Too much

I watch a lot of James' videos, and a lot of what he has to say is useful, but does anyone feel like he's just making stuff up sometimes? I don't mean inventing exercises, that would be rude to suggest. What I mean to say is that, sometimes, the sheer volume of new exercises that he churns out leads me to believe that maybe he's stretching to come up with material. Dennison-ing, if you will.



I'm all about self-promotion, and I get that in this new web-based world new content is always good content, but how many more new exercises can James recommend? James has 247 videos. Not every one of those videos has three exercises. Some focus on one exercise (a la the deadlift), some give seven new exercises (a circuit, if you will), but most of them have two or three exercises that James recommends. Just for fun let's say each video averages out to three new exercises, and let's do the math:


247 videos x 3 new exercises per video ÷ 3 workouts per week ÷ 15 exercises per workout= 17 weeks to do every exercise, assuming I never repeat a workout.


So that means if I never take a break from my plan, I'll do every exercise about three times a year, and my operating assumption is that he's going to keep making these videos. How much is enough? What's the intended goal? Should I be selectively ignoring some of these exercises he recommends? Should my body ever get used to a routine, or should it be in a constant state of shock?

For the sake of mathematics I also assumed that I'd work out three times a week and stick to my plan, but I think we all know neither of those is going to happen. That would take dedication and professionalism, and if I had those qualities I'd be out winning races, not sitting at home looking out the window and writing a B-rate comedy blog.


Dream training plan:

Actual "training plan:"

The Oreo Mcflurry pictured above is, calorically speaking, very similar to chocolate milk, which is the ultimate recovery drink. So basically I'm recovering like a pro. That's science.

World famous Lake Tahoe Glaciers

Northstar at Tahoe: known for its alpine meadows as much as its dazzling glaciers.

Thanks for the heads up, Kidwoo.

The boring people are watching

This website is a good read: http://trailkillerz.blogspot.com/

The guy who writes the site has dedicated his life to documenting and cataloging all acts of illegal trail building and illegal trail riding by mountain bikers everywhere ever.

You know when you want your city to build what seems like the smallest thing ever, and you're really only asking for left-over crumbs from under the bargaining table, and it's like pulling teeth with the city administrators, like by choosing whether to allow bikes on a piece of property that's already zoned for hikers, camping, fires, horses, ATV's, shooting, logging, and space shuttle landings, it's like they're choosing which of their children will live and which will die.

When mountain bikers propose something completely harmless, like Timberline Bike Park, singletrack in Forest Park, the continued presence of bikes in the recently purchased Riverview property in Portland, or any number of other projects from any number of other cities, "concerned citizens" come out of the woodwork saying that bikes will kill children, dogs, butterflies, owls, lichen, old growth trees, salmon, trilliums, and all that is good and holy. And invariably, before twisting in the dagger at the public meeting, these people claim the moral high ground by stating they "also ride mountain bikes," as if they are the only objective ones who can rise above the fray and render a wise and judicious conclusion on this topic. "As a hiker, mountain biker, and concerned citizen, I believe that... (insert your choice of curmudgeony statement that precludes the possibility of ever allowing mountain biking anywhere)." But no one told them that this doesn't count as mountain biking:

And if mountain bikes weren't bad enough, mountain bikers are nothing but renegade thrill seekers looking to leach off and destroy other people's resources (and mother nature, man!) in their "do whatever it takes, ruin as many people's lives, so long as you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied along the way, just so long so you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied and dying along the way?"

Typical mountain bike trail building

A typical mountain biker

If any of what I just said makes sense, you will enjoy that website.

Is that even a real name?

Being British would suck.

How do you say "Llangollen?" Like "Llama" or like Tara "Llanes?"

Reality

Somewhere in these three videos exists reality. Between each of them, you begin to see the forest for the trees, and it all becomes clear.

Welcome to the mountain bike industry:







Normally I hate reposting Dennison videos, but that one is way too accurate to ignore.

Yes

Slomo from The New York Times - Video on Vimeo.

Very yes.

More from Smith

They've followed up the "Chillin' in Chillan" video with an aggressive print advertising campaign:

Still one of the worst looking products ever

I know we argue about a lot of stuff on TEAM ROBOT, but I think this is something we can all come together and agree on: that new Smith helmet is just awful looking.

And if we can come together and agree on this helmet, the future is looking bright.

Also, nice blue handlebars, Darren:

See all that and clips of actual bike riding on the new Smith video:

New Poll

You must choose:


WynTV:

Or the young padawon, Eddy:

You must choose.