The Whole Nine Yards

The Doper Next Door

2012-02-16T13:28:00.001-08:00

I have been reading “The Doper Next Door” by AndrewTilin. The premise of the book is amiddle aged, father of two, husband, freelance writer and Cat 4 cyclistexperiments with substances restricted by USA cycling. The book is well balanced between performanceand personal effects along this year long journey.

Aside from the performance enhancers, the life of a cat 4cyclist is anything but glamorous. This145 pound 5 foot 8 inch rider trains as much as he can while keeping his familyand work afloat. He travels with friendsto races in order to secure middle of the pack finishes after a gruelingeffort. He has a coach and all thecycling bells and whistles he can afford.

The debate over performance enhancing drugs has gone onforever and will continue to rage for at least the balance of my lifetime. There are numerous restrictions and exemptionsin professional and amateur sports. Thelevel of controls is also significantly different at different tiers of thesport.

I personally have no problem with better living through chemistry. I believe that pain medication, recreationaldrugs, physical performance enhancing drugs and mental performance enhancingdrugs all have a place for those of sound and less than sound health. I also understand that poorly researched andmonitored use of external chemicals can be dangerous short and long term. Addiction and withdrawal are alsoconsiderations.

The author struggles most with the ethical dilemma of beinglabeled a cheater. I get this as oftentimes amateur athletes are a tight community. While all of us know what is right and wrong, there is a large continuumbetween accepting extra change during a transaction at the grocery store andcheating on your spouse. There areprobably more extreme examples, but I sleep just fine if I get a little extrachange at the grocery store, but would have a nervous breakdown if I werehaving an affair. If I were racing andknocked my buddy off the podium, it would probably end our friendship. However, if we were training and I was ableto keep up, I wouldn’t feel bad at all.

As far as health concerns go, I also see a lot of gray. There is difference between marijuana and heroin. There is difference between testosterone andanabolic steroid stacks. There is a differencebetween ephedrine and adderall. There is a difference between ibuprofen andoxycontin.

Ralston Creek Half

2012-02-13T08:41:00.001-08:00

When I got out of bed in the morning, the National WeatherService website claimed that it was 9 degrees. The race would not start for a few hours, but my nerves were already workingovertime. I rarely run outdoors below 32degrees. I am quite content on thetreadmill. Unfortunately about 2 weeksearlier, I decided to pull the trigger and enter an early season half marathon.

I was not and am not well conditioned for a 13.1 mileevent. My last long run was a month agoand was only 6.8 miles. To feel ready, Iwould have liked to have logged a couple of 10 mile runs. However, I naively assumed that I could treat13.1 as a 10 mile training run and just coast in the last 3 miles.

The weather complicated things not only for my lungs, butalso for course support. Water bottleshad ice floating in them, the energy drinks were extremely cold, and even theconsistency of the energy gels more closely resembled caramel than gel. As usual the volunteers and course marshalswere great and kept me in good spirits.

I started to feel like I had over-reached a bit at mile5. I was desperately seeking theturnaround while accepting that I had 8 miles to go and no logical bail-outpoint. If it were a 2 loop course, I wouldhave taken the DNF at the 6 mile mark. The toughest stretch was around miles 6 and 7 where I could get a viewof the race ahead and competitors walking a climb that included multipleswitchbacks. I don’t mind walking, butseeing racers ahead of me succumbing to the elevation gain, made me realizewhat a tough spot I was in.

My legs started to tighten up around the 11 mile mark. I got a bit of a boost as I started to catchsome of the slower runners in the first wave that got a 45 minute headstart. Knowing that those competitorswould be on the course over 3 hours, forced me to toughen up as my 2.5 hourgoal time was still in reach.

I walk-ran the last couple of miles and cruised in at 2:31:41. Which placed me 353/421 starters, 181/193 among men, and 32/35 among men 40-44 years old. I was satisfied with my time, but did not expect to be in the bottom 10% of the field. However, considering the athletes lining up for a half marathon in February in 23 degree weather, I felt a lot better about my race.

Thanks to SkiPix for race photo support.

Masters Swimming

2012-02-09T10:45:00.001-08:00

I do not have a swimming background, but I am a proponent ofMasters Swimming based on my participation since December 2009. Masters swimming is for fitness andcompetitive swimmers over 18 years old. I am at the less experienced end of the spectrum which also includes formerage group, high school, collegiate, national and Olympic swimmers.

During 2010 I slowly got my yardage up and began to learnall four strokes. 2011 was a great yearfor me and in addition to understanding all four strokes, I began to learn flipturns and tried coming off the blocks.

All of my experience has been with one coach and onepool. As a small group there have beenstandard political issues that have been largely over my head. I am not sensitive to water temperature. I also cannot evaluate my coach versus anyother coach.

Recently my coach has resigned from the program sponsored bythe county recreation department. Thisis alarming to some and I have even come to understand that some people joinedthe program just for the coach. Someteam members intend to boycott the program. I enjoyed practice as usual this morning and really just enjoyswimming. Hopefully that doesn’t change.

February Goal – Casino Gaming

2012-02-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

My January goal of financial discipline was not entirelymet. I did review our financial assets,but did not follow up with a household budget. My spending was a little higher than usual on dining out. This was offset by not buying anygadgets. This is expected as Christmashad a huge influx of personal items.

In February the theme is casino gaming. I have two primary concerns. The first is playing 10 hours or less. In January I made 3 trips for a total of 13hours. The second is having less than$100 in play. This is a little tricky asI will often re-buy for another $100 and win some back or lose a little more. Having a hard stop will force me to just comehome early. This is more a function ofwillpower than financial budgeting.

Looking forward to March, the theme will be diet and weightloss. The first tactical item will becounting calories. The second tacticalitem will be to develop a meal plan that limits dining out to once a week. The final tactical item will be to limit foodintake, especially sweets, after 7:00 PM. I think these simple steps could translate to a 1-2 pound weight losswithin 30 days.

2012 Goals

Toy Clutter

2012-02-07T10:51:00.001-08:00

I made a weird observation today. I have mentally been blaming the kids for thehouse being in disarray. In fact, I wentas far as bagging up the toys that were strewn about the house in order to “throwthem away.” It has been 3 days and the toysare still bagged up and the kids don’t seem to mind one bit. Several of the toys were brand new andexciting when received for Christmas.

I rationalized this in two ways. One the kids have too many toys and it is timeto donate toys in good working condition or discard toys in unsafecondition. The other thought is kidswill entertain themselves with as many or as few items as there areavailable. In the absence of electronicdevices they will steer towards crafts and books. In the absence of crafts and books they willsteer towards hide and seek or other pretend games.

Having these rationalizations, I am not sure what the nextstep is. I am leaning towards steeringthem in the “right” direction by organizing and putting toys in storage. They would be brought out as the theme of theweek or month. For example we could pullout all of the puzzles at the same time or all of the board games at onetime. They have not played with playdough in weeks and haven’t asked for it. There are enough storage bins in the house to make this happen quiteeasily.

Poker 2.0

2012-02-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

I have been reading Phil Gordon’s Little Gold Book: Advanced Lessons for Mastering Poker 2.0(PGLGB). During the read, I have been bothimpressed and unnerved. The poker boomstarted about 8 years ago with Chris Moneymaker’s win in the World Series ofPoker main event in 2003. Since thattime, numerous professional card players have come and gone. Some good books have been written and anumber of lousy books have been written. The game has changed from a pastime to an avocation. Internet poker rooms boomed and weresubsequently busted by the department of justice.

I learned to play poker on the kitchen table and I have beenplaying in brick and mortar card rooms since 1992. I am not old enough to have experience with 5 card stud or 5 card draw. During my tenure, the game of choice has gone from 7 card stud,to Texas Hold’em, and now Pot Limit Omaha is the premier game. I dabbled in online poker, but could not wrapmy head around it. That has turned outto be a good thing.

I was impressed by PGLGB as it is well written and veryinsightful, as were the Little Green Book and Little Blue Book. Gordon, like Slansky before him, reallyenjoys poker and can put together a decent read on the topic. Plugging even a single leak in one’s game canresult in substantial earnings over a lifetime. In my own game, I feel that I am too exploitable in my play and I createtough flop and turn situations by playing hands which are easily dominated.

I was unnerved as I feel that the game is passing meby. At times, I stumbled on themath. While I usually think beyond myholdings to what my opponents are holding, I rarely go the next step to how myopponents perceive what I am holding, much less how my opponents perceive whatI perceive them to be holding. Theaggression described in the book is similar to what I see in card rooms. I have not adapted well. I play a steady game with discipline pre-flopand a fit or fold mentality after the flop. This explains why when I have a winning session it is a small win andwhen I have a losing session it is a larger loss.

I don’t expect to be a long term winning player, but I amstarting to feel like a fish. It may betime that I head back to school and evaluate how I can enjoy my hobby by takingmore steps towards improving my game.

Strength Training

2012-02-02T14:50:00.001-08:00

I have felt that strength training is becoming a limiter ofmine in terms of fitness and sports performance. For most of my life, I have strength trainedwith free weights and machines primarily for aesthetics and generalfitness. Any significant improvement wasthe result of being in the weight room at least 4 days/week for an hour. This combined with having core trainingpartners made all the difference for me.

As I have gotten involved in triathlon, my daily workoutsare typically running or swimming. Infact during 2011, I only managed 32 hours of strength training (35-40minutes/week). This is obviously notenough to stimulate muscle hypertrophy.

2012 has started off a little better. I managed 1-3 strength training sessions/weekand the typical duration was 30-40 minutes. Ideally I would manage 3 sessions per week. However to see benefits, most recommendationscall for hitting a muscle group every 3 days. My best bet to do this is either early AM or late PM sessions.

Season Kick-Off

2012-02-01T15:30:00.001-08:00

The Arvada Triathlon Club had their 2012 kick-off meetinglast night and I am getting excited for the season to get underway. My race calendar is mostly running andduathlons. I am shooting for the BoulderPeak Triathlon July 8^th.

I have had a really good off-season so far. I have consistently swam 20,000yards/month. I really picked up thebiking in January by setting up the stationary trainer. Sunday also marked a personal long bike ridefor me. We put in 40 miles which is mylongest ride since I started keeping track in June 2008. Unfortunately running has been in amaintenance phase and I have skipped my Sunday long runs.

I am going to start off the season with a destinationevent. I registered for the GermantownHalf Marathon on March 18^th.

Racing Flats

2012-01-27T09:25:00.001-08:00

I put $80 into my hobbies budget this year so that I couldpick up a pair of race flats. These arerunning shoes that offer an advantage for racing. They are lightweight and the trade-off isincreased injury risk and reduced durability. A rule of thumb is 200 miles on racing flats and 500 miles on standardrunning shoes.

I got so far as narrowing down my purchase to either theSaucony Fastwitch or A4. I was going totry them on and get some advice from my local running store.

Then I read Jeff Gaudette’s article on Competitor.com. To my chagrin he included a table to help youdecide if racing flats are right for you. It is based on your 5K ability. Men who run sub 6 minute miles will benefit from racing flats, duh. Men who run between 6 and 8 minute miles willhave some benefit, but it will decline as you move closer to that 8 minute/milepace. For men like myself who takelonger than 24 minutes to finish a 5K, “there is little benefit to wearingracing flats.”

I should have seen this coming. How can shaving 3 ounces on each shoe reallycompensate for being 240 ounces above racing weight? There may be some mental edge and I cancertainly justify having a pair of racing flats in the closet. I participated in 8 road races last year andeven with training time, a pair of flats should last me two years.

However, I also trained through most of those events as Iwas not competitive overall or in my age group. The increased injury risk would not have been worth moving up from 3088^thin the half marathon to 3058^th.

Kindergarten

2012-01-24T08:49:00.001-08:00

Today is the final day for kindergarten openenrollment. Kindergarten is aninstitution that is most children’s first experience with a structuredenvironment. It is not even required bythe state of Colorado. I could hold thekids out and they could enter first grade at age 6.

For most families, open enrollment means letting the localschool know that you have a child who will be 5 years old before October 1^stand would like to enroll them in Kindergarten. If for some reason you don’t like your local school, you can ask allother public schools in the area if they can accommodate your child. There is no cost to you, excepttransportation back and forth. Busservice is limited to the local school only.

Since Colorado began allowing charter programs in 1993,there is another dynamic. Charterschools have limited enrollment based on class size and will gauge interestevery year and randomly select students to enroll. This exclusivity has created demand exceedingsupply. “If it is hard to get in, itmust be better.” I don’t believe that isthe case. However, I believe the facultyand administration at these schools know they must maintain parity or betterwith local schools to ensure community interest. To that end, I believe charter schools aremore accountable to core learning and ensuring their students are successful inhigh school.

Charters promote their schools as well. They will host meetings to showcase theirschool and faculty. Local schools justgive you the numbers in terms of demographics and CSAP scores. That is not to say that they are worse, butthey are guaranteed funding, whereas charters must manage their budgets morecarefully. The newer charter schoolswill not be in custom buildings, but could be in strip malls, convertedchurches, or other existing dwellings. Several do have cafeterias and gym facilities, but all do not.

The families self select as well. Parents with less time to volunteer or lessinterest in the curriculum the school is following will shy away from charterschools. Families with closer bonds toneighbors will also be more drawn to local schools.

However if you get turned on by understanding what Saxonmath, Shurley grammar, Balanced Literacy and Open Court reading means, thecharter program offers you a wonderful opportunity to fine tune your child’seducation.

Division Championships

2012-01-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend saw the Saints and Broncos eliminated fromSuperbowl contention. Living in Denver,it was tough to watch the game. Thewhole organization overcame a tough season with tough personnel decisions towin the division and get past the Steelers.

Unfortunately the way the game unfolded put a stressor on mymarriage. The game became prettyone-sided in the first half. As a resultwe started flipping through the channels before my wife stopped on the MissAmerica Pageant. Usually this is not aproblem as neither of us are pageant fans. However my wife started to relay the changing “beauty” of the currentcontestants compared to years past.

At this point I should relate the events of themorning. After returning from morningswim practice, I was spending some time with the family. The weather was particularly nice and I wasconsidering going for a bike ride. Itwas so nice in fact that my daughters convinced me to take them to the Apexcenter to go swimming.

The Apex center has a very kid friendly zero entry area andplenty of slides to keep the kids entertained. This particular Saturday the place was packed. If ski clothing is the ultimate equalizer,the kid’s area at the pool is the ultimate differentiator. People come in all shapes and sizes. Childbearing and childrearing takes a toll onfamilies. I am a middle aged man withlove handles and a solid farmer’s tan. I am certainly not turning any heads, nor are95% of the individuals in the kid’s area. It isn’t the Copa.

Some men and women do surprise me. They are incredibly fit and either throughgreat genetics, rigorous training or both. Keeping an eye on two kids under 5 is a full time job. There is very little socializing even for theMoms that come in pairs or trios with a gaggle of kids.

The Broncos game and a morning at the Apex are unlikelyevents that led to the following inappropriate comment upon hearing about theMiss America contestants. “There surewere some hot Mammas at the pool this morning.” While the fallout was trivial, I blame the beautiful Colorado weatherand Brady’s record setting 5 touchdowns for me putting my foot in my mouth.

Coin Collecting/Investing

2012-01-10T13:36:00.001-08:00

Mike Davis had an interesting article in Numismatic Newsregarding the difference between coin collecting and investing. Coin World also recently published their rarecoin index which shows a 4.98% increase in the index.

