• Active.com – for sports you can do and much more
• Runner's World – includes getting started, women's running, kid's running & teen running
• Running Times – an online version of the magazine and more
• Marathon and Beyond – goes the extra step
• New Balance – join club nb for training tips and more
• Training Info – Run Injury Free for Life with Jeff Galloway
• JohnBingham.com – information and wisdom from "The Penguin"
• Midwest Sports Events – triathlons and more
• AchillesTendon.com – information regarding these injuries
• UW Health Runners Clinic – Dr. Bryan Heiderscheit
• MarathonPlanet.com – online shopping mall for marathon runners
• Gatorade Sports Science Institute - Sharing knowledge on sports nutrition & exercise science
• UW-Madison Marathon Course - Online Course - Marathon Preparation - Jan 16 - mid-May, 2008
• Road ID - Source for events here and throughout the country

Tips to Keep You Running Strong in 2008

Get valuable personal advice on running, injuries, exercise and diet.  If you have a question, send it to us and we will get you personal advice from an experienced PaceSetters member.  
Email: Steve@PaceSettersRun.org

I do get a lot of questions about running a marathon in every state and DC.  As of the end of 2007, I have completed 29 States and Washington DC.  That leaves 21 States remaining.  Click on the map to see my progress.

2008 marathons to date: Eagle River WI, Wilmington DE, Buffalo NY, Casper WY, Bellevue WA 

Next up: Grizzly Marathon, Choteau MT

Scheduled: Oct 4 Bristol NH, Oct 5 Portland ME, Oct 19 Louisville KY, Nov 15 Richmond VA, Dec 7 Las Vegas NV

There are a couple of clubs that you might be interested in exploring... the only requirement to joining is to have finished at least 10 states.

50 States Marathon Club 

50&DC Marathon Group U.S.A.

In addition to doing 50 States and Washington DC, I am also attempting to finish the 10 major marathons in the State of Wisconsin.  Progress so far:

Tip for Mental Training

Keep a training diary. Record not only your workouts but also your day-to-day mood.

Drive to a state park or county park once a month to run in a new and picturesque area.

When trying to improve your running form, it helps to watch the best runners in action.  Try and visualize yourself running with similar form the next time you run.

When you are running hills, imagine that a thick towrope is attached to your chest and is pulling you up the incline at a firm, steady effort.

If you run the same loop day after day, resist the temptation to improve your time.  That can lead to frustration and injury.  Instead, run the course backward for a few weeks and leave your watch at home.

Leave something in your "mental" bank.  It's good to finish a hard training session thinking: "I could do one more repeat mile...."  or "I could do that hill again...."

Form multi-tiered goal strategies.  Have a "doable" goal, a "challenging midrange" goal, and a "dream" goal that seems out of reach.

Tip for the Experienced

Every 5 years, wipe the slate clean in terms of your "personal bests." That is, have a lifetime list for your 5K PR, but also for the 40-45 years, the 45-50 years…and so on.

Strength training becomes even more important for older runners.  To hang on to muscle mass, schedule 2 or 3 strength training sessions per week, even if it's just 20 minutes per workout.

As we age, injuries take longer to heal.  Pay more attention to the little aches and pains... the ones you might have trained through at age 22... and take 48 hours off.

Don't listen to "the voice" - the one that say's, "You're too old for this kind of exercise."  (Ed. note - After all, I did not start running until I was 52 and ran a marathon that year.)

Older runners have to work at hanging on to their natural speed.  Try adding a half-dozen 100 meter strides at a fast, but controlled pace at the end of a 30 minute easy run.

It's a fun challenge to see how fast you can run a mile.  Some track meets have special "master miles" you can enter.

Schedule more rest days.  You'll be surprised how well you can race on just four or five days of training per week.

Tip for Young Runners

Different sports are fine for young runners. Soccer and track are good combinations, as is cross country. Sometimes it's a good idea not to specialize until your high school or even college.

It's fun to participate in local road races, but young runners (16 or under) should probably stick to races that are shorter than 10K.  Avoid marathons until you are older and more experienced.

Relay races are fun and help cement team relationships.

Double-knot your running shoes on race day.

If you have a competition in the afternoon, make sure you eat a good lunch and drink lots of water throughout the day.

Training Tip

Don't wait until the end of the day to run. Studies show that both mental and physical reaction time is slowed by as much as 50 percent after subjects are awake 17 to 19 hours - the number of waking hours in a normal day for many people.

