The paved trail along the north-ish side of Lake Natoma (below the Orangevale Bluffs) has been closed now for the past six months, due to multiple, large debris slides during this past winter’s record rains.
If you’ve been waiting with anticipation for the day you’ll once again be able run or ride your bike through here, expect to wait another several months.
Apparently, it won’t be as simple as running a front-end loader down there and scraping up the debris.
“When I was still in contact with 100 to go, I knew I could do it. When I really need to do it, an emotional moment for me, very important, I can pull it out.” Awesome photo courtesy of Painani.org.
First off, to follow up his 5th place finish in the final of the Olympic 800 meters, Nick Symmonds ran a 5:19 beer-mile this week. This is apparently a new American Record.
If you are not sure what a beer mile is, you can watch the video. It makes my stomach lurch just to watch.
We’ve all watched a lot of Olympics over the past couple of weeks. It is apparent that while the US may not be dominant in running, especially distance running, we are dominant in gymnastics.
After watching this video, I’ve decided it’s because the parents of US gymnasts are so much better than the parents of runners.
Next time you’re at a high school cross country meet, notice the parents quietly sipping coffee and cheering as their kids toil past. Perhaps if these same parents were a bit more intense the kids would try a little harder.
Alert reader, John B. (not me) wrote to tell me about his experience trying the training protocol I had written about in the original post, High Intensity Training.
John writes:
Two blocks at first, two to three times a week? Then ramp up to three.
Jenny Simpson winning the 1500World Championship in 2011 (Photo by Victah Sailor/PhotoRun.net)
We at the Sacramento Running News have long enjoyed an appreciation for 1500 meter world champion Jenny (Barringer) Simpson. The expression on Simpson’s face as she crossed the finish line in Daegu and won the 2011 World Championship stands out in my mind as one of the great images from the sport.
Her expression was a deer in the headlight look of amazement and delight.
Simpson’s post race interviews showed her to be charming and gracious–something this sport needs–showing humility and heaping praise on all the people who had helped her get to that podium.
