Wednesdays are Wonderful

What’s up with the middle of the week? It’s the farthest away you can get from the weekend. Just the right day for an evening run and dinner with friends. We run on Wednesdays from Fall to Spring, when Nite Moves isn’t going on. We swim when we have to, bike when we can, and groove the rest of the time! For more info, click the link “When we train” in the sidebar at left.

(Does “What’s up?” look like “Whatâ€™s up?”? Tell your browser to use UTF-8 decoding. Join the 21st century!)

Wednesday, the 18th of January, 2012

A small turnout to run; a big one to eat, drink, and be merry! We were led out by the L's (two of them — we have quite a few) Lizzie and Lisa. A brisk pace, but at the turnaround by the Bird Refuge they were seen and heard chatting away like, well, birds. Definitely in the aerobic zone. There is some construction going on at the turnaround that cuts off a few meters of our run! How will our Garmins adjust?

Some thought we might not have a quorum this evening... how wrong was that? Good thing we had the initiative to head to the usual Brew Co Lounge. We were joined by other Groovers, and then by a contingent from the Los Baños swimmers. Mike, Emi, John, Heather, Joe, Dani.. the all-star team. When worlds collide. They were all showered, or at least chlorinated. But they didn’t complain about our sweaty sweats.

There were still stories swirling from the Mad woMen party, but of course they have to stay where they started. We heard from Mike (one of them) about his ankle: messed up from football. Not ballet? The swimmers debated the ethics of training with Zoomers or (heaven forbid) scuba fins. On stroke technique, we decided it’s a bit like golf: many opinions, some better than others. In short: your arm is like a propellor blade, not a paddlewheel.

We noted that “Nite Grooves” can be rearranged to make “investor ego”. I suppose that is better than “vertigo nose”. I wonder what could be done with “Wednesdays are Wonderful”? Now there is an official Nite Grooves anagram helper web page. See what you can find. More than a coincidence? Well no, but it’s still fun.

Wednesday, the 11th of January

A bit cold out in the evening? Perhaps you might prefer to stay home and clean your bike. And while you’re at it, you could count the teeth on each ring and cog, and finally understand your gear ratios. If you’re planning a jaunt up Gibraltar (our road, not the original rock) maybe you could use some lower gears!

Wednesday, the 4th of January

First Groove of the year! The number twelve is very special (see reference [2] in the second link), so twenty-twelve (who says “two thousand and twelve”?) will be great. We had almost 20 runners show up despite the dark. But not the chill: it was perfect comfortable running weather, and our speedsters took it out fast, pulling the rest of us along. Andrew discovered he was running with his vet’s vet — that’s a small-town SB story. It was amazing that Ricky and Matt Tarka were not hobbling after yesterday’s set of hill repeats!

Over to the Brew Co Lounge to re-hydrate and re-fuel. (Sometimes the beverages serve both purposes.) The ladies were all laughing about some photos from the weekend that they just couldn’t share with everybody. We can only imagine. The music still hews such a narrow range of the ’70s we swear it must be a two-month interval of hits or something. And yet there were plenty to choose from. Matt got the trivia award for correctly identifying a deep cut from the Cars’ first album. Lots of bemoaning the grassy ski slopes locally. Looking a little farther afield, Dave wants to ski Whistler. Liz’s daughter has so many extracurriculars we wonder about the curriculars. It’s so much fun to be young! Kelly, of course, has already been in the ocean this year. Not too warm, but there is big surf forecast for this week.

Wednesday, the 28th of December, 2011

Not to worry, Groovers! We will still meet today. If you are in town, don’t be a snoozer (aka you-know-what), show up this evening. You will have (some) company.

Eating a lot over the holidays? Recent research sheds some light on why it is so hard to lose weight after you have gained it. ☹

Hope people had fun. Your reporter is in town, but picked up that traveler’s cold. Grr!

