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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Visit the Runner's Web at http://www.runnersweb.com The site is updated multiple
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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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THIS WEEK:

We are running a weekly quiz - starting Monday, March 20th - with the weekly
winner getting FREE entry into the RunnersWeb5K.com
Race for Women which will be held in Ottawa on June 24, 2006. Check it out at:
http://www.runnersweb5K.com.

Up until April 1st (April Fool's Day!) you can get a FREE subscription to Geezer
Jock Magazine.
Check it out at:
http://www.geezerjock.com

If you feel you have something to say (related to triathlon or running) that is
worthy of a Guest Column on the Runner's Web, email
us at:
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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 ONE personal posting this week:

ONE:
Western's "Icebreaker" Triathlon Championship, Open to Public Participation
On Saturday March 25th the University of Western Ontario's Triathlon
Club will be hosting the Ontario University Triathlon Championships.
University triathlon clubs in the province are unique in that they
encourage community involvement. The Icebreaker Triathlon is no
exception to that. Triathlon encourages participation from
individuals from a wide age group and athletic background. "We have
athletes who compete at a very high level and those who have just
entered the sport and will be competing in their first race" said
Chris Taplin president of the Western Club. Agata Lawrynczyk, the
race's registrar said "We'd love to have anyone in the community who
would like to give triathlon a try to come out and participate."
There are 3 race options
Sprint: 800 yard Swim, 16km Bike, 5km Run -$40
Sprint Relay- $20/Person, 2-3 people
Try a Tri: 400 yard Swim, 8km Bike, 2.5km Run -$35
Note: The swim portion of the race will be in the pool in Thames Hall
Interested in racing? E-mail mailto:agatal@...


THIS WEEK'S DIGEST ARTICLE INDEX:
1. Athletics: Hill Training Basics
Hill Training will take your running to new heights!
2. Training: Recovery is Key!
3. Multisport: Fine Tuning the Cycling Upstroke
4. Running With the Wind - How You Can Still Run Fast as You Age
5. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Warming to the Task
6. Sports nutrition tidbits
7. Scientists make 'bionic' muscles
Scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles which are powered
by alcohol and hydrogen.
8. Transitions
9. Lactate Threshold Training
10. Breaking Through the Wall
11. Water Running: Alternative Ways to Maintain Fitness While Injured
12. High Hurdles
Kenyan Teens Overcome Great Barriers.
13. Training and Performance - Protect Your (Running) Investments
Only one month to go. Hear how to stay healthy, reach your goals, and make the
coming marathon experience a success.
14. Flexibility training - Cycling stretches
15. The Goals of Rehabilitation
The Inflammation Phase & Repair Phase.
16. Anne Peters on Exercising With Diabetes
From the Olympic Games to Your Backyard.
17. From Runner's World
18. Exercise Found Not To Be a Threat to a Woman's Heart
19. I am woman, I am strong
The word is getting out to women of all ages: Weight training is just what you
need.
20. Happy mendings
Injuries don't have to mean a depressing period of inactivity; they can lead to
chances for you to explore new ways to exercise.
21. Out for a run, with maps, data and more
With GPS services, athletes can plan routes, chart elevation and track calories.
For them, every fraction of a mile counts.
22. Overcoming Athletic GI Distress
23. Cool Down- On the Wings of Speed
"Here we go!" he shouted. I reached for my video camera in the darkness, even
though there was no chance of catching the action
considering the timeframe I was dealing with. Not to mention I was harnessed
backwards in the hull of a cargo prop plane, with no
light and less than a few seconds before this once-in-a-lifetime experience was
about to pass me by. But I had to give it a shot.
24. Short on time or not, quick bouts of exercise look like the way to go
25. Digest Briefs


RUNNER'S WEB WEEKLY POLL:
"If you are unable to run, what do you do?"

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:
"How days per week do you run?"
Answers Votes Percent
Answers Votes Percent
1. One (1) 3 3%
2. Two (2) 7 7%
3. Three (3) 13 12%
4. Four(4) 19 18%
5. Five (5) 32 30%
6. Six (6) 21 20%
7. Seven (7) 11 10%
Total Votes: 106

FIVE STAR SITE OF THE WEEK: Desiree Ficker, Professional Triathlete.
About Desiree
Hometown: Potomac, MD
Current Residence: Austin, TX
Family:
Parents: Annette and Robin Ficker
Younger brothers: Robby and Flynn Ficker
Puppy: Pandora
Staple foods: sushi, chicken, spinach salad, potatoe and egg breakfast tacos,
rice bread, grapefruit, ketchup, soy milk, coffee
Interests outside of training: snowboarding, vintage shopping, camping, sewing,
traveling, photography, reading
Favorite movies: Life is Beautiful, Amelie, Napolean Dynamite. Black Stallion
Athletic history:
I began running at a very young age under the guidance of my father. My parents
were avid track and field fans and my childhood
family vacations were centered around the World Track and Field circuit. I was
fortunate enough to travel to Switzerland, Germany,
France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, Korea, and Japan all before I turned 16. I
began competing in cross country/track and field Junior
Olympics at the young age of nine, often times traveling all over the US to go
to these races.
I continued running through high school and college, attending the University of
Alabama on a track and field/cross country
scholarship. After completing my degree and running collegiate career in
December of 1998, I was eager to entertain my curiosity in
the sport of triathlon. Watching the Hawaii Ironman broadcast on television had
piqued my interest. I attended my first masters swim
practice (torture session!) in March of 1999, bought my first triathlon bike and
qualified for the Hawaii Ironman that summer.
During this time I refused to wear a swim cap or bike shorts, thinking they were
too "nerdy" and would ride century rides in running
shorts. Little did I know how the joke was all on me!
I went on to compete for two years as an amateur, completing the Hawaii Ironman
both years (1999-11:15, 2000-10:45, 2nd age group).
I was also working as a teacher and a track and cross country coach in Maryland.
In 2001 I accepted a spot on the resident team at
the Olympic Training center, turned professional and spent a year living and
training at the center in Colorado Springs, CO. From
there I went on to live in Boulder, CO where I trained and raced under the
tutelage of legend Dave Scott and have since moved to
Austin, TX where I currently and happily reside.
Check out her site at:
http://www.desireeficker.com/


