New running technique?

City Pier City Half Marathon returns to the seaside

The upcoming edition of the international half marathon will once more take the runners to the seaside in Scheveningen. 

The half marathon road race has a very fast course which one time was the venue of a world record on the half marathon.
As the name of the race suggests it takes the runners form the city to the sea side and the Scheveningen Pier.
A couple of years however this was nt possible as the boulevard received a major make-over. The construction works did not allow the course to go by the sea.

Next CPC is AMrch the 10th 2013 with start and finish at the Malieveld close to the Hague Central Station.

Click here for the course map in PDF

Heel landing or forefoot landing?

With the barefoot trend and pose running in mind there is a tendency to consider the difference between forefoot and heel landing.

In the youtube video below you will see a runner in the biomechanics lab running both with shoes and without.

Most prominent observations:

• from heel landing he switches to mid- forefoot landing;
• the impact of the landing decreases;
• his calf muscle has to work harder;
• the muscle on the front of his lower leg (tibialis anterior) as to work less.

The biomechanist Joseph Hamill indicates that the length of the stride decreases while running barefoot. According to this researcher this will use more energy and is therefore less efficient. This contradicts with a previous posting I wrote on the Russian trainer / doctor Romanov. He states that the pose running method with forefoot landing and shorter strides is more fuel efficient (read this posting).

A final important observation is at the end of this video: If you take off your shoes and start running barefoot you will change you stride and technique. This makes you prone to injuries. So build it up: barefoot running.



Bron ABC Catalyst

Loosing weigth and your body clock

Triggered by a documentary on Dutch television I found a ABC Catalist episode which deals with the same subject but in English.

Core message is two fold:

1. You can't fool you body clock
2. Eating during the period you body claims as 'night' will cause weight gain, diabetes and obesity's

Wanna know more? Watch the documentary >>

Below you will see another documentary of the BCC on your body clock:

Film: Race Across the Sky

From the same makers as 'The Beauty of the Irrational'. And again with Ryan Sanders (see previous post).

Thie film is a short impression of the Leadville 100, also known as 'Race Across the Sky'. It is one of the ultras featured in Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (see blog) with Micah True (still 'alive and kicking').

Impressive is the word that comes to mind.


The Race Across the Sky from The African Attachment on Vimeo.

Film: The Beauty of the Irrational

Some of the most irrational descision we human being make lead to the most beautiful moments of our lives. This roughly the explanation of the title of this short film.

In the Fish River Canyon in South Africa is a walking trail, 84 km long good for 5 days walking. South African Ultra Runner, Ryan Sanders, sets out to run it in the fastest time possible. He finishes in just under 7 hours in 6:57.


The Beauty of the Irrational from The African Attachment on Vimeo.

Nico product placement with the Suunto Ambit.
 Spot it! It isn't hard to miss!

Small improvement in the course

Almost every Marathon has a little loop somewhere in  in the route to make the course fit the 42.195km.

In Amsterdam is has been, for ages, a loop leaving the Amstel near the windmill, over a small road and roundabout onto the Europaboulevard and back again (called 'locatie oude lus' on the map).

The loop is this year on the President Kennedylaan and this saves al lot of turning making the route a bit faster (called 'nieuwe lus' on the map).

With this change it was necessary to measure the route. And this is still done old fashioned way by bike with the use of a Jonescounter. Read more...

Almost 30 but still innovative: Nike Air Pegasus

one of the oldest running shoes carrying the same name all along is the Nike Air Pegasus. Celebrating its 25th birthday in 2008 it is turning 30 next year!

Being an oldy in name, the shoe itself is still innovative and now also available in the ID line, the customisable shoe.

This time not only the colour but also the sole, road or trail, and the upper, Gore-Tex or mesh.
This way you can have the same shoe for four types of use/running:

1. Road/mesh: for dry weather
2. Road with Gore-Tex: For the wet rainy seasons 
3. Trail with mesh: Dry conditions during an off road run
4. Trail with Gore-Tex: Wet conditions off road.

Can't wait for the Pegasus 30. I am curious what they come up with for this anniversary.

The ID is available in the Nike Store. The ID is not available in other online stores.

The regular Pegasus is widely available. Picking the one year old  Pegasus 28 can save you an additional 20 to 30 bucks or more.
See all the Nike Air available on Amazon Including a '92 retro version (see image). 

