Heat-Related Deaths and Fishing Metaphors

Fred has left a new comment on "Suggest a Topic!":

"How about your analysis of global warming using the sport's heat-related deaths and injuries as your only indicator? That is, notwithstanding other evidence (surely a loaded phrase in and of itself, even though it shouldn't be), graph global warming (or global cooling, or neither) based solely on track and field’s increases (or decreases, or neither) in heat-related deaths and injuries."

If I had to answer your question "using the sport's heat-related deaths and injuries as [my] only indicator," I'd have the shortest analysis ever:

There isn't enough evidence to make a claim either way.

If you'll allow me to widen the net just a bit, I could actually get enough statistics in the boat to do a proper analysis and to make a valid claim, one way or another.

"Go ahead, matey," you say? You like fishing metaphors? Thanks. I appreciate that.

The CDC reports that, "from 1979-2003, excessive heat exposure caused 8,015 deaths in the United States." That's an average of 321 deaths a year caused by heat. That includes all deaths, including young children left alone in automobiles, the elderly or homeless who don't have access to air-conditioning during the hottest time of the summer, the homeless, the mentally ill and chronically ill. It does also include healthy individuals don't take common-sense precautions such as exercising during the coolest part of the day and rehydrating properly.

According to the CDC, "in 2001, 300 deaths were caused by excessive heat exposure." Since the 2001 rate is actually lower than the 25-year average, that would seem to indicate that heat-related deaths are not on the rise.

Much more worrisome are the 654,092 deaths that occur every year because of heart disease. The warming of the earth's climate shouldn't be as much of a concern to us as a hot plate of french fries and a double cheeseburger.

Treadmills vs. Road Work

Anonymous has left a new comment on "Suggest a Topic!":

How much treadmill time factors into formal training for competitive athletes? And how much road work?

Treadmills are discouraged for competitive track and field training, except for bad-weather training, or situations that prevent an athlete from otherwise being able to train (mothers of small children who can't get a babysitter, for instance). Pete Pfitzinger, a former world-class runner and now exercise physiologist and coach, explains that treadmills, "are a necessary evil. Running on a treadmill is not quite the same as running on the road, but it’s a hell of a lot more specific to running than any other form of cross-training. Unless you are a treadmill veteran, you should limit your treadmill runs to general aerobic runs and recovery runs of up to 40 minutes."

As for roadwork, that all depends on a variety of factors (too many to discuss here in detail), including the specific event for which one is training, the experience and age of the runner, the conditions, the time of the year, whether or not the athlete is tapering for a big event. For a detailed training program for middle and long-distance competitive runners, I highly recommend Bob Glover's The Competitive Runner's Handbook: The Bestselling Guide to Running 5Ks through Marathons.

For sprint training, you might read Explosive Running : Using the Science of Kinesiology to Improve Your Performance, by Michael Yessis Ph.D., or Sports Speed by George B. Dintiman, Robert D. Ward and Tom Tellez.

For field events, I recommend Complete Book of Jumps by Ed Jacoby and Bob Fraley, and Complete Book of Throws by Jay Silvester.

Track & Field Favorites

Anonymous has left a new comment on "Suggest a Topic!":

What is your favorite track & field movie? Novel? Documentary? Sculpture? Song? ("Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by Rush does not count. No one listens to those guys anymore.)

I love your suggestion. I was ready for an easy, yet enjoyable, topic on which to write. Unfortunately, this topic is not turning out to be as easy as I thought it would be! Here goes nothing:

Favorite T&F Movie: Yes, I'm quite aware that it's a cliché to list Chariots of Fire as one's favorite movie about track and field. But how can I deny that it is so, when I still literally get goosebumps every time I watch it?

Favorite T&F Novel: In order to maintain membership in the track and field geeks club, it is mandatory to list John L. Parker's Once a Runner as one's favorite novel. Unfortunately, I've never actually read (or even seen a real copy of!) it, so I can't list it as my favorite novel. I have read a sample of it and several other novels about running in Garth Battista's fine The Runner's Literary Companion: Great Stories and Poems About Running. The sample I read was outstanding and I can't wait to get my hands on the real thing. For now, though, I'd have to say that Battista's anthology is my favorite work of fiction about track and field.

