Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Category: Doing (Page 25 of 28)

Awesome Bike Route Close To Home

July 7, 2010 / / 0 Comments

One of the things I miss about living in East Tennessee is being able to ride my bike on nice country roads. I don’t miss the dogs tearing through yards when they see me coming, and I don’t miss having people honk and yell, “Git off tha roawd!!!” either. But hilly, curvy country roads are definitely a plus of living in Knoxville.

On the flip side, one of the really nice things about living in a small town in Florida is that you can leave right out of the house and go on long flat rides. Safely. Yeah, no hills means no chance to get stronger going up hills, but it also means there’s no opportunity for rest coming down hills. The result is a long, steady pedal in aero position. Besides, you can always go do intervals on a causeway or hit a spin class if you really want hills.

I’ve been riding loops in a nice safe residential area, but it was getting kind of boring. So last night I jumped on to MapMyRide to see if there were any rides near my house that locals have posted. I found a course that passes right by my house and picks up a nice country road about 3 miles away from home. I checked it out with streetview on Google Maps, and I couldn’t wait to get out there this morning.

It didn’t disappoint.

No hills, but it’s pretty nice when you have to keep refocusing on your ride because you’re constantly on the lookout for dolphins instead of cars. The one caveat is that I had to jump out onto US-1 for about a half a mile–traffic’s not too bad at 6:20 am, but a little more traffic on the way back at 7:30. I ended up doing two loops of Rockledge Drive this morning, only passing two cars on my first loop and maybe 6 or 7 on the second. Love riding a course where the number of cars is tripled by the number of runners and cyclists. Even better when your bike speed is the speed limit! I shot this video at 20 mph as the sun was coming up.

Ok, not the greatest video because I have a Hero and not an EVO (HD), but I shot it while my CardioTrainer app and mSpot were both running. That’s right iPhone<4 owners…I been could do that!

Needless to say, my new favorite ride.

Best While-You-Work Television Ever

July 4, 2010 / / 0 Comments

If you have multiple monitors, there’s nothing better than throwing the live coverage of the Tour de France onto one of the screens to listen to the race in the mornings and glance over to see what the announcers are talking about when you hear excitement in their voices. This is the only televised sporting event I really care about watching (or listening to) live.

I don’t care if they are on steroids, HGH, doped blood, meth, or monkey dung. They still have to get on those bikes and ride them a long way up some steep mountains. And since everyone is cheating anyway, the playing field is level, right?

It’s going to be nice to listen to something besides talk radio and Texas country music for a couple of weeks.

Here’s the stage schedule.

UPDATE:

Those  greedy fat cats over at Versus are charging to follow the tour online this year. How dare they try to make a profit on an event held in a socialist democracy! The Tour belongs to the people and accounts of it may not be produced without the express written consent of the NFL and commissioner Pete Rozell.

What Is Your Swim Goal?

July 1, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The plan for today’s swim was to warmup with a 300sw/100kick/100sw. Then some sprints, 4×200, and a 200 swim down. The warmup was so atrocious that I changed my plan–technique was all over the place and I felt like I was kicking to stand still on the kick part of the warmup. Instead of the 4×200 I decided to do a straight 800 and try to find an even stride. I sort of zoned out for the whole middle portion of the swim, so I guess it worked.

Patience.

When I finished my 800 and was checking my HR, the lifeguard at the pool asked me, “What’s your swim goal?” He was asking because he noticed my soft kick off the side at the end of each length, and once I told him I was training for open water tris he understood why I was taking it easy on the turns. But still, it was a good question, and it gave me some things to think about and focus on during my swim down.

What are my goals, really?

  • keep my heart rate at 120-130 during the race
  • find someone to draft as much as possible
  • make it through the swim with as few strokes possible (stay on course)

Ultimately, I would like to duplicate my best in-race swim ever if possible. The only thing I really remember about that swim was getting out of the water with a huge smile on my face and thinking, “This is really going to happen!”

Some Stuff About Swimming

June 29, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Swimming Bear

I’d originally planned to do an Olympic distance triathlon locally in October, but I had a schedule conflict and decided to do one in August instead. But the idea of traveling 3 hours to race didn’t seem like a good idea, so I decided to do one a little closer to home in September. I liked that decision since I’d missed a two weeks of training due to illness and traveling. Then my schedule conflict for the October race went away, so I switched back to that one, which put me ahead of my training schedule.

So I decided to step back to the correct point in the schedule, which made my training distances shorter again. Not really a big deal for running and cycling (I’m just better rested), but I can already tell a huge difference in the swim, which is what I really wanted to concentrate on this season.

My longest swim session before stepping back was 2250 yards, and it involved a lot of kick drills. I suck at kicking, and it made the swim sessions long and brutal. But I think it made me noticeably faster. The last two days’ workouts have only been 1000 yards total. Yesterday’s workout featured a 500 yard sprint, and I swam my best 500 ever. I mean, yeah, it’s still really slow, but it’s my best one by almost 20 seconds. Today’s workout had 5×100 with 15″ rest between. I was a little bit faster than normal on the 100s, but the real noticeable change here was the consistency. I only lost 2 seconds between my first 100 and my last 100.

