This is a big weekend for everyone. Our Advanced and
Intermediate runners get to run 20 miles and our Novice runners are running 18
– further than they have ever run in their lives. It’s also a big weekend for
my family since my brother is getting married. He couldn’t just have the normal
expensive wedding in a downtown hotel.
No, he and his fiancé are making it into a weekend event. The
festivities take place in the north woods of Wisconsin, about a 6 hour drive from here. Rather
than risk getting lost during my long run or falling asleep during the
ceremony, I’ve decided to run my 20 miler on Friday morning from home. The only
risk that I’ll be taking is having to run in the remnants of Gustav, which have
been affecting us today. Then, I get to climb into our car and cramp up for the
6 hour ride. It’s a small price to pay for my brother’s wedding. As I told my
wife: “After all, he only gets married once in his life. Or in this case,
hopefully only twice.”
With our races coming up soon, there is a lot of important
information below, so don’t just scan the newsletter looking for my typos and
feeble attempts at humor. Actually, try to read this edition.
Last week’s and this
week’s run – My run last week was unremarkable and I’m frankly running out
of things to say here. So, I’ve enlisted
a guest columnist this week to describe his run last week. Here is Neil Pinzur’s
recount of last Saturday:
“I ran with Jody,
Jenny, Carol, and Steve (Carol's husband); and it was fine. Jenny gave me the news update that you turned
back at about 3.3 miles into the Middlefork Savanah
(sic) portion of the run. No
problem. At the hydration stop at the
Middlefork, I realized that I could add 3 miles and stay with the group; or
turn back and run alone. Assuming that I
probably would have got lost on the return, I opted to stay with the group.”
Wow, that’s as spellbinding as a Robert Ludlum thriller. Perhaps
Neil will continue to contribute his prose on a weekly basis, including his
summary of this Saturday’s run.
The mileages for this week’s run are mentioned in the
opening paragraph. We’re headed north, further than Intermediate and Novice
went two weeks ago. The weather should be decent – cool and dry. NovaCare will
have representatives at the site before and after the run. Make sure to talk to
them if you’re having any minor aches and pains. Remember proper nutrition
(gels or Jelly Belly sport beans) and have a good run.
Hydration –Thanks
to Jenny Neal and Neil Pinzur for last week. This week
is Gary Neal, Susan Devries, Bob Townsend, Lilly Bailey, and Mike McDonough. We
will have 2 extra tanks along the route. Although it will be cool, please make
sure that you are hydrating sufficiently and down your gel with water, not Gatorade.
Next week, Gail Campbell and Marty Phelps have the honors. They need to pick up
the supplies this Saturday from Dan.
Ready to Run 20 buses
– The cut off for signing up for the run has been extended to 9/12, so we’ll
extend the bus sign up to 9/13. This is
offered free for all NSDRC members and is just a $10 donation for CARA Marathon
Training Program participants.
If interested, please e-mail Leslie Apter
at lesapter@comcast.net and provide the following information:
Name; e-mail address; pace group; whether you are a CARA
Marathon Training Program Participant, iRuns member,
or NSDRC member; and whether you want us to pick up your packet for you. Note:
you must be registered for the run in order to participate in the bus ride.
Yoga for runners
– Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach an agreement with the studio in Highland Park, so we’ve
had to change the date, time and location. It is now on Saturday, September 13
at 3 pm at Niyama Yoga in Wilmette.
This 90 minute workshop is intended for all levels, whether you’ve never
practiced yoga before or if you are an expert.
That morning is a cut back run, so it should work out nicely. Niyama’s web site provides all pertinent information at www.niyamayoga.com. It’s a great studio
with a nice set up.
Also, they are donating their space. Since the yoga
instructor is donating her time, the cost to you and the NSDRC is nothing. Sorry
for the inconvenience. Please let me know if you would like to attend the
session by 9/12.
Dinner before the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon – Our tradition for the
past several years is to have a group dinner the night before the Lakefront
Marathon in at Buca di Beppo in downtown Milwaukee.
It’s conveniently located and offers family style Italian food, perfect for the
pre-race dinner. I have made 6 pm reservations for our party. Anyone
participating in the race, along with family and friends, is invited to join.
Or, you’re welcome if you aren’t running the next day but are willing to drive
90 miles just to see me talk with my mouth full of food. Please e-mail me your
name and number of people dining with you by September 20.
Tent for the Chicago Marathon – If
any NSDRC members are interested in having access to a tent before and after
the race, please contact Sharon Kuhn at sharonakuhn@aol.com.
She is organizing a team for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon Endurance
Pavilion. For 5 to 6 individuals together it's $360; for individuals it is $75.
She is looking for 5 others to participate with her.
