bro-n-sis
Originally uploaded by renfield
heathfullness
Ran this morning. Six AM. In the rain.
No, that is not a tribute to Hemingway, but it was excellent. Besides being a decently long run, it was also not terribly humid, and the rain kept me at least feeling cool if not a bit moist.
So I am basically running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.
Other days just doing 15 minutes of jumps and various exercises, though I am certainly liking running more than jumping. Maybe I need to wear shoes when I jump (even inside, on the carpet.) Jumping is just getting...boring. And kinda hurts; shins and ankles. Not real pain hurts, but it's annoying.
Running, though, seems to be much easier. I run really slow and controlled; don't do any kind of jarring heel striking and generally avoid getting all twisted up, and I like the change of scenery. Not really running hard enough to get into an endorphin-fueled runner high, but I find my mind tends to wander carefree, very much like when I am sitting zazen. And since I am not pushing myself to lung-busting pain levels, a good 45 minutes is totally doable.
I certainly enjoy it more than an hour on the running machine at the gym, even listening to excellent tunes.
Hitting fighting on Wednesday, and Thursday at lunch, too, and trying to get to at least Monday yoga class at lunch. I can now do a head-stand. Monstrously practical! What I want to do is be able to just balance indefinitely in a proper hand-stand (only hands on the ground; no head) and once I've got that, I will bust out the awesome hand-stand push-ups. And then I will cure cancer, and then we're done.
No, that is not a tribute to Hemingway, but it was excellent. Besides being a decently long run, it was also not terribly humid, and the rain kept me at least feeling cool if not a bit moist.
So I am basically running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.
Other days just doing 15 minutes of jumps and various exercises, though I am certainly liking running more than jumping. Maybe I need to wear shoes when I jump (even inside, on the carpet.) Jumping is just getting...boring. And kinda hurts; shins and ankles. Not real pain hurts, but it's annoying.
Running, though, seems to be much easier. I run really slow and controlled; don't do any kind of jarring heel striking and generally avoid getting all twisted up, and I like the change of scenery. Not really running hard enough to get into an endorphin-fueled runner high, but I find my mind tends to wander carefree, very much like when I am sitting zazen. And since I am not pushing myself to lung-busting pain levels, a good 45 minutes is totally doable.
I certainly enjoy it more than an hour on the running machine at the gym, even listening to excellent tunes.
Hitting fighting on Wednesday, and Thursday at lunch, too, and trying to get to at least Monday yoga class at lunch. I can now do a head-stand. Monstrously practical! What I want to do is be able to just balance indefinitely in a proper hand-stand (only hands on the ground; no head) and once I've got that, I will bust out the awesome hand-stand push-ups. And then I will cure cancer, and then we're done.
taiyaki snack
taiyaki snack
Originally uploaded by renfield
Managed to get to bed at 5am and stay there until almost 10am, at which point I simply had to take the Tonchabeast out. We hit the park, then Appi, then the Hills, and finally the slide park, before meeting P and Mo for some well-deserved sushi dinner.
ramen
ramen
Originally uploaded by renfield
And this is were we ended...
The day started early, with a short run before breakfast. Then I gathered my gear and headed to the Chuo City Sports Center. Nearly 400 competitors at this year's taikai, but things proceeded amazingly well. I had nothing to do in the AM so just watched and chatted and generally stayed out of the way.
After lunch I had to judge 4th and 5th dan competition, and then immediately grabbed my sword and hit the floor to compete in the final 6th dan group.
I managed to beat Sudo-san and even Hoshina-san (both 3-0), got my ass handed to me by Hashimoto-san (0-3), and then beat Yoshida-san (2-1) for 3rd. Hashimoto-san went on to beat Sakaguchi and finally took first.
I felt pretty good for not having trained at all for the past few months, and not seriously for at least a year.
My ryoguruma was atrocious, though. Gosoke commented on my total lack of appropriate timing, rhythm, and understanding of the fundamentals for that one, so at least I have something I need to work on.
