What?! No Refunds .....

Picture from Flickr

Came across this article a few days ago when  Rapid Running Events, an US based events company was taken to court by the Indiana Attorney General for not returning $95,400 in entry fees collected for 5 races after the races were cancelled.

In one of the races to be held in New York on 30/6/12, more than 940 registered participants paid $65,000 to race but Rapid Running Events did not get approval to run the race (due to lack of organization and police officers schedules) and the the race was cancelled. They informed the runners 9 days before the event by email and did not offer refunds.

What came to mind when I read this was when the Adidas King Of the Road race was cancelled last year on 11/8/13 due to "unforeseen circumstances".

What was different though was that race was called off that morning itself due to a thunderstorm and the organizers made the decision so as not to compromise participants safety. You can read the Today article here.

Most events have clause written in their rules and regulations. With so many running races and sporting events now in Singapore now, hopefully we do not have event organizers who are just out to make money.

Why My Wife Insists On Raw Organic Cocoa Powder

Most mornings I heat some water, heap some oatmeal into the warm water and add a banana or whatever fruit I find in our fridge and my breakfast is ready. (Sometimes I cheat a little by adding honey or my son's Kellogg's Nutri Grain or as he says his Ironman food to satisfy my sweet tooth).

Recently my wife has been making breakfast for me too. Yes, oatmeal done her way. After eating it, I asked her why hers tastes so much nicer even after I tried to copy her way of making it. She said hers is made with love!! Gotta love my wife.

Oatmeal done my wife's way

Check out her ingredients

One for her, one for me

Now I know why my wife always insists on using raw organic unsweetened cocoa powder in the organic oatmeal she prepares for me for breakfast. Recent published evidence shows that dark chocolate is good for the heart  as certain bacteria in our stomach reacts with cocoa into anti-inflammatory compounds beneficial for the heart.

The raw organic cocoa powder she uses

Well, I definitely prefer her oatmeal than the green juice she makes for me.

*Please see this for more on why dark chocolate is good for the heart.

Kinesio Taping For His Shirt? Or For Her Quads?

Taping for his shirt? or her quads?

Our first Introduction to Kinesio Taping course was held at our clinic at Holland Village earlier today. Those of you who signed up but could not make it today well, you've missed quite a bit.

Please come for our next course then. Email admin@sportssolutions.com.sg for more details.

Yes quads.

Here are some more pictures from the course.

*Thanks to Boon for taking the photos.

3 Pairs of Nikes

I wrote earlier that in in my younger school boy running days I was good enough to get shoes from Nike (they were then brought in to Singapore by sole agent Robertson Wilson).

3 pairs of Nike Free's

Imagine my delight when  I received not one but three pairs of Nike Free's from Nike today. Yes, I received a pair each of the Nike Free 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0.

Here's another look

I've worn the original Nike Free when it was released in 2004. I received a pair then from Nike and was also interviewed by the Straits Times regarding my views on the shoe. I've still got that article by the Straits Times. I liked that pair of Nike Free's, I used it quite a bit  so I could do a proper review for the shoe. Even though I was with Adidas then, because of my job as a Sports Physiotherapist at the Singapore Sports Council, Adidas was not upset with me when I wore other brands' shoes when I had to review shoes. Believe me, I've tried many many brands of running shoes.

When I was still racing triathlons, Adidas took care of my gear from over 10 years. But way before that, Nike gave me all my racing shoes. Guess I've come full circle then.

Well, now that I'm retired from racing, I'm open to all running shoes. Will write a review once I get some decent runs in them. Stay tuned.

* Many thanks to Andrew Kwong from Nike for my shoes (and to Andrea Goh for bringing them to me today).

Can You Lift And Run?

Picture from The Pit, Singapore

I often get this question from my patients. They are often keen to look for an edge over their friends to improve their running performance. Most of them are not sure how to schedule or juggle their track sessions, gym / strength training etc.

I normally share my own experience with my patients having spent consistent time in the gym thrice weekly year round when I was still training seriously for triathlons.

Recently I also saw a paper just published on the acute effects of strength training done by a group of Australian researchers.

The runners in this study did 3 different strength training sessions on 3 occasions. One was a high intensity session for the whole body, the second was high intensity for the legs only while the final session was low intensity for the whole body. 6 hours after each strength session, they did a treadmill test of running 10 minutes at easy pace (70% ventilatory threshold), 10 mins at 90% threshold pace (or similar to your half marathon race pace) and finally running as long as possible at 110% threshold pace.

Both high intensity strength sessions significantly lessened the run time to exhaustion (5 mins prior to starting strength training compared with 4 mins after), suggesting that a hard weights/ strength training done 6 hours before will affect your fast running performance. The researchers suggested that runners should not run hard if they had done a strength session earlier in the day as they needed a longer time to recuperate. In fact they found that the ability to run at maximal effort was still impaired 24 hours after doing weights/ strength training for the legs.

Good news for runners is that running at lower intensities were unaffected by the strength training workouts. So you can do weights and run 6 hours later as long as the run is easy to moderate. The researchers suggested running first in the morning before a strength session later in the day after work for optimal recovery.

My take before I saw this paper? Well, when I used to race triathlons, I like to strength train first then run (or swim or bike for that matter) since in a triathlon I'm always fatigued by the run having swam and biked hard before. Doing weights first followed by running would mimic some of the fatigue I feel after swimming and biking in a triathlon race.

Well, that's just me although research seems to suggest otherwise now (although this research paper was done on runners not triathletes).

Now this is strength training. Picture from The Pit, Singapore