Rudy Faile

Month: April 2019

  • One Rep Max Calc and SSL oh my!

    One Rep Max Calc and SSL oh my!

    Today I touched up https://strong.rudyfaile.com/ by adding SSL and forcing http redirects. I should have done this in the first place, seeing how easy SSL with Let’s Encrypt is but hey, it’s done now. I also put SSL on the other subdomain projects.

    I also added a one rep max calculator which lives at https://max.rudyfaile.com/ (and is linked in the 5/3/1 program generator, see below:)

    πŸ˜„

    The purpose of the one rep max calculator is to help you find a 1 rep max if you aren’t looking to necessarily lift the absolute amount of weight that you absolutely can in a single rep. In a perfect world, you should always try.

    Let’s say however that you generate a four-week program and on week 3 you miss your lift for 1+ reps in the last set (set 3). It will be tough to calculate an accurate four week program without a number, and it’s never a good idea to guess. Instead, you could lift a lower weight (not too much lower) for as many reps as you can using the 1 rep max calculator. This will allow you to use a decently estimated number for the next program generator.

    In other news: https://strong.rudyfaile.com/ and https://game.rudyfaile.com/ have SSL now too. One cool thing about that is you can play Lucy’s Adventure offline as a result (assuming you’ve already loaded the game) πŸ˜„

  • strong.rudyfaile.com

    strong.rudyfaile.com

    I couldn’t sleep last night so I decided to whip up a 5/3/1 barbell training program generator in PHP for all to use freely πŸ˜„. Since finishing my 100 days of running I have more time available to me to both program and lift weights, and combining these two hobbies is one of my favorite things to do πŸ’ͺπŸ€“ πŸ’ͺ.

    The program lives here: http://strong.rudyfaile.com/

    If you aren’t familiar with Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 I highly recommend looking into it. Jim is a no-bs strength guru and I’ve found his program, as is its namesake, as the Simplest and Most Effective Training System to Increase Raw Strength. The beauty of the program is its built around you, and adjusts to your progress every four weeks. Essentially, you start out by testing your one rep maxes in the four core compound lifts: Overhead Press, Deadlift, Bench Press, and Squat. From there, the calculator generates a 4 week program based on your lifts. In week 1 you’re doing 5 reps across the board, week 2 three reps, and week 3 is your 5/3/1 week where you’re looking to max out. This is the most important week as the lifts here determine the following 4 weeks’ program. Thus, you have an ever-evolving, infinite duration strength training program custom tailored to your needs.

    This was the first time I’ve cracked my knuckles to square off with PHP in a long time but I was extremely pleased with how fast I was able to jump back into it and rapidly port my command line Python version of this program to a web-driven one.

    Mostly, I’m a terrible designer and I’m so pleased with how this came out on both the web and mobile πŸ™‚ – especially considering this was developed bare-bones from the ground up.

    I did a decent job of sanitizing input and ensuring validation with functions like isset() – right now the only bug I’m aware of that I need to work out is the sizing on mobile but it’s tough to keep things readable in a table and still have it fit on the screen, still works though Β―\_(ツ)_/Β―. I also chose to use $_GETmethods instead of _$POST so that folks could save the permalink if they wanted to revisit their program without re-entering the numbers (I added a nifty one-click button for this, too!)

    On top of enjoying PHP development for once I got deep in the woods in Apache’s virtual hosts to set Lucy’s Adventure and my 5/3/1 calculator as separate directories on the same web server which is pretty cool. I’m having fun tinkering with all this stuff and am excited to add more projects to the *.rudyfaile.com subdomains!

    If you have any questions about how to use the program or strength training theory in general feel free to leave a comment below πŸ‘‡ or contact me privately. Also looking for feedback on what would make the program more intuitive (design suggestions are probably hopeless πŸ˜….)

  • Day 100 of 100

    Day 100 of 100

    Date: 04/13/2019
    Day: 100 of 100
    Weight: 248.2
    Miles: 2.03
    Total Time: 19’12”
    Avg Pace: 9’28″/mi

    At the end of 2018 I decided to challenge myself by running at least a mile for 100 days. Today, that challenge comes to an end. I talked a bit in a recent post about some of what this challenge meant to me. I started the same way I finished on day one, with 2.03 miles logged.

    The total mile count is off, it’s definitely more than 212 total miles. As I mentioned on day 98, I started tracking my data halfway through in an Excel sheet where the formulas are perfect instead of a rough copy paste mental math caveman addition I performed here in the blog after running each day. As I mentioned, I’m excited to apply some analytics to the data tomorrow and see if we can pull any insightful information from it. I’ll also be releasing the data set for anyone who’d like to use it for any reason (isn’t open source great?)

