Defining Running Moment of 2010

As I was mulling over what to write for the last piece of 2010 - ya, the decade is over - I thought back to all the running highlights of 2010 - and without a doubt it has to be Chris Solinsky going sub 27 at the Jordan Payton Invite earlier this year.

What was supposed to be Galen Rupp's "coming out party" (he and The Beast are teammates) turned into a special night for not only American running but distance running world wide - Solinsky nails a 26:59 for 10,000m - 1st American to do so, and, for what it is worth, 1st non-African to do so, ever.

And what made the race even more special were the guys announcing from 'Flotrack" (which imho is the best track/running site out there, along with "Letsrun"). The announcing brings chills - who doesn't move just a little closer to their computer screen, willing Solinsky on to go sub 27...

i did.

Because who doesn't love a 6"1", 165lb white guy (look familiar?) running that fast - hope springs eternal!

I went out for a run right after watching the race live - it seemed like the right thing to do. And to be honest, there have been many runs since where I have thought that race, of Solinsky's pacing, speed and sheer joy when he crossed the line so triumphantly - that run inspires me to be a better runner. Just like when i was a little kid, imagining I was my boyhood heroes on the ice - Keon, Sittler, Richard, Bossey, Esposito, Orr ("he takes the puck from around the goal, and swiftly dances up the ice, effortlessly skating by every defender like they were wisps of smoke...The Kid dekes by the last defenseman, leaving him rooted in cement...he drives in on the net...Dryden sets for the wrist shot he knows is coming..suddenly, The Kid dekes left then right and lifts the puck over a sprawling Dryden...GOALLLL!!! The Leaf's have defeated the Habs in the most exciting Game 7 overtime ever!!! The Kid's legend continues".) Ya, I know, lame - but EVERY kid i played hockey with - both ball hockey and on the ice - had these fantasies of being in the NHL, of scoring the game winning goal in Game 7 to win the Cup - hey, on that note, watch this for more chills: Crosby's O/T Goal Wins Olympic Gold for Canada. Doesn't get any better or iconic than this goal...
So, it is nice to know that the dreams we have as kids never really die or go away for good; sure, they fade as we grow up, but, I confess that I still have these kind of "images" when I train now - inspiring moments like Solinksky's race, the "Ironwar of 1989" where Mark Allen kicks Dave Scott at mile 21 in Hawaii, Steve Prefontaine in any race he ran - they all work to make me a better runner. And, they inspire me to enjoy running that much more.
And that, my friend, is why I run.

Happy New Year

Johnny Boy

There May Be a Benefit to Training Hard After All

If You Are Fit, You Can Take It Easy

New Year’s resolutions tend to war with wintertime malaise. Resolution urges you to work out. Malaise suggests that you linger in bed. But there’s good news for those of us torn between these impulses. A number of newly published studies offer compelling reasons to get out and exercise on the one hand, as well as new estimates of just how little we can do and still benefit on the other.

The most sobering of the recent studies, published last month in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, looked at a large group of retired elite male athletes, most now in their 50s. Some had remained physically active, although they were no longer competing. Others had taken fully to sloth, avoiding almost all exercise. When the researchers examined the health profiles of the two groups, they found, to no one’s surprise, that the sedentary ex-athletes had a much higher risk of metabolic abnormalities, including insulin resistance, than their more active counterparts. Training hard and often in their youth had not conferred lifelong health benefits on the athletes as they aged, not if they now sat around all day.

Similarly, although in a more compressed time frame, a study published earlier this year found that when a group of world-class kayakers completely quit training (at the end of a competitive season), they rapidly lost strength and endurance. After only five weeks of not training, according to one measure of strength, they’d sloughed off about 9 percent of their muscular power and 11 percent of their aerobic capacity.

In other words, being almost completely inactive, whether for a short or prolonged period of time, inexorably de-tones muscles and compromises health. The benefits of regular activity don’t last long.

But there is a loophole. In these same studies, as well as others, relatively small amounts of activity allowed participants to maintain much of the health and fitness they had previously gained. In the kayaking study, for instance, some of the athletes didn’t completely cease their training at the end of the season; they merely cut back, limiting themselves to one weight-training session and two endurance workouts per week (a fraction of their full-season training) and consequently lost barely half as much of their aerobic power as the kayakers who stopped exercising altogether. Five weeks “of markedly reduced training in a group of elite athletes seems effective for minimizing the large declines” in conditioning “that take place by completely stopping physical training,” the authors wrote. 

