Run to Win

The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the third part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment, the second part was about nutrition basics and fueling, and the third part was about selecting proper footwear.

The fourth part of this series introduced you to the 3 athletes on the panel, and this final part will summarize their thoughts on training, teamwork, and racing as they answer the questions posed to them by the people in attendance.

What do you wish you knew in high school that you know now?

Lauren Fleshman only had 2 paces in high school, workout and racee. In college, she had 3 paces, workout, maintenance, and racing. She had a much better idea going into each workout what the goal was, and sometimes that was just to prepare for the next workout. She also would like to have known in high school how much better she could recover from two-a-days than doing 1 longer run throughout the day. In college she would run double 3 or 4 times per week.

Matt Lane would like to have known how important consistency in training was, especially having grown up in Maine where consistent running can be more difficult than elsewhere.

Matt did not run on the indoor track team, and instead competed for the ski team. Unless you are Ben True, skiing is not a complete substitute for running. It gives you great cardiovascular fitness, but it just doesn’t translate onto the track.

Matt would basically not run a single step between November and March, and his high school track times suffered as a result. He considers himself by far the slowest guy in the top 10 at Foot Lockers for his track times.

Matt wishes that he knew that running even once or twice a week would have been good enough to allow him to maintain his running fitness between the cross country and track seasons. Going for 5 or 6 weeks at a time without a run just didn’t allow him to do that no matter how well he was cross training. In the Summer, he did not have that same problem, which is why he did so much better in cross country.

Louie Luchini wishes that he had known what a difference a high volume workload can make, and wishes that he had done some harder workouts in high school.

His biggest problem with the extra volume, though, is that he sleeps too much and morning runs are out of the question for him. (Much to the chagrin of his coaching staff.)
(Click here to continue reading…)

This week last year, there was a good mix of running tips and running news.

• The first running tip that I offered was how to drink water during a race, with practical tips to keep you from having to slow down and to make sure you don’t try to drown yourself.
• The second tip that I offered last year was to warm up in spare clothes before a race. Getting your racing clothes soaked or sweaty before a race can be aggravating, so having a spare set of clothing to change out of before the race (and, for that matter, into after the race) can make you much more comfortable.
• I asked the question, “Dean Karnazes. That I was asking this question a year ago is rather appropriate, given that his new book is set to be published in another week or two.
• In running news, Jeremy Wariner set a 400m record and won a diamond at a meet in Stockholm with a time of 43.5 seconds.
• In fake running news, a graphic design student created a movie trailer for Once a Runner, which is one of the best fictional running books in the sport.
• This week two years ago, I was busy getting ready to get married but the site kept ticking over with interesting things to read.
  • I explained the difference between RICE and RID and why either method is a good way to treat your injuries. I have since learned that using anti-inflammatories can be counter productive.
  • Over in the UK, cross country running was declared a brand of abuse and was equated with bullying. It still seems a little ridiculous to myself.
  • The first half of my Shoe Maintenance Series went live while I was busy getting ready to be married. I introduced the series, and then offered up a central theme in the tips which is to keep your shoes dry when you are not wearing them. How you keep them dry is important, as well, which is why I continued on the second day by explaining how effective pulling out insoles can be and why you should remove rocks and mud after your run. The next day was the wedding itself, and then on Sunday there was one tip where I explained what to do if your shoes are sopping wet.
• This week 3 years ago, at the world championships in Helsinki, Kenenisa Bekele won the 10,000m, Bershawn Jackson won the 400m hurdles, and the United States took the top 4 in the 200 meters final. I also reviewed my casio wristwatch and the book, Run Fast: How to beat your best time every time.

In 1998, Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Tyree Washington and Michael Johnson set the American 4×400m record with a time of 2:54.20. That record is in discussions to be removed, with the 2:54.29 that was run in the 1993 World Outdoor Championships getting reinstated. Young was banned for life in 2004, and Pettigrew has recently admitted to doping as far back as 1997.

