Underwater treadmills..

Something for the injured? I went to the South Florida University the other day and came across some treadmills looking like nothing I had seen before. They were underwater, so that 85 % of the landing shock was taken by the water (see link below)…

Quite smart concept and the cross country coach there explained to me how runners prone to injuries not only prevented being injured (and recovered when injured) but also built more strength in those muscles so that in the future they could take more training. Interesting concept and it looked quite efficient also. One of those things that gets so spesific to the movement of running that you could use it as “alternative”/cross-training (something I am normally not greatly into) to take more training even for those healthy and fit. A main problem you see for those injured runners is that even regular “running in water” is not spesific enough to ensure a fast comeback after the injury. So even though the cardiovascular system is ok, it takes time to get into the running rytm again, sometimes 6-8 weeks. The only runner I know that has managed this right away is Jim Spivey (3.31 1500). I spoke to him about it a few years ago and saw the very tough program he was doing while running in water, returning to a 3.57 mile only days thereafter. But that is probably a rare example of that, and maybe a system of underwater treadmill running could (should) make this kind of post-injury comback easier. Should be something for the Top Athletics center in Oslo..

Nice to see the local University here. I actually also bumped into one of the former assistant coaches at Indiana there, who was coaching in 97/98 when I competed for the school. So we got to catch up on some of the people there-where they had gone plus how the program was doing.

I will be doing a run with the coach there tomorrow, just en easy evening run. He has 14.11 in the 5000 meters before so should be quite able to keep up (at least on those very easy runs)

We are enjoying a bit cooler weather here now, down to around 20-22 degrees C. After a period of very tough training, it is refreshing to get out in the morning feeling the fresh breeze only to warm up nicely during the day. And you can go out training at 9-10 in the morning, no problem compared to for example Kenya where we had to get out at 6-7 not to completely sweat away πŸ™‚ So much easier to keep a bit of a more normal daily rytm over here..

Time for the evening training now.

So long and all well,
Marius