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Djokovic Beats Roddick, but Loses New York

active_tennis — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:37:52 GMT

It was a tough loss for crowd-favorite Andy Roddick.

Coming back after two sets down to take the third 6-3, Roddick double faults twice at 5-4 in the fourth set, nets a drop shot volley in the tie break and sends a return long to lose his quarterfinal match 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 to Novak Djokovic.

But that's not the end of it. To add insult upon injury, in the post-match interview in front of 10,000 deflated New Yorkers Djokovic refers to beating Andy on his own turf and comments, "I know they're already against me because they think I'm faking everything. Andy was saying I have 16 injuries – obviously I don't."

The crowd responded with loud boos and obvious rejection of the self-proclaimed new king of tennis.

Djokovic was refering to comments in a press interview where Roddick jabs at Djokovic's injuries. "Yeah, something like 16 injuries. Neck, back, foot and mouth, SARS," Roddick said.

It's one thing to come into a match obviously pi$$ed at your opponent for off-court comments, but to take the matter public after just deflating the guy is down right childish.

If Djokovic is the new king of tennis, I demand a recount.

(Photo: AP/Charles Krupa)

Thursday

moormantv — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:31:55 GMT

4PM hot run. 3.4 miles 39.5 minutes. need to develop good post run stretch routine. Indulgent dinner at Siennas on Daniel Island tonight. Good thing we used a gift certificate. Very expensive Norhtern Italien. Appetizer, entree and dessert. Better be a long run on Saturday!

Wednesday RUN

moormantv — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:21:53 GMT

5:30 AM solo run in neighborhood. 3.2 miles. Cool outside. Great run.

Update - September 4th

ScottLo — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:24:36 GMT

I'm a day late updating this. Yesterday I ran 4 miles for the first time. Total time was about 45 minutes. (Avg time/mile 11:15). I'm definitely in no danger of setting any kind of speed records but I did it. Hopefully this will help my times running 3.1 miles.

September 4

bvcc — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:50:24 GMT

Distance: 5.1 miles
Time: 57:05

Pace: 11:11 per mile
Stretch: Yes

Weekly mileage: 26.2 miles (Hey! I ran a marathon this week!)
Cumulative mileage: 454.9 miles

Tomorrow: Off

Comments: I was very tired, and there was steady rain. Not really a day I wanted to run. But I did.

Are You A Model Mom?

L. Druxman — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:27:31 GMT

One thing all new moms have in common is the desire to lose weight. But when you're consumed with motherhood and restricted from dieting due to breastfeeding the challenge is often hard. My goal is to help moms eat a healthful diet while feeding their new baby. As your baby eats new foods, so will you. You are their model for healthy eating. The good news is that when you eat healthy, so do they. When they eat healthy, so do you! You need to model healthy eating behavior day in and day out. It's not enough to say that they should do so. They should see you eat your fruits, vegetables and wholesome foods. Most of all, they should see you eat. It is not uncommon that the moms with picky eaters are also the moms who are always on diets.

Most parents feed kids foods that they normally eat. You are exposing your children to a limited world of eating. Instead, bring new types of foods into the house for everyone to enjoy.

Time Goes By

L. Druxman — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:24:34 GMT

Where does the time go? Summer is over and it's back to school, back to work for many of you. If you haven't figured it out yet, time is not a renewable source. Once it's used up, you don't get it back. That's why every minute you live is so precious. How often is your to-do list just running off the page? Let's face it, you will never get everything done. Our society has managed to fill every nook and cranny of time, especially with new technology that allows emailing and texting. Knowing that time is slipping away, don't you think you should use it wisely?

Make a list of the things that are most important to you. Chances are it includes motherhood, your spouse and hopefully YOU. Once you know what's really important, re-prioritize that to-do list. If you can't get everything done, at least spend time on the things that matter. Years from now, you won't remember which days you made your bed, but you will remember which days you sat on the floor and played peek a boo with your baby. Now that's what matters!

Energizer�s e2 Lithium headlamp

Stephen Regenold — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:19:29 GMT

That famous pink bunny powered by batteries has rolled into the outdoors arena. Energizer’s e2 Lithium headlamp, unveiled at a consumer-electronic trade show in early 2008, is an interesting new entry into the now-crowded product category. The solid little light has an aluminum lamp case and an LED that delivers up to 100 lumens of brightness (140 lumens in a boost mode, as per the company’s spec).

I tested the headlamp on several nighttime hikes this month, and it provided a bright, clear light that created a wide window of virtual daylight. I was impressed with its adequate brightness and peripheral range: The lens has a super-wide setting that illuminates a giant circle of nighttime air, providing a full field of vision (as opposed to a tunnel of light or a beam). This light doesn’t reach as far as the focused beam of a Princeton Tec Apex or a similar model, though for hiking and easy biking after dark the Energizer e2 Lithium gives more than enough light, stretching about 150 feet outward and 75 feet wide in a strong bubble of light.

Bonus: Energizer added a few features I’ve not seen on many other headlamps, including interchangeable battery packs (you can use AA or AAA batteries); a red-light mode for map reading at night (it won’t wreck your night vision); and a tiny blinking green LED on the battery case to provide easy location of the headlight in a dark backpack and to allow your fellow hikers to see you on the trail, even when your light is turned off.

Ergonomically, the e2 Lithium felt fine. That is to say its fit was average — not extremely comfortable but for the most part unnoticeable. Small cord-routing plastic clips on the webbing can rub a bit weird if the unit is worn too tight.

It weighs 6.3 ounces on my scale with its AAA battery pack, which is an average weight. Energizer (energizer.com) ships the lamp with two sets of its Ultimate Lithium batteries, purportedly “the world’s longest lasting AA & AAA batteries,” according to the company. These batteries do have some advantages in the outdoors, too, as they are good in temps ranging from -40° F to 140° F.

Energizer touts the e2 Lithium headlamp as “hands-free light for the most extreme outdoorsmen.” I’m not sure I’d go that far. But this light is an admirable new entry into the headlamp game. It is high quality and solid, and its wide, clear and white LED window of light illuminated with aplomb as I hiked down the nighttime trail.

Price: $54.99

Available at www.brightguy.com or www.opticsplanet.net

(Stephen Regenold writes The Gear Junkie column for eleven U.S. newspapers; see www.THEGEARJUNKIE.com for video gear reviews, a daily blog, and an archive of Regenold’s work.)

Starbucks' Secret Sports Supplement

Dan Peterson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:23:53 GMT

From:
Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
For an athlete, it seems to good to be
true. A "sports supplement" that increases alertness, concentration,
reaction time and focus while decreasing muscle fatigue or at least the
perception of fatigue. It can even shorten recovery time after a game.
HGH? EPO? Steroids? Nope, just a grande cup of Best, Liquid Lightning, Morning Mud, Wakey Juice, Mojo, Java, aka coffee. Actually, the key ingredient is caffeine
which has been studied repeatedly for its ergogenic
(performance-enhancing) benefits in sports, both mentally and
physically. Time after time, caffeine proves itself as a relatively
safe, legal and inexpensive boost to an athlete.

Or does it? If caffeine is such a clear cut performance enhancing supplement, why did the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who also monitors this month's Beijing Olympics for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), first add caffeine to its banned substance list,
only to remove it in 2004? At the time that it was placed on the banned
list, the threshold for a positive caffeine test was set to a
post-exercise urinary caffeine concentration of 12 µg/ml (about 3-4
cups of strong coffee). However, more recent research has shown that
caffeine has ergogenic effects at levels as low as the equivalent of
1-2 cups of coffee. So, it was hard for WADA to know where to draw the
line between athletes just having a few morning cups of coffee/tea or
maybe some chocolate bars and athletes that were intentionally
consuming caffeine to increase their performance level. However,
caffeine is still on the WADA monitoring list as a substance to screen for and watch for patterns of use.

Meanwhile, athletes are still convinced that caffeine helps them. In a recent survey from Liverpool John Moores University,
480 athletes were interviewed about their caffeine use. One third of
track and field athletes and 60% of cyclists reported using caffeine
specifically to give them a boost in competition. In addition,
elite-level athletes interviewed were more likely to rely on caffeine
than amateurs. Dr. Neil Chester,
co-leader of the study, commented about the confusion created by the
WADA status change for caffeine, "There's been a lack of communication
from WADA and there is a question about whether or not sporting
authorities are condoning its use. Ultimately there is a need to
clarify the use of caffeine within the present anti-doping legislation."

So, have athletes found a loophole to exploit that gives them an edge? Dr. Carrie Ruxton recently completed a literature survey
to summarize 41 double-blind, placebo-controlled trials published over
the past 15 years to establish what range of caffeine consumption would
maximize benefits and minimize risk for cognitive function, mood,
physical performance and hydration. The studies were divided into two
categories, those that looked at the cognitive effects and those that
looked at physical performance effects. The results concluded that
there was a significant improvement in cognitive functions like
attention, reaction time and mental processing as well as physical
benefits described as increased "time to exhaustion" and decreased
"perception of fatigue" in cycling and running tests. Longer, endurance
type exercise showed greater results than short-term needs for energy.

