Insoles Reduce Impact for Runners

MADISON – For many, running isn’t merely a sport or hobby. For the avid, running is an intricate system of punishments and rewards. And the rewards – health, fitness and the physical and psychological satisfaction of pursuing a challenging goal – are made more difficult because of a common punishment – injury.

Stress fractures, shin splints, plantar fasciitis – runners go to great lengths to avoid these obstacles that prevent them from pounding out their weekly miles. They search for the right shoe, the right stride and the right training routine.

In a study recently published in the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, two UW Health researchers examined an affordable and easy method that may reduce impact force injuries common to distance running.

Katy O’Leary, a physical therapist at the UW Health Rehabilitation and Athletic Performance Clinic who specializes in athletic injuries, joined Bryan Heiderscheit, PhD, an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and director of UW Health Sports Medicine’s Runners Clinic, to examine the beneficial aspects of shock-absorbing insoles placed in running shoes.

While the results of the study stop short of guaranteeing a reduction in injury for runners, O’Leary and Heiderscheit did find that insoles significantly reduce impact forces associated with running.

The Study

Podiatrychannel.com, a health information Web site maintained by board-certified podiatry physicians, lauds running as great exercise but cautions about the toll it takes on the body.

Jogging, the Web site states, "generates forces equivalent to at least three times the body’s weight (with each step). It is important to do everything possible to protect the feet, ankles, knees, hips and lower back vertebrae."

To find if cushioned insoles provide such protection, O’Leary and Heiderscheit recruited 16 recreational runners from the Madison area. All were between 20 and 36 years old and screened to eliminate anyone with a recent history of lower-extremity injury.

"They had to run an average of 20 miles per week and couldn’t have any neurological or musculoskeletal impairments that wouldn’t allow them to run comfortably," O’Leary says about the selection process.

The subjects were given identical shoes and asked to perform 10 15-meter trials during which they ran at their own pace across a force plate, which measures a runner’s ground reaction force (the force projected back up through the body while running). To ensure the runners used their normal stride, they were not told to hit the force plate with their right foot, the foot from which O’Leary and Heiderscheit derived the data.

Accelerometers were attached to the subjects’ ankles to measure the amount of tibial acceleration that occurred while they ran. O’Leary and Heiderscheit were also careful to monitor the consistency of the subjects’ knee angles when their feet hit the force plate, because widely varying angles could have skewed the results.

Five of the trials were conducted with only shoes. For the remaining five, subjects used insoles, manufactured by the Ohio-based company Sorbothane. O’Leary and Heiderscheit both stressed that Sorbothane was not involved in any phase of the study, other than the insole donation.

"They were blind to everything until we sent them the final results paper," Heiderscheit said.

The Results

"We found a couple of good things," O’Leary says. "When the runners had the insoles in, there was a significant reduction in the ground reaction force at the initial contact point."

On average, the ground reaction force was nearly 7 percent less with the insoles. It may seem like a paltry number, but remember that’s 7 percent less force per step.

"When you think of a 7 percent reduction for, say, a 10-mile run, that’s a lot," Heiderscheit says.

Tibial acceleration also decreased, by 15.8 percent. Both factors are considered potential culprits for impact force injuries.

Ramifications

O’Leary and Heiderscheit emphasize the study results do not definitively prove that cushioned insoles reduce running injuries. That’s a much larger task and would require a more elaborate setup.

"We couldn’t come out and say it’s going to reduce injuries but it certainly has the potential to," Heiderscheit says. "The piece we’re missing is following these people over time. We’d have to account for their training differences."

Still, both are encouraged sufficiently to broach the subject with their patients.

"In my practice I’m willing to say, ‘Try it out,’ " O’Leary says. "If it’s uncomfortable, you’re probably not going to run normally. But if you have a pair of insoles that you’re comfortable with and you feel good about it, there’s a chance it might help reduce your risk. It’s something I’m willing to put out there."
And Heiderscheit believes the benefit of insoles is more likely to be reaped by casual runners rather than hard-core trainers who have their sights set on future marathons or Ironman competitions.

"If you’re putting in 10 to 12 miles per week, your body’s adaptation to those types of impacts will be much slower and you won’t have the same level of tissue strength as somebody who’s putting in 50 miles per week," he says.

Plus, the insoles could save money, because they protect not only the runner from impact force but insulate shoes from trauma, as well. With insoles at about $15 to $20 per pair, they’re a relative bargain compared with shoes that often cost $100 or more.

"Shoes are expensive but insoles are cheap," Heiderscheit says. "They can get you maybe an extra 200 miles out of your shoe."

 

10+ Ways to Track Your Marathon Run

By Paul Glazowski

Some people make goals for themselves to reach every day. Like an hour-long bike ride, or a walk or jog around the neighborhood each morning, noon, or night. Others like to work themselves up toward bigger things. Like climbing Everest. Or rowing across an ocean. Or running a marathon.

Now seems a fitting time to spotlight that last endurance sport, given that this is the eve of the annual NYC Marathon, set to begin in less than 24 hours. Whether you’re in the main pack, watching from the sidelines, or simply feel inspired to boost your own level of performance, these are some networks, applications, and services that will help move you forward faster and longer yet.

If it’s the NYC Marathon that you’ve got your eyes set on, the main NYC Marathon page will give you much of the information that you need to know about the race happening tomorrow, November 2, 2008, and anything else happening around the big event. Will, or anyone you know, be taking part the marathon? Tell us in the comments!

The Universal Sports website will feature live coverage of the NYC Marathon from 9AM ET until the finish, and will offer streams from three live views. (Remember to account for Daylight Savings Time.)

There is also the storied Boston Marathon to consider, of course. The 113th edition of what is called the world’s oldest marathon is set to hit the city’s streets on April 20, 2009. Better get prepared!

Want to start pushing yourself toward a particular goal, be it as a runner or otherwise? Mecanbe is a great place to network with people and manage a kind of collaborative success. When you’ve got someone to nudge you on when you’re feeling ready to retire from your efforts, that’s when a place like Mecanbe can make quite a difference.

There are a number of other services that can network you to other runners, if only just to socialize and brag about how easy (or excruciating) it was to get past that 20 mile marker and continue moving them limbs. Favorite Run is one such environment, which claims to maintain a membership of nearly 70,000.

LogYourRun is another. It is a Web application that charts routes, sports GPS tools, as well as a forum, Facebook () application, mobile-friendly and iPhone-compatible features, blogs, a calendar, and more.

MapMyRun functions much the same way, thought some users may find it to be a more easily navigable environment.

RunningNetwork delivers any news having to do with the sport. National news, photos galleries, videos, training tips, and resources aplenty.

You might like to listen only to your surroundings as you maintain a pace to the finish line, but if you prefer to get through mile after mile with some beats, an interactive and slightly social service championed by the most ubiquitous name in sporting goods the world has ever seen, a trip down Nike+ lane and all it entails might prove handy to experience your training any eventual “big day” in an interesting way. You can trace your speed and share songs for playlists with other users. An iPod is a must, and, depending on your personal setup, you might need a special pair of shoes to make the system complete, but if you’re up for it, you might get that extra umph from your earbuds that songbirds and the sound of thousands of rubber soles hitting tarmac couldn’t quite match. There are also several Facebook apps which connect with the Nike+, all of which you can find here.

Speaking of gadgets, if you’ve got an Android ()-equipped T-Mobile G1 on hand, perhaps Breadcrumbz may do the trick for logging your route. Concentration might be hard to keep as you travel further along your journey, but hey, it’s all fun, right?

Meanwhile, in iPhone world there exist several downloads, some free, some paid. Pacemaker [iTunes URL], for example, is free and simply calculates time for a set pace and distance. This can be useful if you want to see when you can expect to “make it there” – wherever “there” might be. Alternatively, the App Store showcases a duo of applications named iRun [iTunes ()] and iRunPro [iTunes]. They are $0.99 and $1.99, respectively, and essentially provide a user with a pace meter. The pricing option gives you a pace graph and audible alarms.

 

Athletes over 40 hurtle past records, stereotypes

Over the Hill?

