Hi Everyone

Yesterday my B2R Trail shoes arrived along with a pair for my wife and a pair of the road shoes for my running partner Jeff. All in all it took 3 weeks for them to arrive which is very good given the distance they had to travel and having to clear customs before being delivered. As Jeff is also the local Post Master we opened our shoe boxes in the post office like kids at Christmas with new bikes. Jeff even took his shoes and socks off then and there trying them on in the post office. After admiring and weighing them (and getting a few funny looks), as we both could'nt believe how light they are, we arranged to meet later in the afternoon at the local oval to take them for a spin. 

 When I arrived home I took the photo that you are looking at now and sent it to my sister in Adelaide who I have given "The Cool Impossible" to as a gift. Her Message back was "OMG! Very different, once you've transitioned, the others will feel so odd" and then I messaged to her that's exactly the point and what is supposed to happen. To realize how weak our feet and legs are, how lack of muscle equilibrium holds us back and how through the philosophy's explained in the TCI can truly open the door to our own Cool Impossible.

Now I know that Eric suggests that one transitions into these puppies but I just had to go for a run on the road in them. I don't think anything could have stopped me, Iike I said, I was like a kid at Christmas with a new bike. So I ran the 4km or so to the local oval where I completed phase #1, day 1, of week 5 of the Strategic Running Foundation. As I ran to the oval I felt, I think for the first time, every muscle in my foot and leg and though uncomfortable it was'nt so bad that I had to stop. I didn't find the Zero Drop an issue and liked the way you naturally run with better form, however they do at the same time illustrate exactly how weak your feet are.

On the road the feeling in my feet and legs was similar to what I experience when I do the slant board excercises but not as intense and when I arrived at the oval running on grass cushioned my feet and they felt great to run in.

After finishing our session I was driven home and shortly thereafter my calves began to ache and I thought I would be very sore today, however to my supprise they weren't sore at all just a little stiff. However, not wanting to push my luck, I didn't run in them today and will leave running in them again until Thursday.

Jeff has also reported that his calves are fine after his first run in the road shoes on grass.

Thank you Eric for all the hard work putting these together and making them available to everyone, there a great shoe.

I found this on my home page today. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2595067/Jogging-actually-BAD-Too-running-increases-risk-early-death.html

The artical above tries to make the case that running can lead to an early death and to me the artical has alot words, a huge headline but says nothing just to get eye balls on their page. I suppose you could run yourself to death in the same way you could eat yourself to death or drink yourself to death or work yourself to death. It's just sensationalist crap which is, in my opinion, dangerous because it might stop someone who is over weight starting to excersise, or move or even, heaven forbid, discover the joys of running. While at the same time it's just more justification for those that are looking for an excuse not to excersise or be active not to.

There has to be a balance people, what we are increasingly seeing is the media using anything at their disposal to attract us to their website, webpage, blog, facebook page and so on, so that they can sell us something. Yes I know news papers have been doing this ever since the printing press was first employed but it use to be your choice to buy the paper or magazine and therefore be exposed to advertising. Today it's not, we are exposed whether we want to or not because the system requires us to pay our bills, book our appointments, seek answers and communicate via the net where all this crap lurks.

And as this artical so clearly demonstrates, sometimes the race for the consumer's dollar puts aside common sense, the broader public interest and the truth.

Now I know that many of you already know and enbrace this, so please humour me.

It's not that I have been completely oblivious to the relationships between Heart Rate, Fatigue, Form, Foot and Leg Strength, Proformance, Mindset, Muscle Soreness etc but until I read The Cool Impossible and started the 15 Week Foundation Program as described in The Cool Impossible these linkages were not front and centre in my mind. They were there, a shadow, a knowing but not really important, it was the distance you ran and time it took that were front and centre, these were the foundation stones of a good runner, or so I thought. 

Enhancing my new self awareness has been the use of a heart rate monitor, which I have never used before. I had never even considered useing one until I read the TCI and it's been a revelation to me, helping distill the methodology behind Eric's training program's. Using a heart rate monitor has, in real time, allowed me to track how my heart rate and performance is affected and influenced by fatigue, form, mindset, awareness and the like. How the relationships between each of these element's changes when we add in, subtract out or otherwise changing what we do and/or how we do it. (as I know most of you already know) 

This new found awareness has started me really thinking about how everything we do, as Eric describes and explains in TCI, influences and acts upon the other elements within both our running lives and our lives in general. How every piece of the puzzle fits together to make the whole and how the whole is affected and acted upon by each of it's parts and how the sum of our parts is greater than the individual parts. How strength influences form, how form influences fatigue, which influences heart rate, which influences breathing, which influences performance. Then throw in  breathing patterns, nutrition, rest, midset, environment and you have a complex, multy faceted equation that is both complex but so simple all at the same time.

