Dachau

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Driving Tempo

It was rough to get out the door today.  For some reason the stomach was feeling off early on.  Then Goddess made a game of making it difficult.  She’s good like that.

But I was on a tight schedule for the day and had to get it done. 

The run.

Not Goddess.

That’s later.

It’s warm today, in the low 60’s.  Too warm for my liking, especially with today’s workout, which was a long warmup followed by three miles at 10K pace plus for the tempo.  Besides the temperature, the wind certainly wasn’t going to help.  When I headed out the door, it was in my face at 20mph, gusting to 35mph.  I took no time at all to warm up, since it was everything I could do to get to and maintain a 9-minute pace.

Then it was into the trees, where the wind was completely blocked and I was quickly on my way to overheating.  But it was a nice stretch of road.  And after the first three miles were done, it was time to get to business.

I planned on using the wind to my advantage and heading north, with the wind to my back.  But for the first mile I was still in the trees, so I had to get back out into the open.  And the only way to get into the open was to get out of the holler that I was in (yep, I said holler, although we aren’t between mountains).  Here’s the profile:

Needless to say, the heart rate was appropriately through the roof at when I hit the 4-mile mark, so I had to throttle back a bit once the terrain flattened out.  Then it was time to cruise with the wind to my back.  The breathing was steady and the sweat was flying.  Everywhere.  I was constantly having to squeegee the sweat out of what little hair I have just to keep it out of my eyes.

At about 5.75 miles, I was impressed that I was flinging sweat behind me, against the wind, so far that it was making it down to splatter the backs of my legs.  Then I realized that it wasn’t me.  It was raining.

I’m good with that.

So the tempo ended at six miles, as planned.  It coincided with a turn that now gave me a 30mph crosswind.  And 1/4 mile down the road, another turn made it a 30mph headwind for the last mile home.

And that’s when it really started pouring.  My forward motion, coupled with the wind, made for a driving, driving rain.  It felt like I was getting shot everywhere with BB’s.  But I was smiling. I LOVE IT!!!

I probably looked something like this guy:

Rain Runner by Sam Javanrouh

Except I wasn’t wearing pants (shorts, silly) and I do not run with headphones.  And I was grinning.

BTW, that pic was taken by someone who’s photos I enjoy daily.  If you’d like, browse over to Daily Dose of Imagery and have a look at life in Toronto, Canada.  Some beautiful shots there.

Hopefully your run, or other chosen activity today, was just as enjoyable.

I Shed a Tear

While browsing this site (click the pic for a look):

Photo © Richard Nicholson

It wasn’t that long ago, but eons ago, in 1989, when I first stepped into a darkroom.  Over the next three years while I had access to that darkroom, countless hours were spent in the dark, even when it was beautiful and sunny outside.  I really miss the satisfaction gained from developing my own film and prints.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I still enjoy working with photos on the computer, especially once I had the realization that I could process a single photo in just a fraction of the time that it would take in the darkroom.  And at a significant fraction of the cost.  I have a few B&W prints from that time in the darkroom that took entire boxes of paper to get right.  Now I can do the same work in a few minutes.

So while there is progress, it’s sad to see an era pass.

And now for something…

…completely different.

I love art.  Especially things that people make by hand.  I have no skills in a shop, so I’m always impressed with things that people make, especially when done very well.  As is this wooden Vespa.  Click on the pic to see more.

Another that impresses me is Ezra, who showcases his hand-made bicycles (typically single-speeds) over at Fast Boy Cycles.

While you’re there, stop by his blog (warning: some words and images may be NSFW) and show Ezra some love.  The artist has been battling cancer for a while now, yet continues to craft gorgeous bikes as well as compose some wonderful photographs.

On our home front, lots of ice last night/this morning and more likely overnight, then snow.  Today’s run was bagged, since even getting to a treadmill would have been a hassle.  And running in 32F while it’s pouring rain and the ground is covered in ice was not my idea of a smart thing to do.  So instead I spent some quality time wrapped in a blanket with Goddess.

Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again)

“I’d tell you the name of this next song, but if you don’t figure it out by the end of the song, you’re too stupid to talk to“.

That’s how Jeff Tweedy introduced the song that just happens to be the title of this blog. But that’s for later in this blog. First things first.

But before that, here’s another music entry. If it doesn’t interest you, then there’s nothing to see here. I’ll be back to regular training/racing entries soon enough, since this was the last concert for a little while.

Sunday night saw us driving to Nashville for our third concert in six days. In case you missed the others, it was Linkin Park on Tuesday and Kid Rock on Friday. Sunday’s concert was decidedly mellower since it was Wilco playing at the gorgeous Ryman Auditorium.

Sunday was another warm day, so after doing homework and turning in my exams, I was able to get a quick 12-mile MTB ride through the nearby park, checking out some trails and looking at the seams in the creek, anticipating them stocking it with trout in a couple of weeks. Time to get some new tippets and flies ready. Whoo hoo! A quick shower and a bite on the go and we were on our way to Nashville. We’ve been down there so much lately that Goddess and I discussed living there, if only gas wasn’t getting so expensive.

