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2012-366 Day 314 – Rest II

And there it is. Wow are my quads sore today. Going up and down stairs (heck, just getting up and down) has been a painful proposition today. It’s good to know I gave them such a great workout yesterday, but boy is my body unhappy with me. Sadly, no karate again tomorrow as they are conducting the Black Belt test for four of the students. I plan to go and cheer them on, but I suppose this means I get a bit more rest and recovery as well.

In general, I’m pretty tired, and it’s been a long week. Teaching on Fridays also extends the day a bit, as, rather than having a lunch break, I go and talk for nearly three hours and then head right back to work. Very thankful for a long weekend to follow this week due to Veteran’s Day. I’m also looking forward to the start of Softball playoffs this Sunday, hopefully my legs have rested up by then.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 348.2 miles
Softball Stats: Game 8 – 4/4 (1.000), 3 R, 2 RBI Season – 21/28 (.750), 5 2B, 14 R, 12 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 9, 2012

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2012-366 Day 313 – Pacing

You would think I’d eventually learn my lesson, that I tend to dive into things headlong once I’ve made up my mind to do it. That’s why I have my aforementioned issue running, that I start out too fast and don’t always leave enough for the finish. I had to moderate that using the run-walk method, and even then it took a while for my pride to catch up with my brain.

I have the same problem when restarting things as well. I mentioned yesterday that I would be restarting my workout routines today and I jumped back in full force. Two miles of interval running at lunch. Fitness class after school, with stair climbs, lunges, and light running for fifteen minutes, during which my calves almost gave out on the stairs a couple times. Various legs and ab exercises during the second half of class. Finally karate class tonight, where we worked on our kicks extensively, doing at least a hundred kicks. Needless to say, my legs are shot (although not as bad as they could be, I can still walk).

So, rather than spreading out all of this stuff over a couple days (which I kind of had during my light week and a half), I chose to go all out. Because that’s what I do, and how I work. Head out there, get it done, and worry about the consequences later. One day I’ll learn, perhaps, but, until then, at least I can recognize it and be prepared for the pain when I do something stupid.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 348.2 miles (+2 miles)
Softball Stats: Game 8 – 4/4 (1.000), 3 R, 2 RBI Season – 21/28 (.750), 5 2B, 14 R, 12 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 8, 2012

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2012-366 Day 312 – Lazy II

It’s not as bad as the last time I wrote a post with this headline, but I’ve certainly been physically lazy since I finished my crazy busy day a week ago Sunday. I’ve only been running once, went to karate once (to be fair, they had testing on Saturday so I couldn’t go even though I was available), played Softball on Sunday (one real game and a pick up game in place of the forfeit), played Frisbee twice, and been to my fitness class twice (out of three times). I’m certainly ready to get back on the horse again, but it has been kind of nice to back off a bit for the last week and a half.

Additionally, I was asked yesterday if I planned to keep blogging everyday after the new year rolls around. My answer was a quick and fairly emphatic, “No.” I just don’t think I’ll have enough to keep this going past a year, and, in fact, stretching it to a year may be making the quality suffer here towards the end (okay, maybe quality isn’t the right word). I will try to think of something interesting to do for the next year, I’ve got a little under two months to figure that out. Any suggestions will be gratefully considered.

That’s the thing about becoming un-lazy, it’s always something you can do tomorrow (both in the literal and procrastinating sense, I suppose). With a run at lunch (probably), fitness class, and karate, I guess I’m taking the literal route.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 346.2 miles
Softball Stats: Game 8 – 4/4 (1.000), 3 R, 2 RBI Season – 21/28 (.750), 5 2B, 14 R, 12 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 7, 2012

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2012-366 Day 311 – Long Day

This will be a short one, since, as the title indicates, it’s been a long day. Coupled with the fact that I didn’t get to sleep for a while last night and that cat has continued his run of waking me up sometime between 5 and 6 for the last week, I’m pretty tired. A rundown of the day:

