The 2000m erg test is the defacto standard measure of rowing fitness. It is the distance competed in on-the-water rowing events at the Olympic and World Championship level and is also the distance competed at the World Indoor Rowing Championships (aka the CRASH-B's) in Boston, MA every year.
Now that rowing has become my primary sport during my extended hiatus from running, I need a challenge to motivate me through the winter. And now that I have my very own Concept2 Model D adorning the workout space in the garage, I've decided to take on the challenge of improving my 2K time. My one serious effort was a 6:58.4, which was this past summer about a month after I started rowing.
I've drawn a line in the sand at 6:40, which equates to an average pace of 1:40/500m or a power output of 350 watts. This time would put me in the top half of the rankings in the 30-39 Heavyweight men at last year's CRASH-B's, so it seems like a worthwhile, yet attainable goal for someone who has just taken up the sport.
While a 18 sec improvement doesn't seem like a lot, it requires a significant leap in power output to achieve. My current best effort of 6:58.4 equates to a power output of 305.8, so improving to a 6:40 is a increase of 44.2 watts or 14.4%. No small task.
The bulk of my time on the erg has been steady distance, but in order to improve my power output, I am changing up my training routine by adding the following components to the endurance work I am already doing. In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn't come up with the following workouts in a vacuum, I've borrowed heavily from well-respected rowing coach Pete Marston and his Pete Plan for these.
In addition, I am adding in some strength components to my routine, focusing on posterior chain and core strength. Some specific circuits will be coming in later posts, but here are some of the key movements I am incorporating into my workouts.
Kettlebells - two-handed swings, one-handed swings, cleans Lunges, split jumps, dumbbell and bodyweight squats, deadlifts, pull ups TRX Atomic pushups, suspended lunges, burpees, supine hip press, planks, side planks, body saws, ab rollouts.
I haven't been running lately due to my Achilles injury. In an attempt to maintain some modicum of fitness, I've rediscovered something with which I was painfully familiar with my freshman year in college. You see, I rowed as a novice collegiate rower way back in 1989-90 and learned how to use the torture device pictured above, also known as a Concept 2 rowing machine. Or as rowers affectionately call it, the erg.
The Concept2 is a well-loved (hated?) machine, and is the standard indoor rowing machine used by competitive rowers throughout the world. There is a World Indoor Rowing Championships (called the C.R.A.S.H.-B's) hosted in Boston, MA every year, as well as satellite competitions in 21 major cites around the U.S. and Canada. The Concept2 company hosts a online logbook (www.concept2.com/logbook) and ranking page for rowing enthusiasts to compare their performances with others around the world.
The standard distances for rankings are 500m, 2K, 5K, 10K, half-marathon (21,097m), full marathon (42,195m) and 100K. There are also rankings sheets for distance completed in 4 min, 30 min and 60 minutes.
My online ranking page on the Concept2 website is here.
The benefits of rowing are significant. It activates all the major muscle groups (legs, back, arms, core), is non-impact and provides a tremendous cardiovascular workout. More on this to come in later post
A couple years ago, someone handed me a copy of the The Paleo Diet for Athletes, by Dr. Loren Cordain & Joe Friel. In the book's pages, the authors claimed that eating a diet closer to what our Paleolithic ancestors ate has amazing benefits. A diet that eliminates grains, dairy products and legumes and replaces them with an increased intake of animal proteins and healthy fats, along with plenty of vegetables and fruit results in improved body composition, more energy, superior athletic performance, reduced illness and reduction in the risk factors for the modern long-term illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.
Ever the cynic, after reading the book, I set it aside as another fad diet (Adkins, Zone, Hollywood, South Beach) that promised incredible results, yet failed to deliver. But several times over the last several months, I had conversations with friends and fellow athletes who embarked on this way of eating and reported results quite similar to what Dr. Cordain and Mr. Friel claimed. I began to do some research, discovering that Paleo and similar eating philosophies (Primal, PaNu) seems to have nearly universally positive results for those willing to embrace the change. Maybe there was something to this after all.
