Spirit of the Marathon

This looks like a great movie

Spirit of the Marathon is being released tonight. Too bad it is not being shown in Chattanooga. It looks like a great movie. I am still happy I don't live in Memphis anymore!




While the film was originally billed as a "one-day-only" movie premiere, a second, encore presentation -- scheduled for Feburary 21st at 7:30 pm -- has been added, due to popular demand. Tickets for this event will go on sale, starting tomorrow, January 25th, for this second showing. Click here, here and here to view the latest event details & theater/ticket information.

Winter Triathlon Training

Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Bend Bulletin ran an article this morning by reporter Mark Morical about winter triathlon. The story features tips from pro triathlete Matt Lieto and Nordic skier, Marshall Greene - both excellent competitors in the white stuff. Have a look here; it's a good read.

For those not familiar with the sport, winter triathlon athletes compete in a cross-country skiing leg instead of hitting open water. Competitors race mountain and cyclocross bikes with, as Lieto puts it, "squishy" tires instead or road and TRI bikes. Nearly flat tires prevent the bike from slipping on snow, but don't try it on the road or you're destined for a flat!

This is insane! I Love it! Anybody out there with any experience in this?

Power Pumkin Bread

Pretty soon people are going to think Martha Stewart is running this blog. I got this from USAT and thought everyone would enjoy some good warm carbs in these frigid temps we are getting.

POWER PUMPKIN BREAD

(Will make one bundt size pan or 5 mini loaves)

3 ½ cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup Splenda Sugar Substitute

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

½ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice (* or 1 teaspoon cinnamon & 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg)

Egg Substitute or egg whites equal to 4 large eggs

¼ cup Canola Oil

¾ cup Natural Unsweetened applesauce

1 16-can Solid Pack Pumpkin

2/3 cup Water

¼ cup Craisins/Raisins or both

¼ cup Pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray pan(s) with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together and make well in center

Add egg product, canola oil, applesauce, water & pumpkin. Mix well with a wire whisk. Add craisins/raisins and nuts and mix just enough.

Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes, check after 50 minutes. Bread is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Submitted by: Melissa Czekalski

Katie Holmes and the NYC Marathon Conspiracy

Better late than never... it looks like the blog world has uncovered that Katie Homes DID NOT run the NYC marathon. Great work can be found here and here and here. I'll give the main points of the conspiracy here:

1. No bleeding nipples.


2. No salt stains on her hat or clothes. You can't run 26.2 miles and not have salt stains. Ask Rosie Ruiz.


3. The lone run-man theory. Katie Holmes was allegedly paced by this man, Wesley Okerson, who allegedly wore a racing bib that appeared to be recycled from the 2003 NYC Marathon (#6074) but appears to have a timing chip on his foot. Why the timing chip? Did he run with Katie's chip? Why the 2003 number? There's no official results for either Okerson or #6074. BTW, #6074 for the 2003 race was assigned to Al Finger. Alan Finger is a yoga guru to the the stars in Los Angeles. Coincidence?

4. The identical splits. Katie Holmes and another of her apparent trainers, Paul Vincent (#28994) recorded the exact same splits throughout the race. To do this, you'd have to choreograph your steps with the precision of the Radio City Rockettes. It's very odd.

5. No photos. The Kahuna has gotten a little obsessed with this. Photographers took wide angle pictures as runners across the 10k timing mat. The Kahuna looked up the photos of each runner who finished with a few seconds of Holmes' alleged 10K split (1:06:51), and couldn't find any photo that included Holmes on either side of the street. With her long pants, purple shirt and blue hat, she shouldn't be hard to spot. (On the Brightroom website, there are no photos of Holmes or Paul Vincent. Hmmmmm.

6. High heels. After struggling to allegedly complete her first marathon (5:29 and change), Katie Holmes put on a pair of high heels that night and attended the movie premiere with her husband, walking down the red carpet with no ill effects from the marathon.

THANKS TRIGEEK!




I would love to hear from my marathon friends in Korea on this!

A cheapskate's energy bar

So most of you know I am one of the cheapest people on earth. Clif Bars and other are great and all but, $1 here, $2 there, gets expensive. I found this recipe from Alton Brown.

• 4 ounces soy protein powder, approximately 1 cup
• 2 1/4 ounces oat bran, approximately 1/2 cup
• 2 3/4 ounces whole-wheat flour, approximately 1/2 cup
• 3/4-ounce wheat germ, approximately 1/4 cup
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 ounces raisins, approximately 1/2 cup
• 2 1/2 ounces dried cherries, approximately 1/2 cup
• 3 ounces dried blueberries, approximately 1/2 cup
• 2 1/2 ounces dried apricots, approximately 1/2 cup
• 1 (12.3-ounce) package soft silken tofu
• 1/2 cup unfiltered apple juice
• 4 ounces dark brown sugar, approximately 1/2 cup packed
• 2 large whole eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup natural peanut butter
• Canola oil, for pan

1. Line the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish with parchment paper and lightly coat with canola oil. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the protein powder, oat bran, wheat flour, wheat germ, and salt. Set aside.
3. Coarsely chop the raisins, dried cherries, blueberries and apricots and place in a small bowl and set aside.
4. In a third mixing bowl, whisk the tofu until smooth. Add the apple juice, brown sugar, eggs, and peanut butter, 1 at a time, and whisk to combine after each addition. Add this to the protein powder mixture and stir well to combine. Fold in the dried fruit. Spread evenly in the prepared baking dish and bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 205 degrees F. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting into squares. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Please let me know if anyone out there has any other recipe's.

