martygaalblog

Florida racing

2010-02-07T17:11:00.003-05:00

I am headed down to Fort Myers next weekend to run a Powerstroke clinic and am flying into and out of Tampa. My father in law brought to my attention that on Sunday at Fort Desoto in St Petersburg the Chilly Willy Duathlon is taking place. This is a 5k-10 mile bike-5k. I have just enough time to do the race, ride a bit extra, and then get to the airport, so look for me there. Fort Desoto is a nice place to race.

Two weeks after that I'll be running the Gasparilla 15k along the bay in Tampa, and the weekend after that I am running the Belleair Classic 5k.

I am taking a two week break from the cold here in NC, first a week at our winter training camp, and then a week of visiting friends and family all around the state before my FIL's wedding on March 6.

My tour of Florida (starting March 1) will turn out to be something like Sarasota - Orlando - Ormond Beach - Jacksonville - Orlando - St Pete. If you live in one of these towns and would like to set up a swim lesson, give me a shout through osbmultisport.

New Powerstroke freestyle technique article

2010-02-06T14:14:00.002-05:00

I will eventually turn some of the information we present in the Powerstroke DVD into an e-book of some sort, but it is low down on my totem pole of Very Important Things to do at the moment. The big project for this year (besides stellar fitness and racing) is a comprehensive training manual that we'll give to our athletes and sell for a nominal fee on the website. With the articles and tidbits I've written over the years it is already a couple hundred pages, just needs a comprehensive edit and organization.

Anyway, this article on Powerstroke freestyle swim technique - high elbow catch / early vertical forearm with underwater frame shots describes some of the key technique issues I discuss in the Powerstroke DVD.

Powerstroke clinic make up date Feb 20

2010-02-05T14:45:00.002-05:00

Since our clinic was snowed out last weekend weekend we are offering a make up Powerstroke clinic on February 20 here in Cary from 1PM to 7PM. I will run this with as few as five people, so if you are interested sign up.

In other news, the weather here is looking absolutely dismal today and for tomorrow, which unfortunately is the Krispy Kreme Challenge (2 mile run - eat 12 doughnuts - 2 mile run). Bri and I are not particularly interested in running 4 miles in 30 degree weather with freezing rain pelting us while our stomachs groan under the weight of 12 disgusting fat fried doughnuts, so we're opting out of this particular event. Notice how since the weather is bad the doughnuts are now disgusting and horrible. Does that make me a hypocrite or just complicated and deep? Ha ha. Have a nice weekend.

Erie Canal bike tour

2010-02-03T10:21:00.004-05:00

Bri and I are officially signing up for the Erie Canal bike tour in upstate New York in mid-July. This will be our big "summer vacation" for 2010. We both find a lot of joy in going somewhere we've never been, then riding a bike with a group of like-minded explorers through the countryside. At night we check out whichever town we stop in. This particular tour is an eight-day riding tour, but we're going to do just the first six and then head off for the final weekend to do our own thing.

Riding the North Carolina Mountains to Coast bike tour would be a lot of fun as well, but this one falls in late Sep-early Oct, which is not good timing with the various races. Maybe one day.

Powerstroke clinic white out

2010-01-30T12:50:00.003-05:00

We had ten athletes signed up for the 2-day clinic this weekend, but the weather had much different ideas about what we would be able to do. The pool was going out of their way to allow us to use the facility despite closing to the public, however slowly but surely our attendees opted out in order to avoid a questionable drive.

If possible we will have a makeup date soon, if not then the next planned clinic is a one-day clinic on Saturday, April 3.

I have also started finalizing open water clinic dates and sites, and will let you know when and where those are as soon as I do.

Have a nice weekend. We'll be doing a lot of indoor spinning and maybe a short run or two.

Pants on the ground

2010-01-25T21:22:00.002-05:00

As usual I am about 2 weeks behind on pop culture (was there some football on last night?) - most of you have probably already heard and seen Pants on the Ground during American Idol by General Larry Platt - now check out what happens when a real musician takes the ball and runs with it...