Also, I’ve (finally) realized that the purpose of doing sprints in the swim is to raise your individual expectations of what “taking it easy” means. I’ve never gotten that before in the swim because I’ve always jumped into the pool and just did full distance at a slow and steady speed. I’m hoping this pays off in October!

Photo Credit

mSpot Is Your Music In the Cloud

June 28, 2010 / / 0 Comments

And by “your” music, of course I mean music you ripped from CDs that you own or downloaded legally online. Also, the files have to be unencrypted.

Click over to mSpot to sign up and upload your music.

Oh, and you need an Android device to use the mobile version of the service. 🙂

The free version includes 2Gb of storage. Can’t wait until Google comes out with their own version of this service.

HT Gizmodo

Rugby As A Positive For At-Risk Girls

June 23, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Don’t be surprised if you see more stuff like this as school administrators realize that rugby is not only a very affordable sport to promote in comparison with other sports, but it’s also relatively safe and full of positive life lessons:

“There’s a new attitude in the house,” Del Valle said. “The girls are taking ownership. Rugby promotes character, trust, loyalty and honor. You represent your program on and off the pitch.

HT: ScrumhalfConnection and RugbyBuzz

KFC May Do Chicken Right, But…

June 1, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Chick-fil-A does marketing right.

Thanks to a heads up from CouponKatie, we were treated to a sneak preview of Chik-Fil-A’s new spicy chicken sandwich for lunch yesterday, a week before they plan to make it available on the menu. Ok, that’s great. But they did a great job of marketing this new product. So despite being delicious (it was), they’ve also created a buzz:

  • The restaurant had special tables set up (with place settings) for those who had made “reservations” to try the new sandwich. There was also a hostess to take you to your seat and bring you your food. We heard at least two other parties ask our hostess what it was all about–a perfect opportunity for her to tell them all about the new spicy chicken sandwich and that it was not available yet. Manufactured scarcity and creation of a group/tribe!
  • Every time an order for a spicy chicken sandwich was ready, someone behind the counter would shout, “Spicy chicken sandwich for (whoever)!” There’s no telling how many people stood in line between the hours of 11:00 and 14:00 yesterday who wished they could also order a spicy chicken sandwich, if only they were special enough.
  • Our sandwiches were “upgraded for free” with cheddar jack cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce. I’m sure all of these will not come on the stock sandwich once it’s on the menu, but after you’ve had a “deluxe”, are you really willing to go back? Remember, Elaine had never sat in first class before, but Jerry had. He couldn’t go back to coach, but she could.

So props to Chik-fil-A for creating a good product–it really was good. But what a great marketing job. I hope more companies become savvy to these type tactics. It’s in their best interest, and people with reservations love that kind of treatment. They sometimes even write complimentary blog posts about these experiences–more free marketing!

Even A Monkey Could Cook This Meal

May 30, 2010 / / 0 Comments

RecipeChimp is a great idea–give it the ingredients you have available and it will give you back a recipe you can make with those ingrediets. But there’s a catch…

If you were too lazy to go to the store and buy food, you are probably too lazy to type in a bunch of ingredients into your laptop.

It’d be even better if there were an iPhone Android app that let you stand right there in the pantry/fridge and scan the barcodes of the stuff you have.

I will give a shiny quarter to the first person who can point out what is so misleading about the title of this post.

I’m The Mayor Of Snoozville

May 29, 2010 / / 0 Comments

But I may have some competition soon, because Foursquare is on the fast road to becoming the most boring, why-do-I-need-this app around. Ditto for every other location based check in app.

However, I have some ideas that would make these apps way better. I only do solution formulation, not implementation…

1) Allow custom groups

Example: The guys on my rugby team could start a group that allows people to check in to training sessions and matches at the different venues we use. You could even give bonus points for making both weekly training sessions, the match, and the after match social. Tie start times in as well. This would encourage people to not only show up to get their coveted attendance badge, but also to show up on time (big issue with rugby players).

2) Allow people to throw their support behind a mayoral candidate

Example: Let’s say I go to the gym four days a week, but I can’t oust the mayor of the local YMCA because he goes 11 times, five of those being just to shower before work in the morning so he doesn’t have to use his own hot water. It would be cool if I could rally The Missus and a workout partner to throw 1/2 of their check in points towards my campaign. This would encourage people who go to the same venues often to socialize with other people who attend a lot. It would also encourage competing factions, branded t-shirts, and eventually a #4sq civil war.

3) Custom badges

It’s 2010, and there still isn’t a “Mayor of Your Mom” badge. Where are our priorities? Put the community to work building new badges and throw them out on a badge marketplace. Let the usage of the users (they could give negative karma to a badge they don’t like/want) decide which badge getting missions are worthy of surviving.

