Engineered to Run

I'm back after a one week hiatus due to a weekend of bowling and socializing. I'll recap my training as usual at the end of the blog, but the main portion of this blog is going to talk about one of Newfoundland's most outstanding athletes, a man who many outside of the running community have likely barely even heard of. In the last month or so, there have been some phenomenal performances by Newfoundland athletes on the National and International stage. Katelyn Osmond won two Olympic medals and a World Championship. Liam Hickey won a silver medal as a member of the Canadian Sledge Hockey team at the Paralympics. And Brad Gushue's rink defended their Brier Championship and are preparing to defend their World Championship. These are all fantastic accomplishments that have been rightly celebrated. What you may not know is that as I'm writing this, another Newfoundlander has been in the woods in Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee for about 36 hours, attempting to c...

Today's post is going to focus on an essential yet often overlooked part of running: breathing. As runners, we generally tend to think about our breathing only when it causes us problems: when we are first starting out and learning to run, when we climb a steep hill, or when we increase our speed either during training or near the end of a race. When we do think about it, it is usually reactionary; how often do we actually consciously think about the way we want to breathe when we are running? For me, the answer to that question is "A lot." And it all traces back to a single article that was sent to me during my first ever week of proper running back in 2013. https://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/running-on-air-breathing-technique In the article, the argument is made that our body has the highest risk of injury when we are starting our exhale, since the core muscles are not engaged at that point. Since most runners tend to breath with an even-even cadence (inhal...

When it comes to training, much like any number of endeavours we undertake in life, excuses can be our worst enemy. It can be so easy to come up with excuses not to get out and run. Or if we do get out and run, there are numerous excuses available to justify taking it easier than planned. And even on the days when you do push yourself, a sub-par performance can be explained away with any number of excuses. But when is an excuse not an excuse? Being able to distinguish an excuse from a legitimate reason is an essential part to understanding your training. Some days you will be more fatigued than normal and you'll need the day off. Other days you will be able to get out, but you just aren't physically up for a hard training session. And then there will be days when you will attempt that hard session, and the results just aren't there, no matter how hard you push. This is where it is important to consider all the variables. In just the last 5 days, I have dealt with both t...