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triathlon

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25
Sep 15

The cool report

Sometimes I think I should go back to themed Fridays. If I did, today’s theme would be ‘Man, this stuff is cool.‘

Problem: I can’t repeat awesomeness like this every week.

We went to the Southeastern Raptor Center for their bird show this evening. I only shot video of one little guy, because they flew him right by me:

He posed for pictures later:

Here’s another cool thing. If I had any talent at triathlons at all, I would do this:

And perhaps the coolest thing today is Sir Patrick Stewart. (I have this sneaking suspicion he is the coolest thing going a lot of days.) If you have seven minutes, you should watch this video. It is powerful, true-to-life stuff:

Also, the in-laws are in town this weekend. Extra cool!

adventures / cycling / I do not know what is happening. / running / swimming / triathlon — Comments Off
15
Aug 15

Chattahoochee Olympic Triathlon

The race was fast. I was just slow.

We rode our bikes to the race from our nearby hotel. Rode across the state line, actually. And we did that in the dark, with little blinkie lights on our bikes showing the way.

We got there in plenty of time. Nice easy setup. Met race veterans and three people who were doing their first race. It was a nice relaxed pre-race morning, as opposed to the usual stress. This race was launched in age-group waves, so The Yankee went off earlier than I did, scorching people in the water and then burning up tar on the road.

When my group went off we pushed away and swam downstream 500 meters. You climb out of the water at a boat launch, run back upstream and swim it again. So the swim is short, just 1,000 meters, but that jog counts to your swim, which means I had my best 1,500 meter swim time ever. It still wasn’t very good.

Out of the water, finally, and up to transition where I climbed on the bike and settled in deciding that I would ease into the 20-something mile ride. It was a two loop course, roads with which I am familiar, and I figured that maybe I would be better served pacing myself early and going hard on the second time around. On the first loop, though, I felt my legs lock up. And on the second loop my legs said “No. This is what it feels like when your legs lock up.”

And after that nice little ride, where I didn’t get to hammer it much of anywhere, I was back in transition and setting off for a run. THis is the second time, by the way, I’ve run across a state line. (You don’t keep track of this sort of thing?)

The course offered three miles of river views:

And then there were three miles of downtown views. And somewhere right in between everything started going wrong.

You shouldn’t get chills two hours into exercise in the August sun, but I did. It seemed wise to take everything easy after that, and so I did. When I got to the end I wanted a blanket and calories. It was an unsatisfying race for me. But the weather was nice and the people were pleasant. And this one had a great race:

I didn’t see her until a few parts of the run course. She did this thing where she beat her goal and still wasn’t satisfied with herself. (Don’t race her.)

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12
Jul 15

Chewacla Tri

The triathlon that we thought about just riding our bikes too.

And then we each thought “I don’t want to carry all that stuff on my bike,” and wisely decided to drive.

This was the first local triathlon, a nice easy sprint, and we were so proud to take part. Our local bike shop ran the thing. It was small, first year and all, casual and a lot of fun.

I was terrible in the lake. I’m always terrible in the swim.

Don’t get me wrong, I can swim, I’m not a threat to drown or anything, but I’m not a distance swimmer. Lately I’ve been getting advice from a very patient coach. And it probably helped for about 100 meters. It all comes down to breathing and how I tend to not do that.

You know, while riding or running, if you don’t breathe you just stop moving or remind yourself about the in-and-out nature of respiration or, at worst, black out. In the water, when the body realizes the lungs aren’t breathing correctly the lizard part of your brain tends to take over. At that point, my swim is basically over. So, I’m terrible in the swim.

Apparently, though, I was third on the bike course. (I do not know what is happening.) I’ve been riding pretty well lately, but that is a surprising result, if the times were accurate. The route was basically my home roads, though, so that’s probably part of it.

I would pass the occasional person, give them the “Good job!” and warn them of a pothole just ahead. That’s probably annoying in retrospect.

Didn’t have a very good run. I’ve only run that route once before, last weekend, and didn’t think it was too hard. Foolishly, I forgot to add in the bike and swim exertion in that one trial run. But that bad run up the mountain let me meet a guy who said he was just two weeks from knee surgery. He’s racing next weekend, too. Make sure you tell the surgeon about this, I said, impressed.

“Yeah, doc, let’s get this thing fixed. By the way, I’ve run in two sprint triathlons the last two weekends.”

On the way down the mountain I ran into a guy who was here just to measure himself for an upcoming Olympic distance race he’s going to do. Don’t think he was too pleased, so I spent the last quarter mile of our run trying to convince him that this will scale up well.

