Your Backup Hobby

www.hokaoneone.com/mens-trail/challenger-atr-6/1106510.html

Got these first. Fit true to size.

www.hokaoneone.com/mens-trail/speedgoat-...r_1106525_color=FPBL

Got these second. Little beefier midsole, few ounces heavier. Run a 1/2 size smaller IMO as far as volume in the arch/mid foot. I think it’s the 3D side support.

Hokas are kind of ridiculously overcushioned. It’s their brand. I suspect that they’re a reaction against people running in Vibram FiveFingers.

My preferred running/walking/hiking shoe is Altras. They are actually shaped like human feet and have a zero drop from heel to toe. The one marathon I ran, I ran in Altras. Marathons suck, but I finished. They have trail runners and a whole slew of other form factors. I recommend them and buy them for my everyday sneaker.

For lifting, I wear low top Chuck Taylors, because I am an old man.

I have some cheap minimalist shoes that don't cause lower back stiffness like running shoes, but have been experiencing the slight onset of what might be plantar fasciitis, some heel pain that calms down when I stretch and use the theracane. I went to the local running store and tried on some Altras and bought them immediately for $150. I think they are Timp 3 trail runners. On the three mile walk to work my knee, foot and back pains and aches went away. I'm turning 55 this summer and literally all I think about is comfortable shoes and bowel movements. I did try on some Hokas but prefer the open toe box of the Altras. The Hokas looked cooler. I am not sure why I even care at this point.

I'm lucky to be a pretty neutral runner with a bit of heel strike. I can comfortable run in Nike Pegasus or Quest. I am focusing more on mid foot striking and am going to do some barefoot training next week. I like a pair of flat Pumas for lifting and some reeboks for stuff like plyo.

I need to get back on the weight training now that I'm getting close to my goal weight.

I have a tri at the end of the month that should be fun. My first non Clydesdale class race.

dysjunct wrote: * Back squat, 240lb/109kg 5x5.
* Bench press, 195lb/88kg 5/3/5/5/5. Getting to my limit here unless I start eating a lot more. If only there was a way to guarantee that 100% of excess calories would be converted to muscle and not fat.
* Pendlay row, 190lb/86kg 5x5.
* Dips, bodyweight + 25lb/11kg. 0/0/2. Triceps were smoked from the bench press.
* Lying triceps extensions, 91lb/41kg, 2x8. Working back up after a deload. Also approaching my limit here.

Total tonnage, including warmups, was 23,472lb/10.647kg. Not bad.

This is going to sound silly, but I chuckled at the disparity between your post and your avatar. We haven't met in person, so I foolishly associate your avatar picture with your appearance. Anyway, that is an impressive amount of weight you are slinging around, about 50% more than what I lift. My focus is more working my core and staying toned so I can still fit in all my suits.

CranBerries wrote: For a long time air rifles were one of my "special interests." I love the meditative aspect of it, that you have to slow your breathing to make the shot. Utah air guns is down the street from me and everything there costs $1,000. It's like what happened to bicycles. There's also a slingshot scene now where custom builds with exotic materials cost $400.

In the "opposite direction" department, I bought a Beeman QB78S, CO2 airgun for $60 . Walmart is selling CO2 cartridges for $16 for 40. The gun is lightweight, and in the shooting lingo, it's a tack driver. I put a spare scope on it that was from an old airsoft gun and shot about 150 rounds down in my basement. At 10 yards it shoots better than I do. So now I have a Gamo break barrel that is a combination air rifle and exercise machine that's accurate if you feed it right, and a magic wand that politely coughs and holes appear where you point.

The airsoft was from a first attempt at short-distance target shooting that I made years ago. It was a replica of a Remington 700 that shot 6mm airsoft pellets at 300 fps. The problem is that the smoothbore barrel means that pellets come flying out of the barrel spinning every which way, and QC on plastic pellets is a joke. I could just about shoot a group in a 2-inch circle at 10 yards, not counting that one out of every four or five shots is a flyer going who knows where. I guess that in the airsoft community, "accurate" means, "can hit a human-sized target at 50 yards."

I had a gas blowback metal airsoft pistol that looked really cool but ran into the exact same accuracy problems you mentioned.

That's always been a problem. As a kid I had a buddy whose dad was a range instructor for the Army. He set up BB and pellet guns on beanbags to tune in their sights and their precision was just awful. Drove him crazy, but he was used to legit rifles so his sights were set higher than ours.

