Remember, it's not supposed to be easy.

Wow, Lance Armstrong just kicked my ass.

Because I failed to reach my running goal last month, I decided to kick it into gear a little more this month. Yesterday I got a new Nike+ running workout from iTunes. It's similar to the one I have with Serina Williams, but in this workout, my coach is Lance Armstrong. It's another interval workout, just longer. I have a warm up, then four 4-minute speed sets, with four 4-minute recovery sets, then finally a cool down. (Take a look the box over there on the right and you can get a good idea of how the run looks in chart format. Speed up, slow down, speed up slow down... etc.)

During the Serina workout, she'll chime in with some encouragement like "If I saw you right now, would I be impressed?" or "I want your running to turn some heads." Which is great, but the difference with this new workout is that Lance chimes in with tips on running. For example, during one of the slow sets he says "stay relaxed by un-clinching your fists and relaxing your shoulders. This will help you prepare for the next fast set." And during one of the fast sets he said "Try to get off your heals and use the balls of your feet to push you forward." But Lance still jumps in with the encouragement as well. "Remember, it's not supposed to be easy." and "Remember, pain is temporary, giving up lasts a lifetime."

Now how can you not be inspired to run with those words plus Weezer, Beck, Wolfmother and others playing in your ears?

Four runs complete this month, five more to reach my goal.

Now for some photo talk...

I got a bit of inspiration the other day when I looked at a recent set of contest winners. There are some really amazing shots in there. But what got to me the most was the sports stuff. The majority of the winning images were not your standard sports action stuff you see in the sports section. They were unique angles, different points of view, interesting lighting techniques and so on...

It got me to thinking. I cover so much sports its crazy. I know all the local teams, I know their star players, I know the lighting conditions for every field or gym in Terrebonne Parish, it's safe to say that I'm really comfortable shooting local sports down here. And I took a quick look back at some of my sports images, and they're really all the same, and they're nothing like the winning images from that contest.

I need to break out of my comfort zone when it comes to shooting sports. Take basketball for example. In each gym for the past two years, I've set up my lights in the same place and stood in the same location for each and every game. How boring is that? At first I was kind of proud that I could walk into any gym in Houma and light it. But now, it kind of bothers me that I stuck myself in that rut.

So tonight I took my first step out of my zone. I stood at the other corner of the gym for the second and third quarters. I still set my light up in the same place, I just walked across the baseline to the other corner to see what would happen.

This first shot is what I've been getting for the last two seasons. Pretty straight forward. Just a standard action shot. nothing too fancy.



This is what happens when I walked across the baseline to the other corner. Little different look. The light is still coming from the same direction, I'm just in a different position.



This first step out of my zone was pretty small. It's just a few steps across a gym floor. What I need to start doing is seeing basketball different. So combine the moving of myself and the the moving of my lights with the moving of my mind away from how I've been seeing basketball the past two years. I basically just need to challenge myself at these games and not just bring back the same ole photo each time.

Of course, this mind set carries over to all my assignments, not just basketball. But Sports is a good example because I shoot 2-4 sporting events a week.

Oh, and I'll leave you with this... I photographed a guy named Poo Poo tonight. Think about that for a while, then watch this and you'll see who I met. He's a local celebrity.

Take That Staph Infection!

I showed that Staph who's boss alright... Well, actually the antibiotics did most of the work.

I was finally able to go run tonight. I told myself to take it easy and just go for a nice jog. I set my iPod to run for 2.2 miles. I started off nice and easy but then I start to think "hey, I'm only running about 2 miles, I can push it a little bit." Next thing you know, I'm going all out. But I finally settled into a nice pace. And the best part was my stupid Staph infection didn't bother me a bit. It's still on my stomach, it just doesn't hurt any more.

But I've made a new Nike Goal for February... it's the same as January. Figured I better accomplish one goal before moving onto another one. And I liked Nabil's suggestion to wear ankle weights. I looked for some tonight at a sporting good store but didn't have any luck. So I'm going to take Seth's suggestion and "quit being such a ********." So what I might do is get a couple more Nike+ workouts from iTunes and use those more often. Lance Armstrong just came out with a new running workout using a bunch of Alternative Music like Beck, Weezer, Wolfmother...etc. I think I'll give that a shot. That way I'm not just running around, I'll actually be doing a productive workout.

I had today off, and I actually put my time to good use. Instead of waking up at the crack of noon, I was up by 9 and spent the entire day cleaning my room. It had gotten pretty out of hand. I couldn't open my small closet door and there was only a narrow path from my door, to my bed, to my big closet. The rest was filled with stuff. So most of that stuff is ether in the trash or moved somewhere out of the way.

No photo this time... you can just imagine my empty laundry baskets because it's all done, or my desktop that only has what needs to be on it and not a bunch of extra stuff, or my freshly vacuumed carpet. I even dusted. Can't remember the last time I did that.

What a Ride

Happy Mardi Gras!

Well, I rode in another parade. Misty and I were in the Krewe of Kajuns Parade today. It was amazing. Houma has two parades on Fat Tuesday. The Krewe of Houmas goes first and the Krewe of Kajuns is right after. We were the first float on the second parade.

Holy Cow it was fun.

We didn't really buy any more stuff to throw. We just caught enough stuff during all the other parades to give us enough to throw.

anyway, here are some pictures.

Misty and I before the start of the parade.... yep, we're dorks.



We start by the Mall in Houma, and make our way downtown. At the start, when we turn the corner onto the parade route, this is what you see. And it's pretty much like this the entire route.



Okay.. Okay... So it didn't quite look like this parade... but I bet I threw more things at people than Eli did.

Anyway, with all the people along the route... this is all you saw for about 4 hours. (Just imagine the yelling and screaming.... Sometimes I'd just wave my arms and scream back at them. That usually shut them up for a little bit)



And when you pass buy a building with windows, you get to see how you look. In this photo... find the foam taco hat, and you'll find me.



And that's all I took really. I spent too much time throwing and juggling and spinning those hand helicopter things into the crowd. (which was Awesome because we had a strong wind today. I'd spin them towards some kid, and it would end up 50 yards away. It was great)

Oh, and I plan to finally get back into running tomorrow. The good ole Staph Infection has gone down enough for me to be able to start working out again. So I'll celebrate Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent with a nice jog.