Runner's Web Digest - December 17, 2004

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Check out our Sports Nutrition column written by Sheila Kealey. Sheila is one of
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This Weeks Personal Postings/Releases:
We have ONE personal posting this week.

1. Hey everyone,
My name is Aja, I work for National Geographic Adventure magazine, and we are
currently working on an article about eCoaches and
athletes for our March 2005 issue. If anyone here has/had an eCoach, would you
be so kind as to email me with a little bit about
your experience with your eCoach, positive and negative aspects of using
eCoaches, the name and/or organization of your eCoach, and
anything else you feel may be relevant. Thanks so much for your help!
Mailto:anuzzi@...

.


This Week's Digest Article Index:

1. Lydiard's Farewells
Joe Henderson's Running Commentary.
2. Casting Off the Winter Time Chills
3. Polymeals - the Recipe for a Longer Life?
4. Jello-O-like Compound Might Fix Knees
Injectable gel that hardens in light could speed repair of torn cartilage.
5. Nutritional Guidelines for Runners
6. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Two for Newton
7. Training for Speed
8. Explosive Running
How to Run Farther and Faster
9. Spin To Win
Often times, multi-discipline athletes have difficulty locating the time to get
it all in. There isn't enough daylight to swim,
ride, run, paddle, climb, and trek in a given week. Keeping our fitness at an
optimal level and focusing on essential disciplines
while dealing with the shorter evenings and colder winter weather dictates
taking our training indoors. A stationary indoor spin
bike is a great way of maintaining and improving hard earned fitness.
10. Is Running Good for Children?
We all would love to see our kids as Olympic Champions--but is training them now
a wise idea?
11. From Runner's World
12. Steps To Staying Healthy This Winter
13. A trainer at your fingertips
Want to calculate your BMI, heart rate or caloric needs? With a fitness
cellphone, all that is easily accessible.
14. Avoid injury when practicing yoga and Pilates
15. Multisport: Preserving Your Weight Through the Holidays
16. Winter Riding Techniques
There are as many different techniques for riding on ice and snow as there are
varieties of snow.
17. All good things come to an end...by Dan Empfield 11.23.04
As some Slowtwitch readers already know, I tendered my resignation as USAT board
member for the Western Region last week.
18. McDonald wins close bid for ITU presidency
19. Infection link to heart attacks
Common respiratory and urinary tract infections play a role in triggering heart
attacks and strokes, a study of 40,000 medical
records suggests.
20. I Learned This in Yoga
Training for ironman teaches us general life lessons: work hard for your goals,
persevere, and realize that you can do more than you
ever thought possible.
21. Cyclists: Maintain balance during base training
22. Calories in juice still count:
Though nutritious, some varieties contain more sugar than soda does. Kids should
drink water for their thirst, some dietitians say.
23. Dangerous Exercises ?
What makes an exercise dangerous? Are exercises inherently safe or dangerous?
Read this article and let us and other visitors know
what you think.
24. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
25. News Scan
A collection of news items.


Runner's Web Weekly Poll:
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Answers Votes Percent
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2. Victor Conte 64 67%
3. Neither one 17 18%
4. No opinion, don't care 7 7%
Total Votes: 95

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Book of the Week: Lore of Running
Now revised, expanded and updated, Lore of Running gives you incomparable detail
on physiology, training, racing, injuries,
world-class athletes, and races.
Author Tim Noakes blends the expertise of a physician and research scientist
with the passion of a dedicated runner to answer the
most pressing questions for those who are serious about the sport:
· How your body systems respond to training, the effects of different training
methods, how to detect and avoid overtraining, and
genetic versus trainable potential
· How to train for the 10K up through ultramarathon with detailed programs from
Noakes and several leading running experts.
· How to prevent and treat injuries, increase your strength and flexibility
Buy the book from Human Kinetics at:
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This Weeks News:

Articles:

1. Lydiard's Farewells:
Joe Henderson's Running Commentary
Five years ago Arthur Lydiard took what he and we thought at the time was his
"farewell tour" of the United States. He'd been coming
here from New Zealand for almost 40 years then, and he still loved the attention
that greeted him in the U.S. That acclaim kept him
going.
I wrote in 1999 that "Arthur Lydiard now eases off the stage. But his system
remains as sound as it was when he sprung it on the
world in 1960."
Three athletes from his neighborhood in New Zealand, a country with Oregon's
population, won medals at the 1960 Olympics. He later
inspired the double-double of Finland's Lasse Viren.
Most of today's runners hadn't yet started when Arthur Lydiard was in his
coaching prime. Many weren't yet born.
Some critics now call Lydiard's methods "outdated." But there is no expiration
date on expertise, no statute of limitations on what
works.
Rich Englehart, a longtime Lydiard devotee, saw him in Boston five years ago.
"It was an interesting evening -- and a bit sad, quite
honestly," said Rich that year. He saw his chosen coach as an unsteady old man
of 82 and most of the audience in their masters
years. "My pervasive feeling was that I was at a meeting of People Whose Time
Has Passed.
"Right outside the auditorium one of the local clubs was running a group
interval session on the track. The conference organizers
went out and invited them in for free, but they all decided they'd rather stay
out and do intervals than come in and listen to some
old guy tell them that maybe they should be doing something else."
Rich added, "My experience isn't going to change anyone's mind. But it assures
me that I chose to follow the right leader -- both
when we were all much younger, and recently when I signed up for his online
coaching advice and improved by 1:45 in the track 5000."
That 1999 U.S. tour wasn't Arthur Lydiard's last. He encored this fall at age
87, bringing along the baggage of four strokes and two
knee replacements.
Rich Englehart again met his mentor in Boston and then drove him to Washington,
DC, with an overnight stop en route. "This was one
of the greatest experiences of my life, spending two days alone with him," says
Rich.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://joehenderson.com/archive/


