A FREE WEEKLY E-ZINE OF MULTISPORT RELATED ARTICLES.
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
are the opinions of the writers and not necessarily
those of the Runner's Web. To comment on any stories in the Digest visit our
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4. National Capital Race Weekend - Ottawa, ON May 26 - 28, 2006
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5. Toronto Waterfront Marathon. September 24, 2006.
http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/

6. The Toronto Marathon, October 15, 2006
http://www.torontomarathon.com

7. LifeSport by Lance Watson - Professional Coaching
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. 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 was the 2004 Olympic Team Head Coach
(Triathlon).
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/LifeSport.html


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TRAFFIC CONTINUES TO GROW
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Daily
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THIS WEEK:

10% Discount on Night-Gear Products:
Night Gear specializes in products used in low-light and no-light environments.
We offer two categories of products, reflective and illuminating.
About Night-Gear Inc.
Night Gear specializes in products used in low-light and no-light environments.
We offer two categories of products -- reflective
and illuminating.
Our reflective products mainly consist of reflective apparel manufactured by
illumiNITE for those who work or work out at night. At
any time and in all conditions illumiNITE's patented retro-reflective technology
is a compelling category of stylish, functional
apparel that provides unique head to toe reflectivity.
Illuminating products consist of a wide variety of portable lighting and
flashlights that are used in many outdoor and sporting
activities including cycling, camping, running or SCUBA. We also provide
products that are appropriate for use in industrial and
professional applications.
We are authorized dealers for all products we sell.
Mission Statement
Night-Gear is dedicated to providing quality products used in low-light and
no-light environments for both personal and professional
use that combines quality performance with value pricing. We wish to establish a
successful relationship with our customers, our
employees and our suppliers that respect the interests and goals of each party.
Constantly striving to supply what the consumer is asking for, we will
continually review what is available on the market place, and
what isn't. Improving on what is available and providing new products and
services to areas of need will help us ensure our success
in a market driven by consumer demand.
Success will ultimately be measured by our customers choosing us because of
their belief in our ability to meet or exceed their
expectations of price, service and selection.
Visit the site at:
http://www.night-gear.com/ and enter "1951" in the Promo-Code box.

Up until April 1st (April Fool's Day!) you can get a FREE subscription to Geezer
Jock Magazine.
Check it out at:
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If you feel you have something to say (related to triathlon or running) that is
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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:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/cts_columns.html.

* 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 article archive from Peak Performance Online at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/PPO_index.html

* Peak Running Performance
Peak Running Is The Nation's Most Advanced Running Newsletter. Rated as the #1
Running Publication by Road Runner Sports (Worlds
Largest Running Store) , Peak Running caters to the serious / dedicated runner.
Delivering world class running advice are some of
running's most recognizable athletes including Dr. Joe Vigil (US Olympic Coach),
Scott Tinley (2 Time Ironman Champ) Steve Scott (3 Time Olympian) and many more.
This bi-monthly newsletter has been around for over
13 years, and in the past two it has been awarded the "Golden Shoe Award" in
recognition of it's outstanding achievements.
http://www.clixGalore.com/EmailSale.aspx?BID=37234&AfID=103794&AdID=5075&LP=www.\
peakrunningperformance.com
Check out the Peak Running article index at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/PRP_index.html .

* 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:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/LW_index.html

Running Research News:
RRN's free, weekly, training update provides subscribers with the most-current,
practical, scientifically based information about
training, sports nutrition, injury prevention, and injury rehabilitation. The
purpose of this weekly e-zine is to improve
subscribers' training quality and to help them train in an injury-free manner.
Running Research News also publishes a complete, 12-page, electronic newsletter
10 times a year (one-year subscriptions are $35); to
learn more about Running Research News, please see the Online Article Index and
"About Running Research News" sections below or go
to RRNews.com.
Check out the article index at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RRN_index.html


THIS WEEK'S PERSONAL POSTINGS/RELEASES:
We have TWO personal postings this week:
ONE:
Hello, I am PhD candidate at Kansas State University completing a product
development project on triathlon swim caps. I will soon
be sending out questionnaires to many forums / blogs. I am looking for any
insight into the disadvantages of the currently
available swim caps. Also the needs of the triathlete concerning control of
their hair throughout the entire race. If you or any
of your club members have any pet peeves about swim caps or why I use them
comments would you please forward them to me?
Sincerely,
Elida Fraser
PhD candidate
Kansas State University
mailto:elidafraser@...

TWO:
For Sale - Double Jogging Stroller
By BABY TREND
$190.00 firm
blue/black color
Used only once. Paid $289.00 + tax.
Original tags still attached.
Please call Jennifer @ 839-7424 or e-mail mailto:jbisson@...


THIS WEEK'S DIGEST ARTICLE INDEX:

1. Triathlon: Ironman study redefines fine-tuned - Balance training time with
blood pressure variability
Exhaustive look at competitive physiology finds complete recovery .
2. Multisport by Lance Watson: Triathlon Basics - The Essential Gear You Need
3. Science of Sport: The Truth Can Not Be Imitated
4. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Glycogen
5. Leading sports medicine doctor offers five nutritional tips for increasing
your workout stamina
6. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - No Mile Wasted
7. Get a leg up: Three supercharged early-season cycling workouts
8. From Running Times Magazine
9. Food News Blues
Fat is bad, but good fat is good. What about fish? Wine? Nuts? A new appetite
for answers has put science on a collision course with
the media.
10. "Pumping iron" slows middle-aged spread in women
11. From Runner's World
12. Dave Scott's Tip of the Month Tip of the Month-Going Long
13. Insoles that walk the walk
You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on orthotic shoe inserts. Even
over-the-counter ones can help.
14. Pacific Elite Fitness Triathlete Newsletter - The Triathlete's Holy Grail
15. Clearing the Air
Oxygen chambers allow you to simulate the world's altitude extremes. But should
you? Depends on what you're after.
16. Track Session Preparation - Strength Begets Speed
17. The Right-Effort Question
18. Too Loose Too Much
19. Lactate: Not Guilty as Charged
Len Kraviz, Ph.D.
20. Running As Armor by Dr. Walter Bortz
A Fit Lifestyle Serves to Modulate the Aging Process.
21. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
22. Shedding the Winter Pounds:
23. Crash and Return:
You're gonna get hurt-count on it. Here are the new smart fixes for those
inevitable breaks, tears, and strains.
24. In the long run
Dave Scott's 12-week early-season run training program.
25. Digest Briefs


RUNNER'S WEB WEEKLY POLL:
In which of the following competitions are you interested?



You can access the poll from our FrontPage ( http://www.runnersweb.com) as well
as 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 RESULTS:
Which of the following changes to triathlon and duathlon do you support?
* Allow drafting
* Allow fixed times for transitions and do not count it
* Change the swim/cycle/run distances to equal duration
* Make the duathlon a run/cycle instead of run/cycle/run
* None of the above

Answers Votes Percent
1. Allow drafting 24 16%
2. Allow fixed times for transitions and do not count it 32 22%
3. Change the swim/cycle/run distances to equal duration 40 27%
4. Make the duathlon a run/cycle instead of run/cycle/run 26 18%
5. None of the above 25 17%
Total Votes: 147

FIVE STAR SITE OF THE WEEK: Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games (March 15 - 26,
2006)
The first Commonwealth Games took place in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1930.
Bobby Robinson, a key force within Athletics in
Canada, finally implemented the event that had been talked about among
Commonwealth nations for over 30 years. Eleven nations
boasting 400 athletes in total participated in the first Games. The City of
Hamilton provided $30,000 to these nations in order to
defray travel costs.
Since then the Games have been conducted every four years except for 1942 and
1946, when World War II intervened. Sixteen Games have
been held in total, with three of these hosted by Australian cities - Sydney
1938, Perth 1962 and Brisbane 1982.
From 1930 to 1950 the Games were known as the British Empire Games, then the
British Empire and Commonwealth Games until 1962. From
1966 to 1974 they took on the title of British Commonwealth Games and from 1978
onwards they have been known as simply the
Commonwealth Games.
While other Games around the globe have been founded on geographic or climatic
factors such as the Asian, Pan Am, African Games and
Winter Olympics, the Commonwealth Games has been founded on history.
Unique characteristics of the Commonwealth Games include being the only Games
which share a common language. All athletes and
officials can converse with each other in English, creating an atmosphere that
has led to the Commonwealth Games being long known as
the "Friendly Games".
In an effort to keep the Games vibrant and relevant, the Commonwealth Games
Federation (CGF) allowed Kuala Lumpur in 1998 to include
team sports for the first time, a decision which proved an outstanding success.
Melbourne's challenge is to perpetuate the evolution
of the Games so as to maintain its historical position of strength on the world
event stage.
Unlike other sporting occasions, the Commonwealth Games brings together nations
from every corner of the world in a unique family
spirit of shared history, common experiences, a unifying language, and links
that transcend cultural barriers and physical borders.
The bonds of the Commonwealth Games help to encourage the pursuit of health and
fitness in each of the member nations and provide an
inspiration for youth to strive for excellence.
Every four years the nations of the Commonwealth gather to enjoy the friendship,
entertainment and sporting performances that make
the Commonwealth Games the most tangible mortar binding together this unique
family of nations.
Check out the site at:
http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/

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.


