[SymphonicDan] and the Checklist #2 [level 14]

[lucky fire dragon]

Probably true, good point! Also maybe I don't clearly remember the times in the past when I was tired and recovering, because they weren't so interesting to remember and also when you're tired your brain doesn't bother so much with long-term memories.

 

 

This!!!! Very aptly put and probably goes for many of us just the same

 

Wow, that cycling program sounds like quite the insane thing coming up, wise choice of taking it easy before then. Better make sure you have enough food and drink, too. Guess the cycling during the day will warm you up for the competition vibe kicking in at night

 

Be safe, Dan and have tons of fun!

[Mr_Willes]

Seems like an interesting day to say the least. I would be a sucker for those little competitions. We had an indoor soccer competition at work. But i stopped that, since my ankles around used to that kind of movement, and i bruised a couple of times, which meant i couldn't workout that week like the way i wanted. But the cycling program sounds like fun. Biking is not the most fun thing to do, but in competition and once in a while sounds great!

 

 

 

• about 1 hour of cycling on the exercise bike for a 24-hour charity race... at about 2am

 

This creates such great bonds, doing stuff together at odd times. It's the same here at work when we have to do some team or project related stuff during off-peak hours.

 

Have fun!

[raptron]

Maybe focus on just upper body lifts when you lift weights? I can't imagine your legs would do too well for this balls-to-the-wall cycling competition if you lifted with them first.

[SymphonicDan]

So I'm exhausted already, so didn't do weightliftery or any other strength stuff, and instead invested my energy in making a pasta-based dish:

• cook some pasta in not too much water, with salt and olive oil
• add two chopped red onions per person
• add some kale, because you bought it and don't know what else to do with it
• add some chopped tomatoes
• add some peri peri sauce
• add some vinegar from a jar of picked gherkins
• remove the lid of the pan when the pasta is ready, to allow some water to evaporate
• add some canned salmon because you remembered you wanted some meat
• add some picked gherkins, because you're crazy like that
• serve with cheese

It was actually very tasty but I'm sure the Italians are going to stage a revolution against my terrible misuse of pasta

 

Anyway, it's coming up to cycle time We even have a live feed of the event so if you check that out between 2300 and 0300 UCT+0000 but mainly nearer the end of that, you might catch me cycling or at least milling around. Or collapsed on the floor (again). There will be lots of other randoms there but the one that looks like me. Um. And I'll be all in blue (shorts, jeans, T-shirt, jacket).

 

In other unrelated exciting news, the dates for Memoriad (the "Olympics" of mental calculation) that I intend to qualify for have been announced for 7th - 11th November 2016 in Las Vegas! Last night I did a little bit of practice and can still calculate 25-30 dates per minute (personal record is 35) yay.

[lucky fire dragon]

that pasta dish

 

You do like peri-peri sauce do you? I remember that being listed as appreciated ingredient before. Craziest thing is, I can even imagine this dish being real nice 

 

Missed your live feed for cycling, how did it go? Did you have tons of fun? How far did you go before the inevitable collapsing part?

[Lilith]

Kale is great for just random adding to meals though, THAT'S  why everyone buys it right?  

[Mad Hatter]

Yeah how did it go?

[SymphonicDan]

Okay, sorry for slacking on updates! Here goes:

 

On Thursday evening I took the sensible option of resting before the cycling event, and 6 of my work friends joined me for their shifts so we ended up doing two 15-minute shifts each - for me that was about 1am and 2am.

 

The exercise bike wasn't good though - the distance travelled was unaffected by the resistance level (so if you increase the resistance level it's like travelling uphill rather than in a higher gear) so of course we were all racing in the lowest "gear", which feels super awkward at 32kph!

 

It didn't actually feel like cardio (last year with a sensible bike it was serious cardio and my heartrate went above 200bpm) although the limiting factor seemed to be lactic acid (which is a cardio thing) and I couldn't stand up immediately after finishing so I'm not sure. Maybe with a lower muscular intensity nothing promotes a high heartrate, or maybe it was because it was a weird time of night.

 

The next day I was tired from the weird sleeping but had no DOMS (because there wasn't any strength work). I'd injured my left hip flexor upper tendon though (no idea how!) and couldn't raise my knee in front of me without pain. I played football anyway in the evening, which was fine but probably didn't speed the recovery process... It's mostly better now and gymnastics should be fine tomorrow.

 

In terms of challenge goals, I've actually done not much over the last few days, so I'm still stuck at 10 points... might have time today to throw in a workout and/or study bench press.

 

Normal service to be resumed shortly

[Mad Hatter]

I didn't realise it was on exercise bikes, completely missed that somehow. Did you have fun even though it felt weird?

