FuzzyCo

Ping

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:41:03 -0600

I turned on Ping in my iTunes. I'm not sure why. But you can look me up as "Fuzzy Gerdes". We'll see if that lasts—that's not the name on my credit card, so I might need to change it back if billing complains. That's just one of the oddnesses of Ping that I can already see.

Chicago Triathlon 2010

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:30:06 -0600

So, I did it. My goal was to finish the Chicago Triathlon for a second time, but do it pain-free. Last year, I finished, which was a great accomplishment, but I was in quite a bit of knee pain for most of the run segment. I didn't have any super-scientific training schedule—I put up a calendar and filled in some target distances in pencil, which mostly got quickly abandoned. But training days accomplished get filled in in sharpie, and if there are too many blank days in a row I get motivated to get back out there. But I think the biggest difference between this year and last was just not stopping that training in the fall and winter. For my first triathlon I trained from April to August. I've been training for this triathlon since September last year—I took a few weeks off running right after the triathlon because of my knees, but I was swimming within a week or so. I also signed up for a fair number of organized runs to make sure that I was getting some running miles in. So my only goal was an absence of pain, but I guess I got my general fitness up enough that I managed to shave more than 30 minutes off my overall time. So, yeah, that feels pretty cool. Indulge my data-diddling for a minute with a table of my two Triathlons:

Year	2010	2009	Difference
Clock Time	3:51:26	4:27:39	36:13
Overall Place	3348/3859	4198/4257
Gender Place	2455/2690	2943/2967
Division Place	358/375	486/488
Swim	0:44:10	0:54:07	-9:57
Trans1	0:10:55	0:14:11	-3:16
Bike	1:29:12	1:42:28	-13:16
Trans2	0:10:31	0:08:34	+1:57
Run	1:16:36	1:28:18	-11:42
Swimrank	3410	4143
Bikerank	3024	3975
Mph	17	14.8	+2.2
Runrank	2657	4181
Pace	0:12:21	0:14:14	-1:53

So my improvement was pretty much across the board. I also benefited a bit from entering a new age bracket, mainly because it meant I got to start about an hour earlier in the morning. That was a great benefit on a really hot day. It also meant less standing around futzing. Erica and I drove down at the frightfully early hour you have to set up your transition area and then we went back to the parking garage and slept in the car for about an hour and a half. We strolled back over to the lakeshore, got Erica a brat and some coffee for breakfast, and then I got to the swim start pretty much right in time to push up to my wave and then get in the water. And then we were off. It was great to not have stood around waiting to start, but to just be in the water. It was a really warm day—the water was up near the temperature where they don't allow you to wear a wetsuit. Many people elected not to wear a suit, but I wore mine. Last year open water was still something of a struggle, but now I'm pretty comfortable out there. I wasn't wearing a watch, so I didn't know what my time was like, but I could tell as soon as I got out of the water that I was in much better shape than last year. Last year I had exited the water pretty exhausted, had barely acknowledged Erica who was cheering me on, and I had stumbled down to the transition area. This time I felt fine, gave Erica a kiss and took my iPhone back from her, and jogged off to change clothes and get on the bike. Last year I would have said that biking was my strongest leg, but it was the sport I practiced least this summer. But I had advantages over last year. I had purchased my probably-a-bit-fancier-than-I-need bike shoes (and despite my accidents earlier in the summer, I was confident of wearing them on this ride since there's no intersections or stopping for 7 miles at a stretch). And I had finally put a super-cheap cycle computer on my bike. I work really well with numerical feedback and so just knowing what my speed was and setting myself little goals for each hill and leg and so on is really helpful for me. Speaking of numbers, it didn't help me during the race, but I'm happy that I've finally found something of the analog of the Nike+ system for biking. The iPhone has GPS so there are several apps that help you track bike rides and I've settled on Cyclemeter. Despite the name, it'll also track runs and you can manually enter workouts as well, so I can use it to keep track of my swims. I owe a couple of my friends an apology because of my improved time. Erica had sent out an invitation to friends to come down to the lakefront and join her in watching the runners and cheering me on as I went past. Because there's such a long stretch between the swim finish and the run she had included an estimate of when people should arrive to see me come past. By that estimated time, I was already well into the run, so they either didn't make it to the race at all or could only meet me at the end. I'm so grateful that they even wanted to encourage me at all, and so I'm sorry that I messed up their attempts to see me run. (Though, of course, I have to be happy about my speed improvements.) When I talk about pain-free, my biggest worry is always the run, because that's where my IT bands fall apart. I gave myself permission to walk as much as I wanted and I only felt the tiniest twinge in my knee once. Near the end of the run I was reminded how distance running is as much a mental sport as a physical one. I wasn't in any pain, and while I was tired I was nowhere near the end of my resources, but it was hard to push myself to keep running and I kept slowing to a walk. I had to keep reminding myself that I wanted to run. I missed Shaun at that point—a good friend, he usually finishes and then comes back and waits to run the last mile or so with me. But he was off in Louisville doing a much larger challenge and so I certainly couldn't begrudge his absence. So now I want to keep this fitness train rolling. Erica and I have signed up for some runs this fall, but first, a tropical vacation awaits us. A couple of photos that Erica and I shot during the triathlon.