My own feelings are somewhere in the middle. I typically buy coins that are interesting tome. I also expect price appreciation inthe coins I buy. I don’t weigh theexpected price appreciation of coins versus other potential investments such asstocks, bonds, or commodities. Nor do Iconsider the liquidity of purchases. Mycurrent interest is in capped bust half dollars. I have purchased a few of these coins. I have also limited my purchases to non-mintstate coins which will not appreciate as well as mint state coins.

In terms of portfolio management, my net coin holdings areless than 1% of my financial holdings and an even smaller percentage ofholdings including other real property. Further, I would be hard pressed to pay over a $1000 for a coin, while Iroutinely have stock holdings above that threshold.

However my investing strategy is similar to my collectingstrategy. If I find a companyinteresting, I will look at whether it is publicly traded and then considerwhether it is accurately priced. If itis trading below my expectation, I will often purchase a small stake in thecompany.

Davis’ article also critiques the US Mint, which certainlyis operating very differently today than it has in most of its history. In fact it would cost nearly $23,500 topurchase all issues from the US Mint in 2011. I only purchased 5 issues from the US Mint and that was unusual for meas I found the commemoratives particularly compelling. I agree with several points of the critiqueand will curtail my purchases of proof sets in the future. I will also make a point of getting rolls ofcoins from my bank to bring into circulation and possibly even find collectiblecoins.

Best of 2011

2012-01-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

I have seen several bloggers put together best of lists, soI thought I should generate my own.

Products:

ThermoWorks ThermaPen – This thing is incredible and next tomy knives and pyrex dishes is my most reached for kitchen gadget.
Kindle – I received this for my birthday and while hesitantat first, I love this thing and would read exclusively on it. I get books from the library to savemoney. I would not purchase a book todayexcept for collectibles.
Craft Base Layer – This was a Christmas gift and is by farthe best piece of cycling clothing I own.

Race:

Boulder Stroke & Stride – This race was special as myfamily came out to cheer for me as part of my 40^th birthday. I did OK in the race as well.

Films:

Unknown – Liam Neeson continues to impress me and this hadall of the action and twists and turns that I like in movies.
Limitless – This is just a great story about humanpotential. I saw it in theaters andagain via Netflix.
Moneyball – This is my kind of sports movie with sometheory, good acting and a sports background.

Book:

Cutting for Stone, Verghese – I enjoyed both Verghese booksI read, but this one was just very well written with a great story.

Television:

Sons of Anarchy – FX has done pretty well with televisiondramas and this is no exception. Thestory line has become somewhat convoluted over 4 seasons, but I am willing tostay up late to see this drama unfold.
Reliving the Glory – These Olympic films by Bud Greenspanwere a gem I came across on NBC Universal Sports. I really enjoy sports documentaries such as30 for 30 and other works by ESPN films. I have seen great programs on network television as well. These vignettes gave the back story ofvarious Olympic athletes and then the races unfolded.

Trip:

Las Vegas – My wife and I got to travel to Las Vegas for afew days without the kids. It was themost time we have spent alone together since the kids were born. It was terrific to sleep in and enjoymeals. We even saw a show and did alittle gambling.

Iron War

2012-01-06T09:21:00.001-08:00

I have been reading “Iron War” by Matt Fitzgerald. It has been a very entertaining read despitethe lack of input or review by either Dave Scott or Mark Allen. It has been personally relevant as 1989 wasthe year I completed my first triathlon, the “Bud Light” distance Memphis inMay. In a couple of Ebay searches I evendiscovered that at one point I owned the official race poster (I could buy itback for a mere $29). Even the videocould be had for $18.50 + $3 shipping and handling.

I really enjoy Fitzgerald’s writing. He has enough experience with the sport toput in great side notes regarding triathlon personalities, sports science andthe heart of a triathlete. I met DaveScott at a seminar once in 2009. He wasthen 55 years old and was in incredible shape. I also had the opportunity to meet Mark Allen at a book signing but didnot take advantage of it. A recurringtheme of the book is Scott’s brute force approach to racing, similar to how Prefontainehas been described. Allen, though 4years younger, is presented as a more introspective racer who faced personaldemons and sought edges through a variety of mental and spiritual approaches. I never finished his book “Fit Soul, Fit Body”but as I recall it reinforced Fitzgerald’s presentation.

I may have different insights when I am finished, but so farit has been a great walk down memory lane. It has also reinforced that a person can accomplish great things withthe proper motivation. In the past myathletic endeavors have been sabotaged by poor diet, lack of sleep due to latenights in front of the television or gambling, and poor planning in terms oforganization and training schedule. Thisseason will be different. I have theright family support and situation to dedicate myself to excellence.

All The World's Gold

2012-01-06T07:36:00.000-08:00

From: Number Sleuth

2011 Year-End Totals

2012-01-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

Swim: 131 Miles (113hours, 1.16mph)

Bike: 763 Miles (61hours, 12.5mph)

Run: 563 Miles (104hours, 10:55min/mile)

Weight: 187.0 start,179.5 end, 189.0 high (Jan, Sept), 174.5 low (Nov)

Notes on stats:

Swim: Up 25% from2010, mostly with the Jeffco Aquatic Masters.

Bike: Down 20% from2010

Run: Up 44% from2010. I logged a lot of miles in theearly season preparing for a half marathon. Plus with my gout under control, I had a lot fewer days off due toinjury/illness (28 days versus 67 days in 2010).

Weight: My weight wasup and down most of the year. It took adip in November as I was eating strictly vegetarian for half of November.

Race Count:

5K: 1

5M: 1

10K: 2

10M: 2

Half: 1

Stroke & Stride: 2

Duathlon: 1

1.2M OWS: 1

Comments:

- I really focused on running and enjoyed thataspect of training the most. I wanted toshoot for a 50K last year, but never got my miles up during the summer. I intend to commit to a Sunday long run thisyear

-My swimming came along quite well. The masters swim team held an intra-squad meetand it was great to participate in a couple of events. My freestyle pace/100 has dropped to where Ican do intervals below 2:00/100.

-I did not bike much last year. This year I don’t see that getting better. I always have lofty goals to ride at lunch oron the trainer, but they have not materialized. My average power in Q4 was up 28% compared to lastyear and averaged 111 watts, so I am training with higher intensity. I have made a riding buddy in theneighborhood and that has improved my cycling tremendously.

Mini Projects

2012-01-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to tackle a couple ofmini projects that have been on the back burner for a few months. The first was relatively easy. My daughter had some fun with a sharpie aboutsix months ago and I did my best to clean that up at the time with windex (yesthe blue stuff instead of the clear). Ifinally touched up the blue smeared walls. That went OK, but for future reference I have a couple of paint brushesand paint stirrers next to the can of interior paint.

The second project was a little tougher. The caulk in the master bathroom and kitchenhas been getting really ragged. We don’tsplash so much that it is a wall integrity issue, but cosmetically I was nothappy. This project was a little moreexpensive. I started with a tube of caulk ($8) and a scraper set ($5). Thiswas going OK, but the caulk gun I had at home was killing my hands. I went back out and bought a “heavy duty”caulk gun ($14) which was incredible compared to what I was using. After having the right materials the jobprogressed reasonably well. The finishis not handy man or professional quality, but the end result is not unsightly. I did not take the time to seal the caulk tubewell, so I may be on the hook again the next time I need to caulk. Most websites suggest using a nail or ducttape to seal the tube, but even then it won’t last forever.

Next up on my list is stain touch up. I would like to start on that this spring when I can open the windows and ventilate the house. My goal is to maintain our home in a "ready to sell" condition rather than living with nuisance projects, poor lighting and clutter.

2012 Goals

2011-12-30T13:26:00.000-08:00

2011 was a pretty good year for me. I have made some baby steps in severaldirections that I am proud of. I have maintaineda good sense of moderation in all aspects of my life as well. One of my shortcomings was my spiritual wellbeing, where I did not make any progress.

I heard a quote recently, “If you are not getting better,then you are getting worse, you never stay the same.” This really hit home. Although it was based on swim training, itcan apply to being a husband, a parent, an employee, an athlete or in broadterms a human being.

Unclutterer.com recently posed having a resolution of themonth to increase focus, rather than coming out of the gate trying toimprove/change a half dozen aspects of your life. To this end, I am listing:

Financial discipline - January

Casino gaming - February

Diet and weight loss - March

Training - April

Better husband - May

Watching television - June

Home improvement -July

Getting organized - August

Taking vitamins - September

Spiritual health - October

Mental health - November

Better parent – December

I will be building action plans around each item. Starting with January, I am approachingfinancial discipline with having a budget and sticking to it. That includes household expenses, dining out,and hobbies expenses. I will review ourfinancial portfolio and have an action plan to rebalance if necessary throughoutthe year. Other nice to have items willbe reviewing our assets and insurance.

February will be casino gaming and I will stay on budget oftime and hours and will cut trips short or cancel trips.

This does not mean that I have to wait on anything. If I want to read more to my kids in January, that is a bonus. However, first in my mind needs to be financial discipline.

After reading Parenting with Love & Logic, I have cometo appreciate that I let a lot of resolutions slip because I don’t face anyimmediate consequences. Overeating,overspending, being disorganized have consequences that are hard to estimateand are often far in the future. Thisyear, I will work harder to have a carrot and stick with immediateconsequences.

Gift Guide Postscript

2011-12-24T08:18:00.001-08:00

I was remiss in failing to mention nutrition and bodycare. This is another essential that iseasy to buy. Find your triathlete’sfavorite product whether it be honey stinger waffles or carbohydrate drinkmix. Body care includes not only massageservice, but also shampoos, muscle balms, and sunscreen. For the hard core cyclist, embrollient may bein order.

Real Triathlete’s Gift Guide

2011-12-23T20:39:00.000-08:00

Athletes are notoriously hard to shop for. They are loyal to brands, obsessive aboutmaterials and more conscious about fit than America’s Next Top Model. However, many are gear junkies and seenothing wrong with having 3+ bicycles, half a dozen pairs of shoes, andmultiple suits and swim goggles. Sometimes the extra gear is for training and racing or sometimes fordifferent conditions such as roads, trails, snow, etc.

I have recently been unimpressed by the numerous gear guidesfor the holidays and wanted to put together a definitive list based on myexperience. I think it is verythoughtful to buy gifts to keep your athlete comfortable, warm and performingtheir best. I also see nothing wrongwith earmarked cash or gift cards to their favorite stores. However, if you are willing to go the nextstep, be prepared to put on your detective hat.

First check out their training log and equipmentstashes. You can quickly discover theirshoe brand preference and size and swimsuit preference and size. These are consumable goods and you can justbuy a new pair of the same model and size. It is much tougher to figure out clothing as they are sized as club fitor casual fit. Club fit is for the moreserious (no body fat) rider. However ifyou can finagle your athlete’s chest and waist measurements, you can get prettyclose.

Sunglasses are a pretty easy gift. While there are brand loyalties, everybodycan use a new pair of shades as they get scratched up, lost and the new stylesare cool.

A few things on my list this year included a replacement pumphead (Tanaka, Harame, KNC) which every cyclist would appreciate, a pair of running gloves which youwill probably get wrong but will be suitable for at least one temperaturerange, and a mesh swim bag which is multipurpose and can be used for any sport.

Another tip is to query their friends. Your triathlete may be coveting some newwheels, swim lessons with a local coach or antagonizing whether to get somephysiological testing done. In this casea gift card or cash with a picture of the training facility or wheel set willfit the bill. Another overlooked giftfor an athlete is coaching services. This one will be even tougher to figure out so earmarked cash may be theonly way to pull this off.

A final tip is to buy local. Your detective’s hat review of the credit card receipts will revealtheir favorite stores. Don’t freak outif you see $100 for a pair of running shoes or a pair of cycling shorts. That is the nature of the beast. Your athlete can exchange sizes and brandswithout shipping things back and forth across the country.

2012 Goals

2011-12-15T13:43:00.001-08:00

Now is about the time I start setting up goals for theyear. Last year I grouped goals in therealms of relationship, health and family. I did not have any career, hobbies or friends goals. Overall, I fell on my relationship and healthgoals, but made decent progress by reducing the amount of television I watchedand spending more time with the family.

This year, I am at a loss for what to track. I have made reasonable strides in mostaspects of my life by creating and tracking goals since 2006. Relationship wise, I feel me and my wife areon better ground. I have made somecareer progress through happenstance. Igot a recent health boost by lowering my blood pressure and dropping someweight with a trip to India. I havemaintained my fitness training, went overboard with casino trips (148 hoursversus 125 hours last year), and rekindled an old hobby. I have not kept in better touch with myfriends, but I have made a new friend in the neighborhood.

I am struggling with my race calendar as well. I intend to do a half marathon again and willdefinitely do a few stroke & strides. However, an “A” race is not jumping out at me. It might be a good year to level set myexpectations. I managed my gout muchbetter last year and that allowed me to race more often. I did not miss training time except fortravel since January of 2011. I hopethat trend continues.

Q1 will have some travel involved as we are planning onbeing in Florida in February and I am considering a trip to Memphis inMarch.

Maybe the next few weeks will provide some inspiration.

Plumbing

2011-12-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

This past Friday, I had a glimmer of hope in the homeimprovement realm. I am coming off a bigwin with the kitchen table refinishing in October and decided to push my luckwith a clogged sink. After reviewing youtube videos, I figured it was something I could handle armed with my existingtools and a dedicated (non-toilet) plunger.

I started with my sink that was not draining. The first step is to remove the plunger andinspect the drain. Upon doing this, Ifound coagulated shaving stubble along with hair and other genericnastiness. Unfortunately during disassembly,I dropped something into the trap and had the opportunity to clean that out aswell. That happened to be generic sewagestuff. After reassembling everything Iwas thrilled that everything worked and even more thrilled that it was drainingperfectly. I did not need the plungerand was glad I did not invest in a plumber’s snake.

Riding this victory, I did my wife’s sink as well and shenoticed an improvement also. It isamazing how much hair can slip past the standard plunger design and it kind ofmade me long for the old style system with the tiny holes and removablestopper.

The last stop on the plumbing front was the girl’sbathtub. A bathtub is actually easier todo and again requires taking apart the plunger and then cleaning out themess. That was successful as well and Ipulled out hair and small stickers. Again I did not need the plunger or snake. The final step of cleaning the trap wouldhave required removing the tub.

All in all I was pleased to save $79 x 3 = $237 for aplumbers visit. Although my sink was thedriving factor, living in a house with three girls made me more inclined to tryto learn how to do this.

India 2011 - Part III

2011-12-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Friday we returned to Delhi for 3 days of weddingactivities. Friday afternoon was mendhiand all of the women along with the groom had mendhi applied throughout theday. Friday night was the dance partywhich the girls really enjoyed at the start of the night. It was held at Arun Mama’s house and theappetizers and main course were good. The DJ got carried away with repeat songs, but nobody seemed tomind.

Saturday was the Sant which is a ceremony to purify thegroom. A fruit basket was sent overSaturday afternoon and along with the largest banana cluster I have ever seen,I also had the opportunity to try a custard apple. I really like exotic fruit and this was kindof tough to eat, but tasty. Saturdaynight was the ring ceremony. This washeld at the hotel and our family went off in a car rather than the bus. The hotel was really nice with an outdoor pool. They were serving scotch, vodka and Budweiseralong with non-alcoholic drinks. As Iside note, I learned that India is the 5^th largest importer ofscotch in the world. The girls werehaving a tough night and unfortunately we left before all of the dancing withPooja’s Father-in-Law.

