Doing More With Less Since 1972
GoogleReaderpocalypse. For Real This Time. – TechCrunch – Boo. Hiss. I read this article in google reader.
Why Microsoft Is Like The GOP – I thought the point of this article was going to that most of the people who use (vote for) Microsoft products do so while holding their nose.
Google Now arrives on Chrome! – BAM! Awsum.
Data Crunchers Now the Cool Kids on Campus – Forget statics. It's statistics.
I have some friends coming in to race Rocketman 70.3 with me–one from California, one from Tennessee, and two from North Carolina. Actually, I’ve never met one of the guys from NC, Adam.
Adam is coming down with Dirty Matt. And a friend of Dirty Matt’s is a friend of mine.
Just to stir the pot, I sent out an email asking how everyone’s training was going and where everyone logged/shared their workouts. Obviously, my only intention here was to get some trash talk and good-natured insults started.
Adam was the first to respond. Like just about every other triathlete, he has a blog.
But his blog is different. A lot different.
On October 31st, 2010 my beautiful wife and I became parents for the first time. That’s the day I became Annabelle’s dad. Annabelle was a beautiful, delicate, incredibly tough little girl. She was born with a neural tube defect called anencephaly, cutting her short life to a beautiful 41 minutes.
I had to stop right there the first time I read it. I’ve re-read it several times since, and it gets me every time.
That’s simply unfathomable.
Now Adam races to honor the memory of Annabelle. The charity he supports, Eleonore Rocks, provides rocking chairs to parents of terminally ill children. They aren’t engaged in a multi-year effort to cure anything. They just want to bring a little bit of comfort to families who have limited time with their kids.
Adam isn’t raising money for a free race entry or to win a new bike. His goal is to raise $4,100–$1 for each of Annabelle’s heartbeats he and his wife got to share with her.
Please consider sponsoring “One Minute” to honor Annabelle’s memory–more if you can. Adam is committing hours and hours of blood, sweat, and tears.
I know not everyone has the means to make a contribution. But you can still help:
Today when I was swimming I was thinking about how jealous I am of dolphins. They are so freaking fast.
But then I realized that I’m pretty even with them on the bike and have a slight advantage on the run.
Also, I can DEMOLISH dolphins in transition because of the issues they have with shoes and helmets.
So I think I’d rather be me than a dolphin, all things considered.
Virus Venn Diagram – ahem.
calm.com – May induce rage. Just kidding.
Homeless man held in attempted abduction of jogger at Wickham Park – Eeeek. I run here a lot on my long runs.
Real-Life ‘Fight Club’ AtHigh School? – Um…I don't think we're supposed to be talking about this.
I’m about 9.5 weeks out from Rocketman Florida, and I’m really digging training on feel in lieu of having a strict plan. It’s especially helpful during times like last week when we had family visiting and I missed 3 days of training completely. Not having a schedule meant I could see that coming and load up on some bigger workouts on the days leading up and just consider those off days as rest. Well, walking around Disney parks with 3 kids for a couple of days isn’t exactly like watching a Scrubs marathon, but it still counts as rest for me. But then I got to do some big training right after too.
I’m getting a little better at letting the speed and distance obsessions go as well. For my last few runs and rides, I’ve had absolutely no idea how far I’d be going. All I’ve been focusing on is time spent in Zone 2 and making sure I get the hours in. Speed (at least training speeds) have definitely suffered, but I really am just letting that go. It’s easier when I listen to things like Coach Brett’s podcast on Polarized Training and learn that even pros spend the majority of their time at ridiculously easy paces.
The weird thing is that my volume is actually up compared to last year. I think that’s because I’m actually more enthused about training. I mean…it’s up to me. I train when I feel like it, and I rest when I feel like I need it. It sort of like unschooling for triathletes. Well…except that I have to make sure I stay away from that Zone 3 “fun hard” pace. That sucks, because Zone 3 feels soooooo good. But hopefully I’ll get to race the last 5k of the run there?
But now the intervals have started. I hate intervals. They supposedly make you faster, which makes me like them at little. But I only like them after I’m finished.
Wait…I take that back. I like the first 25 percent of an interval. I like it when I look down at my computer and see I’m moving at a relatively high velocity, then glance at my HRM and notice that I’m barely into Zone 3. Of course, that doesn’t last very long…then the agony of holding high Zone 4 rears its head.
I’ve almost neglected to talk about the swim. I’ve come to realize that I really need to be swimming about 10k a week to get faster. That means it will have to go down in the off-season, which means my hopes of making any really big swim gains probably aren’t going to happen this calendar year. Still, I’m so slow that even small gains are going to be substantial.
We don’t need you any longer. Changing your interface or brand aren’t compelling reasons for us to use your services. They don’t solve a problem, so there’s no need to switch.
