I have started running after a few weeks off and
but only doing average 4 miles each time.
Swimming
The swimming going well as I’m starting to enjoy it more. Feeling
that it’s pretty important to relax and not to worry about counting laps or if
others are overtaking me. I’m enjoying doing the weekday 10 mins
freestyle and 5 mins drills (backstroke, one arm drills and a couple of breaststrokes’)
I am trying to get back to basics
and enjoy the swimming as opposed to feeling like it’s a necessity to do.
A few times when I have been coming out of the swim pool to
my car I get the shock of my life when I see a car like mine (before I see my
own one) and for an instant I think someone has damaged it.
Over last couple of weeks I have been getting back on the
bike since the Ironman event. I have done a couple of commutes to work and
really enjoying these and even a some weekend cycles. I'm feeling like on
the long bike rides I’m trying to push myself a bit harder than the earlier part of the
year when I was regularly churning out the long rides. Although I feel like my speed is increasing and
my time should be lower than previous times , I’m finding that now I’m actually
slower. Not by a great deal but it’s probably a combination of weight gain,
smoking before the ironman event and total lack of training last couple of
months. Thankfully with help of the patches I have stopped the smoking and if I
continue with the training I should improve.
In other news....I got myself branded 
Minimalist Running
Tried the minimalist running recently. The theory is that yonks’
ago we all ran about naturally on bare feet with our feet naturally adjusting
to the ground contours.
The recent trend of thick soles takes away the bio kinetic
ability of our foot muscles to adjust, strengthen and increases the likelihood of
injury than forefoot/barefoot/midfoot running.
If you re-adjust to mid or forefoot landing of foot you
should end up with a springlike finish and start of each strike landing and
send off.
Over the last couple of years I have been hearing more and
more about different running styles and I think the jury is still out on the
barefoot style. The book ‘Born to run’ is one of the main reasons the last few
years people are debating whether they should adjust footwear of running style.
Even the major running shoe companies that for years have pumped out the thick
soled trainers are seeing new sales opportunities by developing more partial
minimalist running trainers.
I have a couple pair of thick soled Asics which have done
me fine over last few years.
Last year I bought the Saucony mirage 2 which are 8 mm thickness (I
think my Asics are 12 mm) . I remember the guy in shop advised me not to go
drastically down to the likes of Five-fingers minimalist shoes and the Saucony mirage
trainers are a step down or compromise trainer. To be honest I like the Saucony’s
and didn’t really notice a great deal of difference although I think they are a
bit lighter. So although I will prefer more minimalist for shorter runs, obviously on marathon type distances your form is going to get lasy and it is in those cases you would want the extra cushion to protect your feet I think.
I recently tried to a run whereby at parts I would start to
consciously run on my forefoot. This was a bit awkward as if trying to unlearn
my natural style, but after a while I got into it. At times my forefoot got
sore, so I lapsed back into landing on my heels but I was more conscious of
another thing I learnt about that if you land of your heel this results in a
stiff shock going from heel up your straight leg resulting in lack of spring in
mid/forefoot strike . see another video commentary 40 seconds in -
I didn’t really check my results to see if mid/forefoot
running was quicker for me but I did get a little pain in forefoot area,
probably because I had not done it before. About a week later I tried the next
level of barefoot. I have a pair of surf shoes which are probably the closest
thing to barefoot shoes.
Very little depth to them so I only tried a mile run which
went ok, but I think the jury is still out on whether I should change my style.
I cant realistically see myself in the future doing a marathon forefoot style with
a pair of Newtons or those crazy Five Fingers minimalist trainers.
Stevo Mourne Olympic Triathlon - 31st August 2013
For the second time this year Stephen my brother did an
Olympic triathlon. This one was in the beautiful Mourne area around
Castlewellan. I had hoped to do it with him but because I got a tattoo recently
I wasn’t keen on getting it dirty in the lake.
Stevo arrived calm as a cucumber and set off in the lake for
the swim. Thankfully the water was reasonable around 15 degrees so not too
cold.
After the swim he came out mid pack and quickly got ready for the long bike ride in the windy weather conditions.
He later reported that thankfully this race he didn’t loose his pro-plus tablets for that mid section pickup to help keep you going or like last time get his laces tangled up in the chain ring.
I knew from riding with Stephen a few months back that biking was his strong part and it was good to see him later set off with a good steady pace for the run.
Whilst my parents and Stephens little supporters waited at the finish line for him I went down to the lake circuit and got a chance to cheer fellow competitors on and see Stephen each lap he did.
Now that I have
been doing this sport a few years it was strange to be on the spectating side
of things, but I did enjoy trying to work out different things to motivate runners
at they ran past. At times I reverted to cheering club names and I got a couple
of thanks from some weary runners and saw quite a few fellow triathletes that I
know through races I have taken part on or are facebook friends. Towards the end of the second lap I could see
he was still running strong so I made my way up the hill to the finish area to
capture him finishing.
Have to say, im very proud of Stephen. Not only did he
complete the difficult Olympic triathlon, but he managed to raise almost £700
for North Uganda Outreach Project . Well done Stephen !
Other stuff happening, let me thinks……
Insanity workout – tried few days of these. I think there is a total of about 60 days workout scheme. Pretty much like a bootcamp free weights circuit type thing. Last about 40 mins with some parts just stretching, but boy do they make ya sweat!
Well that’s about it until next time. Hope you like the blog
entry and feel free to let me know what you think either on the blog post or my
facebook. Cheers
