the pleasure of my company

crystal cove state park geologic survey marker

2012-01-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

a geologic survey mark from a run a few weeks back.

this one is on the middle of a trail in crystal cove state park and it's easy to miss; i only noticed it the first time because i had to retie my shoe when i stopped at a peak. this shot is actually from the second or third time i've been by it.

look at the date, 1933. i wonder the newport coast area looked like 80 years ago. now the state park is bordered to the northwest by the ridiculously large mansions of newport coast. to the southwest is the coast which is still mostly unblemished except for a large, modern house on a coastal bluff that has sat empty for quite a while.

another cool thing from a trail in the same park - a fossil i'd probably have trampled had it not been marked by rocks.

remember when the space program was cool?

2012-01-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

sure, it's been over 40 years since america reached the moon and nearly as long since the average person was geeked up over nasa, but aren't these pictures cool?

see more from: asu's space ref site via radiolab

if nobody else jumps, wilt will definitely make the layup

2012-01-09T14:07:00.001-08:00

2010 films redux

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

last year at about this time i put forth a short list of the new movies i'd seen the previous 12 months. the list was fairly short and, looking back a year later, i've filled in a few gaps via netflix. with that in mind, here's an updated list with eleven additional entries. entries from last year have been updated somewhat and have their old number in parentheses.

26. macgruber - this was a terrible, terrible movie.

25 (14). wall street: money never sleeps - is there any doubt now that the shine is off shia lebouf? when this movie was made he was still spielberg's darling and it seemed like he'd end up in every movie ever made after 2014. now he's probably a few steps away from a few direct-to-netflix frat comedies.

24 (13). the american - every year there are movies that seem like they are supposed to be important that have completely disappeared six months later. i really don't think i'd even remember this movie existed if i wasn't updating this list.

23. the other guys -at some point someone is going to get will ferrell to make another good comedy. i'm not sure who, but some director is going to rein him in, focus his energy, and make something great. in the mean time he'll continue to make slop like this where it's clear that the people on set were laughing at take 12's improvs more than anyone who'd see the final cut.

22. the expendables - action movies have never been in my wheelhouse, but i figured this one would be ridiculous enough to be enjoyable. unfortunately this film was better on paper than in execution, just like stallone's other best film, over the top.

21 (12). green zone - this has nothing to do with the movie, but i'm a bit worried about iraq now that we're pulling out most of our troops. that place is nowhere near ready to rule itself, at least not in any way resembling a stable, representative, and safe government. just as the taliban has had a huge resurgence in parts of afghanistan, extremists are going to gain a lot of power in the new iraq.

20 (11). shrek forever after - last year i assumed this was the last we'd see of shrek or his ancillary characters. this was not to be the case. in december kim took our nephew to see puss in boots and was rewarded with an absolutely atrocious movie. now that eddie murphy's comeback (tower heist was a thing, right?) has stalled, i predict we'll be seeing a movie starring donkey by 2013.

19 (10). iron man 2 - if the dark knight did anything beyond giving heath ledger a suitable sendoff, it raised the bar for what a comic book movie sequel could and should be. while the first of jon favreu's iron man movies was enjoyable in a completely different way from christopher nolan's work, his seuqel did not come close to being that interesting. it was muddled and boring, not quite a batman and robin, but certainly not a good film either.

18 (9). the switch - last year jason bateman was in a movie where he swapped bio-matter and secretly/accidentally fathered his friend's kid. this year he was in a movie where he swapped bodies with his best friend. a talking dog movie can't be too far off the horizon, can it? exciting times in the bateman household.

17. the book of eli - sometimes a movie can have a good concept, a great star, an interesting look, a twist, and still not be that great. this is one of those movies. post-apocalyptic stories can go in two directions, incredibly bleak (cormac mccarthy's the road) or bleak but hopeful (the road warrior comes to mind). this movie was slanted towards the latter, but it wanted to be the former.

16 (8). the a-team - for some reason the a-team theme song has been stuck in my head for days. i assume someone is working on a sequel and i'd enjoy seeing it so long as they don't spend half the movie flashing-back to plot points we've already seen like they did in this one.

15 (7). alice in wonderland - tim burton is very good at making movies in a signature style. he's slightly less good at making great films. this is not one of his best, but it sure looked good.

14. 127 hours - james franco did a great job acting in this one, but i couldn't fully enjoy the movie because of how much i dislike the praise aron ralston has received over the years. yes, his story is one of long-odds survival, but it's also one where the protagonist created those long odds by being incredibly stupid. that latter part rarely gets mentioned in the mainstream media, but it has been the subject of extensive debate in the mountaineering world. to summarize those discussions: although everyone agrees he has an amazing, miraculous survival story he was put in that situation because he was climbing alone and didn't tell anyone where he was going or what he was doing. smaller mistakes include choosing to bring a digital camera and video camera rather than survival necessities like adequate water and functional tools.

13. scott pilgrim vs. the world - in the last decade or so there has been a lot of talk about movies looking and feeling like the comic books that inspired them - ang lee's hulk anyone? scott pilgrim is one of the few successful "comic book movies" because it isn't jarring when it veers from semi-reality to video game lunacy.

12. tron legacy - i cannot mention this movie without also mentioning that i watched the original tron so many times as a kid that my vhs copy is nearly worn out. i enjoyed this one, but aside from cool shots and special effects it doesn't have much to commend it. the story is typical action movie mediocrity and the hype about jeff bridges being digitally altered to play the younger version of himself was overblown. light cycles are still cool and daft punk made a great soundtrack.

11. the king's speech - usually i'm a sucker for period pieces and this was pretty good, but it left me a little flat. i'd give it a 7.5, but i don't know if i'll watch it again.

10 (6). toy story 3 - this was a great way to end the franchise, but why didn't anyone else think it was creepy that it ended with a college freshman playing with a preschooler he didn't know? that was unsettling.

9 (5). the fighter - this is ranked so highly entirely because of christian bale's performance. the story is a little uneven and everyone else in the film is good, but the reason this was as good as it was is bale's dickie ecklund.

8 (4). shutter island - i'm not usually all that interested in psychological thrillers, but this movie was good. i still like the ending.

7 (3). the town - this year i read chuck hogan's book prince of thieves and i'm less in favor of jon hamm's character now than i was a year ago. last year i defended it as merely being the foil, but in the book he's a true rival and fleshing him out on film would have been worthwhile.

6. winter's bone - the ozarks never make any sense to me. they're like this magical place where time stopped and civilization, at least the happier parts of it, disappeared. the fact that a place like the ozarks exists in this country is truly mind-boggling to me. you could tell me almost any crazy thing happened there and i'd probably believe you.

5. un prohéte - you should really see this movie. one of the things that struck me, besides the overall greatness of this film, was how much freedom french prisoners have during their incarceration. they have more creature comforts than your average low-income worker, freedom to congregate in their secluded cells, and, as a reward for good behavior, unsupervised "work" trips to the outside world where they're free to commit more crimes so long as they return at night.

4. exit through the gift shop - for me banksy's art is like early punk music: it's great as long as i don't think about it too much and get riled up about the naivety of its liberalism.

3. true grit - i must admit i haven't seen the original, but i'm going to side with the coen brothers and jeff bridges over john wayne and the 1960s. i think it's probably save to assume that the 2010 true grit is to the 1969 true grit as the 2007 3:10 to yuma is to its 1957 counterpart.

2 (2). the social network - it's almost a year later and i still have no idea how this movie didn't beat out the king's speech for best picture. oh wait, yeah i do: the oscar voters are idiots who won't even nominate christopher nolan for best director and picked shakespeare in love over saving private ryan.

1 (1). inception - in twenty years this might not hold up as well for everyone as i think it will for me, but this was hands-down the best movie-going experience i had in 2010. did a director have a better decade than christopher nolan?

2011 in the rearview

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

2011 was a weird year, training-wise. i did a triathlon in the spring, but did not train for it as much as i should have. next, i took the summer way too easy after a horrific race day. then i had a series of calf strains from labor day to thanksgiving. i think i was on my bike once after may. bummer.
here are the totals with 2010 numbers in brackets.

total distance trained: 897 miles [1115]
miles/week: 17.26 [21.4]
total workouts logged: 139 [175]
longest streak of working out: 13 days (jan 31- feb 12) [6]

running mileage
total miles logged: 341 [361]
miles/week: 6.55 [6.9]
total runs logged: 89 [109]
miles/run: 3.83 [3.31]
longest run: 8 (4/17)     [10 (4/18)]
longest week total: 20.28 (apr 7-13)    [25.48 (apr 4-10)]
longest month total: 42.6 (jun)    [77.22 (apr)]
shortest month total: 5 (sept)    [0 (jul)]

biking mileage
total miles logged: 540.7 [692.5]
miles/week: 10.4 [13.3]
total rides logged: 30 [42]
miles/ride: 18 [16.5]
longest ride: 30.02 (3/18)    [32.5 (9/18)]
longest week total: 64.64 (apr 14-20)    [73.16 (sept 12-18)]
longest month total: 177.34 feb [166.92 (aug)]
shortest month total: 0 (jun, aug, sept, oct, nov, dec)   [0 (nov & dec)]

swimming yardage
total yards logged: 28365 [27780]
yards/week: 551 [534]
total swims logged: 20 [25]
yards/swim: 1432 [1111]
longest swim: 1825 (mar 25 & apr 6)   [1800 (sept 14)]
longest week total: 5100 (feb 18-24)    [3100 (jun 13-19)]
longest month total: 10600 (feb)   [6400 (sept)]
shortest month total: 0 (jun-oct)   [0 (apr, may, & jul)]

2011 films

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

here are all of the 2011 films i saw before the end of the year (updated because i totally forgot about win win):

16. cars 2 - a pure cash grab if there ever was one. putting characters from a well-known, profitable film into a completely unrelated spy-movie is a terrible, but ultimately money-making idea so this one will be followed in 2012 by madagascar 3 where the same thing happens.

15. horrible bosses - this one would probably be better if i saw a pg-13 edit. vulgarity is not my cup of tea.

14. the green hornet - michel gondry usually does better work so i'm blaming this one on seth rogen and his writing partner.

13. the mechanic - not much to be said about this one. okay at best.

12. limitless - bradley cooper and robert deniro probably did this one for the exact same reason: cash. cooper has to strike while the iron is hot and deniro must owe someone a lot of money to keep doing this stuff. it was a fun concept, but the movie was nothing exceptional.

11. thor - this film slides into the sweet spot superhero films occupied comfortably before batman begins. on the plus-side, this one was fun and hit most of the right notes for a superhero film. as for the negatives, the plot was a bit weak and predictable. also, i have a hard time buying how thor fits into the world of the other marvel comics where heroes are humans with strange abilities and/or exceptional skills. thor, on the other hand, is a norse god and that's never really worked for me.

10. source code - too clever by half.

9. kung fu panda 2 - we saw this with our nephew and he was transfixed the entire time.

8. rango - sometimes a movie is advertised as a straightforward family film when it's really an oddball story better-suited for a more knowing audience. this is one of those films. i imagine kids enjoyed this one, but i also think they'll get a lot more out of it when they're older.

7. x-men: first class - after the final films of the hugh jackman x-men era, i was ready to be done with these mutants for quite a while. then, of course, this movie came along and now i'm back. clearly more than a prequel, this one was a good reboot for the films and had a solid cast. i'm not sure how potential sequels will work now that first class' plot has inserted the x-men into real-world events, but i'd like to see it.

6. the adventures of tintin - though i had heard about tintin years ago, i had never read any of herge's work so i didn't really know what to except going in to this one. it was an enjoyable adventure with maybe one or two too many false endings.

5. captain america: the first avenger - a lot of people thought this movie was boring and slow. i disagree. for me it was a throwback to an earlier style of movie, sort of like the original indiana jones trilogy. it's hard for most people to accept a captain america-type in these cynical times, but i must be some sort of idealist because sometimes i like a hero whose faults aren't his defining characteristics. i know that doesn't jibe with a post-christopher nolan superhero world. as much as i like a hard-edged, conflicted batman, i like a straightforward, uncompromising cap.

4. the girl with the dragon tattoo - i'm really of two minds about this movie. on the one hand, it was a well-made film based on what seems to be a good mystery novel. at the same time it's a film with the most brutal scenes i've ever seen. maybe i'm weird, but i think the film would have been just as good (or probably better) if the worst of the scenes were edited down and more was implied than shown. i'm told all of that stuff is in the book, but i think we'd all have gotten the jist with a bit more implication and a lot less explicit visualization.

3. win win - when i first wrote this i totally forgot that this came out in 2011. this movie, although fictional, is a more realistic version of the blind side. here the kid is trouble, the family who rescues him is in trouble, and nobody is perfectly cheery or honest.

2. moneyball - aaron sorkin knows his way around a script, brad pitt & jonah hill know how to act, and this movie knows exactly how to get people to think that the a's still have a clue. the only thing dragging this one down is that, in the near-decade since the movie's 2002 season, a lot of things have changed in baseball that make billy beane look less like a genius and more like a guy who got lucky with three of the best young starters in baseball.

1. the muppets - this movie was great. i'd be pretty stoked to get my very own 80s robot.

2011 book 25

2011-12-01T15:29:00.001-08:00

25. men of tomorrow: geeks, gangsters, and the birth of cool by gerard jones

it's weird, as someone born in the mid-1980s, to think there was a time when the pop-culture world didn't revolve around superheroes, but it's true. such a time existed, a time when kids didn't have entertainment made just for them and comics only existed in the newspaper. then, quite suddenly, superman arrived and the superhero exploded. this book is the story of the men who created superheroes, the seedy underbelly of the publishing world, and american pop-culture at large.

2011 book 24

2011-11-13T21:35:00.001-08:00

24. the sorcerer's apprentices: a season in the kitchen at ferran adria's elbulli by lisa abend

for decades, maybe even centuries, it was a given that the best cuisine in the world came out of france. ever since escoffier codified the idea that a kitchen ought to be run like a military unit, the impact of the french has loomed large beyond even their stamp on a restaurant's food. in the last couple decades, however, spain has knocked france decidedly from its perch. sure, jöel robuchon still has the most michelin stars of any chef - 26 - and he's french, but some of the shine is off the frogs lately.

chief among the spanish interlopers is ferran adrìa and his restaurant elBulli. adrìa is seen as something of a jedi in the culinary world. his reputation for inventiveness and originality is certainly well-earned as many of haute cuisine's newest trends have had their genesis in his kitchen. the restaurant has developed a reputation for doing what it wants, how it wants. the restaurant, currently shuttered as it transforms into a culinary lab of sorts in 2013, is open only for dinner, only six months a year. diners were served what the kitchen chose to serve them, usually 25+ dishes from an ever-evolving menu. meticulous notes were kept on each diner's experience to insure they have a new meal every time they returned. returning, of course, was incredibly difficult as the short season and small dining room meant that only about 3000 of the million reservation requests are successful. amazingly, the kitchen was run by a small permanent core staff surrounded by a constantly-churning mix of short-term stagiaires or unpaid interns. of course, these "interns" are all trained chefs with impressive resumes, but the fact remains that the world's best restaurant was executing adría's with a bunch of unpaid short-termers.

in 2009 author lisa abend spent a season observing both the restaurant and the people how kept it humming. the result is an interesting insight into a place most of us never had a hope of visiting.

the ridiculousness of lew alcindor

2011-11-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

i may have gone to usc, but i grew up in what used to be a ucla household. my mom's dad graduated from ucla in 1950 and the family rooted exclusively for the bruins until i picked usc in the spring of 2002. as such i have a soft spot for usc's crosstown rival that most trojans do not.¹

during my formative years, when i actually cared about college basketball and could not figure out football to save my life,² i was fully immersed in the great history of john wooden's ucla teams. obviously the exploits of wooden and players like bill walton fascinated me, but of all the stories i'd heard, the following anecdote about lew alcindor (kareem abdul-jabbar is totally a worse name for an athlete) was the most interesting when i was a kid.

from chuck klosterman's personal list of the 50 greatest college basketball players of all time:
"The fact that UCLA won the national title during all three seasons Alcindor played is merely the third-most interesting detail of his college career; the fact that the NCAA outlawed dunking due to his dominance is probably second. But to me, the thing that will always be most unfathomable about Alcindor was his very first game, played when he was an ineligible freshman: UCLA was coming off back-to-back national championships. As an exhibition, the Bruin varsity — ranked no. 1 in the nation — opened the season by scrimmaging the freshmen team. Alcindor had 31 points, 21 boards, and eight blocks. The freshmen hammered the varsity by 15 points; the no. 1 team in the country could not beat a player who could not yet play. As an ineligible 18-year-old, Alcindor was (at worst) the fourth or fifth-best basketball player in the world."

isn't that amazing? back in those days freshmen couldn't play varsity sports, but kareem was better than the best team in the country. he lifted the frosh team over the two-time defending national champions. ucla's varsity would not repeat their championship in the '65-'66 season, but with kareem starting from the fall of '66 to the spring of '69 they won the next three titles and lost only two games.

¹ i'd like ucla to win every game where they're not playing usc so usc looks better when they win. plus that'd make the rivalry meaningful. notre dame, on the other hand, should always lose.
² any 7 year-old who can understand what those down and distance numbers mean either plays football or is a savant. i remember staring at "2nd & 7," "1st & 10," and "3 & 22" with absolute confusion.

how the mighty have fallen

2011-11-10T21:55:00.001-08:00

this kind of thing would have been unimaginable in 2003 and not just because iphones and groupon didn't exist.

2011 book 23

2011-11-09T22:50:00.001-08:00

23. old time baseball: america's passion in the gilded age by harvey frommer

i'm a fan of history and a fan of baseball, but i'm not a fan of this book. the first section is a timeline of the major happenings of baseball in the 19th century. it was interesting, but the rest of the book is spoiled by the timeline. it's like the timeline is the cliff's notes to the rest of the book. why have that at the start? plus the writing is repetitive, unclear and, at times, contradictory. i bailed on this one without finishing the section on famous players.

charles "old hoss" radbourn with the world's first documented bird-flip

2011 books 21 & 22

2011-10-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

21. major: a black athlete, a white era, and the fight to be the world's fastest human being
by todd balf
for a brief time at the end of the 20th century bicycle racers were the biggest sports stars in the world. as cars struggled to hit 40mph and planes fought to stay aloft more than a few seconds, cyclists were setting land speed records by the dozen on tracks worldwide. races of up to a week were contested on heavily banked tracks in front of packed houses of fans and gamblers. shorter match races were contested for huge purses. into this world of rough-and-tumble white (often racist) racers rode marshal "major" taylor, a gentle black rider whose abilities and training innovations brought him to the peak of cycling and society even as almost everyone conspired against him. this is an almost-lost time in sporting history and it was interesting to learn about the era and about taylor, a deeply religious man whose convictions helped him survive terrible racism.

22. the mind of bill james by scott gray
bill james, for anyone outside the subset of baseball fans who also like to do math, is a huge figure in the sabermetric community. while it's true that the impact of his formulas has been somewhat overstated, it's hard to give him enough credit for popularizing the idea that we shouldn't settle for the same stats they've been using since the early 20th century. this book is a broad bio of james with particular emphasis on a few of his more important ideas about baseball. it was a light read and certainly isn't for anyone who doesn't care about the difference between how baseball reference and fangraphs calculate WAR.

2011 book 20

2011-09-22T23:33:00.000-07:00

20. again to carthage by john l. parker jr.

carthage is the sequel to once a runner. whereas runner seemed too focused on training and racing for the external conflicts to matter, carthage's running seems an inadequate match for quenton cassidy's real-life struggles. he's lost his best friend to a crash in vietnam, his grandfather to old age, his former love to marriage (though she's divorcing and will clearly return to him the moment she arrives), and his youth to age. the first 2/3 of the book deal with this loss and running is only tangentially involved. then cassidy decides to go from retired olympic miler to elite marathoner using the same isolation and hyper focus he used in his previous running career. at this point the book running moves from the far periphery to the absolute center and it's more than a bit strange.

overall this was an okay book, but like runner i'm not as enraptured of it as everyone else.

giant ceramic cowboy boot?

2011-09-08T22:48:00.001-07:00

giant ceramic cowboy boot!

sometimes i like to peer at things

2011-09-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

2011 book 19

2011-08-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

19. those guys have all the fun by james andrew miller & tom shales
this is a book about espn. if that seems boring to you, you'll probably hate it. if it sounds even remotely interesting you're going to find yourself flying through it at a hundred miles per hour. miller and shales have interviewed everyone ever associated with espn and compiled a heck of book.

a picture

2011-08-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

something i fiddled around with a while ago when i was testing a free photoshop-like program:

2011 book 18

2011-07-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

18. the jordan rules by sam smith

back in 1992, michael jordan's bulls were in the process of defending their first title and nobody knew they'd win six in eight years.¹ smith's book is a look back at their first title and what it took to get there. here are my thoughts:
1. in 2011 phil jackson is an 11-time champion coach known for his zen-philosophies and dating jeanie buss. twenty years earlier, before he'd won as a coach, he was 20 years deep into his second marriage and raising a bunch of kids. he had some interesting ways of thinking - influenced both by leftists and native americans - but still referenced and seemed directed by the christian principles by which he was raised. i'd really be interested to know more about what in the world happened in between.
2. everybody knows michael jordan is a ridiculous competitor. the stories of his all-night, high-stakes gambling jags and constant, biting teammate ridicule are well known. oddly, however, nobody seems to care that much about the impact of those things. he was the greatest nba player ever and he worked hard to be the best, but what would he have been like if he wasn't playing 36 rounds of golf before practice, staying up all night to play cards with his entourage, belittling teammates, and gunning for his own points over the good of the team? add to that stories of cheating on his wife, his post-career divorce, and a fuller picture of his enormous appetite for gambling and you start to wonder if anybody would have liked jordan had he come up in the youtube/tmz era.
3.it's amazing how player salaries have escalated in the last 20 years. back when this book was written, a $3 million per year contract was enormous. to the average working man that's still huge, but kobe bryant is making at least 8 times that this year in spite of a salary cap.

