James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

[Norm]

December 6: Weights

"Lift weights," they say. And I do...sometimes. Then I stop, and go a long time without it. Then I start again, and I hurt myself. Then I question why I do this and blah-blah-blah here I find myself lifting weights again after a bit of time. I don't hurt my "self," as a general term. I hurt my back. 100% of the time I hurt my back - at least eventually. For those of you about to hit the reply button to tell me I'm doing it wrong, I say to you: No shit, Sherlock. I know I do everything wrong, you don't need to tell me this. But I question why I'm doing this, and to what end? As we identified earlier in the week, doing TM for 2 months managed to help me be objectively stronger in every single exercise I did. And yet, I persist. Lifting weights also tends to have the effect of making me gain weight. Maybe that's not a bad weight, per se. But it's not really necessary. I guess it's a thing I want to do, but I don't want to take the time to do it "properly," whatever that means. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results. That begs another question, I suppose.

 

[mattybfat]

I'm finding picking up things and putting them down unnecessary at least for me. I do enough of that during my day job. Working a fast pace short calisthenics program is just right, planks squats lunges ect. Trying to fix the stiffness and pain of going from floor to standing during my day job has started to become noticeably difficult.

 

[pibbles]

December 6: Weights

"Lift weights," they say. And I do...sometimes. Then I stop, and go a long time without it. Then I start again, and I hurt myself. Then I question why I do this and blah-blah-blah here I find myself lifting weights again after a bit of time. I don't hurt my "self," as a general term. I hurt my back. 100% of the time I hurt my back - at least eventually. For those of you about to hit the reply button to tell me I'm doing it wrong, I say to you: No shit, Sherlock. I know I do everything wrong, you don't need to tell me this. But I question why I'm doing this, and to what end? As we identified earlier in the week, doing TM for 2 months managed to help me be objectively stronger in every single exercise I did. And yet, I persist. Lifting weights also tends to have the effect of making me gain weight. Maybe that's not a bad weight, per se. But it's not really necessary. I guess it's a thing I want to do, but I don't want to take the time to do it "properly," whatever that means. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results. That begs another question, I suppose.

View attachment 228669

So with trail maint youre working different muscles and getting an all over workout and you get tired and go home and eat dinner or lunch. Youre not over doing it and you ease into it, youre not just grabbing a 300lb load of dirt in a wheelbarrow and hauling it right away. Resistance band training imitates weight training, makes you focus on form takes up less room and causes less injury. This blog emphasizes to try somethin different...the bands are cheaper than weights too. Im not gonna talk about the benefits of crossfit but havin a coach run through your program will help greatly, i never liked hurting my back either.

 

[clarkenstein]

Back pain is freaking awful. Agreeing with @pibbles here. I have weights and bands. If I get to the on/off personal world of lifting, I go back to the bands first until I get back into a lifting routine, then I move to the weights when I’m back at it.

I occasionally make involuntary sounds when bending down to pick something up; slow and steady never really wins races, but I have found it wins the avoiding back pain race.

 

[Norm]

December 7: Mundanity

Nothing of note happened in my world today. This is ok, and probably necessary in some ways. In order to see the peaks you have to have the valleys, and all that jazz. My back is slightly better, but it casts a sort of gray melancholy over most everything I do right now. It's hard to move at all without it hurting a little. Thus, I didn't do anything in the yard that was fun. I started work early, and plowed through my stuff until I had to be a taxi driver for a bit this afternoon. Then I climbed the Alpe du Zwift, first time this offseason and 54th time ever. Then we had dinner, which was probably the most notable thing of the day. It was JManic's lamb recipe that we made a few weeks ago. It came out really well and the whole family eradicated it. While it wasn't an exciting day, it also wasn't a bad day. It was just a day. Tomorrow will be better.

 

[Pearl]

December 6: Weights

"Lift weights," they say. And I do...sometimes. Then I stop, and go a long time without it. Then I start again, and I hurt myself. Then I question why I do this and blah-blah-blah here I find myself lifting weights again after a bit of time. I don't hurt my "self," as a general term. I hurt my back. 100% of the time I hurt my back - at least eventually. For those of you about to hit the reply button to tell me I'm doing it wrong, I say to you: No shit, Sherlock. I know I do everything wrong, you don't need to tell me this. But I question why I'm doing this, and to what end? As we identified earlier in the week, doing TM for 2 months managed to help me be objectively stronger in every single exercise I did. And yet, I persist. Lifting weights also tends to have the effect of making me gain weight. Maybe that's not a bad weight, per se. But it's not really necessary. I guess it's a thing I want to do, but I don't want to take the time to do it "properly," whatever that means. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results. That begs another question, I suppose.