Matt Carpenter, 43 Carpenter – owner of a 90.2 VO2 max, a record high for the measurement of efficient oxygen use – leaps a gulley at Garden of the Gods. The runner is often a winner of the Pikes Peak Ascent and the Pikes Peak Marathon. Photo by Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

---

 

Jason Blevins The Denver Post

The familiar doubt arrived, haunting Marshall Ulrich.

"You are too old for this."

It was 114 degrees, and 56-year-old Ulrich was 35 miles into July’s Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race that climbs from California’s Death Valley to the flanks of Mount Whitney. Ulrich was crossing Death Valley for the 20th time in his running career, and things were looking grim. He’d lost 6 pounds since the start. His legs felt leaden, his breathing was labored. He was cramping. Sweat pouring. He was dead last in a race he’d won four times.

Maybe he’d pushed too hard, racing across the Gobi Desert, taking on an adventure race in Virginia and an ultramarathon through the Swiss Alps during the two months prior. Maybe after two decades of endless running in 117 ultra competitions and a dozen expedition-length adventure races and summiting the highest peaks in each continent, he was nearing his end at the top.

Maybe he was simply too old.

"I definitely thought about that for a little bit," he says, leaning back into a leather chair at his home perched above St. Mary’s Glacier.

"I had to give myself a little talk and say, ‘So what?’ I had to stop feeling sorry for myself. So I’m suffering. Big deal. I expect to suffer, and really, I just don’t care. You have to remember you always come back."

After an hour in the medical tent and a gallon of water, Ulrich found his inner champion and passed more than 40 other racers on his way to the finish the next day.

Turns out age wasn’t a factor. For Ulrich and an impressive roster of other over-40 athletes, a combination of smart training and the wisdom of experience lets them stay competitive.

They aren’t winning despite their age. They are winning because of their age.

Oxygen-burning machines
"What we are seeing is a new phenomenon in that we have athletes who are basically athletes their entire lives," says Chris Carmichael, Colorado Springs training maestro to Lance Armstrong and a former pro bike racer who finished his second Leadville 100 this year at the age of 46, this time in less than nine hours.

"They just keep on going. They just keep on getting more efficient with their use of oxygen. After years and years of aerobic training and competing, they are, in a sense, smarter athletes."

And they compete in an evolving playing field that is turning recreation into sport. What were once multi-day or several-week hikes – like the Colorado Trail or the Kokopelli Trail – are now venues for nonstop endurance races. Marathons, once the pinnacle of athletic achievement, are mere training runs for ultra races that span at least 50, but more often 100, miles.

Front page of the Sunday, 10/21/2007, Denver Post

Adventure racing, which draws teams so fast that the biggest weeklong races sell out in a matter of hours, has evolved into a contest for those who can suffer the most and still keep moving.

Take Bernie Boettcher. On his 45th birthday last month, the Silt legend reset his master-class record and logged his fourth overall win at the Imogene Pass race above Telluride. It was his 267th race in 260 consecutive weeks. In those five years of every-weekend racing in sneakers and snowshoes, he’s tallied 115 wins and 208 master-class wins.

"At the end of suffering, there is a reward, and it’s a really neat feeling to overcome that suffering," says Boettcher, his blue eyes gleaming beneath his trademark wide-brim straw hat. "After a while, that feeling is irresistible. You plow on through because you know it’s so good."

Passion before performance
A common thread found among Colorado’s venerable elite – aside, of course, from natural athletic talent – is a late competitive start. Most didn’t begin their full-tilt racing career until their mid-30s or even later.

"Maybe that’s because we have a different set of expectations and the passion came before the performance, where a lot of guys who started young had the performance first and then lost the passion," says Matt Carpenter, a rarely beaten world-class runner who, at 43, just won both the Pikes Peak Ascent and Pikes Peak Marathon in the same weekend.

"You have to look pretty hard to find young guys with the level of passion some of us old guys bring."

A few months ago, Carpenter teamed up with Ned Overend, a 52-year-old mountain biker from Durango, to win the team contest in the Teva Mountain Games. The two gray-haired athletes giddily beat some of the strongest young competitors in outdoor sports.

"I have a lot more respect now for the old-man strength, and I know now, once the gun goes off, forget the age groups. It’s every man for himself," says 29-year-old Josiah Middaugh, a nationally ranked triathlete from Vail who has lost several times to some of Colorado’s toughest over-40 racers.

The passion of the extraordinary elders is anchored in a steadfast love for training. Sure, for outdoor athletes, training means going for runs and rides in the woods. Who doesn’t like that? But when it comes to competing at an elite level, training involves somewhere around 40 hours a week of heavy work, not a weekend ride or two.

And after a couple of decades of training, the older athletes learn a few tricks – like how to taper and how to make it fun – that keep them in shape while staving off dreaded burnout.

They have trained for so long, their fitness level is staggering and it stays high. They aren’t rolling off the couch to prep for a race. They are building on decades of work.

"Training is a part of our lifestyle," says Overend, who was twice ranked as the world’s top rider and still levels virtually all rivals who pedal against him.

"Racing is important, but training is absolutely important. … You have to build momentum, get the right intensity and volume and find the right recovery time. It’s complicated, and it changes all the time. "

Wisdom of the war horse
The right training regimen fosters the right mental game – and that’s where some over-40 athletes say they have the sharpest edge over their younger rivals. It’s the same for most sports, where the old war horses know the strategies of a contest and carry the confidence and expertise they need to defeat stronger adversaries.

"Physically, I know there are people on the starting line who are probably stronger than me, but that doesn’t mean I cannot beat them," says Vail’s Mike Kloser, a 47-year-old husband, dad of two teenagers, director of activities at Beaver Creek and the world’s most accomplished adventure racer – who still rides a mountain bike like he’s being pursued by wolves.

"It might actually mean I am more able to beat them, because they rely less on their mental game. The mental game is a huge factor."

So long as that mental war is waged before the start of the race. While a younger racer might be strategizing and obsessing during a race, veterans know that in competition they have to remain in the moment.

"For me the mental part isn’t really a part of it. I just get out there, and it’s too overwhelmingly physical to get stressed," says Dave Wiens, a mountain biking champion who beat Floyd Landis and his own record in his fifth win at the grueling Leadville 100 race this summer. "A lot of it is attitude. You are going to be as old as you think you are. I like to think I’m only 43."

Motivation is a varying characteristic among older athletes. For racers such as Carpenter, Kloser and Boettcher, it’s all about winning. Some race to win, but they race for other reasons. Wiens and Overend are so in love with riding, they will race long after they lose that perch on the top podium.

Winning for a cause
As for Sedalia runner Diane Van Deren, she races to win so that her message will be trumpeted.

A dozen years ago, surgeons told Van Deren her career as a pro tennis player was over. The chunk of seizure-scarred tissue they were carving from her brain would take with it her athletic excellence. Today, the 47-year-old mother of three is on track to become the most accomplished female endurance trail runner in the country.

Last month, she placed fifth overall at the 50-mile Dances With Dirt ultra in Hell, Mich., dominating the women’s field, setting a masters record and beating all but four of the male racers who lined up at the start.

She found herself grinning at the same panting question from several racers she passed: "Do you mind if I ask how old you are?"

"When I win, I use it as a tool to raise awareness of brain injuries. It’s not about me. It’s about what I can do with that win," says Van Deren, a North Face-sponsored runner who works closely with patients, administrators and doctors at Craig Hospital.

"I want to take a gift I have as an athlete and use it to the best of my ability. My legs are my voice."

Ditto for ultramarathoner Ulrich, who has raised more than $250,000 for the St. Lucy Filippini Health Center in Hamelmalo, Eritrea, through his tireless running and fundraising.

"When I was young, it was an ego thing – pushing myself to see what made me tick," Ulrich says.

"Then I got that figured out and found another motivation. Knowing I’m doing it for someone else keeps me going. If it was just for myself, I wouldn’t do it. I guess I’m kind of getting over myself."

 

---

MATT CARPENTER, 43
Carpenter just changed his motto. It used to be:

"Go out hard. When it hurts, speed up."

Now it’s:

"Train like you’re young, and race like you’re young."

"I’m not making any concessions to age. I think the key word is denial," says the father of one, whose particular skill is running up and down mountains.

Carpenter says he is stronger than ever before, but maybe not as fast. Judging by his recent performance on his home hill, Pikes Peak – winning both the ascent and marathon in two days – it’s hard to see any declines in speed. Besides, a decline in Carpenter’s world means that his dominant wins are simply less dominating.

