Jamming in South Beach, Running Raven, dog duty, Slick Vick, Dentist bumper stickers
So as I explained on Friday, my game plan to attend the pull up event in South Beach, despite my dog sitting for the weekend, was to leave around noon and hopefully get back around 8, rolling the dice that there would be no excrement waiting for me when I got home.
I was surprised when Friday night I got a call from my mom. She said she wouldn’t mind driving out to the house after she was done working on Saturday so the dogs would be ok. I hadn’t even bothered pitching this idea to her since I assumed she would not want to do it. Of course I was thrilled with the offer, it will eliminate the poop potential. Mom said she would just stay the night and get up early Sunday to head to work. Sounds good to me.
Saturday morning I was up and working early. I had the girls ride with me in the van to Ali’s place to go pick up the Camry. Ali mentioned it was due for an oil change so I told her I would do it while she was gone. I left the van there and took the Camry back out to the house to do the work. In addition to changing the oil and filter I added coolant and air to the tires. The car really could use a bath but that is an extra cost service.
I spent the rest of the morning getting as much done as I could before I was to leave for South Beach. When I have the dogs I don’t even bother worry about cleaning until after they are gone, especially now. Very recently, seemingly to me since Nicki started on some thyroid medicine a month ago, her coat has rapidly transformed. It has made her fur very long, much longer than ever before. In addition, her shedding is non-stop. In no time at all the carpet had various black spots where Nicki had been laying down, her hair just falls out.
I also noticed that Nicki’s level of thirst since being on the thyroid medicine is drastically increased. She was constantly at the water bowl. I really think this is all related to the meds. I haven’t seen positive signs from the meds, Nicki still is moving slow and obviously has joint related pain.
So I got ready to pull out for South Beach. I packed a small bag with various items, unsure exactly what I would be doing once I got there. I included a towel, some water, a rubber resistance band, a change of clothes, my Flip camera and some deodorant. That should cover most foreseeable circumstances.
I fired up the SSR, dropped the top and after filling the gas tank was off to South Beach. I had the top down for the majority of the drive. I actually drove through a period of significant rain with the top down. I was on a section of highway with no real place to pull off to put the roof up. Actually, as long as you are moving at a decent speed, the wind rushing on top of the truck shields the cabin from getting soaked too badly.
I had asked Luis, one of the Barstarzz members that invited me to the event about where the best place was to park. He said the parking garage at the building which includes a Publix, Best Buy and Staples was a good choice if you don’t mind walking a bit. The first two hours are free and the hourly rate after that is very cheap. Cheap parking in South Beach is non-existent normally. Since I only had the small bag to carry I didn’t mind the walk.
I did exercise some caution with my wallet. I opted to leave it in the truck and just carry some cash and my credit card in a velcro pocket. I had some concerns about some shady person snatching my bag when I wasn’t paying attention at the beach. I figured if I kept my money, credit card and truck keys on me at all times that would be the safest bet.
The walk to the beach was pretty lengthy, maybe 6 or 7 blocks. In my flip flops it took me about 15 minutes to get to the event, which was scheduled to start around 2PM.
By the time I got there it was probably close to 2:45. There was a big crowd gathered around the bars watching people take turns on the 15 foot tall pole mounted in the sand.
The first thing I did was look for Luis. Luis is an older guy like me that got into bar work outs late in life. He is the one that invited me to attend the event. I spotted him and introduced myself. It was cool to finally meet someone I only knew virtually up until that point. He kind of gave me the lay of the land as far as the event goes. Mixed in with the casual exhibitions there was going to be a pull up, muscle up, dip and free style competition, cool. I figured I should at least give the pull ups a shot.
I wore my Bar-barians shirt to the event after verifying with Luis ahead of time that it wouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t know if it would be weird to be wearing Bar-barians clothing at a Barstarzz event. Luis assured me it was fine. I actually didn’t leave the shirt on for very long. 95% of the guys there were shirtless so I decided to join them. If there is ever a place to show of the fruits of your calisthenics labor, it is South Beach.
As I was walking around I saw someone I recognized. I knew I saw a video about him on YouTube a little while ago. He goes by the name Raven (real name Ray)
I went up to him and introduced myself. Raven is a very unique individual and not a very young man, he recently turned 62 years old. To say Raven believes in regimens would be an understatement. For the last 42 YEARS, he has run 8 miles, everyday, on the beach.
He started doing this in January of 1975. From what I saw on his website, he originally made a New Years resolution to run 8 miles a day for an entire year. Well, he never stopped from that point on. About 5 years into his running regimen he added pull ups and other body weight exercises into his daily routine as well.
To date he has run a total of over 100,000 miles in total, just an incredible feat. However what is really amazing is when you think in detail about the reality of what this man has done. He LITERALLY has run that 8 miles every single day since 1975. He has run through injuries, illness, horrible weather and just about any other adversity you can imagine.
As I talked to him I asked what was his biggest injury issue. He said it was his back, at certain points he could barely get out of bed but he still put his 8 miles in.
