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. Visit the Runner's Web at
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available from our FrontPage.

SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS: All of the revenue from our advertisers and affiliates
goes to support clubs, athletes and clinics related
to multisport and Canadian Olympians.

1. Emilie's Run - The Emilie Mondor Memorial 5K Race for Women - Canada's
Fastest Women's 5K
Emilie's Run is over for another year. Almost 300 women completed the race with
38 women running under 20:00
The 2009 race will be run on June 20th.
For more on the race visit the website at:
http://www.emiliesrun.com.
**Register before March 15, 2009 and get a 10% discount**

3. Road Runner Sports, the world's largest running store at:
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000010069822.

4. Toronto Waterfront Marathon, September 27, 2009
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/STWM_Transporter.html

5. Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon - October 18, 2009
Register before the end of this month for the Marathon, Half Marathon, or 5k and
save $$. Fees increase March 1st!
http://www.torontomarathon.com/

6. Training Peaks Training Peaks, LLC is dedicated to the endurance athlete and
coach. With our industry leading software products,
we're committed to help you monitor, analyze and plan your training. We
encourage you to draw on our passion for excellence to help
you reach your athletic dreams. Trusted by thousands. Dedicated to you.
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/

7. January 4, 2008: Goodlife Fitness has come on board as a sponsor of Emilie's
Run GoodLife Fitness - Coed or Women's Only Visit
www.GoodLifeFitness.com today to receive 3 FREE Visits! Your 3 FREE visits
include: . A Visual Fitness Planner Consultation . Fit
Fix Orientation to learn how to exercise safely and effectively . Access to all
cardio and strength-training equipment . Access to
all of our world-class Group EXercise classes . A copy of Living the Good Life
audio CD Get started today! Visit
www.GoodLifeFitness.com Limited time offer.

8. iRun Magazine
More than a million Canadians are runners, making it this country's most popular
recreational and fitness activity. Canadians run
for exercise and we run to raise money for important causes. We run alone and in
groups. And every year, hundreds of thousands of us
participate in organized races, from fun runs to marathons, which are growing
steadily.
Until now, Canadian runners haven't had our own running magazine. But now,
there's iRun, providing a uniquely Canadian perspective
on the activity and the sport. Published six times a year, iRun educates,
informs and inspires Canadian runners.
The Team
Mark Sutcliffe, Publisher and Editor
Mark has more than 20 years of experience in the Canadian media business. An
avid runner, he has completed five marathons and 10
half-marathons. He writes a popular weekly column on running in the Ottawa
Citizen and co-hosts The Running Show every week on The
Team 1200 radio. Mark is the former Executive Editor of the Ottawa Citizen and
has also launched several publications, including the
Ottawa Business Journal, now in its second decade, and the Kitchissippi Times, a
successful community newspaper in Ottawa. His
writing has appeared across the country in daily newspapers, and magazines like
Macleans and Canadian Business.
Ray Zahab, Contributing Editor
Ray Zahab is Canada's most renowned ultramarathon runner. A former pack-a-day
smoker, Ray transformed his life by becoming a
successful long-distance runner, winning some of the world's most challenging
foot races. Beginning in November 2006, Ray and two
other runners ran across the Sahara Desert in 111 days, averaging 70 kilometres
per day without a single day's rest. Ray is an
accomplished public speaker, writes regularly about running and coaches athletes
striving to achieve their own goals.
Distribution
iRun is Canada's highest-circulation and most popular running magazine. With a
total distribution of 50,000 and more than 9,000
subscribers, iRun is leading the market in the rapidly growing and highly
desirable demographic of Canadian runners.
iRun Magazine is a sponsor of Emilie's Run
http://www.irun.ca/

