Aerial Arts=Funtastic Time

Skye and I signed up to take this Aerial Arts class put together by and for homeschoolers. It is awesome. What a way to get a work out. So much FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Skye loves it and is quite a natural, just flying around on the silk ribbons.



Learning the trapeze





Strong and solid.

And yes we have video. Skye is mellow and calm, like in a trance. I too feel like I'm in a trance, like ready to hurl type of not-so-good trance. And then finally I'm swirling listening to my shoulder go pop,pop,pop like some kid of machine gun or popcorn maker.

Time to start doing my physical therapy again on that ol' snowboard injury. You know the one that happened 30 seconds into my first snow board run ever. You know the one tore apart my right shoulder. Yeah that one.

So Many Tomatoes So Little Time

The tomatoes are doing well, almost too well.
I've given some away.
We have been eating them night and day, dishing them out at park days, making them into salsas.
Right now were slow, slow roasting some to then drop into oil and have our very on "sun-dried" tomatoes.

Yummy, yum, yum.





Skye carefully slices up the little cherry tomatoes.




Little gems of delight.




But when it comes to the "Mortgage Lifter" giant tomato.....ATTACK!!!!!!!!!

Funny weight and the FUNdamentals

Well I got back from a run and was down to 194 lbs, which was down from the 198 lbs of yesterday. So obviously a goodly amount of water weight. Who knows what tomorrow holds?

I know I am getting a bit obsessive about my weight. And I know how little the pounds matter, its more about how you feel, BMI, distribution of body weight, etc.

But it's an easy thing to measure, it's a bench mark that's easily translatable. Looking in a full-length mirror, I also realized how hard it is going to be to lose 10-15 pounds. I probably have 5 pounds of flab, after that I'll be getting into some redistribution and reshaping of muscle.

Why do I want to lose 10-15 ?

Look I would love to have a set of 6-pack abs. Never had them, so that would be cool. But here are the real reasons.

Running and racing
I had my best time yet at the LA Marathon, but it was tough both on the training runs and the race itself to lug around 200+ lbs. I just signed up for the Malibu Marathon and am eyeing a ultra-marathon after that, so I really, really want to be a bit lighter.

Basketball
I have slam dunked a basketball in my youth and for a time slamming down a volleyball was no big thing. But I was younger and lighter way back then. It would be fun to do that again.

Jui Jitsu
A double edge sword here, when I am lighter, I am quicker, more agile and can last longer. Heavier though I can literally crush my opponent, applying significant pressure with just my body weight. But I feel better lighter.


The FUNdamentals

It's been around two weeks of "play" exercise and my body is pretty wracked. Between the extreme pogo, unicycle slackline, jui jitsu, ocean swimming, some stairs, some trail work and most recently an aerial arts/trapeze class I'm taking with Skye, I am aching, feeling muscles I didn't know I had. It's been a good couple of weeks and I have avoided any sort of real repitition, except some lap work in the pool. It's been good. I have seen some real results and had a lot of FUN.

That being said, I just recently signed up for another marathon and I'm looking at it as a stepping stone to try to do my first Ultra-marathon. This will in fact require some regular workouts and a defined strategy. But I do want to really limit the running I do. I think I can get to the level I need with a weekly long and medium-long run and then just supplement that with some sprint work and stairs. We'll see.

Also I'm going to start playing around with some I-phone app-based workouts that are all about repitition, but they are all body weight excercises and if it works out, I'll have some good bragging rights. They are as follows:

100 push-ups
200 sit-ups(really crunches)
200 squats
20 pull ups

So I will be doing some reps after all. And after listening to my shoulder going click-clack, click clack on the trapeze, I realized I need to get back to my rehab excercises. So I will be doing a little weight-training, more maintenience than anything else.

But I will still be playing around alot and having FUN!!!

Mont Ventoux

Montelimar to Mont Ventoux-STAGE 20
Mont Ventoux has been a feared/loved part of the Tour de France on several occasions, but today is going to be extra special. The race for the Yellow Jersey has all but been decided. Alberto Contador is minutes ahead, however the fight to get on the podium is fierce. A mere 1:28 separates 2-6 place.