Wednesday, the 21st of December

Well first things first. We have to thank Desa for giving us the heads-up on the Kids Helping Kids 5k race on Saturday morning. Natira took the good advice... and won the race! What was it like passing the lead woman and becoming that very thing? And more cause for celebration: our gone-but-never-forgotten Amy is now “in trouble”. Oh wait, she’s married, so it’s all good. Hope Santa Maria is a big enough village to help the parents. But she knows there is a whole pool of baby-sitters down here to volunteer.

It was the shortest day/longest night of the year, so special props to those who showed. Tim brought his dog, an aircraft carrier next to Ty’s PT-boat. He was invited to spend some time at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. They were having their longest day today... probably the sun never set. Brian was dressed for those polar regions. He didn’t overheat, but you could see steam rising from his bare skin after the run. (The photo doesn’t quite capture it though.) At the finish, we heard Peter ask “Hey Ricky, what was your time? My watch died.” Definitely under 50 minutes, but we’re not sure how much.

More than usual, runners had errands and to-do items to do after running, so we said Merry Christmas to Lisa (aka the fiancée) and Rosemary. But the streets of Santa Barbara were alight with light and activity, and our momentum carried us over to the Brew Co Lounge. We were joined there by Taj, Jayna, and Josh. The music continued its dedication to the seventies: when you hear Thin Lizzy it definitely suggests a particular era to patrons of a certain age. And we heard both Cheap Trick and Head East, a pairing that Andrew saw together at a concert in Austin, Minnesota back the summer of 79.

Michael and Liz made a special tree ornament for Ricky out of odds and ends: Corky the dogcow, or whatever quadruped. Although it looks like he has only two legs. A great D.I.Y. gift, reminiscent of sock puppets or lint-tie snakes. Ricky admits that his Cantonese is stronger than his Mandarin, and he studied Japanese in school “because it was easy.” Out the door, we saw somebody walking along with a cat perched on his backpack. No doubt there’s a story there, but we missed it. Josh looks to his closet in vain for appropriate Minnesota-winter apparel. The topic of stretching came up, and it seems we’re all over it, in the sense of being done with it — or are we just lazy? We concluded that if we watch our pets, the amount of stretching they do (definitely some but not a lot) should be the guide. Some discussion about the secular vs. sacred nature of the holidays. We all agreed we could celebrate Festivus. Cheers all!

Wednesday, the 14th of December

It was (what we call) cold this evening, which made the prospect of a hot shower before dinner even more tempting. Any number of us live close enough to Natira & Matt’s to sneak in a little personal hygeine before showing ourselves again. Or, just skip the run and show up for the goodies. The running crowd was a bit sparse, but in our defense it was really hard to keep the car heading to the beach after work. Forces seemed to conspire to turn the steering wheel toward the warm home.

In any case, a crew of about ten runners did squeeze out the full 10k, quickly primp and tidy, and head to our host & hostess’s place just off La Cumbre north of State. The house is cozy and yet spacious, with a nice high roof (instead of a flat ceiling) and (we’re told) a river running directly underneath. Hope the winter isn’t too rainy! The walls are decorated with classic and classy art from the likes of Salvador Dalí , Vincent van Gogh, and Pete Townshend. Re the music, amateur Townshends had an electric and acoustic guitar and a full 88-note keyboard to work with. The backyard had an orange tree so large it covered the whole sky (with oranges as numerous as stars!) when you were underneath it. Matt & Natira have already put up several planters for growing things. And how many of us renters have full-on Christmas trees?

Peter’s cake came out great. We all enjoyed seeing Kathryn’s snapshot of the (much larger) family portrait she commissioned for Christmas. And we Groovers found ourselves mixing with a whole ’nother social group of landscape architects — probably something we need to avoid getting too cloistered.

Next Wednesday will be the shortest day, so get ready to celebrate that by running in the dark. Soon it will be just a memory and those headlamps can rest for a while.

