EDITOR’S NOTE

IN THE CLIMACTIC SCENE of the 1993 movie “The Sandlot,” just

before the athletic hero decides to take on the dog by simply outsprinting
him, he reveals his “secret weapon: shoes guaranteed to make a kid run
faster and jump higher.” The shoes in question turn out to be PF Flyers. In
an identical scene in the 2005 sequel, the shoes are Nikes. Whatever the
shoes, the scene highlights the belief that a pair of shoes can make you run
faster and jump higher. It’s a belief nearly all runners have held on to since
they were kids. How often have you pored over the shoe guide, lusting for
the pair that would transform you into the runner you know you can be?

Runners aren’t alone in this belief that a pur-
chase will make them better: middle-aged
men think a Porsche will keep them younger
and sexier, managers are convinced that
the latest tech tool or software will fi nally
get them organized. Advertising thrives on
these beliefs and constantly feeds them. And,
in truth, the right things can improve your
looks, your management skills and more
— and the right shoes can make running
more comfortable and help you run faster.
But shoes, like things in other spheres of life,
can only enable what you already have the
capacity to do; they cannot, by magic, make
you what you are not.
Not only is there no magic, but increas-
ingly we’re learning that shoes have what
EDWARD TENNER in Why Things Bite Back
calls “revenge effects,” defi ned as “the ironic
Kids en route to school outside Iten, Kenya.
unintended consequences of mechanical,
chemical, biological, and medical ingenuity.” in turn leads to slower running and more
The revenge effect of shoes is that, in wearing injuries. That is the argument of the min-
models that are designed to alleviate stride imalist movement, which we examine in
and strength weaknesses, we encourage this issue. The extremists say that shoes are
those weaknesses and have lost the ability a conspiracy foisted on us by shoe companies
to run with our most effective stride, which and we should toss them out and go bare-
foot today. The reactionaries say that shoes

CONTRIBUTORS
are what allow the ungifted masses to run at
all. As in most of life, a middle path seems
to be the wisest.
In full disclosure, I will admit that I’m
a minimalist, although not a raving bare-
footer. I’ve long been a fan of lighter shoes
and intrigued by tales of barefoot kids in
Africa, but my minimalist moment came
when I interviewed Australian BENITA
JOHNSON after her victory at the world cross

Ben Addonizio
country championships in 2004 and she told
me that she rarely wore shoes up until she
was 13 years old. It struck me as more than a

Trinity Mother Frances Health System

P ETE MAGILL is the oldest American to
break 15:00 for 5K, with a 1 4:49 at age 47,
and author of the popular blog Younger Legs
S enior writer CATHY FIESELER is the
for Older Runners. He coaches the Compex
Racing club, which boasts 11 masters runners
who’ve broken 16:00 for 5K. A resident of South
Pasadena, Calif., Magill was a track coach at local
director of sports medicine for Trinity
Mother Frances Health System in Tyler, Texas,
team physician for the University of Texas in
Tyler, serves on the board of directors of the
American Medical Athletic Association and the
Cancer Foundation for Life and is an instructor
coincidence that one of the few Westerners
to triumph in the age of Africans also devel-
oped her stride barefoot. Two years later, I
visited Kenya and saw fi rst-hand the relaxed
barefoot stride of kids running to school and
at play, and was even more convinced that
this is the form we are all meant to run with
101° West Photography

high schools in his 20s, where he first devel-
oped the 5K training program that he details
for us starting on p. 54. “I was an avid reader of
every running book I could get my hands on —
for Team in Training coaches. A lifelong runner
and experienced ultramarathoner, Fieseler says,
“Shin pain in runners is commonly attributed to
‘shin splints’ and runners are advised to tough
— if we can develop the strength and fi nd the
proper conditions to do so. I believe those
proper conditions often include shoes, but
shoes that, like any good technology, dis-
Clockwise from Top Right:

Coe, Costill, Lydiard, Horwill, you name it,” says
Magill. “I experimented on my high school ath-
letes, not always with great success — sorry
guys and gals! Finally, I decided to throw out
everything except those workouts that I under-
stood 100 percent. That narrowed it down to just
a few — but a few that work.” Besides coach-
ing and running, Magill has owned a Caribbean
nightclub, sold screenplays in Hollywood, run
a candy company, and worked for a legal firm.
it out. Pain develops for a reason; determining
the cause of the problem is the most important
factor in recovery. I have seen too many run-
ners try to tough it out with stress fractures and
other injuries that require an accurate diagnosis
and appropriate treatment to avoid potentially
severe consequences.” Fieseler presents a thor-
ough analysis of what causes the variety of shin
pains and how to deal with them in this month’s
Owner’s Manual.
appear and help you do what you do best
— the type of shoes highlighted in our spring
shoe guide. Once we stop expecting shoes
to do magic, we can stop blaming them
for evils as well, and get on with becoming
better runners. •
JONATHAN BEVERLY
Editor-in-Chief

06 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 SHORTS MEB SETS SIGHTS ON BOSTON • SHOWCA SE R ACE
Stronger,
BY JIM GERWECK
Rejuvenated
MEB
MEB KEFLEZIGHI
SETS SIGHTS
ON BOSTON
FOR MEB KEFLEZIGHI, becoming the first American man to win the
ING New York City Marathon in 28 years last November was another peak
in the career of a runner who has won Olympic silver and set the American
10,000m record. And the view from the top, which included reading the
Top 10 list on “Late Night With David Letterman” and riding in the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day parade with Miss America, had to be particularly sweet
given the valley he’d been through much of the previous two years.
in 2008 (fi nishing 13t in the Olympic trials
at 10,000m) and, at 33, some figured his best
racing was behind him.
But he found the fountain of youth last year
and won national titles at 7 miles, the half
marathon and cross country, and set PRs in
the marathon (2:09:15 at London) and half
marathon (1:01:01 at San Jose Rock ‘n’ Roll).
Heading into the New York City Marathon
(which doubled as a U.S. championship race),
he was as fit as he’d ever been.
“It was defi nitely the best buildup I’ve ever
had for a major race,” he says. “Every other
time I’d always wished I’d had a couple more
weeks or had done a few more tempo runs or
something. But going into New York I knew I
had covered all the bases. I was ready.”
While Keflezighi works just as hard as
any top marathoner, the biggest change in
his training after the trials disaster was an
increased emphasis on strength, flexibility,
form and range of motion. “From January
to March of 2008 I’d be getting therapy and
doing strengthening at 7 a.m. every day,”
he says. “When I started, I couldn’t even lift
Can Keflezighi pull off a NYC/Boston double? three pounds with my legs.”
In addition, Keflezighi began doing drills
On those same Central Park roads where he more regularly, under the guidance of DAN
pulled away from four-time Boston winner PFAFF, perhaps the foremost biomechani-
ROBERT CHERUIYOT to secure his historic cal guru in the U.S., at the USOC Training
win, Keflezighi had experienced one of the Center in Chula Vista, Calif. “I’m a good lis-
worst days of his running life, placing eighth tener,” Keflezighi says. “When someone gives
in the Olympic trials marathon while run- me good advice, I’ll take it.”
ning with what was later diagnosed as a According to Keflezighi, “running an hour
stress fracture of his hip. He had an off year and a half every day is the easy part. It’s the
14 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010
other non-running stuff you do that makes
the difference.” When training in Mammoth,
Keflezighi, RYAN HALL and the rest of the
crew are famous for taking long post-run
soaks in the frigid mountain streams. Such
devotion to the ancillary activities of run-
ning are often the difference between staying
healthy and being injured, he believes.
“When you’re training at a high level like we
are, you’re always pushing the envelope,” he
says. “Sometimes you fi nd yourself going
over the edge, and you’ve got to pull back
and recover.”
Besides his appearances on TV, in parades,
and at a New York Knicks game, Keflezighi’s
two-month marathon tour took him to
Florida and San Diego, where he was hon-
ored at halftime of a football game at his old
high school. “Th at was really an honor, as
special as any of the other things,” he says.
Finally returning to Mammoth over the
winter holidays, Keflezighi eased back into
training in preparation for his next mara-
thon, a rematch with Hall in Boston, where
both have fi nished third, Hall last year and
Keflezighi in 2006.
“I really hope Ryan and I go 1–2 at Boston,”
says Kef lezighi, who turns 35 on May 5.
“Whichever one wins, I know the other will
be happy for him.” •
SHOWCASE RACE
DON’T RUN
BOSTON 50K
Ô Didn’t get in to Boston this year? Or are you
looking for something different to break up the
routine of running in from Hopkinton again? Either
way, the aptly named Don’t Run Boston 50K on
April 18 in Milton, Mass., is a pretty good alternative.
Now in its 14th year, it’s run the morning before
the Boston Marathon on on
the winding and hilly
trails at the Blue
Hills Reservation.
(Beware: there’s
more than 5,000
feet of total vertical gain.)
It’s organized by the Trail Animals Running Club,
a small, local group of hard-core trail runners that
operate by the “keep it simple, stupid” philosophy
and accordingly (and refreshingly) don’t charge for
races or provide aid stations. Expect a rigorous and
Kazu Eguchi/PhotoRun
rugged self-supported training run with maybe
two dozen runners,not to mention sore legs while
you watch that other notable — and consider-
ably larger — race the next day. For more, visit
trailanimals.com
Photo:
 SHORTS NUTRITION AND MAR ATHON HISTORY • ALL-TIME U.S. MAR ATHON LIST

FOOTSTEPS BY ROGER ROBINSON

THE LIST

STEAK, CHAMPAGNE ALL-TIME

and
Apple Butter HOW WRONG NUTRITION
CHANGED MARATHON HISTORY
FOR YOUR NEXT MARATHON, try this: no water for 24 hours before
or during the race. Oodles of apple butter the night before. One hour before,
eat a fat 2-inch steak. If it’s hot, drink champagne at mile 15. At 20 miles,
eat a meal of fruit.
But the most famous example of his-
tory being made by mistaken nutritional
beliefs was the heart-rending collapse of
England’s JIM PETERS in the hot-weather
1954 Commonwealth Games marathon in
Vancouver, when the heat-exhausted world
record-holder reeled and sagged helplessly
halfway around the stadium, finally fall-
ing unconscious 200 yards from the tape. I
learned recently from sources close to Peters
at that time that he believed you should take
in no water for 24 hours, and none during the
U.S. MEN’S
MARATHONERS
P
erhaps the most notable name miss-
ing from this list is FRANK SHORTER,
who won Olympic gold in 1972 and
silver in 1976 but whose fastest mara-
thon was 2:10:30. Also absent are DATHAN
RITZENHEIN, who was ninth at the 2008
Olympics and ran a 2:10:00 PR at London last
spring but has yet to crack into the top 20;
and ALAN CULPEPPER, who ran a debut of
2:09:41 in 2002 at Chicago and later won the
2004 Olympic trials marathon and placed 12th
at the Olympics yet never ran faster over 26.2
miles. But forget the notion that you can’t run
a fast time on Boston’s hilly, downhill course:
Six of America’s best set their PRs there. Can
RYAN HALL or MEB KEFLEZIGHI better their
marks there on April 19?
01 KHALID KHANNOUCHI*
2:05:38, London, 2002

Dehydration hamstrung Jim Peters in 1954.

Or better, be thankful you are running in the
race, and he aggravated that folly by chew-
ing salt tablets. It was a common belief. When 02 RYAN HALL
2:06:17, London, 2008
fi rst era to understand nutritional science.the Princeton Packet interviewed the great
Those aforementioned nutritional follies
all affected marathon history. In the 1908
1930s miler BILL BONTHRON in 1982, he told
them “fried foods were forbidden, as were
03 BOB KEMPAINEN
2:08:47, Boston, 1994

Olympic marathon in London, Canadian bananas, and any water for 24 hours before
04 ALBERTO SALAZAR

Victor Sailer/PhotoRun
TOM LONGBOAT, the 1907 Boston Marathon a race.” Amazing. 2:08:52, Boston, 1982
winner, was closing on the leaders, but at 15 Lacking our knowledge, and our access
miles was given champagne to quench his to varied food sources, earlier ages took
thirst and was out of the race two miles later.
an approach to nutrition that was derived 05 DICK BEARDSLEY
2:08:54, Boston, 1982

Allsport Hulton/Archive
In the 1904 Olympic marathon in St. Louis, more from instinct than science. Water
unknown FELIX CARVAJAL (Cuba) looked seems weakening, steak seems fortifying.
a likely winner at 20 miles but stopped to eat
The ancient Greeks used to award cattle as
06 ABDI ABDIRAHMAN
2:08:56, Chicago, 2006

a bowl of fresh fruit, and suffered convulsive

stomach cramps. He fi nished fourth.
A victory at the Boston Marathon would
race prizes, a custom that lasted into England
in the 1700s, when one rural games staged
an annual women’s race called “Lady of
07 GREG MEYER
2:09:00, Boston, 1983
From Left:

have been the highlight of the life of JOCK

SEMPLE, the impoverished Scot who loved
the Lamb.” The earliest training man-
ual of the modern era, WALTER THOM’s 08 MEB KEFLEZIGHI
FLEZIGHI
2:09:15, New York, 2009

that race with such passion. But in 1934, “Pedestrianism” (1813), again advocates
when he was one of the favorites, he fol-
lowed the wisdom of the time, and ate a fat
“animal diet” but no vegetables, “as they
are watery.”
09 BILL RODGERS
DGERS
2:09:28, Boston, 1979

2-inch steak an hour before the start, to “for-

tify” himself. By Commonwealth Avenue, he
was crippled by nausea, his dream in tatters.
Now we know better. In the marathon,
water is strength. Peters would almost cer-
tainly have capped his career with a gold
10 RON TABBBB
2:09:31,Boston,
Boston, 1983
*Khannouchi owns five of the
AMBY BURFOOT lost a fi rst chance at vic-medal in 1954 if he’d taken water. Instead, seven fastest marathon
athon times
tory in Boston in 1967 by succumbing to a he never ran again, one of the last victims of in U.S. history, while
ile Hall owns
primitive mistaken beliefs about nutrition. •
craving for lashings of apple butter at dinner the other two.
the night before. He spent much of the race
making pit-stops. Unlike Semple, Burfoot ROGER ROBINSON’s Footsteps column chron-
won the following year. icles great moments in distance running.

