80/20 Running

 

I picked up the book 80/20 Running after it was recommended by iFit trainer Tommy Rivs as a way to expand my knowledge of fitness physiology. During workouts, Tommy and other trainers spend a lot of time talking about things like perceived effort and target heart rates, as well as discussing different workout types. I have found that I enjoy learning about the physiology of fitness and the "why" behind their recommendations. I think it's one of the reasons why I've continued to run. 

The whole concept behind 80/20 running is that you should spend 80% of your training in light intensity workouts and 20% in moderate to high intensity workouts. There are multiple ways to define intensity, but the three main ways defined by the book are as follows:

• RPE, or rate of perceived effort. Simply, the amount of effort you feel like you are putting in, as determined by your brain.
• Heart rate. Maximum heart rate is defined as 220 minus your age, and the intensities are defined by a percentage of that maximum heart rate. For me, 115-140 bpm is light intensity, up to 77% of my maximum heart rate. High intensity for me is 157 bpm or greater. Between 140-157 bpm is considered moderate intensity. The percentage of maximum heart rate has been determined by various physiology studies, but essentially up to 75-77% of maximum heart rate is light intensity, greater than 85% of maximum heart rate is high intensity, and in between is moderate intensity.
• Pace, as defined by distance covered per unit of time.

Over the past year or so, and kind of by accident, I have increased my number of workouts from 3 per week to 6 per week. I have also increased my max workout time, from 30 minutes up to 50 minutes. Most of my workouts fall between 30-45 minutes. With these increases in frequency and duration, my miles have increased from around 12 per week to 20 per week. I'm happy with these increases, but feel like I've hit a bit of a plateau.  I think this is likely because (a) at the moment I'm not overly interested in putting much more time into my training, and (b) I don't necessarily have a specific goal in mind for my training.

The whole thought process behind the 80/20 concept is that multiple studies show that this is how elite athletes design their workouts and similar studies show that this is how to get the best results, especially in terms of endurance fitness. It reduces both psychological burnout from training as well as physiologic burnout in terms of injury.  The 80% of training spent in light intensity allows your brain to get used to the distance and literally trains your mind to push through perceived pain. This gradual approach reduces injury and burnout, allowing your training to proceed. The fitness gains are slow initially, but if consistency allows, the long term gains are huge. The small percentage of time spent in the moderate to high intensity zones allows for greater gains in fitness at faster rates while reducing injury and burnout.

Studies have shown that most recreational runners follow a 50/50 approach. I'd say I fall into that category, though mostly at moderate intensities. I don't reach high intensity often. What has this book and concept of 80/20 running done for me? It tells me that if I spend most of my time jogging lightly for 30-40 minutes, that is just fine. I can get my exercise in while not killing myself and subsequently not hating the journey, and I am reassured that I am making progress. Your natural instinct is that you have to run very hard to make progress, and this simply isn't true. My plan moving forward is to do 4-5 of my workouts per week at light intensity, easy jogging essentially, one workout at high intensity, likely HIIT workouts, and maybe one workout per week that is light but a bit longer in duration. What I am hoping to see is that with time I can increase my pace while keeping my intensity light. What a journey this has become.

Josie's Back!

 

At some point a few years ago, Sarah became a fan of the shopping channel QVC. Every Wednesday night we watch Down Home With David and frequently have the channel playing in the background. Switching from Dish to YouTube TV complicated QVC watching a bit, as the channel is not on YouTube TV.  For a little over the past year, we would watch the channel through the QVC app. This was less than ideal because there was no guide, you couldn't record, etc. Even worse, on the app the graphic showing the product they were reviewing and price commonly wouldn't update and thus didn't match what was being shown on the episode. 

This weekend, YouTube TV announced that QVC was coming to their platform. This is great news, as it eliminates the need for the app, getting rid of its quirkiness in the process. The best part of this for me, however, is being able to record the shows and see the guide. Why would I want this for QVC? Josie, of course! Her show was on the app but you never knew when and thus she was hard to catch. Now I can have YouTube TV's DVR record her show when ever she is on and never miss an episode! 

Comic Books and Superheroes

 I never got into comic books as a child. I was much more interested in video games and baseball cards. I was aware of their existence but if my memory is correct, they weren't as prevalent in everyday culture when I was a kid as they are now. Subsequently, when DC and Marvel comics started putting out movies at a blistering rate, I wasn't really that interested. I watched a couple of the X-Men movies and Spiderman movies from the early 2000s but that is it. Otherwise, I am oblivious to the comic book universe.

Around the holidays, HBO Max and the makers of Wonder Woman had an advertisement blitz around Wonder Woman 1984. I took the bate. I had just finished The Mandalorian season 2 and have watched all of the Clone Wars and Rebels animated episodes, so was out of Star Wars content to consume. The first Wonder Woman movie happened to be on TNT and I watched a bit of it, and decided to get involved in the comic book universe for the first time. As if I needed something else to add to my plate.

