This past weekend I had a chance to hear Dean Karnazes speak in Holland, MI. He talked about his beginning running days and how he has started to do a little stand up paddling as a cross training tool. He was actually in Holland for a long board competition.
If you have never heard his story it's pretty amazing. At the age of 30 he was out drinking celebrating his 30th birthday. He came to the conclusion he wanted a different path, "I had no challenges." He left the bar through off his clothes, found an old pair of running shoes and ran 30 miles that night. The ultramarathon man was born. Dean has gone on to do some astounding feats. Badwater 9x. 82 straight hours of running. 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. Take a minute to digest that one. How many have actually exercised 50 straight days!
While I wouldn't take away any training advice from him, he admits this openly, "Don't try to do what I do. Don't listen to my advice." Lets just say it out loud, he's a freak of nature. A few years back they did a gait analysis on him. The conclusion, he has a perfect foot strike, the perfect gait, the perfect alignment.
I did take away he kept going back to his alignment. My alignment is always on, I'm always balanced, that's why I have never been hurt. So before big runs, big bikes, get your alignment checked. Posture, vertebral alignment, muscle balance, the keys to staying healthy.
The other thing to take away, the body is capable of much more then we give it credit for. His future plans, run a marathon in every country of the world in one calendar year in 2012. For those counting that's 205 marathons. Lets hope we can all exercise 205x in one year. Get out there and get moving!
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