1-30-14

Yoga. Full hour, quick paced. Felt the shoulder and thigh flush all afternoon. I've noticed that I can rotate left much better than right. Today during a right twist I felt and heard my entire spine adjust. Wasn't sure if it was good or bad at first, but everything feels fine. I'm thinking it was progress. Probably know for sure tomorrow.

1/30/2014

Pool was closed.  Standing at the door dripping wet... and no follow through.

Weight Room, weighted vest

4 rounds
.25 mile dreadmill, 4 mph
10x, inverted bosu ball air squats
3x, each side, step downs
5x, push up burpee to a jumping pull up

3 rounds
150lb, cable crunches, 15, 12, 10
45 degree hyper-extensions, 8,8,8

Good enough.

1-28-14

Yoga. Reduced duration to 45 minutes to fit inside the lunch hour better. Made up for it by picking up the pace. Less muscle screaming, more cardio. I liked it although a couple of  balance poses that I am particularly bad at also got left off. Found that oddly disappointing. Overall, I enjoy the yoga despite my difficulties and go a lot harder in the group than when soloing.

1/28/2014

Fugly bar bell, weighted vest, and the Field House.

Just did the thing.  A real jumble of movements for a full body workout.  I'm pleased with what swimming has done for my work capacity but, I've got to recovery some muscular endurance.  At this point I'm not especially worried about strength.

1-25-14

Braved the polar vortex to do a 3 mile interval in the neighborhood with Tate. Followed with a 20 minute solo yoga session doing basic stretches and balance moves. Finally, a nap.

1/27/2014

Swam a mile.

8x200yards, breast/free, side/free, side/free, breast/free

Pretty much that.

1/24/2014

Fun with Weights.

I got down to the locker room and realized I had no swimsuit.  So, one adapts.  I grabbed the fugly barbell and went down to the field house.  Work ensued.  The swimming is doing a good thing for aerobic capacity and work capacity.  However, I need to find a way to do this more regularly because muscular endurance was down a bit.  In truth better than I expected over all. 

1-23-14

Yoga. One hour session. Head to toe stretch, strength, balance. Struggling most with balance and trying to feel like down dog is a resting pose. After about 8 sessions I think my spinal column is stabilizing, a positive step. Looks like a twice a week schedule for the rest of the winter. I like it but looking forward to getting outside again.

1/22/2014

Swimming.  1.25 miles in 57 minutes.  So that is progress.  I swam handful of 200 yard intervals to shave a fair bit of time of the distance.  I'm really pleased.  My mile time is still too slow to qualify by 10 minutes but with today's progress I feel confident about closing that lap.

1-21-14

An hour of yoga. Instructor offered to pick up the pace for more cardio effect but dropped it when the karma  in the room went negative. Finally touched my butt to my heels in child pose, apparently getting looser slowly. Still struggling with balance. Overall it is enjoyable and I think I am benefitting. Alas, no music.

1/21/2014

Yoga.

Just because I needed the stress reduction.  Alas, the instructor had the twinkly-new-age-chanting-synth-musak up way too loud.  I have to work really hard to not get pissed off when she does that.  Today's flow felt awkward rather like she had an agenda with particular movements and was more focused on that then how we moved between them -- felt awkward and repetitive, alas.  So, my hams and hips are stretched out but my soul isn't.

1/20/2014

Swam a mile.  Good to be back in the saddle.  I'm not sure if they let the pool cool down for meets but last Tuesday it was just too damn cold.  I swam 800 and couldn't get warmed up.  It is probably only a couple of degrees warmer but for this guy that was a world of difference.

Saw JW and EJ were in the pool too.

Now that the holidays are truly over I've got to jump this whole thing up a couple points and see if I can start to recover my work capacity.

1-19-14

A little stiff from the last workout. 3 mile walk/run with the dog followed by a short yoga practice. Need to loosen hamstrings and do better on one leg balance moves.

1-18-14

Snowy Saturday. Did some strength work: 2 sets each heel raises, air squats, ab wheel, pushups and curls, then 20 minutes walk/run on the treadmill 4.5mph at 5 incline. Felt good. Flexed and asked the wife how I looked, hoping for "awesome". She said "skinny". Asked me how she looked. I said "fat". It more or less went downhill from there. Workout was good though.

1-16-14

Yoga. Had to squeeze it a little because of a weight watchers meeting that had the conference room (aka yoga studio) reserved. Going in I thought I would enjoy the reduction in pain, but in fact I missed the full treatment. Still short on flexibility  and wobbly on a lot of the balance moves but definitely better. Also, relatively relaxed and kinkless. Generally good stuff.

1/16/2014

Yoga.  I needed it too.  Accomplished my intention of not farting in an embarrassing way and relaxing a bit.  Back in the office it was the same shit storm, but I was better positioned for it.

1/14/2014

Fail.  I went down to swim and nothing went well.  The water was noticeably colder.  I struggled to get warmed up and failed.  Struggled to get my breathing settled down and failed.  So after 800 yards I walked away.  Just cut your losses sometimes.  I'm not really certain what was broken so it is hard to fix.  Maybe just a change in scenery.

