TODAY AT BT: PHEWWWWW!!!  Just finished the nearly 40 screenshots of the new BT into Trello.com along with detailed instructions of how everything works.  There are still a half dozen pages left for a 3rd round of designing.

OTHER STUFF:  The more I think about it, the more I really do want a health care premium 'reduction' for living healthy.  It's the ONLY way to really systemically change people.  I pay nearly $500/month in healthcare matched by a healthfund...nearly $1000 for the family per month.  That's a lot of money.  How about the healthcare companies make significant reductions of premiums for people like me...healthy-weight+exercise get a 50% reduction.  The people that are at a healthy-weight and don't exercise or overweight and exercise pay what I pay now.  People obese - exercise or not pay a 100% increase.  No good ideas on how you would fairly 'measure' compliance or non-compliance.

Essentially I pay for other peoples unhealthy lifestyle.  I don't want to anymore.  I'm done.  In my quest to be ever more lean financially, money is a motivator to change people attitudes on unhealthy living.  I'm tired of being a good soldier to be truly healthy to pay my healthcare company to ultimately use most of my money to pay for others poor choices.  A high enough premium cost will definitely change attitudes. 

I also think that if this country really wants to be efficient, electricity, gas and water needs a significant tax that goes into some type of continuing energy conservation program.  As Americans, we waste A LOT.  We have a LOT of headroom to conserve if taxed before it really hits our pocketbook.

Boniva, Fosamax or....strength training?!?

I remember vividly in my vertebrate morphology class looking at cross sections of leg bones that were put under regular stress (load bearing) and unstressed.  The bones that underwent load bearing activity on a frequent basis (strength training) were SIGNIFICANTLY more dense and strong. 

Unfortunately with medicine and marketing, humans prefer to take the easy way out, relying on pills to cure their preventable ills...and more often than not, in the long run that crutch is worse than not using the crutch at all.  Medicine to treat lifestyle preventable diseases is just such a crutch...it really doesn't improve your standard of living...it's just another band-aid holding your body together.  To ultimately improve your health, it's diet, exercise (strength training).  Those two things.  So simple.  So proven. 

I will tell you one thing, at 37, I'm one of the very few dads that can play freezetag (as the freezer) with a bunch of elementary school kids for an hour.  I want to play with my kids up until they graduate and beyond...daddy chasing them puts such a smile on their faces.

LAST FEW DAYS AT BT:

Mike and I discussed the Iphone app pace bug and what to do about it.

I have mainly been finishing migrating the new site project to Trello.  I have been creating a lot more screenshots to cover the pages we didn't have the designer code.  Also, I have had to give serious thoughts to the way several processes work on our Races, Gear Review and Equipment Tracker pages - need to make things a LOT more efficient so a very specific interface that can be used for all 3 needs to work...I think I created a perfect solution.

All of this is from a self-imposed deadline. Mike and I plan to meet early next week to discuss the new live html/css and the flow/processes within pages.  Then the 'Big 4' will plan to discuss coding and project delegation late next week so coding can finally begin!!!  YAY!  What a lengthy and meticulous process this has been so far.

Interesting post in the forums today regarding a young kid running and the handling of the situation.  I will not comment on the way the situation was handled, I wasn't there, who am I to judge?  But I think, as endurance athletes, we have to step back.  We think 0.5 miles is nothing...not even a warmup, but to a kid in elementary school...it is a lot if you are running it the whole time. 

Case in point, my 3rd grader has taken an interest to track sports thanks to Sonic.  His brothers new middle school has a full track field.  Now my son loves to run.  He can't sit still (a la dad).  He walks or runs around the house.  He runs outside.  We have been taking him to the track field once every week or two.  He has a blast...no pressure.  He does the long jump and he goes around the track (400m...1/4 mile) once everytime.  The first time around he didn't pace himself...he was whipped at the end.  Second time we went, he went out slower.  Still tired when done.  That was only 1/4 of a mile.  This kid in the forums ran 0.5 miles.  Of course she was 'done.' 

The way kids play is like a '50 yard dash'.  It's quick.  It's fast.  Then you rest and do it again.  That is the way games are played (tag, kickball, soccer, etc).  Kids aren't used to distance - even 1/4 of a mile.  Kids can't effortlessly put 8-50 yard dashes together without rest even if they pace.  They are just not used to it.  Her lasting 0.5 miles is a good job I think.  Though I wouldn't have come to this conclusion if my kid wasn't recently 'trying' the 1/4mile track.

Don't think your young kids can or should hang with you.  Even us 'older' triathletes have been training months to run a solid mile...we can't expect our kids to do it automatically just because 'that is what they do - run and play'.