What a great day City to bay is! Each year the Viva crew gear up and participate and each year we have great success. Some of the stand-out efforts were Kane Jauntis and Michelle Rozee. Michelle who I believe is a ‘respiratory scientist’, has dropped over 20 kilograms since competing in the event 4 years ago. This time she decided to train for the event with our Saturday morning running team and dropped 5 minutes from her time, as well as stated that she actually enjoyed the whole process compared to her first event. Kane, local Landhaus winemaker, also trained for the event and unfortunately injured his calf 3 k’s in the race. The thing about Kane is he will always be successful in life! Why? Because he finishes what he starts. It took Kane approximately 30 seconds to stop, recognise his injury, assess the severity and then come up with a new solution, which was to slow his pace and go to a technique run rather than a fast run and then achieve his goal! This is what successful mindsets do in the face of every challenge.

For me, events like these are great as they are about encouraging our clients to find a goal, which is a key motivator. I personally like to lead by example, so instead of training for the event, I actually keep myself fit for running all year round with short intense runs as well as correct movement and strength training.

Running is an excellent form of exercise but I do preach the following caution and that is “get fit to run and not run to get fit”. Being such a strenuous movement for our body it is really important that you have assessed your physical readiness for running. You see people sit down a lot and over time, this takes a toll on your posture and therefore, your performance. Before you run ‘Max Martin’ from Corrective Exercise Australia say’s to follow this checklist;

·         Check that your Transverse Abdominals are firing correctly to enable core strength

·         Check the relationship of the Hip Flexors, Glutes and Hamstrings, to ensure there is no synergistic dominance.

·         Assess Calves and Gluteus Medius muscles, against one another and ensure performance is within 5% from left to right.

·         Assess Thoracic Spine Rotation and Mobility.

·         Get some advice on running technique and put a program together to address your running needs. Start small and build up over time as Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were your current postural and movement behaviours.

Therefore if you are running to get fit…. Don’t, without performing the above checks with a qualified trainer to ensure you are running for many years to come.