Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Biking withdrawal, health, and music
I can't even bring my bike inside and put it on the trainer because our basement is a disaster, packed with boxes, while we await the foundation repair guys to fix the leak in our basement.
My "good" shoulder is doing bad. I'm still convinced it's bursitis, but haven't had it checked by my doctor yet. Changing my pillow and doing some of the physio exercises that I used to do for my injured shoulder seems to help a little. I guess if there's a good time for it to be bad, now is the time and I can hope that it improves before next spring.
About two years ago, I got Rocksmith to try and help me learn to play guitar. While it was fun, the cumbersome game interface became too much of a hassle to keep it fun. I played it on and off since, but probably didn't touch it in the last year.
Recently, Rocksmith 2014 was released. I picked it up and have been playing it pretty much on a daily basis since. The interface and usability has greatly improved.
Ubisoft has something they call a 60-day challenge. Play the game 1 hour per day for 60 days. In typical Ubisoft fashion, their tracking web site still isn't ready to actually track your progress properly. It's "coming soon".
We'll see how long I stick with this one. :)
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Conjunctivitis hell
Day after starting antibiotics |
Ball & Chain |
Day 3 |
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
90km goal achieved
- at least 2000kms for the summer
- 90kms in one day
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Oops...
It looks like I screwed up over the last year and my cholesterol is a little higher than it should be.
Apparently the LDL is supposed to be 2.0 or less. Mine was 2.09.
I've been given a few months to get it back down through exercise and diet changes before my doctor is ready to up my med dosage.
I've already got the exercise covered, but I've put on about 10-15lbs since last year, and I haven't been too careful about what I eat. So I'm going back to calorie counting.
I'm pretty confident I can get it back under control before November when I got back for more blood work. This little wake-up is the incentive kick I needed. :)
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
June update
The good: My "bad" (left) shoulder is doing fantastic. Much better than I expected. Weather permitting, I bike to work on a regular basis. Unfortunately, due to the weather, that hasn't been as often as I would like. I have a goal of riding 90kms in one outing before the end of the summer. I managed to do 68.8kms once without even trying so I think I should be fine. I've already reached 40% of my 2000km overall summer goal.
The bad: My good (right) shoulder is bothering me. I think I have a pinched nerve in there somewhere. I didn't do anything to injure it, as I did with my left shoulder, but it really hurts if I move it in certain ways. Thankfully, cycling isn't affecting it. Sleeping on it seems to have the most adverse affect on it. It's been like this for a couple of months, but I've decided to give it more time before becoming too concerned with it. Besides, I'm almost due for my annual physical so I'll bring it up then, but I suspect my doctor won't be too concerned about it and may just refer me to physio or something.
The weather for the rest of the summer is supposed to be much better than it has been for June, so I'm hoping to get in a lot more cycling. Despite my goal for 2000kms, I think I might push for 3000kms. :)
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
An so it begins...
My shoulder and neck feel pretty good (knock on wood). There have been a few times that I felt my bicep tingle, as a result of my neck, but pulling my shoulders back seems to alleviate that.
The morning rides to work are still a little on the chilly side at 10c.
I'm finding it a little difficult to motivate myself to ride. In past years, I wouldn't hesitate to go, but now I have to guilt myself into doing it. :) I haven't done any Nike+ workouts in weeks, so this is my one and only major physical activity.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Almost time
There's still a little bit of snow on the ground due to a surprise snow storm over the last two days, but I think next weekend will be the first time out for this year. I hope so anyway.
My shoulder has been feeling pretty good, overall. I've had a few days where it didn't feel quite right, but I can associate those days with not doing any workouts in the days prior.
Whenever I go for a couple of days without any workouts, I can feel my arm and my shoulder begin to stiffen up, and then I also feel it in my neck.
Ever since I pull my calf muscle, my workouts have been very sporadic. I'm sure there's some laziness thrown in there, but mostly it's because of a fear that it's going to happen again. A few times last week, I felt the calf muscle tighten up just from walking up stairs. It's been ok for the last week though.
