I’ve posted a bunch on personal bests on lifting. I like that even as age limits my body’s potential, I’m overall able to lift heavier weights.
But it’s not nonstop, monotonic progress. Yesterday was a lifting day. It was humid. My digestive tract felt woozy, I figure from something I ate the day or night before. I didn’t sleep well. Also, I was fatigued and partly sore from the day before. I met some old college teammates from Ultimate Frisbee to toss in Prospect Park. I rode my bike there and back. These days, that much exercise counts as a lot, even though it wouldn’t have counted as a warm-up in college.
The net result: Where I recently was able to do 11 reps on the floor lift first set, this time I could only do 9. The second set I think I only did 7 on my left side and 5 on the right side (my throwing arm, probably more tired from throwing the day before).
I took longer between sets. I did each rep and each set slower. I took over an hour what normally I do in about 45 minutes.
Last night I slept over eight hours so today I feel better, though my legs still feel weak, probably from riding the bike.
Not an exciting post, but leaving out the difficult days leaves out important parts of the story. I’m writing about more than lifting. Difficult days come to all practices of improving oneself.
How long we played ultimate together
On another note, can you guess when I first played with the college teammates?
1988.
That’s a long time ago. They were seniors and graduate students (who carried the team to Nationals) in my freshman year, so they’d played together since maybe 1984. Actually, it turns out they may have played against each other in high school, so maybe the early 80s.
One guy who came out Saturday I also played club with, so probably played on teams with him until 1996, maybe later. It’s all a blur now.
Come to think of it, I searched my hard drive and found a picture of the Frisbee from Nationals that school year. Plastic doesn’t age, so the disc somehow shattered.
Weight loss “before” pictures
Similarly to reporting gains more than losses, I keep not taking “before” pictures when I lose weight in the spring and summer. Every fall and winter, I put on fat I don’t want. Every spring I think I don’t have that much extra fat. Every summer I realize I had put on more fat than I thought, only that it happened slowly enough that I didn’t notice the change.
Then I when I take an after picture I can’t compare it to before and the achievement looks less significant. This year I was so sure I hadn’t put on much extra fat. I’ve lost a lot a bunch, but still have more to go.
Darn, I wish I’d taken the before picture to give the after picture context. Still, I look forward to reaching my target level of definition. Stay tuned.