Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

Two Weeks Down

Wow, did that ever suck.

Today marked the third workout of the second week of the Runkeeper app’s My First 5K training. Each of the three trainings this week, and the last one from week one too, have found me increasingly convinced that I am not going to be able to finish this program. I know the whole point of this is to be challenging and to increase my endurance and all of that fun stuff, but each time I go outside and for one of these walks/runs I am questioning my sanity more and more.

Today was 10 rounds of walking for two minutes and running for one. I made it through six before I had any real difficulty, but I think it was after three that I started to doubt whether or not I was going to be able to finish. Eventually I got far enough along that I knew I would finish today but the doubt transfered to whether or not I would be able to finish the next run, or the one after that.

Is my endurance and stamina increasing? Yes. Absolutely. When I think ahead to the next run knowing that the format will change to one minute of walking followed by one minute of running repeated 15 times, do I feel like my endurance and stamina have increased enough that I can pull the next workout off? No. Not even a little bit.

This could just be me being a pessimist, but I really cannot see me being able to run 3.1 miles at a time without stopping. It just feels like an impossible ask. Am I saying that come Tuesday morning when it is time for me to go outside and try week three run one I am going to say no thank you? No, I don’t think I am there yet. I don’t think I am quitting. I just think that I can see myself quitting at some point in the near future. Maybe I’ll surprise myself but… maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll come up with something else.

We’ll see.

Why Yes, Yes I Have

Daily writing prompt
Have you ever had surgery? What for?
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You know, if I didn’t know better I would say that whoever is coming up with these daily writing prompts is basing them on my blog. That couldn’t be it, could it? I mean… really?

Have I had surgery? I’d say that about two thirds of the posts I’ve made here since May of 2022 have answered that question.

Have I had surgery? Why yes, yes I have. On May 4, 2022 I had gastric bypass surgery. A surgeon made a bunch of little incisions into my guts and rearranged my entire digestive tract to make sure I couldn’t fit metric tonnes of food into my stomach anymore.

I have lost a shit load of weight but I can’t eat M&M’s anymore so there are upsides and downsides. (That previous sentence is meant to be dripping with sarcasm, just so you know)

Daily Habits

Daily writing prompt
What are your daily habits?
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Daily habits. I don’t know if I really had any daily habits prior to the whole weight loss surgery thing. Now I have a bunch of them, mostly due to having all of these post-op goals to hit every day.

  • Have some water and my morning vitamins before breakfast
  • Exercise every morning before breakfast
  • Eat a lot of protein for breakfast
  • Make sure the cats are fed
  • Make the bed (I fail on this one a lot, but I hate it when I do)
  • Exercise again during lunch, just a bit
  • Hit my daily water/liquid intake goal of at least 64 ounces
  • Hit my daily protein goal of at least 80 grams
  • Hit my daily Apple Watch Activity app exercise goal of at least 30 minutes, preferably more like 60
  • Hit my daily Apple Watch Activity app move goal by burning at least 1000 calories
  • Hit my daily Apple Watch Activity app stand goal by standing for at least one minute each hour for 12 hours
  • Write at least one blog post
  • Take at least one photograph, preferably with my Nikon Z5
  • Most important of all, be kind and loving to my wife
  • Track my sleep stats with my Apple Watch
  • Wake up and do it all again

I am sure I am missing a few things. I find the whole exercise and post-op thing a ton easier if I stick to a routine. Like, I overslept by almost two hours this morning and I am worried about staying on target for all of the exercise and food/water goals already. It’s only 7:30am, but I should have a bunch of that stuff done already. It bugs me a bit.

Anyway, those are some daily habits. I may be insane. Just a smidgen.

Finished

I just finished my June album in a month challenge thingie. 10 songs down. I am not sharing any of the songs I finished yesterday or today on this page though because they suck.

They suck.

They Suuuuuuuuuuck.

Oh well. I think we’ll punt on the rest of the May stuff and take a couple of days off before starting the next challenge, to write 50 songs in 90 days without logging onto the actual fifty ninety site at all. Faux 50/90 or bust, kids.

June is Ending

Today is the last day of June. I haven’t mentioned the June music project lately. How is that going? Are you going to reach your goal of writing and recording ten (bad) songs within the 30 days of June?

Maybe?

I mixed two songs yesterday. That put me at seven songs complete. At the start of the day today I had one song that needed lead guitars and two more that were ready to mix. Well, I just put some really pathetic guitar leads down on that one song, which ironically is song #1 for this month. Why is the first song started going to be the last one finished? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.

Anyway, that one guitar track being finished (poorly) means that tracking for this album in a month challenge is done and I just have to mix three songs. I think I can do that today. We’ll see.

What about the 10 songs from May? I gave myself to the end of the day on July 3rd to finish those 10 songs. I don’t think I am going to make it. I still have one song that doesn’t have rhythm guitars, and six that don’t have lyrics. Yeah, there’s pretty much zero chance of me hitting this new deadline. 50/90 starts on the fourth of July so the May stuff is probably going to be ignored for a few additional months. Oh well. I am not really doing 50/90. Not officially at least. I am going to see what I can do with a faux 50/90. We’ll see.

Okay, time to add a couple of guitar pics and then punch into work on this fine Friday. 8 hours and 45 minutes until the weekend.

303/365
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Week Two, Run Two

Two minutes walking, one minute running, repeat eight times. I cannot express how much that sucked. It was different than two days ago, somehow. It seemed tolerable until the last two rounds on Wednesday. Today it got harder much earlier, but at the end I don’t think it felt as tough as it did at the end last time. I’m not really sure how to describe it.

I took a slightly different route this time. Instead of just going around the circle I went down the road a ways. My map looks different and that’s something, at least. The next run will be on Sunday and that will be two minutes walking, one minute running, repeated 10 times. That is going to suck out loud.

I knew this was going to be a tough challenge, but it’s difficult enough that I would not be surprised if I abandon this little quest at some point. I don’t know if I have running a 5k in me. I am not ready to give up, I just won’t be upset with myself if I get further along in this process and come to the conclusion that I am just not a runner.

Maybe if that happens I’ll take up bike riding. Probably not.

When I got back to the house, this scene was waiting for me.

How much is that kitty in the window? Meow Meow