5k Fun Run

The Beginning of an Era - The Running Bug

Run, Forrest! Run!

Have you watched the movie, Forrest Gump? Remember when he couldn't walk without the leg braces? Then one day the braces flew off as he ran, and ran. Quoting the fictional Forrest Gump, "I had run for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours."

Have you ever felt the desire to just run? Well, for me, that desire didn't come until I just started, and now, I just want to get up and run, run for the bus, run to catch the train, run for the sake of it. So I did the 5k Fun Run.

Training

Training was sporadic, even half hearted, yet, stood at the starting gates on a wet Saturday morning, I naively stared at the little I could see of Richmond Park. I was surrounded by proper runners; kitted out in sleeveless breathable shirts and running shorts, those typically ugly-looking but feet saving running shoes, some with gadgets on their wrists and others with headbands on. A sharp contrast was me, in a pair of full length jogging bottoms, inappropriate trainers that I play football in and a t-shirt with 'Jamaica No.23' on it brought back by my family from their holiday. Everyone seemed at the lower end of the BMI (body mass index) scale, apart from a few, like myself, trying to lose weight. The 10k runners were looming in the background waiting for us to get started so they could get going.

Nothing Fun About It

So off we all went, together, though the huddle never lasted long for me as I was already straddling behind by 500m. At 1km, a long hill approached, and I knew I was in for a hard slog. I spent the rest of the 4km intermittently jogging and walking as my legs were tripping over themselves. I may have started too fast, but the truth was, my training was poor. Two weeks prior, my training dropped off completely. Months prior I focused on building strength and three weeks prior, I turned to losing weight (to increase relative strength), but ignored T Bompa's advice to convert strength gains into appropriate endurance. I had enough endurance to run 1km. That was no problem, but 5km and at speed was almost an impossibility.

Bitten by the Running Bug

I completed it! Just don't ask how. Moreover, I wanted to do that again. Not immediately of course.

I want to get the training right. I have to beat my incredibly lousy time of 44 minutes and 19 seconds. My grandpa walks faster than that. So I have to appeal to those who haven't done it to try it and get bitten by the running bug. It's the beginning of an era for me. I never could jog for even a minute without either getting bored or tired.

5Km is short enough that it won't kill you if you haven't trained properly, but long enough for you to feel like you have actually achieved something when you do complete it. You don't need anything more than trainers, preferably running shoes and clothes. You can run on your street, around the block or through the park. It's a great way to get fit and doing a Fun Run at the end is a good test of how far you have come since the beginning of training.

Personal Lessons Learned

• Train well in advance, indoors and outdoors (squats and jumping jacks indoors)
• Good running shoes, regardless of their unsightliness (bad shoes are painful)
• Prepare for all weather. Really, do that.
• You don't have to fund-raise to be part of some fun-runs. You can pay to participate instead. Just find out which fun-runs allow you to do that.
• Experienced and non-experienced Fun-Runners are supportive, so don't feel like they'll laugh if you're slow. We all start from somewhere. In fact, they're very encouraging.

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Let's horse stance our way into the side splits

If you can't do the side splits, join the club. It's an enviable sign of flexibility and like so many things we cannot do, we may have been blaming our 'unlucky' genes for not bothering to try. Yes, it's a painful concept for us lacking the ability to even watch someone do the graceful movement. Nevertheless, unlike conventional wisdom, it can be done with months or even weeks of training, as Kurtz explains that if you can do the half split, you have enough hip flexibility, just not enough strength (http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=12). He says that the side splits maybe in reach of us all.


His method starts with the horse stance. For those who don't know what a horse stance is, it's a stance used in karate and other martial arts as a foundation to other moves and stances. In particular to achieving the side splits, you place your feet about twice your shoulder width apart before lowering yourself between your legs so that your thighs are just above parallel to the ground. May I add this is a deep horse stance in comparison to others that more resemble a standing-up position, such as in Tai Chi. There are many variations to the horse stance, but as you will be trying to achieve the splits, it will eventually stop looking like a horse stance as you move your feet further and further apart.


Bboy Ryouku (bboy.org), Paul Zaichik (elasticsteel.com) and Thomas Kurtz (stadion.com) have all pointed out the irrefutable relationship between strength and flexibility. Progressive stretching may help do the splits, but Bboy Ryouku explains that lack of strength causes muscle tension instead of the relaxation needed to reach the side splits. Kurz explains why the tilting of the pelvis is essential for those last few inches into splits and Paul Zaichik has already demonstrated in a few youtube videos how important strength is to hold static high kicks. The idea is that we develop strength to be able to hold the horse stance from a relatively easy width, increasing the distance between our feet until eventually ending up with a very wide horse stance with our groin inches from the floor. From there, we should be very close to achieving the side splits.


