One Week left until my Big Weekend of Triathlons!

I did my last big workout today, before my half Ironman on Saturday. I rode for just over three hours, then did a half hour “brick” run. It went really well, thanks in part to good nutrition pre-ride and during the ride (200mg caffeine, 600 cals Infinit w/caffeine and a Hammer Gel). I wasn’t really able to peak properly for this race, since the optimum time for my peak would have been while I was in Oregon last week, but this will do.

Immediately after the race on Saturday, Lana and I are going to drive straight up to Madison, Wisconsin for the rest of the weekend. Lana’s going to talk with people at the graduate school there, and I’m going to volunteer (“bike catcher”) at Ironman Wisconsin! The day after the race, they give the volunteers priority registration for next year’s race, and I will definitely be taking advantage of that!

Earlier this week, I decided that I am going to give up reading internet message boards, killing time on Facebook, etc. So, with this extra free time (at least, until my Capstone takes over my life), I’m trying to learn how to play Bridge. It’s slow going, but I think I’m getting the hang of a few things, like basic natural bids, some easy conventions, simple declarer play and defense, and the scorekeeping systems. If anyone wants to play with me, let me know!

Speaking of my Capstone, I think I’ve got a neat idea. First of all, the Capstone is basically a Masters Thesis–a big paper, a presentation, working prototype, etc. Well, one of the Music Informatics professors is obtaining a Boesendorfer grand piano with an embedded computer that can exactly capture a performance on the piano! The system is super amazing and has no comparison with any other performance replication technology that currently exists. And the piano is a Boesenforder! Anyway, my (veeeery tentative) idea is to use this performance capturing technology to allow the player to receive feedback on how well he or she is learning a particular piece of music. By grabbing the input, comparing it to the score and previous performances, and with some nifty visualizations, I think that I’ll be able to give the user some really interesting feedback on their learning progress. It’s all really vague at this point (I have a full year to get this done), but I think I like this idea.

Oh yeah, if the chips fall correctly, I may end up with THREE jobs this semester… more to come later…

So Cynthia Potter is Awesome, but NBC’s Diving Coverage is Sub-Par.

THIS POST IS FULL OF SPOILERS.

I just finished watching the Women’s 10m platform competition–the finish was amazing! The Canadian diver, Emily Haymans, poured it on right up until the end, but the Chinese diver Chen Roulin came through in the clutch, earning 10s on her last dive (and over 100 points) to win gold #7 for the Chinese diving team by 10 points. Wow!

However, NBC dropped the ball on their coverage of the event. Showing only 3-4 dives between commercial breaks, they missed a lot of competition. In fact, they didn’t show any dives from the 4th or 5th place divers, Mexicans Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz! I think it’s awesome that they showed all of the American Laura Wilkinson’s dives, as she’s a legendary athlete in the sport of Diving, but I really wished they had shown more than four divers–the two Chinese, Haymans and Wilkinson.

They could easily do this–there’s plenty of time in the broadcast–but instead, NBC decides to show four replays of each dive, and the “stro-motion” shot of half the dives. I, for one, would rather watch the talented and attractive Mexican divers than replays of divers we just saw.

Also, Cynthia was on good form tonight

My Response to all the Cynthia Potter Haters Out There.

It has come to my attention that there are a growing number of people who dislike the commentary that Cynthia Potter provides during NBC’s broadcasts of diving. Since most of the comments I see are comments like “SHE’S AWFUL!!!” or “I can’t stand her voice” or “She’s bitter because she only won one bronze medal” or other enlightening tidbits of the sort, it should be relatively easy for me to convince the world of one simple fact: Cynthia Potter is awesome.

Why is Cynthia Potter awesome? Let me count the ways:

Cynthia’s dive descriptions are usually right. Whenever she says, “… and that’s why she won’t receive higher than a 7,” the diver rarely receives 7 or higher. Whenever she says “… right [beat] THERE” (referencing a specific point in the dive where the diver does something wrong), there’s something wrong at that exact point. It’s often subtle, but it’s there. And I would know, I’ve been watching diving on TV for 22 years.

Cynthia’s commentary has appeal to all levels of spectators. She gives “basic” comments (e.g. “the divers need to keep their toes pointed in the tuck position”) and more detailed comments as well. I’ve been listening to her commentary for 22 years and I still learn new stuff about diving each time she’s on.

