Summit Push

Why you should never use Orbitz

When the self-checkin kiosk didn't work, I was a little concerned. When the woman who came over to help frowned and referred me to the medallion club member desk, I knew it was bad.

It turns out I was the victim of a "schedule change", which is a polite euphemism for "we don't fly to Atlantic City anymore". I am not pleased with Delta over this, but what makes me furious is that when Delta contacted Orbitz about this on March 22 (5 weeks ago), Orbitz dropped this information on the floor. As I was standing at the counter being told that no flight existed, I pulled up Orbitz and it still displayed my reservation with no alerts. Being the type of gullible fool who believes things like "Orbitz TLC", I called them to resolve the situation, and basically spent an hour on the phone to end up with the same flight to Philadelphia that they had offered me at the counter. This was only after a struggle to convince them that Philly is much closer to Atlantic City than Newark despite the fact that you cross a state line.

Orbitz of course claims Delta is somehow at fault, but even if that is so, all Orbitz does is add a layer of incompetence between you and the airline. You also get to pay a service fee for that privilege. They have offered me a travel voucher for my trouble, but after talking with Delta I am convinced I could have gotten as much or more from them. Regardless, there is no dollar amount that can make up for the fact that all of my best friends are arriving in Atlantic City for my bachelor party and I'm still a long layover, a connecting flight, and a long drive away. From now on, I'll be booking my flights directly with the airline.

MUSCMan Indoor Sprint Triathlon

Last week was the grand finale of the Triathlon Training program, the MUSCMan Indoor Sprint Triathlon. This event consisted of a 500m pool swim, 10 miles on the stationary bike, and a 3 mile run on the track.  It was lots of fun, and one of the more exhausting things I've done.  I have posted the results online here.  (I only put them up because I didn't see an official posting of them anywhere, but I swear the results have not been doctored!)  It was fun to see that I finished first overall, who doesn't like winning things!  What was really exciting for me, though, was how well I did in the swim.  I started off this training program feeling pretty uncomfortable in the water.  With a lot of hard work, twice weekly lessons from my excellent coaches Megan and Linnea, and support from my training partner Michelle, I came so far in the past 5 weeks.  At the beginning I was worried about finishing, and I did not only that, but finished it faster than I thought was possible for me.

I can't say enough about what a great experience this was.  The amount of access to talented coaches and experts that we were given was really impressive.  I have definitely caught the triathlon bug.  I'm already looking at trying some local triathlons this summer, where I can step my game up with timed transitions and an open water swim.

Triathlon Training Update - week 4

I am now in my fourth week of the MUSC Triathlon Training Program, and it is time for a status report. 

Let's start at the beginning.  Where was I when the program started?  I have a decent running background, this is definitely the sport I feel most comfortable in.  My best race times in the past 6 months are 5k - 19:20, 10k - 44:49, 15k - 70:54.  Need to work on my endurance, but I feel pretty solid about finishing a 5k, even at the end of a triathlon.  My biking background is pretty sparse.  I have never been on a road bike, I've done some mountain biking, but I think I can get the job done.  Swimming is what concerns me.  I took a swimming class in college to fill up elective credits, so I'm a little past treading water, but I'm slow.  A 50m lap of the pool is tough.  This is definitely my biggest weakness starting out.

On to the good stuff, what are these coaches doing to me?

Triathlon Training Begins

I have finally been convinced to try out some triathlons this summer.  It will be my Lowcountry substitute for training for a mountain this spring. 

I have been slowly building up my running, so I feel pretty good about that.  The other two sports, not so much.  Especially the swimming.  In order to avoid drowning, which would suck all the fun out of the sport, I signed up for a Triathlon Training program at the MUSC Wellness Center.  I just got the info packet, and it looks like it should be awesome.  There are several training clinics, and we have six weeks of access to a whole host of talented coaches.  The coaching team includes 3 triathlon coaches, 2 running coaches, a cycling coach, 2 swimming coaches, and 2 nutritionists.  I should be a professional by the time this program is over!  Well, at least hopefully I won't drown or fall off my bike, and will somehow make it across the finish line.

Parking Garage: Beyond the Limit

If you've ever watched Everest: Beyond the Limit, or even if you haven't, you will absolutely love this spoof.

My Uwharrie Mountain Run

The forecast was for sunny 60 degree weather by 3pm, but at 5am, it was downright cold. The starts of the 40, 20, and 8 mile races were each staggered by an hour, so as an 8 miler, I had a lot of time to kill. I chatted with John as Mark and Amy kicked off their 40 mile adventure. I took pictures and cheered as John disappeared up the hill on his 20 miler, and then returned to the van to keep warm and wait for the minutes to tick past. I had run a 15k the previous weekend and felt pretty good, so I was optimistic that I’d have a pretty good run. I was extremely excited for my first real trail race.

