Fitter.

So there you have it. I have fitness returning to my bawd. Running everyday and now the odd double has commenced the beginnings of increased aerobic capacity, here. It's not rocket science, but it is science. I don't need to get overly or overtly scientific about gaining fitness, just run lots; the cardio-vascular system adjusts because the system reacts thinking, "hey you keep doing this, let's put our energy into getting better at it so we can BE better at it."

You know, create fatigue and things, recover-be-stronger-keep-doing-it or recess, again, axiom (it's an axiom now).

The body adjusts sometimes fairly quickly, it's pretty simple, stress and recover, repeat.

Nearly 100% of non-endurance based athletes, when heading for a workout requiring aerobic fitness, will say something to the effect, "I am going to go work on my cardio." What they are saying is, I don't really know exactly what I am doing, but I want to be 'fitter', whatever that means.

They are partly going in the right direction, but they are also misdirected a little and like a scope of a gun off by a millimetre, the bullet ends up well off target.

The mitochondria in the specifically used muscles for THAT specific exercise develop, recess and develop again depending on demands. Mitochondria extract oxygen from the blood of the working muscles.

Damn if I don't hear someone say something to the effect, "I am going to cycle, to improve my running cardio." This is misdirection, not by a lot at first glance, but when the bullet hits the bone, it kills the wrong animal (cryptic I know).

Listen DAWG! The major muscle groups that are engaged during cycling build new and re-activate dormant capillary beds to those specific muscles, as does the oxygen sucking-from-blood mitochondria. So while large quads, jacked full of oxygenated blood are tuned to the exercise of going nearly round and round in motion. The up and out and down and back exercise of running, where foot-plant and toe-off and stability in-between are different and require greater development of the lower leg and the hamstring - when you go a little faster, are specific and different than the former. Still reading along?

So next time you say to me, I am cross training. I may say something like, "ohhhh good for you." But I am thinking, 'there is no such thing as cross-training, as a means of exercise that is better than the specific exercise for which you are foresaking."

Stop bullshitting yourself with this crap.

Cross-training is good for when you have done everything you possibly can have done specifically to develop your body for THAT exercise. It will help you to keep weight in check, if you need that. It will help off-set injuries in some cases. Cross-training will help you keep a well-rounded physique if this is what you want. Some exercises are there for a runner to improve the core. And good for them.

Take the top 1000 (arbitrary number I know) long distance runners in the world (or top Rowers, Cyclists, nordic skiers etc) and compare their amount of exercise-specific exercise to their cross-training exercise.

Automation is the term used to describe muscle motor and skill development and refinement for athletes wishing to perfect, if you will, their appropriate specific skill. A tennis player will for example get the backhand just so and will practice moving that damned arm back and forth, gripping the racquet a very certain way and will move that arm a bazillion times to create 'automation', where the exercise becomes automatic and exact. Yes this requires information to be exchanged between the brain, the arm and the nerve axions to communicate, to create correct and automatic movement - "I am moving arm into backhand direction, to nail that ball, the way I have done a bazillion times already."

THAT is happening, as well as....wait for it....wait for it....the requisite capillary development, strengthening of heart and development of cardio-vascular system to supply oxygenated blood to the area so that THAT mitochondria can extract the oxygen from the blood and supply it to the specific working soft tissues.

Now apply this science-non-science to everything you ever do that requires movement and stop, for the love of science (and non science) bullshitting yourself about cross-training directly benefiting a specific exercise. Does a bread maker make quiche Lorraine in the spare time to get better at making bread? Does a tennis player, play cricket to get better at tennis? Does a massage therapist practice surgery to get better at massage (and never mind the legal ramifications)? Does a hockey player snowboard to get better at hockey? No!

Cycling and swimming and rowing and dancing are as different from running as is swimming to tree-climbing (which is a lost art, I miss dearly).

Sorry, ranted...feel better now.

And am slightly fitter for typing these words ....'fitter' for 'typing' that is.

Fine print, but big enough so you wont miss it: Typing this blog post wont make me better at finger puppets.

Athletics Canada's Apparent Albatross

There is a stirring of athletes and involved personalities, gently rustling the jib of the Canadian cross-country scene. This is happening right now at a well-known Canadian running forum. The parties appear to be organizing, in their attempts to sway Athletics Canada (AC) brass to hand over management of the national cross-country team to them, at least for one year. The proposal? Well it is in the works as they say, swirling in virtual dialogue.

Read on...

Victoria Track Series.

Victoria Track Series, coming to Oak Bay High School's, Jack Wallace Memorial Track. The series will happen between May and August 2010. Featuring races for everyone in the open category, races for elites, possibly high school only race and plausibly the Kingston Beer Mile.

