It’s laundry day and rest day at the same time. I might as well get another mix session done. This time, I picked out a bunch of electro tracks, pulled the slider back to 121 beats per minute, and grooved along for about 78 minutes.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 02, Session Golf — Laundry Day Electro. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Monday, April 13, 2009. Running time: 1:17:49
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
Hey, CrossFitters:
Just a helpful piece of advice I wish I’d known before tonight’s workout. Make sure that, if you’re doing pullups at a local park or school playground, the gauge of the bar isn’t too narrow, whether you’re wearing gloves or not.
Pinching your calluses is easier on a narrower bar. Doing pullups on the magnificent facility at Cupertino Middle School — a facility which includes many pullup bars, parallel bars for dips, and monkey bars over a rubber floor — found me ripping all of the calluses off both hands. After I finished all my pullups, I discovered that those beautiful parallel bars are too narrow for me to go full extension and do dips on.
So, double check those bars. Make sure you don’t shred your palms. I definitely will from now on.
Another CrossFit rest day, another mix. Maybe I should do one of these every rest day (lately, I’ve been doing one every other rest day). Let’s dance.
I spent part of the day at work yesterday listening to tracks from my high resolution smart playlist in iTunes and grabbing a few tracks to throw in the mix.
This mix aimed at funky deepness and I stayed on a smiling, fist-pumping groove for almost 80 minutes. Most of these are punchy vocal tracks. This is the kind of mix that will be so nice tomorrow on my commute to work. I’m finding myself more and more able to get through a mix without so many mixing snafus as I committed in September. This was very fun to mix.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 02, Session Foxtrot — Four Five Nine. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Sunday, April 05, 2009. Running time: 1:19:56
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
Jay Def and I got together on my last day on my Spring Break Road Trip to hang out, eat some grub, and throw down our first tag team mix since December.
It’s always really fun to hang out with Jay and mixing beats with him is a real pleasure. Jay takes risks with his track selections that always surprise me, but somehow always work out. We wandered between deep house and electro and had a great time trading threes.
Thanks for the hang out, Jay. We’re gonna have to do this again very soon.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 02, Session Echo — Spring Break Tag Team. Mixed by Apollo Lee and Jay Def in Payette, Idaho, USA, on Saturday, March 28, 2009. Running time: 1:16:20.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
During my recent road trip to the Northwest, I decided to throw down a mix in my hotel room in Seattle after a long day of driving across parts of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. I decided to slide the tempo down to 123 bpm and play a nice, laid-back deep house mix.
I really like the way it came out. Despite the TV playing next to my head while I was mixing this one in headphones, I managed to avoid slopping the mix too much. Thanks to the wifi in the hotel, I was able to upload this one immediately. This Seattle mix lets me add Washington to my tally of states in which I’ve mixed Digeum Mix Sessions.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 02, Session Delta — Emerald City Deep. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Seattle, Washington, USA, on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. Running time: 1:17:24.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
I’ve just returned from a spring break road trip with my family. I spent a lot more money than I intended to and managed to get my first speeding ticket in more than a decade. Here are ten things we did which we enjoyed the most.
Sadly, on the drive home on Saturday, I got pulled over in Parma, Idaho, as I made my way through town, most likely for the offense of driving with California license plates. The official offense: 47 mph in a 35 zone. GPS unit shows 41 mph at the intersection on the ticket, but the fine is $75. I guess I can have one of those moving violations per decade.
I saw an amazing amount of gorgeous scenery in five states, ran into a high school classmate unexpectedly, and got a number of old manuscripts from my storage box. It was a great trip. I need to take more road trips. None of us take nearly enough and I take fewer than most.
I’ve been throwing a lot of electro house and tech house into the mix lately and, in this mix session, I thought it was going to turn out like the last one. I started out with a nice laid-back groove, but after the Dubtribe Sound System cut, I just felt the jazzy coming back.
