"Feed The Need" Spring Century Charity Ride

Wisconsin's Panther Cycling Club is sponsoring the Feed The Need Spring Century Charity Ride on April 17th, 2010, at Blackhawk Lake Recreational Area near Highland, WI.

The ride helps support the Food Banks of Southwest Wisconsin through Second harvest and the SWCAP program. Monies raised will go to help support the banks depleted from the great need over the winter months. At the same time it welcomes in the new year of cycling with routes for all ages and abilities.

I don't know the route that well, but the ride takes place in the same general area as the Ironman Wisconsin bike route, so look for at least a few fun hills.

Sign up here at Active.com.

It's Snowing and I'm Wearing Shorts

If other folk's glances and facial expressions mean anything, wearing shorts while running in 30 degree temps pegs you as 'kooky.'

Hey, I'm not a kook. Probably. I just have full-boil metabolism. And my closet is so disorganized I can't find my long running pants. Besides, why should the college kids I teach have all the fun?

"Journeys Of A Triathlete Father Of Five."

Welcome to Mark, blogging at "Journeys Of A Triathlete Father Of Five" Otherwise known as "One man's insane attempt to raise a family, compose music, train for triathlons and stay married."

Yep, that says it all.

February 2010 Shout-Outs

Welcome to February, 2010! Give some love to good folk doing good work...

• Age-Related Macular Degeneration / Low Vision Awareness Month
• National Children’s Dental Health Month
• National Condom Month (no pun intended...)
• American Heart Month (pun intended...)
• Kids ENT Health Month
• National Wise Health Care Consumer Month (aren't we all? Well, no.)
• National Women’s Heart Health Fairs
  
  
• National Patient Recognition Week (February 1 – 7)
• PeriAnesthesia Nurses Awareness Week (February 1 – 7)
• Burn Awareness Week (February 7 – 13)
• Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week (February 7 – 14)
• National Cardiac Rehabilitation Week (February 14 – 20)
• Cardiovascular Professionals Week (February 14 – 20)
• National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (February 21 – 27)
  
• National Wear Red Day (February 5)
  
• World Day of the Sick (February 11)

(Thanks to the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) for the list.)

Triathlon Running Form: It's Hard To Say 'Goodbye.'

As the post below indicates, winter isn't the best time to work on running form. Icy roads put a premium on remaining slip-free and vertical which, for me, means shuffling along like an arthritic old geezer.

And this being the outer limits of The Great Suburban Outback, there are no salted sidewalks and few salted roads. You may find sand sprinkled on a treacherous intersection or a challenging hill, but it accomplishes little more than mimicking dog excrement when wet and a Sahara sandstorm when dry.

Thankfully, it's been a while since CoachKaryn quizzed me about my running. Unless one of you ratted me out, she's unaware that I've said a temporary "so long" to "proud form."

Goodbye to that slight forward lean from the waist up (because where your upper body points, your legs are sure to follow.)

Adios to 21 right foot falls in 15 seconds (because, like biking, running benefits from a quick tempo.)

Sayonara to leading with the arms, driving my hands forward with every stride (because it's hard to run slow when your arms are moving fast)

Au Revoir to opening up my shoulders (because as your shoulders go, so goes your lung capacity.)

Arrivederci to mid and front foot strikes (because, though less risky on slippery surfaces, every heel strike slows you down.)

It's pure survival. Living to fight, run, train and race another day.

I tell myself I'm not an old geezer but, form-wise, that's an increasingly hard argument to make as this wretched winter drags on. Spring better come soon or I'll have disremembered everything CoachKaryn taught me, though I guess some aerobic capacity is better than none.

Maybe a better option would be to create a cross-country ski trail around the perimeter of the field across the street. It'd be a mile, maybe more, with some nice up and down gradients.

Cats Rule! Watch the Video...

cat vs. bear @ Yahoo! Video

Water Skiing In the WInter

Thanks to what happens when a really cranky Mother Nature meets a really stupid dog, my runs with Camden the Wonder Dog have turned into painfully slow attempts at injury-avoidance. Most of our snow melted last weekend, leaving behind a nice, icy sheen on the roads. And of course we've now had MORE snow to hide the ice.

