Straights & Curves: Niche creation

Karsten Warholm's jacuzzi time • Metaphysical pro wrestling • Water aerobics

Rolling along the Berkeley ridge line in the Tilden Tough Ten. Photo: Dominique Philippine.

Welcome back to Straights & Curves, a curiosity digest for outdoorsy folks. Let’s go!

1. Karsten Warholm’s hot-tub training

The Olympic champion and world-record holder in the 400m got some social-media spice when he shared this, uh, unusual weight-lifting technique.

But it seems there’s more to it than weird deadlifts. Alex Geula at Letsrun dug into the deeper principles that guide Karsten and his coach Lief Olav Alnes. Here are a few:

• Frequent communication with nightly phone calls

• Year-round high-intensity training, building toward championship season

• Day-length sessions, beginning with warm-ups and intervals in the morning, post-lunch hurdle work, and late afternoon weight training

• And an “extreme amount of time” spent in a jacuzzi

Read it here

2. Pro wrestling’s strangest star

I was tickled by this piece in NY Times Magazine about Danhausen, a non-athletic barista from Detroit who re-invented himself as a professional wrestler with a peculiar persona.

He also has what may be the first signature move in wrestling history that does not involve touching his opponents at all. He curses them, a metaphysical attack he executes by pointing both forefingers, one at arm’s length and the other near his chin, while bugging out his eyes. The crowd goes wild, but otherwise, nothing really happens after he does it — at least not at first.

You can read the piece or listen to it on The Daily.

3. SoCal’s sparse shade

Tree cover on Alondra Boulevard in Compton. Google Street View.

With a warming climate, shade has become a crucial factor in human comfort and survival. 99% Invisible chatted with journalist Sam Bloch, about the interesting cultural and environmental decisions that stripped Los Angeles of tree canopy and the policy barriers preventing the creation of artificial shade.

For me, the most interesting tidbit was the city’s shift away from the grid layout of the early Spanish settlement. Early LA followed town planning rules in The Law of the Indies, which oriented town grids at a 45-degree angle from the cardinal directions. This axis, at a diagonal to the sun’s ecliptic path, ensures shade in summer for all streets. Listen here

4. Anxiety savings accounts

I’m a worrier, born from a long line of anxious planners. So why not use anxiety spirals for the benefit of your finances? Erin Lowry advises creating “what if” savings accounts for uncertain events.

Using Anxiety Spirals for Good

You can set up savings accounts to prep for uncertain events like layoffs, student loans, parental leave, or even serendipitous happenings like your favorite NFL team making the Super Bowl.

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Midjourney generation.

5. Create your niche

Hat tip to Mario Fraioli for sharing this short blog from Austin Kleon with highlights from an interview with writer John Higgs, author of William Blake vs. The World.

Higgs observes that there are artists who don’t have an obvious place in the world, “but they just do their stuff regardless and a place sort of builds around them.”

“There’s a concept in ecology of ‘niche creation.’ And the idea is: it’s not the case that a species will sort of come along and go, ‘oh, I could do well here, there’s lots of food,’ and things like that. A species comes along and just does his thing, and by acting in the world, he sort of creates the very environment he needs to survive.”

I love this idea. Truth is: I’m unsure of the audience for these missives—little thought spritzes about outdoor, endurance, and running-ish life from an eccentric, failed-academic turned UX writer, who spends too much time shuffling on tarmac. But why second-guess that which gives you joy? Do the work you want to see made manifest, and the world will react around it. Read more here

Programming note

Hey there, a quick note that the scheduling of future posts will be fluid over the next few months. My wife and I are having our first child any day now. I’ll be learning as I go, but everyone’s health and wellness will be the priority for the next little bit. So, thanks in advance for your patience as we move into a new normal!

I’m looking forward to photobombing two people!

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Weekly run

Breakfast Club meets every Thursday for an 8-mile run:

• When and Where: 6:30am at Lake Temescal in Oakland, CA

• Pace: ~7:00 to 7:40 pace with a few hundred feet of climbing

• More info on Strava

• For updates about the run, email Katie Klymco at katieklymko at gmail.com to join Breakfast Club’s WhatsApp group

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Xeets of the week

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Parting thought

“The ethos of the pool reminds me I am meant to move more slowly, in the water and out. My body is temporary and my job is to relish the time I have in it. In the pool, time slows down. On bad days, cardio is a struggle; bolstered by the water, I can do things impossible on land. Surrounded by other timeworn bodies, I feel sublime. I am an astronaut, an intergalactic wanderer recently arrived on Earth.”

- Jenn Shapland, on how exercising in a pool changed her relationship to her body. Highly recommend. Read it here

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That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading.