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Web
Site Survey Results:
How Competitive Are You?
| Women
in Motion Poll |
| How
Competitive Are You? |
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Fiercely Competitive - I Kill |
16% |
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Racing Competitive |
0% |
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Mildly Competitive |
16% |
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Competitive only with Self |
50% |
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Nay, I Just Run to Finish |
16% |
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Article:
Increasing Your Mileage for a Marathon
It used to be recommended that anyone who has been running
for less than 3 years not run a marathon. As running is a long-term
game, it takes time for your body to become adjusted physically to
the demands, not only of the marathon itself, but also of the
heavy training mileage required to build up to it. However, with
the introduction of beginner marathon programs, the only
stipulation is that you have an established running base. Some
marathon training programs work on the run 10 minutes and jog for
the next minute. The jogging is at a pace that will allow the
stretching of the leg muscles in preparation for the next 10
minutes of running. The goal of most beginning marathoners is
simply to be able to finish.
If you are beginning with a base load of about 32 km (10 miles)
per week, keep the mileage build-up under 10% per week. Ten
percent is a big adjustment for your system to make. Muscles,
bones and connective tissues must be strengthened to take the
increased load and keep In mind that marathon mileage produces a
lot of pounding. After 4 weeks the mileage buildup should be
approximately 48 km. Continue to build until you reach 56 km per
week. Decrease the intensity and even take 2 or 3 days off . This
is necessary to allow the body to rest before increasing the
distance again.
How much mileage for a marathon depends on the individual.
Older programs had you running up to 35 - 38 kilometres in a final
training run and allowing the excitement of the marathon to pull
you through. A serious competitor knows that running 80 km or more
each week before the marathon and training runs of marathon length
will provide the endurance necessary.
Building the Mileage
If you are doing 5 km a day, you must build the long run. In a
marathon training schedule, the long run is the top priority. Make
one day, usually Sat. or Sun., a 8-10 km run to get your 10%
increase. Take the next day off from running. Rest is important
after the long run to allow your total body to adjust. The next
week increase the one long run again while keeping the daily runs
the same.
As a rule of thumb, your long run can be 3 times the distance
of your daily average run. So while still doing 5 km, you can
build up that Sat. morning run to 15 km. Don't do 20 km until you
have made your daily run 7-8 km. This means holding the long run
at 15 km and increasing the daily runs to 7 km a day. Toward the
end of the build-up you should be running 10-12 km each weekday
and 30-36 km on the weekend.
Tapering
As you get close to the date of the marathon, run your last
long run no later than one week before. For the last week you are
smart if you taper down to half the mileage you have been doing.
Don’t run the day before and two days before the race do 5 km
just to get the legs loosened up. Be well rested for the big race
itself and don’t count on sleeping well then night before.
Now assuming you do everything right there is still no
guarantee that the
marathon is going to go well. Anything can happen to make
things difficult:
weather conditions, starting off at a too fast pace, not
drinking
enough water before or along the way. You could train only to
come down with an illness or injury a few weeks or days before the
race.
There are times when rules can be broken. You may get away with
lower training, higher build-up rates or shorter long-runs. You
might even
get away with it more than once, but sooner or later it will
catch up to you.
Be conservative plan and be safe. Look for a positive
experience that you can remember.
Estimating Your Marathon Finishing Time
10Km Time Range hr: min: sec Marathon
27:00
2:05:00 2:08:30
28:00
2:10:00 2:14:00
29:00
2:15:00 2:19:30
30:00
2:20:00 2:25:00
31:00
2:25:00 2:30:30
32:00
2:30:00 2:36:00
33:00
2:35:00 2:43:00
34:00
2:40:00 2:49:00
35:00
2:45:00 2:55:00
36:00
2:50:00 3:00:00
37:00
2:55:00 3:07:00
38:00
3:00:00 3:15:00
39:00
3:05:00 3:20:00
40:00
3:10:00 3:25:00
42:30
3:22:00 3:42:30
45:00
3:35:00 4:00:00
47:30
3:47:30 4:20:00
50:00
4:00:00 4:40:00
Women in Motion
1. City
of Los Angeles Marathon
With a new faster, flatter course to be
announced later this month, the City of Los Angeles Marathon is
set to kick off its training season with in-person sign-ups for
its celebrated L.A. Roadrunners program on August 4th and 11th
at 9 a.m. at Westminster Avenue Elementary School in Venice,
California.
The 29 week program, which includes
fully-supported group training runs along the beach, lectures,
coaching, Sparkletts water stations, fresh fruit, an in-training
t-shirt and more began on August 18.
2.
