Category Archives: Information

ONE Campaign Wins 3000 Meter

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I am a strong supporter of the ONE Campaign and its efforts to “Make Poverty History” here in the US and around the world. I signed the declaration several years ago and have been active off and on since then. You may have seen celebrities and Presidential candidates wearing the little white bands and wondered what it was all about – this is it!

Here is the ONE Declaration:

“WE BELIEVE that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty.

WE RECOGNIZE that a pact including such measures as fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing additional resources for basic needs – education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans – would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries, at a cost equal to just one percent more of the US budget.

WE COMMIT ourselves – one person, one voice, one vote at a time – to make a better, safer world for all.”

I am a subscriber to the ONE blog, so I was a little surprised when I saw this headline: White Band Storms 3000 Meter. There aren’t a lot of 3,000 meters out there so I was pretty sure it was a running story and sure enough there is a picture of World champion Ethiopian runner Meseret Defar who continued her 5-year undefeated streak by winning the 3000 meter at the World Indoor Championships on March8th.

Defar won the race while wearing a little white ONE Campaign arm band. (Image from Getty Images)

I think that is a great statement and is most certainly in the Olympic Spirit of unity and brotherhood.

[tags] Mesert Defar, ONE, IAAF, One Campaign [/tags]

Shay’s Autopsy Released

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Ryan Shay, 28, who died tragically last fall during the Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials, died of natural causes.

From the New York Times:

More than four months after Shay’s death, the medical examiner completed the autopsy and toxicology reports, describing his condition as “cardiac arrhythmia due to cardiac hypertrophy with patchy fibrosis of undetermined etiology.”

All of his toxicology reports came back negative. He had previously been diagnosed with an enlarged heart, which may have been a factor in his death. Shay was an accomplished marathoner with a 2:14 PR.

My wife an RN said this:

His heart had a bad rhythm because his heart was enlarged due to an unknown tissue or something.

I am not a doctor but here are definitions from around the web for each phrase of the report:

Cardiac Arrhthmia – a term for any of a large and heterogenous group of conditions in which there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart. The heart beat may be too fast or too slow, and may be regular or irregular.

Cardiac Hypertrophy – is a thickening of the heart muscle (myocardium) which results in a decrease in size of the chamber of the heart, including the left and right ventricles. A common cause of cardiac hypertrophy is high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart valve stenosis.

Fibrosis – is the formation or development of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or tissue as a reparative or reactive process, as opposed to a formation of fibrous tissue as a normal constituent of an organ or tissue.

Patchy Fibrosis just means that there was excess tissue growing in patches around the organ – in this case the heart.

Eitiology – is the study of causes

Undetermined Eitiology would just mean of an unknown cause.

It is good to finally know what happened to Shay.  Our thoughts and prayers are still with the entire family and the elite running community as they mourn his loss.

HT: The Final Sprint

What is your Strategy?

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Do you have a running strategy? Something like run fast and then run faster or go out hard and finish faster? Mine is run fast and don’t die at the end. Those are more racing strategies than running strategies. When I sit down and think about long-term races and plans – then I “strategize” by picking a training plan, setting a goal, finding a race.

Is that a good strategy? It is definitely a good starting point. But what about a real plan to achieve real success? It takes weeks of training to create a successful race and like any good dessert – there are many ingredients.

Runner’s World offers these 5 parts of strategy:

1. Minimal Training for Optimal Results – I like the sound of that! If you could run a 4-hour marathon by just running 5 miles a day – would you ever do a 20-miler? I’d hope not! While that’s not really possible, we need to make sure we aren’t over-training ourselves. Running more miles doesn’t necessarily make you a better runner capable of producing faster race times.

2. Be Consistent – This is the key to success in almost anything. It is a vital component of any training plan. While running 5 miles a day won’t make you a sub-4 hour marathoner it is better than running 5 miles a week or running a 25 mile week and taking a week off and running 3 miles the next week. Regular and consistent running lets your body adapt to the stresses and pressure of running which will greatly improve your outcomes. Even if it is a couple of days a week you should maintain some type of consistent schedule. On a side note it is easier to be motivated to run if you do it at the same time each day (consistently!).

3. Balance hard efforts with rest – Even as your body is adapting to a consistent running schedule, it needs time to rest and recover. Your body needs a little down time to repair all the muscle and bone tears that the stress of running causes. Think about this as letting the no-bake cookies set into hard cookies. I personally take one day off completely of exercise and cross-train one other day a week. This is helping keep me healthy and strong. A few weeks ago I had a “down” week and I felt a lot more rested and energized afterwards. This also helps prevent over-training and burnout.

4. Expect peaks and plateaus – My entire life ebbs and flows – I have exhilarating days and days where I’d rather just stay at home. You make a good batch of cookies and then next week using the same recipe they taste horrible. A consistent work load creates change in the body and you’ll see improvements – yet your body can only improve so much unless something else changes. If you feel like you’ve reached a plateau or stale point in your training, try something new. Find some new trails, mix in some speed work, find a running group, race a different distance. Each of these and many more ideas can help you reach new goals and overcome a stale stage in training. If you follow a training schedule it should include a time of peaking – allowing your body to be at top performance during the race. You may have mini-peaks throughout where you run a route a little faster than usual. If this happens you get excited, until next week when you run it again and its slower than before. This happens to me sometimes and then I’ll look back and realize that during the second week I had done more speed work or something and my body was tired and needed a little extra time!

