Try-athlon

OK, I've been promising the triathlon story for a couple of weeks now so here goes. For those of you just tuning in, for some reason which I can no longer recall, I decided to participate in an athletic event a couple of weeks ago called the Riverbend Challenge. This was no ordinary triathlon. It involved running, biking, paddling, rock climbing, military style obstacle courses and I think some sort of pentagon sanctioned psychological torture. I don't know, I never made it that far.

My training for this event included lots of swimming, a little running (very little), some biking, rock climbing and lots of worrying whether I had my affairs in order in case I didn't finish the race.

One thing I knew going in was that I have never performed well in extreme heat. I'm usually in better physical shape in the winter when I can get more exercise without overheating. That is also why I choose to do most of my exercising in the pool. The race was in early June and there was a good chance that we'd have not-so-hot weather for the 10am start time. Wrong. It was 98 degrees with high humidity and a heat index of over 100 degrees - the hottest day of the year to be exact.

It's OK I told myself. I'm used to exercising while wearing a heart monitor so I know that the top end of my training zone is around 168 beats of the old ticker per minute. My plan was to just keep an eye on my heart rate and if it started accelerating like popping corn, I'd just slow down.

My team members, Brian and Sue and I had agreed that our goal was just to finish the race, not to try and be hyper competitive. That laissez faire attitude disappeared about two minutes into the race. The first task was to run to a large grassy area in Coolidge Park and find our team number (103) among all the other competitors numbers. They were attached to little white markers driven into the ground with roofing nails. We had an advantage over the individual racers since there were three of us looking for just the one number. You had to find that number before you'd be allowed to begin the actual running course. We divided the grassy area into three zones for efficiency and started our search. We were getting frantic seeing just about everyone else heading away on the running when Sue's husband, Joe (one of the guys I kayak with) found our number. Off we ran and within a couple of hundred yards my heart rate was a steady 185. GRRRRRRR. That's about where it stayed except for when it approached and sometimes exceeded 200. I gave it my all and watched my team mates get smaller and smaller as I struggled to catch up with them.

About two thirds of the way through the running course I encountered the obstacle course. The good news was only a couple of people could go through the course at a time and there was short line so I got a bit of a breather. The bad news was there was no shade and the line was moving rather quickly. It was, after all a race. Brian and Sue waited for me to finish so we could all start together again. We were together for maybe 3 feet and I told myself I'd catch up when we got to the biking portion of the race.

As I approached the end of the running portion where my trusty recumbent bike waited I noticed there weren't many other bikes left in the racks. This of course meant we were near the back of the pack.

As I expected I did catch up and pass lots of bikers in that portion of the race. Brian and I had the only recumbent bikes in the race and it was nice to pass people on regular upright bikes, especially going uphill because recumbents have been given a bad rap for supposedly being unable to climb.

The 17 mile bike race was brutal, crossing multiple ridges in heat that by then must have surpassed 100 degrees. At one point I stopped and refueled by eating a small baggy of peanuts and soy-nuts I'd brought along just in case my blood sugar felt like it was crashing. Within a couple of minutes I was climbing another ridge and passing bikes again. I really felt like I was over the hump and would be in OK shape for the rest of the race. Little did I know what was about to happen. My calf muscles began to cramp and twist into shapes I'd never seen on my legs before. For the next thirty minutes I pedaled, rubbed, groaned and panted my way back to Coolidge Park where I knew another couple of miles of running awaited before we'd begin the rowing portion of the race in the Tennessee River. I was beginning to worry again. My heart rate was a constant 195.

As I got off my bike I knew I was in trouble. Why was everyone looking at me like some sort of zombie? Had I turned purple or something? Apparently, I had.

Angie and Brian helped me to the curb where I found I couldn't talk and was having a hard time focusing. An ambulance drove by taking another participant to the hospital with heat stroke. Brian and Sue waited, a little impatiently, for me to either die or get up and run. Fortunately for me, one of the race organizers came by and saw my condition and threw a cold towel over my head and told my team members to continue on - I was through. A TKO - I couldn't have asked for a better outcome at the moment!

As I slowly regained my strength I became ravenously hungry and devoured two turkey sandwiches like they were air. Eventually I was able to get my strength back enough to see Brian and Sue paddle in from the Tennessee River, drag a couple of concrete sacks around and climb the rock wall before running across the finish line. I would have liked to have been with them but I was equally happy to know I would be home napping in an hour.