    I’m mostly excited to get my time back. I think I mentioned at the start of this that the worst part of this whole shebang was the writing portion. Aside from me being not-mr-social-media, I found dreading the fact that I had to post more than the running itself. However, this was a nice exercise in learning how to write more. Forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do is one of the most empowering things you can do. I truly believe that. This action alone snowballed into a few other things that happened over the first quarter of 2019:

    • πŸ“š I read 14 books. All while running. I plan on posting the list and my thoughts about each of them soon.
    • πŸ’» Everything else became a little easier. I started carving out time in the mornings to do extra at work or contribute code to products at my company outside of what I work on.
    • πŸ‘Ύ I got back to my passion: developing games. I released a playable demo of my current personal project: Lucy’s Adventure.

    I have to thank everyone that supported me during this. All of my family members, my friends, and even acquaintances that would ask “How’s the running going?” when I’d see them. Most of all, I thank Kristen for her boundless support of all the goofy endeavors I undertake and her patience through all of it. When I declared on Friday that I’d be running a half marathon the next day, she just rounded up the dogs and some supplies and pit crewed for me – no questions asked 🀷.

    I’m so excited to take the experience gained in this endeavor and convert it to the next challenge. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet, but as a person that believes in conscious continuous improvement, you can bet it’ll be something πŸ˜„. I’m thinking about programming for 100 days or making game(s) for 100 days, but it’s going to have to be postponed until Q3 of this year due to travel constraints.

    Thanks to all of you who read this and found enjoyment or motivation here. I hope it helps someone else in some way.

    Total Miles: 212.19 in 100 days.

    See how this whole thing got started here.

  • Day 99 of 100

    Day 99 of 100

    Date: 04/12/2019
    Day: 99 of 100
    Weight: 249.2
    Miles: 1.00
    Total Time: 8’54”
    Avg Pace: 8’52″/mi

    1 mile. 1 day left.

    Total Miles: 210.16 in 99 days.

    See how this whole thing got started here.

  • Day 98 of 100

    Day 98 of 100

    Date: 04/11/2019
    Day: 98 of 100
    Weight: 245.1
    Miles: 3.10
    Total Time: 29’30”
    Avg Pace: 9’30″/mi

    Day 98. It feels kind of surreal to be here. I literally have to run tomorrow and the day after that and I’ll have run for 100 straight days. Since starting at the beginning of January I ran a mile or more every single day. Some days I was really sick, tired, or didn’t feel like I could do it. Even on those days I got out and at least walked the mile.

    I’ve been thinking all this week about running a marathon on Saturday but I don’t feel like my limbs will make it. Cardio-wise I feel fine, but after 100 days of pounding my joints onto the pavement it seems like a poor idea to run it Saturday. I still plan on getting one done here in the near future, but I’d like to remember what it feels like to not have to run one day first πŸ˜„.

    What I’ve learned most while doing this is that anyone is capable of anything given enough time. 100 days of consecutive running seems like a lot. What if you just went and ran a mile? Not that much right? At Automattic as part of our creed we say “Given time, no problem is insurmountable” I’ve found this to be exceptionally true.

    Lots of people have asked me if I’ll keep running. The short answer is: “I don’t know, but probably not every single day.” I’ve compiled all the data into a CSV file. I’m excited to run analytics on it over the weekend with a complete data set and see if there’s any insights. I wish I had a checkbox for πŸ•(I’m telling you, it makes a difference!) More than anything though. I’m excited to put this challenge to rest and start something new.

    Total Miles: 209.16 in 98 days.

    See how this whole thing got started here.

  • Day 97 of 100

    Day 97 of 100

    Date: 04/10/2019
    Day: 97 of 100
    Weight: 246.2
    Miles: 1.00
    Total Time: 8’20”
    Avg Pace: 8’17″/mi

    1 mile with the doggies 🐢🐢

    Total Miles: 206.06 in 97 days.

    See how this whole thing got started here.

  • Lucy’s Adventure call for testing!

    Lucy’s Adventure call for testing!

    I made a recent post about my progress working on this game.

    If you’d like, you can play the work in progress πŸ‘‰ here!

    Feedback/comments/suggestions welcome πŸ˜„

    I’m still working on the final art/sounds/music and adding more levels. I’ll have controller support in soon as well πŸ™‚

  • Day 96 of 100

    Day 96 of 100

    Date: 04/09/2019
    Day: 96 of 100
    Weight: 248.9
    Miles: 1.00
    Total Time: 8’34”
    Avg Pace: 8’33″/mi

    1 mile with the doggies 🐢🐢

    Total Miles: 205.06 in 96 days.

    See how this whole thing got started here.

  • Day 95 of 100

    Day 95 of 100

    Date: 04/08/2019
    Day: 95 of 100
    Weight: 250.2
    Miles: 1.00
    Total Time: 8’59”
    Avg Pace: 8’58″/mi

    1 mile with the doggies 🐢🐢

    Total Miles: 204.06 in 95 days.

    See how this whole thing got started here.

  • Day 94 of 100

    Day 94 of 100

    Date: 04/07/2019
    Day: 94 of 100
    Weight: 251.1
    Miles: 3.10
    Total Time: 29’29”
    Avg Pace: 9’30″/mi

    Sunday 5K. Today I passed 200 miles. Less than a week left to 100 days.

    Total Miles: 203.06 in 94 days.

    See how this whole thing got started here.