2. Casting Off the Winter Time Chills:
It is 7:00 AM and already the temperature is 95°; the humidity is approaching
100%; you drained your water bottle an hour ago; and
your head is starting to get a little funny. On days like this, do you look
forward to winter running? Do you look forward to
wearing running pants, fleece, hats, and mittens? As you start to hallucinate
from dehydration do you start to feel snow flakes on
your cheek? If so then those days are here.
Yes, the days are shorter now, and for many of us that means running in the
dark. It means cold runny noses and slippery roads. It
means motorists who don't see us because they didn't scrape off their
windshield. It means under-dressing and being cold at the
start of a run or over-dressing and being soaked in sweat at the end.
But it also means beautiful pre-dawn or evening moonlight reflecting off the
snow. It means watching the sunrise at the end of a
long run. It means quiet, meditative runs down the middle of a dark, rarely used
street; the only noise being that of your breath
and the sound of your feet on the pavement. Yes, winter running can be a
challenge, but it can also be its own reward.
The key to enjoying wintertime running is in the preparation. You need to
understand what to wear on your feet, legs, torso, hands,
and head; you need to make sure you can be seen and are prepared to take evasive
action when you are not seen; and you need to know
when you should find some other form of exercise.
More...from the Competitive Runner at:
http://www.competitiverunner.com/winterruns.php


3. Polymeals - the Recipe for a Longer Life?
If you enjoy good food and don't like the idea of taking pills to reduce the
risks of heart attack or stroke, it could be time to
try the Polymeal.
Foods ranging from wine to fish and fruits and vegetables have been shown to
reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, so Dr Oscar
Franco, a public health expert at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands,
decided to combine them in one meal.
If people over 50 years old consumed roughly the daily equivalent of the
Polymeal, the researchers calculated, they could slash the
odds of suffering from heart disease, one of the world's biggest killers, by 76
percent.
"The message of our paper is that a healthy lifestyle and a good balanced diet
is a good alternative to prevent cardiovascular
disease," Franco said in an interview.
He and his team searched scientific literature to find foods that have a proven
protective effect against cardiovascular disease and
then used a mathematical model to determine how much the combined effects of the
individual ingredients would reduce the risk of the
illness. The results are reported in the British Medical Journal
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=7123048


4. Jello-O-like Compound Might Fix Knees:
Injectable gel that hardens in light could speed repair of torn cartilage.
An injectable gel that hardens in light could speed the repair of torn cartilage
and help injured athletes return to competition
sooner.
The approach uses a patient's own cartilage-producing cells and has the
potential to be more effective and less invasive than
conventional cartilage repair techniques, which may include extensive surgery,
say American researchers from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School in Cambridge.
When the liquid mixture is injected into areas where cartilage is torn, such as
a knee joint, the material hardens into a gel upon
exposure to ultraviolet light, leaving transplanted cells in place so they can
grow new cartilage where needed
More...from Better Humans at:
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-12-10-3


5. Nutritional Guidelines for Runners:
Nutrition is an important, but often misunderstood, part of the running
equation. Food is fuel, and as runners, we need more fuel,
and better fuel, as we increase distance or intensity. By making small dietary
changes, staying away from fad diets, and
understanding what our bodies need, we can successfully build our own eating
styles that provide each of us personally with what we
need to reach our goals.
By first examining the proper eating habits, then examining what we eat (or what
we should eat), and finally examining our hydration
needs, we can establish a set of guidelines to form the base of our individual
plans.
Our eating habits can be broken down into sections of when we eat, how often we
eat, how much we eat, and what to eat and what not
to eat.
When?
If you think of your energy needs on an hourly basis instead of a daily basis,
you may realize that your eating your biggest meal
and then doing nothing, whereas you hardly eat at all before your runs.
More...from Running About at:
http://running.about.com/od/nutrition/a/nutrition101.htm


6. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Two for Newton:
Eons ago I ran a pair of summer track meets at York High School in suburban
Chicago. Joe Newton coached at that school then, and 48
years after taking the job he's still there.
Newton grew into a legend in high school coaching. He was the only one from
those ranks to serve on an Olympic men's staff (in
1988).
In the mid-1990s, as we worked together on a book of his, he promised to retire
when "we win our 20th state cross-country title or I
turn 70, whichever comes first." He has retired only from teaching at York and
from coaching track. At 75 he still guides the
cross-country team, which won its 24th Illinois state title this fall.
Our book, published in 1996, remains in print. It's called Coaching
Cross-Country Successfully.
No one has done that better, longer than Joe Newton. And, through this and other
books plus his clinic speeches, few coaches have
taught more coaches how to do it.
Joe writes and speaks about training and tactics. But he has much more to teach
about team-building and motivation.
He's tough-talking and tender-hearted, and his coaching style blends those
traits. He recruits huge teams and works them hard. He
also calls each boy (he coaches only the boys at York) by name (and often a
nickname) each day, and shakes each one's hand at the
end of every practice.
I've seen Joe only once since the book came out in 1997. We'd planned to get
together again at the first Nike Team Nationals in
Portland.
This was as true a U.S. championship meet as high school officialdom (and
sometimes -dumb) would let it be. Nike intended to invite
the 20 top boys' teams and 20 girls' teams to Portland.
State officials ruled that teams couldn't run under school names, and some
states wouldn't let their kids run at all. Coaches' names
couldn't appear in the program.
Nike still gathered a classy field, sparing no expense. Eight runners per team,
plus a coach, were flown to Oregon, housed, fed and
clothed.
Joe Newton couldn't come. He couldn't put off long-postponed back surgery any
longer, having it right after the state meet.
"I can lie down, stand and walk," he told me. "But I can't sit down. That ruled
out a plane trip."
His boys came west without him, without any coach but only with a
chiropractor-friend of the team. They reversed the school name,
running as "Kroy XC."
This was the first U.S. meet ever to give midrace scores. Chips relayed these
results instantly to the announcer.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://joehenderson.com/archive/


