Lactic Acid Muscle Build-Up Is a Myth

In my continuous quest to show my WAFC Intermediate Summer League Regular Season (12-1) and Tournament (6-0) Champion Ultimate Frisbee team that I know everything about long-held sports and health scientific myths, I hereby present the fact that lactic acid does not build up in your muscles and cause soreness. It’s a myth. I know it’s crazy - just like the “Stretching Prevents Injury” myth from last week.

There is no lactic acid threshold you need to stay under. It doesn’t build up. It’s “one of the classic mistakes in the history of science.” Says who? Those darn scientists.

“Lactic Acid is Not Muscles’ Foe, It’s Fuel” (NYTimes)

It’s a classic story of a scientist having an idea that something was wrong and being persistent until others began to test the same thing and back him up. But how do you tell if a scientists is a crackpot or a diamond in the rough? At first you can’t. But if what they say is replicable and can be reproduced by others independently, you’ve got something.

In part, this is why creationists are full of it - there’s no logic or testing involved in their theory…no actual science. Because in order for something to be scientific, you actually have to test it. Otherwise, it’s putting the answer you know ahead of the testing you’re going to do. In the Creationists’ case, it’s proving that the world’s longest game of written “telephone,” i.e. the Bible, is true.

And while we’re on the topic, has anyone tried to do a volumetric study of Noah’s ark and all of the world’s animals? Could you even fit them all in there, much less keep them alive for 40 days? I kind of doubt it.

Stretching Doesn’t Prevent Injury

In November of 2003 I was diagnosed with illiotibial band friction in my left knee and told the only thing I could do was stretch it and try to build up pain stamina by increasing my short jogging distance every few days. I had previously done light stretching before every exercise. After 3-4 months of physical therapy and stretching, I got fed up with it and quit stretching. Three weeks later the pain was gone.

For the last three years I’ve played club and league ultimate frisbee 2-3 days a week (seasonal), i.e. lots of sprinting, and didn’t stretch beforehand. I do about 5 minutes of jogging, cross-overs, and a bit of cutting instead. I have been injury free for 3 years and never stretch. Am I crazy?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control doesn’t think so. They published a meta-study in 2004 that found “no benefit positive or negative in stretching to preventing injuries”:

“For Dr. Thacker’s paper The Impact of Stretching on Sports Injury Risk: A Systematic Review of the Literature (PDF) he and his colleagues pored over nearly 100 other published medical studies on the subject. Their key conclusions: stretching does increase flexibility; the highest-quality studies indicate that this increased flexibility doesn’t prevent injuries; few athletes need extreme flexibility to perform their best (perhaps just gymnasts and figure skaters); and more injuries would be prevented by better warmups, by strength training, and by balance exercises, than by stretching.” (BioMechanics Magazine, October 2004)

Pretty much everyone I tell this to thinks I’m crazy. As was pointed out last night by some WAFC-league teammates, science also brings us evolution, global warming, and by association, American freedom haters, so can we really trust it? But I think this is another “idea” that’s gone “scientific.”

Did you know that the recommendation for 8 glasses of water each day has no scientific basis either? Sure you need liquid, but 8 is essentially made-up. (“Drink at least eight glasses of water a day.” Really? Is there scientific evidence for “8
8”?, American Physiological Society, August 2002).

So go ahead and stretch if you’d like to. Maybe it feels good. Maybe there’s a placebo effect. Maybe everyone else is doing it. Maybe stretch after you workout (a totally different motivation). But don’t tell me it prevents injury.

Obnoxious Salaries

Alex Rodriguez is getting ripped off…

NFL

Michael Vick was the highest paid player in the NFL in 2005, getting paid $23,102,750. He threw the ball 387 times and ran the ball 102 times, for a total of 489 offensive plays. That’s $47,244 per play. He played in 15 games that are typically 60 minutes long for a total of 900 minutes or about $25,670 per minute.

MLB

Alex Rodriguez made $26 million in 2005. He batted 605 times and got on base (hit or walk) 285 times and he fielded the ball 403 times (assists and putouts) for a total of 1008 offensive and defensive plays. That’s $25,794 per event. He played in 162 games at about 3.5 hours per game, which is $754 per minute.

NBA

Last season, Shaquille O’Neal was paid $20 million. He played in 59 games, scoring 1,181 points 1,805 minutes, which is $16,935 per point or $11,080 per minute.

