Wisdom From Winners

Gertrude Stein once famously said that the answer is there ain’t no answer.

Science Wednesday

At every gym, there is a dark and mysterious place. There are heavy things that can crash and bang, as well as easily hurt someone. I’ve cast surreptitious glances toward this world, even tried to step inside, but it is beyond my comfort zone. I have no problem throwing on bright yellow clothing and running [...]

The Mile High Club: Running at Altitude

Are you a member of the Mile High Club? No, not the one that involves airplanes and sardine can acrobatics. I’m talking about running

The View From the Front

My lovely wife signed up for a 10-week half-marathon training program and I decided to join her. The program is organized by the local Fleet Feet store and primarily

Heart Rate Monitors: Do They Make a Difference?

Heart rate monitors have become very popular running aides in recent years, but do we know how to get the best out of them? You can buy them in all sorts of configurations, from fairly cheap ones (I got mine for about $35) to ones costing several hundred dollars, which claim do everything bar the [...]

Flexibility: Not Just for Muscles

You’ve heard it a million times. “Don’t try anything new on race day.” It’s good advice, especially for those tempted to wear the new running shoes or apparel they bought at the race expo the day before.
I follow it religiously. Every morning I get up at 4 a.m., have my wife drive me to the [...]

What I Learned on My Running Vacation

OK, my vacation from running.
I was sidelined from all forms of aerobic exercise a while ago, for about 2 1/2 months. During that time I volunteered with my local running group’s 10K program. My job was to show up, collect and keep track of paperwork, and take photos of the runners coming and going. But [...]

Running on the Run

One of the things that a lot of us struggle with is continuing to stick to a training program despite having to travel for work or
pleasure. Having spent some time on the road recently, here’s a couple of suggestions for racking up both frequent flier miles and
training miles:

Pack it in. You can’t run if [...]

Book Review: ‘Run Less, Run Faster’

Article Summary: A review of the Runner’s World book “Run Less, Run Faster” by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss

Rating:
I first heard about Run Less, Run Faster and the FIRST training program in a brief Runner’s World article in early 2007 and was intrigued by the training concepts presented. The article discussed a [...]

A Letter to Mrs. McCarthy*-Part Three

This is a three-part essay I composed for an acquaintance who had met me for lunch recently to discuss “how to run.” Over the next few days after the lunch, I sent her the attached. Read part one here and part two here.
Dear Mrs. McCarthy,
The concept of training properly seems to alternate between the intuitive [...]

Adventure Racing, Collegiate Style

This week we bring you something different—Adventure Racing!
Adventure Racing has it all—Trail Running, Mountain Biking and Kayaking in this Collegiate Championship.
No matter what your discipline, life is an adventure—go race!

There’s No Easy Way Out

If you want to train for a marathon there is but one way to do it—train! It doesn’t matter if you are going for a sub-six-hour finish or a Boston Qualifier; you still have to train and it’s hard work and it can hurt but when you get to the end of that [...]

QuickLink: Trail Runner VO2 Max Test

We often hear about V02 Max but rarely get a glimpse at a real life accounting of the outcome of such a test. Now we have one. Head on over to Scott Dunlap’s Trail Runner’s Blog for a nice summary of his recent V02 Max test.

Yet Another Reason to Use a Heart Rate Monitor

This is a true story. It is not intended to scare people, but to make people aware of the safety factor that wearing a heart rate monitor while training can provide.
A number of years ago I was doing pick-ups (2-minute surges with a 1-minute recovery) with a masters age triathlete. We were both wearing our [...]

You Gotta Have Heart, Miles & Miles & Miles of Heart!

This is part four in a series about heart rate training: Part one is about Karnoven Heart Rate Training Zones/Targets, part two is about your Resting Heart Rate and part three deals with Maximum Heart Rate.
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I have an admission to make. I am fantastically craptacular at knowing how fast I should be running for any [...]

Use the Karvonen Method to Determine Your Heart Rate Training Targets

The basis for how you determine your target heart rate may not be exactly correct.
In the past when I figured out the heart rates I should be training at, I used training zones like the ones listed below and described by Sports Coach Brian Mac:
The Energy Efficient/Recovery Zone - 60% to 70%
The Aerobic Zone [...]