I just registered for 3 triathlons for the summer. I lost out on a few that I would have liked to do due to procrastination, but these should be alright. I may add another 1 or 2 eventually, but finalized for now:

Manitou – June 8th
Chisago Lakes – July 27th
Turtleman – August 9th

Now, must train :/

I was taking a bunch of files off of my HP laptop that crashed back in 1989 (alright, 2005), and totally forgot about this video until now. This was taken along my drive from Minnesota to Iowa for Christmas one year…

AAA has just redeemed themselves for me. My first experience was rather traumatizing, including no less than 8 phone transfers (apparently life is hard for AAA customer service reps when you need service in one state and live in another), 30 minutes of talk-time, and 90 minutes of waiting; all culminating in a near nervous breakdown when the woman on the other line asked me to once again repeat my address. Not exactly what I call great customer service. This was all for a 1.5 mile tow. I have faith that I could’ve strong armed my little vehicle that far with the adrenaline that was present at the time in less time than it took for AAA to take care of it.
Anyways, fast-forward to today. I locked my keys in my car (this is a favorite pastime of mine, but something I haven’t done in quite a while) due to parking on the street, which I never do, and leaving my keys in my unlocked car, which I always do. I called at 12:10 am and despite not being able to find my membership information for a little while, I was quickly off the phone with a 30 minute time frame for someone to show up. I no sooner sat down at my computer to waste some time, and got a call saying that the tow truck was 2 minutes out. They showed up at 12:16 and everything was taken care of by 12:20.
I’m confident that I will use them for a 3rd time in the near future, which will be the tie-breaker on how I actually feel about AAA. Stay tuned.

I hope karma takes its course with Carla Cherisse Pool, the sick woman who fatally beat a 4-year old child in the presence of 3 of her own kids. She deserves life in prison — not the death penalty; that’s too much of an easy way out — and I hope all of the prison guards turn a blind eye while the burly women down in the Shakopee Prison for Women recognize her face and make her life hell until she concedes to death by repetitive beating and torture.

(I wrote this post some time ago and was waiting for a picture at the time. I think it is still post-worthy.)

I may not have come home to a clean house, BUT IT’S OKAY… I now have the world’s largest liability IN MY BACKYARD.

Pictured above is the ramp for ….

I’ve decided that I’m too decrepit for any snowboard events that might get me too far off the ground (slopestyle, halfpipe) anymore, and there just isn’t quite the rush with alpine events as with boardercross when you’re racing against other people. I think it is something that I will continue to do; I’m already traveling to all the events, why not?

Some pics (I’ve got the white helmet):

Giants Ridge – Feb 1st

Also Giant’s Ridge – Feb 1st

Hyland – Feb 8th

This post is a cover-all to bring me up to date from January 20th..

My last post was written from Copper, CO. I returned to the cities, unpacked, repacked, and spent the following long weekend at Giants Ridge in Biwabik, MN for a USASA boardercross and alpine snowboard competition with the team that I work with. Since I was going to be there anyways and have been thinking about getting into boardercross for some time now, I entered into that competition in my age group. I ended up with a 2nd place and a broken foot (nothing too serious, just teeny tiny bone fractures in the small cuneiform bones in my foot). The following (painful) weekend was spent at Spirit Mountain in Duluth, MN for more USASA comps. This past weekend was competitions at Hyland in Bloomington. Friday was boardercross, and although I wasn’t feeling completely healed, we had established quite a rivalry in the previous boardercross races, fully complete with online polling. So, of course, I had to hold up my end of the deal. I took 1st in the first race and 3rd in the next two, mostly due to physical interference by an unnamed individual. Needless to say, I have regressed back to a pretty painful left foot. Pictures soon.
I also took a position taking over all Jeep Terrain Park Challenge events for MN (because I needed another job, right?).
Anyways, there hasn’t been much going on except a bunch of snowboarding. No complaints here.

Apparently telling the world about my training plans wasn’t enough incentive to actually do it. This post is a little late, but the first day I was totally into it; 2 hours at the gym; followed my plans exactly. On day #2 I was heading to Duluth, MN for a week as co-director of the USSA Revolution Tour Spirit Mountain stop. I honestly thought that even if I worked 18 hours a day that I could still get in my workout. WRONG. My days began at 5 AM and usually ended around 1 AM. There was no room for working out. I am not saying this in a “I was busy and didn’t have time” kind of a way, because I HATE THAT EXCUSE, but there really wasn’t 60 spare minutes in any of my days. So that week was shot.. and I am now out west at another competition.. and have found enough time to redo my entire plan.