Einstein Quote of the Day

Measured objectively, what a man can wrest from Truth by passionate striving is utterly infinitesimal. But the striving frees us from the bonds of the self and makes us comrades of those who are the best and the greatest.

Commuting by Bike Math

Chris Carroll from Patagonia just posted some nice math on the costs savings of his commuting by bike:

- 22 years of solid riding
- 10years of 200 miles per week = 104,000 miles
- 12 years of 150 miles per week = 93,600 miles
TOTAL MILES =197,600 MILES
- at average of 25 miles per gallon of gas = 7,904 gallons
- at an average of $2.50 per gallon x 7,904 = $19,760.00

My own savings isn't as impressive as I only commute 60 miles a week and have only been doing it for 2.5 years. However, every thing helps.

Great Information on Cycling and Commuting

If everyday practical bicycling had taken on political significance for you by the 1990s or earlier, in the US, chances are good you saw Ted White’s 1992 film Return of the Scorcher at a gathering of like-minded souls. It claimed the expression “critical mass” from nuclear physics for people riding bikes as part of traffic. It’s a yearning survey of the bicycling societies China and the Netherlands, both of which have powerfully shaped our own aspirations for reclamation of Portland from nearly a century of automotive disorientation.




Seven years later came We Are Traffic, documenting what Critical Mass had become. I rode in the summer 1997 San Francisco Mass that made international news when the police decided it was a threat, though I admit I was just trying to ride home when I found myself engulfed in it. I didn’t inhale. It’s 50 minutes. Enjoy:



Source: Clever Cycles

Please run for President Earl!

The Wall Street Journal recently did this featurette on my US Representative Earl Bluemenauer.



The Journal’s article has much more information on Mr. Bluemenauer and his cycling history.

What can The Netherlands learn from us?

Last summer, armed with a bike, a laptop and a perspective, Loek Hesemans came to visit Vancouver and Portland. As a Senior Policy Officer at the Ministry of Health in the Netherlands, he had come to see what the Dutch might learn from us in promoting cycling.. Yes, from us.

If you are interested in cycling and commuting by bike - you will definitely find this information interesting.

You can find the magazine article here

The full report is here

MLK Weekend Virtual Training Camp

I got this from Team Louisville. Although I'm not a member of Endurance Nation this looks like a great deal.

As many of you know I am training with the Endurance Nation team. I wanted to pass on a cool thing that they are putting together to get an "Epic Weekend" of training done over MLK weekend -- so this is just a cut and paste from their blog. You can go check it out yourself at http://www.endurancenation.blogspot.com/ or their site http://www.endurancenation.us/ The forum is pretty good too!

Anyway, I signed up and I hope that some of you will too!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Martin Luther King Weekend Virtual Training Camp
Endurance Nation Announces FREE MLK Weekend Virtual Training Camp -- January 19-21, 2008.

Challenge yourself, connect with fellow endurance athletes, and have FUN as we get together (online) for a virtual training weekend over the MLK holiday! Endurance Nation co-founders Rich Strauss and Patrick McCrann have created a challenging online schedule that you can modify to suit your personal fitness level. The coaches will begin the weekend with a Friday podcast to deliver guidance and tips, and present a live webinar on Saturday evening to cover epic training and how to use it to your advantage.

The training will be Run+Bike workouts for Saturday and Sunday, with Run and optional Swim for Monday. All workouts can be adjusted for indoor or outdoor execution. Points will be awarded for execution and the awards will be many, including: Most Overall Mileage, Most Run Miles, Most Bike Miles, Most Creative Blog Entry, Best Weekend Race Report in the Race Report Forum, Best Workout Video, the list goes on.

The Endurance Nation Virtual Training Camp is FREE and open to the public. Dupe your training partners into thrashing themselves with you!Register for the VTC by emailing us (virtualcamps@enationcamps.com) and we'll send you an Evite with the details of the weekend. Just RSVP and you're in!

About Endurance Nation:

Endurance Nation is the brainchild of elite triathlon coaches Rich Strauss (Crucible Fitness) and Patrick McCrann (Performance Training Systems), who have combined communities, resources and training plans to create Endurance Nation. Endurance Nation is a growing community of 380+ triathletes educating and inspiring each other, managed within the framework of a consistent coaching and training philosophy. Members can take advantage of free coaching articles and high quality - yet affordable – coaching. The EN experience is augmented by our community platform, bringing experienced teachers to the desktop of every athlete. Finally, Endurance Nation will provide opportunities for the members to meet, learn from and train with the coaches and other members, through camps and clinics, an organized EN presence at national races, and other cool events.

