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NEW THIS WEEK:

Dave Scott comes to Ottawa.
RunnersWeb.com and TriathlonOttawa.com are excited to announce that Ironman
legend Dave Scott is coming to Ottawa for a clinic and
speaking engagement on April 1-3, 2005.
Triathlon is one of the fastest growing sports in Canada, and there is no
personality in triathlon with a higher profile than Dave
Scott. The six-time Hawaii Ironman World Champion was the first person elected
to the Ironman Hall of Fame and remains very active
in the sport today as a coach, writer and author.
Scott's visit to Ottawa will be see him work closely with a group of 25
triathletes during the weekend clinic, covering all elements
of the sport through both active and lecture sessions. For full details please
visit
http://www.triathlonottawa.com.

About TriathlonOttawa
TriathlonOttawa.com is a local organization in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada dedicated
to the growth of triathlon and physical fitness in
the region, through the provision of resources, training and educational
opportunities.


Special Offer from FogDog:
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Runner's and Triathlete's Web Content Partners:

* Sports Nutrition by Sheila Kealey.
Sheila is one of Ottawa's top multisport athletes and a member of the OAC Racing
Team and X-C Ottawa. She has a Masters in Public
Health and works in the field of nutritional epidemiology as a Research
Associate with the University of California, San Diego. Her
column index is available at:
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Carmichael Training Systems was founded in 1999 by Chris Carmichael. From the
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at:
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On January 7th we started a new feature on the website - A Question and Answer
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* WatsonLifeSport
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This Weeks Personal Postings/Releases:
We have NO personal postings this week.


This Week's Digest Article Index:

1. Science of Sport: The v VO2max Test: Is It Reliable?
2. Science of Sport: PMT and Performance
3. Multisport: Head for the Hills
4. Chiropractic Care for Headaches
5. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
6. Room-service workouts
More hotels are catering to travelers too busy -- or too bashful -- to check out
exercise rooms.
7. Working Your Heart - The Secret of Training Smart
How hard to I have to workout? How far do I have to go? I workout 2 hours every
other day of the week and I still can’t lose those
last 10 pounds. Why do I keep getting injured when I try to run? These are all
questions and comments people make about their
training that seems to have no simple solution.
8. Sport Science Research -Can It Improve Your Marathon Time?
9. Efficiency, Economy and Endurance Performance
10. Work in Progress
Progression Runs: A Kenyan Secret Everyone Can Use.
11. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - So Old It's "New"
12. Running in the dark - Blindness doesn't hold back Rachael Scdoris in
Iditarod
13. The Athletic Performance Diet Plan
14. Marathon Training Program - Evaluating Your Race Performance
15. Beth Mansfield - Ask the Nutritionist
Are you drinking enough, too much or not enough?
16. Tri-training principles to help plan your season
17. Fitting running shoes
18. From Runner's World
19. Muscle 'scraping' a healing art that sounds more like torture
20. Nutrition and Training
21. Triathlon: Five great track workouts
22. Bad Air Days:
Urban pollution can undo your fitness plans. To avoid the big wheeze, check out
our guide to finding the freshest outdoor oxygen in
cities across the country.
23. 'Why am I so tired?' Recognizing and dealing with fatigue
24. Mark Allen: Time for speed work
25. News Scan - A Collection of News Items


Runner's Web Weekly Poll: "Will Lance Armstrong win a 7th Tour de France this
summer?"

You can access the poll from our FrontPage as well as voting on and/or checking
the results of previous polls.
Post your views in our Forum at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/runnersweb_forum.html
[Free Registration Required]

Last week's poll was "This week's poll is: "Which of the following technologies
have you used?
Chronometer
Fitsense
Nike Triax
Timex GPS
Heart Rate Monitor?"
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Chronometer 24 24%
2. Fitsense 14 14%
3. Nike Triax 7 7%
4. Timex GPS 7 7%
5. Heart Rate Monitor 49 49%
Total Votes: 101

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Five Star Site of the Week: Adidas Vancouver Marathon.
On May 1st the Vancouver Marathon will celebrate its 34th birthday making it
Canada's oldest "big" marathon.
In 1972, Tom Howard of Surrey, BC led a handful of marathoners around five loops
of Stanley Park to complete the first Vancouver
International Marathon, winning in a time of 2:24:35.
Two days after the opening of the world’s fair, Expo ’86, the VIM hosted its
largest race yet with 2,400 participants on a new race
course. For the first time, the start and finish line were at different
locations beginning downtown and ending at Kitsilano Beach.
The race weekend now includes a Marathon, Half-Marathon, 5-Miler and a kids
MaraFun.
Last year the marathon had 4349 finishers
Check out the site at:
http://www.adidasvanmarathon.ca/hm/


Send us your suggestions for our Five Star site. Please check our
list of previous Five Star Sites available from the Five Star
Window under the link "Previous Five Star Sites" as we do not wish to
repeat a site unless it has undergone a major redesign.


If you feel you have something to say that is worthy of a Guest Column on the
Runner's Web, email us at
mailto:webmaster@... or leave your comments in one of our Forums at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/forum.html or from our FrontPage.

Our Photo Slideshow is updated on a random basis. Check it out from our
FrontPage.


Book of the Week : The Athletic-Minded Traveler: Where To Work Out And Stay When
Fitness Is A Priority.
As a first-of-its-kind U.S. travel guide for those who enjoy a good sweat and a
healthy lifestyle, The Athletic-Minded Traveler
takes the guesswork out of exercising on the road. Recognizing that millions of
travelers factor into their hotel choice the quality
of an accommodation's workout options, this book recommends the most
fitness-focused hotels in three price categories and the best
fitness venues such as health clubs, YMCAs, lap pools and running routes, in 78
popular U.S. travel destinations.
Because reliable and accurate information is not available online (all hotels
claim to have "state of the art" fitness facilities)
nor attainable by calling the hotels directly (staff is usually uninformed), the
co-authors traveled the country for three months to
personally tour over 1,100 hotels and fitness venues that made their first cut.
The result is over 500 frank recommendations that
give readers options for wonderful accommodations AND fantastic workout options.
Sweat, pump iron, run, swim, 300+ thread count
sheets, 24-hour room service...whatever the trip criteria, this book has it
covered.
Buy the book from Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0975306073/runnersweb/102-0182896-9006569\
?v=glance&s=books

More books from Amazon at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/amazon.html
and Human Kinetics at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/human_kinetics.html

This Weeks News:

