Leonid Meteor Shower

"Keep looking up!" -- Jack Horkheimer

Tonight's the night—Nov 18th. This is the peak time at which to view the annual Leonids. Here on the U.S. east coast, a bustling 30 minute window of activity is predicted to occur starting at 11:30 pm, with diminishing sitings before and after. The streaks should be coming from the east, emanating from the constellation Leo and the planet Saturn, which unfortunately will be close to the horizon. Jack Horkheimer has a really nice video (.rm) about it, although he states Nov. 19 @ 3 am as the best viewing time; perhaps he's from Europe. The great thing about the shower is that it's a new moon or that is, no moon, so the skies will be dark and won't be polluted with moonlight.

Check it out. Remember, it's a free show and you don't even have to pay for parking. Plus, y'know, it sets the stage for a nice romantic makeout session.

XXXOOO

Yay, I swam today!

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."

I managed a solid 25 minutes of lap swimming at the Y while Miguel was doing his weekly lesson in the open lane next to mine. I focused on technique and efficiency, trying to maintain my streamline position by looking more downward than ahead. Currently, I'd say I'm an awful freestyler; I can't figure for the life of me what other inconsistencies cause me to take 21 strokes per length while I've seen countless others do close to 12. Perhaps my fat ass has something to do with it.

As for Miguel, he finally broke the floatie barrier four weeks ago and can finally swim on his own without flotations—about 8 feet to 1/4 pool length with me alongside him for visual support. Yeah boyeeee! Little steps sure go a long way. Nice going, Mig.

The last tidbit: It bothers me that I often fail to recognize people with whom I've had casual conversations. Like today as we were leaving the Y, one fellow had a table set up in the foyer to offer some free chiropractic advise/plug. And then he just goes to me and shakes hands, "Hey, long time no see, buddy! Still doing your morning laps? I've been 3 times in the pool this week." And I go, "Ummm, yeah. I'm still doing it. Ummm, how's it going?" And then my brain fires up its neurons for some recollection. Searching. Searching. But nooooo, the pink squishy thing responds: "Cannot compute. Target unidentifiable. Who the hell is he?! There is no goddamn sanctuary!!" Boooom!!!

Anyway, the funny of it was my end thought: People sure look different when suited up than when in the buff in the locker rooms. Best that I continue the conversation when we're all in our shirts and shoes to keep the recognizable factor intact. Ummm, that is, focus.

Have I said too much? :-)

Planning with peers

"Chief! Pull it together!"-- Colonel Tigh, Battlestar Galactica (Exodus, Part 1)

I did no triathlon this 2006 season. I'm quite disappointed. I was hoping that I'd make it a personal tradition to compete in at least one tri-race per year since my 2005 comeback. In hindsight, I ended up spending most of my training on the bike; I guess I just didn't have my heart in it to spend more time swimming and running. So much for dedication.

And then I got that plantar fasciitis thing in June and went on holiday overseas for 3 weeks in July. Blah blah blah. Certainly that offset my momentum; that is, if I had any at all.

But then I read of another blogger sort of in similar design: a man without a plan. Made me want to adopt him as my virtual training peer. [pause, peering up into space, eyes squinting] Hold the phone, what's that I said--a virtual training peer? [sitting up, eyes wide, eureka moment of expression] Hmmmm. By joe, that's it! I think I'll do just that and take a peek every once in a while at his posts to see how his plan is going; perhaps to give me a little perk for my own workouts.

Alright then, my 2007 season training has begun! Yeeeeehaw! Break out the 7-layer cheesecake, tiramisu leftovers, Ben&Jerry's triple fudge and my 2-liter Diet Coke. I've got a reason to celebrate and her name is Kona!

[burp] Excuse me.

Cheesecake & a workout

Diets don't apply at the Cheesecake Factory, not even with the greens.

I ordered a Riviera Salad yesterday night in celebrating my nephew's birthday just so I could make room for dessert. But holy smokin' moly! that entry was sooooo big. I swear they jammed an entire head of romaine lettuce, two huge tomatoes, three whole hardboiled eggs, ten thousand potatoes and the rest of the farm into my crater sized bowl. WTF!

With that said, I must say it was good. Deeeelicious! Throw in a big diet Coke with 2 refills and I was good to go. I had no choice but to pack the dessert for take-home.

***

Three hours prior: my workout.

Time: 45 minutes
Method: CycleOps indoor trainer
Gear Ratio: 42/16
Cadence: about 80-85 rpm (no cyclometer)
Distance: ??? (no cyclometer)
Perceived Exertion Scale: 13 (somewhat hard; quite an effort but can maintain)
Trigger Songs: Dive (Steven Curtis Chapman), Here and Now (ZoeGirl) and misc.

Comments: 1st workout in about 2 weeks, I think. Felt great. Could endure and maintain the strain in my quads. My plantar fasciitis not a bother. Easy visualizations with trigger songs. A+++.

I really should be logging my workouts more consistently. At least this is a start.

Strumming again

Hey, I picked up the guitar and restarted my umpty-umph attempt at learning it yet again. I went about it for just over 30 minutes until my fingertips got achy. So far I know the open C-A-G-E-D chords and with quite bad form--slow finger placement, muted strings, y'know what i mean.

I blame two youtube.com videos here and here (1st song only) for today's inspiration. Thanks, Ortopilot. Also, I stumbled across a video of one of my highschool jazz bandmates, Bruce Gatewood, who was an amazing player then but has turned out to wickedly burn fire on the strings now. A totally cool guy. Go, Bruce!