Run to Win

Susan Chepkemei of Kenya has been suspended for 1 year from international competition after salbutamol was found in an off-season drug test.

She was given the asthma medication during her pregnancy after contracting pneumonia, which is why the normal 2 year ban for a first time offense was reduced to one year. The ban became effective as of October 19, 2007.

(More Information: IAAF - Photo Credit: John McCullough)

If you are going to be in town for the 50th Anniversary RRCA National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 2^nd or May 3^rd of this year, then you may want to consider ponying up a few extra dollars. The RRCA Coaching Program has two new classes that they are offering, both of which are worth 4 continuing education credits and will cost an additional $50 on top of the normal convention fees. The classes will also count towards the new advanced coaching certification after the RRCA has finalized it.

The first class is an introduction to sports psychology, and is on the 2^nd from 2:00 to 4:00.

The second class is on the 3^rd from 9:00 until noon is about the science of lactate.

For More Information:

• RRCA News Notice
• RRCA Convention Home Page
• Active.com Class Registration Page

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about do-it-yourself home exercise implements throughout February and March.

This week, Scott describes how to make homemade medicine balls.

This summer, I definitely need to go the sand and foam in a basketball route. Last year, I painted almost every room in my house and made a medicine ball out of the painter’s tape that we used to protect our ceilings and windows.

That’s a nice, lightweight 2 or 3 pounder that is made entirely out of what otherwise would have become trash. So outside of getting a new piece of workout equipment, I also got to amuse myself by seeing how long I could keep each piece that I wrapped around the ball without it coming apart as I ripped it off of the ceiling.

Scott also describes how to make tornado balls, stress balls and juggling balls.

The tornado ball is basically a medicine ball on a string, and the juggling balls are basically stress balls with a different filler.

Another way to make a juggling ball, which is what I did when I was in high school, is to fill a tennis ball with water. You can add a dash of the chemicals that you use in your pool or a water bed to keep anything from growing inside of the tennis ball, and which also gives it a slight foaming ability that can create an oddly balanced ball that lets you do some really neat tricks while the ball is in the air.

You’ll need a syringe in order to get the water and chemicals into the tennis balls, but the hole will heal itself within a few hours of removing the needle. Just be sure not to mistake one of these for a real tennis ball; that’s a quick recipe for destroying your tennis racket.

The Trail Monsters are putting on a “Fat Ass” 50k at Bradbury Mountain on Sunday, March 2^nd at 7:00. Anybody in the Southern Maine area that is interested in a fun run should think about coming out for it. The vast majority of the run will be outside of the park (click here for the map) following the snowmobile trails and the power lines. The course is consists of a 10.5 mile loop, so there are options for 1, 2 or 3 loops. I’m planning on running 2 loops of the course.

I’ve run the majority of the course before and conditions can vary depending upon how much snow we get this week and how many snowmobiles are out to pack it down between snowfall and “race” morning. I ran out on the majority of the course this morning and the footing wasn’t too bad for the most part, but still quite obviously slicker and more effort than running on the roads. The race starts at 7:00 in the morning, and you can read about the course at: Trail Monster Running » Bradbury “Fat Ass” Test Run

For those who are unfamiliar with Fat Asses, it’s basically a “race” that has no entry fee, no prizes, and folks bring their own goodies for the aid station(s). In this case, they’ll probably designate somebody’s vehicle as the aid table and just put all the goodies there - something like the back of a pickup. For me, it’ll be a long training run with hopefully a few more people than I’m used to running with on the weekends.

• This week last year, I wrote a bit about nutrition. First, I reviewed a few nutrition books, and I also discussed a study that found that our brains ignore calories from beverages. That makes it easier for us to eat more than we should when we drink juice or soda.
• Another study found that children who do not get enough sleep tend to be overweight. The study did not determine why that is so, but it did seem to point out a direct correlation. I think that sleep is very important, being one of the best times to allow your body to rest and recover from a workout.
• This week last year, I explained why there is always a headwind when you are running.
• Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin ran 4000 miles across the Sahara Desert to raise money for H2O Africa. That is quite a feat.
• This week two years ago, I described how to do chinups, suggested that you always eat breakfast, and reported on a story about a deer that bandited the Austin Freescale Marathon. The guy that got tackled by the deer didn’t run again last year.

How did your fantasy track team do at the Tyson Invitational “Pick & Win” for the Visa Championship Series? My team didn’t do nearly as well as at the Reebok games, but better than at the Millrose Games, and put me into 231^st place overall with 228 points between the three events. I am now 102 points behind first place, which means that I need to step it up this week to still not have a chance of winning!

This week’s fantasy track meet involves a return to Boston for the AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Champs. You have until Saturday, February 23^rd at 11:59 a.m. EST to make your picks. This week promises to offer some high scores for folks as there are 26 events to choose competitors for.

You can watch the meet on ESPN2 on Sunday, February 24^th, from 5:00-7:00 p.m EST.

Thinking of running in the New York City Marathon, but don’t want to wait for the lottery to find out if you get to run? If you belong to the New York Road Runners, then you may be used to obtaining a guaranteed entry by competing in at least 9 of the 50 events put on by NYRR each year.

This year, if you want to qualify for the 2009 New York Marathon, then you will also have to volunteer for at least one of the 50 other events that NYRR puts on.

The volunteer requirement was initiated in 2008 to support NYRR’s community service mission and our goal of encouraging volunteerism among our members. In addition, adding to our corps of race volunteers will help NYRR meet the NYC Parks and Recreation Department requirement to ensure a safe and cooperative race environment at the more than 50 events NYRR stages each year.

I think that this is a great change. Volunteering at races is a lot of fun, and perhaps by exposing people to the joys of being involved in the other side of the race they will be able to recruit some new folks to regularly help out at events.

And if people don’t feel like volunteering and resent this new requirement? They still have options. They can always try to get into the race through the normal lottery system. They can also try to run the qualifying standard for guaranteed entry before they register, which at the moment stands between 2:55:00 and 4:13:00 depending upon your age and gender. There are also charity options for guaranteed entry.

I ran the marathon in 2006, and I really enjoyed almost everything about the race. The NYRR put on a good event.

(Further Reading: NYRR Member Requirements - General Requirements & Application)

Tonight led to an interesting run, as evidenced in the photo the right. I considered postponing my run until late tonight so that I could see the eclipse while I was running, but decided that it wasn’t worth staying up that late. I knew that the eclipse would begin around the time that I finished running and that I’d be able to enjoy it from home.

The run began great. Despite having not charged the batteries in my headlamp, I had no trouble seeing as there were very little clouds in the air and the moon was quite bright. I thought that the moon looked a little funky, so I knew the eclipse wasn’t too far away. The next time that I glanced up, though, it had begun!

By the time that I got home, it was pretty dark. I ran inside, collected my camera and my wife, and you can see from the photo how long I had until the total eclipse.

I thought that the eclipse would start at 10:00 and be total at around 10:30. The photo was taken at about 9:30. I think that it was a good thing that I didn’t wait to run.

I took a dozen pictures or so, playing with different exposures. I don’t have a remote shutter for my camera, though, so it is impossible to avoid a little camera shake at night. The photo above is at the maximum resolution. I just cropped it into a square.

If you would like to download my original images, then you can do so by clicking on the picture. The pictures are compressed into a ZIP archive that is about 4MB in size. Most of them aren’t any good, but they are interesting to look through. This photo was #26.