7. Training for Speed:
Roch Frey
So what is speed training?
There are several different definitions, but most people equate this to longer,
harder, faster intervals in the pool on the bike and
running. While this is true, and needed to a certain extent to get faster and
gain more speed, there is another way that is easier
then only performing the regular 10x 400s on the track and another mindless set
of 20 x 100 in the pool.
First of all, to get faster in your next triathlon, you need to understand that
the basis behind faster swim bike and run times is
to increase the speed and efficiency at which your muscles will contract
(greater neuro-muscular facilitation). You need to be able
to recruit all available muscle fibers to go faster. Whether you are training
for a sprint tri of under an hour or for the Ironman,
you need speed and it is best to do some type of speed training year round. Its
already July so whether you have been doing regular
high quality training sessions or not, the following sessions and drills in each
sport will get you going a lot faster at your next
race. These workouts are not overly taxing therefore should, and can be easily
fit into your weekly training schedule along with
your quality workouts.
Swimming
Explosions are short, fast swimming for only 12 ½ yards of the pool. A set of
6-12 towards the middle or the end of one of your
easier workouts really gets the arms going and gives you the feeling of swimming
much faster than normal. Try a set of 6-12x 50 on
an interval that gives you 20-30 sec rest. Swim the first half-length (12 ½
yards) very fast off the wall and then cut the speed
down dramatically and swim the remainder of the 50 easy. You may initially feel
that these tire you out, but the efforts are short
enough that they won't wreak an easier workout. After you perform these sets for
3-4 consecutive weeks you will notice that your
regular swimming speed seems easier and when you perform your harder sets you
feel more comfortable and accustomed to fast swimming.
More...from Multisports.com at:
http://www.multisports.com/archives/training_for_speed.shtml


8. Explosive Running:
How to Run Farther and Faster.
Specialized strength & flexibility exercises to enhance technique &
your physical abilities as displayed in your running stride.
If you have ever wanted to improve your running, there has never been a better
time to start. Explosive Running is the answer to
your running woes. Not only does this book explain the mechanics of running, but
it breaks running technique into easy to follow
steps. From the biomechanical analyses in the book, Dr. Yessis has created
specialized strength and flexibility exercises that
duplicate the actions involved in the running stride. By doing these exercises
you can see immediate improvement. No other book
comes close to matching the specificity of the running technique analyses and
the strength and flexibility exercises presented in
this book. Serious runners and athletes who run in their sport should not be
without it.
In long distance running, not only does proper technique help prevent injury,
but it enhances speed.
One of the most important aspects of technique is to land more on the whole foot
rather than landing on the heel with the sole of
the foot angled upward. This is one of the most frequently occurring errors that
lead to injury - and to slower speeds.
More On The Landing
Another common error after the landing is to "sit down" (lower your body too
much). Doing this forces you to push off upward, which
does not propel your body forward, but vertically. In addition, it creates
greater tension in your leg muscles, which is wasted
effort. After landing, you should have only minimal flexion in the support leg
and your body should remain as high as possible when
it should be pushed forward in the take-off and not vertically which gives you a
"bouncing" run.
Concentrate on pushing forward with the force that will allow you to stay level.
Don't try to kick yourself in the buttocks after
the take-off. This is a wasted effort. Instead, let the foot rise only slightly
above the horizontal to dispel the remaining forces
generated in the push-off. Be sure to then bring your leg forward quickly for
the next stride. Concentrate on a strong knee (thigh)
drive.
More...from Michael Yessis at:
http://www.dryessis.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2
Buy the book Explosive Running : Using the Science of Kinesiology to Improve
Your Performance at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809298996/runnersweb/104-3981810-4882304


9. Spin To Win:
Often times, multi-discipline athletes have difficulty locating the time to get
it all in. There isn't enough daylight to swim,
ride, run, paddle, climb, and trek in a given week. Keeping our fitness at an
optimal level and focusing on essential disciplines
while dealing with the shorter evenings and colder winter weather dictates
taking our training indoors. A stationary indoor spin
bike is a great way of maintaining and improving hard earned fitness.
While outdoor buffs find it difficult to train indoors, the great features of a
spinner shouldn't be overlooked. The adjustability
of indoor spinners allows you to mimic the position of your outdoor rig. While
most health clubs have a wide variety of
electronic-resistance based machines, positioning and comfort are often
drastically different than what a cycling enthusiast is used
to. Saddles are customarily extra wide and handlebars at awkward angles. These
bikes are designed to let you dial your position to
your outdoor measurements. Brands may vary, but adjustability and positioning is
similar. Saddle and bar positions are closer to the
real deal. Spin bikes also have some important advantages over stationary
trainers, particularly in terms of their ease of setup and
wear and tear on your road bike.
Resistance on a spin bike is self-adjusted, just like shifting your bike.
Different workouts will dictate varying levels of heart
rate, resistance, cadence, and perceived exertion. The self-adjusting nature of
a spin bike is quite conducive to targeting those
goals (whether self- or coach-prescribed) and staying within workout ranges. The
lack of the ability to freewheel or back pedal on
many spin bikes creates the benefit of fixed gear riding which can improve an
imbalanced pedal stroke.
More...from X-Tri.com at:
http://xtri.com/article.asp?id=1357


