Run to Win

This week last year and two years ago was a busy one. This week this year I am on my way to Rhode Island to run a marathon. Have a good weekend!

• This week last year, I finished up the series on Mind Games by discussing how how your body controls your thoughts. In a reversal from what you usually hear, it’s matter over mind.
• I also asked how well you can you can estimate the duration of your runs when you head out the door. Getting lost is not such a bad thing, but it can be stressful for your loved ones when you don’t come back when you are supposed to.
• Asafa Powell came down with tendonitis and had to miss a few weeks of racing. This year hasn’t shaped up to be very good for him either, as he is out right now with pulled muscle in his chest.
• In other running and track news, Justin Gatlin worked out for the Buccaneers in an attempt to turn his track speed into NFL speed.
• I described (and showed a video for) how to do the “300″ workout, which was a right of passage for the actors in the movie. Very tough, and not something that you’d want to do regularly.
• This week two years ago, I continued my animated workout series with instructions on how to do a swiss ball bridge, continuing the discussion on swiss balls throughout the week with why you would use a swiss ball in the first place and the difference between balance boards and swiss balls. Discussion about the Coast to Coast book continued, with a few reminders about the contest to win a free copy as well as a review of Coast to Coast. There was also the first guest article here at Run to Win, written by the photographer on the Coast to Coast relay. I continued my thoughts on the New Rules with the sixteenth and seventeenth rules.

This week there were a few sports stories that were worth mentioning but that didn’t need a whole lot written about them, so I am linking them up here.

• NFL Europe has folded after 16 years. I think that this is a bad move if the NFL thinks that they are going to expand popularity for American Football overseas. A couple of regular season games is not going to make up for a bunch of fans that they had managed to cultivate being so let down. (Source: ESPN.com)
• The UK firm Sports Direct has managed to outbid Hidary for the Everlast company for $30/share (cash). Everlast is one of the largest manufacturers of boxing equipment in the United States. (Source: BBC.com)
• Ray Allen is now playing for the Boston Celtics. I was a big fan of Ray Allen when he played at UConn, and it has been a few years since I have made my way down to watch the Celtics play. I will definately have to make the effort again this coming season. (Source: Boston Globe)

After Justin Gatlin first faced his ban from professional track & field for steroid use, he started working out for a few NFL football teams. Nothing came from it, though, and none of the teams that he worked out for last year brought him in for a formal workout.

This offseason, however, he has gone in for a minicamp workout for Tampa Bay.

“This is where I want to be,” Gatlin said. “I didn’t come here on my high horse, all mighty, and saying give me a locker and let me do what I want to do. I’m starting from the ground up, and that’s where I want to start.” [...] “He won a gold medal. He wants to give this a shot, and this is a good launching pad to see how quickly he picks it up, how natural he is and how far he has to go,” Gruden said.

If he gets signed, I think that he would do all right from himself as a football player. He would have to ramp up to participating in a contact sport, and he would have to do it fast enough to avoid getting cut. That is not a small hurdle, but he has played football before and he seems to be able to catch the ball. He could probably do all right as a kick-off or punt returner, and perhaps win a roster spot as a receiver after he has had the time to learn some routes and has proven that he can take a hit.

I think that if he does cross over from Track & Field to football, though, that he would not be able to go back. I think that he would become too beat up too fast to be able to be competitive as a sprinter. If his appeal loses and he does get banned from the sport, though, then his most competitive years would be lost to him anyway.

(Source: ESPN.com)

A couple of years ago, I wrote about how Tom Brady signed a new contract with the Patriots and extended his terms through 2010. After signing Randy Moss this weekend, it has come out that Tom Brady restructured that contract in order to give the Patriots enough cap room to assume Moss’s former contract from the Raiders before resigning him to a one year deal. Since a lot of people are searching my site for information about Tom Brady’s contract, I thought I would provide what details are currently public.
(Click here to continue reading…)

Rather than writing on different news notes that I have noticed from over the weekend, I thought (for the sake of brevity) that I’d just link to the interesting articles.

