Make sure you celebrate...

Alert! This week is American Craft Beer Week!

Luckily it started on May 17th, not on May 16th. At Bay to Breakers (May 16) I consumed Coors Light, Bud Light Lime, Jello shots and Maker's Mark. None of those scream "craft beer." Though someone crafted the Jello shots. And Z was crafty in putting the Maker's into a more portable container for me (A cooking sherry bottle. Classy.).

Anyway, back to American Craft Beer Week. Check here to find out about events in your area. At the very least, celebrate with a delicious local brew sometime soon. 

Ouch.

I'm taking this way too personally. But still...

What if Elena Kagan is not married and childless because she is a closeted lesbian or because she has chosen her career over her personal/love/family life...
what if she just happens to be single because she never met the right person (be it a man or a woman)?

I know plenty of people who fit into that category. Or what, you can't make those assumptions until someone hits some certain level in their career (man, it'd be pitiful if I claimed that one) or age (what, 45? 50?)?

Gulf Oil Spill

I've been avoiding learning too much about the Gulf oil spill, just because it is so incredibly depressing. I finally did some research for a work newsletter. Here's some info and a few sources about the basics...

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico saddens and enrages me. The oil rig explosion was responsible for 11 deaths. Now the oil spill is damaging wildlife, ecosystems, and local economies and fishing industries – with no end in sight. Participants are blaming each other for the failure. Let’s take a look at some of the key players and facts surrounding this tragedy.

Companies:

BP Oil – Leases the oil well

Transocean Ltd. – Built and operated the oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, that was leased to BP

Halliburton Co – Poured the cement at the wellhead

Cameron International Corporation – Supplied blowout preventers that allegedly failed

Brief timeline:

4/20 – Explosion and fire on the oil rig

4/22 – The oil rig sinks, oil slick is visible

4/23 – Search for 11 missing workers ends

4/25 – Coast Guard estimates that the sunken well is leaking 1,000 barrels of crude oil a day

4/28 – Controlled burn on the oil slick to remove it from the Gulf. New estimated flow of oil is 5,000 barrels per day (210,000 gallons per day)

5/5-8 – BP tries to use a use a containment chamber to cap the oil leaks. Containment dome fails.

5/6 – Oil from spill makes it to shore at New Harbor Island, LA

5/7 – Fishing ban is expanded and extended to 5/17/10, efforts made to contain spill circumference

5/17 – BP reports that they are now capturing 20% of the 210,000 GPD flow and funneling it into a tanker ship

Sources:

NOLA, NOLA, Reuters, Newsweek, NPR

ADD... Click for link & to embiggen.

HGRB

Into guys? Into smart* guys? Into smart, hot guys? Add this to your Google Reader (RSS feed, whatev).






*Ok, if you've clicked on the link, you might think... book reading doesn't necessarily mean they're intelligent. Yes. That's accurate. You can make up whatever story you want to go with each photo. My hot guys reading books are generally brilliant.

Race report - Wildflower Long Course

I like reading race reports. This one is long, but it's for a long race...my first half-Ironman distance triathlon :)

Race: Wildflower Long Course Triathlon
Date: 5/1/2010
Course conditions: Not nearly as hot as it could have been. 80-85deg, sunny, some wind, some chop in the water.

Nerves: Very high in the week leading up to the race. Heck, high in the MONTHS leading up to the race. I figured I was in way over my head. Day of? Scared, but focused. THREE port-a-potty trips prior to the swim. Started on empty, as usual. Stupid stomach.

Wave start: Pros, then men, youngest - oldest, then women, youngest - oldest. My 30-34 age group started at 9:15am. So I knew I'd be biking and running in the heat.