9. Canadian Running Magazine: Subscribe at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/CanadianRunner.html

10. Mi-Sport - The Ultimate Sports MP3 Player Introducing the world's first and
only waterproof and wireless sports mp3 player.
These Mi-SPORT mp3 headphones have a 1GB memory built into a cool neckband
design. At last no wire tangle and no earbuds to fall
out. The patented design makes this waterproof/sweatproof mp3 player great for
running, cycling and gym work. The player however is
more than splash proof! It can be completely submerged with no harm to it making
it perfect for swimming, kayaking, and water
skiing. Now incorporating the latest 3D music quality with it's adapted
waterproof speaker. Relax to music in the bath, or push out
that training session with no fear of losing your player or tangling the wires.
Circuit training is so much easier with your own
music. Enjoy the waves wire-free. This is the only waterproof pair of classic
headphones with a built in mp3 player in the world.
The stylish looking headphones play the usual MP3, WMA and WAV formats and are
compatible with Windows98/98SE/2000/XP and Apple MAC.
Depending on track length, the headphones hold well over 14 hours worth of music
and the rechargeable battery life is about 8 hours.
Nick Matthew, the 2006 British Open squash champion now uses the player to train
with and Mi-SPORT are endeavouring to encourage
more athletes to enjoy the benefits of training to wire-free music, podcasts or
coaching aids. Inspiration and freedom at last, for
athletes and exercise enthusiasts everywhere.
Check it out at: http://www.mi-sportmp3.com/

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If anyone is looking for a web mail provider, you might wish to consider
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Race Directors: Advertise your event on the Runner's Web.
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Marathons, Races and Triathlons pages.

NEW THIS WEEK:

The Emilie Mondor Memorial 5K Race for Women - June 20, 2009
Register before March 15, 2009 and get a 10% discount.
http://www,emiliesrun.com

We have added a new event calendar. It is available for event directors to add
events at:
http://runnersweb.mhsoftware.com/
Events must be approved before going live.

Watch live and webcast of Track and Field and Road races on Universal Sports
Sign up at:
http://www.universalsports.com//SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&KEY=&SPID=13055\
&SPSID=105551

I've created a Runner's Web Group on Facebook. To join the Runner's Web Facebook
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At the Runner's Web site, click "Join this group". Once I have approved your
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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
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RUNNER'S AND TRIATHLETE'S WEB CONTENT PARTNERS

ROAD RUNNER SPORTS
We have partnered with Road Runner Sports, the world's largest online running
store, to provide a shopping portal. Check it out at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/Mobile_RRS.html

* BREAKSWEAT.TV
We have partnered with Breaksweat TV to provide us with video content.
Simply Sports Media is part of a large group called Simply Media, which operates
more than 25 digital TV channels, including 6 on
satellite and cable. Simply Media has developed and continues to expand on
premium content for TV, web, mobile, captive Audience
Networks, and IPTV.
Breaksweat.tv was recently launched to provide instant access to premium video
content covering outdoor sports. The innovative
online channel uses a system called, Brightcove to continually and seamlessly
deliver content to its users, whilst providing
easy-to-use navigation.
Breaksweat TV is not a user generated website, or a broadcasting channel; rather
it is a platform used to host Breaksweat.tv's
independently produced video content, and content it obtains from key
relationships in the outdoor sports industry. By applying this
strategy to supply content for its viewers, SnowZone.tv is able to showcase
video content that is unique, high-quality, and
continuous filled with updated material.
For more information and to visit other existing channels in the Simply Media
network, please visit:
http://www.simply.tv/

* 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.
Carmichael Training Systems at:
http://www.trainright.com/promos.asp?code=DSBYBFCSP

* 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
Visit the PPO site at: Peak Performance Online:
http://www.pponline.co.uk/cmd.php?af=517509

* 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/Sale.aspx?BID=37234&AfID=103794&AdID=5075&LP=www.peakr\
unningperformance.com
Check out the Peak Running article index at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/PRP_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 will only post notes here regarding
running and triathlon topics of interest to the
community. We have NO personal postings this week.

THIS WEEK'S DIGEST ARTICLE INDEX:

1. Don’t Be a Slave to Heart Rate Training Zones!
Heart Rate Monitors may not be the best way to predict VO2 Max and monitor
overtraining.
2. Short + Steep + Swift = Strength
How Hill Sprints Can Make You Faster at All Distances,
3. Stubby toes are custom-made for running
4. Exercising Bollywood-Style
5. Athletes' cooling 'glove' tested
6. Study confirms: Don't reward yourself for calories burned
7. Exercise No Danger For Joints: Non-Elite Level Activity Does Not Increase
Risk Of Osteoarthritis, Review Suggests
8. Piloting a Distance Revolution
Rob Conner's Portland Pilots Get Faster by Running Slower.
9. This Week in Running
10. Flat Out Necessary
How to get your legs used to racing flats.
11. Mental Fatigue Can Affect Physical Endurance
12. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
13. The Barriers Fell, One Year, One Step at a Time
14. Is the elliptical as good as running?
The machine is a good way to get fit and lose weight, especially for those with
repetitive stress injury.
15. Give gizmos the boot - heal your sprained ankle in a cast


RUNNER'S WEB WEEKLY POLL:
"Which of the following do you use frequently pre, during and post exercise -
training and/or competing?
Beer
Engergy Bars
Energy Gels
Sports drinks
Water
Other - (email: polls2009@...)"

