21st Century Mom » PSA

Give a Little – Get a Lot

21st Century Mom — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:31:55 +0000

Do you like cool stuff? Do like winning? Read this post and see how you could become the proud owner of some cool stuff and have a feel good moment in the bargain!

Giving is a theme in everyone’s lives right now with the horrifying disaster in Haiti. It’s not a great time to be raising money for health related causes and yet, these diseases continue to plague us regardless of whatever else is going on in the world and we must continue to fight back.

I am participating once again in the ALS Spin-a-thon but instead of just asking for money I’m holding a drawing! I have some really fun stuff that I will be giving to some lucky donor. This includes

1) A Chico Bag from Levi Leipheimer’s Inaugural Gran Fondo (this is a sold out item, people – this is your ONLY chance to get one of these!!)

2). A cycling hat from Eleven Gear featuring the Republic of Anaerobia logo

3). An Aluminum water bottle from Power Flex

4). A copy of Bike Monkey Magazine, also from the Gran Fondo

You can have a chance at this fabulous swag for a $5.00 donation! YOU COULD BE TOTALLY ECO CHIC FOR 5 BUCKS! How often do you get an offer like that, eh??

ALS is a nasty, pernicous, almost always fatal disesease that robs a person of his or her life inch by inch, month by month. It is horrible and random and not all that common and therefore not something drug companies feel compelled to try to cure. It’s up to us to raise the money and fund the research to help eradicate this awful disease. That’s worth 5 bucks, don’t you think?

Here is a link to my fund raising page. It explains how the drawing will work. The donation levels were set by active giving, not by me. I’m happy with 5 bucks. And for that you get 5 chances to win this cool stuff and the chance to help wipe out ALS.

Thanks!

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Monday Monday – Climbing the Hard Way and a PSA

21stcenturymom — Mon, 19 May 2008 10:58:02 +0000

Triathlon training is going very well these days. I have a new riding pal we will refer to as Dr. McBikey because he’s a doctor and he’s attractive enough to warrant the reference. This is just a biking thing so don’t get excited. The thing about Dr. McBikey that’s nice is that he wants to ride at 6:15 AM and that works for me and it is MUCH easier to get out there at the butt crack of dawn if someone is expecting you than if you lack that particular incentive.

Anyhow, on Thursday I had mentioned that I would probably climb Mt. Diablo on Saturday and he asked if he could come so I said sure! As it turns out no one else was available so it was just us. Friday night I noticed that my rear tire was completely flat so Saturday I got up extra early so I could change it (we didn’t start until 8 AM on Saturday). I got it changed, took off, connected with Dr. McB and off we went. About 10 miiles later I could hear that things weren’t right and I checked it and sure enough, the tire was mushy. I loaded it up with some CO2 and we started climbing.

OMG – climbing has never been so difficult! I got about 1500 feet up the mountain and I was red and sweaty and my HR was through the roof, I’m sure (only I don’t wear a HRM so I don’t really know). I could see McB way up ahead but I had to stop and sure enough the rear tire was totally squishy again. Pumped it up, rode on, met up with McB who was waiting and was happy enough to take a rest and then on we went. Lather, rinse, repeat once more and it this was getting annoying.

Here’s the good news, though. My recollection is that the last 2 hills before you get to where the roads that head up the 2 sides of the mountain join are steep and hard to climb. They were not. I was stunned to realized that I had reached the junction when I did so I declare VICTORY! I love it when the hills get easier because it means I really am getting stronger – yeah!

All thoughts of going higher got dumped due to my equipment issues so we headed down the north side, stopped for an iced latte and headed to the Sports Basement for some more CO2. Dr. McBikey got a flat on the way and was glad I was with him because he has no experience changing a tire although to his credit he had everything he needed (levers, tire and pump).

After I got home the big msytery was why, oh why did 2 tubes go flat? I took off the tire and checked every bit of the inner surface. I found 1 tiny slit but it was nothing that would puncture a tube. I checked the rim – nothing. Then I pumped up the tubes and submerged them only to discover that there were tiny rends in the seam of each. Cheap tubes? Poor installation? What’s your guess?

PSA –

I’d like to introduce you to a program called SportsTracks in the event you’ve never heard of it. It works with your Garmin and the cool thing it does is let you break the workout into pieces. You sort of have to get the hang of how to get the thing to break where you want it to but once you do it’s awesome! I was able to break up the run and ride portions of the Golden Bear Triathlon. Once I broke them up I exported them to GPX format and then imported them into MotionBased so that I now have this:

Ride:

Run:

Okay- so that’s a lot of work to be able to look at an elevation map but I love it! I’m a geek and technology that lets me play with numbers works for me.

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PSA – Don’t give up your URL

21stcenturymom — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:28:13 +0000

A couple of bloggers have left the ‘hood lately and abandon their blogs. Bob of Haiku Thursday (Ourmarathonblog a.k.a Running Destination) is an example. He must have deleted his blog or something. The URL he left behind has been hijacked by a spammer (something about drugs from Canada).

I don’t know what the alternative is if you decide that blogging is taking over your life and you need out but don’t just abandon. The spammers thrive on that. I don’t know how they do it but they do and who wants to be part of that road to hell? Not me!

Speaking of me – I tried running again last night and it did not go well. The hammy cried ‘NO!” in no uncertain (and very painful) terms. I iced. I elevated. I went swimming today but mostly pulled. I have an appointment at a sports clinic tomorrow where they will probably tell me I need a deep tissue massage or 5. Anyone have any opinions about the benefits of deep tissue massage? I’m all ears. I’m also sort of skeptical.

Here’s why. If you have some sort of tear, what good can massage do? I can see massage making a huge difference if your muscles are in a state of tetnus or rigor or something but if you are torn or internally bruised wouldn’t the massage make it worse. My real issue is that the receptionist was trying to book the massage before I even had a consult. That strikes me as daft. Does the mechanic schedule you for a new head gasket before he’s looked at your car? No.

Anyhow- if you know something about deep tissue massage please tell me about it.
TIA!

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