Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

cycling / Friday / memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off
01
Mar 21

Welcome to March

It doesn’t feel like spring yet, but it’s gonna. Today, though, I’d just like to feel a bit … less. Or more. I’d like to hurt less and feel like more.

As I mentioned Friday, I had a big weekend of riding. And I’m happy to report that I toughed it out. I fueled terribly, but I survived. I think. This was my view all weekend:

It wasn’t the miles, it was the user error. And also the climbing. I could explain the fueling, but suffice it to say my caloric intake got all out of whack. And I became well aware of that reality on the way to the last climb yesterday. I told you about the Friday ride. Here you can see me in third place on the road on Saturday.

I was not in third place, but it sounds nice, doesn’t it? It wasn’t a race, to me anyway, it was just an excuse to make thousands of tiny circles with my feet, and also to get a cool aerotuck screengrab.

After Saturday’s ride featured 4,124 feet of elevation gained, Sunday was the big day of climbing. You can see even my avatar changed clothes for the bigger 33 mile, 5,617 feet gained effort.

It … hurt. Don’t let the sprint I eeked out at the mountaintop finish fool you. I was so spent I thought I was hallucinating the aurora on the iPad.

And I could barely walk when I got off the bike. (Time for new bike shoes!) After I hobbled upstairs and had a shower I started eating vegetables directly off the cookie sheet. Fueling was a problem because I wasn’t diligent about it because, at the end of the day, I’m riding a bicycle inside the house. It’s easier to be fussy about that, I realized this weekend, if you’re riding way out of town. But if the kitchen is just steps away, different story. And I’ve never really had the opportunity to climb 12,690 feet in one weekend, so I have no frame of reference for this.

It’s a big frame, and this was a great reference.

And I finished the Zwift Haute Route Challenge.

What does that mean? Absolutely nothing, but a sense of mild accomplishment. And it’s more base miles for the year.

We were looking at a giant snow mound at the local big box store.

This was the mound of our affection two weeks ago, on Valentine’s Day, after the first snow.

And here’s the same mound of our laments, a week later, as seen on February 21, after the even larger snow.

And here’s that same mound, this Saturday, on February 28th.

After a bit of weekend rain, and looking at the weather ahead this week … this thing might be gone by next Saturday. That’d be a signal almost-as-happy as returning robins and other springtime birds.

cycling / Friday / IU / television / video — Comments Off
25
Feb 21

I’m not psyched out; you’re psyched out!

It was a sports night last night, and the IUSTV crew brought us plenty of it on Sports Nite:

The Toss Up, which I referred to yesterday, is all about that bump, set and spike:

Volleyball is a terrific sport. It’s easy to follow, the flow of the game provides nice action, the players are accessible in camera shots and it’s a sport that has repackaged itself as a perfect capsule for TV programming. (Though I do think the TV productions should be re-constructed.) It should be hugely popular. I like to ask why it isn’t and how you get it there, and I asked the two beat writers in this program, one from the paper and one from the TV station, why they thought it was. They’ve both had classes with The Yankee, so they both answered correctly. It comes down, they said, to telling stories.

There are sixteen players on that team, and there are at least 16 great and compelling stories there, before you even look over the coaches biographies.

Most sports should feel this way. You just need the right people in the right places and right times to make it happen.

This weekend I am making it happen, if I can avoid psyching myself out. The backstory is that I got an email from Zwift about an upcoming series of rides. I mentioned it to a friend of ours and she said I should do the series.

And here’s the thing about things that are seven or eight weeks in the future: they all seem easy.

Along the way to what is, in truth, a fairly ambitious ride series, there were a bunch of workouts. I did one of each. They were fun. One of them was demanding. I’m not sure if they’ll be helpful this weekend, which started this evening.

This was the first of three stages. The whole adventure will wind up Sunday — and thus will be the pre-occupation of the entire weekend.

And, thus, the Haute Route begins, and before it’s done I’ll have tapped out 90-something miles and 12,000-plus feet of climbing. The mileage won’t be bad, but the climbs will be what add up.

Tonight I had 2,949 feet to climb in the smart trainer. This was the easiest stage in terms of the elevation gained. Tomorrow will probably be fine. The plan is just to survive and feel good about myself after Sunday’s ride.

Wish me luck.

