[The Montreal Half-Marathon starts with a 5.5 mile uphill climb. Photo of Montreal by Christine Scholes.]

NEW YORK — Five weeks down, 11 to go…

With another solid, feel-good week of training for the 2010 ING New York City Marathon under my belt, I’ve decided to look forward to the week ahead. Namely, I’m looking forward to my big pre-marathon litmus test—the OASIS Montreal Half-Marathon on Sept. 5.

It’s going to be an uphill battle—literally. When I looked at the elevation chart, I gulped. How could I possibly prepare for this race when uphill climbs are my Kryptonite, my public enemy number one, my Newman?

Montreal’s course is a wholly different beast than New York’s, which gently undulates with the biggest hill coming in the first mile when you barely notice it.

But the Montreal Half doesn’t undulate; like New York, it starts up and over a bridge, but then it climbs, and climbs, and climbs. From the second kilometer to the 10^th—a stretch of 5.5 miles—the course steadily scales what looks like one long hill from the St. Lawrence River (or Fleuve Saint-Laurent as the Quebecois say) to the center of Montreal in a gain of about 200 feet. Thankfully, the course is mostly downhill or flat from there, save one little bump. In a sense, the whole course is “up and over.”

A 5.5-mile long climb is nothing to sneeze at, especially when I have an allergy to hills—ah-choo! They are my least favorite element of just about any run. And hill repeats? Forget it. Don’t do them. Can’t stand them. Pretend they don’t exist. Naturally, thinking about the Montreal climb got me feeling runny-nosed and itchy, and worried that I might just crash and burn.

So this past week, my boyfriend and I—who is also running Montreal and NYC—planned as best we could a 12-mile run that mimics the dreaded Montreal climb.

[A runner heads up Park Avenue near Grand Central in NYC. Photo by H.L.I.T.]

We started in Brooklyn and used the Brooklyn Bridge as our stand-in for the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. From there, we took advantage of NYC’s Summer Streets program, which on August weekends shuts down to car traffic a 5-mile long stretch of Manhattan for bikers and pedestrians. We ran from the Brooklyn Bridge up Lafayette Street and Park Avenue to Central Park, which is more or less a slowly building 4.5-mile uphill ascent. Sure, it wasn’t steep—only 60 feet in elevation gain according to Google Earth—but it was relentless. With only two “downhill” breaks, my legs felt like wobbly stilts and my lungs felt hungry for more air. Then we ran a loop of Central Park’s rolling hills to drive the lesson home.

Steep or not, the run was brutal, and I had to take a slightly extended walk break after the 6-mile mark to regain my breath and composure. My pace ended up being 20 seconds per mile slower than my long run the week before, but I considered that a victory. It was good practice for Montreal, where I’ll face a slog that’s a mile longer and 140 feet steeper.

But more importantly, it got me over my hill hatred. For anyone who is anxious about an out-of-town race, I highly recommend trying to approximate the course in your hometown, especially the element that scares you most—in this case, a long climb. Having run up Manhattan, I feel ready to run up Montreal and more confident that I can do it at race pace.

Montreal will also be my first race that is marked in kilometers instead of miles. I’ve got to run 21 kilometers, not 13.1 miles! At a 6-minute pace! Wow, I sound fast in the metric system. So starting now, I’m clicking off kilometers instead of miles so that I’ll know what my target pace feels like in French.

Between now and then, I’m racing a tune-up 5K. It will be fun, fast, and—hooray!—flat. I love a 5K. And, like the marathon, I only get to run about one a year. So I’m really looking forward to gutting one out on Sunday. Then I’ll enjoy a mini taper going into Montreal. No long run for me this week; just a 7-mile, I mean, 11K tempo run at a 5:45 pace. I like the sound of that.

So goodbye miles; hill-o kilometers. Montréal, Je viens!

Karla Bruning is an award-winning journalist and running nerd. She has completed three marathons, trains with the New York Harriers and is a member of New York Road Runners. Follow Karla’s “Notes From a Running Nerd” at RunKarlaRun.com, Facebook and Twitter@KBruning. To listen to an interview with Karla, check out The Marathon Show, available for streaming or download on BlogTalkRadio and iTunes.

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Basically, college football is to me what cocaine is to Paris Hilton- I go through withdrawal without it. Therefore, as the season begins (and that long offseason finally ends) I’m covering not one but two games this week. For preview one, Ohio State vs. Marshall go here.

Throughout the season, I’ll be bringing you these informative yet blunt game previews of every contest I cover; with a heavy focus on Northwestern, Illinois, Notre Dame, and the Big Ten in general.