Nike+ for Android

One of my first posts on my Dutch blog (see posting) was on the collaboration between Apple en Nike. These two brands combined forces and enabled runners to use the Nike+ sensor in combination with the iPod. For the younger runners amongst us: This is an iPhone that did not connect to Internet, did not allow you to call and was only suited for listening to music and view video... ;p
A couple of days ago I wrote on the the new shoes LunarTR1 (see posting). The shoe again is shown in combination with the iPhone from Apple.

For runners with Android phones I have some good news because I found f.e. on  myandroidgadgets that here is also an App available for Android.

Silver Cup first Olympic Marathon on display in Athens

The Price of the first Olympic marathon is on display in the Acropolis, in Athens, Greece. The silver cup was up for sale in April this year (see corresponding posting).

By then they estimated the cup to raise some 200.000 euros but the final result hit the 650.000 euro. The cup was sold by the grandson of the first time winner and was purchased by another Greek who wanted to keep the cup in Greece as part of their national heritage.

First on display in the Acropolis, from September 2013 it will on display in a cultural centre.

source: Reuters.

Training at altitude

TIP from RunningDutch:

Tips for running at altitude:

• Eat more;
• Drink more;
• Sleep more;
• Watch you iron intake.

other tips

Maybe this article is better suited for the beginning of the summer season with people heading of for the Alps or the Tatra or any other high mountains suitable for a summer holiday. This post contains some facts/tips on training at altitude.

• Due to less oxygen your boy will produce more of the hormone EPO (the natural way) and increase the production of red blood cells that transport oxygen in your blood. For this your body needs iron which you can get from meat, fish, poultry, broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, tomatoes or citrus-fruits;
• With these extra red blood cells you can transport more oxygen and perform at the same level as on lower attitudes. Back at sea level you can even perform better for some time before your blood levels return to their usual values;
• 3 or 4 days to bring the production of red cells up to speed;
• It takes some 10 days before your body is used to the altitude, having enough extra red blood cells and the stress on your body of adapting to altitude has worn off;
• This 'stress' due to this adaptation usually sets in between 48 hours to 7 days after arriving at altitude;
• After some 30 days your blood levels are at the levels that match the altitude you are staying at. This means the useful effect is still their but no longer increases. 

Giewont in the Polish Tatra

Can you prepare yourself for a stay at high altitude?

You can if you mind the following tips:

1. Increase your iron intake. This is a important building block for red blood cells;
2. Take extra antioxidants: The lack of oxygen at the will produce more free radicals during exercise. Vitamin C is an antioxidant;
3. Eat enough!: Your appetite will decrease at altitude but your body needs more energy! Nice for loosing weight but no so nice for your (training)results.

Now some tips for during your training at altitude;

1. Adapt: Try not to maintain your normal pace-training levels but check out your heart rate. Pay no attention to speed or pace per kilometre. This goes for intervals, tempo runs and duration runs;
2. With intervals: take longer periods for recovery. Would you usually run 2 minutes and recover 1. Change this around while at altitude;
3. Get extra sleep: You give your body more time to recover and adapt to the altitude;
4. Drink extra: You will breath more frequent and more shallow losing more moisture. Next to this effect is the air at altitude dryer. Both effect makes you loose your fluids faster!

This article is a summary of an article on running competitor.

The Stimulator: A training in preparation for the marathon

This is a nice training for anyone who is preparing for a marathon. Run 16 miles, which equals 26,2 kilometres, in the pace you have in mind for the marathon race day.

.

interview with both gents

Why 26,2? Well this has to do with both Americans that came up with this training Keith and Kevin Hanson of  Hansons-Brooks Distance Project (see video).

For those who think in miles the marathon is 26.2 miles in stead fo 42.195 kilometres. Furthermore it is more than your average duration training and it will help tp prepare yourself mentally for the big day. It gives you the feeling what it is like to maintain your marathon tempo for a longer period.

On the other hand: It is short enough to recover within a few days to continue your marathon training.

TIP from RunningDutch:

You can copy this idea for other distances:

• 13,1 kilometre for your half marathon pace;
• 10 K in preparation for the !) mile race;
• etc.

other tips

The Hansons will have their elite runners do this training some 5 weeks before the marathon.

I myself would look at my training schedule and pick a training day which lists a 25K run in the week leading up to the marathon.
Most likely you can find on of those in the 6 to 3 weeks leading up to the marathon.
Just do this training in your marathon pace in stead of the more leisurely Long Slow Distance (LSD) pace.

You can also use this training to practise your eating and drinking strategy for the race. Try to find out which sports drink is provided at the refreshing points during the race. Quit often this is one of the sponsors so simply look at the race website.
Do you consider to Carry your own drinks and gels? If so, than carry it with you during this training as well. If not, find someone to help you who can be your refreshing point en route.