5 am – Cat wakes me up (Stupid cat.)
5:10-6:30 – Sleep (At least I could sleep again for a bit.)
6:30-7 – Get ready for work (It doesn’t take me long to get ready in the morning. Shocking, I know.)
7-7:45 – Vote (We walked to Chatsworth High and it took us a few minutes to figure out where to go. Jess asked for directions, but I played the typical guy and didn’t stop. We found it through a combination of asking and looking, and the line wasn’t terrible yet.)
7:45-8:10 – Head to work.
8:10-12 – Work (Nothing too exciting here.)
12-1 – Ultimate Frisbee (I got the Frisbee stuck in the one tree on our field, straight up and down between in a set of branches that formed a Y. After throwing several items, including another Frisbee, at it for about five minutes, and I managed to hit it once and move it about an inch, just a little more sheltered by the branch. Right before we were about to give up, someone handed me eight small rocks and I started winging them at the disk. I hit both branches a couple times and then sent three directly below the branch. I said, “This is the last one,” and let it fly, striking the Frisbee square in the middle and knocking it out of the tree. Apparently I just needed the pressure.)
1-5 – Work (Still unexciting.)
5-6 – Fitness class (It was good to be active, but we do seem to be going back to the same exercises very often and it’s getting a little dull.)
6-7:30 – Home and Dinner (There’s a brand of Carnitas that Costco sells that is very good, and Jess found the place that supplies Brent’s Deli with Rye bread, and has a special on it Tuesdays. That’s the only kind of Rye bread I like, since it’s a little milder, and together with a little mayo and deli mustard makes a killer sandwich.
7:30-9:30 – Bible Study (Well, technically a book study right now, and one we’re struggling with. Always a good time though.)
9:30-Now – Home (Checking election coverage, not commenting though. This post went longer than I thought, I guess it really was a busy day.)

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 346.2 miles
Softball Stats: Game 8 – 4/4 (1.000), 3 R, 2 RBI Season – 21/28 (.750), 5 2B, 14 R, 12 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 6, 2012

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2012-366 Day 310 – Voting

Polls open in a little less than eight hours around here, so I’m going to take a little time to tell you what I’m voting for candidate by candidate and issue by issue, and why you are wrong for not doing the same.

Proposition 30 – I work for the State of California in education, and, as such, part of my paycheck is somewhat dependent on this ballot measure. There have been many attack ads on both sides, particularly since there is an additional Proposition that is actually in direct competition (Proposition 38) that only funds the K-12 schools and ignores the colleges and universities. Both have their pros and cons, although the K-12 system has the con of not having me work for them. As such, I feel that you have to vote

Did I get you? No way in the world am I doing something like that here. Your vote is your vote, and it is your job to look into the issues and vote as your conscience (or lack there of) leads you. Now if you want my opinion, I will be more than happy to give it to you with no pressure for you to agree with me, I know that two people can have contradictory ideas and still have productive conversation (would that today’s politicians have the same idea).

That’s what has irritated me the most about the political ads I’ve complained about the last few weeks: thirty seconds is not enough time to inform on a particular issue, and when you attack the other guy, there is even less productive time being spent here. Reading the ballot measures in the booklets helps a bit more, especially the voter guide, but reading the commentary and pros and cons there often devolves into the same chest-pounding, mud-sling narrative.

All this to make a simple point: Tomorrow (soon today) go out and exercise your right to vote. Do so with pride, but also respectful of everyone else’s right to vote according to their convictions. The process may be flawed, particularly with respect to the Presidential election (that’s a whole other story that I’m not doing here), but it is still a process that many other countries do not have the benefit of enjoying.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 346.2 miles
Softball Stats: Game 8 – 4/4 (1.000), 3 R, 2 RBI Season – 21/28 (.750), 5 2B, 14 R, 12 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 5, 2012

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2012-366 Day 309 – Softball Game 8

How quickly this season has gone by, we played the last game of the regular season today. The start of the day saw us in fourth place out of five team, with the potential of ending up anywhere from 2nd to 5th. We played the first game and had to win for even a chance of staying out of the 4 seed/5 seed play in game next week. The top three teams get a bye next week, with the 4th and 5th place team playing for a chance to play the 1st place team when we have the final three games of playoffs on the 18th. I’d always rather have one less knockout game in the playoffs, so I really wanted to move out of fourth. Sadly, even with winning our game, we still had to rely on one of two teams losing, and they weren’t playing each other.

Our quest started out rocky, as the first two batters got on and the heart of their order was up. We somehow escaped without allowing a run, and scored one of our own in the bottom of the first even though we only had a runner on 1st (me) with two outs but managed a couple more hits. Our team has had a habit of two out rallies, hopefully we can keep that up. The other team responded with two runs from the bottom of their line up and we scratched out one more to tie it from the bottom of ours. A three run blast and another run from the second time through the order put them up 6-2, and the showboating during the home run kind of irritated me. I really wanted to win the game at this point, but we weren’t in a good place to do so at the time.

Well, that is until our turn to bat since we were sending up the top of the order again. While we may not have the big bombers, we can hit a bit, turning 5 hits (4 singles and a double) into 4 runs and tying the game again. We managed to keep their bats quiet for the rest of the game, only allowing two more runs while we managed to put up 5 more (another 4 on six straight hits when the top of our order came up again), and time ran out while we were batting in the bottom of the sixth with us up by 3.

We took care of our part, and now had to wait for the last two games to see what happened. The second game turned into a shellacking, but not in the way we needed, so it came down to the last game . . . which never got played because one of the teams had to forfeit because they only had seven players. Again, not the team that would have helped us, so we remained stuck in fourth place by half a game and have to play next week.

