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!

Don't go barefoot!

Runners are slowly catching on to the fact that although the running shoe industry churns out increasingly "protective" shoes, we're still geting injured in our droves.

The New York Times has picked up on the trend among runners to switch to minimalstic shoes. The NYT showed that it was particularly taken with the Vibram Five Fingers (should be toes), which are more socks than shoes.

They are a giant step beyond the Nike Frees, which were advertised as being able to give you the barefoot experience, but are still very much cushioned shoes, albeit giving the foot a fantastic degree of freedom compated to standard running shoes.

But the NYT piece was a oittle confusing. A running friend who alerted me to the story said: "Interesting though about there being no evidence that one type of shoe or another helps/prevents injuries. Sort of negates all that panic about running in old shoes. Apparently, it doesn't really matter what you run in."

Which is not at all what the research says. I couldn't help going into a mini-rant when I emailed back:

"That's not how I read the research (what there is of it). What little there is supports the idea that motion control/"protective"/whatever you want to call, them modern running shoes do not reduce the injury rate in runners and may even CAUSE injuries (that was the gist of Richards' earlier research which this article didn't dare quote).

"So it is important to wear the most minimal shoe you can get away with given your weight, flexibility/lack of, strength/lack of and biomechanics. The average overweight, barely-in-shape heel striker might be worse off in minimalistic shoes, but the problem is while they continue to use "protective" shoes those shoes will actively stop them developing the proper gait and form they need to run efficiently and injury-free (Catch 22). Ideally, runners need to be doing strength and conditioning exercises to help them transition to an efficient gait and to gradually experiment with more neutral shoes... but no one bothers to do that.

"End of that rant. Part two is that none of this evidence and experience supports the idea that running in worn-out old shoes is good for you!! Trust you to look for an excuse not to buy new running shoes!!!!

"The problem with old shoes is that the wear pattern on the sole exaggerates whatever quirks you have biomechanically and will increase the risk of injury - in an extreme case it can be like permanently running on a camber! But it's true that what doesn't really matter is the fact that the cushioning foam wears out and doesn't "protect" you any more."

She got the message :)

"Yes, I will admit that my no new shoes might be a stretch, but I liked my interpretation. I was going to buy new shoes today, but when I read the article last night, I promptly put it off until later this week. And now I am thinking of going back to getting a new pair like my shoes from a year ago, which were sort of neutral, not those structure things, which I didn't really like. "

What's the best diet for an athlete?

I'm thinking about tweaking my diet.

I eat healthily, but noticed today I haven't had real live vegetables for about a week. My standard dinner is often a tin of tune and a can of beans. OK, so i mix oilive oil, turmeric, oregano and rosemary in the tuna... but eve so. This is like convenience wholefood eating.

So I may give the Stone Age eating style another go. I'm naturally inclined that way, and the latest stimulus comes from Dr Loren Cordain - author of The Paleo Diet and co-auhtor of The Paleo Diet for Athletes.

Dr Corain's latest e-newsletter reports

"Athletes use the Paleo Diet while training: As an athlete training for London 2012, Ursula James is following the Paleo Diet with the help of The Paleo Diet Implementation Program. On Ursula's blog she talks about being inspired to hear that Bryan Volpenhein, 3-time Olympian rower and chef, also followed Paleo while training and he felt leaner and recovered quicker. The Paleo Diet for Athletes has helped athletes achieve breakthrough performances, improve endurance, train more intensely, increase muscle mass and leanness, recover more quickly, and eliminate upper respirator y infections. Ursula also shares some the changes she made in her choice of foods, such as a great source for alternative flours like almond meal flour, on her blog."

Naturally I bombed over to Ursula's blog to check this out. "The big push for a change in diet is ultimately athletic performance, but also changing to become a healthy lightweight for rowing", she says. Now that hit home; in running, the quickest way to improve your time is to lose 4lb or so :) . Look how lean our running Gods the Kenyans are.

"Watching Michael Phelps eat so much ‘take away’, junkie-food was unbelievable! That he could perform at such a level eating that! All us athletes should be so lucky. But lightweight rowing requires more attention to have you get your calories." Same for us runners.

So.. let's, see if I can do this...it's basically fruit, veg, lean meat/fish and nuts. No bread, no milk.

Read your way to better performance: new book is the best ever written on the Lydiard system

Simply the best book ever on the training system that has probably transformed more runners into champions than any other.

I got a copy of Running the Lydiard Way in 1978 and it went everywhere with me, 24 hours a day for at least two years, while Arthur's way changed me from an average club hack into a county-class runner. I don't know where Keith Livingstone's book is going to take me, but I've already started carrying it around.

Finally, 30 years on, we get an update and a full explanation of what the Lydiard system really is and how it works. Very exciting!

Even better, Keith writes as a New Zealander born and bred right there in Lydiard land, being himself coached by Olympic medallist Barry Magee, one of Arthur's originals. So here is the true word on Lydiard, direct from original sources.

It's become fashionable to bash Lydiard these days; many of us who had direct contact with the "master coach" have tried and failed to correct the complete tosh that is often claimed as being "Lydiard training" - the most common myth being that he advocated a minimum of 100 miles a week at barely above jogging pace. Here at last is chapter and verse on EXACTLY what Arthur intended, with plenty of real-life examples of how Arthur and his runners adapted the basic system to individualise it for runners of different capabilities.

