Runner's Web Digest - April 2, 2004

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The TRACK PROFILE Reader 2004, an in-depth review of the 2003 season by Bob
Ramsak, is now available. Selected from
hundreds of reports filed by the Track Profile News Service last year, The TRACK
PROFILE READER provides a unique look
back at the personalities, stories and events that defined track and field in
2003. With in depth profiles of the
sport's biggest stars and comprehensive on-site reports from major competitions,
this annual review takes the reader
beyond the results, providing a perfect companion for casual and diehard fans
alike. Check out the book at:
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New This Week:

Runner's Web traffic continues to grow! In March we passes 2 million hits and
600,000 page views for the month, both
records.

Pegasus Quiz:
Peter Ennis of Ottawa was the first to identify the photo as that of Joan Benoit
at Boston in 1983. He wins a copy of
RunLog software.

Check out our new CHAT feature from our FrontPage.

Free Online Virus Scan:
Scan your PC for free at Panda Software:
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We have NO personal postings this week.
Personal Postings, when available, are located after the Upcoming Section
towards the bottom of the newsletter.

Our latest column from Carmichael Training Systems is available:
Fit or Fat? Balancing Weight Loss With Fitness Goals written by Chris
Carmichael.
heck it out at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/cts_columns.html


Digest Article Index:

1. Factors to Consider When Purchasing Fitness Tracking Software
2. Sudden deaths of older athletes may be tied to exercise
3. Reaching The Limits Of Exercise
4. Is 30 minutes enough for a workout? Sorting hype from fact
5. 10 Things to Make Training More Effective
6. Athletes and Depression
An athlete's guide to depression
7. Everything you wanted to know about "dietary supplements"
8. Changing Your Drinking Habits Changes Your Health
9. Pittsburgh man completes second jaunt across Alaska
10. Speeding up at 92
Fauja Singh ran his first marathon at 89. He's getting faster.
11. Sane Weight Loss in a Carb-Obsessed World: High Fiber and Low Fat
12. Deena Drossin
One of America's most promising distance runners.
13. Dip Into Honey Pot for Good Health:
14. Most Asthmatic Kids Not Prepared for Sports
15. Inside the stressed-out
Life's daily pressures can take a toll on the body, raising the risk of
illness. A greater understanding of the effects
could lead to more solutions.
16. Entrepreneurs shape up as fitness start-ups thrive
17. How To Run and Enjoy the Marathon - (A Practical Guide To The 26.2-Mile
Journey) By James Raia
Chapter 7. Need Motivation? Take a break
18. From Runner's World
19. Stretching Scientifically
The latest scientific studies and research findings!
20. Can Poor Sleep Affect Your Weight?
Too tired to exercise? Craving carbs? You may want to sleep on it. Listen to
what experts have to say about the link
between sleep problems and your weight.
21. Stabilization by Maylene Wise
22. Brian Maxwell, 1953-2004
23. The Importance of Hip Stability
24. Strength and Power Training for Endurance Athletes
25. News Scan



Runner's Web Weekly Poll:

This week's poll is: "What is you all-time personal best marathon time?"
Cast your vote at: http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
Post your views in our Forum at:
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[Free Registration Required]

The previous poll was: "Which of the following marathons would you run if you
had an unlimited amount of time to train
and cost was not an issue?"

The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Berlin 21 8%
2. Boston 47 18%
3. Chicago 20 7%
4. Honolulu 39 15%
5. London 46 17%
6. Los Angeles 17 6%
7. Marine Corps 13 5%
8. National Capital (Ottawa) 17 6%
9. New York 26 10%
10. Rotterdam 21 8%
Total Votes: 267

You can access the poll from our FrontPage as well as voting on and/or checking
the results of previous polls.

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Five Star Site of the Week: Women's Sports Net.com.
"Welcome our first official week of Women's Sports Net.com. One Source for
Women's Sports, Fitness, Diet & Health news.
The response we had during beta testing in February was amazing and I think each
and every one of you for your ideas and
your energy. March is one of the busiest seasons for women's sports as
professional golf kicks of their season, women's
tennis heads off the Pacific Life Open. Women's Sports Net will follow these and
other sports as well as the latest in
health, fitness and diet news."
Visit the site at:
http://www.womenssportsnet.com

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Book of the Week: Science of Flexibility-3rd Edition.
Gain a well-rounded understanding of the principles underlying stretching and
flexibility with the updated third edition
of Science of Flexibility. This practical text includes illustrated stretching
exercises with a concentration on muscle
structure and the technical nature of stretching. You will learn about the
principles and clinical aspects of
flexibility, the factors limiting flexibility, as well as techniques to enhance
flexibility throughout the body.
Based on the latest research, Science of Flexibility, Third Edition, provides a
comprehensive examination of the
scientific, anatomical, and clinical principles of stretching. A 16-page
appendix features 60 illustrated stretching
exercises. A basic stretching exercise is given for every major part of the
body—starting with the toes and plantar
arches in the feet, on to the quadriceps and hip flexors, trunk and back, and
finishing with the neck, shoulders, and
arms.
The new edition also includes many additional features:
An expanded research section with 2,100 scholarly and professional references
Boxes within the text that expand discussion of stretching-related topics such
as elasticity, collagen and scarring, and
altered stretch perception
Redrawn tables and figures as well as new illustrations
New information on several sports and artistic disciplines, including music and
dance, and their functional aspects of
stretching.
More...or to buy the book:
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showproduct.cfm?associate=880&isbn=0736048\
987


Be sure to check out our Flash Page where we list all recent additions to
the Runner's Web. This page is updated before Monday morning each week.


