So in preparation for whenever the hell I get a new job, I dropped by a running store today to get an idea of pricing on running shoes should I ever get around to talking to a National Guard recruiter and making a decision on the military or going for a job with a police precinct again. And in general I should start running a pretty regularly as my cardio is not very good and my size is ever increasing.
Fishers has a store called Blue Mile and they check out how you run on a treadmill and find the best shoes for you. So I took my shoes off, rolled up my pants, and hopped on the treadmill for a short recording. They played back the video of my run and it turns out that I am a forefoot striker and they say I have a very efficient run. To me an efficient run just means I wear myself out faster, amirite?
They pull out some shoes for me to try out that are more tailored for forefoot strikers. I tried them all on and could not get over the fact that the are all so bouncy, and garish (for lack of a better word) colored. I asked for more subdued colors, because as you know, for me it's all black or nothing. Turns out they did not have anything that wasn't quite so bright and with my size shoe I feel like I'm wearing clown shoes.
So I passed on it for now. I will get back to it whenever the hell I get a new job and hopefully I can find something a little less bright. Something tells me that just isn't going to happen.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Old soldier
So apparently that short blurb about me breaking a toilet seat again is the most popular post on this blog. Either that speaks to my writing ability or the quality of this blog. With that in mind, who would like to see a little more of a continuation of the old blog, i.e. a little more bitching about movies, the media and such?
Adventureland
A big thing I enjoyed about skateboarding was the adventure. To me it was to actually see and experience my surroundings in a much more complete way than it was to just sit in the car and drive around town. I have been on every single street in Vincennes, Greenwood, Winamac, Bloomington, and Monticello on my skate and I have rolled around on much of Evansville, Terre Haute, Castleton, Fishers, Huntingburg, and the south side of Indianapolis. I remember every single road I have touched with those four wheels. Days off from school meant I would throw my board in my car and go somewhere and just ride around all day long. My legs would completely give out on me after about eight hours and I would very slowly walk back to the car. There was always something so liberating about being alone with my four wheeled friend, something that gave me time to think, something that truly made me believe I would be able to find myself and this alien thing called happiness. There was nothing more exciting than coming over the hill in Evansville at night as downtown opened up in front of me. Downtown used to only be open to walking traffic so that was even better. And the street that ran along the river was really a sight. Today as I think back it was my favorite place because it was just so different from home and Vincennes, but tomorrow I may think I liked somewhere else more.
I always loved going for a ride at night. The air felt cleaner. With fewer people on the road I feel more free to move around. The city felt like it was mine, and had nothing but hidden spots and new places to see every time.
Down by the river in Vincennes I learned to ollie. It was also in that park where I really ate shit for the first time.
I guess I really do miss those experiences sometimes.
I always loved going for a ride at night. The air felt cleaner. With fewer people on the road I feel more free to move around. The city felt like it was mine, and had nothing but hidden spots and new places to see every time.
Down by the river in Vincennes I learned to ollie. It was also in that park where I really ate shit for the first time.
I guess I really do miss those experiences sometimes.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Literary joke of the day
Does anyone want to pull my John Galt?
Only if I don't get sprayed by your little fountainhead.
Only if I don't get sprayed by your little fountainhead.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Food
A couple years ago when I went to my family reunion down in Kentucky, my mom's cousin was just blown away with how much I have physically changed since the last time he saw me. I became a man, and in his mind, a bodybuilder. He always went back to how much he's astounded with how much I have changed. The morning Mom, Grandma and I left, we had breakfast with a good portion of the family. Her cousin was there telling me about his bodybuilder friend. After I ate everything on my plate, he heaped more on there telling me I need to get bigger. Not being one to argue about that, I ate everything he put on my plate too.
Today, I worked on a computer for a guy from the gym and he cooked himself, his wife, and I burgers for dinner. He and his wife had a burger and a half ear of corn each, and he put two burger and two ear of corn on my plate. Now I don't eat like that on a normal day so I was a little surprised by my portion size. I ate everything regardless. But that just leaves me wondering how much they think I must need to take in and how big they think I should be.
Today, I worked on a computer for a guy from the gym and he cooked himself, his wife, and I burgers for dinner. He and his wife had a burger and a half ear of corn each, and he put two burger and two ear of corn on my plate. Now I don't eat like that on a normal day so I was a little surprised by my portion size. I ate everything regardless. But that just leaves me wondering how much they think I must need to take in and how big they think I should be.
