A Passion for Running

Right now, Aaron and I are running together on Mondays and Thursdays. On the latter days, we videotape one another so we can then analyze the progress we’re making (or not making!).

Last night the videotape said good things. Each of us did a half-dozen fly-by’s and found no major problems. Most everything looked pretty good and the bonus is that we’re looking more and more relaxed while POSE running. Speaking for myself, I certainly feel more relaxed.

Of course, there is much room for improvement (probably always will be) but the basics are clearly there.

Our endurance running in POSE is also getting better. Right now I can get about a mile before I have to stop and collect myself. That might not seem like much but keep in mind when I started POSEing I was huffing and puffing after only 50 meters! That’s because my hamstrings had zero experience being the primary muscles used for running and the skill itself was entirely new. A lot of neuromuscular pathways were/are being altered!

Have I mentioned I’m considering myself a born-again runner?

I had a really interesting conversation the other day with Adeel over at And with your help, I’ll get that chicken. He had lots of interesting questions and comments about the POSE and about the shoes I’m now running in. Those being the Puma H-Streets. Adeel was surprised I was running in such a lighweight (5 ounce), minimalist shoe but what I like about running in the H-Street is that it really does facilitate POSE running plus it alerts me when I’m falling out of form because when I do, I immediately feel the pounding. Each time I fall out of form and feel that pounding, I remember my old running form and have an instant “I’m never doing that again” thought.

Change only comes when you want it to come.

Anyway, two miles plus the video fly-by’s made yesterday a good day.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Marie threw this to me a few weeks ago and I’m finally doing something with it. Crap, this exercise sure did bring home the realization I do far too little reading. Actually, that’s not quite accurate. I do lots and lots of reading. Lots of business reading at work and lots of web reading at home. What I don’t do much of is book/novel reading! Garsh, I remember a time when you couldn’t tear my eyes away from a novel – even during dinner. Things sure have changed. Anyhoo…

You are stuck inside Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by 19th century german philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. That guy was really bent but in a way that makes my mind like being bent. I read this book a LONG time ago while in University and found Nietzsche to be fascinating. Plus, I think his stuff would not go over well in the world of Fahrenheit 451. Philosopher’s never do well in police states.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Fictional means “not-real” right? So, does that mean Pamela Anderson counts? No? Well, then the answer is “no”. Sheesh. Tough room.

The last book you bought is?
Sorry Marie, The Pose Method of Running by Dr. Nicholas Romanov. What can I say? It’s changing my life.

The last book you read was?
Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle. It is sort of a non-bookish book. Kind of a collection of thoughts or meditations. It’s a very tiny little book with lots of deep thoughts. I really liked it and often go back to it just to get my mind onto a new track.

What are you currently reading?
It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong. Powerful, raw, inspiring stuff. Honestly.

Five books you would take to a deserted island?
1. The Bible (I’m copying Marie on this one). I’m not what you’d call a really strong Christian, but I do think the Bible has some great teachings. Plus, opening it is like opening a box of chocolate – you never know what yer gonna git.
2. This stick thing started with Ray Bradbury – an author I love so I’m thinking about his Martain Chronicles. Classic sci-fi.
3. Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution because I’d need something to start a fire with.
4. Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. Because I love that movie and I wonder if the rumour is true that the book is inferior.
5. Either of Stephen Hawking’s Universe: The Cosmos Explained or A Brief History of Time because with all that time on my hands, I might actually be able to concentrate long enough to understand physics for the first time in my life!

So, there’s my answer. Hey Marie, thanks for helping me discover yet another of my inadequencies!

I guess I am supposed to pass on this stick, so I?m throwing it to: Jeff. I can’t wait to hear his picks. Should be some very positive stuff! I think I’ll also throw this to Bev because I know how much she loves lists. Knock yourself out Bev!

…ahh heck, I think I’ll throw this to one more person – Pam because I owe her one for calling me a “girl” the other day.

