Monday, June 25, 2012
Week 4 mileage totals updated
For those of you who got your totals to me, thanks. For those of you who didn't, a fat slap to the back of the head.
Weight Management and Nutrition
We compete in a sport where carrying as few pounds as possible, while still remaining healthy, is tremendously important. If you don't believe that losing an extra couple of pounds can help your racing performance, put on a backback with 5 pounds worth of books in it and see how much slower you run with the extra weight! This relationship between body weight and performance has led many an athlete down the road toward disordered eating. If you take the time to do a little internet searching, you will find plenty of information out there about runners who have suffered from disorders such as bulimia and anorexia.
So, the question is how do we maintain optimal racing weight while keeping our bodies healthy and strong? The answer is surprisingly simple for most American athletes, make a few dietary modifications and you are golden.
First let me tell you what not to do. DO NOT deny yourself any of the major nutrient groups. There is always some kind of diet fad: low carb, no fat, paleo, and many others have recently been popular. While these restrictive diets may lead to short term weight loss, they are difficult to stick to and do not promote the type of life long healthy eating habits that we need to develop. Your diets should have plenty of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Do not try to eliminate any of these groups.
If you are looking for an easy place to start with healthy eating for athletic performance, look in the garbage can. In the U.S., most of us have plenty of wrappers from garbage food in our garbage cans. Soda, candy, chips, and other fatty snack foods are a huge part of most our diets. If you are looking for an easy place to start eating healthier, eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) the junk food you eat and replace it with healthier choices. Instead of grabbing a soda (or Sunny D, or sugary iced tea)when you are thirsty, have a glass of water, or a small glass of milk or fruit juice. If you want a salty snack, chose a handfull of nuts. If you are in the mood for something sweet, grab some of the central valley's bounty of fruit. Many of you can cut out 500 calories a day with those simple steps. An added bonus of replacing junk food with healthy snacks is that you will be getting valuable nutrients such as vitamins and minerals if you make the switch. While snack foods are almost empty of nutrients, fruits, nuts, and vegetables, and milk are full of them. So, in your garbage at home, you should be seeing less soda cans, chip bags, and candy wrappers and more apple cores and carrot tops.
The next place where you can easily drop a large number of calories from your diet is in chosing lower fat options at meal time. Avoid breaded, fried foods at meal time. The breading on these foods, although deliscious, acts like a sponge for the grease in which the food is cooked. I will admit that the orange chicken and sweet and sour pork at Panda Express is very tasty. However, the broccoli beef and green bean chicken is equally tasty with less than 1/3 of the calories per serving. If you replace fatty fried foods with grilled meats and vegetables, you will not only chop out a huge amount of calories, but you will once again replace them with something that your body needs, fiber. Dietary fiber is crucial for digestive health, yet most of our processed foods lack it. Orange chicken and sweet and sour pork have zero fiber, but the vegetable dish options are packed with it.
Countless books have been written on optimal nutrition for athletics. My purpose here is not to write another, rather to provide my team with a few easy steps to take toward better health and performance.
If you are interested in learning more about nutrition for performance, follow some of these links below
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09362.html
http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/imported/42817.pdf
So, the question is how do we maintain optimal racing weight while keeping our bodies healthy and strong? The answer is surprisingly simple for most American athletes, make a few dietary modifications and you are golden.
First let me tell you what not to do. DO NOT deny yourself any of the major nutrient groups. There is always some kind of diet fad: low carb, no fat, paleo, and many others have recently been popular. While these restrictive diets may lead to short term weight loss, they are difficult to stick to and do not promote the type of life long healthy eating habits that we need to develop. Your diets should have plenty of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Do not try to eliminate any of these groups.
