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6. FRS Plus - the antioxidant health drink.
Free radicals are produced continuously in the human body. They are unstable
molecules that cause damage to healthy cells and are
the by-products of our bodies' natural metabolic processes. Athletes create free
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exercise intensity and duration goes up, so does our production of these harmful
free radicals. Some have termed this the "oxygen
paradox". Endurance exercise can increase oxygen utilization from 10 to 20 times
over the resting state, with a corresponding
increase in free radical burden.
To offset this increased free radical production in athletes, the body has some
ability to adapt, by increasing our endogenous or
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compounds that can actively seek out and pair with reactive
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the oxygen paradox for athletes is that exercise
though healthful in many ways, creates damaging free radicals. It is essential
that athletes strive to consume large amounts of
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The Toronto Marathon, Half-Marathon, 5K & relay is set for October 16th. The
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THIS WEEK:
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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
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* Carmichael Training Systems
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* Peak Running Performance
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* WatsonLifeSport
Lance Watson is "Just The Winningest Coach in Triathlon". He has been coaching
triathlon and distance running since 1987. Over the
years, Lance has coached some of the most successful athletes in the sport of
triathlon and duathlon.
Check out the Lance Watson Online Article Index at:
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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 Gender Gap
2. Science of Sport: Running Economy
A brief history of the strengthening of the economy, and why it matters.
3. Triathlon: What to do when it all goes wrong
How to cope with race-day emergencies.
4. Running Vs. Medicine
5. Maintaining Fluid Balance in Heat and Humidity
6. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
7. Gatorade Sports Science Institute Hydration Seminar
8. Stretch Yourself (Your Joints and Muscles, Too)
9. Ask the Tri Doc: Skin cancer and triathlon
10. 4 simple tips to build cycling power
11. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Where's Dick?
12. Increase Your Speed
You do your track work. You integrate intervals. You even sprinkle in a little
strength training. What else can you possibly do to
improve your performance on Race Day?
13. Circuit Training
Resistance training offers many different benefits to the body than
cardiovascular exercise.
14. Physiological Training Principles Are Often Inaccurate
15. We All Need Speed
Tempo training is the best way to get faster and stronger, no matter where you
are in the pack.
16. From Runner's World
17. Athletics: A Simple Blueprint for Effective Training
The Four Rules of Running.
18. Multisport: Overracing and Ironman
19. U.S. Unveils New Food Pyramid
20. Going The Distance: Endurance Training
Overdistance training is not only the key to bringing out athletic ability you
never knew you had, but, done right, a long workout
is a satisfying road trip in itself.
21. Don't drive other athletes away - Athletic etiquette
22. How One Pill Escaped the List of Controlled Steroids
23. Getting fit: The basics
24. From Roger Bannister To Dr. Frankenstein
25. News Scan - A Collection of News Items


Runner's Web Weekly Poll: "Do the shoe companies provide a fair level of support
to the sports of track and field, and triathlon?"

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 "How many years have you been a runner?"

The results at publication time were:

Answers Votes Percent
1. 30+ 24 24%
2. 20 - 29 16 16%
3. 10 - 19 19 19%
4. 5 - 9 16 16%
5. 1 - 4 15 15%
6. < 1 3 3%
7. I am not a runner 5 5%
Total Votes: 98

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Five Star Site of the Week: LifeSport with Lance Watson.
"Just The Winningest Coach in Triathlon!"
Lance Watson has been coaching triathlon and distance running since 1987. Over
the years, Lance has coached some of the most
successful athletes in the sport of triathlon and duathlon, including:
* Lisa Bentley (Seven Ironman wins)
* Simon Whitfield (Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold)
* Steve Larsen (pro cyclist, Ironman winner)
* Greg Bennett (world No. 1, Olympian)
* Laura Reback (world triathlon silver)
* Lucy Smith (world duathlon champ silver, 10 national run champs)
* Melissa Spooner (Ironman Champ)
* Tereza Macel (Canadian Champion)
* Sarah Howell (Commonwealth runner, national duathlon champ)
* Lauren Groves (National Team)
* Mark Bates (National Champion)
* Cheryl Murphy (10th world duathlon champs)
* Andrew Noble (world duathlon champ)
* Sharon Donnelly (Olympian)
* Peter Reid (technical coach, Hawaii Ironman champ)
* Lach Vollmerhaus (world-ranked short course)
* Jamie Cleveland (Ironman Florida champ)
* Leandro Macedo (Olympian)
* Jasper Blake (national team Ironman)
* Brent McMahon (Olympian)
* Andrea Fisher (9:39 Ironman)
* Brigitte McMahon (Olympic gold medallist

A Human Kinetics graduate (sport psychology minor), Lance has had the
opportunity to work with and be mentored by numerous
world-class swim, bike, run and triathlon coaches and liaise with many top sport
professionals (scientists, psychologists,
nutritionists, therapists, etc.)
Lance has coached at the 2000 Olympics, 2002 Commonwealth Games and 2003 Pan
American Games. He has been head coach at several
national-team events and coached at various Ironman, ITU World Cup and world
championship events. As well, he was an award recipient
as “Triathlon Canada Elite Coach Of The Year” four consecutive years from
2000-2003. He is the 2004 Olympic Team Head Coach
(Triathlon).
Visit Lance's site at:
http://www.lancewatson.com/

