Bends Toward Justice

Today I did my usual walk/basketball/walk, which I log on Anthem Rewards as two hours of walking (as I told Chris [Chris at basketball -- not Chris Reagan], no one can make me run more than I want to at basketball). So on my cyberhike of the Appalachian Trail I'm at Rockfish Gap in Virginia (pictured above). I've now covered 850 miles of the trail, and am already back up to 270 reward points. Here's another picture that's appropriate as far as the cyberhike is concerned: The guy on the left in the picture is Dave Twomey, a basketball friend and a neighbor.

I'm still really down about DJ. I remember going to see Pepperdine play then-undefeated UNLV with Uncle Lorry. First of all, we got there and the game was sold out, but he scored us a couple nosebleed seat tickets from some student/scalper. UNLV was loaded with unbelievable athletes, while Pepperdine had some big South American center and Dennis Johnson. At the end UNLV had the lead and the ball and were in a four-corners. One of their players busted from the backcourt to the hoop and dunked. This was the year BEFORE dunking became legal again in college hoops. Technical foul. Pepperdine gets a shot and the ball and wins the game. Bill Simmons' article (linked at the link above) is the best thing he's written in a couple months.

Dennis Johnson, September 18, 1954 - February 22, 2007.

Nominally this blog is about logging workouts and motivating each other to get in shape for the big K. In keeping with the workout log theme I should mention that I walked to and from the gym for basketball yesterday (planning to do that again tomorrow) and played wallyball last night -- doubling up during vacation week. In practice, a scan of entries will reveal, the blog is about anything to do with working out, anything to do with Katahdin, Baxter or the K Krew, the Celtics, the NBA and soon March Madness, also probably anything about beer drinking (especially if it is funny).

This will solve one of Stephen's complaints, too! I've been tutoring this guy's grandson after school, and he's teaching me how to harness up Bullwinkle here. I'm starting to get to work on how to drive him; this vacation week came at a great time. They keep pretty busy with skidding out logs in the winter, but he (and his cart -- not pictured) are going to be available next September. Does one of you guys have a tow hitch on your vehicle so we can trailer his rig up there? We are going in early September, aren't we? He's scheduled to pull at the Fryburg Fair the first week in October.

Peter Stringer on Celtics.com: LAS VEGAS - It was all about hops and props for G-Money Saturday night. He used props in his dunks, gave props to Dee and Red, and he's about to get mad props after being crowned the 2007 Slam Dunk champ, putting on a memorable show in Las Vegas in front of 15,694 fans. For weeks, Green's been telling anyone who asked that he had some tricks up his sleeve, and wanted to do something nobody's ever seen before. And despite a painful toothache that bothered him all weekend, Green rose to the occasion - literally - to out-dunk defending champ Nate Robinson, Tyrus Thomas and Dwight Howard. Along the way, he brought out a few props (a table, a retro Dee Brown jersey and a cardboard cutout of Robinson) and showed a little respect to the old school by evoking the memories of Brown's 1991 peek-a-boo slam, and by donning a #2 headband to honor Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach. "He was the heart, face and soul of the Boston Celtics, I went with th...

I don't know why, but I'm drawn to the idea of the zipline. Dick O'Meara told me about taking his family on a zipline ecotour in Costa Rica, and it reminded me of Alpine Adventures' setup over in NH.

Check out these other great Penobscot River Pics from the same source as the Cribworks pic below. He's got a bunch of other great Maine pics there too. Here's to digital Dan!

Looks like Fun! Here's what North Country has to say about this trip : Breathtaking scenery as you paddle under Katahdin in Baxter State Park. Guaranteed whitewater through dam-controlled releases every day. Classes range from three to five; overall a class 4 river: the most technical whitewater in Maine and the eastern United States. This is the cribworks, a class five bit.