Favorite T&F Documentary: To be honest, I don't think I've seen a documentary about track and field in recent memory. I checked out this list and the only one on it that I can recall ever seeing was 16 Days of Glory many moons ago. By default, it would have to be my favorite. There are quite a few on the list that I would like to watch, especially the one about the Tarahumara people.

Favorite T&F Sculpture: Paavo Nurmi sculpture by Wäinö Aaltonen in Helsinki, Finland. The tower of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium can be seen in the background.

Favorite T&F Song: Then I'm glad it was Iron Maiden, not Rush, who did The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner (Yar!):

Still doesn't count? Then how about Belle & Sebastian's The Loneliness of a Middle-Distance Runner?

Do Women Really Weaken Legs? Answers to That Question and Much, Much More!

Fred has left a new comment on "Suggest a Topic!":

I'd be interesting in hearing what an athlete's typical work week looks like. Do they work out 5, 6 or 7 days? How many workouts per day? How many hours per workout? What does their diet look like, and how many calories in the average week would they burn off? Do women really weaken legs? How much time do they spend on the massage table? What do they do for lactic acid? How much sleep do they take in? How much alcohol?

What is absolutely forbidden? It's a reasonable assumption that recreational drugs, late nights, tequila shots, and trips to malaria-infested regions are all verboten, but sports training has become so scientific, it's not a stretch to imagine that horror movies, yard work and high heels might also be off-limits.

I've posed too many questions to answer, but any insight you may have into the everyday daily life of an athlete would be fascinating.

Entire books have been written about many of the questions you have asked and many of them are much better written than anything I could write, even in a 100 posts. I can, however, point you in the direction of the best of those books.

James F. Fixx's The Complete Book of Running, although now a bit outdated, started the running craze in 1977 when it was released. Some people say Frank Shorter's marathon victory at the 1972 Olympics in Munich started the running boom, but his victory only inspired us fanatics. The average civilian was inspired by Jim Fixx's book 5 years later. It's currently out of print but it's well-worth the trouble of hunting down. I still read it every so often whenever I need some inspiration.

For the more serious runner who is looking to advance to the intermediate competitive level, I recommend Bob Glover's The Competitive Runner's Handbook: The Bestselling Guide to Running 5Ks through Marathons.

I recommend Daniels' Running Formula for those scientists among us. Jim Ryun, one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time, said, "this book is a fine example of the perfection that the running world has come to expect from Jack Daniels. Well thought out, concise, and purposeful, it embodies the training programs of time-proven principles that enhanced my own running performances. Simply put, Daniels’ formula works. This book is a must read for every runner and coach interested in achieving peak performance."

For the masters runner, I recommend Hal Higdon's Masters Running: A Guide to Running and Staying Fit After 40. Higdon is one of the greatest masters of all time so he can write from a position of experience and authority.

For beginning coaches, and for a general overview of the sport of track and field, I recommend Fundamentals of Track and Field by Gerald A. Carr.

For field events, I recommend Complete Book of Jumps by Ed Jacoby and Bob Fraley, and Complete Book of Throws by Jay Silvester.

For the nutritional aspects of athletics, I recommend Nutrition for Serious Athletes by Dr. Dan Benardot.

If you're looking for that extra advantage that will get you to the finish line first, I recommend a book about visualization techniques by Kay Porter called The Mental Athlete.

For the ultimate insight into the mind of a middle-distance runner, I recommend a work of fiction. Once a Runner: A Novel by John L. Parker, has a rabid cult following among runners. Also out of print, it is also well-worth tracking down. It's pricey, though, going for as high as $100+ in rare book stores and websites. A long-awaited sequel, called Again to Carthage, is supposedly due out late this summer.

