Mizuno Precision 13

I recently discussed my current selection of #running shoes, Regaining Ground: How many pairs of shoes do you need?!

One of my biggest regrets was the demise of the +Mizuno Running Wave Elixir and that I didn't pre-order enough into +Amphibian King West to ensure I had a future supply.

The Stages of Marathon Running

I had a laugh at this, do you recognise this in your own marathon running?

:)

Follow my training blog at http://feileacanmor.blogspot.ie/

Ready to be Vanquished?

On being demoed the Zone3 wetsuit range we were really impressed in Amphibian King with the quality of the materials and the manner in which they had been designed and put together.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/rX7j0HFfEo4]

I was so impressed that I put my wetsuit from last year up for sale and ordered a Vanquish for my 2013 season and beyond. I've still got my original wetsuit which I will continue to use for training and hopefully I will get the benefits of the technically advance Vanquish when racing. (Bit like the wetsuit equivalent of having a training shoe and a racing shoe).

Features include:

• The Vanquish makes use of some of the World’s highest performance materials and combines these with a thoroughly researched panel design to ensure maximum flexibility and balanced buoyancy.


• Aerodome neoprene designed with air bubbles built between the fabric layers producing up to 30% more buoyancy than conventional neoprene. Featured on the top of the chest to help aid the essential course sighting when swimming open water and also on the thighs to help support the core leg muscles


• Buoyancy carefully balanced through the suit to ensure the optimum streamlined swimming position and maximum efficiency through the stroke.


• Stylish graphite neoprene on the arms and gold and bronze tones for an exclusive look.

 

You get a Zone3 wetsuit storage bag when you look under the suit. Perfect, ventilated bag for storing your suit between swims with a sturdy shoulder strap for carrying it around.


 

 



V-shape neck design with built-in moulding which keeps the suit in position at the sides but allows a lower and more comfortable ‘T-shirt’ fit on the front keeping the suit away from the adams-apple



Speed Channels on the chest to divert water flow and direct more water on to the legs to increase natural buoyancy and to give a boost with each leg kick.



Sensory Catch Panel: Aeroforce fabric is used on the forearms to give an improved feeling and catch in the water. Rather than a traditional rubber fabric, the Vanquish uses a double layer of high performance, water-repellent lycra fabric. This firstly reduces arm fatigue as there is not as much buoyancy resistance during the catch phases of the stroke but also allows the swimmer to improve their efficiency in the water. No water can enter the suit but you will feel the coldness of the water on the forearm panel which helps to align your hand and forearm during the stroke to give more propulsion and also a more natural feeling swim.



Designed with an ultra thin one-piece shoulder panel stretching from elbow to elbow. As soon as you put this suit on you can feel the difference! Maximum flexibility meaning you can increase your distance per stroke, conserve energy and minimize any shoulder pain.

Upwards breakaway zip design for even quicker transitions and protection from having your zip pulled down during a race.



Pro Speed Cuffs^TM on the arms and the legs for rapid removal after the swim to ensure the quickest transitions, saving you vital time on any course.

 

I've been in for a swim since I got the suit. The fit is brilliant, the quality neoprene ensures that the fit follows your body shape with no gaping and hugs you like a second skin without being constrictive. The first swim was a bit short to actually check out all the benefits of the features, however, the buoyancy was just perfect! Not too much and not too little allowing me to swim through and under breakers without having to fight the buoyancy and having enough to allow me to lift my legs high and 'body surf' back into shore.

A more in-depth review will follow as I venture more into the open water.

Stay tuned!!

Related articles

• What's a triathlon wetsuit? (amphkingwest.wordpress.com)

 

Great Limerick Run 2013

Friday afternoon and I got a phone call from my wife who was in Limerick for the afternoon.

"If you were running Limerick, would you do the half or six miler?", she asked innocently.

"Half", I replied instantly but quizzically.

"You're in for Sunday!"

Now, racing a half marathon was not on the plan for me as I'm two weeks out from my first middle distance triathlon for 2013, Tri An Mhi CXIII but sure it'd do me no harm to give it a crack.

Limerick City was hosting what was to be a great afternoon og running. There was plenty of choice from full and half marathon to 6 mile and kids events. Something for the entire family to do with plenty of action and entertainment on the streets. Amphibian King Galway sponsored a mile of the course which is how I ended up with a race entry. Normally, I would have ran a mini-competition on Facebook and Twitter for someone to win the entry, but I didn't realise we had a complimentary entry, so apologies for that!

We headed down to Limerick on Saturday afternoon as I was to be up early to recce the course and (primarily) to hang our sponsors banners on the route.

First thought was, this is not flat! Everyone I'd spoken to in the lead up to the event (customers who were planning to race) had said it was a flat course. It wasn't. There were a lot of undulations, no real hills, but plenty of up and downs and quite a few switches and turns as the route wound it's way around the city. Once the banners were out and a bit of banter on Twitter (@Amphkingwest) it was back to the hotel for some breakfast with the family before heading back out again to catch the marathon underway.

