Ken Nelson

Me, outside my hotel. Not!  Actually it is Bikram Choudhury

Yoga is REALLY good for you. I can testify to that. Hot Yoga has helped me avoid chronic hip pain, sleep better, lose weight, and surprisingly, improve my complexion.

Lacking a Hot Yoga studio in St. George (which I may just remedy!), I’m taking advantage of our 107 degree summer, and I just practice outside in the shade of the hotel.  I don’t sweat nearly as much due to our 20% humidity ( a normal Hot Yoga studio is at 60% humidity).  But it still helps.

So what does science say?

Practicing yoga may do more than calm the mind — it may help protect against certain diseases, a new study suggests.

In the study, women who had practiced yoga regularly for at least two years were found to have lower levels of inflammation in their bodies than did women who only recently took up the activity.

I recommend it, although like many physical activities the first few times may be shockingly difficult (especially Hot Yoga). Keep on trying and you soon wonder how you could ever miss a session.

Another good thing… unlike other exercises, I’ve never been sore after a Yoga Practice.

Give it a go!

Tonight I learned to roll a kayak. Rolling seems deceptively simple but actually is fiendishly devious. The class was two hours, in a pool, and eventually I caught on. I’d learned two types of rolls – both of the “Eskimo” variety. One I’d place at 95% for me (I can do it consistently) at a disadvantage of taking a couple seconds longer. The other faster (more compact) roll, I can hit maybe 40% in pool conditions.   I’ll definitely keep practicing this in my pool at home until I’m 100% from both sides with both of them.

Why would you want to “roll” a kayak?   It turns out there are lots of reasons and while you can kayak without learning to roll, not “having a roll” will limit what type of kayaking you can safely do.

The most important reason is safety. Put simply when you are upside down, you either have to do a “wet exit” or roll back up. If you do a wet exit your time in the water, wet, losing heat, dramatically lengthens. Depending on water temperature, staying in too long may kill you.

Another reason might be just to cool off on a hot day.

My instructor tonight, Jennifer Kleck had a very patient and encouraging manner.  She is among the best instructors in the world.  We had a very pleasant couple hours, rolling, chatting, rolling, chatting. And I only wacked her on the head with the paddle once!

Tomorrow, I’ll do the regular Thursday night paddle that Aqua-Adventures hosts. She promised to tip me over so I could demonstrate my new skill for real!

Everyday at 0900 I do Hot Yoga. The schedule looks like this:

M        T         W    T      F        S   S
HPF   S      HPF  S     HPF   H   H

HPF = Hot Power Fusion. Which I talked about before.
S      = Hot Yoga Sculpt
H      = Hot Yoga

The courses, start at C1, then C2, then H, then HPF and then Sculpt in terms of physical difficulty,

So today I did “Yoga” Sculpt. And it was BY FAR the hardest thing I’ve done since log drills in the Army.  At the end, I crawled out and my stomach still wants to hurl.

So why is it hard… well do hard yoga, then add weights, and do hard yoga.

Whew… tough. But I’ll be back Thursday.

(-:

Sorry for no blogging. I’ve been traveling to Idaho Falls, ID for the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) Area 1 Championship. Area 1 includes Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon.  The sport is divided up into pistol types – Revolver, Production (stock factory guns), Limited (fancier, bigger magazines), and Open (scopes, huge magazines).  There were hundreds of shooters there, including 110 in the Limited division I shoot in.

This was my first “big” match and it tested me and found my weaknesses (-:  But I did pretty good, just finishing out of trophies by less than 1% and finishing 29th out of 110 in all of Limited and 6th of 33 in B class (sort of a handicap system).

Here is a video of me shooting Stage 1:

This link will show other videos for me. Currently 6 are uploaded. There were 12 total and 6 more will be posted when I get video from the fellow who had the camera on day two.

My overall standing can be seen here. And my stage by stage results here.

Those who shoot the sport will know what these stats mean. For those that don’t, you do not want anything under the D (sort of like the 1 ring in a bullseye target), M (miss a target completely), NS (no-shoot – hit a fake bystander), or P (procedural penalty).

I had 2 “M” on really easy targets (like 5 feet away), and 2 no-shoots because I slipped when I shot. Both were on the move.  Without those I finish 2nd in my class, and 18th or so overall.  Sigh…

 
And the academy award goes to….

I’ve not been impressed with the refereeing at the World Cup. But don’t bother with what I say, soccer matters not a bit to me.

 
Just do the wave morons!

The loud game and ear ruining horns have spurred earplug sales.

And even composers have gotten in on the action:

Lovely!

If I were a ref, I’d stop play anytime I heard one of the darn things. Let them honk to empty grass.

 

"To jump into water and navigate a river in a swiftwater rescue is common. You get into the river and swim. You have to do it," Branford said. "The fact these guys don’t understand that is disturbing. Making contact immediately with your victim is essential. It’s not about who is in charge. It’s about the safety of a 13-year-old girl. You are going to do everything in your power to insure the safety of your guest, and if that means in Idaho Springs you get arrested, well I guess we’ll just get arrested."

Duke Bradford
Owner, Arkansas Valley Adventures

On one of his guides being arrested for helping a stranded 13 year old girl.

H/T Instapundit

Collins, a lifelong sailor who has competed in long-distance races and endured winds up to 80 knots, said possible scenarios in these extreme conditions include "pitch-poling," which is when a boat flips end-over-end. Boats in heavy seas also have "submarined," which entails riding down a wave and driving nose-first into the water, possibly flipping.

From this article on Abby Sunderland, the 16 year old who was attempting to circumnavigate the earth when she set off her distress beacons yesterday.

This weekend our family visited Greeley, CO and Brian and I shot the Rocky Mountain 300 USPSA match.

As you can see these stages are long and have lots of positions/reload options. We shot with 6 GMs (top ranked in our sport) in our squad (a nice learning experience) and you could see even them backing up, missing reloads, and forgetting stuff. Fun!

All of these are of Brian, I didn’t ask him to video me as he had plenty to think about.

Should basketball coaches bench players for “foul trouble”?  It makes no mathematical sense, but everybody does it. As a perennial 6th man, I loved it – I got to play. But it never made sense to me as a policy. Basketball hasn’t yet made the jump to quantitative analysis that baseball has. And the stats they use (points, assists, rebounds) don’t really help in determining who will help you win.

Jonathan Weinstein thinks it is silly too. His commenters bring up some interesting counter points.  But in the end, I think his position holds.

For instance, what about the theory that a player with 4 fouls will play softer than a player with less fouls, and that the other team will play against them more?  I’d submit the player will play smarter – which he should have been doing all along. Less fouls, means less free throws and less penalty situations. I’d want my player to play like they had 4 fouls the whole game.

Basketball has a glaring quantitative hole in it that I wish the Utah Jazz would walk through.  Unfortunately, they keep Jerry Sloan for the umpteenth season, and go home after 4 straight losses to the Lakers.  Come on Jazz, cut the payroll, dump Sloan and hire some statisticians!

It is hard, out of the short rough, to get this kind of spin on the ball.

BTW: If it is me playing… the people by the pine tree would be in serious danger.

"This was the toughest and the best one. My congratulations and empathy are with the Butler team, who played winning basketball. It was a game we won, but they didn’t lose.

Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski
Last night

You didn’t vote for me? Screw you.

Sportsman generally hate Obama. I’ve never met a serious shooter, fisherman, or ATV rider that didn’t tilt way right or libertarian.

Obama hates them right back and appears ready to give the greenies a big thank you by banning fishing in some waters:

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

Never mind that Obama is supposed to be EVERYBODY’s President, not just be for those that donated to him.   No, he listens to the greenies and they want fishing stopped, because, as you know, eco-kooks lay awake at night worried that somebody somewhere is having fun outside.

Given that the scope of this process appears to include a new set of policies for all coastal and inland waters of the United States, the omission of economic considerations is inexcusable."

This is not the only access issue threatening the public’s right to fish, but it definitely is the most serious, according to Chris Horton, national conservation director for BASS.

I’m tired of fighting Obama and his minions and we are only a year into it.   I don’t know why they hate us, and America so, but they do, and I guess we will just have to suck up a little wind and continue to fight back.

What I’m really tired of is having a President I’m sure hates America. How the hell did that happen?

The USA Memory Championship was held yesterday, further proof that people will compete at virtually any human endeavor. The winner validated his surprise win from last year:

"I am beyond happy because I had to prove that (last year’s victory) was not chance, so now I am totally at peace. I love to compete against myself and getting better and better," said Ronnie White, of Fort Worth, Texas.

Which begs the  question as to why he couldn’t memorize a longer victory speech (-:

I participate in niche sports too, so I’m not mocking. Not at all. I think its great that we like to compete. I hope our economic competition survives the latest onslaught.

The competition sounds tough… memorize 99 names, 100+ digits in the right order. I’d get a headache. But I’m glad somebody can do and enjoy it.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=19d63b12-7bfe-4a49-9df7-5402200a2b59.html#lindsey+vonn+unplugged

Not as wild as Franz Klammer’s run back in 1976, but pretty darn close.

Julie Mancuso finished second by less than a second. Her run was pretty good too.

And here is a link for those who only watch for the crashes…