Participants (finishers):
Overall: 1,727
Men: 1,268
Women: 459
Women 30-34: 104

My stats:
Overall rank: 634
Gender rank: 81
Age Group rank: 19

Swim: 1.2 mile lake swim, rectangle pattern. Comfortable (w/full wetsuit) temp. Well marked. Started towards the back on the inside. Minimal kicking/hitting, but I was in a crowd most of the time. I was overall pretty happy with my sighting and my pace seemed steady. The return was pretty choppy and I definitely swallowed some lake. Yuck. As I understand from later waves - and even the next day - it continued to get worse. 
Expected time - 45:00
Actual time - 40:33, pace 2:05 (I'm guessing that's 100 yds)
Overall rank: 1017

T1: 4:44
I have no idea what took me so long, but I know I wasn't rushing like I do during sprint or Olympic distance races.

Bike: 56 miles. Up. Flat. Up. Up. Up. Up. Up. Down. Some headwind on the second half. I'm surprised at how little of this I remember. I spent over two hours out there... what the heck was I thinking about? Anyway, I ended up riding mostly with 45+ y/o men, played leapfrog with a couple folks. Did not have aerobars on my bike. Might have used them during the flat section, but I'm comfortable in my drops and figured I didn't need to add something new to my already (fairly) new bike. Tried to hold back my speed a little to save energy for the run. Loved hearing cheers from my fellow SF Tri Club racers and spectators, as well as a handful of other friends out there. Encountered some stomach cramps, especially in the last 10 miles (luckily, after Nasty Grade & Polar Heart Rate hills) because I mixed my Cytomax too strongly. I kind of felt them starting earlier and ended up exchanging bottles twice and just got water, in effort to calm my stomach down.

Nutrition: 1.5 bottles Cytomax, 1.5 bottles water,  1 Clif Mojo bar, 0.5 Clif bar, 1 Clif Blox stick, 2 (?) Clif Gels. (Clif, if you find this, pleeeeeeeeeease be my sponsor.)
Expected: 2:30
Stretch Goal: 2:20
Actual: 3:21:53, 16.6 mph
Overall rank: 847

T1: 3:05
Totally passed up my transition area and had to go back to find it. Sprayed on some sunscreen. Stomach is pissed off at this point, did not drink any more sports drink or have a gel here like I normally would.

Run: 13.1 Up. Up. Up. Up. Up. Up. Down. Sun. Over half of it was on trails, some which were very rocky. Found a coach from my gym and ran with him for a mile or two, shouted out to a couple of SF Tri Club members... pretty early on, another woman tell me to go chase after "pink shirt girl," who was in my age group (I did, about mile 8 or so and told her I had been chasing her. I meant it nicely - like she was fast, but unfortunately she had slowed down a lot and I don't think it came across too well. Oops.) Spectators make a big difference and helped to push me along. Unfortunately, some of the more challenging sections aren't really cheerleader friendly, so I had to just get focused and keep going. Managed to keep running the whole time, which I understand is kind of uncommon on this course. There's one uphill in particular where everyone just started to walk. I passed quite a few people there, despite my slow, laborious jog. Found that three of them did end up passing me after, but the vast majority did not. I remember wondering about this hill during my training weekend. Better to walk (hike, really) or run slowly? Regardless, I was scared to walk, because I thought that I wouldn't start to run again! My hips and knees were a little sore, but no major pain. Oh, except for about 2/3 of the run when I thought maybe I had asthma, I was breathing so hard.

Had a nice sprint finish. I had been running mostly with men, but then suddenly spotted a woman right behind me. She could have been in my age group, for crying out loud, so I took off. Have no idea where that energy came from. Oh right, I'm competitive. Mostly with myself, but I was not about to let her pass me at the very end like that.

Nutrition: Eventually, my stomach calmed down, though never enough to have a lot of Gatorade (on the course) or Clif Blox (in my pocket). I had Gatorade at 2 aid stations + water, 2 orange slices, 2 Clif Gels.