As this training is carried out at marathon pace find a route with clear markers or use a GPS watch or have some with you on a bike with a distance meter.

If you are training for a marathon just to finish it and you don't have the ambition of a certain time? Than the usual 20miles run is still the best (which equals 32km and this is a nice route).

Shoes with multiple sensors

A Nike newsletter showed me this add next to the text on the Nike LUNARTr1+ iD. The image suggests build in sensors kind of shwoing your running profile on a iPhone.

Besides this technology: It is one of the customizeble shoes by Nike.

As I wanted to know more on the shoe I hit the link but this did not work. A bit clumsy for such a big brand.

Sniffing around I did find some nice video's.

The first is on the dynamic suport system and is already some years old and maybe even outdated with all the talk on natural running:



And now the LUNARTR1:



It gives me the impression its registers the intensity of a training and not your technology. Heel landing versus middel or front foot landing and/or inside or outside of the foot.
Could be the shoe is an alround training shoe and not a running shoe.

Another insight into the innovation of Nike and Nike+ is this product presentation:


Looks like they were inspired by Apple and the way they introduce their new products...

Run through the history of the Battle of Arnhem

September is for some people the month of the commemoration of operation Market Garden and for me the Battle of Arnhem. First in line is the  Airborne March on the first Saturday of September.
No running allowed on the route of the 10, 15, 25 and 40 kilometre. Would not be possible anyway with over 30.000 people taking part. No need as I run on a regular basis in Oosterbeek and the surrounding area.

I can only recall one run associated with the Airborne theme. This charity run was to collect money for veterans (I think Lest we forget). It was a run to accompany the participant of the London Marathon that ran home after the marathon in a relay race. The last leg was from Arnhem to Oosterbeek in the company of other runner all dressed in a white shirt with the Pegasus emblem. I still have the shirt as it is a souvenir from the run that became the start of my 'running career.

I have made a route on runkeeper named 'Battlefield Run: Oosterbeek / Arnhem 1944'. It is a route of  30+ kilometres. The ideal 'long slow duration training preparation for one of the many marathon organised this fall across Europe. The is mainly on bicycle paths/smaller road with some unpaved stretches.

For anyone who wants to run/train in the surrounding of Oostbeek in this history environment this route can serve you as inspiration. Maybe this 30+ route is a bit ambitious so maybe I will post a shorter route later on. Now I will describe the route and link it to the history of September 1944. I will suggest some shortcuts in the meantime.

Like to run with someone who is familiar with the route. Leave a comment to contact me and who knows, maybe we can run (a part of) the route together!

The Battle of Arnhem

A very brief introduction: In an attempt to end the war before Christmas the Allies came up with a plan to cross the rivers in the Netherlands to open up the route to Berlin over the plains of northern Germany. The plan was code-named: Market Garden.
In order to catch the bridges over the rivers undamaged paratroopers were dropped along the route.

The drop zones for the troops that were to seize the bridge at Arnhem were over 10K tot the west of the town.

Only a part of the British para's under the command of John Frost succeed to reach the bridge and captured the north side and managed to keep it for four days. The majority ended up in the so called perimeter in Oosterbeek were they held out for ten days before retreating across the river Rhine under cover of the night.This made Oosterbeek a battlefield for ten days.

Driel on the south bank of the river became battlefield as the Polish para's were dropped in support of the British in Oosterbeek. The heavy equipment of the Poles was flown in before with Gliders but to the north bank.

This route will take you to the landing and drop zones, trough Oosterbeek and into Arnhem and the BRidge. You'll loop back to Oosterbeek and one of the last points of interest is, quite fittingly the Airborne Cemetery.

Wanne learn more before you start your run (highly recommended) use google or Wikipedia, the very extensive site MarketGarden.com or visit the  Airborne Museum. This will add to the experience of running in this beautiful and peaceful environment.

 

The route

The start of the route is at Hotel West End on 'de Amsterdamse weg'. This road was the northern route from the drop zones into Arnhem. Code-named Leopard Route. 

Start your run heading west along the 'Amsterdamse weg'. Stay on the bicycle track on the left side )southside' of the road.

After 1K turn left into the ´Wolfhezerweg´. After some time you will see the first monument. An impressive 'Glider', landing to deliver the heavy equipment such as Jeeps or light artillery. You are now on the landing zone as it was used during 1944. 

Continue along this road until your cross the rail road. Turn right directly after the crossing onto the bicycle path directly along the railroad.