One of the Amphibian King athlete's Gary O'Hanlon was running the full marathon and was expecting to have a good race. I caught a couple of pictures of him at the 12 mile mark where he was leading

and then caught him again at 16 miles where he had opened up a decent lead over second place. He went on to win the marathon while I started to panic as I got caught in roadblocks and traffic management plans!!

Made it back to base at 11:20 to get a quick change of gear, thankfully I had it all sorted in one bag and everything was charged up that had to be charged so it was a Superman like transformation from civies into running gear. Loaded everyone back into the car and around the block to get to the starting area. Found a great parking spot near the finish line and abandoned the car, cap on, gels in pocket, kiss-kiss, "see you later", do a wee down a side street and into the starting pen with enough time to say hello to one or two familiar faces, find the pace group (1:40) and GO!!

I never remember much of a race but I remember the start being  a bit chaotic with plenty of shunting around and people jockeying for position. Loads of people jumping into the slightest of gaps as they open up which annoys me a little (big bit!) as everybody is looking for space to settle into some sort of a regular stride. You get space in front of you and some lad cuts across to jump onto the footpath, blah, blah, blah... you know yourself, I don't need to rant.

Speaking of rants.

There was an exceptionally funny moment (you should have been there) when after about 5 minutes watches started beeping all round the pacers to mark the distance. With a quick look at her watch and even quicker wit, the pacer (claralara from Boards.ie) started cursing triathletes with their "km's" and declared that the 1:40 was a "triathlete free zone".

I was running just off to the side of the group and soon settled into my stride and felt myself moving forward away from the pacers. I had set my Polar RCX5 Race Pace to a target of 1:35 but realised very quickly that I had made a mistake by using the footpod.

Brief Tech bit: with Polar the watch gives preference to different data sources under different circumstances. In the absence of sensors the pace, distance information comes from the G5 GPS pod which also provides the GPS mapping of where you have been running. When you attach a footpod (running) or speed sensor (cycling) the watch has preference for pace & distance information from the sensor and uses the G5 pod for mapping still.

In theory the sensors give more accuracy, especially on the bike, but the nature of the footpod is a little more haphazard in reality. Unless you are extremely diligent in calibrating the footpod I find it is a very approximate way of measuring distance. (Accurate in a controlled environment like a treadmill).

Anyway, it meant I couldn't rely on the pacing information the watch was giving me, it was showing me drifting way off on pace and I knew that the pacers were well behind me so I wasn't doing 5:00/km.

As it turned out I was measured over 19.7km when I know I ran every inch of the 21.1km.

I have two pet hates in racing.

1. People who cut the racing line. Just about every corner that could be cut, was cut by those running around me. Up on the footpath, around cones, you name it, it was done.


2. People who think they are pro cyclists. Just because you see pro-cyclists dumping water bottles does not mean you can fling it as far as you can over a hedge. You have obviously never cleaned up after a race and are just being a twat. Drop it with another bottle by the side of the road, if you must, but there were plenty of big, green recycling bins on the route.

I got a nice lift running back into the city when I saw Edel & the kids at the side of the road cheering enthusiastically somewhere around the halfway point. Edel was busy talking photos but is never shy about pushing me on and encouraging me to finish strong.



 

Looking at the photo, I was quite relaxed at this stage, I was running well and very steady. I was good with my nutrition, GU gel before and at 8km and plenty of water along the way (bottles too big actually, the baby water botttles are ideal and there is less waste). I was tipping away with my HR hovering in the zone 155-160 which is my tempo zone and I also had the confidence to forget about the pacing on the watch and trust the feel in my legs.

Not going hard enough for 1:35 but knew I was going better than 1:40.

We went out of the city across the bridge to a more residential part of the city (no idea where) and we did a lot of looping back and forth passing Thomond Park at one stage. I went for a 2nd Surge gel at 12k (preemptive strike) as I knew I would start fighting myself pushing on to the finish. The 100mg of caffeine would keep me from daydreaming which I find is my curse, head drifts away and I slow down.

Somewhere around the Tennis Club, TI coach Lynne Algar caught and passed me with her sister. Both had been at the Open Water clinic on Saturday and were running really well. In fact they caught me just around the time I was finding excuses for easing off, 'not going to make my target, why push on', 'my knee is aching' etc. etc. and it woke me up. I'd been picking people off all the way round. No one had passed me that I didn't catch up with and pass and leave behind again. This was the first time in the race this had happened.

Feck!

I ran off to the side for a couple of km but they were on a mission. I didn't so much drop off them as they just pushed on ahead. I was trying to make sense of the road markings which by now had merged with full, half and 6 mile markings.

The finish came up fast. I passed a couple of Craughwell AC shirts as I came off the NCR onto the bridge, I'm sorry I just ran by, and hauled ass over to the final bend turning right to see the finish banner 200m up the road.

Sprinting in for the line I could see 1:37 on the clock and knew I'd nailed it!!. Finishing 1:37:39 overall gave me a 2min improvement on my half PB.

