Operation Arm Flaps: The Final Chapter

i did it. It wasn't pretty, nor was it particularly successful, but i did it.

Mostly.

Original goal was focus on upper body work, built around the push up challenge, and to alternate days with core/lower body work. In the end, i stayed with just the push ups...

Minor moral victory? Let's just cut to the wrap-up.

Final measurements: EXACTLY THE SAME AS WEEK 2.

Yep. No additional shrinkage in the last 2 weeks. But perhaps more tone. There's that. And i can definitely do more push ups! Starting 'exhaustion test' had me at 10. i can now drop and give you 30! Stronger. That is good.

Comparing my first "bingo wings, week 0" pic vs "bingo wings, final" shot? Biggest difference is that my shirt is a little rattier (hey, it's ALWAYS laundry day here...).




Why was this second round of "30 Days" so much harder for us all to stick to? i dunno. The novelty had perhaps worn off... Distractions abound, don't they? We seemed to lose a lot of energy around week 2.

Rather than lament what didn't work, however, i'll cheer for what did... We slogged through. We at least felt guilty when we didn't... And for me, i do feel stronger. And the arms are perhaps marginally less likely to take me airborne in a stiff breeze...



Here's to finding ways to keep stretching a bit. To hold ourselves accountable, even without communal accountability. And to the seemingly endless 'little things' we can all find time for that can make us a bit better...

Riding & Reading, final report

I know we're a bit past the 30 day mark, but I wanted to get in one final report. I'm still going. All through the 30 day challenge, my numbers on the exercise bike crept up, bit by bit. But those bits added up. 3.86 miles and 162 calories on the first day, and 4.9 miles and 220 calories on the last day.

I like numbers. They give me some idea how I'm doing. But sometimes round numbers get our attention more. In my case, five miles seemed to be the wall I couldn't cross on a 20 minute ride. 4.86, 4.97, 4.98, 4.90. So close, but I wanted that FIVE.

So a couple days ago, I decided I was going to break the five mile mark if it killed me. No warmup time, just get going right out of the gate. Pedaling the bike when it's at the lowest resistance is actually harder in some ways than when you're really pushing. If you go too fast it feels a bit out of control, like you're going to bang your ankle or your knee or crash through the window. But I needed that five.

By the time I got to the "top of the hill" I was dying. My thighs were burning. I put down the book. On the second "peak" I thought I wasn't going to make it through 20 minutes, much less five imaginary miles. I watched my speed. I watched my distance. I watched my time remaining. I tried to calculate what pace I was on and what pace I needed to keep. But I eventually just gave up and pedaled.

Forget about it. Either you make it, or you don't. Just give it all you've got.

Pedal.

Eventually, I felt the resistance go to nothing, meaning I was near the end. I pedaled out of control again, eyes closed, breathing hard, waiting for the final beep to tell me I was done.

5.64 miles. 247 calories. All those near misses, and I finally broke through the wall and kept going.

And it didn't kill me.

It was the second wall I broke through on this journey. The first wall was back at zero miles and zero calories. Somehow, that one was just as hard to break through.

Tonight, I hit 5.68, and 249 calories. I guess 250 calories is my new wall....

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CONFESSIONS OF A SLACKER

Well, not  a bad slacker, just a busy person, really.
Some days I don't manage more than 20 minutes. That said, when things get hectic I am usually walking at a brisk pace from A to B and back. Several times.

And I did get this bike for times when I can't get out to walk. All the same, I did set 30 minutes a day as my challenge and I hope doing extra  when I can makes up for the short bits?

Is this 30 day challenge going to continue? If so, I think I'll settle for something more doable! Well, even if all you challengers  are quitting after this I'll still set myself a goal! As well as daily pedaling.

Anyway, we're not at the end of this one yet so I'm going to have 30 minutes on my bike (indoors) while I watch some aerial footage of Provence on the time-waster.

Operation "Arm Flaps": The Quest Continues!

Although i'm deep in the midst of a holiday dive trip - where i've been trying hard to get in a massive number of dives before the end of the week. This means 4 dives/day for the first 3 days. i'm tired. But....

Managed to get in my Friday push up sets on Sunday morning (Saturday was a travel day) and just busted through my Monday sets on Tuesday evening. So the schedule is a little blown, i'm still working it...

