SarahPac

Paid for by SarahPAC
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee 

www.SarahPAC.com

So reads the disclaimer on the entry page of Sarah Palin's new PAC web site.  I suppose this is true as a technicality:  Sarah Palin is not an official candidate for anything right now.  But this is a bit of a joke, isn't it?

Two points:

1. As a strictly partisan matter, could the Democrats ask for a better candidate to contrast against Obama, assuming he manages to get through his four years remaining as thoughtful and calm as he has to this point?  On the other hand, what does it say that she thinks she is viable among the Republican primary electorate?  Ouch.
2. This web site shows the horror of our political contribution laws.  Sarah Palin is not doing anything a million other potential candidates haven't done.  Completely legal and completely disingenuous.  I don't blame her.  But this silly facade that people have to put on is stupid.  I tend to think that the first amendment arguments against restricting political donations are pretty strong, but either we should loosen some of these laws or tighten them.  This is ridiculous.

Here's the text from the next page.  Not affiliated with a "candidate"?  Right.

Sarah Palin's Official PAC

Dedicated to building America's future, supporting fresh ideas and candidates who share our vision for reform and innovation.

• SarahPAC believes America's best days are ahead. Our country, founded on conservative principles and the fight for freedom, must confront the challenges of the 21st century with integrity, innovation, and determination.
• SarahPAC believes energy independence is a cornerstone of the economic security and progress that every American family wants and deserves.
• SarahPAC believes the Republican Party is at the threshold of an historic renaissance that will build a better future for all. Health care, education, and reform of government are among our key goals. Join us today!

Rest Week is Good

Hard couple of weeks of training ended last Sunday, about 14.5 hours, including riples on Thursday and Saturday.  Took it easy this week, as planned, with only about 8 hours.  Friel says that most beginning Ironman people are under-recovered.  Could have worked harder the last few days, but now I feel really refreshed for the next mesocyle.  This is good.

Bush: A Good No Surprise

It's been a few days now, but not too late to note that Bush didn't offer any high profile last-minute pardons.  I'll give him credit:  he's been consistent about being pretty stingy with those.  No Scooter.  No Dick.  No Whole CIA.  etc.

So, for once in his administration, the rule of law will stand.

Inauguration Day, Part 5

43 Americans have taken the oath.  One guy twice with an interruption (Grover Cleveland).  Bad fact-checking!

Get that photographer dude out of the picture!

"The time has come to set aside childish things."  How true.

I love the "quit screwing around" theme.

Love the reaction shot of Bush after BHO says that it's a false choice between freedom and security.

Nice touch to include "non-believers" in his list...

Not a perfect speech, but a perfect tone.  Didn't shoot too high to be Lincoln, but he laid it out.  It's good to have a real thinker back in the job.

Inauguration Day, Part 4

Rick Warren.....  was that a prayer or a speech?  At least it was constructive for the most part.  Not that I'm against the Lord's Prayer, but these things usually avoid specific Christian references, which he had done up until then.

Sun is in Biden's Eyes.  But he wants to say this fast and take that job now!

Someone pointed out during this musical interregnum that Biden is briefly Bush's Veep...


Barack knows the oath better than Roberts...or so it sounds.  Have to see a replay to figure out who messed up.

Inauguration Day, Part 3

A bit of "live blogging" here...

Bush walking down to the ceremony as they are doing the introductions looks terrible.  Like he's sick or being arrested.

Cheney looks like he still has something evil up his sleeve.

Bush manages to smile as he's introduced.

Biden looks like he's going to burst but he's trying to keep it under control.

As usual, Laura Bush's lipstick contrasts way too much with the rest of her face.  I've always thought that looked bizarre. 

Is that a genuine laugh from Cheney???


Biden seriously wants a high five, but has to restrain himself to more decorous hugs.

Obama walking down the hall looks like he's got a million things on his mind, including excitement, and he's doing everything he can to control it.  The expression changes so rapidly...

Man there's a lot of people there....

Now on the stage, BHO looks like he's got it under control again...

Inauguration Day, Part 2

I was born in 1964.

As I struggle to think about it, I know I don't have any specific memories of 1968, but somehow I feel like I remember the sense of tragedy around the assassinations of RFK and MLK. 

Somehow, though, it makes a connection to today.

Inauguration Day, Part 1

All this reminds me...

What were people thinking in 2004?  Voting for Bush in 2000 was reasonable.  The country certainly (and reasonably) had Clinton-fatigue.

But by 2004, Bush was a known quantity.  How could half of us have missed that?

Remember, it wasn't too long after that when the scales finally started to fall from our eyes.  Maybe it was a testament to Rove, et al. that they held it together just long enough to get through Nov 2004.