This Weeks News:

Articles:

1. Factors to Consider When Purchasing Fitness Tracking Software:
If you're like many athletes, you probably keep records of your training,
whether on a clipboard, in a spreadsheet, or
scribbled into your daily planner. There are a number of software applications
on the market that provide logging
capabilities, but how do you decide which one is right for you?
This paper describes 10 factors to consider when purchasing software for fitness
or athletic training. While most of
these considerations could apply to any type of software, the examples and
reasoning are specific to active people
involved with fitness activities.
Here are our top 10 considerations, with the top 5 being the most critical:
User-friendliness - Lets face it, this pretty much trumps all other factors, as
well it should. No matter how
technologically advanced, slick-sounding, or powerful a piece of software is, if
it's not easy to use, you probably
won't use it. In fact, the chief reason to buy software is to improve your life
in some way, and probably the last thing
you want to do is spend your time figuring out how it's supposed to work.
User-friendly software facilitates the initiation, process, and completion of
your work, with a minimum of confusion, in
a way that flows. Invariably, the screens have a nice design and are not too
"busy" with input boxes, buttons, images,
and text. They clearly communicate their function and whether or not any input
is required from you. Useful feedback
will guide you through the screens, without irritation, distraction, or
redundancy.
More...from Triathlete.com at:
http://www.triathlete.com/art.asp?3=434


2. Sudden deaths of older athletes may be tied to exercise:
By all accounts, Brian Maxwell was one of the last people anybody might predict
would end up among the 1,000 people in
the United States who succumb every day to sudden cardiac death.
Maxwell, one of UC Berkeley's most prominent alumni, was a track star and coach
at Cal in the 1970s, a world-ranked
marathon runner who remained devoted to exercise and good health throughout his
high-powered adult life.
He and his nutritionist wife, Jennifer, founded the PowerBar sport-snack
franchise in their kitchen, eventually selling
the business to the Nestle conglomerate for a reported $375 million.
Only 51, he collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack on March 19 in San
Anselmo. He lived nearby in Ross with his
wife and their six children.
Now, as UC Berkeley prepares for a public memorial Friday at noon, Maxwell's
death is being portrayed as particularly
shocking evidence that even the healthiest people are not immune to undetected
heart problems.
"Unfortunately, it can happen to anybody," said Dr. Peter Dietrich, medical
director of university health services at UC
Berkeley. "As much as we know about heart disease and all the excellent research
that's been done, there's still a lot
left to be learned. This is one of those cases that reminds us all of that."
The statistical death rate among marathon runners has been estimated around 1 in
50,000. About half a million people run
marathons each year in the United States.
More...from SFGate at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/28/MNG\
1A5SKTC1.DTL&type=science


3. Reaching The Limits Of Exercise:
When your mind and body tell you, “I can’t take another step or complete another
rep,” do you listen to your body or
push beyond it, thinking, no pain, no gain? There is no right answer, but
learning why you feel you’ve reached your
limit will help move you to a higher fitness level.
Improving Oxygen Delivery
Cells break down sugars and fats to create energy, and they do that most
efficiently when oxygen is present. This is
called aerobic metabolism, a process that goes on perpetually throughout our
bodies. Without oxygen, cells can still
burn calories for energy — called anaerobic metabolism. But parts of the body
can only function for short bursts of time
under anaerobic conditions before energy production declines.
Oxygen delivery has long been considered the most important factor that limits
exercise.
Oxygen in the air must make its way to individual muscle cells. After the lungs
deliver the oxygen to the blood, the
heart and the arteries move the oxygen-rich blood to the contracting muscles.
The lungs, heart, and arteries have
maximal capacities. Once the maximal capacity of any one of these three
components is reached, the muscles won’t get any
incremental increase in oxygen no matter how much they crave it. To keep the
muscles contracting, the cells switch to
anaerobic metabolism. In this state, the cells produce lactic acid, which causes
muscle pain and fatigue.
More...from InteliHealth at:
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/35320/35322/376580.html?d=dmtHMSCo\
ntent&k=wellx7165x35322