I realize now that I have just asked you to buy 10 books. If you're really just after a little bit of insight into the world of track and field, perhaps the best single book I could recommend would be Pre: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine by Tom Jordan. It offers a glimpse into the athletic life of one of the most intense and charismatic track athletes the world has ever known. Highly recommended.

As for your question about whether or not women really weaken legs, New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel put it best: "It's not the sex that wrecks these guys, it's staying up all night looking for it."

Constructive Criticism About Televised Track Meets, Part 2

[Click here for Part 1]

You might recall that my first challenge was from a reader who suggested that FLP readers, "provide constructive criticism to USATF's televisied series of track meets, including the USA Indoor and Outdoor Championships and the Visa Championship Series."

In that post I promised that I would obtain some feedback for you from USATF and that I would compile a list of contact names from networks of televised USATF events so that you could call or write them to offer some constructive criticism about the sorry state of track and field coverage on television. (Note to self: don't start an FLP challenge on the Saturday of a national holiday unless you want to wait several days to get the first replies).

Jill M. Geer, USATF Director of Communications, was most gracious in her reply and offered FLP some insightful suggestions. The best thing that track and field fans can do to promote broadcasts and how the sport is covered, Ms. Geer offered, "would be to write to ESPN to convince them the sport needs to be on SportsCenter, and that they should promote broadcasts of the sport before they happen. Those are two simple things that would make a big difference. The same goes for newspaper coverage of the sport – writing to their sports editors to let them know they should cover the sport is more effective than any lobbying on our part."

I can't help you with the contact names of the sports editors at your hometown newspapers (there are 1,400+ in the U.S. alone), but I can certainly help you to reach their website, if they have one. Newspapers all over the U.S. are extremely sensitive about declining circulations. Your letters to the sports editors will be noticed. Here are some suggested points to make:

The sports coverage your newspaper provides is unbalanced and tipped in favor of NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. The sport of Track and Field is poorly covered. There aren't enough stories, headlines, athlete profiles statistics, or advance promotion of track and field meets. Please offer more track and field coverage or I will have to consider not buying your newspaper anymore.

As for the network contacts, here they are:

Networks

ESPN/ABC
NBC
CBS

(Note: the CBS contact page attempts to redirect you to Sportsline.com for feedback about CBS Sports. I provided you with this page because Sportsline not only requires you to register but seems to be more oriented toward promoting their website and their Fantasy Sports League than to receiving feedback about the CBS TV Sports Division.)

Some suggested points of criticism for TV Networks:

• Extend the broadcast length of track and field meets. Current coverage is too compressed. One or two hours is not enough time to cover an entire meet.
• Many of the middle-distance events are not shown in their entirety. Why must networks insist on cutting to commercials right in the middle of an event? Show more events in their entirety.
• Too many events (especially field events) are extremely short capsule summaries that only show the winner's - and maybe the challenger's - winning effort. If broadcast time is an issue, at least extend the summaries of pre-broadcast events to include more field-event performances.
• If broadcast time is of the essence, show less human-interest stories and athlete profiles and more of the events during your broadcasts. Track fans are not as interested in watching melodrama as they are in watching the actual events unfold.
• Some of the best-quality meets are over in Europe. Track and field fans in America are missing most of the European meets. Broadcast more European meets.
• Track and Field is not routinely covered during sports news shows on your network. Offer more news coverage of track and field events other than the Olympic Games. Track and Field has a season every year, not just every 4 years.
• Promote broadcasts of meets before they happen like you do with other sports.

My goal is to recruit 1,000 track and field fans to write each of the networks and one hometown newspaper to offer them constructive criticism. As they say, 1 letter is worth 50 signatures. If 1,000 of you would take action, the networks definitely would take note as if 50,000 people had acted. Please come back to this post and comment once you've taken action. It'd be interesting to tally how many people actually act. The only way we can change the status quo of second-rate track and field coverage on TV and in newspapers is to act.

So there it is, hopefully, the beginnings of a grassroots campaign to improve the quality of track and field's television/newspaper coverage in the United States. I hope you will take a few minutes to contact the TV networks and the sports editor of your local newspaper to offer them some constructive criticism about the sorry state of track and field media coverage.