I took this from Jon, who I always thought of as a real blogger because he?s kinda famous and lives in Michigan.

Five Things My Friends Like That I Really Couldn?t Care Less About:

#1 A nice, clean car. I’m in agreement with Jon on this one. I really couldn’t give two hoots what kind of vehicle I drive or if it’s clean. Ok, ok it shouldn’t STINK on the inside (don’t say a word Aaron) but, other than that one qualifier, all I care about is that it gets me from point A to B and that it has a good heater for winters.

#2 Along the same lines as #1: Clean, untattered underwear. Really, what’s the big deal? Wear ‘em until they rot off and then steal a pair from your brother/friend’s hamper and wear those till they’re done too.

#3 Living in a warm, inviting climate. Come on. Why the HELL would any Canadian (except those wusses on Victoria Island) live in Canada if they based their happiness on being warm?

#4 Perogies. Kimberly Choma is the chick who just got the boot from The Bachelor. She’s from Edmonton and she made it look like all Canadians are of Ukrainian descent and that we like perogies. Not me. Give me a pizza and a beer any day and I’m a happy camper. Side note: Kimberly is not representative of the intelligence of most Canadians. By and large, we are substantially disadvantaged in comparison to Kimberly (ouch!). See #3 above for a clue as to why this statement is obviously true. PS My wife and her family know Kimberly and her family.

#5 Lacey and Scott Peterson, O.J. Simpson, every other high-profile media circus criminal court case, and the whole news industry in general. I know people who obsess over the news and who read every newspaper, check the net, watch the news on TV and on the radio on the way to work. I have absolutely NO interest in the news. HONEST. I find it far too depressing and voyeuristic (how ironic is that coming from someone who is constantly reading blogs?). I find todays’ news to be all about getting an emotional, panic response going in society. It is, more often than not, very lean on fact and high on rumour. I HATE the news and often find myself saying stuff like, “the Pope died?” or “There was an election?”. I am NOT exaggerating.

So that’s my list. Who’s next?

Ahhh. I feel much better. It is always amazing how a little run will set things straight…

Today I tried to emulate what Aaron did yesterday – that being a two mile continous run while staying in POSE form.

I was not as successful as my fine-feathered Irish friend but the run was not without positives.

I ran twenty minutes – 10 minutes out and 10 minutes back. I’m not sure how far I went but my guess is it is a bit better than two miles. However, I was not able to run the whole way without losing form. I stopped to collect myself after seven minutes of running. After 30 seconds, I continued on for another three minutes or so and then stopped again.

So, not great but I’m not unhappy about the run since seven minutes is five minutes longer in form than I’ve run before. I’m also happy because I had virtually no calf tension today so that tells me I am learning to relax while in the POSE and that I am not pushing off or doing any of what Dr. Romanov calls active landing so yay for me.

My last thought on today’s run. Here’s your brain:

and here’s your brain on the POSE:

pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull pull…

Having only one thought to concentrate on is a very good thing for people like me.

Your hugs were a lovely way to start the day. I really really appreciate them because they made me feel the exact opposite of how I felt yesterday.

THANK YOU

I didn’t get much sleep last night and slept in so did not bike to work. Dang it anyways.

However, I AM going to go for a run at lunch and I have a goal: To match the awesome run Aaron had yesterday.

I can’t wait.

———————–
For those of you who want to see the spoof that was placed on my site, go here.

Did a 1000 meter swim followed by a 20km ride on the bike on Saturday. That was a wake up call. Hello Mark, you have a TRIATHLON to to in almost exactly one month!

If it was two events, I’d have it licked. I mean, I sure wouldn’t be any kind of speed-monster but I’d get the job done. However, you add that run on at the END, and you have yourself some kind of challenge – especially since I’d like to run that while maintaining POSE form.

One month to get things right. ’nuff said.

Took the kids to the park twice on Saturday and then Sunday was all about relaxing on the deck with the BBQ, some beers and a good friend. It’s all good.

