Sunday 26JAN2025

Not much to report.  Been walking a lot - over 40 miles a week for the last three weeks.  It is about 14 hours a week to get that accomplished.  I do overlap it with work calls, listening to playbacks of recorded stuff, podcasts, and in some cases straight up work meetings.  

I decided to jog for 2 miles on Saturday.  Thinking here was that maybe I can "get away" with running for 10-15 miles a week and that would be tolerable.  I will assess that a bit over the coming weeks.  Working on a follow on appt with the knee doc.  

Was in San Fran again last week.  That was a nice break from the cold snap here.

Taken to some yoga with TZ in the basement.  It is laughable as to how horrible I am at it.  Which is why I should do it.  

I see a lot of these fellas these days.

Wednesday 15JAN2025

Some shots from the evening stroll with the dog.

Amazing what cell phone cameras can do.   

The coyote a bit later was a bit of an eye opener.  

Tuesday 14JAN2025

 

2 miles with the dog, and then 4 and half on my own.  

Monday 13JAN2025

 Started prior to dawn.

6 plus miles of walking, catching up with family on calls.

Weekend 11-12JAN2025

In recent conversations with TZ and KZ, we have been kicking around a "basic guidelines of personal happiness."

1.  Get good sleep
2.  Hydrate
3.  Avoid poisoning yourself
4.  Eat healthy
5.  Move-exercise
6.  Get outdoors
7.  Have social-community interaction
8.  Have hobbies that are rewarding

The lack of a prescriptive nature to these here is purposeful.  What is a healthy diet is different from person to person, one person's exercise would be too much of a workout for another.  These could overlap too.  Maybe if your hobby is rock climbing that also serves as community-social interaction and gets you outside.  None of these are absolutes, nor are they an absolute assurance for happiness.  You could have all these and be miserable.  But I'd think I'd say that without these as part of the regular fabric in your life, you will likely dealing with some sort of health issues.  

I have said for a while that running was more for my head than a physical pursuit.  Not having running has put that premise in question.  Was I running for a mental therapy?  Was the physicality of it necessary for such therapy?  I have turned to walking.  I certainly don't get the physical workout of it that I do with running and I am feeling that.  The time currency is significant - obviously walking the same distance as running takes 2-3x as long.  

But walking is good for my head, even in a way that might be better than running.  Maybe it is that the pulse is slower and because of that I can focus attention to a topic a bit more effectively.  I have been using my walks for some obvious activities:  making calls, listening to podcasts for example.  But, I have been able to also work attention successfully (to or more successfully) than I could when running:  considering music lyrics, focusing through the attention to a problem.  

I got six miles on Saturday, a couple with walking the dog and then the rest on my own.  I did another mile and change with the dog in the evening (dog walks are slower because they are a "sniff-ari").  Sunday morning I got out and ended up with 8.  I started with the dog and did three and thought I might only do five, but I ended up wandering around a bit.  That was 2 hours and 50 minutes though.  

Work week ending 10JAN2025

It was a travel week to Sunnyvale.  

I didn't work out.  Honestly - I don't have that as a habit yet.  I got sucked into work and I just didn't make it happen.  

I got some walking in.  
M - 3.3 miles around the campus later in the afternoon, while doing calls and before heading to dinner
T - 2 miles in the AM on the way into campus from the hotel.  Enjoyed the AM crows.

W - 6 miles on the way into the campus from the hotel.  I was both relaxed post this and ready to pull my eyes out.  

2 more one mile walks later in the afternoon.  

Th - back to Colorado and froze a bit on a sunset walk while doing a call.  3.3 miles.

Fr - walked the dog in the AM (1.2) and then 5 in the afternoon.  

I mean, what the actual ####.  I am not posting about walks like it is worth a damn thing.  I am thinking about walk volumes like a runner.  I am going a little nuts because I feel a need to get a weekly miles goal for walking - like it matters.  I completely skipped on any push ups or anything.  And it was not a problem at all.  

I guess that is worth working on.  

Weekend 04-05JAN2025

Saturday - 2.5 miles in the AM, 2.6 to the grocery and back in the PM.  It was a freezing fog sort of day.

30 minutes of "basement" work.  

Sunday - 5.1 miles in the AM.  Cold but beautiful out.  

