July 30th, 2009 by admin

Adventure racing fans looking to get their fix this summer will be able to tune into HDNet in a few weeks to catch Primal Quest Montana shown in it’s full high-definition glory. The race is set to begin airing on Saturday, August 8 at 10:30 AM ET and again at 2:30 PM ET, and will run for four consecutive weekends.

The four, half-hour long episodes will retell the story of last year’s Primal Quest, which took place in the beautiful Montana mountains. The 60 coed teams of four raced across a 500+ mile course that featured plenty of altitude, wicked white water, and crazy action from start to finish. The usual adventure racing disciplines are on display, with plenty of running, mountain biking, and kayaking of course, but these endurance athletes will also take on a river boarding course, a tough orienteering section, and a world-class rock climbing wall.

I’ve seen all the episodes already, and they are excellent. I haven’t seen them in HD however, so I’m looking forward to rewatching them on HDNet, who have some of the best picture quality around. The amazing footage, caught by a crack team of cameramen, is going to look amazing, and I know everyone on the PQ team is excited to have the race shown in the States in high-def for the first time.

Primal Quest Montana begins airing the week before Primal Quest Badlands, which is set to take place in South Dakota beginning on the 14th of August. The course this year is going to be longer and tougher than ever, with more than 600 miles of trail to cover. And watch for a BIG announcement coming in the next few days that will change up the leaderboard heading into Primal Quest. This year’s race is going to be the most competitive yet!

July 30th, 2009 by admin

When last we checked in on the Intrepid crew of the Ocean Watch, they had made it to Barrow, Alaska, where they were taking on supplies and a new crew member. Now, a few weeks later they’ve set sail once again, as they head into one of the more perilous sections of their journey.

As you probably recall, the Around The Americas team is attempting to become the first to circumnavigate North and South America. To achieve this goal, they’ll need to sail through the legendary Northwest Passage, a route that only opens in the dead of summer, when the arctic ice melts away, and provides a channel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of Canada. As the ship slips away from Barrow, they’ll now begin the challenging navigation required to see them safely through to the Atlantic side.

Thanks to global climate change, the Northwest Passage has become a reality in recent years, which gave rise to the idea of this expedition. All told, the journey should take roughly 13 months to complete, returning to Seattle, where the ship set out, next summer. Following the voyage through the Passage, they’ll sail down the East Coast of North America, all the way south to the tip of South America, rounding Cape Horn, and turning north for home at last. Along the way, they’ll take various scientific readings to measure the effects of climate change in the various waters they’ll be passing through.

The crew’s most recent blog posts include a note on leaving Barrow behind and a report from Zeta Strickland, about her first few days aboard ship. Zeta is an educator who joined the crew in Barrow and will continue with them to Boston, where she’ll return home. Along the way, she’ll be sharing her experiences at sea and traveling through the Northwest Passage.

Good luck to the crew as they sail those crazy waters. If you see something big and white in your way, turn!

July 30th, 2009 by admin

I had hoped to put some thoughts together on the Tour de France now that the riders have rolled into Paris and the event has wrapped up for another year, but I’ve had Internet access issues over the past few days that have not helped my cause.

By now, everyone knows that Alberto Contador took the Yelow Jersey and finished first on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday. The Spaniard was 4′11″ in front of second place rider Andy Schleck, and another 1′13″ ahead of Lance Armstrong, who took third place on the podium. Schleck claimed the White Jersey for the best young rider in the Tour for the second year in a row, while Thor Hushovd when home in Green as the top sprinter. Franco Pellizotti was named the King of the Mountains, and took the Polka Dot Jersey going away.

One of the things that struck me while I watched the final stage on Sunday was that the future certainly looks very bright for the sport of cycling and the Tour de France in particular. Contador is a powerful, young rider, and it seems he has a rival in Andy Schleck that will be challenging him in the years ahead, provided Schleck can improve his time trialing. That should be rivalry to watch in the years ahead, as it seems that those two men could be going head to head for years to come.

