Exercise and Fitness V

[Kat]

Gah. I wonder if wrapping my car in tinfoil will keep them out while it's parked at the trailhead.

I've only seen a marmot once, but it was staring hungrily at my food at the time. :tantrum:

A gallon of water is ~8.5 lbs

[Mudguard]

Gah. I wonder if wrapping my car in tinfoil will keep them out while it's parked at the trailhead.

I've only seen a marmot once, but it was staring hungrily at my food at the time. :tantrum:

A gallon of water is ~8.5 lbs

I think making it shiny will only attract their attention. They probably can eat foil like it's bubblegum.

I saw a bunch, but only at the higher elevations, as in above 10,000'. They did seem to particularly like hanging out around established campsites...Since I was pretty much always on the go, they weren't an issue. But I think they do try and rummage through backpacker's pack. Are you storing your food in bear canisters? I think those are probably marmot proof. Just hope they don't eat your gps and maps.

[Kat]

I'm not bringing a GPS on this trip. But they better not eat the maps, the little buggers. And yes, bear canister....since I don't want marmots OR bears.

The marmot I saw was at a lower elevation, probably 7000-8000 ft, but it was a fairly busy trail. I wish I had taken a picture, though, it was staring at my canister like it was an idol of some sort. :lol:

ETA: I learned from a fairly young age that the mountains are full of animals. My family used to camp near Yosemite every year and several times, backpacks got chewed into by chipmunks or other hungry critters. I'm really not all that entranced by wildlife, really. I also had coyotes break into my cooler once in Death Valley because I had become so used to my backcountry campsite (which only had one wildlife sighting...which was a raven eating the trash :thumbsdown:) that I forgot the park campsites had coyotes hanging around all the time.

[Mudguard]

I love seeing wild animals, but maybe it's because they've never tried to steal my food, not yet anyway.

Didn't realize that coyotes lived in Death Valley. Thought it was too hot. Are they only there seasonally when it's cooler?

[Kat]

I don't know, I've only been there in the cooler months. They probably go into the mountains/higher elevations at the peak of summer, or maybe just go into the shade, because tourists are there even in the summer (:rolleyes:) and they still have food. But they are definitely on the valley floor in the spring, I had one following my car for a while once. This same one would hang out by a curve in the road and one time, I slowed down to look...and crept along at about 10 mph while the coyote paced me, staring at me and panting. He did that for white a long time. I used to have a video on my phone from it, but couldn't figure out how to get it onto my computer and gave up.

[ztemhead]

we have coyotes all over the place here. they're getting pretty brazen too, making appearances in some of the really urban parts of town.

Have fun on your hike, Kat! I haven't done a hike like that in forever.

I survived the bike ride today. My legs felt good, and the ride felt fast, though the heat was soul-suckingly brutal. When I stopped at a convenience store for some fluids, I was dripping sweat all over their floor. Ew. Total today I did 28 miles, packing 15 lbs of junk on my back the whole way. Then I drove the taxi for eight hours. Here's a pic-

I look a lot better than I feel.

[Xray the Enforcer]

have fun, Kat!

I've never had a marmot steal my food, but I have had one glower at me while I tried to take a shit, the bastard. (this was back in my youth when I still did a lot of alpine backpacking). I'm hoping you get to see a wolverine!

I made it to the gym yesterday -- had to go after work because insomnia destroyed my morning -- and had a great time. Ran for a bit, then various weigh lifting exercises (including knee extensions and romanian deadlifts that had been neglected last time). I had to force myself to NOT add too much weight -- temptation to do so was very strong, but now is not the time to injure myself. I did add weight to my upright rows, though. I hope to break 80lbs on that fucker over the course of the next few months.

I've noticed I do not like the afternoon crowd at the gym. Whereas the early morning crew is most older professionals who are there to get the fucking workout done and are mostly doing it for health (rather than solely vanity) reasons, the afternoon crowd is for younger (20-29) meatheads, stock-broker-type fuckheads, and the women who love these kinds of men. :sick:

[Stego]

What's a meathead?

[Xray the Enforcer]

Earlier in the day I was going to make a snarky reply, but then I starting thinking about it and trying to suss out what essential quality a meathead embodies. One thread emerged quite quickly: meatheads in gyms believe (via raging self-entitlement issues) that their workout is vastly more important than being a decent human being and observing such bedrock social constructs as "sharing" and "responsibility." These are the guys who are Too Important to rerack their own weights. These are the guys (like the one I had to deal with yesterday) who stand around and glare at you if you're using a piece of equipment they want. (In retrospect, I should have dropped that 20-lb dumbbell on his foot because that would have been entertaining.) It's like, "dude, how hard is it to go to the next exercise, or just wait graciously until I'm done with my set? Standing around acting like a dick is gonna make me go slower, asshole, not speed up to accommodate your impatience."

