Newton Trainers - First Test...

I finally made the plunge into buying these trainers and as I did, it came with a warning from the assistant.

•      Make sure my first run is short
•      Strengthen your calf muscles
•      Stretch your calf muscles to ensure they are soft and flexible

Hmm good advice? Well for the last six months, one gym machine I have been using is doing weighted calf raises anyway. I have suffered from Achilles tendonitis so a foam roller and daily stretching I do, do quite often (ok maybe should even do more). Keeping my first run short... Hmm how short are we talking?

As it happened, I chose a morning run to my nearest tube station at the O2. My early morning runs before work consist of an easy one mile jog as a warm up, stretch a bit more while I adjust my ruck sack before I then start my Garmin and phone app to run varying routes but roughly the distance is 7.5 miles.

Now was the time to compare my morning jog with other runs in my Asics 1160's. Within the first 100 metres if anyone who was, watching me must have wondered why I was grinning like a Cheshire cat! My god the forward push really does launch you forward as I found on the flat roads I needed to raise my knees higher so my leg rotates downwards and I landed on my mid/front part of my foot to gain the forward push. Although I was concentrating in doing this, I'm sure I could grasp this naturally in my future runs. My first mile marker so some 20 seconds quicker before soon I turned and headed up my first hill. The front foot motion I powered up this hill with such little effort. I got to the top and still managed to run off the top of the hill and glancing at my heart rate is was the lowest I've ever seen running up this hill. I then must have raised my heart rate as I started to get excited about these trainers now. That was until the downward section as running down it on my front foot I had no confidence in doing so just yet. Therefore, I ended up running down leaning backwards on my heels (as usual). So something to practice another day

After four miles, I did start to feel a dull ache in my calf muscles and as I ran on the ache got worse and worse. As I approached seven miles, I resorted to walking as it felt like I had a golf ball wedged into my muscles. Even as I entered the tube and stopped my watches the time was noticeably quicker than my previous runs and I didn't feel like I had put in the extra effort to justify the time.

I was absolutely beaming as I got on the tube and continued my journey into work. When I got off the other end and tried to run the final hundred metres into work... Hmm I just couldn't. I showered changed and slapped on my Bio-freeze and compression tights. As the day went on my walk blatantly turned into a hobble, by the following day I seriously could not walk properly as my calf muscles had gone on strike. Trying to stand on tip toes, No chance! Which proves using 8.5 miles as a "short"

first run in my Newton's appears to be way too far. Five days later and I'm still suffering with pains in my calf muscles. These 8.5 miles is still well short of my usual half/full marathons and if this were a race, I could have been looking at a DNF (No Joke!) This now means alternating my trainers and working on my calf muscles until I can run a full distance in my Newton's pain free. I have a 10K race in October so hopefully by then I can use my Newton's in race trim and see how I get on. Now I must strengthen my calf muscles but keep them supple at the same time so you may hear me swearing in the gym whilst I use their foam roller. You may be reading this and think is this pain or change in running style necessary? Not to mention the expense in paying for these dearer trainers. My opinion is that this pain won't last forever......(hoping)

London 2012 Ticket allocation.

Way back in the 80's my dad used to spend most of his weekends plonked in his favourite armchair postponing any DIY plans watching Dickie Davies Saturday afternoon's presenting World of Sport. With me playing with my matchbox/corgi cars on the living room floor. looking up from time to time Sport would be the first thing I would see. It wasn't long before I then started to annoy my dad in mid viewing asking questions in an attempt to understand the sport for me then to turn round to my dad asking if I could a) start playing football. B) Start running c) become a wrestler like Big Daddy you just know my dad crossed off option C straight away ignoring me!

This is probably where my fanatical passion of sports first started as (some of you may know) Football, Athletics and F1 are my biggest passions. I can remember seeing the black and gold JPS lotus cars roaring around Formula 1 tracks, Tottenham Hotspurs winning the UEFA Cup. The best team (Brazil) not winning the 1982 world cup finals? As for the 1984 LA Olympics, Lord Coe, Tessa Sanderson, Daly Thompson's gold medals even Carl Lewis on fire for the USA.

