Here's an end of year fundraising idea for those with a birthday in the next few weeks: birthday causes on Facebook. Charity, my lovely wife and OrganicAthlete superstar volunteer, has chosen OA as her cause for her 28th birthday.
After sending out the latest OrganicAthlete eNews, a reader commented, "...I think it would be wise to keep politics out of the discussion and stay focused on veganism, athletics, and health..."
Justin convinced everyone at the OATC that we should do a naked pumpkin run. Andy, Jane, and Sherri joined the OATC crew of Charity, Justin, Kevin, and myself through the streets of Sebastopol. According to Justin, we ran further than most pumpkin runs, but what do you expect from a group of OrganicAthletes?
Natasha, our board treasurer, came up to the OATC today to work on our books. Coding our income is rather tedious at the moment. The income come from multiple sources mostly via one payment processor, and the deposits don't match with the daily batches. When you have merchandise sales, event fees, membership dues, and donations all mixed in one deposit, there's no telling where it all came from. We did the best we could to sort it out.
Justin did his first cyclocross race of the season today in San Francisco. He looked hammered afterwards. Justin Lucke and I rode up from Redwood City to watch the JT. We arrived just in time to watch him go by once.
Zirin reminded me of important event that happened on this date 40 years ago. Fists for freedom.
Kenneth Williams called me today, and I'm thinking biceps for freedom. The dude is going to champ Natural Olympia, November 8th in San Francisco. Is anyone going to watch with me?
Justin did not drown tonight. That's good. We had a big meeting with the OA "staff" today to prioritize and plan and think about the future of OA. I think the outcome of that meeting will be fruitful.
Why wait till Spring for a cleaning? Clean out your closets and garage now! And donate that stuff to OrganicAthlete. As part of our year end fundraising campaign, OrganicAthlete is having an auction.
Our goal is to raise $15,000 by the end of the year, and we'll need every donated item we can get to reach our goal.
I set a personal best today: 39:10 for 10k. I had to dig deep. As I've been reading Handbook for Humans by Jim Sloman, it occurred to me that running can be crucible for mindfulness. It is an opportunity to sit with the mind. At three miles into today's race, pain howled through my mind. I tried to sit with it, be at peace with the suffering. But judgements kept coming.
OrganicAthlete is starting a major fundraising campaign for the end of the year. You'll probably be getting an email about it soon. You can jumpstart the campaign by making a donation.
What do you think of the new menus on the website?
Each month we will send an email to OA members asking them to respond to a simple question or theme. They can write a short story of 200-500 words, create an image essay, or post a video blog of 5 minutes of less.
OrganicAthlete will be leading fitness activities during the World Veg Festival Weekend in San Francisco.
On Saturday, October 4th join us at 11 am for a Run, Jog or Walk through Golden Gate Park. All abilities are encouraged to attend.
On Sunday, October 5th bring your bicycle (and a helmet!) at Noon for a two-wheeled excursion through Golden Gate Park and the surrounding areas. Any working bicycle will do, as long as you bring along a helmet and a smile.
Each month we will send an email to OA members asking them to respond to a simple question or theme. They can write a short story of 200-500 words, create an image essay, or post a video blog of 5 minutes of less.
Rules: all entries must be posted to the member's blog at OrganicAthlete.org. Entries must be tagged with the theme of the month. For example, if the theme is organic, you must tag your entry with "organic." Entries are due by the end of each month.
In an article in last weeks' New York Times, Gina Kolata discusses the idea that athletes need special protein and carohydrate mixtures for optimal recovery. If you've been in endurance sports long, you've heard of the magic 4:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein. It's true one needs carbohydrates and protein, but "as so often happens in sports, those grains of truth have been expanded into dictums and have formed the basis for an industry in 'recovery' products."
Our Sonoma County chapter organized the 4th annual Tour d'Organics in Sebastopol this past weekend. Over 1000 cyclist participated. I'll get a more in depth report later, but for now suffice it say that it was awesome.
We have a new saying at the OATC - "WWB$D?" or "What Would Brett Dollar Do?" Brett, OrganicAthlete's first intern, left yesterday. We were sad, but she left a legacy known as the House of Pain. Brett, you'll be glad to know that all 4 of us were out on the lawn tonight for 11 minutes of core workout hell. We miss you.