I have to make more of an effort to do something. Anything, to keep them loosened up, or I'm going to be in the same situation as last year.
For such a lazy bastard that I can be, I sure love cycling. Without it... I don't know what I'd do. I don't think of it as exercise as some people might. A motorcyclist could probably relate to the same feeling that it gives me. Except this is under my own power.
A 360 degree sight and sound freedom experience.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Calf Update
Anyway, my left calf seems to be healing well. I still don't know exactly what was wrong with it, but I'm limping less and the discomfort isn't happening as often.
At one point last night, while I was walking up to my front door, I realized that I wasn't limping at all and there was absolutely no tightness for about 10 steps. That's promising.
I'm anxious to resume my workouts, but I think when I do I'll be skipping anything that involves jumping or hopping or jogging for a while. Doing half the routines will be better than none at all.
I had a dream last night that I was cycling. I'm hoping that's a good omen of what's to come this spring. :)
Monday, March 11, 2013
Pop
I think it was like a pop.
Whatever it was or whatever it felt like, it put a quick end to the evaluation/workout. Worst feeling ever.
The best way I can describe it was like it was a really bad muscle cramp. I tried to massage it out and it seemed ok until I stood up, leg straight, and tried to put weight on the ball of my left foot.
Not gonna happen. Instant cramp-like feeling.
The rest of the day was spent on my ass, leg up, alternating hot and cold compresses.
My left calf doesn't look any different. Pretty much the same as my right. No obvious swelling. No bruising. I can move my foot in all directions without any difficulty. I can stand, knees slightly bent and squat without discomfort. No pain or discomfort while resting. No burning sensation. So I don't think it's torn or anything like that.
It's only when I try to walk and put weight on the ball of my foot that I get that tight cramping sensation in my calf.
I guess I'm now out of commission for a while.
Fuck.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Beer fueled ramblings
WinterBrewed
My wife and I (and daughter and niece) took a trip down to WinterBrewed last Saturday to sample some fine craft brews. Just to clarify, my our daughter and niece didn't do any sampling, they were there for the food. :) Our timing must have been good because we didn't have to wait long for anything, unlike those who arrived later in the afternoon and had to endure 30 minute lineups just to purchase tokens to sample the brews. This was the first time they held one in the winter, and the first time on Sparks Street. Hopefully they work out the glitches for next year.
Since my wife was DD, I did most of the sampling. :) My favourite was the St. Ambroise maple. I would have liked to sample more, but we ran out of tokens and it was rather chilly. I'm sure the next National Capital Craft Brew week this spring will be much more comfortable.
Shoulder, fitness, etc.
My shoulder felt pretty damn good since the last physio appointment. I had another appointment this past Friday as well. I mentioned to my physiotherapist that I had been doing a lot of workouts, focusing more on upper body. She said the increased blood flow to my shoulder is likely why it's been feeling good. I'm really looking forward to spring when I can try cycling again.
My weight loss isn't going so well, but at the same time it's not bad either. Although I really haven't lost much, I haven't gained either. (I blame the beer and weekly pizza, but I'm not about to give up either) When I can, on the weekends, I've increased my workouts. I've combined the Nike+ workouts with the 'ol Your Shape Fitness Evolved workouts, and a little Kinect Sports Season 2 thrown in at the end for fun. That ended up being 2 hours worth of exercise today. :)
Music
My wife and I went to the Bon Jovi concert this past Wednesday. We sat in the 300 level, and they only cost me about $40 per ticket (after surcharges and tax) I have to say that they were the best cheap seats I've ever had for a concert.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Health, weight, shoulder, etc
I know why.
I like beer.
My beer sampling weekends are definitely not helping me reach my goal. I don't think I want to stop beer sampling, so the only other options are to either stop eating altogether, or ramp up the work outs.
