Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Daily deal aggregators are popular among today’s casual Internet users — and athletes are now able to find their own daily deals of the day. Popular service Active.com, which most of us have registered with, has its own ‘Schwaggle’ service that helps keep people active.

Deals range from discounted open water swimming and other event registration discounts to food and products. I’ve seen some rather neat deals posted by Active, though haven’t actually made a purchase just yet. It may be worth a look if you need new summer training gear to play with this summer!

If you’ve ever bought something from Active Schwaggle, you’re more than welcome to discuss what you thought about your experience.

A new report from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission indicates the City of Alameda has roads that need to be repaired after scoring a “fair” rating in 2010.

Our island was given a fair rating when it scored 66 out of 100 — the same rating given to the overall Bay Area — on the 2010 pavement condition index (PCI) charts, which indicated we have roads in need of repair.

The city normally does a decent job of fixing major road issues in Alameda, but there are plenty of roads and bike lanes that can provide a rather bumpy ride for us. At a time when local, regional, state, and national governments face budget issues and political scandals, some roads aren’t going to be changed any time soon.

As someone that has ridden a decent amount around the Bay Area, I still find Alameda’s roads suitable for leisurely rides — and hard training rides around the island. Instead of worrying about roads, I tend to be more concerned about the large number of reckless drivers not paying attention to pedestrians and cyclists.

Editors note:  Some roads are worse than others and some of the jogging trails are in rough shape.  I have no complaints because we have all of the trails with flowers and plants along the way.

Mike’s Followup:  Agreed about some of the jogging trails being in rough shape.  You should always pay attention when running or riding, but the trails help enforce this mentality.