Given
these results, how exactly does caffeine perform these wonderful
tricks? Dr. Ruxton explains from the study, "Caffeine is believed to
impact on mood and performance by inhibiting the binding of both adenosine and benzodiazepine
receptor ligands to brain membranes. As these neurotransmitters are
known to slow down brain activity, a blockade of their receptors
lessens this effect. " Bottom line, the chemicals in your brain that
would cause you to feel tired are blocked, giving you a feeling of
ongoing alertness. Your body still needs the sleep, caffeine just
delays the feeling of being tired.

As to the physiological
benefits, caffeine has also been shown to stimulate the release of fat
into the bloodstream. The early conclusion was that the increased free
fatty acids in the blood would allow our muscles to use fat as fuel and
spare glycogen (carbohydrates) allowing us to exercise longer. Another
theory is that caffeine stimulates the central nervous system reducing
our perception of effort so that we feel that we can continue at an
increased pace for longer periods.

The
discussion on glycogen has recently taken another interesting twist;
caffeine's apparent ability to replenish glycogen (the body's primary
fuel source) more rapidly after an intense workout. A team at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research
has found that athletes who consumed a combination of carbohydrates and
caffeine following an exhaustive exercise had 66% more glycogen in
their muscles four hours later, compared to when they consumed
carbohydrates alone. They asked cyclists to pedal to exhaustion in the
lab, then gave them a drink that contained either carbohydrates with
caffeine or just carbohydrates (the cyclists did not know which drink
they were getting). They repeated the process 7-10 days later and
reversed the groups. Muscle biopsies and blood samples were tested for
levels of glycogen after each trial period. The researchers did not
have an explanation for the increased levels of glycogen resulting from
the caffeine-spiked juice. One theory is the higher circulating blood
glucose and plasma insulin levels caused by the caffeine were key
factors. In addition, caffeine may increase the activity of several
signaling enzymes, including the calcium-dependent protein kinase and
protein kinase B (also called Akt), which have roles in muscle glucose
uptake during and after exercise.

So, before you start drinking the Starbucks by the gallon, here are some guidelines. You
can consume 2-2.5 mg of caffeine per pound of body weight daily to
achieve its ergogenic effects. This equates to 250-312 mg for a
125-pound woman and 360-450 mg for a 180-pound man. More is not better,
as other research has shown a decline in benefit and an increase in
caffeine's side effects beyond this level. One "grande" cup (16 oz.) of
Starbucks coffee contains about 320-500 mg of caffeine, while a 12 oz.
can of soda will provide 35-70 mg of caffeine. Maybe we'll see the
ultimate sports drink soon, kind of like Monster meets Gatorade...
wait, its already here: Lucozade Sport with Caffeine Boos t!

t

C.
H. S. Ruxton (2008). The impact of caffeine on mood, cognitive
function, performance and hydration: a review of benefits and risks Nutrition Bulletin, 33 (1), 15-25 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-3010.2007.00665.x

N. Chester, N. Wojek (2008). Caffeine Consumption Amongst British Athletes Following Changes to the 2004 WADA Prohibited List International Journal of Sports Medicine, 29 (6), 524-528 DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-989231

D.
J. Pedersen, S. J. Lessard, V. G. Coffey, E. G. Churchley, A. M.
Wootton, T. Ng, M. J. Watt, J. A. Hawley (2008). High rates of muscle
glycogen resynthesis after exhaustive exercise when carbohydrate is
coingested with caffeine Journal of Applied Physiology, 105 (1), 7-13 DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01121.2007

Watching Sports Is Good For Your Brain

Dan Peterson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:19:24 GMT

http://drp2010.googlepages.com/hockeyscanner.jpg

From: Watching Sports Is Good For Your Brain
Sports Are 80 Percent Mental

When
was the last time you listened to a sporting event on the radio? If
given a choice between watching the game on a big screen plasma in HD
or turning on the AM radio, most of us would probably choose the visual
sensation of television. But, for a moment, think about the active
attention you need in order to listen to a radio broadcast and
interpret the play-by-play announcer's descriptions. As you hear the
words, your "mind's eye" paints the picture of the action so you can
imagine the scene and situations. Your knowledge of the game, either
from playing it or watching it for years helps you understand the
narrative, the terms and the game's "lingo".