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


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


BOOK OF THE WEEK: Andy Pruitt's Complete Medical Guide for Cyclists.
by Andy Pruitt with Fred Matheny
“Andy Pruitt is one of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to the
physics of cycling and how the human body adapts
and changes through years of cycling. With that knowledge he has the potential
to help a lot of athletes get better.”—Floyd Landis,
Team Phonak
“Thanks to Andy my strength on the bike has increased a lot. He improved and
optimized my position on the bike to produce more
power, placing less strain on my back, hamstrings, and knees. His expertise will
help you get as much out of your bike rides as
possible.” —Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå, world champion mountain biker
Find out why the pros rely on Andy Pruitt. Top riders in the professional
peloton depend on Andy Pruitt to soothe their aches and
pains and help them ride faster and smoother. Now Andy’s advice can help you
ride more comfortably and with more power.
It all starts with your position on the bike. As the world’s leading expert in
scientific bike fit, Andy Pruitt will walk you
through a complete fit session with clear instructions and the logic behind each
adjustment.
Should injuries happen, Andy Pruitt’s Complete Medical Guide for Cyclists will
cover you literally from head to toe with sound
medical advice. Just open the book, pinpoint your symptoms, identify the cause,
and find Andy’s proven remedies to get you back on
your bike. Andy removes the mystery from repetitive injuries and quickly
identifies their cure.
And since cycling is a lifelong sport, Andy includes plenty of tips to help you
get the most out of it. Read up on training
programs, health maintenance, aging, weight loss, and stretching and
rehabilitation.
There’s a reason why the pros depend on Andy Pruitt. Put his book to use, and
you’ll see why when it comes to injury prevention and
cure, he’s the most popular guy in the peloton.
Buy the book from VeloPress at:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?velogear+dJ4MY3+anprcomegufo.html


THIS WEEK'S NEWS:

1. Athletics: Hill Training Basics:
Hill Training will take your running to new heights!
There are three main ways to improve your running:
* Get your muscles stronger with hill repeats and weight training so that your
muscle fibers are bigger and can sustain high
intensity exercise for a longer period.
* Run for greater distances, i.e. for a longer period of time to improve your
endurance and running economy. Wear a water bottle
holder with a 24 ounce container for runs of over 40 minutes. Include carbs if
you’re going over 70 minutes.
* Do portions of your mileage at relatively high intensity, including hill
repeats, anaerobic threshold running and Interval
training.
Long runs teach your cells to adapt: Your mitochondria will synthesize more ATP
to fuel your movement. Add 5 minutes to your longest
run every other week and you can move up from 40 to do 80 minute runs after 16
weeks. Then alternate 80 minute runs with 60 minute
runs on Sundays and you’ll show huge improvements to your oxygen take-up and
distribution systems. Your VO2 maximum will improve. To
keep running for that long, your stride length will probably decrease and you’ll
force yourself to land gently. Maintain the same
legspeed and your running efficiency will also improve.
You’ll need to do most of your easy running at 70 percent of maximum heartrate,
or one to 1.5 minutes per mile slower than 5K pace.
As Arthur Lydiard said, “Hill training builds power and endurance.”
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060324_Holt_Hills.html


2. Training: Recovery is Key!
The need for Recovery Management
Recovery is key. Recovery is critically important when applied to sports
training because without it we do not adapt physically to
become stronger athletes. Although in the first instance you may think that
recovery is something that is easy to understand in
principle, my motivation to write these pages is because many of even the elite
seemingly fail to respect the most basic recovery
principles within their programmes. Year in year out, when athletes don't reach
their goals through constant injury or illness, the
main 'silent', un-addressed culprit is most probably over-training. To overcome
these serious shortcomings, you need to have in
place a carefully thought-out programme of Recovery Management.
If you think that, "injury/illness is a part of sport", I feel sorry for you.
Injury and illness from over-use of the body do NOT
have to be a large part of your sport. The only reason you have probably thought
this is because you rightly see and hear about
athletes being ill and injured constantly. I'm a firm believer that there is
more to gain in sports performance through Recovery
Management than in any other area in sports training.
Social-psychological implications against taking rest
Something in the culture of sport seems to make us think that admitting we need
more rest is bad. If you are seen to train everyday
for example, then psychologically you could 'look' and 'feel' stronger for it.
If you analyse how you really feel though, it most
probably comes down to your confidence. For example, if you train everyday you
probably feel more confident about your training than
if you train say four days a week - I bet! But physiologically speaking are you
really optimising your training?
Have you ever considered that you could almost certainly do much less training
for almost the same gain, or even have an increase in
sports performance, over and above this 'training all the time' scenario? I
explain how and why this could be possible, once the
basics are understood.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060319_EC_Recovery.html


3. Multisport: Fine Tuning the Cycling Upstroke:
The racing season is beginning and cyclists are making plans for hard training
to make themselves strong enough to race well this
year. What is the biggest thing you can do to improve your results this year?
More mileage? Longer lactate threshold sets? More
climbing or sprinting? You might be surprised that athletes of every level
improve more by focusing on economy than any other
factor. The race doesn’t necessarily go to the strongest, but to the most
efficient.
Many athletes, even advanced ones, should significantly alter technique to
perform more efficiently. Fitness Concepts has performed
over 6,700 VO2 Max tests (www.fitness-concepts.com). This test tells how strong
an athlete is (VO2 Max) and determines the optimal
training intensities (aerobic threshold and lactate threshold), but it also
directly measures economy – the amount of energy
expended to produce a watt. We have found that 84% of the time, riders had a
higher LT wattage more because of economy than because
of output. In other words if one cyclist had a lactate threshold wattage that
was 10% higher than another, most of the time he/she
used less than 5% more energy to do so.
Certainly cyclists need to train hard and smart to make themselves stronger, but
there are limits to this. You only have so many
hours available to train, your legs can only recover from a certain amount of
volume and intensity, and you can’t change your DNA. A
serious cyclist (at any level, cat 5 up) who has been training hard for several
years will be very high up on his diminishing
returns curve for fitness. At this point, it isn’t possible to create huge
increases in VO2 Max and lactate threshold energy
expenditure.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060319_Mierke_Upstroke.html


4. Running With the Wind - How You Can Still Run Fast as You Age:
Jack Nicklaus said it. So did 1960s running great Jack Bachelor. It's not the
desire to race and compete at a world-class level that
wanes, rather it's the fact that the body loses the ability to do so.
Four decades ago, most Americans--when they got out of high school or
college--pretty much just threw up their hands and let the
body slide downhill. Being an adult was more about liquor and cigarettes instead
of intervals and spinach salads.
Thank goodness for the likes of Arthur Lydiard, Bill Bowerman and Frank Shorter.
Each in their own way they helped stack the wood
and light the fire of the running boom. It became apparent that anyone,
regardless of sex, age or talent could take up the challenge
of the marathon. At its peak, triathlon was sparked and it too took off on a
boom. Now, in the first decade of the 21st century, we
have marathoners and Ironmen that are in their 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s.
Part of the reason there is now a magazine called Geezer Jock is that people are
figuring out that athleticism is a "use it or lose
it" deal. Guaranteed: Someone who is 65 years old and runs every day is going to
be able to drop a sedentary teenager in a distance
race.
But there's more to capturing all that your body still has to give than just
getting out the door for your daily run. Running is one
of the sports that obviously has a good side, but also has a dark side. Here are
some essential strategies to help keep aging--and
running's dark side--in check.
More...from Competitor Magazine at:
http://www.competitor.com/story.cfm?story_id=11892&publicationID=205&pageID=4725


5. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Warming to the Task:
Running can feel good, but not way right away. Getting into the full free flow
of the run takes time.
You don't just step out the door and hit your stride in the first 100 steps. You
must shift from one form of inertia (resting) to
another (moving), and that transition takes more time than some runners allow.
Running grants its physical benefits quickly -- most of them in the first 20
minutes, according to some of the best minds in
exercise science. Certainly we can do most of the necessary exercise-running
within a half-hour a day.
But running is more than an exercise. And what makes it a hobby, an athletic
event, a relaxation and meditation period, a welcome
time of the day, lies in longer distances. I contend (based on no research but
lots of experience) that the time beyond a half-hour
is what makes running worth doing and makes us want to come back the next day
for more of the same.
If we stop after 20 or even 30 minutes, we've stopped short of the best part. We
aren't fully warmed up.
By "warmup" we're not talking about stretching or other drills, which serve
other needs besides warming up the muscles and working
up a sweat. A runner warms up best by running.
How much you run at that time depends on what the day holds: a long run, a fast
run or a normal run. Let's talk about the last
first, since normal runs are the most frequent and therefore the most important.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/home.php?article=2048


6. Sports nutrition tidbits:
By Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D.
If you're eager to learn more about how to fuel your body for top performance,
you might enjoy muscling through three pounds and 557
pages of Sports Nutrition: A Practice Manual for Professionals. The new fourth
edition of this in-depth resource was recently
released by SCAN, the sports nutrition practice group of the American Dietetic
Association. (It's available at www.eatright.org;
click on Shop Online.)
Although this resource book is written for primarily sports dietitians, strength
coaches, athletic trainers and other health
professionals who influence an athlete's eating practices, serious athletes
might also like to feast on this hard-core (but well
written and relatively easy to read) book that will answer all sports nutrition
questions from A to Z, including alcohol, carbs,
calories, fats, fluids, protein, vegetarian diet, weight gain, zinc and more.
To give you a taste of the information in the book, here are a few sports
nutrition nuggets that might be of interest.
* The average 150-pound athlete has only 1,000 to 2,000 calories of stored
carbohydrates (glycogen), but over 80,000 to 120,000
calories of stored fat. Most of the fat is deposited in adipose tissue under the
skin, but a little is also stored directly in the
muscles and is an important source of fuel, especially during prolonged
exercise.
* Don't try to eat a fat-free diet! The recommended intake for athletes is about
0.5 grams fat/lb body weight/day. This equates to
60 to 80 grams per day of dietary fat for athletes who weigh 120 to 160 pounds.
That's 15 to 20 teaspoons of butter! Preferably, the
fat comes from healthful sources like nuts, peanut butter, olive and canola oils
and avocado.
* While some fat is good, excess calories of fat are fattening. Your body easily
stores excess dietary fat as body fat. That's why
you want to carefully carbo-load on pasta and breads, not fat-load on Alfredo
sauce, butter, cheese or chips.
* Your body stores carbohydrates in the muscles in the form of glycogen (1,200
to 1,600 calories) and also in the liver (300 to 400
calories); this feeds into the bloodstream (100 calories) and fuels your brain.
During hard training that depletes your muscle
glycogen, you enhance your body's ability to store even more glycogen; this
enhances your ability to exercise for longer before
"hitting the wall."
* Athletes should eat at least 2 grams carb/lb. body weight per day. That's a
minimum of 240 grams carb (about 1,000 calories) per
day for a 120-pound woman and equates to 10 pieces of fruit or 5 cups of cooked
pasta. Athletes in hard training actually should eat
4 to 5 grams carb/lb. No Atkins diet here!
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=12900


7. Scientists make 'bionic' muscles:
Scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles which are powered
by alcohol and hydrogen.
And they could eventually be used to make more advanced prosthetic limbs, say
researchers at University of Texas.
Writing in Science, they say these artificial muscles are 100 times more
powerful than the body's own.
They said they could even be used in "exoskeletons" to give superhuman strength
to certain professions such as firefighters,
soldiers and astronauts.
Two types of muscle are being investigated by US researchers at the Nanotech
Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas, working
with colleagues from South Korea.
Both release the chemical energy of fuels, such as hydrogen and alcohol, while
consuming oxygen.
In effect they are replicating the first stage in "breathing" - by taking in
oxygen. The existing form of artificial muscles are
driven by batteries.
However, neither of the types developed by the Texan researchers resembles a
normal muscle - being made up of wires, cantilevers and
glass bottles.
More...from the BBC at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4817848.stm


8. Transitions:
This aspect of triathlon is regarded by many as part of the race that you can
edge out your competitors with “free speed.”
Transitions require skill, but not from an athletic standpoint. Instead, they
are thoughtful, diligent thought-out sequences of
events that are planned out in reverse order. The military calls this the
“Backwards Planning Sequence.” With backwards planning
the athlete can recognize several contributors to fast and smooth transitions.
The order in which you lay out your equipment can
often be overlooked. Take a walk through the transition area at your next race
and you will see several different versions of the
layouts of equipment. Make a mental note of what you see that suits you and
your style and take that home with you and practice
this as part of your training. Pay attention to the professional or elite
athletes at your race, as they will generally have the
fastest transition times.
If you get the chance to watch a race, it can be a very valuable learning
experience to view from outside the transition area and
learn from the other athletes. I attend many races simply to watch and learn
from other athletes and pick up points of interest
with which to later experiment. One thing that I have noticed by filming
transitions is how many times someone bends over to pick
up an item of equipment. This is especially true of your T2 (bike-to-run
transition). I know this may seem irrelevant; however, if
you think about the seconds that are wasted by bending down and standing back up
to place one shoe on at a time and pick up you hat,
race belt, etc. the time wastes away while your competitors pass you by. Bend
over one time put on both shoes, grab all of your
gear for the run and once you stand up, RUN. That’s it--one simple movement
results in a shorter lapse of time. Below are several
more points that result in faster transition times. Please use these different
techniques in training before you attempt them in a
race. As always, please feel free to email me with your questions
(mailto:denny@...).
More...from T3 Coaching at:
http://www.t3coaching.com/Articles/t3_transitions.htm


