Marathon — Will the Marathon World Record Continue to Fall?

JoeEnglish - 5:30 am | no comments

running advice bug Marathon Will the Marathon World Record Continue to Fall?When it comes to marathon running world records, we go through eras of both stability and great change. Today we’re in an era of change with the world mark dropping fast. The current crop of runners, both young and old, are taking advantage of advances in training methods, modern science and perhaps a bit of luck to keep the barometer of marathon running speed falling downward.

Patrick Makau breaks the 007 300x180 Marathon Will the Marathon World Record Continue to Fall?

Patrick Makau Breaks the Marathon World Record

Looking at records of the fastest marathon times ever recorded, including both certified world records and world’s best performances, the top four fastest times in history were run in 2011 and eleven of the twenty fastest times ever were run in either 2011 or 2012. Add 2010 to the list of 15 of the fastest times in history are on the list.

Two races in particular produced a crop of incredibly fast times. Last April’s Boston Marathon, with perfect conditions and a tail winds, saw Geoffrey Mutai and Moses Mosop run well under the world record at the time in 2:03:02 and 2:03:06 respectively, narrowly missing breaking the 2:03:00 mark. It was just 2009 when Haile Gebrselassie break the 2:04:00 mark for the first time and you have to go all the way back to 2003 to find the first time that broke the 2:05:00 barrier.

The times at Boston were not recorded as official World Records because of the net drop in elevation of the course in Boston so the marks set there are considered world’s fastest times instead. But looking at the World Record itself, this past Fall saw even more action. At the Berlin Marathon is 2011, Patrick Makau took a whopping 21 seconds off the then World Record, scorching the course in 2:03:38. Just a month later, Wilson Kipsang almost broke it again in the Frankfurt Marathon running 2:03:42.

And just this past weekend, the Dubai Marathon produced stunning times. There four men ran under 2:05:00 for the first time in a single marathon. Ayele Abshero won the race in 2:04:23 with Dino Sefir, Markos Genti and Johnathan Mayo all running under 2:05:00 as well. That means that four of the top 20 fastest times in history were run in the same race this past weekend.
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Commentary — It Doesn’t Always Work Out & That’s Just Fine

JoeEnglish - 4:29 am | no comments

running advice bug Commentary It Doesnt Always Work Out & Thats Just FineIt’s been awhile since I’ve told a good yarn of a racing tale. Well, I’ve got one for you today and it’s a ditty. But before I get into this story that requires embarrassing myself beyond belief — almost as badly as the time I mistakenly used the women’s bathroom to change my clothes — I will back up and share with you one key learning that I want you to gain from my misfortune.

Cross bike FT ST 2012 250 Commentary It Doesnt Always Work Out & Thats Just Fine

Someone Much Faster Than Me

I often tell people here in this forum that the should mix it up, try new things, and take detours here and there. If you keep doing the same things over and over, how would you know if you were really good at something else, I might ask. And, mixing it up keeps things fresh and fun. I routinely pick out a sport and spend a whole season doing nothing but that — be it ultra-running, duathlon, trail-racing, or whatever — because by focusing on a new discipline it allows me to learn things that I can apply to my other endeavors. If I hadn’t, for example, decided to focus on short-course duathlon last year, I wouldn’t have know that I was so good at it. And that’s the kind of thinking that I used to get myself into the event that I was competing in this weekend.

It started a couple of weeks ago when I was doing my schedule planning for the year. I have sorted through dozens of races trying to find a race schedule that sounds fun and interesting. My one big problem is that the USAT Duathlon Nationals falls within a heinous period of travel for me. In five weeks, I will be in five different countries with Nationals right smack in the middle of that. So if I wanted to try to go to World’s again, the only way to do it would be to try to get to Nationals somehow. In looking at this, I thought of some other options. I thought, for instance, that I might try Sprint Triathlon Nationals instead. And this is what found me pondering what off-road triathlon might be like.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I’m find myself signed up for an off-road duathlon. I didn’t really even realize that it was an off-road duathlon when I signed up for it. I actually thought that it was just a winter season on-road race. But about a week before the event I was looking on-line at pictures from last year and sure enough people are riding through the mud and snow. Hmmmmm I thought to myself. Well, I guess I could get myself a mountain bike and give it a try. As I just wrote a minute ago, I do encourage people to try new things and all.
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Training — Five Ways to Spice Up Your Runs

JoeEnglish - 12:02 am | no comments

running advice bug Training Five Ways to Spice Up Your RunsWe’re a couple of weeks into the new year and I’m already hearing from people that a bit of malaise has set in. The runs are happening, but the eager enthusiasm of the first two weeks has passed. A look outside at a cold rain-shower has them saying, “I guess I could take a day off.” This is the time to spice up those workouts to keep yourself motivated. So today I presented five tips to spice up your runs!