I posted a few pictures from the race as well as some pictures from a kayaking trip I took with Brian, Joe and his son Reed the following Friday. A couple of the pictures were taken by Dee at ocoeephotos.com. I highly recommend having them document your trip if you ever make to the Ocoee river for a raft trip. ¶ 8:19 PM 0 comments

CD Sales

Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who've already ordered my new CD "For The Beauty." CD sales have been brisk considering quite a few PC users have been unable to hear the samples. See the journal from 7:01pm for an explanation.

Shortly after I started sending out the new CD announcements to my email list yesterday morning, orders and inquiries began coming in. It is going to take a few days to get back with everyone so please be patient with me.

This very welcome onslaught of email reminded me again that I need a better way of sorting, cataloging and tracking my mail. I've been using Apple's built-in mail, calendar and address book applications since I switched completely to the OS-X operating system last year. Prior to that, I'd used Microsoft's Office package with Entourage handling contacts, mail, to-do's calendar's etc. It has much tighter integration of data and many options for batch processing changes. I decided now would be as good a time as any to switch back so I changed horses mid stream and it has taken a few hours to get all my data converted to Office 2004.

In the middle of doing all this Angie and I had to keep an appointment with our accountant and finally get our 2003 taxes completed! It has been a busy couple of days.

Those of you who ordered CDs should be receiving them in the mail by the end of next week. After we get through this original rush, I'm sure we'll be able to get back to our practice of getting CDs in the mail within 24 hours (usually the same day) of receiving the order.

¶ 7:17 PM 0 comments

For those having trouble hearing the samples . . .

. . . on my music page, I think the problem is solved. I've gotten about an equal number of emails from people saying they love the samples and those saying they get an error when clicking on the quicktime link. I had my friend Philip Luckey check them out on a variety of Macs and PCs in his office and it looks like there is some kind of Java error occurring on Windows XP machines.

To solve the problem I created another link that doesn't use any java. I called my friend Kathy Jerrel in northern Indiana who'd indicated she couldn't hear the samples on her PC and had her check the new links. She was able to play them with no problem. So, unless someone else indicates otherwise, you should now be able to play all the samples assuming you have a decent internet connection. I'd be interested in hearing from any PC users who can get both links to work just to help me understand where the problem lies.
¶ 7:01 PM 0 comments

Did you get my email?

I worked late into the night last night getting samples and brief descriptions of all the songs from "For The Beauty" posted on this web site. This morning I sent out my first ever mass mailing announcing the CD's availability. If you are reading this journal entry and did not get that message then you are either not on my mail list or I have an incorrect address. Drop me an email and let me know if you'd like to be included in, or excluded from future mailings. I don't anticipate sending out more than one or two a year and I will never give my email address list to anyone.


¶ 9:10 AM 0 comments

For The Beauty

Hey everyone! Check out my music page and you'll see what I've been up to for the past 10 days that I haven't posted. I only have a brief moment now but I'll write soon about how the triathlon went last weekend. Suffice it for now to say that I'm still alive. - Dan
¶ 3:16 PM 0 comments

Kayaking

Yesterday's trip down the Ocoee was just what the doctor ordered. My paddling companions were Bryan, Joe and Ryan. The weather was perfect which for me means temps in the 70's with rain which was sometimes heavy. If you're gonna get wet you might as well go all the way!

Rain in the Ocoee River Gorge produces beautiful mist rising from the trees. The combination of fast moving smooth water, frothy rapids, swirling mist and splashing rain accentuated by distant thunder is a sensuous feast, like being drawn into a great painting of some earth sized orchestra. When the rain intensifies, the pounding on my helmut sounds like applause.

I posted an uninteresting picture up on the photographs link which was taken after the boat trip. It's hard to get good kayaking photographs unless you have someone on the trip with you willing to drive ahead, hike down to the river and shoot. I think I'll investigate getting a water-proof housing for my camera so I could carry it with me on trips.

Today's agenda includes finishing some wiring updates to my street performing rig, teaching a linear chromatic hammer dulcimer lesson, and then working on a CD project this afternoon. Bryan and I are going to try and get in a bike ride tonight as we continue to train for this weekend's triathlon.
¶ 6:39 AM 0 comments

A Good Weekend

You know the feeling people with regular M-F jobs get on Friday afternoon? I've been performing on weekends for so long now that I get that same feeling on Sunday afternoon. There aren't many gigs on Mondays and Tuesdays.

It felt good to be loading all my gear into the Envoy after finishing up five hours of street performing Sunday afternoon at the Tennessee Aquarium. It was a slow day so I got to do a lot of experimenting which I enjoy, but it also meant CD sales were poor.