I've come to truely realize that it is a complete circle, with all things acting upon and being acted upon. To me, all these elements working in harmony reflexts the beautiful symmetry that is human movement and reinforces how we are all truely Born To Run.

 P = T.+ N. + R. + M.   or  Performance =  Training + Nutrition + Rest + Mindset

           F. + T.R + N.                                   Fatigue + Training Restrictions + Negitivity

Thank You very much for humouring me.

Hi Eric and everyone

last night I begun the 15 week foundation program using my test results and something curious happened I found it very hard to keep my heart rate in zone 2 it kept creeping up into 3 and 4. As my run progressed it became harder and harder to get may heart rate down after each 15-20" of moderately fast running. The only way I could get it down was to walk for 30-40" then resume running again. Does this mean my test results were wrong or dose this happen? After running for 20' as quickly as I could my average HR was 163 so my training runs will all be based upon this figure.

When this happens is it ok to walk to lower my HR or do I continue to run ensuring I keep my HR as low as possible?

The only thing I can think of is I am currently in Alice Springs which is almost the geographic centre of Australia and though I ran in the evening it was still about 34C and a bit humid. After my warm up, I ran for 35' increasing my speed for 15-20" every 5' then my cool down was walking for about 10' back to where we are staying.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank's

ALICE SPRINGS in the Northern Territory 1,520 km North of Adelaide & 2,257 km North West of Melbourne

On Saturday I was doing some work up at my son's primary school which involved driving metal wedges, known as "wizards" into the ground to support pole mounted signage. So as to drive the "wizards" into very dry and hard ground with the full face of the sledge hammer I had to squat and swing the sledge hammer.

If you can picture me bent at the knees, my butt approaching being parallel to the ground while leaning slightly forward to keep my balance and swinging a sledge hammer. Now the reason for the contortion is so you can drive the wizard as far as you can into the ground using the full face of the sledge hammer. If you don't do this the wizard will not drive into the groung square and it takes far longer to achieve. The idea is to have the top of the wizard as close to ground level as possible when you are finished. I did this for approaching 3/4 of an hour as the wooden block being used on top of the wizards whould either slip off with the impact of the sledge hammer or split.

Upon finishing this and completing a couple of other quick chores I did not notice any great discomfort or stiffness in my Glutes. The next day I did not run as I usually would in the morning as we were out late Saturday night and I had breakfast with my Mum. This resulted in me not running until about 3.00pm that afternoon doing 10km in just under 60 min. It was an easy run with a couple of hills on a beautiful day with me taking a few photo's along the way as I ran. However immediately after my cool down walk my Glutes and Hamstrings started to seize up making walking, sitting ...... moving difficult. They stayed like that until after I went to bed and at one stage almost cramping when I got up from sitting.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out why I was so stiff and tight and then it dawned on me, the work I had performed the day before. So I tried to emulate the squatting position I had used the day before and I could hardly bend at the knees let alone get anywhere near as low as I had done just 24 hours previously. Now I know there is always room for improvement and I'm far from perfect but I had no idea my Glutes were so weak. Its been a great lesson learn, driving home what Eric subscribes to pertaining to proper strength and form with the need to excersise all these muscles so that our bodies work as one. Athleticism = Awareness

In this case being aware of my weaknesses and many short comings!!!! Onward and Upward.

This afternoon my 9 year old son had a chiropractor appointment and as we walked into his rooms Aaron (our chiropractor) asked my son "so what have you been up to" in his usual caring and engaging manner. With that my son rolls of all that he's been up to and says at the very end "and Mum & Dad's been getting me to do the wobble, - er slant board. Now Aaron knows what my son meant as I have in the past spoken to him about it. "Thats great" he says as my son hops onto his table.

Then as Aaron was gently adjusting my son, Aaron and I were talking about the Cool Impossible as I have just given him a copy as a gift with him having read my copy of Born To Run mid last year. Aaron thanked me for the book and apologised that he hadn't started it with me telling him knowing how he like Born To Run, once he starts it he won't be able to put it down. Durning the insuing conversation I spoke to Eric's belief in starting from the ground up and how foot strength along with glute, hip flexor, calf, quad, in fact the whole leg and core must be working together to support and balance you as you run.

Aaron then said, "use it or loose it, given our increasingly sedentary life style if we don't use our complete system the brain starts to shut down and loose the neural pathways used in the correct firing of all the leg, glute, stomach and stabilization muscles. It's call "Pruning", the brain starts to prune those parthways that are not being used. He explained when children begin to walk as they are so unstable they use every muscle they have in an attempt to stay ballanced and so firing and developing all of the neural pathways required to stand, sit, walk and run properly. As Christopher McDougall writes in Born To Run, watch a child run, how correct, how easy and how free they are, yes I know, that you know, I'm paraphrasing, because the neural pathways are all open, connected and firing.

