for sore muscles...

I'm finally getting around to mentioning this to you guys. I finally remembered because I walked all over SixFlags on Saturday and came home and got my 13 miles in last night. Right now I'm hurting a little. You've probably had a few times when you could have used something to help with muscle soreness over the last month or two. Some muscle soreness is good, it means you've worked muscles past where they've been used before. But sometimes that pain just gets in the way of your everyday life. You can use your favorite NSAID (Non-Steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) for pain such as Ibuprofen, Tylenol, or Aleive, but that is an overall treatment for something that might be more specific. I use them sometimes, but another tool I use when I hurt somewhere specific (like my quads or calves) is Biofreeze.

Biofreeze is a topical analgesic like Bengay or Icy-Hot. But its got a more pleasing scent that actually disappears after 5-10 minutes. I've got samples of it that you can rub on, but I've also got it in a roll-on bottle so you don't have to get it all over your hands. If you want a bottle or just some samples let me know, I've got some I can sell you. You can't find this in stores, I don't believe they distribute it that way. It's supposed to be available from health professionals that stock it. I found a place on the internet that offered free shipping for a certain quantity and I took advantage of it.

How'd it go?

So, How'd it go?

Before we get into that, be sure and show up at Lincoln Park next week. We can't meet in the fairgrounds because of the rodeo. Try to be there. I think we should have a group picture taken and talk about another social event, maybe even a pool party. We'll be doing 5.5 I think.

We didn't have a wrap up last night, but hopefully you realized a few things. One, the heat sucks. Two, it's really easy to go out too fast. I think most of you did fairly well at pacing. You just need to be very conscious of your pace early on so you don't burn out too early. And three, did you have anything left at the end? Race situations are different than training runs. Training runs you don't want to completely empty the reservoir, just get close to push your limits. During races you don't want to have anything left in your tank. The best race is one where you use up your last reserve during the mad dash to the finish and can barely stand up at the end.

Hopefully you got your time as you crossed. That course is a pretty good representation of the whole 10K. It had some of the same hills and some others that are a good replacement for the ones you didn't hit. Use the McMillan pace calculator to find what your expected finish time for a 10K is. Just put in your time and select the 5K option and after you hit Calculate it will give you your expected pace for the race. Keep in mind that this is not guaranteed and you might even do better. The race will be in the morning, so there is a chance it will be cool.

Anyway, we can talk more next week. Have a good week.

Funny articles from "The Onion"

I got this article from the Complete Running Network, its a compilation of some funny running stories from "The Onion." I had to pass it on.

My favorite is this:
6000 Runners fail to discover cure

Second is this:
Kenyan watches marathons for the crashes


Have a good weekend.

More articles

This isn't the one I was looking for, but here's some more articles:

Tips for beating the heat

This one has some good tips on running during the summer. Not exactly complete, but some good advice anyway.

Running is not too hard on the body, part 2

This is part two from the running and injuries that I posted the other day. It wasn't the answer I was expecting, and not exactly something I'd suggest that you guys try to follow. But, if you are having constant pain during running that you can't get rid of, give this a try.

The Aerobic System

This is part two of a series that started a week ago or so. I didn't post it because I wasn't exactly sure where it was going and part 1 was very technical and didn't seem to have any great info dealing with running. This article has a link to part one where you can read it if you want to. Part 2 was interesting and has some good tips on fueling for long distance runs. Not exactly useful for a 10K, but good information if you intend on extending your runs after Abe's is over.



Don't hesitate to ask questions and we'll see you all for a practice 5K race next Tuesday. Show up at the grandstand and we'll do a 5K race with the course yet to be disclosed. As I understand it the clocks will be out and the finishing chute and maybe even a water stop.

Heat and other things...

I promised some info on running in the heat. There are some old articles on runners world, but what I'm really waiting for is the online version of the article in the issue that just came out. If any of you subscribe, check it out. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until the put it on their website. If you want to see what they've got, just go there and put heat in the search box.

Here's another teaser article about running and pain/injuries. He promises the answer in a day or two. We'll see. Hope things are going well. Any questions, just shoot us an email or post a comment.

See you tomorrow.

Dean Karnazes up for an ESPY

Great to see everybody that could make it to the Fieldhouse last night. Sorry I had to scoot out early. I promise other times I won't have too.

Anyway, I put an article on the Abes Army blog. You should check it out. I won't duplicate it here, just click through and read it there.

Remember, take it easy in the heat and make sure to have lots of fluids available. I'll see if I can find some info on running in the heat and post it here.

Articles about weight and speed

Here's a couple articles about weight loss and speed. (#1 & #2) See you at the fairgrounds tomorrow. Log says 4.5 miles.

