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Well, two four-day weekends back-to-back are definitely welcome.
I spent last Thursday night heading down to Lower Sydenham to pick up my new TV, which is now duly installed.
On Friday my left shin started hurting quite badly, presumably inflamed through a heavy training session during Thursday, followed by a five-mile drive back from Lower Sydenham at an average speed of five miles an hour. The continual depressing of the rather stiff clutch did not have a good effect on my already weary left leg.
However, I made it to the gym on Saturday and Sunday for some upper body and lower body work respectively, plus some serious cardio stuff on Saturday.
I've made considerable progress since I started my gym sessions again at the beginning of February, but most of the progress has been since I took on a personal trainer for two sessions a week. We've set some targets, and the focus has mainly been on strength rather than on just burning up the calories (the theory is that if I can build up strength through weight-training and keep to a good diet, the fat will vanish of its own accord). I'm down half a stone since Feb 1, but I was up to a horrific 12st 13lb at that point, so my current weight (12st 4lb) is still half a stone more than I would like and at least a stone more than I would be if I was really fit. But at least I can get into nearly all of my old trousers again (and three new pairs of jeans and two new pairs of trousers are now consigned to the "too baggy" drawer)!
The main target is the dead lift, which has the advantage of using just about every bloody muscle in the body, as far as I can see. So we're training all of the muscles and then, every couple of weeks, going for a personal best on the dead lift. Managed 107.5kg today, which may or may not sound to you like "a lot". It is and it isn't. I couldn't lift an old 80kg television, for example, because the balance is all wrong. But it's probably more than the average man in the street could attempt.
I'm targeting 130kg and if/when I reach that, we'll see how it goes from there.
+++++++++++
Poker continues to be hard work, and I'm still a little bit down for the year. Although the games are tougher, I'm getting the feeling that I really am kind of running bad this year. I've looked at the chart and I notice that I've actually had six-month sessions (in one case, a hole year) nearly as poor as this, but never from January 1 on. They've normally appeared from May to November, or March to September, something like that.
+++++++++++
Two movies I've managed to squeeze in recently were Iron Man and Female Agents.
The former was great fun, if only because RObert Downey Jr and Jeff Bridges can do wonders with the most ridiculous premise. And, let's face it, you can't fault a comic strip that near the end has to resort to the "master override button" or something similar, which will cause the entire building to blow up.
Female Agents was a mainly French-language movie starring Sophie Marceau as Louise Desfontaines a character loosely based on Lise de Baissac. Although the plot has some glaring holes in it, the narrative shoots along nicely and is quite gripping. Star of the show is definitely Julie Depardieu, one of the five female agents tasked with the rescue of a British geologist from a German hospital. She has inherited much of her father's talent, and not a little of his comic timing.
++++++++++++
So, with the training, and my somewhat foolish commitment to the UK and Ireland Pokerstars tournament league this month (I keep forgetting how tedious it becomes having to play a couple of penny-ante tournaments every night), and piano practice, and work, the days just fly by. I'm focusing reasonably well on my diet, without going to extremes (thus I allowed myself a three-flavour ice-cream scoop yesterday after a pleasant lunch with Peter Berlin). I've been listing the protein/carb/fat contents of everything I eat on an excel spreadsheet. Not with any real purpose in mind except to keep a vague eye on my food balance. In six months' time we might be at the six meals of 50g protein a day stage. (50g protein roughly equates to 180g chicken breast. It is, in other words, one fuck of a lot of meat.)
There are boring technical reasons for eating six meals a day rather than three, but the basic reason is that the body can only convert so much protein at a time into things which are useful. Any more just gets converted to fat. The carbohydrate/fat balance is more interesting, and what I've read on the matter (and we are talking about strength training here, which eventually requires you to put on weight, rather than lose it) mainly boils down to our old favourite ketosis.
I'm currently sticking to the "safer" levels of balance. But, like I say, I'm currently in the "increase strength, lose fat" stage. Muscles can gain a considerable amount of strength through training (in effect, bringing idle fibres into play), without increasing in bulk, before the brain actually says "fuck me, it wants to do more -- I'd better make it bigger". Once I reach that stage (actually, IF I reach that stage -- since it's a long way off yet and will require lots of hard work) then I'll have to focus on diet and the training regime a lot more. This, in other words, is the easy part! Although it doesn't always feel like it.
But, all in all, getting this personal trainer is one of the best things I have done, ever. It hasn't "turned my life around". There's not been a Damascene conversion. But it has made me feel that I have something to drive towards, and it's pulled me out of a rut. My posture is improving, and my self-belief has improved. I hadn't actually realized how low my self-esteem had gone.