You can access the poll from our FrontPage ( http://www.runnersweb.com) as well
as checking the results of previous polls.

LAST WEEK'S POLL RESULTS:
"If you are unable to run, what do you do?"
Answers Percent
1. Cycle 20%
2. Pool run 12%
3. Swim 13%
4. Row 11%
5. Use elliptical trainer 14%
6. XC ski 10%
7. Other 11%
8. Watch TV 9%


FIVE STAR SITE OF THE MONTH: MileSplit.us
The Nations' Premier High School T&F/XC Network.
MileSplit US is the nation's premier network for high school track & field and
cross country. We believe that the heart of the sport
is on a local, grassroots level. By facilitating the publishing and business
process for our state webmasters, we are able to
provide in depth state-by-state coverage of the sport. At the same time, these
state portals feed content into a national database
allowing us to provide an unprecedented depth of coverage on the national level
as well.
Designed around powerful proprietary database software that unites all of the
important aspects of covering the sport--results,
rankings, articles, videos, photos, podcasts, statistics, etc--MileSplit US is
the only online publisher in the sport with the tools
to provide a high level of timely and comprehensive nationwide coverage.
MileSplit was founded in 2000 by then college sophomore Jason Byrne. It has
continued to grow over the years, incorporating and
adding Don Rich and Fred Finke to the corporate team in 2004. MileSplit has a
partnership with Universal Sports (formerly WCSN),
which serves as its sales team for its national advertising inventory.
MileSplit, Inc. is a privately held Florida corporation. Its primary offices and
datacenter are located in Greater Orlando, Florida.
Additional servers are located just outside of New York City. MileSplit has a
team of staff and affiliates located around the
country. We encourage your questions, sponsorship and investment inquiries.
Visit the website at:
http://www.milesplit.us


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


BOOK/VIDEO/MOVIE OF THE MONTH: Out of Nowhere: The Inside Story of How Nike
Marketed the Culture of Running
By Geoff Hollister
How does a boy from a small Oregon farm town get swept up in the politics of his
chosen sport? Out of Nowhere takes the reader along
on Geoff Hollister's 33 year journey at the center of Nike, the company that
would change not only the world of athletic shoes and
apparel but the business of sport itself.
Nike began with a handshake and a few hundred dollars passed between Phil Knight
and legendary track coach Bill Bowerman. Hollister
was coached by him at the University of Oregon and was Bowerman's pick as Nike's
third employee. Before he had even graduated
Hollister began selling shoes out of the trunk of his car for Blue Ribbon
Sports, the company that became Nike.
Out of Nowhere provides an inside look for the entrepreneur, from someone who
experienced the humble beginnings, lived and breathed
the first 33 years of Nike, now the largest sports and fitness company in the
world. Hollister takes you on the rollercoaster ride
of success and failure.
Buy the book from Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/184126234X/runnersweb/102-0182896-9006569\
?v=glance&s=books

For more publications on running and triathlon visit:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/human_kinetics.html and
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/amazon.html

THIS WEEK'S FEATURES:

1. Don’t Be a Slave to Heart Rate Training Zones!:
Heart Rate Monitors may not be the best way to predict VO2 Max and monitor
overtraining.
Athletes have used heart rate training successfully for years. However, slavish
adherence to heart rate training zones won’t allow
an athlete to reach his or her true potential. Gary O’Donovan and Romain Denis
discuss the strengths and limitations of heart rate
monitoring and heart rate training.
For centuries, heart rate monitoring consisted of placing an ear or a
stethoscope on the chest. The heart’s electrical activity was
first recorded in the 19th century and American biophysicist Norman Holter
invented a portable device for recording the heart’s
activity in 1961. The Holter monitor can record the heart’s electrical activity
for 24 hours or more, but it is too large for
recording heart rate during exercise. Watch-like heart rate monitors were first
developed in the 1980s, and since then most
endurance athletes have used heart rate training(1). It is claimed that today’s
heart rate monitors can perform all sorts of
wonders, from predicting maximal oxygen uptake to detecting overtraining; in
this article we’ll examine the validity of these
claims.
Prediction of VO2max
Strengths: Some heart rate monitors can be used to predict VO2max (maximal
oxygen uptake). For example, it has been shown that the
Polar S810 heart rate monitor can accurately predict VO2max, which is a strong
predictor of endurance performance and the best
measure of health-related fitness. In different tests, most participants’
estimated VO2max scores were within 5ml/kg/min of their
directly measured scores(2). The S810 is also highly reliable, yielding
consistent results test after test(1). What’s more,
S810-predicted VO2max was favourably associated with cholesterol and blood
pressure in a study of 3,820 men and women aged 25-64
years(3).
More...from Peak Performance Online at:
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/dont-be-restricted-by-heart-rate-training-zones-\
40533


