Your core and running!

As a coach and tainer who loves to have a huge tool box of resources I am always taking courses. The last couple of courses I took have been amazing. One was Called Building a Strong Foundation, and was all about how to reconginze and teach endurance athletes how to control their bodies and retrain the nueromuscular system to stop tissue breakdown from the ground up. The other course was on Postural Assesment and Corrective Exercises. I have been teaching techniques based on both of these courses with great success. I believe that if you can teach someone to recognize how their body is breaking down during movement then you can fix it. Body Awareness is totally under-rated in sport. You have to know how your body moves through what-ever medium you are in, whether swimming , biking or running and be able to adapt and fix any problems that you are having. The only problem for endurance athletes is that they have to slow down, almost stop and feel what is happening in their body which may take away from their long run or ride or swim!
It doesn't take much time to practice some of the exercises and they are as simple as standing on one foot and making sure that use stay logn in your spine, hips level and your arch supporting your foot. can you close your eyes and do this? Can you go up on your toes? Can you stand holding onto a resistance tube and lift one leg without our body shifting? All of these are very simple tasks that many of us have problems executing. When I first started closing my eyes to balance on one foot I feel over after 2 seconds. I am now up to 20sec!! Start to pay attention to your body- how it moves, how you stand, how you sit. It will be the beggining of a great learning process about yourself.

Upcoming Whistler Events!

Are you ready for all the athletic excitement that is happening in Whistler this year?
If not you better dust off you shoes and get started. Last year Whistler saw the excitement and passion of the Olympics and Paralympics and the amazing athletes from all over the world. It was a truly inspirational time for anyone watching. After that excitment another exciting event came to Whistler the Gran Fondo- a bike race from Vancouver along the newly completed Sea to Sky highway to Whistler. This event drew a crowd of close to 4,000 participants. It was an amazing event with people lining the streets, overpasses and highway all the way to Whistler cheering for all the cyclists. Now in 2011 we have the Tenderfoot Boogie, trail race from Squamish to Whistler, the annual Whistler Kids of Steel Triathlon and Adult Try-A-Tri, the Whistler Valley Trail Run 5 and 10km, the first Whistler Half Marathon, to be held on June 4, after that the World OutGames are coming to Whislter and will have a Mountain Marathon, Adventure Race and Mountain Bike race, then there is Xterra in Aug. , the Whistler Gran Fondo in Sept. and the Haney to Harrison Relay race and ultra marathon in Nov.. There is the possiblity of Comfortably Numb race happening again this year which is a 25km trail run. And that is not all- there are more races and events happening that have not yet been confirmed. So what are you waiting for. All of this is in your back yard- you just have to get out and try it.
Next post I will tell you more about some local training options if you are needing some help.