Tag Archives: Fort Belvoir

Fitness

My Fitness Lifestyle

English: Fitness
English: Fitness (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Growing up, I was usually quite active. Not having a television for most of my childhood, mom pushed us outdoors when the weather was nice. No matter where we lived, it was quite the norm to be out all day and maybe get back in time for supper. This held while living in Seymour, Tennessee, and Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and Fort Ritchie, Maryland, and Patch Barracks, Vaihingen, Germany (nicht Vaihingen an der Enz).

I also played many different sports: Little League Baseball in Seymour, basketball and soccer at Fort Belvoir, just basketball in Maryland, and just soccer in Germany. During my junior year of high school, I took up running on my own, eventually running 3 miles a day in under 18 minutes. I used my Multiplan skills I developed while working in the Comptrollers Office to record my times and calculate my time per mile.

My freshman year of college was at Johnson Bible College (now Johnson University). I went out and made the soccer team, this too had me running and staying in shape. As my father retired from the Army during this time and the family moved to Johnson, I stayed on campus when I went to the University of Tennessee. For a few years on, I continued to stay in shape by running.

In the summer of 1990 when I was 22, I changed my philosophy and goals. Being 6’5″ with a 31″ waist, I was quite skinny. Now I wanted to build some muscle. The Eubank’s Activity Center had a weight room and a few machines. I started to lift weights, eat more, and dug into magazines like Muscle and Fitness. By the time I married in July 1992, I was put to nearly 190 pounds from my start of 160 and had some strength. Shortly after getting married though, I stopped training.

After a couple of years of near inactivity and starting to have lower back issues, my wife and I joined Court South on Alcoa Highway. It was not only close to our house, it was on the way to my job at the University of Tennessee, Hodges Library, Systems Department. As I worked noon to 9 pm, I soon was taking my clothes with me, working out and showering, then heading to work. I would shave before I left home. I made a few gains in strength and size, but not much. For the most part, I kept my legs strong for ski season. Back then, my skis were 203 centimeters long and I was on Ski Patrol at Ober Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This took some leg strength to patrol for hours on those sticks.

During the year of 1997, we moved to Marion, Ohio when I took a job with Macola Software. When I first moved up, I played on a recreational league soccer team. Here my nearly 30 year old body could not quite keep up with the teenagers who also played, but it was good fun. I played the next year too and in the meantime worked out at the YMCA. Here I was doing arm curls with 50 pound dumbbells and I first started reading Ironman Magazine. Now my routines were taking a serious note, but I also did stupid things and eventually hurt my knees. A few job changes later and a move to Cincinnati, and I rarely worked out anymore.

I was on ski patrol at Ober Gatlinburg for 5 seasons. In the summer of 2000, I took the Outdoor Emergency Care class again to get on patrol at Perfect North Slopes. Though I did not have to take the class again, it being 10 years since the class the first time, I thought it was a good idea. Over the next few years, I did occasionally worked out and joined the Y on Poole Road for a time. I believed I was in good shape. After all, I did ski every winter and was on patrol.

Then something unexpected happened and I knew I had to change.

I was about 42 years old when one year during the beginning of the ski season I was riding in the sled during training. We came down to the bottom and I went to get up and I couldn’t. I tried several times to basically do a crunch to get to a sitting position. I couldn’t. I couldn’t do a bloody crunch, no matter how much I used my feet to get leverage. Eventually, I rolled out of the sled onto all fours and stood up. That was it, something had to change.

We had a stationary bike in the basement and I started riding it again. Eventually an interesting routine developed: 10 minutes of riding, 5 minutes of arm curls and crunches. Rinse and repeat 4 times. I also started reading Ironman Magazine again and doing some of the routines in it. Set by set, the dumbbells that had been buried in the garage came back out and into use.

After nearly two years, I started to realize I was out growing what I could do in the house. Not have a bench or a rack, it became difficult to do more serious work. I looked at getting the Marcy utility bench (yes, the one with the gorgeous model on the box), but realized I didn’t have the space to put it. There are three gyms near me, so I went by them all. The closest was quite and small and the biggest one (Planet Fitness) was too against serious workouts, so I wasn’t going to join there. I decided to wait.

