No walk last night. Kinda tired because the sun was out and I went for an awesome, finally not freezing swim in the sunlight. So good. Did a 10 minute hard (HIIT) row later and I was wiped out. Row#19 on the books. Upper back is sore this morning, but the good kind. 902 strokes, 10.7 METs, average heart rate in the 130s. Good, except I need to push. Probably need to incorporate some sets.
Now that it’s been almost three of weeks of rowing, what am I feeling? First, it’s not all about the numbers on the scale, this is an exercise in recomp and pushing my cardio further. The fact that it’s getting harder to get out of zones 1 and 2 is great. I also need to mix things up. Having three of the people I love most experiencing cardio issues is a real eye opener. Gotta work that heart muscle to keep it going. End of story there. One cool thing, I shared an app with someone and they shared it with their cardiologist’s office and they were like “wow” this is awesome. Validated me going down my rabbit hole with my own stats over the past couple of years in the sense that collecting data is a great way of baselining and showing improvement or the areas I need to address. 🐇🕳️
I am HUNGRY. Not the bored with what I’m doing hungry, but the ravenous beast kind. Like after a swim meet get out of my way I need to recharge hunger. Given myself some more calories to deal with it so no one gets hurt. VO2 has gone up on the walks. Not a ton, because we’re still doing dog stuff X3, but after an initial improvement getting the new dogs, it settled into a rut. My attempt at going faster resulted in plantar fasciitis and that was a mess for a couple of weeks. It’s better, but I’m being cautious and doing the stretches, etc. I’ve found the current sweet spot is right around three miles before it gets to be a problem. Doing the stretches and lifts for that. Cut back on my caffeine from three double shots lattes to one double shot latte. Helps with sleeping. Work still messes with it.
Overall posture, wrecked by way too many desk hours over the years, is better. Some pain I’ve been having with my neck is also getting improving and I’m back to doing the mobility exercises there because wow, when you don’t have it, it’s crazy how difficult it is doing simple things like driving and just looking to cross the street safely.
Looking at this, dang, it looks like I’m a hot mess. Honestly, I’m pretty happy and healthy these days. Sunlight is good, weather is super pleasant, I adore sunny and 72, which is what SoCal is supposed to be. I like riding endorphins from moving. I get depressed sitting in the dark even though i fight it. The thing is, and I think I’ve said this before, my grandmother decided one day that walking was too hard and gave up on it. Honest to God, that decision, which she talked about with me, led to a real decline in her quality of life. Scary. I don’t want to do that. She made it to 98. Last ten years were not the most fun.
My mother was leaning that way a few years ago and I called her out on it. That’s when she started walking Sadie during the day and was hitting her 10K steps consistently. Then, Sadie died. The walking stopped. She became less active and had a mild cardiac event which landed her in hospital. Finally, with cardiologist’s approval, she is back to walking with Summer as the big dogs are just too much. She’s in PT and yesterday she told me they measured it and she has added two full centimeters back to her stride. That’s really great for someone who wasn’t actively looking to achieve that.
Blob down, I think this is where it’s resting right now and I’ll have to lift heavy things to displace the blob. Got a deck project coming up that will likely involve lumber and bags of concrete for that. Muscle is back up, as is water. Since those numbers keep resurfacing, I think that’s a sign of increased muscle and pushing down on the blob. Wore some shorts the other day that were previously tight around the waist, that’s good. I really wish they’d quit putting Lycra in everything because it makes it hard to stay in the right zones. I also ended up having to get a couple new bras because the old ones were either worn out or gapping a bit. The swimsuit I wore yesterday was also a little big but it has adjustable straps so that worked out.
Long post, but have been neglecting FS lately, so it felt like it was about time. I’ll be spending some time with the pups at the park and maybe even the beach at some point soon. Weekend rules, enjoy the day.
WEIGHT 161.0 lb
BMI 32.5
FAT MASS 64.3 lb
LEAN MASS 96.8 lb
WATER MASS 67.7 lb
BONE MASS 4.9 lb
MUSCLE MASS 91.8 lb
