9k Run - August 31, 2008

Our longest run ever! Well, mine anyway, I'm sure ds has run further. (whoops, turns out that we've both run further)

Great run - across town and over a bridge then back along the seawall. Lots of great views and plenty of sunshine.

Today's music was all Fatboy Slim.

We’ve come a long long way together,
Through the hard times and the good,
I have to celebrate you baby,
I have to praise you like I should

Tennis - August 30th, 2008

Another clear cool morning for tennis. Played with ds, again, and we're both better than last time. But soon tennis season will be over, our rainy fall and winter are almost upon us. So then it'll be back to the climbing gym.

1.5k Run - August 29th, 2008

Victory!

Well, partial, anyway. Today, for the first time ever, I ran the entire 1.5k without stopping. Plus for the last 2 blocks I really turned it on. It was a great feeling. Now I'll have to map out a 2k run to keep this up.

Today's music was the Lords of Acid's Expand Your Head.

Am I sexy?
Will you know
Follow me
And you will know

Gym workout - August 28th, 2008

Another good workout this mornig, but no crunches - my abs hurt too much from the other day.

5 minutes on the bike
military press (30kg / 60lb)
lower back (70kg / 150lb)
leg extension (45kg / 100lb)
seated butterfly (30kg / 60lb)
leg curl (70kg / 150lb)
biaxial chest press (45kg / 100lb)
lat pull down (45kg / 100lb)
leg press (180kg / 400lb)
upper back (45kg / 100lb)
upper back (45kg / 100lb)
abdominal (70kg / 150lb)

10 reps, each side, on the Cybex torso rotation (40kg / 90lb)

Then the weights and torso rotation again.

Today's music was MAN-CAT's Bowie/Hip-Hop mashup, The Rise and Fall of Thuggy Stardust and the Hustler's From Mars.

3k Run - August 27th, 2008

Another wet, soggy run today. So I went out this afternoon and bought a shell.

But, all told, a great run - our first two legs were definately further than I'd run before at once.

And today's music was really good, N.E.R.D.'s In Search Of...

I'm an outlaw
Quick on the draw
Somethin' you never seen before
And I dare a motherfucker to come in my face

Gym workout - August 26th, 2008

Wow, 2 weeks since my last gym visit. I'm still convinced that the break I took was a good thing. Perhaps taking a week or so off every couple of months should be part of my routine.

Less cardio than previously, and I'm still doing 2 sets of 15 rather than 3 of 10.

5 minutes on the bike

military press (30kg / 60lb)
lower back (70kg / 150lb)
leg extension (45kg / 100lb)
seated butterfly (30kg / 60lb)
leg curl (70kg / 150lb)
biaxial chest press (45kg / 100lb)
lat pull down (45kg / 100lb)
leg press (180kg / 400lb)
upper back (45kg / 100lb)
upper back (45kg / 100lb)
abdominal (70kg / 150lb)

2 sets of 10 crunches

15 reps, each side, on the Cybex torso rotation (40kg / 90lb)

Then the weights, crunches and torso rotation again.

Today's music, because I'm going to see them in October, Gogol Bordello's Super Taranta!

On burning bridges
Yeah o yeah you seen me fall
In love with witches
And you know my brain is held
Inside by stitches
Yet you know
I did survive
All of your lovely sieges

Tennis - August 25th, 2008

Played for a little over an hour today, with ds. It's been quite a while since we last played - over three weeks by the look of things - so we were both pretty rusty. But it was a lot of fun - and the weather was ideal, not too sunny and pretty mild.

3k Run - August 24th, 2008

Pouring rain today - I'm really going to have to pick up a light waterproof shell for these days, as they'll be occurring more and more often.



Still, a good run and I definitely feel I'm improving.



Today's music was Panjabi MC's Steel Bangle

3k Run - August 21th, 2008

A week! A whole week without exercise.

The heat over the weekend made it unbearable to go for runs or tennis, and I was out of town from Monday - Wednesday.

But today's run was great! Maybe a little break was ideal after all. We ran our regular 3.something k route and we ran further on the first leg than ever before, just over 1k.

I'm very happy with that result.

Today's music was the soundtrack from Kill Bill: Vol. 1

"Bang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down"

3k Run - August 14th, 2008

Because of an impending DHL delivery, ds had to be back home by 8 this morning so we went for a run rather than the gym.

She like to run according to her heart rate, so I didn't time anything. Great little run, a couple of nice hills but nothing to extreme.

Today's music, in light of yesterday's excellent news, was Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D.

"I let you put it in my mouth
I let it get under my skin
I let you put it in my veins
I let you take me from within"

1.5k Run - August 13th, 2008

I'm loving these new shoes. Did the run faster today, ran further before I had to stop and walk and I walked for less time as well.

Today's music was Luther Wright and The Wrongs bluegrass version of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

"And if you're taking your girlfriend
Out tonight
You'd better park the car
Well out of sight.
Cause if they catch you in the back seat
Trying to pick her locks,
They're gonna send you back to mother
In a cardboard box.
You better run."

Gym workout - August 12th, 2008

I'm still doing the sets of 15, rather than 10, as I mentioned earlier. Good workout this morning but I'm wondering if twice a week is often enough at the gym. Oh well, once fall and winter sets in there will be pretty much no more tennis and golf, so I'll be at the climbing gym more often. Speaking of which, I took my 7 year old nephew (son of my aforementioned brother) to try out climbing (in the gym) yesterday and damn if that kid didn't love it! And what a little climber he is. Certainly climbed way higher than I did on my first visit. And he wants to go again, and again and again.

