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Best Running Tips Newsletter, Issue #019 -- About Safety and the Year AheadFebruary 9, 2010 Welcome to the Best Running Tips Newsletter! In January my family and I went on holidays to New Zealand. We visited the South Island, which is incredibly beautiful and offers a wide variety of landscapes; mountains, lakes, fiords, etc. Remember some of the beautiful countryside of the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Filmed in New Zealand. It was a great opportunity to recharge the batteries and run on some beautiful trails. One of the highlights of the trip was a skydive. It's been on my "Bucket List" for a little while and I was a little bit hesitant about it, but my wife signed me up for a jump (almost too eagerly...) and made me push through with it. Luckily, because it was an amazing experience.
Do You Wear ID on the Run? ============================= When we were over there I saw a sad bit of news that caught my attention. About a New Zealand young man that went for a run whilst in the USA. He got hit by a car as he was crossing the road and the authorities had to spend considerable effort to find out who he was as he was not wearing any identification. When I thought about it, I realized that I hardly ever go out with identification on me. So, I started to do some google searches to find out if there were comparable stories like this. Turns out there are. And there are some good-news stories as well. There is this simple, effective way to wear identification. It's called RoadID. I have read some stories from people saying that wearing RoadID saved their life. E.g. a lady that was hit by a truck and hit the pavement, head first. Thanks to the fact she had her RoadID on her, her husband could be contacted right away and he could make the necessary decisions for which the trauma team requires family to decide, such that her life could be saved. Another example was a guy that had some serious allergies and when he got hit by a car the medics administered the right medication thanks to his RoadID. I will be wearing one of these RoadIDs very soon as well and I reckon you should give this some serious consideration. Because you never know what is going to happen. For more information check out RoadID via this link: http://www.best-running-tips.com/RoadID Back to Reality - Planning the Year Ahead ============================= And now it is back to reality. I have been planning my year ahead. Working out which races I will be running this year and giving my training program structure in the lead-up to these runs. When you are doing this, consider your goals and plans. If you simply want to be healthy and enjoy your running without any real time goals, it is fine to just schedule in a race every month or even more often. If you do have personal records on your mind when doing running races, then you need to give it all a bit more thought. Pick two or three goal races for the year. The really important ones in which you want to do well. Then set up your running training based on those races. As an example: There is a half marathon in June which will be my goal race for the first half of the year. There is also a 15K race in March I'd like to do. I am not going to prepare specifically for this 15K race. I will treat it as a test, but when I will be running it I will still be base building and will not have done a lot of speed work yet. So, I am not likely to be at my best when I run this 15K. And I do not aim to be. Because if I were to do that, then my half marathon result is likely to suffer. After the half marathon in June, I will work out whether I will do another half marathon in October or whether I will do a marathon instead. It will depend a bit on how satisfactory my half was, family, work, website plans, etc. Training for a marathon is not a small thing. And if I decide to do it, I will want to be well prepared. No half work. That's why I will use the 100 Day Marathon Plan from Marius Bakken. Marius' training material is different to much of the existing running training books that are out there, predominantly because some of those books have been around for a few decades already. Insights change. In running the biggest developments and training secrets have always come from the experts. Elite-athletes and coaches that explained what worked for them. People like Arthur Lydiard in the 60s and 70s and Pete Pfitzinger in the 70s and 80s. Running has evolved since then and we are starting to learn a lot more about how the Kenyans train and how the Italians prepare themselves for the Olympics (of the last six Olympic marathons, two were won by Italian runners). Marius, as an elite-athlete himself, has worked with the Kenyans and Italians and has transferred what he has learned to the 100 Day Marathon Plan. I have seen the running programs in his book and they are different. More focus on intensity early on, a different approach to long runs as well. Really interesting stuff and it is great that this is becoming available to the wider public now as well. If I am doing a marathon this year, I will give Marius' approach 100 days of my life and will let you know how it works for me! To learn more: http://www.best-running-tips.com/100-day-marathon-plan Running Training Helpline ============================= By the way, apologies to those who left questions on the Running Training Helpline and who have had to wait for an answer. Due to my annual leave there is a little bit of a backlog. I am working through the outstanding list as quickly as I can. Alrighty, that's it from me this time. If you haven't already done so, consider your running plans for the year, the running training you will do and seriously consider that RoadID. I'll talk to you soon. Till then, stay safe, visit my site often and happy running! Dominique Back to Back Issues Page Like this page: |
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