That's Fit

BANG! The starter's gun begins, and the race and the runners are off. Though it's probably not visible to the casual observer, not all racers get started at the same time. Researchers have found that because sound takes time to travel, racers on the outside lanes actually hear the starting gun later than those on the inside lane and are at a distinct disadvantage.

OK, so maybe if you and I had a race, the difference wouldn't be significant. But in an Olympic race, where every athlete is elite, those 150 milliseconds can translate to up to a meter's difference between the runners -- a distance that can mean the difference between bringing home a gold or bringing home a silver medal.

Though officials are aware of the problem, no changes will be made for the Beijing Olympics. Experts say a low tone system is more fair to all runners than the loud gunshot, but it looks like this year's Olympians will just have to make do.

(photo credit: Library of Congress via pingnews on Flickr)

Dire Tune, of Ethiopia, and Alevtina Biktimirova, of Russia, made Boston Marathon history yesterday with the closest women's finish in the race's history.

Part of a pack of 10 women who had stuck together from the beginning of the race, Tune and Biktimirova pulled ahead and fought it out until the end. Biktimirova held the lead, but Tune overtook her during the final stretch. Both women have won other marathons this year. Tune took first in the Houston Marathon in January and Biktimirova won the Honolulu Marathon last December.

The top American woman, Ashley Anklam, took 15th in Boston. Though most of the top women runners ran in the Olympic trials, their place in this race doesn't guarantee them a spot in the Olympics.

How do I know that this year's U.S. Olympic athletes will be dressing preppy? Do I hang out in the training camps? Do they come to me for fashion advice? Sadly, no (at least, not yet). But, I do know that Ralph Lauren will be outfitting Team USA during the opening ceremony.

As one of the pioneers of preppy, sporty fashion, Lauren has taken over for Roots, Ltd., a Canadian company that has held the Olympic contract for the past three Olympic games.

Dancing With the Stars has certainly become quite the phenomenon, and I know I always find it interesting to hear about the training the stars (and dancers) have to go through in order to pull off those dances each week. Even for professional athletes, learning a whole new skill (and performing it so they can be judged on national TV) is difficult.

Olympian Gold Medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is currently on Dancing With the Stars, and she's joined with OK! Magazine to blog about her experience. I had hoped for a little more detail on the dancing training itself, but it's still a really interesting read. She's honest about what she finds difficult and what makes her nervous -- tonight she'll be dancing the tango, which is requiring her to bring out more anger than she can easily manage.

Anyone who is a fan of Kristi on the show or simply remembers her Olympic victory will get a kick out of what she has to say.

It has long been argued that echinacea can help reduce the effects and duration of the common cold. As of this writing, there doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence one way or the other. But as that debate rages on, scientists from Northwestern State University are busy trying to determine if this flower's root is beneficial for athletic performance.

In a recent study, the NSU researchers had 24 male volunteers take 8,000mg of echinacea every day for a month. Subsequent blood tests revealed a significant increase in the volunteers' capacity for aerobic activity.

With all the talk these days about HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs, it stands to reason that, if further researcher into echinacea's purported endurance-increasing properties support these early findings, we may soon be hearing reports of this substance also being banned from athletic competitions.

If you're looking to mix up your workouts and haven't yet incorporated swimming, you're in luck. Megan Quann Jendrick, who won the 200 meter breaststroke at the 2000 Summer Olympics, has recently published a book with her husband Nathan Jendrick called Get Wet, Get Fit: The Complete Guide to Getting a Swimmer's Body.

The book incorporates advice for swimmers of all levels, telling novices the best way to breathe and competitive swimmers how to improve their backstrokes. And the couple has plenty of experience in helping swimmers improve their technique -- they've both spent time at clinics throughout the country helping swimmers of all ages. She stresses that, by incorporating swimming into your fitness routine, you not only burn fat and calories but use every muscle in your body to give you a lean shape.

The United States Olympic Committee isn't taking any chances at the Olympics this year. To ensure that their athletes are eating the most nutritious meals possible, and to avoid food issues like steroid-heavy chicken breasts and tainted meats, they'll be shipping in 25,000 pounds of lean protein ahead of the games.

This year, for the first time ever, American athletes will have their own center where they can eat three meals a day. Much of the meat in their meals will come from America, while fish will be imported from Japan and fruit from Australia. The USOC wants to make sure that athletes have access to balanced nutrition to improve their performance and also avoid any doping questions if athletes eat an animal that's been pumped full of steroids.

On the one hand, it's kind of a shame. Part of the beauty of traveling to new places is enjoying the local cuisine and learning about local customs. But the USOC says that once they are finished competing, American Olympic athletes are encouraged to go and search out local meals.

Athletes sometimes appear to defy human mechanics. For the rest of the world, it would seem insurmountable to ride over 2000 miles in more than 20 days. But to cyclists in the Tour de France, it's part of the job! When you consider athletes like this, it has to make you wonder: is it in their genes?

Some original research was conducted to answer this question, and the short answer is yes! While it goes without saying that practice makes perfect, scientists have identified 23 combinations of genes that enable athletic superiority. The article tells us that the odds of having all 23 is 200,000 to 1.

