual shoulder moves with surgical tubing. Doubling up on the ones that seem to work best. Then my basic strength work of heel raises, squats, situps/ab wheel, pushups and curls. Twice through  in less than 20 minutes. Kept the heart rate up fairly well. Hoping the snow stops and we can have a good hike tomorrow.

3/14/2013

Yoga. Felt very good today. Fair bit of work related stress this week yoga worked some of that out.

Some baseball player wondered in and joined the class. I moved up so he could see the poses and follow along. Weird since I'm kinda a bad boy, a Yoga rebel, as it were.

3:14:13 PI DAY!

Yesterday, two of my roommates and I ran a 4.5 mile loop down to the river. Our school owns some land down along the Willamette River. There's a dock for the rowers and sailers to put in, but then about a quarter of a mile down there is a stretch of beach. This beach is known for the parties, which was quite evident from all the trash on the beach. Nevertheless, in the daylight -- with some distance from the foul smelling trash -- being by the water with my roommates was a great bonding experience. This morning I did yoga and felt everything in my quads. Living on top of a hill will do that to ya.

Heading to calc to crush this midterm, and although workouts didn't relieve that much stress for me this weekend because I was anticipating my "hell week," in the thick of things they serve their purpose well.

Hey Sugar...

OK, so today a judge overturned the NY mayoral order to limit the size of sugar loaded drinks. Interesting. Seems invasive for the gov't to legislate this stuff. On the other hand, sugar is a definitely health damaging commodity and contributor to obesity when used heavily. The confounding thing to me is that so many people knowingly cultivate unhealthy habits for lifetimes on end. In one way government is treading on my rights by telling me what I can eat or drink. On the other hand, people who abuse their health drive up medical costs,raise my costs for healthcare,threaten the solvency of medicare etc. And I think it is ironic that no politician wants to confront the issue of personal responsibility for healthcare and its costs. I have a doctor acquaintance who says that 80% of her diabetes patients could eliminate their meds if they just ate right and lived an active lifestyle. Maybe the medicare voucher idea isn't so far out there. Somehow, we need to get individuals to take more responsibility for their health habits and the attendant societal costs. Think I'll do some yoga and meditate on it...

3/12/2013

Ran, ok, lumbered two miles, with weighted vest.  Felt a lot like an obstetrical course, tennis players, baseball batting, work out group, and walkers and joggers. Situational awareness on full. Weirdly there was a family interviewing a coach -- the daughter was sitting right on the outside lane facing the traffic. I'd imagine that counted for a weird experience... thought bubble " Here comes that old guy with the weighted vest, he might go faster if he walked."

Went upstairs to finish with cable crunches and some dumbbell snatch.

3/11/2013

So the head flew off my hammer in the midst of the first set.  No one was injured in the making of this film.  But, it did require that I modify my activities for the day.

(Weighted vest) Jogged 2 laps,  flipped the tire the length of the tennis court and back, jogged a lap, and so on.  The last two tire flips I ended up farmer walking one length of the tennis court,  kinda like walking with a hex bar, but with a reverse grip.  Ambled up to the weight room for a finisher of cable crunches, hanging knee raises, and some standing leg curls.

They epoxied the head to the handle, weird, so I'm going to wedge it old school.

3-10-13

Great hiking day today, mostly sunny, high 40s. Tate (my dog) and I walked the Oak Trail and Mountain Loop at Nescopeck State Park (PA). On the steep side of Nescopeck Mountain. About 800 feet of total elevation change in 4.3 miles in a lollipop configuration. Pretty, wooded trails in the pale early spring sun. Stripped down from my fleece pullover to just a flannel shirt and got it good and soaked. Most of the elevation change comes in two steep climbs that really cleaned the dust out of my lungs. Great to see some greenery starting to peek through the ground. Got my head clear for the coming work week.

3/8/2013

SQUATS!  Ok, it sounds better when you shout it than it is in real-life.  Did a bunch of sets, 8-4 reps, weight started at 135, and went up to 225 and then worked back down.  I supersetted with cable crunches and inverted bosu ball air squats.  After it was all said and done, did some ham raises, or actually messed around trying to get the rack adjusted and ended up fatigued.