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


BOOK OF THE WEEK: 26.2: Marathon Stories
by Kathrine Switzer and Roger Robinson
Review
Reviewed by Terry Maddaford, New Zealand Herald
Anyone who has run a marathon can relate to "the wall". You either run into it,
through it, or it collapses on you.
Despite assertions to the contrary, there is no such thing as an "easy" marathon
even if the new generation of Africans appear to
skip their way over the ultimate distance.
In their book 26.2 Marathon Stories, husband and wife co-authors Kathrine
Switzer and Roger Robinson attempt to explain the mystique
that has for so long set the marathon apart from all other athletic challenges.
This chronology tracks the marathon from the very
beginning.
In every marathon there are countless stories of personal triumph amidst the
tragedy, the folklore of the famous marathons such as
Boston, New York, London and even Rotorua.
In the marathon there are no losers, just some who go faster than others. This
in-depth journey tells the story of those at both
ends of the field and plenty in between.
The winners grab the headlines, medals and - these days - healthy cheques and
rich endorsements, but anyone who goes the distance is
a winner.
Many sportsmen and women who might have had lifetime hopes dashed by injury have
been able to turn to the marathon.
Less than 1 per cent of those who cross the start line are winners or at least
competitive. They grab the headlines but not all the
column inches.
This comprehensively illustrated history of the great race highlights many of
the best to ever challenge the distance, from Greek
Kharilaos Vasilakos who won the first "official" marathon (in 1896) in a time of
3h 06m 03s to Kenyan Paul Tergat who, in 2003,
dipped under 2h 05m.
In the same year, Paula Radcliffe set a women's world's best of 2h 15m 25s -
less than 20 years on from the first women's Olympic
marathon in Los Angeles in 1984.
It has been more than century in the making, but 26.2 Marathon Stories captures
the torturous journey splendidly.
Pity though, there is no place for New Zealand great Allison Roe, who does not
rate a mention despite her Boston-New York double in
1981, both in record times with the latter a then world's best.
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
RRP: $39.99
Buy the book from Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/159486330X/runnersweb/102-0182896-9006569\
?v=glance&s=books



THIS WEEK'S NEWS:

1. Triathlon: Ironman study redefines fine-tuned - Balance training time with
blood pressure variability:
Exhaustive look at competitive physiology finds complete recovery .
With thoughts of the Winter Olympics waning, perhaps it's time to turn athletic
training preparations toward the November Kona
(Hawaii) Ironman competition, the 2008 Summer Olympic triathlon, or your local
marathon or 10K.
Worried about the training time commitment involved? Concerned how long it might
take you to stand up without fainting afterwards?
Fear not.
In a comprehensive study of 25 men competing in an Ironman, Austrian researchers
uncovered some startling physiological insights
into training and recovery from the combined effects of swimming 3.9 kilometers
(2.4 miles), cycling 180.2 km (112 miles) and then
running the standard marathon distance of 42.2 km (26.2 miles).
Writing in the Journal of Applied Physiology, the Austrians said faster
finishers trained more per week than others, but that
contrary to expectations their sympathetic nervous systems were less active than
expected, which contributed to a fast recovery.
13 hemodynamic, autonomic measures point to unexpectedly quick recovery
Researchers from the Medical University of Graz, Austria, measured 13
hemodynamic and autonomic parameters from blood pressure
changes to heart beat stroke strength, as well as clinical data, including
weekly net exercise training (WNET) time.
Knowing that it takes about two weeks for muscles and tendons to recover after
an Ironman, the Austrian authors wrote in the Journal
of Applied Physiology: "We hypothesized that this extreme endurance exercise
would lead to long-standing hemodynamic impairment and
sympathetic activation."
Looking at this multitude of parameters from before the competition, they "were
prepared to study them for as long afterwards as it
would take for full recovery." In addition, they were interested in "the
possibility of predicting competition performance from the
baseline" or pre-competition measurement levels. The results of time-to-recovery
and "predictive factors" were both surprising and
deceptively simple. How to train for a faster finish, however, may prove to be
very elusive, all agree.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060306_Ironman_Training.html


2. Multisport by Lance Watson: Triathlon Basics - The Essential Gear You Need:
Triathlon can be a very expensive sport when you get caught up in all the fun
gadgets and fancy bikes. There are a myriad of new
cool products on the market, from the latest goggles, wetsuits and bikes to
gizmos that monitor everything from heart rate to the
power in one leg! Remember the three basic sports of triathlon, and start with
the equipment that gets the job done. Everything else
is icing on the cake!
New research and ever changing technology is constantly putting new products on
the market and although many of them may make
training a bit more interesting many of them are not essential. The equipment
you own doesn't need to be made of the lightest,
strongest, newest, space age materials for it to work well (though you may want
it anyway!). You don't have to spend thousands on a
bike and its components to do a triathlon, or for you to perform well on it. The
most important thing is that your equipment is in
good working condition, and fits you properly. Add the basic equipment to your
own hard training and you have the foundation of a
good season.
Here is a list of the basic training and racing items you will need in order to
succeed in triathlon.
Swimming:
. goggles - find a pair that fit your eye sockets well and allows you good
vision. Not everyone's eyes are shaped the same so find a
pair that work for you. There are foam and rubber seals, adjustable nose pieces
and different size lenses. While doing open water
swimming you need to see well, so choose goggles that allow you to see where you
are going.
. swim cap - after one season, you will have plenty as they are given to you at
registration, but you may have to buy your first
one! Silicon caps will last longer and keep their shape, so the higher price may
be worth it in the end..
. swim suit - go for the polyester blended training suits because they last
forever
. wetsuit - if you have a cold open water swim as part of your races, the
wetsuit will be one of your major purchases, but the
payback is huge. Being warm, buoyant and comfortable in the swim is important.
Fit and flexibility are key things to look for, so
like your bike, get your wetsuit from a shop that offers advice.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060307_LW_Gear.html


3. Science of Sport: The Truth Can Not Be Imitated:
As a coach, I know that the training program I provide for one runner, even
though it is scientifically sound and well-balanced,
will never be exactly right for another competitor. My runners, even the ones
who are performing at a similar level, can never be
doing the same thing at the same time.
In his enlightening book, Later Masters (which was not, by the way, about
Masters runners), Martin Buber summed up this basic
coaching dilemma with the following aphorism (1):
"Everything in the world can be imitated, except truth. For truth that is
imitated is no longer truth."
This maxim enlightens us about the nature of truth and expresses the supreme
value of individual autonomy. Re-phrasing the epigram
in general terms, we can say that it may mean something like "Only you have an
authentic connection with your own soul. So, always
rely on yourself to become what you desire to be; do not depend on others."
As Yaella Wozner and Howard Polsky point out in their book, Everyday Miracles
(2), the dictum indicates that although you may be
very impressed with a "truth" that you have read about or heard from another
person, such a verity can only belong to someone else -
the person who first conceived it. If you try to make the "truth" your own, you
will only succeed in establishing an imitation of
another's conception.
The utter impossibility of imitating truth applies directly to the world of
running. For example, scientific research tells us that
there is enormous heterogeneity in the responsiveness of runners to training,
even when highly standardized training programs are
utilized (3). To put it another way, a great-looking training program which
improves performance by 25 percent in one runner may
cause another, seemingly similar athlete to fail miserably in competitions. The
training truth for one runner is never the bright
pathway to top performances for another.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060307_RRN_Truth.html


4. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Glycogen:
General Characteristics
* polysaccharide, (C-6, H-10, O-5)n
* stored primarily in the liver and muscle tissue
* readily converted to glucose as needed by the body to satisfy its energy needs
* supplies energy during heavy work.
* stored with water (1 gram of carbohydrates stored with 3 grams of water)
* central nervous system (CNS) is dependent on hepatic glycogen for energy
Glycogen and Performance
* Increased storage can double duration of exhaustive work
* Low or depleted glycogen stores
- limits exercise intensity
- decreases time to exhaustion
- increases rating of perceived exhaustion during physical activity (Nieman, et
al., 1987)
* The average person stores enough glycogen to last them 12 to 14 hours or over
2 hours with sustained moderate intensity.
- Mean ingested daily is 400 grams
- To maintain an adequate supply a minimum of 100 grams of carbohydrates should
be ingested daily (Sources)
*Glycogen synthesis after exercise
- Approximately 50% more glycogen can be stored if carbohydrates are consumed
immediately following strenuous exercise as
opposed to waiting 2 hours after exercise
~ Suggested amount
~ 100 g of carbohydrates (400 Kcal) for the average 175 lb man (Friedman et
al 1991).
~ 10 - 20% of total daily caloric intake of carbohydrates and quality
proteins in approximately a 4:1 ratio
- Muscle glycogen synthesis is greater within 2 hours proceeding exercise
(Friedman et al 1991) and greatest 45 minute post
workout (Ivy JL 1988, Leven hagen DK 2001)
~ Exercise increases the muscle's sensitivity to insulin, predominately,
during the 4 to 6 hours after exercise
~ During this time, muscle glycogen synthesis has been shown to be greater
with ingestion of simple as compared with
complex carbohydrates
~ After which, muscle glycogen can be resynthesized near pre-exercise levels
within 24 hours, equivalently with
either carbohydrates form
- After 24 hours, muscle glycogen can increase very gradually, succeeding
normal levels over the next few days (Ivy 1991).
* Super glycogen saturation technique can increase amount of work by 19%
- Old method involved glycogen depletion through an initial low carbohydrate
diet followed by a high carbohydrate diet
- Newer method suggests glycogen depletion can be obtained by repeated
prolonged intense exercise with similar results
- Repeated muscle glycogen supercompensation is not possible, however
performance enhancement is maintained (McInerney 2004)