9. Lactate Threshold Training:
Len Kravitz, Ph.D. and Lance Dalleck, Ph.D.
Introduction
The terms lactic acid and lactate, despite biochemical differences, are often
used interchangeably. Fitness professionals have
traditionally linked lactic acid or ‘the burn’ with an inability to continue an
intensive exercise bout at a given intensity.
Although the conditions within the exerciser’s muscle cells have shifted towards
acidosis, lactate production itself does not
directly create the discomfort (acidosis) experienced at higher intensities of
exercise. It is the proton (H+) accumulation,
coinciding with, but not caused by lactate production, that results in acidosis,
impairing muscle contraction, and ultimately
leading to the ‘burn’ and associated weariness (Robergs, Ghiasvand, Parker
2004). The increased proton accumulation occurs most
notably from the splitting of ATP (the body’s energy liberating molecule) by the
muscle protein filaments, in order to sustain
vigorous muscle contraction. Interestingly, the lactate production is proposed
to be a physiological event to ‘neutralize’ or
‘retard’ the exerciser’s muscle acidic environment (Robergs, Ghiasvand, Parker
2004). Thus, lactate accumulation, which for years
has been associated with the cause of the burn, is actually a beneficial
metabolic event aimed at diminishing the burn. Scientists
denote conditioning at this physiological state as lactate threshold training.
Fitness professionals can utilize this knowledge to enhance the cardiovascular
endurance performance of their students and clients.
All world and Olympic endurance athletes incorporate lactate threshold training
into their workouts. This article will explain and
discuss how lactate threshold training principles can be incorporated into your
client’s training program.
Lactate Threshold and Endurance Performance
Traditionally, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) has been viewed as the key
component to success in prolonged exercise activities
(Bassett & Howley 2000). However, more recently scientists have reported that
the lactate threshold is the most consistent predictor
of performance in endurance events. Studies have repeatedly found high
correlations between performance in endurance events such as
running, cycling, and race-walking and the maximal steady-state workload at the
lactate threshold (McKardle, Katch, & Katch 1996).
More...from UNM at:
http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/lactatethreshold.html


10. Breaking Through the Wall:
For most runners, the last 10-K of a marathon is also the toughest. These
strategies will help you break through the wall, avoid
bonking and reach the finish line.
Just a 10-K to go? For marathoners, that phrase is both a blessing and a curse.
It means you're almost there: only 6.2 miles to the
finish. But it also means the toughest part is yet to come.
In fact, many runners consider the marathon two races in one: the first 20 miles
and the last 10-K. That's because in the last 10-K,
you're exerting the most effort. Your legs are complaining, your body has run
out of glycogen, and your head feels like a typical
day in Seattle (that is, cloudy). Some call it "hitting the wall", “bonking”;
others have names for it that we can't print here.
But with proper training and racing techniques, plus the right fuel, fluids and
mental strategies, you can make the last 10-K of
your marathon, maybe not a walk in the park, but an integral part of your
marathon success story.
Training: Run long, my friend
The key to running strong in the last 10-K of a marathon is the long training
run. The idea is to simulate the exertion of a
marathon without wiping yourself out in the process.
That's why long runs should be done slowly-at least 2 minutes per mile slower
than marathon pace. "Duration is the goal, not
distance," says coach Benji Durden, a member of the 1980 Olympic Marathon team.
Durden advises aiming for long runs that last within
30 minutes of your predicted time for the marathon. For example, if you're
training to run the marathon in 3:30, your long runs
should last 3 hours. Marathoners shooting for 3:15 would do long runs of 2:45.
However, any run over 3 hours should be broken up into two runs that day. "More
than 3 hours at a time, and you're looking at a
possible injury," Durden says. So, a 4:30 marathoner shooting for a 4-hour long
run would run 3 hours in the morning, then do the
additional hour that evening.
How many of these long runs should you do? Ideally five or six, but four is the
minimum you need to keep from struggling through the
last 10-K on race day.
And, cautions Durden, these long runs should be spread out over at least
12-preferably 16-weeks of training. "Marathon training is
all about gradual buildup," he says. "The times that I've struggled in the last
10-Ks of marathons were the times I tried to squeeze
my training into a few weeks."
More...from Marathon Training at:
http://www.marathon-training-program.com/breaking-through-the-wall.html


11. Water Running: Alternative Ways to Maintain Fitness While Injured:
The question that pops into every injured runner's mind when considering
alternative training is "does it really work?" The answer
is a qualified yes. While the best run training is actually running, when this
is not possible, the RIGHT exercises done CORRECTLY
can dramatically affect your ability to recapture pre-injury fitness levels upon
resumption of normal training.
I offer myself as a case in point.
I became a believer of alternative training the first year I won Ironman Canada
in late August of 1991. I had hurt my Achilles
tendon in the 3rd week of June, and was not able to run a step until the last
week of July. Prior to getting hurt in June, my
fitness was decent, but not earth shattering. My longest run was 12 miles, and I
had a general base of track workouts and Olympic
distance triathlons---not exactly prime marathon fitness.
I performed water running workouts four times/week for one month. I used a heart
rate monitor and patterned workouts similar to the
interval workouts I performed on my indoor bike trainer. I was able to resume
normal running for 4 weeks prior to my Ironman event,
and after a week of getting my stride back worked in modest quality sessions,
and two longer runs of 11 and 14 miles.
When I took the starting line of Ironman Canada, I was confident of my swim and
bike, but fearful of my seeming lack of adequate run
preparation. I expected that the last 10 miles of the marathon might be my
undoing. Imagine my most pleasant surprise at finding
myself at the end of the marathon course after only 2 hours and 44 minutes with
what would prove to be the 2nd fastest time of the
day for the run.
Water running---I know what you are thinking---it's boring, I can't get my heart
rate up, and it doesn't seem to offer any benefit.
After watching the way most people perform this exercise I am not at all
surprised that these are common conclusions. But let me ask
you, have you ever done it with a tether attached to the back of your vest and
anchored to a lane hook?
More...from Michael McCormack at:
http://www.triathloncoach.com/articles/water.html


12. High Hurdles:
Kenyan Teens Overcome Great Barriers.
At 6:15 a.m., 10 minutes into the first of the day’s three runs, Joseph Cherpka
is pushing the pace. Looking back frequently, he
notes that our group of six has started to splinter, and he speeds up even more.
Soon, there is not a group, but Cherpka followed by
five runners struggling to keep the others within mental reeling-in distance.
Over the next half hour, we will all concede defeat to
Cherpka on that score.
Cherpka can be excused if he seems in a bit of a rush. On this December day, he
is weeks away from starting Form 4, the Kenyan high
school equivalent of 12th grade. Cherpka has run 3:50 for 1500 meters—roughly a
4:07 mile—on a dirt track at 7,000 feet of altitude.
Nonetheless, by this summer, he needs to find another five or six seconds in his
legs. If he doesn’t do something spectacular, and
soon, if he doesn’t gain the attention of a top coach or runner, or an agent or
shoe company, then Cherpka will be the one
struggling to keep up. He’ll be back home in the Pokot district, hours from most
of Kenya’s running hotspots, training alone, well
aware that when he finishes Form 4 in the fall, his opportunity to use running
as a springboard to a life different than that of his
forebears will have already largely dried up.
While Cherpka sticks it to his morning training partners, Jackie Chirchir runs
amid a group of girls on another of the hilly dirt
roads of Iten, a small town in western Kenya that’s the country’s unofficial
running capital. This will be her last stint at the
Iten Athletics Training Camp, a twice-yearly three-week camp for Kenyan juniors.
Chirchir finished Form 4 a few weeks before the
camp started, so she’ll be ineligible to attend the April camp that will be held
during schools’ Easter break.
What she will be doing then is anyone’s guess. Chirchir won’t even receive her
Form 4 exam results until February. If her marks are
good enough, she might enroll in Tambach Teacher’s College, not far from Iten,
to strengthen her chances of being admitted to an
American university. Then again, a friend of the family paid her secondary
school fees for the last several years, so it’s uncertain
how she’ll fund any further education. Or maybe she’ll have been invited to join
one of the professional camps in Iten or Kaptagat,
30 miles away, and devote herself entirely to improving her steeplechase time.
Or perhaps she’ll be home on the family farm on the
outskirts of Iten, with no systematized training program, no regular group to
run with, while the cultural pressure that a
19-year-old should be finding herself a husband grows stronger with each passing
month.
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/rt/articles/?id=4659


