A Free Weekly E-zine of Multisport Related Articles.

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now a small business venture which sponsors the OAC Racing Team, a women's road
racing and triathlon club, and the OAC Gatineau
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The Runner's and Triathlete's Web Digest is a weekly e-zine dealing with the
sports of running and triathlon and general fitness and
health issues. The opinions expressed in the articles referenced by the Digest
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THIS WEEK:

Runner's Web Survey:
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at: http://www.runnersweb.com/running/yahoo_news_site.html

Our site traffic continues to grow. For March 2005 we had an average of 7,055
visitors per day, a 64.5% increase over the daily
average of 4,288 for March 2004. On Monday, April 18th, 2004 we set an all-time
high of 11,455 visitors.


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Race Directors:
Advertise your event on the Runner's Web. Over 1.8 MILLION visits in 2004!
7,055 visitors per day for March 2005, a 65% increase over March 2004.
7,263 visitors per day for April 2005, a 62% increase over April 2004.
On Monday, April 18th, 2004 we set an all-time high of 11,455 visitors.

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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:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/SK_index.html

* Carmichael Training Systems
Carmichael Training Systems was founded in 1999 by Chris Carmichael.
From the beginning, the mission of the company has been to improve the lives of
individuals we work with through the application of
proper and effective fitness and competitive training techniques. Whether your
focus is recreational, advanced, or you are a
professional racer, the coaching methodology employed by CTS will make you a
better athlete. Check the latest monthly column from
CTS at:
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* Running Research News
Running Research News is a monthly newsletter which keeps sports-active people
up-to-date on the latest information about
training, sports nutrition, and sports medicine. RRN publishes practical, timely
new material which improves workouts, prevents
injuries, and
heightens overall fitness. Check our latest column from Running Research News
at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RRN_index.html
On January 7th we started a new feature on the website - A Question and Answer
with Owen Anderson from Running Research News.
Send in your training related questions for Owen to answer to
mailto:webmaster@...?subject=Owen_Anderson
Check out the questions and answers from the Q and A Index page at:
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* Peak Performance Online
Peak Performance is a subscription-only newsletter for athletes, featuring the
latest research from the sports science world. We
cover the whole range of sports, from running and rowing to cycling and
swimming, and each issue is packed full of exclusive
information for anyone who's serious about sport. It's published 16 times a
year, including four special reports, by Electric Word
plc. Peak Performance is not available in the shops - only our subscribers are
able to access the valuable information we publish
Check out our latest article from Peak Performance Online at:
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* Peak Running Performance
Peak Running Performance Is The Number 1 Technical Running Newsletter In
America! Check out their article index at:
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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 One personal posting this week.
ONE:
Hello
Several months ago I started collecting data for a research study measuring
non-physical attributes of runners and walkers of all
distances. If you have filled out the survey - Thank You. If not , please
consider doing so. I will be shutting down the data
collection site by the end of June. Also, I've moved websites. The old site was
www.bke-associates.com, the new site is
www.carson-consultants.com
This study is open to all runners and walkers To participate go to
http://www.carson-consultants.com and select the "Survey"
button. For this study the survey is completed online - typical completion time
is less than 10 minutes. If you would like a copy of
the results please be sure to include your email address.
Please forward this message to others that you think might be interested in
assisting with this research.
Any questions, contact Bea at Mailto:bea@... or call
410-353-4722.
Thanks
Dr. Bea Carson
President
Carson Consultants
Coaching Organizations into the Future
410-353-4722
www.carson-consultants.com


This Week's Digest Article Index:

1. Sportsmedicine: Warm Up Activities & Stretching Exercises
Warm up properly, and reduce the risk of sports injury.
2. Science of Sport: If you suspect your immune system is getting flabby,
toughen it up with nutrients
3. FREE to Run
4. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
5. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Marathon Results
6. Are all steroids bad?
7. Serious athletes need to condition intestinal tract
8. Sportsmedicine: Warm Up Activities & Stretching Exercises
9. From Runner's World
10. Stretching
11. Dairy for Athletes: Friend or Foe
12. Travelers Heading to Gym at Airport
Stuck at the Airport? Some Travelers Head to the Gym to Kill Time Between
Flights.
13. See the burn with new workout gadgets
Forget just feeling the burn. Some people tired of the treadmill and frustrated
with food diaries are turning to pricey gadgets that
can help them see the burn.
14. Canadian children get Fs in phys-ed
15. Quality Training - By Coach Brendon
16. Ten Quick Fixes to Save Your Running Knees and Joints Long Term
17. New Weight-Loss Focus: The Lean and the Restless
18. Going downhill: Improve your running with (down) hill repeats
19. Dysmenorrhea and Injury Link
20. Carrie Tollefson - A Case Study in Talent, Tenacity and Treatment
21. You Want to Put on a Marathon--Where?
Defying the Taliban, One Step at a Time.
22. Listen to Your Body - Knowing When to Rest
23. Getting the pace right
24. Maxing Out Your Peak Bone Mass
25. News Scan - A Collection of News Items


Runner's Web Weekly Poll: "Which of the following is your favourite running
(athletics) movie?
Chariots of Fire
Golden Girl
Marathon
On The Edge
Personal Best
Running Brave
See How She Runs
St. Ralph
The Jericho Mile
Have not seen any of the above"

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 ""Which of the following US marathoners has had the
greatest impact on running in the USA?
Alberto Salazar
Bill Rodgers
Deena Kastor
Frank Shorter
Meb Keflezighi
Joan Benoit-Samuelson"

The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Alberto Salazar 9 11%
2. Bill Rodgers 26 32%
3. Deena Kastor 5 6%
4. Frank Shorter 29 36%
5. Meb Keflezighi 4 5%
6. Joan Benoit-Samuelson 8 10%
Total Votes: 81

Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
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Five Star Site of the Week: SleepMonsters.com - An Eye on Adventure Racing.
"Welcome to SleepMonsters.com
If you're into Adventure Racing you're in the right place! You’ll find all you
need to know right here and can see the latest
reports from our network of Adventure Racing sites around the world."
Visit the site at:
http://www.sleepmonsters.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: Triathlete’s Guide to Run Training
By Ken Mierke
Improvement is an inherent challenge of the multisport culture. Many multisport
athletes prepare for their events based on training
traditions developed in the individual sports of swimming, cycling, and running.
These traditional methods are rarely grounded in
sports science and are not effective for combining two or three disciplines in
one competitive event. The Triathlete’s Guide to Run Training is one of the only
books that is written for the multisport athlete
looking to become a faster, more efficient, and stronger runner.
Buy the book from Velo Press at:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?velogear+JxbD5M+trgutoruntr.html

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. Sportsmedicine: Warm Up Activities & Stretching Exercises:
Warm up properly, and reduce the risk of sports injury.
The warm up activities are a crucial part of any exercise regime or sports
training. The importance of a structured warm up routine
should not be under estimated when it comes to the prevention of sports injury.
The Warm Up
An effective warm up has a number of very important key elements. These
elements, or parts, should all be working together to
minimize the likelihood of sports injury from physical activity.
Warming up prior to any physical activity does a number of beneficial things,
but primarily its main purpose is to prepare the body
and mind for more strenuous activity. One of the ways it achieves this is by
helping to increase the body's core temperature, while
also increasing the body's muscle temperature. By increasing muscle temperature
you're helping to make the muscles loose, supple and
pliable.
An effective warm up also has the effect of increasing both your heart rate and
your respiratory rate. This increases blood flow,
which in turn increases the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the working
muscles. All this helps to prepare the muscles, tendons
and joints for more strenuous activity.
Keeping in mind the aims or goals of an effective warm up, we can then go on to
look at how the warm up should be structured.
Obviously, it's important to start with the easiest and most gentle activity
first, building upon each part with more energetic
activities, until the body is at a physical and mental peak. This is the state
in which the body is most prepared for the physical
activity to come, and where the likelihood of sports injury has been minimized
as much as possible. So, how should you structure
your warm up to achieve these goals?
There are four key elements, or parts, which should be included to ensure an
effective and complete warm up. They are:
1. The general warm up;
2. Static stretching;
3. The sports specific warm up; and
4. Dynamic stretching.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050527_TSH_Stretching.html


2. Science of Sport: If you suspect your immune system is getting flabby,
toughen it up with nutrients:
As regular readers of PEAK PERFORMANCE will be aware, taking part in sport -
particularly endurance sport - may be at a cost to your
immune system. It seems that highly active sports competitors and athletes are
more prone to infectious diseases. You may live
longer, but you could suffer more than your fair share of colds and flu in the
process.
It was over 20 years ago that people started to suspect that exercise could be
damping down the immune system. Medics began to
notice a pattern in colleges and schools whereby sports team members and
athletes were more likely than their couch-potato
colleagues to go down with infectious illnesses. In the mid-80s, a large study
based in Washington was published showing that
respiratory diseases, gastrointestinal infections and skin complaints were at
least twice as common among sports competitors than in
the public at large.
But with statistics like this it's hard to tease (out the truth of the matter.
Bacteria and viruses might spread quickly between
team members because of time spent together in close physical contact; coughs
and colds could be a result of all that gulping in of
cold (and possibly, polluted) air while training. Experts currently admit that
there's strong suggestive evidence for heavy exercise
affecting the immune system, but debate continues over the nitty gritty of the
exact effects, and how they come about.
How hard and how long
For example, there's increasing evidence that the intensity and duration of
exercise are key factors determining whether your
workouts will increase or decrease your chances of falling ill. For moderate
exercise, the evidence points to a beneficial effect on
the immune system, particularly for older people. For example, scientists at the
University of Newfoundland, Canada, conducted a
three-month study into the effects of moderate exercise on people aged 65 and
over. Compared with control subjects of the same age,
the subjects showed both improved T-cell responsiveness and spent, on average,
40 per cent fewer days in hospital with respiratory
infections.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050527_PPO_ImmuneSystem.html


3. FREE to Run
By Richard Haddad
One hot summer day in June 2002, senior researcher Jeff Pisciotta set up the
Nike Sports Research Lab (NSRL) on a grassy soccer
field. Twenty runners, ten men and ten women, taped pressure-measuring pedar
insoles to their forty bare feet. Two high-speed
cameras took timed images of each foot in motion, while timing gates insured a
running velocity of 7:30 minutes per mile.
On that soccer field, Piscotta and the rest of Nike's Innovation kitchen
measured what happens when you run barefoot on the grass.
They learned that the foot performs at its highest levels when it is uncovered -
when it is Free. After two years of work, the
results of the experiment culminated in the Nike Free 5.0.
The shoe aims to take runners back to the feeling of running barefoot - to mimic
that feeling and its benefits while providing the
benefits of footwear, protection and traction that the foot cannot offer on its
own. Its basic premise is that a barefoot runner
strengthens his foot by using intrinsic muscles that he wouldn't normally use.
When you support an area by cloaking it in supportive
footwear, for instance, it gets weaker, but when you use it extensively, it gets
stronger. Vin Lanana, former Stanford track coach,
called this observation "common sense," claiming that athletes that train
barefoot run faster and suffer fewer injuries.
Lanana trained his unshod runners on the plush grass of Stanford's golf course
for over ten years. When Nike caught wind of this,
its researchers asked him, "We send your team all kinds of running shoes, so why
are your guys running barefoot on the grass?"
Pisciotta said. And when New Zealand coaching legend Arthur Lydiard - who
Pisciotta calls the "closest thing to Bill Bowerman" -
told Nike that his athletes had been running barefoot as supplemental training
for years, Nike decided that the idea was worth
investigating.
Lanana's and Lydiard's methods (and their results) got Nike's Innovation Kitchen
cooking. Nike looked at independent studies of
barefoot populations in Africa and learned that those communities experienced
minimal runner-type injuries. But it couldn't find any
research done with athletes. After consulting the annals of biomechanics
literature, Piscotta learned that nobody had ever studied
the effects of running barefoot on grass. So the Kitchen, an arm of research and
development that seeks out and cooks up new ideas,
decided to do so itself. On that grassy soccer field in June 2002, Nike
undertook the most comprehensive barefoot study in the
industry. The study measured its barefoot runners' joint angles, motion, and
underfoot pressures. And it found a unique
biomechanical pattern, a pattern different than any that they'd measured or
studied in the context of traditional athletic footwear.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050526_PRP_Free.html


4. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* Cooling Down After a Workout
You should not stop suddenly after running very fast or doing any other very
intense exercise, because it may cause you to get dizzy
or pass out. When you exercise, your legs drive your heart, your heart does not
drive your legs. First, your leg muscle contract and
squeeze the blood vessels near them to pump blood toward your heart. Then the
increased amount of blood returning to your heart
stretches the heart and cause it to beat faster and with more force. Then your
leg muscles relax and the veins near them fill with
blood to start the next cycle. When you
run fast, your leg muscle do a considerable amount of the work pumping blood
through your body. If you stop suddenly, the blood
pools in your legs and your heart has to pick up the slack.
At the end of a long race, your heart may not be able to pump more blood, so
not enough reaches your brain and you end up
unconscious. Researchers at the University of Capetown in South Africa analyzed
data on runners who collapsed during an
ultramarathon. Most cases occurred after the runner crossed the finish line. The
few cases of collapse away from the finish line
were caused by diseases such as asthma and heart damage.
When you slow down gradually, you allow time for your heart to pump harder to
make up for the loss of pumping by your legs. However,
cooling down will not prevent muscle soreness, which is caused by tearing your
muscle fibers during exercise.
* Dear Dr. Mirkin: I'm looking for an explanation of increased triglycerides in
athletes.
During exercise, your adrenal glands release extra adrenalin and nor-adrenalin,
which cause fat reserves to release huge amounts of
triglycerides into your bloodstream. Blood levels of triglycerides exceeding 400
are not unusual during competition. However, during
exhaustive exercise over many hours, these triglyceride reserves are usually
used up and blood levels go down. High resting
triglyceride levels in an athlete mean that you are taking on more calories than
you need, you are eating too much flour and sugar,
or you are pre-diabetic or diabetic. Check with your doctor.


5. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Marathon Results:
(A talk to the Portland Marathon Clinic, a large group training for that race
this fall.)
Each year for the past 15 or so, I've come here as an outsider. Not as someone
from Eugene, but as one who hadn't run a marathon for
a long time and had never coached a marathon training group.
That has changed in the past year. The influence of your coaches has finally
rubbed off, and I've started a Marathon Team. If you
went to Eugene on a Sunday morning, you'd feel right at home.
I haven't stolen your training program, and our group is only about one-tenth
the size of yours. But our target is the same: the
Portland Marathon on October 9th. And so is our most important run: the long one
each weekend.
For your group as well as ours, the marathon is still five months away. Tonight
I'm here to assure you that you're on the right
path.
The Portland Marathon Clinic has taken thousands of runners to and through
successful races over the years. My program also has
worked thousands of times, but nearly all of its past users were readers of my
Marathon Training books.
Writing training schedules is one thing. They go to an unseen audience that I
rarely hear from during the build-up months, and
seldom after the marathon either.
I just give these runners a starting point. Then they take responsibility for
whatever happens from there, and full credit for
whatever goes right.
Coaching marathon trainees in person is quite different from writing for
readers. Now I see each of them every training week and on
raceday. I get to know them and become responsible for them all the way, ready
to share blame for whatever goes wrong.
My first lesson learned as a mentor of marathoners was that they don't always
listen. Given half a chance, they cheat on the
program -- not by doing too little but too much, too soon.
These actions are a fitting payback to me. As a young runner, I was a handful
for my coaches -- second-guessing them at every turn,
thinking I knew more at 20 than they did a generation's experience further
along.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/508.html


6. Are all steroids bad?
"No way I want that shot, cortisone is a steroid," some athletes may say. That's
true, but this is no reason to avoid this powerful
and usually effective anti-inflammatory drug. The truth is there are good
steroids and there are bad steroids.
Steroids are a big class of chemical compounds that all have the same basic
geometrical structure. Some steroids occur naturally,
and others are synthetic. Some steroids are widely used in medicine (although
they may need to be used with caution). Then there are
the bad guys, banned for use in athletic competition.
The "good" guys
Some of the good guys are made in your body; for example, sex hormones. In
women, estrogens control female sexual characteristics.
They trigger breast development and initiate menstrual cycles in girls, and also
control the stages of women's periodic cycles.
In boys, testosterone causes development of deeper voice and beard hair, and
greater muscle development and higher red blood cell
count in men, compared to women.
Other places you find good steroids are in bile acids and Vitamin D compounds.
Birth control pills are steroids.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11701