If you are looking for an easy place to start with healthy eating for athletic performance, look in the garbage can. In the U.S., most of us have plenty of wrappers from garbage food in our garbage cans. Soda, candy, chips, and other fatty snack foods are a huge part of most our diets. If you are looking for an easy place to start eating healthier, eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) the junk food you eat and replace it with healthier choices. Instead of grabbing a soda (or Sunny D, or sugary iced tea)when you are thirsty, have a glass of water, or a small glass of milk or fruit juice. If you want a salty snack, chose a handfull of nuts. If you are in the mood for something sweet, grab some of the central valley's bounty of fruit. Many of you can cut out 500 calories a day with those simple steps. An added bonus of replacing junk food with healthy snacks is that you will be getting valuable nutrients such as vitamins and minerals if you make the switch. While snack foods are almost empty of nutrients, fruits, nuts, and vegetables, and milk are full of them. So, in your garbage at home, you should be seeing less soda cans, chip bags, and candy wrappers and more apple cores and carrot tops.
The next place where you can easily drop a large number of calories from your diet is in chosing lower fat options at meal time. Avoid breaded, fried foods at meal time. The breading on these foods, although deliscious, acts like a sponge for the grease in which the food is cooked. I will admit that the orange chicken and sweet and sour pork at Panda Express is very tasty. However, the broccoli beef and green bean chicken is equally tasty with less than 1/3 of the calories per serving. If you replace fatty fried foods with grilled meats and vegetables, you will not only chop out a huge amount of calories, but you will once again replace them with something that your body needs, fiber. Dietary fiber is crucial for digestive health, yet most of our processed foods lack it. Orange chicken and sweet and sour pork have zero fiber, but the vegetable dish options are packed with it.
Countless books have been written on optimal nutrition for athletics. My purpose here is not to write another, rather to provide my team with a few easy steps to take toward better health and performance.
If you are interested in learning more about nutrition for performance, follow some of these links below
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09362.html
http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/imported/42817.pdf
Sunday, June 24, 2012
2010 camp video...Good Stuff.
Many of you probably know that in 2010, a young Scottish/Welsh lass named Scarlett McPhillips came over to Hughson with her dad for our annual training camp. Her dad, Tom, demonstrating fine filmmaking skills, has posted a pretty cool little video of the adventure on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvS_1zWJj20
Enjoy the vid, and get those week 4 mileage totals to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvS_1zWJj20
Enjoy the vid, and get those week 4 mileage totals to me.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
1st Practice
Frist practice of the summer was Monday. Second one is tonight. Pretty typical first practice for you guys. Run time was relatively slow compared to what you will be doing in a few months, but a solid day none the less
Gravel Pit (6.4 miles)
Caleb - 57:43
Mason - 57:43
Jared - 59:28
Michael - 60:00
Wyatt - 60:24
Aldrich (4.4 miles)
Trent - 40:11
Leo - 40:15
Adam - 40:31
Maddy - 41:45
Jackson - 41:45
Geer and Back (3.2)
Danny - 26:58
Tasha - 28:58
Carli - 29:53
Kady - 31:33
Heavyn - 33:05
Kasey - 37:27
Some of us didn't quite get the start easy and progress to steady at the half way point concept. A couple of you guys were going too hard when you came in and a couple of you guys barely looked like you were working at all. All in all, we are off to a very good start this summer.
Keep up the good work!
Gravel Pit (6.4 miles)
Caleb - 57:43
Mason - 57:43
Jared - 59:28
Michael - 60:00
Wyatt - 60:24
Aldrich (4.4 miles)
Trent - 40:11
Leo - 40:15
Adam - 40:31
Maddy - 41:45
Jackson - 41:45
Geer and Back (3.2)
Danny - 26:58
Tasha - 28:58
Carli - 29:53
Kady - 31:33
Heavyn - 33:05
Kasey - 37:27
Some of us didn't quite get the start easy and progress to steady at the half way point concept. A couple of you guys were going too hard when you came in and a couple of you guys barely looked like you were working at all. All in all, we are off to a very good start this summer.
Keep up the good work!
Monday, June 18, 2012
The Importance of Recovery
A number of years ago, I had the opportunity to see Jackie Joyner-Kersee speak at Cal State Stanislaus. For those of you who don't know, JJK holds the heptathlon world record and is considered by many to be the greatest female track and field athlete of all time. Toward the end of the presentation, one of the athletes from the college track team asked JJK if she ever worried about getting burned out of over trained. As a coach, I was very interested in her answer.
