Sunday, July 29, 2007
BECAUSE I PROMISEDI have been keeping my promises to Alex, so, in accordance with my previous posts, and as an addendum to the post below (which is actually worth reading) here is a shirtless picture of me, during the triathlon.
enjoy.
Labels: sports, training, triathlon
Saturday, July 28, 2007
THE BIG POST (AS PROMISED)
As most of you know, I have been training for triathlon for the past couple months. Today was the first of two races I will be running as a result.
For my first race, I guess it went OK. The raw stats are as follows:
1:27:53 (my time)
47th (my place)
153 (total racers)
That puts me in the top third, but well off my 1:17 goal, and top 25 finish.
What went wrong?
The swim, quite frankly, was more than I could handle. I took a full six minutes more than I thought I would, or than my best time in the water. The problem was two fold. First, I am not a good swimmer. I seriously need to get a swim coach this winter, so I can be more competitive. Secondly, I tried to keep pace with the group. I made it about 300m before I was completely tired out. I need to pace myself, and run my race.
I also need to get a tri suit. Not only will it help my buoyancy (someone went so far as to say it cut 30% off swim times), but it will let me transition faster. Without seeing the splits, I estimate I spent almost four minutes in transition. I saw other people take less than 30 seconds. The reason was those damned suits. They don't have to change any clothes, just put on shoes and go. Another three minutes wasted. And another lesson learned.
The bike suffered a bit as a result of the swim, but not bad. I could have pushed harder, but I was happy with the result. I passed more than a few people, and kept a good pace.
Similarly, I did ok in the run. I could probably get a minute or two back from that by pacing it out, again, and pushing more at the beginning, as I thought it would be harder, and still had some fuel left in the tank at the end.
All that being said, I finished, and finished pretty well. I have made it through the first of what I hope to be many triathlons, and I feel good about it. I am on my way to becoming a triathlete.
SUPERLIGA
Even though the above was sports related, Alex made a request for more sports news. Specifically, he wanted MLS news.
Thursday, Chivas met the Red Bulls on the pitch. Chivas took an early lead and kept the pedal to the metal, blanking the Red Bulls two nil. There were just over 10,000 fans in attendance.
Wait...10 thousand? Honestly? WNBA games have more fans than that. Really, no one watches this stuff. I thought at least they would have some hard core, tailgating soccer hooligan wannabes. Nothing?
David Beckham, you have your work cut out for you, my friend. Trying to make this sport relevant is like trying to get Barry Bonds off the juice.
Good luck.
Labels: sports, training, triathlon
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
OFF MY CHESTFirst off, I want to give a big "shout out" (the quotation marks make that statement Caucasian) to Bil over at Journal Wunelle. He was living the dream over in Europa, and I am extremely jealous. Go check out his photo journal of the trip, and wish you were half as cool as he is.
In other news, I have started full brick training. Two a days are hard. That's about all I can say about it. I feel VERY close to being ready for race day. And race day 2.0. I hope to have a ton of "fans" there, so I should get some good shirtless pictures for all you ladies. And Alex.
Now for the big stuff:
The Timberwolves are shopping Kevin Garnett. Here are the trade scenarios so far, and why I hate them:
KG to Boston for Al Jefferson, Sebastian Telfair, and the number five pick. Maybe we get someone else too, like a ballboy or Danny Ainge (who is worth about ballboy salary). And the 5 pick in the draft.
Now look. Jefferson is a decent player. He put up a double double last year (about 16 points and 11 rebounds). But he is NOT a player to build a team around. Nor is he exciting enough to make people forget about Kevin Garnett. Few people are, but that is part of this trade. The team has to get a ticket draw back, and a talent back. With Jefferson, they get about half of each, which doesn't add up. Telfair might be good for ticket sales if we let him carry a gun, but otherwise he is a bust. I think Theo Ratliff was in on this deal, too, and he would come off the books next year. The five pick doesn't mean anything, because we are already going to draft Connely, Jr. That's the only guy we have room for in the top ten. Maybe we take a flyer on that chinese guy who will be more like WAng ZhiZhi than Yao Ming. Maybe he can cut a rap video. I'd pay to see that.
