It's Time to Play Visionary, Fanatic or Lunatic

Robert Kraft, also known as The Raven, and not to be confused with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, has been running every day for 34 years straight, running an eight-mile stretch of Miami Beach. Starting 1975, Mr. Kraft has run through pneumonia, hurricanes and back pain. His reply as to why someone would do such a thing, "I wanted to discipline myself," said Mr. Kraft.

ESPN recently resurfaced a January 2008 piece on The Raven that I saw the other morning.

From the last VF or L I see Jack LaLanne as a visionary and Ronald Kmiec as a fanatic/lunatic, especially for not listening to his body after suffering a heart attack. His wife had to pressure him into seeing the doctor. With Mr. Kraft it's a little different. At first I would label him a lunatic but I think he's more of a fanatic. What's sad is that it looks like he won't have many more years of running going the way he is. Without a day off to recover and repair damaged tissue caused by the eight-mile run, over time the overuse injuries will cause a problem. Research has proven this. I think even Hal Higdon, who ran 10-miles every morning and night even took some time off to recover.

The one thing I thought was great about The Raven was his varied workout. Pullups, pushups and alike are really what runners should be doing more of.

If you haven't guessed it, I'm looking for the fitness sweet spot, the Holy Grail of sets and reps and miles, the Supreme Being of workouts, the Pièce de résistance diet plan. What gets us ripped like a Laird Hamilton but not die at 39 like Steve Larsen.

Grabbing the Remote

Got a chance to see Jacoby Ellsbury burn the Yank's Andy Pettitte stealing home. Go 'Stros and Sox. As you can see I'm giving baseball a chance again. Hopefully, the steroid era is over.

I couldn't believe ESPN went nuts with the NFL Draft, the mock draft, the fantasy draft, the speculating on top of the speculating until the whole thing was one long sentence running from one ear to the other reaching a point where I was seriously considering going downstairs and watching the Hallmark Channel and it's endless noise stream of faux Little House on the Prairie episodes with the rest of the family. Heh heh. Not really.

The NFL needs to find something to do with the 10 minutes inbetween the selections. Something other than showing Crabtree after he didn't get selected with beads of sweat building up on his forehead. They also need to find something else to show than a player talking on a cellphone to his agent while his family and friends look on. How they sold commercial time for this is beyond me.

In the end it's my fault. In this age of endless media opportunities and Tivo I need to spend more time looking for the gold nuggets like the Red Sox/Yanks match up which produced the stolen home base. Like the good articles. Like Rafael Nadal winning his fifth straight Barcelona Open whether it's live or recorded. Like BikeSnobNYC. Like the Jim Rome radio show and JRIB in the afternoon.

There's more than enough content to watch, read and listen to if I'd just apply a little strategy and not just grab the remote.