It Was the Machine
2006-02-07, 4:50 p.m.

Day 534 It was the Machine

Elliptical #10 was occupied this morning when I made it upstairs. Had to settle for machine #13 � normally a decent performer. At least I used to think so. Ended up I had to bump my desired heart rate way up (from 142 to 148) before ol� #13 started to increase the resistance. Finally, about 10 minutes in I started to work up a good sweat and feel like I�m actually having to exert myself a bit.

Bottom line � had to cheat the heart rate monitor to get any decent resistance out of the machine, then the amount of calories burned still wasn�t up to the burn rate on #10 (499 to 530 in 30 minutes)

In the future, I think I�ll hit the weights if #10 isn�t open and just keep my eye on it. Lately, when I�ve been getting in the first wave is just starting to finish up, so the wait on the weight machines shouldn�t be too long. Plus, #10 is linked into the gym�s monitoring system, so as long as I log in before I start, I can have the gyms system monitor the machine and automatically record my results. Maybe it�ll work for set ups too. Have to find out.

New person behind the upstairs desk this morning too. I think she doesn�t now how to really run the sound system. I never noticed until I got to the weight machines, but there was NO MUSIC playing upstairs. On the cardio machines you can plug into the gyms sound system and select from 6 or 8 different music channels to play on your own head set. In the weight machine area, if you don�t have an iPod or some other sort of mp3 player, you have to suffer through what ever the desk jockey has selected to pipe through the pa system. Except for this morning. No music through the pa system at all. Kinda weird. At least we didn�t have to suffer through the 1950�s golden oldie crap the new desk jockey seems to like. She�s been there like 2 weeks now. Figure she�d have at least a passing knowledge of how to select a channel to play on the pa. Must be someone else has been doing it for her.

Ooohh � found a nasty little bug hiding in my code. Glad to have simulations available. Thought things were going to shut down all politely, but the simulations show otherwise. Got to go find a way to get the components to settle down in an orderly fashion.

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Ok � found it � I think. Can compile this afternoon, and start a simulation run, but they�re taking up to an hour on this batch of code. May start the sim then head home and see what kind of trouble I can get into. Only have a couple of hours to kill till step aerobics tonight. Dying to see if Lisa is back teaching tonight. Looking forward to a better workout. Wonder how plastered Cindy will be when I get home from work? REALLY wonder how she�ll be when I get home from aerobics??

Oh � holy shit!! Almost forgot. WE GOT SNOW!!! Maybe even enough to crank up the snow blower. Like 4 � 6 inches even. All at once!! Normally we get 100+ inches of snow every winter. Quite often by February the piles along the driveway are approaching 3 feet high. That�s with a snow blower. If one is stuck shoveling, the piles can reach 5 � even 6 feet sometimes. But this winter has been a real freak for weather. Most of our precipitation has been in the form of rain. It�s rarely been cold enough to snow even. We are easily 9 weeks into when we can expect snow on a daily basis and we have piled up only 40 or so inches so far. Realistically, there�s only 5 - 6 weeks or so left where we might really anticipate getting buried. The further into February we get, the lower the odds are of us really getting pounded. Although I do remember one March where we got 24 inches of snow on a Thursday, nothing on Friday (we were all digging out), then getting another 28 inches on Saturday. Got stuck digging again. Didn�t have a snow blower then, only two very tired young boys.

Another shit! Just read an email that Cindy sent this morning. She�s headed for the gym after work and she thinks I�m cooking dinner. I got to go find something quick to cook, considering it�s now 4:50pm.

See ya later.

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight 202.75 on 2/4/06 (Told you it was going to be a good one)
Target: 180 by 7/1/06
Next weigh in: 2/11/06

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 2/3/06: 102.49
Miles with cooldown: 112.95
Target for 2006: 1000 miles

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