Daniel Njenga outlasted Philip Rotich to win Sunday’s Mississauga Marathon in 2:20:36. The two were virtually side-by-side at both the halfway and 38km points, but as both faded slightly over the final kilometres, Rotich yielded a 29 second triumph to the winner of the 2008 Toronto Marathon.

On the women’s side, Allison Hobeika hung on for a 3:08:46 win. Cambridge’s Julie Cummings was second and Daniela Fiumara third.

Jhon Quispe Sanchez won the half marathon in 1:08:45, followed by David Kipsang. Kipsang also finished fourth in the previous night’s 10K event. Mississauga’s own Steve Koziarski was third. Ottawa’s Mary Davies continued her remarkable spring season with a 1:14:04 win. She won the Sporting Life 10K two weeks ago, and the 21km de Montreal on April 18. Lucy Njeri Muhami was second, following her win in Saturday night’s 10K. Canadian marathon veteran Nicole Stevenson was third in 1:17:11.

Congratulations to everyone who crossed the line in the weekend’s marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5K and 2K races!

Ever been a little short on time but need to pop in a quick, specific workout?

So Thursday evening I had some plans and there was about an hour and a half to get in a real good workout (I’m cramming for race weekend) after work.  I said to my boss/coach I want to run under 32:00 for 10k, hit me with a workout!  I love the creativity of his workouts and he thought for about a second and said ok I got one, whipped out the calculator and came up with this:

4 x (1k @ 3:10 m/k, 1k @ 3:30 m/k)

So that’s back to back 1 kms at that specific pace, rest after the first set 1 minute at 4:oo m/k, after second set 45 seconds at 4:00 m/k and then 30 seconds at 4:00 m/k for the final ‘rest’.  If your thinking that must have felt harder and harder all the way through…it did.

Now the major problem I encountered was that at that speed and with a 1% grade the treadmill starts to do a funny thing.  The entire machine walked about 10 feet across the room and I had to jump off during the rest and wheel it back to the other side of the room!  Ridiculous right?!  It was nice to have that on my mind though because it certainly helps you forget the hurt of the workout.

Anyway workout completed and one step closer to my goal, 2 weeks today!  Hope everyone’s training is going great.

It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.
Alfred Nobel

VICKY: Wow.  Awesome new shirt.

GRANT: Yep, pretty amazing eh.

VICKY: Where did you get it?

GRANT: iRun wants us to give them away.  We’ve got other stuff too.

VICKY: Like what?

GRANT: It’s a surprise.

VICKY: Wicked.  How do our loyal readers win them?

GRANT: Pretty simple I guess.  All they need to do is leave a comment in the comments section below (and future posts).  Then iRun will pick some winners.

VICKY: Sounds good, but besides Regan who do you think reads our blog?

GRANT: My dad does.  That’s about it I guess.

VICKY: We’ll see then. Best of luck to our readers!

VICKY: PRE:  The Story of America’s Greatest Running Legend by Tom Jordan.  I like Prefontaine because he brought attention to the sport of running and contributed largely to making running “sexy”. He once famously said about running:

“Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, `I`ve never seen anyone run like that before.` It`s more than just a race, it`s style. It`s doing something better than anyone else. It`s being creative.”

GRANT: He also brought a lot of attention to amateur athletes, who always seem to struggle opposite professional athletes. This is one subject that I want us to explore as we read through this book.

VICKY: According to the the publisher:

“For five years, no American runner could beat him at any distance over a mile.”

GRANT: I don’t care whether you think he was arrogant or not, that’s a pretty impressive record.

VICKY: What I can gather from watching the movies and doing a bit of Googling, is that he really approached running as a battle.

GRANT: Absolutely. He once said:

“I run to see who has the most guts.”

VICKY: I can’t wait to read this book and discover whether he was really the gladiator everyone has portrayed him to be. I wonder whether this fierce competitiveness is a required trait for track athletes. They always seem more intense than road and trail runners.

GRANT: I don’t know but I get a feeling we’re about to find out!

VICKY: Hey what do you all think? Are track athletes more competitive/fierce/intense than other types of runners?

Just a quick heads on an upcoming movie that will soon join Air Bud and Wildcats in the pantheon of sports films.

