Experiments in Geekery

I'm still going, 4 times a week appears to be a good average, about 45 minutes a go but definitely increasing the work I'm doing - I've gone up a level or two on just about everything, and I'm pushing far too much on the leg-presses, and NOWHERE near enough on the shoulder presses (ow, how can so little weight hurt so much?). I keep on thinking I'm noticing changes in how I look but I don't know if I really am changing shape.  I hope I am, but I'm not so sure, it seems hard to tell objectively.  Last week I was down 5lbs, I haven't measured this week and am not so hopeful, it's been an odd week for eating, with take-out pizza on Tuesday, a BBQ with LOTS of beer on Saturday, topped off with curry & wine tonight. I definitely notice the ache afterwards if I push really hard at something.  For example today I can really feel the muscles in my chest when I reach back for something, and I noticed the muscles in my legs moving when I was out walkin

Or for those of you born without a silver spoon in yer gobs: pushing yourself. This morning my workout was hard.  I really pushed at everything, upped the resistance on all the cardio machines (treadmill, handbike, the previously mentioned weird-ass Vario things) and really went for the weights.  Consequently, I hurt like hell now. Ow.

Photo from sunset at Jane's parents' house.

The good news?  According to the Wii Fit & balance board, I am now 5lb down on my weight from last week. This is good news indeed.  This is with a very mixed week of both very good eating (taking veggies to work to snack on) and very bad eating (a pack of Oreo cookies and a large bag of crisps) and a sausage sandwich. I have started upping my workload at the gym.  If I've only got 45mins to do it in, I need to make sure I'm doing something worthwhile!  The first week or two have been breaking myself in, gently. Hopefully I'll continue to see similar falls in weight.  I realise that expecting that level of continued loss (5lb/wk) is unrealistic and would be perfectly happy with 2lb a week.

I took Thursday off in the end, as I didn't wake up until gone 8am and my commute is 45 minutes... doing gym things in the evening isn't likely to happen.  I'm normally starving after work and the evenings are for flumping, not working out... right? So I was back at it this morning, queuing at the door when they opened.  I'm managing about 40mins of work - I need to change on my way in and out and have to be back at my car for 8am (car park charges start at 8am).  That includes 10mins on the treadmill, 5mins on the hand bike and 5 mins on the weirdest walky machines I've ever seen .  Also doing some resistance work which I'm quite familiar with, though haven't yet started on the free weights as I'm a wuss. I'll get myself on the Wii Fit again in the next few days and see if it claims I've gone down in weight at all.  As I see it, I can't have gone any other way!

So I've done what I've been trying to persuade myself to do for ages.  I've taken advantage of Wrexham County Borough Council's offer, of £25 for 30 days membership of their "Pure" leisure centre stuff.  This gives me access to the pool, gym, sauna and classes. I joined on Friday, 6th August and so far have been to the pool several times and the gym twice (had to wait for an induction for the gym), and damn do I feel sore now.  This much exercise is unexpected. I'm going in the morning before work, so am turning up as they open the door at 0700.  When I've been swimming, must admit I'm not doing much because I'm a wimp and it hurts.  Today was a record with 7 whole lengths!  I need to work out some kind of routine for myself at the gym because it's all too easy to get caught in a cycle where I only do the things I like!  Somehow, I don't think that's the point. I've got to keep this going.  It's not going to be hard,

Tonight both Jane and I watched the Stephen Sondheim 80th Birthday Prom that was shown on BBC2 . It was astonishing, really.  Both of us know the vast majority of the music involved, even if not by name, as his music is all pervasive.  It gets everywhere.  We may not have seen the shows, but we've definitely heard the music. Sondheim is not a name that everybody knows, I suppose.  If you're involved in music in any way it really should be.  As the lyricist for "West Side Story", composer for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", "Sweeney Todd" and "Sunday in the Park with George" (among many others) he has influence in all aspects of musical theatre. I first came across his music in 2007 or so, when Jane and I were in London and stuck for something to do one evening.  We came across "Sunday in the Park with George" playing at the Wyndham's Theatre and she persuaded me (it really isn't that hard) that we s

I am the proud owner of a T-Mobile G1.  It was the first Android phone introduced into the market and although I was late to the Android party (I got the G1 just before T-Mobile UK discontinued them) I have been ever so fond of it. I can't necessarily even express why I'm quite so fond of it.  I like the design, I like the way it works, I like the flexibility. One thing I don't like is that some fairly major bugs in the underlying Android OS have been outstanding for a year or more - some bugs that cause a complete loss of all data on the handset unless you just happen to have backed it up previously. I have abused this phone recently, with the discovery of the "Cyanogen" ROM.  I have rooted my phone and installed this software and the thing actually runs pretty well, considering that the handset was never intended to run this level of Android software (both Eclair/2.1 and Froyo/2.2). So I've had great "fun", backing up, restoring from backup