h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi R4, well we've had two catty reconnaissance missions up the tree now Knew it was too good to last.
It's still standing though so we're OK as long as we keep an eye out...

My body seems to be wracked with fatigue. Five days in the gym doing just aerobics really takes its toll. All worth it though I guess.
Next week should see the gym empty as the students leave - ah bliss.

Saw your complaint about lack of laundrettes on you homepage - I know two in Brum if you're still looking. The Selly Soak on Bristol Road in Selly Oak and one on Harborne High street. But I know what you mean. to be fair, if I was an entrepeneur like Ian Beale I'd be opening up a domestic appliance shop on Albert Square - even the supposedly rich people living there seem to not have discovered the existence of the modern labour saving appliance that is the washing machine

Bye for now,

Orcus

Hey Orcus,

Well even our cheeky chappy had his first recon up the tree last night.So far it's just got lights on, wait till the baubles go on too
Good going on the attendance.Not sure my body has the reserves to do five days of any exercise without serious increase in food intake and more sleep
I was too tired for Tia Chi last night, even though have not been doing much exercise of late.Guess work and cold/ dark did enough to convince me to give in, plus the fact I fell asleep for 30 minutes.
Hope it's not the bug all my team seem to be suffering, that's all we need for crimble
Cheers for the Laundarette info Our problem was a faulty spur, triggered by the good lady wife unscrewing socket plate to paint behind it. Makes you appreciate how much you take these things for granted when you have not got them.
Not doing to well on electrical front of late, sandwich toaster tripped RCD the other night. After trying another socket couple of times with same result that got scrapped, cannot complain though as it's about 20yrs old.

Our kitty's favourite is to dive behind the TV stand and knock the scart leads causing picture to go off. It's damn funny how they know exactly when and what to do to upset a peaceful evening's viewing. Especially when the misses is watching her favourite soaps (not that I would encourage such things)

Too true, not enough'real life' in the soap world to make it convincing but suppose that's part of the appeal. Real life is where most want to escape from.

Hope your weekend goes well, catch you soon
R4

Surprised myself yesterday.
Maybe the fact that I had to pick up the good lady wife from her swimming session spurred me on to do a lot in a short time

Dips& Pull up's 24 of each.Overhead cable pull's three bars away from the complete stack 3X8.
Lateral pull downs 3X8 30kg, Bench Press(Using Smith's)3X10 @ 40kg.

Rowing-1000 meters in 4 minutes based on distance followed by another 1000 meters based on time (4.25). It helped that the guy on the machine next to me was going at same pace (in my imagination we were rowing in the same boat and I had to keep time with him.

All that and showered in 50 minutes.

On the evening I watched the last of 'Last Man Standing'which involved the athletes rowing some native canoes in a two day race of 25 miles. Knocked my 2000 meters into insignificance.
Makes me think that I need to build some endurance using lighter weights and more Cardio. Not that I would ever compete in such events, a little too old and a lot more conditioning required.
Though I have to say Respect to them all for taking part.

R4

Hi R4, been feeling under the weather so not been to the gym recently.
Friday was my last session.

I'm going to be going for losing some weight next year so I doubt I'll be doing much in the way of heavy weight lifting for that. So as for you it'll be building endurance - lighter weights and more cardio indeed.

Bye for now,

Orcus

Sorry to hear your suffering, so many peole are ill at the monment it's hard to avoid getting something. Hope it clears up for the Christmas break

Find my session getting shorter, yesterday took wife to her gym but road works by floodlight meant delays in getting to mine and returning.
Only had about 30 minute.. did some flies with 24kg, 1500 metres on rower in 6:01:07 and finished with some seated presses and seated curls.

Basically I am just ticking over until the New Year. Giving the Big weights a rest is putting things back on a more relaxed footing.

Take Care
R4

If anyone is ever looking for a Hotel in Bournemouth with a good Gym,Swimming pool, steam room etc I recommend the Village located adjacent to the Hospital.
Facilities are excellent and state of art

Just back from a couple of days break and feel so refreshed it's untrue.