An hour later, I am skidding around a hairpin turn, spraying frozen mud and wet leaves everywhere as I try to dodge the loose rocks and roots all over the trail. I find myself almost wishing to be back on the thigh burning uphills because they were less scary. Almost.

When I hit my third uphill, the momentum and adrenaline wear off. I am still hanging with a small group of runners, but a few of us slow all the way to a walk. As a fairly experienced racer, it takes a significant swallowing of pride to accept this. It helps to not be the only one. I soon learn, though, that pride is the least of my worries. High school physics is a bigger concern, as I learn the hard way that Newton was right: objects at rest tend to stay at rest. As the hill levels off, convincing my reluctant legs that we really do want to start running again is difficult. Slowly my stride opens up a bit, until I lurch into next downhill. Wash, rinse, and repeat. It helps to have a bad short-term memory.

Charleston Tweet-up

As the number of Charleston folks showing up on Twitter is growing, a few of us decided it's time to get together.  For our first pass at this, we're going to piggyback on top of the Lowcountry Blogger Meetup.  If we get enough people who want to do this again, we can break out into a separate event in the future.  All are welcome, and Gene's has a great beer list, shuffleboard, darts, and pool tables.

Where: Gene's Haufbrau
When: Friday, January 25th 6PM

Directions can be found here.  If you get lost, find us on Twitter.  If you'd like to head over earlier, send me a DM.

Climber Dies on Mt. Washington

Last Friday, January 19th, Peter Roux was climbing Odell's Gully in Huntington Ravine on Mt. Washington when a snow slope broke free and caused an avalanche that carried him down the gully to his death.  You can read more details about this accident here.  Mt. Washington is located in the White Mountain range of New Hampshire, and is known for having some of the most ferocious weather in the world, and is a very serious climb for someone of any level of experience.

I debated for a while whether or not to discuss this, but I think it's important to be honest about the risks being taken in any activity, especially Mountaineering.  As someone who has climbed at Mt. Washington several times (the picture here is me, not Peter Roux), even on that same route up Odell's Gully, this news really hits home.  My first reaction, was to immediately check the Avalanche Advisory for that day.  Mt. Washington is a very closely monitored mountain, with great snow analysis by the rangers, and they put out a bulletin every morning.  As you can see in the archives here the risk for that day was HIGH. 

I am not going to make any judgements here and say that what this climber did was wrong.  Everyone has their own scale of acceptable risk, and this was clearly a risk he was willing to take.  Some of my climbing heroes have taken far bigger risks than this.  What I can say is that I have spent many vacation days hiking the trails of Mt. Washington because of high avalanche risk in the gullies, and I consider them time well spent.

My heart goes out to the wife and family Peter left behind.  I will try to take this as a reminder of the serious nature of the mountain environment, and the importance of good information.

My One Laptop Per Child XO has arrived

I was very excited today to finally receive my XO laptop which I ordered through the Give 1 Get 1 program by the One Laptop Per Child project.  For $400, not only did get a laptop, but I was able to donate one to a needy child somewhere.  And on top of that, I get a free year of T-mobile hotspot usage.  A killer deal.

But you probably know all of that already, what you want are the juicy details on what I actually found when I opened the box, so after the jump is my quick review of the XO. 

Is the Facebook Beacon Illegal?

Like just about everyone who has been hit by it, I'm not very happy about the Facebook Beacon.  It was bad enough Facebook felt that I wanted everyone to know whenever I was wasting time playing flash games on Kongregate.  That just irritated me.  Now Facebook is actually ruining Christmas for people by announcing to all their friends the Christmas presents they just purchased.  As the uproar unfolds, I kept thinking "is this legal?" 

I decided to hop on over to the Facebook Privacy Policy.  I must admit I could not decipher all the legalese at the bottom.  But Facebook has made it easy for us by lying to our faces right at the beginning.

Facebook follows two core principles:

1. You should have control over your personal information.
Facebook helps you share information with your friends and people around you. You choose what information you put in your profile, including contact and personal information, pictures, interests and groups you join. And you control the users with whom you share that information through the privacy settings on the My Privacy page.

2. You should have access to the information others want to share.

There is an increasing amount of information available out there, and you may want to know what relates to you, your friends, and people around you. We want to help you easily get that information.

Facebook has not followed these principles with the Facebook Beacon.  I have lost control of my personal information.  I have no idea if it would hold up in court, but I hope someone more savvy and with more free time sues them.  If you use Facebook, and they violate the principle of the Privacy agreement they provide, it seems like at least some grounds for a case to me.

Myself, I'm following these steps to block the Facebook Beacon, and aggressively deleting my Facebook cookies whenever I can.