New Blog posts moved!
I'm playing with a new blog engine to power my site. I will hopefully migrate all my old blog to the new engine over this month. To see the new blog pages I'm writing visit the link below.
http://lhi.no-ip.com/lhi/.
Posted on Monday, November 01, 2010 | Comments ( 0 ) | Category: WebSite
Running on Toes
Starting last year, and only this year really making progress, I have been trying to do more running. One of the issues I've always had is distance running. Anything more than 20-50 meters and I would run out of gas quickly. But I am typically very fast a really short distances, like for tennis, volleyball, racketball, etc. I think I've tracked down why.
I'm a toe runner. I tend to land on my toes or the balls of my feet when I walk and run. Reading up on this a little, I found that I don't run very efficient for long distances. Reading up on the three ways to run at http://www.runningplanet.com/training/toe-ball-heel-foot-strike.html I see that usually I'm a toe runner which is inefficient. It provides me with power and speed, which is great for the sports I play. But it's inefficient for distance running since it consumes a lot of energy.
So when I run, I probably burn myself out faster due to my style of running. I still prefer it to landing on my heal which leads to a lot of stress on the knees and shin muscles (shin splints). The ideal run looks like a neutral or balls of the feet. I have ran like this before and when I do get it right, I can run much farther. I'm working on making this more my normal running now. I clocked in a record 1.8 miles non-stop for me using the balls of my feet instead of my toes.
As a side note, I ran across this study http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/uou-tco020310.php which had some interesting numbers. I actually walk and run on my toes. So this study looks at walking. Apparently, you burn 83 percent more energy when walking on your toes compared to on your heels. Now this is an evolutionary trait so we could walk long distances for food with little energy burned. But I seemed to have turn that around, and I can say I burn a lot more energy walking than normal heel-strikers do. So next time you go for a walk, do it on your balls of your feet (53 percent more energy) or your toes to burn extra calories.
Posted on Sunday, October 24, 2010 | Comments ( 0 ) | Category: Health
Health Update October 2010
So much going on in my health and fitness world. I reached a new low of 146 pounds. This is actually not good. In essence I could continue to lose weight until I got too skinny. So i decided I should lose no more weight.
I joined a gym! It's crazy since I had a stint at bally's gym, I said I would never go back and built up a home gym instead. However, I do love some sports now and this new gym Healthridge Fitness has sports I enjoy playing. 2 days a week they put up a volleyball net in the basketball court. I love volleyball and these guys are pretty good there. So I get a pretty good workout while playing some awesome volleyball.
Also at the gym they have 2 racquetball courts and I have gotten 2 friends there to start playing. They haven't played before, but already they are getting pretty good, so the level of play has gone up a lot.
One last piece of interest is that when I joined the gym I got an hour free with a fitness trainer. I have modest goals of just staying in shape over the winter, but since I also had an interest in gaining strength, he suggested that I start adding some weight on and building up muscle. That is probably what they tell all men who go who are not overweight. But it was an interesting idea, see if I can add some muscle over the winter. I'll be giving that a try over the next couple of months. The hard part is gaining weight without gaining a lot of fat, so I'll try to work hard at playing sports and exercising while I try to eat more. Eating healthier is going to be a continuous problem for me as well.
I had always known that the body fat measurements on scales were inaccurate, but I was surprised how much. My scale at home has me around 15.3 percent BF. When I used a similar machine at the gym that I held in my hands, I was 9.9 percent BF. This could be that I've got more fat in my legs and thigh areas so that reading on the scale is higher. That my BF is low in my upper body so that reading is lower. I could assume perhaps that my real BF is an average of these. But I think I'm going to stop watching the BF numbers on the scales. The true measure of success for me is more of how I look and feel rather than some number on the scale.
Posted on Friday, October 15, 2010 | Comments ( 0 ) | Category: Health
Gaming Update: September 2010
It's been a busy month for gaming. Two new DLC packs for a couple games I own, plus a couple of games I'm playing for the first time.
Bioshock (PC): I defeated Bioshock again this month. I really came to appreciate the atmosphere and the story this time around. The gameplay is so-so, but the story and setting is fantastic. I really enjoyed the game this time around.
Bioshock 2(PC): Since I beat the first time, I started playing Bioshock 2. This game is very much like the first one. Very similar plot twists and the same underwater city of Rapture. This is good as the first game was well done and Bioshock 2 only needed to improve on some elements. It did with some simplification of machine hacking and how you allocate your powerups. Since both this and the original Bioshock are so cheap on Steam, I encourage people to pick these up if you haven't played them before.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope (XBOX360): I had gotten this game for Xmas and I played about 20 minutes of it at the time. I hated it. The combat system reeked of awkwardness and complication. This game is a big (60+ hour) RPG that takes place in the future where there are space ships, aliens and universal conquest plots (aka Mass Effect series). I picked this game up again over the weekend and vowed to give it another try. I'm glad I did. This game's combat system is tricky at best. I don't really like it. It is real time, but the combo attacks are tough to pull off and you don't have much control over how the rest of your party interacts. In some ways I'm spoiled by Final Fantasy XII's (12, not 13) gambit system for controlling your party. The one cool part of the combat is that if you do special attacks, or have certain events happen in the game you fill up a bonus board with different bonuses like percent increase in money or experience. That's a neat addition.
