Dork Reports

I got tired of tracking how long I’ve kept up my strength training routine, so instead of blabbing about it here every day, I sort of made a mental note of when I would hit 90 days. That day would be today. There were two nights when I was drunk and couldn’t be bothered to cram in my 8 minutes while futilely chugging water, so I did them when I woke up. I still count that as continuous because, hey, it’s important to get shitfaced now and again too. I always do at least 8 minutes, for a while 16, up to 24, then 16 again and now 8. After 90 days, it’s become super boring, almost a chore, but I consider it basic maintenance.

I’m somewhat convinced I have arthritis in my knee. Every once in a while I pull my left butt out of the blue, which is inexplicable but pretty painful. This, combined with my stay-in-bed lady back, has caused Dr. Ann to diagnose me with fibromyalgia, which I equated to modern day women’s hysteria. My crookedness was bound to cause me to fall apart at some point, I think I just advanced it by actually moving after years of sitting.

For a while I was walking everywhere like a nut but then my left knee started hurting all the time instead of just popping when I move so I decided to give it a rest. Besides, I amped up the job search quite intensely which left little time to do anything else – and part of my motivation to walk was to return Netflix and cash my checks. If my bike ever gets fixed I can replace walking in the heat with faster rides…

Hiking was fairly regular for a while, once or twice a week starting in March. But then I came back from LA and it suddenly got very very hot. Ann and I made an effort to hike by searching for parking for a while, but when we found one, we decided to skip it and eat instead. There’s a difference to getting hot while hiking and straight up hiking in the heat. It’s harder to enjoy hiking when you’re suffering from dehydration and heat stroke.

I guess the good thing is I’ve found a fun replacement – indoor rock climbing. After six weeks, Kristina and I have decided to buy a membership which means we can climb more since it’s unlimited. I’ve just bought climbing shoes and a harness online and am waiting for them to arrive. I was holding off for a while because I didn’t want to acquire more stuff but it’s a worthy investment (if they fit) and now my feet won’t smell like the nasty rental shoes. Climbing is more fun now that we’re getting stronger – just started climbing 5.10as but still being defeated by some 5.9s.

With the rock climbing membership comes yoga and a fitness center. That likely means I’m gonna delve into that scary world of yoga after years of resistance. But, a couple weeks of doing my Wii Fit yoga stretches did seem like a class might help me improve my flexibility which would improve my climbing. Also, my back really hurts and I want to stretch it the fuck out if no one is willing to beat the shit out of it. Shoot me if I ever become one of those people who won’t shut up about yoga. I’ll likely do the elliptical too on occasion, since that’s all low impact and probably the only form of cardio I’d put myself through.

I can tell my arms are getting stronger. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to do a pull-up instead of just dreaming about doing a ton of them. I hope sometime soon I’ll finally give surfing a try and that instead of failing miserably  due to weakness maybe I’ll be able to push myself up at least once. Hawaii or bust!