4. Is 30 minutes enough for a workout? Sorting hype from fact:
The 30-minute workout -- the buzz phrase in fitness centers in recent years --
shows no signs of abating.
Large fitness chains and small health clubs alike have been experimenting with
the concept of a shorter workout.
There are two schools of practice on the 30-minute workout. Clubs such as
Curves, Contours Express and Liberty Fitness
for women and Cuts Fitness for Men specialize just in the 30-minute workout.
They usually provide eight to 11 hydraulic
exercise machines, and some clubs incorporate bouts of cardiovascular activity
between stations.
In essence, they have retooled the circuit-training concept from the '80s and
'90s.
Larger health-club chains such as 24-Hour Fitness and Bally Total Fitness
include 30-minute workouts as part of their
many offerings. Their half-hour classes focus on one aspect of fitness, such as
strength or cardiovascular activity or
flexibility.
In these clubs, you might take a 30-minute high-impact class, followed by a
30-minute yoga class or a 30-minute
circuit-training session on the weight floor.
These options are undoubtedly an attractive way to entice a person who's short
on time or wants a well-rounded workout
without spending two hours on it.
More...from Active.com at:
http://active.com/story.cfm?story_id=10501&sidebar=575&category=keep_fit


5. 10 Things to Make Training More Effective:
By Coach Mark
A little while back I presented a seminar at an "Ironvigins" meeting. The last
question I was asked was, "What's the
most important piece of advice you would give someone doing Ironman for the
first time?" A very good question and one
which took me about a nanosecond to come up with an answer. In my opinion there
are two pieces of advice which everyone
should take on board. Firstly, get a coach, and secondly get your bike set up
correctly for Ironman.
In this article I will elaborate on the previous mentioned advice as well as
offer you a bonus eight more!
1) Get a coach - find a coach and a program that you believe in.
After a six year break from Ironman, including a couple of years overseas doing
precious little, I decided to get a
coach and stick to a programme written by someone other than myself for probably
the first time ever at the end of 2002.
I felt this would take the pressure off myself to get me back in shape. I also
felt I needed new ideas. I literally
bumped into Brendon Downey at a sports expo and my coach finding problem was
solved. Why did I choose him? Firstly,
because I knew him and I like and respect the guy (we went to Otago University
together). Secondly, he is educated (he
has a degree in Physiology and has other qualifications to boot ). Thirdly, he
has been there and done it (sub 9 hour
Ironman when he was 23 years old), and finally, he has years (at least 12) of
coaching experience and was/is currently
involved in coaching and is up to the play with the latest coaching methods and
research.
So there we have the four qualities I would look for in a coach. Once you have a
coach in mind sit down and hear what
their coaching philosophy is. Are they a `smash yourself silly until you break
through the barrier' type of coach or are
they a calculating type of coach who finds the best/easiest method to get the
results? I know which type of coach and
which type of approach I prefer, and for that matter which one hurts less!
More...from Endurance Coach at:
http://www.endurancecoach.com/Effective_Training.htm


6. Athletes and Depression:
An athlete's guide to depression
by Andrew A. Nierenberg, MD and Michael Ostacher, MD, MPH
"I'm all alone."
Written on a note found at Marco Pantani's bedside at the time of his death
Depression defined
An episode of major depressive disorder is defined by having a minimum of two
weeks of either decreased mood (blue, down
in the dumps, sad) or substantially decreased interests or pleasure (no longer
wanting to pursue hobbies or pleasurable
activities; diminished pleasure when those activities are attempted). In
addition to these symptoms, people will
experience changes in their sleep (either decreased or increased in duration;
commonly, early morning awakening occurs
and people are unable to return to sleep), feelings of guilt and self-blame,
decreased energy, decreased concentration
(unable to read or follow conversations), change in appetite (either increased
or decreased with associated changes in
weight), changes in speed of thought or movement (either increased with
restlessness or decreased with actually thinking
and moving more slowly), and thoughts of death or suicide. At least five
symptoms are required to have the diagnosis of
major depression.
More...from Transition Times at:
http://www.transitiontimes.com/viewstorylocal.cfm?ID=4256&ett2local=Wisconsin


7. Everything you wanted to know about "dietary supplements":
The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, defines dietary supplements as
a product (other than tobacco) intended
to supplement the diet that bears or contains one or more of the following
dietary ingredients: a vitamin, mineral,
amino acid, herb or other botanical dietary substance for use to supplement the
diet by increasing the total dietary
intake; a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any
ingredient described above and intended
for ingestion in the form of a capsule, powder, soft gel, or gelcap, and not
represented as a conventional food or as a
sole item of a meal or the diet (NIH, Office of Dietary Supplements).
A dietary supplement is also defined as a product which has the following
properties (Burke and Read, 1993): Contains
nutrients in amounts similar to the level specified by the recommended dietary
allowances to intakes (RDA/RDIs) and
similar to amounts found in food. Provides a convenient or practical means of
ingesting nutrients especially in a sports
setting. Allows or aids in achievement of known physiologic or nutritional
requirements of an athlete. Contains
nutrients in large amounts for use in reversing a known nutritional deficiency.
The efficacy of using the supplements
correctly has been acknowledged by exercise physiologists and sports nutrition
experts.
More...from Drug Free Sport at:
http://www.drugfreesport.com/choices/supplements/nut-gen.html