The other interesting rivalry to come out of this years Tour is the one between Hushovd and British rider Mark Cavendish. Cavendish is clearly the fastest sprinter in the world, but he learned that that wasn’t enough to take the Green Jersey this year. The two men took shots at each other in the press, although they appeared to bury the hatchet some in the final days, but you can bet that they’ll be challenging each other on the sprints in the years ahead as well. Cavendish took the final stage win in Paris on Sunday, and made it look easy, blasting through the finish line for his sixth win of the year. A very impressive feat.

And of course, looming over all of this is the shadow of Lance Armstrong, who returns to the sport a living legend. Lance will be riding on a new team next year, sponsored by Radio Shack, and he’ll hand pick his teammates and attempt to go after another win, this time with Contador as a direct competitor and not a teammate at all. The fact that Lance was able to finish 3rd this year is pretty remarkable considering his age and three years away. It truly conveys what a special athlete he is and what a great rider too, as his road savvy was on display more than once in this year’s race.

It is not surprising that Lance and Contador have already begun sparring with one another in the press. The relationship was a contentious one from the start, and it seemed to only get more frosty as the Tour went on. In interviews, Lance tried to bite his tongue and not say too much, but his tone and other comments spoke volumes at times. I think Contador is the stronger rider at this point of their careers, but I can already tell that Lance would love to be able to best the younger man on the road next year.

And now, I’ll have to deal with my Tour Withdrawal symptoms for another year as well. Over the past few weeks it is virtually the only thing I watched on television and it is an event that I always look forward to. One of these days I’m going to have to make the trip and see it in person, but for now I’ll have to be content with the outstanding television coverage from Versus. I miss it all already.

July 30th, 2009 by admin

I started out my first draft of last week’s column a little pissy because of anonymous advertisers’ comments. So for your enjoyment, here are the snarky first draft and then the published version.

Offense is the best defense …

It has come to my attention that some people were offended by a phrase in my last column. I said that my husband and I “took out the goalie,” referring to stopping contraception use.

In deference to them, I will not repeat the words “taking out the goalie” again. Just to be clear, it wasn’t a literal thing. There was no little teeny goalie to remove. So here’s a short history of the contraception route we took to prevent parenthood until we were ready.

Obviously, I went through a condom phase. Everyone should. They’re handy devices that often prevent the spread of disease, and are reasonably effective at corralling man-juice. Even had a boyfriend who “doubled up,” then disappeared into the bathroom afterward to test them and make sure they didn’t break.

I was on the pill for about 15 years. When I first began taking it in college, my debilitating heavy periods eased considerably. So, whether I was in a relationship or a dry spell, I stayed on the pill.

Thanks to my enlightened Jackson gynecologists, Dr. Tom Smith, and later, Dr. Annie Fenn, I took the pill continuously for several months, having a period only every few months. There’s now a pill marketed for that purpose, Seasonique.

After a while, my tree-hugging sister voiced her worries about all the hormones I was ingesting. I touted the pill’s benefits in protecting me against endometriosis, ovarian cysts, etc. Not to mention protecting me against babies, which I wasn’t prepared for, I reminded my sister, who at my last count had four children. Traveling to Memphis to watch her try to manage the four-ring circus was a dose of birth control in itself.

Still, I began to wonder whether all those hormones were good for me, so I tried the NuvaRing, a nifty device that delivered a smaller dose of hormones directly to the baby-delivering zone. My hubby decided that he wasn’t a fan of the ringy dingy thingy after it escaped one too many times. Finding it in the sheets later was a buzz kill.

Back to the pill.

I had a few minor “baby pains” back in 2001. These are a faint desire to be maternal, tempered by reality like debt, emotional immaturity and the living situation of an indentured servant. So we acquired another birth control item: a puppy.

Mojo did child-like things. He needed consistent attention, peed on the floor so many times we considered diapers, entertained us with his antics and cost a few hundred dollars in shots and minor surgeries for a deeply cut paw and a growth on his ear. Good parenting training, if you ask me.