Spicy Tip 1 — Sprint between the traffic lights — So let’s say that your live in an urban center with lots of traffic lights and short blocks. This can be a drag, because you end up running from light to light and then waiting. Well, here’s a fun way to spice up these urban runs: turn your urban run into an interval workout by running hard between the lights and using the light as a recovery period. My friend Coach Dean once told me he was in the best shape of his life when he lived in urban areas and did this type of workout. Start out by warming up and then when you’re ready push yourself hard up to a traffic light, stop at the light and wait, then go again when the light changes to green. Here’s a tip: you do need recovery between the hard intervals, so if you happen to catch the lights at a green light, wait a cycle to give yourself a breather.

Spicy Tip 2 — Turn your workout into a game — You may or may not have heard the funny term “fartlek”, which is a term for a type of mixed speed running workout. Whatever you call it, turning a workout into a game of tag or follow-the-leader can be a lot of fun. Here’s how it works. Find yourself a couple of people and take turns leading. The leader sets the pace and/or tries to outrun the other people in the group. When someone is caught, take a breather of 30 seconds to one minute and then the person that caught that last person gets a chance to take off. Here’s a tip: you need to be somewhat closely matched to play this game or someone will just take-off and no one will be able to catch them. You can overcome this by setting a limit — if they haven’t been caught in 30 seconds then they need to come back and give someone else a turn.
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Training — Understanding Stress Fractures

JoeEnglish - 5:47 pm | no comments

running advice bug Training Understanding Stress FracturesA friend of mine is recovering from a stress fracture in her heel. In her case, the stress fracture was caused by training too much in minimalist shoes too quickly. I shared some thoughts about stress fractures and methods of recovery with her that I thought you might find helpful as well. The “glass and hammer” analogy below is a good one to keep in mind when thinking about stress fractures. It is also important to realize that stress fractures are actually little cracks in the bone. If you continue to beat on them, they can turn into actual breaks in the bone (fractures). Just like “breaking your leg” when you were a kid, once you’ve broken a bone in this manner, you’ll be in cast and may suffer permanent damage. So if you have inkling of a stress fracture developing, please take care to have it checked out.

Here’s what I had to say about stress fractures:

First off, let’s think about stress fractures themselves. Stress fractures are small cracks (fractures) that develop in bones due to force (or stress) that is being placed on a particular bone. One of the most important things in dealing with stress fractures is that we need to figure out the root cause of the stress fracture in order to make sure that it doesn’t come back again when you resume training. This may seem obvious, but too often people take the advice to “rest and recover” for 4-6 weeks or more and then resume training without an idea of what caused the injury in the first place. If the causation isn’t addressed, the problem is going to come back — and likely come back very quickly.

The second thing to keep in mind is that the stress fracture can be either a result of the stress being placed on the bone or the strength of the bone itself — or a combination of both. That’s where the “glass and hammer” analogy comes into play. Think about it this way: If you were to take a hammer and tap it on a piece of glass repeatedly, eventually the glass would crack. The cracks in this analogy are the stress fractures. What’s happening here is that the tapping cracks the glass (the bone), but this can be due to two different reasons. Was it a matter of 1) how hard you were hitting the glass or 2) how thick or thin the glass was in the first place. Both of these can be the culprit.
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Races — Rock ‘n’ Roll Portland Half Marathon Announces Race Route

JoeEnglish - 5:31 pm | no comments

running advice bug Races Rock n Roll Portland Half Marathon Announces Race RouteCompetitor Group, Inc. (CGI), organizers of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Portland Half Marathon, have unveiled the race course for the inaugural event. Approximately 15,000 runners are expected at the half marathon that will kick off the Rose Festival with a uniquely Portland flavor when it debuts for its first running on Sunday, May 20.

12 RnR POR Logo RGB 300x146 Races Rock n Roll Portland Half Marathon Announces Race Route“The Rose Festival is proud to partner with an event that will showcase Portland, promote a healthy lifestyle and most importantly, bring even more visitors to our great city,” said Jeff Curtis, CEO of the Rose Festival. “We thank the City of Portland and all of our community partners involved with designing a course that both local and visiting runners have never had the chance to experience, including downtown, the waterfront, two bridges and inner eastside neighborhoods.”

