New York City Marathon cancelled.

The dream of many runners from all the world was supposed to become reality today with the 2012 edition of the New York City Marathon.

As all we already know, the 2012 edition of the NYC Marathon has been cancelled because the Hurricane Sandy heavily damaged some areas where the Marathon should take place.

The Marathon staff and the NYC Major Michael Bloomberg said that the Marathon might take place without influencing the recovery from the disaster but usually the NYC Marathon is an event that is supported by all the citizenship. This year there were many protests against it, so the support would not be general and the final decision was to cancel it.

I understand this decision and I fully agree. As it's quite normal to have prostests and discontent with many sport events (just think of the last Euro Cup), marathons are always happy and joyful events.

I just feel bad for many runners that made long and expensive trips to reach NYC for the marathon but a consolatory run around Central Park meeting runners from all around should be great too I suppose:

Perceived effort and people watching.

Have a look at this article from RunnersWorld.
A study revealed that male runners perceive less effort when they run with a woman watching.
I'm not going into the psychological and phisiological details on the subject and I can't report personal experiences because I'm not used to run/cycle/etc. with people watching (the occasional dog-walker or mushroom-hunter that you may meet in the woods does not count I suppose), but I think that it's similar to the feeling you get when you're pedalling on the bike lane and there is another cyclist some meters ahead and you feel the urge to cross over him. When you finally leave him behind you feel like you can relax and slow down but... he's crossing over you! So you speed up and don't let him pass so easy... then you both arrive at a traffic light, stop and have a good laugh together.
But in the moment that you feel you have to cross over, obviously you perceive less effort.
May it be considered a minor onset of agonistic trance?
Anyway, have a read to the article and try to focus on your own experiences on the matter. It's always useful to know the mental tricks that happen during training.

I quit running...

...but I didn't decide it.
I always write down on excel sheets all the possible datas on my workouts. What I do, for how long, how far, how many reps... everything. It may sound excessive but on the long run it works, as it allows to keep track of the improvements but also of the changes in my training habits. I highly recommend to everyone into fitness to write things down.
Anyway, having a look at this year's sheet I noticed that I don't run anymore. I mean, I've never been a big runner but I used to go out running for 45-50 minutes at least once a week. Since the day I got my footbike, kicking and fast-walking replaced it totally.
I still do some running during my mixed cardio sessions, this means that I alternate running around my house (mostly hill-sprinting) and hitting the heavybag in my garage. Running in this case is limited to 3 or 4 sessions of few minutes but it's quite intense as it's mostly uphill.
I have to say that my knees and my back are doing way better since I quit long runs. I could imagine that running was bad for the knees but I didn't realize that it was so traumatic for the lower back too. If I knew it, I'd quit before.
Once again I find myself advocating footbiking as a substitute of running (not as a substitute of cycling): it's way better for your health.
If you don't want to buy a footbike, then consider fast walking, the cardio workout is quite the same and you can do it also with a regular pair of sneakers.

Do you run on a treadmill?

Originally I wanted to use another title for this post, something like "If you like trail-running then you should watch this!", then I realized that trail runners already know the reasons why trail running can be an experience that transcend the pure workout becoming something else, something more.
It is people that run on treadmills that need to discover the beauty of running in the wild, so the correct text to introduce this video is "If you think that running on a treadmill is ok, then you should watch this!"
Anyway, here's the video:
The name, "The beauty of the Irrational" says a lot about the spirit that moves many outdoors sportsmen.
Ryan Sandes, the South African ultrarunner that you see in the video, made an excellent performance, for more details and to watch it bigger click here.
And if you ask me, running on a treadmill is way better than no running at all, but running in the wild is completely another story.

Usain Bolt, Oscar Pistorius and Valeria Straneo.

Yesterday was a nice day for the running world.
Usain Bolt confirmed to be the fastest man on the planet.
Oscar Pistorius confirmed to be a legend and a sport icon for years to come.
Valeria Straneo, a 36 years old Italian mother, showed the world that a real athlete never gives up.
Her career speaks for herself. Till 2010 she was a teacher and an almost unknown marathon runner.
Then she discovered to suffer form sferocytosis, a genetic disease that causes hemolytic anemia. She had to undergo surgery and have her spleen removed.
When she recovered from the disease, her running career skyrocketed. In April this year at the Rotterdam marathon, she made a wonderful 2:23:44 breaking the Italian record.

Valeria Straneo.

Her 8th place at the London Olympics should be an example for everyone.
Well done Valeria!

How many Europeans are running right now? And why?

I'm not looking for the exact number of Europeans that are actually running on this Saturday evening, just wondering how many runners hit the roads of Old Europe on a regular basis.
I've just seen this article from RunningUSA, with the annual report of the running industry, certifying an increasing number of American runners. That's very good as often we hear of obesity as being a big problem especially in children. Obviously running can defeat (or at least control) obesity.
So I got curious about the percentage of Europeans runners and I found this page.
36% of Europeans between 15 and 65 years of age are regular runners.
Honestly, I don't believe it.
I mean, it depends on what we consider running. If a slowpace walk on the seaside wearing sneakers is considered running, then it's ok, it may be truth. But even considering a light jog as running, I don't believe that 36% of the Euro population run on a regular basis. Maybe someone running to catch the bus everyday can be considered a runner. If so, then 36% would make sense.
Numbers apart, the article is good, not a scientific read but still entertaing. The part on discovering the mental benefits of running should make running even more alluring to sedentary people.

SkyRace: underground or mainstream?

In the beloved mountains where I live every summer there are three SkyRace competitions. I like when it happens, I have never taken part as I am not a competitive runner, but I really enjoy the races, especially one  that takes place very near my town in the environment where I'm used to run too.
I was looking if I can find in Youtube some videos about these local SkyRaces, but I didn't find anything.
But I've found this:

A broadcast from Television Canaria about the Transvulcania 2012, the Ultraskyrace that takes place in the Canarian Islands. And it's a very lenghty and well made broadcast too, so I suppose that in Spain Skyraces are very popular.
Round here just the local radio broadcast talks about the Sky Races, and usually all they say is the name of the winner.
From a point of view I appreciate that SkyRaces are considered somthing kinda underground, on the other side maybe it's a type of competition that deserves more attention.

ps: for a more action-packed video on Transvulcania you'd better have a look at this video:

Goodbye Caballo Blanco.

Micah True, the ultrarunner known as Caballo Blanco, was found dead in the Gila National Forest (New Mexico). I suppose that may runners know him from the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, and because he was the director of the Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon. He was 58.
He will be missed.

Zegama-Aitzgorri Marathon

A must-watch for everyone into trail running...
The Zegama-Aitzgorri Marathon which takes place in the Basque Country is famous to be one of the hardest mountain marathons and also one with the most beatiful landscape, as it takes places almost entirely in a national park.
Some views of the Zegama-Aitzgorri:
Part one:

Part two:

In the part one of this video you can see that when running uphill becomes very steepy, people running and people walking proceed at the same speed. I noticed that myself very often, when going grumpy uphill running becomes unconvenient and it's better to walk. Obvioulsy this applies to endurance events, if you run uphill for cardio training, than go for it, as uphill sprinting is excellent!