After the taikai we had a quick chat with Denshobu and then accompanied the aikido posse to Taimeiken for the banquet. After killing the awesome food there we headed to the bar around the corner from the dojo, where the Italian team celebrated loudly before heading home, and then the German team celebrated quietly as the German team crushed The Netherlands to get to the World Cup finals.
At this point, the owner of the bar (who also owns several other places, including the awesome yakiniku joint Batten) was roaringly drunk and took me, Presley, and Urabe to his restaurant for some well-deserved meat and ramen.
By now the sun was rising and it was time to call it a day!
too much fun
Had too much fun yesterday; spent the day in Ginza. First resupplied the furikake stock and then walked all the way down to the original Mitsukoshi to check out the Okinawa Festival, which was mobbed but not nearly as crowded as the ochugen madness happening on the same floor. Damn some people take their summer traditional greeting gifts seriously!
Walked back to Ginza and stopped off at Azabu Tailor to pick up my suit pants (I now have pants that fit!) and order a black suit before heading back to the station to get on the bus and head home.
Ended up going to sushi for dinner in Roppongi Hills before heading back, and wouldn't you know it, the Mighty Mo wasn't sleeping much and had a lovely fever this morning with a nice cough, so I skipped my early Monday meeting and took Ton to school and P stayed home with Mo.
Sophia was back from China and came to school today. Ton was really happy to run into her on our way to school in the morning, so I guess it wasn't all bad.
At the gym during lunch I ran for an hour at 7.1 klicks and hour; I have decided I will increase the speed one tenth of a klick every week until I am running at 30 klicks an hour for a full 60 minutes, at which point I will quit my job and will go kick ass at the Honolulu marathon or something sufficiently awesome.
Walked back to Ginza and stopped off at Azabu Tailor to pick up my suit pants (I now have pants that fit!) and order a black suit before heading back to the station to get on the bus and head home.
Ended up going to sushi for dinner in Roppongi Hills before heading back, and wouldn't you know it, the Mighty Mo wasn't sleeping much and had a lovely fever this morning with a nice cough, so I skipped my early Monday meeting and took Ton to school and P stayed home with Mo.
Sophia was back from China and came to school today. Ton was really happy to run into her on our way to school in the morning, so I guess it wasn't all bad.
At the gym during lunch I ran for an hour at 7.1 klicks and hour; I have decided I will increase the speed one tenth of a klick every week until I am running at 30 klicks an hour for a full 60 minutes, at which point I will quit my job and will go kick ass at the Honolulu marathon or something sufficiently awesome.
midnight run
So my new thing this week: running. Ran every day except for Thursday. Mon-Wed I did 7 klicks @ 7 klicks/hour, so I spent one solid hour on the running machine at the gym.
Thursday I went to dageki class at fighting so no running.
Today I spent 13 hours straight sitting on my butt, so after my conference call ended and I finally left the office at 10pm, I took the bus up to Roppongi to order pizzas for our big townhall meeting at work next week, then walked home.
Thought about doing various exercises but once I got home I just put on some shorts and a towel on my head and went out for a night run.
Humidity much lower at night, slight breeze, and no worry about getting too much sun. Not entirely sure how long I ran; maybe 30 minutes? Went up to Azabu-jyuban, through Roppongi Hills, down Old TV Asahi Dori past the Chinese Embassy, down to the bottom of Arisagawa Park, past Hiroo out to Tengenjibashi, up Meiji Dori almost to Furukawabashi, and then home.
According to teh internets, this run is just about 4 klicks.
Conclusion: running at night is pretty damn keen.
Thursday I went to dageki class at fighting so no running.
Today I spent 13 hours straight sitting on my butt, so after my conference call ended and I finally left the office at 10pm, I took the bus up to Roppongi to order pizzas for our big townhall meeting at work next week, then walked home.
Thought about doing various exercises but once I got home I just put on some shorts and a towel on my head and went out for a night run.
Humidity much lower at night, slight breeze, and no worry about getting too much sun. Not entirely sure how long I ran; maybe 30 minutes? Went up to Azabu-jyuban, through Roppongi Hills, down Old TV Asahi Dori past the Chinese Embassy, down to the bottom of Arisagawa Park, past Hiroo out to Tengenjibashi, up Meiji Dori almost to Furukawabashi, and then home.