___________________
I spent last Thursday night heading down to Lower Sydenham to pick up my new TV, which is now duly installed.
On Friday my left shin started hurting quite badly, presumably inflamed through a heavy training session during Thursday, followed by a five-mile drive back from Lower Sydenham at an average speed of five miles an hour. The continual depressing of the rather stiff clutch did not have a good effect on my already weary left leg.
However, I made it to the gym on Saturday and Sunday for some upper body and lower body work respectively, plus some serious cardio stuff on Saturday.
I've made considerable progress since I started my gym sessions again at the beginning of February, but most of the progress has been since I took on a personal trainer for two sessions a week. We've set some targets, and the focus has mainly been on strength rather than on just burning up the calories (the theory is that if I can build up strength through weight-training and keep to a good diet, the fat will vanish of its own accord). I'm down half a stone since Feb 1, but I was up to a horrific 12st 13lb at that point, so my current weight (12st 4lb) is still half a stone more than I would like and at least a stone more than I would be if I was really fit. But at least I can get into nearly all of my old trousers again (and three new pairs of jeans and two new pairs of trousers are now consigned to the "too baggy" drawer)!
The main target is the dead lift, which has the advantage of using just about every bloody muscle in the body, as far as I can see. So we're training all of the muscles and then, every couple of weeks, going for a personal best on the dead lift. Managed 107.5kg today, which may or may not sound to you like "a lot". It is and it isn't. I couldn't lift an old 80kg television, for example, because the balance is all wrong. But it's probably more than the average man in the street could attempt.
I'm targeting 130kg and if/when I reach that, we'll see how it goes from there.
+++++++++++
Poker continues to be hard work, and I'm still a little bit down for the year. Although the games are tougher, I'm getting the feeling that I really am kind of running bad this year. I've looked at the chart and I notice that I've actually had six-month sessions (in one case, a hole year) nearly as poor as this, but never from January 1 on. They've normally appeared from May to November, or March to September, something like that.
+++++++++++
Two movies I've managed to squeeze in recently were Iron Man and Female Agents.
The former was great fun, if only because RObert Downey Jr and Jeff Bridges can do wonders with the most ridiculous premise. And, let's face it, you can't fault a comic strip that near the end has to resort to the "master override button" or something similar, which will cause the entire building to blow up.
Female Agents was a mainly French-language movie starring Sophie Marceau as Louise Desfontaines a character loosely based on Lise de Baissac. Although the plot has some glaring holes in it, the narrative shoots along nicely and is quite gripping. Star of the show is definitely Julie Depardieu, one of the five female agents tasked with the rescue of a British geologist from a German hospital. She has inherited much of her father's talent, and not a little of his comic timing.
++++++++++++
So, with the training, and my somewhat foolish commitment to the UK and Ireland Pokerstars tournament league this month (I keep forgetting how tedious it becomes having to play a couple of penny-ante tournaments every night), and piano practice, and work, the days just fly by. I'm focusing reasonably well on my diet, without going to extremes (thus I allowed myself a three-flavour ice-cream scoop yesterday after a pleasant lunch with Peter Berlin). I've been listing the protein/carb/fat contents of everything I eat on an excel spreadsheet. Not with any real purpose in mind except to keep a vague eye on my food balance. In six months' time we might be at the six meals of 50g protein a day stage. (50g protein roughly equates to 180g chicken breast. It is, in other words, one fuck of a lot of meat.)
There are boring technical reasons for eating six meals a day rather than three, but the basic reason is that the body can only convert so much protein at a time into things which are useful. Any more just gets converted to fat. The carbohydrate/fat balance is more interesting, and what I've read on the matter (and we are talking about strength training here, which eventually requires you to put on weight, rather than lose it) mainly boils down to our old favourite ketosis.
I'm currently sticking to the "safer" levels of balance. But, like I say, I'm currently in the "increase strength, lose fat" stage. Muscles can gain a considerable amount of strength through training (in effect, bringing idle fibres into play), without increasing in bulk, before the brain actually says "fuck me, it wants to do more -- I'd better make it bigger". Once I reach that stage (actually, IF I reach that stage -- since it's a long way off yet and will require lots of hard work) then I'll have to focus on diet and the training regime a lot more. This, in other words, is the easy part! Although it doesn't always feel like it.
But, all in all, getting this personal trainer is one of the best things I have done, ever. It hasn't "turned my life around". There's not been a Damascene conversion. But it has made me feel that I have something to drive towards, and it's pulled me out of a rut. My posture is improving, and my self-belief has improved. I hadn't actually realized how low my self-esteem had gone.
___________________