On March 1, I began my own Paleo journey, adhering to the following principles.
What I stopped eating (or ate a LOT less of)
Month 1:
No grains (including breads and other baked goods, pasta, cereal, granola, oats, quinoa and rice)
Minimal dairy (occassionally using some butter for cooking and a small amounts of cheeses like feta or in salads). No milk, no yogurt, no cream. Of course, no ice cream. Ouch.
No legumes (including all beans, peanuts and soy products).
Starchy carbohydrates: potatoes
Refined sugar products: soft drinks (including things like packaged iced teas... ever read the nutrition label of an Arizona Iced Tea?), candy.
Month 2 and going forward:
Still no grains, except for the occasional cheat meal.
Minimal dairy, but now have added full fat organic whole milk as an indulgence (maybe a glass a week) and whole cream in my coffee.
Dramatically reduced legumes: I try to avoid peanuts, soy... will have some black beans on occasion.
Starchy carbs (sweet potatoes, parsnips) only immediately before or after hard exercise sessions. I am still avoiding potatoes.
What I eat now:
Fundamentally, Paleo or Primal eating is about "real" food. Unprocessed, as close to the source as you can get. If it's a packaged food, the fewer ingredients the better. But ideally, this style of eating minimizes consumption of foods that come in boxes, cans or jars.
Meat: beef, chicken, fish, pork. A quick aside about meat. It is pretty well-documented that there is wide variation in quality when it somes to the meat available at the grocery store. Most "factory" cows and chickens are fed a non-optimal diet of grains and soy. When possible, we purchase pasture-raised, organic or wild meat. In the case of beef, we acquired a 1/2 steer from a local supplier, so all our beef at home is grass-fed. We buy the best chicken available at the local groceries, but due to cost and availability this isn't always pastured or organic. Same goes with the fish; wild when possible, but sometimes we eat farm-raised.
Eggs: Organic or pasture-raised when possible... but again, sometimes we are limited by what is on hand at the local Wal-mart or Kroger.
Vegetables: broccoli, asparagus, various squashes, onions, mixed greens, leafy greens (kale, spinach, swiss chard), bell peppers... the list goes on. You get the idea, lots of veggies.
Nuts and seeds: almonds (and almond butter, milk), pecans, macadamia.
Most days, my meals are pretty much like the following:
Breakfast: scrambled eggs and fruit (apples, bananas) and on the weekend, bacon.
Lunch: Big salad with greens, colorful veggies and chicken, tuna, beef and turkey. Basic oil and vinegar dressing or homemade vinaigrette.
Dinner: Steak, chicken, fish, some cooked veggies and a green salad.
Snacks: a handful of nuts, some trail mix, celery or apples with almond butter, baby carrots, sliced red bell peppers with some hummus. Will have a protein shake (with almond milk and some fruit) after a big workout.
Here's the nutrient breakdown for the first month in daily averages, courtesy of CalorieKing. I wasn't trying to hit any particular numbers, I simply ate when hungry, ate until full and stuck to eating the foods that were part of the plan. To reiterate, these numbers are from March only.
Daily calories: 1876
I was somewhat surprised by how low this was. For reference, my Basal Metabolic Rate (daily calories burned at rest) is 1986.
Carbs (g): 139 29.64% of total
Here, Mark Sisson of MarksDailyApple.com talks about an ideal range of 50-100g per day for weight loss and 100-150g for maintenance, plus roughly 100g for each hour of training.
Fat (g): 94.5 45.3% of total
Nothing remarkable here... certainly more than the 44-78g range recommended by the Mayo Clinic, but not surprising considering all the nuts, avocado, healthy oils, and of course, a good amount of animal fat.
Protein (g): 117.3 25.01% of total
Way more than the FDA's 56g Recommended Daily Allowance (RDI), but quite close to the.7-1.0g per lb of lean body weight guideline recommended by many fitness trainers for those looking to increase lean muscle mass.
Fiber (g): 24.69
Depending on where you look, most experts recommend a fiber intake between 20-35g per day. I ended up well within this range... despite no grains. Amazing to think vegetables have fiber. Whooda thunk?
