Getting to know....... Kurt Godel

nerraw1111

Kurt Godel wrote: »

The reason being, when I worked in NY, for a time I was employed in the studio of an artist called Jeff Koons,

Wow. Screw your swim times

I was at the Guggenheim last month and his stuff is all over the place.

Kurt Godel

El Director wrote: »

Hi Kurt,

What impressed you so much about Kurt Godel to honor him by naming your alias after him?

What is your favourite running shoe?

Mac or PC?

Tea or coffee?

Crisps or chocolate?

Snowboarding/Skiing or sun holiday?

ITU racing or IM racing?

Kurt Godel was one of the most influential thinkers in all history. He managed to prove that proof can't be proved- I know that sounds like a contradiction, but when read (and understood) through the formal language of Mathematics, its pretty mind-blowing. Several mathematicians have described their comprehension of his incompleteness theorem as being a mystical experience, and I'd agree with that. Godel-Escher-Bach is a good intro read into the concepts of recursion, metasystems, formal language, and its also a lot of fun.

Favourite shoe is NB Minimus- moving to these minimal shoes healed my knees, and made me run again pain-free. They can be a little unforgiving if running over hard stones on trail, but of tarmac they are great. They're a bitch to get on though, so useless for Tri races! I've found it very difficult to get minimal shoes that will slide on quickly in trans.

Mac/coffee/crisps/sun

I'll be honest and say I haven't watched enough races to give much of an opinion- but I'm not a huge fan of seeing good swimmers get eaten up by the peleton, so I'll say IM.

Kurt Godel

mossym wrote: »

what's been your biggest "ah sod this i'm packing in all this exercise cr*p" and what brought you back to the light?

I was flying down a hill during a race once, just passed at guy at speed, and I heard a sound like a tennis ball being hit- I had popped my calf and hit the dirt. The next year was a washout, many times I felt like throwing in the towel. In fact, I used to get a lot of long-term injuries from running, so doing Tri (joining the pool at first) brought me back. I'm currently holding a bad achilles, so that means no running, but I can do a load of pool and bike work without issue.

peter kern wrote: »

how is the little pool doing
how much work is it to maintain
are you still using it ?

The little pool has been packed away for the last month:) It will come out again next year- really it needs to run the filter and chlorinator for a couple of hours a day to keep algae away. It was fantastic to have, and I found it very useful for stroke corrections. There is no flow of water going under you, so you need to work harder to keep the legs high- that means getting a good catch and pull, and kicking harder than usual. I will certainly use it again next year, although I'll also complement it with pool/OW work.
I don't know how swim coaches feel about using them, but I reckon the tether should be part of any serious Triathletes swim kit. Personally I find it more useful than even a pull bouy, for stroke correction.

joey100 wrote: »

If money were no object what gear would you be using??

Money no object like I won the lottery: I'd build an indoor 25m pool.
Money no object like I have a couple of grand to spare: Probably a PM
Money no object like I had a spare €100: Garmin Swim, I regret selling the one I had.

Oryx

If you could go back in time and change one decision youve made, what would it be?

Kurt Godel

Liv Magnificent Baker wrote: »

Where do you buy your stripey socks?

Are you secretly glad you are pacing Dublin or terrified?

How many glasses of red is just about right before a pacing gig, leaving last year aside?

Do you still paint for money on the side?

Are you any good at painting and what do you specialise in? Any good at family portraits?

Stripey socks were an Xmas pressie from the MIL. Class:cool:

I'm down for pacing 4:30, only because we've used up all our other subs and can't get anyone else regged at this late stage. I did a hilly 18miler off little run training a few weeks back and felt good at the end, but my achilles has been at me the past few weeks. I'll start off anyway, if the heel starts to hurt there's no point in a long-term injury, so I'll pull out. If we had another sub I'd not choose to run, but it will be ok on the day, its a slow jogging pace. It's good fun pacing, you get to experience the crowds etc without much effort.

A couple of glasses with a good meal. An Irish couple.

I haven't painted in a few years. Prior to that I did portraits. I will get back into this again soon.

mloc123 wrote: »

All this talk of maths... I assume is related to your job? What do you work at?

Personal financial planning and investments. Mainly low-to-medium risk bonds. Yawnsville:)

blainj2 wrote: »

If you had to fight 1 horse sized duck or 20 duck sized horses which one and why?

Have you ever accidentally punched or kicked anyone in the face during the swim part of a race? If so did you feel bad about it?

Have you progress much from using trainer road, just in terms of stats like FTP? How long have you been using it for?

Whats your view on spending hours in the pool just to shave a few seconds off you swim time? Do you ever wonder if time would be better spent else where?

KFC chicken or supermacs chicken?

Where is the nicest place you have ever traveled to / been on holidays to?