Help wanted –
We’re looking for someone to assist with the NSDRC web site. Nikki Peck, one of our web team members,
decided to have a child and move to Delaware. I think she wanted her kid to grow up near
Joe Biden. We wish her well with the birth of her first child and in her future
endeavors. If anyone is moderately familiar with maintaining a web site, we’d
like your help. Assuming this role will alleviate any other current and future
responsibilities for the NSDRC. It’s pretty simple and primarily involves just
posting stuff, not creating content. If interested, please shoot me an
e-mail. If you’re unable to send an
e-mail, I don’t think that you’re qualified.
What’s happening in
your sport – In his first competition since his record shattering
performance in Beijing, Usain
Bolt easily won the 100 meter in 9.83 seconds at the Weltklasse
meet in Zurich
last week. Bolt’s race was upstaged by Pamela Jelimo, the 18 year old
Kenyan who won the woman’s 800 in 1:54.01. This was the fastest time in more
than 20 years and the third fastest in history. It’s unlikely that Bolt will be
upstaged on Friday at the (Jean Claude) Van Damme
Memorial meet in Belgium.
He’ll face off against fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell,
the former world record holder, and Tyson Gay, the reigning world champion. They
are the three fastest sprinters of all time and have posted the 10 faster 100
meter times ever between them. This could be the match up that fans hoped for
in the Olympics.
Tom’s tips –
Here’s an interesting article from Runner’s World about hills. Living in Illinois, they are hard to find, but not
impossible. Check out some of the bluffs around Lake Michigan or go west near
the Fox River Valley.
Can Hill Running Make You Faster?
By Amby
Burfoot
A few years ago, the Runner's World
editorial offices were briefly moved to the other side of town. The new
location was nestled at the foot of what we call "South Mountain,"
so I soon found my noontime runs steering up and over the mountain several
times a week. A month later, I noticed that I was feeling stronger, quicker,
and more light-footed on all my runs. Yes, the hills are alive with training
benefits. I am not the first to discover this. East Africans have been
traipsing up and down the steep slopes of the Great Rift
Valley for millennia, and in the last half-century have rewritten
the distance-running record books. Today, they run the hills harder than ever.
I experienced this first-hand on a 1998 trip to Kenya. One morning, I joined a
handful of marathoners who were being coached by Dr. Gabriele Rosa as they
tackled the infamous Fluorspar Hill (40 miles east of Eldoret)
that rises nearly 4,000 feet in 13 miles. Truth in editorial: I managed to hang
on for only 10 minutes before bailing out. I hopped into Rosa's
Jeep to watch the rest of the impressive workout, which ended 82 minutes after
it started. Rosa likes his marathon runners to
do strenuous hill running every 10 days during their marathon buildup. "Marathon
running uses a lot of quadriceps muscle fibers, and this is the best way to
build the quadriceps," Rosa told me
recently. "In Italy,
we use the gym also. But the Kenyans do not have any gyms, so we run
hills." Medical research isn't exactly brimming with hill-training
studies, but I located several with impressive results. A 1977 article in the
European Journal of Applied Physiology concluded that runners who followed an
intense six-week program of hard uphill running enjoyed "significant
improvements in training distances, anaerobic capacity, and strength." A
chapter in the International Olympic Committee's 1992 book Endurance and Sport
reported a study of runners who did 12 weeks of regular training, plus
"hill training with 'bounce running.'" After the 12 weeks, the
subjects' running economy (or how efficiently they ran) increased by an average
of three percent. That's a nice increase in a running variable that's not easy
to improve. Of course, not everyone appreciates hills. Running up hills is not
recommended for beginners because it puts too much stress on muscles and
connective tissues that may not be ready to handle the load. It may also put
extra stress on the knees and Achilles tendons.
Hill training made its first big impact in the early 1960s when runners
from tiny New Zealand,
including Peter Snell (three-time Olympic gold medalist), suddenly began
winning a disproportionate number of big races. Their successes were based on
the training philosophy of Arthur Lydiard, a marathoner-turned-coach. Lydiard
broke from the generation of coaches before him who believed mostly in interval
training. Who could blame them? They had just lived through the 1950s when
runners like Roger Bannister and Emil Zatopek used
mind-bending interval workouts to help them shatter the world records of that
era. But Lydiard believed even middle-distance
runners should begin their seasons with marathon-like training, and then move
into what he called "hill circuits." Lydiard first described his
program in the 1978 book Running the Lydiard Way,
coauthored by Garth Gilmour. In its ideal form, Lydiard's hill training takes
place on a two-mile layout that includes a steepish
uphill of 300 to 400 meters, a not-so-steep downhill of about 800 meters, and
relatively flat stretches of 800 to 1,000 meters at the top and bottom. You
begin by running the uphill stretch, in Lydiard's words, "springing up on
your toes, not running but bouncing. This gives you muscular development and
flexibility." At the top of the
hill, jog 800 to 1,000 meters to recover, then plunge
into the downhill run. The idea now is to "run fast, with relaxed,
slightly longer strides." On Lydiard's personally designed loop in Auckland, where the
downhill was approximately 800 meters, it is said that Peter Snell once ran a
1:48 and regularly hit 1:50. At the bottom
of the hill, do several sprint repetitions, varying between 50 meters and 400 meters.
