12.30.2020
Heading out for a walk, fully cognizant that rain was coming soon. So what?
12.29.2020
OT: My other, less expensive hobby. Cheaper than photography and probably a lot better for you...
So, what's a swim workout like? I drag myself out of bed at 7 a.m. these days and make a cup of tea with milk. Turns out milk is a good pre-workout hydration beverage because the fat and protein in it slow down it's progress toward the exit. The milk+tea has more time to infuse into your system.
I munch on a piece of toast with peanut butter on it while I do a series of stretches to enhance ankle flexibility (one of the keys for good kick propulsion) and also to stretch out my back and shoulders. I toss on my swim suit, pull an old pair of shorts on and head to the pool. It's five minutes from my house.
Nowadays when we get to the pool we go straight to the deck area instead of spending time in the enclosed locker rooms. We wait for the 7-8 a.m. swimmers to exit the pool and then jump into our lanes and start the warm up.
How do we know which lane works best for us? A uniform standard in competitive swimming is the interval a swimmer can repeat for a set of ten 100 yard freestyle swims. Elite college swimmers can repeat the hundred yard distance and still get five seconds rest on a 1:05 interval; and will be able to repeat this for a long time. We're mostly no longer competing anywhere near that level so in our workouts the intervals might be 1:20 for the faster lanes, 1:25 for the tough lanes, 1:30 for the intermediate lanes (my group) and then 1:40 or 1:50 for the slower lanes.
If you are new to a program you can just tell the coach your one hundred yard repeat times and the coach will direct you to a suitable lane. There is a natural inclination to even out the number of people per lane but it's not unusual to see 4 intermediate swimmers in lane three but only one or two swimmers in the slower lanes. Sometimes it's the reverse. People want to swim with people in their speed and endurance bracket so there's constant self-selection going on, over time. If pushed for space I'll always try to move up to a faster lane (and plan on taking a nap later) instead of a slower lane. It's good to be pushed out of one's comfort zone sometimes.
But if the pool is crowded in the lanes you normally swim it can work fine to swim in the slower lane. The slower swimmers will set the intervals but if you are a faster swimmer you can still go fast in shorter and medium distance sets, it just means you'll have a longer recovery time for each segment of the set. If your lane is doing 50 yard swims on a minute but you usually do them on 50 seconds you can ramp up your sprinting effort and wait at the wall a bit longer for the next send off. The other people in your lane can do their usual swim and hit the same interval.
Right at 8 o'clock we jump in and start on a warm up set. You start slow and work the muscle kinks out. You build speed through the warm up set and maybe finish with some faster sprints. Our warm up today was fairly simple: 300 yard swim, 100 yard kick, 300 yard pull set, 200 yard kick. Most people who swim together often will have a routine figured out. Some people just charge through the w/u set while other people warm up progressively. If you swim with each other a lot you know when to get to the wall and move all the way over to the right to let a swimmer who wants to warm up faster flip turn on the wall. Then you follow along.
At the end of warm up the coach will have a set written on a white board and he'll explain the set to each group of lanes. A set will consist of either a homogeneous distance and the repeat time interval (say, 5 X 200 Yards on a 2:45 interval) or a mixed set with a repeating pattern. These are the "main sets" and everyone in each lane will swim them on an interval that is agreed to by everyone in their lane.
The fastest person in the lane goes first (and keeps the clock) while the slowest person goes last. Usually the swimmers in each lane are close enough in capabilities that even on long distance sets no one will get "lapped." All group workouts use "circle swimming." That means we go "up on the right" side of the lane and back on the right. Your right side is always closest to the lane line. We're basically swimming in a counter-clockwise circle.
You leave five seconds apart and keep at least a full body length between you and the person in front of you. That's especially important on the walls because people move from the side of the lane towards the middle of the lane in order to execute their flip turns. If everyone is well matched and swims an effective "circle" then you can have as many as five or six people in a lane in a 25 yard pool, swimming continuously. The circle swim is the epitome of swim collaboration. If everyone does it well it's a comfortable experience.
Occasionally some one will really be feeling their oats and even though they might usually be "middle of the lane" in speed they might ride up closer to the person in front of them. If you get too close it's the person in front's right to insist that you move up and take their place for the rest of that set.
This is considered a gentle but necessary rebuke so that a swim workout doesn't devolve into a "drafting event" where by slower swimmers get close enough to "draft" off faster swimmers. Also, close swimming makes flip turns a bit less safe and comfortable. Someone right on your toes can be intimidating (or infuriating).
Some sets are constructed to have descending time goals. You might do a set of 10 x 100's on a set interval but you will be encouraged to drop two, three or more seconds from your elapsed swim time on each repeat. You'll go faster on each 100 but you'll get a bit more rest. It's a trade off but swimming faster is harder than the added rest time is beneficial.
Sometimes we'll be asked to use hand paddles and pull buoys. These tools focus you on doing your arm strokes correctly and put more emphasis on building upper body swim strength. By eliminating propulsion and balancing from your kick you have to swim with more thought for your upper body stroke and your body roll with the two "long strokes" (freestyle and backstroke). We don't often (ever) pull butterfly because it puts so much strain on shoulders and also because butterfly is a full body stroke that requires the kick component for its basic rhythm.
The main set is usually 2000 - 2200 yard of an hour long workout but sometimes coaches will throw in stroke drills meant to fine tune technique. I love these because often getting faster is more about improving technique than it is from increasing muscle strength.
The last five minutes of workout is generally spent warming down from the longer, main set. Each person is doing the warm down their own way but most swimmers who habitually swim together collaborate on this as well.
Finally, there is usually another group of swimmers scheduled directly after our workout which means the only considerate thing to do is to be out of the pool and heading for our towels and face masks by 8:59.