Powerstroke weekend

2010-01-22T13:14:00.004-05:00

Bri and I are hosting a Powerstroke clinic at the Huntersville Family Fitness and Aquatic Center on Sunday. One of my goals as a business-dude is to expand our reputation for swim clinic excellence beyond our local vicinity and then one day go national and then international and then take over the world. Did I just write that out loud? ;) You get the picture.

We are teaming up with Sarah from the Cool Breeze Cyclery and Kathy Goody of the HFFA to put this one on. It sold out so we will do our best to get another one in there sometime relatively soon.

In other news, if you are a member of USA Triathlon, check out page 40-41 of the USA Triathlon Life winter 2010 edition for an article on wetsuits written by yours truly.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get a nice bike ride in, nice being dependent on the weather.

want to be a swim coach?

2010-01-19T14:06:00.004-05:00

I am looking for someone who would like to be a volunteer (unpaid) masters swim coach on a Tuesday or Thursday morning here in Cary, NC for 2010. The practice time would be 545-700AM. If you live locally and have a swimming / coaching background and are interested please contact me. I would write the workouts for a few weeks until you feel comfortable with the method behind the madness. You would need to have technical proficiency in freestyle and preferably be comfortable with the other strokes as well.

In other news, we have been given a few days of idyllic weather and it is really nice out at the moment. Tassie is refusing to come inside.

Krispy Kreme Challenge & Spring races

2010-01-15T11:02:00.003-05:00

My next A race is the Krispy Kreme Challenge held on NC State campus on February 6th. This is a serious event for elite competitors only. It consists of a 2 mile run - eat 12 doughnuts - 2 mile run. You have to beat an hour or they drag you off the course and feed you to wild boars brought in special from the Appalachians.

After that it will be the Gasparilla 15k on February 27 during our annual Winter triathlon training camp in Florida.

March will be a quieter month as far as racing goes. I was going to run in either the Tobacco Road half marathon or Wrightsville Beach half-marathon on March 21, but have opted instead to take a vacation with my father to Atlantic City.

I will probably make up the half-marathon plan on May 16 with the Inside-Out Sports Classic Half Marathon.

March 27 is the Smithfield Sprint in Virginia, which we are probably going to do.

I am linked out for today. Have a nice weekend!

Back in NC

2010-01-13T11:38:00.002-05:00

We had a good time in Florida catching up with everyone and it was great to watch Bri run a sub 1:26 half marathon on Saturday morning. I kept up with some training but nothing eventful.

I am looking forward to a few weeks of regular training and life until we head back down to the west coast of Florida for the annual week long triathlon training camp.

Up next we have a Powerstroke clinic in Huntersville, NC and then another here in Cary the following week.

I have some flu like symptoms and suspect the erratic sleep, lousy weather and multitude of people we hung out with over the past few days have resulted in me getting a bug of some sort.

chilling in FL

2010-01-08T10:20:00.003-05:00

We are here in freezing cold Central Florida, enjoying some freezing cold Central Florida weather, a nice respite from the freezing cold North Carolina weather. Bri and our friends are looking forward to racing in the Disney half-marathon tomorrow morning - the weather man is calling for a low of 29, a high of 40, and 45% chance of showers. As far as running weather goes, that is about as lousy as it gets. If it was colder it would be snow, which would be much better, since it doesn't soak you to the bones. But instead we're expecting sleet and cold rain. I will be warm and toasty, waiting in the car for these intrepid souls to conquer their demons and emerge victorious from the finishing chute, proudly clutching a Donald Duck medal in their cold, trembling hands. I was just possessed by the spirit of Hemingway for a moment.

The 00s review

2010-01-03T12:29:00.002-05:00

If you limit your reading to financial and economic news, you know that a bunch of yahoos are calling the 2000s another "lost decade" as it pertains to stock market and real estate markets. But there's certainly a lot more going on than just dollars and cents, right?

I don't know about you, but the 00s were a great decade for me. Despite losing quite a bit in the recent economic meltdown, we have been fortunate to have done well with real estate through dumb luck and a small bit of foresight.