Oh, did I mention this was all walking.  Too damn cold to bike, at least for me - I don't have the equipment for that.  And frankly, I don't see anyone else biking outdoors either.  I am not a big fan of the stat bike at home, but that might have to become the expectation.  At least outside I see stuff.  

I enjoy the walking I guess.  I get to think and listen to stuff too.  

After the walk on Sunday, I did music with friends for the next 7 hours.  No, really - it was great.  Some stuff with SP for TPBS band stuff, but also went to a song writers workshop.  Got some good feedback on the a few tunes I am working on.  

But no weight work on Sunday.  I guess I could have but I failed too.  Got six out of the last seven days, but still a miss.  

The knee hurts a bit.  I am not sure if that is because I am walking so much.  I got 34 miles last week.  I don't know if that is what is aggravating it or if I did some weight work on it that is pissed about.  

Off to SFO tomorrow.  

Friday 03JAN2025

 Comparison is the thief of joy.

AM - got out for a foggy six mile walk around Broomfield, listening to some of the Rich Roll "Best of 2024" podcast, and it set up a future playlist for me.

30 minutes in the basement doing that work in the afternoon.  Shopping marketplace for weights.

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For competitive distance running lovers, the sub 2:10 marathon by and the13:52 5k by Beatrice Chebet have created a circumstance where there is a questioning of what the actual limits of performance, in this case, of women, are.  It would seem a sub four mile by a woman is likely in the future, something that would have once seemed unfathomable.  I wonder if it will be touted at the same level of "break through" as Bannister's accomplishment was.  I suspect not given our shorter news cycles and "scroll" culture compared to the 50s, and the technology to get to such a thing.  

Thursday 02JAN2025

 

AM - 30 minutes of "weight work."   I am looking to do at least a significant part of this focused on single leg work because it really highlights the lack of left leg strength I have.  The one legged squats on the stairs with the opposite side weight really demonstrates how "lopsided" I am.  

TZ added a little bonus at the end:  sitting in the squat position.  This is way harder than I thought.  So, add it as a regular.  

5 mile walk afterwards.  90 minutes.  I am pretty sure I should be able to do this on the daily, it is not much more different than the amount of time I took for a run.
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We were talking to JZ about New Years, resolutions, etc.  He, like us, is not a big resolution guy for all those typical reasons, but he came across one that he shared with us, and that he will look to accomplish in 2025:  1000 hours outside.  

It is a pretty cool goal.  When you do the math, that is about 2 hours and 45 minutes a day outside.  For the average working bloke (and JZ is just a few months into his first post collegiate job), that is pretty challenging, especially in the colder months.  Put a few camping and back packing trips in there in the warmer ones and you start to bank some hours.  

Strava tells me that I did 370 hours of activity last year.  That comes with 2300 miles of running, very little biking, and a tiny bit of kayaking.  I did do some walking/hike with TZ that I didn't record.  We didn't camp, but we were trying to guess how much time we had dinners outside, say with people outside.  We concluded we'd not be at a 1000 hours.  It is a lofty objective.  Worthy too.  

What was particularly cool about it though was his statement, "yeah, I have come to recognize that I am a happier person if I am outdoors regularly."  

Ain't that the truth for all of us.  

Wednesday 01JAN2025

 

It snowed last night, unexpectedly.  The evening walk in the snow and the early "retirement" to bed was a perfect way to roll in the New Year for me.

Happy New Year.  

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I hear it everyday in some form.  

Getting old that is.  Everyday somehow the world gives this message of "you are getting old."  It can be with the interaction with aging parents, a look in the mirror post a shower and seeing the new lines and curves that come with time, the junk mail that delivers AARP flyers to you, or people at work who tell you so. 

Quick sidebar - I was having a discussion at work with some folks and a person mentioned the song "Stairway to Heaven" came out in the mid 90s.  Yeah, that led down a path of additional conversation, probably which contributed to the perception by co-workers that I am old.  

The messaging is often packaged up in some fashion that is naturally, well, negative:  your vision is failing, your hearing is going, you are not as strong as you were, you are not as fast as you were, you need to take these medications, you are losing your mind and becoming feeble ...

Of course, there is a truth to those things and I am not suggesting to ignore them.  But the daily drum beat of it frankly is boring and not helpful.   