Uphill

I took a different run home due to traffic issues and it was both challenging and rewarding as I got to see a lot of different scenery and was challenged by the new hills. It's also a little bit longer which I know will make me stronger. All of this said, my pace officially sucked! Owell, I was the only runner out there this morning in the nice 30 degree weather.

For all of you folks in the Southeast there is a nice triathlon expo going on Saturday, December 26 in Nashville, TN. It's free and there are a lot of free goodies promised so I hope I can make it up there.

Sweet Finish!

Humility

One thing every triathlon has given me is humility. Although I love passing people in the swim with crazy expensive wet-suits, and pass people on bike's that costs well over 2x what my bike costs and passing people on the run the bottom line is that I only race against myself, which is a stark difference than most triathletes out there, including one of my main training partners Kevin.

I encourage everyone out there to think about simply racing against yourself as a benchmark. Only you know what you are capable of. For me, I am capable of much more than I have produced at the triathlons I have competed in - and for that, at every finish I feel a bifurcation between my happiness/feeling of completion and between sadness/not training hard enough.

In the end I am proud to call myself a triathlete. There is no other group of individuals out there with more generosity and great sportsmanship.

Finally, it's also nice to see Adam Zucco, a triathlon coach with this humility on his blog citing his slow times when he first started and even fairly recent failures.

Sometimes it dosn't pay to be the fastest!

Find more videos like this on OpenTri

2008 Ironman Schedule

In-case anyone missed it here is the official 2008 Ironman Schedule

Paper for Thought

Church of the Customer received 21.5 lbs of junk mail during the month of December.

In the comments, Graham does some math for us: 21.5 lbs of paper times an estimated 110 million U.S. households is approximately 1,056,000 tons of paper. If 8 trees are used to create a ton of typical (unrecycled) catalog paper, and 21.5 pounds is the average weight of unsolicited catalogs, then some 132,000 trees were used to send people junkmail during a one-month period.

First Brick

This morning I had my first brick workout. I didn't have a good light for my bike so I hopped on the trainer and succumbed to the horrible tv programing at 6:00 A.M. If there is anyone out there with embarrassing amounts of money and looking for a worthwhile cause - Please start an endurance tv channel!

Interestingly enough the last mile of my run was faster than the last mile yesterday. Sorry Kenyans and training partner Kevin - I can't just go all-out in the beginning without crashing at the end. My pace today, was great and I was happy with the brick workout and the weather as it was a nice 59 degrees.

As for other big news, I have joined Team Louisville 2008's blog so look out for my introduction which should be coming soon.

Training

I have officially started training for my Ironman with sore legs and a pounding heart every morning. I think this Nike + iPod thing is going to be my best and worst training partner as this morning I was really trying to pick-up the turnover and ended up with around the same time as last week. Owell, I will continue to do speedwork - hopefully at some point my time will start to improve.



I found this awesome race report on Ironman Louisville here

Great Quote for Monday

Jon Krakauer once wrote, "In any human endeavor, some fraction of its practitioners will be motivated to pursue that activity with such concentrated focus and unalloyed passion that it will consume them utterly... For some, the province of the extreme holds an allure that's irresistible... As a result of his or her infatuation, existence overflows with purpose. Ambiguity vanishes from the fanatic's worldview; a narcissistic sense of self assurance displaces all doubt. His perspective narrows until the last remnants of proportion are shed from his life. Through immoderation, he experiences something akin to rapture."

Chattanooga Weather and some Motivation

This is pretty much what I looked like yesterday biking to work at 6:00 in the morning with a single-digit wind-chill factor!


Today I chose to run and was only slightly dissapointed with my 8.3 min/miles. Fortunately or unfortunately, my wife bought me the new ipod + Nike for Christmas so there is no gratuitious rounding.

Motivational Quote for the week:
Run when you can, walk when youhave to, crawl if you must; justnever give up.
- Dean Karnazes
Runner and author of
Ultramarathon Man.

BIG IDEAS for 2008

Give Peace a Chance




"Fanatic ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our planet as a fragile, blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars."
—Carl Sagan

Everything working out...

No pun intended


Ironman Louisville is August 31st next year. I have been telling all my family and friends that I would love to take my little girl and Brittany up to Chicago afterwards to catch a game at Wrigley field and check out the option pits.

The Cubs just posted their 2008 schedule and they will be at home Monday through Wednesday after Sunday's Ironman in Kentucky.

bike parking, Copenhagen on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

bike parking, Copenhagen on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I could only hope and pray that this will be Chattanooga, TN in a couple of years!

Yogurt vs. Gasoline

Yogurt vs. Gasoline

Click here to see the movie.

I thought since Christmas Day was the busiest time of year for theatres, I would post some short films here, so you wouldn't have to fight the crowds.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Transportation Ethics

Clarence Eckerson at StreetFilms presents this provocative conversation between Mark Gorton, executive director of the Open Planning Project, and Randy Cohen, author of The Ethicist column in the New York Times Magazine and occasional commentator for NPR. As shown in this interview, Cohen is also an intelligent and articulate voice for Livable Streets.

