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Thursday, March 5, 2015

HOW ROBERT SEES IT....

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/magazine/mary-cain-is-growing-up-fast.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Does it make you think how primitive track coaching was back in the day?
"Scientific" as you noted was a euphemism.

Kind of scary how far things have now gone at the top. The next
generation of wearable devices backed by internet resources will be an
even larger transition. Races will be won either by what you wear and
what the "deep learning" back end says to run unless they are banned in
competition, or by the same thing done during training. Coaches? Like
most knowledge workers easily automated in five to ten years with the
ability to review thousands of races, billions of data points,
proprietary real time and long term training strategies, and highly
individualized athletic profiles - profiles that hackers will be paid
big bucks to steal. Yeah, it is that close.
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Friday, January 2, 2015

The New Track Woman...?

Not something I saw coming:    (Open link below at your peril!).

http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/08/this-woman-is-the-most-stylish-athlete-right-now/slideshow/2014/08/27/can_maggie_vesseybringglitzandglamourtotrackandfield/maggie-vessey-04/
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Monday, December 15, 2014

An Important New Approach to Running Injuries

This appeared on the same site as the people who are pushing the re-injection of your own blood plasma to cure bad tendons, etc.  The 3-D printing of knee parts has obviuos implications for those who suffer from any recurrent joint tear or similar career-ending track injury, like a torn achilles tendon.    Of course, it will generate questions about bionic athletes for a while, but there is a difference between survival and cheating, the purists aside.

Regenerative Medicine in 2015 and Beyond

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3D Printing of Meniscus Cartilage

Researchers from New York have recently published a paper about how to use 3D printing technology to create a new meniscus.  This is a merging of technology and medicine that could be transform treatment of knee arthritis.  
 
3D Meniscus Printing

Help Avoid Meniscus Injuries with Exercise



Why Kobe Bryant may go to Japan to treat his Knee Arthritis Next Time

Kobe Bryant has gone to Germany at least twice to be treated with a component of his own blood for knee arthritis.  Japan recently passed and instituted new legislation aimed at accelerating regenerative medicine in their country.  


Kobe 
  



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Friday, November 28, 2014

Track Town Canada---Edmonton?

I don't know what to make of this.   I went to the World Cup way back when in Edmonton, when Canada became the first country to host it and win not a single medal.  These articles seem to show they're good organizers and have bottomless pockets, but there is precious little mentioned about developing good athletes......any one know anything about "Track Town Canada", an explicit knock off on Eugene's language.?     Click on URL below.

http://www.insidethegames.biz/commonwealth-games/2022/1021180-edmonton-rechristens-itself-tracktown-canada-as-2022-commonwealth-games-bid-gathers-momentum


By the way, Toronto is supposed to host the 2015 Pan Am games this summer,  although they are having a lot of  money problems. 
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Track Town, The Movie (see below)





Tracktown: The Movie

Former Duck All-American Alexi Pappas, MA ’13, directs love story set in track world


Saturday Night Live’s Rachel Dratch and The Office’s Andy Buckley play Pappas’ parents in the film. (Courtesy Tracktown)
Tracktown is a love story.
It’s a coming-of-age love story about Plumb Marigold, a promising runner who falls in love with Sawyer, a baker, on the eve of the Olympic trials.
It’s a love story to Eugene, the town that welcomed star and real-life Olympic hopeful Alexi Pappas when she enrolled at the UO to compete for the Ducks while working toward her master’s degree.
And it’s a love story written and directed by a couple in love, Pappas and boyfriend Jeremy Teicher—who fell for each other while studying at Dartmouth, and collaborated on Teicher’s acclaimed first film, Tall as the Baobab Tree.

Former UO All-American and Olympic hopeful
Alexi Pappas stars in Tracktown, a movie she
wrote and directed. (Courtesy Tracktown)
The story of Tracktown is inextricably linked to Pappas’ and Teicher’s journey from Dartmouth, where Pappas graduated magna cum laude and Teicher graduated cum laude, to Eugene, where Pappas earned her master’s degree. Pappas, Dartmouth’s steeplechase record holder, had one more year of NCAA eligibility remaining after her graduation, and wanted to work on her master’s at a university where her track skills would also be put to good use.
“Naturally, I thought about Oregon,” she said. “I looked at the interdisciplinary studies program and thought that both the running program and the master’s program were a perfect fit for me.”
On her recruiting visit, Pappas was recognized by locals while out running trails with fellow Duck Jordan Hasay ’13.
“I called Jeremy, and I said, ‘Jeremy, there’s this place where people know about running,’” said Pappas. “I’d never experienced that before. ‘There’s this place called Track Town and it’s real, and it’s filled with people who are running.’ There’s also this whole other side, this hippie side. This is a very specific and unique place; it’s not Anytown, USA. That started the idea for the movie.”
While representing the Ducks, Pappas earned two All-America titles and helped the team win two national championships, while simultaneously working on the script for Tracktown. Day in and day out, she would run twice a day, and fill her time off the track working on the script with Teicher.
The storyline centers around Marigold—played by Pappas—a talented but sheltered young runner who falls in love with a local baker on the eve of the Olympic trials. As the race of her life draws ever closer, Marigold is drawn into a world unfamiliar to her, one that could affect her quest for Olympic glory.
“We’re really interested in stories about growing up, and also stories that take place in really specific, cool worlds that maybe most people wouldn’t know about,” said Teicher.
Co-starring Saturday Night Live alumna Rachel Dratch as Marigold’s mother Gail, and The Office’s Andy Buckley as her father Burt, the film also includes appearances by fellow runners Andrew Wheating ’10, Matt Miner, MS ’14, Rebecca Friday ’13, Bridget Franek, and Nick Symmonds. The Eugene public also makes an appearance, as Hayward Field was opened up one day for the locals to make up a crowd during the filming of a dream sequence.
That isn’t to say track and field drives the movie, though.
“The movie’s not about running,” said Pappas. “It’s about growing up in a very specific world, which is Track Town, USA. It’s all sides of this place. Eugene is a character in itself.
“My running friends here say, ‘Oh, you’re calling it Tracktown?’ It’s such a buzzword here. But if we lived in a place where they were fascinated with pancakes and it was called “Pancakeland,” and we were to make a movie about it, we’d call it Pancakeland.”

Tracktown was filmed in Eugene, and a
number of Ducks worked in the cast and crew.
(Courtesy Tracktown)
The movie has more ties to the UO than just its star and location, though. A number of Ducks were involved in the production, including producer Jay Smith ’85, script supervisor Sierra Swan, art department assistant Courtney Theim, grip assistant Jacob Shadwick, production assistant Paige Ott, wardrobe assistant Laura Brehm, craft services overseer Brynn Grossman, and production assistant Drew Anderson.
“We definitely wanted to be as local as possible, and that’s why there are so many UO kids involved,” Pappas said.
Getting the film made has been a labor of love for Pappas and Teicher, albeit one that has taken every ounce of wit and talent the pair possess. Pappas leaned heavily on her entrepreneurial business degree while finding backers—John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, is an investor, while the San Francisco Film Society and Sundance are providing mentorship support—and then used her connections, and a little sweat equity, to put the cast and crew together. Dratch and Buckley, the film’s two marquee actors, signed on after reading Pappas’ script, though veteran producer Smith, whose credits include movies City Slickers, Young Guns, and Major League, as well as TV shows Portlandia, ER, and The X-Files, needed a little more persuading.
“Jeremy and Alexi charmed me,” Smith said. “They came to me and said they really needed some help. I was trying to retire—I live on a cattle ranch outside of [Eugene]. They called me while I was in the middle of shooting a film with Kevin Bacon just to make some money so I could ranch. I got back to my ranch and they were really adamant about it, so I told them if they helped me pick up hay, I’d help them with the movie.”
For being shot on a shoestring budget, using friends’ houses as sets and with current students and recent graduates on the crew, the shoot went smoothly and drew praise from the on-set industry veterans.
“Everyone knows what they’re doing,” said Buckley, who portrayed David Wallace on the Emmy Award-winning American adaptation of The Office. “You don’t know that they’ve just graduated—they’re very proficient at their jobs, from the grips to makeup to the camera people. It just feels like another small independent movie.”
Pappas—whom Buckley said could become “a terrific actress,” while joking that she’s also a great “daughter” who keeps her room clean and gets good grades—will return full-time to the track world once her work on Tracktown ends. Now settled in Eugene and running with Oregon Track Club Elite, she will replace camera equipment with Nikes and a makeup department with her signature bun while preparing for the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
That isn’t to say Tracktown will be her last filmmaking effort, though—far from it, in fact. It’s just that the talented runner, writer, and director—who has studied with Second City and the Upright Citizens Brigade, and who improvised some lines with Dratch during filming—has more immediate priorities.
“I want to act and write for the rest of my life,” Pappas said. “After I train for the Olympics with Oregon Track Club Elite.”
Want to learn more about Tracktown?