13. Training and Performance - Protect Your (Running) Investments:
Only one month to go. Hear how to stay healthy, reach your goals, and make the
coming marathon experience a success.
Preparation for a marathon demands months of thoughtful workouts. Now, with just
a month or less to go before race day, every runner
should have one goal in mind: protect your investment. The time you’ve expended,
the miles you’ve run, and the fitness level you’ve
achieved, it must now remain stable as you head into the final phase of marathon
readiness.
Here are some strategies during these final weeks to help ensure you run the
best race possible:
Stick to the Plan
Do only the training you have planned. Resist the temptation to do more just
because you can. Don’t get carried away on tempo runs
by running faster than planned. Don’t throw in an unplanned race in the month of
your marathon. Resist the urge to show off by doing
more, or doing it faster. It may come back to bite you.
You Have Your Health (Now Keep It)
Continue doing your flexibility and core work. Deal immediately with little
aches and pains. Use ice generously and splurge on a
massage or two. Get lots of rest and never be afraid to back off a workout if
you are tired. You can do more to hurt your race at
this point than help it. Be conservative.
More...from NIKE at:
http://www.nike.com/nikerunning/usa/home.jhtml?loc1=tools_training&loc2=runners_\
library&loc3=124&promoID=USRU_EM_03202006_marNewsMen
#runners_library
[Multi-line URL]


14. Flexibility training - Cycling stretches:
If you could go to the store today and buy a supplement that increases recovery
and circulation, strengthens correct biomechanics in
running, biking and swimming and prevents injuries, would you do it?
The trip to the store would take about 20-30 minutes. You'd get optimal results
by taking the supplement three or four times per
week. It would be guaranteed to work, and it would be free. Is there anything
that would stop you from getting this product?
The fact is that no such supplement exists, but a regular stretching routine can
offer the same benefits in the same 20-30 minutes.
Stretching, like nutritional support, will supplement your training in an
important way.
The following stretches will target the front, outside and inside of the leg and
pelvic girdle. The relevant muscles that we'll
focus on are the quadriceps (quads), gluteus (glutes) and adductors. These three
muscles combine to create a significant amount of
force. Because they all attach on the pelvic girdle or knee joint, it's helpful
to stretch them as a group.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=12909


15. The Goals of Rehabilitation:
The Inflammation Phase & Repair Phase.
The Inflammation phase
Now that the tissues have started to heal on their own, what's next? Two
important concepts must be prominent in the mind of your PT
and of necessity yourself.
1. Never overstress the healing tissues. Stress is important to the process.
"Just enough stress" is the critical point to remember.
Too much can delay the healing and damage the new rebuilding structures. Too
little, and damage results from the haphazard laying
down of new tissue.
2. The injured person must meet stage specific healing objectives before moving
onto the next phase of healing. These can be
activity, flexibility, Range of Motion, (flexibility and range of motion are in
fact two separate issues) and strength levels.
Keep these two concepts firmly entrenched in your mind. The prime goal in this
phase is to prevent disrupting the growing of the new
tissues. Adequate blood and prevention of further swelling is necessary.
To enable the fastest healing remember the acronym, RICE. It is the recommended
method at this time.
Rice stands for:
* Rest; get off the limb, stop doing things with the injured area. Note, I did
not say stop all activity. The rest of your body
still needs to remain in peak condition. Strength and cardiovascular maintenance
require attention and further development. Work
around the injured area. For example, you would not stop doing squats just
because you broke your finger. You can still use your
legs, so use them.
* Ice; to reduce inflammation.
* Compression; help prevent further swelling in the area. Apply a light wrap
over the injury (keeping in mind not to cut off
circulation).
* Elevate; the injury above the heart if possible to help slow the influx of
fluids.
More...from the Stretching Handbook at:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/resources/articles/rehabilitation-goals.htm


16. Anne Peters on Exercising With Diabetes:
From the Olympic Games to Your Backyard.
Anne Peters, MD, is director of the clinical diabetes programs at the University
of Southern California (USC). Her latest book,
“Conquering Diabetes” (Hudson Street Press, April 2005), has been hailed as one
of the most “real” and readable diabetes guidebooks
to date.
Diabetes Health recently had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Peters about her
work with Olympic swimmer Gary Hall, Jr., and the
delicate balance between blood glucose levels and sports.
Gary Hall, Jr., writes in his “Olympic Diaries” that he thought his swimming
career was over until he spent an afternoon driving
around Santa Monica, California, with you. What did you tell him?
Finding a doctor is like finding a friend. This relationship worked because we
believed in each other. That day I just chatted with
him, thinking, Could we form a partnership? Is he really willing to work with
me?
In general, I’d say the doctor has to be willing to work with the individual
patient’s own learning style. My thoughts were, Here’s
this Olympic athlete who has already trained and competed. What do I know about
his body? And about his sport? I’m the one who has a
lot of learning to do.
What are some of the most notable situations or challenges you’ve faced in
advising diabetes patients about exercise? Did you and
Gary Hall or other top athletes learn by trial and error?
I’ve helped treat patients in professional waterskiing, golfers (long drivers),
scuba divers, lots of swimmers, runners (sprinters,
marathon runners, long-distance runners, hurdlers), cyclists, triathletes—almost
every type of sport. What’s clear is that you have
to be prepared. Patterns are only good for looking backward. They don’t tell you
how you’ll respond at any given point.
Response of blood glucose differs by individual and by sport. For example, Gary
doesn’t just train in the pool. He does weight
training and running, too, so we had to learn his response to each activity.
Less intense activities like golfing usually don’t affect people’s BGs much
(depending on whether you carry your own clubs!), and
there tends to be lots of snacking, which makes it hard to track BG patterns.
Oddly, I’ve had lots of patients have heart attacks on
golf courses, which is strange, because it’s the least strenuous activity. Maybe
when high-stress people finally take a break, their
hearts give out.
Swimming actually made the lancet holes in Gary’s fingers stay open, and
sometimes he could just squeeze the blood out without
lancing his finger again. It was weird, but it made the testing easier. We
didn’t test his forearms, because you don’t get an
accurate reading there if BG levels are changing, and we wanted the most
accurate results. You should use forearms for testing only
if your BGs are stable.
What are the top concerns for exercising with diabetes, even for those who do
not wish to compete?
First of all, no “one size fits all” for exercise. You need to establish your
own starting point of fitness—your own familiarity
with how your body reacts to sports.
And of course, it’s “safety first,” always. The key is to have rapid-acting
carbohydrates on hand at all times. I always ask, “Do
you have a plan to treat lows?” Then I deal with all the intricacies of
exercise. But first I need to know that they’re safe.
You’ll find that there’s always a pattern, so I tell patients to write a log:
Record your insulin dose, time of workout, activity,
and what happened. Then you can make a plan to treat your own pattern.
But you also need to be ready for anything. For example, Gary always goes high
during competition. except the one time he went down
to 30 mg/dl. You never know. That’s just diabetes!
More...from Diabetes Health Magazine at:
http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read,1048,4528.html


17. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
Improve your posture.
Think about running "tall." Lift your chest up (but not out), relax your
shoulders, and keep your torso and hips aligned vertically.
Cup your hands slightly, with your thumbs on top and gently touching your
forefingers. Carry your hands between your waist and
chest, and swing your arms forward and back rather than crossing over your
chest. Shake your arms out every few minutes to prevent
tension and stiffness.
-Art Liberman
* Injury Prevention
Achilles tendonitis
Achilles tendonitis is one of the most common injuries among runners. It often
occurs as a result of sudden increases in mileage,
too-intensive track workouts, lack of warmup, inadequate stretching or improper
shoes. Short of complete rest, most Achilles
problems respond well to decreased running, ice treatment, cross-training and
gentle stretching. A shoe with a slightly higher heel
elevation is also beneficial.
-Ed Eyestone
* Performance Nutrition
It pays to bring your lunch from home. A recent study found that people who eat
in restaurants six times a week consume 300 more
calories a day, on average, than those who prepare their own grub. Start off
with chunky soup (you'll eat 20 percent less at lunch
when you eat chunky soup first, researchers say), then have a small sandwich
made with lean meat. (Use mustard instead of mayo, and
you'll save 80 calories a day. Over a year, that's about 5 1/2 pounds of fat.)
* Editor's Advice
"Running is the ultimate individual sport. It doesn't matter how fast or slow
you are relative to anyone else. You set your own pace
and you measure your own progress. You can't lose this race because you're not
running against anyone else. You're only running
against yourself, and as long as you are running, you are winning."
-Amby Burfoot, RW executive editor and
winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon
* Training Talk
"If you're an athletic person, you may be worried about knee pain and injury.
But you don't have to give up your sport to keep your
knees safe-you just have to play smarter. The best equipment in the world can't
make up for poor conditioning. Keeping your body in
good shape is the best prevention measure you can take."
-From The Knee Crisis Handbook by Brian Halpern, M.D.



18. Exercise Found Not To Be a Threat to a Woman's Heart:
A previous study had shown a certain risk associated with exercise, namely a
risk of cardiac death in men. "That concerned
everybody, even though it was very low," said Dr. Alison Schecter, co-director
of the Women's CARE (Cardiac Assessment and Risk
Evaluation) Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. "Should I run
a marathon? Should I not run a marathon?"
Just in case the message wasn't clear already, exercise helps -- and rarely
hurts -- your heart. A new study has found that sudden
cardiac death during exertion is extremely uncommon in women, and perhaps even
more uncommon in women who exercise regularly.
And in the same vein, a second study showed that women who are heavier and who
exercise less are more likely to have warning signs
implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease.
These two studies appear in the March 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association, a themed issue on women's
health.
The issue also includes a study that found that women have about the same
incidence of stable angina -- chest pain because of
insufficient blood flow to the heart -- as men. And a fourth study found that
low-dose aspirin therapy is even more protective in
women than in men.
Current guidelines recommend that healthy adults engage in at least 30 minutes
or more of moderate-intensity physical activity
almost daily.
A previous study, however, had shown a certain risk associated with exercise,
namely a risk of cardiac death in men.
"That concerned everybody, even though it was very low," said Dr. Alison
Schecter, co-director of the Women's CARE (Cardiac
Assessment and Risk Evaluation) Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York
City. "Should I run a marathon? Should I not run a
marathon?" And little research had investigated the issue in women.
More...from SCI-TECH Today at:
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=111000GLKL60


19. I am woman, I am strong:
The word is getting out to women of all ages: Weight training is just what you
need.
Sandra Limbers proudly calls herself an "obsessive" weight trainer.
The 66-year-old Wilmington resident certainly isn't going to be mistaken for a
bodybuilder, but she can pull 65 pounds on the rowing
machine at Kirkwood Fitness & Racquetball Club, where she strength trains three
times a week. And ask her about the benefits she's
seen in the three years since she started hitting the weights, and she'll rattle
off a bunch.
"It really does become an obsession," she said. "You get stronger and stronger
and you just want to come in even more."
And ask her about the benefits she's seen in the three years since she started
hitting the weights, and she'll rattle off a
bunch.</p><p>"It really does become an obsession," she said. "You get stronger
and stronger and you just want to come in even more."

By now, the importance of regular exercise is clear to most Americans. But for
many women, strength training remains foreign
territory. Younger women tend to be comfortable with a wide range of physical
pursuits, but find aerobic exercise more appealing.
Older generations still tend to equate strength training with "pumping iron" --
a decidedly unfeminine activity.
More...from Delaware Online at:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/HEALTH/6032103\
01/-1/NEWS01



20. Happy mendings:
Injuries don't have to mean a depressing period of inactivity; they can lead to
chances for you to explore new ways to exercise.
By R.J. Ignelzi
When orthopedists told Barbara Wayne that her persistent back and knee problems
probably meant the end of her running days, she
reacted “as if I was losing my best friend,” she says. “I was devastated.”
Over a 14-year period of logging 30 to 50 miles a week, running had not only
become a way to relieve stress, but also helped her to
lower her blood pressure and cholesterol and lose 12 pounds.
I thought as soon as I stopped running, I'd get fat and lazy,” says the
52-year-old San Diegan. “I thought I'd gain 10 pounds the
first month.”
However, today, two years after her doctors' recommendation to curtail her
favorite sport, she's as fit and trim as in her
high-mileage days.
Although she only runs once or twice a week and just on soft surfaces, she
supplements her fitness program with low-impact
activities including cycling, walking, yoga and strength training. She's learned
that injuries and chronic conditions don't always
have to sideline your fitness regimen.
By modifying movements, alternating exercises and paying close attention to the
body's response, physical setbacks may end up
elevating your workout to a new and exhilarating phase.
“Maintaining some kind of a modified exercise program while you're injured has
both physical and mental benefits, and might
ultimately enhance workout routines,” says Dr. Paul Stricker, sports medicine
specialist at Scripps Clinic.
Besides burning calories and revving up the endorphins, keeping active while on
the injured list may also speed healing.
More...from the Union-Tribune at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/health/20060321-9999-lz1c21mending.html