- Carbo-loading should not be done more than 3x/year
- Preadolescent and adolescent individuals should not carbo-load
From ERX - Diet and Nutrition at:
http://www.exrx.net/Nutrition.html


5. Leading sports medicine doctor offers five nutritional tips for increasing
your workout stamina:
Marcus C.C.W Elliott, M.D reveals the training table secrets of professional
athletes and Olympians
If you've ever felt too tired to work out, or avoided physical activity because
it takes you too long to recover, you may need to
add more fats and antioxidants into your diet. Marcus C.C.W. Elliott, M.D., a
specialist in the performance and care of professional
athletes, explains that fats aren't always the enemy. In fact, they play an
important role in your body's ability to perform
effectively.
A Harvard-educated physician, and consultant to professional and Olympic
athletes, Dr. Elliott explains that dietary fat actually
helps to stop the steep insulin spike that results from eating complex
carbohydrates. "Fats actually act as a sort of time-release
mechanism for the energy produced by carbohydrates," he explains.
Antioxidants, he says, also become more important when you are active. "There's
a so-called oxygen paradox. When you exercise, your
body may experience a 10- to 15-time increase in free radicals! So if you are at
all athletic, you should supplement your diet with
even more antioxidants than you would if you were sedentary."
He adds that getting your nutrition from whole foods is smart. "Isolated
supplements don't work as well as whole foods. For optimal
health and performance, it is important to eat nutrient- and antioxidant-rich
fruits and vegetables, and minimize the consumption of
refined, processed carbohydrates. Seabuckthorn fruit juice, for example, is
ideal because it is abundantly rich in antioxidants and
it's the only fruit juice that has omega fatty acids."
More...from Sibu at:
http://www.sibu.com/news/shownews.php?id=11


6. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - No Mile Wasted:
Ask me about my normal daily run, and the answer won't impress you. Tell me you
run longer and faster, and I'll agree; most runners
do. But try to tell me that my runs lack "quality" or, worse, are "junk miles,"
and you'll get an argument. Here it comes.
For as long as I've been running easily and writing its praises, I've heard how
these runs waste time and effort. That was the knock
on my first book, Long Slow Distance, published in 1969.
One critic with a long memory called recently to comment on a column of mine.
The stranger said, "I'm happy to see your
metamorphosis from the person who promoted long slow distance [LSD] to admitting
now that you were wrong."
Wrong? Did I say that?
"I tried LSD, and so did many others who ran with me at the time," the caller
continued. "All it did was make us long slow racers."
Then came his unkindest cut of all: "LSD was a cancer that hurt the sport for a
long time, and you were the person who spread it. I
praise you now for having the nerve to renounce it."
Renounce? Hardly!
I only retired the term LSD. It was misleading because it invited runners to
stack up the highest possible mileage at the slowest
possible pace. Too much distance can do as much damage as too much speed. I
substituted the less catchy but more accurate words such
as "gentle" and "relaxed."
My shift to a slower gear wasn't meant to improve my racing but to escape the
ravages of excessive speed training. The other runners
featured in that book did the same. To our surprise, all six of us improved our
times anyway.
Our improvement didn't come from any inherent magic in slower running but
because this was EASIER running. It let us freshen up
between hard efforts instead of staying forever tired.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/home.php?article=2045


7. Get a leg up: Three supercharged early-season cycling workouts:
You've had a chance to reflect on last season, and you have a clear picture of
what you need to do to continue developing your
strength and speed on the bike.
Clear as mud, right? Well, even if you're not entirely sure how to build on last
year to achieve your potential, have no fear --
because right now is the perfect time to make crucial gains that will boost the
cycling leg of your triathlon.
Triathletes have long been chastised for being mashers, pushing huge gears at
low cadences. While everyone has his or her ideal
cadence, it's generally true that while pushing a big gear may feel faster, by
doing so you're actually recruiting more fast-twitch
muscle fibers.
These fibers fatigue more quickly than do slow-twitch fibers, and mashing
produces greater quantities of lactic acid. If that's not
bad enough, fast-twitch fibers also burn through your precious glycogen stores
at a faster rate.
In contrast, a higher cadence allows you to rely more on your slow-twitch
fibers, which are powered by a different mixture of fat
and carbohydrate and fatigue at a much slower rate, thus preserving your
glycogen stores and reducing lactic acid production and
accumulation. As an added bonus, a higher cadence on the bike also more closely
emulates the typical triathlete's leg turnover
during the run.
Early-season drills
FastPedal: FastPedal intervals help you boost your cadence by developing the
appropriate neuromuscular pathways needed to recruit
and fire your cycling muscles at a higher rate. FastPedal intervals also help
you to develop a more efficient pedal stroke.
To perform FastPedal intervals, set your bike up on an indoor trainer with
little resistance or find a flat stretch of road and
select a light gear. After a warm up, begin your FastPedal workout by slowly
increasing your cadence to the highest possible cadence
you can maintain without rocking your hips; stay in the saddle with your hands
on the tops of your bars.
Keep your upper body as still as possible and concentrate on pulling through the
bottom of your down stroke, as if you're scraping
mud off the bottom of your shoes. Try to work up to between 110-120 RPMs.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=12867


8. From Running Times Magazine:
* Training Tip of the Month - Training When It's Cold, Snowy and Icy
March, they say, comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. When it comes to
marathon training, however, that is reverses, as
many people get serious about spring marathons as the days get longer and
temperatures mellow. Unfortunately, many of us rush the
process in that transition from lamb to lion. Everyone has heard the 10% rule
for increasing mileage, yet nearly every run I've ever
known has broken it, too. It feels too conservative, and, we tell ourselves
we're doing fine with this rapid increase in mileage --
no problems, no pains (well, nothing serious). But damage may not evidence
itself immediately, and you can't always let pain be your
guide. Podiatrist Amol Saxena wrote in Breakthrough Running, ". . . the pain
tolerance of runners varies. Some runners will tolerate
just about anything to get in their daily runs, whereas others will put a goose
egg in their log at the slightest twinge. . . Your
best bet when in doubt is to err on the side of conservatism." That doesn't sit
well with those who are trying to reach the limit of
their ability. But, ask yourself if you'd rather arrive at the starting line
healthy and a few workouts undertrained, or not make it
there at all. Chances are, if you're the type to push too hard, you'll do better
in the race where you're more rested and healthy
than the one where you did every scheduled workout at met every weekly goal.
--Jonathan Beverly, Editor in Chief
* Medical Corner - Arthroscopic Knee Surgery and Arthritis
Q: I am 58 years old and have been competing since 1960. I just had an
arthroscopy knee operation for torn cartilage. The doctor
removed about 50% of the cartilage and some arthritis. He told me he does not
want me to run anymore or to do weight bearing
exercises or I risk needing a knee replacement in the future. Is this true or is
he being very cautious? I really would like to
continue running even if it is at a reduced level.
A: Arthritis is the wearing away of the articular cartilage (like the pearly
white material at the end of a chicken bone); the
meniscus is a cushion on either side of the knee. When you read about an athlete
who had "cartilage removed" the meniscus is the
structure that is being referred to. The meniscus may tear due to a twisting
injury to the knee. Over the course of time, the
meniscus becomes more brittle and tears more easily.
The million-dollar question is whether impact activities such as running will
accelerate the deterioration of the joint, causing
arthritis to progress at a more rapid rate. This may be the case, but how do we
know that you won't wind up needing a knee
replacement if you cut out these activities? I have taken care of a large number
of runners with varying degrees of arthritis in
their knees who are still running. Keeping your muscles strong and your joints
moving are key factors in dealing with arthritis.
If you decide to continue running, consider adding some cross-training every
other day. To decrease impact, try running on softer
surfaces, such as trails. Make sure that your shoes are cushioned. Consider
taking glucosamine (1500mg per day).
Good luck.
--Dr. Cathy Fieseler
* Q & A
Q: I have been looking for training tips for ultramarathons, (50K to 50 Milers)
without much success. I've run eight marathons and
want to try something longer. Any advice?
A: The single most important factor in training for an ultramarathon is the long
run. The length of the race should determine
training strategies. Preparing for a 50K race should be similar to the
preparation for a marathon, with the addition of training on
trails if the race is on a trail. Trail races are typically slower than road
races due to terrain and obstacles (downed trees,
streams, tree roots, etc.). Running on trails demands attention to foot
placement to avoid falling. Many runners will walk on
difficult sections of trail, especially in longer races; the energy expended
running up a very steep hill will usually cost the
runner dearly later in the race. Energy conservation is of key importance.
For longer races, there are a number of different approaches to training. The
long run is still the most important factor, but most
runners cannot do 60 mile training runs, due to the time commitment and risk of
injury. Other than races, many runners limit the
long run to 35-40 miles; a race may be used to train for a longer race. A common
training technique is a run of 25-30 miles on one
day (typically Saturday), followed by a 10-15 mile run the following day. The
pace for the long run is slow and easy; this may be a
7 minute per mile pace for an elite runner or 13 minute pace for a slower
runner. The long run may include walking if the runner
anticipates walking during the race. Practice walking quickly; slow runners are
often passed by fast walkers in an ultra.
Access to fluids and carbohydrates is important during these runs, as they will
last 3 hours or longer, depending on the pace and
distance. Practice eating and drinking a variety of substances to see what you
tolerate during a long run. Don't forget the salt
during prolonged training.
The remainder of the week will consist of runs of various distances and speed or
intensity. This may include hill workouts and some
type of speed training (intervals, fartlek, tempo runs). For the average
ultramarathoner, interval training is probably not
necessary and does increase the risk of injury; many runners use local 5k and
10k races as speed workouts.
Rest is also a very important part of training; this is especially true after a
hard workout, such as a long run or speed work. Rest
may be a day off or an easy run. Rest is also important if signs of overtraining
or illness are present, such as excessive fatigue,
elevated resting heart rate, sore throat and persistent muscle aches.
Mental attitude is another very important part of training. The thought of
running 50 or 100 miles may be a bit intimidating to a
new ultramarathoner. Breaking the race down into smaller segments may make it
seem more manageable. When you are really tired during
a race, segments may be from aid station to aid station or even from one tree to
the next.
Good luck with your training.
--Dr. Cathy Fieseler
Subscribe to the Running Times Magazine newsletter at:
http://www.runningtimes.com