¹ the two they lost were when jordan took off to play minor league baseball. hakeem olajuwon and the houston rockets owe jordan a fruit basket or something because they wouldn't have sniffed those titles with jordan in the league.

2011 book 17

2011-07-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

17. moonlight mile by dennis lehane

in 2010 my seventeenth book was gone baby gone by dennis lehane. a year later came moonlight mile. this is the sixth of lehane's kenzie-gennaro and, specifically, the sequel to gone baby gone. the same kid is missing and the same aunt hires the same detectives to find her. this time, however, it's 2010 and the kid is the world's most intelligent, self-aware, and calculating 16 year-old. this is a good story, but the kid is far too composed to keep the story as realistic as its predecessor. her dialogue and actions are those of a self-possessed adult and not a world-wise teen. the other problem i had with the book was lehane's inclusion of an inordinate amount of references to modern culture and celebrity. just so you know what i mean, i took the time to flip through the book and list every product, band, restaurant, and celeb i saw:

crown royal; dodge viper; porsche; facebook (x2); wii fit; skype (x2); aston martin db9; dunkin donuts; yellow pages; chili's; gulfstream; zantac; maalox; canon; sony (x2); blue cross blue shield; dave chappelle; george will; dave clark five; buddy holly; prince; nirvana; paris hilton; red lobster; vans shoes; the hold steady; pfizer; lil wayne; honda; toyota; chrysler 300; tgi friday's; red sox (x8); the gap (x2); aeropostale; nordstrom; barneys; polaroid; cvs; maui jim; d&g; old navy; gucci; fendi; marc jacobs; juicy couture; tim wakefield; blackberry (x4); bmw 5 series; jaguar; the daily show; audi; 4runner limited; lexus; bmw 740; sub-zero (x2); "the l word"; doc martens; lifetime network; oprah; josh beckett (x3); droid phone; coke (x2); sylvester stallone; hummer (x14); gm; dodge ram (x3); gilette stadium (x2); pt cruiser; new england patriots; "csi"; holiday inn; nba (x2); umass; porsche 911 targa (x2); flowmaster mufflers; "sticky fingers" by the rolling stones (x2); mick jagger; american spirit cigarettes; julio lugo; eric gagne; doritos; twilight; bono; george bernard shaw; stephen hawking; young frankenstein; arthur rimbaud; axl rose; lucinda williams; sigur ros; donnie darko; roadhouse; sharon stone; the quick and the dead; harry and the hendersons; jeep; "the view"; al gore; comcast (x7); val kilmer; heat; saab (x5); david bowie; nine inch nails; bruce springsteen; radiohead; the national; green day; kurt cobain (x2); harvard (x2); brown; cool hand luke; mcdonald's; outback steakhouse; chevy suburban (x8); wii tennis; blue-ray (x9); nintendo wii; xbox; bose; ipod (x3); ipad; kindle (x3); garmin gps; george clooney (x5); corvette; dolby; jvc; playstation 3; levi's (x2); mavi jeans; tv guide; costco; ted williams

an update for 2011

2011-07-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

an update two-plus years later:

here's the previous one: link.

2011 book 16

2011-07-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

16. night by elie wiesel

wiesel survived the concentrations camps during his teenage years. this is the story of his family's destruction, his struggle to endure, and his ultimate survival. there's really not much i can add to this. i'm not sure whether it's more terrifying or appalling that people let this happen.

2011 books 13-15

2011-06-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

13. the pacific by hugh ambrose
don't read this if you'd rather just the watch mini-series.¹ that's a totally reasonable response, but if you read quickly it probably won't take much longer to read than it would to watch.

14. son of hamas by mosab hassan yousef
read this book and then try to explain why yassar arafat deserved a nobel peace prize.²

15. outliers by malcolm gladwell
if you liked either blink or the tipping point, you'll like this. if you hated those and don't like to read, you'll hate this. if you hated those and like to read, you're probably best off skimming the source notes and going to the research itself. also, you're ridiculous if you do that.

¹ i like that in america 10 or fewer episodes is a "mini-series" while other countries burn through an entire show in like 6 total episodes. sure, most shows last longer than they should, but good shows have earned the right to burn out rather than end on top. i'd trade a bad season or two of arrested development for another 2 or 3 (or more) great ones after the 2.5 that aired.
² i should point out that this is the nobel prize presented by the norwegians and not the swedes.

summer?

2011-06-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

according to the lovely calendar hanging on the wall of my cubicle, summer began tuesday. since tuesday was june 21, i did not disagree. when it comes to the seasons i am a strict calendarist.¹ here's how i, like anyone who knows how to read a calendar, break up my year:

simple enough, right? winter is from 12/21 to 3/20, spring 3/21 to 6/20, summer 6/21 to 9/20, and autumn² 9/21 to 12/20. the solstices and equinoxes (vernal and autumnal) sufficed to determine our seasons for millenia.³

now however, most people seem to think they can decide when and how the seasons are split which, on average, results in this sort of calendar:

instead of the traditional solar calendar america has shifted towards a holiday based calendar. winter starts with thanksgiving and ends before valentine's day, spring gets a 5 week head start and lasts until the lighter fluid hits the grill on memorial day, summer is snipped at sunset on labor day and autumn gets the scraps.

put next to each other, the calendars look like this:

as you can see, autumn gets the shaft as it's squeezed between labor day and thanksgiving. if decoration and candy manufacturers had their way, thanksgiving would be stricken from the ledger entirely and we'd have winter starting by the time kids end their halloween sugar high.

here's my solution:

combine the two calendars into one super calendar complete with 8 seasons which i will define as follows (from left to right):
1. winter - 12/21 to 2/13
here you get your christmas eve, christmas, new year's eve, new year's day, the nfl playoffs and super bowl, the good college bowl games, and mlk day in one quick shot. most people are willing to put up with cold, terrible weather for that run of good times.

2. the doldrums - 2/14 to 3/20
this season can be summed up in 3 points:
a. the weather isn't just cold; it's cold and it's wet.
b. the theaters are filled with castoffs or the oscar favorites you saw back in november and december.
c. football is over and baseball is a month away. college basketball, an afterthought from november to mid-march, actually seems interesting.

3. spring - 3/21 to 5/29
if you're in school you're getting spring break. if not, at least the days are getting longer and baseball is back. even pirates fans have reason for hope.

4. free space - 5/30 to 6/20
the two weeks between memorial day and the start of summer are a mixed bag. the weather's good, the days are long, and summer is on the horizon, but here in orange county school is still in session and the natives are getting restless.

5. summer - 6/21 to 9/5
summer! woo!

6. back-to-school - 9/6 to 9/20
even though i haven't had school in a while this time of year still feels like i'm going back to school.⁴

7. autumn - 9/21 to 11/24
i've been told that most of the country experiences something called "fall color" during this time. in southern california we usually have a lot of days in the mid-70s and a week of heat. halloween and thanksgiving are the cornerstones of the american tradition of making every holiday about food.

8. pre-christmas- 11/25 to 12/20
here's what you're supposed to do during this season: put up christmas lights and decorations, shop way too much, attend office/neighborhood parties, eat way too much, pretend it's a wonderful life doesn't suck, and deal with the fact that the sun sets before you leave work.

there you have it, a brave new world or at least a better calendar. if four seasons are good, aren't eight better? of course they are.

¹ this is a blog without capital letters and not the ny times so it stands to reason that you shouldn't have cared about my made up word. if, however, you did, just know that it was intentional and that you should probably talk to someone about your ocd.
² have you ever heard someone pronounce the "n" at the end of autumn? well i have and it's every bit as terrifying as you'd think.
³ or not. i just guessed on that one.
⁴ no, i don't mean in the rodney dangerfield sense.

2011 book 12

2011-06-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

12. tortilla flat by john steinbeck

i'm not really sure what to say about this one. the one thing i found interesting about it was how each chapter felt like an episode of television show. there were some things that carried from chapter to chapter, but like an episodic tv show it really didn't matter much if i knew what came before. weird.

2011 book 11

2011-06-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

11. kitchen confidential by anthony bourdain

ever since i finally paid off my library debts i've been checking out books with steady regularity. most of the time i don't look for specific books, but instead wander around trying to remember whatever book it was i thought about earlier. this time was different. i had just finished medium raw and figured i ought to circle back to the start and read bourdain's first well-known book. the fv branch of the library didn't have a regular copy, but i did manage to snag a large print edition. large print editions are awesome. for every page of regular text you get at least 1.5 in the larger size so it's like you're reading an incredible number of pages really quickly.

2011 orange county triathlon: an overly long recap

2011-05-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

for the second year in a row i did the orange county triathlon. this year i actually trained and knew what i was doing. the weather cooperated, i started strong, and moved faster, but, as you'll see from my recap, the end result wasn't much different. with that, here's the tale of my return to the orange county triathlon:

i arrived even earlier than last year, but still had to park across the street due to the flood of people trying to park close. not a big deal since i packed everything in a backpack instead of a crate. balancing a crate full of gear on a bike while finding your way in the dark is a fool's game. i set up my bike and killed a bunch of time reading. as much as i'd have like to sleep in a bit, it was good to get there early and relax.

as everyone else swam a warm up i pulled on my swim cap, tearing a chunk off in the process. this year's caps were significantly flimsier than last year's.

swim - 30:54 (pace)
last year's swim killed me. by the halfway point i was dead, but by that point i had to get back to shore so i figured i might as well continue. that was not the case this year. the water is cooler in late may than early october so an even higher percentage of people were in wet suits. obviously i wasn't one of them, but once again it did not matter much. i kept last year's strategy of forgoing a warm up figuring that i've never been inclined to prep more than necessary.

i started more slowly than last year to avoid destroying myself. unfortunately this meant getting stuck with a group of swerving guys whose zig-zags most definitely cost me time. rather than push past them i just assumed they were swimming decent times and cruised behind them. oddly enough, this was not the best strategy. eventually i was free from the crowd, but with no idea of my pacing and blurry goggles i did not move as quickly as i'd have liked.

i'm normally a straight line swimmer no matter the conditions, but i started veering right every 20 strokes or so and had to fight to stay on target. a couple of times i corrected course just to find someone swerving across my path. i resisted the urge to check my watch a dozen or so times and didn't take a glance at it until i was on dry land. i felt much better than last year, but swam almost the same time and still had calf cramps as soon as i hit the ground.

transition 1 - 3:23
after last year's disastrous transition one might think i'd have practiced it some. one would be wrong. once again, i didn't even really think about it. the transition area in the lake parking lot is on a pretty steep incline so as i jogged up to my bike i was fighting calf cramps the whole way. like last year i struggled to put on my jersey, but made the call to skip it when it started rolling up as i put it over my head. i snagged my glasses, helmet, and gloves and hit the road. grabbing those gloves was a good choice. last year my hands did not approve of my choice to go gloveless. this year my hands would be one of the only things on my body that felt good by the end of my ride.

bike - 1:38:32 (pace)
on the first hill out of the parking lot i got into a pretty good pace with some standing pedaling. my legs, cramping from the swim, started feeling better pretty quickly. that's not to say they felt great. i managed to find a good rhythm and prep for the real climbs to come. about a mile into the ride i passed a guy already fixing a rear flat and felt really bad for the guy. i'm sure he felt the same for me when he passed me later...

my hill training for this race had left a lot to be desired, but i was much stronger than last year. i figured i'd settle into a decent pace on the first real climb and recover once it was over. i'd be a quarter of the way into the ride and feeling good. i figured wrong.

on the run up to the climb i started getting passed regularly, mostly by the relay riders who'd started behind me. i shifted onto the small ring and... my chain popped off. this had never happened to me. i hopped off my bike to fiddle with the chain and struggled to get it back on the cog. after an overly long stop i was up and riding again. i started passing some of the people who'd passed me, but the stop was bad news for my stomach. it was like i'd just finished an interval. restarting my ride got everything churning and not in a good way.

half way up the climb i couldn't fight it any more. i pulled to the side, hopped off the bike, leaned over the top tube, and puked until i was nearly dry heaving. my pre-race banana, gatorade, gel, and clif bar all went over the side. my lower abs felt like they'd been stabbed - first the right and then the left. it was at this point that i got so frustrated as to consider quitting. it's hard to imagine continuing when your body is turning itself inside out and you still have 20 miles to ride and 10km to run. thankfully i pushed through it. as always happened when i ran track in high school, throwing up helped me feel much better. once i'd remounted my bike i flew up the climb. i passed a few people and felt really strong. it was not to last.

before i even managed to hit the top of the climb, things started going wrong again. everything started cramping. i felt it in my abs, calves, lower back, and even my forearms. then i started cramping in places i'd never cramped before in my life. the worst was on the inner part of my legs right where my quads hit my knees. it was ridiculous. it got to the point that i couldn't even pedal hard on the flat sections. after the turn around i tossed my bike chain again and added a stop or two on the final climb. i kept moving forward, but my legs were like lead. i finished the ride tired, dehydrated, cramping, and covered in bike grime. despite my training and improvement it took 5 minutes longer than last year. it was not my best day on the bike.

transition 2 - 1:23
getting to the transition after my whole row had filled with bikes was a bummer even after i'd resigned myself just to fighting to the finish. i managed to toss my gear next to my bike and grab shoes without too much trouble. i ditched my glasses for a visor and hit the road.

run - 1:03:51 (pace)
last year i really had to stop running after a mile or so. i was exhausted and dehydrated. it was 90 degrees and windy. this year, even though i was cramping terribly and had emptied my stomach on the side of the road i felt better. the weather was cool and cloudy, the wind was light, and i managed to trot the first couple downhill miles.

i wasn't moving quickly, but i knew that if i managed to keep jogging i'd be faster on the run than last year. each step was painful so i had to force myself to keep moving by thinking about how i'd hated going so slowly last time. the middle section of the course. after that gentle downhill trot, is terrible. i made the left into the small park before the first hill knew trouble was coming.

this section has two large hills (which i could not run), a bunch of twists and turns, and has way too many surface changes. i don't mind concrete, asphalt, dirt, wood chips, or gravel. i do, however, mind switching back and forth every few hundred yards. the dirt and wood chips were so spongy that my awkward trotting felt almost useless. every step seemed to be half as useful as a normal step.

eventually i made it to where kim and my parents would be waiting. i'd been fighting cramps, especially in my right calf for so long that i could barely jog, even downhill. i stopped to stretch a couple times on the descent before u-turning for the last climb. kim cheered me as i passed and i was able to jog painfully down the final hill to the finish.

i barely squeaked out an improvement on 2010, but was happy to have survived. i am in much better shape than last year so i expected better. unfortunately i had one of those days that prove the old endurance sport axiom that anyone can blow up at any time. combine that with murphy's law - anything that can go wrong will - and i had a heck of a day.

overall time: 3:18:04 (2010: 3:21:02 - 2:58 improvement)
swim: 30:54 (2010: 30:52 - 2 seconds slower which i'm blaming on the fact that last year's course was shorter)
t1: 3:23 (2010: 3:49 - 26 second improvement)
bike: 1:38:32 (2010: 1:33:15 - 5:17 slower thanks to a combined rebellion by my body and bike)
t2: 1:23 (2010: 1:38 - 15 second improvement)
run: 1:03:51 (2010: 1:11:28 - 7:37 second improvement)

2011 book 10

2011-05-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

10. the blind side by michael lewis

you've seen the movie. i know you have. whereas the film is about sandra bullock saving a homeless kid who turns out to be a football star, the book is about much more than that. it's about passing and free agency changing the value of left tackles in the nfl. it's about sean tuohy (look, it's country music's tim mcgraw) reaching out to the underprivileged athletes at his kids' school because he used basketball to get out of his own poverty. it's about the gulf between rich white and poor black memphis. it's about a destitute, lost black kid¹ being rescued by a rich, white, christian family. it's about the world of big-time football in the south. the book covers a lot of territory, surprisingly little of it about leigh anne tuohy or sandra bullock.

¹ some of the anecdotes about michael oher's lack of education are so unbelievable that they were wisely cut from the film. some of the things he didn't know were absolutely incomprehensible.

2011 book 9

2011-05-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

9. medium raw by anthony bourdain

i've seen enough episodes of no reservations to know that anthony bourdain speaks his mind. he has the reputation of someone who rips people to shreds just for the heck of it. this reputation, while certainly well-earned, doesn't tell the whole story. as any regular viewer of "no reservations" can tell you, bourdain is just an enthusiastic about the things he likes as he is scathing about the things he loathes.

i'd write more, but i'm in the middle of kitchen confidential and it seems weird to be reading that soon after its followup.

2011 book 8

2011-05-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

8. mystic river by dennis lehane

thanks to the kennedys, the celtics, that accent, the red sox, and the patriots i've built up a healthy distaste for boston. in the last few years, however, i've found that there are a bunch of great films and books set there.

i'm not talking celtic pride or good will hunting. i'm talking the departed, gone baby gone, prince of thieves/the town, and shutter island. two of those four - the second and fourth if you must know - were written by dennis lehane.¹ the guy knows his way around a crime story. i enjoyed gone baby gone more and have only seen the film version of shutter island, but mystic river was pretty good.

¹ it's also important to note that all of them are crime stories. yes, the point i'm trying to make is that boston is america's most believable location for crime stories.

a long drive to a hot place

2011-05-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

about this time last year i made a similar trip to arizona for a friend's wedding. i posted a similar map with similar numbering, but actually didn't end up in tucson. this time, however, tucson was the key to our itinerary as kim and i were heading east for my sister's graduation. we left last thursday and returned on sunday. here, with another numbered diagram, is the recap:

1. fountain valley, ca: we left home mid-afternoon on the 12th with kim's new gps chirping every few minutes. she got it for her birthday and it was a good buy. kim played with that thing the whole trip.

2. arizona/ca border: i've noticed in all of my drives to arizona the past few years that the drive from blythe to phoenix seems significantly longer than the drive from home to blythe. the former distance is about 60 miles shorter than the latter, yet it feels twice as far. something about crossing over the colorado river drains me of all motivation.

3. glendale, az: rather than drive all the way to tucson, kim and i spent thursday night alone in the phoenix area where we saw the world's biggest krispy kreme.

4. tucson, az: tucson doesn't make any sense to me. it's hot, dusty, and weirdly disconnected from everywhere else in the state. there's only 1 freeway. all of the buildings near campus are older than the state, but not in a good way. it was good to spend time with family and see my sister graduate, but if i never have to pack a car full of my sister's stuff on a warm evening again i'll be pretty content.

5. yuma, az: the last steps i took in arizona were filling up the gas tank one last time. this was the first time i've taken the southern route back to california and it was a welcome change from the 10. the 8 has almost no semi-truck traffic and can feel pretty desolate. at one point we endured the longest stretch of being alone on a highway i've ever had.

6. ca/mexico border: soon after leaving arizona highway 8 hits some significant sand dunes right along the border. kim was a little unsettled by being within a couple hundred yards of the fence while i was more worried about the waves of sand blowing off the dunes.

7. san diego county: this is where civilization returns. from tucson to yuma there's almost nothing. from yuma to the outskirts of san diego it's another desert. i didn't feel like we were ever going to make it home until started seeing parts of san diego i recognized from water polo tournaments years ago.

8. san diego county: after leaving the 8 for the 805 it's only a matter of time before you hit the 5 and finally see the ocean. after a few days of desert heat nothing seems quite as good as a good view of the ocean.

9. mission viejo, ca: the last stop of our trip was to dump some of my sister's stuff at my parents' house. they were a half hour behind us, but we weren't waiting around to see them. all that driving left us wiped.

2011 book 7

2011-05-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

7. run: the mind-body method of running by feel by matt fitzgerald

let me start by saying that i was loaned this book by my dad. based entirely on the title i'd not have read this on my own. something about "mind-body" and "method" doesn't quite jibe with running. as much as i enjoy a good training plan or philosophy i'm doubtful about anyone's magic method and i think "mind-body" is a little too hippie for my taste.

the basic premise, if you can't guess by the title, is that runners are too rigidly attached to their training plans and should learn to gauge their body's own feedback. this idea makes a lot of sense. once you know what kind of workouts there are, how your body reacts to them, and what goals you have it should follow that your own training should be based on how your feeling rather than the next column on page 173 of your book. unfortunately for this book, the idea is so simple, at least to any experienced athlete, that after a chapter or two the book drags significantly. the anecdotes about professionals who train in unusual ways that suit them get old quickly. i'm sure there are some people for whom this idea is revolutionary, but i didn't get much out of this one.

2011-05-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

back in january i outlined a few goals for this year's orange county triathlon. my primary goal remains to be faster than last year and that is going to happen unless i get hurt or the weather refuses to cooperate. now that we're in race week, i've decided to look back at my other goals and see how likely they might be to achieve. my training has been good, not great so some of these should be slam dunks while others probably shouldn't have been on my list in the first place.

1. do enough swim workouts that:
a. i don't feel like dying as i exit the water
    odds of success: 95%. this one is pretty much a lock, but nothing is certain when it comes to racing. last year i bailed on or shortened every single swim workout. this time i've been better.
b. i take fewer than four minutes in transition 1
    odss of success: 85% like the one above, this is pretty much a lock, but i'm less certain because i haven't thought about transitions yet. last year i was cramping so much i couldn't get my jersey over my shoulders. i didn't really mind the delay because i felt like i was going to vomit. when i finally got everything together i struggled to mount my bike on the uphill section past the mount line. all in all it was a disaster.
c. i don't resort to alternating breaststroke with freestyle after only 400 yards
    odds of sucess: 95%. i'm not going to be as fast as i'd really like, but i'm certainly in better swim shape than last year. this one is mostly a pacing issue now. if i go too hard out of the gate i'll have to switch it up to get back in control. if i'm smart and latch on to someone going a reasonable pace i'll do quite well for myself.