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Saturday, October 25, 2014

What Have I been Up to Lately?

Like most of you I am rather surprised to have survived much longer than ever I expected to, except in my teenage years when I no doubt thought I would be immortal.  But these intimations of mortality have lead me to consider what I would like to do in my remaining years, health permitting.   Being a 60's kind of guy, I still get most of my current thinking from television.   Hawaii Five-Ohs shots of the beautiful scenery in the background put a trip to Hawaii first in my bucket list.  For some reason it became a trip of a lifetime on the heirloom boutique cruise ship, the Pacific Princess, from Vancouver to a bunch of stops in the Hawaiian islands.   After poor little Ottawa, a walk around Vancouver's West End for the first time in decades, is pretty amazing.   And fun.  The ship was interesting and the multi-national, mult-racial  (mostly non-white) staff were too.   A week on the high seas with a bunch of rich, old  (older than me), stiff fellow passengers (very white) from about equally, the US,  western Canada, and remnants of the British Empire, are not to be highly recommended.  Definitely not the time to brag about our province's interesting political history. 

The ship kept stopping in major harbors around Hawaii, travelling at night, with optional bus tours during the day.  On the ship we had begun to run into Hawaiian pop culture, music, language, hula dancing, ukulele lessons, etc.  It turns out Hawaii is, in addition to being beautiful is interesting.  Basically, there is no industry and past big agriculture (sugar cane, big ranching, etc) is failing, with the exception of some genetically highly tailored corporately controlled crops targetting tourists (macadamia nuts, kona coffee) which employ little labour.  The obvious industries are tourism and the military.  There is surprisingly little American flag-waving ansd a great deal of Hawaiian chest-thumping by the local chamber of commerce which has somehow incorporated native (like Native American) culture, music, laid back attitudes, which is very much linked in its own quiet way to our Red Power expierences back in the early 1970's  ( it's all documented at the very excellent major Bishop's Museum and planetarium in Honululu).  Somehow it does not feel like it is part of the US,  far too peaceful, with a wonderful mixing of an incredible variety of races apparently sharing a good thing.  And of course the exotic plants, the volcanoes around you and  under your feet, the dangerous, beautiful ocean, the surfing and beaches, the climate that changes on every island and on every side of every island,  the highest IT telescopes on earth,  the beautiful women,  the soil--often thin on volcanic rock--which ultimately would compare badly in fertility to that of Saskatchewan, the small amount of commercial fishing, and the unexpectedly disappointing farmers markets and sustainable food movements compared to plain old Eastern Ontario.   Anyway,  Hawaii is probably a glimpse of the future not only for the US and Canadian West Coasts,  but for both of our societies.   Not  so bad,  if my sociological reasoning is not too far off the mark  (and yes, like the old man, I really do have a Ph.D. in Sociology, in my case from York in Toronto,  a city where groups definitely do not get along like they do in Honululu.).   I'll attach a picture taken in front of the the biggest mountain on earth, Mona Loa, undoubtedly volcanic.   It is the second biggest in the solar system to one on Mars, Mons Olympus.  Oloha.---Dick
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Friday, September 12, 2014

Gordie Barwell: A Tragic but Beautiful Story

Gordie Barwell passed away of brain cancer in 1988, following a 10 year long brilliant professional football career with the Roughriders that ended in 1974, despite being only 29.  He died at 43.  There is a eulogy of sorts from the Regina Leader-Post attached entitled:  "Barwell Was A Great Buddy", by Paul Henderson, of the famous 1972 Canada-Russia hockey confrontation, below.

