Sudbury Rocks!! member, William Tai, took on the ultimate marathon challenge this week when he completed the Antarctic Marathon. Will has provided a small bit of information this week but on his return to civilization he promises a full report complete with photos.    

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Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2009 12:00:04 +0000

Hi

Subject : On the Way

I'm onboard the ship on the 6th deck typing this email. We're about 2/3 of
the way to Antarctica, lots of ocean, a few birds, and some interesting
things to see on the bridge of the ship. The ship is rolling a bit, but so
far I have only had to take 1 Gravol.

The marathon is in two days. I've taken a lot of pictures, and
took some tango lessons in Buenos Aires. I'll be taking a lot more pics in
Antarctica. I've been eating like a pig.

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Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 12:37:46 +0000

Subject: Arrived in Antarctica

Hi

We arrived in Antarctica this morning and the race crew of 5 went to shore to
talk to all of the research bases to make sure everything is OK. We are
anchored in Maxwell Bay. They also unloaded 2 ATVs and will be marking up
the course today with 4 GPS.

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March 10, 2009 3:41 PM

I'll write up a race report with photos when I'm back, but I just wanted to
thank you & the Rocks!! for all of the training and support during the last
couple of months.

I successfully completed the Antarctica Marathon today.

It was by far the most beautiful and awe inspiring course I have run, but also the most
physically and mentally challenging course.

We receive our times and medals at an onboard ship BBQ later this week, so I
don't know how I ranked amongst all of the runners - not that it really
matters anyway for this run.
I think I finished around 5 hrs which is pretty good.
Did I say, The experience was awe inspiring!

Cheers,
William

 

Sudbury:

The stats are out and Sudbury Sprinter Celine Loyer has cracked the top 10 Canadian Women's Indoor List with an 8th Place in the Women's 50m Dash. This will be the 3rd year the College Boreal Student has cracked the top ten indoor list for Canadian Women Sprinters. According to Athletics Canada's 2009 Indoor statistics, Loyer's time of 6.95 achieved at the semi finals of the Hamilton Copps Indoor meet last month has her in the league with some of Canada's best indoor Sprinters. Celine Loyer is a 2nd year Massage therapy student at College Boreal. After a successful indoor season, Loyer is now in a very intense 5-6 day a week intense training schedule getting ready for the 2009 outdoor season to prepare her for the 100 and 200m dashes: stats source: www.athletics.ca 2009 indoor women's 50m

Usain Bolt cruises to a comfortable 400m victory in Kingston in his 2009 opener (SportingEagle)

Kingston, Jamaica – Just day’s after Usain Bolt’s first 100m of the year was confirmed the Beijing Olympic hero’s signing for a race in Canada has also been announced.

Ricky Simms, who is Bolt's representative, has confirmed his athlete will run 100m at the Toronto Festival of Excellence, an international meet in Canada on 11 June.

Simms, yesterday in an email to Jamaican journalists, confirmed reports from January, which linked Bolt to the meet, to be held at the new Varsity Centre. The new 5000-seat stadium, which organizers said would have to be increased to accommodate the anticipated large turnout, replaced the ancient Varsity Stadium on Toronto's Bloor Street.

“...Usain will run the 100m in the Toronto Festival of Excellence on June 11th,” confirmed Simms, head of the Middlesex, England based PACE Sports Management.

“This is a new meeting and we are very happy to participate and give the many Jamaicans living in Canada the opportunity to see Usain compete,” continued Simms

In pre-season outings in Jamaica, Bolt ran two 400-metre races and last Saturday at Gibson Relays, legs on his Racers Club 4x400m and 4x100m teams. Bolt’s his first 100-metre event is set for March 14 at the Lucozade Sport/GC Foster College Classics in Spanish Town, Jamaica.

A Toronto Star newspaper reported organizers, in January, were luring Bolt to the meet to be staged at the University of Toronto, for which he could attract an appearance fee of US$250,000.

