As those who know me are aware often to their cost I am useless at technology. Don’t understand and don’t really want to.
I’m more after things that do tasks.
Latest challenge. I’m getting more and more people from the political, blog and cycling worlds who are interested in following the Taupo race between me and Nikki Kaye live. I won’t do the ritual thing about how it will need to be long range to measure distance that I am behind etc.
Obviously I’ve seen the Tour de France stuff that sends back heart rate and a pile of other details – don’t want that because we don’t want to give medical people worries.
Does anyone know of system or blackberry application or something that we could both carry (must be tiny) that could send back signals so some person can set up a website google map or something so people can follow?
I suppose we are looking for and individual or a firm with a product that they want to either test or show off.
If you can get that up and running, I’ll watch. Be sure to post it on youtube afterwards.
Maybe with some dubbed over commentary.
Not sure people will want 5 1/2 hours of our post dubbed comments Spud. I know Nikki speaks a bit like Castro sometimes but not sure it would be that entertaining.
LOL
Then plan B, let’s edit it down and make a music video about the mighty Trevor vs Nikki…
http://www.mapmytracks.com might be what you’re looking for…
What a fascinating idea Mr Mallard and it is heartening to see MPs take physical fitness seriously.
I do wonder about your false modesty about your cycling abilities however. A recent photo of you published on this website shows that you are extremely fit. Despite the age advantage that Ms Kaye has, I don’t think you will be an easy beat at all.
Hello Tim
Does that mean that you are ready to put some money on Trevor? Is there someone running a book?
Nikki Kaye has to be the favourite on this course, but I certainly agree with you that Trevor will bring his training and shear willpower into play.
Go Trevor.
Wow Rakaia George – mapmytracks would be good in my daughters cellphone, might have to install it on the sly. hahahaha
[...] This post was Twitted by TopTourDeFrance [...]
Hi Sean,
While Ms Kaye is obviously a pretty tough competitor and a bit of an athlete from all reports, she’s not a cycling professional. I wouldn’t be putting money on her to beat Mr Mallard.
It might be good if ipredict could run a stock on this.
And I’m no professional either as my 5.32 – 6.21 round Taupo times show Tim. Nearly twice her age so no great surprise.
FYI
There seems to be conflicting evidence on the effects of exercise on telomere length (a marker of ageing). For some people, telomeres appear to shorten dramatically, presumably due to the stress on cells to repair damage caused by exercise. For other people, however, telomeres actually seem to get longer with exercise. The medical community say that exercise is good, and this message is constant and clear. But if some people age prematurely as a result of exercise, doesn’t it make sense to know why? If we can identify those people whom it will hurt, we can tell them not to exercise.
See: Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2009 Sep 17
I suggested to the Minister of Health that we should all have access to telomere length testing as a routine medical test. This is at least as important (and probably more) than knowing your blood pressure. Wouldn’t you like to know, by doing baseline and continuing tests, whether exercise was helping you or prematurely ageing you? I would. There is a growing body of medical studies showing what we can do to keep our telomeres healthy and long, including lowering stress and having adequate levels of vitamin D.
This stuff is wildly important. The people who worked on telomeres and discovered telomerase (makes them longer again) got the Nobel Prize for Medicine this year. And there is a company in the US that has been selling a substance that activates telomerase since 2007. They started out charging US$25,000 for a year, but it has dropped down to US$14,000.
http://www.tasciences.com
It would be great if Labour would support free telomere tests and research in this area. I would love to know average telomere lengths for different ethnic groups, by SES, diet, education level, and so on. We should have a complete profile of telomere status for the entire country.
If you are interested in other information about telomerase/telomeres, I run a blog on the topic.
One of my latest posts is on a study that showed people with mood disorders (depression/bipolar) have shorter telomeres equivalent to 10 years of ageing. As if people with these illnesses didn’t have enough problems.
It was reported some time ago that poor people have shorter telomeres than rich people.
http://www.telomerase.org/
I’ve always wondered about telomeres and exercise. I know that with ME exercise can make the person much worse, but with Fibromyalgia it can be beneficial, if not overdone. Thanks for the info