App. after you see to your left that the woods make way for field. Cross the road and head onto the dirt track heading south on the edge of the wood and field.

The path bends right. Again you are on a landing zone for Gliders. Compare the satellite image of Runkeeper with the route with the areal photography from 1944.

Runkeeper

Archive

Continue on the path as it bend left and due south again. After a sharp bend to the right you can turn left heading between golf courts towards a sports field.
When you come to the clubhouse of the golf course turn left between the sport field and the parking lot. Continue straight ahead into the ´Ginkelseweg´. You have covered some 7K.

From this area the second battalion of John Frost headed towards the bridge on the  southern 'Lion' route. As far as possible we will follow this route for some time.

Follow the Ginkelseweg untill you come to the  Bennekomseweg.

Take the bicycle path to the right towards the major road (Utrechtseweg). Cross this road and turn left towards the bridge-flyover of the motorway.

You might consider to turn right on the Bennekomseweg for just a 100 meter or so to take a look at the Airborne Monument of the town of Heelsum. Continue the route afterwards on the Utrechtseweg.

After the bridge turn right into the Doorwertsestraat. At the  T-junction turn left (still called Doorwertsestraat). After ~100 meter turn right into Roggekamp for the first real climb and decent in this route. At the bottom of the hill run trough the tunnel turn directly left up hill again. From here is is a long time straight ahead.

The first stretch is still the Roggekamp, after the cross roads it is the W.A. Scholtenlaan trough the woods, along a tennispark trough Doorwerth. Just past Doorwerth this road is called Oude Oosterbeekseweg. A senic road with to small parallel lanes (see image).

Stay on this road on your right you will see a restaurant (de Valkenier), Make yourself ready for a steep climb. after a bend in the road to the left you turn right onto a bicycle path.

Short of 100 meter you can turn right towards the Westerbouwing. Run on towards the restaurant and enjoy the view. The bridge in the distance is the railroad bridge. In september 1944 the Germans held this high ground preventing the Poles to cross the river using the ferry. You can see the town of Driel on the other side of the Rhine.

Run on over the parking lot back to the road and turn right, down hill towards the cross roads. Go straight ahead and after 50 meters take the small path between the fields towards the treeline. Agina after some 50 meters you will have the forrest to your left. In this forrest you can still find evidence of the rifle pits (Circles of sand between the fallen leaves) from the para's in order to fight of the Germans attacking the perimeter from the west. At the and of the field to your right turn right to follow the path untill you come to a asphalt paved road. Turn left up hill. At a T-junction turn left again en continue the climb uphill. This is the Hoofdlaan.

Continue straight ahead on theHoofdlaan untill you come to a major road. This is the Utrechtseweg were you turn right. Only to find the entrance to the Airborne Museum. The villa was a hotel during the battle and became the headquarter of the para's. Continue around the musum back to the Utrechtseweg which was the middle route towards the bridge; code named 'Tiger'.

Oposite of the museum is the Airborne Monument of which the construction started in  September 1945, only a year after the battle. British soldiers who had fought at Oosterbeek the year before were present while they were evaluating the battle and filming Theirs Is The Glory. This film used soldaten and civilians to reenact the fighting amongst the ruins of Oosterbeek.

Follow Utrechtsweg to the cross road with traffic ligths. The painting depict this cross roads during the fighting. The house on the left of the image is clearly recognisable.
In the garden of the house called Quatre Bras is a modest monument for teh 21st Ind. Par. Coy. who defended this part of the so called perimeter.

The house on he right of the image is replaced by restaurant Schoonoord. The meeting place for veterans and their children and grandchildren on pilgrimage during the September commemoration.
Turn right in front of Schoonoord and after 100 meter left onto the Paasberg. In the garden of number 17 again a small monument in the shape of a flower vase. IN a small cellar underneath this house 13 civilians (including children) were taking refuge while the para's in the room overhead were fighting of the Germans..

At the end of the Paasberg continue straight ahead (Jagerskamp) and after a short descent continue straight ahead (technically it is left and immediately right, Weverstraat) for a couple of 100 and at a cross road turn left and again immediately right. This lower part of the Weverstraat is pictured on this black and white image. Showing the damage to the houses.

At he bottom of the Weverstraat you see, to your right, the Old Church. To the right of this church is a house that served as a dressing station. Kate ter Horst, who liverd there at the time was named 'Angel of Arnhem' by the wounded. In the film 'A Bridge to Far' her part was played by Liv Ullmann.

