Yes Concert Review

Well last night was the YES concert at the Chicago Theatre. For those of you not familiar with the latest YES lineup it was Squire, Howe, White (core) with Oliver Wakeman on keyboards (Rick’s son) plus Benoit David (no that’s not backwards) doing Jon’s part (lead vocals and raucous tambourine playing during long musical interludes).

The demographics at the show were interesting. I think I would put the Yes concert only slightly above a Linux SysAdmin monthly meeting and GenCon (geek game board convention) as worst odds to meet a women you might want to marry. I’m guessing the audience was 80% male and heavily laced with ex or current Dungeon and Dragons players. I was also probably on the younger end as well. Also of note, at no point during the show did I smell that “concert smell” (you know the one I mean). I was also impressed by the $45 concert T-shirts. That’s right a $45 shirt. Yikes…

First the negative stuff… Please just cut “All Good People” and “Roundabout” out of the set list FOREVER. My apathy towards Roundabout in particular is now turning to genuine dislike of the song. It’s dull, it hasn’t aged well, and I’ve just heard it too many times. The people at that show knew your entire catalog, you don’t have to play your “pseudo-hit” to make them happy. That it was the last song made it even worse (never end on a down note).

Now on to the good stuff. Overall I thought it was a great show. The set started with the traditional Firebird Suite/ Siberian Khatru duo. Nicely done and very engaging. My favorites of the night were definitely “And You and I” and “Tempus Fugit”. “Machine Messiah” was a close 2nd/3rd. David on lead vocals was simply amazing. He was able to do young Jon, old Jon, and even Trevor Horn for the Drama tracks. You had the feeling that he listened to YesSongs a couple hundred times and matched just about everything. Bravo! I thought Steve and Chris were “on” as well as engaging and fun to watch. Oliver played keyboards and Alan White played drums ;-)

Here’s what I remember of the set list (not in exact order):
· Firebird Suite/Siberian Khatru
· I've Seen All Good People
· Tempus Fugit
· Onward
· Astral Traveler
· Close To The Edge
· Machine Messiah
· And You And I
· Steve solo
· Long Distance Runaround/The Fish
· Some Chris song (new)
· Starship Trooper
Encores:
· Owner Of A Lonely Heart
· Roundabout

As a bonus...

Hideous video of the Fish below with audio of the really drunk guy in front of us.

Turkey Trot Race Report (week old)

We had a great race day on Thursday (Thanksgiving). I'm sure it was a bit cold for many people but at 8am near the end of November; 32 degrees, sunny, with no wind was about as perfect as I could expect. The course is also completely flat so everything was in place condition wise.

My goal was to PR (19:07) and I had spent a lot of time this Fall doing speedwork especially 6x800s and similar repeats. I was curious to see if this, combined with my increase in mileage (from 20mpw to 35) would pay off. I ran a 10K three weeks ago in 40:30 which (according to the equivalence charts) predicted a 19:25) but I knew I would get better as the distance got shorter.

I did a little weaving in traffic the first half a mile but generally my path was pretty clear. I settled into a comfortable pace but found that between 1/2 and 1 mile I was passing the "out too quick" crowd. My only concern for the first mile was to not to absent-mindedly go out too slow. I knew I wouldn’t go too fast because I can feel “too fast” on a 5K very easily in my breathing pattern. I hit mile 1 at 6:04, about what I had hoped. Mile 2 was horribly mismarked on the course (which I knew from previous years in this race) so I glanced at my watch, saw it was at 4:59 and didn’t even bother to hit the “lap” button. I really had no idea how I was doing until I hit the 3 mile mark and my “lap” was 11:57. I was completely out of gas but died over the line at 18:47. Whew!

Had a great Thanksgiving dinner with the family and haven’t taken a fast step since.

(IMHO) The 5K is really a tough race. The last 1/2 a mile I felt like I could collapse and I just couldn't get enough air to keep my legs moving fast. I'm not sure I'm up for what it would take effort-wise to improve for next year. There's something ringing in my head about "all that work for 20 lousy seconds".

How Much Is Enough? (Part 2)

There’s something inside me that wants to do more…wants to go faster and further…wants to know what the outer limit is. No, I’m not obsessed with it, but I’m never quite free from it either. When I stop running or exercising for a few days it’s the voice that says, “You’re losing it”. The question is where does “it” come from? Is it a result of our fallen nature, or is it something that God can redeem and is part of our “spark of the divine” that makes us want to do more.

So here are the two competing statements I often hear in my head that need to be reconciled. One: “If God has gifted you with the ability to do “X”, to not do so is not ‘using your gift’ and is poor stewardship.” And the contrasting statement, “You have taken a good thing that I have given you and made it into an idol”.

Of course the answer to every continuum question is always “somewhere in the middle” isn’t it? But that’s not really any help since we can safely say that there is no one answer for everyone and each of us is going to have to find our point on the continuum. So here are a few questions I ask myself when I’m wondering… “Have I gone too far?”

1) How much of my self-definition is tied up in my athletic pursuits? To what degree do they define me? In the extreme, are the two (me and athletic pursuits) inseparable?

2) More generally; am I trying to achieve something from my athletic pursuits that it was not intended to give me?

3) What would I do with the time I spend exercising if I didn’t exercise? Would that time be valuable to someone else?