You'll see, for example, how to use sessions of long slow distance therapeutically, to help recover form. Keith has also done a great job of providing the missing science; although Arthur has been hailed as the greatest running coach of all time, Keith reminds us that Arthur was actually a milkman; he worked things out by experimenting on himself and then with trial and error plus intuition. 30 years on, and with the benefit of the latest research, we can see why Arthur's system works so well -- and also what we need to tweak to make it even more effective.
To that end, Keith brings in the research of Dr Jack Daniels on Vo2 and "V dot" pacing that clarifies what some of Arthur's sessions were out to achieve; he incorporates the "mass-specific" model of strength training developed by Barry Ross; and he includes contributions from Nick Bideau, coach of Craig Mottram, and NZ triathlon coach Chris Pilone, who guided Hamish Carter to 2004 Olympic gold.

A brilliant book, endorsed by Barry Magee and marathon great Lorraine Moller, co-founder of The Lydiard Foundation -- this is a must-have.

Fame at last: I'm a Colorado Runner of the Year

It's fame and glory time: this month's Colorado Runner magazine features me and Dwight Cornwell as winners of our age divisions in the Colorado Runner Racing Series - headlined on the front cover as "Colorado Runners of the Year".

All the interviews were edited for reasons of space, which left out a mention of training partner Patty Murray as well as one of my key training secrets. The unexpurgated version is below.

Picture shows me and team-mate Susan Brooker in the Aetna 10-miler. This year it was a 15-race series starting in January and ending in November.There were 4 5ks, an 8-mile trail race, 2 half-marathons, 2 10milers, 2 10ks, 1 12k and 1 25k trail race, all over Colorado, some at 8,000-feet plus. I ran 9 scoring races, winning 4 and getting 2 2nds and 3 3rds.

I opened the Series in January by running 20:05 for third place in the Oatmeal Festival 5K in Lafayette, CO. I clinched the series by winning the Eerie Erie 5k in 19:02.

That put me more than 200 points clear of second-placed Heath Hibberd, from Montrose, a trail running specialist who handed me some severe defeats in the longer events of the Series. Third place was Devin Croft, from Littleton. We were all 55.

Tell me a little about yourself: your age, where you live, what you do for a living, etc
I live the life of a professional elite athlete only without the recognition, the sponsorship and the million-dollar winnings; I also have to work and I turned 56 in December, but apart from that it is a very similar lifestyle. I moved to Boulder from London four years ago in pursuit of a more laid-back place to live and had no idea what I was getting into.

Why do you run?
Because I'm too scared to stand and fight.

How do you train?
Carefully.
My 2nd year in Boulder I had a blisteringly successful year, taking 11 minutes off my 10k time, and I've been recovering ever since. I'm really greatful for advice from Lorraine Moller, who made me throw my Garmin away and taught me that training has to be fun. She put me on the road back. I since found a "home" with Ric Rojas, who has been my day-by-day coach this year and opened my eyes to a doing more with less style of training that suits me down to the ground. I have driven him crazy by constantly switching goals.
Most of my emphasis is on recovery after training, rather than the training itself; this involves lying on the sofa and drinking lots of tea. I believe that groaning and complaining a lot are key.
Do you have a favorite place to train?
At home, indoors, doing repeats up three flights of stairs with my two cats.

What is your favorite race?
Any race where I perform better than expected. Also almost any race where I come home with something more than yet another race t-shirt. I need to be able to stagger in the front door saying "Look what i won today, honey!"

Do you have any advice for other runners?
The absolute best way to fail is to copy what everyone else is doing, and/or take advice from people who don't really know why they get the results they do.
Apart from that, something from Ric: often the most important thing is showing up - consistency in training inevitably brings results. Look at the Racing Series: to do well you have to stay healthy and be consistent enough to turn in reasonable perfmances from January to November.

What did you enjoy most about running this year?
1) Running fast and effortlessly along a trail out near Wonderland Lake and being blessed with having a eagle glide at the same pace and just below me for 100 yards. 2) Occasionally being able to train with triple national champion and world's medallist Patty Murray - which is very similar to running with an eagle, but requires more effort on my part.

What are your goals for 2009?
1) To decide that I am a 1500m/mile/5k specialist and stick to it. 2) To develop some sort of facial grimace and/or a signature grunting noise so that my friends in Ric Rojas Running will accept I really AM trying.

Is there anything about you that other runners might be interested to know?
I am British born and bred and regularly hallucinate that I am Seb Coe, Steve Ovett or Steve Cram, sometimes Lasse Viren, and more often than I like to admit, Paula Radcliffe. I am plagued by an inbuilt drive to relentlessly explore new ideas about running (as well as my specialist field of complementary and alternative medicine). I benefit here from ongoing discussions with and feedback from team-mates Dwight Cornwell (winner of the 60-64 age group) and sprinter Steven Sashen, while Ric somehow succeeds in keeping me grounded in reality.

Absolutely Marbleous: high times at the Lead King Loop

This was the hardest race I've ever run.

It wasn't just the 15.5 miles - severely over-distance for a miler/5k-er like me - but that the combo of gruelling uphill sections and technical descending often on loose rocks that were training to become scree meant there was no let up, anywhere. Oh, except maybe on the log over the river.

Within half a mile of the Beaver Lake Lodge at 7,300 feet the course started up. And up. My GPS told me we topped out at 10,800 feet after a little over 5 miles of ascending. This on a jeep "road". Imagine a classic zig-zag Tour de France climb crossed with the hell section of Paris-Roubaix. Yes eventually I took walk breaks. We all did. Well not the leaders of course. Check out the pictures on the Colorado Runner website here - and bear in mind that these were taken by 25k winner Bernie Boettcher; he carried a camera with him. Now there's a guy confident in his downhilling ability.

