Fitness log, 2/9/10

I seem to be stalling a little bit, although I guess most people would consider losing a pound pretty good. I’m slightly disappointed, though, because last week I was pretty rock solid with my diet, I got all 4 weight training sessions in, and I ran 3 times, including two runs of 4 miles, one of which I did in slightly under 40 minutes. We’ll see what happens this week. I’m spending the weekend with Amy (yay!) so we’ll see how consistent I can be!

I noticed that my hits on this blog spiked yesterday, despite not having an update. I guess that means people are expecting a Monday update? I’d better strive to not be late again!

Weight: 223.5
BF%: 29

Jan 1st starting weight: 232.5
Starting BF%: 31

Fitness log, 2/1/10

I suspected that last week’s losses were at least partially water, and the fact that this week was a lot less seems to confirm that. I was consistent, though, hitting all 4 of my weight training workouts, running twice (for about 3 miles each time) and cycling once. I’ve also been pretty consistent with my diet, though I succumbed to my weakness for chocolate almonds this weekend.

Last week, someone asked for me to start including where I started from in each update so that it’s more clear how much progress I’m making. Picking a starting point isn’t easy, because I’ve been at this on and off for years. I started back again in earnest last April, when I’d hit nearly 260 pounds. By September, I’d dropped to 215. But then after moving out I got off track and my weight crept back up over 230, which is where I was at the start of the year. Since that’s when I actively started logging, that’s what I’ll use. I don’t remember if I’ve done an extensive post detailing my fitness activities over the past several years, but I should probably do that.

I saw a sports medicine specialist today for my shoulder and lower back/hip. He didn’t think either represented a serious problem, and gave me some stretches and exercises to do. I’m very relieved that he saw no need for surgery of any kind.

Weight: 224.5
BF%: 30

Jan 1st starting weight: 232.5
Starting BF%: 31

Car woes

I’ve been having problems with my Mini Cooper lately. It actually started last summer. While driving, typically while idling or at low speed, the electrical systems would just kind of… hiccup. The lights, radio, indicator, etc., would momentarily turn off, the needles on my gauges would all dip into negative territory, and the power steering would get tight. The car wouldn’t stop running, though, and within a second or two, everything would return to normal. Occasionally, the hiccup would seem a little harder than normal, and this would cause the clock and trip counter to reset.

Once, I went to start the car, and everything lit up and then it went completely dead. I tried jump starting it to no avail. I took the battery out, assuming it had gone bad, but its indicator showed that it was still healthy. I put it back in, and magically, the Cooper started again.

These problems have continued intermittently since then. Recently, the power steering started randomly going out while driving. Turning the car off, removing the key, and then starting it again would fix this problem. Occasionally , when turning off the car, all of the electrical systems would go dead again, but always, within a few minutes at most, it would suddenly start working again. Always, that is, until last night.

When I got home from work, I shut off the car, and I could immediately tell that it had died. I tried restarting it again, but nothing happened. “Fine, I’ve seen this before, I’ll come back out in a little bit, and it’ll start.” A half hour later, I tried and… fail. Another half hour, an hour, a couple of hours… fail, fail, fail. At that point, I started to think that in the morning, I’d be calling a tow truck to have it taken to the dealer, but that maybe I’d get lucky and that after a good night of sleep, it’d start working again.

At this point, I should probably explain my aversion to just taking the sumbitch in and having it fixed. First of all, it’s long out of warranty, so I’ll be paying for it out of pocket. Second of all, I’m doubtful that anyone other than the dealer is going to be able to figure out what is wrong with my cooper, and the dealer, besides being freaking expensive, as you’d expect, is also highly incompetent.

So I get up this morning, optimistic that it’s going to work, and walk out to my garage. I use the key fob to try to unlock the car remotely, and nothing happens. Not good. I get in and try to start it, and once again… fail. Still not wanting to take it in to the dealer, it occurs to me that when this happened the first time, maybe disconnecting and reconnecting the battery caused the system to reset somehow, so I decided to try that again.

First problem: the battery is in the boot, which is unlocked via the fob. I don’t know of any other way to open the boot. But since that’s where the battery lives, surely there must be a way to open the boot when your battery is dead, right? So I climb into the back seat, start reaching around in the boot, and find a ring. I pull it, and the boot opens.

Second problem: disconnecting the battery requires a wrench, and all I have is a screwdriver. All of my wrenches are still at the house. I try just twisting the terminal connectors off, but they are on there good and tight. As I start to think about how far I’m going to have to walk to get to a hardware store, I notice the jack kit. Unfortunately, it didn’t contain a wrench, but when I put it back, I noticed a small foam container next to the battery. I pulled it out, opened it, and sure enough there are several tools, including a wrench of just the right size! So I get busy loosening the terminal connectors, but just then, I happen to look up and notice that my dome light is on.

Really? That’s all it took?

Turns out, yes. I got in, tried to start the car, and… success!

I’m not mechanically inclined at all. I really have no idea why just messing with the battery a little fixed my problem, but it did, and for now at least, my date with the dealer has been postponed.