1. Science of Sport: The v VO2max Test: Is It Reliable?
By Owen Anderson, Ph. D. (copyright © 2003-2005)
v VO2max, the minimal running speed which elicits VO2max (the maximal rate of
oxygen consumption), is an excellent predictor of
relative running performance for both elite (1) and non-elite (2) runners. Line
up 10 runners according to their vVO2max, from
fastest to slowest, and in most cases you will have also lined them up according
to their finishing places in distance races, from
#1 to #10.
As I have pointed out frequently in the pages of Running Research News, vVO2max
can also be used effectively to monitor changes in
fitness over the course of a training year, to predict race times in events
ranging from 800 meters all the way to the marathon, and
to set paces for specific workouts. Numerous methods are available for the
direct determination of vVO2max on a laboratory treadmill
or on the track, but all of them involve rather elaborate - and expensive -
procedures and are thus out of the reach of many coaches
and runners.
As a result, field tests have been devised to estimate v VO2max; these tests
usually involve running as far as possible on the track
in either five (3) or six (4) minutes. The pace established in such a test is
believed to provide a reasonable approximation of
vVO2max.
But how reliable are such tests? That is, if you complete the field test today
and again three days from now, with no change in
underlying fitness, will you get essentially the same result, or can there be
wide variation in field-test performance? Anecdotally,
I have found the tests to be quite reliable, but until now there has been little
scientific verification that this is so.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050310_RRN_vVO2.html


2. Science of Sport: PMT and Performance:
In 1930, Sir Adolphe Abrahams, who was considered to be an authority on sports
medicine, stated: "One girl has been credited with
the ability to run over the marathon course of 261/2 miles in 3 hrs.40 mins.5O
secs., a feat which I am disposed to doubt". This
attitude prevailed for a further 40 years. No doubt it was reinforced by the
fact that a female has only 13.7g/lOOml of blood
haemoglobin as opposed to 15.8 in men. In addition, the increased fat/body
weight ratio and the increased femoral obliquity were
considered a disadvantage.
In childhood, there is very little difference between boys and girls with regard
to endurance running, and what difference there is
favours girls who in development are slightly in advance of boys up to puberty.
From late adolescence onwards, the boys rapidly
outstrip the girls in physical development.
Female athletes are faced with the tedious business of menstruation and/or
premenstrual problems, commonly called PMT. The effects
of menstruation on the individual person vary enormously. In some, there appears
to be no apparent inconvenience; in others, the
changes cause considerable incapacity. The weight gain associated with retention
of water during the premenstrual period is clearly
a handicap to the endurance athlete. However, it has been clearly shown that
physical activity, in the main, enables the female to
cope with the physiological changes incurred more easily. But psychological
changes can, and do, affect physical performance.
Monitor to find the pattern
In studies of large populations of women between l5 and 55 years, the four days
before and the first four days of menstruation
reveal that there is an increase in accident proneness, lowering of mental
ability, lowered resistance to infection, increased
suicide attempts and increased hospitalisation.
It is important to realise that for most women there are rarely more than two or
three days when they are at greater risk. It is up
to each individual, by careful monitoring, to appreciate her own specific
pattern. Those showing variations in sporting performances
are advised to record on their menstrual chart the times when they are off peak.
But one occurrence, that of increased aggression
during premenstrual tension, can lead to improved performance.
Many endurance runners, because of reduced weight, cease their periods
altogether. The medical profession is split over this. One
view is that it is Nature's way of saying that the female is too thin to have
children. Another opinion is that prolonged cessation
of the period will lead to infertility. However, I coached a female athlete who
went several years without a period and, on
retirement from athletics, proceeded to have four children in four years !
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050310_PPO_PMT.html


3. Multisport: Head for the Hills :
There are few methods of training as potent as climbing a hill when it comes to
improving your cycling and running performance. Let’
s
first take a look at why climbing workouts are so effective, and then at a few
types of climbing workouts that you can use to boost
your performance this year.
Training to Get Fast, Not to Simply Endure
In considering how you may or may not use climbing workouts, the first thing to
take into consideration is why you are training.
Many people have a main goal that is based around solely covering distance. For
example, “I want to finish my first ½ IM this
August.” Other folks have a main goal focused on increasing their performance.
For example, “I want to break two hours at St.
Anthony’s Olympic Distance Triathlon this spring” or “I want to finish IM USA
Lake Placid in under 9:45 this summer.” None of these
goals are any less important or valuable. But they do necessitate different
training mentalities. If covering distance is your goal,
then your training can pretty much focus on learning to produce enough energy to
stay the course for a target event(s). If becoming
a faster triathlete is the goal, your training has to focus on how skilled your
movement is and how much force you can apply through
that skilled movement. To do this, an important focus of your training needs to
be on the act of applying relatively high amounts of
force in the movement patterns of cycling and running. Climbing workouts are a
great way to do accomplish this!
Increased Ability to Apply Force = Increased Speed
It is not uncommon for people to think that the production of force
(strength/power) is not related to producing high movement
speeds. In other words, that strength and power are different from speed. The
truth is that strength (the ability to produce force)
and power (the ability to rapidly produce force) are directly responsible for
speed. Moving fast is the result of applying explosive
bursts of force. It would then stand to reason that a person’s speed is in large
part determined by their ability to produce force.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050308_THS_Hills.html


4. Chiropractic Care for Headaches:
People often visit a chiropractor to seek assistance for headache problems. This
problem is often successfully addressed by them
without the use of any medicines. Most often, the root cause of headaches is
vertebrates in the neck. When a chiropractor adjusts
the cervical spine with
manipulations, the neck muscle spasm reduces and this relieves the pressure on
the vertebrae and spinal nerves. The adjustment or
manipulation carried out is a fast but short thrust that is aimed at one or more
vertebral joints. It has been seen that treatment
of headaches can be undertaken effectively by this art.
The muscles at the back of the neck near the base of the skull often become very
tender and sore with the onset or progress of a
headache. These small, but powerful muscles, are attached to the fibrous lining
of the scalp. This fibrous structure is called the
aponeuorsis and is located
under the hair and skin covering your head. Tension and tightness of these
muscles exerts tension on this aponeurosis and gives the
feeling of pressure over the scalp or of a band around the skull or the feeling
that someone is standing on your head. Chiropractic
adjustments are effective in reducing the tenseness of these muscles, thereby
reducing the sensation of pressure around the skull.
Subluxation(also known as spinal misalignment) results in irritation of the
nerves. Chiropractic treatment can reduce this
irritation through adjustments and manipulations. Through chiropractic
treatment, you can get relief from irritations of the
muscles and tissues of the upper neck, and also the inflammatory irritation that
is caused by the spinal nerves of the upper
cervical spine.
The quick and usually painless way a chiropractor relieves a headache is reason
enough to seek this form of treatment. Instead of
visiting your medical doctor for prescription medication or injections of
medicine that make you drowsy, a chiropractor treats your
headache and you can go on with your daily activities. In addition to treating
the pain, chiropractic care for headaches works to
prevent future headache episodes. However, the chiropractor will ascertain that
your headache is the result of spinal nerve and
vertebra problems.
The fact that most health insurance companies pay for chiropractic care means
that you can visit your chiropractor for common
ailments and receive the same level of medical attention as your would from
your family physician, but without having to purchase
and use medications.
Dr. Greg C. Molis has been a Chiropractor for 26 years If you're in the Salt
Lake area, come on in. He adjusts children too. Please,
for more
information go to
http://www.saltlakechiropractor.com

5. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* Cold Weather Doesn't Boost Weight Loss
You burn fewer calories when you exercise in cold weather than you do when it's
hot. The hotter it is, the more extra work your
heart has to do to prevent you from overheating. More than 70 percent of the
energy produced by your muscles during exercise is lost
as heat. So the harder you exercise, the hotter your muscles become. In hot
weather, not only must your heart pump extra blood to
bring oxygen to your muscles, it must also pump hot blood from your heated
muscles to your skin where heat can be dissipated. On the
other hand, in cold weather, your heart only has to pump blood to your muscles
and very little extra blood to your skin to dissipate
heat. Your muscles produce so much heat during exercise that your body does not
need to produce more heat to keep you warm. So your
heart works harder and you burn more calories in hot weather. This information
should not discourage you from exercising when it's
cold, because staying in shape is a year-round proposition. However, it may
help to explain why so many people find the pounds
creeping on in the wintertime, even when they stay active.

* Dear Dr. Mirkin: Can I exercise after donating blood?
A healthy person should be able to recover completely from donating blood in
eight weeks, but you may lose some of your ability to
train for a few days. Following a donation of one pint, blood volume is reduced
by around ten percent and returns to normal in 48
hours. So, for two days after donating, you should drink lots of fluids and
probably exercise at a reduced intensity or not at all.
Donating blood markedly reduces
competitive performance for three to four weeks as it takes that long for blood
hemoglobin levels to return to normal. You should
not donate blood more often than every eight weeks because it takes that long to
replace lost nutrients. If you donate blood
frequently you need to make sure to replace the B vitamins and iron that you
lose with the blood. You can meet your needs for iron
by eating meat, fish or chicken or by taking iron supplements; and you can meet
your needs for the B vitamins with whole grains and
diary products. Donating blood at least four times a year may help to prevent
heart attacks by lowering blood cholesterol levels
significantly and reducing iron levels. Iron in the bloodstream converts the
bad LDL cholesterol to oxidized LDL which can form
plaques in arteries.


6. Room-service workouts:
More hotels are catering to travelers too busy -- or too bashful -- to check out
exercise rooms.
Being on the road used to be a viable excuse for bailing on a workout. No gym,
no safe place to run outdoors — no exercise.
But now there's little excuse for a routine going AWOL. Several hotel chains
have added in-room fitness programs so guests can stay
fit while traveling, and more are likely to follow, as fitness becomes a focus
of hotels' ever-expanding amenities.
Among the offerings is Marriott hotels' Fit for You program, with three types of
equipment (delivered to the room for free) that
tone and strengthen. Hilton hotels provide a free in-room fitness kit and have
teamed up with Bally Total Fitness so guests can work
out with personal trainers in the hotel gym or the nearest Bally's. The Marriott
chain and thousands of other hotels in the U.S. and
Canada offer pay-per-view videos that include Pilates, yoga, cardio and stretch
workouts.
These new plans are the product of savvy marketing and a societal move toward
healthier living. Hotels offer amenities to give them
an edge over the competition; at the same time messages about the importance of
physical activity are everywhere as obesity rates
rise. Airlines too have begun offering in-flight fitness programs for travelers.
"Anything we can do to promote people to be physically active, great," says Mike
Bracko, a Canadian exercise physiologist and member
of the American College of Sports Medicine. "We want people to have an
opportunity to exercise in as comfortable a setting as
possible."
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/fitness/la-he-hotels28feb28,1,6249191.sto\
ry?coll=la-health-fitness-news


7. Working Your Heart - The Secret of Training Smart
How hard to I have to workout? How far do I have to go? I workout 2 hours every
other day of the week and I still can’t lose those
last 10 pounds. Why do I keep getting injured when I try to run? These are all
questions and comments people make about their
training that seems to have no simple solution.
I want to give you that solution. It’s called a heart rate monitor. Whether your
goal is to win a race or just live a long healthy
life, using a heart rate monitor is the single most valuable tool you can have
in your training equipment arsenal. And using one in
the way I am going to describe will not only help you shed those last few
pounds, but will enable you to do it without either
killing yourself in training or starving yourself at the dinner table.
I came from a swimming background, which in the 70’s and 80’s when I competed
was a sport that lived by the “No Pain, No Gain”
motto. My coach would give us workouts that were designed to push us to our
limit every single day. I would go home dead, sleep as
much as I could, then come back the next day for another round of punishing
interval sets.
It was all I knew. So, when I entered the sport of triathlon in the early
1980’s, my mentality was to go as hard as I could at some
point in every single workout I did. And to gauge how fast that might have to
be, I looked at how fast the best triathletes were
running at the end of the short distance races. Guys like Dave Scott, Scott
Tinley and Scott Molina were able to hold close to 5
minute miles for their 10ks after swimming and biking!
So that’s what I did. Every run, even the slow ones, for at least one mile, I
would try to get close to 5 minute pace. And it
worked…sort of. I had some good races the first year or two, but I also suffered
from minor injuries and was always feeling one run
away from being too burned out to want to continue with my training.
More...from XTri.com at:
http://www.xtri.com/article.asp?id=448


8. Sport Science Research -Can It Improve Your Marathon Time:
The human body is beautifully designed to run.
Over the eons, the human body developed energy systems to run very fast for
short distances, a necessity when sprinting to safety
from the impending attack of some saber-toothed creature. The human body also
developed energy systems to run long, a necessity in
tracking and catching prehistoric mammals as a food source. As civilization
progressed with diminished necessity to run fast for
safety or to run long for sustenance, various types of organized play eventually
evolved into high-caliber international sport to
serve as an outlet to demonstrate one’s ability to run fast or run long.
Running is the purest form of athletic competition, and just as the 100-meter
dash became the criterion for the world’s fastest
sprinter, so too has the marathon evolved as the principal marker for the
world’s greatest endurance runner.
Although the first marathon was organized primarily for international-class
athletes competing in the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens,
other marathons soon blossomed for the masses, such as the Boston Marathon in
1897. During the past century of marathon competition,
about an hour has been shaved from the original world men’s record, and similar
improvements have occurred during the shorter
history of women’s marathon competition. During the early years of marathon
competition, runners used various “scientific”
techniques in attempts to enhance performance, but these “scientific” techniques
were based primarily on theory and anecdotal
evidence, trial and error, or inappropriate research. As an example of the
latter, scientists in the 1890s were involved in the
field of work physiology and were primarily interested in means whereby
industrial work productivity could be enhanced. In one such
study, alcohol was found to decrease fatigue in the small group of muscles that
move the thumb. Such information was subsequently,
albeit improperly, applied to sport, and marathon runners reportedly consumed
champagne, cognac, or rum before and during
competition; wine was served at the fluid replacement stations in the 1924 Paris
Olympic marathon.
Distance running has always been popular, but it became increasingly so during
the years following World War II as Olympic and other
international sport competitions were commercialized. In particular, the
popularity of running in the United States surged in the
late 1960s, partly in response to the publication of Aerobics, by Dr. Ken
Cooper. Several years later, Frank Shorter won the
marathon at the 1972 Munich Olympics, an event that seemed to serve as the
catalyst for the popularity of the marathon as a major
sporting event in the mid-1970s and beyond. Thousands of runners took to the
marathon, and most wanted to improve their time for one
reason or another, particularly to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
More...from Marathon and Beyond at:
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/williams.htm