There are a number of different running styles that you may choose from including your present natural style (the way you run without thinking about how your body moves) to more standardized styles where each aspect of the running technique is defined from the way your feet move all the way up the body to how your arms swing.

If you asked me what running style was best for you?  My response would be whatever style best meets your running goal(s) which may include improved race time, longer distance, injury avoidance, fun, etc.  If your present running style works for you then I would not be the one to suggest changes. 

You may find that you are looking for something different.  If this is the case my recommendation is to consider the different styles presently available and pick the one that makes the most sense to you and that aligns with your running goals.  It may take some effort to change the way your body moves so you should believe in a particular style before investing the time to adopt it.

The purpose of this blog is to introduce to the iRun readers to the technical aspects and merits of the ChiRunning form.  The type of runners that may be interested in this blog are: (1) existing ChiRunners looking for additional information; (2) non-ChiRunners considering adoption of the form; and (3) non-ChiRunners not considering adoption of the form but may find some aspects of the ChiRunning form worth implementing within their own running style.

The ChiRunning form is extremely well documented in reference material such as books, DVDs and audio CDs.  These materials are available through the ChiRunning website www.chirunning.com.  Ownership of the book “ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running by Danny Dreyer, Katherine Dreyer” is mandatory for anyone looking to adopt the form or looking for detailed information on the form.  It is the ChiRunning bible that is supplemented by the additional ChiRunning materials.

This blog will discuss the different aspects of the ChiRuning form in steps.  The information in the blog will not modify any aspects of the form described in the ChiRunning book but may present these aspects in a different way influenced by my own adoption and experience with this running style.

Lastly I want to thank the iRun staff for giving me this opportunity to write about the ChiRunning form and to you the iRun readers for visiting this blog.

Ok here’s a 15 second description of the physics behind the ChiRunning form that will be expanded in greater detail in future blogs …

“ChiRunning is a running form that uses gravity, not the muscles in your legs and feet to propel you forward.
(1) You first align your posture so you can draw a straight line through your shoulders hips and ankles. 
(2) You then lean this aligned posture forward using your ankles as the hinge point with the ground. 
(3) If you completely relax all the muscles in your legs and feet you will fall forward. 
(4)You maintain your lean and forward fall and only use your feet and legs to momentarily support your aligned posture each time your foot contacts the ground. 
Your feet and legs are not used to propel you forward.  Because you are leaning forward, your feet contact the ground behind your hips and behind your body weight.  This eliminates the potentially injurious impact normally felt through your body when your feet contact the ground in front of your hips”

Hey iRun readers – hope everyones Spring is going well!   This is often the time of year when we start thinking about getting our sandals and summer shoes back out of the closet.  And for many runners and walkers, this comes right around the time our mileage starts getting higher in preparation for spring and summer races.  The combination of these two things can definitely cause a few problems!

The problem is that we often know the benefits of being in our running shoes (they just feel better!), but can’t imagine being in them all the time (for either heat, style or convenience reasons).  So what do we do?  I often recommend a bit of a comprimise here and it depends alot on listening to your body.  Number one priority (especially if you’re injured) should be finding a footwear system that allows you to be comfortable and pain free.  This is generally going to be a running shoe.  Once we have a good system from which to compare to, we can start to find which of our other shoes cause problems.  For example, I definitely wear less than ideal sandals in the summer but I don’t wear them when my feet are sore.  If I’ve done a particularily difficult workout and my feet/knees/legs are sore, I try to wear my running shoes more and avoid my sandals until the pain disappears.  Sounds very simple (which it is) but our bodies are really very good at telling us when we need to do things – we’re just not very good at listening!   If the sandals/dress shoes/casual shoes etc are not causing any problems, then they’re proabably okay for limited wear.  If you really want/need to be wearing sandals or dress shoes and they’re causing problems compared to your running shoes then some changes need to be made.  Finding better sandals/dress shoes, wearing them less or adding inserts (either over the counter or custom made arch supports) are all ways to make a less than optimal system better.

Runners tend to be a grumpy bunch when they’re not able to do the activity they love due to injury (I’m certainly a part of this group)!  Wearing that flip flop for a long walk is often not worth the risk of injury and can easily be avoided by wearing your running shoes.  That being said, there’s often nothing wrong with wearing sandals or dress shoes for casual wear provided there’s no pain. 

Good Luck to everyone in their Spring races!