10. Is Running Good for Children?
We all would love to see our kids as Olympic Champions--but is training them now
a wise idea?
By Hal Higdon
Steven Poskus remembers with pride the day his son Daniel, age four, asked him,
"Can I be a runner too?" Poskus happily obliged. He
signed his son up for the Monster Mash Dash, a short-distance event for children
connected with a Trick or Treat 5-K on the Chicago
lakefront one October.
Daniel trained for several weeks, running with his grandmother. On race day, his
parents pinned Daniel's number on the front of his
shirt. "He stretched and drank water before the race, just like adult runners
do," recalls Poskus. When the announcer called the
runners to the start, Daniel was the first one on the line--and he was the first
one crossing the line 50 yards later!
"I have never seen him more excited than the moment he knew he had won," beams
Poskus. "Just the look on his face was priceless. I
was very, very proud. My only dilemma is that now he wants to race all the
time."
A future Olympic champion? Or is Daniel only going through a phase, soon to pass
on to soccer, Nintendo, even girls?
Fat rather than fitter children
Hopefully Daniel Poskus will maintain his interest in running and/or other forms
of exercise through a long and healthy life, but
the sad fact is that too many of our children are getting fatter, rather than
fitter. Jordan Metzl, M.D., medical director of the
Sports Medicine Institute for Young Athletes at the Hospital for Special Surgery
in New York City, says sadly that in the last 25
years, obesity in children has more than doubled. "We're becoming a nation of
couch potatoes," admits Dr. Metzl.
Senior Writer John Brant ably documented this problem in the September 2000
issue of Runner's World: "To a potentially catastrophic
degree, our kids have stopped moving. One quarter of Americans under age 19 are
overweight. Worse, approximately 5.3 million kids,
or 12 percent of all youths aged 6 to 17, are seriously overweight."
More...from Hal Higdon at:
http://www.halhigdon.com/kidsrunning/index.htm


11. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
"During marathon training, be sure to drink plenty of sports beverage before,
during and after your runs, especially your long runs.
Research has shown that adequate carbohydrate ingestion can help maintain immune
function in marathoners. Also, get plenty of sleep
and practice good nutrition as you build your mileage going into the race." -Hal
Higdon

* Injury Prevention
The best way to protect your knees is with daily stretching and strengthening
exercises, and the easiest way to stick to your daily
program is to do the exercises at home without any special equipment. Here are
two great exercises to keep your knees in top shape.
* ITB Stretch: Stand with one leg in front of and crossed over the other leg.
Exhale, and bend your body to the same side as your
front leg. Hold for a count of 20, straighten up, and then repeat the bend nine
more times. Reverse leg positions, and repeat 10
times in the other direction.
* Quadriceps Strengthener: With your feet side-by-side, extend both arms
forward, and slowly lower yourself into a half-squat,
stopping before your legs are parallel to the ground. Keep your back straight.
Repeat 20 times.

* Performance Nutrition
Turkey. Fat is definitely not a problem with turkey. A 3-ounce serving without
the skin averages only 150 calories and less than 5
grams of fat. (White meat has slightly less fat than dark meat.) Each serving
contains 25 grams of high-quality protein (or half the
Daily Value) and about 20 percent of your RDA for zinc, a mineral needed for a
healthy immune system, and one that runners often
don't get in sufficient quantities.

* Editor's Advice
"Racking your brain to come up with unique gift ideas for those people in your
life who have just about everything? Food gifts
usually make a big hit--especially with runners. Include your own recipes with
your gifts, especially if they're old family secrets.
Your friends will appreciate the added touch."
- Lindsay Stoms, RW copy editor

* Training Talk
"How far you stride is less important than how fast you stride. Don't try to
lengthen your stride believing that it will make you
faster; the opposite may be true." -From Hal Higdon's Smart Running

* Words That Inspire
"A teacher is never too smart to learn from his pupils. But while runners
differ, basic principles never change. So it's a matter
of fitting your current practices to fit the event and the individual. See,
what's good for you might not be worth a darn for the
next guy." - Bill Bowerman, Nike magnate

* Editor's Advice
"Racking your brain to come up with unique gift ideas for those people in your
life who have just about everything? Food gifts
usually make a big hit--especially with runners. Include your own recipes with
your gifts, especially if they're old family secrets.
Your friends will appreciate the added touch." Lindsay Stoms, RW copy editor


12. Steps To Staying Healthy This Winter:
Our body's immune system constantly fights off infections from harmful bacteria
and viruses that enter our body. Much of the time we
are unaware of these internal battles because sickness only occurs when the
bacteria or virus overpowers our immune system.
Remaining healthy involves strengthening the immune system so that when harmful
invaders do enter the body, one's natural defenses
can adequately handle the virus.*
Step #1: Wash Your Hands Often and Keep Them Away From Your Face
You may think that using your fingernail to remove a piece of food lodged
between your teeth would be an innocuous thing, and never
think to wash your hands before doing so. But actually, it is a way to transmit
germs from your hand into your mouth (or nose, if
that is where the finger is going!) and could give you the flu.
The main areas that germs enter our body are through the mouth and nose, whether
in the food we're consuming or from touching our
face with our hands. When your unclean hands touch the nasal or mouth membranes,
germs come for the ride and can locally invade and
cause disease.
If you want to avoid the flu, keep your hands away from your face. Wash your
hands before eating. Wash your hands after going to the
bathroom, and wash your hands after greeting people. Don't rub your eyes, chew
on rubber pens, or put your fingers on your mouth
while you think. You wouldn't put your tongue on a door knob, or lick elevator
buttons, but when you touch these surfaces and then
use the same unwashed hand on your face, the effect is the same.
More...from BodyHealth.com at:
http://www.bodyhealth.com/html/biobuilde/7steps.asp