Fun Holiday Pics

I love this headline

Higher Fuel Prices Bring CARTA More Riders
from the chattanoogan.com


"a total of 164,662 people rode CARTA buses - more than 10,000 more than the 154,327 who rode buses during November 2006."

Goals !

I'm really excited!

Tonight I'm meeting up with my best friend and we are going to talk about our goals for the next year.

I will post about all of my goals for next year in the next week or two, but one thing I have already decided is to learn more about marketing - and yes for you witty people out there - I am going to focus on some specific parts of marketing. I have been doing an enormous amount of reading lately on marketing, success, history, etc... and one of the major trends is:

Successful people know a lot people (they network)
Unsuccessful people don't know a lot of people (they keep to themselves)

So this morning I came across this great post and thought I should share it with everyone, if you want to create more buzz out there.

Another thing I'm really excited about for next year is a men's bible study I just started.

Lastly, I guess a congratulations is in-order. My friend Chris's goal was to get the same google page rank as me and he recently accomplished this as mine has been on a slippery downslope and his has been accelerate ting. But just so everyone knows, I'm really not that impressed since there are a heck of a lot of more people out there who care about internet marketing than my ironman training and my daily commute by bike!

A Tale of Two Countries

Congressman Earl Blumenauer introducing the
Bike Commuter Act on Capitol Hill last March.
(Photo © Jonathan Maus)

Bike commuter benefit does not survive Senate vote on Energy Bill

The bike commuter tax benefit — which was introduced to Congress by Earl Blumenauer last March and passed a House vote last week — has been stripped out of the Energy Bill by the Senate.

The U.S. Senate passed the Energy Bill yesterday, but not before removing several “green initiatives” included in the bill by the Blumenauer-led Ways and Means Committee.

Along with removing Blumenauer’s effort to close the “Hummer tax loophole” (which sought to end the additional tax incentive for business purchases of luxury SUVs weighing over 6,000 lbs), the Senate removed the part of the bill that would have expanded the existing transportation fringe benefit to include bike commuters.

The bike commuter provision was based on The Bike Commuter Act and would have given a benefit of $20 per month to employees who biked to work “for the purchase, storage, or repair” of their bicycles. It would have brought bike commuters in line with existing tax benefits for transit users and car drivers.

Addressing National Bike Summit attendees on Capitol Hill last March, Blumenauer said the bike commuter benefit was simply a matter of equity and it would have stopped, “The discrimination against people who burn calories instead of fuel.”

=================================================================

Danish cities go high-tech for bike safety

Posted by Jonathan Maus (Editor) on December 14th, 2007 at 2:45 pm

Flashing lights when
a bike is present.
(Photo: Zakkaliciousness)

From Cycleliciousness (the “Copenhagen Bicycle Culture Blog”), comes word of two interesting bike safety measures.

Given that we are in the midst of making some major bike safety improvements at dangerous intersections, I thought it might be useful to take a look at new technology being considered by the Danes.

The first is being tested in Copenhagen to reduce the number of right-hook collisions between bikes and trucks. It’s what the blog’s author calls, “a new system of diode lights” (similar the one in their photo at right) that would potentially reduce bike/car conflicts at dangerous intersections.

All of this is from bikeportland.org

It's officially winter in Chattanooga, TN. At the end of my bike ride into work was a sign that said it was 28 degrees outside - which means it was around 25 degrees when I started.

The wind wasn't alive so it really only felt like it was in the mid-to-high 30s.

For all of you who prefer cycling to running - Now there are no more excuses

http://www.bikeforest.com/tread/index.php

Americans are broad-minded people. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive, there is something wrong with him.

Art Buchwald, "How Un-American Can You Get?," Have I Ever Lied to You?, 1966

INTERESTING...

Al Gore just accepted the Nobel Peace Price for his work on Global Warming and here in Chattanooga, TN the temperature is around the high 70's.

Other interesting environmental news from Chattanooga's American Hiking Society:

Today, Wilbur Smith Associates released a long awaited Economic Development and Transportation Summary related to the Corridor K project. While I have not yet had time to review this report in detail, I am making it available for concerned citizens to look at here.

Corridor K in a Global Economy: A Summary of the Economic Development and Transportation Study. (113 KB)

Stay tuned for more information about Corridor K as studies related to the project, including the development of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) are completed. This process will take several years to unfold, but we will follow along closely until our concerns are resolved.

Bill McKibben speaks about Chattanooga, TN's environment and community, touring the city and speaking about its green efforts.

"It always seems impossible until it's done" Nelson Mandela

I had to tell my friends over at commutebybike that I have officially switched to running. This morning I actually thought I was going to bike in because of the lack of water and the excessive amount of brownies I ate last night. I even hit the snooze button. But the second I felt the brisk 30 degree weather with a nice morning breeze, I grabbed my mp3 player and me and Bono went for a run.

