Hiking: Mount Frissell & Brace Mountain

Sally, the girls, and I hiked Connecticut's Mount Frissell and Brace Mountain Trail yesterday.  At 2491 feet, Mount Frissell is the highest point in the State of Connecticut.  This was a strenous hike.  Parts were so steep that I felt like I was climbing up and down a rock-strewn ladder rather than hiking an actual path.  Indeed, this was a full body hike in the sense that you needed both arms and both legs at times, while carefully maintaining three points of contact.

The trail itself was 4.4 miles out and back, from the green and black starting dot below, up Round Mountain and Mount Frissell, down through the saddle, and then south to Brace Mountain.  In all, we gained 1309 feet of elevation over the course of a fairly short hike.  That's a lot!

Mount Frissell Trail, via AllTrails.Com

Most of these pictures are from the summit of Brace Mountain.  A group of wing gliders spent the day flying off the summit, and we got some cool pics.  We also shot a bunch of pics off the lookout and down into New York's Harlem Valley.

Pics from Morning Yoga

Caught Sally teaching her Detox Yoga class this morning. An impromptu photo-shoot -- obviously, given the lighting & her lack of make-up -- but it was kind of amazing watching her move this morning. 

What can you do?

Sally's Fit-Chick Pics

Sally has sent me a bunch of fitness photos over the past couple of days. She's only just started her own personal training practice, so a lot of the Internet marketing stuff is still new to her, but these have been a cut above what she's done before.

Pics are below. They come with a reminder that she just started an 8-week detox yoga program taught via a private group on Facebook. You can still sign up if that's something you might be into.

It's Happening!!! SUMMER DETOX SERIES begins July 6, 2020. Do you feel sluggish? Tight? Maybe a little depressed from...
Posted by Sally Head Fitness on Saturday, June 27, 2020

Sally's website is here.

Pics are after the jump.  I really liked this set.

More Yoga Trapeze

Putting this out there in case you've been hoping for more pics or actual videos of yoga trapeze work.  If so, you're in luck.

Yoga Trapeze at Russian Beach

Sally and I went down to Russian Beach yesterday to take some Yoga Trapeze pictures for Sally's website and personal training business.  We went mostly to take pictures of Sally, but of course, I also found my way onto the trapeze.

I really like Yoga Trapeze, and for what it's worth, I think that a few of these came out really well.  Sally took them while coaching me through some of the moves.

13 Essential Books – 2019 Edition

Been meaning to do this project for a while, but I just haven't had the time.  Finally decided to just make it happen.

These are presented in no particular order.  I personally enjoy science fiction and especially fantasy adventure stories, but I’ve tried to include a mix of other genres and types of books in deference to my audience. The second part is a (much shorter) list of books that I still need to read myself.  If you've got one for that list, please let me know.

Army Football Preview: at Ohio State

Army got a hard-fought come-from-behind victory last week against Buffalo, but I don’t know how much confidence it gives me going forward.  The 2017 Black Knights are either a hardy, confident crew who can win games even when they don’t necessarily have their best stuff, or they’re not quite as good as we’d all hoped that they were.  Or maybe the Bulls just match up well against Army’s triple-option because they have so much beef at D-Tackle.  Unfortunately for Buffalo, that particular defense has become a kind of niche advantage in modern college football.

This week, Army travels to Ohio State for a matchup against ostensibly the best team in the nation.  For better or worse, I expect we’ll learn a lot about exactly what kind of team these Black Knights are going to be after this game.

Story in Photos: Army 21, Buffalo 17https://t.co/SyVFE2HabD pic.twitter.com/A9HT3usyfQ

— Army WP Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 11, 2017

Saturday's Workout: Yoga / Swimming / Weights

After getting cut short with last week's workout, I made sure to leave myself plenty of time yesterday.  I also switched it up a little bit, running on Thursday during the week, which allowed me to add weights back into my weekend routine with the implication that I now have to run at some point later today as well.

I spent the first part of this workout doing yoga, trying to get the kinks out of my neck and lower back.  Then I hit the pool.  I finished with a light weight session and then taught a swimming lesson.  So yeah, that was kind of a long morning.

