[Rowing Machine] 2018: Week 12 {238.5}

Dental hygiene, like exercise, is a time-sink with seemingly invisible results. Both can be multitasked. Unfortunately, you have to dedicate your full attention to either task to get the most thorough results, otherwise, if your attention is diverged, you’ll most likely forget to floss your back row of teeth or just give mediocre effort to your set. Fortunately, the results for both speak for themselves: don’t do either one for a while, and you’ll notice!

  • My Weekly Stats:
  • Tuesday 13 Morning: time 10min, 335 rows. These sets are much more challenging than the 5min sets were, almost as though 0-5 is a leisurely walk and 5-10 is almost a sprint, or, more like a brisk walk in a dry heat. It’ll be nice to get back into hour sets. Those are where it’s a run.
  • Tuesday 13 Bonus: 15 minutes of light cleaning.
  • Tuesday 13 Evening: time 10min, 334 rows. I had some lingering stress from yesterday. When I’m in the middle of a set that’s more tiring than usual, thinking about negative thoughts helps out, because I’ll usually tire out physically and mentally simultaneously. Now both are relaxed.
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  • Wednesday 14 Morning: time 10min, 326 rows. I’m enjoying these longer sets. Gives me time to clear my head; if by chance I feel the need to check my phone or get distracted, but am midway through my set… nope! My present task is my most important task, which permeates into everything.
  • Wednesday 14 Bonus: No additional exercise.
  • Wednesday 14 Evening: time 10min, 330 rows. It’s taking me a little longer to start these 10 minute sets. I think that’s me building up the mental fortitude to start these slightly longer sets. Soon I may do longer sets on the weekends if I have nothing pressing going on the next day.
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  • Thursday 15 Morning: time 10min, 330 rows. Every moment, we decide to stay or progress. Sometimes there’s value in comfort. Mostly, however, we’re falling back into negative habits. Overeating or letting stress get the better of us. These 330 rows, insignificant individually, add up.
  • Thursday 15 Bonus: Estimated 1 hour of cleaning.
  • Thursday 15 Evening: time 10min, 329 rows. Spent 10min to . Throughout the set, I returned to the thoughts that I just couldn’t have done all that heavy moving last year. There’s so much more to do but to not be exhausted means I can do it! You, too! Work toward your goals!
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  • Friday 16 Afternoon: time 10min, 333 rows. After you continually push yourself past your limits, to the point where that becomes comfortable, changes seem to happen magically. Doing yesterday’s impossible can happen if you put in the effort yesterday. If not, it will remain impossible.
  • Friday 16 Bonus: 30 minutes of cleaning and 20 minutes of building shelving.
  • Friday 16 Evening: time 10min, 352 rows. Lost count at one point, so it could be 342 or 362. What a good set! I was outside in the shade writing, so my muscles were thoroughly cold and relaxed. That might have been the key to my success here, if it weren’t due to my constant effort.
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  • Saturday 17 Morning: time 10min, 337 rows. Good set. I’m getting used to this pace and time much quicker than I thought, excluding the 11 months of prep time. I didn’t go fancy with any bicep curls, just got in there, rowed, and let my body go into cruise control. So maybe… not good?
  • Saturday 17 Bonus: About one hour of mild to moderate walking.
  • Saturday 17 Evening: time 10min, 335 rows. I’m substantially more tired than I’ve been all week. The numbers look good but this was a tamer set than normal or it felt insubstantial to me. Maybe it was the calorie-intense omelet and water? Maybe I’m pushing too hard? Or not hard enough?
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  • Sunday 18 Morning: time 10min, 336 rows. I’ve been terrible at getting enough sleep my whole life. Stay up late, wake early; nap when I can. Part of that is time management. Another part is seeing how much rest can help or hinder these rowing sets, or more broadly, life in general.
  • Sunday 18 Bonus: One hour of moving and rearranging things onto the new shelving units.
  • Sunday 18 Evening: time 10min, 336 rows. Another cruise control set. My back was hurting a little, although that’s probably because I did over one hour of moving stuff around between sets. I still have so much room for improvement with both, but I’ll be closer to it if I keep at it.
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  • Monday 19 Morning: time 10min, 336 rows. I was hearing some random squeaks through my ear muffs, paused halfway through to check and didn’t hear any indication that the rower needed lubrication, only to realize it was the construction outside. Other than that distraction, good set.
  • Monday 19 Bonus: No additional exercise.
