Talk » qualifies for Tokyo, he will be only the se

Middlesex sat down, as most sports teams do, at the start of the season. They discussed cricket, of course they did. But they also picked through how they wanted to be viewed, and how they were going to go about their business in 2016 and beyond. The results were written down, and pinned to the home dressing room wall at Lords. The All Blacks call it the no dickheads policy. At Lords, it is the Middlesex DNA.Team spirit is a tenuous and fragile notion, but the Middlesex DNA can be tangible and visible. It defines director of cricket Angus Frasers recruitment - based as much on personality as playing prowess - and has ensured it is an easy team to come in to, with a series of youngsters slipping in seamlessly as injuries and international call-ups are juggled.It is the Middlesex DNA that makes them riotous celebrators of each others successes; wickets taken, centuries scored, matches won (each greeted with a trip to the Lords Tavern). Thus the team has no social divide, as batsmen mix with bowlers, the newest signing with the oldest lag. It is no coincidence; there is science to their chemistry. Everyone is mates, whether youre 22 or 36, Nick Gubbins, a batsman at the bottom end of that spectrum, says. We want to work hard for each other, and for the next man in to see that everyone is united.By the time they left The Oval after the final day of their fifth game of the season was washed out for a fifth draw, Middlesexs belief that they could win the title - written into the Middlesex DNA - was being tested. The batsman had been scoring runs, and the bowlers taking wickets, yet they were winless and exasperated. There was mitigation: two of those five draws had come on the deadest of Lords pitches - and a sixth would follow there a week later, against Somerset, by which point they had lost 618 overs to bad weather. That Lords pitch would become such a problem that when they drew again there against Lancashire, captain James Franklin said that they would officially complain to their landlords, the MCC.That game at The Oval was Gubbins 22nd first-class match, and he crossed the Thames more frustrated than most. The baby of a seasoned side, he had looked a class apart in coasting to 91, before a leading edge popped to mid-off. Still without a ton, three of his eight half-centuries had ended in the nineties, and it was becoming a problem. At The Oval, he had bottled a gimme, and he knew it. Toby Roland-Jones, one of the teams japesters-in-chief and a centurion himself, took to gently ribbing Gubbins; hands up, he would joke, if youve scored a ton.Gubbins is playing his 30th first-class game this week. He now has three centuries, including an unbeaten double. He was the first man to 999 Championship runs this season, has passed 50 nine times and averages more than 60. The first of the three tons, in that draw against Somerset, was watched in secret by his nervous parents and Gubbins admits he may have shed a tear. A weight had been lifted.I had been lying in bed wondering, he says. Once I got there, I cant describe the feeling, and since then I havent worried about hundreds. I probably got into a selfish mindset, as our psychologist would call it, thinking about the hundred not the team, whereas now its all about the team. What can I do for them? Can I get us off to a good start? My outlooks changed.Middlesex have mirrored Gubbins newfound appetite for conversion, winning four of their last six to top the table. There have been remarkable victories at Scarborough (all three of Yorkshires losses since the start of 2014, each as extraordinary as the last, have come to Middlesex) and Taunton. They even won at Lords, in three days against Durham.Others have helped to build on last seasons second place. John Simpson, the pugnacious, punchy wicketkeeper, has taken his all-round excellence to a new level, just like Roland-Jones, part of a revolving door seam attack (the win at Taunton came without Tim Murtagh, Roland-Jones or Steven Finn). Ollie Rayners offbreaks, meanwhile, have brought 35 wickets and a new contract. Rayners role was once merely to keep the over rate down, as well as provide a few runs and bucket hands at second slip. Now, though, liberated by the captaincy of Adam Voges and Franklin, he is, put simply, trying to get batsmen out. Pitches have been more helpful, but Rayner has helped himself, too; it has been conspicuous that he has spent the summer chatting to opposition spinners about how they go about their shared craft.But it is Gubbins, with more than 900 of his Championship runs in coming in the first innings, who has helped to decisively shape games.This is quite a contrast. Before, he was the original wide-eyed junior pro, known as much for playing the fool as hitting the ball. In 2015, he tripped celebrating a catch during a T20 at Lords; at a pre-season photoshoot he again went viral as Murtagh tricked him into imitating DJ Bravos Champion dance. Both incidents - as well as a cheery disposition and a tongue-out smile when he bats - have made him an easy target for a sledge. His glut of runs has spoken for itself, though. Throughout, he has been brutal on either side of the wicket to anything short, driven elegantly down the ground, and had sound judgement outside off. While he is constantly compared - for a shared school, county, role in the side and left-handedness - to Andrew Strauss (with whom he chats occasionally), it was a chance pre-season conversation with Alastair Cook, and constant dialogue with his team-mates Nick Compton and Sam Robson, that inspired his breakout year.Compos a massive help, he says. We live close by, and we go for coffee and just chat batting. We set targets together before the season, and he helped hone my process at the crease, and how Im building my innings. I set myself a modest amount to reach, and then I build from there. Robbo, too. The way he started the season was massive for me, because it gave me time to just work out my game. I also chatted to Cook. He said how he doesnt have a huge number of shots, but when the ball is in his area, he punishes bowlers. That made me really consider my strengths, then work hard on them.Unsurprisingly, the ECBs lead batting coach Graham Thorpe has been in touch and, while he plans to spend his winter playing for Subiaco in Perth (where work with Justin Langer has already been lined up), it seems likely he will tour with England Lions; a full international tour would be premature, even if those close to him are convinced the Strauss connection will eventually go one step further. Perhaps the most important thing is that Ive just learnt from experience to stay level and in the moment, he says. Ive had a good year, but that doesnt guarantee a good end to it, or a good one next year. That said its definitely nice to talk about something Ive achieved, not the silly stuff.Gubbins believes it is the Middlesex DNA that has underpinned their unbeaten run to the top of Division One. With three games to go, including a potential decider against this great Yorkshire side (another team with a distinct identity) at Lords, Middlesex are in position to win the Championship for the first time in 23 years. In the 17 years before that, they had won it six times. A barren run, they feel, that needs ending; now that really would be achieving something.Drew Bledsoe Youth Jersey . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. 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There are many more players in contention for the awards than just the three that Ive named, and a good or bad week can easily alter the landscape, but through the first 20 or so games of the NHL season, this is how the awards races look to me.AMMAN, Jordan -- After 16 hours without food or water, Moath al-Khawaldeh laces up pink training shoes and begins working up a sweat sprinting across a track in the Jordanian capital of Amman.Running slower than his 4:19 mile best, al-Khawaldeh grimaces on the final lap and looks to the golden sky of sunset.The 27-year-old is on a multiyear quest to run in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.With guidance from nutritionists and coaches in Jordan and the U.S., the runner follows a training program that has lowered his body fat, cut his marathon time by 15 minutes and has enabled him to train while fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.I forget that Im fasting and I just do it, he said. I feel that Ramadan is a one-month marathon.Believers abstain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk in one of Islams central tenets. Fasting aims to remind Muslims of the hunger pains of the poor.Al-Khawaldeh said fasting also builds mental strength.God will never change a person who hasnt changed themselves, he said, quoting the Muslim holy book, or Quran. For him training, or making the best of ones ability, is a form of faith just like fasting.Fasting for a month changes sleep cycles, body temperature, hormone and blood sugar levels -- all of which can reduce athletic performance if not properly handled, said Asma Aloui, an associate professor at Gafsa University in Tunisia.Her research on fasting athletes playing soccer and judo suggests that those who drink enough water, eat, sleep and train properly can maintain their speeds and strength.A starving body absorbs food differently as it adapts to a lack of minerals, nutrients and water, said al-Khawaldehs nutrition coach Aseel al-Saleh.After a few days of fasting, an athletes body switches quickly into deficiency mode to build up fat reserves, al-Saleh said in her office at DNA, a fitness center in Amman.The funny thing about human physiology is that it cant differentiate between dietary restriction and starvation. It just cant, it shuts down, she said.On the road to Tokyo, Al-Khawaldeh cant afford catabolism, or muscle loss, so he and al-Saleh crafted an athletes Ramadan diet.Instead of five small meals a day, he switched to eating the holy months traditional two meals loaded with vegetables, lean protein and nutritional supplements like omega-3 fatty acids, potassium, fish oil and branch-chain amino acids.During the day, he works as a program officer for the Jordanian peace-building nonprofit Generations for Peace. He naps after work, then rises for the first training session, which ends with the sundown call to prayer -- the signal that its time to eat.Al-Khawaldeh eats a few dates and drinks water at the track, then heads home to a sufra, or Ramadan table laden with foods selected to recover nutrients and hydrationn lost during the days fast.ddddddddddddAt the post-sundown meal, or iftar, he typically eats chicken on brown rice and steamed vegetables and washes it down with a smoothie of skim milk, dates, bananas, almonds and protein powder.The meal contains easily digested nutrients and proteins, while the second meal, suhour, eaten before sunrise contains slow-burning proteins.People often gain weight during Ramadan because the days hunger drives many to gorge on fatty foods and sugary drinks, said al-Saleh, the nutrition coach. Many also cut sleep to enjoy social gatherings often surrounded by calorie-heavy snacks.But Al-Khawaldeh interprets Ramadans tradition to his advantage with a support network of people helping him eat, sleep, hydrate and train safely.Two years ago, al-Khawaldeh began working with Lee Troop, a high performance coach at the Boulder Track Club in Colorado, a nonprofit running club and training center. At the time, he could run a marathons 42 kilometers or 26.2 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes, but he needed to lower that to 2:18:59 to qualify for the Olympics.With Troops regimen and guidance, al-Khawaldeh got faster -- 2:33:36 in Vienna, 2:30:57 in Berlin and 2:27:35 in Hamburg. He still faces thousands of training miles over the next three years to try to shave nearly 10 more minutes off his time to get to Tokyo.Troop said the key to long-term success in long-distance running is determination and steady work. Al-Khawaldehs program during Ramadan left the runner leaner, but not faster, yet the mental exercise of fasting is preparing him well for Tokyo, the coach said.His work ethic is second to none, Troop said. Hes been very resilient and the key for success is that long-term development of every day, week, month and year.If al-Khawaldeh qualifies for Tokyo, he will be only the second Jordanian to ever run in the event, according to the Jordan Olympic Committees website.Jordan has competed in the Summer Olympics since 1980, mainly in skeet shooting and taekwondo. Five Jordanians will compete in martial arts, boxing and the triathlon in this years games in Brazil.The centerpiece of al-Khawaldehs Ramadan training is a midnight run, monitored and timed by Osama al-Qattan, 52, a Jordanian ultra-marathon runner.After a recent night session, al-Qattan drives while al-Khawaldeh relaxes in the backseat, sipping water and a protein shake. Running is 30 percent physical and 70 percent mental, the older runner said. And Moath has a strong will.Al-Khawaldeh said Ramadan is a welcome test of strength.Its a great feeling, the sense that you have that power in your body that you didnt know was there but comes out during Ramadan, he said. ' ' '