It's the off season and it's chocy time. I like dark chocy. The good stuff. Like Dagoba Chocolate, I like denman island chocolate, I like organic chocolate and I really really like Bernard Callebaut chocolates, available right here in Victoria at Broadmead Place and there's one downtown, I think it's on the corner of Broughton & Pandora.....
Is anyone else out there really into Chocolate?
SQW ;0
From ESPN NHL. this made me laugh.
John,
Does Barry Melrose think (Slovenian Forward) Anze Kopitar is Czech or Slovak?
Steve
Whether Czech, Slovak or sometimes Darko Milicic, Barry believes everybody is from Czechoslovakia. Barry doesn't seem to want to recognize that on Jan. 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Of course, when that happened, Barry's Los Angeles Kings were in the middle of a five-game losing streak in which they were outscored, 32-9!
On Jan. 1, Czechoslovakia was no more. The next day, the Kings tied the Canadiens, 5-5. Then, 158 days later, the Kings lost to the Canadiens 4-1 to lose the 1993 Stanley Cup finals, 4-1. That bit of world history slipped by our Mulleted One.
From my comments section. As always posted 'anon'.
"I think it continues to be a sad day for Triathlon Canada as coaches and now athletes seem to be moving into the private tier of coaching.
For young amateur triathletes looking to seek top coaching in Canada this is a shame.
Even Joel coached privately before joining the NTTC.
The Olympic Committee complains about now winning medals, perhaps we should tell them that some of our best athletes can't afford to 'buy success'.
Friend or not, shame on Simon for endorsing this type of coaching."
Shame on me?
When are these people ever going to stand behind their comments?
http://www.peterreid.com/coaching.htm
guys a legend, very very smart athlete, I can only imagine his programs will reflect that.
AND it's not going to be one of those regurgitate what the computer generates programs....
;)
SQW
more cutting and pasting by yours truly (a break from training = a break from logging)..... but this is classic, absolutely classic.
from www.thefinnfiles.blogspot.com - after capeeeetaan anonymous came a call'in on Jimmy.
"I have never read so much purple prose in all my life". anon.
Jim's response..... :)
(Are His Luminous Orbs On Me?)
You've gotta take your hat off to the guy (girl). He totally undressed me with his colourful comment, stripping me down to my tumbling chest hair and a fig leaf, little more. It was such a jarring sentence that he wrote, hitting me like car going 60 hits a brick wall, but in it the truth was exposed. And I quote, "I have never read so much purple prose in all my life". Do I ever feel vulnerable, like a unarmed sniper in an open grassy field. When it rains it pours, I guess. I'm young, so of course I'll get over it. Still, I gravely wish I could take that last post (no, not the last - the second last) back. It has become painfully clear that I need to do an about face with my writing, turn it on its head. There needs to be a complete overhaul of this blog. I'm not going to get bent out of shape over his comment. He has a point. I'll go out on a limb (albeit a shaky one) and say that he is one hundred and ten percent correct. This straight from a man who does math for a living. I am going to do what any self-respecting individual would do when faced with adverse circumstances. I refuse to be all talk and no action, atitude is determined by atitude afterall and I am going to drive this train home to the station. From now on, I will write cliche-less, flower-less prose. Let's be honest here: the previous blog entries have stunk so much they even made my eyes water. You can put glitter on shit but it still stinks (sorry ma). Hell, I have such a disdain for some of my previous entries (now that I have seen the light) that my nose is still wrinkled to the right and the hairs inside have packed their bags and left north for the eyebrows. Lest we forget, words are the window to our soul. Did I do that right? Whatever, it's water under the bridge now. Such a beautiful bridge, though! I love the way it arcs over the babbling brook, mist rising from the rippling waves like a genie rises from a bottle. But back to the main thread of this post. Mark my words (and I am generally a man of few words, so listen with all ears), from now on my sentences will be concise and to the point. If B is the point that I want to reach and A is the point that I am starting at, I am going to write the way the crow flies, straight from A to B. I'm not stopping for food or for gas. This camel has all of its belongings in its hump and its heading into the desert looking for the oasis. It's straight to the point from now on. Oh, how proud you'll be of me now, Anonymous one, proud like a father is of his son. Please, please don't turn your luminous orbs from my shameless navel gazing site. The bile that I used to spew has dried up and the chickens have come home to roost. I owe you one million times over for your constructive criticism, if only I knew who you were. I've probably read your books though, as you have such a wealth of knowledge to pass on to aspiring writers. Can you believe I didn't learn a single thing from your tomes!?! I was never the sharpest tool in the shed. I suppose it's back to the drawing board for me, but trying is half the battle and I will never, ever give up. I feel as though I have been given a second life. I owe it all to you! E-mail me at imanarmchaircritic@hotmail.com. We must talk writing!
