Ecco Biom shoes

This is the new interesting Scandinavian running shoe concept called Biom that will be available in 2009.

9 keys to healthier & happier you

Fit Soul, Fit Body - 9 Keys to a Healthier, Happier You is the title of the new book by shaman Brant Secunda and triathlon legend Mark Allen.

Even if you regularly work out and maintain a healthy lifestyle, you may notice that there is still something missing that keeps you from feeling completely satisfied with your achievements. What Brant and Mark offer here is the key to discovering that extra something.   

Actually there are nine keys in the book:

1. Balance your responses to the six types of stress.
2. Quiet the mind.
3. Transform fear, anger and jealousy.
4. Reconnect with the natural world.
5. Honor yourself.
6. Know and set the quest.
7. Live what you ask for.
8. Slow down to get faster.
9. Invite your inner cave man to the table.

A quote from the Foreword by Stephen R. Covey:

"I trust you will share my passion for Mark and Brant's book and message. They are truly remarkable people from the inside out. Egoless. Authentic. Insightful far beyond the traditional classroom. As will become wonderfully clear to you, these two teachers carry a set of skills and knowledge unlike any others, and you will feel compelled to implement them into your life right away."

5000K of running this year and counting

My running statistics show that I passed the five thousand kilometer mark today. My total mileage since January 1st is now 5004.3 km (3,109.5 miles). 

Today is 331st day of the year, so my average running distance per day is 15.1 km (9.4 miles). 

I've never run more during a year (even if I stopped running today). I've been a marathon runner about a quarter of a century, but most of those years I've been also an Ironman triathlete, so all that biking and swimming limited my running mileage. My last Ironman was four years ago.

What's better, my leg and foot injuries don't bother me anymore. In other words, my body seems to have healed itself pretty well while I've been busy running. Well actually my left hand is still a little sore because I fell down on Monday, but that's nothing serious. 

Japanese paleo diet commercial

48 down, 4 to go

The huge snowstorm that began on Sunday brought us about 30 cm (12") new snow. That's the highest amount of new snow in 24 hours in Helsinki in my lifetime.  

It kept on snowing on Monday. 

I ran 50K in 6:43.

There were lots of opportunities to fall down, and I did perform one spectacular stunt.

 

It was really lots of fun to run in snow for a change.

48 self-supported ultramarathons down, and only four to go!

The first Finnish Antarctic solo expedition in trouble

The Finnish South Pole Solo Expedition seems to be in trouble. According to his diary, Mr Teemu Lakkasuo has:

• lost his jacket,
• caught a flu with fever, and
• hurt his leg.

He is probably not in the greatest of moods in his little tent, but I'm sure he'll get over this - after all we Finnish people don't know how to give up, do we?

Anyway Teemu's doctor has ordered a 24-hour rest to give him a chance to recover a little. Let's hope him all the best.

I just came in from a little run. There is a huge snowstorm over Finland right now, but I didn't feel like complaining, especially when I thought about what Teemu must be going through.

Lahja Elämälle is a Finnish organ donation promotion programme that is a partner of the Antarctic expedition. Please support similar programs in your home country.

Following Tim VanOrden's running raw experiment

When I first came across Tim VanOrden's Running Raw project, I honestly thought the poor dude must have lost his mind. The seemingly crazy idea of running competitively while eating a strict diet of mainly raw vegs, fruits, nuts and seeds made me laugh out loud.

Fast forward a few months. I'm still grinning, but for a different reason. I've secretly tested a similar program on myself for a total of 12 weeks now:

• first a six week 50-60% raw lacto-ovo-vegetarian transition period 
• followed by another six week 80-100% raw vegan 'detox' phase, 

The results have so far exceeded all my expectations: 

• I'm now about 7 kg (15 lb) lighter - from about 69 kg (152 lb) to 62 kg (136 lb).
• My body fat is down from about 12% to 6%. 
• My BMI (Body Mass Index) has decreased from 21.1 to 19.0.
  
• My health feels much better than before (although I wasn't really sick before, I had some skin issues etc).
• My fitness is great in terms of endurance, however I have not tried any speedwork or racing yet.
• I've been able to cut all dairy, meat, fish, poultry, coffee, tea (except herbal tea) consumption.
• I didn't and still don't consume any soft drinks or alcoholic beverages.
• My energy levels have been pretty high all the time.
• I seem to require less sleep.
• My mind is definitely much clearer.