According to teh internets, this run is just about 4 klicks.
Conclusion: running at night is pretty damn keen.
not exactly what I had in mind
not exactly what I had in mind
Originally uploaded by renfield
I asked the super to FIX the cabinet door not abscond with it!
fathers day awesomeness
fathers day awesomeness
Originally uploaded by renfield
tie-shaped-card and decorated tie from ton, keith haring key-chain and world rubiks cube from P.
and I ran, I ran so far away...
Never mind that A Flock of Seagulls totally rocks it. This post is about running.
Today I ran on the super high-tech running machine (Don't call it a treadmill! I been here for years, rockin' the mic...) at the gym.
This marvel of modern technology has a built-in TV with cable and satellite, blue-LED back-lit, ergonomically sculpted controls, a plethora of settings, more computing power than a late 20th century CRAY, built-in heart monitor, and not one but TWO emergency crash-stop mechanisms.
But the best thing about is: I set it for 7 clicks an hour, and I ran. For an hour.
I suspect that whilst my gate could technically be called "running", i.e. I have both feet off the ground at one point during my stride, it certainly isn't fast.
As I may have mentioned before, I have spent the past few years relearning how to walk and run. I have now successfully changed my general mode of bipedal locomotion enough for it to be considered kinda strange looking to anyone bothering to pay attention.
Not this weird, but the concept is basically the same; don't twist the upper body, keep the shoulder in-line with the hip, move from the center and the legs will follow. As the hip goes forward, the shoulder goes DOWN and circles forward to follow, using the back, letting the arms swing naturally. Another way to think about it is imagine that the legs are attached under the chest or that the hips are under the armpits.
Anyway it may be odd, but I find it incredibly efficient, easy on the ankles and knees, stable, smooth, and lots of fun.
So there I was at a stable clip of 7 clicks, playing for an hour with landing on the balls of my feet (wearing my awesome shoes of course), bouncing my gait, rolling my hips forward, leaning in and doing a falling-stride, trying a smoothy (basically use the legs as shock absorbers and don't let the upper body bounce in the vertical plane at all).
After an hour, I was moderately sweating and my pulse had doubled from its usual 55 bpm to 110, and then quickly cooled down.
When I finally stepped off the machine I was actually a little wobbly. I had spent such a long time running in place that I kind of had that near-vertigo feeling of getting off of a really long escalator or something; like I was not moving appropriately in relation to the world.
Did a few pull-ups and a then a nice big stretch. Wow, after running for an hour my legs were really limbered up and I could split wide and bring my upper body really low!
Also practiced a couple of head-stands against the wall; absolutely no idea where straight-up is so cannot balance without a wall, but it's a great core workout and feels nice to get all the blood flowing upside down for a few minutes.
I assume I burned a decent amount of calories in an hour; I maintained a slow and steady low-impact pace and was never breathing too hard, as opposed to the punishing run flat-out, walk for a bit, repeat several times circuit that the girl next to me put herself through. She sweated like a grad student defending her thesis but she was skinny in all the right places and had hair like a pony, so who am I to judge?
So the verdict: now that the muggy humidity and rain of summer is upon us, I like running on a machine. The TV is boring, but I can look out the window and listen to my iPod.
Problem is I haven't acquired any new music in over a year, and the right song REALLY makes running fun.
So I need some suggestions for good running music, preferably of the hard and/or techno variety.
Today I ran on the super high-tech running machine (Don't call it a treadmill! I been here for years, rockin' the mic...) at the gym.
This marvel of modern technology has a built-in TV with cable and satellite, blue-LED back-lit, ergonomically sculpted controls, a plethora of settings, more computing power than a late 20th century CRAY, built-in heart monitor, and not one but TWO emergency crash-stop mechanisms.
But the best thing about is: I set it for 7 clicks an hour, and I ran. For an hour.
I suspect that whilst my gate could technically be called "running", i.e. I have both feet off the ground at one point during my stride, it certainly isn't fast.