So as a huge fan of sport and its history of great people associated in the record books you honestly must imagine how excited! I was hearing the Great Britain actually wanted to host an Olympic games. An Olympic Games in my back yard? GREAT! I get slightly annoyed hearing my dad tell me about the World cup in 1966 and how fans felt before, during and after with a nation of euphoria that I am jealous and I want an event of that scale to see for myself. Now clearly down to FIFA's recent and well publicised (ahem blatant) corruption we don't' appear to be having a world cup for quite some time or even ever within my lifetime! So the next best thing on such a scale is to witness an Olympic games. I can take my children to such a great and historical event to which they can witness and tell their children, a tale I can tell my grandchildren and as I believe, I will live forever, even to my great grandchildren. I cheered like mad for Lord Coe to win his Olympic medal in 1984 and if he brings a successful Olympic Games to London, I will change his "Lord" status to "GOD"

Now as you can probably see I am pro Olympic Games (well ..... my gripe comes later!) but what really, really does get my back up is the people that are anti Olympic Games. Now I'm not saying you 'must' support and agree with the games particularly if you are not a fan of the sport, it's not compulsory that you do. Likewise I'm not a huge fan of golf or cricket, my knowledge goes a s far as Ian Botham and Nick Faldo (as you can see, limited!) but I do not sit and moan, moan, moan about this non stop at home/work criticising the Ryder Cup or the Ashes. Moaning is not going to make this event go away! It maybe a hard few weeks for these non, supporting fans to try and ignore this event in the media and with people discussing it vocally but like it or not the fact is that the Olympic games IS coming to the UK and will be a huge occasion. For some this is a once in a lifetime event and like it or not, it will be a part of our history for many years to come. London will be on the Olympic calendar with a list of athletes names of records and achievements and hopefully London will have a glowing reputation of holding a successful Olympic Games. Yes it will cost a lot of money to build venues and organise a schedule and assuming you're a hard working citizen some of your taxes obviously we be placed in funding this event but surely this will have created jobs for people and be a start of a good infrastructure improving the surrounding areas. Created (safe) playing and training areas for our future generation of children. The ticket returns and souvenir sales "should" even things back out when the games are on? I haven't a crystal ball like many to confirm that this will even happen but this is the theory!...for every country that do host the Olympic Games and surely in this day and age you realise... money talks?

Now this write up is about my experience with the Olympic Games. To some you may end up gloating and laughing to which I can see why. With Great Britain winning the 2012 games bid and me regularly driving through the Blackwall tunnel on match days to Tottenham (queue jokes) I have seen the Olympic site take shape and impressive it is too. I have followed all instructions by the Olympic committee to get tickets you must register on the website to which I did a year ago. I have received all email notifications within this time and made calendar reminders in my phone as to when I could view the Olympic event schedule and when I could apply for tickets. I worked out when my daughter would break up for the summer holidays and planned my holidays I could take off from work. As a family, we spent ages planning what sports we would like to see, on what day and how much we were willing to spend for these events. Like many others, basically we tried to edge our bets in an attempt to get  to see "something" Now between us our applications came to just over £1,000. Quite a frightening amount to cough up if we were to get everything we applied for? Well our events covered Gymnastics, Tennis and athletics. At various times (morning/evening) accommodating children who pay for tickets depending on how old they are.

Now this is when I'm beginning to show my disapproval. As the deadline for applying for tickets approached, (remember people have had a month to apply for their tickets). Out of nowhere there was a frigging extension granted to people applying for tickets past the well publicised cut off time of 23:59!!... one question WHY?

Then while the powers that be behind the scenes allocated tickets we all sat logging onto our online banking hoping to see a mystery withdrawal to which we would then have to try and workout what we applied for and what Olympic tickets we may have just bought? Well low and behold the payment deadline past and between my family we got nothing! I felt rather naive because edging our bets we could not get anything? Not a cheap morning session with the gymnastics/athletics. Not an early round of the tennis. Athletic session in the evening.... Nothing! I couldn't believe it. Of course the media started telling stories of successful applications and obviously some people around be would be lucky but it appears the trend of successful applicants were the ones who could afford to spend the most. A man applied for £36,000 work of thickets and obtained £8,000? ... £8,000 what could they possibly be for then? How about the applications from people after the scheduled deadline! I hope to god these people weren't successful because that’s blatant queue-jumping if you ask me! a right pi$$ take!