9. Food News Blues:
Fat is bad, but good fat is good. What about fish? Wine? Nuts? A new appetite
for answers has put science on a collision course with
the media.
You couldn't miss the headlines. The New York Times: LOW-FAT DIET DOES NOT CUT
HEALTH RISKS, STUDY FINDS. The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution: REDUCING FAT MAY NOT CURB DISEASE. The Boston Globe: STUDY
FINDS NO MAJOR BENEFIT OF A LOW-FAT DIET. The Los
Angeles Times: EATING LEAN DOESN'T CUT RISK. When the results of a massive,
federally funded study were released last month, TV,
newspapers and, yes, magazines around the country trumpeted what seemed to
confound conventional wisdom and standard medical advice.
Fat, these articles seemed to say, wasn't so bad for you after all. In fact, the
results of the study, the Women's Health Initiative
(WHI), were actually more complex-as all these articles explained to readers who
got beyond the headlines.
It wasn't (as many of us might have hoped) a signal to rush out and gorge on
cheeseburgers-especially if you're a man of any age or
a woman under 50. That's because the study involved only older women-from 50 to
79. And the primary goal was far narrower than those
headlines implied: to test whether cutting fat would reduce the risk,
specifically, of breast cancer. After an average of eight
years, researchers found no statistically significant difference in
breast-cancer risk between women on a low-fat diet and women who
had made no changes in what they ate. But that is not the bottom line. The
results showed what researchers call a "trend" toward a
low-fat diet reducing breast-cancer risk; this effect was actually significant
in those who started with the highest levels of fat.
Scientists will observe the women until 2010, when we could hear a whole new
message. "I wouldn't worry about the headlines of today
as far as low fat and breast cancer are concerned," says Dr. Jacques Rossouw,
the WHI project officer. "They may be wrong."
To those of us without an M.D., it sometimes seems as if scientists are
deliberately trying to mess with our heads-especially when
it comes to nutrition research. The WHI study is the latest in what appears to
be a series of dietary flip-flops. All fat was bad;
now some fat is good. Eggs were bad; now they're OK in moderation. Nuts were
verboten; now their fats are beneficial. Coffee has
been up and down more often than hemlines. We've even been reading that
chocolate could be a health food. (We've got some bad news
on that. Read on.) Meanwhile, Americans are getting fatter and fatter. Two
thirds are overweight or obese, and we're shelling out
millions annually in a futile effort to shed those excess pounds.
More...from Newsweek Health at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11678153/site/newsweek/


10. "Pumping iron" slows middle-aged spread in women:
By Martha Kerr
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A twice-weekly strength-training regimen slows the
accumulation of visceral fat, researchers reported
last week in Phoenix, Arizona at the American Heart Association's 46th annual
conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and
Prevention.
Dr. Kathryn H. Schmitz of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and
colleagues, randomly assigned 164 women between 25 and
44 who were overweight or obese into two groups. One group received standard
care in which they were given AHA brochures on diet and
instructions to exercise moderately to vigorously 30 minutes on most days of the
week. The second study group received strength
training under the supervision of a certified professional.
At the beginning of the study, all of the women underwent CT scans of the
abdominal area to measure visceral fat, fat surrounding
the abdominal organs. CT scans were repeated two years later.
All of the patients were instructed to avoid changes in diet that would cause an
increase or decrease in weight. The women were
further stratified into two age groups -- those between 25 and 34 years of age
and those between 35 and 44 -- and by percentage of
body fat.
"Women performed resistance exercise training, with increases in small
increments," Schmitz explained. "We used all the large
muscles, the quads and hamstrings, the pecs and the upper and lower back. We
threw in the deltoids, biceps and triceps because it
felt funny not to, but they weren't really important in what we were
studying...This program wasn't just a pink wave of the hand.
This was really 'pumping iron,'" she added.
After two years, there was no difference in body weight between any of the
groups, but visceral fat increased by only 6.3 percent in
the strength-training group compared with an increase of 20.1 percent in the
control group.
Visceral fat is associated with metabolic changes linked to heart disease,
Schmitz pointed out.
"A recommendation to exercise vigorously three times a week is ineffective if
people aren't doing it," she continued. "Here's the
challenge: we don't know if this is better than walking two times a week, but a
lot of people aren't walking. We do know that
anything is better than nothing."
C Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.reuters.com


11. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
Phone a friend: When a long day leaves you feeling too drained for your planned
workout, call one of your running pals, and ask him
or her to reinforce your intentions. Chances are, a few minutes of phone time
with an understanding friend will re-energize you.
-Jeff Galloway
* Injury Prevention
You can avoid injuries by simply postponing a run whenever you experience any
of these early warning signs: fatigue, stiffness,
cramping, or soreness. Be sensitive to your weak links, the places where you're
most often injured. Back off when one of these weak
links starts to ail, especially if you have a tough workout scheduled.
* Performance Nutrition
A diet rich in garlic makes your aorta more flexible and can increase
circulation. In fact, a clove of fresh garlic every day can
decrease your total cholesterol by almost 10 percent. Garlic also has powerful
antiviral properties that fight infection. Just a
couple of cloves of garlic, mixed into food, will jump-start your immune system
and improve your chances of fighting off a cold or
flu.
* Editor's Advice
"Toss your dirty running clothes in a separate mesh laundry bag, then simply
knot it and throw it in with the rest of the wash. No
more picking through the whole load to weed out your running gear." -Christine
Fennessy, RW Editorial Intern
* Training Talk
"Your muscles run on a type of stored energy called glycogen, which is made from
the carbohydrate that you consume in your diet. As
you exercise, your body drains stored carbohydrate from your muscles. Unless you
replenish those stores, your body will run out of
this fuel after about 90 minutes. As your muscles begin to pull sugar out of
your bloodstream as a backup, your blood sugar
plummets, setting off a chain of reactions in your brain that make you feel dead
tired. -From Eat Smart Play Hard by Liz Applegate


12. Dave Scott's Tip of the Month Tip of the Month-Going Long:
A sprint triathlon is not a sprint race. An Olympic distance race cannot be
completed successfully without over distance training.
Ironman races have never been won by someone who just does long slow distance
training. So what's my point? To race well from sprint
to Ironman there must be seasonal cycles with varying workloads. All three
levels require an aerobic foundation which will heighten
your performance later in the season. Okay, this isn't any thing you didn't
already know but let's take a look at one key session in
your early season workout basket-the longer sustained workout which becomes the
longer variable workout.
The longer sustained workout in your weekly cycle is the catalyst to your
seasonal progression. Establishing a progressive buildup
in total time or length for the first 20 weeks of your year is paramount for a
successful season. Integrating three variables during
the competitive season: intensity, terrain and total time will provide the
necessary ingredients to your longer variable workout.
Going long and longer and longer is counterproductive throughout the entire
year. However selectively mixing workloads in the longer
workout is the key to accelerating the progression and allowing adequate
recovery between the other workouts. Simulating the loads
slightly below race pace for a sprint or Olympic race and slightly higher for a
half or Ironman will enhance the physical and
psychological stresses of the actual race. First, let's take a look at the
optimal distances for all four levels of racing.
As your preseason moves into the pre-competitive season the weekly longer
sustained workout should increase in volume. A common
cycle is to have the first 6 weeks increase 7-10% per week for all three
disciplines. This weekly volume increase can be on one
workout or split roughly in half over two sessions. The effort is aerobic or
moderate pace but without any breaks. After 6 weeks you
may want to adopt a 3 week increase followed by one week at 40% less. By 12
weeks shift the longer sustained workout to one day and
don't add any other variables, i.e. hilly course, tempo efforts, surges, pickups
or race-pace efforts. For an experienced athlete
after 12 weeks marks the change over to the variable long workout in which the
above ingredients can be added. With that said, how
many longer sustained efforts do you need for each level and what is the maximum
time?
Sprint: 6-10 sessions.
Bike: 2 hours.
Run: 75 minutes.
Swim: 1200 meters.

Olympic: 6-10 sessions.
Bike: 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Run: 90 minutes.
Swim: 2000 meters. .

