The Official Site for the Lackluster Goings-On of Michael Kaiser
Posts tagged exercise
Sleep Running
Mar 11th
Eleven days of working out straight. I alternate between running and strength training, which barely affords my crippled, old body the rest it needs after I thrash a section of it. So far so good, except today I half-assed my run because I couldn’t shake some lung wheeziness. It happens. I’m fairly confident I’ll be where I want to be by race day, and if not, live and learn. At least I’ll be in a better place than I was last week.
The Dude wakes up two or three times a night, but the the third time is usually around when my alarm would be going off anyway, so it’s really just the midnight and 2am bits that aren’t working for me. Lately I think I’ve been sleeping through it more though, which makes me feel somewhat bad, because then The Girl has to do everything. But when I was waking up for it, The Girl had to do everything anyway, because she’s the only one who can do what he’s crying about…aka feed him. I’m not sure why I feel compelled to be awake just because she is, but I do. I was raised Catholic, what can I say? Guilt it my imaginary friend. The sucker’s getting big though, up the 11+ lbs already. Can’t wait until he grows a neck or becomes a little more mobile. He’s like carrying around a jellyfish all the time right now.
The Kid seems to grow another inch with each passing weekend. I think she’s trying to be taller than me. She’s learning to read and do math too. I think she’s trying to be smarter than me. I don’t like this. I want her to stay short and dumb, but she apparently has other plans. Hopefully when the time inevitably comes I can still take her, or at least out run her!
Off to the in-laws next month. Looking forward to getting the hell out of Dodge and sleeping in. Hopefully it’s not too hot. Of course, for some reason we scheduled the trip to at the same time WonderCon is going on, so I guess I’ll miss that once again. I used to go religiously, but since I got out of the game I’ve missed the last three years. I’d like to go again some day, but there’s always next year!
Pre-Race Warm-Up
Feb 17th
Can’t have a plan without a goal, so for my first half-marathon, here are my two goals, in order of priority: A) finish the entire thing without stopping or walking; and B) finish two hours or under.
The first goal is fairly obvious, I’m not running a half marathon if I don’t actually run it. I can definitely walk 13 miles now, and could probably walk/run 13 miles too. So the challenge is to run the whole thing. That’s top of my list.
The second goal is fairly arbitrary, I guess. I Googled, “What’s a descent half marathon time?” and two-ish hours seemed to be the consensus for first timers. So two hours seems like a nice even number. I don’t care as much about this goal as I do the first one, however.
Can’t meet a goal without a plan, so I went to RunnersWorld.com and used their handy dandy training tool to calculate out a gradual 16 week plan that ends a week before the race and gets me up to being able to run 13 miles in 2 hours and 3 minutes. (I’ll try and shave off the 3 minutes on my own.) I was supposed to start this plan on Tuesday, but I didn’t factor in that there would be nobody working at the gym I wanted to sign up for on President’s Day, so I am a day behind. However, since I only have to run three times this week, I still have plenty of week left. I started this morning. So far so ACK!, but more on that later.
Here’s a fun before-and-after comparison. My cholesterol has always been crap. Even when I was working out religiously, it was borderline crap, so now that I’ve been a sloth for a good year or more, I was curious as to how horrific it had become and decided to have it checked right before starting this little working out endeavor. Here’s the results:
| Component | Value | Standard Range |
|---|---|---|
| GLUCOSE, FASTING | 93 | 60-99 mg/dL |
| LDL, GOAL <160 | DESIRED | |
| CHOLESTEROL | 297 | <239- mg/dL |
| TRIGLYCERIDE | 355 | <199- mg/dL |
| HDL | 48 | >40- mg/dL |
| LDL CALCULATED | 178 | <129- mg/dL |
Hmm…should I be dead?
It’s a Race!
Feb 11th
So I went to the San Francisco Giant’s 2010 Fan Fest last weekend. Yes, I’m into baseball now, and no it’s not because I have a son, and yes I’ve never been into sports before and it doesn’t make any sense to suddenly like it and blah blah blah. I’ve heard it all already, thanks. At least I keep it separate so as not to annoy everybody. More on that soon.
ANYWAY, the point is, while I was there I came across a booth for a Giants related running event thing, and since I’ve been feeling like Fat Elvis again, I took a flyer and decided to make a goal out of it. So officially, I am running a half marathon for the Giant Race on Saturday, June 12 at AT&T Park. There was a 5K option as well, but I did that last year and I wanted to do something with a bit more difficultly, as I barely trained for the 5K and still managed to get through it. I don’t think one can half ass training for a half marathon. I can’t anyway. I’ve put in many miles in the past, but I’ve never run 13 in one stretch before, so it should be a challenge. My goal is to hopefully keep it under two hours, but finishing in general would be good!