Result
As for the result of the PT test - I failed the mile and a half run, but only by thirty seconds. As it went, I was seeing stars and my vision was starting to white out entirely so there was no way I could push myself harder without doing damage. Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I going to be depressed out it? No.
Some background information - I have never been a very good runner. We would have to do the mile in elementary school and up and I would always come in dead last. At Vincennes University, I took a running class because a friend wanted us to be in a class together and I would pull my right knee out something terrible every single time we would have to do a long run. The pain was horrible and I would limp the rest of the way, and I would have a bad limp for a few days after, which was usually time for another long run. I bought a soft knee brace but that only helped to a degree and my legs are so large now I would have no hope of wearing it again. I learned that my knees were fine skateboarding, and skateboarding was so much more fun anyway, that I would just do that instead. Every waking minute of the day.
So once I got the details of the test, I pretty much panicked. I'm nearly 75 pounds heavier now than I was then, and granted it's all muscle, but would being larger and older mean I would pull out my knee again? To me it almost seemed certain. I ran three days a week, as blogged about, and then did the rest of my exercises. The running usually went alright, also as blogged about. But I just had this feeling I would not be able to do it. I kept chugging away. Surprisingly I never once pulled my knee out.
The big day came along with excitement, adrenaline, and of course very little sleep. How would this thing play out? I've never done something like this before. It's certainly not the time to strut around in a cut-off baring the guns, shoulders, and some chest. I got some coffee and carb loaded beforehand. The other tests were very easy, but the sprint portion came and I pretty much started to doubt myself. I passed it and then the mile and a half came and I knew it was over. I pushed myself just short of bringing myself harm and failed.
On the way back in, two cops pep talked me, told me I have a great build and are clearly fit but need to run while I was snorting back snot, sucking air, covered in sweat, and seeing stars. They were very nice and told me to try again next time around and with just a little training I should vastly improve. I thanked them and limped to the car ahead of the rest of the crew.
I drove down to the nearest McDonald's for breakfast. After getting food, the adrenaline hit my like a bat to the back of the head. It hit so hard I was not sure if I would puke or pass out if I ate anything so I made a bunch of phone calls and stared at the food until the adrenaline surge passed.
After it passed, I felt as though someone else piloted my body through that test. It was such a strange disconnection from what I had experienced so early that morning. Yes I was sore but those memories do not feel as though they are entirely mine.
In the end, I am glad to know I can run without pulling my knee out. To me, 30 seconds off feels as though I cleared it and then said no to moving on. I can have some degree of running ability despite my age and size. And for the first time at a police department function, I feel as though I did pretty damn good.
Will I try it again? Possibly, but I need a new full time job first.
Some background information - I have never been a very good runner. We would have to do the mile in elementary school and up and I would always come in dead last. At Vincennes University, I took a running class because a friend wanted us to be in a class together and I would pull my right knee out something terrible every single time we would have to do a long run. The pain was horrible and I would limp the rest of the way, and I would have a bad limp for a few days after, which was usually time for another long run. I bought a soft knee brace but that only helped to a degree and my legs are so large now I would have no hope of wearing it again. I learned that my knees were fine skateboarding, and skateboarding was so much more fun anyway, that I would just do that instead. Every waking minute of the day.
So once I got the details of the test, I pretty much panicked. I'm nearly 75 pounds heavier now than I was then, and granted it's all muscle, but would being larger and older mean I would pull out my knee again? To me it almost seemed certain. I ran three days a week, as blogged about, and then did the rest of my exercises. The running usually went alright, also as blogged about. But I just had this feeling I would not be able to do it. I kept chugging away. Surprisingly I never once pulled my knee out.
The big day came along with excitement, adrenaline, and of course very little sleep. How would this thing play out? I've never done something like this before. It's certainly not the time to strut around in a cut-off baring the guns, shoulders, and some chest. I got some coffee and carb loaded beforehand. The other tests were very easy, but the sprint portion came and I pretty much started to doubt myself. I passed it and then the mile and a half came and I knew it was over. I pushed myself just short of bringing myself harm and failed.
On the way back in, two cops pep talked me, told me I have a great build and are clearly fit but need to run while I was snorting back snot, sucking air, covered in sweat, and seeing stars. They were very nice and told me to try again next time around and with just a little training I should vastly improve. I thanked them and limped to the car ahead of the rest of the crew.
I drove down to the nearest McDonald's for breakfast. After getting food, the adrenaline hit my like a bat to the back of the head. It hit so hard I was not sure if I would puke or pass out if I ate anything so I made a bunch of phone calls and stared at the food until the adrenaline surge passed.