To avoid muscle cramping during your long runs, imbibe a sports drink, which supplies both carbohydrates and electrolytes.  Drink about 6 ounces every 15 to 20 minutes.

You don't have to pound the miles every day.  Logging some so-called "junk miles" can make you a much stronger runner, because slow miles build strength and endurance as well as burn the same number of calories as hard miles.  They give you time to relax and enjoy your run too.

If you're out on a run and your shoulders begin to feel tight, unclench your fists.  Clenching your fists causes tightness all through your arms and can wear you down on your run.  To fix this, pretend you are grabbing for apples or oranges.  This will help keep your fists relaxed.

Pack a small kit to bring to races, just in case promoter-supplied goods run low.  Bring spare safety pins to secure your race number, a bit of toilet paper, a bottle of water, and an energy bar.  You might not need them, but you'll be glad you thought of them if you do.

To avoid a treadmill induced injury, be sure the belt on your machine has been at least eight square feet of surface area.  The smaller the running area, the more likely you are to fall off.

UW-Health Runner's Clinic at UW-Madison  UW Health Runners Clinic – Dr. Bryan Heiderscheit

Follow these 6 easy steps to improve your running form, increase efficiency and fight off injury.
By Matt Fitzgerald

Most runners believe that, for better or worse, the stride they’re born with is the stride they are stuck with. While its true some are blessed with enviable running form, an imperfect stride is no reason to throw in the towel in favor of lawn bowling or channel surfing. With a little knowledge and discipline, a variety of small but critical adjustments can improve your running, helping to increase your efficiency and reduce your risk of injury. The foundation for most improvements in running form is cross training for core strength and dynamic flexibility. While this is a critical form of run training, there are also specific technique improvements you can make. To make these stick you’ll need to take the same approach golfers take to improve their stroke: conscious manipulation and repetition. It’s a two-step process. Step one is to select one specific alteration to your stride that makes it either more efficient or more stable, or both. Step two is to consciously recreate this new pattern with every stride of every run until its second nature. Allow at least a couple of weeks for this to happen. Then you can make another change. Here are 6 basic technique changes to work on:

1. Reduce your stance pause. One of the key traits of the most efficient runners is the lack, or near total lack, of any pause during the stance phase of the stride. The stance phase is when the foot is flat or almost flat on the ground, between the foot strike and toe-off phases. To reduce your stance pause, begin to retract your leg just before your foot lands with each stride, so that you’re already thrusting backward when your foot makes contact.

2. Run tall. Many runners tend to collapse at the hips and pelvis when their foot comes in contact with the ground. This wastes energy and can lead to a variety of overuse injuries. To overcome this type of collapsing, concentrate on running more erectly. Imagine wires attached to your shoulders and pulling gently upward. Thrust your hips forward just a bit and gently engage the muscles of your lower abdomen to keep your pelvis neutral.

3. Relax your upper body. Most runners run with unnecessary tension in their arms, shoulders, neck, and even their faces, especially when running hard. All of this tension equals wasted energy. Practice running with loose fingers, forearms and upper arms, and with no hunch in your shoulders and a relaxed facial expression.

4. Land on the mid-foot. Landing heel first is like driving with the emergency brake engaged. Not every heel striker can transform himself or herself into a mid-foot striker, but many can. A good way to begin the process is to practice running with shorter strides. Use the same technique of retracting your forward leg before foot impact described in tip number one.

5. Use your big toe. The metatarso-phalangeal (MP) joint at the ball of the foot was designed to actively plantar flex (flex downward) during push-off. The rigidity of running shoes inhibits the MP joint from actively plantar flexing, reducing the power of your stride. You can get some of it back by consciously pushing off the ground with your big toe, beginning at its origin at the mid-foot-forefoot juncture.

6. Bounce less. Runners need to push themselves upward slightly in order to float between footstrikes. By becoming airborne you can take longer strides than you do when you walk. In fact, faster runners spend more time airborne and less time in contact with the ground than slower runners. As much as possible you want to float forward not upward, and, indeed, faster runners tend to keep the top of their head closer to the ground (relative to their height) than slower runners. Practice this scooting style of running.

For more information about how to improve your running form, check out Matt Fitzgeralds latest book, Runners World Guide to Cross-Training (Rodale, 2004).

2008 Midwest Marathons