It really doesn’t matter who you believe – Floyd Landis or Lance Armstrong – one thing is certain - that is somebody is lying. Maybe many people are lying.

Up until now, this case has been restricted to the court of sport. As with the court of law, someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Athletes that are found guilty of lying in the court of sport can face suspensions, fines and perhaps lost sponsors. In the worst case, they lose a career.

Though the court of sport may take information and testimony from support people (coaches, mechanics, massage therapists, fellow athletes, miscellaneous staff, etc.) seldom do the support people suffer any consequences for lying.

Last weekend, I read a column written by David Walsh that revealed the Landis vs. Armstrong war of words was being moved from the court of sport to a Federal investigation, or the court of law. I’ve read several columns on the issue and boiled the list down for you. Each column has a bit of something the others do not:

Federal charge questions raised five years ago by columnist Matt Smith, writing for SF Weekly

New York Times column, published May 25^th, 2010

Sports Illustrated Column, that will appear in the May 31 magazine issue

Radioshack counsel statement regarding the charges  - I was thinking there was a bigger statement, but can’t find it now.

From this point forward, media mud-slinging or hearsay by anyone doesn’t matter much. What will matter is testimony under oath, within the Federal system. Lying to the Feds, no matter who you are (staff, athlete, support personnel), can result in perjury charges and jail time.

Though potential perjury charges have not deterred all people from lying, certainly a threat of jail time is a bigger deterrent than the court of sport can hand out.

Will the truth be found?

On Saturday, a few of us from Northern Colorado drove north to Wyoming for the Gowdy Grinder. The Grinder is held in Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming. The entry fee for the Grinder was $10. Yes, you read that right – ten bucks.

This particular series is trying to make it easy and inexpensive fun for people to get into the sport of mountain bike racing. Here is what they have to say about licenses:

Racing Licenses: Leave it at home. If you show us a racing license, we will charge you an attached rider fee.

In addition to the Grinder, they have a Tuesday night series. I like their statement, rather law, regarding sandbagging:

Sandbagging Law: If you're deemed a sandbagger (decided entirely by the judges) you'll be moved up a category. No whining about it, either.

To recognize top racers:

Leaders "Jersey": In order to properly recognize their supreme dominance over Laramie mountain biking, the current points leader in each category will have to carry, on their bike, some small trinket until the next race. Any reported sightings of the leader between races without it will result in a ten point deduction.

I like it.

It is not uncommon for races in Colorado and Wyoming to sell out. Each race has its own registration technique. For the Grinder, registration is race day only, first-come, first served. There is really only one way to get the number one bib for this race and that is to get to the trailhead early. Really early.

(Scott Ellis gives Bill Frielingsdorf the proper recogition for scoring bib #1)

Of course, the only way to get the number two bib is to get there early, but not quite as early as number one.

(In turn, Bill gives proper recognition to Todd Singiser for being #2.)

I want to make it clear that it's inappropriate to link a low entry fee with a low quality event. Though it is a no-frills race, the course was well marked and each category went off without a hitch.

The trails in this area are really nice, as I mentioned in blogs last year. I think it was Bill that said that the trails are technical without being death-threatening.  There are rock gardens, tight turns, rock slabs with steep climbs, narrow sections where it is easy to clip a handlebar and nice open singletrack too. Only a few hundred yards of the course was on service road.

Just as we were getting ready to leave at about 3:00 pm, we found out that an eight-year-old boy had walked backwards on the race course to watch the action; but hadn’t returned yet. Several people offered to stay and help search for the missing boy.

The short story is that the boy was found and safely returned to his mother at about 5:00 pm. I was told he was out on the trail for some six hours.

Three of us were on foot and walking the service road back to the trailhead when a ranger truck came upon us. We hitched a ride with Curt Orde and Moose.

Moose was hot on the trail of the young boy when Curt found out that the boy had been found. A sucker for dogs, I started asking lots of questions about Moose to find out that this 10-year-old dog is highly skilled. He has helped put a number of criminals behind bars with his incredible tracking skills. Though Curt was humble, it is not surprising that he is highly skilled as well with 33 years of County, State and Federal experience.

Moose actually found a victim located 40 feet below the water surface in North Crow Reservior, Wyoming. He has a couple of pages of accomplishments (1, 2) and Curt told me of a couple more accomplishments that weren’t listed on the site. It is incredible what dogs can find.

Some of the reasons I love sport so much is I get to travel with good friends, race with fun people, ride on sweet trails, meet new people and pet new dogs.

Sometimes, I come across famous animals like Moose. And sometimes, for a fleeting moment, I meet a very accomplished racer at the start line. Though I didn’t meet her by name, only a smile, I later found out that Sarah Konrad is not only an accomplished cyclist but at the Turin Olympics she made history. She became the first American female to compete in two events in the same Games: the biathlon and cross-country skiing.

Yes, there are some really cool people, and creatures, in sport.

I received a question via Twitter from Krister Dunn about advice for low-sleep training for a person working 9-5 plus some graveyard shift work.

