Breathe!

Seriously, I needed to remind myself (and Goddess) to do just that.

Over the past couple of weeks, post-duathlon and post-CMM, we’ve been busy taking care of vehicles and getting the house packed.

Vehicles?  We had to take my ‘64 Chevy truck down to my parent’s house for storage.  It made it about halfway before the transmission went thermo-nuclear.  Seriously, on the side of the freeway that thing was white hot, boiling off all the transmission fluid.  So we drug it the rest of the way.  Then the Subbie made a trip to St Louis so it could be shipped to Germany.

Then the house was packed.

But in the meantime, a good friend made it to Nashville.  So we made a trip, had some drinks, and enjoyed his reminiscing of growing up in that town while seeing (through his eyes) how things have changed.

Then last Saturday was the Elton John/Billy Joel concert.  Three and a half hours of some of my favorite karaoke songs.  We definitely had a great time.

The last of the moves is tomorrow morning. 

And here’s a pic a couple of hours before the concert.  The shirt says it all (after the sign):

Then we finally made it to the local running club’s monthly meeting.  We got to meet Runnermom, as well as the guy who I suspected was drafting during the duathlon.  I recognized him, then when we met he said “Hey, I read your blog”.  It could have been awkward, but it wasn’t.  Good folks all around.

Finally, over the weekend Goddess prevailed and I finally set up a Facebook account.  It has been everything I feared, namely a huge time suck.  But then again, I’ve already talked to people I haven’t seen in over 20 years, so it’s a good thing.

In the meantime, man I’ve really got to get a run or two in.  Next weekend is the 10-hour overnight “Run Under the Stars”.  I haven’t put a single mile in in the past two weeks thanks to all of the other activities.  Hopefully it just means that I’m well-rested.

I may or may not get a race-report in after that one.  I finish at 6am Sunday morning, run a 5K (Run for Beer) at 5pm Sunday afternoon, then fly to Germany on Tuesday.  So I’ll fit it in when I can.

Ouch

Courtesy of Bre Pettis (http://brepettis.com)

Thinking back over the years, how many of you can remember situations where this could have been you?  C’mon, let’s see a show of hands.  ;^)

From a very interesting collection depicting electrocution possibilities.

Click on the pic for more.  Some are quite creative.

Yep, I said it

"Nicely Screwed" by nataliej

I was just reminded of something I said a few weeks ago.

It was an observation.  But like many of the observations I make, I somehow end up with my foot in my mouth.

Much like Steve, the poor sap in the cereal commercial who mentions to his wife that she must be trying to lose weight because of the low-calorie cereal she was eating.

I was hosed from the start.

Goddess and I were out clothes shopping for her.  To give you an idea what an event this is, I typically have to drag her into a clothes store to even just browse.  To actually get her to buy something is quite an accomplishment.

So she found some shirts that she liked, so I was looking through the racks for similar shirts that she may like.  She had mentioned that the shirts seemed to be running  a bit larger than the labeled size.  That was my trap.

I tied the ever-expanding waist line of America into the observation.

With this gem -

“Looks like they’re making the medium’s larger to make the fat people feel better about themselves”.

Any guesses on who was holding a medium shirt?

Rockin’ Weekend

Unfortunately, no concerts were involved.

Friday was a beautiful day.  Cloudy, a bit of drizzle, temp in the low-50’s.  A gorgeous day for a long run.  And that’s what I did.  A 20-miler, my last “long” run before next month’s Country Music Marathon.  The plan was go out with the race in mind, negative split the course and keep my overall average pace within 30-seconds of my goal pace for the marathon.  And that’s exactly what I did.

First was figuring out a course the replicated the CMM, which is fairly hilly during the opening miles, then flattens out as the course winds its way along the Cumberland River.  I think I did that pretty well, although I know this 20 mile course is a bit tougher.

On top is my course, on bottom is the CMM course that I ran last year.  This year they’ve made some minor changes to the course, but nothing drastic.

 

At the risk of jinxing myself, I am now confident in a significant PR for a marathon.  Now it’s just a matter of managing my fatigue, tapering well and avoiding a last-minute injury.

Saturday was a day at work.  It started out slow, then turned into quite an interesting afternoon as we issued a tornado watch for the area and then watched everything blow up around us.  It’s one of those days of mixed emotions.  You don’t want it to happen, but when you lay it all out there and forecast it when the day is nice and bright and sunny and there isn’t any activity anywhere near, you sure do hope that it does; y’all abuse us weather folks enough, remembering only the times that we get it wrong (which really isn’t that often). 

