as I was leaving Wegman's last night this guy was sitting outside playing little blues riffs on his harmonica and the air was warm and still and I thought I should just sit in my car with my groceries in the back seat and the windows down and listen to this guy mess around on his harmonica
and I didn't because I had frozen food and because I am sleeping my way through my life and if I was really awake I would've sat and listened and basked in the beauty that life so generously offers every day and my only solace is to write it down and imagine a world where I did that.
I think I'm good at coaching because I've learned enough tricks from doing it long enough to know how to structure a practice and keep things moving but mostly because I try to see people for who they are and celebrate that and show support in ways both direct and indirect and I think when I've been a positive part of people's lives it's because of that.
Real attention and genuine support are like gold.
quote from a boy in the frozen food section while I was grocery shopping tonight
Arthur Jones: The squat is the single most important exercise ever discovered by man — and one of the most dangerous. The mafia have a saying: “If you can't lose, you can't win.” The squat provides you with opportunities that are unprecedented by any other exercise you can think of — but it's dangerous as hell. So you have to ask yourself: is the opportunity worth the danger?
Done properly — which, to me, is a barbell squat — it need not be all that dangerous. But of course, very few people do them properly, so they become dangerous.
The barbell squat is capable of producing degrees of muscle mass increase that cannot be produced by any other exercise, or any other combination of exercises. The squat, as an exercise, is almost a miracle — and it's dangerous as hell.
but you gotta listen to him say it: squat propaganda
what a character.
I was at the climbing gym for like 10 hours today.
I showed up a little after 10am to do my session and saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while and then had one of my best moonboard sessions ever. Then I did a private coaching lesson for an hour. Had a very short lunch break. Then coached two sessions of club over 3 hours. Then stayed around and climbed and hung out with folks after.
A good day but I'm hungry and need food!
The track and field world championships are taking place and one thing I've been doing in every race video is watching the stride of the runners in the replays. When they land their leg is basically straight or only very slightly bent. I've taken video of myself and realized that I land with a pretty bent knee.
My guess is that by landing with a straight leg your center of mass travels more quickly over your foot and you engage your glutes and hamstrings more. I think the form that I've developed is more reliant on my quads and instead of pulling through with each stride I fall into each step and then push at the end to reaccelerate. Sometimes when I watch video of myself running I think that it looks like I'm running with flat tires. I never really knew why that was the case but now I think it has to do with running with squishy bent legs.
Into the fall and over the winter I'd like to focus on straightening my leg while sprinting and strengthening my glutes and hamstrings. My hope is that by cleaning up my form I can make a big jump in speed and performance.