Sunday was the official wedding. It started out with the Bharat from thehouse. Diya did a good job sittingduring pictures, but did not do so well getting on the horse. The snacks were really tasty. We then took the bus to the hotel for more ofthe Bharat. It was followed by moreeating and waiting for the bride to arrive. Everything was grand, but we ended up missing quite a bit of it as thegirls had another meltdown. This time onthe way back we had a tour of Delhi as Monicka Mommi’s Brother-in-law was notquite as familiar with the roads.

Monday was a day of packing and relaxing. The trip to the airport began a littleearlier than planned as I misunderstood the flight times. There were more than a few negative omens aswe began the journey. First Nishavomited in the taxi, next a lady fainted as we were unloading the taxi, andfinally we could not be found on the Lufthansa manifest. Once we actually got into the terminaleverything started clicking along. Wechecked our bags, went through security and enjoyed the Delhi airport which hada great play area along with Domino’s Pizza and McDonald’s. A made the mistake of not purchasing JohnnyWalker Platinum Label when I had the chance. Upon returning stateside, I learned it is currently exclusivelyavailable in the Delhi duty free shops.

The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful and we had extra seats again for the girls to stretch out. The layover in Frankfurt was longer and we found the play area there as well. The flight to Denver was a bit tougher as we were packed in and did not have the luxury of in headrest touch screen monitors. The girls were sufficiently entertained and we made it back, picked up the car and drove to our secure (but cold) house.

Wedding House

Delhi Airport

Frankfurt Airport

India 2011 - Part II

2011-12-09T15:23:00.001-08:00

Tuesday we traveled to Ahmedabad. This time we flew Spice Jet, which also doesa great job. We did not have meals, butthat is really not necessary for a one hour flight. I should mention that the domestic andInternational terminals in Delhi and Ahmedabad are really nice with anassortment of places to eat and shopping.

Ahmedabad is a great change from Delhi. It is a smaller town situated in the westernstate of Gujarat. As a result, it ismuch less crowded and has much less pollution. I was most impressed by the wildlife which included monkeys and peacocks. Our agenda here was pretty minor. We took it easy the first day and visited with relatives.

Wednesday we attended a reception at Bon Homie. The food was a little spicy for my tastes,but it was great to see everybody. Imade it over to the Rajpat club on Wednesday as well and walked a few laps onthe track. It is quite the facility withthe track, outdoor 6 lane pool, weight room, tennis courts, badminton courts,volleyball courts as well as standard country club amenities.

Thursday was a shopping day. We went to a couple of emporiums and got some nice souvenirs andgifts. It was mostly gifts as our househas quite a few Indian handicrafts already. Thursday night we also made a return trip to McDonald’s for McAloo TikkiSandwiches and fries. I ate vegetarianthe entire time I was in India just to be on the safe side. I am always surprised by the safety regulations in the US. As vehicles travel at lower speeds, car seats are rarely seen and infants can be seen in the hands of their mothers on the back of a scooter. My girls loved the scooter rides around the neighborhoods.

India 2011 - Part I

2011-12-09T09:31:00.001-08:00

Last time we traveled to India, I had pretty extensive 7part series detailing our flights, accommodations and activities. This trip was shorter 10 days versus 17 andonly featured Delhi and Ahmedabad. Mostof the trip was spent in the city with family and we did not do any sightseeingaside from the malls and dining out a few times.

Preparing for an international trip is a challenge and thistime rather than having one 8 month old, we have a 4 year old and a 2 yearold. To complicate travel plans, bothcame down with the croup 2 days before we were supposed to fly out. Packing was more of a challenge as well asLufthansa allows only one 50 pound bag/person. Of that allowance, 75 pounds wasgifts for family and the remaining 125 now had to accommodate four largerpeople.

We did manage to get typhoid immunizations and malariamedication although I am not convinced that is necessary unless spending a lotof time in country and eating adventurously.

Lufthansa was a great airline and we flew from Denver toFrankfurt and then Frankfurt to Delhi. The layover on the way out was only 3 hours so we did not venture intothe city nor did we want to with 2 kids in tow. They both traveled well and enjoyed the personal touch screen monitorsto watch cartoons and animated movies. The meals were interesting as we ordered two standard meals, onevegetarian and one fruit plate. Thebases were all covered and nobody went hungry.

The flight from Frankfurt to Delhi was more of the sameexcept this time we were on a full flight and the girls could not stretch outas easily as we could with one open seat. We arrived around midnight and flew through customs to be greeted bySunil Mama, Arun Mama, Nikhil and Lakshay.

Saturday we basically slept and mulled about the house. The 12 hour jetlag can be pretty bad and thegirls were still recovering from the croup.

Sunday was a little more interesting as Ratna attended theKirtan function and the girls became more comfortable with their chachus andchachis. We also went to the park acouple of times. The design of the parkis very different from parks in Colorado, but there were no serious injuriesand everyone’s tetanus shots were up to date.

Monday was an uneventful day. We did go to the mall which was pretty impressive. This three story monolith hadeverything. I looked at a Sahara Indiacricket jersey, but the 2850 rupees ($57) price tag was a rude awakening thatstuff is not cheap in India. We alsostopped in “Mad Over Donuts” and let the kids play on the arcade rides. Monday night we went to Akhil and Ankhit’sflat for Akhil’s birthday party.

Black Friday Sales

2011-12-06T15:33:00.001-08:00

For the gear junkie, black Friday shopping has been a lot offun. I have gotten deals from 22% offall the way to 51% off on stuff that I have been wanting (it is hard to say needing)for the past few months. It is alwaystough for me to purchase items on a deadline and I have gotten a little carriedaway.

The first item was a ScotteVest travel vest. I think this will come in very handytraveling and I have been eyeing them for the past few months. I don’t travel enough to justify thispurchase. Kind of like the eBags packingcubes, anything to make travel easier is worth it.

The second item was a swimsuit from Speedo. This is practically a consumable and it savesme a trip to the store. I usually willpick up one new suit per year which easily lasts me 100+ hours in the water. A suit and goggles is the equivalent of buyingrunning shoes or new bicycle tires once/year.

The third item was a Tanaka pump head. I have been disappointed with Silca pumpheads since 1987 when I got my Silca pump. After regular replacement gaskets, I am excited to give this toy awhirl.

The fourth item was a Craft Base Layer. This was a budgeted item for 2011 that Inever got around to purchasing until I saw it on sale.

The final item is a fleece cycling jacket. I have been shopping for one of these sinceVeloswap in October so it was nice to find this on sale. I may not do enough winter riding to justifythis one, but I was thrilled with the price and design.

So the triathlete in me was gifted a few nice items. I fortunately held off on the Finis TempoTrainer and “Poker Faces” book by Hayano. I think they are worthwhile purchases but will be available down theroad as well and no need to rush the purchase without a good sale.

Now I just need to pick up gifts for the family. This is always a challenge and usually I count on my wife to get the kids toys. I will have to put some thought into a gift for her.

Flip Turns II

2011-11-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

I originally posted on learning flip turns back inJuly. In the past 3.5 months, I havegone back and forth on the turns. Ithink they look cool and I feel smoother on the one nice turn I get during aworkout. However, I really miss mycheater breath which was the originally incentive to do flip turns.

Keeping the above in mind, I plan to do flip turns duringevery warm-up (for me this is usually 100 yards). Further I will try to do flip turns at least2-3 times during recovery sets.

Typically I swim between 1500 and 2000 short course yards ina one hour workout. I will warm-up withfreestyle and some mixed strokes and then jump into the set developed by myMasters Coach. The set will includefreestyle, IM sets and some kicking. Usually it is on the order of 2000 yards and usually I don’t finish theset. The accomplished swimmers warm uplonger, complete the set and then usually add some more on the end. Sometimes we do fast sets 50’s, 100’s and 200’s,but we also do longer sets up to 400’s. When the send offs are tight based on my ability or the rest periods 15seconds or less, I will usually opt for open turns. Also after the second flip turn, I am hurtingfor air.

For IM sets, I will not practice competitive turns. I have a hard enough time withbackstroke. The breaststroke turn isopen anyway. Finally I am usuallyexhausted after 25 yards of butterfly.

Outliers

2011-11-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading Outliers by MalcolmGladwell. I had read the synopsis beforeand wasn’t sure what to expect from the full read. The premise is that it is not enough to begood. You also have to be lucky. He pulls examples from Canadian Hockey, thebirth of the software industry, the rise of hostile takeovers and mathproficiency.

My takeaway is that working hard is table stakes. A person can work hard if he truly enjoys (isobsessed with) an activity. One of thecases on point includes Bill Gates. Anaspect of motivation for the rest of us is the triad of autonomy, skilledactivity and reward for effort. Thatpoint was driven home with the culture of rice paddy farming. Once a person puts in the effort, he alsoneeds to get lucky. This luck is in theform of educational/coaching opportunity, ones age at a technology shift, andaccess to relevant resources.

At 40 years of age, I have missed the boat. I was part of a large generation that foughtfor educational resources. I missed thebig industries of computer science and finance. Interestingly, this was not due to lack of resources. I had plenty of family support, access togreat schools and a good job market at graduation. I just wasn’t motivated.

My kids should have opportunities as well. They should be born into a smaller generationand have better educational access. Theyshould also have the opportunity to excel in school with sufficient financialresources.

As a “pop economic” book it was a fun read. I do ascribe to the 10,000 hour rule. Unfortunately, the only aspect of my life inwhich I have gained that proficiency is my work in which most individuals hit10,000 hours in 5-10 years.

The Whole Nine Yards

2011-10-31T12:48:00.001-07:00

After roughly 200 posts as “All Bets Are Off”, it is timefor a new look on my personal blog. Ihave enjoyed my chronic training load and sunset over Standley Lake sinceAugust, 2009.

My colorful commentary will now be enjoyed as “The WholeNine Yards.” The origin of this phraseis a little more elusive, but is commonly attributed to WWII gunners firing anaircraft’s full nine yards of ammunition. However, the phrase did not appear in any literature until 40 yearsafter the war. A Google searchimmediately brings up the 2000 film with Amanda Peet.

For me, the whole nine yards will be a reminder to giveeverything when it counts. In life, withfamily at work and in sport, I want my blog to reflect giving 100% effort. Let’s see what the next 200 posts have tooffer.

Flat Tire II

2011-10-31T11:47:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I check my tire and it was flat again. So I dismount the Gatorskin and head to thebike shop. Bicycle Village was kindenough to true the wheel for me on the spot, but noted that I bent the rim withthe tire levers and let me know that I could try to straighten it with somelocking pliers or could probably ride as is. After returning the Gatorskin, buying a Vittoria Rubino Pro, tube, andglue free patch kit plus $10 for the wheel truing, I still got $11 back on mycard.

I did straighten out the spot on the rim and then filed downthe marks from the pliers. I mounted theVittoria in about 2 minutes without the use of tire levers. It pumped up and seated like a dream and I amready to ride again.

The Play Area

2011-10-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

McDonald’s has cornered a brilliant market in having adedicated play area for Children. Chick-Fil-A and malls also have play areas, but they are not asconvenient. In the winter time, I feelcompelled to provide my children some play time.

We don’t have a dedicated gymnastics room in the house. I am not ready to drop $1000 for gym pads andbars unless they show potential as Olympic hopefuls. However, my children are pretty creative withcouches and crib mattresses.

As a result the past two Thursdays we have been venturingout to the McDonald’s play are. For theprice of a couple of happy meals, they play with other kids, get some exerciseand are in a relatively safe environment. It is contained and I can keep an eye on them while reading a book.

Long term, I will probably enroll them in a structured class. They already do Dance on Tuesday night and wewill most likely add gymnastics on Thursday nights. In the meantime, McDonald’s has gained somecustomers.

I do applaud the chain for improving the menu. In addition to the favorites which are oftenhigh in fat and sodium, McDonald’s also offers salads and grilled items. Even the happy meal is available with juiceand apple slices which are a big improvement over soft drinks and French friesfor individuals with special dietary needs.

Flat tires

2011-10-24T13:15:00.001-07:00

I have had a bad run of luck with flat tires recently. I guess that is not the worst problem tohave, but it can be frustrating. Thefirst was a couple of weeks ago. Whenpulling off the pump head, I split the tube where the stem attaches. I take responsibility for this and shouldhave been more careful.

On Saturday when I was heading out, the back tire wassoft. Upon inspection, there was a thornin the sidewall. I then used my secondspare tube.

On Sunday I had a rideplanned with my neighbor. As I amgetting ready, I have another flat. Thisis a pinhole without a recognizable culprit. I patch the tube and fortunately had the foresight to borrow a tube forthe ride.

Sure enough 20 miles into the ride I hit a pothole and thetube splits. It was a quick change andthe CO2 cartridge worked great the first time out.

Frustrated, I head to the bike shop that was having a Buy 1Get 1 free sale on tubes. I pick up 4tubes. Two required spares, one to returnto my friend, and a fourth. I alsodecide to buy a $65 Continental Hardshell Gatorskin rather than my usual $35Vittoria Rubino Pro. This thing was abeast to put on. It was a folding tire,but even the first edge was tough. Thesecond bead was even worse and I ended up pinching the tube with tire leverstrying to put the tire on. Afterpatching the tube, I did finally get it assembled. When I finally get the wheel back on thebike, the rim is no longer true. I endedup truing it on the frame, but am worried about spoke tension and longer termhealth of the wheel. I am also curiousto see if there is air in the tire today or if I did further damage. If so, I am taking it back to the local bikeshop.

Over the past few days I have also used 3 of my last 4patches from my Park Tools GP-2 patch kit. These things were life savers and I am definitely buying a couple moreas they only cost a few dollars for 6 patches with is much cheaper than $6 pertube.

Having the bike on the stand that long did allow me to scrubthe drive train and try out Finish Line’s Gear Floss. These are clever microfiber ropes to cleaninside the cassette. It is cleverproduct and worth the $6, but I would not recommend these as they are kind ofunnecessary.

Margin Call

2011-10-24T12:49:00.003-07:00

I had been anxiously awaiting the release of “Margin Call”which follows a night and day in the world of a fictional investment bank’sfixed income department. The quants inthis group find an error in a formula used to evaluate the banks risk whichleads to drama at all levels of the bank.

The previews looked very exciting to me. I have watched the popular finance moviesincluding “Wall Street”, “Wall Street II” and “Boiler Room”. I think Margin Call was equallyentertaining. Some reviews say thatMargin Call will not do well with non-finance individuals as it is lessstylized and more realistic than most popular films. This is proving true at the box office as itsopening weekend only brought in $0.6M while 74% of reviewers liked it.

I was particularly impressed with the acting. The characters are all very smart, talentedindividuals. They also live an affluentlife style. Some of the characters havelost their way as banks have tapped employees from a diverse array of fieldsincluding engineers and scientists.

It is certainly not a must watch. For me it was exciting as I would love towork in finance and this was a peek into the high stakes political minefieldassociated with banking.

Swim Meet

2011-10-24T12:49:00.001-07:00

The Jeffco Aquatic Master’s held their first “annual”intrasquad swim meet. As it was my firstswim meet, I set personal records in both my events. It was also fun to spend time with folks outof the water. A swim meet is kind oflike a track meet. There is a lot ofwaiting around for your event(s). Someof the time is passed warming up and cooling down. Most of the time is passed cheering the otherswimmers and just hanging out poolside.

50 SCY Freestyle: 35.57

50 SCY Breaststroke: 50.37

I was thrilled with the freestyle time. My previous best during workouts had been 47seconds. It was kind of fun to dive inand just sprint knowing that my only objective was to get to the end and backas fast as possible. During the events,I dove in from the side of the pool. Most individuals came off the blocks, but some individuals did poolstarts.

