LUNA-TICS TEAM ROOM: Year-round "Looney" fun.

[Kona2]

Another episode...

Every so often, I color outside the lines of the comics posted in my local paper and go see what a couple of my favorites (Speedbump and Bizarro) are doing. Today's Bizarro contained several little icons - icons that I had noted before (and one of them is K2 so I am sure you understand) - and before I knew it, I was headed down a bunny trail of the mind.

Here is the bunny trail that I was on when I glossed over the danwho post the first time. I am, as most know, a fan of the clever, subtle, quirky, bizarre and goofy comics...like Bizarro by Dan Piraro. You can find his offerings on Facebook.com/BizarroComics. As always, when I post a copy of a comic, I am hopeful that it will create readership and donations to the cartoonist (he does have a Feed the Bunny tip jar on his website). The comic below is more unique than some, not because of its double meaning, but because it is where I discovered that most of the time Bizarro comics have secret symbols. This is like finding out about the secret menu at In-N-Out burger. Once YOU know about it, you want to share the finding so that others know you're in the know...or something. http://bizarro.com/the-secret-symbols/

Dan will put a number, in this case 11, above his signature to indicate how many secret symbols are present in that cartoon. You will have to google Bizarro's Secret Symbols to find out what they all mean...suffice to say there are 13 in total, but I have not seen the lost loafer or Olive Oyl's photo yet. But I haven't been looking for secret symbols before.


And, for extra credit...6 symbols...

[normadelaney]

bg: Alaska, on a small-ish ship, with challenging (for me) bike/hike/canoe shore excursions. Richard suggests that I count on-water meters ... [/size]

enjoy :] and will you be posting photos????

Alaskan cruise--definitely on my bucket list. Have a great time!!

[danwho]

OMG, who would throw away the fish of humility? . . .
Found one with a secret Olive Oyl.
Had no idea there were secret symbols in Bizarro comics.


Sure hope that no Salvador Dali magic creeps into
how the secret symbols are hidden.

[Kona2]

MILESTONES...Bragging Rights...Celebrations:

400 K Richard T
350 K Will S
250 K David A
250 K Ron
200 K Louis
200 K Dan O
200 K Jane
100 K Jeff G
100 K FRiC
50 K Donna
50 K Ian

Thanks, everyone, for rowing and ski-erging with us!

Tony 1,111 m ...a palindrome!
Steve W 3,333 m ...a palindrome!
Patrick S 4,135 m
Kevin 4,591 m
David T 5,000 m
Bernie 5,021 m
Jeff M 5,023 m
Michael J 5,470 m
Thor 5,485 m
Louis 6,000 m
Rick C 6,330 m
Rebecca 6,336 m ...now that's a different palindrome!
Donna 7,008 m
Tombeur 7,032 m
Richard Mc 7,874 m
Andrew 8,037 m
FRiC 8,887 m
Ian 9,944 m ...a double double!
David A 10,012 m
Jane 10,101 m ...a palindrome!
Derric 10,960 m
Norma 11,111 m...a palindrome!
Minnie 11,311 m...a palindrome!
danwho 12,021 m ...a palindrome!
Stuart 12,233 m ...welcome back!
Ron 14,145 m
Doug 14,909 m
Dan O' 15,006 m
Jeff G 15,248 m
Janice 17,482 m
Will 25,061 m
bg 30,119 m
Richard T 44,444 m ...a biggie golf palindrome!

[Restless]

Here is the bunny trail that I was on when I glossed over the danwho post the first time. I am, as most know, a fan of the clever, subtle, quirky, bizarre and goofy comics...like Bizarro by Dan Piraro. You can find his offerings on Facebook.com/BizarroComics. As always, when I post a copy of a comic, I am hopeful that it will create readership and donations to the cartoonist (he does have a Feed the Bunny tip jar on his website). The comic below is more unique than some, not because of its double meaning, but because it is where I discovered that most of the time Bizarro comics have secret symbols. This is like finding out about the secret menu at In-N-Out burger. Once YOU know about it, you want to share the finding so that others know you're in the know...or something. http://bizarro.com/the-secret-symbols/

I had never ever heard of the Bizarro comics, but they look fun and interesting. I think I'll be hunting down more of them Thank you for sharing!

