Monday, March 28, 2011

Winning training plan

"On Monday, I do a 90-minute run, an hour swim, an hour in the gym and two hours on the bike. On Tuesday I swim quite hard in the morning, do an easy run and an easy bike ride and finish with a track session in the evening. Wednesday starts with a long easy session in the pool, a 90-minute run and then three hours on my bike. On Thursday, I’ll swim in the morning and do one or two runs and then a hard ride. Friday is my easier day — swim in the morning, easy run, easy ride. And Saturday and Sunday are both longish rides and longish runs."

Monday, March 21, 2011

You're not so special

"Mr. STEWART: I had the dream that I would not have Bud Harrelson's body. I thought I would have, perhaps, I would grow into something. So I wanted to be an athlete. I didn't want to be in show business.

It was a very different world, and I know a lot of people here are of that era. It was not - we were not in the world where everybody was special yet.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. STEWART: We had not entered into that stage of where everybody had a Facebook page that they could personalize with tunes they love. And you know, my kids will never know what it's like to have nothing to watch because there's like - they will - I mean, I'm surprised that when we have human interactions, they don't like go, let me freeze that and just run that back. Like they're...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. STEWART: They're accustomed to things being presented to them when they want it, in exactly the form that they want it. And they're accustomed to the idea that - I'm special, and I can do anything, and if I do it, just by the very nature of me doing it, it is in fact then special. I came from the era of, you're not special.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. STEWART: Don't - oh, you think you're special? You're not so special."

Read or listen to the rest of the interview.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Selective reading

"I think more and more in modern sport that athletes are a pawn in what is a modern corporate sports game. It is what it is. Athletes are both expected or hoped that we will simply be OK with a pat on the head and shut up and run. It is like a disease that almost all Olympic sports bureaucrats fall into this classic position: It does not matter how my guys do, so long as it appears that I did all I could to help them. It does not actually matter how athletes perform – so long as the administration makes sure it appears on paper that they did everything possible. If an unpredictable performance happens and it is a good performance, the bureaucrats are all over it taking credit and appearing in pictures. And if it is a poor performance they exit stage right."