The Business of Pumping

It’s frustrating when you really want to do something, but you can’t. It’s frustrating when you know you have to do something, but the motivation is just not there.

I really wanted to get ready for the Spartan Race, but my injury prevented me from running. It caused me to lose motivation to even go into the gym and ride a stationary bike or lift some weights. First world problems, right. Sure, but they are mine and I need to sort it out.

Yet despite not training I still chose to enter my first Spartan Sprint. I viewed it as a blow to my future active live if I gave up without even trying, even if it meant walking. A Spartan Sprint is a roughly 5km run through the bush, no real path, with obstacles/challenges/test dispersed in between. Can’t flip that tractor tire twice? No worries, just go do 30 burpees after which you are free to “roam” towards the next test. Wall to high? You know what to do.

I ended up doing 90 burpees. 30 because, like most people, I can’t throw a spear. 30 more because I was not able to pull a stone into the air using a pulley. I could not even move it to get in position and start pulling. 30 more because I was not able to do the rope climb. My upper body is weak, I know, but...

I FINISHED THE SPARTAN SPRINT!

Yes, and it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The finish inspired me. It showed me that I was not nearly as pathetic as I felt. It gave me the will to pick up my Kindle and read “New Rules of Lifting” again. Stepping back into into the gym as soon as possible to get power into my weak body was exciting. The race is still motivating me to stay in the gym and patiently wait for my heel to heal (see what I did there) and winter to pass.

*****

It’s been nearly 2 months since the race and I feel a gym report is in order.

I started off with the 2 week break-in program, took one week of and then started with the Fat-Loss program. Yea,I know I’m not exactly the overweight type, but it is the recommended program for a beginner or someone who has not spend much time in the gym for a few years.

Although there are many exercises in one workout, as there should be, I will use only the Squat to track my progress. Here goes.

For the break-in program I used only the Olympic bar to make sure I learned how to do the squats properly. Before the week was out I had already added a bit of weight, because it was just to light. By the time I started the first section of the main program I was squatting 30kg, 15 repetitions a set, 3 sets, as part of a superset with seated rows. 90 seconds rest between each set. By the end of the first program I was squatting 50kg, 10 repetitions, 3 sets and 45 seconds rest between each superset. Big words for a little man, but here is what it means.

Using an online calculator i calculated that my maximum one repetition squat weight went from 45 kg to 62 kg. If I only had to do one squat, as heavy as I could, then I was only able lift 45 kg. Now I can lift 62kg, once. For the fit out there this seems like nothing. Even I feel it is rather poor, but we all have to start somewhere, no? The question now is “How much is a good MANLY weight?”

This set of standards says I went from untrained to half a novice. I suppose I should not complain. It’s been been less than 2 months and I showed a 25% improvement. That is not to shabby, really. I know my improvements will slow down, but I need to keep this in perspective.

Here are some targets for me to look at. To get to be a novice I should be able to lift 85 kg once. Again, that is the weight be a novice, which will be OK with me. Fitness is my main goal, not pure power. Even so it would be nice if I could do that 105 kg to be considered intermediate.

Of course, I’m pushing the other exercises just as hard, while being careful not to overdo it again. By the time I get to squatting almost twice my body weight I hope to be able to do decent amount of actual pull-ups as well. I think my record is three, before I fail and fall to the floor :(

I think this is a nice base for me to start my new year on. By the end of next year I hope to be in shape with at least one Spartan Spring and a Spartan Super under my belt.

Road Worries

It doesn't happen often, but then it does it is sudden and not rather comfortable. I’ll be riding my bike, rolling along at 100km/h through a tunnel and then I will suddenly become aware of the fact that I am on a motorcycle.

On an open piece of road the noise from my engine dissipates away from me, but in tunnels the sound is bounced back. In a car it is easy to miss when you have the radio on, but on a motorcycle it is a very obvious increase in volume. The droning whirrrrrrr transforms into a loud and deep bmmmmmmmm in an instant.

A few seconds of this tunneling noise seems to be the regular trigger for me. Where I would normally take it for granted, I will become then become very aware of the road which I can clearly see, whizzing past me at great speed. This awareness also informs me that there is very little between me and the road. The only thing keeping me upright is the physics of spinning wheels, and science does not completely understand how this works. They know it works, they know how to use it, but there is no one accepted theory for why it works. Interestingly they are not really sure why planes stay in the air either. Very comforting, isn't it?

I had it so bad once that I felt like throwing up. It happened to me again this week, but it was not that bad and I got over it a few seconds later. It might have helped that I had to stop at the traffic light Standing still helps settle the stomach, so to speak.

People who have driven in Korea knows that traffic lights take forever to change. The system here is infuriating because it feels like you spend half an hour at one light waiting for your turn. This drives people to take reckless chances then they see the lights turn yellow. The reckless chances are taken not just by the drivers, but also by pedestrians.

We at the red light were all watching the green man to get an indication of how long we still had to wait and, of course, just before it turned red for the pedestrians we all looked forwards and got ready to move.

