Let’s me make my non-medical opinion clear to start: I don’t think there is much health value in lifting weights. I know that weight lifting builds muscle and a pound of muscle burns 10 calories a day just sitting around, but you burn a whole lot more running and you get the cardiovascular benefits. In my mind the main reason people lift weights is vanity, pure and simple.

Of course, what is wrong with vanity? Sure, some people have a problem with it, but that’s their loss. Who doesn’t want to look good naked? To the women out there who are scared they’d end up looking like Schwarzenegger I have three words: Michelle Obama arms.

He may be the Commander in Chief, but she’s the one with the guns.

I first started going to my college gym when I was a freshman because I wanted to shake the “99 lbs weakling” image I had in high school. Fun fact: in 8th grade they had to pair me the other 99 lbs kid for wrestling in gym class. By college I had gained a whole… well, 20 lbs, so I still had an image to shake. I didn’t know anything about weights, so I did what all 99 lbs weaklings do – I went to the book store. Thankfully, I found Bill Pearl’s book Getting Stronger, a book full of workouts for building muscle.

I find that a big problem when people try weightlifting is that they get a bit over-psyched – they find some picture that will be “their inspiration”, they sign up for the 12 month membership at Gold’s Gym, and then find it is a lot easier not to go. It is a setup for failure, except it’s failure with a gym membership that has a fiscal exit penalty.

For starters, be honest with yourself. Unless you work out 8 hours a day and get into illegal doping, you will not look like that photo, but only because the human body was never meant to look like that.  Really there’s a much easier program to look like the person in the photo: it’s called Photoshop.

Personally I’m happy we’re past the 1980′s action movies where the heroes were monosyllabic and all looked like they never left the gym.

Second, if you get a gym membership to lift weights, you are basically paying money so you have access to a room full of heavy objects to lift, but for $30 you can get your own heavy objects to lift, so why pay rent on a room you don’t need? As you progress you will no longer be able to afford the equipment, but I don’t believe in putting in the investment of a membership until you know it will be used. Finally, weight lifting will not help you lose fat, and being heavy will make it harder to see results. Only get started if you know what you want out of it.

I think Bill Pearl’s starter workout is a fantastic introduction (for those doing this with home equipment, do push-ups instead of the bench press). Make sure you follow his advice before getting started – you don’t want to hurt yourself! Every body is unique and results will vary, but if you keep up a three times a week schedule within a month you will notices differences for the better.

Where to go from there? Depends on how much you enjoy what you’re doing. I’ve had friends who, once they got over their initial skepticism, tried out weight lifting and became engrossed once they began seeing results. For others it never stuck. Your results will vary, but hopefully this has given you some reason to try.

The KCCC Triathlon was last weekend. I thought my time was decent but I do need to work harder on cycling (I think I’m doing okay with running). The next triathlon I am signed up for is the Shawnee Mission Park triathlon in early July, where I am signed up for the full course instead of the sprint distance.

After fighting rain and my lack of skill with hammers, I now have a shed in my backyard. I needed a shed so I could store a lawn mower so I could start doing yard work, even though nothing in that last phrase sounded appealing to me. Many thanks to Brian C for all the hard work he put into it.

And finally, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is now available in brick & mortar stores! As you may or may not know, Dr. Horrible is the internet musical sensation starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion,  and Felicia Day. Movie Monkey Applies To The ELE is also on the DVD as one of the special features (which got a nice mention in this review).

Running is somewhat like the GWB presidency – you either love it or you hate it. For those who love it, running is not an activity but a religion. They wake up in the god-fucking-awful hours of the morning just to run. They run races on weekends before you’ve had coffee. They bring up how many ‘K’ they’ve run in casual conversation. For those who hate it, they hate hate hate it. They eat junk food in front of runners out of spite. They build speed bumps on trails to trip morning runners (true story).

This is unfortunate, because of all the activities I do to stay fit I believe running has the highest exercise density:

If you are trying to get into shape running gives you the most results for the time you put into it. Team sports are a lot more fun and biking and swimming have less impact on the body, but nothing gets you into shape like running does.

Running also has one of the lowest cost’s of entry of any activity; all you need are shoes. When people think of running shoes, they think of $200 nike shoes with pumps and and levers and magic fairy dust, but it does not need to be that complicated. Be honest about what you are looking for. If you are just getting started, let the salesperson know that you don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of money. Let the salesperson about any conditions that may cause complications (fallen arches, etc) and don’t let them up sell you on fancy gizmos. A local running store is a better place to shop for shoes than a mall, as the sales people will probably be better informed about what shoes work best with your stride. Finally, be prepared to spend about $50 to $100 on shoes – yes this is a lot of money, but running with insufficient padding can be very bad on your knees.

