Million Girls Moonshot
Fitness, Sports, Mental Wellness, and Me — Why I’m Writing a Health & Technology Blog Series for Intel?
By David Allison
Every sport now has instant replay. The Hawk-eye¹ is used in tennis and other sports just to ensure the official makes the correct call. Races are won sometimes down to the thousandth of a second. Michael Phelps won his 7th Olympic gold in 2008 by a fingertip due to the wall sensors in the pool. The ability to see the exact trajectory of a great golf drive by Tiger Woods off the tee, the speed of the ball coming off Serena Williams’ racket, the path and speed of a Clayton Kershaw’s pitch to his catcher’s glove, or the exact measurement of a home run blast from Mike Trout are all things that we as sports fans take for granted today. On top of that, think about the evolution of better, lighter, more durable, and wicking fabrics in nearly all athletic attire today — the days of white tube socks and heavy cotton tops and bottoms are only cool if you are watching the original Rocky movie. And the cherry on top is the terabytes of data coaches, trainers, analysts, and athletes have at their disposal from anything to the percentage of how calling a certain play in a particular situation will work to the sleep patterns needed for optimal performance for a world-class athlete. Face it, this is not what your parents grew up in when watching and playing sports when they were kids; and for your grandparents — well what is happening now is basically science-fiction.
I have been an athlete and/or a coach for over 40 years. I have performed at a reasonably high level in the sport of middle and long-distance running while in high school, college, post-college, and at the masters-level. I ran a 2:48 880-yard run when I had just turned 7-years-old, was a top-50 overall finisher in the Boston Marathon in 2006, crossed the finish line in 4:27 in an indoor mile just months before my 45th birthday in 2015, and many other great and not-so-great performances in between. I have also coached hundreds of athletes from young kids learning about track and field for the first time to professional triathletes trying to get an edge in the distance running discipline.
Through these years, like any wise athlete or coach, I have had to keep up with the latest and greatest information out there backed by quantifiable, reliable, and proven research. Whether it be the importance of weight and strength training, types of nutrition the body should be taking in, or how to develop better more efficient training cycles, I have had to adapt and evolve with all the seemingly ever-changing physiological, nutritional, and psychological breakthroughs that are discovered after extensive research by brilliant scientists world-wide.
And the tools that are out there now are amazing! If you are a weekend warrior or a serious professional athlete, there are seemingly endless apps, devices, data at your fingertips that allow you to analyze your training and figure out ways to optimize your performance in future races, games, and matches. We have never had this much information to become the best physical version of ourselves in the history of mankind, perhaps — truly an extraordinary time to be alive in terms of physical fitness.
Besides having a passion and love for the sport, for over 15 years I have also been a writer for several technology companies, a freelance writer for running and fitness periodicals, and a founder and contributor to various endurance sport-based blogs. So maybe I was a perfect fit when Intel reached out to me a couple of months ago and asked if I could be their health and fitness blogger/writer. In the coming months, I will be writing articles about technology and its effect today and in the future in sports, fitness, and mental health. Moreover, I will be writing articles that delve into Intel’s part in the upcoming summer Olympic games, how fitness (both mental and physical) plays a pivotal and crucial role in many of the Intel leadership team, and how the melding of science, technology, and fitness is no longer novel but commonplace from here on out.
One of the main goals of all these pieces is to hopefully begin a conversation about how people are using and will most likely be continuing to rely on technology when it comes to physical, mental, and emotional fitness in the coming years and decades. And because of Intel’s unique expertise in technology, what role does it play when it comes to melding tech and fitness? What trends does Intel see by its consumers in the arena of exercise and health that are navigating how it goes about designing products or platforms to buttress traditional tools and ideas about emotional and physiological fitness.
I welcome your feedback as these articles are published. Think of me as your marathon pacesetter for this technology-fitness journey we will be going on in the coming months. I promise to keep my focus on you and hopefully get you to the finish line in one piece.
Your Views Can Make a Difference:
Your views can make a difference. Four of my stories will be raising money for STEM Education- Million Girls Moonshot. These blogs will be labeled with the Kicker “Million Girls Moonshot”. All financial compensation obtained from these articles will be donated to STEM Education. We will share the final amount raised for this cause in a Q1'2022 post. Let’s make a difference and show support for the next generation by clapping for these stories.
Notices and Disclaimers:
Source(s):
¹https://www.hawkeyeinnovations.com/sports/tennis
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