What Killed Track and Field As a Spectator Sport?

Fred writes with this challenge:

"This one is multi-faceted: choose one, two or all three:

1. Pick an element of the sport you'd rather not write about, and write about it (political, cultural, long-term effects on the athletes' health, positive effects of doping, etc).

2. Write a T/F op-ed that is convincing but antithetical to your own beliefs.

3. Explain the relative lack of interest in T/F (and in other more European sports, like soccer and rugby) in the U.S.

Must be a long weekend. I'm feeling a bit contrarian today."

LOL! Dude, you ARE bringing us down with your negative vibes! No, seriously, those are all good topics. Since you're giving me a choice, I'll begin with what's behind door number 3.

I can't speak to the reasons that the sport of soccer is a flop in the U.S. as a spectator sport, so I'll let the internet do the talking for me. Theories, rational and otherwise, fly on the internet more thickly than a flock of cowbirds converging on a Taco Bell dumpster. The most popular seems to be that the best talent goes to the biggies NFL, MLB, and NBA, which leaves little talent left for sports that are huge in other parts of the world but here are consider second tier, soccer included.

I can't buy that one, at least not for track and field, which is a track and field powerhouse in the world despite the NFLs of the world. It may be true for soccer, I don't know.

Another theory attributes that lack of interest in soccer to Americans' short attention span. I'm not sure what that means and I don't have time to go into it.

This humorous article chronicles the history of attempts to introduce soccer to America. The author mentions various reasons that have been offered for American's lack of interest in soccer, including "it’s hard to interest American kids in a sport in which they can’t use their hands." I'm not quite sure about the logic behind that one, but I keep picturing placekickers on the sidelines of football games bowing their heads in shame at the thought of being discovered for the frauds they are, "I knew there had to be something fundamentally wrong with a guy whose name is Garo Yepremian!" the Miami Dolphin's fan exclaimed during Super Bowl VII. "Now I know it's because European kids never use their hands during sports like the good Lord intended them to do!"

Here's an interesting, fire-breathing post from last year's World Cup. It offers several reasons for soccer's lack of popularity in the U.S., including the theory that "America is xenophobic and nationalistic to the point of hollow jingoism."

Now, please allow me to speak about something I know a little bit about, the sorry state of televised track and field in the United States. Why is track and field unpopular in America? I'm inclined to go with the Short Attention Span theory. I blame the media, or more specifically, ABC's Roone Arledge, for killing the popularity of track and field as a U.S. spectator sport. Arledge's marketing strategy for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was to introduce the concept of human-interest stories to sports television. Arledge made the decision to primarily focus on the human-interest permutations of Olympic television coverage in order to increase ratings among women viewers. Doing so left little time for coverage of the actual live events. Thus began the sorry practice of cutting away from live events as they were unfolding to go to commercials. Dick Ebersol at NBC has continued the sorry practice and has taken it to the extreme.

Now Americans have to be spoon-fed their athletic drama in the form of vignettes of courage and mini soap operas about athletes having to overcome significant obstacles just to be able to show up to the competition, rather than being allowed to watch the drama of a meet unfold before their eyes right there on the track. We've sat through 23 years of this melodrama now, watching what used to be exciting televised track turn into Oprah with running spikes. Imagine Mike Tirico turning away from a 4th and goal situation at the end of a closely-contested 4th quarter during Monday Night Football to introduce a piece about how the starting quarterback had to overcome a childhood full of drugs, gang-violence and dyslexia just to be able to make it to the stadium tonight. It's never going to happen in the first place, and, if it did, football fans wouldn't put up with it for a second.

Track fans, I'm afraid, have grown too accustomed to it to stand up for their rights as viewers. Either that, or they simply turn off the TV, not wanting to put up with it any longer. ABC killed the popularity of track and field as a spectator sport by shrinking our attention spans, year by year, meet by meet, vignette by vignette. Is it too late to do something about it? Maybe not. A reader has suggested another challenge about this very thing in my post titled Constructive Criticism About Televised Meets, Part 1. Part 2 of that post will detail ways to fight this scourge of bad televised track. Stay tuned for the next compelling installment.