  • Monday 19 Evening: time 10min, 348 rows. Part of why I exercise as much as I do is that it’s my time to really work through some of the worst feelings I experience. Oftentimes, it helps to blow off that steam. For these deeper pains of unrestrained embarrassment, it helps, mostly…
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  • Weight: 238.5 pounds (down 2 pounds!)
    • (I weighed 240.0 before I peed, so that was good example of “water weight.”)
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  • Liquid Consumption (my goal: >1 gallon of water [[L * 0.26417]]):
      • Tuesday: 5.26 liters (1.4 gallons) of water, 1.5 liters of coffee, 0.2 liters of juice
      • Wednesday: 5.26 liters (1.4 gallons) of water, 2.0 liters of coffee
      • Thursday: 5.26 (1.4 gallons) of water, 1.5 liters of coffee
      • Friday: 5.26 liters (1.4 gallons) of water, 1.5 liters of coffee
      • Saturday: 4.46 liters (1.2 gallons) of water, 1.5 liters of coffee
      • Sunday: 5.26 liters (1.4 gallons) of water, 1.5 liters of coffee
      • Monday: 4.7 liters (1.2 gallons) of water, 1.5 liters of coffee
  • Vitamins: 11 of 14
    • Multivitamin; Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc; Fish Oil; Vitamin D; Vitamin E.
    • Not sure how I forgot Tuesday evening’s vitamins. I was feeling emotionally despondent after a phone interview. Along with that, the vitamin box process prominently featured on February 28th is too clunky and I haven’t quite developed my next idea thoroughly enough, so it’s just remembering and memory right now.
    • Man! Also forgot Wednesday evening’s vitamins! Got home late after a float tank session, saw my vitamin container, tried to remember to take them, but by the time I finished the set and woke up the next day, I’d completely forgotten. It’s too bad I haven’t quite solved this yet.
    • The inconsistency! I forgot Saturday evening’s set. I got home more tired than usual and I guess going up to a dog park was more exciting or distracting than I thought, because I got home, did some stuff, then went to sleep rather early. It was fun and worthwhile, though.
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  • Last Week’s Goals:
    1. Weight: [succeeded] Doing these 10-minute sets helped, not entirely for burning an extra 100 calories each day, but for the effects that does: I wasn’t significantly more hungry so I ate more sustaining foods and slept more. I’ve found food doesn’t solve long-term fatigue. It just helps with short-term fatigue and satiating hunger.
    2. Consistency: [neutral] Keeping a hourly log has been helpful keeping me on track with my time off from work. I’m still waking up early, writing first or second thing, and pushing through the days like I did at my last gig. I just need to make sure I do the smaller things.
    3. Health: [succeeded] I’m probably feeling much better because I don’t have to commute for 4 hours each day. I also wasn’t able to find anywhere to nap on my lunch break at that gig, which is vitally important to me- even a 10-minute nap can undo so much stress for me, it’s amazing.
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  • This Week’s Goals:
    1. Weight: No weight gain. I’ll be starting a new gig soon, so I won’t be doing 10-minute sets in the morning. It promises to be a more active job, so we’ll see. I just need to be careful not to indulge in “sugarcoated lies” and certainly not unnecessarily overeat for lunch.
    2. Consistency: We typically focus our routines around external factors like employment. I used to like taking my morning vitamins after drinking my liter of coffee, but maybe I need to do that before, and take the afternoon vitamins as soon as I get home? Maybe that’ll be the trick with that?
    3. Health: I’ll try focusing on eating better. I have some canned chicken that I cooked up Thursday evening with some eggs with great results. I’ll have to perfect the format more, but that could be a good hearty meal option. I should start cooking for myself. That, row, and rest more.
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  • From Good to Better
    • Just like my jump from 50-row sets to 5-minute sets, pushing myself into 10-minute sets became almost immediately rewarding. There is some getting used to, and it took nearly a year of constant effort, but that just shows unhealthy I was. (I wasn’t even seemingly unhealthy on the surface, either!)
    • Keeping my previous gig’s sleep schedule has also been useful. I just like writing first thing in the morning. Years back, I’d have my free time when I got home from work, and I’d always be useless, so unless I’m going to a concert, I’m not one for late nights.
    • I wasn’t motivated to write Sunday evening. Instead of pushing it, I went to bed early. Monday morning, I realized that this long-winded column is perfect for writing warm-ups. Before writing next Sunday’s update to “The Story,” I’m adding to this column as a writing warm-up, which is super effective.
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  • Sober Living