I think the answer is obvious.
I increased my Nike workouts to 4 times per week this week, and will continue with that plan. After I completed my work out today I felt pretty good so I threw in the old Your Shape Fitness Evolved disc and went through a couple of rounds of cardio boxing, that I used to do with this game.
I really enjoyed it. It's not super heavy on the full body cardio, which makes it fairly easy to keep up with. I decided that I'm going to continue to do it on the days that I'm not doing the Nike workout.
So my schedule is now as follows:
- Sun - Nike Kinect
- Mon - YSFE Cardio Boxing
- Tue - Nike Kinect
- Wed - YSFE Cardio Boxing
- Thu - Nike Kinect
- Fri - YSFE Cardio Boxing
- Sat - Nike Kinect & optional YSFE Cardio Boxing
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Shoulder issues continue
I may have over-worked my left shoulder on Sunday. I think it was due to a combination of an unscheduled workout that I decided to do, and then installing shelves on our living room wall.
The burning sensation in my shoulder and bicep drove me crazy while I tried to sleep Sunday night, and most of the day on Monday. Monday was also my scheduled workout day. I was hesitant to do it, figuring I'd give my arm a rest, but in the end decided to go ahead and skip anything that seemed like it might be rough on my arm. Luckily for me that only meant skipping one set of knee push-ups. The rest of the workout went fairly well.
I slept a little better last night, but still not as good as I would have liked. I was sure that today I'd have a better day, but I think it was worse. On a few occasions today I had to get up and walk around. Sitting just seemed to make my arm worse. Strangely enough, this evening as I type this it's not too bad at all.
I may have figured out part of the cause at work. Although my chair is one of those ergonomic styles, I think the arm rests were a little too low, so my arm was doing more hanging than resting. The big test will be tomorrow. I can't put up with more discomfort.
On the plus side, it looks like the Nike Kinect Training game is syncing better with the Nike web site. My score is still a little off, but it's not giving a disconnect error anymore. Xbox support had also posted a msg in their forum that they were aware of issues and they took it down temporarily to fix it. That was before I tried it, so hopefully there's still some fixing to do so my scores are in sync properly.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
One week done
But, it is getting easier the more I do so I have to keep at it.
My shoulder is really bothering me more often than I thought it would. There are some floor routines, like Burpees, Mountain Climbers and The Plank or Plank to Push-up (or whatever the hell they're called) that are killers. I hope they get easier and aren't making my shoulder worse.
Today I decided to squeeze in an extra workout and discovered how to skip a set. It was plank to push-up and my left arm could not go beyond 8 reps to the required 10. I've always been weak with my left arm and push-ups, so having a weakened shoulder definitely didn't help the situation. Hopefully it improves over time.
The biggest difference I've found with the Nike game compared to YSFE is the affect on my abs. I never felt it this much in my abs before. They hurt, but it's a good hurt. No doubt the floor exercises play a big part in that.
So far there hasn't been any real weight loss difference. It fluctuates 5lbs both ways all the time, and that's all I'm seeing right now. Once it goes down more often than it goes up, I'll know it's making a difference. At least I feel good that I'm doing something. I hate how being inactive makes me feel like shit.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
I hurt
While it is broken out into many smaller routines in a workout, I have to say that I think I ache more after than I recall with YSFE (Your Shape Fitness Evolved).
One thing that I really like is that it gives you a break between some routines. It may only be 30 seconds or so, but it is much needed. :) YSFE didn't do that. You had maybe 5-10 seconds max during the intro for the next routine.
One thing I don't like is that you can't quit. Maybe that's a good thing? I've always sucked at doing push-ups my entire life. Now with my bad shoulder, I suck even more. My "trainer" had me do 15 knee push-ups. They're obviously easier than standard pushups, but I stopped at 10 and she wouldn't give up. I thought the game might recognize that I was laying flat on the floor after 10 seconds or so and move on but nooooo. So I had to do half-assed, pathetic pushups to get it to at least count them up to 15 so we could continue. O_o
This was my Fuel Print from after the fitness evaluation that I completed on Friday. I have some work to do.