I “get to” run one way or the other, but if you’ve always wanted to donate to Project Open Hand, you can do it via me though this handy little page they set up for me. I’m not really sure what happens if I get donations made in my name though.
New Year’s Wishy Washes
Jan 7th
Another Wordpress update! Let’s start keeping track.
Christmas came and went. I think we celebrated it four times, between The Kid, my parents, The Girl’s parents and then various in-laws. It’s all a whirlwind now in my head. The Girl and I hosted dinner aka I sat around and drank while she cooked all day. As far as loot, the best thing I got was a rocking chair and high chair from my parents, which isn’t necessarily for me specifically, but it means I don’t have to buy either of those things, which pleases me immensely. Favorite loot given? A custom CD of The Kid singing over some tracks, given to the grandparents and created courtesy of Audacity, which just rocks, BTW. Here’s the cover:
New Year’s resolutions? Well I feel like I’m channeling Fat Elvis again, which makes sense as I’m eating and drinking whatever I want and not exercising in the slightest. Seems like I do this every year; get vigilant in the summer and fat in the winter. Perhaps I was a bear in a previous life. I’m liking the idea of P90X, but that would require me cleaning out the garage and buying accessories, so maybe I’ll just try across the street again. Of course, another resolution is to actually clean out the garage, so perhaps I should do that at some point! Otherwise I can’t think of much I want to do or change. I got a baby coming, I figure that will take up most of this year’s time. I don’t need to add more hobbies or missions to my agenda.
Speaking of baby, The Dude has yet to arrive still. Not that he’s late, but I think The Girl assumed she would not go to term because The Kid escaped early. But nope, it looks like he’s going to wait until the last minute, probably because he’s lazy like his old man.
Speaking of old man, lookit:
Yep! Can’t see no more. The doctor said I have an astigmatism, which isn’t necessarily an old age thing and probably something I should have addressed a long time ago, but maybe she was just being nice.
Get To Work!
May 28th
Things I Worked On
The account for our wedding site through eWedding.com was going to expire, and rather than renew a site we do nothing with, The Girl asked if I could convert it to a family blog. I have done so, and she has not used it. Bug her. (Have I already plugged this? I feel déjà vu.)
Things I Am Working On
Running, running, running. Not sure what the next event will be, but something next month probably, and it will be a 10K. I can run that now, but I’m pretty slow. I’m currently at three days a week, hitting a treadmill across the street and following a program I found at Runners World. I was going more than three days a week, but my right heel kept hurting, and slowing me down even more, so the new schedule seems to be giving me the right amount of healing time for my aged carcass.
Worked on cleaning the garage last weekend. Got the garbage and donation stuff out, minus funiture. Have to borrow a truck for that. Now I just need to sell or organize the remainder. Almost there. I can see the ground, at any rate, so that’s a good sign. Hopefully The Girl will be able to park in there by the time the weather starts frosting up windows in the morning again.
Been updating the genealogy site more frequently. Love that new Family Tree Maker!
Things I Want To Work On
Drawing, drawing, drawing. God I’m lazy.
I want to make a Wordpress theme. I feel ready.
Slow and Steady Loses the Race
May 5th
WOW, I think I skipped an entire month. Perhaps Twitter is ruining my blogging enthusiasm. So much easier to write a one sentence thought rather than construct entire paragraphs. Da horror!
So what have I done? A bunch of stuff. In-Laws came and went again. (They still think I hate their visits, but I really do like it because somehow I end up watching way more of the TV I want when they’re here. Not sure why it works out that way, but I am not going to question it.) Went to Seattle on business. Been there once before, and like last trip, ate at the Space Needle and did not have time to hit the Experience Music Project nor the Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame. Must visit that city when not working someday. (I managed to peak inside the Sci-Fi Museum when it was closed and saw a huge Gort in the lobby. Coool!)
But inbetween all that I did something worth doing, for once. As I may or may not have stated before, a buddy of mine and I agreed to run a 5K, 10K and 1/2 Marathon by September of this year. We set this goal last September, giving us a year to do it, so of course we’re just getting started now, because lazy is our M.O. We settled on the Mission City 5K Run for Fun held at Great America. It was their first year doing this, and it was pretty cool. You run through the park, which was nice, but then the last half of it involved circling around many a parking lot, which wasn’t as nice, but by then I was so tired I didn’t really care about the ambiance. The cool thing is they close the park down for the runners to enjoy after the event, and the price of admission is included in the race price, which was all of $20, so that’s about as cheap as Great America gets. Of course, I didn’t have time to stick around and enjoy the park, but perhaps next year I can drag the family with me and make a day of it.