Turns out I don't have great access to Wonder Woman and the DC Universe, but I do have great access to Marvel through Disney+. I started watching movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronologic order according to the storyline. So far, I've watched Captain America, Captain Marvel, and The Avengers. It was pointed out to me by a buddy of mine and my wife, that I should watch them in order of appearance. I plan to switch my approach to accommodate this recommendation, so next I will watch Iron Man, the first movie in the MCU.

I was certainly naive to the number of movies that existed in the MCU. It's nearly 30 movies, and new content continues to be produced, including the recently released WandaVision, which is on my radar as well. Three movies into this trip, I'd say the movies are pretty good.  As mentioned, I have zero background or expectations as I watch these films, and thus subtle items within the movies could easily not register with me. With that being said, the movies have been entertaining thus far. 

I don't plan to post after watching each movie. Most of these movies are several years old at this point and much has been written about them. However, I'll periodically update on my thoughts on the series. Maybe after watching all the movies after each phase of the MCU. 

The Music of Sim City 4

 Often times, listening to the music is one of the best parts of playing through a video game. For some games, the music can be so good that it becomes the most memorable and nostalgic part of the game.  Because of this, I frequently listen to the soundtracks of my favorite games on YouTube.  The songs of my favorite games will actually get stuck in my head, and listening to the soundtrack is a great way to revisit the game. 

I was excited when I came across Kotaku's Morning Music feature. One of their first posts featured music from Sim City 4. This intrigued me, as I've been playing that game for nearly two decades and have never thought much about the music. This is much different than other gaming series that I've played over many years, like the Legend of Zelda games. After reading the article, I started listening to the music. This was the first time I've listened to the music outside of the context of the game. The article is right. The music from the game is quite fantastic, and has been under appreciated by me. I've played this game so much that even my wife recognizes the source of the music. Over the past few weeks I've been listening to the soundtrack in the background while doing other tasks, and have begun to appreciate the brilliance of the soundtrack. Video game music has the power of nostalgia, giving soundtracks instant attachment to memories of the games I love and enjoy.  This is what makes it so great. 

Playstation Remote Play

 

One of the things that I love most about the Switch is how easy it is to pick up and play. The Playstation is a bit more cumbersome. This isn't completely Sony's fault, however. A lot of it has to do with where I have the consoles connected. The Switch sits in our living room, always just a few steps away. When Sarah is watching TV, I can still play the Switch in the living room next to her in portable mode, which is a huge advantage it has over the Playstation. For us, it makes mores sense to place the Playstation downstairs so that the kids can use it has a BluRay/DVD player. Before switching to Apple TV, I would occasionally use it as a streaming device too. However, placing it in the basement makes it a bit less accessible. I understand that this may sound ridiculous on the surface. What is the big deal about walking downstairs to play games? Generally speaking this isn't a big deal. However, on a day to day basis where I may only have 20 minutes to play, I am much more likely to grab the Switch in the living room than I am to go to the basement. This is where PS4 Remote Play comes into the conversation.

Remote Play allows remote access to your Playstation. I was interested in this as an option to play my Playstation in the living room on my iPad or on my Mac.  I was able to download the software on both platforms and connect to my Playstation without trouble.  I was even able to connect my Playstation controllers to both devices easily.  This is where the simplicity ends, however. When I've attempted to actually play a game this way, not only are the frame rates horrendous, the connection to the Playstation always drops. When researching the issue, there are suggestions to plug an ethernet cable directly into the Playstation. This isn't an option, as the only way I'd be able to do this is to run an ethernet cable through the house into the basement. I will admit, my wireless network may be the problem. With my Playstation being in the basement, the wi-fi connection isn't as strong down there as it is on the main level. Also, it sits in a pretty big entertainment center which I am sure isn't helpful. I've placed this idea on pause for now, as likely the work it takes to trouble shoot will outweigh the amount of time actually spent playing remotely. Once I get a PS5, I may return to remote play to see if it works better with the newer PS5 hardware, or may look into my wireless network to see if I can solve the issue that way.

2021, Here We Come

 I've never been huge on New Year's resolutions, though I get the point. Entering a new year is an opportunity to "start fresh" and make improvements. One thing I've thought about doing for the past couple of years is reading more. I think it would make me more informed and overall a better person. This idea was sparked from the Leadership Academy I attended in 2018-2019, where reading was emphasized and it was mentioned several times how one of the things great leaders and CEOs have in common is that they read a lot. I enjoy reading, so the idea of reading more is appealing. The problem I've always had with reading is that I'm not a fast reader and I have a lot of other hobbies: sports, video games, Star Wars, etc. 

