Focusing And Refocusing: Views From An Evolving Life

Return to Running

 

Another night in which I'm pretty sure I was the only runner in Central Park who was also lugging a camera (OK, just a point-n-shoot) AND a gorillapod. I thought the ice on the bridle path was kinda cool and there was enough light to get a moody sort of shot.

Just a short note to announce with glee that I've managed to "run" twice this week, although "run" is severely overstating it. But still, getting back in the groove and the leg is holding up. The guys and gals at NY Sports Med are fabulous, as is the acutorturist Bruce Mandelbaum.

On Sunday I'll very slowly jog the 4-mile Gridiron Classic. I won't be even remotely tempted to try to "race" this, or even go faster than I have been, partly because it would be too depressing and partly because I'm not THAT stupid. I still have to let this thing heal. But it will be nice to get back in the race atmosphere again and 4 miles will be a good test.

A reminder that commentary on my multimedia efforts now goes in my new blog, when I get time to update it.  Tomorrow I'll try to post something about the social media seminar I went to the other night.

Snow on the Tracks

 

All of my various projects, both multimedia and athletically, have been on hold thanks to a bad cold, continued problems with the leg, and then the plane splashdown, which has been all-consuming at work.

It's been a great story to cover -- and made even more interesting by the fact that it came perilously close to my apartment before heading southwest to the river, and then landed about five blocks upriver from work, witnessed by co-workers. But I've been so exhausted that I can't deal with the foam roller when I get home, and don't have time to do the frozen peas thing in the morning before getting in. So I'll have to start over as soon as all of this dies down.

A pretty scene at the 238th Street station this morning ...

Acutorture and PT

So much for getting back in shape this winter. I mean, I WILL ... but not quite yet. My early efforts, which I'd thought I was keeping modest, totally backfired and put me on the DL. So rather than spending my time on the bike, the spin bike, or the legs, I'm getting little acutorture needles stuck into me, getting EXTREMELY painful but EXTREMELY effective ITB massage, and being twisted around by a nice PT guy half my age. Sigh.

Very frustrating. But it does remind me of a lesson I knew but ignored: ALWAYS use the foam roller before and after any running or cycling. This is what I get for riding all summer and fall without foam-rolling on anything near a regular basis. I got lazy, since nothing was bothering me. Now paying the price.

Still not sure what to do about the spin thing once this heals. But first, it must heal.

I'd planned on defying the PT guy and going to running class tonight, since the leg is indeed feeling better. But my cold is worsening, and I don't want it spreading to my lungs -- which is what tends to happen when I try to keep running with a cold in the cold. Then I get severely DL'd for six weeks. I'm not THAT stupid, this time. I hope.

Another redesign and another blog

Why, yes! It's another blog redesign!

And that's the least of it. I'm in the process of following through in refocusing this blog on bike commuting (OK, and also on non-commute cycling, and spinning, and running) and creating a second blog to talk about my multimedia efforts.

At the same time, I'm ditching the black background of this one -- it shows off the photos great, but I've found it impossible to read. So, a compromise: Shades of gray, and black, and white. With a few colors thrown in. I'll keep tweaking it as I go along.

The new blog is on WordPress whereas this one is on Typepad. I decided that as part of the learning process, I'd try working with a different platform for the second one. Then for this one, I took advantage of Typepad's new Custom Template to create my own colors and such.

And let's not forget my other work in progress, my personal site (as if these two blogs aren't quite personal enough). Well, it's all in the name of learning multimedia and I need all the practice I can get ... 

But for the most part, I'll keep this blog confined to activities of the semi-athletic variety.

Branching Out

Perhaps this will be one of the last hybrid multimedia/cycling/running posts crammed into one blog ...

MULTIMEDIA: I'm pretty close to deciding that this thing needs to be split in two: One focusing on multimedia, and the other on pseudo-athletic-and-commuterly endeavors. That SOUNDS obvious, of course. But the concept of combining them actually worked pretty well when I was in fact combining the activities. That is, when the weather was better, I was bike-commuting a lot, and I was spending most of my multimedia-learning time in bike-related activities. And I wasn't running at all.

