DaveGetsFit

Neal and I played our match that was rescheduled from Monday. I got off to a really hot start by winning the first game 15-2. I think I had 11 or 12 before he scored his first point. My serve was my chief weapon—I had several aces. The second game didn’t go as well as I lost 10-15. I fell behind early and really worked hard to get back but it wasn’t enough. The third game was nip and tuck and was tied 8-8 before I ran off a nice streak and ended up winning 15-10. It was really a great workout!

I haven’t been doing any of my body weight exercises because of a mild muscle strain in my upper back. I haven’t felt anything for the last couple days so I’m going to crank up the pushups and pullups tomorrow.

Weight is hanging in the 205-208 range. I just can’t seem to make the big push to get it down any further. The problem is an over supply of junk in our house and an under supply of will power by yours truly.

Morning weight: 207

I try not to live and die with what I see on the scale, but this morning was a bit of a shocker. I know I had a bad weekend—much ingesting of carbs while at the pool. At some point Saturday afternoon, the chocolate brownies just screamed at me and I couldn’t ignore them. Things went downhill from there. It seems my system does a real good job of converting excess carbs to fat. I don’t think this is just some topped off glycogen stores—I feel fat!! As I stated in a Twitter update, I have to overcome 50 years of programming and that is not easy. So once again, I climb back on the wagon and press on. I did a VERY LOW carb day to jump start my recovery.

Monday I got back on the winning side in my recurring racquetball matches with Neal. I won the first two games including coming back from 13-10 in the second game. Before starting the third game, Neal switched us to a racquetball he keeps in a pressure can. I hate playing with those things. They are way too lively and make hitting a decent ceiling shot almost impossible. I more or less went through the motions in the third game and maybe scored five points. We still had time so I asked if he wanted to play a fourth game. We did but I insisted on using a new ball from my bag. I won that one.

I stopped by the gym on the way home Monday and knocked out some pullups on the Gravitron machine. I did 3 x 10 with the weight stack set to 110. I’m going to drop it to 100 for the next set—at least for the first two sets.

Today I played Ron and did fairly well. I was 17 hours into a fast but I felt great. I scored a total of 26 points in three games which isn’t bad when playing Ron. We had some terrific rallies and I put out some serious effort. It was fun!

I haven’t jumped back on the bike yet this week. I just don’t feel like giving up the extra half hour of sleep I get when I drive. But I may ride in tomorrow—great weather for it now.

That should get me caught up. Hopefully the last entry in this post will change quickly.

Morning weight: 211lbs.

I was supposed to play someone for the first time Thursday but he had to back out. So I ended up on the court with Ron again. Although I lost three games, I actually played fairly well. I fell behind 11-1 in the first game but I fought back to get it to 11-8 but that’s as far as got. I also scored eight points in the second game and nine points in the third. Ron was using a drive serve more often then usual so I was real happy with my effort. And it should go without saying, but I will, it was a hell of a workout!

I took it easy on Friday but I did get in some pullups on the Gravitron machine. I did three sets of ten with the weight set at 110lbs. The first two sets were clean but the last couple of reps on the thrid set were sloppy. But I feel like I’m making progress.

Long day at the pool tomorrow. Hopefully they will provide something decent to eat.

Morning Weight: 206lbs

I find myself in catch-up mode again! So here goes:

Monday
My winning streak against Neal came to and end. I blew a 13-10 lead in the first game, fought back from 2-7 in the second to win, and was tied at 8 in the third before running out of gas. I really put a big time effort into coming back in that second game. It was a great workout—gotta start a new winning streak next week.

Tuesday
I played Ron for the first time in awhile and he put a whuppin’ on me. I really didn’t play all that bad, however, and hit a handful of really good shots. Earlier in the day I had walked to his office with the intention of postponing our match until Thursday because I wanted a break after the match with Neal. But it’s hard to turn him down—I just enjoy playing. As a matter of fact, I’ve scheduled a match for Thursday against another guy in our office that I haven’t played before—should be interesting.