Goals

I have been doing some serious thinking about my goals for 2008. Next year will be a pivotal year for me personally and professionally. I will elaborate on this issue later, but one of my goals will definitely pertain to educating others and myself on alternative energy.

It all comes back to the simplicity of biking to work. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you are a nature-lover, health fanatic, or just plain cheap-skate - the bottom line is the bottom line, and that is = you have more money in your back pocket if you bike to work as opposed to if you drive your car to work.

In the next couple of years I believe this movement will transgress into our aging power grid and companies and individuals will be more creative when thinking of their home power, rather than just paying your local power company whatever they tell you to pay.

I will be the first to admit that I'm not the smartest knife in the drawer. However, neither are many of the individuals on the Forbes 400. The difference is they are hard-working individuals that were very perceptive in looking at long-term growth trends.

So today we have google, the most progressive corporation in the world investing heavily in alternative energy to get off the power grid, because they think they can generate it cheaper themselves and Kleiner Perkins, arguably the most successful venture capitalist firm in the world investing very heavily in alternative energy.

Additionally, another individual I highly respect, Vinod Khosla is solely focused on alternative energy. Other individuals that are more controversial that have publicly stated alternative energy is the next big thing is Sir Richard Branson and Bill Clinton. Regardless of your personal feelings towards these individuals, it would be hard to argue that these individuals are not successful.

Alas, I challenge all of you to take a step back and think about your impact on the world. I am very blessed to have a handful of really great friends in my life. One characteristic they all share, is that they all want to be VERY successful, but perhaps more importantly, they all want to make a difference in the world, AND this is the reason they are my best friends.

What is your impact on the world?

Weekend Recap

I had a great weekend hanging out with a good friend on Friday and then watching the Ironman World Championships Saturday night. The good news is if you missed it ironman.com is telling everyone it will be on today at 4:30. If this is the result of the writers strike I wouldn't mind if they didn't come back!

Also, Ironman Australia is up on ironman.com for all who are interested.

The lottery is also open. Although I have heard from other bloggers that the passport club really improves your odds, I'm not ready to pony up the extra coin for it this year.

Will Bicycling to Work Get You Killed? - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Will Bicycling to Work Get You Killed? - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

I HOPE NOT!!!!

Don't worry, I definitely won't be in to Christmas as much as these guys are!

I had a great run in this morning. It was a cool 38 degrees but oddly I was never cold and even got pretty hot towards the end. This got me to thinking. With all of the running I will be doing this winter, why don't I do another marathon?

The only real reason is the money. But, it would definitely give me so e motivation and I would love to run one in late February so I could carry my "yet to be born" daughter across the finish line. Although, her mother, who has never seen me finish a marathon, may be a little sceptical about letting me hold her after 4 hours of running.

I'm browsing my favorite marathon site for some cool events this winter, but if any of you have any suggestions please leave a comment or send me an email.

If I lived in NYC I would definitely live here

trifit

trifit

Going to the Grey City

Hopefully I can get some good running in at Central Park to work off some of the great food I plan to partake in.

"I once met three guys named pain, suffering and sacrifice. Now we are inseperable. We are best friends." - Lance Armstrong

I need to step-up my cycling in a major way for these targets.

I have been biking only around 100 miles a week and running around 20 miles a week.

From endurancecoach.com

General Guide to winter Mileage Targets for Different events

	Junior	Elite Junior	Age Group	Elite
Sprint	20	n/a	40	n/a
Triathlon	40	70	60	80
1/2 Ironman	n/a	n/a	90	120
Ironman	n/a	n/a	180	200

http://trifuel.com/training/bike/winter-bike-training-target-specific-areas-to-improve

Corner the Market

Corner the Market

Very weird...

I ran in this morning and it was the very frigid temperature of 58 degrees

My google page rank has gone from 5 to 2 in the past week...

Are there any small business owners out there familiar with free CRM software?

Chattanooga is an awesome town.


Every year I like it more and more. However, Portland's bike scene seems pretty nice too. I'm sure in a couple of years Chattanooga will have the same type of scene.

One thing that is particularly interesting is that we don't have any hand-made bike manufacturer's in Chattanooga. I guess that is because we are in the land of Litespeed.

I'm currently on a quest to find a great headline banner for my blog so if there are any suggestions please leave a comment.

In my research, I think trigeekdreams.com has the best banner.

As for training, I keep biking more than running, but I think that is about to change with the recent weather changes.

Hope all is well out there i tri-land!

Since my wife became pregnant we are emphatic on eliminating High Fructose Corn Syrup from our diet.

Here is a great link to a list of foods that are free of this evil juice!

Another tattoo for me!

When I first saw this tattoo I thought it was the coolest thing ever from PaceTat. However, about half of my time in a marathon is spent figuring out what pace I'm running at so now I don't know if this is such a cool thing after all.