18 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010 Ryan Hall

 THE RUNNER’S WITNESS BY TAMAR A RICE L AVE

Being in the
Moment
For an answer, I turned to Harvard women’s basketball coach
Kathy Delaney-Smith, who led her underdog team to defeat Stanford
at the 1998 NCAA tournament, the only time that a No. 16 seed has
ever beaten a No. 1 seed. Kathy’s success stems from her “act as if”
philosophy, that you should always act as if you already are what you
want to become. “Act as if you’re not tired. Act as if you’re confident.
Act as if you’re the best player because if you can do that, then you
SHUT DOWN YOUR BRAIN can get really and truly closer to it,” she told me. To that end, Kathy
AND JUST BELIEVE creates a positive atmosphere by making practices challenging
but fun and focusing on players’ body language and posture. She
prohibits players from yawning at practice and requires them to
A FEW YEARS BACK, I was get up within three seconds after falling. Kathy knows it hurts, but
talking with Joaquim Cruz about she wants them to get past the pain. “We’re all too busy verbalizing
his performance in the 800m at and saying what’s wrong when we could be stronger and better if
the 1984 Olympics. For those of you we envision what’s right.”
who don’t know, Joaquim won gold
in Los Angeles and then silver four
years later in Seoul. It’s not often How do you develop that
that I get the chance to talk with an
Olympic champion, so I was eager to kind of faith in yourself?
hear details about the race. “When
did you know that you were going to Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills embraced a similar philoso-
win?” I asked about that August race. phy when he shocked the world by winning the 10,000m at the 1964
“February,” Joaquim responded. Olympics. Mills entered the race with a qualifying time that was
almost a minute slower than that of Australian Ron Clarke; yet he
February! I was stunned. I had expected managed to convince himself that he could win by using “a form
Joaquim to discuss the fi nal moments of the of self-hypnosis” in which for four years he “visualized [winning]
race, but he believed he would win months dozens of times a day.” When the moment arrived, Mills was ready.
in advance. What amazing focus and confi- In third place with less than 200 meters to go, Mills directed all of
dence! How do you develop that kind of faith his energy toward winning. “Coming off the fi nal curve, I could
in yourself? not hear any noise at all, I could hear the throbbing of my heart; I
could hear the heartbeat pounding. I could feel a tingling sensa-
tion creeping down my forearm, my vision coming and going, but
my thoughts changing from ‘One more try, one more try,’ to ‘I can
win, I can win, I can win.’”
Athletes like Cruz and Mills excelled in part because they were
able to stay firmly planted in the present. Richard D. Ginsburg, Ph.D.,
co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Performance
and Character Excellence in Sports Institute of Sport Psychology
and a faculty member of the Harvard Medical School, explained
to me, “The fundamental part of sports psychology is being in the
moment. If you can be in your body, focused and in the moment,
you can do everything to your best. You can’t think about what hap-
pened or what will happen, but you have to focus on this stride and
on this breath. Athletes who get ahead of themselves can get para-
lyzed with anxiety and stress.”
Confidence. The kind that let Joaquim Cruz know he was going
Charles Bloom

to win Olympic gold months in advance. The type that empowered

a bunch of Harvard underdogs to topple mighty Stanford. The sort
that motivated Billy Mills to PR by more than 50 seconds, setting
Illustration:

an Olympic record at the time. We can all foster this kind of con-
fidence; we just need to shut off our brains and practice believing
in ourselves. •

TAMARA RICE LAVE, Ph.D., represented the

U.S. in the marathon at the 2003 IAAF World
Track and Field Championships in Paris.

20 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 PERFORMANCE PAGE BY GREG MCMILL AN, M.S.

FiveEffective
Habits
a bit more recovery to your plan. Progress
things as your body adapts but think con-
stantly about balance so that you can have

The successful training. Successful workouts

lead to greater and greater motivation, which

of Highly Runners leads to better and better racing.

Focus on
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR ALL LEVELS OF RUNNERS 03 Consistency
Once you fi nd your sweet spot, you can train
I’M A LUCKY COACH. Through my online coaching, I get to work with consistently week after week, month after
beginning runners just coming off the couch as well as competitive run- month and year after year. This “stacking” of
ners aiming for age-group victories or trying to qualify for Boston. And successful training week on top of successful
through my work with our Olympic training team in Flagstaff, I get to help training week will lead you to your full poten-
Olympians and world championship-level athletes. tial. Injuries and illness from overtraining
cut short your improvement so structure your
What’s most interesting is not the differences success. He was accomplishing workouts training with the long-term in mind.
between the various groups of athletes but that he never dreamed he could do. He was We have a saying in our Olympic train-
rather the similarities. Over my 20 years of recovering quickly and was not overtrained. ing team that you must train consistently for
coaching, I’ve noticed five key traits of suc- But when we talked, his attitude was, “Yeah, two straight years — no unscheduled inter-
cessful distance runners. These traits apply but …” We’d talk about the hundred great ruptions due to injury or illness — to even
to everyone — beginners just joining the workouts he’d done but he’d follow that begin to see how good you can be. Th is real-
sport; competitive folks who balance work, with, “Yeah, but that tempo run last month ity applies to all of us. A year of consistent
family and other commitments with their really went poorly. I don’t know if I’m in great running is more beneficial than a few stel-
running goals; and Olympic-level athletes. shape.” Clearly, this “dweller” will never lar weeks of training.
achieve what the national champion did, and
Don’t it has nothing to do with training. It has to Be
01 Dwell
Every long-time runner has experienced
do with mindset. 04 Tenacious
Successful runners are tenacious (some of
this phenomenon: week after week of great Find Your Sweet our loved ones would even say stubborn).
runs suddenly interrupted by one of the 02 Spot in Training Success is about keeping on keeping on. Put
worst workouts in years, for no logical rea- Successful training is about finding the one foot in front of the other for long enough
son. I’ve found that the most successful balance in your stress/rest cycle. Training and the fi nish line will come. You have the
athletes don’t dwell on the bad days; instead, (and much of life) is stressful. It depletes ability to go to greater heights than you ever
they’re eager to move on to the next day’s your body’s energy stores. It stresses your dreamed of — just by sticking with it. A little
training or upcoming race. Successful run- muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones. In stubbornness can be a great attribute when
ners know that bad days don’t last and aren’t short, training tears down your body. With you’re in the middle miles of a marathon.
a true indication of their fitness. Bad days rest, however, your body builds back stronger Foster tenaciousness in small ways every day.
are just a freak occurrence that must be tol- than before. The trick is to find the train-
erated on the path to your goals. Running is ing rhythm where your stress/rest cycle is Build Your
hard but fun, and that short statement should in balance — where you’re having positive 05 Confidence Constantly
tell us that there will be good days and there workout followed by positive workout, suc- The most important key to success is confi-
will be bad days. Live through both. Neither cessful week followed by successful week. In dence. You know the workouts and training
lasts forever. fact, if we’re smart (and this is what I do as a rhythm that give you confidence. It’s a
A personal example: I work with two out- coach), we set up the training from the out- good idea to include these types of training
standing athletes who took their fitness set to be positive. throughout your year to keep you motivated.
to new levels in 2009. One went on to win Th is can be tricky due to the unpredict- It’s also a good idea to put confidence-build-
a national championship. The other never ability of our other life stresses (work, family, ing workouts close to your key races. The last
raced to his potential. The difference was etc.), but if you fi nd a training routine where six weeks before a key race like a marathon
in their outlook. The national champion nearly every one of your workouts and races should include all your favorite, confi-
endured a few bad workouts and races but is positive then you’re in balance. If you fi nd dence-building workouts. Don’t just follow a
let them slide. The underperformer also that you frequently have poor/unpredict- training plan because that’s what’s “accepted
endured a few bad workouts and races but able workouts or races, or are often injured, wisdom.” Instead, tinker with your training
couldn’t get past them. He was training then your training (or life) stress is too great. and add as well as omit workouts that just
with other athletes who were having great You are under-recovering and should add don’t work for you. •

GREG MCMILLAN is an exercise physiologist

and USATF-certified coach who helps runners
via his Web site mcmillanrunning.com.

22 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 OWNER’S MANUAL
BY MACKENZIE LOBBY
DYNAMIC
Returns
THE BENEFITS OF
SWITCHING FROM STATIC TO
DYNAMIC STRETCHING
JIMMY FALLON ONCE SAID, “Don’t keep reach-
ing for the stars because you’ll just look like an idiot
stretching that way for no reason.” Turns out he may
be right. New research indicates that the flexibility that
is a byproduct of pre-run static stretching may be a bio-
mechanical factor that hurts running economy, which is
a measure of your overall efficiency. Do something to
worsen your running economy before a race or workout,
and you’re going to go slower. That’s why growing num-
bers of elites have eliminated static stretching before
their most important runs and replaced it with a series
of dynamic stretching exercises.
A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning
Research in 2009 explains the logic behind the switch. Researchers
at Nebraska Wesleyan University enlisted male and female colle-
giate distance runners to complete sit-and-reach tests to measure
flexibility, and then put them on a treadmill to determine running
economy. The result: An increase in hamstring flexibility generally
correlated with a decrease in running economy.
As the researchers wrote, “[T]he less flexible distance runners
tended to be more economical, possibly as a result of the energy-effi-
cient function of the elastic components in the muscles and tendons
during the stretch-shortening cycle.”
RALPH REIFF, a licensed athletic trainer and director of sports
Peter Baker Studios
performance for St. Vincent Hospital of Indianapolis, has worked
with collegiate and elite runners for many years. He explains that
static stretching isn’t all bad, but from a performance perspective,
“static stretching causes an inhibition or a breakdown of the excitabil-
Photo:
ity of the muscle tissue.” The immediate effects from static stretching
Mammoth Track Club members warm up dynamically.
DYNAMIC STRETCHING
actually include decreased muscle function.
“To get a good static stretch you are asking the body on a subconscious
level to relax,” says Reiff. “From a muscle-recruitment standpoint, you
don’t want to turn the muscles off in a relaxed state prior to asking them
to perform. The elastic energy of a tighter muscle is going to have more
recoil and power than a heavily stretched muscle.
The caveat is that simply eliminating static stretching won’t nec-
essarily increase performance and decrease injury. Th is is where
dynamic stretching comes in. Rather than standing in one place
and forcing your muscles to stretch, this type of stretching trains
the muscles to warm up and fi re the way you want them to through
a series of dynamic movements.
Under the tutelage of Reiff, Team Indiana Elite, a post-collegiate
program out of Bloomington, Ind., has adopted a regular dynamic
stretching routine. Speaking about a set of dynamic stretches and
pre-activation drills developed by Reiff, Team Indiana’s STEPHEN
HAAS says, “I think it has really helped. I’ve done more mileage and
better workouts than I ever did in college and I’ve somehow been
able to stay healthy.”
Overall, the 13-member team has had no major injuries since
forming three years ago. Haas, a 2:18 marathoner and 130-mile-a-
week runner says, “It’s all about getting every muscle in the lower
leg, upper leg, hip, butt, and glutes activated.” The team performs
dynamic stretches before every run and race.
Team Indiana’s coach, ROBERT CHAPMAN, explains, “Basically,
by engaging in these activities, we can neurologically activate spe-
cific muscle groups prior to running, which helps us minimize
injuries and perform better in the subsequent workout.” As seen
with Chapman’s runners, dynamic stretching can assist in better-
ing performance, while simultaneously reducing injuries.
On a physiological level, Reiff also describes dynamic stretching as
a way to stimulate the neurological system, which in turn activates
the muscles. Th is, he explains, makes them more resilient to exter-
nal stimulus, which leads to a quicker neurological response, “so
the muscle is standing ready when called upon to run faster, jump
higher, and do what the athlete wants it to do.”
A DYNAMIC APPROACH
“The dynamic warm-up piece is truly like turning a light switch on
before walking into a dark room,” contends Reiff. Dynamic stretches
that include quick-paced movements like bounding, jumping, and sin-
gle-leg swings help to fire up the muscles that you want to perform. To
implement a dynamic warm-up routine, Reiff suggests choosing a set of
exercises you will remain committed to and practice before every run
and race. The routine described at the right can be done in 10 minutes.
While static stretching remains a good post-run ritual, the
research and applied evidence touts the many advantages of engag-
ing in a dynamic routine in its place. Says Reiff, “Dynamic stretching
recruits more of the body than static stretching. We certainly don’t
throw away static stretching, but it has its place. For pre-race and
pre-training, dynamic flexibility and movement has a much better
return on the investment.” Reiff recommends performing the exer-
cises before every regular run. Prior to hard workouts and races it
tends to work best to do a warm-up jog and then perform the dynamic
stretches, followed by strides. Th is helps to adequately warm up the
muscles and then get the right ones fi ring in the right ways.
Reiff adds, “If you can train athletes on a daily basis to fi re those
muscles appropriately and go through a dynamic warm-up that ensures
that all muscle groups are worked, then you have a better runner.”
Continued on page 28
RUNNINGTIMES / 25
 OWNER’S MANUAL
DYNAMIC
SEVEN DYNAMIC
STRETCHES
REVERSE LUNGE
01 WITH TWIST
Take an exaggerated step back- with each step.
wards with the right leg. Go C o n t i n u e f o r
into the lunge position, twist 50 meters.
your torso to the left, and reach
for your right heel with your
left hand. Come back
to lu nge posit ion,
stand up, and step
back with the left
leg to repeat on
the other side.
Continue
for 50
meters.
02 KNEE CRADLE
Standing, lift your left leg with up. Continue for 50 meters.
the knee facing outwards. Use
your hands to cradle the leg at
the knee and ankle;
avoid pulling on the
foot. Simultaneously
rise to your toes on
your right foot before
releasing your left
leg, stepping forward,
and repeating on the
other side. Continue
for 50 meters.
STRAIGHT
03 LEG MARCH
Ma rch for w a rd a nd
sw ing your
leg straight
in front of
you w it h
each step. Attempt
to touch your foot with
the opposite hand upon
each swing. Continue for
Stacey Cramp
50 meters.
Nate Dyer (Illustrations)
04 BUTT KICKS
As you run, bend your knee and 10 times on each side. •
bring your heel back to your butt
with each step. Steps should be
From Left:
short and rapid as you focus
on the frequency of the butt
28 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010
DYNAMIC STRETCHING • MILE AGE INCRE A SES
Continued from page 25 USUAL WAY/BETTER WAY
k ick s, rat her t ha n
the pace at which
y o u m o v e f o r-
MILEAGE
INCREASES
ward. Drive your
a r ms for wa rd
GOAL: BUILD TO A HIGHER WEEKLY
MILEAGE WITHOUT GETTING HURT
05 HIGH KNEES
Ru n n i ng on t he USUAL WAY BETTER WAY
balls of your feet,
Start at your current Start at your current
bring your
average weekly mileage. weekly mileage.
knees up as
high as pos- Increase mileage by 10 Jump to a new level of mileage
sible w it h percent each week until you more dramatically, then stay
each step. As reach your goal weekly mileage. at that level for a few weeks
w it h but t k ick s, before making the next jump.
pay attention to
frequency rather WHY: The conventional wisdom of “Increase weekly mileage by
than pace. Steps should be small no more than 10 percent” means well, but ignores two important
and quick. Drive your opposite
arm forward as each knee comes
facts about the human body. First, your body isn’t based on the
base-10 number system. Second, it adapts best to a new level of
stress by being exposed to that stress and consolidating the gains
produced by that exposure before adjusting to more.
06 CARIOCA
W it h you r shou l-
Set aside the fact that the 10 percent “rule” would take someone
coming back from injury six weeks to get from 15 to 25 miles per
week. The bigger problem with it is arbitrary reliance on a num-
ders square ber system that has nothing to do with physiology. What do your
and facing muscles and blood vessels know about “10 percent”? Or miles, for
one direction, that matter. (And pity the poor Babylonian runners of yore, with
get into a their base-60 number system!)
semi-squat- More important, adding a new level of stress week after week isn’t
ting position. the best way to reset your mileage set point. Coach and exercise phys-
Cross your iologist JACK DANIELS says, “I like to increase the stress every three
le f t le g i n to four weeks. I’m not a big fan of increasing mileage every week. If
front of your you’re doing 20 miles a week, I would much rather you stay there for
right leg, bring your three or four weeks, and then let’s go up to 30. Let the body adjust
right leg through, and then cross
your left leg behind your right leg.
to something before we impose something new on it. Even if you’re
increasing only 10 percent every week, that’s still something new.
Go 50 meters one way, continue Your body never gets to say, ‘Th is is where I’m going to learn to be,
facing the same direction, and and then I’ll learn to do it more or harder.’”
go back.
HOW: Daniels recom-
07 SCORPION
Lying face down with your chest
mends once you’re
ready for a mileage
jump, add one mile to
on the ground, pull your left leg each run you do in a
up and across the right leg to week. You could take
the opposite side of your body. the same approach
Switch sides continuously until
you have performed the stretch
with time, by adding
10 minutes to every run
you do in a week. Then
stay at that new level
for three to four weeks
before attempting the
Adjust to a new mileage level, then increase.
next increase. •
 OWNER’S MANUAL CONQUERING SHIN PAIN • TR AINING IN FL ATS

SHINHurts’
BY CATHY FIESELER, M.D.

