Winning the Mind Game

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

None of us enjoys being wrong.  So if we truly believe we can never run a four-hour marathon, win in our age group or qualify for Boston, our mind will instinctively seek to confirm such negative thinking and thereby reinforce our doubts.  We’ll blur the line between “can’t” and “won’t,” between being truly unable to accomplish something and simply being unwilling to make the effort to do so.

Becoming a better runner is always a mix of polar opposites -- joy and disappointment, pleasure and pain, breakthroughs and setbacks.  Dwelling on the dark side means that, sooner rather than later, we’ll walk away from our potential and surrender any chance of closing the gap between what we are today as runners and what we could be tomorrow. 

It is imperative, therefore, that we find ways to eliminate the negatives in our thinking and replace them with a positive mental attitude. The process is simple.  We start by writing down whatever concerns and doubts we might have about our running.  Then we strike from the list any that have little or no apparent validity –  such as there’s no way I’ll ever be able to run a decent marathon; every time I push myself too hard, I get injured; I can’t find the time to do three training runs a week.  Finally, for those concerns and doubts that remain, we develop an approach to overcome them – consistently running out of gas after completing 14 or 15 kilometers in training dictates that we review and improve our nutrition and hydration strategy; worries about re-injuring ourselves after recovering from shin splints or a hamstring pull mean that we begin each workout cautiously, warm up thoroughly, and back off our pace at the first sign of discomfort; concerns about a calf pain that just won’t go away mean that we stop running for three or four days, engage in some serious cross training and strengthening exercises in the meantime, and see a sports medicine professional if the pain is still there when we try to run again.

Bottom line, the mind-strengthening process starts with belief in ourselves.  Beyond that, there are an additional seven techniques, or tools, that we can use to develop a mindset that will make all the difference to our future as runners.....

Commit to Meaningful Goals – In preparing mentally for success in running, it helps

immeasurably to latch on to well-defined goals that, over time,  are increasingly ambitious in nature, reasonable yet challenging for you at any given point in time, and important enough to be given a priority somewhere below family and job but well above Internet surfing, TV viewing, and relaxing over a latte’ at your local Starbucks.  As well, if you keep your eye primarily on improving your performance as a runner and are willing to commit yourself to a results-driven form of training called “deliberate practice,” there is literally no end to what you might be able to accomplish.

Know that It’s not Just Exercise -- The mind-strengthening process also involves an understanding of the critical difference between training and exercise.  Walking the dog is exercise.  So is strolling on a treadmill or splashing around in a pool with you nieces and nephews.  It’s not training.    When you train, you run when you’re supposed to, barring injury or a serious scheduling conflict, not when the weather’s nice or the spirit moves you.  No kidding.  No excuses.

Pay the Price of Improvement – You toughen the mind by making the tough decisions – several times a week and countless times during the training cycle.  The alarm goes off at 6 a.m.  Are you getting up to run a scheduled 6K before getting ready for work?  Or are you pressing the snooze button and going back to sleep?  You’ve got a long distance run in the a.m. tomorrow but you’re at a party tonight.  Do you have another drink and stay another half-hour, or do you leave now because you know you’ve had enough?  You’re in the midst of a tempo run and feeling the pain of a pace you’re trying to maintain.  Do you run through it, or simply slow down?  You’ve got a 16K on tap for this morning, but it’s raining cats and dogs and shows no sign of letting up.  Do you run or re-schedule?  And so it goes.  The more you opt to do what you know is right rather than easy, the stronger your mindset becomes and the better prepared mentally (as well as physically) you become in your effort to achieve whatever your goals may be.

Write it Down – After every training session, record the results – distance, time, pace per kilometer, and anything else about the run that’s worth remembering.  Make week-to-week comparisons.  See the progress that effective training brings.  Feel your motivation and confidence growing as you move closer toward achieving whatever you’re looking for in your next race.

Know Why a Workout’s Important – In any effective training program, every run has a specific purpose.  You barrel up hills to improve VO2 max; you do tempo workouts to raise lactate threshold, and you run long distances at a controlled pace to make your body more efficient at metabolizing fat for energy.  Appreciate what you’re trying to accomplish and you’ll be more likely to bring your “A” game to every one of your training sessions – and that will translate into an over-arching confidence in your running ability and potential.