As I may have mentioned before, I have spent the past few years relearning how to walk and run. I have now successfully changed my general mode of bipedal locomotion enough for it to be considered kinda strange looking to anyone bothering to pay attention.
Not this weird, but the concept is basically the same; don't twist the upper body, keep the shoulder in-line with the hip, move from the center and the legs will follow. As the hip goes forward, the shoulder goes DOWN and circles forward to follow, using the back, letting the arms swing naturally. Another way to think about it is imagine that the legs are attached under the chest or that the hips are under the armpits.
Anyway it may be odd, but I find it incredibly efficient, easy on the ankles and knees, stable, smooth, and lots of fun.
So there I was at a stable clip of 7 clicks, playing for an hour with landing on the balls of my feet (wearing my awesome shoes of course), bouncing my gait, rolling my hips forward, leaning in and doing a falling-stride, trying a smoothy (basically use the legs as shock absorbers and don't let the upper body bounce in the vertical plane at all).
After an hour, I was moderately sweating and my pulse had doubled from its usual 55 bpm to 110, and then quickly cooled down.
When I finally stepped off the machine I was actually a little wobbly. I had spent such a long time running in place that I kind of had that near-vertigo feeling of getting off of a really long escalator or something; like I was not moving appropriately in relation to the world.
Did a few pull-ups and a then a nice big stretch. Wow, after running for an hour my legs were really limbered up and I could split wide and bring my upper body really low!
Also practiced a couple of head-stands against the wall; absolutely no idea where straight-up is so cannot balance without a wall, but it's a great core workout and feels nice to get all the blood flowing upside down for a few minutes.
I assume I burned a decent amount of calories in an hour; I maintained a slow and steady low-impact pace and was never breathing too hard, as opposed to the punishing run flat-out, walk for a bit, repeat several times circuit that the girl next to me put herself through. She sweated like a grad student defending her thesis but she was skinny in all the right places and had hair like a pony, so who am I to judge?
So the verdict: now that the muggy humidity and rain of summer is upon us, I like running on a machine. The TV is boring, but I can look out the window and listen to my iPod.
Problem is I haven't acquired any new music in over a year, and the right song REALLY makes running fun.
So I need some suggestions for good running music, preferably of the hard and/or techno variety.
pull-ups
So we did many a pull-up on PCP. And I hated them.
Near the end, Patrick hooked me up with my very own Perfect Pull-Up Bar.I installed it in the door frame between my kitchen and the living room.
I still hate pull-ups. And could rarely motivate to do them.
Then last night in class, Hamazaki-sensei was running us through some back exercises. It was crowded, and I was up in the front near the stereo as that was the only place with any room left to stand.
Sensei came up behind me, pointed to my back and told the class "Do them correctly, and your back will look like this!"
So now whenever I get hungry and go into the kitchen, I grab the bar and do 10 pull-ups. Because they work.
I am officially insane now, thanks.
Near the end, Patrick hooked me up with my very own Perfect Pull-Up Bar.I installed it in the door frame between my kitchen and the living room.
I still hate pull-ups. And could rarely motivate to do them.
Then last night in class, Hamazaki-sensei was running us through some back exercises. It was crowded, and I was up in the front near the stereo as that was the only place with any room left to stand.
Sensei came up behind me, pointed to my back and told the class "Do them correctly, and your back will look like this!"
So now whenever I get hungry and go into the kitchen, I grab the bar and do 10 pull-ups. Because they work.
I am officially insane now, thanks.
hong kong day 3
Managing to wake up reasonably early (5am yesterday, 7:30am today -- note to self: re-open the curtains if the made closes them; WAY too dark and the sunlight won't wake me even if I set the alarm improperly and it does not go off in the morning as planned) and crank out my 15 minutes of jumps whilst watching BBC World News (digression: CNN, CNBC, FoxNews...basically ALL the US "news" channels can absolutely and utterly bite me. BBC is actual, factual, NEWS. Delivered by seemingly intelligent, often British-accented newscasters who do not, in fact, have any blatant left- or right-wing tendencies. Amazing.) and then proceeding through the workout for the day.