But don't get me wrong: this was a fantastic race in outstanding scenery, marked by severe good humour and laid-backness among competitors and support crew volunteers alike.

As I staggered and swayed up to the final feeding station with little more than a mile to run, I had to ask, "Are we nearly there yet?" This provoked a riot of information... most important being the most welcome, "Yes and it's all downhill from here1" Yeah, I've been hearing that for miles. "No really". And in short order I was offered water, Gatorade, beer.. and a cigarette!

In total contrast to a certain race a few weeks ago, organizer Craig Macek and his team impeccably marked and marshaled a 25k course in mountain country so that no one got lost or starved. Splashing across a shallow stream around the 6-mile mark I was temporarily startled when I registered out of the corner of my eye an impassive figure in drab forest gear, on horseback, rifle in scabbard by the saddle. Time warp. He may have been a "marshal", or maybe a hallucination; it was that kind of race.

Oh and there was schwag unbounded. Cancel everything I ever said about those irritating prize draws. Where Craig and co got the goodies from I have no idea, but they were top quality and there were lots of them. Having got fourth place in my age group, rather than my usual third, I was out of the running for the grand chunks of solid Marble marble. But, no sweat... I scored a stupendous $150 voucher for a full-on dinner for two at Olives Restaurant in the impossibly swish St Regis Hotel in Aspen. Someone got a leather jacket; someone else a pair of skis. Dwight Cornwell, whose win in the 60-64 division clinched the Series title, was presented with a gorgeous spruce tree!

Way to go
There are just two races to go in the Colorado Runner Racing Series and - glory be! -- they are both 5ks!
Next up is the Eerie Erie on October 25 (in Erie, of course. On November 16 the Panicking Poultry 5k in Boulder brings an end to the 16-race series begun in January.
We're waiting for the official Lead King results; latest standings will be updated on the Colorado Runner website here.

Who's safe?
Results are now up and I did get my usual third in the 55-59 age-group: excellent! However, I am still not home and dry, and in many of the divisions, the final overall Series winners won't be decided until the final race. For some runners, though, the long campaign is over. These are the men and women who, with two races left, can't be caught and are winners of the Colorado Runner Racing Series:

Masters Women: Karen Smidt, 42, Brighton (2nd in the LKL)
50-54 Female: Cynthia Flora, 51, Littleton (3rd in the LKL)
55-59 Female: Jan Huie, 59, Colorado Springs - has more than 1000 points and is so far ahead she didn't have to run the Lead King Loop, although she made the trip.
60-64 Male: Dwight Cornwell, 62, Fort Collins (1st in the LKL with an age group course record 2:42:35, 14 minutes ahead of the next guy)
60-64 Female: Stephanie Wiecks, 61, Palmer Lake (1st in the LKL)
65+ Male: Jim Romero, 68, Denver, 15 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor in the LKL and another one with more than 1000 points.

Now that's more like it! 10 miles of hard fun at the Aetna Park to Park

Definitely from the ridiculous to the sublime: the getting-a-bit battle weary Colorado Runner Racing Series points chasers moved to Denver to find a welcome contrast to our last race, which was such a fiasco that the "results" were dropped from the series.

* Picture: me (on the right) with team-mate Susan Brooker, winner of the women's masters race. Photo by David Merrill, www.FotoJack.com.

The Aetna Park to Park 10-miler had everything; this is a race on its way to the major league. We got 40 Portaloos at the start, a mobile espresso bar, hundreds of marshals backed up by more police officers than I've seen all year; we got a superb USATF certified course that included long stiff climbs, screaming descents and plenty of corners as it took us from City Park, to Cheeseman Park (mind the geese!), on to Alamo Placita Park to finish in Washington Park. We got medals and flowers. We got goodie bags that doubled as kit bags that were transported to the finish for us. We got the unmatched efficiency of Benji Durden and his timing crew, who had the results up almost as soon as we'd finished. Two hours after getting home I got an email telling me the results were already up on the Net. Like it! We got food - lots of it, including chocolate chip cookies AND popcorn. Plus an Expo to wander round. All we didn't get was an awards ceremony.

I know, I shouldn't bang on about all these "peripherals", but unless you were at the not-so Peachy 5-miler last time, you have no idea how much we enjoyed the pampering :) Oh and just one more thing for co-directors Alan Lind and Maureen Roben: given we're distance athletes permanently on the verge of immune system breakdown, I can't tell you two how much I appreciate having my drink handed to me by a volunteer wearing latex gloves... the norm is to get a drink with someone's who-knows-where-they've-been fingers round the rim.

And the word is getting out about this race. Entries just about doubled from around 600 last year to 1100 this Labor Day. Yes, its promotion to the Colorado Runner Racing Series helped, but so did the buzz from runners delighted with the inaugural event last year - plus this 10-mile epic is a nicely positioned test for anyone targeting a fall marathon.

The race itself? Well, I got hammered again. Heath Hibberd took 4 minutes out of me and Devin Croft 2, as I finished third in the 55-59 age group in 1:08:16. But I was well pleased to have kept my overall series lead over the longest distance I've raced this year. It might well have been a disaster, except for a serious pre-race strategy session I had with coach Ric Rojas and team-mate Susan Brooker.

