srf0638
9mo ago
I used to think this way, have relented somewhat--I probably still take quite a lot fewer photographs than most people, but I no longer avoid it out of principle, and sometimes when I'm on the road I make a point of trying to get photos of nice views, interesting fungi, cute animals, etc., for my gf. Shooting film is a nice compromise. I dare say sketching would be as well if I could draw worth a damn.
srf0638
9mo ago
innate
I'm not out to claim that "genetics don't matter" or something, but off the top of my head at least two of those attributes sure seem trainable.
Fiber type: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30006671/ (and see the fairly extensive animal literature as well e.g. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s004410050647)
Tendon strength: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18556433/
I am pretty sure "CNS drive" is also fairly trainable, but my eyes glaze over every time I see the phrase and I'm not sure it's terribly well-defined.
srf0638
10mo ago
Yeah, those are basically the off-ramps I'm thinking of, and they're probably my best choice on net. Just hasn't panned out quite yet.
srf0638
10mo ago
I will just say that it's really, really uncommon for Easterners to care that much about Jews, as far as I can tell.
I've known quite a few Chinese guys who were super interested in Jews, seemingly as a sort of fellow model minority type population, and it seems to me I've seen references to this online as well. I also saw a reference to that one billionaire who was just in the news for having a hundred kids via surrogates having expressed similar fascination with Jews and Judaism, though I can't track it down at the moment.
Re: distant (if even feasible) 100x100 on 100sec swim goal, have commenced lessons, doing lots of kick drills, often with a snorkel. Starting to feel good body position when prone, still struggling with body position/fore-aft balance when rolled approx 45 degrees to one side. Flip turns have gotten a lot better and more consistent. It's kinda fun! Hard to say whether it's a meaningful cardiovascular load at this point, but it's something different, anyway, and I've certainly heard guys claim that swimming enough seemed to have some carryover to e.g. bike and run.
Re: Patrick O'Brian and what to read after you finish Aubrey-Maturin, I recently read Beat to Quarters, the first-published Hornblower novel. It's okay, definitely not as fun as O'Brian. There's a sort of dynamic where Hornblower is internally tortured by self-doubt but externally distant, steely, and always right that annoys me a bit and vaguely reminds me of certain animes.
Re: last week's "plan F" thread, I'm starting to engage with a sort of inverted version of this in a not entirely theoretical manner. tl;dr got a degree, hated the white-collar world, took a blue-collar job with lots of time away from home in remote locations for ~8 years, met nice girl, now want to be home more. There are offramps within the field that would probably work for me but I haven't been able to take one in the last six months or so of trying. My academic background wasn't professional, as such (econ, math, phil, UCs) and I didn't really stay in touch with anyone from the programs. I've been semi-seriously looking at nursing school, there are some accelerated programs that would theoretically work for me, but I'm not at all sure that it's something I even want to do and I would have to take a fair number of pre-reqs before applications close in May or June. I think they'd accept online coursework for most of it (and am about to reach out to confirm) but it feels awfully committing to drop a couple grand at Modoc County Community College or whatever to laugh my way through Anatomy and Physiology.
/deerdiary
srf0638
10mo ago
My books of the year (read, not published) short list:
Wanderer, Sterling Hayden. Last days of the tall ships, Hollywood, OSS partisan shenanigans in Yugoslavia, sailing to Tahiti with the kids in a custody dispute.
We Will Never Be Here Again, Svein Tuft, yeah, it's a sports book, but Svein's a pretty interesting guy.
In Search of the Forty Days Road, Michael Asher. Burnt-out ex-SAS man retraces historic camel trading routes in Sudan. Scenes of buying his first camel and a sword straight out of D&D.
Once an Eagle, Anton Myrer. Sprawling and overlong but it gets going pretty good eventually. Supposedly very influential in the US officer corps.
srf0638
10mo ago
If you guys aren't familiar with Leukotape, it may interest you. Non-elastic medical tape that actually stays stuck to skin. Typical off-brand drugstore stuff sweats off in maybe a couple hours, for me, but I've had Leukotape stay on for five days (I realize this probably wasn't a good idea) and take out some hair when I pulled it off.
srf0638
10mo ago
I can fuel long runs and workouts with stuff like watermelon juice and homemade baby food
I've been really liking diluted maple syrup with a little salt for this purpose, if you're interested in branching out.
srf0638
10mo ago
I had thought I was indefatigable while walking, but evidently not. Is there utility in training walking for a long time like that?
If you want to be able to walk for a long time, for sure. I do think there is an intensity of endurance exercise low enough that we can reasonably ask whether it's doing anything (though e.g. Ed Coyle's papers on exercise resistance suggest that the answer is probably still "yes, it is doing something", and, less robustly, a wide variety of anecdotal experience agrees), but walking on an incline with an HR of 150bpm is almost certainly quite a bit above that minimum for you.
And is there utility in persisting past "the wall"? Is "the wall" just glycogen depletion, or something else?
I'm not here to police anyone's idiolect, but I don't think this is what people typically call "hitting the wall" (for instance, mile ~22 of a competitive marathon.). In addition to the other suggestions, if you were indoors and didn't have a bigass fan or two pointed directly at you, I suspect heat was playing a role.
srf0638
11mo ago
I dunno, pros seldom raced in helmets until ~2002, maybe a little earlier in cobbled classics, and I definitely think the sport was more aesthetic pre-helmet. Not saying it's not worth it, on net, but.
srf0638
11mo ago
birthday themed workouts
I can just about swim to save my life right now but that's it. Someone told me about a "birthday set" in swimming, 100x100 on 1:40 (i.e., 100sec) and I'm tempted to see if I can get there in time for my next birthday.
Heater. Training isn't a cost to be minimized, it's a reward.
ETA: Have you seen Nils van der Poel's "How to Skate a 10k"? (https://www.howtoskate.se/) On the one hand, insane volumes of autistically dedicated training, that indeed would not be and were not intended to be sustainable for a lifetime, but within that context it's pretty salient how much he emphasizes making it enjoyable/compatible with enjoying the rest of life. Well worth a read.
Yep, seems to help mitigate colds.
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