A triathlete commercial to all those who need some inspiration and motivation. hope you like it. rate, favorite, comment and subscribe (: BTW sorry about the green flashes, i dont know why that happened. and play in HQ, the quality is much better,
For some, running a marathon is the ultimate goal. For others, it is a 26.2-mile waste of time. Then there are some of us who sit idly by, with envy in our hearts at the thought of crossing the finish line. There is, however, a strategy for achieving the ultimate goal of a marathon, even if you are a couch potato like I used to be, and believe it or not, it doesn’t require cheating.
The following steps will not only make it possible for a non-runner to finish a marathon, but may, dare I say, make it easy:
Step One: Drop the “Jogging Myth”
When I discuss running with my mother, she says, “Oh, I can’t run, but I jog from time to time.” This belief holds back many would be runners as they believe that running is too difficult, and that jogging doesn’t count. The truth is that jogging IS running. Here is the only distinction you will ever make when it comes to running: If you have one foot on the ground at any given time, you are walking. If you have both feet off the ground at any given time you are running, no matter how fast or slow you are moving. This leads to Step Two.
Step Two: Slow Down The simple explanation of the scientific mumbo jumbo is this: Lactic acid accumulation in our legs equals heavy legs and fatigue. We want to increase our lactate threshold to avoid this. Science has found that you get the best results by training aerobically, which means slowing down your run to a very comfortable pace so that you don’t get tired while running. You may be asking, “How slow can I really go?” Keep reading.
Step Three: Listen to Your Body
Ideally, you should get a heart rate monitor and stay below your maximum heart rate. To find your optimal heart rate you can use an aerobic heart rate chart, or follow the 180 formula.
But let’s say you don’t want to spend the $100 on a new heart rate monitor; is there another way? Yes. Your body gives clues. Listen to your breathing. Are you huffing and puffing? Does your chest hurt? Is it difficult to catch your next breath? If so, you are running too fast. You should be able to breathe easily. Listen to your heart. Is it pounding, or barely noticeable? Check in with your eyes. Is it easy to focus on the world around you or are you getting tunnel vision? Overall, you should be enjoying the run, and if you are not, then you are going too fast. Slowing down makes running easy and trains your body to burn fat, which is Step Four.
Step Four: Become a Fat Burner, Not a Sugar Burner.
Burning sugar is like burning the head of a match. It’s fast and it disappears quickly. Burning fat is like burning coal. It’s slow, and long lasting. When we slow down our running, we train ourselves to burn fat instead of sugar, which is what we need for a distance run. Become a fat burner by consuming more good fats and less sugar.
“But I like sugar and bad fats,” says the reader. I understand, and suggest the rule of 80/20. Just make sure that 80% of the time you are eating good fats (avocado, olive oil, nuts and seeds) and complex carbohydrates (whole grain breads, quinoa, and beans). That means you get to indulge 20% of the time. This will support you in becoming a fat burner and push you to the finish line. Finally, we get to the most important step.
Step Five: Believe!
What you believe is true for you. If you truly believe you can do it, you will. If you believe you can’t do it, you won’t. To change your beliefs you must consciously associate massive pleasure with the belief that you will cross the finish line. Visualize how will you feel. Think about your new body, and the energy you will gain from this success. On the flip side, you must associate tremendous pain with the thought of not reaching your goal. What does it mean to stay the same? What will it mean in 10 years? Who else will it affect? When you believe you will gain more pleasure and avoid more pain from reaching your goal, you will be unstoppable.
Remember, you are not running a 26.2-mile race. It’s only 1 mile, 26.2 times.
Most runners have heard the marathon lore: Your time will be best if the weather on race day is about 55 degrees and overcast, or even drizzly. And avoid dehydration at all costs, because it will cause your muscles to cramp and you could collapse at the finish line.
But none of that is true, researchers said at a recent marathon medicine and science conference in Chicago.
The weather theory “needs adjusting,” said Scott J. Montain, a research physiologist at the United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass.
“Most of what we know comes from the lay literature,” he said.
Thousands of runners are no doubt monitoring the weather forecast for Sunday, when the New York City Marathon makes its annual tour of the five boroughs. (As of yesterday, it looked promising, with temperatures expected to be in the upper 40’s and partially cloudy skies.) But the weather nostrums for marathoning that are cited so authoritatively in journal articles and textbooks are not always borne out in legitimate science. Montain and his colleagues set out to conduct a proper study.
They gathered data from 28 years of the New York City Marathon, 35 years of the Boston Marathon and 23 years of the marathons in Hartford, Vancouver, Duluth, Minn., and Richmond, Va. The routes for those marathons have barely changed over the years, and each had a large field — more than 10,000 runners. The investigators looked at the average times for the top three men and women, and at the times for the runners who placed 25th, 50th, 100th and 300th.
Elite runners ran fastest in the coldest conditions — 41 to 50 degrees. But the slowing effect with heat was not as great as had been previously reported. For every five-degree increase in temperature, times slowed by 0.4 percent.
