Category: Big Ideas

Seals

Last week was my first double-digit mile week since January. I’m still walking.

I ran from the office at lunch yesterday. The run was good, but chilly. A pair of gloves was all I needed, though.

Huh. Nothing really coming out on the writing front, which is kind of a shame. I had an amazing run about two weeks ago – the first trip back to Arcadia in a long while, and I’ve been musing over it for a while, trying to figure out how to phrase the thoughts.

Essentially, what I’ve been postulating is that adversity is crucial to fully forming a human – that we’ve evolved in such a way that we do not truly function unless we are under stress. The Garden of Eden origin story tends to support this – Adam and Eve living in paradise couldn’t handle life with everything provided for them, and were forced out of the Garden.

But it’s not coming. Sorry. Spring is in the air, and it’s tough to think about adversity when there are daffodils sticking their heads out of the ground.

D’oh – Added later

So, I forgot to mention why this post was titled “Seals”.

As I’m coming back to the office after the run, I meet another runner in the basement shower of my building. We chitchat a bit about the day’s workouts, and he asked me if I saw the seals. “Nope.”

Unbeknownst to me, apparently there’s a gaggle of seals that congregate on some rocks outside of the Navy Station chow hall at low tide. Yesterday, low tide was about 11:30, so I missed the seals. It should be about 12:30 today, so I’m hoping to catch the seals during lunch. It’ll mean extending what should be 3 miles to about 4, but hey – how many people get to see seals during their lunchtime run?

I could recommend a couple of brains for dissection:

So, exercise is good for the brain (for sure if you’re a mouse, but maybe even if you’re a person. Slashdot linked to a CNN bit

“Once these findings were established in mice, we were interested in determining how exercise affects the hippocampal cerebral blood volume maps of humans,” … They of course could not dissect the brains of people to see if new neurons grew, but they could use MRI to have a peek. (The experiment) also measured the fitness of each volunteer by measuring oxygen volume before and after the training program. Exercise generated blood flow to the dentate gyrus of the people, and the more fit a person got, the more blood flow the MRI detected, the researchers found.

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Fatty’s got a great idea…

Once in a while, a great idea comes up, and today’s is courtesy of Fat Cyclist:

Like-Minded Cyclists + Local Knowledge = Dream VacationFrom here, the UVCV is pretty simple. Each clique would determine for themselves how often they have these vacations, and how many days those vacations last. Each clique member takes turns being a host: putting together an awesome biking vacation for their clique in your home area. When you’re host, you’re responsible for choosing what trails people will ride, where people will stay, picking them up at the airport, arranging with a bike shop to take care of any gear needs travelers will have, where to eat…pretty much everything. You’re Mr. Rork, and your hometown is Fantasy Island.

I’m digging on this idea, especially after hosting Warren last year – it’s a riot to be able to show off your home turf.

So, drop a line if you’re in the SE CT/RI area, and I’d be happy to show you around running, or on any kind of bike, provided you’re willing to wait up.

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A Modest Proposal

Executive Summary:

  • The cost to take a suburban house “off the grid” or nearly so, is in the neighborhood of $30,000 to $40,000. While not extravagant, it’s a figure that gives most middle-class households pause when compared with a $100-$200/month electric bill.
  • To offset this cost, Carbon Credits are used to fund alternative energy installations on existing suburban homes.
  • The benefits of taking suburban houses off the grid are numerous – reduces strain on infrastructure, simplifies disaster response, and provides the initial infrastructure for the much touted “Hydrogen Economy”.
  • Unlike most solutions proposed to be funded with Carbon Credits, this one is achievable TODAY with off-the-shelf technology, not vaporware.

More after the break. For more information, or if you’d like to throw a couple million my way to get this started, leave a comment, or my contact information is on the right. A (very) brief resume is at the end of the post.
Continue reading A Modest Proposal

So my question here

Saturday’s Dilbert looked like this:

My punchline would have been “From the French Butcher”. Scott Adams has done French jokes in the past, and I’m dying to know if he wanted to do one here.

In other news, I got on the bike yesterday afternoon, and it was good. Rode over to Pequot woods and did the mile or so singletrack loop in the slush, then rode home. Probably less than 10 miles total, but it was outside, and it was on the bike.

The legs are feeling pretty good – Friday, I couldn’t hold myself back from jogging between buildings at work – running feels SOOOOO good, but I’m still a bit worried about pushing myself back into injury. Here’s hoping someone keeps reminding me to stretch.