Ultimate Frisbee Video Clips

Check feet! (And don’t spike the disc…)

Source

Ultimate Frisbee as a Predictor of Academic Performance

The Ultimate Mystery: Popular Sport Beats SATs at Ranking Universities
Academically
A study being released September 1 of all private national universities
shows that their ranking in Ultimate Frisbee edges out both SATs and
grades as a predictor of academic performance! Those ranked in the top
half for Ultimate have a graduation rate of over 85%, while those in the
bottom half just 60%. The top seven have nearly as many Rhodes scholars
and Marshall scholars as all others combined.

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) August 31, 2006 — Move over SATs. Incredibly, for
the high-powered and high-priced private national universities, the best
predictor of academic excellence is rank in a popular sport.

Whether measured by graduation rate or prestigious scholarships - the
result is the same. What is this sport that mysteriously divines a
university’s stature so precisely? It’s called Ultimate Frisbee, or more
commonly just Ultimate. It is the fastest growing college sport and is
already played interscholastically at over 500 colleges and
universities. While wildly popular on campuses, relatively few in the
wider world have even heard of it.

A study (slated for release September 1) by Dr. Michael Norden of the
University of Washington shows that among all 86 private national
universities, those ranking in the top half for Ultimate have a
graduation rate of over 85%, while those in the bottom half graduate
just 60%. The difference in the totals of Rhodes scholars and Marshall
scholars among their graduates during this decade is even more dramatic
- 208 versus 15. (The odds of this happening by chance are truly
infinitesimal). Moreover, the top ten schools based on Ultimate ranking
have a slightly higher mean graduation rate and more winners of top
scholarships than schools chosen by - not only SATs, but any standard
metric including: grades, faculty resources, and financial resources.

This correlation between Ultimate and academics has previously been
obscured by the fact that there are no separate divisions in Ultimate,
so that smaller private universities are historically ranked together
with public institutions up to an order of magnitude larger. The pattern
emerges clearly when comparing, over an adequate time frame,
institutions of similar size and demographics (i.e. private national
universities). Study ranking is based simply on the total of Power
Rating points over the past ten years (assigned by the Ultimate Players
Association) for all of a school’s open-division club teams.

Ultimate is a largely student-run club sport with minimal institutional
support. Why a game, requiring such all-around athleticism should so
consistently be dominated by universities (and presumably students) with
off-the-chart academic credentials, is truly a mystery. The top seven
schools for ultimate have a mean graduation rate of 95% and nearly as
many total Rhodes and Marshal scholars as all of the rest combined. The
names speak for themselves: Stanford, Brown, Harvard, Tufts, Dartmouth,
Yale, and Princeton.

Dr. Norden is an associate professor in the department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences of the University of Washington and author of the
book Beyond Prozac (Harper Collin/1995). Jeremy Norden collaborated in
the study - he is a member of the world champion US National Juniors
Ultimate team.

Football Math: Offense beats Defense

This article from Science Online talks about a statistical analysis done purporting to show that a good offense is generally better than a good defense, i.e. showing that defense doesn’t win championships. In the last 12 seasons, the 1998 Vikings had the best offense and the 2000 Ravens the best defense. In an equally weighted game, each would tie with a score of 21-21. But between those two teams,the Vikings would win 21.3 to 20.4 based on his analysis. In only one pairing out of the top ten O’s and D’s, does the defense win…

I wonder if this would hold true for ultimate frisbee. There’s probably not enough stat out there but also, I think there’s more room for error that favors the offense - the disc floats, tapped discs get caught, errant throws are still caught, a layout D is missed (probably better than 75% of the time) and that leads to a big gain…

Why I love ultimate frisbee…

I play ultimate frisbee. Not frisbee golf. Not frisbee tricks. Not throwing at the park for fun. Ultimate frisbee. (Would they really name it “ultimate” if you could walk to play it?)

Seven people trying to run, throw, and catch the disc in the endzone. The other seven try to stop you. No running with the disc. No fouls, picks, travels, or referees. Full sprints and long hucks. Quick cuts and layouts. Man-on-man and zone defense.

TBA, my men’s club team from Minneapolis, played in a Duluth tournament this weekend and got to the finals on Sunday (in an admittedly small pool). We were thrashed by the other team the day before. But we put it behind us and played hard, eventually losing 16-14. It was the greatest, most intense game our team has ever played. Other teams are realizing that we’ve got significantly better in the last year. It should be a fun summer.