A former Olympic trials marathoner, Susan knows how to plan a race. She ran the course the week before, so when we sat down with the course profile and her feedback I was treated to a good dose of reality. With Ric's prompting we worked out mile splits based on a conservative start. Boy, was I glad we did! Because the first mile is a totally inviting long straight downhill that most of the field couldn't resist. I would have been one of them...and like them, I would have paid the price on the huge hill between mile 4 and 5. But we stuck to the plan, held back and started easily at 7-minute pace; I was catching runners all the way through.

To give you some idea of the ups and downs, my mile split on the hill was 7:11; my split on a downhill stretch two miles later was 5:39!

The day after our planning meeting, we had a great track session at Potts Field dedicated to dialling in our proposed race pace with a set of mile repeats. Based on that and my performance on a 15-mile training run the previous Sunday, plus a comparison with the 7:00 pace I managed in the VERY hilly Greenland trail 8-mile in April, I devised a slightly more aggressive schedule of splits just in case I felt good at the top of the hill.

On the day I did. Susan kept to the plan. A 6:32 last mile brought her home in 1:09:24, about 14 seconds faster than the plan. She won the 45 to 49 Age Group by FOUR minutes -- and earned herself $100. I wasn't just impressed, but scared: if it had been a half-marathon she would have caught me.

It was a good hard race. There wasn't really anywhere you could relax and go on cruise control, as the course really grabs your attention, especially if you're trying to run the shortest line. The hills were longer than I'd anticipated; the opening miles not as flat as I'd thought. With two miles to go it felt great to burst downhill into Wash Park, where I've run so many 5ks that it feels like home.

How the guys at the front ran this in 51 minutes I have no idea. Hats off to Josh Eberly of Gunnison (27) who averaged a tad over 5 minutes a mile to win in 51:00, and to Jesus Solis of Littleton (24), second in 51:23. Unbelievable.

One of the performances of the day must be that of Longmont's Kelly Liljebald, who at 36 ran 1:01:50 (6:11 pace)to beat 26-year-old Maren Shepherd to be first woman home. Three others who stood out were Mark Bell of Denver, who at 51 got 29th overall with his 1:01:44...the next guy in his age group was near enough 5 minutes back; Hibberd, who was 42nd overall; and Erie's 61-year-old Dave Dooley, 50th overall in 1:06:12, who hauled out a similar 5-minute gap over Dwight Cornwell, the 62-year-old from Fort Collins who is leading the 60-64 division in the series.

We've got just 3 races to go before the Colorado Runner Racing Series is done for the year. It's been a long campaign since the January start, so some of us will be breathing sighs of relief. But not yet... the next race is a doozy.

Marble, at 7000 feet, is beautiful this time of year. So beautiful that we're going there to run 15 miles -- the first 5 of which take us up nearly 4000 feet. Um. Yes. Some of the guys are telling me that the only way up is to walk. They've also told me it could be snowing at the top and bad-weather clothing may be in order.

Believe it or not, the Lead King Loop is followed by 2 5k races to finish the series. I can't wait!

* Links to current standings and latest results are up at the Colorado Runner site here.

I have a cunning plan... to PowerCrank up my training

So I decided it would be a good idea to replace one of my week's 6-mile runs with something with less impact.

Although I do most of my training on trails, they have been almost as hard as tarmac throughout the summer, and for the fist time ever I've been getting the odd twinge in my knees.

The challenge was that I'm no Michael Phelps, so I won't be going anywhere near a pool. A nicely cushioned treadmill? I hate the damn things. So I thought I might as well dig out my bike and hit the roads...but, wait, that's out too. I started life as a bike-rider and I have to stay away from it otherwise the next thing you know I have a new set of streamlined clothes, shoes, pedals and a new bike and I'm fantasising about riding the Tour de France aged 60. Obsession that way lies. Most of the other things I considered -- from in-line skating to mad push scootering -- are all on Ric's banned list: activities that no runner should do for fear of serious injury.

That's where triathletes come in. These guys! High-tech and early-adopters. And one of the things there's a big buzz about in the triathlon world is PowerCranks.

PowerCranks appeal to the gadget geek and sports scientist in me :)

Simply put, they are cranks that you attach to your bike - but they are independent cranks. That's right, when you push down on one pedal the other pedal does NOT come up -- you have to actively lift it.

Pro cyclists such as Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso and American Tour de France hero and Beijing Olympian George Hincapie have adopted PowerCranks for training; the reason being that it is not only the fastest way to get that smooth and powerful elite rhythm, but that PowerCranking forces you to use the hamstrings and hip flexors more effectively -- and they strengthen. The results are documented increases (eventually) in power and VO2 max.

So what's a pair of bicycle cranks got to do with running? Just this. What I spotted was that loads of the triathletes who had used PowerCranks to improve their riding were also reporting alarming improvements in their running. 10k times were falling; form and gait were smoothing out.

The people at PowerCranks don't have many runners doing this type of cross-training yet, but those they do are impressed. Likewise, I was impressed by the rationale behind them, and also by the testimonial and video of masters sprinter and coach Aaron Thigpen, who says on the site, "4 months after starting with the PowerCranks I set a new age group record for 38-year-olds for the 100m dash, running it in 10.34. This time was 0.2 seconds faster than the record that had stood for 23 years."

You'll notice words like "eventually" and "4 months" in there. This is not just because PowerCranks are no quick fix, but also because they are such hard work when you first start to use them that they have reportedly humbled many an elite cyclist who has been tempted to show off at an expo. So forget jumping in and doing an hour on 'em; it's more like 30 seconds to start with!