My lovely wife (who gets lovelier every day) finally shared her calesthenics routine with me this weekend. She does:

– 40 regular crunches (hands behind the head, arms parallel to the floor, work the muscle directly below your rib cage)
– 20 obliques on each side (Like regular crunches, except lift only one side off of the floor – the other elbow should stay down)
– 40 scissors crunches (alternate elbows and knees)
– 40 pelvis tilts (on the back, legs straight up, work the ab directly above the pelvis)
– Dumbell lifts straight out to the side (like you’re a bird with flapping wings)
– Dumbell lifts straight out front
– Dumbell arm extensions (Lean over the bench with your torso parallel to the floor.One knee and one hand on the bench. On the other side, extend your arm behind you from the elbow until it’s parallel to the floor, then bring the weight back to a 90 degree elbow bend)
– Dumbell lawn-mower pulls (Same position as above, except you’re taking your arm from straight down to a 90 degree bend
– Dumbell curls

I’m going to start doing it on Monday, along with trying for 10 miles next week, mostly outdoors.

One More Week/Lent

So, the legs are feeling much, much better after a week with a total of 2 miles run.

My natural inclination, of course, is to strap on the sneakers and resume 20 miles/week, ’cause I’m dumb that way.

The weather is conspiring against me, too, with today through Thursday expected to be in the mid-40’s F (high-single digits Metric) after a long, long time of cold weather. Man, it’s nice out.

Instead – I’m holding firm and I’ve decided to give myself another  week of rest. This morning, woke up, forgot to stretch while getting out of bed, and was doing the morning business before I realized that I’d gotten up without discomfort. Again, this would be an indication that I should go do something dumb, like 10 miles on Jamestown on the ride home, but I’m fighting them urges.

Another week of rest…

Which translates to time on the stationary bike in the Gym, resuming Pilates (I hope), and hopefully getting in the pool for the first time in 2007.

Went to the church’s weekly men’s prayer breakfast this morning – good times spiritually, and also cycling-ly. Lots of bikers at St Andrew. So, keeping the running in check may not be as detrimental to overall fitness as I fear. Hopefully I can turn it into a weekly ride…

Lent: Jon’s  got me thinking again, and reviewing my past entries show that giving up fast-food for Lent is extremely effective from a weight loss perspective, and pretty effective from a deprivation perspective (I love me some Taco Bell). It’ll also make good with my lovely wife, who is continually urging me to “Take my darn lunch” on a budgetary basis.

So, fast food it is.

I’m going to make a couple of other ground-rules:

1) Fast food is defined as “crappy fast food”. Exceptions will be given, on a rare basis for:

  • Subway, provided it’s 6″, whole wheat, no cheese, no random pressed meats (salami, bologna, pepperoni)
  • Wendy’s salads, provided I get non-breaded chicken and don’t eat the tasty sprinkles

2) Included in fast food are things like:

  • Grinders, especially those from Jim’s Deli, which are the culinary equivalent of high-grade heroin – a thrill to eat, but so, so bad…
  • Any form of greasy burger from a chain resturant or “pub”.
  • Hot Wings
  • And the killer – the weekly dose of Domino’s. I will make a tasty spinach salad to accompany our weekly date with Tom Bergeron and AFV.

I think I’m pretty serious about this: I’ve been stalled, weight and fitness, since the last time I really dug down and reformed my eating habits. Plus, it’s all in support of a culture I’m viewing as increasingly toxic, not necessarily nutritionally, but socially, and I want to work on setting a better example for the boys.

He’s not dead, Gym

In advance I’ve got to apologize to the woman who was doing crunches almost the entire time on the rowing machine – I did not mean to stare – I was looking at the TV in proximity to you. And, by all means, continue what it is you’re doing – it is working wonderfully.

In the spirit of my 2007 resolutions, I did not take my rest day lightly. At lunch, I headed down to the gym, and gutted out 2878 meters (15 minutes) on the rowing machine, and a quick 10 minutes of intervals (40 seconds spinning easy at 90 RPM, 40 seconds hard at 105-115 RPM) on the stationary bike. Plus some stretching, and the before-mentioned sightseeing (Again, I apologize.) All-in-all, a very effective cardio workout.

Though, the part that impresses me most is that I ended up with a blister on my left hand – clearly, life has been way too easy for me.

Susan in Dallas (not to be confused with Susie in Virginia) turned me on to Traineo – not quite sure what it does, but I think I’m going to give it a go as a public way to commit to weight-loss. It’s full of all kinds of Ajax-y goodness.

