As I gear up for a big race this weekend (another 21.1k in Ottawa), I’ve been reflecting on how I’ve gotten to where I am today fitness-wise. There is no real secret. Just blood, sweat, and a lot of tears. My key is to have become more efficient in when I train and how I train. Nothing has helped me more than the training plan that my old running club in Quebec gave me. The core of their philosophy was high intensity interval training twice a week. These are multiple high spe

If you’re like me, you’re still too cheap to get an athletic massage after a race or a tough workout. A good deep muscle massage will increase circulation and speed recovery. Unfortunately, a real massage from a massage therapist will easily set you back $60-$100 for 1 session, which is not something us normal folk can easily get access too. The solution? Self-massage using any number of devices out on the market. I spoke about the foam roller before, but today I’m going to b

You’re crossing a glacier when your buddy falls through the snow into an invisible deep crack in the ice. Now he’s hanging there, with only the rope between you and him keeping him from falling even further into almost certain injury. What do you do? It’s time to put crevasse rescue skills to work. I spent an evening with the Vancouver section of the Alpine Club of Canada for more crevasse rescue training that will be essential to my Denali (highest peak in North America) att

After a tough workout or race, I’ve found the best thing to do is get a deep sports massage to work your tired muscles after they’ve been exhausted. Every time I’ve managed to get one (even just a 5 to 10 min massage), I’m not sore the next day. It’s pretty incredible! It’s not everyday that I have the time or money to get a professional massage, (actually it’s pretty rare) so when a friend swore by his foam roller, I decided to check it out. A foam roller enables you to do t

Among all the various running apparel including pants, shorts, shirts, fuel belts, hats, etc, nothing is more important than what you are wearing on your feet. It’s a pretty easy deduction but it still amazes me how most people aren’t wearing what they need but instead what was on sale at the store or what looks good at the time. Especially since what starts at your feet effects the rest of your body including your knees, hips and back. Having the right shoe prevents injuries

A proven, effective treatment and recovery technique, icing is a vital part of any athlete’s toolbox. Although the traditional methods (ice in a bag for example) are still being used, the method I’m going to show you is both the easiest to prepare and use as well as the most effective. To prepare your modern ice pack, all you need to do is fill a Styrofoam or paper cup with water and place it into the freezer. You’re done! Once needed, simply peel back enough of the rim of th

Biggest running workout this year. Man, it was tough. 4x 3km with a 4 min rest between each rep. That’s right! 3km of hard running at a time! Pretty hard to keep moving at that pace for such a long distance but this is the stuff that pays off when my long distance (21.1k and up) races come up. Beat my prescribed target time of 11:48 per rep with a blazing 11:17 – 11:19 the first 3 then a 11:11 for my last. I lost a couple seconds because of the snow on the ground (yeah, we ha