Didn't have a chance to do the measurements/picture, but will do that for my final post -- which should be next Monday, if my 30 day count is correct!

And since i had to work terribly hard at Week 4 of the challenge? i'm repeating it - with a few more reps in each set. Progress. At the end of this series, i will do one final exhaustion test -- to see how far i've really gotten in the past 30 days...

So, not letting the holiday be an excuse... but i'm mildly derailed as i chase fish!

Cryptic Mitzi September 13

I got my three cryptic clues down this morning. It's a rushing sort of week and my mind is on deadlines rather than on crosswords - except I did do the mega Monday last night, which had a few cryptics in amongst the regular clues. It is fun though how cryptic clues fuse with the act of punning and wordplay.

eg Q A horse's whinny sounds like a denial! ((5)
A Neigh

That feels like almost 30 days. Has anyone been counting!?

Looking back, and thinking ahead

Yesterday was one of those days where riding the bike was just not going to happen. Even the satisfaction of the ride and the promise of a little reading time aren't enough to overcome the kind of day I had yesterday.

Four hours of sleep. Getting up and getting the kids off to school. My daughter gets on the bus at 6:15 and my son gets on at 6:30. They are 8 years old. Brutal.

Got to work by 7:15. Commented to a co-worker how things had been pretty quiet. Then right after lunch I got sucked into a major problem. I was on the phone until 8:00pm. Got home a little before 9. Savage headache.

I forgot to even eat dinner. I stared at the computer for maybe an hour before collapsing into bed.

But it was okay. I just got right back on the horse bike today without hesitation. And beat both my calorie and distance marks. To me, it means I'm really on board at this point. It's no longer a "challenge". It's just something I do. It's part of my day.

I've got a 5k coming up in October, for the Autism Society of North Carolina. (Obligatory link to donations page.) I've never done a 5k before. Never anything even remotely close. I'm a couch potato by trade. With a non-bionic foot that may not be ready for running. But at least I can walk in with the confidence that I'm not totally out of shape.

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No Cigar

but i was close! i had these grand ideas of reconnecting with lost friends and family. somehow, though, life just had a tendency to roll over me. delightfully so, with trips and festivals and hiking and theater and this and that and the other (guess i ran out of commas and had to use "and").

still, comma, i made pretty good progress. not to any great depth of reconnection. i've not found myself spending hours a day conversing with long lost family and friends. but, i have reached out and chatted...by e-mail or voicemail. my goal was 30 people. if i count some folks i will reconnect with on a scuba adventure i leave for in...CRAP!...7 hours from now (and not in the least sleepy!)...then i will surely get close to my goal of 30 reconnects.

i've been joining along with daisyfae in doing the pushup thing, with success, though not in Arnold Schwarnegger-ian proportions. i've also been cognizant of, if not strictly keeping to, my old goal of an earlier bedtime and a 7 hour sleep. next 30 days? no clue.

and an apology for dropping off the grid and not supporting my fellow 30-day-ers. i know i appreciate your bon mots and optimistic support.

but, must toddle off for now. that OCD fifth repacking of the suitcase is in order...

Reading & Riding, 9/7

My eating habits are at two ends of a spectrum. As often as I can manage, I'm eating delicious, home-cooked, (small "o") organic food from the abundant local farms, along with hippie standbys like green tea, nuts, raisins, artisan bread, and eggs from the back yard.... or else I'm wiping the grease off my hands after a trip to the Wendy's drive-thru or trying to get my money's worth at the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. But I don't pay nearly as much attention as I probably should to "healthy" eating. I like Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" a lot, but I also like fried stuff.

I finally got the results from my blood work that was done way back at the beginning of this challenge. I was feeling run down all the time, and it was enough of an issue that I decided to see a family doctor for the first time in a long while. My mind was ticking off things like early stage heart disease, diabetes, thyroid problems.... Not that I was losing sleep worrying, but given family history, lifestyle, and other factors, many possibilities were plausible.

The one area I figured would be most likely to get dinged was my cholesterol, because of my love of all things golden brown and delicious.

So I was mildly surprised to find that pretty much everything was normal. Mostly not even borderline, but right in the sweet spot. Even my LDL ("bad") cholesterol, the one affected by diet, was "excellent," just shy of "optimal".

