Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Walking

at work, we are preparing to start a 10k steps per week challenge. it will kick off on the 8th of April and end in September, so we're taking the days between now and then to 'condition' ourselves. each week there will be a report on how the prior week went.

last week (first of two 'prep' weeks) was good for over 8k counted steps (was only counting the steps on my lunch walk - and a 4 day work week). this week will be much higher, if I remember to wear it all day, and over the weekend...

total: 8k steps

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Crunch Week 6 - Day 1

this was a set-of-5, so totals are back to normal. did a pretty good job, given how things have been going...

crunches: 45/55/35/30/70 on a spec of (same /55 - total of 235)
pushups: 30/23/20/18/16/14 (total of 121)

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Pushup Practice

only got to 25. that sucks. still fatigued from the climbing yesterday.

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Pushup Practice

didn't do pushups, but went to Rocks-n-Ropes (indoor climbing walls), mostly to belay the boy scouts. did some low altitude free-climbing (less than 10' doesn't require tie-up) and on a 12' tall boulder. tons of fun, but my arms and shoulders ache something fierce!

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Crunch Week 5 - Day 3

did a full set of crunches, but bailed early on pushups due to shoulder cramp

crunches: 20/20/24/24/20/20/22/50 on a spec of (same, total of 200)
pushups: 20/17/15/x/ ...

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Friday, March 27, 2009

Pushup Practice

forgive me, for I have sinned - it's been over 2 weeks since my last pushup...

well, finally got back into it - cranked out 30, which isn't too bad for having avoided it for so long. hope to do a full set of pushups between crunches tomorrow.

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Monday, March 23, 2009

vacation and zen - part 2

several times during the vacation, I slipped away for 10 min or so of "me" time and meditated. things went fairly well, but it's hard for me to stay focused when I can hear the rest of the clan splashing in the pool.

didn't get much of a chance to meditate while on the road, but achieved something similar while singing along to some of my favorite music (especially when it's one both the wife and I both know and like, best when we know the harmony parts). it was super-real, just there with the music and the family. I got to relax and really get into the music, as my wife did all the driving - she likes driving almost as much as I do, but we took her car, so ...

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Sunday, March 22, 2009

vacation and zen

just got back from a silly vacation - silly in the lack of planning. airfare was way too much, so we (as much on a whim as on solid thoughtfulness) drove 2200 miles each way (3 days each way) to spend 4 days with my dad.

we listened to audio books to help pass the time. in the past, audio books were a last resort from boredom, as it would intrude into my thoughts, competing for my attention, and make the trip even longer, as well as more stressful. this time, despite not being very interested in the great Harry Potter, I was able to stay focused, in the 'now', listening and allowing my full attention to stay with the audio book. the results (very good) were not at all what was expected. might have to do with the difference in material (usually, I pick biographies of people I find interesting - a two volume set on Teddy Roosevelt most recently) or circumstance (driving thru west Texas or most anywhere after sunset, vs on airplanes, ferries or while relaxing) or company (over the car's audio system vs headphones) or training...

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Crunch Week 5 - Day 2

WOW! Never expected this kind of result. Day 2 (and 3, for Weeks 5 & 6) has 8 sets, so I get 9 pushup sets in. The totals are mind-boggling. I stopped a little early on the first set of pushups (pacing), but was having problems with breathing (my Gi top was covering much of my lower face, and I kept breathing the same air, thus the low totals for rounds 2 & 3, stripped it off after that). Actually, a sweaty, heavy canvas Gi top can weigh about 40 pounds, so pulling it off was a real help to me... 8)

The crunches still aren't killing me, so I hope to have a video up of 100 crunches before the end of the month. I plan to put numbers in the footer for counting. Then I need to learn how to speed things up, so the first and last 10 are normal speed, but most of the middle is 2 or 3 times faster... I'm going to see if I can find a MIDI version of Flight of the Bumblebee, so that I can change the pace to match the speedup of the video (start slow, build the speed, slow for the finish...). Somehow I don't imagine the sound of me grunting and breathing durring the crunches will appeal, especailly once I speed things up...

crunches: 19/19/22/27/18/18/22/60 on a spec of (same (except 27, should have been 22)/45 - total of 205)
pushups: 25/17/18/20/20/16 (plus 14/14/10) (total of 116 for 1st 6 sets, like others before) grand total of 154!

no wonder I'm sore... can't wait for tomorrow...

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Monday, March 9, 2009

Pushup Practice

ground out 34 in the evening... wanted to do more, but there are a million excuses, including sliding toes, sore shoulder, tile floor (hard on my wrists, knuckles weren't even an option)... On to a complete pushup and crunch schedule on Tuesday...

