A couple of weeks ago Chris McDougall caused another little stir in the barefoot/minimalist running world with an article for The New York Times entitled The Once and Future Way to Run. Within this article he mentions something called the 100-Up exercise...

Earlier this year, I may have found it. I was leafing through the back of an out-of-print book, a collection of runners’ biographies called “The Five Kings of Distance,” when I came across a three-page essay from 1908 titled “W. G. George’s Own Account From the 100-Up Exercise.” According to legend, this single drill turned a 16-year-old with almost no running experience into the foremost racer of his day.

I read George’s words: “By its constant practice and regular use alone, I have myself established many records on the running path and won more amateur track-championships than any other individual.” And it was safe, George said: the 100-Up is “incapable of harm when practiced discreetly.”

Could it be that simple? That day, I began experimenting on myself.

[... two pages later ...]

Last fall, at the end of a local 10-mile trail race, I surprised myself by finishing five minutes faster than I had four years ago, when I was in much better shape. I figured the result was a fluke — until it happened again. No special prep, awful travel schedule and yet a personal best in a six-mile race.

“I don’t get it,” I told Cucuzzella this past June when we went for a run together through the Shepherd University campus in Shepherdstown. “I’m four years older. I’m pretty sure I’m heavier. I’m not doing real workouts, just whatever I feel like each day. The only difference is I’ve been 100-Upping.”

Naturally, this last bit got everyone excited and within days, Justin of Birthday Shoes fame, knocked up a dedicated site - HundredUp - to raise awareness and put out a challenge to people to try it themselves for 30 days and report back.

Naturally, as I'm keen on learning about improving my performance, I read through McDougall's article, watched the video, and read through the HundredUp site. McDougall's demonstration of the exercise in the video in the NYT article instantly rang bells, but I couldn't place why.

It was only this weekend that I worked it out... this is a lot like the "tapping" and "change of support" exercises from POSE running, except with more emphasis on high knees than on bringing the foot up under your body.

Compare for yourself. First, the 100-Up video which shows the minor and major:

Next, the tapping and change of support exercises from POSE (the commentary is in German, but you're only meant to be looking at the pictures )...

Interesting stuff. Of course there will be some overlap in methods taught - I'm sure Chi Running probably has a similar exercise too - and for all I know, Dr. Romanov could have taken some of his inspiration from W.G. George's 100-ups.

Whatever the reasoning, I think any exercise that encourages people to land on their mid-foot or forefoot and that strengthens the muscles and tendons around that area is better than nothing at all.

About two thirds of the way into my long run today I somehow managed to trip over something and severely stub my toes. The result, some lovely blue/purple and tender toes...

I've got quite hideous looking feet to start off with - the stumpy looking middle toes has been that way since I hurt my foot last year - the added colouring doesn't make them any more appealing

I don't think they're broken as I can move them without any pain. I think they're just a little on the bruised side. Thankfully I was wearing my Merrells. Who knows that my toes would look like had I not been. Hopefully this won't affect my running too much. I managed to finish my run this morning which entailed about another 7km after the stubbing without any discomfort. We'll see how things are tomorrow. Time to go ice them.

I've just received this weeks' Parkrun newsletter (dated 6th October 2011) and I'm very chuffed to find this within it:

My reason for returning to South Africa was to spend a few days with an African running hero who has decided to bring parkrun to the masses in his homeland. Many of you were previously introduced to Bruce Fordyce last year when he ran Bushy parkrun the day before completing his forth London Marathon. For the unenlightened, Bruce is a running legend throughout the world with many records to his name not least of which is the nine wins at the grueling Comrades Ultra Marathon of which eight wins were consecutive. Bruce has won the London to Brighton ultra marathon three years in a row plus a number of other highly significant events and still holds the world record at 50 miles. He is a previous record holder for 100 mile distance too.

I first met Bruce in 1987 when I was part of a 6-man team providing information and support during his 7th Comrades win. Little did I know the circle would be closed when Bruce took part in the Bushy parkrun this year and decided that parkrun was something that South Africa needed. Introducing parkrun to Africa is not without challenges as the majority of the population does not have Internet access and don’t receive email. Nevertheless, it is with excitement and pride that I announce that Bruce is now our Southern Africa parkrun representative and if all goes to plan in the next few weeks we will see the first African parkrun start in Delta Park, Johannesburg on the 12th November.

This is brilliant news and I can almost guarantee this will be an incredible success. I would expect this Parkrun will be very busy from day one and I reckon it'll surpass any UK event in number of runners within a few weeks.