9. Efficiency, Economy and Endurance Performance:
Introduction
So far, if you read the two previous articles regarding "The System", you know
that high level endurance performance depends on 1) a
high maximal oxygen consumption, or VO2 max, and 2) a high lactate threshold, or
point of OBLA. Your VO2 max sets the upper limit
for your sustainable work potential. For the elite endurance athlete, a high VO2
max is like the invitation to the big dance. Having
an invitation to the dance does not ensure you will dance with the prettiest
girl. But, not having one ensures you won't! The
lactate threshold tells us something about how much of the cardiovascular
capacity you can take advantage of in a sustained effort.
It is determined by skeletal muscle characteristics and training adaptations.
Multiplying VO2 max x LT (Oxygen Consumption at
Lactate Threshold) gives us a measure of the effective size of your endurance
engine. Now we come to efficiency. What does
efficiency have to do with endurance performance? Victory goes to the person
with the biggest endurance engine right? Well, let's
use a racecar analogy.
If I build a powerful, well-tuned engine that can run at redline RPMs for hours,
and then drop it into a Ford truck chassis, the
truck might go 120 mph. But if I drop it into a streamlined Ferrari chassis, I
might hit 200 mph (in theory, personally I am afraid
I would soil my pants and hit the brakes long before I reached 200 mph). That
is a big difference. Engine performance didn't
change, but performance velocity did. To some extent, the same efficiency effect
is observed in every endurance sport. Efficiency is
critical to maximizing performance velocity!
Physiological Efficiency Defined
In an exercise setting, efficiency is defined as the percentage of energy
expended by the body that is converted to mechanical work
(another form of energy).
Work Efficiency = Mechanical work / Chemical energy expended
We can measure the mechanical work performed using an ergometer, like a bicycle
ergometer, or rowing machine. We can measure the
energy expended by the body indirectly via its oxygen consumption at sub maximal
workloads. With some basic biochemistry we can
convert the oxygen consumption we measure during exercise to a standard measure
of energy like kJoules, or Calories. And, we can do
the same for the work we measure on the ergometer. Work/time = power. Power is
measured in watts and is a measure of the intensity
of work. Intensity (watts) x exercise duration (minutes) gives us total work,
again measured in kJoules or Calories.
If we take a group of cyclists, or a group of rowers and perform sub maximal
testing on them to determine how much energy they
consume when performing a standard sub maximal workload, we find that overall
work efficiency will range between about 17 and 26%,
with an average somewhere in the middle of that range. In other words for every
100 Calories of energy burned, we manage to convert
20 Calories of that energy to useful work on the pedals of the ergometer, or as
pulling power on the rowing machine. Now, if your
goal is to lose body fat during exercise, then I suppose it pays to be
inefficient, since it is Calories burned that matter.
However, if your goal is to move your body faster than the other guy, than being
25% efficient is way better than 18%! So, what
are the sources of inefficiency and what, if anything can we do about them?
More...from The Performance Model at:
http://home.hia.no/~stephens/effiperf.htm


10. Work in Progress
Progression Runs: A Kenyan Secret Everyone Can Use.
Over the past dozen or so years, training programs for distance running have
come to resemble the tax code: Founded on basic and
long-standing principles, but wrought with increasingly complex terminology. As
a consequence of the ever-more-popular segregation
of harder workouts into discrete classes, such as "tempo run," "VO2 max
workout," and "marathon-pace run," a number of
tried-and-true efforts that can’t be so neatly categorized have been largely
ignored.
Perhaps the chief casualty is a type of workout most aptly classified as a
"progression run." Bound to the idea, implicit or
otherwise, that repetitions and fast, continuous runs must adhere to a uniform
or near-uniform pace, few who approach their training
systematically are apt to regularly include runs that feature steady, programmed
acceleration in their training regimens. Runners
will diligently run four miles at 15K pace, 10x400 meters in 1:30, and 20-mile
long runs at conversational pace, or perhaps with the
last 10 faster than the first 10. Rarely seen, however, are runs,
pace-programmed or otherwise, in which the effort is steadily
ramped up from laughin’-and-scratchin’ easy to blitzkrieg.
The term "progression run" itself is gaining footholds in the running
vernacular, but they’re nothing new. "The Boston-area runners
certainly employed progression runs back in the ’80s and early ’90s," says Pete
Pfitzinger, M.S., a two-time U.S. Olympic Marathoner
and now an exercise physiologist and Senior Writer for RT. "It’s an open
question as to how many Americans do so today." Given the
success of Boston-based runners such as Bill Rodgers, Bob Hodge, Greg Meyer,
Randy Thomas, and of course Pfitzinger himself, this is
not a trivial observation.
Progress Reports
Progression runs come in a variety of flavors and colors, spanning the duration,
frequency, and intensity spectra. As fluid as their
particulars may be, however, their benefits are solidly established. 2004
Olympian Dan Browne, a member of the Nike Oregon Project
who has spent time in Europe and Kenya training with elite African distance
runners, sees progressively faster runs not only as a
critical ingredient in his improvement over the past several years, but as the
key difference between American and Kenyan training
regimens—and as a necessary element in maximizing potential. "In a tight race,
you obviously have to speed up at the end," says
Browne, "and you have to do it when you’re at your most tired. The same thing
applies to progression runs." He notes that a typical
elite American male might run 6:00 pace out the door en route to a 10 miler that
takes an hour, but that a Kenyan might work from
7:00 pace to 5:00 pace in covering 10 miles in that same hour. "If you’re
training to race and racing to win, this approach is
something you need to include in your training," says Browne.
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/04oct/progression.htm


11. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - So Old It's "New":
My recent column titled "How Much Is Enough?" (RC 559) didn't say enough for one
reader. She wanted to hear more about "your new
marathon training program which calls for a long run only every other week."
I promised her a longer explanation. This will come as a reprint on this website
of an upcoming Marathon & Beyond column, after it
runs in that magazine.
Meanwhile I needed to correct her impression that the program is "new." That
would imply untested, which it isn't.
I've published marathon training schedules since 1977. The first appeared as an
afterthought in Runner's World magazine.
An advertiser dropped out at the last minute, leaving a blank page to fill. "Can
you write something for that spot?" asked publisher
Bob Anderson. "Say whatever you want; just do it quickly."
I tossed together a plan for marathoners, based on my practices up to that time,
then added a few paragraphs of explanation and
encouragement. The writing took less than an hour.
That article drew more response than everything I'd written to date, combined.
Hundreds of letters flowed in, not just from that
month but for years afterward. Some runners told how their training and their
marathon had gone, some wanted more advice, some had
heard about the article and asked for reprints.
That piece said nothing magical. I wouldn't even write it exactly the same way
now.
But it gave runners a program to cling to at a time when they could read little
else about marathon training. That time is long
past. Books abound now, along with magazine and Internet advice, and organized
training groups galore.
I was an early arrival to writing marathon programs but a latecomer to writing a
full book on the subject. My original Marathon
Training came out in 1997, and by then was just one more volume on an
overflowing shelf.
Marathon Training sold well enough to generate a second edition, released about
a year ago. I refreshed nearly all of the writing,
but the training schedules remained unchanged. The introduction explained that
programs 30 years in the making (at the time of the
first book) needed no revamping in the seven years between the two books.
Together the two editions have sold more copies than any other recent book of
mine. Runners presumably are reading Marathon
Training. But if they're following the prescribed running, you couldn't tell it
by my mail.
I rarely hear any comments on this book, and I interpret the silence as a good
sign. You know how runners are. We don't quietly
swallow our disappointments.
More... from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/497.html


12. Running in the dark - Blindness doesn't hold back Rachael Scdoris in
Iditarod:
WILLOW, Alaska (AP) - The tough part is over.
That's how Rachael Scdoris felt at the start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog
Race. All the years of training, all the cajoling and
qualifying to get to this point were done. Now it was time to run.
No matter that she faces terrible hazards and that fellow mushers fear for her
safety. The legally blind 20-year-old from Bend,
Ore., ventured confidently with the last of 79 teams in Sunday's restart of an
1,100-mile journey through darkness - her own and
this hostile northern landscape's - to the frigid finish in Nome.
Maybe she won't get that far. She surely won't get there first. If she gets
there at all, it will be astonishing. Success is defined
differently for each of us. In this case it began with her cries of "Hike!" to
the handsome team of 16 dogs, led by her favorite,
seven-year-old Duchess - "kind of a hairy human," she said - that she trained
from pups in pursuit of a lifelong dream.
Five Canadians joined Scdoris in this year's Iditarod: Hans Gatt of Atlin, B.C.,
Karen Ramstead of Perryvale, Alta., Aaron Peck of
Grafton, Ont., Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse and Michael Salvisberg of
Haines Junction, Yukon.
Scdoris arrived at this moment after years of defying doubts about her
abilities. She ran cross-country races in high school when
others thought that was impossible. She competed in shorter sled dog races when
officials wanted to keep her out.
More...from Sports Net at:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/othersports/shownews.jsp?content=s030673A


13. The Athletic Performance Diet Plan:
By Matt Russ
Interestingly the athletic diet has changed very little over the years. The
reason being is that there are not many pathways to
fueling the body most efficiently. A diet consisting of 60-65% carbohydrate,
20-25% fats, and 15-20% protein is the proper ratio of
macro nutrients for most athletes and has been the mainstay for years. A highly
trained endurance athlete would not last very long
on a high protein diet, because their glycogen stores would quickly become
depleted and they would no longer have the energy or
reserves to train effectively. There is little controversy in athletic nutrition
when compared to the general population. I believe
the reason for this is athletic nutrition is based on hard science and fact,
rather than sensationalism and circumstantial evidence.
Coaches rely on clinical studies and proven methods rather than the latest hype.
Remember, most diets have to have a "hook" or
gimmick to get you to purchase their plan or products. That is not to say there
is not hundreds of performance enhancing athletic
supplements, many with dubious value. But the overall big picture on how to fuel
an athletes body really has not changed all that
much. This is what most athletes should focus on, rather than the latest
supplement, performance enhancing product, or fad diet
plan.
Complex carbohydrates such as starches and fiber should be the cornerstone of
the athletic diet. Complex carbohydrates include
breads, pasta, cereals, vegetables, rice and other grains, and potatoes. I try
to choose carbohydrates that are in there "natural"
form such as whole grains because they have more fiber and nutrients, and give a
slower steady release of energy. Processed
carbohydrate foods such as pasta and bagels are great for loading your body with
energy before and after competition. Simple sugars
are good during a competition and for quick energy replacement afterwards
(sports drinks). I try to avoid fruits before competition.
They can upset your stomach and the type of sugar, fructose, can be harder for
your body to process during exercise. Carbohydrates
are broken down and stored as glycogen; the bodies fuel source, or converted to
energy to compete and train. When glycogen stores
run out you may "bonk" or "hit the wall." You feel lousy, lethargic, and slow.
Your body begins breaking down your muscles to use as
fuel. Several days of hard training can also deplete glycogen stores. This
sluggishness and inability to train hard is often
misdiagnosed as overtraining. A good post work out recovery plan is crucial to
maintaining glycogen stores for repeated training and
competition. This means eating carbohydrates and a little bit of protein (4:1
ratio), immediately after training.
More...from the Sports Factory at:
http://www.thesportfactory.com/article_59.shtml


14. Marathon Training Program - Evaluating Your Race Performance:
The marathon is an intriguing event because so many factors come into play in
determining how well you will do and how much
discomfort you might experience. Did you come face to face with the infamous
"wall"? In the days and weeks when the marathon is
finally behind you, you may wish to consider the things you did correctly along
with errors you may have made in your training and
racing.
Below is a list of evaluation questions to reflect upon when contemplating what
you may do differently the next time you train for,
and run a marathon. If necessary, modify and adjust your program to address
these issues. Also included below are sections of this
site where related information appears. Good luck with your upcoming marathons!
Did you train intelligently and make it to the starting line rested and
healthy?
* Did you avoid injury throughout your training?
* Did you listen to the feedback your body was communicating to you and make
minor adjustments to your training schedule to avoid
fatigue or injury, thus becoming stronger?
_ Injury Prevention Strategies
- Injury Treatment Approaches
Did you train consistently?
* Did you complete most of the scheduled workouts listed on the training
schedules?
* Above all, did you complete all or most of your long runs (18-22/23 milers)?
- Mileage Buildup Schedule
-Marathon Training Schedule
- Preparing for the Long Run
More... from State of the Art Marathon Training at:
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/6004/


