A place for my head...
…words, images, and song.
A new adiction…
Aug 2nd
I started on a new hobby in hopes to improve my fitness levels, and have something fun to do on the weekends. I went out and picked up a new mountain bike in hopes to blast through some woods, kick up some dirt, and enjoy some jumps. Well… I took my new bike for a spin down the road to try and get my sea legs back. What I failed to recognize was the years I’ve spent *not* riding… have been detrimental to my leg muscles. So the first of July… I almost cried after riding 2 miles. Two days later… I set out to not feel so pathetic, and managed a meager 4 miles. Again… I reached home in severe pain and thinking “WHAT am I doing to myself?” By this point… I was feeling as if I had to be the weakest man alive to wince so bad after a few miles of riding. So three days later… I pushed it a notch and did 7.5 miles… this took me an hour to accomplish. Now we fast forward 3 more weeks… and I was literally jumping with excitement as I surpassed 10.9 miles in 49minutes.
Looking back at my first month of cycling again… I’ve logged 155 miles and close to 13 hours in the saddle. What began as something to do on the weekends, has turned into something I want to do daily… and lots of it. I’ve set a goal to log 250+ miles in August. With my improvements in average speeds… that should be obtainable in 15-18 hours.
Something that has really helped me stay focused on improving has been logging every ride… I looked for a free app for my Blackberry so I wouldn’t go out and by a cycle computer. Found Endomundo and it’s been awesome. Doesn’t give the ability to do ghost rides against yourself… however just knowing the route I rode, with altitudes, and times has been great. Each time I go out I keep an eye on it and try to push myself just a little harder to improve on my average speed or hill climbs.
The BIGGEST thing I’ve found this month… is the improvement in my attitude. I’ve worked out off and on over the years, but I’ve never done hour long bike rides or runs… I finally see how people can get addicted to this. The endorphin rush is simply amazing! I’ve yet to loose but 5lbs… however my stomach is smaller, and I’m pretty sure I’ve gained several pounds in leg muscle. We’ll see what this month brings! So anyone dealing with depression or lack of enthusiasm towards life… I HIGHLY encourage you to start running, riding, or even walking regularly! My brain is finally cooperating with how I want to feel… happy… and alive! And that my friends… is my new addiction.
Reistablish my reign…
May 27th
I’d spent quite a bit of time not writing anything at all, yet daily my mind would race with many thoughts that I really wanted to get out there and express. So, finally taking some initiative, I fixed some issues with my website, redesigned it… and imported some old works. Saddened still that I lost over 3 years of my ramblings due to a database backup that got lost. So what does one do when they lose what they had? Well… make something new!
As I sit in this meeting giving a demonstration of software that would be quite redundant to what we already use… I felt like tossing out some self expression to the world. Not that I care if anyone reads it… but simply for the practice of composing words in a form that is some what enjoyably readable.
With the uprising of mass social media networks, it seems like there is far more quantity over quality of people’s thoughts. I often want to ramble on about something I feel strongly about, yet I’m constrained to few characters… and really… do I want to write it there? I’ve become so burnt out on MyFaceCrack that I’ve nearly deleted my account on numerous occasions. Why I haven’t… still escapes me.
So here I’m back posting to my own realm of bits and bytes. I hope to re-establish some semblance of a photo gallery, and encourage myself to capture more photos daily. My DSLR has been in its case for a few months now, and it’s quite sad the money I have invested just sitting there. Granted my interesting subjects have greatly dwindled since moving back to the mid-west… yet there is always something the curious eye can find.. and make art.
So if you’re reading… thanks… if not… well those people will never know the difference.
More to come from my humble brain.
Ben
Something pithy for the masses…
May 27th
I often wonder if human evolution is in anyway… an improvement over what the species previously was. It seemed for a time… that man was making great strides to improve, conquer in love, and establish respectable civilizations around the world. Then they have seemed to go right back to conquering with fear and driven by greed and the desire to be the biggest fish in this pond that’s not big enough for big fish.