Swim / Run Brick (Tempo Intervals)

As the weather has gotten a little nicer in Connecticut, I’ve been moving away from being as exclusively swim-focused as I was over the winter, into a more balanced multisport training approach.  I don’t know that this means I’ll necessarily race a lot this summer, but since the sun is out, it seems like a shame to spend my time in an indoor pool.

I got this past weekend’s main workout from Runner’s World and decided to do it twice, once in the pool and once on the treadmill.  The original set was written for the track:

 3 x (4 x 440 @ :30 res), 1:00 between sets

With adaptations and time constraints, my workout went like this:

The Hangover and the Eagle

Yoga!

My least favorite aspect of aging by far is the way that my body now responds to hard workouts the day after.  I woke up this morning with blinding pain in my right eye, caused in an immediate sense by sinus pressure from the shit air-quality that we tend to get locally on peak electric load days as well as by a nasty knot in my neck.  It took me a minute to get myself going, and even after a couple of Advil, I still didn't start to feel better until Sally, my amazingly awesome wife, rubbed my neck to get that knot to calm down.  I then realized that the knot in my neck had been caused by another knot down in my upper back, which had pulled on the muscles in my neck overnight and triggered everything else.

How do you get a nasty knot in your upper back?

Training Log: 2/15 - 2/21 (Week 3)

This was a tough week.  My long run is up to a distance of six-and-a-half miles, my daughter Hannah and I did a session of Mossa Group Power with my wife on Saturday, and we had decent weather, so I got back on the bike this week as part of my commute.  

Swim, Bike, Run

That stuff was all good, but Group Power really wiped me out, leaving Sunday's long run a significant mental and emotional challenge.

Pictures from Today's Yoga

Hannah and I worked out today.  We did about a half hour's worth of yoga, then we swam, then we worked with Sally and some of her friends through an hour or so of Mossa Group Power.

True story: Mossa kills me every time.  It's all super-endurnace weight training built of groups of sixteen, and it is not easy.

5 Things on a Friday: Heading to South Carolina

There’s a lot going on this week.  South Carolina chooses its Republican candidate tomorrow while Democrats choose theirs in Nevada.  Besides that, there’s more Daredevil coming and a bunch more movies for geeks.  

Check it out!

Yoga Sally!

My wife Sally does lots of yoga.

Our neighbor came over this morning and told Sally that he thought she was beautiful.  Well, how could he not?  She is beautiful.

Video: Yoga for Runners

There are millions of these videos on YouTube.  This one was short and to the point, and it had a little music.  That said, if you really want to learn about yoga, my recommendations are Real Men Do Yoga (with no less than Eddie George on the cover) and The Athlete's Guide to Yoga by Sage Roundtree.

Or you can do what I did and just marry someone who's into yoga.  Then you're guaranteed to learn lots of cool stuff.

Weird but Cool Business of the Day: PantyPinata.Com

My friend launched her own business this morning: The Original PantyPinata.Com.  As I said in the title, it's a weird but really cool idea for bridal showers.  Bottom line, you fill a pinata with panties, and...

Well, now that I'm reading through the directions, I see that you don't actually hit the thing with a bat.  Too phallic?  Not phallic enough?  What do I know?  Go watch the video.

Then do me a favor and order one of these things and invite my wife to the shower.  We could use some new "not granny" panties.

Friday Mad Science: Sex, Yoga, and Rick Santorum

Apropos of nothing, I hate lawyers.  If we could all just work out our problems with pistols at ten paces, the world be a simpler, better place.  Well… to be fair, maybe not pistols.  Maybe just open-hand, no-holds-barred close quarters combat, to pinfall.  With the pinfalls being legally binding.  And maybe add a steel cage?  I don’t know.  But surely there’s a better way than hiring wordsmiths to overcomplicate literallyeverything.  Ugh.

If you’re wondering, I’d planned to become a lawyer all the way up until I took my first law class.  I wanted to be Matlock or Perry Mason.  But for better or worse, that first class disabused me of all my dreams and high-minded ideals.  In reality, lawyers are vicious, tricksy bastard who split hairs for a living, and even a single undergraduate semester was enough to put me off the lot of them for a lifetime.  Sadly, however, I still encounter them some in my professional life.  And they’re never standing in boxing trunks, with a conveniently located steel cage nearby.