Wednesday, the 7th of December

The 70th anniversary of the 7th... but nobody crashed or burned today. But there were some high-speed chases. Some people up at the front were inspiring each other... and of course after it was over were talking about how they need to “get in shape”. But then don’t we all (at least talk about it)?

When we finished, Kelly noticed that she no longer had her keys. Oops! She did take off her warmup around the pier, so she and Peter headed back with a flashlight, and the rest of us convened at the Bay Roadhouse. K & P reappeared later, but with a story about how they found the keys in an unexpected place. All’s well that ends well though. (Except the play itself, which is not that great. So much for Bardolatry.)

We got moved from table to table several times as our crowd kept getting more crowded. Craig, Lizzo, Brian, Michael A, Magne, Thomas, Andrew, Kelly, Peter, Kathryn: the more the merrier! Lizzo reminisced about the UCSB Tri Team and how they got kicked out of a few hotels back in the day. We heard Craig talk about how a whale swam over him while he was diving... and he missed it. Andrew has stigmata all over from his new wildcat. (OK, just a wild cat. But the smaller they are the faster they move!) We are all excited to see our friend Sarah again soon. Lizzo is planning to be a reindeer at SantaCon. Kathryn is living through a malfunctioning water heater. Just for the bathrooms — there's still the kitchen sink. She managed to work in a visit to us between kid-shuttling trips. Craig recommends checking out the violin quartets Bond and Escala. They’re fun even with the sound off. We discussed the pros and cons of registering early for a race. The cons (who can predict our fitness that far ahead?) are strong enough that the race directors have to provide pros (discounts).

Wednesday, the 30th of November

As with our last entry, the first order of the day is congratulation to our Iron-contingent. Taj, John H, Jody, and Norbert all participated and finished. What? You want times, splits, stories? You’ll just have to make it to more runs! How much space do you think we have here anyway? Just remember when you finish a Groover run how little a fraction of an Ironman that was!

This evening had us stirring up a little wind with our awesome running speed. If your street is littered with windblown debris, you know whom to “thank”. And one Groovette had a new ring that was as bright as her reflectorized shoes. Michael A ran in what Peter described as board shorts, but they were just “long-sleeve” running shorts. In any case, that’s hardly a fashion faux pas. Recall a certain race directory hanging out in Speedos after his race.

We learned that Peter has relatives in Louisiana that included a (State) Supreme Court justice. Although comment around the table suggested the bar is pretty low for those positions. Lots of excitement about the Santa Claus 5k on 10 December. And many of us will continue the action with Santa Con, accompanied by our BFF Sarah. Except for a certain massage therapist and her boy toy, who will be in New Zealand visiting the hobbits instead.

Andrew has a new (8 weeks young) kitten; Jayna explains that she is teaching Sterling’s cat to talk, and do algebra (not) and other clever things. And he (the cat, not Sterling!) is all of ten (people) years, which is up there in cat years. Brian, always good for a little controversy, brings up the topic of vaccines. Is it civically responsible to refuse vaccination for your child, and hope to ride on the back of herd immunity? I think our crew were more agreed on the issues than the general public. It's good for cowpox anyway. Michael A and Andrew talked about regular expressions — if you don’t have to ask, you are already a geek.

Wednesday, the 16th of November

Well first, some congratulations are in order: a certain Groover mother of two (hint: LT!) won the Santa Barbara International Marathon this past weekend. It must have been the Grooving!

And observing the one day per mile rule, she rested this Wednesday. Various other racers (Lizzie, Desa, Ricky) were either taking the day off or at least jogging instead of running. (On the topic of pre-run or pre-race prep, there is this article about the well-debated topic of stretching.) We welcomed Liz (“Lizzo”) Alexander, who is now all through school and an official resident of SB.

