Placeholder 10/08/16

Despite best intentions to get back into this, it is clear that the deterioration to my Right Shoulder will prevent any further progress until it is repaired. Because our insurance/medical system is currently broken, this will not happen this year and may be well into next year before there is even the possibility of this happening.

I will be starting physical therapy on 10/17/16, unless the therapist punches it back. Basically, I have to undergo 6 weeks of physical therapy for 2X a week to further destroy an already wrecked joint until I can get an MRI to figure out what's going on and determine if my next step is lifelong pain management or surgery. As it is now, I'm probably more likely courting cirrhosis by the loving combination of NSAIDs for when the pain is too intrusive and the throes of beer I seem to find myself in lately.

It will get better and now that my actual work flow is slowing somewhat due to a seasonal change, I can finally start moving on that, but the lack of updates due to a lack of actual engagement with the activities this blog is around is due solely to injury.

See you in 2017, hopefully...

D30: 05.12.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Precor Treadmill
Duration: ~1.38 miles/~30 minutes
Driver: Stardust Reverie Project: Proclamation Of Shadows
Calories: 246

Quality Level: N/A Just trying to get back into it today...

Observations/Intel: I tried some weight equipment and I'm thinking I can do some lighter gym work...Shoulder seems pretty shot, however...

After a long layoff and a litany of excuses, it is clear that this needs to be more of a priority, though I've also launched a new business venture that is eating up a lot of time at nights. I debated putting this on hold, but I'm going to go more with doing what I can when I can, so it will probably be much more sporadic than even now...

D29: 03.23.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Schwinn Air Dyne
Duration: ~5 miles/~25 minutes
Driver: TNT: Tell No Tales
Calories: unknown

Quality Level: N/A Posterior definitely not used to the saddle, so I went more casual tonight. I want to be able to get on and try to hit it harder going into a 3 day layoff. Legs seemed like they were a little barky, but could have taken more. Air was not challenged at all.

Observations/Intel: Once I get more accustomed to the saddle, I need to turn it on more...the idea here is more to build Cardio and the only way to do that is to do that. It's nice to lose weight and all, but the idea is to get Cardio conditioning more in line...while it's not being significantly challenged at this point, I'm not fool enough to think it's in anything approaching good shape...

D28: 03.22.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Schwinn Air Dyne
Duration: ~7 miles/~30 minutes
Driver: Savatage: Hall Of The Mountain King
Calories: unknown

Quality Level: N/A As yesterday, again no physical complaints to speak of from any corners. Air was not challenged, Legs were again slightly, but my larger concern is more getting used to the saddle again more than anything. I was pretty pleased at a rough equivalent to 14mph, which came very easily...definitely - and I can never seem to say this enough - the music driver makes a huge difference...

Observations/Intel: I think I'm going to need to put speed tape on the glide bolt on the right side as the nuts keep wanting to turn themselves off...I also neglected to mention last night that part of my fear at doing nothing but a fairly catabolic activity would be to compromise bone integrity without accompanying resistance training. I don't foresee ever giving up Cardio or even the Air Dyne entirely, nor am I taxing myself at an alarming level, but I think some degree of healthy caution is warranted, especially given my long layoff and respective greater age...

D27: 03.21.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Schwinn Air Dyne
Duration: ~5.5 miles/~23 minutes
Driver: Alice Cooper: Flush The Fashion
Calories: unknown

Quality Level: N/A Less of a gap than before...happily, no physical complaints to speak of from any corners. Air was not challenged, Legs were slightly, possibly due to a seat adjustment I made so it would more closely match my actual bike...which I've not ridden in 7 years...CD player woes are continuing, even with the new player, which suggests that I may have to abandon portable CD players completely (I think the Air Dyne vibrations are too much for them to compensate) in favor of the MP3 player, something I'm not looking much forward to because sound quality loss...

Observations/Intel: I did a really stupid thing last week by running the workout so late into the night. I completely forgot about the time change, you see, which entirely threw me off and took me until late into the week to somewhat recover. Work also stepped in to play havoc with things, but that's not a predictable factor, so I'm not too upset there. I am, however, taking this week off from work, due to conflicting school schedules between my wife and son, which I hope to use to get me both on track with body rhythms and with the workout schedule...

I do, however, have a few mini-trips coming up, sprinkled in the midst of my monthly week-long trips, that may prove challenging to keep consistency. Diet has overall not been completely unsound, though I sort of dread getting on the scale again. If I would have thought of it this morning, I should have taken a weigh-in then, but maybe tomorrow...not having the scale in the bathroom I normally use upon wakening is sort of compounding things, in that I tend to forget, since I'm not in "the mode", but both bathrooms in the new place we're at are tiny. In fact, I more or less get the basement bathroom to myself, since it is shower only, but the only one large enough to accommodate me; the one upstairs would hit me slightly below the chin...

