Miscellaneous stuff

I've been watching the Olympics these days. It's interesting because 4 years ago, when it was on, I didn't watch it. I could have given a rat's ass. But now, well now I watch and I appreciate the skill, and the effort, and what I imagine is a grueling workout schedule.

When I was watching the swimmers, I was imagining that, all over the country, triathletes were gathered around TVs, their noses about 6 inches away from the screen. I imagine there's a hushed sort of excited chatter. Notetaking, even. See? See there? See how he moves his arm all the down like that?

Oh, yes--Thanks to the miracle that is Youtube and the Internet, we'll be analyzing the hell out of the swimmers, runners, and bikers, won't we?

So, but, what caught my attention yesterday was Sweet Baboo was watching the sprinters, the female sprinters. I wasn't paying much attention at the time, as I was watching a recording of the opening ceremony on my computer, but then he said something and I looked up and then, well, there it was: women who look like me. There they were: long torsos, low centers of gravity, solid bodies. Sprinters. I'm a sprinter.

At least, I sort of have the body of one. So how come I'm so damned slow? Oh, yeah, I remember now - it's that whole training thing.

So I was interested in this whole body type thing, and I looked around on it, and I found this:

174 women (in Olympic track and field events) were measured. On average endurance runners (3000 m and marathon are 4.8 years older, 6 cm shorter and 5 kg lighter for their height than sprinters (200 m and 400 m). A consistent trend of decreasing body mass index with run was observed; adjusting for height the marathon runners were 7 kg lighter than 100 m sprinters.

I also found this: To what type of sport are you suited?

So, well, obviously there's lots more to it that just "body type": estimates are that sports success is "55% nature, and 45% nurture".

But it's fun to look at and think about.

<-- Oh, BTW, here's my commute to work (1-way). As you can see, it's mostly flat. yet, I'm surprisingly tired at the end of the day on days that I commute. I mean, whooped, head hurts trying to keep my eyes open sort of tired.

Thursday, I leave to accompany Baboo to his first 100-miler. Be sure to throw lots of blogger love his way.

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