* * *

The least surprising thing I read this week?  That wealthy folks more likely to break rules than average folks, and that they exhibit worse general behavior.  Fact is, researchers recently showed that just the act of becoming rich, even in an unassuming way like winning the lottery, makes folks far less likely to care about and empathize with their fellow men.  Presumably that’s because rich people think they’re better than regular folk, probably because it’s very hard to process success as simple good luck.  Folks want to see their success as owing wholly to their own merits, and that’s only possible when they’re, in fact, better than normal people.  But if they’re better, then the fate of others is less important…  You see where this is going.

Truth?  I don’t care about how successful you are.  But if you are successful, and you let it make you an asshole… Well, this is why folks’re Occupying Wall Street.  Because they’re onto you.  And if you don’t start making it right, eventually, they’re gonna get upset and do something about it.  Seriously.  But don’t take my word for it.  Just give it time, and you’ll see I’m right.

* * *

The other not-so-surprising fact of the week is that women are WAY under-represented in the gaming industry.  I bring this up because it’s such a shame.  I have a woman, a professional librarian, in my gaming group, and she’s easily one of the best players with whom I’ve ever played. 

What's the AC bonus on that chainmail bikini?

I wish—I mean, I really, really wish—that more women would get interested in RPGs, but I can see why they aren’t.  For one thing, look at the way women tend to be portrayed in fantasy?  It’s literally ludicrous.  And men, especially men online, can be utter pigs.

I bring this up because I’ve kind of had it on my mind lately.  I mean, we run an occasional Girl of the Week around here, and while I try to pick women who’re successful and interesting in their own rights, to be sure, I also try to pick women that I find sexy.  Because I like sex.  I like women.  I like the whole thing.  Granted, I'm not the kind of guy to be intimidated by a successful, powerful, opinionated woman, but still…  An appealing figure is an appealing figure, and to be sure, there are plenty that I find appealing.  Moreover, I know the audience here, and I’m not afraid to pander to it a little.  Hopefully, that doesn’t make me a pig, but appealing to everybody is a tough trick.

That said, my Blog of the Week is SarahDarkmagic.  She writes a column for Wizards of the Coast and generally pontificates on this issue in ways that I find visually appealing.  I’ll admit to not having had time to actually read much of her stuff yet, but it looks good, and I’m looking forward to getting a chance to get into it a bit this weekend.  So… enjoy!

* * *

So  Mitt Romney won in Michigan in a close race, and he won easily in Arizona.  Yes, he and Rick Santorum are gonna split the delegates from Michigan easily, but Santorum’s not even on the ballot in Virginia and Texas, and at this point, I don’t see a realistic way in which anyone besides Mitt wins the election.  With that said, the one thing this process has taught me is that even Republicans view Romney as, at best, the least-worst solution as far as the Presidency is concerned.  Speaking as a lifelong Republican myself, that’s certainly the way I feel.

At this point, Republicans at the national level are starting to blame the nominating process, but if you want my opinion, that’s not the problem.  It’s the candidates, stupid.  No one wants to vote for any of these losers because, well… that statement sort of finishes itself, right?  They’re LOSERS!

Look, I’m a Republican because I believe in paying my bills and in ensuring that the economy is as laissez-faire as it can be.  Generally speaking, I believe in market incentives.  But.  Republicans in the DeLay era let the budget get completely out of control, costing themselves the fiscal high ground for the long term, and in any event, all of the implicit guarantees in our financial services economy have created a system that needs serious reform.  Moreover, with other countries manipulating their currencies to ensure their continued dominance in manufacturing, smart policies are needed.  I mean, it’s one thing for the Chinese to make a decision to impoverish their own urban citizens.  It’s another to let them systematically undervalue their currency at the expense of the entire globe’s economic security. 

The problem is that the last, best choice of the loyal opposition is a guy who’s proven that he’ll literally say anything to get elected.  And that doesn’t sit any better with me than it does with anyone else.

* * *

Yoga makes you horny.  This is a scandal?  I thought this was the point.  You practice yoga to be more flexible.  To be able to breathe through extreme physical positions.  To be stronger, leaner, fitter.  Sexier.  