Now this one, she had a great race. She’s clearly in mid-season form, having finished just outside the podium:

Later, trying on my sweet new tri shirt:

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29
Mar 15

Super-sprint triathlon

The local bike shop — and a host of others, but let’s just say the bike shop guys because they made it go and that’s how we got involved — held a weekend of triathlons. Yesterday was a kid’s triathlon of varying distances based on age.

Today was a super sprint triathlon, a short distance race. The idea was that it would be a good race for people interested in trying a triathlon for the first time or for people getting a start on their tri season.

The distances were a 400-meter swim, an 11-mile ride and a two-mile run. Since I don’t sprint, and since I’m not super, I did not race. We did, however volunteer. It was cold and it is March, but the swim was indoors:

Not a bad day when you get to swim beneath all of those banners in the same pool where champions and All-Americans and Olympians have kicked and stroked.

I’ve never volunteered at a triathlon. I got four jobs. I made a few announcements over a PA system. I collected towels, because the race organizers offered them for the cool temperatures. I had pointed runners to the proper exit out of the transition area after their bike ride and I watched for cars near the end of the race.

Also, I got to watch a lot of great athletes, including our friend Victoria, who was one of those first time triathletes. It was a lot of great fun. We got to be outside for the nicer part of the day and I didn’t have to do anything more than stand and talk in a loud voice.

So, naturally, I took a nap.

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9
Mar 15

The only thing wrong with this post is the headline

You can tell people all of the reasons they shouldn’t take pictures of signs, and there are plenty of good reasons, but still, when the classics come back to life, you can’t help yourself:

The story:

After nearly a decade of its pumps sitting idle, fuel is again flowing at the former Saco gas station at the corner of Dean Road and Opelika Road in Auburn.

Auburn resident Mike Woodham turned the station’s original lights back on at the Saco gas station Monday as he reopened it as Woodham’s Full Service—a gas station offering full or self serve fuel service, a full-service tire shop, oil changes and more.

“The City of Auburn has been very gracious to my kids and very good to me, and we wanted to give something back,” said Woodham, who owned Woodham’s Tire in Montgomery and has been in the auto business for 30 years. “We wanted to serve back. And the best way that we know of is what we bring to market with our tire knowledge.”

Known for its iconic Saco sign, the previous gas station closed more than nine years ago after then-owner Dick Salmon was shot and killed at the business in July 2005. According to an Associated Press article as reported by The Decatur Daily on July 24, 2005, Salmon had worked at the family-run business for 43 years.

And the store:

Not a lot has changed, and that seems to be the plan, and that’s great.

Breakfast at Barbecue House this morning, which meant I could skip lunch. Read students’ news stories all morning and afternoon, and that is always fun, right up until I imagine then trying to read my marginalia. And then there was class, where we talked about profiles and obits and got ready to point to exciting digital methods of story telling, which will last us through the rest of the week.

There were other office things, a late dinner and here we are.

Things to read … because here we are.

I’m keeping it to three, but these are three incredible Selma pieces to read. Because they are better than the headlines, I will link you with a good quote for each:

I thought I saw death. I thought I was going to die. — Rep. John Lewis

The world doesn’t know this happened because you didn’t photograph it … it is so much more important for you to take a picture of us getting beaten up than for you to be another person joining in the fray. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Not even the National Guard wanted to go through Selma — Dr. Bernard LaFayette

And now for another kind of fortitude, this is a strong testament of health, strength, and mind over chemo, Finding strength in triathlons:

It was debilitating. “I was 10 days away from doing my eighth Ironman,” Hackett says. “I was still training 100 percent and I had this huge, stage four tumour going.” His youngest daughter was just two weeks old. His oldest was five years old.

[…]

Hackett is on an aggressive form of chemotherapy, a regimen called FOLIRI, whose name represents three different drugs. His oncologist, Dr. Michael Sawyer, combines the regimen with a relatively new drug called bevacizumab that attacks the growth of new blood vessels. Hackett tolerates it well. “He told me he biked 20 or 30 kilometres the day before I saw him,” Sawyer says. He also ran a five-kilometre race just four hours after he finished his first round of chemotherapy.
The exercise might have something to do with it. “There are many studies, both in curative chemotherapy (to remove cancer completely) and chemotherapy to prolong people’s lives, where it appears that people who exercise do better than people who do not,” says Sawyer.

So we’ll all be at the gym a bit longer tomorrow, no?

Here are a few media links:

How four top publishers use Facebook for video

Testing out Meerkat: the app that brings live streaming to Twitter

What does the Twitter live streaming app Meerkat actually do?

You Won’t Understand The Potential of Snapchat Until You See This

And, finally, we’ll end with some music today. If you’re still looking for something to hate Tom Hanks in, keep looking because this probably isn’t that thing either:

Have a great and purposeful week. See ya tomorrow!