Imagination

Arc'teryx invited me to the Vancouver premier of All.I.Can by Sherpas Cinema about a month ago. It has some amazing cinematography, with interesting angles and creative concepts. Most importantly for a ski movie, they do a great job at capturing the skiing. The sequence below is an example of just how progressive their thinking can be. It really is unlike any ski sequence that I've seen:

JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

Pure Gold

"Some need a kick up the pants, some need an arm 'round the shoulder..."

Mike Spracklen is a coaching legend in rowing. He has coached boats to Olympic medals at 8 Olympic games, dating back to 1976 and in three different countries. Since 2000, Spracklen has been coaching the Canadian men's squad, winning the Gold medal for eights at the 2002, 2003 and 2007 World Championships and at the 2008 Olympics. He is currently coaching them towards London, 2012 and, as always, they hold themselves to the highest possible standards. Here he is eloquently sharing his thoughts on what it will take to get there.

Although not remotely as qualified, nor even half as eloquent as Spracklen, I have an article in the current edition of Impact Magazine on the mental side of training and racing. The magazine is now online and you can view the article, "An Ultra State of Mind" here

A Few Tips & Tricks

Like most runners, I have a few set routes that are my staple runs. I know how far they are, approximately how long they should take to run and I often have expectations about how I will feel on different sections of the run. They are an excellent gauge of my fitness and frankly, they can also be quite mindless. I can tune everything out and just roll along.
However one of my favourite things to do on days when I am feeling tired and dreading the thought of slogging out a few miles is to use that run as a way to explore. I ignore my normal routes and just wander the trails or streets, looking for new pockets. I have gotten to know Victoria and its trail networks very well on these wandering runs.
I lose all my expectations and benchmarks, so I don’t focus on how bad I may be feeling. I can get lost in a sense of being in a micro-adventure as I veer down a new road, or on a side trail that I have never been on before. I enjoy the new stimulus and use that as my motivation to put in more time on my feet. More often than not, I find myself forgetting my early hesitant steps and find myself rolling along the new stretch of road or trail, enjoying my run and feeling significantly better than I thought I would.
People normally talk about periodizing in the sense of planning a training schedule; writing in hard days, easy days, long runs, tempo runs, fartleks, races, down-time etc…I’d extend it to periodizing where you run. Your mind and body will thank you for the change in stimulus and you’ll get to know your neighbourhood, city, town, trail or peaks even better. You don’t always have to go far for an adventure, it can happen in your own backyard and your feet can easily take you there.