After it passed, I felt as though someone else piloted my body through that test. It was such a strange disconnection from what I had experienced so early that morning. Yes I was sore but those memories do not feel as though they are entirely mine.
In the end, I am glad to know I can run without pulling my knee out. To me, 30 seconds off feels as though I cleared it and then said no to moving on. I can have some degree of running ability despite my age and size. And for the first time at a police department function, I feel as though I did pretty damn good.
Will I try it again? Possibly, but I need a new full time job first.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Not all that different
Through each phase of your life, you retain parts of it that ultimately make you unique. I, for one, have many a mental/emotional/physical scar, buzzed hair, stretched earlobes, and tattoos. Today, I will talk about smaller things that tie together.
Since I have been training for the police department tests, I attempted to buy a pair of shoes that are supposed to be more suited for running. In short they did not work for me. Why is that? I have never before wore a pair of shoes to do a specific thing. Since my skateboarding days I have worn Vans or something very similar to Vans, you know, something with very little padding and what I feel to be a great tread. Every pair is designed to be eaten by my skateboard so it does not matter how they look or how much mud and crap I step through. These are dude shoes. In the end, I went back to my regular shoes for running as they just do not do it for me. My regular shoes just feel natural. Is it bad? No, it is what I know.
Which brings me to another topic that may sound dumb. How have I found my talent in weightlifting? My skateboard. I have never been a great skater, but I have been a functional skater. If it helped me loco-mote I learned it. With that in mind, after studying pictures of other skaters pulling tricks and watching videos of pros pulling tricks, I obviously learned what these tricks are. Now as you think about it, these tricks tend to work your muscles at different angles in different ways. I eventually started to see these as different exercises. An ollie works you differently than just rolling off a curb. If I just ride around for hours on end, that is less exercise than adding in Porn Stars, End-Overs, Monster Walks, Ollies, along with attempts at Hospital Flips, Kickflips, Dropping in, and so forth. As skateboarding phased out and weightlifting phased in I slowly started to kind of apply the principal in the same way. My body is now the board and each exercise is a trick I can do. Like this week with only doing bodyweight stuff, I go from neutral grip pull-ups to chinups to attempts at burpees and then on to dips and a good ton of pushups. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone but myself but here's why I have gotten so good at putting on size.
And today I was doing pushups on the Smith Machine going up a notch until about level with my chest and back down and I really went slow and took notice of my muscles in action. It was very cool.
It really is still so hard to imagine this hard edged straight edger has become such a man of size and reason. Maybe one day I will have all the pieces of myself stitched together right.
Since I have been training for the police department tests, I attempted to buy a pair of shoes that are supposed to be more suited for running. In short they did not work for me. Why is that? I have never before wore a pair of shoes to do a specific thing. Since my skateboarding days I have worn Vans or something very similar to Vans, you know, something with very little padding and what I feel to be a great tread. Every pair is designed to be eaten by my skateboard so it does not matter how they look or how much mud and crap I step through. These are dude shoes. In the end, I went back to my regular shoes for running as they just do not do it for me. My regular shoes just feel natural. Is it bad? No, it is what I know.
Which brings me to another topic that may sound dumb. How have I found my talent in weightlifting? My skateboard. I have never been a great skater, but I have been a functional skater. If it helped me loco-mote I learned it. With that in mind, after studying pictures of other skaters pulling tricks and watching videos of pros pulling tricks, I obviously learned what these tricks are. Now as you think about it, these tricks tend to work your muscles at different angles in different ways. I eventually started to see these as different exercises. An ollie works you differently than just rolling off a curb. If I just ride around for hours on end, that is less exercise than adding in Porn Stars, End-Overs, Monster Walks, Ollies, along with attempts at Hospital Flips, Kickflips, Dropping in, and so forth. As skateboarding phased out and weightlifting phased in I slowly started to kind of apply the principal in the same way. My body is now the board and each exercise is a trick I can do. Like this week with only doing bodyweight stuff, I go from neutral grip pull-ups to chinups to attempts at burpees and then on to dips and a good ton of pushups. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone but myself but here's why I have gotten so good at putting on size.
And today I was doing pushups on the Smith Machine going up a notch until about level with my chest and back down and I really went slow and took notice of my muscles in action. It was very cool.
It really is still so hard to imagine this hard edged straight edger has become such a man of size and reason. Maybe one day I will have all the pieces of myself stitched together right.
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