13. A trainer at your fingertips:
Want to calculate your BMI, heart rate or caloric needs? With a fitness
cellphone, all that is easily accessible.
We are all about our cellphones. We have them pasted to our ears or the palms of
our hands, buy them pricey designer outfits and
continually replace them with newer, sleeker models as if they were trophy
spouses.
So, when I got word of a cellphone that could enhance my fitness routine, it
didn't seem that outrageous.
The camera flip phone, the result of a partnership between NEC and Fitness
magazine, comes with a body mass index calculator, a
target heart rate calculator, a list of calories burned for various exercises,
and caloric needs based on height, age, weight and
level of activity. Users can also access and download the magazine's personal
fitness planner, which offers customized workouts,
meals, tips and recipes.
It's not the most original of ideas - many people already use their personal
desk assistants to monitor workouts, and some cardio
equipment can even link up with PDAs to keep track of routines. But far more
people have cellphones than PDAs.
The rub is that many gyms in L.A. have outlawed cellphones, fearing that some
people might take unflattering or unclothed pictures
of fellow members and post them on the Internet. The ban isn't a total loss -
most people wouldn't consult their phone in the middle
of a Spinning class anyway.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/fitness/la-he-bodywork13dec13,1,1252395.s\
tory?coll=la-health-fitness-news


14. Avoid injury when practicing yoga and Pilates:
Millions of Americans are taking up core-strengthening exercises including yoga
and Pilates. Many are enthusiastic but inexperienced
novices who fail to protect their spine while learning these practices.
In fact, in a recent national poll conducted by Harris Interactive, more than
half of all Americans suffered from back pain within
the past month, with nearly 16 percent blaming exercise.
In addition, one out of four people were unable to engage in vigorous physical
exercise due to back pain.
"Our physician members are certainly seeing an influx of back pain cases and
injuries stemming from the popularity of yoga, Pilates
and martial arts," said Thomas Errico, MD, President of the North American Spine
Society (NASS).
"Core-strength exercises are a fantastic way to improve posture and balance,
increase flexibility and overall physical fitness and
reduce stress," Errico said. "Core strengthening is often a component in
back-rehabilitation programs and, when properly performed,
may help prevent back injury.
"However, it is important for people practicing these types of exercises to
understand how improper technique or even simple
mistakes can result in back pain and possible spine injury."
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11368&sidebar=576&category=healthclub


15. Multisport: Preserving Your Weight Through the Holidays:
By Wes Hobson.
As you prepare for this coming triathlon season, many of you have made a goal to
lose a certain amount of weight. Whilst in the
midst of losing the unwanted weight, WHAM, the holidays come bullying their way
into your training. The typical American gains
between 4 to 6 pounds from Thanksgiving to New Years. If you do expand your
girth during the holidays, you will regret having those
fried hush puppies or your Aunt's scrumptious cookies during the next
triathlon's hilly bike climb or run segment.
As you attend holiday parties, you still have the opportunity to indulge on some
of the foods presented to you and not come across
as a tri geek to your non-athletic friends and relatives by announcing a
self-inflicted "fast" during the holidays. When going to
parties, try to enjoy a variety of foods, but have small portions of what is
offered. Take smaller bites of each food instead of one
big bite. This will keep you from feeling deprived, but also control your
caloric and fat intake. As you browse the spread or create
your meals, here are a few ideas to help you enjoy the holiday festivities and
not feel guilty taking a bite.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20041215_WH_PreservingWeight.html


16. Winter Riding Techniques:
There are as many different techniques for riding on ice and snow as there are
varieties of snow.
There are certain common techniques that seem to be useful in many instances. If
you are new to ICEBIKING you may find the collected
experiences of dozens of other ICEBIKERS from all over the world useful in your
first year. These tips were garnered from the
mailing list topics.
You will also find that your bike handling skills improve remarkably during a
winter of riding. You will gain an appreciation for
and an ability to judge road conditions. You will get over the "tensed up" rigid
riding that so often afflicts new winter cyclists.
You will learn to plan your stops, to judge and select the path of most
traction.
More...from IceBike at:
http://www.icebike.com/Articles/techniques.htm


17. All good things come to an end
by Dan Empfield 11.23.04
(www.slowtwitch.com)
As some Slowtwitch readers already know, I tendered my resignation as USAT board
member for the Western Region last week. I did so
at USAT's Fall Board meeting. I would like to explain to my Western Region
constituents why, and why now.
As to the timing, I'll tackle that later. First, the reasons.
When I decided to run for the board I had several things in mind. First, our
board was emerging from two years of fractiousness, in
which our federation was placed in a sort of receivership-the USOC acting as
temporary custodian-and during which time various
parties caused the generation of about $300,000 in legal fees. I ran for the
board in the hope that our federation's governance
would get off on the right foot, with a few different faces around the table,
and a new group dynamic. That required certain people,
such as me, to run against those who formerly held positions on the board.
I also felt it important to work toward a resolution of these legal fees and
remaining legal questions. To that end I chaired an ad
hoc committee tasked only to deal with the resolution of the legal fees
outstanding. The majority of these legal bills have been
paid or otherwise resolved, with many tens of thousands of dollars in fees owed
by either the federation or its board members having
been written off. Bills to one legal firm yet remain, and the federation has
engaged in a process with which I'm comfortable to
liquidate this remaining exposure.
I also thought it necessary to immediately start on the process of hiring an
executive director equipped to take our sport and our
federation to the next level. I authored a resolution empowering two board
members (Susie Gallucci and I) and a third person from
the race director community to commence a search. One hundred and eighty
candidates and over two hundred man-hours of work later the
two final candidates addressed the board at its meeting last week. As to the
outcome of this process, it's most appropriate that I
leave any news to USAT to break.
More...from SlowTwitch.com at:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/opinion/resignation.html


