Time To Give Up

I can barely walk.  The doctor says my kidneys have declined dramatically in the past three months.  I think diet will win soon.

I suppose I should mention, I never had surgery.  That's why I can barely walk. My steps are surprisingly at 918696 for a trip of 144 days.  An average of 6379.83 steps per day.

Steps, Surgery, Etc

I should update.

My steps are 297835 over 41 days.  About 7264 on average.  My steps had been way up, but I also crippled myself.  I'm having surgery on my ankle again next week, so steps will continue going down again.  But hopefully after this third surgery I'll be free and clear to walk, run, and jump rope without pain.

Weight lifting is still sporadic.  I took a week off and just got back into it on Monday.  Everything hurts.  It feels like I managed to nail every major muscle group in my recent return.  Surgery is probably going to interfere with weights again for a while.

Still Sick

I have 14655 steps today.  I only had about 7000, but I decided to walk despite being sick.  I jump roped some too.  I'm not very good at it anymore.  No running today.

Steps And Weight(s)

My steps are at 141521 and 18 days.  No steps today, so 17 days.  But I've been sick, so I didn't carry it at all on Saturday and I barely walked around on Sunday.  My average is still good despite a weekend failure.  My weightlifting suffered as well.   I did it every day, but minimally.  I focused mainly on overheads so as not to lose ground.  My weight didn't go up anymore that I can tell.  But I've definitely gained some.  I need to be more careful about what I eat.  I need to get out and run again, but I have thise cough and so I'm not doing that right now.  I think I should jump rope again.  I used to like jump roping.

Sick

I've been sick since maybe Tuesday.  Back on Tuesday it felt like maybe I was on the verge of getting a sore throat.  Wednesday I definitely had a sore throat.  I had to nap that afternoon for several hours because I felt bad.  Since then my voice has gone deep and I cough sometimes.  In the grand scheme of things, I'm barely sick.  A victory of trying to be healthy I think.  Before, in the fat and lazy times, any illness would be a miserable week of being bedridden.  While I don't need to be bedridden right now, I'm an sticking to the bed in the hopes of recovering faster.

Being 239.5 pounds doesn't make me happy.  I don't feel like I'm losing weight anymore.  I have been overindulging in chocolate and almonds again.

115978 steps total, about 9600 average per day.

No running last night.  Given how much my feet and ankles hurt I was worried about even being able to walk half a mile.  I walked quite a bit more, but had a lot of trouble making it home.  I think I pushed myself just to the edge.

Muscles?

I weigh 239 pounds this morning.  I feel like I'm losing weight, so this must be muscles growing.

103226 steps, so finally averaging over 9000.

Steps

My pedometer trip reads 89677 and 11 days.  Really 10 days since I have 0 steps today.  And 10 is an easy number, 8967 steps per day on average.  A good number.

My morning weight is 237.25 pounds.

Running

I've had two days of "rest" in my weightlifting. Tomorrow is back to 110 pounds. Tomorrow will be bench and rows which I have always been able to do. I have "done" my overheads at 110 again, but I didn't do them well. Tuesday I bet I will be able to do them without any cheating (dipping to use my legs to add momentum to the bar).

But tonight I ran again. Last time, a few days ago, I could barely run 1/8 of a mile at a time. Tonight I could run more than 1/8 of a mile, but not as much as 1/4 of a mile. I think I probably ran an entire mile tonight, in short little pieces. And overall I walked pretty far. By the end, walking was hard on me, and I couldn't run, so it was a good night.

I'm getting closer to being able to do a pull up.  I'm still very far away, but progress is being made.

Weight and perambulation

My pedometer reads 62822 steps and 8 days. But this is the start of day 8, so no steps have been taken. So really, 62822 over 7 days. That's almost nine thousand steps a day. A big part of it is that I use a standing desk for work and playing computer games. I think it helps a lot. I also prefer to walk the building looking for people in their offices rather than calling them on the phone.

At the start of April I decided to "run" every day. I did it for more than a week. One mile in the evening. But really I was just jogging. I was going faster than walking, and using more energy, but I was doing 12 minute miles and I wasn't doing anything tiring. I probably could have done two, or three, or maybe even ten miles at that page without batting an eye.