Constructive Criticism About Televised Track Meets, Part 1

The first challenge! A reader writes, "Please ask your readers to provide constructive criticism to USATF's televised series of track meets, including the USA Indoor and Outdoor Championships and the Visa Championship Series."

Thanks for the challenge! I love it. Not only have you challenged me, you've challenged the rest of FLP's readers as well! Without knowing the specifics of your criticisms, I can only assume you mean:

1) there's not enough track and field coverage on TV, or
2) the coverage that is already on TV could be improved, or
3) the USATF's promotion of those events leaves something to be desired, or
4) all of the above.

Let's start with numbers one and two, since that criticism should be directed toward the television networks (CBS, NBC and ESPN) and the sponsors (Visa, Reebok, AT&T) of those events, not the governing body. I am working on acquiring a list of contacts at the networks and their sponsors so that you can write and offer your opinions about the state of track and field coverage on television and how you think it can be improved. It being Memorial Day weekend, I probably won't be able to get all of the names and addresses until next week, but I will publish it on part 2 of this FLP Challenge just as soon as I have finished compiling the list.

As for number three, who better to promote track and field than those who love it the best? My suggestion to my readers would be to sign up for the newsletter at the Visa Championship Series website. When you receive that newsletter, forward it to everyone you know. Let's create a ground swell of interest ourselves and start a grassroots campaign to revive interest in the best sport in the world! I have also written USATF to ask them for their comments about USATF's promotion of televised track and field, as well as for contact names and addresses in case you would like to write and offer suggestions on how USATF can better promote TV coverage. I will post all of that on part 2 of this FLP Challenge! [Click here for Part 2]

Doping in Track and Field Should Be Legal

Fred writes with this challenge:

"This one is multi-faceted: choose one, two or all three:

1. Pick an element of the sport you'd rather not write about, and write about it (political, cultural, long-term effects on the athletes' health, positive effects of doping, etc).

2. Write a T/F op-ed that is convincing but antithetical to your own beliefs.

3. Explain the relative lack of interest in T/F (and in other more European sports, like soccer and rugby) in the U.S.

Must be a long weekend. I'm feeling a bit contrarian today."

Okay, you rascal, I'm going to something that goes against my better judgement. I'm going to try writing that fictional op-ed you suggested.

[DISCLAIMER] THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS POST MOST DEFINITELY DO NOT EXPRESS THE OPINIONS OF FINISH LINE PUNDIT.[/DISCLAIMER]

Doping in Track and Field Should Be Legal. There, I said it. Either that, or a long list of current devices and aids that artificially improve a track and field athlete's performance should also be banned: starting blocks, synthetic track surfaces, fiberglass poles, pits, heart-rate monitors, electrolyte replacements drinks, running tights, Goretex, orthotics, legs, the list goes on and on.

Wait a minute. Did you say legs?

The IAAF's Competition Rules 2006-2007 repeatedly mention the concept of "unfair advantage to the athlete."

Doping is the use by or distribution to an athlete of certain substances which could have the effect of improving artificially the athlete's physical and/or mental condition and so augmenting his athletic performance.
In short, doping is normally aimed at (at least) six aspects that a competitor needs to surpass the limits of human capability. They are improvement in speed, strength, endurance, mental attitude, coordination and the relief of pain.
A "dope" or 'doping substance" thus is any drug or drug preparation which is used with the intention of modifying advantageously such human capability to perform.

Suggest a Topic!

Finish Line Pundit is committed to providing content that you are interested in reading. If you'll provide me with a Track & Field related topic you'd like to see me write about, I'll make every attempt to write a post about that topic. Depending on how many comments there are, and the complexity of the research involved in finding the answer(s) for you, it might take me a few days or a few weeks, but I'll be sure to try and get to every single one of them! If I strike out, I'll post a comment in this suggestion box letting you know why I couldn't write a post.