After that, it segued into a fun set of jazzy deep house grooves. I don’t think I’ve played any of these tracks in a mix before and, this time, I was just focused on really nailing my transitions with as little slop as possible. Did I succeed? You tell me.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 02, Session Charlie. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Monday, March 16, 2009. Running time: 1:08:50.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
The other day, I ordered a new piece of equipment, a pair of Elite Rings. They arrived today, two days after I ordered them. Each ring comes with a strap, about 20 feet long, with a slip-proof buckle.
After I unboxed the rings, I set them up in my doorway, hanging from a Door Gym pullup bar. Then, I attempted an L sit, although I’m still not solid enough in that exercise to execute it perfectly. I have been practicing that skill on parallel bars and between chairs. I had no idea how much more difficult it is on rings.
I also attempted a few dips on the rings, thinking that, since I can do 15 or 20 in a row on parallel bars, they’d be a little more difficult on rings. Wow. What a difference. I can do two dips on the rings. When you do weight bearing exercises like that, the rings move around infinitely and you have to call into bearing more of your stabilizer muscles.
I should have bought these a year ago. After trying a few dips and L sits, I set up my camera and got a couple of shots. The tricky part about self-photography while doing an exercise like this is setting the timer, racing back over to the rings, and getting into position before the camera goes off.
The fruits of my photographic labor:
Yeah, I smacked my elbows into the doorway a lot. I need to find a nice location with a much higher anchor point.
My friend, Robert, invited me to a concert tonight of the San Francisco Symphony featuring piano soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. After scrambling to find the Flint Center entrance at De Anza College, I arrived, just in the nick of time.
Robert had gotten us perfect seats, right in the middle, eye level with the orchestra. I haven’t seen a symphony in person in a number of years, so this was a very special treat.
Two of the selections, the Overture of Le Corsaire by Hector Berlioz—a spirited overture with a gentle adagio passage in the middle—and Liszt’s Piano Concert no 2—an astonishing concerto performed by the featured soloist—kept the audience enthralled for over an hour. The pianist, Thibaudet, was brilliant and the orchestra complemented him perfectly.
The final piece, after intermission, was a very ambitious operatic score, Orchestral Suite from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Shostakovich, arranged for orchestra by the conductor James Conlon. It was a brilliant example of Russian twentieth-century composition, was magnificently scored for the orchestra, but ended with a largo called “Exile to Siberia.” To end the concert with such a slow piece is a little strange. Overall, it was a gorgeous piece of music, consisting of several movements, including a baudy come-hither passage by the trombones.
This was the first time I’d ever seen the San Francisco Symphony. The fact that they regularly perform at Flint Center, just three miles from my house, should tell you all how neglectful I’ve been lately at maintaining a broad diversity of musical experiences.
Thanks, Robert, for the concert. I had a great time.
Today’s a rest day, so I threw some tracks into @mix-bin, recorded a voiceover in Logic, and set the tempo to 125 beats per minute. Away we go.
I started out with some Jay Tripwire tracks that I just grabbed recently from eMusic and ran through a bunch of electro tracks. Some of them were bumping Detroit techno, some were big Chicago thumps, and a few were minimal tracks. Some of them were tricky to mix into, but this is a set that diverged significantly from my usual bag of beats. I think it came out pretty well, despite a couple of staggery transitions.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 02, Session Bravo. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Sunday, March 08, 2009. Running time: 1:15:48.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
Nothing feels quite like hitting a milestone. This evening’s 5K run was my 50th CrossFit workout of the day of the year. That’s 50 of 50. So far, in 2009, I’ve done 100% of the assigned workouts of the day with no misses.
Next month, I’m taking a road trip for Spring Break, but I’m taking my stopwatch, heart rate monitor, jump rope, and parallettes so I can improvise substitute workouts and maintain my progress.
I was a little bit faster this evening than last time, but I’m still more than a minute off my personal best. 25:29.74 for 5330 meters isn’t bad, but I’m really trying to get much faster than that. Part of the reason I wasn’t tonight is because I have an issue with my running socks. There’s a rough spot that eats a blister in my instep. Time to upgrade.