And the same thing you mentioned regarding that one stray shot. At the length of the basement he'd have a group more or less centered on the target (a broad circle) and one flyer that just didn't behave at all. His comment -- "this is why kids get hurt with these things. You don't even need to point them at someone." A bit of hyperbole, but the kind of thing a kid remembers.

My son's airsoft pistol was designed to put backspin on the ball, presumably to complement gravity drop. We'd shoot gangsta and watch the shots bend like hell on their way downrange. Got to be fun to see if you could hit the target aiming a foot to the right.

Truth be told smooth bore isn't all that big a problem if the barrel is long enough and the projectile is true round. My buddy's Brown Bess repro could hit its mark pretty doggone well at 100 feet, but he was using "dropped" musket balls which apparently are really round, then polished really smooth.

Shellhead wrote: This is going to sound silly, but I chuckled at the disparity between your post and your avatar. We haven't met in person, so I foolishly associate your avatar picture with your appearance. Anyway, that is an impressive amount of weight you are slinging around, about 50% more than what I lift. My focus is more working my core and staying toned so I can still fit in all my suits.

Haha, thanks. Can confirm that I do not look like the Neutral President in person; I'm 6'2", 215lbs or so.

Deadlifted a double Barnes this morning for a set of five. Still about 70lbs off my pre-injury/layoff PR. Building back up is slow, sigh.

My old airsoft gun has an adjustable hop-up. Like you said, it puts backspin on the pellet to make it float in the air like a well-struck golf drive. I guess airsoft guns can be just the opposite of air rifle and powder burner (airgun lingo!) guns, which in theory eliminate everything but gravity and velocity from the mix. I know that the hop-up on the airsoft gun just aggravated me.

The .177 and .22 pellets will throw a flyer in there once in a while too. If I miss by half an inch at 10 yards from a rest, that was me messing up, and I'm to the point now that I knew I messed up the instant the shot was fired. If I missed by an inch and a half, and the shot felt okay, I'm blaming the pellet. Pellets with skirts (typical in a .177) are kind of delicate compared to gunpowder bullets, and the cheapo ones can come pre-bent from the factory. Maybe one in twenty or so will be a flyer.

ETA: And like everything else, everything gets a lot more expensive when squeezing more perfection out of technology. A Daisy Red Rider costs $30 and can reliably hit pop cans from 10 yards away. A PCP competition air rifle costs $3000+ and can reliably hit a .5mm bullseye from 10 yards away.

dysjunct wrote:
Deadlifted a double Barnes this morning

After such a long absence from the gym, I was motivated to get back in shape. I lost a pound after my first workout this year, but then gained two pounds after my second workout. These were full workouts for me, plus several laps in the pool afterwards. So I decided to step up my game last week, going above and beyond my usual three gym workouts per week. On three off days last week, I ran a mile, used the exercise bands for a few sets, and did 20 pushups. Last Wednesday, I decided to do 30 pushups and then a 1-minute plank. I don't usually do unsupervised planks, because form is crucial and I don't think that it's worth doing a plank with bad form. So I go for the plank, but feel a muscle pull sharply in my right side. So I end the plank after maybe 15 seconds.

I slept poorly that night, because every time I moved, I felt pain flare up, either in that side muscle or across my middle or lower back. Over the course of the next couple of days, the pain migrated across my back to the other side, until only my left side felt strained. Sleep was poor, even on the nights when I took something to help me sleep, like Nyquil or melatonin. A week later, I still have a slight pain in my left side and a tight knot of pain in the center of my back. I dropped back to my normal workout schedule and cut back on the weight by 5 or 10 pounds on every rep. The most challenging moves have been the torso rotation station and swimming sidestroke in the pool. I probably should have also cut back on the chores lately, but I have been on a spring cleaning kick, plus Saturday was the right day to plant my garden. Anyway, at the rate things are going, I will probably be fine by the weekend.

I’ve started to get weird back stiffness in the mornings, so I’ve adopted a routine called “the Big Three” that was recommended by a powerlifter:

- 10 dead bugs.
- 10 bird dogs.
- 10-sec side plank, right and left.
- sometimes 10 fire hydrants, left and right.

Cleared it right up, takes less than three minutes, but if I skip a morning everything comes back. Sucks getting old, but motion is lotion.

I can still hear my drill sergeant's voice calling out for us to do the Dying Cockroach (dead bug). I hate those.

Not a hobby per se but today was day 1 of Operation Lawn, a project years in the making. Lots more weeding and mulching to go, but it was a good start. Also I didn't buy even close to enough mulch. I did put out some weed n feed so we'll see how that goes.