Focus on the Controllables -- Conserve mental energy and don’t sweat the stuff you can’t do anything about.  During the final week or days before an important race, prepare for -- but don’t agonize over -- the possibility of bad weather, the hills on the course, the long lines at the Port-A-Potties and hydration stations, the crowd of runners at the start line, etc., etc.   It might help, by the way, if you periodically recited to yourself the opening lines of the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Use your Imagination – Take your next major objective and visualize in your mind’s eye what it will be like when, not if,  you achieve it.  By way of example, write down in bold, black digits on an 8” X 10” sheet of blank paper the finishing time you’re projecting for yourself in your next race.  Then post the sheet on your refrigerator door, bathroom mirror or kitchen bulletin board – anyplace where you’ll see it every day.  And every time you see it, visualize one or another aspect of your Race Day.  See yourself in your mind’s eye standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a

couple of thousand other runners; hear the horn sound; visualize yourself running along the course, experiencing pain for the first time and running through it without pause; imagine yourself crossing the finish line with the overhead clock flashing the precise time you had set as your goal.  Sound silly?  If you think so, you couldn’t be more wrong.  Scientists have established with PET scans that the brain “sees” events in similar ways, whether they are real and actually taking place or are simply being imagined.  That’s why visualization has become the most effective mental technique available to convince the subconscious that a given objective is within your reach.  And, of course, it could hardly be easier to use.

Learn to Cope with Pain – What happens in that moment when you start to really suffer while running?  This is something the performance-minded among you have already experienced in training and in races.  At that point, fitness means very little.  How your mind handles the pain is all that matters.  Your first step should be to stop dwelling on the hurt and shift your attention to something you can control.  Focus first, for example, on your running form.  Stop bending at the waist and looking down at the ground.  Then check your breathing pattern and try to synchronize it with your stride cadence.  Or, more simply, breathe in for three seconds and out for three seconds.  Soon you’ll be so focused on form, cadence and breathing that you will have forgotten about the pain.  Again, it may sound like a superficial mind game, but it works.

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There you have it, people – seven tools to develop mental strength and self-confidence.  Use them liberally and they’ll make you a better runner on Race Days and for as long as the sport remains a part of your life.

Coach Stephen

Obey the Rules, Reap the Benefits

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

Check the pulse of your training, if you would, and ask yourself a few simple questions: Are you wearing the right shoes (you’re probably not if you bought them anywhere but at a specialty running store)?  Are you eating well (lots of complex carbohydrates – fruits, vegetables and whole grains)?  Are you doing your running at a controlled, conversational pace (instead of ending each workout at the edge of exhaustion)?  If your answers are yes, yes and yes, you’ve already started building a protective wall against injuries.  Now finish the job by following the eight rules of injury prevention listed below.  Doing so will get you to your goal race healthy, fit, and ready to perform at your best.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

The easiest way to get injured is to try to do too much.  Everyone has an injury threshold.  That threshold may be measured in kilometres per week, pace per workout, frequency of training sessions, or a combination of all three.  And just because you may not have reached your threshold yet doesn’t mean it’s not there.   That’s why, in the final analysis, the principle of rest and recovery must be an integral part of any training program.  Muscles, joints and soft tissue need time to mend and grow stronger after a hard workout so they can handle the demands of an even more challenging bout of training going forward.  Rushing that process short-circuits the cycle of breakdown and build-up, and puts the body at risk.   That’s why you should limit your hard workouts (such as Long Distance and Tempo runs, Hill Repeats and Speed Intervals) to three a week and cap your increase in total mileage at 10% from one week to the next. 

Listen when Your Body Talks

Usually, injuries suffered by runners are neither abrupt nor dramatic.  They signal their approach with aches, soreness and pain that’s unlike anything you may have felt before.  If and when that pain reaches a point where it increases in intensity as you run or forces you to change your gait, you should take a few days off, resort to the “RICE” treatment (see below), and engage in cross training activities like swimming or cycling.  The idea is to continue to strengthen your heart and lungs while giving your skeletal system a break.  After three or four days, resume your run-related workouts if you’re able, but at a slower pace than before.  Then, during the balance of a ten-day period, try to gradually ease back into the demands of your regular training.  Obviously, if the pain continues or just gets worse after that, a visit to a sports medicine professional would be appropriate.

Function follows Form

In a recent email about biomechanics (entitled “The Right Way to Run”), the point was made that a shorter stride, more rapid leg turnover and midsole strike can have a dramatic and beneficial impact on your energy efficiency and thus maximize performance by greatly improving your running economy.  Such changes in running form can also help you avoid injury.  The shorter the stride, the lighter the impact on landing – which means less wear and tear on your working muscles.  And the flatter foot strike that naturally results from a reduced stride length virtually eliminates the skeletal misalignment caused by excess pronation (i.e., inward rotation of the foot).  It was once thought that changing your stride was as difficult as changing your fingerprints, but recent research has disproven that view.  You can kick-start the process by shaving 10% off your normal stride length and increasing leg turnover accordingly during a portion of each of your workouts.  Then you could gradually expand the effort from there, until the shorter stride became a natural part of your biomechanics in all your training sessions.  A positive result would prove to be a win-win all around in terms of injury avoidance and performance improvement.