People may return to Flickr from Instagram, but that’s because of what Instagram (Facebook) does more than it is because of what Flickr does.
When Google Search screws up, maybe I’ll return to Yahoo.
When Gmail isn’t doing it for me, maybe I’ll return to Hotmail/Outlook.
Until then, what do I get for changing?
Make The Data Center The New Telco – Yammer just announced they are dropping SMS notifications. Maybe a way to hack that back together?
Tumblr Is Not What You Think – Bam. And, as always, what should be general knowledge for months is just now being reported.
10 Classic Books You Read in High School You Should Reread – I only read six of these the first time around. Good to know there's good stuff while I wait for Winds of Winter.
Senselessness of school math – "Life came first. Then we invented math as a way to describe life. Teaching math out of the context of what it's describing is like teaching a foreign grammar and vocabulary without ever hearing or using the language."
Exactly.
****SPOILERS****
Here’s what I don’t get–up until this episode, Frank is 100% aware that we’re watching him and is willing to turn to us and let us know exactly what he’s thinking. He does this with no shame. In fact, he usually seems very proud of himself.
So does he think our magic camera doesn’t work outside of the Beltway? We’re going to accept the revelation that he messed around with one of his best friends in college and he doesn’t feel the need to explain himself to us? That doesn’t seem like something a Congressman from South Carolina would let people know about without at least trying to spin.
Is it that we’re getting to see the true Frank for the first time, so he feels he doesn’t have to explain himself? Seems unlikely. Beltway Frank is who he wants us to see.
I think it would have been much more true to the show for the relationship to be alluded to with a simple gesture or look that we see, even though we weren’t supposed to. Maybe once he’s aware that we’ve seen it he jumps back into Beltway Frank mode to explain what we just saw? Dunno.
This episode was good when focusing on Russo and Claire, but I had to watch episode 9 the same day just to let them get some redemption.
Finally in E9 something that seemed pretty obvious to me from the beginning was realized by the show–there’s absolutely no reason for Zoe to have carnal interest in Frank.
Attracted to his power and prestige? Don’t think so. People that are attracted to that kind of stuff aren’t content to live in apartments like hers.
I can’t do this.
These are happening right in the heart of the time in a program when I get a little bored and take my foot off the gas. Luckily, I’m not using a training plan this time around.
I was travelling last week and have a cold this week, but in between I was able to squeeze in a brick over the weekend–two hours on the bike followed by an hour run. Got in a recovery rid the next day too.
Motivation shouldn’t be a problem though. I have a bunch of friends doing Rocketman. Three of them are guys I’ve known for 20 years, all better athletes than me, and are coming into town just to do the 70.3 and hang out for the weekend. Pissing contest in 3,2,1…
Of course, they say they aren’t training, planning to “just finish”.
Right. That’s exactly the kind of guys they are.
Marc Andreessen On The Future Of Enterprise – Long, but bookmarked to finish reading later! Good stuff here!
The Surprisingly Comfortable Mio Alpha Heart Rate Watch Does Away With Those Pesky Chest Straps – HRM straps don't really bother me much. Until I lose them and have to replace them.
Not a Real Runner? – A bunch of crap! Why would you discourage anyone, especially someone using a valid and very successful method.
How Real Runners Train on Treadmills – Some really good stuff here, especially for people who live in areas with only one geographic feature.
The Demographics of Ingress – Very cool. Interesting stats here…especially the drive to Google +.
You’re supposed to do something every day that scares you, right?
Every day from now to May 5, I’m going to scare the crap out of myself by training for the inaugural Rocketman 70.3 with absolutely no training plan. When I feel like I need to train hard, I will. And when I feel like I need to rest, I will. I’m training purely on feel.
The genesis of this was that every plan I’ve looked at (the free ones anyway) have much lower volumes for swim and run than I’m looking to do in training. I want to show up on race day thinking those distances are short. I don’t want to use the plan as an excuse to be lazy, either. I think I have a tendency to do that, sometimes rationalizing it by thinking, “well, that’s what the training plan says to do.”
So I started off the first couple of weeks of training just throwing my own workouts together, and I kind of like it. In fact, I’ve stopped looking for a program.
I also like being able to stir the pot and mix things up. For instance, last night I just Googled “3000 yard swim workout” and used the first one that came up with a little bit of variation. I like not necessarily knowing what’s coming next.
We’ll see how it goes. I wanted to really shake things up from the past year, starting with a different marathon plan in the fall. Having no plan at all is definitely different. But my run and swim volumes are up from last year, and I’m not bored or exhausted yet.
Having some swim coaching has definitely helped the motivation there because the stroke is changing and I know I’ll need a lot more yards than I’ve every done previously to be able to put that on auto-pilot.
I’m still looking for some gold star non-training plan workouts to throw myself as surprises here and there. Suggestions are welcomed!
Chicks who play a Les Paul: +1
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