Raven actually invited me to join him, a lot of people now run with him, at 5:30 at the 5th street lifeguard station. If I knew about it ahead of time I may have packed some running gear and done it. Instead I took a rain check and filed it away under the “to do’s” the next time I am in South Beach.
Raven was there because he wanted to take part of the pull up competition.
So the pull up contest eventually started. As others made their attempt I tried my best to get loose. Raven went before I did and knocked out 21 pull ups although his elbows were at 90 degrees at the bottom of his reps, a less than ideal range of motion. There were varying degrees of correctness in the form many people used. Some even used chin up grip for some reps. No one made a big stink though since they weren’t doing enough reps to win anyway.
Finally it was my turn to go, I might have been the 8th or 9th person to get on the bar. At that point the most amount of reps was 22, which I knew on a good day was within my wheel house since my PR is 25. I grabbed on to the highest of the three bars and started pulling.
I tried to keep my form very clean with my legs straight, feet together and using good extension at the bottom while making sure I was getting chin high at the top. My pace was pretty quick and explosive early on, I got to rep 18 before I had to pause. I managed to squeeze out 5 more reps to become the temporary leader with 23 reps. It was kind of cool to have a big crowd cheering me on as I squeezed out the last few reps. I wish I gave someone my Flip to shoot video of the reps. There was someone filming the entire event so I know my set is on film somewhere. Hopefully I can find it.
As I was there a tall young guy came up to me and said hi. His name is Max. Max reminded me that a couple years ago he and I were communicating back and forth about exercise stuff. Once he described the communication I remembered him but I still would have blanked on his name.
Max is almost the exact same height as I am, he is also 22 or 23 years younger than me. Despite his long build he has been able to really do some high level stuff as far as body weight movements go, much more advanced than I have gotten.
Unfortunately Max also has had a ton of injuries along the way, despite his young age. He actually was currently suffering from what sounds like a pretty serious shoulder injury. In addition, during our talks he described a myriad of other injuries he has gone through. Max is real focused and intense when it comes to achieving a goal once he sets it in his mind.
I talked to Max quite a bit, he seems like a real cool kid. He lives in the Miami area, we exchanged email and phone numbers. We agreed we should get together and work out once he heals up.
One of the other people I was looking for at the event was a woman I know primarily as “Low Bar”. She is one of the few women that are actively involved in bar exercise. She is from NYC and is familiar with the various bar groups there, including the Bar-barians. She had flown down for the event.
I was periodically scanning the crowd for her but she was nowhere to be seen. She showed up a little later. I gave her a hug and welcomed her to Florida. From the picture you can see why she is nick named Low Bar as she is less than 5 feet tall.
I sat next to her while the freestyle competition was going on. I shot most of the video I took during the freestyle part of the competition. You can see it below.
So the event started winding down around 6:30. I was planning to simply walk back to the SSR and start the 2 plus hour drive home. Low Bar asked me if I wanted to grab food with her cousin and her. Since I had mom in place to tend to the dogs I said sure.
Before I left I found Luis and thanked him again for inviting me to the event. It was a lot of fun to be around that kind of positive energy. I should invite the Barstarzz guys to hit my backyard bar park, that would be quite the scene.
I got in on the group picture before I left.
So we walked towards Ocean Drive and picked a spot to eat, thinking we would just eat out in the sidewalk seating area. Instead the hostess directed us inside to eat, um ok. Well this place, called Mangos, evidently is also a night/dance club. We were seated directly underneath a speaker that was blaring loud dance music. It didn’t take long until I got up and asked the hostess if we could eat outside instead because of the noise. She accommodated us but let me know there was a certain line in the sidewalk that I had to keep my chair behind. No problem.
We had a good dinner. Even with being outside it was still kind of loud, I had a hard time making out what Low Bar’s cousin was saying at times because of the noise and her strong Fillipino accent.
One thing that is nice eating outside is you get a nonstop stream of “interesting” people to look at. Some of the fashion decisions that were on display were pretty mind blowing. After our meal we walked back towards the hotel they were staying at. Once we hit 5th street I peeled off and started the long walk to the parking garage after giving them both hugs goodbye.
The drive back across the alley was a bit treacherous at times with some torrential downpours, including one I walked through to get to the front door of the rest stop. You can see my level of drenching in the picture.
I pulled into the driveway about 10:30. After letting the dogs out (mom was already in bed), I took a shower and crashed into bed. I was quite tired.
You can imagine the joy I felt when at 2:20 am I hear Nicki crying by the door. I assumed that meant she had to go to the bathroom. Well at least she is letting me know. Well the funny thing was the first thing she did when I opened the bedroom door was go lay in front of my mom’s door. I called her over and went out back. She did a number two and a one so I despite my being delirious with exhaustion, I preferred that to waking up at 7am to the smell of shit on the floor. Unfortunately afterward I had a very difficult time falling back asleep.
Mom was up early, crazy early to get ready for work. She wanted her alarm set at 5AM. Well it didn’t take long for the dogs to realize there was something going on in the main living area. They decided to wake me up a little after 6am, oh well.