Get Hip to Effective Stretching

Evidence is mounting that most below-the-waist injuries (to the Achilles tendon, knee, hamstrings, etc.) can be attributed to weak hip stabilization muscles.  So act proactively to strengthen your hip abductors and adductors as well as glutes by engaging in what’s called dynamic stretching both before and after a run.  The effect over time will be to increase leg stability all the way down to the ankle. 

On point here are warm up exercises that target the muscles used for running – leg pendulum swings, walking lunges and the like.    Then you should add a few minutes of jogging, first with an exaggerated knee life and then while kicking your heels up to touch your buttocks.  [For detailed descriptions of dynamic stretches, google runnersworld.com/ADynamicRoutine.]

By the way, if you’re going to do any traditional static stretching at all, do it independently of your running and focus on the hamstring and calf muscles.  Because these muscle groups tend to tighten with consistent running, conventional stretching can be applied to increase their flexibility and range of motion, thereby making them less injury-prone than they would otherwise be.

RICE Is More than Just a Food

The acronym, RICE, is familiar to all veteran runners.  It stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation – and it’s the preferred option for the immediate treatment of muscle and joint pain.  The process promotes healing by easing the pain, reducing any swelling, and protecting damaged tissue.  Most importantly, it prevents minor aches and soreness from escalating into a major injury.  The sooner and more frequently you apply RICE, the better.  You should first do it when you return home after the hard workout that gave rise to the pain initially.  The treatment itself could hardly be simpler.  Just fill a Ziploc bag with ice cubes and water, wrap it around the affected area with a belt or, preferably, an Ace compression bandage, and prop the injured extremity on a pillow while lying down.  The ice should be applied for 20 minutes, removed for 10, and then applied again for 20 more minutes.  Repeat the process the next evening while taking a day of complete rest in your training.  Then continue with the icing for as many days as necessary until the pain dissipates or disappears -- or until you decide it’s time to visit a sports doctor.

Cross Training with a Purpose

I believe in cross training, and with good reason.  It provides an opportunity for active recovery on days between the hard workouts prescribed in our clinic program, and it keeps your body balanced by maintaining the strength and elasticity of key muscle groups that are of secondary importance in endurance running.   The simple truth is that your muscles, joints and connective tissues grow weary from the cumulative impact of thousands of foot strikes over the course of a week.   So they welcome the relief of non-weight bearing activities such as swimming, cycling, elliptical training, and rowing.  All of these offer a much-needed measure of injury protection while improving your aerobic fitness – a pairing of goals that is critical to any training effort.  There is also a very important place for cross training during any post-injury recovery period.  In fact, cross training is a much better bet than complete rest if you want to perform well on Race Day.

Of Surface Importance

You live in a city, so the world in which you run is made up largely of asphalt and concrete.  These are far from ideal surfaces when your feet are pounding away at a rate of 160 to 180 times a minute and creating impact forces equal to three times your body weight.   Is it any wonder that lower-extremity injuries are more common among runners in urban areas than in the countryside?

No one is suggesting that you move to the sticks so that you can more comfortably feed your running habit.  But you can take simple precautions.  On your visits to relatives in smaller communities or rural areas, look to run more on dirt trails or bike paths   And if you have access to a gym, consider doing your solo runs during the week on the soft mat of a treadmill.  Finally, when you are running your usual routes on concrete sidewalks or asphalt pathways, think about moving onto any adjacent dirt or grass.  The key is to find soft and level surfaces.  Your knees, calves, shins and feet will thank you for it.

...And Last but Not Least

There are several sources of discomfort that can make the training experience more difficult than it has to be.  Heading the list are probably foot blisters and skin chafing.  You can avoid the first by making sure your shoes are the right size and also allow for some expansion of the feet during long-distance workouts.  Another way to combat blisters is by wearing non-cotton, double-layered socks.   As for chafing, which can be a special problem in cold and wet weather, the preferred treatment is with a skin lubricant called Body Glide – a product that’s available at Running Room and most specialty stores selling athletic wear.

Coach Stephen

The Heart of the Matter

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

Heart rate training is clearly one of the most important developments in endurance sports since the women’s marathon was added to the Olympic Games in 1984.  It takes much of the guesswork out of training results and provides objective information that....  

·         Gives you reliable feedback on whether your training program is working. 

