Further Observations on Topics About Which I am Now an Expert
This weekend, we watched live coverage of the ITU World Championship Triathlon on the internet. Actually we just watched the men's race because the women's race was on at 4 a.m. our time. Side note: I have noticed that in triathlon, women tend to be treated equally to the men regarding distance AND prize money. That's nice.
But my point in this post is to whine profusely about the commentary in this "live coverage". It totally sucked! Cyclists are sooo spoiled by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin! Ugh! We had to put the thing on mute, the commentary was so annoying.
"Well, Libby Burrell [WHY did the dude have to say his co-host's FULL NAME every single time?!] this is just literally the most literally exciting race of the year!"
Literally was this guy's favourite word. I didn't catch his name because, thankfully, Libby Burrell did not say it every 30 seconds, but she had her own irritating habits...
"Yes, Mr. Annoyingpants, this is truly shaping up to be an epic event. Javier Gomez is running to win. But no! Here comes Daniel Unger! Epic, this is epic!"
As it is, I HATE the overusage of the word "epic" with regards to sports. I mean, 80 miles in the pouring rain in Merced during March definitely sucks, especially since we usually pay to be out there racing, but it just doesn't quite hold up to Beowulf's and Aeneas' standards. Not Epic. The Tour can get away with using epic because the race is pretty insane, and because Phil and Paul recognize the value of only using "epic" for truly extreme circumstances.
Further: an olympic distance triathlon? This was a 1.5 K swim, 40 k bike, 10k run. The guys raced for like an hour and forty minutes! In weather-appropriate tank tops and little spandex shorts! Not not not not not epic, yes definitely hard, but not epic. I don't care if Unger collapsed from exhaustion/emotion/dramatic effect at the end. Which he did, but that just emphasizes the drama more than anything.
Anyway all this ranting aside, I enjoyed watching a bunch of incredible athletes trying to sort out who's best. After all, they didn't choose to have Libby Burrell and Whatsisface giving the play-by-play.
Oh, p.s., Cyclingnews.com's live coverage kicks ironmanlive.com in the tush. Royally, and completely.
But my point in this post is to whine profusely about the commentary in this "live coverage". It totally sucked! Cyclists are sooo spoiled by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin! Ugh! We had to put the thing on mute, the commentary was so annoying.
"Well, Libby Burrell [WHY did the dude have to say his co-host's FULL NAME every single time?!] this is just literally the most literally exciting race of the year!"
Literally was this guy's favourite word. I didn't catch his name because, thankfully, Libby Burrell did not say it every 30 seconds, but she had her own irritating habits...
"Yes, Mr. Annoyingpants, this is truly shaping up to be an epic event. Javier Gomez is running to win. But no! Here comes Daniel Unger! Epic, this is epic!"
As it is, I HATE the overusage of the word "epic" with regards to sports. I mean, 80 miles in the pouring rain in Merced during March definitely sucks, especially since we usually pay to be out there racing, but it just doesn't quite hold up to Beowulf's and Aeneas' standards. Not Epic. The Tour can get away with using epic because the race is pretty insane, and because Phil and Paul recognize the value of only using "epic" for truly extreme circumstances.
Further: an olympic distance triathlon? This was a 1.5 K swim, 40 k bike, 10k run. The guys raced for like an hour and forty minutes! In weather-appropriate tank tops and little spandex shorts! Not not not not not epic, yes definitely hard, but not epic. I don't care if Unger collapsed from exhaustion/emotion/dramatic effect at the end. Which he did, but that just emphasizes the drama more than anything.
Anyway all this ranting aside, I enjoyed watching a bunch of incredible athletes trying to sort out who's best. After all, they didn't choose to have Libby Burrell and Whatsisface giving the play-by-play.
Oh, p.s., Cyclingnews.com's live coverage kicks ironmanlive.com in the tush. Royally, and completely.
Labels: enjoy the blog, geek, in my opinion
posted by Courtenay at 9/04/2007
4 Comments:
alright, finally talked to my friend fred about the fish. here is what i got..
Cooling down water-- Be careful about putting ice cubes in the tank b/c the water from the ice isn't treated, i.e. it has lots of chlorine in it, because it didn't go through a filter. Instead, put the ice in a plastic bag and put the bag in the tank to get the same affect. OR, run more air through the tank (I guess through that bubbler you have in the tank). He did say, though, that more air through the tank may make more algae build up. Lastly, turn the lights off.
As for high elevation, he said you were smart to think of this! The fish will be "droopy" for a little while, but they will be okay. Don't be alarmed! He warned to be careful about water quality in tahoe. Be sure to treat your water to remove the chlorine...and (he stressed this) remove the copper. There is a lot more copper in the water there, he says. He said you can treat for copper by using a carbon pad in your filter? Or there are some droplets or something, but he suggested the carbon pad in the filter.
He's a weird guy, but knows his fish and bikes.
Good luck!
we ARE spoiled by phil and paul.
i remember one year, watching the big sf race on tv and one of the local sport announcer guys was doing the commentary.
as they were nearing the finish, he kept saying, "ok, it's time to get down with the get down".
we still joke about it - don't forget when you're nearing the finish to "get down with the get down".
sf "bike" race - forgot to say that. the t-mobile race or something. they changed the name every year i think.
anyway...
That is because Cycling is actually considered a real sport...
we don't have a "team in training" category....
I do think that every ironman is epic, like a lil bit of insanity epic....
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