11 Minute Recipe for the H.O.P. ( 1 minute per movement):
The Tour d'Organics preparations are well underway. Today we made the dried fruit mix (all 125lbs of it!).
I'm astounded at the amount of donations we've received this year. We have other 30 donors of food and product for the event. It's a lot to manage, but the show of support is wonderful.
We're looking forward to having everyone out this weekend.
The entire OATC staff went on a ride today. Brett, Justin, Charity, and I went on Charity's weekly "low key" ride. She decided that Covey Road meant low key to us.
I remember the last hot dog I ate. I barfed afterwards.
Having been vegan now for going on 6 years, I sometimes wonder why it took me so long to give up eating dead animal flesh. I know why. Meat embodies the values of the consumer culture I grew up in. As much I like to think I'm a nonconformist and free thinker, when it came to meat, I was with the in crowd.
"If they don't believe us now, will they ever believe us?"
I went vegan after hearing Morrissey sing "Meat is Murder" at a concert six years ago. In this interview, you can tell he's still quite passionate about vegetarianism.
Unfortunately, I found an endless stream of Morrissey videos on youtube. Now after all this time, the boy with the thorn in his side should really get out and train. Or least work in the garden.
Bradley and I arrived at lovely Rancho Seco Park (located immediately next to a nuclear power plant) early Saturday morning after spending the night at a heavily populated, noisy, windy campground somewhere along the way. As we registered for the 3 mile run/16 mile bike/3 mile run duathlon event there were a bunch of people scurrying around in wetsuits and ridiculous rubber hats, so I guess there was a triathlon, too.
Rules: You can write a short story of 200-500 words, create an image essay, or post a video blog of 5 minutes of less. All entries must be posted to the member's blog at OrganicAthlete.org. Entries must be tagged with the theme of the month. For example, if the theme is organic, you must tag your entry with "organic." Entries are due by the end of the month.
The OrganicAthlete staff will pick their favorite entry, and the winner will receive an OrganicAthlete longsleeve tshirt and a pair of socks.
As I've been spending more time in the garden lately due to my injury, I've been asking myself if I'm spending my time wisely. This video made me think even more about how to spend my time and gave me an even greater vision for what the OrganicAthlete Training Center can be.
Though many categories were ultimately cancelled due to rain and slippery road conditions, downtown Baker City had plenty of racing action last Saturday afternoon. Check it out.
Join us on July 17th in Alameda, CA and enjoy the musical stylings of Chris Lods, gourmet raw vegan hors d'oeuvres, a banana ice cream sundae bar, and much more!
Live food. Live music. Dead sexy.
Visit organicathlete.org/tuttifruitti for tickets ($25 members/$35 non-members)
In addition to all his work supporting the OA racers (along with Justin and Shannon), Bradley shot tons of awesome video footage at Elkhorn. Here's a recap of the first day's road race.
Two weekends ago Dave Glick raced at the Nevada City Criterium, with Bradley and Justin serving as his personal support crew. He managed an 11th place finish against some tough competition. Check out the video...
Look for some video recaps from Elkhorn, coming soon.
day 2 of driving back from Elkhorn, and OA1 has been giving us trouble. shut off once last night, and it started making funny sounds too. there's oil everywhere.
two shops and no one can fix it. we're heading for home with fingers crossed. currently in Redding, CA. Send help if this is the last blog you here from us.
This article on ESPN 2 about vegan athletes had good quotes by Tony Gonzales, Mac Danzig, Pat Nashek, and Scott Jurek. I found Tony Gonzales' story the most interesting. Football is one of those sports where you just don't think you'll find many vegan athletes.
Join us for our final part of the series for a visit to the Farmer's Market, followed by a food preparation class. Learn how to pick the best produce and how to cook it. You already know how to eat it! 3 hour class includes lunch. Limited space available for this class. Please email us to reserve a spot.
Tired of pills, potions, and powders? Don't be because you don't need them. This 1 hour seminar will cover how to all the fuel and nutrition you need to thrive from whole foods.
So where do you get protein? In this talk, we'll uncover how politics, money, and misinformation have misled the American public on the importance of protein in one's diet. It's not as important as you might think!
Meet at the West County Revolution Bike Shop at 7pm for this informative talk.
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