7. Serious athletes need to condition intestinal tract:
Are you a competitive athlete? With the physical stress of workouts and a busy
time schedule, intestinal complaints are not uncommon
among serious athletes.
Symptoms can run the gamut of heartburn, gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation,
stomach pain, and sometimes vomiting. Whether you
experience these problems, depends on a number of factors - the type of sport,
environmental factors, your age, gender, level of
conditioning, eating schedule, health conditions, stress level, sleep, hydration
status, menstrual status, travel and personal
tolerance/intolerance.
Some sports are more conducive to taking in food and fluids during workouts and
competition. Sports that involve running or are more
physically intense, tend to cause more problems. Activities such as swimming,
cross country skiing, and cycling tend to be less of a
problem for the GI tract. Practicing food and fluid intake while being active
should be part of training to get the intestinal tract
accustomed to having these fuels on board. Any new foods or fluids should be
tried during workouts – do not add anything new on
competition day.
Although tolerance depends on the sport, foods less likely to be tolerated are
those high in fat (except for peanut butter/nuts),
spicy, acidic, possibly high fiber, carbonated beverages, beverages containing
fructose, and sugary foods or beverages. If you have
intolerances, try keeping a food, fluid, workout, and symptom record. This helps
to identify types and amounts of food or workout
schedules that might be causing the problem.
Not taking in enough fluids can cause dehydration, which not only decreases
performance, but can also contribute to constipation.
Urination every two to four hours or urine that is "clear" (not dark/cloudy) is
a good goal. Coming into a workout or competition
with some level of dehydration, especially if you sweat heavily, means you will
need to drink more during the event. This larger
volume in your stomach can cause discomfort.
More...from the Portsmouth Herald at:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/05222005/health/43736.htm


8. Sportsmedicine: Warm Up Activities & Stretching Exercises :
Warm up properly, and reduce the risk of sports injury!
The warm up activities are a crucial part of any exercise regime or sports
training. The importance of a structured warm up routine
should not be under estimated when it comes to the prevention of sports injury.
The Warm Up
An effective warm up has a number of very important key elements. These
elements, or parts, should all be working together to
minimize the likelihood of sports injury from physical activity.
Warming up prior to any physical activity does a number of beneficial things,
but primarily its main purpose is to prepare the body
and mind for more strenuous activity. One of the ways it achieves this is by
helping to increase the body's core temperature, while
also increasing the body's muscle temperature. By increasing muscle temperature
you're helping to make the muscles loose, supple and
pliable.
An effective warm up also has the effect of increasing both your heart rate and
your respiratory rate. This increases blood flow,
which in turn increases the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the working
muscles. All this helps to prepare the muscles, tendons
and joints for more strenuous activity.
Keeping in mind the aims or goals of an effective warm up, we can then go on to
look at how the warm up should be structured.
Obviously, it's important to start with the easiest and most gentle activity
first, building upon each part with more energetic
activities, until the body is at a physical and mental peak. This is the state
in which the body is most prepared for the physical
activity to come, and where the likelihood of sports injury has been minimized
as much as possible. So, how should you structure
your warm up to achieve these goals?
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050527_TSH_Stretching.html


9. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
Cooldown Dirt: "A couple of extra miles at the end of a regular workout will
train your body to keep moving even when it's tired.
This is especially useful if you're gearing up for a longer race such as a
half-marathon or marathon." -Greg Crowther, Ph.D. and
marathoner
* Injury Prevention
Coupling regular running with this simple back exercise will help develop strong
bones and great posture.
Do the following simple exercise three to five times a week. Back lift: Lie face
down with your arms at your sides, and your legs
straight. Exhale as you lift your head, shoulders, chest, and arms slowly off
the floor, and extend your fingers toward your feet.
Inhale as you lower. Repeat 10 times. To make this more difficult, place a
weight on your upper back. Work up to 30 pounds of
weight.
* Performance Nutrition
Eat soon after a workout. Otherwise you'll overcompensate later and scarf down
whatever you find. To ensure you don't wipe out your
hard-won calorie loss, go for a snack rich in water-soluble fiber, so you'll
feel fuller with fewer calories. A yogurt-and-fruit
smoothie is a good choice.
* Editor's Advice
"Don't follow an arbitrary training schedule just because it sounds challenging
or you know another runner who's doing it.
If running 4 or 5 days a week works best for you, fine--go with that." -Lindsay
Shafer, RW copy editor
* Training Talk
"If you care enough to train for 18 weeks to run a marathon, you should focus
your training toward that marathon goal. You should
set aside or postpone other activities and avoid other stresses. This includes
excessive speedwork or racing."
-From Hal Higdon's How to Train
* Words That Inspire:
"The door of opportunity won't open unless you do some pushing." -Anonymous


10. Stretching:
When you exercise, your muscles contract and relax, contract and relax. The
repeated contraction can lead to shortening up of the
muscles. Stretching helps prevent this. Many injuries are caused by poor
flexibility.
Stretching should be done before and after exercises. When you stretch before
exercising, you need to warm up the muscles first,
follow this with stretching, and then proceed with your exercise routine.
Here is your complete guide to a range of stretching exercises.
More...from Health24 at:
http://www.health24.com/fitness/Stretching/16-1372.asp


11. Dairy for Athletes: Friend or Foe:
You have seen the ads in magazines, billboards and on television. They all tell
us that milk “Does a Body Good.” The National "got
milk?" Milk Mustache Campaign is jointly funded by America's milk processors and
dairy farmers – of course they are going to tell
you it’s good for you! It is a slick ad campaign that is designed to convince us
that dairy products are not only wholesome, but
that every man, woman and child would benefit from drinking at least three
glasses of milk a day. But does this apply to athletes as
well?
Dairy is essential for young athletes
Recent figures show that the amount of soft drinks teenagers consume has risen
by more than three gallons per capita over the past
decade, while the amount of milk consumed has dropped by the same amount. On
average, teens are drinking only one glass of milk a
day. Data from 99 children followed over 12 years from ages 3 to 13 suggests
that low intakes of dairy products during childhood may
contribute to their acquiring more body fat. Teens missing out on milk are
missing out on good nutrition. During teen years, nearly
half of all bone mass is formed and about 15 percent of adult height is added.
That's why it is so important for teens to include
three to four glasses of milk each day for Calcium to do its job to help build
strong bones, especially for young athletes.
What about the grown-up athletes?
More...from TrainRight.com at:
http://www.trainright.com/outside/default.asp?article=1&newest=1&sortBy=140&arti\
cleID=1426