If your shift cycle is predictable, try to plan your training in cycle with your shifts. For example, a common rotation is to work this repeating three-week cycle:

Week 1:   7:00am to 3:00 pm

Week 2:   3:00 pm to 11:00 pm

Week 3:   11:00 pm to 7:00 am (graveyard)

Usually the day and evening shifts aren’t too bad for getting training accomplished. Schedule your heavy intensity or volume weeks for these two weeks. On the week you are working graveyard, make that your rest week. Cut volume and intensity back so your athletic training doesn’t take a toll on your body – in addition to the work load.

For the shift work people I’ve dealt with, there isn’t a consensus on the best time to workout when on the graveyard shift. Some people preferred to workout before going to work, while others preferred a morning workout after the shift, a meal and then sleep. A smaller number of people went home after work and slept short (a few hours) got up and did a workout followed by another few-hour sleep.There is personal preference and family situation coordination affecting the patterns as well.

The trick is to arrange workouts and sleep so that you can be alert at work and for your family, while optimizing your health and performance. Easier written than done.

If your shift rotation changes every few days or is a 12-hour shift rotation, it is a little trickier. Though more tricky, there is a pattern to most all rotations I’ve seen. Take a look at the pattern and arrange your workout schedule to fit the work pattern.

This likely means you need to arrange your workouts on a different cycle than seven days. For example, three days “on” and three days “off” of training. You may not be able to get much more than 30 minutes of workout time accomplished on your 12-hour work days and that’s okay. Most of the time a run or strength training is the easiest to pull off during the days short on personal time. Sometimes people can get a short workout in during lunch and that helps.

If the graveyard shift is totally random (i.e. you’re on call), then you may have to skip a workout now and then or rearrange the workouts so you do the key workouts when you are most rested rather than when they are shown on a training plan chart.

Hope this helps. If you have a more specific question, let me know.

Spring weather in Colorado can mean snow or it can be 80 degrees – and I’m not talking about what is considered "the mountains" of Colorado. The northern front range elevation is around 5,000 feet, similar to our mile-high capital Denver.

One thing that can be interesting is “snow placement”. Let me show you…

My running buddy, Meeka, is looking south from the Horsetooth Mountain Park service road. You can see the green valley below has no snow. The storm dusted peaks on either side of this valley, but the valley remained snow-free. The valley is likely around 5,100 to 5,200 feet in elevation. I suspect we’re standing at a spot that is about 5,500 feet. (I could tell you if I was on the bike with my altimeter.) The snow here was around four inches deep.

As we climbed higher, the snow was heavy on the trees and some 8 to 12 inches deep. Because the sun was out and doing significant melting damage, running under the trees was like being in a giant snowball fight where you are the only target. It wasn’t a matter of if I would be hit, but how many times and how big would the drop be?

And the parting words are…”Why do you run so slow? I always have to wait for you.”

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote a two-part story on Liars, Cheater and Thieves in your sports. In Part II of the column, I investigated why people do these dishonorable acts and potential options for event directors to pursue offending athletes. I inquired if some of these actions were illegal?

Ken Chlouber, long-time race director for the Leadville Trail 100 series of events, thinks so.

Veteran racer Wendy Lyall used Katie Brazelton’s entry number in the 2009 race. This kind of behavior often goes unnoticed; however Lyall (age 36) happened to place second in the 40-49 age group.

Though details are unclear at this time, somehow Lydall made it past the photo-ID check at registration. This could be done by Brazelton simply picking up all of the registration materials or by Lyall bypassing the registration table or by claiming she left her ID elsewhere and a kind check-in person didn’t push the issue.

The Denver Post reported that a local bike shop pleaded to get Brazelton an entry, when she didn’t get entry via the lottery system. Accommodating the local shop, Chlouber gave Brazelton an entry. According to the Post, Brazelton was injured and didn’t want to be out the $250 entry fee. (Apparently selling the entry to Lyall?)

Tipped off by an anonymous caller, Chlouber is the first race director I’m aware of that has taken a strong stand to protect his asset - the race. He has filed criminal impersonation charges against both Lyall and Brazelton. This is a Class 6 felony.

Chlouber is drawing a hard line in the sand. The race will not tolerate liars, cheaters and thieves. Certainly others will think twice about pulling shenanigans with this race series.

Will other event directors follow this lead? Is it possible that Chlouber has drawn a hard line in the  sand not only for his event, but for others as well?

The outcome of the case, and the future of cheaters in endurance sports, will be very interesting.

I’ve had this discussion with a number of athletes in various situations. I’m curious what Active athletes would choose.

You can only choose one of the two situations below. For purposes of this completely unscientific survey we’ll say that you cannot have both situations. (i.e. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.)

Would you prefer #1 or #2 - and why?

1)      1. A body weight five to seven pounds over what you consider “perfect” for you AND consistent podium places at races.

2)      2. A body weight at what you consider to be “perfect” for the way you want to look and the clothing size you want to wear AND consistently finishing in the last half of the pack.