8. Changing Your Drinking Habits Changes Your Health:
If you have kept up a healthy habit of having a glass of wine a day, stick with
it: either stopping or upping your daily
alcohol intake has adverse health effects, new research indicates.
There's plenty of evidence that drinking small amounts of alcohol may protect
your heart, while drinking too much is
linked to higher risk of health problems, including cancer.
Now, Danish investigators have found that people who switched their drinking
habits experienced a corresponding change
in their health.
For instance, former teetotalers who switched to a daily habit of light drinking
experienced a decrease in their risk of
dying of heart disease, while light drinkers who decided to abandon the practice
experienced a slight increase in the
risk of heart troubles.
Moreover, people who upped their regular intake of alcohol tended to show a
higher risk of dying from cancer than people
whose former habits remained unchanged.
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=4675179&section\
=news


9. Pittsburgh man completes second jaunt across Alaska:
Having now crossed 1,100 miles of Alaskan wilderness on foot twice, Tim Hewitt
is either a living testament to tenacity
or just plain crazy.
"Maybe I'm a little of both," Hewitt said Wednesday from Anchorage International
Airport, where he was searching for a
flight home. "Most people have more sense, I guess."
At 12:10 p.m. Tuesday, his triumphant entry into Nome marked the 49-year-old
Greensburg man as the first and only
contestant in this year's Iditarod Trail Invitational to complete the entire
course from Anchorage.
Posting his official time at 22 days, 22 hours and 10 minutes, race officials
extended "congratulations to Tim from all
of us."
More...from Pittsburgh Live at:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/westmoreland/s_186198.html


10. Speeding up at 92:
Fauja Singh ran his first marathon at 89. He's getting faster.
IN THE QUEST to find a male Paula Radcliffe, Britain need look no farther than
Essex. Fauja Singh, from Ilford, is a
marathon runner who is setting world records here, there and everywhere. Now he
has signed a deal with adidas to
co-front a major advertising campaign that also features David Beckham, Jonny
Wilkinson and Laila Ali, the daughter of
Muhammad Ali. From this week, Singh’s face will adorn billboards in cities
across the UK as part of the campaign called
Impossible is Nothing. Appropriate, really, when you think that he is 92.
In athletic terms, Singh admits he is a “late developer”. For the first 81 years
of his life he lived on the family farm
in India, jogging regularly “to get from one place to the next”.
Before the Second World War he took part in village sports competitions in which
he recalls being faster than many of
his neighbours. But at 36, family commitments took over — he now has four
children, 13 grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren — and his running came to a halt. Only after his wife’s
death, when he moved to England to live with
his son 11 years ago, did it re-enter his life.
More...from the Times at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8127-1048364,00.html


11. Sane Weight Loss in a Carb-Obsessed World: High Fiber and Low Fat:
Name this product. The ingredients label says it contains the following: "Water,
ultrafiltered fat-free milk, calcium
caseinate, cream, buttermilk, tricalcium phosphate, salt, disodium phosphate,
mono- and di-glycerides, carrageenan,
locust bean gum, natural flavor, sucralose (Splenda), acesulfame potassium,
vitamin A palmitate and vitamin D3."
No, it's not some weird dessert. It is Hood's Carb Countdown Dairy Beverage, a
low-carb substitute for real skim milk
that claims to provide "75 percent less carbs and 50 percent more protein than
whole milk." A half-gallon of the Hood's
beverage sells for $3.99, compared with $1.48 for the same amount of real,
unadulterated fat-free milk.
This costly milk replacement is one of scores of products to reach the market in
recent months, as manufacturers try to
cash in on the mania for low-carb diets with products intended mainly for those
who find the dietary restrictions of
Atkins and his ilk too stringent to maintain.
My local bagel store, for example, sells what is purported to be a low-carb
bagel — six ounces (about 540 calories) of
what is basically white wheat dough for twice the price of an ordinary bagel. Is
it really low-carb? Without a
laboratory analysis, it is hard to tell. The list of ingredients were no help,
nor was sampling the product.
Is Low-Carb Necessary?
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/23/health/nutrition/23BROD.html


12. Deena Drossin:
One of America's most promising distance runners.
new star in the world of distance running, Deena Drossin has been setting new
records on both sides of the Atlantic.
She recently broke the U.S. record for the marathon with a time of 2:21:16
during her run in the April 2003 London
marathon after taking the silver medal at the recent World Cross Country
Championships in Switzerland. Additionally, she
broke the world record in winning the 2002 Carlsbad 5,000 and followed up by
setting a new American record for 10,000
meters on the track at the Stanford Invitational of that same year. Deena is a
six time US Cross Country Champion and is
a member of Team USA and coached by renowned Coach Joe Vigil.
A national contender as a high school student, Drossin won two California state
titles in track and three in cross
country while making the finals of the Kinney (now FootLocker) National Cross
Country Championships four times. She
earned her degree in English/creative writing and journalism at the University
of Arkansas during an undergrad running
career that saw her win seven Southeastern Conference titles. Deena, who says
that cross country is her true passion,
was a four-time Kinney XC finalist as a prep athlete and was inducted into
University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in
2001.
More...from Marathon First Timers at:
http://www.marathonfirsttimers.com/deena_drossin.html


