RUNNERS DIARY

Press, 26 May 1977, Page 27

RUNNERS DIARY

Mrs Johnson trained each lunch hour and said if she did this she found she did not need to have any lunch. By appearnace and her trim figure it looked as if this suited her. During a training run with a Christchurch journalist, Dr Johnson spoke of his earlier career as a leading ice hockey player, one of the toughest and most injury-productive sports in the world. He said he did a lot of heavy-weight training to build up for ice hockey. But after some severe injuries he turned to longdistance ;ki-ing and marathon running and fined down from about 2001 b to 1601 b in body weight. He is sft Win in height. “Throughout the year I usually run to and from my job and, in winter, I do this three days a week and say for three days I do long-distance ski-ing,” Dr Johnson said. "At the week-end 1 will do either a long road run or a long ski run.” He said he ran regularly in marathon events in summer. Doctor Johnson was emphatic that endurance training provided the best long term benefits as weil a.: giving the best chance so far produced by medical science in lessening the risk of coronary heart attacks. He said that there were clinics all over North America attached to medical schools where coronary patients were being rehabilitated by scientifically controlled gradually increased distance training programmes. He recently showed he was prepared to prove his point, when he startled some mountain guides at Mount Cook, who thought themselves fit, by running from the Hermitage to the Ball Hut and back, a distance of about 28 miles. He called it “just a training following up after the Boston marathon.”

Meanwhile, in Christchurch, a member of a ski club, has, for some time now, been running regularly before breakfast and often round Hagley Park from the Y.M.C.A. at lunch time as well as doing the limbering and strengthening exercises advocated in this issue by Mr Lewis. A married man, aged 35, with a young family, he is impressed about the way this training has helped him for ski-ing. “On the first time out this ski season, I was on the ski runs at Mount Hutt from 9 a.m- until late afternoon,” ne said. “I was very pleased that ! was able to keep going ski-ing hard all day without any feeling of being tired. I slept well that night, and next day there was no sign of any stiffness or soreness whatsoever.” We continue to recommend suitable road shoes. Grade up your prowess gradually. While uphill runs are particularly good for ski-ing, Dr Johnson advised caution in downhill runs. “It may pay to walk the downhill parts until your legs are properly conditioned,” he said.