Angry, Breathless Fucks

Al is back!!!

Hello all. Sorry to have been gone so long. Glad to be back. Colorado was beautiful. I did a lot of training at elevation, and I was surprised at how well the body handled it after a few days.





















Right now, I'm in training for the American Memorial Triathlon on 9/10. I had hoped to be able to have 5 or 6 triathlons for this season, but the calf injury set me back. Ah well.

In this piss weather, I've been logging a lot of foot miles. It's just been raining too hard for me to get out on the bike (though I did spin it out a bit on the trainer). And the outdoor pool is the only option right now until the indoor reopens (after Labor Day). So I've been a running fool. Monday was an 8 with Al k. Yesterday, I did a 5er with some speed work mixed in. Today, I did another 8 with Al K.


Al K. has been getting back into shape after going to pot in Spain. He went off and got hitched and then went on a Castillian honeymoon/bacchanal/bender followed by a couple weeks of lethargy and regret. I've got him back, firmly in my sway though. The force is strong in this one.


































Fred, too, went away and went to pot. He's back now with a new lease on life. Freddy-boy is switching his focus to the upcoming Cross season, and he's talking about mud slogs and Core training. (Yes, I too cringe at the faddish turns of our dear Fred. He's into Yoga, too. Sheesh!)


All is well in our little corner of the world.











And now, something to file under "You Can't Make This Shit Up!"

LONDON (Reuters) - Lung power normally declines as a person ages but being angry and hostile can speed up the process, researchers said on Thursday.

In a study of 670 men ranging in age from 45 to 86, they found that males who had higher levels of long-standing anger at the start of the eight-year project had significantly poorer lung function at the end of it.

"This study is one of the first to show prospectively that hostility is associated with poorer pulmonary function and more rapid rates of decline among older men," said Dr Rosalind Wright, of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, in a report online in the journal Thorax.

The scientists used a scoring system to measures the levels of anger of each of the men and they tested their lung power three times during the study.

Even after taking account of other factors such as smoking that can also have an impact on lung power, hostility and anger had a negative effect.

Anger, hostility and stress have also been associated with heart disease, asthma and other ailments.

Wright and her team suggested that the negative emotions could change biological process and may disturb the immune system and cause chronic inflammation.

"Stress-related factors are known to depress the immune function and increase susceptibility to or exacerbate a host of diseases and disorders," said Dr Paul Lehrer, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in an editorial in the journal.

He added that it is unknown how chronic anger contributes to physical deterioration but said the researchers established a link between chronic anger and age-related deterioration in lung function.

"The next step is to determine the exact pathway by which this happens," said Lehrer.