Around this time, several celebrities began mysteriously getting pregnant, ostensibly accidentally. A few of them are still with the Baby Daddy. “With all the technology available,” I sputtered to anyone who would listen, “how in the world are they still going ‘Oops!’”

A few things I never tried. The sponge? Ewww. The diaphragm? So 1970s. The shot? I hate needles, and the unpredictable periods it can cause scared away my inner control freak. Norplant? Way too alien-implant for me. The Mirena IUD seems great. I made an appointment for it once, but it’s pretty expensive to insert; it takes about two years for it to be cost-effective.

When it was close to decision time on the procreation front, I stopped taking the pill and started taking prenatal vitamins. We used the “pull and pray” method, as my Catholic friend calls it.

When you’re pregnant, obviously you can’t get pregnant again, so no birth control was necessary. After birth, breastfeeding does suppress ovulation (lactational amenorrhea method), given that the infant is suckling on demand.

My friend Katy resumed taking the pill, as advised by her gynecologist, when her son was about two months old. She said it seemed to cut her breastmilk supply in half, and then when she stopped taking it, her period returned. Not fun either way.

Once the baby’s six months old, or sleeping through the night, or your period returns, another method of birth control is advised. That is, if you and your partner ever have time or energy for sex, given the demands of a baby.

Here we go again.

REWRITTEN

What’s the one scenario potentially more exhausting than having twin infants? Getting pregnant again shortly after giving birth and having kids about a year apart.

Last fall, Christy, the wife of one of my hubby’s softball buddies, was nursing her 7-month-old child and unexpectedly got pregnant with her second. She and her husband “were not really paying much attention,” she said. In the back of her mind, she knew that she wasn’t using a birth control method and that another pregnancy was possible.

“Definitely do not rely on breastfeeding” as a method of birth control, is Christy’s advice to new moms.

Breastfeeding does suppress ovulation, but only to a point, according to Miriam Labbok, who wrote a paper in 1993 about the “lactational amenorrhea method” – read: breastfeeding – of family planning. She writes that your chance of pregnancy is less than 2 percent (comparable to the pill) if the infant is less than six months old, if your period has not returned and if you’re breastfeeding full-time, or nearly full-time. Clinical trials have proven such.

Once baby’s six months old, or sleeping through the night, or your period returns, another method of birth control is advised.
But as LAM is a natural, human method of birth control, it’s subject to pilot error. If you left your infant for a couple days, or let her sleep through the night without waking her up to eat, for instance, you could ovulate. That’s without getting a “warning period.”

My friend Katy began using the NuvaRing, as advised by her gynecologist, when her son was about 2 months old. She said the device, which slowly delivers hormones to the baby-delivering area, seemed to cut her breastmilk supply in half. This has been documented; the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says hormonal birth control “is acceptable if women are informed of the risk of a decreased milk supply.”

So for me, or for most any woman who wants to keep breastfeeding exclusively, that’s out.
At my six-week postpartum doctor’s appointment, Dr. Doug George asked me what method of birth control we planned on using. I repeated Katy’s anectdotal information.
“So I’m not ready to get back on the pill,” I said. “Besides, I’m not sure whether we want another child or not. I think we’re going to just ‘pull and pray’ for now, as my Catholic friend calls it. If it happens, it happens.”

“That’s fine,” Dr. George replied. “Just as long as you know, it’s not 100 percent effective.”

For 16 years, I was a pro at not getting pregnant.

I first began taking the pill in college, and my debilitating heavy periods eased considerably. So, whether I was in a relationship or a dry spell, in addition to condoms, I stayed on the pill.

With the consent of my enlightened Jackson gynecologists, Dr. Tom Smith, and later, Dr. Annie Fenn, I took the pill continuously for several months, having a period only every few months. There’s now a pill marketed for that purpose, Seasonique.

After a while, my tree-hugging sister voiced her worries about all the hormones I was ingesting. I touted the pill’s benefits in protecting me against endometriosis, ovarian cysts, etc. Not to mention protecting me against babies, which I wasn’t prepared for, I reminded my sister, who at my last count had four children. Traveling to Memphis to watch her try to manage the four-ring circus was a dose of birth control in itself.

