Don’t miss these great links!

And here we are again, already, looking at the week’s best links:

• Derek Sivers has done an amazing post about the importance and necessity of long, consistent practice in order to get good at anything.  In his case, it was 15 years of practice in order to become a good singer.  I suspect the same probably applies for weightlifting.
• Conditioning Research has drawn our attention to an interesting interview with a man who walks 100 miles, noting that “Tony Deall is a retired GP from Penrith. He is also secretary of the Cumbrian branch of the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA). In late May, in Perthshire, he was one of 352 people who completed the LDWA’s annual 100-mile walk, finishing the route (actually 104.4 miles) in 32 hours 56 minutes.”  Amazing.
• Another Conditioning Research post ventures into the frightening possibility of overtraining and the problems that it might cause with your testosterone levels.  Apparently, “males presenting with high athletic stress or weight loss, coupled with low testosterone, may signal the rise of a new disorder: functional hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism.  Just as women whose bodies are under stress from excessive exercise, weight loss, or psychological stress can experience hypothalamic amenorrhea, a seven-patient series suggests that a similar phenomenon may exist among men undergoing similar kinds of stress.”
• The Happiness Project has a list of ten tips to decrease the amount of stress in your day.  I particularly agreed with the idea of keeping your keys in the same place every day and the idea of making your lunch up the night before (I actually make my whole week’s lunches at the weekend and put them in snaplock boxes).
• Walk the Road Less Traveled is the blog of Adam T Glass and has taken a very different turn recently.  Adam’s first blog on Blogger was an informal affair and documented various PRs and other bits and bobs.  On switching to WTRLT, he started a much more specific and targeted blog that, if I am to be completely honest, turned me off a bit.  I found it a bit too pushy and preachy.  However, a couple of recent soul-searching and personal posts have switched me back on to Adam and I hope you enjoy this article about his recent PRs and the roads he has travelled to get there.
• A cat hikes 15,000km but not quite in the way you might think.  In fact, it hikes 15,000km in exactly the way you might expect a cat to do it: by getting someone else to do the hiking for him.
• Lyle McDonald notes that the famous swimming coach, James ‘Doc’ Counsilman, used to say that you ” must not subordinate fundamental principles to minor details”.  I suppose that means that you don’t have to sweat the small stuff…
• If you are into your Science Fiction, then don’t miss this list of the most anticipated Sci-Fi movies of 2011.
• Thankfully, the Office of Fair Trading is investigating whether there is an issue that the only means of payment for tickets at the 2012 Olympics is Visa.  Read about it on the BBC.
• The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban has been quiet for a long while now but here is a recent post: Arms and Shoulders, by Harry Paschall.
• Ron Harris has a great article about a bodybuilding show at Bodybuilding.com, talking about the highs and lows of competing and the benefits of doing the competition even when you don’t place as well as you might hope to.
• Tony Gentilcore is experimenting with twice-daily workouts in order to see whether the shorter work periods lead to greater recovery and faster development.  I guess we’ll find out if it works…
• If you like these links posts, check out Bret Contreras‘s great 21-point random things post, which gives loads of links as well as descriptions of the various topics.  Expect the unexpected, as the great man covers everything from puppies to deadlifts, Vitamin D and the psoas muscle.
• IronMind reports that Zydrunas Savickas has broken Derek Poundstone’s Apollon’s Axle record with 193kg.
• Finally, check out this video of the Westside Barbell team doing their max effort upper work: