Welcome to The Sunday Sidebar where some of the more bizarre and entertaining stories found through the week are highlighted for your reading pleasure. So grab a coffee, sit back, and read away…
Babies not Eco-Friendly ?
Seems that some people think that babies are simply not eco-friendly and need to either be banned or taxed.
Meet the women who have decided to ’save the planet’ by not having babies. According to one of them ‘Having children is selfish. It’s all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet.’ Me thinks that maybe the child has had a lucky escape. …read more

iXoundWear – Goofy name, questionable product, what’s not to love? Wires, that’s what. “Go wireless” with this company’s range of stuff to stick on your noggin’. It looks to me more like “Go move-the-wires-closer-to-your-ear”, but I’m not going to argue semantics with a company that’s taking advantage of both the lower-case “i” bandwagon and the meaningless insertion of “X” into their product name.

Tangerine by Potion Factory is an iTunes extension with a sweet twist. It analyzes BPM and intensity of your music for you so you can spend more time listening and less time pointing and clicking. It does cost …read more

I’ve always thought the idea of listening to music while swimming would be cool. Especially since it’s the most boring kind of training for me. When is a better time for a little music than when you really can’t see anything anyway?
Swim Man is selling a waterproof iPod Shuffle, but it’s not some bulky case you have to stick your shuffle in. They waterproof from the inside out. So it retains the slick Apple form and function, but now you can take it up to 10 feet under the wet stuff.
Super cool and kinda’ pricey at $250.
Swim man waterpoof iPod …read more

There’s a certain training method for starting tri swim that’s always been dear to my heart…
But if you want some real tips, TriSwimCoach.com (who’d have thought?) comes through with this helpful list:

Expect the worst. Go into the event expecting that the start will not be easy. Know that you will bump into people, others will bump into you, but 99% of the time it is all by accident. Also know that the chaos at the beginning will not last for the entire swim, it will break up quickly as different speed swimmers separate.
Prepare. Learn the course before the gun goes …read more

Don’t urinate on it! This is gross and doesn’t help. It may actually make the pain worse, because the drastic change in outside saline and PH conditions may cause the cnidocyte (microscopic jelly fish stingers stuck to you) to “fire” again.
Don’t rinse with freshwater. This has the same effect as the above, erm, “treatment.”
Do rinse with saltwater. 5 percent acetic acid or vinegar will also usually work. This will deactivate the cnidocyte.
Do have a shave. Once you’ve deactivated the little stingers you can shave off the tentacles with a razor or even any handy straight edge. Just coat them in …read more

Spank, is a Monkeroo* that lives with Shandra and Clint Chapman and will be sharing his observations in his column, Spank On…. (musings that will make your triathlon life easier)

Trying The Triathlon…
After just over a year in the sport, Spank is very confident that through his own triathlon experience he has amassed several golden nuggets of wisdom that, in all fairness, should be imparted to the rest of the world. In ALL fairness to the rest of the world, we should note here that, as yet, there is still no official coaching certification course offered for Monkeroos.
This article is …read more

I had the privilege of racing on the Columbia Multisport Club’s Team (we won) last year at the National Triathlon Team Championship in Las Vegas. One of the racers on our team who was way ahead of me was Amy Livesay. 10 years ago, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease. She’s been destroying the competition ever since.
She’s a really supportive team member and was an inspiration to my wife and me as we competed in the event in Las Vegas, this fall. I didn’t even know about the Hodgkin’s at the time because she never mentioned it, she just talked …read more

The first rule of swimming in a triathlon is that you do not talk about swimming in a triathlon. The second rule of swimming in a triathlon is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT SWIMMING IN A TRIATHLON. If you’ve ever done a tri, you’ll love this video. If not, you’ll still chuckle just because it’s so stupid ingeniously funny.
(Disclaimer: said video is a commercial for Cliff Bars. No I am not Cliff, I’m Wade.)
[tags] Triathlon, swimming, humor, food [/tags]