PR

Homer's 3 greatest training secrets

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:40:00 +0000

1. Nutritional supplements.

2. Gym.

3. No TV and no beer.

Meb Keflezighi wins NYC Marathon 2009 in 2:09

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:14:00 +0000

2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Meb Keflezighi had the great honor of winning the 40th running of NYC Marathon today in 2:09:15.

He is the first American man to win this race since Alberto Salazar won back in 1982. Meb was born in Eritrea in 1975 and became a US citizen in 1998.

Ecco Biom Natural Motion running shoe concept reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:52:00 +0000

http://www.thebiomproject.com/

PR's PNQ review

Positive:

durable materials (injected PU, yak or textile upper)
A, B and C (next year) models for fast, normal and slow runners
the new concept is based on real biomechanics research and developed with University of Cologne
a wide enough toebox to allow natural spreading of toes

Negative:

one of the most expensive running shoes
not the most eco-friendly or lightweight materials
could prove to be a touch too stiff, hard or noisy
heart issues forced 'Thunderbear' Sindballe to quit before winning Ironman in Bioms

Questions:

has anyone actually completed a fast marathon successfully with these yet?
will the prices come down by half so that ordinary runners could afford them?
do they naturally strengthen your feet and help reduce injuries like running barefoot does?
will the next Biom generation feature a lighter (Nike Lunar type) design?

More reviews:

http://www.runningandrambling.com/2009/10/ecco-biom-running-shoe-review.html

http://www.id-mag.com/article/LessCushionforthePushin/

Race Across The Sky trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:29:00 +0000

Just a Little Run Around The World

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:58:00 +0000

After losing her husband to cancer, Rosie Swale Pope set off from Wales in October 2003 and ran solo across Europe, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, USA, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroes, Scotland and England. After five long years, she finally returned back home in Wales in August 2008.

Just a Little Run Around the World tells chronologically what happened during her epic journey. Amazingly she was able to live self-supported in a tiny tent most of the time while on the road. She also managed to run a couple of marathon races (Omsk and Chicago).

It's an interesting adventure/travel/survival book, and possibly inspiring for ultrarunners as well. Having published books before, Rosie knows how to write. There are a few typos but it was still easy and fun to read.

The author was born in Davos, Switzerland. She ran London Marathon in her late forties, and then participated in Swiss Alpine Marathon in Davos. Rosie was able to locate and meet her 98-year-old Swiss foster mother there, who had taken care of her as a baby. Rosie also mentions having completed Marathon des Sables, the famous six day event in Sahara, before her Run Around the World.

Fruit and vegs healthier with dairy fat than without

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:50:00 +0000

Food Choices and Coronary Heart Disease: A Population Based Cohort Study of Rural Swedish Men with 12 Years of Follow-up found that daily intake of fruit and vegetables was associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease when combined with a high dairy fat consumption, but not when combined with a low dairy fat consumption.

Choosing wholemeal bread or eating fish at least twice a week showed no association with the outcome.

Europe135 UltraMarathon in September 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:57:00 +0000

http://www.europe135.eu/

Trail magazine 9 is now online!

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:06:00 +0000

Trail magazine number 9/2009 (Oct/Nov) is now available online. It's free, it's in German, and it's full of great photos!

VO2 Vantaa Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:05:00 +0000

The Sunday weather was perfect for VO2 Vantaa Marathon. It was very chilly and frosty in the morning. Once the sun got up it was wonderful - although still chilly and frosty. We are definitely heading towards winter here.

Vantaa is the northern suburb of Helsinki, which has been an independent town since 1974. Anyway it's easily accessible by train and the race is one of the fastest and best organized in Finland. There are usually less than 500 marathon runners so it's possible to show up 30 minutes before the start, buy a race number, change clothes and go for it.

VO2 is a Finnish sports TV program. They filmed the race for their next show.

Unfortunately I felt less than perfect when the race started at 11 AM. After the first of the four 10.5K loops I gradually gave up. I didn't make any mistakes. However there was nothing I could do about it. Just one of those days when the legs are not there when you need them.

My finish time 3:25:20 is way slower than what I hoped for, but nevertheless my fastest marathon result this year.

My lap times were as follows:

0:44:52 (10.5 km), placing 8. in M45 age group
0:49:45 (21.1 km), total 1:34:37, 12./M45
0:53:41 (31.6 km), total 2:28:18, 16./M45
0:57:02 (42.2 km), 3:25:20, 18./M45.

Special thanks for musician Lenni-Kalle Taipale and his family/neighbours for the loud percussion-based cheer station along the way. That provided a nice contrast to the otherwise quiet and somewhat dull course.

RD Harri Mannermaa is a super-fast marathoner himself, and it shows in every detail of the efficient race organisation. This time the all the work he has put up for the race took up its toll as he DNF'd after 35K and took a taxi to to the finish line - where he continued working of course.

The overall winner was Harri Nissinen with 2:28:26.

Crowie and Chrissie win Ironman Kona again

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:53:00 +0000

2009 Ironman Hawaii results are in: no big surprises on Big Island.

Craig Alexander (AUS), second consecutive win in Kona, 8:20:21.

