today's news

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060419_brain_wiring.html

WHEW!!!!!! now that we know this, the battle of the sexes can finally come to an end!!!




and in other news, lance armstrong is going to take on a beast of the running world: the marathon.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2414546

are we particularly surprised? no, this running junkie isn't. we all knew that he wouldn't be able to give up some form of highly demanding athletic competition for long. he even says it himself--retiring from cycling left a void in his life. i'm not looking for him to be a major competitor though, not unless he starts an incredibly rigorous training program and has a few races under his belt. even then, he'll have to deal with the likes of today's powerhouse nations--kenya, ethiopia, russia, and sometimes china and japan.

i'll give him the fact that he's already beaten his body into submission through his unprecedented success in cycling. but, i would have to say that, although i know very little about training regimens for cycling, it has to be different in some key ways. first, with running, you have no opportunity to coast. even downhills can be a bitch because you either have to consciously control your stride, or you have to let your body go and deal with some wicked turnover speed in order not to go head over toe and die. second, drafting strategy is very different and much more individual. while the frontrunners generally shift and allow somebody else to take the headwind, there is no team-based unity, and the best runners will break away at any time, without having had the fortune of teammates allowing him or her to do less work via drafting. third, body type is quite different. lance certainly has to have something like 0.5% body fat, but his most powerful muscles are in a very different place: his legs. it seems counterintuitive to say that a runner's most powerful muscles are not in his or her legs, but it is also true that a runner's build has to be very balanced. i'm wondering how lance will do, having been so used to using his arms for stability and aerodynamics as opposed to sustaining and propelling the body forward.

i have no doubt at all that he has the endurance necessary to do well; the man won a 2000+ mile race seven years straight, for pete's sake. but how long will it take for his body to transition from the biomechanics of cycling to those of running? how quickly can he retrain muscle memory? people might say that it's silly, the idea that running and cycling can be mutually exclusive. i'm not saying that they are. but i do posit that, as he's been training for extreme long distance on a bike for a very long time, it will be a significant physiological adjustment for him to be a competitive marathoner. he says he hasn't decided if that will be his future, but i am convinced that the man is addicted to sport, to competitive sport, and he won't be able to trot amidst the crowd for very long.

i'm certainly not disparaging the man's ability. lord no. he is my favorite athlete. and to be honest, have you SEEN him?! yum. but seriously, i'm excited about his new goal. it's great to see everyone reaching for something that has the capacity to improve his or her life. and if lance does for marathoning (and distance running in general) what he did for cycling, perhaps my sport will gain more appreciation in the u.s.

that can only be a good thing.