A bit over a year ago, I looked again. This time I decided to join Stay Fit 24, though it was small. After all, I’m in my forties and my joints don’t need weights too heavy. I got a small booklet to record my weights and I took routines straight out of Steve Holman’s articles from Ironman Magazine.

I made good progress and my body adjusted to workouts again. I had a simple goal then: strength my right knee and get better flexibility. I had the manager Adam help me remember how to do squats and deadlifts again. I started pushing 300 plus pounds on the inclined leg press. I switched routines around when the page filled with recordings. The ski season of 2013-2014 saw me with more leg strength than I had in years and the turns were some much easier. I also skied faster through the crud than I had before. My months of work in the gym paid off.

My diet changed over the months, adding proper carbohydrates and more protein. I dropped simple sugars as much as possible. Breads and pastas were also removed. Gluten became a bad word. My body slimmed and my strength increased. The results were visible when I had my yearly exam for medical insurance as my waist was one inch smaller.

My abs, however, lagging during all this, despite all the crunches. I took the November planking challenge on Facebook. After two weeks of that, my abs woke up and I’ve been planking ever since. Awesome.

I have two current goals: squat and bench my body weight, something I never reached even when I was younger and workout all the time. To achieve the former will require more core strength. To build that, I now do wheel roller ab work and deadlifts. Using the Multi-Year iPhone app, I recently switched to a strength regime by lowering the reps per set. About every two weeks I hit a new personal record on work sets. The most recent record is 145 pounds for 8 reps and 2 sets on deadlifts. A new record on squats is getting close. I’m nearly halfway to my goal on both bench press and squats, and I’m determined to get there.

Why do I keep pushing? Why do I research new supplements and what foods to eat? Why do I choose to not eat certain things or eat at particular times? It is quite simple. Any time I feel like having that second doughnut or napping instead of going to the gym or skipping too many days, I remember that time when I couldn’t get out of the sled. I remember how it felt to not be able to get off the ground. I remember how weak and helpless I felt. I remember and push forward.

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Random Musings

More Connections Into The Past – Edwina Marquand

Kick in the Eye EP
Kick in the Eye EP (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the summer of 1979, the Army moved us from Seymour, Tennessee to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. After all, my father had made the Majors list and was in a Captain’s position. He was also in the Army Corp of Engineers and Fort Belvoir was their headquarters location at the time. This was my father’s third tour at Belvoir.

Most of the summer was spent trying to sell our house on Eldorado Circle in Seymour. The school year was starting to approach quickly and my mom, my brother and I still lived in Tennessee, while dad was getting settled into his new assignment. After having listed the house with a real estate agent, my parent’s decided to sell my owner. My grandfather made a sign and we put it in the front yard. Yes, the summer was interesting. Eventually, the Simpsons bought the house (No, not Homer and Marge).

The move to Fort Belvoir was like moving into a place both familiar and foreign. I have lived there in the early 70’s, though my memory of such was no longer in my head. After two weeks in visiting officers housing, we finally had a house on 21st Street. Today a search for T-436 21st Street will not reveal a house. Seems the house built in 1913 has been replaced at taxpayer expense. Oh well.

I was going into the 6th grade in 1979. My brother and I would for one year attend the same school: Markham Elementary. This would be the first year I would play the viola and the first time I would meet Edwina Marquand.

Along with horses, Edwina Marquand had a bit of a thing for me. Though I liked girls, I became too enamored with Keleigh Linn to fully notice. Edwina and Aileen were one of two sets of twins in my 6th grade class. On a side note, I believe Keleigh Linn Sylvester on FaceBook is the “other woman”.

Anyway, in 7th grade, though both Edwina and I went to Hayfield Intermediate School in Alexandria, Virginia, we did have any classes together. From time to time, I’d see her in the hallway and say hi. Yes, I liked her too by then, but time was not on my side.

