I support the right for individuals to own property without having it confiscated by the state and given to another individual, regardless of the sexual orientation of either party. #kelo #doma
Author: Scott (Page 22 of 80)
Memphis Legend Jackie Fargo Dead at 85 – Sad news Pally. #memphis #rasslin
Why Do I Think Better after I Exercise? – I thought it was because it's actually quiet *while* I'm exercising.
The 10 Fittest Cities In America – Would like to see a similar article on the 10 "fightest" cities in America. Real fighting…not gun fighting. Sorry Chicago.
Men Over 40 Should Think Twice Before Running Triathlons – I usually think about triathlon at least twice while making coffee in the morning. I didn't know I could consider that part of my morning training routine, but it's nice to have one more item to check off the list.
We’re big on unschooling. If you aren’t familiar with that concept, let me use a more friendly term. I actually prefer the term “child-led learning”.
“Unschool” sounds like a lot of sleeping late and watching Diego. Wait…maybe that is what we’re doing.
Nah…what actually happens with child-led learning is that you observe what your kids are interested in, then provide them with resources and opportunities to learn more about it. They get to go as far as they want to go with it–maybe they’ll move onto something else in a week or two, or maybe they’ll become passionate about it and do it for the rest of their lives. The general idea is to let them learn about what they want to learn about instead of deciding what you think they should learn and pushing it on them.
Maybe it doesn’t work if you’re dealing with a kid who really hates to learn, but I haven’t met one of those yet. I’ve seen lots of kids who aren’t interested in some of the things they are being forced to learn, and I’ve seen lots of kids who have been convinced that it isn’t cool to learn, but I’ve never met one who didn’t clamor to find out more about something they are interested in.
I don’t know any adults like that either. I’ve seen lots of adults who hated school but are experts on classic cars, gardening, home brewing, photography, fishing, etc. Once we find the things that strike a chord with us, we will go out of our way to learn as much as we can about it.
No force feeding necessary.
What we’re trying to do is nurture that love of learning and provide options from the get-go. What they learn isn’t nearly as important as the process of learning something…and loving it.
Ok…not on an unshcooling soapbox, because that’s not really what this post is about. There’s plenty more information about unschooling out there, and plenty of places to argue about it with other people if you are so inclined.
What I’m actually interested in is how this concept applies to kids’ sports. We were talking last night about how much our 3yo loves to play soccer. The immediate idea (even for us) is to put her on a soccer team. But wait…why? This is completely contrary to her personality. She has absolutely zero interest in being on a team, going to scheduled practices, wearing a uniform, etc. She just loves to go out and kick the ball around the yard with her sisters and neighborhood friends.
So why should we introduce all the things she would hate about playing in an organized program and place limits on the parts she loves?
Instead of hauling her to a practice where she can be told what to do for 45 minutes (and when she has to stop), why not let her play for 15 minutes or an hour and a half the way she likes to play and decide for herself when she wants to stop? I think she’ll end up with more time kicking and running, have more fun, and have the aspects of playing soccer that she loves nurtured. If she’s really into it and decides she wants to compete later on, she’ll let us know. That’s the time to get her into a program. Until then, why not just let her have fun and get better at the same time?
If a love and passion for the game grows, she’ll ask for the structure. She’ll crave it. If she gets structure too soon, that love may never get a chance to grow.
Some people (“people” here means adults, but kids are also people) run just for the heck of it. They don’t use watches, distance, pace, or anything. They just run. Not for a race or any kind of competition. They just love to run. What do you think would happen to their passion for running if you forced them to enter 5ks and placed them on a program with a coach? I mean, most of them could probably be better runners with coaching and a training program, but is that what they want? If so, they’d already be doing that.
I’m not saying organized youth sports are bad. I loved playing organized sports when I was a kid. But I was a different kind of kid than she is. I was really into the competition side of sports, and I wanted that trophy*. But I spent many more hours playing baseball and football in the yard than I did on organized teams. I played in the backyard because I loved baseball and football, and I’m pretty sure the backyard was the place I made my biggest gains, not at practice 2x a week for a few months.
Every kid is different. If we were dealing with our 5yo, who actually doesn’t give a flip about soccer, she’d be all about the team. She enjoys running and loves entering races. She likes running on her own, but entering a race ignites something extra in her. She doesn’t win, but she’s ok with that. She loves the idea of being involved in a big event. If that’s what does it for her that’s great, and we’ll pursue it that way.
Even as unschoolers, I think we can sometimes fall into the trap of putting that approach into a box, labeling it “Education”, and forgetting it can apply to everything else.
*Back then, only the champions got trophies.