·         Protect you from over-training, a contributing factor in most running injuries.

·         Enables you to properly pace yourself in races or long training runs.

·         Tells you whether a training session was too hard and therefore exposed you to injury or too easy and therefore did little to improve your running performance.

·         Accurately measures your exercise intensity so that you are able to match your workout to a specific training zone designed to either help recovery, build endurance, elevate lactate threshold or increase VO2 max.

It goes without saying that a major purpose of your training as a distance runner is to increase the strength of your cardiovascular system.  And because a stronger heart needs fewer beats per minute to pump energy-sustaining oxygen via the blood stream to your working muscles, you should keep the following in mind:

·         If you are gradually able to do your training runs faster and further over a period of several weeks without experiencing a comparable increase in average heart rate (e.g.,  a 3% improvement in per kilometre pace with virtually no elevation in heart rate), it’s a sure sign that your training program is working.

·         Conversely, no discernable change in the relationship between your average heart rate and the pace and distance of your running means that you’re not training enough -- or you’re taking it too easy on yourself when you do train -- to achieve any meaningful gains in performance. 

·         A sudden and unexplained spike upward in average heart rate during a particular workout indicates that you’re over-training and may need some rest and recovery to avoid injury.

·         Finally, by consistently using a heart rate monitor in training, you’ll soon learn the heart rate levels that you can maintain over extended distances – and this knowledge will prevent you from starting out too fast or too slowly in races or long training runs.

Determining the Formulas

Clearly, then, a heart rate monitor can be an important source of information in keeping your training on the right track.  So the question becomes, if you have a monitor or are thinking of buying one, what do you need to know to get the most from it? 

First, you should determine your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) – that is, the greatest number of times your heart can beat in a minute.  This can best be done by a sports medicine professional in a lab setting, but the figure can be approximated by multiplying your age by 0.7 and subtracting that figure from 208 if you’re a woman and 205 if you’re a man.   Thus, if you’re a 30-year-old female runner, your MHR would be 208 minus (0.7 x 30), or 187 beats per minute.

That formula is the most reliable of several currently in use. The old standby of 220 minus your age is so obsolete that it`s almost dangerous. Yet, strangely enough, that`s the one used in cardio-based fitness equipment throughout North America and is apparently still used in every Garmin sold anywhere.

After you’ve settled on your MHR, be aware that all of your training (including cardio-based cross training) should be done in a range above 60% of that number.  Anything less won’t literally be a waste of time, but it will do little to improve performance or fitness.  Then, too, only hill repeats and speed intervals should be done at an average rate above 90% of MHR.  Exceeding that level with impunity will make recovery more difficult and increase your risk of injury.

At the other end of the spectrum from MHR is your Resting Heart Rate (RHR), or the minimum number of times per minute that your heart will beat when your body is completely at rest.  You can determine that figure by remaining in bed after waking up naturally (without an alarm clock), donning your monitor and chest strap, and lying still for about 15 minutes.  Actually, a good idea would be to take your RHR every other week on the same day, perhaps a Saturday, during the course of any training you may be doing.   This could then become another barometer of how well your training program is working, because researchers have determined that your RHR will gradually drop if your fitness is improving.

In fact, the growing importance of Resting Heart Rate as an indicator of fitness has helped to give “Heart Rate Reserve” (HRR) a prominent place in the research lexicon.  The term signifies the number of beats per minute that separates Resting Heart Rate from Maximum Heart Rate.  The bigger the reserve, the greater your potential as an endurance athlete.

Getting into the Zone

It will be obvious to some of you, but is nevertheless worth emphasizing, that the calculation of Maximum Heart Rate is based on a formula driven by age (and, to a much lesser degree, by gender).  Thus, for purposes of our analysis going forward, the MHR of all 25-year old female runners is the same 191 beats per minutes.  For all 40-year old male runners, it is 177 bpm’s.

By contrast, the Resting Heart Rate of runners can range all over the landscape and has little to do with age or gender.  It is based almost entirely on an individual’s physical fitness and, for most seasoned endurance athletes, it runs a gamut from the mid-forties to mid-fifties in terms of beats per minute.  (The lower the better.)  More than that, it will move downward during the course of a training cycle as an individual’s fitness level improves.

Subtracting RHR from MHR, as noted above, generates a given runner’s Heart Rate Reserve (HRR).  A 32-year old woman with a resting heart rate of 50 would thus have an HRR of 136 bpm’s; her fellow runner, a 38-year old man whose resting heart rate happens to be 48 would have an HRR of 130.

