The final tally for running on empty: Days in a row of rain to mostly cloudy: 12 days (January 22 to February 2) Extended streak of days at least mostly cloudy: 23 days / 25 days (January 9 – February 2) Nearly every day it didn’t outright rain, I climbed to the roof twice to catch what power I could. Many days I got zero. Some days I got enough[…] Keep reading →

Friday was sunny but cold. After a January with only two or three sunny days, therefore only two or three chances to power the battery to cook, I didn’t want to lose the chance to cook. The temperature was in the low twenties F (-5C or so) and it was windy. It was either my coldest day up there or close to it, but I didn’t mind the cold since[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I wrote Equal parts misery and glory: today’s ride from New York to Princeton. Today: puffy white clouds and blue skies. It started chilly and foggy but warmed up to make yesterday’s ride worth it, like when the home team is down and scores to come-from-behind and win in the final moments. Still lots of plastic packaging that nobody seemed to care about. Today we rode about 55 miles,[…] Keep reading →

The skies opened up on us about halfway through today’s fundraising bike ride from New York to Princeton, helping create a bike path from Maine to Florida. The normally best part of the ride, along old canals that are now lush and verdant, was thirty miles through mud in near-bone-chilling cold. I can’t say I was miserable since once I was out, I’d prefer riding in that cold mud to[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday, walking south along the Hudson River, I saw a guy running sprints on a pier. The temperature hovered around 50F (10C). It had rained on and off all day and was raining then. He was alone, running sprints in the rain. I call that commitment where no one would know if you didn’t glorious. I was out on my daily walk to pick up litter. I was taking a[…] Keep reading →

The other day, just walking down the street I felt super tired, like I got hit by a truck. Then I remembered that I lifted that morning and I had lifted more than ever before in my life. No wonder I felt exhausted. I had noticed I was lifting more than before that morning, but it slipped my mind when I went out for the day. I don’t lift heavy[…] Keep reading →

For those who don’t know, I do my kettle bell workout every fourth day, starting with the 2nd of the month, then the 6th, 10th, and so on of each month. Today is the 17th, so tomorrow I do it. (Incidentally, on alternate even-numbered days—the 4th, 8th, 12th, etc—I row indoors or run, depending on the weather). What does lifting have to do with getting on my knees? I don’t[…] Keep reading →

With the Rocky movie franchise overdone, it feels hard to imagine the original when it came out. Neither the movie nor Sylvester Stallone were institutions. I grew up in Philadelphia and I remember some of its popularity, certainly for Rocky II. It was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 3. If the Rocky movies are about anything, they’re about a man finding within himself the discipline and motivation to achieve[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Emotionally, I don’t want to do burpees nearly every single time I do them. As you probably know, I do twenty twice-daily. Starting is never easy.[…] Keep reading →