The half-marathon start venue will be located on Naito Parkway, which is adjacent to downtown Portland’s scenic Tom McCall Waterfront Park alongside the Willamette River. After a short tour of downtown, runners will enjoy the first of two bridge crossings as they head to beautiful east Portland. There they will experience an eclectic mix of Portland neighborhoods, gorgeous Laurelhurst Park and a wonderful downhill finish heading back towards downtown on Lloyd Blvd. After the final crossing on the iconic Steel Bridge, runners finish back at the Waterfront Park on Naito Parkway at the corner of Salmon Street.

“Portland is a beautiful city with a strong local running community and this course was designed with the runner experience in mind. I truly believe it’s the best course the area has to offer, given the unique layout of the city, mass transit and our goal to be sensitive to churches and bus routes,” said Alan Culpepper, two-time Olympian and Operations Director at CGI. “The route offers an abundance of scenic views, including the Willamette River bridges, East Portland and Laurelhurst Park highlighting the very best of the City of Roses.”

A free two-day Health and Fitness Expo will kickoff event weekend on Friday, May 18 at the Oregon Convention Center. The expo is free and open to the public featuring the latest health and nutrition information with a variety of products for sample and sale, as well as a series of interactive fitness clinics.

Event weekend concludes with a finish line concert at Waterfront Park. Past Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon headliners have included SEAL, Blues Traveler, Journey, B-52s, Goo Goo Dolls and Bret Michaels. The headline act for Rock ‘n’ Roll Portland will be announced at a later date.

To see the new Portland Half Marathon race route on Competitor Group’s web-site, click here.

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Racing — Coach Joe’s Notes to the Olympic Marathon Trials Athletes

JoeEnglish - 6:11 am | no comments

running advice bug Racing Coach Joes Notes to the Olympic Marathon Trials AthletesI’m not Facebook friends with all of the athletes that figured prominently in this past weekend’s 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, but if I were I’m sure each of them would have posted something on their wall about their performances. I would have then perhaps taken a moment to comment on their performances. Not just a “good job” but a few of the thoughts that crossed my mind as I watched the race. So today, here are my comments to some of the standouts at the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials.

Dear Ryan — Ryan, oh Ryan. We love you brother. You are our fastest marathon runner. In fact, you were minutes faster than any American runner last year and you’re sitting on something like a four minute gap over everyone else in between your PR and theirs. We get it that you don’t like to “run in back”, but you seem to keep doing the same thing over again. You get out in front and lead the race from the start and then don’t quite have it at the end. Here’s all I’m saying: when you’re sitting on like a four minute differential in your PR over everyone else in the race, maybe let the other guys lead and save it for the last two miles. Then bust out that great speed and take it home. Granted, things will be different at the Olympics where there will be much faster people in the field. But you are a great talent and still young. You can race to make the difference between first and second.

Dear Shalane – Shalane, the people of Portland are really proud of you. You were facing the probably the toughest competition ever in a US Olympic Trials and you were far from the most experienced runner in the bunch. A lot of people were thinking that experience would trump the young speed in the field. I wasn’t one of those people. I knew it was going to come down to the new faces. I admit that I had picked Desi to take the win, but I would have put money on you to win, place or show. You looked great out there. Your form is picture perfect. With more experience at the marathon distance you are going to be unstoppable. Nice work!

Dear Meb– Meb, I met your dad once. Ever since, I’ve been a huge fan. You were such an inspirational American story before this win, but this just really tops it. Now you can add “comeback” to the resume. You looked so strong out there in the last miles. When other people were falling apart, you had it. You looked great on the hills in New York the last couple of outings as well. Despite Ryan’s speed, you really are the strongest American marathon runner right now. What you have is the combination of strength and strategic thinking that it takes to win. You’ve shown that you can perform on tough, hilly courses like New York and Athens with international competition. The question is how will you do in London? Thrilling I’m sure!
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Olympics — Keflezighi, Flanagan Win 2012 US Olympic Marathon Trials

JoeEnglish - 4:34 pm | no comments

running advice bug Olympics Keflezighi, Flanagan Win 2012 US Olympic Marathon TrialsRyan Hall led much of the US Olympic Marathon Trials today in Houston, but it was Athens silver medalist Meb Keflezighi that took the win and the first position on the US Men’s Olympic Team. Keflezighi finished the close race in an unofficial time of 2:09:08, which would be a new personal best for him.