The mid and late 90s were not great for me personally and professionally. So in comparison this decade really was a total and absolute winner.

Some decade highlights would include:

Met a nice girl, kept her and married her (that's her in the picture)
Got several good jobs
Earned two graduate degrees
Started a business and a swim race series
Did well athletically, winning several triathlons over the years
Made new friends around the world
Traveled around the world
Bought first residence (condo) and sold it for a profit 5 years later
Bought a nice house
Got a great dog
Made and stashed away a fair bit of moolah

I hope that the next decade keeps us on this path of happiness, personal development, and lifestyle success.

Remember, it's your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude.

See you in 2010.

Team OSB at American Triple T NC

2009-12-31T09:45:00.004-05:00

The American Triple T is a 3 day, 4 race triathlon that adds up to an Ironman distance. HFP Racing has run a version of this in Ohio since 2002, and launched a version at White Lake NC for 2010.

You can race this as an individual or as a member of a 2-person team. If you go as a team, then the first two races (Friday sprint, Saturday morning Olympic) are done as individuals, and the next 2 (Saturday afternoon Olympic, Sunday Half) must be completed together. Your times are added together for the final score.

I mentioned to Bri that I was thinking about finding a teammate, to make it more interesting, generate some team spirit, and have team fun. She said she might be interested. I said, well, if you are interested, let's do it, since they have a coed division.

So we're going! Having Bri as a training partner for this will be great, and we should get into solid shape for USAT Nationals in September.

Now we need to figure out if we're going to be Team Gaal, Team One Step Beyond, or Team Tassie.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Terminator: Salvation review

2009-12-28T17:19:00.003-05:00

This movie sucked. If it sucked any worse it would create a time-dilation vortex and suck both the future and the past into it, eradicating all existence. While I was watching I stabbed myself in the leg three times to convince myself I hadn't died and gone to hell. Don't see this movie unless you hate yourself and deserve to suffer.

Bri has been telling me to write a review, so there you go. I was sorely disappointed.

Anyway we had a nice time in Virginia. Bri posted some pictures which you can check out here.

Next up is New Years, and then we start riding outside in 30 degree weather. I mentioned running in one of the New Years Day 5k runs around here, but Bri pushed me out of the car into oncoming traffic, so I took that as a "No."

Avatar review - Spoiler alert

2009-12-24T12:24:00.004-05:00

We went to see the movie Avatar last night, in 3D, no less. Read no more if you have not seen the movie and don't want the plot or storyline blown for you.

---SPOILER WARNING---

OK, so the movie is about an enlisted injured US Marine, Jake, who is drafted to go to a distant planet and mingle with the native alien people via an Avatar - a living breathing alien body engineered for his (brother's) specific use. Jake's twin brother was originally going to go but he got mugged and killed 1 week prior, so Jake is sent because they share the same genetic code. The alien people are about 12 feet tall, blue skinned, and have a distinctive American Indian, one with nature culture.

In short, the planet is being mined by Humans for some highly valued metal, and the biggest deposit of this metal sits directly under the local native alien village.

Or unwitting hero stumbles into the village after getting himself lost & meeting a fine Indian maiden. The village elders decide to accept him and teach him their ways. PS: Jake knows that in 3 months the humans are going to take by force the village if he can't convince the elders to leave. This is part of his mission!

Commence action scenes, beautiful scenery, bold and fun clean adventure. 3 months go by. JAKE NEVER MENTIONS THAT THE VILLAGE WILL BE RAZED. WTF? The villagers eventually accept him as one of "The People" and he sleeps with his fine maiden, aka the daughter of the chief.

Next day: Invasion! Jake says, "Oh yeah, I meant to tell you that the humans are going to invade and you should leave." Fair maiden feels betrayed. Villagers choose to fight bad American people. Village is razed, many innocents are killed. Chief dies. Bad juju.

Jake & team escape, he takes over a big red bird reminiscent of a Phoenix, and convinces the people to follow him and unite under one banner. The planet is actually a network living thing and eventually realizes it must fight the humans. Good people of the planet triumph after significant losses. Jake becomes one of The People forever.