Half Iron distance: 6-10 sessions.
Bike: 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Run: 1hour 40 minutes to 2 hours
Swim: 2800 meters.

Iron distance: 8-10 sessions.
Bike: 4.5 to 6 hours.
Run: 1hr 50 to 2:30 hours.
Swim: 3600 meters.

Remember you are building up to these distances and should complete the sessions
at the indicated volume before adding the longer
variable workout.
Now let's take a look at the reasons why all of you should be doing a longer
sustained workout. The physiological benefits are
gigantic.
All the factors that affect O2 transport, cardiovascular, muscle physiology are
enhanced. These include an increase in the number
and density of capillaries, oxidative enzymes and mitochondria, which are the
power house of the cell. In addition, blood volume
increases, which further aids in the transport of fuels and byproducts.
How about the things you will notice aside from the physiology? Your ability to
run, ride and swim at a faster pace will improve.
The pace will be aerobic but it will be faster than your pace at the outset of
your season. Your V02 goes up even doing moderately
long exercise. Plus your body will lose body fat, which will boost your V02 as
well. Lean tissue increases. Joint strength, tendon
resiliency, connective tissue toughness are all going to improve. You'll be more
efficient at burning fuels by conserving muscle
glycogen and your post metabolic burn will go up-both are huge advantages.
Mentally, you will teach your body to relax, breath at a steady state and the
endorphin highs are your guaranteed morphine-like fix.
Now I don't know what morphine actually does to your mind or body, but without
experimenting with the real thing, you will get a
safe drug effect with the long sustained workout!
Okay, once you have the base layer in the bank, you are now ready to consider
adding the variable long workout. This workout is the
ultimate twist to allow speed, terrain changes, reduction of volume and the
mental challenges of your race all tied together in one
workout. So, next month I'll address this highly specialized session.
From the Dave Scott Velocity Bulletin. Subscribe at:
http://www.davescottinc.com


13. Insoles that walk the walk:
You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on orthotic shoe inserts. Even
over-the-counter ones can help.
GET a group of athletes, especially runners, together and conversation will
eventually turn to orthotics - what kind, for what
injury, how are they working, are they prescription?
The molded devices, usually made of plastic such as polyurethane, slip into the
bottom of shoes to help support and align the feet
and alleviate pressure or pain. Thousands of pro and elite athletes (runners,
skiers, skaters and basketball players) and weekend
warriors now swear by them.
"Orthotics are huge," says Los Angeles podiatrist Noreen Oswell, who estimates
that 90% of her patients who have orthotics have been
helped by them.
Many people simply plunk down $20 for over-the-counter insoles with simple
features such as arch supports. Others pay $500 or more
for specially fitted custom jobs.
But more expense doesn't always translate into safer movement.
The little pieces of plastic have a fairly straightforward job. They can be used
to prevent excessive pronation, in which the foot
rolls too far inward, putting the ankle and leg out of alignment and increasing
the risk of problems such as Achilles tendinitis,
shin splints and plantar fasciitis (the over-stretching of tissue at the bottom
of the foot). They can also correct supination, in
which the foot rolls to the outside, and treat collapsed arches and Morton's
neuroma, in which excessive pressure inflames a nerve
in the ball of the foot.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/fitness/la-he-orthotics6mar06,1,1426084.s\
tory?coll=la-health-fitness-news


14. Pacific Elite Fitness Triathlete Newsletter - The Triathlete's Holy Grail:
Any endurance athlete, and especially an Ironman triathlete, should have one
very specific physical objective during the race: to
maximize wattage (power) and speed (velocity) while simultaneously minimizing
muscular fatigue and depletion of energy stores. Let's
call this lofty objective "Triathlon's Holy Grail" or THG. All particulars
aside, the athlete who achieves THG the most efficiently
will be the first to cross the finish line. The athlete who only achieves the
first part of this goal, maximizing wattage and speed,
will accomplish a big ol' DNF (did not finish), while the athlete who only
achieves the second part of this goal will accomplish a
FLFL (cross the finish line with a flashlight).
Applying a combination of basic biomechanics and exercise physiology to the
three components of the race (swim/bike/run), a
triathlete can accomplish THG with optimum efficiency. In this four part series,
I'd like to explain 1) how to use the basic
biomechanical relationship between mechanical levers and torque to positively
affect three keys to efficiency in the three specific
components of swimming, biking and running and 2) how to use the basic
physiological relationship between the body's energy systems
and muscle fibers to prepare for peak performance.
First, let's briefly discuss the relationship between a mechanical lever and
torque. The human body is a perfect example of a
series of levers (bones) that are attached to different points of rotation
(elbow, knee, hip, back, etc.). For example, imagine that
you are holding your running shoe in your hand, with your arm outstretched
completely straight away from your body. In this case,
the shoulder is the center of rotation, the lever is the length of the arm
between the shoulder and the hand, and the force is the
weight of the shoe. We can say that the weight, or the force, of the shoe is
producing a torque at the shoulder. The torque in the
shoulder is found by multiplying the length of the lever (the arm) and the force
(the shoe's weight). Therefore, we can decrease
torque in the shoulder by either decreasing the weight of the shoe or decreasing
the distance of the lever arm (amputation is never
an option in physics problems).
Here's where some people get confused. The lever arm length is not
determined by distance of the lever itself, but rather by the
perpendicular distance from the point of force application to the center of
rotation. Therefore, torque in the shoulder can be
decreased simply by dropping the arm down a few inches. We can drop a straight
line down from the shoulder, and then another
straight line over to the new location of the shoe. The second straight line
would be the new lever arm. So you can pretty much
bring torque down to nothing at all by simply dropping the arm all the way down
to the side. With the arm at the side holding the
shoe, there is no rotational torque at all, just the weight of the shoe pulling
straight down on the shoulder (technically, that's
not rotational torque, just a downward force).
Now let's quickly assume the arm is back up completely straight at the side
holding the shoe, and the shoe is producing a
downward torque on the shoulder. There is one more source of torque: the torque
needed to keep the arm up. That's right - it is
produced by the muscle itself, or, in this case, the rotator cuff and deltoid
muscles. By contracting, or shortening, they produce a
torque at the shoulder joint that opposes the downward torque of the shoe.
Why is this important for triathletes? Because the amount of torque produced
in a joint determines how much force the muscles
must produce to resist that torque. By minimizing torque production at a joint
in one direction, an endurance athlete can minimize
fatigue, and by maximizing torque production at a joint in the opposite
direction, an endurance athlete can maximize power and
velocity. As you can see, this is crucial in pursuing the THG. Next week, I'm
going to tell you exactly nine different ways you can
either minimize the "bad" torque or maximize the "good" torque in the swim, the
bike, and the run.
Until next time, train smart,
Ben Greenfield
NSCA-CPT, CSCS
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15. Clearing the Air:
Oxygen chambers allow you to simulate the world's altitude extremes. But should
you? Depends on what you're after.
Top endurance athletes have long known that snoozing inside oxygen
chambers-which can be set to mimic the thin-air conditions at
high altitudes-can help improve aerobic fitness by boosting the blood's
oxygen-carrying capacity. But now there's another
oxygen-manipulation therapy gaining adherents. Superoxygenated hyperbaric
chambers, which infuse more oxygen into the air, are the
new rage among athletes hoping to speed the recovery of sore muscles and
soft-tissue injuries. So are you better off napping on a
simulated Mount Fuji summit or a fake Death Valley? The answer depends on what
your goals are. Take a deep breath and check out our
primer below.
Hyperbaric Chamber
A technician seals you inside an eight-foot-long chamber, increases air pressure
to twice that at sea level, and pumps in 100
percent oxygen-instead of the 21 percent found at the beach.
HEALTH BENEFITS: Called hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), a one-hour session in
the chamber constricts blood vessels, decreasing
swelling in injured areas. Despite the reduced flow, the red blood cells carry
more oxygen to the damaged tissues, due to the
hyperoxygenated air. This is thought to help speed recovery of muscle and
connective-tissue injuries. It may also increase the white
blood cells' ability to attack infection-causing bacteria.
DRAWBACKS: Prolonged exposure can lead to oxygen toxicity and seizures-which
occur in one out of every 10,000 uses. If overdone,
HBOT increases the number of cancer-causing free radicals in the body. Plus it's
highly flammable in there: A spark will ignite a
fire- storm-so leave the wool socks at home.
USERS: Besides pop-star wreck Michael Jackson? Athletes in sports with high
injury rates, like NFL stars Michael Vick and Jeremy
Shockey and NHL center Sergei Federov.
COST: $150-$600 per session
INFO: 800-973-3009, www.hyperbaricoxygenchamber.com
More...from Outside Magazine at:
http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200603/oxygen-chambers.html