After doing my due diligence, I asked the guys at PowerCranks if they'd give me a set to test. They agreed, so I'm now hunting for a Lemond Revmaster to fit them to, and I'll be cranking it up in the garage any day now.

It's an experiment that could end in tears (as in eyes and as in muscles), or it could be a solution with a built in bonus for my impact-lessening project. Watch this space -- and meanwhile this video of a runner talking about how PCs worked for him.

Chaos reigns at the not-so-Peachy 5-miler

Race 12 in the Colorado Runner Racing Series was a shambles from start to finish. Actually, from before the start to well after the finish.

The question we were all asking each other at the finish was not "How did you do?" but "How far did you run?" as a combination of inadequate course marking and insufficient marshals who knew where the course went led to almost all of the runners going off course.

The leaders, following the lead bike, ran the full 5 miles. My group ran 4.2; another bunch ran 4.5. Forget the times; the finishing order became a question of discussion, honesty and give and take. One poor young lad thought he had won his age group until he was asked a question about the feeding station; he couldn't answer it because he never got to it, so had to hand over his award -- a punnet of peaches,

OK, so the Peach Fest 5 Mile in Palisade, way out west near Grand Junction, is a nice laid-back local race, but just wasn't up to scratch for a Series event. We all like to have fun and not take ourselves too seriously, but this fiasco showed a complete lack of respect for runners involved in the chase for points. Many of the leading runners had invested in a round-trip of 400-500 miles, half of it in atrocious weather, plus the cost of an overnight stay.

I have no idea what the final "results" are going to reveal. But as far as we could tell working things out between us, all the age-group leaders -- including me -- managed to hold our positions. So from that point of view, the effort was worth it. And it was an effort. I was at the Wedding of the Year the night before, as my favourite training partner, national champion and world's double medalist Patty Murray married superfast 50-plusser Dave Albo. After the weddding I grabbed a couple of hours sleep and left the house at 2.45am for a horrendous 250-mile drive in torrential rain and, later, hailstones and snow on the high passes, arriving at the race at 7.30am for an 8am start.

I didn't need a warm-up so much as de-kinking after driving for so long and so hard. However, I needn't have bothered being quite so cavalier with the speed limits, trying to make up time after the bad weather delays, as the race was to start 20 minutes late. That was lucky for another reason, as there were only 2 (two) portaloos provided.

We were told the race was delayed because some trees had fallen across the course and a new route was being worked out. Hmm, we thought, must be mighty big trees to necessitate re-working and re-measuring the course. Whatever. Eventually we were dispatched to the far corner of the school playing field where there was no call to the start line -- well, that would have been difficult, as there was no start line -- no "set" or "go!", just a vague waving of a watch while we all milled about. Guys at the back were forced to walk while the field gradually realised we had started and began to point itself in the right direction.

Off we went on a brief tour of the neighbourhood, then onto a paved trail and then -- Big Surprise! -- we found ourselves in a cross-country race. I mean the real thing, with single rabbit-track like paths, bushes and clumpy grass underfoot, logs to jump, trees to duck under, the whole bit. Now bear in mind we'd been given no course description, no route map, no nothing. The course WAS marked with little yellow flags, but where to go and especially where to turn was not clear at all. And there was no one out there to put us right. We all just followed the runner in front - and it didn't work.

The event website did refer to "exciting single-track", but told us "The expansion of Palisade’s Riverbend Park presented a perfect opportunity to hold the event where it is 95% trail or path running and virtually traffic free." Well OK. But really this is an out-and-out cross-country course with a mile or so of paved road connecting the parkland to the 400m or so thick grass start and finish stretch... and mileage may vary.

As it happens, the course is a little gem and I would love to run the whole thing some day. But that's unlikely; I won't be back. The mood among the other old guys chasing Colorado Runner Racing Series points was "Please don't have this in the Series next year!"

The race organizer/announcer ensured us at the prize presentation, "Anyone who went off course -- it wasn't your fault!" Well he got that right. The semi-official explanation for part of the debacle was that police had removed some kind of gate/barrier that had been set up to make the route way clearer. I don't know. Once out on the country the route was complex; what it needed was more human beings to show us the way.

So, what I can tell you is that amid the chaos some familiar names emerged as division winners -- at least unofficially, allegedly, and just for now.... among them Steve Folkerts of Fort Collins (a 600-mile round-trip away) who we KNOW ran the full course at something like 5:40 pace, which was amazing. He is now well clear at the top of the Series open men. Tim Jones from Loveland (500 miles) again scored over local for the day Erik Packard to stay ahead as overall master.

In the 50-54 table John Victoria (500 miles) clawed back another ten points from current leader Robert Kessler (Highlands Ranch, 500 miles), and in the 55-59 race third-placed overall Devin Croft beat me and Heath Hibberd, so we THINK the standings remain about the same. Stephen Berger (Littleton, 500 miles) and Dwight Cornwell from Fort Collins (600 miles) finished in that order, leaving Dwight still well clear at the top.

The redoubtable Connie Ahrnsbark from Lakewood (450 miles) won the entire 60-69 age group at age 68 and has opened a useful gap at the top of the women's 60+ division.

These are just the results I managed to write down as they were announced; not surprisingly, there were no "official" results printed out and pinned up... so all these may change.

On the race website there's no mention of where the results will be available, so the best bet is to check on the Colorado Runner site here, where all the results and latest points tables get put up.