In planning stages, some things need to be ironed out, yet.

Should you wish to sponsor this event, contact me ASAP, as there are only so many spots available and a couple are already taken.

Check facebook, as there is now a facebook group, join in. There will be a race series website shortly - stay-tuned.

Swine flu

Training on track, but not 'on' the track.

This morning, out on my run, I said to myself, "when was the last time I felt this smooth?"

This is an odd statement considering I am experiencing several niggles of doom. For one, I am still getting over my heel bursitis, yes it is much better, but the first 20 - 30:00 of a run are still flat-footed and slower.

I also have left arm tendinitis, as per my physician's diagnosis, in the shoulder. Now I know we don't run with our arms, we run with our legs, but the pain has been intense enough to be distracting.

The right foot has an apparent bruised area at the ball of the foot where I land.

My pinky toes grow callous skin and if I don't clip the extra skin, it tears open and shoots pain through my foot until I duct tape it back together.

Now my left hamstring for the first time in like forever was perfect.

This is a lot of stuff considering, I have never had an injury full-bore. Oh sure I have had niggles, but never an injury to stop me.

Now saying this, I have finally strung two half-decent weeks together. [fingers ARE CROSSED].

Two 60 miles weeks-in-a-row. Next up a 70 mile week.

Lap of Elk-Beaver - 42:30 felt easy.

Royal Victoria Marathon Outtakes...video.

Royal Victoria Marathon - from lead vehicle - set to music.

Hugh Trenchard - Royal Victoria Marathon.

Interesting admission arrived on the Prairie Inn Harrier's chatline yesterday. Local sub-elite runner, Hugh Trenchard posted a public announcement that he admits to taking what he referred to as 'feeds' from a cyclist, away from the designated 'feed stations' during the Royal Victoria Marathon. He went on to say that it is not the cyclist's fault, but his own, then goes on to suggest the race organization need to adjust things so that elites coming through, have space to be able to reach out and grab their bottle. He added something to the effect, I am prepared to accept disqualification.

Breaking the rules knowingly or otherwise is moot, admitting to it does not render one innocent. Running just under 2:40:00 for a marathon (not in contention) also does not exclude him from going directly to jail, not passing go, not collecting his medal - or in this case, handing it back in.

Oh sure it was grown up of him to admit guilt and it was even more ballsy to post this brave declaration on a popular, public forum for all to see including assholes like me.

He is now a sacrificial lamb, as far as I am concerned, he martyred himself for the greater good. I know that having the vantage point from the lead vehicle, I can tell you that Hugh had to run by plenty of crowded stations. I know this, as the police escort and our driver, the age-less Mike Ellis had to use the lights, siren and horn respectively, on many occasions, to get by the early starters.

Early starters, should not waddle 3-wide on a road, which houses 4-wide at best. The Royal Victoria Marathon is a race after all, not a dance-a-thon or a community urban hike, where we sing Kumbaya My Lord holding hands and crying together in harmony. Remember that song?

I'd like to teach the world to sing, in purrrfect haarrr money? Not here man.

In fact the best singer in the event, Opera singing Diva, Marilyn Arsenault would not be caught dead (because she would be dead & because she wouldn't do it) singing anything while trying to race her best on the day. She did and broke the half marathon course record on her way to a 1:15:39 victory. Only then can she cry if she wants to - but no singing Kumbaya my Lord; not here man.

Hugh now faces disqualification. He neither achieved a personal best and certainly no money has been awarded. As mentioned, he would not be in contention for the overall win either. I wonder if he would be so open and honest if he had won a couple thousand dollars or set a personal best? I don't know if he is typically honest or dishonest, I don't know him that well. I do know however, that if he stayed quiet, hiding in the dark with hands clasped, sweating it out - waiting for all the photos and videos to be posted online for the world to see, he would have been humiliated beyond belief and disqualified. He was smart enough to circumvent that.

An interesting situation has occurred here because if he actually thinks there is a chance to not be disqualified because he was open and the organization committee subsequently does not disqualify him, then they will set a precedent, which will open the flood-gates. It would be idiotic for 'example purposes' to not disqualify him. He is forcing their hand.

In the best interest of future Royal Victoria Marathons, I suggest the committee DQ him and next time put the thinking cap on, Hugh.

Royal Victoria Marathon - 2009

The magic of Rod Dixon....and a great event, to boot!

Bear finding - Port Hardy

Update: Apple Cider Vinegar and Honey.

Ok I was told to get the unpasteurized honey to mix with the Apple Cider Vinegar, the natural, organic stuff with the 'Mother' still in it. I think the Mother is full of enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and 90 other good things.