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: Adventure Racing
Adventure Racing
Take the ultimate endurance challenge! Adventure Racing is the complete guide to
the skills, equipment, strategies, navigation, and
nutrition used by the top adventure racers around the globe.
Start with the right gear to perform your best—even in desert, rainforest, and
subzero environments. Then learn the skills for
trekking, mountain biking, canoeing and kayaking, and mountaineering.
Insights on team strategy, use of support crews, map reading, and magnetic
deviation will keep you on track. And the right fuel for
changing conditions, medical know-how, and survival skills will keep you in the
race.
Profiles and stories from the top races and adventure racers provide a taste of
the exciting challenges of the sport. They’ll
inspire you to test yourself time and again in the most addictive team endurance
sport on the planet.
Buy the book from Human Kinetics at:
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showproduct.cfm?associate=880&isbn=0736059\
113
[Long URL]

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 Gender Gap
By Owen Anderson, Ph. D. (copyright © 2003-2005)
Male and female endurance athletes respond to training in exactly the same way.
When interval workouts are conducted at vVO2max,
vVO2max improves, regardless of gender. Similarly, lactate-stacker sessions
improve the lactate-threshold running speeds of male and
female athletes to the same extent, running-specific strength training enhances
economy similarly, and hill training boosts
fatigue-resistance in the same manner.
In spite of these parallel responses, however, top male endurance athletes
achieve better performance times than similarly trained
females. This is true in a variety of different sports, from bicycling and
cross-country skiing to swimming, running, and rowing. In
general, elite men are about 10 to 11 percent faster than elite women.
The reasons for this disparity have been hotly debated, and some exercise
physiologists have suggested that the mechanisms
underlying the performance gap may vary according to sport. In endurance rowing,
for example, a sport in which the "10-percent rule"
holds true (1), large body size, or at least an expanded lean body mass, is
believed to be a key advantage which male rowers have
over female rowing athletes (2 & 3). In fact, internationally competitive rowers
tend to weigh significantly more than club-level
rowers (4), and rowing performance has been strongly and positively linked with
leg-muscle size in recent research (5). In theory,
augmented muscle mass should allow rowers to move the oars with greater power.
It has also been logically argued that increased height per se is beneficial for
rowing performance. The reasoning is simply that
greater height enhances the length of the rowing stroke (2); indeed, some
research has linked long stroke lengths with higher levels
of rowing performance (6).
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050422_RRN_Gender_Gap.html


2. Science of Sport: Running Economy:
A brief history of the strengthening of the economy, and why it matters.
If you're a runner, perhaps you want to be able to run for longer periods of
time at your current race and workout paces. Perhaps
you want to run faster during your competitions and training sessions. Or maybe
you just want everything you do now to feel a little
easier. Whatever the case, improving your running economy can be the solution to
your problem: exercise physiologists tell us that
upgraded economy lowers perceived effort at your current race paces and allows
you to run for longer periods of time at those
speeds. Better yet, enhanced economy lets you run faster than your customary
competitive speeds, without feeling that the effort is
any harder.
If you're a regular reader of Peak Performance (PP), you'll recall that - in
purely physiological terms - improved economy means
using less oxygen to run at a particular pace. No, working on your economy
doesn't mean that you're preparing yourself to compete in
the first Mars Marathon; as your economy improves, you'll still be dragging
oxygen into your lungs and pushing it out to your leg
muscles with your heart. It's just that you need less of that life-giving gas to
run at race-relevant speeds, which is great because
it puts less pressure on your heart (which is glad to beat more modestly once it
learns that your muscles don't need quite as much
oxygen as before) and makes running feel more effortless (there's a direct
relationship between oxygen consumption and perceived
effort). As a result, a seemingly insignificant 2-per cent improvement in
economy can carve a nifty 48 seconds from your 10-K time,
if you're currently about a 40-minute 10Ker.
So how do you actually improve your economy? Traditionally, exercise scientists
have believed that strength training might do the
trick. In part, the theory has been that strength work improves whole-body
stability during the act of running. Thus, less energy is
required to correct inappropriate movements (e. g., a wobbly trunk or an ankle
which is dorsiflexed to too great a degree), and a
particular pace can be sustained with a lower total energy cost.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050421_PPO_Running_Economy.html


3. Triathlon: What to do when it all goes wrong:
How to cope with race-day emergencies.
Few races push competitors to their physical, mental and spiritual limits like
the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Hawaii.
The geography, the duration of the race, the environmental conditions and the
sheer number of participants make this annual event
the ultimate goal for many athletes. With all the effort that has been put into
earning a spot in Kona, no one wants to end his or
her day early, but the Hawaiian gods may have ordained that you are going to
face an obstacle or two in your quest to conquer the
course.
The bonk
Nutrition is the fourth, and often most important, discipline in Ironman racing.
No one enters the race planning to bonk, but it
happens. It starts with a lightheaded feeling and increasing difficulty in
concentrating on the race. It continues with waves of
disorientation and fatigue, and then the body starts telling you that it is
going to slow down. You start to fantasize about sugary
and fatty foods. Where did things go wrong?
Kona offers a unique race environment that can wreak havoc with your nutrition.
Don't try to push through the bonk — the gods will
win. Start by slowing your pace a little and try to consume carbohydrates. It is
important to take these carbs regularly, but not to
gorge. If you inundate your system with an overload of carbohydrates, you may
taste them again on their way back up. Eat frequently
but in small portions, allowing your body to absorb the calories before more
come barreling down your throat.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050421_LW_Emergencies.html