I've decided to continue 90-100% raw food diet until the end of this year, and if it goes well, I'll probably continue in 2009.

We Like It Raw has recently podcasted an inspiring 57-minute Tim VanOrden interview. Check it out now - this runner really knows what he is talking about!

Superfood smoothie

Originally uploaded by gesika22

Today I mixed all my favorite superfoods in a blender to create a real super smoothie: 

• half a pomegranate (tip: put it in a bowl under water to get the red seeds stain-free), 
• oat milk, 
• frozen blueberries (or any berries you like), 
• an avocado, 
• a pear (or an apple), 
• a couple of heaped tablespoonfuls of Green & Black's organic cacao powder, 
• a teaspoonful of Magma Plus powder, 
• a tablespoonful of flax oil (or fish oil), 
• a ripe banana to get a sweeter taste. 

Supergood and superhealthy!

Welly's bike charity auction now on eBay

2008 Ironman - Chrissie Wellington
Originally uploaded by konaboy

The Queen of Kona (2007 & 2008 Hawaii Ironman triathlon champion) Chrissie Wellington has generously decided to auction off her trusty Cervelo P2C in aid of Jon Blais' Blazeman Foundation for ALS.

The carbon bike is on eBay right now for three more days. The frame size is 54 cm and the current bid is 5,300 USD. It's a great bike (I ride Cervelo myself) so go get it!

47 down, five to go

The sun is shining, but it's not warming me much today.

Wonderful running weather, although it definitely feels like winter is about to arrive.

Runningwise it's business as usual: my 47th weekly self-supported ultramarathon of the year.

I ran 44.2 km (27.5 miles) in 6:55. That's slow, but hey, I took a lot of weird photos.

After the run I weighed 62.9 kg (138.7 lbs). I haven't been that light since I was a teenager.

Wow, forty-seven down already...

...only five to go!

Scott Tinley: Racing The Sunset

A succesful pro-triathlete in the eighties, Scott Tinley has written this honest account about an athlete's quest for life after sport. 

In addition to 'ST' himself, Racing The Sunset explores the fates of dozens of retired athletes like Greg Lemond, Steve Scott, Davis Phinney and Greg Welch. 

I guess the underlying story is how crisis and change often leads to personal growth and healing.  

This excerpt shows what a great writer ST has become:

"When my wife dropped me off for my foot operation, I seemed calm. I was looking forward to reading some books. There were a few races coming up over the next months, but if I had to pull out, nobody would sue me and we wouldn't be sleeping in the car. I was supposed to be retired anyway. The waves in the spring are typically windy and blown out, I told myself. A few weeks downtime to write or paint or help the kids with their homework would do me good. There are no accidents, I finally convinced myself. Everything happens for a reason.

When the nurse took my blood pressure it was high. I was putting up a good front but the numbers don't lie. I was nervous, maybe even scared. What if something went wrong and I couldn't ever run again? I was retreating into my narcissistic self; I was too concerned with the body when I should have been focusing on the mind, or even the soul.

The doctor doing the surgery made some joke about me being more of an Ironman now because I would truly have metal parts inside me. He was thirty-two years old, in fifth grade when I won my first Ironman. I smiled, took some deep breaths, and remembered how certain Zen masters could will themselves to stop bleeding from an open wound. I added yoga to my list of things I wanted to become proficient at in the next year. Yeah, I could do it in a year.

But a year is a long time, and ten years is even longer. Better that I take it a month, no, a week, no, a day, no - better I accept my place right here and now. Make the best of it. Relax, breathe in, breathe out. Slow down and let the past catch up with me. Quit running away from it, since I won't be able to run for a few months anyway. I did some great things in my life as an athlete. Yeah, it was a hell of a good life."

I like it.

Sunroot smoothie

Topinambur (Helianthus tuberosus)
Originally uploaded by Luigi FDV

Sunroot (Helianthus Tuberosus) aka sunchoke or topinambur or Jerusalem artichoke is a species of sunflower first cultivated by Native Americans.