2. ride enough that:
a. i don't get passed by that dude on the bike from 1986
    odds of success: 50%. no matter how strong i ever get on the bike, there is a good chance that someone on bernard hinault's last tour winner is a ridiculous rider who could crush me on a tricycle while wearing sweatpants and one of those giant novelty foam cowboy hats.
b. i entertain no thoughts of pausing on the climbs
    odds of success: 15%. i don't think i'll have to stop, but i'm probably going to think about it. i'm certainly a stronger rider than last year and have put in more hilly training miles. unfortunately, however, my climbing skills could still use some work.
c. i pass more people on the climbs than on the descents - last year i blew by people on the downhills, but passed almost no one on the climbs.
    odds of success: 35%. living in a flat area makes training for climbs tough. i've gotten good at the flats and riding into the wind which will make almost no difference on this hilly course.

3. run enough that:
a. i don't walk during the race - 11:32 pace for a 10k? really?
    odds of success: 75%. i'm in better shape than last year. if i feel better on the swim, i'll feel better on the ride and not be dead by the time i start running. that said, it's still possible that some of the steep climbs will kick my butt. even if i'm going fast on the flats, i might start dying on the climbs.
b. i don't get pitying looks from bystanders during the race
    odds of sucess: 10%. though i'll be faster, tougher, and stronger i don't think this one is likely to happen just because there will be bystanders who think anyone doing a triathlon is crazy. those people pity everyone from the sub-2hr speed-demons to the barely surviving strugglers.

4. finish fast enough that:
a. i break 3 hours - even moderate training should get me this far.
    odds of success: 90%. i'm in much better shape. this much is true. as good as i feel about that, i have the following concerns: a) i haven't raced since last year, b) i don't know how windy it will be on the ride, c) i might struggle with a mechanical issue on the bike, and d) there is always a chance my body will not cooperate - an upset stomach or rolled ankle is always a possiblity.
b. i break 2:45
    odds of success: 40%. this is an ambitious goal. overall it's a 17.8% improvement over last year, 35+ minutes faster. most of that will probably come from the run which i slowly trudged in 2010. if i feel good out of the water and there's no wind on the ride this might happen.
c. i make the top 10 in my age group - i was 30th of 32 last year.
    odds of success: 10%. this would require finishing about 2:35. that's probably not going to happen this time around.

2011 books 2-6

2011-04-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

it has legitimately been ages since i've updated this mess and longer still - nearly 3 months - since i've logged my books.

2. batting stance guy by gar ryness
a few summers back i saw a video of a guy doing perfect imitations of classic batting stances. the guy could imitate anyone with a wiffle bat. it was funny and i told a few people about it.
fast forward a year and this dude is on tv, at stadiums, and all over the internet aping batting stances. fans love him, players love him, america loves him. add another year and i find this book in the bargain bin at the book store.
ryness' singular talent for copying batting stances is ridiculous, but there's really no way to translate it to the page. thankfully the book recognizes this. in addition to all the batting stance talk and jokes about 1980s baseball, ryness tells a lot of great stories about growing up with baseball.¹ this is a quick read, the kind of thing you blitz in an afternoon, but it's fun. if you like baseball, the 80s, or baseball in the 80s you will like this book.

3. a grief observed by cs lewis
literate young christians love them some cs lewis. odds are they've only read mere christianity, the books of the narnia series, or the screwtape letters. all of those books are great, but lewis was a prodigious author and books like grief have a lot to say as well.
this was a quick read - i read it while waiting for a quick car repair - but lewis says a lot in its 100 pages about his grief at the death of his wife. as he usually does, lewis manages to express and explore some universal insights into and ideas about god while examining his own life. so often it seems that christians don't want to allow grieving. lewis doesn't suffer from this delusion. he grieves without fear that this undermines or contradicts his faith.

4. prince of thieves by chuck hogan
the movie the town was based on this book. it was a good movie, but this is a better book. it's weird that as someone who dislikes so much about boston (the red sox, celtics, patriots, fans of those teams, etc.), i've found myself thoroughly enjoying so many books and movies about the city. of course, all of them - the departed, gone baby gone, prince of thieves, etc - have been about boston's seedier side.
as for the book itself, hogan has written a great crime story. even more so than the film, the book manages to humanize its characters so that you really do root for them despite their faults. one of the biggest complaints about the movie is that jon hamm's fbi agent is wooden and underdeveloped. my contention was that, in the film, he exists only to give the gang an enemy. he doesn't get much backstory because he's merely a foil. without giving too much away, suffice it to say that the character is bigger and more defined in the book.

5. big hair and plastic grass by dan epstein
the 1970s were a weird time. the more i learn about them, the less they make sense. against a backdrop of baseball, epstein chronicles a tumultuous decade and its impact. most of its stories and stats are readily available elsewhere, but it's certainly convenient having them all in one place. this book would have been much better for me had epstein not come from such a biased place. epstein seems to feel that just because he was a drug-taking hippy in the 70s that everyone else was as well. he sees the decade as a shining light between the repression of the 60s and the horrors of the reagan years. i don't usually enjoy writers who assume their own take on things, especially when its a leftist one, is universal and not personal.

6. a random walk down wall street by burton g. malkiel
i have had no experience with investing, but in february when my company was sold i had the chance to move my old 401k to an ira of my choosing. knowing that i'd like to have more control over my future cash, i picked an online broker. then, knowing that i knew less than i'd like about investing i picked a book that seemed interesting.
random walk was a perfect book for me. i'm not looking to become gordon gekko and i don't harbor the illusion that i really could. i just want to be smart about retirement funds. malkiel starts with a quick tour of history's greatest bubbles and busts with special emphasis on the ridiculousness of the last few decades. with a background of the market's biggest mistakes, malkiel makes a case for broad-based, diversified, low-cost funds. most people make a lot of mistakes with investing, among them the following: a) they chase past results, b) they don't diversify, c) they lose a lot to management & transaction costs, d) they don't match their investments to their risk tolerance. in short, people make a lot of huge mistakes when they'd be better off finding an index fund with rock-bottom costs and riding it until retirement.

¹ one of ryness' childhood friends was justin speier, a former major leaguer whose father also played big league ball. last year we met speier volunteering with operation interdepence which is a group that packs care packages for the troops. he was a really nice guy and didn't talk about being a pro.

eight weeks... eight weeks left.

2011-03-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

tuesday marked two months until my triathlon. that means that on sunday i'll be finishing eight weeks of training and be eight weeks from the starting line. whereas last year's training was almost non-existent, i have done a fair amount of training already this year. sure, i've been a bit sporadic the last couple weeks, but i'm definitely making progress. my swims feel stronger and my rides are faster. runs are another matter, but anything should be better than last year's 11:30+/mile slog to the finish. all in all i've been feeling pretty good about my training.

since i am at the halfway point in my training program i've decided to look back at last year's result:

swim: 30:52, 18th fastest, 18th place (out of 32 in my age group)
    i felt really, really slow on this leg. sadly, it was my best. i couldn't freestyle the whole way, felt terrible in the water, and felt worse out of it, but it was the high point of my success at the race.
    at this point in my training i've already done more swims than i did for last year's race. if i had been 10% faster, a mere 1:05, i'd have exited the water in 7th place. i think i'll be at least that much faster this time around. of course, an even bigger boon will be my increased fitness. when i exited the water my leg cramped and i thought i was going to puke. kim said i looked like i should probably be stopped right there. this is after i had beaten 14 people in my age group out of the water.
    this year i'm shooting for a 3 minute improvement. anything better than that will be a bonus so long as i feel okay getting on the bike.

t1: 3:49, tied for 30th, 21st
    remember when i said i was dead coming out of the water? this is where i really felt it. while i was nearly vomiting and attempting to get on the bike, i cramped so badly that i couldn't stretch enough to put on my jersey. getting into a spandex jersey while wet, cramping, and nauseous is incredibly difficult.
    i haven't practiced this transition at all, nor do i plan to practice it. sure, it might save me a few seconds, but i think the real difference here will be that i plan on not wanting to die during the transition. feeling better out of the water will mean i don't let 3 people pass me while i'm not moving. even with a minute off my time last year i'd still have had the 30th fastest transition.
    i expect a significant improvement here. something in the 2:10-2:20 range would put me mid-pack.

bike: 1:33:15; 32nd, 27th
    this did not go well, did it? i was the worst rider of anyone in my age group. i was a half hour behind the leader and dropped 6 more places. i hadn't done any quality climbing or descending to prepare for a course with no flats. my one or two course rides had only served to show me how much more bike work i needed.
    last year, my rides were mostly flat, short, and slow. this year i've gotten faster, ridden longer, and even climbed a few hills. the next two months will help significantly if i can continue improving as i have recently.
    i'll be conservative in my goal here and say i'm shooting for 1:25:00. i'd only be 8 places better on the bike, but an 8 minute improvement is significant.

t2: 1:38; tied for 19th, 27th
    i felt much better here than at the previous transition, but that has a lot to do with coasting much of the long final descent. i lost some time due to crowded bike racks, but not so much that i'd complain.
    there's no real reason i can't drop 30 seconds here, especially if i'm faster getting there.

run: 1:11:28; 29th, 30th
    i was worse on the bike, but this one bugs me more. i was so tired by this point that i barely ran any of the 10k. i was 3 minutes slower per mile than my average workout pace these days. in fact, i was so dead that i couldn't even jog when people passed me. a guy who finished his swim over 12 minutes behind me managed to pass me as i "ran."
    this time around i'm shooting for running the whole thing. if i do that, even as slowly as 9:41/mile, i'll break an hour for the run. this is a hilly course so i wouldn't expect a fast time even without the swim or ride.
    all of that said, however, my pace goal is 9min/mile which would land me at about 56 minutes total.

total: 3:21:02, 30th in 25-29 age group
    looking at the times i've projected, here's what we're looking at: an optimistic 2:52:28 which is nearly a half hour faster and under my 3 hour target.
    swim: 28 min
    t1: 2:20 (30:20 total)
    bike: 1:25:00 (1:55:20)
    t2: 1:08 (1:56:28)
    run: 56 (2:52:28)

spring training with the delta league

2011-03-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

every spring for years i have wanted to go to spring training. every year i think about going and every year i do not go. in 2011 that finally changed. this is the story of my trip to the land where preseason baseball and the elderly intersect, phoenix.

for the past nine seasons i've been in a fantasy baseball league with friends from ago. each year at this time we have our draft and what started as a quick afternoon of online trash talk has turned into a reunion of sorts as we've moved further and further afield. (last year, for example, the draft consisted of a trip to denver which involved shooting guns in a blizzard and a subuaru that nearly drifted into a snow bank) this year we hit the cactus league and stayed with pamper's grandparents. four games in three days plus mini golf, the fantasy baseball draft, and church made for a full weekend.

some highlights:

1. on friday morning, the kim and i were scheduled to leave at 6 for the drive to arizona. we would be picking up mark weaver (variously known as weave, the king, uncle eff, and/or chewbacca) and mike escoto en route and were hoping to make most of mid-afternoon angel game in tempe. the guys were being driven from l.a. to orange by weave's parents and were scheduled to arrive at 6:30. at 6:31, as we sat outside the appointed meeting place, i received a call that starts with "you're not there already, are you?" and ended with "we're in some sort of park and ride." 15 miles into the trip and we were already a half hour behind. good omen?

2. after five hours, 2 pit stops, and 3 of the king's speeches, we made it to tempe for game 1, angels v dbacks. at the game we met up with ben malcolmson, joel cicchella, and don & amanda stage who had arrived in phoenix on thursday. it was sunny and it was hot, but it was also a success since kim was able to get her mike scioscia bust signed by the man himself. she was so focused on the task at hand that she utterly ignored brandon wood as he walked right in front of her. also, the angels won on a walk-off by hank conger. friday night was another game, padres v giants. i had a chocolate malt, giants fans aren't that annoying when it's 75 degrees at 8 pm, and kim was talked into a padres hat before we left so gop could be retrieved from the airport.

3. when you're on the road and not staying in a hotel it can be tough to find internet. thank goodness chick-fil-a has wi-fi. we got the restaurant early to test the wireless and ended up being there for nearly four hours. we split a 120 piece nugget tray between 7 of us and took over a quarter of the dining room. the staff was incredibly friendly and refilled our drinks a half dozen times. i can't imagine any other restaurant tolerating us, but the manager even encouraged it.

4. the first bad trade of the fantasy baseball season was conducted between gop and ginsu during the middle of the rockies-dbacks game. i don't know how gop so deep in ginny's dome, but somehow ginny offered prince fielder for the declining chase utley and the shelved adam wainwright. ridiculous, but not quite as ridiculous as the drunk giants fans in the parking lot who couldn't comprehend how gop (in a dodger's hat and jacket) could be playing catch with ginsu (in a giants hat).

5. sunday morning we attended ben's grandparents' church. for the unfamiliar, sun city is a retirement community. everyone has to be over 55 so i was expecting an older crowd at church like we'd seen at breakfast that morning. what i wasn't expecting was a church aimed specifically at an older crowd because they felt the elderly were under served and/or ignored at other churches. it was pretty cool to see how and why they did what they did. on the way out one of the ushers, a guy who had to have been in his 80s, put his hand on my back and said, "it was great to have you guys here today." when he didn't hear my response, he followed up with "did you hear me? i didn't get a response." old people are the best.

6. at the dodgers-white sox game on sunday afternoon i nearly melted in my church clothes. black jeans are a terrible idea in phoenix. we got awesome seats through ben and sat right behind the home dugout. the highlight of this game was seeing dodger fans react to tommy lasorda like he was santa claus, the pope, and the president all rolled into one. in the 6th or 7th he perched himself on the top step of the dugout. when the crowd noticed, the cameras popped out like aliens had just landed. people were shouting and trying to get him to turn around, but he acted like he didn't notice. that's when it started getting really weird. as ginsu later explained, it was like dodger fans were getting close to an easily startled animal. they were inching closer and closer to take photos but were increasingly quiet and stealthy about it. the most lasorda did for the crowd was wave behind himself dismissively. lasorda has a cult following among doyer fans and presents himself as mr. dodger, but he seems like a jerk.

race on the base 5k - 2011

2011-02-28T10:43:00.000-08:00

saturday was the race on the base 5k at the los alamitos joint forces training base. i have been in the middle of my triathlon training, but haven't concentrated at all on my running. i've had some good runs and seen some progress despite my lack of focus though. that said, i had no goals for the race. this year, unlike last year, we missed the rain and the event went well for me.

here's how the day unfolded:
the forecast for race day called for a high likelihood of rain, but i figured we'd be okay. this year i was right. it was absolutely pouring when i went to bed on friday but let up well before the race. this left a few puddles on the course, but nothing like the lakes of 2010. the wind would only be a minor problem compared to the onslaught of last year's rain.

thanks to some epic restraint on my part i was able to hold back out of the gate. even though i was cruising at 6:15/mi pace i felt comfortable. most of the people around me, however, seemed to think they were trudging along and kept straining to pick up the pace. they would soon realize how wrong they were. as we approached the first turn people started dropping back and i noticed that the pace car was way, way in front of the pack. trailing just behind the pace car was a solitary runner who looked like he was in a dead sprint. second place was, after less than a half mile, already well behind. i assumed the guy was going to end up on a stretcher before the end.

i started picking people off and felt good about my pace which fluctuated from the mid to low 6's. after a short stretch running just behind a pack of three, i pulled ahead. for the last 1.5 miles i ran completely alone. the wind was blowing so conditions changed with every turn, no matter how slight. by this point i figured i could break 20 minutes if i stayed steady, but my pacing was horrible due to the wind. without the benefit of my gps i'd have slowed to a crawl without even realizing it.

as i approached the 2 mile mark i saw the race leader who'd already made the turn around. he was still way in front of everyone and cruising. i picked up my pace for the stretch run, but slowed significantly after pulling the 180 into the wind. i did manage to pick up some ground on two people and kicked to finish just under 20 minutes: 19:58. that was good for second in my age group and 15th overall. not bad for a race with no goals, right? of course, the guy who won my age group won the race and beat me by 5 1/2 minutes. ridiculous.

the week in baseball

2011-02-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

1. albert pujols failed to agree with the st. louis cardinals on a contract extension
pujols is the best player in baseball, but he's only the 17th best paid. his contract ends with this season and he has not yet signed an extension with the team. understandably, the people of st. louis are terrified.
if he leaves next off-season it will kill the redbirds' and their fans. if his departure takes him to the cubbies, expect the gateway arch to burn. cards fans are usually mild-mannered and good-natured, but don't underestimate their mania: nothing matters more than the cardinals winning and nobody does more on the field to make that happen than pujols.

2. miguel cabrera was arrested for a dui
miggy, already infamous for his drunken arrest during the '09 playoffs, made another huge mistake this week. when florida police found his car smoking by the side of the road early wednesday morning, cabrera gave us a textbook example of what not to do when the cops arrive.
first he tried the rarely succesful "take a swig of scotch after the cops have arrived" maneuver. then he doubled-down with the "don't you know who i am?" defense, pulled a trifecta by following up with "you don't know my problems," and reached for the cycle by smartly resisting arrest. all in all, it was a huge night for the tigers' star. i, for one, am predicting that this will have no impact on detroit's season because the manager, jim leyland, says it's not a distraction. yes, it's not a distraction in the way that having your best player dramatically fall off the wagon just before the season is never a distraction.

3. michael young's non-break-up with the rangers is still super-awkward
last season, for the first time in their history, the texas rangers made the world series. the hear and soul of the team that unexpectedly won the american league was michael young, the third baseman who had been with the team a decade and switched positions twice to help the team. after 1500 games over ten full seassons young finally made the playoffs as the team enjoyed its best season ever.
naturally the team used this off-season to sign a younger, better player to take young's spot. next they tried to appease him by saying he'd be the designated hitter and that he'd fill in at other positions. when that didn't entirely work (and it appeared better hitters were available), they tried and tried and tried to pawn him off on someone else.
of course, that didn't work. he might be a nice guy who holds a team together, but at $13million per year he's drastically overpaid. now the rangers, having failed to find a good dh or dump young, have to pretend like they regret shopping him around like a used car. it's stuff like this that almost makes you forget the angels traded a catcher with a big bat and a decent 4th outfielder for a declining outfielder with one of the the worst contracts in baseball history.

the week that was: 2/7 to 2/13

2011-02-15T15:11:00.000-08:00

the second week of my training was not as good as the first:

the gym pool, already too warm for my taste, was volcanically hot. i was uncomfortably warm before i finished a single lap.
i only did two runs and two swims. tight scheduling and repeated sleepiness prevented me from fulfilling my planned work outs.
the transition run after saturday's ride was killer. my legs were dead and i barely completed my 1.5 miles

on the plus side i had a great run on monday and generally enjoyed my work outs. by the end of the week, however, i realized that i hadn't prepped enough to really do 9 work outs a week. as such i've cut back to six which should allow me to go a lot harder when i do train.

the week that was: 1/31 to 2/6

2011-02-06T22:54:00.000-08:00

...and away we go:
week one of 16 is in the books.

monday 31 january: i have not willingly seen 6 am in a long, long time. on monday i forced myself awake for a swim. my gym pool is pretty terrible¹, but the middle-aged women using the pool cleared a lane when i arrived. a few long minutes later i reeked of chlorine and was 1200 yards into my triathlon training.
in the evening i hit the road for a decent 4+ miles. i was ridiculously tired that night, but glad to have completed my first double.

tuesday 1 february: this week i learned that it really can get cold around here. even with pants and a long-sleeve jersey i was absolutely frozen at the start. by the time i hit the windy return i had warmed significantly, but my fingers haven't been that cold since my snowy ascent of mt. whitney.

wednesday 2 february: another day, another double. wait, scratch that. i did the swim, but skipped the run. only three days in, and i was altering my plan. whoops?

thursday 3 february: even with a beanie and extra gloves added to tuesday's wardrobe, this ride was even colder. thanks to some good effort and a few high gear intervals, i was significantly faster than earlier in the week.

friday 4 february: here's the double i should have done wednesday. another swim, another preemptive lane-clearing by the middle-aged floaters at the gym.
the evening's run was one of the best i've had in a long while. i managed to keep a conservative pace for the first half mile and, without really trying, pulled negative splits each half mile until the two short sprints at the end. pretty good.

saturday 5 february: riding later was a good choice: it was at least 20 degrees warmer at eight than it had been at 6:30 on tuesday and thursday. whereas weekdays are pretty lonely on the bike trail, weekends when the weather cooperates are overly crowded. instead of hitting the beach, i reversed course and rode past angel stadium for the first time this year.

sunday 6 february: this was the worst workout of the week. for the first time i didn't feel well. i couldn't hit a rhythm, felt tired, and gained a couple wonderful blisters. i finished strong and covered some good distance, but i was really glad to get it over and out of the way.