    • The pains of sobriety (tempered happiness, guilty memories, holding strong through adversity) are only just outweighed by the pains of insobriety. Were it not for exorcise those demons through communication, it would be a significantly more difficult battle that most would lose. Maybe that’s why some addicts make great art?
    • Coming up on my 5-year anniversaries is momentous. I’m in many of the same physical locations as I was then, but I’ve progressed greatly mentally and emotionally. It’s a trap to think that I could try anything again, however, because part of the maturity is knowing I can’t moderate myself.
    • One of the best things about having time off between gigs is that almost immediately all of the stress subsides that might make inclinations toward insobriety seem possible. Most of the time, getting inebriated isn’t interesting to me, except when I’m under days or weeks of moderate pressure, then, well…
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  • Confronting Cortisol Circumstances
    • Maybe we enjoy employment not so much for the regular source of income as much as the ability to sacrifice hours of our time and elements of our free will over to a higher power – our employer, our company, and their cause. Being with ourselves all day can be overwhelming.
    • Interviewing, and maybe to a lesser degree meeting new people, will always be stressful for me. I just like going at my pace, digesting information and observing life at my speed, which is sometimes too slow or too fast for others. Still, the more I get out there, the better!
    • Otherwise, nothing stressful stands out. Isn’t it funny how much we tend to focus on those things? To the point where Sunday, I debated between whether I wanted to go out and be a good little consumer versus staying home and cleaning up what I own: I cleaned instead, stress-free.
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  • Disengaging from Stress
    • Maybe we, speaking generally about our society, value escapism because it helps us cope with the nature of reality. To confront your greatest fear, the fear that you’re not living up to external or internal expectation, can be too much. Instead, here’s a fun show. Let’s go out! Let’s forget.
    • Rowing actually provides a great time for disengagement. If you’re not exercising while exercising, you’re not doing it right. There are machines that could distract you so you could watch movies while exercising, but I’m not interested in that. By fully studying my exercises, I forget about lingering external stresses.
    • No Harvest Moon this week and didn’t even read anything related to it. Depending on how the timing goes for this new gig in regards to writing, I may not get the time to play any of it, since keeping up my writing pace is my priority over extensive leisure.
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  • Rowing Machine Maintenance
    • I might need to get some new rollers for my seat soon, maybe even the whole kit. It’s squeaked increasingly worse and worse over the past few weeks – I may have over-tightened the bolts causing some weird damage. In the meantime, I’ll clean the railing more often. Daily… as recommended.
    • I haven’t done this yet because online shipping takes so long that I’d rather just do a bulk order with a bunch of other stuff I might not need right now but will eventually – like a new chain, the mechanisms behind it, and maybe even a shirt just for fun.
    • I’m planning to rearrange my home gym area in the next few months to better utilize the space and equipment. Between my rower, home gym machine, and a larger space for more equipment, I could do much more than I am now, including having a poster walkthrough for warm-up exercises.
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  • Photo and Outro
    • I had the idea for the photo a while back, mainly thanks to the concept of flossing. The arrangement wasn’t that great on either photo, but I look at it these rowing photos as fun experiments and things to pique the reader’s attention visually, since otherwise these are long entries.
    • Minor sidenote: the floss picks actually turned out really well for picking the crud oil out of the chain, so I may add some to the rowing tool set. That’s the fun thing about experimenting. I probably wouldn’t have thought about using floss picks, but the curved pick worked well.
    • Good week for fitness and writing. Accomplished more in both regards than usual, even though I didn’t get paid, so there is that to balance into the equation. If I can do all three successfully, then life is good, isn’t it? Because good health leads to good work and writing…?
Sources: None

Quotes: None

Inspirations: None

Related: None

Picture: See above section.

My big goal is writing. My most important goal is writing "The Story." All other goals should work toward that central goal. My proudest moment is the most recent time I overcame some fear, which should have been today. I'm a better zombie than I was yesterday. I'm not better than you and you're not better than me. Let's strive to be better every day.