I used to run for the club Bruce runs for, Rand Athletic Club, (I'm assuming he still runs for RAC, I've not seen anything to say he doesn't) which is one of South Africa's largest running clubs with over 2300 members. They already have a very popular weekly 5 and 8k time trial on Tuesday evenings and I would expect these Parkruns to be just as popular, especially as Delta Park isn't far from Old Parktonian Sports Club. Delta Park is also nicely situated for Randburg's other large club, Randburg Harriers, so if you add their numbers too, this will be huuuge in no time. Of course the Randburg Harriers runners may not be too happy with the Parkruns clashing with their Saturday time trials, but who knows, maybe they'll ditch the Saturday runs in favour of the Parkruns.

I'll certainly be keeping an eye on the developments of this and may just pop round for a quick spin round Delta Park (I haven't run in Delta Park since I ran cross-country in high school) when I'm over in December.

Yesterday, my barefoot running antics nearly killed a child.

I was out running through Caversham and got the usual comments about running without any shoes on. The level of intelligence in today's youth is truly amazing - "Hey, you've got no shoes on". "Really? I hadn't noticed. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll remember to check my feet next time I head out for a run".

Anyway, on my return to the gym, as I was crossing Reading bridge (George Street) to head back along the Thames path, I encountered a particularly "intelligent" woman and watched her nearly kill her child because of me.

For those who don't know, George Street across Reading bridge is a particularly busy road. It's one of only two large bridges across the Thames in Reading that is usable by large trucks and a lot of cars going to or coming from Oxfordshire, from and to Reading. This, along with Caversham bridge (the other big bridge) is naturally a very busy road. Unfortunately, it's not very easy to cross as there are only three crossings, one on the Reading end of the road and two close to each other on the Caversham end. To make matters worse, there is a park entrance just on the Caversham side of the bridge, just below the crest as you head into Caversham. This spot is particularly popular with pedestrians who can't be bothered to walk under the bridge to cross the road, and it is here that I nearly killed a child.

As I ran up George Street I noticed two women with a pushchair standing on the side of the road by the park entrance waiting for a gap in the traffic so they could cross. A gap appeared in the traffic coming from Caversham (the direction I was coming from) so the women started to make their move. The woman pushing the push chair pushed it off the curb and completely into the road. She remained standing on the pavement. She then noticed me - the expression on her face was priceless - running towards her without any shoes on. This must have been far too much for her simple mind to cope with as she just stopped dead still with her child in the pushchair in the middle of the road. She then waited for me to reach her just so she could tell me I wasn't wearing any shoes.

Now the thing is, I only run at about 10kph. Cars cross that bridge at around 50kph (30mph). Naturally I was overtaken by a car so a car got to her before I did. Thankfully the driver was paying more attention than the woman was as the driver slowed down and leant on his hooter for a good long loud BEEEEEEEP!!!! This nearly scared the sh*t out of the woman with her child in the middle of the road as she jumped back but let go of the pushchair leaving the child in the road. Just as well her friend had the right mind to grab the pushchair and pull it back onto the pavement.

Now comes the unbelievable part: once the woman recovered she still took the time to tell me I wasn't wearing any shoes when I did eventually pass her. Unbelievable!! She was more interested in telling me something I already knew than care for her child.

I know it was my fault as the appearance, behaviour and demeanor of this woman led me to believe had something happened, she would have almost certainly blamed me. That's the mentality of some of the people in this area.

So there you have it, I nearly killed a child by not wearing any shoes. How many other people can say this?

Somehow I missed this when I added my last training run, but check it out, I've tipped over the 1000km mark for my running this year:

Assuming I put in about 200km a month for the rest of the year (not likely), I could crack the 1000 mile mark this year. I'm not going to aim for it, but we'll see how we get on.

Well, I think we can say the summer racing season in the UK is now well and truly over. There are a few races left this year I might look to do before Christmas, but nothing I've got my heart set on.

With this in mind, it means it's time to start building up the base for next year's racing season.

Today I discovered maximum aerobic function (MAF) training (also a PDF from Phil Maffetone who came up with the idea). Essentially, you take 180, subtract your age, add or subtract a bit more based on health and experience and then use the range of that number less about 10 bpm as your training range. You then do all your "base" training in that range and see great results.

This all sounds well and good and the long term results sound good, but I'm concerned about this rather generic approach, especially considering if I took 180 and subtracted my age (31) and added 5 (I pretty much meet criteria 4 in the link above), I get a heart rate of 154 BPM. This is not very high at all, especially considering that I've clocked a maximum HR during a race (Woodley 10k in which I set my season best) of 203 this year.