One last thing... there seems to be a problem with connecting to the Nike servers from within the game. I checked the Xbox forums and everyone seems to be having this problem. The result is that the in-game stats are not syncing with those on their web site, or within the mobile app. Someone posted a tweet that Nike is aware of it and working on it. I hope that's true and is resolved soon. I don't want to see a repeat of the YSFE sync issue.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Slackin' and updatin'
Yup, it's been a while. Way too long. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and all that crap. :)
So, to update... my iPhone was replaced and is fully functional. (knock on wood that it stays that way) Restoring the data from the backup was relatively painless, although I have to admit that I held my breath a few times as the phone updated.
Once I was back online, I got some strange error that seemed to be related to the Telus network, for which nobody had a solution for. It cleared itself up after a couple of days. I suspect it had to do with transferring the SIM card and auto-registering the replacement phone with Telus. I have no clue, but since it doesn't happen anymore I don't really care.
My shoulder and neck issues still exist. Some days are good, some not so good. I've been to physio twice since the last update. I always feels great when leaving there. I really have to get an appointment with my family doctor so he can give me a referral for massage therapy, which my physiotherapist recommended for my shoulder.
Again on the health front, I think I have Olecranon bursitis (aka water on the elbow) My elbow doesn't look different, but man does it hurt when I lean on it a certain way. It started off as a small area of pain that was difficult to find and increased to a larger area capable of causing a nasty burning pain when leaned on. And there's really nothing I can do for it, other than try to avoid leaning on it.
In other news, I have decided to get off my ass again and resume workouts. My weight hasn't been very stable lately as a result of too much holiday indulgances and my recent hobby of trying new beers. In fact, it's on the increase and since I don't want to stop enjoying my new hobby, I have to start paying the "beer tax".
I first went back to the Your Shape Fitness Evolved game. While it worked for me the last time, it's now way out of date. I considered getting their 2012 version but the bugginess and lack of support from Ubisoft for well-known issues left a bad taste in my mouth. After reading their forums, it would appear that some of those issues still exist with the new version. I also found out that they're not making a 2013 version for the Xbox, only for the Wii U.
So, I decided to give the Nike+ Kinect Training game a go. I've only completed the fitness evaluation and one workout session so far, but it's pretty intense and I'm still aching after yesterday. My workout days (for now) are Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
On a different note, I'm thinking about maybe ditching the blog on Posterous and only having it on Blogger.com. I currently write it out and publish it on Posterous, and then autopost it to Blogger, but I think most of the traffic is heading to the Blogger location. In fact, it's rare that I get any comments here, but I get them on Blogger. If I can figure out how to get the domain to redirect, any changes should be transparent to anyone who happens to read this.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
MRI results - the good, the bad, but no ugly
The good is that the muscle is not a complete tear. That actually surprised me. I fully expected the doctor to say it had completely torn, as he suspected. In some strange way, I'm a little disappointed. That sounds odd, I know, but at least it would fully explain why it felt like it had completely separated.
So what exactly is wrong with my shoulder? The summary paragraph says:
"Longitudinal delamination/tears of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus tendons are likely to be concealed at arthroscopy although is not possible to exclude pinpoint communication of the supraspinatus tear to the bursal surface."The doctor explained that this means the muscle and/or previous tear is rubbing and causing small wear tears on that muscle. It's being compressed in the joint.
The solution? There really is none, other than to continue physio to improve the strength. If there's no improvement, surgery could be an option but it's unlikely.
I made an appointment with my physiotherapist to show her the results so we could plan our next course of action. She said that this condition usually occurs with males 45 yrs and older. In my case, the original injury is just adding to it, along with my poor posture.
