The Ragnar Cometh

Ghetto-Fabulous shownotes for right now.  Will clean up when I get a minute...

Intro by RadioHead (bodysnatchers)

50% will be wrong in the next 4 years, we just don't know what 50% yet

Epic Run, Heat, Nuun + HJ + gatorade cocktail, Socks by SLS tri, nathan triangle pack,

Jaysee voicemail, cool sound effects, happy birthday (dethclock)

Ragnar (DESCRIBE), Website (Team White Line Fever), Adam's resume, Posting our training logs, spencer green song

Donation by Matt Hood - I need donations to help pay for this thing!  (emily giving me evil eye).  Donate or buy some hornet juice.

And we need sherpas!

Congrats to BIGUN for finishing his first Ironman.

Just crash anywhere by MOVING ATLAS

The Art of Letting Go

Join me for a killer ride across some rural Texas back roads and up and down a tollway as I talk about the Zen practice of "letting go." I am aboard Karma, my new (used) road bike.

This is a great show with some surprising audio of me almost getting bitten by a dog and also smacked by a hornet.

I also play a very moving song by an artist that died too young, Spencer Green.

SHOWNOTES!

• Sent Victor a picture of Alaskan street graffiti.


• Training for the Ragnar by running two weeks, then taking it easy a week.  Averaging about 45 running miles per week.


• Zen - To have No Fear, you must Let Go.


• One step beyond Nihilism


• When you've let go, you can do amazing things.


• Realize you are part of a much bigger whole.


• Everybody has the ability to do this.


• Story about cracked teacup and one death per person.


• Emily is a Hospice nurse.


• Selling everything at a garage sale.


• Check email only twice a day.


• Use www.rmilk.com to get organized, ok?.


• People do the right thing when they have time to choose.


• I feel like I'm getting my sanity back!

Fear and Running in Alaska

"I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened." - Mark Twain

Emily and I hit the Final Frontier for our 10 year wedding anniversary, spending a week running in a mix of urban and remote wilderness. I recorded a podcast during the week, talking about the Zen approach to fear and a few other things.

Listen in to hear me broadcasting from a remote cabin, a suburban backyard, and an Anchorage restaurant. I reveal how to observe fear instead of becoming it, allowing yourself to live your life to the fullest.

Your links to more podcasts to teach you to deal better with fear are the following -

FEAR - By Zen Master Gil Fronsdal

Zen Garden - By Thich Nhat Hanh

No Ego, No Fear Part 1 and Part 2 by Robina Courtin

Being in Alaska, I go trail running through snow, almost collide with a moose, renew wedding vows next to a glacier, and spot a bear. Plenty of fear to go around, and there's no slowing down.

I also talk about two new pieces of gear that I'm using:

• The Nathan Triangle Pack allows you to carry a 22 oz. water bottle on your waist. I really like it. I can go anywhere I want for two hours and not worry about fueling.

• SLS sent me some compression socks and they work! This was probably the biggest run mileage week of my life (training-wise) and I finished it out with 12 miles wearing these and my legs felt great!

• I am doing a lot of night running to avoid the Texas heat, and the is my new best friend. It's so bright, I think it is actually making car drivers angry. I know that every driver is seeing me, and that's what I'm looking for.

There's also a voicemail at the end of the show from a guy who's making his own tri podcast out of Georgia. I checked it out and it's pretty cool! Here's the link.
SHOWNOTES!

• Chillin' on the deck of a cabin in Hope, Alaska. Population 130.


• Went trail running on the Powerline Trail. Mix of rock and knee deep snow.

• Went running in Anchorage. Almost ran over an "Urban Moose".


• Emily and I renewed our wedding vows standing next to Exit Glacier.


• Hanging out in Samantha's backyard in Anchorage.


• Samantha sings and plays mandolin.


• Gear Review! Nathan Triangle Waist Pack. It's great!


• We go bike riding around Anchorage.


• Emily, Samantha, and I at Bear Tooth's.


• Bike commuting home from work back in Texas.


• The Ragnar cometh.


• Gear Review! Amphipod Xinglet and SLS compression socks.


• Wrap up.


• Voicemails.

Gear Review - JVC Gumy Earbuds

You've probably seen these things all over the place. They're cheap, colorful, and gimmicky. But do they work?

I subscribe to the Can't Replace All Products (C.R.A.P.) purchasing model - if you buy expensive stuff, you'll lose or break it. Buy cheap stuff and it seems to lurk around for eons. I don't know why this happens, but the classic example is sunglasses. There is an inverse relationship of amount paid to lifespan.

Based on the C.R.A.P. model, I wasn't about to buy expensive earphones when I sweat all over them and can easily get them lost or caught in a Zipp 404 at 40 mph. Time to go shopping for cheapos!

So, the sales pitch with the Gummies is that they have a cool texture and come in colors. But do they sound like kag (Texas Aggie technical term) or are they good? Here's the results of my 6 month study on the little guys:

• They sound OK. I'm not blown away, but they aren't bad.


• The gummy texture is only the texture, it's not like they're mushy or anything. BUT, the slight stickiness keeps them in-ear when most would slide out from the sweat. This is a major selling point for me.


• The different colors are a good idea. I buy things in weird colors when I want to find them easily. Get white to match your iPod, or get some other color to pick them out from a jumbled mess of other cords.

So that's basically it. I beat the hell out of these things and they just keep on pumping out sound. I really love how they don't slip out of my ears like most earbuds do. For 10 to 15 bucks, you can't go wrong. Thumbs up!

It’s all downhill from here

I don't think I could have things any better right now.  A sure sign that something terrible will happen soon.

• I bike to work on a chromed out '73 Schwinn Varsity.


• Sometimes I run to work.


• When I run to work, I ride a mile each way to the showers at Gold's Gym on a Sector 9 longboard skateboard.  This was gifted to me by a friend for 8 bucks.


• My buddy is always asking me if I want to drive his '67 GTO.


• I ride a BMC TT02 at my local time trials on Wed. nights.  I even ride there, which takes all of about 15 minutes.


• My kid loves to tag along for rides on his tow-bike.

It's like I'm living in some kind of weird transportation porn movie.  And the whole time I've got theme music provided by my iPod Shuffle.  What a wonderful world we live in.

Are there ways you've turned your commuting/transportation into fun?  Post them in the comments!