But this guy got it wrong:

  

So very wrong.

Once the storms blew up around to our west and headed our way, we kept our fingers crossed that there wouldn’t be any significant damage and ideally no injuries. 

It rolled through and we had reports of hail and wind damage in the area, as well as one highly questionable report of a funnel cloud, that, if the spotter was correct, would have put the funnel directly over my head as I was standing outside.  A good look at the radar afterwards confirmed that there wasn’t any rotation. 

But the real worry was up north, out of our area of concern.  An EF-3 tornado rolled through a rural area of Kentucky.  We were interrogating it pretty hard on the radar and shaking our heads, but had to turn our attention to those storms that were still coming at us.  Luckily there weren’t any reports of significant damage or injuries in our area of concern.

Sunday turned out to be much, much colder.  Everyone out west got the snow, we just got the cold.  So after work it was an easy 5-mile run in tights and doubled up long-sleeves.  And that run took me over 60 miles for the week. 

And that definitely puts me on track for a marathon PR.

But we shall see.

A Modest Proposal

On today’s New York Times front page is an excellent article on biking in NYC.  I think that it applies everywhere.

Because, as Pogo said:

Many of the issues that Robert Sullivan brings up are exactly the reasons that I quit riding with organized bike clubs many, many years ago, no matter where I am in the world.  I got sick and tired of watching the club pack ride straight through a 4-way stop as if the law didn’t apply to them, then having to deal with irate drivers while riding solo.  And while I applaud the overarching goal of Critical Mass, some cyclists use the events as an excuse to act like a bunch of hoodlums, thereby negating any positive effects their effort may have.

So ride like the wind and ride strong, but ride like your grandmother is watching.

God I Miss Japan

And it’s little things like this that remind me of that:

 

The Dancing Elvis’, as they are affectionately known, get together every weekend at the eastern entrance to Yoyogi Park in metropolitan Tokyo.  Yoyogi Park was our favorite way to spend a Sunday, hanging out and watching people. 

Here’s one of my shots of the Elvii:

They brought their own generators that powered amps blaring rockabilly all afternoon.  They’d dance until they couldn’t move.  But we wouldn’t hang out there long.  Too many other things to see.

Just up the street from the Elvii, all along the sidewalk, bands would set up, powered by portable generators, and crank out their best tunes.  Some incredible talent could be heard there.  But I understand now that the local government has cracked down on the bands and they’ve all disappeared.  Boooo!

Here are the “Japanese Babies”, who I guess are now defunct.  The band would blare out punk tunes at the rate of 180-200bpm, all the while this guy in the foreground would paint portraits of the people in the crowd in time to the music:

Autumn was my favorite, since Yoyogi Park was full of gingko biloba trees.  They would all turn a bright yellow, similar to aspens.  The color would be amazing.  Even more fun would be watching people pile the leaves on the grates over the subway, then wait for a train to go by.  The rush of air would launch the leaves into the air so they would shower down:

And there were often festivals, like the Yosakoi, which is a competition of large dance troupes.  Think of a Japanese version of line dancing, but a lot more fun:

And even though all of that was amazing, the most impressive part was heading the other direction, around the corner to Meiji Shrine.  Sundays were the guaranteed day to see several traditional Japanese weddings.  Even though the ceremony was held within the private confines of the temple, it was tradition to march the couple and their entourage through the ground of the temple, then set them up for their professional photos.  Of course, that gave the rest of us the perfect opportunity to grab our shots too:

 

So it’s fun to see things like the video of the Dancing Elvis’.  Good memories and quite a few tangents, thinking about good times with good friends. 

In a wonderful place.

 

BTW, all photos are © Bill Anders (yes, I have to put that, since several folks have seen fit to heist my photos for their own credit/use, and hence the fugly watermarks on the images).

Is it really suffering…

…when you enjoy every minute of it?

The Thrill Is Gone

Ummm.  Yeah, no it’s not.  Not even close.

But what a great tune.

One we got to see played live Thursday night.

First off, for those of you who are fretting over the silliness known as Valentine’s Day – I’m sorry.  Goddess let me off the hook regarding that day while we were dating.  Simply put, the day doesn’t make her feel special, so what’s the point?

Instead we celebrate (Goddess’) Day.  I inserted (Goddess) to save you all from the pain of my syrupy pet name for Goddess.  Besides, it’s just between me and her.

Anyway, (Goddess’) Day happens to fall on February 16th, which is the day that I proposed to her in the middle of White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.  Right at sunset.  That day makes her feel special.  And no, the thrill is definitely not gone.  And if you ever get a chance to visit WSNM, I highly recommend it.