From a national relevance standpoint, Virginia Tech vs. Boise St. is the game of the week, but from a fun-to-watch standpoint, I think Saturday’s shootout in South Bend, Notre Dame versus Purdue, is the winner hands down. Unless you’re really into punting, then the game will likely do nothing for you. This season opening battle between two “Crossroads of America” rivals will feature two dynamic spread-option offenses, minimal breaks between plays, and quite possibly 700+ combined passing yards.

If you have a Labor Day weekend cookout that might preclude from watching this game, skip it!

By Paul M. Banks

Notre Dame synopsis: The golden-domers are beginning a new era with Head Coach Brian Kelly, and breaking in a new quarterback in Dayne Crist. Coach Kelly made it quite clear at Media Day who his leaders on offense and defense will be this season.com

“There are guys that people gravitate towards. There are guys that set a standard for the way they play. And right now it’s (Manti) Te’o on defense and (Michael) Floyd on offense,” Kelly said at the season opening presser.

Te’o, an inside linebacker, is one of those all-worldly college football recruits that earn the highest ratings possible from every recruiting service imaginable. His recruiting process was highly publicized, and his final two choices were the Irish and USC. Given the current direction of the two programs, it’s pretty obvious he made the right choice.

When Kelly arrived at ND, I knew Floyd would either be kicked off the team, or set to become a Biletnikoff award front-runner. This is what Kelly said of Floyd at Media day:

“Believe me, I’m not easily impressed. Again, going back to where I thought he was, watching film last year, wasn’t all that impressed with him.

I’m very impressed with his work. He’s been outstanding. He’s set a bar for the way all of our other players need to compete on a day to day basis.”

Look for Crist to hook up with him early and often on Saturday.

What Brian Kelly brings to the coaching table is a record of winning at every level he’s been a part of. At Division II Grand Valley State he won two national titles, played for a third, and took home two Coach of the Years awards. At the Division I level, Kelly took Central Michigan from laughingstock to MAC Champion; before going to Cincinnati and taking a traditional basketball school’s mediocre football program to two BCS games. He also won three consecutive Big East and a couple national Coach of the Year awards while running the Bearcats show.

On Saturday, he’ll look to begin his legacy on college football’s biggest stage. It would help him tremendously if Floyd and Crist do some things that are headline worthy, and start to establish their individual names too.

Purdue synopsis: Purdue’s schedule is like a reverse mullet: party in the front, business in the back. Well it becomes a party after this game, which will do a lot for building the Boilers’ confidence in September and if things go well for them, they’ll enter Big Ten conference play raring to go. You know the Boilers will throw and throw well, especially with the league’s leading pass receiver Keith Smith returning. And they have a flashy new quarterback in Miami transfer Robert Marve. In addition to his arm, he runs a 4.5 40-yard dash. He’ll benefit from being back in the spread. At Miami, his game suffered from being in an unfamiliar system.

“Honestly, I understand this offense much more than the offense I played in my whole time when I was at Miami,” Marve said. “Everything slows down for you. It’s like the first time that you’re doing something, and you’re just not sure what you’re doing. When you see 5 or 6 different coverages in a game, you know, it’s crazy.  And now, when you get a little older, you start laughing at the things you used to miss. You see the safeties depth, or one of the corners leaning in, and all of the sudden, what was once so complicated isn’t so complicated any more.”

Guys you’ll see Saturday eventually playing on Sundays: Floyd could be a first rounder, Te’o looks like a 2012 first rounder, and ND tight ends Kyle Rudolph, and to a lesser extent Mike Ragone should also join them in the league one day. One Purdue scouts are high on DT Ryan Kerrigan. Signal-caller Marve may have some potential too, remember in high school he broke some of St. Tebow’s major state of Florida passing records, so if he adjusts to his transfer and flourishes…he’s at the perfect place for breeding pro QBs.

Prediction to be taken with a grain of salt (actually make that a whole truckload of salt)

ND 38, PU 24

Coach Hope talked about opening up against a tough, big name opponent, and how he would prefer it. “As long as they don’t have a game before ours, as long as it’s even. If they had a game before we played them, I’d have concerns. I’ve been in that boat before. That’s really tough because they’ve already weathered some of their errors or first-game blunders. It’s Even-Steven we have a new quarterback, they have a new quarterback. They got some great
guys, we got some great guys.”

I believe ND just has more great guys, and we’ll see that Saturday.