4. Running Vs. Medicine:
Ideally, everyone would get plenty of exercise, and people who would be helped
by pills that treat heart disease or diabetes would
take them before dashing out the door for their daily run. But if it comes down
to a choice, which should you pick: Your pills or
your running sneakers?
The costs for a running habit and a cocktail of medicines are in the same
ballpark, although exercise is a little cheaper. A pair of
running shoes can easily cost $100 and may need to be replaced within three
months. A bare-bones heart drug cocktail--including
hypertension medicine and one of the weakest cholesterol medicines
available--will run at least $100 for a three-month period. Going
with a brand-name cholesterol medicine, such as Pfizer's Lipitor or Merck's
Zocor, will set you back at least another $80. As other
medicines are added, costs can quickly skyrocket. (Of course, health insurance
will pay for pills, but not shoes.)
More...from Forbes at:
http://www.forbes.com/healthcare/2004/05/11/cx_mh_0511running.html


5. Maintaining Fluid Balance in Heat and Humidity :
With the change of season, we are soon going to be seeing hot and humid
temperatures. A key to athletic success is avoidance of a
state of under-hydration. There are however many complexities of efficient fluid
balance due to environmental conditions. For
example, the higher the temperature, the more athletes sweat. For sweat to have
a cooling effect, it must evaporate off the skin.
Therefore, the higher the humidity, the more athletes sweat but with reduced
natural cooling efficiency. Furthermore, clothing can
trap sweat against the skin and further reduce the body's natural cooling
effect. As an athlete becomes progressively dehydrated,
sweat rates reduce, and core body temperature rise, resulting in heat
exhaustion.
Evidentially, fluid balance is complicated, not only by environmental
conditions, but also by the conditioning of the athlete.
Better conditioned athletes may have a more natural cooling system because they
have developed efficient sweat systems. This allows
better conditioned athletes to perform longer but it also means that they need
to consume more fluids. The better the fluid balance,
the more sweat potential there is. It is thus especially important in the heat
and humidity to monitor fluid balance during training
and events, no matter how well conditioned the athlete may be.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050416_TSF_Heat.html


6. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
Knee Replacement Surgery
When all the cartilage in your knee is gone, the only effective treatment is to
replace the whole knee. Knee replacements are now
lasting for twelve to twenty years or more, and most remain pain-free.
The ends of bones are soft, so they must be covered with a thick white gristle
called cartilage. Once damaged, cartilage can never
heal. An affected person spends the rest of his life losing cartilage until the
cartilage is completely gone and the knee hurts 24
hours a day. The only effective treatment at that time is to replace the entire
knee. However, the artificial knee can become
dislodged from the bones and may need to be replaced after several years. The
area will be so full of scar tissue that a second
surgery is far more difficult than the first.
If you have damaged cartilage in your knee, you should protect that knee for the
rest of your life. Running, fast walking and
jumping cause further damage, while pedaling and swimming usually do not. When
the knee hurts all the time, your doctor will check
to see how much cartilage is left. If it's gone, you probably need a knee
replacement.
* Dear Dr. Mirkin: Do the products that claim to get rid of fat while you sleep
really work?
Please don't be taken in by ads that say you will burn fat instead of sugar
while you sleep. Even if the products worked, you burn
so few calories during sleep that it is irrelevant whether you are burning sugar
or fat.
Your body burns primarily fat and sugar for energy. The harder you exercise,
the more sugar your muscles use. You use the lowest
percentage of fat when you exercise and the highest percentage when you sleep.
Your body converts fat into sugar and sugar into
fat, so the crucial factor is how many calories you burn, and not whether you
burn more fat or sugar. For example, the average 150
pound person burns about 60 calories an hour during sleep, compared to more than
600 calories per hour while jogging. If you burn 80
percent fat during sleep, you will burn 48 calories of fat or one fifth of an
ounce. If you burn 50 percent fat when you exercise,
you will burn 1.3 ounces of fat per hour or
more than six times as much.
There are many other products on the market today that promise to help you lose
weight. None will help you unless they get you to
exercise more and eat fewer calories. If you are serious about losing weight,
learn to eat lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains
and beans; avoid concentrated sources of fats, especially saturated fats and
partially hydrogenated oils; and stay away from refined
carbohydrates (foods made with flour, white rice or milled corn, and all added
sugars). Start an exercise program that alternates
upper and lower body sports,
such as pulling on a rowing machine and dancing.
* Dear Dr. Mirkin: When you stop exercising, do your muscles will turn into
fat? A friend of mine tells me that's why she won't
work out.
That's a lousy reason for being out of shape. Muscles can't possibly turn to
fat. When you exercise, your muscles become larger and
stronger because exercise causes extra protein building blocks, called amino
acids, to deposit in muscles. All day long, amino acids
pass from your muscles into your bloodstream and then back into muscles.
Exercise is the major stimulus to force amino acids back
into muscles.
When you stop exercising, fewer amino acids go into your muscles so the muscles
get smaller. Your body has no way to store extra
protein, so amino acids that are not used in your muscles are picked up by your
liver, which uses them for energy or converts them
into fat for storage. So if you stop exercising, you have to eat less or you
will gain weight. But muscles never turn into fat.