Chrissie Wellington (GB), third consecutive win in Kona, 8:54:02 (new course record).

Kona Underpants Run

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:37:00 +0000

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2009/10october/20091009underwear.htm

RED LIGHT biking rules PSA

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:48:00 +0000

Pääkaupunkijuoksu half-marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Today I participated in the biggest local fall half-marathon (21.1 km) called Pääkaupunkijuoksu. The weather was fine, around 15 C (58 F). It felt warmer than that, especially when the sun was shining. Too hot for me, as usual.

The slightly hilly course along narrow dirt roads in the park is enjoyable, but not particularly fast. Between 8-11 km there were lots of new soft sand, which literally sucked.

My time 1:28:55 (4:12/km pace) was quite acceptable, although I was aiming for a sub 1:25 (4:00/km pace). Still, this is my best half-marathon result in the past 17 years and my fifth best time ever.

This was my first attempt at this 36-year-old event as a half-marathon. It used to be a shorter 20K race when I ran my PR 1:18:40 back in 1988 - 21.1 year ago.

I might try again next year.

New VFF KSO Trek vs old KSO

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:16:00 +0000

http://birthdayshoes.com/index.php/a-look-at-the-new-black-kso-trek-fivefingers-and-comparison-to-black-ksos-video

http://birthdayshoes.com/index.php/first-trail-run-in-vibram-fivefingers-kso-trek

No marathon weather in Berlin

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:26:00 +0000

As the weather forecast predicted, it turned out to be way too warm for record performances in Berlin Marathon 2009 for most of the 40,923 runners from 122 countries.

Three hours before start Haile Gebrselassie was still optimistic, as always. He ate a breakfast consisting of white bread with jam, butter, tea and juice.

Haile clocked probably the fastest ever 30K with his spectacular 1:27:44 split (unofficial). After losing his last pacemaker (of seven) soon after this Geb slowed down for a 2:06:08 finish.

That's still fast, but nowhere near 2:02 that some folks were dreaming of.

Despite failing to break the WR, this was the fourth consecutive victory in Berlin for Haile. Not bad for a 36-year-old.

Geb said he had felt very tired in the end and conformed that the weather had been too hot, "No marathon weather".

Francis Kiprop of Kenya came second in 2:07:03 and Negari Terfa of Ethiopia was third in 2:07:41.

Anti-Estrogenic Diet

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:20:00 +0000

Having enjoyed the original out-of-the-box ideas in Ori Hofmekler's The Warrior Diet, I got interested when I read the first three sentences from his latest book The Anti-Estrogenic Diet:

There is too much estrogen in the world today.
Never before has the human body been exposed to such an overwhelming amount of estrogenic substances.
Most of our conventional food is estrogenic.

The rest of the book deals with how we can prevent estrogen making us fat and sick.

For example, the following are recommended for anti-estrogenic effects:

cruciferous vegetables,
green leafy vegetables,
other vegatables (onions, garlic, celery, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, beets, etc)
nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc),
seeds (pumpkin, flax, hemp, sesame, etc),
avocados,
olives and olive oil,
berries,
citrus fruits,
beans (string beans, hummus etc, except soy products)
red apples,
red grapes,
omega-3 oils (from wild-catch fatty fish or flax/hemp seeds),
organic dairy (whole milk products from grass-fed cows),
whole oats/barley, or quinoa
wheat/rice germ oils,
raw honey (and other bee products),
spices (turmeric/curcumin/curry, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, etc),
herbs (green tea, milk thistle, dandelion root, ginger etc),
eggs,
and last but not least, exercise.

Stuff to avoid include:

estrogenic chemicals in various lotions, plasticizers, preservatives, pesticides, weed killers, paints, dyes, lubricants, adhesives etc,
grains,
sugar,
meat from farm animals,
refined/processed food,
synthetic vitamins,
soy,
excessive alcohol (beer is the worst, due to hops)
estrogenic herbs (licorice etc).

If you are interested, there is more information in the book. Not that much more though, as the main part of the book contains only 114 pages, followed by nice but not so essential chapters (Recipes, Q&A, Appendix, Glossary, References, Index etc).

This book should be especially useful for obese individuals who are disappointed with other diets. But even healthy and skinny runners would probably benefit from learning a bit more about how to protect themselves against our increasingly estrogenic environment.

Climbing skyscrapers with iPod nano 5G

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:25:00 +0000

While putting one foot in front of the other as usual, I've been able to climb skyscrapers at Nike+ Active website.

Virtual challenges like that are fairly easy to set up with the pedometer (and possibly other additional Nike+ fitness features) in the new iPod nano.

So I replaced my 21-month-old 3G iPod nano with 5G. The old one is still working perfectly well, so why would anyone want to spend their hard-earned cash on this kind of knick-knackery?