~Rebecca

[Kona2]

I can soooooo relate. Have a bit of a knee issue keeping my erging meters at minimum thanks to the dogs-take-me-4-a-gallop along the trail a couple of weeks ago...but it was bunnies (naturally) who were the culprits... While an equal and opposing force works to control young dogs who just can't resist some of the taunting that comes their way, it can be painful ! Training is an ongoing effort. PS - Support your favorite cartoonists, too This one is Dave Coverly, and Speedbump is the comic strip!

Meanwhile, as we continue in the Time Between (Challenges that is), there are many teammates who are keeping themselves motivated without a specific Challenge event. It can be easy to miss some of the upcoming gems, so I am trying to keep an eye on the pulse meter. Will is less than 150K from completing this first orbit around the Earth with 40 MM meters, and bg will ring the first orbit bell when her total for this season equals 1.1 MM meters. On a smaller scale, yet looming large in our sights, is Shaun aka Norma who is less than 77,777 m away from a lifetime meter total of 7,777,777 m ... and don't you know that Norma is going to time that one perfectly. When Norma hits 366,475 m for this season...she will have arrived at another palindromic milestone in her lifetime meter journey.

Dennis is a mere 41,125 m away from the FIVE million meter milestone! Watch this space (with an Eyeball of Observation)! I see Concept2 swag in your near future!


MILESTONES...Bragging Rights...Celebrations:


950 K Ed
400 K bg
50 K Kevin

Thanks, everyone, for rowing and ski-erging with us!


Rebecca 1,111 m ...a palindrome! Keep going...you could have the 10 MM lifetime meter sweatshirt by dead of winter...
Tony 1,111 m ...a palindrome (from a trendsetter!)
Jeff M 2,014 m
Ross 4,115 m
Dan O' 5,511 m ...a double double!
Louis 6,000 m
Stefan 6,031 m
Patrick S 6,517 m
Kevin 7,624 m
Richard McC 7,645 m
Steve W 8,371 m
Greg H 10,002 m
Jane 10,501 m ...a palindrome!
Andrew 11,048 m
Norma 11,111 m ...a palindrome!
David A 11,300 m
Richard T 12,261 m
Dennis 14,041 m ...a palindrome!
Ed 20,000 m
bg 25,191 m ...top of the leaderboard...again!

[Kona2]

Whoop, whoop, and way to go! Congratulations, Louis, on achieving a THREE million meter lifetime total! You've been quietly making some great progress since taking up the erg! We wish you many, MANY more meter millions and lots of celebrations!

[Thor MW]

Whoop, whoop, and way to go! Congratulations, Louis, on achieving a THREE million meter lifetime total! You've been quietly making some great progress since taking up the erg! We wish you many, MANY more meter millions and lots of celebrations!

Way to rockem Louis!
Keep on keeping on and all that good stuff.

[DavidA]

... On a smaller scale, yet looming large in our sights, is Shaun aka Norma who is less than 77,777 m away from a lifetime meter total of 7,777,777 m ... and don't you know that Norma is going to time that one perfectly. When Norma hits 366,475 m for this season...she will have arrived at another palindromic milestone in her lifetime meter journey. ...

I hope she is planning to get there on July 7th.

David

[normadelaney]

... On a smaller scale, yet looming large in our sights, is Shaun aka Norma who is less than 77,777 m away from a lifetime meter total of 7,777,777 m ... and don't you know that Norma is going to time that one perfectly. When Norma hits 366,475 m for this season...she will have arrived at another palindromic milestone in her lifetime meter journey. ...

I hope she is planning to get there on July 7th.

David

Well, on or before 7/7, haha.
Gee, K2, can't sneak anything past you!!

[Restless]

Rebecca 1,111 m ...a palindrome! Keep going...you could have the 10 MM lifetime meter sweatshirt by dead of winter...

I would love to get there! It is sad to admit that I had over 8 million lifetime meters going into this season (which I'm happy enough with)... the sad part coming in where I had next to no meters for the last couple seasons. I'm slowing getting back into it, this week has been an extra challenge with family visiting. I can't complain though, I've enjoyed the time with them and managed to at least get on the erg daily, even if only for a short piece.

~Rebecca

[bg]

Whoop, whoop, and way to go! Congratulations, Louis, on achieving a THREE million meter lifetime total! You've been quietly making some great progress since taking up the erg! We wish you many, MANY more meter millions and lots of celebrations!

very nice rowing :]

[danwho]

Whoop, whoop, and way to go! Congratulations, Louis, on achieving a THREE million meter lifetime total! You've been quietly making some great progress since taking up the erg! We wish you many, MANY more meter millions and lots of celebrations!