18. McDonald wins close bid for ITU presidency:
Olympic triathlon's grand old man, Canadian Les McDonald, has been reelected by
a vote of 40-33 over Englishwoman Sarah Springman,
and remains as president and head of the International Triathlon Union,
triathlon's world governing body.
Springman represented the best bet to unseat McDonald in three Congresses
stretching back eight years. Indeed, one element in his
win four years ago in Perth, Australia, was his vow not to seek another
four-year term. Last year McDonald went back on this
promise, angering many in the triathlon community and leading to a Springman bid
that fell just short.
McDonald's reign will mean a rocky relationship between the ITU and USA
Triathlon, America's governing body. The U.S. federation
publicly backed Springman's candidacy, angering McDonald according to one ITU
executive committee member. Included in the Congress
business was a rebuke levied against the U.S., carried by a 38-22 vote, in which
the U.S. was chastised for granting a sanction of
the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. The Twin Cities race, popular with pros and age
group athletes alike, has been characterized by
McDonald as a sexist event (women and men vie for a single prize purse, with
women given a head start). McDonald's beef with this
race traces back to a scheduling conflict with the Corner Brook Triathlon, an
ITU World Cup event, and McDonald's jeremiad against
Life Time Fitness is seen by many insiders as simply an attempt to settle the
score with America for allowing an event to occur that
competes with a race close to McDonald's heart.
More...from SlowTwitch.com at:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/headings/olympics3.html#Anchor-McDonald-47857


19. Infection link to heart attacks:
Common respiratory and urinary tract infections play a role in triggering heart
attacks and strokes, a study of 40,000 medical
records suggests.
Infections such as bronchitis, pneumonia and cystitis raised the risk of a heart
attack fivefold, and of a stroke threefold, for the
period a patient was ill.
The blame has been pinned on inflammation caused by the infections.
The research, funded by several leading research bodies, is published in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
Scientists discovered the risk of heart attack and stroke was substantially
higher in the three days after a respiratory tract
infection.
The likelihood of having either then decreased gradually over the following
weeks.
Researcher Professor Patrick Vallance, of University College London, said the
work showed the timing of a heart attack was not
always random.
He told the BBC News website: "After the age of 50, we all have some degree of
furring up of the arteries, but most of the time it
sits there fairly harmlessly.
More...from the BBC at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4095033.stm


20. I Learned This in Yoga:
Training for ironman teaches us general life lessons: work hard for your goals,
persevere, and realize that you can do more than you
ever thought possible.
At the same time, we often learn lessons for the ironman from other contexts.
After completing my first two ironman events in the
span of 5 weeks, I was burned out and badly in need of a physical and, more
importantly, mental break from triathlon training. I
wanted to stay active, but just didn't want to swim, bike, or run. Instead, I
took an intensive yoga course. In each class, I
learned new poses, but I also learned other things ...
1. Don't worry about what your neighbor is doing
This was practically a mantra of my yoga teachers, and it was a good reminder
for me. It's also good advice for the ironman. It can
be really tough to watch people fly by me on the bike during the race, but I
remind myself that I need to race my own race, and
sometimes that means taking it easy when others seem to be hammering.
2. Relax
Ahhhhhhh, the true key to excellence. We tense all of these muscles that have
nothing to do with moving forward, wasting valuable
energy. In yoga, when you want to stretch some muscles, you need to relax
others. For the ironman, we need to learn to use the least
amount of energy to get from point A to point B. So much energy can be saved
just by relaxing the muscles of our face, let alone
those of our arms and legs.
More...from XTri.com at:
http://xtri.com/article.asp?id=1359


21. Cyclists: Maintain balance during base training:
The Base training period is the time to lay a strong foundation of endurance,
force and speed skills.
It can also be a challenging time for training due to inclement weather,
holidays, high volume and tempting group rides.
For all these reasons, it's important to maintain balance during Base.
Consistency is important, but it's OK to miss an occasional ride due to work
demands, family obligations or inclement weather. If it
was a key workout, consider swapping it to another day.
One of the best uses of your time during Base is to build core strength. This
can be done at home with a physio ball and a medicine
ball. Pilates and yoga are also excellent.
As you get to late Base, specificity becomes more important. Take advantage of
the ability to cross-train while you can. This can be
key to maintaining consistency throughout the winter.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11390&sidebar=21&category=cycling


22. Calories in juice still count:
Though nutritious, some varieties contain more sugar than soda does. Kids should
drink water for their thirst, some dietitians say.
Americans have long been hearing the lecture about reducing the amount of soda
in their diet. It's good advice: Sugary soda has no
nutritional value and adds nothing to a diet but empty calories and sugar - a
12-ounce can of soda contains a quarter of a cup of
sugar.
For many people, the result has been a move to fruit juice, especially for their
kids.
Although kids under 12 account for only 18% of the total population of the U.S.,
they consume 28% of all juice and juice drinks,
according to statistics cited earlier this year by the American Academy of
Pediatrics' nutrition committee. A recent study by
researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and published in the Journal
of the American Dietetic Assn. found that almost 50%
of preschoolers drink 12 ounces or more of fruit juice daily.
Further, juice consumption by children between the ages of 1 and 5 increased by
40% from 1988 to 1998, according to a study in 2002
by researchers at Michigan State University and published in the journal Family
Economics and Nutrition Review.
Older kids too are partaking. Schools across the country, including Los Angeles
Unified, are pulling soft drinks from their vending
machines and replacing them with water and juices. When it comes to taste, juice
usually tops water.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-juice13dec13,1,7250467.story?coll=l\
a-headlines-health