One day in the summer of 1981, my father came home to inform us we were moving to Fort Ritchie, Maryland. My parents had been looking at possibly buying a house outside the DC area, but now that was off. The Army had a pressing need for my dad’s expertise as the Facilities Engineer in the mountains of Maryland. One weekend we drove up for a visit and a few weeks later we had moved.

All contact with Edwina Marquand were now broken. When I get nestalgic for finding former classmates, I do Google searches for her. Via Intelius, I  have found an Edwina Marquand with past addresses at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. She is the right age, could it be her? I’ve no idea.

So Edwina, I’m putting the search out to the Universe. After all, I finally connected back with Leo, I mean Alex Fleig on Facebook. I found Glenneth’s blog site and even came across Tracy Janner via MySpace and then Facebook. I know it is possible to reconnect, go through the “what have you been doing all these years stage” and the, most likely, go about our merry lives.

Ok Universe. Surprise me.

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Random Musings

The Apple ][ changed my life (part 1)

The Apple II Computer on display at the Museum...
The Apple II Computer on display at the Museum Of The Moving Image in New York City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As an introvert, I grew up loving books. In the summer of 1979, I moved to Fort Belvoir, Virginia from Seymour, Tennessee. My father was in the Army in the Corp of Engineers and Uncle Sam decided he should takeover managing the construction project at Blue Plains. He was attached to the Capitol Area Office of the Baltimore Engineers, so we lived at Fort Belvoir on 21st Street (yeah, the Army can really pick great street names, can’t they??).

There my brother met David Panzer. He showed us both the great library on the Fort and my passion for reading was fed in overdrive. I would check out 12 books at a time and read them in a week. I loved the Hardy Boys books and soon moved on other mystery books such as Encyclopedia Brown. It would not be long before J. R. R. Tolkein would enter my life in the form of The Hobbit.

During the second half of my sixth grade year, I took an elective on book writing. It was taught by a wife of an Army officer who had written a children’s book about living in the African bush. She taught up about form and how to submit transcripts to publishers. My vivid imagination had an outlet. Over the next few years, I wrote about space battles and far off planets. I invented military ranks and battle plans. I wrote a short story about an invasion of Washington, DC. I used real maps to determine paths and defenses. We had no television, so reading and writing was what I did. (I also played against myself in Risk, but that’s another tale.)

Before I started 8th grade, Uncle Sam decided it was time to move us again. This time we packed up and moved to Fort Ritchie, Maryland where my father became the Facilities Engineer. Our first question was naturally, “Where is Fort Ritchie?” Nestled in the Mountains of Maryland in Cascade, it was a picturesque and quiet post. The perfect place for my imagination to grow. And grow it did. The plans became more elaborate. I started to create my own alphabets. One day, it all changed.

It was near the end of my 8th grade year. I was walking through the school library when I saw some of my fellow students using a computer hooked to a television. They were making a shape move across the screen. A Realistic cassette tap recorder from Radio Shack was connected for long term storage of programs (yes, recorded to cassette tapes as noise. so old school). The computer was an Apple ][. It was magical.

I watched and tried to learn. I pestered my fellow students for the syntax to AppleSoft BASIC. I had to know more. The library had little. There were programs and skills tests in our Algebra textbook, so I tried them. Soon I could write a program for any of the skills tests, even if we had not yet covered the math behind it yet. It was a whole new world.

Where the Apple ][ would take me I would learn over the coming years.

 

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Random Musings

Growing Up INTJ

Español: Tipo Myers-Briggs INTJ
Español: Tipo Myers-Briggs INTJ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I first posted a video on YouTube about being an INTJ, several people responded in support, others wondered. Could this guy really be an INTJ? After all. He’s on YouTube?

In that video I explained what an INTJ is and gave examples of famous ones from history. The Myers-Briggs test is a measure of someone’s personality traits. It is not a box to stuff people into, nor is it a box into which one may hide. It is a measure. It is a starting point of understanding.

