September Madness

Currently making the e-mail rounds... (click to see full-size image, and believe me, you want to)

"All of this has happened before..."

Excellent.

50K: check!

As previously promised/threatened, I finally finished my first 50K race. That's slightly more than 31 miles, for us Amurricans. After the race I originally trained for got hurricaned out, I ended up running this trail 50K organized by the Baltimore Road Runners at Gunpowder Falls State Park, north of Baltimore. Here are some pics:


It was a blast. Even when I got all hypoglycemic and footsore on the third lap. Seriously.

But, no joke, my evaluation is that a typical marathon training program would prepare you for a 50K. I ended up doing more and longer long runs than in a typical marathon plan (3x20mi, 2x22mi, 2x24mi) and also doubled up on the weekends, running, say, a 20+ mi long run Saturday and then a 10 miler on Sunday. This was helpful, but I think you could still make it just with one long run a week. The thing is, most ultras are run on trails, which means that the impact damage and pain are less than with a typical road marathon (but definitely still there. Owwww.). Also, you're not running fast like in a marathon. It's really just a nice day out in the woods.

The things that it discovers will rock you in the head

I'm really glad the Large Hadron Collider did not create a black hole and engulf the earth upon startup. I'm even gladder that CERN staffer Kate McAlpine created this rap about the collider and its mission, because it is awesome.

Health club kids

Here's an interesting AP article about a new movement towards enrolling kids in adult-style health clubs to keep them in shape and help stave off obesity.

Initial reactions:

I barely have the attention span to work out on a treadmill at age 29; at 10 it would have been impossible. Kids on the stairmaster? The whole point of gyms is that being an adult is kind of sucky. You work in an office all day and there's no recess. Unlike kids, who theoretically get plenty of exercise going about their daily play, adults often have to make extra time and sometimes do very boring things to stay fit.

I also agree with a couple of experts quoted in this article about the importance of play, not just exercise, to kids' health and development.

Children should be outside interacting with other children, not playing video games in a musty basement, said Tony Sparber, who runs New Image Weight Loss Camps....And considering children's short attention spans, they may not find any of these expensive toys fun enough, said Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise. He recommends simple games like Duck Duck Goose and Capture the Flag. "In the '50s and '60s, kids were playing and they were playing outside," he said. "We didn't have all these concerns about overweight, out-of-shape kids."

Hey, whatever works--but this whole notion strikes me as yet another example of the overall decline of American society. I mean, what happened to just making your kid go out for the basketball team, or something?

News flash: new Friedman meme introduced

I like Tom Friedman. But sometimes he tries a bit too hard to coin new little Friedmanisms. Some of them succeed and some flop. You know what I mean. "The world is flat" was a winner; "the First Law of Petropolitics" got buzz for a few days; and "geo-green" never really took off.

The latest, on Meet the Press yesterday:

"...what I call ET, energy technology, is going to be the next IT, the next great industrial revolution."

OK, first of all, "ET" is taken. Secondly, you could have just said "energy technology is going to be the next great industrial revolution." There's no need to coin new terminology for this. No need at all.

To quote one of my favorite movies, "Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen! It's not going to happen!"