Recently I stopped the jogging, to rest a little. And last night, I went back to it, but I went to run. Really run. I had been hoping I'd have a hard time of it but still struggle through at least a lap. But it was not to be. Right around 1/8th of a mile I started to lose control of my breathing. Running doesn't work when you're hyperventilating trying to get enough oxygen just to stay conscious. So I ran 1/8 mile, walked 3/8 mile, ran 1/8 mile, walked 3/8 mile, ran 1/8 mile, then walked 3/8th mile again. Plus the 1/4 mile each way to and from the track.

I should not run today. I should rest. I should see how that running pans out over 24 hours. I typically really start to feel soreness from exercise a full day later from when the exercise occurred.

Tomorrow I should go back, and see if I can run more than 1/8th mile at a time.

I've been weightlifting every day. The three times a week was good, but when I was in the mood I craved more and more of it. And when I'd skip a day it suddenly became easy to skip a week. I had been overhead pressing 120 pounds for a rep or two, but after a series of failures to lift I was back to pressing 100 pounds and not having a good time of it. So now I lift every day. If I don't really feel like lifting, I declare it to be a rest day, and I lift a light bar (currently 85 pounds, about 80% of a normal day). This seems to be working.

My weight is hovering at the top end of the 230s. I'm almost 240 again. But I don't think it's me getting fatter. I think it's the results of exercise. When I look at my arms in particular, they look large but not corpulent.

Progress

My weight is up. I don't think my eating is up. My chocolate intake is definitely down. Steps are 739530 over 145 days, but there are at least four days recently when I didn't carry it. That is up to 5100.2 steps per day on average. Since my average used to be so much lower, I think it's a huge improvement. I'm resetting it to 0. Weightlifting has been daily for more than a week. One mile runs have happened every day this calendar month. Not today yet, but 'm sure it will happen today. I run a 12 minute mile, which sucks. That used to be my 2 mile time.

Steps

My steps are currently at 652429 over 132 days. I think that's good.

Warm Ups

There needs to start being warms up for lifting. I think it will help.

I didn't lift on Friday. I sort of think twice a week is good for me. I don't stay so constantly sore.

I need to go on a long bike ride again soon. I'm sure I've lost ability since my last trip out and up Sedillo hill.

115 Overheads

Last night I did five sets of five reps of overheads at 115 pounds. I'm definitely stronger. A week ago I could do one rep. Wednesday shall be bench press and barbell rows.

22x by 4!

This is the fourth morning in a row that my weight has started with 22. Last night, before bed, I foolishly weighed myself, and I was just a little into 230. I seem to respirate and urinate about two pounds over an average night, so I wasn't terribly worried. My official weigh-in time is after my morning shower, so last night doesn't count! Last night I ate more than a dozen half-sized kit-kat bars along with two hot dogs and some general tso's chicken from 328 I have more chicken, and tomorrow is cake. It is going to be hard to keep that 22x going. But I want to try, as I'm getting close to a week at 22x.

No major bike rides have taken place. The weather has been oppressive. My tendon in my right arm still hurts, though I'm not sure I've talked about it before. It is slowly getting better. It doesn't seem to hurt it to do barbell rows anymore. I am standing and walking more in general, though not tracking my daily step counts.

As for lifting, I'm at 115 pounds now. Squats are the only one that isn't a problem, but at this weight they do keep me quite sore every day of the week. I can do the reps on everything but the overheads. I can actually overhead 115, but generally only one rep. Over the weekend I did three sets of 1, 1, and 2. Last night I did 2 just to prove I could. Wednesday I will theoretically try to 5x5.

I am very tempted to buy access to the swimming pool and go swimming a lot.

Lifting And Riding

I've only tried one bike ride since my last posting. It was a failure. The wind was 30 to 35 mph and against me on the uphill route. I didn't make it more than a few miles, and I had to stop and rest twice. On the plus side, it was an hour of very hard work, even if my mileage doesn't show it. I felt accomplished enough afterwards.

I've been lax about writing down daily steps from my pedometer. My trip log is 421970 steps for 100 days of counting, so over that 100 days I've walked about 40% as much as I should have.

Today I successfully did five sets of five reps of 110 pound overhead presses. The squats and deadlifts (+50 pounds) have been doable at that weight for a while now. It's the overheads that kill me. The alternate day is squats, bench press, and barbell rows, and I've already succeeded at 110 pounds on that day. So Wednesday I'm looking at 115 pound squats, bench presses, and barbell rows. The rows are getting hard too. Soon they might limit me as much as the overhead press does. If I tried I could probably squat a lot more weight than 115 pounds, bench more than 115 pounds, and deadlift more than 165 pounds. Rows and overheads are my downfall.

