Back to Work, Olympics, and Is This News?

First, the knee is on the mend, but the variety of weaknesses in my body that I've discovered as a result of reading about runner's knee knows no bounds. My left quad (as mentioned in a previoud post) is weak, but now I discover that my hip muscles (abductors? adductors? hippi-whippies?) are also weak! I started doing these simple exercises that are meant to be done with a strech band or cord, but I do them without, and still find my hip stabilizers burning within a few reps! My interest was piqued by an article I read last night about the importance of core strength in injury prevention, but specifically in the definition of core strength that goes beyond the abdominal muscles. (Sorry folks, this story was in paper format or I would include the link.) In any case, I will definitely keep these exercises up as I feel they can only help...

My one observation of the Olympics from last night: As a former swimmer I am very much enjoying the competition this year. Michael Phelps is an unbelievable specimen, and now I can't see him NOT winning 8 golds after the 4x100 free relay was tiumphant in a photo finish with the French. I must admit that I always tend to root for the underdog and I was screaming at the TV for the French guy swimming the anchor leg to GET OFF THE F%#$N' LANEROPE!!! For those that may not know, when you swim beside the lane rope your wake creates a small wave that the guy on the other side can surf on and conserve energy. This happened to Matt Biondi in 1988 when he failed in his attempt to match Mark Spitz's 7 golds. Biondi (in lane 5) got as far away from the top qualifier in the 200 free (Artur Wojdat of Poland in lane 4) and in the process allowed Aussie Duncan Armstrong to surf beside him for the entire race. In the last 25 meters Armstrong came off the rope and sprinted to the wall in "lucky lane 6!!!" for an improbable gold medal against that era's Michael Phelps. It was a monumental upset. In fact Biondi lost so much energy focusing on Wojdat that a Swede in lane 8 snuck in for the silver medal, relegating Biondi to bronze. Awesome races on both counts, but how can these world-class athletes make such rookie mistakes???

And last, please check out this story and tell me if this counts as news worth printing, or news at all: link. For the record, I don't think so!

Oh yeah, I will rest the knee today but am planning on a weight workout with a stationary bike warmup.