Ericka Anderson Runs 36th Marine Corps Marathon

That's gotta be one of the greatest personal accomplishments ever, and Ericka's a veteran at this stuff, apparently.

See: "Marine Corps Marathon #3: So You Think You're a Rockstar..."

And see the news report at WaPo: "36th Marine Corps Marathon: Charles ‘Chad’ Ware wins men’s race; Tezata Dengersa wins women’s."

And more running at Ericka' blog: The Sweet Life. She's so energetic!

Ericka is Senior Digital Communications Associate at the Heritage Foundation.

BONUS: At New York Times, "The Once and Future Way to Run":

We were once the greatest endurance runners on earth. We didn’t have fangs, claws, strength or speed, but the springiness of our legs and our unrivaled ability to cool our bodies by sweating rather than panting enabled humans to chase prey until it dropped from heat exhaustion. Some speculate that collaboration on such hunts led to language, then shared technology. Running arguably made us the masters of the world.

Sarah Palin Runs Unannounced Half-Marathon in Storm Lake, Iowa

Greta Van Susteren has a photo, "Governor Sarah Palin is running!"



And another one from Josh Hafner at Des Moines Register, "Sarah Palin runs unannounced in Iowa half-marathon." Palin stays in excellent shape. That's awesome.



And from Robin Abcarian at Los Angeles Times, "Sarah Palin runs half-marathon incognito in Iowa." RTWT. Palin registered under her maiden name, Sarah Heath.

Sitting Can be as Deadly as Smoking

Recent studies show prolonged sitting is bad for your health, and bloggers sit a lot, so this especially bad news. Gretchen Carlson had a segment on Fox News, but see also Ann Althouse: "'Linda had no idea her desk was so deadly, noting how 'sitting is probably killing me'.'"

Althouse bought a desk, which is part of the solution. I'm going to do some walking this week:

Summer Movies, Male Bodies

Interesting piece, and funny.

At Los Angeles Times, "Ripped Ideals: Muscular Summer Action Heroes Have Swaggered Back Into Style, But What Do They Say to Male Audiences?" It's long. This quote goes with the video, and I'm looking forward to Captain America, so what the heck?

In the World War II-era comic book Captain America, a weak and sickly young man named Steve Rogers is injected with an experimental serum designed to build a super-soldier. In the movie “Captain America: The First Avenger,” directed by Joe Johnston and due in theaters July 22, dozens of tiny needles inject the serum into Rogers’ major muscle groups, and then he enters a pod where “vita rays” stimulate his growth. On paper and on screen, the result is the same: Rogers emerges as a picture of physical perfection, a gleaming, rippling, flag-wearing, Nazi-killing machine.

“The transformation is absolutely key to understanding Steve Rogers as a character,” said Johnston. “He is essentially Everyman, a 98-pound weakling who is chosen for the rebirth program not for his physical attributes but because of who he is as a human being, with his sense of justice and compassion. It’s crucial that we know and love Steve as the kid who’s been bullied and rejected all his life so we’ll appreciate and relate to who he is as Captain America.”

Evans, the actor playing Captain America, has the kind of square-jawed good looks that lend themselves to roles as prom kings and superheroes — he’s best known for playing the football star in the spoof “Not Another Teen Movie” and the Human Torch in the “Fantastic Four” films.

To achieve the dramatic transformation “Captain America” required, Johnston relied on a combination of techniques, including shrinking Evans’ body with CGI and using a smaller actor as a body double for the “weakling” stage. For the “after” scenes, Evans did push-ups in between takes to pump up the broad new chest he’d built for the role.

For any real-life 98-pound weaklings — or even for the average 5-foot-9, 194.7-pound American male — all this physical perfection can potentially create the kind of body insecurity that was once considered the exclusive province of women.

“Men are increasingly getting the message that their muscles are important, that appearance matters too,” said Katharine Phillips, co-author of “The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession” and professor of psychiatry and human behavior of the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. “Men want to be bigger and want on average 15 more pounds of muscle than they have.”

Oh brother. Overthink that much?

Jack LaLanne, 1914-2011

A man whom I admired from a very young age. When he was on television, as a child, it was a simpler age. Not necessarily better, just simpler.

At Sippican Cottage, "Muscles Didn't Make Jack LaLanne Mighty."

And at Los Angeles Times, "Jack LaLanne dies at 96; spiritual father of U.S. fitness movement":

Jack LaLanne, the seemingly eternal master of health and fitness who first popularized the idea that Americans should work out and eat right to retain youthfulness and vigor, died Sunday. He was 96.

LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia at his home in Morro Bay, Calif., his agent Rick Hersh said. He had undergone heart valve surgery in December 2009.

Though LaLanne was for many years dismissed as merely a "muscle man" — a notion fueled to some extent by his amazing feats of strength — he was the spiritual father of the health movement that blossomed into a national craze of weight rooms, exercise classes and fancy sports clubs.

LaLanne opened what is commonly believed to be the nation's first health club, in Oakland in 1936. In the 1950s, he launched an early-morning televised exercise program keyed to housewives. He designed many now-familiar exercise machines, including leg extension machines and cable-pulley weights. And he proposed the then-radical idea that women, the elderly and even the disabled should work out to retain strength.

Full of exuberance and good cheer, LaLanne saw himself as a combination cheerleader, rescuer and savior. And if his enthusiasm had a religious fervor to it, well, so be it.

"Well it is. It is a religion with me," he told What Is Enlightenment, a magazine dedicated to awareness, in 1999. "It's a way of life. A religion is a way of life, isn't it?"

"Billy Graham was for the hereafter. I'm for the here and now," he told The Times when he was almost 92, employing his usual rapid-fire patter.

Another time, he explained, "The crusade is never off my mind — the exercise I do, the food I eat, the thought I think — all this and how I can help make my profession better-respected. To me, this one thing — physical culture and nutrition — is the salvation of America."

What's the Point? Weight Watchers Rolls Out New Food Management System

This might come as a surprise to JBW --- who loves to dis me with fat jokes and weightist slurs --- but I joined my wife in a Weight Watchers diet regimen back in 1998. I had recently bulked up to about 210 pounds. I'd been doing heavy weight training (body building) and I wanted to get lean. I was cross-training with cycling and running as well as working out at the gym. My wife mostly walked, and she'd had success with weight watchers in the past. The system previously focused on portion control, but around the time my wife rejoined they'd switched over to a point system. And it was pretty rigorous --- and easy to follow if one stayed focused. We both lost weight. I remember being hungry sometimes. Vegetables were freebies (no points). But it was long stretch between lunch and dinner sometimes, and then we'd have these tiny little meals and I'd say, "That's it"? And my wife would say, "I get an ice cream bar because I saved up the points"? To which I'd say, "drats!"

Anyway, I gotta tell my wife about this: Weight Watchers has revamped the system. See NYT, "Weight Watchers Upends Its Points System":

Their world had been rocked, and the questions came fast and furious: A 31-year-old teacher from Midtown Manhattan who had barely touched a banana in six years wanted to know if she could really consume them with impunity. A small-business owner from TriBeCa wondered whether she was being nudged to part with that second (or third) glass of wine. And a woman with silky brown hair, on her way out the door after a Weight Watchers meeting in the basement of a Park Avenue South office building, had a particularly urgent need.

“I just have one question,” the woman said. “How much is a potato latke? I need to know for tonight.”

They and others had been searching for answers and grappling with their implications since Sunday, when Weight Watchers began unveiling its first major overhaul to its cultlike points system, prompting the 750,000 members who attend weekly meetings across the United States — and some one million online adherents — to rethink how they shop, cook and eat.

The new plan, company officials say, is based on scientific findings about how the body processes different foods. The biggest change: All fruits and most vegetables are point-free (or free of PointsPlus, as the new program is called). Processed foods, meanwhile, generally have higher point values, which roughly translates to: should be eaten less.

“If I lived in the Caribbean, maybe I’d be able to make goal,” said Susan J. Slotkis, 64, an interior designer at the Park Avenue South meeting on Wednesday. “The pineapple is great; all the fruits are fresh; you’re never tempted to drink juice.” In the new system, oranges are free, but eight ounces of orange juice cost three points.

When Weight Watchers introduced its points plan to Americans in 1997, it captivated a generation of women, propelling the company into a $1.4 billion empire. Weight Watchers points became a cultural touchstone: Restaurants like Applebee’s distributed special Weight Watchers menus; food companies like Healthy Choice listed points on their soup cans; and members bought Weight Watchers cookbooks, scales and points calculators. Members pay $12 to $15 a week to attend one of 20,000 weigh-ins and pep talks across the nation, or $65 to use the company’s Internet-monitoring program for three months.