Anyway, after getting our tickets and poking around the Ryman, we made our way to the t-shirt tables. Looking to see what they had, I almost let out a yelp. I knew that Wilco was having a warm-up act, but I had no idea who. But up there on the wall were John Doe t-shirts. For those of you not aware of John Doe, follow the link and read how he was the guitarist and vocalist for THE seminal LA punk band X. For me, that makes connections to two great acts from my youth in one week. John played a mix of his solo stuff as well as a few songs from X, appropriately slowed down for the crowd. He was amazed that he was playing in the Ryman, an old church, mentioning that he would have to call Exene and gloat that he got to play “White Girl” at the Ryman.

After a short break, Wilco took the stage, fresh from their SNL appearance the night before. As soon as they took the stage, everyone stood up, which is understandable. But everyone remained standing the entire time. The Ryman’s way too small for that and Goddess and the Son had a difficult time seeing the show. Especially since the dude in the front of us was at least 8 feet tall (give or take a foot). It didn’t help that the folks way up front were standing, which didn’t make sense, since they couldn’t leave their seats and they had to crane their necks to see up on the stage anyway. I suspect it would’ve been more comfortable sitting. Anyway, since they stood, everyone behind had too as well, making it not nearly as enjoyable as it should have been.

Kluso, here’s the setlist:

1. Via Chicago
2. Blood Of The Lamb
3. Pieholden Suite
4. California Stars
5. Company In My Back
6. You Are My Face
7. Side With The Seeds
8. Pot Kettle Black
9. A Shot In The Arm
10. She’s A Jar
11. Handshake Drugs
12. Impossible Germany
13. It’s Just That Simple
14. Pick Up The Change
15. Too Far Apart
16. Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again)
17. Jesus, Etc.
18. Hate It Here
19. Walken
20. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore 1:
21. Someone Else’s Song (Jeff Solo w/o PA)
22. Misunderstood
23. The Thanks I Get
24. Red-Eyed And Blue
25. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
26. Monday

Encore 2:
27. The Late Greats

While you’re at it, take a browse over at Kluso’s site. He’s an excellent musician, living in Okinawa and playing the local club circuit. You can buy some of his music on his site. And if you poke around the photo page, you might find one or two shots from yours truly. Kluso is the one who introduced Goddess and I to Wilco as he covered several of his songs while playing bars and other venues in and around Tokyo. We were his groupies for quite a while, tagging along and following him to some very interesting bars. Thank you so much, Kluso!

Also, if you look through his site, you’ll notice other artists. Kluso was very instrumental in introducing local Tokyo bands to the western expatriate community. Hands down, one of the best was Megababe, a trio of hot Japanese babes that would rock your (bleep) off while playing the hardest metal and punk they could find. Truly a hot show! BTW, one of my photos of them is in there as well.

Anyway, time for Bill to swing way back from his tangent. But in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bright shiny object kind of guy. But I refuse Ritalin since I enjoy every second of the ADD.

The Wilco set was excellent. As you can surmise from the setlist, they played quite a while. Over two hours and it was quite a good show (other than the standing). If they swing by your area, I definitely recommend giving them a couple hours of your time.

From now on, less entertainment-themed posts…

The Pot and the Kettle

Well, I got called out for calling the kettle black. Luckily mother nature delivered today and helped provide a bit of motivation.

This photo has been in my head for quite a few months. I’ve always seen it just as it’s presented to you (yes, I always saw it in black and white) every time I cross this bridge on my long runs. I just needed a bit of snow to fall. We’ve had snow several times over the past few months, but nothing significant and certainly not enough accumulation to make this photo.

Had mother nature not cooperated, I would have dug back into the vaults a bit to answer the Kettle’s call. Not too far back, since I shot this a few weeks ago. But with work, school and myriad other things that make up this thing called life, I have yet to post any in my gallery.

These are the pews in the historic Ryman Theater in Nashville, TN. Home to the Grand Ol’ Opry for many, many years, it has since be refurbished and concerts are held their often. During the winter, they move the Opry taping over from the new house and record it here. Lots of history in these seats and on that stage. And it happens to be one of my favorite places to see a show, since it’s small and the acoustics are amazing.

The problem with the size is that seats sell out within minutes for big shows. For this upcoming Sunday’s WILCO concert, I was on the computer right when the tickets went on sale. I had our seats within three minutes and could only get the back row; the entire place was sold out in under five minutes. Shows like BB King sell out even faster.

While you’re at it, take a browse over at the Kettle’s gallery. The photos are both hers and her husbands. Amazing folks the two of them are. And if you look at this year’s gallery, you’ll see photos of her trouncing the competition in her cyclocross series.

On a final note, there’s one thing I can’t stress enough. When you’re viewing anyone’s photo gallery, you really need to be using Safari as your browser. I won’t get into the technical details, but Safari (both Windows and Mac) is the only browser that will display the colors that the photographer intended for you to see. The other browsers default to a standard colorspace, which I know typically washes out my photos and makes them quite drab. For example, the pews shot above looks significantly different in my Firefox versus Safari. Safari matches how I processed the image in Photoshop and that’s how I hope you’ll look at it.