I can’t say I trained for this very hard. I knew about for a month and started running at the gym a week prior. (See M.O. above.) It hurt, but I did better than I thought. I only stopped once, about half way through it, for about a minute. Legs hurting me didn’t stop me, a mild asthma attack didn’t stop me, feeling the contents of my stomach crawling up my neck stopped me pretty quick. There were children present, I didn’t want to scar any of them for life. After a brief catching of breath and a quick shot from my inhaler (I know ladies, could I be more sexy?) I finished fairly strong. That is to say I finished #338 out of 560, so not strong strong, but winning wasn’t the goal at all, just completing. Considering how little I trained, I’m fairly happy with my 12 minute mile average.
Time: 37.23. Beat that losers! (Sooo sad…)
Next stop is the 10K. No plans yet on which one, but I don’ t think I can get away with no training this time, so I signed up at Snaps Fitness, which is a 24/7 gym literally right across the street from my house. If I can’t make that work, well…that would be sad.
Kingdom of Blood
Oct 24th
The Girl and I have gone to the gym a whole two times this week, so go us! We had engagement pictures to pick up on Tuesday and we’re meeting her brother-in-law tonight for dinner, so that cut down the frequency a bit. But we’re riding bikes after work and we have a Kid-less weekend coming up, so hopefully we’ll throw in a few more sessions. I am a bit sore today, so mission accomplished, at least on some level.
The engagement photos came out pretty good. I think there were 58 total, which we narrowed down to three for purchasing purposes. Unfortunately it takes three weeks for him to process the order, which includes some sort of tweaking on the computer. Isn’t that cheating in the World of Photography? Whatever makes me look good though, I don’t care.
I have become addicted to two games on Facebook. One is called Vampire Wars, where you try and get blood through missions and fighting, and you get through missions and fighting by buying abilities and adding to your clan count (through friends). Missions costs energy and fighting costs rage (and hit points and blood if you lose), but like any good vampire, those costs heal themselves. Of course, the more abilities you have, the more blood you need to spend to sustain yourself, so then you have to possess minions to get you blood on a regular basis. My current Blood Flow (income vs expense) is 161,715 per house, so not too bad! The more missions and fights you succeed in, the more experience points you get, which opens up more abilities, missions, minions and people to fight. And the bloody cycle continues.
The second game I am addicted to is Knighthood. This one reminds me somewhat of civilization in that you build your castle, adding defenses like walls and towers, or social things like marketplaces and hospitals, all in an effort to try and be big enough to defend against and attack opponents to get even bigger. If you were invited into the game, you start out as a vassel to someone else, though you still get your own castle. In my case, I am a sovereign, which isn’t much different, except I have no higher person to help me out. I could swear my allegiance to someone bigger than me, but I haven’t yet.
The cool thing is, one way to get vassals is by recruiting friends, but unlike most applications, if the friend doesn’t say yes, I still get to use them in my army, the downside being their power ranking stays at 10. But still, thanks Squire Jenna for your hard work in my Marketplace generating me money, and to my sister Squire Rebecca for patrolling my wall. And kudos to my brother-in-law for actually playing the game and becoming my most powerful vassal so far. I could not build as fast without you!
Now stop reading this and get back to work!
Jaws Was Never My Scene
Oct 20th
I’m having a hard time massaging my brain into remember what I did this weekend. Seemed like it went fast, though it was fairly uneventful. I’m tired this morning all the same.
We had The Kid this weekend. Friday we stayed home and talked about how we were going to start saving money. Saturday we went out and spent a lot of money at Mervyn’s, Target, Trader Joe’s and on a gym membership. Then we went to a birthday party in Salinas for about 40 minutes (a kid birthday party, with face painting, a jump house, trampoline, etc. – so 40 minutes was fine by me) and then met The Girl’s BFF for dinner out Outback.
Sunday we spent more money at Black Bear for breakfast and then went to Santa Cruz to pick up The Girl’s wedding shoes, which were finally delivered. They fit tight so they told her to walk around with them at home with heavy socks on, so that should be entertaining.
Then we returned home and decided to test out The Kid’s new bike (which we got for free via The Girl’s work – woot!) and so I busted out all our bikes and inflated the tires and installed training wheels for the first time, which went fairly well, despite my limited ability to use tools and install things.
It went fairly well, though The Kid of course rides very slow and crashed a lot. Her bikes keep getting taller but the training wheels stay the same width, so are less and less affective, especially when she leans too far to the left or right, which she does often.
I saw some dad riding around with his kid in tow on one of these trailer bikes earlier in the weekend, so maybe I’ll get one of those, and then we can all ride faster and further. Or maybe she should lose the training wheels altogether, though I’m not sure at what age that is supposed to happen, and besides which, I think I’ll let her dad be the one who runs back and forth down the street with her issuing false promises of “I won’t let go, trust me!”
So today we work out. EEP!