Cynthia doesn’t hold anything back. Often, what she says would be offensive, or at least annoying, if the diver she’s talking about heard Cynthia make the comment. However, she’s usually right. If she’s talking about a female diver’s “poor body lines,” or a member of synchronized male pair “not being able to keep up with his partner,” she’s right. That’s what she’s there for–to give us the inside scoop on what the divers do. I find it annoying when color commentators in other sports are afraid to say anything controversial, and that’s why Cynthia is awesome.

Cynthia is actively involved in the sport of diving, unlike a lot of color commentators in a lot of sports. She is a successful diving coach at the Westminster Schools, and is active with USA Diving developing new talent in the sport.

And when it really comes down to it, Cynthia has the respect of the members of the diving community who really matter–the divers and the coaches.

I will, however, concede the following:

Cynthia does sometimes cut off the divers, or talk right up until they’re about to dive. Hopefully she gets an earful from her producer whenever she does that, I don’t like it.

Cynthia’s voice can get a bit shrill or “Nancy Grace-y” at times. However, this is true for just about any woman with any kind of strong accent, especially midwestern or, in Cynthia’s case, southern.

Cynthia’s comments can, at times, can be a bit pedantic (as in, “she made a big splash going into the water!”). However, I challenge you to find a color commentator whose ratio of insightful to pedantic comments is as high as Cynthia’s (just go watch Al Trautwig do Trampoline to get an idea of how terrible color commentary can be).

Anyway, though she’s not perfect, she’s a great diving color commentator. For more information on Cynthia, be sure to read the Wikipedia page on her, which I basically wrote myself.

Update: the comments on this post, and other blog posts (mostly anti-Cynthia posts) have got me thinking more and more about what the actual divers and members of the diving community think about Cynthia’s commentary. If anyone has any direct insight, I’d appreciate it. Also, after the Olympics, I think I’ll use the infinite power of Facebook to get in touch with some people and get back to you on this issue.

RACE REPORT: Tri Indy, 17 August 2008.

My race today was the standard Olympic distance (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run), taking place in downtown Indianapolis.  Unfortunately, I had my first triathlon DNF (Did Not Finish), due to a tire blowout.  It was bound to happen sometime.  Oh well.

The swim was a point-to-point swim in the Indianapolis canal, which was moderately pleasant.  We had to walk 1500 meters up the canal to get to the start, so I got a chance to “scope out” the canal.  It was about 4 feet deep throughout and only about 40-50 feet wide throughout most of it.  We went off in waves of about 30 people, so the swim was actually not that crowded.  Wetsuits were allowed, so I was able to post a good time on the swim, just under 29 minutes.

After a quick T1, thanks to some alterations I made to my wetsuit, I went out on the bike.  I was rolling pretty well for about 6 miles, and then I experienced a pretty nasty turn of events which caused me to DNF.

I was doing about 26mph going slightly downhill on a tree-lined road, approaching a semi-blind sharp right turn.  The turn was not marked on the road, nor with cones or signage of any kind.  The only way to tell that a turn needed to be made was by noticing the volunteer pointing and shouting to turn to the right.  Unfortunately, my view of the volunteer was blocked by a guy who had just passed me on my left.  So, when he braked and pulled to the right to start his turn, I was completely unprepared.  I broke hard with the rear brake (so as not to go over the handlebars) to avoid his rear wheel, and so as not to overshoot the turn.  My rear wheel locked, I skidded a bit and then *bang* the tire blew out.  I rolled to a stop and took a look at the damage.

A bit of background: I race on tubular tires, and don’t carry a spare.  Instead, I carry Vittoria Pit Stop, which is designed to seal a small puncture (from, say, a shard of glass) and inflate the tire all in one go, without removing the tire from the wheel or the wheel from the frame.  It’s pretty nifty stuff, and works pretty well in most situations.  However, the skid burned a *huge* hole in my tire, and the Pit Stop was useless.  I was out of luck, unless I could somehow get a spare tubular tire.

Using the volunteer’s cell phone, I called the sag wagon to pick me up.  After about 20 minutes, he finally arrived, and to my surprise he said I was in luck!  He had a spare tubular for me!  Actually, he forgot to pack it so nevermind, I was definitely done with the race.

He dropped me off at the transition area, and I decided that since I had paid money to do the race that (dag-nabit) I was going to get my money’s worth and set out on the 10k run.  (As it turns out, I got to transition right around when I expected to finish the bike anyway!  lol)  Since I was super fresh because I only rode 6 miles, I actually ended up running really well, posting a 47:49 for 10k.  Best of all–each of the 6.2 miles was paced within 3 seconds of 7:49/mile!  That’s a faster pace than I ran the 5k last week!

