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The Alaska shipyard where the 'manliest men' meditate each morning

In the dark hours before sunrise, Vigor Alaska’s shipyard bosses circle up their crews. Dwarfed by vast steel segments of a new ferry, welders, painters and electricians twist their bodies. They roll their heads, shoulders and wrists. They ask about each other’s families. They celebrate pregnancies, raises and second chances. They jump. They lunge. They do push-ups and backbends. Seagulls call. Rain drizzles. Then – in jeans and work boots, sweatshirts and hardhats – they meditate. “I thought it was kind of weird,” said Irineo Munoz, 33, who started working for Vigor Alaska as a machinist in 2015. A former gang member from California, Munoz moved to Alaska after his release from prison. As public debate remains intense over gender roles in society and the workplace, Vigor’s morning routine defies gritty, masculine stereotypes associated with industrial labor. Crews meditate, stretch and socialize – on the clock – for a few moments at the start of each workday. Every Wednesday, around l...
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An end to the dreadmill? Zwift launches a running platform

 I have a theory about treadmill running. Much as a dog year supposedly equates to seven human years, so a mile run on a treadmill equates to seven run outdoor. It doesn’t matter what tricks I try to make it more interesting, time on a treadmill passes slower than a snail on Valium through molasses. But could a saviour finally be at hand (or even foot) with the launch of Zwift running? Keen cyclists will probably already be familiar with the hugely successful virtual platform. Launched in 2014, there are now 500,000 cyclists signed up, averaging 1m miles a day between them. Zwift is essentially a platform that gets you fitter, with a game element. You link up your home turbo trainer to a computer (or TV) using a speed or cadence sensor, and then, when cycling, you move – at the same speed you are cycling on the trainer – through a hyperreal virtual world. Alongside you are other athletes doing the same. That’s one of the platform’s USPs: all the people you see around you are “real”...
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How was your weekend running?

Can anyone tell me how I can learn to love cross country? Or is it a gene you are born with? Would greater exposure to it (I live in London - aside from the Surrey League fixtures, opportunities are minimal ...) engender affection? At any rate, it’s certainly not my favourite kind of running, though the relief when it’s over almost makes it worthwhile. No, wait, that’s the cake my teammates bring. Saturday saw us in Richmond Park for the final fixture of the season - a wonderful location for it, and complete with classic freezing cross country weather. I suppose at least I warmed up while running, unlike my poor kids who were dragged along and ended up wearing pretty much every discarded coat. And eating a fair amount of the cake. There’s been lots of debate about distance inequality in XC recently - prompted by the campaign/petition Maud Hodson has written about for me here. And it’s a campaign I am thoroughly behind, which anyone who knows my feelings towards XC finds hilarious. Why,...
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An updated formula for marathon-running success

It was a real pleasure to see my marathon time predictor featured in the Guardian a few months back. My algorithm uses data from more than a thousand runners of varying abilities who have logged their training here on Fetcheveryone, to come up with a better prediction of marathon time. You can try it here. It’s based on my view that the usefulness of the popular formula devised by Peter Riegel in 1977 starts to break down at marathon distance. This may well be because runners are often under-prepared for the rigours of the marathon, but it’s arguably better for morale to smash a realistic goal than to burn out chasing an elusive one. Here is Riegel’s original formula applied to predicting marathon time from half marathon: Riegel’s classic formula uses R=1.06, which still provides excellent predictions for most distances even 40 years later – but out of 1,071 marathon runners in our Fetcheveryone sample (all of whom had completed at least five half and five full marathons), less than 5%...
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Does cycling really damage men's sexual organs?

Few doubt that cycling helps you get healthy. One study last year found cyclists are less likely to develop heart disease or cancer, and a 2011 review showed it improves fitness and leads to longer lives. But there’s an area of men’s health that has been the subject of a persistent question: does time spent in the saddle lead to problems in the sack? In recent years, scientists have linked cycling with several male health problems, including erectile dysfunction, which they speculate is caused by the saddle decreasing blood flow to the penis. In one study, Norwegian researchers gathered data from 160 men after they took part in a long-distance bike tour. They found that one in five suffered with numbness to the penis that lasted up to a week after the tour, and 13% developed erectile dysfunction that lasted more than a week in most cases. Another study linked cycling to prostate cancer – or at least, that’s how some corners of the media reported it. But the researchers admitted their s...
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It's time football started to take cycling seriously

I am a football fan and I am a cyclist. These identities do not need to be mutually exclusive – so why is it often such a challenge to go to the game by bike? I support Norwich City and I live in Liverpool, which is the first hurdle. Liverpool is 238 miles away from Norwich, and the direct train takes more than five hours. Because of this, I have pretty much given up on home games. But I do love away games, and often go by train and bike, or car and bike. Norwich sometimes sell out their ticket allocation, so for the last three seasons I have bought an away season ticket to guarantee me access. Getting to a Tuesday evening game in Middlesbrough isn’t the easiest journey whatever the form of transport, but why should cycling some of the way add to the problems? My final match of last season was at Leeds. There are some decent cycle lanes there and I cheerfully cycled between the city centre and my accommodation in Headingley, but once I set off to Elland Road I saw no cycle route signs ...
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