FLOAT ON

As much as I enjoyed the Olympics I’m glad they’re over and I hate to keep writing about them but, this list is pretty funny.  My friend, Trent, sent me these comments made by NBC sports commentators during the Olympics.

1. Weightlifting commentator: ‘This is Gregorieva from Bulgaria . I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.’
 
2. Dressage commentator: ‘This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.’
 
3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: ‘I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.’
 
4. Boxing Analyst: ‘Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.’

5. Softball announcer: ‘If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.’

6. Basketball analyst: ‘He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn’t like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.’
 
7. At the rowing medal ceremony: ‘Ah, isn’t that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.’ 

8. Soccer commentator: ‘Julian Dicks is everywhere. It’s like they’ve got eleven Dicks on the field.’

9. Tennis commentator: ‘One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them… Oh my God, what have I just said?’

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Now that the Olympics are over I’m not sure what to do with my extra time.  Right now I’ve found a nice routine with my running.  I’ve been running two days and then taking the third off.  I’ll run anywhere from 8-12km.  I have a long ways to go before I’ll be able to run faster paces but, the good thing is I can see improvements from week to week.  I’m building up so I can do the Run For the Toad on October 4th.  The Run for the Toad is a 25km (and 50km for those so inclined) trail race which receives great reviews by everyone who participates.  Right now I’m not even thinking of racing it hard, just going to get out there and enjoy the trails and atmosphere.

Kenenisa Bekele wins two gold medals, both in Olympic Record time, and is overshadowed by the great sprinting sensation, Usain Bolt.  Rightfully so since Bolt won three Gold medals, all in World Record times.  Bekele’s 5000m was very impressive as he ran his last 2000m in 4:56!  That was also his first gold medal at a major championships, which is surprising since he medalled at the 2003 world champs and set the world record, 12:37, in 2004.  Lesson: you can’t win if you don’t enter (ie. 2005 and 2007 WC).

Both marathon champs, Tomescu and Wanjiru, ran gutsy races and deserved their wins.  I was very fascinated with the men’s race because the pace was insane right from the line.  There were still 8 guys in the lead pack at 10km even though they split in 29:25 in the hot and humid conditions.  It was interesting to see who would stay back and pick up the pieces and who could hang on and for how long.  I would of liked to see Ryan Hall have a better race but it wasn’t in the cards that day.  Ryan and Dathan should be much more competitive come London.

Wanjiru is probably in world record shape and deserves this post race beer.

I really thought this was going to be Alistair Cragg’s time to shine in the 5000m.  It was Mottram in 2005, Tegencamp in 2007 and I thought Cragg for 2008 but, he must of been injured as he left the track early during the final.  Megan Metcalfe’s PB od 15:11 in the heats to qualify for the final was impressive, as was Dylan Armstrong’s PB to grab fourth place in the shot final. 

Gary Reed ran into bad luck in the name of Yusuf Kamel.  With 150m to go Gary tried passing Kamel on the inside and ran into him, having to slow down and go around Kamel the outside.  I didn’t really notice just how much that impeded Gary when I saw the race unfold, but on the replay it was evident that it cost him a great deal.  With a clear path I’m sure Gary would of medalled or been right in the thick of it. 

My last comment on exciting races to watch came off the track in the triathlon.  Watching Simon run with the leaders was awesome because I know how strong Simon is as a runner and have heard some of his track workouts going into the Olympics, simply amazing.  When he started to get dropped it didn’t look good at all because you could see his upper body tightening up.  I was yelling at the TV ‘drop your visor’ in which he did and he caught back to the lead pack of four. I then thought he should wait until 200m to go but he went earlier and started looking back a lot, which is basically telling the guy behind you “I’m really worried you’ll catch me ’cause I’m dying up here”.  Although I thought the gold could of been his in the last 300m if ran differently none of that would of been possible if Simon didn’t show tremendous tenacity when he bridged back that gap.  A very inspirational race to watch in terms of effort and guts.

And for all you medal junkies here are some cool findings from this article

What country wins? That with the most medals or with the most gold medals?  Here’s a way to combine both stats: Three points for a gold, 2 for a silver, 1 for a bronze

1. China – 223

2. United States – 220

3. Russia – 139

4. Great Britain – 98

5. Australia – 89

6. Germany – 83

7. France – 70

8. Korea – 67

9. Italy – 54

10. Japan – 49

Canada would come in with 33 points.

