RaceFit - Preparation

Urban Dare Orlando 2009

nospam@example.com (Judebert) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:13:06 -0400

Judebert

I just found out about Urban Dare from a Facebook ad. My sister and I are going to participate! Of course, this only gives us three weeks to learn the history and geography of Orlando. Beki is taking history, I'm taking geography.

We've also lined up the whole family as support. Next I'm going to try to bring my Facebook friends in on it, too. Maybe I could even write a program to distribute the clue research... hmm....

More than a Lullaby

nospam@example.com (Judebert) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:40:34 -0400

Judebert

I've been trying my Lullaby sleep strategy for a few weeks now. I hope to reduce the effects of sleep deprivation on the Race.

It's not working. I'm always thinking about a dozen things, and sooner or later I forget to sing.

Time to switch strategies. I need something less mental, more physical, and still practical for practice at any time, even on-camera. For now, I'm trying something I remember from my childhood: I liked to rub the nylon edge of a blanket between my fingers as I feel asleep. (Okay, I was also sucking my thumb, but that's not something I'm prepared to do again. At least, not on-camera.)

Instead of relying on a blankee, I'm going to rub my fingers together as I fall asleep every night. The motion and sensation should become associated with sleep, and eventually I should be able to put myself to sleep simply by repeating the motion.

At least, that's the theory. In time I'll discover exactly how Pavlovian I really am.

Sleep Strategy

nospam@example.com (Judebert) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:08:42 -0500

Judebert

With 12-hour stopovers on the Race, you can never tell when you're going to get some sleep. We've seen otherwise outstanding teams fall apart for no explained reason; perhaps they just didn't get a good night's rest. Sleep deprivation will do terrible things to you.

So, I'm training myself to sleep on command. I'm using a lullaby (although not aloud). I'm starting by thinking it every night as I fall asleep, and eventually I'll fall asleep whenever I think the lullaby.

The only problem is that I keep getting interrupted by zombies. Or Quantum Leap episodes. I swear, my imagination is going to be the ruin of me.

Learn the Language

nospam@example.com (Judebert) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:49:44 -0500

Judebert

If you're running a "race around the world", you're going to find yourself in a foreign land where they don't speak English. You'll need directions, or you'll want your taxi to go faster. How will you get your message across?

Previous Racers have tried pantomime, wordless noises, and drawing. Generally, these aren't very helpful: some people aren't good at charades, different cultures use different noises, and pictures are easily misunderstood.

You'll want to speak the local language.

You can't be expected to learn every language on the globe, but each member of your team should understand at least one other language. English is the lingua franca of business, science, diplomacy, and aviation, but it's not an advantage over other teams.

To cover the majority of the globe, you'd also need French, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese (Spanish is similar), Italian, German, Afrikaans, Swahili, Arabic, Russian, and Hindi. There's an interesting set of language lists that could help you decide which ones you want to take on. In particular, the "number of speakers" and "number of countries" lists would be most useful.

Since you're just traveling, and not actually planning on settling down to live in one of these foreign countries, you don't need to be conversationally fluent with any of these languages. In fact, I've heard that just 100 words is enough to be functionally fluent in any language... but I've never been told what the words are, specifically.

Here are the words I think you should learn for functional Racing.

Continue reading "Learn the Language"