As the sun feebly attempts to spill through hazy rain clouds and the smog of muggy downtown Hong Kong's sky, I sweat and grumble through triceps, biceps, situps, and other self-torture.
A new discovery: when I am bored of 8 Minute Abs, I simply do 400 crunches: 100 straight, 100 each side, and 100 leg-ups. That generally hurts enough to feel like I have worked the abdominal muscles for the day.
Did my off-site and team-building group fun yesterday: at the beach south of Lantau, built a raft out of bamboo, rope, and plastic barrels. Raced in the warm ocean, water-balloon fight.
Skipped out on the beach BBQ to head back into town and have dinner with my old boss. Had some excellent Cantonese cuisine at the superfly International Financial Center and spent the time talking smack past, present, and future. Had a craving for icecream but luckily could not find anything open at 10:30pm so ended up back in my hotel room, read a bit, and went to sleep.
In the HK office today catching up on work, work, WORK!
As the sun feebly attempts to spill through hazy rain clouds and the smog of muggy downtown Hong Kong's sky, I sweat and grumble through triceps, biceps, situps, and other self-torture.
A new discovery: when I am bored of 8 Minute Abs, I simply do 400 crunches: 100 straight, 100 each side, and 100 leg-ups. That generally hurts enough to feel like I have worked the abdominal muscles for the day.
Did my off-site and team-building group fun yesterday: at the beach south of Lantau, built a raft out of bamboo, rope, and plastic barrels. Raced in the warm ocean, water-balloon fight.
Skipped out on the beach BBQ to head back into town and have dinner with my old boss. Had some excellent Cantonese cuisine at the superfly International Financial Center and spent the time talking smack past, present, and future. Had a craving for icecream but luckily could not find anything open at 10:30pm so ended up back in my hotel room, read a bit, and went to sleep.
In the HK office today catching up on work, work, WORK!
dinner in hong kong
dinner in hong kong
Originally uploaded by renfield
Salad from DressedSalad, carrot tahina, veggie samosa, grilled veggies from Seibu food court grEAT.
not quite
The Tonchabeast had herself a nice 38°C fever this morning, so she crashed out on the couch and I skipped my morning workout to sit with her and help her nibble breakfast.
Decided to hit the gym at lunch to do some exercise for the day, but the studio was being used for a meeting (?) so I started straight in on the workout: triceps. Lots and lots and lots of triceps work, to failure. Dips. Double-katanas, ski-jumpers. And some shoulder work just to round it all out.
When I finished the lunch-time Power Yoga class was about to start, so on a whim I jumped in.
Wow: putting the POWER in Power Yoga. And my arms and chest were already totally shot from working out, so I was even more shaky and unstable that usual.
Things I cannot do:
Decided to hit the gym at lunch to do some exercise for the day, but the studio was being used for a meeting (?) so I started straight in on the workout: triceps. Lots and lots and lots of triceps work, to failure. Dips. Double-katanas, ski-jumpers. And some shoulder work just to round it all out.
When I finished the lunch-time Power Yoga class was about to start, so on a whim I jumped in.
Wow: putting the POWER in Power Yoga. And my arms and chest were already totally shot from working out, so I was even more shaky and unstable that usual.
Things I cannot do:
- balance on one foot whilst twisting into all kinds of neat poses
- holding up my entire body with just my hands and my body precariously balanced on my arms
- deep leg stretches
- back bends
- nearly unnatural torso twists
big week
It was a most eventful week.
First of all, after three months, I killed my PCP. Crushed it. And now that is has been a week since I finished...I find that I still wake up at 5am, jump rope for 15 minutes, do 30 minutes of punishing exercises to failure, end with 8 Minutes Abs, and cook up a huge breakfast of mainly veggies.
What is different now that PCP is over:
Took a bunch of suit pants to the tailor to get the waist taken in significantly, bought a new pair of khakis, replaced all my undershirts, socks, and underwear, and generally cleaned out my closet. Emptied my no-longer-fit-and-never-wore-them-anyway pants drawer and filled it with my recently acquired collection of work-out shorts and shorts.