Under the old points plan, all participants were given daily and weekly allowances of points, based on their particular bodies, and each food, from apples to pepperoni pizzas, was given a point value, based primarily on the number of calories it contained, with slight adjustments for fat (bad) and fiber (good).

“You could be holding an apple in one hand, which was two points, and you could be holding a 100-calorie snack pack of Oreos in the other hand, which was also two points,” David Kirchhoff, the president and chief executive of Weight Watchers International, said in a telephone interview.

Now, all of that has been upended. The new system allots points based on a complex formula that considers each item’s mix of protein, fiber, carbohydrates and fat. Making it more confusing, most people are now given more total allowed points — a kind of new math that requires recalculation of what had been ingrained.

Jennifer Love Hewitt Looks Fabulous in New People Magazine!

Hey, my wife gets People Magazine, and man this week's issue is fantastic!

See, "Jennifer Love Hewitt Advises Girls to 'Love the Way You Look'":

In a world that's overly focused on body image, Jennifer Love Hewitt is urging young women not to obsess about weight – because it's simply not worth it.

Well, she's one to talk!

Plus: "Sneak Peek! PEOPLE's Most Amazing Bodies."

Peters Canyon Regional Park: First Hike, 2010

Okay, I'm finally getting the chance to sit down for a while and put up the post I promised last night. I went out for a hike yesterday at Peters Canyon Regional Park, in the hills of North Orange. Below is my basic gear. I picked up a new pair of Hi-Tec hiking boots (the tag's still on the right boot there). You might notice as well that little locking-blade pocket knife I carry, along with the hiking pole and traffic cop's whistle. Both for safety. Peter's Canyon is a wilderness area with mountain lions and other wildlife. I'm not carrying a gun, so between the knife and the hiking pole perhaps I'll be able to fight off a lion's attack. A mountain lion killed a cyclist in 2004, about 10 miles south of Peters Canyon, at Whiting Ranch in Trabuco Canyon.

I like walking with the hiking pole, in any case. I've got the whistle mainly so I can call for help if I become injured in a fall, or if some damned posse of local illegal immigrant vatos happens to come along (probably not up here at the park, but this is outback, so every little bit helps). I've got the phone too. I normally will take along some GORP instead of the Nature Valley bars, just in case I get little weak for energy. I stuff everything in the fanny pack. Not shown are sunscreen and sunglasses. And I'll start taking the camera with me on all hikes, since there's lots to see, and this is a horse trail as well has hiking, running, and cycling.

Here's the sign at the park entrance. Check the map at the second image down. I'm standing at the top of the red "parking" icon:

This shot is looking south along the start of the blue line to the left of the parking icon at the map. I'll meet up at the Lakeview Trail in five minutes or so:

Okay, here I'm turning back right on the map, heading east. There are a couple of inclines. This is the first one. That's actually a pair of park rangers hiking around the park, checking out fencing and other things. The hills are moderately strenuous:

Here's the scenic view resting area at the top of the two hills I just climbed. I'm taking the picture at the "photograph" icon at the map. Looking north or a bit northeast, you can see Mt. Baldy in the distance - hard to tell here, but it's still snowcapped from the late December storm we had. I stop to rest for a few minutes and drink water. My favorite time to hike Peters Canyon is in November after the Santa Ana winds have swept away all the clouds and smog, the earlier in the morning the better. It's a heavenly peak. Interestingly, the reservior is the lowest I've seen it. But we haven't had our normal rain cycle yet, and I expect it will fill back up to the higher shoreline levels you can see at left. Lots of birds come to feed and rest along the waterfront. It's quiet nature here:

Starting back up again, I'm now descending down the back side of the peak. There's a cactus trail here and you have to listen for the mountain bikers, 'cause they like to whip down this trail at full speed:

Now I'm hiking the long stretch heading to the south of the park, at Lower Canyon Trail on the map. It's probably just over a mile to the south entrance. I stopped to take a photo of some guys installing solar panels on a new ranch house just on the other side of the creek that runs alongside:

Okay, I'm at the south entrance. I use the restroom here and take a break for a couple of minutes. While resting I read the information billboards posted at the shade-stand. You can see the trail here in the background looking north. Lots of warning signs for dangers from wild animals. We have rattlers in the woods here:

If you check the map back up top, I'm now heading up the trail at the blue line at bottom. See the trees here? There's a brief hike through a thick eucalyptus grove, and here's some more warning signs:

About fifteen minutes later I come to a rest stop at the top of one of the larger inclines. (This is about halfway back up the East Ridge View Trail on the map.) These rests are the biggest payoffs of the hike. I'm looking southwest, out over the Irvine Valley toward Newport Beach and the Pacific Ocean. It's about 4:30pm. With the clouds last night we had a dramatic reddish-purple sunset. We can see the beginning of it here. I did some pushups and replenished fluids. I dwell for a while to take in all the views, saying hello to passing hikers, bikers, and runners:

I didn't tackle the steepest hill at the park yesterday. You can see a picture here. In one or two more hikes, I'll start also taking the last peak trail, and my rests will be much shorter. I was fairly winded on a couple of the steeper inclines yesterday. And I'm sore. My lower back area, gluteous maximus, and inner quadriceps got big workouts. Calves are a little sore as well, but not bad. Plus, my pecs and lats feel like I was benchpressing yesterday, so I'm out of shape on the pushups.

Ideally, I'll have time to go on this hike once a week. On top of that I can walk my neighborhood on most days. When I'm in good shape I walk for hours if I have time. It's the best stressbuster. Later, I'll do some running and more weigthtraining. I weighed 209 after my doctor's appointment in December. My ideal weight is 185. But for now I'm more interested in the cardiovascular workouts and restoring my overall body strength. I'll also post photos of myself. Didn't feel like it yesterday, but tune in for some DD hotness shots throughout the year!

I'll update with more information on this hike, as well as some additional hikes in the Southern California area. 2010's going to be a big year for my American Power workouts!

Late Afternoon Babe-Blogging

I just got home from my first New Year's workout, and I've got pictures to upload and a post to write. That entry should be up later this evening sometime. In any case, checking my Sitemeter one of the first links I clicked was Theo's Spark's, "Bedtime Totty ..." That one might be a little too hot even for this blog, although Theo was impressed with Julie Bowen, so here's another shot of the "Modern Family" star until I can get back up to speed for the evening's power-blogging:

Jules Crittenden Rings Out the Old...

Jules Crittenden's got an interesting piece on getting fit for the new year, at the Boston Herald, "Resolve this, slugs! Get ‘Fit For Combat’ in 2010!" (via Memeorandum). He discusses J.D. Johannes "Fit for Combat" workout system (which is something I should probably be looking into).

It's good Jules is looking ahead, in any case. A lot of folks have written end-of-the-decade "aughts" essays. James Joyner even has a post up today, "Aughts Better Than We Thought?" But one of the more wrenching posts I read on 2000 to 2009 was Jules' entry, "God Damn The Naughts." I hope readers will spend a few minutes with the piece. It's quite moving:

The USS Cole bombing in Aden in October of 2000 was trouble pounding at our door. And on Sept. 11, 2001, it burst in, all the trouble that had been raging around us, that most of us had failed to notice. My memory is of the planes emptying out of the sky, one by one, each of them having a menacing quality as they flew through the same airspace over Boston through which two of the hijacked plans had departed a couple of hours earlier that morning. On the TV monitors at work, we watched the Twin Towers fall. A Boston Herald photo editor informed me that a colleague’s father was in there. The 2,973 innocent victims were the first of the many dead we would come to know in this decade.

God damn the Naughts.

For some of us, it would be a lost loved one or neighbor, or someone that someone else knew and loved. For others, it would be the faces of those they had seen killed before their eyes. For a few, it would be the faces of those they had themselves been compelled to kill. I know men intimately who I have never met, because I saw them die. I never expected that.

Some of us would send sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers off to war, and not always get them back. If they did come back, they were not the same people who had left, changed inside if not maimed outside. We would know those people or perhaps even find ourselves one of them, coming back forever changed, innocence and peace of mind taken way, in a world that would be peopled with the dead. We were supposed to have advanced beyond all that by now, to have become superior to misery, but we learned that is an unreasonable expectation in this world. Instead, like others I know, I learned something else unexpected. I was not only capable of remaining calm and functioning in combat, I enjoyed being there. I was capable of ruthlessness.

God damn the Naughts. It was a perverse decade, in which that thing so many responsible people had agreed was the right thing to do, the removal of a dangerous, mass-murdering dictator, was strangely rendered not just unnecessary but an evil act, by an unexpected twist of fate. The accusations of lies were themselves lies, all of it built on a tyrant’s framework of lies, that together became an unquenchable fire that just burned hotter. It was as revolting as the stench of death, the way they tried to make it meaningless and wrong. Except that death is honest.

RTWT at the link.