Catching up with "Off The Couch": Milwaukee path extension, Jorgenson, Solinsky & Petri
Having spent many of my waking hours of late adding events to the Silent Sports events calendar -- there are now more than 500 listed, including 187 in June alone! -- I've fallen behind on my "Off The Couch" blog reading.
And Tom Held's been busy.
1) Path along Lake Parkway extension
In a March 19 post, Held detailed plans for the inclusion of a 10-foot-wide multiuse path parallel to a six-mile, $207.2-million extension of the Lake Parkway in Milwaukee. Readers of the post left 20 comments, last I checked.
2) Jorgenson picks up corporate sponsor for Olympic training
Former University of Wisconsin-Madison runner and soon-to-be 2012 Olympic triathlete Gwen Jorgenson recently gained a corporate sponsor in Citigroup. She joins 13 other top-ranked Olympic and Paralympic athletes getting assistance from the financial services company, Held reported here.
3) UW-Eau Claire prof maps Olympic marathon
Speaking of the Olympics, UW-Eau Claire professor Sean "Mr. Marathon" Hartnett has mapped the Olympic marathon course in London for the benefit of the competitors. Held's post links to the original story by the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.
4) Solinsky fighting back from a year of injury
Held also links to a seven-minute video interview of Olympian and former UW-Madison All-American runner Chris Solinsky talking about his lost 2011 due to a hamstring injury that required surgery. In the video, Solinsky advises against overtraining. The 27-year-old, who briefly held the 10,000-meter American record, is back running again and hoping to make the U.S. team running the 5,000 at the Olympics.
5) U.S. Rep Petri honored at National Bike Summit
U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, a Republican from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, collected another award from bicycling advocates. He was one of 13 lawmakers honored yesterday at the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. by the League of American Bicyclists for fighting to keep the federal government funding projects for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Petri authored an amendment to House version of the transportation bill that would have preserved $1.2 billion for bike/ped projects. The amendment failed on a committee vote, but the Senate bill passed last week maintains the funding for nonmotorized transportation.
The headlines of the latest "Off The Couch" blog posts, as well as those for this "Silent Sports Sounds Off" blog, can be found on the Silent Sports home page.