This blog was always intended to be primarily a journal of my training, an online diary of what it takes to get me into shape for my races this year. Since simply recording each day’s workouts would be of interest to about zero people (myself included; I mean, I already know what I did!), I expanded the concept to include not only what I’m DOING while I workout, but also what I’m THINKING – thus the musings on movies, books, music, money, politics, and whatever else catches my inner eye. Hence the photo and sub-title above.
But now, after six weeks of post-season recuperation, six weeks of skiing, I’m now five weeks into the first layer of real training. Basically, the first 15 weeks (I’m now in week eleven, those six weeks of skiing during which I did some swimming, biking and running, plus the five weeks since then) are meant to get me fit enough to handle the LAST nine weeks, where the REAL work occurs. So my long rides and runs gradually get longer, my more intense weekly rounds of interval training gradually get more intense, and I’m supposed to gradually get stronger, faster, and better able to handle more of a training load. Remember, I’m trying to become fit enough to go for 11 hours at a pace which is just below exhaustion. It’s tricky, and notice the emphasis on “gradual”.
But today, the coaching plan (it’s a swimming day) called for 20 x 100 yards of swimming, decreasing from 15 to 10 to 5 seconds rest between each, at a pace described as “first 8, hard; next 8, very hard, last 4 very, VERY hard.” Normally, those words would only be applied to a total of 4-800 yards, with 30-60 seconds of rest between each 100, for me, a time of 1 minute, 22-24 seconds for each. I knew that I would be doing well to go 1:32-34 for each 100 in this set. So the coaches must have meant “effort level”, and not “speed”. The idea was to go as fast as I could each time, given the rest period allowed, for the number of repeats on tap. I really REALLY did not want to do this, as the previous week’s interval set had only 1300 total yards, descending from 400 down to 50’s. I knew the last 4 would have to be a leap into the unknown – I could blow up, I could overtax some muscles and end up with an injured rotator cuff or rib cage, or I could temper the effort correctly, kill myself on the last 4, and break on through to the other side of some looking glass.
I seem to have survived, and once again marvel at what the coaches know about training for an Ironman. I’ve learned over the past few years that if I follow their plan, I can probably do what they expect, as long as I don’t overdo the non-essential workouts each week. They list 5 key workouts (two of which are bike/run combos), and provide opportunities for up to nine others each week. For example, today I did 3 additional “workouts”, but at a much easier pace. I biked to the Y and bike (70 minutes). Then in the afternoon, I went to the gym for 33 minutes of running drills, and 30 minutes of weight lifting. An I can still type and think at the same time. Oh, and I did hit those times exactly, just as I expected.
Each evening, I try to incrementally add to my project of digitizing all the vinyl records in my collection. I have fitfully worked on this for the past several years, working through Bob Dylan, the Band, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and a few others. Like most guys, I had an idiosyncratic filing system for my records. I have a closet, specially built as part of our house, ion which the records were stored, along with the stereo equipment, and built-in wiring to speakers in the living room and bedroom. On the top shelf I kept all of my favorites – as I bought more of their works, I had to drop some people out of that category, and into the next several shelves, which were alphabetically by artist. The bottom shelf included non Rock records – country, comedy, classical – basically, all of those “C” categories. The top shelf also housed some greatest hits collections, primarily of artists who were good or big or both before I started buying records in earnest.
So I’ve worked through most of the favorites, and a few other records I just had to get to (like Van Morrison’s “Moondance”, and am now eating into the greatest hits collections. Today, I laid down “Phil Spector’s Greatest Hits” Spector, of course, was one of the first rock producers to get credit in his own right. Sam Phillips, who recorded Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney, and others in the mid-50s was another.
Spector was the inventor of the “Wall of Sound”, a densely layered musical pastiche, in which the singers were just another instrument to be tuned and focused. Here’s a partial list of the songs on the record: “Be My Baby” (and 3 others by the Ronettes); You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ (and 3 others by the Righteous Bros.); “He’s a Rebel” (and 3 others by the Crystals); “I Love How You Love Me”, “To Know Him is to Love Him” (say the know and the love three times each!); “River Deep – Mountain High (Ike & Tina Turner); “Pretty Little Angel Eyes”; and Ben. E. King’s “Spanish Harlem”.
Digitizing is actually quite easy. I take my laptop down to the stereo closet. I hook up a USB cable which comes out of the stereo; the turntable of course is the input into the stereo. I use a shareware program for the Mac called “Audio Companion”. In it, I make sure the input from the USB is selected; create a folder named for the album I’m recording; start the turntable, and click “Record”. I have already pre-set the program to turn the signal (which the USB cable and computer turn into “0s and 1s”) into an AAC/M4A file at a bit rate of 256 kBits/second (I have no idea what that means, but my son Cody tells my its what I should do), which is easily played by iTunes and most other music programs. The software can be set to filter out “crackles” in the vinyl, at 3 different levels of sensitivity. It also can detect periods of no sound, during which it closes one file and starts a new one. ANd it automatically labels each file, say, “Phil Spector_001”, on up to the number of songs on the album. This all sound complicated, but basically, after purchasing the software and the USB cable, and setting the software controls once when I first installed it, all I have to do to digitize an album is create a new folder, and play the record.
So Cheryl and I listen to a “new” album each night at dinner. After dinner, I unhook my computer, sit down, and open iTunes. I choose “Add to Library”, and select the newly created files. I use the iTunes search function to find them, select them all, and, using the iTunes “Get Info” function, rename them all for the album and artist. Then I start each file, and use Get Info to name each song.
This process takes about a minute prior to playing the record, and about 3 minutes after the record. Once I’m done, I have all those vinyl songs in my iTunes Library, and can transfer them to my iPod, make CDs of them, whatever. Of course, Apple makes it easy to wirelessly project anything from iTunes into my stereo system, so I can now sit anywhere in the house with my computer, and play any song I want, whether it is trapped in vinyl or not. Or at least that’s my ultimate goal. I LOVE THE 21st CENTURY!