¹ it is shallow, overly warm, and often murky.

the week that was: 1/24 to 1/30

2011-01-31T09:03:00.001-08:00

1 solitary ride. that's it. no runs and certainly no swims.

saturday 29 january: i managed to get on the bike and do an hour of pedaling. i chose my usual out-and-back ride from home to the beach. the wind on the ride out was brutal. either that or it was pretty bad and i'm out of shape. one of those. okay, it was the latter. the return ride was faster, but i was beat. 16.4 miles in 59 minutes over flat ground without having swam first. i've got some work to do, don't i?

rather than working out the other days i devoted an inordinate amount of time to planning my training schedule for my triathlon in may. the race is seventeen weeks from yesterday making today the first day of my 16 week training schedule. most people, when using a pre-made training schedule, look at the plan and attempt to follow it exactly. if they're mildly ambitious they'll switch the rest day to better meet their busy schedule and if they're really ambitious they'll switch their busy schedule to fit the rest day.

i, as should be abundantly clear, am not usually part of "most people." this is no different. my training plan's default schedule uses monday as the rest day with swims and runs sharing days so that 9 workouts fit into the six non-mondays. immediately i knew this would not work for me. first, i overanalyze everything. second, i'm lazy, especially when it comes to swimming. plus i have two weekend trips to arizona in the next four months. with those in mind, i set out to modify the plan using the list of criteria that follows:
1. i will probably skip any swim workout that falls on the weekend.
2. i should avoid doing the same activity on back-to-back days when possible.
3. friday night workouts won't be of the highest priority.
4. wednesday night is small group night.
5. even with good intentions i will struggle to go to sleep early enough to do more morning workouts than are absolutely necessary.

in the end i spent much more time than was necessary (roughly thrice the time it took me to write this entry.) and created a workable schedule. i have no full rest day, but i won't be swimming on the weekends. i'll probably have to run on wednesday nights, but friday can be my fall back. once the time change happens i won't have to ride in the mornings before work. i am only doing the same workout on back-to-back days when i have to travel. all of it works, so far.

the week that was: 1/15 to 1/21

2011-01-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

this week i dusted off the bike, rediscovered hills, and endured shin splints.

saturday 15 january: after nearly 3 months without cycling, i topped off my tires and hit the santa ana river trail for quick spin. i started quickly, faded quicker, and cruised back with a full understanding of my low fitness. 10 miles slowly ridden are better than a million imagined.

sunday 16 january: there is a rut around the perimeter of mile square park worn deep into the grass. the most serious of the runners refuse to follow the winding path around the park and instead trudge straight lines into the turf wherever the path splits from the road. i used to run on that path, but it's poorly lit, often muddy, and overly trafficked. instead, i use the opposite side of the street from the park when i run the perimeter. i trade those hazards for wide-open sidewalks, which is nice, but i do it so often that i fear i'm starting to wear my own rut into the concrete. 4 miles at a quicker pace.

tuesday 18 january: again with the park, but this time added 3/4 of a mile and a case of shin splints. i never had shin splints until last year. now i have them a second time. i'm going to run through them. sounds like a plan.

wednesday 19 january: i much prefer hills to the flatness of my neighborhood. wednesday i was able to knock off a short run - 2miles - in foothill ranch while kim and i housesat for her parents.

that's it for the week. no swimming yet, but i'll get there sooner rather than later. this has been the week that was.

plan of attack

2011-01-21T17:30:00.000-08:00

now that i've set a goal for an upcoming race, you might be wondering how i plan to go about reaching it. actually, you're probably not that concerned, but i'm going to tell you anyway. after thinking long and hard¹ about my failure to adequately train for last year's race or any other physical endeavor i've done after spring 2002 i have created the following four-pronged approach.²

1. i am using a training plan written by someone claiming to be an expert.
last year i started a training plan with every intention of sticking to it. i was going to swim, ride, and run regularly. it was going to be a glorious victory display of willpower and self-improvement. instead, that blew up after only a week³ when the crisp mountain air of colorado laid me low with illness and volcanic rocks of mammoth wrecked the rest of me.
this year i'm going to make an effort to stick with it long enough for it to pay off. i've still not decided which plan to use, but it's looking like i'm going to be ambitious and attempt a 9 workout per week plan. that way if i miss 1 or 2 a week i'll still be doing more than the next highest plan which is 6 per week. of course, if i average 2 completed workouts per week i'll be exceeding last year's training. in fact, if all goes according to plan i will have done more training swims by week 4 than i did in the whole time i "trained" for last year's triathlon.

2. i might tell some people i'm doing this and invite feedback.
this can go one of three ways, the first two of which are less likely but encouraged:
a. people will decide to encourage me
i'm not the type to need cheerleaders, but positive feedback is better than none at all or so i'm told.
b. people will decide to mock me
if professional athletes and after school specials are correct, proving people wrong is a surprisingly strong motivator. most people don't want to hear naysayers, i'd like to put that theory to the test so feel free to talk trash.
c. people will decided it's not worth their time to care
odds are most people who see this will choose option c, having stumbled upon this blog after googling "jon stewart is a tool" or "the pleasure of my company by steve martin."⁴

3. i plan to regularly update this blog with my training.
some people list every number from every workout on their blogs. i've tried that and it doesn't work for me. unless you've got an addiction to numbers and no calculator, it probably wouldn't work for you either. instead of boring everyone with data i'll recap things weekly in a haphazard, rambling way.
this is more for myself than anyone else because this is a blog and it's nothing if not self-indulgent, but if you like all the self-improvement of '80s movie montages without visuals or music and spread out over 4 months this will be right up your alley.

4. i will train to the race
when training for a hilly course it stands to reason that one would train under such conditions. last year, in addition to barely training at all, i made almost no effort to escape the pancake-flat confines of fountain valley and its adjacent municipalities.
as a point of reference, here is the elevation profile of most of the race's bike course:

in contrast, here is the elevation profile of my usual training ride:

notice any differences? the oc triathlon's run course is similarly hilly.

that's it. feel free to reference step two of my plan and react in whichever manner you see fit.

¹ okay, actually not so long or so hard, but it seems like a better idea to seem heady than flippant.
² patent pending
³ actually a prep week before the actual plan. i didn't even make it to week one.
⁴ actual ways people find this blog via google include searching for "old mug shots," "fries canola chickfila," and "coca cola freestyle." clearly i'm running a blog with a lazer-beam focus.

here's where i jinx myself

2011-01-17T22:51:00.000-08:00

my last post, a string of numbers from 2010, exists only as context for the following:

last year when i decided to do my first triathlon, i set a goal of 2:30. by the time all was said and done, i'd completed the race 51 minutes slower than hoped. with that in mind, i'm only setting one goal for this year: be faster. sounds doable, right?

to that end, i've decided to really train this time. last year i was woefully under-trained. after six weeks of illness, injury, and couch-bound recovery i put in ten middling, half-hearted weeks of training. i swam fewer than ten times, none outdoors. i only rode the course twice even though i knew it would be tough. i did no hill runs and did only two brick workouts. all told i missed more workouts than i actually completed.

this year will be different. i can't guarantee that i'll do every workout. nor can i promise to make consistently good use of my time. however, i will make a better effort to actually train this time around. last year's effort started admirably with a tough, but doable training plan. it was quickly and irrevocably derailed. i'm not going to let that happen this year.

remember that part where i said i only had one goal? that's not exactly true. i have on goal that is important: beat 3:21. here are the others which are less important.
1. do enough swim workouts that:
a. i don't feel like dying as i exit the water
b. i take fewer than four minutes in transition 1
c. i don't resort to alternating breaststroke with freestyle after only 400 yards

2. ride enough that:
a. i don't get passed by that dude on the bike from 1986
b. i entertain no thoughts of pausing on the climbs
c. i pass more people on the climbs than on the descents - last year i blew by people on the downhills, but passed almost no one on the climbs which is a bad sign since i think myself a better climber than descender.

3. run enough that:
a. i don't walk during the race - 11:32 pace for a 10k? really?
b. i don't get pitying looks from bystanders during the race

4. finish fast enough that:
a. i break 3 hours - even moderate training should get me this far.
b. i break 2:45
c. i make the top 10 in my age group - i was 30th of 32 last year.

2010 in the rearview

2011-01-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

total distance trained: 1115 miles
miles/week: 21.4
total workouts logged: 175
longest streak of working out: 6 days

running mileage
total miles logged: 361
miles/week: 6.9
total runs logged: 109
miles/run: 3.31
longest run: 10 (4/18)
longest week total: 25.48 (april 4-10)
longest month total: 77.22 (april)
shortest month total: 0 (july)

biking mileage

total miles logged: 692.5

miles/week: 13.3
total rides logged: 42
miles/ride: 16.5
longest ride: 32.5 (9/18)
longest week total: 73.16 (sept 12-18)
longest month total: 166.92 (aug)
shortest month total: 0 (nov & dec)

swimming yardage
total yards logged: 27780
yards/week: 53
total swims logged: 25
yards/swim: 1111
longest swim: 1800 (9/14)

longest week total: 3100 (jun 13-19)
longest month total: 6400 (sept)
shortest month total: 0 (april, may, & july)

2011 book 1

2011-01-16T00:40:00.000-08:00

1. benjamin franklin: an american life by walter isaacson
benjamin franklin did not invent electricity. he did not write the declaration of independence and he was a slave owner. he was never president nor did he fight the revolution. all of that is true. at the same time he did invent the lightning rod, help jefferson finalize the declaration of independence, lead an abolition group, represent multiple colonies in england, and gain french support for the revolution. isaacson's book is an exhaustive study of franklin and i learned more than i expected.

new shoes and the inefficiency of delivery

2011-01-12T17:05:00.000-08:00

monday night, for the first time in four years, i ordered a new pair of running shoes. after years of not running enough and rotating between three colors of the asics 2110's, one pair finally needs replacement. i'm a creature of habit so the replacement pair is the 2010 model, the 2150. thanks to the fact that new models are released every year, i was able to buy last year's perfectly good shoes for 1/2 price. one of these days i should get fitted again, but i've been rocking iterations of the same asics model since i was fifteen.

as great as it is to get shoes cheaply and have them delivered directly to my door, waiting for any package is interminable. it just gets worse when you have a tracking number. roadrunner sports is in san diego and i live in fountain valley. that's a drive of 83 miles which, thanks to traffic, would probably take at least 90 minutes on an average day. instead of that route, however, my shoes are traveling more than a little out of the way:

as i said, sd to fv (point a to point d) is 83 miles. ups' distribution scheme doesn't follow this route though. tuesday night the shoes left san diego en route to vernon. then they backtracked to anaheim before being sent out for delivery at 7:40 wednesday morning. a work day later they have not yet reached fountain valley.

i certainly didn't expect that my shoes would be driven directly to my door, but i don't understand why they had to go to los angeles and back to anaheim. that's terribly inefficient.

2010 films

2010-12-29T23:42:00.000-08:00

here we are in the dying days of 2010 and it feels like i really haven't seen too many movies. there are two i'll probably see before the end of the week, tron legacy and true grit, plus one i got from netflix and probably won't like, macgruber. in addition to those there are only fourteen more. maybe i'm too lazy to go to the movies or maybe i know what i like and won't waste time on anything else.

here they are, in order from worst to first:

14. wall street: money never sleeps - oliver stone, like steven spielberg, seems to have fallen under the spell of shia. this is not a good thing. lebouf is a likable enough actor, but every moment he's on the screen chasing carey mulligan is a moment this movie is floundering.

13. the american - most people who saw this hated the pacing. this one moved glacially slow; that is undoubtedly true. of course, i didn't mind that. what i did mind, however, was that the american wanted to be a stereotypically european film, complete with ridiculously long, graphic, and pointless sex scenes.

12. green zone - this one was marketed as a quasi-borne movie and reviewed, at least by some, as an anti-american smear job. in some ways it was both. in others it was a middling action movie that pulls a dan browne and tries to get people thinking that fiction is fact.

11. shrek forever after - do you promise? this one has run its course.

10. iron man 2 - some people are sad that jon favreu is moving on from this franchise. i am not among them. this movie is what the first was not: formulaic, heartless, and pointless.

9. the switch - yes, kim and i saw this one. i enjoyed it, but that probably had more to do with jeff goldblum's underrated comedic chops than anything else.

8. the a-team - this was a fun movie, full of action and jokes. unfortunately it also shot for the lowest common-denominator. every single plot point (without exception) that was referenced later was supported by a flashback so the audience wouldn't forget what had just happened. it was so bad that kim and i say movies/shows are "a-teaming" when they flashback to something obvious.
side note: sharlto copley is great in this as murdock, but was better in district 9.

7. alice in wonderland - tim burton and company did exactly what we expected of them. it was fun, but dry.

6. toy story 3 - there is a chasm between this and alice, but it's only my #6 film for the year. once again the pixar folks have made an outstanding piece of cinema.

5. the fighter - this isn't so much a boxing movie as a movie about family, boston, crack, and redemption. christian bale's depiction of dickie ecklund is outstanding.

4. shutter island - only the 2nd best leonardo dicaprio movie about a dude in altered reality with a psychotic wife this year. a lot of people didn't like the end of this movie, but it works for me.

3. the town - 3 boston films in a row? yikes. did anyone else appreciate how this was advertised as "from the director of gone baby gone" and not as "directed by ben affleck?" the ensemble in this movie was great. some people had a problem with jon hamm only hitting a few notes, but that was the role. his character was the foil; we never saw him beyond his work.

2. the social network - mark zuckerberg and his cronies allege that he's not as awkward as portrayed in this film. my dad describes his interviews as being like "north korean hostages reading cue cards." who's right? obviously my dad; the guy read 200 books this year.¹

1. inception - when we saw this in the theater the power went out twice, once for 20 minutes. i've never been so frustrated about a power outage.² if we hadn't seen the end of the movie that night, i'd have probably burned down the theater.
a quick list of christopher nolan films for you to ponder: the dark knight, the prestige, batman begins, insomnia, and memento. is it too early to start lining up for the dark knight rises?

¹ not an exaggeration. kim makes fun of how much reading i do, but i read an eighth of what my dad this year. since he told us this number on christmas he's probably added five more during his time off work.

² the only other movie i've had interrupted in the theater by a power outage? the miracle on 34th street remake. we took our free movie passes and saw the santa clause instead.

2010 books 23 & 24

2010-12-23T20:53:00.000-08:00

23. an invisible sign of my own by aimee bender
after finishing my last three library books in a blur i decided to read invisible sign at kim's suggestion. kim really liked this and has read a number of bender's books. it was good, but not my sort of book. i don't think i'll be reading bender's other books.

24. breaker boys by david fleming
these days the nfl is a behemoth. it's a huge moneymaker and has overtaken, in perception if not reality, the mantle of national pastime from major league baseball.¹ 85 years ago, however, it was a shoestring operation with teams failing every other week. one thing that both eras have in common: arbitrary, self-serving central leadership. breaker boys is the story of the small-town pottsville maroons who had their championship taken from them out of jealousy, pettiness, and loophole-based rulings.

¹ total attendance for the nfl: 17,469,552. total attendance for mlb: 73,418,479. more people watch baseball (both live and from tv/internet) than ever before.

music of the year 2010

2010-12-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

back in 2007, back when i felt like writing often and really knew how to fill up a page, i wrote 1700 words about the music i'd liked that year (part1 & part2). in 2008 i used just 123 words to list that year's music and last year i used none.¹

well, this year i'm back. as with my 2007 list, these albums will not be numbered even though that would make things easier for you. many of these albums weren't released in 2010, but that's when i got them; i'll note those as long as you don't freak out about it.

i really didn't spend too much time with music this year. i read a lot of books, have a 5 minute commute, don't have a functioning cd player in my car, and really suffered from being far from good record stores.

with that out of the way, here are all the albums i obtained this year, regardless of when they were released:

best of talking heads by talking heads (2004)
my mom and dad, who now listen to john mayer and norah jones respectively, used to listen to good music. some time in the 80s they stopped, but every now and again i'm reminded that they used have good taste.
these days david byrne is mostly known for talking about how he doesn't own a car, but back in the late '70s he and his band were actually making outstanding music. new wave is like punk's kid sister most of the time, but from '77 to like '82 it was just as revolutionary as punk with probably half the posturing.

broken bells by broken bells
i firmly believe garden state killed the shins. that movie hit and 2 songs from their first album tsunami-ed over anything else they did. chutes too narrow was great but seemed to get lost in the shuffle and wincing the night away was middling. then, a little while back i heard that james mercer axed half the band. the shins were all but dead. then i heard he was working with brian burton/danger mouse and all (okay, not all.) was forgiven. i don't imagine burton is going to circle back around to broken bells, but it was good while it lasted.

mines by menomena
i loved friend and foe. loved. it was a lurking, mess of an album and it was great. for the next three years i waited for the follow-up. when it came, i was underwhelmed. maybe i haven't listened to it enough, but it's like the second clap your hands say yeah album: too little, too safe.

the bqe by sufjan stevens (2009)
okay, i get it. sufjan was never going to complete the fifty states project, but this thing didn't do it for me at all. in fact, after listening to it i thought we'd lost sufjan forever. no more regular songs, no more stellar albums. all washed away by orchestral concept albums about public works projects. thankfully i was completely wrong.

the age of adz by sufjan stevens
it had been five years since illinois. i never got into the bqe. i had read all the articles about how sufjan was never going to write regular songs again, that he might never do anything musically again. i was starting to worry. then came all delighted people. i held off, feeling something else was over the next hill. turns out i was right and it was awesome. adz was both unexpected and familiar, every song sounding like sufjan but not like something he'd done before. i can honestly say i've never heard a catchier album. songs from this album get stuck in my head for days at a time and i don't really mind.²
kim and i were lucky enough to see sufjan on his most recent l.a. stop. every song from adz sounded great and "impossible soul" could make an epic concert on its own. the weird thing to me though was that, after hearing all of these wonderful new songs from adz, the crowd seemed like they would have left unfulfilled had sufjan not played any of his older songs. when he started "chicago," the crowd erupted as if they'd finally gotten what their money's worth. kim and i both thought it seemed like sufjan was somewhat drained by playing the old stuff. "chicago," "john wayne gacy," and the others sounded great, but it seemed to us that between those concert-ending songs sufjan was shuffling himself around the stage to appease the crowd. it was really strange.

the suburbs by arcade fire
the first time i listened to this album, every song blended together. everything was good; nothing was great. i listened to it again. same result. i put it aside for a while, maybe two months. i have too much good music already so i've gotten lazy about new music. then i heard a couple songs again, this time out of the context of the album. they were better than i'd remembered so i played the album again. this time it clicked. there highs weren't as high as funeral or neon bible, but that doesn't seem to matter when the whole album is consistently great.

expo 86 by wolf parade
last week i read that the guys in this band are setting it aside to deal with their 37 other bands.³ this is a serious bummer: none of their other stuff is wolf parade. like arcade fire, wolf parade's first two albums are stellar, but unlike their fellow quebecois this third album took no work for me to love it. from the first listen i was hooked.

since i left you by avalanches (2001)
it only took a decade, but i finally got around to buying this one. it was like the chore i forgot to do until so much time had passed that it started getting weird that i hadn't done it only enough time eventually passed that i realized i should just do it anyway. people have been waiting a decade for the follow-up, but i don't think one's coming. i'm okay with that. this one is good enough. plus, who has the time to compile another 3500 samples for the next album?

transference by spoon
at the beginning of the year shelvy burned us a copy of transference. i listened to it a few times, but didn't get much out of it. i felt like spoon had done so much work to perfect their sound that they'd ironed out the kinks i liked. yesterday, when i was thinking about writing this thing, i listened to it again. same result. i'm sure that some day i'll like this more, but it doesn't grab me. i'll probably go back and play girls can tell or gimme fiction a few times before trying this one again.

person pitch by panda bear (2007)
i was only what, like three years behind on this one? i'm not going to tell you to buy every album by every member, fan, influence, or acolyte of animal collective. i am, however, going to tell you that you should listen to this one.

kind of blue by miles davis (1959)
this miles davis guy, i think he's going to be big some day.

infinite arms by band of horses
something about the name band of horses made me think these guys would be terrible. doesn't band of horses sound like something the guys in maroon five tossed around at some point? it's a good thing we saw them open for the decemberists in 2007 or i'd never have given them half a chance.
this wasn't exactly what i expected after cease to begin, but it's better than i'd have expected so it all worked out in the end.

elephant by the white stripes (2003)
i'm not sure why i finally bought this album. absolutely no idea whatsoever. it's good, but not what i was really interested in this year so i hardly played it at all.

contra by vampire weekend
last year, vampire weekend was used to sell hp printers. this year it's hondas. upgrade?
as good as their first album was, i didn't expect too much from this one. i was wrong. it's good, really good.
on a side note, ezra koenig's parents, like mine, completely gave up on good music when he was very young.

merriweather post pavillion by animal collective (2009)
for some reason kim hates animal collective. on our honeymoon i played strawberry jam as we drove to san francisco. it did not go well. i tried to play this album on a car trip and kim hated it.
there's no good explanation for why i got this album a year after it was released.

sigh no more by mumford and sons
if the age of adz isn't my album of the year, this one is.
they're up for a best new artist grammy, which would mean something to me except for the following:
1. it's a category they share with justin beiber.
2. in 1979, a taste of honey beat out both elvis costello and the cars.
3. bob newhart has a best new artist grammy. he's funny, but really? bob newhart? there were no good new musicians in 1961?
"little lion man" is up for best rock song, but again this is a category where both train and creed have won so i give no creedence to the national academy of recording arts and sciences.

that's it for my 2010. i have fewer albums on this list than books i read this year. what am i missing? i assume it's a lot.