I was so motivated by Pete's comment about my Sunday workout that I did the workout again last night. That's all sort of true. Actually Meg and I went to play wallyball, but when we got there a racketball player had apparently had a heart attack on one of the courts our group uses. There were lights flashing all over the parking lot; I think they used that shock defibrillator on him in there; when they wheeled him out an EMT was squeezing an airbag into his unreacting mouth and compressing his chest as they went by. It all looked very grim. That court was not available that night. Every Tuesday Meg has to decide between basketball and wallyball, and she had been begged to fill in last night. When the situation became 12 players with one court, she switched to basketball, and after a moment's thought I went with her. I walked 1/2 mile to warm up, ran 1 mile, walked 1/2 mile, ran 1 mile, walked again (another mile) until I'd been doing it for 50 minutes. Today I'm...

Still waiting for the reward. I watched the refreshing box score for the last 2 1/2 minutes of last night's game against the T'wolves. When I started Pierce had played 29 minutes and scored 29 points. While I was watching he got an assist on a Jefferson dunk. But the Celts went from up five to tied, with the ball, with 26.something to go. They got a 24 second violation!!! Ricky Davis, former Celtic Ricky Davis, scored the game winner with .2 left. Much-maligned former Celtic Mark Blount scored 20. How does Pierce do it? He's been out forever with the "stress reaction", just got out from two days in the hospital, and he goes for 29 points and more minutes than Shaq's playing after two weeks back. What would Pierce accomplish with a Shaq or Duncan drawing mega attention in the low post? I hope Al Jefferson is rounding into a guy who'll give us the answer next season, though I noticed Doc Rivers was subbing Kendrick Perkins for him on D at the end ...

Meg had a basketball game this evening, so I went to SP Rec with her and walked and ran while she played. I ran about twenty minutes in the middle of about thirty minutes of walking. Actually felt good while I was running, like I could have kept going for longer. Really I stopped out of boredom as much as anything else. I'm really looking forward to February vacation, because I'll kick my workouts up a notch for that week. Then when I run those two races in early March I'll get pushed again. That, and a little spring weather, will get me motivated to do a little more each week until April vacation when I can go up another notch.

I came home from basketball this morning and logged my walking for this week on the Anthem Rewards: Awesome Adeventure page. I'm still in Virginia, and got curious about where in Virginia. Apparently, I recently crossed the James River. Here's a link to a National Park Service map (in pdf) of the Appalachian Trail. This week I'm somewhere between the Priest and Reed's Gap. Katahdin is a long, long way away .

Portland has something called the First Friday Art Walk: all the art studios downtown in the "Arts District" have open houses. I walked into town (I'm trying to get past thinking of the walk as a workout, but it burned calories), met Meg and friends at the Intown Grill for Geary's Pales and appetizers, then hit an open house for another Geary's and a snack. Healthy body, cultured artistic sensibility, fogged mind, and home before nine, as the sleet turns to icy snow.

Here's how Candy stays in shape during the off-season. Yes it's the Vacationland Vixens, Maine Roller Derby. Click the pic to go to their web site. Team members include Punchy O'Guts, The Mom Bomb, and Lois Blow. Now, about weight lifting and the age-old question: heavy weights/low reps. Or light weights/high reps? This picture shows the proper initial form being demonstrated in the Guinness Brewery. The following picture shows the proper initial form being demonstrated by Candy Trash in Fantasyland. Conclusion: if you're Candy, or a candyass, go light. All others go for the gusto. If you're only half a candyass, you could try this:

In the news today: Eating less and exercising more are equally good at helping take off the pounds, U.S. researchers said on Friday in a study that challenges many of the popular tenets of the multibillion dollar diet and fitness industry. Tests on overweight people show that a calorie is just a calorie, whether lost by dieting or by running, they said. They found there is no way to selectively lose belly fat, for instance, or trim thighs. And their carefully controlled study added to evidence that adding muscle mass does not somehow boost metabolism and help dieters take off even more weight. Within the story there are implications that keeping your weight low may extend your life. Here's a link to my brother Pete's blog , where he's recording his daily work to return from out-of-shape (read "better shape than Jeff") to in shape (read "better shape than a man his age has a right to be"). Again this reinforces my point that in my world I'm a fatas...