I just improvised by throwing the following ingredients into my trusty blender: 

• a few sunroots, 
• four tomatoes, 
• spring onions, 
• a handful of baby spinach, 
• a green chili, 
• a little garlic clove, 
• sea salt to taste, 
• a spoonful of flax oil and 
• some extra virgin olive oil.

It was surprisingly good!

Six secrets of adaptive running

Every elite coach has a training philosophy. Brad Hudson's is called adaptive running. It is based on his belief that a responsive and creative approach is better than an approach that is too structured and formulaic. 

In chapter 6 of his new book Run Faster: From The 5K To The Marathon coach Hudson reveals his six secrets of adaptive running:

• consistent moderately high running volume (balancing quality and quantity)
• nonlinear periodization (all the training types are mixed together throughout the training cycle, except when sharpening)
• progression from general to specific training (race-specific fitness requires race-specific training, but it's crucial to have a very high level of non-race-specific fitness first)
• three-period training cycles (introductory, fundamental and sharpening)
• lots of hill running (including 8-12 second steep hill sprints)
• extreme intensity and workload modulation (two hard workouts and one long run per week).

Would you like to become your own best coach? Running Faster will teach you how. You can find this new amazing book in Paleo Runner's aStore. Please visit there now to find out more!

Running the Grand Canyon R2R2R

This is an ultra runner's 17-minute video of running the Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim with his four buddies last weekend. That's 48 miles (77 km) down-up-down-up folks!

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46 down, six to go

What a great day for my 46th self-supported weekly ultramarathon this year.

I ran 44.9K (27.9 miles) in 5:12.

46 down, six to go!

Amazing sauerkraut salad

Making Sauerkraut
Originally uploaded by Andreas Duess

Sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) makes it easy to design amazingly unusual and tasty salads. Ready-made sauerkraut is widely available.

You can mix it with anything you like, but the following are my favorites. I usually pick at least a couple of things from each of the six categories:

• any veg (cucumber, carrot, spring onion...)
• any fruit (grapes, olives, pomegranate...)
• any sprout (lentils, mung, quinoa...)
• any fresh herb (parsley, mint, basil...)
• any seaweed sprinkle (nori, dulse, sea lettuce...)
• any dressing (lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, shoyu...)

You can't go wrong, because whatever you choose the result will probably be one of the healthiest things you have ever eaten. Just remember to make sure all your ingredients are organic and you are good!

Body fat calculator

Horror on the Train
Originally uploaded by Shadowfoot

Have you measured your body fat percentage lately?

Well I sure haven't, so I googled this online body fat calculator.

According to the Jackson/Pollock 7 Caliper Method (which seems pretty accurate), my body fat is 6.6%. My current weight is 64 kg (141 lbs), so theoretically I have about 1.9 kg (4.2 lbs) fat to lose.

So if I will get my weight down to 62.1 kg (137 lbs), it would mean a Body Mass Index of 19.0 (my current BMI is 19.5). I guess it would be risky to go any lower than that.

Trail runner bit by rabid fox

AP: Jogger runs mile with rabid fox locked on her arm.

Avocado chocolate

Imagen 476
Originally uploaded by jzuñiga

I created and enjoyed this simple avocado chocolate recipe today.

Simply mix 

• Hass avocado (1-2 per person, or any amount you like), 
• Green & Black's organic cocoa powder (about half the amount of avocado), and 
• pure maple syrup (about half the amount of cocoa). 

Tip: Just use a spoon or a fork to mix the ingredients in a bowl.

Serve with any berries, fruit or nuts. Yummy!

45 down, seven to go

Today I had the pleasure of running my 45th self-supported weekly ultramarathon.

It was a relatively sunny day.

I ran 43.1K in 6:14.

45 done, only seven to go!
 

Paula wins New York City Marathon

The defending champion and World Record holder Paula Radcliffe won the ING New York City Marathon 2008 just a few minutes ago. What a great comeback after a disappointing performance in Beijing! 

Her splits were as follows:

• 5K - 18:05
• 10K - 35:33
• 15K - 52:44
• Half - 1:13:23
• 30K - 1:43:32
• 35K - 2:00:13
• 40K - 2:16:40
• Finish - 2:23:56

Ludmila Petrova was second (2:25:43) and Kara Goucher, who ran her marathon debut today, third (2:25:53).