Hi everyone, as I'm sure you know, news travels fast its been very hot here and we again have bush fires (wild fires), there are some 40 burning around the state of Victoria. We are fine the closest to us is about 30km away. in the artical I have posted it talks about Black Saturday. the 5th anniversary of Black Saturday was on Friday just past (7th) and on that day 183 people lost their lives, stock losses were too large to count and 4,500 homes and business were lost. Our town was surrounded by fire it comming as close as the neighbours fences, but we were ok. We have several freinds that lost their houses, lost everything, I have a freind who is a volunteer fire fighter and while he was out fighting fires, helping others he lost his home, cars, everything except for the uniform on this back. His wife and kids were at a near by pool swimming and only had their bathers. 

And now we have fire again, lets prey not anything like 5 years ago.

Vic%20fires%20worst%20since%20Black%20Saturday.eml

Scott%20Jurek.jpg

Last year I read Scott Jurek's book "Eat & Run" and not only is his personal story so compelling, his running achievements beyond belief, his research and knowledge of nutrition and how to apply it not only to fueling his running but to living a healthy life was, to me, spell binding. As an example he takes the trouble to make his own rice milk so he knows what is exactly in it and so he has a constant supply.

He is constantly searching for and seeking out knowledge pertaining to nutrition and how to apply it to his running and his everyday life. He explores and is open to his deepest emotions and thoughts showing what can be achieved when an open heart and mind is married with an iron will.

Everybody including his family were skeptical even hostile to his vegan diet and his search for simplicity in his running and in his life but he persists, not with out some doubt and question, for he knew it's right for him.

At the end of each chapter he shares his recipies and how to prepare them which makes this book unique in my experience. I learn't alot from this book realizing some of my ideas and reasoning about nutrition were completely wrong. After reading the book I too wanted more knowledge and this led me to Chris McDougall's "Born To Run" which led me to Eric's book "The Cool Impossible" and now to The Cool Impossible Community.

Other great books Ive read, if your interested are; "Run Like Crazy" by Tristian Miller, "Running To Extremes" by Lisa Tamati and Dean Karnazes "50 Marathons in 50 Days".

Watching evening TV for the first time in a long while, I was struck by the plethora of junk food adds and the number of diet plans, diet companies & prepackaged, home delivered food outlets that grace our screens. All purporting to be convenient, healthy, cost effective and life changing. As a society we have never been more educated or had greater access to information pertaining to our health and well being, yet everyday we see parents taking kids of all ages to fast food restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner. People of all ages undertake an immeasurable number of fad diets that never seem to work. Are we so lazy that we don't care, always seeking the easy way out or could it be we are so time poor all we can manage is to drive a few km (not walk) to the nearest burger joint, or have someone deliver it to us. Surely the saturation advertising these companies employ isn't working, we all know how these industries work so surely we can resist or at the very least know what we are getting ourselves into. But no, well educated people still want the quick fix and don't seem to know the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods and are still unaware that we have to excercise. Or is it that they can't be bothered to take responcibility for themselves as we increasingly live in a world of entitlement, I hear you say .

Then there is the diet industry, it's size and reach is staggering on top of what I have mentioned above there are TV programs that make entertainment out of overweight people trying to loose weight. These programs are sponsered and funded by the very same industries that produce unhealthy food if over consumed and the diet industry. Then the winners of these programs are the ones that can loose weight the fastest and if you don't or can't, you loose, kicked off and left to your own devises, no support, no follow up, but hey the raitings were great!! I've even read where people deliberately put weight on, some reports say they are instructed to, so that they will be picked for these shows. Andy Warhol said we will all have 15 min of fame but this is a deadly way to achieve it!

We also can't avoid the endless fitness machine, fitness plans, DVD's and juicer adverts that are always the quickest way to build or excercise or drink your way to a new you, a happier you, a complete you. These companies prey on the people that are lonely, vunrable or are looking for that quick fix to prop up their self esteem issues and along the way making a few people very rich.

If I can see it and you can see it, why can't the masses seem to. We have an obesity and diabeties epidemic exploading before our eyes and the more educated we are the worse these problems seem to become. This problem is becoming so large that governments are looking for ways to avoid the bankrupcy that these problems will surely bring. If the spiraling costs are not bought under control, the public purse will not be able to sustain the associated costs of these conditions. 

Personally I think as a society we have forgotten how to live a simple, healthy, rich and forfilled life and it's all about me and not about us. We are isolated from each other, though we live among each other, and the life skills of taking responcibility, common sense, caring for children, cooking, growing your own food, repairing things, making things, respect and community values are not passed down from parent and grandparent to child and we are all, no matter our individual circumstances, the poorer for it.