* Next up: the Aetner Park to Park 10-miler, on Labor Day, September 1. Glory be, it's in Denver!! Just 45 minutes down the road.

'Flow like water': suffering downhill in the Evergreen 10k

"I thought you weren't running this", said John Victoria at the start line of the Evergreen Town Race. Hm, well if I'd known just how hard it was going to be, maybe I'd have stood by my original decision... so a word of explanation...



first, I had this race down as a "gimmick" event. I apologise; it isn't. Yes it is a downhill 10k, but it's not one of those super-fast courses that will give you a PR that will mock you for ever more, because it's at 8,000 feet. Not only Derek Griffiths, publisher of Colorado Runner, told me this and urged a re-think, but then Dwight and Em both told me that the downhill was not so fierce that it would wreck my legs.

The final straw was when I checked the Colorado Runner Racing Series points and realized my fellow 55-year-old Heath Hibberd has pulled out a superb series of wins and is now a strong contender to win the series. So I had to turn out :)

Evergreen was the 11th race of the Series, which started in January; there are five races to go.

So, does the altitude offset the downhill gain? Oh yes. Stir in 90-95 degree heat and this race became a desperate battle to keep going.

The first mile is VERY downhill, so comparisons are a little misleading, but I covered that one in 5:53; the last mile, with the heat and the distance taking its toll, took me 6:48.

Yes, distance. Don't laugh you marathoners, but I have been training for a mile and 5k. At the 5k point it took a big mental adjustment to accept I had the same distance to go!

It didn't help that around that point we caught the 5k race tail-enders, by then reduced to a walk. Then ahead of me, I watched women's masters contender Sheila Geere take a walk break, get going again, and then stop for good as the heat got to her. Big problem: my brain latched on to her example and started in on me, whining, that it would be OK to walk, or even to stop, the heat man, the heat....

You know how you can keep some delusions alive your whole life? Like "I could have ridden the Tour de France...blah blah"? I've entertained one about doing one of those ultra-distance desert runs. Kind of, "I could probably do that; I just don't want to". Not any more. I've let that one go. Here I was really suffering in a mere 10k that was a tad too hot.

We could have done with more water stations. On the two I hit it was one mouthful to rinse the dry mouth, the rest tipped over my head. Route-finding became complex on the winding road, sorting the pros and cons of keeping in the shade versus running the shortest distance through the corners.

"Fast downhill course -- extraordinary setting" is the Evergreen tag line. Yes, Evergreen is beautiful, and what took the sting out of the heat was first, plenty of shady trees and second, the continual presence of Bear Creek tumbling alongside us. My mantra became "Flow like water, soar like eagle". I focused on flow, trying to fall effortlessly like the creek. I decided to set my speed at the point where I could maintain good form and stay light on my feet. The mantra sounds Zen-like, but it was American Indian chanting I started hearing in my head. All part of the hallucination :)

So, you're probably wondering.... well, I finished in 40:07; Mr Hibberd beat me by two minutes, but in that last, horrible, staggering mile, I managed somehow to stay in front of Devin Croft, so I get to keep my Series lead, but Heath has whittled it down to a mere 40 points.

The competition is just as close in the 50-54; here Robert Kessler (38:16) handed out a rare defeat to John Victoria (39:13) to retain his lead. John was nursing a problem hamstring, but with this second place to add to his previous five wins, has also closed the gap to 40 points.

Closest of all is the open women's competition. Leader Kara Ford didn't run, so 29-year-old Kris Lawson has now closed to just 20 points thanks to a storming third-place 38:37 at Evergreen.

Top master Tim Jones extended his points lead by taking second at Evergreen as rival Erik Packard slipped to fifth. Karen Smidt scored again to stay clear as women's Master yellow jersey.

Cynthia Flora in the women's 50-54 grabbed another 100 points at the expense of second overall Jenney Weber, who didn't run. In the women's 60-64, Cathy Morgan also didn't show, and may regret it, as Stephanie Weeks won (by almost six minutes) and has taken over the Series lead by 130 points.

Still no let-up in the men's 60-64. Downhill ace Dwight Cornwell didn't have a particularly good day and couldn't take advantage of the slope; he suffered to hang on in front of Stephen Berger, 42:41 to 43:15, and maintain the Series status quo. Their epic is good to watch as they are a complete contrast in build and running styles.

In the 60+ divisions, 68-year-old Jim Romero won at Evergreen by more than 7 minutes (47:20) and consolidates his lead; Connie Ahrnsbark and Myra Rhodes were first and second and stay that way overall.

Every race from now on in is crucial for most of the Series leaders, myself included. Next up is the Peach Fest 5-miler in Palisade; then the Aetna Park to Park 10-miler in Denver, followed by the one we're all dreading, the spectacular Lead King Loop, a mountainous 25k at Marble.


* Impeccable organization was marked by en masse support from race beneficiaries the Alpine Rescue Team, flawless start-finish transportation with a fleet of buses, a bonzer post-race bash that included season's-best grub -- egg and cheese bagles, fantastic! -- AND quick results. A great addition to the Series (thanks Derek).

20-year-old PR goes: first Snow Jog of the year

Here's a diary entry I never thought I'd make:

Sunday: easy trail run in snow, 18.5 miles in 3:27:16.

This turned into a bit of an epic, but the cool thing is that I broke my long-run PR: I haven't run more than 18 miles for at least 20 years, maybe 25.

