Quote of the week

Luke: I don't believe it.
Yoda: That is why you fail.

Blogaversary

Two years ago I started this blog with this less than epic post. When I started this blog I had just started training with a coach after signing up for what would be my first half Ironman. A few days earlier, my firm (aka the Brothers Lehman) declared bankruptcy and my job was melting down. I started this blog to chronicle my athletic failures (no successes were really anticipated) without any expectations and it seemed likely that this blog could just quickly disappear.

I'm happy that this blog became a little more than nothing. What it is, I don't really know but I feel that I've gotten to e-know some people through it and some people may have gotten to e-know me a little. Some good, funny bloggers make me crack up from time to time. I shared in mine and others successes and failures too. Some blogerati have disappeared and others have magically appeared over time. I feel that my journey, while it may veer off in unexpected directions from time to time and is still slow, isn't over yet.

Thanks for reading.

Hunting for Bear

Last week was a bad week for me with the diet. I went out for dinner a couple of days, didn't follow the diet, and ultimately didn't post my weight as I knew it would be bad. I hoped to get back on track by losing the weight I gained to continue my quest to lose 30 pounds.

Nutrisystem didn't get the memo and send me the bear pictured to the left. It is for celebrating losing 10 pounds. It is a beanie baby like stuffed bear and his name is "Pound." The missing, yet crucial, detail was that I hadn't lost 10 pounds yet on this diet.

I put his picture as the background on my blackberry so I could be reminded of my failure often. I'm one of those blackberry addicts you keep hearing about since I check it dozens (hundredsd?) of times each day. It also kept me thinking about what I am doing and why. I think it helped.

I did ok on the diet this week. The scale reported that I lost most of the weight I gained and even passed the 10 pound barrier. I earned that bear. That hunt is over. I'm back with the right mindset and my quest continues. I wonder if I'll get a bear for 20 lbs lost and wonder what his name would be. Rock Star, perhaps?

Quote of the week.

"Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy." - Rudy Giuliani

A penny on the floor.

I was getting lunch today and while on line for my salad, I saw a penny on the floor. My first thought was to not pick it up. After all, it was just a penny. I then thought I wasn't doing anything except waiting, so I picked it up and put it in my pocket.

I then started thinking about what I would bend down to pick up and figured that if it was a dollar, I was definitely going for it. A nickel or dime really depended on my mood. A quarter, most likely, but a penny, not so much.

Then I tried to figure out how much the effort would be worth to actually pick up the penny. I timed that the deep knee bend would take about 3 seconds with the benefit being the penny itself. If I was able to do that pace of penny picking, I would get 20 cents a minute that equates to $12 dollars an hour. If I do some penny picking up intervals or speed work I could probably get to one every 2 seconds. That'll turn into $18/hour. I wondered what world class would be in picking up pennies.

I know that my model is flawed. Fatigue could come into play. Most penny picking up could be considered sprinting. I wondered if anyone could be a naturally born penny picker upper (I'm not). This math said that I should be picking more coins than I currently do.

I finally got my salad. As I ate my salad I wondered if other people spend brain cycles on nonsense like this. I realized I need to spend more brain cycles on training instead. I've done some training recently and after my 30 mile bike ride this weekend, my body was sending hints to my brain about how I haven't asked it to do much recently.

But I am a penny richer! What am I going to spend it on?

Explaining 9/11 to children

Over dinner tonight I had a conversation with my daughter Courtney about the events of 9/11/2001. Courtney was three years old on that day and doesn't have much of a recollection beyond television. We ate out tonight at Chili's and I was wearing my Pat Tillman ASU jersey. People in the restaurant were commenting on my jersey and one even shook my hand. Courtney wondered why.

Almost everyone of my generation has their own story about that day and I'm no exception. I won't go into my details at this time but for context my office window had a line of sight to the WTC. I watched the events in NY transpire not on television, but out my window.

Courtney and I had a long conversation that covered a wide range of topics related to 9/11. I realized that some young children may never be able to grasp the significance of the events of that day. At some point, it could turn into just being yet another question on some history test. Thinking that makes me a little sad.  Having conversations with our children and explaining 9/11 isn't easy but something I feel needs to happen.

Never Forget.

Quote of the week

Vizzini: INCONCEIVABLE.

Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The mall

Earl wound up being mostly a bust here. Saturday was breezy but they said that the ocean beaches had 6-9 foot waves with a lot of standing water. Sunday might have been the best day of the year weather-wise. I was looking for an adventure with the family since this was the last weekend before school starts on Wednesday.

I wound up went to the mall with my 12 year old daughter clothes shopping. Yes, clothes shopping. At the mall. Me. I decided to frame this as a workout.

You doubt this is a workout? Try it some day.

The mental and physical aspect of preteen shopping are almost unbelievable . The disorientation of going into dark stores with "music" blasting challenges the mental stress of intervals. The battling of finding a parking spot and that walking for what seems like miles to go from one store to the other rivals a long run. The acting as a Sherpa carrying the purchases can easily be considered weight training. Avoiding tripping over the unsupervised little kids running through the rack are as difficult as most agility drills.

The only thing I imagine could be worse would be shopping with more than one kid. My older daughter admired the clothes we picked out and said that I should take her shopping next. I think I need some recovery first.

PS: I swam on Monday morning in the Sound as part of this recovery. The air temp was in the low 50s (yeah, baby) and the water temp was about 70 without any serious chop. The sand was cold but once we got in the water it was perfect. Great swim.

My Name is Earl

• First, the weigh in results for this week are in. I cheated missed two meals this week but followed the program fairly close for the rest of the week. The most egregious "break" was the barbecue that I went to last weekend where it seemed that I couldn't stop eating grazing on chips, dip, and the like. Even so, the scale showed -1.8 lbs. A little disappointing on one hand but OK on the other hand.
  
• As I write this, my back yard is the line between a tropical storm warning a the tropical storm watch. What's the difference? I don't know. We'll find out late Friday/early Saturday when Hurricane Earl is supposed to scoot by. I've been doing mini workouts this week getting my body used doing radical things like sweating and the like. The exercise ramp up continues.
• I wanted to give an open water swim a try this weekend. Hopefully Earl doesn't make the Long Island Sound like swimming in a washing machine. If it does, splashing in the pool is the option.
• Earl's leftover wind will make the planned bike rides interesting as well.
• Keep safe everyone!

Quote of the week

"Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes. " - Bill Cosby