The other two members of the Men’s US Olympic Marathon team headed for London would be Ryan Hall who finished in 2:09:13 and Abdi Abdirahman in 2:09:47. Portland’s Dathan Ritzenhein came in fourth in a personal best 2:09:55. The top four finishers came in within one minute of each other. This will be one of the strongest US Olmypic Marathon teams in a long time, based on the amount of Olypmic experience represented by Keflezighi, Hall and Abdirhman collectively.

In the women’s trials, Shalane Flanagan takes it in 2:25:38, which will be a new personal best for her. Desiree Davila is second in 2:25:55 and Kara Goucher finishes third in 2:26:06. Amy Hastings is fourth in 2:27:17. The previous Olympic Trials record was Colleen De Reuck’s 2:28:25 finish from the 2004 Trials, so all four of the first women were faster than the old Trials record.

The race will be televised later today on NBC stations nationwide at 3:00PM Eastern Time. Check your local listings for exact times.

Talent on Display
The full strength of US Marathon running was on display here in Houston today. Among the favorites were some of the favorites runners in the world among both men and women. When we look at both the winners and the runner’s up, we see Boston marathon front-runners, Olympians and New York City Marathon champions among them. It was an impressive list of runners who had been intent on securing one of the spots to compete for the US in the marathon later this year in London.

Looking at the men first, winner Meb Keflezigihi had faltered a few years back, but has now returned to his earlier greatness. After winning silver medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, he didn’t make the team for Beijing. But over the past few years, he won the very touch New York City Marathon in 2009 and then ran a personal best there in 2011, a time that he would beat in today’s Trials by just a few seconds. Many people will be happy with Meb’s victory today, because as they say, “he’s got fans.”

Ryan Hall on paper would have been expected to win this race if we only looked at his personal best times. In terms of raw speed, he’s the fastest US marathoner in history. But his performances have been a little up and down the last couple of years. He tends to start races very hard, telling people before the race today that he “doesn’t like to run in back.” But since going “coachless” he hasn’t found his success from earlier in his racing days. Hall’s most recent stand-out performance was his 2:04:58 in the crazy-fast Boston Marathon of 2011. In Chicago later last year, he ran 2:08:04 showing his inconsistency at the moment. He’s got the speed and he’s still young at only 30 years old.

On the women’s side, everyone had been looking to Deena Kastor to win another Trials after her win in the 2008 Trials. But the young guns were coming after her. With the likes of Desiree Davila and Kara Goucher in the race, not all of the favorites were going to make the team. Desiree had run an outstanding 2:22:38 in Boston in 2011 and she was my pre-race pick to win, having run such a strong time this past April. But Kara Goucher was sitting on a 2:24:54 PR and Deena Kastor still held an astonishing 2:19:36 PR from back in 2006, meaning she could have had the speed in the tank to win.

Shalane was one of several Portland runners in the race, joined by Dathan Ritzenhein and Kara Gouchers among others. She is wicked fast, having been a major contender at the 10,000M distance and winning the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics in the 10K. She’s raced primarily at the shorter distances and half-marathons, running the fastest time by an American in 2011 at the Miami Beach Half Marathon in 1:09:58. Her marathon debut at NYC in 2010 was a 2:28:40 which earned her second place that year.

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Nutrition — Five Easy Calorie Killers for Runners

JoeEnglish - 11:57 pm | no comments

running advice bug Nutrition Five Easy Calorie Killers for RunnersSo we’re in week number two of the New Year and I continue to hear people talking about their New Year’s resolutions. I was talking with one young woman at the track today who was complaining about not having any energy this week. What had she changed in her diet I asked? She was trying to lose a few pounds, so she had started skipping breakfast. Probably the cause of her lack of energy. Skipping meals isn’t ever a good idea, especially when there are so many places where calories hide that we can cut without even really missing them.