¹ that's not entirely true; i summed up a decade HERE
² it's enough to drive me crazy, but might that be the point?
³ not an exaggeration. they've probably formed a few more while you've been reading this sentence.

thirty-six years ago

2010-12-23T00:23:00.000-08:00

i recently discovered, courtesy of the orange county archives, an aerial image of the santa ana river from about warner seaward to the newport/huntington border:

for reference i have labeled a few spots.
1. this is our apartment complex. it has not changed.
2. this empty dirt field is where my office now resides. as you can surmise, my commute is very demanding.
3. in 2010 this spot is a costco. in 1974, when my dad was 17, it used to be a strawberry field. my dad once described running through it as smelling like "you put your head in a jam jar." so there's that, which is nice.
4. this is the huntington pier back when it was dangerous and shady. now it's the epicenter of "surf city usa."
5. there used to be a drive-in movie theater here. now it's a hospital. so much for progress...
6. when my parents were first married, they lived a few blocks from the beach on 17th in huntington. now that minuscule apartment probably costs a fortune.
7. there was a perfectly good baseball diamond in the middle of this field. unfortunately someone slipped up and it's now an auto body shop.
8. motocross track? motocross track! oh wait, that's not there any more either. it's an empty office building that housed a mortgage company back before the bubble burst.

as you can tell by my choice of markers, most of this area has been built out. there are houses, shopping centers, and office parks in almost every open space in that photo.
if you'd like to see the original photo you can do so here.

in which i fail to understand the allure of five guys burgers

2010-12-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

for the past few years i had been hearing about five guys hamburgers and fries. east coasters and in-n-out haters would rhapsodize about this burger place from d.c. as if it was an extension of heaven. more recently five guys gained fame when: 1) obama and biden went there together and 2) phil mickelson called it the best burger he'd ever eaten.¹ they've exploded with franchises the last 8 years and finally reached orange county in the last few months.

on thursday i checked it out for the first time with kim. the first thing i noticed upon getting out of the car were large signs with positive reviews from various newspapers across the south and midwest. "best burger" - hampton daily press, one sign read, imploring me to care what they think in hampton, virginia. i do not, however, care what they think in hampton, virginia or in jacksonville, albany, or columbus. i was there to make up my mind for myself.

the first thing i noticed in the restaurant was the smell of unwashed potatoes. for some reason five guys doesn't think it's enough to tell you they use fresh ingredients. they have to stack boxes of potatoes and other ingredients on short benches as a barrier between the tables and line for ordering. i don't know about you, but i usually find stacks of dirty boxes unappetizing. this was no exception.

recovering from the unwelcome sight and smell of boxed potatoes, i noticed more signs touting positive reviews. there were dozens of fluted-plastic² signs with red letters along the tops of every wall. underneath those were stapled - stapled! - laminated sheets of mentions in various magazines and newspapers along with copies of every d.c. zagat's review for the past 8 years. it was as if i had walked into the living room of an overly-proud parent who needed to shove every one of their kid's accomplishments in my face lest i not think them divine. that sort of thing might have flown when they were 8 locations near d.c., but now that they're a national chain they ought to own up to it.. they can't act mom-and-pop with 700 locations.

as for the food, i will say this:
1. the burger was decent, but pricey. for the cost of one bacon burger i could have had a burger, fries, and drink at in-n-out.
2. if i'm going to pay over 6 bucks for a burger i'd like the option of not having the meat cooked well-done.
3. the lettuce was fresh, but the grilled onions were a bit slimy and the bacon wasn't worth the extra cost.
4. the fries were overdone for my liking. they had good crispiness, but tasted burnt. the regular order was more than enough for kim and me.
5. if i'm eating in the restaurant, why do my burgers need to be foil-wrapped like i'm taking them on a cross-country trek? the whole thing was a bit smashed.

on a scale of 1 to 10 i'd give five guys a "meh." it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. i'm not going to go out of my way to eat there again.

¹ after rambling on and on about 5 guys during a pga press conference, it was revealed that mickelson is part of a group that owns the franchise rights to orange county. conflict of interest?
² coroplast signs? really? you're a national chain; use something better than that to decorate your restaurant. it's not a garage sale. it's a restaurant.

2010 books: 20 - 22

2010-12-15T15:52:00.000-08:00

here are three more books i read along with some comments which may or may not have anything to do with the books themselves.

20. the clash by by the clash
when i was a young kid, the only music my parents seemed to play at home was the 1989 fine young cannibals album, "the raw and the cooked," so when i used to hear about other bands they liked i immediately dismissed them. it took until i was 12 and i heard combat rock before i realized the clash were not an 80s pop rock band. over the next couple of years i realized that there was a time, a time before i was alive, that my parents had great taste in music.

21. are we winning?: fathers and sons in the new golden age of baseball by will leitch
winning is a book that covers a lot of territory. at its core, it's the story of a trip to wrigley for cardinals' fan will & his dad with will's cubs' fan friend from college on the day the cubs clinched the 2008 nl central title. then it's at turns a wide-ranging history of baseball & the cardinals-cubs rivalry (go cards.), a leitch family history, a series of ruminations on the modern state of baseball, and an ode to the great game of baseball. somehow leitch keeps all of the concurrent threads strong and interesting.

22. live from new york by james a. miller and tom shales
i picked this book from the library, not because i was interested in the history of snl (though i certainly was), but because the authors of this book have a new book about the surprisingly sordid history of espn coming out in 2011.

2010 books 18 & 19

2010-11-01T23:04:00.000-07:00

18. the lost cyclist by david herlihy
at the tale end of the nineteenth century, back when bicycles were exotic and the world untamed by wheels, pedaling the globe was the ultimate form of adventure. this book tells the tale of two such trips. the first, a successful east-west journey by thomas allen and william sachtleben, is the story of two college friends whose family wealth let afforded them the luxury of killing a few years on the road. the other tells the story of frank lenz, the lost cyclist of the book's title. lenz, a well-known racer from the days of the penny-farthing, traveled a westerly route seeking to demolish the record for longest overland trip. unlike allen and sachtleben, lenz never made it home, disappearing in turkey during the armenian genocide. after enduring thousands of miles of untamed wilderness, he vanished just outside the comforts of europe. sachtleben, newly returned home and looking for another adventure, took up the challenge to find lenz. in the end, the book is as much about how different the world was then and how it has shrunk in ensuing decades.

19. schulz and peanuts by david michaelis
for people my age, children of the 1980s, peanuts characters meant three things: camp snoopy at knotts berry farm, met life commercials, and "a charlie brown christmas." what had once been a cutting-edge, insightful commentary on the world was, to me, just a kids' toy marketing machine. i always figured charles schulz, the man behind the snoopy, was nothing more than a kindly old guy addicted to cartooning.

turns out i was way off. micaelis's biography strips bare any facades schulz presented and does so relentlessly. schulz, for all his success and support, spent his 78 years sad and truly alone and it seems that it was all by choice. he could never accept that people who liked his work weren't angling for something when they complimented him. he constantly acted as if he was being persecuted when no proof of it can be found, he cared more about his work than his wife and kids. he cheated on his first wife. he fell away from his faith. he broke up his second wife's first marriage. on and on it went. okay, i know i'm focusing on the negatives, but at the end of this book all i could think about was how sad a guy he was.

2010 books 16 & 17

2010-10-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

16. duel in the sun by john brant
in 1982 alberto salazar and dick beardsley ran the closest boston marathon of all time. they were together the entire race and, for most of the last seven miles, salazar ran in beardsley's back pocket before passing him for the win. it was a breezy read; i finished it the day after i checked it out from the library.

this book does a great job of breaking down the race and the runners' back stories, but where it really works is when it examines the toll this race took on both guys' careers. rather than being just another milestone for these two great american runners, it marked the apex of their marathon careers. after running together for 26.2 miles in unseasonable heat, neither beardsley nor salazar was able to retain their speed or health. their subsequent declines - beardsley's descent into painkiller addiction and salazar's mysterious injuries - are intense and harrowing.

what's amazing is that both guys were able to pull out of their tailspins. beardsley got busted after writing a million fake prescriptions, got his act together, and returned to a normal life in small-town minnesota. salazar finally figured out how to treat his inexplicable weakness, strengthened his faith, went on to win the comrades ultra marathon, and is now an elite coach for the nike track team.

17. gone baby gone by dennis lehane
a few years ago, ben affleck directed the film adaptation of this book starring his brother casey. it was a surprise to most that affleck could do such good work, but having now read the book, i know that lehane's material would have been good in almost anyone's hands.

gone is a complicated, twisted modern noir. i've never been to boston - nor would i like to go - and it seems like the perfect setting for a crime tale whose villains are myriad and deeply depraved. having seen the movie twice, i knew the major plot points, but the book's increased complexity made it a seemingly new story.

oc triathlon: a recap of staggering detail

2010-10-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

on sunday i did my first triathlon. here's what i wrote when i decided to do race and my descriptions of each leg of the course: swim, ride, run.

here's how it went:

the gates at the lake opened up at 5 for racers to set up their bikes and gear. by the time i arrived at 5:20, it was already packed. this never happens anywhere else; i'm always one of the first people to arrive and racers are usually barely able to make the opening gun. i managed to see kim and my parents before the race, but not soon enough to prevent my dad from dropping his camera in the water. i also avoided warming up for the swim. you know you're not in ideal race form when you think that any yard swum in a warm up is going to kill your race swim.

swim - 30:52 (just over 2 min/1000yd)
after the race when i checked how many swims i'd done since june, everything about the following made perfect sense: i'd only been in the pool 9 times all summer.

before i get to the blow-by-blow i'd like to tell you how great i felt about not renting a westuit. wetsuits are legal any time the water is under 78°F and most people think they get an edge wearing them. a week or two before the race, i received an email saying the water temp was in the low 70s. i checked into renting tri suits, decided against it, and was totally vindicated when i hit the water which was probably 76 - the perfect race temperature.

as with any race i've ever done, i started too fast. for the first 100-150 yards i was cruising along and feeling strong. then i started realizing that i still had a long, long way to go and reality hit. i had to slow down and slow down significantly. my lungs and my shoulders were quickly revolting and would recruit my stomach too if i didn't get smart in a hurry.

i managed to keep moving and even passed a few people who'd gone out harder than me. i had expected something in the 27 minute range, but saw 30 when i exited the water. my slight disappointment was immediately forgotten, however, when my right calf cramped immediately upon taking my first step.

transition 1 - 3:49
most of the elites at this race managed to keep this transition under 1:30. no doubt they had practiced many times and knew exactly how they wanted to get everything done.

i had not practiced the transition from swim to bike, hadn't even thought about it. in addition to the aforementioned calf cramping, i also had to deal with some unexpected nauseua from a too fast swim. something about sudden stops in workouts has always killed me.¹

i quickly tossed my goggles and cap, but struggled mightily to put on my jersey. it kept rolling up on me because i was wet, but my arms were too tight to reach around and untangle it while it was over my head. i had to put it on and take it off thrice before it cooperated. once that was sorted i grabbed my helmet, glasses, and bike to jog to the mount line.

it was during this transition that i saw the only person i knew in the race, an old coworker from my lifeguarding days named ian burton. i fully expected him to be out of the water at least 5 minutes faster than me.

bike - 1:33:15 (15.96mph)
early on the morning of the race, when i was setting up my bike stuff in the dark, i had decided i'd rather slip into my shoes on the bike than run in them to the mount line. at 5:45 it hadn't seemed like a bad idea. that's how the experienced people do it and it hadn't been difficult the time i'd tried it.

of course, i hadn't taken into account the facts that: a) i would be tired/nauseous; b) the bike start was on a steep incline; c) there would be dozens of people jockeying for position all around me. this resulted in me taking one aborted pedal before unclipping my shoes and sliding into them. i hopped aboard and managed to tighten the straps a 1/3 of mile later on the first flat stretch.

as i loosened up my legs and started finding a good pace, i realized i was being passed left and right. as slow as i had been on the swim, it was still my best leg relative to the field and there was a whole wave that started behind me.[that wave included relays whose riders were fresh] i fully expected some early passing so the guys on $5000 tri bikes were no big deal, but the guy on the 1980s clunker with downtube shifters was a bit frustrating.

when i turned onto el toro road to begin the ride into the canyon i realized that it was going to start getting really hot. thankfully, my two water bottles were insulated and the ice had survived the morning. the first four miles of the el toro road/santiago canyon section are uphill and i was still not quite over the swim when i hit the climb. i slowed significantly and even stopped momentarily. as i neared the peak, burton passed me and i decided to stick with him. on the descent i blew by burton and a bunch of other people, many of whom promptly passed me on the flats and subsequent hills.

i had not felt any tailwind on the ride into the canyon, but on the way back i found myself heading directly into a hot, dry headwind. it was terrible. i hit the last climb, passed burton for the 4th and final time time, and managed to hit the peak without stopping. i had not managed to vanquish that hill on any of the three training rides i did there.

i bombed the final descent, but didn't pedal much since i knew the run would be tough. the whole way down this hill i thought about the fact that i was about to run and that's not a great way to enjoy a fast downhill ride. after switching from the road to the bike trail i got stuck for a half mile behind a guy who, clearly more tired than i was, kept swerving into my passing lane. i was finally able to get past him... right when i had to dismount for the run.

transition 2 - 1:38
here i managed to park my bike, change shoes, and curse myself for not putting my visor with my run gear. i was momentarily slowed by the number of bikes already racked in my way, but that's what i get for being slow, right?

run - 1:11:28 (11.5min/mi)
for the first half mile or so i felt like i had on each of my brick workouts: a couple hundred yards of slow transition followed by accelerating to a pace too fast to maintain. unfortunately, i was unable to find a good rhythm after my body settled. i had to urinate, but was dehydrated. i could move quickly, but only in short bursts. it was hot and i was tired so it was a good thing i only cared about finishing and not how fast i went.

after stopping in some bushes on the side of the path to pee, i felt much better but quickly noticed how dry i felt. at each aid station i snagged cups of water with each hand only to realize each time that i couldn't drink it all without getting an upset stomach. the deyhdration-addled mind doesn't learn, does it?

the course started on a smooth, gradual descent which unfortunately did not last. there were many hills on the course and they all were steep. i went from jogging to walking the uphills to walking everything but the downhills. one of the weird things i'd never thought about was how everyone at the back of a hard race is pulling for each other. everyone that passed me was encouraging as were all of the people along the course. in a normal race i'm running for time and the people around me would rather run me over than care whether or not we all finished.²

after twisting through two neighborhoods and thinking about how much faster i could have run the course without swimming and riding first, i finally hit the last mile and a half. kim and my parents were sitting on the street cheering for me which was great. i really wanted to run that stretch, but i was gassed. i shuffled down the hill where my dad met me for the walk back up it. when i finally walked over the top of the last hill, a hill i'd sprinted over dozens and dozens of times in my faster days, i knew i'd made it and was able to jog the downhill to the finish.

when i hit the flat along the lakefront leading to the finish i managed a decent kick and crossed the line on an upswing. overall it was a good race, especially since it was my first triathlon, it was a tough, hilly course, i hadn't trained properly³, and it was terribly hot.

i did a nice recovery run yesterday and it was one of the most fun runs i've had in years. i've decided i'm doing more triathlons in the future and i'll almost certainly look to improve my time in this one next fall.

here are the final numbers for anyone as nerdy as me:
overall time: 3:21:02 (499th place overall; 361st individual male; 30 of 32 in my age group)⁴
swim: 30:52 (209th male)
t1: 3:49 (309th male)
bike: 1:33:15 (376th male)
t2: 1:38 (230th male)
run: 1:11:28 (380th male)⁵

¹ in high school i threw up so much after finishing track races and between practice sets that my idiot coach thought i had an eating disorder.
² some of the people on the course cheering were a little too encouraging. i must have heard "you're almost to the top of the last hill!" about a dozen times on hills i knew weren't the final one.
³ as much due to my laziness in aug/sept as my injury in july
⁴ i'd have finished in 2nd in the male 70+ age group
⁵ yikes.

2010 book 15

2010-10-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

15. extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer
if i gave books numerical scores, this one would probably be a five out of 10. i finished it. it was interesting at points. now that it's over i'll never think about it again.
the average reviews on amazon are about a 4 out of 5, but if you want to see something interesting check out a few of the 1 star reviews. those people hate this thing. their comments are just as heavy-handed as the positive ones are fawning. they hit a few of the things i didn't like about the book (oskar's otherworldly precociousness, the over reliance on gimmicks, etc.) and pound foer for what they see as some heavy-lifting of other sources (these guys love some book called see under: love by david grossman). reading reviews might be more entertaining (per minute used) than reading the actual book.

playoff baseball!

2010-10-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

the baseball playoffs start(ed) today and in honor of that i present my thoughts on each series while also making unfounded, half-thought predictions:

rangers/rays
here's the thing, i hate rooting for a team in the angels' division and i normally wouldn't. this time, however, i have to do it. i like joe maddon and how he runs the rays, but not as much as i like cliff lee & josh hamilton or as much as the ten year-old me loves nolan ryan. for the past three seasons, lee has been a lights out pitcher and by the time i finish writing this he will have finished rolling over the rays in game one. plus, he was outstanding in philadelphia last fall. a healthy josh hamilton rivals any hitter in the game and, even though he lost september to a rib injury, i think he'll be ready to go for the playoffs. if this season has been any indication vlad guerrero won't be the offensive black hole he was his last few years in anaheim.
the rays may have beaten the evil empire in the east, but they don't seem like they'll do much in a short series against cliff lee. their ace (david price) got lit up today, carlos pena is falling apart, and this team doesn't seem as powerful as their record indicates.
prediction: rangers in 4

yankees/twins
of all the teams in the playoffs, i like the yankees least. a-rod is a cheater and a huge r2d-bag. jeter has had a good career, but he's example #1 of east coast bias and smug enough that he thinks we don't notice his smugness. sabathia looks like a slob in pajamas on the mound and will probably win the cy young just because his team won a lot of games and plays in new york. pettite is a nice guy... who happens to also be an admitted steroid user. burnett is fascinated by shaving cream pies to the face like he's still in 3rd grade. posada urinates on his own hands instead of using batting gloves. teixeira is a jerk. i could probably go on for a few hundred more words, but i won't - you get the picture already i'm sure.
as for the series itself, the yankees have wisely tossed the dumpster fire that is a.j. burnett 2010 into the bullpen so they're probably too good to lose a series to a twins team missing everybody's favorite canadian, justin morneau.
prediction: yankees in 4

phillies/reds
count me among those surprised that the reds took the central from the cardinals. i know that joey votto was good this year, but the rotation always seemed suspect and brandon phillips is the only other big name in the lineup. the phillies' division win seemed clear, even after a slow start, from the moment they added roy halladay to the pitching staff.
the phils have the best group of top-3 starters of any team in the playoffs, both in terms of reputation and recent performance. halladay had more starts than walks this year (again) and will probably win the cy young. roy oswalt has been lights out since he was gifted to philadelphia by the flailing astros and cole hamels has put it back together after scuffling through '09. i don't see the reds being favored in any game these three start, but you never know when one good inning will steal a team a game.
prediction: phillies in 4

giants/braves
i have no idea how to pick this series. i dislike the giants, know that buster posey vs. jason heyward is the national league's rookie of the year debate, and haven't really seen much of either team this year. i think the edge in this series goes to the giants because of home field, deeper bullpen, and bruce bochy's mustache.
prediction: giants in 5

[update]
from there:
rangers over yankees - cliff lee is better than sabathia. burnett will lose when the yankees are forced to trot him out to the mound. texas in 5.

phillies over giants - lincecum is good; halladay has been better this year. i hate the giants' offense. phils in 5.

world series - phils over rangers in 6.

2010 books 12-14

2010-10-04T23:42:00.000-07:00

the last three books i completed are all about cycling.

12. we might as well win by johan bruyneel
this book is equal parts autobiography and motivational book about winning. bruyneel, best known as the director of lance armstrong's cycling team, is a former pro cyclist himself. by combining details from his own middling pro career ¹ with tales of how he and armstrong blitzed france for seven years, bruyneel shows that the observant learn as much from losing as winning. this i expected.

what i did not expect from win, however, was the insight into bruyneel's personality. this was especially interesting because he was the type of rider who overcame his merely mediocre talents² with an extraordinary ability to notice, recall, and use details during races. this talent made him a smart individual rider, an awesome teammate, and a team director with 9 tour de france wins.

this magic johnson-like ability to see things as - or even before - they unfold fascinates me endlessly. i'd like to think this interest has something to do with my own (relative) abilities in this sector. as a kid playing team sports i was often the smallest and never the fastest, but i figured out quickly how to read situations and this ability accounts for almost all of my athletic successes³. to this day people like pete maravich or bruyneel - people who always seem one step ahead - are people whose careers interest me greatly.

13. bike snob by bikesnobnyc (real name: eben weiss)
i picked up this book expecting something similar to the blog, a series of short, snarky, entertaining dissections of the pretentious and ridiculous in cycling. what i got was much more, both in terms of content and, unexpectedly, heart. for all of weiss' bluster, he really seems like a guy who wants everyone to love cycling as much as he does. he doesn't want people to be put off by the poseurs who care more about how rare their japanese track bike is or who cover themselves in fixie tattoos. he wants people to understand and love cycling for the joy of riding. that's a sentiment i can get behind, all the more so if it's punched up with some sarcasm and smugness deflating.

the world of cycling needs someone like weiss to puncture its excesses and follies. the "urban" riding trend is full of trend hoppers whose brake-less fixed gears are dumber than a box of rocks. as much as drivers persecute riders, riders antagonize drivers and pedestrians by ignoring traffic laws and common sense. competitive cyclists care more about shaving a gram from their bikes than learning to ride better. i could go on for ages, but i don't have to since weiss covers all of this and more without sounding as cynical as you'd expect.

14. vive le tour! amazing tales of the tour de france by nick brownlee
the good: i'd been looking for a book with a year-by-year history of the tour⁴ and this book is just that. it includes many interesting side notes in addition to the major stories of the tour's 100+ years and doesn't gloss over lesser-known stories that i like to know.
the bad: it was originally published in 2007 with an update to include 2008 and 2009, but the section on the steroid controversies of 06-07 weren't updated to include what happened in the succeeding years. it's that kind of failure to make obvious updates that bugs me about revised editions. i'd almost rather not have the new stuff if the older stuff isn't going to be cleaned up as needed.
the ugly: there were numerous conversion errors made between metric and imperial units that were just sloppy. the book was primarily written for an english audience, but it's not that hard to adjust things for americans. plus there were some typos and misprinted pages which annoyed me more than they ought.

