dilletante, posts by tag: excercise - LiveJournal

moominmolly and i wandered a ways up the street on bouncy stilts yesterday. running, or at least jogging, is starting to feel comfortable (up from "impossible"; i'm not sure if this represents loosening of the springs or improvement in our balance or both); time to buy more serious body armor. skipping is also kinda fun. :)

fooling around in the back yard was at least as informative, though. i practiced getting down on the ground and back up, and also picking things up off the ground. i think really strong, flexible hamstrings would be an asset there. :) also found that throwing a juggling club to myself between my legs from behind (i guess this would be an "albert" throw if i were passing to someone else) is an awesome excercise on stilts, because i need practice with that self throw anyway for juggling; it works my balance and ability to stand still; and i get a lot of practice picking the club back up off the ground. :)

we need to institute somewhat more systematic maintenance of the bouncy stilts, as slight differences in bearing friction or the adjustment of the knee loop (which apparently can be slid up and down) become very noticeable on two-footed bounces.

dancingwolfgrrl and i went to last night's spin jam for about an hour, in what apparently is now its usual location-- a big gymnasium, much roomier and less densely-packed with peril than the tiny room it was in when moominmolly and i went over bu's spring break. sadly, dancingwolfgrrl had just come from a pilates class, which left her arms a bit overworked already for serious poi stuff.

serrin and m00n were there! the former doing bendy partner acro and the latter photographing it, in what seems to be their usual dynamic. :)

the larger venue allowed for some much more space-eating toys-- i saw a unicycle and a couple of people with 6' bullwhips, and of course the partner acro. there was also a juggler! i realized as i was walking over with my clubs to pass with him that he was barely holding a 3-club pattern together and would probably doomed for passing and it would just make him feel bad, but i'd already caught his eye and... and as it turned out the first try was not so great but he improved with really surprising speed. so we passed for a while and i got in my fix. :)

other toys i saw: poi, meteor, staff, double staff, rope dart, fans, fire sword, hoops, contact ball, beanbags (toss juggled). note to self: next time, bring more toys. also, wear clothing i can be upside-down in. also, don't wear long underwear (very warm in the gym!)

( juggling!Collapse )

( bouncy stilts!Collapse )

( time to get off my assCollapse )

( finger splint interferes about as much as you'd expectCollapse )

( welcome, fireflies! or, damn but i'm out of shapeCollapse )

bj's in town for chillguru's circus! and he agreed to teach some aerial straps classes, as that's what he's been doing lately.

( straps hurt in new and exciting ways.Collapse )

( turning into a circusCollapse )

today's lesson is that a tandem can, as we suspected, compensate a great deal for shortcomings in training (like, not having done any this season). provided it doesn't hurt you.

this time, it didn't!

apparently moominmolly's recent running has toughened up her joints enough to keep them from crapping out like they did last year, and the saddle she hastily bought last weekend after our abortive very-first ride of the season saved her ass (literally), so today our second ride of the season was the 200k (125mi) brevet, which we finished in 11:57. woo!

it would have been considerably shorter, too, if not for those meddling kids and their stupid dog the rear-tire blowout 5 miles from the end, which caused us to discover that we'd packed the wrong spare tube and no means of inflating it or patching the old one. we also discovered that random strangers driving by in cars might be very kind biking fanatics who live nearby.

weirdly, we even tightened up our checkpoint turnaround times a lot this ride, though i think it was at the expense of eating quite enough food.

also weirdly, i only drank about 2l of liquid all day (maybe 3l if i miscounted). not sure what's up with that; slightly worried.

it was a cold day for a ride-- nice in that we didn't sweat, sad in that there were only a few moments all day when all of my fingers and toes were pain-free at once. and stopping too long brought on shivers. if it'd been raining, it would have been a disaster. but though overcast, the skies stayed dry. and spring is very pretty.

all in all we made a pretty good showing. we were dead-last, of course, arriving just as the sun was setting (though a good hour and a half before the maximum allowed time). but a good half-dozen or more bikes passed us right at the end while we were laid up with tire problems (including the other tandem and all three recumbents-- not sure what was up with that, either. i was theorizing they were zooming ahead and stopping to down a few beers in bars along the way...)

the other tandem was a nice young couple who helped us out with some parts. we also saw a guy we'd met the last time we were doing brevets...