For the study, researchers with the University of Alabama at Birmingham recruited one group of adults in their 20s and 30s and another in their 60s and 70s and had both groups undertake a four-month program of fairly strenuous weight training, with thrice weekly, multiset sessions at the gym. By the end, all of the volunteers were dramatically stronger and had added considerable muscle mass.Even more relevant to those of us who aren’t world-class athletes (and aren’t, therefore, likely to reduce our training to three sessions a week),a study just published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise suggests that visiting the gym only once a week may be enough for young and older athletes to hold onto past strength gains.

The researchers then randomly assigned the volunteers to different groups for the next eight months. One group quit all exercise. Another cut the number of their training sessions by two thirds, showing up at the gym only once a week. The final group not only reduced the number of their gym sessions to once a week, but completed only a third as many exercises during that session, for a total reduction in exercise volume to one-ninth.

At the end of the eight months, the groups’ muscle size and strength varied markedly. The volunteers who stopped all exercise, whether they were young or old, had lost most of their newly acquired muscle mass, as well as a large portion of their strength. Those who’d continued to train once a week, however, had maintained much of their muscle mass, as well as their strength. The younger volunteers had even added muscle mass with the once a week full sessions (although not with the shortened bouts). Older volunteers hadn’t augmented their muscle size during the maintenance routines, but they had lost little of their strength gains, even when their exercise volume was reduced to a ninth. A “once per week exercise dose was generally sufficient to maintain positive neuromuscular adaptations,” the study authors concluded.

There are caveats to these encouraging findings, of course. You must have a baseline level of fitness to maintain, for one thing. Before they moved to the once-a-week routine, the weight trainers completed four months of three-times-a-week sessions. If you have no fitness base, resolve now to build one. The latest studies also did not pin down just how long you can maintain a reduced level of exercise, without the vestiges of fitness finally slipping away. The maintenance portion of the strength-training experiment lasted eight months; the kayaking study stretched only to five weeks. At some point, you probably have to return to a full exercise program. But for now, a little may be enough.

I Friggin' HATE When This Happens To Me

This has nearly happened to me on several occasions following a great New Year's Eve party...

Brazilian police are investigating the case of an elderly woman who was declared dead — only to wake up hours later inside a coffin in a funeral home.

The 88-year-old woman died two days after the incident and police in Minas Gerais state want to know if poor medical care and the misdiagnosis contributed to her death.

The O Globo newspaper, citing a press release from the Ipatinga mayor’s office, says doctors thought Maria das Dores da Conceicao died Wednesday afternoon. She awoke inside the coffin four hours later and was rushed back to the hospital.

The mayor’s statement said she died Friday. It did not give a cause, but said she suffered from hypertension.

Calls to the Ipatinga hospital, police and mayor’s office were not answered late Sunday.


Be careful where you fall asleep next time,
Johnny Boy

Never, Ever, Quit

Steve Jones - racing the way racing is meant to be. This should inspire you...
And with that, I am heading out the door for my long Sunday run.


finish fast,
Johnny Boy

'tis the season - Merry Christmas

...and God bless, everyone.

peace,

Johnny Boy

Jumping "over" is for sissies

Check out this video for a rather, uh, unorthodox hurdles technique. Think Perdita Felicien’s famous 2004 Olympics hurdles crash was bad? Not so much -  watch this guy’s technique above. And, perhaps most amusing of all,  he appears to finish in fourth place (although there was a bit of a lane violation near the end), and would have had a good shot at the win (hahaha) if he didn’t take a tumble...or broken nearly every rule that there is on how not to finish a 110 race!!

Beijing, watch out

Johnny Boy

Can't Scare Me!

The Woman Who Knows No Fear

A 44-year-old woman with a rare form of brain damage can literally feel no fear, according to a case study published yesterday in the journal Current Biology. Referred to as SM, she suffers from a genetic condition called Urbach-Wiethe Disease. The condition is extremely rare, with fewer than 300 reported cases since it was first described in 1929, and is caused by a mutation in a gene on chromosome 1, which encodes an extracellular matrix protein. The symptoms vary widely, and in about 50% of cases there is calcification, or hardening, of structures in the medial temporal lobe of the brain. In SM's case, it led to degeneration of the amygdala(below), a small, almond-shaped structure known to be involved in fear and other emotions. 