Sex and yoga.  Yup.  Similar moves, similar breath.  Yoga is an athletic practice with non-Christian spiritual aspects that encourages peace, love, and all that kind of thing.  With that said, how can you be surprised when yoga enthusiasts, and there are  lot of wanna-bees out there, are screwing peacefully?  They’re supposed to be happy ! Isn't that what Namaste means? Let's do this and feel good while doing it. Just like when you're doing it.  You always feel better afterwards. At least that’s my take on it.  And I LOVE yoga.

A typical yoga class.
Nope.  Nothing sexy here.
Picture courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

 * * *

Finally, my favorite thing of the week: Sex Crazed Coeds Going Broke Buying Birth Control!  Holy crap!  Who knew you had to take more pills when you have more sex?!

*sigh* 

This is why I find it hard to listen to people like Rick Santorum.  Who are these assholes and why do they hate sex?  Sex is fucking wonderful!  We should be having MORE, not less. 

Seriously.  In the words of Janis Joplin, sometimes you just gotta get it while you can.

Good grief.  I'm such a feminist.

Weekend Update: Last Weekend in January

I had a pretty nice weekend if you’re wondering. 

It rained Friday, but I ended up riding into the office anyway because I’d read that it was supposed to clear up.  And while that’s true, and it did, that didn’t happen until late morning.  So I got drenched and muddy on my way in, which was okay from the standpoint that my office has a shower—I don’t ever wear my work clothes when I’m commuting on the bike—but it sucked because when I was leaving on Friday afternoon, I ended up having to put on my wet and muddy clothes again just so I could ride back up to the train station and catch my ride home.  Still, since it was warm Friday afternoon, and I was already soaked to the bone and filthy, there wasn’t any reason not to ride aggressively from the office back up to 125^th Street.  It wasn’t like I was gonna get sweaty and somehow start smelling worse.  And anyway, I’ve been doing some spinning classes lately, and they’ve featured a lot of out-of-the-saddle attacks.  I was curious to see if I’d feel any stronger out-of-the-saddle on a real bike with that work behind me.  My being wet-and-muddy state made Friday the perfect chance to test out my new fitness.  There’s a long hill from 96^th Street up to about 106^th, so I attacked and fairly flew upwards.  As weekend openings go that was a good one.

Friday's Ride Route

 I got home Friday night and found that the Girl Scout meeting was canceled, and that Sally had decided to order pizza.  I was supposed to go to the gym during Girl Scouts, but with the change, I cancelled my plans and cracked a beer.  Truth be told, I was happy enough to have an excuse to skip my workout, not least because it had not only been an aggressive ride home, it had also been windy as Hell.  Between that and a full work week—my first of the new year—I was tired as all-get-out.  In fact, I couldn’t even muster the energy to watch TV after dinner on Friday night.  Once the kids were in bed, I promptly fell asleep on the couch.

It was a good thing, too.  Our crazy dog woke me up at 3 am on Saturday morning, and as you might’ve read in my Insomnia post, I never made it back to sleep.

*sigh*

But, y’know, Saturday wasn’t a bad day or anything.  With the early start, I got a heck of a lot done, all of it geeky.  I wrote that blog post, planned out the next month or so of Sellswords of Luskan, designed a few monsters for that same game, redesigned and simplified the look of this blog, got breakfast ready for the girls and then cleaned up the kitchen while Sally took the dog for a (much needed) walk, and basically puttered around drinking coffee until I felt half-way human.  By 11:15, Sally was back, and I was going a little stir-crazy.

Sally encouraged me to go to yoga class.

