Category: health & fitness

sick in Sagada

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, travel1 Comment

I had an upset stomach for a few days. (Not Dengue — rather traveler’s diarrhea.)

If you have to be sick, you might as well be sick in paradise.

This is Sagada. (pop. 10,930)

Boys playing basketball, girls volleyball. Christmas carols boom from the Church. A little girl plays with a kitten. Very domestic. Very rural.

In these limestone mountains almost anything will grow: cabbage, tomatoes, green pepper, potatoes, carrots, beans, and other temperate products. Coffee. Citrus, mainly lemon, lime and Valencia oranges. Strawberries and apples.

This is the coldest place in the Philippines. But I’d still call it tropical. There are exotic flowers and flowering trees everywhere.

Formerly a hippie hangout, the tourists here right now are an older, savvy crowd. French, German, Polish, Australian. I met one other Canadian. There are a number of excellent restaurants, a legacy from the hippie days.

Yoghurt House - Rosti and yoghurt

Even with my bad stomach, I got out once or twice a day for hiking and jogging.

… Departing Sagada, it feels like I’m finally starting my trip home for Christmas. Home is Parksville, B.C., this year.

carbon emissions rose 5.9% in 2010

On By Rick McIn government, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Bad news for Mother Earth:

… Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery. …

NYTimes – Carbon Emissions Show Biggest Jump Ever Recorded

Surprisingly, China is suddenly ready to commit to binding cuts.

… Speaking to reporters Monday, the country’s chief negotiator in Durban, Xie Zhenhua, said major economies including China should be legally obligated to curb greenhouse gas emissions after 2020.

“We accept a legally binding arrangement,” he said.

Mr. Xie, however, said China would agree to binding cuts only if the U.S. and other powerful nations take aggressive steps in the next decade to address climate change …

Chinese Overture Jolts Climate Talks

I heard the same thing in Hong Kong from a consultant to the Chinese government — they are serious.

Personally, I think, even with China on side, international treaties are not going to work. We’d be better to put the money into researching new technologies to remove Greenhouse Gases from the atmosphere (“sinks”).

In general, voluntary efforts to reduce Carbon Footprint are a good thing. Let’s encourage those efforts, too.

(via Freakonomics – Worldwide Carbon Emissions No Longer Dropping — Is Anyone Surprised?)

not Kiteboarding …

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

After our week long gymnastics coaching clinic in Manila, I flew down to Boracay for some R&R.

Bulabog Beach is the main windsurfing and kiteboarding area, one of the best in the world.

kiteboarding superstar Susi Mai

Kiteboarding (or kitesurfing) has been described as combining wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport. …

There were 50 kites out for every Windsurfer today.

Click PLAY or see how it looks from above on YouTube.

A one day introductory course costs about a hundred dollars in Boracay. Know that you can easily drown, tangle, collide or be blown into palm trees in one of those flimsy rigs.

I’ll jog the beach instead. 🙂

Rex Murphy Defending Canada’s Oil Sands

On By Rick McIn climate change, economics, government, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Canada’s Oil Sands could be better regulated, certainly, but using them to symbolize evil is disingenuous at best.

I agree with the outspoken Rex.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

What percentage of delegates in Durban would I call hypocrites? … More than half, I reckon.

(via CBC)

the end of global warming?

On By Rick McIn economics, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Climate change continues.

The endless cycles of Earth’s warming and cooling.

Has man or cow accelerated the rate of warming? … I’m not sure.

But I am sure that man nor cow will be doing much to reverse that damage any time soon.

An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal explains why not much is going to be decided in Durban, South Africa next week:

The Great Global Warming Fizzle

… On Sunday, 2,232 days will have elapsed since a category 3 hurricane made landfall in the U.S., the longest period in more than a century that the U.S. has been spared a devastating storm. …

obese Idaho

On By Rick McIn health & fitnessLeave a comment

Hanging around an expensive ski resort in Kellogg for a week, I couldn’t help but notice that many of the redneck bubbas look like this guy.

That surprised me.

I assumed that obesity in America was still mostly southeast, in poor and ethnic populations.

Mississippi fat, Colorado and the Pacific northwest lean.

Is the map wrong?

Treehugger – You Are Where You Eat: Obesity Maps of North America

Yet the men I see here at Silver Mountain Resort, a mountain biking mecca, are affluent and white.

The men of Kellogg could certainly declare: “In your face, Springfield!”

There are old men. And fat men. But very few old, fat men.

Expedition Idaho Race VIDEO

On By Rick McIn cycling, health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

Here’s a terrific short video showing what a week long Adventure Race is like. Top teams sleep only 2-4hrs a day on average.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

All 13 teams made it to the finish. They bike a “victory lap” (3-5hrs) up a mountain to finish at the Booze and Blues fest (PDF) in Kellogg Idaho.

expeditionidahorace.com

Expedition Idaho Race

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, hiking1 Comment

I’m down in Kellogg, Idaho volunteering for a week long Adventure Race.

Here are racers from around the world, still clean and happy at the START …

They’ll race from Sunday 10am until the following Saturday night, finishing at a Blues and Beer Fest. Nearly a full week on bike, paddle and feet.

Check out our website. (I’m working on the BLOG portion.)