This is Your Brain on Triathlon

Join me for some surfing and running!

• Week off after running 50 miles.


• Morgan's Oaklies.


• How heat affects you.


• Running upright as possible is the fastest form? June Runner's World.


• Kaizen - changing habits a little at a time.


• 100 pushups a day program via Mcnitt on twitter.


• Sethnickerson on twitter wishes he was at the beach.


• Ttriboomer'sStay Tuned Report show is a gooder!


• Check out the Yogamazing.com video Podcast.


• Ultimate running song - TIMER by Moving Atlas.


• Donation from the pentagon?


• Emily is getting back into it! running, weights...


• Ragnar Radar report by Emily


• Look for the audio on Google. There's a guy from Google walking round your house in your bathrobe RIGHT NOW.


• Thanks Moonpie!


• Hornet Juice Contest winners - Jay See with his epic video and Jeremy Webb (gusano)


• We'll give each of them 100 Hj packets spread over 3 months plus a shirt and cap. All those who sent in their feedback get 30 packets each.


• What is it with people coming back from the dead with HJ? We should name this stuff zombie juice!


• Just came back from watching batman. Somebody needs to make a short film with just Heath Ledger. I'm calling dibbs on the joker outfit for halloween.


• I just got a functional iPhone and HOLY CRAP is it amazing. Updated workoutlog, checked weather, sent email to emily, all while listening to a podcast in way less time than firing up a computer. what a timesaver! Can walk around with theme music!


• Shout out to Jetpack and Special K. Just got married!

How do you keep your Life Log?

I can't surf as much as I used to because I live 2.5 hours from the closest beach.  I end up going about once a month and I have trouble remembering everything I need to know between trips. So, I keep a "Surf Log" in Google Documents to track notes on my experiences and a "Surf Hack" as well to catalog gear changes and tips and tricks.  It's a good reference on what to expect on the drive, what a particular beach is like that time of year, and how long/expensive the endeavor will be.

I look back in my log and can find times like when I went surfing a few days after my son was born.  Reading what I wrote back then about him almost makes me cry.  Keeping a log like this about something you are passionate about is a wonderful thing.  I look forward to someday printing the whole thing out and letting my grandkids read it.  Do you keep something similar?

SURF HACK:

Destination: Matagorda
Distance: 3 hours one way.
Fuel: 3/4 tank in Ford F150 round trip.
Eating: McDonalds for Coffee in Wharton on the way. Bay City has Subway and Whataburger.
Tips: The drive is quite pleasant. Two lane highway most of the way. Very poor rural areas, so make sure your car doesn't break down.

SURF LOG:

2008, July 27
Location: Matagorda
Notes: Drove alone to Matagorda beach. Surfed Hurricane Dolly leftovers (Cat. 2 storm hit Texas/Mexico border 3 days before.) Got up at 2:30 AM, Left at 3:30, was on the beach at 6:30.  Driving at night was cool since I couldn't see anything and listened to iPod. Even though it was daylight, still too creeped out by the unknown and lack of surfers to go in that early.

Surfed from 7:45 to about 8:45 on inside sets on Emily's 7'8" egg board.  First few waves were good.  Tide was high and falling.  Waves were smashing onto the beach shallows too hard and fast to get good rides on them.

Went back to truck and laid in shade of camper shell and napped for an hour.

Went back out on 9' longboard and decided to be brave and surf bigger waves way on the outside. Wasn't doing it earlier for fear of sharks.  WOW, great waves out there. I put the 10' fin on the 9' board a few months ago and it still continues to blow me away how much better it surfs with that.  SAW A SEA TURTLE pop it's head up and look at me!  Bumped my hand into something big and soft underwater a little later. Scary!  WTF was that?!  Stean told me it was probably a body.  Ha ha.

Surfed from 10 to 12:30 out there and was soon joined by a father/son combo that was really cool. Me became friends and chatted a bunch.  We got pushed down the beach about half a mile, so he offered to walk to his truck, come back to where we were, and then load us up and drop me off at my truck.  Gotta love Texas kindness in the surfzone.

AC was broken in truck.  Got to drive home 3 hours in the middle of the afternoon in the Texas heat.  Not terrible, but not fun, either.

Came back into the house with the stupidest grin on my face.  I LOVE SURFING.  Makes me feel on cloud 9 for at least a week.   Somebody is a jerk to me?  That's OK, I went surfing.  :)

Tips - July is not too hot to surf.  Just get there early.  Take a nap in truck or on the beach in the shade of your truck after you get there. Water was wonderful feeling. Used lots of sunscreen and it worked great! If the wind is offshore, mosquitos will be hell, so bring bug spray.  Keep up the yoga and pushups.  Made paddling really easy.

The Ultimate Zen Utility

I was reading a fellow triathlete's Zen-specific blog and came across Now Do This.  Talk about Zen! Wow!

Now Do This asks you to put a short list of items in a box and then it lets you see them one at a time until they are done.  The brilliance is in it's simplicity (and lack of need for maintenance from it's creators).  The page is clean, the font is clear, and there's no clutter.  Fans of Apple stuff and Zen love this look.

I tried it at work today and it was awesome.  Here are some usage tips:

• Keep the list short.  Make it just a few items or you'll never feel like your accomplishing anything.


• This is the "Single-tasking" style. Make your items things can do sequentially.


• Close the browser and you'll lose the list and have to start over.


• Take it home with you and use it for your evening/weekend chores as well.


• Enjoy!

Twitter as a Motivator?

I originally ruled out Twitter as just another crap-tastic time-waster, and it still might be.  Blabbing about what you are doing in short bursts for the whole world to read screams "I'm the most important person ever!"  Kinda lame.  BUT, there is an interesting trend of actual utility with some of it's pawns.  Here's several examples:

1. The Open Sourcer - I recently had a problem with some code on my blog.  I posted on Twitter that I needed some help and the calvary came a-running.  Pretty cool.

2. The Fund Raiser - Coach Adam is using it to get people to donate to a swim to raise money to fight cancer.  It works!

3. The Leader - Twitter user McNitt is using it to motivate others to do the 100 pushups a day program.  Very interesting how people are willfully following his cyber punishment.

4. The Self-Motivator - I've seen many others and myself posting their progress while working on a project.  Many computer jobs are solitary and it is nice to get encouragement from others while working alone on something.

All other uses of Twitter are stupid and evil.  Except for a few more I can think of... What are some of yours?

Surfing, Anyone?

Looks like Hurricane Dolly is busy working up waves in South Texas this week. I'm watching netsurfing.com and some other sites to see what's not deadly available for surfing on Saturday. I haven't been in a while, so I'm excited about going!

It's also my birthday this week! I have been taking it a little bit easy and catching up on some home stuff. My new iPhone came in and was broken right out of the box. I get the honor of waiting for another one to come in again, but only after I sign some paperwork and fax it back to Apple. That being said, this is my first customer service experience with Apple and they are really sharp.

I've gotten the iPhone to work some and it lives up to it's hype. The thing is unbelievably cool. What we need now is some triathlon-specific apps on it. iTri 1.o, people!