As far as exercise levels and intensity, for the month of March, I simply went on a maintenance schedule... keeping volume and intensity levels as close as possible to what they were in January and February. This worked out to an daily average of 45 minutes of exercise, 67% of which was cycling, indoor rowing or running and 33% strength training.
On April 1st, I upped the intensity of my training somewhat added in some longer cycling sessions, while continuing my strength training as well. Total volume came in just under 65 minutes avg per day (72% cycling/rowing/running, 28% strength training)
Weight change. March 1: 209.6. April 1: 193.6 May 1: 189.0
Very dramatic weight loss the first two weeks (about 12 lbs), since then it has slowed to about 1 lb per week.
Performance and strength gains are evident. A few data points:
One set standard pushup max: March 1: 43, May 2: 78 TRX Low Row/Atomic Pushups (aka 40/40 challenge): March 1: 18 pushups/26 low rows; April 29: 40 pushups/41 low rows
There was some initial impact on my endurance the first two weeks... my energy level crashed after about 20 minutes into any extended cardio workout. But this subsided and my energy levels and endurance improved and exceeded previous levels after this transition period. In fact, I set a new indoor rowing half marathon personal best on March 27 and my strength on my bike is improving every day.
Overall impressions on changing to this way of eating:
I'm not going to lie. The first couple of weeks, I was craving bread, rice and pasta... it was such a cornerstone of my meals that it seemed strange to have a meal without some starchy carb in it. But, now I am used to it and am perfectly satisfied with a plate full of veggies with some protein, whether its in the form of a big salad, or some cooked veggies and a nice portion of roasted chicken or steak.
Benefits:
Improved body composition: I am losing body fat consistently, and thanks to a consistent exercise routine, building lean body mass and improving strength. What else can I ask for?
Energy levels: More consistent throughout the day. No post-meal "food comas". No energy crash in the afternoon.
Sleep: Generally improved, once I'm out, I am out until about 8-9 hours later.
More consistant hunger patterns: I am rarely "starving". I eat three times per day... moderately sized meals, but I rarely find myself super hungry like before.
Cons:
Eating while out or traveling: paleo/low carb options can be hard to come by while eating out or on the road, particularly for breakfast. I am getting used to special ordering.
Food preparation time: So many of the quick foods available are grain based, so it can be inconvenient to cook every meal. Grabbing a pizza on the way home from the kid's softball practice is no longer in the cards. Or if we do, I have to make my own meal while they eat pizza. Which begs the question, are my kids eating paleo? Yes and no, but that's the subject of another post.
Cost: Protein is expensive. Carbs are cheap. Enough said.
I'll wrap up this very long post by addressing one important point. I am a big believer in Mark Sisson's 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of the time, I eat clean and according to plan. The other twenty... do I have a slice of birthday cake at my daughter's birthday party, have a scoop of ice cream on a hot day or indulge in a Nutella and peanut butter sandwich after a long bike ride? Hell yeah, I do. Life is too short!
As part of the Concept2 Challenge Series (info located here), I completed a 1 mile (1609m) time trial on the erg. To analyse my technique, I filmed the effort. While the mile is not a standard set piece, the folks at Concept2 UK have a penchant for coming up with unusual challenges to keep things interesting and fun.
A mile on the erg is essentially an extended sprint. While slightly shorter than the dreaded 2K competed at the Olympic level, rest assured a lot of pain is involved when rowing at nearly 100% for 5-6 minutes. Interestingly, the highly lactic acid levels ever recorded by exercise physiologists have been on rowers after a 2K, so it's pretty clear that the misery index is high.
My goal for the 1 mile was 5:30, an average pace of 1:42.5/500m. For power junkies, that is equivalent to 325 watts.
People don't talk about it much, but you've been there. A injury puts you on the sideline for a few days, maybe longer. Those days turn into a week or two. Maybe three. And the discipline that you apply to your workout regimen also applies to your nutrition. But, when the workout regimen goes south so does the diet and the time off from injury not only results in lost fitness, but a few (more than a few?) extra pounds that makes the road to recovery that much longer.
