Once Inspired

The 25^th Clanwilliam Fitness Festival has come and gone and Grant (Fatty) Fillmore is now 30. It was slightly cooler than past years but the racing was as hot ever. A cool breeze kept the mornings on the chilly side, warming up slightly as the day went on, but the clouds were really making a huge effort at keeping the sunshine at bay. The water temperature was also 2 to a few degrees colder.

As always, the days racing kicked off with the long swims. I participated in the 1.5km swim finishing as the 2^nd open male. Phil Emslie claimed the 3km swim by miles, dry and dozing as second place crossed the line.

For those of you who don’t know, running is not my strong point, even though I used to win just about every race I entered at school up until I was about 15. What happened after that? Shoulders and chest happened. Anyway, I am wanting to run like used to so I am paying quite a lot of attention on my running. I came across this video and thought it was pretty good. I find this to be working well for me. Just replace the Brookes he speaks of with the Saucony Kinvara.

When people ask me what the name of my blog is and I tell them “Once Inspired”, they usually comment and say something along the lines of “Only once but never again?” What they clearly don’t realize is that Once Inspired is actually a “complete this sentence” phrase.

Racing at world champs was an unparalleled experience. Beijing is a beautiful (and massive) place. The race venue was the same as the 2008 Olympic Games. The privilege of running down the blue mat and finishing under the Dextro Energy Triathlon, ITU World Championship, Beijing banner was probably the pinnacle moment.

On the Finish Line

Ready to go for world triathlon champs in Beijing my preparation has been good. There are areas where I could have worked more, but being an age group racer with a full time job, it is difficult.

As lucky as I am to be in a position to be able to afford some of the best equipment and have more time than most, there is a very good reason why there is such a huge gap between the pros and the rest. Pros get time to train, time to rest and time to eat properly.  Not to mention being sponsored the majority of equipment required.

Below is the extended weather forecast from one of the best websites around; http://www.timeanddate.com. You can also see solar and lunar height, distance and angle.

	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon
	30 Aug	31 Aug	1 Sep	2 Sep	3 Sep	4 Sep	5 Sep
Weather:
Description:	Partly cloudy. Warm.	Tstorms late. A mixture of sun and clouds. Warm.	Showers early. Decreasing cloudiness. Mild.	Morning clouds. Warm.	Showers late. Afternoon clouds. Mild.	Heavy rain. Breaks of sun late. Cool.	Scattered showers. Mostly cloudy. Cool.
High temperature:	31 °C	33 °C	24 °C	30 °C	25 °C	21 °C	22 °C
Low temperature:	18 °C	20 °C	19 °C	15 °C	16 °C	19 °C	17 °C

Runners are generally known to have stiff feet, hence their inability to swim (You can read more about foot flexibility and swimming here).

I used to run in full on motion control Adidas throughout school, until I eventually developed chronic compartment syndrome. I them had the operation, known as a bilateral subcutaneous fasciotomy which releases the overdeveloped muscles by cutting the fascia/sheath which encases them. Part of the reason for this is a muscle imbalance due to the raised heel on the common running shoe most of us know. Since my operation I have run in shoes with nothing more than a 4mm heel-forefoot drop; the Saucony racing flats and more recently the Saucony Kinvara.

The Development of Engineered Running

The Saucony Hattori is Saucony’s answer to the Vibram 5 Fingers. The Hattori is a super lightweight “barefoot” running shoe. I have just received a pair and will be reviewing these in the next week or so. Until then please enjoy the video.

Most would think I’d be talking about swim, bike and run. There are another three words which I find useful for daily life.

As time goes by most people don’t even realise how caught up they are in their daily rituals, which they themselves have become.  Stuck in a rut, the comfort zone, you name it, we have all been there and most of us are more than likely in that space right now. Indeed it is a safe place to be when work has got you down. Your daily routine may only differ as your fridge empties out.

Xtenex (indeXed-TENsioning-nEXus) is a worldwide patented elastic lace technology that produces adjustable tensioning between shoe eyelets. Xtenex laces have an elastic core and a series of knots along the entire length of the lace at consistent length intervals. Stretch the lace and the knots disappear, allowing you to thread the lace through the eyelets. Release the tension and the knots reappear. More knots between eyelets lessens the tension; fewer knots between eyelets increases tension.

Currently, most laces are not able to provide variable tension as laces are tied by creating a knot at the top end of a shoe. The problem with this way of lacing is that all of the tension sits around the ankle area and that results in a restriction of blood flow and circulation. The problem is compounded by people creating a double knot so as to avoid their laces coming undone.

After a horrid run at South African National Triathlon Champs I was lucky to make it into the SA team and represent my country in Beijing, China for the World Triathlon Championships. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to represent my country at an international event and now I have the opportunity of doing just that.