By the Numbers

Status
Not open for further replies.
That's a really great way to combine exercise time with leisure time! My mom has a projector. I should suggest that to her. This kind of thing is why I love this forum. Great way to exchange ideas and things that have worked for other people.

Is Spice at all interested in joining you?
 
-Cory- said:
Is Spice at all interested in joining you?
Click to expand...

That depends on whether you go by what she says or what she does. My best guess is yes and no. There is a desire to be in better shape but the will needs some reinforcement. She has strongly supported me in pursing fitness and suggested I drop in for an hour swim at a pool near her sister's this morning. She has said she would like to spend a bit of time on the rower while I'm on another machine but the day has been deferred due to a recent fall on ice and - reasons. I kind of believe that when there is a disparity between what a person says and does, you should lend credence to what it is they do. At some point she will overcome her inertia provided I stay the course and support any efforts rather than criticize the absence. In the mean time, she's making an effort in terms of food quality and that will benefit us both.
 
Cory: She had a decent day with her sister and I wound up joining them for dinner before we went home. Today, she's seeing about a job that involves some lifting and constant movement on her feet so the workout stuff may be of less significance. I may find myself more involved in household duties.

Day 17: HRV: 7, BP: 106/70 - 55, 108.7 Kg on 8 hours of a quite restful sleep. We shared a later evening pot of some green/mint tea that had me up once in the night. Spice was a little restless and got up before me so there was a pot of coffee awaiting before submission to the torture chamber.

Rower: 2532 metres at 1:58/500 m pace. Other two machines and resistance as per plan. Average/max heart rate was 152/168 for the half hour. It's beginning to look like pre-workout coffee makes for a bump in heart rate, but I'll collect a few more data points before I'm ready to conclude that.

I should probably start calling it my amusement park rather than dungeon or torture chamber in an attempt to reshape my attitude to exercise but that relationship is a difficult one. I love the results and feeling as though I somehow fit in better but the process itself is a bit of an ordeal for me. Most everyone in my family is or was very successful in their sporting endeavours but I had a bit of a bad break on that front. I've mentioned that I lack the ability to perceive depth. This is something that your brain develops by a certain age and is deep in the neural pathways. If you don't get it by something like 5 years of age, the brain can't develop it. As a toddler I was always wanting to be carried because I couldn't see something like the height difference of a curb or a step, or how close I was to the edge of a table. I myself diagnosed the problem when in middle school by which time I had learned means to accommodate the condition somewhat. Unfortunately, if the playing field isn't level or the ball has a different size than I've worked with to date, it meant a basketball in the face, a broken femur playing soccer/football due to a depression in the field, kicking at a ball as it passed under my foot or swinging at a baseball well before of after it crossed the plate. Change the racquetball to one that is a bit sticker and it will come off the wall just different enough that I'm going to give up a few points as I adjust. Being last chosen for teams was devastating in the context of both peers and my athletic parents and siblings. Eventually I acquired sufficient compensatory skills to get pretty good at most sports that have visually defined bounds and flat surfaces but jogging on grass is still a recipe for a rolled ankle and more frequent jarring footfalls leading to progressive injuries. Learning to drive was an adventure that I survived without too much trauma. Growing up with the frustration of not being good enough on teams led me to prefer other less active pursuits and engrained a propensity to be a bit heavier. I was dished the same meal as my more active siblings but my activity level needed less. In some ways this was socially crippling such that I find working out in public unappealing. I'll do it, but it's even more of an ordeal than at home.

Lunch yesterday was as stated, a duplicate of the previous day with beef barley soup and some fruit and vegetables. Dinner at the sister-in-law's was a plate of rice, raw daikon radish, raw red cabbage, raw carrots, and cooked red peppers and a chicken thigh from which I removed the skin. Two kinds of fruit pie were on offer before and after dinner but I declined. No desert yesterday and my usual oatmeal breakfast post workout today.View attachment 25066
 
I actually can relate a lot to your thoughts on exercise. I don't have the issues with depth perception that you do, but I was always picked last in gym class because of my weight (I've been fat for a loooooonnnngggg time). I can't say that it doesn't still affect me as an adult. I spent a long time thinking that I hated exercise, but I came to realize that it's mostly team sports that aren't my thing. You might like solitary ventures better. Some of my favorites are horseback riding, Strongman, Highland games, any kind of fitness dance class, and hiking. Something like that might be more to your taste (even if it's not one of the above mentioned) and allows you to have goals beyond exercising for the sake of exercise.
 
