A Philosophy of Strength and Health

These images are from the men's 500 m B and A finals today at the Short Track Speed Skating Nats. We paid a whopping $5 to see the best men and women short track speedskaters in the country race. It was fun to walk right in and see a final featuring Apolo Anton Ohno . He ended up 3rd, after crashing out not once, but twice. They restarted the race after AO took out two other guys on the third lap of the first race. After much deliberation, the officials did not disqualify him and allowed him to start again. AAO led after the second lap and then fell again about 20 m from the finish on the straight away, taking out another dude with him. Not a good day for AAO. The AD and I both think he should have been DQ'd after the first crash. Someone in the lobby of the rink was showing a nice high definition replay of the first crash and you could clearly see AAO grab the arm of the guy next to him and take him down. Of course, there is very little local media coverage of this na...

To all my young Padawans (especially the ladies), who are about to embark on another New Year's fitness resolution: "Tone not. Train or train not. There is no tone."

Back in the day, it was a big deal to get your varsity warm ups--that included pants. We could actually fit pants over our shorts. Now, they just wear long sleeve shooting shirts and these things that are supposed to be shorts. How do you move in this stuff?

Erin, not your average 6th grade teacher, is flexible, strong and fast. Oh yeah, she was a member of the 2005 World Championship team.

Sidewinder. Schlinkhaus. Jingles. Lady. Boney Cat. Skinny McMinny. Girl. We called her everything but Millie. She was sassy and surly; she was Miss Independent. She was my companion for 18 of her 20 or so years on this earth; for all of my adult life. The last few years, she couldn't hear a damn thing, but she made sure we heard her. She left us on Friday, November 28. She was the alpha cat and knew it. When she rounded the corner downstairs to join the rest of us to watch a movie, we would hum Darth Vader's Imperial March. Murphy Fober knew he had better make room for his superior. Her hisses at him were legendary. And most of our human friends approached her with respect. She wasn't exactly Ms. Congeniality (and neither am I), but she did mellow a bit after losing her hearing. My mother and sister were often told to talk to the paw. But she loved the Athletic Director; and she knew who the real alpha cat was. I could get that cat to do anything and I co...

High school basketball season is upon us. With that, I bring you a peek inside one of Ryan "PB&J" Pierson's last pre-season workouts. This workout included, but was not limited to, the following: Lunge & Reach Med Ball Wall Drills BN Push Press (work up to 135#/3 x 3) Step Ups (work up to 80#/8 x 3) DB Rows Curl & Press Modified Gambetta Squat Series x 5 sets w/90 sec rest intervals: 20 bw squats/10 lunges/10 ice skaters/10 sq jumps w/arms = 1 set Ryan has been working with me since late February. He averaged 2 sessions per week only, with several weeks off during the summer for AAU basketball and wisdom teeth. Primary goals for this time period have been to develop basic mobility, body awareness, confidence and strength (force production and force attenuation), with particular attention to the LE's (he had a R tibial avulsion fx with a pulmonary embolism in early 2007). We have not measured body fat, but he is down 7-10 lbs and much leaner than in Feb...

Before I get to the corn thing, I have to brag a bit. Got the Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 720 installed this week. This is our lone television in the house, in the basement. There are many days we never have it on. But when we fire up the Fober budget home theatre, it is sweet. Some women have the shopping gene for shoes, knick -knacks or clothes. Mine mutated into a technology gene. With 2.35:1 ratio wide screen movies, I have an 8 ft. diagonal screen. Now, we only have 5.1 surround sound, but we did it for a song. The rumble and vibrations of a star destroyer or shells flying over your head at Normandy are pretty damn impressive. And Russell Crowe looks fabulous as Maximus in Gladiator. Catherine, you'll have to come over and watch it for the 51st time. Anyway, on to the real topic of this post. I rented a few DVDs to check out the new projector's abilities and picked up the movie King Corn. This a great documentary if you have an interest in food and how...