Still, I began to wonder whether all those hormones were good for me, so I tried the NuvaRing. We quite the ringy dingy thingy after it escaped its assigned seating one too many times.

Back to the pill.

I had a few minor “baby pains” back in 2001. These were a faint desire to be maternal, tempered by reality like debt, emotional immaturity and the living situation of an indentured servant.

So we acquired another birth control item: a puppy.

Mojo did child-like things. He needed consistent attention, peed on the floor so many times we considered diapers, entertained us with his antics and cost a few hundred dollars in shots and minor surgeries for a deeply cut paw and a growth on his ear. Good parenting training, if you ask me.

Around this time, several celebrities began mysteriously getting pregnant, ostensibly accidentally. A few of them are still with the Baby Daddy. “With all the technology available,” I sputtered to anyone who would listen, “how in the world are they still going ‘Oops!’”

A few things I never tried. The sponge? Ewww. The diaphragm? So 1970s. The shot? I hate needles, and the unpredictable periods it can cause scared away my inner control freak. Norplant? Way too alien-implant for me. The Mirena IUD seems great. I made an appointment for it once, but it’s pretty expensive to insert; it takes about two years for it to be as cost-effective as the pill.

For most of us new mothers, having a newborn requires so much time and attention, we’re not having much sex. That’s the most effective method of birth control I know, but it’s not endorsed by the men in our lives.

July 28th, 2009 by admin

Men’s Journal is reporting in with another interesting aquatic adventure. This time it’s an update on Freya Hoffmeister, who is attempting to set a new speed record for circumnavigating Australia in a kayak.

Freya has now been on the water for 191 days and making her way down the western coast of Australia. Her goal is to cover the more than 9400 miles around the continent in just one year, and reading her blog you can tell that she is not only going after that challenge, but enjoying the journey as well. The current record for kayaking around Australia is 361 days, and if everything continues to go as expected, it seems that Freya will have a shot at setting a new record.

As part of her journey, the German paddler cut across the Gulf of Carpenteria, setting out into the turbulent waters of the Pacific. Only Andrew McAuley has accomplished the same goal in a solo fashion. You may recall that McAuley later disappeared while making a solo attempt at paddling across the Tasman Sea.

You can follow Freya’s adventures on her official website, where you’ll find more information about her, and this paddling expedition. If she stays on schedule, expect her to return to her point of origin, near Melbourne, sometime next January.

July 28th, 2009 by admin

The weekend was suppose to be Summit Day on both the Gasherbrums and K2, and while conditions improved on one of those peaks, the other sent teams scrambling back down the hill.

The big news for the weekend is that Veikka Gustafsson has completed the 14 8000 meter peaks, topping out on Gasherbrum I on Sunday. Veikka becomes the 17th person to bag all of the world’s tallest peaks, and he completed the task without supplemental oxygen as well. He and climbing partner Kazuya Hiraide set out from high camp just after midnight and arrived at the summit around 8 AM local time, where they were greeted with no winds and beautiful weather, and according to the latest dispatch from the mountain, both men are now safe and sound back in Base Camp.

Veikka and Kazuya’s summits weren’t the only ones on GI this weekend either, as several other teams topped out as well. ExWeb is reporting that the Bulgarian team of Nikolay Petkov, Doychin Boyanov, Boyan Petrov, and Nikolay Valkov all reached the summit on Sunday morning as well.

Meanwhile, over on K2, the weekend update isn’t so cheery. A number of teams attempted summit bids along both the Cesen Route and the Abruzzi Spur, but reports indicate that the conditions were too treacherous to proceed upward. The likelihood of avalanches were extremely high, and the climbers decided that discretion was the better part of valor and turned back well before the summit on both routes. All the teams are headed back to BC, where they’ll regroup and reassess their chances of making the summit this season.

