November « 2009 « Steve’s Trek Across Canada

November 26, 2009

running form

Filed under: Training — beatcancer @ 2:23 pm

I have been harping on my running clinic and everyone i see running and will listen about running form. WE ARE BORN TO RUN. The human body is designed to run , and run long distances. Like 99% of injuries are caused from poor form. Now, this poor form will only bother you have the repetition of thousands of steps. So, sitting on the couch being sedative will not cause you any pain. But, running can. Unless you have proper form. Thus landing on the balls of your feet with a slightly bent knee, with your ankle, knee, hips, chest and head all in straight-line. To explain it better I found an excellent analysis on You tube. Check out the link to see a great break down of perfect running form as demonstrated by elite kenyan’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r3_sKkHnTU

Enjoy,

Steve

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November 17, 2009

The real training begins

Filed under: Training — beatcancer @ 10:38 pm

It Really begins. I spoke with Ray Zahab and he gave me the first 6 week layout of training for the big trek. 4 days of 1 hour runs, and then back to back 30km’ish runs. Lot’s of strength training and accurate journaling of how it all goes.Saturday was the first 1 hour run. I did an hour of weights at the Y, then left fr a run. Here’s a link to the run.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/18741535

About 40 minutes in my bowels acted up. Have to look back at my nutrition to see what triggered it. So I had to make a pit stop. feeling better and seeing it was only 2 km home I decided to take Main Street hamilton straight back to the Y. There’s is a crest of a hill at Main and Queen then it’s a good downhill to the Y. Unbenouced to me it was the Hamilton Santa Claus Parade day. The Parade had not yet started, but the street was blocked off and the sidewalks were packed with people. Thus making it impossible to run on the sidewalk. So I hit the road. What a rush. Just me sprinting down main street hamilton in the middle of the road with the sidewalk packed with people. I smiled and waved like will smith and Jeff Goldblum in Independance day to the alien’s……….and ran as hard as I could. Like my own personal parade. Way too funny….lmao!

Besides the bowels, a great run.

Steve

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Road 2 Hope

Filed under: Training — beatcancer @ 10:32 pm

My first ever pace bunny experience. For those that don’t know, a pace bunny at a race is someone that wears bunny ears with a time on them. That time is the exact time they are supposed to cross the finish line. Many people are trying to qualify for Boston which requires them to complete a “Boston Qualifier” in under a specific time determined by the runners age and sex. So, in my case at the Road 2 Hope, my ears said 4 hours. Meaning I have to evenly pace myself so I cross the finish line as close to 4 hours as I possibly can without going passed.

I started out with a group of about 30 runners. Most were looking to qualify for Boston. Others just wanted a PB of less than 4 hours. I got my group into a nice cadence of 5:40 per km. Some were trying to push the pack early as they felt fresh and strong. I spoke loudly to the entire group many times, “don’t push it guys, 42.2 km is a long way. Don’t let your excitement drive you. stick to the pace, we’ll get there”.

In the Road 2 Hope marathon there is a downhill of almost 7km @ the 22km mark. No rest. Relentless downhill pounding on the quads. As we approached the hill I spoke to the group. “don’t go to fast on the hill guys, It’s a long way down and the pounding will be relentless. Hold up, take it easy maintain the pace. Go to fast, and you risk loosing it around the 34-35km mark. Trust me. It happened to me last year.” About half the pack took of on the hill. Letting gravity propel them down the hill. Half stayed with me.Here’s the lesson. Of those that took off down the hill, none finished in under 3 hours that I noticed. Those that stayed, made it. I crossed the finish line in 3:59:56. Very pleased with my pacing. Another lesson. No matter how slow you run a marathon, it is still a marathon and it hurts.

Steve

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