Gym Jones - Power, Speed, Endurance, Suffering and Salvation

Freak Gym

A co-worker recomended I go to gymjones.com

This place is awesome! Check out the videos and quotes from these freaks! It takes a while to go through the site but is well worth it for the motivation.

Congrats - to everyone who finished in the recent Florida Ironman

In Portland, Cultivating a Culture of Two Wheels

Hopefully, this will be Chattanooga, in a couple of years.


Check out the article here

Doing what Detroit says is impossible

Doing what Detroit says is impossible
by kos
Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 11:50:06 AM PDT

This story is so incredible, I had to do additional research to confirm that it was indeed true. It centers on Kansas City auto mechanic and inventor Johnathan Goodwin.

Two years ago, Goodwin got a rare chance to show off his tricks to some of the car industry's most prominent engineers. He tells me the story: He was driving a converted H2 to the SEMA show, the nation's biggest annual specialty automotive confab, and stopped en route at a Denver hotel. When he woke up in the morning, there were 20 people standing around his Hummer. Did I run over somebody? he wondered. As it turned out, they were engineers for GM, the Hummer's manufacturer. They noticed that Goodwin's H2 looked modified. "Does it have a diesel engine in it?"

"Yeah," he said.

"No way," they replied.

He opened the hood, "and they're just all in and out and around the valves and checking it out," he says. They asked to hear it run, sending a stab of fear through Goodwin. He'd filled it up with grease from a Chinese restaurant the day before and was worried that the cold morning might have solidified the fuel. But it started up on the first try and ran so quietly that at first they didn't believe it was really on. "When you start a diesel engine up on vegetable oil," Goodwin says, "you turn the key, and you hear nothing. Because of the lubricating power of the oil, it's just so smooth. Whisper quiet. And they're like, 'Is it running? Yeah, you can hear the fan going.'"

One engineer turned and said, "GM said this wouldn't work."

"Well," Goodwin replied, "here it is."

And what's the bottom line for Goodwin's modified vehicles? Stuff like this:

Goodwin's feats of engineering have become gradually more visible over the past year. Last summer, Imperium Renewables contacted MTV's show Pimp My Ride about creating an Earth Day special in which Goodwin would convert a muscle car to run on biodiesel. The show chose a '65 Chevy Impala, and when the conversion was done, he'd doubled its mileage to 25 mpg and increased its pull from 250 to 800 horsepower. As a stunt, MTV drag-raced the Impala against a Lamborghini on California's Pomona Raceway. "The Impala blew the Lamborghini away," says Kevin Kluemper, the lead calibration engineer for GM's Allison transmission unit, who'd flown down to help with the conversion.

Remember -- Detroit tells us it's impossible to increase gas mileage without taking a hit on horsepower. Yet here's Goodwin -- with an eight-grade education -- able to design motors that blow the doors off the conventional (and obviously bullshit) wisdom.

His latest project?

Goodwin leads me over to a red 2005 H3 Hummer that's up on jacks, its mechanicals removed. He aims to use the turbine to turn the Hummer into a tricked-out electric hybrid. Like most hybrids, it'll have two engines, including an electric motor. But in this case, the second will be the [jet] turbine, Goodwin's secret ingredient. Whenever the truck's juice runs low, the turbine will roar into action for a few seconds, powering a generator with such gusto that it'll recharge a set of "supercapacitor" batteries in seconds. This means the H3's electric motor will be able to perform awesome feats of acceleration and power over and over again, like a Prius on steroids. What's more, the turbine will burn biodiesel, a renewable fuel with much lower emissions than normal diesel; a hydrogen-injection system will then cut those low emissions in half. And when it's time to fill the tank, he'll be able to just pull up to the back of a diner and dump in its excess french-fry grease--as he does with his many other Hummers. Oh, yeah, he adds, the horsepower will double--from 300 to 600.

"Conservatively," Goodwin muses, scratching his chin, "it'll get 60 miles to the gallon. With 2,000 foot-pounds of torque. You'll be able to smoke the tires. And it's going to be superefficient."

He laughs. "Think about it: a 5,000-pound vehicle that gets 60 miles to the gallon and does zero to 60 in five seconds!"

And here's the punchline:

Goodwin's work proves that a counterattack is possible, and maybe easier than many of us imagined. If the dream is a big, badass ride that's also clean, well, he's there already. As he points out, his conversions consist almost entirely of taking stock GM parts and snapping them together in clever new ways. "They could do all this stuff if they wanted to," he tells me, slapping on a visor and hunching over an arc welder. "The technology has been there forever. They make 90% of the components I use."

The problem with Detroit isn't the laws of physics, it's the fact that a guy who never even went to high school can do things -- with stock parts -- that Detroit's auto executives and their armies of engineers claim is impossible. Good ol' American know-how and ingenuity is alive and well, just not where we need it.