Happy days!

You can see the Polar file here, just ignore the km markings. Thanks for reading.

https://www.polarpersonaltrainer.com/shared/exercise.ftl?shareTag=997916c6fd53a7b5225699e8ed277a35

Related articles

• O'Hanlon reigns in Limerick (talkofthetown.ie)

RoadID - Affiliate program helping Croi Galway

Following from my previous post on Training ICE in which I stressed the importance of carrying identification with you at all times when training or racing, just in case of accident or medical emergency.

By far the simplest means of carrying identification, contact numbers and or medical history is by using the RoadID range of products. Personally, I have been wearing the WristID for the past couple of years and thankfully it is one of those products I have not had to use but still wear it daily. It's actually a habit now and I don't notice it, it's just like a watch and I rarely take the WristID off.

Due to the feedback and the number of queries I've received about the RoadID products (across LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & here) I contacted the company to ask for some information.

RoadID have set Amphibian King Galway up as an Affiliate so that we can refer and direct interested people to the RoadID website.

If you are interested in buying a RoadID for yourself, your husband or wife, your father or mother, son, daughter, friend or training partner we would greatly appreciate if you would buy through our link (or the logo above)

We will earn a commission cheque for purchases made through this link. However, all commission cheques will be made out to Croi our charity partners for 2013.

So by doing something that may save your life you are also giving to help save someone else.

Thankyou & be safe out there.

Run Smooth

Which of these runners 'runs right'?

I know its a cliche, but lately I've been thinking and its worrying.

Every day that we use video playback in +Amphibian King Galway to provide a medium for helping people choose the running footwear best suited for them. The most common question is 'do I run right?'



Now how do you answer this?

Like footwear there are so many factors that are involved, and how do you decide what is 'running right'?

There's the school of thought, run barefoot, it will fix you and make you a better runner. I agree, yes and no.There are people who have fantastic barefoot running form, yet as soon as you put them in shoes they forget all of that and run stupid. 

By 'run stupid' I mean, they switch their brain off, they run and allow the shoe to insulate their foot and deaden all the nice feedback and kill off decent form. So yes, barefoot running is good for them. 

Then there's the majority of us who don't run sweetly, bit of a stomper and untidy barefoot form, in the main shoes are good for them, but also a bit of barefoot or minimal work to help remap muscles and improve form.

I've a couple of previous posts on this area of discussion: What's in a name?

The bit that worrys me and an area I would do research into if I had a these to do for college is what defines 'running right' ?

The common perception is that you should land on your mid to fore foot, allow the heel to drop, charging the calf muscles with that impact force, the muscles turn this impact force into elastic potential energy which as you body weight moves over the centre of gravity becomes kinetic energy levering you just as your foot locks into a rigid structure propelling you forwards.

All this to be done at 90 strides per minute.

The problem I have with this is there is no variability taken into account for height, weight, fitness, mechanical deficiences or anything that marks us out as individual.

In fact it reminds me of the 'one style fits all' coaching that we used to get swimming Total Immersion. 

I think running form should be considered more along the lines of Swim Smooth where rough categories are defined based on common characteristics in swimming style and instead of saying 'this is the way all of you must swim' they look at the individual characteristics of the styles and work with those.

What I mean is there is no point taking a 5 minute mile runner whose running form makes them look like they've been shot or something, doing loads of coaching to make them this graceful forefoot striker with perfect poise and balance who clocks 5:10 miles.

Is there?

Ideally you would look at this individual and work a couple of form tweaks to help them become more efficient so they can run 5 minute miles for longer or to help clock a 4:55 mile. 

Its not about making a beautiful runner out of someone, its about running beautifully and efficiently within your body's capabilities and recognising the difference. 

P.S. the 'ugly' runner on the right is Priscah Jeptoo who won +Virgin London Marathon today in 2:20:13 

New shoes for the New Year

Mizuno Wave Inspire 9

I've been wearing in my new season shoes for the past couple of weeks. It's an easy decision for me, I just go with the +Mizuno Running Wave Inspire that I've been wearing for the past number of years.

Now its the Wave Inspire 9 that I'm wearing. (Naturally picked up in +Amphibian King Galway but also available in Amphibian King Bray & Ballymount )

The first thing I noticed about these is that the upper (the bit around your foot) is much more comfortable relative to the Inspire 8. Not to say the 8's were uncomfortable, it's just these are significantly more 'plush'. There is far less stitching in the toes box area, there are eyelets which have been moved resulting in a better 'wrap' around the bridge of the foot; you just feel more secure in them and they fit like a slipper.

The chief shoe updates are:
Softer heel counter - replacement of VS-1 with SR Touch foam gives a softer initial impact on the heel. To me this means a much more gentle landing and swift transition to the midfoot position.
Upper changes - thinner overlays and mesh results in a lighter, more flexible, more breathable upper.
Weight - reduced by 22 grams. It all helps! :)  

First run is coming up in them as I rotate them in with my Inspire 8 which will be kept going for another few runs.