Coyote and Raven

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:47:38 -0600

I haven't been cartooning since February when I finished the 366 Cartoons, but thisisrabbit is visiting us and his sitting around on the couch working on his Doodle-a-Days inspired me tonight.

Triathlon Triumphs

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:41:57 -0600

I finished the Chicago Triathlon this morning in record (well, personal record) time. More details later, but I have to go prepare for my standup show tonight. But I'll point out that my time today was over 30 minutes faster than last year. And, yes, I achieved my goal of a pain-free triathlon. Yay, me. (As I write this, Shaun is 9 hours into his Iron Man and has just started the run portion of the race. Go Shaun!)

Big Day

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:42:11 -0600

I'm off to do the Chicago Triathlon today, and Shaun is down in Louisville for his first full Ironman. It doesn't look like the Chicago Triathlon has stage-by-stage tracking, but results will be here as soon as they're available. I'm bib #4311. To track Shaun, go here and put in his bib #1659.

A Busy Week

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:23:10 -0600

So this last weekend I did my last two big training days before the triathlon this weekend. Saturday I did a brick day of a mile open water swim, a quick four mile bike (I had meant to do a little more, but I ran into a big run on the lake path and had a time-constraint of getting down to Indiana for Jase's wedding*), and then a five mile run. Sunday I did 30 miles on the bike. This was the opposite of Saturday—I had meant to just to do 25 miles, but it was so slow getting through the Belmont-Ohio Street stretch that I wanted to stretch my legs a little when I finally got down to the nice, clear south side. Also, I thought I was really in a groove because the whole ride felt really easy, but it turned out it was just a tail wind, which turned into a head wind when I headed back north. Ugh. Last year I did my first triathlon and my only goal was to finish. I did that, and was proudly the 61st slowest person of 4243 people who finished the full Olympic-length triathlon. I did, however, finish in pain and so my goal for this year was not to really work on improving my time or anything, but to finish pain-free. I didn't, however, really apply any scientific training to that goal. The main difference was that I didn't quit training right after the triathlon last year—when I finished my most-of-a-marathon three years ago, I immediately stopped running, so when I took up triathlon training last year I was mostly starting from scratch. This time I kept swimming mostly weekly and signed up for a bunch of 5Ks, to guarantee that I would at least run that much, and I actually ran quite a bit over the winter and managed to (slowly) do 10 miles in May. Biking, which previously had been my strong suit, is probably my weakest area this year. I got a indoor-trainer-mount for my bike in February, but only did a few sessions on it before it warmed up enough that I felt like I should be outside on the bike, so I took it off the mount, but then didn't really do a lot of riding. I got some probably-too-fancy-for-what-I-need biking shoes that clip into pedals, but then fell over a couple times, banging up my knees pretty good, and got spooked a little and stayed off the bike for a while. But I finally got a bike computer hooked up on my road bike (I do well with numeric feedback) and discovered Cyclemeter for the iPhone just as I finally got a GPS-capable iPhone. So, that's all to say, I'm feeling reasonably confident about achieving my goal this year. And THEN, however the race turns out, I've got my standup class graduation show that night at 9:30 pm. It's free, and you're invited, if you like. I've done standup before**, but lately I've been feeling like I needed some structure and so I decided to take the standup class at Second City***, which happens to be taught by my friend Bryan Bowden. I've gotten the deadlines I kinda need to produce new material, and it's also been a great analytical approach to standup that's been really valuable to me. And before all that I have to get through a week where I've got some big stuff at work AND another shoot for a video gig that I think I'm all NDAed about. Whew. * Congrats! ** Heck, I've been paid to do standup. *** My first Second City class, ever. I moved to Chicago eleven years ago to do comedy and never got around to taking a class at the largest comedy training center in the world.