Warmer weather had a greater effect on slower runners. On a 77-degree day, an elite runner would be about 5 percent slower than on a 41-degree day. But a runner who finished in three hours on a 41-degree day would be slowed by about 12 percent on a 77-degree day, finishing in 3 hours 21 minutes.
One reason, Montain said, could be that slower runners spend more time on the course, and the temperature generally rises through the day. Or it could be because slower runners tend to run with a larger pack. A tightly clustered group of runners generates heat and blocks it from dissipating.
Montain and his colleagues also looked at whether marathon times were better under sunny or overcast skies. Only 13 percent of records were set on cool and cloudy days.
“It is more likely that a record will be set when it is sunny or when there are scattered clouds,” Montain said. He is not sure why that is; perhaps sunny conditions put runners in a better mood, he suggested.
Then there is the issue of cramping, that often excruciating, spasmodic, involuntary contraction of muscles that can occur during or, more often, just after a marathon. It almost always involves the muscles that were used to run — the hamstrings or calf muscles, for example. And it can last a minute or two — or much longer.
Conventional wisdom says cramps are caused by dehydration and that the solution is to consume salt and drink more fluids. Not true, says Martin P. Schwellnus, a professor of sports medicine at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
At the conference in Chicago last month, he reported that he could find no relationship between dehydration and cramping. He has studied cyclists, marathoners and triathletes, measuring levels of electrolytes and body-weight changes, both of which are indicators of dehydration. Those who cramped were no different from those who did not.
Two other studies looked at how much weight ultramarathon runners and triathletes lost during races — a measure of fluid loss and a direct indicator of dehydration. Those who cramped lost no more weight than those who did not. If anything, Schwellnus said, those who did not have cramps were slightly more dehydrated.
The cause of cramps, Schwellnus believes, is an alteration in the electrical signals going to exhausted muscles so that the balance between those signals activating muscles and those inhibiting them is distorted. One way to protect yourself is with proper marathon training and proper pacing. “Racing at too high of an intensity is one of the single most important risk factors,” Schwellnus said.
When muscles cramp, there is a simple and effective treatment: stop running and stretch that muscle. And, Schwellnus said, realize that the cramping will soon stop.
“Almost no matter what you do, if you stop the activity, the muscle will come back to normal,” he said.
Beyond the finish line of every marathon are runners who feel dizzy, and some of them collapse. It is not as common as muscle cramps, but the condition can afflict up to about 5 percent of marathon runners, said Michael N. Sawka, head of the thermal and mountain medicine division at the United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. He wondered whether the cause could be dehydration, a commonly evoked mechanism.
Sawka looked at published studies. One compared 45 athletes who collapsed after an ultramarathon to 65 who completed the race and did not collapse. There were no obvious differences between the two groups: their body temperatures were the same (dehydration makes the temperature rise), as were their electrolyte levels. But those who collapsed were pushing themselves as hard as they could, were at or close to their personal records, or were medal winners in the race. Perhaps, Sawka said, “that final effort might contribute to collapse.”
The actual cause, though, does not appear to be dehydration, Sawka said. Instead, it is a pooling of blood in the lower legs and feet when vigorous exercise suddenly stops and the heart rate slows markedly.
Timothy Noakes, a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town, said he had stopped giving intravenous fluids to collapsed runners.
“We completely changed the way we treat patients,” Noakes said. “All we do is have them lie down and put their feet higher than their head.”
Postmarathon collapse, Noakes added, “is a benign condition.”
“Just lift their legs and you will help the majority of patients,” he said. “That’s all you need to do to make most people recover very, very quickly. You can infuse as much fluid as you want, and you will not get the same response.”
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Golf and tennis not challenging enough? Some of today’s hardest-charging technology executives are turning to 100-mile bike races, marathons and high-endurance athletics for the kicks they crave.
The day-to-day thirst for success doesn’t end when CEOs and other business leaders leave the boardrooms of their billion-dollar companies, according to guests at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit this week.
"It is usually not a six- or seven-hour day, so part of it is you probably want something to keep you mentally and physically in shape," said Enrique Salem, chief operating officer of software maker Symantec Corp. "You want to do something that is challenging, that isn’t about running a business."
Salem owns a Giant TCR C1 bike, which retails for over $3,000, and last year completed a charity ride around California’s Lake Tahoe twice — the second time in under 4 hours. His sojourns don’t stop there.
"I skied 19 days last year. When I’m on the slopes, I’m trying to avoid trees and other skiers. So I am not thinking about what it takes to run Symantec. I think it’s a bit of mental relief," he said.
Long-distance running offers the same meditative reward for Hulu Chief Executive Jason Kilar, whose five marathons include Iceland, Portland, Seattle and New York, twice.
"I love setting goals," said the head of the video website owned by News Corp and General Electric Co’s NBC Universal. "Life is more interesting when you set goals that are not easy, and having a goal of a marathon … is a very fun thing that focuses you in a way that just running 3 miles or 6 miles a day does not," Kilar added.
They are not alone. In fact, Denver-based CEO Challenges runs sports competitions designed for top executives, including Triathlons, Ironman, Fishing, Sailing and Tennis Challenges.