Wreaths Across America 2007

Quite a miserable day here. 34F and pissin’ down rain. Throw in a stiff breeze and it was a great day to stay inside.

Instead, I spent a bit of time down at the local veteran’s cemetery to take part in/shoot an event called Wreaths Across America. No matter how miserable the weather, I try to keep it in perspective by realizing that the fine men and women that we are remembering would prefer to be in the weather than where they are now.

Click on the picture and it’ll take you to my gallery of shots from today’s ceremony.

Rushing

…headlong into all of my projects.

I’m slowly transitioning back to my normal schedule. After working two weeks of 13-hour night shifts, it’s been slow getting back to a normal schedule. Usually it takes me a day and then I’m right back at it. Two days later and I’m still wide awake at 2:30 am.

I sat back with my feet up on the desk, watching Ironman Live last night. I drifted off hearing about Macca’s run. Goddess finally shooed me off to bed and he still hadn’t finished. That should give you an idea of how early I fell asleep. I had hoped to see Sam McGlone’s finish, mainly to see how well she did in her very first Ironman (2nd!), but instead waited until this morning to read the recap.

The beauty of being wide awake this morning was being able to really flesh out my new photography site. A bit of patience to find old shots, realizing that my photo archiving over the past few years, while complete, was scattered all over the house and computer. A few of the shots were real fun to revisit and rework, especially the early ones. It’s amazing how a couple of years of learning the intricacies of Photoshop can turn something that I spent days working on years ago into a 5-minute project now.

Another advantage of being up this morning was being able to run my Massage Stick over my sore legs. After a couple of weeks of non-focused activity, I’ve ramped up my running to get ready for the Flying Monkeys next month. First off I was amazed at how tight my hamstrings got during those two weeks. I’ve been stretching and thinking I’ve worked them out, but at mile 9 into my 11-mile run yesterday, they really tightened up. So yesterday and today I’ve been hobbling like an old man if I sit for too long.

Late yesterday, Goddess and I went out for an easy spin on the bike. Part of the beauty of non-focused training has been the chance to explore the surrounding area, which is still new to us after moving into this house just two months ago. I found a wilderness area not 1/2 mile from the house, with plenty of paved and unpaved trails weaving everywhere. Matter of fact, I was able to run the majority of my 11 miles yesterday within the confines of the area and not have to backtrack much at all. There’s definitely more to explore.

So Goddess and I spun easily through the woods, enjoying the turkeys and other wildlife. We even took a “shortcut”, which meant that we had to carry our bikes up a steep ravine to get to where we needed to be. Goddess came out of that with a few cuts and a bit of blood. And she was smiling the whole way!

Looking forward to the next few weeks. Training continues to ramp up, a trip out to see the fall colors at Great Smoky Mountains National Park and then a half marathon. We’ll see how it all works out.

Hope all is well with you.

New Directions

Well, recovery is done.  It’s time to start focusing on dodging the flying monkeys on November 18th.

And that race gets me to wondering about my sanity.  Why can’t I pick a relatively flat course for my first time at any distance?  Especially since I’m not light, bordering on Clydesdale at times.  I’m not what you would consider a climber.

But that’s part of the challenge, right? 

The last couple of weeks since my DNF have been interesting.

- Juggling three college courses.  For some reason I decided that I could handle three at once, since IM training was done.  All three are keeping me quite busy.

- Last weekend saw by brother-in-law and his family visit.  We had a wonderful time with them, although the time was short.  The photos I posted last week were from a trip we took with them.

- Working on my new photography web page.  I had sold a fair bit of my photos online over the past couple of years, but I’m no longer comfortable with the company that I was using.  So I’ve switched companies and am starting the web page development.  It’s a work in progress, but if you’d like to browse over and have a look, please do.  It’s billanders.smugmug.com.  I’ve got quite a few more photos to upload as well as working the layout.  And if you see any that strike your fancy, there’s a purchase option, if you’d like.

- Last week and this have my schedule flip-flopped, covering 12-14 hour night shifts, so I’ve been sleeping the day away and missing the beautiful weather.  At least I’ll be done Friday morning, right before my two long runs this weekend.  Then my work schedule is back to normal.

So what does this mean?  Six weeks of focused running, with a swim and bike thrown in each week to keep the muscle memory alive.  Lots of stretching, lots of miles, but quite a decrease in weekly hours compared to IM training.  So it is a break.  Of sorts.

Hope all is well with each of you!

Autumn

My favorite season, anywhere in the world.

Cool and dry, it makes for wonderful runs and rides.

But it makes me also dig out my camera, since the crisp dry air really comes out blue, especially with some judicious polarization.

We’ve got family in town this weekend, so we took the kids out to a pumpkin patch. Here are a few scenes from around the patch:

<update>Click on each of the pictures, which will take you to a gallery of similar images.</update>

Yep, that’s a bicycle up there. Probably not tri-worthy, but a ride just the same.

Hopefully you’re getting out and enjoying the season.