Triathlon Training – The Road Ahead

On August 5th, 2012, I will be participating in the Philadelphia SheRox Sprint Triathlon. What is a sprint triathlon? A shorter distance triathlon, and it is composed of three sports: swimming, cycling and running – .6K (.37 mile) swim, 25K (15.5 mile) bike, 5K (3.1 mile) run. The three sports are completed in succession with without any time outs.

As many of my readers know, I’m solid regarding running. Cycling and swimming fall into my ‘needs improvement’ category.  My swimming background consists of an advanced open water (PADI) SCUBA certification and occasional laps in a 25 meter pool. Definite improvement needed!

Bicycling, that is a different story.  I’ve loved bicycling since I was a kid.  I can still picture my first bicycle – white banana seat bike with multicolored frills hanging off the handle bars. I logged many miles on that bike. Over the years my bike grew as I did – from a candy apple blue 10 speed to a Trek Hybrid 7100. Unfortunately, 3 years ago while returning home from bike ride in Pennypack park, I was sideswiped by a motorist making a right hand turn. The rear view mirror on the passenger side whacked my knee nearly knocking me to the ground. The motorist continued on their way and I hobbled home, iced my knee and never took the bike out again.

I signed up for the sprint triathlon partly to get over the gut clench reaction every time I thought about taking the bike out for a spin. It took a while, but I decided not to let this incident dictate my fitness activities, especially one that I love. I still have the hybrid because it is still a great bicycle. I’ve invested in the Trek Lexa S as my triathlon/fitness bike. I have to say, it feels right and good to get back to cycling.

Oh yeah, I’ve so much to learn about bike maintenance – seriously! It took 20 minutes with assistance to figure out how to release and reattach the front tire. A tire change is a complete mystery to me. This is completely unacceptable. I’m determined not to be in the dark about basic bicycle care and plan on attending numerous maintenance workshops.

P.S.: The new bike needs a new name, submit your suggestion in the comment section. Oh, it is a girl bike 🙂

Snark Factor Tonight!

Listen live to the Snark Factor every Wednesday night at 1opm EST on FTR Radio where I will be joining Fingers Malloy, Irish Duke to bring news bites at the top of the hour followed by sparkling chats with invited guests. If you are a fan of my blog, you’ll know that I have an eclectic taste in news of the day.

On tap for Wednesday night:

Oddyssey Half Marathon recap and why there is no record of my official running stats for this race.

Polish PM Donald Tusk demands an apology from Obama’s latest gaffe.

Are your blog posts ‘pin-able‘? Pinterest is quickly rising the charts as one of the largest social media content drivers.

Free find!  PicMonkey – a free photo editing tool that is surprisingly powerful with several creative features that allow photographers to quickly and creatively edit photos.

Sununu VS Soledad – it is almost too painful to watch.

20,000 people applied for 877 openings at a Hyundai Plant.  That is just the tip of the iceberg, the article lists several other job opening were masses applied. What is interesting to note is of the four listed, three of them are foreign based companies – Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai. The lone American corporation on this list is Ford.

 

 

Memorial Day 2012

Source: Uploaded by user via Tania on Pinterest

2012 Oddyssey Half Marathon Recap

 I AM A HALF MARATHONER.

Today I completed the Oddyessy Half Marathon and earned my first half marathon finisher medal. I am grateful for the experience and to have shared it with running friends and family.

A recap will come shortly, right know I need rest and reflection. Check back later this weekend for my recap of this half marathon.

Still get chills when I call myself a half marathoner 🙂

UPDATE:

Non official time – via Nike+ Sportswatch: 02:15:45 with average pace of 10’22”. To date, I’ve yet to be able to access my official time recorded by Oddyssey. Regardless, I’m quite happy with this time for several reasons. This was my first half marathon and I had no benchmark time to improve upon. When registering I selected a finish time of 2:30:00 – I came in 15 minutes ahead of my predicted time.  This result reveals achieving a sub 2 hour half marathon is well within my reach, as long as I continue to run and cross train appropriately.

Remember The Name – Fort Minor

Just the music needed the night before the Oddyssey Half Marathon:

Stand Up For Free Speech Blogburst

Last week, I  became aware of the bully tactics Brett Kimberlin employed against bloggers Aaron Walker, Stacy McCain and Patterico.

Bully tactics is a gentle description of the vile actions of the convicted Speedway Bomber used against the bloggers.

Lee Stranahan provides a scary look into who Brett Kimberlin is:

Via Kimberlin Files

Blogger Aaron Walker and his wife lost their full-time jobs as a result of Brett Kimberlin’s attacks. Robert Stacy McCain lost his home.

Patterico shares his horrifiying experience of “Swatting” in July 2011.