With a huge cry of uproar around the nation. Ticket allocation was somehow still defended by the committee. To calm us all down, a second chance for us losers was to be made available at the end of June on a first come first served basis, so all was not lost as we were told some large amount of tickets was still left remaining? I did think that a little strange but waited for the list to be printed of current availability. Now this is for me wanting in the region of six tickets for the above sports to mix and match on any day. Well when i saw the list my first reaction was of complete ungratefulness as i thought i cannot be asked. There was loads of tickets left for lets be honest amateur football with er, wrestling canoeing and i couldn’t believe the Olympic committee said there were loads of tickets left? Slight trickery here because of course not all football stadiums are full for matches but you can not seriously say tickets are available for events/sports that most of the nation are not too interested in. That’s being honest not a dig! Depressed i still logged on at 6:00 Friday 24^th June in a last attempt to see anything i fancy. Nope all tickets had gone and the website still ran as slow as websites did back in the day when i had a Windows 95 computer with a 33.3kb  modem! Now if you're too young to even know what i'm on about here? This was a very slow internet connection that after typing in a web address we all waited for the web page to load. We could go away and make a cup of tea, come back to our computer and the web page still would not have loaded. To which we were charged by the minute to use!! People today with fibre optic cable that load web pages instantly woah! what a luxury! And after i experienced this 1995 web site speed again,  I soon logged the off with my hands thrown into the air saying “I give up!

To date there are still sports that have not been sold out. Nope i cant be asked to pay to see Football, Volleyball or wrestling but i am told a general sale will take place at the end of the year and a very, very last ditch effort will take place next year when the ticket exchange scheme goes live. Hmmm not many people will bombard the website that day either will they? 

I therefore predict already in July 2011 that there will be more stress, grief and tears when we use the exchange scheme.

I know there are thousands who have experienced the above and feel a bit bitter (naturally) I therefore say to the lucky, lucky people going to the Olympics, congratulations! (seriously i do) Enjoy the occasion. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I (still) envy you!

Newton Trainers... Are you for or against?

Newton

Are you aware of this brand of trainers that (like many others) also claim to be all singing and dancing into improving your running style, gait and speed? The marketing behind these trainers attempt to encourage runners to land with each foot strike on their mid/front foot thus enabling a more "forward" motion and propulsion. The trainers are not finished here either. With now your foot landing in a different position and allegedly in a quicker motion, the change in pattern in the way your foot comes into contact with the road, should now mean there is less impact. Less impact now means less body strain, less injuries and I suppose your body lasting a little longer before the fatigue then starts to take over in any race you may be participating in. Newton trainers have different versions to those runners who naturally run on their front foot and those willing to convert into running on their front foot which has heel protection until you learn not to run on your heels altogether

Now you can sit reading that I'm falling for this companies marketing trick (Hmmm maybe so) but the more I think about this but the more I think about it this is a great aid for those who don't "naturally" land on their mid/front foot, E.G ME!! When you look at Elite athletes, you will notice they run with a quick leg turn over and every strike is in fact on their front foot. These people have been trained to run like this so although (I am told) 

Newton's are allowed to be used in professional events although you do not see many (if at all any) Elite runners, running in Newton trainers. So if they don't use these trainers why should we?

As I have said, elite runners have the time and the coaches to aid them to running correctly and quickly without the aid of these shoes. To us plodders, standard or club runners how can we possibly benefit?

I have not been able to afford an all out gait analysis assessment but from the way I walk in normal shoes (and wear them out), I appear to land quite heavily on my heels. I have been to various running shops and run on a treadmill and seen using there camera that even running I land heavily on my heels and then slightly, ever so slightly overpronate. Due to this level of pronation and my love for half marathon marathon's I've always been advised to by a slight supportive shoe to take into account the later stages of my races when my overpronation will be emphasised. I have never been able to buy a typical neutral shoe, In fact I have tried Adidas and Asics brands but always seem to have stuck by and using Asics 1140's, 50's & 60's.

More experienced/ professional runners/trainers may say spending money on a proper analysis is wiser than buying these Newton trainers, so you have more of an understanding on how you run, making only the slight changes that you may need to improve. For me attending a proper analysis centre is miles away and to be honest I can't be asked to attend. Which brings me back to the question, how can a classic heel striker can suddenly throw themselves forward in an attempt to running front foot.

I'm getting older now and been running the way I have for years (rightly or wrongly) the sudden change in running style could cause me more injuries than I already receive. I'm sure I must bore people close to me about my running injuries so why would I be interested in changing my running footwear which my threat of injury would increase? Well... For me I won't lie but I still have the ambition and drive to run quicker than my last race at that distance. I actually get annoyed with myself when I feel my race time has not achieved what I felt my training justified! (Even though realistically is not possible every time!) I have thought about running in these trainers for well over a year and am prepared to spend out on these trainers and at least give them a "try"

instead of sitting indoors wondering "If" they may improve my running?