Fitness log, 1/25/10

Awesome progress this week, which is a pretty good reward for being pretty consistent with my workouts. I weight trained 4 days and ran twice, both as scheduled. I was also pretty good with not eating garbage. Initially, I’d set a goal of hitting 220 by the end of January. I didn’t think that was realistic, based on my past experience, but decided to go for it anyway. I still think I was correct in that assessment, but if I have another week like last one, I’ll get pretty close!

The program I’m on has you record your max in several exercises at the beginning and end of the program (which takes 16 weeks), so I did that this weekend, and this is where I’m at:

Box squat: 315 lbs
Benchpress: n/a
Deadlift: 385 lbs
Chinups: 4 @ bodyweight
Broadjump: 66″

I’ve never done box squats before this program, and I quite like them. I’m not able to benchpress for 2 reasons: 1) my shoulder is still injured, making it rather dangerous and painful, and 2) I’m not going to max on benching without a reliable partner. I’m disappointed with the deadlift a bit because I pulled 405 back in the fall, but I haven’t been very consistent since then, so I guess that’s understandable. I tried pulling 395, but wasn’t able to get it past my knees. The program actually calls to do 3 chinups with as much weight as possible on a weight belt or vest, but since I don’t have either of those things, I’m just going to do as many as I can at my bodyweight.

Weight: 225.5
BF%: 31

Fitness log, 1/19/10

Thanks largely to my trip to Finland, last week was a disaster. I was in meetings all day, and jetlagged, so the last thing I wanted to do when I got to the hotel was go to the gym. On top of that, it takes more willpower than I have to make strictly healthy choices when eating out every meal on someone else’s dime.

When I got back, I immediately got back on the wagon, though, and managed to make some progress. I’ve been on several more runs, though I’m having difficulty pushing it past 2 miles. Based on my previous experience, that should change in a couple of weeks if I stick with it.

I also officially started training using the program in Eric Cressey’s Maximum Strength. I’m going to have to modify it slightly due to the fact that my shoulder really doesn’t like the bench press these days, but overall I like the program. It includes soft tissue work using foam rollers and a tennis ball. I’ve never done any of that before, and I’m still waiting for my foam roller to arrive, but if the tennis ball work is any indication, this is going to be PAINFUL. But a necessary pain, at least.

Weight: 229.5
BF%: 31

Fitness log, 1/13/10

I just noticed that I got the date wrong in the previous post. Oops.

I’m late this week because I’m traveling in Finland. For the same reason, I also won’t be able to record my weight and bf%. I think I lost a couple of pounds last week, and I hope this week’s travel doesn’t mess things up too badly.

Last week, I ended up only hitting the gym once, but I got a couple of runs in as well as some HIIT, and most of the week I managed to eat well. At least until the weekend. Reb’s birthday party on Friday just had way too much tempting food for me to resist. But then I busted my ass all weekend cleaning out the house, so that’s gotta count for something.

We’ll see how this week goes. It’s already Wednesday, and I haven’t worked out yet this week. I’m going to try to hit the gym at the hotel a few times before I go back to the states, and I should be able to get in a few visits over the weekend.

Fitness log, 1/5/10

Well, since my last fitness update, things haven’t gone too well, and my weight has managed to climb back up some more. I’ve still got Ragnar looming in June, and plenty of time to get ready for it, but I need to start getting my ass back in gear NOW. So it’s time to put this out there in the public and make myself accountable.

Until Ragnar at least, I’m going to make a habit of posting weekly with my weight and bodyfat percentage (according to my Tanita scale, which seems to run high), as well as my exercise regimen.

My diet is going to be the high protein, low carb, moderate fat, “real” food diet that has worked for me so well in the past. I’ve mostly stuck to it anyway, but there has been a LOT of cheating. I’m probably going to be drinking a lot of protein shakes, and may even go full on Velocity Diet to jump start things.

For exercise, I’ll be focusing on weightlifting, as always. This week, I’ll get myself back into the grove, with some light work, before starting a real program. I’ll also be running twice a week, with one long run, and one short run. Right now, I don’t expect long to be very long. On non-running days, I’ll be doing HIIT or circuits.

I’m still having issues with my shoulder, and I seem to have developed a problem in my left hip, but hopefully those won’t limit me too much.

Weight: 232.5
BF%: 31

Giving thanks

This is a day late, but inspired by my favorite person in the world, I thought it’d be appropriate to mention some of the things I’m thankful for.

First and foremost, I’m thankful for my children, Rebi, Evan, Ellie, Ty, and Nate. I’m so very proud of all of them. As they get older, they continually impress me in every way conceivable. I love them and consider my part in bringing them into the world and raising them by far my greatest accomplishment. They’re all better than I ever will be.

I’m incredibly grateful for Amy. This has easily been the most difficult year in my life so far, but having Amy unexpectedly come into my life has been the silver lining. She is smart, beautiful, funny, sweet, sexy, and loving, and she makes me happier than I thought I could be. I love her and everything about her.