I think the main reason many people hate running is associative. Specifically, their first experience went something like this:

1. I’m going to start running! I’m going to train for a Marathon! Yeah!
2. Look at me! I’m running!
3. (Rest of the week) Ow! My body!

Many first time runners set their expectations way too high. The beauty of running for fitness is that you can get a lot of benefit just running 20 to 30 minutes a day. If you’re just starting, set your goal to run a 5 kilometer (3.1 miles) race. 5K races are very common in the running world, they usually have fairly low entry fees (around $20), and they give you a tee shirt! The important thing is that this gives you a goal. Make sure to sign up for one a few months away to give yourself time to get ready.

Before you begin your workout, it is important to stretch properly, which I learned this the hard way (It involved headaches caused by tight hamstrings). Now comes the difficult part: actual running. Your body will be very against it. The first time you run, your body will ask you the same question over and over – what are you doing? It will ask this question again every time you go running for the next month – get used to it.  Your goal your first week is to be able to keep running for 15 minutes at as slow a pace as you want. During this time you may want to run on a high school track so you can use the number of loops you complete as a measure of how far you’ve traveled (4 loops = 1 mile). If you can run three times in a week (take every other day off) for 15 minutes you’re off to a good start. When you’re comfortable with your running routine, slowly increase the amount of time you run. Over time your body will respond.

Many people find it easier to run when they have a running partner. With the right partner, you will find the extra motivation to run on days when one of you just isn’t feeling it. A bad running partner can be a demotivater – someone who prevents you from improving. It is very important to find a running partner who runs at your pace and is committed to your goals.

So is it worth it? I obviously think so. I find the time I spend running as a good way to bring myself back into focus, and I miss it when I can’t run. When done in moderation it has the most health benefits of any physical activity I know of, and all it takes are shoes and patience.

When someone asked me, “so, why would you do a triathlon?” just yesterday, the answer I tried to convey was “because few races really stretch your body out like a triathlon does. Oh sure, there are plenty of endurance races out there, but so few put you through your paces like triathlons do.”

Today’s race definitely put me through my paces, to a degree that makes me question my sanity. This morning when I was packing the car at 4:45 AM, I noticed there was a thick fog. In Kansas our fog comes in “cold” and “humid”, and this was definitely of the “cold” variety. When l I started my car the thermometer informed me that it was 42 degrees outside – ten degrees above freezing! I knew it would warm up once the sun was up, but the race began at 7:30 AM; how much warmer could it really get?

It wasn’t any warmer by the time I arrived at Heritage Park. The fog was so thick you couldn’t see the orange buoys on the lake that define the swim course, and the announcer repeated over (and over) that the water temperature was 52 degrees(!).  It was still possible for triathletes to switch to the duathalon (a duathalon is a run, bike run – no swimming involved) but should I do it?

Thankfully, last year I was able to buy a triathlon wetsuit for $400 off regular price (yes, I am proud of my savings. Why do you ask?). Triathlon wetsuits are different from waterskiing wetsuits in that they’re designed to be skin tight but allow maximum flexibility in the arms, allowing the wearer to still execute proper swim strokes. Usually the hassle of getting in and out would be a dealbreaker, but in 52 degree weather it made a huge difference.

Funny enough, because at race time the air temperature was around the water temperature, actually getting into the water was not nearly as traumatic as I expected. In fact, swimming all winter really paid off, because I shaved a minute and a half off my swim time, despite wearing the wetsuit and swimming in the cold weather! Sadly, swimming all winter really cost me on my biking and running times. When I began my bike ride, my long sleeve shirt was wet and cold from being under the wetsuit and my left hamstring was really sore. When I finished the bike ride I noticed my feet were numb – augh! Usually I am able to make up some time on the run, but my hamstring was still giving me problems so I tried to strike a balance between pushing ahead and not pulling my major leg muscle.

In the end, I finished 4 minutes slower than I did in 2007, when I last did this race. While it’s good to know that my swim time has improved, I now know that I’m going to have to work on my biking and running to make up the difference.

Things I learned:

• I think I over-trained a bit this week. I think in the future I will just not lift weights at all the week of a race.
• <TMI Alert>Peeing in your wetsuit is a great way to stay warm</TMI Alert>
• I see more bike practice in my future. At this point I’d be happy to keep my swim time.