I’m very proud of my team and am particularly happy with our balance. Other teams have very strong top halves of the lineup and weaker bottom halves, but my team can generate offence from anywhere in the lineup. We have no automatic outs. We’ve beaten every team once except for the first place team (which we were beating when the final out line drive into the sun allowed them to walk off on us), so we have the potential to win it all. We just have to hope that some of the bounces that saw us lose two games by one run and tie another one go our way and we can get those wins.

Oh, I almost forgot, we played a pickup game in the forfeited games spot, so I got to play a bit more. Overall, I had one of my best hitting days ever, going 4/4 in both games, and cranking two doubles in the pickup game. Hopefully I can keep up this hitting performance through the playoffs (anyone have some wood I can knock on? I think all we have is particle board). Hoping for a sustained playoff run, I think this team can do it and deserves it after a rough beginning to the season.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 346.2 miles
Softball Stats: Game 8 – 4/4 (1.000), 3 R, 2 RBI Season – 21/28 (.750), 5 2B, 14 R, 12 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 4, 2012

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2012-366 Day 308 – Weekend Wrap Up XXIV

Half Marathon derailed the Weekend Wrap Up last week, so there’s quite a bit to go through this time. I did repeat several topics this time, so it won’t be as bad. Let’s see what I have to catch up on.

Sunday (10/21) – Softball Game 6: Doubling up on Softball topics always makes it difficult to update, because usually I waste everything in the first entry and then have nothing for the second one. I’ll switch that this time though, by putting this disclaimer in the first entry and then doing the actual update in the second entry. Sometimes I’m a genius! (Okay, probably not this time, but whatever.)

Monday (10/22) – Rock and Roll Half-Marathon Pregame: I know I swore off Half Marathons for a while in this post, but I’m in the post-Personal Record afterglow now and have reconsidered. I almost signed up for the Rock and Roll Half in Pasadena in January, but eventually decided not to. Remembering how I felt before the race via these blog posts certainly helped sober me up a bit, but it’s also a financial thing now. These races are expensive, and signing up for so many is starting to become a bit of a drain (I also signed up for the LA Marathon last month, and that one is especially not cheap), so I saved myself on two accounts here (not worrying about the logistics and spending the money). I have a few more Half Marathon posts, so we’ll save the rest for those.

Tuesday (10/23) – Political Ads: Another topic I covered twice in the past two weeks, but one I’m exhausted of even thinking about, we’ll see if I have anything more to say by the time I get down to part II.

Wednesday (10/24) – Moods: My good mood has definitely come down a bit since then, but it’s still been mostly positive since. It certainly got a bump after my unexpected good showing in the half marathon, but it’s been pretty steady other than that. Like I said in the original post, I keep a pretty even keel, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Thursday (10/25) – Experiences: See, occasionally I have experiences like the story in this post and I feel old, but I don’t dwell on them too much, as there are still groups, like the one I was with tonight, where I’m the youngest guy there. So until that stops being the case, I guess I can’t get too worked up over the occasional “Sir”. I did hear one today and almost responded, but thankfully they weren’t talking to me.

Friday (10/26) – Regrets: Ah yes, the pit of my pre-half marathon despair. If I had known then what I knew now, I wouldn’t have been so whiny. Again, though, I’m going to try and avoid putting myself in the position to feel like this for a while.

Saturday (10/27) – Will: So, yeah, good decision in hindsight . . .

Sunday (10/28) – Half Marathon and Softball Game 7: But doing the half marathon, a softball game, umpiring, and the pumpkin carving for our work team all in the same day? Maybe not such a good decision because it led to . . .

Monday (10/29) – Sick Day IV: Not being able to move much in the morning and then a migraine in the evening. It’s possible the migraine may have been brought on by some dehydration, I didn’t drink as much as I should have on Monday (although I drank PLENTY during the race). Both of my previous half marathons have been the Disneyland Half on the Sunday before Labor Day, so I had a built in day off there, and I took a day off after the one LA Marathon I did. I probably should have budgeted that in ahead of time.

Tuesday (10/30) – LA Rock and Roll Half Marathon: I’m certain there is nothing more I can add here that wasn’t covered in that post or in the above portion of this post. If there’s anything I missed, just ask and I’ll be glad to answer.

Wednesday (10/31) – Lengthy: Ah, burn out, you come and go so often on this project. Less than two months to go!

Thursday (11/1) – Resolution Update: It is really hard to believe it is already November. I know I comment on how time is flying nearly every month, but keeping a blog like this really brings it into focus.