Prior to playing with Ron, I did three sets of pullups on the Gravitron. I lowered the weight stack from 120 to 110.

Today I disappeared into the library stacks and did four rounds of pushups: 12, 10, 7, and 7.

After the ride home today, I’ll be three-for-three with the bicycle commute. The weather has been great but I may get a strong headwind going home today.

Nutritionally I’ve done well this week once I got passed the chocolate left over from Easter.

My morning weight has been 206 the last two days.

And with that, I’m caught up!

After a bit of a layoff due to the foot problems, I got back on the court with Neal today for a really good match.  All the games were close and hard fought but I won 12-15, 15-13, 15-13.  It was a little touch and go on the last game because Neal broke out a ball that he keeps in one of those pressure containers.  It took awhile to get used to it—I was fooled several times by balls coming off the back wall.

I felt a little twinge in my foot right at the start but it went away and no problems the rest of the match.  I got a form in the mail today for my referral to a podiatrist.  It’s good for a year so I’ll just tuck it away for now.  Glad to be back in action!

Morning weight: 206lbs

First of all, I got in the match with Neal that we had to postpone from yesterday because he forgot his shoes.  The first game was a real close one.  I was down 12-9, got it to a tie at 13, but ended up losing 15-14.  It was very frustrating because I had so many unforced errors—mostly skipping the ball trying to hit kill shots on easy set ups.  So I changed tactics in the next two games.  Instead of going for kill shots all the time, I made passing shots to his backhand.  It worked as I won the next two games 15-9 and 15-4.  We had several really good rallies–it was a great workout.

Now to switch gears completely.  About a year ago, I was campaigning hard at a local supermarket to get them to start carrying some Greek yogurt.  After a lot of promises but no action for several months, they finally started carrying the Greek Gods brand.  But although they had the facings for several flavors, quite often they would only have one or two, or noting at all.  So I was really surprised when I walked in today and saw this:

Now they are carrying three different brands and one of them has an organic line! Unbelievable. I really like the Greek Gods Honey flavored. It’s something I have maybe once or twice a month because there is a high sugar content in the flavored variety but it tastes sooooo good.

And finally, I couldn’t ride my bike to work this morning because we were under a dense fog advisory.  I checked the weather report from the Navy base (my destination) and they reported visibility down to 1/10th of a mile.  The forecast is for more of the same tomorrow.  The really bad part of this is that after the fog burns off, we’re left with a beautiful day, but I’m stuck driving home instead of being on my bike.

Morning weight:  209lbs

This is the time of week when I normally detail an epic struggle between Neal and I for racquetball court supremacy.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the court today.  Neal walked by my locker as I was getting dressed, and we exchanged pleasantries.  The next thing I know, Neal is uttering shouts of displeasure not suitable for young children’s ears.  It seems he forgot to pack his shoes!  You can normally borrow a shirt or some shorts, and you can “go commando” if your forget some clean underwear, but it’s pretty hard to play racquetball in wing tips.  But I didn’t let the day go to waste.  A quick phone call and shortly thereafter, Ron was kicking my ass on the court.  I didn’t play bad though—good effort and some good rallies.  The match with Neal is rescheduled for tomorrow.

I posted earlier about how Neal has dominated so far this calendar year.  Going into today, I had won only one match.  I thought I was on my way to losing the first game today when I went down 13-10; however, I managed to run off five straight points for the win.  It felt pretty damn good!  I won the next two games and only gave up a dozen points or so in the process.  My main objective is getting some exercise, but winning is a good thing!

I had to do some fancy maneuvering to get off base today.  They are doing some roadwork at the front gate and there was only one lane heading out.  The traffic was awful so I used the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road with the idea that I would cross over near the gate.  But when I got close I saw that wasn’t an option.  They were running a  machine that was cleaning off loose asphalt from the adjoining lane, and the 20mph wind was taking it right across the lane the cars were using to exit.  I just stayed on the sidewalk and went out on the “enter” side.  I wasn’t going to take an asphalt blast.  The wind was more of a sidewind than headwind–Imanaged to average 12mph going home.