7. Gatorade Sports Science Institute Hydration Seminar:
The art of drinking is not a simple one to swallow--there's a million dollar
science behind the scene to help us runners come to the
finish line in the best possible shape.
The most oft asked question at runner's clinics seems to be--especially with the
strong views voiced in the news of late--is what
should I drink before, during, and after the marathon.
Runner's World/Gatorade addressed this hot topic at the Boston Marathon expo
with the Gatorade Sports Science Institute Hydration
Seminar when U.S. Olympian Alan Culpepper, Dr. Bob Murray of the Gatorade
Institute, and Runner's World's own Bart Yasso answered
all the questions with the latest up to date information on when to drink, how
much to drink, and all questions on the matters of
hydration.
This was a knowledgeable board. Culpepper who was found to be a salty sweater,
and did not fully hydrate during his debut 2:09
marathon now talks like a professor of fluids. Dr. Bob spent ten years
developing the new Gatorade Endurance Formula--he lives,
sleeps, and breaths liquids!
The first message from Dr. Bob, "And one of the most important" was, "To let
people know to drink enough to minimize dehydration,
yet avoid hyponatremia." Say what?
A complicated word Hyponatremia! We all understand that dehydration means not
having enough water in our bodies. The H-word is the
condition when the blood sodium concentrate gets too low. The main cause of
hyponatremia is drinking too much fluid to replace your
fluid loss--and drinking fluids which don't replace your sodium loss.
More...from Runner's World at:
http://www.runnersworld.com/events/boston05/news_hydration.html


8. Stretch Yourself (Your Joints and Muscles, Too):
My biking partner was in his 80's when he traded in his men's bicycle for a
women's version because he could no longer swing his leg
over the high bar. But at least he could still ride a bike. Others his age have
far less physical mobility.
Walking, rising from a chair, getting in and out of a car or bathtub, going up
and down stairs, reaching for an item on a high
shelf, even putting on shoes or an overhead shirt and buttoning a blouse are
problems for many older adults who have what physical
therapists call limited range of motion.
I had given little thought to this until at age 63 arthritis in my knees made
downhill movement almost too painful to contemplate.
Now, after total knee replacements, range of motion is what I struggle to
restore so that I can return to activities like cycling
and hiking without pain.
The secret, I've learned, is to keep moving, exercising my new joints and
stretching and strengthening the muscles that support
them.
I've also learned that with or without arthritis, none of us can afford to
ignore the natural physiological declines that affect
range of motion as we age, since such declines can greatly impair the quality of
our later years.
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/19/health/19brod.html


9. Ask the Tri Doc: Skin cancer and triathlon:
By Dr. Jeff Sankoff
Dr. Sankoff,
I’m a 28-year-old Caucasian male who has just been diagnosed with “thin”
melanoma. I have none of the risk factors for skin cancer,
except that I go outside. I have an appointment in a few weeks to talk with a
surgical oncologist about a seminal lymph node biopsy
and a larger excision, but I doubt he will understand my concerns either.
Basically, I am wondering whether I can continue training for triathlons (I
prefer Olympic distance if that makes any difference)
and (since I really hope you say yes) how I need to structure my training to
avoid taking foolish risks. I already swim indoors 98
percent of the time and almost all of my runs are close to dusk or dawn.
My primary concern is with cycling, which due to other risks (cars) I have
always done closer to the middle of the day. I am also
concerned about how to protect myself during races and longer workouts.
Thanks,
Justin
More...from triathlete Magazine at:
http://www.triathletemag.com/story.cfm?story_id=9569&publicationID=92&pageID=173\
2


10. 4 simple tips to build cycling power:
So, you want to become the next powerhouse on the bike like the 2004 Ironman
Hawaii champ Normann Stadler, but you're not sure
exactly where to start. Do you simply ride more miles, hit the hills, or make
friends with Hans and Franz in the weight room?
All of the above. Here are four simple but effective tips to help you add more
horses to your legs this season.
Put in the miles
Sounds easy, but spending more time on your bike is key to boosting race-day
performance. Do all the miles have to be hard? No, but
you do have to put in more saddle time than you normally would each week.
But wait, I only have 12 hours to train each week; how do I swim, run, lift,
have a real life and ride more? The key is to take a
three- to six-week block and spend most of your time riding.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11622


11. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Where's Dick?
A race director's duties extend beyond directing the runners to include rounding
up guests. Rich Benyo spent the Friday before his
Napa Valley Marathon at the airport, collecting the weekend's speakers.
Members of our party strayed as we awaited arrival of the final guest.
"Organizing a group of runners is like trying to herd cats,"
said Rich in resignation and exasperation.
This was quite a collection of talent. It included Lorraine Moller, New
Zealand's Olympic Marathon medalist from 1992 who now lives
in Colorado... Gayle Barron, women's winner at the 1978 Boston Marathon... John
Keston, an Oregon-based Briton who holds the world
record for marathoners 70 and older... George Sheehan III, son of Dr. George and
inheritor of his speaking skills.
Our missing person was Dick Beardsley. He wasn't lost, just delayed by his
airline.
Dick is a longtime favorite of mine. In the early 1980s no one in the world ran
marathons much better than he did.
He linked up with Alberto Salazar in the best road-race finish I've ever seen.
They finished two seconds apart at the 1982 Boston
Marathon, running times that still rank 2-3 in U.S. history.
Since then Dick has endured a horrible series of accidents. The worst, suffered
on his dairy farm, nearly cost him a leg -- and
possibly his life. Three traffic mishaps followed, resulting in chronic pain and
an eventual addiction to pain medication.
Dick bottomed out in late 1996 with his arrest for forging prescriptions. He
received no jail time, but was ordered into treatment
and to perform hundreds of hours of community service.
I saw him at Napa the next year. He said then, "The arrest was the best thing
that could have happened to me. It made me face my
problem instead of hiding or denying it."
He was then celebrating "one year of sobriety." Of his speaking to student
groups, he said, "I would have liked to do that anyway."
Now he could tell us how the second year off drugs had gone -- if we ever saw
him. Through a series of glitches, the theme of the
weekend became, "Where's Dick?"
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/503.html


