| 5. TRAINING | | Vertical Bounce. Apnea Squats. Pre-Run Drills.
~ Form, Part 1. Human feet are impressive! Although they give us the rare advantage of energy-efficient bipedalism over most large land animals, there is the risk of being too enthusiastic about our superpower. We start bounding along, burning energy inefficiently, and increasing our risk of injury. This YouTube short shows the difference between optimal bounce and excessive bounce when running.
~ Form, Part 2. If you want to run faster, you need to improve your physical conditioning and especially technique, that most neglected of skillsets in running. These YouTube short drills for the performance-focused runner are the equivalent of swimmers doing their many different drills to improve their technique, and ultimately, their speed. (Before you try them, be sure to do less vigorous activations to be suitably warmed up).
~ Breath Power, Part 1. The Deepest Breath is a new Netflix film that anyone curious about athletic ability should enjoy. The channel's YouTube overview of the film explains the science of freediving. Whether you swim as part of your training (underwater or not), this short documentary will give you an appreciation of how remarkable the mammalian cardiovascular system is.
~ Breath Power, Part 2. Staying with the breath, your trail running (especially your climbing!) will benefit from doing the Apnea Squats Challenge with freediver Renee Blundon. Although it's a dry training exercise for freedivers to prepare their legs for finning in low oxygen, it will train your leg muscles and cardiovascular system to increase efficiency. You start with a seated breath-hold for at least 60 seconds and then do as many squats as you can (must be a 90 degree angle minimum). Renee suggests repeating this twice, five times per week. | | 6. HEALTH | | Air Quality Affects Us All.
~ South Africa's economic hub is breaking records this winter - for air pollution. The Daily Maverick reports that July's air pollution levels there are higher than previous years – and at worryingly unhealthy levels. (Here in Durban I've been keeping an eye on the far distance as a visual cue for when it's suitable to be outside exercising. Also, being a numbers guy, I occasionally visit the IQ Air app and website for updates.)
The reality of the 21st century so far is that no matter where you live, there's some air pollution, some of it natural and a lot of it manmade. It's estimated that 90% of humans breathe in dangerously high levels of air pollution. So, what to do?
First, don't cause air pollution yourself if you can avoid it! Burning garden waste, cooking fires aka braais, unnecessary car usage, even that gas hob in your kitchen - all of them release unhealthy particulate matter and gases.
Second, don't train outside when you can see the haze in the distance. Stay indoors, close windows, and do a strength workout instead. If you have to be outside, consider a mask for short stints, and if not, at least breathe through your nose rather than your mouth.
Third, educate others about the dangers of air pollution. South Africa was listed at 39th most polluted country out of 131 listed in 2022, based on PM2.5 reading data.
Fourth, read this article I wrote about air pollution and running.
Stay safe out there! | | 7. NEWS | | Meg's Film. Keith's Dream. Trishul's Goal.
~ Elite trail runners Meg Mackenzie and Fanny Borgström (above, left) have been working on a documentary about menstrual cycles for 18 months, completing it in April. But they don't have a film to show the world – yet. This week, Meg shared on Instagram the heartbreak of not having clear communication from the company funding the film, especially why it has decided not to release it. "We were patient and we did absolutely everything we could to find solutions, to fight for it, to stand up for ourselves. It’s strange how we made a film that - at its core - was about exactly what happened to us. Our voices, stories, wisdom and vision were hushed and made quiet. It broke our hearts not being able to share the beauty and honesty of the stories we worked on. We are a small team of five women working on this and we are still doing everything we can to find solutions for our work to go out into the world." Photo Toni Spasenoski
~ Retired telecoms entrepreneur Keith Boyd (57) aka Rainbow Runner is nine days into his run from Cape Town to Cairo in a world record attempt to motivate young South Africans to vote. According to him, the stats reveal that just 7% of 18-19 year-olds and 19% of 20-29 year-olds voted in the last elections. His mission press release says the Rainbow Leaders initiative has a target of raising R50 million to enable an increase of democratic participation among young people, especially targeting the 30% voter turnout among the population. "Boyd believes that a surge in voter participation to 40-50% among the youth could signal a transformative shift in South Africa's socio-political landscape," says the press release. Follow his remarkable adventure on Instagram and donate to support his goal.
~ In the second week of July, Trishul Cherns won the 48-Hour Notchview Ultramarathon in the small town of Windsor, Massachusetts, USA. What made his result remarkable is that he's 66 years old. The next two runners were 40 and 30 years old respectively. According to Plant Based News, "his running career, so far, has spanned more than four decades. During this time, he has raced more than 46,000 miles (74,000 kilometres) – not including training – with some single events covering 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometres) in length. He is a certified massage therapist and president of the Global Organization of Multi-Day Ultramarathoners (GOMU). It bills itself as the World Body of Multi-Day Ultramarathoning that keeps the records for all multi-day distances/times for women and men. Cherns has broken more than 110 Canadian ultrarunning records, and in 2021, he polished off his 300th ultramarathon. 'I’ve run more than 300 ultras – in the next five years I’d like to bring that to 500,' he said. 'Ultimately, can I do 1,000 ultra marathons in my lifetime? You know, that’d be cool.'" He told Canadian Running: 'My success definitely comes from my diet. I’m a vegan, and that’s an anti-inflammatory diet. I’m trying to prevent inflammation in my body because these are stressful events, so I’m trying to make it as easy as possible.' Results from the 2020 study 'Is a vegan diet detrimental to endurance and muscle strength?' seem to indicate there may be athletic benefits to eating a plant-based diet. (We need to keep in mind that this conclusion is based on a relatively small group of healthy young women in the study, and with the ostensible proviso that the vegans were consuming a wide variety of wholefoods. Junk food is junk food, no matter what it's made from. Check out the Daily Dozen app to optimise plant wholefood eating - Ed). | | | THAT'S IT... FOR NOW. HAPPY WEEKEND! | | | | | |
|