13. Dip Into Honey Pot for Good Health:
Adding a little honey to your diet may do more than satisfy your sweet tooth.
Honey may also boost levels of healthy
antioxidants, new research suggests.
For centuries, honey has been known to have some beneficial effects, according
to University of California-Davis
researcher Dr. Heidrun B. Gross. In an interview with Reuters Health, Gross
recalled her grandmother's advice to eat
honey when she felt under the weather.
Now, Gross and her colleagues have provided scientific evidence to support what
her grandmother knew all along.
"Honey is not just a sweetener," Gross said. It also has compounds called
phenolics that have antioxidant properties,
she explained. These substances quench free radicals, which are unstable
byproducts of normal metabolism that cause
damage to arteries, and to DNA that can lead to cancer and other diseases.
It is easy enough to take vitamin supplements that contain antioxidants, but
Gross said she prefers "to look for foods,
rather than compounds, that are already part of our diet."
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=4690251&section\
=news


14. Most Asthmatic Kids Not Prepared for Sports:
Only a small minority of kids with asthma who participate in sporting events
come armed with the medication that
prevents and treats an asthma attack, new research suggests.
Despite the well-known fact that exercise can trigger an attack in asthmatics,
only 22 percent of children playing
baseball or soccer carried so-called rescue medicine, which opens their airways
during an asthma attack, U.S.
investigators found.
Leaving this medicine at home can have a significant impact on kids' ability to
play sports, "without a doubt," Dr. Jack
Becker of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia told Reuters
Health.
Children with uncontrolled asthma may be slowed down during sport by persistent
coughs, tightness in their chest or
trouble breathing, Becker noted. And in severe cases, asthma attacks can kill,
he added.
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=4690932


15. Inside the stressed-out:
Life's daily pressures can take a toll on the body, raising the risk of illness.
A greater understanding of the effects
could lead to more solutions.
As a high-level executive for a large computer manufacturer, Dan Bishop was a
self-described workaholic who thought he
was ably juggling daily demands and corporate pressures. Then he woke up one
night with tightness in his chest, barely
able to breathe. At first he suspected a heart attack. The tightness quickly
passed, but he was frightened enough to see
his doctor.
The doctor diagnosed an anxiety attack — caused by stress — and told him to
"stop being so driven."
"I didn't know what stress was; I didn't think I had stress," said Bishop, now
52, referring to the 1990 diagnosis.
As Bishop found, stress can be insidious.
The pressures of daily life — jobs, relationships, money, raising children and
now, war and terrorism — have become such
constant companions that many of us operate with ever-present feelings of
pressure, anxiety or burnout.
The stress can become so unflagging that many people have accepted it as a
standard part of life. Although we may try to
ignore its presence, stress doesn't go away. It just goes to work inside the
body.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-stress29mar29,1,1950200.story?coll=\
la-headlines-health



16. Entrepreneurs shape up as fitness start-ups thrive:
BRITAIN is no longer a nation of shopkeepers, but of personal trainers and
cycling instructors. A study has found that
would-be entrepreneurs are cashing in on the keep-fit craze and setting up
sports and leisure businesses at a faster
rate than ever before.
They helped to push the number of start-up companies last year to the highest
level since 1988. The number of keep-fit,
cycling, personal training and health clubs that were created jumped by nearly
50 per cent to 66,300 from the previous
year.
The rise in the leisure sector was higher than in any other industry and helped
to boost the overall number of start-ups
to 465,000, a 20 per cent increase on 2002.
A spokesman for Barclays, which conducted the study, said that opportunities in
the sector had been identified mainly by
people who had been made redundant and women seeking a return to work after
having children.
More...from the Times Online at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8127-1057941,00.html


17. How To Run and Enjoy the Marathon - (A Practical Guide To The 26.2-Mile
Journey) By James Raia
Chapter 7. Need Motivation? Take a break.
It's not uncommon for an athlete to achieve a goal and then have difficulty
staying motivated. The predicament is one
variety of athlete burnout, and it doesn't discriminate whether you thrive on
walking, swimming, cycling or running
marathons.
Athlete burnout can also occur as a result of stale training habits, overracing
and overtraining as well as a mental
letdown. And it doesn't matter if you're an elite athlete or a weekend warrior.
"Don't race too frequently," Bakoulis writes in her abovementioned book. "Just
like running too much mileage or doing
too many speed workouts, overracing can lead to excessive fatigue, burnout, and
it may contribute to injury.
"A good test of whether you race too frequently is your mindset as you approach
a race. You should have a feeling of
eager anticipation and excitement. If you approach a race with a sense of
listlessness or boredom - or worse, dread -
you have probably been overracing."
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20040402_Raia_Marathon7.html