I chose a Buckwheat Honey. I chose a BC company's product from Prince George or Rupert or somewhere. I did not research the honey, but used the vegetable and fruit rule-of-thumb and that is, 'buy dark,' the darker the better - this turned out to be a good decision. It turns out that dark honey is chock-a-block full of antioxidants and other things that are not light honey.

...okay...okay here is the update. I started applying the apple cider vinegar to my heels twice daily and drinking a few teaspoons twice a day Friday night.

Yesterday I finally got around to getting the honey.

So Friday night, all day Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today is Thursday and now that you are reading this it is Friday.

On Saturday I ended my two months break at day 10 days with a 1 hour run. Sunday, I ran 2 hours, Monday I rested, just in case. Tuesday I ran TNLW 13kms (a short TNLW).

Before I started my break from running, I would have to waddle like a penguin when I got up in the a.m. and the first 30 minutes of my runs were painful. WELL since taking the apple cider vinegar, I almost walk perfectly normal in the mornings now and the runs are hardly painful at all - including today's 10 miler (16k) at half marathon effort.

I cannot believe this stuff appears to work!

Trust me I'd cut-off various body parts to enjoy running again, if I had to. I am also a skeptic by nature. So there is no delusion here. Try Googling apple cider vinegar! It's the magic elixir!

Some interesting news.

Having so much time off from running, out of nowhere, because of this injury (of course), I feel like James Brown, the hardest working man in show business and I don't have the Coke habit to fuel me.

I come home, commence the cooking of dinner and where before I would wander around putting the frying pan in the fridge, the salt in my coffee and the wine in the toilet, because I was tired all the time, I find now, I have so much energy I slide around the kitchen, like James Brown. I FEEL GOOD/I feel nice/all sugar and spice....

Even though I have been supplementing my downtime with physical activity, there seems to be no exercise as effective as running. I have done some cycling and some spinning. Because I am not cycling fit specifically, I work up a sweat and do breath very heavy on the uphills, but generally speaking I am not even close to tired after. Also my cycling muscles are being greeted with WORK - they are clearly different that running muscles. Cycling and running do not complement each other one iota.

I have done some roller-blading, which I understand is closer to running than cycling is and I enjoy it - I chased Mr. Noodle around a 5 mile (8+km) time trial, he just about killed himself at - running a pb and I was hardly sweating.

I have done lots of push-ups and some crunches, I will look like Bruce Lee soon, if I don't get fat from lack of running.

I long to run.

Gawd I long to run.

I asked an Olympic legend friend 'Lorraine' what she did for her 28 year career with this same injury. She said, "apple cider vinegar and honey, rub it on and drink it, it works wonders".

So I Google this stuff thinking there will be no information about it at all - turns out there is all sorts of information about bursitis being cured or alleviated with apple cider vinegar and honey.

...and I was considering surgery?

...now I will try this concoction - starting tonight.

tune in for my feedback.

Meanwhile, I am going to ride my bike for 3 hours Saturday, then Sunday play roller hockey for a couple of hours.

If the issue starts to look better by Monday, I will stop the non-running non-sense and will be hitting the roads 'n trails 'n tracks ASAP.

I will make promises with my GAWD and I will be delivered from evil with apple vinegar cider and unpasteurized honey. And I WILL FEEL GOOD/Feeeeeeel niiiice/al sugar and spice.....WOOT!

Steve Osaduik & Richard Mosley - Landsend 10k

Time off for obsessive behavior.

I never thought the decision to take a complete break from running, like maybe two months or so, would be this uncomplicated and come so easy. If I had perhaps broken a bone or pulled a tendon, the decision could have been emotionally disturbing however, after running for 13 years without a break-with barely a 4-day-stint off in all those years, I have now come to terms with it. I have decided that this running injury I have, caused by stiff-heeled dress shoes, is not getting better. I have talked to several people about their own experiences with this same injury and it seems that they either run with it forever, something I am not interested in doing, they opt for quitting running or to take months off.

I am opting for months off - maybe it wont take that long.

Oh sure I can run 60 or 70-miles-per-week right now; I did last week. But each morning I have to deal with waddling around like a penguin or running in pain for the first 30 minutes of every run; why put up with that? Running is about the joy in the expression of freedom, it's about the feeling of fitness and if really fit, about racing and competing if that is what one desires. I like all of that.

I could run 90 or 100-miles-per-week too if I really wanted, but would really need to slow the paces down. That is fine for awhile too, but during the training, if I at some point want to get sharp - I wonder if I could handle even 40-miles-per-week with all the accompanying torque on the heel area, which exacerbates the insertional bursa-something-itis.

In addition to this injury, I have also been tight in the hamstrings, glutes and back, which I can deal with, but requires it seems, much yoga and real wicked sessions with a broom handle and knuckling the muscles after hot baths, where I would rather be doing something more productive during that time.