Mont Ventoux is a treeless peak that looks like the surface of the moon and today is being hit by gale force winds. It is 13.2 miles at 7.6%. It is a climb that is termed Beyond Category.

You couldn't have written up a better script.

The youthful Schleck brothers against the back from retirement 38 year old Lance Armstrong and race leader Contador.

Last year's Tour winner has also vowed to take the stage. Lance has never been able to win on the peak inspite of winning the Tour 7 times.

As I am watching this battle play out I am more than amazed and in awe.

The Podium will look like

1st Alberto Contador
2cnd Andy Schleck
3rd Lance Armstrong

WOW!!!!

My Little Pickle

Ok, I know it's really a cucumber. Pickling is a process, but you can already imagine it fulfilling its destiny.


Gifts from the Garden

The garden continues to amaze and beguile me. I haven't been able to give it as much attention as I wished to, however I didn't abuse or abandon it like in years past. So I'm always excited and pleased when I can harvest and eat something from our little vertical plot of earth.





A summer pumpkin? This little guy sprouted up a while ago, I didn't know what it was, something that it made it through the composter intact. I let it grow and grow and finally this melon started turn orange and revealed itself.




A sunny disposition but I did have to tie his head up, its weight had him bowing down towards earth.




Lots of cayenne


The grapes although not great in number are finally sweet enough to eat without too much tartness.



A sampling of goodies from the garden

Other Cool things in the Garden



The beauty of flowers and

Frogs....




This little guy we rescued from the pool a bit earlier.




And then his friend showed up.

Weight a Second

Pride goeth before the fall

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

-- Proverbs 16: 18-19 (KJV)

Yes I'm quoting the Bible.

No I didn't find God, still as unsure as ever, regardless that old book has some real words of wisdom whether they came from above or from some wise old sage.

A mere three days ago I stepped on the scale and saw 193 lbs and then blogged about it. Granted, I qualified it by saying it was a lot of water weight. And I did mention that it was immediately after running.

That being said I celebrated by taking the foot of the gas, as in easing up on my workouts, eating with little or no concerns, and having a couple more beers than planned.

And today as I tinkered with the weight, sliding it along waiting for the arrow on the end find it's balance. I slid it past the 194 mark, 196, 198. Was I going to have to re-align the counter weights?

No the arrow final settled at 199 and a touch.

Ok. Time to get serious. I'll still be focusing on the FUN part of training, but I won't ignore the diet or the tried and true reality of the long runs.

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

South Central LA's Gemstone

Sometimes the most magical treasures can be found in your very own backyard, as in the case of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

This little gem can be found right in the middle of the city. It was my first visit, which in my defense, isn't too bad because they only opened it on April 18, 2009




Just south of Jefferson, amazing southern views of downtown can be had.




And a learning opportunity.




What a beautiful facility, except for that weird antennae thingy

But the reason we were really there was to do a little recon for a work out.

A Stair Climb with Views to Die For




Wow that's a long way down......





But it seems much further going back up.

I only did the climb once because like I said we were really just checking it out, plus it was like 80+F and the sun was blazing, but it was one a..kicker.

Looking forward to attacking this in earnest.

Jonny Law and Jonny Vegas

Years and years ago when one of my many nicknames was Jonny Vegas, since I was born there with 3 magical 7's in my birth date, I had my share of run-ins with the police, little petty things, mind you and plenty of parking tickets that tend to plague the youthful, brash and unaware.

Well for whatever reason it seems a certain aspect of my youth is re-visiting me.

The ridiculous jay walking ticket is still pending and yesterday the absurdities continued.

Signs had been posted that they were repaving the street in front of our house. And I made ample preparations. I moved Cindy's car the night before. I packed up gear for the following day and put the bike rack on the Explorer.

The morning the day of, I woke up quite early, loaded my bike and drove to another street to park the car away from the posted streets. Then I went for a jog, came back grabbed my bike and bicycled back.

