Walking today wasn't too bad early, stiffened up after breakfast, loosened up after an hour's bike ride, and now sucks.

I did not I know my butt muscles could get sore. Hahaha, and it's a good thing I rarely sit anymore. Yes, it's funny that I over worked my ass and am posting about it on a board where Dave will see.
Also, I am feeling very fortunate that I have the equipment I have because I think it would be hard for me to go to. Gym. Well maybe not now but when I started working out I may have become discouraged and given up.
My gratitude list has included my equipment for a while now and I am just feeling happy about it. Plus I'm really seeing results and it's such a rush woo!

I worked with a trainer a couple times a week for about a year in my early 20's. I was drinking way too much to take anything seriously enough back then, but I did learn how to do a shitload of stuff in the gym, which did wonders for my confidence. The first time I went to a gym, at about age 18 or so, some meathead asshole made some snide comment about how little I was lifting, and it put me off for ages. So despite now feeling completely at home in the gym, I definitely remember how intimidating it was to begin with. Like anything else, I think it's just a matter of getting used to being there. Getting to the point where you stop giving a shit what anyone else in the gym might think is good, but getting well known enough to your fellow gym-goers as someone who doesn't want to socialize much is even better.

That is probably good advice for a lot of social situations.
I used to have a subscription to Women's Health magazine and I read once that I should never worry about what anyone thinks of me while I am out running or in the gym, that fit people who work out and run and such see heavy people trying to run or workout and think highly of them for trying.
Man... I got even more self conscious after I read that.
Honestly though, I'm doing pretty well in the body image area. I don't spend much time worrying about what I may assume others are thinking. Simply put, I learned that I do not know what others are thinking unless they tell me.
It does make a difference to know that others have experienced similar things though.

I found an exercise that kicks ass with the bowflex yesterday. I attach the hand grips to my shoes and stand with one hand on the machine and one I'm my hip. Then, with both legs straight and knees slightly bent, I lift one leg backwards as far as I can,  only moving my hip. Not bending either knee, and it works my glut and the muscle that runs the length of the back of my thigh.
Doing reps of 16, twice with each leg made jogging literally seem like a breeze.
It is crazy how strong I feel now too.

This is better than anything I've ever been addicted to LoL

I got sick a little over a week ago and ended up taking 5 days in a row off of exercising, and I think it actually did me some good. I've been having a really good time with exercise now that I'm back on it, so I think maybe a rest was just what I needed. Worth bearing in mind that it's good to take a little break every now and then.

I've been doing this one hike over and over, because it's awesome. It's not very far at all, just a couple of miles, but it's pretty much straight uphill and ends up almost as high as Antigua's highest point, just a couple of hills over and visually almost on the same level. You can see almost 360 degrees of coast from up there, and on a clear day the neighbouring islands are really visible. I've been working on getting faster from car to top, and bringing my fast dog with me. He's not unhappy about this. I've improved my time from about 45 minutes when I was really unfit and could only just make it up, to about 25 minutes at normal pace (when other people are with me, etc), to yesterday, when I set my best time yet, 19:30. I reckon that was about 60% walking fast, 30% jogging, and 10% running. Some of the hike is so fucking steep that I only end up gassing myself if I try to run it, I lost over a minute the previous time trying that. I think the trick will be to improve the ratio of jogging and running. I'd like to knock another couple minutes off my time.

The chances are highly likely that I'll be hiking part of the AT soon. I'm so flipping excited! This will be my first hike that is longer than half a day, and Not In Missery.

I'm not trained for this, nor do I have time to properly train. What I'm going to do is spend the time between now and when I go doing as much cardio as possible, and backing off the weights. I'll drop to using resistance bands once I'm down in FL anyway, so for my remaining time here I'll cut back to 3 days per week with the bowflex.

I think what I want is to work my cardiovascular system much more.

I am excited to see some place else... Finally!

this made my fucking night!

(exchange with a random older gent at the gas station just now, as we both waited in line)

---

him: what sport do you play?

me: excuse me?

him: what sport do you play?

me: um, none, really? ...oh, I cycle.

him: I was looking at your calves.

me: yeah. those are from cycling.

him: yeah. because the rest of you doesn't look that sporty.

---

(reposted from fb)

Hahahahahahah

Just got a kickass treadmill ...
YAY!!!

If a seemingly cool dude says he wants to work out with me, do you think that is what he means?
Or am I misunderstanding?

I need to start riding my bike moar.. shit makes me feel amazingly awesome.. Like pee wee herman!

prob is i only ride at night like a stealthy ninja because i hate being seen.

If a seemingly cool dude says he wants to work out with me, do you think that is what he means?
Or am I misunderstanding?

I'd say that is what he means but apparently I'm naive so I'd say he probably wants to bang you.

Prolly ...

Nice gym session this morning. I've been gyming more than cycling or hiking recently because of inconvenient weather.

I'm going on holiday from Saturday though, gonna have to make do with pushups and running and stuff till I get to England (doing Italy first), where I'll have a bicycle to use.

I've been doing Hapkido 3 times a week.  As soon as I can get a home gym put together this summer, it'll be kettle bells 3 times a week to supplement.

I'd never heard of that, but I wiki'd and it sounds great. I miss kickboxing. I think I might start karate or something when I get back from holiday. And when I say 'or something', I mean karate. There are very few options here.

Hapkido is a fairly easy art, great aerobic exercise, and in Korea is usually practiced by children and the elderly. No offense...

No offense taken.  I've bounced back and forth between gentle arts and hard, competitive arts over the years.  I like it a lot more than I liked Taekwondo as far as Korean arts go.
I have generally found the philosophy/discipline/awareness aspect in the gentle arts more rewarding than the intense competition (and frequent douche-baggery) of an MMA school. 

The only workout I do now is trying to fit in to my pants.

I got a bit of cardio walking up the stairs to my 2nd floor apartment.

So you're no longer a beanpole?

Emp with your history of broken bones you probably should stay with something low impact...

If memory serves, his history of broken bones has had more to do with strong drinking than weak bones.

Drinking, jumping off of things, mosh pits.

I broke a rib and a finger in BJJ classes, though.

I'm almost 20 years older and if I was as familiar with xrays as you and Evel Kneivel I'd probably stay thin by walking and not eating.

Was the jumping off of things ever a sober thing?

Nice gym session this morning. I've been gyming more than cycling or hiking recently because of inconvenient weather.

I'm going on holiday from Saturday though, gonna have to make do with pushups and running and stuff till I get to England (doing Italy first), where I'll have a bicycle to use.

Oh nice, where are you going in england?
Hopefully the weather will stay good whilst youre here. Its been nice recently.

Cornwall, mostly. Going to visit my dad. Might stop in Devon on my way/way back and visit a friend. This depends on how single she is at the time.

Haha! Nice!

Jumping off of things was both a sober and drunk activity for a number of years.  It's a good thing I don't come from money, otherwise I'd have been base jumping or doing something similarly stupid in my late teens/early 20s.

So you're no longer a beanpole?

I was until I turned 27. From 25 to 26, I was prescribed Adderall. I was in college, and I was fending off ADHD. Then after a woman left me, I started eating whole pizzas and drinking entire magnums of cabernet/shiraz every weekend.

I am 6'3" tall. In 2006, I weighed 170 lbs; now I'm around 265 lbs.