Written by Paul M. Banks, president and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest-focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network and Fox Sports.com

You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru

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When Purdue plays their opener at Notre Dame Saturday, they’ll do so with a ton of questions about their running game, offensive line, and secondary. The Boilers are no doubt confident in their passing game. This is Purdue, the school that gave us “basketball on grass” after all. But the strength of the team is probably the defensive line, led by senior defensive end Ryan Kerrigan, who enters his final season as fifth on the school’s all time list in sacks.

By Paul M. Banks

“We got three starters coming back, and we’re excited about what we can do up front this year,” Kerrigan said at Big Ten Media Day.

The team co-captain has been named to the Lombardi Award (outstanding lineman), Lott Trophy (Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year) and Bronko Nagurski Trophy (best defensive player) watch lists, as well as preseason second team All-American by Sporting News.

I asked Kerrigan what it was specifically about the 4-3 scheme that played to his strengths.

“I’m a hand in the ground guy, so I feel like that’s what suits me best, I’m not as comfortable from the stand-up linebacker position. We do that a little bit, so I’m not totally against it, but I’m just a little more comfortable with my hand in the ground do I can fire off the ball better,” Kerrigan answered.

He’ll get a ton of chances to rush the passer Saturday as the Irish run a pass-first offense.

“They’re a quick tempo offense. They run the hurry-up, they get to the line quick and like to get off a lot of plays in the game. That really stands out to me because that’s something you have to really prep for

But of course the topic of the day, for today at least in the conference is Big Ten realignment. At Media Day, Kerrigan was asked how he would do it if he were in charge, and opted for East-West geographical division.

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Making it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament just was not good enough for Wake Forest administration as they ended up firing their head coach this off-season.  With four starters gone, the Demon Deacons have a year of re-building on their hands.

The Sports Bank’s 99 team college basketball preview in 99 days breaks down the 72 power conference teams and top 27 mid-majors and will lead you right into the opening tip of the season.  Click here if you missed teams #76-#99.

By: David Kay

Wake Forest Demon Deacons (T-5th, 9-7 in ACC, 20-11 overall)

Projected Depth Chart
C: Tony Woods (Jr)/Carson Desrosiers (Fr)/Ty Walker (Jr)
PF: Ari Stewart (So)/Nikita Mescheriakov (Jr)/Melvin Tabb (Fr)
SF: Travis McKie (Fr)
SG: Gary Clark (Sr)/J.T. Terrell (Fr)
PG: C.J. Harris (So)/Tony Chennault (Fr)

Gone: SF- Al-Farouq Aminu, SG- L.D. Williams, C- Chris McFarland, PG- Ishmael Smith, C-David Weaver, SG-Konner Tucker (transfer-Sam Houston State)

2010-2011 Outlook:
Nobody was surprised when Al-Farouq Aminu left Wake for NBA, but the same cannot be said of head coach Dino Gaudio getting fired.  Under Gaudio, the Demon Deacons had reached the NCAA Tournament each of the past two years but failed to get past the opening weekend which ultimately led to his dismissal.

Jeff Bzdelik replaces Gaudio after three underwhelming years at Colorado in which the Buffs twice finished last in the Big 12.  Bzdelik faces the challenge of replacing Aminu and three other starters who were four of Wake’s top six scorers last season.

Top returning scorer C.J. Harris figures to take over the point guard responsibilities from Ishmael Smith.  Who will join him in the backcourt is a bit of a question mark and concern.  Like Harris, Ari Stewart had an impressive first season with the Demon Deacons and will have a larger role this season and should be flanked by freshman Travis McKie at the forward spot.  On paper, size will once again be a strength for Wake with 6-11 Tony Woods, 7-0 Ty Walker, and 7-0 Carson Desrosiers.  Georgetown transfer Nikita Mescheriakiov becomes eligible after the first semester and will add even more depth up-front.

Youth will be served for Bzdelik and Wake this season so you can expect plenty of bumps along the road.  But if everything goes according to plan, the re-loading effort should not be a long one at Wake.

Player to Watch: Tony Woods, C
To say Woods has under-achieved in his first two years at Wake Forest is like saying Ryan from The Real World: New Orleans is a bit dramatic.  The highly-recruited 6-11 center has yet to make much of an impression on the floor averaging less than four points and three boards a game during his first two seasons.  NBA scouts and Demon Deacon fans are waiting for him to break out and become a force down low on both ends of the floor.  This is a young Wake team and Woods has to make a major jump as an upperclassmen if the Demon Deacons are going to have any chance of being competitive this year.