I've been thinking of working out more days, but the alternate days would be at drastically reduced weight. I did it a couple of times with overhead press, and I really think it helped me.

Water Canyon Turn Off

So back on Monday, February 4th, I bicycled out to the turn off to Water Canyon. It looks like my route was right at 30 miles round trip, still guessing about 2000' of elevation gain.

My speed was improved. When I rode to the top of Sedillo Hill I seem to remember it took me about 2 hours. This time, I hit the Water Canyon Campground at almost exactly two hours. It took almost exactly one hour to return home.

When I stopped I still felt good. Really good. But I had gone quite a ways, and I had to go all the way home. So it seemed like a good idea to turn around there. Shortly thereafter I crashed hard. About the time I reached Box Canyon on the way back I felt like I had reached the end of my rope and was just going to collapse. So I coasted more, instead of pedaling downhill, and that helped a lot.

Monday night I successfully did my 5x5 StrongLifts routine for squat/overhead/deadlift at 100/100/150 pounds. Considering how hard it was to get through overheads at 85, 90, and 95 pounds, the fact that I did 100 pounds my first attempt is pretty amazing.

I ended last weeks 20 mile ride and this weeks thirty mile ride with a numb penis. So I adjusted my seat to be more nose-down. Hopefully it won't happen again.

I had talked about riding to Langmuir, or Magdalena, but I've become excited about the prospect of riding to Datil. I've only tried to ride to Datil from Socorro once. We (myself plus Bob Broilo and Phil De Cat) left at midnight from ice blocking party. We fought a strong headwind for six hours, and only made it as far as Magdalena. We decided to turn around, and within an hour we were at Denny's in Socorro. One memorable moment on that trip was past the top of Sedillo Hill, when someone pulled out a bag of fig newtons to snack on. The wind lifted all the fig newtons out of the package and they sailed away into the night.

My weight hasn't really gone down any.

Weights

So after going on my bike ride in the morning it was time to life weights in the afternoon. Last week I had finally managed to do overheads at 90#, so today was starting over at 95#. I was a bit worried about the barbell rows. Rows at 90# was hard. But, it turns out, I did them easily today. Well, the last set was a little difficult, but not terribly.

But the squats...

The squats were hard. My first squat I was able to bend my knees a little, dropping down a good four inches. After a few attempts I was getting 3/4 squats done, so I called it good.

By the fifth set, though, I was finally limber, and able to do normal squats, which is good. The long bike ride apparently made me stiff.

Today was also bench press. The benches weren't hard at all either.

Sedillo Hill: Conquered

Instead of waiting a week, I went out on a bike ride again today. It took me about two hours, but I reached the top of Sedillo hill, which appears to be just over ten miles from my house via the route I take. Sadly, that means my rate was about five miles per hour. Though, I really didn't think I'd make it more than about three or four miles. The headwind was strong, and it was a constant struggle not to just give up and ride with the wind. I seemed doubly doomed to give up when it started to rain, but it was a very short sprinkle and not a persistent rain like Saturday. And so, I persevered, and made it. I only stopped once, at the poop on the side of road to take yet another picture, and otherwise rode non stop from my house to the top of the hill. For some reason Google maps doesn't want to give me topology for that place today, but I suspect it is about 6000 feet. Sadly, my goal is probably to hit South Baldy via bicycle from Socorro. Which means a long arduous trip across those high plains, then up into Water Canyon and up that hideously long and steep mountain. Once I'm there, I'll probably be tempted to ride down into Magdalena. That would necessitate needing someone to check on my to make sure I made it home. I've only actually made said trip once that I can remember. I went too early in the year, and fought my way through the ten feet of snow for quite a bit longer than I should have. I should have turned around when the snow got more than a few feet deep. I've had back pain recently, especially after riding, and I think I realized why. I'm riding with my lower back arched instead of straight. That's bad I think.

Sedillo Hill

My bike ride made another giant leap forward today. I turned around at the base of Sedillo Hill. At the time, I turned around because I was cold and wet and tired of riding into the rain. Now that I'm home, I think I probably made a good choice to turn around then. The double rainbow on the way home was pretty nice, but I didn't have a good camera with me. Poking around on Google maps, I find I probably rode a tiny bit less than 18 miles, and the first half was uphill by probably 1200 feet at least. My weight is still up. I am 246 pounds naked holding my cat Stinky. But I go down to 233 if I put the cat down.