2. Short + Steep + Swift = Strength:
How Hill Sprints Can Make You Faster at All Distances.
By Brad Hudson
Every runner I coach does regular sessions of short hill sprints. Should you?
Well, these brief, maximal-intensity efforts against
gravity offer two key benefits. First, they strengthen all of the running
muscles, making you much less injury-prone. They also
increase the power and efficiency of your stride, enabling you to cover more
ground with each stride with less energy in races.
These are significant benefits from a training method that takes little time and
is fun to do.
Hill sprints are an example of what I call "muscle training" -- practices whose
primary purpose is to stimulate neuromuscular
adaptations that enhance running performance. They call for the nervous system
to activate very large numbers of motor units, to
fire these motor units quickly, to contract the muscles with great force, and to
resist fatigue at maximal and near-maximal levels.
They test the limits of the neuromuscular system's capacity to generate and
sustain running-specific speed and power, and thereby
push back these limits. By engaging in regular, progressive muscle training, you
will improve your brain-muscle communications in
ways that increase your power efficiency, running economy and fatigue
resistance.
Muscle training represents half of the foundation that supports specific
endurance, or the physiological capacity to run the full
distance of a race at your goal pace. The other half of this foundation is, of
course, aerobic support. To achieve a higher level of
specific endurance, you must first build a higher level of aerobic support and
neuromuscular fitness. Broadly speaking,
aerobic-support training and muscle training move toward specific endurance from
opposite ends of the spectrum of running fitness.
If the most foundational sort of aerobic-support workout is a long run at a slow
pace, then the most foundational sort of
muscle-training effort is an all-out sprint lasting only a few seconds.
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=15737


3. Stubby toes are custom-made for running:
Scientists have found the reason behind evolution of big toes in humans to the
current small size. According to biomechanical
analysis,
long toes require more energy and generate more shock than short toes, thus
making them one of many adaptations that may have helped
our savannah-dwelling ancestors chase their prey.
"Longer toes require muscles to do more work, and exert stronger forces to
maintain stability, compared to shorter toes. So long as
we were engaged in substantial amounts of running, natural selection would
favour individuals with shorter toes," said University of
Calgary anthropologist Campbell Rolian.
Unlike most primates- including our closest relative, the chimpanzee-humans have
comparatively dwarfish and two-dimensional toes,
capable only of extending and flexing, reports Wired News.
Even running animals have extremely short toes-some species, such as cats and
dogs, have paws composed almost entirely by palms.
Thus, researchers tried to explain the human foot physiology on the basis of
running.
More...from the Times of India at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Stubby-toes-are-made-for-runn\
ing/articleshow/4169368.cms


4. Exercising Bollywood-Style:
Bollywood-style dance classes, based on the lavish dance numbers found in some
films from India, have become a popular attraction
among American exercisers, the Associated Press reports.
The American Council on Exercise told the news organization that ethnic dancing
styles like salsa, belly-dancing and now
Bollywood-dancing is a major growth area for gyms and dance studios.
Fans of Bollywood — an informal term for Hindi-language films, often romantic
musicals — want formal instruction in the style marked
by foot-stomping dance numbers that put folk moves and hip swings to pop beats.
“I was looking to try something different,” says Tina Striegel, a 45-year-old
accountant who tried a Denver class after falling in
love with Bollywood-style movies such as “Slumdog Millionaire,” the
Oscar-nominated film inspired by Indian films that includes a
large dance number at the end.
Denver’s Bollywood West school started in 2006 as the first in Colorado to focus
on Bollywood-style dancing. It now packs in crowds
four nights a week to two locations and will move to a bigger studio next month.
“I love the movies. I love the culture. I love all of it,” Striegel says before
stretching for an hour-long session in which more
than a dozen women practice a song-and-dance number.
More...from the NY Times at:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/exercising-bollywood-style/