SM has been studied extensively during the past two decades. Early investigations showed that her non-verbal visual memory was signficantly impaired but that otherwise she had an IQ in the low-average range. She also displayed inappropriate social behaviours, quickly becoming friendly with the experimenters and making sexual remarks, due to disturbed  executive control. Subsequently, it was found that she was unable to recognize emotions in facial expressions, and a study published earlier this year showed that the brain damage had eliminated her monetary loss aversion - that is, she makes risky financial decisions that most of us would avoid because of a fear of losing money.

None of these previous studies assessed her experience of fear, however. Justin Feinstein of the University of Iowa and his colleagues therefore tested SM's fear responses, using a very simple method - by trying to scare her. First, they took her to an exotic pet store and exposed her to snakes and spiders, which, she had told them, she "hated" and "tried to avoid". Nevertheless, she seemed fascinated by the large collection of snakes, and was compelled to touch and poke the larger and more dangerous ones, as well as a tarantula, but had to be stopped in case she got bitten. Throughout the visit, she was asked to rate her fear on a scale of 0 to 10, and her ratings were never greater than 2. 

Next, the researchers took SM on a Halloween visit to Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky, which features people dressed as monsters, murderers and ghosts and is reported to be "one of the most haunted places in the world". When they arrived, she voluntarily led the researchers and a goup of five strange women around the house, walking into dark corners and hallways without hesitation. The hidden monsters tried to scare her numerous times, unsuccessfully. Whereas the five other women in the group screamed loudly whenever they encountered one, SM laughed and smiled at them, and even scared one by poking it in the head because she was curious about how it felt. She rated her fear level at 0 throughout, saying instead that she found it exciting.

Finally, they showed her scenes from scary movies, such as The Ring, The Blair Witch Project and The Shining, interspersed with clips that induce disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness. She laughed at a collage of scenes showing babies and small children doing funny things, was disgusted by a scene from Pink Flamingos in which a cross-dresser eats dog faeces, and expressed anger at a scene from Cry Freedom in which a group of children are shot and killed by soldiers. But she did not express fear at any point while watching the horror movie scenes - she told the researchers that she found them exciting, and even asked for the title of one of the movies so she could rent and watch it. 

SM reports having experienced fear as a young child. She recalls being afraid of the dark, and remembers when her older brother jumped out from behind a tree while she walked through a cemetary, making her run away screaming and crying. She also appears to understand the concept of fear. She uses words such as afraid, terror, panic and frightened appropriately during conversations, and can recognize the emotions in other people's voices.

But based on interviews with her and her three children, the authors suggest that she probably has not experienced fear at all throughout the whole duration of her adult life, despite having encountered an unusually high number of traumatic and life-threatening events. Aged 30, she had a knife held to her throat by a drug addict while she walked through a park at night, but did not panic and walked away calmly when he let her go. She has also been held at gun point, was nearly killed in an act of domestic violence, and has been the victim of numerous crimes in the poverty-stricken area in which she lives.

SM therefore seems unable to detect threats in her environment and, as a result, does not actively avoid potentially dangerous situations as most of us would. Feinstein and his colleagues argue that this is because the amygdala is essential in triggering a state of fear. The amygdala is but one component of a network of brain structures that normally generate an appropriate fear response, but in its absence this response cannot be mounted, so that the experience of fear is severely diminished. The researchers further suggest that she may be immune to the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, and that interventions which target the amygdala could therefore be beneficial for sufferers of the condition.

Although earlier studies have provided some evidence of altered fear responses in patients with amygdala damage, this is the first to systematically test the experience of fear in a patient lacking both amygdalae. It has its limitations, however. As the authors point out, SM's brain damage is not limited to the amygdala, so her lack of fear could be due to a combination of damage to this structure, adjacent structures such as the entorhinal cortex and connecting white matter. Furthermore, this is a case study involving a single patient, so it will be important to verify the findings in others with comparable damage.

BOO!!!! (Scared ya, didn't I?).