Simms said Bolt’s entire international schedule would be announced soon. “We will be announcing the remainder of Usain’s international schedule over the next few weeks,” he added.

Anthony Foster for the IAAF  http://www.iaaf.org/index.html

Sprinters like any athlete involved in the execution of power and explosive type physical activity, are prone to many injuries due to the fact that they are in a “high rev” mode. The question one can ask is “what type of car will be in a repair shop more often a Lamborghini or a Ford Focus?"

Answer….the Lamborghini due to the fact that it is a “high rev type car” (unless of course you don’t take care of your Ford Focus).

Sprinters have a tendency to want to push the limits based on feeling rather than experience and the bigger picture. How many times as a coach have I heard the words “but I can do more today”!There always seems to be the assumption that more is better, when in the big picture “less” is more.

The typical warm up should consist of a few key factors, cns stimulation, (central nervous system), proper stretching which shouldn’t include resistance (I don’t rec’d resistance stretching before the workout as it can consume approximately 20-30% of one’s energy, it should be used after the workout) and short jogs in between stretching.

Let’s review the cns stimulation: One of the many big factors that a sprinter needs is a well developed central nervous system. The nervous system of a sixteen year old athlete will not be as fine tuned as that of a twenty five year old sprinter; this is the key word development.

There are many drills and exercises that can help utilize the cns more effectively ie. Plyometrics, stairs, and various med ball drills. Stretching for sprinters is HUGE, as a sprinter you start your drive phase with shorter quicker explosive steps, as you move into the areas of 50-60m your stride length starts to “open up”, hence why you want better flexibility, one wants to use the least amount of steps to cover the distance, therefore flexibility is paramount for sprinters.

The key days to take advantage of stretching are on off days or tempo days where one can take the time to do a series of upper and lower body movements and holding for a count of eight to ten seconds. Proper stretching doesn’t mean bending over and stretching your hamstrings and then starting your speed pick ups, it involves all of the various muscle groups involved in the explosiveness of sprinting.

Short jogs are vital in the warm up as they act as a barometer on how your body is reacting to the stretching. These light and easy jogs can also involve skips or as I use the walk/jog/skip for 30m at a time to keep the body loose as well as including arm windmills to keep the upper body area lose and flowing.

The best way to begin any warm up is a good 3-5 minute jog on the track or 800m jog to start, then proceed by doing some sit ups and no more than 20 push ups as you want blood flow in the system. The entire premise of blood flow means you will begin to “break a sweat”, once this has been achieved then stretching is now safe and easier, too many sprinters just do their jog, and then stretch immediately when the body isn’t 100% warm or even 80% warm. The start of the training session should have your body in a 100% fine tuned condition, remember you are getting ready to put out a lot of high velocity and explosiveness if this is a non tempo day, be sure that all of the above areas are completed.

Now that you are fully warmed up, what about getting the best of speed and power, how should one go about doing this? One of the important aspects of sprinting is understanding the mechanics behind it, here are a few things that one already knows; however, these points should be re-emphasized.

1) Sprinting is a sport that requires little effort to gain much of a result

2) It is important to make sure your feet are UNDER your body

3) Sprinting should be little ground contact and more floating in the air

4) Proper ground contact is important as is foot placement.

These points are important as for example in the 400m, what is a 400m race? In a nutshell a 400 is “who can run for 300m and stay on their toes” that sounds easy and somewhat insulting to 400m sprinters; however, it is not that easy.

The 400m is a very strategic race that requires, strength, stamina, speed, and believe it or not “ankle strength”. Ankle strength is also very very important in the 100 & 200m. The ability to keep ones body in a tall position after 50-55m is important due to the fact that one is either accelerating or decelerating after this area in the 100m. Good leg and foot cadence is essential as well as very little ground contact.

This type of sprinting can be acquired by a few factors:

Downhill running where you work with the pull of gravity to give your body a velocity it isn’t used to (this an also be achieved by the pulling harness). Downhill sprinting should only be done for 30-50m and starting at a ten degree hill focusing on good arm and upper body form. The body isn’t used to this type of velocity; however it will leave a neurological imprint on the cns and muscles.