July 26th, 2009 by admin

I mentioned a few days back that teams were in the midst of a summit push on both the Gasherbrums and K2, and according to ExWeb those bids are still in progress, although the weather is not cooperating as expected, and progress has been slowed somewhat. But, teams are still positoining themselves to top out this weekend, with Gasherbrum summits set for tomorrow and K2 on Sunday.

On Gasherbrum I, Veikka Gustafsson and climbing partner Kazuya Hiraide, spent yesterday stuck in Camp 2 due to a massive snowstorm, but they’ve begun climbing the mountain again, and are eyeing Sunday for their potential summit day. They report that winds have dropped some, but are still quite high.

There haven’t been any updates from the Altitude Junkies in a few days, and we can only assume that they remain in BC. Their forecasts told them there would be high winds on the Gasherbrums, so they were waiting it out, and hoping for the best. At this point, that seems like a really great decision. Their next update will probably be to announce the start of their summit bid.

On K2 a similar story is being told, with worse than expected weather. Despite that, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, David Göttler and Fabrizio Zangrilli are all into Camp 3 on the Cesen Route, where the Field Touring Alpine Team has climbed up to C2 themselves, and will go up to C3 tomorrow. While Gerlinde and the boys will continue up however, the FTA team is working on finishing up their acclimatization process, and will be heading back to BC over the weekend. They hope to begin their summit bid in the next 10-14 days.

Meanwhile, over on the Abruzzi Spur, teams are into C2 with reports of high winds, cold temps, and overcast skies. The weather reports say that conditions should be improving there as well however, and they’re on track for Sunday Summits as well.

Seems like it should be a very busy weekend in the Karakorum. Teams are on track provided the weather holds.

July 26th, 2009 by admin

Have you ever wanted to play an integral role in a major expedition? Are you an armchair adventurer who would rather stay home, where it’s safe and sound, not to mention warm? How are your organizational skills?

It seems that two adventurers from the U.K., John Wilton-Davies and Justin Miles, are planning a major expedition to the South Pole in 2010, and they’re in need of an Expedition Manager to take on some organizational and media relations duties. In the months leading up to the start of the expedition, the expedition manager will organize contacts with the media, assist in preparing presentations for sponsors, and take steps to raise awareness of the project.

Of course, once John and Justin set out, the duties will ramp up considerably, as this person will be responsible for daily communications with the team while they are on the ice, as well as overseeing the updating of the expedition’s website with progress reports, photos and more. The expedition manager will also work closely with the media, keeping them informed on the team’s progress, as well as organize live interviews from Antarctica. In other words, they’ll be the team’s lifeline back to the world.

While the position doesn’t offer any salary, it is a great opportunity to really get involved with the behind the scenes aspects of of a polar expedition. It would also be amazing experience if you’re planning a similar expedition of your own, learning the ins and outs, while making great contacts too.

So what kind of expedition would you be working with? How about the first unsupported round trip journey from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole and back again? The expedition is called the Last Great Challenge, and John and Justin expect to cover more than 1382 miles across some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet. Remember, the majority of explorers that head to the South Pole go just one way, and then catch a flight out from their final destination.

For more information on the Expedition Manager’s position, click here. Get your application in soon, as the closing date is Sept. 5th of this year. And with just over a year to go until the start of the expedition, there is plenty to do.

July 26th, 2009 by admin

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and of course, living in the state, I can tell you that everyone here really likes to believe that. In fact, they don’t even like to admit that Alaska is bigger than Texas. The locals like to tell me to “melt the ice” every time I remind them of this fact.

But one of the great events that takes part annually in the Lone Star State is the Texas Water Safari, a 262 mile canoe race from San Marcos, just south of Austin, to Seadrift, along the Gulf Coast. Competitors have 100 hours to complete the course, in which they’ll face rapids of varying difficulties, a number of tough portages, and the hot summer sun.

The event was held a few weeks back and Canoe & Kayak Magazine was on hand to file this great report, which includes plenty of paddling of course, but a number of misadventures along the way as well. It is also a tale of a grueling endurance event that leaves competitors exhausted, battered, and vowing to never step foot in a canoe again. Of course, most then return next year, but that’s a different story.

