The Devil’s Work
Published September 15, 2011 | 
This Sunday locally we host the annual Devil’s Challenge Triathlon at Devil’s Lake State Park. I’m a bystander. The 5k run and the 15 mile bike ride would be fine.. the quarter-mile swim on the other hand, would not. I actually didn’t learn to swim realistically until well after I learned to kayak. In fact, one of the reasons I started kayaking was that it allowed me to indulge my love of water WITHOUT needing to swim. In fact, learning to roll is pretty good simulation of snorkeling. You simply put on the dive mask, roll, see the world, then roll back up. Over the last couple of years I’ve started to swim laps at the pool. Who knows, maybe we’ll do that triathlon next year.. OR we could just tell them to dump the swimming and replace it with a kayaking section… I mean let’s face it swimming in a cold lake in September is the devil’s work!!
Better Than Leaving The Bike At Home
Published September 12, 2011 | 
I don’t care where we go
I don’t care what we do
I don’t care pretty baby
Just take me with you – prince
O.K. I know what you’re thinking. Dogs are meant to pull humans, not the other way around. What’s worse is the perception that you treat your dog like some sort of 4 legged diva. Well, there is a reason for this.. and I certainly don’t advocated dogs as pint-sized debutantes. On the other hand, sometimes you find yourself in situations you’d never thought of before. Take this summer for instance, where we found ourselves giving up on family biking when on vacation because we had no place to leave the dog. Continue reading
Sustainability of deep-sea fisheries?
Published September 10, 2011 | 
All dead all dead / All the dreams we had
And I wonder why I still live on
All dead all dead /And alone I’m spared
My sweeter half instead
All dead and gone / all dead
- queen
I’ve not eaten fish since the early 90s. I like some fish actually. Here in Wisconsin every Friday is fish gluttony day with the traditional “Friday Fish-Fry” on offer at every restaurant worth it’s salt. This is though, the oceans are in big trouble and we’ve known it for a long time. Like so many other big environmental problems, we can’t seem to get our minds around it, so we just keep contributing to it. The early 90s collapse of the Northern Cod fishery in eastern Canada was a wake up call. In the end it didn’t matter if you were for or against a moratorium, there just we rent any fish left. Of course globally we’ve not learned much from that nightmare either.
These days fish can’t even catch a break at the bottom of the sea. Today I was doing a bit of heavy reading with the Marine Policy’s Sustainability of deep-sea fisheries paper. I’m still not going to be eating fish any time soon. BTW, if you’re not into heavy reading, just grab the first and very last paragraph. Oh, and look at the fun charts and graphs… That will just about cover it.
Let The Games Continue!
Published September 8, 2011 | 
I’ve read all over the place that if I just keep running, I’ll soon weigh160 lbs or some such nonsense. It seem like anyone who posts on the web that they were over 200 lbs when they started, is now like 160 and running in marathons.. Well, I’m running. That’s got to count for something anyway! 2 days back I did my 4.3 mile run in just over 52 minutes. That comes out a bit over 12 minutes per mile. Slow.. yeah, maybe but I’m not going to get too bummed out. It’s a challenging trail. It’s bad enough trying to climb the hills, let alone avoid re-spraining my ankle. Thing is, I love the challenges of a rough trail. If I weren’t pushing through a climb or navigating my way through loose rock, I think I’d get bored. Oh, but 160? I think I hear Bing Crosby singing Pennies from Heaven somewhere in the treetops! Continue reading
Posted in Fitness, My Weird Life, Outdoor Recreation, Quixotica, running | 
running, trail running | 
2 CommentsFaster Than…
Published August 20, 2011 | 
Went running again yesterday. I’m finally feeling back on task and back in the swing. Hilly trail, 4 miles, 3 days a week. Good, good. My lungs seem happy, my heart has found its comfort zone, my sprain finally has healed and even my legs seem content to carry my not-s0-tiny frame up and down the bluffs. I’ve been feeling pretty good. Each day, my goal is to add just a pinch more speed. You know the thing about that don’t you? It’s not that you need to out run the bear… you only need to out run the slowest person in your group . . .Puts a whole new spin on never going hiking alone… Happy Saturday!
**Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
Posted in My Weird Life, Nature & Wildlife, Outdoor Recreation, Quixotica, Random Thoughts | trail running | 2 CommentsApp To Run
Published August 15, 2011 | 
I love to run. Well, I didn’t at first. Well, I didn’t for the first 2 years.. It’s only recently that I really started to LOVE to run. Maybe it’s that I didn’t run through the most hot and humid days of July as I had in the past. Maybe it’s that at 46 and just over 200lbs I’m happy that I can still run at all! One thing is sure, I’m really loving this new iMapMyRUN App I bought for my iPhone.. Amazing what you can get these days for just a couple bucks! Continue reading
Posted in Fitness, More Gear Reviews, Outdoor Recreation, Quixotica, running | iMapMyRUN, Reviews, running, trail running | 3 CommentsToday
Published August 10, 2011 | 
Today is Wednesday, August 10th, 2011. The heat wave that has gripped my little part of the world has broken. Well, It’s changed anyway. The Costa Rican humidity has passed and average high temperatures is back around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Today I’m meeting a new rolling student who’s driving down from LaCrosse for a bit of coaching. I love private classes.. I also feel a bit humbled by the fact that someone would drive so far to hang out with me for a couple of hours. I’ll tell you one thing, I want to see her rolling before the days out. Now here’s a few more thoughts that popped into my crazy head this morning… Continue reading
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