As I was in the back of the pack for both my events, I amnot planning on competing in other local events on my own. However, I will make a point of practicingoff the start blocks periodically and attempting various distances as part ofmy swim training.

I really appreciate all of the volunteers and staff thathelped pull off the event. The potluckafterwards was a nice bonus.

BMI

2011-10-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

The Body Mass Index figures recently caught my eye. The calculation takes height and weight andcharacterizes an individual as underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has publishedthe following BMI categories:

Underweight = <18.5

Normal weight = 18.5 - 24.9

Overweight = 25 – 29.9

Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

At 5’10” tall and 188 pounds, I am considered overweightwith a BMI of 27.0. To achieve the upperthreshold of normal weight, I need to be 174 pounds to achieve a BMI of25.0. That sounds about right to me andI could stand to lose 15 pounds.

Another article I read for indicates that the BMI of 27.0for a 40-49 year old male places me squarely in the 53^rd percentileof that group. What that says is thatmost men 40-49 years of age could stand to lose 15 pounds. In fact the normal range for men 40-49 yearsof age stops at the 36^th percentile.

To lower my weight a recommended diet is available toprovide 1600 calories. My last snapshothad my caloric intake at 2500 calories.

Running

2011-10-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

I read a number of fitness related blogs, magazines andbooks. I came to running in high schooland I have very fond memories of running cross country and track. I returned to running as a fitness activityand it still held the same allure, but without the camaraderie. Over the past year, I have participated in anumber of Colorado Master’s Running Association events and am hoping thatrunning becomes a lifestyle.

The most recent inspiration is a Nike Running advertisementI came across. I would argue that 99%have a reason why they run. I would liketo be a 1%. However, I am stillconcerned about getting old, fat, loved, sleeping well, being happy, etc.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

Occupy Wall Street is a movement that I support. I believe the wealth disparity between thetop 1% and the bottom 99% is partly due to the 1% having a larger role in controllingpoliticians.

I urged my state senators to vote against the bank bailoutin 2008. That bailout passed. Unlike a national election, there is no wayof knowing how the popular vote would have gone. There is also no way of knowing the full repercussionsof no-bailout. I believe financialinstitutions would have been crushed and would have to rethink self-regulation. The top 1% have to take some risk to getthere and should no longer have the cushion of the bottom 99%.

I am also astonished by the nations two party system. It creates stability. However, the money involved is amazing. Per a CNN website, Obama spent $310M onnational ads while McCain spent $135M on national ads. These ads make a difference. That is why corporations spend what they dofor a Superbowl ad. $300M may seem likea trivial amount of money. We spend thatin Afghanistan everyday to support the troops. However, I believe the majority of this money comes from corporationsand the top 1% to push their political agendas. Anybody should be able to spend their money how they want, but when thevoice of the 99% is unheard because of a lack of campaign contributions, thatis a problem.

Finally, I don’t believe in Too-Big-Too Fail. I think people need to be responsible for adecision on whom to do business with. IfI choose to save with Lehman Brothers and they go under, I should share thatrisk. If I prefer to save with my localcredit union and they go under, I should share that risk. There is a place for regulations. That place if for the consumer. Consumers need to be informed about the foodsand medications they consume, questionable loan practices and other attempts todefraud. If the 99% allows a monopoly tobe established, then we need to live with it. If however, we choose to buy local, and create stable local economies wecan be empowered.

Occupy Wall Street is directed against corporations andwealth disparity. I am in favor ofcorporations and wealth disparity. However these symptoms expose government run amok. The 99% is using its best voice with peacefulprotests to garner free media attention which highlights symptoms that must beexplained.

DIY Project

2011-10-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

I am not a big fan of do-it-yourself projects. In my experience, my projects have typically been either incomplete, over-budget, of poor quality or some combination of issues.

My incomplete projects include an automatic shut-off switch and a kitchen soap dispenser. I am sure there are others that I don’t care to remember.

Over-budget is a popular one for me as I usually do not have or cannot find key tools which I may need. I once refinished a propane grill and probably spent $50 to refinish a $10 grill from a yard sale rather than buy a new one for $100.

Poor quality haunts me as my eye has a tendency to drift towards things that I worked. I can easily overlook mistakes made by others. These projects include clean up of writing on the walls with the now blue stain of Windex. Also my ability to spackle over holes is not that great either. I have stopped with projects that have failed in spectacular fashion in the past. I once hung a ceiling fan in my parent’s house only to have the light fixture portion come crashing down. I also managed to try to weather protect the deck only to have mismatched colors.

My latest project falls under the some combination of issues. I decided to refinish the kitchen table top that was pretty beat up. I started with sanding the current finish to reasonably even. Next I went shopping for stain and polyurethane ($16). While at the hardware store I also bought a paintbrush and more sandpaper ($16). The stain went on amazingly well, except for the dark spots where I did not sand so well. The polyurethane was a little tougher, but after the third coat it turned into a reasonably smooth finish. I did finish the project. The quality is reasonable, but the poorly sanded spots are evident along with the brush strokes and finishing sanding against the grain. $30 to finish a table and chair set purchased for $40 is not horrible considering a table set would cost at least $200. The overall time cost was not too bad. It was 48 hours start to finish with multiple drying sessions and about 2 hours of actual work and cleaning up.

Hitting the Weights

2011-10-05T15:35:00.003-07:00

After a reasonable racing season, I am trying to vary my workouts beyond a core of running, swimming and bicycling. I have always enjoyed weight training and for the past month, I have been disciplined about getting in the gym about once/week. I have a simple routine of legs, chest, back and arms which I complete with varying success.

My leg workout consists of squats, lunges, deadlifts, single leg hamstring curls, and single leg extensions. I feel these give me the best bang for my buck and I can usually pull off 10-12 sets in 20-25 minutes. Today I managed a full set of squats at 115 pounds. My short term goal is 135 pounds and I would love to be at 185 pounds by next spring.

For chest I stick to flat bench press, incline press and cable crossovers. I was working towards a bench press of 210 pounds, but got side tracked. After starting over I am back at 135 pounds with no plans to max out for another month. As I am reading “Lone Survivor” by Marcus Lattrell, I threw in some push-ups. I planned on doing 4 sets of 20. That quickly turned into 3 sets at 20, 14 and 7 respectively.

For back, I always start with pull-ups as a gage of strength to weight ratio. Today I had a breakthrough with 6 pull-ups (prone-medium grip from a dead hang). I then do lateral pull-downs and seated rows. In a perfect world, I would do t-bar rows, but alas I have no t-bar. I need to start bent-over rows at some point. I would like to get up to 10 pull-ups.

Arms are an afterthought. I do a few sets of alternating dumbbell curls, pulley push-downs and occasionally military dumbbell presses.

My biggest weakness is core strength. I intend to research this some and start to incorporate a few exercises a week. I can probably do these at home.

A final thought is explosive power and cross-fit type exercises. I believe these lend themselves very well to practical strength. However, I will probably wait at least 6 months before incorporating these.

IKEA

2011-10-03T10:19:00.001-07:00

I spent part of the weekend assembling IKEA furniture. On reflection, I thought back to the “Fight Club” quote, “Like everyone else, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct.” In the movie the narrator describes his disillusionment with his life. Going to work and setting up a home became a painful hamster wheel to nowhere.

A bookshelf, a few storage bins, and two toddler chairs are a simple and poignant reminder that my identity is partly defined by my family and my home. That is a good thing. I have no grand plan to redefine society or set people free of their debt obligation. My grand plan does involve living vicariously through my children. One step to that end is making sure they have a safe, clean home in which to live and grow.

My wife is an IKEA fanatic. I can partly see her point as they tend to have well designed furnishings and household goods that meet my quality standard. I am not buying a lifetime hand tool or an heirloom desk. I am buying for the 5-10 year time frame with light to moderate use.

The purchases in question were for the kids “game room.” The quotes are appropriate as this room is adjacent to the dining room/office and consists of toy storage, kitchen set, faux dressing table and a small worktable. I often think a better solution would be to just line the whole area with gym mats. At any rate, the toys are more organized for me and hopefully for them also. The chairs are certainly safer than the folding chair. Unfortunately there is no chair I know of that is designed to be a climbing toy.

Household Maintenance

2011-09-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

I have had a little more time on my hands. Further, my parents were in town and I saw the benefits of sweeping the floor daily. To that end, I have been trying to do some daily cleaning. The bare essentials are loading/emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the kitchen table and cleaning the countertops. I define these as the basics as when I fall behind on these, it directly impacts our ability to cook/dine at home. Vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms and changing the bed sheets are more of tolerance thing. Some people prefer daily while others can go once a month or even longer intervals. Laundry is strictly an inbox and outbox scenario and clothes piling up in hampers are no reason for alarm.

Clutter is a challenge that I feel is best tackled in stages. De-cluttering one room or even one section of a room is a reasonable pace for me. Our household clutter is primarily children’s toys and accoutrements and paperwork. By having a place for everything, children can put away their own toys. Paperwork can take care of itself. For example, bank records can be reviewed and tossed. However, receipts from big ticket purchases need filing.

Our clutter tends to accumulate in the kitchen and formal dining area. However with small kids we have to confiscate items that end up on top of otherwise nice furniture items or interwoven with decorative items in display areas. This creates an environment where things are hard to find and the living space can be challenging to enjoy.

Instead of expensive 100% solutions, our household is attacking in stages by utilizing reasonably priced items from Ikea. We have so far had success with the Billy bookcase and clear bins for organizing toys.

Tanner Gun Show

2011-09-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the chance to attend the Tanner Gun Show. With a proclaimed 700 tables it was a pretty large affair with people buying/trading/selling everything from t-shirts and accessories to jewelry to handguns and rifles. Most dealers specialized in one thing or another. I passed tables full of nothing but magazines as well as tables with nothing but reload equipment. Knives were another popular booth.

There were not many antique firearms dealers. I talked to a couple who put the price range for my Colt 1849 in the range of $200 to $300. It had some work done and was not a matching serial numbers piece. The first dealer I spoke with had purchased a similar era piece that was in worse condition for $200. He pointed out some of the work that had been done in that era. The interface between the barrel and the cylinder had been cut down to provide a tight fit. This was to prevent powder escape when firing. Even if the Colt were more original, the book prices are greatly exaggerated.

While there, I also took a look at later model firearms. I was very surprised by the price range for the same item in the same condition. Between four dealers the price for a particular .38 automatic was from $280 to $350. This may not seem like a big range, but $350 represents a 25% premium to whatever mark-up the low end dealer had included.

Gold at $1640

2011-09-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

Just 5 short years ago, gold was at $660/ounce and seemed expensive. The past couple of months have seen gold prices over $1900/ounce and relatively speaking gold seems cheap. Silver seems even more reasonably priced at $30/ounce. The historic ratio was 20:1 with a double eagle worth 20 silver dollars. The last decade was had the ratio about 35:1. Today the ratio is 54:1 which means if one were so inclined they could exchange 1 ounce of gold for over 3 pound of silver. That seems ridiculous to me. I believe that ratio will fall closer to the historic average with gold priced around $1500/ounce and silver around $40/ounce.

Futures trading allows for 100 ounce contracts for gold with the $9450 margin to open and $7000 margin to maintain. For example, gold opened today at $1740/ounce. A contract is worth $174,000. If a contract were opened this morning at $9450, a margin call would have been received at soon as gold dropped $24/ounce. As gold plunged through this number, some folks got screwed and there contract was worth $164,000 at the end of the day and they were forced to liquidate and lose their original margin and another $500.

Silver Futures contracts are for 5,000 ounces. One could open a contract this morning for $21,600 and control $182,500 worth of silver. As silver plunged to $30/ounce this contract was worth $150,255 again wiping out the opening margin requirement and having the contract holder on the hook for another $8000. Ouch.

I still believe precious metals and other commodities have a place in a diversified portfolio along with equities, bonds and currencies. I am not married to a particular ratio, nor do I feel compelled to rebalance frequently.

Jefferson County Coin Show

2011-09-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

My parents are in town and this weekend was the Jefferson County Coin Show. It is a fun local show with about 20 tables. My big mistake was not bringing a stroller. My two year old fell asleep on the way there and I was carrying her for the first 30 minutes we were there. Nothing really struck my eye, so it wasn’t a big loss. However at the next Denver Coin Expo, I will definitely make a trip without the girls.

It was interesting to see my parents work the room. My Mom moves quickly and always has something in mind to sell and buy. My Dad wanders slowly and when something catches his eye, he will settle in for a 30 minute conversation. The other dynamic is time to spare. With the girls, I rarely plan on more than 1 hour. My parents can spend 2 hours at a small show easily.

It was fun and good for conversation as my parents debated the merits of buy and hold versus flipping pieces of a collection. I like to think I am somewhere in the middle, but it is hard to say.

1.2M Open Water Swim

2011-09-06T10:48:00.001-07:00

My racing season came to an end on Saturday with the Racing Underground OWS at Boulder Reservoir. It was a great low key event and I happened to run into some folks from the Jeffco Aquatic Masters, Arvada Tri Club and Beginner Triathlete.

I finished in 48:36, which was just off my goal time of 45 minutes. I found out later that day that only 18 seconds separated 3^rd-4^th-5^th in my age group. I would have pushed a little harder as 18 seconds is trivial on a swim of that distance. I swam well, but my sighting was off. I goggles fogged up some and I will definitely make a point of cleaning them prior to any race situation. Foggy goggles are not a big deal in the pool.

Overall, I am thrilled with the season. I trained and raced well. Most importantly I did not have any injuries. It was also a good learning year with regards to training with purpose. I got a lot out of swimming on send-offs rather than breaks. I am starting to reconsider the intensity with respect to running as well. I only did one track workout, but I recently did a tempo run as well. I need to improve my cycling base, before increasing the intensity of cycling workouts.

USA Pro Cycling Challenge

2011-08-30T14:59:00.001-07:00

The 6 stage, USA Pro Cycling Challenge came and went, but not without a significant amount of fanfare. Several top Tour de France riders came out which makes me wonder which teams are fully represented at the Vuelta de Espana. The Schleck brothers, Cadel Evans and George Hincapie all came to town. Team RadioShack’s Levi Leipheimer took the yellow jersey and hometown Team Garmin-Cervelo’s Christian VandeVelde took second.

Versus television had excellent coverage with a pre-view and wrap up. The website also provided live feeds. I did not venture up to the mountains to take part in the festivities, but I did take the family to a corner of Stage 6 to see the peloton come through. As it was less than 10 miles from my house, I would have felt foolish for not going out.

Cycling spectators are great and there were about 400 people out to see the riders for all of about 30 seconds. The hoopla of the support vehicles and law enforcement caused more stir than the riders. We waited about 30 minutes for the riders to come through which is about my kid’s maximum attention span.

I would have liked to follow more of the event on television or blogs. I am really glad that Colorado was able to host a world class event and hope the riders and teams got the US exposure they deserve.

Union Reservoir

2011-08-24T10:29:00.001-07:00

I finally got out in the open water again after exclusive pool swimming in July and August. It was surprisingly comfortable and I was not panicky at all. Union Reservoir has a simple set up of 3 buoys in a triangle configuration. There were about 15 people swimming counterclockwise loops.

I swam two loops and then took a short break and then proceeded to swim four more loops resting briefly between each. My sighting was not that great, but did improve over the session. Unfortunately I don’t think I will be ready for the 2.4mile swim September 3^rd. Instead I will do the 1.2mile swim that day.