#1 (strictly numbers):

Lose Weight & Get Faster

Posted By Mark Iocchelli On 8th June 2007 @ 08:03 In Weight Loss | 13 Comments

There was a nice little table in [1] Runner’s World this month that illustrates how much faster you could be if you lost weight. Of course, this would not take into account speed increases due to training.

Pounds Lost	5k	10k	1/2 Marathon	Marathon
2	:12.4	:25	:52	1:45
5	31	1:02	2:11	4:22
10	1:02	2:04	4:22	8:44
20	2:04	4:08	8:44	17:28

According to RW author Amby Burfoot, the table is based on research that runners, on average get 2 seconds per mile faster for every pound they lose. The times you see above are the amounts a runner can shave off his/her race times by losing weight.

Feel motivated?
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Note: Weight loss is for people who are overweight - not for people who are already slim. Losing weight when you are slim means you are losing muscle tissue and that means you are losing strength which in turn makes you slower. If at all in doubt, discuss with a professional (a doctor or your coach).

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Article printed from Complete Running Network: http://completerunning.com

URL to article: http://completerunning.com/archives/2007/06/08/lose-weight-get-faster/

URLs in this post:
[1] Runner’s World: http://runnersworld.com

#2 (science behind numbers):

Running Lessons from Isaac Newton

Posted By Jank On 25th June 2007 @ 08:30 In Weight Loss | No Comments

A while back, [1] Mark posed the question to me: “Hey, Bill? How does having lost weight change my running? As in: I know it makes me faster, but can you quantify that?”

Being an engineer, I was tempted to snap back that I’d spent four years and a decent part of my potential life’s income learning how to answer those questions. Then, I was afraid that all that knowledge had slipped under the bridge, and I wouldn’t actually be able to answer the question…

Ah, but fear not, readers - the years and the beers haven’t completely eroded Physics 101. In fact, thanks to good old aerobic exercise, I’m [2] likely smarter now than back in college when my exercise regime consisted largely of 12 oz curls.

We’ll start at the beginning, with [3] Newton’s famous

F = M * A

or, Force = Mass times Acceleration.

Rearrange this a bit, and we can see that

Acceleration = Force divided by Mass (A = F / M )

So, off the line, dropping, say, 15 lbs off of a 150 lb frame will make you able to accelerate 10% faster, assuming that none of the weight loss came out of muscle tissue.

There’s a similar benefit to be had in climbing - climbing is just vertical acceleration, with the earth’s gravity trying to pull you down with a constant acceleration of 9.8 meters / second squared. 1Weight reduction means that you can climb at the same rate using less force where the rubber meets the road.

I’m sure that everyone has heard Newton’s other law about “An object in motion tends to stay in motion until acted upon by an external force”. Well, strictly speaking, that’s true. However, we’ve got plenty of external forces to deal with. There’s wind drag, which we’ll deal with later, but more importantly, there’s gravity.

For those of us in the real world, we really aren’t moving straight forward as we run. In reality, we’re tracing a series of arcs as we push off with one foot, raise our center of gravity up as we push off, experience a brief bit of weightlessness at the top of each stride, get pulled back down to earth by gravity, foot strike, store energy in our legs, and push off again (Yes, yes, Mr. [4] Pose - as much as we try to float our feet in circles, there is still effort involved).

Every time we push off to enjoy that delicious moment of weightlessness in each stride, we’re doing work. In the engineering sense, Work is defined as Force over a distance. In our case, each step involves the work needed to lift up our bodies enough to swap feet, and enough work to overcome hills and aerodynamic drag.

Assuming that drag remains constant regardless of weight (a bad assumption, as cross-section goes down as we get skinny, but I don’t feel like hitting Wikipedia for that one), with each step we’re going to have to lift our body up. 10% weight reduction means that each step we’re doing requires 10% less work with each step, requiring 10% less power (work times time) to maintain a given velocity.

OR, again, with the assumption that you’re not losing power as you lose weight, you can go faster with the same amount of muscles if you’re skinnier.

Picture it this way: Say you lose 5 pounds. 5 pounds is about the same as a half-gallon of milk. I were to ask you to lift a thousand half-gallons of milk onto a 6″ stair, you’d think it was a tough, tough task. Losing 5 lbs is like not having to lift that 500 gallons of milk in every mile you run.
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Editors Note: Whether you should lose weight or not is something you should discuss with a professional such as your doctor or coach. We do not advocate that young athletes try to lose weight just to get faster.

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Article printed from Complete Running Network: http://completerunning.com

URL to article: http://completerunning.com/archives/2007/06/25/speed-lessons-isaac-newton/

URLs in this post:
[1] Mark: http://completerunning.com/running-blog-mark
[2] likely smarter: http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/10/17/improve.memory/
[3] Newton’s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_laws_of_motion
[4] Pose: http://posetech.com