Wouldn't you know it, an old lady approaching the pedestrian crossing from the other side of the road decided she was not having any of this waiting business. But by the time she stepped onto the road the light had already changed and the cars coming from the opposite direction from us were heading towards a green light. There was enough space for them to notice her, but she still cut a line (direct translation from Afrikaans) diagonally across a three lane road. that is three lanes each way, with traffic. She just closed her eyes and “ran” as fast as she could, little carrier wagon thing in tow. The cars on the opposite side did have enough time to see her so thankfully they slowed down to almost a stop.

By the time she reached our side we had already started moving. She was nearly in our lanes. She didn't even look up to see if cars were coming. She just kept her head down and ran as fast as she could. Good job we all saw this happening because she had no idea what was heading her way. I’m sure even the arsehole bus driver who decided that he was not going to slow down for that “just in case” scenario saw her.

Man, I tell you. You can’t even trust a pedestrian way on the other side of the road in this county.

Old Man Teeth

Finally, a dentist who does his job

When I lived in Icheon I never seems to be able to find a dentist. My conversations always seemed to go a little something like this:

Dentist: “What seems to be the problem?”
Me: “Nothing, I would just like a check up.”
Dentist: “Do you have any pain?”Me: “No.”
Dentist: “Then what would you like me to do?”
Me: “I would like you to do a check-up and see if anything it wrong, needs fixing.”
Dentist: “But where do you have pain?”
Me: “Nothing is wrong that I know if, you stupid f***. I want YOU to look and tell me if something is wrong, as if something that will, in a year from now, have me unable to eat and bound to lose a tooth.”
Dentist: “So, you have no pain?”

Sigh. Unfortunately I don’t have insurance back home so doing these check-ups and getting anything fixed would have cost me an arm and a leg.

Yesterday I went to a dentist that I read about in the local Facebook group. He speak very good English, so I was able to tell him what I needed and he was able to explain what was happening.

First up was a cleaning. New rules are that medical insurance covers one per year. Before doing the cleaning his hygienist took photos of my teeth. I don’t mean x-ray shots. I mean actual digital photos, with a small camera in my mouth. Interesting.

After the cleaning the dentist came over and used the images to explain to me what he thought needed to be done. My teeth are in terrible condition. Two of my molars have questionable structural integrity because of the large fillings and he thinks I might need to cap them in the near future. Apparently the current fillings are too big and if he removes that to refills and fix cavities at the edges, then they are in danger of cracking. Scary.

All in all I will have to get seven cavities fixed. Bloody hell! Grinding my teeth is taking its toll and I can’t get a new mouth guard until the fillings are done. About three visits for the fillings, three more for the guard and then it is maintenance like crazy. I don’t want old man teeth by the time I’m 60 years old.

Map On

People who have walked around with me know that I rarely get completely lost. I generally have very good sense of direction and once I have the map in my head I can pretty much walk to my destination in three different ways.

I can do this because I like map. I like maps a lot. You could say that I love maps. I find them fascinating. So, when someone on the Korean Football Forum said that someone should create a map to show where all the lower league teams are, my brain said “Someone should create a map? We love maps. We shall create such a map.”

I created a Google Map and used a combination of Soccerway, Google Maps and Daum Maps to find and mark all the stadiums. I even added the stadium capacities, and had a look at this years average attendances.

This might sound boring to you, but to me making the map was 3 hours of pure joy. While making the map I noticed a few things. Noticing things on a map is what makes them so interesting.

One. When it comes to lower league football, there is a huge empty strip running through the country, starting at the top of the West coast running down and veering towards Moko when it reaches just North of Pohang.

Two. Korea has way too many stadium with capacities over 20,000. it might sound like 20,000 is small, but consider that soccer is the seconds most popular sport in Korea, and even in the top league we have only two teams getting close to an average attendance of 20,000.

What were the the plans for all these stadiums? Who was supposed to fill them, and when? I realise that the stadiums can and are used for other events, but I have been to some of these and not once have we been able to fill more than half a main stand. If they get these events one a month then it is more than I expected. Does the rent from teams and occasional event really justify the cost of construction and maintenance of these stadiums?

Three. Incheon Korail FC plays in a 50,000 capacity stadium. They managed to draw a whole average of 166 people per game this season, with a lowest attendance of 80. How do we know this? Are they actually charging people to watch? If they are, how much?

Four. In the Challenge League, League 2, 4 out of 8 stadiums have capacities of over 20,000. Sangju, with the smallest stadium, was the only teams to have an average attendance to get over the 10% capacity mark.

Five. The National League, League 3, have 4 stadiums with capacities over 20,000 and 4 stadiums falling between capacities of 15,000 to 20,000. One single club was able to get their average attendance to 25% of capacity, and that is only because they have a stadium that can handle 2800 people. I didn’t miss a zero.

Six. In the Challengers League, League 4, there are 4 teams with stadiums over 20,000 with the largest being 43,000 that is not being shared by more than one team. The rest of the teams spread pretty evenly from very small to just under 20,000. I have no idea what the average attendance might be for these games, but I can’t see anyone being better than about 750.

And 750 just happens to be about the average attendance of Cheonan City FC, with grounds that can handle just 2,900 people. Their stadium expenses to attendance ration must be something that actually makes sense. 750 is also not bad if you consider that Gangwon played in the top league and managed only about 1,400 as an average attendance over the season, in a 25,000 seater stadium.

Wow. I liked this way too much. I think I need to go drink a beer and watch rugby for a while.


View Football Stadiums in Korea in a larger map