ElliptiGO - give your knees a rest with the ultimate cross-trainer

Just found the ultimate cross-training tool for those days when you want/need to run but want to spare your legs the impact stress: www.elliptigo.com - check it out.

It is just like running, but no impact - much better than the ellipticals in gyms AND it gets you outdoors!

In March, extreme endurance athlete Dean Karnazes (above) rode an ElliptiGO nearly 500 miles from San Francisco to the Los Angeles Marathon.

Bryan Pate came up with the idea for this machine when his knees told him he had to stop running. Like many an injured runner/triathlete, he was going crazy using the elliptical in the gym and had one of those “There has to be a better way...” moments.

But this is not a gym elliptical stuck on two wheels. When he put his head together with engineer Brent Teal, they tested every elliptical they could get hold of and realised that the motion was just not similar enough to running. So they’ve given the ElliptiGO a longer stride length (and it’s adjustable) AND got the platforms closer together so you’re not trying to “run” with your legs spread out too wide, like you have to in the gym.

I tried a machine on thre Creek Path here in Boulder and it performs justa s advertised: it feels ike running, but with no impact,; it’s easy to use; it cruises at a respectable speed and it goes up hills (in this case the climb up Canyon) at least as fast as a conventional bike – actually, I think it is faster.

I have a loaner bike arriving this week, so if anyone wants a go...

I’m just about to head back into a base phase and this is going to be my secret weapon to become an aerobic machine without wrecking my legs.

Lessons on doping from Landis and Charlie Francis...... or why I can't take testosterone

Do you believe Floyd Landis?

The UCI, cycling's international governing body, doesn't. Whatever he says.

2008 (or thereabouts):

Landis: "I didn't dope and no one around me was doping either."
McQuaid (head of UCI): "He is a lier; you can't believe a word he says, he's been caught fair and square".

2010:

Landis: "OK, I admit it, I was doping, but so was everyone else".

McQuaid: "He is a lier; you can't believe a word he says."

I made up the quotes, but they accurately reflect what was said.

Much has been made of the fact that Landis denied doping and launched a long and expensive attempt to get his "conviction" overturned. Which means he is deceitful, right?

Well, no, not really. If you read the emails that have caused the current ruckus it is obvious that Landis's resistance to the positive test was based on the FACT that he knew he had been stuffed up. He tested positive for a drug he WASN'T taking, and the test failed to pick up what he WAS taking. That's from his emails. Combine that with the fact that he was well aware which of his rivals was doping and getting away with it, it's no wonder he protested so loudly and so long.

Cycling - or more particularly the Tour de France - is in the hot seat about doping for two reasons.

First, it is the hardest sport in the world, and looking at TdF performance, especially in the mountains, compared to other sports it is that much more obvious to external observers that it is simply impossible to compete at that top level without medical assistance.

Some of that is even legal: I recently found a posting about the 2008 Tdf that said - "Today's Cycling News mentioned that 76 of the 180 riders who started the Tour de France had a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE)."

The TdF, as the pinnacle of the sport - way above the Olympics - is the place where riders use everything they can get hold of to enable them to survive. I started riding a bike seriously in 1967, the year Tom Simpson died on the Ventoux.

Track and field is at LEAST as dirty as cycling and has been that way for at least as long. East Germans anybody? Which brings me to the second reason cycling is taking all the flak - it is because cycling's governing bodies are crap at cover-ups.

Compare and contrast with some of the other well-known sports like track and field, football, American "foot"ball, baseball and so on.

Track and field is a good one to look at. You could write a book on athletes who have been found positive but let off the hook for various "technical" reasons. Marion Jones - never found positive. ONE East German found positive in 20 years. Are you kidding me?

You can see the same pattern in the major pro sports that have been mentioned here - for instance the spurious post-dated "medical exemptions" for American NFL players caught using testosterone and/or HgH.

It seems that pro sport seems to appeal to an amazingly high number of sick people: people with life-threatening asthma, people with "testicular disease"....

How to "solve" it?

The first thing that needs to be done is to overhaul the proscribed list and chuck out half the listed drugs. It is time to accept that competing at a high level demands that athletes are allowed access to the same degree of medical support as they are entitled to as "civilians".