After my blood donation this afternoon, I got everything in my studio all ready with a fresh set of tracks in @mix-bin. While I still haven’t figured out how to get Traktor to “hear” my microphone, I discovered that Logic Pro is more than happy to let me record my own voice, process the hell out of it with various plugins and settings, and bounce it out to MP3. After a couple of takes, I was off and running. This is the first mix with my own voice in the introduction.
I selected 26 tracks to open the second volume of Digeum, primarily instrumental house tracks that span a period of a dozen years. I locked a groove in about 128 beats per minute and tried very diligently not to slop the transitions too much. I was thrilled to find a hot new remix of a track by my friend, Sunshine Jones, on eMusic the other day. Some of the songs in this mix are fairly new to me. Whether I’ve had the track for a day or a decade, I hope they feel right in this mix to you, the listeners.
I’m going to stick with my schedule of a mix session every other CrossFit rest day, days on which I know I have the evening free after dinner. Between Jay Def and me, I anticipate a very interesting Volume 02. I hope you’re on board with us.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 02, Session Alpha. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Saturday, February 28, 2009. Running time: 2:19:22.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
Of the 21 workouts of the day assigned in February, I have completed 21. On nine of those workouts, I turned in performances that surprised me, including my first sub-10 minute Fran, a ridiculous performance on the pullup bar, a crazy workout in the rain that involved kayaking gear, and a dozen-round Cindy. I’m no longer taking it easy to make up for a pathetic 2008 back nine.
This is my second perfect month in a row. I’d like to keep it that way through the rest of the year, but I’ll miss a week of prescribed workouts next month when I go on vacation for Spring Break and go on a road trip with my family. Still, there’s nothing keeping me from taking along my heart rate monitor and stopwatch for some substitutions. (Taking my kettlebell along would be a little much, though.)
The more I do this stuff, the more I realize that I need a couple of supplies relatively immediately—a barbell (and bumpers) and a pair of gymnastics rings. I think I’ll get the rings first, potentially next week or soon thereafter. Once I get the MacBook Pro replaced, I’ll be getting 260 pounds of rubber plates and a mean scowl that only heavy lifts will erase.
But for now, I’ll keep on keeping on. One of these days, you’ll have to come down and do a workout with me.
It’s about time to close out Digeum Volume 01. Today’s a rest day, so I jumped on the bullet train, ate my chow, and got all set up. I mixed up a set of grooves that started out in electro territory and wandered into my beloved jazzy deep house. I tried to play tracks that I haven’t played before. This set made me smile a lot.
That makes 26 mixes in just under six months, since we resurrected Digeum. Mad, crazy love to my partner-in-crime, Jay Def, for his amazing musical talent, encouragement, and mix sessions. I wouldn’t even want to do this without him. His mixes are such treats to listen to. Thank you, Jay, a thousand times for helping me bring this back.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Zulu. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Friday, February 20, 2009. Running time: 1:16:57.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
Jay Def celebrates President’s Day in style with an absolutely bewildering mix that features a smattering of tech house, minimal techno, and chunky house stompers. There are some crazy surprises in this and it may well be the best mix posted yet on Digeum. Jay, my brother, you knocked this ball over the back wall, past the parking lot and into the bay, among the kayakers. Get that boy a residency, stat.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Yankee. Mixed by Jay Def in Boise, Idaho, USA, on Monday, February 16, 2009. Running time: 1:33:30.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
Today’s a workout rest day. Lately, I’ve decided to do a mix session on every other rest day. In this one, I wanted a funky groove, some punchy beats, and a smattering of great vocals. I approached this one like I approach many of my mixes — by checking each track I tossed in mix bin against my previous mixes. I wanted to focus on music I haven’t played before. Some of the transitions were a little messy, but I am happy with this one. I think I get a little better with each mix.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session X-Ray. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Thursday, February 12, 2009. Running time: 1:16:07.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
Lately, my MacBook Pro has been having performance issues—mostly culminating in the computer stalling out and requiring a long wait until reacting or a reboot outright. In addition to the stall issues, at random times, there are various horizontal streaks across certain applications and, at other times, random gradients and screen smears pop up. This tells me that the video card is in the process of failing, like my PowerBook G4 did.