Turn left as we continue on the Lion Route towards Arnhem. We go straight for the bridge staying as close to the river as possible. We follow Benedendorpsweg that turns into Klingelbeekseweg once we pass underneath the railroad bridge.  The bridge was damaged by the Germans. After 1,5km this road is named Hulkesteinseweg. At the end of this road turn right and continue on 'Onderlangs'. Just in front of the new you can enter the quayside and run directly along the river. You have just finish your half marathon, 21K. Run on the quayside towards the famous bridge.

This is where I finish the first part of of the description of the route. Part 2 is to follow soon. It takes you back towards the Saint Elisabeth Hospital, and to the Airborne Cemetery.
It will also suggest some short cuts.

Skins: Innovative or just good marketing for running gear?

Last week I was introduced to a new brand of running gear (or sportswear in general): Skins. After compressions socks you can now buy compressions clothing for your whole body.

The flyer addresses a couple of features that charaterise the apparel of Skins:

• Compression: with the known benefits of enhance bloodflow and improved recovery;
• BMI fit: refers to sizes that not only address height but posture as well;
• SkinMuscle+: Additional compression of the clothing around relevant muscles;
• Skindry: something all functional clothing promisses;
• Skintemp: optimal body temperature regardless of outside temperatures, again a feature that all functional clothing promisses;
• SkinUVblock: OK, that sounds new but then again, doesn't most fabrics shield at least to some extend from the sun?

Sizes of a running tight ( Skinssite ).

Posturesshaped of women
according to Skins

Skins has the following categorys of man clothing:

• Active for all sports
• for Cycling 
• for Triathlon
• for Golf
• for Snow
• for Recovery

As runners we have to resort to either 'all sports' or Triathlon.

OK, I llike their marketing but do they realy offer something new comparec to for example high end apparel from Falke or Adidas. I myself have some very tight tops from Adidas Fusion (with Polar heart rate sensors) whcih have most of the above mentioned charateritics. And to be honest he price of Skins is with f.e. 90 euros for a top with short sleeves high end of the market...

Please share your own experience with this gear...

Test GPS watches on accuracy

The Polish Edition of Runnersworld features a nice test with 5 GPS watches. The test was performed by the polish editors so in case it does not make the English edition here the main results:

The test covered these five watches:

• Garmin Forerunner 610
• Nike+ sportswatch 
• Polar RCX3 
• Suunto Ambit 
• Timex Run Trainer

The GPS units were tested on 5 distances and 2 altitudes:

 GARMIN
Forerunner 610 

 NIKE+
Sportswatch 

 POLAR
RCX3 

 SUUNTO
Ambit 

 TIMEX
Run Trainer  

400m

slow

390m

418m

390m

400m

396m

400m

fast

390m

434m

390m

390m

404m

800m

810m

836m

800m

770m

798m

1600m

1650m

1625m

1610m

1540m

1750m

5320m

in park

5000m

5030m

5100m

5040m

4840m

415m

above sea level

420m

405m

--

409m

413m

714m

above sea level 

714m

704m

--

699m

710m

The distance tests were done on a 400 meter track with different paces and one run in the woods/park. The altitude test were done in the mountains tot the south of Wroclaw in Poland.

The Polar does not register the altitude but for normal running it is the most accurate. A plus for the Nike is that it is available in three colours (besides blue also neon green and dark grey) and the Suunto is available in silver next to the common black.



The prices may vary so I used linkes to websites of online retailers for an impression.

Pace charts

The end of the summer holiday is near and all the running is done with one thing in mind: which marathon to run in the coming fall?

for me one goal is set and that is: to run once more a marathon sub 3:30.

In this site you can find easy tables, so called pace charts, to determine your split times given you run a steady pace of m:ss  per kilometer. Might be useful for lazy runners that want to spend their energy on running rather than doing math.

Next site to visit: marathon guide for a nice event.

Stretching: Inner Tigh or Adductor

After discussing the stretching of the calf muscle, the lower calf muscle, hamstring, buttocks, the quadriceps and the IT band (outside upper leg) the only thing left is the inner thigh. As you can tell from the streetplan to your muscles this is the Adductor or Adductor Longus.

The video below shows how you can stretch this muscle in a sitting mode but during the warming up or cooling down of a run outside a standing mode might be more convenient.

So here is the 'how to' of stretching your inner thigh in  standing mode:

• Place your feet wide apart with the toes pointing forward;
• Slowly bring your body and weigth over f.e. your left foot while bending your left knee;
• you will notice you automatically lower your centre of gravity roughly located around your hips;
• You can feel the tension build on the inner side of your right upper leg;
• After stretching the adductor of your right leg come back to the beginning position and mirror the movement for your left adductor.