But what makes this sport different? Everyone calls their own fouls and sometimes they even discuss it and change their minds. Sometimes they yell at each other. But everyone works through it. And at the end of the game, we cheer. On Saturdays of tournaments there is usually a party of some kind for the teams. And sometimes jumping in a lake too. We have over 10,000 of them after all.

After our heartbreaking loss, we threw off our cleats and sat down to make up a funny song recounting parts of the game to sing to the other team (to the tune of “Barbara Ann” in this case). And sometimes the other team cheers us back (”Burning Ring of Fire”).

Our team is kind of unusual that way because this “spirit” of the game is on a downward trend. But we like to keep the fire burning and sometimes it infects other teams. Nothing is better than a hard fought game that ends with two cheers. Nothing.

36 Mile Ski “Race”

Well, you may recall that last year I did the 22 mile Vasaloppet cross-country skate ski race (like ice skating on snow).

In balancing my decision-making about whether to go with the 22 mile again or upgrade the 36 mile, I’ve decided my decision-making skills are somewhat flawed. On one hand, I didn’t want to feel the urge to beat my previous year’s time - snow conditions will be different making it likely slower, I nearly threw up in pushing myself hard the last 15 km, it’s more crowded. On the other, I could just plod along for 36 miles with the goal to just “finish” and not have to compete with myself. Slow and steady.

Hmm. The results are in…Definitely slow. Not too steady.

I’ve only gone to the bathroom 4 times in the last 15 minutes. I must have hydrated well. Didn’t drop my glove in the toilet like last year - victory #1. A lot of people are warming up by skiing a bit but it’s 9 degrees out and I’ve got 58K to warm up. Karin’s friend’s brother, who has won the race the last 5 times or something, entertains my novice questions about how many layers of pants to be wearing.

The race starts out with of about 1000 skiers going all at once but then the 22 mile and the 36 mile split off from each other after a few kilometers. Ah, very nice. Less crowded. Plenty of space to manuever. I’ll just follow along with these other guys that are twice my age for awhile.

First water stop - doing well enough.

Oh, there’s Karin at the road crossing - “Hi Dowd!”

Second water stop - Can someone put a thermometer in the pot? Warm gatorade is okay. Scalding, not so much.

10 kilometers (out of 58) - Hmm. Doing okay but my thumbs hurt from the repetitive poleing. The snow is really churned up and not packed firm, making it a little harder for the slackers at the back. That’s me! Just what I need, having to expend 5% more energy for the next 48K.

Okay, need some food. Ah, frozen Clif Bar. Let me try to ski and breath hard and open this thing and gnaw off some frozen food at the same time. Great plan. Hmm. Trying to breath and chew without much saliva. No water with me. Great plan.

20K and a few Karin crossings later and handing her some bars to defrost, thinking this is long.

29K (halfway) - I’m not sure how I’m going to finish this thing. Where is everybody? I’ve got plenty of solitude.

35K - Why are these small hills so hard to get up? That’s a scary one to go down but that grandpa seemed to have no problem. Whoops, sharp turn and a crash. Those sapling would have died anyway. Umm, why am I getting a charlie horse cramp every time I go up the slightly incline in my right quad? That’s not good. I now get to stretch out for a minute at the top of every hill to shake it out.

40K - What the hell am I doing? And where is that freakin’ water stop anyway? Ah, a nice guy with some extra gatorade. Why are my skis so slow? And why is there no one in front or behind me?! It’s cold! I’m really tired. How am I going to go another 18K?

Road crossing #whatever - “Karin, I’m really freakin’ tired.” “Get going Mikey!”

45K (or so) - Five minute break while Karin finds my gatorade bottle and more slightly frozen bars in her car. These things are fairly disgusting now.

50K - I’m pretty much alone out here. Oh, here’s the combined course - it’s some really slow people who are doing the 6 mile race that started 2 hours after me. I feel great now. Here’s this guy in red that I keep seeing - maybe I can try to beat him and likely hurl from the effort, all for the glory of 385th place.

55K (as everyone else gets to go to the left and I get to take a longer route to the right) - That sucks. Maybe I could just sneak over there. Red man again. I’m not sure I have any energy left in any muscle group. Totally tapped. Hold back tears.

57K (crossing the lake into town) - I’m going to make it. But there’s a normally small hill that looks impossible now. I’ll get some momentum. Oh but wait, two girls are blocking the entire path halfway up. Stop and wait. Struggle up again.