21. Out for a run, with maps, data and more:
With GPS services, athletes can plan routes, chart elevation and track calories.
For them, every fraction of a mile counts.
Cyclists, runners, walkers, even swimmers and windsurfers, have now gone global.
Using small, global-positioning devices, outdoor athletes are mapping their
routes, tracking their distance, speed and elevation —
even creating their own virtual training partners, ones that beep instead of
speaking when athletes are ahead of, or behind, their
target goals.
"If you're a gadget person," says Bruce Mosier, an avid runner and hiker from
Santa Monica, "GPS is one of those things you
absolutely need."
Mosier isn't alone. Many of his fellow runners treat their workouts like
carefully controlled science projects, comparing progress
and sharing maps. "My joke is people who own a Garmin [one popular maker] are
people who say, 'I ran 6.7 miles today,' " he says.
Since 2002, when Timex, in partnership with Garmin, introduced a wristwatch with
GPS, sales of portable sport units have soared,
industry watchers say. Though few have firm numbers, the growth comes amid an
exploding demand for GPS systems in cars and boats,
and Garmin expects sales of fitness-related units to increase 15% next year.
The newest generation of high-end fitness units — usually worn on the wrist,
tossed into a backpack or set on bicycle handlebars —
not only maps routes and track distance, speed, elevation and calories burned,
but also provides accessories important to the
purist, such as heart rate monitors and barometric altimeters. (For the
uninitiated, that last handy feature allows users to track
changes in ambient air pressure.)
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/fitness/la-he-phone20mar20,1,5070664.stor\
y?coll=la-health-fitness-news


22. Overcoming Athletic GI Distress:
By Ilana Katz, MS, RD, LD
Applying accurate nutrition and hydration principles is of great benefit to an
athlete's training and performance. The athlete that
understands their individual digestion and absorption of nutrients and fluids is
more likely to develop optimal methods of
maintaining his or her blood volume (a critical issue for performance), without
inducing nausea and vomiting (GI Distress).
For any fluid to be of benefit during exercise, it must first empty from the
stomach and then be absorbed into the bloodstream from
the intestines. A number of factors influence the gastric emptying rate,
including hydration status, concentration of the liquid,
volume, caloric density (concentration of the fluid), temperature of the liquid
as well as external temperature, and exercise
intensity.
The most common causes of GI distress are thus a spin off from these influences:
Hydration status: A delayed gastric emptying response results from dehydration,
thus drinking when in a dehydrated state can cause
gastrointestinal distress. Moreover, drinking at this point is unlikely to
adequately hydrate the muscles. A common mistake made by
many athletes is waiting to feel thirsty before hydrating. Furthermore, if lost
fluids and electrolytes are not replenished, fatigue
and heat illness can result.
Thirst is a sign that dehydration has already set in and performance is already
being reduced. Thirst also tends to cause
consumption of higher volumes of liquid at one time, and with the delayed
gastric emptying, GI distress is almost guaranteed.
Remember that dehydration is cumulative. To overcome this risk, do not wait
until you feel thirsty; maintain fluid hydration
regularly throughout training. Continuous sipping, if appropriate, is
recommended, or else hydrating with small volumes every 20 -
30 minutes.
Concentration of the Fluid: The speed at which a beverage travels from the
stomach in to the small intestine (the gastric emptying
rate) depends on the energy content (calories) and volume of the beverage
consumed. A small concentration of carbohydrate will
encourage rapid absorption, but too much carbohydrate will slow gastric emptying
and can result in GI distress. Research has
consistently found that beverages with a carbohydrate concentration of 6 - 8%,
empty from the stomach more slowly than either water
or lower concentrations of carbohydrate. Carbohydrate/electrolyte drinks are
thus often better than water for endurance training.
Sports drink may also aid in replenishing glycogen stores in working muscles, as
well as electrolyte balancing and replenishment.
More...from the Sport Factory at:
http://thesportfactory.iuplog.com/default.asp?item=159262


23. On the Wings of Speed:
"Here we go!" he shouted. I reached for my video camera in the darkness, even
though there was no chance of catching the action
considering the timeframe I was dealing with. Not to mention I was harnessed
backwards in the hull of a cargo prop plane, with no
light and less than a few seconds before this once-in-a-lifetime experience was
about to pass me by. But I had to give it a shot
woke up to the yell of a young aviator. His voice carried over two layers of
ear protection, the aircraft engine and the props
blasting against the costal air outside the non-insulated hull. "Here we go!" he
shouted. I reached for my video camera in the
darkness, even though there was no chance of catching the action considering the
timeframe I was dealing with. Not to mention I was
harnessed backwards in the hull of a cargo prop plane, with no light and less
than a few seconds before this once-in-a-lifetime
experience was about to pass me by. But I had to give it a shot.
The plane tossed back and forth and I fumbled for my camera underneath my
survival vest when, bam! We hit the deck of the aircraft
carrier and the tail hook jolted us to a dead stop from 135 mph in less than a
few seconds. The plane lunged backwards then spun
around, and the tail opened up to reveal a world foreign to a skier like me.
I had landed on the set of Top Gun. Men and women were running all over the
place with space outfits on. It was loud, very loud. As
we were hustled out of the tail of the craft, less than 20 yards away an F-18
fighter came to a screeching halt while keeping the
throttle floored just in case the tail hook didn't catch and he needed the power
to take off again.
More...from the New England Runner at:
http://www.metrosportsboston.com/story.cfm?story_id=11821&publicationID=212&page\
ID=4779


24. Short on time or not, quick bouts of exercise look like the way to go:
Don't have time to exercise, huh? Well, just hurry up. Go faster. Go harder.
That message is coming louder and more often as the time vise tightens.
In just the past few months I've stumbled across: "Daily Quickies: 10 Minute
Workouts" and the "5-Minute Cave Man Workout," which
must be twice as good as the 10-minute one. A women's magazine hypes "Yoga
a-Go-Go," which takes just five minutes. Another plan
takes a laborious 15 minutes.
A recent book, Fit in 15, describes routines to reach "full fitness" through
short, daily workouts. I tried to rev up with some
magazine's "6 Moves in 6 Minutes" plan. After those, I practically yawned while
slogging through the "Furman Total Fitness 30
(minutes)."
The usual advice is to try to get as much as 30 minutes of exercise a day, but
there is growing evidence that those 30 minutes don't
have to come all at once. Short bouts or bursts of activity are not only
efficient but also smart, according to several studies.
Researchers at McMaster University say six minutes of intense exercise a week
can be equal to an hour of daily moderate activity.
Such bouts "improved muscle health and performance comparable to several weeks
of traditional endurance training," says Martin
Gibala, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology at McMaster.
More...from AJC at:
http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/0304quickie.html (Free
subscription required)