Have fun!

Stretching: the IT band

This time, in the category 'stretching' the IT band, or iliotibiale band. The IT band is situated on the outside of your upper leg and is prone to a injury around the knee. With some stretching you can deal with this injury of maybe even prevent it.

The IT band friction syndrome:

The IT band on the outside of your upper leg is attached to your hips, lets say underneath your belt while wearing jeans and runs all the way down to just below your knee where it is attached to your tibia, the shinbone in your lower leg.

Asymmetric loading that pushes the knee outwards will cause friction between the IT band an the outside of the knee joint. This is called the IT band friction syndrome. From my own experience I can tell you it can cause a somewhat nagging  pain while stretching the knee. During running this pain can become more serious and leading to a jolt of pain with every step you take.

So lesson 1: avoid asymmetric loading. So do not run on the same shoulder of the road all the time and when on a beach; turn back in time.

Stretching the IT band

Stretching this IT band can be done in multiple ways.

Method 1: It is a bit like skating on a 400m ice rink and full into the curve....

Method 2: A useful addition to method 1. To my opinion the first method tackles mainly the upper end of the IT band on your hips. This method as shown in the video is more prone to stretch near your knee!

 

Method 3: Is the same as stretching the gluteus maximus (or buttocks) to be found in this posting.

Stretching: Hamstring

Next on the menu for stretching exercises is the hamstring. You can stretch the hamstring at the back of your upper leg in various ways. There are two methods you can do sitting but it can be done standing as well. Standing is easier when outside during a run either warming up, or cooling down.

First one of the methods you can perform standing:
 

Sitting (one leg):

This exercise can also be done in a standing mode. Here is how:

• Find a fence or wall of roughly the same height as your hips (a bit lower is OK, higher? Better not);
• Place on foot on the fence, best your heel so you can point your toes towards you;
• Bend the leg you stand upon until the leg on the fence is horizontal;
• grab your foot as in the video.

Sitting (both legs): 

This one can be done in a standing mode as well and no, not by placing both legs on the fence.

Place your feet next to each other en simple bow and touch your toes or ankles as low as you can. If you come op do it slowly stretching your spine vertebrae by vertebrae.

It is also possible (and smart) to pay attention to your posture when you bend to touch your toes. Both in the sitting method as in the standing method. Not just reach for your toes and grab them as in the video.

• Start with stretching your arm up try to reach for the ceiling/sky/heavens above depending your location and conviction;
• make yourself as long as possible while keeping you feet flat on the ground;
• Bend in your hips while your arms stay in line with your back all the way to the horizontal position of your upper body;
• Then,  vertebrae by vertebrae, bend your spine and if agile enough your hands will touch your toes or ankles in due time;
• Only if need be you can bend your arms at the shoulder to complete the movement and touch your toes.

By performing the stretch in this way your probably not only stretch your hamstrings but also your calf muscles. Wanna give them some special attention? Read my blog on stretching the calf muscles and the lower calf muscle.

Stretching: A streetplan to your Muscles

A couple of times I addressed the topic of 'Stretching' on this blog. I already addressed the calf muscle and the muscles in your but. More on this topic can be found by using the label stretching.

If you wanna know more on the various muscles in your body you can find the to images displayed below on the website of the BBC. Consider it a streetplan to the muscles in you body. If you follow the link to the BBC website you find these maps 'clackable and learn more on each an every group of muscles.

First the image with the muscles on the front of the body:

source BBC science

and secondly the back of the body:

source BBC science

While you at it. Enjoy also this interactive page with more information on the human body.

The future of exercising and healthy living?

A friend draw my attention to this very nice short movie. It is both a view into the future of exercising, healthy living (relevant for this blog;p) and dating but also has a nice story line with a great cliff hanger. Just sit back and enjoy (probably just on your tablet, smartphone or ordinary old fashioned laptop...

RunningDutch Review: Amsterdam Marathon

This autumn will see the 37th edition of the Amsterdam Marathon.

The Location
Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and abroad probably the most well known Dutch city. Probably for its canals, coffeshops  and red light district but also the 'Rijksmuseum' with paintings from Rembrandt and the Anne Frank House.
Important for you as reader of this blog: It is also the venue of a very popular marathon.

If you consider visiting Amsterdam to take part in the marathon you can consider to take a canal tour or a coffeeshop tour. The latter maybe after the race?

Hotels? No problem in Amsterdam as you can tell from booking.com or Expedia.

