Unleash the Monkey Army

The Lance Armstrong "affair" continues to swirl around, resurfacing in between other news stories as people hit another juicy section of the 202 page USADA report. Never being short of an opinion, I felt the need to share mine. I do need to be careful here, so let me say, for the record that, as a result of my borderline coffee addiction I may have come dangerously close to the IOC limits for caffeine, I have never knowingly taken any banned substance, nor have I condoned it in people I have trained or trained with. In fact, one of my many limitations in sport and life has been not being nasty enough and being too willing to play within the rules. And when all the hand-wringing, moralising and soap-box grandstanding is done, whatever else we may think, anabolics, peptide hormones, growth factors, Beta-2 agonists, diuretics, blood doping inter alia are categories of banned substances or methods. And, for example, if you compete in a regulated sport and enjoy a Camberwell carr...

I've had a couple of people speak to me or contact me about the 100 day burpee ladder. So, because I still have some people who read this stuff, apparently (by the way, thank you, I'm still not sure what I'm writing for but I do appreciate your time) I thought I'd put it something out here. Why 100 days? When I was younger my grandad had a book on the shelf "The last 100 days". After he died it came to our family home. Now it sits in my shelf. Granted a book on the last 100 days of the Second World War is odd heirloom to be sentimental about but I vividly remember the "100 Days" printed in pictures within the number and bright yellow. Then there's Napoleon, another childhood fascination. 100 days of his return to mainland Europe until his defeat at Waterloo. And then there is FDR whose first 100 days as president set a frankly astonishing benchmark for the presidency. It seems like a good number! Not only is it a good, solid round number bu...

There are questions of accessibility, there are questions of equality of opportunity, of conduct of superiors and how we should all be given a chance but there seems to be little conversation about what happens when those opportunities are there. Some people seem to have a habit of being in the right place at the right time, and others seem to have chance after chance after chance land in their lap because of location, ancestors or money. Is it right? Actually, you know what, I'm steering clear of the social ethics conversation today. I'm not a political animal and this blog, as the literary equivalent of a man laughing to himself as he farts in the bath, has no interest in attracting people from either end of the political spectrum because of its leanings. In so far as it might attract anybody at all, the intent is only ever to spark a question or two, to get people thinking. And that brings me back on track (see, it does happen occasionally). In the various aspects o...