View attachment 228669

Just like riding, the weights thing comes to consistency. I was shocked I didn’t hurt myself getting to where I was now. I thought it was silly to be doing reps with just the bar, then add 10lbs, etc. the only time i ever failed or dropped something was when I was trying to figure out what my one rep max was.

I also never gained any weight, so maybe I’m doing it wrong?

 

[pibbles]

Just like riding, the weights thing comes to consistency. I was shocked I didn’t hurt myself getting to where I was now. I thought it was silly to be doing reps with just the bar, then add 10lbs, etc. the only time i ever failed or dropped something was when I was trying to figure out what my one rep max was.

I also never gained any weight, so maybe I’m doing it wrong?

Happens to a lot of people. I almost always have a little weight to lose so I take up running for a bit to burn some extra calories. Some people have a lot of lean body mass and don’t have much to lose but with exercise many will come to a point where the “burn and the gain equal out and is why you don’t see a weight gain but you’ll notice your clothes fit a little looser. It’s the reason many give up excercise just as the benefits are paying off…

 

[Norm]

December 8: Fortunately, The Cromwell

"We're just going to leave it as-is for now, let it dry out, then we'll come back and fix it some other day," we said. Then the image below happened. While not a 2' tall berm deserving of a "Kingdom Trails-like" stature, it ended up coming out much better than we expected. See, the problem here is that we were making a trail on perfectly dry ground. In the course of digging, the guys managed to find a small spring. We kept going and made the above comment. By the end of the first half of the day, we decided to cover it with some small bluestone we found in the woods (it used to be a boy scout camp among other things, we have no other explanation), just to keep it a little more dry. We intended to then cover the stone with a little dirt from a root ball. Then they kept bringing more dirt, and more dirt, and finally we had what amounted to a really good solution that you see below. This is only 20 feet of the approximately 700 feet of new trail we built today. I'm not a betting man as a genral rule, but I would bet $1 that when you do finally get back to Cromwell, you're going to be blown away by what we've done there.

 

[Red Mosquito]

I find myself lifting weights again after a bit of time. I don't hurt my "self," as a general term. I hurt my back. 100% of the time I hurt my back - at least eventually.

I suffer from the same fate after lifting for a few weeks, then it takes 1-2 weeks to recover and by then I've lost my lifting momentum. Kind of annoying! As I'm aging I find that any new "soft" injury becomes permanent. Meaning, it will resolve itself eventually but it always comes back somehow. Fun stuff!

 

[Norm]

December 9: Hartshorne, Huber, and Iggy

Today I woke up very early against my will and drove the 17 hours south to do the group ride at Hartshorne/Huber. As is often the case, I really didn't feel like scraping myself out of bed and doing this, but I'm really glad I did. I joined Gozick's ride and we did 16+ miles of Hartshorne & Huber, hitting my 48th and 49th distinct parks of the year as well as my 96th mountain bike ride. What really stands out in this last group ride of 2023 is that Iggy has moved into that realm of personalities that can be considered part of the fabric of mountain biking in NJ. Between the work at the parks (this one included) and the group rides, Iggy has really firmed up his place in the NJ bike culture. I remember first meeting Iggy maybe 15 years ago at the MTBNJ tent at JORBAfest when it was still at the concert field. He bought a blue MTBNJ team shirt and took a black sharpie and wrote IGGY on it and wore it frequently over the coming years. I remember thinking, "Shit man that guy is a piece of work, I can't imagine him ever being on the team." Today, well let's face it, he's still a piece of work. But he's part of the fabric of both our team and the bike scene. Next time you see him, say thanks for the time & effort he's put into all of this.