15. Beth Mansfield - Ask the Nutritionist:
Are you drinking enough, too much or not enough?
It used to be that runners were told to drink when they were thirsty, to drink
when they were not thirsty, and to drink in between!
All in the spirit of ensuring that they were well hydrated and ready to perform.
However the over zealous nature of some runners has
them drowning in too much water. First of all lets settle the urban myth that we
all need to drink 8 cups of water a day. This is
not true – we need fluids, and water, juice, soup, milk, even caffeinated and
alcoholic containing beverages all contribute to this
fluid intake. Even wet foods give us fluids – many of us get at least ¼ of our
fluid needs daily from wet foods such as fruits,
vegetables, pasta, rice, and yogurt. The amount of fluid that you take in per
day should be 1 ml per kcal as a minimum – this means
that if you are eating 2500 Calories/day you should be drinking a minimum of 2.5
liters (10 cups) of fluid on training days PLUS
more depending upon your sweat rate.
1. Start training well hydrated
· Drink 2-3 cups of fluid 2-3 hours before training to allow any excess
fluid to be peed off.
· About ½ an hour before you start to exercise, drink ½ to 1 cup of
fluid.
· Don’t over drink. You can get too much water. Bloated stomach, puffy
fingers and ankles, a bad headache, and confusion are
warning signs of water intoxication.
More...from the ING Ottawa Marathon at:
http://www.ncm.ca/beth_mansfieldtips-en.html?page=beth_mansfieldtips&lang_id=1&p\
age_id=105


16. Tri-training principles to help plan your season:
Have you been daydreaming, looking forward to the summer racing season? If you
are a new triathlete, you might be asking, "How can I
get in shape for a triathlon?"
If you raced last season, your dreamy thoughts may ask: "What should I do
different this season? How can I get faster? How can I go
farther?"
If these questions are on your mind, know that the same training principles
guide the plans for addressing either question, whether
you're a beginner or seasoned triathlete.
The deeper we look into a training plan for an individual sport, we'll find
further refinements of the training principles. For
example, the details of the plan for an athlete doing his or her first triathlon
are different from the details of the plan for an
experienced athlete trying to get faster.
The plan for a beginning triathlete is different if the athlete is fit, compared
to the plan used by a currently hibernating
athlete. Of course, the training plan for an Ironman-distance event is different
than for an Olympic-distance event.
The old saying "The devil is in the details" holds true for training plans. When
working with the devil in your training plan, keep
in mind the following training principles:
1. Individual and progressive overload must be applied to achieve physiological
improvement and bring about a training change. A
widely accepted rule of thumb is to increase annual training hours or annual
volume by 10% or less.
2. Training volume can be defined as the combination of frequency and duration.
When assembling your training plan, annual training
volume is one piece of the puzzle. Broken down, the monthly, weekly and daily
training volumes are as important as annual volume.
Establishing your personal training volume based on what "the pros do" is faulty
logic. Your personal training volume, to bring
about physiological improvement for you, should be based on your personal
profile, past training volume, current lifestyle, goals,
the number of weeks you have to train before your key event, and your response
to training.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11483&sidebar=26&category=triathlon


17. Fitting running shoes:
Feet are the foundations of all runners and running shoes are the most important
piece of equipment that a runner has. Read about
the different ways of fitting running shoes and how to find a local specialist.
Biomechanical assessment
Biomechanical assessment involves assessing and measuring different motions of
the foot, ankle, leg and lower back to determine
whether it functions and moves correctly. Gait analysis (see below) involves
assessing these movements while running.
Running shops commonly offer 'biomechanical assessments' but these must not be
confused with the assessments offered by qualified
health professionals. Usually provided free of charge.
Sports injury professionals such as physiotherapists and podiatrists are fully
qualified to offer these services. If you have an
injury or experience discomfort, a biomechanical assessment may well be the best
first step for fitting running shoes. £50+ for
assessment.
More...from Time Outdoors at:
http://running.timeoutdoors.com/kit/3RUNASR05022101E.htm


18. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
"Shivering at the start of a race is not a bad thing. Physical exertion quickly
warms you up, and a rise in body temperature of more
than a few degrees will hurt your performance. Yet many runners insist on racing
in tights, long-sleeve shirts, and jackets even
when it's only slightly cool. Rule of thumb for cold-weather races: If you're
warm at the starting line, you're overdressed. Unless
arctic conditions prevail, limit yourself to shorts, singlet, gloves, hat, and
maybe a T-shirt you can peel off midrace. As soon as
you finish, though, change into warm, dry clothes for your cooldown." -Ed
Eyestone
* Injury Prevention
Get to the Core: Instead of standing around between weight-lifting sets at the
gym, do core strengthening exercises. Jumping back
and forth between a set of bicep curls and a set of crunches with a medicine
ball, for example, will keep your heart rate elevated
and make it more of a cardio workout. Try mixing core-strengthening exercises
throughout your routine. If you wait to do them at the
end of your routine, you're more likely to skip them.
* Performance Nutrition
Most cereals are vitamin-mineral fortified, and they're great with fresh fruit
sliced on top. Cereal is a quick-to-prepare, easily
digestible, and healthful way to satisfy your sweet tooth. (Even sweetened
cereals are a better low-fat alternative to cookies).
Choose cereals that have 5 grams of fiber or more per serving. When are they
good? Fine as a prerun snack, a postrun pick-me-up, or
even as a trail mix during a long, easy run.
* Editor's Advice
Wear the Right Pair: "Feather-light racing flats might help you run a faster
5-K, but lightweight performance trainers (with better
protection and cushioning) are a better choice for most runners, especially in
longer races." -Warren Greene, RW gear editor
* Training Talk
"The difference between a great race and a subpar performance can also be the
result of less tangible factors. The best training in
the world will not produce results if you are not mentally ready for a race. You
must master the seemingly antithetical arts of
concentration and relaxation. You must learn to both pace and push. You need
confidence. You also need prerace planning, physical
preparation, a positive attitude, self-control, wise choices, and, yes, a bit of
dumb luck." -From the Runner's World Complete Book
of Women's Running.
* Editor's Advice
Wear the right pair: "Feather-light racing flats might help you run a faster
5-K, but lightweight performance trainers (with better
protection and
cushioning) are a better choice for most runners, especially in longer races."
-Warren Greene, RW gear editor


19. Muscle 'scraping' a healing art that sounds more like torture:
It was Valentine's Day, but Larry Platt was not getting much love.
He was flat on his back, barechested, and a guy with a plastic scraper was
bearing down on his left arm, boring deep into his tender
biceps. It was beginning to pucker, redden and swell.
So it goes when you're editor of Philadelphia Magazine and a cosmetic surgeon
who's been advertising for years fails to win "Best of
Philly."
Actually, Platt was doing penance for his passion for tennis, and his tormenter,
Don Chu, was trying to relieve his pain, not cause
it.
Chu and I became acquainted 12 years ago, when he taught me about plyometrics,
exercises that develop explosive power. Though he
hailed from the altered state of California, Chu was linear, lucid and hip to
the latest in fitness, athletic training and exercise
physiology.
So when I heard he'd be in town last week demonstrating a new method of physical
therapy, I reserved a spot on his dance card.
His host was Joe Zarett, of Zarett Rehab in Center City. Joe and I have a
history, too. He was the ace PT who repaired my torn
hamstring a while back after I got blown off the track by Anthony "Fast Tony"
Morrone, the seventy something South Philly sprint
champ.
Zarett's clinic was like Lourdes or Fatima. All the stubborn cases, all the
injured and incurables, were showing up in hopes Chu
could work miracles.
Chu had come to practice "scraping," which sounds like medieval torture.
"I prefer to call it tooling," Chu corrected. The formal name of the technique:
augmented soft-tissue mobilization.
More...from Philly.com at:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/10953668.htm