A few hours later, Skye and I hopped on our bikes and set out to continue on our day.

When we got to where I had parked the Explorer, it was gone and the road was in the middle of getting paved.

And there were a whole slew of No Parking Signs posted. So many it would have been practically impossible to for me to miss, having first driven past them, then jogged past them both coming and going and then finally bicycled past them.

What I figured happened, is that the County Workers forgot to post this particular street, (it is out of the way and very easy to miss) and when they came back to actually do the paving, they realized their oversight and threw up a bunch of signs. They're just the temporary type that are easily wired up.

Can I prove this? Of course not. So a major inconvenience, a financial set-back, but life goes on.

In the immortal words of NWA, "F--k the Police" especially the wanna-be meter maids.

The Weight is Over

Had my second run since the marathon this morning. Jumped on the scale and weighed in at 193 lbs, that's 9 lbs dropped since my McSkillet McStake breakfast on July 11. 9 lbs in 9 days, that is well on course to the 10-15 lbs in 3-6 weeks.

I know, I know. It was immediately after running so a lot of it is water weight. And the first pounds drop like nothing. But still I haven't seen 193 in a long while. It's only 8 pounds off my target goal of 185 lbs.

So this FUN-ctional workout of pogoing, unicycling, juggling, slacklining, parkour/free-runninng and fun swimming is really working and FUN!!!!

Tour de France, Stage 15 WOW!!!!!

What an amazing finish to the Tour de France today.

Alberto Contador destroyed the rest of the field with an amazing climb on the Verbier as the Tour heads into the Alps. He snatched away the Yellow jersey and put 1:37 between the second place rider and his teammate, Lance Armstrong, who in a post-race interview pretty much conceded that in Paris it would be Contador and not himself on the top of the podium.

Is the Texan playin' possum? Or has time caught up to the old man? We'll see how this plays out.

Happy Birthday Charles

After getting up much too early to do this that and the other and watching a very fun and interesting, very interesting leg of the Tour de France, I made plans for the full social schedule ahead of us. I figured to not retreat into seclusion because of not having my better half with me and try to keeping up a face as it were.

So our social obligations would take us down to the Marina in Redondo Beach, where it was absolutely beautiful. And then back up to Marina Del Rey and finally into downtown to celebrate our good friend's birthday on a rooftop in the middle of the city. Good times





Charles and Coltrane


We got there early so we could celebrate in the family friendly stage of the party. As would have it that blended into the evening party and I finally had to drag Skye away around 11 pm.

I was and am utterly as I watch the Tour's first important day in the montains. I sure missed my Cindy yesterday.

Bounding and spinning

After several hours last night and this morning of trying figure out the digital video camera we've had for a couple of years and then the movie editing program that has been on the computer for a couple of years I finally broke down and opened up one of those "Windows for Dummies" books.


Wow!!!!

What I've been missing and it was so easy.

You now how it is about men and maps or manuals.

Anyway check it out





Skye was a great videographer and cheerleader

Days of Play

Goodbye Cindy

We saw Cindy off this morning. After dropping her off at LAX we headed down to San Pedro to join other home school kids and parents in a PE/movement class led by another home school dad, Efrain (rare) who also studies Brazilian juijitsu (more rare) with the Machado brothers (rarerist). We ran down a trail, bounding around rocks, throwing and carrying rocks of all sizes, ending up doing sprints, bear walks, duck walks and the like ont the wet sand, a beautiful day to be by the beach, unfortunately we didn't think to bring our suits, oh well.

Off to park day

So I'm on this new kick to really try to make my work outs fun. I think the drudgery of all the runs leading up to the marathon and the repitition of "regular"excercise have kept me away. So here I am, back at it with fun.


The Slackline

We tried out the slackline at the Venice Eco-fest and were hooked. So I ordered one from Gibbons Slackline.
I set it up and it was awesome.



Skye sizing it up.



And soon there was a line to slackline.




