Sunday, July 18, 2010

Weekly Summary: July 12-18

07-12-2010
Mon-AM: 7 miles (1:00) Creek Path+2mi barefoot at Kitt
Miserably sluggish and slow.  I went to bed at 5pm after bagging the evening run.

07-13-2010
Tue-AM: zippo
Woke at 1am last night and proceeded to experience endless hours of projectile unpleasantness of all sorts.  Really really sick.

07-14-2010
Wed-AM: nada
Still bed-ridden.

07-15-2010
Thu-AM: 4 miles (:37) Creek Path
Very very slow and hazy return to physical activity post-illness.

07-16-2010
Fri-AM: 15 miles (2:12) Green Mt. up back down Bear Cyn, 3000'
Finally made it up Green again.  Hamstring tightened significantly on the final descent down Skunk Canyon.  Really really hot, too, as it's been all week. Had a remarkably painful acupuncture session with Allison Suddard in the afternoon.

07-17-2010
Sat-AM: 15 miles (2:22) Devil's Thumb, 3000'
Very nice run up to the Continental Divide in the Indian Peaks Wilderness with Scott, Jocelyn, Jenny, and Bill, all between 9k' and 12k'.  Scott and I took it pretty easy all morning, especially on the downhill where my hamstring had me fairly gimpy. Great to finally make it back above treeline. Lots of exploring to be done up there in the next few weeks.

07-18-2010
Sun-AM: 15 miles (2:16) Green Mt. up back down ridges, 3000'
Getting my mojo back with good energy the whole way and a relatively cooperative hamstring. It's been so hot this week that ending my runs with a short swim in Boulder Creek has become mandatory, especially since there's a perfect swimming hole right outside our apartment.
PM: 5 miles (:44) Creek Path+1.5mi barefoot at Kitt
Ran super easy with Jocelyn.

Total
-Miles: 61
-Hours: 9h 11min
-Vertical: 9000'

2010 Summits (Day 199)
-Green: 182
-Bear: 11
-SoBo: 4

The first half of this week was destroyed by coming down with some sort of flu-like sickness, but the second half I finally started establishing a little more consistency to my running again.  My post-WS hamstring tweak continues to be a bit of a limiting factor on downhills, but through a combination of acupuncture and strengthening exercises it seems to be gradually improving enough that I can still run on my preferred terrain.

On Friday, Jocelyn and I made a stop in at Albums On The Hill, the only independent record store left here in Boulder.  The demise of this part of the music business is certainly a sad one, but not particularly puzzling.  A new CD there is generally $12.99 compared to the $9.99 that iTunes charges.  However, Jocelyn and I both agree that there is absolutely some sort of almost intangible satisfaction and glee that comes from purchasing the material disc instead of simply performing a download of a digital file.  We still have a CD player, but it syncs up with our iPod just as easily as popping a disc in its slot, so its tough to put a finger on what exactly makes buying a CD from the local shop more enjoyable than downloading.  Interacting with another knowledgeable, informed, enthusiastic human being is definitely part of it.

However, it makes little sense to me why specialty record stores are disappearing while other specialty businesses--say, running shops--can still make a go of it.  I suspect it's because A) they're a bit more diversified, and B) people still like getting fit for shoes and getting advice on other gear.  Music stores definitely used to be a way of learning about new music, though, too--music that wasn't necessarily force-fed to you on the top-40 radio stations.  So, I don't know.  It's all a bit baffling to me.  In the meantime, though, I guess I'll continue paying an extra $3 every now and then to get a new album in order to support the local shop.  I know it's almost certainly a futile effort at supporting the business in maintaining its relevance, but I'll keep doing it as long as the store is there.

Incidentally, on Friday Jocelyn and I picked up both of the albums by the White Rabbits, Fort Nightly and It's Frightening.  Both are inventive, high-energy, and highly listenable.  A token track from each, respectively:





In fact, this entire concert--available streaming for free at http://www.tenthrow.com/--was so good that it's what inspired the purchases.

22 comments:

Brian said...

There is just something about holding a new CD in your hand, complete with album art, liner notes, band photos, and the unmistakable aroma of fresh ink, that makes the experience all the more satisfying. Not even to mention the fact that in my experience, some styles of music just plain sound better on disc. I am into the experimental fringes of underground metal, and with all the complexity of much jazz and classical, the fullness of the sound is often lost on MP3. The divide between MP3 and CD, as I see it, is the same as the divide between recorded music and live music.

Higg said...

Yes. Its all about the sound quality of CD's that gets me. Playing an I-pod through a stereo just doesn't cut it.

paul Hopi said...

Nostalgia -gotta love it! .Can remember carting back a 33 album or two, sleeves under the arm,resplendent with artwork,more than likley containing posters inside- really feeling like i had something.But no doubt there,s someone out there reminiscing about getting an arm wk.out- having had to crank the handle to play his/her favourite tunes.Electronic and digital do have their pluses though. Rock on ! and keep riding the wind .

John said...

I'm old enough to remember when people claimed that tape would fail because the quality of vinyl was so much better; then CDs would fail for the same reason.

Bookstores are next.

Brian said...

Book stores are not going away. People will always want to hold a book in their hand, turning real pages, rather than looking at a glowing screen for hours.

j.edge said...

hey man--

i was just wonderin' about yr recovery following a longlong run. do you run to exhaustion, following a 15-30 mile afternoon with a nap? do you sleep ten hours a night to rebuild muscle & body? following yr recent 100 miler, yr interview seemed as fresh and daisy-like as most wake up in the morn. . . amazing. . . how is that?

good runs & good times man--

Anonymous said...