23. Dangerous Exercises ?
What makes an exercise dangerous? Are exercises inherently safe or dangerous?
Read this article and let us and other visitors know
what you think.
Close examination of most injuries in weight training programs shows that they
occur because of 1) too many repetitions over a
period of time (which cause over-use injury), 2) too much weight being used
(which stresses the muscles and support structures
beyond their capabilities), 3) insufficient warm-up (to properly prepare the
muscles for the exercise), 4) doing exercises with
improper technique and 5) doing an exercise before possessing the necessary
strength and flexibility needed for strict form.
Of these reasons the first three are relatively easy to correct. However, to do
exercises with correct technique and to develop the
necessary strength and flexibility needed for execution of the exercises with
strict technique is not always simple. The main reason
for this is that most beginning and intermediate athletes, bodybuilders and
trainers who have limited backgrounds in exercise (and
there are many!) usually watch how people do exercises in the gym or look at
individual photos in magazines and then try to
replicate the movement. They do not have the knowledge to question whether it is
a safe and effective exercise.
As a result, they try to duplicate the exercise without proper guidance and
usually do it incorrectly. In time, it often causes an
injury. If you do not have the physical ability to execute an exercise with
maximum safety and effectiveness, it can also result in
injury. Note that these injuries occur not only with free weights but with
machine exercises. Even though machine exercises are
usually touted as being safer than free weights, in many cases they are even
more dangerous.
More...from Michael Yessis at:
http://www.dryessis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2\


24. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* High Blood Pressure During Exercise:
A study from Johns Hopkins shows that people who develop very high blood
pressure during exercise are the ones most likely to
develop high blood pressure in later years (American Journal of Hypertension,
April 2004). These people have arteries that do not
expand as much as normal arteries when blood is pumped to them.
When your heart beats, it squeezes blood from inside its chambers to the large
arteries. This sudden bolus of blood causes normal
arteries to expand like balloons do when they fill with air. The walls of
arteries have sensors that allow arteries to expand with
each pulse of blood. If the arteries do not expand enough when blood enters
them, blood pressure can rise very high. Blood pressure
is determined by the force of the heart's contraction times the resistance in
the blood vessels. Normal blood pressure is 120 when
the heart contracts and 80 when it relaxes. During exercise, the heart beats
with increased force to raise blood pressure. It is
normal for blood pressure to rise up to 200 over 80 during running, and to 300
over 200 while doing a leg press with very heavy
weights.
People with normal resting blood pressures who develop very high blood pressure
during exercise are the ones most likely to develop
high blood pressure later on. If your blood pressure rises much above 200 during
running, you are at increased risk for developing
high blood pressure.
Ninety percent of Americans will develop high blood pressure, which increases
risk for heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage and
sudden death. High blood pressure usually occurs in people who have normal
blood pressures when they were young. If you have an
exaggerated blood pressure rise during exercise, you should go on a heart attack
prevention program that includes a diet low in
saturated fats and refined
carbohydrates, regular exercise, losing weight if you are overweight, not
smoking, and avoiding stimulants and drugs that raise
blood
pressure.

* Dear Dr. Mirkin: Why do bicycle seats have to be so uncomfortable?
Bicycle seats are shaped like bananas because bicycle racers don't want any
structure behind their legs. Many claim that wide seats
prevent them from extending their legs backward to achieve a full pedal stroke.
Because many bicycle riders want to look like
racers, bikes come equipped with banana-shaped seats and many people hate riding
a bicycle because they lose feeling in their pelvis
when they ride. Irwin Goldstein, professor of urology at the Boston University
School of Medicine, claims that 100,000 American men
become impotent, some permanently, because they ride a bicycle. He claims that
the seat presses on the pudendal nerves, crushes
them and prevents messages from traveling along the nerves, causing impotence.
He also says that "Men should never ride bicycles.
Riding should be banned and
outlawed. It's the most irrational form of exercise . . ."
As far as most bicycle seats are concerned, Dr. Goldstein is correct. Your sitz
bones (ischial tuberosities) are located on each
side where you sit. Muscles attach on them and they are covered with fat to
protect them from pressure. A sensible bicycle seat
supports the sitz bones and exerts no pressure on the center of the pelvis where
the pudendal nerve travels toward the male or
female organs. Seats that have a hole in the middle don't help because the front
part where the hole ends still presses on the
pudendal nerve. The most comfortable seats for an upright bicycle are wide in
the back and have little or no nose. Another option
is a recumbent bicycle, with a seat like a chair.
NOTE: The nose-less seat that Diana and I use and recommend is available
through Amazon.com at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0006JHU9E/ref=nosim/drmirkincom
You can save shipping costs by having your local bike store order one for you
(if they don't have them in stock.)

* Dear Dr. Mirkin: Does it make any difference what kind of food I eat during a
long race?
Eating foods that contain both carbohydrates and proteins during any long
competition increases an athlete's endurance more than
taking just carbohydrates. When you exercise vigorously for more than two hours,
you need to take extra fluid, salt and calories.
You should drink whatever fluid tastes best to you, and eat any food that
includes salt. Many studies show that taking in extra
carbohydrates during an event prolongs endurance, so athletes often eat oranges
and other fruits, cookies, sandwiches and other
carbohydrate-rich foods. You will have even greater endurance if you also eat
some high- protein foods such as cheese, meat,
chicken, fish or eggs. During prolonged, intense exercise your muscles are
damaged, and the extra protein supplies the building
blocks called amino acids that can help to limit muscle breakdown.