¹ as much as pro career can be middling if it includes a tour de france stage win or two and a day in the yellow jersey...
² again, mediocre relative to talents like indurain and armstrong, not to the rest of us.
³ the rest comes from hard work and my one athletic gift: endurance.
⁴ because i'm a bike/history nerd and i have a near compulsion towards gathering facts

2010-09-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

yesterday marked one month until my triathlon and the date of my first brick workout - a run immediately following a ride. back in the spring when i committed to this race, i envisioned a summer of regular, hard training that would culminate in my doing well in my first triathlon. instead, we've had this:

week 1: skip a few workouts to travel to a wedding
week 2: get sick upon returning from colorado; feel better before driving to mammoth; crash a mountain bike; complete no real workouts
weeks 3 to 6: nurse injuries; ride the couch; do not run or swim; ride once
weeks 7 to 11: ride regularly; swim slowly and less-often than i should; run sporadically
week 12: think about getting down to business and mostly succeed

at the end of last week i decided to pick program to follow for my last four weeks of training. i have no worries about not finishing, but have no idea how long it will take me.

in defense of peanut oil

2010-09-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

today i went to chick-fil-a for lunch and came across terrible news: the waffle fries are now fried in canola oil instead of peanut oil. this is a bummer. my palette is pretty sophisticated when it comes to fried foods¹ and i could immediately tell the difference. sure, most people might not notice, especially if they're slathering sauce on the fries, but i did, it's a huge step backwards.

the main reason for the switch, i assume, is chick-fil-a making an attempt to seem like they care about diners' health. here's the thing though, i don't eat fast food for my health. i choose food based on how it tastes and this is not a good development. the same people who are clamoring for fast food restaurants to be healthier are often the same people who choose extra-large fast food over healthy stuff all the time. now people like me, people for whom fast food is eaten in moderation, are going to suffer. as with most things, the positive p.r. from this change is almost certainly buoyed by a decrease in production costs.

with that, i present to you my french fry rankings from worst to first. i have only included french fries i eat somewhat regularly so don't come crying to me about your beloved sonic or white castle.

11. carl's jr fries
these are a distant last place. a little while back these jokers switched their mediocre, limp, greasy fries to ones with skins left on them. they're not good and anytime i order a combo with them, i immediately regret not remembering to upgrade to criss-cut fries. the only way in which these are better is that their extra crispiness improves the chili fries, but this was clearly a way to waste fewer potato shards and increase profit margins.

10. burger king
this is another one that was changed in recent years and not for the better. it almost seems like they just added rubber cement to increase starchiness. they're crispier than they used to be, but the taste is almost nonexistent.

9. carl's jr waffle fries
these were probably better before they switched the "natural" cut, but they're still good. it's just not usually worth it to me to pay extra for them. waffle fries make an excellent addition to hamburgers².

8. jack in the box curly fries³
seasoned fries are definitely a good thing; not necessarily great, but certainly good. these would move up the list if they could get their yield of long spirals above 10%.

7. arby's curly fries with horsey sauce
these get the nod over jack in the box because of the horsey sauce. i really like horseradish mayo⁴.

6. del taco crinkle cut fries
when these are cooked properly, they're great. the increased surface area means more crunch. they're especially good when added to chicken soft tacos with ketchup.

5. chick-fil-a waffle fries
these used to be number three. i once considered driving through chick-fil-a to get fries for my in-n-out burger. now they're only number five. that's how much better they were with peanut oil.

4. mcdonald's
mcdonald's fries are in this spot because of consistency. they're always the same; they're a workhorse. the taste is only middling when compared to some of the others, but i could eat these more often than most.

3. in-n-out fries with spread
these are different than everything else on the list because it's more about the potato than the crispiness. i used to like these less, but they've grown on me lately. these are the only fast food fries i don't add to my burgers which probably says more about how much i like the burgers than it does about the fries.

2. sweet potato fries with horseradish mayo - the counter
the counter was probably the first place i had sweet potato fries and it's still my favorite. the sauce is excellent and the fries are always crispy. homemade, oven-baked sweet potato fries are always - always - too soggy, but these are never less than great.

1. duck fat fries with truffle allioli - the crow bar
here we are at the top of the list, bringing it full circle: these are here because of the oil in which they're cooked. the duck fat adds a great flavor to the fries that makes them great all on their own. the truffle allioli wasn't my favorite the first time, but it is a great complement to the fries. it certainly doesn't hurt that the burger these fries accompany is also my favorite.

¹ christmas 1997: i received a deep fryer from my parents. i made french fries almost daily for a long, long time.
² in a perfect world, all tomatoes on hamburgers would be replaced by crispy french fry options. bean burritos would get hash browns and sandwiches would get potato chips or potato salad. i should be the spokesperson for idaho. after all, i do know that it's "boy-see" and not "boy-zee."
³ i never get regular fries from jack in the box, especially after they started leaving the skins. have i mentioned how i hate the skins?
⁴ can a condiment ranking be far off? probably not, but it's tough to say since the great condiment debate of '02 failed to settle whether or not i could include gravy.

2010 book eleven

2010-09-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

this is a bit overdue, but i tend only to write at night when i'm starting to lose coherence.

11. theodore rex by edmund morris

i'm the kind of person who likes people who do what they think is right regardless of popularity. unfortunately, people who don't bend to polls, peer pressure, or popular opinion are often people who die trying to get things done. teddy roosevelt is one of the former, but he is definitely not among the latter. in addition to his ironclad devotion to his convictions, roosevelt was able to move popular sentiment to meet him where he already stood.

theodore rex covers just the 7 1/2 years of teddy's presidency; however, what it lacks in breadth, it makes up for in depth. his star may have faded with time, like all presidents not named washington, lincoln, or kennedy, but roosevelt repeatedly showed himself to be a savant in the white house. i already knew about the panama canal and monopoly-busting, but i learned a ton about roosevelt's other accomplishments. he straightened out the philippines (setting them on the course for independence), got cuba straightened out (at least until castro), stopped the germans from attacking venezuela, wrangled peace in the russo-japanese war, and walked away after two terms when a third was all but assured.

one of the weirdest things to me about the presidency a century ago was how much the presidency has changed. roosevelt summered at a private estate on long island while the rest of the government returned to their own homes, leaving a skeleton crew leading the united states. how would the world function today if the government all but disbanded every summer? he also took weeks-long hunting trips to remote locations during his presidency. now the president can't go to the bathroom without an entourage. during a swing through the western states, roosevelt took multiple-day trips with only a guide in both yellowstone and yosemite. he also enjoyed random lake swims, hikes, horseback rides (complete with random pistol practice), and stick fighting. the stick fighting was so rough that he eventually lost sight in his left eye. absolutely a different world.

a quick flashback

2010-08-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

a month and a half has elapsed since i sent myself face-first into the volcanic rock of mammoth mountain. i'm healing nicely, if more slowly than i'd like. i haven't worried about my ribs in a couple of weeks, my wrist hardly bugs me at all, and i only remember i probably cracked my nose when i really have to blow it. there is, however, one reminder staring back at me.

every time i see my face in a mirror, i see the red line across my nose where it split. this spot, unlike the 20+ other scrapes and cuts, really doesn't seem to be disappearing. if anything its sheer resiliency would be inspiring if it wasn't so annoying.

the other night as i brushed my teeth before bed i flashed back to the last time i had a stubborn scar on the bridge of my nose. it wasn't a "don draper hallucinates his dead father demeaning him" kind of flashback, but it was a remembrance nonetheless.

at the start of my freshman year, fall 1998, i was playing on the world's only non-running soccer team. it's not that we stood in place on the field during games, but we did absolutely no conditioning. the coach turned a special shade of red when i laughed at his assertion that we'd be better if we didn't waste time training.¹ naturally, i thought differently. i knew that if i hadn't also been playing water polo, i'd have felt like a lifelong smoker on the field. my aquatic training successfully masked my lack of running fitness until it didn't.

a few weeks into the season, 27 september to be exact, i ran a 5k a few hours my soccer game. despite my lack of training, i ran well - sub-18min - and didn't feel too bad afterward. in the day's rush, from home to the race to the soccer game, i failed to eat. then, when i arrived at the game, i discovered only 8 teammates had shown so i would be playing the entire game.

after 90 minutes of soccer, i was spent and was rewarded with one of my periodic bouts of exercise-induced asthma. add to this my drastically diminished blood sugar level and i was primed for disaster. i grabbed a soda from the post-game cooler, took a sip, and - bam! - before the drink hit my throat my face was hot the floor. for a few seconds i could hear everyone, but was unable to respond.²

when i checked it out later, i had a nice scrape across the bridge of my nose that persisted for months. i started thinking that it would never disappear. after six months it finally receded and disappeared. i sincerely hope my most recent scar doesn't get any ideas about sticking around.

¹ the only time i ever ran during practice was as a "punishment" for telling a teammate to try harder during a scrimmage. my teammate and i were forced to do laps around the field. this was, of course, exactly what i wanted.
² i'd use the word surreal to describe it; however, i don't want to encourage anyone to use it because they'd probably do it wrong.

book ten

2010-08-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

10. l.a. confidential by james ellroy
as usual, i've taken an inordinate amount of time to get around to writing about this one. it's been a few weeks now so i've stopped thinking about how, under the right (or rather wrong) circumstances i could be like bud white¹ and started thinking about how i need to read more books like this one. of course, it'd be a lot easier to see more movies like the one based on this book so i'll probably do that instead.

film noir is one of my favorite genres², but i really haven't taken the time to really cover it well. there are dozens of classic noir films i've yet to see plus hundreds of marginal ones as well. in fact, i'd say i know so little about them that i couldn't even make a list of which ones i'll hit first. the 1940s and 50s, noir's "golden age" are certainly a hole in my film experience. for example, there are 20 film noirs on the national film registry from 1940-59: i have seen none of them.

¹ no matter how many people white thrashes or how how closely he toes the line, i rooted for him because i agreed with him. exley and vincennes, who only share white's need for goals, don't engender nearly as much empathy from me.
² a short list of noir (or at least noir-ish) films i'd recommend, in no particular order - scratch that - chronological order: blade runner, dead men don't wear plaid, blood simple, reservoir dogs, fargo, l.a. confidential, the big lebowski, fight club, memento, road to perdition, and brick. also, you really should read the new centurions by joseph wambaugh and what makes sammy run? by budd schulberg.

no, i don't write like...

2010-07-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

as i peruse the internets i tend to notice trends¹ among the vast array of news sites, blogs, magazines, and miscellaneous web pages i visit. one of the recent ones has been mentions of the web site i write like. the site purports to analyze your inputted text and correlate it with the work of a famous author.
this is the kind of thing that interests me, not because i want to see whose style i'm unintentionally aping, but because i want to test its (perceived) accuracy. lacking other material i entered a recent blog post. i got james joyce. looking for consistency, i entered another, similar entry: stephen king. i followed up with a few more for a total of seven recent blog entries. here were the results: cory doctorow², ernest hemingway, james joyce (twice), stephen king, jrr tolkien, and david foster wallace. not much consistency there, eh?
i'm not buying the dude's work. i think it's just a shot in the dark, random mess.

¹ or meme for those of you fixated on sounding cool.
² who?

a few weeks

2010-07-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

kim and i went to denver the last weekend in june for a friends' wedding. the next week i got a terrible cold and missed a week of training. we went to mammoth fourth of july weekend where i flipped my bike and jacked my wrist, cut myself repeatedly, and slammed my ribs. the next two-plus weeks have been spent recovering. i turned twenty-six last week which really isn't as old as i thought it was when i was 10. i'm finally feeling mostly better (provided i don't sneeze again) and think i might be able to start riding again as soon as tomorrow.

eight and nine

2010-07-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

lately i've been reading books in pairs. here are the latest two:

8. bicycle diaries by david byrne
for the last 30 years david byrne¹ has ridden his bike around new york city and the cities he visits. ostensibly this book is about those bike trips and the vantage point one gets from cycling rather than driving the world's metropolises. in reality, however, the biking often fades into the background as byrne riffs on worn-out, half-baked liberal talking points: industry and bush are evil, religion is a waste of time, everything is meaningless, etc.
the book's best moments are when byrne subverts his own tendencies and shoots without aiming for an agenda. tellingly, these are most often extensions of the sections where the book hews most closely to its stated intent and views the world from a bicycle. unfortunately the book repeatedly drifts and i couldn't help but agree with the gallery employee who asks byrne if he's done anything since the talking heads.

9. once a runner by john l. parker, jr.
on the cover of this book it reads, "the best novel ever written about running." for years, every mention of this book in running magazines seemed written by fawning acolytes who insisted that readers drop everything and read it. at the time it was, despite breathless praise and mountains of hype, out of print and in short supply. when i first attempted to procure it, once a runner was selling for upwards of $100 per used copy so gave up on it. in the last year or so parker added a sequel to his resume and the original book was finally reprinted.
i write all of that to say that i picked up this book knowing that it had a ton of hype, but not knowing anything more about it. the characters were stock, the plot was telegraphed, and i could have used more conflict, but it was an enjoyable read. i've not read another book that dives so thoroughly into the intensity and focus of a competitive runner nor had i thought much about the runners of that era (the 1970s).

¹ yes, that david byrne, the one from talking heads who used to wear grossly over-sized gray suits.

2010-07-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

the angels will host the all star game for the third time next week. my dad went to the first one as a nine year-old in 1967.

here is a picture of the original stadium configuration that i thought was cool.

in my humble opinion, the team should have gone back to something more like this when they removed the extra seating after the rams skipped town.

anatomy of a crash

2010-07-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

on saturday i flipped a mountain bike while in mammoth. i cracked my sunglasses, bruised my chest and scraped the heck out of about a dozen spots on my body, each of which is highlighted below:

after a week off from triathlon training due to illness and traveling to denver, i had hoped to get back on track this week. instead i'll be recuperating on the couch.

the road to mammoth

2010-07-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

this weekend, kim and i are heading to mammoth where my parents have been vacationing for a week already. this is the road to mammoth:

1. this is the 91 freeway. we're leaving early so i'm assuming we'll have wide-open driving. if we do see traffic it will be 1 of 2 kinds. the first will be commuter traffic heading in the opposite direction. we will laugh at this traffic. the second is much, much worse: vegas traffic. if we hit early-morning vegas traffic i'll flip out. seriously.
2. here's where we ditch the 15 north for the 395. the 395 is a narrow, mostly desolate highway and it's one of the places most prominent in my childhood vacation memories. we went to mammoth at least a half dozen times during my childhood so i've nearly memorized it. the one snag in our plans on this stretch will be people's inability to stay to the right when i want to pass.
3. this is johannesburg. no, not that johannesburg.
4. google maps has a thing for owens lake. judging by this map, it would be quite impressive to visit. in reality, however, it was drained by the los angeles department of water and power in the early years of the last century. these days it's actually a dry lake which is a euphemistic way of saying it's large-scale model of the dust bowl.
5. lone pine is the gateway to mt. whitney. there's a pizzeria in an old bank.
6. hitting bishop means we're almost there. this is where you're officially allowed to get excited. it's also where you buy excellent beef jerky.
7. this is mammoth. i would liked to have gone mountain biking, but people are still skiing so i'm aced out.

run

2010-06-24T03:33:00.000-07:00

1. i'd like to think that i will have a good idea how i'm feeling for the run before i get off the bike. in actuality, however, i'll probably be fighting rubbery legs. thankfully this section is a smooth descent along the bikeway.

2. that smooth descent goes on and on until you become numb to it. i hope i don't zone out through here.

3. here the course goes under el toro road and i'll be terribly disappointed if nobody gets abducted by a troll.

4. this is the only section of the whole course about which i know nothing. it cuts between streets on what is either a trail, fire road, or terribly uncomfortable stretch of briar patch. it could be sandy, gravelly, or coated in vegetable oil for all i know. reconnaissance would only serve to disappoint.

5. the section up vista del lago is incredibly steep. riding up it would be impossible so i imagine running it after swimming and riding will be tough. thankfully the course peels off about a third of the way up so we avoid most of the climb and the knee-popping, shin-shattering desecent down the back side.

6. when i pop out of the neighborhood here i'll have a quick view of the descent to the finish and i'll silently curse to myself as i realize i have to do a switchback before i can get back to it.

7. after crossing the finish line of the 1984 olympic cycling course and entering the lake parking facility, i'll be at the finish. someone hand me a coke and drive me to pick up my bike.

ride

2010-06-23T02:22:00.000-07:00

1. this stretch is part of the loop around my childhood neighborhood. when i was little i used to love this portion of the ride. during the race, however, i expect to ignore that sentimentality while i get up to speed and fiddle with my bike.

2. after turning on to el toro/santiago canyon road the ride turns into a series of long climbs and descents. not that any part of south orange county is flat, but this part is especially hilly and if my legs are weak i'll start to feel it quickly. my current hood, the fountain valley/santa ana/huntington beach area, is so flat that i'm tempted to consider both underpasses and overpasses as hill training.

3. at the intersection of santiago canyon and live oak canyon sits cook's corner, a biker bar for the weekend warriors. if i don't see at least one dude on a harley glaring at me when i ride by this joint, i'll be severely disappointed.

4. remember how i said this section was hilly? from point #2 to point #4 the road climbs nearly the entire time. most of it is not steep, but the section leading to point #4 is quite strenuous. this is the toughest section of the ride both coming and going.

5. the turnaround near irvine lake is a giant figure eight. isn't that neato?

6. at some point on the return trip, the course leaves the road for the upper section of the aliso creek bikeway. i've run it countless times and i'll be well prepared for powering through this section.

7. as i head into the transition area i will almost certainly be thinking one or both of the following: a) i really hope my legs don't feel like spaghetti when i get off the bike and b) i really would like to eat some spaghetti right about now.

swim.

2010-06-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

1. this is start. it is at this point that most new triathletes will begin to panic as they see earlier swimmers in earlier waves swim over, across, and through one another. i plan to spend my pre-race time paying as little attention to this as possible.

2. in 2008, at the first oc triathlon, i lifeguarded the swim. it was the foggiest morning i've seen down on the lake. this was a disaster for us lifeguards as we were tasked with watching swimmers who disappeared mere feet from our paddleboards. i was stationed at point #4 on my map to make sure swimmers made the turn into the marina when, for a brief moment, a swimmer at point #2 caught sight of me through a break in the fog. this person paused and shouted across to me, "am i supposed to be turning towards you?" she was only 100 yards into her 1500m swim. clearly this was not going to be her day.

3. no matter how well i'm swimming or what shape i'm in, i will be thinking about abandoning the swim until i pass this point. that is how much less i like swimming than either running or cycling. once i've reached the midpoint it will no longer be any easier to quit so i might as well continue.

4. this is the turn where i'll finally be able to spot the end of the swim. i think this stretch will be the longest since the end is deceptively far.

5. this swim exits on the boat launch ramp at the lake which is one of the slipperiest stretches of concrete ever devised. i plan to pass at least dozen people who are stuck in an endless loop of one step forward, one slide backwards.

and now for something new.

2010-06-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

after flip-flopping no less than twenty times, i have finally committed to doing the oc triathlon in october.¹ it's olympic distance which means it's long enough that i'll have to train, but not so long that you'd think me crazy. most people seem to start with sprint or even super sprint distances. i'm not one of those people, mostly because i would hate to part with that much money for such a short race, but if anyone asks tell them a sprint would be too easy. i figure that my athletic background² is well suited for triathlon so i shouldn't go too easy.

the oc tri is in my old backyard so i'm appropriately aware of the course's challenges and don't think i'll be caught out of sorts with any of it. the swim is at lake mission viejo where i grew up swimming and have been a lifeguard for a decade. i reckon i've swum there roughly a thousand times since 1987.³ the bike course, which kicked my butt a few months ago, will be tough, but i've at least driven it enough to know it well. this will be the discipline with my greatest potential for improvement, but i'm looking most forward to my bike workouts.⁴ the run course doesn't look too difficult besides a single steep stretch and i'm currently the strongest in this area. not that i have any business predicting a time for my first race, but i'd like to finish near or under 2hr 30min. that might not be realistic for my first triathlon, but i'd like to try.

the race is sixteen weeks from yesterday and my training plan is sixteen weeks so today is the official start. unfortunately, last night was a terrible night for sleep so i declined to swim before work today and the next two weekends involve routine-busting travel. on the plus side, i started training a week early and have already done some good workouts. i've chosen a fairly ambitious workout schedule that includes 3 workouts in each discipline each week. if i've learned anything from motivational slogans, this should serve to either kill me or make me stronger.

¹ 10/10/10... get excited?
² most first-timers seem to be most freaked about the chaos of an open-water swim can be terrifying to the uninitiated. plus it's the most technique-dependent discipline so most novices are already uncertain before confronting the people who want to swim over them with extreme prejudice. after 8 years of water polo, i figure i'll be ready for anything in the water.
³ from 1987 to 1997 i was at the lake roughly 5 days a week during the summer. we used to hit the lake after morning swimming lessons at the pool and before heading to the beach in the evenings. i spent most of my childhood pruny and waterlogged.
⁴ swimming is last by a long shot. the whole time i played water polo i could only get myself through the lap swimming portion by knowing what was next. without that, lap swimming becomes a terrible chore.

six and seven

2010-06-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

6. the simpsons: an uncensored, unauthorized history by john ortved
the early parts of this book, like the early seasons of the show itself, are the most interesting. the back-story behind the simpsons' early years was much more tumultuous and contentious than the fox/matt groening party line would have us believe. early writers and show runners turned groening's half-ideas into fully formed thoughts and made the show great. unfortunately, the latter sections of the book are a bummer. fans of the show already know how the quality has slipped in the show's second decade, but reading about its descent (and some of the monetary reasons behind it) right after blowing through the ascent was rough. in other words, the reason i can find recent seasons somewhat enjoyable is that they're removed from earlier, better ones. when they're crammed into the same book, it's hard to ignore. the one thing the book needed (and certainly wasn't going to get) was cooperation from people currently working on the show. groening, james l. brooks, and the current staff would probably have had a different take on the state of the show and i'd have been most interested to see how they defend the show's turn from good stories with great jokes to non-existent stories with a flood of okay jokes. if only conan could go back...