“Removing this record is the right thing to do, pure and simple,” USATF CEO Doug Logan said. “We have no interest in a record that the facts – not rumors – have exposed as being achieved by fraudulent means by at least one athlete on the team. Obviously, Tyree Washington and Michael Johnson played no part in the doping activities of others, and it is a shame that they may suffer as a result. But our message is clear: compete clean, win clean and break records clean. Or, get out of our sport and out of our record books.”

I hope that the record is removed, and I hope that athletes are taking notice. I am sure that Michael Johnson would agree; he has already returned a gold medal from the 2000 Olympics that he had won on a different team with Pettigrew. Michael Johnson will still own the American record, since he was also on the 1993 team. The real victim here is Tyree Washington.

(More Info: USATF)

Michael Johnson holds the 200m and 400m world records, and until recently had 5 Olympic Gold medals. That’s about to change, though, as he is voluntarily returning one of his Olympic Gold medals now that he knows it wasn’t not achieved legally.

In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 3 of the 4 runners on the 1600m relay were coached by Trevor Graham. In Graham’s latest trial, Antonio Pettigrew admitted to receiving performance enhancing drugs from Graham. This means that Michael Johnson was the only clean athlete on the relay team.

Johnson said he is “deeply disappointed in Antonio and in the sport of athletics. I now realize that there have been a significant number of athletes and coaches in this sport who have cheated and taken the short cut, and many of them knew who else was cheating.

“But now, I feel that I have been naive.

“I know the medal was not fairly won and that it is dirty, and so I have moved it from the location where I have always kept my medals because it doesn’t belong there. And it doesn’t belong to me.”

This has to be quite the blow for Johnson, and I’m sorry that he has to give up his medal. He is doing the right thing, though. I hope that it serves as a good example for the next generation of athletes and that they stay clean.

(Read More: ESPN – Photo Credit: Sprintic)

Tyson Gay followed up his gold medal in the 100 meters with another gold in the 200 meter race yesterday in Osaka. Usain Bolt of Jamaica came on hard after a bad start, but Tyson Gay was able to keep a lead of about 2-hundredths of a second to win the goal.

Jeremy Wariner took in the gold in the 400 meter race as he led an American sweep despite being the last person off of the line. He ran a personal best 43.46 seconds, which is the fastest on a track so far this year. LaShawn Merritt and Angelo Taylor took the silver and bronze medals.

Jeremy Wariner won the 400m in Stockholm, Sweden today. He set a stadium record of 43.50 after running the fastest 400 meters in the world so far this year and the 6^th fastest in history.

“Very good race, this is now my personal record,” said Wariner, who won the one-lap race last year in 44.02. “I ran well in Stockholm last year, now even better. I just love to run here.”

Athletes that break the stadium record in Stockholm earn a diamond as a bonus that is valued near 10 grand.

Setting Wariner’s PR against my PR, I would lose by over 16 seconds. It is crazy how fast that is; I hope that he manages to an even faster race in the finals at the end of the month in Osaka during the world championships.

(Sources: IAAF – ESPN)

Oscar Pistorius ran this weekend in Sheffield, where he was the last finisher in 47.65 seconds. Unfortunately, he was disqualified for running out of his lane.

The fun does not stop there, however. The IAAF has had some hidden cameras watching Oscar’s races, and are grasping at straws to find something that they can disqualify him for and save face. Their videos have shown that most of the common rationalizations simply aren’t true. Oscar Pistorius is not overly tall, and his stride length is average for somebody his size.

Their latest claim, however, is that he does not have as much air resistance than a normal runner. I am not really sure how they can say that from watching a video of a race, however. I think that if they want to make claims like this, they should get him into a wind tunnel along with a few able bodied and paralympic competitors and make some actual measurements. How much air resistance does an able bodied person’s lower legs have to push against? How much less is he pushing against?

I do not think that Oscar is going to be able to run a qualifying time in the 400 meters before the deadline for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I think that the IAAF should start working with him a little closer and should determine what sort of advantages and disadvantages he actually has.

(Sources: ESPN – ESPN)