18. From Runner's World:
*Keep Your Head Up: Many racers run with their heads down and eyes focused just
a few feet ahead. This is especially
true near the end of a race, when neck and shoulder muscles fatigue and it seems
easier to rest your chin on your chest.
But for optimal performance, you need to run with your head up and eyes forward.
This way, you can see what's going on
ahead of you. You can breathe easier, too, as your lungs will be able to fully
expand. And tactically, you'll be able to
keep contact with other runners and close gaps when necessary.
-Ed Eyestone, two-time Olympic marathoner

*Add backward running as part of your cool-down. Easing into a gentle backward
run lets you gradually decrease your
heart rate, and it stretches your calf, quadriceps, and hamstring muscles that
have been working hard during forward
running. This will decrease muscle soreness in those areas. Plus it adds a
playful element to your running, and will
improve your balance and coordination.

*Surround yourself with good food that inspires you to cook. Take advantage of
farm markets, and cruise your grocery
store aisles for new offerings. Invite friends over and try out a new recipe, or
organize a potluck supper. Always keep
salad greens on hand.

*Go Longer: "Just as fast running makes your standard pace easier, long runs
make your regular distance seem
shorter--thus easier. By pushing the pace on some days, and lengthening the
distance on others, you'll be able to cruise
in the effortless zone on the rest of your runs."
-Tish Hamilton, RW deputy editor



19. Stretching Scientifically:
The latest scientific studies and research findings!
Without a doubt, the most common questions I'm asked is; "What's your view on
the latest scientific studies and research
findings in regards to stretching?"
The short answer is; "They all make for interesting reading, but I don't put a
huge amount of confidence in them." Let
me explain why.
Most of the studies I've reviewed attempt to determine the effects of stretching
on injury prevention. This is a mistake
in itself, and shows a lack of understanding as to how stretching is used as
part of an injury prevention program.
Stretching, by itself, will not prevent injury. In fact, stretching can cause
injury if certain precautions aren't
taken.
Plus, it's not just a flexibility problem that can lead to injury. It could be a
strength imbalance. It could be a
stability or balance problem. It could be a proprioceptive imbalance. It could
have to do with postural imbalances. It
could have to do with physical imbalances like leg length differences. Or, it
could simply be a matter of trying to do
too much, too soon.
Stretching is just one very important component that assists in reducing the
risk of injury. The best results are
achieved when stretching is used in combination with other injury reduction
techniques.
More...from the Stretching Handbook at:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/archives/stretching-scientifically.htm


20. Can Poor Sleep Affect Your Weight?
Too tired to exercise? Craving carbs? You may want to sleep on it. Listen to
what experts have to say about the link
between sleep problems and your weight.
WEBCAST TRANSCRIPT
ANNOUNCER: Are you avoiding the bathroom scale? Is it a struggle to pull on last
year's clothes? If the answer is "yes,"
you probably need to take off some extra pounds. But what you might not know is
that a little extra sleep could be the
answer.
WOMAN: I don't know that there's a relationship between how much you weigh and
how much you sleep.
MAN: How much I sleep and how much I weigh? That's got me. I am kind of confused
with that one there. That's a good
question, though.
ANNOUNCER: Studies show that people who sleep too little are actually more
likely to raid the refrigerator.
ORFEU BUXTON, PhD: It seems as if the body responds to sleep restriction by
craving more fuel, a reduced energy balance,
and this is communicated by the fat cells, actually. Leptin is a molecule
secreted by fat cells and conveys a satiety
signal. "There's enough fuel on board." And with sleep restriction, keeping the
level of activity and the amount of
calories constant, the body says, "I need more food." And this is inappropriate
and may lead to overeating and
potentially obesity in the long term.
More...from Healthology at:
http://www.healthology.com/webcast_transcript.asp?f=sleep_disorders&c=sleep_weig\
ht&spg=NWL&b=HEALTHOLOGY


21. Stabilization by Maylene Wise:
Editor's note: Maylene Wise is a strength and conditioning coach in Raleigh,
North Carolina. She can be found at
atp4athletes.com. She is a triathlete herself, and can be contacted at
maylene@....
I received many responses from my article last month asking for additional
advice. Since most of the questions asked
were common I decided to post them here. Keep them coming!
Q: What exercises do you recommend for triathletes?
For Stabilization, or Anatomical Adaptation, I normally prescribe the following
exercises:
• Squat
• Press (such as a push up)
• Pull (such as a pull up) (12 reps each, 2 sets)
• Walking Lunge
• Swimmer’s cable
• Swimmer’s reverse cable (12 reps each, 2 sets)
Those are for the prime movers, all are functional and closed-chain where
possible. Then I move on to the supplemental
core stabilization which is always at the end of a workout. You do not want to
fatigue the muscles that will help
stabilize you during the exercises for the prime movers. Remember that ALL your
exercises can be core strengtheners, all
the ones listed above are, these are just extra.
More...from SlowTwitch.com at:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/coachcorn/strength2.html