Says Lydiard: "These sprint repetitions begin the development of your
capacity to exercise anaerobically." After six
weeks of hill circuits, you're ready for four weeks of track work to reach a
competitive peak. New Zealand
runners no longer rule the track, but they have continued to excel on hills. A native
of Wellington,
Derek Froude followed Lydiard's principles with zeal. He ran a 2:11 marathon,
and in 1990 became the first person to break 60 minutes in the Mount Washington road race. Froude clocked 59:17 for the
7.6-mile course with "only one hill," as participants like to
say. That record lasted until 1996, when
it fell--no big surprise--to a Kenyan. When Daniel Kihara
ran 58:21, onlookers termed his effort "awe inspiring." Of course,
they had not yet seen nor heard of Jonathan Wyatt. Last June, Wyatt stormed up the Mount Washington road in 56:41, nearly two minutes faster
than Kihara's old record. That's roughly the
equivalent of someone taking four minutes off the marathon world record. Wyatt,
also originally from Wellington,
has won four World Mountain Running Championships in recent years, and deserves
to be called the greatest hill runner of all time. When you bear a mantle like
that, you get asked only one question: What's your secret? "I think it's
just that I love the mountainous trails and have been running hills since I was
13," says Wyatt, 32. "I seem to get stronger every year." I ask him to plumb deeper into the subject,
even though Wyatt is one of those plain speaking Kiwis who would rather run up
a mountain than rhapsodize about it. "Relaxation is one of the keys,"
he says after a long pause. "You don't ever want to go anaerobic. You need
to push hard, but not go over the edge. I chop down my stride to become as
efficient as I can, and I try to conserve arm energy. I don't think you need to
pump your arms to run well on the hills."
Aaron’s answers –
And the question is, ‘What can I do to maintain fitness while decreasing my
risk of injury?’ The answer explained
below is cross training. Perhaps Aaron should have asked himself this question
before answering it for us, since unfortunately he is out with an injury. Now, he’ll have plenty of time to cross
train. Oops, I just added insult to
injury.
Cross-Training
There are a few different ways that runners can incorporate
many types of cross-training into their programs. What’s best for you depends on your needs, goals,
experience, and preferences; just as with any other kind of training. You can
use it to prevent injuries by reducing impact and/or correcting muscular
imbalances. It helps you maintain fitness while rehabilitating injuries that
restrict your running. You can improve your running fitness by increasing your
strength, power, and/or economy via activities chosen specifically for such
purposes. You can use it for active recovery from a race or a hard workout. It
helps you maintain or enhance your motivation by adding variety to your training
experience. You can dabble in other endurance sports- such as triathlon or
adventure racing- and still maintain your running-specific fitness. In the
off-season, you can cross-train your way to a rejuvenated body and mind. Examples
of Cross-Training:
Pool Running- Highly running specific, totally non-weight
bearing, minimal muscle tissue stress, and lessens shock absorption capacity of
legs.
Elliptical Training- Running specific, builds strength, can
increase stride rate, and boring for some.
Bicycling- Complements muscular development of running,
builds leg strength, and can increase stride rate.
Swimming- Essential for triathlons, spares the legs, and
very technique intensive.
Inline skating- Complements muscular development of running,
and builds leg strength.
Cross Country Skiing- More intense than running, very fun,
but requires snow.
I’m getting the newsletter out early today so I can watch
the opening of the NFL season and John McCain’s speech. I have some extra time
because my son’s cross country meet was cancelled due to the rain. This was
supposed to be his first meet as a high school freshman, so we’re all
disappointed that it was cancelled. He is the youngest of my three children and
all of them have run track and cross country in high school. One of my proudest
running related accomplishments is the fact that all of my kids picked up an
interest in running. I never forced it on them. They were all told that they
had to have some extracurricular activity in high school. It didn’t have to be
running or even a sport. I would have
been happy if they were on the debate team or even the chess club. But, I’m
happier that they took up running. Not just because it’s my passion, but also
because it’s a great sport for them. There are no cuts. Any kid that tries out
makes the team and gets to participate. None of my kids were star athletes but
they all contributed to the team. All that I asked of them was to honor their
commitment to the coach and the team. Track and cross country are team sports
performed by individuals, which is the best of both worlds. They learn to be responsible for their own
results, at the same time relying on others and developing camaraderie. It also
keeps them in shape, and they can do it the rest of their lives. Some families golf or boat together, but we
run. I’m looking forward to running with my two sons and brother before the
wedding. I’ll have a hard time keeping up with them after running 20 miles the
day before. At least, that will be my excuse.