20. Nutrition and Training:
Hydration
1 A mere 2% decline in body water weight can cause up to a 10% decline in
physical performance. Be sure to drink half your body
weight (in pounds) in non-caffeinated fluid ounces on a daily basis to help
lubricate your joints, moisten your muscles, ensure
optimal metabolic function and wash away bacteria before they cause infection.
2 Remember to tap off your fluid tank before exercising. Aim at sipping 8 ounces
of hydrating fluids (non-caffeinated) for every 1/2
hour prior to starting.
3 To stay hydrated during exercise, aim at consuming 8 ounces of fluid every
15-20 minutes. To avoid hyponatremia, or low blood
sodium, and consequent cramps, headaches and lethargy, use a sports beverage
containing carbohydrates and electrolytes rather than
plain water when training longer than one hour.
4 Determine your individual sweat by weighing in pre- and post-workout. For
every pound that you lose during a workout, add an
additional 16 ounces of fluid to your drinking regimen to avoid symptoms of
dehydration. The goal is to lose as little weight as
possible.
5 As a means to rehydrate and optimize recovery after exercise, make sure to
drink 16-24 ounces of fluid for every pound of body
weight lost. Sports beverages containing carbohydrates and electrolytes are
ideal after strenuous exercise as they allow for both
glycogen repletion and electrolyte replacement.
More...from Competitor Magazine at:
http://competitor.com/story.cfm?story_id=6739&departmentID=20


21. Triathlon: Five great track workouts:
Some people hate running loops around a track as they feel they are not actually
going anywhere, but the ability to monitor your
pace and know exact distances is what makes the track a perfect venue for
running speed. The track is where you get fast. Doing
repeats over a standardized distance where you do not have to worry about
footing is the best way to increase foot speed and raise
your lactate-tolerance levels. Just remember that these sessions are focused on
speed and should therefore be kept for short, fast
intervals, not longer tempo-paced work.
There are some important points to remember when performing track workouts:
You should always perform a thorough warm-up before attempting any of the
following workouts. Do a 10- to 20-minute warm-up that
builds slightly in intensity before the hard work.
Follow the warm-up with some drills and strides to get your muscles firing and
ready for the effort to come.
If you need rest, take it, but keep in mind that the rest is structured for a
reason, and thus should not be deviated from too much.
You will be tired at the end of some of these workouts, so it is okay if you
feel fatigued as the workout comes to an end.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050309_LW_Track.html


22. Bad Air Days:
Urban pollution can undo your fitness plans. To avoid the big wheeze, check out
our guide to finding the freshest outdoor oxygen in
cities across the country.
Do You Think Good Health Makes You impervious to smog? Tell that to 28-year-old
400-meter hurdler Ryan Tolbert-Jackson, who, back in
1997, developed debilitating asthma while competing at the World Track & Field
Championships in Athens, Greece.
"My breathing was labored, and I fatigued easier," she said later. "It was as if
I had a virus or severe allergies."
In fact, she suffered from overexposure to noxious air, which tends to hit
exceptionally fit people the hardest.
"It's not fair," says Randall Brown, a pulmonologist with Children's Healthcare
of Atlanta, at Scottish Rite Hospital. "The
healthiest individuals experience the worst exposure of anyone from exercising
in pollution-heavy environments. In effect, they are
the canaries in the coal mine, because their lungs are so sensitive."
But it's not just elite athletes who are at risk. Roughly 159 million people,
more than half the population of the United States,
now live in cities with unhealthy levels of pollution, so anyone exerting
themselves outdoors should consider what they're
breathing. "The negative effects on health that can come from exercising on a
bad day can outweigh the positive benefits of sticking
to a training program," says Ron Allice, director of the track-and-field program
at the University of Southern California, in Los
Angeles.
Does this mean you should toss out an exercise regimen at the first sign of
brown haze? No, but you should be smarter about location
and timing. Stick to the following tips and maximize your fresh-air exposure,
inhaling the best O2 your city has to offer.
More...from Outside Online at:
http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200411/bad_city_air_1.html


23. 'Why am I so tired?' Recognizing and dealing with fatigue:
"Why am I so tired?"
Fatigue is a very common complaint and affects athletes of all ages, sizes and
abilities. It is one of the most common complaints in
the physician's office, with one in every four patients stating that fatigue is
disrupting his or her life.
What is fatigue?
Fatigue is a subjective condition in which a person feels tired before beginning
an activity, lacks the energy to accomplish tasks
requiring sustained effort and attention, and becomes unduly exhausted after
normal activities.
It can range from pervasive and overwhelming to subtle, felt only during all-out
competition. Fatigue, as a symptom, is vague and
can be wide-ranging in its implications.
What are the most common causes of fatigue? For the friends and family in our
lives, we might be tired for obvious reasons such as a
virtuous effort to get up at 4:30 in the morning to exercise strenuously prior
to starting the workday. But why does this have an
impact?
It is important to remember that the human body requires 7 - 10 hours of sleep
in a 24-hour period. When we don't have enough time,
the first place we typically cut back is sleep time.
If you are getting up early to exercise, or staying up late, it is important to
adjust your sleep time accordingly. If continuous
sleep is not possible, a 20- to 40-minute nap during the day may help.
More...from the Sports Factory at:
http://www.thesportfactory.com/article_296.shtml


24. Mark Allen: Time for speed work
The racing season is coming up quickly. Hopefully you are well under way with
building your aerobic base. Many of you will start
into speed work in the next month or two. This will be the time when you
fine-tune the fitness gained in your aerobic training.
Speed work has three variables: when to start, volume in each session and
frequency of workouts. Let's look at each of these in a
way that will help you maximize the benefits you gain from this high-end work.
Starting point
A well-timed speed block will allow enough time for you to work your fast-twitch
muscles and the associated energy systems. The
starting point of interval work can be determined by two things: the date of
your first race and your age.
Most people can only benefit from speed work for four to eight weeks. After that
they will begin a slide in fitness and start to
risk injury and overtraining fatigue. Where you will be in that four- to 10-week
span is based a lot on age. Someone who is 60 will
max out on the speed benefits after about four weeks, while a 20-year-old can
sustain it nicely for up to 10 weeks.
So figure out how many weeks of speed you can absorb and count back from your
first goal race. This will give you the start date for
interval work.
If you are not sure, try this test. First make sure you have a good idea of your
aerobic pace at your maximum aerobic heart rate.
Now go out and do between 15-20 minutes of fast running either in the form of
interval work (such as 3 x 1000 on the track or 1 x 5
minutes, 2 x 3 minutes, 3 x 1 minute fartlek). Now monitor your body for the
next few days. If your aerobic pace gets quicker from
this workout, you will probably benefit from doing speedwork. If you get slower
or get sick, your body is not in the shape to handle
speed work at this time and you may benefit from doing a couple more weeks of
base work.
More...from InsideTri at:
http://www.insidetri.com/train/tips/articles/1472.0.html