25. News Scan:
* Cooper Wellness Clinic
It Saves to Be Choosy
We all have our favorite holiday traditions, and specific meals or dishes at
various holiday events are part of our history and
tradition. For example, growing up, Christmas Eve meant oyster stew would be on
the menu. And the holiday open house would include
homemade divinity, zucchini and pumpkin nutbreads, and store-bought chocolates
and fruitcake.
Think about your family meals and holiday traditions. The goal today is to
think forward about upcoming meals, and about what you
most enjoy. For example, I'll pass on the special family ambrosia salad, but
love the cranberry and pineapple gelatin. And, I love
the homemade chocolate and almond candy a friend makes, but can easily forego
the store-bought chocolates a relative always sends.
If you'll be in the kitchen, look for ways to trim calories and fat from the
meal without sacrificing taste. For example,
substitute better-for-us sugar-free gelatin, canned fruits packed in water,
low-fat cream cheese, 97% fat-free condensed soup,
evaporated skimmed milk, and other calorie/fat saving ingredients in your
recipes. And, don't forget vegetables! Make at least one
vegetable that's low-fat/low-calorie - be it steamed green beans with almonds,
baked acorn squash, brussels sprouts (not dripping in
garlic cream or clarified butter), or even a pretty green salad.
As a diner, at the holiday meal, buffet, or party, be choosy, and live by the
80/20 rule. Make 80 percent of your choices
low-fat/low-calorie food selections (look for green salads, or fresh steamed
vegetables as they are particularly filling and
nutritious) and spend the remaining 20 percent on the holiday goodies such as
stuffing, pies, and cakes that make the holiday meal
memorable.
Finally, consider adding a new family tradition of taking the dog, the children,
and Grandma for a walk through the neighborhood, or
put together an intergenerational game of catch, tag, hop-scotch, or basket
shooting in the driveway.
Jill Turner is the director of operations of Cooper Concepts, Inc., a division
of The Cooper Aerobics Center. We started following
Jill's journey to wellness in May 2003 when she disclosed that she is an average
40-year-old woman striving to become more healthy
and fit.

* Magazine reshuffle
December 15, 2004, Valyermo, California (www.slowtwitch.com):
America's three glossy monthlies became two some months ago, when American Tri
folded itself into Inside Triathlon and absorbed its
editor/publisher Kyle DuFord. Since that time DuFord has been a rising star in
Boulder.
Now DuFord has a chance to execute his editorial vision with a bankroll behind
him. In his wake are a list of former long-timers at
Inside Tri. They include the magazine's prior editor, Rick Martin, the position
DuFord inherits. Under Martin was managing editor
Cam Elford, who last week left Inside Triathlon and has just landed a gig at
Triathlete Magazine, the arch rival of Inside
Triathlon.
Elford officially inherits work on the annual Road to Kona, however the talk on
the street is that Elford's role at Triathlete will
almost certainly grow. There is some limit to the impression Elford can make at
the magazine, at least in the short term, as he
lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, while earning his MBA. His work with
Triathlete will have to conform to his university
schedule.
Also gone from Inside Triathlon is its publisher, Gordon Selkirk, often seen and
well-liked on the racing circuit. He's now working
in La Jolla, at Active.com. IT's chief advertising representative, Nick Ramey,
is also no more, reportedly landing a nice job with
National Geographic Traveler.

* Water works
I was fascinated by your recent feature describing the finite limits of sporting
achievement (14 August, p 31). However, some sports
seem to have reached their limits before others. Watching the Olympic games I
was struck by how frequently swimming world records
are broken and how infrequently running world records fall. These sports have
been around for as long as we can remember and neither
has any obvious technological input. Why the discrepancy?
* Little advantage can be gained technologically in running, except perhaps
through better footwear and track surfaces. Most of the
improvement seen in running events comes from increases in strength, to which
there are physical limits.
Swimming is just as physically demanding but much slower, due to the greater
resistance of water. To minimise it, swimmers started
to shave off all their body hair.
And technological advances are now abundant. Swimmers wear all-in-one body
suits, the material of which is designed to emulate shark
skin - a brilliant low-friction material. Combine this with a shaved head or
swimming hat, and streamlined goggles, and the
advantages become clear.
"Swimmers started to shave their bodies or wear all-in-one suits. Combine this
with a swimming hat and streamlined goggles and the
advantages are clear"Air resistance is very low compared to that of water, so
minimal advantage can be gained from shaving and
wearing an all-in-one Lycra catsuit when you are running. On the flip side, it
is arguable that a couple of hundredths of a second
off a 100-metre sprint may be as proportionally crucial as a tenth of a second
in a swimming event.
James Morris, Guildford, Surrey, UK


*End of Articles*

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

December 18, 2004:
The HUFF 50K Trail Run - Huntington, IN
http://www.huff50k.com/

December 19, 2004:
Jacksonville Marathon - FLA
http://www.1stplacesports.com/jm.htm

South Pole Marathon - Antarctica
http://www.adventure-network.com/display.asp?navid=1&id=59

December 26, 2004:
Run for the Ranch Marathon - Springfield, MO
http://omrr.tripod.com/featuredrace.htm

December 31, 2004:
Emerald Nuts Midnight Run - New York, NY
http://www.nyrr.org/race/2004/r1231x00.html

Midnight 2 Mile Run - Sacramento, CA
http://www.rungoldmedal.com

New Year's Eve 8 & 12 Hour Runs - North Waterloo, ON
http://www.conquerthecanuck.com/Can%20Page%20Views/new_yrs_eve.pdf


For more complete race listings check out our Upcoming Races, and Calendars.
Check the Runner's Web on Sunday and Monday for race
reports on these events at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html


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

For Triathlon Coverage check out The Sports Network at:
http://www2.sportsnet.ca/tvschedule/tvsked_sport.php?region=ONTARIO&schedule_id=\
25

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Have a good week of training and/or racing.

Ken Parker
Runner's Web
webmaster@... <mailto:webmaster@...>
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html


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END...