Last week on a run, I pulled up lame with a strained calf muscle. I felt it starting to hurt about 3 miles into the session and at exactly 3.86 miles (gotta love my Garmin), a sharp pain and I was limping back to car. Fortunately it was only a mile walk back to the car.
I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not frustrated. I am hugely frustrated. This is my third significant, activity-limiting injury, in the last 12 months. Getting old(er) sucks. Last spring, it was achilles tendonitis that had me abandon running for 8 months. In November, I strained a back muscle during an overly vigorous sprint effort on the Concept2. And now this.
For the twenty minute walk back to the car and most of the remaining day, I pondered what to do and how I could preserve the fitness gains I've made over the winter. Running is out for at least a couple weeks. Cycling too. Maybe rowing after a few days since there it's not weight-bearing. Ramp up my strength work. But how do I avoid the dreaded injury-related weight gain.
The Paleo diet had intrigued me for some time. Put simply, it focuses on lean meat, fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. No dairy. No grains. Granted, I am still learning what is "allowed" and what isn't, so I'm sure I'm eating some things that aren't strictly on the program. And I refuse to cook myself totally separate meals, so there will be some compromises as I prepare meals that both my family and I can eat.
So, on March 1, I decided to give it a try. It is the perfect time as it is never good to drastically change eating habits during a heavy training cycle and my current activity level is low due to the injury. I'm not going to journal every day, but thought I would share the first few days to provide a sense of how it's going.
Tuesday, March 1, Day 1 - Weight 209.6
Breakfast - coffee w/sugar (drinking it black is something I need to work up to), scrambled eggs, sliced apples Lunch - fruit smoothie (almond milk, strawberries, melon, banana, soy protein powder) Snack - handful of almonds Dinner - sauteed chicken thighs (in olive oil), steamed broccoli, green salad with homemade vinaigrette dressing. The rest of the family had brown rice which I skipped. Snack - 2 oranges
No exercise today. Feel pretty normal, actually. A little hungry at night, but not too bad.
Wednesday, March 2, Day 2 - Weight 204.8 (seriously)
Breakfast - Coffee w/sugar, apples with peanut butter (peanuts are not strictly Paleo, but I haven't had a chance to buy almond butter). Snack - fruit smoothie (almond milk, strawberries, melon, banana, soy protein powder) Lunch - mixed green and spinach salad with sliced deli turkey, ham and homemade vinaigrette dressing Snack - Muscle Milk protein drink Dinner - Sauteed chicken breast (in olive oil), green peas, pinto beans (opps, not Paleo). Kids had rice as well.
Did an morning 10K (40:49) on the rowing machine. Felt more tired than usual, but that could be due to the fact that I haven't done an aerobic exercise in a week. Evening strength workout. Pushups, core plus 30 min of 30:30 circuits on TRX. Energy a little low today, but surprisingly no hunger pangs.
The Concept 2 Cross Team Challenge is a UK-based website which hosts a monthly rowing challenge. Each one is different and can be quite interesting. Instead of a standard set piece, like a 2000m, the challenge usually consists of some mix of intervals or time-based challenges. The fun part of these type of challenges is the strategy for achieving the best result requires some forethought and planning.For example, the November challenge was 2x20' with 5' rest, the goal being the maximum number of meters rowed over the 2 20 minute intervals. The trick to that one, of course, was determining at what pace to row the first 20 minutes and whether is should be closer to a 10K best effort or more like a 6K. The December challenge is even more of a brain bender. Called the Rote87 (not sure where the name came from), the test consists of 10 x 300m with 2' rest. Sounds easy enough. The trick is that each interval must increase in watts by at least 10 watts or there is a 2.5 second penalty. The result is the total time for the ten 300's plus any penalties.
total: 10:07.3 (1:41.2) / 337.5 As you can see I started very conservatively and played it straight, just aiming for a 10-12 watt increase each rep. A huge watt difference on the last interval indicates I should have started at much higher watts. The rest period of two minutes is sufficient for a near complete recovery between reps due to the 1:2 work/rest ratio. After looking at this site, put together by Team Oarsome, it is clear that there is a big advantage to gaming the test somewhat. Instead of rowing all ten reps with a slight increase for each rep, it is beneficial to break it up into three mini-sets. Starting with three reps increasing to max watts, three more again increasing to max watts and then the last four with each rep increasing to max watts. Despite incurring two penalties of 2.5 seconds each, this would results in a much faster overall time. I am going to take this approach next time and will post my results.
