Who's watching with me?

The NBA conference finals are here.  I'm sure you two NBA fans have been following along, right?  There have been some great series this year already.  In fact, I think the best might be behind us, but I hope not.

The two Clippers series both went to game 7.  They came out of the first round with a win against the defending champs, the Spurs.  Most the the NBA world predicted those two would meet in the conference championships, with a slight majority picking the Clips to win.  That series looked like a conference championship series.  Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are fun to watch.  It's hard to believe that they blew the round two series against the Rockets.  Doc Rivers has the dubious honor of being the guy that has coached TWO of the nine teams that have lost a playoff series after leading 3-1 (he did it with Orlando against Detroit in 2003).  That has to smart a bit.

As much as I don't like Dwight Howard, I find that I love watching the Rockets, primarily because of James Harden.  That guy is a beast.  I don't think a day goes by that the OKC Thunder don't regret letting him go, because they haven't been the same since.  Nobody was talking about the Rockets getting this far early in the season, so it's fun to see a couple of teams make the conference finals that haven't been there for awhile (Rockets 96-97 and Warriors 75-76).  Golden State is just killing it with the Curry/Thompson duo.  Curry is the MVP this year, and I've always liked Steve Kerr, so I'm happy to see him make it as far as he has as a coach.  What's not to like?  But Houston will give them a tough go.  My Western Conference finals prediction is Golden State in 7.  BTW, none of the six Sports Illustrated staffers that wrote playoff predictions at the beginning of the season picked either Golden State or Houston to be in the conference finals.  They were all Spurs, Clips, or OKC.

The Eastern Conference hasn't been quite as compelling for me.  In fact, in my mind, the Western conference is all that really matters.  I can't believe that the Wizards made it as far as they did, and they might have even squeaked into the conference finals had Paul Pierce made a couple of key shots in a couple of games.  I was watching game 5 against the Hawks when he has a WIDE open look at a three to tie it in regulation - he was way off.  You guys know how I feel about him, so I enjoyed it.  I didn't watch game six, but I read that he missed a couple of big shots in that one too.

EVERYONE in the world predicted the Bulls and the Cavaliers in the conference finals.  They were off by one round.  I was a little surprised to see the Cavs get by the Bulls at all, let along in six.  They are the same team they used to be with one star (LeBron) and a bunch of so-so guys.  Even Kevin Love has been a shell of himself this year - just another mediocre player.  The Hawks are playing good basketball right now, and they are the number one seed.  It's kind of interesting that if you look at their roster you'll likely say, "How are these guys so good?"  The Hawks are another team that no one predicted to be here.  Those six SI staffers?  They all had Cavs/Bulls in the conference finals.  I'm not sure how to call this one, but I don't think it matters.  I'll say the Hawks in six.

In the end, Golden State will win the championship in five.  You heard it here first fellas!

As a final NBA-related note, I hardly could find a sports writer on the internet who predicted someone OTHER than LeBron James to win the MVP this year, and he wasn't even really in the conversation.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is some amazing technology.  Everywhere I look I see people using it for their GoPro cameras and Beats Pills and Bose Soundlink speakers.  Most everyone seems to be pretty comfortable with using bluetooth technology.

Except in the car.

From a cultural perspective, I am fascinated by the outright resistance by the general populace to using bluetooth technology in the car.  Take a look on your drive to work tomorrow, and you’ll notice most people holding their phones up to their ears or worse yet, holding it out in front of their face  (speaker mode).  

A quick check of Amazon and I discovered that you can buy a bluetooth earpiece for as little as $15.  If you’re willing to move up to the $25 range, there are scores of options.  So what’s the rub?  With the cost of phones and cell plans these days, cost cannot be a factor.  WHY do people not use this amazing technology that makes talking on the cell phone in your car easy AND safer?

And even if you don't want to use bluetooth, why not use the earphones that they are wearing 11 hours a day anyway?  Most of them have a microphone built in.

Is there an explanation other than just being too cool to put an earpiece in their ear?  

Ed on Body Maintenance

I wrote an earlier post on my FitBit and must say that it has changed a lot of things in my life based on having it strapped on my wrist. 

First, I'm more accountable to my activity level. It doesn't count steps entirely accurately, but is a good general indication of the amount of movement and activity you enter into each day.  I said that my goal is 10k steps per day.  That was pretty challenging to achieve at first.  Now, I'm making it with relative ease and shoot for a much higher number on my weekend days. 

The FitBit has a friend feature and that gets my competitive juices going.  Yes, I'm friends with a few work colleagues (many of whom are women) and then a few swimming parents and then my racquetball partner.  There is only one person who consistently gets more steps than I do.  I'm averaging between 90k and 100k steps per week and I feel pretty good about that.  10k to 15k per day during the week and 15k - 25k on weekend days.

The FitBit has also adjusted my view of activity.  I don't participate in much rigorous exercise.  But I walk A LOT more.  It has become very typical for me to walk with Holly and Rocky for 45 minutes to an hour almost every evening.  That's good for me, good for Holly, and good for Rocky.  Is that exercise?  I don't know but it can't hurt and I feel good about the statistics it racks up on my FitBit. 

I learned last week that unbeknownst to me, every person in the company that has a FitBit has their results posted on the company intranet.  It was brought to my attention by someone in my team who asked "how do you get in all those steps?"  I asked her how she knew and she directed me to the site.  I've never gone to it before, and didn't know it even existed.  Turns out that of the 126 employees in HQ that have a FitBit that I'm #2.  Behind only the facilities guy who is on his feet all the time.  And against the 1,400 who have a FitBit across the whole company I'm #15.  That gave me the motivation to make sure I maintain the effort I'm putting into getting my steps.  One more fact and then I'll close on this topic.  I wanted to make my 10k goal every day for a month.  The last time I didn't make it was April 6th.  So I made that goal too. 