Hi R4, sounds like you had a good winter break

I have friends in Bournemouth so no need for hotels for me.

Just started back at the gym yesterday - have managed 25 minutes on a bike and today did 35 minutes on the stepper (800+ kCals - ouch!).

Trying to break myself back in gently but I need to get back to some hard graft in there as I seem to be having trouble fitting into my trousers recently - have put some weight back on over the last 4 months or so.
Mostly though I need to restrict my diet as I've fallen into a bad habit of eating too damn much I think.

Hope you're back in there and raring to go.

Orcus

Hey Orcus,
Happy New Year!

Have had a couple more sessions sice last post and feeling rather positive about boosting Cardio
Personal health is suffering a bit with what seems to be a central heating induced allergy. Get a lot of runny noses and sneezing, usually at begginig and end of day, inhalers help a little
If I turn off the central heating in the bedroom and keep the en-suite window open I seem to be fine but the wife is not too keen when it's -8 outside.
Suppose taking Christmas decs down and inhaling dust do not help a lot .
On a brighter side, theres an awful lot of encouragement for dieting
at the moment.Watched the Claire Sweeny programme last night and was shocked at how easy it was for a supposedly fitter than 'average' person to put on weight rappidly.
Trouble for most of us this time of year it's easy to indulge in the wrong food's. Good luck with your efforts in that direction

Hope you had some good swimming sessions over the break.Personally regret that I am not a strong swimmer, my wife on the other hand could probably swim the channel without too much practice

In the break I was considering a different Tia Chi class but I have a gut feeling that the instructor is more into promoting it as a business rather than teaching.Not up for lining his pockets on claims of being the only one in Birmingham and surrounding areas to teach the martial aspects, particularly when I know otherwise

Other Good News is my gym membership has gone down by 57 pence per month thanks to the VAT change.Also think I am begging to understand the meter on the rowing machine a little. If I am correct the 500m split for last session was 2:06.

Catch you soon
R4

Hi R4, glad to hear you're getting the hang of the rowing machine...

...just as I get bored of its torture and stop bothering

Yes that sounds about right for a 500m split - not that it really matters I guess, the aim is either to get the numbers down I guess.

I've been on a pretty punishing regime on the aerobics machine since I started back after the new year (happy new year yerself by the way ) as I said - the aim - lots of burned calories. I used to do up to 1500 a session (I think that was about my maximum). I'm not really fit enough for that at the moment but I did manage over 1000 today on the bike after 800+ kCal sessions all last week and this week previously. This is tough and I'm getting close to major cramps in my leg muscles all day but I think I detect modest waistline drop already.

I've cut out the breakfasts after the gym too which is bound to help too (possibly more than the gym).

Haven't actually tried the local swimming baths yet as we've had too many visitors over the weekends of late but we must go soon I think.

Talking of central heating and temperatures we've finally after 15 months at our new house arranged for a new front door plus a replacement of the one that goes to our garage.
Both are very draughty and the house is a bit of a nightmare temperature-wise when it drops below zero. We're pretty sure our door leading to the garage is not up to building regulations as it's just a normal interior door. Not good enough when it leads directly into our living room and the garage interior is effectively outside.
But life's too short to fight an endless (and cold) battle with the builders over the NHBC certificate - so we've arranged for a double glazing company to fit new ones at the end of the month. Yay.
I think they were glad of the business in these lean times too.

Sorry to hear your Tai Chi classes are turning a bit sour. I'm surprised he even tries to claim he's the only one in the area with Brum so close to you! That's a big old area.

I need to pay for a new gym membership in early Feb so I hope I get benefits from the rate cut - can't say at £50 a quarter that it's that expensive anyway mind but you never know.

