markc7

As I said in the last post, it's been quite some time since i last did squats. Consequently, my back was a bit sore today from the workout yesterday. I wanted to go for a run, but wasn't sure if I would be able to because of my back. It wasn't really bad or anything, just uncomfortable enough that I didn't want it to throw off my stride. Anyways, I had kind of a lousy day at work, went home early and had a short nap, then got up and felt like trying a run. I decided to do 8km, but ended up doing a little bit more, maybe 10km total. I took it nice and easy, but still managed to run a pretty good pace. All things being equal, I'm planning to go to the gym to do biceps, back and abs tomorrow.

Welcome aboard! There are a bunch of us here from Ontario. Good luck with your training!

Welcome aboard!

Legs and shoulders today. I love working my legs. Mostly because I think they are my best feature, and there are a couple exercises that I do pretty well (although I'm going to be patient and take my time getting the weight of my squat back to where it was in the fall). I didn't quite get in all the leg exercises I had wanted to, since I had a limited time for my workout. Shoulders I don't like working out very much, because and consequently they are my weakest muscle group. I know that I'm never going to have really strong shoulders or be able to do certain exercises, but I'm going to work harder from now on to be consistent and not avoid shoulder workouts. I'm not posting the weights on all of these, because many of them are still shamefully low. Scapular dips 3x15 shrugs 3x8 rear delt fly 3x8 squats 8x135 (warm up) + 5x5x185 calf press 3x8x180 front db raise 3x8 1-leg hamstring curl 3x8 lateral db raise 3x8 upright row 4x8

You should be very very proud.

Way to go L&G! That's a great improvement over your time in March. Keep it up!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard. The suggestions that other people made are really great. I especially liked "Becoming Vegan", I think it's the best of the lot.

On Saturday I did a quick 8km run. I didn't feel like I was going too fast, but ended up doing the run in around 40 minutes, which is a fairly decent pace. Everything felt good, so I decided to do a kinda long run this morning. I ended up doing 21km. It was lightly raining throughout the whole run, which made the whole run cool and comfortable. I ran along the parkway for about 8km, then decided to continue along the former route of our local half marathon. This is a route that I could run in my sleep, and I really enjoy it. There weren't too many people around because of the rain, but it was nice to just kinda zone out to my music.

Talking about 90's cartoon and no one has mentioned "Batman the Animated Series"?? Man I loved that show.

I did a chest and tricep workout today. I have to be careful on some of these, as well as some of the delt exercises, because both of my shoulders have been injured in the past and they sometimes act up. Smith bench press - I prefer DB press, and I'll probably do those instead from now on. Not sure why I used the smith today. tricep pushdown decline db press dips - I feel so weak when I do these after having done pushdowns. machine fly - my shoulder doesn't like these straight arm pulldown - or these reverse grip 1-arm tricep pushdowns - I love doing these, especially in big drop sets. I might go for a run tonight or tomorrow morning.

Welcome!

Welcome aboard!

I think Buddy Christ would approve of your switch to Linux. http://stephenamurphy.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/buddy-jesus.jpg

OK, enough of this goofing around in the gym, it's time to get into some kind of actual workout plan. I'm going to start doing a three way split: Chest/triceps, back/biceps/core, legs/shoulders. On each of these days I'll start with one of the three big lifts (bench, deadlifts, squats), on which I'll do 5x5's. The rest of the exercises for each day, I haven't decided what they'll be or what reps/sets combination to do. I'll work that out as I go along. So, can you guess which of the three days I decided to start on? Back and biceps, of course! My numbers are embarrassingly low, though I hope they are not shamefully low. 5x5x185 Deadlifts (I need gloves!) 4x8x95 bent over bb rows 3x5 medium/close pullups (ok, this one is shameful) 3x10 incline crunches 3x10x35 back extensions 2x5x65+2x5x45 reverse BB curls 2x5x65+2x5x55 BB curl 2x90s plank (I'm actually fairly pleased with these, it's been a long time since I held a plank this long) You might be wondering where all the running is in this log. Well, my blisters still haven't healed from my run on the 6th, so I'm waiting a couple more days before I do any running. But I hope to do a run this weekend, and then a very long run sometime during the coming week.

Very cool. I knew of most of those experiments, but he is a great speaker and it was enjoyable to hear him talk about those studies. There has been a surge in happiness research in the last couple of years, and it makes for a fascinating area of study because it's so hard to define. It's also interesting that there has been a backlash; books have been written about the value of unhappiness and the dangers of treating happiness as the only desirable state of being.

Not the most impressive workout this evening. I ate couscous and veggies for supper, then waited about 1.5 hours before doing a workout. I guess I was still digesting, because after a hard 15 minute bike ride I felt a bit upset to my stomach. I did a couple pullups, dips, and some ab exercises, but wasn't really feeling it so I cut the workout short. Meh. tomorrow I'll eat better and hopefully will get some better work done.

Mmm, poutine. I have made it once since being vegan, entirely with pre-made store-bought ingredients. I used a vegan mozzarella cheese (Vegan Delight?) that melts pretty well, a bag of frozen french fries, and a can of mushroom gravy. I know how nutritionally empty all that is, but it hurt so good.

Some pictures from my birthday weekend. Here's me at Fresh on Bloor on Saturday. I ate the "Power Bowl" with tofu steaks, avocado, sprouts, rice, tomato, nuts, etc http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00001.jpg It was my nephew's birthday a couple days before mine, so he got a cupcake with a candle to blow out as well. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/n28126003_43230058_8279.jpg My friend Johnny from high school was there as well. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/n28126003_43230060_8611.jpg

That was probably me! Damn, I wish I had seen you. I had been planning to go to Fresh again, but decided to eat at Urban Herbivore instead. I'm back in Ottawa now, and am planning to do a quick gym workout sometime today.

Thanks! No workout for me today, but I did spend much of the day walking around Toronto. I probably walked for three or four hours. That counts for something, right?

I haven't posted for a while because I've been out of town the last little while. Yesterday was my birthday, so I spent the weekend in Toronto at my sister's. I wasn't planning on going for a run during my trip, but ended up doing about 8km Sunday morning. I didn't have my shoes with me, so I started the run in my brother in law's shoes which were a couple sizes too small. So after about 2km I took off the shoes and ran barefoot for the next 5km. So now my feet are a bit sore from both the shoes and the barefoot running, which I haven't done in a couple months. Then at my birthday party in the afternoon we had vegan cupcakes (of course!).

Booyah!

Hey, can I ask you something about Inkscape? I have some files in .plt format, but they won't open in Inkscape. I know that it can handle .hpgl plot files, which these are, but maybe I'm missing a plug-in or something? They open just fine in Corel Draw, but I've only got that running on a craptastic computer in the lab. If I could work on my graphs in Inkscape, I would save tons of time. Any thoughts?

I went to a couple concerts during the day. This one I only stayed at for a couple minutes. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00012a.jpg Here is me heading to the evening concert with the crowd behind me. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00001a.jpg Veggie dogs from street vendors. The best part of Canada Day? http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00003a.jpg The last concert of the evening, which was followed by about twenty minutes of fireworks. http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/00014a.jpg