But these days the weather's lousy -- wet, not just cold -- so I haven't been bike commuting. And, on the nice days I've been branching out into resumption of running, which generally means it's not feasible to take the bike to work (no place to put it when I run in Central Park). And, I've been branching out multimedia efforts into resumption of not-just-photo-and-video, which REALLY doesn't relate to bike commuting.  So ... stay turned. Won't happen 'til the weekend. All of which combines for a severe lack of focus (for both me and the blog!)

RUNNING:  Last night I spent my birthday doing "running class" ("speedwork" for old people) for the first time in a couple of years. And I did it with a return to NYRR classes and the marvelous and inspirational Shelly Florence-Glover.

It felt fantastic to be doing it again. It also felt horribly out of shape. I need to do some research into my past logs (if I can find them) to figure out just how comparatively out of shape. 2X mile repeats, 8:18 down Cat Hill and an 8:57 slog back up. Of course, a few years ago I was doing mile repeats in 7:30 or so. But I think when I started running class several years ago, they were much slower than they were last night. Maybe. So maybe all is not lost.

The key thing here, though: This morning my troublesome ITB/knee isn't nearly as troublesome as it's been for several days. ????? I don't understand. I work it harder, and it comes out not only apparently unscathed but improved? I don't want to argue with this, of course.

Have it wrapped in frozen peas at the moment and will foam roll at the gym. Also going to visit the acutorturist to do some more remedial work.

Twitter Mania

Note to Facebook friends: As an experiment (and because it's something new I learned) I added a feed from my to blog to my FB profile. That's what this is. So it's not as if I'm rambling on at length in FB notes. Just looks that way. 

It's amazing how quickly five days off can go. OK, so it's been only 3.5 so far. But they've flown -- and it's not as if I've done any relaxing. All activities have been devoted to upticking the Web 2.0 efforts, upticking the running and cycling efforts, and doing preventive maintenance such as massage. Plus doing some general work stuff.

MULTIMEDIA today: Spent a fair amount of time adding more Twitter  followees and starting to absorb their advice. Then got sidetracked by trying to add a "Follow me on Twitter" button to this blog. The image won't display. I don't know why.

Have decided to focus Twitter feeds on my efforts to learn MM, with some side commentary about efforts to get back in shape. No more extraneous stuff, though.

The lack of focus on this blog continues to be a problem, especially given its name. I'll deal with that later.

Am at this moment finally backing up the MacBook on Time Machine, thanks to the recently installed Leopard -- which I got solely for Time Machine, after last summer's hard drive wipeout with no backup. To everyone I say: Back up your stuff!

CYCLING: Spin class today. I should have worked harder but was worried about the pain in the left knee and the fact that I think spinning isn't all that good for it, especially the standing ("running") part. But there seem to be no ill effects.

RUNNING: I think the spin class counts.

2009 Goals Update No. 1

Herewith I'll try again at imposing some order on this multi-faceted blog:

MULTIMEDIA: Spent some time today adding more people to follow on Twitter  -- many of those recommended by 10000 Words.  They look fascinating. And, started following Lance Armstrong on Twitter, which is pretty fun.

Also renewing my acquaintanceship with Wired Journalists, something I let slide when I got busy with other things last year. Ordered Twitter book from Amazon. Don't laugh. Sometimes old-fashioned is the most efficient way of gathering and absorbing material in limited time. I can read a book on the subway. I can't read the computer on the subway, most of the time. 

Took a camera and Flip everywhere; used both yesterday but neither today. (Today I was cold, wet and grumpy). Above was from my walk through Riverdale yesterday. It amuses me because of all the Collegian squirrel photos we used to do. Iconic or cliche, or both.

RUNNING: 60-minute walk yesterday (very cold and didn't want to risk injury and gym was closed, so no running). 30 minutes on treadmill today. Ninety-minute massage at Graceful Services today because I could feel those ITBs ready to rage at any moment. I was right. It was AGONIZING. But so, so effective.

CYCLING: None.

2009 Goals: Multimedia, Cycling, Running

OK, some goals for the coming year.

These include both multimedia and athletic goals. How I'm going to manage all of this and still do my day job isn't quite clear. On the other hand I never would have expected to do all that I did in 2008.

MULTIMEDIA:

GENERAL:

--Take the small cameras -- the compact Canon and the Flip -- everywhere, every day. (I already do this most of the time.) Use them to document daily life, or at least weekly life. Possibly do a weekly video or maybe monthly with material gleaned from this. The problem there of course would be lack of focus, but probably a theme would emerge or I could be focused in what I look for in a random way.

--Now that I've learned some of the basics myself: Find more ways to train others on two levels: At work, and as a volunteer with photo or video projects with NY Cares or other organizations. The latter involves working with middle-school or high-school students in less-privileged areas, which is highly appealing.

--Take more classes, through NYU, ICP, Media Bistro and lynda.com. Also the free seminars at B&H and the Apple store.  Aim for at least one course of some sort a month.

WEB and GENERAL ONLINE:

--Learn rudimentary Flash (taking short Media Bistro class in February)
--Learn Fireworks
--Become proficient in basic CSS and HTML
--Create personal website using Fireworks and Dreamweaver
--Become a more active commenter on others' blogs
--Resume using del.icio.us and start using Publish2
--Build a better base of people to follow on Twitter
--Explore and use the various Twitter applications
--Keep up the blog, of course.

VIDEO:

--Learn Final Cut Pro (taking NYU FCP class starting in February)
--Do two projects artfully combining still photos and video (taking NYU Visual Storytelling class starting in February)
--Become more involved in the Vimeo community and do at least three of their projects.
--Do at least one video incorporating voiceover or narration by me
--Get some training in more advanced video shooting and production. Probably through NYU.
--Find opportunities to do more video of training groups in the workplace, such as the planned DVD or online video of the headlines seminar last month.

STILL:

--Master the damn camera (it's still hit-and-miss as far as the f-stop/aperture settings go, and too often the successes are because of sheer perseverence or luck than actual intention or skill)
--Move beyond the pretty scenery and into photos of people engaged in their lives
--Related to that, take the Street Photography course at ICP
--Dive more into night photography, when it's not quite so frigid outside. (A little frigid is fine.)
--Tackle some of these resolutions:
http://photojojo.com/content/guides/2009-new-years-photo-resolutions/
--Get more involved in the various Flickr communities

AUDIO:

--Relearn the Marantz and the Zoom H2 and use them.
--Do at least one podcast.

ATHLETICALLY:

--Get back in shape over the winter through NYRR running class once a week, spin class once a week, weights at work two or three times a week, one long run or ride a week, and assorted running and riding the rest of the week. (Wait, I'm out of days ...) 

Also, focus on hills when the weather is decent.

--Stretch religiously. The padded mat is about to arrive, so I can do this better at home (the hardwood floor is pretty, but lousy for stretching).

--Foam roll, frozen-pea and tennis-ball religiously.

--Cycling: A19 SIG starting in March. (Must accomplish Numbers 1-3 if this is to be viable)

--Running ... I don't know. I'm so far behind in running that it's hard to figure out a reasonable goal.  But really, age-graded percentiles of at least 62 percent for 5K, 4M, 5M and 10K should be doable at some point during the year. Maybe even 65 percent (I am, after all, getting a lot older ... (I'll do some comparison charts in the next few days)

--Lose 5 to 10 pounds. Because it makes all of the above so much easier.

--All of this is contingent on being injury-free, and that's been the problem all along.  The other problem is managing this in addition to the multimedia goals and ... my day job, of course!!