Seriously Warm And Fuzzy

It all started yesterday when I upgraded to Firefox 4.0 Beta.  Once I installed it, my homepage defaulted back to a mozilla.com page.  And on this new homepage was a link to Firefox Live, which is a page dedicated to streaming live video of Firefoxes cubs in their habitat at the Knoxville Zoo.

Mozilla has put together a pretty impressive set-up.  You can watch the feed from any number of angles, including "Cub Cam - Frolic", "Cub Cam - Snooze" and Cub Cam - 360 Cute".  I started with "Frolic", but didn't see anything.  When I switched over to "Snooze" I saw one of the cubs, but it quickly moved out of the frame.  So I started to experiment with "360 Cute",  using it to triangulate where the action was and then switching to the other cameras as applicable.  I stayed on the site for an hour.

It's an hour of time I'll never get back.  But that's OK - I don't want it back.  Because watching Firefox cubs basically do nothing was oddly entertaining.  And as the site's tag-line suggests, Firefoxes ARE seriously warm and fuzzy.  I like me some warm and fuzzy from time to time.

But the problem with my brain is that it wanders.  I started wondering how easy it would be to set up my own live stream.  A quick Google search answered that question and within 5 minutes I had an account on ustream.tv and was streaming video of me talking to my boss on the telephone.  True, not that exciting.  But the video feed is only part of the equation.  You also need an audience and an event.

A big part of success in social media is leveraging the crap out of all your assets.  I have this blog, which has a bit of an audience.  I also had my crack team of web marketeers - Jeff from Dangle The Carrot, Mandy from Caratunk Girl and Kovas from Midwest Multisport Life to start a blistering Twitter campaign.  "Blistering" may be an overstatement, but then again hype is a-ok when it comes to marketing:

@17281posse @jeffirvin Beavers on Bikes? Life Altering Event Happening http://www.theroadmultisport.com Sat 10 AM to 10 PM PST! Please RT!

The event part is easy.  Following the logic that hype is a-ok, creating an event can almost be an afterthought.  All you have to do is convince everyone that the event that took you 5 seconds to think of is pure awesomeness, perhaps even life changing.  Don't believe me?  Search YouTube.  Anything goes.  Everyone is Spielberg and mediocrity is regularly rewarded.  And I have mediocre down.

So perhaps for the first time in blogging history, I have created a Bike Cam.  For the next 12 hours, you will be able to watch my bikes sit in my still as unfinished living room.  I have also strategically placed the dog beds in the shot.  So if you park yourself in front of your computer all day and/or check back often, chances are you'll get a glimpse of Natasha and Joe.  That's my seriously warm and fuzzy.

Please spread the word.  Let's see if we can take the wind out of the sails of those damned Firefoxes, at least for a day.  PS - sorry about the commercials.


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San Diego ramp up

Stretching before my run today, and about to see if my feet would blow up in racing flats in a distance over 5K.  They didn't luckily, but I should have done this a week ago.

I have a race coming up this Sunday.  It's the San Diego International Triathlon.  Mary, Ian and I are making a short weekend out of it.  We'll be heading down tomorrow morning, spend the afternoon around the pool, and then after the race hit Legoland or the San Diego Zoo on the drive back.

The race distances are a little odd at 1000M/30K/10K.  Longer than a Sprint, shorter than an Olympic.  I guess that makes it a Sprimpic?  Regardless, I've heard great things about this one and I get the impression a lot of people turn up.

As I've done in the past, I am going to make some predictions about my performance so I'm well set up to be super humbled come Sunday.  Here goes nothing...


The Swim - 1000 Meters (1093 Yards)

The swim is a deep water start in a sheltered harbor.  According to the pictures, it looks like it may be down the center channel of a giant marina.  So there will be no waves or weird currents to worry about.  Everyone from my Thursday night open water swim group swears they are not waiting for me at the end of each lap as long as they where a month ago.  So who knows?  Maybe I am getting faster.  The coaching is helping for sure but I'm still working on translating the technique adjustments learned in the pool to the open water.  I'm going to say 2:10 per100 yards, which will make my swim time 23:41.

The Bike - 30 Kilometers (18.64 Miles)

The bike course is supposed to be awesome.  It's a couple laps on the top of Point Loma, which is a small peninsula that sticks out into San Diego Bay.  The Cabrillo National Monument is at the tip.  My understanding that there is a long but moderate climb in, before the terrain gently rolls for the middle of the course.  I don't put climbing on any "Top 5 Raddest Things Of All Time" lists I keep, but I manage.  And of course this all translates into a fast descent out.  Hopefully I can average 19 MPH (I'm not prepared to commit to 20 with the hills) and clock in with a time of 58:52.  It's supposed to be a little windy, so I don't know what effect that will have.

The Run - 10 Kilometers (6.2 Miles)

The run course looks like it is all on sea wall or jetty paths.  So it will be flat.  But again, the wind could be a factor, I'm not sure.  I'll be happy with anything under an 8:00/mile pace.  I usually negative split races so I don't think it's inconceivable that I can run this with 7:50 miles, which would put my run at 48:40.  That said, I've never done anything other than sprint distances before, so managing myself post-bike on a run twice the length will be a new experience.  We'll see how it goes.

With 5 minutes thrown in for transitions that will give me a race time of 2:16:13, which according to last year's results puts me right in the middle of the pack.

I'm really looking forward to this one.  I've done a few races up in LA and a few down in San Diego.  To be honest, I prefer the scene down in San Diego.  As a friend of mine said last night, San Diego is filled with hardcore triathletes.  I'm sure this helps create the vibey scene down there.

Best wishes to anyone else who is racing this weekend.  Off the top of my head I know that Mandy from Caratunk Girl is racing in the LADU Duathlon in Lewiston, ME and Kovas from Midwest Multisport Life is doing the BigFoot Triathlon in Lake Geneva, WI.  Good luck, guys.