And then today all hell broke loose. Long story short is that www.dayhome.ca (wifey’s site) security was SEVERELY compromised. Some SOB managed to hack the site and use it to put a spoof of a major Canadian bank ’s website on there. Then they sent hundreds (thousands?) of emails out to people with a link to MY site where they were to verify their banking information. The spoof site was harvesting the information and sending it to the scammer where he will do god-knows-what with it. I spent MOST of the day on the phone with bank security experts and with my domain host. I THINK we have things nailed down now but I’m afraid to be confident for fear of jinxing things. It was an awful experience and I feel awful thinking that some people may suffer financially because of something I look after.

Because of all that crap and to top things off, I missed my run with Aaron (insert twelve choice swear words here).

Ugh…I could use a hug. And “yeah” I’ll even take ‘em from you fellas.

I hate SPAMMERS so much. I’m pretty sure I hate them more than Jon hates his neighbor’s dogs and believe me, that’s saying something.

You’ve all gotten email spam so I don’t have to tell you how irritating that stuff is but when you manage a domain like Aaron and I do, the whole spam thing elevates to a whole other realm.

I remember in our first month, completerunning was suddenly one day deluged with hundreds upon hundreds of email rejection notices. Apparently, some SOB spammer had forged their garbage advertisements under fake completerunning email addresses. Being new at the whole thing, we had no idea what do to so we read up and found out there isn’t much one CAN do. Argh. So, we ended up shutting down our email addresses for a week or two until it passed.

But the damage had been done. That’s because when spammers forge multiple emails from your domain, a rather unfortunate and completely understandable thing happens – half the internet thinks YOUR domain is a spammer and you end up on spam filtering lists. Double argh.

Fast forward a month or so and we discover blogs. Yay! Well, “yay” for a while because shortly after we discovered blogs, the spammers discovered our blogs and we got to learn about comment spam. Comment spam is, IMHO, way worse than email spam. It never ever ends. These jerks are constantly knocking at the door trying to find a way in to leave their garbage in your house. I could just scream thinking about the war I’ve waged against them. To give you an idea, the completerunning domain has been visited over 57,000 times SO FAR in April. That’s right, over fifty seven thousand times, spammers have tried and been denied access. How is that possible you ask? Well basically, they park their spambots at the entrance and they knock and knock and knock at the door and under the door, they turn the knob, they try to pick the lock and remove the hinges. They do this over and over and over and over…they NEVER stop. And every once in a while, they manage to sneak a few past your defenses so you gotta figure out how they did that and plug the hole. grrrr…

When WordPress 1.5 came out, things got better – much better because WP 1.5 has some great spam management tools built right in. Things also got better because I learned some other tricks to protect the entire domain all at once rather than one blog at a time.

The lastest attacks are on the other domains I manage. Those being Lori’s dayhome.ca domain and my own personal iocchelli.com domain.

So what’s happening over there? In a word, more of the same. I’ve had to implement anti-comment spam measures and just the other day those f’in bastiches once again deluged the internet with spam email this time by forging iocchelli.com email addresses. *sigh*

Why can’t the world beat this stuff?

Sorry, I just needed to vent a bit. Anybody got some advice or a nice, dry Martini they’d like to share?

Hokey smokes, the good doctor that sits beside me at work lent me this book and I must say it really rocks!

I am only two chapters into it but am very definitely hooked already. Some very compelling reading here folks. I was always impressed with Lance Armstrong but I am already even more impressed now. This book is raw and wastes no time cutting to the chase. Good stuff.

I will answer for myself first: Not very good I’m afraid.

Let me explain. Before I went to the POSE clinic I knew I was a heel striker but it turns out I really had no idea how bad a heel striker I was. The truth made itself painfully apparent when we did our first session of video analysis with Dr. Romanov…

In my old style of running, my feet reached way the hell out in front of my body so, really, my heels had very little choice but to strike first. The simple physics of the matter is that the further ahead you reach, the worse you heel strike. Put the vision in your mind. Makes sense right?