Sarah is a big reader. She says to make it easy I should read about a topic I enjoy. I think I'm going to give this a try. To start, I bought 80/20 Running, a book recommended by Tommy Rivs about a training method where you train moderately 80% of the time and with high intensity only 20% of the time. Apparently running is a hobby of mine now.

I have a list of several leadership books I could read as well. Some might perceive this as boring, but I think reading them makes me a better person so I will likely throw one into the mix here and there. More exciting, however, was yesterday's release of the Star Wars: The High Republic books and comics. Talk about things I'm interested in! The series of books takes place in the Skywalker universe, but 200 years earlier than the Phantom Menace. I'm a little apprehensive about reading Star Wars books just because of the weird names of the people and places. There is a lot of excitement about this series, and would be a great way to jump back into the Star Wars universe and be introduced to new stories. This is on my radar for sure.

We shall see how this goes. I've had this idea in the past and it has fizzled, but I feel a bit more dedicated to it this time. Even if I read a handful of books throughout the year, it will be an improvement.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars: Galaxy

 

The first time I played this game on the Wii, it took some time for it to grow on me.  I remember enjoying the game and thinking overall it was good.  But I also remember thinking parts of the game were quite weird.  I'm glad Nintendo included the game in its 3D All-Stars package to play again.  In the past couple of years, I have played every major Mario game on the 3DS or Switch, going back to the NES days. Super Mario Galaxy is on the podium in terms of best Mario games, and might be the best Mario game ever made.

To a large extent, comparing games in a great series like Mario is pointless.  There are so many good games that span such a long timeframe, it is really impossible to rank them fairly.  This is especially true when comparing games across multiple console generations. With this being said, let's start with the 3D era of Mario games, which starts with Mario 64 and goes to the most recent game, Odyssey on the Switch. Galaxy is the best Mario game in the 3D era. Let me explain why.

Galaxy is basically a better version of 64. It's essentially the same game. First the negatives. Parts of the game are quite odd, like the plot (beyond Bowser taking Peach). Accessing stages through the space station works OK but is not as original as jumping through the paintings in the castle in 64. Since the game originally came out on the Wii, you have the sometimes awkward motion controls to deal with as well.  These are all very minor negatives. You can ignore the plot and Rosalina's weird story telling. The motion controls, at times are a hinderance, but at other times, like when collecting star bits, they are beneficial. The negatives in this game are very, very minor. 

Galaxy has the best level design of any Mario game. They are beautiful to look at, intuitive, original, and fun. I rarely had to use a strategy guide to get a star. The levels naturally flowed, leading you to the star. This is different from the levels in 64, where often times I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing. The camera and control issues that plagued 64 are gone. Occasionally Mario would run in circles when trying to go straight, but otherwise the controls and camera are markedly improved in this game. This improvement is in spite of the fact that a complex physics model is present, with gravitational forces pulling Mario in different directions as he progresses through a stage. At times, this would induce dizziness, but generally speaking it was fine and added to the uniqueness of the game.  

Comparing levels between Galaxy and 64 is a good reason why comparing games across console generations isn't fair. In the 10+ years between the release of 64 and Galaxy, obviously a lot of advancement took place in terms of what gaming consoles could pull off. Mario 64 was amazing at the time, and parts of it remain amazing today. Galaxy, however, does everything 64 does, but better.

Galaxy not only has the best music of any Mario game, it has some of the best music of any video game.

Let's briefly discuss the other games from the 3D era of Mario. We've already unfairly compared Galaxy to 64, so let's move on. I won't spend any time on Sunshine either, as I recently had a post about that game as part of the 3D All-Stars collection. Odyssey on the Switch was a fun game. My girls and I have played for about 90 hours, and we've collected nearly 500 moons. I don't think the game is as good as Galaxy, though. Except for the parts where the game transitions to 2D, which are fantastic, the game itself just isn't that memorable. I want to spend the most time talking about Galaxy 2. The game was somewhat strangely omitted from the 3D All-Stars collection. Therefore, I have not played that game since it originally came out on the Wii. While Galaxy 1 left a lasting impression on me that I remembered, I honestly don't remember much from Galaxy 2. My post from 2010 about Galaxy 2 said that it improved every aspect of Galaxy 1 and was a great game, so I will trust that it is a great game as well. For the purposes of ranking, I will include Galaxy 1 and 2 as a single entity on the podium.

For those who are curious, I have Super Mario Brothers 3 from the NES and Super Mario World from the SNES as the other two Mario games on my Mario podium. Despite being 30 years old, both games are a lot of fun to play, even by today's gaming standards. I will place those two games to the side of Galaxy, which in my opinion stands at the top of the Mario Bros. podium. What a fantastic game.