Friday (11/2) – Political Ads II: Yeah, I’m done with them and this. See you later.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 346.2 miles
Softball Stats: Game 7 – 2/3 (.666), 2 2B, 1 R, 3 RBI Season – 17/24 (.708), 5 2B, 11 R, 10 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 3, 2012

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2012-366 Day 307 – Political Ads II

Oh dear Lord in Heaven, is it Wednesday yet? I hear it’s even worse in Ohio, I would hate to be living there right now. At least I occasionally get a non-political commercial. I am particularly glad that I don’t have to look at Mitt or Barack as much as they have to.

And what’s worse, we’re in the late run, so now we have all the he said/she said ads:

“The government can’t touch the money, is says so in the write-up”/”The government can use the money for other things, it says so in the write-up” (Make up your minds!)

“My opponent has spent us into over a trillion dollars of debt in the last 35 years” (Somehow I doubt he did it single-handedly)/”My opponent is a Republican masquerading as an Independent” (Really?)

“This proposition will cost 4 billion dollars”/”This proposition doesn’t cost a dime” (That’s a freakin’ huge range, care to narrow it down a bit?)

Not to mention all of the bad Photoshop jobs I’ve been subjected to in the last three weeks. I’ve seen Berman’s face pasted onto more terrible outfits than I care to mention.

I am absolutely fed up with our political system, there has got to be a better way to do all of this. If I didn’t consider it enables my right to complain, I would think about boycotting the whole thing.

Alright, this should be the last I vent about this before the election. You can carry on with your lives.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 346.2 miles (+3.1 miles)
Softball Stats: Game 7 – 2/3 (.666), 2 2B, 1 R, 3 RBI Season – 17/24 (.708), 5 2B, 11 R, 10 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 2, 2012

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2012-366 Day 306 – Resolution Update

1) One blog post (long or short) every day this year. – Down to 60 days left. Amazing to have gone this long, honestly I think this has required more mental endurance than my half marathons. Especially with the later updates I’ve been doing recently. Special thanks to Jess for reminding me before she goes to be when I forget (I’ll usually have the tab open, but won’t have visited it for a while). – On track.

2) Lose 20 pounds. – I’ll tell you what, half marathons will go a long way to helping you with your weight goals if you’re into that sort of thing. I actually had one weigh in on Sunday which pegged me at 219 pounds. After recovering, however, I’m back into the low 220’s, but certainly on the right path. I might actually have this one knocked off by Thanksgiving, and then the trick will be keeping it there through the holidays. Maybe I should shoot for the mid-teens this year so I have some room for bounce back. – On track.

3) Run 600 miles. – Not going to happen, but I’ll take setting a personal record over meaningless accumulation of miles any day. I haven’t run since the half marathon, but I hope to change that this weekend, we’ll see if I can fit a short one in. – Behind.

4) Complete 5th Gup Green belt test by end of year. – There’s a lower division test on Saturday, and this is the first one that I’m not participating in. That’s due to the fact that I’m on the four month cycle now, but it’s a little sad to not be in it. Still on schedule for this one to be done in early January. – COMPLETE.

5) Complete first novel. – November is National Novel Writing Month and if I wasn’t doing this blog, I’d consider using it to try and write this novel. Maybe I’ll fit some work in, but I doubt it. The goal is to write around 1600 words a day (actually 50,000 words for the month) and I’ve actually accomplished that on several of my longer blog posts, but I don’t quite have it in me to do double duty. Maybe next year. – Behind.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 343.1 miles
Softball Stats: Game 7 – 2/3 (.666), 2 2B, 1 R, 3 RBI Season – 17/24 (.708), 5 2B, 11 R, 10 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
November 1, 2012

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2012-366 Day 305 – Lengthy

You know, I always find it hardest to write again after I put up a long post like yesterday’s. It’s tempting to simply split those articles over multiple days, and get more mileage out of them. Once I get on a roll writing, however, I like to keep going, and once I have it done, I want to have it all up at once.

That doesn’t help me the day after, as I seem to have a reservoir for writing and it takes a little while to recharge. It is days like this where I’m glad I didn’t put some sort of minimum word count on these when I first decided to start writing. Then again, I’m not doing to bad with a post simply about how longer posts make me want to write shorter posts the next day.

Although I have to imagine you’re tired of reading about it by now. Halloween was today, of course, and I hope you all had a fun and safe one. Jess and I wore costumes to our respective work sites, even though we kind of had a couple’s costume (I went as Waldo – of Where’s Waldo fame, while Jess went as Carmen San Diego – of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, a computer game I loved to play growing up, together we were the world’s most tragic love story, as we could never find each other). While I did not win any of the categories in our work costume contest, I am extremely proud of my response to the announcement:

“I don’t know guys, I think people might have had a little trouble finding me on the ballot . . . – Waldo”

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 343.1 miles
Softball Stats: Game 7 – 2/3 (.666), 2 2B, 1 R, 3 RBI Season – 17/24 (.708), 5 2B, 11 R, 10 RBI
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
October 31, 2012

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