Changes in life, however small, can make you think quite deeply. New purchases can help us to take on fresh challenges, do new things and achieve our dreams. They can draw a line in the sand between the old and the new; the past and the present; the present and the future. They can represent a new you, or help you to develop the old one.
And I can write this on my new laptop in half the time it usually takes because Microsoft Word isn't crashing every few sentences.
An Impolite Police (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love To Rant) Bye Bye Beijing - Time for a Whole Lotta London Here Comes the Science Tories and YouTubers in 'Sense of Humour Failure' Shocker Picture Puzzle: Another Prick In The Wall
An Impolite Police (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love To Rant)
Forgive me while I go a bit Daily Express "It's a bloody outrage" on you, but I find myself increasingly disturbed upon hearing about policemen and women abusing their authority. I'm not talking about inside men on bank heists or anything – this isn't The Bill – but minor violations of the law committed for no reason. They show there are a lot of officers who feel that because they wear a police badge they can do whatever the hell they want.
This week I read that a man was arrested for taking a photo of a policeman who had driven through a 'no entry' sign (well, not literally, but you know what I mean). Andrew Carter generously pointed out the officer's mistake, to which PC Aqil Farooq responded, "F*ck off, this is police business." Carter took a photo of the van and its driver, and Farooq, suddenly abandoning whatever business he had in the Bristol chip shop that was so important he could ignore road signs, ran out and knocked the camera from his hand. He then arrested Carter for being drunk and disorderly, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer of the law (none of which happened). Carter was handcuffed, had his fingerprints taken, was forced to give a DNA sample and spent five hours in gaol before being released on bail.
Somewhat defeating the object of opinion-writing journalism, I don't have much to say about this story, except that it makes me very angry. Yes, I know that most police officers aren’t like Farooq and that it's just an isolated incident blown up by a self-righteous alarmist press etc. etc., but I'm firmly of the opinion that anyone in a responsible public position – be they a politician or a lowly policeman – should have to pay the consequences for any deliberate misdeeds made on duty. Everyone makes mistakes, sure, but this wasn't a mistake. It was deliberate false arrest and wrongful imprisonment. Farooq showed that he was making a mockery of his job and, quite simply, should have been sacked.
Instead, he was made to apologise in person to Andrew Carter. Well, that’s all right then. Let bygones be bygones, let water pass under the bridge and let Farooq do it again to some other poor unsuspecting sod. Because he hasn't learnt his lesson. Why would he have done?
I've never liked the idea of having to apologise to someone being a punishment. When you're a child, maybe. But when you're an adult committing a professional crime, it's not quite enough, somehow. Farooq's boss also said, "he acknowledged what he did was wrong", which is taken straight out of the mouth of a chiding parent.
Pathetic. Sorry, is that not tabloid enough? It sickens me to the very core. That's better.
Bye Bye Beijing - Time for a Whole Lotta London
It's not often I agree with an idea suggested in a letter to The Daily Telegraph. I do enjoy reading them, usually for the terrified paranoia that Britain is going to be invaded by immigrant criminals at the behest of port-swilling Brussels bureaucrats (or the glum acceptance that it's already happened), but rarely do I agree with anything they're saying.
But one reader proposed that, if the British Government is so desperate for London 2012 Olympics money (and it is), it should make use of the fervour currently sweeping the nation and ask for voluntary donations to the fund. Good idea.