Bye for now,

Orcus

Hey Orcus,

Nice Going on the calorie burn

I am on the other side of the coin, needing to consume more (but healthy) food.
One good thing about the economic conditions is we are eating food from the freezer rather than shopping each week. So far we have lasted since Christmas without a shopping trip and I have to say I do not miss bread as much a I thought
The daily sandwich for lunch has been replaced with something hot, which makes me less hungry in evenings

Know what you mean about the garage door, the proper ones are filled with a substance that looks like black foam for fire retarding purposes. Some years I installed a cat flap in one of these doors, which was part of a double lenghtways garage. The garage had been partitioned off to become a utility at back and garage at front....never forget the mess that project made......we live and learn.

Tia Chi is picking up again and I have more of a challenge to get some movements right. Always forget some small detail in one of the moves as I progress to a new one.
The good thing is mentioning the other instructor to my teacher. Rather than dissing the other teacher (as I thought they might to retain business) he said the other bloke was a good teacher but the best advice is to learn one style at a time, the moves are the same in the other classes but in a different order. Doing both would only serve to detract.
Having set out on the path I intend to complete the course to learn the Yang Short Form so won't be moving for now.My scepticism for the other instructor makes me wary, think he runs it more on a business footing so his claims are a bit of 'Marketing' I suppose.

Also kinda grown to like the little band of people who I train with it's more social than a class at a gym or leisure center (getting soft in my old age )

The trouble with Gym is fitting everything in, now I am doing more Cardio only get to do two or maybe three exercises with weights.Still that's better than doing nothing

Wife's just rejoining the gym at local Hotel. They have swimming pool, steam room and Jacuzzi. Only £25 pcm but that's off peak times so no good for me .

Well good luck with the burn!
Catch you soon
R4

yesterdays session stright into Deadlift 4x8 @90kg, followed by 2X5 @100kg. Then onto DB skull crushers 4X5 @14kg and standing DB curls 4X5 @20kg. Cardio for 15 minutes on Concept II rower.

Maybe because had not eaten enough during day or just the Deadlift zapping the energy but felt like a zomby for rest of evening

On the brighter side we have some tickets to see Ultravox in Dublin in May, just got to organise accommo and renew passports, flights are only 40-50 pence

Hey Orcus,

Hope everything is going well with your new focus on weight loss

My workouts tend to be more balanced between cardio and weights these days but that means some loss of toning here and there. Legs get more exercise theses days, which is good news, apart from the stiffness as the muscles repair
Stronger legs are the main aim for the moment, this assists with Tia Chi in allowing a lower center of gravity. This is where native Chinese people often have a head start, squatting rather than sitting on chairs like soft westerners.

Weekend session involved pull up's, squats, bench and good mornings followed by a full 20 minutes on the Concept II rower
My longstanding allergy thingy is turning into a cold but thanks to some menthol crystals manage to keep breathing through it all.

Hi R4, can't believe it's 5 weeks since I posted here. Hope you're still around.

I've been forced by work pressure to abandon the gym for about the last 6 weeks.
I had a lot of teaching in February which meant writing lectures, classes and tutorials for the students and at the same time my research boss decided that a lot of stuff needed doing within an absurdly short timeframe.

So it was 12 hour days all the way last month. All over now and I survived it though.

I've put on loads of weight though. Been back to the gym this week finally and am having to take today off as I've cramp throughout both legs seriously threatening. I hit the cardio machines very hard this week and have discovered that I've lost a lot of fitness but retained more than I thought.

Hope the gym sessions have been kept up by you.

Orcus

Hey Orcus,

Good to hear your back in the saddle.
Have also been busy and swung by a few times without posting, but not to the '12 hour day' extent of busy.
Sadly I managed to injure my shoulder couple of weeks wake up most nights, several times, with dull thudding pain in arm. During the day I hardly notice a pian unless putting my jacket on.
Have a doctors appointment tommorrow ... I think it's what's called a rotary cuff injury, don't think it's a tear cos it's not constant pain and has not stopped me training albeit with very light weights on my left side.
Cardio has been hit by a chest infection (more inhalers required... another reason for doc's) but still keepinh going.
Tia Chi is coming along too...even joined the 'trainee killers'last week That's the those who have been going for a good while. It's good to work with Lance (one of the instructors) as he explains the intent of the move in combat terms, whereas Pat (The other instructor) concentrates more on the movement required.Between the two I usually get the idea pretty quickly.
Generally speaking have enjoyed not taking weight training too seriously though I want to get back to deadlifts at some stage

Will have to see what the Doc says.
If weights are out of the question I guess that's my excuse to push up on the Carduio front

Keep up the good work and you'll soon be back in form.