 

[serviceguy]

December 9: Hartshorne, Huber, and Iggy

Today I woke up very early against my will and drove the 17 hours south to do the group ride at Hartshorne/Huber. As is often the case, I really didn't feel like scraping myself out of bed and doing this, but I'm really glad I did. I joined Gozick's ride and we did 16+ miles of Hartshorne & Huber, hitting my 48th and 49th distinct parks of the year as well as my 96th mountain bike ride. What really stands out in this last group ride of 2023 is that Iggy has moved into that realm of personalities that can be considered part of the fabric of mountain biking in NJ. Between the work at the parks (this one included) and the group rides, Iggy has really firmed up his place in the NJ bike culture. I remember first meeting Iggy maybe 15 years ago at the MTBNJ tent at JORBAfest when it was still at the concert field. He bought a blue MTBNJ team shirt and took a black sharpie and wrote IGGY on it and wore it frequently over the coming years. I remember thinking, "Shit man that guy is a piece of work, I can't imagine him ever being on the team." Today, well let's face it, he's still a piece of work. But he's part of the fabric of both our team and the bike scene. Next time you see him, say thanks for the time & effort he's put into all of this.

View attachment 228895

Fully agree on @pooriggy , I drove the 27 hours from Notth of the Wall just to ride in his general proximity…and yours a little bit!

 

[Norm]

December 10: Relief

It seems not so long ago I was holding this 2 year old little girl in the photo below. Yet yesterday, she got accepted to Ohio State, which was at the top of her list (the last time she made a list). It's crazy to think how many years have gone by in such a short time. And it's a huge relief to have that first acceptance letter in her back pocket. Everything from here is proverbial gravy. It's such a big transition in your life as a parent. It's something you have absolutely no control over but it's also something that's enormous in their lives. I am super proud of her and very excited for what comes next. Will she go to OSU? Perhaps. As of today she says this is where she wants to go (she did caveat it with, "For now.") But this is the first door to open in that next step in her, and my, life. I said to D this morning that I'm intrigued to see where our lives are in a year from now. So much yet to come. Good stuff.

 

[Red Mosquito]

It seems not so long ago I was holding this 2 year old little girl in the photo below. Yet yesterday, she got accepted to Ohio State

Congrats to the "little one". In a similar fashion to your look-ahead comment, when I see a pic from long ago I wonder what that version of myself would think in that moment if they could get a glimpse of life today. It's interesting how we value stability and predictability so much when all life does is change. And maybe that's the reason why, but you think we'd be used to it by now.

Hope the future is above and beyond for you all!

 

[Norm]

December 11: Axe Party

Today I woke up in Massachusetts. This was a planned event, it did not happen without my knowledge. I drove up here yesterday because our annual Christmas party was happening this afternoon. It's a deviation from the normal Christmas in which the entire company gets together over a whole weekend with our spouses. In an effort to save a little money we downsized this year and each department held their own party. Ours was at a place where they have bowling, they have ax throwing, and they have an arcade. They also have food and drink and cornhole (is this 1 or 2 words?) and pool and darts and probably something else that I'm forgetting. But we were given the bowling and the axes and the video games as part of our party, in addition to food. We bowled for a few hours and I managed to win both games. Then we moved to the ax throwing and I set the record for the most consecutive number of axes to stick into the wood at nine. I don't know that this really translates to much of anything in the real world, but if we're ever in a zombie apocalypse and armed with nothing but bowling balls and axes, I'm your guy.

 

[shrpshtr325]

December 11: Axe Party

Today I woke up in Massachusetts. This was a planned event, it did not happen without my knowledge. I drove up here yesterday because our annual Christmas party was happening this afternoon. It's a deviation from the normal Christmas in which the entire company gets together over a whole weekend with our spouses. In an effort to save a little money we downsized this year and each department held their own party. Ours was at a place where they have bowling, they have ax throwing, and they have an arcade. They also have food and drink and cornhole (is this 1 or 2 words?) and pool and darts and probably something else that I'm forgetting. But we were given the bowling and the axes and the video games as part of our party, in addition to food. We bowled for a few hours and I managed to win both games. Then we moved to the ax throwing and I set the record for the most consecutive number of axes to stick into the wood at nine. I don't know that this really translates to much of anything in the real world, but if we're ever in a zombie apocalypse and armed with nothing but bowling balls and axes, I'm your guy.

View attachment 229043

i used to be legitimately good at bowling, like would score consistently over 200, i wonder how bad iv gotten since i stopped . . .

 

[serviceguy]

i used to be legitimately good at bowling, like would score consistently over 200, i wonder how bad iv gotten since i stopped . . .

It's like riding a bike, it will all come back to you once you grab that ball. It also help to play with people that suck at it...