My depth perception is sub-par but thankfully not as bad as yours: it never broke me anything. I mostly hate team sports but enjoy things like hiking, lifting, climbing and swimming. If Spice is starting a more strenuous job involving lifting, regular exercise may become more important, not less, in compensation.
 
Cory: I play racquet sports well. I play a kickass game of ping pong. I was pretty good at badminton and have been playing tennis with Spice and my son and have played quite a lot of racquetball over the years against a variety of opponents. I've tried squash a few times with borrowed gear but that one has had a particularly tough eye-hand learning curve. I was successful in middle to longer distances on a track and competed at provincial levels in discus lettering in high school. I could throw a ball or a Frisbee like nobody's business and could hit a person at well over 100 yards with a snowball. I enjoy quite a lot of other sports including swimming, water skiing, roller blading and biking outdoors. Spice and I recently acquired an inflatable kayak and we have stand-up paddle boards so there is no shortage of energetic activities that suit me. Many of them are weather dependent and January tends to be a more sedentary time of year. Spice fell on the ice a few weeks ago, my 89 year old father slipped and fell last week and a buddy I'm having over for dinner tomorrow is in hospital today being assessed after a slip and fall yesterday. We had a freeze/thaw/freeze cycle that led to several hundred vehicle collisions one day last week so there is a disincentive to drive to a park for skating, when the weather is otherwise amenable. A couple years back I was playing with a frisbee and chucking a football in the park and wound up with a painfully restricted range of motion in my right arm that took near enough a year to resolve. Just putting on a shirt was painful but now I can just about lock fingers behind my back with either arm over the shoulder and the other low and around.

LaMaria: My understanding of depth perception is that it's more of an on/off thing. The degree of discrimination varies with the distance between the eyes and with the acuity of vision of the lesser eye, and to a lesser extent, the amount of eye hand coordination activities one undertakes up to a certain volume. But things like picking up a cup of coffee, a pen or shaking someone's hand fine tune that facility which is entirely absent in me. Your point about activity for Spice in preparation for work is understood and I agree, but I just see it as naturally falling into place when a level of activity is a necessary part of daily routine. I have often suggested walks, got her a great folding bike with all necessary accessories, given her roller blades she last used over 10 years ago, got new ice skates a few years back so she could more often join me. The kayak, paddle boards see intermittent use in the summer and we have an amazing river valley with river water of sufficient quality to swim in and depth to navigate, but she lacks swimming confidence and the lakes require significant travel. We do play some free tennis in the summer at a local park, but that is subject to wind and wet and me playing at a subdued level of effort. At this time of year, I've got enough trouble getting in a meaningful number of steps in that I don't even log them.
 
Day 18: Sucky sleep. I had a toothache and couldn't fall asleep. I generally don't take any meds and have had noting in the past 30 years except some antibiotics for an ear infection and some Tylenol with Codeine post surgery when I had my scaphoid bone in my wrist pinned after breaking it playing tennis. That bone is supposedly the slowest to mend in the human body because it has a ridiculously poor blood supply. I didn't take all the pills allocated as I have no feelings, or perhaps tolerate pain well. I'd give the tooth thing a 3 on the Richter scale but it kept me up for two hours after I hit the pillow. I took a Tylenol for arthritis and was sorted in under 10 minutes. Thankfully I can usually drop off in under 5 minutes unless my mind is wound up and either the Tylenol is still working 12 hours later or the pain was an anomaly - wishful thinking.

