Hans Zimmer is probably my favorite composer of all time. This video is a live performance of the Dark Knight film score. It has a really well done progressive tension about it, that Zimmer is especially good at.

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I saw this video a few months ago and thought it was really incredible. The guy in the video is Guillaume Nery, the former record holder for the deepest free dive (no oxygen) of 109 meters back in 2007. This video is more of an epic demonstration of him pretending to base jump into Dean’s Blue Hole. The outcome is simply beautiful and insane at the same time.

Wow this presentation has been buzzing around twitter like crazy today. The Wilderness Downtown is an intriguing, interactive piece that offers yet another example of how powerful HTML5 is and where the internet is heading. Until this point, I never realized how much of Flash really could be mimicked using these new technologies (HTML5, CSS3). I believe Google hit it out of the park with this demonstration and has created a revolutionary idea that will inspire others to also push the limits.

You must have the latest version of Google Chrome to view.

Check it out: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

Some great examples of what you can do with a camera and some imagination. When I was a young’n, I enjoyed pretending to squish the sun with my fingers or hiding a person with my pencil. Heck, I still enjoy doing that every now and again.

Check it out: http://www.instantshift.com/2010/08/24/88-brilliant-examples-of-forced-perspective-photography/

Monday – Off (08.23.10)

Tuesday (08.24.10)
Feno and I did some crazy swim workout that are training plan called for. I don’t even really know what to call it other than “the crazy”. I’ll see if I can remember what we did exactly. We started off with a 200m swim, 200m kick, 200m pull, and then another 200m swim. I’ve never used the pulling device, and it was just awkward to say the least. We then did a 300m ladder all the way down to 25. We started at 300m (6 laps), and then took a 30 second break and then did 275m, 30 sec, break, 250m, etc… The workout called for a cool down, but it took us so long that we just didn’t have time to finish. Great workout!

Wednesday (08.25.10)
The plan called for a 30 minute “open water” simulation, 45 min bike, and 30 min run. I don’t know how you do an “open water” swim in the pool. I just didn’t kick off the walls and tried not to stop. We used the trainer at the gym for 45 minutes, and then we did like a 35 minute run out side.  I lost my swimming shorts at some point Wednesday. I think I must of thrown them in the dirty towels. I’ve been back since and still haven’t found them yet. Uhg.

Thursday (08.26.10)
So I was going to take Thursday off for some reason (I can’t remember), and Feno called me Wednesday at like 9:30pm and was like “we have a huge day tomorrow be there and ready to go at 5:00am”. Great. Lol. So I turned off my video and hit the hay. I didn’t sleep well unfortunately. Feno, Harvey and I ran for an hour and thirty minutes in per darkness. At one point we took some back roads that I haven’t been on since last year, and I couldn’t see my feet infront of me. It definitely concerned me, knowing how accident prone I’ve been lately! Make sure there are no beer bottles around, it’s like a mine field for me!

Friday – Off (08.27.10)
Much needed day off!

Saturday (08.28.10)
I had the “Not about self 5k” planned for Sunday so I was going to take Saturday off, but I decided to do a little swimming. I only swam 30 laps, but it felt like more. My hip flexors were incredibly sore, so I took it easy. I probably shouldn’t have done anything, it wasn’t work it I don’t think.

Sunday (08.29.10)
Woke up around 6:00am and drove over to the First Baptist Church in Marshall to participate in the 2nd annual “Not About Self 5k”. I ran this one last year and had a great time. The people at FBC Marshall really put on a good event. This year they had really great tech shirts, medals,  and door prizes! Feno helped administer the race and did a great job.  My co-worker Justin came out to run with me. He is a really great encouragement and is usually a little faster than me, so he’s a good pacer. I haven’t been running any speed workouts for quite some time and my legs were beat, so I was a little concerned that I would be slow. I’m not sure what our first mile was, but it had to be 6:45 or something. I hung with Justin until 14:00 minutes or so and just couldn’t keep up. I felt myself slowing and couldn’t do anything about it. I may have gone out a little too fast, but usually that is okay with such a short race like that. I finished in 22:46 (13 seconds slower than last year), 10th overall, and 1st in my age group. Harvey was right behind me at like 24:00. Justin finished in like 21:30. My buddy Bryce won it again this year with a 17:40. Overall, it was a great race and I’m happy with how I did.

Since I didn’t do a long workout Saturday, I had to get one in at some point. I ran for an hour and 10 minutes after the race. I picked some really hilly routes and just took it easy. I’m not sure how many miles I covered, but I felt really good afterward. I went to church, had some lunch and then did a 20 mile bike ride. After the bike ride, my family went back to the FBC Marshall, where they were having their annual block party. This time they had blow up water slides! My son and I had a blast climbing up and sliding down. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him more excited!

I spoke with Feno while I was there and he said that the training plan called for 6×500 swim. It doesn’t look like I’ll get a break tomorrow either!

This is just cool. Start drawing and changing settings. Also take a look at the gallery, there are some great examples of what can be done.

Check it out: http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/

Monday (08/16/10)
So this is where my memory eludes me. I think I did 45 minutes on the gym trainer and then 45 laps in the pool. Matt was nice to let me use the good trainer while he used the evil reclining trainer. There are only three regular trainers and three reclining bikes at the gym, so one of us had to give it up for the other. He looked hilarious sitting down with some older guys directly across from Harvey and I. So yeah, I need to figure out if this is what we really did.

Tuesday (08/17/10)
I believe we did 1 hour on the bike and then a 4.5mi run. Matt wasn’t as nice as he was the day before and I had to use the wicked reclining trainer of death. I’ve never been on the sit down bike, but it was not an easy feat to accomplish. It definitely works different muscles than the regular bike, which is good, but I definitely prefer the regular one. Oh yeah, about 1.5mi into the run, I tripped on a beer bottle going down a hill resulting in a rolled ankle. The guys encouraged me to run it off, so that is what I did.  It didn’t hurt too much over the run but it really hurt that next day, and still hurts to some extent. Just another reason to hate beer.