22. Brian Maxwell, 1953-2004:
RUNNING COMMENTARY 512
After hearing the news about Brian Maxwell, I planned to run one of my miles
that day in his memory. So hauntingly sad
was this news that he ran with me almost every mile for the next week.
News reports of his death (from an apparent heart attack) at age 51 led off with
his business credits. He founded the
PowerBar company, nurtured its amazing growth and sold it a few years ago to
Nestle for $375 million.
I don't pretend to have been Brian Maxwell's good friend. We met only in the way
that I got to know many other "names"
of running in the 1970s. By mail.
Brian had come to the Bay Area from Canada to run for the University of
California in Berkeley. He made little news as a
collegian because the racing distances were too short.
Then he graduated into the marathon and found his running success there.
Sub-2:15 runners like him were rare then.
Rarer still were runners of that level who could write well about the
experience. Or would do it for the small fees that
Runner's World paid at the time I still edited the magazine.
Brian sent me one of his stories, and RW published it. Others followed, and two
of them live on in the book The Complete
Marathoner.
Brian had many talents. He could have become a fulltime writer. Instead he
stayed focused on his running while eking out
a living as an assistant coach at Cal/Berkeley.
His running peaked in 1977, when he PRed in the 2:14s. Three years later he made
the Canadian Olympic
team-that-went-nowhere.
By then he had slipped into a pattern of hitting walls late in his races.
Looking for a nutritional solution, his
experiments led to what would become PowerBar.
I didn't become a fan right away. The original beige bar had the consistency of
a compound you'd use to patch leaky
pipes.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/427.html


23. The Importance of Hip Stability
The relationship between running injuries and biomechanics is only beginning to
be investigated. Another example, in
addition to the previous one, can serve as a provocative thought for athletes
and coaches, as well as researchers. We
are seeing increasing numbers of what are initially referred to as 'hip
problems" among those attempting to move to a
higher level by increasing the volume of their training load, especially elite
female runners. For some it is muscle
pain in piriformus, or gluteals. For others it is lumbosacral or lower lumbar
joint pain or nerve irritation, especially
the sciatic nerve. Worse, symptoms could include several or all of these.
Depending on whom they see for medical advice
(orthopedist, podiatrist, chiropractor, physical therapist, massage therapist),
runners get different opinions because
of the various specialties' approach in diagnosis. As their discomfort over time
may change (often because postural or
stride compensation results in accompanying fatigue or irritation in other
muscles or connective tissues), their
description of symptoms, as well as suggested diagnoses from various experts,
may also change.
More...from Fleet Feet Louisville at:
http://www.fleetfeetlouisville.com/hipstability.html


24. Strength and Power Training for Endurance Athletes:
It is a common belief that endurance athletes don't require strength training in
order to perform well. Although this
may be the case for many talented individuals, the truth is that appropriate
strength training can help improve every
endurance athlete's performance.
One recent study, which is soon to be published in the US, concluded that 10-km
running performance could be predicted
from a combination of 300m time trial performance and plyometric leap distance;
both of which have explosive power as a
determining aspect. Another study done by highly regarded researchers in Finland
several years ago showed that 5-km run
time could be significantly improved by supplementing run training with
explosive power and speed sessions.
The benefits of strength training for some endurance sports such as cycling and
swimming have long been evident, and
these single sport athletes now carry out regular strength training programs.
More...from VAAM-POWER.com at:
http://www.vaam-power.com/strength_training.html


25. News Scan:
Dr. Gabe Mirkin's E-Zine
*Sit-ups To Make Your Belly Stronger
Sit-ups can strengthen your belly muscles, but doing them incorrectly can hurt
your back. Sit-ups should be done while
you lie on your back with your knees bent enough for the soles of your feet to
touch the floor. Place both hands on your
chest and slowly raise your head off the ground. Then, slowly raise your
shoulders around one foot and then lower them
to the ground. Do this slowly ten times, rest a few seconds and then do two more
sets of ten. After a week or two, this
exercise will feel easy, so do it with a light weight, wrapped in a towel, held
behind
your neck or on your chest. As you become stronger, you can use heavier weights.
There's no need to do more than 30 sit-ups in one workout. To strengthen your
belly muscles, you increase the
resistance, not the number of repetitions. Keep your knees bent to protect your
back. If you do a sit-up with your legs
straight, you place a great force on the iliopsoas muscles that increase the
arch in your back, which can damage the
ligaments and joints. If your belly muscles are weak, you are likely to arch
your back excessively when you sit up and
increase the chances of injury. If you are doing sit-ups to flatten your
stomach, you need to raise
your head only about one foot because going higher than that uses the quadriceps
muscles in the front of your upper
legs, not your belly muscles.