Your hip flexor is probably just cranky from the extreme repetitive motion of the cycling.

[Lilith]

Super weird that upping the resistance didn't work! Oh well!  

[lucky fire dragon]

that must have been quite the image all of you pedaling like speedy gonzales on a bike

Sorry it wasn't what you were looking for, but yes, did you have fun anyway?

 

How are you doing now? Any plans for this fresh new week yet?

[raptron]

Yeah, I'd also vote repetitive motion exhaustion. Boo about the bike settings.

[SymphonicDan]

I didn't realise it was on exercise bikes, completely missed that somehow. Did you have fun even though it felt weird?

Your hip flexor is probably just cranky from the extreme repetitive motion of the cycling.

 

I think you're right about the hip flexx0r - it was okay again by Monday The event was fun though yes, mainly because we had about 30 of us all working together and supporting each other. Oh, and we got 699km in 24 hours with people ranging from 19kph to 38kph, and beat the other offices by at least 27km yay.

 

Super weird that upping the resistance didn't work! Oh well!

 

Next year we'll get a proper bike!

 

that must have been quite the image all of you pedaling like speedy gonzales on a bike

Sorry it wasn't what you were looking for, but yes, did you have fun anyway?

 

Lol yes it looked funny - especially when the live stream caught up after buffering and everything was in 2x speed

 

Yeah, I'd also vote repetitive motion exhaustion. Boo about the bike settings.

 

Crowdsourcing my medical answers I'm sure you and Mad Hatter are correct though - thanks for the input!

[SymphonicDan]

So I've had a rough few days mainly due to my brain having a lull in the evenings and then being wide awake at the time I want to sleep. A couple times I didn't sleep until after 3am

 

On Monday I propped myself up with a small cup of weak tea from a pre-steeped teabag, and got some work done in the office and went to gymnastics at the big centre. Forgot that gymnastics is weird after caffeine (and a bit of weak tea is way too much for me because I'm a ridiculous caffeine lightweight) but more about that later.

• handstands: meh
• cartwheels: some practice, and I'm feeling in control now. Other people way they're actually goood but I'm not convinced so I'll need to take a video to see whether they are acceptable to me
• front handsprings: mainly good although I keep doing them handstand-style rather than diving into the move in a dish shape. When I remember to do it properly it's fine
• front flips: bailed two and decided that I should dedicate the day to things other than frontflips
• back flips: felt scared to do these into the crashmat in the foam pit, so started with some just straight into the foam pit. Realized that it was the caffeine making my scaredy, as I'd had this problem last year sometimes... its like my brain's working extra fast and is too good at freaking about things. Eventually managed to do them onto the crashmat essentially by pretending that I were jumping into part of the foam pit where there wasn't a crashmat. Silly brain The backflips themselves were good though - got advised to use my calves, and remembered for once to keep my arms straight and swing them right up

I also managed to pull my bike handlebars loose while cycling, so I was pedalling around like a clown on my way back from gymnastics. I think they're fixed now, otherwise I'll have to attack them with allen keys again

 

Tomorrow: probably gymnastics - maybe weightlifting instead, depending on how I feel.

[Lilith]

Brains are tricky like that sometimes. It's like they are actively trying to sabotage you, no? It's funny how your brain did in the foam pit/on the crash mat though, even though obviously you can do it so you have nothing to worry about. But you did it and maybe in steps you can convince your brain that all will be okay and you will not die a horrible death by doing the backflips!

[Mr_Willes]

I can relate to you on the caffeine part. I'm also a lightweight caffeine user. two glasses of coke can get me not to sleep for some ridiculous hour. I also found out the pre-workout i'm trying out for lifting has the same effect. Still i want to keep the little edge it gives me working out. 

[Urgan]

I can relate to you on the caffeine part. I'm also a lightweight caffeine user. two glasses of coke can get me not to sleep for some ridiculous hour. I also found out the pre-workout i'm trying out for lifting has the same effect. Still i want to keep the little edge it gives me working out. 

 

Take care, lack of sleep is devastating for recovery. 

[KB Girl]

At least you figured out where the jitters came from! It's interesting you're so sensitive to even a little bit of caffeine, I don't even notice it in tea. 

 

Hope you get your sleep sorted out... maybe pay some attention to light brightness in the evenings?

[Mr_Willes]

I instantly had to think of you...

 

[Talvi]

I also managed to pull my bike handlebars loose while cycling, so I was pedalling around like a clown on my way back from gymnastics. I think they're fixed now, otherwise I'll have to attack them with allen keys again

 

Ha, it seems like you have spent a lot of time cycling like a looney this week

 

I'm sorry to hear that your sleeplessness and hip have been throwing you off this week.  Saying that, it looks like it hasn't stopped you from doing much, so well done.

 

How has weightlifting been going so far?

[SymphonicDan]

This week has been generally meh so far in all aspects Not bad, just meh.

 

Tuesday: tired but decided to do a workout while watching the England vs. France football game. For various events, such as:

• corner
• free kick
• goal
• yellow card

...I specified an exercise. But I decided after a few minutes of repeated corners and free kicks that I was too tired/unmotivated and stopped. I did find out however that I can do 10 CPR push-ups in a set (with hands on top of each other, so a more extreme version of a diamond push-up) so yay for that.

 

Wednesday: this is my sacred gymnastics and cheerleading day, but I was too unfocused and non-bouncy and decided to skip it

 

Thursday: made it to weightlifting and was feeling acceptable, but it turns out that I'm much weaker at the moment than normal. In fact I think I've been weak since the end of August, so not sure what's happened!

• overhead press: 5kg less than my PR
• bench press: 10kg less than my PR (!!) but did some decent work sets at 50kg afterwards
• pull-ups: 10 in a set, and later did 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps on a thicker bar. Did not decorate myself today with added weight.
• deadlift: experimented with form and got it feeling nice at up to 110kg, until suddenly I couldn't shift that weight anymore...
• squat: tried out low bar back squat and quite liked it. It's awkward for the shoulders/wrists but I think that will become nicer with time. Nevertheless I got up to 80kg and felt like i could manage quite a bit more (my high bar max was 102.5kg and is currently about 90kg) so that was good to know. It made my back work much more than high bar (I'm sure it's supposed to be the other way around? High bar doesn't affect my back at all)

Memoriad: some of you might know that I have competed at the international level in mental calculation, and a new competition has recently been announced for November 2016 in Las Vegas... so I've been practising a couple of events so I have the option of qualifying well if I choose to compete. Luckily I'm almost back to my peak after a small amount of practice, so over the next couple of months I'll be doing some other stuff to prepare, maybe including some of the memory events as well as calculation!

 

Friday: football tomorrow, and then quite a busy weekend that should hopefully involve some sleep, a house party and a trip to London

[SymphonicDan]

Brains are tricky like that sometimes. It's like they are actively trying to sabotage you, no? It's funny how your brain did in the foam pit/on the crash mat though, even though obviously you can do it so you have nothing to worry about. But you did it and maybe in steps you can convince your brain that all will be okay and you will not die a horrible death by doing the backflips!

 

Ironically the brain is trying to make sure I'm not sabotaging myself by doing something I'm not sure about I've ahd similar things before, when I can only doing backflips on the tumble track when I have a decorative spotter, even if they're not even watching... hopefully I can eventually get myself doing these properly... they were pretty much the main reason I got into gymnastics back in 2013

 

At least you figured out where the jitters came from! It's interesting you're so sensitive to even a little bit of caffeine, I don't even notice it in tea. 

 

Hope you get your sleep sorted out... maybe pay some attention to light brightness in the evenings?

 

I would suspect that the effect were mainly placebo, but I've noticed it even at times when I wasn't expecting it. Might be interesting to do a blind test where each day I have a cup of decaff/caffeinated tea and see which days i notice a strong effect...

 

I do have my laptop on until minutes before sleeping, but usually this doesn't stop me from sleeping. It's more that my body/mind feel that there were still other things that they need to do, when all I really want them to do is rest and sleeeep!

 

 

I instantly had to think of you...

 

 

Haha, good to see he has a serious crashmat... I wonder how many times he had to film that before he got one that worked correctly

 

 

Ha, it seems like you have spent a lot of time cycling like a looney this week

 

I'm sorry to hear that your sleeplessness and hip have been throwing you off this week.  Saying that, it looks like it hasn't stopped you from doing much, so well done.

 

How has weightlifting been going so far?

 

Lol yes - my bike is now fixed and it's nice to cycle like normal again Sorry I missed your message earlier when i was either working or lifting, and when I read it my browser crashed both times I tried to reply! Vamos a hablar otra vez pronto, pero no sé cuando... 

 

Weightlifting was poor but maybe it was partly because I'm going very irregularly recently...

[lucky fire dragon]

for a meh week, you showed up a lot and did a lot!

 

Good for you to manage some things yet not go beyond the limit perceived at the time. We all have our meh weeks and things will pick up again naturally as I am sure you know from experience.

 

Funny, week 3 and/or 4 are often meh weeks in challenges, aren't they. Hope you have a very happy one to make up next week. And a new week starts of course with the weekend

[Lilith]

Sorry that your week was meh, but your weekend looks promising. Have lots of fun!

[Lara]

Sorry for a low week, but... mental calculation is back!! Will there be a shortlist before Las Vegas?