Newnan's Lake 15 K

Yesterday was another  running of the Newnan's Lake 15 K road race. The weather was “brisk and invigorating” at the start and eventually the sun warmed everything up. The Coach K fitness teams were staffing the water tables as both a teaching lesson and giving back to the race community. I firmly believe that anyone who has ever been a race participant should volunteer at some point.

The teaching portion is to watch all the different running styles. Plus, we staffed the table that served the runners at both the 2 mile mark and the 7 mile mark. The great thing about this is you could watch everyone going out nice and fresh and then seeing them coming back “not so fresh”. The race leaders did not change their form going out or coming back.  This is great testimony to their conditioning and running economy. One young woman, who was at end of the lead pack on the way out was a great example of this. I pointed her out to my students working at the tables. She had a textbook perfect long stride, mid foot strike, good posture and classic ease of running. No furrowed brow, no huffing and puffing or other signs of struggle. Even though she was shorter than the other runners around her, I told my students to watch for her on the way back. Sure enough, by the time the lead pack returned to mile 7, she was still running with that perfect stride and looking calm and composed. AND she had moved up several places in the pack .

MORAL OF THE STORY: learn to run smoother, not work harder.

Don't get chafed.

This little tip is for athletes that are putting in big stretches of training-running, cycling/spin class.  The issue is chafing due to combination of sweat and repeated rubbing of body parts with clothes/shoes or even other body parts (I hope this is an over 18 viewing crowd). And yes,even guys get chafed. I was at a marathon in NC a few years ago and saw this guy come into water stop at mile 18 with blood on his T shirts. Turns out he ,had bleeding nipples. OUCH..bad combination of wearing a cotton shirt and no anti chafe cream, Bet he won't do that again.

In the past, I have used Body Glide which is sold at local running stores. It does a good job, but only comes in “deodorant stick” type package.  The problems with this are: 1. There is lots of plastic (non -recyclable at that) in ratio to usable product. 2. The shape of container is not the most conducive to applying to  many areas.

I received a trial tube of Aquaphor once at an Ultramarathon and was impressed at how well it worked. The only downside ,is that it is sold at Walgreens or CVS instead of local owned running store. For the same price as a tiny stick of Body Glide , you can get a tube of Aquaphor or the generic version that will last many times longer and have a fraction of the plastic trash.

So , be ready for when the temps warm up and things get sweaty again .

PS- I am not getting paid or sponsored by Aquaphor.

Doubles

Doubles- and we ain’t talking about tennis.  For athletes  in  all sports, this  is  a  training  plan  that  should   be  considered  and  discussed with  your  Coach.  I first  heard  about  this  idea  a  few  years  ago  when I was  beginning   to  get serious  about  running  Ultra marathons.   Andy Barrett, a runner from  Tampa, Fl area,  who  had  successfully  done 100 mile runs   explained  it  to me.  Running (or  whatever   your  endurance  sport ) takes   a  considerable  amount  of  time  when  you  are  doing  very  long   runs.  Since most of us do not have a spare 4-5 hrs.  to “just  go  running”  it  is difficult  to  actually  duplicate  a race  day  event.  However,  you  can  start  doing  shorter/more  time  efficient  runs  in  AM  and  PM  of  the  same  day.

This has several benefits:

1.   .   Much easier to manage time wise and fuel/fluid gear.

2.       Allows your body a brief recovery and then back into “stress mode”.  This makes your C6-C10 /damage-rebuild hormone system get more efficient.

3.     Allows you to play with training schedule a bit more. Do sprints in the AM and then do long, slow run in PM.  Or Flats in AM and Hills in PM. Or cross training options.

4.    .  This is where the creativity really comes in handy.  Finally, you can work on fast twitch/speed work and then slow twitch/endurance in same day.  In “old days”, there were the anointed days for intervals and anointed days for LSD. No longer necessary.

5.    .  The biggest benefit is being able to log your big mileage in form of 2 short runs instead of one long time consuming run. Plus for you, endurance athletes, the concept of double-doubles is pure icing on the cake. Very few of us have the time to actually run 50miles or cycle 100 miles as prep for events. But with back to back days of double digit mileage you can produce the training results that you need with less wear and tear.

6.    .  I uses to believe-rather rigidly- that you need to run/cycle the full distance of event in order to train properly.  But now I have been converted to new system.  On occasion I will go and run a pure long distance and do as well or better than old days when I religiously ran only big mileage.

7.      Remember: Change is Good!

Now, a small caveat is in order here. This type of program requires a definite, solid training base or else you are at high risk for overtraining and going backwards instead of making progress.  It is very important that you discuss this with your Coach or certified personal trainer before jumping into it.

change is good*

Hey y'all,
this is in response to question from client about getting new shoes. I personally will run in shoes until they are falling apart and then you can switch to real barefoot running,  So this post is going to talk more about shoes- if you get the Coach K newsletter and read article about "it ain't the shoes" this is going in other direction.
Changing shoes for either new model or different brand should have a good reason ( other than they looked really cool). Running in different shoes is a good thing. I advise folks to save their old pair and alternate between the new pair and old pair. This makes your feet/leg muscles react differently and hopefully become less stuck in one pattern. So in the same line of thinking, one should change the route they run to also encourage different muscle responses...running hills all the time (even though they are the true religion of training) will not help your sprint skills and how to open up a long ,rhythmical stride. Of course, change from days of long slow runs-i know for some people that is their only style (LOL)...I like to run zigzag routes on hills just for fun.
So change those shoes, change your routes and speeds. Maybe throw in some cycling and weight lifting to you training program. All this is good if done with a purpose and how it will relate to final goal. That is the big caveat. Random change may be good for killing boredom but it will not improve your level . Change with a purpose is very good.