Category Archives: Information

Book Review: Marathon Preparation & Recovery

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I just finished the 75 page e-book, Your Comprehensive Guide to Marathon Preparation and Recovery written by accomplished marathoner and blogger Blaine Moore. He recently won the Cox Sports Marathon in Rhode Island in 2:43 (I’m not sure what his PR is).

According to his blog he has finished 9 marathons and has been competitively running since 1992.  He establishes his credentials for the book during the introduction.

The book is well written in an easy to read and follow format.  E-books are a new trend and make for great portability and ease of reading and re-reading no matter where you are, assuming you have a computer or cell phone!

He easily walks the beginning and experienced marathoner alike through the 4 major parts of a marathon – deciding to do one, pre-race training, the actual race, and post-race recovery.  His goal is to simply make the marathon as painless as possible!

This book isn’t a training schedule like you might get from Hal Higdon or Jeff Galloway, but it adds insights that are sometimes left out of those training schedules. Some of the advice and tips might seem like common sense, but I think that is sometimes the things we forget to pay attention to.  The facts are interspersed with links to past race reviews and stories of his different experiences at the various races he’s run.

I enjoyed the “What to do during the race” section which hit on my most common ailment – starting too fast. I also resonated with other points, like not walking through aid stations if you didn’t do walk breaks in training.  I’ve done that before and it never helped, Blaine has experienced that and explained that it makes your legs stiffen even that short amount of time.

I’d say give it a read, its quick and easy and contains lots of valuable insights for every marathoner.

[tags] Marathon Training, Blaine Moore, Training, Marathon, Book Review [/tags]

Disclaimer: I won my copy in a recent contest at Blaine’s blog.

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Midtown Greenway: Recreational Mecca

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Image from Flckr

There are hundreds of miles of trails – maybe even thousands across the greater Twin Cities metro area. Some have no real purpose other than winding around, enjoying nature. Some serve as vital arteries of transportation and commerce. The Midtown Greenway falls into the latter category.

Cutting East-West through the heart of South Minneapolis, the Greenway is a major commuter artery connecting the Western Suburbs to the Mississippi River. It is also a three lane recreational mecca of sorts easily connecting with the chain of lakes, Midtown Global Market, West River Parkway, and a variety of other bike trails.

Officially the “Midtown Greenway” is only 5.5 miles long but the trail continues on after leaving Minneapolis and Hennepin County. The Star-Tribune recently reported that for the the quarter ending on June 30th that overall trail usage was up 30% and three-fold since 2003. From a running standpoint this means the trail is quite busy. I would argue that this facility maintained and advocated for by the Midtown Greenway Coalition is invaluable as a paved trail for those who need paved surfaces to recreate.

Living only 4 blocks from the Greenway and 6 from an entrance/exit I use the trail for many of my runs and bike commuting to work.  From a running standpoint it is extremely nice to be away from cars and to have a flat surface to run on – although it does get a little boring and repetitive.  The trail occasionally has a dirt shoulder that I can run on to avoid the pounding pavement but you can’t count on being able to run there.  I said flat, but the newest addition – Martin Olav Sabo bike-pedestrian bridge over Hiawatha Ave – provides a pretty steep incline for both the runner and biker.  However, it can provide some pretty sweet views of downtown at the right times of day.

Winter Greenway
Image from Flckr

In the winter the Greenway is extremely useful because it gets plowed on a regular basis and you don’t need to worry about cars sliding around and hitting you – just a bicycle!

I have really enjoyed being able to utilize the Greenway so much. It wasn’t until I started training for the marathon that I really started branching off and running different routes from my house.  The Greenway is just so convienent!

Hope to see you out there!

[tags] Midtown Greenway, Bike Trails, Minneapolis, Recreation [/tags]

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Product Review: Pearl Izumi Go Shorts

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Last year I purchased a pair of Brooks running shorts with side velcro pockets, but after my gels fell out during a race I became disappointed in their ability to carry nutrition for the long runs.  I needed another option for my upcoming marathon.  Blaine Moore recommends the Race Ready short.  I personally don’t like how the Long Distance (Race Ready LD) shorts look – if you’ve never seen them they basically look like they have a bunch of mesh pockets hanging off your waist on the back – and the others aren’t really different from other shorts.  I guess the mesh pockets are a little better than just pinning a bunch of Gu to you shorts as is often done!

So I was looking at all the various options at Marathon Sports after a MDRA training class and they offered 3 or 4 different shorts that had ample room for nutritional products.  One of the other runners recommended the Pearl Izumi Go Shorts and compared to the others they looked the most like a regular short.