The only small blemish on the whole thing was that my HDL ("good") cholesterol was a little low. And what fixes that? Let me go to the doctor's words: "This can be improved by increasing physical activity and exercise."

Which brings us, at long last, to the whole point of this blog post: the exercise.

Man, I did NOT want to ride tonight. I mean, I missed my usual ride time. I'm very tired from a short night's sleep. My stomach is a bit off -- well, I could go on whining some more, but I won't. But I did the ride. I even rode hard, setting a new high for distance.

Before I get to the chart, there are some missing data points. I have missed some days here and there, and I can't quite get the hang of recording it every time, even when I do ride. I also added a column, really just for myself, showing which program I'm doing on the bike. I've been trying some different intervals and resistance patterns, which affects the calorie burn and distance numbers. The new column will just help me compare apples to apples.

Date     Lbs    Miles  Cal Prog    
08/15/11 230.6  3.86   162  2
08/16/11 232.6  4.06   178  2
08/23/11 230.6  4.14   176  2
08/24/11 230.6  4.05   172  2
08/29/11        4.59   204  3
08/30/11        4.64   204  3
08/31/11 230.4  4.51   201  3
09/01/11 228.6  4.86   211  3
09/04/11        4.77   192  4
09/06/11        4.60   184  4
09/07/11 229.8  4.97   199  4

I'm finding it's getting harder to beat previous highs, but it's also getting easier to get through the ride without feeling like I'm going to keel over. It's getting hard to pedal any faster at the low resistance parts, so I may just have to bump everything up a notch across the board.

No weight loss so far, but I'm ok with that at this point.

I haven't talked much about the reading, I guess because there's not much to tell. I'm enjoying being able to read books, it's helping me regain my ability to concentrate for more than 30 seconds at a time. It even spurred me to finally go check out our (excellent) local library.

So that's my report. I can't believe there's only like a week left of this challenge. My intention is to keep this going indefinitely. I'll be curious to see if it gets harder once the accountability is gone.

And since I have to get up in under 5 hours, I really need to stop rambling on....

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Cryptic Burger Septermber 8

Following yesterday's maudlin recognition that a challenge is actually challenging, I then reverted to my daily cryptic task with some determination. Result! I figured out 10 clues from yesterday's puzzle, and 3 from today's.

As time is pressing due to other daily duties, I will supply just the one clue, my favourite of the lot.
Q President gives duck two arts degrees (5)
A Obama

I worked this out from President + BA (bachelor of arts) + MA (Masters)...I don't actually know why the word "duck" is in the clue, but the answer is correct based on today's solutions. So the crypticising continues, I am back in the game.

Cyrptic Mitzi September 7

I wonder if others are finding this 30 Day challenge more challenging the second time round? It could be my fault entirely for choosing a difficult challenge. The hype of my organised and successful first week has waned. I'm also not sure of the end date of our present 30 days, so am having trouble focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel. Not to sound too grim, but it's good to have a sense of momentum. Either way, the magic of the first 30 days has worked, as I'm still getting to the gym every day. It's possible I will revert to a physical challenge next time.

I did complete the Monday night Omega crossword apart from a few stray clues. Here was a success...
Q ?Trial Sam arranged for person in a constant state of anxiety (8)
A Alarmist
(anagram of Trial Sam)

I also have two chunky work deadlines which have claimed my headspace. So I think I'll do a "Challenge, Lite" this time round and take up the cause more stridently next time. 

Operation "Arm Flaps" - Week 3 Wrap Up

i'm still at it... and feeling marginally stronger. Haven't done much more than the push up work, and the alternate day abs/core stuff has slid - but i've been bicycling and hiking on those days, so i think i'm still making some progress.

The metrics this week: 13 1/4" / 34 cm

Miniscule progress, but i believe it is becoming real...

In hindsight, i think i should have come up with a different measurement technique. Perhaps something to do with timing the resonance of the flaps? Give 'em a push and see how long it takes for the flappage to stop?

Also, an action shot... A day on the water, playing in river kayaks. Definitely got an extra upper body workout. Not so much from the paddling, but from lifting my drink bottle filled with Crystal Light Lemonade and Vodka. Lunch. Yay...

Is there Bellydancing move that involves the tail between the legs?

Total failure.