It was a tough run, much tougher than I thought it was going to be when I left the house well-rested and well-fed after sitting out two days of continuous snow. Beguiled by the sun and blue sky, and the diamond sparkle of the fresh powder, I just kept ticking off the miles at a very easy pace made even slower by the soft crunchy stuff underfoot. I didn't take any of the opportunities to cut the thing short. I should have done. By the time I was committed to the long loop, I realised I was starting to lose daylight.

The sun dipped behind the foothills on a long stretch leading me past the Bolder Reservoir. By mile 13 the temperature had dropped due to the lack of sun AND the proximity of the water and bits started to freeze. The water in the op of my bottle froze. My feet started to turn blocky. I couldn't feel my fin gers and my face -- well I was thinking Scott of the Antarctic by the point and wondering what frostbite on the nose really felt like.

By now the Snow Jog had become a sort of survival-on-the-pack-ice snowshoe shuffle. Without the snow shoes. I was sending telepathic (telepathetic?) calls for help to Abby, hoping she would "pick up" and meet me at the entrance to the Res, saving me an additional four miles home. No luck there.

The only thing that got me back was that once past the Res and the deeper back into "civilisation" I got, the warmer it got. So I didn't jump in the Yellow Cab waiting at the lights with 2 to go. No, I told myself, you call yourself an endurance athlete... so ENDURE damn it.

I noticed that when I paused to cross a couple of main roads I was swaying on my feet. Not good. But I made it. I shambled through the front door to Abby's relief. She'd picked up the trans mission but hadn't known where to find me. I have strict orders to carry a cell phone in future. Well, I did say I'd be 2 and half hours, not 3 and a half.

Since I got in I've done little except eat. My Garmin tells me I burned near enough 2500 calories; probably on the low side as the Garmin can't tell what the temperature was. I had a couple of Cliff bar jelly bite things en route, but of course this would be the day I decided to experiment by taking a bottle of oxygenated water rather than my normal sugar-protein Accelerade mix. Isn';t it odd that in one run we can burn off more calories than some people eat in their three meals a day?

Now, I smugly pleased with myself. A new record; never mind the time.

I guess this is winter then. It'll be Snow Jogging for me from now on.

'Faster! It's only pain'

One of the great quotes of all time.

I found it on Wikipedia, while looking up some info about the great Herb Elliott.

The context is: "Elliott credited his visionary and iconoclastic coach, Percy Cerutty, with inspiration to train harder and more naturally than anyone of his era. Cerutty was known to avoid the track, talk about role models outside athletics (like DaVinci and Jesus), and bring his athletes to the unspoiled seaside beauty of Portsea training camp south of Melbourne, where Elliott would sprint up sand dunes until he dropped. 'Faster,' said Cerutty, 'It's only pain.' "

* Source: Wikipedia

Henry dips under 20:00, is challenged by Shaheed

Former triple world record holder Henry Rono ran 19:20 for third in the M50 age group in the Jingle Bell 5k on a fast, flat course in Cincinnati, Ohio.

On his letsrun.com thread he said that when he saw a photograph of the race he thought he looked more like a heavyweight boxer than a Kenyan distance runner!

As a result, the story of his epic comeback has instead become a weight-loss discussion. Henry is currently 179lb -- down from 210lb at the start of the year, and has a target (racing) weight of 150lb. His weight "problem" has led some posters to question whether he is really serious about attacking the world mile record.

A typical comment is along the lines of "how can he be running two hours a day and have only lost 30lb? Is he eating like a horse, or is he not doing the training he says he is?"

Henry sounds as sincere -- and as frustrated with his weight -- as ever. And he remains focused on his record attempt. In a new twist, Masters mile world record holder Nolan Shaheed, the jazz trumpeter with a unique training routine, has challenged Henry to a showdown.

Shaheed's respect for Rono is on record -- among other places in a recent interview with Dan Empfield for the triathlon site Slowtwitch.

In a new post to Henry, Shaheed says: "I am glad to hear that you are endeavoring to set the record in the mile. As you know it's my endeavor too. It would be great for us to go for the record in the same race at the same meet at the same time. Maybe there is a race promoter out there who would be interested."

Henry goes for sub-19 5k

In his most serious race since starting training six months ago at 200lb, when he could hardly run a step, Henry Rono is gunning to go under 19 minutes this Saturday (December 9).

He's picked the Jingle Bell 5k in Cincinnati, Ohio for the attempt. It's a fast, flat course - and it's a sea level, which will allow Henry to take advantage of the merciless mountain training he has been doing in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Henry's commented in his letsrun.com reports: "The 180 day of training, phase II. I ran for 121 minutes. The legs are moving well. As I was running in the mountains, I was thinking and visualizing the 5k Jingle Bell race in Cincinnati next week. Thinking like this, six minutes pace and perhaps 5:50 minutes per mile. My arms moves left and legs right as the six months would allow me to do so.

"What do think of that? Is that sound a little bit weird or unrealistic to you? For sure I feel lighter in weights."

Requesting some advice on race strategy, Henry joked: "I will do it like this, close my eyes after one mile mark splits - then go through the last two miles as if I am going through a dark bridge tunnel - then at the end of a tunnel open my eyes after the tunnel and here is a bright light, which is a big apple ( under19 minutes)."

It's not what he says, it must be the way he says it....

...but as soon as I put the phone down from talking to Bobby McGee, I am bursting to go for a run.

It definitely isn't what he says, because for the life of me I can't recall him making any specific "motivational" or "inspirational" comments. We were having a conversation about a recent blood test I've had done. Bobby is one of the few coaches who wants his runners to have a serum ferritin test done, even if they look healthy. I put it off for a year. But now I am seriously gearing up for the mile I had one done and low and behold, I have some weird stuff going on with iron.

