Cashing in on running booms

I just read Steve Boyd's recent post regarding the semi-recent decline in competitive running among Canadian athletes (Follow Feb 6th blog entry "The 'De-sportification' of Running?"). From the title most readers will correctly predict where the piece is going: Canada used to have a lot of running talent (in the late 70s to mid 80s). More people in Canada are running that ever but we're not getting faster because of it. To be clear I am not brining up his article to debate against it. Rather I want to supply some of my own thoughts I had while reading his.

Filling holes

As a semi-competitive runner enthusiast (5 years so far), I have been playing catchup on the science and history of the sport. I have not read enough about running to be called well-read. Missing from my shelf are many of the obscure books and even a few popular ones like Duel in the Sun and The Perfect Mile. It seems every second book I see is one I do not recognize. Once you start looking, there's a lot to catch up on, especially when you're a slow reader. This doesn't bother me so much because no matter how much you've read there's always someone out there better read than you.

Pool runnings

Nothing like an afternoon of pool running to wake the from body head to toe. Achilles getting better, as usually happens when you take care of it. You also get extra time to think in the pool, and that's fine too. Reminds me of how I first learned to pool run (cue fade).

Movie review: Tokyo Olympiad (1965)

A few days ago I decided to watch Kon Ichikawa's 170-minute long Tokyo Olympiad, chronicling the two weeks of competition of the 18th summer games. The games were originally intended to be filmed by Akira Kurosawa, but things fell though after he demanded total control of the opening ceremonies. Japan's officials preferred to hire someone who'd play up the post-war reconstruction and economic growth of the city. Obligingly there are early shots of old buildings demolished to make way for the new 71,000-seat National stadium. It's fair to say the movie was unavoidably inspired by Riefenstahl's 226-minute-long Olympia (1938), an artistically-managed depiction of Berlin's summer Olympic games.

Winterlude here and there

Canadian winter festivals are upon us for the next few weeks. In particular there's Ottawa-Gatineau's Winterlude/Bal de Neige. I grew up skating on the canal where once upon a time beavertails were reserved only for those who braved the ice. Always memorable too is the annual Winterlude Triathlon (skate, ski, run) happening today, which I have participated in a few times.

Exercise according to a philosopher

I'm reading a little philosophy. I wasn't a big fan of studying the subject on its own, but lately that's changing. God knows why I started now. That being said, I've taken a liking to Seneca (The Younger) who, according to wikipedia was born in 4 B.C., died 65 A.D. and lived much of his life in Rome. As a Roman Stoic, he lived during a time of the decadent period (good timing). He fashioned gems like

We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.

Getting back into weights

Yesterday I didn't do much of anything exercise-wise. In part that was because a snow squall was lulling me to stay indoors. I walked home through the snow, which takes about 25 minutes, and spent the night reading instead of heading to gym. On the bright side, coming off the heels of a good sleep the day left me time for some interesting new chemistry project ideas. Not sure if they'll see the light of day, but I enjoy a good thought experiment now and then.

Photo from serious running

All fine to rationalize, but because of all that sitting around I had a crummy night's sleep compared to yesterday. As important as it is to rest, too much of anything can be too much (duh). Right now I'm at a point where my nerves need a stimulus of some kind, and more than 45 minutes of walking. I vowed to pool run, though it seems today fate had other plans.