So I thought I would give a couple of pieces of advice on easy places to cut calories to support your New Year’s weight loss resolutions. We all need to keep in mind that running itself only burns about 115 calories per mile, so running say 4 miles only burns away about 450 calories — not enough to give you a license to eat anything you want. Here are my top five calorie killers for runners looking to shave off some weight in the new year:

homemade frappuccino 251x300 Nutrition Five Easy Calorie Killers for Runners

Calories lurk in places like the coffee drink

Calorie Killer Number 1 – Kill the coffee drinks — Sorry folks, but skipping breakfast and then drinking a Venti Carmel Macchiato is not going to cut it. People seem to think that the calories in those coffee drinks don’t count for much. Unfortunately, they do. Many of the ingredients in coffee drinks are loaded with sugar or fat. To give you an example, a yummy Grande Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with whipped cream (but only 2% milk) comes in at 500 calories. That’s more than your four mile run would burn away. You can check out the calories content of all of your favorite Starbucks drinks can be found by clicking here. But don’t get me wrong, there are good choices on the menu at your local coffee shop. Regular coffee has almost no calories and opting for skim milk dramatically cuts the calories on most drinks. Opt for drinks with sugar free flavorings if you must have them or even better, drink your coffee black.

Calorie Killer Number 2 — Lose the beer and wine — They say that moderation is a virtue, but some of us seem to drink beer and wine with a sort of nutritional blind-spot. Runners World even had an article in the January 2012 issue talking about how runners love to drink beer socially after their runs. But, as with coffee drinks, there are a lot of calories lurking in them thar beverages. Most “normal” beers (meaning not “light” beers) come in around 150-200 calories per twelve ounce bottle. My favorite beers seem to have the most calories, including Blue Moon that comes in at 171 calories with 13.7 grams of Carbohydrate. You can see a list of calories in many domestic beers by clicking here. As with the coffee drinks, opting for light beers will cut calories. But drinking in moderation will help a great deal as well.
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Comment Moderation System Off-line

JoeEnglish - 6:50 pm | no comments

running advice bug Comment Moderation System Off lineDear readers of Running-Advice.com, our comment moderation system has crashed and we’re trying to repair it. At this time, no comments are appearing in any of our posts and no new comments will show up on the site.

We are still receiving comments, but they appear blank to us. It isn’t clear if these comments will be recovered when the comments table is repaired. You may want to hold off commenting on posts until we get this resolved.

Thanks,

Running-Advice.com

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Races — My Likes and Dislikes from the Walt Disney World Marathon

JoeEnglish - 12:05 am | no comments

running advice bug Races My Likes and Dislikes from the Walt Disney World MarathonToday I’m going to try something new. In the spirit of Facebook and “liking” things, I’m going to tell you what I liked — and disliked — about this weekend’s Walt Disney World Marathon. I’ve always wished there was a “dislike” button on Facebook, so I’ll just say thumbs up and thumbs down on some things that you might be wondering about this very large race.

CoachJoe WDW POSTRACE 2012 231x300 Races My Likes and Dislikes from the Walt Disney World Marathon

Coach Joe after the 2012 WDW Half-marathon

First, a little background. This is actually the third race that I’ve done at Disney World. In 2010, I was one of the unlucky souls that was there for the Walt Disney World Marathon when temperatures were well below freezing. Yikes, that was cold. I’ve also supported the Disney Princess Half-marathon in Walt Disney World. This year I decided to run in the Walt Disney World Half-marathon, because it provides a good early season (or Winter) racing opportunity and really this course doesn’t disappoint on a lot of levels. But, as promised, my thumbs and thumbs down list for the Walt Disney World Marathon!

Course Terrain — THUMBS UP — this is one really, really flat course. There are a couple of bridges and fly-over ramps that you cross, but other than that there is very little that isn’t totally flat. There is one short hill where the course crosses under a water-way, but otherwise this baby should provide a really quick course.

Start Time — THUMBS DOWN — So, I get it. They want to open the parks early, but the fact that the bus transportation starts at 3:00AM says a lot. Riddle me this: if the full marathon has to start at 5:30AM to get the parks open on Sunday, why does the half-marathon (held on Saturday) also have to have a 5:30AM start? Logic would be suggest that the half could start say an hour and a half later, which would be a lot LOT better experience for the runners.

Course Scenery — THUMBS UP, SORT OF — I am very enthusiastic about the scenery of the course, but it was so dark that it was hard to see a lot of it. This may be a corner case for the faster runners, because when I supported the full marathon in 2010, there was plenty of sunlight for most people. The course is really neat in that it goes right through the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. The full marathon course also goes through Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and along the Boardwalk. There are few courses that can provide those kinds of sights. In addition, there is music, people jumping on trampolines, and the famous Disney Characters. Your ability to view all of this might be based somewhat on how fast you’re going.
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