Spin Doctor Pressure Gauge

2011-08-23T09:38:00.001-07:00

I stopped by Performance Bike planning to purchase the Accu-Gauge pressure meter. As it turned out the Spin Doctor brand was the only one in stock and I went ahead and gave it a shot for $9.95. Its first use was great. I was shooting for 100 psi and was at 106 psi on the rear and 100 on the front. I was able to use the bleed off to get down to 100 psi on the rear. Before I started pumping up the tires, I was at 60 pounds and probably would have gone ahead and road on them as they felt OK.

Considering that pumping up the tires and cleaning the drive train is the extent of the maintenance I perform on my bike, I figured that the proper equipment is definitely worth it.

Silver Bullet Shooting Range

2011-08-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to visit the Silver Bullet Shooting Range this past weekend. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I haven’t been to a range in about 10 years and that was an outdoor range. I figured the worst case scenario is that I stop by, ask a few question and leave. Fortunately, my experience was very positive.

Located just east of Harlan on 38^th Street, the building is non-descript except for the large sign out front. There is a lounge/waiting area with a half dozen tables and a display cabinet/register in the main room. There are 5 shooting lanes which are 25 yards long. I guess there are classrooms in the building as well.

As a new shooter, I was told to read and understand the range rules and then sign in. I signed in and provided identification. I also bought a box of ammunition and some targets. Eye protection was provided and I brought my own ear protection. Although I would have preferred to have cans in addition to ear plugs. I then headed into the range, set up my first target and loaded my firearm. The first few shots were exhilarating and as much fun as I remember. I proceeded to go through about 100 rounds and 10 targets over the course of about 45 minutes. I had a couple of misfires and a couple of mis-feeds with my automatic, but none that I could not clear.

The crowd was pretty interesting. It was a mix of experienced shooters, people taking their significant others shooting for the first time, a group receiving instruction and even a family that rented the AK-47 for their session. There was a birthday in the family and I assume that was the child’s present.

While it was busy, I did not have to wait for a shooting lane. I guess it was just good timing. I received a $2 off military discount off of the usual range fee. I also learned that group and private instruction is available through the facility. In addition to handguns, rifles and shotguns are also allowed on the range although there are some ammunition restrictions.

They are open from 10 AM – 7 PM daily and I definitely plan a return appearance. This time, I will make a point of bringing my own targets and sufficient ammunition.

Stuff

2011-08-19T15:12:00.001-07:00

I seem to have a lot on my mind lately this week. It seems like several of my interests and hobbies are colliding. First, it has been another crazy week in the market. I want to do some bargain hunting, but at the same time, I am sweating the losses on my current positions.

Second, my training has been buoyed by a wonderful magazine subscription. I highly recommend Running Times to anyone with athletic inspirations and especially to serious runners. Compared with the celebrity reports, product reviews, fluff and advertising that is pervasive in Runner’s World and Triathlete, Running Times is thin but chock full of great articles.

Third, the Jefferson County Coin Show is this weekend. While precious metals prices are up, I hope to find a couple of interesting pieces in silver and copper.

Fourth, as the girls are starting a new daycare and I will be packing lunches, I have ramped up cooking. We have had fresh vegetables in the house all week. Even when we don’t cook, we are more likely to heat up prepared foods than dine out.

Fifth, we had a television die at the house. This is a non-issue as we have two better televisions in the house. However, it opens up my inner gadget freak to purchasing a replacement for it. I have also been debating our media bill in terms of Comcast digital Cable, Netflix and Tivo. It seems excessive for the amount of television our family actually consumes.

Finally after reading “Seal Team Six,” I am all of a sudden interested in firearms, scuba diving and skydiving. These “thrill seeking” activities will probably not turn into full fledged hobbies, but I am amazed at how many resources are available in the local area.

Death of a Television

2011-08-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

When I got my first on my own apartment in 2000, I had fairly limited material possessions. In addition to a sporting goods and some clothing, I had a dresser. I got a kitchen table from a dumpster and a couch from a yard sale. Eventually I bought a new bed. One item that was conspicuously missing was a television. I actually had a yard sale television stand just waiting for the purchase. However, I did not have the disposable income at that time to pull the trigger on a television set (probably a few hundred dollars).

Eventually a friend of a friend was selling a two year old 25 inch tube television for $150 and I picked it up the same day. I couldn’t justify cable right away so I started with a cheap VCR and 3 for $5 movies from the grocery store. Within a couple of years, I had cable, a DVD player, and a reasonable sound system. The television began to look undersized.

That television survived two more moves and significant use until we purchased a flat screen in 2008. This past week, the tube went out and “Mary’s Television” was no more. It is unlikely that we will replace the set. We kept it after buying the flat screen because it worked and was harder to dispose of rather than to keep. Hopefully our 19 inch tube television has a few more good years, as it is the only upstairs television.

Colorado Poker Championship Event #14

2011-08-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

Event #14 was the Pot Limit Omaha 8 championship (PLO8). Pot Limit Omaha Hi was contested last week as event #4. PLO8 drew 90 participants willing to throw down $100+$20 to battle it out with the rest of the Blackhawk Omaha players for bragging rights. With 15,000 in chips and the blinds starting at 25/50, it was a slow slog which saw players get knocked out slowly trying to build a chip stack.

I got lucky early and was able to double up and coast through the first four rounds until the first break. The next four rounds were equally successful and I was catching cards and flops. The first text home was at 10PM at the second break when there were about 50 players remaining. With the average chip stack at 30,000 and the blinds at 1500/3000 players started dropping like flies.

By the next break, I believe I was the chip leader with 25 players remaining. With the average stack being around 50,000 chips, I was hovering around 140,000 in chips. Most of the hands played themselves. I made a couple of good lay downs both pre-flop and post-flop. However, I wasn’t doing much value betting and was tending to shove with the nut or nut draw. I had more than my share of flop luck as well.

The next break was at 1:30 AM and we were down to 12 players. At this point my chip stack hasn’t moved. I am still at 140,000, but the average stack has grown to 110,000. With the blinds at 10,000/20,000 a pot sized bet into the blinds is 70,000 putting a player’s tournament life at risk with only 9 spots getting paid. Fewer hands saw flops and I was careful to only make a play with short stack players in the blinds.

We got to the final table around 2:00 AM and opted to pay the bubble boy $20/each and save him/her the frustration of playing poker for 7 hours and walking away empty handed. $9,000 less $180 would be divided up by the remaining 9 players. It soon became an even bigger crap shoot with the blinds at 15,000/30,000 and the average chip stack at 150,000. A pot size bet into the blinds was now 75,000 and was typically performed by AA with at least one suit and a good low.

When ninth place got knocked out for a $340 payday, the table started clamoring for a chop. With stacks between 100,000 and 230,000 it was still anybody’s game and getting $395 for eighth place was not appealing to anybody. An even chop resulted in $1082 (about third place money) to the remaining eight players which was an easy sell. At second chip position with 190,000 I certainly was not guaranteed third place.

The dealers were great and hopefully they got tipped out well. PLO8 is not easy to deal. The Golden Gates is a great card room and Colorado Poker Championship is just another indicator of that.

Overall, I had a lot of fun and was happy to report that I placed second in the tournament. I had played with 4 of the final table players before and 5 were new faces to me. I saw a lot of better players than me get knocked out and I have no dreams of going on the tournament circuit. Also considering it was my first tournament since November 2008 and my first tournament cash since November 2006, I was double thrilled with the event.

What’s for Dinner?

2011-08-16T13:24:00.001-07:00

I have had some small successes with this question the past few days. Last night I grilled sweet corn and bratwurst. Sunday night, I prepared sautéed zephyr squash and chicken. Even more surprising is that we have not eaten out for dinner since the aforementioned Tuesday night at Taco Bell. We did have lunch out on Saturday at Masalaas, but that doesn’t count as a negative as it is relatively healthy vegetarian fare.

The farmers market on Sunday was another success. From Star Acre Farms, I purchased heirloom yellow pear tomatoes ($4/lb) and a zephyr squash ($1). From Great Harvest Bread Co, I purchased a loaf of white bread ($5.25). Finally from Rocky Mountain Orchards, I purchased a jar of apple pear chai jelly ($8). Paying $8 for jelly is a little over the top, but the rest of the prices were fair for a farmers market.

Our new King Soopers is coming along as well. The deli, bakery and meat department are all expanded. There is a brand new cheese section, salad bar and Mediterranean/olive bar.

Summer fruits and vegetables being available make cooking easier as well. In the winter we are dependent on fresh foods from overseas which by default will taste different from locally grown products.

What’s for Dinner?

2011-08-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

My cooking endeavors burned out pretty quickly. The past 5 nights have gone as follows:

Friday: Ruby Tuesday

Saturday: Pizza

Sunday: Village Inn, noodles

Monday: Leftovers, salmon burger, corn

Tuesday: Taco Bell

My best intentions have not been a complete failure. There is more fresh food in the house. The girls got fresh parmesan cheese on their noodles Sunday night. Also the farmers market was a hit that will probably be repeated this week. This past week was also marked by fresh green beans one night and a cherry pie.

One part of my problem is meal planning. To that end my plan for the rest of the week will be:

Wednesday: Soup & Sandwiches

Thursday: Chicken & potatoes

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Lark Burger

Sunday: Fresh veggies and noodles

Financial Turmoil

2011-08-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

With all the noise in the news regarding the latest market crash, it is time for another financially oriented post. Most American families have little to no savings, have oppressive mortgages and are living hand to mouth. Those families did not lose anything in the crash, will have lower mortgage rates and should see some relief at the pump as oil is cheaper. Retirees will get stung the worst as they have substantially larger savings, own their homes and gas is a smaller part of their budget.

The rest of us are in the middle with one or two incomes, some savings in retirement and liquid financial assets, a standard mortgage and gas consumption on the order of 1000 gallons/year. The correction since the market peak on the S&P 500 is 14%. That is a lot of money which probably won’t be recapped for two years on retirement funds. If a person had $100,000 in undiversified retirement assets, that amounts to a $14,000 hit. However if that same person had a $100,000 mortgage, they could refinance and save about $50/month. Further if gas prices drop to $3/gallon from $3.50/gallon that amounts to an additional savings of $40/month.

For those individuals who were saving up for new appliances, a car, or a home remodel, there are substantial savings to be had. The stock market and real estate drops make people feel poor and there is usually some belt tightening. That means canceling Netflix or dining out less frequently. However people who were planning on putting a $5000 down payment on a car may wait a year to see what happens. That is where smart shoppers can get a nice deal.

Finally for the “End of the World as We Know It (EOTWAWKI)” crowd, they are relishing in the collapse of currencies and gold hitting an all time high. They have plenty of canned goods in the house and enough ammunition to discourage any uptick in home invations.

C-130 Experience

2011-08-08T09:05:00.001-07:00

This year as part of my wife’s military service, I got a special treat. Along with some other military spouses I had the opportunity to participate in a short flight on one of the C-130 aircraft at Peterson Air Force Base. After being verified on the manifest, we headed onto the flight line and boarded via the aft loading ramp. We were briefed on board with some safety instructions and given Emergency Passenger Oxygen Systems which were not particularly important as we were only flying at 13,000 feet. What could have been important were the motion sickness bags.

Take off was similar to commercial air travel aside from sitting parallel rather than perpendicular to the fuselage. The ride itself was kind of bumpy. As opposed to commercial air travel the aircraft was not pressurized and it never reached the cruising altitude that commercial aircraft reach.

Once we were airborne, the pilot did open up the aft loading ramp briefly to the delight of all the spouses. It is quite the view to see the mountains from the belly of a military aircraft. After closing the aft loading ramp, we were allowed to rotate through the cockpit as well as look out the rear exit doors.

Given the opportunity, I think I would prefer a private jet to a C-130, but it was a really great experience. I could not imagine being cooped up in the cargo hold for a cross country or international flight. However the pilot and loadmasters were very professional. They even took time to answer questions and make sure everybody had a fun flight.

Seal Team Six

2011-08-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

I am currently reading SEAL Team Six: memoirs of an elite Navy SEAL sniper by Wasdin. The family background and special operating training were pretty interesting. The photographs were kind of surprising because I expected to see a mythical perfect physical body and a face with a 1000 yard stare. Instead, Wasdin as photographed is an ordinary looking. That is probably an asset a member of a special operations team.

As a 40 year old, overweight, middle class engineer, the memoir cashes in on childhood dreams to be somebody. At one point, that aspiration would have been a pilot, an elite cyclist or an aerospace engineer. Today I am not sure what that aspiration is. I enjoy endurance sports and exercise on a regular basis. I am an Eagle Scout and have experience in the outdoors. However, I am a little cynical. That cynicism has made me question my genetic capabilities, mental toughness and drive.

As described in the book, special operations units require a level of mental toughness that few individuals possess. Physically stronger and faster individuals will not necessarily perform better in the conditions that these units train and operate in. Further the mental faculties required to brief and perform operations in highly fluid environments are rarely pared with that mental toughness. Finally the members of these teams train and operate in very high risk environments. It is only a matter of time before the stars align and one is wounded or killed.

A quick Wikipedia search turned up the name Eric Olson, the longest serving Navy SEAL on duty. At 59 years of age, he is currently a four star Admiral. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1973 and completed BUD/S training in 1976. His career is an inspiration in starting at the Naval Academy with Richard Nixon in office and the Vietnam War escalating. Then he goes on to complete BUD/S training and was in the Battle of Mogadishu around 1993 which would have been the standard 20 years of service. For the past 18 years, he has still served and is currently the US Special Operations Command combatant commander.

I applied to the Air Force Academy, but was not accepted. My wife is currently serves in the Air Force and I am proud of her contributions. I wonder sometimes what it would be like to have a military career or a professional sports career. However, I also think it would be relatively easy and fun to learn to parachute, scuba dive, perform unarmed combat like boxing or martial arts, get a private pilot’s license, learn to shoot small arms or learn tactical driving.

My baby step will probably be to get out to an indoor shooting range sometime and take a few lessons. Until then I will stick to running and swimming.

Video Entertainment Update

2011-08-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

I have experimented with a Roku and antenna reception of digital programming at the house and have mixed success.

I am currently using an RCA ANT1450B Multi-Directional Digital Flat Amplified Home Theater Antenna. The picture quality is great as a digital broadcast should be. However, I am not getting all of the channels I expected to. The signal quality is best upstairs and worst in the basement. Of my channels of interest, I get CBS, Fox, Ion and Universal Sports. I am not getting NBC or ABC reliably which means no Law & Order or House. I also get PBS and some several odd ball channels broadcast in Spanish.

The Roku is pretty cool and the picture quality is great. I will end up paying $7.99 for Hulu plus access. House is available via Hulu Plus. Law & Order, Criminal Minds and CSI are not available.

Based on my preliminary results, I am still planning to get rid of cable and am considering getting rid of Tivo, which costs $129/year and without cable I would only be recording a couple of programs/week.

Cooking More

2011-08-01T09:32:00.001-07:00

As all my hobby interests tend to wax and wane, I have started trying to cook a little bit more again. This time, my impetus was reading about the tasty dishes my facebook friends were cooking up. While I am a far cry from whipping up risotto or tandoori chicken, I am starting to make small steps again.

Last week I experimented with meat pies. The experiment was a failure, but with leftover dough the girls did eat some crescent rolls and ate pizzas that they assembled with cheese and black olives. One nice plus is that I added a couple of Le Creuset stoneware 4.5 inch pie dishes which will come in handy in the future as our family tends to cook in single serving portions.