Getting sore

Hit the end of another 3 week cycle, and just in time.  Thursday included a very intense leg strength session on the bike.  I attend a bike spinning class late Thursday nights held at a local cool bike shop (Bike World), which is inhabited mostly by real roadies.  So it's all strength and intervals.  Friday, unsurprisingly, was sore.  Saturday was the big day for the week:  40 min swim, long ride, then 30 min run.  Had been planning on only 2.5 hours on the bike, but a couple other guys wanted to stay for another half hour, so I did too.  And then one of them, who knows what he is doing, pushed us to do some intervals.  They probably weren't that hard if they hadn't been at the end of 3 hours, but they were pretty hard as it was.  Sucked it up and made it through. 

Despite the fatigue of those long trainer rides, I always find the run after to be a relief, almost a pleasure.  It's almost just stretching out the other half of those leg muscles is a relief, at least for a while.  For now, I've kept them to ~30 min.  Longer than that would mean more nutritional needs, especially after all that riding.

Anyway, Sunday was just an easy hour's spin.  Or at least it was supposed to be easy.  Hurt a bit just to get to 90 rpm in low gear.

So now it's recovery week.  Nothing too terribly long.  Took yesterday off.  Slept like a rock two days in a row.  Feel a lot better today.  I hope this is how it's supposed to work.

Me and Coach Troy

Spent a little Quality Time with Coach Troy over the weekend.

If you have ever done time on a trainer in front of a Spinervals DVD, you know exactly who I mean.  Fit, authoritative-sounding, pro Triathlete background, some kind of southernish accent, stopwatch.  Coach Troy cajoles and yells and tells you you have to put it on the big ring on the front and the 12 on the back and give me 100% for only 1 minute.  And that 30 seconds is plenty of time to recover before we do it again.

His DVDs have titles like "Suffer O Rama", "Have Mercy", "Bending Crank Arms" and "No Slackers Allowed".  So perhaps we ought not complain, but just about everyone who has ridden with Coach Troy has wanted to throw something at him.  In fact, you wonder if he's out of his mind at times. 

But on "On-the-Road v. 4: Madison WI training ride", we learn that Coach Troy does have a modicum of self-awareness.  For this ride, you're supposed to pretend you're riding with him and three other studs around the Madison Ironman course.  It's about 3 hours, and doesn't have deathly crank-bending interval sets.  In contrast to most of his DVDs, Troy actually rides.  Although he clearly taped most of the commentary after the ride, it's done in a style as if he were riding at that very moment.  He talks, and instructs, and talks.  Actually, if you're alone, he keeps you company if you don't mind a one-way conversation, because at least on this one video, he isn't trying to kill you.

With between 45 and 43 minutes to go, though, find out that Troy knows what we think of him.  Nothing dramatic, but he admits that maybe he is annoying and you might want to turn the volume down and not listen to him. 

It's good to know he's human.

Not the Prez any more

I don't mean Obama, I mean me!

I just finished my term as president of the local soccer club.  In a way, I'll miss some of the duties, but I will certainly not miss having to keep up on every last detail.  I remain on the board, so I will still be involved.  Funny, though, what letting go feels like.

Early swim

Swimming was the first thing my soon-to-be-14 year old son could beat me at all the time.

I got a grade 3 AC separation in my shoulder last spring, which did not do anything good for my already mediocre swimming.  I had tried to make a point last winter of getting better at it, and I had taken my 1000 yd time trial time down from 17:45 to 15:47 over the course of a few months before I hurt myself.

This past recovery week I did my first swimming TT of the season, and came in at a pretty respectable (for me) 16:34.  That's way ahead of where I was this time a year ago, but I think the "easy" time has come and gone.  We'll see how fast I can get on my new-and-not-improved shoulder.  I have signed up for a group swim workout, which starts in a week.  Maybe there will be some good stroke coaching to come from that.  We'll see.

Feeling optimistic.

Base 1.

I'm old enough that I train on a 3 week cycle instead of the traditional 4 week cycle.  That means 16 days "on" and 5 days recovery (low volume), instead of 3 weeks/1 week.  My 5 day recovery cycle means a business week of low volume, and then I can come back with something longer on the weekend.

This past week has been my first rest week since I formally started my program to get to IM Moo.  I have a 6 week "Base 1" cycle, followed by a 6 week "Base 2" cycle that will take me into early March.  If these terms don't mean anything, a good place to look is Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible.  Basically, this is a pretty low intensity time, meant to build strength and basic endurance.  It's "training to train", as opposed to training for the race just now.

Anyway, the good news is that by about Wed or Thu, I felt ready to go again. Still taking the full 5 days.  Don't want be great in April and burnt out in August.

More on Rick Warren

I initially thought Rachel Maddow's take on the Rick Warren invitation to do the invocation at Obama's inauguration was a bit shrill - she did not seem to take seriously that there could be a reasonable "reaching out" component to it.

But Rick Warren recently dug the hold deeper.  Rather than rehash the details, I instead draw your attention to another Rachel Maddow segment.  Again, some of this is editorial and reflects her strong initial opinions, but there is a lot of plain old fact and quote in here.



If we are to give RW the benefit of the doubt here, this kind of thing sure doesn't help.  Can you imagine the collective cringe by the Obama gang when they see this?