Johnny Boy

Hanging a Red Moon

Toronto, aka " the center of the universe", experienced a rare event last night - no, not  Leaf victory - but rather, a lunar eclipse. During a lunar eclipse, the earth is exactly in line between the full moon and the sun, blocking the sun’s light from bouncing off the moon - hence appearing with a deep red colour.**Note: the pic above is the lunar eclipse where the moon is a deep red; the pic below is a different red moon:

The earth’s atmosphere makes the moon appear to be red, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto Centre, explained on its David Dunlap Observatory site in Richmond Hill. The moon appeared entirely red at 2:41 a.m. and continued until around 4:00 a.m.

I read up and discovered that lunar eclipses have changed the course of history. During the 5th century BC, the Athenians considered a total eclipse a bad omen and delayed their siege of Syracuse, altering the course of the war. In 1504, Christopher Columbus used foreknowledge of the eclipse to trick natives in Jamaica into feeding his sailors. The last time a winter solstice total lunar eclipse was visible overhead the English and French had just started squabbling over the fur trade in Canada — 372 years ago.
And in 2010, a red assed baboon thew poo at a little boy:

be sure and duck
Johnny Boy

BaQa'—or Is It Humbug? Klingons and Dicken's Classic

The Grinch: 

A Klingon: 

Ebenezer Scrooge: 

So, as the song in Sesame Street goes, "one of these things is not like the other...". Can you figure out which picture above has nothing to do with Xmas? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
If you guessed the Klingon, well, you would  be wrong.
Sadly, some rather devoted [as in major losers] fans of Star Trek have re-written the Dicken's classic into Klingon, complete with a literal translation into a language that actually does not exist outside of the minds of Hollywood writers (and Gene Roddenberry): BaQa'—or Is It Humbug? A Christmas Carol in Klingon.

Again, I am speechless - have these people no shame or pride? Or friends to tell them to "stop".

Tiny Tim as a Klingon - wow.

live long and prosper

Johnny Boy

Keep Walking

Recall my blog posting about the sad day a little while ago, when The King - Haile G - hung up his spikes and retired (after dropping out at around 22km in the NYC Marathon). Then, thankfully, he soon thereafter "un-retired".

Now, some pundits have criticized Haile for endorsing Johnny Walker - watch this and tell me you don't get chills. I say "to hell with the critics"; take the endorsement, Haile - you have earned it.

And listen for the subtle soundtrack of "U2" playing - epic.

The Emperor is back - long live The Emperor.

"Just keep going. Keep walking".


keep running

Johnny Boy

Never - and I mean NEVER - scare a kid with a right hook

I watched this video this morning on Facebook - and for some reason, it made me laugh my ass off.

The look on the kid's face - sheer embarrassment and shock - but that punch; wow, nice reflexes kid!

And the kid in the garbage can - busted.

Careful what you wish for

Johnny Boy

The Coffee Conundrum

Keep your morning cup of coffee – it’s loaded with antioxidants and you’ll lose more weight when hopped up on caffeine. No wait – all that caffeine might cause diabetes and is bad for weight loss. What should you do? Opinions on both sides are strong – strong like a piping hot cup of French Roast, and there is research backing both sides of this argument. And it’s an argument indeed – take away a cup of Starbucks from a java junkie and you might not live to tell the tale.

When it comes to weight loss, popular advice based on interpretation of current research poses several problems. First, like any other plant “medicine” coffee seems to behave differently than caffeine alone – meaning that’s its other constituents and antioxidants play a role in how one responds (Translation: studies done on caffeine alone shouldn’t be directly applied to coffee and often times caffeine dosed in these studies is well in excess of what the average coffee drinker consumes). Next, studies pertaining to insulin sensitivity and diabetes are done on so called healthy subjects – ignoring the fact that there may be subtle derangements in their insulin function but they are not overtly diabetic or full blown insulin resistant.

Caffeine’s effect on insulin is where coffee plays into fat loss. Here’s what you need to know:

* Caffeine appears to acutely lower insulin sensitivity, but the effect is not chronic. Meaning that in the healthy, exercising individual, coffee drinking does not lead to diabetes . However, it does lower your insulin sensitivity in the short term so avoid drinking it with starches (optimal or allowable and for sure skip the muffin at your coffee break). If you have insulin resistance, diabetes or are not following a lower carb diet, caffeine can make insulin matters worse.

* Raising epinephrine is one mechanism by which caffeine perks you up, a preworkout coffee or tea will allow you to perform better, exercise harder and burn more fat at the gym. Avoid post workout caffeine as this is a time to bring your stress hormones back down and de-stimulate. And  if you have anxiety, insomnia or are at all aggravated from caffeine it’s wise to avoid coffee and caffeinated beverages in general.