12. Travelers Heading to Gym at Airport:
Stuck at the Airport? Some Travelers Head to the Gym to Kill Time Between
Flights.
When Harvey "Chip" Reed has a few hours to kill between flights at Chicago's
O'Hare International Airport, he doesn't wander
aimlessly or fill up on fast food. He works out.
He is among airline passengers who squeeze in a little exercise during layovers
or flight delays. It's getting easier for people
like Reed to find fitness centers at airports, or near them, that welcome
drop-ins. In Chicago, Reed heads straight for a health
club at an adjoining hotel.
"It's just sanity when you're traveling," the 44-year-old said before beginning
a workout during a recent four-hour layover on his
way home to Truckee, Calif.
It was his second workout of the week at the Hilton club, which is connected to
the airport through an underground passageway. He's
even brought his family on vacation layovers; he and his wife work out while
their two children go swimming.
"I don't understand why more airports aren't capitalizing on it," Reed said.
Graphic designer Kevin Gillotti also hates wasting time between flights when he
travels for business or duathlon competitions
running-biking-running events. A few years ago, he began looking for gyms around
airports and now lists them on his Web site,
www.airportgyms.com.
"I would spend a lot of time doing nothing in airports. I wondered how easy it
would be to leave the airport and go work out," said
Gillotti of Carlsbad, Calif.
More...from ABC News at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=784464&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312


13. See the burn with new workout gadgets
Forget just feeling the burn. Some people tired of the treadmill and frustrated
with food diaries are turning to pricey gadgets that
can help them see the burn.
Companies, including Nike, Polar Electro and Timex, that offer gadgets like
pedometers and heart monitors to help people fine-tune
their workouts have started adding calorie counters and special Web sites.
Experts say the calorie-counting gadgets are far from 100 percent accurate but
better than the guesswork most people use.
"It seems simple, if you expend enough calories, as many as you consume, you
won't gain weight. But it's not easy for the average
person to know -- How many calories I'm using in that workout, that aerobic
dance class I just did," said Janet Rankin of the
Institute for Biomedical and Public Health Sciences at Virginia Tech.
"In general people are going to overestimate. ... I think these kind of tools
can provide a little bit of a reality check and serve
as a marker for improvement," she said.
The arm bands, chest straps and wrist bands try to offer a glimpse of
information that can typically be seen only in a lab. The
calorie counters are based on two methods researchers use: how much oxygen is
being used and how much heat is being produced.
More...from CNN at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/05/26/fitness.gadgets.ap/index.html


14. Canadian children get Fs in phys-ed:
A new evaluation of children's fitness gives Canada a failing grade, the head of
a national charity devoted to boosting healthy
living said Thursday.
The report by Active Healthy Kids Canada gave Canada a D average on its report
card and found that less than half of the country's
children are active enough for good health.
"When it comes to keeping kids physically active, Canada is dropping the ball,"
said Dr. Mark Tremblay, chairman of Active Healthy
Kids Canada.
It's not the first study of youth activity, but its look at how family, school,
and government policies impact on children's fitness
is novel, said Tremblay, who is professor of exercise physiology and pediatric
exercise science at the University of Saskatchewan.
More...from the CBC at:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/05/26/active0505026.html


15. Quality Training:
By Coach Brendon
Over the last few years there has been a vast improvement in the way that people
train for triathlons. Even our elite athletes have
made big gains in this area. Sam Warriner, winner of the Triathlon World Cup in
Japan, knows that one of the reasons that she has
started the 2005 season so well is that she is paying attention to ensuring that
it training is specific when needed. Sam does a lot
of training especially running, but her programme is also rich in the components
required to be successful. She is showing her body
part of an ITU race every time she steps out the door or jumps in the pool.
Getting the most out of your training programme is a very fine balance between
listening to your body and your training programme.
You need to back off when needed but also get hard and get on with it at the
right times. More on that in our related article here:
http://www.endurancecoach.com/Thinking_on_Your_Feet.htm
Most athletes can train hard and long. What most athletes don't do is that they
don't train the right bits needed for racing hard.
They just train hard. Consequently they don't get the results they deserve. I'll
give you a specific example; I often hear athletes
talking it up pre race, they have gone to the track and done a set of intervals
and absolutely blasted it, running way faster than
their expected race pace, what then happens is that they have set the internal
pace for them too fast, consequently they run out too
fast at the start of the run leg in their event. Of course there is a place for
speed work that is faster than race pace, because
that's one way to lift your game, but I'm just saying that you need to ensure
you have a balance here. Some attention to pace
judgment and getting the opening 500m right off the bike is a good idea if you
are a triathlete. Same goes for Marathoner, people
doing bike TT's and other endurance events.
More...from Endurance Coach at:
http://www.endurancecoach.com/Quality_Training.htm


16. Ten Quick Fixes to Save Your Running Knees and Joints Long Term:
By Matt Russ: Licensed coach USA Triathlon, USA Cycling, USA Track and Field
Take at least 1-2 rest days per week. This means no impact giving your joints a
rest from the pounding forces that running produces.
Less experienced runners may need 2-3 rest days per week. Remember that you are
weaker after a work out and only get stronger
through proper recovery. Try to circumvent this process and injury becomes
likely. He (or she) who recovers first wins.
Perform no more than 1-2 "break through" or high intensity interval work outs
per week. Speed work puts more stress and the body,
and requires more recovery time. This type of work must performed prescriptively
and carefully. Try to schedule your speed work or
intervals work outs the day prior to a rest or recovery day.
Train in 2-3 day cycles, with a rest or recovery work out in between cycles.
This allows your body to adapt to the stress of
training. Some athletes will need more rest and less training, especially as
intensity increases. A rest or recovery work out is
best scheduled after an increase in weekly mileage.
Change your shoes out frequently. A good rule of thumb is at least 3x per year
for a high volume runner. You may want to write the
date you purchased your shoes in permanent ink on your shoes for reference.
Buying shoes is expensive, but so is your insurance
deductible.
More...from the Sport Factory at:
http://thesportfactory.iuplog.com/default.asp?item=84805