I have looked and posted on various message boards wanting other runner's opinions on Newton trainers and to be honest there appears to be a lot more runners against these shoes than for them!

I have now bought a pair of Newton Sir Issac's trainers and while I have a break within my race period, I will give them a go. They come with a 10-point rule to make the transfer from normal trainers to these one's simpler starting from scratch I suppose running shorter distances to begin with and build up again giving your calf muscles and Achilles tendons time to adjust to the change. My plan is to use them on my shorter runs or if anything start using them on an incline of a treadmill. If I don't, like them I'll soon let you know but I am giving them the benefit of a doubt and "TRYING" them. They are nearly double the price of what I could buy a pair of last years versions of Asics but believe that could they last longer?

Any opinions or experiences please share. I'm still all ears.

Injuries....

I'm not a spring chicken anymore and bordering on officially entering races in the "veteran" category, I'm finding this period of my running not so simple and straightforward. If I have, one regret from my running is not continuing this from my school days. I left school, got a job within London and most lunchtimes and Friday evenings spent a lot of time and money trying to destroy my own liver. Once I got this period of my life over and done with, returning to my running I spent god knows how many months trying to recondition my ageing weakening body into running how it used too. Although my mind is full of youthful running memories and my mind says go go go! My body itself is still playing catch up and is not so keen.

If you're of similar age to me, you may start to find you get injured or pick up an annoying niggle at the time you're performing at your best and on top of your game? Alternatively, injuries occur just as you increase mileage for the build up of a race you really want to run your best in. Why does your body feel it'll have a laugh at your expense and let you down like this? I've rubbed you when you're sore, fed you healthy food! All I ask in return is you run your best when I say, alas you now feel like going on strike so I find it hard to run? How painful, depressing can this feel? Boarding heart breaking! Non-runners in your family will never understand but to fellow runners who know this can send you spiralling into depression

I applied for the old Virgin London Marathon for many years before one May found out I received my fifth rejection and the following year I would be running in the London Marathon that I have dreamed so long for running in. This has meant I have been regularly running for the last four years or so. Within this time, I have had the usual sore muscles, DOMS, chafing, sore nipples, fatigue, wall hitting, stinging eyes from sweat, etc etc but within this time can say I have only ever had two proper injuries. The first being Runners Knee from a tight IT band in the very early stages of running. Although painful, I found this really easy to cure. Although I still ended up on a recovery bed of a Physio for advice. Simply reducing inflammation of the knee and stretching out of my thigh muscle solved this injury fairly quickly. Occasionally a knee will flare up and I confidently know what I need to do to cure it.

The second injury, My Lord Achilles Tendonitis, oh what pain. Now I first noticed my Achilles hurting prior to the 2010 London marathon.

Thought nothing of it as after an hour of waking first thing in the morning the pain would go. Naively I carried on running without nipping this problem in the bud. I participated in the Bluewater 10K race in June and come the Monday morning both Achilles just seized right up and this was the start of an on going pain! That was over a year ago now and to date I still suffer. Perhaps if I stopped running and performed more of those stair exercises this injury would have healed by now? However, with various races including the 2011 London Marathon I haven't ever completely stopped running. It appears I have tight calf muscles, which in turn are pulling up on my Achilles, which now means they are fragile and prone to giving me grief! Not to mention my age, you know this is a classic injury of other runners my age too.

What am I doing about it? Well I have been to two physio's and spent ages looking on the net for advice and watched untold YouTube videos of curing Achilles Tendonitis. To which I have come up with the following routine. No! I am not stopping my running but after every run I'm applying a cold spray and maybe biofreeze after a shower. I also apply two ice packs to my tendons in the evening whilst watching TV. As I head upstairs to bed, before I get to the top I stop and perform the lowering and raising of my calf muscles so they don't cause me grief when I wake up in the morning. Lastly, I treat myself to a Sports Clinic massage above Sweatshop at Bluewater once a month! Not ideal but I'm still able to continue doing something I feel so passionately about. Any other suggestions that you can come up with, I'm all ears!

www.marathontalk.com

Episode 69

www.marathontalk.com

ITV's Emerdale Farm actor Tony Audenshaw aka Tony's Trials sums up PERFECTLY the love hate relationship of a couple where one person loves to run and the partner clearly puts up all barriers and is labelled as a runner hater

Tony'sView

Running Etiquette...?