The 122-pound racer chooses his contests carefully and does not lose. Arguably the best mountain runner in the world, Carpenter logged a VO2 max of 90.2 in 1990, the highest ever recorded for a runner. (VO2 max is considered a benchmark of fitness and measures the amount of oxygen a person can extract from circulating blood and distribute to muscles during high exertion.)

Learn more about Carpenter, one of the more opinionated and colorful runners, at www.skyrunner.com.

 

---

DAVE WIENS, 43
Wiens owns the Leadville 100 bike race.

The five-time winner of the ridiculously difficult race put a special effort into this summer’s competition, knowing that Floyd Landis, and possibly Lance Armstrong, would be racing.

For training this spring, he rode the Kokopelli Trail Race from Fruita to Moab – scorching the 142-mile desert race in 12 hours, 45 minutes.

It paid off. When push came to shove in the final leg of this year’s Leadville race, it was Landis pushing Wiens – and the Gunnison father of three boys shoved harder.

Born and raised in Denver, Wiens started racing pro after graduating from Western State College in 1988. Wiens officially "retired" from racing in 2004, but that was before the two-time national mountain biking champion won his four Leadville 100s, the inaugural 125-mile Vapor Trail Race and the Crested Butte Classic 100.

Obviously he has his own definition of "retired."

"It’s kind of an obsession. That’s a problem I have. I am going to have a hard time defining ‘the end,"’ he says. "While winning is certainly more fun, I think losing has way more to offer in terms of character building. I’m going to do Leadville until I get beat. And then I’ll probably do it again."

 

---

BERNIE BOETTCHER, 45
Boettcher lives to run in the hills. Not just jogging, but racing and beating everyone who lines up against him.

During nearly five years of racing, the part-time artist from Silt has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of his rivals: their style, how they look when they are feeling strong, and more important, what they look like when they are suffering. Things like tilting their head back. Slowing the swing of their arms. And the most tell-tale sign, looking back over their shoulder.

"You know that that means? That means they’ve stopped racing. That’s when I make my move. For years I have worked on recognizing signs of weakness. I’m like a predator," he says, noshing on a buffalo burger after a quick 30-mile training run.

He makes sure to never develop a pattern his rivals could use against him, working feverishly to assure his strategy is never turned on him. His wife, Jeannie Blatter, is an equally gifted runner, and often the pair wake up Monday with pairs of matching medals. They both share an "excessive personality" that drives them to compete.

"Everything I do is designed to win at running," he says.

 

---

MIKE KLOSER, 47
Kloser started pedaling his mountain bike competitively in the mid-’80s after living in the Vail Valley for several years.

He dabbled in the pro mogul skiing circuit for a while, winning a few national contests. But he found his calling hammering the knobby-tired ride, winning mountain biking’s pre-sanctioned world championships in 1988. The father of two teenagers who are emerging as top-tier athletes themselves, Kloser credits his longevity to his switch to adventure racing in 1997.

"Now everything I do outdoors is training," he says.

In the past decade, the 26-year Vail Resorts employee has earned the most wins in adventure racing history, captaining his Team Nike to five world titles, three Eco-Challenge wins and four Primal Quest championships.

Last year he won the U.S. Winter Triathlon Championship at Grand County’s Devil’s Thumb Ranch, confirming his reputation as one of the world’s top all-around outdoor athletes. He does it all and he wins, sporting an unnervingly placid "isn’t-this-fun" grin with every step.

His strategy: pray for the worst weather imaginable. "I really hope for adverse conditions. I relish those hard circumstances because I know rivals wither in those conditions," he says.

 

---

DIANE VAN DEREN, 47
In April, Van Deren ran 47 hours, logging 150 miles without stopping.

On her final – and 15th – 10-mile lap at the McNaughton Park Trail Run in Illinois, race organizers began taking down ribbons marking the trail. After all, the racers had been there 14 times. Van Deren freaked out.

"Where’s the trail?" she screamed at the checkpoint staff. "I have a brain injury. I can’t remember!"

A flustered organizer joined her, running along the trail, pointing out the turns – and Van Deren set her record. Just like always.

After brain surgery 12 years ago, Van Deren must write notes on her hands and drop-bags on long-

distance runs. "Drink. Flashlight. Rain jacket." That keeps her focused on stuff like surviving while she stomps her way into history.

The mother of three – including a 19-year-old serving in Iraq – kept her surgery and seizure history secret during her first years on the competitive ultra circuit. When she established herself as a force, she came out and became one of the nation’s leading voices for brain-injury awareness.

She takes her role-model status as seriously as her training, which involves waking at 4 a.m. daily for trail runs that stretch past 30 miles.

"There are no shortcuts to what we do," she says. "It all comes from hard work, and we need to convey that message more clearly. It’s our obligation to set good examples."

 

---

NED OVEREND, 52
Overend is the living legend of mountain biking. The Durango racer started his career on the highest step of the podium as a runner, logging top finishes at Imogene Pass in 1980 and 1981.

When he mounted a mountain bike in the early ’80s, he began a career that kicked off with wins at the inaugural world championships in Durango in 1990. From there, he went on to earn two world champion titles and six national crowns as well as dual nicknames: The Lung and Deadly Nedly.

He beat his own record at this summer’s Vail Hill Climb – part of the Teva Mountain Games – beating Floyd Landis with a blistering time of 27 minutes, 29 seconds on the 9.7-mile, 1,500-vertical-feet climb up Vail Pass.

"Avoiding injury is my key," he says. "If my knees get sore on a bike ride, I turn around and go home. I stand in freezing water a lot too: the Animas River, right here in town. I think that kind of ice bath is a good way to reduce inflammation and reduce the chance of injury.

"Injury means needing to take more time off, and that can lead to getting out of shape. You can’t be this old and get out of shape, because it takes so long to regain it."

 

---

MARSHALL ULRICH, 56
Ulrich started running 26 years ago to handle stress as his first wife was dying of cancer. He ran a few marathons, barely dipping below the three-hour mark.

On a whim, he decided to run a 24-hour race in upstate New York in 1988. He won it, setting a record, and surprised himself by maintaining that three-hour marathon pace for the entire 24 hours. The father of three had discovered a rare ability to run for, well, forever.

In 2002 he began a quest he dreamed up at age 8: to climb all seven of the highest summits on the seven continents. It took him a mere 3 1/2 years.

Next spring, the lithe Ulrich will join renowned ultra runner Charlie Engle, 44, in an attempt to break the record for running across the United States. Starting in Seattle, the pair plan to run at least 68 miles – probably 15 to 17 hours a day – for 47 days, ending in Washington, D.C.

"There are lots of people out there who think it is extraordinary to go out and run 100 miles. For us it’s much more instinctive to do that instead of sitting on the couch drinking beer and watching a ballgame.

"We have this yearning. I always said I wanted to run into my 90s. Now I’m thinking I can do it into my 100s."

 

---

 

Running for Beginners

By: Chris Brogan

How does a fat guy get fit enough to run? Are you thinking of taking up running? Here’s some advice:

Trails versus Street

First, a word about trail running. Trails are softer which gives two immediate results. One, your knees thank you for less painful impact. Two, because trails are less solid than streets, you end up running slower than your maximum potential. This is great from my perspective, because I have a habit of overdoing it. I want the slowdown.

The Right Shoes

It’s really important to us proper footwear. I learned firsthand all the crazy things that can go wrong. I will throw out there, however, that barefoot running is a really small niche interest right now, and I’ve tried it on beaches and on safe trails, and I loved it.

Every one is different and there are all kinds of articles out there for selecting shoes. Just know that you need new shoes, you need them to be really well fit for your needs (for instance, you take a larger shoe size for running than you do for casual wear), and that you need the right kind of support for the way your feet land. Google around for this, or email me. I’ll help you further, if you’d like.

Run / Walk Programs

When I had my first running breakthrough, it was this: you are still a runner if you have to slow down and walk for a bit. John Bingham’s great book, NO NEED FOR SPEED, was an excellent resource for me in learning how to run. All of John’s products are great that way, and “The Penguin,” as he likes to call himself, is a wealth of knowledge unto himself.

Standard Disclaimer: see your physician before trying this or any other program. This is just for informational use and doesn’t constitute something worth doing. Worked for me.

Here’s a sample of a run/walk program that I mentioned to a friend the other day. The “R” stands for running, and the “W” stands for walking. The number is for how many minutes of each one might do. I do this in multiples of 30 minutes for the first few weeks. As time progresses, I consider adding more minutes (maybe another cycle of the run/walk program) into the mix. The basic premise is to slowly build yourself up to running more and walking less. Each line represents a week of training:

Warm up by walking briskly for 2 minutes, maybe 3. Then, start this:

• 1R , 4W x 6 times. Week 1
• 1R , 3W x 7 times. Week 2
• 2R, 3W x 6 times. Week 3
• 2R, 2W x 7 times. Week 4
• 3R, 3W x 5 times. Week 5
• 3R, 2W x 6 times. Week 6
• 3R, 1W x 7 times. Week 7
• 4R, 2W x 5 times. Week 8
• 4R, 1W x 6 times. Week 9
• FULL Running for 30 minutes.

If you have to skip a running minute or two early on, do so. Just walk briskly and catch your breath. Don’t be religious about this. Make it work for you.

How FAST?

When I’m saying running, this is basically a step above brisk walking. Think of it as a controlled shuffle. Focus on turning your feet over quickly, and not running fast. Just keep thinking about turning your feet over, which should be slightly longer strides than if your shoes were tied together, but not big huge gaping stretches. With a run/walk program, the trick is to keep the “difference” between the running and the walking down to a minimum, so when you’re walking and catching your breath a bit, make sure that’s still a brisk walk.

Don’t worry about speed. Get your distance and your duration up. Then, speed will come out of your endurance and your toning.

Mileage versus Minutes

I’m a bigger fan of minutes versus miles, but as you get faster and better, and more confident in your running, you might switch. The best thing to realize is: unless you’re trying out for a world-class team, there is no official right or wrong way to do it, only strong suggestions and passionate people on either side of every possible schism one could experience. This is how *I* did it the first time, and how I plan to do it next.

Hydration, Eating

First, get a lexan water bottle. The famous brand name is Nalgene. They are recycling number 7, in case you’re being offered a ripoff. In the US, they cost around $7 on the low end. But why? Because those bottles handle bacteria way better than when you re-use your disposable water bottles, and they’re nicer on the environment. Having them around makes you want to drink more. And other hacks I haven’t considered.

A note about eating: do so a half hour or so before you run. An hour’s best, but fit it into your schedule. What’s good to eat (and NOT good to eat) before a run? High carbs and low glycemic index food, like energy bars (CLIF Bar is my personal favorite), Oatmeal is easy, even the instant kind. What NOT to have are things high in fats, like sausage. Peanut butter is usually a great energy food, but keep it to maybe 1 table spoon along with a slice of multigrain bread.

The point is, it’s important to have energy in the tank. The more you have ready for your run, the better you’ll feel while trying to run.

Your Advice

I’m open to your advice. One thing that’s certain about things like running: you’ll get about 50/50 responses to the above where some will say, “This is full of crap” or “that’s not running, that’s jogging” or whatever. You know what? YOU are the person qualified to tell whether advice works for you. If it’s running to you, it’s running to me. But what else will you add? I’m looking for tips before I get out all the lead and start running this week.

–Chris Brogan produces a weekly audio podcast called Fat Guy Gets Fit.

 

Triathlon: The Early History of the Sport

Four years before the "Ironman", on September 25, 1974, the first triathlon was held on Mission Bay in San Diego (Usa/California). It was directed and conceived by Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan and sponsored by the San Diego Track Club. What follows is the story of the beginnings of this new sport as remembered by one of its founders, Jack Johnstone.

In 1971, at age 35, I joined millions of other Americans in the jogging craze. As was the case with so many others, I’d been growing increasingly disgusted with my ever-expanding waistline and general physical deterioration. One thing led to another, and before I knew it I was competing in road races, which at that time, were relatively small (and inexpensive) affairs. My previous athletic career had been eight years as a high school and college swimmer. Despite being named to the 1957 Collegiate and AAU All-American teams in the 100 yard breast stroke, my overall performances had been rather mediocre. After a year or so of competitive running, I was still struggling to regain my athletic mediocrity. Then, in 1973, I heard about the "Dave Pain Birthday Biathlon", to be staged for the second time on July 28. A 4.5 mile run followed by what was billed as a quarter-mile swim (the actual distance was between 200 and 300 yards). My race! I thought. How many of these runners can swim? I found out. I can’t remember my exact place, and the full results aren’t available, but I think I came in somewhere around fourteenth. Nothing to write home about, but a lot better than I’d been doing in road races.

In much better shape the following year, I broke into the top ten. That rather modest success got me to thinking, There should be more of these races, and the swim should be longer. Someone else wasn’t going to do it. If I wanted it to happen, I had to make it happen. I conceived of a run-swim biathlon with equal emphasis on the two disciplines, and several alternate legs. The initial run could be done in racing shoes, but subsequent running legs would have to be barefoot on a suitable surface (grass or sand). The Fiesta Island area of Mission Bay, where Dave Pain’s race had been staged, was almost perfect. I designed a course, then called Bill Stock, the San Diego Track Club Calendar Chairman, and told him of my plans. He said he would put it on the calendar, and the rest was up to me. As an afterthought, he suggested I call Don Shanahan, who also had some strange event in mind. Maybe we could combine our ideas so there wouldn’t be too many "weird" races on the schedule. I called Don and he told me that he wanted to include a biking leg. I wasn’t too thrilled with the suggestion, having never cycled competitively (I didn’t even own a bike). But what the hell, I thought, let’s go for it. We decided to call the event the "Mission Bay Triathlon".

Neither Don nor I had put on a race before and we had a lot to learn. We leaned on friends and relatives and signed up as many volunteers as we could. The race had to be held late in the summer to allow enough time for publicity. We chose Wednesday, September 25, 1974 as our date, there being no available weekend time slots on the calendar. Our brief notice in the September Issue of the "San Diego Track Club Newsletter" read as follows:

It seems strange to me now that we thought it necessary to include the sentence about bringing bikes. I think someone must have asked me if they’d be provided. I haven’t been able to find any record of the entry fee, but I think it was one dollar. One minor, but memorable experience I had was when I ordered the award trophies. The trophy maker called and asked how to spell "triathlon". He hadn’t found it in any dictionary. I thought, Well, if it’s not in any dictionary, the word must not exist. It’s up to me how to spell it. Given the spellings "pentathlon", "heptathlon", and "decathlon", I guess there wasn’t really much choice, but it seemed like a lot of power at the time.

Our main concern was having enough entrants to make the event credible. I was afraid the inclusion of a bike leg might cut down on the field to the degree that no one would take the race seriously. I drew up a map of the course and took it around to several of the track club events and tried to encourage the athletes to try something new. At one of these I ran into Bill Phillips, a previous winner of the "Dave Pain Biathlon". It took very little encouragement to get a commitment from him. Donna Gookin, who directed a running group at the time, said she’d bring her entire crowd to the race and have as many as were willing enter it. I prevailed on my surfing son Bill Swanson and two of his friends, Joel Rear and Rick Terrazis, to lifeguard along with Jeannie Lenheart, whom I knew from work.

The winner was expected to finish under an hour, but some competitors could take twice that long. Darkness could conceivably be a problem, so we arranged for a few cars to have their headlights directed on the last, short swimming segment (Don remembers this as a last minute, hurry up solution).

On race day 46 eager contenders toed the line. This significantly exceeded our expectations for a never before staged race being held on a weekday evening. An injury kept Don from competing, but I just had to do it. We shared the pre-race responsibilities, but he was the director once the event began. My recollections of the race are fuzzy after so many years years. I don’t recall the first run at all, but remember a little about the second leg. Most of the bikes I saw were beach cruisers and three speeds. Riding a primitive 10 speed Volkscycle, I had one of the quality machines in the field. On the second biking loop, I passed a young lady on a beach cruiser, still on her first time around. I later learned her name was Barbara Stalder. As I went by I remember thinking, Darkness is going to be a problem. I don’t know if Barbara ever competed in another triathlon, but that evening she earned the distinction of coming in last in the first.

