Monday, May 16, 2011
Sherlock
There's a fun take on A.C. Doyle available on Netflix. It's got Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman (whom I do not know from anything else) as Dr. Watson, and it's set in the present. Watson is recently returned from Afghanistan when the pair meet. Holmes texts Inspector Lestrade when he has something to contribute. The one episode I watched, "A Study in Pink," contains a riff on the dread Pirate Roberts' showdown with the Sicilian Vizzini over Iocane powder.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Regulars
Because I tend to do most of my runs in one of two directions around the lakefront around the same time in the morning, I tend to see many of the same faces. I don't know who they are, we never talk, half the time we are running opposite directions, but it is comforting to see them back now that running season is in full swing (even if its 42, foggy, windy and running this morning). Since I don't know their actual names, I have nick names for each of them based solely on appearances. There is the Keep on Truckin' Man, a hispanic guy with a mustache and a pony tail who always runs shirtless and looks vaguely like the R.Crumb cartoon figure. There is the Bobble Head guy, an older Phillipino guy who also runs shirtless. He is so skinny, his running gait is so odd, and his head is so large that he looks likes he is going to fall over sometimes. Then there is the beehive lady who has some sort of elaborate hairdo carefully wrapped in gauzy fabric piled high atop her head. There is also an albino guy who power walks while covered from head to toe regardless of the heat. Finally, there is the Joggler, a guy in his late thirties who tuns endless effortless 8 minute miles while doing a perfect three ball weave juggling pattern.
The only folks I actually know who I ever see are Mark, a general counsel of a real estate company, who never sees me because he runs without his glasses and Ellen, a former neighbor, who runs 6 miles a day, seven days a week (which would be considerably more than me) who won't tackle races of any distance.
Interesting and diverse group out there.
Wonder what they wonder call me?
The only folks I actually know who I ever see are Mark, a general counsel of a real estate company, who never sees me because he runs without his glasses and Ellen, a former neighbor, who runs 6 miles a day, seven days a week (which would be considerably more than me) who won't tackle races of any distance.
Interesting and diverse group out there.
Wonder what they wonder call me?
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Running the world
Going to be in The Hague on Sunday for about 72 hours to present a paper at a research conference before the ICN and then turning around to come home. Hate to miss the ICN itself but hopefully will able to attend or schnorr my way in in future years. Too many family, school, and other upcoming travel plans to dawdle this time.
Hope to get a quick run in. Turns out the web has an immense number of running routes and maps for virtually any city. Some for the Hague are at http://www.run.com/city.asp?loc=The+Hague+NL. There goes my big money making idea...
Hope to get a quick run in. Turns out the web has an immense number of running routes and maps for virtually any city. Some for the Hague are at http://www.run.com/city.asp?loc=The+Hague+NL. There goes my big money making idea...
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Race Report
I'm back at my desk after nearly a week's hiatus traveling to St. George, relaxing, eating piles of carbohydrates and logging one 12:02:45 day of low-intensity exercise. Before turning to student papers, a sober reflection on Ironman St. George.
THAT WAS AWESOME!! THE COURSE WAS FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!! THE CROWDS WERE LIKE BOSTON WITHOUT ALL THE BOOZE!! MY FAMILY WAS THERE CHEERING!! WOOHOO!!
It really was an extraordinary weekend, so much so that I may send a note to the editor of the local paper with my thanks and congratulations to that community on a day well done. Differences from other venues? No local animosity toward the event whatsoever, despite nearly closing the town down for nearly three days. Extremely broad local volunteer engagement. Great cheer and course marshall support, on a hot, shadeless day, even miles away from town. (Contrast Louisville, which course boasts the legend "Ironman go home" scrawled on the pavement.)
St. George is lovely. The town is built in a broad canyon carved by the Virgin River from painted desert sandstone. It is green and even in places lush. The scenery on all sides includes red mesas and mountains rising in some places many thousands of feet. As you leave town you almost necessarily go uphill; the one exception is heading south toward Las Vegas, following the river through the extraordinary Virgin River Gorge and far northwest Arizona.