Even the positives of being older get boring.  Yes, I have less fucks to give on things that perhaps worried me when I was younger.   I am less concerned if I get laid off, worry less about my performance rating at work, and simultaneously don't need things for happiness but can pretty much get whatever I want when I want it if it makes me happy.  I can take a breath and recognize a point of being grateful more than I could.  While those are wonderful attributes of a few more laps around the sun, the packaging of them as "wisdom with age" is eyeroll worthy.

I guess, most days, I'd rather not think about it.  I'd rather just "be" - and working on those things that I am working on regardless of the age.  As Shad might say, "don't let the old man in."  

I can't avoid it, but I am working on seeing it and letting that shit go.

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Walked 5.1 miles this AM with TZ.  30 minutes of weight work.  I have started tracking that in Strava to retain a workout log.  Of interest today was doing single leg squats on the stairs with a kettlebell opposite the working leg.  The left leg is weak in stability and strength in comparison to the right.  

Today's listening included Hank Williams who died on this day in 1953 at the age of 29.  

Tuesday 31DEC2024

The last day of the year.  

A lot has changed in this year. 

 

Here is one of those things ...

In May, I separated as partner of the company I helped to build over the last 8 years and went to work for Meta. Yes, the Facebook company.  I don't do anything with Facebook or Instagram or any of the apps people know about.  I work on the hardware side of the house, also known as Reality Labs.  There are a couple of dozen reasons why I made this move.  The short story version is that I went to be a part of the entire lifecycle of designing, developing and launching products that could be positively impactful to people's lives. 

And it has been great so far.  

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I got out for a walk with TZ and Sage in the AM.  3 something miles.  Despite it being chilly, there was little wind so I layered up for a bike ride.  1.8 miles into that, I had a flat.  I decided to nix the ride and did some weight work.  I then looked up a body weight video on YouTube and did that.

I can't say it wrecked me, but I could tell very quickly how I was getting a workout out of this.  These exercises are the very things I would not do for ... uh, well, never did ... because I was running.  And because I was running, I was either too tired to do them, or I thought they weren't useful, or that they were too easy or some other excuse.  All of those might have been true on some day or once, but not so much any more.  

I put this blog on a hiatus for a bit.  I didn't think it was particularly useful to write about how being in the sixth decade of life that my running was declining, about my back and forth with alcohol, about other things were tripping me up.  It seemed redundant and boring.  

It is actually.  I have come back to this because these writings hold me accountable to some degree to address what I am currently dealing with:  a problematic knee, the eventuality of not running much, getting on a project of getting some other elements of fitness back, exploring that and spouting off about whatever is going on in my chimp brain.  

The "TL;DR" here is "GZ has run a lot of miles, he has a jacked knee, he is trying to rehab it but he is not real disciplined at that, and he thinks by doing a little weight work he might get jacked, but he thinks by writing about it, that might force him to do something more from an accountability perspective. 

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Something else I have wanted to experiment with but I have not is "intermittent fasting."  This is another thing I have rolled my eyes at and thought just couldn't work for me because "hey I am a runner and I need my fuel."  And with that, I'd chow back a 2000 cal breakfast after a 15 mile run.  

I got away with that when I was doing 15 mile runs.  And they were part of 70 mile weeks.  And I had a 40 something metabolism.  

But I don't do those things anymore.  And I have put on 20 pounds over the last decade.  It is that sort of weight that you don't see unless you are holding up a picture of me from 2015.  Then you say, "Damn, you were skinny dude."  It is a bit of a different thing than saying "man you have put on some weight."  

It's ok.  I have.  I am not looking to get anywhere near racing weight of a decade ago, but the pudge I have developed is not something I ought overlook.  I am hopeful that the reduction in alcohol helps that.  I recognize an overhaul to the diet is where this ends up.  A "test" along the way will be to see how I do with intermittent fasting.  

I tried it today.  Last food went in my mouth last night around 7.  Took some coffee with milk in it as part of the wake up but nothing else until dinner at 6.  Frankly, I wasn't hungry until a bit later in the afternoon.  I was okay with the whole process.  And, like skipping on a beer, I could hear the brain yelling about what it was being denied  - the classic fight of what it wanted versus what was actually needed.   

Oh, flu and COVID boosters today.  

