The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

50 in a Row

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.

Digeum Mix Session 02A

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.

CrossFit – February 2009

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.

Digeum Mix Session 01Z

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.

Digeum Mix Session 01Y

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.

Digeum Mix Session 01X

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.

Balance Fail

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.

CrossFit Day 200

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:

• 120 pullups
• 120 dips

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!

Digeum Mix Session 01W

It’s my birthday! Woo. To celebrate a perfect workout month and my big 0x26 (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.

CrossFit – January 2009

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!