Update: From the comments, video of that Impala smoking the Lamborghini on MTV:



Link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/30/14161/066

A devotion for inspiration

Iron Man
by Jon Walker
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10 NIV)
Although I don’t recall anyone ever specifically teaching me this, somewhere along the way I embraced the idea that “You have to play hurt.” It’s the philosophy in sports that your commitment in competition is such that you don’t let the pain from injuries – even some of the major ones – keep you from playing, and playing to win.
Brett Favre, the long-standing quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, who we discussed yesterday, is an extraordinary model of this “play hurt” mentality. Often called an iron man, Favre has played through broken bones, sprains, concussions, and a myriad of other injuries – major and minor – making him one of only two NFL players to start every game his team has played over the last 15 years (and the other guy is a punter, not the heart-and-soul quarterback of a team who plays on every offensive down). And Favre is still at it even though he just turned 38, which in the dog-years of 9-to-5 work is like 68.
He certainly doesn’t stay at it for the money because he’s made plenty of it, and he doesn’t do it for the records because he’s already broken most of them. You get the sense from Favre that he’s chasing one more championship, but that he also stays in it for love of the game.
In a similar way, Coach Paul (of Tarsus) teaches us to push past the pain of becoming like Christ. For now, we carry this eternal treasure in fragile in jars of clay as we learn to be wholly and fully dependent upon the all-surpassing power of God.
Therefore, Paul sees our pain and heartache – the difficulties in life – as a way to identify with the pain and heartache Jesus faced when he died on the cross for you and me. It is a suffering as close as skin that allows us in a small way to experience, through the glass darkly, what Jesus experienced when he took in all the brutality, ridicule, and abandonment that was meant for you and me. This is how we carry the death of Jesus around in our bodies, allowing the life of Jesus to be revealed. (2 Corinthians 4:7-10 NIV)
No matter how well intentioned we are – no matter how Brett-Favre-Iron-Man-like we are – we incapable of carrying this death of Jesus within us without being desperately dependent upon God. But the Good News is that our pain, our heartache, our confusion, our doubts, our mountain-sized difficulties can push us – if we allow it – into the very center of God’s all surpassing power.
And this supernatural strength allows us to say, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10 NIV)
What now?
• Your problems help you become like Jesus – When you experience pain or heartache, talk it out with God, but also thank him that he is making you more like Christ. Let God encourage you – that this pain has a purpose: “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV)
• God has his Father’s eyes on you – Yes, your pain and heartache are real. In fact, the increasingly complex struggle to keep you family together, pay your bills, and live out your faith can be overwhelming. Paul’s message of pressing on is not meant to minimize the challenges you face; rather, it’s to give you perspective: “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:4 NIV)
• You’re weakness opens the door to his strength – Even as you feel yourself hard pressed on every side, crushed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, you can boast all the more about your weaknesses, allowing Christ's power to rest on you; for when you are weak, then you are strong in his power and protection. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV)
• Ask God for a vision of what you would be like if you were more like Christ – Ask him to show you his purpose and his plan for your life. Ask him to make you more sensitive to the difficulties of those around you. Ask him to show you how to encourage them as they feel hard press, crushed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down. Finally, pray for Brett Favre, who appears to be a very good man, but still a man in need of a Savior.

My good friend Chris just finished The Four Hour Work Week. I read it a couple of months ago, but just found the guy's blog. I highly recommend it as it will help all of you triathletes and commuters with time efficiency which is the main struggle for all of us.

I found an awesome commuting story on his blog. You can read it here

Combining my two favorite hobbies - skiing and cycling!



A 33-year-old Austrian hit his prime last week when he smashed the world bike speed record by 14mph and set the new one at 130.7mph. Apparently snow makes an ideal surface for these kinds of downhill runs. The whole thing reminds me of the year they had speed skiing as an Olympic exhibition event. The guys would dress up in speed suits with mushroom hats and get in a tuck until they either blew apart halfway down or threw the brakes on at the bottom. They all had the same equipment except for the guys from small countries who would outfit their skiers with bike helmets.

via Wired
By Rocky Thompson

"Vermont ... Just Stay Away. Don't Bother."

This is Awesome!

This is Crazy!

Great Quote!


“Once a man has made a commitment to a new way of life,he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It’s something we call heart power. Once a man has made this commitment, nothing can stop him short of success!” (Vince Lombardi)

Motivational Quotes for the next year!

Yes, I know it's early but you should at least be thinking about them right now in my opinion.

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action
always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
- Frank Tibolt
Genius is one per cent inspiration; ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931), Harper's Monthly, 1932
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London (1876 - 1916)
Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change
the outer aspects of their lives.
William James (1842 - 1910)
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter
his life by altering his attitudes of mind.
William James (1842 - 1910)
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort.
Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)
Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Walden (1970)
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change
them yourself.
Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987), The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)
Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for
change.
Ramsay Clark
You have to recognize when the right place and the right time fuse and
take advantage of that opportunity. There are plenty of opportunities out
there. You can't sit back and wait.
Ellen Metcalf
There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.
General Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964)
Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.
Henry J. Kaiser (1882 - 1967)
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)
Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.
George S. Patton (1885 - 1945)
The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than
the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
Milton Berle (1908 - 2002)
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of
strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
Vince Lombardi (1913—-1970)
If you think you have things under control, you’re not going fast enough.
Mario Andretti 1940—-
Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.
E. Joseph Cossman (1918—-2002)

Atomic Man Results


The results are in:

I finished 105th overall and 8th in my age-group. By way of reminder, I would be just as happy being last overall and last in my age group as my goal is just to finish the race in an honest manner.

