This 100 year old structure survived a 4 mile move to our farm and is now undergoing an addition—”250 to 450 square feet with minimum foot print addition”—and renovation including a loft. Year three of the project is seeing it get closer to completion…
Steven Houck
For months I’ve been wistfully looking at the downhills, especially the newly-paved. Just couldn’t risk a fall with shoulder healing. But things feel together enough for me to venture back on the pavement. So much fun!
Since I’ve never learned to slide (whereby you can control yr. speed), I need to get off the board before getting to the speed where I can’t get off and remain vertical. For now I’m just skating gentle slopes and carving. No (well not much) bombing.
I wear Loaded gloves with hockey pucks velcroed to the palms. Cliff Coleman, downhill speed legend, told me that when you fall, remember 4 words: “Get On Your Hands.” Meaning get those hockey pucks sliding on the pavement so you’re not sanding off skin. Also be on your knees, i.e. knee pads with hard surfaces, so you’re on all fours, sliding on hockey pucks and knee pads. The one time I had the presence of mind to do this was in San Francisco late at night when my board hit an unsurmountable crack in the pavement, and I skidded along on 4 noncorporeal surfaces. Felt pretty good about that.
Boards shown from my, ahem sponsors: at left my Santa Cruz (not sure of model)—-for bombing and sharper turns, at right my Loaded Bhangra, which I ride most of the time for mellow downhills, smooth turns.
I’m not exactly up-to-date on the latest in anything, so I just learned about Vine, Twitter’s six-second video app. Now there’s an idea! 6 seconds.I do find it a bit confusing in that it doesn’t start and stop, but loops back and starts over at the end. 2 things I just learned:
1. Click on it to stop it.
2. Click on speaker @ top left to activate sound.
Seems like a powerful new means of communication. Grab those short attention spans! Info here. Vine blog here.
No bottom line I
Ain't That Just Like Me by The Searchers on Grooveshark
Cranked this up to high volume driving along the coast last night, moonlight shining on water. I’m getting interviewed tomorrow by a Russian author, Vladimir Yakovlev, who’s doing a book called The Rules of Happiness. Its about, um, old people who are physically active. An earlier book called The Age of Happiness (in Russian) was a hit. His photographs are superb.
One of the questions they are going to ask me is “What makes you happy?” and I’ve been thinking about it. Well, about 1000 things, but music is sure one of them. The Searchers are from Liverpool. Boy, did those English guys (incl Beatles, Stones) teach us Americans a thing or two about our music!
There is a 2-mile and 12-mile paddle race in Capitola (sister town of Santa Cruz), Calif. on June 22, 2013. It’s in honor of surfer Jay Moriarty and has divisions for different ages and for regular paddleboards and standup boards.
Click here.
This in from Anonymous:
“By this I mean a real breakthrough. Elegant, small, stealthy. When you press down on the mouthpiece, it pops up and activates a subtly pulsing purple light. In 20-30 seconds, this turns green and vapor is ready.
When people seem shocked at the $250 price, I ask them what they think their lungs are worth.
Read about here on Cool Tools.”
“The Stasha is the World’s lightest nesting dinghy weighing in at about 10 kilos (22lbs) making it child’s play to launch and retrieve. The Stasha is an elegant design and is a delight to row and great fun to sail. Despite it’s light construction it is surprisingly strong.
The Stasha is made of two halves with a simple locking mechanism allowing it to be easily assembled on deck, on shore or even in the water. As it’s made from so few materials it doesn’t cost much to build.”
These little boats (4 designs) have Dacron skin. Click here.
Dust My Broom by Elmore James on Grooveshark
Way to start a sunny beautiful morning!
I had a 20 year break from doing building books, about 1980-2000. It started with the book Stretching by Bob Anderson (which went on to sell over 3 million copies), then Galloway’s Book on Running by Olympic runner Jeff Galloway, then Getting Stronger by 4-time Mr. Universe Bill Pearl. It must have been karmic: I tend to look at things as a layman and like explaining things to novices in simple terms.
I’ve been back to publishing building books since 2000, but hanging out with these world class athletes left a lasting impression. Lately I’ve been thinking about the glut of information we’re all exposed to, and I decided to present herewith a few simple principles on the 3 building blocks of fitness — flexibility, cardiovascular training, and weight training.
Stretching Go by the feel when doing a stretch. Try this: lean over from the waist. You don’t need to touch your toes, but go in this direction until you feel a slight tension in the back of your legs. Stay there for 5-10 seconds, and you’ll feel the muscles relax.
Then push a little farther into the stretch. Go to the point of muscle tension, then back off a little and hold it. Relax. No pain!
That’s it. That’s the main principle of stretching. Go into an easy stretch. Hold it and relax. Then stretch a little further.
Running In recent years Jeff Galloway has been promoting the walking break. Take walking breaks during your run. 15 seconds, 30 seconds, one minute. Doing this refreshes the muscles and helps avoid injuries. Jeff has guided a huge number of people (many of them “couch potatoes”) into running marathons by utilizing walking breaks during training. A far cry from the intense training of the ’80s and ’90s.
Jeff says that the greatest single cause of improved performance is remaining injury free.
Weight Training The principle here is called the overload principle . You push the muscles to a point where it starts getting difficult, then stop. Then wait 24 hours and push a little farther. Your muscles will have rebuilt stronger to manage the increased load. In 300 BC, Milo of Croton lifted up a calf on his back every day until it became a full grown bull.
For example, do biceps curls with dumbbells heavy enough so that after say 10 repetitions, it’s getting difficult. Then stop.
Bill Pearl says that weight training is encouraging because of the speed at which you see results. Within a few weeks, you’ll notice improved muscle tone, which will usually motivate you to continue with a program. Weight training will increase strength, improve circulation, and reduce fat.
Summary Just a few simple principles that might stick with you in this era of information overload.