That is a short summary. Now I will give you my cynical view.

Jake is in a wheelchair in his human body. He is essentially a nobody, a grunt, having lived in 'the shadow' of his brilliant brother. In his alien body he is strong, uninjured. He eventually realizes his alien life is better than his human life. He diabolically plots a method to a) win the beautiful chieftain daughter, b) eliminate all his rivals both human and alien, c) take over the entire alien world.

JAKE WINS! He is actually so evil, so clever, so ruthless and cunning that no one realizes he is the baddest of the bad. A wolf in sheep's clothing.

You get the point.

This report brought to you by www.cynic.com

holiday update

2009-12-20T21:20:00.005-05:00

We had a nice weekend here in NC consisting of multiple holiday parties, cold sleeting rain, and capped it off with a great long run on the American Tobacco Trail today. A recap:

Tequila shots bestowed upon me at the FS Series Holiday party on Thursday night
Fun Secret Santa gifting at Nas' party
12.5 mile run Sunday morning while Bri covered 14.1 (I am slower than her if you haven't figured that out)

This week brings Christmas and some quality time with our family in Virginia. They have an Xbox, which I plan to comandeer in order to wipe out entire militias on one of them shoot-em-up games. We might also open presents.

I have posted all the 2009 OSB Newsletters on the newsletter page if you want to kill some time reading short training articles and athlete updates.

There is not a whole lot else going on. We're going to go see the Kill The Smurfs movie sometime soon, and I am going to buy some Edward the Vampire stuff for Bri, who is a driving force behind the Team Edward movement.

Worst morning runner ever

2009-12-17T12:06:00.003-05:00

Today Bri was not able to run at any other time than early AM. We are going to the FS Series holiday party tonight at 6, and she is stuck in meetings from 10AM to 5PM at work. The pain of being in meetings for 7 hours aside, she can be a tough cookie when need be. I told her I would go with her for solidarity and safety.

I am the worst morning runner ever and this was the worst morning run in several years.

Last night I played in a local poker game until about 12:30. Right to bed when I got home. Alarm goes off at 6AM. I say to Bri, "Can we run at lunch?"

"No, I have meetings from 10 until 5, I have to go now."

I moan and groan but get out of bed. Stumble around looking for my clothes.

"Oh, you're going to go with me?" She says, with a twinkle in her eye.

"Yes, I told you I was going to go."

Out the door by 6:20. No coffee. No food. No water. Just the two of us and the open road.

Did I mention that it was 28 degrees?

Bri was able to include 2 x 10 minutes of tempo, while I limped along behind her and tried not to poop myself along the busiest road in Cary.

It was six ugly miles. Going to run 30 minutes later today and try and run fast for 15 of them.

Ug. Just thinking about it is ugly.

Heading into 2010

2009-12-16T10:29:00.004-05:00

It has been a quiet few weeks here at OSB central, as many of our athletes take a well needed break from regular training plans and emails telling them to get out of bed and go work out. We are looking forward to 2010 as another great year both personally and athletically. Some highlights with our 2009 athletes:

- 5 first-time IMers
- 2 70.3 World Champ qualifiers
- 1 Boston Marathon qualifier
- 1 Hawaii Ironman finisher
- 3rd age group Duathlon Worlds
- Several NCTS and FS Series top 3 age group / masters overall

Bri has been fortunate to work with a small group of really motivated athletes and has had a lot of fun coaching them. It is nice watching her become more confident in her ability to coach people successfully.

We're going to run several Powerstroke clinics again throughout the season (every 2-3 months) and will be hosting our Winter training camp in late February (there is currently 1 open bedroom in the shared beach house) and another weekend training camp in Raleigh in August.

We signed back on as series coaching sponsor for the North Carolina Triathlon Series and will be racing / attending a number of these events throughout the season. There are 25 total racing days, which is a bunch, so you won't see us at all of them. I am planning to race 6 of them - Belews Lake, White Lake Sprint 2, Kure Beach, Stumpy Creek, Lake Norman, and Jordan Lake Sprint.