She said, "I don't believe in burn out". She said she loved doing what she was doing and that she couldn't get burned out doing something she loved.
I've also heard it said, by a number of top athletes and coaches something to the effect of, "it is very hard to over train, but it is easy to under rest." With that in mind, lets look today at how our bodies adapt to the training that we throw at them:
Training stresses your body. The immediate reaction of your body to the stress of training is to become fatigued. As a result, right after a training session, you are in worse shape than you were before the session. Your body doesn't really adapt to that training session until night time when you are asleep. During the first two hours of sleep, the pituitary gland will release a dose of Human Growth Hormone (actually, it releases HGH all through the night, but the greatest amounts are released in the first two hours). If you have undergone a training session earlier in the day, your body will release more HGH than normal in order to repair the dammage done during the session and become stronger so that it can handle more stress in the next session.
The point is this. If you give your body rest, it can adapt to tremendous amounts of training stress. As your body adapts to that training stress, it can handle greater levels of training stress. As you become stronger and stronger, you will race better and better. I have a friend, a national class marathoner, who has trained at over 200 miles per week for up to 6 weeks straight. While he was in college, he was only an above average runner at the NCAA division 2 level, but he gradually transformed himself into one of the best marathoners in the United States.
Here are some tips that will allow you to train hard AND recover this summer.
I've just added a video regarding post workout recovery techniques
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18221
By the way, Grace is 40! See what happens when you take care of yourself??
She said, "I don't believe in burn out". She said she loved doing what she was doing and that she couldn't get burned out doing something she loved.
I've also heard it said, by a number of top athletes and coaches something to the effect of, "it is very hard to over train, but it is easy to under rest." With that in mind, lets look today at how our bodies adapt to the training that we throw at them:
Training stresses your body. The immediate reaction of your body to the stress of training is to become fatigued. As a result, right after a training session, you are in worse shape than you were before the session. Your body doesn't really adapt to that training session until night time when you are asleep. During the first two hours of sleep, the pituitary gland will release a dose of Human Growth Hormone (actually, it releases HGH all through the night, but the greatest amounts are released in the first two hours). If you have undergone a training session earlier in the day, your body will release more HGH than normal in order to repair the dammage done during the session and become stronger so that it can handle more stress in the next session.
The point is this. If you give your body rest, it can adapt to tremendous amounts of training stress. As your body adapts to that training stress, it can handle greater levels of training stress. As you become stronger and stronger, you will race better and better. I have a friend, a national class marathoner, who has trained at over 200 miles per week for up to 6 weeks straight. While he was in college, he was only an above average runner at the NCAA division 2 level, but he gradually transformed himself into one of the best marathoners in the United States.
Here are some tips that will allow you to train hard AND recover this summer.
- Keep a regular schedule. Avoid staying up really late and sleeping until afternoon. This type of sleep pattern reduces your body's ability to make HGH. Set a limit for yourself. After a certain time, say 10 PM, turn off all your movies, video games, computers, and cell phones and get some quality rest.
- If you do your running in the morning, consider a nap after that session. You will actually get some of the HGH benefit from that nap that you would get sleeping that night.
- Avoid too much caffeine. If you consume caffeine throughout the day, your body will have a difficult time dropping into the deep, restorative sleep that you need to adapt to the training you are doing.
- Eat low calorie, nutrient dense food. If you don't understand this last statement, don't worry, next week's article will be on nutrition.
I've just added a video regarding post workout recovery techniques
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18221
By the way, Grace is 40! See what happens when you take care of yourself??
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Week 2 mileage totals are in the books!
OK. Week 2 of the summer is done. So far this year, our team has totaled 737.5 miles. At the same time last year, our team total was barely over 400 miles. Last year at this time, our individual mileage leader at this point was Ian with 67 miles. This year, an upstart sophomore who has never run cross, Austin, is our mileage leader through 2 weeks. Austin has run 62 miles so far this summer. So, our leader this year has less total miles in than our leader last year, but our team total is over 300 miles better than last years total for the first 2 weeks. What does this mean.... It means that more of you are buying in to the summer program that will eventually make us great.