17. New Weight-Loss Focus: The Lean and the Restless:
If you move, they will measure it. If you don't move, they will measure that,
too, along with what you eat. There are no secrets
here, at least no metabolic ones. Not only do they have your number - they have
25 million of your numbers.
They, in this case, are scientists at the Mayo Clinic here. And they learn your
secrets only if you have been one of the select few
to wear a set of underwear with racy-looking cutouts at the crotch and backside,
and pockets holding position and motion sensors
dangling a half dozen tangled wires.
In January, the scientists here who designed the underwear reported a striking
difference in activity levels between lean people and
overweight ones. Their study, published in Science, did not involve deliberate
exercise, but it measured - with the help of the
sensors - how much people moved about naturally and spontaneously.
The heavier ones tended to sit, while the lean ones were more restless and spent
two more hours a day on their feet - standing,
pacing around and fidgeting. The difference translated into 350 calories a day,
enough for the heavy people to take off 30 to 40
pounds a year, if they would get moving.
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/24/health/nutrition/24wigg.html?


18. Going downhill: Improve your running with (down) hill repeats:
Every triathlete wants to run faster. Even if running is your strength, you
probably would like to make it even more of a weapon. If
the run is your weakness, then you're probably keen to reverse this and learn to
prevent the dreaded pass in the waning miles of a
race.
There are many ways to boost your run, from simply running more, to
incorporating intervals, to specific strength training. However,
there's another training tool that you should add to your arsenal: downhill
running.
Once an athlete signs up for a hilly race, such as Wildflower or Ironman USA
Lake Placid, he or she will inevitably add several
weeks of hill repeats to the training schedule. While developing climbing
strength is important, it's also necessary to consider the
downhills. Pounding downhill in a race -- even a short-course event -- and the
resistive muscle contractions that this produces,
often leads to cramping, blisters, lost toenails and the inevitable
can't-walk-the-next-day soreness.
Including downhill running in your training and learning proper downhill-running
technique will help you improve your leg speed,
increase efficiency and prevent injury.
Getting it right
Often when an athlete runs downhill, he or she will lean back, into the hill,
and brake heavily on the heels. Over-striding and
landing very far back on the heel and then rolling quickly onto the toe produces
the familiar "slap, slap, slap" sound. This never
looks comfortable. Plus, it sounds, and often is, painful, and it is inefficient
and slow.
Further, fighting gravity by leaning back puts a tremendous load on the joints
and large muscles of your legs, increasing the risk
of cramping and magnifying any biomechanical problems such as pronation or
supination. Lastly, this is a good way to develop
blisters or lose a few toenails as the foot slides within the shoe as you brake
with each foot plant.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11706



19. Dysmenorrhea and Injury Link:
A survey of 127 Swedish female endurance runners found that athletes with
menstrual dysfunction missed more training time recovering
from injury than those with normal menstrual cycles.
Fifty-seven percent of the surveyed women had been injured at least once in the
past year, experiencing tendonitis, sprained
ligaments, strained or inflamed muscles, fractures and other musculoskeletal
injuries.
Women who were injured suffered the same frequency and types of injuries
regardless of their menstrual pattern.
But those who menstruated less than once every six weeks were sidelined by their
injuries for much longer than those with more
frequent cycles - an average of 34 days for dysmenorrheic women, versus 25 days
for women with normal cycles on oral contraceptives,
and a mere nine days for women with normal cycles who were not on oral
contraceptives.
Whether dysmenorrheic women suffered more severe injuries or were slower to heal
is unclear, but researchers theorize that hormonal
imbalances may be to blame for their longer recovery time, particularly high
cortisol, low estrogen, and low IGF-1 levels.
Nutritional deficiency, which is known to inhibit the ability to heal wounds,
may also be a culprit. Dysmenorrheic women had low
BMIs - 19 on average - and a higher incidence of binge eating than the other
women, both of which might indicate nutritional
deficiencies.
More...from Ace Fitness at:
http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/fitbits_display.aspx?itemid=312


20. Carrie Tollefson - A Case Study in Talent, Tenacity and Treatment:
Carrie Tollefson made waves last summer with her stirring triumph in the 1500m
at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento. Leading
virtually from gun to tape, she fended off 800-meter specialist Jen Toomey and
several others in the final straight. Impressively,
the Villanova grad produced this effort only six days after a disappointing
sixth place in the 5,000m.
At the Games themselves, the Team USA Minnesota athlete was trying to outrun not
only the competition but garden-variety exhaustion;
even after winning the Trials, Tollefson was still without the Olympic "B"
standard of 4:07.15 and would be forced to chase that
mark all over Europe in order to secure a spot in Athens. After falling short
twice, Tollefson dipped safely under the magic number
with a 4:06.30 in Belgium on July 31. She cemented her Olympic dream with
another personal best (4:06.13) in Zurich six days later,
the culmination of five races in three countries over a dozen days. In the same
race, Toomey ran 4:06.61 and Amy Rudolph 4:07.64,
leaving Tollefson as the only woman representing the United States in the 1500.
Shortly before all this unfolded, however, Tollefson had endured a different
sort of drama, one much more protracted, and anchored
in agony rather than ambition. A bout of plantar fasciitis had dragged on for
almost two years, robbing the tenacious competitor of
most of her 2003 racing plans and often leaving the five-time NCAA champ, now
27, wondering whether she’d ever even jog pain-free
again, much less contend for an Olympic berth.
Beginning in early 2002, the Dawson, MN, native began experiencing pain in her
right big toe. Tollefson attributed this to a mild
case of tendinitis, but the pain soon migrated to her heel and grew increasingly
more severe. Even then, Tollefson didn’t know what
to think. "The weird thing was," she says, "I had never even heard of plantar
fasciitis before getting it. I thought I just had a
bruise."
Still, Tollefson stayed in form. Having placed second at the USA Cross Country
Championships in the 4K event, she grabbed third in
the 3,000m at the USATF Indoor Championships in March, but opted out of the mile
the following day owing to increasing foot
discomfort. Throughout 2002, Tollefson continued to train and race, alternating
a few weeks of consistent running with several of
cross-training, somehow managing to rack up a slate of personal track bests
along the way: 15:21.37 for 5,000m, 8:52.67 for 3,000m,
and 4:08.21 for 1500m. "I was just hoping to stick it out until I got a break,"
she says, "but by the time I got back from Europe
that summer I was just too far into it. I could hardly walk."
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/05janfeb/tollefson.htm