Had a couple of celebratory meals, both involving large quantities of meat, as much veggies as possible, and practically no carbs.
Got back into the dojo, hopefully on a regular basis going forwards.
Got a new washing machine, which besides having twice the capacity as our old machine, it also sports the single worst user interface I have ever had the pleasure of attempting to decipher. Seriously, this thing is utterly designed to make washing and drying a load of laundry nearly impossible to comprehend.
And our man the not-so-little Mo The Merciless starting walking.
Next week I have a business boondoggle to Hong Kong, a city I have not visited since it was British, and it should be an interesting post-PCP challenge to make it through friend, work, and hotel meals without gastronomically exploding.
First of all, after three months, I killed my PCP. Crushed it. And now that is has been a week since I finished...I find that I still wake up at 5am, jump rope for 15 minutes, do 30 minutes of punishing exercises to failure, end with 8 Minutes Abs, and cook up a huge breakfast of mainly veggies.
What is different now that PCP is over:
- Still anal about salt, sugar, mayo, and oil...but a little less so
- Don't weigh/measure portions; just eyeball "enough"
- Eat TONS more fruit, like 4 bananas, 3 apples, several kiwi fruit, and 4 figs a day
- Eat normal food every now and then
- Don't take a photo of every meal I eat
- Eat the yolks too when I have eggs
Took a bunch of suit pants to the tailor to get the waist taken in significantly, bought a new pair of khakis, replaced all my undershirts, socks, and underwear, and generally cleaned out my closet. Emptied my no-longer-fit-and-never-wore-them-anyway pants drawer and filled it with my recently acquired collection of work-out shorts and shorts.
Had a couple of celebratory meals, both involving large quantities of meat, as much veggies as possible, and practically no carbs.
Got back into the dojo, hopefully on a regular basis going forwards.
Got a new washing machine, which besides having twice the capacity as our old machine, it also sports the single worst user interface I have ever had the pleasure of attempting to decipher. Seriously, this thing is utterly designed to make washing and drying a load of laundry nearly impossible to comprehend.
And our man the not-so-little Mo The Merciless starting walking.
Next week I have a business boondoggle to Hong Kong, a city I have not visited since it was British, and it should be an interesting post-PCP challenge to make it through friend, work, and hotel meals without gastronomically exploding.
Week 12 results
Week 12
Originally uploaded by Peak Condition Ren
Weight is up, a little more meat and fat on the bones after getting a bit too skinny and having too many people ask me "Are you ok?" like I was dying of cancer or something. Too baggy suits and pale complexion not helping either.
Glad I bulked up a bit; I think I am finding my "natural" stable weight and shape, and it ain't bad! Getting some nice ab definition, too, especially on the sides.
Only a few more days to really carve it out and lock in the results!
weekend adventure
Big weekend of fun: Saturday went to Shibuya with the kids to do some shopping, then met P for lunch at TGIFs, headed to the Nagoya Food Festival at the Tokyu Department Store and bought some good stuff, and finally had sushi dinner at Roppongi Hills which, since I have not indulged in "real" food for over 10 weeks, left me pretty damn ill.
On Sunday took the kids out again all day to give P a break; went to the park, then Appi, then the park again. Met Tai-kun, who ended up coming over for dinner with his parents, but not before we stopped by the street vendor international festival at Shirogane Takanawa Station. P had spent all day cooking, so we feasted mightily on red snapper with leek and mushrooms, radish with shrimp, grilled fish, and other goodies. The kids ended up tearing the living room apart for an hour before Tai family went home and we got everyone showered and to bed.
On Sunday took the kids out again all day to give P a break; went to the park, then Appi, then the park again. Met Tai-kun, who ended up coming over for dinner with his parents, but not before we stopped by the street vendor international festival at Shirogane Takanawa Station. P had spent all day cooking, so we feasted mightily on red snapper with leek and mushrooms, radish with shrimp, grilled fish, and other goodies. The kids ended up tearing the living room apart for an hour before Tai family went home and we got everyone showered and to bed.
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