Today's workout:

military press (30kg / 60lb)
lower back (70kg / 150lb)
leg extension (45kg / 100lb)
seated butterfly (20kg / 40lb)
leg curl (70kg / 150lb)
biaxial chest press (45kg / 100lb)
lat pull down (45kg / 100lb)
leg press (180kg / 400lb)
upper back (45kg / 100lb)
upper back (45kg / 100lb)
abdominal (70kg / 150lb)


Today's music was William Shatner's Has Been

"Sing along with the common people,
sing along and it might just get you through,
laugh along with the common people,
laugh along even though they're laughing at you,
and the stupid things that you do.
Because you think that poor is cool."

1.5k Run - August 11th, 2008

The new shoes feel great! I shaved a minute off my run time and ran further before starting to walk. Really looking forward to our long run next weekend.

Forgot to mention my Saturday run music here (and I've forgotten now) but today was Marilyn Manson's "The Golden Age of Grotesque"

"Doll-dagga buzz-buzz ziggety-zag
Godmod grotesque burlesque drag"

New shoes!

My brother, who runs marathons, recommended a local store to go to get my first ever real running shoes.

I tried on 3 or 4 different pairs - and even took little test runs outside in each - and decided on the New Balance 768 ($139.99 CAD).

Tomorrow morning I'm going to try out my 1.5k with them.

1.5k Run - August 9th, 2008

As I mentioned yesterday, I've started on the 1.5k runs. This mornings was just under 10 minutes and I ran for the first half, a short walk, then ran the rest.

3k Run - August 8th, 2008

Today's run was about 29 minutes and was more-or-less untimed.

As a side note, on Sunday I'm going to buy my first pair of real running shoes (I've been using cross-trainers so far). We'll see how that enters into the mix.

Today's music was the soundtrack for "Lola rennt"

"I don't believe in trouble
I don't believe in pain
I don't believe there's nothing left
but running here again"

Gym workout - August 7th, 2008

Gut Buster II.

Well, I hope, anyway. Still working on devising a routine that will really work my abs. Although reading this makes me think that I should revamp my workouts entirely.

Today's workout:

15 reps, each side, on the Cybex torso rotation (40kg / 90lb)
15 crunches
15 reps on the Keiser abdominal (70kg / 150lb)
15 reps on the Keiser seated butterfly (30kg / 60lb)
5 minutes cardio

Repeated 3 times

Today's music was M.I.A.'s Kala.

"All I wanna do is (BANG BANG BANG BANG!)
And (KKKAAAA CHING!)
And take your money"

3k Run - August 6th, 2008

We tried a new route today - note to self: do not plan route anymore, yours have too many hills.

It was a good, if hilly, run. Total time was 26 minutes:

2 minute walk; 4 minute run
2 minute walk; 4 minute run
4 minute walk; 3 minute run
2 minute walk; 3 minute run
2 minute walk

And a new feature for the blog, my workout music.

Today was the soundtrack to Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses"

"1, 2, 3... Who should I kill
Every motherfucker, runnin' up the hill"

Gym workout - August 5th, 2008

Bit of a change in today's work out. Rather than do 3 sets with 10 reps each time, I did 2 sets with 15 reps each time. Makes for a slightly shorter workout, but with pretty much the same results.

5 minutes on the bike, Keiser circuit, 15 crunches
5 minutes on the treadmill, etc., etc.

• military press (30kg / 60lb)
• lower back (70kg / 150lb)
• leg extension (45kg / 100lb)
• seated butterfly (20kg / 40lb)
• leg curl (70kg / 150lb)
• biaxial chest press (45kg / 100lb)
• lat pull down (45kg / 100lb)
• leg press (180kg / 400lb)
• upper back (45kg / 100lb)
• upper back (45kg / 100lb)
• abdominal (70kg / 150lb)

And a side-note to Sundays run - when we got back and I took my shoes off, I noticed that one of my socks was soaked in blood (well, a small part of it was). After a shower I saw that the problem was a too-long toe nail. No runners toe for me, yet!

7.5k Run - August 3rd, 2008

We went out for a 90 minute run this morning. New route, over a couple of bridges and past one of the stadiums. Great run, beautiful day. There was definitly more running this time, and longer runs each interval too.

Tennis, August 2nd, 2008

Today it was just ds and myself out playing tennis. Just over an hour this afternoon (after having some of my brother's birthday cake, that is).

Great game, lots of long volleys and more than one spectacular serve by ds!

Anonymity and Blogging

Obviously I'm trying to maintain some anonymity in these writings, but it's getting a little tiresome writing "my girlfriend" everytime I want to refer to the most important person in my life.

So, she will now be known as "ds". Our tennis partners are "ml" (him) and "gm" (her). Our climbing friends are "hm" and "cf". Pitch 'n' putt was with "bv" and the cat is "s".

Yeah, this'll be much easier.

3k Run - August 1st, 2008

My girlfriend's shins are feeling better so we both went for the run. Total time just over 29 minutes.

3 minute walk; 2 minute run
3 minute walk; 2 minute run
3 minute walk; 2 minute run
3 minute walk; 2 minute run
5 minute walk; 2 minute run
2 minute walk

But I'm disappointed that my gut is far from busted. And looking back on that workout, I can see why. Hell, all I did was add 1 exercise and remove a bunch of others. I'm going to re-vamp that workout for next Thursday and give it another try then.