Friday Mad Science: Early Season Racing Edition

A few years ago, wrote a weekly Friday column for a comics review site called PaperbackReader.com.  The column was called Comics You Should Be Reading, and it focused on independent publishers.  However, the column didn’t really grab much traction until I read a book called Soon I Will Be Invincible and re-titled it after my favorite passage in the book, in which the protagonist discusses his transformation from mere scientist toMad Scientist.  I kept “Comics You Should Be Reading” as a section in the column, but Friday Mad Science became a new thing, a kind of freeform diatribe on anything and everything, and for whatever reason, people started digging it.

So, here we are.  Welcome to Friday Mad Science.

Probably the most interesting thing I read this week was speculation on Slate.com that President Obama is getting ready to declare victory in Afghanistan and start bringing troops home.  As the story goes, the war is basically in a stalemate, with the Taliban unable to claim victory on the battlefield and the US unable to sway the populace permanently away from the Taliban because the Aghani government has proven itself to be hopelessly corrupt and basically uninterested in providing basic services to its populace.  Faced with that, there is little that simple tactical victories can achieve, and the US doesn’t want to invade Pakistan, so…  To be honest, declaring victory and leaving makes seems to make some sense.

After that, I also saw this article (also on Slate) describing Bill Belichick as the best dressed man in football.  Personally, I think it’s worth clicking just for the long-haired Tom Brady-as-fashion-model on Page 2 or 3.

And lastly, I’ve just finished my first full month of actual in-season training, and I’m feeling pretty good.  I use a points system to track my training that equates 100yds swimming with 1 quarter-mile running with 1-mile ridden on the bike.  If you’re curious, here’s the last month or so:

My training log since the beginning of the year.  Click to see full size

I track Monday to Monday, so the current week is ongoing.  My plan, right now, is to do a little Spin Class/Run brick tomorrow and then come back with a medium run (hills) on Sunday, to total out to around 105 points for the week.  With that fresh in mind, I’ve started thinking about races.  There are two in the intermediate future that I’m super-excited about: Brian’s Beachside Boogie and the Shamrock Duathlon. 

Brian’s Beachside Boogie is an early-spring off-road duathlon at my absolute favorite beach in Connecticut, Hammonasette State Park.  It’s a 2-mile run, 10-mile ride, 2-mile run, done on grass and packed sand tracks.  Fat tires (i.e. mountain bikes) mandatory.  It’s an awesome race, and not a huge commitment.  Last year, I think I went about 1:05 or so.

The Shamrock Duathlon is a little more intense—but still about on par with a half-marathon in terms of effort.  It’s a 5k run, 25k bike, 5k run that covers gently rolling terrain on the run course and a long but steady climb on the bike to the halfway point, at which point you point your bike down and drop like a stone for the second half of the ride.  It’s totally fun.  Last time I ran the race, I came in at just under 2-hours.

So.  If you’re in the greater New York-Connecticut-West Point area, let me cordially invite you to my two favorite early-season races.  They’re both awesome, and neither is as expensive as a full-on triathlon would be.

And finally, I just have to share this video I found on Facebook today, care of my friend Alan Evans, creator of Rival Angels.  I mean... wow.

So seriously... what's a guy got to do to get into the "mount" position?