We've been selling a few Powerstroke DVDs each week since making them available for sale. I hope to keep this up indefinitely. There will be a couple of production upgrades to the material coming soon, but if you buy one now you're receiving the same content. Basically we have a chance to re-shoot the lecture in a professional studio with better lighting and equipment in January. It will be a prettier presentation.

My goals for 2010:
low 18 5k
Host 8 to 10 Powerstroke and open water clinics throughout the year
3 or 4 top 5 overall local sprint triathlon results
Low 2 hour olympic distance at St Anthonys Tri in April
Top 5 Triple T NC individual
Save money / pay off all debt except mortgage & car payment
Put together a 100 +/- page training manual I can give to new athletes as a guide and-or sell as a standalone book.

Unemployed? No problem!

2009-12-11T14:05:00.007-05:00

If you're unemployed or fearing you're about to be, don't worry - Mama government is here to help you. Now you can be on unemployment for up to 99 weeks. Isn't that swell? You could take the time to clean the backyard, go on a staycation, or just stay up all night watching Nickelodeon. Who cares?

When I was a young man without much in the way of money, fame, good looks, friends, fame, money, family support, money, people that liked me, a useful degree, good looks, fame, or money, you know what I did when I got fired or layed-off from one of my non-unionized, uninsured, abusive-boss jobs?

I WENT OUT AND GOT ANOTHER ONE. WHATEVER JOB I COULD FIND. I have never been on unemployment, food stamps, handouts, or whatever. I did stay at my father's house for a year while down on my luck in my mid-20s (and was thankful to stay there for the time), but even then I worked two jobs to save up and get back on my feet. He paid me about $6 an hour for warehousing & deliveries, and my other jobs paid between 8 and 10 bucks per hour.

NOTHING LIKE THE FEAR OF BEING PENNILESS AND ON THE STREET ON YOUR OWN TO GET SOME PEOPLE INTO THE WORKFORCE. Go to any mall, fast food joint, restaurant, call center, or other places that don't require much in the way of technical skill. Think you can find a job? I bet you a million dollars there is a job in your town you could walk into tomorrow! Want to take me up on the bet? Send your gold equivalent to my house and I'll hold onto it while you look for work! Ha! Fooled you! I will take your gold and run away!

Ha! Fooled you again! I wouldn't do that because it would be unethical!

I realize it might be unbecoming for a former exec or technical expert of a now defunct start-up to work at Burger King or Road House as a prep cook, but my man, since you blew all your income on high priced dance clubs, vacation condos, and Ferraris when life was good, whose fault is this when you get down to it?

Do you feel demeaned, marginalized, or embarrassed to be a college-educated 40-50 year old, working next to 18-year old stoner kids who think foreign policy is something you can catch a venereal disease from? Does it bother you when they laugh at the old guy? Are you too good for this sort of thing?

Tales of your exploits sailing to the Galapagos Islands to poach baby seals are not going to put food on your table.

Are you going to have to downsize your life? Is that dream of owning your own home, and a vacation home, and one for your mistress over? It sure is!

IT'S WAY OVER. YOU LOSE. THE SYSTEM WINS.

Wake up to the new world my friends. Want to hold out for that super-duper executive position you're highly qualified for? Go for it! I'll see you in the Soup Kitchen line!

My sympathy is running dry. Get a job. Get any job. Ideally a high paying government job (they can pay more, since they can also make the money, and the rules, and then change them, and then take your stuff, and then change the rules again). Make a new job for yourself. Do something besides sit around and think you deserve better than this.

You don't deserve anything but what you make or do for yourself.

Stop the insanity! Our expected Federal deficit next year is 1.2 trillion. $98 billion of that is going to unemployment extensions.

A trillion dollars is 1,000 billion. A billion dollars is 1,000 million.

That is 1,200,000 million. Or 1.2 million million dollars.

GAH! MY HEAD JUST EXPLODED!