Thus I resemble more water skier than runner as CtWD tows me hither and yon, back and forth across the road from a pile of deer scat to some disgusting frozen road kill. Tomorrow I'm adopting a new strategy. I'll take him out for a 2 mile warm-up walk/run, then stash his furry ass in the kitchen as I go back out for the main event.

He won't be happy but he's gonna like it even less if I fall and break a wrist.

Free Speech For Me and Thee and Thee

I'm an absolutist when it comes to free speech. The First Amendment says "Congress shall make NO laws..." It DOESN'T say "Congress shall make no laws...EXCEPT those laws that are anti-corporate, incumbent-protecting and election-controlling."

To me, in the absence of some clear and present danger (shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater, for example) NO law means NO law. Back off my message, bucko.

And so I was greatly cheered yesterday when the Supreme Court blasted a huge hole through the so-called McCain-Feingold campaign law banning corporations and labor unions from paying for “electioneering communications,” such as movies, newspaper ads, and the like, that support or oppose candidates.

I'll never understand McCain's willingness to lend his name to such obviously unconstitutional claptrap. It's bizarre that he ever thought such lunacy was constitutional. It's downright scary that 4 Supreme Court justices agree with him.

The antidote to speech you DISAGREE with is speech you AGREE with, not prohibitive laws stifling opinions. And with the rise of social media and networking, the ability of deep-pocketed organizations to "buy" elections with huge media budgets lessens by the day.

Pornographers enjoy near-total First Amendment protection, yet under McCain-Feingold the Sierra Club couldn't argue against, say, deforestation within 30 days of an election if one side or the other challenged the message as electioneering.

Yes, the marketplace of ideas can be rough-and-tumble. Yes, illogical arguments are raised, disturbed opinions voiced and disagreeable conclusions reached. The antidote to all of that is NOT to close the marketplace, but to admit that we've raised a generation of ninnies and nitwits, where uncomfortable arguments hurt "self-esteem" and challenging words represent grounds for legal action, not rhetorical testing.

Admit it, and do something about it.

I remember some Chicago-area Italian-American parents seeking a court order prohibiting a high school drama club from performing a play portraying SOME Italians as gangsters. What message does that send? Are we really THAT thin-skinned? The parents' time might have been better-spent putting on their own play portraying Italians as artists, inventors, writers and philosophers.

Of course that would have meant actually learning something about Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Boccaccio and Machiavelli. Why do that, why engage in the marketplace of ideas when all you REALLY need to know is your damn lawyer's phone number?

The Golden Globes

Apparently I missed another Hollywood wankfest last night. I always thought "Golden Globes" was just slang for some starlet's cleavage. But a smug, preening, self-referential award show full of narcissistic twits? Who knew?

I mighta watched if I'd known MC Ricky Gervais would take a few well-aimed shots at "Sir" Paul McCartney's divorce-inspired thrift.

Walk and Talk. Just Not At The Same Time!

"On the day of the collision last month, visibility was good. The sidewalk was not under repair. As she walked, Tiffany Briggs, 25, was talking to her grandmother on her cellphone, lost in conversation.

"Very lost.

“I ran into a truck,” Ms. Briggs said.

"It was parked in a driveway."

Now I've got something else to worry about when out on my bike: distracted, cell-phone yakking WALKERS. (from the NY Times.)

One Person's 'Activist' Is Another Person's 'Nag.'

We live in a wacky world, don't we? According to yesterday's Wall Street Journal, while west coast activists lobby for LOOSER restrictions on marijuana, an east coast mayor lobbies for TIGHTER restrictions on food-borne sodium.

So, more pot, less salt. Really? REALLY? Tell me I'm not alone here in noticing a bizarre symmetry.

Apparently, the Woodstock generation finally matured...into hypertensive, glaucoma-ridden loudmouths with too much power (east coast) and time (west coast) on their hands.

Doctor in L.A. road rage case gets prison time for assaulting cyclists.

Systemic Failures and The Spinning Thereof

So da Chicago Bears fired a few coordinators and position coaches. Now I'm watching a White House press conference re: airline security and how completely "on top of it" they are, determined to now "connect the dots."