Wednesday (08/18/10)
My ankle hurt so I slept in. I think it’s a good enough excuse anyway . I ended up doing that 45 minute “Spinerval” VHS tape that my friend Joe gave me Saturday. It was a really good uphill workout that was difficult. The video was totally early 90’s, so it was very entertaining following along with the cheesy music and funny people. I iced my ankle religiously all day and I think it really helped it recover faster.

Thursday (08/19/10)
I did 30 laps slow and easy, 20 lap intervals, and then 10 lap  cool down. This was a tough swim for me. My body felt unusually fatigued, but I was able to push past through for a good finish.

Friday (08/20/10)
Much needed day off. I thought about it though!

Saturday (08/21/10)
I really do prefer to do my long workouts by myself. It’s sort of refreshing to just push myself at my own pace and have the ability to go home and grab a bite or refill whenever needed. Saturday was a really humbling workout for me. I woke up around 6:00am, had some granola cereal and then took off for a 10 mile run. Unfortunately this is the longest run I’ve done in about 6 weeks. I did do two sets of 6 miles a few weeks ago with a bike ride in between, but I haven’t done a long consecutive run for awhile. My watch has been getting fixed for weeks now, so I wasn’t able to time myself. I had my iPhone on my arm but I guess I didn’t hit the start button on the timer. I believe I ran it just under 1.5hr. I took it easy and just tried to keep my breathing under control. I then did a 30 mile bike ride. I had a great tail wind the first 15 miles and a brutal head wind the following 15 miles. The gusts were so strong that it literally stopped me in my tracks. By the time I got home, I was warn out to the bone and just wanted to eat and lay down. Very stretching day!

Sunday (08/22/10)
I usually take Sunday off, but a friend from church asked if I wanted to ride with the club that evening. I’ve been wanting to ride with this guy for quite some time, so I figured we would just take it easy and enjoy the evening. I think 4 or 5 guys from the Maverick Chain Gang showed up and we did 24 miles together. I really had a hard keeping up with the group, my legs were very sore from the day before and I just didn’t have anything left in the engine.  I decided to take off around mile 9 and passed the guys in the front. I stayed in front until the last few miles where a few of us decided to talk about riding and just relax on the way in. I had a really good time pushing it down the hills. I think I maxed at 34.5mph down a few of them. I took it really slow and easy up.

Monday (08/23/10)
Rested up Monday and had some Oreo’s and Pie

And there it is ladies and gentleman! probably not 100% accurate but it doesn’t really matter!

I stumbled upon a simple poster type design this morning and it really struck me. The design isn’t “all that”, but the statement that comes across really hit home. The last few months have been very tight (financially, spiritually, physically, ect…) and sometimes it’s easy to focus on these things, and forget about the hundreds of other things we take for granted everyday. I say “we”, because you and I are a small percentage of people who are blessed enough to have access to the internet, or even to a computer period. Let’s be more grateful, and thank God for the things we do have.

Check out the full piece: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/076/6/0/605b7d3c66c2dc9470fd939b2011ac0e.png

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” – Colossians 3:15

Where do people come up with this stuff? Here is another creative use of an object that is designed for something completely different. This last has taken colored pencils, you know, the same colored pencils that we monkeyed with as a child (and still do occasionally), and has sculpted some incredible pieces.

Have a look: http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Family-Lifestyle/12-Cool-Colored-Pencil-Sculptures.html

It’s almost been a week since I’ve written anything, it looks like I’m doing more training than blogging! I’ll write about my Saturday workout and then catchup on the rest of the week tomorrow.

So Saturday… A friend from church called Friday evening and asked if I wanted to go riding with him  at 6:30am. I’ve been wanting to ride with this guy for a number of weeks now, but it just hasn’t worked out yet.  I thought I would wake up at 5:30am and get a 6 mile run out of the way before I met up with him, but unfortunately I woke up an hour later than planned. I met up with Joe at 6:30am and we did a 20 mile route that he has been doing for some time. The route was pretty cool because it basically was the same 20mi route I used to run when I was training for my Marathon last winter. We took it pretty slow and enjoyed the morning. After the ride, Joe lent me an old “Spinervals” VHS that I could use during my training sessions at home.

After riding with Joe, I went home and had a small breakfast, filled up, and then started on the rest of my ride.

It was around 8:00am and already 90+’ outside and humid. I only have a holder for one water bottle on my bike, so I was a little concerned about going 30 more miles in the heat. Sure enough, I ran out of water around mile 15. Thankfully I was not too far away from my parents so I took a detour and road 2 miles to my parents. I filled up on water, had a banana, chocolate milk and a nectarine. I spent about 10 min cooling off and was ready for more.

I hopped on my bike and went back the same direction I came, only this time with a very hot head wind. The next 17 miles were pretty rough. I was moving very slow and tried to ration my water efficiently, but couldn’t resist drinking it all very quickly. The last 4 miles were brutal, no water left and worn out. I covered 54 miles for the day and averaged just over 17mph. Not too bad.

I refilled my bottle, had a snack and then went out for a 6 mile run. By this time the heat index is well over a hundred and I’m just covered in salt sweat. I ran out of water at 2.25mi and thought I’d try to refill at a friends. Thankfully he was at home and I was able to get some cold water and check out the work he has been doing on his house. I rested up about 10 minutes and then headed back home. I wanted six, but 4.5mi will have to do on a day like that. Although I took a few breaks here and there, I felt like it was a very successful workout.

I’ll blog about this week sometime tomorrow, thanks for reading!