Taking time off will be interesting, as when my injury is all better and I start to come back, I will have many goals, where as running nearly everyday for 13 years, the goals have become slightly mundane: 12 weeks out from a marathon, start the hill phase, then the anaerobic phase then the sharpening and so on.

Now my goals will be little ones (I imagine) like for instance, if I am off for two months, which seems like a life sentence to me right now, I will start back with a little run, like a 5k or 30:00 jog - easy. Then if I am a little sore (ha ha) I will take it slowly, gradually and progressively build back to what I consider normal. See if I can get fit after awhile. All along I can have little baby-step goals, 30:00 4 x-per-week. Perhaps a few weeks later, go with 30, 40 and 50 minute runs every-other-day and just keep up that progress until I am running twice daily again.

I cringe because I have played around in a rather cavalier fashion with running quantities, where I would be quite happy to run 70kms in 3 days or 90 in 4.5 days or a couple times I got over (100 miles) 162kms in back-to-back weeks, which is pretty rich for a father with a career who will never ever achieve anything in running other than great personal satisfaction.

So as reality sets in I can see, instead of waking up on Sunday anticipating and preparing my long run or a race, I will grab the roller blades and flash around the city - shirt ruffling in the breeze or go to the lacrosse box for a couple hours, take some slap shots, maybe join in on some drop-in shinny. Perhaps I will jump on the bike for a few hours, follow it up with a swim, maybe get on a heavy bag and manhandle it for 6 rounds...things I haven't done much of in the past decade, which I engaged in often before I became an obsessed runner. I might fling my legs around as I did when I was kickboxing, see if there is any snap there. Throw some weights around in the gym, aqua-jog, StairMaster and play with all sorts of exercise gear. I always wondered if I could put up with an erg for 40 minutes, before going completely insane.

I imagine I will enjoy all sorts of activities during my hiatus, all the while and during every single minute of it, the mind will not stray or deviate; I will be dreaming incessantly of the day when I can sit down on my garage floor, slip on a pair of Adi Dazzler's rubber bottom flats and pop out the door for a free run through the streets of my neighbourhood.

Track Classic 2009 - Geoff Martinson

Black Press 5000

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Cam Levins

© Copyright – 2009 – Christopher Kelsall

On June 16th, Black Creek’s Cam Levins finished 2nd over-all in the British Columbia Provincial 5k Road Race Championships on a challenging and hilly, double-looped course. He finished in the time of 14:53. Friday, August 14th he won a local 5000m event in 14:09 - The Black Press 5000. Interestingly, he ran faster during his summer build-up than he did at the end of his NCAA Division 1 track season. Following that August 14th performance in Victoria, B.C. he flew to the other end of the country to Prince Edward Island where he took in the Canada Summer Games 5000m and won in 14:23.

He is on a roll. He even has his own official Cam Levins thread at the Comox Valley Road Runners site.

Continue reading.

Some more good news.

Last week I said that this week I would attempt to run everyday. Well I didn't, but I do have some good news. Thursday, I managed to start and finish the O'Cal 10 miler at a steady pace. The previous two weeks, I started at 1/2 marathon pace, then after two miles quit, followed by cutting across the course, to cheer on fellow runners and tag along back down Amblewood, which gives a very nice, gentle downhill ride for about 1km. Then the rolling hills begin again, where I have cut across Rithet's Bog to near the finish.

This Thursday I started with Paul and Sheldon, we ran 3k together, then Sheldon left us, then I left Paul and Paul pulled the quit trick. I chased Sheldon the whole way and stayed within shouting distance of him, yelling directions "LEFT"...."HUH?"...."LEFT"....."THAT WAY?" (as he pointed)..."THAT WOULD BE LEFT, YOU ASS CLOWN."

And that is the way the run was ran.

We finished in 68 and 69 minutes, not fast, but certainly steady-strong.

So that is good news. And even better, I woke up the next morning not having to waddle like a Penguin. So today I ran 55:00 easy-medium-steady (like a progression) I stopped at 30 minutes, removed the shoes and socks and ran 8 strides and performed some drill on Prospect Lake Soccer Club's artificial turf field at Layritz.

I LOVE BAREFOOT RUNNING!

Tomorrow, I will attempt long-ish (again).

Continued improvement.

Starting tomorrow, I will attempt to run every day again, in singles for awhile and see if the heels continue to improve, if not I chop off the feet at the ankle.

Everything has been going smoother, in fact I was going to run today, but decided to hang on after two near 2 hour runs, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. There was much less pain upon waking, slightly less inflamation and throughout the day, no problems.