That means setting limits, as cycling has done for hematocrit, for example. With that set, let riders use EPO to achieve it if they need to. Set biochemical limits and test for those, not for drugs. Not sure how to apply that to out and out stimulants - but maybe set upper limits for levels disclosed in urine samples, as is already done for ephedrine and caffeine.

I'll declare a vested interest here - as a masters athlete I am not allowed to have my testosterone levels topped up, even to "normal" levels, despite the fact that there is sound medical evidence to show that low testosterone may be a risk factor for major diseases. I wouldn't get a TUE for it. Now, if I was a pro footballer...

* Charlie Francis, coach of former world's fastest human Ben Johnson. and briefly also a coach of five-time Olympic medallist Marion Jones, wrote a fantastic book on sprint training - and doping. "Speed Trap" explains how he realised that unless he imported the entire East German system to Canada - training plus full-on medical support - his athletes would never be competitive at international level.

Warm-up is not so hard...

... to understand, that is.

But according to a new article in the New York Times by Gina Kolata you'd think we didn't have a clue.

She gives the impression that no one knows how or why to warm-up, stating: "In a recent review article she [Fradkin] wrote, “Many of the earlier studies were poorly controlled, contained few study participants and often omitted statistical analysis.”

"The studies were of so little value, she concluded, that “it is not known whether warming up is of benefit, of potential harm, or having no effect on an individual’s performance.” "

If you go to the study, what the researcher Andrea Fradkin said there was: "Warm-up was shown to improve performance in 79% of the criterions (sic) examined."

As usual after reading a NYT piece on anything exercise-related, I'm left wondering what their masses of editors and fact-checkers do all day. Maybe they're told to close their eyes and let their contributors' non-stories through "as is".

Two good reasons for warming-up that all runners know but that the NYT chose not to mention are:

1. Neuromuscular activation - ie to "switch on" muscle firing - this is nothing to do with muscles being "warm" or not.

2. Cardiovascular (ie why we do some sort of "threshold" burst before a race) ... because we want to be into our "second wind" from the start of a race.

We might also add 3 and 4:

3: It is also a mental/emotional focusing ritual and

4. As the brain runs on lactate, not glucose, while racing - it needs to be "primed" - an effective warm-up switches on the energy systems we need for racing. (OK, that's one of my own theories, I admit it - but it IS evidence-based.)

I suspect Gina K and the NYT have already done a story saying there's no evidence that stretching does you any good. If not, watch out for it.

Lessons from Mr Stampfl

Picture: Franz Stampfl

with Roger Bannister: 3:59.4, May 6, 1954.

This from a friend who has recently started training:

"Everything is sore and my energy levels have nosedived. Body is pleading not to do it. In fact it does not want to do anything: work, read, chores, washing, talking, sex etc!"

He plans to force his body to comply with his training, "telling" it, among other things that it can look forward to some real pain as he is going to double his distances and halve his times to teach it to stop complaining!

Yes, I was horrified, too. I outlined a possible alternative course of action.

Motivation is a real bugger. There is a fine line between "listening to your body" (which clearly you are fed up with doing) and being lazy. The body, even yours, does have a valid reason for occasionally requiring more rest than "you" (?) think it is entitled to.

Particularly if/when you have introduced a new stress (running) into an already fairly full existence.

A couple or three things to consider:

1. Speaking as one of Her Majesty's World Champions, I do not train to a daily schedule any more. I've learnt the hard way that doing that leads to either injury or (mental) staleness - leading to chronic inertdom. I do have a rough plan of workouts I want to get in and a timetable. But I will shorten or change the intensity of a workout on the day, depending on how I feel. The mind/ego plans it all out; the body often has different ideas and a different timescale. It needs to adapt.

*At our age* - seriously - we need to be very aware of how much we are flogging a reluctant horse. Over the years we have developed some degree of willpower and self-discipline. Applied to a 20-year-old body, we can run through walls and be ready to go again the next day. Our older bodies now run the risk of being overpowered by our stronger minds (and fantasisies - we run on emotion) - so applying brute force can be counter-productive.

2. Every one of Bobby's schedules, even those for young elites/internationals, has an EASY week every fourth week or so. Three weeks on; one week off.

The training effect occurs during rest; we have to allow time for it to happen, otherwise training is worthless.

Your bad patch is a sign that you need a week off.

Either a complete week off, or a very easy week - ie instead of running, just do a 20-minute warm-up to run...and so on.

3. Progress is not linear.

Again, the mind thinks it is and *should* be. But it's not. It's all rhythms and waves. Man. You will have weeks when you can't do ANYTHING and you feel like you are sliding backwards. Not the case. You just need to ride the wave (of energy, man) and wait for it to surge back.

4. This week I've been fortunate enough to consult with Mr Franz Stampfl.

Mr Stampfl, you may remember, was the man who trained Bannister to a four-minute mile, Brasher to Olympic steeplechase gold, Chataway to 5k world record - and there were many others.

His training sessions were "severe" (intervals), "severer still" (reps) and "the sternest test of all" (flat out time trials).... so he was no namby-pamby.

Mr Stampfl has indeed shuffled off his mortal coil, but I managed to find a copy of his training manual. And maybe you will be advised by him, as I am:

"....a first rule is that training should not be too exhausting" (actually Chataway said that about the work)...

"All training must be gradual in its increase in intensity and quality".

"There should be no hangover effecst from the previous day's work".

So, please, do NOT double the distance and cover them in half the time.

Take an entire week off.

Or (second choice): cut your volume and intensity: HALF the distance in 3/4 of the time and maintain untiul you feel recovered.

And/or

Instead of your usual run:

First day: Just do a 20minute jog and calisthenics (dynamic stretches etc) warm-up. Then walk home.

Second day: Do 20-minute warm-up then on flat ground with the wind behind you, do 8 x 10-second RELAXED, loose sprints.

5. While you are recovering, make sure you are getting VERY good nutrition. Maybe a bit more protein? (Take a shake, dude). Make sure you are getting enough essential fatty acdis in the right balance, more vitamin C, COQ10 etc. Sufficient magnesium (especially), potassium etc to put back what you are sweating out.

Joy and Freedom

Ryan Hall just got a lot of stick for "not being competitive enough" in the recent Boston Marathon - he was fourth - with the fastest time by an American runner for 150 years or something ridiculous. He ran his own race, at his own pace, in a world of his own - let the attacks go and then just reeled people in.

He said: "My two words were joy and freedom. I felt like I did that today. I was having fun."

Reuters said: "Far from feeling pressure to win for his country, Hall waved to the crowd and goaded college students to cheer louder while his nearest rivals kept their heads down as they ground out the miles. 'I'm sure I'll get a lot of people heckling me, "You could have caught (Deriba) Merga",' said Hall, referring to the third-placed Ethiopian. 'But for me I love to run and I'm going to enjoy it.' "

Running on 'something else'

˜No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed."

- Roger Bannister on breaking the four-minute mile.

Kamloops - the 'movie'

Pictures from the World Masters Indoor Championships at Kamloops, March 2010...
well, they're mostly of me, so don't look for an accurate report of proceedings!

I'll update some of the pictures when I get the "real" ones.
Soundtrack is my gold medal "power song" One Dream, by Sarah McLachlan, which is the song she wrote for the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
See her inspirational video of it here: www.sarahmclachlan.com

This is probably also the place to thank you all for the massive confidence you had in me, the send-off AND the support you gave me through the championship week. It really made a difference.

Also a big thank you to coach Bobby McGee (pictured with me, above), who designed the master plan focused on getting me to the start line uninjured (for a change), gave me a cross-country specific workout that could not have been better AND told me exactly how to play it.

Thanks to photographers Linda Harrison (GB field event athlete and gold medal 4x200m runner), Doug Smith (Canadian masters athlete and pro photographer) and official photographers Photo Reflect. .

World champion at Kamloops

Gold medals: Me (Ist), David Oxland (3rd), Archie Jenkins (4th) with friend from the RCMP.

Dreams come true:

I won. We won the team gold as well. That's the World Masters Championship cross-country, run in Kamloops, BC, Canada.