The course: Fast, scenic, historic and a brilliant finish 

Tower in front of stadium

The course is flat and therefore fast. The wind however can be tricky but later more on that topic.
The start of the marathon is in the Olympic Stadium. Originally built for the Olympic Games of 1928 but beautifully renovated in 2000 with a very good 400m track.

After 200m on this track you leave the stadium passing the tower which held the Olympic fire and, with eye for detail, measures 42 meters and 19,5 centimers. Recognise the numbers?

Find your pace on the wide road leading away from the stadium towards the 'Vondelpark' on a average Sunday crowded with people enjoying the sun, jogging around etc. Remember the scenic part of the course as you will run it again in opposite direction on your way back. You run past the Rijksmuseum and loop back to the stadium.

 The cours:

> Flat
> Fast
> Historic
> Start & Finish in Olympic Stadium

Only 7k en route you leave the stadium behind you for a second time and head for the river Amstel to run on the historic route of the Olympic marathon of 1928. You join the rive around km 12 heading south east. Around km 15 you make a small loop leaving the river clearly added to make up the distance of the 42k.

You run on along the scenic Amstel joined by boats with music and people cheering you on. You cross the river at 19 and run back on the opposite site. At my pace (5min.km) I have the opportunity to see the elite running this homeward stretch while I myself still have the outbound leg ahead of me.

It is along this river that the wind can be tricky as the route is in the open.

As for most people the true marathon starts around the 25k. It is no fun to be running for some 5k in a more industrial area with little people along the route before you come into residential area's again.

I myself find the 37k mark the difficult spot. First you head into a short tunnel in order to cross underneath a major road. Climbing out of the tunnel you continue the climb to cross the Amstel once more. Only little elevation it is enough for me. If you experience no problems enjoy the view to your right while crossing the Amstel.

After running trough the Vondelpark the second and last time you head for the stadium to finish on the very comfortable running track. Feel like the elite runners cheered on from the stands by the people in the stadium.

clikc course map for lager image

The organisation: Professional
The event is very well organised, the infrastructure around the start en finish area is ok. The drop off point for  your bag with clothes can be crowded and the dressing area is in a sport hall a couple of 100 meters from the start and finish. Nice for warming up and cooling down. On a colder October day this can mean you can get a little bit cold before you can change you wet running apparel. You'll get a thermo blanket after the finish line to stay warm.
The route (see above for more details) is free of cars and spectators, refreshing posts are with water and sports drinks at every 5k. No complaints on this front.

The entourage: OK

Coming from abroad the route can be found scenic both in and outside the city. Don't expect to run in the old city centre but do enjoy the windmill around the 15k mark.
Except for the spectators in the stadium most people along the route are either cheering on a friend or semi interested locals not really making it an effort to be to enthusiastic.

For the spectators
As you might know cycling is very popular in the Netherlands so consider renting a bike and you can cheer on you friend, husband, wife, father, mother, etc a couple of times along the route. Using the metro you can do the same. Start for example in the stadium, than wait outside for the runners to come by after the 7K loop. take the metro to f.e. the 30K mark which is very close to a metro stop. This will give you plenty of time to go back to the stadium to see the finish of your .......(fill in the appropriate reference to your runner).

The verdict
OK, Amsterdam is not one of the biggest marathons but is very popular for tourist so why not consider to combine your running exploits with a visit to Amsterdam? And maybe take home a Personal Best on the flat course.

Wanna read more on Amsterdam? Hit the Amsterdam label and see my other 3 postings on Amsterdam.

Below a Youtube slideshow which offers an impression of the 2011 edition:

The Olympics: taking part is the most important bit...

Foto: www.olympics.org

Next Friday the Olympics Games start in London. In dutch we have a phrase that translates into: 'Taking part is more important than winning'. Nowadays with big money at stake from sponsor contracts (f.e. Usain Bolt with Puma, or Australian 400 meters gold medal winner in 2000 Cathy Freeman with Nike) taking part is no longer enough. Not so for Guor Marial!

Guor, aged 28, is a refugee from South-Sudancurrently living in the US working to become a US citizin
Guor is one of the many victims of the war in Sudan. Kidnapped at the age of 8, he escaped from the forced labour camp to return to his family. Only to be kidnapped once more and again forced to work.

After this he escaped once more and via Egypt travelled to the US. He lost 28 family member in the war and therefore does not want to participate on  behalve of Sudan. However the newly formed South-Sudan does not have an Olympic committee. He successfully applied to take part at the games and he will compete under the Olympic flag (as one of four, the other three being from the Netherlands Antilles).


