Brad, back row left center
Jovance
I feel like a year slipped by. Jovance moved next to Sprouts in early 2016, almost two and a half years ago. It feels like that was last year to me. In any case as hair does, mine had grown past the point of long to unkempt and over grown. With an appointment at 9:00, I headed to Jovance and “my barber”, Brad. Brad is a personable, married, black man who is also a good hair stylist. His clients are predominantly black guys in their 30’s to 60’s. Brad is gregarious and a lot of fun to talk to.
The front desk said, “go right in to the barber section. It sounds like they’re having a good time in there.”. In “the barber section”, which is a separate room to the right of the main entrance, stood Brad putting the finishing touches on a gray short and neat afro and his 2nd chair working on a buzz cut. Brad always introduces everyone in the room when someone arrives. That encourages conversation among everyone, and it works.
This is fun for me. As a white guy, I don’t typically socialize with black people. It’s not that I don’t want to, rather that in my group of friends there just aren’t any people of color. Sean, a friend and neighbor of some years, moved to Georgia a year ago and took with him my connection to “black people”. Now I have Brad “and company”.
The most interesting thing about the conversation is always how color blind it is. I usually avoid guiding the conversation to see where it will go. It’s often wide ranging and focused on things like Facebook’s stock tumble, roller coasters and the “sling shot” that everyone agrees they just would not do. Brad’s wife’s 40th birthday is coming up and he’s planning to take her to San Diego and surprise her with a video of friends and family. Knowing I visit San Diego often, he asked, “
Can you recommend good restaurant in San Diego?” I asked what kind of food he and his wife enjoy. Brad likes Italian food. He said his wife loves a good steak, “She enjoys spending my money. No Black Angus is below her standards!” I know Kirsten will have a few great suggestions.
Peloton
I had intended to take Matt’s 90 minute endurance ride live last week, but I overslept. Such are the hazards of retirement. This morning I took it “On Demand” with about 50 other riders. It was a lively leaderboard and a long 90 minutes. Long moderate exertion is an entirely different feeling of exhaustion than interval training. Most short duration spin classes are interval based with short bursts of high output followed recoveries. Endurance rides are longer at a constant moderate intensity, builds cardiovascular and muscular efficiency, and encourages fat burning. Interval training is about building power and quick recovery. Athletic performance is enhanced with a mix of endurance and interval training over time,or so most coaches will tell you. I am seeing steady, but slow average improvement over time, which is both encouraging (improvement) and frustrating (slow).
I use strava.com to track my cycling performance. Today’s ride overview showed a “Massive Relative Effort” of 178 with a relatively low intensity of 79% with 27 miles pedaled.
Tomorrow is another day, though all the live classes are short. I’ll take an “on demand” class in the afternoon.