5. Athletes' cooling 'glove' tested:
A device called "The Glove" is being used by athletes to dramatically improve
their performance and by soldiers in Iraq.
The device creates an airtight seal around the wrist, pulls blood into the palm
of the hand and cools it before returning it to the
heart and to overheated muscles and organs.
Its applications are far broader: from treating stroke and heart attack victims
to allowing soldiers to remain in the field longer
under intense heat.
More...from the BBC at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7861766.stm


6. Study confirms: Don't reward yourself for calories burned
Overweight women who exercised one to two hours a week lost several pounds in
six months without dieting, a study shows. But those
who exercised the most — about three hours a week — didn't lose as much as they
should have, possibly because they increased the
calories they consumed.
"There is a great lesson here: People generally overestimate the calories they
are burning with exercise, and they may reward
themselves by eating more," says lead researcher Tim Church, director of
preventive-medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical
Research Center in Baton Rouge.
If a person runs for an hour then goes out to have a large high-calorie coffee
drink and a large muffin, she probably consumed more
calories than she burned, he says.
For the latest study, Church and colleagues recruited 411 overweight or obese
sedentary women, average age 57. Some of the women
were told not to change their level of physical activity. The others were
divided into three groups and instructed to do different
amounts each week. They rotated walking briskly on a treadmill at a fitness
center with riding a stationary bike.
Their workouts were monitored closely by the researchers, and the women were
asked not to change their eating habits during the
study.
More...from USA Today at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-02-17-exercise-eating_N.htm


7. Exercise No Danger For Joints: Non-Elite Level Activity Does Not Increase
Risk Of Osteoarthritis, Review Suggests:
There is no good evidence supporting a harmful effect of exercise on joints in
the setting of normal joints and regular exercise,
according to a review of studies published in this month's issue of the Journal
of Anatomy.
Exercise is an extremely popular leisure-time activity in many countries
throughout the Western world and has for many become part
of the modern lifestyle. It is widely promoted in as being beneficial for weight
control, disease management in cardiovascular
disease and diabetes, and for improving psychological well-being amongst an
array of other benefits. In contrast, however, the lay
press and community perception is also that exercise is potentially deleterious
to one's joints, in particular those of the lower
extremities.
Researchers from Boston, USA, and Ainring, Germany, reviewed existing studies on
the relationship between regular exercise and
osteoarthritis (OA) and concluded that in the absence of existing joint injury
there is no increased risk of OA from exercise.
More...from Science Daily at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090127101854.htm


8. Piloting a Distance Revolution:
Rob Conner's Portland Pilots Get Faster by Running Slower.
Three years ago, David Kinsella and his freshman classmates at the University of
Portland began their collegiate careers by running
among themselves so they could gingerly adjust to collegiate training. One week
in, longtime Portland mentor Rob Conner let 'em
loose to run with the varsity.
Their guide for their trial by fire was Michael Kilburg, a man who would explode
as a Pilot senior in 2008 after an otherwise
undistinguished career to run a school-record 28:20 for 10,000m. Kilburg
proceeded to haul ass through the Oregon forest at such a
clip that Kinsella and crew remember not how far or fast they went -- Kinsella
is fairly certain it was 10 miles in 57 minutes --
only that they had to hang on for dear life.
Welcome to college, fellas. "It was this attitude of just go out and blast it,"
says Kinsella, who quickly discovered that everyday
runs like that were the norm. He knew if he was to make it as a collegiate
runner, he would have to survive a training regimen that
typically consisted of 60 to 80 miles a week, blazing 6-mile tempo runs and
intense sessions of repeat miles, and 60-minute
"recovery" day efforts routinely run at a 6-minute-per-mile clip. The Portland
training program, as then constituted, resembled what
you'll find on many campuses around the nation, and, like many others, its
components developed organically from within.
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=15744