 

Barwell was a great Buddy

Paul Henderson quickly embraced the topic of the interview -- which, for a change, was not his heroics in the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey showdown.

By The Leader-Post (Regina)June 30, 2006
Paul Henderson quickly embraced the topic of the interview -- which, for a change, was not his heroics in the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey showdown.
Instead, Henderson was asked about former Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Gord Barwell.
"He was one of my great buddies,'' Henderson, who established a ministry with Barwell, says from Toronto. "Unfortunately, he died on April 21, 1988.''
Barwell was only 43 when cancer claimed him. Despite Barwell's premature death, the mere mention of his name often inspires laughter.
"He was the consummate practical joker,'' Henderson says. "The common bond is that we loved the Lord. We were really interested in telling other people that the Lord loves them also.
"Neither one of us was what you would call a straight arrow before we became Christians. We understood what we'd been saved from. He was just a great guy. He had a great sense of humour. I loved his sense of humour.''
There are myriad examples.
"We'd go for dinner and I'd turn around and there would be a grape sticking out of one of his nostrils,'' Henderson continues.
"You never answered the phone. Any time we were doing anything with football players, something would happen. He'd say, 'The phone's for you. Go pick up the phone.' Of course, it was filled with shaving lotion and the side of his head would all be covered with lotion.
"Life's too short not to have a sense of humour. Gord sure had a great sense of humour.''
Barwell pulled one of his patented pranks in the early 1970s, shortly before the Roughriders embarked on their first road trip of the CFL season.
"It was when he had the Mr. Big & Tall Shop,'' recalls Nancy Barwell Kraft, who married Gord in 1964. "He told two or three different rookies that they should come in and he'd get them all dressed so they'd look good for the road.
"One by one, they all came in and he sold them exactly the same outfit. I think that was back in the days when there were the plaid leisure suits. So they arrive at the airport to go on their first big road trip and there they all are, dressed in the same jackets. I'm sure they got even somehow, but he just thought that was the greatest.''
Nancy had the same appraisal of Gord when they met as 16-year-olds at a high school track competition in Saskatoon.
"I borrowed his sweatpants and it was love at first whiff,'' she says with a chuckle from Tsawassen, B.C.
Barwell's speed was evident on the track and, eventually, the gridiron. It took him under 10 seconds to cover 100 yards, which made him difficult to cover.
Barwell's jets were on display Oct. 24, 1965, when he caught a 102-yard touchdown pass from Ron Lancaster. That was the longest pass in Riders history until Kent Austin and Jeff Fairholm collaborated on a 107-yarder in 1990.
Lancaster and Barwell hooked up for another memorable bomb in the 1966 Grey Cup. Their 46-yarder was Saskatchewan's longest pass play in its 29-14 victory over the Ottawa Rough Riders.
The following year, Barwell caught 30 passes for 753 yards -- averaging a stratospheric 25.1 yards per reception.
He remained with the Riders until 1973, retiring after an injury-plagued season. Despite being only 29, he had already played 10 years in the CFL.
Read more »
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Wednesday, June 11, 2014

The Fastest High School Milers in History

It is interesting to see that the fastest high school miler ever, Jim Ryun, was, according to these numbers, the earliest.  And he did it just about the time our Saskatchewan high school runners group was peaking (1965).  I most definitely do not believe there is some sort of reason for everything in a universe so obviously built on the product of amazing essentially mathematical coincidences, but it sure does make you think.



The Fastest Miles In High School-Only Competition

compiled by Jack Shepard 

There are 5 U.S. high school boys who have broken 4:00 in the mile. Legends Jim Ryun, Tim Danielson, Marty Liquori, Alan Webb & Lukas Verzbicas combined to do it 9 times. But only 2 of those marks didn’t come without the help of older competition.

If you want to talk about high schoolers competing against high schoolers, the feat has still been turned only twice, by Ryun and Verzbicas.