Broken pensions

2009-12-09T10:23:00.002-05:00

Here is an interesting article about the New Jersey State employee's pension system. It is totally busted, state and local governments haven't been contributing, and the average payout is $60,000 a year. 1 in 3 pensioners move out of the state when they retire (because taxes are onerous...because of the pensions...?).

Brutal. Imagine you're now 40-something, having banked on a comfortable pension when you retire, ie not banking your salary to a retirement account, and voila, the carpet is going to be ripped out from under you.

Save your dough.

2010 race plans (again)

2009-12-07T16:45:00.003-05:00

Jan-Feb: random running races
March 21 - Wrightsville Beach or Tobacco Trail half-marathon
March 27 - Smithfield Sprint Triathlon (Virginia)
April 17 - Belews Lake Triathlon
April 18 - Triangle Ortho Centennial Sprint Triathlon
April 25 - St Anthonys Olympic Triathlon
May 9 - White Lake Sprint 2
May 22 or 23 - Low Country 2.4 mile swim (Charleston)
June 6 - Breezy Point Triathlon
June 27 - Kure Beach Double Sprint Triathlon
July 11-16 - Erie Canal Bike Tour
July 18 - John T Carey Ocean City Master Swim
August 7 - Stumpy Creek International
August 22 - Lake Norman Sprint
September 25 - USAT Nationals
October 2 - Jordan Lake sprint
October 8-10: Triple T North Carolina

Running in the cold rain

2009-12-05T11:33:00.003-05:00

I was going to get a 10 mile run in today, rain or shine, squall or sun. The weather wound up being in the low 50s and drizzly, which is not too bad. Steffen met me and we trudged out a 10 miler in Umstead. There were only a handful of other intrepid souls in the park.

Tomorrow I'll meet an OSB athlete for 9 more miles, then get an easy ride in the afternoon.

I'm pretty motivated for 2010 racing if you haven't picked up on that, and am going to do the NC Triple T as my season finale next year. The Triple T is a weekend of racing - 4 races that add up to the Ironman distance. Sprint on Friday, 2 international distance races on Saturday, and a half-Iron distance on Sunday.

The plan will be to stick to mostly sprint style training & 1 long ride per week through July, then bang out 2 months of dedicated long course training in August and September.

Our summer vacation next year is going to be the Erie Canal Bike Tour the week of July 11-18.

Don't forget about the Florida Winter training camp in late February.

OSB athlete in the news

2009-12-02T10:46:00.003-05:00

Check out this article on Karen Crews, who recently raced in the Beach 2 Battleship Iron distance triathlon. It has been a pleasure working with Karen over the past couple of years.

I am leaning towards the October Triple T in NC as a season finale in 2010.

Fleshing out 2010

2009-11-30T17:17:00.003-05:00

Continuing to pick and choose my races and events for next year:

February 6 - Winston Salem Short Course Duathlon
March 21 - Wrightsville Beach half-marathon
April 18 - Triangle Ortho Centennial Sprint Triathlon
April 25 - St Anthonys Olympic Triathlon
May 9 - White Lake Sprint 2
May 22 or 23 - Low Country 2.4 mile swim (Charleston)
May 30 - Over the Mountain Olympic (regional champs)
June 27 - Kure Beach Double Sprint Triathlon
July 11-16 - Erie Canal Bike Tour
July 18 - Ocean City Master's Swim
August ? - Lake Norman Triathlon
September ? - Wilmington YMCA Triathlon or USAT Nationals
season finale:
September & October: Either the Patriot's Half in Virginia or the newly announced Triple T North Carolina

Sustainable Wealth

2009-11-28T14:05:00.002-05:00

I finished reading Sustainable Wealth: Achieving financial security in volatile world of debt and consumption by investment dude Axel Merk. It is a good read and I recommend it to anyone interested in saving and making money.

The key tenants:

Spend less than you make
Create concrete savings goals
Avoid or pay down debt
Keep abreast of economic trends and diversify your risk
Invest only what you can afford to lose
Don't trust the government to save you
Work for yourself if possible and realistic

Some specific ideas he included:
Gold
pick up foreign currency instead of all US dollars
real estate / rental property
Don't count on the stock or bond market for all your returns