The actions of Kimberlin is a chilling assault on free speech for EVERYONE in the political blogosphere – right or left. Political points of view aside, all of us should remain vigilant in protecting free speech within public arenas. Having a robust political dialog provides a platform for everyone to make better informed political choices.

SHG writing at Simple Justice make a very astute observation about the nature of free speech:

But speech isn’t free for anyone if it isn’t free for everyone. That’s just how rights work.

Many have written detailed accounts of the vile activities of Brett Kimberlin. There is not much more that I can add to this story.  I simply want to raise my voice in support of free speech for all regardless of political affiliation.

H/T to Michelle Malkin for curating the Free Speech Blogburst event.

Snark Factor Tonight

Listen live to the Snark Factor every Wednesday night at 1opm EST on FTR Radio where I will be joining Fingers Malloy, Irish Duke to bring news bites at the top of the hour followed by sparkling chats with invited guests. If you are a fan of my blog, you’ll know that I have an eclectic taste in news of the day.

On tap for Wednesday night:

Oddyssey Half Marathon update.

I watch both Grimm and Once Upon A Time – both shows have a uniquely compelling twist on fairy tale legends.  I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite. So, my readers, which show do you prefer? Vote for your favorite in the poll below:

Public OpinionPoll Results

Michelle Malkin reminds us of the dehumanization of feminist ideology. Ugh, don’t let your daughters grow up to be feminists.

Whatever your stance within the political blogosphere please Blog, Tweet, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, G+ or Storify the heck out of Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day – Friday, May 25th. This type of attack is worse than SOPA and Righthaven combined and will affect every blogger, regardless of your political affiliation.

Sundry Shack – Clearing the Browser Tabs – a must read blog post.

Spirit of the Marathon

Since this is a taper week leading up to Saturday’s Oddyessy Half Marathon, I plan to write about why people run distance races like a half marathon or full marathon.

The best video I’ve seen that delves into the reasons why people run marathons is aptly titled – Spirit of the Marathon.

I strongly suggest you check out the full video on Hulu. It is made of complete awesomeness and well worth the time spent watching the video.

Book Review – David Mamet’s The Secret Knowledge

David Mamet’s The Secret Knowledge was selected for discussion during the May meeting.

I read David Mamet’s book The Secret Knowledge with great enjoyment. His talent for story telling shines through with this novel.

David Mamet, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.  Well known for Glengary Glenn Ross and American Buffalo, he turned the tables on the entrenched political narrative of Hollywood when he penned an article for the Village Voice in 2008 which they entitled ‘Why I’m No Longer a Brain Dead Liberal’.

This book is an expansion of the theories presented in his Village Voice article and has made me a fan girl.

 

It was interesting to read an insiders take of Hollywood’s political monolith, a place where conservatives need not apply. One of the criticisms that came out of the book club discussion was Mamet’s affinity to Hayek who was no fan of conservatives. While that may have been true during Hayek’s day; I would believe that he would find fellowship among modern day conservatives.

If you are conservative, you will appreciate his skill of crafting the debate, but I don’t believe this book was written for conservatives. This was an open letter to other liberals in Hollywood who are quietly questioning the political status quo. It stands as a primer for educating these people to the divergent political philosophies that exist outside the Hollywood bubble.

This is a good read, well worth the time and money. Get your copy by clicking on the links in this post, then share your thoughts of the book in the comment section.

 

Run, Girl, Run

Busy weekend of photography, running, gardening and running some more.

Starting Saturday with a sunrise photo walk at a favorite haunt – Lloyd Hall and the Waterworks:

Then off to participate in Mayfair Fallen Heroes Run and Walk. This year fallen Firefighter Joseph Konrad was remembered. Proceeds raised with be donated in Joseph Konrad’s name to the Hero Thrill Show  which provides scholarship funds for children of police and firemen killed or disabled in the line of duty.

A rather large group gathered on Saturday morning to run/walk 5K and support Philly’s Finest.

After the run, I made a pilgrimage to Feeney’s – the only gardening center in the nation that has EVERYTHING. My little  garden has been entered into a yearly City Gardens Contest and I’m looking to add another red ribbon to my garden. While at Feeney’s, I picked up some promising organic pest control in the form of Praying Mantids.

Since I eat and donate produce from this garden, I am particularly vigilant in maintaining an organic, pesticide-free garden. Organic gardening is quite easy to maintain, also, the garden produces very little waste with most of it is reclaimed and reused in the garden.

Sunday morning was spent running across Ben Franklin Bridge from Philly to Camden with two outstanding running buddies. We ran eight miles in total, including really good hill work.  Training has been going really well and I’m looking forward to the half marathon this coming Saturday.

After the run, we had brunch at Jones, a Stephen Starr restaurant that serves one of the best comfort food in the city. However, I still like Honey’s Sit and Eat just a smidgen better.