7. the book of basketball: the nba according to the sports guy by bill simmons
i'm not really a fan of professional basketball.¹ the only times all year that i'll actually watch an entire game are in june when the lakers are in the finals. why then would i read a 700 page book about basketball? well, two reasons. first, my brain operates like the master control program from the movie tron: i have an addiction to information. the second, and more important reason, is that i wanted to see simmons' take on basketball. i've read his espn columns for years and enjoy them when he's not drooling over boston. he has an interesting take on sports and was fortunate enough to grow up going to nba games when you could get season tickets near the court for $4 per game.
as a general sports fan i know of the nba's early stars, but until this book i knew very little about them. the early chapters of the book attempt to put the league's early stars and stats into a modern context.² it turns out that the early years of the nba were confusing, awkward, and racist. rival leagues sprung up constantly, rules were changed regularly, every team lost players to cocaine, and the early years were governed by a two minorities per team quota. the lesson simmons presents here is that if you try to compare modern stats to historical ones you're an idiot if you don't look at context, which is nice. i like context.
the meat of the book, what simmons spends hundreds of pages setting up, is simmons' plan to blow up the hall of fame and rebuild it as a pyramid where the players get better as you go up each level. i am fully in favor of all halls of fame restructuring this way and enjoyed the arguments for and against each player's slot. the anecdotes and rants are this book's strength, but would have been meaningless without stats. the book struck a nice balance.³

¹ my sports on tv 1-6: college football, pro baseball, cycling, pro football, college basketball, soccer; special events: tour de france; summer olympics; world cup; ironman triathlon, track and field, curling; bottom five: softball, women's basketball, nascar, gymnastics, figure skating.
² two quick examples: oscar robertson's year-long triple-double was probably the result of a diluted, shot-happy era and george mikan, the early game's marquee center, was stiff who wouldn't have made my high school's varsity with today's rules.
³ i'd be remiss to not tell you that simmons is the king of the footnote. almost every page had at least one footnote and malcolm gladwell uses part of his introduction to implore you to read them. i enjoy these types of footnotes because my brain is constantly taking multiple tracks at once.

this looks cool

2010-06-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

check out these photos of los angeles from the goodyear blimp that were posted on the la times site. i particularly like the tilt-shift photos like the one above.

five

2010-06-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

at the begining of the year i was a reading machine. three books met their match within the first week of january and one more soon thereafter. i've since devoted my reading time to piles of magazines¹ and online sources, but managed to read another book recently: the tipping point by malcolm gladwell.

last year i read blink and thoroughly enjoyed it. on the strength of that book, i read its predecessor, the tipping point, and enjoyed it slightly less. the fundamental ideas behind it seem less structured than blink and i'm not as convinced that gladwell really nails anything. rather, he circles ideas without zooming in enough to fully satisfy my tastes. the examples he uses are compelling as usual and small ideas and truths can be pulled from each. what fails to happen, at least for me, is any breatkthrough.

the most intriguing thing about the book was gladwell's characterization of the three types of people critical to epidemics: connectors, salesman, and mavens. the connectors and salesman having nothing in common with me whatsoever, but i totally understand the mavens whose desire to acquire information is exceeded only by their desire to share it. that makes total sense to me.

all in all, it was an enjoyable book and i'm looking forward to reading outliers some time soon.

¹ seriously, i've read a lot of magazines. i read magazines like people blink in dust storms: quickly, compulsively, repeatedly, and with great agitation.

the desert

2010-05-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

at the beginning of the month, i outlined my trip to arizona for butters' wedding. i had initially planned on being forced to lengthen my trip with a significant detour from phoenix to tucson and was not looking forward to traveling without kim. due to good fortune and kim's diligence we were able to get my sister's boyfriend to drive her from tucson to phoenix which was a sign that bode well for the rest of the weekend.

on saturday i awoke at 5:30 to gather supplies and wait for joel. i was ready to go in minutes, but joel did not arrive at 6 as planned. joel contends that he was up at 5 when he realized that he did not want to leave soiled dishes in his apartment until sunday. somehow this turned into a significant delay, although i cannot imagine what exactly would require such lengthy cleaning when one doesn't even have an oven.

at around 6:30 we were finally on the road and headed to phoenix where we would pick up mark weaver at the airport. the desert was pretty boring and, while i drove, joel fiddled with both his iphone and ipad. after crossing into arizona we discovered that their recent budget cuts have lead to the closure of most rest stops. by closing the two closest to the border, they appear to be encouraging visitors to think the whole state abandoned. this has probably been a successful means of keeping freeloaders back in california where we really know how to take care of them.

by about noon we hit phoenix and headed to the airport which was a terrible idea since we knew that mark's flight had been delayed, but had no idea of its arrival time or even its airline. in an effort to kill time and hunger we holed up at a del taco to wait for mark's call. the ensuing 1.5 - 2 hours were enthralling to say the least, but when mark called at long last we eagerly jumped back into the car. with mark in tow we headed towards butter's house just in time to catch everyone leaving. with minimal finagling we stayed behind in butters' air-conditioned house so that we might endure the next three hours their rather than joining friends at cracker barrel (ugh).

only when it was time to leave for the wedding did we realize exactly how far away it was. after an overly long drive sweating in our suits, we arrived at the wedding site just in time to... continue sweating in our suits for 45 minutes before the ceremony. during that time i downed no less than 3 water bottles and learned that, in arizona, only the wedding party has the guts to wear both a jacket and a tie. most of the locals dispensed with either or both formality leaving me and my friends overdressed and on the verge of heat exhaustion. the ceremony itself was over in record time and, as the sun set, the desert became bearable. the reception lasted until after eleven by which time i was about to fall asleep on my feet and may have done so had i not been anxious to hear from kim that she was feeling better.

when the wedding ended we still had a lengthy drive back from cave creek to sun city west where we'd be sleeping. after a fitful night of sleep i had to leave pretty early to pick up my sister in tempe. this required some backtracking, but significantly less than if i'd been stuck driving to tucson. the drive home was pleasant and i reached home on the edge of exhaustion. i was so tired that after a sunday afternoon nap, a good night's sleep, and an easy day at work i still needed a lengthy nap last night before bed.

on MY left?

2010-05-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

most of the running and riding i've done in the past few months has been done on the santa ana river trail. it runs from yorba linda in the northeast to the newport/huntington border on the coast.

on saturdays and sundays it's a weekend-warrior superhighway,¹ but on week nights the road is nearly empty. aside from a few bike commuters, hipster bike posses, and older guys who've been riding for decades, i'm mostly alone. the occasional dogwalkers are confused when i run past as if they can't imagine why anyone else would take to the path on foot. i rarely have to interact with anyone and i like it.

today, however, something strange happened. just after a guy with a loose chain skidded past me, i heard another bike approach. i was running in the center of the right lane and briefly considered drifting to the right, but didn't see anyone coming in the opposing direction. my pace was pretty good despite the wind so it took a few seconds for the bike to catch me.

right before the guy caught me i heard an unexpected shout. before i could really internalize what had happened, the guy was pedaling away. within a few seconds i realized what he said and i was pissed - well, not pissed, but certainly perturbed. what did he shout you ask? he shouted, "on your left!"

now, i get that it's proper procedure to alert people you're passing. there has to be some way to make sure you can pass or be passed safely. i don't dispute that at all.

where i took exception was with the fact that there was no need for him to shout when he passed. there was nobody else on the path for at least 100 yards. sure, i wasn't running to the right of the right lane, but the lanes are four or five feet wide. the dude had a lane and a half with which to pass me safely and he used almost all of that space.

he wasn't within arm's reach of me when he cruised by me. why then did he feel the need to shout at me? probably for the same reason a guy struggling to ride 15mph needed a $5000 bike: arrogance.

¹ when i run on the weekends i have to watch out for paceline after paceline of middle-aged riders who seem to be pretending they're trying to take the green jersey in france.

a heck of a drive

2010-05-01T00:45:00.000-07:00

on the evening of may 22 my friend butters is getting married in the phoenix area¹. at roughly the same time my sister will be attending a wedding near tucson after which she will need a ride home for the summer. thus i find myself planning a road trip to the center of the sun next month.

a quick scan of the map reveals that going from fountain valley to phoenix to tucson to mission viejo and back home will be roughly 1000 miles. in google maps terms it's 986 miles which they claim will take between 16:15 and 19:20 over the course of two days. i'll be leaving for phoenix early on the 22nd and escaping tucson as early as possible the next morning.

this will be more boring than it looks

nothing about this sort of driving sounds like fun, but to make the trip less enjoyable i'll be doing it without kim who will be at home recuperating. she's the person with whom this drive would be most enjoyable². instead i'll be driving out with my friend joel whose roadtrip credentials are less established. i'm hoping he figures out a way to have his iphone teleport us to arizona. he may or may not be returning home with me, but i will probably have my sister and belongings to keep me company.

for those of you who have not made the trek from majestic southern california to dusty, hot, landlocked arizona, i offer the following points of interest which might be the only interesting things on the trip:

fountain valley - this is where kim and i live. it doesn't have its own beaches, but it's beach-adjacent and doesn't take any guff from newport or huntington. all in all, it's a nice place to live.
indio, ca - when you hit indio you've officially entered nowhere. mark weaver insists that indio is my favorite town. he does this because he likes the goo goo dolls while i prefer music.
blythe, ca - blythe is roughly midway between los angeles and phoenix which makes it the perfect place to wonder if you'll ever make it back to civilization. on the ill-fated spring break camping trip of 2005³, a group of my friends attempted to eat at the blythe wendy's, but were foiled when the restaurant ran out of food. the first guy got the last burger, the second received the last baked potato, and the rest were out of luck.
phoenix, az - phoenix was recently chosen as the new capital of nazi germany when governor jan brewer made it compulsory for all immigrants to dive into the grand canyon. wait, that's not what happened? i've got to stop relying on facebook for my news and constitutional law background.
tucson, az - i've been told there are many great things about tucson. i've been there twice and can only name two: chocolate chip banana bread from beyond bread and the campus of u of a which must use the entire state's irrigation budget.
yuma, az - bengie molina went to junior college here.
san diego, ca - i will be much happier when i can see the ocean. hopefully it's still there when i get back.
mission viejo, ca - if i'm lucky i'll be able to pull out of my parents' driveway before my sister starts her first fight with my mom.

¹ normally i'd be more specific, but my sister, who studies architecture in tucson, scoffed that i'd refer to scottsdale or glendale as places separate from phoenix. to her, arizona consists exclusively of phoenix, tucson, and flagstaff.
² i know this for a fact: in the spring of 2007 we drove to tucson to take my sister home for spring break and, aside from a rogue semi in the mojave desert, it was great trip.
³ this trip is known as death camp because what was supposed to be a fun trip to sunny arizona turned into a disaster simulation. sedona got snow the first day we arrived and nighttime temperatures hovered in the teens. the first wave of campers, myself included, all managed to get food poisoning from the first night's undercooked chicken or ben's grandmother depending on your interest in conspiracy theories.

last summer

2010-04-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

ten miles

2010-04-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

sunday marked the date of the longest run i've done since 2002. it was a ten miler which isn't that long to most runners. to non-runners, however, that seems like it would take an eternity. when i mention ten miles to most non-runners, i imagine that while they're nodding politely they're also imagining how terribly stupid i must be. to a certain extent they're right; running alone for over an hour isn't very exciting, even for me.

mile one
this is the mile where i always think about how much i hate warming up and cooling down. on interval and tempo runs, the warmup and cooldown are like commercials. i want to cut right through them, but there isn't yet a dvr equivalent for life. on long runs i don't want to kill my overall pace so i push too hard.

in high school i never warmed up beyond the coach-mandated whole-team slogs which i endured by complaining about how we (the milers) shouldn't be doing the same warmups as the rest of the team. during this period of my life, cooldowns consisted solely of puking next to the track before removing my spikes and reclining next to my gym bag.

now that i've matured (ever-so-slightly) i do warmup and cooldown on most workouts. on the long runs i head out at full steam followed by forcing myself to slow down for a mile until my body remembers that it really shouldn't be attempting to do the whole thing at mile race pace. sunday's run was no different and i alternated between surging and coasting the entire mile.

miles two through five
now that i was suitably tired from surging and slowing for a mile, the run began in earnest. by this point i no longer had to force myself to run more slowly and instead settled into a reasonable pace. i also began mildly cursing the wind and the fact that i elected to forgo the ipod. the wind around here is a daily annoyance that i'd much rather trade for some hills. no matter how hard the wind is gusting, i refuse to run slower than my planned pace so i'm often dying by the time i turn back for home.

my weekday runs are fairly solitary affairs with the number of people on the trail ranging from few before sunset to fewer afterward. weekends are decidedly different. there aren't many runners, but there are hordes of cyclists. pacelines sped by in both directions every couple minutes and i began to tire of the riders shouting "on your left!" as if i could move any farther to the right without hopping the fence into the santa ana river.

nothing about an 8 min/mi pace seems difficult when i leave home, but i had a lot of trouble staying steady with the pace on sunday. i was able to push it and be under 7:30 or cruise and go up to 8:15, but i could not stay on target. i'd like to think it was the changing wind even though i know it was really my inability to dictate pace by feel.

miles six through eight
even though i enjoy running, i started to hit a wall during this section of my run. i had turned back towards home and started reaping the benefits of the wind, but nothing else felt good about it. i had once again neglected to carry water and was seriously regretting it. with three miles to go and my mouth rapidly approaching the sand paper stage, i surged as if running harder would somehow solve dehydration.

with my body rapidly running out of water, my mind started to wander. every time a group of cyclists blew by me i fought the urge to shout at the last guy, "you're going to get dropped! quit being lazy!" something about the smugness of those guys racing $5000 bikes along an almost entirely flat bike trail as if they were in the giro really bugs me some times.

miles eight and nine
nothing about these two miles was fun. i was dehydrated, warm, tired, and bored. despite my long history of traveling by foot and bike, i have a seriously underdeveloped ability to estimate distance. visual landmarks that seemed like they were within the next third of a mile were more than a half mile away. each time i pegged a marker, i was disappointed when it took much longer to make it than anticipated.

mile ten
this mile started with a short downhill and i was able to make it home quickly. this is also the route i cover on most warmups and cooldowns so i had some trouble mentally in keeping my pace as high as desired. all in all it was a tougher than expected run and i'm glad it's over.

a new ride

2010-04-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

roughly a year ago (367 days to be exact), kim and i returned from a good friday service at church to find our bikes had been stolen. sure, the garage was unlocked, but both bikes were locked, mine with two u-locks. plus they had been successfully stored for eight months to that point and i figured we were fine. obviously i was wrong and those bikes are probably being ridden by unsuspecting craigslist users right now.

in the months that followed we considered buying replacement bikes. i even bought a nice road bike as i'd wanted to for years, but we never pulled the trigger on that pair of new bikes. i'd look at bikes online every couple of months and occasionally we'd discuss them. we did not, however, do any bike buying.

in november we moved into a larger apartment that's only a mile or so from my job. it's not like i was much farther from work before, but now i started to grumble about the short commute's decimation of my gas mileage and bemoan my missing bike. i'm not under the delusion that i'd be saving the world or vastly improving my fitness by riding my bike to work. it would, however, be much more efficient and, over time, cheaper.

thankfully for me, kim also started wanting a new bike recently. with some gently prodding i was able to get kim to check out bikes and we explored options leading up to her birthday on april 3. after hours of agonizing over choices, we finally ordered our new bikes on sunday and now i'm impatiently waiting for this:

it's a single-speed road bike (not a fixed gear, thank you very much.) and i'll be riding it soon.

the richter scale

2010-04-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

on easter sunday there was a large earthquake in mexicali, mexico. despite its size, this one did far less damage than recent newsworthy quakes. it is starting to seem like we're moving towards regularly scheduled massive quakes. the haiti disaster was closely followed by the large chilean quake and now it seems that everyone is on earthquake apocalypse alert.

despite the public's current fascination with quakes, however, nobody seems to understand the richter scale. numbers are thrown about with every quake, but most people are no closer to understanding what they mean. that's because it's based on a logarithmic scale and most people would rather be punched in the face than solve a logarithm. add to that the fact that the equation for the richter magnitude scale, M_L=log₁₀A-log₁₀A₀(δ), is counter intuitive to anyone without a math doctorate. even more difficult for most, going up 1 point on the richter scale means increasing a quake's magnitude by a factor of 31.6 [31.6

= (10 1.0) (3 / 2)

] rather than a simple 10 or even 25.

in order to illustrate the relative scales of recent and notorious quakes, i made the following diagram:

the two smallest squares in the upper left corner are the haiti quake from january (7.0) and northridge from 1994 (6.7).

the main thing i'd take from this is that magnitude, besides being confusing, is an overrated earthquake characteristic. other factors such as direction, duration, depth, and location are more influential in quantifying the likelihood of devastation. why then does the media stop after the richter scale value? shouldn't they actually inform?

santa anita derby day 5k

2010-04-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

saturday was kim's birthday. we started the day with the santa anita derby day 5k, coincidentally enough in santa anita. this meant a six a.m. wake-up call on a saturday for the multiple freeway drive. for me this was a challenge, but kim awoke long before and was ready to go when my alarm sounded.

we arrived well before the race and i was able to warmup. it's not that i haven't had the opportunity to warmup at previous races, but i've generally avoided doing so as if it would kill me. i jogged 2/3 of a mile and had ample time wedge in at the start. most races have pacing guidelines at the start in an ineffective attempt to keep the trotters and small children from blocking the fastest runners. often these start at 5min/mi, but the derby day race only went to 7min/mi (not a good sign). thankfully this was offset by wave starts that segregated most of the people planning to go slower than 9min/mi. i still had to dodge some kids and a jockey from animal planet's jockeys, but didn't lose more than a second or two.

for the first time in ages i actually stuck to a conservative pace out of the gate. i'm sure this is because i'm in the middle of training for the 10k mud run in june and didn't plan to charge this race. in fact, i just wanted to run an even pace and beat my rain/stomach-slowed time from the race on the base.

after leaving the parking lot at the start we hit a slight, steady incline where the unprepared who rabbited out at the onset dropped in waves. a couple of teenagers loudly argued about their pace until i abruptly assured them they were doing 7min/mi up the hill. a few twists and turns lead to the la county arboretum where kim assured me there were flamingos and old buildings. i was too focused on pacing and dodging the stragglers from the masters race to see the sights.

leaving the arboretum we snaked through the race track's outlying areas before hitting a tunnel into the track itself. a track staffer directed runners to the left of the tunnel just as a frantic person left the tunnel shouting, "runner down! runner down!" apparently one of the elderly people trailing the masters race went down and i briefly considered stopping before remembering i had seen sheriffs just before entering the tunnel.

soon after emerging from the underground the course hit the horse track. a few years back california legislated that all horse tracks switch to a synthetic dirt surface to minimize equine injuries. unfortunately the material turns to slop when it gets wet and someone had soaked the track before the race. i quickly decided not to kick to the line to avoid turning an ankle.

even though i hadn't intended to finish fast, it was disappointing to miss a chance to break twenty when i had run so well to that point. the track was just too darn muddy; i'd loved to have seen how the race leaders managed it.

i headed back to where the course left the tunnel to wait for kim. after seeing her i headed to the finish, but she slipped past without my seeing her. for at least ten minutes i waited with increasing concern until kim appeared from behind me. she had finished and was waiting for me elsewhere while i worried that she had disappeared.

all in all the race went well. i ran a decent time (20:30) and felt strong the whole race. kim's race was successful after a two-week illness and car accident hurt her training. we're two months from the mud run and i think we'll be ready.

sometimes running doesn't feel good

2010-03-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

last week was the first week of my 10k training. each of my three runs was tough, as were my swim and ride. it was great to finally have a purpose behind my runs and a goal at the end. by the end of the week i was feeling pretty good.

that was two days ago. after today's run, i'm no longer feeling so great. my weekday runs have traditionally been evening affairs, but today i ran before work. i had to stay late last night so i didn't have to go in until almost lunchtime and i decided to make the most of it. i slept in to the ripe hour of eight and then hit the road.

today's run was an interval run broken into two 2 mile sections with 1 mile easy sections at each interval. after doing last week's 3 mile tempo run 8 seconds per mile faster than my goal, i figured today's would be more of the same. in a way it was; 7 seconds fast per mile. in another, more important way, it wasn't. this time it hurt. i really had to push it on both tempo sections and i haven't felt that previously.

mud run wk1: intervals

2010-03-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

last night was the first night of my training for the mud run. i was scheduled for 8 x 400m at 96 sec/400m.

intervals are usually easier for me than tempo or long runs so i wasn't worried even though it was long. since there are no good tracks in the area, i decided to hit the santa ana river trail for my run. it was unseasonably hot and dry, but i made it through all eight 400m stretches with relative ease. in all honesty, the hardest part was the 20 minute warmup. i've never been one for warmups so it was a stretch to keep a slow pace for that long when i knew i was about to run fast. i was under my target on all eight intervals and was faster than expected on the rest intervals. more surprisingly, i did the entire warmup and cooldown.

tempo run on thursday and long run on the weekend.

total: 6.92mi in 1:02:03
warmup: 2.26mi in 20min
intervals: 1:31, 1:33, 1:34, 1:32, 1:33, 1:32, 1:31, 1:29
rest intervals: 1.79mi in 19:48
cooldown: 0.87mi in 10min

my yearly running mileage

2010-03-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

this is a quick graphic i made to illustrate how my running has gone the past few years. i've almost caught 2008 already and will do so in the next two weeks if i don't get hurt.

a training plan?