‘My
A PRIMER ON LOWER-LEG PAIN
THE SHIN OR LOWER LEG includes everything between the knee
and ankle, and is a prime spot for pain in runners. Let’s look at the anat-
omy of the area and some of the most common problems runners get in
and around their shins.

The tibia is the large bone of the lower leg; theresorption, which is followed by bone build-
fibula is the thin bone along the outer aspect ing, as long as the stress isn’t overwhelming.
of the lower leg. There are four compartments With excessive stress, resorption is greater
in the lower leg, each of which includes sev- than the building phase, leading to micro-
eral muscles along with a nerve, artery and scopic trauma and microfractures. Repetitive
vein. Each compartment is surrounded by a microfractures result in a stress fracture.
tissue known as fascia. The muscles in these The typical presentation is bony pain with
compartments control motion of the foot and impact. Initially the pain develops during
Stress fractures can leave bony bumps.
ankle. Many of the thigh muscles attach to the run, but may even resolve during the
the top of the tibia and fibula. Differentiating course of the run. Over time, the pain is pres- be problematic in healing due to the shape
between specific causes of lower leg pain may ent throughout the run and may be present of the tibia.
be difficult due to overlapping symptoms. while walking. Mild swelling may be pres- Treatment begins with stopping impact
ent in the lower leg. Continued impact on a activities. If there is pain with walking, a
SHIN SPLINTS stress fracture can result in a complete frac- boot, cast or crutches may be needed. Non-
Th is term is used to describe pain along the ture through the bone. impact cross-training may be performed. In
inner tibia. Typically the pain involves a third On clinical examination there is a specific some cases, a long air cast (stirrup brace that
or more of the bone. The pain develops while area of significant bony tenderness. There covers the lower leg) may allow a more rapid
running and resolves afterwards; it usually is pain or even inability to hop on the single return to running. Otherwise, most athletes
improves with continued training. The inner leg. X-rays will not reveal abnormalities for can return to a gradual running program in
aspect of the tibia will be tender to touch, at least two weeks and possibly much longer. six to eight weeks.
with no area more tender than another. There MRI and three-phase bone scans can detect The reason for developing the stress frac-
may be mild swelling in the lower leg. stress fractures much earlier. ture should be determined. Increasing
The pain is due to microscopic tears of Stress fractures in runners tend to occur training too quickly (intensity and/or dis-
the muscle away from the lining of the in the lower aspect of the fibula and in the tance) is the most common cause of this
bone. Predisposing factors include overpro- upper and lower aspects of the tibia. They injury. A low bone density and possibly
nation and running on hard surfaces. Shin can also (though less commonly) occur in a low vitamin D level can predispose to
splints are more common in novice run- the front of the tibia; this stress fracture can Continued on page 32
ners. Treatment of the problem includes
icing after exercise, appropriate footwear
or possibly arch supports, and changing
running surface. Improving flexibility of
TRIED AND TRUE
your calf muscles and the strength of the FLAT OUT NECESSARY
muscles in the front and sides of your lower Wear your racing shoes for at least half of your speed workouts and tempo runs. Before a mar-
leg are important in treating andnd preventing athon, do at least two long runs in the shoes
shoe you’ll wear on race day. Otherwise, you’re likely to
this problem. To strengthen n the muscles get lower-leg soreness immedia
immediately after or even during your race. Says sport podia-
of the lower leg, place a weighted
ghted
d ring on
Peter Baker Studios

trist BRIAN FULLEM

FULLEM, “When you consider that racing flats often have less
your foot. Point your foot up,, in than 1 inch of cush
cushioning
i in the heels, it’s easy to see why suddenly sub-
and out 10 times; perform three ree jecting your legs to
t such a large diff erence can strain the calf muscles.”
sets. The pain usually subsides des If you haven’t
haveen been wearing racing flats on a regular basis, intro-
Stacey Cramp

as fitness improves. duce them

thee slowly by wearing them on a series of post-run
stride a couple of times a week. Says Fullem, “Then grad-
striders
STRESS FRACTURE ually
ua
al build up to a full workout, starting with shorter
From Top:

Also a source of bony pain, a stress frac- workouts. For example, if your track workout ends with
wo
w
ture is an injury to bone due to repetitive
o repe
etitive 200–
20
0 or 400-meter repeats, put on the flats for this por-
microtrauma. Bone responds ds to stress
s by tion
tio
on of the workout.”
becoming stronger; the stresss causes
ses bone

30 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 OWNER’S MANUAL TRE ATING SHIN PAIN • RESUMING RUNNING

SHIN Continued from page 30 workout and becomes progressively worse, the stress on the tendon. As pain resolves
stress fracture. Training schedules, diet, often to the point of having to slow or end and flexibility and strength improve, the lifts
and for women, menstrual history, should the run. Slapping of the foot as it strikes the may be removed.
be reviewed to find risk factors for the ground is another common complaint. The Prolonged problems with the Achilles ten-
development of stress fractures and any symptoms will resolve within a short while don may cause degenerative changes, known
problems detected should be corrected. after the exercise stops, as the swelling as tendinosis. The treatment is similar to ten-
resolves. Because of this, the runner’s leg dinitis. Recalcitrant cases may be treated
COMPARTMENT SYNDROME usually seems normal when examined by a with deep tissue massage and manipulation
During exercise, muscles swell, increasing medical professional. (such as active release therapy), injec-
in volume by up to 20 percent. If the fascia Compartment syndrome is diagnosed by tions with platelet-rich plasma and similar
that surrounds one or more of the compart- measuring the pressure in each of the com-
ments is too tight to allow the swelling to partments in the involved legs before and
occur, it acts like a tourniquet, restricting immediately after a run. (The run is usually As flexibility
blood flow and putting pressure on the nerve. performed on a treadmill and is continued
Th is causes pain and possibly numbness in until significant symptoms develop.) The
improves,
the lower leg and foot. The muscles may not treatment for compartment syndrome is
function normally. surgery, after which most athletes are able
strengthen the
The runner with chronic exertional com- to return to full activities. Achilles with
partment syndrome complains of pain
that develops at a certain point during the TENDINITIS heel raises.
Th is is a common problem in the lower leg.
Tendons are part of a given muscle that substances, and, as a last resort, surgery.
“HELP ME GET attaches to a bone. Inflammation of the ten- Cortisone injections shouldn’t be performed
BETTER!” don causes pain when the muscle is stretched
or contracted. The tendon may swell;
in the Achilles tendon due to the risk of rup-
ture and weakening of the structure during
strength and flexibility are both diminished. the fi rst 10 to 14 days following the injection.
W ith all of the injuries discussed, medi-
cations should be used with caution.
Short-term use (five to seven days) of nonste-
The tendon will be tender to touch.
Achilles tendinitis is common in run- INFLAMMATION
roidal anti-inflammatory medications (such as ners. The posterior tibialis (inner aspect The large calf muscles (gastrocnemius and
ibuprofen and naproxen) may help relieve pain, of the ankle) and the peroneal (outside soleus) may occur due to a sudden injury, in
as long as there isn’t a contraindication to usage, aspect of the ankle) tendons may also be which the muscle tears. This most commonly
such as gastrointestinal, liver or kidney problems. inflamed. Common causes of Achilles ten- occurs in the inner belly of the gastrocne-
Even then, these medications should be used dinitis include a sudden increase in hill work mius at the junction of the muscle and the
with caution. There is equivocal data in the sci- or speed work. In addition, switching from tendon. When this happens, you might feel
entific literature on use of NSAIDs with stress training shoes to racing shoes without hav- a pop. Pushing off will be extremely pain-
fractures; several studies have suggested that ing worn the racing shoes in a long time may ful. There will be mild swelling and possibly
these medications may impede the healing of aggravate the Achilles tendon because of the some bruising in the leg.
fractures. Acetaminophen may be used for pain racing flat’s lower heel. Overpronation may Treatment includes using a boot and/or
control if there are no medical contraindications cause infl ammation of the posterior tibia- crutches. Ice should be used often. As pain
to its usage. lis tendon, while a stiff, underpronated gait subsides, strength and flexibility exercises
In the case of stress fractures, running may inflame the peroneal tendon. as discussed in the section on Achilles ten-
should be discontinued until the health care Treatment for tendinitis includes icing for dinitis should be performed. When the
provider gives the green light. Compartment 15 to 20 minutes three to four times a day, runner is able to weight bear on the affected
syndrome will not resolve without treatment. adjusting training to decrease the offend- leg without pain, heel lifts should be added
When the symptoms are severe enough, options ing stressors and modifying footwear when to the shoes. Progress the exercises as dis-
are surgery or eliminating running. A torn gas- indicated. The peroneal and posterior tibi- cussed above. Lesser injuries, in which the
trocnemius usually precludes running due to alis muscles can be strengthened with the muscle is inflamed, but not torn, may be
pain. For the other problems discussed, some exercises described in the section on shin treated like tendinitis.
degree of running can usually be continued. This splints. Stretch the Achilles tendon once
involves decreasing the distance and intensity you’ve warmed up with easy jogging. COMPRESSION OF THE
of workouts, with the amount of modification As flexibility improves, strengthen the POPLITEAL ARTERY
determined by the severity of the symptoms. Achilles this way: With the heels hanging Compression of this artery during exercise is
The goal is to minimize symptoms while run- off the back of a step, the heels should be low- an uncommon but potentially severe source
ning; cross-training may be performed in addition ered and raised repeatedly. Do this slowly of pain. Th is usually occurs at the level of
to running if it doesn’t aggravate the problem. at fi rst, then more quickly as your strength the knee. With compression of the artery,
Training should be increased gradually and ice improves. Then progress to single leg raises, blood flow to the leg muscles is diminished,
should be used following the workout. Don’t starting slowly and gradually increasing causing significant pain until the exercise
forget to perform the strength and flexibility speed over training sessions. Heel lifts can stops. The blood flow needs to be evaluated
exercises as training increases. be added to shoes when the Achilles ten- during exertion to diagnose this problem,
don is painful; this will alleviate some of and surgery is the treatment. •

32 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 HIGH SCHOOL

WILL
BY BRENDAN MINIHAN JR. Another five minutes passed waiting on the infield. I called my
team together into a huddle and said, “Hands in,” like I would on the

The starting line. I told them I was proud of them no matter the result.
Huddled, hands in, we waited.

to PREPARE
The top-seeded team was announced fi rst. They were declared
state runners-up. We did not hear anything else, but when every-
thing calmed down, after all the photos, we carried the large gold
trophy back to the bus and drove home champions.
THE LESSONS OF WINNING The next morning, I woke to learn that the LHSAA had found an
officiating error that affected the results of our race. A new rule
AND LOSING A STATE stated that any runner fi nishing after 25 minutes had “lapsed” and
CHAMPIONSHIP IN ONE DAY would be disqualified. Some of the runners higher up were now
kicked out of team scoring as they no longer had enough fi nishers
THE HARDEST PART ABOUT COACHING high to score a team. Later that day, the commissioner made the officials
school athletes is convincing them that they want to put rescore the meet and declare the second-place team as the cham-
in all that hard work with no real guarantee that they pions, and us as runners-up.
will win anything. My 2008 boys team from Metairie, La., I had to tell my boys the bad news in person before they heard it
had worked all season to be the best team in Division 1A, from other sources. We gathered in an empty classroom with the
personifying the JUMA IKANGAA quote, “The will to win lights out. I told them that I knew we had won the race, but a man
means nothing without the will to prepare.” would be coming to take our trophy away from us. At the end of the
talk, I gathered them up into a huddle and said, “Hands in. I’m still
The 2008 season had been about becoming the best by working hard proud of you guys. You’ll always be champions in my eyes.”
on a daily basis. I do not pretend they were perfect. There were some I was and I still am proud of them a year later. These boys com-
days they did not give 100 percent. There were some days they whined mitted themselves to a new season, ready to pursue another
because they were tired and sore and it was 100 degrees. School, fam- c h a m pion s h i p. S e n ior s
ily, and social life all competed for time with their athletic life. Still, organized summer train-
I felt like they believed in the program, the philosophy, and the pro- ing sessions without me.
cess behind success. When they considered if they really wanted it, Enthusiastic freshmen
they were willing to prepare. joined, hoping to make a
Thus, on the night before state, I was confidently able to tell them, difference. I had my larg-
“Guys, whether you win or lose, I’ll be proud of you.” Of course, I est turnout for cross country
wanted the victory, and no assurance of love and pride could belie ever.
that fact to my runners. Our team had not won the state title since The will to win was
1994, the year some of them were born. palpable on the team.
Before we boarded the bus for the four-hour drive to Natchitoches, T he boys k new f rom
I pointed to the blue banner in the gym rafters that honored the experience that awards
1994 season. I told them we would return home, remove the ban- are never guaranteed,
ner from its hooks and stitch “2008” on it next to “1994.” My runners so they looked for the
did not bat an eye. i nt r i n s ic re w a rd i n
I felt confident despite the fact that we were not the meet favor- working. The true ath-
ite. We would have to beat the prior year’s champion and another lete knows it is the will
team that had beaten us three times during the season, including to prepare that matters.
the district championships, where they had stepped on our necks That is the only thing. That is
and convincingly destroyed us. But I was confident that my team why you win … sometimes.
was prepared, and they needed to know that. As we boarded the bus, I
But within running, as in life, there is also the painful lesson that remembered t he post-race
winning is not guaranteed no matter how hard you work. That is why ceremony at the 2009 Crescent
we run races, and why we had to go to state. Cit y Classic. T he 2008 w i n-
ner, GENOVE VA KIGEN, had
A 5K cross country race is essentially over in fewer than 20 minutes, just placed second to LINETH
but the wait for results feels like an eternity. Standing in the bleach- CHEPKURUI by less than 3 sec-
ers, watching as the runners enter the track and sprint the fi nal 300 onds in a sprint fi nish. Yet she said,
meters to the fi nish, I had my penciled quick-score on my clipboard “We are athletes. It is what we do. We
held tightly to my chest. If my math was correct, we had just won win. We lose.”
the state championship by one point. If my math was wrong, if I had Last November, the team ran strong
missed a runner, then we would be second. We waited. after a cold rain blanketed the course,
The slower runners dribbled across the fi nish line. The clock read drawing on their work to pass other
25 minutes … 26 … 27. At 30 minutes, the announcer called us and runners through the fi nal mile. The
the top-seeded team into the infield of the stadium. We knew then blue felt banner hanging in our gym
for sure we were in the top two teams. We waited. now reads “1994” and “2009.” •