12. Increase Your Speed:
You do your track work. You integrate intervals. You even sprinkle in a little
strength training. What else can you possibly do to
improve your performance on Race Day?
Try adding in some agility drills. These are exercises designed to help develop
speed, muscle power, and coordination:
Scientifically speaking, they help improve your body's tolerance to lactate, the
byproduct of anaerobic efforts that's associated
with muscle fatigue. As you develop proper explosive technique, you'll improve
coordination between the signals sent by the nerve
fibers in your muscles and the response of your muscle fibers. And, you'll
increase the efficiency with which your muscles convert
fuel into energy.
First, check out the description of four basic drills. Then we'll explain how
you can build them into workouts:
THE DRILLS
1. Forward Sprints
Learn to use your arms to drive your legs. Run a hard explosive sprint at 95% of
maximal effort with good form. Think of your arms
and legs as spokes in a wheel: Your hands are relaxed with palms facing slightly
inward. Pump your arm straight back close to your
body, keeping your elbow flexed between 80 and 130 degrees; as your arms drive
forward they may move slightly upward, but not above
your waist. Drive your arms as fast as you can, and avoid bouncing on your feet.
Explode through your push-off, using your arch,
calf, and thigh muscles. Feel as though you are grabbing the ground with your
toes and kicking it backward. Use a stride length that
lets you hit the ground when your knee is over your foot's arch.
2. Carrioga, or Grapevine Lateral Gait Exercise
This routine will help develop strength and coordination throughout your entire
body. At first, focus on good form: Don't worry
about developing speed until you are comfortable with the moves. As you grow
accustomed to the exercise, then you can safely
increase your speed.
More...from Nike at:
http://www.nike.com/nikerunning/usa/home.jhtml?loc1=tools_training&loc2=runners_\
library&loc3=102&promoID=em#runners_library
[LONG URL]


13. Circuit Training:
By Fabio Comana, M.A., M.S.
Resistance training offers many different benefits to the body than
cardiovascular exercise. Most individuals look for the benefits
of weight loss in addition to muscle gain as key goals in their exercise
programs. Traditional resistance training programs do not
burn many calories during the session as we spend a majority of the workout
resting between sets. Cardiovascular exercise on the
other hand does little to stimulate muscle growth. Hence, the question arises as
to the training modality that can optimize gains in
both areas and the answer lies with circuit training, a modified type of
resistance training offering the key benefits from both
areas.
What is circuit training?
Circuit training is a high volume (repetitions), low resistance (weight) workout
with short rest intervals and is geared primarily
at improving muscle tone and definition, while improving cardiovascular fitness.
This workout involves exercising all major muscle
groups (stations) in one continuous cycle, alternating between the different
areas to allow for muscle recovery and to force your
heart to work harder in pumping blood (and oxygen) to these constantly changing
areas. Given the nature of your short rest periods,
it is strongly recommended you use machines that do not require much time to
select your weight (as opposed to free weights) and
that the machines are in close proximity to each other.
More...from ACE Fitness at:
http://www.acefitness.org/updateable/update_display.cfm?pageID=605


14. Physiological Training Principles Are Often Inaccurate:
Noakes, T. D. (2000). Physiological models to understand exercise fatigue and
the adaptations that predict or enhance athletic
performance. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 10,
123-145.
This review article critically evaluates several physiological models (i.e.,
explanations) that are supposed to account for exercise
responses and improvements. Such models are variously used as the theoretical
bases for structuring training programs for athletes.
A central theme of the review is that contemporary physiology looks at
explanations for responding rather than the accurate
prediction of performance improvements. The former is relatively secure from
critical evaluation whereas the latter is difficult to
research and has an inherent possibility of failure.
A second suggestion is that contemporary physiologists have forgotten the
history of the discipline. Many informative, substantive,
and valuable principles of exercise response were discovered in the first part
of the twentieth century but have gradually have
fallen out of the common literature. That omission is one of the reasons that
contribute to modern theories of exercise physiology
being incomplete and inaccurate.
Research Weaknesses
The accurate measurement of exercise responses in the field has been subverted
by laboratory testing. The author offers three
reasons why this has occurred.
The variables influencing human performance are not easily controlled. A field
setting exacerbates that difficulty. This has led to
the situation where laboratory measurements are used to infer performance
characteristics in the field (e.g., a change in VO2max is
used to infer the likelihood of an endurance performance change).
There is a dearth of tools to measure accurately human performance in the
laboratory. If sports performance cannot be measured
frequently with a high degree of precision in the laboratory, then
training-induced changes in sports performance are not
quantifiable. Direct, accurate testing is rarely possible. Consequently,
physiological surrogates (e.g., VO2peak, VO2) are used to
predict changes in performance.
". . . most training studies . . . have measured the physiological and
biochemical responses of the human to training and have paid
less attention (i) to the extent to which human exercise performance is altered
by different training programs and (ii) to the
specific physiological adaptations which explain training induced changes in
athletic performance." (p. 124)
An important weakness in current exercise physiology is a lack of certain
knowledge of the precise factors that determine fatigue
and hence, limit performance in different types of exercise under a range of
environmental conditions. This is largely due to
researchers and teachers advocating only one specific incomplete model of
exercise physiology that does not explain performance
under all conditions.
More...from Coaching Science Abstracts at:
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/coachsci/csa/vol71/noakes.htm