High knee drills or A skips as some call them help to strengthen the hip flexors. Many athletes only use this drill up to 30 m and then go back and repeat. The hip flexors are very very important in the later part of the race and drills up to 150m can eventually be achieved over time, this should be done early in the season.

Medicine ball drills up to 2 sets of 60-70 over head and chess pass help the arms and upper body with power especially in the short distances like the 50 and 60m indoor races, as a matter of fact doing med ball work “after” weights can be very beneficial in that you have more of a “whipping” of the ball which will encourage the arms to snap back (important in the start).

Warm Down…

A good warm down jog is vital after a hard workout and resistance stretching is important. Ice bath or contrast bath gets the blood flowing so that debris is removed from the muscles.

In conclusion, the above mentioned areas of sprinting are elementary, yet vital and essential in terms of creating a “cheques and balance” approach. Many coaches and athletes already know these concepts but don’t practice them, therefore leading to slow times and or injury. The best way to run fast …is to simply do that in training run fast on fast days and tempo and form running on slow easy days. Sprinting is about less is more. Pushing the lactic acid system is important by doing fast intervals with very little rest, but always remember the cns needs at least 48 hours to recover, rest rest rest. Good Luck and successful sprinting.

 

David G.W. Case is the President & CEO of Dharma Sports Science Group Inc. an international consulting firm based on Ontario Canada, he has worked with many world class sprinters some being Karen Clarke, Anthony Wilson and Robert Esmie. He is the head coach of DSSG Athletics club

Article posted at: http://www.all-athletics.com/en-us/2009-03-11/exclusive-speed-and-power-development-sprinters

 

Dear Fellow Triathletes and Multi-sport enthusiasts,

 

I am happy to announce that once again this year we will be hosting a Triathlon Training Camp in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. The last camp was a smashing success and saw each one of our campers set personal bests in one or more aspects of their training. Even better was how much fun we all had and the new friendships that were made. Pictures from the last camp can be found at my latest entry at www.mikestriadventure.ca.

This year our training camp will take place from April 19-25, 2009 which is a couple of weeks later (and warmer) than last time. The stunning city of Asheville North Carolina has access to some of the best cycling terrain in North America and is within a (long) day's drive of southern Ontario. Asheville also has a very good airport close to where we are staying with 1-stop flights from Toronto and Ottawa.

 

Campers from last time will remember the great swimming pool and hot tub, the high quality cycling roads, the friendly drivers, the great cafes and restaurants along the way, and the endless running trails starting right at our doorstep. We will be returning to some of the favourite routes and climbs from last year's camp, with a few new surprises. Get all the details at: http://www.mikestriadventure.ca:

When: Thursday March 19, 2009 7:00 pm-9:00pm C-10

Facilitator: Sandra Maitland who has a National Certificate
in Foundraising Management from Imagine Canada, has worked in the non profit field for over 15 years, and has a successful track record for writing grant proposals. Learn what works when planning and writing grant proposals. This Workshop will assist your organization in establishing a grant program, identifying potential funders and preparing a proposal. The Ontario Trillium Foundation application process will be thoroughly reviewed and tools needed for all grants will be discused. Topics such as deadlines,granting, priorities, community foundations and implementing a fundraising plan, whether it be for short term or long term sustainability will also be covered.

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Sponsorship Workship
When: Wednesday April 8, 2009 7:00 pm-9:00 pm C-10

Norm O'Reilly, Director of the School of Sports Administration and Director of the Institute of Sport Marketing at Laurentian University will speak on sponsorship as a source of revenue for organizations, with particular emphasis on who should use it, who shouldn't and when and how it can work. Professor O'Reilly holds PhD, MBA, MA and B.Sc. degrees and is author of 2 books and over 35 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has presented his work around the world.

For More Information and Registration Call 705.674.4455 extension 4434.

Go to Sportlink at: http://www.sportlink.ca/