I acceded to Spice's suggestion I stay in bed post alarm and just didn't feel rested when I arose an hour later so I went to see what Harvey had to say. I have him set to take a 2.5 minute reading and the first was a bit weird as there was a discontinuity in the heart reate and HRV readings. The app reported no anomalies in the reading and registered an 8. Damn you Harvey. I don't feel like it. So I took another reading and this time it gave a smooth graph and a reading of 7. He sent me off to the Whine Cellar.

HRV: 7, BP: 114/74 - 59, 109.6 Kg. Nothing optimal to see here.

Weights and machines were grudgingly done. My rower had the audacity to display a number of spurious readings ending up with a blank screen at the end of my time. It started at a 1:58/500 rate and I finished at about that level of effort, but the Garmin graph suggests a lower than usual effort. Probably the little button cell battery needs replacement and I'll check it out tonight.

Average/max heart rate was 147/167 with HRR of 56 (yesterday was 59)

My scale has given several duplicate readings as though it 'sticks' and the HRR value was lower than where it's been so I'm not thrilled with any of the metrics today. Who knows how much the toothache or the Tylenol chemicals impacted the blood pressure and heart rate. I'm going with the trend line which continues to show progress.

Lunch yesterday was 1/2 a 650 ml tub of tomato basil bisque soup, a pair of oranges and a Mac apple like previously pictured. Dinner saw the last of the thawed package of sausages, fried up with some maple syrup, a honey mustard, some curly sweet potatoes, sauerkraut and a small side of mac and cheese precooked from the grocer. I had some chai tea in the evening and 20 pistachio salted nuts.
View attachment 25071
 
Hale said:
I play a kickass game of ping pong.
Click to expand...
Ah....ping pong. I have fond memories of that game. Haven't played in....a life time. But in a life time ago...when I was in high school...we had a table in our garage...I was the Neighborhood Ping Pong Ball champion. I even beat my Dad.
 
Day 19. HRV: 6, BP: 107/70 - 63, 108.5 Kg on 7.5 hrs of sleep.

I woke up before the alarm thinking about a bill I would need to pay so there's some subconscious stress going on. I've said I'm underemployed so life is causing me to dip into my future retirement. I'm going to need to change my employment status. At the moment I'm performing accounting and paralegal duties at my brother's law practice and I can see his cash flow doesn't really justify charging what I'm worth or covering my cost of living. I've also developed some software to help him manage his practice several years ago and have been fine tuning it but he suffers from tech inertia. He was recently still running Windows 98 with web compatibility issues and security risks.

At least the toothache disappeared after one Tylenol. Spice may possibly land a job that includes good dental benefits and I'm hoping to defer any work until then.

Resting heart rate had been declining for the first while. I attributed some of it to improved fitness but it may be partly a metabolism reduction response to the slight reduction in caloric input that goes with mindful eating. Yesterday's and today's readings were higher than the usual trend and it could be due to stress, lingering Tylenol, what I ate yesterday or... I've had a resting heart rate of 43, seated, feet on the floor from my blood pressure monitor in the year past and BP as low as 96/65 so I was expecting the numbers not to have quite the resting heart rate up ticks they just had. My swimming sister had her resting heart rate in the mid 30's in the year she swam a million meters in preparation for master's competitions. It's pretty clear I have a long way to go, but I'm trying to find a sustainable path.

My HRV app reports a number and a colour, 7 - 10 is green, 4 - 6 is yellow and under 4 is red. There is a circle with 10 and the top and numbers declining down either side of the circle, the side suggests whether there is a sympathetic or parasympathetic factor driving the reading. Today the 6 is to the left side while I'm more often on the right side of the circle. A 6 means Harvey can allow be to back off a bit but I've chosen a light enough workout routine that I will only take a maximum of 1 day a week for red numbers and use a reduced effort level should there be a subsequent red in a week. So far, I've had one 3 - red in my first week so I took that day off in lieu of my scheduled rest day. Harvey saw a 6 and sent me to the Arduous Abbatoir once again this morning.