• Saturday evening, I went to the RIT at Bentley hockey game. RIT lost by one point, 7-6. There were probably about 8 or 9 RIT fans for every Bentley fan. It has been a long time since I have painted my chest for a sporting event, but myself and a few friends decided to be a little cold while watching the game. The night before they had clinched the Atlantic East title, so RIT was giving their 3rd string goal tender some minutes. It is only their second year as a Division I program, so they are not eligible for post-season play until next year.
• The commissioner, a few owners, the players association and a few players in the NFL sat down to chat about how to clean up some of the off-field shenanigans and negative publicity that has been plaguing the NFL the past few years. The players thought that there should be a three strikes and you’re out policy. Apparently, they feel that it is hard to be in the wrong place at the wrong time over and over again.
• In cycling news, Jan Ullrich announced his retirement and plans to be a consultant rather than a competitive biker. He still maintains his innocence, and his involvement with the Spanish doping ring was dropped, but the damage to his reputation had already been done. He is still facing legal action in Germany for “fraud against the public.”

One thing that I haven’t understood over the past few weeks is the big issue about how a black head coach was going to win the Super Bowl for the first time. Maybe it is because I am white, but I fail to see how that has any relevance whatsoever. Tony Dungy and Lovi Smith did not get to the Super Bowl because they were black. They got there because they were damn good coaches. It is not as though the Super Bowl has only been won by white head coaches.

Now that Tony Dungy has won, how come he is getting so much attention? Tom Flores has four Super Bowl rings; one as a quarterback, one as an assistent coach, and two as a head coach. He was the first minority to win in at least two of the three positions (I am not sure about whether he was the first minority assistent, and I am too lazy to look that up). Obviously I was pretty young for his head coaching wins, and was not alive for his quarterback win. But I have heard very little about his wins. The only reason that I have been hearing his name this week was because he is one of only three people to have a Super Bowl ring as both a player and a coach, now that Tony Dungy has won.

Are hispanics that much different than black Americans that his wins were not as remarkable as Tony Dungy’s win? Has racism become so much worse over the past 26 years that we feel the need to glorify Tony Dungy’s win?

I am really having a lot of trouble understanding this. I think that Tony Dungy is a great head coach. His teams have always done well, and the teams that he has built have gone on to do great things immiediately after he has moved on. I am glad that he has had a chance to be there when one of his teams got to and won the Super Bowl. I think that he will make it into the hall of fame. I just do not think that the color of his skin has anything to do one way or another with his talents as a coach.

Does this make sense to you?

The Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indiana wants to have a Super Bowl party for their paritioners so that they can have a place to gather and watch their local football team in the big game. Projecting the game up on the wall would provide a safe place to watch the game where there would be no alcohol and could be attended by children. There’s only one problem, and that is the threat of a lawsuit from the NFL.

[...] The NFL objected to the church’s plans to use a projector to show the game, saying the law limits it to one TV no bigger than 55 inches. [...] NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league’s long-standing policy is to ban “mass out-of-home viewing” of the Super Bowl. An exception is made for sports bars and other businesses that show televised sports as a part of their everyday operations. We have contracts with our (TV) networks to provide free over-the-air television for people at home,” Aiello said. “The network economics are based on television ratings and at-home viewing. Out-of-home viewing is not measured by Nielsen.”

(Click here to continue reading…)

There was a lot of news this week last year, most of which was good with some big announcements.

• I demonstrated how to do a dumbbell bench press in my animated series.
• The World Marathon Majors were announced, the first year of races having passed since then. And I was completely wrong about my prediction on not running Boston for a few years; it will be this year’s spring marathon! In other announcements, the Tour de France starts in London this year.
• Eleanora Berlanda had Olympic torch stolen from her. In other news you’d rather not have to hear about, BC Basketball team accidently killed a bicyclist on their way to practice.
• Bode Miller couldn’t leave well enough alone and decided to call out Bonds and Armstrong.
• In NFL news, I was not happy with the NFL playoffs disappointed me, and it was announced that the NFL Network will keep people from being able to watch 8 games this season. Had Time Warner not taken over my local cable company, I would have been able to watch them.