Learning about blogging

Before I took EDT 400 I had no idea what a blog was. Not only did I not know what it was, but I did not really care to be honest. It never affected me in any way and I was fine with that. This semester I learned what it was, and was actually required to manage one. I have to say that I have actually enjoyed doing this. At the beginning it was difficult to find topics to write about, but now it is very easy to me. I have seen blogs that have been made by professionals in my field and I can see how useful they are for people to get information out there. I plan on using a blog in my professional life, because I really feel that it would benefit my career. I'm thankful that I was required to manage a blog, because if I had not, I would never learned how to efficiently use this powerful web tool.

Beyond Technology

The article, Beyond technology: The end of the job and the beginning of digital work was very interesting. I was very surprised to see how many jobs are being done away from the office and in people's homes. As much as this takes away the personal effect of a work environment, it makes everyone's job much more streamlined. I thought that the Mayo demonstration school of science and technology is on the right track. Students need to be prepared for the added responsibility and work that they will receive once they are ready to join the workforce. With a school like this, they are constantly learning and receiving training that will make them much more efficient and productive when the time comes. I was also very surprised to see that a four year old was able to log in and manage their own work. That seems very advanced for a child that age. Overall I thought that this was a very interesting article that brought up a lot of good discussion topics.

I'm back

It really has been a while since my last blog, it was about a month ago. So here we go.
In today's practice we did a few 800 meter runs. This is surprisingly strange for a sprinter workout, as nobody in this group would run more than 500 meters. The reason we did these however, was so that when it was time to run a 400 or 500 meter sprint, it would seem much easier than it would have before. Our sprint endurance would also be a lot higher than it normally would. These were very tough, and I'm glad we do not do them that often.

Ed's Umaine Blog

I was reading Ed's Umaine blog and he posts the question, how do we avoid letting technology take us for a wild ride? This question, although seems very simple, is a rather difficult one to answer. One could say we just need to strike a healthy balance between advancing technology, and the amount of technology we actually use. This is very difficult because technology is highly addictive. It's hard not to just surf the internet in our spare time, or play around with our cell phones and i pods. We can't stop the forward movement of technology altogether, that would just be impractical, as technology is helping to make our daily lives easier. The only thing we can do is to be careful. We need to try and balance our lives out, do things the "old fashioned" way sometimes. If we don't resort back to these things at times they will eventually disappear and be forgotten by everyone.

Response

I just recently read Bethany's blog about the success story. As I was reading it, I could not help but do my own calorie intake calculations. I was very surprised. I weight 200 lbs. For me to maintain my weight, I need to consume 2727 calories a day. That is also without any exercise. I need to consume a lot more as I have practice everyday. I did not realize how much I needed to eat everyday, and it looks almost overwhelming. But I do like food, so I think I'll be able to do that with no problem.

Saturday Morning

This past Saturday, we did a very hard workout. The strange this is though, that the only actual running we did came in the warm up. We did a lot of calisthenics as our workout. We had no rest between the exercises. We did sets of about 60 seconds per exercise, and there were a total of 20 exercises. This was done to promote our strength and muscular endurance. It was very tough.

Response

I found Bethany's most recent blog interesting. She defined the difference between exercising and training. She said that training is when you have multiple workouts that you do to reach a certain goal, whereas exercise is a single workout, and while exercise is important, training is necessary for your goals. This is a very accurate statement, as it makes you think about your own fitness goals, and whether you need to rethink your approach.

Rest

Rest is very important to an athlete. During a week period, we have 3 days off. When I say we have it off, I mean our coach expects us not to workout. This is very important because it allows our bodies to rest and to avoid injuries. Also, it allows us to practice at a higher level than we would usually, as our bodies are well rested and we are not sore from the previous practices.
In my personal opinion, all sports teams, and recreational exercisers should use rest periods in their practice and workout schedules.

Basketball

Basketball was invented by a man named James Naismith. He did this in 1891 at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was asked to invent a new game at this time because many people were no longer interested in the activities offered during this winter, between football and baseball season.
In the original rules of basketball, people were not allowed to dribble. The ball must be passed from the same spot the ball was caught. Three consecutive fouls counted as a point for the other team. There was also no contact allowed during the game, this would count as a foul if committed.
By 1905, basketball was recognized as a permanent college winter sport. Basketball was played for the first time in the Olympics at the 1936 Berlin games, where Naismith tossed up the ball to open the game.

20 Tech Habits

I noticed a couple of tech habits that I liked. One of them was clearing out your inbox everyday. The article is right, this really would save time. I find myself holding onto emails all the time for absolutely no reason, and my inbox becomes very cluttered and hard to navigate. I also do not use folders, and I believe that I will start doing that.
I also liked the remember the milk task manager site. That is something that is also very useful and would help to keep me on track, as I often forget things.
The only thing that I found kinda pointless was labeling the chords in the back of your computer. I cannot think of any times that my cat has knocked a cord around, or when I've spent more than ten seconds trying to figure out which chords go where. It seems like I would spend more time labeling the chords than I would actually searching for them if one of the chords were to become unplugged.

Saturday

This past Saturday, we did a very intense workout. It involved a lot of calisthenics, running, and stairs. It was very long, and rather complicated. The calisthenics were used to help us gain strength. The running was to help with our endurance, as the running was not supposed to be very fast. The stairs were used not only to help us gain strength and speed, but to increase our stride length, which would in turn help us to run faster. It was a very hard workout, and I was glad to be done.

Old Textbooks

In one of the classes I am currently taking this semester, we were given a photocopied handout from a very old textbook. The handout was a list of physical education activities that were classified as either being not safe for girls or doubtfull for girls. Some of the things that were not safe for girls were; basketball, running more than 50 yards in races, jumping for a best record, and jumping without soft pits or mats.
Some of the activities that were classified as being doubtfull for girls to perform were; plunges underwater for over 25 seconds, jumping, and racing in competition.
What surprised me the most from reading this paper was how ignorant professors were back in this time. That paper is ridiculous, and it is good to see how far we have come as a society since then.

Circuits

Yesterday at practice we did a circuit workout. In this workout we did twenty 100 meter runs with 10 repetitions of an exercise in between each run. We did this twice, with about 5 minutes of rest in between the sets. This was needless to say very challenging. It improved our endurance because we ran so much, and our strength because of the Calisthenics between each run. After the running workout, we went into the weight room and did some lifting. We focused mostly on our legs and hip flexors, as these muscles are especially important to sprinters.
Our sprinting team has today (9/17) off. Rest is very important, especially after a workout as hard as the one we had yesterday.

Hills

In my track and field practice yesterday (9/16) we had a hill workout. The purpose of a hill workout is not only to gain leg strength and endurance but to increase your stride length. Running uphill forces your body to take longer strides, and by doing this your stride length will be increased when you are running on flat ground, i.e. a track. As it is very early in the season, we did not have to run very fast up the hill, thus avoiding injury. We also had plenty of rest between runs up the hill.

Kurt's Blog

This is my first time ever blogging, I'm not entirely sure how all of this stuff works but hopefully I'll figure it out as I go along.
As an exercise science major, I would really like to land a job as a strength coach somewhere, and because of this the majority of my posts will be things based around what I have learned in my classes that are relevant to exercise science.
I also run track and field for the school, and I may post some of the things that happen at my practices, as I feel that is also relevant.