It turns out my rower electronics are powered by 4 AA batteries and I found 4 Duracells with a shelf life through 2012 installed. I don't have a battery tester, which puts a load on a cell, but used a multi-meter to check the unloaded voltages and they were obviously down from peak voltage, but better than the reserve batteries I had in a drawer. I noticed a loose Allen bolt in the frame and concluded that I need to review the assembly instructions this weekend and find another newer set of batteries. I'll have it sorted this weekend.

Rower: 1:57/500 rate for 2555 metres. The display had some anomalies that suggest it may have missed a few metres, but I'll take the numbers.
While my head was elsewhere, I did more than planned sit-ups in my first set. Counting is the only thing I can truly multi-task while I'm preoccupied with something else. I also forgot to turn on the fan before the rower phase so I knew I wasn't particularly sharp this morning. Balance of workout was by plan with a reported average/max heart rate of 151/171 with a 58 HRR.

I met with members of the 'Nerd Herd' for lunch at a McDonald's next door to my 'work'. We were the core of the IT team of a business that a parent company to ours dismantled in a rather egregious manner. As Warren Zevon sang: Send Lawyers Guns and Money. There was a 2 for 1 sandwich deal so I ordered a pair of 1/4 pounders without what they allege is cheese. One is stated to be 420 calories and is what I had for lunch, with tap water, with the other for today. Dinner was a grilled chicken breast spiced with tumeric, rice cooked in coconut milk, edamame beans (immature soy beans), organic golden beets and a few small tomatoes. The glass in the photo is something new to me, hibiscus tea on ice. Sounds great but I realized afterward it came from a bottle with a label saying it was sweetened with 18 grams of sugar per cup. I like variety but there is a convenience/price element to the equation Spice will need to pay more attention to.View attachment 25072

In anticipation of having a buddy over for dinner tonight, Spice had also bought some cheesecake. He may bow out tonight as he is convalescing at home after a fall on ice. My son is dropping off his 3 1/2 month old boy for sitting this evening so I'll have that to look forward to. I've declined the offer of cheese cake the last two nights, but it's on the menu tonight whether or not my buddy makes it over. I've also declined to share in a Cabernet Sauvignon every time so far this year despite it being offered - every night.

I have an hour of racquetball booked tomorrow at 10. I find this kind of exercise pure fun. My opponent, son, is just into his 30's, works in a physically demanding trade, is playing in a high level community basketball league, plays league dodge ball and is both taller and lighter than I. I'll keep y'all posted.
 
Hope you have fun with your grandson and with the racquetball!

I love hibiscus tea. You might not like it unsweetened, but I think it is still good that way.
 
Thanks LaMaria and Cory.

Babysitting went well. Spice hasn't had kids so is a bit leery. I dealt with a baby brother's diapers when I was 15 and have a different level of comfort with the short ones so all went well. My nose and feet can't compete but here we are.
View attachment 25084
Sitting led to a later than usual night with a 12 cup pot of coffee that I had more of my fair share of, and I had a crazy schedule this morning. With a bit shy of 7 hours sleep, I had the following:
HRV: 4, BP: 11/72 - 55, 108.1 Kg.

I argued with Harvey over the 4. Come on. I have to pick up my car from servicing and play some sports this morning. I wound up skipping the Chateau D'if with the rationalization that a HRV 4 is practically a 3 and a 3 is a mandatory day off. I always win the arguments I have with myself. Unless I lose. All of which means I'll make it up tomorrow.

Racquetball, which is quite distinct from the more snobby squash, went reasonably well. We only managed one full game in the hour and I lost 21-17. I wasn't sore after and hopefully my couple weeks of 30 minute cardio will help minimize that on the 2nd day. We were both out of breath for much of the hour. In the past, playing after a several months hiatus usually had me pretty sore because it involves a variety of muscle groups you don't use all the time.

I had the 1/4 McDonald's burger for lunch yesterday and an identical repeat of the grilled chicken breast dinner of the previous night, less a couple tomatoes. The dinner buddy did cancel but he will make it tonight so I dodged the cheesecake as it was in the freezer so it was OK to defer it anyway.