Guor will start at the marathon  with a PB of 2:12. not very likely he will be taking part to take away a medal but definitely motivated to take part and value being there to be an inspiration for youngsters from the South-Sudan.

Read here one of the many news items on Guor or view the short video.

Olympic Channel on Youtube

On Youtube the IOC launched 'the officail channel'.

At this moment the channel contains almost 300 video's of olympic highlights from previous games.

These include of course numerous athletic highlights such as

• the two golden medals of Michal Johnson's 200m and 400m in 1996 and;
• Lasse Viren winning the 5.000m and 10.000m in 1972;
• the marathon in Moskou of 1980 were the Dutch Gerard Nijboer finished second behind Cierpinski form the DDR. From 'western' perspective this was somewhat controversial as Nijboer was hindered at the 35k refreshing point. He also missed the water at the 30k refreshing point because Cierpinski whiped all the water from the table.

Be smarter: Start running

Fysical fitness improves cognative performance! That is the pleasant message of the eight commandment in the book 'De tien geboden voor het brein' (The Ten Commandments for the brain) written by René Kahn. The book is only available in Dutch, sorry...

Not that the regular runner of this blog still need reasons to run but it always nice to read that your favorite hobby can have nice effects.

As a runner, you live longer and you will earn more money as well. Which is conveniant as you can create the financial reserve to keep on buying running gear after you retired.

But if we, as a runner are cognitively so good, you might expect that we runners are curious and want to know why we are smarter thanks to running. Here is the anwser according to the book: Research on mice showed that mice with increased level of activity have an increased growth of new cells in the brains. This in contrast to the use of alcohol, this slows down the cell growth and hence Commandment Seven: do not drink. That means no alcoholic beverages. Because smart runners know that, especially during running, fluid intake is advisable to maintain your physical performance levels.

Not only is running good for the cognitive skills. It also helps to counter the aging of the brain (that is to say: in mice). And again here is how it works: The aging of the brain is predominant in the hippocampus. This is not only the part of the brains in which we store new information (which explains why it is more difficult to learn new things at a later age ). It is precisely the place where the above mentioned new cells are created.


OK, nice. It owrks in mice but do we compare ourselves with mice? Fortunately, according to Mr. Kahn, there is also evidence that this works the same in humans. In America, a group of 120 subjects, 65 years of age was randomly divided into two groups. Group 1 had to exercise three times per week, a 40 minute walk. The other half was also active but with yoga, stretching exercises and the like, activities that have no positive effect on fitness. After a year the walking group had increased fitness as you might expect. But also the hippocampus was increased by 2%! In the control group the hippocampus shrunk 1.5% as you normally expect with people of that age.

So you see that the saying 'Anima Sana In Corpore Sano', which stands for 'a healthy mind in a healthy body' is very true. It is surely a smart move to name your sportsbrand, 'ASICS' which is the acronym for this saying.

The Olympic Torch and Chariots of Fire

Rember this one. The scene on the beach in the classic Chariots of Fire?



The Olympic torch was in Scotland last week. There on West Sands Beach in St. Andrews, 20 schoolchildren reenacted this famous scene. It's a beauty!

Wear red and improve your performance

Jessica Ennis in
new kit (source usatoday)

The controversy over the new kit, by Stella McCartney designed for Adidas, for the Olympic sporters form the UK triggered me to look into the meaning of colours. The kit lacks the red from the Union Jack.

Research published in Nature in May 2005 shows that: "Given the undoubted role of other factors, such as skill and strength, it is likely that the red advantage will determine the outcome only in relatively symmetric contests. That is, wearing red presumably tips the balance between losing and winning only when other factors are fairly equal. We found that this is indeed the case: only in contests between individuals of similar ability were there significantly more red than blue winners"

bron: http://www.math.ku.dk/~rolf/RedVsBlue.pdf

For more details read this PDF. The explanation given in this article is evolutionary: Red colouration is a sexually selected, testosterone-dependent signal of male quality in a variety of animals. As for human: When angry humans colour slightly red due to increased blood flow in the skin. Whereas fear is associated with increased pallor in similarly threatening situations. Hence, increased redness during aggressive interactions may reflect relative dominance. And as artificial stimuli can trigger natural stimuli: Red clothing can influence the outcome of contest. As a runner each run you do is in competition with yourself so all the circumstances are the same so deciding to wear red clothing can positively influence your performance. Remember this next time you are in front of your wardrobe wondering what to wear during the marathon or any other run.