I hope everybody had a nice summer time. For those who stayed in NL, well, it did not really look like summer, but who cares? A little chilly weather is so much better for running anyway -_^
I'll start with some good news: the Run4Fun is resumed and will start again on Thursday 06-09-2007 on a modified format. The idea remains the same: running together with a few running mates, keep the motivation up, and most importantly: have fun.
We decided to go for a somewhat more flexible format, in one weekly training session where everybody is welcome. The idea behind is that participation has been very variable lately it has been quite difficult sometimes to arrange for adapted and/or scheduled training. Hence, we thought that, by having only one session, at least two "coaches" would be present at the same time. The group will surely gather more people but we should be able to organize a better adapted training.
Enough talking, let's just try it!
First meeting: Thursday 6th Sept at 12.00 . We hope to see you there.
Trail running
I have only been running for not even 3 years, but unfortunately, I already have quite an impressive past of injuries behind me. The thing is, every time I tried to increase my training, I ended up with back problems which then led to different injuries (everything from runner's knee, to hamstring stretch, not to mention pelvis twist and sore back).
My doctor said I should stop running because my body is not strong enough for it. But this is no option to me so I was left to one solution only: get stronger.
Easy said. I should have spent hours in the gym strengthening my back and abdominal muscles, and also my legs. Problem is: I don't like so much going to the gym so I looked for an outdoor alternative. This is when I started trail running.
Trail running was the solution. First of, it is just fun. You have to watch your steps, look for your way, focus on your balance and your posture. Your whole body runs, not only your legs. If you don't use your upper body, you loose balance. You need to use your legs differently so that the act as a nice dumping for your back, especially in very stiff descents. The benefit is very quick: your legs get stronger for the ups and downs, your stride is more supple, your footsteps are more precise, your ankles become stronger thanks to the unevenness of the ground. As you run on softer surface, it is also nicer for all jour joints.
The icing on the cake for me was that the back problems disappeared. My back muscles could eventually hold my pelvis straight, and my vertebrae almost stopped twisting left and right around my spine in an unruly manner.
Because it is always nice to put what you have learned into practice, I participated in the Swiss Jura Marathon . It is the longest European stage trail running race. It goes from Geneva to Basel, through the Jura mountain, for a total of 350 km and +/- 11 000 m altitude difference in 7 days. Don't panic, I am only half-crasy, so I register for the "light" version of it: also 7 days, also from Geneva to Basel, but only half of every stage. Hard enough. I will not go into deep details. There are many stories to be found about it on the race website , on ultraned or on my blog . The make a long story short, I loved it. I never did any thing so hard. At the end of the first stage, I thought I would die already and could not see how I would be able to run the day after. Every single day I questioned my participation in the next day's stage. And every morning the miracle happened: I could run. I even finished much better than I had started. My back pain had vanished and even though my whole body was sore and exhausted at the end, I recovered from it within a week (where it took me up to a month for a marathon).