The course of action? Keep doing what I'm doing with regards to the exercises and focus more on better posture (says me, as I slouch in my chair typing this...) She also suggested that I may want to consider massage therapy for my neck, but I'll need to get a referral from my doctor for that if I want it to be covered by my health insurance.
The bad is that my cycling will likely aggravate it. :( The only thing I can do to minimize the discomfort is to adjust my seat and/or handlebars so that I'm not bent over the handlebars as much, and perhaps take more frequent breaks while I'm out cycling.
I'm not happy about it. A few people have suggested a recumbent bicycle. While it would help with my shoulder and pinched neck nerve issues, I'm not to keen on the thought. I ride in a lot of places where a recumbent bike would simply not work. I read a little about them and if I were to consider one, it would definitely be the tricycle style.
I have the winter to work on improving my shoulder and neck and I guess I'll see what happens in the spring when I resume cycling.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
MRI results are in... soon
I got a call this afternoon from the Carleton University Sports Medicine Clinic, to book an appointment to discuss the results of my MRI. The date is next Tuesday at 9:30am.
I'm really glad that I don't have to wait a long time. I knew they'd get the results in 7-10 days, but based on how long I had to wait to see them in the first place, I expected to wait about a month to find out what the scoop is.
The waiting is almost over.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Waiting... again
I can't recall where I went for my last MRI 4 years ago, but at CHEO they let me choose between listening to my choice of radio stations, or watching a movie with headphones and goggles while in the MRI machine. Seeing as how it was only going to last 20 minutes, I chose to listen to the radio. Unfortunately, many of the sounds the machine makes were still quite audible in the headphones.
I was much more comfortable this time than I was the last. My shoulder didn't ache at all, despite being squished into a shoulder cup and the machine itself.
After it was done they said that they got some excellent images of my shoulder since I was able to remain perfectly still.
Now I have to wait a week for the results to be sent to the doctor and then for an appointment to get the results from him.
My physiotherapy sessions are also on hold until the results are available. My last appointment was last Wednesday. Once I get a copy of the results I can book another appointment so my physiotherapist can determine what, if any, other exercises she can have me do. I can still do all of the home exercises, although I'm getting really bad for not doing them.
My neck (pinched nerve) issues are still present, but not as bad as they were when this all started. I still get some tingling in my arm, usually when I forget to keep good posture, which occurs more than I'd like to admit.
As much as I hate to say it, I think cycling is over for this year. I have to bring my bike inside soon so it's available for mounting onto the trainer, should I decide to try that again.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
I'm baaaaack... back in the saddle agaaaain...
Today I went cycling for the first time in 67 days. I was a little unsure about it, but overall it went much better than I expected it would. I rode for about 45 mins in total, travelling a distance of around 16kms.
I did have a little tingling in my arm and hand occasioanally, but it wasn't continuous nor was it unbearable.
It felt awesome. Man, did I ever miss it. I will no doubt go back out again sometime soon. I'm not sure if I'm ready to resume riding to work or not.
Physio is still going well, but I'm now on a 2-week schedule. My next appointment is on Wednesday. My phsyiotherapist is awesome and I can't wait to go back.
I finally got a call on Friday to book my MRI appointment. I'll be having it done at CHEO (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario), of all places, on October 21st at 2:30pm. Seems kinda weird having it done at children's hospital, but if that's the only MRI machine available that's where it gets done. Of course, it could still be cancelled if someone needs it more urgently. I'm anxious to find out what's going on in my shoulder.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Physio — Part IV
Had a really good physiotherapy session yesterday morning, and a pretty good day over all; a big difference in comparison to the day before.
I've got a couple of stretching routines added to my exercises. Maybe they helped? Or maybe I'm just being more aware of my posture sitting at my desk. Regardless, I felt pretty good and I had a good sleep last night, without waking up every hour or two. It'll be a week until my next appointment, so it'll be interesting to see how just doing my exercises will work out.
I'm still fighting the urge to try cycling.