So I told mom about my time on the east coast. As we were talking I realized this was the first time mom has set foot in the house since Ali and I separated. In fact, mom said it was the first time she has been at the house since last CHRISTMAS. When she first said that I was sure she was wrong but as I thought about it I couldn’t remember any other visits. It seemed impossible that so much time had passed so quickly. My life does feel like a bit of a blur the last 6 months or so.
Mom was the first person to sleep in the bed Jeremy donated to me. She said the bed was comfortable although she said she slept terribly. I wouldn’t credit that to the bed though, almost every time mom stays at the house she reports poor sleeping results. The deviation from her routine must through her for a loop.
So mom got ready and headed out around seven for work. I thanked her again for her dog sitting, it was nice to not have to be constantly checking my watch when I was over in South Beach.
So despite a severe lack of sleep I decided I needed to get some running in for Mudder training. I drove to the now closed for the season water park to run around. My initial hope was to do four laps around the outside of the park which would add up to 8 miles.
The skies were overcast which made running early on pretty bearable. As I got to the halfway point my right knee was feeling pretty shitty. Each stride had an accompanying ping of soreness associated with it. I decided to only do 3 laps instead of 4, finishing the 6 miles in 55 minutes and change, not a great pace but ok. I figured running the last 2 miles wasn’t worth it if I was really hurting. When I got home I iced the knee and it actually doesn’t feel too bad today.
Well that Eagles game was a bummer. I actually was so tired I was half asleep for nearly 3 quarters of the game. I was awake when Vick fumbled another two times. His turnover problems are a real big deal. Obviously opposing teams realize that the best way to beat the Eagles is to pressure Vick. When this happens he makes a lot of poor decisions and he’s not good at protecting the ball.
Despite the turnovers the Eagles actually grabbed their first lead late in the game. The drive that got them the lead had the opportunity to be a HUGE fail for Andy. For some reason he decided to go completely against the book and go for it on 4th down with over 10 minutes left in the game on his OWN 30 yard line, a huge risk. Luckily the Eagles converted by a few inches but man, he would have been crucified if they didn’t.
So anyway, the drive was very long, covering 17 plays resulting in a 14-13 lead. All that was left was for the defense to hold the Steelers with a couple minutes left on the clock and the game could be secured. Well obviously it didn’t happen. The biggest fail was when the Eagles had the Steelers pinned back on their side of the field facing a 3rd and 12. Instead of dealing the knockout blow, they played a soft zone that allowed a 20 yard completion. Once that happened I knew they were done.
The Steelers proceeded to march down the field easily and kicked a game winning field goal with three seconds left.
It was a disappointing ending for sure but I think the bigger news is Mike Vick’s torrid turnover pace. The amount of times he has turned the ball over thus far this season is staggering. He will obliterate the league record at this pace. Hopefully Andy is smart enough to eventually realize that either Vick has to take care of the ball better or someone else has to start taking the snaps.
Ali ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday, the reason I was watching the dogs for the weekend. She had much cooler temps to run in this year, hovering around 50 which for me, would be ideal. Ali prefers warmer air. She managed to finish a couple minutes ahead of last year’s time but had a lot of struggles, especially the last 10 miles of the race. She said her entire lower body was just in severe pain.
The good news or bad news, depending on how you look at it, is she gets to take another whack at the marathon distance in a month as she is signed up for the NYC marathon.
After the Eagle game I had enough daylight left to go out and hop on the tractor. Once again it was not running smoothly, acting like there is still some ethanol slime in the fuel system. I will need to find some additive that will dissolve the shit. I never like doing chores at the tail end of the weekend but it felt good to get the grass done.
You know when I run, at least when I run by myself, lots of random thoughts go through my head. As I was running Sunday my mind drifted to to the topic of people that spend a lot of energy screaming about “entitlements” and how they are ruining the country. I then thought about the hypocrisy that many of these exact same people are responsible for parenting the most “entitled” generation in US history.
These people that are so eager to cut seniors medical or social security benefits are the same people that think it necessary to equip their child with a one digit age with the latest and greatest iDevice. They feel it is important that they have some sort of video screen stimulation in front of their child’s face most waking moments of the day. Their child should not be made to suffer the cruel punishment of having to actually look out a window during a road trip and look at scenery.
These are the people that see nothing wrong with their child receiving a medal when their soccer team gets last place. After all, children should be taught early on that no matter how hard they do or don’t work, they will be rewarded. I mean wtf, how can parents complain about an entitled society when they parent in such a manner that does nothing but encourage that mentality?
I literally laugh out loud when I see bumper stickers were parents proclaim their child had a perfect dental check up. Good job Sally, way to go Petey!
Their children are being raised in a bubble. No one is allowed to yell at them, nobody should ever treat them unfairly, they are not allowed to endure hardship or struggle to attain a goal. It is just handed to them.
You see, as much as failure hurts, it is an absolutely essential part of life. If you are never allowed to fail you don’t ever appreciate or even know what true success is.
Maybe more people in the country need to go on solo runs so they can come to these type of revelations on their own. Don’t talk it if you don’t walk it.
I saw this quote floating around Facebook and it struck me as so true.
