Run to Win

This week last year I was fighting off an infection that kept me away from the computer for extended periods.

• Scott continued our series on books by writing about health and fitness books.
• I pointed out that lifting weights is a means to an end and not an end in and of itself.
• In doping news, Dick Pound laughed off an IOC reprimand over his slander of Lance Armstrong. (It turns out that he was right to laugh it off, since it didn’t affect the IOC’s view on his character at all. He has since been nominated for President of the Court for Arbitration of Sport.)
• This week two years ago, I demonstrated how to do pullups and also explained how to do negative pullups. I learned that thirsty people feel more pain. I wrote up a recipe for cooking shark steaks and I wrote a review on The New Rules of Lifting.

The Court for Arbitration of Sport is looking for a new president, and two names have been floated. The first is Geneva-based lawyer Robert Briner.

The other nominee? Former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Dick Pound. He was nominated by the International Olympic Committee, and a vote could come as early as April on who the next president will be.

If Dick Pound is elected to be the head of CAS, then I hope that he does a better job there than he did at WADA. He did a lot of good work at WADA, but he also turned his office into a laughingstock at times and seemed more interested in his private vendettas than in finding real proof or following legal procedures. He finished his time in office there on a high note, though, so if he is elected then I hope that he carries it forward into his new career.

(Further Reading: CBC Sports)

Less than a month after the World Anti-Doping Agency passed the Madrid Resolution, WADA President Dick Pound met with former BALCO owner Victor Conte about ways to prevent and catch athletes using performance-enhancing drugs. The Madrid Resolution calls for stiffer penalties for those caught cheating, as well as the ability to offer reduced penalties for those who help bring in others.

These changes go into effect in 2009, whereupon athletes serving bans for illegal doping will no longer be allowed to train with their parent organizations.

Victor Conte seems to be turning over a new leaf now that he is out of prison, and is providing WADA with the different methods that he encouraged athletes to use when he was developing his drugs.
(Click here to continue reading…)

This week last year dealt mostly with Lance Armstrong’s interactions with Dick Pound.

• First, Lance Armstrong published a letter criticising Dick Pound, who then responded in a predictable manner by rediculing Armstrong. This week last year also included some leaked testimony that alleges that Lance Armstrong admitted to taking EPO. Thankfully, the past year since then has not involved Lance Armstrong being continually accused of doping; the attention has instead shifted back to the rest of the bicycling world.
• My training got derailed a bit after I broke my ring finger. It had mostly healed by the time I got married; we were able to hide how difficult it was to get the ring on.
• If you want to improve your sleeping, then try not to fall asleep in front of the television. It is bad for your back and neck, and it can overstimulate you and lead to restless sleep.
• The Whirlaway 10k was this week last year, which was part of the USATF-NE Grand Prix race series. I was only three weeks removed from a marathon and barely broke 36 minutes. Unfortunately, the race was not held this year, so it looks like last year was the end of the road.
• This week last year was the first time that I started highlighting articles from a year prior, which I have done every weekend since then. Two years ago, I reviewed Running with the Buffaloes and Eat to Be Fit. I also shared how to make Beef Jerky and how to deal with migraines, and the enjoyment of a good Beach Run.

There were basically three topics on my mind this week last year. The Vermont City Marathon, the Complete Running website, and Lance Armstrong.

• I ran the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington over Memorial Day weekend last year. I had a lot of fun. You can read about the Vermont City course, as well as take a look at all of my splits for the race. I also wrote up a summary review about the marathon and how it was organized.
• At this point in the season last year, I still thought that I was going to be running two marathons two weeks apart in the Autumn. As such, I ran in the Back Cove 5k on Wednesday night despite having run a marathon on the previous Sunday. The race series has a website this year: http://BackBay.RunToWin.com
• The Complete Running website had a few ups and downs; their “running blog recents” functionality was a huge resource hog that wound up costing more than it was worth. Despite upgrades, they just didn’t have the horsepower to keep the service up. Eventually, the entire site went away to be replaced by the Complete Running Network, and has recently replaced the running blog recents functionality with an RSS feed handled by a third party.
• In doping news, Lance Armstrong was exhonerated and an impartial judge found that not only was there no evidence that he had cheated but that the entire thing had not been handled in a professional or legal manner. Lance also took Bode Miller and Dick Pound to task in Men’s Journal. He predicted in the article that the witch hunt wouldn’t stop, and he was right.

Last Summer, a letter was leaked to the Los Angelos Times that Lance Armstrong had written to the International Olympic Committee. In the letter, Armstrong called for the forced resignation of Dick Pound due to his slanderous public comments and his lack of ethical involvement in athlete affairs as the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency. It did not take very long for Dick Pound to respond and insult Lance Armstrong for writing the letter in the first place.

It took a while, but the IOC has decided to officially reprimand Dick Pound for his comments.

In a rebuke considered rare because it involves one of its own members, the International Olympic Committee officially reprimanded Pound for comments that might have damaged the legendary cyclist’s reputation. [...] According to the IOC’s decision, dated Feb. 2, the organization’s ethics commission recommended that Pound had “the obligation to exercise greater prudence consistent with the Olympic spirit when making public pronouncements that may affect the reputation of others.”

This of course did not phase him in the least. If there is one thing that Dick Pound lacks it is tact. In response to his public reprimand, he told the newspapers that this was the IOC’s way of trying to get Lance Armstrong to stop bothering them, since “Lance Armstrong has probably killed a Brazilian rain forest with all the paper he has used to file his complaints [...]”

Whether Lance Armstrong cheated or not, I think that Dick Pound has continually overstepped his authority and shown that he is not impartial and that he does not adhere to any sort of ethical standards in the way that he deals with athletes. A reprimand is a nice start, but I do not think that it really goes far enough and I doubt that it will be very long before the next controversy is publicized between him and somebody who may or may not be doping.

While he may have done a lot for WADA early in his career, I can not imagine that the circus that he keeps around himself and all of the embarassment that he has brought to the position in the last half dozen years is really worthwhile. Lance Armstrong seems happy to at least have gotten the reprimand out of the IOC, and that is likely all that we will see.

(Source: ESPN.com)

Floyd Landis has been in the news a bit lately after he criticized Dick Pound and then announced that he would wants a second Tour victory to replace his memories of his last race.

Criticizing Dick Pound is nothing new; he has a history of making ill-informed and innappriate comments. What I find interesting is Floyd Landis’ take on what his appeal results in.
(Click here to continue reading…)

One day after news broke that an unnamed rider had been caught doping during the Tour de France, it has come out that that rider is Floyd Landis. His first test sample apparently tested positive after stage 17, when he made an amazing come back following his breakdown the day before.

There is no official word yet from Floyd Landis, but his mother weighed in on the allegations.
(Click here to continue reading…)