Firstly, the story of Dan Martin from the UK, setting off on a world-wide triathlon which will see him swim the Atlantic from Nova Scotia to France, ride across Eurasia, swim (again) to Canada and run across Canada back to NS. Seeing Nova Scotia get name-checked twice in the one article (on the BBC no less) sent a frisson down our collective Orca. We see he'll be riding across Siberia in the winter, when the weather promises to be anything but clement. Of course, if he was any kind of triathlete at all he'd get on the trainer and virtually ride across Siberia, but there's no accounting for taste, eh?
Perhaps more alarming than even riding across Siberia in the snow is the story that GPS network performance is about to be significantly degraded by solar activity. Being an august and venerable news organisation the BBC reported this in terms of degraded sat-nav performance for emergency services or even public transit (apparently some trains won't open their doors until the GPS tells them to! In our day there was a bloke in the rear carriage who pressed a button when all was clear, kinda old and klutzy we know but he wasn't sensitive to solar flares!). Anyway, surely of more importance is what will this do to our Garmins, and by extension the Garmin-Transitions pro cycling squad? Will the latter just fade away for ten minutes at random intervals? We're used to the sporting pro's "woulda, coulda, shoulda" (in any sport) but I'd love to hear Vaughters use that as an excuse. And then there are our wrist-mounted units. They are finnicky enough at the moment without this. The TA knows of one person whose Forerunner has a Bermuda Triangle Of Death around the Robie/Cogswell interchange where it just point blank drops out every time. Interference from the Armories condo development or perhaps the donair/pizza joint on the corner, who knows? The last thing we need is an even more wavering signal. On the other hand, we can't wait to hear this in TZ or the finishing corral "well I missed a PB due to solar activity".
At the banquet Luke MacDonald from A1 did a variation on his usual shoe-draw and the upshot was that one TNS member donated eight (yes eight) pairs of running shoes to the Kidsfest programme and ended up scoring two pairs of runners for themselves. We wonder if the lucky winner read about the way running shoes have supposedly changed the way we run (and this was in Nature so it must be true!). Does the proliferation of hip and knee injuries (not to mention all the associated parts in-between; ITB anyone)? correlate to those nice cushioned shoes we're all in? Certainly some people think so. I don't know if it means anything, but Pheidippides did the original marathon either barefoot or at most rocking a pair of circa 490BC Athenian Army issue unposted sandals and whereas he might have dropped dead at the end of it, no mention is made of whether his feet were, in fact, killing him.
Finally, there are many routes into triathlon. The swimmers may win all the medals, but that doesn't stop the runners from joining in and having a good time. In fact hockey players, soccer players and skiers have all found a home at TNS. The TA, as you may have noticed, came into this through cycling and is following avidly the kick-off of the European racing season. We noticed that Tom Boonen won the sprint in Stage 3 of the Tour de Qatar with a 72.8 kph sprint. This is pretty much the TA's all-time speed record, which we set coming off Arthur's Seat in the 1998 Hogmanay Triathlon (the descent somewhat enlivened by a mini-roundabout half-way down!). Looking at the pictures we realized that Tornado Tom does in fact, bear a striking resemblance to ex-TNS treasurer Gerrad Lewin. Separated at birth? We need to know.
Speaking of which, what it your bicycle speed record? Let us know!
Stay warm
AD
Perhaps more alarming than even riding across Siberia in the snow is the story that GPS network performance is about to be significantly degraded by solar activity. Being an august and venerable news organisation the BBC reported this in terms of degraded sat-nav performance for emergency services or even public transit (apparently some trains won't open their doors until the GPS tells them to! In our day there was a bloke in the rear carriage who pressed a button when all was clear, kinda old and klutzy we know but he wasn't sensitive to solar flares!). Anyway, surely of more importance is what will this do to our Garmins, and by extension the Garmin-Transitions pro cycling squad? Will the latter just fade away for ten minutes at random intervals? We're used to the sporting pro's "woulda, coulda, shoulda" (in any sport) but I'd love to hear Vaughters use that as an excuse. And then there are our wrist-mounted units. They are finnicky enough at the moment without this. The TA knows of one person whose Forerunner has a Bermuda Triangle Of Death around the Robie/Cogswell interchange where it just point blank drops out every time. Interference from the Armories condo development or perhaps the donair/pizza joint on the corner, who knows? The last thing we need is an even more wavering signal. On the other hand, we can't wait to hear this in TZ or the finishing corral "well I missed a PB due to solar activity".
At the banquet Luke MacDonald from A1 did a variation on his usual shoe-draw and the upshot was that one TNS member donated eight (yes eight) pairs of running shoes to the Kidsfest programme and ended up scoring two pairs of runners for themselves. We wonder if the lucky winner read about the way running shoes have supposedly changed the way we run (and this was in Nature so it must be true!). Does the proliferation of hip and knee injuries (not to mention all the associated parts in-between; ITB anyone)? correlate to those nice cushioned shoes we're all in? Certainly some people think so. I don't know if it means anything, but Pheidippides did the original marathon either barefoot or at most rocking a pair of circa 490BC Athenian Army issue unposted sandals and whereas he might have dropped dead at the end of it, no mention is made of whether his feet were, in fact, killing him.
Finally, there are many routes into triathlon. The swimmers may win all the medals, but that doesn't stop the runners from joining in and having a good time. In fact hockey players, soccer players and skiers have all found a home at TNS. The TA, as you may have noticed, came into this through cycling and is following avidly the kick-off of the European racing season. We noticed that Tom Boonen won the sprint in Stage 3 of the Tour de Qatar with a 72.8 kph sprint. This is pretty much the TA's all-time speed record, which we set coming off Arthur's Seat in the 1998 Hogmanay Triathlon (the descent somewhat enlivened by a mini-roundabout half-way down!). Looking at the pictures we realized that Tornado Tom does in fact, bear a striking resemblance to ex-TNS treasurer Gerrad Lewin. Separated at birth? We need to know.
Speaking of which, what it your bicycle speed record? Let us know!
Stay warm
AD
With three broken bones, two riders out and a string of crashes and punctures in four stages at Qatar, perhaps the degradation of the GPS constellation is already affecting Garmin-Transitions (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/farrar-flummoxed-by-four-flats-in-qatari-finale).....
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