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.