16. Track Session Preparation - Strength Begets Speed:
By David Holt
You've built leg strength and endurance with hills, bounding and long runs, it's
now time to prepare your muscles for the springs
track sessions by doing your anaerobic threshold pace training. Anaerobic
turnpoint running is usually the third element for
preparing to race 5-K or longer. You will run a series of sessions to stimulate
your anaerobic threshold to rise. You'll still be
running hill sessions during these 6 to 10 weeks.
According to Jack Daniels Ph.D., researcher, coach of the State University of
New York at Cortland cross-country team, "Anaerobic
Threshold is the pace or intensity beyond which blood lactate concentration
increases dramatically, due to your body's inability to
supply all its oxygen needs."
"Physiologically, threshold training teaches muscle cells to use more oxygen -
you produce less lactate. Your body also becomes
better at clearing lactate."
Threshold pace running conditions your muscle fibers to a faster pace. You build
leg strength and improve running biomechanics by
testing the limits of your aerobic system. You become an expert at using or
getting rid of your lactic acid. (Lactic acid is
converted to glucose, which is the most desirable fuel for your muscle and brain
cells.) Because you're running at a fast pace for a
moderate distance, you develop speed endurance by bringing in more of your fast
twitch muscle fibers and teach motor responses to
more of the fibers used in racing.
Anaerobic threshold pace training means running at 10 to 20 seconds per mile
slower than current 10K racing speed. It will teach you
to stride rhythmically at good pace and improve your ability to race faster.
Threshold is also the pace which you can sustain for
about 50 to 60 minutes. For some of you it will be 10K or 5 mile race pace. For
the elite, it's close to half marathon pace. For
this article we will assume it's 15K or 10 mile race pace.
More...from Transition Times at:
http://www.transitiontimes.com/viewstory.cfm?ID=8136&PageID=3753721


17. The Right-Effort Question:
Suppose you were trying to establish a new workout. You want to build your
ability to sustain a slow pace, meaning light exertion.
Given light exertion pacing from start to finish of your new workout, how will
you know when you have run long enough to stimulate
improved performance, without injury, illness or exhaustion?
The more fundamental way to ask this question is: how much workout effort is
optimal? Remember, the first article in this series
indicated that the longer you run the harder a workout becomes. If you run too
long you could become sick, injured or exhausted. On
the other hand, if you don't run long enough you might not exercise your ability
at an adaptive level. So how long should the
workout be to optimize your overall effort?
Every thoughtful runner has dealt with the question of how to optimize workout
effort. The answer isn't necessarily apparent from a
mere consideration of the six levels I mentioned in the second article on
workout effort. For instance, which of the following
levels of workout effort do you suppose is optimal: very easy, easy, moderate,
hard, very hard or all-out? This is a tricky
question, for plausible answers fade into implausibility as new possibilities
occur.
Assuming the optimal effort is the one that feels neither too hard, nor too
easy, but just right, which level is the right effort?
In fact, there isn't a single right effort that applies to every run. This is
because there are two essential aspects of every run:
effort and energy. And it's always a strategic blunder to consider effort
without considering energy. It follows that the best
answer to the right-effort question is: it depends on your level of energy.
You are either running too hard, too easy or just right for the energy of any
workout. In order to get workout effort right, you
must gauge it to accommodate your workout energy, including both your energy in
the moment and the pattern of running energy that
develops during the run as a whole.
More...from BC Endurance at:
http://www.bcendurancetrainings.com/articles/righteffort.html


18. Too Loose Too Much:
By Vern Gambetta
Perhaps the most misunderstood and controversial component of training is
flexibility. Much of this controversy has arisen because
of the cult of flexibility that would lead us to believe that our athletes must
become contortionists in order to prevent injuries
and perform athletic movements. This is a gross misapplication of the importance
of flexibility. Flexibility is both an anatomical
quality as well as a physical ability. As an anatomical quality it is determined
by the shape of the joints. As physical quality it
is the ability to perform movements through a large amplitude. We all know that
flexibility is necessary for efficient movement, but
we are less sure how much is needed, where it is needed and how it is most
efficiently developed. How much of flexibility is
determined by joint structure and body structure? Is one particular method more
advantageous than another? What is the best time in
the workout to develop flexibility? What are the flexibility requirements for
various sports? Is it possible to be too flexible?
The conventional definition of flexibility is the range of motion that is
available at a particular joint. We must move beyond this
and recognize that flexibility is not a static, but a dynamic controlling
quality that allows the joint to go through as large a
range of motion as can be controlled. The controlling nature of flexibility
governs the range of motion used in skill performance
and controls the length of the movement available for force production and
reduction. Conceptually it is best to use the term
"Mostability." Mostablity is a synergistic combination of motion and stability.
According to Gray it is "The ability to functionally
take advantage of just the right amount of motion at just the right joint in
just the right plane in just the right direction at
just the right time." (Gray 1996) The opposite of this is instability which is
any degree of mobility that cannot be controlled.
Dynamic range of movement as expressed in sports movements is significantly
greater than what can be expressed statically due to the
elasticity of the involved tissue and reciprocal inhibition which allows the
opposing muscle group to relax. That is why a pitcher
can externally rotate at the shoulder beyond ninety degrees when pitching, but
statically may not be able to get within ten to
fifteen degrees of that dynamic range.
More...from Gambetta Sports Training Systems at:
http://www.gambetta.com/noticia.php?id=10&SesID=494b74d914d69e180c4ad37fe6b5bcfa


19. Lactate: Not Guilty as Charged:
Len Kraviz, Ph.D.
Introduction
During intense exercise the development of the "burn" in muscle, referred to as
acidosis, has been traditionally explained as an
increase in the body's production of lactic acid. This "lactic acid" cause of
acidosis, referred to as "lactic acidosis" is taught
in many physiology, biochemistry and exercise physiology courses throughout the
world. The cause of the acidosis during intense
exercise has been a weighty topic of discussion and debate with fitness
professionals and personal trainers for years. Many fitness
specialists believe that lactic acid or lactate (See Acidosis Question Box #1
for explanation of difference) production is the cause
of muscle fatigue during vigorous exercise. Most recently, Robergs and
colleagues (2004) have completed an extensive review of the
biochemistry of exercise-induced metabolic acidosis. This expansive
reexamination details a much more inclusive and enlightening
understanding of lactate production and acidosis. From this recent publication,
brief highlights of the history of lactic acid
understanding will be presented as well as a more contemporary scientific
understanding of acidosis. Some meaningful practical
training applications for the applied fitness professional will be offered.
Lactic Acic: Brief History
Robergs et al. (2004) identify the discovery of lactic acid in 1789 to Carl
Whilhelm Sheele, a Swedish chemist. Sheele isolated an
acid in sour milk samples. This milk origin led to the naming of this acid to
'lactic', which means relating to milk. Continuing
with their historical account, Robergs et al. note that by 1810 chemists had
verified the presence of lactic acid in other organic
tissues such as fresh milk, meat and blood. In 1833, the actual chemical formula
for lactic acid was determined. By 1869, scientists
observed different isomers (atomic compounds with different energy states) of
lactic acid along with its formation in fermentation
reactions. Fermentation is an enzyme-driven chemical change in an organic (has
carbon) compound whereby the substance is split into
simpler compounds. Since lactic acid is a naturally occurring molecule,
originally detected in food products (and with a mild acidic
taste), it has and continues to be used to acidify some foods and beverages as
well as function as a food preservative. For
instance, Robergs et al. note that it is used to help "preserve cucumbers, as an
ingredient in brewing and flavoring of beer, an
ingredient to make cheese, as a source of calcium (calcium lactate) in baby
food, and an ingredient in bread."
More...from Len Kraviz at:
http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/lactate.html


20. Running As Armor by Dr. Walter Bortz:
A Fit Lifestyle Serves to Modulate the Aging Process.
Among all those self-images you have developed over your years on the roads and
trails, I am sure that you have never once
identified yourself as enclosed in a sturdy suit of armor. Not once have you
seen yourself cresting a rise or on a long straightaway
wearing an impregnable coat of boilerplate with helmet and visor securely fixed.
You have never seen yourself in this costume, but
the image is not fantasy, it is real. You, the runner, put in your miles within
an invisible protective casing that serves to shield
you from all manner of life's assaults. You move in your own fortress with
secure defenses on all sides. Life's slings and arrows
fall harmlessly. At the end of the day you, the runner, are likely to be the
last warrior standing.
All of us running enthusiasts seek new metaphors to explain why we are so
committed to our active lifestyle. As a physician and
geriatrician proud of my running habit-a marathon a year for 35 years-I propose
to you the suggestion that the image of "running as
armor" is not so far-fetched as it might at first appear. Running builds your
mettle; it girds your whole being in a battlement that
displays your grit. It provides protective layers of the right stuff.
Two years ago, an old 50-foot oak limb in our yard broke off. A neighbor alerted
me to this event. There it was on its new perch
jammed among lower branches 15 feet off the ground. Firewood!
THE TREE FIGHTS BACK
I enthusiastically began pruning reachable lower shoots. Deeply immersed in my
creative effort, above I heard a tremendous crunching
groan and this oak girder somehow dislodged from what I had presumed was its
secure wedge.
I was immediately engulfed in leafy branches, dust, noise, and pain. I crouched
reflexively, a thud hit beneath my right shoulder
blade, and I knew immediately that I had busted ribs and punctured a lung as
breathing came hard.
My emergency supply of endorphins kicked in. I did let out some unholy bellows,
ugly shouts like a stricken cow. My wife ran from
the house and retrieved her wounded husband. Within minutes the paramedics were
there, IV morphine was started, and I was whisked to
the Stanford Hospital ER, where clusters of anxious friends materialized
immediately.
An X-ray confirmed my internist-generated diagnosis of broken ribs (four) and a
pneumothorax. Part of the experience of being a
patient in a teaching hospital is the likely encounter with a fourth-year
medical student-I was one 50 years ago-who, with gentle
instruction, clumsily learns how to insert a plastic tube into a person's chest
(mine), thereby providing a means to apply suction
to reexpand my lung from its collapsed state.
More...from Marathon and Beyond at:
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/bortz.htm


21. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* Cross-Transference Keeps You Strong While Injuries Heal
Injuries upset athletes because they know their competitors are still training.
They can maintain fitness by using a
training technique called cross transference, and so can you. Exercising one
leg or arm helps to maintain strength, endurance and
power in the opposite limb. The muscles in the injured limb are not strengthened
directly because they are not being used. Cross
transference stimulates nerves in both limbs, even though only one is being
exercised (Journal of Applied Physiology, November
2005).
Each muscle is made of millions of fibers, and each fiber is stimulated by a
single nerve. When you exercise, your brain
sends messages along these nerves, telling only about five percent of the nerves
to contract at the same time. With training, your
brain learns to contract a greater percentage of muscle fibers simultaneously.
The more you practice a specific exercise, the
greater percentage of your muscle fibers you can contract at the same time.
When you stop exercising, your brain quickly loses its
ability to contract as many fibers at the same time and you lose strength,
endurance and coordination. However, if you continue to
exercise one arm, your brain retains its ability to contract the fibers in the
opposite arm.
This concept applies only to opposite limbs; you can maintain strength in an
injured arm by continuing to exercise the
uninjured one, but exercising your legs will not strengthen your arms and vice
versa. So if you are a runner who injures a leg
muscle, you can work the uninjured leg on resistance machines to keep up the
strength of both legs. If you are a baseball pitcher,
you can help to maintain strength in an injured arm by using your other arm to
throw and do resistance exercises.
http://www.drmirkin.com/


22. Shedding the Winter Pounds:
March is here and spring is on its way! This means its time to commit to a
racing schedule and begin a layout for your training
program. Coming out of the off-season to begin training can be daunting enough;
and as the winter months fade away leaving behind a
few extra 'memories' around the waist does not make it any easier. This month's
nutrition piece will focus on how to lose those
extra winter pounds as well as how to make nutrition an integrated part of your
training program so that you are always at the top
of your game.
Calories are the cornerstone. For athletes, most of the year is spent trying to
determine the optimal caloric intake, or energy
requirements, necessary to get through long training cycles and achieve racing
success. These calories can be split into basically
two groups: the calories needed while training (fuel) and those needed for the
rest of the day (food). Food calories are needed to
maintain energy levels for work, social activities and most importantly, so that
our bodies can be ready before training and then be
able to properly replenish post workouts. These are also the calories that we
need to be concerned about for weight gain and loss.
The energy demands of triathletes can be enormous and require the subsequent
calories to be met. As a result, it is easy to fall
prey to a few extra pounds while in the off-season. But fear not because now is
also the time to lose those extra pounds. The time
when your body's energy demands are low, not during the spring and summer when
all of your resources are needed to build strength
and speed. For some there is a very simple solution to losing excess off-season
weight, eliminate or reduce the quantities of those
items you did not allow yourself during the main season. Depending on your
personal goals you can eliminate, reduce, or make
different choices for those evening snacks, sweet deserts, and in-between meals.
These minor changes can quickly get you back to
your athletic weight. For others, a simple reduction of portion size will do the
trick. All of this to be accompanied by an increase
in physical activity due to increased training. In the end the tenet is simple,
to lose weight you have to "eat less and move more!"
Or in other terms, create a calorie deficit whereby you burn off more calories
than you consume. Keep in mind this is just for those
needing to lose a few extra winter pounds, anything beyond that requires a bit
more planning.
More...from Organic Performance at:
http://www.organicperformance.com/articles/shedwinterpounds.asp


23. Crash and Return:
You're gonna get hurt-count on it. Here are the new smart fixes for those
inevitable breaks, tears, and strains.
COMMIT TO A SPORT and you've earned yourself a lifetime of fun and fitness. But
if there's one downside to your high-intensity
lifestyle, it's the potential injury looming behind every wipeout, twist, leap,
or stride-the one that could put you in a La-Z-Boy
for months.
That's where our fast-fix plan comes in. We've put together a three-prong
approach that will help you beat back the majority of bad
breaks (or sprains or tears) in your sport. First, we surveyed national
sports-governing bodies, medical associations such as the
American College of Sports Medicine, and sports labs across the country and
zeroed in on the six most common injuries afflicting
thousands of pro and recreational athletes engaged in skiing, running,
bicycling, basketball, climbing, and kayaking, among others.
Once we had our list, we sought out the top docs and trainers in the field to
prescribe innovative healing strategies to cut your
time on the disabled list. Then we rounded up advice on how to avoid the carnage
in the first place.
Follow our guide and you'll keep charging hard for many years to come.
More...from Outside Magazine at:
http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200603/injury-recovery-1.html



24. In the long run:
Dave Scott's 12-week early-season run training program.
Did you fade over the final eight miles of your Ironman race? Were you able to
develop your speed for your Olympic- and
sprint-distance races? You did your track workouts, but what went wrong?
To answer these questions you need to take a look at the consistency and
progression of your endurance-building long run during the
off-season and pre-season.
But the long run, a regular over-distance training session that varies in length
depending upon the event you plan to race, can be
either the cure or the culprit in the success or demise of your season.
Nonetheless, the advantages of the long run tend to outweigh any potential
downside, particularly when an athlete schedules long
runs as part of a logical and systematic progression of overload and recovery.
More...from Active.com at:
http://active.com/story.cfm?story_id=12870


25. Digest Briefs:
* Gender differences in substrate for endurance exercise.
Tarnopolsky LJ, MacDougall JD, Atkinson SA, Tarnopolsky MA, Sutton JR.
Department of Physical Education, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada.
The effects of gender on substrate utilization during prolonged submaximal
exercise were studied in six males and six equally
trained females. After 3 days on a controlled diet (so that the proportions of
carbohydrate, protein, and fat were identical),
subjects ran on a treadmill at a velocity requiring an O2 consumption of
approximately 65% of maximal. They ran a total "distance"
of 15.5 km with a range in performance time of 90-101 min. Plasma glycerol,
glucose, free fatty acids, and selected hormones
(catecholamines, growth hormone, insulin, and glucagon) were measured throughout
and after the run by sampling from an indwelling
venous catheter, and glycogen utilization was calculated from pre- and
postexercise needle biopsies of vastus lateralis. Exercise
protein catabolism was estimated from 24-h urinary urea nitrogen excretion over
the test day and a nonexercise day. The males were
found to have significantly higher respiratory exchange ratios (mean 0.94 vs.
0.87), greater muscle glycogen utilization (by 25%),
and greater urea nitrogen excretion (by 30%) than the females. No gender
differences were evident in the hormonal response to the
exercise with the exception of a lower insulin concentration and a higher
epinephrine concentration in the males. We conclude that,
during moderate-intensity long-duration exercise, females demonstrate greater
lipid utilization and less carbohydrate and protein
metabolism than equally trained and nourished males.
* Are there any foods, minerals, or vitamins that help prevent fatigue-causing
lactic acid?
By Selene Yeager
Q: Are there any foods, minerals, or vitamins that help prevent fatigue-causing
lactic acid?
A: Oh, were it only that easy. Lactic acid is a necessary evil in the whole
energy production cycle. It's your muscles telling you
that you're not ready to be pushing it as hard as you are. The more fit you are,
the less lactic acid you produce at high levels of
exertion, and the better your body becomes at clearing it out. Your body also
becomes better at converting lactic acid into energy,
so it's really not all bad.
It's still no fun, though. So the science guys have been working on the
diet-lactic acid connection for a while. No promises, but
there's one easy step that might slow down its production: Eat more protein and
fat (along with carbohydrate) the hour or so before
your ride or event, suggests sports med and nutrition expert Marcus Elliott,
M.D. "When we fed elite cyclists a pre-test meal and
subsequent snacks of either all carbs or energy bars that contained 40%
carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat, the ones who ate the
energy bars produced considerably less lactate during a four-hour trial," he
says. No guarantee those results translate to everyday
cyclists riding sub-four-hour events, but it won't kill you, either.
Some athletes who specialize in short-term intense events, such as sprinting and
speed skating, take bicarbonate (baking soda) in a
dose of about 0.15 grams per pound of body weight one to two hours before a
competition. The soda helps buffer lactic acid and can
improve performance in events lasting one to seven minutes. No expert I know
would recommend that for cyclists, especially since it
commonly causes "intestinal distress," and that never helps performance.
LACTIC ACID KILLERS
Low-fat cheese and crackers: 2-oz. low-fat cheese with about 8 whole-wheat
crackers
Grilled Chicken Sandwich: 3.5-oz. skinless chicken breast, lettuce, tomato and
low-fat mayo
Veggie Omelet: 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites with onion, green pepper and diced
potato
Yogurt and peanuts: 8-oz. skim-milk vanilla yogurt, with a spoonful of peanuts
Hard-boiled egg and baby carrots: 1 medium egg and 6 carrots
From February 2000 Bicycling magazine

* Ask Bill: Increase 5k Speed
Q: Increase Speed for a 64-Year-Old: I seem to really be stuck! I am 64 and have
been a runner for 50 years. Many of those have
yielded trophies and all. I also have done well in 5ks for 60-70 yr. olds. BUT I
cannot find a formula to increase my speed/better
my times anymore. For over a year it seems like I do an 8-8:15 per mile pace
regardless of training regimen. I still run close to 35
miles per week, and mix in speed work, and long slow runs, but in a 5k race or
even training I cannot consistently go below 8 per
mile. Frustrating/any ideas?
--Al
A: Hi Al,
Congratulations on your long time career as a competitive runner. It is always a
treat to meet folks who were "there" during the
first, and most competitive Running Boom, during the 70's, early 80's. Those
who've kept their running going are exceptional!
About your 5k's; all I can think of is to ask if you're aiming or peaking for a
specific race? It takes a few races to get "race
sharp," as it's very hard to reach your highest fitness just training. You'll
also need cool weather and a fast course. You'll also
want a pre-race build up with faster efforts; such as 3-4 x mile and as you get
within a few weeks of your peak race, shorter
efforts like 400's, 800's at a pace you can do three solid miles of running at.
See you on the roads in the days ahead!
From Running Times Magazine Online

* Why We Walk and Run vs. Hopping and Skipping
By LiveScience Staff
New computer simulations show three modes of locomotion are most efficient for
humans: walking, running, and a third one that for
some reason we don't employ.
Hopping and skipping are no good. And there's a reason why we don't speed-walk
or consistently use other odd ways of getting around,
the research found.
Walking and running at typical paces -- the uniquely human gaits you are used to
-- use the least amount of energy compared to the
performance results, the study found.
Cornell University engineers Andy Ruina and Manoj Srinivasan compare the
mechanics of walking and running with "many other strange
and unpracticed gaits." They used a set of computer models that simulated
physical measurements such as leg length, force, body
velocity and trajectory, forward speed and work.
"We wish to find how a person can get from one place to another with the least
muscle work," they write.
While we can, if we choose, glide along without much bobbing up and down -- such
as when a waiter must be cautious not to spill
coffee filled to the brim -- we don't. Here's why:
The computer simulations conclude that normal walking is simply most energy
efficient for travel at low speeds, and running is best
at higher speeds. And, they report, a third walk-run gait is optimal for
intermediate speeds, even though humans do not appear to
take advantage of it.
The results are detailed in today's issue of the journal Nature.
A video from the National Science Foundation, which supported the work, details
the efficiency of walking and running:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/media/gait_final1.swf

* Fighting Free Radicals
Free radicals sound a little like something you'd find in a coffee shop near a
college campus. But nutrition nuts know that free
radicals are actually unhealthy molecules that are the byproduct of exercise,
moving through our bodies and damaging healthy cells.
Some research shows that consuming antioxidants can help neutralize the effect
of free radicals. A new drink called FRS Plus is the
latest addition to the antioxidant health-drink market. The FRS stands for Free
Radical Scavenger, and the product comes in 32-ounce
concentrated bottles (regular or low-carb). If there is such a thing as a
"healthy" taste, FRS has it. One serving of FRS contains
the same flavonoid antioxidant power as five servings of blueberries, 12
servings of red onions and 17 servings of red wine, but
thankfully it tastes much better than those products combined. $20.
www.frsplus.com

* Antioxidants and Exercise
This article reviews and summarizes the current scientific literature addressing
the role antioxidants play in the exercising
individual. The antioxidant sections have been written assuming some knowledge
of free radicals is known. However, for those not
familiar with free radicals and antioxidants a brief physiological overview of
these topics is presented in the introduction.
References used in this web site are linked to the corresponding abstract
located at the National Library of Medicine. Although many
vitamins and minerals have antioxidant properties, this site focuses on only
four: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and selenium.
Among the topics discussed for each antioxidant will be background, metabolism,
daily reference intake, and current research in
relation to exercise. This article was written by Bryan Helwig, M.S. 2000
graduate of the Department of Human Nutrition at Kansas
State University, under the supervision of Dr. Katherine Grunewald. We hope you
enjoy this article and find it a valuable resource
in the field of antioxidant and exercise research.
More...from:
http://www.exrx.net/Nutrition/Antioxidants/Antioxidants.html


THIS WEEK'S FEATURED EVENTS:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites*

March 9 - 11, 2006:
CIS Track & Field Championship - Saskatoon, SASK
http://www.cisport.ca/e/championships/track/2006

March 10 - 11, 2006:
NCAA Division I Indoor Track And Field Championships - Fayetteville, AR
http://www.ncaasports.com/track-and-field/schedules

March 10 - 12, 2006:
11th IAAF World Indoor Championships - Moscow, Russia
http://www.moscow2006.ru/eng/
EuroSport.com Coverage
http://www.eurosport.com/athletics/world-indor-champs-moscow/2006
WCSN Streaming Video
http://www.wcsn.com/products/index.jsp?affiliateID=eWCSNMoscow030906&partnerId=e\
WCSNMoscow030906


March 11, 2006:
Gate River 15K Run - Jacksonville, FL
USA Championships
http://www.gate-riverrun.com

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

Six Foot Track (Ultra) Marathon - Sydney, Australia
http://www.sixfoot.com

St. Patrick's Day 5/10K - Ottawa, ON
http://www.events.runningroom.com/site/?raceId=2059

Umstead Trail Marathon - Raleigh, NC
http://www.carolinagodiva.org/umsteadmarathon

March 12, 2006:
Arizona Distance Classic Half Marathon - Oro Valley, AZ
http://www.arizonadistanceclassic.com

Boston's Run to Remember - Boston, MA
http://www.bostonsruntoremember.org/boston/index.html

Dong-A Seoul International Marathon - Seoul, Korea
http://marathon.donga.com/international.html

Nagoya International Women's Marathon - Nagoya, Japan
http://www.chunichi.co.jp/niwm

Runnin' of the Green Lucky 7K, Denver, CO
http://www.bkbltd.com/

St. Patrick's Day Run - Kingston, ON
http://www.healthandadventure.com/70623.html

Valley of the Sun Half Marathon & Relay - Mesa, AZ
http://www.valleyofthesunmarathon.com

March 15 - 26, 2006:
2006 Commonwealth Games - Melbourne, AUS
http://www.melbourne2006.com.au
Fox Sports Australia
http://foxsports.news.com.au/commgames/?from=FS_othersports
The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/commonwealthgames


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/

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
Runner's Web Online Store
http://store.runnersweb.com
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http://www.runnerswebcoach.com


********************************************
RUNNER'S WEB AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
*********************************************

Mental Strength Training Center:
http://www.memberstar.com/redir_a.php?LFAId=1027

National Bike Registry
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=vVGS2V*0iZg&offerid=21387&type=3&sub\
id=0

Axill
Sony vs Panasonic:
http://www.axill.com/trackingcode.aspx?affid=8001&pid=1762&bid=4677&c=8001

Buy Paula Radcliffe's book, My Story - So Far, from Amazon UK at:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/074325242X/runnersweb-21

Endurance Films
Triathlon Training DVDs
https://endurancefilms.hivelocity.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_C\
ode=EF&Affiliate=runnersweb

Instant Stretching Routines
Design unlimited stretching routines today, starting from scratch, in under 60
seconds!
http://www.instantstretchingroutines.com/cgi-bin/a.cgi?a=runnersweb

ShoeWallet.com has set out on a mission to enable people to easily carry ID and
medical information at all times. Basically, anyone
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information.
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?joggerscompanion+pXgxpm+index.html+

SportsShoes in the UK
http://www.sportsshoes.com/index.php?id=149

Visit on AssociatesShop.com Online Bookstore for running and triathlon books:
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LX Sport - Leading Edge Sports Products for Women.
"We strive hard to bring you the best fitness and sports products on the market
that we can find. Our product range is constantly
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http://www.lxsport.com/products.php?PARTNER=runnersweb. Use the promotion code
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This application was recently featured on National TV - please see the following
link:
http://easylink.playstream.com/networknewssource/hdo/onlinetrainer.wvx

TrainingPeaks.com by Wes Hobson.
Find the training program that fits you at:
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/rw

Triathlon Meetup
http://triathlon.meetup.com/r/d5n6/d5n6/0/http://triathlon.meetup.com/?a=d5n6/
Triathlon Meetups! Happening THIS month, find out when .

TriSwim Coach - The Complete Guide to Triathlon Swimming
http://hop.clickbank.net/?rhianyth/triswim1

adidas' running apparel at 15% off! All running shorts, pants, and
shirts at reduced prices .
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=20812557&siteid=39999062&bfpage=15745\
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If you have an accident while running or cycling, do you want your family to be
contacted? Do you want to receive immediate and
proper medical treatment?
If so, make this cool item part of your gear -- for safety and peace of mind.
Road ID has created 4 awesome ways for athletes to
wear ID: the SHOE, the WRIST, the ANKLE, and the NECK. Get your RoadID at:
http://www.roadid.com/?referrer=50

The Stretching Handbook:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/cmd.php?af=245575
The Stretching Video in a DVD version. With the DVD version you're able to use
the convenient menu facility to:
* Go directly to a specific stretch;
* View only stretches for a specific muscle group;
* Pause each stretch to get a good look at how it is performed;
* View only the introduction and rules for safe stretching; or
* Play the entire video from start to finish.
Buy the DVD at:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/cgi-bin/at.pl?a=286905&e=products/video-dvd\
.htm

Buy all your sporting goods at Fogdog Sports, your anytime, anywhere sports
store.
Click here: http://www.fogdog.com/cgi-bin/affiliate?siteid=40054907

**END...OF DIGEST...**