Very hot on today’s run. This ain’t no Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Top 5 Triathlon Swimming Problems And What You Can Do About It – Haven't been nervous in any water for a long time, but these are good things to review and always have in the back of your mind.
Winning Manhattan Race Report – Was feeling really good about my 3.5 mile swim coming up. Of course, this put me right back into my place.
Google Hangouts upgrade removes ability to host Google Voice calls on your computer | The Verge – Hard to complain about a free service that's so useful. So I won't.
It's just that, well…
New Study Finds It Is Impossible To Lose Weight – I think I know the guy in the before/after photos.
I’ve been using Trainerroad for two weeks now, so I thought I’d provide an update.
I tell you one thang, Hoss, I tell you one dern thing. And you can write this down…
I fully expect this program to vastly improve my speed/power/endurance/efficiency, but if it doesn’t I’ll at least come out of it mentally tough.
I’m talking about plum mad-dog mean.
At the end of the first week, I did my weekend ride outdoors and a conversational pace. This wasn’t in any way based on the Trainerroad program.
For the second week, I did a 1.5 hour longish ride (Eclipse) on Saturday, and I came out of it feeling like I could chew through leather. If fact, there was so much teeth gritting going on, if I’d leather in my mouth I probably would have chewed through it. There were three 20 minute intervals in the “sweet spot”, which is ~90-100%% of FTP, or the absolute max effort you should be able to maintain for an hour.
Still no puking, but I have a feeling it’s going to happen eventually. The 3×20 minute ride was especially tough because I was barely hanging on at the end of the 2nd interval, and it was scary knowing there was another one coming.
The mid-week rides have not been nearly as tough…yet. The intensity is about the same, but the intervals so far have been shorter.
Next month, I’ll be adding heart rate data and The Sufferfest to the mix. I’m a little scared.
Haven’t done this for a long time. And, well, this isn’t strictly really political because I’m not really picking a side on anything here. At least I don’t think I am. These are mostly just some of my thoughts from recent conversations.
I have some friends who are outraged (their words) over the NSA data collection coming to light. Granted, this is not a good thing. But did anyone think for a second this wasn’t happening? It seems like the outrage really comes from the fact that their veil of plausible deniability has been lifted. This is especially true for those who voted for the current administration once or twice.
Oh, and for those who voted for the previous administration as well.
Yeah, nobody likes it that someone has access to information that wasn’t intended for them. But maybe I should feel a little flattered at the thought that maybe someone is actually paying attention to what I say and think? I mean, I’ve been blogging/twittering for a long time–attention is a pretty hard thing to come by. I mean, unless you tag other people in your photos, good luck distracting them from their own navel gazing.
Ok…I guess I’d rather them not pay attention to me until it is too late. *evil laugh*
If you want to be outraged, be outraged that this information was used to win elections.
You don’t believe that happened? Then be outraged that the people you voted for weren’t even smart enough to use this information to help them win elections. They’d already taken 90% of the public risk just by doing it…may as well take the baby steps with the last 10% to use it to their advantage.
The problem I see is that this NSA thing has taken so much attention away from the IRS thing (and the other scandals too…can’t remember them all). When the IRS is being used to push or hinder a political agenda, we have real problems. And it doesn’t matter whose agenda is being helped or hurt. This is very bad. Yet another reason to scrap the tax code completely.
I bet they wish they’d never tapped the AP phone lines. Because if they hadn’t done that, chances are pretty good we wouldn’t be hearing about the rest of this stuff. That was stupid.
Come to think of it, maybe they really weren’t smart enough to abuse their access to information to sway the elections.
Open Source Tool Moves Spotify Playlists To Google Music Using Unofficial APIs – Dangit the money! You have to have a premium Spotify account to do this. Oh well…maybe an official mover is just around the corner?
5 Tools For Creating Your Own Infographics – I think they are trendy and all…but I still look at them a lot. Great way to get several ideas across in a very convenient format.
Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster than Public School Enrollment – Yeah, but doesn't it worry you that your kid may end up enjoying learning at home instead of hating school at school? LOL
Google Will Soon Launch Google Web Designer – Awsum. There's an app I'd like to build for work. I'm Android, and most of my target audience is iOS. This will make it easy to just do it as a webapp.
Well, I did it without puking. But it was pretty tough!
One thing I really liked about doing my first Trainerroad ride was that they seem to know exactly where you need to be encouraged and flash some helpful instructions on the screen to help get you through those spots without letting up. I’m pretty happy with my effort. The chart below doesn’t have heart rate information…I’ll have to wait until next month to get the Ant+ HR monitor–limited allowance. 🙂 But I averaged ~150 for the 20 minute test portion.
