Martian Traps and Stacked

Mars rover is stuck in a dune on Mars. I figured the Martian's would get annoyed by it's little battery powered motors whizzing around their mall parking lots.

I put a link in the right to Pamela Anderson's blog called Stacked. I actually watched that show once and found Christopher Lloyd very amusing.

If only I could find Tommy Lee's blog.

Episode 3

I just read some spoilers on the next Star Wars flick - Revenge of the Sith. I read them since I'm sick of being dissapointed by Episode 1 and 2 and this film sounds amazing.

I won't spoil it but it sounds very dark and has several cool ties in to Episode 4. Hard to believe those movies are finally coming to an end after like 28 years.

2005 New Orleans Saints Draft Picks

Here they are..ready for hazing:

First Round - OT Jammal Brown, Oklahoma
Best run blocker in the draft. Can't go wrong with this pick.

Second Round - S Josh Bullocks, Nebraska
Not the guy the wanted but good ball hawk, fast. Should be a good replacement for Bellamy.

Third Round - LB Alfred Fincher, Connecticut
High motor guy. Went to run stairs after being drafted. Can't have enough good work ethic players.

Fourth Round - WR Chase Lyman, California
Strange pick. Could be a good 3rd receiver when Horn retired.

Fifth Round - QB Adrian McPherson, Florida State
THE FUTURE. Major risk. Could be better than Michael Vick if he stays out of trouble. Best athlete in the draft.

Sixth Round - DT Jason Jefferson, Wisconsin
Good character player. Could server a backup role. Comes from a good program.

Seventh Round - DL Jimmy Verdon, Arizona State
7th rounder..whatever.

Blue Jays

Michelle, update the wedding registry. I found something I would like:

Blue Jays Mascot Costume

Can't believe Amazon sells these. This would be great for the game in Cleveland.

Weekend Wrap-up

Another Friday, another AOL going away party, another hang-over.

Saturday watched the draft and headed over to a friends place for dinner. Was introduced to the band Keane, had heard of them but never really listened. Liked it alot and highly recommended.

Finished off season 1 of "24" on Sunday and I predicted Nina was bad. Palmers wife is a total bitch.

Back to back Contender episodes which may have taken over as my fav reality show.

Hope to watch less television from now on.

Google Ad Sense

You see those ads on the right of my blog. Those are Google Sponsorder links...so far I have made 27 cents.

Two words: Supplemental Income

NFL Draft

15 minutes ....1st pick
15 minutes.....2nd pick

2 days later...last pick

I f*ing love the NFL draft. Saints suprise me every year although I suspect a rather boring draft with them taking a CB in the first round. Maybe a QB in the later rounds.

First Sign of Summer?

Last night, as I rode my bike through an unusually rough area of East York, an area where I felt I could get bike-jacked at any moment. There they were....

Carnies!

SWAT Monkey!

Reuters:

Send in the SWAT monkey.

It's not an order police commanders are accustomed to giving, but that could change if an Arizona police department follows through on a proposal to train a capuchin monkey for high-risk police operations.

A Special Weapons and Tactics veteran from Mesa, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, has researched the possibility of landing a $100,000 federal grant to fund a pilot program to train one monkey.

Later on in the article a funny quote:
"I've always heard you can train a monkey to do anything," said Steve Smith, a board member of the National Tactical Officers Association when reached at a convention in Nashville. "Does this mean he's going to have on little black fatigues?"

Run Philosophy

It's now around noon on a hot summer day and you have spent the last 2-4 hours riding a bike and swimming. Funny the irony in triathlon that they would leave the most difficult event until the hottest part of the day. Here are the things I focus on in training:

Bricks - Not sure where the name originated but this is the concept of practicing the bike-run transition. This technique will allow you to train your legs muscle for the switch over. Personally I prefer short interation of bricks.
For example: 10 bike;10 run;10 bike;10 run
These work well when training indoors in the winter.

Occassionally I'll mix in a longer set for endurance. 1hour ride, 30 min run.

I find these help with the most difficult part of a race which personally is the 1st mile of the run.

Hills and Speed - Running long weekend sets is important although I like to mix in at least one power set a week of hills or speed. It's mentally very challenging to be working these high intensity sets although I find if really helps endurance in the 2nd half of the race when people start bonking on the smallest of hills.

• Hills - 6-10 reps of a 400 M hill. Slow jog down the hill. Try to maintain contact pace on the way up through each set.
• Speed - 6-10 reps of 400M. Slow jog between each set for 30sec - 1min.
  

Now that the weather had improved I'll periodically update my training progress.

Viagra ruled kosher for Passover

From Missing Links blog:

Looks like those who adhere to Passover laws forbidding the consumption of leaven can make an exception when it comes to one type of rising agent--Viagra.

According to Wednesday's Jerusalem Post (free registration required), rabbis have found a way to work around the fact that the pills' coating contains leaven, which is to be avoided during Passover to commemorate the story that Jews escaping slavery in ancient Egypt were too hurried to let their bread rise.