The other big hurdle was getting out to the Farmer’s market for fresh vegetables. My sense of taste is not terribly keen, nor do I get wrapped around the axle regarding organic cultivation. However, I do appreciate that vegetables bred for volume production and transportation stability may not taste as good as vegetables bred for local consumption. My big purchase was some Stupice heirloom tomatoes from Star Acre Farms. They are a local supplier who sells full and half community supported agriculture shares in addition to vegetable delivery and participation in farmers markets. The tomatoes are an early variety and taste great. That may be all in my head as people’s taste is often affected by expectation.

My other purchase was a bag of pluots. This plum-apricot hybrid is terrific and I look forward to them every year. Summer is great for fruits anyway and in the winter we usually stick to bananas and apples.

Season Burnout

2011-07-28T13:32:00.001-07:00

Even though I am less than two months into my three month racing season, I am already starting to feel a little burned out. I planned on doing 3 Stroke & Strides and 2 Duathlons. As it sits, I will probably cancel the last duathlon and replace it with a 2.4 mile open water swim.

I am still getting a lot out of my training sessions, but the thought of assembling all the gear and pushing at race pace is not appealing.

Another factor is a hectic family schedule in August and September as my wife will be traveling for work and my parents will be coming to town for a week.

I am hoping that a quiet season wind down will keep me poised to be more disciplined this winter in terms of keeping a solid training base. In addition to the Chilly Cheeks events, Racing Underground is sponsoring a the Ralston Creek Half Marathon February 12.

Video Entertainment

2011-07-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

I watch a lot of television. Between live programming and video rentals, I log over 500 hours a year in front of the television. Given that baseline, I find it easy to justify Comcast digital cable, Redbox, Tivo and Netflix (DVD and streaming). The cost works out to $1,000/year or about $2/hour.

The question in my mind is whether I am making the best purchase decisions. $1,000/year translates to buying over 50 DVD’s/year, or renting 500 television episodes from Amazon prime, or 1,000 offerings from Redbox. As far as cable television goes, I watch mostly major network offerings ABC, NBC and CBS which I could get from an antenna. I also enjoy FX, AMC, Comedy Central, OLN, Travel Channel and Universal Sports.

I am at the point where I am ready to stop the Comcast and Tivo and purchase a Roku 2 player ($60) and sign up for Amazon Instant Video. I would have access to most of my viewing through free television anyway. We have two digital to analog converters at home and our newer televisions decode signals anyway. The Roku player is cheap and I respect the idea of pay-as-you-go. I have found that subscription services generate complacency and an “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. Even worse is the "I have to get my money's worth" mentality which drives watching more television.

I would definitely keep the Netflix streaming service, but will probably rethink the one DVD/month. If after a 6 month trial, I find myself spending $100/month at Amazon Instant Play, I will know the experiment failed. If however, I find myself spending $10/week to watch the shows I want to watch, buying a couple of DVD’s at the store for the kids and enjoying free trials of Desiflix and other channels offered by Roku, I will be enjoying a fat $300 savings annually.

In a worst case scenario, I will find myself spending over $100/month for video entertainment and will have to start up Comcast again. This is a pain as it requires returning/picking up all of the boxes and dealing with Comcast customer service. However the potential savings may be worth it.

Gear

2011-07-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

I am an admitted gadget freak. Endurance Corner’s bloggers are posting regarding gear this month and that drove my thoughts on the topic. The consensus seems to be train intelligently and gear doesn’t matter much. I can honestly concur with that statement.

My gear tends to fall into 3 camps –

Required – Goggles, swimsuit, bicycle, bicycle shoes, helmet, running shoes

Clothing – Bike shorts, jersey, gloves, socks, running shorts, singlet

Gadgets – Swimsense, PowerTap, Garmin speed/distance device

I also own many items that blur the lines including wetsuit(s), fins, paddles, stationary trainer and a running water pack. If I were faster, I could easily justify race wheels and racing flats. However I have showed restraint with some pool toys as well including mp3 players, kickboard, buoy, tempo trainer, and swim heart rate monitor. Regarding bike and run toys, I have pretty much exhausted current training technology aside from physiological monitoring (lactate tester) and electronic recovery aids (compex).

The bottom line is that I have become faster by training more and losing weight. I have not reached the plateau where training intelligently is required or the next plateau where communications with a coach drives gadget incorporation.

I swim with a masters team and rely on the pace clock for my sets and intervals. I use the fins occasionally, but rarely use the paddles. The swimsense is a fun electronic gadget, but I can count to 40 laps without much trouble. I would not swim differently with heart rate information and an mp3 player would inhibit by ability to communicate with the coach. The pool I frequent has a stack of kickboards and a box of buoys. I have considered a tempo trainer as the swimsense has shown that I have a highly variable stroke count.

I ride on my own and like having a speed/distance device as well as heart rate information. This is a great correlation to perceived effort. I have had a speed distance device for 25 years and the cost is now around $20. I would feel naked without it, but the heart rate monitor is just a clever add-on. I like comfortable shorts, jerseys, shoes, helmet and gloves. I invested money in a bike fit. I also keep upgrade components as “required” and have added a compact crankset and 10 speed drive train to my circa 2001 bicycle. I bought a powertap a couple of years ago but do not use it for interval training. It is another correlation to perceived effort and I found it to be very useful for pacing in my last duathlon.

My running is pretty tame. I usually run by myself with short runs during the week and the occasional weekend long run. I have only done a couple of speed workouts this year. I replace my shoes every 400-500 miles and have utilized a water pack on my long runs. I ran track and cross country in high school and feel like I can pace myself and judge distances OK, but I am hooked on GPS based speed/distance devices. I love having heart rate, distance and pace at my immediate disposal in training and racing. I can zone out and come back to a workout very easily. If my Garmin died, I would replace it the same day.

Replacement urgency is the true test for what is valuable to me. Aside from required gear, the GPS device is the only thing that meets this level of urgency. Aside from bicycle shorts, any other custom clothing is really not required and I can live without most gadgets.

That being said, it is highly likely that within a couple years, I will own a swim heart rate monitor, , race wheels, and racing flats.

Softball

2011-07-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

Softball season came to an end on Saturday with the end of the season tournament. Our team was 1-2 in the tournament but 0.500 for the regular season. It was a lot of fun, but I am also ready for a break from team sports.

I always wonder how much time I will have to commit to softball. This year I was able to play in 10 games out of 26. I missed two weekends for babysitting, two for running, one for traveling and one other weekend that I can’t figure out. I usually only plan on making half the games anyway and this year all of our games were in good time slots and we had enough players on staff to not be in forfeit situations.

I have kept track of my batting average the past two years and it fell from 0.458 for 24 at bats to 0.333 for 21 at bats. Part of me believes that this is a sign to quit. Another part of me thinks I just need to hit the cages more. I will certainly try to get to the cages this fall as they are relatively close to my house and a cheap way to let off steam.

The discussion of who can coach came up and my name came up as I haven’t coached in a long time. I was the second coach and we have had four coaches in the interim. Given the average tenure of players on the team, I am not an unreasonable choice and may take on that commitment in the spring which amounts to attending a couple of meetings and making phone calls every week.

2011 Big Sky Duathlon

2011-07-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, I participated in the Big Sky Duathlon hosted by Racing Underground and held in Bennett, CO. This was another well run event and attracted over 200 participants. I finished in 170^th place in 1:43:36 for the 2.4 mile run, 15.3 mile bike, and 2.4 mile run event. I was extremely pleased with my pace for the first run (8:44 miles) and bike (17.0 mph). The second run was a lot slower at 9:45 miles, but surprisingly that was relatively speaking my best leg at 156^th overall. I guess the rest of the field blew up worse than I did.

The run courses were two flat loops on dirt and paved roads which made it easier to pace. Similarly the bike was a flat out and back which was great to ride as I never average 17.0 mph on my training rides. Of course averaging 127 watts on the course is another record for me. My previous best was 114 on the 9 mile Westside Duathlon course last year when I only completed one loop.

Overall I am very pleased with my season so far. It is the result of a perfect storm in terms of off-season fitness, having my gout in check and family support.

Thanks to Skipix for taking pictures during the event. I think I am going to end up buying one of the two thumbnails.

Flip Turns

2011-07-12T10:00:00.001-07:00

I have been swimming with a Master’s team for 1.5 years now. Over that time I have been coached on improving my freestyle stroke and became familiar with workout terminology such as build, descending, in/on, etc. The coach has also provided an introduction to backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. My breaststroke actually feels OK, the backstroke is very choppy and the butterfly is still unrecognizable to my Swimsense. This past week, I peeled the onion another layer and have started doing flip turns.

I started with doing somersaults (had to look up the spelling on that one) and then started approaching the wall. The initial feedback was tighter tuck and come off the wall upside down. My next stage was youtube videos and more practice. I am now either hitting the wall very close or not at all. Hopefully in another couple of weeks, I will be hitting the wall consistently with knees bent about half way.

In the meanwhile, being underwater during the turn made me realize how much extra air I was getting during my open turns which often turned into broken sets. I have felt hypoxic, especially when my rotation places me a few feet underwater. Overall, I am pretty excited and will continue to work on flip turns.

Mid Year Review

2011-07-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

2011 seems to have flown by. Both of my kids had birthdays, I turned 40 and my wife and I celebrated our 6^th year of marriage. I have participated in a half dozen races, another softball season and have played 68 hours of poker. The bad news is that I am behind on all four of my goals for the year. In fact, I am not even tracking the data for my dietary goal which was to not eat after 7:00 PM.

As a result it is probably time to level set my expectations for the second half of the year. I would still like to focus on my home life and diet, but I am not quite sure how. As far as my home life goes, I am more aware of being available for date nights and the kid’s activities. However being home has the counter effect of watching more television. On the diet front, I have continued with the late night snacks and high carbohydrate diet. I have started buying salmon and chicken burgers in bulk from Costco that has helped my protein intake. Unfortunately I have not been keeping up with my food journal.

I felt pretty good about my triathlon training until I realized that I was actually down 7% in my volumes year over year from 2010. My times have gotten faster, but I have not been tested on the bike. In the past that has been my weakness and this year my base miles are well below where I was last year.

Candelas Circuit Race

2011-06-28T15:50:00.001-07:00

As I was driving in this morning, I noticed that a section of Indiana, was marked Bike Race July 3^rd, expect delays. I was shocked that this snuck up on me in my own back yard. A quick internet search proved that the Candelas Circuit Race would be held July 3^rd and would consist of multiple 3.6 mile laps utilizing both lanes of Candelas parkway.

I would be competing in the SM35+ 4 and would have to complete 7.5 laps or 28 miles. As it stands I have no intention of signing up as I would probably be lapped at least 2X and maybe more. However, I do intend to ride the circuit this weekend to compare my times with competitive cyclists. This road is close by and has been open for over a year. However, I have only completed it once as it is a pretty tough climb and a fast descent.

As the race flyer suggests, the days of this stretch of open road are probably numbered as a subdivision will certainly crop up.

Breaking Bad Season 4

2011-06-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Breaking Bad Season 4 premiers July 17^th and I am starting to get excited for a summer drama. All of my major network shows are in repeat mode and most of our Netflix has been children’s movies.

I caught an episode of Breaking Bad on AMC and was really intrigued by the characters. The lead, Walter White is a chemistry professor and Father who starts manufacturing Methamphetamine to supplement his meager income in light of upcoming expenses.

As an outsider to the world of recreational drug distribution and users, Walter is partnered with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, who happens to be a low level distributor. The storyline gets a little crazy as his wife is in the dark as to his activities and his Brother-in-law is a DEA agent. The hierarchy of drug distributors is also curious as the show portrays street level dealers and cartels.

I watched seasons 1 & 2 on DVD and am now making my way through Season 3. AMC’s advertisers will get their monies worth as I will be watching Season 4 in real time.

Running Times

2011-06-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

I have really started to see some progress in my running. I think that is probably due to the fact that my bicycling is off. However, I did get in some great base miles during the off season and have been racing more and doing speed work.

I trained for and then completed the Colfax Half Marathon on May 15th. Since then, I have run four 5K’s with the following times:

05.18 NEHFD 5K – 26:48 (8:42 miles)

06.02 Stroke & Stride SS – 29:44 (9:35 miles)

06.09 Stroke & Stride LS – 26:55 (8:41 miles)

06.19 Father’s Day 5K – 26:01 (8:19 miles)

I am having concerns about building up to the marathon distance. Also this string of races has me hoping to run a sub 25 minute 5K this season. That will mean more speed work and better time management.

Memphis Trip

2011-06-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending my Father’s birthday party in Memphis, Tennessee. I grew up here as my parents have lived in the same house for over 30 years. I do not get back as often as I would like, but I did have a great visit.

The logistics of the trip were a bit tenuous as we decided to fly into Nashville via Southwest Airlines and then drive to Memphis. This was an economical decision and the extra 6 hours of commuting time isn’t too bad when part of a four day trip. The girls both traveled really well. We were prepared with lots of snacks and DVDs and were able to pack light for the core items.

I can’t remember the last time we celebrated my Father’s birthday so it was lots of fun to get together with family and friends. There is never enough time to talk with everybody, but at least I could reconnect with a few people.

There were also some errands to be done during the trip. I set up a new computer. As a result of a big gulp of Propel well past its “use by” date, I also helped clear out the refrigerator a little bit. My parents eat the same core foods on a regular basis but still manage to fill up two full size refrigerators with food so that they are only rotating 15% of available space. A job I wanted to tackle was taking books for donation to the library. I have left a lot of my stuff in my parent’s house that I should have in my house. The important items are high school and college degrees as well as scouting memorabilia.

My Dad and I had some great conversations as we both find it easier to talk live rather than on the phone. We do swap the occasional e-mail as well. He passed along a couple of spiritual texts. One I will add to my reading list, the second will probably be a reference book for quite some time.

A few things had changed in the house, and it was nice to see some improvements made here and there. Some things were very much the same. As they have a 2500 square foot home at their disposal, they tend to use most of it with quite a bit of clutter and functional but obsolete goods including gaming consoles, tube televisions, and other electronic equipment. My Mom is quite the bargain hunter and has accumulated easily a 5 year supply of consumables such as kitchen trash bags and laundry detergent.

I really admire that they are both independent and can live a lifestyle that suits them. I share and occasionally cringe at some aspects of the house. I think that is a function of having a smaller home occupied by more people. I will very rarely have a spare of anything that is not hard to find. However I will always pay a premium for these consumables. I also like have open space in cabinets and rooms.

One huge plus is that my daughters could find Barbie dolls and arts and crafts items to enjoy throughout the house.

Happy 40th Birthday

2011-06-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, my family came out to watch me race the Stroke & Stride. As my children are young, this is quite the burden so I really appreciate it. The shots above are from the beach as I come through between swim laps.

I had a great race and set a Personal Record for the 1500 meter swim and 5K run. Compared to last August when I raced this distance my swim was 3:19 seconds slower, but my run was 3:45 seconds faster. The weather conditions were perfect and I was able to clip off 8:41 miles.

It was interesting that the same as last year, I needed some back-up equipment. This time it was my swim cap that tore. I was so glad that I had an extra one. I stayed toasty warm in the 64 degree water.

Stroke & Stride

2011-06-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

I had a great season opener this year at the Stroke & Stride finishing in 51:29 with a 17:28 swim and a 29:44 5K. Last year I had a disappointing swim for my first time out that was even slower than my 2009 time which was my first open water swim in 20 years. I set a very slow pace going out and also had to deal with tough water conditions as there were sustained winds at over 20 miles per hour. Those winds made for tough running conditions also, but my running form is the best it has been in years.

I really think Master’s swimming has made a terrific difference. I have also been getting tremendous family support and have been able to train upwards of 6 hours per week. I have also made inroads with my gout issues. My lost training days to gout episodes are down significantly from the 2010 season.