If you’ve never seen or heard of the Texas Water Safari before, this article is a great introduction to the race. And while the 2009 even has come and gone, it’s never too early to start thinking about 2010. But keep this in mind. We’re currently going through a bit of a “cool spell” here in central Texas. The temps have dropped to highs of about 98ºF (36º C), but someone told me this morning that we’ve had a string of 37 days out of the past 41 in the triple digits. Yay for Texas summers!

July 26th, 2009 by admin

Today’s Stage 19 of the Tour de France was expected to be a bit of a let down following the fireworks in the Alps earlier this week and the individual time trial yesterday. But if this year’s Tour has taught us anything, we should expect the unexpected.

The 178 km (110 miles) course ran from Bourgoin-Jallieu to Aubenas, and featured rolling hills with some solid climbs, but nothing like the big slopes we saw a few days back. It was the chance for the sprinters to take center stage once again, as there were a couple of points on the course where they could earn Green Jersey points.

Heading into the day, Thor Hushovd had a firm grip on the Green Jersey, but his rivalry with Mark Cavendish, the fastest sprinter in the world, had been making headlines throughout the week following a controversial decision by judges to dock points from Cavendish, following a filed complaint by Hushovd. The loss of points caused Cav to fall back in the standings, and take shots at Thor in the press, while Thor responded by putting on a show two days ago, making a solo ride through the mountains to earn more points and widen the lead. It appeared as if the “God of Thunder” was ready to ride into Paris in Green. Clearly Cavendish has other ideas however.

Throughout the entire Tour, Team Columbia has worked together flawlessly to set up their man Cavendish to be in a position to take a stage win. Their strategies have worked so well, that before today, Cav had already earned four stage wins, and their efforts paid off once again today, as he took his fifth, giving him nine stage victories in his young career, the most ever by a British rider. Today, the team set up their attack with roughly 2km to go, running down a breakaway, and allowing Cavendish to sprint to the line just ahead of Husovd to earn the maximum number of points, and setting up an epic showdown on the Champs Elysees on Sunday to determine which one of these two stars will take the sprint championship this year.

As for the rest of the stage, it was a mostly by-the-numbers affair. The leaders of the General Classification stuck close to one another all day, and no one really attempted to make any kind of attack. There was a slight break late in the stage that allowed Lance Armstrong, currently sitting in third place, to pick up four seconds on the riders chasing him, but Alberto Contador maintained his 4 minute 11 second lead over Andy Schleck, who sits in second, a minute and ten seconds in front of Armstrong.

Right now, it appears that the only podium position that is up for grabs is third place. Lets face it, despite the fact that tomorrow’s stage ends on a grueling Beyond Category climb up Mont Ventoux, no one is going to crack Contador, and it seems very unlikely that Lance can do anything to catch Andy Schleck either. But, lurking just behind lance is Brad Wiggins, 14 seconds back, then comes Armstrong his teammate Andreas Kloden, another two behind, and Frank Schleck isn’t out of striking distance either, just 38 seconds behind, and with impressive climbing skills. All of this adds up to some interesting opportunities for tomorrows big stage, which is really the finale in terms of the GC.

As for the other jersey competitions, Franco Pellizotti still has a lock on the Polka Dot Jersey, and it’s unlikely he’ll let anyone earn too many points tomorrow, so he looks like this year’s King of the Mountains, and Andy Schleck seems to be in the driver’s seat as far as the White Jersey as the Tour’s best young rider.

Tomorrow promises to be yet another interesting stage. It is a 167 km (103 miles) ride from Montélimar to the summit of Mont Ventoux. The Peloton will warm up with a few rolling hills, with a couple of Category 3 and 4 climbs before setting up the big duel on the final climb of the day, a mount top finish up a 21.5 km (13.3 miles) Beyond Category climb. I expect the Schlecks to work in tandem once again, but not to challenge Contador so much as Armstrong. If the two brothers can stand on the podium together in Paris, they’ll have accomplished their goal.