After I left the Aquarium I picked up Angie who'd been attending Missy's dance recital and on the way home I remembered my triathlon team member, Sue, had planned a few practice climbs that evening on the Walnut Street Climbing Wall. A little reluctantly, I pulled into Coolidge Park to at least give her some encouragement. I knew I was too exhausted to climb. When I realized that I'd forgotten to bring a change of shoes I relaxed, thinking they probably wouldn't even allow me to climb in my falling apart Birkenstocks. Wrong.

Within about 15 minutes my maleness kicked in (you know, if she can do it . . . ) and I was 50 feet in the air clinging to a tiny stone with one hand while ringing the victory bell at the top with the other. I did two more successful climbs and then decided to go for the hardest looking one of them all. I wasn't so successful on this one. Thank goodness for belaying. See pictures by using the Photographs link on the left.

This morning I plan to do a little modification to my street performing gear rack, give a linear chromatic hammer dulcimer lesson and then go Kayaking on the Ocoee River this afternoon. Here's a web site put up by an old friend with some good pics from the Ocoee:

http://www.flutterby.com/danlyke/whitewater/ocoee/

The yard is in serious need of mowing and you can imagine my sadness when I awoke this morning to the sound of rainfall. :-) ¶ 8:17 AM 0 comments

Everything Aches

Yesterday's back-to-back gigs were fun but I can feel it this morning. I played from 10:30 in the morning until around 4pm at the Aquarium. I then took the whole sound system down and moved it up to Chattanooga's Arts district on a grassy knoll across from the Renaissance Commons and played for another 4 hours with Gary Hicks for the Bella Sera festival.

Gary and I hadn't played together for a while so it was fun hearing the old songs fall smoothly back into place and it was even more fun improvising new pieces. I split my time between my D600 and my Linear Chromatic. The weather was beautiful but the humidity kept changing as a cold front was moving through the area. Just about any time I wasn't playing I was tuning. I have around 200 strings to keep in tune and I of course know it would be a lot easier to just take one instrument to my gigs but I'm hooked on the versatility that having two instruments affords.

I'm playing another 5 hours today and then attending my daughter's dance recital. Come hear me at the Tennessee Aquarium from 11 to 3.

¶ 7:59 AM 0 comments

Bella Sera - The Good Life

"Imagine a beautiful early summer night amidst the natural beauty of Chattanooga's Bluff View Art District...great food and wine from around the world, including French, Asian, Italian and American...live entertainment from small groups and strolling musicians...and a wide array of inspiring art to appreciate and acquire."

This is the description of an event for which bassist Gary Hicks and I will play tomorrow, Saturday June 4, from 6 to 10 p.m.. It is called Bella Sera which means the good life. It is for a very good cause called Chattanooga Endeavors which helps people get back on track after leaving prison by giving them the training and necessary skills to find work. Go to http://www.chattanoogaendeavors.com for more information about Bella Sera and come to the event if you can. The weather this weekend looks like it will be perfect.

I'll also be playing again this weekend outside the Tennessee Aquarium from 10 until 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

My training for next weekend's Riverbend Challenge continues this afternoon as Bryan, Sue and I will try to learn to paddle our canoe as a team this in the Tennessee River. Lookout fish here we come.
¶ 12:15 PM 0 comments

Stephen Humphries D600, my PHD, and the perfect stack

Stephen Humphries is now the proud owner of a brand new Dusty Strings D600 hammer dulcimer with dampers and pickups.

Mark Wade was right - Stephen is an incredible player and this instrument is the perfect choice for his aggressive playing style. Mark told me nearly a year ago that I had to meet Stephen and I'd be surprised how similar his playing was to mine. At the time I didn't realize what a compliment he was paying me.

Stephen and his parents Alva and Debbie made the trip from Columbia, SC. on Memorial Day and were guests at our home until Tuesday afternoon. As part of the purchase I promised Stephen a day of lessons and we started around 7-am and still had more ground to cover when they left around 4-pm.

We were so busy I forgot to take a picture of Stephen with his new instrument but I did snap a couple of shots of him playing my PHD (portable hammer dulcimer). You can see it on my Photographs page.

Another odd picture I posted today is of my gear in what I believe is the perfect stack for getting to and from my truck at the Tennessee Aquarium. The hardest part of street performing every weekend is the loading and setup of gear. I'm now taking three hammer dulcimers - I know what you're thinking but I NEEEEED them all - along with my sound equipment, CDs for sale, water, my laptop, etc.. And after much trial and error I've figured out how to get it all safely on my cart in an order that makes it efficient to load and setup in the least amount of steps. When I realized that I'd achieved some sort of stacking nirvana I decided to take a picture to remind me of how to do it right.
¶ 9:46 AM 2 comments