2009
750m/5K: 19:23/31:10

2010
750m/5K: 24:42/34:37
1500m/5K: 15:12/17:18/30:40

2011
750m/5K: 17:28/29:44

Open Water Swimming

2011-05-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

I originally planned on being out on the open water on May 21st, but after hearing that the water was only 52 degrees, I decided to wait a little longer. The earlier bodies of water to open on the Front Range are Grant Ranch and Chatfield. Bear Creek Lake opens Memorial Day and Union Reservoir opens May 31st.

I did finally make it out May 30th and ventured out to Bear Creek Lake. Fortunately I did not realize that this is one of the colder bodies of water. I was at the lake around noon and got geared up in my Vortex Sleeveless, Blue Seventy Swim Socks, Tyr Cold Weather Cap and standard swim cap. My face and arms were definitely cold, but not take your breath away cold. I swam back and forth in the swim lane 6 times and was in the water for 32 minutes. Upon exiting, I still felt pretty good, but was not planning on pushing the pace anyway. On the way out, I consulted the staff and found out the water temperature was 56 degrees. I was shocked at how comfortable I was.

I believe most of my issues were due to the snug fit of my 2XU full suit. I feel more comfortable in a sleeveless suit and don’t have the same constricting claustrophobic feelings. I exited the water with a rapid breathing rate but relatively low heart rate of 120 beats per minute.

The success convinced me to sign up for the Stroke & Stride this Thursday. Learning from last year’s mistake, I signed up for the 750 meter swim and I intend to take off with a very slow start.

Colfax Half Marathon

2011-05-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

At some point, I will need to write a full review. Until then, I can start out by saying that I successfully completed the Half Marathon on May 15th with a time of 2 hours and 38 minutes. I felt like I paced myself pretty well and finished without much left in the tank.

The weather conditions were cool and very good for running. The race support was adequate. The usual gripes about needing more port-o-potties on the course apply. One interesting point is that the race was advertised to limit cup usage and encouraged people to bring hydrapour and other water containers to the event. I found myself grabbing a cup and then pouring it into my Nathan’s hydration system.

Overall it was a great event and one that I would consider doing again. The course was flat and well supported. The early start made for reasonable commuting and parking. I got there way early this year and will know better for last year.

Kudos to Action Sports Images for taking a lot of great pictures. I will certainly be ordering one for my archives.

Early Half Dollars

2011-05-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

I have changed my collecting focus from Morgan Dollars to Early Half Dollars. Both of these series are popular as they are beautiful coins with a healthy weight. Further as these dominations were used more for reserve than commerce, there are many coins preserved in mint state and fine condition.

Part of the allure to me is that it is something I can claim as my own. My Father has a substantially complete Morgan Dollar collection and completing it is beyond my financial means and expertise. The Bust Cap Half Dollars is a smaller series consisting of 34 coins. 29 of the 34 coins had mintages greater than 1,000,000 coins which provide a smaller rarity premium.

I have 6 dates in about good to fine condition and 1 date in EF condition. My goal is to continue to accumulate 1-2 coins per year from the various coin shows that are hosted on the Front Range. These coins should hold their value well and provide years of enjoyment.

Further if I choose to truly specialize in these coins, die variety specialization could provide more years of collecting this series.

Open Water Kick-off

2011-05-18T15:59:00.001-07:00

The next event on my race calendar is the Boulder Stroke & Stride on June 9th. Overall, I feel really good about my running. My swimming mileage is also up nearly 25% from last year (85,750 yards versus 69,125 yards through May 18th of last year). The real question is how are my open water skills?

Last year, I had a rough start with an aborted attempt May 15th, followed by three uncomfortable swims the first 2 weeks of June. By breakthrough finally came June 15th at Union Reservoir. I am currently planning on getting in the water this weekend May 21st and hopefully one other time before the race on June 9th.

Base on my experience last year, I am shooting for the 750 meter swim for the first race and then step up to the 1500 meter swim on June 23rd. One possible advantage I have this year are a pair of blue seventy swim socks. I am hoping that if my feet are a little warmer, I will be comfortable in the water in May/June. I also have a new trick up my sleeve and can try breaststroke in addition to freestyle.

Colfax Half Marathon Countdown

2011-05-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

If my countdown timer is working correctly the Colfax Half Marathon should start Sunday at 6:00 AM. As a result, I know that my training is finished. I have been in a “taper” stage since Saturday when I ran an organized 10K. Since then I ran my usual 3.3 mile loop on Monday and was on the treadmill for 30 minutes today. I would like to do one fast workout on Friday. I will continue swimming, but will not be on my bike for more than an hour the rest of the week.

I feel pretty good about the event. I had two 10 mile runs in March and April along with some 6-7 mile runs. I am also pretty conservative in my goal which is to finish in 2:24 (average 11 minute miles).

While the race does not start until 6:00 AM, I need to be there early enough to park along with 8,000 other runners. That time will be no later than 4:30 AM, which means I am up at 3:30 AM to leave the house by 4:00 AM. This will be less than fun, but it also means that I could be home as early as 9:30 AM to spend time with the girls.

The weather should be warm enough to run in shorts/t-shirt and as I am parking close to the event, I should be able leave a jacket/pants in the car and head to the start with just my keys. The last large event I did was the Bolder Boulder, but I always managed to utilize RTD. Given the early start time, I don’t expect RTD to be much help.

Reading List

2011-05-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

As I have taken an interest in reading again, I have constantly been on the lookout for book recommendations. If I read about a book in a magazine or blog it goes on my list. I will also peruse the NY Times best sellers list for authors of note. As a result my list has grown to 72 titles. At the rate I am going, that amounts to about 3 years of reading.

However several titles keep getting thrown on the back burner. Most of these are non-fiction sports books in the fields of bicycling, running and triathlon. It is a rare situation where an author excels in a sports discipline and is also an entertaining writer.

I am constantly adding books faster than I can read them. I really enjoyed a Michael Connelly book that I was turned onto during the previews at the movie theater. Just today I added the Split Second by Balducci based on a more recent book being on the best sellers list.

There was a time that I was more interested in the classics as I got an ego boost from being familiar with authors and references. I read some works by Dostoevsky and now keep the paperbacks on my shelf as trophies. However that luxury has faded. I use books to become educated on topics of interest and as an escape from real life.

I am currently reading “The Olympian” by Glanville and on deck is “Swimming to Antarctica” by Cox. “The Olympian” was added based on a quote in Runner’s World magazine. I was turned on to “Swimming to Antarctica” based on a television series profiling athletes and learned of Lynne Cox’s prowess in open water. At the library I am on the waiting list for “Cutting for Stone” by Verghese. I started this book but did not finish it during the three week lending cycle.

Human Motion Institute

2011-05-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Human Motion Institute at Exempla Lutheran Medical Center along with the APEX center and the Arvada Triathlon Club recently concluded a community education series. The series included presentations on running injuries, cycling injuries, women’s specific sports medicine, environmental factors in sports medicine and concluded with swimming injuries.

The presentations were performed by Brian Shannon (Orthopedist), Tod Sweeney (Family Medicine) and Thomas Maino (Family Medicine). The interactive lectures felt like half continuing medical education and half get a free consult from a sports medicine doctor. I particularly enjoyed the presentations as I participate in triathlon and have been repeatedly sidelined by numerous “injuries” over the past few years. Over that same time, I have been fitted for orthotics, had my bike professionally fitted and have had a master’s coach look at my swim form. My current thinking is that everything has been gout related and misdiagnosed personally and professionally.

At any rate, I really appreciate the Human Motion Institute and the individual doctors donating their time. More and more athletes branch out into new sports and assume they can just walk off injuries. Usually they return to exercise only to aggravate an existing issue. Also some adults bring the mental intensity of youth along with the physical capabilities of middle age and find themselves with acute and chronic injuries that require professional care.

It is also refreshing to hear professional reviews of anatomy, physiology, and incidence rates. It was also a good reminder to treat for the most likely, but rule out the most dangerous.

Brake Repair

2011-05-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

This post intends to relay my experience with brake repair and recommends getting the brakes checked every 30,000 miles, shopping around for repairs and understanding what the measurements on a “free brake inspection” mean.

I am slowly developing experience in automobile maintenance. I have owned two cars in my lifetime. A Chevrolet S-10 that had 173K miles when sold and a Ford Mustang with 56K miles which I am currently driving. Over those 229K miles I have changed batteries, bulbs, belts, an alternator, some suspension parts, spark plugs, spark plug wires and oil. At the shop I have had shocks, brakes, fuel pump, and several other minor jobs done.

I am starting to understand the brake work is a very profitable business. In addition to the dealer, most shops do brakes and Brakes Plus supposedly specializes in brakes. Most service involving disk brakes includes the brake fluid, pads and rotors. There are obviously more complex repairs that are beyond my experience.

Brake Fluid should be the easy one. There is test strip similar to blood test strips that test the copper content of the brake fluid. However, at Midas the measurement was 57 parts per million (ppm) which is OK and at Firestone was 300 ppm which requires replacement. The variation surprised me, but brake fluid can deteriorate at 100 ppm every 36 months so I went ahead and had it replaced at $20 for the parts plus $65 for labor.

Brake pads are also relatively straight forward. This is what is most popular advertised at $97.88 for all four wheels, $79.99 per axle, etc. Brake pad thickness is measured with calipers. They start at around 12 mm (0.50 inches) and need to be replaced when they are worn down half way to 6 mm (0.25 inches). Mine were well below that with one approaching 2 mm. Firestone charged me $130 for the pads and $190 for labor which is high compared to advertised rates, but well within reason for an honest brake job.

I am starting to feel like a lot of advertised rates are a bait and switch as I haven’t met anybody who walked out the door at Brakes Plus only paying $97.88 or leaving Midas only paying $159.98. Browsing Advanced Auto Parts, NAPA and O’Reilly Auto Parts has the parts alone at between $30 and $70 for a set of front or rear brake pads. Labor is based on the flat rate estimate of 3 hours and a straightforward job by a competent mechanic could be done in 1 hour.

Rotors are part of the brake system that do wear out, but should not wear out if the balance of the brake system is maintained correctly. On my car the nominal (starting thickness) starting thickness of the rotors is 1.04 inches on the front and 0.55 on the rear. These are also measured with calipers and I again got different measurements at different shops. I question Firestone's measurements given the starting thickness on the rotors, but what's a few hundredths of an inch.

Nominal - (1.04) & (0.55)
Midas - (1.018/1.017) & (0.548/0.545)
Firestone - (1.040/1.053) & (0.572/0.579)
Replace - (0.97) & (0.50)

These rotors can be machined to 0.99 inches and 0.52 inches respectively and should be replaced at 0.97 inches and 0.50 inches respectively. Midas recommended replacing all four rotors as machining them was not worth it given the incremental costs of new “premium” rotors at about $70 each. My total brake estimate was $730 at Midas (as I stalled the manager was able to knock $100 off, that is when I decided I should get a second opinion). After researching rotor thickness, there was obviously enough meat on my rotors to justify machining. The complete brake job at Firestone was $430 (two sets of pads, brake fluid, and labor). There was also a $50 rebate and if received my cost would drop to $380 (a $250 savings off of the discounted price at Midas, but comparable as the 4 rotors would be a little over $250).

If I own the car beyond 120K miles, I will expect to replace the rotors but will pay $190 for front and rear drilled and slotted rotors from 88rotors.com rather than have the shop provide “premium” rotors.

My S-10 was a little easier to maintain. I recall the initial brake job at about 90K miles costing me $400 for new pads and front rotors which I thought was ridiculous, but may have been right. I then had the pads replaced a second time and this time the rear drum brakes needed new hardware. This marginal cost did not bother me as I was only paying labor on the pads which I recall being reasonable.

Lifestyle

2011-04-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

I recently read a blog posting and a book that got me thinking a lot more about family and lifestyle choices. We are currently a two income family with two young kids in day care. We are debt free aside from a home mortgage with roughly 20% equity (not underwater).

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua made me reflect on how much time I spend with my children and whether I am ready to step-up with time and money to ensure that they are (1) in the 90th percentile academically, (2) exposed to a cultural and athletic hobby complete with lessons or coaching, and (3) well rounded in terms of exposure to religion, philosophy and health. Right now I am failing on all fronts as I rarely do homework or read with my 4 year old, she washed out of swim lessons, I rarely take her to religious services and her dietary/sleep habits are worse than mine.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes by Sonja Wieck got me thinking about the possibility of not being a two income family and what threshold lifestyle is reasonable. These choices include home ownership, late model cars, frequent dining out and maid service. Another caveat was participation in hobbies for the kids (cheap) and me (expensive). My only truly expensive hobby is casino gambling. My race schedule is pretty light and swimming, bicycling, running is not expensive aside from buying a bike which I already have. Coin collecting is expensive, but only due to carrying costs. Liquidating the pieces I have purchased in the last 5 years would show a return on investment.

Roundup

2011-04-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

I have had a gouty left first finger since my last post and that has significantly cramped my style. It is going on 10 days and at this point I am being as cautious as possible to get well again.

Swimming:
This has been non-existent this past week. I figure I have a 25% chance of Master’s practice Thursday and a 50% chance for Saturday.

Biking:
The bike has been hung up. I took it to the shop last night for a long awaited 10 speed upgrade. I am excited to have it back for the weekend.

Running:
I have still been putting in the miles as my finger is a non-issue. However with the Indomethacin and Vicodin, I did put on some weight which made for slower miles. Less than three weeks to go for the Colfax Half Marathon.

Poker:
I had a good session last Saturday and have now gone up the hill three weekends in a row and have been back on time every weekend. I am not sure about this weekend, but I am not missing anything.

Shopping:
My Hitachi cordless screwdriver arrived and the batteries were even charged when I opened up my little kit. I also received a shipment from the US Mint. My shopping is pretty much done now and thankfully so as my coin purchases this year have been above budget.

Roundup

2011-04-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Swimming:
I have been pretty disciplined about making Master’s practice and even made last weekend’s 5:00 AM practice. It is that time of year with a lot of swim meets and the Meyer’s pool hosts their fair share. My stroke continues to feel better and I am gradually building up my endurance. The past several workouts my coach has got me thinking in terms of send-offs instead of resting between sets which has been really beneficial.

Biking:
I have been getting out on the bike a little more and feeling really good. My average power has not gone up much, but my speeds have improved significantly. I was averaging 11.7mph April 2010 and have been averaging 13.4mph this April. I also had the chance to explore Easley Rd. which links my part of town with the bike path that runs along State Highway 58. It is a pretty calm road without much traffic. Unfortunately it also does not have much of a shoulder.

Running:
My weekly mileage has averaged 17 miles per week the past 5 weeks and I am still on track for a good run at the Colfax Half Marathon. The Arvada Tri Club is going to start speed workouts this week and I feel like I have sufficient base mileage to take advantage of some speed training.

Poker:
I have gotten out for a couple of short sessions the past two weeks. It is kind of weird to have a time cut-off, but I have to appreciate that I am not a professional player who will only play when the action is good and willing to walk when the action is poor. I am a recreational player who will play in a game when I am overmatched and likewise am willing to leave a soft game as I have other responsibilities.

Shopping:
My Purdue triathlon top arrived in the mail last week. I have some Shimano 6700 shifters coming in the mail this week. I also have a Hitachi cordless screwdriver on order. It is nice when sales come around for items that I have been patiently waiting for.