[cjfshaw]

Earlier in the day I was going to make a snarky reply, but then I starting thinking about it and trying to suss out what essential quality a meathead embodies. One thread emerged quite quickly: meatheads in gyms believe (via raging self-entitlement issues) that their workout is vastly more important than being a decent human being and observing such bedrock social constructs as "sharing" and "responsibility." These are the guys who are Too Important to rerack their own weights. These are the guys (like the one I had to deal with yesterday) who stand around and glare at you if you're using a piece of equipment they want. (In retrospect, I should have dropped that 20-lb dumbbell on his foot because that would have been entertaining.) It's like, "dude, how hard is it to go to the next exercise, or just wait graciously until I'm done with my set? Standing around acting like a dick is gonna make me go slower, asshole, not speed up to accommodate your impatience."

I'd say thats more of an rude asshole lacking common decency than a 'meathead'.

[Stego]

Martha, people who are bodybuilders are often called such. But in reality, bodybuilders are the normally the folks that spend the most time in the gym and are the most serious about observing the etiquette rules.

Rude assholes exist. But meatheads might be sort of insulting to folks who do not deserve it. Rude asshole works just fine.

I hope you'll excuse me, but I've recently run across Planet Fitness and their manifesto. And I'm pretty annoyed by it.

[lessthanluke]

In my experience a lot of the big bodybuilders are douchebags while the strongmen/powerlifters are nicer and more helpful. A generalisation but thats what I see.

[Stego]

I use bodybuilder as a general term for folks who are serious about building muscle. A lot of folks might not be able to differentiate.

[lessthanluke]

I use bodybuilder as a general term for folks who are serious about building muscle. A lot of folks might not be able to differentiate.

Gotcha.

[lokisnow]

in other news my workout went well today as my leg was feeling great! my press was down about the same level as my squat and bench. My deadlift went up five lbs, that's probably because I still havent' reached my five rep max on deadlift yet. I really super focus hard on form on deadlift and I can really feel it when I get it exactly right. My best for consecutive flawless reps on deadlifts is three and then I have to 're-set' my position due to bar roll or body shifting around or whatever but damn it feels good when you pull off those consecutive deadlifts. because this is still not reflexively perfect I'm content to continue slowly adding five lbs per deadlift, even though it's only slightly more than my squat weight at the moment.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Stego -- that was why I was trying to be very careful with my words and be very specific in my description. If I offended you (or anyone else in the thread), I apologize.

I agree the term "meathead" has been used too broadly to describe anyone who bodybuilds, which was why I was trying to be really specific in what *I* consider a "meathead." The majority of the guys (especially the early-morning body-building crew) in my gym are great -- polite, focused, respectful of others and equipment. I would never call those guys meatheads even though they're obviously very focused on their workouts and body building is very important (possibly most important) to them. And I think that's totally awesome, because I understand where that focus comes from. As an aside, the early-AM crew are better bodybuilders than the PM crew -- PM crew seems to be the variety that focuses too much on one part of the body (mostly chest/shoulders) and runs around on underworked chicken legs.

[OctopusArms]

I hope you'll excuse me, but I've recently run across Planet Fitness and their manifesto. And I'm pretty annoyed by it.

Ah, Planet Fitness. I used to work out there. I got a talking-to for being a "lunk." Twice. The first time was because I grunted and was sweaty (to be fair, I sweat a lot. The second was because I tried to be helpful and correct some dude's form on squats. I guess I came off as condescending. Ah well, I no longer give them my money.

Hiked this weekend: 10+ miles, 2 peaks. I'm tired and sore and have a leg-centric week coming up. Can't wait :thumbsup:

[lumer]

I'm new to this thread, but I though it would be fitting since lately I've began to really increase my workouts. Usually I'm starting for a few months, then quit, then start again and so forth. But for the past few moths I've been consistently sorking out and slowly but steadily increase the volume, so I thought I'd join so you guys will smack me in the face when the laziness comes :P

What I do is running. right now I'm standing at 6.5km, three times a week. Modest, but it's starting to be something. Right now where I live it's the best time to run outside, in the evenings the weather is just perfect. My plan is to go to 8-8.5km over the summer, and then start a program to run a 10k in January. Wish me luck! I'll be gone for my run in about an hour, be back with the report :P

[Stego]

PM crew seems to be the variety that focuses too much on one part of the body (mostly chest/shoulders) and runs around on underworked chicken legs.

Ahh, yes. I'm aware of this type.

Lumer, grats! Keep it up. I'll be happy to yell at you if you start slacking. :P

Hitsthingswithsticks, I'm really sorry you had to deal with those folks at all. I think I would lose my mind if I ever ran across a 'gym' like that.

[lessthanluke]

in other news my workout went well today as my leg was feeling great! my press was down about the same level as my squat and bench. My deadlift went up five lbs, that's probably because I still havent' reached my five rep max on deadlift yet. I really super focus hard on form on deadlift and I can really feel it when I get it exactly right. My best for consecutive flawless reps on deadlifts is three and then I have to 're-set' my position due to bar roll or body shifting around or whatever but damn it feels good when you pull off those consecutive deadlifts. because this is still not reflexively perfect I'm content to continue slowly adding five lbs per deadlift, even though it's only slightly more than my squat weight at the moment.

I normally reset after every rep.