-----
Finn, you're a bloody stud. this is too funny. and the shameless navel gazing comment..... my side hurts.
from espn page 2.
My buddies and I were talking about appropriate punishments for dictators like Saddam Hussein, and we came up with an idea that works for everyone and could raise money for the International Criminal Court without using tax dollars. Why not charge admission for people to look at convicted dictators in their jail cells, kind of like a zoo for genocidal megalomaniacs? Think about it: you put them in small, basic cells behind plexiglass and charge 25 euros to watch them go about their day. Tourists could get baked at a local coffee shop and head over to the jail to gawk at Slobodan Milosevic sitting on a cot watching "90210" reruns. You could even charge extra to feed them falafel pellets and shawarma biscuits. This would be a far worse fate for a once-proud dictator then being executed. Who wouldn't pay 25 euros to watch Saddam Hussein in his underwear eating Cheetos?
easy easy, not much going on here, just easy 2.5k swims, easy 40min runs and a couple pints.....
big news on the bike front, can't wait rolling on my new bike, it's simply going to be the nicest bike I could ride, I'll have an advantage because of it and I'm very excited about the first ride..... more to come.
this next week is more of the same, swim in the morning, run at night, spin on the rollers a couple days a week and relax. I have some sponsor details to deal with, a BIG dinner party coming up and George Clooney is arriving at our place on wednesday, it should be interesting, to say the least.
all good.
s
Chinese athletes banned from commercial events
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-09 16:10:23
BEIJING, Nov. 9 -- China's sport authority has set a ban on its athletes from participating in any commercial activities so they can prepare for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Oriental Morning Post reported Thursday.
"The ban will ensure they have time to train as the Games near," Liu Peng, the director with the country's General Administration of Sport, said yesterday in Guiyang, the country's southwest Guizhou Province.
"As for social events of necessity, approval from the administration is required," he said. "We permit no distractions."
Zhou Jing, section chief with the administration's press office, told the newspaper yesterday that she hadn't received any notice on the new regulation, but said "social events, especially commercial ones, pose a negative impact on training athletes."
"Training will be pointless if this period is spoiled," she said.
However, charity events will be given leeway, Zhou said
Shanghai-native Liu Xiang, world champion and 100m hurdles record-holder, told the post last night that he was in full training and would firmly obey the regulation. Liu has agreed to be an image ambassador for a residential project in downtown Shanghai recently, because the developer would in return give his coach Sun Haiping a free apartment.
Jasper and I have bought a Canadian franchise of Smintair, we're looking for investors, this is a very exciting opportunity for people with MUcho DineRo and a desire to see the world..... through the smokey haze....
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- "We would like to remind passengers that smoking is permitted on this flight."
It has been a long time since most European air travelers heard anything like this, but a German entrepreneur has set up an airline that will give its customers the freedom to chain-smoke from take-off to landing.
Alexander Schoppmann, the 55-year-old founder of Smoker's International Airways -- Smintair -- said he got the idea for a smokers' haven in the heavens after he'd had enough of expensive non-smoking long-haul flights with poor service.
"I got so annoyed that ticket prices were rising while service was getting worse," said Schoppmann, who is a 20-a-day cigarette smoker.
Once Smintair flights begin in October 2007, smoking will be allowed in all 138 seats aboard a spacious Smintair Boeing 747. Normal airlines fit up to 559 passengers in a 747.
"The crew can smoke as well," the former stockbroker said.
