The Road (a multi-sport blog)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Road [A Multi-Sport Blog], by Patrick Mahoney

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.theroadmultisport.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: 41 year old husband, father, friend to some, in the midst of unfortunate misunderstandings with others. In 2007 I started a journey to regain my fitness. In 2009 I started participating in triathlons. I have not looked back, not even once. The Road is my daily story and is just as much a part of my training and preparedness as a long bike ride or an interval workout.

MY REVIEW: This blog focuses not only on triathletes and their sports, but also in how to get fit, and parenting. Highly recommended!

Sample post

Man, what a weekend. I had a great ride on Saturday and a great run today. And the frosting on the cake is that Oregon is in the BCS National Championship.

Saturday morning I headed out with OC Velo on a 60 mile ride from Huntington Beach, down to Lake Forest and back through Shady Canyon in Irvine and Newport Coast in Newport Beach. It was an epic ride, being that it was slightly warmer than last weekend and there was more climbing than usual. The coastal range around here isn't too high, but if you cross over it a few times you can get some good climbing in - we did about 2300 feet. I don't live for climbing, but I'm starting to enjoy it more than I used to. Plus after every uphill there is a downhill, so there is always some sort of payoff in the end.

I had to take Ian to a birthday party Saturday afternoon so I texted all my Oregon Ducks loving friends and told them I was in a sports news lockdown until I had a chance to watch the game on the DVR. I didn't get to it until about 9 last night, but I was still (thankfully) in the dark about it. The game was a pretty good, actually great at times, and the end result was that Oregon won. For that I am happy.

This morning I went for a 7.6 mile run in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. I've fallen into this pattern on Sundays where I'll rotate a 7-8 mile trail run one week with a 10 + road run on the other. Unlike two weeks ago, when I ran this route for Black Knight's Virtual 10K, the winds where calm and the trails where dry. I even stumbled upon a quarter mile spur path I had never found before, so I checked that out as well. No snakes, plenty of rabbits. Just the way I like it.

I then took Ian to an arcade called "Nickel Nickel" for a few hours so Mary could Christmas Shop. This place is a total dump filled with games that are all at least 10 years old. But everything is five cents and we made $7 last an hour and a half. It's also conveniently located next to Surf City Cyclery. I've been meaning to buy a new saddle wedge bag since the one I have is terrible, so I picked up a Fi'zi:k bag that has a special clip system that integrates with their saddles. Way better than straps.

Finally, I don't want to become known as the boy who cried wolf, but there are some things cooking with Endurance Athlete Project that might be cool and that I might be able to talk about later in the week or early next. This means I might be a little scarce on the blog posting side for the week, but I'm going to do my best on the blog reading side.

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

RECENT POSTS:
--I'm Dreaming About You Guys Now
--Kick A** Weekend
--November in Review & A Reunion.
--Make Believe


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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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Aviation.ca (Aviation in Canada)

REVIEWED BY:

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Aviation.ca

WEB ADDRESS: http://aviation.ca

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Canadian Aviation News and Information.

MY REVIEW: I enjoyed this blog, and I think all aviation enthusiasts will, regardless of whether they are based in the US or not. It seems to be more about commercial aviation rather than general aviation, however, but frankly, anything that affects Canada will sooner or later affect US aviation as well, so its as well to keep up with commercial aviation there, as well as here.

This is another blog that is starting out at $1.99, but will go down in price as more and more people subscribe to it. (I repeat again, Kindle sure has a weird way of pricing blogs!)

Some sample paragraphs:

OTTAWA - "It's unacceptable that air travelers be asked to foot the bill for national security." This is how John McKenna, President and CEO of the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) reacted to yesterday's announcement by Transport Minister John Baird on the increase in the Air Travelers' Security Charge (ATSC).

The ATSC was a tax levied in late 2001 to fund the newly created Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. This tax was imposed on passengers departing from any one of the 89 designated airports in Canada. The increases announced amount to greater than 50% increases in the ATSC. The security charge for a round trip domestic flight was $9.80 and will jump to $14.96, or a 53% increase. The ATSC for one-way transborder flights (flights to the continental US) will go from $8.34 to $12.71 (or $25.42 for a round trip flight), a 52% increase, and the charge for an international flight will go from $17.00 to $25.91, a 52% increase. "This is totally unacceptable, especially at a time when the air transport industry and its consumers are still struggling with the sluggish economy," declared Mr. McKenna.

According to a study conducted in 2008 by ATAC, Canada's ATSC was already the second highest in the world, only the Netherlands had higher security charges. "We are seriously beginning to doubt the efficiency of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) if it requires the highest security charge in the world in order to makes ends meet", continued Mr. McKenna.

ATAC opposes the fact that the travelling public is asked to pay for national security. "No other mode of transport is shouldered with national security costs, why should air transport be different? We don't know how much the government collects with the ATSC and we demand more transparency on how this money is used. "We are certainly very interested in the efficiency review of CATSA to be launched by the Government of Canada," concluded John McKenna.