Key Non-Conference Games:
11/15 vs. VCU/Winthrop (Pre-Season NIT)
11/24 vs. Tennessee (Pre-Season NIT)
11/25 vs. Villanova/UCLA (Pre-Season NIT)
11/30 vs. Iowa (ACC/Big Ten Challenge)
12/18 at Xavier
12/29 at Richmond
1/2 vs. Gonzaga

Other 99 in 99′s:
#76 Georgia Tech
#77 USC
#78 Oklahoma State
#79 Cal
#80 Oklahoma
#81 Virginia
#82 South Carolina
#83 Indiana
#84 Stanford
#85 Oregon
#86 Penn State
#87 South Florida
#88 Arkansas
#89 Boston College
#90 LSU
#91 Providence
#92 Michigan
#93 Oregon State
#94. Nebraska
#95. Auburn
#96. DePaul
#97. Iowa State
#98. Rutgers
#99. Iowa

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All the statements reacting to Big Ten realignment have been released. And you might have guessed all the soundbites and quotes are of the cheerleading variety; so I figured “might as well have cheerleaders as the lead pictures for the posts.” Here’s the Illini reaction from Champaign-Urbana.

Video interviews of Illini reaction to the announcement of division alignments by the Big Ten Conference today:

Director of Athletics Ron Guenther:

Head Football Coach Ron Zook:

Big Ten press release on division alignments, including video of the official announcement on the Big Ten Network and conference schedules for 2011 and 2012:

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As you know Big Ten Conference office announced tonight (Sept. 1) the football division alignments and conference schedules for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

The University of Michigan will compete in a division that features Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern.

The other division consists of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. Each school will play the five institutions within its division and will face three teams from the other division, including one cross-division matchup guaranteed on an annual basis. Michigan’s protected cross-divisional rival is Ohio State. “The Game,” regarded as college football’s greatest rivalry, will continue to be played as the final contest of the regular season.

The winner of each Big Ten division will meet in the inaugural Big Ten Football Championship Game, to be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind., on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011. The championship game will determine the Big Ten champion and the conference’s participant in the Rose Bowl Game or BCS National Championship Game.

Following are Michigan’s conference schedules for the 2011 and 2012 seasons:

2011

Statement from Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon

As Michigan Athletic Director, I’m elated by this new divisional alignment. Our goal entering the discussion was to preserve our great rivalries with Michigan State and Ohio State. We were able to do both and the best news is “The Game” will continue to be played during the final week of the regular season. We also added Nebraska as a member of our division which will create a great new rival for our team. As a bonus, we could face Ohio State again in the title game and play for the championship of the conference and a trip to the Rose Bowl. This is the best possible scenario we could have asked for at the beginning of this process.

Statement from Michigan Football Coach Rich Rodriguez

This is a great scenario for the University of Michigan and our football program. I commend the efforts made by Dave Brandon, President Mary Sue Coleman and their colleagues for working hard to reach an agreement and put together balanced divisional alignments. Dave worked to preserve our great traditional rivalry games – Ohio State and Michigan State – and got our newest member, Nebraska, placed into our division. It’s great that we could keep the greatest rivalry in college football, The Game, the regular season finale, and the bonus is we could still face Ohio State in the championship game.

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Well, I guess there’s no point in watching the Big Ten Network division announcement show now? The divisions are already leaked:

• Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota.
• Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois

As you may have noticed, there isn’t really any regard at all to traditional rivalries. Luckily, there are guaranteed cross-division matchups: PU-Iowa, Ill-NW, IU-MSU, OSU-Mich, PSU-Neb, and Wis-Minn. So some bloodfeuds will remain.

Also the first thought I had when looking at this realignment plan was “damn, Michigan State is going to OWN THAT DIVISION IN BASKETBALL! Seriously, it’s a pretty lopsided alignment when it comes to Hoops.

I mean they are keeping this for basketball right? I know it won’t matter as much, except maybe come conference tournament time. Look at Penn State, they have NO SHOT of ever reaching the conference tournament title game now. And they won’t win too many intradivision games.

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Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Round 8 Round 9

Round 10 Pick 1

Justin Mertes-Mistretta- The Sports Bank

Pick: WR Derrick Mason BAL

He’s as solid as they come. He’s had at least 1,000 yards in eight of his nine past seasons. I understand he will be the number two, maybe even number three option with Ray Rice and now Boldin, but he’s too consistent to pass up as my #4 WR.

Round 10 Pick 2

Walter Cherepinsky- Walter Football

Pick: RB Montario Hardesty CLE

Jerome Harrison fumbled twice on his first two carries in the last preseason game. Eric Mangini loves Montario Hardesty and could opt to play the rookie over Harrison.