Clean The Gulf Now!

May 28, 2010 / / 1 Comment

My friend Jen is a native of the Gulf Coast and was directly involved in mobilizing medical care for people affected by Hurricane Katrina. She’s now spearheading an enormous effort to mobilize individuals to participate in getting the Gulf Coast cleaned up…now!

This is a completely grassroots effort to do something besides waiting on big government bureaucracies or relying on BP to take action by using toxic materials.

There’s a website with more information on possible solutions that can be implemented and information on how you can donate to help purchase non-toxic materials to rapidly devour the oil and turn it into dirt while compensating local fishermen, charter captains, etc. to disperse the cleanup materials.

In addition to donating, please post this on your blog, tweet it, buzz it, Facebook it–whatever it takes to get the word out, especially to those who live on the Gulf Coast and have boots on the ground.

Here’s the email I received from Jen:

Dear Friends,

It’s Friday on Memorial Day Weekend. How hard will the Oil Spill weigh on your mind this weekend? Do something before you leave today!! And share this message with everyone you know, encouraging them to get involved and give – today!

Like the rest of my friends and family on the coast, I’ve never been one to sit and wait for anyone to take care of me. The problem in the wake of the BP oil catastrophe in our Gulf of Mexico, is that no one knows really how to “take care of this”. That stops now. I’m done watching in horror as BP makes a bad situation worse with the toxic dispersant Corexit, destroying and forever altering life as we know, life as the delicate sea creatures in the Gulf know it. And I’m done watching the government, USCG and local officials do their dance around BP, talking a good game but accomplishing very little. I’m done watching images of the marshes and wetlands die, and doing nothing about it.

You can join me. You must join me. This morning my team launched: http://cleanthegulfnow.org/ which is a site dedicated to educating the public with the truth about the oil spill and behind the scenes information BP doesn’t want us to know. We are issuing a call to action to contact your local representative to demand BP stop using Corexit immediately, demand they start buying products we already know work (like the Aabaco product described on the site), and demand that the USCG step aside and allow access for all citizens (including and especially the press) to the damaged site to document and tell us all the truth about the extent of damage.

Finally, and most importantly, we are collecting donations to purchase these nontoxic remedies ourselves and will utilize local, out of work fisherman and charter captains to put the product out along affected coastline. Aabaco can produce product at a daily rate that will cost $150,000 each day to buy all they have. Add shipping and compensation for the fishermen who will be dispersing and my goal is to raise a minimum $500,000/day. Any excess will be used to purchase new products we learn about which are safe and nontoxic as well. Information can be found on the site above. The sooner we start collecting the sooner we can start placing orders and using the product. Our goal is to deploy product JUNE 5.

Please – get involved. We need help on this in multiple ways. The $500,000/day goal is ambitious, but I know we can do it. Call your contacts at gulf coast businesses who are impacted. Call everyone you know. Send this email to everyone you know. If people gave at a rate of $100 each day, we’d only need 5,000 people donating. I know there are FAR more people across our country who would jump at the chance to donate to a cause that went directly to cleaning up the coast.

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cleanthegulfnow

Finally – share your ideas, questions and thoughts with us. We need you all. Together we are better.

Remember the words of Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Thank you all!

Jen

Loss of a Teammate

May 19, 2010 / / 0 Comments

"I live in a world without corners" --Ian Loope (1987-2010)

I got the horrible news that a former rugby teammate of mine passed away. I knew it would happen at some point in time, but Ian was only 23 years old, so this was a huge surprise. He was a physically gifted player who was also lucky enough to have a mental aptitude for the game. He had an unbelievable amount of grit and fortitude as well. Ian started playing men’s club rugby at the age of 18, and I can’t remember him ever backing down for a second against more experienced and physically mature players. He was called on by our club very early on to contribute on the field in some very tough situations, and he always delivered.

And off the field…well, there has never been and there never will be another “Colonel Kurtz”. Two things were guaranteed when you talked to him: (1) you were going to laugh, and (2) you were going to learn something. He earned the nickname Colonel Kurtz on one of the first road trips he took with the club. After rumbling for an 80 meter try, single handedly demolishing the defense of one of our most bitter rivals, Ian spent the hours following the match waxing philosophical on subjects far beyond the comprehension of most of his audience.

But man, was it entertaining.

Guys like Ian personify the list of reasons I play rugby. His passing is a reminder to ruck the ones you love every chance you get.

Ian Loope–P4L+.

Finally Got the HTC Hero 2.1 Update! Here’s a How To

May 18, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Ok, so it wasn’t the “official” official release, apparently just the leaked official release. But the update went smoothly, and the phone is insanely faster and better than it was before. I found this video guide that shows how to install by downloading the executable to your PC and running it with your phone attached to USB–no need to root your phone to run this update if that’s something that worries you.

The update takes a few minutes to run, and mine was a cinch. Here’s a link to the executable update file that’s referenced in the video.

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