Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2025 i Canadian Running

My earliest experiences with run clubs left me demoralized. The group always seemed to split spontaneously into a faster pack and a slower pack, and I would find myself halfway between the two, in no man’s land, running alone. I don’t need a club to run by myself, I thought, and so, for years I trained on my own. But even introvert runners like me occasionally crave connection, and a few years ago I decided to try again. Run club culture has come a long way in the meantime (as writer and ultrarunner Molly Hurford describes on p.26), and, though it took a while before I really felt like part of the group, it’s been well worth the wait. Over many, many Saturday morning runs and post-run coffees, I’ve made…

The Turkish Get-Up (TGU) is a centuries-old exercise once used by warriors in what is now known as Tūrkiye; they would use makeshift weights and rocks to perform the sequence of movements to improve functional strength, mobility and stability, preparing their bodies for battle. The TGU was made popular thanks to early strongmen and physical culture enthusiasts. Today, it’s seen as an unconventional lift, and all trainees and athletes can benefit from performing it regularly. (It’s also easy to do at home.) Adding the TGU to your weekly running program will improve your functional strength and stability and help prepare you for battle in your next race. The TGU can first be performed with bodyweight, and you can add a dumbbell or kettlebell as you get accustomed to the movements.…

Drumheller, Alta.’s nickname, Dinosaur Valley, hints at its amazing history. Set in the heart of the Canadian Badlands, the landscape offers everything from canyons formed by melting glaciers at the end of the last ice age, to 700-million-year-old fossil beds, to the sandstone columns known as hoodoos. Everywhere you turn, there is a stunning backdrop. Fifteen years ago, local resident Becky Kowalchuk found herself sitting with visiting family, and asked herself, “Why don’t we have a race event in Drumheller, along the river valley? It tweaked my interest when they visited and said what beautiful trails we had.” While not yet a runner, she was an experienced event planner. With her skills, says Kowalchuk, “it was no stretch to plan a running event, I just needed some people to help…

AN HOUR AND A HALF INTO OUR CONVERSATION, Alex Hutchinson finally cracks. Up to this point, he has shown himself to be precisely the person I’ve come to know over seven years as his training partner and teammate: someone who, despite truly impressive achievements, has remained inexplicably, unflappably grounded. I’ve been quizzing him about these accomplishments. He has parried each advance with dogged, frustrating humility. Earning a Ph.D at age 25 from Cambridge University’s famed Cavendish Lab, whose researchers have won more than 30 Nobel Prizes? “It was never me driving the bus,” he counters. “I was there helping out, and, you know, doing experiments.” Representing Canada as a runner on six national teams? “No one has ever scraped onto national teams by a narrower thread than I have,” he…

Have you ever been so transported by a book that scenes become memories and you start imagining yourself as one of the pivotal characters? It happens to me all the time. With stories centred on running, I collect icons who come with me when I lace up. They help me tap into a frame of mind, whether I need to push, ponder or play. I was living and teaching in Japan in 2009 when I read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. The dramatic scene he wrote about the Leadville Trail 100 race of 1994 remains etched in my mind. Ann Trason, from California, who was beating some of the fastest male runners in long-distance races, was pitted against seven Tarahumara runners (Indigenous people from Mexico’s Copper Canyons). McDougall describes…

Editor Anne Francis anne@runningmagazine.ca Senior Editor Alex Hutchinson Staff Writers Marley Dickinson, Madeleine Kelly, Keeley Milne, Cameron Ormond Photo Editor Matt Stetson matt.stetson@gripped.com Copy Editor R. Turner Art Director Warren Wheeler (Roseander Main) layout@runningmagazine.ca Production Artist Warren Hardy Social Media Nikita van Dijk nikita@gripped.com Producer and Host, The Shakeout Podcast John Gay Affiliate Marketing Cory Nagler Web Development Sean Rasmussen Digital Operations Dmitry Beniaminov Publisher Sam Cohen sam@gripped.com Editorial Director David Smart dave@gripped.com Advertising & Sales Andre Cheuk andre@gripped.com Account Managers Joel Vosburg joel@gripped.com Catherine Melo catherine@gripped.com Circulation Manager Robyn Milburn robyn@gripped.com SUBSCRIBE Send $26.95 (1 year) or $49.95 (2 years) to Canadian Running magazine, PO Box 819 Station Main, Markham, ON, Canada L3P 8L3 or call: 1 (800) 567-0444 SUBMIT Manuscripts, photographs and other correspondence are welcome. Please contact…