As I dismounted my bike and tried to run, my legs felt like they didn’t belong to my body. I let out a moan of anguish and remember someone yelling to me, "Well, it was your idea!". Now, a quarter of a century later, I think, Inspired by Dave and along with Don, it was my idea. In this small way, I changed the world; the course of athletic history. Somehow I did manage to get my legs working again and picked up several places on the swim, though I remember Bill Phillips finishing his second crossing of Leisure Lagoon as I was starting my first. After finishing in sixth place, I started helping Don with the finish line. Sure enough, it was well after dark when the last of the first triathletes made their way across the inlet to the finish.

Most of the competitors went for pizza after the race, and I could tell that everyone, even Barbara, had had a great time. There was no doubt we were on to something. Reflecting now on that first event years ago, I marvel that we were able to draw such an impressive field under the circumstances. These were not triathletes. There was no such thing at the time. None were into cross-training, a term not yet coined. Most didn’t own racing bikes and some were marginal swimmers at best. Yet they had the adventuresome spirit to come out after a hard day’s work and with only two weeks notice to participate in a new athletic event. Few of the names listed in the results will be familiar to today’s triathletes, but if it weren’t for them, the new sport may have died on the cloudy evening on Mission Bay. One name which almost any triathlete will recognize, however, is listed in thirtyfifth place. John Collins, who four years later would found the event which brought international attention to the new sport, had just completed his first triathlon.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to the volunteers, who are necessary for the successful staging of any race. My wife Betty worked in many capacities, but remembers most being chief shoe collector. She headed the team that picked up the shoes from the start of the first swim, stuffed them in plastic bags, and delivered them to the staging area. They were wet, sandy, and smelly. It wasn’t a pleasant job.

Don and I planned three more races for the following summer. Tim Cohalen volunteered to direct the popular two person triathlon relay. During the next few years the events became more popular and saw the emergence of a few athletes who considered the triathlon their specialty. Among these were Tom Warren, winner of the second "Ironman", Wally and Wayne Buckingham, and two time "Ironman" champion Scott Tinley. The Coronado Optimist Club began to sponsor triathlons a short time later. Their races started with biking, followed by an ocean swim and a short run. To my knowledge, these were the only other triathlons to precede the "Ironman".

We stopped sponsoring the event in the early eighties, but by that time the "Ironman" had caught the attention of the media and the sport of triathlon was well on its way. On October 23, 1998, the "Founders Day Triathlon" was held on Mission Bay to commemorate the first triathlon almost a quarter century before. The next day Dave, Don, Bill, and I, along with Tom Warren, became the original inductees into Triathlon Hall of Fame.

Mission Bay Triathlon, September 25, 1974 – 1st Bill Phillips 55:44, 2nd Greg Gillaspie 56:49, 3rd Dave Mitchell 56:57, 4th Jim Young 57:05, 5th Gordon Lutes 59:40, 6th Jack Johnstone 62:18, 7th Richard Fleming 64.01, 8th Bob Letson 64:14, 9th Tom Rothhaar 64:26, 10th John Garty 65:31, 11th Dale Larabee 65:44, 12th Bill Lee 66:04, 13th Pain and Gervais 66:04, 14th Ed Gookin 66:04, 15th Joe Bruce 66:41, 16th Pete Negaard 67:29, 17th Mike Welch 67:38, 18th Armen Johnson 67:40, 19th Rubin Collins 68:18, 20th Rick Sacory 68:25, 21st Ed Stalder 68:49, 22nd Ron Sandvick 71:23, 23rd Eileen Water 71:43, 24th Steve Parson 72:44, 25th Dan Abbott 74:05, 26th Greg Holmes 74:39, 27th Bob Holmes 74:40, 28th Flo Squires 74:45, 29th Herman Platzke 75:29, 30th Judy Collins 77:21, 31st Richard Fromen 78:02, 32nd Gail Hanna 78:12, 33rd Kristin Collins 78:56, 34th Michael Collins 79:10, 35th John Collins 79:19, 36th George Moore 79:27, 37th Bob Potthof 81:16, 38th Arne Dixner 81:47, 39th Jim Waters 84:03, 40th Jerry Mailhot 86:15, 41st Donna Gookin 86:52, 42nd Mayanne Garty 89:14, 43rd Joanne Bartlet 89:25, 44th Karen Gookin 90:20, 45th Sharon Buntrock 90:30, 46th Barbara Stalder 94:51.

 

You don’t need to go to the gym to get fit

By: Carol Bardelli

Home gyms are nice but not necessary to get fit.

The CTV.ca News Staff (article link) and other news sources including Reuters reported that new research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that a predisposition to obesity may be as easy to overcome as spending a few hours a week at the gym. This study found that study subjects performing a high level of physical activity basically counteract effects of gene mutations that predisposes them to obesity. The findings were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Did they really need to go to a gym to accomplish this? Probably not.

When we exercise – be it aerobic activity or anaerobic resistance training – our bodies don't care how or where we get it done. After you stimulate a muscle it doesn't second guess whether it should grow based on whether you used top of the line dumbbells, an expensive space age machine, or you simply used your own body for resistance and did push ups or pull ups.

Your cardiovascular system doesn't give a hoot whether you got your running done on a $5000 treadmill or a free track at a public park. And your fat cells will not refuse to release fat for fuel based on whether your caloric deficit was achieved at a high end gym or in your own garage.

I'd like to point you to some free workout sources in this segment. Our budgets and saving money are on most of our minds these days. Even in better economic times I've heard people use lack of money as an excuse not to work out.

It's time to debunk the myth you must spend a lot of dough to keep from looking like the Pillsbury dough boy. Free workout resources are out there and available to nearly all of us. When my son was a preschooler, he and I got in the habit of listening to the radio in the morning and dancing to the music. Most forms of dance are great aerobics workouts. And if you dance in your kitchen like we do you don't even have to be good at it. You can also dance to television shows like VH1 Jump Start and MTV You Rock The Deuce.

Other free workout opportunities are available in many community parks. Check out walking trails, bike paths, free fitness courses like Tai Chi, and guided workout stations in your city. Guided workout stations generally have instructions posted on signs for each exercise. These exercises typically include resistance training like push ups and pull ups.

If you subscribe to cable or satellite services many carry FitTV network which broadcasts a wide variety of guided workout programs for up to four hours a day. We absolutely love Gilad Bodies In Motion, Total Body Sculpt With Gilad, and all their other exercise programs which include aerobics, yoga, stretching, resistance training and more. ESPN Classic has exercise programs including Kiana's Flex Appeal and Denise Austin's Getting Fit. If you're already paying for it why not make use of it.

Online workout resources include websites with free exercise videos and demonstrations including one I plan to review for you soon. You can also find guides online for learning isometrics and calisthenics. These two forms of resistance training require only your body and another surface like a wall or floor as a piece of exercise equipment. Check out the Bodybuilding.com Article 'New Age Isometric Training’ by Kelly Baggett on two types of isometric exercises, yielding and overcoming isometrics, including sample exercises.

YouTube has many well executed exercise demonstrations. If you don't know how to perform certain exercises (ie. bicep curls, squats, push ups) and can't afford sessions with a personal trainer these videos can be just as educational.

You really can get fit without ever stepping foot in a gym. Any of the examples above are a great place to start.

Always consult you physician before starting any exercise program.

A Guide to Some of the Best Marathons in North America

Picking a "best" marathon can be like finding a good piece of chocolate in a sampler box of candies: You either take the plunge–and possibly pay the price for it–or you rely on the advice of someone else who has eaten a piece before (or in this case, has done a particular marathon before). Here’s our advice on some of the best races in the country–all so you can match your tastes with a race. Now all you have to do is start training.

 

Best Rural Race: Napa Valley Marathon

You don’t need to be a pretentious snob with a lifetime subscription to Wine Spectator to understand the appeal of Napa. The race is miles of pristine rolling countryside (mustard fields that will later be replaced with grapevines), with only the last mile in town. The fast course requires a Herculean effort between several municipalities, and has 1,300 volunteers for a 2,300-person race. Runners get a plethora of perks in return for their entry fees.

"I think the most important thing is we treat every runner like they’re the only one in the race," says race co-director David Hill. www.napa-marathon.com.