R4

Hey Orcus,
The good News is Doctor said there does not seem to be any impingement in the shoulder so unlikely to be rotar cuff, the bad news is it could be early signs of Arthritis . My first thought was, WHAT! that's what old people get, then I remebered even babies can get Arthritis.

Have done some pull up's for first time in ages, how out of condition you can get when you drop things for a while

Now I am on Seratide (PURPLE AND LIKE A FLYING SAUCER SHAPE) inhaler Cardio has improved . A full 20 min's on x trainer, level 13, around 16 rpm and no signs of the asthma attack
Just now really looking for some inspiration for direction with the gym but at least I am keep going
Hope you are on track with your regime and taking work a little easier.

R4

Hi R4, ooh that's a shame for your shoulder and the rest if that's true but then it comes to us all in the end that I guess.
Of course arthritis is just a default response from GPs if they have no evidence of anything else.

Still the best way to deal with arthritis is to keep active so you're not doing the wrong things at least.

I suspect I have some arthritic problems myself. I can't really run for any length of time these days as I get *very* sore feet on the soles and recently I even get this getting out of bed in the morning. This is supposed to be an early sign of arthritis too

Best thing for me though is to lose some weight. At around 19 stones this isn't going to help my feet. Now if I could only control my diet...

Been having trouble getting to the gym again this week as there is again too much to do. Got in there this morning though and did 30 minutes of stepper and bike. Tomorrow I will also be there come hell or high water.

On a good note for me at least (not withstanding what it says about the economy) I just managed to fluke a really nice 5 year fixed rate on my Mortgage which will save me £70 a month. I was told when I applied to remortgage that my equity had reduced to the point where I'd be paying a higher rate but they seem to have not bothered to do a valuation in accepting our application (they seem to have used my 2007 purchase price!) and so have given us one of their better rates. So I've gone from a fixed rate of 5.99% to 4.99%. Very indeed. I get my annual increment in my salary this month too. So the equivalent of a really whopping payrise. I supposed someone' got to benefit from this recession - glad it's me so far.

Hey Orcus,
Hope you are well and in good form
Lately have only been managing one session per week in the gym,
mostly because of time pressues.
Have gone back to Deadlifting on these days for maximum impact and does it feel draining 48hrs later. I think 'Zombified' would be rahter apt if it's been 100kg or over.
Having a bit of a preference for the rower when doing aeoribcs but not really put anything over 20 mins yet

My shoulder causes issues every night and I think it is Arthritic but have not summoned the will to go back to the doctor again.
So I'm old and need to live with it
Went to Bristol last weekend before last, to see Ultravox in concert.
Apart from Midge Ure they all got Grey Hair now but still sound fantastic

Due to wife's crush on Midge were going to see them again next week in Dublin. Not that I'm complaining, looking forward to having the odd glass of Guiness and seeing the sights of my Fathers birthplace.
Can you believe it 47 yrs old and it will be my first visit to the city..........a real plastic paddy lol.

Hopefully I will catch up with you again soon.

R4

Hi R4, long time no speak. Not sure how that happened.

I've finally managed to get back up to 5 sessions a week now and am consequently losing the weight left right and centre now. Getting fit too. Well over 10 miles a day on the exercise bike is my aim now although I have to use the stepper occasionally now that the students are back from their easter holidays.
Need to lose the weight now as I'm going to be on the beach in about 2 months in lovely Sorrento!
Not doing so much on the weights at all at the moment although I might touch up in the summer. I'm going to a mate's wedding in August who I was a student with and we used to weight train together back then. I may need to put him in his place.

