One step ahead of the other

I am running out of ideas to occupy my anxious mind, so maybe listening to the last episode of the Step Ahead podcast and reminding me that marathons can go well despite of everything else happening around in the universe isn't a bad idea... If only I wouldn't cringe every time I hear my voice. Here you have it, in which I talk about falling from the sky in the middle of the Marathon de Paris and setting a new PR at Toronto Yonge St. 10K. I also talk about... what again? Gosh my mind is fuzzy, I should ask Carol, my friend and host of Step Ahead. Pickle juice, or rather drinking brine to avoid hitting the wall (I have my bottle ready for tomorrow!), see-through t-shirts, the lack of portapotties in Paris and other nonsense. But it's a lot of fun when done under a good dose of endorphins that just won't go away. If you listen all the way until the end, you'll get a glimpse into the effects of marathon induced euphoria. Happy listening!

Another Step Ahead

Last weekend I was invited by Carol and Chris to participate to another "Step Ahead" podcast with the goal of  talking about Around the Bay and a piece of sad news, the passing of Micah True aka Caballo Blanco, legendary ultrarunner whose story was the subject of the book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. You can listen to the podcast by following this link. I had a lot of fun recording this podcast with Carol. I am starting to feel more comfortable behind the mic, but I really hope is that I don't sound like a doofus too much. I'll leave it up to you :-).

Step Ahead Podcast Guest and a few Salty Facts

A few weeks ago I was invited by Chris Luckhardt and Carol Levesque to be their first guest on the Step Ahead podcast. It was a great experience and to my surprise I managed to contain my nervousness and not screw up too many English words. Overall it looked like I was on drugs as I was giggling uncontrollably, but to tell you the truth, I was really excited and happy to talk about running (which makes me happy to begin with). There is video too!!

Most memorable brain slips : "neutral" vs "natural", "forfeit" (do you even say that for a marathon race?), "running" vs "run" (not quite sure when to use which), "well..." (at some point in time it seemed that I was starting all sentences with it), getting my Adidas shoes models backwards (the most recent being the adiSTAR Ride 3 and the older one, most comfortable, the Supernova Glide 2).

Last but not least, you may have wondered : "running better because of the salt"?? What in hell is she talking about? Did she really say that? Well... (hehe) I dunno. I was thinking that maybe the salt in the air was helping increase performance as there must be a highest concentration of it along the ocean. After all, salt is good for runners, right? I remember when I was a kid, growing up in Romania, I visited this salt mine that was a few hundred meters underground and that had a running track. Many of the Romanian athletes were going there to train because of... the salt? The naturally purified air? I have to find proof that works, if it's not more than an old belief. But given the large number of world records established by Romanian athletes when I was a kid, maybe there is some truth to that. Or steroids. Nah, that can't be it. Where is my Romanian pride, dammit?

There you go, found an article about the salt mine Salina Veche (Unirea) in Wikipedia:

After 1970, the mine becomes a touristic objective, offering exceptional natural conditions as a result of its microclimate rich in aerosols, which proved its well known efficiency in treating the respiratory diseases. The air-conditioning of the mine is natural, with a constant temperature during the whole year of 12 °C, an atmospheric pressure of 730 mmHg and a humidity with an average of 10% lower than the surface average.

[...] Some of the mine chambers were transformed in sport courts where athletes perform their trainings.