A horse-sized duck would probably collapse under its own weight, so that one:)

I'm sure I've given as good as I've gotten in swim scrums, and I don't ever feel bad one way or the other. It's part and parcel really, if you want to avoid scrums swim wide, ditto if you don't like drafting and risking a kick in the face. A lot of tri guys (IMO) go out too fast, and flatline because of this. Its always a trade-off; you just might go out hard and end on the perfect feet, whereas you're almost guaranteed slow draft if you go out slow.
Having someone draft your side is annoying though, at the DCtri I had a lad punch my ribs with every stroke, for a couple of hundred meters. I should have gone out quicker:)

Don't use trainer road. Sufferfest vids and sweat-o-meter are as technical as I've got on the turbo.

Your swim question is a good one, and one that will be key to my performance next season. I've spent last year working on my weakest discipline, whatever that was at the time. This isn't the optimum way to operate, and I need to refine how I balance training. Personally I prefer exiting the water in a relatively high position, as having guys pass me on the bike is a kick in the ass, and helps up your bike ride.
Last year I hit good pool swim form by April, but sort of let it go over the summer, so I won't let that happen again. Time spent in the pool has other benefits besides just shaving swim seconds off- its solid core work, and can be great for active recovery, both solid benefits for bike and run form.
So to answer your question I think (for me anyway) spending extra time in the pool is worth it, in that getting quick in the water will hopefully make me want to up my game in the bike and run.

I don't eat takeaways.

Saumur in France is a splendid place, I've been a few times and just love it. Its a wine snob paradise, they have miles of underground tunnels mined into the limestone cliffs by the Loire, where they store their wines at optimum 12deg C temperature year round. The visits are a real experience. Fantastic place to bike, too.

Green&Red

What do you do for S&C?

You love maths, do you spend hours pouring over stats from training?

What would your patronus be?

Oryx

Green&Red wrote: »

What would your patronus be?

AWESOME question! :P

tunney

Ever shaved your nads?

pgibbo

This thread is great for getting an insight in to the real people behind these cyber aliases. You're an interesting guy, no doubt about it.

You mentioned trying to go sub 3 in a marathon. How close did you get?
What were your 5k, 10k and HM pbs at the time?
How many hours a week do you typically train?
How much time do you allocate to each of the 3 disciplines over a week?
Is it safe to visit your new log? I avoided your old one last month and still am as I haven't finished watching Breaking Bad yet.

Kurt Godel

Green&Red wrote: »

What do you do for S&C?

You love maths, do you spend hours pouring over stats from training?

What would your patronus be?

s&c?

I don't really apply any metrics or data analysis to my training- if I see from my training log that I'm hitting better times than last week, then things are progressing just fine. I'm at a mid-pack stage where improvement is easily measured- cut down on the booze, run more times a week, increase bike intensity; that sort of thing.
I do read the Science of Sport a bit, and sometimes have a peek at their models and methodology. On a macro level, statistical analysis is very useful for Sport, especially at the high performance end. On the flip side, practically every mainstream article I've read about conclusions from sports analysis has been flawed. This often includes peer-reviewed published work, which often runs with a sexy headline, in the hope print or TV media will pick it up. Its sad to see see so much lazy analysis, and to see how many people lap that up.

Patronus? A squirral, why not, they're pretty cool. And I'd get to live in my tree

tunney wrote: »

Ever shaved your nads?

Jesus, there's "getting to know you...", and then there's this...:eek:
No comment!

pgibbo

s&c == strength & conditioning

Chartsengrafs

Tunney's reason for starting the thread suddenly becomes clear. You could have just asked him straight out, saved yourself the trouble.

Thanks for the answers KG!

catweazle

pgibbo wrote: »

Is it safe to visit your new log? I avoided your old one last month and still am as I haven't finished watching Breaking Bad yet.

I couldn't believe it Gibbo - it was the last place where I thought I would get nailed on the ending. I am hoping with my goldfish like memory I will have forgotten it by the time I get to season 5

Q - Sports people that you admire?
Q - Non Sports people that you admire?
Q - People that you don't like?

2 of each please

tunney

Basster wrote: »

Tunney's reason for starting the thread suddenly becomes clear. You could have just asked him straight out, saved yourself the trouble.

Thanks for the answers KG!

????

tunney

tunney wrote: »

????

Ahhhh my highly inappropriate question, gotta ya!

Remember watching John Bishop as he talked about getting waxed to increase comfort cycling. A friend's wife laughed her head off until he announced he did it for same reasons.

Kurt Godel

pgibbo wrote: »

You mentioned trying to go sub 3 in a marathon. How close did you get?
What were your 5k, 10k and HM pbs at the time?
How many hours a week do you typically train?
How much time do you allocate to each of the 3 disciplines over a week?
Is it safe to visit your new log? I avoided your old one last month and still am as I haven't finished watching Breaking Bad yet.