15. We All Need Speed:
Tempo training is the best way to get faster and stronger, no matter where you
are in the pack.
Someone once asked me, if I could do only one hard workout for the rest of my
life, what would it be?
First of all, that's an unfair question. It's like asking, if I could eat only
one thing for the rest of my life, what would it be?
(My wife's lasagna, but I digress.)
The reality is, there are lots of workouts runners can--and should--do
regularly. Training variety improves your fitness, staves off
injuries, and keeps motivation high (plus it allows me to eat more of my wife's
lasagna). But if pressed to name the one workout
that has the greatest impact on racing performance at any distance, I'd answer
with a clear conscience: the tempo run.
Tempo runs will make you a stronger miler, a faster 5-K runner, a more powerful
10-K runner, and a less-fatigued marathoner. How can
one workout benefit such a wide range of race distances? Simply put: Tempo runs
teach your body to run faster before fatiguing.
Studies indicate that the best predictor of distance-running performance is your
lactate threshold, which is the speed you are able
to run before lactic acid begins to accumulate in the blood. By regularly
including tempo runs in your training schedule, you will
increase the speed that you can run before lactic acid begins to slow you down.
To use a car analogy, tempo runs will allow your
engine to rev faster without red-lining. Before tempo training, you may have
red-lined at an 8-minute-per-mile pace. After a few
months of tempo runs, you won't red-line until you reach a 7:30-per-mile pace.
More...from Runner's World at:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-51-0-0-6141,00.html


16. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
Gear up with a singlet, shorts and a microfiber T-shirt. If the temperature's
below freezing and the start is early, heat isn't
likely to become a problem. So wear a microfiber T-shirt (not cotton!) under
your singlet. However, if the mercury's at 35 and
climbing at start time, pull the shirt on over your singlet so you can toss it
when you warm up. -Budd Coates, Rodale Director of
Employee Fitness & Health; marathon PR: 2:13:02
* Injury Prevention
Do The Hamstring Thing: Lie on the floor on your back, and place the heel of
your left foot against the corner of a wall. Start with
your buttocks about 6 inches away from the wall, and maintain a slight bend in
the left knee while achieving a constant, gentle
stretch. As your flexibility increases, gradually scoot yourself closer to the
wall to maximize your hamstring stretch.
* Performance Nutrition
Stock up on Bs. Three essential B vitamins-folate, B6, and B12-may help your
body recycle the blood chemical homocysteine,
preventing it from damaging artery walls. Most people consume only half as much
folate as they need. And after age 50, your body
doesn't absorb B12 as efficiently. To consume enough of all of these vitamins,
make fortified breakfast cereal a daily staple.
* Words That Inspire
"Lord grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish." -Michelangelo,
Renaissance artist
* Editor's Advice
"One of the best ways to maximize the toning of your legs and buttocks is to add
hill sessions to your program once a week. Find a
scenic, hilly course for these workouts. A stairclimber (or a treadmill with a 3
percent to 6 percent grade) also will work the legs
and buttocks, as will step-ups and body-weight lunges." -Angus Macaulay, RW
advertising director
* Training Talk
"I define overtraining as doing more than the optimum amount to ensure maximum
fitness. You train so hard that you become fatigued,
and your performances start to slide." -From Smart Running by Hal Higdon


17. Athletics: A Simple Blueprint for Effective Training:
The Four Rules of Running.
You've probably figured out by now that running isn't like other sports. For one
thing there aren't a lot of rules to follow. There
are no "out-of-bounds" or "offsides" or "celebrating too much after finishing."
But since it's human nature to want at least a few
rules, runners have made some up! These "Four Rules of Running" should become
the foundation of your running program. They will
ensure your continued enjoyment and improvement as a runner and help keep things
fun and interesting as well.
Rule #1: Stress and Rest Your training program should consist of a combination
of training stresses followed by recovery. In other
words, "hard" one day, then "easy" for a day or two. Then hard again. This
"hard/easy" approach allows you to continually improve
your fitness level-and stay motivated. "Hard" doesn't mean that you're sucking
wind at the end of your run. Maybe it's just a run
where you increase the distance or speed slightly. "Easy" can mean a day off or
a shorter, slower run that allows your body to
refresh itself. Using this method from workout-to-workout, week-to-week and even
month-to-month, will help you avoid the beginning
runner's #1 Mistake: Doing too much too soon. It'll be easier to get out the
door when you're not sore or tired all the time.
Rule #2: Repetition - To improve their free throw shooting, basketball players
practice shooting free throws, not jumpers from the
top of the key. The same principle goes for runners. Your body improves at what
it practices. If you wanna be a better runner, you
gotta run. Adding other workouts like cycling or swimming is a great way to
maintain or improve your overall fitness level, but
putting one foot in front of the other is the only way to continually get better
at running.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050419_RRS_Effective_Training.h\
tml



18. Multisport: Overracing and Ironman:
In preparing for an Ironman triathlon, athletes commonly try to use 1-2 long
"training races" or many short "training races" races
as part of their preparation. In preparing for an Ironman triathlon, this can
create more harm than good. Some racing is helpful,
but too many races in the buildup to your peak Ironman, referred to as
overracing, hampers your Ironman performance. Overracing
refers to performing more racing prior to your Ironman than would be required to
feel sharp with your race specific skills like
transitions and mass open water swim starts. The exact number of races that
constitutes overracing varies depending on your
experience level and your desired performance level. Overracing leads to reduced
performance in your peak Ironman triathlon.
Overracing creates three major issues that affect successfully building towards
a peak Ironman triathlon:
1. Overracing creates excessive fatigue,
2. Overracing makes it hard to train specifically, and
3. Overracing drains emotional energy.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050419_THS_Ironman.html