Round 10 Pick 3

Paul Greco- Fantasy Pros 911

Pick: WR Eddie Royal DEN

This was a tough decision. My hope is the Eddie Royal bounce back. He’s in an offense I think he can succeed in and it gives me a little depth at the position.

Round 10 Pick 4

Steve Adler- Fantasy Daddy

Pick: WR Julian Edelman NE

Edelman will have plenty of opportunities this season to improve on his strong finish. I expect Welker to be healthy, but Brady is a guy that knows how to spread the ball around and Edelman established himself last season as a solid target.

Round 10 Pick 5

Scott Carasik- Scardraft

Pick: WR Malcolm Kelly WAS

No analysis given.

Round 10 Pick 6

Eric Stashin- Rotoprofessor

Pick: RB Darren McFadden OAK

He’s the top RB on my board, and has the chance to emerge this year as a viable RB2. Given the status of their WR corps, someone needs to emerge, right? Certainly worth the flier at this spot.

//
//

Round 10 Pick 7

Sam Arker- Rothstein Sports

Pick: RB LaDainian Tomlinson NYJ

LT has exploded this pre season and looks like he could get more carries than we thought, not to mention his value on 3rd down.

Round 10 Pick 8

Hunter Ansley- Draft Zoo

Pick: WR Jabar Gaffney DEN

Kyle Orton’s looked pretty solid this preseason, and Denver could be in a position to throw the ball a good bit if their running game doesn’t come around. Gaffney’s got the potential to catch a lot of balls in this offense.

Round 10 Pick 9

Steven Lourie- Football Fan Spot

Pick: RB Tim Hightower ARI

Hightower has been the starter at running back for three straight preseason games. Ken Whisenhunt loves his pass catching and pass blocking skills so even if he doesn’t start during the season in favor of Chris Wells, he’ll still see his fair share of touches.

Round 10 Pick 10

Jeff Malloy- Beast or Bust

Pick: WR Louis Murphy OAK

We are happy to land Murphy as our 5th receiver. The addition of a legit QB in Jason Campbell, the inability of Chaz Schilens to stay healthy, and the slow development of DHB, solidifies Murphy as the #1 WR option in Oakland to start the season, maybe longer. A solid rookie campaign and a nice 2010 situation makes Murphy a low risk-high upside selection at the end of the 10th Round.

Round 10 Pick 11

Vin Sadicario- FF Toolbox

Pick: QB Kevin Kolb PHI

With most of my starting lineup filled out, I will go with the best player available, and at this point, I believe that to be Kevin Kolb. Kolb has the weapons to be a top ten fantasy quarterback this season, and pairing him with Jay Cutler gives me two good options to work as a committee based on matchups.

Round 10 Pick 12

Ryan Lester- Lester’s Legends

Pick: WR Bernard Berrian MIN

With Sidney Rice out, Berrian becomes a starter. Favre looked for him in the NFC Championship game and will do so during the season.

Follow Justin here.

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When the gates of the renovated Michigan Stadium open (Sept. 4), Michigan fans will have new landmarks within the gigantic bowl in which to meet up with their chums.

Former Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin came up with an idea to add a feature to the renovation that embraced the entire state of Michigan. The university installed individual engraved plaques along the perimeter of the stadium’s concourse that carry the names of all 83 Michigan counties. Yes, even Jackson County, home to the Wolverines’ rival Michigan State Spartans.

“We wanted to express our appreciation to the people of the state of Michigan for founding the university, for the many years of state support, and to recognize the 83 counties because we get students from all 83 counties,” said Martin.  “We also realized that they’ll be nice places to meet with your friends and relatives.”

The 83 plaques are situated alphabetically around the stadium concourse from Alcona to Wexford.

“Students from all over the state have attended the university and our alumni are well represented from the northern counties of the Upper Peninsula to the counties that border Ohio and Indiana.”

The names of Michigan’s 83 counties reflect the state’s Native American, French, British and early American heritage. In 1829, the legislature set off 12 new counties, naming eight of them for President Andrew Jackson and members of his cabinet: Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Eaton, Ingham and Van Buren.

In 1840, the legislature changed the names of 16 counties and gave five counties names from Ireland: Antrim, Clare, Emmet, Roscommon and Wexford.

The university will honor all Michigan counties with a “Tribute to Michigan Day” in Michigan Stadium during the Michigan-Bowling Green game. Invitations have been extended to all county governments inviting a representative to attend the special tribute day.

For more information about the stadium renovation, please visit here

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