MP3's require discarding so much data that these compressed files cannot sound much like music. Even CD doesn't have high enough bandwidth to completely capture all the detail and emotion of a recording. Use AIFF or ALAC to preserve what's on the CD for portable devices. If you start with an MP3 it will always sound like crap.

Anonymous said...

I use to be a hack of a bass player in the days and bass is the hardest instrument to record because of the different ranges of frequencies, as low a 30Hz and high frequencies as high as guitars when playing in the slap style bass. In the days CD's or digital recordings could only capture a dynamic range of 90dBs so recording on tape or analog was still the choice because you could capture more of a warm feel and true sound to the ear. Then they would transfer it to digital. You would still lose some of the quality but it was better than recording directly digital. This was in the late nineties so I'm sure things have changed. But I do know of people still recording on 24 track tape.

PunkRockRunner said...

When I lived in Boulder there were two record stores on the Hill (one of either side of the Old Chicago arcade, yes arcade) and two on the Pearl Street Mall. I remember when they first started stocking CD’s and we complained that the format was too small and we needed to hold the album cover in our hands while listening to the record. Having said this, now it’s probably best that we download Stevie Nicks….

It’s too bad that independent music/book stores are all but gone. We still make a monthly pilgrimage to San Francisco & Berkeley to buy CD’s and records in person.

Glad you’re feeling better.

All the best,

Ron

Boulder Sports Performance said...

Sweet music!!! Could be good for long runs. Just sit back, let the body go on auto-pilot AND cruise
11

Christian said...

Hi frome Sweden Anton!

I like your blog very much.

I just wonder what shoes are you training in and racing in? I know its NB but model?

I hope you have a great running year.

PS: I think CD´s just takes space =)

/Christian

Peter said...

Did you know about Bart's Music Shack (236 Pearl Street)? Grand Opening is in August but they're open now.

Brewsuf said...

Hi Anton! I've been following you on here for a while now and am really inspired by your writing... I read an interview in which you mentioned the release of the New Balance Minimus...and have read some about the new MT101's that are supposed to be released in the fall... I can't help but wonder if you wore either of these at the Miwok 100k? (I just noticed your shoes on the cover of UltraRunning and they look pretty sweet)... If you can't answer that's fine, but just curious! Thanks for all your posts, they're truly inspiring and I always look forward to a new post! Thanks for writing!

Anonymous said...

i'm a french runner..a moderate one...living on a island with one of the most beautifull ultra-trail in the world;reunion island actually!
before i wasn't understanding the american's runner like the FULL-FREE runners of my island....but you and goeff roes,recently discovered by me in WS 100,by yours respective blog are teached me that AMERICA are a great land of "traileur"...root's traileur...free traileur who don't need a smooth-path for running!
more..since i'm reading "riding the wind"..a rock-n-roll traileur...ever-thinking traileur...not just a athlete or a machine like a lot among us!
a over soul in american's trail eventually!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anton said...

I knew this was going to turn into a discussion about the sound quality diff between mp3s and CDs and I was sort of trying to avoid that mostly because I'm enough of a Philistine that I don't get took geeked out about the the quality of the sound--there's some other intangible that makes me prefer a CD.

Shoe talk:

Christian-I train and race in NB MT101s, which will come out in October, and another shoe which is a combination of the old 790 platform and the current 100 upper.

Bryan-At Miwok I raced in an old pair of NB 790s. Nothing fancy or secret about them at all.

Brian said...

Some of the stuff I listen to is intentionally lo-fi, as an artistic choice. Today just about any band can record crystal clear sound, with affordable equipment that is more readily available than in the past, so there is a tendency to overuse the technology (aka: “over producing”). The result is that some bands decide to leave the music raw, and more “live sounding” in the studio, rather than removing the rough edges.

Sniper said...

I wonder if drum circle hippies near campus sell CD's or if they use itunes to sell their music these days.

Frank Bott said...

Tony. Here is a list in asheville of some cool record/book stores/ camera stores.. that have tons of stuff and tons of junk.. and guess what else?? real people who love to talk inside..

some even give away free coffee..

http://www.montfordbooks.com/
http://www.staticagerecords.com/wp/
http://www.harvest-records.com/
http://www.ballphotosupply.com/

enjoy..

Rooster said...

Is there anything out of the new minimus line you can see using as a regular addition to your line-up?

- Ryan.

Anton said...

Ryan--

Absolutely, of course. Both the Minimus Trail and the Minimus Road will be in my regular rotation in a couple of months. Right now I'm still working with slightly small sample sizes (9.5). My go-to racing/technical trail shoe will definitely still be the 101 (more protection) but I've been pleasantly surprised by the versatility--even on rocky terrain--of the samples I've been wearing of each shoe.

I'll probably do a fairly in-depth blog post on these two shoes in two weeks after they officially "launch" at the Outdoor Retailer trade show the first week of August. After that there should be a lot more background and information about the shoes available to the general public. I'm really excited about other folks finally getting to check them out.

Tony

vibram five fingers said...

Wow,I'm enough of a Philistine that I don't get took geeked out about the the quality of the sound--there's some other intangible that makes me prefer a CD.It is interesting.