A plethora of locations around the world, especially in the United States are putting aside land to create concrete paths around parks. It’s kinda the worse thing for runners because it limits the physical and psyche potential and putting backwards advacements. Almost 50 years ago I wrote a book called Beyond Jogging: the innerspaces of running, it has been translated in a number of different languages and editions. I observed the “one form for every workout- just one pace and rhythm that translates into not translating into improved fitness- Being within all elements of the Exercise Heart Range (220-age and 60-85 percent of that done at various lengths of distances does this- Well, enough of the negative, let me tell you about the plan to rectify this trend before it goes too far- The Running Environment!

 

Just by utilizing the aspects of a “Running Environment” explicitly and directly creates new potentials.  I have been working with a new friend, and protégée Ryan Kelly. He has motivted me to put the so called Running Environment back on the front burner. We have a diagram and explanation osf a RE which is built into the contour of an existing property and the contours of the land used. It is perfect for many locations whether even wetlands. Let me explain the concept more fully.

 

 

 

Percy Wells Cerutty of Australia, my running coach, is recognized not only for his world record breaking athletes, but for the free spirit, innovative methods and open imagination he imbued to all who met him at every level of fitness and health.  I was the 20th  and last person to receive a diploma to teach his techniques, when he visited the United States for the Esalen Sports Center in 1974. Afterwards, I went to his training camp located in Portsea Australia a suburb of Melbourne.

His ultimate goal was not only to inspire but to liberate each person’s free spirit by means of sport participation.  He did this through a creating a way of living he called Stotanism that encompassed a lifestyle of robust individualism. Within, there were numerous aspects to his methodology. For instance, a running  techniques to improve stride by having the person run asymmetrically as a horse gallops, and opening and closing of the hands during inhalation and exhalation as depicted on the cover of the Japanese translation of his How to Become a Champion just published by Moschei publishing

The book also describes the health benefits of strengthen barbells and the charging up sand dunes which he did with his athletes on his ocean front training camp and timed fartlek trails through the Portsea property like the Hall circuit in which all his runners from Olympic Champion Herb Elliott to the tyros visiting on the weekends gained top notch endurance.  The book was written in the time frame of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when he was uniquely honored for his contribution to innovations in sport practices

Percy’s dietary belief mirror the latest trends of the proper ways to eat, with water and food consumed separately to improve digestion and food assimilation. He was a transformationalist who created a paradigm separate from most of today’s running coaches. Other coached athletes may run fast, however, they don’t seem to have the open and expressive nature of his runners or those he influenced to optimum fitness in a subsequent book called Be Fit or Be Dammed. There are coaches who do take some parts of his training philosophy and apply it, however, very few possess his fiery personality, wisdom and ability to touch directly within the athlete, to bring out the best of them and form new and better selves from his teachings.