Video – Season 2 – Episode 19 — Supporting Young Runners

running advice bug Video   Season 2   Episode 19    Supporting Young RunnersHello runners and parents of runners! Yes, this week Coaches Joe English and Dean Hebert are back talking about all things running and this episode goes out to the parents of young runners. There are lots of things that we can do — both right and wrong — to support our kids in their athletic pursuits. Let’s talk about some of them this week.

On this week’s episode:
— What kinds of language can we use with young runners?
— What types of things are well received by teenagers?
— What should we or shouldn’t we say to encourage high-school and teen runners?
— How can we help young people get motivated and develop a life-long affinity with sports?

http://www.vimeo.com/10250351

To visit our video pages with links to all of the episodes in the series, go to:
Season 1 Video Page

Season 2 Video Page

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Training — How much running is too much for teens?

Coach Dean Hebert

Coach Dean Hebert

Coach Dean Hebert joins us today to answer a question from a parent, asking about how much running is too much for teen runners:

My daughter runs on a local cross country team. They start running every morning in the summer, 3 miles to 4 miles a day. In August they begin running 4-6 miles a day with races every weekend. In September they begin running 4-5 miles in the mornings and 3-5 miles in the afternoons. They had a retreat over the weekend and ran 20 miles of practice. Every year by this time of year…. the girls team of about 15 members, ages 13 years old to 18 years old at least 1-2 girls have stress fractures in their legs. Are they being trained too hard? Is this too intense for this age group? Marki

The proof is in the pudding. Though teen runners are more likely to encounter injuries due to their initial lack of conditioning and lack of year round training something like stress fractures at that rate is extreme. In all my years of coaching runners of all ages (including teen girls) I would be exaggerating if the incidence of stress fractures are 1 in 100 (or more) per year. 1-2 out of 15 is indeed excessive.

The rule of thumb is still to increase mileage about 10% per week. So let’s do the math together. If the team runs everyday 3 or 4 miles per day then they are running 15-28 miles per week to start out. By September, they are running as much as 8-10 miles per day, which is 50-70 miles per week! And add to that 20 miles in a single weekend retreat. This would be a lot of miles even for marathon runners, but the question I have is for what purpose are all these miles being run? Their cross-country race is only 5k!
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Track and Field — McCorory sets 400m American record

running advice bug Track and Field    McCorory sets 400m American recordDOHA, Qatar – Hampton University standout Francena McCorory set an American record in the women’s 400 meters Saturday at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.

McCorory won her second-consecutive NCAA Indoor 400m title, running an American record time of 50.54 seconds. Her time eclipsed Diane Dixon’s nineteen-year-old record of 50.64, set back in 1991. It also surpassed Natasha Hastings collegiate record of 50.80 from 2007.

For more information on Francena McCorory and the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships, click here.

Source: USATF
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Races — Runner dies at Rock N Roll Dallas Half-marathon

running advice bug Races    Runner dies at Rock N Roll Dallas Half marathonDallas,TX — According to multiple sources, a runner died today after finishing the Rock N Roll Half-marathon in Dallas. This was the inaugural running of the new Rock N Roll series event. According to USA Today, 32 year-old Mark Austry of Lantana, Texas collapsed at the finish-line and died.

While the number of runners who die in marathons is very small, there have been a number of deaths at races over the last year, including at the Dallas White Rock Marathon, Country Music Marathon, Baltimore Marathon, Manitoba Marathon and the Rock N Roll San Jose Half-marathon all in 2009. In 2009, nearly 468,000 full-marathon finishes were recorded in just the United States alone according to research done by marathonguide.com. The number is substantially larger when adding half-marathon finishes. For comparison, the established rate of sudden death is 0.8 deaths per 100,000 with marathons and the rate is 1.5 per 100,000 finishes in triathlons, according to analysis of more than 2,800 USA Triathlon events by Kevin Harris, M.D., of the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and colleagues.

There are a number of common reasons for runner deaths in marathons. In races run in cool weather, the most common causes are undiagnosed heart conditions or previously undetected heart disease. You can read more about the causes of marathon deaths in our article “Why do marathon runners die during marathons?

We also discussed this topic in an episode of our weekly video show last year. You can watch the episode below.

Season 1 — Episode 26 — The Death Episode from Joe English on Vimeo.

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Training — Tips for developing your kick at the end of a running race

Coach Joe English

Coach Joe English

I’ve had a number of people that have asked me recently how to develop their kick — or closing speed — at the end of a running race. Usually these questions come early in the season when people are running a lot of 5K and 10K races and they’re in more pitched battles than in marathons or half-marathons later in the season. For the sake of this post, I’ll focus on developing closing speed in shorter races.

What we’re talking about here is the following scenario. Let’s say you’re in a 5K road race. You’ve made it through the first 2.5 miles and you’ve found yourself in one of two situations: 1) you’ve just caught up to someone ahead of you and you decide to overtake them, or 2) someone has just caught you and you need to decide whether you are going to challenge them.

These present themselves somewhat differently. In the case of catching someone, you’ll likely have the element of positive energy and adrenaline that may take over and carry you forward. If you’re being passed, you’ll have to first make a split-second decision as to why you’re being passed (are you slowing down or did the person behind you speed up, for example) and defensively decide what to do. In either case, let’s assume that we’re 1/2 mile from the finish-line and we’ve decided to go for it. It will now come down to what you did to prepare and how you play the next 30 seconds!

