Fitness Myth Busting

The ever insightful New York Times is running a series of fitness myth-busting articles this summer, and they're worth a look.

First is this one about warming up before exercising. In short, sports science says endurance athletes don't need nearly as much warm-up time as they think. This explains why I like Bobby McGee's approach: walk 5 minutes, do some dynamic warm ups (like easy stretching but with continuous movement), build into the workout.

Second is this article about endurance sport's 10% rule. I've always thought the rule of thumb -- don't increase your training load more than 10% a week -- was really conservative. It turns out the rule might not have any basis besides tradition.

This article busts no myth: it says that your best middle-aged mile run time is a reliable indicator of your risk of heart disease late in life. "The exercise you do in your 40s is highly relevant to your heart disease risk in your 80s." Cool! Now that's a payoff I can really appreciate.

Even modest exercise keeps you sane and sharp instead of nutty and senile, according to this recap of a new study.

Those silly looking "toning" shoes? They don't do a thing.

The Cucumber Martini: 5 Simple Steps to Enjoying an Ice-Cold Glass of Fresh Air

I have many favorite summer drinks: Pabst Blue Ribbon, Stella Artois, iced tea with lemonade, iced chocolate milk, a yogurt smoothie with frozen berries and salt. Some weekends require a drink with more muscle, but that doesn't mean giving up summery flavors. One of my favorites is the Cucumber Martini, which when properly made is like drinking an ice-cold glass of fresh air.

Step 1: Grow a cucumber.

Step 2: Slice off 5-7 disks. Drop one in a glass with ice.

Step 3: Stack the disks and slice into them.

Step 4: Add disks, ice, and 2 shots gin and shake, shake, shake.
My favorite gin for this drink is Hayman's Old Tom for its aromatic flavor and sweetness.

Step 5: Pour, keeping the cuke bits out of your glass. Enjoy!

Facebook Is Designing an iPad/Kindle Tablet Device

I'm speculating wildly here, but play along.


Push Pop Press makes interactive ebooks. Their ebooks are more app or self-contained website than ebook, really, but it seems that this sort of convergence of web and book is one possible direction for the written word and its various formats.

The About page for the site has announced that Facebook has acquired Push Pop Press.

This can only mean that Facebook plans to join Apple, Amazon, Google, BarnesandNoble.com, Kobo, Sony, Motorola, and the rest of the technologized world in offering some device that lets you read ebooks!

If this seems like a leap, just think about what that device might look like: it would be a walled garden device designed to funnel all your Facebook-enable social network channels into one device. It would play Facebook video, have a built-in web browser (FaceFox?), and have a store where users could buy licensed music, movies, and ebooks through Facebook's App Store... or FTunes? Fbookstore?

Brand it how you will, Facebook's IPO will launch it into the socially enabled content retail business.