Apparently, my MacBook Pro isn’t challenged enough, though. On the way to take it upstairs, I had it open like a pizza box and I slipped on the step up to the foyer in my house. Down goes the MacBook Pro from four feet up onto a tile floor. Could it land face up?
Of course not.
Face down on the slot-drive side it goes. Damage: Dented front-right corner, warped drive slot, dented screen (caved slightly on the right side). The computer still works, for now. I can insert and eject a disc, but I need to straighten the slot with a knife.
Looks like I’m gonna have to replace this increasingly unreliable machine soon. Daily backups? You bet your ass.
Now to save up enough coin to make the purchase.
Today, I reached another milestone—my 200th CrossFit workout of the day. Sadly, Day 100 was a little more than 11 months ago. Blowing off your workouts isn’t good. But, that’s in the past.
Let’s see what we’re up to today:
For time:
In August, I did this one for the first time. Before that, when this was assigned, I’d reduce the number of pullups, or do jumping pullups, or something that made the 120 more bearable. In fact, my first complete workout with 100 pullups didn’t happen until July. My August time for today’s work was 29:17.08.
Today, I went out to the park, warmed up, grabbed that pullup bar and just aimed at half an hour. I knocked out the first three sets of 10 uninterrupted. After that, I’d do 8 and 2 or 7 and 3. After each 10, I’d smack the lap button on the stopwatch. The 100 pullup mark came at 11:35.12 (vs 16:55.16 in August). 13:45.73 for the 120 pullups. I ran over to the bench nearby and started knocking out the bench dips.
I guess a strict month pays off. My time didn’t end up being half an hour. I came in dramatically faster than last time. Here’s a personal best by more than 10 minutes.
120 pullups + 120 dips => 19:13.38 (personal best by 10:03.70).
I guess if you’re going to hit a mile mark, you might as well knock it down. Onward!
It’s my birthday! Woo. To celebrate a perfect workout month and my big 0×26 (heh), I put together a funky house mix. I wasn’t too worried about digging through Digeum to see if I’ve played any of these tracks before. I just aimed at playing a fun mix that will hopeful have you smiling as much as I smiled when I was spinning it up for you. So, I present you “Birthday Bumps.” Enjoy.
Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Whiskey. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Saturday, January 31, 2009. Running time: 1:18:05.
Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.
I used to post daily workout reports here when I first started doing CrossFit, but I fell out of the habit when I realized that I doubt very much any of you really were that interested in reading them. I also became less and less interested in writing them.
In the last few months of 2008, I got out of the daily habit of working out, sometimes blowing off my workouts for a week, feeling bad about slipping on the progress I’ve made, and hitting a hard workout full tilt. That’d result in me being sore for a week, during which I’d blow off plenty of other workouts.
In December, I completed two workouts, after an average of seven per month since August. That’s pathetic. I’m not going to reach my goals doing one workout and taking three, five, seven, or nine rest days. Lock it back down, Apollo.
As part of my Goals for 2009, I want to complete 80% or more of my scheduled workouts. In order not to be totally wiped out this month on the three-on-one-off schedule, I pulled the weight back to 80% to build momentum. As of today’s workout (tomorrow, my birthday, is a rest day), I have finished 23 of 23, the first 100% month since November 2007 (wow).
In those 23 workouts, I set a personal best on Barbara (5 rounds for time: 20 pullups, 30 pushups, 40 situps, 50 squats) by 15 minutes, equaled my personal best at Nicole (Max rounds in 20 minutes of: 425 meter run, 10 pullups), and built a good base of momentum from which to achieve my 80% completion.
And now, bring on February!
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