the Week in Review

1. Wear Testing running shoe is awesome when you feel nothing. 2. Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France 7 times. 3. USADA Pot calling the Kettle Black. You say Armstrong will pay for his win at all cost methods. Your attitude is simply that, Win at all Costs. 4. I would prefer my tax dollars go to fighting real crime. Hint. Wall Street 5. The Saints were fined and suspended for Bounties (cheating). They still retain their Super Bowl Title. 5. Barry Bonds - wiped all those home runs away right. No because it was history. 6. I wish my high school would have had cross country. 7. There are times when it's best to close your mouth. Still learning that. 8. It's nice to be home. It's a good life.....

It's the Same Thing only Different

The beauty of the free enterprise system is that it's free. You are free to make what you want, where you want and sell to whom you want. It creates competition and competition is good for the end consumer.

Seth Godin wrote yesterday about the race to the bottom. The one way to maintain your standing is to strip the costs or race to the bottom. There is also a tend at times to try to buy your business. Neither is very long term. You could actually win the race to the bottom or you could spend way too much for your business.

The essence of free enterprise is to figure it all out and that is Marketing. 4 P's. The right Product, the right Price, the right Promotion, and the Right Personal Relationships (Oh I mean sales).

Dave

Running Form in the Olympics

If you didn't watch the Olympic Marathon yesterday what's wrong with you. The winner Stephen Kiprotich crushed yesterday. In the field were the fastest Marathoners of 2011 from Kenya and Ethiopia and a little known man from Uganda took the title. He did it with one of the boldest moves in Marathoning. At the 23 mile mark on a slight incline he let fly and his Kenyan running partners could not match the pace. It was beautiful. Also in the race Meb Keflezghi proved that he's the best marathoner in the USA. He's not the fastest but speed doesn't count without results and Meb has the results. Silver Medal Olympic Marathon '04, NYC Marathon Champion '08, Olympic Marathon Trials Champion 2012, 4th Place Olympic Marathon 2012.

Now to the topic at hand. Stephen Kiprotich proved that running foot form mean's nothing. Upper body form and strength mean everything.

 In this picture you can see that the right foot on Stephen (guy on the left) is kicking out before it lands. The only thing a foot will do when this happens is it will Over-Pronate. Over-Pronate as in be really slow on the ground and cause all kinds of problems from the ankle up. The other two runners are perfect if you look at their feet. Just looking at feet there is no way Stephen should win.

Yet win he did, and by a wide margin. It just proves that your foot does what your foot does. It lands midfoot or on the heel it stays strong or it rolls in. What matters is how you carry your upper body and your overall cadence. That and some strong legs and core. Stephen and the other two runners had perfect form. They ran upright, used their arms and had a very high turnover. All the energy was directed forward and very little was wasted.

It's a good life....