5. Practice Patience – This may be the hardest for me. I want my times to start dropping immediately. Just like we want our fast food fast – we want performance improvements fast or we want to be at 35 miles a week during the first week back from an injury. To continue with the cooking analogies if you are supposed to bake cookies at 350 for 20 minutes – you can’t bake them at 450 for 10 minutes and get the same result. You can’t speed up the baking process. In the same situation you can’t pull the cookies out after 10 minutes of baking and expect them to taste right. You must be patient and follow directions to get the perfect cookie! In running you should follow the 10% rule – increase your overall mileage by 10% and any long run by 10%. You should also be careful not too add speed work too quickly. You need to have a good base/foundation before you start building up intensity.

For the perfect cookie you follow the recipe, so for the perfect race follow the strategy. Well that’s not always accurate either! Sometimes you can do everything right with the cookies and they still get messed up somehow – the same is true in running. You can follow every piece of advice, read all the blogs and article, and still have a bad race or get injured. But thinking strategically and being careful should ensure a good season.

[tags] Training, Running, Strategy, Cookies [/tags]

Smog’s Impact on Running

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We’ve heard lots about the impact of smog on the environment and that there really is no upside to having smog around. Here in the USA we’ve done a decently good job at beginning to reduce smog – especially in metro areas. We aren’t smog-free by any means but some places are doing better than others.

By now most people have heard about the Olympic Games in China – and maybe even the fact that China has a lot of pollution due to the high number of cars in areas like Beijing. That’s part of why oil prices keep rising. Good old supply and demand economics (for a simple explanation!) There are a lot of concerns about the Olympic Games being held in China – probably too numerous to mention here.

Today’s post focuses on the issue of how smog will impact the games. The Washington Post is reporting that:

Fearful of the effects of air pollution on their performance, Olympic athletes are taking extreme measures to prepare for this summer’s Games in Beijing.

The article goes on to say that at least 35 countries are planning to house their athletes outside of China or outside of Beijing. Additionally, most athletes will remain outside of the country as long as possible to reduce the impact of the environment on their bodies. The article talks about food concerns and I actually saw somewhere else that the US is shipping its own food for its athletes. Generally, the Olympics are seen as a great boost to the host country’s economy, even with all the expenditures related to construction and hosting the games. If other countries follow suit this may not be as good as China had hoped for their reputation.

Recent measurements show that on some days the amount of smoke and dust particles in the air exceeds by three to 12 times the maximum deemed safe by the World Health Organization. So while some teams say they are encouraged by the progress, they are preparing for the worst. Jacques Rogge, the head of the International Olympic Committee, has said events could be rescheduled if the air quality does not meet safety standards on a given day.

It is mentioned at the very end of this article that Halie Gebreselassie, was considering changing his running plans, it is actually a fact. According to the BBC article, he is going to try to qualify for the 10K and then do whatever is best for his country.  It could be an interesting few weeks while we watch and see how China handles the intense outside pressure and all of the major concerns.

[tags] Olympics, China [/tags]

USATF – Ongoing Stretch Study

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USA Track and Field is in the middle of a very large study on the impact of stretching before you run and running-related injuries.

From their background information:

Many studies have been conducted to understand the impact of stretching or warm-ups on the risk of injury, but with conflicting results. A broad review of “stretching” has not conclusively determined whether a pre-run static stretch protects runners from injury during their routine training.

After reading through the research aka protocol I decided to join the study. The study is focused on three major muscle groups – calves/Achilles, hamstrings, and quadriceps. Volunteers who meet their criteria – any person over 13 who runs 10 miles a week, hasn’t had an injury which prevented running for more than 3 days, is planning on running for the next 3 months, and who is willing to commit to either stretching before running or not stretching before running. The last part may sound kinda logical but there are some who

believe that [pre-run] stretching is important for you to prevent injuries, [if that is you] then you should not volunteer for the Study. If you do not stretch before you run and you believe that stretching before running will increase the possibility of injuring yourself, then you should not volunteer for the Study.

The sign-up process is pretty painless, I think it was 13 simple questions about major health-related issues, your weekly mileage, and a few questions about chronic injuries.

The study process is fairly simple. If you are assigned to stretch, then you stretch. If you are assigned not to stretch, then you don’t stretch the 3 muscle groups. Either way you are allowed to continue with other normal stretching routines before, during or after running. To ensure everyone stretches in a similar manner they have created a how to stretch page to make sure your stretch properly. After the three months you file a report which contains 2 questions – I did or did not get injured during this study and I stretched x% of the time before running. If at any point during the study you get injured which is defined as not being able to run for 3 consecutive days – you file an injury report 3 weeks after the injury occurred.

The study began in April of 2007 and will continue until the maximum size of 10,000 is reached or they produce a statistically significant result.

Be sure to click on over and do your part to help the running community better understand injury prevention!

[tags] USATF, Research, Stretch Study, Stretching [/tags]