I’ll tell you, I love yoga.  Sometimes it seems like my mind races non-stop, all the time, but nothing in this world clears it like yoga does.  Anyway, I wasn’t expecting too much out of this particular class, but it turned out to be a good one.  Intense.  The instructor was a maybe 55-year-old dude, wearing a pair of dirty old grey sweat pants and a cut-off tank top.  Long stringy hair that looked like it came off a used mop.  He warmed us up slowly, focusing mostly on the lower back and hamstrings—two serious problem areas for me.  I enjoyed that part of it.  But then he uncorked a LOOOOOONG series of quad exercises—Warrior I, Warrior 2, straight-up squats to a standing Mountain with arms raised, etc—that, along with the burn from Friday afternoon’s climbing, left me quivering like jello.  Somewhere in there he started adding twists, until we got all the way up to the Bird of Paradise, which, trust me, was a Hell of a lot more intimidating in person than it looks in a picture.  I mean, you expect something like Bird of Paradise out of a 92-pound Chinese acrobat.  Seeing it from a 55-year-old dude with stringy hair and dirty sweats is a whole ‘nother thing entirely.  Needless to say, after that I started taking the class a little more seriously. 

Heh.  My right oblique is so sore right now it feels like somebody punched me in the kidney. 

We finished class, and I headed into the gym to lift weights.  Did chest, shoulders, and tri’s and pushed a little harder than I have the past few weeks.  I took the last year or so off from weights to focus on swimming and on endurance racing in general, but then Sally decided that my arms had gotten too skinny.  So this is maybe my fourth week back, and I’m only just starting to get back to something like full-speed in the weight room.  Still, it’s been tough to find motivation.  Weight-lifting is a great fit with yoga, but it doesn’t help my running any, and any extra weight I gain actively hurts my riding.

Ah… the things we do for love.

Got home Saturday afternoon and made some lunch.  Sally and the girls had gone to see Pinkalicious at the local cabaret, so I had the place to myself.  I ate, showered, and started ironing.  ‘Course the girls got home as soon as I actually got the ironing board set up and put Camelot on the TV via Netflix, but I’m not convinced that that was some great loss.  I wound up watching The Finder.

Saturday night was dull.  We had dinner, and then Sally went out with some of her friends.  I gave the girls a bath and put them to bed and then finished watching my episode of Camelot.  Then I went to bed—at 9pm.  And slept like a baby.

Spider-Man 677: Quite a cool read.

Sunday was the better day.  Sally’s mom came over in the morning to watch the girls while Sally and I went for a run-date.  Personally, I would’ve preferred to do a simple Long Slow Distance run, but since we’re doing the YMCA Sweetheart Race in Stratford in two weeks, and the course is really hilly, Sally talked me into previewing it Sunday morning.  I ended up working the hills, so that it became a kind of intense tempo run instead of the easy, breezy affair we’d planned.  Afterwards, we came home and made brunch, and then I threw the kids out for awhile.  Sunday was beautiful but a little windy, and the girls were badly in need of some fresh air.  And having them out of the house offered some other benefits.  Anyway, after that, I cleaned up the kitchen, collected the kids, and the three of us went to the comic book store and the local library.  I picked up the latest two issues of the Amazing Spider-Man, the new Batman, the last issue of Conan: Road of Kings and the first issue of King Conan, and a couple of others.  Meanwhile, my girls got Scooby Doo, Young Justice, Strawberry Shortcake, and the new Super Dinosaur.  Of those, my recommendations are Amazing Spider-Man and Super Dinosaur.  On Spider-Man, writer Dan Slott put out my absolute favorite single-issue of 2011 in issue 676, and he’s been running hot ever since.  Super Dinosaur, meanwhile, is written by Robert Kirkman, the guy who created The Walking Dead, which is now a hit series with rave reviews on cable TV.  It’s awesomely wacky stuff.

Sunday afternoon, the girls and I caught up on the Thundercats via IO On-Demand, and I started ironing again.  Yeah, it was a lot of ironing, but now the girls and I have clothes for the next week or so, and I have a few extra shirts and whatnot in case next weekend is actually busy.  Still, once the Thundercats finished, TV was an utter wasteland.  I tried to get into the Winter X Games but found it unwatchable.  Eventually I settled on the Lingerie Football League’s playoffs, but even that was only interesting by comparison.  I found myself wondering how those poor girls avoided getting rug burn from the Astroturf.

Sunday night we had salmon and brown rice, and for dessert, we had the last of the pink cupcakes Sally made for Pinkalicious.  And they were.  Pinkalicious, I mean.  Then we sent the girls to bed and sat down together for awhile before heading up ourselves.  All told, it was a nice day, and I really enjoyed it.