Growing up I had a number of typical nerd traits, and my siblings were fairly convinced that I was going to be a computer nerd stereotype. It didn’t quite happen that way, though. At my first job I almost freaked out when one of my co-workers referred to me as a “jock” because, if we have learned anything from 80′s cinema, jocks are the mortal enemy of nerds, and I was definitely a nerd. Or was I?

Since coming to Garmin I’ve found that there are a lot more nerd jocks, and that we even have a whole line of products devoted to them (plug plug). However amongst the nerd jock brethren I’m something of an anomaly. While most of my friends specialize in a particular sport – running, biking, swimming – I tend to float between many activities; I often tell people that I enjoy triathlons because they are a great sport for the indecisive. I have a lot more breadth than depth in my activities, which is a nice way of saying I suck at a lot of things. I always like to keep my options open.

The first triathlon of the year – the Heritage Park Triathlon – is coming up on Sunday, and it serves as a great warm up to the triathlon season. Staying in shape for it has meant finding new ways to stay active during the Kansas winter, and I realized recently that while staying active is actually a fairly big part of my daily life it is not something I usually discuss with others out of fears of coming off as “one of those jocks.” There are a number of places on the web about fitness and sports, but usually those sites are written by true believers who mock anyone who does not share their views on fitness and diet.

Since this blog has 3 too many focuses (it’s about movies! No, it’s about my videos! Or it’s about computers?) I figured another one wouldn’t hurt. My goal is to write a number of posts about the fitness activities I do or have done from a personal perspective; less about the technical details and more about why I enjoy (or dislike) it and some tips I learned along the way. I’m also starting a new Twitter feed, @fitnick, where I’ll post about my daily workout or lack thereof, and what races I’m gearing up for. I’d also like to hear what other people do to stay active – let me know!

I am not a medical or fitness professional so please don’t sue me if you get injured doing anything I do. I’ll try to give advice on how to get started as well as where I stand. Unlike just about everyone else writing about fitness on the web, I make no promises of results or improved spiritual well being. I do what I do because I enjoy it, and I’d like others to enjoy it too.

I know these are getting tiresome, but it was either this or a whole post about C++ object serialization (and I can’t promise I won’t go back to Object Serialization).

This was my undergraduate final animation project (based on a high school video project my friend Ryan and I did – someday I’ll have to post that one). Our professor didn’t believe in using “computers”, so I was on my own as far as doing the lip sync and sequencing. Since I was poor I didn’t have access to nice tools, so I used the engineering lab scanner to scan my drawings, Microsoft Paint(!) to color them, and all the frame sequencing with my own software.

I think it was only two years ago when the web told me I had to give up on CVS for personal source code control because Subversion was so superior. Now the web tells me that Subversion is old and busted and git is the new hotness. I wonder when the web has time for writing any code if it’s constantly changing its tool chain.

Apparently I’m webcomic-ing now. It’s mostly coming as a creative release as I’m working on software upgrades. I think for most of you it’s a webcomic you would never subscribe to, so hopefully sooner than later I’ll move it to a sub-section of the site.

This one goes out to my friend Brian Hindman in Texas. Back when I worked at Dallas Semiconductor Brian and I were both misfit toys – Brian was a computer programmer sidelining as a Christian singer/songwriter, while I was a computer programmer sidelining as a filmmaker. In the computer industry creative endeavors are generally looked upon with an inquisitive head tilt, so it helps to helps to have a partner in crime.

Brian helped me finish The Emperor’s New Clothes by doing some additional vocals and the score, for which he learned to play the recorder and the mandolin. He then went on to a more ambitious project: producing the album Breaking Ground, which was a collection of original songs by members of his church. He recorded each of them in his home studio and did all the mixing of the songs. It was quite an endeavor, especially since the songs ranged in styles from bluegrass to rock. I actually really liked Matt Stevenson’s “Standing” from the original recording he made in Brian’s home studio, and I asked Brian if I could make a video from it. Bear with it – I hadn’t learned pacing yet, and so as a video it’s fairly slow.

Brian’s song “My Life Is An Empty Tomb” has just been put on rotation at Live365 radio, so here’s hoping for his future success.

Cory Q, voice of the Movie Monkey, has posted the 3/26 episode of his radio show The Funkomaticjamatron Presents online. Lovers of tripping out rejoice! Download it here. Could we be so lucky to get a podcast in the future?