HOUR CLUB
Dave DeWalt, CEO of security software maker McAfee Inc, described his goal for the grueling Mount Diablo Challenge, a 10.8-mile bike ride up 3,240-feet to the peak in the San Francisco Bay area.
"There is a race from the bottom to the top," said DeWalt, who also wrestled in college and had been invited to Olympic trials. "I can only compete in the over 200-pound class because there are some really fast riders. But there is the "hour club" — if you can do it in one hour or less, there is a special club. I can’t quite crack it yet but I am working on it."
To be sure, golf courses, tennis courts and myriad other sports — beloved by leaders of all stripes — won’t go out of business any time soon.
For example, the crop of presidential hopeful has diverse taste in athletics. Sen. Hilary Clinton owns her own bowling ball, Sen. Barack Obama loves basketball, and Sen. John McCain likes to hike around the hills of his Sedona, Arizona, ranch.
Some business leaders aspire to adrenaline-driven jaunts, but are willing to leave the serious challenges to more adventurous peers."
"I don’t have a lot of athletic bones in my body. I wish I had more," said AT&T Inc Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner. "We’ve got (two) boats … that we keep on Lake Travis. I will still jump on the water skis from time to time."
"Once or twice a year when conditions are perfect, the sun is shining, it’s 90 degrees, the water is smooth. I get up, do a circle, come around and have a beer and say, "By God, I can still do it."
Improve your health through cross-training exercise
If you follow the same exercise routine week-in, week-out you will maintain your health and fitness levels but will not actually improve them further. As a result, it might be time to introduce some variety to your exercising and cross-training could provide just what exercise variety you need. Here's the guide to cross-training exercise.
When was the last time you changed your exercise routine? If you’re anything like most exercisers, the answer is probably a long time ago. Most people carry out the same training week in week out, which maintains their basic level of fitness, but also means that they struggle to improve because they have reached a plateau. If your training is stuck in a rut, consider introducing some variety into your program by cross-training. You could reap a whole host of benefits including:
Increased motivation and interest – your workouts become more fun.
Physiological adaptation – your body adapts to the new challenges.
Training progression – your sessions become more advanced.
Improvementin your exercise – you get fitter through your exercise.
With today’s busy lifestyles, probably the biggest bonus of cross-training is that you can get fitter and stronger without committing any more time to exercising.
Cross-training key fitness benefit You are less likely to develop any overuse injuries because you will not be confining your exercise to a single activity – like solely running or only ever weight-training. This keeps the body in balance and provides all round conditioning – which is ideal for long-term health and fitness.
The triathlete’s fitness example An excellent example of cross-training is the sport of triathlon, where competitors complete in three disciplines; namely swimming, cycling and running, one after the other. Arguably, triathletes have the best all-round fitness of any athlete because their sport requires good upper and lower body strength, flexibility and a strong cardiovascular (CV) system (heart and lungs). For success in their chosen sport, triathletes don’t specialise in one type of exercise. Instead they have an all-round fitness plan, which is the best way to achieve balance in your health and fitness programme. Looking at the triathlon, the competitors will be getting an all-over-body workout; for example:
Swimming – upper body muscles and also legs a little.
Cycling – mainly legs but also arms on the hills as they pull on the handlebars.
Running – mainly legs but also core muscles to keep the body upright and hold everything in.
All three disciplines – the CV system.
Additionally, the movements are very different in each activity so although legs are involved in all three forms of exercise, different muscles are employed, which provides an all-round workout for the body.
So what can we learn from the triathlete’s exercise example? Keep a mix of activities in your exercise programme and ensure it includes a variety of strength, cardiovascular and flexibility work. If you enjoy a weights workout in the gym, for a change, try some of the cardiovascular machines and spend 10 minutes stretching after your usual session. Similarly, if you always head for the cross-trainer or only ever run, try the bike and a few weights machines. Importantly, do ensure that you get proper instruction so that you use good technique and avoid injury if you are unused to a new discipline.
Exercise variety is the spice of life
You don’t need to enter a triathlon competition to get cross-training gains but do consider adding variety to your programme to maximise your all-round health and fitness benefits. How about dipping into one of the alternative CV activities below to pep up your training:
Change the resistance of your training Equally, if your exercise sessions are usually confined to working your way around the static weights machines, have a try at some of the following alternative resistance training activities to kick start some improvements:
After a few weeks, re-introduce some of your old exercises and you’ll notice a difference as your body has further adapted to the new challenges that you have set it and your overall condition has improved.
In conclusion, the optimum way to maximize your exercise gains, is to continually mix up your training sessions, providing: variety, interest, motivation and total body fitness, without spending your life working out.
Research shows that people who cross-train manage their weight more easily because they’re working muscles all around the body and thereby raising their metabolic rate. So, by mixing up your training, you not only keep your workout fresh, you burn more calories too.
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For some, running a marathon is the ultimate goal. For others, it is a 26.2-mile waste of time. Then there are some of us who sit idly by, with envy in our hearts at the thought of crossing the finish line. There is, however, a strategy for achieving the ultimate goal of a marathon, even if you are a couch potato like I used to be, and believe it or not, it doesn’t require cheating.
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