[touching wood].

Also touching lucky rabitt's foot. I wonder though, was the rabitt's luck lost and kept within the foot only, when the foot became dearly departed from the leg? So the finder of the foot now possessed said luck? Kinda unfortunate, don't you think.

One thing, cross country style running seems to suit the injury, as for some reason I feel good about a higher leg lift and the part where I am on the forefoot, seems to be less pain-filled. Perhaps if I regain some semblence of fitness, I will have an ok cross season.

I have never really had a good cross country race except when I was 10 years old maybe.

hmmmm. Well I want to be healed for concrete too....BRING ON THE HEALING!

Cautious optimism.

Ok the previous few days, I have gotten up out of bed and not needed to waddle, as it were. The bursitis is acting, right now, like it is on the mend [touch wood].

Tonight, the second Thursday (O'Cal) 10 miler was attempted and although my lack of fitness was well demostrated, I managed to run a couple extra kms with the lead pack in sight from the first Thursday, where I was shot out the back in such ridiculous manner, I wondered if I was running backwards.

Once again I hung out on the ridge, waiting for the leaders to come back for the beautiful Amblewood stretch. There was Nick Walker and Sean Nelson, so I ran with them for a mile before being shot out the back. At this point, I cut across the north side of Rithet's bog to save a couple kms from the run.

Overall: slightly better (marginally) than last week.

Here's to waking up [touch wood] to not waddling.

An excuse for everything.

I like excuses and I have this very un-awesome injury-slash-injury-in-the-makeing called: Retrocalcaneal bursitis. It is very un-awesome in that it is one that appears, so far by my research, to be recoverable only from the stopping of running, unlike many other injuries where you can run through them.

Now I have been lucky, tooling around with some decent mileage and tooling around with say 3 or perhaps 4 day stretches of high mileage in the past - very cavalier-like. I have run these in doubles, triples and sometimes back-to-back long runs, with no repercussions, other than basic fatigue.

So now reality sets in with this injury. I have an ultra-sound scheduled to find out what we suspect and otherwise pretty much know is Retrocalcanieal bursitis, where the bursa is inflamed at the heel at the insertional part of the achilles.

Perplexism:

One day I can run on it and have it hurt enough to mentally accept the notion of taking a few months off. The next day I can run on it and think, damn if it is not almost better now!!

Today is one of those days, whereas yesterday was one of those days where I was surprised to make a run of it, but the problem was exacerbated by the fact that I have a glute-not-firing-issue (maybe) or simply VERY tight lower back, glute, hamstring thing going on.

Off to Hot Bikram Yoga, which may accomplish two things: 1.) Loosen up the Hot Bikram Hamstring (and my hot glutes) and 2.) Take the pressure off the achilles area. See I have big calf muscles, for an otherwise ordinary looking, almost thin long distance runner (with hot glutes).

The last time I had this much tightness, I went to Hot Bikram Yoga and was set for 5 months, so I am looking forward to this.

My mileage (in case you were wondering) has been very low and only steady-strong at best, like half marathon pace at best. I would like to get the mileage up, but then I wouldn't have any excuses. I like excuses.

Black Press 5000 (2.0)

What a gas!

Now watching the video of the elite race, I will say I am slightly less embarrassed by my voice, this time. Perhaps I am passable when I raise it. I do know though that when I hear myself left on a voice message, I want to die and never come back. Or actually, I would like to die and come back as an alligator. As long as I don't come back as Kermit the Frog. I had a co-worker who sounded a little like Kermit. Emphasis on the 'had'.

An alligator is the strong, silent type. I might need to be more strong and more silent-like, because I am neither. Well I can be strong, but I don't have that aura. The co-worker I had, who had expired as it were (between you and I) and sounded like Kermit, a bit, stood 6' 6". If he could have learned to be silent, it would have been impressive. Also, standing next to him, was useless-for the vibe-age, I just couldn't put out a vibe unless I wanted to tell off-colour jokes about giant amphibians. Ok so I told off-colour jokes about giant amphibians. They were good. I would like to come back as a 20 foot alligator and who cares if I sound like Kermit - just don't make me snap.

Now putting on the Black Press 5000 was cool. I had good help from a few good souls, like Sylvan for timing, Bob for starting the races, Maurice and Mike Emerson for randomly doing stuff, I had a few others too - a couple people from work and home. It all seemed scrambly until everyone started running around the track. Then it was pretty basic: start yelling into the microphone a lot.