Congratulations, Louis !!!

[Drivetofast]

Whoop, whoop, and way to go! Congratulations, Louis, on achieving a THREE million meter lifetime total! You've been quietly making some great progress since taking up the erg! We wish you many, MANY more meter millions and lots of celebrations!

Way to row Louis

[Kona2]

Memorial Day Weekend - that unofficial start to summer! And it's an inch of snow over the Pass ...so SUMMMR is not quite here in the more remote parts of Colorado. Still, the campers and their colorful tents are out there because it's what we do! Hope each of you is spending the weekend as you most hoped to do...with blue skies and erging as it fits in. And on Monday we will honor the men and women who died serving their country, remembering why it is that we celebrate this weekend.

Another episode....the Suffer Score

These things don't just automatically pop into my head. I'm sure many of you have looked often at the newly designed Logbook, but something there caught my attention yesterday. It was the little box that said NEWS: Uploading Workouts to Other Platforms (like Strava and Training Peaks)...Find out more. Find out more = three words that are like a siren song to me. The beginning of this bunny trail suggested that the heart would be involved (as it often is). Since I am using Erg Data to capture the workouts these days, I am visually bombarded with the pulsing heart icon...and that data field is empty because I hadn't paired up a heart monitor to the PM5. There's a pulse rate indicator on my Fitbit after all, but it is darned hard to see if I'm rowing hard enough to peg out when I have to stop and push a couple of buttons first.

I use Strava for biking (and by the way, this is getting to be increasingly popular for transportation entities to use also as it helps document what roads/routes are ones that cyclists use). In my quest to get more erging for my efforts, I recognize that I will have to approach things like target heart rates, etc. So off to Strava's website, and there it was. A formula for SUFFER SCORE.

Suffer Score. That is so much more dramatic than perceived exertion ranking. And there's a formula for it? That particular bunny trail threw me back in time to an old movie that some of you will admit that you watched and liked, or you'll say that your kids liked it. Yes, The Princess Bride, is one of those campy films that is hilarious to me...and looked like one that the actors enjoyed, too. In the movie, there is a torture machine called The Machine, and its purpose is to suck out your life force. I don't remember if they had a suffer score, but it would fit right in.

Strava says a suffer score is all about how hard you worked. From their website: "It's not how fast or how far you go: Suffer Score measures how hard you try. When you provide Strava with your heart rate data and train with a heart rate monitor, we'll rank every activity with a Suffer Score. That score is based on the time you spend in different heart rate zones compared with your maximum heart rate. The deeper you dig, the longer you can hold on, the higher the Suffer Score." Hahahaha. Now I have ANOTHER data point to pursue (although it does say that it requires a premium feature set up) - I might try it for free for a month and see if I am truly suffering when I do erg speed work, or if I am just whining a bit.

What's a good suffer score to shoot for? The answers could range from it's a strava centric metric and no one cares, to anything in triple digits. It sort of fits with the nonathlon in my mind - might be a tool to help improve.

Meanwhile, Ed is soooooo close to his first ONE million of the season - that full marathon almost put him over the milestone marker! Not a bad haul when I cast the number net...five palindromes, a half moon and a full moon! Go Lunies!

MILESTONES...Bragging RIghts...Celebrations:

300 K Norma
Ed

Thanks, everyone, for rowing and ski-erging with us! And suffering.

Tony 1,111 m ... a palindrome!
Rebecca 3,223 m ... a palindrome!
Kevin 6,783 m
Dan O' 7,705 m
Janice 8,063 m
Tim 8,277 m
Louis 10,000 m
Thor 10,433 m
Larry 11,000 m
Jonathan 11,010 m
Jane 11,111 m ...hearing that one was the loneliest number, she put five of them together...a friendly palindrome!
Norma 11,111 m ...another palindrome with friends!
David A 11,272 m
Doug 11,827 m
Richard T 13,120 m
Ian 13,936 m
Ron 14,441 m ...a palindrome!
bg 18,017 m
Will 30,001 m ... he moons us!
Ed 42,195 m ..he moons us!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbgyppGqBgg Here's the Movie Clip..

PS - I work hard to keep you entertained in the time between.