Yesterday I turned 40
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Yep, four decades. Up until yesterday it didn't seem much, but thinking about it now, well, it's four decades. I remember when my dad was 40, and at the time I thought he had lived a lot, because he had so many war stories to share. Looking back at my own life I can't find as many war stories good enough to share. I don't know, it looks like I "just lived". The stuff my dad told me about sounded so much more interesting then the stuff I have to talk about... I can only hope that my kid will think that I did cool stuff when he looks back at his old man's life.
However, even though I can't particularly say I had a "cool life", I can say that I never have been better. By the end of November last year I decided that a nice personal challenge would be to loose some weight. Well, that and of course I would please the Supreme Executive Command, so if I pulled it off it would be a win-win situation ;D . A little less then seven months has gone by and now I'm 22 kg thinner - and that was only through mind-over-matter power (I basically starved myself). I also got back to spinning lessons (I went three years basically without any kind of exercises whatsoever), not for the weight loss, but because I wanted to start pedaling again. I've been on and off a bicycle ever since I was 10 years old, it's the only sport I really like and that I think I was made for. Not that spinning classes are exactly like riding a bike, but a one hour session is basically equivalent to about two hours on a bike, so I can do a decent workout without needing to spend loads of my free time in a gym (yuck! :-[ ).
But at the end of May I got the urge to feel the wind in my face again, so after about seven years, I pulled my old steed (1995 Specialized Stumpjumper M2 FS) out of retirement. With all the spinning classes I was doing it was an easy come back (not counting the sore butt, of course), and I started to mashing those pedals with gusto. Last month I came to realize I was doing way more road riding then dirt riding, so maybe the time finally had come to get a proper road bike and stop swapping wheels sets on the Stumpjumper. Two weeks ago I made the leap and bought a road bike. Nothing fancy, a Caloi Strada (traditional local brand) that is basically considered a entry level model, but for my purposes it will be perfect.
Stumpjumper Strada
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New Year's Eve 2009
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. I almost had to give up on it, because my go-to guy for Seikos and Orients would not be able to score one for me in time, but fortunately Dan Braun, here at SCWF put one up for sale. It was in great condition (at least TZ95%) and the price was right, so I grabbed it.
It arrived in June, but since it would be my wife's present for me, I didn't even give it a peek until last night
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. Yeah, it was hard, gut wrenching, but since I managed to loose 22 kg just by starving myself, I pulled it off ;D . And boy was it worth it!
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Size-wise they're pretty close, and the lume seems to be just as good on both, but the O300 is better made all round (sapphire, numbers on the bezel are recessed and painted - not an insert). Both cases are very well polished but because of the height of the O300 (17 mm), the Sumo is the dress diver of the pair and the O300 would be the tool diver. And besides being a tall watch, the O300 is also heavy: 221 g, so it's not for the small-frame guy.
I'm totally in love with this watch, it's maybe even cooler then I thought it would be. All in all I think it does well in it's role as a mid-life watch mark O0 .
PS: Sorry for the looooong post, but this was a big weekend for me.
Yep, four decades. Up until yesterday it didn't seem much, but thinking about it now, well, it's four decades. I remember when my dad was 40, and at the time I thought he had lived a lot, because he had so many war stories to share. Looking back at my own life I can't find as many war stories good enough to share. I don't know, it looks like I "just lived". The stuff my dad told me about sounded so much more interesting then the stuff I have to talk about... I can only hope that my kid will think that I did cool stuff when he looks back at his old man's life.
However, even though I can't particularly say I had a "cool life", I can say that I never have been better. By the end of November last year I decided that a nice personal challenge would be to loose some weight. Well, that and of course I would please the Supreme Executive Command, so if I pulled it off it would be a win-win situation ;D . A little less then seven months has gone by and now I'm 22 kg thinner - and that was only through mind-over-matter power (I basically starved myself). I also got back to spinning lessons (I went three years basically without any kind of exercises whatsoever), not for the weight loss, but because I wanted to start pedaling again. I've been on and off a bicycle ever since I was 10 years old, it's the only sport I really like and that I think I was made for. Not that spinning classes are exactly like riding a bike, but a one hour session is basically equivalent to about two hours on a bike, so I can do a decent workout without needing to spend loads of my free time in a gym (yuck! :-[ ).
But at the end of May I got the urge to feel the wind in my face again, so after about seven years, I pulled my old steed (1995 Specialized Stumpjumper M2 FS) out of retirement. With all the spinning classes I was doing it was an easy come back (not counting the sore butt, of course), and I started to mashing those pedals with gusto. Last month I came to realize I was doing way more road riding then dirt riding, so maybe the time finally had come to get a proper road bike and stop swapping wheels sets on the Stumpjumper. Two weeks ago I made the leap and bought a road bike. Nothing fancy, a Caloi Strada (traditional local brand) that is basically considered a entry level model, but for my purposes it will be perfect.