Marilyn Arsenault had a massive 5000m personal best, by like 34 seconds and ran faster than the Canadian Master's record, she finished in 16:34. Lucy Smith long-time elite Canadian runner, duathlete and triathlete/ironman won the women's race and bettered the Canadian Master's record, slightly faster yet, 16:30. They were both beat by Keith Mills who ran outside of himself, having a massive personal best. It was odd watching him stick with these two fine women and Marilyn's pacer, Olympian, Jon Brown. He just wouldn't let go, then passed them all for the win. Good for him.

Cam Levins ran a personal best too, his fastest lap was his last lap 65". He beat a seriously good runner in Richard Mosley, who was expecting to go 14:20 and ran 14:19. Good call. Cam ran 14:09, Richard is not yet in the shape he can be in.

The open race was fun as Marilyn's Joey, ran very strong and looked totally serious. He is getting stronger.

Some other people had good races too, like Craig Odermatt 15:25, Simon Pearson a new pb, Sean Nelson with a new pb, Brad Cunningham with a new pb, Melissa Ross with a pb. There were a lot of pbs.

WE raised over $600 for the Cops for Cancer, Tour de Rock. Pretty good for a race with a $10 registration charge and without the ability to attract mass participation because of the confines of the track, mind you a few people tipped the Cancer Society extra, which is very nice.

It was a fun event, but I found I took-in a little less than if I was just sitting there watching. saying that, no rest for wicked (I bet that is Shakespearean) I am hoping to put something exciting together for next year, if I don't die and come back as an alligator. I mean, yeah I want to be the strong silent type and a giant amphibian, but I think I can make more things happen, as a goofy little human with an embarrassing voice.

Twitter

Twitter.

I Tweet and I Tweet and I Tweet.

I also DIGG, MySpace, Blog (here), Facebook and write at Flotrack. I also Stumbleupon and chatline forum submit stuff to threads.

I think I belong to 4 social utilities: facebook, Runner'sWall for sure.

I also email people incessently.

This form of communication is so anti-septic that I forgot what all my friends look like. When I see them they are older, that's how long it is between visits.

One could be a 'shut-in' and a social guerilla at the same time.

Keyword: Black Press 5000.

Watch for an excellent race in the elite field, a solid race in the mid-heat and the open heat will be good too, as all athletes seem to be grouped in bunches.

I call a 14:10 for the win in the open.

My hair is getting long - I've created a beachhead in laziness.

My hair is getting long again. I don't think about the hair too much, it is a mere distraction and a complete waste of my time. Although I would like to keep it, so to appear hairy on the head, I would like to not have to ever and when I say ever, I mean never have to tend to it. Like whatever happened to the idea that a complete mess of hair, like Einstein's or DaVinci's meant that one was far too intelligent to worry about such surfacy matters like appearances and much too concerned with the toil-whatever that toil may be.

I wont start here suggesting that I am far too complicated, busy and too intelligent for superfluous and ego-centric matter as hair; just busy. This morning, I dried said hair with a hand towel, by dragging my head back and forth on said hanging towel, like a bull moose dealing with his rack upon a tree in the spring. This created an Einsteinian look; my appearance was of an electric eel caressing a black cat. I almost left the house like this, if it wasn't for the damned mirror.

Should I not bother with my hair this would literally shave 6 minutes from my morning preparations and 4 minutes from my afternoon preparations. Cleaning the hair brush (because I now wouldn't have a hair brush) once-every-other-day will cut another few moments to the total. If I stop looking in the rear view mirror to check and see how the follicles look with the blazing sun upon scalp, this will save enough time to order up a venti-Americano at the drive-in.

Consider the amount of time, I spend pulling a hair from hanging in front of my eyes. They hang there and it is difficult to tell how far away from the face the stray strand hangs, so I often will spend 10 or 15 minutes grasping at thin air, instead of thin hair only to get exasperated and get in front of a mirror, again.

Cleaning the vacuum filters, there are three and the roller brush at the bottom of the vacuum where the spiders get sucked in, I find I spend far too much time unravelling lengths of torqued threads who are twined and wrapped like miniature Boa Constrictors around roller brush unit. What a hassle!

If we add this time to a nice round figure total we have 79 minutes-per-week dealing with hair.

Yesterday I had to take a day off from running, because I could not fit it in.

Now if I could have run for 45 minutes, showered for 8 this totals 53 - tidied up after myself and removed sock threads from the toe nails, I would have had enough time to brush my hair.

Last two week:

70 miles (or more)
55 miles (sadly)
80 miles (this week hopefully) - look for the guy with messy hair.

Notes 'n stuff.

I'd like to talk about my personal training situation, but I would be taking up valuable cyber-space writing in macro-bytes of mundane matter, such as, 'I am nothing but ordinary....'.....and 'I made progress on my 18 minute 3 mile time trial at 7/8ths effort'...etcetera etcetera, enough to put both of us to sleep. But alas, I can really share with you that my aerobic base building phase, which has seen me average a weekly mileage of 56 miles (90k) will take a turn for the higher. Last week was my first 70 mile week in 9, so that is the right direction.

