One of my goals is to write 50 poems this year so here is one about joggling. Previously I’ve done haikus. I’m going to try something new today.

The Drop

Bean bags on the window sill
Bunched in a triangle
And cold

Bean bags in my hands
Rising
Falling
Catching
Clawing
Hypnotic p-orbital pattern
Warming the worn leather

Bean bags on the ground
An inadvertent mistake
A misunderstanding
Prompting a sharp tongue
Never to be juggled again

How awesome is this?!!!

Joggler Joe Salter said he was going to juggle all three legs of a triathlon and now he’s actually going to do it. So cool.

He’s showing off how to juggle on a bike, juggle while swimming, and of course juggling while running.

Not only is Joe juggling all three legs of the triathlon, he is raising money for charity too.

To donate go to Joe’s charity donation page.

At the start of every year I put together this 2012 goal list which articulates all I want to accomplish for the year. I’ve been doing this since 2003 accomplishing many of the things I list but not accomplishing many more.

So, I thought it would be helpful to do monthly updates to keep me honest and on track. Here is how I did in January 2012.

Overall

Janurary is always a productive month for me. I’m inspired by my new goals and refreshed by the start of a new year. This month was no exception and I made significant progress on a number of my goals. Here are the ones as they related to joggling.

Joggling goals

Health
These goals are done to improve (or maintain) my health which will increase my chances of living until 107 years old.

7000 pushups
7000 situps
Yoga 50 times
300 miles on bike
1500 miles running
Lose weight – 180 lbs
Drink less – 365 beers
Drink less soda – 365
Fasting 12 times
Vegetarian 75 days
Floss every day

I’ve made progress on nearly all of these goals. Some of my biggest success include pushups (1141) and situps (1161). I’m also down to 192 lbs from a starting point of 198 lbs. I did my monthly fast, was vegetarian for 6 days and kept up with daily flossing. I’ve also drank less soda than I’m allowing myself (24 this month).

Areas where I haven’t done as well include.

1. Yoga – should have done it 4 times only done 2. I get bored with it & don’t have a great space for doing it.

2. Running – Only 71.5 miles. About 50 miles short of my goal. But I’m working off an injury and will make up the miles later in the year when I’m feeling better.

3. Bike riding – Weather hasn’t permitted it. More of a spring/summer goal

Overall, not too bad.

Accomplishments

Run 4 marathons
Run 100 mile ultra
2 Half Marathons
4 additional races
Joggling streak – 1 year
Joggler blog streak – 1 year
Hold handstand for 2 min
Juggling – Learn hat balance while juggling
Juggle 6 balls for over 1 min

In this area, I haven’t made much progress. On the plus side, I have kept the joggling streak alive (1170 days) and have also kept my joggling blog streak alive (139 days in a row). But I’ve made no progress on any of my other goals.

The reason I haven’t accomplished these goals are varied.

1. Running 4 marathons – Haven’t picked the marathons yet. Need to do that.

2. 100 mile ultra – Haven’t picked this either. Need to.

3. Other races – Signed up for Shamrock Shuffle (8K) and Nike 10 miler. Will no doubt run 2 more so this shouldn’t be a problem.

4. Half marathons – Just need to find ones to do. Probably in the summer / fall

5. Hold hand stand – Forgot about this one. I have been building my upper body strength with pushups but need to start practicing. The problem is that I don’t have a good indoor space for practice.

6. Juggling – Just haven’t made the time to practice. Will work on 6 ball juggling while in Florida in Feb / March.

Ok, how are you doing on your 2012 goals? Leave a comment below.

When I’m not joggling or juggling or reading/writing about science I love to play the ukulele.  It’s just an incredibly fun and portable instrument.  I’ve been playing since 1990 but never got very good.  I can play most of the chords and sing and strum my way through a bunch of songs, but I’m certainly an average ukulele player.

However, with the advent of the Internet and YouTube, there are some great instructors out there and guess what?  They are making tutorial videos.

Ukulele Mike is by far my favorite ukulele teacher.  Check out his YouTube channel and learn a song.

Here’s him doing one of my favorite Beatles song, In My Life

Crowds

Clapping while smiling
Taking motivating shots
Propels you forward

Marathon morning

Wake up nervously
Rush to gear check then line up
Juggle to calm down

I was amazed that this YouTube video of joggler Christopher Hardy has over 52,000 views!  WOW!!

Interestingly, he does a reverse cascade throw which is different than nearly every 3 ball joggler that I’ve ever met.

Great job Christopher! Hopefully we can get an interview with him shortly.

I always like to see advances in technology. Here is the latest in robotic juggling. I wonder if robots will ever exceed humans in their ability to juggle.

I’m in jury duty today so I thought I’d post a couple of joggling haikus instead of a full blown post.

January Joggling

Wind slicing through you
Frosting both muscle and bone
Joggling is slower

Motivation

Struggling to gear up
Double and triple layers
No skin is exposed

Over on the juggling discussion group (rec.juggling) they have a short hand way of reviewing juggling conventions called HLCGB (highs, lows, crush, goal, bane). I thought it would be fun to try that concept to review my 2011 joggling year.

Highs

Joggling the Paris marathon and joggling around Italy, France and the UK. Also, getting the chance to joggle in China for a week.  Traveling is exhausting but joggling is a great way to see new places.  Another high was going the entire year without missing a day of joggling.  I crossed the 1000 day mark and also hit 3 years of the joggling streak.  Barring some injury or other unfortunate life turn, I’m going to keep this joggling streak going as long as I can.

Lows

There weren’t many lows.  Perhaps the most disappointing thing was that I didn’t accomplish some of the things I planned.  For example, I never mustered the energy to joggle a 100+ mile race.  I also wasn’t able to run fast enough to qualify for the Boston marathon.  Finally, I didn’t get around to redesigning and refocusing this website.

Crush

I’ve never met her but Selyna Bogino and her 5 basketball juggling routine was just amazing. Definitely crush worthy.  Another candidate is someone I saw on Reddit.  User Meagannnn, she can balance almost anything on her face.

Goal

After revising my mileage goal from 1500 miles to 1400 miles (due to an injury) it looks like I’m going to make it.  Only have to joggle 6 miles today to hit it.  I also made my goal of joggling every day and have the joggling streak up to 1139 days

Unfortunately, I missed my goal of qualifying for the Boston marathon, joggling the 100 miler and completing 4 marathons.  Oh well, something to strive for next year.

Bane

Ah, the bane of my existence this year was that blasted Plantar Faciitis.  It slowed me up, made me miss my mileage goals and caused the last two months of joggling to hurt like hell.  I hope it gets better next year.

Thanks to everyone who tunes in to this blog on a regular basis!  I look forward to more joggling in 2012 and I hope you’ll be doing more joggling too.

Happy New Year!!

I know Joe Salter will be attempting the joggling triathlon next year but I thought it was amusing to look at these three videos to demonstrate that it is possible to do.

Here’s some random guy who shows a short swimming while juggling effort. Not bad but Joe Salter is much better. Unfortunately, he took his video down until he gets the world record under his belt.

Then there is this guy biking.

And finally, Matt Feldman joggling

Can’t wait ’til next year when Joe S. goes for all three legs himself.