A week ago from last Thursday I took the Eurostar over to Paris for some sight-seeing and the Paris half-marathon.
I arrived several hours earlier than my friends travelling with me. I took this free time to check-in at the hotel and start wander around a little bit, one of my favorite travelling activities. The wander started with heading toward the Eiffel Tower and grabbing the above picture. After that, I’m less certain of my exact direction, but I took a good 3 hours and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the city on foot.
Archive for the 'Sports' Category
Upon hearing that the US curling team is predominantly composed of Minnesotans, I couldn’t help but write a blog post about it.
Minnesota and Wisconsin represent the mecca of curling in the United States, with thousands of people playing in everything from mixed-doubles leagues to elite-level bonspiels. The St. Paul Curling Club, with more than 1,200 members, is the largest club in the country.
Of course, I’m certain our similar climate and border with Canada are no coincidence.
Curling’s popularity in Canada is second only to hockey; tournaments are frequently televised, top-notch skips are big stars, and it’s estimated that a million of the sport’s 1.1 million participants live in this country.
Besides having a slight affinity with respect to accents and a love and long history of hockey, it appears that we share a strange and mostly unpopular sport (as far as the U.S. is concerned). I have never curled before, but I do remember that Northwestern had a team for graduate students. An interesting phenomenon that just hasn’t really spread south of Canada or out of Europe.
So far, the men’s curling team has not won a single match to my knowledge. Maybe if we have an incredibly successful team that could turn the sport around in America.
Just a little Vancouver update:
Perhaps most impressive is that America is winning medals in traditional sports often dominated by Europeans, such as alpine skiing, figure skating and long-course speedskating. Noting that the number of Winter Olympics events has risen to 86 from 46 in Calgary, Olympic historian David Wallechinsky said, “We’re expected to do well in new events like freestyle skiing and snowboarding. But this week is not just a new-event phenomenon for the U.S.”
Not too jinx things, since there are still a lot of medals yet to be one, but I think we can all be proud of the athletes representing America in this year’s Winter Olympics. Let’s hope the leadership in both overall medals and gold medals continues this week!
There is no sound, but take a minute and watch!
Roger Federer won the Australian Open this morning 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13-11). The first two sets, it was clear that Fed was dominating play in this match. Murray looked frustrated initially and frequently made motions toward his knee and quadricep. The Scot turned things up for the third set, breaking Federer early, but Fed fought back to force the tiebreak. Throughout the match Federer looked fairly calm, even when the set was within reach of Murray.
Being in the UK, I was able to enjoy this evening match (Melbourne time) in the morning. The match was definitely a bit of a nail biter at the end, but I was happy to see Federer come out with his 16th grand slam victory. Playing a tiebreak to 13-11 is tough, but both players looked strong throughout it. I’m sure we have more to see in the future from Andy Murray. At the end, Federer looked genuinely elated to win this match.
Last night I fell asleep right before half time, the score tied at 14-14. At this point, 1 am GMT, I was tempted to stay awake and stick it out with the team, but I felt confident that the Vikings would pull it off.
Every season ends at some point though. Of course, the ultimate way to end it in the NFL is with a Super Bowl victory, something I am confident that the Saints will now pull off. This year is one for the NFC.
Vikings – it was a good run, Favre led us through some tough games and gave us consistency, but in the end the Saints took it. Let’s come back strong next season – I know Minnesota loved it.
Wow it feels good to be back out on the River Flats playing ultimate. I had a great time with Dan yesterday getting used to tossing a disc again. It felt good and I think everything came back pretty quickly.
If you are reading this and you are interested in playing a few pick-up games, leave a comment. (Yes Dan, I know you want to).
Ultimate really is a great sport. It is so cheap, a $20 (or so) frisbee and you just need a friend to start playing. You get to control the pace of the game. You can go toss it for a while in a big circle and move very little. You can play with two people and chase down a bunch of long throws. Or if you want, you can play an all out competitive game. It takes just enough skill where practicing is worthwhile. A sport loses a certain element when no practice or skill is required. I think that element is a measure of competitiveness and fitness.
The point is: Let’s play soon!!!
The second rule is to train and compete within your limits. This is not to say that you shouldn’t push yourself because you should, but it does mean to push yourself within your limits.
Why isn’t this Rule #1? Well, if you go beyond your limit, you will be in a lot better shape if you are hydrated.
This sort of rule applies to all aspects of life. I think that it is especially important in sports to be very self-aware. You need to know what point you’re at. Whether you need to train harder, step it up for a final kick at the end of the race, or back down to conserve energy, knowing your limit is key.
Right now I am partially annoyed with Wordpress because I wrote this post yesterday and it did not post. The draft was simply the title.
This will be the Clif’s Notes version of the post that is lost on the interwebs.
Yesterday reminded me of a critical lesson that I took the chance to forget over the winter. Hydration is key to training and physical activity in general. MN summers provide plenty of scorchers like yesterday in the high 80’s. Since summer is finally upon us and I’m finally back in the TC, it is time to get outside and do all the amazing things summer lets you do.
Prior to a race or big event it is best to stop training or train very very lightly for about a week. During this time period hydration is absolutely essential. It will increase comfort and performance on race day. This means drinking a lot of water and electrolytely beverages (like gatorade). Staying hydrated is equally important for training and working out. Sometimes it is easy to forget about.
On the other hand, it is something incredibly easy to do everyday to ensure that you will be ready to go when you want to be. The important thing is to keep it mind, not to obsess over it.
This post is the first in a series preempting an exciting (albeit late starting) summer in MN.
First win of the season! Twins 6 – Mariners 5 @ the Metrodome.
I was a little nervous in the last inning, but they did it! Picked up 3 runs with Casilla batting in the final run. 1-1, let’s get this season going. (Sadly the White Sox also won).
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