So, now I am back to perception. In 13 years of running, it never, ever felt like I was reaching that far forward with my feet.

A big part of the clinic was learning to percieve correctly where my feet were landing. We did drill after drill after drill. We even did a couple of drills involving surgical tubing. The purpose of the tubing being to restrict our feet from pushing ahead and landing ahead of our bodies.

And let me tell you, it felt WEIRD. Really weird. And it still feels weird. Less weird with every day I practice but still…

So, here’s a little test for you. Go for a run. Once settled into a good rhythym, look down at your feet. Can you see them? How MUCH of them can you see?

Guess what? If you are seeing anything more your toes, you are probably landing too far ahead.

Try the same test running faster and faster and faster. What happens? Do you see more and more of your feet? Yeah? Naughty naughty!

Next, try landing right under your center of mass. You can find your center of mass by imagining a line that goes from your shoulders, through your pelvis and straight to the ground.

Try this stuff and let me know what you discover!

——————
Unrelated Topic: During our clinic, Dr. Romanov mentioned a few famous runners he thought did perfect/near perfect POSE style running. Guess who one of those runners was? Emil Zatopek – the guy in my header! I know you may not see it, but he really IS running POSE style – especially in the center and left photos in my header. Yet another synchronicity. I love that word.

My good friend Corinne (I’ll post a pic later) just returned from running her first Boston Marathon. She got there by posting a very respectable 3:38 qualifying time. I just got an email from her which I’m posting with her permission. I want you to pay special attention to the transition between two paragraphs which I’ve split with six asterisks (******). Too funny!

Hello Everyone!!!

No, you are not seeing things I am actually back in the office today!!! Sorry about the delay in sending you a quick update – I literally got back and was thrown into meetings all morning.

Well, Boston (the city) was amazing – what a beautiful city and Brent and I will have to return one day just to do some sight seeing because that didn’t get accomplished on this trip! Ha.

The marathon – in one word??amazing/unbelieveable/surreal/breathtaking/gruelling?.OK, so maybe more than one word. As I have been saying it was the most amazing worst marathon I ever ran (worst from a completion time standpoint and from a physical standpoint). Coming towards that finish line on Boylston street was absolutely breathtaking and I bald like a baby the whole way into the finish line. I literally had to catch my breath because the sight of that finish line and the sounds of that crowd cheering was absolutely overwhelming. The whole course was very overwhelming emotionally as the crowds were just CRAZY!!! The course did however, chew me up and spit me out. I wasn’t prepared for the level of difficulty that it truly puts out. Not only are there crazy hills later in the race but the whole darn thing is very up and down and by mile 12 my legs were toast. The heat didn’t help either (it was over 70 degrees Fahrenheit which I think puts it somewhere around 22 degrees C). The marathon is run at NOON. I was pouring sweat just waiting to make my way to the starting line. I ended up with severe dehydration/heat stroke – I puked my guts out when I finished the race. I’m still not fully recovered but am slowly feeling better.
******
Would highly recommend it to everyone!!! Nothing is impossible!!! PS. The thing that hurts the most is the 2nd degree sunburn on my legs – not the muscle fatigue. Go figure I was smart enough to put suntan lotion on my arms but not on my legs – good grief!!! Will I do it again – let’s save that answer for a few months from now. Of course, I’m too competitive to let my 4:04hr finishing time stand, but it may have to wait 5 – 7 years!!!

I cannot say thank you enough to each and every one of you for all the well wishes and support!!! I truly felt you cheering every time I step over one of the check points along the route. I only wished the email messages would have also said?..”Girls just want to have fun!!”?.because I absolutely did accomplish that.

Cheers!

———————-
Me again: So, when you read the previous couple of sentences, do you believe her “would highly recommend it to everyone!!!” line?

Congratulations Corinne. You done good!