Weight And Weights

My weight has been creeping back up. Not surprising. But I wish I could force it to only creep down. I'm still surprisingly light compared to what I had been. I need more loss though. A few of days ago I went backwards on my ability to do overheads. The week before success had seemed certain. But Monday I was able to do fewer of them than I had previously. Yesterday was squats/bench/rows. The rows are still quite hard as well despite being stalled by the overheads. My squats are getting deeper. So deep, in fact, that they are suddenly becoming hard to do. This is probably a good thing. My left ankle is still problematic. The heel often lifts up while doing squats.

Bike Ride

I went on a longer bike ride today. About 14 miles total. It was windy coming back.

23x Again

I have failed to stay in the 22x range of weight. Not that I'm surprised, I'd barely reached it. But two days of eating steak slathered in a morel cream sauce has pushed me back up into 23x. Oh, and yesterday I ate a least a pound of blueberries, and it involved a lot of crumble made from butter, flour, and sugar, and I followed that up with soup and tamales.

The crumble was a terrible idea. I knew that going in. But the sudden return of sugar to my diet set me on a roller coaster of food cravings and an insatiable appetite. I stuffed myself after the crumble to the point that I was in discomfort. And I still craved and hungered for more.

I have high hopes that Monday will be the day that I can once again do an overhead press of 90#. The squats are very easy. The benches aren't a problem. Barbell rows are hard, but doable. Deadlifts are hardest on my hands, and I'm still only deadlifting less than half my body weight.

I'm A Winner!

I weigh 229 pounds. I've finally gotten out of the 23x range. Really, I need to stay in the 22x range for a week to prove it is real, but still, even dipping in briefly is quite an achievement for me.

I weighed about this much in 2004, after taking nearly two months off of work and spending every day riding my bicycle all day long out in the desert. The weight came back then.

No major weight loss

I keep hoping to find myself in a magical new zone of weight loss. But no, I keep finding the same old two numbers (23) at the front. On the other hand, it has to come soon, one way or another. I used to weigh 170 pounds. I'm just barely shy of 6'3". When I weighed that little I ran ten miles a day every day.

My last big walk was Saturday. It was cold. Yesterday I went on a long drive, and had seven courses of beef, so I don't think that counts for anything good.

Hopefully I will walk tonight.

I've gotten much better about chocolate consumption at home. I need to work more on eliminating chocolate silk pie consumption at El Camino.

Short Bike Ride

I went on a short bike ride today. About ten miles. The first half towards Box Canyon, and the second half towards my house. It was cold out there. Very, very cold. There didn't seem to be an achievable balance between sweaty and freezing. I stopped at MM134. My weight is down. About 231 pounds. I plan/hope to go on a hike in the woods soon.

Walking

I didn't walk nearly as far today as yesterday. But since yesterday rolled across midnight my pedometer shows some of yesterday on today so it looks like I walked more today. I suppose, technically, I did walk more today, just with about 20 hours between parts of it.

The important thing though, is that I ran for about 100m. It made my hamstring hurt, the one I pulled a long time ago.

Last Night's Walk

I measured last night's walk on Google maps. It looks like about 4.2 miles.

I Need To Do This More

I'm not very good at updating this much. My last few posts have been "what has been happening since I last posted" post, and guess what this post will be? I'm lifting weights again. I'm still bad at overhead presses. I can't do 5 sets of 5 overhead presses at 85#. So we are lingering at 85# until I can do all my sets, then we will go up to 90#. I'm expecting to make it tomorrow. On Wednesday I did 3 sets of 5 and 2 sets of 3. I haven't done purposeful walking in quite a while, but I have these past few days. It is with +Eric Beckstead. I can supposedly link his profile there, but it doesn't let me. I don't have much patience for Eric's problems anymore, and so the walking will last only as long as the problems are subsided. My weight had been way down, but it has crept up again. I'm not really sure how high up, and not is a bad time to weight myself since I bought 8 quarts of food at 328 Chinese recently. I'm almost through eating it. Once that is done, normal weight loss can carry on. I want to go backpacking. I just don't want to go alone, it's dangerous, and no one will give me a sword.