I’ve decided to do something radical. No, not a tattoo (though that would be wild for me).
I’m going to cut back massively on my online presence.
No, seriously. I’ve spent the last 20 years building up my online presence, developing connections, and working on spreading myself all over the internet. And I’m pretty much over it.
I’ve begun deactivating online accounts I rarely use, including Pinterest, Brainbench, and several others. I’m unsubscribing from all the dumb mailing lists. I’m leaving the huge lists of forums I used to visit. I’m reconsidering my involvement with social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. More and more, I find myself disgusted with what I have to put up with using these services, and less and less am I finding joy in using them.
I’m hoping that it will free up my brain to make room for more important things like spending time writing, updating my blog, recording music, and spending time with my family. All worthy causes.
I do realize, of course, that I will have to maintain at least one online presence. Most likely I will keep one social media outlet as well (and there’s plenty of reasons it probably won’t be Facebook). But the truth is, these things don’t define me, and I don’t need them to live a happy, fulfilled life. Twenty years ago, I was better off without them, and I believe you were too, if you happen to be old enough to remember life before the internet.
It is a gradual process. Places like Facebook make it extremely difficult to leave, but it is indeed possible.
Well, looks like I got called up for duty again. It’s nice to be wanted, but it is horribly inconvenient. I’m not going to lie, I would rather be somewhere else.
And then I stop and think. What if I were wrongly accused? Would I want someone like myself on a jury? Probably so. Maybe it won’t be so bad.
In my quest for less stuff, I cleaned out an old pile of scrapbook fodder, and found proof for my kids that I wasn’t always a fuddy-duddy. Saw Van Halen in ’91, my ears were ringing for days.
Been busy, going to start a new position at work soon. Haven’t been able to write as much as I’d like, but hey, I’m still thinking of you faithful blog fans (like, all three of you. Hi mom!)
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year thinking about what I’m going to do about cycling. For those who don’t know, I was hit by a car and had a full femur rod and hip pin put in last July. I’m as normal as I’m going to get, but I can no longer ride my bike 100+ miles a week like I was, for several reasons.
So this leaves me with a predicament. How do I stay in shape if I can’t ride every day? I hit the indoor bike trainer. Now, for someone who loves to ride, the indoor trainer is the equivalent to being punished in the corner. On your knees.
To keep from being bored to death riding in your living room, you need something to watch or make it interesting. Up until now, I’ve been watching cycling videos on Vimeo, or maybe catch a cycling documentary on Netflix.
Then I discovered TheSufferfest. Would you think of something called “Sufferfest” to be fun? Well, it kind of is, and kind of isn’t. It’s fun, in that I get something interesting to watch while I ride, along with training intervals and some pretty good music. It’s not fun, in that if you do it right, you will end up with your lungs on the floor, next to your lunch.
I downloaded the video called Local Hero, which puts you in the role of the Sufferlandrian cyclist trying to win the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Geelong, Australia. You start off with a relatively easy Cyclocross race to warm up. Then you go into interval training, which is basically 6-minute bursts of intense effort broken up with shorter rest periods.
The video is an hour and twenty-five minutes. You get a 5-minute warm up, 3 minutes of gradually increasing effort (then a rest), 25 minutes of pyramid intervals, 25 minutes of gradually increasing steady intervals, 4 minutes of all-out sprint practices, and a 5-minute cool down. The rest of the time is credits and funny/snide commentary.
The Lowdown:
Part of my reason for getting this video was because I can no longer ride to work. I have been forced to maximize my time on the trainer, as I can’t get in the miles I used to. So, the question is, is it worth it?
Well, I’m here to say that it does indeed work. Granted, you can only get out of a workout what you put into it. But it is interesting enough to watch many times, and the actual workout is hard enough that you will definitely benefit from it.
Music: Mostly alt rock, with some really catchy tunes. I didn’t like how the sound effects interrupt, but it’s not too bad.
Video: Really good quality footage. It works well, and is well edited. Some of the taunts are a little cheesy, but hey, it’s all the Sufferlandrian Embassy could afford.
Production: Well, I have to be honest. It could be better- it lacks a little polish- but it’s not bad, either. Probably better than I could have done.
Complaints: It’s kind of hard to judge the difference between “7” effort and “7.5” effort. Since it’s all relative, it makes it tough to really be consistent. However, it depends on your trainer stand, the gearing on your bike, and so on.
Likes: If you do the workout, it’s hard… really hard. Doing intervals and sprints for close to 90 minutes is brutal, any way you look at it. The scenery and footage is excellent, and the workout is fun (in a sadistic kind of way).
Overall, it’s a fun video, and I’m looking forward to more from The Sufferfest!
At work the other day, someone found a hummingbird stuck in spiderwebs, nearly dead. We cleaned it up and managed to nurse it back to health with dribbles of Coke, until a few hours later it was strong enough to fly away on its own. Cool stuff!
In case you’ve noticed (like all three of my regular readers) I haven’t been posting much lately. Since Hurricane Isaac, we’ve been trying to get back to normal. No, I didn’t lose my house or anything, but I did miss about four days of work. In their infinite wisdom, my employer decided that we’d have to make up those four days by working Saturdays.
Ugh. Anyway, I’m not dead, not abandoning my blog, I’ve just been ridiculously busy going to work and sleeping.
I’ve got a month’s worth of posts waiting in the wings, just need to get the time to write and edit them. Thanks for reading!