56 miles does not cut it. 70 mile as an average will be ok, but 56 indicates I probably had some 40 mile weeks. Which is exactly right. I am not running any marathon with a 56 mile average weekly total. The good news is December is a little ways away.

On a more interesting note, the Black Press 5000m race is coming together nicely. I now have enough athletes to make it happen and hope to double the numbers come race day.

It's going to be uber-fantastic and if you don't come out, I will send you a personal note filled to the letterhead of how I can make your life eternally miserable.

....never mind.

Trainharder dot com, Flotrack, Black Press and Prairie Inn Harriers, plus Steve Osaduik and Marilyn Arsenault have all been good enough to upload my poster of the event. Check it out, you too can see a Paul O'Callaghan leaning too far back as the poster boy...racing...the previous Black Press 5000. Mwa ha ha ha.

Good day eh!

Black Press 5000 - brought to you by the Sticky Wicket Pub

An excellent training book.

The Arthur Lydiard Phenomenon - A method of any other way could only be of a lesser standard.

Certainly no other endurance pioneer, no matter how successful, could possibly have experimented with or applied as steadfastly in their toil as Lydiard did. Not Percy Cerutty, not Emil Zatopek, nor even Bill Bowerman set research and application parameters as high as he did.

Keith Livingstone recently gave the legend full-on credit by writing the book, Healthy Intelligent Training, The Proven Principles of Arthur Lydiard. When famed Oregon coach, Bill Bowerman received a special medal from President Kennedy in honor of his contributions for spreading the concept of jogging in America, helping to fuel the initial running boom, Bowerman commented: "I am but the disciple. Arthur Lydiard of New Zealand is the prophet."

Author, Livingstone includes coaches like Nic Bideau, Barry Magee and Greg McMillan in this reiteration of the famed method throughout the pages. He wrote the book for serious middle distance runners and coaches so they can understand, in the parlance of today Lydiard’s terminology. The method importantly (and to the author’s credit) remains in-tact.

There have been no demurrals – only endorsements, most notably by Peter Snell, the most successful of all and an original Lydiard athlete. Lorraine Moller, four time Olympian and Olympic bronze marathon winner wrote: ‘Keith captures the genius of Lydiard and delivers it to athletes and coaches in a comprehensive and complete form….the Lydiard Foundation has adopted this book as it’s official text for all Lydiard coaching courses.’

This of course provides further credibility to Healthy Intelligent Training, which is now turning out to be a dog-eared resource, it continually slips in and out between the books, The Lore of Running and Once a Runner, which book-end, very literally, HIT’s space on my shelf. So what’s new with the old method then?

There has been an evolution of sorts, of the method, which began as self-experimentation, then the application of it on others, followed by the fine-tuning and finally the legitimization from the science community, which completely verified the method’s effectiveness – not that world records and gold medals hadn’t already crystallized this, but brought about physiology's confirmation in the eyes of the many who possess a distrust of anything not appearing scientific - and for those who remained anything less than awed. Healthy Intelligent Training now joins in on the evolutionary process of almost-paradoxically preserving the method yet creating acceptance by the modern day sticklers for language symmetry. Oh those wacky wordsmiths over at Let’s Run.

Healthy Intelligent Training is as thorough as it is a layman’s read from the Acknowledgements right to the Bibliography. Livingstone’s appeals to the reader to understand the holism of what they are doing, as much as sticking to the method’s non-negotiables, stays as much to the spirit of Arthur Lydiard as anything that has passed before, perhaps including Lydiard himself.

The very first time I read the book, after highly anticipating its delivery, like a Christmas Day gift opening, I sped through the pages at an alarming pace. I found myself nodding and being pleased that the very method I have learnt through ad-hoc and random online research and communications with anyone who was associated at some point with Lydiard including the energetic co-founder of the Lydiard Foundation, Nobuya ‘Nobby’ Hashizume was being confirmed with every page turn. This affirmation continued to the end and is reignited every time I feel the need to confirm a piece of the puzzle.

Breaking down the language barrier

Arthur was often referred to as being just knowledgeable enough in science to be dangerous. For example he would call anaerobic threshold, aerobic threshold. The meaning to him and the means to which one attains a greater aerobic capacity through capillarization and general cardiac development never changed, only here the meaning takes on new words. You will notice this rife through Lydiard interviews, which are scattered throughout the internet, but centralized in a cache at the Lydiard Foundation. Get past the language barrier and understanding becomes you.