The public will have to put up some money anyway, and possibly for a long time afterward: Montreal hosted the Olympics in 1976, and Quebecian taxpayers were still paying for the main stadium, 'The Big O(we)', in December 2006 – more than 30 years later. Since no one likes taxes, raising them nearer the time to pay for the Olympics will make whomsoever is running the country by then very unpopular. It makes sense to ask for some of that money now, rather than demand it later. You may mock, but people have got carried away in the excitement of it all, especially since this British success has come as such a surprise (doesn't it always?). Ask the public to put its money where its mouth is and while it's still agape with shock, cash should come flowing out. Well, some will anyway; I'm not expecting millions to miraculously materialise overnight. But you never know.
The Beijing Olympics have, after all, provided an incredible spectacle. It takes some effort to sweep human rights abuses and some of the highest levels of air pollution in the developed world under the red carpet but by gum, they managed it (Chinese efficiency, you see). The opening ceremony stunned everyone into silence – even nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, who was meant to be singing – and the athletes did their bit too. I can even forgive Usain Bolt for being only two months older than me, because he's my kind of athlete. It's been a literally marvellous showcase of sport and athletics performed by competitors at the peak of their powers – exactly how the Olympics should be.
And most importantly for Britain in these crucial Games, we've done pretty well. 47 medals including 19 golds, placing Team GB 4th in the medals table, has shown that we'll be ready even if our stadiums won't. Cycling, sailing, rowing: it just goes to show that if we plucky Brits put our mind to it, we can be worldbeaters... as long as we're allowed to sit down.
And the British people want a great London Olympics. They're feeling inspired, but in all likelihood, most of them are too lazy to go down the gym or get the bike out of the garage; why not exploit their nationalistic euphoria by relieving them of their money and make them feel like they're contributing?
(Since you ask: no, I won't be paying anything.)
I did find it interesting, though, to hear that Led Zeppelin had to change the lyrics to Whole Lotta Love, which was performed at the handover ceremony on Sunday. Apparently "I'm gonna give you every inch of my love" is a bit risqué. It makes sense, perhaps, to change the line to "every bit of my love" – especially since Leona Lewis was singing it and, well, being a woman she doesn't have any inches to speak of – but it did remind me a bit of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' appearance on The Simpsons:
"The network has a problem with some of your lyrics. Do you mind changing them for the show?"
"Our lyrics are like our children, man – no way."
"OK, but here where it says, 'What I got you gotta get and put it in ya', how about just, 'What I'd like is I'd like to hug and kiss ya'?"
"Wow, that's much better. Everyone can enjoy that."
Personally, I find it ironic that in a celebration of Britain's emerging young talent, the music was provided by aged rockers reforming after nearly 30 years. Still, at least they're brilliant. It could so easily have been Take That.
Here Comes the Science
One of my bête noirs – the one that isn't pretentious use of French – is scientists coming up with utterly useless discoveries.
Sometimes they're already obvious, sometimes they're just completely inapplicable to anything and sometimes they're both, but they happen all the time. If it's not a geneticist declaring that black parents have black children, it's a behavioural analyst claiming that people who had a happy childhood are more socially able than those who spent their formative years crying in a box. One case that irritated me last year was a study erroneously and irresponsibly claiming that pupils born later in the school year do "significantly worse" than those born up to a year earlier. My vitriol on that report has already been spent here.
Now Dr Will Brown has 'discovered' that men find "shorter, slimmer females with long slender legs, a curvy figure and larger breasts" most physically attractive. Well... obviously.
What is the point in dedicating time and money to this study? Even if the report has a scientific revelation somewhere (and I'm not sure it does), surely there is little merit in its results because everybody already knew them. It's so stupid. You get the feeling, too, that he would have found this out a lot quicker just by observing life had he not spent his in the lab.
The study also found that people prefer symmetry in a face, defusing the argument that "Everyone loves a face with character" (a character with a face, that's what you want). Again, we know this. And what exactly can you do as a result of these findings anyway? Get a face transplant? New body dimensions? Why would a scientist bother wasting his intelligence on investigating such a pointless issue?