19. U.S. Unveils New Food Pyramid:
12 programs replace the old one
TUESDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. government on Tuesday unveiled 12
new individualized food pyramids to replace the one
old one.
The pyramids feature vertical bands representing different food groups instead
of horizontal bands, as well as a person climbing a
set of steps on the outside of the pyramid.
They also follow the new dietary guidelines that were released earlier this
year. Those guidelines recommend eating two cups of
fruit and two-and-a-half cups of vegetables a day, along with three ounces of
whole grain foods, three cups of fat-free or low-fat
milk and at least 30 minutes of exercise.
The steps, which match the new slogan, "Steps to a Healthier You," are meant to
invoke physical activity as an essential component
of good health. But they could just as easily be a reference to the Herculean
task the government faces trying to combat inertia and
obesity in the United States.
Today, two thirds of adults in the country are overweight or obese, while 15
percent of adolescents and 15 percent of children aged
6 to 11 are overweight. A recent study claimed that obesity had reduced the
average lifespan by nine months.
More...from HealthScout at:
http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/525230/main.html


20. Going The Distance: Endurance Training:
Overdistance training is not only the key to bringing out athletic ability you
never knew you had, but, done right, a long workout
is a satisfying road trip in itself.
This article is for those, regardless of sport, who would like to safely and
smartly work up into the rare and splendid air of
overdistance workouts. Maybe you want to train for a marathon, an Ironman
Triathlon, a century bike ride, an across the bay swim —
or just simply enjoy the benefits of overdistance on it's own. The long workout
is the golden key to making these goals realities.
In this article we'll cover the essential principles of going long, doing it
right and getting the most out of your training.
Key Benefits of the Long Workout
Physiological. When you're going long, whether it be hours of cross-country
skiing, an 18-mile trail run, or a day on the mountain
bike, your body responds to stress by preparing you for the next time you expose
it to a similar demand. For starters, the
circulatory system lays some additional cable and the number of capillaries
increase around the muscle fibers that did all the work.
As the weeks go by and you log more long workouts, the more efficiently your
body will be able to get oxygen and food into your
levers. Another key adaptation is believed to be the muscle's ability to use
free fatty acids as fuel. The more fat you can burn to
propel yourself, the more you can stave off exhausting invaluable supplies of
glycogen stored in your muscle and liver.
More...from Florida Sports at:
http://www.floridasports.com/story.cfm?story_id=3656&departmentid=20


21. Don't drive other athletes away - Athletic etiquette:
Do you drive other athletes away? Can you be described as excessively
malodorous? Are you guilty of the physical faux pas? We offer
this guide to help ensure that your workouts are more effective than offensive.
Whether it's in the gym, the pool or the road, nothing spoils a great workout
like an obnoxious oaf who ignores the basic rules of
sports etiquette. Unfortunately, many of these regulations aren't posted or
announced when you're new to a sport. So here are some
tips to ensure that you're not the aforementioned offending oaf.
In the club
In the fitness world, you'd be surprised how many unspoken basics actually do
need to be said. Jeff Glowatz, fitness manager for a
major metropolitan police department, has seen it all. "Nothing surprises me
anymore," he says. "You can't take anything for
granted. I've actually had to tell people that they need to wash their clothes
before they work out."
In a gym, sweat is acceptable. Fermented, day-old sweat is not -- so never
re-wear soiled workout clothes. While you're at it, make
sure to wear deodorant -- especially if you're sporting a sleeveless top to show
off those buffed arms you've been working on.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11600


22. How One Pill Escaped the List of Controlled Steroids:
WASHINGTON, April 16 - On the shelves of health stores across the country sits a
dietary supplement that advertisements boast can
"significantly alter body composition" - by converting to steroids in the
bloodstream and, for some, helping pump up muscles like
traditional steroids do.
But unlike every other substance in the steroid family, the supplement, DHEA, is
not classified as a controlled substance. In fact,
the chalky white pills and capsules enjoy a special exemption under federal law,
thanks to a bill quietly passed by Congress late
last year.
How DHEA, or dehydroepiandrosterone, came to enjoy special legal protections
granted by Congress - at the very moment that steroid
abuse was grabbing national headlines, and just months before Congress itself
held hearings on body-building drug use in
professional baseball - is a study in skillful political maneuvering, according
to participants in the deal.
Sports officials had favored an overall ban on steroids and related pills, like
DHEA, which is banned by the Olympics, the World
Anti-Doping Agency, the National Collegiate Athletics Association, the National
Football League, the National Basketball Association
and baseball minor leagues.
A Congressional Exemption
What is DHEA?
Dehydroepiandrosterone is a powerful hormone that converts into other steroid
hormones including estrogen, androstenedione and
testosterone. Synthetic DHEA is manufactured, mostly in China, from diosgenin, a
steroid-like substance extracted from the dried
roots of wild yam.
Where is DHEA banned?
International Olympic Committee
World Anti-Doping Agency
National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Football League
National Basketball Association
minor league baseball
What action has Congress taken affecting DHEA?
The Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 added 26 more drugs to the list of
controlled substances and increased the Drug Enforcement
Administration's authority to ban other steroids -- with one exception. While
the previous law had exempted medically necessary
steroids, the new one adds DHEA to the list: The term "anabolic steroid" means
any drug or hormonal substance, chemically and
pharmacologically related to testosterone (other than estrogens, progestins,
corticosteroids, and dehydroepiandrosterone).
Sources: Merck Manual, University of Maryland Medical Center, sports
organizations, Department of Justice
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/17/national/17steroid.html?