Stumpjumper Strada
To celebrate my b-day, yesterday I took the Strada up a mountain. I live at the foot of a 1100 m mountain, while my house is at the 800 m mark. The last time I did this trip, in 2003, I was with the Stumpjumper, but if I recall correctly I did the 40 km round trip in 1h50m, or something less then two hours, and had to stop twice to catch my breath. Yesterday with the Strada I did it in 1h33m with no stops. And I didn't have a heart attack on the way up.
Next November there will be an Audax 200 here, through the same highway that I went up the mountain yesterday. An Audax is a resistance race, with 200 km that you should complete in less then 13h30m. Since it looks like I'm doing well on the saddle, I'm seriously thinking of giving it a try, and I want to do it in less then 11 hours. That's a pretty ballsy goal for a newbie even in my opinion, but I have four months to get in shape. Right now I think I have the lungs, maybe I have the legs but I definitively do not have the butt for 200 km non-stop. So there's a lot of training up ahead for me.
But lately I've been busy with other things too, I haven't been just starving, spinning or bicycling. Professionally I'm doing pretty ok - yeah, I could be earning way more money then I do, but I really can't complain. I'm in a good and stable professional situation and whatever money I earn is coming in without great levels of stress. And not getting stressed out by work is something I regard as a big asset. My marriage is also in a great phase right now too, in that sort of calm waters where you can feel comfortable and safe. My kid is three years old, handsome, clever and overall a very pleasant little boy. And that's not just dad's talk, I'm a pediatrician so I have quite an experience with kids to know a pita type of kid when I see one. Oh, and I almost forgot: my wife is two month pregnant, so by February next year the family will be bigger
Next November there will be an Audax 200 here, through the same highway that I went up the mountain yesterday. An Audax is a resistance race, with 200 km that you should complete in less then 13h30m. Since it looks like I'm doing well on the saddle, I'm seriously thinking of giving it a try, and I want to do it in less then 11 hours. That's a pretty ballsy goal for a newbie even in my opinion, but I have four months to get in shape. Right now I think I have the lungs, maybe I have the legs but I definitively do not have the butt for 200 km non-stop. So there's a lot of training up ahead for me.
New Year's Eve 2009
So, is it downhill from here? I don't know. Maybe it will be just like the mountain yesterday: you huff and puff and almost spit your lungs out all the way to the top, but then it's a roller coaster ride down with that sh!t-eater grin of someone who is having the time of his life. If I make it to 80 I'll try to remember to post a follow up here
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Oh yes, this is a watch forum, so back to watches! :-[
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Back in May I started thinking about my 40th birthday present and decided I needed something special for my mid-life crisis. A Porsche was out of the question (I wouldn't have the space in my garage), so was a boat, since I never was interested in boats, so it had to be a nice watch. I looked around a lot for something that was special, that would fit in my budget and that I could import (my local options were either very limited or either too expensive). I wanted it to be a diver and after much thinking I decided on an Orient Star 300 saturation diver
It arrived in June, but since it would be my wife's present for me, I didn't even give it a peek until last night
The 46N4A caliber does not allow the watch to be hacked or hand wound, but it takes up a charge like a solar panel at noon in the tropics - I was simply amazed at how easy it is to push the power reserve needle all the way up to 40! I can't really say anything about accuracy yet, but I have the feeling it will be around the 8 seconds mark, maybe even less. The only thing I was really surprised to see is how hard it is to spin the bezel. Think about Seiko tight but then add a few more newtons to spin the thing. Not an issue at all, but just something I wasn't expecting - maybe because I was disappointed on how loose the bezel is on my Poseidon RM2 :
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Of course I had to compare it with my Sumo, and though I didn't believe it possible at the time when I read this, yes, it's a better watch then the Sumo!
Size-wise they're pretty close, and the lume seems to be just as good on both, but the O300 is better made all round (sapphire, numbers on the bezel are recessed and painted - not an insert). Both cases are very well polished but because of the height of the O300 (17 mm), the Sumo is the dress diver of the pair and the O300 would be the tool diver. And besides being a tall watch, the O300 is also heavy: 221 g, so it's not for the small-frame guy.
I'm totally in love with this watch, it's maybe even cooler then I thought it would be. All in all I think it does well in it's role as a mid-life watch mark O0 .
PS: Sorry for the looooong post, but this was a big weekend for me.