It's not easy to make this argument as someone who wants to write for a living. After all, what am I doing to change the world? Would it be fair for me to say that anyone who commits themselves to a life of research should make sure it's cancer-related? No. But their research could at least be useful. And I personally don't believe that, when he was studying, Dr Will Brown dreamt he could one day blow apart the myth that most men are physically attracted to tall women with broad shoulders and no breasts. All we can do is hope that these people look inside themselves and use their experience more responsibly.
But I'm not hopeful. "In his next study, Dr Brown plans to prove how attractively tall men with short legs are able to dance."
WHY?
Tories and YouTubers in 'Sense of Humour Failure' Shocker
You can, of course, take the 'time and money' argument too far, as the Conservative Party did this week. I don't know if it was them personally or the Official Opposition line that has to be taken on things like this, but it did not endear me to Cameron & Co. in the slightest.
The Government recently released a short video response to the online petition asking for Jeremy Clarkson to become Prime Minister. Watch it here. It's less than a minute long and seems to have been made with a handheld video camera and Microsoft PowerPoint. No10 themselves admitted, "A member of staff put it together in a spare half-hour."
And what's the Tories' response? "While the British public is having to tighten its belt the Government is spending taxpayers' money on a completely frivolous project. This shows how detached the Labour Party has become from the concerns of the British people."
They're not alone. Some of the many angry YouTube comments include "waste of tax money" and "why are they using my money to make youtube videos?"
Surely this is some sort of joke? How much money can that video have cost? And isn't it good that the Government should try to cheer up a despondent public in the middle of a recession? Even if you'd rather politicians stuck to business, it would be insane to claim this is betraying the taxpayer. But that's what the Conservative Party is doing.
Grow up and get a sense of humour.
Picture Puzzle: Another Prick In The Wall
A fantastic action photo from England's 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic prompted me to think about its deeper meaning. Look closely at the England players in a wall and see what you can learn from their reactions to the free kick being taken. You may see more than you think.
(With thanks to Action Images, WNSL and The Daily Telegraph)
From right to left:
Beckham - distant from the rest, he looks on with barely feigned interest from his safe spot in America/at the far end of the wall. Also stupid enough not to know where his balls are.
Barry - trying hard but looks uneasy not in the middle and has Lampard and Gerrard standing in the way of a link-up with Rooney.
Lampard - wrestling for space with Gerrard and Barry. Higher than the rest but for how long?
Gerrard - holding his breath. So are we, Stevie.
Rooney - ugly bastard.
Ashley Cole - not the face. Or the balls - I need those for, uh, Cheryl. Jump? What do you mean, jump?
As you can see from the image to the left (taken in my front yard), winter has hit like a hammer here in West Virginia. The first week of December has been marked with near-record lows, single digit windchill and copious amounts of the fluffy white stuff falling from the sky.
My kids aren't complaining, we had the first two snow days of the year already. More to come I am certain. What that means from a fitness perspective is lots of time will be spent on my indoor rower, my bike trainer and working out on the TRX and in the gym. The only difference is the addition of a space heater in my garage... the low temps mean that it's only getting into the 30's in my workout space. It is kind of strange putting on layers to workout indoors. Progress on Project 640 has hit a speed bump. I slipped on the ice on the steps of our patio a couple weeks ago, managing to land squarely on the rear part of my ribs, right where my ribs meet my spine on the left side. The resulting bruise and muscle strain has kept me off my Concept2, but I've been trying to compensate by adding in some tough workouts on the bike trainer. I am optimistic that I will back to where I was within a week or so. A while back on Twitter, I broadcast my intention to get over the million meter threshold for the season my year-end. As of this morning, I am at 853K, so that is still within reach, if I can manage just shy of 10K a day. Not easy, but doable. More on that to come. Aside from my rowing goals, things are starting to percolate for next year... a couple events have caught my eye, the Cheat Mountain Challenge in August, a 105-mile ride with 10,000 feet of climbing including a climb up to Snowshoe Resort. The route has numerous 11-15% pitches. Tough to say the least. Another is a 100-mile mountain bike ride, the Mountain State 100 in May. As for running or triathlons, I'm holding off until the first of the year to see how my Achilles is doing. But the competitive itch is starting... I need to find a way to scratch it.
