Tag Archive for 'corsa'

A marathon among the lions

 The 15th annual Safaricom Marathon has taken place at Lewa on Saturday 28th June 2014. Organised by Tusk Trust and supported by Safaricom, this fundraising event hosted 1,000 runners from over 20 different countries. The Safaricom Marathon is regarded as one of the toughest marathons in the world. However, runners of all abilities take part, from fun runners, walkers and amateurs, to professionals like Paul Tergat the Kenyan international and former world record holder. The impact of the event has been huge and the benefits are very tangible. Since its inception the event has raised over $4.2 million. Tusk and Lewa have always shared a common goal to use wildlife conservation as a catalyst to alleviate poverty, reduce conflict, and improve education and livelihoods in rural areas rich in biodiversity.

 

100 days to walk or running 30 minutes

With the beginning of spring, longer and warmer days, many people have good intentions to lose weight and start to do  movement. After this first positive moment many of them stop because they are held back from their commitments and duties that do not allow to go to the gym to follow a course, for financial problems, the mental laziness of not being accustomed to thinking of themselves as people physically active and many other justifications that everyone created to continue to do nothing. To these people I want to indicate the initiative to run or walk at least half an hour every day for one hundred days.
It’s evident that for the runners it’s also an inner journey to rediscover the pleasure to walk/run, and this challenge tests not so much the ability to train as to organize better the daily life (“I’ll make walking/running at least half an hour every day for a hundred days consecutive ? “), in fact, the unknown are the life events of every days, and the question changes to” I’ll manage to find time to walk/ run at least half an hour every day” between family , school, work , shopping , lunch, dinner and other daily tasks .

To participate and subscribe go to www.epodismo.com/100 Participation is free .

You can subscribe to:

  • The 100 days of Italy – To celebrate the anniversary of the Liberation (end of 2° world war) walking/running. From 25 April to 2 August 2014.
  • The 100 days of August – Walking/running during the summer holidays. From May 7 to 14 August 2014.

Are you ready to meet this challenge with yourself ?

Vivicittà 2014, the run for all

Sunday is the day of Vivicittà 2014: The race for all. It’s the biggest race in the world because it takes place simultaneously in 45 Italian cities and 10 overseas. This is the 31th edition, which takes place about 12 km away and joining together has always been some of the fundamental human values ​​: the need for sport, environmental protection, international solidarity and to livethe historic town centers. These themes are present up since the first edition of the event organized by UISP and Franco Fava in a 1984 article published by Espresso already presented this way:

” This first edition of Vivicittà is not just a sporting event, even if the sporting and technical certainly not lacking today … do run 30,000 people is no longer a novelty. Distribute though so many runners in twenty different cities, starting at the same time, using as a backdrop the historic town centers among the most beautiful in Italy and make sure to compensate for the run times under the different difficulty of the route is likely to leave almost in disbelief … Surely in the great day of Vivicittà, no one can say that the Italians have finally put aside the bad habits of sports fan but not actives. Certainly no one can deny, however, that a new era is coming on the horizon and a more healthy and democratic sport mentality is close to establish itself for the good of all. THe cities will rise from twenty to forty and one day, perhaps due to Vivicittà , the run made ​​in Italy could be exported.”

Well these predictions have come true and to emphasize the value of sport as a right of all, without exception, the race will also take place in a number of Italian prisons but also in Osaka and Yokohama, in Bosnia in Tuzla and Sarajevo. In other dates will take place in Lebanon in Balbeeck and Sidon in solidarity with Syrian and Palestinian refugees. The fundraiser this year (1 € per participant) will be finalized in the project “Sport and Dignity” in collaboration with UNRWA – UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to achieve 12 gyms for gymnastics, 12 spaces for volleyball and the training of trainers for these sports.