I've dropped the ball on quite a few things these recent days. :-(

But I'm back. So while I'm not pleased that I didn't make the 30 days of this particular exercise, I haven't given up on improving my figure and bringing a new experience to my life which is ultimately the point, right?

I did change bellydancing videos from one that was exercise-focused to one that is more focused on the dance part. It's still difficult and a little unnatural for me, but I did better today than I did yesterday and the day before... so must remember the ol' adage: progress, not perfection.

Running is good...

I'm doing well with the running. I am pleased.

It is not much fun to write here about my running because it is boring. I mean, I can't say much more than "I ran". I could tell you what I thought of the plot of the teen drama I was watching while I ran ("Make It or Break It" or "Greek"), but I doubt that would be very fascinating, either.

So, I'll just stop by every few days and say how it is going, rather than posting every day. I'm running on a good running schedule, with one or two rest days a week. That's fine.

There was a brief chance that I would run in a half-marathon in two weeks, and that revved up my running for a few days, but the chance fell through so I'm back to normal.

I'm still reading your posts even if I'm not writing as often!

Cryptically Mitzi Day Aug 28 - September 1

Sunday to Wednesday. A stretch of some four days. I did the bulk of the Monday 'Omega' but was not able to crack some of those pesky cryptics embedded with the rest. I did get some great clues out, explained below (after this disclaimer!)

Cryptic crosswords are like yoga: if your mind isn't in the right place of stillness, you will topple over. My mind has been busy at work, so much so that even when I did try my cryptic crossword in the past few mornings, I literally could not balance on the cyrptic beam. Added to that, I have a funny excuse - Dylan Moran. I went to hear the Irish comedian on Tuesday night. His performance was brilliant and his manner with the audience is respectful and generous.

A night at the opera following northern style Chinese dumplings tied up my Wednesday night. I am finally home and able to concentrate on my crossword. No matter how hard on tried - on buses and trains in the past few days - nothing sank in. I could tell my concentration was at a weird ebb, because I lost my ATM card. Needless to say, I was in a furious funk of irritation as a result.

The Monday Omega contained a few clues with the word "converted".
eg Q Salacious in-flight society, converted
I knew the answer was related to The Mile High Club (wolf whistle!) but how? What is meant by 'converted'?
Answer: a conversion of measurements from American 'miles' to Aussie 'kilometres'...hence The One Point Six Kilometre High Club.

Same for the heavy rock industrial goth band Nine Inch Nails...who, 'converted', became 'twenty-three centimetre nails'.

Now that my brain has settled down, here are four clues from the Thursday mini.

Q Rides his bike around on the worst windstorms (8)
A cyclones
(cycle + cyclone)

Q Encroachment in the street (6)
A Inroad

Q Destiny, it's said, is a celebration (4)
A Fete
(Fate + fete)

Q Start off in the thing I ingested (8)
A initiate
(to initiate + ate/ingested!)

Day 17 -- Made Up Yoga

I'm late getting this done.  It's practically the middle of the night.

Oh well.

Tonight I made my own routine.  I was jammin' to my own select iTunes playlist and found myself up and jammin' yoga to my own melody.  It counts, right?

Gawd yoga makes my body feel good.  I find myself stretching throughout the day.  Tonight, knowing I had to do it for the challenge, I let myself stretch to my own rhythm not caring much if I were doing a "routine".  It felt good.

I'll go back to doing a structured routine tomorrow, but for tonight I'm happy living in my own La La land of c'est la vie. Screw it. =)

Reading & Riding: 8/31

I missed one day of riding because our bedtime routine with the kids got thrown off and it just slipped my mind. The next day I had a soul-crushing headache, so I skipped that day too. (I know, no excuses, right?) But I've hit the bike every day since then. I think this routine can really work for me long-term. I've missed recording my stats a couple times, or forgot to weigh in, but I'm getting the hang of all the pieces of the routine.

My goal at this point is to do a little better every day, either in distance or in calories burned. I took it too easy yesterday, so today I put the hammer down. I may be in trouble tomorrow.

Here are my collected numbers so far:

Date     Lbs    Miles  Cal     

08/15/11 230.6  3.86   162

08/16/11 232.6  4.06   178

08/23/11 230.6  4.14   176

08/24/11 230.6  4.05   172

08/29/11        4.59   204

08/30/11        4.64   204

08/31/11 230.4  4.51   201

09/01/11 228.6  4.86   211

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