If the foregoing points are clear in your mind, you’re in a position to get at the core of heart rate training.  Now it becomes a matter of determining the approximate Target Heart Rate (THR) you should seek to achieve while engaging in one or the other of a training program’s standard workouts.  Here the so-called Karvonen formula is the most reliable in use -- that is, Target Heart Rate = HRR multiplied by % Training Intensity, plus RHR

In this case, the intensity of a given training session is measured by a percentage of your heart rate reserve.  The higher the percentage, of course, the more intense the workout.  This approach, in turn, establishes the heart rate parameters for the different training zones employed in our program.  Here’s a description of those zones, listed along with their corresponding training intensities:

Recovery Zone – 60 to 70% of HRR

Steady, easy runs or cross-training activities done in this zone allow for the repair of muscle and tissue as well as the replenishment of glycogen previously expended in more intense workouts.  They also burn fat primarily as an energy source and are therefore especially effective in any effort to lose weight (if that’s one of your objectives).  An individual with a heart rate reserve of 137 beats per minute and a resting heart rate of 51 should therefore seek to do his recovery workouts within a THR range of 133 to 147 beats per minute.

Aerobic Zone – 70 to 80% of HRR

Training at this level improves your body’s ability to metabolize fat for energy, rather than your much more limited supplies of glycogen.  It also improves the body’s ability to transport oxygen to your working muscles and clear away the resultant carbon dioxide.  In this zone, moreover, you can most clearly experience increases in pace and distance without comparable increases in average heart rate – which is another way of describing improvement in basic endurance and aerobic capacity.  Consider this example: a heart rate reserve of 140 and a resting heart rate of 50.  If that were to describe you as a runner, you would do your aerobic training within a THR range of 148 to 162.

Threshold Zone – 85 to 90% of HRR

Tempo runs done in this zone help to raise your lactate threshold and thereby improve your body’s ability to run harder and longer before surrendering to the fatigue induced in the switch from fat to glycogen as a primary energy source.  A runner with a reserve of 134 and a resting heart rate of 55 should do his or her threshold runs at a target heart rate between 169 and 176.

Anaerobic Zone – 90 to 100% of HRR

Regular training in this zone with Hill Repeats and Speed Intervals helps boost your VO2 max, a measure of how many millilitres of much-needed oxygen your body can absorb under stress.  These workouts also enhance your ability to run fast even when your muscles are getting severely limited supplies of oxygen (or no oxygen at all), and in this way provide a level of stress that simulates competitive race conditions.  And finally, they convince your brain that you can push yourself to the limit and still avoid injury.  If you had a heart rate reserve of 143 and a resting heart rate of 45, you would do your anaerobic workouts in a THR range of 174 to 188.

And One More Thing:

Getting the full benefit from heart rate training means that you must keep a training log that records at least the pace, time and distance of virtually every workout you do, along with your average heart rate and comments on what made the session a success or disappointment.  Only then can you know precisely the progress you’re making – or whether you’re making any meaningful progress at all.  The log can be as simple as handwritten notes in a Day-Timer or as impressive as a computer-driven online diary, so long as it captures the essential numbers you need to grow as a runner.

Coach Stephen

It's All About the Training

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

In any compendium of old jokes, here's one that's often included,.....

A tourist temporarily lost on the streets of Manhattan asks a native New Yorker how to get to Carnegie Hall.   The instant reply he gets is ``practice, practice, practice."

The message here is that if we really want to excel at something – playing the piano, winning at Texas Hold ‘Em, learning a foreign language, becoming a distance runner – we need to put in lots of practice.

We’ve probably always known that.  But what we may not have known is that the practice has to be of a certain quality.  In the words of Keith Anders Ericsson, a Florida State University psychology professor, it has to be deliberate.

Ericcson has done ground-breaking research on the subject and has concluded that expert performance is the result of a prolonged effort to improve through careful training.  He insists that differences in performance among individuals – whether they be piano or poker players, language specialists or competitive runners – is linked inextricably to how many hours they devote to that training. 

Others in the field have followed Ericcson’s lead and accepted his findings.  The consensus among them is that innate ability, raw talent, or genes inherited from our parents are rarely if ever significant factors in explaining why some people excel and others don’t. 

For us as runners, the research is telling.  What it comes down to is that we can certainly become better – we can even become very good – if we’re prepared to spend the necessary time on a goal-oriented, results-driven approach to training.  The approach involves constant monitoring of progress over months and years, coupled with appropriate adjustments, and it’s the very antithesis of following a familiar exercise routine with little thought to the concept of continuous improvement.”