2010-03-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

for the past few months i've been running regularly after seven-plus years of fits and starts after ending high school. it's the most consistently i've managed to run and i've seen some improvement, but i haven't done anything focused. some weeks i run the same thing 3 times; other times i just go longer each day. it's altogether haphazard and unfocused. on the plus side i've been able to keep from getting burned out. on the negative, it's extremely easy to skip a run when you don't have a plan.

i write all of that because today marks the start of my first legitimate attempt at organized training in two years and the first for which i have ample preparation. kim and i are doing the camp pendleton 10k mud run on june 3 and i'd like to do much better than last year. the 2009 race went so poorly for me that i don't even think i wrote about it. this year should be different. i've built a seemingly-adequate base over the fall and winter while pushing myself to do longer runs than i had in the past.

the plan i'm using is the FIRST 10k plan outlined in their book, run less, run faster. their idea is that most running plans include far too many junk miles. runs should be done with specific purposes that are tuned to both the race at hand and one's actual ability. to that end, there are only three runs per week and all paces are pegged based on a recent 5k baseline. the three runs are interval, tempo, and long. the last time i attempted one of these plans i was easily able to handle the intervals, but my base was totally inadequate for the long runs. this time ought to be different. i'm using my (overly slow) time from the race on the base 5k (22:34) for my starting paces. since that time was slow (due to two stoppages and weather), i may have to kick things up in a few weeks. we're doing a 5k on kim's bday which will give me a good chance to tweak my paces if need be. after the mud run i'm probably going to start training for the oc triathlon in october so this training on my own thing better work.

a measure of redemption

2010-03-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

back in late summer, just after i bought my bike, i attempted a ride through santiago canyon with my friend joel. he was interested in a bike race out there and had never been to the area so i figured i could show him around. there were a few things, however, that i utterly failed to consider:
1. i really didn't have a biking base yet because i hadn't had my bike for more than a month.
2. almost all of my riding had been on the relatively flat roads near my apartment.
3. joel was in significantly better shape than me.

as you can imagine, the ride did not go well. the first four miles or so of the ride is uphill with a few significant steep sections. i did not even make it to the challenging part of the climb. i pushed it too hard, too soon and was quickly gasping for air. i had to bail on the ride and show joel the route by car. he then proceeded to ride about 50 miles while i drove home with my tail tucked firmly between my legs.

in the months since that debacle i've been up and down with my riding, but have not done any concerted training. i've endured a lengthy illness and waited out unusually frequent rains. i've pedaled into the wind many times, but failed to do much climbing. i've been running more while starting to swim again and haven't dropped a pound. somehow, through all of that, i've gotten a little stronger.

on saturday i made it out for another attempt with joel. when i got there he had already ridden ten miles, but he doubled back to find me. i felt much better than last time and survived the first climb even though it took a lot out of me. the ride seemed to be going well after that point and i was cruising down a long recovery section when i hit bump. my rear tube blew and flattened instantly. there's nothing quite like having to skid to a stop from 30+ mph when you've got only one wheel. also, joel didn't notice i'd stopped until he was a ways off.

after an overly long attempt to get air back into the tube, giving up, mounting a new tube, and pumping it adequately, we were back on the move. we lost about ten minutes. the rest certainly didn't help me as joel was able to pull away on every climb and descent. on the return trip he blew his rear tire and we lost time again.

my legs were toast by the last climb, but i'm glad i did it. hopefully i'll go back soon.

people are strange.

2010-03-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

almost all of my rides since buying my bike last summer have been on the santa ana river trail. it's the best place to ride in the area because, if i'm going to live without hills, i prefer to minimize stop lights and cross traffic. i'd trade the bikeway for rolling hills in a heartbeat, but this part of northwest orange county is pancake flat. in fact, a friend from the area once referred to a freeway overpass as a hill. in spite of this shortcoming, i usually choose the convenience of rolling out my front door over the effort of driving to better routes.

most of the time i ride west to the coast(okay, not westward per se, but that's easier than west by southwest, especially when it's directly to the beach). yesterday, however i decided to roll the other way for the first time in months. you'd think that a flat, easy ride would be the same in either direction, but you'd be wrong.

my westerly rides take me through fountain valley, costa mesa, and huntington beach. the crowd is made up of the following groups: (overly) serious cyclists, families walking or riding beach cruisers, packs of hipster kids on fixies, and the occasional runner. they're usually friendly if they're not riding too seriously and i rarely see anything weirder than a pair of recumbents.

heading in the opposite direction from home is like riding into an entirely different place. it's not that there aren't nice areas in santa ana, orange, or anaheim, but the people on the trail yesterday were an entirely different breed. here are just a few the people i saw between euclid in fountain valley and katella in anaheim:
1. pack of tweens on bmx bikes ditching spray paint cans into the river
2. multiple guys sitting on rocks drinking 40's (none were together)
3. kids kicking a deflated basketball ball across the river
4. homeless guy drumming on his shoe with a screwdriver and a socket wrench
5. lady rollerblading while pushing a jogging stroller
6. guy running sprints along the river bottom
7. people watching soccer games through chain link fences rather than going around to enter the fields
8. ducks fans going to a hockey game

all in all it made for a weird scene. the shoe drummer warned me of a puddle hidden in the shade of an underpass, but most of the other people hanging out on the trail were slightly unsettling. there wasn't anything i couldn't handle. it just seemed a world away from the beach crowd in the other direction.

as for the ride itself, i didn't push the pace too hard on the way out because i wasn't sure how far i'd ride. one of these days i'll take the trail to the end in yorba linda, but yesterday was not to be. it started drizzling so i turned around in case it really started raining. the ride back was a beast due to the increasingly strong onshore winds that shoot inland for miles. (did i mention it's flat around here?) i was definitely tired by the time i hit home and it certainly wasn't from a fast pace.

17 miles in 1:03.

take that, saturday.

2010-03-01T21:41:00.000-08:00

without really intending to do so, i ran a quick 5k tonight. after saturday's splat of a race i subconsciously needed to run well. i did the 5k about a minute faster than the race even though i really didn't run hard. the main difference, besides the lack of rain, was my slower start. at every race i go out way too fast and have to dial it back significantly. on normal runs i'm much better about starting slowly and gradually increasing the pace. negative splits happen all the time in my workouts even if i'd never have a shot at one in a race.

on the nature of swimming in a shallow, shallow pool

2010-03-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

the pool at my gym is not ideal. to say that it's exceedingly shallow for a lap pool is putting it mildly. ostensibly it's 4ft deep at one end and 3ft deep at the other. even if that was the case it would be the shallowest lap pool i've ever seen. in reality the pool is actually 3'8" at the deep end and significantly less at the other. this makes swimming laps exceedingly difficult. it's also murky even though the water is clean. i don't know how they manage that. having a pool in a basement makes it ridiculously warm no matter how closely they regulate the thermostat. at least it has a skylight where people entering the gym can see part of the middle lane...

despite my eight years of water polo, i was never on a swim team. i did not learn to properly dive until my junior year of water polo and i couldn't flip turn until i took a swim class in college. i wasn't terribly proficient with flip turns when i was doing them twice a week in that class and i'm more than a bit rusty now. something about the combination of flipping, twisting, and distance from the wall hasn't had repetition enough to mesh. all of that to say that i really need a good depth to even attempt a good flip turn so this pool kills my ability to crank out laps.

last night's swim was the first i'd done in weeks. i attempted to go earlier in the day, but was thwarted because the gym pool is used by a swim lessons company. when i returned hours later i was able to snag a lane and did 100 yards of various swimming drills and strokes. i'd like to swim once or twice a week from here on out, but this pool is killing me. by the time i get to decent swim shape again i'll be fed up with the shallow, boiling, murky pool and have to hit another gym.

race on the base 5k

2010-02-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

yesterday was the race on the base 5k at the los alamitos joint forces training base. i had been running more before this race than any in recent years, but hadn't done any formal training. that said, i had hoped to do two things with the race. first i just wanted to get a good time for my training paces for my 10k training plan. second i wanted a good time to feel good about racing again. the race course was ideal, a totally flat loop on the tarmac of the runways. unfortunately, i developed shin splints early in the week before the race, but i wasn't too worried about that after taking a few days rest.

here's how the day unfolded:
the forecast for race day called for a high likelihood of rain, but i figured we'd be okay. i was wrong. it was absolutely pouring when we arrived and didn't let up until just before the race. this left large puddles (up to 4" deep in areas) that could not drain from the nearly flat course. it also meant that i was wearing a jacket at the start that quickly became more of a burden than a help. as i usually do, i took off too quickly and had to pull back on the pace after a 5:30 mile pace through the first 3/4 mile.
just as i regained control of my pace, my stomach attacked. i forced myself through it, but it quickly returned with a vengeance. at about 1.3 miles i had to stop to walk for 20 or 30 seconds until my stomach settled. when i restarted my run, my legs were instantly heavy and i couldn't regain my pace. my stomach churned again a mile later and, after another walk, i was able to run the rest of the way. by this point i had hit the wind pretty hard. with everything piling up i didn't have my usual kick and hit the tape in 22:34. it was okay, but i'm looking forward to a better result at the mud run in june.

lately

2010-02-26T21:53:00.000-08:00

lately i've been terribly unmotivated to write anything here. the more i think about writing, the less urgent it seems. back when i used to write frequently i was bursting with ideas, but now i've hit a dry spell.
i've been running more (except this week when i took it easy after shin splints), reading regularly, and generally filling my time. the one thing that i would like to add to the mix would be writing. it just seems like nothing is worth chronicling here.
i'm not the kind of person to do things just for material or think about writing in the midst of activity. usually my analysis is immediate and internal so i've moved on before i'd ever even have a chance to write about it.
that's all for now, i guess. i'll probably write about tomorrow's 5k sometime over the weekend.

4

2010-02-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

my book reading pace has slowed some, but i've got another i neglected to add a week ago:
sixty feet, six inches by bob gibson and reggie jackson
this book is basically an edited transcript of baseball conversations between a hall of fame pitcher and hitter. the level of detail the two can remember all these years later is incredible and i learned a lot about their eras, but this book would have worked better for me as a two hour television show. jackson needed to be further edited and much of the material would have worked better with visual accompaniment. it was a quick read, but only works for people with a deep interest in and broad knowledge of baseball.

if i ever decide to smoke cigarettes...

2010-01-18T10:03:00.001-08:00

i'll smoke the ones smoked by doctors:

1,2,3.

2010-01-09T01:05:00.000-08:00

last year i ended by listing the 14 1/2 books i read last year. this year i've decided that i'm going to list them as i finish them so i actually know what to say and then rank them at the end. it's the seventh day of the year and i've got three books done already¹.
in chronological order:
born to run: a hidden tribe, superathletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen by christopher mcdougall
this book is about running. it's also about a reclusive mexican indian tribe of ultrarunners that retreated to the copper canyon region after the spanish invaded. it's about a guy who tossed it all to live among them and those who share their spirit without dropping out. it's also about why and how humanity runs. mcdougall pits himself as the everyman who tries to become a runner, fails due to injury, and gets in over his head searching for a cure. i really enjoyed this book and will probably read it again before the year is out. the section on evolutionary biology drags on a bit, but the story of the tarahumara people and their interactions with the outside world is fascinating.

how to lose friends and alienate people: a memoir by toby young
i may have read this just because toby young is now a judge on top chef... kim and i just watched the movie based on this and it's so loosely based on the book that i might believe you if you said the two were utterly unrelated. whereas young's book absolutely crushes the celebrity media for whoring itself out to gain access and explains in detail his professional and personal failures, the film is a lighthearted romp where the sidney young merrily sells out for fame and fortune before deciding to ditch it all for a girl. the real toby young was an alcoholic, intentionally aggravating menace who failed to take america by storm before becoming disillusioned with this country and earning a measure of redemption by picking himself out of the gutter; in the movie he's a foul-mouthed, bumbling idiot played by the too likeable simon pegg who screws up but without making anyone all that angry. terrible adaptation, but toby young probably like the paycheck just fine.

the road by cormac mccarthy
this is by far the bleakest book i've ever read. while i was reading i thought a lot about how i've got too much hope and joy to ever imagine such a desolate, depraved world as mccarthy's.

¹so what if the first one was technically before the new year? i can do whatever i want.

2009 in books

2009-12-17T16:37:00.000-08:00

the following is a semi-complete listing of the books i read for the first time this year. i may or may not have missed a few, but i'm less concerned about that fact than you are and you don't care at all. they are ranked from worst to first because that's the kind of thing these sort of lists are supposed to do, eliminate the need for you to think for yourself.

orson welles: volume 1: the road to xanadu - simon callow
this was the worst book i read this year by leaps and bounds. i should have known better when i picked up a seven hundred page book that only covered half of welles' lifetime. he's not a president or an astronaut but he made citizen kane and voiced a planet in transformers the movie so this book should have been 500 pages and 1 volume tops. the cliff's notes version of this book would have been interesting because welles was a hell of a storyteller. he's the kind of guy who, like mark whitacre whose life story was told in the informant!, made up the back story he wished he'd had. that should make for a compelling story, but the author is unable to let the story tell itself, instead hyper-focusing on his other profession: stagecraft. i stopped reading long before finishing and would recommend that you stay as far from this book as possible.

wonder boys - michael chabon
i'll start by saying that i loved the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay as well as the yiddish policeman's union. those books are great books and the former earned chabon a great reputation and a pulitzer. this book, however, is not those books. it's a mediocre tale of unlikable, unsympathetic characters from an unlikable city - pittsburgh - who put themselves in unsympathetic situations. there are some good elements here, but it all seems too much like the fusion of a pile of good ideas that would have worked better separately.

great ikea - elen lewis
i bought this book in a stockholm bookstore to read on the plane back to america. it taught me a few things about the secretive guy who runs ikea and his past connections to the nazis. it explained the successes and failures of ikea's rigid business plan and its focus on the bottom line at all costs. it was also full of typos, repetitions, and was at times as boring as this review.

gentlemen of the road - michael chabon
i don't generally read fantasy or adventure books, but i gave this one a go because chabon's good stuff is good enough for a risk here and there. it's a quick read and much more simplistic than most his work, but i liked it.

i am america (and so can you!) - stephen colbert
this book works better as an idea than as a product. colbert plays the perfect character to skewer the arrogance and pomposity of both liberal politicians and conservative television hosts. as an extension of that character, the book hits about 75%. the ridiculousness of his tv persona loses some of its likability in book form. maybe he should stick to twitter where 140 characters keep him from becoming too bombastic. this is a funny book, but i read it twelve months ago and don't remember any specifics.

nazi games: the olympics of 1936 - david clay large
did you know that the olympic torch relay was created by the nazis to create a link between their aryan supermen and their beloved ancient greeks? most people don't read history books unless they're forced, but i'm interested in historical events and their context so read more of them than most.

a long way down - nick hornby
on the nick hornby scale of novels this is more a how to be good than a high fidelity or an about a boy. it's a good book, but it doesn't reach the level of his previous work. that is to say, it was likable just not on a level that i'll rereading it or looking forward to the film adaptation. the convention of having the characters tell parts of the story from their unique and, in this case, damaged viewpoints is not novel, but it works here.

all for a few perfect waves - david rensin
miki dora is the anti-hero of surfing, a culture built almost entirely on anti-heroes. he was the original surf jerk and people loved him for it. this much i knew before reading rensin's book. what i learned was that he was, at one time, a remarkable surfer before throwing away the next thirty-plus years on schemes, scams, and prison. the idea of doing anything and everything to live a life of unending perfect surf seems great in the abstract. in reality, however, a life on the run is sad and pathetic when you've sold out everyone who ever cared. rensin does a good job explaining all of this and does an admirable job selling the eventual redemption dora attempted late in life. what still doesn't make sense to me though is how everyone kept being sucked in by the guy even after decades of terribly using and abusing everyone he knew.

my custom van - michael ian black
michael ian black is often hilarious. his work for mcsweeney's is some of the funniest stuff i've ever read. if this book was as funny as all that, it'd be one of the funniest books ever written. unfortunately it's uneven and more than a bit vulgar. the highs are very high, but the book has too much mediocrity to be great.

the real all americans - sally jenkins
at the turn of the last century, after the west was won and manifest destiny fully manifest, a boarding school for native americans was one of the nation's collegiate football powers. for a brief moment, back when jim thorpe was in school, the carlisle indian school showed that a team of indians could compete with country's best. the wikipedia entry about the school makes it seem like it a death camp for segregating indian kids. jenkins' book on the other hand shows how much effort the schools' leaders made to educate and integrate their students. sure, their efforts come off as patronizing, cruel, or otherwise troubled in the context of the 21st century, but they were very progressive for their time and this book doesn't forget that.

when march went mad - seth davis
as amazing as it might seem to anyone born after 1980, there was a time when ncaa basketball and the nba meant almost nothing to the general public. this book pins most of the credit for their subsequent boom on the championship game played between larry bird's indiana state sycamores and magic johnson's michigan state spartans. while i beg to differ on the importance of this game relative to other factors, this book makes its case very well. more than that, though, it tells the whole story of both players and their respective schools. i loathe davis as a tv analyst, but his work here is very good. however, as much as i learned about this event and its impact, the fact that sticks with me most is that larry bird is a deadbeat dad to the child he fathered with his ex-wife after they divorced. i was never a member of the "larry bird is basketball jesus" club, but it's a bummer to learn terrible things about people you'd otherwise like.

a terrible glory: custer and the little bighorn - the last great battle of the american west - james donovan
when i was in the sixth grade my teacher made us do history day¹, specifically the performance division. having recently read a terrible glory, i find it hilarious that eleven year-olds had anything to do with dramatizing what was certainly one of the bloodiest moments in american history. this book does an excellent job putting the battle into its context as the culmination of the cavalry's years of trying to gain glory and, if possible, victory over the indians of the plains. custer's rise and fall is an amazing story and donovan tells it well without lapsing into hero worship or character assassination like most historical accounts of custer. everyone knows of the battle of little bighorn, but few know what really happened there, how it happened, or why it all went wrong. this book is a good place to start.

einstein: his life and universe - walter isaacson
i like biographies, especially when i learn a lot about things i already thought i knew. einstein's theories, at least the basics of them, are fairly common knowledge and his personal history has been cobbled into a pastiche of the common and the genius. this book knocks down the wall of popular misconception about einstein and gets to the root of his person and life. he wasn't a poor student, he didn't become a patent clerk by choice, and he didn't receive his nobel prize for the theory of relativity. his scientific achievements are presented in a straightforward manner without simplifying the concepts to meaninglessness while his personal life is shown as the context to his work.

blink - malcolm gladwell
sure, it's a bit too heavy on pop-psychology and it relies on data that might not be fully vetted or contextualized. it's also an interesting book that i read in a hurry. i like gladwell's style and don't mind the occasional repetitiousness therein. it's possible that the reason i liked this book so much is that each of its points are inherently logical to me. that might make them too simplistic, but their collective weight is fairly substantial. i look forward to outliers.

to reach the clouds - phillippe petit
go watch man on wire. then read this book. if you want, you could reverse that order. either way, it's interesting to see petit's manic enthusiasm from multiple angles.

¹ the purpose of history day is "to teach essential historical literacy that motivates students to secure the future of democracy." i don't know if it's the reason i almost went to the air force academy, but it's as good a reason as any...

we've moved

2009-11-09T15:48:00.000-08:00

saturday was the big day for kim and me to move to our new apartment. the weekend did not start as planned because i was stuck running a series of production trials from six on friday night through two saturday morning.¹ after a shorter than planned rest, i awoke to join kim in finishing the final packing and pick up the truck. with the help of kim's dad, brother, and sister's husband tom as well as my dad, the moving of boxes and furniture was pretty quick. the only trouble came when we tried to move our refrigerator into the new apartment. our new place comes with a fridge and we didn't want to sell our year-old one so we planned to store it in the second bedroom. unfortunately it was as wide as the door to the bedroom so i was forced to drive down to kim's parents' house to store it once we decided not to stick it on the back patio. sunday morning we took a trip to ikea for some lamps and other household goods. while kim grocery shopped i reassembled the bed and built her dresser. we've yet to unpack almost anything and kim's last-minute sub job this morning means that the schedule has been delayed.

¹that's right, 2AM. had i stayed for all of my trials i'd have been there until about 8, but i was able to get out after the most critical ones finished.

sign me up for two

2009-11-03T14:28:00.000-08:00

today i went to rubios for lunch and caught a glimpse of the future:

the coca-cola freestyle is an amazing invention. maybe you, like me, thought that soda fountain technology had been pushed to its limits by the gas station fountains that let you add squirts of cherry, vanilla, or lemon to your beverage, but that was nothing. the freestyle has over one hundred variations available. you start by choosing your main ingredient on the touchscreen and are then shown available variations to go with that beverage. coke has developed a better way of storing the flavors which allows them to use highly concentrated syrups instead of giant bags of premixed sodas. they're also able to track data on what varieties people prefer which should lead to wider availability of coke flavors.

i had raspberry coke which was excellent and probably should have seen what flavors i could mix with sprite. in addition to the fun of using it, i was able to better enjoy my lunch because i got to see people really struggle with figuring out how to use the freestyle. the directions were on the wall, but it seems that people aren't that quick even with a guide. they were startled by the change, surprised by the overpowered ice dispenser, and, most hilariously, chronically unable to find the blinking "pour" button after making a drink choice. i could have watched that thing for hours. never have i seen something so simple confuse people so mightiliy.

while the freestyle is awesome and will probably be even better when it emerges from beta testing, it does have a few issues. the aforementioned ice dispenser was too powerful and rubios had to set up wet floor signs on either side of the machines. that was funny to watch, but tough to use. the machine only lets you add one flavor at a time so if you want raspberry-vanilla coke you have to do the two separately which hinders my ability to creat something truly unique. it also restricts the flavors you can add to different sodas so i was unable to have that raspberry flavor in coke zero even though it was available for regular coke. lastly, i think the ratio of syrups is a bit high because i'd like it to taste like coke with a hint of flavor and not a melted slurpee. all in all, i think this will be awesome and i look forward to seeing it in more locations.