Actually it's a pretty good deal if you consider what you get with the upgrade:

videocam (with 15 silly effects like the Kaleido in my test video below - cool!)
pedometer (and other features with Nike+ Active if you like)
stopwatch (I often find this one convenient to use for sprints etc)
FM radio (with Tagged Songs, Live Pause, etc)
16 Gb flash drive (my 3G iPod has 8 Gb only)
improved interface (with Genius, VoiceOver, etc)
much lighter weight (36.4 g)
slightly larger 2.2-inch display
recyclable with greener materials (PVC/BFR/Mercury free with arsenic-free glass).

Some people may wonder why not get a iPhone instead, which has all of this and more? For one thing, iPhone is much larger and 3.7 times heavier (135 grams). iPod's battery also tends to last much longer than iPhone's.

Then there are costs to consider. iPhones are very expensive. However, iPod prices are really competitive. For example, I paid 179 euros for this 16Gb model (8 Gb model is 149 only), with free shipping, engraving and support for (PRODUCT) RED (only available from Apple Store).

While waiting for the Nike heart rate monitor for nano, I'd rate the new iPod 5G 9/10. The only thing I miss is a still camera, but you can't have everything in a supercompact size.

Edward Norton & David Blaine to run NYC Marathon for Maasai

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:52:00 +0000

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/09/10/ed.norton.marathon/

http://www.maasaimarathon.com/

http://www.nycmarathon.org/

Mom beats cougar with a water bottle to save her son

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:47:00 +0000

http://www.thestar.com/article/691625

Spectacular evening sky

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:08:00 +0000

Just a quick handheld HDR (auto bracket set to -1, 0, +1) with my trusty LX3 during a recent evening run. Always a sucker for orange clouds on blue sky. Certainly worth stopping for a minute.

Top 10 strange competitions

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:15:00 +0000

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-strange-competitions.php

Barefoot Ted sets Leadville 100 PR in kangaroo Vibrams

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Barefoot Ted improved his PR at Leadville Trail 100-mile run.

http://barefootted.com/2009/08/leadville-trail-100-2009.html

Ted finished (unlike the race favorite Anton Krupicka, but that is another story) in 25:54 wearing the forthcoming kangaroo leather Vibram FiveFingers KSO Treks.

http://barefootted.com/2009/07/fivefingers-kso-trek-new-for-fall-09.html

Adidas Adizero Adios is back in black

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:26:00 +0000

I've got a brand new pair of Adidas Adizero Adios running shoes. I call them the Geb shoes, because Haile Gebrselassie can run very fast with them. For example, he set the marathon World Record 2:03:59 last year in Berlin.

In the video below Geb runs four minute miles on a treadmill. That's much faster than his marathon (or half-marathon) race pace. His running style seems very smooth, there's no sound from the shoes. AAA is an excellent racing flat in every way.

Except the distracting yellow/black/silver/white color scheme, of course. Luckily these new models are black/yellow/silver/white, which makes all the difference to me. They look pretty cool IMHO, considering I've already trained a fortnight without cleaning them.

As far as I know they are pretty much the same in every other aspect. I upgraded sizes from US 10.5 to US 11.0, but they are still ultralight: 219 grams per shoe.

Due to my personal preference and also the location of my home I run mostly on dirt roads. I don't want my shoes to collect too much dirt. Therefore outsole design is a matter of the utmost importance.

These shoes are one of the best I've seen regarding the outsole design. Well done Adidas!

I plan to run a half marathon on dirt in September and a full marathon on asphalt in October with Adidas Adizero Adios. I'll put these shoes - as well myself - to a tough test on both occasions.

Jornet runs fastest around Mont Blanc again

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:05:00 +0000

Kilian Jornet of Spain wins UTMB 2009 in 21:33. He also won The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in 2008 in 20:58.

American Kristin Moehl (11th overall in 24:56) beat British Lizzy Hawker in womens race category.

The most famous participant Scott Jurek was finally able to finish this gruelling course in 26:07 (19th place overall).

The 165.8 km (102.5 miles) trail goes around Mont Blanc visiting France, Italy and Switzerland with 9,404 meters (30,853 ft) of climbing/descending. The start/finish is in Chamonix.

There are videos of the race at www.chamonix-meteo.com

Refine your running with Snow Leopard

noreply@blogger.com (Jakuko) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:42:00 +0000

Now that we Mac addicts have Snow Leopard, a leaner and faster version of the OS X, it could be used as an excuse to refine our running as well.

To achieve a new PR it may not be necessary to reinvent anything, if we make a few key refinements:

get a bit leaner by losing fat - aim for a BMI around 21 (done!)
get a bit faster by improving leg turnover - aim for about 95 steps/min/leg (almost there, but it's not yet happening when I'm tired...)
get a bit stronger by using your core muscles more efficiently - aim for daily strength workouts (no time to visit a gym every day, but situps/pushups etc at home will do)
make it a bit easier by getting racing flats (just got the new black Adidas Adizero Adios, they are light and make me run faster)
improve parallel processing - for example think about your running technique and leg turnover while doing track or hill repeats, and so on to get more results in less time
streamline your training efforts - focus on results and stop wasting your time.

Restarting in 10 seconds!