Sports variety

Summer boils up Europe and I long every cool down I could possibly get. The heat these days is absolutely terrible, but nonetheless the sports still continues.

I’ve reached a point where sports fits perfectly into my every day life and I do not feel too distracted or disturbed. Back in the days I found it pretty tiring when I had to get to the gym four or five times a week doing almost the same every time I’ve been there. Currently, that I’ve changed my sports schedule to multiple and different activities I find it way more exciting.

I don’t feel like I’ve to follow a specific routine and there’s enough change to stick with it for a very long time. There’s at least one time a week where I got out for a run. Another day is for swimming. Another is for a cardio program that drives me to my limits (and let’s me sweat like hell). Another day is strength training only. And so on and so forth.

There’s always something to be excited about and I still see improvements in all these different disciplines. Which is far more encouraging than just waiting for the next big bang in a progress chain that only includes one or two completely different activities. One week I gain a better technique or speed while swimming, the other week I find that running is getting a little easier.

I’m very happy with this schedule and all these different types of sports activities and I’m very sure that this could last for a long time. On the other hand, I finally started losing weight and my body no longer seems to be confused of what is happening to him and to spare and save energy for bad times. It’s a weight drop of almost 7-8 kg and tendencies is still going downwards.

Still – I’m focused on the relay run and not to just loose weight. Even after the relay run I’ll try to find milestones in different sports disciplines rather than focusing on my weight. It’s the overall body feel that counts much, much more than some stupid digits on the scale.

Relay run preparation

This week so far has been a very lazy week. I had the very first training session for the relay run in July and I went swimming on Wednesday.

I had this wicked plan for today’s early morning to go for a jog in the park nearby, but firstly my bed was holding me really, really tight and secondly I made a mistake the day before. I ate a cheeseburger with french fries. My stomach was aching and sounded for some periods like a chemistry lab.

I switched my jogging dates to the weekend and will hopefully be in a better condition without having to fear the revenge of fast food debauchery.

My suffering with my heel spur is still going on. After the relay training I once again felt a pain under my foot and I had problems to correctly step on the ground. I’m thinking about getting some insoles for my shoes to absorb some of the pressure that pushes on my heel.

On the other hand, I’m very happy to announce that I had no serious problem to run the whole distance that is given. And I was also able to keep up the pace with the other runners who were running with me.

I’m also keeping an eye on the scale and like I expected, the weight is dropping slowly but it drops. It’s something around 3 kilograms since I started with a more intense training. I still haven’t changed my nutrition that much, because the past showed me that the final results will turn into something totally different and unexpected. I’ll change my nutrition in two or three weeks and even then not too drastically.

Time for a relay

After a slightly of depressive undertoned post a couple of days ago, a more positive post is going to follow.

About one or two weeks I signed up for the runners team in my company. With this assignment and the fact that we will appear at the companies relay in the middle of July this year comes great responsibility. The form of responsibility is mainly focused on my person. I have to schedule a tight training plan to get in shape to run the 2.5 kilometers without having a breakdown or need half of an eternity to finish my round. Secondly is it more than important to get in shape so that my team can count on me. I don’t want to let them down and I also want to make my appearance at the relay with a quiet good finishing time.

running empty

In other words, it’s very important for me to be part of that team and I also want to celebrate a successful finish. For me it’s not only about the appearance, it’s also about good results at the end of the day. In almost two month I’ve to train really hard – absolutely hard. But I also have to keep an eye on my current condition which, in numbers spoken, is a bodyweight of 112 kg and a BMI of 31. That’s a terrible condition, but if I can make it without exaggerating I’m sure it’s a goal that can be reached. The condition to be in shape to run and the finish line as well.

I’ve told our team leader that I’m far from good at the moment and that I’ve just started again with sports and all these things. You may remember from several posts from the past, I was injured and in those periods where I wasn’t injured I was sick. Or just stupid, fucking lazy. She accepted even though I actually am not the kind of runner to push the team on the top of the leader board. This is a good sign for me. I feel safe and sound in this team because I know that I’m with people who are aware that I am their weakest link and they are willing to accept. I’m truly thankful for that.