Best Small-Town Race: Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is a smaller city that thinks big. Its marathon offers prize money and has many of the same features of Chicago or New York, but without the crowds. Instead, you’ll run by stately neighborhoods on tree-lined streets, albeit with a smaller audience.

"You get a lot more of the funky urban multicultural experience in Chicago," says Meg Daniel of Kennesaw, Georgia, who has run both. "In Richmond you get a little bit of everything else: the stately old neighborhoods, the quiet Zen-like tranquility of the river, and the historical in-town setting."

Plus, race directors entice marathoners with two dedicated "Junk Food" stops (miles 16 and 22), stocked with cookies, pretzels, Gummi Bears, soda and other sweets to keep runners on a high www.richmondmarathon.com.

Best Big-City Race: New York City

The New York City Marathon is doing what the city has always done–embracing those from abroad. New York’s field is comprised of a stunning 12,000 international runners, and the town welcomes them with some of the largest marathon crowds going (two million or so). The runners tours all five boroughs of the largest city in the U.S., and is one of only two marathons to garner national television coverage, which is why "big" doesn’t really do it justice. Now that ING is ponying up one of the largest prize purses in marathoning, look out: New York’s only going to get bigger. www.ingnycmarathon.org.

Best Destination: Honolulu

Here’s some running therapy for you: Think December. Think white sand, warm temperatures, the sound of waves lapping against the shore. Good. Next, visualize running in shorts while your friends back home are trying to find ways to keep their extremities warm. Now think fireworks over a pre-dawn sky, torch-lit roadways, Japanese banners, costumes and drums. Picture a long, dramatic uphill that will suck the wind out of your lungs, followed by a view that has a similar effect. The Honolulu Marathon is one of the world’s greatest spectacles of running. If you’re up for scenery and a wild time, this is the place. www.honolulumarathon.org.

Best Chance for a PR: Chicago

There are some obvious reasons why those seeking to catch lightning in a water bottle invade Chicago. The crowds are enormous, and no matter how fast you are, there’s someone to run with. The course is flat, which means even pacing–the best route to a PR. But there are other explanations why people speed here. An underrated one is that runners can walk out of their hotels, across the block and up to the starting line in Chicago. In many other "fast" marathons, you sit on a bus for an hour or more, then anxiously kill time (outdoors) in a temporary village that is often as welcoming as Amityville. Chicago removes a great deal of the stress before a marathon by nature of its loop course, which means you run relaxed. And when you run relaxed, you run very, very fast. www.chicagomarathon.com.

Toughest Marathon: Pikes Peak (Colorado Springs)

A race that began as a challenge between smokers and non-smokers, Pikes Peak has enough standing between you and the finish line without chronic emphysema.

"The joy of running the event is really overwhelmed by the agony of it," says Ron Ilgen, race director. "I was one of many who say while they’re running, I’ll never do this again.’"

But they just can’t stay away. Keith "Curly" McKenney of Georgia finished just four minutes before the cutoff. "Standing thereI could only think of how well we had all done, and how I never wanted to do that again." This year, he’ll attempt "The Double": the Pikes Peaks Ascent, Saturday, followed by the marathon (up AND down) on Sunday. If you think that’s brutal, try volunteering. Twenty-two garden hoses are hooked together to transport water to the last aid station. Then there’s the occasional snowstorm. It’s a world-class mountain race, but it’s still a mountain race. The point? Yes, you’re a badass if you run it, but know what you’re getting into before you decide to conquer Pikes Peak. www.pikespeakmarathon.org.

Most Charitable: Marine Corps (Washington, D.C.)

People can, and in fact are, raising money for charity at almost any marathon these days. Some have become destinations for charity groups; others are linked directly to organizations. Along those lines, Marine Corps staff have turned what used to be a sore spot for them (the difficulty of gaining entry) into a chance to do good: Raise money through one of their chosen charities and you receive a coveted race bib. So you can feel good about your race, even before the gun goes off. www.marinemarathon.com.

Most Legendary: Boston

The Boston Marathon has taken quite a beating recently–by the weather, by the press, by the inability of anyone not born in the Rift Valley to win the thing. Sure, it’s got some issues. Like the fact that the trip out to Hopkinton feels like a cross-country tour in your parents’ old station wagon, the one with vinyl seats and without air conditioning ("We’re on a pilgrimage to see a Moose!"). But this is still the granddaddy of them all–the one on every runner’s wish list, either to run in or to win. It’s a fabled course, steeped in history, and you feel its magnitude at the starting line. There’s just nothing like Boston. And until you’ve suffered through the journey like the rest of us, there’s a little piece of your running puzzle that’s missing. www.bostonmarathon.org.

Best New(er) Race: Baltimore

Baltimore, seemingly rife with orange cones and potholes, was not in the running for "Most Scenic Marathon" on our list. But it’s here because those in charge are determined to keep improving their race. Michael Shilling of New Jersey has run every Baltimore Marathon since it began in 2001.

"The beauty of this marathon lies in the fact that the race director and race management company listen to the runners," he says. "They have changed the marathon every year based on runner feedback."

That includes the course, which has been smoothed out since its inaugural year and starts and finishes at Baltimore’s coolest feature, the stadium area that houses both the Ravens and the Orioles. Note the plentiful pre-race restrooms, top-notch expo, swank race shirt (Under Armour is the main sponsor) and lots of spectators. www.thebaltimoremarathon.com.

Best Race at Altitude: Salt Lake City

Yes, the air is thin. Salt Lake City rests at around 4,500 feet. But the vociferous encouragement may make you forget that it feels like you’re breathing through a straw. "This town took ownership of the race from the time it was announced," says Jeff Wilson of Columbus, Ohio. "They took the race as their own and made it special."

"Special" included a finish through the Olympic Plaza and boisterous crowds, in addition to a race management company that sweated the details.

"Great races combine a tireless service to the athlete with an attitude of fun," says Wilson, a veteran of 31 marathons. "We’re all out there to celebrate the day, the sport and each other. The best (races) build on that." www.saltlakecitymarathon.com.

Most Scenic: Big Sur

So you know that car commercial, where a sedan is knifing down a two-lane road high above the ocean with some overdone Led Zeppelin song cranking in the background? You know how your eyes drift from the car you can’t afford, over to the dazzling view? That’s Big Sur, a breathtaking stretch of Northern California coastline. And you, my friend, are going to see it at a much more reasonable speed. Because as beautiful as it is, the Big Sur Marathon is also hilly, and no place to shoot for a PR. Looking west, that won’t matter much.

"Spending the better part of four hours watching the California coast is a pleasant way to spend a morning, even as the pain in my legs constantly increases," says Rick Swayne of Los Gatos, California, a regular here. Be sure to bring along a portable camera; you’ll want to document your slow, painful, gorgeous journey. www.bsim.org.

Best Place to Feel Like a Movie Star: Los Angeles

Drawn to the bright lights of show biz like a moth to a porch light? You’ll dig the 8:30 a.m. start (though some have complained of the heat). Love hearing people call out to you? The personalized bibs (with your first name in big letters) will be right up your alley. Dream of competing in a reality television show? Try crying at the end of a marathon in front of a grandstand full of beautiful people. Los Angeles makes you feel like a somebody.

"The city made such a big deal about it," says Kelli Picon of Greeley, Colorado, who ran the race in 2004. "There were posters all over L.A., Hollywood and everywhere else we went. We saw coverage of it on TV–it made us all feel very important." www.lamarathon.com.

Best Marathon/Vacation Combo: Vancouver, B.C.

It’s about time somebody recognized our neighbors to the north. Vancouver, whose marathon is typically at the end of April, is a beautiful historic city with a British feel and plenty of entertainment for everyone. The race itself is a well-organized, athlete- and spectator-friendly race that gives you a jumpstart on sightseeing. Plus, the hills aren’t so bad that you’ll have to spend the rest of your vacation holed up in the hotel. www.adidasvanmarathon.ca.

Best Race to Leave the Kids Behind: Las Vegas

Running is to Vegas as gambling is to the Vatican. Running means early mornings, carb-fests and sweat-drenched shirts. Vegas means sleepless nights, all-you-can-eat shrimp and sweat that smells like rum and Coke. Maybe that’s the allure: If you’re going to sacrifice your social life in the pursuit of endurance, you might as well celebrate the end of it all in Party Central. Tom Stieg of Washington state knows. He came up short of a Boston qualifier in a windy Vegas last year.