Umm-hmm. As organizations, da Bears and da Feds have more in common than you might think, proving yet again that press conferences require a minimum of 6 people answering questions to come up with 4 working brain cells between them. Idiots.

Unlike the Feds, at least da Bears fired someone, though in typically Bearsian fashion, those getting axed are the flunkies charged with carrying out orders from dumbasses higher up the food chain. Thus far, said dumbasses have avoided any and all blame, having paid close attention at the Janet Napolitano School of Public Policy and Tactical Blame Avoidance, apparently.

At any moment I expect to hear from the Titanic's captain about that deck chair arrangement.

Uh-Oh! Look Who Visited Life Is A Tri!

Central Intelligence Agency (198.81.129.194) [Label IP Address]

Reston, Virginia, United States, 0 returning visits

Date	Time	Type	WebPage
4th January 2010	10:44:48	Page View	No referring link lifeisatri.blogspot.com/

Maybe they read this post about a recent flying experience.

I'll Stop When You Do

Interesting how "Dubya" Bush was deemed responsible for everything from global warming to jock itch, yet, now that The Messiah's ascended to the throne, his ass-kissers plead for an end to "The Blame Game." Yeah right. I just spent 8 years learning the game's rules.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

...but the sun in Dallas is so delightful! Great run today in sunny, 50 degree Dallas.

Meanwhile, 2 ft of snow is dumping all over the Great Suburban Outback. I've heard snowshoeing is aerobic. I may need 'em just to get in my driveway.

Say! There Are Bubbles From That Hole In The Ice!

Well, the lake iced over last night. So I can't take Camden the Freakin' Wonder Dog in the back yard any more, at least not until spring. He's sufficiently stupid to run down the hill, across the dock and onto the ice where he'd frolic and play...until the ice gave way and he found himself swimming in water only a miniscule degree above absolute zero.

And, heartless bastard that I am, I'd feel absolutely no compunction to rescue the IQ-challenged hound from his own folly. So to avoid y'all laying a huge guilt trip on me, I'm doing the next best thing and banning his sorry ass from the back yard until one of the following events happens: summer arrives, the ice melts, he grows some semblance of a doggie IQ, global warming becomes a fact, or The Goracle volunteers to serve as CtWD's own personal lifeguard.

If he's right about global warming it shouldn't be a very time consuming job.

"20 Great Reasons To Do A Triathlon"

From the book "Triathlon Training" by Eric Harr, via Men's Health Magazine, here are "20 Great Reasons To Do A Triathlon."

• You will lose weight.
• You will look and feel years younger.
• You will have more energy.
• You will get more out of your workouts.
• You will injury-proof your body.
• You will improve your health.
• You will live longer.
• You will be more productive.
• You will learn to handle stress more effectively.
• You will build rock-solid self-confidence.
• Your mood will improve.
• Your motivation to exercise will soar.
• You will learn to strengthen your weaknesses.
• You get to rub shoulders with the best athletes in the world.
• You will join the fitness elite.
• You will have an increased sense of purpose in your life.
• You will become the best that you can be.
• You will be a hero to your kids.
• You will motivate and inspire those around you.
• You will set other positive things in motion - things you never imagined.

I think that's 20. I didn't count 'em. But I'll add one more: you will make lots of new friends in the world's coolest sport.

Sunday Triathlon Mashup

Avoiding injury, from the NY Times:

"One lesson — that less is more — has come through loud and clear. At the coaching certification clinics run by USA Triathlon, instructors drive home the point that while there are benefits to doing 10 to 12 workouts a week, maybe triathletes don’t need to run as far some days, that a day off is more than good for the soul, and that putting more time on the bike and in the pool can make up for one day fewer spent running."

"Athletic greediness" is how Paula Newby-Fraser describes triathletes' tendency to overtrain. Good term for it.

And here's a possible addition to my 2010 calendar: the Iron Star Triathlon, November 7, 2010, in Conroe, TX. A half-IM distance race, it's an easy drive from my winter training headquarters.

Campbell Brown Interviews Lance Armstrong

CNN's Campbell Brown gets "Up Close and Personal" with Lance Armstrong.