I can definitely make a few observations thus far. The first is that I really hope my Shoulder holds up to the testing I'm planning for it as not being able to get in the gym is a very short-lived prospect. Love the Air Dyne and all that it does, but hopping on it is boring me stiff and as soon as I run out of programs, I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't run the tv loud enough to be heard over the Air Dyne, due to the way the vents are, so it's basically watch-only and I'm not in good enough shape yet to pour it on and just concentrate on the music/workout. The second is that I am really disliking actual food as an energy source prior to workouts. In the old days, it would be a careful combination of either protein shake and/or English muffin with raw honey and natural peanut butter, depending on what I was doing and that combination worked exceedingly well for what I wanted to do. Now, depending on what I have for dinner, I have to try to figure out a way to time it so that I'm not bloated and am mentally prepared, but can also fit work in there and get done with all of it at a decent time and can't start much, if any, of that process until my son is in bed and asleep. This will be a persistent challenge, though and the calorie load varies wildly with the different dinners, sort of compounding things. Adding the gym to that will definitely present another dimension, in that I will probably also have operating hours to contend with...should be interesting, if nothing else.

D26: 03.13.16

Not done a weigh-in or a workout in a while. Occasionally I have knee troubles and I’m guessing all the pounding of the cardio sort of contributed to a bit of an onset, which I mentioned in the last workout on my left Leg. That turned into some knee issues, which prompted a cessation of further Cardio and Labrada’s Joint juice that I like to use to set things right. Tastes ghastly but works everytime.

Along the way, though, in fact, the day after my last post, we got the GTFO letter from the owners of our former rental. The story here was that the rental was sold to some new buyers, who evidently evidently upon themselves to become representative of the dregs of humanity, truly reprehensible and outright bad people utterly devoid of so much as a trace of integrity. Thus, even though my knee was back in order by that weekend, I had to very quickly find a new place, so all my free time was spent scouring the interwebs for wherever that would be. I also had to cancel every one of the out of town business trips I had scheduled.

So, I would research, drive by, sometimes walk through over and over again until I found something workable and then I would take my wife and son to check it out. I was basically looking for rejections and after one place made the grade, I finalized it the following Friday. I wound up working late that same day, but once I got back home, began immediately moving, solo, with my bum Shoulder and re-aggravated sprained left thumb. So, definitely got a lot of work in, particularly since it snowed Sunday and I added shovel work into the mix as well. Definitely exhausting.

That continued well into the following week, which, combined with still working full time, basically left me sleeping if I wasn’t working, packing or moving. It ran me ragged, but did demonstrate perhaps that muscle memory on my part took the extra work in stride and rebounded quickly, even without the aid of a ton of protein, a somewhat crappy diet and lots of beer, which was really my only hope of unwinding, given the pressure of the things, particularly trying to work around stupid rain and fucking snow. I don’t know what it did to my body composition, but it definitely wore me the fuck out after 1 week+ straight of that…anyway, with the big move-in the last weekend of the month, I scheduled nothing on the agenda but well-deserved recuperation and then wound up fighting a cold for 2 weeks and change, then another trip out of town, wherein I continued to be plagued by a relentless sore throat. So a week of rest and settling in turned into a lot more and that brings us right up to where we are today, which is more or less going to be a reset…life and all that.

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Schwinn Air Dyne
Duration: ~5 miles/~25 minutes
Driver: Highway Thru Hell (Netflix)
Calories: unknown

Quality Level: N/A It's been 2 months and I've been fighting various minor ailments for the last 2 or 3 weeks, so I mostly just wanted to try to get the rhythm back. This will be the case for the next week or so, I imagine, though if I can get things clicking sooner, I will definitely do it. Tonight didn't feel super-wonderful but I was itching to get back...having to re-adjust my ass to the seat again is one in a long list of annoyances surrounding the move I mentioned earlier...

Observations/Intel: My wife is ill today or I probably would have put this off to tomorrow, but this will be the last Sunday workout until Walking Dead takes a season hiatus. Hopefully by then (mid-April I think), I'll be way back more into a position to floor it...

D25: 01.11.16

I forgot to mention much of this...weigh-in before I left on my last trip was 246. When I got back, I didn't do it until a day later (I think - not keeping strict track) and it was 250 (pretty sure that was bloat). Today, it was 245. Trend is still downward...as expected.

Don’t let anyone fool you. Five days of straight Cardio, even at the lower levels I’m doing it now is tough…five days of lifting? Walk in the park comparatively and it’s not the body taxing so much as it is the mental part. It’s very difficult to summon motivation for that kind of thing if you’re not so moved. 

As it was, I didn’t feel mentally recovered enough after my return from the business trip (I really wanted some goddamn relaxing time, which was not very forthcoming and I truly doubt I will be motivated to do 5 straight nights during those trips again – the last one was a “game time” decision, basically and I waffled back and forth for a couple hours before grudgingly going), so I didn’t feel rested, though I’m sure my body physically had recovered sufficiently. 