"I was so disappointed I didn’t get to Boston, I headed right for Monte Carlo Brewery and just went crazy," he says. "I was there for the rest of the day, still in my running stuff." Some runners say they come for the fast course. We say they’re bluffing. www.lvmarathon.com.

Best Race with a Half Marathon: Flying Pig (Cincinnati)

Many people don’t know that Cincinnati was once known as "Porkopolis," or that it houses one of the best rib joints in the country (a favorite of the late Bob Hope). In fact, pigs are ubiquitous in the ‘Nati; even the statue commemorating the city’s bicentennial has four winged swine on top of a riverboat’s smokestacks.

Now, for the first time, the Flying Pig Marathon (purveyor of one of the best medals on the circuit) serves up a half-slab of marathon in addition to the full slab. It’s a great addition for those who don’t quite have the appetite for all those hills. www.flyingpigmarathon.com.

Best Race Off the Radar: Cal International

This marathon is actually pretty well known, if you live west of Boise. But Cal International is held in December, after all of the major fall marathons have come and gone. To many runners east of the Rockies, it never crosses their minds. Their loss.

Cal International is one of the best point-to-point marathons going. It runs downhill from Folsom Dam to the center of Sacramento, and is impeccably organized. Typically good weather greets runners, as does a varied course, a fantastic finish line and good crowds — which makes Cal International a good change of scenery, or a great place to rebound from a fall marathon disaster. www.runcim.org.

Best Race That Lives Up to the Hype: Twin Cities

The Twin Cities Marathon lays claim to being the "Most Scenic Urban Marathon." Apparently, it’s all true. Talk to anyone who has run it, and it’s as though they’ve been hypnotized by the fall foliage and the pristine neighborhoods.

"I would say if you’re going to run a marathon in a city, you’d be hard-pressed to beat Twin Cities," says Jesse Pagels of Chicago, who has run all the big ones. Twin’s course traipses through stately neighborhoods, along the shoreline of the lake and on the banks of the Mississippi. But it’s not just scenery that draws people: Twin’s point-to-point course begins just outside the Metrodome, which means a cozy warm-up and plenty of restrooms. At the other end in St. Paul, the finish up Summit Avenue then down past the capitol is one of the most memorable in the country. www.twincitiesmarathon.org.

Biggest Bang for the Buck: Houston

Way back in the ’90s, the HP Houston Marathon was having an identity crisis. They were losing elite runners to other races, and registration was stagnant even as marathoning was experiencing a second boom. Enter new race director Steven Karpas, a runner with a marketing and finance background. Exit prize money for elites. Karpas and the marathon staff plugged that money back into runner benefits and race technology. For $65, each entrant gets a training T-shirt, official race T-shirt, finisher’s sweatshirt, finisher’s beer mug, finisher’s medal, finisher’s certificate and a hot breakfast at the finish line. Houston also helped pioneer the art of tracking runners online.

"We wanted to grow our race, and thought the one way to do that was if runners were direct beneficiaries of the aspects of the race," Karpas says.

It’s worked. Since 2001, the HP Houston Marathon has added a half marathon and 5K and has grown its participation to 18,000 total runners. The half marathon is the men’s national championship race, but every runner feels elite in Houston.

"Lots of races claim they do everything for the runners," says Randy Moore of Minneapolis, who ran Houston last year. "Houston lives up to everything it claims." www.hphoustonmarathon.com.

Find a Race Near You

 

 

The Running Shoe Debate: How Barefoot Runners are Shaping the Shoe Industry

A group of running rebels are shedding their shoes and reporting years of injury-free miles. Some ultramarathoners, biomechanics experts and doctors think that’s probably a good thing. Others go so far as to say running shoes are in fact causing injuries. Meanwhile, running shoe companies continue to precisely measure runners, and pound and flex shoes in their high-tech labs. Could shoes—and shoe companies—be covering hundreds of thousands of perfectly able bare feet? If shoes are doing damage, just what are the companies measuring?

New Trend in Running: No (or Almost No) Shoes

The Lab Rat
Shoeless Joe
When it comes to running footwear, sometimes less is more.

By Nick Heil

ON A WARM MARCH DAY, in a fit of spring fever, I drove to a nearby park, whipped off my shoes and socks, and set out for a run. I wasn’t just trying to get in touch with my inner Tarahumara; I was investigating the new trend in "natural-motion" running, the purest embodiment of which involves jogging sans shoes.

I didn’t make it very far. After dodging dog droppings and rusty beer cans land-mined across a baseball outfield, I hit a dirt path that immediately began to flay my feet. Even at my tenderfoot pace, my calves knotted up like Chuck Liddell’s fists. Forget this, I thought, giving up after less than a mile, and limped back to the car to recover my smelly old kicks.

For around 40 years, running shoes have been evolving into a $4 billion industry of ever-more-sophisticated support systems involving techy foams, air bladders, springs, rubberized padding, and gel. Recently, however, there’s been a back-to-nature movement, with runners opting for minimalist shoe designs or, in extremis, no shoes at all. "Cushioning gets oversold," says Dr. Stephen Pribut, a biomechanics expert in Washington, D.C., and former president of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine. "Thinner-soled shoes can give runners important proprioceptive feedback and encourage a shorter stride and midfoot strike, all of which helps prevent injury."

Natural-motion evangelists believe our feet have become "lazy," overswaddled in unnecessary layers of fabric and foam. This allows runners to strike heavily on their heels, driving the impact of each foot plant straight up into their ankles, knees, and hips. With less shoe, the argument goes, you land on your midfoot, so your ankle and knee joints work more like shock-absorbing springs, warding off joint problems, plantar fasciitis, and even sprains. A 1997 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that the more heavily engineered (and, typically, more expensive) the shoe, the more likely it was to contribute to an injury.

Some proponents, like "Barefoot Ted" McDonald, of Seattle, take the trend to its limit: If less shoe is better, no shoe must be best. "The beauty of barefoot running is that there is nothing forcing your foot to do something other than what it wants to do," says McDonald, who’s run 20 marathons and ultramarathons unshod.

The first company to chase this small but growing community was Nike. In 2005, it released the Free, a shoe with so many flexible, underfoot grooves that it mimicked barefoot running. More recently, a raft of companies have followed suit with models that have lower heels and less cushioning, encouraging a barefooter’s short, springy gait.

After my discouraging attempt to go bare in the park, I eased toward full foot nudity by test-driving some of the latest: the New Balance MR800, the Newton Motion, and the Ecco Biom B. Within a few weeks, I was converted. I ran longer and faster, and with less soreness afterwards.

I decided to up the ante with the wild-looking, barely-there Vibram FiveFingers. The sole is just half a centimeter of Vibram’s sticky rubber glued to a stretchy, socklike nylon upper, with individual sleeves that wrap each toe like a tiny condom. First released in 2006 for boaters, they were quickly adopted by barefoot runners who don’t like picking shards of old Mickey’s bottles from their feet.

It took me a while to get used to the VFF’s simian appearance, but soon I began wearing them everywhere—walking my dog, going to the store, hiking nearby trails—much to the amusement of my fellow pedestrians. I still couldn’t manage to run more than a few blocks in them, but I soon felt the actual bones, tendons, and ticklish soft spots under my arch getting stronger.

It dawned on me that while I’ve long heaped attention on my core, arms, legs, and shoulders, I’d neglected the foundation of the entire system. Strong feet provide essential balance, power, and speed for a variety of sports, not just running. I began deploying the FiveFingers during drills and gym workouts, rehab exercises after spraining an ankle in a soccer game, and while padding around my house battling writer’s block.

It seems unlikely I’ll ever join the tribe of barefoot runners, but I do intend to refocus on my feet as a woefully overlooked link in my fitness chain. Sometimes it pays to rethink your basic assumptions about training. This time, my overhaul is happening from the ground up.

Outside Magazine, June 2009

 

In the same category: The Running Shoe Debate: How Barefoot Runners are Shaping the Shoe Industry

 

 

The 10 Types of Runners

Recently I ran Florida’s Oldest Marathon—The Space Coast Marathon.

Actually I ran the half marathon and in proper collegiate fashion my training consisted of only cramming for the race. I basically ran about six to eight miles everyday for a week before the race.