When it comes to tracking your progress during a training block, there are countless tools to test your performance. From heart-rate monitors to V02 max tests, from tracking splits to endurance-testing apps, deciding which data to follow can be overwhelming. Unless you’re already very familiar with training metrics and the technology for measuring and interpreting them, performance coaches recommend keeping it simple. Simon Stewart, an Athletics Canada Performance Coach based in Edmonton, says that for a runner who is trying to become fitter and faster, the three most important elements of their training are consistency, variety and periodization. “If you’re running a lot, you need to do most of your running—maybe 70 per cent—easy,” says Stewart. Another 20 to 25 per cent of training should be tempo or threshold runs…

Brighton Marathon Weekend, which takes place four weeks before April’s London Marathon, has become an important cog in the wheel of Britain’s running scene, and when it encountered financial trouble during the pandemic, the U.K. running community knew something had to be done to save it. “It has a great legacy, is a diamond in the calendar of the city of Brighton and Hove, and is an incredible experience for participants looking for a mile, 10K or marathon distance,” says Joe Carter, who has been the Brighton Marathon Weekend event lead since London Marathon Events (LME), which organizes several mass-participation endurance events, including the London Marathon, rescued Brighton’s race in 2022. “We knew we wanted the event to continue.” Brighton is located on the coast of the English Channel, and…

The appeal of a place like Vancouver’s Stanley Park probably feels obvious to any runner: the salty tang of the Pacific collides with the damp scent of ancient cedars as masses of runners trace the 10-km Seawall; the noise of traffic dissolves into the quiet rhythms of ocean waves and rustling leaves, steady breaths and metronomic footfalls. And an additional 27 km of shale paths and dirt trails weave through the park’s forested interior, making it possible to run for hours. But what is it exactly about a place that encourages or discourages running? That question captured the imagination of Dr. Nadine Schuurman, a health geographer at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. Over her career, Schuurman had studied how the built environment quietly shapes everything from injury risk to…

Hydration in hot weather can be challenging for runners; the science is complex, and putting the recommendations into practice can be tricky. When racing in hot weather, taking the time to create a fluid plan can help runners achieve optimum hydration for the conditions. The hotter the weather, the more dehydration will affect your performance (not to mention your health). To ensure they start in a well-hydrated state, runners should: » Drink 5 to 7 ml of fluid per kilogram of body mass (i.e., 350 to 490 ml for a 70-kg/154-lb. runner), 1 to 4 hours before exercising. » If your urine is dark or you have not urinated, 2 hours before running, drink 3–5 ml of fluid per kilogram of body mass (i.e., 210 to 350 ml for a…

If you run long enough and rack up enough birthdays, you’ll eventually experience a bizarre and puzzling sensation. You’ll be running at a familiar effort level, your heart and breathing dialled into their usual rhythm, your legs pounding at their usual cadence, and yet your watch will claim you’re running significantly slower than you expect. What has changed? Why, exactly, is age slowing you down? This is not a trivial question. The typical rate of performance decline beyond your 30s is well-understood and quantified in age-graded masters performance tables, but the underlying physiology remains elusive. There are lots of potential culprits: changes in VO2 max, declining muscle mass, slower recovery times and so on. But one of the big factors, according to a growing body of research, is that older…

In the past, running has been viewed as a solo sport. But today, run clubs are booming. In fact, in 2024, Strava’s year-end report showed a 59-per-cent increase in run-club participation worldwide. If you love running alone and view the run as your quiet, introspective time, that’s entirely understandable. Still, there’s magic to finding a group of runners you can join occasionally, runners who lift you up and make you happier (and dare we say faster?) as a result of running together. But what is the secret sauce when it comes to finding the right running crew for you? It comes down to personal taste, an honest assessment of your current running condition and your goals, some gut intuition and knowing when to walk away or give it one more…

In Ontario’s Huron County, which has 100 km of lake shoreline and nine municipalities spread among farmland, running clubs are few and far between. This is why, when The Run Parlour opened its doors in August 2023, introducing a local club to the surrounding community, it was a welcome addition for established and budding runners alike. Co-owner and coach Peter Meades started The Run Parlour after he ran every road in the county, totalling about 3,000 km, in 2020. He based his shop in Clinton, which is considered the heart of Huron County. Situated at the town’s only traffic lights along the main street, the running boutique’s black sign pops against the backdrop of heritage brick buildings. Meades partnered with local Olympian 5,000m runner Julie-Anne Staehli, who was instrumental in…