It was nice to be back in the weight room.  They've done an amazing job getting the new equipment and setting up a more efficient space. 

I'm ready for a weekend.  Stress level at work is heightened with a couple massive projects and just not enough communication from various sources.

3/7/2013

Yoga. Woke up with a knot in my left trap and neck. So we worked that out. On a whole this was a good session. I think the instructor is shifting attention to the flow. That isn't really where my head is... or rather my muscles I seem to do better holding a pose for awhile to get a solid deep stretch.

About halfway through class one of the workout groups blaster George Throughgood's "Bad to the Bone" heh, heh, messed with somebodies feng shui, or whatever.

3-5-2013

Went through my shoulder routine trying to relieve pain and regain range of motion. Seems like one or two moves have the impact and the rest not so sure. Think I will double up on the apparent effective ones. Also did the yoga scheme. Been feeling knotty and it definitely relieved the tightness. Went to finish with a good meditation session but a persistent nose whistle messed with my concentration. Blew it, picked it ,tried to ignore it. Eventually quit before reaching the desired relaxation level. Got to find a solution short of netti pot every night.

3/6/2013

Field-house, fugly barbell, weighted vest.  I felt great today.  By now you know the drill, some combination of movements, walk to the next line, do it again, ends up being five sets.  So, for example:

deadlift, bent-over-rows, high pulls, push press, 5 reps of each, walk to the next line and do another cycle, I like to mix it up just to keep the brain engaged, so sometimes I'll do descending reps, other times ascending, sometimes a single number.  The movements are just whatever I want.  Sometimes I emphasize a movement, pressing, or squatting, other times just whatever.

Today I did a couple of rounds on the tennis court and then ran a lap, ended up doing a mile, along with all the stuff.  Continuous movement for 45 minutes.  YAY BABY getting stronger.

3/4/2013

Field-house, weighted vest, sledge hammer, tractor tire those were the tools of the trade. Joined the workout group at warmup, said my hellos and then followed my own path. You've seen it here before: tire-flipping-run-hammer. The pyramid comes from the hammer, 1x7, 2x7,3x7,4x7,3x7.... Results in 7 rounds of exercise I did it straight through without rest and then jogged, wallowed, lumbered, 1/2 mile with vest and hammer, switched hands, every 100 yards. Not sure why I carried the hammer but it seemed like a thing to do. Folks are often fascinated to watch my workouts and frequently comment. Today I was invited to chop wood at someones home. I've actually had a person try to engage me in conversation while doing hill runs with a sandbag--maybe I really didn't look busy? Today felt good and strong.

So yes I've invited a couple of additional authors, ram introduced himself. As he points out he contributed in the past but had to stop. I think varied view points and varied activities will turn this into a conversation as well as a journal.

Just as guidelines the convention loosely is that workouts are titled with the days' date. Anna uses colons to distinguish hers from mine but yy/mm/dd, or most any variation, hell write it out long-hand, it just gives all those hundreds of readers a clue. RANTS get appropriate titles.

Sharing the angst

Thanks to Sisyphus for inviting me to post on Sisyphean Enterprises. I suspect I am futher along the chronological spectrum than the other posters. Certainly less hard core in my practices. I do a self designed and led yoga routine. I never seem to get more flexible. But it gets the kinks out and with a few minutes of meditation at the end, helps me sleep, in spite of the inevitable bladder induced intrusions every night. I have a body weight strength routine to try to slow loss of strength and muscle mass. Except of course for curls because I can't totally give up on my biceps. And I have a dog that I love to hike with. I hope he is helping me stay in decent cardio shape so I can hike the Inca trail to Maccu Picchu one of these years. I have a nasty case of bursitis in my right shoulder that I work with elastics most days, and had a knee scoped last year, but am otherwise able to be as active as I want, most of the time. I can attest that as you age, it doesn't get any easier to stay motivated or stay on your program. It changes mainly in that instead of being tempted to have a beer, I am usually seduced by a nap. I think truthtelling on this blog will help me stick with it, as does observing how quality of life runs away from people who don't stay active, especially at my age. So, S, thanks again for letting me back in. I hope you and others will view my stuff as a contribution, in some, hopefully appropriate, fashion.