Ultravox huh? Didn't know they were still doing the rounds. Are they reformed or have they just never really gone away? Reforming seems to be very in vogue these days - even Spandau Ballet have done it I notice.

My other half is from the Emerald Isle. Although she isn't plastic (she has an irish passport) she left when she was 7 and so has a broad brummie accent. We're planning on visiting the place next year- although it will be to Limerick. I'm guessing we'll do Dublin to though.

We have an interesting situation with our cats this week. The other half's daughter is on a trip to Bridgend for the week and has a six-week old kitten she's just got and we're looking after it for her.
Our own cats' reaction is - er- hateful. They hiss and spit at her, the female Missy leaves the house in fact when the kitten is out and about.
It's a shame as I daren't leave them unsupervised with it as I dread to think what would happen.
So much for us thinking they'd welcome a little one around.

Anyway, good to hear from you.

Bye for now,

Orcus

Hey Orcus,
Yes, long time since we last posted but then life has a habit of taking things over every now and then.

Ultravox have indeed reformed, like you say, so many are doing it these days. Guess Credit Crunch is hitting some muscicians lifestyles too Pleanty of room though, nobody seems to be really creative these day's what with covers and all.

Well done on the CV stuff sounds very impressive. What weight are you down to now?
You should only need a bit of toning by the sound of it

Sorrento, oh yes that brings back happy memories, a wonderful place
Look out for the foreigners club (I think it was called the club de forresteria).
Cats are unpredictable, some are more noise than action. Avoidance is preferable to fighting but they usually sort out a pecking order given time. Unfortunately if your visitor is short term you can only do your best to keep them from escalating that terratorial instinct.

Oh, the joys of having pets. I had to take our Alfie back to vet Saturday morning. He was neutered two weeks ago and they did not use stitches. His balls returned to normal size in a couple of days but there appeared to be some crusting around the incision site and he was not too keen on letting anyone have a look.
He hid his head under the blanket all the way there, but blow me down he let the vet pick the crusts off, as good as gold, little sod. No infection or anything to worry about.
Boy did I feel stupid for having bothered the vet. Fortunately there was no charge and I am sure the vet was slightly amused at our 'much ado about nothing.I though Cats were supposed to relieve stress but it had us worried for a bit

Catch you soon
R4

Hey Orcus,

Hope your well and in good form.
Time seems to have a way of scuppering my plans for the Gym recently but my mental attitude has improved insofar as not being as intense about routine.

Still managed to Deadlift 100k using a platform for added intensity last Wednesday and had a good squat session on Saturday. Spent most of Sunday digging the garden too
For the first time in years do not seem to be suffering as a consequence of the digging. Either my technique has improved or my core strength/ legs have improved A mix of both suspect, can feel the leg muscles much improved anyway.
On the Aerobics front the Concept II has me hooked now, though I doubt I would be good at the 'real thing' Bound to loose a few teeth or take a dunking

Just read your post about the curry and pint, arguably Bank Holidays are either Mondays or Fridays, bit naughty though

We were in Dublin for Bank Holiday, rather expensive but such a good time that were going back in July. Had not realised that it was Heineken Semi Final between Leinster and Munster, it was buzzing with atmosphere of 85,000 fans and tourists alike.
A few pints of the black stuff sank down rather nicely in the Temple bar with 'live music'

We have no main holiday planned so we are also planning a few short breaks. One is to go to the 'Eden Project' in June. I tend to associate it with buss loads of pensioners but reports are its well worth the journey.
Hotel with Gym/Pool has been booked to break up the journey anyway .

How's your targets progressing? I am failing mine, insofar as avoiding the drink, quaffing a couple of glasses of wine most nights. Then to quote Oscar Wilde 'I can resist everything except temptation'.
Keeping up the Gym is my attempt to redress the balance, that and the feeling I get of being in better shape than most men of my age. Though have to say that my stomach could do with being a little flatter, any loss is going to be a difficult during 'Barbacue' season. Even the smell of the coals heating up makes me hungry


Hopefully catch you soon
R4