I bet you didn’t know that you can cram for a half marathon?

Well you can’t. The results were predictable and I finished in 2:04 (plus some change) which happens to be about 15 minutes over my PR half marathon time at altitude. And last time I checked, Florida’s Space Coast (Think Cocoa Beach from the old TV show I Dream of Jeanne) is only about a half a foot above sea level.

So by cramming I somehow manged to turn my Boulder altitude advantage to a PW (Personal Worst).

Needless to say I had plenty of time while running to contemplate the lovely Florida Space Coast, the trees, the homes, the weather, the road, the Banana River running next to the race course, and of course my fellow runners.

So without further explanation here are the 10 types of runners.

Which one are you, and which one am I?

1) The Frightened Dog Swatter

For some unknown reason the frightened dog swatter usually happens to be a woman who runs as if she were under deadly attack by a hell bent pack of tiny snarling Paris Hilton purse dogs. She flails here legs up and out in a matter and technique designed to swat the little bastard before they can nip and/or sink their tiny teeth into her manicured toenails.

She thrust her heels up, out and around with such vicious ferocity that running anywhere within a five foot diameter of her can be deadly to small dogs, squirrels, alligators, vermin, small livestock and of course other petite runners.

I believe I’ve read that the Kenyans and Ethiopians teach their top international runners strategical avoidance classes specifically designed to avoid the frightened dog swatter.

2) The Human Cybertron

I can only assume that the Human Cybertron was once a living and breathing person (either male or female) that at some point in their life due to a horrible tragedy well beyond my comprehension must have had their crucial organs replaced by beeping, buzzing, tweaking, ring tone playing and occasionally clanging cybertronics.

To say this runner is a wired machine would do injustice to the amount of wires sporting forth from the typical networked PC.

Typically the Human Cybertron runs with every possible electronic aid known to man sprouting from every orifice in their sweaty body. I’m amazed that they can even ponder so much data, with so much entertainment plugged into their ears on such a short run. I mean how much distance, speed, altitude, pace, heart rate, calorie, trajectory, target zone, sweat rate, and MP3 data can a person process in a few short hours?

Obviously much more than the Kenyan runner who won the half marathon in 1:05 can process since he did it without any electronic aid outside of a stop watch.

3) The Loud Runner

Every-so-often I would jump out of my skin during the race and duck behind the nearest tree or bush in a futile attempt to avoid the elephant stampede I was sure was just a few feet behind me. The Loud Runner is normally a man somewhere between middle age and golden age who’s decided that his run will shake the very ground he runs upon.

This man must be a titan of industry because his only goal on the run is to subjugate the very road to his enormous will, and he will do so by pounding it into submission with every step he takes.

In order to do this he must spring straight into the air like a started cat and pounce on the earth with every ounce of his weight leaving nothing behind but enormous running shoe prints in the crushed and subjected pavement.

4) The Desalination Machine

I am most amazed by the Desalination Machine who usually tends to be a woman somewhere between middle age and golden age who has in her lifetime somehow developed the "believe it or not" ability to not sweat. In fact not only does she not sweat, but she’s so put together with full make-up and hair that often after the race she’ll jump into a cocktail dress and waiting limo to attend this or that red carpet event.

To her 13.1 miles or even 26.2 miles of running in the 100 percent humidity of a typical Florida day is nothing to get sweaty about. She can carry on a conversation about her favorite charity or NGO while most of us would be hitting the wall and still have that mysterious clean summer lilac breeze scent waft from every pore of her skin.

5) The Salination Machine

Unlike the desalination machine, this slightly portly gentleman started sweating at the pre-race pasta dinner. By the time the race cannon sounds he’s already lost 5 pounds of water weight and created enough salt for the Osmond family Thanksgiving dinner.

Runners beware! If he decides to shake it up a little, you’ll know what’s it is like to be next to a very salty, very big, and very wet shaggy dog.

The oddest thing about the desalination machine is that you’ll rarely, if ever, see him drink anything during the race.

At aide stations he shuns both water and sports drinks like an alcoholic after a long, painful, and intense 10 step meeting. Yet somehow he manages to sweat like Britney Spears at a Baptist breakfast prayer meeting after an all night pantyless party…even well after he crosses the finish line.

6) The High Five Twister

For some unknown reason to me, the High Five Twister is usually a cute and youngish female runner who looks like she wants to high five every other runner that passes her. Typically her elbows are at about (let’s call it ear level) and she twists her body 180 degrees with every step she takes.

Honestly, it hurts just to watch the High Five Twister run. But not her. Even though she contorts her spine into the begins of a DNA double helix strand, you’d never know it by the huge smile on her face.

So yes, while her twisting body rotation and her high elbows create little micro tornadoes along the course, her winning smile and happy attitude says, "I’d win this race if it were only measured by the distance traveled from side to side, instead of straight ahead."

7) The Stink Bomber

Sometimes the pre-race morning meal does not agree with the body in motion. I’m sure in the heat of battle we’ve all squeezed out a little "poot". But not the Stink Bomber. This guy started farting at the age of one has has since gone to graduate school in the fine art of flatulance.

He’s a running toxic obstacle to be avoided at all cost. But the problem is that on the typical crowded marathon course you don’t know who he is until it is way too late. By the time you are even aware of the danger, you have been skunked and often you can’t even tell who "did it."

Even when you can tell who "did it", you are too focused on trying to just cross the finish line.

Beware: The Stink Bomber is well aware of this fact and he’ll use it to spread even more stink bombs along the entire course. 

The NBA Pro

Every-so-often a runner is born, and at a tragic and early age his brain gets frazzled, usually by a direct hit to head from a misguided basketball, into making him believe that he is in fact not a runner, but an NBA Pro.

Fortunately, these guys, and sometimes even gals, are easy to spot by their uniforms. They tend to favor wearing the full NBA gear over their running gear. Because of this early and tragic childhood accident, they always wear the long basketball shorts over their running shorts.

This is indeed very sad to observe as the basketball shorts hang way down. They hang so far down that they cover their knees, making running a marathon an especially daunting and painful endeavor.

However, on several occasions, like this recent race which was an out and back run along the same road, I have seen a miraculous confluence of events that can only bring pure joy to one’s heart.

You see on that rare occasion that the NBA pro passes the High Five Twister, both are in their most natural of elements as one high fives the other in a spectacular show of lucky coincidence.

9) Doctor 90210

Doctor 90210 is almost always a women of that certain age (read well above 30) who has the slender hips of a 15-year-old (I suspect from all of that running) but the enhanced big boobs of a Hollywood Starlet wanna-be.

She is usually observed wearing only a sports bra/top with not much else hiding her helium filled boobs. I can only guess that she asked her plastic surgeon to fill them to the brim with 400 cc of helium as her boobs defy gravity, the up and down motion of running, and even time itself.

When one observes closely it can almost be imaged that her buoyant bosoms, and not her, are running the race. They, and not (let’s say) her legs, are the pride and joy of her well worked over body and she wants the entire world to know.

After all, she paid almost $10,100 to run this race ($100 for the race entry fee and $5000 per boob).

10) The Gazelle and the Sloth

These two animals are almost never seen together in the wild, but you’ll see them at every marathon, in every city of the world. Somehow they strangely compliment each other. They are the yin and yang of the running world.

The Gazelle boldly bounds straight up into the air with every springy step. Image Micheal Jordon on cocaine, steroids and with a bee in his shorts.

The Sloth shuffles along lifting his or her feet about an ant’s toenail length above the ground.

BTW: Do ants even have toenails?

Anyway, the Sloth manages to use just enough energy to slide his or her leg forward to make forward progress.

And here’s where the most incredible miracle of all marathons takes place. Some call it divine intervention and see God’s wry sense of humor, while others point to the shadow of Darwin and millennium of evolution at play.

But this does not take away in the slightest from the Miracle of the
Marathon: as both the Gazelle and the Sloth cross the finish line in the exact same time.

Roman Mica is a amateur Clydesdale triathlete who lives and races in Boulder, Colorado and has his own website; www.EverymanTri.com. He is also one of the founding members of www.raceAthlete.com. He has a book published, entitled My Training Begins Tomorrow: The Everyman’s Guide to IRONFIT Swimming, Cycling & Running.

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »