The student loan bubble is starting to burst – HT @instapundit People will still be able to take equity loans against their homes to pay for their kids' college, right? Assumption is that they have equity. #creditbad
Why The Perfect Nap Makes For The Perfect Workday – I was once asked in a job interview about the single thing I'd change about every job I've ever had. I instantly replied, "I'd implement a post-lunch nap."
IMtx 70.3 (BETA) – If you're training for or considering a 70.3, this podcast has an unbelievable amount of good information and tips. If I could afford a coach, Coach Brett would be my guy.
A Sunny Outcome: Why Florida’s Startups Are Soaring High – The perfect place for tech startups I think. No state income tax and great weather. Plus, look at the soil around here Stuart–you can't build on it. You can't grow anything in it.
A field guide to the Meeting Troll – "The meeting troll has a neverending list of reasonable objections. It's the length of the list that makes the objections unreasonable."
Break into someone’s house with two of your buddies, get beat down with a baseball bat by the homeowner, and then get shot several times by your buddies as they flee–leaving you bleeding on the lawn, presumably with a pretty bad headache to boot.
Clay will be charged with home invasion robbery upon release from the hospital, Lt. Heath Sanders said.
I wonder if this guy will be willing to share the identities of his assailants…err…accomplices with investigators.
Tools vs insight – I am Jack’s complete astonishment that Seth Godin can come up with these amazing posts for his blog on a daily basis. I would read it in a box, and I would read it with a fox.
Stop Trying to Coach People Who Shouldn’t Be Coached! – This applies to so many people in so many situations. And I’ve been all four of these people at one time or another as well. I try my best to be coachable though.
Proper Pacing for Your Best Run – I’ve always just used HR control on the bike and tried to build a good run with negative splits with whatever I had left. There are some good ideas here I could definitely use to improve at different distances.
Cuba Libre! – Check out @hungrymother featured in this article!
If you’re going to dream, dream big. Any idiot can run from the cops or get involved in a car chase with them. It takes a special person to attempt to swim from them.
“He just took off, and he got a good head start,” DeMorat said. “He was in a foot chase for a few blocks. Then he ran straight into the water.”
Usually, the mugshot section is the best feature on the FloridaToday website, but the stories behind the violations are pretty boring. Today the tables have turned.
Apple Trumps Google as Most Valuable Brand – Shocked Coca-Cola doesn’t trump both. The carbonate sugar water industry is much more stable than technology. Do you think it’s even within the realm of possibility that someone could knock KO from its perch? Can you say the same for Google and Apple?
Surprise! Woman finds 7-foot gator in bathroom – Had to read this just to make sure she didn’t find it in my bathroom. Of course, I’d be just as concerned about this woman wandering into the house as I would the gator.
Pick At It! – It’s been a long time since I’ve LOL’d all the way through an article.
Scott: ‘We’re spending too much money’ – The “Scott” in the article is our governor, not me. But this Scott agrees. Here’s what I don’t get about how budgets are crafted–why can’t they just do it the way we do at our house? Start with the amount of money you have, then subtract (by priority) the cost of all the things you have to pay for. As you go down the list of priorities, “needs” transition to “wants”. In good months, we actually make it to some pure “wants”. When the amount of money you have reaches zero, the budget is finished. The budget damn near writes itself! I realize it’s a little more complicated than that for a state legislature, but what if they approached the process by simply prioritizing the spending first?
Intro to Heart Rate Training From Mark Allen – If you’re new to heart rate training, this is good. Nice of him to share his personal experience of beginning to use a heart rate monitor.
The worst thing about living in Florida is that leaving the house to go to the grocery store means you have a good chance of running into a dude who looks like a retired professional rassler.
The best thing about living in Florida is that leaving the house to go to the grocery store means you have a good chance of running into a dude who really is a retired professional rassler.
One of the things I miss about living in East Tennessee is being able to ride my bike on nice country roads. I don’t miss the dogs tearing through yards when they see me coming, and I don’t miss having people honk and yell, “Git off tha roawd!!!” either. But hilly, curvy country roads are definitely a plus of living in Knoxville.
On the flip side, one of the really nice things about living in a small town in Florida is that you can leave right out of the house and go on long flat rides. Safely. Yeah, no hills means no chance to get stronger going up hills, but it also means there’s no opportunity for rest coming down hills. The result is a long, steady pedal in aero position. Besides, you can always go do intervals on a causeway or hit a spin class if you really want hills.
I’ve been riding loops in a nice safe residential area, but it was getting kind of boring. So last night I jumped on to MapMyRide to see if there were any rides near my house that locals have posted. I found a course that passes right by my house and picks up a nice country road about 3 miles away from home. I checked it out with streetview on Google Maps, and I couldn’t wait to get out there this morning.
It didn’t disappoint.
No hills, but it’s pretty nice when you have to keep refocusing on your ride because you’re constantly on the lookout for dolphins instead of cars. The one caveat is that I had to jump out onto US-1 for about a half a mile–traffic’s not too bad at 6:20 am, but a little more traffic on the way back at 7:30. I ended up doing two loops of Rockledge Drive this morning, only passing two cars on my first loop and maybe 6 or 7 on the second. Love riding a course where the number of cars is tripled by the number of runners and cyclists. Even better when your bike speed is the speed limit! I shot this video at 20 mph as the sun was coming up.
Ok, not the greatest video because I have a Hero and not an EVO (HD), but I shot it while my CardioTrainer app and mSpot were both running. That’s right iPhone<4 owners…I been could do that!
I went over to Orlando yesterday morning with one of my buddies to watch another friend compete in the Florida 70.3 triathlon put on by IronMan at Disney. It was absolutely amazing. I’ve done triathlons myself, but I’ve never gone to see one as a spectator. When you are competing, you’re pretty focused on yourself and what you need to do, so it’s hard to take in the whole event. Even if you aren’t personally into endurance competitions, it’s something I’d recommend going to see once in your life.
It was completely inspiring.
It’s hard to say what the best part of the race was. It may have been watching competitors complete the 1.2 mile swim just before the cutoff time–one lady exited the water with a huge smile and obvious sense of accomplishment on her face, and stopped and broke into tears as soon as she crossed the timing mat.
It was also great to see so many people of different ages and body types doing the race. There were very few elite athletes in the 2,000 person field. They were mostly regular people who have decided to sacrifice a lot of time and effort to take on a race this size knowing they’ll have to make it work around the rest of their lives. As my buddy who went to watch with me noted, “I bet there are so many great stories here.”
After seeing another competitor with only one arm exiting the swim, and yet another getting ready to run with two prosthetic legs and 1.5 arms, you realize that anybody can do a this. All that matters is whether or not you think you can.