So, rather than hitting the Air Dyne, as I had in mind and was preparing to do, I told myself this comforting little vague half-truth that with my son and wife both sick (true) and with a slight little cough I come across here and there (also true) that I should take another night off so I didn’t succumb to exhaustion or consumption or TB or whatever else I wanted to dream up (maybe true, but dubious). This allowed me to fuck around online and fritter enough time for it to be too late and then putz around reading part of a paperback I took for the flight, which really sealed the deal. 

Anyway, back in the saddle tonight...

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Schwinn Air Dyne
Duration: ~8 miles/~43 minutes
Driver: Mechanism: Inspired Horrific
Calories: unknown

Quality Level: N/A A bit casual today...getting used to the saddle again. I definitely did not have a lot of umph today, probably because it was one of those busy days, days which are good because you get a lot done, but in doing so, the downside is that something is sacrificed...in this case, my lunch. I was also battling some minor Left Knee issues and Legs didn't have a whole lot tonight, either. Air was fine throughout, though and oddly, the best rhythm I had was when I injected some minor sprinting into things, to test my repair job on the speedometer...

Observations/Intel: I'm going to shoot for HIIT the next couple of workouts...knee permitting. I had a significant problem with the Air Dyne not registering the mileage and not having a way to measure things really fucks me up. I was able to repair, but it was kind of annoying and took a little time off the workout. I was really worried that the Air Dyne had finally lost that, which registers the thing as worthless to me (I don't do this shit for pleasure) and I'd have to buy another...all of that adds up to a major sort of distraction...tomorrow should be better.

D24: 01.07.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Precor Treadmill
Duration: 1.5 miles/35 minutes
Driver: Stardust Reverie Project: Proclamation of Shadows
Calories: 243

Quality Level: N/A If I was phoning it in yesterday, this workout, combined with end-of-the-week-itis was that much further low key.

Observations/Intel: Tried the machine again. Shoulder is hammered. While the last two workouts weren't so hot, I do note that this year is off to a solid start, with the first two possible goals to be accomplished done during the first week. This will change the first goal to now be two (2) weeks of working out every possible day (normal week) and the second goal to move to more of a continuation/compilation type goal.

I did not get a chance to do a weigh-in and didn't have a scale in my hotel room regardless, so I'll have to try to get to that at some point this weekend...

D23: 01.06.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Precor Treadmill
Duration: 1.5 miles/35 minutes
Driver: Comedy Central on tv
Calories: 249

Quality Level: N/A I had hoped to be able to actually add in some sprints this workout, but clearly the workout before, in conjunction with work, was not going to cooperate there.

Observations/Intel: I tried to content myself by playing with the weight machine a bit and discovered that I definitely need an MRI on my shoulder. It is taking almost zero torque.Yay.

D22: 01.05.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Precor Treadmill
Duration: 2.16 miles/45 minutes
Driver: Comedy Central on tv
Calories: 422

Quality Level: N/A This one was the workout where I pushed the hardest, highest speed, highest incline of any of the workouts while I was on location for a business trip.

Observations/Intel: This one I felt was pushing possibly borderline beyond my capacity to recover while working extended hours on top of everything.

D21: 01.04.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Precor Treadmill
Duration: 2.11 miles/45 minutes
Driver: Comedy Central on tv
Calories: 376

Quality Level: N/A I pushed this one a little harder, but I'm still not quite to the point of running just yet.

Observations/Intel: Given that I've always sort of felt you can't have too much glute work, this one again had me heavily using the incline. So far, so good at this point.

D20: 01.03.16

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Precor Treadmill
Duration: 2.18 miles/50 minutes
Driver: Comedy Central on tv
Calories: 375

Quality Level: N/A This was mostly just to get a feel of the equipment, so nothing too pressing.

Observations/Intel: I still like the deck on Precors and it's nice to have something with a more accurate caloric count than just calculating and approximating with the Air Dyne.

2016 Goal Post

I like to start my years off with a collection of what I want to achieve. This is always based on what I have already accomplished and obviously is far from stationary, accordingly.

In 2015, the (soft) goals were:

Work out all available days during a “normal” (non-holiday) week (Sun night - Thurs night)

45 minutes in a session

10 miles in a workout

Of these, I hit 2. Accordingly, the new goals, at least at the start, are:

Work out all available days during a “normal” (non-holiday) week (Sun night - Thurs night)

30+ minutes consistently per session (already pretty much at this one)

12 miles in a workout

Join gym/resume weight training

I’m going to try to update this post as it develops, as I find this sort of thing, to explicitly list what the goals in mind are (which is why I called 2015 “soft goals”, as I did not do this), inordinately useful.