Those are not bad odds! However, this interesting study brings up some great questions. For example, could we see Olympians genetically engineered some day? While the thought of artificially creating superior athletes takes all the fun out of it, this also backs the truth that hard work and determination usually win in the end.

A Beijing Organizing Committee said this week that athletes at next year's Beijing Olympics will be able to use traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) without fearing failure of drug tests that all Olympic athletes must take.

However, all TCM products ill face the same scrutiny and regulatory review as those drugs brought over from then west. A doctor who is responsible for medical services at the upcoming games did state, however, that "There is no direct relation between Chinese traditional herbal medicine and doping."

TCM products are generally all-natural and are not manufactured as pharmaceutical products and generally are excellent for human health (from immune support to sexual health). At least someone agrees that commercially-produced steroid drugs and TCM products are not in the same league -- they are not even close.

An 8-year-old girl in China has recently completed a 3550-km (2200-mi) run from Hainan to Beijing, accompanied by her father on a bicycle alongside the little super-athlete. This might seem like an amazing feat but it's just another day for Zhang Huimin, who wakes up at 2:30AM most mornings to run the equivalent of one-and-a-half marathons -- 64 km, or 40 miles in total. The latest run was in an attempt to get noticed by the Olympics -- the girl wants to compete in the 2016 Olympics, when she will be 17.

Many people around the world are calling this child abuse -- what do you think? Her father, who is separated from her disapproving mother, says that Zhang Huimin likes running, and he denies that he is forcing her to run. Still, I think this amount of running is inhumane and unhealthy.

While training for something as physically demanding as the Olympic Games is obviously a very healthy endeavor, fans of the events may find that, for spectators, just the opposite is true.

Beyond the fact that Beijing is riddled with pollution, the site within the city where most of the Games are being held suffers an usually high number of lightning strikes.

This year has already seen 499 deaths in China as result of lightning strikes, and, according to meteorologists, Beijing is more likely to be hit than other parts of the country. Add to that the fact that Haidan (home to many of the Olympic venues -- including many that are open air) is "among the high-frequency regions of natural lightning" within Beijing, and it starts to sound like a justified concern.

Officials are trying to combat pollution in Beijing by halving the number of cars on the road, but -- while it has certainly reduced pollution -- the measure has thus far been ineffective at removing the thick cloud of smog that hangs over the city.

Will any of this matter to a die-hard fan who's set on attending the Games? Probably not. But for those who are planning on traveling to Beijing, it's worth learning more about the effects of smog, and what you can do to minimize your risk.

As a kickboxer and full time fitness trainer of almost 20 years I've become a huge fan of the jump rope. The benefits of jumping rope are infinite: it offers an unbelievable cardiovascular workout which offer the propensity to burn a ton of calories, can increase speed and explosiveness, it's inexpensive, light weight, travels easily. The perfect piece of equipment! I remember long ago when I began fighting, my trainer gave me a rope and told me to 'jump'. Well, I was terrible at it and struggled for a long time to become good at it. Why? I had very little guidance on the skill of jumping rope. My trainer wasn't trying to be mean, he just didn't know the techniques of teaching this skill either.

I think since we all jumped rope as a child, it's assumed we should all just be able to do it now. If you've tried it as an adult, you may have experienced the constant rope kicking, stopping, reshuffling, whipping of the legs, and frustration. How defeating! For years, I have been having my clients jump rope with only the guidance I could give from my experience. Some have had great success, some have had major struggles. Frustrating for me too.

So Friday at the fitness conference I attended, I ran into a man named Buddy Lee. He's a former Olympic wrestler and master of all there is about jumping rope. I instantly approached him because I'm in LOVE with the jump rope. I hoped he'd be able to provide the direction I needed to improve my personal skills and help me break it down for my beginners. Buddy did not disappoint.

I haven't read much about the upcoming 2008 Olympics, and although it's good that they're preparing for the worst, I was surprised that some of the first of news I came across was about how Beijing is setting aside thousands of hospitals beds in case of an infectious disease outbreak. Not about swimmers or track runners, but the fear of a pandemic.

But this is a particularly big deal because China has a negative history surrounding the handling of infectious outbreaks in the past (i.e. SARS), so the fact that Beijing has made such an effort and reduced the reporting time for an outbreak from what used to be a week to as little as 10 hours is a good thing. China has also been making some positive moves in the fight against bird flu as well.

So, fun or not, positive moves like this should get press too.

These days, it seems like more and more people are giving up their spots on the sidelines to compete in endurance races like marathons and triathlons -- especially women. I've never done either myself, but several of my female friends have joined the triathlon bandwagon, giving up late nights, unhealthy eating, drinking and leisurely weekend mornings to train endlessly and get their bodies in shape. I must admit, I'm intrigued, as I usually am by a challenge.

Triathlon is a great way to achieve all-over body fitness because it combines running, cycling and swimming. Distances vary between events, but the most prominent competitions are the Olympics, which requires participants to swim nearly a mile (4921 feet), bike 24.9 miles and run 6.2 miles; and the Ironman, which requires participants to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run a full marathon, 26.2 miles -- wow!