4) Would I run/bike/swim/whatever if I could not compete? Would I run a race that did not have a clock setup?

DP overload

Talk about too much of a good thing. 17 DPs a day.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25708021/

"Daily, the cleaning business owner would drink 17 cans of Dr. Pepper (2,625 calories) and eat so much food – fatty carbohydrates like pizza, garlic bread and brownies – that she thought she would vomit."

A mediocre 10K

Although I PR'd by a minute and a half I never felt good at the Gobbler Hobbler 10K on Saturday. I feel sluggish and I wasn't close to my "stretch goal" of under 40 minutes. I was right on pace at the halfway point but fell off badly in miles 4 and 5. I'll blame the wind.

Nice course, nice race, nice volunteers.

Getting closer... getting faster?

Well the fall season is upon us and I have ramped up the mileage a bit. From the 15-20 weekly miles I was running this summer up to about 30 a week. Let's see if the mileage/speed work combination pays off. I haven't run a 10K in about 3 years so I have a good chance to PR but also a good chance to screw up my pace and go out too fast or too slow. We'll see.

I ran 12 miles Saturday and felt great (60 degrees with no wind helps) but then dragged my a** around for 30 minutes of feeling slugish yesterday. No clue.

More stories from Hawaii...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122331449138808261.html

How much is too much?

“Iron Mom” article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121695015234783463.html

Interesting article about an extreme-extreme endurance event. Sort of makes the Ironman look pedestrian. It really points out the progressive nature of this and (for me at least) brings up a bunch of questions.

I think many of us can relate to being at the end of something we have trained a long time for and within 24 hours beginning to think about how to improve our time, or increase the distance or whatever. I read the quote in the last paragraph and agreed that it is “really sick” yet at a certain level I can relate to it.

I can’t help but notice that long ago many athletes (and certainly all the ones mentioned here) left the “I need to keep my body in shape” camp and headed off towards higher ground. In a world of using muscle as fuel, bloody feet, and toe nails falling off the idea of “staying healthy” is really not fooling anyone. So while many may start the journey for “health reasons”, some clearly leave that “base camp” to move on to something else.

So the question remains how much is too much? It’s easy for me to look at the subjects of this article and roll my eyes at this kind of event. “What is the point?” I’m thinking. Of course, this is the same thing many people would say watching 50,000 people finish a marathon. Just because more people CAN do it, doesn’t mean it’s not too much.

Nobody has drawn a line for us. Many of us could complete an ultra-marathon or an Ironman if we trained and were able to stay injury free. So the question of where to draw the line is more than academic.

To be continued…

Need some new music

I've been running with the iPod quite a bit lately and I desparately need some new playlists. Added some Weezer but need something else.

Summer Running Recap

Hard to believe its Labor Day already and the official outdoor season is over. Of course the next 8 weeks are the best running weeks of the year so it's not all done. This Year:

Downers Grove 5K - 19:45
Soldier Field 10 Miler - 1:08:12 (PR @ 6:50)
Schaumburg Splash/Pedal/Dash Sprint Triathlon - 1:19:11 (short run) My First One!!! :-)
Fling Mile - 5:27

Upcoming:

Oswego 10K
Turkey Trot 5K

Congrats to Fulham

Now the Americans all have a place to play next year!

Summer Running Plan

So far I have run a local 5K (Downers Grove race) and have plans to run the Soldier Field 10 miler (again). After that I'm going to try and find some different races and perhaps a Sprint Triathlon to try something different.

When Life Imitates Fletch

Tell me this isn't weird. Good thing he didn't kill himself in Provo.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-car-jack-slipped-murder-web,0,7593433.story

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089155/plotsummary

Running in Seattle

Running along the waterfront was not bad. For such a big city though it could be a lot nicer (Chicago bias I know).

Nice view

Cool Show on DHC

I tend to not watch the Discovery Health Channel because when I flip past it there is usually some sort of surgical instrument protruding from some unknown part of the body with organs and other stuff in full view. That being said there was a very cool show on last night about the extremes of the human body.

Great feature on fast-twitch vs. slow-twitch as well as the story of a person who they shut down all there functions for an hour, performed surgery, than restarted them. Cool!

Swimming Milestone

I am trying to learn how to swim so that someday I might be able to do a triathlon. Anyway, yesterday I had a real milestone... my arms got tired. I know this doesn't sound like much but up until now my breathing has been so bad that I would run out of breath WAY before my arms could ever get tired, so I figure this is progress... :)

Finally Got a Race on the Calendar

Of course it's the usual.... Soldier Field 10 miler. Best race in the City of Chicago. Depending on the weather and my training we'll see if I try and PR (done 2 years ago) or just run it for grins. Either way it should be fun.

Egads, a postless month?!

I'm not sure why I haven't posted, lots going on. I'll do better in February... I promise!

What is going on?

I just watched SportsCenter tonight including their nightly "Top 10Plays" feature. Of the 10 plays, 3 were from the Premier League; goals from Man Utd, Arsenal, and Chelsea. What's next, soccer on sports talk radio. There's hope yet.

Made the switch to the Mac

Yep... I finally did it. Got an iMac. 10 years of pure Windows comes to an end. I just couldn't handle another 4 minute reboot. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.