Invigorating Miss Rain & Moorventures

I wasn't going to struggle write something to go with today's blip but admittedly Alice of the moor saved the day when she posted an article about meditation and running.

That reminded me of an article I wrote in the past, so tonight I will copy here a little abstract of that article.

Miss Rain was around all day today, but that didn't make me sad and it didnt make me stop smiling. I love all weather conditions and if you manage to appreciate that we need Miss Rain, we need Mr Sun, we need to play with the clouds ...you will see the miracles behind many things happen on this planet.

We had a great session, ran all the way up to the crater as I call it that I always think that was created by a meteorite ;-) and retraced the steps of the six nuns towards the waterfall though to encounter the mighty Miss Fog that was adding her drama touches to the moor. Yoga for runners afterwards under the kiosk over the lower tarn, not tran as Google maps wants us to believe it a called but didn't get to the part of the meditation as our body temperatures were dropping rapidly. Thanks S & K for keeping me company!

Ok back to that article I wrote in the past...here we go

'I never wanted to become a coach in the form of studying to be a coach and work with athletes to push them through their limits in a programmed and limiting way, to introduce tight guidelines to them, speak to them about science and values, narrow their vision. I believe that records can be achieved in more than one ways and my ways although on the unorthodox side they are very well researched, tried, tweaked and will always talk about the magic of the movement, the mind and soul.

I also feel that the way I combined my studies has helped me to see things differently and approach coaching or helping others with my knowledge as well as the way I see life. You could ask how can a physiotherapist that after his clinical practice, left it to study technology and ended up doing research in artificial intelligence, be ever called a coach. What makes the difference is that I have always been an athlete, I always loved movement and I came to combine my knowledge in order to investigate how things work around us. I realised that they don't work, they live. Nature lives, creatures live, human beings live, they are all living entities, not machines.

I tried and experimented with my own body, my mind and let my soul decide if I am doing the right thing. I never borrowed my training plans, I designed them myself, and even when I was under a coach, I would always question and suggest the ways that would take us to the next level, exchange ideas and philosophise. There were never conclusions, always continued to look further into everything.

So let's see...how do we become Ultra runners? Ultra running to me is not running 45Km or even 50Km although they are both long distances that you need to train for and prepare hard. If you are training for a marathon, nothing needs to change training wise, your body will take you ahead to the 50Km and will still control your movements, especially if you looked after it while running. Remember all this science about gel and hydration and nutrition is only recent, athletes in the past would do extraordinary things, without having compression socks, caffeine gels and water stations. They would drink water from a spring when they were to find one, eat fruit and plants on the way...and continue running.

Ultra running should be really anything that is over 12hrs running, when your body starts struggling to control the movements and it then becomes a mental challenge. It s the mind and the soul that keep your body running and all ultra runners will tell you this. It is impossible for the body to continue controlling the movements, after so many hours, over 100, even 50 miles, it all happens in the mind.

We go against our nature, our bodies, even the strongest body will never be able to cope with the hours of running, it's all mental after that. The strong body that has done all the hard work it will also need a tough mind to continue, without sleep, without anything left inside it, running on empty. It happened to me many many times that I felt my body left me, I don't see through the eyes, I see my body from another angle, from the top, like an out of body experience. You just see your body and guide it to keep on moving, It all becomes dream like and cinematic. Many people told me that I was running with my eyes closed. I don't want to sit down and explain it as I don't need an explanation to that. Everybody will experience in different ways

The first step and this doesn't only apply to Ultra running but in all sports is becoming strong. I think that no attempt should be made to start running for hours and doing a lot of miles, until our bodies are strong. Strong in what way? And I am talking about the body only at the moment. Strong core, strong legs, strong back, strong ankles and feet, but also flexible, full range of movements and deep muscle strength. I have spoken and wrote answers to a few questions on strength and how important it is to running. Running strong is always what I keep on saying, if we are not running strong and our form falls apart, we need to work even more on strength. Core strength, gluteus strength (many neglect the power of the gluts...a powerhouse for our bodies and extremely important in running), pilates, yoga, squats, lunges. So it's not all about running miles. We run up hills and mountains to become stronger, another way of building strength.

While improving the strength of your body, you also run. How far do you need to run? And do you have to follow the rule of the 10% increase at a time?' ...to be continued