*Dear Dr. Mirkin: Is there any way to prevent painful leg cramps in the middle
of the night?
Cramping during sleep is usually due to an exaggeration of a normal muscle
reflex. When you turn during sleep, you
contract your calf muscles and stretch their tendons. This stimulates nerve
stretch receptors in the tendon and sends a
message back to the spinal cord, telling the calf muscles to contract.
Sometimes, the muscles remain contracted and
hurt. Painful muscle cramps at night can also be caused by nerve
damage such as that caused by pinching a nerve, muscle damage, a
partially-obstructed flow of blood to the legs or
abnormal mineral or hormone levels. If you have this problem often, check with
your doctor. If you do not have a
serious cause, you can often prevent night cramps by exhausting the stretch
reflex before you go to bed by stretching
your calf muscles with wall pushups, and applying a heating pad for 10 minutes
before you go to sleep. The most common
cause of leg cramps in exercisers is lack of salt.
The Food and Drug Administration has ruled that none of the over-the-counter
drugs used to treat night-time leg cramps
are recognized as safe or effective. The only drug that has been shown to be
effective in treating night-time leg cramps
is quinine. Doctors often prescribe 1 or 2 quinine pills at bedtime, but they
can cause birth defects and miscarriages,
so they should never be taken by a woman who may become pregnant. They can also
cause ringing in the ears, headache,
nausea, disturbed vision, chest pain and asthma.
From: http://www.drmirkin.com .

All of them oddballs - Angus Calder sees the diversity of life:
Emil Zapotek, the great distance runner, was an apprentice in a Bata shoe
factory in Czechoslovakia in the 1940s when
someone suggested he enter a race. He did well, though he ran without training,
in "lumpen country style, body leaning
forward, shoulders heaving, head rolling." He maintained this unique style even
as he became the most famous Czech in
the world, an Olympic champion in the marathon and the 10,000 and 5,000 metres.
As Angus Calder tells the story in his marvellously surprising book Gods,
Mongrels, and Demons: 101 Brief but Essential
Lives (Bloomsbury), Zapotek sounds both eccentric and lovable. He had an odd
habit of chatting with fellow runners
during races, sometimes urging them on. He gave one of his own Olympic gold
medals to a competitor from Australia who
had broken world records but never won a championship. Zapotek loved training.
He could happily jog on the spot for
hours, reading a book, and when his wife had her leg in a cast he ran with her
on his back. She was a javelin thrower,
and they invented an original if rather high-risk game: They would hurl a
javelin at each other, the point being to
catch it as it soared overhead and return it quickly.
In Calder's encyclopedia of human oddballs, Zapotek takes his place alongside
Babe Ruth and Billy the Kid, Joan of Arc
and Queen Victoria. Matsuo Basho, the haiku king, appears in this select
company, and so does Tricky Sam Nanton, the
great Ellington trombonist. Calder borrows the tradition of Plutarch's Lives and
John Aubrey's Brief Lives but makes his
own points. If Aubrey's theme was half-remembered scandal and Plutarch's was
"signs of the soul in men," Calder's is the
wild diversity of life.



This Weeks Events:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites*

Coming Up:

April 3, 2004:

Cooper River Bridge Run - Charleston, SC
http://www.bridgerun.com/

Great BUPA Ireland Run - Dublin, Ireland
http://www.greatrun.org/events/event.asp?id=6

Kick-Off to Spring 5K - Ottawa, ON
http://www.ottawalions.com/events/030304-kickofftospring5k.htm

Ralph's Half-Ironman Triathlon - Oceanside, CA
http://www.ironmancalifornia.com/

Spring Run-Off 8K & Easter Seals 5K Fun Run - Toronto, ON
http://www.canadarunningseries.com/springrunoff/index.htm

U.S. Olympic Team Trials: Women's Marathon - St. Louis, MO
http://www.stlouismarathon.com/stl_marathon/
USATF Site
http://www.usatf.org/events/2004/OlympicTrials.asp
Runner's World
http://www.runnersworld.com/events/roadtoathens/wtrials/home.html
Running Times
http://www.runnersworld.com/events/roadtoathens/wtrials/home.html

Television - CBC 2 - 3 PM EST
World Cross-Country World Championships

April 3-4, 2004:
Asian Regional Triathlon Championships - Subic Bay, Philippines
http://www.triathlon.org/regional/reg-2004/events/asia/subic-bay/index.htm

April 4, 2004:

American 100K Championship - Eagle, WI
http://www.americanultra.org/

Athens Marathon - Athens, OH
http://www.athensmarathon.org/

Australia Ironman Triathlon - Forster-Tuncurry, New South Wales, AUS
http://www.ironmanoz.com/

Paris Marathon - Paris, France
http://www.parismarathon.com/

Spirit of St. Louis Marathon - St. Louis, MO
http://www.stlouismarathon.com/stl%5Fmarathon/

Zurich Marathon - Switzerland
http://www.zurichmarathon.ch/


For more complete race listings check out our Upcoming Races Check the Runner's
Web on Sunday and Monday for race
reports on these
events.

This Weeks Personal Postings/Releases:

We have NO personal postings this week.

Television and Online Coverage:
[Check local listings as event times are subject to change]

Check out our new Runner's Web Television Links page at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_television.html

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Have a good week of training and/or racing.



Ken Parker
Runner's Web
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