21. You Want to Put on a Marathon--Where?
Defying the Taliban, One Step at a Time.
I wasn’t sure how to write this. I am by no means a writer. My creative skills
have been limited to pretending that I am a carpenter
some months and a paint-by-numbers artist in others. I don’t consider myself a
writer, let alone a marathon race director. I am a
captain in the United States Army serving with the 25th Infantry Division based
in Hawaii. I consider myself an average person who
happened to be in extraordinary circumstances and at the right place at the
right time.
The place was called Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. It’s a typical Afghan village in a
province called Uruzgan, which is famous for its
geographical ties to the Taliban. Many of its more famous Taliban leaders were
born just north of the city of Tarin Kowt. Tarin Kowt
is at an elevation of about 5,000 feet in a valley surrounded by mountains that
are at the tail end of the Hindu Kush mountain
range. The summers are hot and dusty and the winters are cold and unforgiving.
It’s an area of strategic commercial and military
importance that has seen numerous invasions that have more or less been repelled
by its determined people, harsh weather, and rough
terrain. From Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union, many nations have
attempted to tame and conquer the people of Afghanistan,
but they have universally failed.
The time was August 2004. The Second Battalion, Fifth Infantry Regiment—also
known as the Bobcat Battalion—had been in Afghanistan
since April, and we were looking at another nine months in the country before we
could see our loved ones again in Hawaii.
Carrying A Bit Of Hawaii With Us
Hawaii’s allure was not only our families at home waiting for us but the fact
that it’s a paradise for outdoor enthusiasts among our
ranks. Runners cannot ask for a better experience than Hawaii. Although Hawaii
has many running events, the pinnacle for most of us
is the Honolulu Marathon. The Honolulu Marathon is like no other race: the
people, the weather, and the course itself make runners
want to do the race over and over again.
The military is a huge supporter of running events in Hawaii. A large number of
military members sign up for the Honolulu Marathon
and other running events, and Honolulu even has a registration-fee waiver for
military members. The relationship that Hawaii has
with its military guests has been a good one, and both cherish the historic ties
that have grown over the decades.
For the first time since Vietnam, the 25th Infantry Division was called on to
serve a 12-month combat tour starting in April 2004.
Half the division went to Iraq, and the other half went to Afghanistan. My
battalion, the Bobcat Battalion, went to Afghanistan.
It’s hard enough to leave family and friends, but we had to leave paradise as
well. Being in a war does not leave a lot of time for
running, as most of us quickly discovered. The missions were constant and the
tempo fast, but still soldiers were finding ways to
get those running shoes on and get some miles in around the fire base, a small
military area similar to the outposts in the Old
West. Troops at a fire base work with the local populace and against any enemy
in that area. Fire Base Ripley, named after a marine
who was killed in the area, is on the outskirts of the capital of Uruzgan
Province, Tarin Kowt.
More...from Marathon and Beyond at:
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/hurlburt.htm


22. Listen to Your Body - Knowing When to Rest:
We all go through training ups and downs – the times where everything seems
perfect, and the times when each step seems harder than
it should be. We push through the tough times, knowing that it’s good practice
for those rough patches during races. Pushing though
the rough training patches makes us stronger, most of the time. But sometimes it
makes sense to just stop.
hate to stop. I hate to give in to the feeling that I don’t have control over
my body and my training. Sure, there are times when
it’s a tough battle, but I, like most of you, pride myself on perseverance. It’s
what triathlon and racing is about.
But something seemed really wrong recently. I effectively was forced to take a
complete week off of training. I was not ill. I was
not suffering from any injury. I did not seem depressed and could not conceive
of any stress I might be feeling. I was simply
exhausted. Here’s how it unfolded.
One day I was so tired, I took a day off. Easy to rationalize – it’s good to
take a day off every once in a while.
The next day, also too tired. OK, two days off, seems like a good idea every now
and then. I’ll surely be raring to go on the next
day, I assured myself.
On the third day, I managed 30 minutes in the pool. That was more than enough. I
was exhausted again. But I was back in training
mode, or so I thought.
Next day, I came home from work a little early for an 8.5 mile afternoon run. I
decided to lie down first, and instead of the run,
ended up napping for three hours. I told myself, no problem, I’d run 13.1 the
next day to make up for it.
More...from XTri.com at:
http://xtri.com/article.asp?id=1465