The FitBit is a great way for you to set goals, track them easily, and achieve them. That's the marvel of these little gadgets, nothing more.  They track sleep patterns as well but I won't go into that.  But I use that feature as well.  The features I don't use are the food plan and the water plan.  Those scare me for different reasons that I won't go into here. 

So as I age suddenly walking as entered my roundhouse in terms of "working out".  It may be a bit premature but it is keeping me focused on maintaining a low impact, moderate exercise routine.  My knee still bothers me occasionally, and I'm still playing racquetball about three times per week.  But other than that and the walking I haven't done much of anything. 

Haven't been on the bike, haven't climbed a fourteener (still in my plans this year) and definitely haven't put on the running shoes.  But I am at a steady and reasonable weight (sure, I would like to be 5-10 pounds lighter) and reasonably happy with the fact that my fitness regimen is reasonable and achievable. 

Have a lowered my expectations?  Perhaps.  Have I acknowledged (not accepted) that I'm getting older.  Yes.  But I've got to do something that manages my mentality about my physical health.  And based on a $100 piece of equipment I have strapped on my wrist I feel I've found it, at least for now. 

Would love you both to get one as well.  Would be fun to benchmark myself against my two healthier and younger brothers!

Re: Body Maintenance

First off, if there is one of us that has been more “in the game” as far as physical fitness it’s you.  You are light years ahead of me in the sense that you’ve reached a point where you want to balance your fitness routine more.  I’m speaking for myself, but at 44 and soon to be 45, my thoughts on fitness have simply been, “Am I doing any kind of fitness or not?”  

Admittedly, one of my difficulties, especially in the past 5-7 years is not really knowing whether or not I hurt because I’m getting older and I’m not in the best shape, or because I’m actually injured in some way.  We’ve had discussions in the past about the mental side of fitness/life, but I’ve conceded to the fact that my age places limits on performance.  The friend that I ride with here in Maryland is always pushing himself to improve and break his personal records.  The guy can hardly stand to have anyone pass us when we’re out riding.  In fact, he usually doesn’t stand it - he takes off, runs them down, and at some point we join up again!  

Hmmm, I’m wandering… what was my point there?  Oh yeah, I guess I look at my fitness in general as maintenance.  I’m not really trying to push myself to see what I might be able to accomplish.

I’m a non-stretcher.  I think the only time I’ve ever stretched is when I have to do it as part of group PT in the Navy.  Called it a mental block, but although I know I should do it, I just don’t.  I’ve thought of trying yoga myself, but never seriously.  Even at most gyms yoga is an extra cost, not something that is included in the normal membership.  So I’ve never considered it seriously enough to lay out any extra money for it.  

Since I’ve never been much of a runner, most of my working out is low impact anyway (primarily on the bike).  I guess MTB makes it slightly more impactful, but not much.  I’d love to get back to swimming at some point - if nothing else it would add some variety.  I did do a 3.6 mile trail run yesterday.  Just like MTB is a different kind of biking, trail running is a different kind of running.  I rolled my left ankle twice and my right ankle once.  Thankfully it wasn't serious.

I have a goal of biking to work twice a week this summer.  I did all the prep work of figuring out the route, renting a locker, and now I just need to pre-stage some clothing and shower stuff.  My guess is it will be about a 60-75 minute ride each way.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Ed, does your work complex, complete with Starbucks, include any kind of workout facilities?  

Body maintenance

After doing the Ironman in 2014, I'm focused on a more well balanced fitness routine for 2015. I am still considering some events for fun, but nothing necessitating the training dedication of 2014. I've been on this journey for 2015, searching out a good balance of working out for good health without the rigor and time demands of a training program.

I have to say that my body isn't liking my new approach, and for the last few months I have felt awful. I'm trying to figure out why. I have maintained a good diversity of exercise over this time between walking, biking, running, swimming, and lifting. I did tweak my knee over the winter, crawling out of a snow cave I made with the girls. That has caused some issues. But on the whole, my issues have been nagging not injury driven. And the result is I just don't feel very good physically, which is very frustrating considering the improvement in my balanced workouts. What is wrong with me!!!

My diet isn't drastically improved, but I have made some strides. One large change is the reduction of alcohol, due to it being so incredibly disruptive to my sleep habits. I'm probably carrying 5-10 pounds I don't need, but am in the range of weight I've been in for several years. Check that one off...

I'm no spring chicken, heading towards my 40th birthday. This leads me to the conclusion that I need to do more maintenance activity than I ever have before due to my age. And that's tough for me. But I have a plan...

1. I am going to try to get back to a two-times-per-day stretching routine. I've typically only stretched during times of high volume exercise, but some of my soreness, in particular in my back, feels like I need to stretch. 10 minutes when I get up and before I go to bed.

2. I will try to focus a larger percentage of my workouts on low impact activity, which for me is swimming and walking.

3. On my 2015 goals was to try yoga and develop a routine. I am hopeful this will provide strength, flexibility, and balance that helps my physical ails as well as the mind/body balance which landed it on my goal list in the first place.

I'm hopeful that this is a temporary state and that my plans improve how I feel. I'm only 39, and while I've used my body aggressively in those years I think I've done a good job taking care of myself. I'm just not anywhere ready to slow down.