01-13-14

Forgot my wife's birthday for the 34th time in 34 years. Luckily establishing low expectations early in the relationship reduces the disappointment in later years. The flowers I bought her in the supermarket on the way home from work are better than some years...

Anyway, great yoga session at lunch. 2 guys plus the instructor. Extra hamstring work since that seems to be a guy flexibility problem. I think my down dogs are getting better because the pain and shaking are diminishing. I am doing worst on the balance moves. Good thing is that they are easily practiced and improvement is possible.

Read an article over the weekend that vigorous exercise slows physical decline by 50% or more between the ages of 30 and 70. After 70 it appears that inevitability trumps good habits. 5 years left. Sweet Jesus. Get ready for a fight, Age, I'm not going to make it easy for you.

1/13/2013

Swim thang.  Lost count almost immediately so I just went by time.  55 minutes and called it good.

1/10/2014

Swim thang.  Off in interesting ways today.  I struggled to get warmed up and in the groove.  Then once I was in the pocket I lost count.  I'm pretty sure I got the mile done.  The cold temps outside and the cool pool means that at 800 yards I'm just barely warmed up.  Anyway it is the weekend and I'm good with that.  Yesterday's fretting seems to have been for naught which is what I was telling myself all along.  You just have to trust yourself.

JW was not in the pool today.  I'm just say'n.

1/9/2013

Yoga.

First time in a long time, alas, as I was walking out the door a co-worker told me to watch my back on a particular decision.  So, that of course cranked up the nerves.  I spent the whole time telling myself not to over anticipate or to let myself start telling stories about something that hadn't even become an issue yet.  So, to the point, I was distracted and that made following the instructor difficult.  But, I got through without farting or otherwise embarrassing myself. 

I saw JW in the locker room he was in the pool trying to start working his training plan for Peaks to Portland.

Some thoughts on what I've learned about doing Yoga and I by no means am any kind of expert.  Just like Olympic lifting one wants to use his skeleton more than muscles to do the work.  Second is to consciously relax every muscle not in use.  Breathing matters and by staying relaxed it becomes possible.  Third, straps and blocks are ones friends and important for avoiding injury.  I've probably learned other stuff too but these were key for me.

1-8-2014

Busy week this week but have managed to get in two strong yoga sessions. My body is grudgingly loosening although I really don't get how the instructor sees down dog as a resting position. We are confined by the usual lunch hour, but are using the full 60 minutes and it takes about all I have. I think there will be strength and flexibility benefits if we can stay with a 3/week schedule through the winter with some short supplements at home. Trying to stay wine free during the week to avoid sapping my enthusiasm for post dinner stretches. Successful so far this week.

1/8/2013

Swim thang.  1 mile non- stop.  Slower then I like, but I need to give myself a break, since this is day two after a three week break.

1/7/2014

Got my swim thang on.

1 mile.  100 yard intervals of breast/side/side/free style.

I was really surprised to come back from 3 weeks off and to pull that off that directly.

R.A.M. I was intrigued to hear about the e-book idea.  Given the drafts you've already done here I'd encourage you to do more.  Use this space to draft the text.  Along with the GPS watch try to find a camera that works for you and tell some of the story with pictures.  Even consider video and a YouTube Chanel to supplement the written narrative.  My two cents anyway.

1-5-14

I was too sore from Yoga the previous day to do much yesterday, but did a 2.5 mile interval on the road today. Finally figured out how to make my GPS watch function but forgot to stop it when we finished, so lost the  data. When I pull it all together, it will be a good tool. Thinking about creating an e-book on local hikes. The watch will be a good device for documenting times and distances. It is a Garman Forerunner 210. Pretty simple, with no excess stuff. Seems best to stand still when calling up the satellite connection, but otherwise what I had hoped for.

1-3-14

Back at work. Yoga day today. All bailed but me so it was one on one with the instructor. She is at most 5 feet tall and not 100 pounds. Her style has a really nice flow and she is patient and encouraging. It doesn't seem like she is trying to torture me, but I really stuggle to keep up and figure that what I manage to do only remotely resembles her intended movement. It was a difficult hour. I had to ask for a break twice. The one thing I may have made progress on is Down Dog where I felt less under strain in the position, so am concluding that it is better than it was a month ago when it hurt. I'm sure it is me, not her and hope I will get better. It offers more strength work than I expected. Just have to improve my flexibility. Worthwhile winter goal.

1/4-1/5/2014

Raked a portion of the roof and shoveled the mess up.  Took about an hour, fair bit of shoulder work in that.

Cross country ski for two hours.  Beautiful sunny warm day 25 degrees.  We are supposed to get freezing rain tonight.  Then 44 degrees and rain tomorrow then back to the teens -- sounds like "ice" to me.

Back in the pool tomorrow.  I've taken some time to think about goals for the new year.  As most folks do.  Though I'm working backward from the outdoor activities I want to enjoy at least for the most part.  Like r.a.m. some of the "wellness" metrics enter into my thinking too.  In particular my pants shrunk a little so I need to shed a few pounds.  Probably would be good to think about what I eat as much as how much I eat.  I tend to follow, the pig, bear, raccoon diet, where I eat whatever and if it is too smelly to eat I roll in it.  I probably need to be a little more thoughtful about the eating part of that.