Hunkta Bunkta

2011-04-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

My girls got an unusual treat last night as they decided to join me on an errand to the library to return an unfinished book (I am back on the waitlist) and pick up a request. We ran into our neighbors who had extra tickets to a Hunkta Bunkta. Katherine Dines has been putting these roughly 1 hour programs on at all of the Jefferson County Libraries and the event we attended was at Standley Lake.

She was a very vibrant entertainer and even my girls stayed engrossed for nearly 30 minutes which is saying quite a bit. She mostly sang, but also played guitar and had a variety of props.

As per the routine, she also had CD’s and other items for sale. I usually don’t mind these captive audience type things because it gives me the opportunity to see works or performances that I otherwise would not. Further I appreciate that as a public resource, the meeting rooms should be made available to government officials, non-profit organizations and community members assuming the events are open to the public and family friendly.

Limitations

2011-04-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

“A man’s got to know his limitations.” Dirty Harry Callahan said it best in the closing scene of Magnum Force. This has been a line that waxes and wanes in my consciousness as I pursue various endeavors. Most often it comes to mind when I bite off more than I can chew. The most recent bite being the Colorado Colfax Marathon. While 16 weeks is a reasonable amount of time to go from 10 miles/week runner to “completing” a marathon, I will not be ready by May 15th.

With that in mind, I finally sent in the request to change my entry from the full to the half marathon. This will still be a challenging distance and will provide sufficient incentive for me to focus on a workout plan.

RMRR MTS 10 Miler

2011-03-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend I made another step forward in my quest for a finish at the Colfax Marathon. I completed the RMRR marathon training series 10 mile run in 1:55:08. While my time is nothing to write home about, I had a really good run and did not feel too bad until the 9 mile mark at which point I was just looking forward to being done. It is difficult to imagine running another 16.2 miles. I was really impressed by the folks heading back out for a second out and back to complete a 20 mile run.

I also had some new gear to try out. I purchased the Nathan Sports Speed 2 hydration pack from Road Runner Sports. The waist pack is a little heavier than the fuel belt, but felt very comfortable on my waist. I was a little concerned about running with an additional 20 oz of fluid. Those concerns were quickly dispelled. I started my run with both holsters half full and was glad to have water at 1 and 2 miles as the first aid station was not until mile 3. Having Gatorade was a nice treat for the two miles 2 the aid station at mile 5. I will continue to use the hydration pack during my long runs, but will probably leave it at home during my 3 mile jaunts.

What’s for Dinner?

2011-03-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

The dinner question continues to rear its ugly head. The past week has gone as follows:

Thursday: Souper Salad
Wednesday: Soup (me), Rubio’s (wife), uneaten rice/beans (girls)
Tuesday: Turkey Burger/muffins (me), ? (wife), uneaten rice/daal (girls)
Monday: Buffalo Wild Wings
Sunday: Frozen Pizza
Saturday: Popeye’s Red Beans & Rice, Which Wich
Friday: McDonald’s

The past seven days have amounted to 4 nights of eating out, 2 nights of prepared foods and 1 night of actual cooking. Costs aside, the dinner plan has probably had a significant impact our family’s health as fast food is typically high in sodium. Further, it is not apparent that the girls are eating more with dining out than they are with dining at home. The convenience is certainly a factor, but it should not be the exclusive factor.

I have turned to the internet to find recipes for kids but have had mixed success. Usually mixed ingredients have not gone well and soup has been hit or miss. Tonight I plan to lead with hummus and crackers and then follow up with soup.

Note From School

2011-03-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

The dreaded note from school arrived announcing that my daughter was not listening or cooperative. As kids get a warning with their name on the board and then 3 strikes before getting a note sent home, it must be trouble. At first I was relieved on a personal level that the school was having the same challenges I was having. Then I realized that my daughter’s failure in school was my failure in developing listening skills and cooperation skills.

All kids will have challenges and will develop a personal identity based on their environmental norms. The norms will vary based on socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and cultural norms. I developed my own standards for appropriate conduct, but failed to live up to them many times. Even today I struggle with making the right decisions regardless of knowing what the right decision to make is.

I am glad that the school is communicating. However I am not sure what the best approach to take is in terms of positive reinforcement of good behavior, negative reinforcement of bad behavior or something else.

Tennis

2011-03-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

I finally broke out the old tennis racket and hit some balls against the backboard close to my house. It was actually quite fun and my stroke is about where it used to be. I only hit balls for about 15 minutes, but I was surprised to be a little sore the next day. It is amazing how unfamiliar movements can tax the body significantly.

Interestingly the day after hitting balls, I was talking with a colleague and he and I may decide to hit together. This is exactly the kind of behavior change I was looking for. While we would both be considered beginner players, it may provide the opportunity to get a workout in and have a conversation at the same time.

One message I gleaned from “The Tennis Partner” was the importance of building male friendships. While the memoir focused on trust and betrayal under the guise of addiction and recovery, tennis was a backdrop where people of dissimilar situation could share a common bond.

Interlibrary Loans

2011-03-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

I have recently discovered and started to take advantage of my local library services. For the past few years, we have been regulars at story time, will check out books and flip through the latest magazines. However, in the past few weeks I have reviewed medical journals stored on microfiche, flipped through reserve books that are on the shelves, downloaded a digital book to my home computer and most recently I have taken advantage of the interlibrary loan feature.

The interlibrary loan feature is particularly enticing as these books not stocked in the Jefferson County library system would have ended up on my list of books to purchase. I have found several out of print books as well which would have ended up costing me a premium to buy used.

It is kind of like peeling an onion and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the staff and wealth of resources. I feel bad that funding has been cut and the library is no longer open on Mondays. However, my appreciation will hopefully be communicated through public support and tax dollars.

Softball

2011-03-08T08:38:00.001-08:00

This year I did not revisit the dilemma of whether or not to play softball. I want to play. I will still miss some games and I am still not very good. However being a part of is becoming more important to me. I have put social circles and supportive friends on the back burner. I don’t know how this trend started, but today I have a hard time calling anyone. If I need help with something or wanted to participate in non-individual sports, I am not sure where I would turn.

I have played softball for the past 10 years and while the friendships are casual at best, it is important for me to not let go on another facet of who I am. I recently read “The Tennis Partner” by Verghese and it was a powerful reminder to me of how important male friendship is. It would be beneficial for me to have a commitment that allows me to spend time with a non-family member on a weekly basis.

I could easily create that time also as I could cut out my semi-regular poker outings and movie outings. Unfortunately, I still have problems with commitment and prefer to have a flexible schedule.

E Readers

2011-03-07T10:58:00.000-08:00

As I am a gadget hound, I am naturally interested in e-readers. These are devices with varying levels of functionality, the primary being reading books. Any multitude of devices can be used to read electronic books. Some of these, I already have access to and include the Apple Touch and Palm.

The devices I am referring to now are “dedicated” devices and use e-ink rather than color LCD and navigation features to reproduce a natural reading experience without frequent charging, complex navigation and overwhelming feature sets.

Market Share:
Amazon Kindle: 50%
Apple Ipad: 32%
Sony Reader: 5%
Barnes & Noble Nook: 5%

I present the market share only to reinforce that in digital devices, the market leader usually becomes the long term device of choice, while the market laggards become Betamax. If I were to purchase a device, I would choose the Kindle because my sister has one and we could share books and she could probably get me access to even more books than I could find at the library. The only downside to the Kindle is that it does not support Epub books (those that I can check out from the library).

However, given my diverse interest in books, I am happy to continue to check out books from the library in print format and reserve the Kindle for books I intend to purchase. I currently purchase about 3-4 books per year and am not thrilled about increasing my bookshelf space. Some of these purchases are out of print books that does not necessarily get me anywhere with the Kindle.

I must state the Sony and Barnes & Noble devices appear to be better products in terms of formats supported and expandability. Similar to the original Palm devices, they seem ahead of their time. I of course have learned my lesson with the Palm, Dell DJ and other one off devices that are museum pieces at this point. If the library offerings continue to grow and the Kindle does not offer support, I can always purchase a second reader as the prices will certainly continue to erode.

Vegas Baby!

2011-03-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas with my wife. We have not traveled together without children in four years. Further, while I have been to Las Vegas many times, my wife has never joined me.

Las Vegas is a wonderful city to visit as a couple or I might even dare say as a family. It is an expensive town to be sure, but there are a host of activities including shows, movies, and exhibits all in walking distance of most hotels. The dining choices are abundant and every cuisine is offered at one place or another.

While winter puts a damper on golf and pool activities, a fitness enthusiast can still take a jog on the strip before foot traffic picks up.

One big drawback is that smoking is still allowed in public in Las Vegas. While this would be a nuisance for short periods of time, it kind of gets to you after 2-3 days. Also, I wasn’t impressed with the poker action. I went by the Flamingo, Caesar’s and Bellagio. Bellagio was the only card room hosting a non-holdem game and these waters were filled with sharks playing $40-$80 mixed game. I am sure I could have still found Omaha at The Orleans and the Mirage, but gambling was not the goal of this trip.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Cirque du Soleil performance, Zumanity. I was impressed not only by the skilled performers, but also the choreography and showmanship. The New York New York theater is a nice venue. Overall the experience rotated my thinking on the joy to be gleaned from live performances.

We also had a terrific lunch at Zeffirino. My wife had the eggplant parmesan and I had the spaghetti carbonara. The décor and service is exquisite. It was a great way to enjoy some time at the Venetian. It was particularly satisfying as our previous culinary encounters had been haphazard and more often disappointing.

Dell Inspiron 17R

2011-03-04T08:52:00.001-08:00

I finally pulled the trigger on a new laptop during Dell’s President’s Day weekend sale. I must say that I am not disappointed and don’t have a trace of buyer’s remorse. The laptop is fast and Windows 7 is an excellent OS for me. I was a little worried about the transition from Windows XP, but those were quickly put aside. The startup time is dramatically faster and websites load much faster as well. It came with Microsoft Office which allows me to update documents for work.

For roughly the same weight as my Inspiron 8600, I have drastically bigger monitor, integrated 9 key touchpad and a host of features that are yet to be explored. These include home networking, built in webcam, and a DVD burner. Fortunately it made obsolete many of the peripherals I had purchased for my 8600 including a USB 9 key touchpad, a USB card reader and a PC card. The 500GB hard drive will also allow me to have more files local so that I am not trolling the Western Digital external drive for files that did not fit on my 40GB hard drive.

I look forward to managing my Tivo recordings and home movies more intelligently. In the past, I have been dependent on my wife’s computer.

There are of course the natural challenges in getting a new computer. I have not ported all of my files over and setting up iTunes and other sites is always a pain. Further, I will have to remind myself of all of my logins/passwords as I don’t know an efficient way to pass over cookies.

My primary usage is still e-mail and web surfing, but a net book would have been a disappointment. My intent is to have a desktop replacement at home. If I had a dedicated office, I might have simply opted for a desktop. The only drawback is the meager battery life. This will natural be a problem with the display I have selected and it is a not issue for me.

Time Trial

2011-02-23T12:55:00.001-08:00

The corporate Bolder Boulder time trial was today. Last year I turned in a disappointing 31:28. This year I turned in an encouraging 29:17. I would like to claim victory by having lost weight or having a great training base, but I think I just had a good run.

29:17 translates to a 9:26 pace which is a huge improvement for me. I feel good about 10:00 minute miles. I still need to try running a mile on the track.

16 Week Marathon Training Plan

2011-02-22T13:22:00.001-08:00

I downloaded a training plan in mid-January that could have served as a great beginner plan. The long runs started at 6 miles. The plan follows the principles of progressive cycles, giving the body a chance to recover over the 4 week cycles. Unfortunately I have had a couple of setbacks with gout issues in January and travel in February. Plus the weather the past 6 weeks has forced a lot of time on the treadmill.

Last week was my highest mileage since September 2010 and consisted of a mere 12.8 miles. The training plan calls for 15-16 miles in week 1 and 19-21 miles during week 5 which I am currently in. I am hoping to stay healthy and continue running 4 times each week. If I can manage that and include a weekend long run, I will feel much better about the Denver Marathon which is now 82 days away.

I am still not certain of a finish, but I certainly appreciate the nice weather and healthy legs.

Nobody Pays Retail

2011-02-17T15:30:00.001-08:00

I was recently stuck at the airport and decided to buy a book to pass the time. My sister had recently suggested “Freedom” so I looked for it at the bookstore. Hardcover was all that was available and the jacket price was $28, with tax it was just over $30. The book was bulky and paperback is not yet available.

When I got home, I looked the title up in the library and mine would have been hold 206 on 193 copies, so I could have gotten it in a matter of weeks.

Next I checked Amazon and the hardcover was $14.93 and the Kindle version $12.99. I am starting to believe the book was intentionally published bulky to draw readers to the Kindle version. Holding this book is heavy when reading in bed.

It got me thinking that very few people pay retail. I rarely purchase books unless I cannot borrow them from the library. I have occasionally considered purchasing out of print books that I have enjoyed so that I can maintain access to them in the future, but usually I don’t follow through.

Sable Goggles

2011-02-15T13:09:00.001-08:00

I continue to be miffed by the jellyfish style clasp on the recreational goggles by sable water optics. While the quality of the optics is incredible, I have gone through the original as well as 3 replacement clasps since July 2009. I have a hard time believing this is typical usage. I noticed that the fourth clasp was broken this morning.

The first break was just before a race in June 2010. The next break was in September 2010. The third break was in December 2010 and the last one broke this morning. The customer service has been very good, but how many of these things should I have to go through. Rather than request another replacement piece from Sable, I am taking a shot at a 0.75 inch plastic buckle assembly. If this works out in the pool, I may have a long term solution.

If I choose sable water optics in the future, I will try the competitive goggles which appear to have a more standard clasp. The jellyfish clasp has been nothing but trouble.

Consulate General of India

2011-02-15T12:50:00.000-08:00

As a result of 26/11, the Government of India has taken appropriate steps to secure their borders. I do not travel often to India, but was somewhat surprised by the new visa requirements, their costs and their durations. Fortunately PIO and OCI cards are available and are quite cost effective, but tedious for individuals who have family in India.

The process is more involved and requires significant background reporting. Our family’s original application was returned once as it was missing some signatures and proof of identity for my wife. The completed application was resubmitted and received 12/28/2010. The OCI cards were issued in India 1/26/2011 and were received by us 2/12/2011. I was extremely pleased with the rapid processing of the documents. I had originally expected a 90 day time line but instead we received our documents in just 33 business days.

I applaud the Government of India for improving the national security policy and was very impressed with the implementation with the Consulate General of India, San Francisco office. For those considering an OCI application, follow the process to the letter and be prepared for the time line as promised by the consulate. I understand that Travisa will be taking over processing of the OCI application and would be interested in hearing others experience.

Reliving the Glory

2011-02-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

I have had the opportunity to watch Bud Greenspan’s Olympic Films. Apparently he produced several of these films which are being broadcast in remembrance of his life. I am usually not into the human interest side of things, but these movies are enthralling. I watched Seoul 1988 and am currently watching Barcelona 1992.

The films are 3 hours broadcast time and highlight key athletes and match ups during the games. I am particularly drawn in by track & field and swimming events, but have learned something about rowing, judo, gymnastics, cycling, diving and other events as well. All of these games took place during my adult life and I am familiar with the names of the athletes representing the USA. I am less familiar with the international athletes, but that is the beauty of the series.

The sacrifices of an Olympic athlete are unimaginable, but Greenspan does a good job of bringing some of that to light with interviews of the parents and coaches of the various athletes. When a vignette of the competitors lives are offered, the games take on a dimension, I had previously not considered.

While it is unlikely that I will watch all of the events of the 2012 London Olympics, I will preview the schedule of events and Tivo some of them as well.