 

[Norm]

December 12: Vietnam

It's pretty much a yearly thing for me to forget how to ride my bike in the cold. I went out this morning to hit the Vietnam system as the sun was rising and it was somewhere around 30°. I started the ride with a light but didn't need it for very long. I brought the appropriate clothing so it's not like I was underdressed or anything. Of course, I quickly remembered that riding your bike in the woods warms you up pretty well and I wasn't cold very long. Having said that, when you put your foot down in a stream crossing and it goes underwater it changes the game a little bit. When you put the other in, it changes it even more. Getting your feet wet on a day like today doesn't really ruin the ride or anything, but it definitely makes you colder than you should be. They got a lot of rain up here but the trails are incredibly resilient. However, the stream crossings are still stream crossings and the rocks that you normally ride over were underwater. I think getting a foot or two wet is much better than falling over and getting your whole body soaking wet. If I had my preference I would certainly choose to ride when it's 70° over 30°, but as I mentioned in my Strava ride title today it sure is better than getting a root canal.

 

[Norm]

December 13: Ramen

I don't really travel far for good food. I will travel for good food. I will travel for travel. But I don't specifically travel far to eat good food. I think you can mostly find good food in all the little corners of the world, as long as you're willing to look. There are a few exceptions to this rule. One of those exceptions is for a good cup of coffee. I have talked about that before so I won't belabor it again. Another of those things I will travel for is a good bowl of Ramen. Today I did exactly that. After my early morning Vietnam ride, I showered up and checked out of the hotel, then drove approximately 100 miles to a small town Connecticut, just south of Hartford, to eat at a restaurant I've probably visited six times in my travels back-and-forth to work. Ideally I hit this place after a big bike ride. When I do that, I can justify the extra side of meat and the extra egg and a good appetizer. Since that wasn't the case today I just got a regular bowl. The place is called Kaliubon and it is more than likely that you will never eat there. Not because it's not worth it, obviously I think it is. But mostly because it's a really far drive and it's a somewhat random location for what most people would see as a bowl of soup. Now I have three specific things that make a good bowl of ramen. First is the broth. You cannot have a good bowl of Ramen without excellent broth. The next is the meat. If your meat is thin sliced and tough then it simply can't be good. Finally, the egg. Those are the three things. You do not eat ramen for the noodles. In fact, if you're starting to get full, you drink the broth and leave the noodles. The broth is the soul of the Ramen. Any day with a great mountain bike ride and a great bowl of ramen is simply a great day. Today was one of those great days.

 

[Norm]

December 14: (Formerly) Chicago

I don't have much to post about today because my day was filled with meetings, then an orthodontist appointment, then a high school basketball game, then dinner, and finally a bike ride inside. Now and again when I have nothing to say I will check Facebook for old memories. Apparently, seven years ago today I went to the field museum to check out these guys pictured below. I used to go to Chicago all the time. I've had four different jobs where my bosses were located in Chicago. That covers a span of probably eight or nine years. I used to go to the city anywhere from 2-6 times per year. I imagine I've probably been there 25 times. Having said that, I haven't been there in quite a long time. I'm not sure how long I've been keeping my travel blog (a Wordpress site) - it must be almost 6 years. In that time I've been to Chicago exactly twice. Both times were in 2019. I honestly don't remember anything about either of those trips. I would've guessed it was longer than that but as we all know the year 2019 is like before the resurrection or something. Anyway, today is the Thursday after a three day work trip and that always equates to a number of meetings. Today was exactly that. I really didn't do much of note all day, and I did not get to see any terra-cotta warriors in the process. Perhaps tomorrow?

 

[Norm]

December 15: Berm Update

It was a splendid late fall day today, and instead of riding my bike somewhere I spent some time working on the outline of the wooden berm. Since the last picture, I've actually done nothing at all. I adjusted the angles of all 8 pairs and added some string to give a visual on how it'll line up. I don't really like how it's coming together so far. It's close, but something doesn't work for me with this - yet. I intended to angle the boards at 30-35-40-45 then 45-40-35-30 but when I tried to fix the 45 degree angles, it started to topple over. So I made the inner 6 all 35 degrees and the ends just 30. It sort of lays out ok, but I'm not sure what I'll end up doing here. I knew I needed to move the 8x8s, but I think I need to do that sooner than later. This is all a bit more of an enigma than I suspected, but I'm taking the long road to get there.