More photos by Kenny Kwan

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:12:09 -0600

We did another modeling session for Johnny and Bill's lighting class last week, and so here's a second set of photos by Kenny Kwan of Erica and I goof-balling around. There's a second set that's just me, being all stare-y.

Fuzzy and Erica by Christian Kalinowski

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:10:47 -0600

Here's another set of photos from the Portraiture and Lighting II class that Erica and I modeled for two weeks ago (and then again this week—we can't wait to see those photos). These are by Christian Kalinowski, who was also great to work with, and got some great photos of us.

Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:37:05 -0600

I've read Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death several times, and once drove up to Chicago (before I lived here) to see Lifeline Theatre's stage adaptation—it's one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. This last time through I was listening to the audio version, available free from pinkwater.com. It's read by Daniel Pinkwater himself, which one of my friends remarked would drive her crazy. It's true that Pinkwater has a fairly gruff and distinctive voice. YMMV. The story is a classic Pinkwater wacky adventure and one of the stars of the tale is a lightly-fictionalized Chicago (the Chicken Man was a real person!). The germs of my love for Chicago were definitely planted in this and other Pinkwater books. FuzzyCo grade: A+

Dies the Fire

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:40:46 -0600

Dies the Fire starts with a completely ridiculously-science-fictional event*: in an instant, electricity and explosives all over the world stop working. Millions die in car crashes, planes, etc. Cities become death-traps of starvation and disease. The novel mainly follows two small bands of survivors in the Pacific Northwest. It's a grand adventure and a good read, but also kind of freaked me out. It really made me think about our modern lives, how far our food comes from, and so on. I do have to give the book props for avoiding a specific pet peeve of mine: it's a first book of a trilogy, but comes to a very satisfying conclusion instead of a cliffhanger. FuzzyCo grade: A * Or maybe actually "fantasy", as it's never really explained, it's just the launching-off point for the rest of the novel.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:25:43 -0600

I've read the first five books of the six-part Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series. Erica has read none of them, so I decided to hold off reading the last one so we could go see the movie together and experience the ending, at least, freshly together. Coming from two such different perspectives on the story, it was great that we both loved it a lot. The mix of video game elements into a early-twenties love story is funny in the graphic novel, but in the movie it really expands into a magic realism that captures the tone and drama of young adult life. The casting is perfect, the music is great. Ah, what a wonderful movie. FuzzyCo grade: A+

Mystery Team

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:21:48 -0600

For a feature film completely written, directed, and produced by a (then) obscure 3-person sketch comedy group, Mystery Team is very well made and is even often pretty funny. FuzzyCo grade: B+

New Mobile Phone Number

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:52:34 -0600

On rather short notice, I have a new mobile phone number. If you have my 917-hoodle-etc number, toss it. If you need my new one, send me an email. Thx.

Hey Cancer, Fuck You

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:22:54 -0600

Here at Team Gerdes, we heartily endorse telling cancer to get fucked, so I point you at Chris Courtney's Hey Cancer, Fuck You. His story, here. (via Scott Smith, who has his own special message to cancer.)

Pre-order Predator

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:48:06 -0600

I have a recommendation for a book I haven't actually read yet. My friend Matt J. Martin's first book, Predator: The Remote-Control Air War over Iraq and Afghanistan: A Pilot's Story, is now available for pre-order. Matt was a pilot of the Predator unmanned aircraft for the Air Force and this is the first book about first-hand experiences flying those aircraft in combat. As I said, I haven't read it yet, but just from hearing some of Matt's stories over the years, I'm sure it'll be a fascinating book.