I’m lucky to have a great group of friends and family that have helped me get through the tough patches this year. I’m impressed and touched by the empathy and compassion I felt from so many of you. I’m not going to name names, but you know who you are. Those of you who have judged me harshly without knowing all the facts can suck it.

I’m thankful to have a fantastic job, especially with the current economy. Not only do I get paid to do something I genuinely enjoy, but I work with a great group of people that I actually like.

Finally, I’m thankful for Amy’s neighbor who left their wireless network open so that I could post this. Thanks, whomever you are!

Update:

After posting this, it occurred to me that I was remiss in not mentioning that I’m thankful for Lissa. Despite the divorce, she has had a profound impact on my life. We had a lot of good times together, and I learned a lot from our relationship together. She has been one of my closest friends, and she certainly deserves much of the credit for the way my kids turned out.

Origins of a name

I’ve been asked a few times where the name Myopic Rhino originates. To answer that, I need to go back to high school.

Back then, my friends and I had a little band called Deviants, for whom I played the drums and sometimes even sang. We rarely practiced, but we wrote a lot of songs, and even put together an album called Lunatic Lovers Lane, which we distributed to maybe a dozen of our friends. Most of our songs had meaning, but a few of were outright goofy, such as Spaghetti for Breakfast, or Megan, a polka with lyrics such as:

Megan, Megan, Megan
We’re glad you’re not a pagan
Megan, Megan, Megan
We’d shoot you with a ray gun
Megan, Megan, Megan
We’re glad you’re not a pagan
Megan, Megan, Megan
No lunch with Ronnie Reagan

After my mission, Greg Bair – one of the founding Deviants – and myself briefly flirted with the idea of starting another band, slightly more serious than Deviants. Greg was reading Jurassic Park at the time, and inspired by a line about the triceratops being nearsighted like the rhino, he suggested that we call our band Myopic Rhino. Sadly, other than writing lyrics to a few songs, we never actually did anything with the band.

Fast forward to… oh, I dunno, 1997 or so. I was just getting started on the Internet, visiting a few game programming websites. I eventually found the forums and wanted to start posting. Needing a cool sounding alias, I searched the recesses of my mind and came across our old band name. I’d always loved the name, and since we never really used it, I thought I just as well put it to use. I soon started my own website, called Myopic Rhino’s Game Programming Savanna. Soon, the name was pretty well known among the hobbyist game development community, especially as GameDev.net rose to prominence.

As my professional career has advances, I’ve switched to mostly using my real name, but since Myopic Rhino (or myopicrhino) is unique, I still use it as my screen name for many websites, including this one, Twitter, and even Facebook.

So thanks, Greg, for coming up with an awesome name that has served me well.

Thin Dave and fat bar

One of the themes I’ve always intended to post about here but have never gotten around to is my personal fitness quest. I’ve been training (i.e. weight lifting) since I was about 12, though there have been long periods (sometimes getting into years) when I’ve fallen off the wagon, both in terms of not exercising at all and eating like crap. As a result, my weight has fluctuated quite a lot, with a high of nearly 270 and a low of around 200 (I graduated from high school in fairly good shape at 190).

I’ve been pretty consistent with both my diet and exercise since April of this year. At the time, my weight had crept back up to 255. I’ve been holding steady in the 215-220 range for the past month or two, partially because a shoulder injury has interfered with my training, and partially because I thought it would be good to maintain a consistent weight for a while. I’m not actively trying to lose fat again, with the goal of getting down to 200 by the end of the year. Then, I’ll assess whether I want to continue working on losing fat or building muscle.

I’ll post more about what I’m doing in the future, but for now, I want to talk about what I did last night.

I’ve been working on improving my grip strength for a while. I’m a big believer in training with free weights, using big lifts, like squats and deadlifts. For the deadlift, which is by far my favorite exercise, the amount of weight I can lift far exceeds what my grip can support, so I have to resort to using straps. I’d prefer to not have to do this, so I’ve been doing various things to improve my grip.

One of the things I’ve wanted to try is using a fat bar. This is simply a bar that has a much larger diameter than the barbells you may be familiar with, as you can see below.

The thicker diameter requires you to grip harder, more rapidly improving your grip strength.

Unfortunately, the commercial gyms that I train at (because I’ve been unable to find a good underground gym) don’t have fat bars. In fact, the 24 Hour Fitness that I go to now actually has thinner bars than what I’m used to. But then I read an article suggesting that you just wrap a towel around the bar to get the same effect. Duh!

So last night I tried it, deadlifting 225 for 3 sets of 8 reps. I’d normally be able to to bang that out easily, but, as expected, the thicker bar made it a lot harder, and I was only able to get 6 reps on the last set before my grip failed.

I didn’t fully appreciate how hard this had hit my forearms until a few hours later, when the simple act of turning on my shower was almost too much to handle. It’s actually worse today, as I’m still weak, and the soreness has started to set in. My forearms haven’t been hit this hard in a long time, so I’ll definitely continue with this and see what kind of impact it has on my grip strength.