The combination of a heavy lunch and day 3 of gloomy low atmospheric pressure held me back in the gym last night. The day after a moderate workout I tend to perform a little harder, so here's session 65: 3 sets on the Cybex circuit at high weight/low rep settings: leg curls: 8-12x 90# leg press: 10-12x 210# overhead press: 6-10x 70# arm curls: 6x 50# (both hands) and 12x 10# (1-handed each side) ab crunch: 6x 110# + 12x 70# arm extension: 10-12x 70# chest press: 6-8x 90# + 6x 70# 3.3mi / 46m30... (...more)

Session 64: 1 warm-up set on Cybex equipment at moderate weight settings. 3.3mi / ~44m43s, alternating full laps at 7.0-75mph and cooldowns, got bored after 2mi and shifted gears to finish at ~5.5mph. I was listening to Classical South Florida a lot when my gabber mix-disc was too, um, intense for stop-and-go traffic or just feeling frazzled from room-hunting and being internetless at home. But last week they were in pledge-drive mode, so I found myself listening to the classic rock stations a bit more ... (...more)

In early January of 2011 I started playing Night Owl Games' "Dungeon Overlord" on Facebook. Sometime in late November or early December, daily monster-feeding and continued dungeon development crossed some line from being fun to being a chore and a bore. I pretty much stopped playing at all by mid-December. Today I'm going through my "overlord" Facebook friend-list and unfriending my Overlord-only friends. That's about 60 people of some 880. I also burned out on Farmville around the New Year. Zynga's co... (...more)

session 63: 1 set on the machine circuit, and 3.3mi working on that edge of sustainability around 1-2 laps. leg curls: 20x 50# leg press: 20x 190# arm curls: 16x 30x overhead press: 12x 30# ab crunch: 18-20x 70# arm extension: 20x 50# chest press: 16?x 70#? A lap at 7.0mph is getting to be routine. 7.3mph was do-able for 3/4 of a lap, and as I told D.-, after 6.6mph for half a mile I felt like an aztec god. (A winded and overheated aztec god, but nonetheless.) Next week I'll probably be pushing... (...more)

Martin Cohen's The Marine Corps 3X Fitness Program describes 3 tests used to assess Corpsmembers' fitness: running, ab crunches, and pull ups (not push ups). Minimum male running performance in my age range is 3.0 miles in 30 minutes, i.e. 6mph; 45 crunches in 2 minutes; and 3 pull-ups or 15 seconds flexed-arm hang. My best running session to date is 3.3mi at 5.5mph, and a sustainable 6mph pace seems inevitable. I did 30 or 35 crunches before coffee this morning; probably not with good form, and I took ... (...more)