Running is a democratic activity for the mind

Running is a democratic activity for the mind. We can run slow or fast, for a short time or a long time, we can do it alone or with friends, we can run in the outdoors or on the track, we can alternate running with walking, we can start to run just out home or going to the gym, we  can vary at will the routes and places to run, wherever we are we can go for a run. No other sport is so rich in alternatives to be practiced. It’s democratic because every time we run we are free to choose what to do. For these reasons running stimulate the individual consciousness, which is the art of knowing what we want to do and how. Today I want to run flat on the road, tomorrow in a park and the day after on the track, each of these situations generate different sensations and different types of stride. We must learn to listen, to feel the body sensations, the breath, the heart and the thoughts connected to these sensations. Running mostly means learning to choose which is the most appropriate way for us and especially it means to learn to recognize when it’s time to stop and how to alternate days of intense training with the ones in which we recover. It’s not easy and for this reason it’s useful to follow a training program, simple and suitable for us, but at the same time we must not give up on developing the ability to listen, especially to understand which are the feelings that we should not have (for example, what is that the heart rate must not exceed and that to have in most of the times ). Running is also give a rule, the main one is to have as an objective to continue to run even in a year and do not stop in a month because it was poorly made. An example, to understand how important it’s to follow a rule. If a sedentary person or who does’not practice since many years starts to do 10 minutes of activity 3 times a week, alternating 1 minute of walking and 1 minutes of running  if would increase its commitment by 1 minute per week ( then the second would be 11 minutes x 3 times and so on). In a year he/she would be able to run for 1 hour three times a week. This is a gradual approach that anyone who does not have specific health or overweight problems could be able to maintain.

Himalayan 100 miles

“The Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race is the most spectacular running course in the world!” said a past winner. During the Race, views of Mt. Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, and Kanchenjunga (4 out of 5 of the world’s highest peaks) are visible. Regardless of your level of ability – whether a 10K, marathon, or ultramarathon runner – you can run at your own pace. There are no age limits or stage cutoff times. Five daily stages of 24 – 20 – 26 – 13 – 17 miles (Oct. 25 – Nov. 01, 2013) are designed for middle distance runners.

The world toughtest ultramarathon

Dangerous: Despite the warning signs, these racers continue running through the extreme heat

The world toughtest ultramarathon in the Death Valley National Park, California

Pamplona’s annual running of the bulls

Four people were hurt on Sunday on the first day of Pamplona’s annual running of the bulls. The good news: no one was gored this year! During the event, several thousand participants ran alongside eight fighting bulls in the northern Spanish city. See photos.

Why are Kenyans the best long distance runners?

In recent years, the 25 fastest marathon runners were Kenyans, too many to wonder how this is possible and once again the debate is as always between genetics and environment.

Marathon runner and manager of a Kenyan athlete, Tom Payn attaches great importance to the mental component of the running and so responds to : “The main thing I learned from the Kenyans regards their mental attitude, the way they run, they are relaxed and even if they have a negative race immediately forget it, thinking I’ll win next time and beat the record. They are very confident and show an eternal optimism about the next race.” The same concept is something that is reported by Boniface Kiprop Kongin, the athlete he coaches, which says “to have success you have to be optimistic and patient.”

Interview and video on Guardian

Visualization exercises for sprinters

Coaches and athletes frequently ask me examples of mental visualization to practice during the sessions. Here you find an exercise concerning one sprinter.

Exercise: 10 times 200m in 35sec

Mental task: start only when you are ready, otherwise wait some seconds till you are this feeling

Execution:

  • running every 200m at this time,
  • at the end of each one, walk and take some deep breathing and before to reach the start line visualize the next 200m; on the line, start only when you have the feeling to be ready.

The planet toughest foot race

Marathon Des sables

It’s taking place the “toughest foot race” on the planet: the Marathon des Sables. The MDS is a multi-day event through 150 miles of the Sahara. Runners are largely self-sufficient (although organisers do stick up a shelter and give you water rations) and it’s a massive challenge in terms of physical and mental strength.