They offer 2 velcro closed pockets and 2 other pockets on your back and a key pocket built in the seam. His only comment was to make sure you actually tie the drawstring so that your crack doesn’t show while running! A good point.  Being all sweaty and dirty I didn’t try them on but bought my normal medium.  Oops, when I got home they were a little tight in areas where they shouldn’t be and that was even before I loaded up the pockets – so back I went to purchase a large – which fit wonderfully.

They do have a little different feel than most of my other shorts, the inner liner fits a little snugger than my other shorts and is made of a different fabric.  From the product description:

Pearl Izumi has built its reputation on creating the highest performance technical fabrics in the world. On the Go Short Pearl Izumi Light II Ripstop fabric is made with channeled polyester yarns that quickly wick moisture away from your body for optimum fabric performance. The Ultrasensor float liner adds to this high moisture transfer performance, providing needed support while keeping you cool, dry and abrasion free during long, all-terrain runs.

The lightweight Go Shorts feature two Velcro mesh backed pockets, two open, mesh backed pockets, and an internal key pocket so that you can take essentials with you on the run. The shorts feature a straight hem style, elasticized waist, and laser perforated side panels for additional ventilation.

I’ve worn them for 2 long runs now (1 with Gu and 1 without) and they seem to do a pretty good job. They did dry out during my 14 miler after getting wet from hitting wet foliage! I didn’t really notice the Gu packet during the run either.  One thing of note is that the key pocket is a little lower than on any of my other shorts.  Most shorts have the pocket sewn into the seam – on the Go Shorts it is about a inch lower and actually hangs a little lower than others too.  Not a big deal as it still feels comfortable on the run – its just a little more akward trying to dig the key out afterwards!

So far I have really enjoyed the shorts and would recommend them to you if you are looking for a safe way to carry Gu or other nutrition on a long run.

[tags] Product Review, Pearl Izumi, Go Shorts, Running Shorts [/tags]

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Summer Flip Flop Pain

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With summer officially here now and the warm weather has finally made its appearance in Minnesota – it is time to wear the flip flops 24/7 for many people. But not me, I used to wear my flip flops all the time but slowed the use of them after I started having knee and heel issues that wouldn’t seem to go away.

I think for me it was the lack of cushioning and support (or improper support) that exasperated the existing issues I was experiencing. I could say that after I stopped wearing them all the time all my pain magically disappeared! But that would be inaccurate. I think that switching back to regular shoes and even more cushioned leather sandals helped my knee and heel heal more instead of constantly tugging on them.

I still wear my flip flops around quite often – I just try to limit the amount of time I’m going to be in them and on my feet walking around. For example a few weeks ago we went over to a friend’s house for dinner so I wore my flip flops. After dinner we ended up going for a fairly short walk but in that brief time I could feel the discomfort of wearing my flip flops around.

With my previous experiences it was not suprising then to hear about this recent study:

A new study from the American College of Sports Medicine found flip-flop wearers tend to take smaller strides, and alter the way they walk just to keep the sandals on.

Podiatrist Dr. Richard Green, says your flip-flops could be the cause of leg, knee, hip and back pain.

According to Dr. Green, you can love your flip-flops and feel good too. He says, just choose a pair with these three key elements:

  • arch support
  • thick sole
  • a heel stopper

    • “If it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t a big problem, but I wouldn’t really advise anyone to wear them full time all the time,” says Dr. Green.Flip-flops can cost between two bucks to upwards of 80-dollars a pair.But, price doesn’t necessarily make it a better fit.

    What do you think about this? Do you wear flip-flops a lot?

    [tags] Sandals, Flip Flops, Sports Medicine [/tags]

    Heading to the (All)top

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    If you could only go to one website a day to find out all the latest information about running what would it be?  Aww shuck you didn’t have to say this one!

    Seriously though…

    Check out one of the newest sections at Alltop – running.alltop. Since June 1, 2008 Alltop.com has been collecting feeds from various running related blogs into their nicely laid out site.  You can go to the page and see the last 5 posts from 72 different running blogs.  That is a lot of blogs but it also a lot of good information!

    Some of the blogs are personal training logs while others are great resources such as The Final Sprint, Runnerville, Team Cross Runs, Run to Win, Runner’s Lounge, Nike, Cool Running, and The Complete Running Network.

    So you get the idea there is a plethora of information.  Overloaded? You can actually close out some of the feeds so it is less distracting.

    Be sure to head on over and at least give it a look.  They are constantly adding new sites all the time.

    [tags] Alltop, Blogs [/tags]