RECENT ARTICLES:
-The (retired) first eye in the sky
-ATAC opposes 50% increases in air Travelers' Security Charge
-Airports Pledge to Participate in CATSA Review
-Airlines eager for full review of aviation security
-Discovery Air's Top Aces Type 2 Combat Support Standing Offers Option Year
-Aeroplan Signs A Sweet Partnership With Nestle

Six Sports Blogs

From now on, at least one entry per day (of the two I intend to make) will be devoted to one of the ten categories into which the blogs at Amazon/Kindle are divided. The other entry will be on one or two blogs that catch my fancy.

So, let's start with six sports blogs. I had hoped to find some that talked about the Olympics or Olympics sports - but could find none. (Mostly what's on offer are baseball, football and basketball blogs - and I'll be reviewing them all, eventually.)

1. Girly Fitness NO
2. Motorcycle-Intelligence.com NO
3. Podium Café YES
4. The Prep Beat MAYBE
5. Running Blog (LogThtRun.com) NO
6. Surviving Grady NO

Girly Fitness. Women's fitness advice and tips. Women's nutrition & workouts
Well, first off I hate the title. “Girly fitness.” Please. Girl’s Fitness or Women’s Fitness. But “girly”? Sounds kind of pejorative to me. The posts may be of value, but unfortunately the blog has not been updated since October 29, 2009. And it’s not the Kindle, because I double-checked their website, and its moribund there, as well. girlyfitness.com.


Motorcycle-Intelligence.com . Motorcycle-Intelligence.com is a popular motorcycle blog about bikes, gear, destinations, and rider safety. Heck, some of the comments alone are worth the price of admission! ;-).

I have to give this a no because the interface is unsuitable for Kindle. At the original blog (and you see the website URL in their title) the title is a hotlink, and below that is the first paragraph of the article. If you want to read more, you click on the title and are taken to the complete text. Not so on the Kindle. The title is not linked to anything, so all you get is a useless first paragraph of an article that goes on for pages and pages. I know there’s software that allows the entire entry to be viewed on a Kindle – Podium café uses it, as does The Hermitage (green living) which I reviewed a couple of days ago, but this one doesn’t.

I left them a comment on their blog, so perhaps they’ll fix the problem.


Podium Cafe. Podium Café provides news and updates of the latest cycling stories. This blog is for cyclists and cycling enthusiasts, and provides valuable advice in addition to the latest event recaps.

They are still road racing right now in Europe! In winter. Who knew? If you’re a bicycling enthusiast – from road racing to cyclocross (and I was delighted to see the author of the blog was featuring both men and women – he has a profile of cyclocross rider Amy Dombrowksi who is touted to be of champion caliber, for one thing) you will enjoy this blog. www.podiumcafe.com/ to see their home.

The Prep Beat. News updates on area high schools, including North Kitsap, Central Kitsap, Olympic, Bremerton, South Kitsap, Bainbridge and North Mason high schools. By Sun sports staff writers Chuck Stark, Jeff Graham, Annette Griffus and Nathan Joyce. pugetsoundblogs.com/kitsap-preps

I give this blog a MAYBE. If you’re in the area – and I believe the area is around Puget Sound, Washington, you’ll be interested in this material, so it deserves a YES. (They cover both boys and girls sports, which is refreshing.) But if you’re elsewhere, I don’t think the same interest applies. So, we’ll compromise with a maybe.

Running Blog. Running blog that covers running tips, hints and more. As well as covering information on upcoming races, running news, info about changes to our website's running log and other related information in a runner's world.

This is a blog attached to a commercial site that sells a computer program to help runners log their run. It’s at LogthatRun.com.

Unfortunately, they update it about once a month. This would not necessarily be a bad thing, if they updated it with information about running, as they promise in their blog description. But instead, its just updates to their program. So, not worth bothering with, I don’t think. I’ll keep an eye on it, and if they start proving other material on a regular basis, I’ll report it here.

Surviving Grady. Like most Red Sox fans, we were sick after Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. Couldn't sleep. Didn't want to eat. Listened for hour after hour as fans lambasted Grady and dissected the game on sports radio. Watched with some sense of satisfaction as the Marlins celebrated on the Yankees' turf. But it couldn't keep us from thinking that it should have been us. Spiraling, we caught our breath and decided to channel our energies into something positive. No more punching walls, throwing beer cans or threatening the kids when the Sox dropped a game. No, we'd start a weblog! A place to vent our frustrations and slather our joys as the Sox, restocked and reloaded, make their way through the 2004 schedule in a bold attempt to right the wrongs of last season, set the universe back on its proper axis, and stuff a bat up Steinbrenner's south 40.

I give these guys a no, for a simple reason. They actually would have been willing to accept Manny Ramirez back in the clubhouse, had he chosen to leave the Dodgers this trading season. They actually hoped it would happen!

They are clearly insane. (Also, from their website: survivinggrady.com - it appears they may be having to move hosts soon, so one wonders if their Kindle feed will continue unabated. If not…no loss! Manny Ramirez back in a Red Sox uniform – gag me with a spoon!