Monday 30DEC2024

Jimmy Carter was the first President I knew as a young kid.  I was six/seven in 1976. I recall the school staff wheeling a TV into the classroom to watch him get inaugurated.  And, while I didn't understand it, I recall hearing the swirl of Nixon and Watergate in Ford's loss.  It was one of those moments in your young life where you start to get visibility and some understanding of your country and government.  It came on the tail of the 1976 Fourth of July.  That was a big deal too as it was the 200th birthday of the country.  

I also remember, going through those last few formative years before becoming a teen, the frustration the country felt with Iranian Hostage Crisis under Carter.  It was a weight on the country every day.  I recall seeing a full center fold spread in the New York Daily News of all the hostages.  I remember the failed rescue attempt.  Of course, the lens of my experience was through my home, my parents, and they were definitely not Carter fans.  Regan was someone who they saw as saving the country.  

Even if Carter had not ever been President, the life he lived in the last four plus decades is one worth admiring.  He could have taken to staying the public spotlight, but he moved back to a two bedroom one bath home with his wife (who he shared marriage with for 77 years).  It is said the Secret Service staff cars associated with his protection were valued more than that house.  He remained committed to the community, building homes for Habitat, teaching Sunday School, fighting disease.  He won a Nobel Peace Prize.  

He was a man from another time, certainly not representative of the politicians of today.  His passing at this time comes at a painfully obvious time of contrast.  

Here is a picture of him with a guitar that was built from a tree he planted earlier in his life.  

2 mile walk in the AM.  Winds were already rolling.  

I did get a bit worried about the winds last night.  I recalled the circumstances from exactly 3 years ago and was wondering if we'd be dealing with something similar.   

Obviously it was not as bad.  The winds actually died down to just a typical breezy December day (after some AM muscle flexing of 60mph gusts locally).

I ended up on the stat bike internally.  My legs get something out of this but I can't really elevate my HR up to a typical 140 I get out of a run.  I sit around 80-100.  And it does make my butt hurt.  I am getting something out of this but I don't think it is much.  I wonder if the stat bike is better in some ways than the regular bike in that there is no coasting indoors.  

Anyway, I guess I could push the pedals harder.  Or crank up the resistance.  The machine said I did 17 miles in 62 minutes.  

Last week was my play into push ups, doing 100 a day for the seven days.  Seeing the need to get some discipline with some other daily workout other than running, I have decided to go with at least a half an hour a day of something.  Yeah, undescriptive, but frankly - doing anything is good enough for me.  I am so functionally weak, it is all work.  I will try to keep some focus on working the strength of the legs because of the knee issue, but it will be all the way around.  

Today I torched myself with the simplicity of a 15lb kettlebell.  Curls, extensions, squats, shoulder work, etc.  And some crunches, legs raises, etc.   

    

Sunday 29DEC2024

15.2 mile ride in the afternoon.  Seems unlikely that I will get out tomorrow with the winds predicted to be super nuts.  

2 mile walk in the AM.  

100 push up.  That is a week of that.  I can see the challenge in making this a habit.  I need to get into a better defined routine if I am going to do this workout thing.

Another 2 mile walk in the afternoon.

Saturday 28DEC2024

I have been listening to Stephen Wilson Jr most of this year, enjoying tunes like Year to Be Young 1994 and Grief Is Only Love.  With his recent interview at the Print Shop, I am fairly convinced this will be a guy that takes off like Billy Strings did - meaning, see him now because it is gonna be nuts in a few years.  

A couple of shorter walks in the earlier part of the day (1.8, 1.5) and then a 17 mile ride in the afternoon.  Downwind and out towards 25 was clipping along well, hitting over 20mph in some sections.  Paid for it on the uphill and wind back with that being 7 or 8 mph and work.  All good.  

100 push ups (35, 35, 30).  Had to do the last set before bed because I had forgot otherwise.  

Friday 27DEC2024

Fourth day off of running.  How many to go? 

4.1 miles of walking in the AM with TZ and the dog.  These are good.  The walk is a backdrop to good conversations.  

I can feel the crap still in the knee.  Not that I am expecting it to be magically better in four days, especially since I haven't done anything to address that.  It is just a note that I can feel its problems, coming down stairs, when I turn weird, or sometimes when I stand up.

The time off from running is easy physically.  It is more the mental challenge of not having that time to do that and figuring out what I want to do alternatively.  This is a good challenge - recognizing how habitual I have been with good and bad behaviors (running, alcohol, not reading items outside of work, etc.).  But I do need to establish some other routine ... otherwise I will do nothing and that seems wasteful.  

