James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Any one have something for upper back?
Been doing this one for a while not sure if you have a foam roller but this one really opens up the chest which helps the upper back. Especially for cyclists.



Also I do this one at least 3-4 times a week as part of my stretch routine. This video is one of many out there but seems to cover the version I was taught a while back. It’s for more than just your upper back but it’s all connected anyway.

 
Any one have something for upper back?

Careful here. Upper back can often be a weird one. Do you know what's triggering this?

At the risk of misquoting Francis Mcdermott again, things are, you know, connected. Ankles to knees to hips to back all influence each other. And the core glues it all together.

STB mentioned doing PT and...actually, let me quote the important part:

After going to the PT, while it felt sorta dumb to do a basic wrist motion(s) / exercises with a 1lb weight, man did it work.

This is exactly what I have found. Low-to-no weight exercises have a remarkable positive effect on things sometimes. The male side of our species has a tendency to assume that if 1 pound is good, 900 pounds must be 900x as good.
 
Careful here. Upper back can often be a weird one. Do you know what's triggering this?
Nope. Usually have lower back stuff for me, but it has been great for almost a year i think. I felt something over the last week of so, and today it's here.
 
MLK Bonus Day

With this new job I get pretty much every holiday off other than Possible Italian Guy Sailing Spanish Ship Runs Into Fully Inhabited Continent Day. So this was the 3rd day in a glorious 3-day weekend. Yesterday I did basically jack shit. So today I tried to do the opposite and make it as useful as I could. Yes, I kept a list.

Kicked off the day with the usual coffee/reading morning then we walked the dog in the park. It was a glorious morning out there. A tad cold, but really pretty. Back home we made breakfast, then I had another coffee and read some more (The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, btw). Mid morning I did my PT session because remember, we're prioritizing strength & recovery. After that I did some house chores & shit (yes, the list said exactly this). Then I made a recipe I had bookmarked in the NYTimes cooking section (Tofu and Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Curry).

While I ate my lunch I read some of the Times' headlines and considered the very real possibility that the Child Ego running our country may actually start World War 3 via text message. I really try not to read much these days but it's hard to miss. Also, that high speed rail crash in Spain is sad. Then I had my post-lunch coffee and did some painting for a little.

I rode Zwift for 2+ hours in the afternoon (Foundation s2e7, Slow Horses s4e1, Scrubs s2e6). Then I took a shower, chilled out a bit, then eventually took a short nap on the couch in the office. If this is what retirement is like, I want to do it sooner than later. Naps are awesome.

Around 4pm is when I usually assess what my day looks like. The internal conversation generally goes like this:

Me 1: You have almost a whole day to do stuff still
Me 2: But that reeks of effort
Me 1: Yeah but just take a break and you still have a lot of time
Me 2: Can I take a 7 hour break then go to bed?

Since 4pm I've done very little other than eat some dinner (we had leftovers) and read some more. The book has gotten pretty good and I'm entering the Drive Time portion of the book. Still not quite there, but getting close.

I pretty much go to bed around 11:30 every night, so I still have 3 hours before that. I will stretch before bed, which takes a bit more than 30 minutes. But I'm not going to delude either of us and say that I will do anything productive. And that's ok.

So that's how I celebrated MLK day. I don't want to go to work tomorrow but we have Vermont to look forward to this coming weekend. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.

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Between 11p-1a every night up 4:30-6a for years now (no alarm). You'll all find out soon enough that sleep just gets harder.
 
Sleep

The basic pattern is 11:30-6:30. A robust 7 hours is about the most I ever get. If I go to sleep earlier than that, I wake up earlier. Last night I went to bed at 11:15 and woke up at 6:00, no alarm. Now & again I'll snooze the alarm. But we're talking 7.5 is pretty much the absolute max that I get. This is just how I'm wired.

Some people just need less sleep. I know people will say I should sleep more and I would be glad to if I needed it. But I go to bed, sleep like a total brick for 7 hours, then wake up full of piss & vinegar ready for the day. I'm one of these people that wakes up, every single day, looking forward to being awake. Is this where I mention the craft coffee thing?

I really don't have any issues falling asleep nor staying asleep. I know a lot of dyslexic, insomniac, agnostic people who lie awake at night wondering if there really is or isn't a Dog. Please tell me you've heard that joke before.

What @2Julianas is referring to is that when we travel together, the living room conversation usually goes like this:

Alex: Holy shit it's 9:30, It's past my bedtime
Me: .....
Alex goes to bed
Me: I guess I'll just go lie in bed then
Different bed, it's not like that

Then I probably fall asleep a bit earlier, and wake up earlier. It should also be noted that often times we've ridden bikes for 4 hours, or skied for 6 hours, and so on. So it's only natural that I fall asleep earlier. As a general rule, I don't really need much more sleep when I do a lot like that. So I often wake up earlier the following day.

Also, I would say that 10% of the time Mark beats me to it. Maybe 5%. We'll have to keep a log when we're in Colorado.

j9qwxCl.jpeg
 
Sleep

The basic pattern is 11:30-6:30. A robust 7 hours is about the most I ever get. If I go to sleep earlier than that, I wake up earlier. Last night I went to bed at 11:15 and woke up at 6:00, no alarm. Now & again I'll snooze the alarm. But we're talking 7.5 is pretty much the absolute max that I get. This is just how I'm wired.

Some people just need less sleep. I know people will say I should sleep more and I would be glad to if I needed it. But I go to bed, sleep like a total brick for 7 hours, then wake up full of piss & vinegar ready for the day. I'm one of these people that wakes up, every single day, looking forward to being awake. Is this where I mention the craft coffee thing?

I really don't have any issues falling asleep nor staying asleep. I know a lot of dyslexic, insomniac, agnostic people who lie awake at night wondering if there really is or isn't a Dog. Please tell me you've heard that joke before.

What @2Julianas is referring to is that when we travel together, the living room conversation usually goes like this:

Alex: Holy shit it's 9:30, It's past my bedtime
Me: .....
Alex goes to bed
Me: I guess I'll just go lie in bed then
Different bed, it's not like that

Then I probably fall asleep a bit earlier, and wake up earlier. It should also be noted that often times we've ridden bikes for 4 hours, or skied for 6 hours, and so on. So it's only natural that I fall asleep earlier. As a general rule, I don't really need much more sleep when I do a lot like that. So I often wake up earlier the following day.

Also, I would say that 10% of the time Mark beats me to it. Maybe 5%. We'll have to keep a log when we're in Colorado.

j9qwxCl.jpeg
Ah, Man of Kent. Many stops over the years on the way to Mt. Snow.
 
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