34 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 THE WILL TO PREPARE • MEGAN MORGAN • UPPERCL A SSMEN BENEFITS

INTO Thin Air

anything I’d ever experienced,” Morgan
BY LISA JHUNG
says, explaining that she’d never run
against an international field before,
and that the small mountain village of
Campodolcino full of athletes was like a
mini Olympic Village. “Mountain run-
ning in Europe is a much bigger deal than
MEGAN MORGAN RUNS TO NEW HEIGHTS in the U.S.”
Morgan’s results in Italy proved she
was completely back from an iliotib-
LAST SEPTEMBER, as her cross country teammates were starting ial band injury she sustained during the
practice and getting settled into the first few days of class at Torrey Pines fi nal 400m of her best 3200m last spring.
High School in Del Mar, Calif., MEGAN MORGAN was 6,400 miles away rac- Instead of calling it quits for the season,
ing against an elite international field on the rugged trails of the Italian Alps. she got in the pool and water ran for five
weeks, keeping herself fit enough to run
Morgan and five other American high summer. “When I return to sea level, 10:33 soon after returning to the track.
school runners were selected for the U.S. I’m able to train at a higher level, Cross country culminated with a sec-
junior team to run in the World Mountain which speeds up my improve- ond in the California state cross country
Running Championships. Her résumé is cer- ment curve.” meet, helping the Torrey Pines girls take
tainly worthy — including PRs of 5:01:63 in Training at altitude paid off, as the team title.
the 1600m and 10:31:91 for 3200m, plus top Morgan fi nished second in the “It has been a goal of mine since my
fi nishes in cross country — but her experi- junior women’s race at the freshman year to lead my team to a
ence running at altitude is what landed her World Mountain Running state championship,” she says, “so to
on the team. Championships, complet- see that goal become a reality was an
Torrey Pines head coach BRENT THORNE ing the 4.34K course in amazing accomplishment.”
leads his runners through a week-long alti- 22:35, 17 seconds behind A month later, Morgan placed 17t
tude training camp at Idyllwild in the winner YASEMIN CAN from at the Foot Locker Cross Countr y
mountains near San Diego every summer. Turkey. Championships in San Diego, just down
Within the week, the team does a long run, Morgan’s finish was the the road from her home.
a tempo run, a couple of steady state mile- best among U.S. runners in Morgan will run for the University
age runs, and one day of 1200m repeats in all categories, and the highest of Washington in the fall, but she has a
the alpine air at 5,500 feet. Morgan also individual placing ever by an few goals left as her high school career
Bob Betancourt

spends a week or two each summer with American junior runner. (Fellow winds down, including lowering her
her family in Pinecrest, Calif., in the Sierra Californian ALEX DUNNE, now PRs in the 1600m and 3200m and fi n-
Nevada foothills near Lake Tahoe, where at Stanford, was third in the girls ishing on the podium (top six) at state
the self-motivated teen logs thin-air miles junior race in 2008 in Switzerland, in the 3200m.
George Fagan

on her own. while Tennessee’s BRANDON “She’ll do it,” assistant cross country coach
“I think it definitely helps increase my LORD was fourth in the 2009 MICHELLE VAN SOMEREN says. “Megan is
From Left:

anaerobic threshold,” says Morgan, 17, who junior men’s race.) just driven. She knows what she wants, she
typically runs 40–50 miles a week in the “It was totally different from knows what it takes to get there.”•

how much high-intensity training you can — and need — to do, more
BY ROY BENSON

Maintain THE EFFORT
THE LONGER YOU RUN, the stronger you get.
The stronger you get, the longer you can run. The lon-
ger you run and stronger you get, the faster you can
run. If all that seems pretty obvious, please permit me
to explain in more detail.
In the fi rst phase, I mean “longer” in terms of years. As the years of
running add up for high school runners, maturing bodies simply
get stronger with the development of greater muscle mass.
In the second phrase, as your muscles get stronger and you add
more years, you will be capable of going for longer long runs, and
going longer on easy, recovery days. Mature bodies are simply stron-
ger and can handle the higher mileage. Because there is a limit of
easy, aerobic mileage is the simplest and safest way to increase your
weekly workout load.
While all this is pretty obvious, here is the not-so-obvious result
of the above. As you get older and stronger, you don’t need to train
harder to get faster. By “harder” I mean at higher and higher lev-
els of intensity. Once you have run a PR (at whatever speed) at your
best all-out emotional, mental and physical effort, that 100 percent
effort becomes your standard for enduring pain, torture and agony.
Trust me on this: Giving it the old college try at 105 percent or
110 percent is impossible. Try to take it over 100 percent and you
slow down and/or collapse. And if 100 percent always feels the
same, so will each of your other types of workouts in the typi-
cal effort zones. As you get older, stronger, and faster, paces per
mile simply speed up, but always at the same perception of how
easy or hard they feel.
Nice to know the benefits of aging, isn’t it? The hard things in life,
as you get better at doing them, just take less time. •

RUNNINGTIMES / 35
 COLLEGE

Back
BY JOHN MEYER

WITH
PURPOSE
METRO STATE’S LUNA MAKES THE
MOST OF A SECOND CHANCE
FIVE YEARS AGO he was an apprentice electrician
whose track career seemingly ended before it began, so
it’s easy to see ANTHONY LUNA’s improbable transfor-
mation into a two-time NCAA Division II 800m champion
as an inspirational tale of faith, hope and fierce deter-
mination. But to PETE JULIAN, the man who gave Luna
the second chance he so desperately needed, it’s fun-
damentally “a love story.”

It’s about love for a son whose unplanned conception soon after
Luna’s graduation from high school forced him to turn down a track
scholarship to Division II power Adams State. It’s about the lunch-
pail labor Luna put in to support his infant son when he wished he
could be chasing glory on the track instead. It’s about Julian, the
coach who saw something special in Luna and wanted to help, all
the while knowing the likelihood of success was slim. And it’s about
the parents and girlfriend who supported Luna when he went after
the dream he deferred for fatherhood.
“It’s about the right people at the right time taking care of him and
loving him,” Julian says. “It’s about him loving the sport, and about
him understanding it’s a ticket for him. It’s an opportunity. It’s a love Luna has excelled at 800m, but his future might be in the 1500m.
story with a happy ending.”
Luna won the 2004 Colorado 4A 800m title for Ranum High School He was ineligible to compete his fi rst year at Metro State, and was
(1:54.8) in the Denver suburb of Westminster, but after becoming so out of shape he couldn’t run an hour at an easy pace, but he did
a father and forgoing his ticket to Adams State, he would go more well in school while continuing to work to support his son. When
than a year fearing he’d never get to run competitively again. That he fi nally could compete a year later, he was so proud of his uni-
changed when he heard Julian was bringing track and cross coun- form that he got on the team bus carrying his singlet on a hanger.
try back to Denver’s Metropolitan State College after a hiatus of two But it wasn’t long before he developed stress fractures in both legs.
decades. Luna went to see Julian and begged for a chance to compete. After those healed, he could barely break 2:00 for 800 meters the
“The fi rst thing out of his mouth was, ‘Coach, I have a kid, I have following spring.
a job, I haven’t run in 15 months, but I’ve been waiting for this But Luna wouldn’t quit, and Julian didn’t quit on him. Their faith Washington State Sports Information

day for a long time. Just give me a chance and I know I’ll make it,’”
Julian recalls.
Luna had already proven his character. He and his girlfriend
had considered an abortion but decided that way out of their pre-
dicament would be wrong. Anthony, Jr., an occasional spectator at
Metro track practices, is 4 years old now and thinks his dad is the
fastest guy on the planet.
began to pay off the following season when Luna fi nished third in
the 800m at NCAA indoors. Then he fi nished second at NCAA out-
doors, diving at the line to fi nish in 1:49.39 and losing by .02 of a
second while breaking a wrist in the process. Luna’s dream didn’t
seem so delusional anymore.
“I embrace every moment I get on the track because you never
know when it’s your last,” says Luna, who often thinks of making his
Andy Schlichting/Metro State College (2)

“When I was 19 years old, I was faced with a life-changing situa-
tion — my girlfriend was pregnant,” says the 23-year-old Luna. “I
had a chance to run at one of the best schools in the nation. I felt
like there was a million tons of bricks on me. I said, ‘Instead of giv-
ing up, I’m going to do what I have to do to be a man and take care of
my son. But when I get that second chance, you best know I’m going
to take it and I’m going to make it worth my while.’”
son proud when he hits the home stretch of races. “I’ve had a lot of
second chances in life, I had a lot of missed opportunities, but I’ve
also had a lot of opportunities that came my way. When I step on
the track, my whole life boils down to this moment. You seize the
moment. I feel free. I feel like I could change the world or something.”
There was another setback his junior year, a stress fracture during
cross country season that forced him to do much of his training
From Left:

That he did, but it wasn’t easy, and there were times when it seemed for the indoor season in a pool. But he won the NCAA indoor title
he was fooling himself to think he could ever be competitive again. (1:51.99) and won again at NCAA outdoors (1:49.26). Th ree weeks later

36 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 DIVISION II 800M CHAMPION ANTHONY LUNA • COACH PETE JULIAN
he ran 1:47.9 to qualify for his fi rst USATF outdoors. His father’s co-
workers on the night shift at a Waste Management landfi ll took up
a collection to help defray the cost of flying him to Eugene.
Then out of the blue Washington State came courting Julian, and
the Oregon native couldn’t resist the opportunity to coach in the
Pac-10 (see “Coaches’ Corner”). Luna considered transferring so he
could stay with Julian, but decided to fi nish his collegiate career at
Metro State. Luna plans to join Julian in Pullman after he graduates,
with hopes of a successful post-collegiate career.
“When I was a sophomore I remember stepping on the track and
he was like, ‘You’ve got what it takes to be a phenomenal track ath-
lete,’” recalls Luna, a criminal justice and criminology major who
earned academic All-American accolades last spring. “He said, ‘If
you’re willing to put in the hard work and be here every day, you’re
going to do great things in this sport.’ I always kind of believed that,
I always thought I was pretty good, but when he told me that, it stuck.”
Julian is thinking about moving Luna up to the mile after he fi n-
ishes his collegiate career. Luna certainly has a miler’s body, a slender
5–9, 140 pounds, and is blessed with a silky smooth running form.
And he owns a credible 3:46.44 PR in the 1500m, a mark he set last
spring at the Mt. SAC Relays.
“Pete always told me I would be a better miler,” Luna says. “I was
like, ‘No, Pete, I want to run the 800 meters.’ He was like, ‘The 800-
meter runner is like a bass player of a rock band. If you want to be
the rock star, you run the mile. You’ve got to be the guitar player.’”
That sounds good to Luna. Heading into the indoor season the
plan was to have him run the mile leg of the distance medley relay
at NCAA indoors — instead of defending his 800m title — and then
defend his NCAA outdoor title in May. Having him run the DMR
gives Luna a taste of the longer distance while making it possible
for three teammates to become NCAA champions.
“Anthony’s a team player, and he’s 100 percent on board for that,”
said JOHN SUPSIC, who replaced Julian as Metro State’s coach.
“He wants to give other people an opportunity to be in the spotlight,
which I think says a lot about him.”
Luna hopes to fi nish his college career with a chance to repeat his
outdoor title at the May 27–29 NCAA championships in Charlotte,
N.C. Julian hopes a shoe company will recognize Luna’s talent — and
the power of his story — so he can support his
son and continue to pursue his dream when
his collegiate career ends. He hopes prospec-
tive sponsors notice the kid has the kind of
charisma on the track that creates fans.
“He understands there is a sense of
urgency every time he gets on the line,”
Julian says. “He understands that when
you get an opening, if you don’t take it, that
door is closing. Maybe that’s why he has that
intuition when he races. He can see an opening,
and he knows if he doesn’t match that move, if
he doesn’t jump through that window, if he
doesn’t take that hole, it’s going to close.
Because that’s the way life really is.”
It helps that Luna loves what he does.
“I get to races, I look at the crowds, I look
at the starting line, I look at the people I’m
racing, and it’s such an amazing feeling to
me,” Luna says. “I’m so blessed to do this. I
know the race is going to hurt like hell, but
I’m going to embrace it. It’s totally cool.” •
COACHES’ CORNER:
WASHINGTON STATE’S
PETE JULIAN
M
ost coaches at Division II schools with scant history of track
and field success would be overjoyed to be off ered a job at
a Pac-10 school, but when Washington State came calling
last summer, Pete Julian was faced with a heart-wrenching dilemma.
An Oregon native who as a young child saw STEVE PREFONTAINE
compete in twilight meets at Hayward Field, Julian saw the Washington
State offer — head cross country coach and assistant track coach respon-
sible for distance events — as a fantastic opportunity. But it would mean
leaving Denver’s Metro State, whose track and cross country program
he restored in 2005, two decades after the school dropped the program.
“It was the toughest decision of my life,” Julian says. “We were diff er-
ent. We grew up together, because we started from scratch. It was really
hard, and meeting with the athletes individually was incredibly difficult.”
But how could he turn down the chance to become an assistant to
RICK SLOAN at Washington State, to compete with the likes of Oregon
and Stanford? He couldn’t.
“Growing up on the West Coast, I’ve always looked on the Pac-10 as the
marquee conference in the country,” he says. “My own professional goal
was always, if I could coach in the Pac-10, that would be a dream come true.”
Julian, 38, ran for the University of Portland, graduating in 1993,
where he was a four-time All American. He ran professionally for sev-
eral years with PRs of 3:42 in the 1500m, 13:33 in the 5,000m, and 28:05
in the 10,000m. He won a bronze medal in the 10,000m at the 1999 Pan
American Games and made the finals of the 10,000 at the IAAF World
Championships in Seville that year.
As a young coach living in Boulder and coaching in Denver, he would pick
the brain of Colorado coach MARK WETMORE whenever he could. Julian’s
other coaching influences include VIN LANANNA, BOB GAGLIANO,
ALBERTO SALAZAR and his father, Bob, who coached him at Ashland
High School in southwestern Oregon.
“ The Wetmores and the Lanannas are the Lydiards of my
time,” Julian says.
Julian, who organized the 2007 U.S. cross country championships in
Boulder, is a student, but not a blind follower.
“Mark Wetmore once told me, ‘Never have a philosophy, because then
you’ll have to live by it,’” Julian says. “That probably is my mantra —
don’t ever have a philosophy, because every athlete is diff erent. I try to
approach each athlete without preconceptions in terms of what I think
is best for their training.” —J.M.
Julian with Washington State senior Lisa Egami.
RUNNINGTIMES / 37
MASTERS
more of the characteristics of slow-twitch

Miles
BY MARK WINITZ
fibers, which is a good thing for distance run-

Bank
ners.” Pfitzinger does warn, however, that,
“adaptations such as capillarization may
reverse over a year or a few years. There are

in the many adaptations to training and a broad

range of rates of detraining between these
variables. Plus, there is also a large genetic
CAN (AND SHOULD) MASTERS RUN FEWER MILES? component involved, and some people will
have more age-related deterioration and oth-
AS RECOVERY TIMES get longer with age, masters who have been ers will have much less.”
training hard for decades often start to wonder if they need to log as Exercise physiologist DAVID MARTIN,
many miles as they did in their prime. According to exercise physiologists, PH.D., points out that, for optimum perfor-
many veteran runners who appropriately modify their training mileage — mance, recovery is more important than the
cutting back on training quantity and, instead, focusing on quality — are number of miles run. Th is is a particularly
better able to maintain a similar level of racing performance as they age. important principle for older runners.
“As runners get older, our connective and
Case in point: Masters standout SYLVIA substantiate Mosqueda’s experiences. muscle tissue recovers a little less quickly
MOSQUEDA started racing at age 16. In “Some physiological adaptations from from the stress of training. That means you
her 20s and early 30s, the Californian reg- running accumulate over time and some need to spend more time recovering and less
istered PRs of 15:30 (5K), 31:54 (10K), and adaptat ions reverse ver y slowly w it h time putting in high mileage,” says Martin,
2:33:11 (marathon), and qualified for the reduced training,” says two-time Olympic a longtime member of USA Track & Field’s
U.S. Olympic trials five times. Mosqueda, marat honer and exercise physiologist Sports Medicine and Science Committee. “If
now 43, has a consistent record of age-cor- PETE PFITZINGER. you try and push yourself and do the mile-
related achievement that hasn’t wavered He points out that the development of age that you did when you were younger, you
much over the years. For example, her half capillaries increases with accumulated won’t last long because you’ll be injured.”
marathon progression reveals a 1:10:47 at age endurance training, and it remains high for Martin says that age 50 is the time that run-
21 (93 percent age-graded score), 1:09:52 at a long time. The heart gets bigger and stron- ners really need to begin paying attention
age 37 (96 percent), 1:14:25 at age 40 (92 per- ger, and this adaptation reverses very slowly. to this effect.
cent), and, as of this writing, a 1:18:20 at age Basically, your cardiovascular fitness doesn’t Physiologist and coach JACK DANIELS
43 (90 percent). disappear overnight. is conducting an extensive longitudinal
study of competitive runners, and prelimi-
narily conclusions, he reports, indicate that
“If you try and push yourself “older runners are just like younger run-
ners — some can handle more than
and do the mileage that others.” While his study doesn’t yet
reveal any trends in terms of masters
you did when you were miles, Daniels discloses that he asked

younger, you won’t last long his subjects how many days they had
taken off due to injury and illness from
because you’ll be injured.” training over the 25 years since he
had seen them last. “The
f it test 50-yea r-old,”
When many top runners burn out after a “A nd, anecdota l Daniels reports, “had
time, how has Mosqueda maintained this e v idenc e e x i s t s documented every
record of competitive consistency? She that demonstrates day he took off
focuses on quality and relies on an accu- o n c e y o u ’ v e and they totaled
mulated training base that spans almost 30 a c h i e v e d a over three years,
years. At age 41, for example, Mosqueda cut specific which tells me
her weekly training mileage from an average maximal it pays to take
Meranda Schwelm

of 65 to 35 – 45 per week. She also reduced her oxygen time off when
speed workouts from up to three per week to uptake you are sick or
one high-quality workout weekly. w it h train- injured.”
“If you’ve consistently run at a pretty high ing it’s easier Pfitzinger
Victor Sailer/Photo Run

level over the years, you can change and to achieve that same level and Martin agree
tweak your training and still run pretty again,” says Pfitzinger. that longtime runners
decent,” Mosqueda maintains. “You don’t “A l s o w it h ac c u mu- should concentrate more on
lose any training that you put into your body. l a t e d e n d u r a n c e the speed aspects of their
From Left:

Basically, you store it.” training, fast-twitch training rather than long
E x per t s i n t he sc ience of r u n n i ng muscle fibers gain runs to maintain optimum

RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010


per for ma nce. “However, you need to
approach speed very judiciously as an older
runner to avoid injury,” Martin advises.
Pfitzinger believes that veteran runners
can get the most bang for their buck by doing
one run a week at goal race pace. “Race pace
training for races of 10K or longer tends to be
reasonably forgiving in terms of injury, and
is very efficient in improving performance,”
he says. For example, if you are training for
a 10K, once a week, do a training session in
which 3 ½ – 6 ½ miles are at goal race pace.
During the workout, for the upper end of this
range, run at goal pace for 2 ½ miles, jog 2
minutes, then 2 miles at goal pace, jog 2 min-
utes, then 1 mile at goal pace.
On another day, put in your long run of, say,
13 to 15 miles. On the days after hard work-
outs or long runs, consider cycling, water
running, or swimming as an alternative
workout to reduce the likelihood of injury.
Remember, your training background is
your most important running asset: Years of
training and conditioning is money in the
bank. As a running veteran, invest it con-
servatively and wisely. “One of the most
important things about success in running
is to avoid injury and illness,” says Daniels.
“Err on the side of too little,” advises Martin. •
TRAINING REGIMEN
(Sept. 7, 2009 to Sept. 20, 2009, in preparation
for the Oct. 11 Chicago Marathon)
Mon/Wed/Fri: 8 miles trails @ 8:00/mile pace
Tue: a.m.: 8 miles trails @ 8:00/mile pace;
p.m.: 5 x 1200m @ 5:04/mile pace
with 400m rests + 4 x 200m in 33
seconds with 200m rests
Thur: 15 miles tempo @ 5:35–5:40/mile pace
Sat: 10 miles trail @ 8:00/mile pace
Sun: 21 miles with first 90 minutes easy,
followed by 10 x 30 seconds hard with
2-minute rests between, finish relaxed
Mon/Wed/Fri: 8 miles trails @ 8:00/mile pace
Tue: a.m.: 8 miles trails @ 8:00/mile pace
p.m.: 4 x 1000m @ 5:04/mile pace,
3-minute rests + 4 x 200m in 33
seconds with 45-second rests
Thur: 8 miles @ 5:40/mile pace, 8 x 300m on
hill with 3-minute rests, 2 miles in 10:49
Sat: 10 miles trails @ 8:00/mile pace
Sun: 22 miles with cut-down pace every
30 minutes; first few miles @ 6:40/mile
pace and last couple @ 5:30/mile pace
AGE-GROUP ACE BY MIKE TYMN
Bob SCHWELM
AFTER PASSING the halfway point of the 2009 Chicago Marathon in
1:14:06, BOB SCHWELM was confident that he would break the American
50-and-over record of 2:29:11 set by NORM GREEN back in 1984. “Even at
19 miles I was thinking I was going to run 2:28, only to have my legs tighten
up,” Schwelm laments. Schwelm finished in 2:30:52.
But the disappointment of missing the record
was assuaged somewhat when Schwelm real-
ized he had won his division by more than
16 minutes and had topped all younger mas-
ters by more than 2 minutes.
Schwelm’s personal best marathon of
2:20:58 was recorded in the 1998 Steamtown
Marathon when he was three months away
from joining the masters ranks, but he has not
been under 2:30 since the 2002 Philadelphia
Marathon, when he clocked 2:29:37. “I kind
of retired from marathon running then,” he
explains, “but as I got closer to 50 the 2:29:11
goal got in my head and I tested the waters
last year [2008] at Philadelphia with a 2:32:29
without serious training. I knew then that the
record was in reach. Oh, well!”
Since turning 50, Schwelm also has run a
16:12 for 5K and 54:31 for 10 miles.
At Bedford High School, outside
of Boston, Schwelm got down to
a 2:00:7 half mile, but soccer was
his primar y sport and earned
him a scholarship to Franklin
and Marshall College, where
he ran only cross country.
He also played basketball
and baseball during his
school years. Although
he continued running
after leaving school,
he did not peak until
his mid-30s, when he
ran a 14:37 for 5K and
30:38 for 10K. “I never
have quit running and have
put in well over 100,000 miles,
but there was a long learning
curve there,” he explains about
running faster at 35 than 25. “There
were a number of confl icts during
my 20s and it took a while for me to
settle down and things to start fall-
ing into place.”
W hile he realizes t hat his best
t i mes a re beh i nd h i m, Schwel m
feels as motivated as ever. “Mentally,
aging hasn’t affected me,” he muses.
MILES IN THE BANK • BOB SCHWELM
“I still feel quite young and immature, but
then I look in the mirror. I guess being
around a younger wife, two babies, younger
coworkers, and my much younger training
partners keeps me in a different mindset.
I love that I can still go out and hammer
with the young guys, that I can run with
my dog Deek for two hours in the woods, or
can push the double baby jogger and run
with my wife and two kids.”
Looking ahead, Schwelm plans to race
more often and shoot for some of Green’s
many 50-plus records. “Norm is a good friend
of mine, but he has way too many American
records,” he concludes with a smile. •
TRAINING
PHILOSOPHY
“My basic training philo
philosophy is to periodize
the year into distinct phases
ph and to run really
easy on rest days. I don’t
don’ always adhere to that
philosophy, but I try
try. All of my ‘easy’ days
are 60–90 minminutes on very rugged
and hilly trails
tra with my dog. Most
people find n these runs hard, but
I am used to it. I am not pound-
ing my legs.
leg The pace is probably
8:00 a mile,
m but I am getting
an aerob
aerobic benefit because of
all the st
steep hills. Most of my
inter vals are run on an 800-
meter gr grass loop. The only
paved run
running I do is on a mea-
sured bike path
pa when I do tempo
r uns and an im impor tant long r un.”
BOB SCHWELM STATS
BORN: JANUARY 3, 1959
LIVES: MEDIA, PA
MASTERS BESTS: 5K: 15:33
[ADRENALINE 5K, HADDONFIELD,
NJ, 2001]; 8K: 25:13 [ROTHMAN,
PHILADELPHIA, 2000]; 10K: 31:36
[PRINCETON TWILIGHT, 2000];
10M: 52:43 [BROAD STREET,
2002]; HALF MARATHON: 1:07:18
[LAS VEGAS 1999]; MARATHON:
2:23:42 [BOSTON, 1999]
TIMES / 39
W
E CALLED HER BAREFOOT
Bonnie. She showed up at a training
run in Earth Shoes and clobbered
most of the guys. Then she ditched even that
minimal footwear for a summer on the track,
beating several of the local elites. At the time,
less than two years ago, most people didn’t even
know it was permitted to race without shoes.
Today, we’re in a minimalist running craze.
The untraditionally shod are, if not everywhere,
vociferous enough that they certainly seem to
be. Is there anything actually to it, or is it just
noise, inspired by Born to Run, Christopher
McDougall’s New York Times bestseller about
the sandal-wearing ultramarathoners among
Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians?
Proponents of minimalism speak with the
zeal of the recently converted. Opponents spout
dire warnings: you’ll ruin your arches, step on
an HIV-contaminated needle, pound your feet
to hamburger. “If you talked to people in podi-
atry a decade ago, nobody would have said that
barefoot activity had any benefit,” says Ray
McClanahan, a Portland, Ore., podiatrist. “But
now, a few people are starting to say it might
be good for you.”
Away from the hype and the extremes, the
2 3
4 QUICK TIPS TO ADAPTING TO MINIMALISM
minimalist movement is rightly correcting
decades of drifting in the other direction when it
comes to running shoe design. At its core, min-
imalism asks the runner to look for the least
amount of shoe he or she can safely wear now,
and to work toward reducing the amount of
shoe necessary through strengthening the foot
and improving one’s stride. It assumes that run-
ning is a natural movement of the body, rather
than an unnatural act that requires pads and
braces to perform safely. Putting it plainly, the
movement embraces the notion that the beef-
ier the shoe, the more a runner’s natural stride
is inhibited.
After 30 years of making shoes with large
amounts of cushy foam and structured sta-
bility, shoe companies have gradually gotten
into the act — starting with Nike’s Free in 2004.
Although most brands have always had some
type of lightweight trainer or racer in their line,
this spring many manufacturers are offer-
ing some type of shoe specifically designed to
promote a natural running gait. “More peo-
ple are shifting toward this type of product,
or at least trying it,” says Sean Murphy, man-
ager of advanced products engineering and
sports research for New Balance. “I think
4 5
By Brian Metzler
Converting to more minimalist shoes requires more than just buying a new
pair of lightweight flats. Here are a few tips to guide your metamorphosis.
1 GE T NE W SHOES
2 T R A N S I T I O N S L O W LY
3 R U N B A R E F O O T — B R I E F LY
4 DO FORM DRILL S
this movement is going to start to affect even
the training shoes you see on the wall [in
running stores].”
In fact, Murphy says, we may be on the verge
of a sea change similar to the one that spawned
today’s “traditional” shoe in the late 1970s and
early ’80s.
That movement came out of research inspired
by the first running boom, when doctors began
wondering about a rash of injuries afflicting the
runners of two decades ago. One of those stud-
ies, by D. B. Clement, then of the University of
British Columbia, tallied injuries to more than
1,600 runners severely injured enough to seek
treatment from sports medicine clinics. It found
that three of the most common injuries were
Achilles tendinitis, metatarsal fractures, and
tibial stress syndrome (leading to shin splints
and stress fractures of the tibia). At the same
time, other labs were discovering from strike-
plate tests that runners hit hard in two places:
the heel and the forefoot. The conclusion: Shoes
needed elevated, cushioned heels to take stress
off the Achilles tendon, plus a cushioned forefoot
to protect the metatarsals. “At the time, it was
all about reducing those stresses,” Murphy says.
Two other injuries of concern were runner’s knee
6 7
RUNNINGTIMES / 47
 and plantar fasciitis. For them, Murphy says, the
conclusion was that prevention meant prona-
tion control. “If you started putting something
fi rm on the medial side [of the shoe],” he says,
“[the idea was] that would prevent everything.”
Suddenly, many shoes looked more or less
alike: lots of heel lift, lots of cushioning, and, for
runners who needed stability, beefy protection
against excess pronation. The shoes, in other
words, that most of us have been wearing for
the last 25 years.
GRASSROOTS REVOLUTION
In the early 1980s, running-shoe design was
reinvented by the research labs. Today’s revolu-
tion is more grassroots. And rather than starting
with the traditional running community, it’s
working its way backward, from extreme min-
imalism enthusiasts into mainstream running.
(The majority of highly competitive runners
have always done some of their training in low-
to-the-ground trainers and racing flats, but
until now, they were dismissed as simply being
biologically gifted.)
Minimalist runners have a number of com-
plaints about modern shoes. They argue that
the more material added under the foot — foam,
rubber, plastic, air bags, gel packets — the less a
runner’s feet can “feel” the ground and the less a
runner can utilize the afferent feedback gained
from the foot-ground interaction. “It’s like a
gymnast landing on a mat that’s too soft,” says
Michael Sandler, who coaches barefoot running
in Boulder, Colo. “Or like trying to play the piano
in heavily cushioned gloves.” The need to make
firm, fully controlled contact with the ground,
he argues, means that softer heels require you
to come down harder than you would in less-
cushioned footwear.
Portland podiatrist McClanahan agrees. In
addition to heel lift, McClanahan has two main
beefs with traditional shoe design. One is the
narrow toe box, which he believes pinches toes
too close together. The other is “toe spring,” in
which shoes turn upward at the toes by as much
as 30 degrees.
Toe spring, he says, appears to have been
designed to help runners roll more efficiently
forward, off their toes — a possible boon back
when midsoles were stiffer than they are today.
But he thinks it’s outlived its usefulness. The
spring is so strong, he says, that a study of
Boston Marathon participants found that,
standing neutrally, most runners’ toes never
even touched the ground. “Only one in 100
had any toe imprint,” he says. “You’re never in
neutral position.”
Whatever the cause, everyone agrees that
shoes radically change the way most people run.
Just to start with, barefoot runners don’t heel
strike. “It hurts,” Sandler says. Instead, unshod
runners or those wearing very minimalist foot-
wear will tend to land on their midfoot, at the
ball of the foot.
“If you run with a shoe,” says New Balance’s
Murphy, “about 80 percent of the population
lands with a heel strike and 20 percent on the
middle or forefoot. [But] when people take their
shoes off, they change the way they run.”
BUT WILL IT MAKE
ME FASTER?
For serious competitors, most of this is
meaningless if we don’t know its effect on per-
formance. Years ago, South Africa’s Zola Budd
ran world-class times barefoot. And my club’s
Barefoot Bonnie could easily produce a sub-
18:00 5K. But were they fast because they ran
barefoot? Or would they have been fast, regard-
less, and being fast and efficient allowed them
to run barefoot?

8 9 10 11 12 13

1 GET N EW SHOES

To get the full benefits of natural running or a barefoot style of running,
look for minimalist shoes with a few key characteristics. First, the shoes
should be lightweight, low to the ground and flexible, have a limited heel-
to-toe drop and have a thin layer of medium-firm cushioning under the
forefoot. (Some minimalist runners prefer a slightly more cushy shoe
for longer runs, but even a thin layer of soft foam under the midfoot and
forefoot will dampen the foot’s ability to feel the ground and respond
accurately, particularly for faster-paced efforts and races.)
By nature, minimalist shoes offer little to no support and no stability
control, based on the belief that the foot in an efficient gait can natu-
rally offset much of the rolling (pronation/supination) that would occur
after a heavy heel-strike gait. Essentially, minimalist shoes offer just
enough protection from the pavement while letting the foot move natu-
rally through a stride cycle.
Many traditional training shoes put the foot 22–24mm off the ground
in the heel and 10–15mm off the ground in the forefoot, and the dif-
ference between the two — typically 12–14mm in traditional training
shoes — creates a forward-leaning slope, designed to reduce stress on
the Achilles. Minimalist shoes trend toward being much more level (a
2–10mm slope) with the assumption that the runner will land on the mid-
foot and use the natural cushioning of the arch, thus the built-up heel
only adds weight and gets in the way of an efficient stride.
But understand that there are varying degrees of minimalist shoes. For
example, a Pearl Izumi Streak has a 10mm heel-toe drop (20–10mm), a
Brooks Green Silence has an 8mm drop and the Newton Gravity Trainer
has a 3mm drop. Other current shoes within the minimalist realm include
the New Balance 100, ASICS GEL-Hyper Speed 4, adidas adiZero Ozweego
365 CLIMACOOL, ECCO BIOM A, and K-Swiss Ultra-Natural Run II S.