The whole process starts with our recording the results of the great majority of our training sessions – not only the distance, time, pace, and possibly heart rate, but also the reasons why we may have done well or poorly.  What was the weather like?  When and what did we eat before the run?  How much sleep did we get the previous night?  What kind of day did we have at the office?   What do we have to emphasize or avoid the next time we run?  Etc.?

Deliberate practice is far from easy.  Obviously, we must get much more absorbed in our training than most runners.  This means that we start each workout with a performance objective, focus during the workout on training parameters like running form, breathing pattern and levels of perceived exertion (correcting and adapting as necessary), and reflect after the workout on the progress we made or did not make toward achieving our overall goals.

So deliberate practice clearly requires a ton of commitment.  But for those among us looking for a breakthrough performance in our next season, it might just be the answer to a maiden`s prayer.

Coach Stephen

The Right Way to Run

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

As infants, we started scampering across the living room floor within days after first delighting our parents by being able to stand upright.  And because the progression came so naturally to us, we find it hard to imagine that the sport of running in which many of us are now engaged actually involves a proper technique that must be learned if we want to become as good as we can be and stay healthy in the process.

The simple truth is that an incorrect running form wastes energy and thus compromises running economy – which is the amount of energy needed (measured in calories expended) to run a given distance at a given pace.  And bottom line, it’s the improvement of running economy, perhaps more than any other result, that is the basic purpose of all training done by a distance runner.

Front and centre among the worst aspects of poor biomechanics, in my opinion, is the tendency of most recreational runners to extend their stride beyond their body’s center of gravity and strike the ground heel-first when they pick up speed.  The problem is, this technique creates a braking effect and thus slows down a runner.  It also increases, jackhammer-like, the force felt by the knees and leg muscles, thereby increasing the risk of injury.

The myth persists that East African runners (primarily Kenyans) win a disproportionate share of their races because they are genetically superior and live and train at high altitude. But aside from the fact that they simply spend more hours running than the rest of the world, a major reason why they consistently win is their near-perfect running form.  For starters, they don’t extend their stride length by more than several inches when they want to run faster.  Instead, they increase their leg turnover.  And most importantly, regardless of their speed, their feet consistently land almost directly beneath their bodies with a nearly flat, forefoot or mid-sole strike that is the best way to run and the key to faster times.  It is also perhaps the single most important safeguard against below-the-waist injuries such as iliotibial band syndrome (knee), piriformis syndrome (glutes), and plantar fasciitis (feet).

Let’s zero in on these ideas more closely.  First, as to the matter of performance – are you old enough to remember the pogo stick?  While riding that thing, if you hit the ground at less than a 90-degree angle, you’d be propelled backward.  The effect is roughly the same, although much more imperceptible, with the heel-first strike while running.

Arguably, it’s not just a coincidence that the decline in North American distance running (vs. the international competition) started at about the time – 1972 -- when the modern athletic shoe was invented by Bill Bowerman, a famous track coach at the University of Oregon, and later introduced into the US and Canada by a fledgling company called Nike.  The construction of that shoe – with its thick, waffle-like bottom and extra padding at the heel – made possible a heel-first landing for the first time in the history of our sport.  This change in mechanics was something that Bowerman may have felt would make distance runners faster.   If he did, he was terribly mistaken, a fact since proven by hundreds of research studies over the years.

Our running icons of the past – Frank Shorter, Steve Prefontaine, Bill Rodgers, et. al. – were all in their heyday during the seventies and all ran with the midsole or forefoot strike.  No one in North America has even approached their stature since then.  And it’s worth noting that the current Canadian woman’s record in the marathon was set by Silvia Ruegger in a time of 2:28:36 at the Houston Marathon in 1985.  To this day, her 28-year old accomplishment remains unmatched by any other Canadian woman – although, sad to say, hundreds of female marathoners from other countries have recorded faster times than Ms. Ruegger in just the past decade. 

Also, consider the matter of injury risk.  Dr. Timothy Noakes, author of the seminal book on our sport called Lore of Running, has discovered that hitting the ground heel-first while running transmits up to 50% more shock to the knee than the forefoot landing.  And it’s a common belief among researchers that the heel strike is a major factor accounting for the rampant injury rate among runners – which, at 70 to 80% per year, is the highest among all sports.

Consequently, as part of any training you may be doing, try to maintain a midsole or forefoot landing as you ratchet up your pace while running.  And remember that this should be part of a total package that includes a shorter stride length and more rapid leg turnover.  If you got on a treadmill and ran as fast as you could for one minute, you’d probably find that your feet struck the treadmill pad about 160 or 170 times.  The optimal number among elite runners is at least 180 foot strikes.  So work on reaching that total, if you would.  You’ll discover that in doing so, you’ll also be helped immeasurably in your efforts to wean yourself away from any problems with a heel-first landing.