Response to that video compelled me to share more of my test results. My more in-depth video was the result. Here I shared the actual test results, showing the pages. Yes, it was to show the doubters out there that I really am an INTJ. After all, these videos take a great deal of energy from me. Blog posting is much easier. Add to that, I tend to do the videos in one take, unlike say Karen Alloy (spricket24) who uses many quick cuts in her style. I’m more like say….the Snap Chick..Leigh…something….ok..moving on.

Several people sent me e-mails asking what it was like growing up. Ok…new video made. Now for the text.

My mother is an extrovert. So is my brother. My father is more introverted, but during my formative years Uncle Sam had him here, there and everywhere quite often. As a result, I was much closer to my mother. Being on opposite ends on the first letter did bring some misunderstandings. I wanted to be alone with my books and thoughts and ideas. She wanted me to get out of the house and meet people. We were both right, in our own ways.

Having social skills is important. One needs to be able to understand and communicate with others. After all, none of us are islands unto our selves. We need others to provide what we cannot ourselves acquire. But being with people drains an Introvert and eventually, there is a need to recharge. This my mother didn’t seem to understand till later in life.

Much of the time growing up, we had no television. My mind was my playground and my imagination became strong. In 1979, we moved to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Here I could access the library on my own and I did. I read every Hardy Boys book they had. I tried the Bobbsey Twins and others. I read books as though I had a hunger, a longing. By seventh grade it was The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings series. I didn’t need television. I had my books.

And my mother said go meet people.

I was in the Boy Scouts till the younger kids annoyed me too often. I reached the rank of Star, though no further. Here I tuned my love of learning into merit badges. I had dreams, but no plans. I wanted much, but had no way to get there. After all. I had my books.

My teenage years saw me grow more introverted. I saw many of my fellow classmates as whiny children. I still see teenagers that way. Anytime I heard someone say “That’s not fair,” my only response was “Life isn’t fair.” I started to write more, sharing with no one. Who series of stories and novels danced through my head. I played Traveller. I wrote computer programs on paper. I had a few friends. We moved to Germany and I had woods to explore. Old ruins held high import to me. Moss fields became a land of mists and dragons. I created my own alphabets. I wrote. I shared none.

And my mother said to mingle and meet people.

During my senior year in high school, my interest in females grew high enough to actually talk to them. Half-way through the year I finally asked one out: Dee Dee Kreminak. We went to the movies and had pizza afterward. We talked about for hours. She was beautiful. We had a good time. A few weeks later I asked her to join my family for Ice Capades. She said she couldn’t, I’ve long forgotten why. I tried another date a bit later. No. Ugh. I was crushed.

My first attempt at being social and more than just seeing someone at church or school left me a bit crushed. Was I doomed for more introversion? On a train filled with American youth on its way to Berchtesgaden, the answer became no. Here I met Tracy Janner and a weekend friendship grew. She lived in Kaiserslautern, two hours away. I would see her twice more before leaving Germany. I learned a bit more.

Over the years I’ve had to work at being more open. I’ve also had to learn when to pull back. I tend to OCD on being extroverted when I am really pushed out of my Introvert shell. I am not really shy that much, just lending to observing people more than participating. After all, INTJs are Masterminds and Analytical.

I’ve learned when to let go of the Perfectionist tendencies and when to embrace them fully. There are times I lean on my INTJ traits and others when I abound to walk away. Growing up INTJ has been great fun and great frustration; heartache and love; sickness and health. It is who I am and I am wonderful. I seek to encourage others and know I can make a difference.

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An Ode to Old Friends

There have been many dogs in my life. Each brought a different kind of joy to us. Some

Maggie Dog
Maggie Dog (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)

were great companions who loved to go on adventures. Others played with us. Others did tricks. And others stayed by our side to the end.

Jenny was a black poodle. She came to us not long before my dad was sent to Germany by the US Army. We left for Karlsruhe in 1972 and Jenny went to live with my mother’s parents. I don’t remember Jenny at that time. I do remember her when she returned in 1975 with our move to Knoxville, Tennessee.

While in Germany, the last year we had a dog named Whiskers. He was brought up by two GI’s  and his real name was Damnit. He was good fun, though he hated Germans. Quite odd given where he lived. When we moved back to the States, we gave him to another family staying in country.