Broke away from the desk twice mid day for two ten minute sessions.  Sigh - I recognize that sounds so light.  It is.  But it is where I am at.   Got in a handful of kettlebell exercises, including upper body and squats, and the experiment of 100 pushups lives on (30, 30, 25, 25).

Separately, started watching Breaking Bad about a half decade after everyone else, started reading Red Rising on request of JZ, and have been trying to figure out the differences between diminished, half diminished, minor flat 5 and minor 7 flat 5 chords.  

Thursday 26DEC2024

Biking doesn't seem to aggravate the knee so I guess that is good news.  I can occasionally feel it twinge with walks, especially on the downhills.  Got in a longer walk this AM (4.5 miles).   Rode in the afternoon, swing a loop down to the 36 trail, over to Coal Creek, then Rock Creek - 17.4 miles.  Was pretty chilly by the end. 

I'm riding around on an old Trek.  Old as in older than my now adult children.  Functional but not state of the art.  It works and that is good enough for now.

100 push up (4x25 post the ride as I defrosted).

Wednesday 25DEC2024

Well, sticking with the not running plan but admittedly it is not enjoyable.  Anyway, got in a couple miles of dog walking in the AM, did 100 push ups (5 sets of 20), 100 body squats (33, 34, 35) and an hour bike ride on the stat bike (as it was raining out).  The watch told me that riding the bike for an hour killed 250 calories, so I guess it is sort of equivalent to a walk if I am not pushing it.  

Tuesday 24DEC2024

I have mentioned the concept of taking an extended break on running to a few folks.  Their reactions typically include:

a.)  "Wow.  What will you do instead?"
b.)  "That seems like a really good idea."  

I took today off from running.  Not sure if is the start of an extended break or not.  100 push ups (30, 30, 20, 20), 100 body squats (50, 50), 16.2 miles on the bike and 3.2 mile dog walk.  

Monday 23DEC2024

My recent experiment with dropping alcohol for a bit got me thinking about running several other similar sort of trials.  Rather than think, "hey, I am going to do this thing forever" it was "what if I tried this for a week?  Or maybe a month?"

Like what if I did some set number of body squats every day for a week?  Or wall sits for some time every day for a month?  And then the thought extended to other possible experiments outside of just physical exercise.  What if I spent 15 minutes every morning for a quarter working on writing songs?  Or what if I gave up social media for a month? 

Would I see a change?  I can't say that I have seen some sort of profound physical change in dropping beer:  I still have oddball sleep, I haven't dropped 10 pounds, and I sometimes still feel lethargic.  Mentally, however, I do take some satisfaction in that I have been able to manage a small amount of discipline in making this choice.  That certainly means something.  So I wonder if I will enjoy that with other experiments.  And maybe I will also be able to see some other benefits.  

I quickly penned out thirty possible ones the other day - everything from physical disciplines to mental ones to "art" projects to, well, frankly things I have thought I could do but for whatever reason I have put off.  I'll start this week with 100 push ups a day (not in one shot, likely sets of 20-50).  It is an easy start.  I should be able to push away from the desk at some point, not look at the phone, drop and do them.  No harder than saying no to a gin and tonic, right?  

The bigger objective here is to make little changes over time to make larger improvements.  Some of these experiments will work.  Some will fail.  I might falter.  I might hate it.  I should learn a thing or two in any case.  

7 miles in the afternoon, slow (9:15) with a lot of breaks.  100 push ups (20, 20, 25, 35) over the day.

Sunday 22DEC2024

Finished the week with a 7.3 mile run, and so 45.6 on the week.  Missed Monday this past week.

On the year I am just a handful of miles under 2300.  I can't seem to immediately find my post of where I added up miles on the lifetime so I will put it around that 90k mark from a murky memory.  Most of the miles came in the front half of the year before the knee went wonky.  

I expect miles to be significantly less than 2k in 2025.  I am actually contemplating a true break - multiple months off of running with focus on other physical activity.  Some of this comes from realizing how much I have over indexed on this sport over 40 years, to the point of ignoring other functional movement, some of it from recognizing that I don't have any competition planned, some of it inspired by guys like Shad and Andy doing other things.