River, one step at a time





Okay it was a bit harder than I expected.

I ended up shortening the distance so that it didn't bounce quite so much, making the slack line a little less slack.

We played some frisbee a little latter and then hopped around a bit.

Fun, fun, fun.


Tuesday

Started out with Skye and me doing some yoga.

Later on we were off to the beach for more fun and excercise, swimming and bouncing around in the waves. Again excercise that's fun.

Tommorrow off to circus school.

No really I'm not kidding.

Tomato Bonanza

First Heirloom Harvest

Cindy got a movie!!! Yay!

It's in Atlanta, Georgia. Boo!!! Tear, sniffle, sniffle.

We sure are going to miss her, but it also sounds like a good excuse for a road trip.

But the day before she left, we had our first little harvest from the heirloom tomatoes I have been obsessing over.




Skye appreciating one of the of the lovely heirlooms(the Black Sea Man variety to be precise)





Cindy won't get to enjoy the bounty of the garden unfortunately. But I did cut up a plate and we had it with some salt and a little pepper. The taste was deep and complex, almost like eating meat. And the cherry tomatoes are sweet like candy.

YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off and Running

I finally got off my butt and went for a run. It was the first time since I ran the LA Marathon, that's been like almost two months. Took a nice little trail run,, 1hr 13min, in Kenneth Hahn, already hot by 7 am. It felt great to run again. I still have some tightness and congestion in my chest from a little cold that has been lingering for weeks now.

I've been watching the Tour de France, which is an inspiration in itself. Lance being back in it has been quite amazing and the fact that he and teammate Contador have started battling out has been making it a very interesting and exciting race. But I think it took getting into the mountains to get me back to training.

Cindy leaves for a job in Atlanta Monday. So there is a new clarity and focus to what is happening in our household.

Whatever the reason it was great to start training again. I'm looking to lose 10-15 pounds in 3-6 weeks. Setting a goal to slam dunk by end of the summer, which is a big reason I want to drop that much weight. I also don't feel like hauling around 200 lbs on the bike and up and down those trails. Looking forward to a new bag of tricks in regards to fitness. Look out for some fun and different training techniques to come.

What the McFuc was I thinking?

I am obviously a little out of sorts, a lot swirling about in the cabeza, but that still doesn't explain or forgive my decision to pull into a McDonald's this morning and pick up a little order of McDeath.

Now I have been against McDonald's and fast food in general for a long time now for a plethora of reasons. Maybe I just needed a reminder. Boy did I get one, still have it in fact grumbling around in my belly.

My McDeath Breakfast included a McSkillet Burrito which weighed in at a mere 8.4 oz packing in 610 calories 320 of them pure fat, tagging along was 1390 mg of sodium, about 58% of my daily recommended amount. I opted for value, therefore getting the "meal" which included a hash brown thingy 2 oz yet 150 more calories 80 coming from fat and the a Coke instead of coffee(I don' do the bean) 210 more calories.

Are you McFuckin' kidding me? In under 5 minutes of time without even having to get out of my seat I was able to put away 970 calories.

Is it any wonder why Americans are getting so fat?

Birthday Blog Blues

A few years back when I started the blog I was doing a bit more traveling, hence the name "Where in the World is Jon?" I also had yet to turn 40, so it was a figurative "Where" as well. In a funny way it was a journal to see and document how I was going to handle and or deal with a "mid-life crisis"

Well I haven't been doing much traveling. Pretty much ho-hum, homebody, which brings me back to the whole "mid-life crisis" thing.

A bunch of "Who am I?" "How did I get here?" "This wasn't part of the plan" "Is this really my life?" questions took root in the days around my uneventful 42cnd milestone.

Not many answers came back.

But it did stir some of my creative juices.

Not always a good thing.

We'll see.

Tour de France 2009

WOW!!!

With everything else going on the Tour de France started on Fourth of July, with Lance Armstrong entering as at best a long shot. He's on a ridiculously strong and loaded team with 3 other riders who could win, including odds on favorite and 2007 winner Alberto Contador.