Techno
Aids
a. If you want to be a high-tech runner consider downloading a
program called that predicts your time for various
distances. RunStat
for your computer is free.
b. Patrick
Hoffman's calculator is a statistician's dream, providing
you with more information than logically needed. You
might also want to try his Advanced
Track Calculator.
c. The Team
Oregon Pace Wizard calculates a range of training paces ,
returning values in English or metric units. You might also want
to try the Calorie
Wizard.
d. There is also the Target
Heart Rate calculator that calculates your target heart
rates for several effort levels. If you don't know your
max HR, it will calculate it for you based on a choice of
six formulas.
e. The
Best Run of your Life calculator can take a your best
races (any distance), and compares your performance to a world
record.
f. The
Calorie Calculator calculates the number of calories you
burn over a given time or distance of a given activity based on
your weight, distance or time spent in activity.
3. Pace
Yourself
You'll gain a sense of pace at
the same time you're developing the capacity to run mile after mile in the
time you need. It actually works against you to run mile
repeats faster than your schedule prescribes (20 seconds faster than goal
pace). If you exceed this speed limit, even in the beginning of the speed
session, it becomes difficult for your internal pace clock to adjust and
get the feel of the pace needed in a marathon. A fast start does one
of two things: it either leaves you struggling at the end of the
session or produce tired muscles which require a long recovery period.
4. IT
Band Stretches suggested by Jeff Galloway
Here are three IT Band
stretches that Jeff suggests:
-
Standing next to a wall,
cross your ankles, outside ankle over inside ankle, and lean
your hip into the wall. You'll be able to feel this more in
your hip, at the top of your IT Band.
-
Sitting down, cross one
leg over the other and pull it across. Maneuver it until it
stretches your IT Band as you need to stretch it.
-
Lying down on your side
on the bed or sofa, stick your top leg over the edge and let
gravity pull it down. Your knee should be slightly bent but
keep your leg fairly straight.
5.
Steroid
use surfaces at IAAC World Track and Field Championships
Once again the use of steroids by athletes surfaces. This
time in the World Track and Field Games.
"Anabolic
steroids are used to increase muscle development. Bodybuilders,
football players, competitive runners, and others wanting
to "bulk up" use them most often. They also increase the amount of available energy for peak performances. The
typical user uses steroids to give him/her an
edge in athletic competition or to build up
his/her physique. However, the use of steroids carries serious
risks. In addition to the potential physical effects of impotence,
reduced sperm production, stunted bone growth, and damage of
heart, liver, and kidneys, the use of steroids can have disturbing behavioral effects. Some of the most disturbing
behaviors result in aggravated aggression or
anger."
The National Institute on Drug Abuse launched
a new Web site in 2000 to provide information
about the harmful effects of steroid abuse. It is part
of a national initiative among health and sport organizations to focus attention on the growing problem among certain
groups, especially high school boys. To visit
the site, go to http://www.steroidabuse.org
6. Keep
Racing, Girls
New research has found
that exercising, even as a young girl, helps prevent breast cancer. The
study found that 12-year-olds who walked or cycled to school or trained
competitively have a lower chance of contracting breast cancer later in
life, than those girls who weren't as active. (Runner's World presents
High School Runner Cross Country, Rodale, Inc., Fall 2000, p. 16, www.highschoolrunner.com)
7.
Top 5 characteristics of
a winning attitude
Researchers at Loyola
Marymount University, Los Angeles, compiled a
list of 128
characteristics of what makes an athlete a winner.
The
following are the top five:
- The athlete loves to
play his game or sport.
- The athlete has a
positive attitude in general towards life.
- The athlete is
teachable / coachable.
- The athlete is
self-motivated.
- The athlete has the
discipline and drive to take the necessary
steps to improve his/her
game.
The Running Woman Message
Board
The Running Woman Message board continues
to be active. It continues a steady pickup in volume,
hopefully because of the interest in using running as part of
a renewed lifestyle. Let's hope they connect with the benefits
of running. We continue to offer advise to all posts. Thanks
to all of you who have provided assistance to members old and
new. Good Luck and Continued Running to
all.
Gord
The Runner's Club
All
clubs are closed and Women in Motion is in the process of
transferring the email addresses of both the Runners
Club memberships to it's
newsletter list and when this is complete, members will be
given the choice of continuing to receive the monthly
newsletters or of being removed from the email
list.
Good Luck and Great Runs
Gord
Words of
Inspiration
"There is no self mastery without discipline.
And there is no greater source of discipline than the
effort
demanded in overcoming obstacles."
- Simone Well, writer.
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Women in Motion September 2001