On an Ironman bike course you see lots of scenery. After a cold swim -- my feet and hands went numb half-way through -- we left the transition area at Sand Hollow Reservoir and followed Highway 9 toward St. George and away from Zion National Park. After some rolling hills and winding through the town of Washington, we took Red Hills Blvd. over the bluff above St. George (we'd see this road again on the run) and into Snow Canyon. That's the point where the loops begin. More gentle rollers and plenty of flats until we hit Highway 91, where begins the nearly constant uphill climb from about 2800 feet to 4600 feet. We crossed a tributary of the Virgin River and turned onto Route 3184, where the real climbing begins. Beyond a continuous uphill grade, I counted four climbs of progressive difficulty, the last of which is called "The Wall" and came at miles 45 (first loop) and 90. Route 3184 passes through a beautiful valley and Gunlock State Park, past the Gunlock reservoir and through the town of the same name. If you were taking time to enjoy the scenery, as I was, it was a marvelous tour through some of the prettiest desert landscapes I've encountered. And I haven't yet mentioned the downhills: once each loop we gave back the 1800 feet of climbing over a 10-mile stretch of Highway 18. Summarizing my cycling effort: I've blown up on more than one Ironman bike course in the past, I was only marginally in shape for this (with a longest ride going in of about 55 miles) and I knew it was a hard course. I followed the mantra "coasting and soft-pedaling" -- and it worked! Getting off the bike at the end I felt almost fresh.
Which is good, because I knew the run would be hard. The course is two out-and-back trips from downtown St. George, up the bluff on Red Hills and down the other side where you reach the turn-around. It includes four quick tours through Pioneer Park, which has just enough hills to be insult to injury. It also got hot and there was no shade. That run seemed to break everyone. I looked around on my second loop and at any given time within my line of sight, I might have been one of only three or four people actually running. And there's why I'm exited about the race: over my previous five iron-distance triathlon starts, I quit two races after the bike leg (Great Floridian, Louisville) and folded on the run in the other three. In St. George I assessed my legs after three miles, felt nothing, and decided, for once, to run a marathon.
The picture I put on my wall from this event will surely be a well-timed shot from a professional photographer when I'm climbing a hill on the bike against a backdrop of painted sandstone hills. I'm pleased to leave the impression for most that such battlefield heroics is what went on out there, but I'll confess the truth here. St. George was my best (not fastest, though close) long-course race because I held a slow and steady pace, and with five miles to go on the run I realized "I could do this forever, but that I'm about to faint, and please, please don't let it happen before I get to the finish." After the finish, of course, anything goes.
THAT WAS AWESOME!! THE COURSE WAS FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!! THE CROWDS WERE LIKE BOSTON WITHOUT ALL THE BOOZE!! MY FAMILY WAS THERE CHEERING!! WOOHOO!!
It really was an extraordinary weekend, so much so that I may send a note to the editor of the local paper with my thanks and congratulations to that community on a day well done. Differences from other venues? No local animosity toward the event whatsoever, despite nearly closing the town down for nearly three days. Extremely broad local volunteer engagement. Great cheer and course marshall support, on a hot, shadeless day, even miles away from town. (Contrast Louisville, which course boasts the legend "Ironman go home" scrawled on the pavement.)
St. George is lovely. The town is built in a broad canyon carved by the Virgin River from painted desert sandstone. It is green and even in places lush. The scenery on all sides includes red mesas and mountains rising in some places many thousands of feet. As you leave town you almost necessarily go uphill; the one exception is heading south toward Las Vegas, following the river through the extraordinary Virgin River Gorge and far northwest Arizona.
On an Ironman bike course you see lots of scenery. After a cold swim -- my feet and hands went numb half-way through -- we left the transition area at Sand Hollow Reservoir and followed Highway 9 toward St. George and away from Zion National Park. After some rolling hills and winding through the town of Washington, we took Red Hills Blvd. over the bluff above St. George (we'd see this road again on the run) and into Snow Canyon. That's the point where the loops begin. More gentle rollers and plenty of flats until we hit Highway 91, where begins the nearly constant uphill climb from about 2800 feet to 4600 feet. We crossed a tributary of the Virgin River and turned onto Route 3184, where the real climbing begins. Beyond a continuous uphill grade, I counted four climbs of progressive difficulty, the last of which is called "The Wall" and came at miles 45 (first loop) and 90. Route 3184 passes through a beautiful valley and Gunlock State Park, past the Gunlock reservoir and through the town of the same name. If you were taking time to enjoy the scenery, as I was, it was a marvelous tour through some of the prettiest desert landscapes I've encountered. And I haven't yet mentioned the downhills: once each loop we gave back the 1800 feet of climbing over a 10-mile stretch of Highway 18. Summarizing my cycling effort: I've blown up on more than one Ironman bike course in the past, I was only marginally in shape for this (with a longest ride going in of about 55 miles) and I knew it was a hard course. I followed the mantra "coasting and soft-pedaling" -- and it worked! Getting off the bike at the end I felt almost fresh.