Look at it this way guys:
The more mileage out team runs, the better chance that our team will be excellent.
The more mileage you run, the better chance that you will be excellent.
Right now, as a team, we are on the path to being excellent.
Look at it this way guys:
The more mileage out team runs, the better chance that our team will be excellent.
The more mileage you run, the better chance that you will be excellent.
Right now, as a team, we are on the path to being excellent.
Run Fast, not Hard During the Summer
OK, guys. Week 2 mileage totals are coming in. I will have them updated by the end of today. As a whole, we are doing a good job with our summer running. I still have not heard from a number of people yet, but I'm sure that many of them are running. I will add their miles to the total as soon as they get them to me.
Now, for this weeks training topic.
Cross Country running can be very hard. Training to be excellent is very difficult. Despite the fact that the sport requires such intense effort, some of the most effective training you can do during the summer months is not difficult at all. In last week's article, I discussed the proper pace for your training runs (please read it if you have not already done so). Today, I will talk about running FAST. Specifically, the focus will be on development of speed, power, and efficiency.
There are a number of ways to develop speed without actually running yourselves into the ground. Here is a brief synopsis of the things that you can do to give yourselves a boost in speed without overtraining.
3 days of fast running
3 days of progression or steady running.
Note: This is the MAXIMUM amount of fast running and steady state that you should do at this point of the summer. It is perfectly fine to have only 1-2 days with each.
Now, for this weeks training topic.
Cross Country running can be very hard. Training to be excellent is very difficult. Despite the fact that the sport requires such intense effort, some of the most effective training you can do during the summer months is not difficult at all. In last week's article, I discussed the proper pace for your training runs (please read it if you have not already done so). Today, I will talk about running FAST. Specifically, the focus will be on development of speed, power, and efficiency.
There are a number of ways to develop speed without actually running yourselves into the ground. Here is a brief synopsis of the things that you can do to give yourselves a boost in speed without overtraining.
- Drills and Striders: This is very simple, you know what this is since we do these often during the season. After an easy run, spend an extra 5 minutes doing drills and then run 4-10 strides of 70-120m at a pace about equal to your mile race pace. Make sure that you take plenty of rest in between strides so that they do not start to become too much like a workout. You are only focusing on being as smooth and relaxed as possible.
- Easy repetitions at race pace. Think of these basically as long striders. Once again you will be running these after a normal easy or steady run. After the run, do 800-1600m worth of reps ranging in distance from 150-300m. There is no need to go faster than mile race pace on these. These are obviously a little more difficult than shorter striders, but if you keep the repetition distance below 300m, you will not experience that much fatigue. Once again, make sure to take plenty of rest between reps because the purpose is to keep your legs used to running at race pace without actually having to do hard workouts.
- Max speed short sprints. This is something we have not done too much of during cross country season, but we will do more of this year. After a good warm up, or after a short, easy run, do 6-10 sprints of 40-70m. Make sure to take full recovery. On these sprints, make sure to focus on your running mechanics (landing on the balls of your feet, good knee drive, etc...) but run as fast as you can without your mechanics breaking down. Although these runs will not really leave you feeling winded, they will stress your muscles and nervous system, so it is important to do them on fresh legs in order to avoid injuries. You can do your easy progression run after that. These short sprints can also be done on the stadium ramp at school in order to develop more leg power.
- Monday, 6/11: 4 miles easy + drills + 6 x 100m strides (jog back recovery)
- Tuesday, 6/12: AM 5 miles with progression to steady state, PM 3 miles easy
- Wednesday, 6/13: Warm up 1 mile, stretch, drills, 5 x 60m @ 95% + 3 miles easy run.