For half the race there were 3 GB vests at the front (with one Norwegian) and at 4k I said to the guys, "OK, who's Ovett, who's Coe and who's Cram?" I got a laugh, but no words were currently available, I guess :)

The race and pace was really controlled from the front, from the gun, by my fellow-Brit David Oxland, who I figured was going to win (he beat me by over a minute in the British champ 5k a couple of years ago)...but this time I was SO much better prepared and as he led us round the first lap I was just thinking to myself, "This pace is EASY, when's it going to start hurting? Surely this can't go on like this?". But it kind of did.

The course was fast but soft grass, with lots of very small hills, more like giant speed bumps - just big enough to break your rhythm and force your legs into a higher cadence on the down sides. It was cold and windy, which I think helped, as it took the sting out of anyone who had focused on pure speed and not done their speed-endurance homework on energy-sapping x-co repeats (round the lake at Fairview, for instance), not to mention the course-specific short hill repeats that training advisor Bobby McGee had suggested.

By the start of the 3rd 2k (1.2m) lap there were only three of us at the front (2 Brits, 1 Norwegian). David and I took bursts at the front, but we couldn't get rid of the Norwegian shadow AND he wouldn't lead. He was also getting very physical whenever we had to fight for the line on corners.

With one lap to go we were way ahead and I knew I was certain to get a medal AND we were going to sweep the team gold, so I thought sod it, nothing to lose, and took over the race. Bobby had advised me that racing in Boulder teaches us to race our peers, rather than race to win, and that it would be good if I could have at it in a "no guts no glory" kind of way. Get where you belong in the race, he said, "and then throw caution to the wind". So, knowing that I had been doing some really good lactate tolerance training and had lots more speed on tap, I did just that. I led all the way through the final lap, throwing in surge after surge.

Kali (aka Abby) had helped me find an animal image to get my frontal lobes out of the way, and the one that resonated with me was running with a pack (my pack) of wolves. The initial stages with us 3 Brits at the front were so much like that, I really *got* the picture. Whenever (rarely) I've been in front of a race before, I've always felt scared, like I'm running for my life and am going to get hunted down; this time, the feeling came to me that I was leading my pack, not even necessarily to beat them, but to just lead them as fast as I could. For once, this was all going on at a kinesthetic level; I wasn't *thinking*; I wasn't worrying about pace, or heart rate - in fact I wasn't even wearing my Garmin. I know, shocking, isn't it?

With about 400m to go I'd been leading for 1600m and no one had come past me; the shadows on the grass from the guys behind me told me that small gaps were opening. David dropped off the pace and here came the Norwegian up alongside; he elbowed me AGAIN, so I cut him up at the next corner to teach him a lesson.

The final little hill with 150 to go and here he comes again, and he is still giving it to me, so I just repeated my power mantra ("F...ing bastards" - don't ask, it just works for me) and threw in everything I had.

Never saw him again... here comes the turn off into the finish line and now the mind goes, "I am going to be world champion - no, this must be a dream, shit, shit..." but it was true...my arms were in the air and then I collapsed in a tearful heap, lying flat out on the ground - no more need for a stiff upper lip. Yes, I am WORLD CHAMPION!!!! The dream came true. David 3rd, Archie Jenkins 4th - fabulous team victory despite the 300 (I exaggerate) Canadians on home turf and psyched by the Olympics.

The greatest thrill was running in a pack of red, white and blue at the front of the race. It felt unbelievable. I don't want to go too much over the top, but the song I was listening to over and over pre-race was the Vancouver Olympics "anthem" One Dream by (Canadian) Sarah MacLachlan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJMaDxjjc6s

There's a line in that that I hear as, "You carry the courage, you carry the history, of all who've gone before you..." and for a moment there I thought we WERE Ovett, Coe and Cram. I know, way too weird and sloppy, but there you go.

And while we're in that frame of thing, I really appreciated the send-off at the Toad, our favourite Boulder pub. At one point I looked round the table and was humbled by the quality of the people I'm lucky to be able to call friends. It made a lot of difference to me; a lot of my training is done on my own these days, and as Bobby says (yeah, he says a lot of quotable things), what we are engaged in is by and large a "solitary endeavour" that few people take on, and fewer can appreciate. So it is a hellishly supportive when a crowd of us gets together and says to one of our number - we see the significance of what you are trying to do and we believe in you - have at it!