Overall the story is not too bad and the character voices are ok, making it an overall enjoyable game. Some of the levels are huge and annoying, but the character personalities and story make up for the poor level design. A good game to pick up used.
Blue Dragon (XBOX360): I borrowed this from a friend for a bit. This is an old game and the graphics are not great. But it's a fun RQG. Unlike Star Ocean which is a series, complicated RQG, this is much simpler. A little over the top in the story so far, it's been enjoyable to play. I've only played a little bit, so I'll post again when I have more time in the game.
Posted on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 | Comments ( 0 ) | Category: Gaming
Health Update September 2010
It's been a pretty good month, health-wise. I've re-obtained my 9 pullup record I had set in months past. My goal is 10, but that tenth pullup still remains ellusive. My body weight is steady around 151 pounds, but my body fat has dropped to 15.8%!
I've been remotivated by the people I hang out with at work to actually do more workouts, so I've reincluded the use of the Bowflex and my 20 pound free-weights. I'm also toying with the Insanity workout DVD set and including a greater forus on legs and abs with Plyometrics training.
With the days getting shorter, I won't be able to use tennis and volleyball to as much for exercising. I plan to do more running and indoor workouts to make up the difference. I'm also looking at indoor volleyball and racketball to help provide some exercise. Finally, I've starting playing ping pong again. Ping pong isn't too strenuous, but if I play for an hour I'm at least standing and moving around with some swings that can exercise the arms.
My largest goal is to maintain focus on exercise as the winter months approach. This is the hardest time since it will be cold and dark.
Posted on Sunday, September 26, 2010 | Comments ( 0 ) | Category: Health
Trimming Expenses
With Meg's school continuing to raise costs, we've been triming down our expenses. The hard part about expenses is choosing which ones to trim. Each month we have 4 types of expenses, Larged requied expenses (mortgage, car payment), Small required expenses (sewage,trash, power, gas), Large optional expenses (vacations, camera, Tv,etc), and Small optional expenses (eating out, going to a movie, buying a game, etc).
For large required expenses, we have not changed anything since our re-finance. The refinance shaved off about $100/month and reduced our interest rate. It also moved us from a variable rate loan to a fixed rate loan which is good for us as we seem to be comfortable in this house and should be here for a while.
For small required expenses, we have reduced our power consumption from prior years. The only problem is that electricity costs have risen more than we have reduce so we're still paying more. We also reclassified telephone from a required expense (it was needed for DSL internet) to an optional expense.
We have not done well on large optional expense. We took 3 vacations this year, totaling about $3000 in costs. We did each one fairly cheaply by driving, eating fast food, and such. Vacations are just expensive. We also had to replace our video camera and will have to replace the tires on Meg's car this year.
For small optional expenses we have done really well. We cut our 810 Zone bill (bar and grill where we hang out with friends) from over $150/month to around $40/month. I started bringing my lunch to work 3 times a week and Meg is taking her lunch to school more often. We cut out our landline phone completely, saving $50/month!! We also got our DirecTV bill down $40/month.
Overall, I think the reduction of our small expenses will pay off over the longer run as these will add up to a significant chunk of money. The rest of this year we'll look to keep our large optional expenses low, no more trips for the near future.
Posted on Sunday, September 12, 2010 | Comments ( 0 ) | Category: Finances
Gaming Update: August 2010
Been a long time since I've posted a gaming update. Haven't played as many games lately, but I got a few hours in here and there.
LIMBO (XBOX360): This is a fantastic game! For all XBOX owners this is worth the 1200 or so Microsoft points to pick this up. It's a pretty unique game, no music, just black/white with well done sound effects. It's a puzzle/adventure game, but one of the best games in this category I've played.
Bioshock (PC): I'm replaying this in preparation to play Bioshock 2. I didn't appreciate this game as much the first time through. My second playthrough is much more enjoyable, but I still get frustrated at the game. I have a better appreciation for the story this time through as I pay more attention to the plot snippets I pick up along the way.
Metro 2033 (PC): This is another pretty good game. Don't pay full price for it as it's a short FPS (11 hours for me), but a well done game with a decent plot taking place in the subway systems of Moscow. It's a bit of a thriller game.
Killing Floor (PC): This is a better and cheaper version of Left 4 dead I think. There is no plot, just survive 10 rounds against a hoard of different zombies. Play coop with people online or by yourself (recommend playing online). Your character can level up in certain classes persistently which is a nice touch. Worth it when it's on sale.
Posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 | Comments ( 1 ) | Category: Gaming