Finish (some combination of relief, happiness, and holding back tears since I have no testosterone left) - (to Karin) “I never need to do that again.” You can see below that a young child is racing me for the finish (thanksfully he was in a shorter race).

In the days after I ate ravenously and really wasn’t that sore - a frisbee tournament is way worse (on the joints). And I haven’t skied since (partly because we have no snow) but all in all, it didn’t kill me and 22 miles now seems like a cakewalk. I finished last in my age group and 386 out of 409 total. Many children and people with walkers beat me. But I finished.

What’s a Sport?

I was having lunch with a friend and we were talking about sports. Specifically he said he was taking an electrician’s test and more than half of the people in the room had Nascar hats on. And I said, the game of left turns…

Nascar is not a sport - it’s a game where people turn left and spectators, including children, breathe in lead fumes. Golf is not a sport - it’s a game of skill. Pool is not a sport - it’s a game of skill. To be a sport, you have to sweat based on your own exertion (and not the conditions around you, i.e. the weather or a hot interior. If it’s at the Olympics, it’s likely a sport. If it’s on NBC, you’re not so sure.

Now, the degree to which amateurs versus professionals do something may change it into a sport. Ping pong in my friend Darryl’s basement is a game. Ping pong at the Olympics (no kidding) is likely a sport, although the merits of it being an Olympic sport are questionable, however skilled and amazing the game looks on TV, if it were ever shown on TV.

Both games and sports have a competitor, yourself or someone else, and an end objective with no tangible product other than an accomplishment.

If you had a tangible product, then it’s a hobby, like knitting.

Mora Vasaloppet Ski Race

I started cross country skiing in November 2003 (not that long ago) and immediately upon buying classic skis (straight forward back motion), decided that skate skiing (like ice skating with skis) was infinitely more exciting and migrated toward that side of things (new equipment, new learning curve, etc) against all the advice of ski friends and experts. I figure I’d just figure it out - I do that with most new things I try.

I entered the Vasaloppet 35K (22 mile) skate ski race, which was held yesterday. We’ve had a really bad snow season in the Twin Cities, so even though I live 1 mile from a ski course, I’d only gone out 4 times prior to the race.

The day before the race, I stopped by FinnSisu, my nationally renowned local ski shop, to pick up some warm weather wax. Normally, I just use Fastwax blue and call it a day but with conditions predicted to be in the 30’s, I thought I’d look into diversifying. I asked what they recommended for the race the next day and he stacked up three waxes, which cost $90 total (red, fluoro salmon, and flight powder #11). I then asked him what he recommended if I just wanted to finish and he handed me an $8 red and said to mix it in with the blue.

Driving up, I wasn’t so sure it was even going to happen - there was barely any snow 10 miles south of Mora. It turned out that in Mora and northward they had plenty of snow, the course was groomed well, and the conditions were fast. I finished in 2 hours & 18 minutes, in 342nd place out of 532. The same time last year would have gotten me 155th place out of 555 - the fast conditions really helped everyone out. I was happy with the result.

I only crashed once, figured out how to drink at the water stops with ski poles attached to my hands without poking myself or other people, and finished strong overall, passing quite a few people in the last 8K. And I’m still standing today - my right wrist appears to be the only thing worse for wear.

There are three untold stories that prove I’m the living embodiment of Clark W. Griswold however:

I was a little antsy and had drank a ton of water beforehand so I went to porta-potty with 5 minutes before the gun…and dropped my right glove in the toilet. So I’m anxious about the race to start with and now I have a glove that fell in the blue nasty liquid (no chunks thankfully) and is half wet. So I rolled it around in the snow and then poured water all over it and then put it on and tried not to use my right hand for water stops. Luckily my hand didn’t get cold from being wet and everything seemed to work out gastrointestinally.

About 20K into it, I fell on another guy’s ski pole and broke it. Whoops. I think he was the Father Christmas representative for the race too - I saw him in pictures of the race all dressed up in authentic Swedish wear. But I also saw him at the end with a new ski pole that he likely picked up at the next water stop.

And then toward the finish, I had been pushing myself hard for the last 8K and push up this last steep hill into town, nearly tripping with exhaustion and lack of coordination. Then I turned the last corner to the finish down mainstreet and there’s a guy in front of me and I really want to catch him. So I push hard down and then they announce my name, freaking me out, and then I lose my balance and nearly wipe out in front of everyone (but I didn’t) but Karin was laughing so hard she didn’t get that part on camera thankfully (or not since it would have been funny).