Other crumbs of medal-table trivia:

* By the IOC’s ranking system, Michael Phelps would have finished 10^th, one place ahead of France, had he been entered as a country.

* This is only the second time since World War I that two nations have split the gold medal and total medal lead. The other instance was in the 1964 Tokyo Games, when the US won 36 gold medals and 90 overall medals, while the Soviet Union won 30 gold medals and 96 overall medals.

* Compared with its results from Athens, China improved by 19 gold medals and 37 total medals. By far, the greatest increase came in gymnastics, going from one gold, zero silvers, and three bronzes (1-0-3) to 11-1-6 – a gain of 10 gold medals and 14 total medals. No other Chinese sport saw a gain of more than three total medals.

* China maintained or increased its medal totals from Athens in every sport but three. In each of these three, the decrease was only one. Fencing (from 0-3-0 in Athens to 1-1-0 in Beijing), judo (1-1-3 to 3-0-1), and shooting (4-2-3 to 5-2-1). In each, it increased its gold-medal total despite the decline in total medals.

* Fifty-one percent of China’s medals were gold. That is only the third time that more than half of overall leaders’ medals were gold. The others instances were the Soviets in 1972 and the Americans in 1952.

* Fifty-eight percent of American medals came from swimming (31), gymnastics (10), and track and field (23). After those three, America’s best sports by total medals were shooting and fencing, with six apiece.

* In no sport but swimming and track and field did the US win more than two gold medals. China won more than two gold medals in seven sports: badminton (3), diving (7), gymnastics (11), judo (3), shooting (5), table tennis (4), and weightlifting (8).

* There were six medal sweeps: three for the US (men’s 400 meter dash, men’s 400 meter hurdles, and women’s saber), two for China (men’s and women’s singles table tennis), and one for Jamaica (women’s 100 meter dash).

* Of the countries that won more than 10 medals, two won all their medals in one sport. Kenya’s 14 medals and Jamaica’s 11 medals all came in track and field.

* Of the countries that won more than 20 medals, none is more dependent on one sport than Australia: 20 of its 46 medals (43 percent) came from swimming.

* Eighty-seven countries won a medal, surpassing the record of 80, set in 2000.

* Five countries won their first medal: Togo, Mauritius, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Bahrain.

* Three countries won their first gold medal: Panama, Mongolia, and Bahrain.

* Armenia won six medals, all of them bronze. Cuba won 24 medals but only two golds.

And if you didn’t see this guy kicking the ref…

…here’s the video http://vinovo.magnify.net/video/Angel-Valodia-Matos-Cuban-Tae

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Most of what I read from Oly blogs were Teg, Torres, McAdams, Leo etc shaking the President’s hand.  This is the special presidential shake.

Do I have to draw in those cheesy lines from George’s eyes?

Yes, I do…

If you either watched the opening ceremonies or missed them these are some cool pics to check out.  London has got to be feeling some pressure to live up to what the Chinese put on the table.  15 000 people taking part in the ceremonies is mind-boggling.  As much as these opening ceremonies were amazing I always seem to get bored with them, most of the stuff kept me entertained but there is always a lot of slow boring crap in there too.

I have been watching some of the games but, I’m really trying to pace myself because I know once Thursday night hits I’ll be glued until the Men’s marathon on the 24th.  So many good races to come and I hope CBC will air them on TV because streaming internet just isn’t the same. 

Olympic Track schedule (and you can switch it to your local time)

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After running into a little problem during my build-up I realized I should of even started off a little slower, yaya hindsight is 20/20.  I usually start back with a 20 minute run and get up to 60 minutes by week’s end after a normal down time.  This time I tried to go twice as slow by starting with a 20 minute run a getting up to 60 minutes after two weeks.  I didn’t quite reach 60 minutes in my build-up before I had to take another step back. 

Today I was able to do a little run and I’ll stay around this level for a bit and take more days off between runs until I feel comfortable.  Not only am I starting back up from a long lay off but I’m coming back from an injury, and in fact I’m still kind of injured.

Here’s a pic of the Bayfront path in Hamilton.  This is a great place to run in the winter because there is no traffic and there’s snow removal.

Unfortunately it’s not a great place to swim in the summer.

