Still Not Recovered

I thought about riding the mountain bike after work last night.

Unfortunately, I am not always able to translate my thoughts into action...especially when the action would be beneficial to me. Oh sure, any random thought about eating a Peppermint Pattie seems to be quickly adopted into reality, but carefully developed plans about engaging in healthful exercise in the evening are just as readily discarded.

My excuse is that I'm too tired after a long day of slaving over a hot computer. The grueling tasks required by my merciless corporate overlords have sapped my energy, my will, and my ambition. By the time I drag my spent carcass out of the office into the open air of freedom, the only thing my body wants to do is refuel and rest.

But logically, it is hard to believe that I'm really that fatigued. My morning workout was pretty mellow, and while my day job does tend to require some mental focus on occasion, it never requires physical exertion--so it is quite likely that my feelings of exhaustion and depletion are mostly imaginary.

Somebody should invent a "Fatigue-O-Meter". Some kind of device that could instantly and accurately assess a person's training level. The low end of the scale (0) would represent how you feel when you first wake up in the morning on Day 4 of a relaxing and restful vacation of lying on the beach in the Bahamas. And 10 would represent the way you feel when you collapse on the pavement and have to crawl the last 100 yards to the finish of IronMan.

Yeah, I know that your resting heart rate can be used as a general guide for such things, and that various blood tests can analyze lactate and oxygen content to help assess your training vs. recovery status. But I'd prefer something more specific. I should be able to get home from work, press a reader device to my forehead and have it tell me "You need to ride your bike 12 miles before you can call it a day," or "Dude, nice effort. Hit the sack, man."

Anyway, I wimped out last night. I was sound asleep by 7:30, and still couldn't swim worth squat at practice this morning. So those facts tell me that I am still recovering from the weekend, and that it's probably OK that I called it a day when I did.

Anyone want to wager on whether I'll ride after work tonight? No?

OK, then. Let's talk about these guys:



The bike rider pictured toward the top of this post provides another clue to the puzzle's answer. He is a Norwegian sprint specialist who has won quite a few Tour de France stages over the years; Thor Hushovd. Even though his name is spelled like the hammer dude from the Avengers, he pronounces it "Tor", which happens to be the answer to what the guys in these photos have in common.

Frame 1 contains former pro wrestler and star of "Plan 9 from Outer Space", Tor Johnson. I have no words to describe his talent.

The second panel is actor Nestor Carbonell, shown here in his role as BatManuel in the highly entertaining TV series "The Tick." My other favorite performance of his was as the annoyingly smooth rival detective Declan Rand on "Pysch."

Next is Castor Oyl, Olive's brother. He is of no real importance, other than as a trivia question about people named after things that don't mix with water. Their father was Cole Oyl, and they actually had an uncle named Lubry Kent Oyl. Hmm.

Of course, that brings up the question of how many people you can remember whose names contain the word "eye." Other than Popeye, Peepeye, Poopeye, Pupeye, and Pipeye, I suppose you could include Hawkeye Pierce, IronEyes Cody (who, as we've discussed before, was actually Italian), and of course, Marty Feldman.

The daguerreotype fellow is John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV, who was a rich hotel magnate and science fiction writer who sank with the Titanic in 1912. As a man of means, he would order and pay for his hamburgers on the same day, rather than asking his creditors to defer billing until Tuesday.

The last frame isn't a real guy -- it's a painting. But the painting represents a fiduciary functionary within the Roman Empire; an administrative and bookkeeping specialist known as a "quaestor". It's pronounced "kwee-ster", and I included it just because it was one of the words Dan Smith used to insult people back in my days with Wichita Swim Club. I guess Daniel thought it sounded like a dirty word, and with his limited intellect, using words correctly was a challenge under any circumstances. But he did make me laugh, and I have never forgotten what the Romans called their accountants.

Anyway, I'm hoping that getting a good night's sleep last night has put me on the path to regain my normal energy levels. I plan to take the mountain bike up to Green Mountain on Friday, and hike up a Pike's Peak trail over the weekend. Should be fun. But first, I have the tennis league tomorrow, and (possibly) some sort of exercise this evening. I'll let you know how it goes. Have a great day!