So anyway, I did the run, dropped off my chip, reminded the race director that I didn’t actually complete the race, put bandaids on my blistered feet, and headed back home, where I proceeded to buy some new tires that hopefully won’t blow out like that again.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Lesson #1: Learn the course better.  I could have avoided this situation had I known a turn was coming.

Lesson #2: Carry a spare tubular tire.  I could have gotten going again with a spare.  My Pit Stop was useless today.

Lesson #3 (for the race director): Mark the course better.  Use cones, signs and writing on the road to make it unequivocably clear when the course does anything other than continue to go in a straight line.

RACE REPORT: Columbus, IN Sprint Triathlon.

Being just 50 minutes from my apartment, I couldn’t pass up the chance to do this race.  I also was keen to do this race because I did it last year as well, and this would be my first opportunity to directly compare race results from this season and last season.

For reference, the race is a half mile swim, 17.5 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run.  Last year, my results were:
Total time: 1:41:57
Swim: 17:42
T1: 1:03
Bike: 53:51 (Average Speed: 19.5mph)
T2: 0:48
Run Time: 28:35 (Pace: 9:13 m/mile)
4th (of 5) in Age Group, 100th (of 189) overall

This year, I’m happy to say I improved across the board:
Total time: 1:30:48 (11:11 improvement)
Swim: 16:09 (1:33 improvement)
T1: 0:29.6 (0:34 improvement)
Bike: 49:01 (Average Speed: 21.4mph) (4:50 improvement)
T2: 0:47 (0:01 improvement)
Run Time: 24:21 (Pace: 7:51 m/mile) (4:14 improvement)
5th (of 13) in Age Group, 38th (of 206) overall (big time improvement)

There are several things that catch my eye when looking at these results:

1. My run has improved significantly. At the end of last year, I ran an open 5k in 24:50. So I’ve come a long way

2. My swim has also improved. This year’s swim result could have even been faster if I had found some slightly faster feet to draft, though I probably wouldn’t have been much faster had I done the swim without any drafting help. (The swim was a non-wetsuit swim.)

3. My T1 time was amazing this year. in fact, it was 9th best out of EVERYONE who did the race this year, including teams! (2nd best individual T1 and 1st in age group.) It’s not complicated–run to bike, slap on glasses/helmet, and get outta there!

4. My bike improved, but perhaps not on the same scale as the other events. This year, I felt a bit weak on the bike, as if I needed more nutrition. I didn’t take any nutrition except water during the race, so maybe during sprints I need to pound a gel or two once I get going on the bike, or eat more before the race start.

5. I need to learn how to really push myself these short races. My first comment to Lana upon my race finish was something to the effect of “I didn’t leave it all out on the course.” (Though I’m sure what I actually said was “pant pant sigh leave course pant pant all out.”) I don’t seem to have a problem pushing during the longer races, since less instantaneous effort is required (though it must be applied over a longer period of time). But since I never really learned how to go fast I have a problem really turning on the speed. However, since next year’s focus is all long course I’m not going to worry about it too much. This is probably a good thing since track and interval workouts aren’t exactly what I have exciting dreams about at night.

So anyway, good times were had by all. I’ve improved a lot since last year, and have a lot more improving still to do. I learned a few lessons about race preparation and what I need to work on this winter. And Sue won the W25-29 Age Group! Yaay!

See you next weekend at Tri Indy, one last Olympic distance race before heading to Corvallis, OR for a week, then to Mattoon for a half Ironman, then to Ironman Wisconsin to volunteer and sign up for the 2009 race!

Thanks for taking my survey! Also, Bridge!

While visiting my family, I played many games of Spades with Lana, my Dad and youngest brother.  While I really enjoyed the games (we used a low-stress scoring system, and didn’t overthink things too much), I kept thinking about how much playing these games just made me want to learn Bridge once and for all.  I had tried to learn Bridge in High School, but it didn’t get very far because the people who were teaching me were very smart, but poor teachers.  Consequently, I got too bogged down in obscure conventions and never really internalized the basics of the game.

However, I do eventually want to get good at Bridge.  I’ve been playing some hands online but you know that that can only go so far.  So, if anyone in Bloomington plays Bridge, or knows people that do, let me know and I’d love to join up for a real live game (if you’re willing to put up with my noobness).

Lastly, to everyone who has taken my survey on the Facebook application user experience, I just wanted to say thanks.  Your input and suggestions have given me excellent guidance for my project.