February 2015

The Snow Queen has a death grip on the city of Toronto. We are inside a deep freeze that has simply not abated for the entire month. There are icycles the size of sharks hanging off my front eavestrough. They look like the sinister gate keepers to a frozen hell.

What this has meant for me is several weeks in a row without a single outdoor workout. The single, biggest surprise, is how tolerable that has been. There has been time to acquaint myself with new toys, musical and otherwise, to reflect, and to fall in love with my basement. What follows is a mish-mash of meanderings about all of the above.

Jaybird BlueBuds:  the name is a bit unfortunate, but these little babies have raised the bar on what can be expected from a set of exercise headphones. i have given my yurbuds to my daughter. and they still make a great back up when the battery runs out on the jaybirds, which, in my experience, is after about 5 hours of continuous exercise, not the advertised 8. nevertheless, the sound quality is quite literally shocking. one feels completely engulfed in 3d sound, with clear articulation, strong base, a broad soundstage, almost no noise, and strong detail. they work for a variety of music, and i have used them for everything from classical, to thrash, to dirty southern rap. and they are compact, and completely un-obtrusive. if you take the 5 minutes required to learn how to do the "advanced" over ear position, you will soon forget you even have headphones on, which means you can get off the trainer, go pee, grab some gels and a fresh pair of bib-shorts and still crank tunes, thus never leaving your vibe behind as you move through indoor transition zones.  sure, they cost about 180 bucks, but, when you compare that to the amount of pleasure you stand to experience with them, that is a mere pittance. i can safely say that Jaybirds have made my winter ironman build one of the most pleasurable yet.

if he rode indoors as much as me he would kiss the jaybirds not the bike

SONGZA was a tip from my running partner on one of our last outdoor runs, before the earth froze over forever and the air became so cold it could freeze-dry your alveoli. it provides a novel way of accessing playlists that are curated by experts in a very large array of genres and sub-genres. you can search by mood, activity, time of day, artist and, of course, genre. the playlists are cleverly titled, enough to stimulate you to explore in directions you might not otherwise consider. i recommend "hard rock, hard bod", "sexy, sweaty dance workout", "muted jazz", "downtempo soundscapes" , "analogue bubblebath" and "from south beach to st. tropez"....

armed with an i-phone, jay-birds and an internet connection, i have found ways to make 4 hours go by faster than ever, i have even spent 2.5 hours on the treadmill and was left wanting more. all of this musical freedom and ability to create my own inner headspace has also encouraged more creativity on the treadmill. i have found ways to carve out a long run which includes hills, pace sets, and offers the same kind of control as you get on the bike trainer, allowing for a very specific and focused workout. i have come to love the great indoors, which causes me to think i could survive a stint on MARS or antarctica at the very least. 

the down side to being inside? sorta goes with the upside. it is a pleasure to have my wife and kids nearby while i do my thing, but, on the other hand, bitching at my four year old as she interrupts me while i am in the midst of breathless suffering during a power set on the bike, highlights for me what a selfish and narcissistic pig i really am, and it makes me feel guilty. that, plus, if you are not out on the open road, then you are fair game to be interrupted, to respond to emergencies, and it becomes super clear that the workout you view as a mandatory part of your development is viewed by those close to you as voluntary superfluousness, which upon closer reflection, it is. it's just that when you are out in the open country a couple hours from home you can't be interrupted as easily. and that is both good and bad. and, maybe i just need to workout at 4 a.m., in secret, but i have not yet mastered that art. 

THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES: is the title of the song i have provided as listening material for this particular blog. first, it highlights that while i have expanded my workout tune repertoire considerably, it is still metal that moves me into my greatest moments of rapture, and the new Judas Priest album Redeemer of Souls, is one of the best metal albums i have played in a long time. i have played it over, and over and over again. 

Damocles is the subject of a moral anecdote, in which a courtier trades places with the king only to find that, in addition to wealth and power, there is a large sword hanging over the throne, suspended only by a horse hair. of course, he can't wait to get off the throne. of course, this tale is about the perils and stress of power, and is probably cleverly designed to keep those in lower positions happy with their place (remember damocles and be happy with your fate), but i think it has something to do with the precarious nature of endurance training and of human life in general. danger looms at each turn, and the comfort, sense of expansion and health we enjoy now can end in flash; a crash, an illness, a bad stock investment, an injury....the potential dangers comes in endless varietals. indeed, we are all like damocles; we each have a sword over our head, the problem is that we don't have the option of trading back with the king and thus going back to the safety of our subservience. no, we are all masters of our own kingdoms, which are doomed to crumble eventually and can, and often do, end catastrophically. 

so...come to think of it, those icicles over my front door are alot like the sword of damocles....i can't wait for spring...