A couple of personal notes this evening:

First, I did a quick “StrenghtsFinder” profile today at the behest of my boss. it’s based off of the book “Now, Discover Your Strengths” – won’t link to it as I think they’ve got enough press. I don’t place a whole lot of stock in any of the “pop” leadership/management books, but the guy I’m working for does, and I think he’s a pretty sharp guy. So, I clicked through the survey, being as honest as I could be.

No huge shocks – my five strengths came out as

  • Learner
  • Ideation
  • Activator
  • Woo
  • Responsibility

Actually, the “Woo” kind of took me for a loop – I did not think that I had much in the way of people skills at all, but “Woo” makes sense – I’m all about selling people on wild ideas, ‘specially if I’m convincing them that they should be the ones really taking the risks.

“Learner” was a no-brainer – show me something I’m not at least conversant in, and I can show you a credit-card charge later that week for an O’Reilly book on the subject. “Ideation” – likewise, let me read the book, and I’m hatching all sorts of “what-if” plans.

“Activator” – if there’s a group sitting on its duff, I’m incredibly impatient. Do something, don’t just sit there. And “Responsibility” – well, the description said that:

Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution.

Wow – talk about the story of my freakin’ life. Actually, this was a relief to me to read – even though I’m not a planner and have no real skills at execution once a project is started, my dad drilling into me “Ultimately, all you have is your name” seems to have stuck.

Now, to re-examine myself and see how to build on my strengths…

Second, I went and watched the first three quarters of the BCS game. I was on the OSU bandwagon, as it turns out that my wife’s Grandfather is not only an OSU grad, but an Engineer (I knew about the engineer part, but not the OSU part). I would have cried, but I got to watch it with a couple of friends in the Harp and Hound in downtown Mystic. There are few things better than a winter’s evening in a 200 year old pub where you can actually carry on a conversation and watch football.

Lastly, a huge and belated happy birthday to my little brother, Doc. He’s a good man.

2007 New Year’s Resolutions

OOOOK, Ladies and Gentlemen!

So, it’s 6 days late, and I haven’t had a chance to check on anyone else’s plans for the New Year. But, it’s about time to crank out a goals post for 2007 – But first, a little bit of

reflection

This is my third set of running goals. The first, in 2005 was too ambitious – I don’t think I was ready to tackle marathon training, and, even though I was ultimately successful in running the marathon in pretty close to goal time, 2005 almost made me a couch potato again. Although, looking back through those posts, I really cannot find anything that comes close to capturing the near depression I was feeling at the time.

Last year, for 2006, I did two – one back in November, when I was still going through “Denial” part of my post-marathon funk, and a better one in January, when I was going through “Coping”. For the goals in November – well, missed every one of them except for running New Haven. I’m at least 5 lbs heavier than I was then, didn’t run Bluff Point (I give myself an out on this one, since the Wife did, and our babysitter backed out), and didn’t do any of the Terramuggus tri series. For the resolutions in January – I think I finally lived up to “Fun” – I liked working out again by the end of this year.

advice

Seein’ as how I’ve been around the block with this running thing at least a couple of years (an infinity by internet standards), I’d like to offer a couple words of experience to anyone looking to get started this year:

  • listen to your brain as much as you listen to your body. At least for the first couple of years, don’t completely devote yourself to a plan. setting out to run a marathon may be a great way to get started running, but not at the expense of a physical injury, or worse – a mental injury
  • I cannot emphasize the mental bit enough – unless you’re in high school or college, you’re running for long-term health. Burning out and getting disillusioned is the biggest reason folks quit running. They may blame it on injury, but the mind is the easiest part to injur.
  • Lastly, be ambitious, if that’s your style. Me? I like having a mountain to climb. My wife, on the other hand, just likes having a quiet half hour each day.

resolution

  1. Against my better judgement, I’m going to sign up for a fall marathon. Probably Mystic Places again, but I’m dropping an application for NYC. We’ll be up at Hartford for moral support – Missy’s thinking about doing the half.
  2. The fall marathon will be in support of either Austin or Oklahoma City in early 2008 with my little brother.
  3. Continue to maintain the 20 mile/week baseline until marathon training starts in May/June, but begin to add some cycling and swimming again. I do want to get back into triathlon, but don’t want to burn out again.
  4. Drop weight. I don’t drop weight if I don’t think about it. I need to start thinking about it.
  5. Start writing for CRN again.