23. Getting the pace right:
by Frank Horwill
Work physiologists are agreed that level-pace running is the best way to run
most races. However, level-pace does not mean level
effort. It means increased effort as the race progresses. We may, in a 1,500m
race, handle a first lap of 70 seconds with some ease,
we can also reach 800m at the same pace, but for the third lap and thereafter we
have to increase our effort to remain on time. If,
for example, we have a best time of 2:08 for 800 metres (64 secs / 400m), the
fastest we can handle in a 1,500m event is 68 seconds
per 400 metres, or 4 seconds per lap slower. This will give a time of 4:15. It
will be seen that in a 1,500 metres race the fastest
we can go through the first 800 metres is 8 seconds off our best time for 800
metres, and probably 11 seconds off is wiser.
The same applies to the 800 metres race. A first lap should not be faster than 4
seconds off one’s best time for 400 metres. Given a
time of 60 seconds for 400 metres, to run the first lap in 62 seconds will
rapidly put one in oxygen debt which will result in a
rapid decline in speed, often ten seconds slower (ie 62-72 seconds).
In longer races (10km to marathon) even pace has greater significance. The more
we work hills and attempt to "burn off" the
opposition, the greater will be the drain on our glycogen reserve. A marathon
which sees the first half run in 1 hour 30 minutes and
the second part in 1 hour 50 minutes has been badly executed. The favoured
method is to run 51 per cent of one’s time for the first
half and 49 per cent for the second half.
For races lasting more than one hour it is not sufficient enough for us to eat
big quantities of carbohydrates for the 48 hours
before because some are burnt very quickly and NOT stored as glycogen. Long
races require a high intake of low glycemic
carbohydrates. Carbohydrates which are preferentially stored as glycogen
include: fructose, soya beans, kidney beans, lentils, sweet
potatoes, apples, oranges, whole wheat spaghetti, oats, brown rice, buckwheat
pancakes and whole wheat bread. High glycemic
carbohydrates include glucose, honey, parsnips, carrots, white potatoes,
bananas, raisins, white flour spaghetti, cornflakes, white
rice, white flour pancakes and white bread. High glycemic carbohydrates can be
taken 2 hours before competition and within 30
minutes afterwards. For example, three bananas sliced lengthways between two
slices of bread will supply 600 calories of immediate
energy.
More...from the Serpentine Running Club at:
http://www.serpentine.org.uk/advice/coach/fh14.php


24. Maxing Out Your Peak Bone Mass:
Perhaps you think that preventing osteoporosis is primarily a task for the
elderly. You may be surprised to learn that the most
critical time to fortify your bones is prior to age thirty. It seems like a
mystery when you consider that most of the people
suffering with osteoporosis are well over that age, but we actually spend the
first thirty years of life building our peak bone
mass, or the bone that we'll use for a lifetime. And though genetics play a
critical role in the development of this disease,
there's much we can do early in life to maximize our peak bone mass.
Bones 101
Scattered throughout our bones are two important types of bone cells called
osteoclasts and osteoblasts. These cells perform the
critical function of "bone remodeling", in which old or damaged bone is taken
away, or resorbed, and new, healthy bone is laid down
in its place. The job of osteoclasts is to eat away the old bone, then
osteoblasts come in to lay down the new bone. Throughout
childhood and into our twenties, bone formation exceeds bone resorption. In
these years we are building stronger and healthier
bones. After about age thirty, however, this process starts to reverse, and bone
resorption slightly outstrips bone formation. By
age thirty, most of us have achieved our peak bone mass, and then we start to
lose bone very slowly.
More...from Healthology at:
http://seacoastonline.healthology.com/focus_article.asp?b=seacoastonline&f=xmlpr\
essfeed&c=bone_mass&spg=SCH
[Long URL]


25. News Scan:
* Q. Is the U.S. RDA for vitamins enough, or do I need more because I ride?
A. If you had asked me that five years ago, I--as well as most other folks who
get excited about such stuff--would have said eat
well and you'll be fine. Now more sports nutrition experts lean toward
supplementation, especially among endurance athletes.
Strenuous exercise raises the level of harmful molecules called free radicals
that make your muscles sore and damage body tissues.
Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E seem to counteract the effects of free
radicals and protect against injury and chronic
disease. "Though people who exercise tend to already have high antioxidant
levels in their blood--probably from eating well--it's a
good idea to supplement just to be sure," says sports medicine and nutrition
expert Marcus Elliott, M.D. "Athletes also have special
calcium needs because they sweat so much out during exercise."
How much should you take? To start, chow down about nine servings of fruits and
vegetables a day, because nothing beats the
vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting phytonutrients you get from the real
thing. Then add a few supplements for extra insurance.
"I recommend about a gram [1,000 milligrams] of vitamin C and 800 IUs of vitamin
E for antioxidants," says Elliott. "Then add a gram
of calcium to make sure your bones are getting what they need to stay strong."
Almost every grocery store carries shelves full of
vitamins and minerals these days. You also can get these recommended doses from
Antioxidant Fuel and Calcium 1000 Tabs w/Vitamin D,
both from Twinlab, which are sold in natural food stores and GNCs.
HOW TO GET ENOUGH VITAMINS
* 9 servings fruits and veggies
* 1,000 mg vitamin C
* 800 IUs vitamin E
* 1,000 mg calcium
[From March 2001 Bicycling magazine]


***End of Articles***


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

May 28, 2005:
Nordion 10k - Ottawa, ON
http://www/ncm.ca

Prince of Wales International Marathon - Craig, AK
http://www.powmarathon.org

Television - CBC
Cycling Women's World Cup Road Race: from Montréal 1600-1800 EDT

May 29, 2005:
Coeur d'Alene Marathon - Coeur d'Alene, ID
http://www.cdamarathon.org

ING Ottawa Marathon - Ottawa, ON
http://www/ncm.ca

Ironman Brazil - Florianópolis, Brazil
http://www.ironmanbrasil.com.br/eng/default.asp

KeyBank Vermont City Marathon - Burlington, VT
http://www.runvermont.org

Limestone Charity Triathlon - Kingston, ON
http://www.limestonetri.kmfrc.com

NikerunTO - Toronto, ON
http://www.nike.com/canada/runto/runto.jsp


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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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...