First off was a time trial, where Lance finished a respectable 10th. On day 3, a little experience and little luck propelled him from 10th place to 3rd. And then today after Team Astana won an amazing team time trial he was 2/10th of a second from taking the Yellow Jersey.

F--king amazing!!!!!

4th of July

The lower structure is relatively new, the TSS(Tomato Support Structure) as I have come to call it.



I finally got cleaned up and had most of the food going and then the guests started arriving and the second phase of madness began.

It's hard enough to manage a grill or rather two grills on different levels. Add to that pool duties(the pumps decided to fall apart) and playing host and I was set to get burnt to a crisp.





We had a lot of kids over and there joyous squeals and splashing about made it all worth it.




And of course old friends, I mean friends I've know for a long while, like since high school.

Lots of other friends showed up and a great time was had.

3 days latter and we are still cleaning up.


I am dead tired. But it was a fun time, well worth it in the end.

Lead up to July 4th

Our 4th of July BBQ is becoming a tradition, much like out New Year's Party.

And it really almost didn't happen this year. I was broken, beaten and spent and in no mood to entertain, but Cindy wanted to go ahead with it and was excited to think about something other than her current job. With Skye in camp, it shouldn't be that hard, right?

Wrong.

I ended up doing a bunch of work for Cindy and some SDSA stuff and spending way too much time looking for the perfect pair of plants for some pots I was moving around, to the tune of looking at nurseries from Redondo Beach to Agoura Hills and many points in between. I can get obsessive at times, I know. I got some good jui jitsu training in as well, but not a lot of prep for the party.

You see for me preparing for one of these events, entails figuring out which projects I can actually finish in time for them not to be in mid-construction phase. As well as what really actually needs to done. I am usually and overachiever and get in way over my head. This year I was determined not to let this happen....by pretending the party wasn't really happening.

Well as the day approached and we realized we were looking at having at least 50 people over and we also started remembering all the people we hadn't invited, it was becoming impossible to ignore.

Picked Skye up from camp mid-day Thursday, so that we could beeline to her friend's birthday party, picking up a gift along the way. And there went Thursday.

Friday was all about shopping and errands. No substantial work got done around the house. Cindy did have the day off but had a job interview that took up the better part of her day.

Blah blah blah

Saturday...

Off to the farmer's market and then...

The house and backyard are trashed. The back looks like a construction site. I end up sweeping and shop vacuuming for a couple hours alone. The grills hadn't been properly cleaned since our last BBQ, so that took forever.

And I had yet to start cooking or even prepping to cook. We are 2 1/2 hours out and I feel like we are 3 days behind, literally.

So I find myself barking out orders to Cindy and Skye (they both slept in 10 o'clock and 11:30 respectively, very atypical for Cindy, she was just exhausted, quite normal for Skye) and running up and down stairs, getting stuff from the garden, jumping in on the cooking and trying to put together a music play list, making sure to include lots of Michael Jackson. FYI that ends up being 4 flights of stairs that I am bounding up and down.

To be continued, as in the actual party.

SodaStream-My Dream

I got pretty addicted to Red Bull years and years ago, back before it was very popular. In fact it was hard to find back then. They were trying to get it in movies so they were big on product placement they would literally drop off cases to me, all free.

Now, of course Red Bull is huge and very not free. I still drink too much of it. I drink it instead of coffee, which I never got a taste for.

Water. I drink a lot of it. I love water, but after a while it does get boring and so I mix it up with some sparkling water. But I always feel a little silly about paying for fizzy water.

And with both of them, I see the cans and bottles piling up, not so green.

So I was so excited and thrilled when I ran across the SodaStream.

So simple a child can do it.




The machine and its many many flavors.




Skye making me a Red Bull type drink.




Adding some fizz.




And some Skye magic.



And of course the Red Bull mix.

Mmmm yum.

Less stuff going in the bin, keeping more money in my wallet. Good for the planet, good for pocketbook and just plain good sense.

Highly recommended.