Oh, boy. This Doktor A stuff has been in my head to get for a while but I’ve held off from a “wanting it is better than having it” point of view. These cold cast metal pieces are enough to make me reconsider. The form is much better suited to hanging on the wall and the smaller version would be most welcome on my own Little Art Wall (which has grown nicely since that photo so I’ll need to update that, too).
[via SpankyStokes]
I don’t follow a ton of cycling news outside of le Tour (but I’m obnoxious enough to call it “le Tour”) but I know Taylor Phinney’s name from his place as a promising American rider. This WSJ article is about a stage in last week’s Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in Italy. The course was, apparently, too much for even elite riders and half the peloton quit halfway through. Phinney was in the back-half of the race thanks to a mechanical problem but he didn’t quit with the rest of them. His goal was to finish the stage under the time limit so he could take a shot at winning the time trial on the next day. After the race, he said that he thought of his father, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease to motivate him through the 80 miles of cold rain he rode alone:
“I knew that if my dad could be in my shoes for one day—if all he had to do was struggle on a bike for six hours, but be healthy and fully functional—he would be me on that day in a heartbeat,” Taylor Phinney said. “Every time I wanted to quit, every time I wanted to cry, I just thought about that.”
I try to keep a similar thought in mind when I’m out on the course during the MS150 I ride every spring. I’ve found myself at 50 miles into the ride on the second day and my legs hurt and I’m tired and I just want to go home. I try then to remember why I’m riding. I’m riding to raise money and awareness for people who would swap seats with me in a second to be as leg-hurt and as tired as I am. It’s a powerful and humbling idea.
I’d be rooting for T Phinney anyway (USA! USA! USA!) but now I’m going to start keeping up with him outside the grand tours.
[via those Pants Richmond Guys who pass along good bike stuff]
Rained steady for the first mile or so and then tapered off. Doing my weekday runs was beneficial and I had a couple of decent bits in there. I think I can get where I want to be in a month.
This will be my longest training run since I’m out at a bike ride next week.
These are the best custom dunnys I’ve seen in a while.
[via SpankyStokes, a new to me and awesome source for toy news]
These Rushmore Academy pins are great.
The guy had them for sale at Etsy but they were $70. Now it looks like he has his own store set up an the price got nicer.
I haven’t been out on the bike much this year and I was worried about how it would go. Luckily the running seems to have kept me in okay shape and the squats have made my legs reasonably strong. The route was generally friendly and it was great to get back out with a couple of the guys. We were flying.
I’ve got a big MTB ride in a couple of weeks that I’m a lot less worried about now thanks to this ride. The biggest discomfort was in the cycling-specific areas of my quads and my ass. There isn’t any substitute for time in the saddle so I was uncomfortable after about 10 miles. I need to get out more often before CNC or I’m going to be walking funny for a week afterward.
I will do my weekday runs this week. I will do my weekday runs this week. I will do my weekday runs this week. I will do my weekday runs this week. I will do my weekday runs this week. I will do my weekday runs this week. I will do my weekday runs this week. I will do my weekday runs this week. I will do my weekday runs this week.
My long list of excuses for why I didn’t do any weekday runs this week provided no comfort to me. It wasn’t pretty (not that it’s ever *pretty*, but this was especially ugly).
Too many breaks in the mix and a crap attitude combined for a sub-par run. I got through the miles, though, and that is what counts.
After running I went and lifted. It felt great to get back to weights.
(weight in lbs. per side)
Squats 6x per set: nothing, empty bar, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65
Bench 10x per set: nothing, empty bar, 25, 35, 45, 55 (5x at 55lbs.)
Last year, Ronan asked me if I’d read Wool and I’d never heard of it. At $6 from Amazon it was easy enough to take a chance on.
The omnibus is a series of stories set in a common environment. Howey wrote the first one and the response from readers was so strong that he wrote more in the same world. It’s a smartly-built environment but is not so impossible or unbelievable that you can’t understand the motivations in play. There is a pervasive tension that builds throughout the series but Howey makes plenty of room for some surprisingly sad and tender moments, too.
I liked it a lot. The first is free (for kindle) and if you like it you should definitely keep going. There are cool ideas in there. The stories get longer as you go with the first around 60 pages and the 5th over 250.
You Were Never Really Here is a new kindle single from Byliner by Jonathan Ames. I saw it linked over at Super Punch and bought it for when I’d be in between longer reads. I caught some time this week to read it but forgot what it was about. It turns out that it’s hard-boiled noir, which I have enjoyed, but this was noir that was too dark for me.
I guess this next bit might be a spoiler so I’ll put this sentence here to keep you from reading further unless you want to.
There was a lot of heavy violence in there but that comes with the “hard-boiled” and “noir” territory. What put me off was the fact that I’ve got a 13-year old daughter so the plot points based around the one in this story were disturbing to the point of taking enjoyment away. I’ve got enough irrational fear about my kids out in this world that I’m not looking for more fuel in my recreational reading.
It’s a punchy story that doesn’t slow down for much of anything. I’d recommend it to someone without kids, though.
As a well-documented fan of just about anything John Reis does professionally I’m obviously all-in on this new Night Marchers record. It’s a big rock and roll record and I love it. The guitars are there like always but they’re more angular on the new one and have a more Hot Snakes or