Bboy Ryouko explains the method perfectly here, amongst many other things in an old post:
http://www.bboy.org/forums/how-get-shape/71467-how-develop-real-true-gymnastic-strength.html


Thomas Kurtz explains his method here:
http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=13


And below is Kurtz' method for maintaining the side splits. You will see how he develops the splits from the horse stance.







This is definitely a future challenge for me. I'll let you know if Thomas Kurtz' method works.


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Other References:
http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=12

It took 25 Days to do just One Proper Push Up

The push up was started in the prone position (with the torso on the floor) and then the arms pushed upwards whilst the body was kept straight before lowering the body and torso back to just above the floor. At that point, I pushed upwards again, and then lowered back into the prone position. Maybe that counts as two, but hey! Still psyched over doing one!

My challenge is however, incomplete, as the aim is to do 10 consecutive push ups.

If you've struggled with doing push ups, feel free to email me about it at urbantri@mail.com or get my little push up guide here. 

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The Core Isn't There Just To Look Pretty

Imagine if we tried to get out of bed, sit up or stand up straight without using our core muscles. What about if we tried kicking, spinning or even doing a push up? We still engage the core muscles, and yet, it seems people only want to work their core muscles to gain a certain aesthetic look; the six pack, the V-line. Bruce Lee questioned that without a strong core, what would support the arms for punches, or the legs for kicking let alone jumping.

The core has variable definitions, but everyone seems to agree it's the body minus the legs and arms (the trunk/torso) or the muscles that connect the upper body to the lower body (2). These muscles include the abdominals, the obliques, the back muscles, the hip flexors and rotators and shoulders (3, 4). These muscles provide strength and flexibility even if you can't see them.

Good core strength helps posture, alleviates aches and pains commonly associated with back problems and helps stabilise the body through nearly every movement that is made (2). Dancers, yoga practitioners and gymnasts possess amazing core strength as their disciplines call for it, and you don't necessarily see female gymnasts with six packs that men have, but they still can do incredible feats of strengths without the core muscles being seen (5).

There are so many different exercises to work the core muscles that you choose a series of your favourites targeting particular areas of your core. Some harder ones include V Ups and Headstand Leg Raises.

Here is a list of 19 core bodyweight muscle exercises;

1.Crunch

2.Side Crunch

3.Double Side Crunch

4.Sit Ups

5.Reverse Crunch

6.Reverse Crunch Twists

7.Single Leg Circles

8.Russian Twists

9.Hip Twists

10.Double Crunch

11.Flutter Kicks

12.V Ups

13.Straight Leg Raises

14.Plank Ups

15.Side Plank Raises

16.Hanging Knee Raises

17.Headstand Leg Raises

18.Side Plank Twists (with Rotation)

19.Hanging Leg Raises

View the Core Bodyweight Exercise Guide here.

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And On The Seventh Day, We Rested

Well, I didn't rest until the eighth day of my push up training and I wasn't really intending to take a day of rest at all. Time flew by, and I hadn't done a single push up, but the next day, I found doing negative push ups a lot easier. It was if I was stronger after I rested for a day.

According to Tudor Bompa and Michael Carrera, energy stores in the form of glycogen (formed by glucose) are partially depleted during strength training sessions, and it has been reported to take 5 hours of rest to restore glycogen levels by 55%. Taking 24 hours of rest is advised as glycogen stores are restored to almost 100% of pre-exercise levels. When we don't allow our bodies to replenish their glycogen stores we're left with fatigue and the next strength training session will produce suboptimal results (Leslie Bonci).

T Bompa and M Carrera further explain that protein metabolism or breakdown occurs as long as 48 hours after strength training. They also state that protein synthesis occurs during the resting phase and is greater than protein breakdown, but they make a strong case, stating that without enough rest, increases in muscle strength and size will be diminished.

It may seem counterproductive, but taking a day's rest will help to increase your strength. So if you get to a stage where you find yourself struggling with the same strength load and know you can do better, take a day or two off, and go back to it. You may be surprised at how much better you can handle the same strength training exercise.

Tudor O Bompa and Michael C Carrera Periodization Training For Sports 2nd Edition 2005
Leslie Bonci 2001 www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0902/refueltank.htm


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