New Powerstroke freestyle technique article

I will eventually turn some of the information we present in the Powerstroke DVD into an e-book of some sort, but it is low down on my totem pole of Very Important Things to do at the moment. The big project for this year (besides stellar fitness and racing) is a comprehensive training manual that we'll give to our athletes and sell for a nominal fee on the website. With the articles and tidbits I've written over the years it is already a couple hundred pages, just needs a comprehensive edit and organization.

Anyway, this article on Powerstroke freestyle swim technique - high elbow catch / early vertical forearm with underwater frame shots describes some of the key technique issues I discuss in the Powerstroke DVD.

Life is good

I just read that nearly 25% of mortgage holders in the US are underwater, owing more on the mortgage than the house is worth. That is bad news. Next year a bunch of 3/1 ARMs will reset. This is usually not a problem, in general the rate would roll over to the prime + whatever markup you signed up for, except if the home is 10% or more underwater the mortgage company can turn it into a fixed rate mortage. If you've been paying an interest only rate for 3 years and one of you lost your job, it will be doubly tough to pay a fixed rate 30 year on a home that is worth less than what you're paying for it. Watch for more empty houses near you.

Bri and I sold our small Florida condo in March of 2006 and relocated to Cary, which has not lost value. I'd like to tell you that I saw the writing on the wall, and I did to the extent that I knew the houses around us in Orlando were selling for much more than they were worth, but if I really did then I would have sold the REITS short in late 06. The truth is we just got lucky with the timing. We might step up in the next year or two (no garage at our place), and one of my personal finance goals is to pay the mortgage off as quickly as possible. I don't care about the opportunity cost of the cash or the possible amplified return we could get from using leverage to play the Forex or commodities markets, a house you own is a house that can't be taken away, unless the government seizes it, in which case you'll find us arming up with all the other militias that will hopefully fight for the Constitution, booya.

If you have not seen them, Delta Triathlon has put up several videos we filmed a few months ago discussing various aspects of triathlon training. I am the dude doing the lecturing.

Just got back from a visit to the studio at Rival Health. The owners are going to let us reshoot the lecture portion of the Powerstroke DVD video there in exchange for use of the film in their site and some developmental content from One Step Beyond. Not a bad deal at all.

Our next Powerstroke clinic dates are January 24 in Huntersville and January 30-31 for a 2 day clinic in Cary.

Don't forget about the February 2010 Winter Training Camp in Florida.

Running the Inside Out Sports Turkey Trot 1 mile this Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving!

Powerstroke lecture preview

Regarding the three main types of freestyle mechanics:
Weakest: elbow slip
Better: straight arm
Best: high elbow catch / early vertical foream

covered calls, limit orders, and clinics

Part 1: The Powerstroke clinic went well, we will hold our next one on March 28 at 11AM. Check the website for all the details.

Part 2: Today I wrote my first covered call option. 1 option contract is for 100 shares. I have owned 100 shares of a company for a couple months and finally got around to getting permission to trade options in my IRA. I didn't realize you could do that.



Writing covered calls is the most simple option trade. You have to own 100 shares for every 1 contract you write. I wrote an out of the money (OTM) option. You can also write in the money (ITM) options and that is sometimes worthwhile if the return and time horizon is good. Anyway. So for this dividend paying stock I am planning to hold onto indefinitely, I was paid $95 to promise someone I'd sell them the stocks at a price that was $2.50 higher than today's prices on the third Friday in February. Chances are pretty low that the stock will climb that high. If it does then my loss is the additional upside I am missing out on.

The major risk of writing covered calls is actually holding onto the stock, as it could plummet to zero. The more volatile a stock is, the higher the yield on the options, since more people are looking to hedge their positions/lock in profits etc. A less volatile stock, like Coke (KO), has less return on the options since it generally trades in a narrow band (meaning it is more predictable).

If I can keep this up for 1.5 years, the options trades will have entirely paid for the underlying stock I own. I also get to keep dividends. My plan over the next few months is to acquire 2 or 3 more blocks of 100 shares in other relatively stable dividend paying companies, and write these calls each month for an extra $300-400.

Part 3: I am playing poker tonight, since the odds are probably better than making picks in the stock market.

Video editing

I'm in the process of adding titles, text, and other stuff to the lecture portion of our DVD. It actually looks fairly professional, for which I credit the nearly dummy proof Mac software interfaces. Timelines, layers, and other cool stuff are moderately intuitive. The movie is not going to be quite as high tech as Spider-Man, for example, but I won't be embarrassed to ask someone to pay for it.

In other news, Bri and I had a really nice and relaxing weekend here at home. We did a run on Saturday (I ran, she fought the dogs) and quiet dinner/movie, then a ride through Umstead and our local trails on Sunday, followed by lazing around the house.

Tassie has been very tired today, and slept through most of it.

I will be running in the Inside Out Turkey Trot 8k on Thursday.

Congrats to first time IMers Jen Davis and Amy Kramer, who both did well at Ironman Arizona.

Here is a nice picture of Bri and Tassie I took on one of our walks around our local Bond Park.



That is all.

Today is the greatest

Today I learned a few new things:
- Don't touch a new silver coin with your bare hands if you want to keep it spotless
- Target sells cheap beanies
- Japanese salarymen are too tired from work to have sex, so companies are ordering them to go home and make babies
- Shopping with your wife will make your wife happy
- Economic declines are good times to expand business advertising and operations (provided you haven't gone into insolvency) while competitors exit the industry

On that note, you can check out the new Powerstroke DVD website here.

Holee Mackeral!!

I am tired (pronounced tarr'd). Bri and I hosted a Powerstroke® triathlon clinic today. It was a good crew and a good day, but talking and being animated for six hours straight is pretty draining. We decided to videotape everyone and we'll be burning DVDs shortly.

I finally sat down yesterday and started figuring out how to edit video on the Mac, they make it pretty easy to get the basics done at least. The more advanced stuff is going to require a learning curve.

I was supposed to do a long run yesterday or today, but it ain't happening. I am tarr'd.

Last night we had a team social/happy hour for the masters swim crew; it was a solid turnout and a lot of fun. Tassie chased everyone around and then collapsed in exhaustion before the end of the party.

Next week we start evening practices. Come on out and swim with us!

College football is back.

That is all.