Diesel Powered

Message from FOA The Diesel to JPD, aka "the Massive Belgian," as he waxes his back hair one last time and prepares to dive into the Ohio River to kick off Ironman Louisville:

Good luck this weekend. I'll be following your blistering pace on ironmanlive. For God's sake, keep your eyes off all goats and farm animals. Pace, fuel, pace, fuel, pace. I want to be able to brag that I train with an IM Hawaii qualifier. - The Diesel Speaks.

Six Months to an Ironman

Six months after learning to swim and purchasing his first bike as an adult, an Indiana newspaper publisher is ready to compete alongside this blog's JPD and the 'Bachelor' at Ironman Louisville on Sunday. Here's his story. Good luck to all!

Summer Travels IX: Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Fifteen years after it opened, I finally got to watch a baseball game at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The elegance and simplicity of the design, combined with how naturally it incorporates the historic B&O Warehouse behind right field and how it fits so well into its city neighborhood, easily makes it my all-time favorite ballpark. And it's still catalyzing new development in the area. Activated.

Activating Alan Webb

Everything is coming together for young American runner Alan Webb, who ran a U.S.-record 3:46.91 mile back in July. Sports Illustrated story.

Summer Travels VIII: Fort McHenry

Defending Baltimore Harbor from those pesky Brits:

Headphone Ban in Races: A Running Debate

Slower runners seem to use them more than the frontrunners, who are more focused on racing. The answer seems simple: Use them in training if it helps get you through the miles, but not in races. Boston Globe story. But don't get me started on cyclists wearing headphones while out on the roads.

Summer Travels VII: Fells Point, Baltimore

A nice surprise to step off the water taxi and encounter the building that served as the police station in my favorite TV show from the 1990s: Homicide: Life on the Street. Whatever happened to Andre Braugher?





If the Homicide detectives ate here, the bodies would be cold by the time they reached the crime scene. Good food but slow service.

Deactivating Mixed Messages

The owners of GloboCorp's office tower announced their "Biggest Loser" weight loss competition for building occupants the day before they announced they would host an ice cream social in the building lobby.

Jim Kunstler's 2007 Summer Bike Route

The photojournal of James Howard Kunstler's Summer 2007 Bike Route near Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is way more interesting to me than it probably should be. Here's a guy who truly thinks about what he sees.

Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century and this blog on Long Emergency-type issues, makes a compellingly strong, chilling case that our society is headed for a crashing fall and that our leaders are asleep at the wheel. Will our economy and entire way of life really collapse as climate change becomes irreversible and our oil runs out? Or can we make grand, sweeping changes in how we live in order to do so sustainably? Questions to ponder as you peddle through your own Summer 2007 Bike Route. Let me know if you want to borrow the book.

Listen and Savor

Alberto Salazar's heart attack and near-death experience reminds us all to listen to our bodies and relish every day of our lives.

Summer Travels VI: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A powerful building design by architect James Ingo Freed creates an emotional experience. Don't miss it if you're in D.C.

Alberto Salazar's Miracle Survival

The 48-year-old former marathoner's heart stopped beating for 16 minutes after he suffered a heart attack at Nike's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

Summer Travels V: National World War II Memorial

This is new since I was last in D.C.; it sits between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

Summer Travels IV: Preparing for a Good Old-Fashioned White House Raising

Right after I snapped this shot, the Amish guy in the blue tackled me and attempted to delete my pictures while ranting and raving about "paparazzi of the Age of Information." He was surprisingly strong.

How Bad Off Must Pro Cycling Be When Lance Armstrong Won't Touch It?

"Things need to improve before you would see us venture back into cycling," says Armstrong, as the team he co-owns announced it would disband. After ripping up the Tour de France, the Discovery Channel team hasn't been able to find a new title sponsor willing to be associated with a sport riddled with cheats and liars (but that I still love). The good news is that Levi, Alberto, George and co. will ride in September's Tour de Missouri. VeloNews story.

Tour de France Bikes

Get up close and personal with the bikes of the top six riders at the Tour de France. "Your butt goes here, if you're Levi Leipheimer." What a wafer-thin seat for Levi.

Summer Travels III

Before I visited the National Air and Space Museum in DC, I didn't know that the Wright Brothers used The Wright Cycle Company's profits to finance their aviation tests.

Doping and the Triathlon Age-Group Racer

Slowtwitch.com takes on the two-ton elephant in the transition area: Age-group doping in triathlon.

Summer Travels II

Capitol ideas:

Summer Travels I

From the St. Louis Arch into the new Busch Stadium:

Saturday Mailbagging

From #1 Make Nice Friend of Activeness (FOA) Marshall:

The latest HBO Real Sports (#124) gets my nod, not for the arrogant Gary Sheffield who has the lead story, but for the look at Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who is profiled as once being named the world's greatest adventurer by the Guinness Book of World Records. He of marathon fame a few years back: 7 marathons / 7 days / 7 continents - four months after having a heart attack...among many other amazing outdoor mountain and running adventures. A good watch, worth the 15 minutes.

Word to Borat story, too! Me make nice with Kazakhstan sister of # 2 Prostitute in town.

Marshall

From Activeness Reader John W. from Bethesda, Md:

Thank you for posting your March 2006 article about Craig Virgin. This morning, I read about Alan Webb breaking the American record for the mile -- Webb was a high school phenom in Northern Virginia, not far from where I now live -- and it made me think about my high school days, growing up in St. Louis County and the time I went to the Alton Relays with my track team and watched Craig Virgin lap the field in the two-mile run.

Your article came up when I "Googled" Craig's name, and I truly appreciated the opportunity to read about how he's been doing since the end of his competitive running career. I knew nothing about the accident in 1997 (my wife and I have lived in the Washington, D.C. area for twenty years, and the news never made it here), and I never knew about his childhood health issues. As an unremarkable runner who is now 51 and dealing with the fact that even runners like me have to cut back and modify training regimens, your piece about the far-greater challenges Craig has faced over the years was inspiring and put a lot of my own minor challenges in perspective.

Again, thank you, and best regards.

John W.