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Now and Zen

planned to go to a sit on Sunday, but over slept. however, the daily meditations are doing much better (in frequency / regularity as well as smoothness). in the past 5 days there were 4 sessions. some were very good (defined as minimal mental wandering). perhaps it will soon be time to do longer sits (perhaps 15 min at a time). about the time I can do 2 or 3 sessions in a row with only one or two interruptions, it's probably time to make things harder.

I wonder how many people find meditation with large amounts of white noise? last night I spent some time waiting for my computer (very loud, many fans to prevent meltdown, modest overclocking) to finish copying a large number of files, so I meditated... it was much smoother, fewer interruptions, much more pleasant, almost effortless.

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Sunday, March 8, 2009

Pushup Practice

what a week... hurt my right shoulder in a poorly executed dive roll (at Dojo on Wed, after doing pushup practice), and have been having trouble sleeping and using the arm. hope to get back to pushups and crunches tomorrow.

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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Pushup Practice

got to 35, although I really wanted to quit at 33. working on doing a few more after hitting the wall...

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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Now and Zen

talked w/ Sensei about the Soto Zen temple he helps run (novice, or whatever they are called in Buddhism) - I'll be showing up for the meditation (half an hour - YIKES!) and perhaps staying for some of the other things as well. will have to see.

meditation - it's there. still lots of interruptions... have to keep working on it.

haven't been doing well with being in the moment, present in now or any of that stuff. it's already starting to drift... not good. need to print those days and practice. perhaps a week of just "in the moment", then a week of ...


communication - still kind of avoiding working on it with the wife, as the first session will be a pain in all kinds of places. have to start sometime, though - probably tomorrow (my favorite day of the week!)

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Crunch Week 5 - Day 1

time to run with the big dogs - it starts getting ugly. my margins are high enough on the stress test that there's not too much worry about completing this week. doing 60 after week 4 is good, and if 80 can be achieved by the end of week 5, it should (by extension) be safe to presume that 100 can be done by the end of week 6. feeling pretty good... we'll see how things feel after the set is done...

crunches: 36/40/30/24/55 on a spec of (same/40 - total of 185)
pushups: 25/25/20/15/10/8 (total of 103) "paced" myself on 1st set, paid off, a bit

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Monday, March 2, 2009

zen retreat - wrapup

and now the long journey begins - with minimal guidance, it will be my turn to seek and find the path for myself. which patterns will remain and which will fall by the wayside or atrophy?

I have recorded my thoughts here more for myself than others, as a reminder, to review from time to time and try to forge ahead. If my musings are amusing, so much the better. Good luck to you, dear reader, good luck to us all.

ps - today's meditation went ok, but lots of movie mind interruptions.

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Pushup Practice

got to 33 - now it appears to be going up by 2's - how long can this go on? perhaps 100 is just a few weeks away...

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Sunday, March 1, 2009

Crunch Stress Test (before Week 5)

got to 60. the last 5 were a pain, and probably could have made a few more, but most likely was already well into the "bigboy" column.

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Day 10 of zen retreat - discussion

The most important thing for me was Day 8 and the true depth of personal communication.

I, at one time, knew most of this stuff, if by other names and other means. My wife and I became very close and could discuss anything without getting too emotional. Since then (and over the last decade or so), we have forgotten how to communicate at that level. While we were still skilled in the good habits of frequency and content for discussions, we had become unskilled in the core details of listening, and truly hearing what was said.

I realize, now, just how much distance there is between us, and will be working on that in the weeks to come. It would be overly dramatic to say this saved my marriage, but it certainly will help reduce the tension and rough spots as we get back to where we should be.

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Day 10 of zen retreat - assignment

Islands of Ease

Review: skills to practice and improve as we spend more times on the Island & less in the swamp:
- one breath Mindfulness (within an "in" and an "out")
- rushing is the opposite of Present / Now / Mindful - cure: Mindful Breath (above) & thumb/finger circle
- keep coming back to Now: thumb/finger circle as trigger/anchor and try different things: eating, cleaning, ...
- daily Meditation
. . be gentle, it won't all be smooth
. . make time for it to become a routine part of the day
. . "stepping stones" to prep: make tea, light candle, sit, drink tea, meditate
. . guided meditations (Dr Glenn & Mary has some on the way)

Assignment:
reflect and comment on the most important thing from the retreat...

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Pushup Practice

got to 31 today, so we'll keep going with what is working so well. onward and upwards

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