Towel off and head home. Then get your day started. It's a routine, but a fun one.
A good regimen of aerobic and anaerobic exercise, coupled with walking and weights, should yield fairly quick cardiovascular benefits. Mostly, a lower resting heart rate, lower blood pressure, better level of oxygen in your bloodstream and more brachiation of the smaller capillaries and other blood vessels (which equals more delivery options for blood flow). Not only will you keep heart disease, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure at bay but you'll feel better in everything you do. And live longer. And enjoy those extra years more.
It's a nice hobby. But there's not much visual result to frame and show off to house guests. I guess you could always take your shirt off and show folks your six pack but I think that's still frowned on in polite society....
Eat all things in moderation. Exercise every day. Meditate often. Invest automatically. Never touch principal.
Be in love.
That's all the advice I ever give to my kid.
P.S. any activity that doesn't raise your heart rate while you are doing it is a "game" not a "sport." Chess is a game. Billiards is a game. Bowling is a game. Running, swimming, cross country skiing, cycling, and combinations thereof are sports. There is a fitness difference. You may enjoy games but you will benefit physically from sports.
12.28.2020
Chrome Fuji X100V or Black Fuji X100V? Aesthetics versus Stealth? Also, winnowing down the number of cameras in house.
I've been making good progress on one of my goals for 2020; getting rid of a lot of the photography gear I no longer use. But it's amazing to even write a sentence about accomplishing goals for 2020 since the goal posts have continued to move throughout the year.
Earlier in the year, after the shutdowns started, I made a contribution of video-oriented camera gear to Zach Theatre's marketing department. A camera, shotgun microphone, microphone pre-amp and mixer, a couple of LED lights with stands, and a big, fluid head tripod. It turns out that we had a lot of inventory redundancies and since it was prudent to keep as few people in the mix as possible working on projects there I thought it would be a good idea to train and equip a smart theater employee to do many of the video tasks I'd done in the past. It's worked out well.
It felt great to get rid of stuff and this mindset started me down the path of either downsizing or donating at every opportunity. I sold two duplicate Lumix S1x cameras and replaced them with one S1H. A lighter load overall but in the trade I ended up with a more capable camera for my own video work.
While looking around the studio I saw that we had seven different electronic flash monolights and hadn't used more than two all the previous year. We packed up three, with modifiers, and donated them to a struggling school. I sold another one to an up and coming photographer.
I recently gifted and/or donated six different point and shoot digital cameras of various brands and vintages as well as a couple of micro four thirds camera and lens combinations. Young people love them. And, do I really need more than three m4:3 cameras? I'm left with the GH5, the GH5S and a G9. I wanted to thin the inventory more but those three are so addictive and effective I couldn't bear to let them go...
With three full frame Lumix S1x cameras and three Lumix m4:3 cameras plus the Sigma fp (fun) camera I think we're at our lowest stage of camera ownership since the film days. And today I also spun off a couple of big, heavy and mostly unused Sigma f1.4 Art lenses for the L-mount system while adding a used and comfortably priced 20-60mm Lumix lens back into the mix. I'm trying to make the system smaller and lighter than before while maintaining the core capabilities of the system. I still have some duplication in the full frame system; especially where zoom lenses are concerned. I have the 24-105mm, the 24-70mm S-Pro, and now the 20-60mm but each does something unique that I value so I'm stuck for now.
Why get rid of the two big Sigma Art lenses? Mostly because they were enormous and heavy and I could not use either of them on a hand-holdable gimbal. But also, in the case of the 35mm Art lens, because in actual use the 24-70mm f2.8 is fast enough while being equally sharp and much more flexible.
I've just thinned out the aging collection of heavy and battered light stands and I'm down to one roll of grey seamless. The tripods though are like children and I can't decide which ones I like best and which ones need to head off to the tripod orphanage. At this pace I'll be down to the white walls, the desk and a couple chairs by June.
But, of course, there is a flaw in the process. It came in the form of a random and unplanned purchase of a slightly used, Chrome Fuji X-100V. Now that I've adapted it to the way I like to use cameras it's triggered a different response from me than the previous X100's I've owned or used since 2011. It's growing on me quickly. I like the new lens hood I bought for it. I like its feel with the Sigma grip attached to the tripod socket. I even like the Canon PowerShot G shoulder strap I'm using on it.
The one remaining issue with the Fuji X-100V is this: It is available in two finishes. You can have it in a beautiful chrome finish which looks so much like the design and material of the classic Leica M3. Or, you can have it in a classic, black finish that's a bit stealthier and more like the Leica M6s I owned in the 1990s.
I love the look of the chrome but I value the discreet charm of the black. Then a good rationale rushed to mind. I have often written that cameras should travel in matched pairs. Same batteries, same accessories, same storage medium. Why not get one of each?
I did buy a black one today to keep the chrome one company. Side by side I still can't decide which one I like best... I'll know more when I've had the chance to use the black one out and around.
I guess you could interpret this as an admission that I like the X100V very much. The quality of the files is the effective tipping point. They're gorgeous.
12.27.2020
Familiarity breeds attempt. I'm warming up to the Fuji X-100V. Setting a few things in the menu and adding an accessory or two helps. A lot.
12.26.2020
Walking downtown with Anne.
12.24.2020
That weird feeling of looking into the gear cabinet and realizing that you've accumulated four Canon Powershot G series cameras. Along with a smattering of batteries. Time to take one mobile.
It's been a really nice evening. Belinda made au gratin potatoes and I grilled ribeye steaks. We made a salad of broccoli, kale and cabbage with a sprinkling of mixed nuts and dried cherries. Belinda made a chocolate torte. A good friend dropped by a bottle of Stag's Leap Cab. It was all delicious. Then we capped off the evening watching our favorite holiday movie, "Love Actually." It gets better every year.