Understanding and appreciating the holism

Make no mistake Lydiard’s method is all about peaking. Although he did later succumb to the masses and created a schedule for those who like to race year-round, his success is from his peaking method that he developed and perfected over nearly 50 years of work in the labratory (roads and trails of New Zealand).

There needs to be a balance of aerobic conditioning, strengthening, anaerobic training, speed work and sharpening. A manifestation of the disconnect between Lydiard and the runners who think they know what’s best reared it's head many times and showed up at a track one day, for example, where Lydiard had an Olympic athlete doing anaerobic training – not to be confused with speed training. He was asked by some students how many laps or how fast the runner was going, Lydiard didn’t know or really care, the kids were confused, expecting finite numbers from the legendary coach and his international athlete. The holism of the training, in this particular example is about trying to create oxygen debt and an acidic blood ph. Anaerobic training is anaerobic training whether you measure it or not. This point is sadly lost on many.

Healthy Intelligent Training

Understanding the holism of training is just an easy read away in the book, Healthy Intelligent Training, which is available online at Amazon. When I ordered my copy, it took a few weeks to arrive, but was well worth the wait. Although in online pictures it appears thin, it isn't. There are roughly 260 pages. As a read, it is written in a fashion that runners and coaches of any age and level of education will appreciate the near layman's reiteration on the Arthur Lydiard method of training. It contains just the right amount of scientific information, real-life examples and contributions from notable coaches and athletes to mix up the training lore. The cover displayed at Amazon doesn't look as appealing as the cover you receive. Mine has Craig Mottram on it running on a dirt road.

Geoff Martinson

Interviewing Geoff Martinson was fun - done in staccato bursts as he traveled to and from wireless-ness. I video interviewed him in-person too...maybe I will let someone see it eventually. I am vary aware of my lack of ability to speak clearly - I sound like a muffled muppet of some sort.

He talks of bears, varsity and trying to achieve the Olympic standard in the 1500m.

Read it here.

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy in Canada is at an all time high (of course) [eyes rolling in mock celebration].

Recently we have laid witness to 4 funerals and a family wedding (where the wedding takes longer than the 4 funerals combined - a niece's job).

Karl Malden, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson in less than two weeks; wow death becomes us.

You never hear, marriage becomes us. The weddings happen like Christmas Day; and end just as quickly too.

But funerals just end.

I like their finality, it puts a nice cap on all those unessessary future expectations and allows one to embrace all that (or all that didn't) happen in said dead person's life, what they did, how they did it, where they went, who they may have influenced. People are often remembered by their humorous moments first, the fun they had...if I can tell one good joke...just once...

I hope when I die, I don't inconvenience anyone too much. So for that, I hope I don't go too early, but not stick around forever either and be a pain, because it may take time to look after me in my frazzled and dilapidated state.

I can see myself wilted and slumped in a wheelchair, whats left of my gray hair lies barely noticeable upon spotted scalp - eyes lazily hang in a trance and their lids close like rusty window shutters. This, while my neck's 45 degree angle protrudes my chin over my lap in an arched-back frozen pose, except I don't leap onto passing prey as it appear might happen, rather teeter perilously close to tasting my butt, in a flopping somersault. I can see the dentures flying in a slow-motion orbit, shattering on the coffee table - Chicklets everywhere!

"Bring me my tea".

1 minute later: "wheel me to the warsh room".

I got married. I have to watch the video time and again to remember what transpired. The wedding is really for 'make show'. Look everyone, we signed an agreement, someone (best man) tell everyone how great I was.

Maybe I will have a funeral while I am alive, then when I do go; good and dignified - if someone can kindly dress me in a tux, drop me in a hole and tell everyone how great I was, I can rest in peace.

Get some devil-worshipping priest to marry me to another cadaver, one who was remembered for the joy she brought others, telling good natured jokes, at least once anyway. Yes a good joke, not a better one than mine though! I'd hate to be over-shadowed, after-all I will be rotting.

Anyway this wedding thing is going on and on and good for the couple! Maybe the bigger the celebration, the bigger the commitment; the greater the loyalty.

Canadian life expectancy is growing and at the same time the divorce rate is on a massive uptick. Is there a correlation? Probably not. But there maybe many lonely 90 year-olds schwinging about the 'ole folks home. Bring on the hormone replacement there-a-pee.

______________________________________________________

Today I felt so good running, I thought of running a time trial, then decided not to. It is suddenly warm again and I hate to sit at the desk at work, sweating for two hours.

I did get in 60 minutes along the Dallas Road Beach. I tell you that, that stretch from Clover to Ogden points, on the beach is like doing plyometrics, but dynamically, while running - awesome.

Time 60:00
Distance 12k
Effort: varied, but steady on sand, rocks, logs, stairs and grass.