Serum ferritin is a good marker for your iron stores. Mine tested out at 50. A reasonable number to aim at is 200! Measurable range goes beyond 300. Anything above 400 and they'll be testing you for EPO. Runners, particularly forefoot strikers like me, have an occupational hazard called "footstrike anaemia". Repeated impact with the ground destroys red blood cells. This is Not Good, as iron-containing red blood cells transport oxygen.

An endurance athlete needs to be able to a) replace cells and b) maintain sufficient iron -- because that's the stuff that enables the blood cells to pick up oxygen in the first place.

Given that my serum ferritin is down at 50 even after a four-week lay-off, it is more than likely that I was training and racing this year with it down even lower. And I train and race at altitude. Hm. No wonder I was so tired sometimes I couldn't get off the sofa.

Bobby's translation of the figures is that I am replacing cells OK, but do not have enough iron in my system. So it's supplements for me. If they don't bring my level up in six weeks, then we'll have to investgiaget some more.

Of course, part of me is hoping that this will give me a turbo-charge going into the New Year. Better men than me have slogged along putting their tiredness down to hard training, then been revitalised by supplemental iron: Brendan Foster, Dick Beardsley, Alberto Salazar, for instance.

Anyway, with that cleared up, I suppose it's understandable that I would excited and inspired to go for (another) run... but no, there's something else going on. I don't know how he does it, but I'm not the only who Bobby is able to motivate "subliminally" !!

Inside scoop on YourRunning.com

Here's the official release!

Runners Have a New, Citizen Media Based Home in YourRunning.com

Latest online community from the Enthusiast Group:
Simon Martin is enthusiast-in-chief, Brad Feld blogs on marathoning

Boulder, Colorado (PRWeb) November 20, 2006 -- Runners, from world-class athletes to passionate enthusiasts, have stories to tell, photos to share and videos to show off, without waiting for a professional journalist to decide if it's publishable: YourRunning.com.

The Boulder, Colorado-based Enthusiast Group has debuted the new YourRunning.com online community where runners can share their stories, advice, news, photos, videos and product reviews. This is the third online sports site opened by the company; the others are
YourClimbing.com and YourMTB.com, communities for climbing and mountain biking enthusiasts, respectively.

YourRunning.com, which has been opened to public use during its beta period, is based on the concept of "citizen media" -- which simply means that runners themselves are the authors of much of the content on the site.

"Sports enthusiasts have compelling stories and images to share, but they typically are under-covered by traditional media," says Steve Outing, founder and publisher of YourRunning.com and the Enthusiast Group. "It's nearly always the stars of any sport who get media attention. But everyday athletes and sports participants deserve coverage, too. They should have a media outlet of their own. That's what YourRunning.com and other Enthusiast Group sites are about."

YourRunning.com isn't all user-submitted content, however. Serving as head cheerleader -- encouraging and helping runners share their stories and images and offering expert advice -- is
Enthusiast-in-Chief Simon Martin, a Boulder, Colorado-based runner and journalist who regularly tops his age class. Martin is currently working with Olympic running coach Bobby McGee to attempt a run on the mile record for over-50 runners.

Martin writes a blog on YourRunning.com about his running life ("Simon Martin's Run Time"), produces a podcast about running, shoots photos and video, and answers questions in an Ask Simon forum.

"I'm excited to be a part of the new YourRunning.com community," he says. "The site makes it so easy for runners to talk, to share training ideas, epic stories, pictures, videos, start their own blogs.... I don't think there's ever been anything like it. In races and training we're often out there suffering -- I mean having enormous fun -- on our own, but it's other people who have
helped me get the most out of my running. I'm really looking forward to being part of a new network of like-minded enthusiasts."

Also with a regular presence on the site is Brad Feld, a well-known venture capitalist and enthusiastic marathoner who is working toward a personal goal of running 50 marathons by the time he turns 50. Feld, who is ranked as the most-linked running blogger by Technorati.com,
has started a regular blog for YourRunning.com.

YourRunning.com is about audience participation and interaction.
Every piece of content posted to the site allows visitors and users to comment and discuss, and they can share anything they wish, as long as it's on the topic of running. They can ask questions and get expert answers from Martin as well as get advice from other YourRunning.com
users. "This is not like your traditional running magazine or website," says Outing, who is a well known interactive media expert and columnist. "This is about runners sharing their passions with each other. It's two-way dialog, not traditional one-way, we-tell-you-how publishing."

The site routinely runs contests and promotions, rewarding the best inspiration tales, photos and videos, for example, with running-related prizes provided by sponsors. Use of the site is
completely free to its users.

* About the Enthusiast Group
The Boulder, Colorado-based company was founded in early 2006 by Outing and Derek Scruggs, an experienced Internet entrepreneur, with the goal of creating a network of citizen-media-based websites serving adventure and participant sports. YourRunning.com, YourClimbing.com and YourMTB.com are the first sites published by the company to open to the public. Sites covering additional adventure and participant sports are planned for roll-out later this year and early in 2007, and the company is seeking athlete editors. See
http://www.enthusiastgroup.com/were_looking_for_top_athlete_editors

The Enthusiast Group is funded by a group of 11 investors, including Omidyar Network (a mission-based investment group founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar), DB Medialab (the new-media arm of Norwegian national newspaper Dagbladet), and Brad Feld.