Schoppmann came up with the idea as Germany considers toughening its smoking regulations, among the most lenient in Europe. Germans have been loath to ban smoking because of memories of Adolf Hitler, who forbade it in public places.
The center-left Social Democrats, who are part of the grand coalition, have drafted a proposal to ban smoking in many public places.
Berlin, the city-state that is Germany's capital, may go even further. It is considering a ban in all public places.
Nicotine-friendly Smintair is already popular, even though tickets are not on sale yet.
"Demand is strong," Schoppmann said. "We get people who say they want to fly with us, even though they have no business in Tokyo or Shanghai," he said.
On daily flights from Duesseldorf to Tokyo and Shanghai, Smintair will offer Cuban cigars, caviar served by flight attendants in designer uniforms, a deluxe on-board entertainment system and large ashtrays at every seat.
There will be a lounge with a duty-free shop.
The extravagance will not cost any more than a flight to Japan with any other airline, Schoppmann said.
A first-class return ticket -- Smintair offers only business and first-class tickets -- from Duesseldorf to Tokyo will cost 10,000 euros ($12,680), while a business-class seat will go for 6,500 euros on the same route, he says.
Schoppmann expects to make profit within the first 12 months. He forecasts a rise in annual sales to 500 million euros and a pre-tax profit of 120 million euros by October 2008.
Airline industry experts are skeptical.
"I don't think an all-business class smoking flight can be run economically from Duesseldorf," said Andreas Kretzschmar, chairman of the Board of Airline Representatives in Germany.
Ernst-Guenther Krause, vice-president of the Non-Smoker Initiative Germany, said Schoppmann's idea would never fly because people were increasingly aware of the risks of smoking.
"Most people have realized by now that tobacco is not good for them," he said.
Nearly one in three German adults smokes regularly and about 140,000 Germans die every year from tobacco-related illnesses.
Schoppmann, who dismisses the effects of second-hand smoking as "nonsense", is not worried about a future smoking ban.
"Quite the opposite. We'll benefit from it," he said.
Smintair does not have an airline licence yet, since it still lacks one crucial piece of equipment -- planes.
Schoppmann said he was taking over three used Boeing 747s from airlines that hoped to replace them with the new Airbus A380 super jumbo, whose delivery is delayed.
Once his airline takes off, the chain-smoking Smintair founder hopes to open a chain of hotels, restaurants, pubs and holiday resorts.
He may also expand the airline's route to the southern hemisphere. Johannesburg and Sao Paulo are on his radar.
good not great finish to the season.
it's simply time to get back to winning. My swimming investment is paying off, close to the front of the swim, closer. need to keep progressing. This year and last year were about investing in strength, especially in the swim. Building out training group, establishing it's mission statement and setting up 07 and 08. especially 08.
The race in Cancun was pretty good. good swim, very solid bike, strong but not fast run. Gomez ran extremely well but all things considered (great excuse) it was a good run.
Back to Vic, train for Canadian cross country champs on decemeber 1st and take a couple weeks off till Xmas.
SQW
well, we're driving down to PHX tonight, flying out there tommorow morning to Cancun and Clearwater (Jordan).
it's been incredible here, as it was last winter. discovered 3E and I look forward to coming back to "the place where the work will be done".
training has gone really well, lots of Sauna sessions for the cancun heat prep. held the running milage up this week with a brilliant run on sunday and a solid session on tuesday (25min easy then 4min fast, 3min easy, 12min fast, wd) good workout as the last hit out. I think I made it to nearly 20hrs running for the 4 weeks and I feel great. No injuries, in fact I think I have a lot more running in me, may go for 24hrs in November...
Swimming feels good, the sessions pilled up and I think we swam over 100k in the month, at altitude on our own I'm stoked with that and feel strong in the pool. I really enjoyed the swimming here, strength and consistency.
cycling turned into a fun combo of single speed mtb and hard sessions on the road. This last week was dedicated to riding the rollers to get some more heat stress going but overall I'm pleased with the "time in the saddle". Nothing like mtbing, loved it.
Cancun should be fun, gotta love the mexican races......
then it's home to the new dog..... and some sponsor commitments.
sqw