9. This Week in Running:
10 Years Ago- The two most significant 30K races in the world were held on the
same day. Kenji Noguchi (JPN)
won the Kumanichi (JPN) race in 1:29:46 with Takaki Morikawa
(JPN) also breaking 1:30
with a 1:29:55. Twenty-six men broke 1:35. Toshiaki Kurabayashi
(JPN) won the Ome-Hochi
(JPN) race with a 1:31:54. Shigeru Okada (JPN) was 2nd at
1:32:05. A total of nine men
broke 1:35. These two races accounted for all but one of the top
25 men's times for 1999.
Asami Obi (JPN) won the women's race at Hochi-Ome with a 1:45:00.
20 Years Ago- Dieter Baumann (GER) won the European Indoor Championships (NED)
3000m in 7:50.43.
Abel Anton (ESP) took the silver medal in 7:51:18 and Jacque
Carlier (FRA) took the
bronze medal in 7:52.23. Elly vanHulst (NED) won the gold medal
with her 9:10.01
with Nicola Morris (ENG) at 9:12.37 and Maricica Puica (ROM) at
9:15.49 taking the
silver and bronze medals respectively.
30 Years Ago- Markus Ryffel (SUI) won the European Indoor Championships (AUT)
3000m with a 7:44.43.
Christoph Herle (GER took the silver medal with a 7:45.44 and
Aleksandr Fedotkin (RUS)
took the bronze medal with a 7:45.50. Nick Rose (ENG) was 5th in
7:46.7 and Dieter
Millonig (AUT) was 7th in 7:47.5.
40 Years Ago- Takayuki Tanaka (JPN) won the Ome-Hochi (JPN) 30K in 1:34:37.4.
Yoshitaka Ishikura (JPN)
and Nobuaki Takao (JPN) rounded out the top three with 1:35:42.4
and 1:35:46.6 respectively.
50 Years Ago- Bill Dillinger (USA) won the USA indoor 3 mile title (NY/USA)
with a time of 13:36.8.
Al Lawrence (AUS) and Alex Breckenridge (USA) matched their 2nd
and 4th place finishes
from the preceding week, posting times of 13:38.6 and 14:43.4
respectively.
From The Analytical Distance Runner, the newsletter for the Association of Road
Racing Statisticians with a
focus on races, 3000m and longer, including road, track, and cross-country
events.
The ARRS has a website at http://www.arrs.net.


10. Flat Out Necessary:
How to get your legs used to racing flats.
The start of a new racing season often brings with it sore calf muscles from the
first few times you use racing flats. This can be
the beginning of a dangerous injury cycle that can lead to Achilles tendinitis,
shin splints or even the dreaded stress fracture.
You can avoid this scenario by gradually reintroducing your body to racing shoes
and strengthening your lower legs.
Many runners do all of their non-race running in training shoes, which often
have a heel height of 1½ to 2 inches. A lot of runners
also train in a custom orthotic device, which add another ½ inch of heel height,
but then don’t wear the orthotics in races. When
you consider that racing flats often have less than 1 inch of cushioning in the
heels, it’s easy to see why suddenly subjecting your
legs to such a large difference can strain to the calf muscles.
I typically recommend that people wear their racing shoes for faster workouts,
such as tempo runs and track sessions, to help
prevent this soreness. If, however, you’ve been wearing only training shoes,
slowly work up to regularly wearing racing flats.
(That’s the case even if you usually do workouts in flats, but have been doing
nothing but steady running in trainers over the
winter months.)
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=15817


11. Mental Fatigue Can Affect Physical Endurance:
When participants performed a mentally fatiguing task prior to a difficult
exercise test, they reached exhaustion more quickly than
when they did the same exercise when mentally rested, a new study finds.
The study also found that mental fatigue did not cause the heart or muscles to
perform any differently. Instead, our “perceived
effort” determines when we reach exhaustion. The researchers said the next step
is to look at the brain to find out exactly why
people with mental fatigue perceive exercise to be more difficult.
Samuele M. Marcora, Walter Staiano and Victoria Manning of Bangor University,
Wales, the United Kingdom, did the study, “Mental
fatigue impairs physical performance in humans.” The study will appear in the
March print edition of the Journal of Applied
Physiology. The American Physiological Society published the study.
The study
The 16 participants rode a stationary bicycle to exhaustion under two
conditions: once when they were mentally fatigued and once
when they were mentally rested. The trials took place in the laboratory on
different days. The participants got the same amount of
sleep, drank the same amount and had the same meal before each of the sessions.
The mental fatigue sessions began with a challenging 90-minute mental task that
required close attention, memory, quick reaction and
an ability to inhibit a response. After undergoing this session, participants
reported being tired and lacking energy. The control
session consisted of watching neutral documentaries for 90 minutes and was not
mentally fatiguing.
More...from Science Daily at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090224132915.htm


12. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* Exercise Necessary for Permanent Weight Loss
More than 50 percent of Americans are overweight and can expect a premature
death because of it. One of the largest scientific
studies on weight loss shows that calorie restriction
(below 1700 calories per day) is the most important factor that helps people
lose weight and that its effect is temporary and
dependant on constant reenforcement (NEJM February 26, 2009).
The ratios of carbohydrate, protein and fat were irrelevant. Furthermore, most
dieters are incapable of following diets that
restrict the proportion of carbohydrates, fats or proteins.
Although the dieters were placed on diets with different protein ratios,
measuring their urinary nitrogen showed that they ended up
with close to the same protein intakes. Carbohydrate restriction, as measured
by a drop in HDL cholesterol, showed there was little
difference in carbohydrate intake.
People in this study lost about 13 pounds in six months regardless of the type
of nutrient restriction. However, after 12 months
they started to regain the weight that they lost, and after two years their
average weight loss was down to six pounds. This
suggests that many will eventually regain all the weight that they lost.
If you want to reduce your weight to normal permanently, you need an exercise
program that involves other people so you will stick
with it permanently. The more you exercise, the more weight you are likely to
lose. You also need a social environment in which
your companions eat the way you should eat, and constant exposure to people who
are trying to follow healthful eating and other
lifestyle behaviors.
* Dear Dr. Mirkin: Does bicycling reduce bone density, increasing risk for
fractures and osteoporisis?
A: This is a myth that is not supported by any good data. A study from
Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK shows that
sprint cyclists have denser bones than long distance cyclists who have denser
bones than sedentary control subjects (Medicine &
Science in Sports & Exercise, March 2009). While cyclists have less dense bones
than weight lifters and football players, they
still have denser bones than people who do not exercise. The greater the force
on bones during exercise, the denser the bone. So
any type of exercise is good for your bones and a sedentary lifestyle is bad for
bones.
* Dear Dr.. Mirkin: I'd like to improve my swimming. Should I try to swim as
many laps as possible?
A: If you want to improve in any sport, it is far more important to train fast
than to try to build up huge distances. A study from
the University of Saarland in Germany shows that
swimmers who concentrated on swimming very fast at the cost of swimming fewer
miles, swam faster than those who kept up a huge
volume of training that forced them to swim slower in practice (International
Journal of Sports Medicine, November 2008).
This study does not tell you to just train as fast as you can. This would
eventually cause a syndrome of chronic fatigue.The key to
successful training is to take a very intense workout,
feel sore on the next workout, and train less intensely with as much work as
possible that allows you to recover without injuring
yourself. When you feel fresh again, take your next
intense workout.
From Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine at:
http://www.drmirkin.com


13. The Barriers Fell, One Year, One Step at a Time:
TED CORBITT knew all about barriers in sports. One of America’s greatest
distance runners, Mr. Corbitt, born in 1919, grew up in an
era when, as a black athlete, he sometimes was not even allowed to compete in
races.
So when Gail Kislevitz, a runner and author, interviewed Mr. Corbitt shortly
before his death on Dec. 12, 2007, she thought she
could guess what he would say to one of her questions. What, she asked him,
surprised him most about the evolution of running over
the years?
His answer was not what she expected. The biggest surprise, he said, was how
women had taken to the sport.
It’s a story that is familiar and yet, in its details, almost stunning. Until as
recently as the 1970s, women were discouraged from
competitive sports in general and running in particular. This means that among
us is a generation of women, middle-aged and older,
who are discovering to their astonishment that they can be athletes, that it is
not too late.
Even Gail, a middle-aged and talented distance runner, was amazed by stories of
the old days. She told me over dinner recently that
although she had lived during those times, she — like many of us — failed to
appreciate how different they were than today. Her eyes
are opening, she said, as she goes through Mr. Corbitt’s papers and library
noticing article after article documenting the long,
slow rise of women’s running.
For example, a runner, Sharon Barbano, in the August 1979 issue of New York
Running News, decried the way female runners were
patronized.
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/health/nutrition/26best.html?_r=1&ref=health