IU / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
24
Feb 21

That’s pretty much how I feel about it, too

When you think about it, with masks on you have to emote in other non-verbal ways. And most talk shows the students I know produce are so polite that there’s discussion and not a lot of dynamic interaction.

But lately I’ve come to realize that I can get a nice action shot before the cameras are rolling. There’s a checklist of things that have to take place before a show can, in fact, go on. And it takes a little time. Once you have people wearing microphones and in their seats they are rehearsing or getting last minute instructions or just chatting.

Sometimes you can pretend with that back-and-forth. This was this evening.

I don’t remember what they’re talking about here, it wasn’t critically important in the scheme of things, probably music or soundbites or something like that. A few moments after this they produced a fine show about the volleyball team. And that’ll be online tomorrow. I’ll share it then.

Otherwise, a normal busy day. It started with a dentist appointment — all good reviews! — and is going to end in a few moments with dishes and laundry and music. So, you can see, some things were accomplished. Some of it was even painless! Everything happened on time and most of all it was pleasant enough. That’s asking a lot for a Thursday, but sometimes Thursdays deliver.

adventures / Bloomington / IU / journalism / photo / television / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
24
Feb 21

And happy Wednesday to you, too

The Yankee and I had a picnic in the old K-Mart parking lot. It was a drive-thru Chick-fil-A sort of experience, best part of the day with little doubt. The parking lot is next to the restaurant, which is still all drive-thru and curbside pickup and so we got our food and moved off to eat. When I’d finished my spicy chicken sandwich I looked up through the sun roof and noticed this view:

It was a mild day here, if you actually made it outside. I seldom seem able to do that. I live under fluorescent lights in a beige and dirty-cream color office with orange carpet and no windows most of the time. If I get a different view it’s under a handful of LEDs in the studio. But to get outside is nice, to get away for a few minutes is even better. And to see more fake signs of seasonal change is a delight.

As I noted yesterday on Twitter:

So desperate for a change of seasons am I that I stand under the sun above, look upon the melting snow, and feel the mercury moving its way toward 52 and pronounce it a spring-like day.

This is sick.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) February 23, 2021

And the same thing applies today. So, when I was done with my work day I went up to the top of the parking deck to watch the sky whirl by. It was a pretty good choice, I think. The stratocumulus made for some dramatic views.

And why share one when you can share three? So here are two more pictures from the same parking deck.

Something to see, huh?

Here are some other things to check oiut. These are the videos from last night’s television productions.

News:

Pop culture happenings:

Oh, and I forgot the other day, there’s a morning show to check out, too.

That oughta hold you until tomorrow.

IU / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
23
Feb 21

That’s novel; that’s normal

A night in the studio means dressing like it. Or trying, a little bit. Here’s today’s look. It’s novel.

That’s a Christmas shirt and a Santa pocket square. I think they paired nicely together. Also, this is the first time I’ve put on sports coat since November.

Haven’t worn a suit in almost a year. Feels like it, too. So that’s normal now, I guess.

Anyway, one nice thing happening is that the days are getting longer, so at the point of the evening when our crew can get in the studio there’s still a bit of light left. We have windows along one wall and they face east. It can make for some challenging shoots in the morning on some of our sets, but you also get a few minutes of that lovely golden light in the morning and evening.

Now if only there were leaves on those trees. In a couple of long months … we’ll have a great many green things out there. And then, in a shockingly few number of days, we’ll be used to them, once again.

If there’s one thing you can say about our society, we get used to the most amazing things incredibly quickly. We’re so good at it we don’t even realize we do it anymore.

Oh, that’s novel! Oh … that’s normal …

I watched students produce two new news shows tonight. It’s both normal and novel. That’s the fun part of doing the news, sometimes. There’s usually something new in there. Sure, the weather is the weather and the sports are wins and losses and you get quotes for this or that, but then you seize on an important story. They’ve got one of those tonight. Or you get a great guest. And the talk show had a TikTok star on this evening, for what that’s worth.

I wonder what that’s worth. The guy apparently has a few million followers. Apparently he does his dances in classes and that was a big part of his audience growth — which says a lot about the app and the audience. It wasn’t obvious from the interview that he’s monetized that. How novel.

All that will be online tomorrow, and you can see it here, then. Very normal.