Those first 30 seconds
Those first 30 seconds are so critical, because you have the ability to blow the whole finish of your race apart in how you react. As we’ll get to in talking about your training, you must have trained at higher speeds to be able to sustain higher speeds over more than a period of a few seconds. If you haven’t done that training and you pick up your pace to a speed that you can’t sustain (let’s call it a ’sprint’ for now), you’re likely going to carry that speed for about 30 seconds or so and then dramatically slow down. In fact, you’ll probably slow down to a speed even slower than you were running before you took off — because you will have plunged yourself into oxygen deficit and will be suddenly panting or find your muscles screaming at you.
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Track and Field — Oregon’s Eaton breaks heptathlon world record at NCAA’s

running advice bug Track and Field    Oregons Eaton breaks heptathlon world record at NCAAsDOHA, Qatar – University of Oregon senior Ashton Eaton set a world record on his way to winning his second-consecutive NCAA title Saturday at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.

Eaton beat 1996 Olympic gold medalist Dan O’Brien’s world record when he scored 6,499 points over two days this weekend. O’Brien’s previous record of 6,476 was set back in 1993 when Eaton was just five years old.

In seven events over two days, Eaton had five personal bests: 60m (6.71), 60mH (7.86), high jump (2.11m/6-11), long jump (7.73m/25-4.5) and 1,000m (2:23.67). He also had marks of 13.12m/43-0.5 in the shot put and 5.10m/16-8.75 in the pole vault.

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Races — New Rock N Roll Dallas Half Marathon Debuts This Weekend

running advice bug Races    New Rock N Roll Dallas Half Marathon Debuts This WeekendDALLAS, TX –- An elite field of Texas athletes will lead approximately 13,000 registered runners at the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas Half Marathon, benefiting Susan G. Komen for the Cure, on Sunday, March 14. The new event has drawn entrants from 47 states and 10 countries.

“It’s going to be a fast course and very scenic,” said Kari Logan, Event Director. “The route provides a good foot tour of the city and we’re looking forward to hosting some of the fastest athletes in Texas and we should see a fantastic race.”

The half-marathon will feature a $12,000 prize purse split evenly between the men and women. The elite race will feature a rematch of November’s thrilling half-marathon in San Antonio where Westly Keating edged out Shadrack Songok in a photo finish. Both runners made their half-marathon debuts with identical times of 1 hour, 5 minutes, 24 seconds after racing the entire 13.1-mile distance stride-for-stride.
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Video – Season 2 – Episode 18 – Marathons and Young Runners

running advice bug Video   Season 2   Episode 18   Marathons and Young RunnersWelcome once again runners. It’s time for another episode with Coaches Joe and Dean. This one goes out to the youngsters out there that might be thinking about running a marathon. Our topic this week is young runners and the marathon.

On this week’s episode:
— How old should you be to run a marathon or half-marathon?
— What distances should high-schoolers be racing?
— How long should the longest runs be for younger runners?

http://www.vimeo.com/10079093

To visit our video pages with links to all of the episodes in the series, go to:
Season 1 Video Page

Season 2 Video Page

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Cross-country — DiCrescenzo, King lead team USA at 2010 NACAC Cross Country Championships

running advice bug Cross country    DiCrescenzo, King lead team USA at 2010 NACAC Cross Country ChampionshipsTOBAGO – Delilah DiCrescenzo (New York, N.Y.) and Max King (Bend, Ore.) each won the individual open women’s and men’s titles to lead Team USA to the respective open team titles Saturday at the sixth annual North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Cross Country Championships at the Mt. Irvine Resort in Tobago.

The NACAC Championships contested races for the open men’s 8 km, open women’s 6 km, junior men’s 6 km and junior women’s 4 km.

King took charge early to win the open men’s 8 km in 23 minutes, 49 seconds, leading the U.S. squad to a perfect score of 10 points. Michael Spence (Ogden, Utah) finished 17 seconds behind King for the runner-up position while Bobby Mack (Raleigh, N.C.) and Thomas Kloos (San Francisco, Calif.) rounded out the scoring places for Team USA, running 24:26 and 24:34 for third and fourth-place respectively. Stephen Furst (Raleigh, N.C.) ran 24:46 for sixth-place overall. Mexico took the runner-up team position with 34 points.
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Racing — Wardian takes 50KM National Title

running advice bug Racing    Wardian takes 50KM National TitleMichael Wardian (Arlington, Va.), won his third straight USA 50 km Championships on Sunday, running 2:55:50 at the Caumsett State Park 50K in Huntington N.Y, according to the USA Track and Field organization. Yolanda Flamino (Hancock, N.H.) won the overall women’s title in 3:34:26.

Annette Bednosky, (Jefferson, N.C.), finished second overall in the women’s race as she captured the masters women’s title in 3:43:48, while Scott Jaime (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) took the masters men’s crown in 3:13:25.

This year’s event was hosted by USATF Long Island and was held for the fifth consecutive year in Caumsett State Historic Park, the fourth largest of Long Island’s 25 state parks. The park boasts 1,500 acres and is located 35 miles from New York City. The USA 50 km Championship will be held at Caumsett for the next two years.

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