Goal: 2:00
Actual: 2:02:14, 9:19 min/mile
Overall rank: 473

Total:
Goal: 6:30
Stretch goal: 6:15
Finish: 6:12:29

After: Okay. Tired. Really out of it. Minor periods of lucidity and high energy. Thirsty. Really effing thirsty. Quads and hamstrings and hips very, very angry. Later... some more stomach cramping. And then later... enjoyed some beers and they were delicious.

I cannot be the only person who reads "Cinco de Mayo" and thinks of a condiment, not a holiday.

Cow -> biodiesel -> Amtrak

Amtrak's trying out cow-based biodiesel on some of its trains. Nice.

Salon article here.

Issues I have with this piece:
They're concerned about biodiesel harming rubber components in the engine. Yes. This is correct. But why not just take the safe route and replace those with synthetics? (This is what is done in older diesel cars and trucks so that they can safely use biodiesel)

Also, biodiesel not ONLY reduces carbon-dioxide emissions, but also reduces Nitrogen Oxide and Sulfur Oxide (NOx and SOx), both of which contribute to poor air quality and health problems, such as asthma.

I don't know what acylated ghrelin is, but it makes me hungry.

Last August, I posted a Time article about the science between exercise and weight loss, along with some of my own anecdotal evidence that more exercise does not necessarily mean more weight loss. Of course, I'm my own exception - I have lost weight while training for my half-Ironman. So, yeah. There's that. But that's been way more intense than your usual workout, so probably not a good example.

Anyway, just read another article along the same lines... basic idea is that weight loss occurs from eating less, but exercising is what will help one maintain that new, lower weight. That's cool. Lose weight and embrace a new lifestyle, one that includes exercise.

And, I also have science now to back me up as to why I am hungry for days after a tough workout. And also, as the author points out, another reason why life is unfair.

In it, 18 overweight men and women walked on treadmills in multiple sessions while either eating enough that day to replace the calories burned during exercise or not. Afterward, the men displayed little or no changes in their energy-regulating hormones or their appetites, much as in the other study. But the women uniformly had increased blood concentrations of acylated ghrelin and decreased concentrations of insulin after the sessions in which they had eaten less than they had burned. Their bodies were directing them to replace the lost calories. In physiological terms, the results “are consistent with the paradigm that mechanisms to maintain body fat are more effective in women,” Braun and his colleagues wrote. In practical terms, the results are scientific proof that life is unfair. Female bodies, inspired almost certainly “by a biological need to maintain energy stores for reproduction,” Braun says, fight hard to hold on to every ounce of fat. Exercise for many women (and for some men) increases the desire to eat.

Full article here

balls. balls. balls of cake.

Cake balls: The new new cupcake?
Quote of interest:
"Cake balls have a lot of things going for them -- their homey appeal, their variety, a giggle-inducing name -- and Americans are always looking for the next trendy dessert. But given the remarkable amount of sugar involved, it's unlikely that they'll ever reach the kind of widespread popularity of the cupcake (which enjoyed a considerably more responsible cake to frosting ratio)."

TJ's Sustainable Seafood Showcase Showdown

Trader Joe's (love. love. love.).

1. Has moved away from the plastic container of four apples
2. Now offers some veggies/fruits in compostable plastic trays
3. Is going to be offering sustainable seafood ONLY in 2012
4. Is huge on BYOB (bag)
5. Offers many customers with their first organic experience - so many products are offered in regular and organic - or organic only
6. Sells the best effing pumpkin butter out there
7. I heart the hell out of their bottled curry sauces
8. Fantastic prices on nut butters, including organics
9. Smoothie enabler - good prices on frozen berries
10. Wine and beer. Wine and beer.

Yeah, they're not perfect. But #3 is pretty huge. Good job, TJ's.

As the linked article points out, YOU can make this switch a lot quicker, since you don't have to deal with contracts and shit.
Check, it -
Fish guide from GOOD
My fave - Monterey Bay Seafood Watch. I have the app on my phone - it even lists fish by their sushi names!