48 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 Nobody’s sure. “There are good arguments
[why barefoot is faster]” says Benno Nigg, a
professor of biomechanics at the University
of Calgary, “but it’s just anecdotal. Your [foot]
muscles are becoming stronger, so you should
be able to have better performance. It makes
sense, but nobody has proven it.”
But evidence is starting to come in.
A 2007 study in the Journal of Strength
Conditioning Research showed that foot motion
and performance are definitely linked. Hiroshi
Hasegawa and colleagues from Ryukoku
University in Kyoto, Japan, videotaped 283 elite
runners at the 15K mark of the 2004 Sapporo
International Half Marathon. Even among
the elites, they discovered, nearly three-quar-
ters landed on their heels. But the fraction was
reduced to 62 percent among those running
faster than 4:55 miles.
The front of the pack also had reduced contact
times — the interval in which the foot touches
the ground, each stride. And heel strikers’ con-
tact times were nearly 10 percent longer than
forefoot or midfoot strikers’, again suggesting
that heel striking might slow you down and that
barefoot-mimicking minimalist footwear might
speed you up. It certainly fits barefoot-running
theory, which argues that the barefoot style not But they also found that skimpier designs
only puts you up on your midfoot, but leads you increase performance … to a point. After that,
to run with a lighter, springier stride, translat- cutting down the shoe not only failed to reduce
ing to reduced contact time. the aerobic “cost,” but minimalist shoes actu-
But again, this isn’t concrete proof. Perhaps ally became less efficient.
landing on the forefoot is simply a side effect of “Presumably,” Daniels says, “[that’s] because
going faster. to get real light you sacrifice shock-absorbing
Jack Daniels, author of Daniels’ Running and energy-return characteristics.” (On the
Formula, is a coach and exercise physiologist track, however, they found improvements all
who sometimes runs barefoot on tracks near his the way down to the most minimal shoes they
Flagstaff, Ariz., home. Some years ago, he con- could devise. Apparently, the nice, resilient
ducted studies (never published) on the effects surface of a well-built track gave their test sub-
of footwear on oxygen demand. The results were jects all the shock absorption and energy return
limited but they too suggest that minimal foot- they needed.)
wear is better. And what of the unparalleled East African
Much of the work was designed simply to test runners, who reputedly develop their perfect
the effect of shoe weight on performance. (He and strides running barefoot to school? Why are
his colleagues found a 1 percent increase in aero- shoes one of the first purchases African run-
bic demand for each 100 grams of weight per shoe.) ners make once they can afford them?
“IF YOU START WITH A THICK SHOE AND
SLOWLY WHITTLE DOWN, AT WHAT
POINT DOES THE PERSON START TO
RUN LIKE THEY’RE BAREFOOT?”

14 15 16 17 18 19

2 TR ANSITION SLOWLY

Even if you’re a veteran runner who is used to running in lightweight shoes,
you should take caution when transitioning to a more minimalist type
of shoe. You’re bound to engage muscles in your feet, lower legs and core
differently than you’re used to, partially because you’ll be landing less on
your heel with a braking angle and more near your midfoot with a more
level landing. That will require a period of adjustment, especially if you
haven’t been doing general strength or dynamic strength exercises, says
Mark Cucuzzella, M.D., a 2:24 marathoner and family practice doctor
and faculty member of West Virginia University who has done running
gait analysis to study running injuries.
Plus, while your core will no longer be working so hard to keep your
upper body balanced because you’ll be running in a more natural posi-
tion without a built-up heel, your body will have to adjust slightly for the
newfound positioning. Elite coaches and Running Times contributors Jay
Johnson (runningdvds.com) and Greg McMillan (mcmillanrunning.com)
have both produced strength exercise videos geared toward distance
runners. Michael Yessis’ Explosive Running presents many resistance-
band exercises targeted at improving elements of your stride. A regular
dedication to general and dynamic strength is crucial for anyone run-
ning in minimalist shoes.
Should you eventually be running all of your miles in minimalist shoes?
Purists will say yes, of course, but contrarians argue that this can lead
to injuries for runners who are larger or not optimally fit. As you transi-
tion, consider using your minimalist shoes for short and fast workouts
and wait until you’re strong enough to crank out that 14-mile negative-
split marathon simulation run.

RUNNINGTIMES / 49
 “[In Kenya,] only children are running bare-
foot, and indeed only because they don’t have
the money to buy shoes,” Pieter Langerhorst,
husband and agent of Kenyan-born world-
record holder Lornah Kiplagat, said by email.
But, he adds, that doesn’t mean the top runners
have totally abandoned barefoot running. After
track workouts, they often take barefoot cool-
downs on the grass of the infield.
“This keeps the muscles in the feet also eager,”
Langerhorst wrote in his Dutch-flavored English.
Many top Western runners also run barefoot
strides for similar reasons, even if they didn’t
grow up unshod.
Or consider Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila, who ran
barefoot through the streets of Rome in the 1960
Olympics, setting a world-record 2:15:17 mara-
thon. Score one for barefoot running. But four
years later he was back, this time in shoes, albeit
a pair of Pumas that, typical of the era, were
lightweight and minimally constructed. The
result, another world record, 3 minutes faster:
2:12:12. Was he simply in better shape? Or was
it the shoes?
Sandler thinks it’s because all those years of
running barefoot has trained African runners
to “feel” the ground with each stride. With that
background, super-lightweight shoes that still
allow them to retain most of that feel become an
asset. The argument is similar to that put forth
by Nike when it introduced the Free, one of the
first formal corporate forays into minimalism.
After years of studying barefoot runners, Nike
launched them in 2004 as a training tool, one
that could teach your body a more barefoot style,
but with a stern warning that you don’t have to,
indeed should not, run in them every day.
New Balance’s Murphy agrees that too lit-
tle shoe can hold you back, especially on trails.
That’s because, however naturally these shoes
encourage you to run, you’re going to feel every
lump. “You’re more fearful of that next sharp
rock,” he says. “You won’t put as much force on
the next step.”
In addition to possible skin damage, one must
consider the hardness of the surface. Kenyan
kids don’t run on concrete sidewalks, but soft
dirt roads and trails with a similar under-foot
feel as Daniels’ cushioned track.
LESS VS . TOO LITTLE
In other words, less is more … but only to a tle down,” Murphy asks, “at what point does the
point. And nobody’s really sure yet where that person start to run like they’re barefoot?
point lies. Most likely, it’s an individual decision,
ranging from Bonnie in her bare feet to someone
whose Brooks Beasts are doing their job per-
fectly and who has every reason not to change.
Most runners are not going to want to go all
the way to barefoot running, or to barefoot-
simulating shoes like the Vibram FiveFingers
or Terra Plana EVO Barefoot. For them, mini-
malism will mean something less radical.
Shoe companies are scrambling to get into
the act of producing scientifically designed
“moderate” alternatives.
First, though, they have to figure out precisely
how shoe design affects running style.
Obviously, it’s not the simple fact of having
something on your feet that makes the differ-
ence. Runners using the Vibram FiveFingers
run barefoot style, even though it is techni-
cally a shoe (albeit a very stripped-down one).
Presumably, the difference lies in the thickness
of the cushioning and the geometry of the heel.
There would seem to be a point at which, with
reduced cushion and heel design, a standard
shoe begins to behave more like a FiveFingers.
“If you start with a thick shoe and slowly whit-
“We’ve completed those studies,” he adds,

20 21 22 23 24 25

3 RUN BAREFOOT — BRIEFLY

Barefoot running can be very useful in your transition to minimalist
running, but it should be done safely under controlled circumstances.
Physical therapist Mark Plaatjes, co-owner of Colorado’s Boulder
Running Company, doesn’t condone a full-time minimalist approach
for most runners, but says even if you’re not switching to minimalist
shoes, consistently running barefoot strides after workouts is a good way
to help build dynamic strength in the feet and lower legs. The key is to
focus on good form: light foot placements that don’t entail heavy braking,
a short, compact arm swing, and an upright, but slightly forward-leaning
posture that allows your center of mass to be in front of your footsteps.
Consider ending your run where you can run on soft grass — a park,
the edge of a public golf course or the infield of a high school track — and
do a handful of buildup strides of 50 to 75m reaching 80 to 90 percent
effort two-thirds of the way through. Start with a few during your first
week and ease your way up to about six to eight after a few weeks, extend-
ing the length and your speed slightly but always focusing on optimally
efficient running form.
Another form of barefoot strength-building can come through slow
heel-toe walks on grass or through sand — either on a beach or the long
jump pit of a local high school track. Start a stride by pushing your heel
into the sand and then forcefully rolling through the midfoot to the ball
of the foot and then extending up on the toes. The resistance from the
soft surface or sand will require more muscular exertion and, if done
regularly, will help build foot and ankle strength.

50 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

“and come up with some pretty solid lines of
thinking on how you make the foot work as nat-
urally as possible, and at the same time protect
[it] from the elements.” Expect to see the results
in early 2011, joining a slew of new designs that
have emerged in recent years from companies
old and new to meet the minimalist demand
(see ”Barefoot-Style Running Shoes”).
Even with today’s options, the choice is far
more complex than “to bare or not to bare.”
“People are trying to separate this into ‘no shoes’
[vs.] ‘motion-control shoes,’ whereas there is a
whole bunch in between,” says Mark Plaatjes, a
physical therapist and co-owner of Colorado’s
Boulder Running Company.
“I’m convinced that going in the direc-
tion of minimalism, if you do it responsibly,
will be a healthy thing for most people,” adds
McClanahan. “[But] not everybody.”
Who shouldn’t do it? Diabetics, to begin with.
“They don’t feel their feet,” McClanahan says.
“They’re going to damage their joints.” Also on
McClanahan’s don’t-try-it list are people with
rheumatoid arthritis or otherwise abnormal
feet. Sandler includes people with bones that
didn’t heal properly from a break.
Plaatjes, the 1993 world champion in the
marathon, believes the no-go list is a bit larger
than that. “There are people who will absolutely
hurt themselves, regardless of how easily they
go into [minimalist] running,” he says. “It’s an
issue of ligament laxity and biomechanics, and
they just can’t do it.”
Plaatjes believes there’s only one way to fig-
ure out which group you belong in. “You really
have to have somebody look at you and give an
opinion as to whether this is really an option for
you,” he says. And in doing this, he adds, don’t
automatically presume that running stores are
out to sell you the beefiest shoe they can con-
vince you to buy.
“I don’t make more profit from a stability shoe,”
he says. “If you come into my store, I have abso-
lutely no reason, other than to put you in the
right shoe, to put you in a stability shoe or a min-
imalist shoe.”
Finally, if you do decide to shift to a more min-
imalist shoe, caution should be your watchword.
While there’s not yet a lot of coaching experience
with minimalism, a standard coaching rule is
not to jump into anything too quickly.
That’s particularly true for those contemplat-
ing major changes. Even the extremists started
slow: “I went out 100 yards the fi rst day,” says
barefoot coach Sandler, “then walked home and
iced my feet for a couple of days. Then I did a cou-
ple hundred yards and iced for a couple of days.”
“It took me a year to get fully accustomed to
my Vibram FiveFingers,” adds McClanahan.
So, start easy, both in how far you move away
from the shoes you’ve been running in, and how
long you spend in more minimal footwear.
You also need to pay attention to your feet.
Don’t just throw on the new shoes and head out
the door, Murphy says. “Do it with a great deal
of awareness. You’re going to use muscles you
haven’t used for a while.” In particular, he says,
minimalist shoes will probably give you sore
calves, and possibly soreness in little-used mus-
cles of your feet. “That’s not necessarily a bad
thing. It just means you’re working that part of
your body a little differently.”
Working new muscles to strengthen them
is what we do as runners. Moving to a less-
supportive shoe will likely reveal core and
hip weakness as well, and require work to
strengthen these. Ultimately, the minimalist
goal is to run better — more naturally, more
efficiently, with less impact — making us less
prone to injury, so we can run longer, and faster.
It’s not about the shoes. •

26 27 28 29 30 31

4 DO FORM DRILLS

Boulder, Colo.-based running coach Bobby McGee is one of many form
gurus who preach the need to do form drills before workouts when you’re
fresh as a way to develop efficient running form during a race when you’re
battling fatigue. By repeatedly working on the tenets of good running
form — light foot placements, high stride cadence, compact arm car-
riage, upright, forward-leaning posture — you’ll be able to instill in your
brain and the rest of your body how your body should be functioning in
the latter stages of a race, he says.
Drills come in many varieties and you can make up your own to make
things more fun, but a few common ones include high-knee strides (alter-
nating every other stride or every third stride with a “knee kick”), butt
kicks (an exaggerated rear leg extension in which you alternate kick-
ing yourself in the hind quarters) quick feet (doing as many fast, short
strides as possible in about 20–30m) and acceleration strides (50–60m
buildup sprints that top out at about 90 percent). Every drill should stress
or accentuate some aspect of good form, even if exaggerated during the
drill. Drills should be done several times per week.

For a podcast on transitioning to less shoe,

go to runningtimes.com/apr10.