23. Getting fit: The basics:
University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter
Physical fitness -- the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor, without
undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy
leisure-time pursuits -- has three basic elements. To be truly fit, you should
develop each of these components.
Cardiorespiratory endurance is reflected in the sustained ability of the heart
and blood vessels to carry oxygen to your body's
cells. Excellent "aerobic" activities for building endurance include brisk
walking, running, in-line skating, swimming, cycling,
rowing, and aerobic dance.
Recommendation: To gain health benefits, 30 minutes of moderate physical
activity over the course of most days is enough. For
greater cardiovascular benefits, you need to perform moderate- to high-intensity
aerobic exercise (at 60 to 90 percent of your
maximum heart rate) three to five times a week, with each session lasting 20 to
60 minutes, in addition to warm-up and cool-down
activities.
Muscular fitness consists of strength -- the force a muscle produces in one
effort -- and endurance -- the ability to perform
repeated muscle contractions in quick succession.
Recommendation: Perform moderate-intensity resistance workouts twice a week
lasting at least 15 minutes per session, not counting
your warm up and cool down.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11626


24. From Roger Bannister To Dr. Frankenstein:
When Roger Bannister tore through the 4-minute-mile barrier 50 years ago, the
closest he came to using materials science to boost
his performance was filing down his spikes and rubbing them with graphite. (He
wanted his shoes to stay light, free of the oily fine
ash covering the racetrack where he broke the record.) Today, running is an
entirely different game: Top competitors step up to the
starting line decked out in the best gear science can provide, courtesy of such
firms as Nike, Reebok International and Saucony.
More...from Forbes at:
http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2004/05/13/cz_tk_0513running.html


25. News Scan:
* Hyponatremia is Difficult to Predict:
Speedy, D. B., Noakes, T. D., Boswell, T., Thompson, J. M., Rehrer, N., &
Boswell, D. R. (2001). Response to fluid load in athletes
with a history of exercise induced hyponatremia. Medicine and Science in Sports
and Exercise, 33, 1434-1442.
This study determined whether athletes who had previously developed hyponatremia
during an ultradistance triathlon showed an
impaired ability to excrete a large fluid load compared with athletes who had
completed the same race without developing
hyponatremia.
Six athletes who had developed hyponatremia ([Na] < 135 mmol/L) in the 1997
Ironman Triathlon (study cases) were compared with six
athletes who completed the same race without hyponatremia (controls). All
participants consumed 3.4 L of water over 2 h at rest.
Weight, urine output, urine electrolytes, serum [Na+], hemoglobin, and
hematocrit were measured every 30 min. Changes in plasma
volume and residual fluid volume in the gut were estimated from these data.
There were no significant differences between cases and controls in any
parameters measured. Maximal rates of urine production were
substantially behind the rate of fluid intake (1500 ml/h). Consequent to fluid
retention, serum [Na+] fell progressively in both
groups. Five target Ss and four control Ss developed hyponatremia. There was an
inverse correlation between change in body weight
and change in [Na+] (r = -0.67). Estimated changes in the intra- and
extra-cellular fluid volumes could account for all the retained
fluid, and there was little evidence for fluid accumulation in the bowel.
Implication. When evaluated at rest, there does not appear to be any unique
pathophysiological characteristic that explains why some
athletes develop hyponatremia in response to fluid overload during prolonged
exercise. Rather, hyponatremia was induced with equal
effect in both cases and controls, consequent to progressive fluid overload of
all the body fluid compartments and without evidence
for fluid retention in the small bowel.
[From: Coaching Science Abstracts ]
* Treadmill test may be less accurate for women
An exercise treadmill test may not be a reliable way of determining whether a
woman suffers from clogged arteries, according to the
results of a new study.
It has long been suspected that the test may be less accurate in women, than in
men. So, U.S. researchers tested a modified exercise
routine that was supposed to take into account the differences between the
sexes.
But the study of 98 women still frequently produced inaccurate results, when
compared with high-tech images of their blood vessels.
The study was published in the American Heart Journal.
[From the Globe and Mail]


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

April 23, 2005:
Salt Lake City Marathon - UT
http://www.saltlakecitymarathon.com

(Zoo Run Run - Fort Worth, TX
http://www.fortworthzoo.org/visit/events.html

April 24, 2005:
21Kmtl - Montreal, PQ
http://www.canadarunningseries.com/monthalf/index.htm

Big Sur International Marathon - Carmel, CA
http://www.bsim.org

Physiotherapy Run - Ottawa, ON
http://www.events.runningroom.com/site/?raceId=1316

Runner's World Half-Marathon - Allentown, PA
http://www.runnersworld.com/halfmarathon

St. Anthony's Triathlon - St. Petersburg, FL
http://www.satriathlon.com


April 28-30, 2005:
Penn Relays - Philadelphia, PA
http://www.thepennrelays.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1700&SPID=559&SPSID=1084\
6


April 30, 2005:
Country Music Marathon - Nashville, TN
http://www.eliteracing.com

Diefenbooker Classic - Carp, ON
http://www3.sympatico.ca/barrie.ashworth/Diefenbooker2005/index.htm

Kentucky Derby Festival Meijer Marathon & Mini-Marathon - Louisville, KY
http://www.derbyfestivalmarathon.com


May 1, 2005:
Flying Pig Marathon - Cincinnati, OH
http://www.flyingpigmarathon.com

Kingston Half Marathon - ON
http://krra.org/Kingston%20Half/

Sporting Life 10K - Toronto, ON
http://www.canadarunningseries.com/sportinglife/index.htm

St. Croix Triathlon - Virgin Islands
http://www.stcroixtriathlon.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

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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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END...OF DIGEST...