We heard that our favorite bartender Randy was back for a day at the Brew Co, so we had to go there. He remembered most of our usual orders too! Brian talked real shop (soil moisture) and avoided the controversy for once. One of us mentioned cleaning his bike and another asked (not totally facetiously) “You can clean bikes?” The rainy race at Carp left quite a few gritty and squeaky machines. We heard about Andrew’s 100 € extra-baggage fee in Europe. Advice: don’t do that. Desa will be teaching teaching to teachers. But pretty soon she’ll be teaching teacher teachers. You heard it here first!

And Taj stopped by, though he’s in serious resting up for this weekend’s Ironman Arizona, at which Groovers Jody K, John H, and Norbert H will also be racing. (Follow them all, bib numbers 1818, 683, 2498 and 2042 respectively, online this Sunay.) He couldn’t be talked into even a small drink. Just wait though. He is getting his last-minute good-luck massage from Kelly — a wise move that will give him a special Santa Barbara edge. The official run regulations specify that “No form of locomotion other than running, walking or crawling is allowed.” That means absolutely no skipping! And the triple-jump is right out.

True to style, the ambient music was very “period”. As in, we walked in to the sounds of Stranglehold, and left (appropriately) to the Cars’ Let’s Go. (We like the night life baby!) And the music between pretty much stuck to those bounds (1977 all the way to 1979).

Next Wednesday is almost Thanksgiving. Fear not, there will be some people to run with, despite the upcoming holiday (which actually starts on Wednesday evening, for all intents and purposes) and the four-mile race the next morning. And don’t forget the UCSB Turkey Trot this very upcoming Saturday the 19th. This blog will take a break though. See you all on the 30th of November.

Wednesday, the 9th of November

Hope all Groovers had fun this Wednesday. Your reporter is out of town. But we have some important announcements. Our BFF Sarah M will be back in town soon. If anyone can catch her (unlikely), can we tie a rope around her leg to keep her here? Sterling & Jayna have generously offered company and food for those Thanksgiving orphans among us. Groovers are a family away from family. Or a family amidst family for some of us! For some interesting reading, try this article (yet another one) about barefoot running. It will take nearly as long to read as to do a Nite Grooves run!

Wednesday, the 2nd of November

Perfect running weather... and we’re perfect runners, right? Desa and LT must have been feeling it: they took off so fast they were out of sight by Los Baños it seemed. Lots of people doing their last week’s training for the half or full SB Marathon or the Ironman AZ. Does that mean attendance will drop off immediately after? Maybe for the runs, but not the post-run action!

There were some suspicious footprints on the sidewalk; somebody walked right through the wet tar, where there were, no doubt, plenty of “Keep Off” signs. Didn’t match any of our running shoes though. Reminded Andrew of a certain cat he once knew.

After the run, some Groovers went to Union Ale — good luck parking! Others went to SOhO to hear the band Mac Talley, with Rosemary’s sister on percussion. The lead singer/guitarist sounded like a Dylan/Bowie cross, with the other guitarist laying down a shimmery sixteenth-note rhythm reminiscent of the Talking Heads. Check out the short video clip below!

Your journalist will be out of the country next week giving a lecture about music and math; but the lack of documentation here won’t mean we didn’t all show up, run, and celebrate afterwards!

Wednesday, the 26th of October

A beautiful evening for a beautiful run. One moment it’s just Ryan stretching his legs, pondering his injury issues (like the rest of us) and wondering where everyone is, and the next moment a scrum of twenty or more fleet-footed fanatics materializes. Amy (that’s Ms. Schiffman to her students) brought her friend Jackie, who added to our contingent of psychologists/teachers/social workers, balancing out the engineers on the other side of the see-saw. (The personal trainers, physical and massage therapists are sort of both!) Natira wore a skort (a great word you could put in your portmanteau) that would be just as at home on the track, on stage, or at a party. We should all look so good.

It was light when we started and dark when we finished... next week it will be all dark. No tripping over tree roots people! But speaking of roots, we returned to ours at the Brew Co, after a break last week at a different venue. They claimed to miss us, and we believed them. We learned that two of our runners have both parents that are/were psychiatrists or psychologists. No wonder we’re so normal.

Our favorite water-polo mom showed up, just because she’s cool. The ladies planned out some of their Halloween couturiere. A new Brian (not the — sorry — “old” one) remembered Lisa as a TA at UCSB: she taught UNIX before it was cool. (Is it yet?) Friends of Rosemary will be playing at SoHO next Wednesday; look for an announcement on the mailing list. Brian the elder raised the spectre of vaccinations and autism... nah, that’s just a post-hoc fallacy. Usually. We remembered the birthdays of Kirsten and Sarah and anticipated that of Andrea. Andrew jumps from Calient to UCSB right when the former raises $20 million... what exactly was he thinking? Just wait till you see UC’s web site.

Wednesday, the 12th of October

Another great day for running — even better for swimming; Kelly said the ocean was 64°. She didn’t get in because of her stitches. (Warning: parental discretion advised, but here is the photo.) And when we finished running, it looked like we were swimming: both warm and humid out. The smallest full moon of the year pulled (or pushed) us along. There was some synergy running, and people pushed each other. (Not literally!) Natira and Chelsea blazed across the finish. Kathryn stopped by with her son, fresh (?) from water polo practice, and chatted as we cooled down. She is celebrating the fifth anniversary of her MFT. Anything that took thirteen years to get is worth a party. Andrew “two jobs” Duncan worked through the run but showed up to eat anyway.

Which we did at the usual Brew Co. I mean, we always get the usual good treatment, prompt and tasty service. (With a few slip-ups here and there... but not this evening.) Their new sweet potato fries were a big hit. The first important news we heard is about the beer festival this weekend. To benefit the local rugby club. You’d think they’d have a blood drive instead! Todd has a new job at a UCSB research lab: great work environment. Plenty of people enjoyed last week’s Avo Fest in Carp. It seems every vegetable and fruit has its CA town and festival: Greenfield for broccoli, garlic in Gilroy, and many others.

Brian rolled in a bit late, but had enough company still to eat and drink with. He touts the benefits of acro yoga: they build human pyramids and try not to fall. He’s still in one piece (except for his split personalities☺). Would you believe that one of our fair-haired runners is actually part Native American? She has that natural copper tone. But an “arm-off” with Taj, Brian, and Andrew left Brian in the lead.

Wednesday, the 5th of October

As we rose in the morning, the sun didn’t, and it didn’t look so good for an evening run. Though rumor has it we haven’t completely lost the thread for several years. There are always some crazies. But then the sky cleared, and reminded us of what our moms told us way back when: “Rain before seven, shine before eleven.” Worked this time.

Not that it wasn’t blustery. Nobody got swept into the ocean, though we saw a few kites crash into the grass. No catastrophes, like happened to this guy, though. In fact, it seemed to energize our group, who were chattering away like the youngsters we really are. We welcomed back Julia, recovering from a tennis injury. (Of course, she was winning at the time too.)

In fact, we have quite a few on the injured reserve list. For example, there was Kelly, who is still recovering from the removal of a considerable amount of hardware. She sent her regards. And Karen, who bruised some ribs in a cycling accident at Mammoth. Good thing she didn’t roll all the 9000 feet down!

But somehow none of this dampened anybody’s spirits; in fact it seemed that we had a bigger turnout at the Brew Co than at the run. Natira, Jayna, and Kathryn just somehow knew where to show up. We were jealous: K swam and ran today. Michael A and Jayna discussed melting things in microwaves. Sterling has 3D images on his cell phone. Ho hum, that’s so ten minutes ago. Where’s the 4D? Mothers with sons in water polo notice that food vanishes at an astounding rate.

Andrew’s camera is finally fixed, so expect better photos next week. He picked it up at Samy’s, only to discover they replaced it with a newer model rather than repair it. Nice! But he forgot to bring along a memory card, so it’s low-res for this evening. Until he upgrades his phone. Speaking of which, R.I.P. Steve Jobs.