This rat may be damaging her heart.
Since it seems you can never really have too much to worry about, here is a nice article about how a life-time of intense training may cause damage to your heart–especially if you are a rat.
Read about it in the New York Times Well Blog.
The obvious point is that 99.99% of Americans exercise too little (or not at all) so this really applies to a vanishingly small segment of the population.
Regardless, don’t tell your mother!
Saturday morning’s early rain showers let up long enough for runners of Redding’s NorCal 1o-Mile race to enjoy fairly warm conditions on that beautiful, if hilly, course along the Sacramento River.
The NorCal 10 is the first race of the Pacific Association USA Track & Field 2011 Grand Prix, and typically sees a highly competitive field. This year was no exception. There were 37 runners finishing the ten mile course in under an hour, including women’s winner Jane Kibii, of Kenya/Auburn, who ran 57:15!
The men’s winner was Mario Mendoza of Bend, Oregon, who finished in 51:53. Tim Tollefson of Roseville, at 3rd overall in 52:24, was the top area man, and 50-year-old Iain Mickle, of Sacramento, was the top Masters finisher in 55:57.
Jenny Hitchings, of Sacramento, was 4th woman and 2nd master, with a 1:02:40.
The lazy mouse is an old mouse
A recent article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that mice that exercised vigorously did not show signs of aging compared to mice that did not exercise.
The study used mice that were genetically unable to repair mitochondria and therefore aged rapidly. The New York Times article on the study reports:
By the time they reached 8 months, or their early 60s in human terms, the animals were extremely frail and decrepit, with spindly muscles, shrunken brains, enlarged hearts, shriveled gonads and patchy, graying fur. Listless, they barely moved around their cages. All were dead before reaching a year of age.
The American River at the Guy West Bridge
It looks like the local flood control guys are worried about this storm coming through and are increasing flows from Folsom Dam.
It remains to be seen whether this will impact the trail or the upcoming Shamrock’n Half Marathon.
The Sacramento Bee has some info.
Here’s the press release from the Bureau of Reclamation.