A little bit of background first…

I have had a gym membership for a few years now, but find that I have a hard time working out unless I have something specific that I am working towards. Last year, I decided to register for a triathlon 4 months down the road which would serve as my end goal. I followed a plan (overstatement) in a book that I bought, but wasn’t super committed; I changed a lot of the workouts, neglected lifting more than I should have, didn’t really change my diet, and basically decided that my goal was to FINISH the race, not to do well. Surprisingly, even with my crazy ass hours, I stuck to working out 5-6 days a week, which also equated to 80-90% of my plan hours. When race day came, I still just wanted to finish. I finished, and I actually did pretty well (even considering flat tires and asthma attacks). And, I hate to admit it, but I had fun. So, for 2008, I have decided to give this triathlon thing a pseudo-serious try. I have picked up a lot of gear since this summer (including a wetsuit, which I was laughing at people for wearing), done a good amount of reading about diet, lifting, etc, and have formulated an annual training plan…

Tomorrow marks day number 1 of my plan. As simple as it sounds, the annual plan is accompanied by very descript weekly plans and daily training/health logs. I went for the middle-of-the-road number of annual hours for a Sprint plan (or the lower end of an Olympic distance plan). I didn’t want to set myself up for failure by planning too many hours. This boils down to 400 hours per year, which works out to a maximum of 12 hours per week. This seems a little overwhelming to me, but I know I can do it because I’ve made the time before. Once I have the plan finished, I will post it. Putting this out for other people to see gives me a certain sense of accountability.

The first week, the “transition period”, is actually just a week devoted less to working out and more to mental preparation. But, starting January 7th, it’s on.

I have picked a handful of races, all of which are USAT certified, so that this year I can actually take part in the ranking system:

Rochesterfest / June 29
LifeTime Fitness / July 12
Chisago Lakes / July 27 (finished in 2007)
Brewhouse (Duluth) / August 3 (finished in 2007.. not sure what is possessing me to go back there)

Ready, set, GO.

Earlier today I was packing up my bag for a flight. Headphones; check. Blanket (our planes tend to lose heat at the expense of maintaining cabin pressure); check. Soda and munchies; check. Book. It was just then when I realized that in my 2 piles of crap on separate tables, I have somehow gotten myself into 10 books. Ten. I am not reading every single one of them cover-to-cover, but have started each and every one of them in some way, shape, or form, and am not done with it yet.

The run-down:

The End of Alice / Homes
HOLY DISTURBING. I could have been done with this book long ago if I didn’t put it down out of disgust several times and then pick it back up a few days later out of curiosity. This one will be crossed off the list in a few days.

Mastering Digital SLR Photography / Busch
Gotta learn how to use the new camera.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families / Gourevitch
I have started this book 3 or 4 times in the last couple of years, but actually plan to finish it this time. It’s about the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It’s slow moving but good.

Inventing for Dummies / Bird
Not exactly the book I would have chosen for the purpose, but books in this area were hard to find. Does an alright job of untangling the deliberate unholy mess that is the USPTO and their policies.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers / Roach
I know, you would have thought that I would have read this years ago. Not so.

Building Web Sites: All-In-One Desk Reference / Sahlin & Snell
The woman I work with wanted to give me the responsibility of handling the company website. Me: I know the very basics of building and editing web sites, but I REALLY don’t think I’m the person for the job. Her: Good luck. So, I’m learning. I’m not entirely opposed, as I’m attempting to create something for my site, which is only existent (parked?) in the present for things I have planned for the future.

HTML, XHTML & CSS / Castro
See above.

Financial Planning / Lim
Enough said.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith / Krakauer
I saw a really cool documentary about Mormon Fundamentalists, and shortly thereafter had this book recommended to me. Crazy Mormons.

The Triathlete’s Training Bible / Friel
I have perused through 3 or 4 triathlon books and have found this one to be THE BEST. Currently, I am using it to design an annual training plan.

After looking at this list, I realize that my pleasure-reading books carry a theme of morbidity, and that my other reads are of all spectrums. Maybe if my interests weren’t ALL OVER THE PLACE and I concentrated on just one specific undertaking, I could actually excel in something!

P.S. It was the triathlon and financial planning books that actually ended up in my bag.