Internal Mono(b)log

Shameless plug time, but 1st a confession: I like twitter.. too much. The real-time rolling updates of humor, knowledge and trivia have the ability to completely shred my day. I started recognizing this as a problem a few weeks ago. I needed a way to ensure that I still saw my feed, but didn’t have to feel glued to the real-time nature of it day-in and day-out.

Not finding a solution, I wrote one. It’s called Tweetgest because it digests your twitter feed and sends you an email, either on a schedule you determine, or when the digest gets to a certain size.

I’ve freed myself from my twitter feed, but don’t miss the content because I read it at my leisure. Tweetgest is still under development, the UI is ugly and I have more ideas to implement (sorting options, summaries, maybe some topic analysis, html email vs ascii email (it’s html email only right now), etc.) but it’s functional and useful – or at least I think so 🙂

Feel free to head on over and set yourself up and please spread the word: Tweetgest

MATCHA GREEN TEA GIVEAWAY! « Vanessa Runs.

I love RoadID. I’ve worn them, in one form or another, since I started my 1st 5k clinic over 10 years ago.

I do a lot of my training solo, and knowing that there’s a RoadID on me that can speak for me when I cannot (either I’m unwilling or unable) gives me, and my wife, some comfort. I wear mine pretty much every day (either running, or cycling, or commuting on bike to/from work).

Course wearing a RoadID is only as good as the info on it. I just ordered a new RoadID and new tags for my wrist model, to refresh the data and reflect new information. Do you have a RoadID? Is it up to date? If you don’t have one, I encourage you to get one. They’re well made, inexpensive and carry potentially vital information.

WIth my last purchase, RoadID gave me 20 coupons for $1 off. Sure $1 isn’t much, but free money is still free money 🙂 If you comment on this post, I’ll send you a coupon. If I get more than 20 comments, I’ll draw randomly from the commenters Sunday afternoon and send coupon codes to 20 lucky people.

(No, this isn’t an April fools day joke.)

GU Energy | New GU DermaCharge Topical Infusion Gel.

Awesome new product! 😛

Ok, this is only loosely on topic, but it’s still really cool!!! 🙂

Berties Bakery: Cake Report: National Capital Area Cake Show Competition.

Of late I’ve been noticing that my swim workouts, while of the same duration as planned are covering less mileage (rather than the anticipated increases one would hope for). I attribute this to multiple factors, certainly fatigue plays a part, but also not really having any way to measure targets and guage my workout performance until I’m almost done the 90 or 120 minute workouts.

Well, that recently changed. I don’t, yet, have a measurement device other than my sportcount (which I love for it’s simplicity), but I have now added a FINIS Tempo Trainer to my arsenal of training tools.

In a nutshell, the tempo trainer is a waterproof metronome that you tuck into your swim cap, or attach to your goggle strap and it keeps the beat of when you should be stroking. Again it’s a very simplistic device, but it works so very well.

1st thing I noticed: my stroke is (was) very inconsistent. It’d spead up and slow down depending on whether I was breathing or not. The inconsistency caused the fast strokes to seem harder and the slow strokes easier. To me this seems generally inefficient, as I’d imagine moving at a consistent speed through the water to be the ideal.

2nd thing I’ve found: My slow pace is to swim with a tempo of about 54 bpm. Pushing that upto a tempo of just 56 bpm gets me close to tempo pace and tempo is probably in the 57,58 range. Clearly I want to speed up my turn overs. The tempo trainer will help me do this: now that I have it beeping out cadence for me, I can work on cranking it (slowly) up – while being careful to maintain good form in the stroke.

My only wish is that Finis would combine the tempo trainer and the swimp3. I love my swimp3. I’d likely have gone insane training in the pool without it. Combining these 2 devices would be such a boon!

Good tips from Active.com for improving your pedaling technique!

I’m doing all of these. Are you? 🙂

4 Drills to Improve Pedaling Technique | Active.com.

A new service launched last week and I’m pretty excited about it.

trioutlet.ca offers deep discount sales on merchandise that is of particular note to triathletes and other athletes performing in the 3 triathlon disciplines (run, bike and swim).

Check them out and signup for the weekly deal notifier email.

If, like me, you live in a climate where running in short-sleeves and shorts year-round is but a comforting dream and, rather, you live in a a place where under a windbreaker you wear 1, 2 or sometimes 3 technical clothing layers, this tip may be interesting to you.

A few months back, I bought a Timex Global Trainer HRM and GPS watch. I love it! It gives me great data on my training progress both while running and on the bike.

BUT!

The strap, while plenty long enough on a naked arm, or over 1 layer of clothes, is stretched to its limit to go around my lower-forearm when I have 3-4 layers on. (I say lower-forearm because when I have gloves on, the watch ends up being about 1/3 of the way between my wrist and elbow.) For a while I solved this problem by using an elastic band threaded into the strap and hooked into the clasp. The elastic band worked, but felt risky. I asked around an timex doesn’t make a band extender, but I discovered I could get, for $10, a replacement strap (both sides and a set of pins).

Now I think Timex is leaving money on the table here, because I’d have happily paid $20 for a band extender, but for $10 and 30 seconds of trimming, I had a solution:

Take the replacement strap buckle end, cut a taper into it like what you’d find on the end you insert into the buckle, et voila! You have a strap extender!

I took this for a test run today and it worked like a charm. Now, of course, spring is nearly here, and I won’t be needing this for 8 months (I hope), but at least now, I have a solution in hand.

Great summary article on performance nutrition for endurance athletes.

http://www.trifuel.com/training/health-nutrition/10-simple-nutrition-tips-for-triathletes

The article recommends 3:1 carb to protein, I’ve seen more references citing 4:1.. I’m sure either is acceptable. Try both and see what works better for you. In either case stay away from fat and fiber as both slow down uptake.