Watching Jason Lezak ride Frenchman Alain Bernard’s wake to victory in the 4×400 freestyle relay was exhilarating, but I’d love to watch it again without already knowing the result.

I made the mistake of listening to talk radio on Sunday afternoon and learned that our U.S. team had already won gold.  This self-destructive habit happens every time the Summer/Winter Olympics are taking place on the other side of the world.  I never prepare for the different news cycles.  My problem is I read too much, or spend too much time on the Internet.  I pay too much attention.

ESPN has “Breaking News” bottom lines on all twenty of their channels.  Local news will tell you at 6pm what you’ll watch it at 8pm.  They even interrupt increscent left-wing rambling on AM radio for Beijing news.  It’s almost unavoidable.  Almost.

The key is the art of the blackout, and I have to thank the NFL for my education in this discipline.

Beijing is 12 hours ahead of New York.  When you see “LIVE”  by the NBC trademark, that means it was live when people on the East Coast watched the telecast, three hours before we do on the Best Coast.

Here’s my game plan:
1. When you wake up in the morning read your newspaper and check LBPostSports.com.  While you eat your Wheaties, the Olympians, and more importantly the journalists, are sleeping.

2. After arriving at work, or when you plop down on the couch for the day, check out the day time coverage on the NBC family of channels and read your favorite sports website.  If it’s Wednesday morning, you’ll be getting Tuesday afternoon action and reaction, and nothing’s spoiled.

3. When it hits 4pm, right before you sneak out of work early, turn everything off.  That means the radio, the computer, and the TV.  Full blackout, like it’s Los Angeles and the Raiders are playing at the Coliseum.  Read a book.  Take a walk.  Call your Mom, unless she lives on the East Coast (side note: I watch the Dodger game and check MLB.com, but it’s risky.)  Then at 8pm, you sit back and watch the “LIVE” coverage on NBC, and you’re literally watching it for the first time.

I still cheered out loud when Lezak completed the improbable comeback, but it would’ve been so much better if I learned to properly pay less attention.