Just finished reading a really interesting book called Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. It was written by Joshua Foer and published in March, 2011 by Penguin Press.

Joshua — a man with an average memory — went on to win the U.S. Memory Championship. This book chronicles his path in an entertaining and informative way. Highly recommended.

Cardio at Lifetime Fitness

Mikie and I got in 30 minutes of cardio at the Lifetime Fitness in Atascocita. We used the Octane Fitness elliptical machines. Good workout!

We had a relaxing morning. Here is my honey making me some kind of surprise breakfast.

And what a tasty surprise it was! Bacon with a fried egg over easy on top of a crab cake…

Shadow and Dot helped a lot in the whole cleaning cages process.

Trip to the gym

As I was on my way to the gym I spotted some unfortunate citizen pulled over by an Humble cop.

At Lifetime Fitness I warmed up with 10 minutes on an elliptical machine and then 4 sets of circuit training on various Freemotion machines.

Stopped by the H.E.B. in Atascocita on the way home. Noticed that they sell various brands of Kombucha. Hadn’t noticed that before. Our daughter Chelsea makes this stuff.

Dinner

Mikie made this amazing dinner – ground beef cooked and seasoned with Mexican spices served over a bed of lettuce with pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, red onion, cheese, black olives, and salsa.

Daytum

All day long I played around with some software from Daytum. Pretty interesting. That came about as a result of me reading about Lifelogging.

A great 5-part series of Google Code videos from the summer of 2007 is available here.

Vim Essential Plugins

Found a cool set of screencasts at this website.

Easy Motion

Surround

Sparkup

Vulture

As I was driving to the gym today I saw a vulture trying to drag the carcass of a dead raccoon out of the middle of the lane on Will Clayton Parkway. I turned on the emergency flashers and stopped just before him. As I walked over to the raccoon he hopped a safe distance away and watched as I relocated his prize to a safe spot off of the road.

Gym

Lifetime Fitness in Atascocita is probably my very favorite gym.

Mikie and I got in a good cardio workout today at Lifetime Fitness. We did 35 minutes on some weird combination elliptical/stair-stepping machine, then did about 10 minutes of stretching followed by some time in the Jacuzzi. Nice!

Got in a strength workout today at the Lifetime Fitness in Atascocita.

Details

Warmup: Rowing x 00:10
Strength Training:
1. LF leg ext: 40/12, 40/20, 40/20 - still have left knee pain
2. TG leg curl: 50/20, 50/20, 50/20
3. FM chest: 50/20, 60/13, 50/12
4. FM lat: 60/20, 70/20, 70/20
5. CY st calf: 90/20, 90/15, 80/19
6. FM shoulder: 50/15, 45/11, 40/7
Stretch: 00:06
Jacuzzi: 00:10

Anyway I missed a bunch of scheduled workouts and my diet was not as strict as it should of been, but all in all things held up pretty well and today (2/16) I’m back on track.

Strength Training

This morning I started a new routine, taken from Men’s Health Big Book of Exercises, by Adam Campbell:

I just picked up this book recently and it has the best exercise illustrations I’ve ever seen. It’s packed full of information and includes easy to follow dietary advice on top of all of the great workouts. The routine I started this morning (which really kicked my ass by the way) is the Spartacus routine, designed by the personal trainer for the gladiators on the Startz program by the same name.

This is a circuit routine with 10 stations, or exercises. You do as many reps of each exercise as you can in 1 minute. Then you take 15 seconds to transition to the next station and so on until you finish all 10 stations. Then you rest for 2 minutes and start over. Do a total of 3 sets per exercise.

Details

Note that the sets reported are only for 1 side (or arm or leg). So if I record 10 reps for a T push up, that means 10 per side. Any weights recorded for dumbbells are for 1 of the dumbbells only.

Warm Up x 00:11
Work Out x 00:51
Sets:
1. goblet squat: 15/30, 18/30, 16/30
2. mountain climber: 16, 19, 18
3. single arm DB swing: 15/30, 12/30, 14/30
4. T push up: 15/15, 6/10, 5/5
5. split jump: 8/15, 11/10, 20/10
6. DB row: 20/30, 29/20, 20/20
7. DB side lunge & touch: 8/20, 7/20, 6/15
8. pushup position row: 8/20, 9/20, 9/15
9. DB lunge & rotation: 11/20, 8/20, 8/20
10. DB push press: 16/25, 14/25, 18/20

This was a fairly light day. The only thing on my schedule was a Masters Swim class at Lifetime Fitness. Details

Duration: 01:30
Distance: 3300 m

NROL Strength 1/A (#6) Did this workout very early over at Lifetime Fitness. Details

WU x 00:10 Elliptical
WT x 00:48
ST x 00:13
Sets:
1. squat: 8/255, 2/275, 8/255, 3/275, 12/225, 20/225
2. SS1-Bulgarian split squat: 15/40, 15/40, 15/25
3. SS1-step up: 15/70, 15/70, 15/70
4. AS1-back extension: 10/10, 10/15
5. AS1-Swiss ball crunch: 10/10, 10/15

Masters Swim Class Did this in the evening at LTF. Details

Duration: 01:32
Distance: 3700 m

NROL Strength 1/D (#5) Did this workout fairly early over at Lifetime Fitness. Details

Duration: 01:02
WU x 00:10 elliptical
WT x 00:48
ST x 00:05
Sets:
1. AS1-chin up: 6, 3, 6, 1, 7
2. AS1-BB shoulder press: 6/75, 2/95, 7/75, 1/95, 1/65
3. AS2-DB bench press: 8/50, 10/50
4. AS2-wide grip cable seated row: 8/90, 9/90
5. SS1-lower body Russian twist: 10, 10
6. SS1-DB curl (left arm): 10/25, 10/25
7. SS1-DB tri extension (left arm): 10/25, 10/25


BRICK
Bike Details

Duration: 01:48
Distance: 30.56 mi

Run Details

Duration: 00:29
Distance: 3.02 mi

I was so cold when I got off the bike I fell over in the front yard. I couldn’t get my fingers to close and so had a hell of a time getting the bike shoes off and the running shoes on and then tying shoe laces!

Weekly Summary

Masters Swim Class This was the usual class at Lifetime Fitness. Details

Duration: 01:20
Distance: 3450 m