Heading out for a run, there is going to be a high chance that you will come across another fellow runner running in the opposite direction. Now assuming you're in the zone concentrating and most definitely out of breath, do you ignore this runner completely or show some sort of acknowledgement towards this runner who has the same reasons for running as you do?

To be honest I do try my best to show some sort of acknowledgement. If I can utter two words, I will always say good morning. If I am gasping for breath, I will nod my head towards them. No, I don't know you... but manners to the human race a "free" so there is no law broken by using them. The running boom is growing as more and more people are putting on their trainers and heading out the door for a whole variety of reasons, to socialise, get fit, combat work stress or improve race times, there are loads of people running that you have something in common with.

I have been running religiously now for about four years or so now and when in the early years I ran past a runner and didn't show some sign of acknowledgment , gradually I actually felt guilty about this. So to avoid this feeling if you see me running towards you like it or not I am going to say hello!

I have been running.... HONEST ...

It has been far too long since my Blog update. Really, really poor effort on my behalf. Out of routine and habit, I suppose. Since my last Blog, I have run through the snow over Christmas and if it was too cold dived into the gym to use the treadmill. Participated in the Watford Half Marathon finishing in 1:29:56 and a week later running in the Sidcup 10 miler finishing just under 1hr 5 minutes. I was pleased with myself getting these two results but then running full on, twice within a week I aggravated my Achilles Tendons (again) and spent my preparation for the 2011 Virgin London Marathon by running and then spending 20 minutes a night, with two ice packs on the backs off my legs. Worst timing ever to pick up a niggle when you know you must increase your mileage weekly. Sensible people will always suggest if not expect you to back off the running and rest! But you know damn well yourself you must keep up the mileage and through gritted teeth say Nah, I'll be alright continuing the vicious circle of running through the pain barrier and risking! Injuring yourself even more!

My preparation for the VLM was to get up 04:00 Saturday mornings and run

18 miles to work. It took me several weeks of this to realise why 10 miles In I found myself blown to bits! Resorting to a run walk strategy with anger and depression as to why I was running so badly! Duh of course up, wash out for a run with NO breakfast and source of energy is clearly, why I was running on empty. Not sure how you feel but I do agree going for runs without energy beforehand forcing your body to work harder using body fat as a source of energy but trying to do this for 18 miles. Hell No! Not a good idea! So if I plan to run this far again I must have a banana before hand?

Running the VLM was again another great experience!! The week leading up to race day I found myself being a proper grouch, that I can only put down to nerves in fear of hitting that dreaded wall or expecting my Achilles to fail and give me race day grief! I had my last sports massage on the Thursday and started my carb loading. By Saturday night, I really had enough of carbs and can honestly say I was sick of seeing anything carb related.

Taking my little girls to the Expo on the Saturday to get my race number, was another great experience as I tried to do as little walking as possible saving myself for the big day tomorrow? Still found myself attending stalls and signing up to "anything" that I thought I might win. To date I have won nothing which makes giving permission to my details being used by company's a waste of time! The afternoon was spent packing my race bag and shuffling through the freebies I picked up from the Expo into piles of rubbish, importance or the not too interested pile that I only took out of politeness!

The Marathon itself was again one hell of an occasion! My third on one in a row and an event you should and I hope I can run many more times in the future. The noise, crowd support / encouragement, unusual outfits make the whole 26.2 miles one long street party! This is one race you know you are about to push your body through a horrible pain barrier which is painful enough but today my biggest complaint was the heat! My god it was horrible to run in! The pre race announcement of thinking of others and only taking water bottle at water at stations to "drink" only and not pour over your head, I'm sad to say I soon ignored! such advice.

Please don't call me selfish but I passed a few water stations before I soon started to pour water over my head and neck as often as possible otherwise I would have completely burnt up. I finished this marathon in 3hrs 25 and saw more than enough casualty's street side and this was me finishing the marathon after 13:00. By all accounts, people still running after this time really suffered pushing the police and St Johns ambulance crews to the very limit as now runners battled exhaustion from the 26 miles as well as the heat.

Even though my legs were tired and very sore (obviously). The memory of this run is firmly embedded in my memory and I really would like to run it again in 2012 and hope you have applied to run it too? I promise you will not regret it! The only downside of this marathon and I am being very serious! Is the price you are expected to pay for the photo's taken of you in the day by the official photographers. Oh my lord how much!