Other Elements of an Efficient Running Form

·         Proper posture is one of the keys to good biomechanics.  Here we’re talking about the head held high, with ears aligned directly above squared shoulders.

·         As you run, avoid bending at the waist – something you’ll be prone to do with the onset of fatigue – because it will affect your ability to breathe properly.  Instead, take advantage of gravity by leaning forward slightly in a straight, unbroken line from the Achilles heel to the back of the head.  (This is the essence of the so-called Pose method of running.)

·         Don’t rock side-by-side or bob up and down while running.  This will just waste much of the precious energy you need to perform well.  Except for your arms, your upper body (primarily the head and shoulders) should remain as still as a statue.

·         Before starting a run, hold your arms at right angles at the elbow.  Then, once you begin moving, pump them forward in the direction you’re running, again to take advantage of the pull of gravity.  (Imagine a vertical line at the center of your chest from the neck to waist, and try to keep your hands from crossing that line.)  Finally,  keep your arms between the chest and hip even though you will be tempted to drop them lower as you tire during a long run or race.

·         Develop a breathing pattern that is in sync with your running.  Ideally, your stride-to-breathing ratio should be on the order of 4:1 – that is, the first time your left foot hits the ground, you should be breathing in, the second time it hits the ground, you should be breathing out.  This means that a full circuit of breathing is completed with each four steps of running.  (The correlation between breathing and foot strikes, by the way, is an important part of what has come to be known as Chi running.)

·         Strike the ground lightly and quickly.  Pretend, if you will, that you’re running barefoot on hot coals.

The objective of all this is to reach a point where you feel as if you’re gliding along as you run, not merely pounding the pavement and pushing yourself forward.  When you achieve that objective, you’ll have a real shot at getting “into the zone,” surprising even yourself with your pace and stamina.

Coach Stephen

Let Food Be Thy Medicine

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

As far back as 400 B.C., Hippocrates, the father of modern medical practice, was urging his fellow citizens of Greece to “let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”  We’ve come a long way since then – mostly in the wrong direction.  Arguably, the food we eat today causes more illness and disease than it cures.  Obesity has reached epidemic proportions, and diabetes has come out of nowhere in the last generation to rank with heart disease, cancer and stroke as a major cause of death in our society.

The question at the heart of this message has to do with whether, as a serious or soon-to-be runner, you truly want your fridge to be your medicine chest, and vice-versa.  If you do, then consider obeying these “Ten Commandments of Good Eating” which I’ve cobbled together, tested out and benefited from over the years:

1.      Because you can no longer trust the processed food industry to put your health ahead of its profits, protect yourself by learning to read food labels and by concentrating your food dollar on the perimeter walls of your supermarket (rather than on its interior shelves).  Along that perimeter you’ll find the products that should dominate your diet – fresh vegetables and fruits, lean poultry and fish, low-fat dairy, and whole-grain breads.

2.      To the extent you can, buy foods that are certified organic and locally grown.  And look for descriptions such as free-range and grass-fed.

3.      Eat five meals a day, instead of three (while avoiding, of course, any unnecessary increase in caloric intake.)  Try never to go without food for more than three hours while awake.

4.      Get serious about breakfast.  It’s the day’s most important meal.  Think steel-cut oatmeal, natural fruit juice, pancakes, eggs, whole-grain cereal with bananas, fruit and yogurt smoothies, etc.  And wean yourself away from the nutritional travesties that pass for breakfast items at fast food drive-ins or convenience stores.  You might also try eating breakfast at home, instead of in your car or at your desk.  Wouldn’t that be something?

5.      Include in your morning and afternoon snacks one or another of the following (in order of potential benefit): nuts, fruit, plain yogurt with real berries, instant oatmeal, or a whole-grain bagel with natural peanut butter.

6.      Avoid certain foods like the plague.  In this category are such processed items as cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages; fat-drenched products like pastries and other rich desserts; and breads and pasta made from white flour.

7.      Keep yourself properly hydrated.  This means that, as a runner, you must drink a lot more than your couch-bound cousins.  As previously noted, our favourite rule of thumb, and one that has stood the test of time, is to drink daily a quantity of water that is the equal, in ounces, to half your weight in pounds.  And add an additional 20 ounces (500 millilitres) for each hour that you run or exercise on a particular day. 

8.      Appreciate that colas and other soda drinks have no redeeming social value.  They offer you the worst of Hobson’s choices.  The regular varieties give you, in a single can, appreciably more sugar than your body should have in its system at any one time, while the diet versions give you a potent mix of nutritionally useless chemicals.  Stay clear of both.

