Teaser / New energy source
Author: jank

I’ve had the greatest 18 hours of workouts in probably a couple of years. I’ll write more later, but… Man.

Yesterday on the way home, I finally found a pond in which to swim. About a half mile long, clean, deep-ish water, no motors. So, I started with a lap in the wetsuit. Proved to myself that, while fine for sprints, a surfing wetsuit kind of stinks for swimming more than a couple hundred yards. (Fortunately, there’s a new one on the way).

Then - a 5 miler. Wicked, wicked tough - straight up hill to start, and then down the steep to finish. But, absolutely beautiful. At the end of the run, there were a couple of guys fishing in the Pond - will have to bring the kids back.

This morning, I woke up early to ride. Was on the road well before 7, rode ‘cross the state line out to Watch Hill through some Scooby-Doo type fog (So thick you could cut it with a knife). Watched next to no rollers come crashing in - wind was still. Then, rode uphill, out of the fog through Westerly. I’d seen a sign that Boombridge Road had a bridge closed, but kind of banking on its being closed to automobiles due to being decrepit, and knowing that I, while not the picture of svelteness, do not weigh nearly as much as a car, headed down the road. Worst case, I’d turn around and get an extra 4 miles.

The bridge was open, and the view over the Pawckatuck river was extraordinary. Brilliant blue sky, deep green grass and trees, dark tannic water - ought to be a postcard for New England. (I took pictures; will post later). Stopped briefly for a bocadillo* and to call the fam to let them know I was still alive.

Back to Mystic, a bit later than I’d planned. And back into the fog as soon as I hit River Road - man, that was cool, both figuratively and literally - I had to pull my armwarmers back on. Stopped, got some coffee, and rode up to Butler Elementary for Nate’s t-ball game. Missy had brought some pants to fend off the cold.

After the game, I took the kind of long way home, up Noank-Fishtown road instead of over Cow Hill, just so I could come down the hill on Yetter and see how close to 45 MPH I could get (Haven’t dumped the Garmin yet to see what it was). Man, what an 18 hours.

Best part, I feel great - even less sore than when I started.

* Bocadillos may be my new during run/ride energy food. I got introduced to them as dessert when I was riding a Colombian submarine. They’re nothing but guava pulp and sugar, dried and wrapped in a banana leaf (or a bit of sugar cane leaf - not sure what). Each brick of bocadillo is:

• 200 Calories
• 38 grams of sugar
• 15 mg of sodium
• 6 g of fiber

I suppose they could use a little bit of protein to make them all hip and with it, but as far as I can tell, they’re functionally identical to Missy’s SportBeans, ‘cept instead of being $1/pouch, it was $3 for 12 bricks. And, the wrappers are biodegradable - no goopy packages to carry home in a pocket or hand.

I think that in the future I’m going to cut each bocadillo in two (to get 100 cal/serving, same as a pack of SportBeans) - 200 cal at a pop seems to be a bit excessive.

The last problem, though, was that I got them at a Fiesta Market when we were down in Houston. As far as I can tell, none of the groceries in Connecticut carry them.

Oh, and I’ve got pictures, too. Will post probably tomorrow with run report.

Backstage @ BLDGBLOG
It's been a pretty slow week here with new posts, but there is a lot going on; I thought I'd relay some news to everyone, both to catch up on things backstage here at the blog and because I'm really looking forward to what's to come. [Image: From "the ruins of San Francisco," 1906, via farlane].As some of you may know, then, for the past year and a half, in addition to writing The BLDGBLOG Book and maintaining BLDGBLOG itself, I've been working full-time as Senior Editor of Dwell magazine. In that capacity, I've been able to do some really awesome things, I think, from writing a profile of Arup's SoundLab to wandering through LA's infrastructure with Matthew Coolidge of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (don't miss the photos) and taking a virtual walk through my old hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with novelist Ken Kalfus. I've commissioned articles from fantastic writers, including Clare Dudman, Tom Vanderbilt, Steve Silberman, Alexis Madrigal, Edward Lifson, Alissa Walker, Marcus Trimble, Charles Montgomery, Simon Sellars, and a dozen others others; I've been able to cover the work of artists, architects, writers, and designers I hugely admire, including Kevin Slavin, Emiliano Granado, Michelle Lord, Alex Haw, Emily Pilloton, Steve Lambert & Packard Jennings, MOS, Michael Gainer, Joel Sanders, Francois Perrin, Casey Hughes, AGATHOM Co., Paul Petrunia, and many, many, many others; I've met Richard Rogers, David Adjaye, Lorcan O'Herlihy, Hawkins\Brown, Tone Wheeler and Jan O'Connor of Environa Studio, Freya Bardell, Gary Hustwit, Escher GuneWardena, and Ebony Snow of Snow & Graham (again, among countless others); I've had the opportunity to review new books by Jim Rossignol, Kazys Varnelis, David Greene, Hertha Hurnaus, Alastair Gordon, John Roderick, Joseph Grima, and at least three dozen other books; and I've worked with fantastic coworkers – now friends – the entire time. Two of them, Brendan Callahan and Alexis Tjian, even directly contributed to The BLDGBLOG Book: Brendan illustrated the whole thing, producing nearly 30 images that you'll find scattered throughout its pages, and Alexis donated a beautiful photograph she took of San Francisco's Bay Bridge. However, next week will be my last week at Dwell as Senior Editor. I will be transitioning into a new role, as Contributing Editor, and I will be moving back to Los Angeles (!) with my wife after a summer of traveling abroad. It's been an amazing year and a half, but things are accelerating a bit too much for me to hold onto a full-time job right now. I'm very much looking forward to contributing to Dwell in the future, and to participating at Dwell events, but I need to a take a little more time to work on new projects, to decompress a bit, and to hang out with my wife on at least three – and, we hope, four – continents this summer. [Image: polaroid jam, San Francisco, by Micaela Go].I don't mean to drag on with personal information here, but there are several things coming up that might be of interest to BLDGBLOG readers:

—Next week, I will be participating in the Glass House Conversations, hosted at Philip Johnson's iconic Glass House in Connecticut; the Conversations have been running every year since 1949. BLDGBLOG will be part of a daylong conversation about "Breaking The Rules." It will be hosted and moderated by Jeff Gordinier, author of X Saves The World and Editor-at-Large of Details magazine. Other participants include director Darren Aronofsky; Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU; poet Erin Belieu; environmental artist and "mad scientist" Natalie Jeremijenko; food critic Alan Richman; designer Valerie Casey; dancer Nancy Bannon; Katie Salen from the Institute of Play; materials librarian George Beylerian; and designer Paula Scher of Pentagram. While the event itself is private, video recordings and transcripts should be available on the Glass House site this spring. —Two weeks later, from March 31-April 1, is Postopolis! LA, free and open to the public, hosted by the Storefront for Art and Architecture and ForYourArt. BLDGBLOG will proudly be there alongside Arch Daily/Plataforma Arquitectura, City of Sound, mudd up!, Subtopia, and we make money not art. Expect some major announcements about that, including speakers and the venue, coming soon. —Another two weeks later, on Monday, April 13, from 7-9pm, the New York Institute for the Humanities will be hosting a celebration of David Maisel's recent, widely praised book Library of Dust. This will take place at the Angel Orensanz Foundation, housed in an extraordinary, blue-ceilinged synagogue at 172 Norfolk Street; it will be led by the indefatigable Lawrence Weschler. Here's a map. The list of participants looks absolutely amazing, and I'm thrilled to be a part of the group. In addition to Maisel and Weschler, there will be writer, professor, and historian of photography Ulrich Baer; author Rachel Cohen; writer and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht; art historian Karen Lang; novelist Jonathan Lethem; photographer Joel Meyerowitz; novelist Ted Mooney; filmmaker Bill Morrison; Magnum photojournalist Gilles Peress; president of Wesleyan University and historian Michael Roth; author and critic Luc Sante; and poet Vijay Seshadri. More information about the event, including ticket prices and availability, should hopefully be up on the Orensanz Foundation's site soon, or on the website of the New York Institute for Humanities.—While I'm in New York City, I will also be lecturing on Tuesday, April 14, at the School of Visual Arts – if you're around, please come out to see it! – and hosting a micro-film festival on Saturday, April 11. I'm co-organizing that film fest with Enrique Ramirez of the always excellent a456, and it will also be sponsored by the Storefront for Art and Architecture. Enrique and I will have more info about that shortly. —On May 1, I'll be speaking in Melbourne, Australia, at Parallax, the 2009 National Architecture Conference. As you can see from this PDF – as well as this list – the schedule looks amazing; other participants include Slavoj Zizek, Aaron Betsky, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Sou Fujimoto, Hani Rashid, and Tatiana Bilbao, with a few others yet to be announced. I can't wait. —At the end of May – on May 27 – I'll then be participating in a conference at the Architectural Association in London, organized by Liam Young. That will also be open to the public, with more information on its way. —My wife and I will then be renting an apartment in Rome for the month of June – during which time The BLDGBLOG Book will be officially released here in the United States. I will be walking around in the sun all day looking at ruins, reading Mary Beard and Filippo Coarelli, visiting churches and tombs, drinking wine, and regularly updating the blog. I haven't been to Rome since 2002 – when I spent a week sitting on the Isola Tiberina reading Perdido Street Station – and it's hard to exaggerate how excited I am about this. —July 2009 will see Urban Islands kick off down south in Sydney, Australia, from 13-25 July. Urban Islands is a two-week design studio that takes place on an old industrial island, abandoned prison, and former military site in the Sydney Harbor, called Cockatoo Island. It is not too late to register.—Finally, kicking off an autumn of further events, BLDGBLOG will move back to Los Angeles in August 2009!

My time in San Francisco has been great; I haven't always liked it here – in fact, I actually don't like it here – but so many good things have happened to me in the last year and a half that I still find it all quite hard to believe. There are actually several more things to announce, from events to publications, but I'll have to wait a bit more before unleashing the hounds... In any case, sorry for the long list of links and such here, but I thought all of this deserved an announcement. At the very least, I will now have much more time to update BLDGBLOG, and all of the above explains why. [Image: Rome, photographed by Philipp Roth].Thanks for sticking with the site, meanwhile; I hugely appreciate the readers, comments, feedback, emails, and everything.
Published: 2009-03-07 14:20:00

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