Swim Time: 41:48 - not bad considering it was the first time I have ever swam in a wetsuit
Bike Time: 3:23 - not the worst, but definately not the best - I can do better going forward
Run Time: 2:56 - Ouch! This is my goal time for a marathon - NOT a half-marathon time. Obviously I was not acclamated to running in the heat like I should have been. This is definately the place for improvement.

Total Time: 7:06:24

Cold...

It was cold outside this morning on the bike ride in. At one point I was biking up a hill with my hands in my pockets so they could be protected from the wind. I will definitely be starting the traditional "transition" from biking to work (summer) to running to work (winter). The reward of-course is this is as easy training as it gets for marathons and maybe an ultra-marathon?

I gave a speech today titled: "What is your ironman?"

Hopefully you can see the slides below

Quote to live by:

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
- Jack London

FINISHED...


Yesterday, I completed the longest event I have competed in - the Atomic Man Half Ironman. My lovely wife and best friend & his wife were all there to see me in probably the most pain I have ever been in. I finished in 7 hours - my personal goal was 6 - but at the end of the day I was looking for the big finish and I got it.

Swim
The swim wasn't that bad. I obviously should have tested the wetsuit out before I used it in a critical event, but it definatley helped more than hurt. I did get a massive headache from my goggles, but that's ok, this is the first triathlon I have competed in where they didn't leak!

Lesson Learned: Do an all out test (even that nasty swim cap) with all your gear at least twice

Bike
Bike was fun. The rolling hills didn't provide any monotony which I was a big beneficiary of. Everyone competing had awesome bikes which kept me entertaining myself wondering how much each bike costs.

Lesson Learned: I need to be riding with the fast group here in Chattanooga - as they all had awesome times.

Run
DEATH - the first 6.5 miles were tough steep hills. The last 6.5 miles were long-straight and had no shade. There was a brief interuption on mile 10-12 where it was a trail next to the river which was awesome.

Lesson Learned: Do at least a couple hard-core BRICK workouts and even suck it up and run in the sun in the afternoon. I know I would have trimmed at least 30 min. off my time if I was acclamated to to running in the sun - and not the nice shade that my 5:00 a.m. training runs provided me with.


Summary
Great race. Organization with the officials was a little scarce but I was fully expecting this from the web-site and how many people competed in it, so no worries. The volunteer support by the boy scouts was awesome. Special Note: I am a proud Eagle Scout and even got a couple of "hooh-rahs" when I told them at the aid-stations.

Hopefully I can post some pictures up tommorow.

Tapering...

Atomic-Man is only a couple of days away so for the first time in a long-time I didn't ride in and had my wife take me into work.

It's funny - every time I don't ride in - it makes me appreciate my rides even more. Driving to work I dealt with - 1)having to wake my pregnant wife up; 2)listening to all of the wrecks on the interstate and ads on the radio) and 3) dealing with traffic - With riding I really don't deal with any of these

Great article on a whole family in L.A. who ditched their car for bikes.
Read it here

Personal Navigation Assistent For Cyclists By Garmin

Personal Navigation Assistent For Cyclists By Garmin

Personal Navigation Assistent For Cyclists By Garmin


It used to be such an elitist technology that was either deployed by rich people in their expensive luxury vehicles or by geography buffs who needed the tech for work purposes. Garmin has become the number one personal navigation device seller in the United States and they pushing along for an even bigger market share with the Garmin Edge 705 and Edge 605, both of which designed for cyclists.

Both units get 2.2-inch color displays and standard turn-by-turn directions, as well as detailed street maps, topography of the region (seek out and/or avoid major hills), and the company's ANT+Sport technology. This last bit is meant to interface with fitness devices like heart monitors. What sets the two devices apart is the fact that the Garmin Edge 705 gets a barometric altimeter. It's also includes a wireless heart rate monitor that delivers real-time data to the on-screen display.

The Garmin Edge 605 is priced at $400. The Edge 705 starts at $500, getting bumped to $550 if you want the heart rate monitor and speed/cadence sensor, and getting bumped further to $650 if you want the ANT+Sport bundle. Look for these to drop in December 2007. Just in time for prime-time riding season?

Just a couple of places I was swimming at last week...

I can't believe in a couple of weeks I will be a half-ironman. CRAZY...


My vacation just ended unfortunately. I had an awesome vacation, spending time throughout the entire southern caribean. I swam a mile pretty much every day. I do see now why everyone likes the ocean for swimming in triathlons. First off, the buoyancy is a major advantage and weirdly it's a little cleaner to me than the freshwater back in the states.

O well, I'm going to be doing a little riding and running this week and do a major tapering next week. Honestly, I'm ready for this thing to be done with and start training for the real thing next year!