25. Digest Briefs:
* The USA Triathlon organization estimates that 150,000 to 250,000 people try a
multi-sport event in the United States each year.
And the number of triathlon participants is growing quickly as people recognize
that training for the events (running, cycling,
swimming) is a great way to vary your workout, avoid or overcome injury, meet
people and get in shape without burning out on one
sport.
With training, almost anyone can do it. "An unfit beginner could complete a
sprint distance triathlon with 12 weeks of training, no
more than four hours a week," says Gale Bernhardt, the author of Triathlon
Training Basics and 2004 U.S. triathlon Olympic coach.
"You can walk and still enjoy a triathlon," she says.

* Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
Endurance Tests Predict Future Blood Pressure
In 1976, 413 high school runners in Finland competed in a 2000-meter race. At
the time of the race and in a follow-up study
twenty-five years later, the faster runners had much lower blood pressures than
the slower ones (International Journal of Sports
Medicine, July-August 2005.)
The researchers wanted to know whether a maximal endurance test to measure
aerobic fitness in adolescence would predict high blood
pressure in adults. This is the first study
to show that faster teen age runners have lower blood pressures and that the
lower blood pressures persist long after they stop
running. In their teens, the faster runners were more fit than the slower
runners, and their dedication may have persisted into
later life. Or the faster teen-age runners may have had some physiological
advantage that kept their blood pressure lower and made
them less likely to suffer heart attacks in later life. Perhaps the faster
runners were genetically superior to the slower runners,
or something in their lifestyles made them faster as teenagers and also caused
them to have lower blood pressures throughout their
lives. Either way, the findings of this study should encourage early
participation in sports and lifelong exercise.
From: http://www.drmirkin.com

* The Sport Factory - Ready to race?
The training period leading up to a goal race is the most intense, most likely
to injure you, over reach you, compromise your immune
system, or burn you out mentally.
Who should you listen to? Foremost your body. If you feel tired, run down, and
can't put a good effort into your work out give
yourself a day off. This may be enough to get you back in the game. Symptoms
of over reaching include fatigue, irritability,
changes in appetite, gastrointestinal problems, elevated resting heart rate, and
muscle soreness. Ignoring
these symptoms can lead to over training, a serious medical condition may take
months to recover from.

* The Sport Factory - Few Facts on Fat
Fat is the enemy right? If you are trying to achieve a more effective power to
weight ratio body fat is the ballast you want to
drop, however, during endurance training and events fat is the fuel source you
want to utilize the most. Endurance sport efficiency
is largely dependant upon access and utilization of fat as a fuel source.
Working at an intensity that results in the highest fat
oxidation (Fatmax) is the key to success in long endurance events.
Working at intensities higher intensities above Fatmax are costly in terms of
carbohydrate usage. Not only does fat utilization
decrease but carbohydrate calorie contribution increases dramatically. Typical
Fatmax is 35-40 grams per hour.
Carbohydrate has less than half the energy per gram as fat. This means you use
twice the carbohydrate calories to equal the cost of
one gram of fat.
When carbohydrate stores are depleted in the body the amount of energy you can
produce is significantly reduced.
A typical athlete will have enough energy stored in body fat to perform several
marathons back to back.
Even though you may burn hundreds of calories in carbohydrate per hour you can
only take in a limited amount, usually 60-80g per
hour on the bike or 240-320 calories. The harder you are working the harder it
will be to take consume calories.
Fast twitch muscle fibers utilize more carbohydrate than slow twitch fibers.
This means higher cadences and less pedal forces will
utilize more slow twitch fibers and fat as a fuel source.
So, that extra spare tire you are carrying is actually good then? Sorry, body
fat is not metabolically active, does not directly
contribute to speed, may hinder cooling, increases aerodynamic drag, and
indirectly increases VO2 max if you were to compare
yourself at a lower body fat percentage. Even if you are as low as 5% body fat
you have plenty for your event. But being
aerobically efficient and utilizing fat stores for events such as road races or
long course triathlon is very important. These
events are as much about conserving energy as utilizing it. Utilizing fat
optimally will depend on you knowing your energy sources,
at what intensity they are utilized at, and how to pace yourself appropriately.
References
Peak Performance Cycling; number 224: 1-4
The Sport Factory is at:
http://www.thesportfactory.com/


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

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

March 25, 2006:

National Marathon - Washington, DC
http://www.nationalmarathon.com

Run to Joe's 5K, Fort Worth, TX
www.runtojoes.com

The Reggae Rhythm of Life Run, Los Angeles, CA
www.w2promotions.com

March 26, 2006:

Around the Bay 30K - Hamilton, ON
http://www.aroundthebayroadrace.com

Blue Cross of CA Spirit Run 10K/5K - Newport Beach, CA
www.kinaneevents.com

Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon, Knoxville, TN
Half-Marathon, Relay, 5K, Kid Run
www.knoxvillemarathon.com

More Marathon - New York, NY
http://www.nyrr.org/more/home.php

Rome Marathon - Italy
http://www.maratonadiroma.it/eng/home_en.asp

April 1 - 2, 2006:

World Cross Country Championships - Fukuoka, JAP
http://www.iaaf.org/WXC06/index.html


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

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

YOUR FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS:
Comments, contributions and feedback are always welcome via this list at:
mailto:runnersweb@yahoogroups.com and in our Runner's Web Forum, available off
our FrontPage. If you post to the mailing list and
get your email returned, please contact the Runner's Web at
mailto:webmaster@... to notify us of the problem. To update your
Runner's Web eGroups subscriber's profile, go to the web

site at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join , sign in and update your changes.
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
RunnersWebCoach
http://www.runnerswebcoach.com


********************************************
RUNNER'S WEB AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
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Mental Strength Training Center:
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Axill
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Buy Paula Radcliffe's book, My Story - So Far, from Amazon UK at:
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Endurance Films
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Instant Stretching Routines
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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.
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This application was recently featured on National TV - please see the following
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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 .
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If you have an accident while running or cycling, do you want your family to be
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If so, make this cool item part of your gear -- for safety and peace of mind.
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wear ID: the SHOE, the WRIST, the ANKLE, and the NECK. Get your RoadID at:
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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:
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**END...OF DIGEST...**