I had a usual oatmeal breakfast, though a lot little later than usual, after Spice teased me about cooking up some bacon and eggs that never materialized. If I need another excuse for losing my game, I can blame the feast in my belly can't I? New shoes? Damn, he out played me.

Lunch today was a hookup with my musical connection buddies at a Vietnamese restaurant. I had a war wonton soup with a bit of some hot paste stuff on top. The colours in this photo are exactly as captured by my phone camera. Blazing bright. Yum.View attachment 25085
 
That kid is So Cute! And the soup looks yummy. Good to hear your body´s already adapting to being more active again!
 
Very cute kid!

Good to see someone else is playing squash! :p Actually, just googled it and they are not the same thing. Very similar, though.
 
I get that most babies are somehow adorable. Thanks LaMaria. Activity certainly helps. Thanks also Jenni. Just to be clear, squash is something one eats. Don't be playing with your food. Squash is generally considered more high brow for reasons unfathomable to me. The court sizes, racquet head size and handle length and the liveliness and size of the balls are quite different. Squash also has a ridiculous tinny obstacle like a radiator across the front bottom of the wall that makes it look like someone adapted a bedroom for some off the cuff tom foolery. I have tried squash and it requires more precision, faster reflexes and an overall quickness not needed in racquetball. Perhaps racquetball is more rodeo and squash akin to dressage, in which case, I'm a cowboy.

Day 21: HRV: 10, BP: 108/70 - 56, 108.1 Kg.
We had a late evening with company and Spice needed a wind down after so sack time was a couple hours later than usual. Coffee with cake after dinner wasn't the best preparation for sleep anyway. I woke up within minutes of the time my regular alarm would have gone off, and after a visit to the washroom, sacked out again to make up another hour and a half of the sleep. Spice got up and fired up breakfast so I only had time to take my morning metrics before breakfast.

Having taken Saturday off from the cavern crucible, today was no rest day and Harvey gave me the go ahead for the regular workout after eating.
Rower was 2572 metres at a 1:57/500 rate and the balance was at standard pace and resistance. The graph said average of 143 and max heart rate of 160 with a HRR of 58. I had some minor tightness in the quads and lower back from the racquetball and felt a little in my calves when on the bike but the numbers show it was indeed not an excessively stressful workout when compared with other efforts. It may have been a consequence of eating before the workout or just that fact that the bump in protein in the past couple days made a difference. If I accept the numbers, I'm ready for an increment in the workout for the next week.

Plan for week 4 will include upping the sit-up reps to 15, push-ups and the compound dumbbell curl to press with 35 lbs to 7 and maintaining the two sets. My bike effort stats still show that phase lagging so the cadence will be set from 79 to 80 rpm and all other elements will remain as before except for adding some a bird dog exercise for strengthening the lower back as suggested by Tru. I'm sure I can raise all of the aspects of the workout even more but I'm continuing to take this gradually.

Dinner was grilled steak, garlic toast (1 1/2 pieces of what's in the photo), asparagus, Brussel sprouts with edamame beans, cranberries and walnuts with a large glass of sparkling water with ice after a half cup of miso soup reinforced with extra carrots and onions. We caught an old movie our guest hadn't seen, 1973's Serpico, with the cheesecake and coffee. I had the chocolate slice and the unseen balance are going to my folks place this afternoon for cake and coffee. Our guest brought flowers and rose petals.View attachment 25087
View attachment 25088
 
I forgot to mention breakfast. One organic egg on a butter croissant with lemon hollandaise, 1/2 an avocado and a couple strips of lean bacon. Some sweetened hibiscus tea, a couple cups of coffee with 2% milk and an orange. Yummmmmm.View attachment 25089
 
I think your goals for week four sound great! Glad you had fun with the grandkid. Gotta say, I'm with Spice on babies. I have a younger brother, but we weren't that far apart so I don't remember very much from when he was a baby. I'm also really jealous of that wonton soup. I might have to see if I can reverse engineer it from that pic.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top