The next trade had Kevin Garnett going to LA, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to the Pacers, Jermaine O'neal to Boston, and us getting Gerald Green and about 4 first round picks.
Now this is bad for a few reasons. We make our rivals better in LA, we help a dying franchise in Boston, and we get even less in return. I know this draft is deep. But it is deep with second tier players. Will they be good in the NBA? Sure. The top two guys will be stars. But everyone else will be up for sixth man awards every year from now to the end of time: At best. This is not a good trade.
And aparently Boston didn't think so, either. Even though Bynum would KILL in the east, and Lamar and Pierce could feed off each other. Like I said, Danny Ainge...
And that brings us to today's rumor, and I hope the one we choose. WE get Odom and Bynum, plus a late pick, and an expiring contract in Kwame Brown, and the Lakers get KG.
Now, again, KG and Kobe COULD be great together. And I hope they are, I am a big Kevin Garnett fan. But, more likely, Kobe ruins that like he has every other tandem where the other guy gets noticed, and one of them walks. It is good for LA, because they still have a big market player after the dust settles, and enough draw to get him one more run at the title.
And we get two good players, one of whom has big potential (Bynum) and the other who is VERY versatile (16 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists) to go with our core. WE also get an underdeveloped PF/C who I have always liked in Kwame Brown, who will give us a half a good season before we trade him off the books. Or he realizes his potential. Hey, it could happen. We have good big man coaching.
And we still get to draft Mike Connely, Jr. This guy is going to be a great ball handler, and we need one, bad. We have suffered through so many two guards bringing up the ball, it would be nice to watch someone pass and defend. And it would let one of our two first rounders form the last two years flourish, and let the other one leave and free up cap space.
The truth is, as much as it pains me, we cannot get good enough to keep KG around. And, since he is a free agent next season, we will HAVE to trade him now, or at midseason. Now, at least, other teams know we can wiggle. They get us at midseason, and we are going to get far less.
In the meantime, let's hope we can trade off a few more pieces, and land a miracle on draft, and this whole ship rights itself, and KG stays for a ring.
And then Ralph Nader will run for President and Win, and Ross Perot will be his running mate.
Oh, and Cristina Aguilera will finally admit that's my kid.
Labels: KG, sports, trades, training, triathlon
Monday, June 11, 2007
SOOOOOA recent conversation with a friend reminded me that I still had this space to write in, and that some friends, living far away, actually read it to keep up with my daily life. Sort of makes a guy feel all warm...
So I figure I should update it. I will start with what has become the bulk of my time wasting: Triathlon.
I am debating signing up for the Bemidji tri. It is July 28th, so it is close to the other one. On the one hand, I think I will be ready. On the other hand, I don't want to be so tired I cannot do the one I originally planned to do. That last might be a cop out, though, honestly. If I can do one, I can probably do another two weeks later. And I really ought do it; it starts about two blocks from my house.
Looking at my training calendar shows two things: I have been resting more, but training harder. I have increased my distances all above what I will be doing on race day. I have been training bricks for the past few weeks, and am starting to understand what my body needs to do to transition from one phase to the next.
And I have been decreasing my time. Running with LJ, and biking around the whole lake are both helping. The lake, too, is getting warm enough to swim in. I look forward to adding that part back to my routine (the pool is only open now while I am at work, so I have only swam twice in the last three weeks). The last swim, at least, was promising.
In other news, I HAVE been watching the NBA finals. Here is all I need to say, and then I will probably say a bit more: LeBron James needs to learn to make a layup. Not a dunk. Not an up and under. Just a layup. That's all I want to see from him. He is good enough to finish around the basket against just about anyone, yet he gyrates and flails like a fly in a frog's tongue. He is too good not to be putting those in. Yet his points in the paint percentage is horrible!
Now, that being said, he still doesn't have a shot. I tried explaining this to my best frien d(and anyone in the store who would listen) The cavs just don't match up with the Spurs. This is not Detroit, which arguably is a better overall squad. This is three guys who are all at the top of their game. And they are piquing at the perfect time. The Cavalier's team defence WILL NOT work against them, it can't.
I will be shocked if they win two games. I think they will win game 4, and lose 5 to close the series. Yes, that means they lose tomorrow night. You heard it here, first.
Labels: NBA, sports, training, triathlon
