After missing my treadmill session yesterday, I was bound and determined to get it in today. I barely managed it between my main work shift and a working dinner tonight (poor me, I had to go to a fantastical catered dinner with amazing food and live entertainment at the Bellagio, I am sure you are weeping for my plight). That being said, I am truly on my last legs right now. But as I said, I did manage to watch the first two episodes of the very excellent The Three Doctors.

Let's talk about that.

I have been in Vegas now for eight days. I could try to convince myself that the scale here is wrong, but... it isn't. So that's depressing. But I am still hitting the treadmill every day, and today was a particularly difficult day to squeeze that in. I am exhausted and ready to fall into bed but I know that you, my dear Imaginary Readers, would be sorely disappointed if I didn't tell you all about the end of The Time Monster.

So let's talk about that.

I almost missed using the treadmill today, because although I thought I set my alarm it was only programmed for weekdays. I woke up with barely enough time to get to work down in the hotel conference center and then was beset by unexpected issues right away. I didn't even manage to get any breakfast at all until nearly 10am, and it was a struggle to be pleasant when I was both hungry and missing my morning workout. Fortunately I was able to draw upon my prodigious acting skills and behave like a decent human being until I was later able to both get some food and to work in two episodes of Doctor Who on a treadmill in the hotel's fitness center. So I guess it all worked out okay, and the new story was even pretty good.

So I watched the second half of Day of the Daleks today. There comes a moment when the tension is supposed to be ratcheted up to the max, as the Daleks and their ape-like servants the Ogrons launch a full-on attack against the World Peace Conference, with squadrons of UNIT soldiers defending the property. It should have been a hugely climactic battle with lots of action and skirmishes, and with soldiers nobly sacrificing their lives and such. Instead, the climax features three Daleks and five Ogrons just kind of casually strolling across a field towards the Estate, while the UNIT soldiers fire a few thousand rounds at them. Nobody dodges or flinches, but it is also not menacing in any way. They just kind of meander across the field until UNIT wanders away. It was.... sub-optimal.

Let's talk some more about that.

Over the past few weeks, something has become readily apparent to me: I am not a young man anymore, and perhaps going from zero to five hundred miles on a treadmill over the course of just a few months might potentially be a problem. Case in point, both of my knees have started having weird pains in which if a particular spot gets bumped then another spot feels like it is on fire. I went to the doctor this morning, on the presumption that if I might be crippling myself then I should probably find that out before I put myself in a wheelchair. The doctor  gave me a topical analgesic, and also sent me out for x-rays (as seen above). Of course it will take a few days to get any results back, which is complicated by the fact I am going to be out of state for work for the next two weeks, but I presume that if the news is bad my doctor will let me know right away. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid, or at worst I need to take some particular precautions or procedures while working out. For the time being, though, the Time Treadmill marches on. Speaking of which, I watched the first two episodes of Day of the Daleks this morning.

Let's talk about that.

Today was a light workout day for me, with only one episode to watch and an early appointment. I took it easy and only spent half the usual time on the treadmill. That's ok, though, in the next few weeks I will be getting in more than enough walking on top of the normal treadmill time, so it's all good. As for today's viewing, I finished up The Dæmons, including the single most iconic line from the Brigadier ever.

Let's talk about that.

How maddeningly variable is a person's weight throughout the day? Well due to the drive home from Fort Lauderdale yesterday I had to put in my treadmill time in the late afternoon instead of my usual morning routine, and so my weigh-in yesterday happened after that. This morning I returned to my regular routine of a morning workout and then weighing myself before starting work for the day. The upshot is that, on paper at least, I lost nearly five pounds between yesterday and today. The truth is that it is an apples-to-oranges comparison due to time of day. But hey, I'll take the win anyway. This is why I (try to) pay more attention to a moving average than the daily numbers. As for today's viewing, I watched the next two episodes of The Dæmons.

Let's talk about that.

I took two days off in order to run down to Fort Lauderdale so that I could meet Peter Freakin' Capaldi, but I am back home today and back on the treadmill. Not surprisingly, two days of no exercise and vacation eating means that I temporarily gained back a few pounds. That will turn back around soon enough. In the meantime I started in today on The Dæmons.

Finally, after being around for fifteen episodes, Jo Grant gets her "bigger on the inside" moment in Colony in Space - the first color Doctor Who story to take place away from contemporary Earth. Poor Jo isn't really mentally prepared for it, but to her credit she steps up and rolls with the situation. As for me, I barely staggered through the situation. I had what might be described as a "disrupted morning", which means (among other things) that I didn't get around to hitting the treadmill until I had taken care of a couple other physically demanding things. Honestly, I almost quite halfway through. But I forced my way through it just for you, my beloved Imaginary Readers, because I knew you would be so disappointed in me if I didn't. So there's that, anyway.

So let's talk about today's episodes.

This morning I hit a huge milestone - as of today I have taken more than one million steps on the treadmill for this project. I've got another big milestone coming later in the week, but I will save that for Thursday. Also, I have to say... in the past week or so I have noticed something else: for the first time I am looking in the mirror and seeking Skinny Me instead of Fat Me. Sure, I have more excess body fat to lose, but for the very first time in nearly two decades I do not see myself in the mirror and immediately compare my own gut to my father's tremendous beer gut. So that's pretty nice. Also, as one might suspect, I watched two more episodes of The Claws of Axos. 

Let's talk about that.