14. Is the elliptical as good as running?
The machine is a good way to get fit and lose weight, especially for those with
repetitive stress injury.
Alex Hutchinson draws on the latest research to answer your fitness and workout
questions in this biweekly column on the science of
sport.
The question
Do I get the same workout from the elliptical machine that I get from running?
More than 23 million Americans used elliptical trainers in 2007, according to
the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association - triple
the number that used them in 2000. Canadians have also eagerly adopted the
low-impact, pseudo-jogging machine.
Despite this popularity, there's still some haziness about the benefits of
elliptical use - even among researchers. The biomechanics
of the low-impact elliptical motion are still poorly understood, though studies
now suggest it could help ward off several common
running injuries. And there's no consensus about how hard your body has to work
compared to other exercises.
A 2005 University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, study found that at a self-chosen
"hard" level of exercise, subjects consumed more
oxygen and had higher heart rates on the treadmill than the elliptical. In
contrast, a University of Idaho study in the same year
found that the elliptical felt easier than either the treadmill or recumbent
bike, despite producing the same oxygen consumption and
heart rate.
Subsequent studies have added little clarity, which suggests that any
differences are too small to matter. An Irish study published
in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness appears to be the only
one to tackle what really matters to most people:
fitness and weight loss. A group of 24 women performed a 12-week fitness program
using either an elliptical, treadmill or
stair-climbing machine. Cardiovascular fitness increased and body fat percentage
decreased to the same degree in all three groups.
There are other differences, though. A forthcoming study by Western Washington
University exercise scientist Kathleen Knutzen used
elliptical machines with force plates on the pedals to determine that, even at a
fast stride, the forces on the lower legs were
comparable to walking, and two or three times less than running.
"That's a real benefit if you're prone to repetitive stress injuries," Dr.
Knutzen said.
More...from the Globe and Mail at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090227.wljockology27/BNStor\
y/specialScienceandHealth/home


15. Give gizmos the boot - heal your sprained ankle in a cast:
Doctors may be treating severe ankle sprains the wrong way, according to the
results of a surprising British study.
Normally, physicians recommend the use of ice and elevation to ease pain and
reduce swelling, and wrap the ankle in a compression
bandage. The main piece of advice is to keep the foot moving - within limits of
tolerable pain.
But the new research shows that short-term use of a below-the-knee cast, which
essentially immobilizes the joint, is the best
approach to speed healing.
"Contrary to popular clinical opinion, a period of immobilization was the most
effective strategy for promoting rapid recovery," the
researchers concluded in the medical journal The Lancet.
The study was conducted for the British National Health Service, which wanted to
know the most cost-effective means of treating the
common injury that can sideline people for months.
The researchers followed 584 sprain patients who were randomly assigned to
receive one of four different types of ankle support: a
compression bandage; a below-the-knee cast; an Aircast brace (which includes an
inflated cushion); or a Bledsoe boot (a lightweight
device that limits motion).
The lead researcher, Sarah Lamb of the University of Warwick, admits she was
surprised to see that 10 days in a standard cast beat
out some of the latest high-tech foot supports on the market.
Although such a cast is now made with light-weight materials and comes in many
vibrant colours, "it is a bit like one of the
old-fashioned plaster casts in appearance," Dr. Lamb said. Yet the key to its
success is "the way it fixes the ankle and foot in a
rigid position," she said.
More...from the Globe and Mail at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090227.wdoses27/BNStory/spe\
cialScienceandHealth/home


THIS WEEK'S FEATURED EVENTS:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites available from our FrontPage
(www.runnersweb.com)

February 27-28, 2009:
Myomed Ragnar Relay Del So -, Wickenburg-Scottsdale, AZ

February 28 - March 1, 2009:
USA Indoor Track & Field Championships - Boston, MA

March 1, 2009:
13.1 Marathon Miami - FL

Caumsett Park 50K- Lloyd Harbor, NY
USA 50K Championship

Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon - Napa, CA

Miracle Match Marathon - Waco, TX

World's Best 10K - San Juan, PUR
Home of the Women's 10K World Record (30:21, Paula Radcliffe, 2003)

March 6-9, 2009:
European Athletics Indoor Championships - Torino, Italy

June 20, 2009:
Emilie's Run - The Emilie Mondor Memorial 5K Race for Women - Ottawa, ON
**Register before January 31, 2009 and get a 15% discount**
**Register before March 15, 2009 and get a 10% discount**

August 15-23, 2009:
World Athletics Championships - Berlin, Germany

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/

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Have a good week of training and/or racing.

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