Which is good, because I knew the run would be hard. The course is two out-and-back trips from downtown St. George, up the bluff on Red Hills and down the other side where you reach the turn-around. It includes four quick tours through Pioneer Park, which has just enough hills to be insult to injury. It also got hot and there was no shade. That run seemed to break everyone. I looked around on my second loop and at any given time within my line of sight, I might have been one of only three or four people actually running. And there's why I'm exited about the race: over my previous five iron-distance triathlon starts, I quit two races after the bike leg (Great Floridian, Louisville) and folded on the run in the other three. In St. George I assessed my legs after three miles, felt nothing, and decided, for once, to run a marathon.
The picture I put on my wall from this event will surely be a well-timed shot from a professional photographer when I'm climbing a hill on the bike against a backdrop of painted sandstone hills. I'm pleased to leave the impression for most that such battlefield heroics is what went on out there, but I'll confess the truth here. St. George was my best (not fastest, though close) long-course race because I held a slow and steady pace, and with five miles to go on the run I realized "I could do this forever, but that I'm about to faint, and please, please don't let it happen before I get to the finish." After the finish, of course, anything goes.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Cue the Music
In every Rocky movie and almost every "go for it" movie, there is a moment where the protagonist questions himself and his determination. Then the hero's wife/buddy/trainer/mentor/sensei offers words of wisdom, encouragement, or motivation. Cue the music. Training/combat/endurance montage begins and when it ends the hero stands on the cusp of greatness and their greatest challenge. There is usually a moment of quiet reflection and then the relentless path to victory/glory/self realization/the big finish/pride in a job well done.
On the eve of Max's ironman in Utah, I only have three words:
Cue the Music...
On the eve of Max's ironman in Utah, I only have three words:
Cue the Music...
T-Shirt Slogans I'd Like to See
(W/ the ubiquitous Ironman logo): "Ironmom"
(Also with the logo): "Ironmaiden"
"Ironman: if you feel anything, you're working too hard."
"When was the last time you consumed thousands of calories in sugar and fat and lost weight?"
"140.3: Because I was tired." (Spoof on the 140.6 stickers; 140.6 is the IM distance in miles.)
"26.1: It wasn't fun anymore."
"The worst part is that you still have to go to the office on Monday."
"Ironman: where the fans get to race, too."
"Anybody who says a triathlon is a swim-bike-RUN hasn't done an Ironman."
"If you quit, I will too." (This is, of course, evidence of a naked output restriction!)
"You realize that no matter how much you explain, Grandma won't understand."
(Also with the logo): "Ironmaiden"
"Ironman: if you feel anything, you're working too hard."
"When was the last time you consumed thousands of calories in sugar and fat and lost weight?"
"140.3: Because I was tired." (Spoof on the 140.6 stickers; 140.6 is the IM distance in miles.)
"26.1: It wasn't fun anymore."
"The worst part is that you still have to go to the office on Monday."
"Ironman: where the fans get to race, too."
"Anybody who says a triathlon is a swim-bike-RUN hasn't done an Ironman."
"If you quit, I will too." (This is, of course, evidence of a naked output restriction!)
"You realize that no matter how much you explain, Grandma won't understand."
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Pop Culture Final Exam
As I draft my final exams for two classes I am constantly in search of distractions as I seek ways to basically ask the same questions in different ways. I have never used multiple choice questions but have used a small number of true/false explains in civil procedure. As your distraction, consider the following questions plucked from today's entertainment news.
1) Chicago Code vs. Good Wife. Two shows, one pretends to be set in Chicago, the other actually is. One has good acting and writing, one not so much. one stars my neighbor, one does not. Discuss.
2) Judas Priest vs. Priest in 3D. Discuss.
3) Vin Diesel vs. The Rock. Who should star in the movie version as the head of the Navy Seal team hunting for Bin Ladin?
4) Which is a better distraction from grading? Discuss all relevant issues.
5) Extra Credit. Name the failed PBS comedy pilot where I played a character called "The Hasidic Sportsman"?
1) Chicago Code vs. Good Wife. Two shows, one pretends to be set in Chicago, the other actually is. One has good acting and writing, one not so much. one stars my neighbor, one does not. Discuss.
2) Judas Priest vs. Priest in 3D. Discuss.
3) Vin Diesel vs. The Rock. Who should star in the movie version as the head of the Navy Seal team hunting for Bin Ladin?
4) Which is a better distraction from grading? Discuss all relevant issues.
5) Extra Credit. Name the failed PBS comedy pilot where I played a character called "The Hasidic Sportsman"?
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