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Exercise and Fitness: sticking to resolutions


Iskaral Pust

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Saturday was bench press, pull downs, etc.  Another PB on bench press, leading to seriously stiff pecs and shoulders yesterday. 

Knowing I have a long transatlantic flight today, I decided heavy leg weights on Sunday would be foolhardy.  I settled instead for rowing 2x2km in 8:10 and 8:20. 

Now I'm about to board a flight to Dublin for our vacation in Ireland and Rome for the next two weeks.  We'll have access to hotel gyms but my expectations are low.   If American hotels have sad excuses for a gym, European hotels are far, far worse. 

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I have made it. I finished my first Mountain Race on Sunday. 28 km with about 1300 meters overall altitude change. It was really tough, but very satisfying. There were two brutal mountains (both more than 2k of steep ascents, from about 500-600 m to 1100-1150 m, and a long, steep, muddy and wet 4k descent in the end. Tons of mud (heavy rains the day before), narrow trails and incredible views at the mountain tops (we've passed at least four). I've made it in 3:56:06, which gave me 89th place out of 303 participants and 14h place in M40 age category (out of 58). It was exhausting but fun.

9 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

If American hotels have sad excuses for a gym, European hotels are far, far worse. 

I'd say it depends on the stardard. Most 4 star hotels all over Europe I've been to have pretty decent gyms.

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1 hour ago, 3CityApache said:

I'd say it depends on the stardard. Most 4 star hotels all over Europe I've been to have pretty decent gyms.

I hope so.  In Europe, we always stay at high end hotels in city centers rather than resorts, so whether it's the higher cost of real estate downtown or downtown tourists don't generally demand gyms but our experience so far has been terrible.  

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I had good, long swims on Thursday and Saturday.  The pool at that hotel was really good.  But go-karting last Monday left my biceps a bit strained and then two days in the pool meant my left bicep felt so strained that it bothered me even during bench press on Sunday.  So I'm resting for a couple of days.  I'll have to see what our gym & pool in Rome are like before I decide what to do next.  

On the flip side, our vacation has included far too much rich food, and that's just in the Ireland part of the trip so far; Rome will definitely be worse.  But I can't be too shocked: vacation is always a step backward in fitness and nutrition.  At least the jet-lag has abated. 

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Exercising when it's hot is unpleasant.

I haven't been doing too well keeping fit over the last few weeks after going on holiday. It's either been pissing down with rain or oppressively hot so I've been skipping a lot of runs. Unfortunately preseason training for rugby starts in just under 2 weeks and there's been a lot of talk of how we're going to get really beasted this year after some disappointment with the first team's fitness levels last year. So that's going to be fun.

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I went to the pool this morning. Having spent too much time away from the pool has left my swimming form at a much lower level than I'd like it to be but exactly where I could reasonably expected it. Tried to see how if I can swim continuously for 40 minutes I was at the pool and how far I'd make it in that time. Since anything other than breaststroke would result in me hanging on the edge of the pool for dear life way before 40 minutes were up my choice was easy. Ended up doing 1600m and it felt great.

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cycling in the oxfordshire countryside compared to london is a fucking joy, the drivers are so courteous, the roads are so quite, the scenery is so beautiful, if it wasn't for the amount of bugs i get in my teeth i would be as happy as it is possible for someone to be when they are cycling 40 miles in 34 degree weather. 

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On 6/21/2017 at 5:12 PM, BigFatCoward said:

cycling in the oxfordshire countryside compared to london is a fucking joy, the drivers are so courteous, the roads are so quite, the scenery is so beautiful, if it wasn't for the amount of bugs i get in my teeth i would be as happy as it is possible for someone to be when they are cycling 40 miles in 34 degree weather. 

What are you doing, cycling into work? Or cycling to the station? Or just cycling for fun?

My own exercise is limited by My Screaming Piriformis, which is still not better after physio. All I can manage is two hot yoga classes a week plus a 3-4k run on weekends. Bah.

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Yay back to 30kg on benchpress, after two weeks back doing 5x5, after a half year of not doing anything much.

Still running and swimming consistently too...I've got a few months that should be a sort of steady routine of research and writing and nothing much else, so trying to add a solid weight/fitness goal in there so I'm forced to look away from variouus computer screens at least part of the day. So far about 2 kg down. 

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Just back home from our vacation.

Our hotel in Rome was really fantastic but, as feared, the fitness center was a why-bother effort.  Fortunately, our room was a "fitness suite" with a mini-gym in place of the usual sitting room -- it's not something I've seen elsewhere but it suited us very well.  So I had a set of adjustable dumb bells in our room to do some workouts every day with 2x~35lbs and body weight while we were in Rome.  I noticed that doing sets with lighter weights meant I could exercise without rest days -- it just doesn't strain the muscles as much.

But then I caught a cold was we were leaving Rome and now I'll be under the weather for a few days.  Probably no more exercise until the weekend.

Despite some truly indulgent eating -- great food almost everywhere on this trip, and especially in Rome -- when I got back on the scales this morning, I was just under 184lbs.  I'll look to drop back to 180lbs over the next couple of months.

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Heat continues in Belgrade. It was 30ºC when I finished my workout and I was literally dripping sweat at that point. I'm in for at least two more months of that so I must find some way to adapt.

15 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Despite some truly indulgent eating -- great food almost everywhere on this trip, and especially in Rome -- when I got back on the scales this morning, I was just under 184lbs.  I'll look to drop back to 180lbs over the next couple of months.

Italy is the last place you want to visit if you plan to watch your diet. Food is great, wine is even better and the whole lifestyle is such that you enjoy food and drink to the fullest.

I was in Tuscany last May, and loved everything I've tasted during those five days.

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