* The fat in cream or Half & Half will slow caffeine release into your system making it a better fat burner. But keep it light as to not pile on the calories and saturated fat. 1 tbsp or less is fine.

* Finally, caffeine appears to be less of a diuretic than once thought – meaning it isn’t as significant of a factor in dehydration.

But what the hell do I know? I don't even like coffee!

drink on,

Johnny Boy

THIS is why airport security wears latex gloves

Man arrested after ejaculating during TSA pat-down

A 47 year old gay man was arrested at San Francisco International Airport after ejaculating while being patted down by a male TSA agent.  Percy Cummings, an interior designer from San Francisco, is being held without bail after the alleged incident, charged with sexually assaulting a Federal agent.

According to Cummings’ partner, Sergio Armani, Cummings has “multiple piercings on his manhood” which were detected during a full body scan.  As a result, Cummings was pulled aside for a pat-down.  Armani stated that the unidentified TSA agent spent “an inordinate amount of time groping” Cummings, who had apparently become sexually aroused.  Cummings, who has a history of sexual dysfunction, ejaculated while the TSA agent’s hand was feeling the piercings.  The TSA agent, according to several witnesses, promptly called for back up.  Cummings was thrown to the ground and handcuffed.

A TSA spokesperson declined to comment on this specific case, but said that anyone ejaculating during a pat-down would be subject to arrest.

And people ask: "Why Do You Run?"

Muscles increase while brain cells diminish ...thank god I am a runner ('cause even on a realllly cold day, I don't have to take a peak to find the boys - poor b*stard below can't even fill out the teeny tiny blue bikini!)

'nuff said.

do NOT read this if you have just eaten - seriously

"Malodorous Perp" Gets 90 Days In Jail

Melissa Williams Guilty 

The West Virginia woman who recently pulled a knife on two men and announced, “Somebody is going to eat my pussy or I’m going to cut your fucking throat,” pleaded guilty today to assault and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

During an appearance this morning in Jackson County Magistrate Court, Melissa Lee Williams, 41, also received a 90-day suspended sentence and was ordered to pay $185.80 in court costs. Williams, pictured in the mug shot above, is currently in custody at the South Central Regional Jail.

Williams was arrested last month following a bizarre incident at the 77 Motor Inn, where she was living at the time. According to an October 22 Jackson County Sheriff’s Department report--excerpted here--Williams waved a knife at two men who declined her demands to engage in sexual conduct (one of the men was Danny Williams, her estranged husband).

Deputies reported that Williams, who was living four doors down from Danny Williams, showed up at his residence and asked him and another man to “eat my pussy.” While Danny Williams “declined said invitation,” the other man, Adam Watson, told cops that he “agreed to perform at her request,” according to Deputy Ross Mellinger.

However, as Watson approached Williams, “he became overwhelmed by horrible vaginal odor emitting from Melissa Williams.” As a result, Watson “declined to proceed any further.”

At this point, Melissa Williams “produced a lock-back folding knife,” opened it, and pointed the weapon at her estranged husband. She then uttered a line that has since ricocheted across the Internet: “Somebody is going to eat my pussy or I’m going to cut your fucking throat.”

When Deputy Mellinger arrived at the motor inn, he discovered Williams “nude from the waist down and sitting in a living room chair.” He also noted that “all subjects appeared to be intoxicated and smelled badly of an alcoholic beverage.”

wow.

eeewwwhhh.

(I'm not even signing my name off on this one!)

Olympic Tower 2016

The Olympic Tower 2016...Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; rivals the...

 (click here!) The Girl From Ipanema!

This vertical structure will be placed in Cotonduba Island . 

It will be both an observation tower and a welcome sign for the visitors arriving by air and by sea to Rio, where the  2016 Olympics are set to occur [assuming the gangs in the Rio slums don't destroy the city...].

The project is from Zurique, and utilizes solar energy during the day with its solo power panels, to pump the sea water as seen in the model (below). The movement of the water will be also utilized to turn the turbines and produce the power to work the system at night time. In the "Solo City Tower" is the auditorium, shops etc. High speed "E lifts" will take the visitors to the top, where the view will be epic; hell they even have bungee jumping from a special platform. 

And, for all the engineers and tech geeks:

First, though, London,  2012!

johnny boy