Has anyone had any experience with using this MAF method for their base training? I'm interested in the positive and negative experiences people may have had.

The other approach I've been contemplating is Arthur Lydiard's run a "million miles a week" approach, but that scares me, unless of course you've got some good information on that topic too.

I've just caught up on the coverage of the men's 5000m final at the 2011 Daegu World Champs and Mo Farah is on fire. Fantastic last lap...

Mo Farah has incredible speed left in his legs at the end of the 5000m. It's pretty amazing. Great work and I think this makes up for being pipped at the line in the 10,000m. 2 golds in the Olympics? We'll have to wait and see.

On a personal note, I actually know someone who ran in that race: Alistair Cragg. His dad used to coach us when we both lived back in South Africa. I think he had an OK race. He started off very well but got left in the dust when the pace picked up quite considerably at about 2600m. He ended up finishing 14th over-all and got a whole article for his efforts on the BBC.

Well folks, I'm pleased to say I succeeded in my challenge to run at least 3km every day for 30 days as my Calendar page from Garmin Connect can attest:

This was a great challenge and one I'm going to come back to, but maybe not quite so rigidly or with so much gusto at the start of the month.

As part of doing my 30-day challenge, I decided I would NOT give myself a training programme to follow. I would just run and listen to my body, with the exception that I would do a long run on the weekend. If I felt good and felt I could go fast, I did. If I felt like plodding, I did. This worked really well and I ended up only wearing my Garmin to record my route and distance as evidence of my progress and only checked it at the end of each run. It's quite refreshing just running again without any trying to run to clock or beeping pacer. I think I'm going to start doing this more often.

Now forcing myself to run everyday has taught me a few very important things. Running every day is fantastic, when you're up for, but you MUST listen to your body and take a break when it says you need one. If you don't and you run, you won't enjoy it and may start to resent it. You're also likely to incur aches and pains and niggles or even a full on injury if you don't.

I think I may have gone out a bit too far a few times in the first 3 and a bit weeks and by Friday the 26, I really wasn't up for running and starting to feel a little over-trained. This is when I'd normally take a day or two off, but didn't as I was aiming to complete this challenge.

Sadly, I've had to force myself to take a break after 30 days. I find myself feeling a little over-trained with my right hip flexor a little tender after runs. I wouldn't call it an injury, just an annoying niggle that wasn't there before.

I'll give myself the best part of a week off and start a similar challenge again, but this time without any rigid goals. Who knows, maybe 3 long hard weeks is my limit and maybe the 4th needs to be considerably lower in mileage than I did. Only time will tell.

One thing I'm very impressed with is the monthly total: 231.18k of running.

I watched this live this morning on the BBC and must say I was on the edge of my seat. This was probably the most gripping 10,000m race I've watched and oh so close for Mo Farah. I think if he leaves his kick until 400m to go (instead of about 500m in this race) he'll get the Olympic gold.

Pete Larson makes an interesting observation about the stride rate too...

During the final straightaway to the finish, if you start when the race time is at 27:04.5, Jeilan takes 32.5 steps over about 9 seconds to the finish line, for a cadence of 216.67 steps/min. Over the same distance, Farah takes 31.5 steps in about 9.3 seconds, for a cadence of 203.23 steps/min. What this suggests is that Jeilan was able to ramp up his turnover during the final stretch to catch up to and pass Mo Farah just before the finish line, whereas Farah’s turnover remained consistent. The one additional step gained by Jeilan by ramping his turnover up was enough for the win!

My money is on Mo Farah for the Olympic Gold in 2012. I'm not putting it on one of my birth-countrymen - the Saffer got lapped!!

This is quite interesting... Adidas appear to be taking a brave and bold step into the world of "barefoot shoes" (what a silly expression) with their own Vibram Five Finger-a-likees, the Adidas Adipure:

Photos from Gizmodo

As I see it, this is an interesting development. First, Adidas appears to be making a much bigger statement about the potential impact of minimalist shoes on their market than any of the other major brands have dared do - Nike Frees are NOT minimalist or "like barefoot". I don't care what Nike say. Secondly, Vibrams are currently suing Fila for patent infringement. Has Adidas licensed these patents from Vibram or are they going in guns blazing and hoping to dig themselves out when the pooh when it hits the fan?

I've already got 3 pairs of Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) and really enjoy running in them. I also quite like the look of these new Adidas Adipures and if the planned price is anything to go by, they'll be offering a good alternative to VFFs at a comparable price. The pictures and the Gizmodo review however concern me a bit: they seem to indicate a fair bit of cushioning so I'd like to try these on before coughing up my cash.