Ok, on the sub3 marathon attempts... I had run a 3:10, off max 40 miles training, one long run of 16 miles, and felt great doing so. Off that I decided the sub 3 was there for the taking if I put in a disciplined 18-week P&D program. Training went well, although I should have raced more often in retrospect to get markers (my races will hill runs rather than standard road distances). 5k I ran 19:10,19:30,19:10 back to back one night in training, didn't race 10k, ran 1:28 half in training (paced the first half at MP and sped up a bit). On the day (in Rotterdam) I felt great at halfway, bang on, then just overheated and died at 14 mile mark. Pretty much the same thing happened again six months later in Dublin, blew up after 15. After that I just decided marathons weren't for me, its crap to put in a huge amount of effort (I was doing up to 70+ mile weeks) and get no reward.

I've taken about a month off now, but hope to be doing 10+ hours a week over the winter. I think I get more out of intensity rather than volume.

The new log is ultra-boring. Breaking Bad, great show. Who would have thought it was the robot monkey-priest all along?;)

Kurt Godel

pgibbo wrote: »

s&c == strength & conditioning

I've just started Pilates, which is brilliant. I'll continue to do it at home myself a couple of times a week. A strong core means fewer injuries, so I'm told.

catweazle wrote: »

Q - Sports people that you admire?
Q - Non Sports people that you admire?
Q - People that you don't like?

2 of each please

*Sports people that you admire?
Jonathon Edwards- I used do the triple jump when I was younger, and he just took it to another level. Plus, he was principled- he didn't work on the Sabbath so missed out on a WC. Not that I believe in that mumbo-jumbo, but you don't get many people who stick to their principles in sport, its a rare thing and should be cherished.
Ian Thorpe, such a great swimmer to watch.

*Non Sports people that you admire?
Alan Moore (comic book writer who is extremely talented and extremely principled)
Caravaggio, my favourite artist.

*People that you don't like?
People who whinge about the state of X but don't do anything constructive to make it better. God knows there's enough of them in Ireland.

BennyMul

How do you relax after a day of crunching numbers,
favourite race, local or foreign
what drives you to compete,

shotgunmcos

What advice would you give your 20 year old self?
What advice would you give your 30 year old self?
What is the most random crazy urge you have had this year?
How do you like your eggs?
Oryx, Racoon Queen or DoryDory for a night?
Pet hates?
Describe your swimming bliss ?

Thanks

Kurt Godel

Oryx wrote: »

If you could go back in time and change one decision youve made, what would it be?

I wouldn't have come back to Ireland in 2005. Still, its done now. The best definition of humanity I ever heard was "we are the sum total of all our choices". Also I like John Lennons "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans". There are worse things you could regret, the main thing in life is to get through the day mostly smiling and/or laughing, that way you're winning. That's the important thing.

BennyMul wrote: »

How do you relax after a day of crunching numbers,
favourite race, local or foreign
what drives you to compete,

*How do you relax after a day of crunching numbers,
Pretty much the whole reason I do exercise is for relaxation. If I don't exercise I'd pop a cork and relax that way. Its a much better feeling after a good run or swim, you feel alive.

*favourite race, local or foreign
Favourite race- have to say I really liked Pikeman, Wexford Tri put on a great show. Any well-run club race, really.

*what drives you to compete
As above, I only compete to feel alive. When you are running hard towards the line, there's a km to go, you are hurting but you know you have the beating of the lad in front... that's living in the moment, and slowing time right down. Ditto hurting on the bike and lying to yourself that the summit if 200m away when its 800m, or savouring the precious two seconds between hard swim reps.

shotgunmcos wrote: »

What advice would you give your 20 year old self?
What advice would you give your 30 year old self?
What is the most random crazy urge you have had this year?
How do you like your eggs?
Oryx, Racoon Queen or DoryDory for a night?
Pet hates?
Describe your swimming bliss ?

Thanks

*What advice would you give your 20 year old self?
I hit the pubs and was smoking heavy at 20- it might have been fun but I'm envious now when I see young guys in Tri making better use of their youth.

*What advice would you give your 30 year old self?
Travel around the States more instead of coming back to Ireland ten days every year. You can't buy back time.

*What is the most random crazy urge you have had this year?
To give up maths and take up painting again.

*How do you like your eggs?
We have two laying hens at home, a nice fried or bolied egg goes down a treat:)

*Oryx, Racoon Queen or DoryDory for a night?
Just one night?:D Nice choice Mike, but I'm not going to answer that one. But I will devote a lot of thought to it;)

*Pet hates?
People who are stupid but loudly want to express their whinging opinion on every bloody topic on god's green earth.