The all-time list of prep-only milers through May 27, 2013:

3:58.3........ Jim Ryun (East, Wichita, Kansas), State, 5/15/65
3:59.71...... Lukas Verzbicas' (Sandburg, Orland Park, Ilinois), Dream, 6/11/11
4:01.32...... Bernie Montoya (Cibola, Yuma, Arizona), Dream, 6/09/12
4:01.69+.... German Fernandez (Riverbank, California), State, 5/31/08
4:01.81...... Alan Webb (South Lakes, Reston, Virginia), Arcadia, 4/14/01
4:01.83...... Austin Mudd (Center Grove, Greenwood, Ind), Dream, 6/11/11
4:02.01...... Sharif Karie (West, Springfield, Virginia), National Scholastic, 6/14/97
4:02.08...... Elias Gedyon (Loyola, Los Angeles, California), Dream, 6/11/11
4:02.0........ Ryun, Invitational, 4/23/65
4:02.23+.... Jantzen Oshier (Trabuco Hills, Mission Viejo, Ca), State, 6/04/11
(10)
4:02.4........ Richard Kimball (DLS, Concord, California), Section, 5/25/74
4:02.6........ Kimball, San José Inv, 5/04/74
4:02.72...... Ben Saarel (Park City, Utah), Dream, 5/25/13
4:02.73...... Jacob Burcham (Cabell-Midland, Ona, WVa), Dream, 6/09/12
4:02.90...... Mac Fleet (University City, San Diego, California), Portland Festival, 6/13/09
4:02.98...... Josh Lampron (Mansfield, Massachusetts), Dream, 6/09/12
4:02.99+.... Steve Magness (Klein Oak, Houston, Texas), District, 4/11/03
4:03.12...... Brandon Kidder (Lancaster, Ohio), Dream, 6/09/12
4:03.18...... Marcus Dixon (White River, Buckley, Wash), Dream, 6/09/12
4:03.27...... Gabe Jennings (East, Madison, Wisconsin), National Scholastic, 6/14/97
 (20)
 4:03.29...... Edward Cheserek’ (St Benedict’s, Newark, NJ), Dream, 6/11/11
 4:03.33...... Webb, Invitational, 5/20/00
 .................. Sam Borchers (Yellow Springs, Ohio), NON, 6/16/07
 4:03.85...... John Zishka (Lancaster, Ohio), Golden West, 6/14/80
 4:03.87...... Sam Vazquez (Flagler-Palm Coast, Bunnell, Fla), AOC, 6/14/03

 ** 25 performances by 22 performers **

 + = 1600-meter time multiplied by 1.0058 (converted 1500s are not considered here);
* = junior; AOC = adidas Outdoor Classic; NON = Nike Outdoor Nationals
 copyright © 2013 Track & Field News

For original article, go to the following link and select "Best High School-Only Miles Ever":
www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/archivemenu

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Canada's New Track and Field League

Starting this Saturday, June 14, there will finally be a Canadian track league.  I don't know a great deal about it but it appears to have been announced by Athletics Canada,  which I gather is a type of federal (?) government-involved agency which plays a role analogous to the old AAU of our day.    To run in Saskatchewan I had to join the AAU in the sixties, the days of strongly enforced amateurism.  You  all know  the story--shamateurism followed and today every government and many corporations try to visibly support their athletes.  The new league will actually give prize money for selected events, up to $800 for first place.  By the way I heard Carleton U. finally got a track team, too.  I hope these are signs of great things to come across Canada, especially for those of you who have children or grandchildren who might have  a serious interest in track in Canadian communities or universities. Click on:  Canada Gets New Track and Field League .  If you get the suggestive banner, please ignore it.  These things are hard to avoid today,
Read more »
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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

High School Cross-Country Comes to Saskatoon in 1961

In our case it is notable that our little cohort which began high school in about 1960, first made the news in 1961 and that is the same year that I could first find records of high school cross country in the Star-Phoenix.  Don Gogel won the first cross country run in Saskatoon, squeezing past me and Allan Angell.  Al, George, and I were on the third place Walter Murray team.   See photo of Star-Phoenix article below (October 17, 1961).

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