25. News Scan:
* Creatine Comes Clean
A decade of research reveals that creatine is the real deal.
A rare thumbs up for the multi-billion-dollar supplement industry: Study after
study shows that creatine supplements can help you
with anaerobic bursts of strength, without the side effects once feared.
As an amino acid manufactured by your liver and kidneys and found in meat,
creatine is used to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP),
the molecule that drives muscle contraction. By taking a creatine supplement,
research shows you can provide your muscles with more
fuel to endure longer bouts of explosive action.
So do you need extra creatine? No. But if you're an adult (the jury's still out
on whether creatine is safe for adolescents)
involved in climbing, mountain biking, or other anaerobic sports, the supplement
can provide a performance boost.
From Outside Online

* Breathing for Peak Performance by Axel Santiago
There are several ways to train the mind. One of the most common is a
combination of visualization and relaxation. Relaxation is an
essential step to achieve effective visualization. It creates a receptive state
of mind necessary for creating a winning mental
image.
4 Steps to Relaxation
This exercise is best performed while lying down. Find a quiet place where you
will not be disturbed for at least 20 minutes. You
can practice this anywhere: at work, at home while watching TV, or just prior to
warming up before a race.
Step 1: Close your eyes and begin to breathe deeply and slowly, inhaling through
the nose and exhaling through the mouth.
Step 2: Focus your attention on your feet, calves and thighs. Lightly contract
them for a few seconds and slowly release them. Feel
the difference between tension and looseness. Now move your attention to your
hips and do the same: contract and release. Continue
this process with your abdominals, arms, forearms, hands and neck. Finally,
tense up your entire body and release it.
Step 3: Continue breathing deeply and repeat with all your muscles: calves,
feet, thighs, hips, abdominals, chest, neck and
shoulders. Continue on to the face muscles. Repeat if you have some particular
tension: find it, and smoothly relax your body.
Step 4: Visualize your body as if it were made of an extremely light substance.
Imagine yourself floating in the air. Continue
breathing deeply, inhaling and exhaling, and feel lighter each time. Remain in
this state for as long as possible.
Axel Santiago is a USA Cycling and Ultrafit certified coach. He works with road
cyclists and mountain bikers. His athletes have won
medals in the Pan American Games and stage races. Axel is currently racing and
is available for coaching and consulting. Contact him
at mailto:axelsantiagopr@....
From Ultrafit at:
http://www.ultrafit.com/newsletter/march05.html#AS

* Active Minds May Be Primed to Fight Alzheimer's
Animal study shows that physical and mental activity boost plaque prevention in
the brain
Physical and mental activity may increase the brain's ability to prevent
Alzheimer's plaques, suggests a new study in mice.
Human studies have already linked education and exercise with a protective
effect against Alzheimer's.
Sangram Sisodia of the University of Chicago and colleagues have now shown that
people who keep their brain and body busy may be
activating genes that lead to greater clearing of peptides implicated in the
brain disease.
"This goes back to the old idea of use it or lose it, that using your brain
keeps it more active," Sisodia says. "It's more common
sense than anything, but what we didn't previously appreciate is that it might
affect the pathology that is characteristic of
Alzheimer's disease."
Mental floss
In their study, Sisodia and colleagues found that physically and mentally active
mice exposed to chew toys, running wheels and
tunnels had lower levels of beta-amyloid peptides and plaques associated with
Alzheimer's than mice raised in more sparse
conditions. The most physically active mice in study had the most dramatic
reductions in amyloid peptides.
The peptides clump together to form the plaques, which are toxic to nerve cells
and a hallmark of Alzheimer's. Researchers aren't
yet sure whether the peptides or the plaques are the major cause of Alzheimer's
symptoms.
Sisodia and colleagues found that in the active mice, there were higher levels
of an enzyme called neprilysin that destroys
beta-amyloid peptides. DNA analysis also showed that the active mice had a
number of more active genes for such things as blood
vessel formation that may speed the movement of beta-amyloid peptides out of the
brain.
The researchers plan to study these genes further to find out how their
expression may affect beta-amyloid peptide levels.
From BetterHumans.com


*End of Articles*



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

March 10-12, 2005:
CIS Track and Field Championships - Winnipeg, MAN
http://www.cisport.ca/e/championships/track/2005

March 11-12, 2005:
NCAA Track and Field Championships - Fayetteville, AR
http://www.ladybacks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=2300&ATCLID=106211&K
NCAA
http://www.ncaasports.com/track-and-field

March 12, 2005:
Bay Islands Triathlon - Roatan
http://www.bayislandstriathlon.com

Bayou City Classic 10K - Houston, TX
http://www.bayoucityclassic.org

Canyonlands Half-Marathon - Moab, UT
http://www.moabhalfmarathon.org

Gate River Run 15K - Jacksonville, FL
http://www.gate-riverrun.com
*USA Men's and Women's Championship*

St. Patrick's Day 10K/5K - Ottawa, ON
http://www.events.runningroom.com/site/?raceId=1318


March 13, 2005:
Blue Cross of California Spirit Run 5K/10K - Newport Beach, CA
http://www.kinaneevents.com

Rome Marathon - Italy
http://www.maratonadiroma.it

Runnin' of the Green Lucky 7K - Denver, CO
http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1191624

Valley of the Sun Marathon, Mesa, AZ
http://www.valleyofthesunmarathon.com


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

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

Send this to a Friend:
Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join

Your Feedback and Comments:
Comments, contributions and feedback are always welcome via this list at:
mailto:runnersweb@yahoogroups.com and in our Runner's Web
Forum, available off our FrontPage. If you post to the mailing list and get your
email returned, please contact the Runner's Web at
mailto:webmaster@... to notify us of the problem. To update your
Runner's Web eGroups subscriber's profile,
go to the web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join, sign in
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Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
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Have a good week of training and/or racing.

Ken Parker
Runner's Web
mailto:webmaster@...
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
A running and triathlon resource portal


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The TRACK PROFILE Reader 2004, an in-depth review of the 2003 season by Bob
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END...OF DIGEST...