RUNNING
N T
TIMES / 51
1
 GROWING UP SHOD
T H E T R A I T S O F G O O D F O R M B L O S S O M ( O R W I LT ) E A R LY
By Jonathan Beverly
‘‘W
E DIDN’T ALL GROW UP KENYAN, width are all influenced by our ability to sense
after all.”
Every discussion about minimalism
seems eventually to come around to this state-
ment. If the argument is that, having grown up
shod, we’re trained to need supportive shoes,
what about the next generation? Can and should
we as parents do anything to help our kids grow
up more Kenyan than we did?
The medical establishment tends to be con-
servative on the issue. When asked, David
Davidson, D.P.M., president of the American
Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine (AAPSM),
stated, “Kids should not be running in ‘mini-
malist footwear’ at all and, as in other shoes,
should be wearing brand name running shoes
with good motion control, cushioning, etc.” The
Academy’s official statement is somewhat more
agnostic, stating, “Currently, inconclusive sci-
entific research has been conducted regarding
the benefits and/or risks of barefoot running.”
It makes sense that doctors would be cau-
tious. They also tend to see kids who have
problems, and supporting the foot and con-
trolling the stride helps alleviate many of these
problems. It would seem to follow that all
developing feet could use some support. But as
runners, learning that many of these issues stem
from foot, hip, or core weaknesses and improper
strides, putting kids in motion-control shoes
before they demonstrate the need for them feels
like prescribing corrective eyeglasses to all chil-
dren as soon as they start to read. Is it possible
that overbuilt shoes contradict the medical
mandate to “first, do no harm?”
Michael Yessis, Ph.D., professor of biome-
chanics and kinesiology and author of Explosive
Running, believes so, stating that motion-con-
trol shoes “change how you run, preventing the
foot from functioning normally.” Yessis main-
tains that these shoes “don’t do what they are
supposed to do — if anything, they will lead to
more injuries.” Paul Langer, D.P.M., chair of the
AAPSM’s Shoe Committee, points to three stud-
ies from 1985 to 2008 that found differences in
toddlers learning to walk when barefoot com-
pared to wearing shoes, and between those in
“sneakers” or less supportive shoes. “The signifi-
cance of these studies,” Langer says, “is that they
show how our feet are sensory organs that allow
us to interact with our environment and to
develop natural movement patterns. These stud-
ies suggest that shoes can interfere with that
development. Balance, stride length and stride
52 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010
the surface we are landing on. Clearly, the more
“stuff ” between the foot and the ground the less
ability we have to sense the landing surface.”
The thousands of East African youth running
miles to school barefoot argue also against the
idea that shoes are necessary to prevent injury,
and the resulting stride they develop speaks for
itself in terms of running results. Watch very
young American kids and you’ll note that most
of them also naturally demonstrate a “Kenyan”
stride, up to a certain age. Nicholas Romanov,
Ph.D., professor of physical education and sport
known for his “Pose Method” of running, ana-
lyzed several thousand school children in Russia
during the 1980s. Based on these observations,
he told us, “Kids, with some exception, have a
natural ability to run properly, meaning to fall
forward, keep high cadence and the feet under
the [general center of mass], their body weight
on the forefoot, until age 5–6 years old.”
Romanov blames the change after that age
not on shoes but on training, noting that the
age boundary is concurrent with the beginning
of education. “Of course,” Romanov says, “this
education is based mostly on our experience,
habits, eclectic knowledge with lots of individ-
ual preferences in thoughts on ‘proper’ running
technique.”
Romanov goes on to say that, when kids begin
to think about their running, they base their
technique on visual images of those around
them, which does not often include the best
runners: “Top runners, unfortunately, are out
of our sight, because we consider them as a spe-
cial case with ‘God-given’ abilities, who are out
of our league.”
Yessis agrees that education is much to
blame, lamenting, “No one teaches how to run.”
Observing my 8-year-old son’s first basketball
practice, in which 90 percent of the time was
spent teaching how to stand, run and pivot
with proper balance and posture, I can see their
point: Does anyone do this with running, par-
ticularly at this formative age?
Yet, again recalling those barefoot African
youth, it seems that such education should only
be necessary for those who have already learned
poor habits. Something else happened at that
basketball practice that may be even more sig-
nificant in forming a young athlete’s running
style: The coach used running as punishment
for disruptive talking.
Several experts, including Ron Usher, coach
and PE teacher with an M.A. in kinesiology,
believe that doing a lot of slow slogging, both as
punishment and conditioning for other sports,
emphasizes the development of poor form, and
teaches kids to hate running. Related, when they
are required to be fast, they often are pushed to
run too hard, making them tense up and over-
reach, or too far, beyond what they can complete
with their natural, floating stride of youth.
Other changes happen about school age that
affect children’s stride. Bruce Williams, D.P.M.,
past president of the AAPSM reports, “When
kids begin to gain weight and enter puberty
their risk of foot ailments seems to drastically
increase.” Rob Conenello, D.P.M., international
lecturer on podiatric sports medicine, reports
an increase in injuries related to growth spurts
in 8- to 14-year-olds. “Their soft tissue and bone
structure is not entirely in sync,” Conenello says,
“and as they get bigger and stronger, their stride
changes.” Because of these changes, and the neg-
ative running education they often get in PE and
sports, Usher believes that currently approx-
imately 80 percent of middle-school through
high school kids do need instruction in proper
running form, and most need strengthening
work to be able to run properly. “They just aren’t
getting the movement experience,” Usher says.
Peter Baker Studios (2)
Which brings us back to shoes. Given that
most kids aren’t running completely effi-
ciently, and that they aren’t typically running
on the dirt roads of the Rift Valley, it seems
that most American kids are in a similar posi-
101˚ West Photography
tion as their parents: They need some level of
shoe. “You can’t make a blanket statement,” says
Conenello. “Some kids, some adults can adapt
to a barefoot stride.” Rather than recommend-
Clockwise from Lower Left:
ing traditional cushion/control shoes off the bat,
however, Conenello advises putting them in the
“most minimal shoe possible, and adding sup-
port if necessary.” The level of minimal that is
possible will vary with the child — Conenello

has observed genetic differences on the required
level of support even among his three children
— and may vary as the child ages. Langer agrees,
concluding, “While research does not yet allow
us to predict the long-term risks/benefits of
minimalist footwear in children, it does sug-
gest that allowing the feet and lower extremities
to develop naturally with minimal cushioning
or support is ideal.” Given what we’re learn-
ing about the running stride, it seems parents
should think twice before putting their kids in
a pair of “good sturdy shoes.” •
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR PARENTS:
Encourage kids to go barefoot
01
whenever possible: in the house,
yard, parks, on the beach.
02 Buy the most minimal shoes
appropriate for your child. Look for low
heel height, low-profile cushioning,
flexibility (in the right place, at the
ball of the foot), light weight, ample
toe room. Often the minimal choice
will be general-use shoes rather
than running specific shoes, which
tend to be designed as mini-adult,
cushioned stability trainers.
03 Ensure all of your kids’ shoes are
running-friendly. Kids don’t change
into running shoes to run, they do
it naturally throughout the day.
04 Add support only if necessary. Get an
evaluation from a physical therapist
or podiatrist if your child shows signs
of needing structured support.
05 Allow and encourage kids to run
more like they do when they are
very little: short bursts that end
when fatigued, with a relaxed
stride, at a variety of paces.
06 Encourage kids to participate in a
wide variety of physical activities
that build strength and fl exibility.
07 Help kids stay at an appropriate
weight through diet and activity.
08 Model good running technique and
expose kids to excellent, efficient
runners. For reference on running
technique, a good starting point is
Run Tall, Run Easy by GP Pearlberg.
B A R E F O O T- S T Y L E R U N N I N G S H O E S
NIKE FREE
Nike was the first to mass produce minimalist running shoes specifi-
cally designed to work with a natural or “barefoot-style” running gait
in 2004 with the introduction of its Free line of shoes (nikerunning.
com). It continues to update three models that off er varying levels
of foam cushioning, from next-to-nothing in the Free 3.0 v2 to mod-
erate amount of foam in the Free 5.0 v4 to fairly thickly cushioned
Free Everyday+ 2. Free shoes incorporate minimal outsole (only small
pads of durable rubber in high-wear areas) and have a lightweight
foam midsole that can flex according to the dynamic move-
ment of a foot; however, they maintain a significant
heel-to-toe drop and support under the arch like
traditional running shoes.
NEWTON RUNNING
Since its inception in 2007, Newton has developed lightweight train-
ing and racing shoes with minimal heel geometry and an almost level
heel-toe slope that allows a runner to avoid heel striking (and
instead land near the ball of the foot) and utilize its inno-
vative Action/Reaction Technology that captures
downward energy and channels it into forward
propulsion. newtonrunning.com
SKORA FOOTWEAR
This entrepreneurial eff ort from barefoot running proponent David
Sypniewski is expected to launch later this year. The shoe will
include a rounded minimal heel, an ultra-thin midsole/out-
sole with the same depth from heel-to-toe, an extra-wide
toe box and adjustable lacing for a customizable fit.
skorafootwear.com
TERRA PL ANA VIVO BAREFOOT
Another new player to the natural running game, Terra Plana’s new
featherweight EVO running shoe (expected to debut this spring) is
made from a pliable, soft plastic cage interlaced with a thin mesh fabric
and a minimal footbed. The company is already selling several
shoes with its Vivo Barefoot Technology, including a super-
flexible model designed to help transition runners
into the minimalist movement. terraplana.com
VIBRAM FIVEFINGERS
With a thin, durable rubber outsole, micromesh upper and a
glove-like design that encases the foot and individual toes, these
are about as minimal as you can get. Vibram has
continued to evolve the concept since the initial launch
in 2007, with various models for road running, trail
running and cold-weather running (as well as other
activities like yoga, hiking, surfing, martial arts
and boating). vibramfivefingers.com
Can releasing your toes cure your plantar
fasciitis? Go to runningtimes.com/apr10.
RUNNINGTIMES / 53
 THE 5K PUZZLE
Zen master Yuan-tong noted, “When the task is done before-
hand, then it is easy.”
I’ve coached hundreds of 5K runners over the past 25 years,
from college All-Americans to middle-aged mortgage bro-
kers to seniors battling osteoarthritis. And those who met
their 5K race goal arrived at the start line properly trained
in every aspect of the 5K. They had completed their “task”
beforehand.
Surprisingly, most runners don’t practice this simple
concept. Volume enthusiasts assume that big numbers in
training logs ensure success in a race that is only 3.1 miles
long. Interval warriors pound out 5K-pace repetitions, con-
vinced that all they’ll have to do is connect the dots come
race day. Both groups arrive at the start line with their task
unfinished. Both are missing pieces of the 5K puzzle.
In a puzzle, we start with lots of little pieces, then match
those pieces to build small islands (in a landscape puzzle,
these islands might be patches of blue sky or a cluster of red-
woods), which we then bring together to complete the puzzle.
For our 5K puzzle, we assemble pieces to create these
six islands:
• Stride Efficiency
• Aerobic Endurance
• 5K-Specific Endurance
• Intermediate Fast-Twitch Endurance
• Versatile Race Pace Efficiency
• Post-Run Recovery & Injury Prevention
On race day, we join these islands to complete our 5K puz-
zle. Voila! Our task is done beforehand.
THE PIECES OF
OUR PUZZLE
There is an ancient Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thou- period of time — not distance.
sand miles begins with a single step.” So does our training
program…
1 STRIDE
EFFICIENCY
It all begins with our stride. Stride efficiency is the single
most important element of our future training and racing similar benefits from 60 minutes of lower-intensity running
success. An efficient stride allows us to meet the demands of (65–75 percent VO2 max). Or from 90 minutes. Or from 30.
training without falling prey to injury. And a smoother, lon-
ger stride is an essential ingredient of a fast 5K. So how do not a single long run, a single week of high mileage, or even a
we improve our stride?
If we wanted to improve as a ballet dancer, we wouldn’t ing of lower-intensity, aerobic conditioning.
throw on a CD of the Nutcracker, then twirl madly across
the floor. Instead, we’d do drills to develop proper posture, tance runs:
correct placement, and alignment. We’d improve strength,
flexibility, movement skills, and artistry. And we’d train until
we could perform individual movements automatically, with-
out having to think our way through every plié or pirouette.
It’s the same with running. If we want to improve our run-
ning stride, we don’t dash madly through the streets, across
a park, or around a track. Instead, we begin by developing
the parts — the individual actions that make up our stride.
And we do this using two methods:
• Technique (Form) Drills
RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010
• Short Hill Repetitions
Technique drills involve variations of movements such as
skipping, bounding, and marching. These drills are designed
to promote muscle fiber recruitment, improve nervous sys-
tem function, increase strength, and correct muscle and form
imbalances. Go to runningtimes.com/magilldrill to see some
key drills demonstrated.
Short hill repeats are 40- to 60-meter sprints up reason-
ably steep hills. Our effort level should be slightly less than an
“all-out” sprint — but just slightly. Also, remember that this
workout is designed to challenge our legs, not our lungs. Our
legs should feel momentary fatigue as we recruit their full
range of muscle fiber, but we should recover quickly. Don’t
make the mistake of turning this stride-efficiency workout
into a fitness session. After each repetition, we walk back
down the hill, wait until a full two to three minutes have
passed, and then sprint up the hill again. Eight to 10 reps
will do the trick.
Of the two workouts, technique drills are better for
improving stride. But short hill reps will do in a pinch. A
half dozen sessions of either during the first 8-12 weeks of
your 5K training (no more than one session per week) should
provide 100 percent benefit. Naturally, each session should
include a proper warm-up and cool-down.
I tell my athletes, “Run first, train later.” When we focus
on mechanics at the outset of our program, we set the stage
for better overall training in the weeks and months to come.
2 AEROBIC
ENDURANCE
This is just a fancy way of saying, “Run long and run often.”
But understand that long is about duration, not distance.
Our bodies are not odometers. Our legs don’t know a mile
from a kilometer. Or a kilometer from a run to the park and
back. Runners who focus on “mileage” miss the point of
aerobic endurance training. The point is to keep our bod-
ies working at a moderate level of exertion for a sustained
Think about it. Let’s say we decide that 50 miles per week is
the optimal volume for 5K training. It would take a 30:00 5K
runner approximately twice as long to complete that train-
ing as a 15:00 5K runner. Do we really believe that slower
runners should train for twice as long as faster runners?
Instead, we focus on time. Whatever our ability, we’ll gain
Long also refers to an accumulation of volume. “Volume” is
single season of training. It is a long-term, consistent amass-
For our purposes, there are three types of aerobic dis-
• Short: up to 40 minutes in duration. Short
runs aid recovery from hard workouts
and add to our overall volume.
• Medium: 1 to 2 times the duration of our
short run. Medium runs are “normal” distance
runs and provide the bulk of our volume.
• Long: up to (approximately) twice the
duration of our medium run. Long runs build
capillary density, increase mitochondria (our
body’s cellular power plants), improve stride
 efficiency, burn fat, expand glycogen stores,
and do all kinds of other wonderful stuff.
For the beginner, there might not be much difference
among short, medium, and long runs. Don’t worry about it.
Just make sure to increase the duration of aerobic runs grad-
ually, focusing first on the medium and long runs.
finish your last one feeling as if you could run one or two
more. If you’re completely exhausted at the end of your rep-
etition session, you ran too hard. Adjust the next week by
decreasing your effort. If you’re barely winded, then increase
your effort the following week.
“But how will I know if I’m on track to meet my time goal?”
Many athletes set specific time goals and crave reassurance

3 5K-SPECIFIC
ENDURANCE
The 5K race demands a unique mix of aerobically and anaero-
in training that they’re on track to hit that pace in a race.
Two of my athletes, K
and M, fell into this camp.
bically generated energy. The only way to prepare our bodies Both were 19:00 5K run-
for this demand is to train at 5K effort. We do this by run- ners. Both wanted to run
ning repetitions. Th is is the place where most of us make mid-18:00. Both balked
our biggest mistake: We base the pace for our repetitions when I explained that we’d
on the fitness we’d like to have rather than on the fitness we be training off-track. They
already possess. didn’t want to waste months
If our goal is a 20:00 5K, we want to run repetitions at of training only to discover
20:00 5K pace right now. We want to skip ahead to the glori- that they hadn’t improved. I
ous conclusion of our training program. Only one problem: explained that workouts are
We aren’t in shape to run goal pace yet. not races, that training “race
Remember, we don’t run repetitions to practice run- pace” on the track has little
ning faster. We run repetitions to improve the physiological bearing on what they’d run
systems that will allow us to run faster in the future. To in an actual race. I also told
accomplish this goal, we train 5K “effort” rather than 5K them that they were limiting
“pace.” As our fitness improves, our pace will improve. But our their potential. Why train for
perceived effort will remain the same, allowing us to become mid-18:00? Why not train
well-versed in the effort level we’ll use in the race itself. the physiological systems
To avoid the trap of training by pace, we go off-track for involved in 5K racing and
our workouts, running on the trails or the road. This elimi- see where the chips fell?
nates the temptation to check split times during our reps. It K and M finally agreed.
also allows us to practice adjusting for race-day variables: Three months later, K ran
weather, terrain, our fatigue level, etc. The ability to adjust 16:40 and M ran 17:50.
for variables is essential to race-day success. There is one exception to
Some runners bristle at leaving the security of the track. the off-track rule. As race
Let’s face it, there’s comfort in a perfect 400m oval and the day approaches, some run-
equally perfect splits we can record while running around ners like to add a couple
it. But that’s the problem. Road 5Ks are not perfect ovals. We track sessions (also at 5K
won’t record perfect splits as we dodge runners, climb hills, effort) to “sharpen” their fit-
and make 180-degree turns. Our goal is to become efficient ness. This isn’t about testing
at the race we’re training to run, and training on trails and pace. It’s about solidifying
the road is the best way to make that happen. our stride efficiency at 5K effort. While adding hills and turns
5K-specific workouts should be run once a week. This is a and uneven terrain has prepared us for actual race condi-
typical progression of sessions. All reps are followed by three tions, doing one or two training sessions on a perfectly flat
minutes of jogging unless otherwise indicated: surface helps to hardwire the relationship between stride
• 5–10 x 1 minute (2-minute recovery) efficiency and 5K-specific endurance. Two workouts I rec-
• 5 x 2 minutes ommend for this are:
• 5 x 3 minutes • 16–20 x 400m (100m jog recovery)
• 4 x 4 minutes • 6–8 x 1,000m (400m jog recovery)
• 5 x 4 minutes
• 4 x 5 minutes
• 5 x 5 minutes
It makes no difference whether we’re 15:00 5K runners or
4 INTERMEDIATE
FAST-TWITCH ENDURANCE
Our best 5K effort results from a combination of stamina and
45:00 5K runners. Our repetitions last the same amount of speed. And it just so happens that we have a type of muscle
time. We’re targeting specific physiological processes, not fiber that’s perfectly suited to this task. Fast-twitch type IIa
mimicking race distance. muscle fiber provides much of the “speed” associated with
If you’re unsure whether you’re running 5K effort, try this fast-twitch type IIx (sprinter) fiber, but it also has the capac-
simple test: As you’re running, ask yourself, “Is this an effort ity to function aerobically.
I can maintain for an entire 5K?” Be honest. If the answer is Bingo! This combination allows us to run faster longer —
yes, keep up the effort. If it’s no, slow down. the definition of 5K racing.
Still unsure about proper repetition effort? Then here’s The best way to train this intermediate fast-twitch fiber is
another guideline guaranteed to keep you within the proper to run long hill repeats. This has nothing to do with whether
range: Whatever pace you run your repetitions, you should we’ll be racing on hills, flats, roads, or the track. Long hill

