Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Tuesday's Workout (2/8/05)

The early spring weather that graced us over the weekend has gone back from whence it came, leaving us marooned once again in cold, grey 'bleccchhh' (that's a technical, weather-person term for 'yuck.')

But tri we must, so the long underwear was rescued from the closet and off I went for a 40 minute run featuring 8X20 second "strides" or all-out sprints with 90 second walk-back recoveries.

Back home and on to the bike trainer for an hour, featuring 12 repeats of 30 seconds in a big gear at 75 RPMs, shift up, 30 more seconds, shift up again, 30 more seconds. 90 seconds recovery. Do it all 11 more times. Still working on keeping the warm-up and cool-down cadence in the 90s. Great workout.

Several rock 'n roll classics accompanied me today. No, not Styx, Foreigner or Aerosmith. Gross. No, the TRUE classics: Bo Diddley and Carl Perkins.

Bo Diddley's pounding rhythms have influenced generations of rockers. Listen to "You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)" if you're unfamiliar or unpersuaded. Carl Perkins wrote "Blue Suede Shoes." Elvis stole it. Here's a review from Amazon.com's David Cantwell:

There's something about Carl Perkins' original version of "Blue Suede Shoes" that's wilder than Elvis's less popular, though today better known, cover of the song. It's not that Perkins is in your face; his version is remarkably restrained. But that restraint hides a real sense of hillbilly threat--Elvis is playing, but Carl sounds like he'd kick your teeth in. That vocal edge, along with his influential lead guitar, is what makes Perkins' sides such as "Honey Don't" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" the very definition of rockabilly's darker edge--all of which becomes perfectly clear when he finally cuts loose and gets "Dixie Fried." --David Cantwell

Yep and Amen. I can't improve on that except to say that I'm not gonna mess around with a faint copy when I can have the original.

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