Running on water

Got up and ran a loop with Moby this morning.  It was 3 degrees...brrrrr.......  ran 5 minutes out onto the lake.  It is frozen as far out as we could see.  We hopped around on the ice mounds for a while with Moby looking into all the caves.  Knee hurt but it was good to get out.  Not every day you get to run on water.   Should have taken my camera. 




Inna said there was a lot of booming and banging there this morning.  She couldn't tell if it was shooting or fireworks.  Police are noticeably absent in the streets.  A friend flew into Kiev yesterday and passport control was basically non-existent.  I hope they sort all this out.  My guess is Putin's thugs will incite enough criminal activity that he'll need to send in troops to "Save and Stabilize" the country.  Surplus wealth going to a crooked politician or going to an authoritarian controlling state...I'm worried that all the revolution has accomplished is to cut out the middle man.

family gathering

I have quite a family related mission this weekend.  My presence has been requested.  Possibly an olive branch...more than likely an aid request.  Let's hope white doves, peace, and all that shit.  Mostly I hope I don't get put in jail or lose any teeth.

Wizzerwack just misses US team again

I'm always so proud to see the young athletes I trained with and coached doing so well.  To see Mark Wieczorek nearly reaching the highest levels of running and Joe Dombroski doing the same in cycling is a real treat.

This weekend Mark was yet again so very close to getting a ticket to the World Championships.



Men 800 Meter Run
===================================================================
Winner from each heat plus next 2 best times advance to final
       World: W 1:42.67  3/9/1997    Wilson Kipketer, DEN                     
    American: A 1:45.00  3/8/1992    Johnny Gray, Santa Monica TC             
        Meet: M 1:46.60  3/2/2002    Derrick Peterson, adidas                 
    Name                    Year Team                   Prelims  H#
===================================================================
Preliminaries
  1 Robby Andrews                adidas                 1:48.12Q  1
  2 Mark Wieczorek               Brooks                 1:48.28Q  2
  3 Erik Sowinski                Nike                   1:48.32Q  4
  4 Nick Symmonds                Brooks                 1:48.79Q  3
  5 Tyler Mulder                 Nike/Oregon TC E       1:48.34q  2
  6 Michael Rutt                 NJNY TC                1:48.44q  2
  7 James Gilreath               Adidas Tm Green        1:48.72   1
  8 Nick Guarino                 Syracuse Charger       1:48.99   3
  9 Casimir Loxsom               Brooks                 1:49.05   1
10 Brian Gagnon                 NJNY TC                1:49.88   3
11 Owen Dawson                  Unattached             1:49.92   1
12 Tetlo Emmen                  Unattached             1:49.94   1
13 Richard Jones                Unattached             1:50.06   2
14 Harun Abda                   Oregon TC El           1:50.25   2
15 Mark Husted                  Unattached             1:50.48   4
16 Jacob Waterman               Wright Dist Proj       1:50.61   3
17 Grant Grosvenor Jr           Montana St.            1:51.19   3
18 Chris Bilbrew                Adidas Tm Green        1:51.92   4
19 Nicholas Thornton            Unattached             1:54.11   4
20 Josh Guarino                 Syracuse Charger       1:57.59   4

Men 800 Meter Run
================================================================
Winner from each heat plus next 2 best times advance to final
       World: W 1:42.67  3/9/1997    Wilson Kipketer, DEN                     
    American: A 1:45.00  3/8/1992    Johnny Gray, Santa Monica TC             
        Meet: M 1:46.60  3/2/2002    Derrick Peterson, adidas                 
    Name                    Year Team                    Finals
================================================================
Finals
  1 Erik Sowinski                Nike                   1:47.86 
  2 Robby Andrews                adidas                 1:48.44 
  3 Nick Symmonds                Brooks                 1:48.48 
  4 Tyler Mulder                 Nike/Oregon TC E       1:48.68 
  5 Mark Wieczorek               Brooks                 1:49.03 
  6 Michael Rutt                 NJNY TC                1:49.14

Stimuli

Well I've given up again.  I did all the rehab to fix my upper hamstring tendonopathy which was caused by the bulged disc in my back.  Then as soon as I started trying to run again...within 4 minutes my knee would start hurting so bad that I had to walk.  After 2 weeks of fighting that and starting over again with the patellar tendonitis exercises I have had enough.  I quit!

I did a 2 hour bicycle ride the other day with no knee pain.  I needed to get out and do something.  Now that I've decided I'll just bike for a while we're stuck in a horrible cold snap here in the Northeast with tons of snow.  So instead...I read.

Here are a few interesting articles I've been reading about stimulation.  In this first article the author tells the story, using a comic, of how we have caused our sources of stimuli to evolve, without our biological ability to evolve our instincts or willpower to match them. 

"Tinbergen succeeded in isolating the traits that triggered certain instincts, and then made an interesting discovery. The instincts had no bounds. Instead of stopping at a 'sweet spot', the instinctive response would still be produced by unrealistic stimuli. Once the researchers isolated the instincts' trigger, they could create greatly exaggerated dummies which the animals would choose instead of a realistic alternative. Songbird parents would prefer to feed fake baby birds with mouths wider and redder than their real chicks, and the hatchlings themselves would ignore their own parents to beg fake beaks with more dramatic markings."

http://www.sparringmind.com/supernormal-stimuli/

The second is very much the same but talks about video games being the stimuli.  It was written in 2007 after a gamer played World of Warcraft for 57 hours straight and died.  He had strong willpower to overcome all the other instinctual urges to eat, sleep, etc.  But could not overcome the artificial stimuli created by the video game.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/h3/superstimuli_and_the_collapse_of_western/

Anyways,  I'm going to wait a week or two and then start completely over with a new set of doctors.  New set of MRI's.  I refuse to give up on running.  But for now I need a break.  I'm going to go ride my bicycle.  If it turns out biking is all I can do I'll be fine with that.  But I swear I still have a good marathon in me....and I know I could win a 50miler..... and, and, and.....