The Jerusalem Post points out that drugs taken for life-threatening conditions, even if they contain yeast, baking powder or other "hametz," can--and must--be taken during Passover. Since erectile dysfunction can hardly be considered life-threatening, few rabbis approved Viagra's use during the upcoming festival of freedom, which begins on April 23.

But after receiving queries from religious men and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals-Israel about whether Viagra can be taken during the holiday, prominent rabbi Mordechai Eliahu ruled that men can take the drug if they purchase special empty capsules made from kosher gelatin before the holiday, then insert the blue pill into the capsule and swallow.

Gold!

My amusing fact tells me there is lots of gold in the ocean. Why? Is it from pirate ships?

I doubt it...if only Aquaman was an evil doer he would have all the gold and be king of the ocean and land! Unless the Sub-Mariner had something to say about it.

I heard a conspiracy theory that Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner are gay. I think that's why Aquaman grew a beaad. The Sub-Mariner may just be metro-sexual.

WTF?

Toronto Blue Jays are 6-2. They have won all three of there series this years (Tampa, Boston, Oakland) and their pitching is looking good. Alex Rios is going to be a superstar.

Seriosuly....that is f-ing great.

Cycling Training Philosophy

Riding a bike in not hard. Riding a bike fast for a period of time and them attempting to run is very hard. I've learned in my various races that the bike can win you a race alone. I saw a ex-pro Mountain Biker turned triathlete win Lake Placid Ironman even though he had never run a full marathon. He had established such an enormous lead and had enough energy to get through the run and that was all he needed.

On a 57km ride in the 2004 K-Town tri I averaged an even 32km/h. Not bad although the leaders get up around 36-38km/h. I picked up a Cervelo P2K for this season which is custom fit. I'm hoping to average 33-34km/h in some sprint races this year.

A couple things I attempt when training:

Ride with Intensity - Many cyclists like to go out for 150km casual ride. That is far, don't get me wrong, but that sort of ride doesn't do much good during a 40km sprint. I try to ride shorter distance with intensity and mix in the occassional long ride when I have time.

Bike Setup - Make sure your bike is fit to you. A good aero position in a tri geometry bike will utilize more hamstring muscle and save you during the run. This is not expensive to do at a good cycling shop...it will also solve any mental crises that your stem is too high. :-)

Run Philosophy later this week.

Winter to Summer

Sunday's weather in Toronto was unreal for early April. Excellent day!

Blue Jays are kicking some tail and took 2 of 3 from the Red Sox. I was at the Friday and Saturday game and both were two of the best ball games I have seen live. Variteck hit the 5th deck, Jays hit back to back to back jacks, Zaun hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 8th. Phew.

Slash rocked Oh Canada.

Revenge of the Sith - Nerds Unite!

From Slash Dot:

More than a month before the premiere of Revenge of the Sith, fans are already lining up. Outside Grauman's Chinese Theater, eleven diehard Star Wars fans (i.e. lifelong virgins) are waiting for tickets to go on sale. Unfortunately, it appears that the guys with girlfriends will have the last laugh as the Chinese Theater isn't even premiering the film.

Training Philosophy - Swim

I've complete 8 triathlons in the last 3 season. Distance vary from sprint (750M, 20Km, 5K) to long (2000M, 57KM, 15K). I'm considering half-ironman in the next couple of years and maybe even a full ironman someday. I'm not a pro and try to find time to train in between work and regular life. Here's my philosophy on the swim:

Note: I went from a 19:48 swim in my first 750M race to a 38:00 2000M swim in my last race.

Swimming -
1) Get coaching - Most public pools have Masters programs that can be joined for as little as $5 per session. This will help you identify your stroke problems and work on correcting them. Swimming is not power or endurance...it's technique. Reach, bi-lateral breathing, etc.

2) Volume - Now that you know what's wrong you can work on fixing it. Problem is that if your endurance is sub-par, technique get's dropped. Building endurance will allow you to focus on technique and fixing problems. I recommend 2 swim sessions a week with anywhere from 2500M to 5000M in volume. (I was doing 5000M/week for approximately 6 weeks and I saw the greatest improvement...the more the better)

Next time - Bike Philosophy

Not Fair

So I get an awesome new bike and mother nature refused to cooperate. This has better be it for the snow.

I was stoked for a ride this weekend but there was no way with 50km/h winds, snow, rain,!!

At least we get the extra hour at night now so I should be able to get some after work rides in.

The Contender

I was very skeptical about this show given Sly Stallone's involvement and it has taken a few episodes to warm up to it. Although I am still annoyed by the bizarre editing during the actual boxing I find the show pretty emotional.

The unique thing about this reality show is the contestants have one common trait. They are poor. And many of them have families that they are attempting to support being a no-name boxer. If they lose duiring the show the loss is officially put on there record..so not only do then not win, they end up worse off than when they started.

When a fighters loses and is eliminated I feel quite bad for them since this truely is there only shot in life. You can really see this in the emotion from them.

Not a bad show but Eco-Challege is still Burnett's greatest creation.

Cheaters/

If you think basbeball players are cheaters look at this:

Ms. Wheelchair stripped of title for standing up

Reminds me of George Costanza pretending to be handicapped..classic.