Official Chris Abraham Blog
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Slow row progress not perfection wins the Holiday Challenge
I flaked that the 2020 Concept2 Fall Challenge started ON Thanksgiving Day so I started on the 27th and have already missed December 1st. As a result, in order to reach my goal of 200,000 meters by midnight of 24 December—Christmas Eve.
A day late and 6,897 meters short for the Concept2 Holiday Challenge
It turns out that the first day of the 29-day Concept2 Holiday Challenge started yesterday. So, instead of 6,897 meter-per-day to make 200,000 meters by December 24, I'll need to row an average of 7,142 meters-per-day. Wish me luck and join me. It's an individual challenge so you can just do it.
Happy thanksgiving!
I wish the very best to you and your family and friends during this time of year as we all celebrate our own personal version of thanksgiving, each in our own way in our own family in our own country.
Two red clay-colored PAC Designs courier bags soon on their way
I was pretty sure that Pat from PAC Designs had retired from the messenger bag-making game but the only good thing about the global Coronavirus pandemic is that she got cabin fever and decided to make some bags. I have been conspiring with her for months and even ordered 2 yards of 1000D clay red CORDURA and mailed it to her so that she could make my handmade, bespoke, courier bags. Here are some photos you can enjoy of the bags in the process of being made. Can you pick out my bags?
Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish Recipe from Susan Stamberg and NPR
Maybe only a handful of you have ever shared Thanksgiving with me. It's no big whoops. For a few years there, I rocked the meal, making the perfect brined and butter-basted turkey.
Shakshouka recipe
Shakshouka is a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion and garlic, and commonly spiced with cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. The dish has existed in Mediterranean cultures for centuries.
Final Numbers for my 2020 Concept2 Fall Team Challenge
While I started slowly, I committed to the entire challenge. I ended up being 13th in my boat and 2,573rd overall.
The reports of their death are greatly exaggerated
The assumption that gets predictions every time is that every generation believes that the current, upcoming, youth generation will be more enlightened or more liberal or more progressive than the last.
When I said I was slow rowing I wasn't joking
I did an hour yesterday while watching Spies in Disguise. And I did it slowly. When I talk about slow-rowing, I am not kidding.
This is starting rowing every day for the rest of my life looks like
I don't want to jinx myself—though that's exactly what I am doing—but I feel like I have gotten past the hump and I have prioritized rowing every day, really slowly, but really daily. Yes, I know it's extremely slow, but I reckon it'll speed up this week or next.
Progress not perfection for the Fall Team Challenge
I have been on the sliding seat at least once every day since the Concept2 Fall Team Challenge that started on September 15 and continues until midnight, October 15.
My bad joke, CSB’s brilliant comic, inspired by Phoneboy
My bad joke, CSB’s brilliant comic via Comic Strip Blogger! Inspired by Phoneboy.
Slow steady extended exercise is actually a type of breathing therapy
I have always been a terrible breather. I am a breath holder. I blame growing up in Hawaii and spending all my extra time freediving. That said, I have been thinking about oxygenation since the age of Coronavirus and since I started using a home ventilator, called a CPAP, and I think slow, steady, aerobic, exercise is another form of therapeutic breathing.
Motion is Lotion; Moving is Lubing
There are those who believe that a life of athletics ruin knees and elbows and there are others who believe that keeping active through functional fitness is the path towards a lifetime of easy mobility: motion is lotion. I'll gladly add, cheekily, moving is lubing.
I am working towards sixty-minutes of slow rowing every day for the rest of my life
I am finally doing it. After I burnt out my knees by going from zero to forty-five minutes of spin class in a day and then every day, I allowed myself to recover and now I am slowly building myself back up to committing sixty-minutes every evening to Maffetone rowing on my Concept2 indoor rower.
The Media that Cried Trump
A bored Media tending Sheep cried “Trump!” to get attention. They did it again and people came. A third time and the Media was ignored. Goodbye flock. A liar will not be believed, even when telling the truth.
Why do most gun owners own more than one gun?
Why do most American gun owners own so many guns? Why not just one pistol, maybe for home defense; or, just one bolt-action rifle for hunting? Or a shotgun for sport shooting? Isn't one gun enough? Why so many guns?
An erging a day keeps the orthos away
The only thing that soothes my sore, stiff, and sometimes painful knees is at least ten minutes of easy rowing on my Model C Concept2 indoor rower—my erg.
Slow rowing is the best medicine for your knees
Neither bicycling nor running give your knees the sort of full range-of-motion they need to warm up and lubricate. Only rowing—either indoor erging or rowing on the water—offers a combination of the aerobic load of the a bike and the therapeutic strengthening offered by leg presses, leg extensions, and squats.
Some great books for slow jogging, slow running, and heart rate aerobic training
While it all started with my discovery of Slow Jogging by Hiroaki Tanaka, it's expanded to Slow Running by Chris Bore and The Maffetone Method by Dr. Philip Maffetone. And, of course, there is also the incredibly-useful book, Row Daily, Breathe Deeper, Live Better, by Dustin Ordway, which also suggests consistent, persistent, daily exercise with a twist: there's no such thing as too slow as long as you do it every day.
Current state of my health and fitness as of September
Long story short: my heart is healthy but my rocketship into fitness blew up, benignly, in my face and will require yet another launch—oneth by land, twoeth by sea; first by bike, second by erg!
Part 2 of my favorite podcasts to listen to during the age of Coronavirus 2020
Hot Hollywood celebrities do some pretty good podcasts but make me angry because they're both gorgeous and smart (not fair!).
Part 1 of my favorite podcasts to listen to during the age of Coronavirus 2020
I have a super-long list of so many podcasts that I want to share with you. I am low on time so I am cutting down the list to only 5 right now so I can share them with you. Here's the first five, in no particular order.
My fitness rocket has officially successfully launched
Like SpaceX and Blue Origin, I always have a hard time even getting off the launchpad to say nothing of neither exploding nor imploding. This time, however, I think I am off the pad and past the riskiest parts of the launch.
Gerris Corp was founded as a boutique virtual company
Gerris Corp was founded as a boutique virtual company, the second incarnation of agencies designed to be distributed and global.
Smoky Chipotle Refried Beans
This delicious vegan treat is featured in Scott Jurek Eat & Run book and looked so delicious that I ordered even the crazy ingredients like dried epazote and dried Kombu seaweed!
I have worked remotely since 1996
I have worked remotely since 1996, first because I was backpacking around the world as a photographer but, later, as I transitioned from photography to technology as an open-source developer, later called LAMP, and now called Full-Stack.
I learned about Aphantasia from the Netflix TV show Space Force Season 1 Episode 7
I turned 50 in March of this year, 2020, and I had never conceived that I completely lacked a mind's eye.
My second first day back at CYCLEBAR Columbia Pike was great!
I really enjoyed my second first ride. While yesterday was my first first ride back, I didn't reach any flow. It was just a shakedown. Yesterday's was more fun. I felt back at home. And, I stayed within my Maffetone range of 105-115bpm 90% of the time.
On my first day back at CYCLEBAR
Even though I am not really following along with the class's program or the sprints and grinds and up off the seat and down on the seat HIIT system, being in a class and having a trainer and being committed to not farting around at all during the 45-60-minutes the class takes place, makes it all worth it for me.
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