Fitquest 7/29/07

A week and a day and we're off to hiking in the white mountains for a week, so I'm debating when to take a fitquest break - need to save the knees.

Yesterday I just did the bike path on my, well, bike... :) Good ride.

Today Karen and I hike Worchester Mountain. I tried something new... not complaining about it being slow or there being lots of stops. Eh... not sure it worked for me, but it could have been worse.

Anyway, I sure was tired. It took most of the hike up to kinda wake up. I stayed up trying to read the new Harry Potter, but I was tired then - more tonight.

Fitquest 7/26/07

Meh, standard run. Went to Oakledge park via the bike path. Wasn't too bad. Nice hot day - I love running in the heat. Sometimes I think I think too much about my running when I'm running. It's better when I just pay attention to my breathing and try to lose myself in the music or thinking about something else. Makes the run less laborious.

The nice thing is that my weight is still hovering/fluctuating between 185-187. That relative consistency is nice. Body fat percentage is also fluctuating between 21%-23%, which is a BIG difference, since that's really a matter of 3-4 pounds, which I guess actually makes sense with the weight variances.

Fitquest 7/25/07

I felt like I needed to put some power into the workout again, so I biked the North Ave route to the high school to get some 100m sprints in. The ride was smarter than the bike path ride there for sprints, since the knees hurt less.


There were two kids there, from what they were talking about it seemed like they were heading to college for their first years after summer. Distance runners. While it's great to keep track of laps, I have never liked running longer distances on a track. Ick.

So, I got in 4 100m sprints:
1 - 13.84s
2 - 14.28s
3 - 14.38s
4 - 14.62s


Not too bad. The first one is about 1/10th of a second faster than my previous fitquest fastest, and the rest were respectably good enough.

Fitquest 7/24/07

Note to self - be more up front with the wife when planning an exercise oriented outing. Saturday I asked her to go riding on the bike path with me. We did, for a little while when I realized she was less interested in the exercise aspect and I wasn't interested in the "looking around at the lake and stuff" aspect. Arguments ensued and I didn't end up getting that ride. Thankfully after things cooled off I did ride out to get groceries so I took the long way and got some exercise anyway.

This morning I got out for a run. I'd been putting it off a little because of the knee pain, but I don't like putting it off. Hell, my weight is even looking like it's doing something more steadily. I might have to thank my sister-in-law. I commented last week that I don't like to eat in the morning before I run because I hate the feeling of food in my stomach when I run. Yuk. But she reminded me that the breakfast jump starts the metabolism. Doh... how could I forget that. So I've been eating a granola bar before I run in the mornings. My weight last night (yup, an evening weighing) was 187. Hehe, 12 more pounds and I'll no longer be lying on my driver's license.

Anyway, I'm pushing a little further on my runs, trying to get farther in the same amount of time. I bumped into the Math Department Head on the bike path - he's a great guy - so I stopped and chatted a little... and it threw off my time a little. I think I ended up doing a 65 minute run (remember, I often end up walking up one of the hills, at least part way).

Good stuff.

Uncle Chris pt 2, the proof

We did take pictures when we visited the neice. Actually, the room was full of people, but I think we got a few nice pictures and here is one. She's so tiny. And in case I didn't say it before... I forget, her name is Mollie... which I read before I heard, so it kept going to my mind as "Millie". I better get that out of my system.

Mom is good and everyone is home now.

Uncle Chris

Last night at 10:30 pm, I became an uncle. My youngest brother Rob and his wife Nicole has their first child, a girl. It was actually about 12 hours after the first call he gave us that her water had broken. No one knew how long it would all take start to finish.

I don't think I'll post much personal info on them or her... not really up to me. So, if they update their blog with the details, you can get them there.

In any event, I'm very happy for them. We'll be heading there to meet her this morning.

Bach to me

Yesterday Julia put me through a test of sorts. I forgot to bring my scales practice sheet in with me - I was transcribing it more neatly to another score sheet and left it at my laptop. She opened up Bach's Sonata No.1 and picked a spot and told me to play and name the notes for a few measures. It was slow as death and I did make a few fundamental mistakes that I was able to self correct with a little verbal nudge, but I did pretty well in her opinion. Coolness. I want to ask her how I'm progressing... slowly, right on, quicker than the average beginner adult... something. I might not want to know. Thankfully I do know I'm having fun with it.

She did say it was time to move on, so she had me buy the Wohlfahrt Melodious Studies book. I picked that up this afternoon. I didn't get a chance to practice today, so tomorrow I'll be sure to put some time in on it.

Update, I had a chance to try the new book out... um, yikes. It has me jumping from the A string to the G string in ways I'm not comfortable with yet... more practice for sho'.