One fat geek's SUCCESSFUL attempt to regenerate into a not-so-fat geek by watching the entirety of Doctor Who while walking on a treadmill

Structural Redesign, and the Flexibility of Bubble Wrap

Aug 29 2018
Structural Redesign, and the Flexibility of Bubble Wrap

Holy cow, I didn't intend to take another five days off. It just kinda happened. I don't even have any great excuse really. I mean, yesterday was a mess because a service technician was supposed to be here between 8am and noon so I didn't want to treadmill in the morning and be interrupted. I figured I would do it on my lunch break. Instead, the technician didn't show until mid-afternoon, and by then my day was shot. I had no time in the evening. So that's one weak excuse and four days with nothing but laziness to blame. I'm a complete fraud and failure. Ah, well.

On the other hand, I performed a structural redesign on the Time Treadmill and then watched the back half of The Ark in Space today, so let's talk about that.

The Ark in Space - Parts 3 & 4

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

(My previous watch)

I don't have much of anything different to say about the episode this time around that I didn't say last time. There is maybe thirty seconds of enhanced special effects in these two episodes, with another establishing shot of Nerva Beacon with its shuttle craft, and then said shuttle craft escaping and exploding with the Wirrn on board. Neither sequences are particularly good, they are budget-grade CGI at best. The one thing I didn't mention last time is the fact that the creature effects were clearly built out of different sizes of bubble wrap painted green. I mean, bravo for inventiveness and using whatever was at hand and within the miniscule budget, but it does expose the tiny budget that the show had to work with back in the Classic era.

So anyway, the other thing I did was to build a pair of structural supports for the Time Treadmill arms, constructed out of PVC pipe. Twice now I have fractured a welded joint in the main support because I put too much weight on the arms during my sessions. Knowing that, after a year and a half, my body mechanics are just not going to change, I figured I should design some support pillars to prevent it from happening again. Here's what I came up with:

Basically, each post braces against the foot of the treadmill and reaches up to cup the end of the arms. This means that any downward force on the arms will be primarily carried directly down through the posts to the floor, instead of pivoting on the welded joint where the arm meets the rear support. The belt portion is still able to lift up and fold away, so the new support pillars do not obstruct in any way. I am pretty pleased with the result.

Also, enough time has passed since I pinched the nerve in my back, so I am easing back into push-ups. I did fifteen today just to see how it felt, and it went fine. I will proceed with caution and see how it goes, and hopefully alternate upper body and lower body workouts so I don't tweak another nerve. Here's hoping.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan
Episode(s): Ark in Space - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 7,586 today, 3,668,174 total
Distance Walked: 4.05 miles today, 1,917.28 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 15 today, 6,762 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 1,029 total
Weight: 250.10 lbs (five day moving average), net change -56.50 lbs


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