RUNNINGTIMES / 57
 repeats make us faster — period.
The first step is to find a hill that’s not too steep and not
too flat. The incline should be challenging, but it shouldn’t
chop our stride or require
mountain climbing gear.
I prefer about a 6 percent
grade. This increases the
workload for each stride
while allowing us to main-
tain full range of motion.
We use our watches to
time the fi rst hill repeat of
each week’s session. Let’s
say our rep for that week is
supposed to last 60 seconds.
We stop running as soon as
a minute is up. That’s our
finish line. We won’t have
to time the rest of our repe-
titions, allowing us to focus
on correct effort and form.
Recovery between reps is
four to five minutes, includ-
ing our jog back down the
hill and some walking at
the bottom. Less recovery
won’t give us a better work-
out, but it will increase our
risk of injury and burnout.
Remember that we’re tar-
geting a specific muscle
fiber type that is recruited
during a specific range of
effort. Too little recovery
forces us to recruit the other
type of fast-twitch fiber and/or to burn through our mus-
cle glycogen stores.
The correct effort level for each repetition varies depending
on its length. As with our 5K-specific workout, the guiding
principle is to finish our long hill repeat session with enough
energy remaining to run one or two more reps. We want to
finish with gas in the tank.
This is typical progression for long hill repeat sessions:
• 8 x 30 seconds
• 6 x 60 seconds
• 8 x 60 seconds
• 4 x 90 seconds
• 6 x 90 seconds
Long hill repeats should be run two to three times a month
until we’ve accumulated six to eight sessions. My preference
is to alternate hill repeats with technique drills on a weekly
basis. If you’re already in fairly good shape, you can begin
incorporating these reps at the outset of your 5K program. If
you’re a beginner, wait three to four weeks. Never do long hill
repeats the week of a race. Also, on weeks that don’t include
hill reps or a race, it’s beneficial to incorporate a few hills into
our long runs. This reinforces the gains we’ve made.
Training faster than goal pace serves two purposes.
Physiologically, it makes us efficient at paces that might be
required in the race (at the start, during surges, and for our
finishing kick). Psychologically, it makes our actual 5K pace
feel “slow” — our race pace feels relaxed since it’s less than
100 percent of the effort we’ve trained to run.
Two faster workouts are:
• Track: 16 x 200m at 3K effort,
with 200m jog recovery
• Park or Trail Fartlek: 8–10 x 30- to 90-second
surges at >3K effort, with jogging
recovery equal in time to each surge
3K effort isn’t meant to imply an exact pace; rather, the
point is to run harder than 5K effort but not quite as hard as
we’d run during a mile race.
Training slower than goal pace allows us to increase the
duration of higher-intensity endurance sessions without
overstressing our bodies.
Two examples of this type of workout are:
• Tempo Runs
• Progression Runs
Tempo runs are one of the great misunderstood workouts of
our sport. In his seminal book, Daniels’ Running Formula, über-
coach Jack Daniels writes that “the intensity of effort associated
with [tempo] running is comfortably hard. [Y]our effort should
be one that you could maintain for about an hour in a race.” This
is what tempo is not: a time trial. To be on the safe side, when
preparing for the 5K we should tempo train at an effort approx-
imately equal to half marathon race pace.
Because the 5K doesn’t require the sustained endurance
effort of longer races, it’s OK to break tempo runs into two
sections. This gives us most of the benefit while reducing the
chance of overtraining. For example:
• 2 x 10 minutes, with 2-minute jog recovery
• 2 x 15 minutes, with 3-minute jog recovery
Progression runs begin at our normal distance pace, then
drop 10–15 seconds per mile until we can’t go any faster (or
until we reach 5K race pace). This usually occurs at between
6–9 miles. A Garmin is great for this workout, but it’s OK
to guesstimate pace while using a watch to trigger each
increase in effort.
Varied pace work should be introduced four to six weeks
before our 5K race. Faster work can take the place of the
weekly drills or hills session. Slower than goal pace work
can substitute for the 5K effort repetitions. Always make
sure to subtract one hard workout from your weekly sched-
ule before adding one of these.
6 &POST-RUN RECOVERY
INJURY PREVENTION
One of the biggest mistakes we runners make is to call it quits
on our workout once the running part is finished. We figure
we’ve done the work, so what can it hurt to skip the stretch-
ing, injury prevention exercises, and icing?
Answer: It can hurt a lot.
Running depletes muscle glycogen, generates mini-
spasms in our muscles, triggers inflammation, and leaves
us dehydrated. The most important 15 minutes of our work-

5 VERSATILE
EFFICIENCY
RACE PACE
A 5K puzzle isn’t complete without pieces obtained from
out is the time we spend post-run counteracting these effects.
In order, we need to incorporate:
• Glycogen replacement and rehydration
training at efforts above and below our 5K goal pace. • Stretching

58 / RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010

 • Injury-prevention exercises
• Icing 5K TRAINING
Glycogen replacement and rehydration is easy. We simply
consume 300–500 calories of carbohydrates, washing them
down with lots of water. Bagels, bananas, and sports bars are
PROGRAM
great sources of carbs. Or choose chocolate milk or a sports
drink to get a combination of carbs and fluids.
Static stretching has gotten a bad reputation in recent
1 BASE-BUILDING
PHASE
Use this two-week pattern of workouts several times before your
years. (See “Dynamic Returns” on p. 25.) Done before running, racing season starts.
it can reduce strength and even cause injury. Post-run is a
different story, however, as stretching releases pesky muscle Day AM PM
spasms that can lead to pain and inflammation. Monday 5K Effort Repetitions
Injury-prevention exercises are geared toward prevent- Tuesday Medium Run
ing and rehabilitating conditions like plantar fasciitis and
Wednesday Short Run* Medium Run
iliotibial band syndrome. Towel toe curls and foot orbits can
reverse many cases of plantar fasciitis, while a revised hur- Thursday Technique Drills/Short Hill Sprints
dler’s stretch can sometimes erase iliotibial band pain in Friday Short Run* Medium Run
the space of a minute. These exercises and stretches should
Saturday Long Run with Hills
be incorporated into our post-run routine on a daily basis.
Go to runningtimes.com/first15 to watch a video of a good Sunday Short Run, Medium Run or Off
post-run routine. Monday 5K Effort Repetitions
Icing is the silver bullet that makes our sport possible. We Tuesday Medium Run
need to ice each and every sore spot that could potentially
Wednesday Short Run* Medium Run
progress to injury. And we need to begin our icing within 15
minutes after completing our run. This is truly a case of a Thursday Long Hill Repeats
stitch in time saving nine. Friday Short Run* Medium Run
Saturday Long Run
Sunday Short Run, Medium Run or Off
COMPLETING
THE PUZZLE
Finally, race day arrives. We step to the start line injury free.
2 RACE
PHASE
Follow this schedule before your key 5K races of the year to reach them
The gun goes off, and we immediately fall into a pace that rested and raring to go.
matches the 5K effort we’ve been practicing for weeks. Our
stride is effortless as we blend aerobic endurance with speed Day AM PM
and strength gained from the hills. We make adjustments Monday Tempo Run
in our effort level based upon feedback from our bodies, a Tuesday Medium Run
method we rehearsed during all those repetitions on the
Wednesday Short Run* Medium Run
roads and trails. And when finally the finish banner comes
into view, we call upon our fartlek-trained fast-twitch mus- Thursday 16 x 200m (3K effort), with 200m jog
cles to carry us to the fi nish line, then cross at the exact Friday Short Run* Medium Run
moment we reach 100 percent effort.
Saturday Long Run
There’s no part of the race for which we’re not prepared.
There are no surprises awaiting us. We completed our task Sunday Short Run, Medium Run or Off
before race day. We assembled all the pieces of our puzzle. Monday 20 x 400m (5K effort), with 100m jog
Our race is no longer a test. It’s show and tell. It’s graduation. Tuesday Short Run* Medium Run
It’s a foregone conclusion. It’s a celebration.
Wednesday Park or Trail Fartlek
Best of all, the race itself now adds to our overall fitness,
locking our puzzle pieces into place. We can look forward Thursday Short or Medium Run
to improved 5K performances in our next races. And as an Friday 20-minute Run or Off
added bonus, the same training that’s prepared us for the
Saturday RACE
5K has also prepared us for races like the 10K — even the
marathon! That’s right. Since we’ve focused on improving Sunday Short Run, Medium Run or Off
the essential aspects of training — from stride efficiency
to muscle fiber recruitment to aerobic endurance — rather * Optional Workouts
than simply adding miles to our training logs, we’ve emerged
as better overall runners: fitter, faster, and more efficient. •

Pete Magill holds three American age-group

records and is the oldest American to break
15:00 for 5K, which he did at age 47.

TIMES / 59
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USA Minnesota, which he’d 10,000m PRs this spring, and to join a group
joined in July, Smyth withdrew of Team USA Minnesota athletes on the
from graduate school to European summer track-racing
run full-time. Success circuit. Although mixing it
on the r oads came up this way is differ-
quickly, as he placed ent from the type
fifth at the national of focused run-
10K championships in ning he did in
July (28:49), third college, Smyth
at the national embraces the
10-mile champi- experience,
onships in October and so far he’s
(47:09), and second staying healthy,
at the 4.75-mile Manchester avoiding burnout,
Road Race in November (21:41). and continuing
On Jan. 1, he won the 4-mile to improve.
Emerald Nuts Midnight Run in “We’re going to stay
New York City (18:35). on the roads even dur-
“It’s been exhilarating,” Smyth ing track season,” he says. “It’s
says of the transition. “Every race a great way to experience com-
has really been do or die. Going petition on a regular basis, and
into every race the objective is I’m really enjoying it — traveling
twofold: One, to finish in the to places all over the country and
money so as to stay afloat meeting interesting people as I get
financially, and two, to be my name out there.” •

RUNNINGTIMES_ APRIL 2010


MOEN Continued from page 77
coach of Team USA Minnesota, and liked
what they had going in Minneapolis. Living
in a large metro area would be an adjustment,
but Moen had the credentials and outlook
the program was looking for and made the
move the summer of 2008. And he found
just what he needed in training partners
MATT GABRIELSON, JASON LEHMKUHLE,
PATRICK SMYTH and ANTONIO VEGA. “They
really work well together and Josh is very
receptive to coaching,” Barker says. “As he’s
gotten better and gained more confidence
he’s become a great racer. He isn’t intimi-
dated by anybody.”
Those characteristics were on regular dis-
play last year. In April Moen scored 5K and
10K track PRs at Mt. SAC (13:35) and Brutus
Hamilton (28:26), and he also placed sixth at
the USA 7 Mile Championships (Bix 7) in July.
Then at the USA 10-Mile Championships
on Oct. 4 in Minneapolis, Moen and ABDI
ABDIRAHMAN pulled away from the pack
after 3 miles and dueled to the fi nish, with
Abdi eking out a 3-second win. “I felt on a
good day I might go under 47:00,” Moen says,
“but I was really surprised to run 46:38.” He
accordingly adjusted his goal for his debut
marathon in New York, down from 2:16 to
something in the 2:12–2:14 range.
VACANCY Continued from page 76
tightening qualifying standards, but he’s
also thinking about simply allowing more
people into the race. Like most race direc-
tors, though, Morse can’t let the event grow
too big. He has to worry about the quality
“There are 15,000-plus races in this country, and so if you
don’t get into Boston, or New York City, or Bolder Boulder
or something like that, there are plenty of races out there.”
of the race, which is conducted on nar-
row, winding roads and travels through
eight cities and towns. Hood to Coast and
Western States have similar problems.
Unlike those races, Morse has no plans to
create a lottery system for Boston, and he
doesn’t feel comfortable eliminating any
of the 5,000 spots that go to non-qualified
runners. They are, he says, “a fact of life,”
the price of hosting a major athletic event
that involves a lot of moving parts — spon-
sors, charity partners, and the good will of
each of the race’s host towns.
Go to runningtimes.com every Monday morn-
ing for a recap of the weekend’s big races.
TACTICS • JOSH MOEN
Unfortunately, Moen’s lone poor per-
formance of 2009 came in the Big Apple,
where he felt bad early (even though he went
through the half in 1:06:46) and dropped out
at mile 17. “I had a fueling problem, and I also
think I went out too hard against the wind,”
he says. “It was just a bad mix.” But while
disappointed, he got past it quickly — took a
break, got engaged, and began looking excit-
edly toward a new year. He started things off
on a good note by fi nishing sixth in the U.S.
half marathon championships (1:02:53) on
Jan. 17 in Houston.
“The marathon’s off the table for 2010,”
says Moen, who’ll shoot for t he world
championships “A” standard of 27:48 for
the 10,000m this spring and hopes to race
in Europe this summer. After that he’d like
to run Bix 7 again and the Crim 10-miler
and maybe the U.S. 20K championships.
“I’ve only r un one ha lf marat hon,” he
adds, “so my plan is to run some longer
races and kind of work myself back up to
the marathon.”
Sounds promising. A re more break-
throughs on the horizon for Moen? Barker
seems to think so. “After every race or sea-
son Josh raises his sights and strives for the
next level,” Barker says. “He always has big- (ADVERTISEMENT)
ger things simmering inside.” •
For competitive runners just looking for a
solid event, the new registration landscape
may take some figuring out. The era of day-
of sign-up is fading fast, and runners will
need to be just as organized about registra-
tion as they are diligent about preparing for
the physical demands of the race itself. Or,
serious runners can eschew the celebrity
events and compete in smaller, equally well-
organized grass-roots races. But, as Running
USA’s Lamppa says, the problems people are
having entering races are ultimately good
for the sport, and he isn’t worried that the
net benefit is going to race directors. “As far
as the runner goes, I wouldn’t quite say that.
There are 15,000-plus races in this country,
and so if you don’t get into Boston, or New
York City, or Bolder Boulder or something
like that, there are plenty of races out there.
But there is a pent-up demand. People want
to do these races and they’re signing up in
record numbers and as fast as they can.” •
RUNNINGTIMES / 79