Picture by kds4850

So last week, I happened to browse across the link for the B.B. King concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, which sold out in minutes back in December (so I thought).  Much to my surprise, I found that there were actually a few seats available.  We’re both big fans, so I snatched up two and decided to make a night of it to celebrate (Goddess’) Day.

What a great show!

The warm-up act was Buddy Guy, who was just amazing.  His set was unfortunately only one hour long, which he filled with ten minute songs and jams.  Seriously.  Thirty minutes into his show and he was just finishing up his third song.  And he’s quite a showman, playing tricks with his guitar while playing, even leaving the stage and strolling through the audience while playing.  He had the whole place rocking, which takes on a new dimension in the Ryman, which is an old church with a wooden floor and wooden pews for seats.

Which makes for amazing acoustics.

After a 45-minute intermission, which proved once again that the Ryman is the only place I’ve ever been where the line for the men’s room is huge and the women walk straight on in, B.B.’s band took the stage.

The next two hours were incredible.  B.B. even apologized for keeping us so late, ending the show after 11pm.  But he was clearly having a great time.  And that’s what impressed me the most.  Here’s an 83-year-old guy who’s been playing for over sixty years (he even mentioned that he was playing clubs before most of our parents were born), but he clearly loves what he’s doing.

And the two thousand people in attendance definitely loved what he was doing too.  The entire show pulled hoots and hollers from the crowd, lots of clapping in time and plenty of toe tapping.  Again, on the wooden floors and pews, the toe tapping takes on a whole new feel.  During quiet portions of songs, the crowd kept time, which sounded pretty good.  Except there are quite a few in the audience that didn’t have any rhythm.  Some so bad that it’s a wonder that they could even procreate.

Here’s Buddy and B.B. playing together (in what appears to be a video from the 80’s).  No video or pics from last night’s performance.  The camera nazi’s were in full force, swooping down on people as soon as they lifted a camera.  A few were even escorted out after repeated warnings.

After the show, we were starving.  We were hoping to grab a late-night breakfast at IHOP, but the one that we knew about was closed.  Since when does IHOP close?  So once again, the romantic side of me comes out and there I was, at 1:30 am, treating Goddess to Waffle House.  Reminds me of the romantic birthday dinner we had for her at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

But we won’t go into the reasons for that one.  This is a family show.

Is the thrill gone?  Not for B.B. King.  Not for Buddy Guy.

And certainly not for Goddess and I.

60 and 60

Have you ever been stopped dead in your tracks while running?

I mean seriously stopped dead.

Physically?

Wednesday was rockin’ and rollin’ around here.  A strong cold front was pushing through and we got a few batches of strong winds.

The first was in the morning, with winds out of the south at 20-30 mph.  That worked out fine, since my run in to work is headed north.  So it was a wonderful tailwind.  No effort and still managed to knock out consistent 8:30 miles.  Which was a surprise, since the prior evening’s 10-miler really worked the legs over.

During the day we had a line of storms roll through.  The 55mph winds that accompanied it were interesting, blowing down quite a few trees that were damaged during the ice storm of two weeks ago.  But I was safe and snug in my office, watching out the window.  After the storms rolled through, the winds remained quite strong, slowing turning west at 25-35 mph.  At the rate they were turning westerly, I was thinking that I’d get a quartering tailwind for the run home.

That’s what I get for thinking.

Late afternoon, the winds remained west-southwest.  Quartering headwind for the run home.

And they picked up.

So I got a five mile resistance training session in, facing into a 45-60mph quartering headwind.  Good fun.  I just had to watch for trees and power lines.

At least it was 60 degrees.

And the invisible smack-down.  Mid-stride.  Going from moving forward to stopped dead,  just like that.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Because it’s good to be alive.

Photo by Kelley Mari

(not me by any means, although that’s what it felt like.   Vroooooom)

More Ummmms

The day started with the Mantyhose (below).  Several “Ummmmm” moments throughout the day at work.

Then I’m getting ready to head out the door for my interval workout.  It’s a cold one, but the Weather Channel had me scratching my head.

Temperature:  26F

Wind: Calm

Wind Chill: 22F

Now, I’ve been working weather for the past 22 years.  And I still can’t figure out that math.

Oh, and doing intervals outside in that temperature is certainly good.  I like it alot.  I had my running tights on (note that they are much different than Mantyhose), so I remained plenty warm.

But perhaps I would have been warmer had I had Mantyhose on underneath the tights!?!?!?!?!