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Are you eating these foods and drinking these drinks?
Written by: Matt Fitzgerald
Runners need a lot of carbohydrate. Why? Because your muscles are fueled primarily on carbohydrate when you run hard. Thus, sports nutrition experts generally recommend that runners get approximately 60 percent of their daily calories from carbohydrate.
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“It’s the long run that puts the tiger in the cat.” – Coach Bill Squires
Written by: Mario Fraioli
At the 1979 Boston Marathon, four runners from the Greater Boston Track Club placed amongst the top 10 finishers in the race, led of course by Bill Rodgers, who broke the tape in 2:09:27.
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Dear Experts,
Last year I weighed in at 274 lbs, was on beta blockers, and had numerous issues with my knees and shoulders. Since September of last year, I have been training regularly, and have made some great strides, including finishing the Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago ½ Marathon in 2 hours, 45 minutes and 45 seconds. In addition, I now weigh 193 lbs, and I no longer need to take the beta blockers.
Anyway, a majority of my running is on a treadmill. I am not, and I do not ever expect to be, a fast runner. But I think that I can keep a respectable pace on the treadmill. I am able to do my workouts (all but my long runs) with an average pace of 5.7 [mph] on the treadmill, and I hit sustained speeds of 6.2 [mph] for 5 minutes. What I am having a hard time doing is transitioning to running outside. My outside running times are significantly slower, and as a result, I seem to tire out much more quickly. I can run for an hour and a half straight on the treadmill (and longer), but there are times when I run outside that I can’t run for 40 minutes straight.
So how is it that I can make that transition? And how should I pace myself? Should I find a pace on the treadmill, and get used to that pace, and then attempt to do that outside? I will be running the Rock ‘n’ Roll ½ Marathon in Vegas in December, and I really want to be able to break the 2 hour and 30 minute time.
Greg
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T.J. has 13 weeks and less than 10 pounds to go to reach his goals!
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By training to feel good you’ll race better as a result.
Written by: Matt Fitzgerald
Every runner knows that a great race cannot happen unless a fair amount of hard work and suffering precedes it. But how much suffering is the right amount? Obviously, there is such a thing as too much suffering, just as there is such a thing as too little. Opinions on the proper definition of what we might call the “misery sweet spot” vary. Some coaches and runners believe one should train more or less according to Nietzsche’s dictum, “That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” In other words, the more you suffer in training without breaking, the better you will race. Others believe that runners should suffer in carefully measured doses and should feel good at most times in the training process.
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Whether this is your first race or your 50th, race day manners are a must! Although running is considered an individual sport, you must be aware of those around you. To ensure race safety, be considerate of other runners and walkers.
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Official Race Route Announced for Debut Half Marathon
Los Angeles, CA – The Competitor Group (CGI) and AEG today announced that the finish line for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon will be at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, October 24, 2010. More than 15,000 runners are expected to participate in the 13.1-mile mash-up of music and running, showcasing a scenic course of parks, lakes, trendy shops, clubs, restaurants and the revitalization of downtown Los Angeles.
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A month of pigging out could result in a lifetime of weight gain.
Written by: Matt Fitzgerald
If you haven’t seen it, you’ve at least heard of Supersize Me, the documentary film in which Morgan Spurlock stops exercising and lives on McDonald’s food for one month. The consequences to his health were predictably disastrous. It was hardly a scientific experiment, of course, but one had little doubt that the results of Spurlock’s turn as his own guinea pig were fundamentally truthful.
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The point of getting leaner is to enhance race performance; getting lean is not an end in itself, advises Racing Weight author Matt Fitzgerald. Learn how proper training can help you get lean for peak performance. Click here to watch the video.
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Here’s a workout that tells you exactly how fit you are.
Written by: Matt Fitzgerald
The workout that I call a relaxed 10K time trial is not one that I learned from anyone else. Although I’m sure other runners do it, I came up with it (or reinvented it) on my own. It’s one of my favorite workouts, so I can’t help but try to convert other runners to it, as I’m doing right now!
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Ignore the smoke and mirrors. Avoiding junk food is the way to go.
Written by: Matt Fitzgerald
There are a million ways you could change your diet to promote weight loss. The options include eating less carbohydrate or less fat, eating more protein, eating more frequently, eating smaller portions, eating more fiber, going vegetarian, and switching from processed to whole grains, to name a few. But of the million ways you could change your diet to lose weight, which is the most effective? In other words, if you could make only one change, what should that change be?
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Salad with smoked mackerel. Photo: roolrool
Break out of your seafood rut with these delicious and nutritious alternatives to the usual fish.
Written by: Matthew Kadey, M.S., R.D.
Brimming with good-for-you nutrients, fish is a food that the American Heart Association recommends we consume at least twice per week. But if you’ve fallen into a seafood rut – tossing salmon and shrimp into your cart every week – swapping in some of the following options from the fishmonger is a tasty, environmentally savvy and nutritious way to break out of it.
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Use these tips to make it a little easier to roll out of bed in the morning.
Written by: Matt Fitzgerald
Muscle soreness is a normal consequence of exercise. In most cases it is mild, emerging shortly after a workout is completed (if not during the workout) and lasting no longer than a day or two. But sometimes the pain is intense, and when it’s intense it is almost always delayed, emerging the morning after the workout and lasting as long as three or four days.
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Week 6: T.J’s burned off 10 pounds in 5 weeks. Here are the key lessons he’s learned so far.
Five weeks ago I set out on the Burning Runner project. I now have 15 weeks left to navigate my way to the following: lose 20 pounds and drop 20 minutes off my half-marathon time. On my official weigh-in day last week I was surprised to see that I’ve already burned off 10 pounds. Originally that was my goal for the entire 20-week program until coach Mario Fraioli convinced me to go for 20.
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Another week, another pound burned. With 15 weeks to go, T.J. is halfway there.
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