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The Olympics start in a week.  I’ve had a few people ask me if I’m going to watch the Olympics thinking that maybe I won’t because it would remind me of where I wanted to be in August.  There’s no doubt that I’m going to watch the Olympics and I’m pretty excited for the Track portion.  I really want to watch the distance events, not necessarily because it’s the Olympics but, because there is going to be some amazing races with great coverage.  There’s no other races that get the coverage the Olympics get, and if there were, I would watch them just the same.  In the distance races CBC will likely do a profile on any Canadian in the race and maybe a little something on the top competitors in the field and then show most of the race, that never happens any other time. 

Not going to the Olympics has made me question and realise some things.  I’ve asked myself “why do I run?”, and that answer has been quite refreshing because it strips running down to it’s roots without any bullshit that may come with competing at a decent level.  It’s made me realise that the media only cares about Olympians for a few months, even if you do the exact same thing as an Olympian, only the Olympian gets recognition.  I realised I’ve been set aside by some, which is unfortunate.  And I continue to realise the amount of support I have from others, which has been amazing, thank you. 

More than anything I really wish I was training right now.  After three weeks off I started back up two weeks ago with a 4km run.  I would increase my run by about 1 km a day while taking every 4th or 5th day off.  I still don’t have full stength and speed in my left leg, but it has been better then when I was trying to run in June.  I built up to a 13 km run by Tuesday when I noticed an ache in my lower left back with shooting pain, slightly different from my initial injury,  and now I’m back down, haven’t run since.

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…I got my hands on the coveted Leffe Blonde this weekend when a shipment came in to the Liquor store.  I was about to ask the boys to bring some back from Belgium… but by then it will be back to living like a monk and not drinking the monks’ product.

After watching the recent videos of Leuven on both Flotrack.org and guelphrunning.ca I’m really missing not being over there this year.  I’ve spent parts of every summer since ’04 in Belgium and racing all over Europe.  On top of that, this year there are six runners and two coaches from Speed River in Belgium.  A lot different from my first European track adventure

… Prior to my first European track race in 2004 I had been to Europe on a few Cross-Country teams, but going over with team Canada is very different than going on my own.  Right after Olympic Trials in 2004  I went over by myself and I didn’t even have a place to stay. I got off my flight in Amsterdam and took a random train and ended up in Louvain-La-Neuve, a place I thought was Leuven.  Luckily I found a student dorm to stay in Louvain-La-Neuve for a week before I went to Leuven where Ryan McKenzie and I had apartment rooms for two weeks.  It was a good learning experience to travel alone and get into meets etc.  The last couple of years it’s been way better in Leuven with so many North American athletes and this year with the Speed River Crew over there it would of been awesome. 

On top of watching the Belgian meets on Flotrack I’ve been filling my void of Belgium (and Europe) this summer by doing things around Hamilton that bring me back there (unfortunately running isn’t quite one of them yet)… and other things that I never did there but seem like things I could do in Europe

1) Drink a Stella Artois – not only is it a Belgian beer, but its brewed right in Leuven (check out the label)

2) Walk to the grocery store with a genuine Belgian shopping bag.  DelHaize grocery stores have the most stylish bag.

3) When it’s really hot I drink a cold Kriek (Cherry flavoured beer) – It’s european so it’s good

4) Put on a stupid face and eat chocolate

5) Drink a Duvel – yep, I’m on downtime

6) Call up meet directors in Europe on Skype as I’m the Speed River meet manager for this trip

7) Drive a European car on a track – why not?

8) walk into the village and get gelato – ok, so I’ve been getting frozen yogurt from TCBY, close enough

9) eat a waffle

10) Drink a Leffe Blonde, or two… did I mention I’m on downtime? (Unfortunately I’ve only got my hands on a Leffe Brune but the Blondes are coming to the liquor store soon, hopefully before I go back to my monastic lifestyle)

Man, I really need to start running again.. and I mean 170km/week, none of this 15 minute build-up nonsense that I’m going to have to do for a while.  Patience is a virtue.

I just downloaded some pics I’ve taken throughout the year on my cell phone.

Rob Watson has one massive right foot.

I came across this specimen on our drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff.

The place is called Camp Verde and this is their Queen.

Lizard on an overpass in Flagstaff.

Bear riding in the back of a pick-up, Teen Wolf Style.

I had to follow this for a while to get another pic of it.

Welcome to 7000ft.  I would stare at this poster as I pool ran in Flagstaff.  One day I stared at it for 1hr 15 min… and you only see it when pool running in one direction.

Scott Arnald

There is a rainbow in this pic.  It ends in Hamilton.  The city is made of gold.

NAU track with Mt. Humphrey in the background. This is where dreams are made and broken.