I’m most happy that my effort built throughout the test.
I ended up testing out at 252, which isn’t too bad for a skinny guy. Unfortunately, I’m not a skinny guy. It translates into ~2.8 watts/kg based on my current weight.
The experts over on SlowTwitch (there are lots of them) seem to think the average weekend cycling competitor should be at around 3.1 watts/kg. Interestingly, one of my goals before this test was to increase FTP by 5% in the next few weeks. Another goal was to *ahem* “adjust” my weight over the next few weeks.
252*1.05 = 264.6 watts
190 lbs in kg = 86.18
264.6/86.18 will give me 3.07 watts/kg
I’m about to start training Li’l Kim style–going to turnt it up, if I can make it through the first day.
I was looking into going to a Computrainer class here locally. It’s pricey, but I’ve heard lots of good things about the gains people have made on the bike from going. While I was researching, I started reading about Trainerroad, and it is much more fitting for how I want to train. Not to mention my budget.
Both of these training programs are geared towards increasing power applied to the pedals. The difference is that for Computrainer I’d have to take my bike in to a location and ride on their trainers. Nice, actually, but it’s the getting there and getting back that are a problem for me, not to mention the hours that you’re restricted to.
Again–three small kids I have to train around. That means lots of very early morning and very late nights to get in my hours.
With Trainerroad, I can use my own trainer and just buy a USB Ant+
The best part is the price. Instead of $160 for an 8 week Computrainer class, I can just spend ~$80 for the Ant+ devices and then $10/month for access to Trainerroad. Lots of rides are posted there, and more stuff is being added all the time.
The only catch for me is that I don’t own a trainer. That’s a big “gotcha”. Luckily, one of my neighbors has this really nice 1UP trainer, and loathes riding indoors, so he’s letting me borrow it until I can get my spin bike sold and trade up to a trainer. I was looking at this Kinetic
Get ready for posts. Swim is to Winter 2013 as Bike is to Summer 2013.
The first ride I’ll do is a power threshold test that is supposed to be absolutely murderous. When I recover I’ll post the data.
Student wins science fair with 30-second phone battery charger – More of this please
What Do Unschoolers Do All Day? – I've learned so much about birds and fire ants from my 5yo. Thanks #unskooling!
Wealthy Manhattan moms hire handicapped tour guides to bypass lines at Disney World – NYPOST.com – I don't doubt this for a second. The density of those scooters in the parks is amazing.
In a training funk.
Lots of people say this happens to them after races, and the best thing to do is to put another race out there.
I’ve done that, and I’m 19 weeks away. Plenty of time to train and improve, especially give then base I currently have. I actually don’t think it’s completing a race that does this to me. I think it’s the taper and recovery weeks.
I usually get a mid-schedule slump, which I resolved by simply not having a schedule. But I think the post-race slump for me comes from the loss of momentum during taper and recovery.
I have to get my mo back.
Mental fatigue impairs physical performance in humans – One of the things I've learned from triathlon training. Stress is stress. Traveling makes you tired too…maybe not as tired in the exact same way as a long run, but your body takes the stress regardless. It can't be discounted.
IronMan SwimSmart Initiative – Some great ideas here. Good to see they are coming up with some different ways to keep people safe and comfortable. The rolling start is a cool idea.
Customize the Sharepoint Access Denied Page – People stop reading as soon as they see "Error"
Whataburger spicy ketchup and mustard soon to hit supermarkets – "Whataburger"? Oh…they're talking about "Water-burger".
Love seeing these old films. Then I realize that this is our 1927. We should go out and document people looking at their phones. 🙂
London in 1927 from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.
This is pretty cool…
Looking at the results from Rocketman, I was in 26th place coming off the bike in my age group. I finished 17th in my age group overall.
I passed nine people in my age group during T2+Run. Four of those people were already ahead of me after the swim, and the other five passed me on the bike.
I’m happy about catching 9 people. But I’m happier about this–nobody in my age group passed me on T2+Run. I’m not a tremendous runner or anything. This is just because of having a thought out race plan and sticking to it.
Here’s something more telling that should prove it.
For all males, I picked up 42 spots overall in T2+Run (from 136 to 94).
One guy passed me. I passed 43.
So by holding back on the swim and bike, I put myself in the position to catch a lot of people on the run.
Not that I’m racing anyone…seriously I’m not. But this confirms that holding back on the bike got me my best possible time overall. It’s interesting to look at the run splits compared to bike splits of other athletes. You can totally tell who blew up.
I feel bad for them. I’ve been there, and it’s no fun.
70.3 is a running race. I’m more convinced now than I ever was.