Back in Tennessee, Jenny was a great dog for 7 year old. She loved to play ball and was the outfield. She would catch the ball and return it to the pitcher. Good luck getting a hit. In 1978 though, she started to go blind and had to eventually be put down.

Buffy though, overlapped with Jenny about a year. A stray that followed my brother home, he became a dog who would protect us from other dogs. When we bred Jenny, he cared for the puppies as if they were his. He did have a wild spirit and we went to live with our grandfather in Ohio in 1979 when we moved to Fort Belvoir. About six months later, he ran off and never returned.

One of our best dogs was Adam. In the summer of 1982 while visiting friends at Fort Belvoir, my mom and I met Adam. They were keeping him for a friend of theirs and were looking for a good home. He was an Irish Setter/Golden Retriever mix and mild of temper. That day, he made the trip back to Fort Ritchie with us and lived with us until he was very old and quite ill. He went with us to Stuttgart, Germany and then to Johnson Bible College. He loved to chase and loved people. At 15, it came his time to leave us and he is buried in the woods on top of the hill at Johnson.

Woofie (sometimes Wolfie) was the first dog my wife and I had. We rescued her from the pound in 1992 at Knoxville. She was a great apartment dog and very smart. We made a donation to the shelter and received free beginner level obedience lessons. She learned to take items from either of us and give to the other. She would bring her water bowl when it was empty and could go off the leash quite well. We rented a house from my parents in 1995 and in 1996 she and Jake got out of the fenced in backyard. He made it back, she did not. We found her on the side of the road and buried her in the side. After all these years, I still miss her.

About a year before we moved out of the apartment, some people we knew at the University of Tennessee had a stray that wanted to find a home for. Jake was a mutt with a purple tongue. We kept him for a few days and eventually gave him to my brother. Jake was a bit of a wild dog, being part chow, and when younger didn’t like to be hemmed in. When my brother took a job in Canton, Ohio and lived in an apartment that allowed no pets, Jake stayed with us in the house. He liked to dig and get out. For a long time, only he got out, but eventually Woofie joined him. I was too slow getting the fence repaired with rebar and Woofie got killed. In late 1997, we moved to Marion, Ohio and Jake went to live with the in-laws in Richmound, Virginia. There he dug big holes, went through the glass panel on a storm door and got into neighbors’ trash. The last few years of his life he was more tame and his best friend was the cat who lived up the street. Poppop buried him in the holes he dug out back.

Maggie. What can be said about Maggie. She was a large, white dog and very gentle. She came to us about a year about Woofie died. When we had children, she let them play with her, climb on her and pull her tail. Many times it seemed she treated them like they were her puppies. Though she looked like a white retriever, she never chased anything not edible. She did not chase sticks, balls, toys, etc. She was very kind to most people, especially women, and loved by many. She lived with us in Knoxville and Marion and our moved to Cincinnati. In mid 2011, her health started to fail. Eventually, she started to eat less, then nothing. The last week of her life was the most painful. Neighbors and friends alike cried when we had to put her down.

Snuggles is yet another stray dog (notice a theme???) who came up to us when we were out doing yard work in October 1995. She was with us when Woofie got killed. She and Jake were around before Maggie and she also went to live with the in-laws in 1997. In Christmas 2003, she came back to us as our son’s dog. She was a bit aggressive for a smaller dog and really loved to chase everything. Fast and nimble, she would chase frisbies, balls, sticks, everything. She would bark when Jake and Woofie would get out. She also loved to snuggle, hence her name. After Maggie was gone, she started to become listless and have less excitement. She obviously missed her friend. In the early spring of 2012, Toby came into our life and Snuggles perked up. Nearing 17, her back became a problem and one night something happened. We are not sure, but the next day she could barely walk and I had to carry her to take her outside. She stopped eating everything, including treats, and shook a great deal. As painful as it was to say goodbye to another friend so shortly after Maggie, it was her time as well.

These friends completed us. They contributed to the value of our lives. As long as we remember them, they live on.

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