9.      Take supplements.  Among the most beneficial of them, for runners, is greens powder, which contains an abundance of vitamins and cell-protecting anti-oxidants that are needed to sustain training and recovery.   Then there is plant-based protein powder, which aids in muscle recovery, boosts strength gains in response to training, and helps to maintain a healthy immune function.  Rounding out the list of key supplements for runners are vitamin D, which strengthens bones and lowers stress-fracture risk, and Omega 3 fish oil, which reduces inflammation in the body and improves blood flow to muscles during exercise.

10.  Always bear in mind that healthy eating is as much a case of the foods you eat as the nutrients you consume.  Carbohydrates from an orange are significantly better than those from potato chips.  The same is true of protein from skinless white chicken vs. a Macdonald’s hamburger, and fats from fish and nuts vs. a Baskin Robbins banana split.

That’s all for now, people.  Take care, stay well and, above all, keep moving.

Coach Stephen

Seize the Day!

Hi, Fellow Runners:

Carpe Diem! – a phrase familiar to most of us as Seize the Day! – were the words used by the poet Horace to inspire participants in the Secular games of Rome in 17 B.C., and they resonate for us more than 2,000 years later.  Whether the next race you run will be your first or another of many, you can and should try to make it a memorable event in your sporting life by preparing for it properly in the last few days before you toe the starting line.

In the Final Week before the Race:

n  Adjust your sleep patterns to reflect the ungodly time you will probably have to get up on Race Day morning.  Bear in mind that most races begin very early in the day (usually between 7:00 and 8:30 a.m.), and that you should be at the race location an hour beforehand.  So turn in a little earlier each evening during the week to assure yourself of at least seven hours of sound sleep every night prior to the race itself.

n  Consciously work at raising to about 65% the portion of your total caloric intake that comes from carbohydrates.  Two vegetables should be part of both your mid-day and evening meals, and fruit should be one of your staples at snack time in the morning and afternoon.

n  On a daily basis, drink a quantity of water that is the equal, in ounces, to half your weight in pounds.  (Thus, a 120-pound woman needs 60 ounces of these liquids each day.)  Check your urine color.  Lemonade is what you’re aiming for.  Apple juice means you’re not hydrating  

On the Night before the Race:

n  Consume a meal at around 6 or 7 p.m.  Chicken with brown rice or whole-wheat pasta would be ideal.  And, of course, avoid alcoholic beverages.  

n  Check the weather forecast and decide what you’re going to wear on Race Day.  Pin your bib and chip on your outer garment. then lay out all your clothes and gear in a corner of a spare room.  Don’t overdress!  Remember, once you start the race, you will warm up quickly and the temperature will feel as if it’s about 3 or 5 degrees higher than it actually is.

On Race Day Itself:

n  Wake up in a positive frame of mind.  Your initial attitude upon opening your eyes is critical.  Before you get up, replay in your mind a recent successful training run.  Assume an attitude that says:  “I’m in control and, come hell or high water, I’m going to nail the finishing time I’ve set as a goal for myself in today’s race”.

n  Eat a good, carbohydrate-rich breakfast, but make sure it’s something your body is accustomed to.   Think either oatmeal, pancakes, whole-grain cereal with banana, brown toast with peanut butter, or yogurt and fresh fruit.  Caffeine before a race is good, so drink at least your usual quantity of coffee or tea.

n  When you arrive at the race site, find a quiet place where you’re able to relax.  Then warm up with some easy stretching and light jogging.  And be sure to visit the Porta-Toilet in the half hour before the race starts.

n  Keep in mind a quote by Jack Daniels, one of North America’s pre-eminent coaches and the gentleman who certified me as a running coach: “Most mistakes in a race are made in the first two minutes, perhaps in the very first minute.”  As you stand at the starting line, don’t be intimidated by the crowds.  Make sure you’re serene and confident when the horn sounds.   Don’t go out too fast.  Start easy instead, then gradually pick up the pace.      

n  During the race, check your form regularly.  Distract yourself when you begin to feel the discomfort brought on by exertion.  Use self-talk to remain positive and to keep negative thoughts at bay.  And all the while, visualize yourself crossing the finish line and seeing the clock recording the finishing time that you may have projected for yourself.

Once it’s over, you can revel in the knowledge that you accomplished something that you may have considered beyond your reach not too long ago.  And in so doing, you will have learned much that is good about yourself.  After all, nobody take on the challenge of competitive road racing without a certain degree of physical and mental toughness that rises above the ordinary.

Coach Stephen