Apart from this, I’m organizing my daily life pretty straight at the moment. This is one of the leftovers of my year and a half of commuting. I had to schedule and plan otherwise I couldn’t get anything done. All my gym, swimming and running sessions are scheduled two month in advance. The only thing that is left for me to do is to come up with a nutrition plan that pushes me as well. I’ve to lose weight and I’ve to get fast and arduous.

With this first milestone to reach, the team around me and the power of my own will, I’m dead certain that I can make it. It won’t be easy but it’s not impossible.

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #11

Let there be sports. Or something like that. Actually, I just didn’t find a cool sentence to begin with. The project is still going on and most importantly it does not feel like a project. That’s a serious fact I have to admit. In case this project would feel like something turning into a dogma or at least something that is not fun anymore I would drop it.

I have had some minor injuries during the last couple of days but at the end of the day it wasn’t anything serious. Well, I couldn’t normally walk without having this terrible pain in my right leg but it’s almost completely cured. The reason for that was a little exaggeration on the treadmill at the gym. You know, when it starts to hurts really badly one should stop. I was unreasonable and continued and this led to my whole misery.

This swimming continues as well and it’s slightly getting better. On our very first session we (that is me and a friend of mine) swam around 1,500m in about an hour. Yesterday we made the 2,000m in about an hour. I also tried to improve my technique to simply get a away from my current casual style of swimming, which is terribly slow.

Every time we go swimming I try to convince my friend that he should also try another sport like running, cycling or even go to a gym. I personally think, it’s only a matter of time till he starts with another sport beside swimming.

Still, I’m glad that the project is still going on. The only disappointing issue is my current weight problem that has returned. After all these weeks at home with my back injury and too much sweets and little movement I gained a lot of weight back that I already lost. But I’m an optimist and everything will get much better soon. Even with Christmas in the meantime.

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #8

My sports activities do change these days. I’m trying to get a little further away from pure gym sessions and focus more on ‘outside oriented’ activities. By saying that I do also consider swimming in a natatorium as ‘outside’. Nevertheless, the intention should be clear. Avoiding boredom and get more versatility.

To be honest, as much as I like to go to the gym and take it to the next limit, I also feel like I should to something that gives more of a ‘I know why I’m doing this’ feel. My mountain bike trips are one of these activities, because a lot of things come together in this – cardio training, leg training, arm training and strengthen of the my back.

Another thing that I have to mention, despite my many sessions on the treadmill I don’t actually like running. Even though it does blast my brain free and helps me get rid of certain things of my daily life that bother me. My plan is to do more and more jogs outside, especially trail runs. It’s basically the same reason as it is with mountain biking. I hate running/cycling straight ahead. I need some obstacles and several things that I have to ‘master’.

There are a lot of parks in my town and also a lot of nature areas that are mainly untouched inviting to sport them. So I’m gonna use them. Last weekend I had the most unpleasant weather on one of my bike trips. Stormy, soppy and cold. But I like it that way. It gives that kind of feeling that makes me want to say: “Come get some!”

That’s this particular point I’m actually missing in gym. You can set certain milestone that you want to reach, but at the end of the day it lacks the bite. It’s always nice to reach a new mark, but on the other hand does it not give the same feel like sports outside. I guess, it got something to do with the circumstances outside and the connections you make between them. Like, ‘hey, it was on this bad, rainy day, where I ran my first 20 km without a single walking break’

Well, I guess, you got my point. Another reason for this whole ‘let’s get away from gym’ thing is, that I now want to know, what do I actually gain from my training sessions. As a short reminder, this whole training is not mainly about losing weight, it’s more about getting into a better shape. The weight loss is a greatly appreciated and welcomed side effect. For this very reason I’m also glad that I finally found someone who is willing to do the swim training with me. It’s perfect for motivation and a great control factor as well.

I’m certain that my technique on some swim strokes is far from perfect and needs a lot of practice. Especially things like the crawl stroke, the dolphin stroke and for instance the quick turn as well will take a huge amount of time of training. Swimming this week is that one thing I’m excited about the most.

And once again and last but not least, for the those of you who like to play with numbers, my current weight is 104,1 kg, which means that I haven’t lost a lot of weight for weeks now. But like I mentioned before in this post, it’s about the shape and not the weight. Well, and the whole “sportability”

A penis out of sight

The summer draws near. A lot of my trousers do no longer fit. Wide shirts currently feel like slim shirts. I can’t see my penis while having a piss. I’m out of breath when running around from point A to point B, no matter how far they are away from each other.

Basically, these are some of the problems, that I’ve to face at the moment and once again, it’s all my sodding fault and I’ve to get rid of these problems. The solution is quite easy to tell, but hard to turn into a reality. Sports. To be honest, it’s not that hard to turn this into a reality, the odd thing about it is to make the right decision between the good and evil conscience representatives sitting on my shoulder.

I’ve followed the advise of the good representative and took a sneak peak preview by wandering back into gym. Without a doubt, something has to happen and this is sports and a frigging healthier way of life. So I entered the treadmill and ran. So I entered the cross-trainer and crossed? Whatever, I went to gym for three days, just to get an impression, if I can handle it with my tight schedule. But, for the love of God, what else can I lose during a week, where almost all time of the day gets soaked up by sodding commuting?

 

A two hour attendance at the gym does not hurt and my social life and everything that stands in relation with it is ruined to death anyway. So here I am, the lonesome rider, doing workouts. The underdog running in the treadmill. The fatty bum-bum crossing the cross trainer. The first milestone I want to reach is to simply fit in my old sports outfits. I currently have this clothes size does not really match the body size problem.

The schedule that I have in mind will dictate that I’ve to go to the gym at least four times a week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. That’s the plan until 27th of July. My current weight is about 110 kg and I plan to reach 95 kg, but not in July. This would be unhealthy and unrealistic. The end of August or the beginning of September sounds quite good and not too dramatically unhealthy. My goal in a distant future is to level off at something between 85 to 90 kg. The last value will probably be the one that may be the more realistic one. 85 kg would be some sort of too skinny for me, as a person that is 188 cm tall.

Depending on how well everything will make progress I may go for diet as well. I don’t need to ban cigarettes anymore, because after my very first straight edge period, I kept being a non-smoker and I’m so totally happy with that. I would be even more happy, when I’ll finally manage it to have sports as a common part of my daily schedule and not as something that has to happen just because for a particular reason. Fun is the keyword.

And of course one important reason would also be that I can see my penis again when I piss. That would be awesome.

Like I did in previous “projects”, I will report progress and will also post about certain events that I’ll find important or interesting. You’ll get to read the change of numbers regularly, but I’m not currently certain on what day this is going to happen. Anyhow, you’ll get something to feed your statistic charts or whatever you want to do with these numbers. But in the end, every good sports event comes with some nicely investigated statistics.

Now you know what my current plan is and what my first goals are. I’ll keep you informed and welcome to “Straight Edge 3.0”

This thing called… what did you say?

It’s been a while. After having almost a month of free time to waste on pure debauchery I’m finally back to the working class heroes with a regularly, fixed schedule. I feel much in my new company and I’m a thousand per cent certain that it was the right decision I’ve made. It’s a huge challenge, also a very interesting and intriguing challenge, but most importantly, no pack of Hyenas surrounding me bothering me with ideas and tasks of non-sense. Please understand that I’m not giving any further details on what I’m doing and so on, discretion is advised. Just feel informed with the fact that I like it where I’m at and I hopefully can be here for a while.

Once upon a time I had the will and lust to do some sports again but in the end I simply though “What the heck!

Well, I gained a massive amount of weight, especially on my free days, but I also have to admit that I’m not feeling very unwell. With this new job and the fact that I have to travel each day 120km I wanted to get a little bit more in comfort with ‘the new situation’ before starting this sporty thingy again. I also have to say, that I’m not in the mood to do any sports and I don’t want to force me to do anything I actually don’t want or like. Maybe my attitude on that is a completely different one tomorrow and I’m going to jog for like an hour.

Despite, I’d rather stick to gaming these days. I just started “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” and I’m also playing “Dead Island”. Both are great games in their genre BUT both are totally buggy or have several issues.

“Dead Island” is the game that has a lot of serious hardware related issues on my system. First of all, I use a 7.1 sound system on my gaming rig and I gain a lot of terrible, loud noises when I have the 7.1 speaker configuration turned on. I could fix by running in 5.1 mode only. The graphics are, let us say okay, but they stutter. This shouldn’t be an issue on my system due to the fact that the game runs at 180-200fps on maximum details at a resolution of 1920×1200. Hopefully they’ll fix this issue.

Another thing I don’t like, which is not hardware related, is the fact that you have a save point system and there’s no real indicator given when the game actually saves your progress. Terrible on a PC. Why no quick-save? Anyhow, the game itself looks promising and despite these issues I’ll continue playing and see what’s up next.

“Deus Ex: Human Revolution” is in my personal opinion the sequel the first “Deus Ex” deserved. It’s still far away from the class of it’s pre-predecessor, but it’s good and feels like “Deus Ex” and the developer does not go strictly mainstream as they were trying with “Deus Ex: Invisible War”, which was terrible game, if you ask me. I play “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” on highest difficulty level and I’m stuck at the first boss right now 😛 Anyhow, this game is definitely worth the play.

Of mice and arms

It’s terrible, I’m suffering from a pain in my hand for weeks now. It’s the right hand, and no it is not an issue caused by massive self pleasuring activities. Well, it got something to with pleasure, but this pain is mainly caused by my mouse. I’m using the Logitech G5 at home on my gaming system and I also use this mouse at work. My whole sitting position differs from each other. At work it is more a lying position with my forearm completely placed on my desk. At home I use to sit in a more straight position, but my forearm gets way more “airtime” as it does at work.

Whatsoever, I’ve got a pain in my arm as soon as I take my mouse at work and at home. This is mainly a G5 related issue, because when I go by and use the Logitech MX518, for example, the problem does not appear. I tried using more weight and even without weights, but the problem still persists. I personally think that this issue’s got something to with the surface of the mouse.

G5

The G5 is made completely of plastic and even though the surface was made a little craggy and rough the whole handling feels a little slippery compared to the MX518. Parts of the MX518 surface are made of rubber which gives a more haptic feel and you feel more in control for the mouse. This also leads to a more relaxed way of holding the mouse. I noticed that I tend to cramp my hand while using the G5, where instead on the MX518 I can make a move with my little finger with ease.

Meanwhile, my whole forearm is burning when I use my G5 at work. This is not only because of the mouse, my desk at work is a little lower, my whole forearm lies on the desk and so on. I also use to play with a wristband at home while using the G5, which is much more comfortable and the movement is much, much easier.

Anyhow, I switched to the recently released Logitech G400 with is the sequel of the MX518. The mouse is as fast as hell, got the same comfort like the MX518 and I don’t have a pain in my arm. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get that mouse at work, too. Meanwhile it’s pretty obnoxious to use the G5, even though it’s a nicely designed mouse.

The mystical cat report

Hello out there, it’s been a while since my last update on what’s going so far. First of all, fitness is still existing and starts kicking ass again. I cannot deny that I had some serious difficulty to get back on the track, but with this week, everything seems to be on a satisfying level. My stamina feels like it was the day I let the whole fitness thing fade away, for say, it’s still on a high level. For my circumstances. Actually, I still have like 15kg of weight too much on my bones, but like I said, I’m not facing any serious trouble during training. I’m running solid 30 minutes on the treadmill followed by 30-40 minutes on the cross-trainer.

I decided to take no prisoners and I also increased the weight on many exercise machines. I’m doing very well with this and I’m making a lot of progress in this particular area of my training. Besides losing weight is gaining muscles one of my main goals for now. I know, it sounds weird, losing weight and gaining muscle mass on the other side but according to the serious amount of overweight at the moment a goal that can be reached. Like losing at least 15kg of fat and getting like 5-6kg of muscle mass.

What else happened? Well, I got a little bit more into photo editing and developing of RAW pictures. I’m not making great progress but it finally is some progress to be found. I also joined a couple of new groups on deviant Art to get a little bit more feedback on my works. And of course a few eyes more watching my stuff. I’m also looking for a new camera, not for now but for the end of this year. I’m thinking about buying a Canon 7D, this camera got all the features I want and is not that expensive as the Canon 5D MarkII. At least, it would be a total waste of money according to the fact that photography is just a hobby mine. It’s like 1,500 bucks that ring on the bill, but I’m sure it’s totally worth it.

Gaming, another passion of mine. If the days has like 36 hours I would definitely play some games, but currently I don’t really have time to play some more story based games. I play a lot of “Bad Company 2” these days, for like one hour a day. There are still some games in queue that I need to play. There are plenty of games, as there are “Medal of Honor”, it can’t be more worth than “Homefront”. The “Dead Space” games, I started “Dead Space 1” several times, but never managed to finish or do any larger progress. Several LEGO games are waiting and so on. Most importantly, “Portal 2” is hopefully in my mailbox these days and I’ll definitely play this game as soon as possible.

Last game I played through was “Homefront” which was a kind of disappointing. Weird performance issues. Weird story and pace of the game. I can’t say that I didn’t like it, but, well, I don’t know. They whole concept was promising but the presentation was a big and epic fail on the whole line. I instantly switched back to my beloved “Borderlands” after finishing the four hour campaign. I barely had any interest in the multi player mode.

Slightly getting back to basics

There’s something wrong in the state of Denmark… not that I know, but I just wanted to start the post with a sentence that does not start with “I was blabla…”

Actually, I’m a little pissed by myself because I simply don’t feel like I should. No, I’m sick in any kinda way, but it’s my whole condition that bothers me. I’ve got a hell too much weight hanging on my bones, I’m once again unsatisfied with my job and I haven’t found the time to actually follow up some of my hobbies. But first things first. The whole weight thing is going to change, definately. I just ordered new tires and flexible tubes for my bicycle to get mobile again, because I’m so nerved of walking. Getting me back on the road also means that I personally will get a little bit more “sportish”. I just love to cruise around with my bike around the city without any specific destination. Most importantly, I’m going to grab my photo camera to catch some fine moments while being on the road. I miss shooting with my and even though I don’t have the real talent to be a great photographer I’ll keep on doing this, because this is giving the relaxation I actually need in my daily life.

Over the last couple of days and weeks I had to struggle with lots of system and hardware crashes at home (that’s the curse of having so many PCs) that I had to fix that I had a massive lack of free time actually. First it was my gaming system that died while upgrading to Windows 7 SP1. I fixed this issue to about 90 per cent. After having solved this particular problem, the raid system in my HTPC started having issues as well and one hard drive wasn’t running as stable as I would like it to be. I replaced the hard drives, cloned the whole system, rescued the data and installed a fresh, new system which isn’t finished yet already. I’m not in a hurry with that one and I’m not going to stress me with that one. As long as the XBMC is running, everything is fine.

Bicyclet

There’s a trip to London coming up within the next two weeks and right after that I’ll restart doing early sessions at the gym again. I’m stressed and nerved and bothered with the packed gym right after work and I’m sure to gain much more when I’ll go to gym pretty early. I’ll also change my nutrition as well and get back to the healthy way of life. To get the facts straight, I’m going back the roots of my personal straight edge project. It’s clear for me, that I don’t want to live the way how I live at the moment because it’s simply not good for me. I’m doing fine when it comes to points like stamina but I completely fail meanwhile due to things like pure strength.

Anyhow, it’s curious to see how everything goes down the drain when my bike’s broke. It’s always the same, the tires burst and I gain pounds and pounds and pounds. There seems to be some kind of an invisible band between me and my bike. Like it was between Elliot and E.T. in the movie of the same title. If my bike’s doing well, I’m doing well. If my bike’s getting sick, I’m doing sick.

Till my short vacation I’ll keep my gym schedule as it is now and I’ll do some slight changes to my nutrition. The tough break is going to be right after the vacation which leads me back to no sweets and candy. I’ll also reduce the amount of coffee per day, which is now at an average of four to five huge cups a day. I’ll also reduce the consumption of Diet Coke for one simple reason, Diet Coke causes hunger and hunger finally leads me to eating and eating causes weight. Well, there are tons of things that will change all with this one particular goal to get back to a healthier nutrition, but one the other hand I’m not going to live like monk in a monastery. I still want to get a little bit of fun out of life.

PS: If you want to ask about the pic in this post, well, I just thought “Sex Sells”