- Thursday 6/14, Bear Valley Run, 5 miles uphill, steady state effort
- Friday 6/15 Off
- Saturday 6/16: AM 4 miles easy + drills + 4 x 200 @ mile race pace (walk across infield recovery) PM 3 miles easy
- Sunday, 6/17: 6 miles with progression to stead state effort.
3 days of fast running
3 days of progression or steady running.
Note: This is the MAXIMUM amount of fast running and steady state that you should do at this point of the summer. It is perfectly fine to have only 1-2 days with each.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
The Pace of Your Training Runs
One factor that very often gets left out of the picture when coaches talk to their athletes about training is the pace that the runs should be done at. Many coaches just say, "Go out and run easy on the mileage days". This is OK, to a point, but if easy is the only pace you ever run, then you will not be getting the most out of your summer running.
There are many different books and internet calculators that can tell you what kind of pace you should run on your training jaunts. You can google Daniels's VDOT tables or McMillan's pace calculator, OR, you could do this: 2-3 times per week on your runs, gradually pick up the pace to the point where you feel if you were going any faster, it would start to get uncomfortable. For the more experienced runners out there, you may hold this pace for 5-6 miles. For you beginners, you may hold this pace for one mile or so. You will know that the pace is getting too fast, if you start to feel any discomfort. If the run starts feeling like a tempo run, or a race, you are going too hard. You are looking for a pace that you could go out and do day after day, for miles and miles.
There are many names for this pace. I will use the term Steady State with you guys. You may also see the terms "Highest Steady State", "Sub LT", "Zone". The term steady state refers to the fastest pace you can run before your blood and muscles start to accumulate lactic acid. This is perhaps the most important physiological variable in training runners. Think about it this way. When you race, you will be going very fast and you will be accumulating lactic acid. However, if I am racing you, and I can only run at 6:30 per mile without accumulating lactic acid, while you can run at 6:00 per mile without accumulating lactic acid, and we are running at 5:30 pace; Who is going to get tired first?
During the summer, in your base mileage period, the more you can touch on this steady state training pace, the better you will race in the fall.
One word of caution. Be vary careful not to exceed this pace more than two or 3 times per week. When you are running at steady state pace, it is very easy to let the speed continue to pick up and progress into the tempo zone or even faster. Running faster than steady state on a regular basis is one way to insure that you will be tired and injured during the fall racing season.
Remember, run fast but stay comfortable, if discomfort is starting to set in, back the pace down just a hair.
There are many different books and internet calculators that can tell you what kind of pace you should run on your training jaunts. You can google Daniels's VDOT tables or McMillan's pace calculator, OR, you could do this: 2-3 times per week on your runs, gradually pick up the pace to the point where you feel if you were going any faster, it would start to get uncomfortable. For the more experienced runners out there, you may hold this pace for 5-6 miles. For you beginners, you may hold this pace for one mile or so. You will know that the pace is getting too fast, if you start to feel any discomfort. If the run starts feeling like a tempo run, or a race, you are going too hard. You are looking for a pace that you could go out and do day after day, for miles and miles.
There are many names for this pace. I will use the term Steady State with you guys. You may also see the terms "Highest Steady State", "Sub LT", "Zone". The term steady state refers to the fastest pace you can run before your blood and muscles start to accumulate lactic acid. This is perhaps the most important physiological variable in training runners. Think about it this way. When you race, you will be going very fast and you will be accumulating lactic acid. However, if I am racing you, and I can only run at 6:30 per mile without accumulating lactic acid, while you can run at 6:00 per mile without accumulating lactic acid, and we are running at 5:30 pace; Who is going to get tired first?
During the summer, in your base mileage period, the more you can touch on this steady state training pace, the better you will race in the fall.
One word of caution. Be vary careful not to exceed this pace more than two or 3 times per week. When you are running at steady state pace, it is very easy to let the speed continue to pick up and progress into the tempo zone or even faster. Running faster than steady state on a regular basis is one way to insure that you will be tired and injured during the fall racing season.
Remember, run fast but stay comfortable, if discomfort is starting to set in, back the pace down just a hair.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Welcome to Summer!
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