Can't wait to write - this weekend: Athens

Tomorrow I go home. I've had a great time this week in Athens, Greece. I was here for a conference and learned all kinds of useful things. Anyway, I'm looking forward to telling you about this adventure and posting pictures and some video (maybe) of Obama-mania in a little Greek restaurant.

We can work it out/We can work it out

My friend Jennifer and I are having a great discussion about reproductive health policy and abortion on facebook (of all places). You should weigh in on if we're on the right track.

Jennifer and I met at mile 6 of the run of a half Ironman triathlon we did last year. We pledged to get through the last part together and we did. Thanks in part to Jen, I have half of an Ironman tattoo - just kidding. For the last 7 miles of the race, we challenged one another and respected what the other could do. It's no wonder we're bringing the challenging and respecting to an idealistic policy discussion on facebook. So far, so good.

Here is our discussion so far - we started the discussion while watching this last presidential debate. I'll look forward to your comments.

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C: I'd rather have my rights as a human being than your courage and compassion, McCain.

J: We disagree on this one. can we still be friends?

C: Definitely - I think so. I bet we both agree that an abortion is a painful medical procedure that women would probably rather not have, right? That's a start!

J: I agree too. obama definitely answered this question well.

C: They can answer the questions well or not well. Bottom line - neither of them will ever birth a child or have an abortion. What we're talking about as women I think is more important. I think the next thing we have to talk about is education about reproduction and birth control options. What is your position on sex ed and birth control? Or, do you know of a better solution?

J: Agree that we need better, more complete education. abstinence needs to be part of a larger program that includes condoms and birth control. i also don't think a women enters into the choice to have an abortion lightly.
However, if i found out i was pregnant, it would be a child from that moment ... i can't reconcile that thinking and say it doesn't apply to someone else. to me, it's a child from conception.

C: (wouldn't it be awesome if we hashed this out and got to a real and defined common ground on facebook?! I think we only have about 4.5 miles (of 13.1) to go...)

J: LOL. agree!!! frankly, i think we have more sense than either candidate or most politicians.

maybe that's the answer ... political decisions have to be discussed while competing in a half ironman.

C: Exactly - if we had known at mile 6, we could have solved the world's problems!

J: I think it's a critical program in poor socioeconomic communities. but like mccain said, i don't think spending more money is the answer. i think we have funds but we've so mismanaged them that we're not focused on the right things. (to me, addressing abortion, racial and educational discrepancies, etc. starts with socioeconomic - that's the root cause.) so while i agree, in combination with any social program we can't diminish the importance of insisting on personal accountability.

C: Also, I think any answer needs to respect your and my right to believe what we believe to be the truth about life and conception.

J: Totally think that's right. we have to be able to talk about things candidly and respectfully.

C: One thing about a program such as that one is that the cost can be paid for by the savings we'd see from having programs like Medicaid cover the OBGYN costs from unintended pregnancies of uninsured and underinsured women.
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T-19

Yikes - wrong blog. This is the blog I use to track workouts.
T-19
W=W-5
A=All over the map! I posted 11 days ago and so much has happened since then.

I went to Taipei for a long weekend (well, I was there for the day, but it took a long weekend to get there). I returned last Monday, and got back to rowing on Tuesday. Tuesday morning was an eventful for me and my 1x - I almost hit a buoy and fell out of my boat into the Mississippi river. Though it wasn't cold (temp that day = 69.7F), it was dark - nearly pitch black - and I was pretty scared and surprised. I had been working pretty hard, so to go from working hard/heart rate up to not working hard/treading water was a serious shock to the system. Getting into my boat was kind of hard, but I was very lucky to have my coach there to help fish me out of the river. As a week has passed, strange bruises keep surfacing everywhere - or maybe I didn't notice them at first. I rowed on Wednesday and Thursday last week, as well.

As for the erg challenge, I'm 15.6k in. Erging at home has proven to be a great excuse for watching tv and I admit that is not the power combination that I'd like it to be. I've been doing my erging in 1k increments while the show is on. The remainder of the show's segment (prior to commercial) is the time I've used to fold laundry. At commercial, there are other things that can be done around the house (loading dishwasher, cleaning something...) This worked last week while Rob was gone, but I don't think having the television sound up and erging mixed with maniacally rushing around for 2 minute spurts will be anything he'd like to get used to.

I'm very excited - the Head of the Mississippi is this weekend, and I am planning to race my 1x. I'll probably be in other races, too, but am not sure yet which
ones. I'm planning to practice every day this week - this morning I did two long-ish pieces in a double. The first was at around a 22 spm rating at 2/3 pressure.
Heading downriver, we did a 2/3, 3/4, full pressure piece at a 24/26/28 spm rating. All in all a great row.