*Describe your swimming bliss ?
Swimming slowly in the coastal waters of Kerry, looking down at the sea life, turn the head right to gaze at the Magillicuddy Reeks in the distance, gaze back down slowly at the underwater magic again, turn my head left to see Mark W on the shore frantically doing that thing with his hands that means "kick harder!", and knowing I'm leisurely drifting out of his bottle throwing range:)

Slogger Jogger

Re: what decision would you change?
You shouldn't have eaten that dodgy lasagne the night before the Rotterdam marathon. A 3 hr marathon could have been yours. The training was pointing towards it.

Also, if you didn't come back to Ireland in 2005 you never would have had Ballybraid. You wouldn't have had the Wicklow way relay Something to remember that! Then theres Annagh hill

Your presence on the dark side is a loss to the hill running

BeepBeep67

If someone came to you for financial advice and as part of the conversation they mentioned they were thinking of taking up Triathlon - what advice would you give them?

littlemsfickle

Great thread! Really interesting to get an insight into people's lives outside of "I did x many hours on the bike/track/pool this week".

Most embarassing newbie error?

Active recovery or lazy couch day?

Favourite race?

Stop for a high five or plow on for the line?

Kurt Godel

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

If someone came to you for financial advice and as part of the conversation they mentioned they were thinking of taking up Triathlon - what advice would you give them?

I'd tell them to get through their first season on whatever road bike they had, so let's assume they will buy a TT bike in a years time, for €2000. Bank deposit rates are through the floor at the moment, and DIRT is going up to 41% (plus 4% PRSI) from January, so they should and put that €2000 away for a year and avail of the PTSB's Interest First deposit option (paying a market-leading 2.45%AER), which will pay the full term interest upfront, at the lower rate of 33%, for an overall saving of €5.88. Happy days:)

Seriously, there's no doubt it can be an expensive sport. I came from hill running, where the cost was 4*pairs of shoes a year, Aldi socks when on offer, €10 annual IMRA membership, and €7 a pop for the races. Overheads are much higher for Tri races, and there's a lot more equipment needed. For the benefits you get from it healthwise (mentally and physically), its worth the spend, IMO.

Kurt Godel

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Re: what decision would you change?
You shouldn't have eaten that dodgy lasagne the night before the Rotterdam marathon. A 3 hr marathon could have been yours. The training was pointing towards it.

Also, if you didn't come back to Ireland in 2005 you never would have had Ballybraid. You wouldn't have had the Wicklow way relay Something to remember that! Then theres Annagh hill

Your presence on the dark side is a loss to the hill running

Yeah we both had the training ingredients for a sub3 that day, maybe it was the lasagne ingredients all right.

I was very fat and had long-term health issues from too much high living in the States (back problems and high blood pressure), so maybe the move back here had a health silver lining all right. Don't want to sound too whingey about it; there's plenty that's good about Ireland, and I've had some great times and made some great friends over here.

Kurt Godel

littlemsfickle wrote: »

Most embarassing newbie error?

Active recovery or lazy couch day?

Favourite race?

Stop for a high five or plow on for the line?

*Most embarassing newbie error?
Heh, so many errors made in the first year, from chatting in transitions, to bike mechanicals, forgetting gels...
Probably the most embarrassing was in Valentia, they had scrapped the swim and made it a run/bike/run. I had determined to make the most of the race as a good transition practice for the future, so I noted where my bike was in relation to landmarks, laid all my gear out carefully, set up the bike with elastics... Anyway, I did the first run, ran through the maze of racked bikes well, helmet on, ran with the bike well to the mount line, hopped on, tried to get my feet in the bike shoes... I still had my running shoes on:rolleyes:

*Active recovery or lazy couch day?
Definitely not the couch, its always best to get something done. If I can make it to the pool, that's usually the best option for a tired body.

*Favourite race?
I haven't really done enough to say- certainly of the ones I have done, I've been impressed by well-run club races such as Pikeman, Lanesboro, etc. Special mention to the King of Greystones for the swim coming in 200m+ over the advertised 750m:) More of this, please!

*Stop for a high five or plow on for the line?
ALWAYS run to the line! No matter what position you are in, the time for back-slaps and showboating is when you finish! I can't understand people slowing down in the finish straight. There's always someone in front of you, or someone looking to take you from behind, keep going, its a race!

peter kern

i have to say fantastic thread! If i understand tummy correctly, this has been done before, anybody has a link ?

catweazle

Look in the athletics forum - the first few were mainly triathlon related till they were passed over to the runners

trainerman

great threat and great idea!

favourite swim course, bike course and run course?
toughest swim course, bike course and run course?

RacoonQueen

I think there may have only been one or two more after this one

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76363093