Now,
imagine that you are listening to a broadcast about a sport you know
nothing about. Hearing Bob Uecker or Vin Scully say, "With two out in
the ninth, the bases are loaded and the Brewers' RBI leader has two
strikes. The infield is in as the pitcher delivers. Its a hard grounder
to third that he takes on the short hop and fires a bullet to first for
the final out." If you have no baseball-specific knowledge, those
sentences are meaningless. However, for those of us that have grown up
with baseball, that description makes perfect sense and our mind's eye
helped us picture the scene. That last sentence about the "hard
grounder" and the thrown "bullet" may have even triggered some
unconscious physical movements by you as your brain interpreted those
action phrases. That sensorimotor reaction is at the base of what is
called "embodied cognition". Sian Beilock, associate professor of psychology and leader of the Human Performance Lab at the University of Chicago,
defined the term this way: "In contrast to traditional views of the
mind as an abstract information processor, recent work suggests that
our representations of objects and events are grounded in action. That
is, our knowledge is embodied, in the sense that it consists of
sensorimotor information about potential interactions that objects or
events may allow." She cites a more complete definition of the concept
in Six Views of Embodied Cognition by Margaret Wilson.
Another terrific overview of the concept is provided by science writer
Drake Bennet of the Boston Globe in his article earlier this year, "".

In a study released yesterday, "Sports Experience Changes the Neural Processing of Action Language",
Dr. Beilock's team continued their research into the link between our
learned motor skills and our language comprehension about those motor
skills. Since embodied cognition connects the body with our cognition,
the sports domain provides a logical domain to study it.

Their initial look at this concept was in a 2006 study titled, "Expertise and its embodiment: Examining the impact of sensorimotor skill expertise on the representation of action-related text",
where the team designed an experiment to compare the knowledge
representation skill of experienced hockey players and novices. Each
group first read sentences describing both hockey-related action and
common, "every-day" action, (i.e. "the referee saw the hockey helmet on
the bench" vs. "the child saw the balloon in the air"). They were then
shown pictures of the object mentioned in the sentences and were asked
if the picture matched the action in the sentence they read. Both
groups, the athletes and the novices, responded equally in terms of
accuracy and response time to the everyday sentences and pictures, but
the athletes responded significantly faster to the hockey-specific
sentences and pictures. The conclusion is that those with the
sensorimotor experience of sport give them an advantage of processing
time over those that have not had that same experience.

Now,
you may be saying, "Ya' think!?" to this somewhat obvious statement
that people who have played hockey will respond faster to
sentence/picture relationships than non-hockey players. Stay with us
here for a minute, as the 2006 study set the groundwork for Beilock's
team to take the next step with the question, "is there any evidence
that the athletes are using different parts of their brain when
processing these match or no match decisions?" The link between our
physical skill memory and our language comprehension would be at the
base of the embodied cognition theory. So, in the latest research, the HPL team kept the same basic experimental design, but now wanted to watch the participants' brain activity using fMRI scanning.
This time, there were three groups, hockey players, avid fans of hockey
and novices who had no playing or viewing experience with hockey at
all. First, all groups passively listened to sentences about hockey
actions and also sentences about everyday actions while being monitored
by fMRI. Second, outside of the fMRI scanner, they again listened to
hockey-related and everyday-related action sentences and then were
shown pictures of hockey or every day action and asked if there was a
match or mis-match between the sentence and the picture.

This
comprehension test showed similar results as in 2006, but now the team
could try to match the relative skill in comprehension to the neural
activity shown in the fMRI scans when listening. Both the players and
the fans showed increased activity in the left dorsal premotor cortex,
a region thought to support the selection of well-learned action plans
and procedures. You might be surprised that the fans' brains on the
same regions as the athletes. We saw this effect in a previous post, "Does Practice Make Perfect",
where those that practiced a new dance routine and those that only
watched it showed similar brain area activity. On the other side, the
total novices showed activity in the bilateral primary sensory-motor
cortex, an area typically known for carrying out step by step
instructions for new or novel tasks. So, the interesting finding here
is that those with experience, either playing or watching, are actually
calling on additional neural networks in their brains to help their
normal language comprehension abilities. In other words, the memories
of learned actions are linked and assist other cognitive tasks. That
sounds pretty much like the definition of embodied cognition and Dr.
Beilock's research has helped that theory take another step forward. In
her words, "Experience playing and watching sports has enduring effects
on language understanding by changing the neural networks that support
comprehension to incorporate areas active in performing sports skills."

So,
take pride in your own brain the next time you hear, "Kobe dribbles the
ball to the top of the key, crosses over, drives the lane, and finger
rolls over Duncan for two." If you can picture that play in your mind,
your left dorsal premotor cortex just kicked into gear!

Does Practice Make Perfect

S. L. Beilock, I. M. Lyons, A. Mattarella-Micke, H. C. Nusbaum, S. L.
Small (2008). Sports experience changes the neural processing of action
language Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0803424105

Lauren E. Holt, Sian L. Beilock (2006). Expertise and its embodiment: Examining the
impact of sensorimotor skill expertise on the
representation of action-related text Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13 (4), 694-701 DOI: 17201372