Runner's World August 2014

>

wiNTER TRAINING SPECIAL

august 2014

Australia & New zealand edition

Totally

Fit

› Get Faster › Slim Down › Run Stronger › Have More Fun!

BRIGHT IDEAS Amazing New Reflective Gear 3 Ultimate Workouts To Build Speed & Power p34 Special Report

WHAT DOES

PERFECT FORM LOOK LIKE? p64

32

MORE ENERGY, LESS FAT 6 Simple Diet Tweaks

+ MID-RUN

STOMACH WOES? Simple Cures p42

+ stronger arms, legs and core no gym required

+

9 Boredom-Busting Treadmill Strategies To Fire Up Your Training

BEST WAYS TO GET (AND STAY) MOTIVATED BEGINNERS

Race-Day Jargon Decoded incl. GST AUS $8.95 incl. GST NZ $9.70 PP 349181 / 00853

runnersworldmag.com.au

RW august

inside

57 BEAT THE WINTER BLUES We tackle the motivational minefield of winter with 32 surefire ways to jumpstart your mojo, right now!

By Sam Murphy

32

64 IT’S ALL IN THE HIPS Foot strike, the darling of minimalism, is overrated. Good form starts with the pelvis and glutes.

By Jonathan Beverly 72 THE RUNNER’S COOKBOOK Eight delicious, nutritionally balanced recipes, from polenta porridge to speedy smoothies.

80 RUNNING CONVERSATION: JOHN PODESTA The political guru trusted by presidents Clinton and Obama talks about how running has powered his career as one of Washington’s most influential thinkers.

By Caleb Daniloff

50

87

72

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND’S NUMBER ONE RUNNING MAGAZINE

REGULARS

RW digital

6 8 10 13

Rave Run Editor’s Letter Running Inbox Human Race A fit, active 43-year-old survives a heart attack on the run.

PLUS The Intersection (14)

Ask Miles (16)

Back Story: Emma Kraft (16)

What It Takes To… (18)

RUNNERSWORLDMAG.COM.AU

98 I ’m A Runner Nelson Aspen, 51, New York, Channel Seven Sunrise showbiz editor

57

> CONNECT WITH US

personal best

21

21

29

Fitness News Home-made hydration: save on sports drinks by doing it yourself.

Training Five counterintuitive training strategies for when you need to get your running back on track.

PLUS How to “talk the talk” come race day. (32)

PLUS Three workouts guaranteed to build

speed, strength and efficiency. (34) 39 Fuel Six rules for a healthy, whole-foods

eating plan designed just for a runner

like you.

PLUS Tasty recovery meal: breakfast pita pizzas. (44) 47 Mind & Body How to stay fit on a

treadmill without getting bored or injured.

50 The Body Shop Get stronger and

prevent injuries with this affordable,

portable training tool.

columns

52

54

Life & Times One runner wonders if we really rest when we aren’t running.

By Sam Murphy Tonky Talk Paul Tonkinson embarks on a father-son, friendly, non-competitive run.

runnersworldmag Follow The Coach Tim Crosbie

runnersworldmag

runnersworldaus

Follow The Sports Dietitian Amy Giannotti

rwmagazine

runnersworldaus

Follow The Physio Kate Senini

91 Video

64

departments

87 Gear See and be seen during dark

winter months with these bright items.

Races & Places Stephen Jackson tackles the idyllic promenades of a popular tourist town at the Airlie Beach Running Festival.

44

Watch shoe and gear reviews, workouts, nutrition tips and training advice.

>

on our cover

91

WINTER TRAINING SPECIAL

iPAD AUGUST 2014

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND EDITION

Totally

Fit

› Get Faster › Slim Down › Run Stronger › Stay Motivated

BRIGHT IDEAS Amazing New Reflective Gear 3 ULTIMATE WORKOUTS TO BUILD SPEED & POWER p34 SPECIAL REPORT

WHAT DOES

PERFECT FORM LOOK LIKE? p64

32

MORE ENERGY, LESS FAT 6 Simple Diet Tweaks

+

MID-RUN STOMACH WOES? Simple Cures p42

+

STRONGER ARMS, LEGS AND CORE NO GYM REQUIRED

+

9 Boredom-Busting Treadmill Strategies To Fire Up Your Training

01-CoverAug.indd 2

BEST WAYS TO GET (AND STAY) MOTIVATED BEGINNERS

Race-Day Jargon Decoded incl. GST AUS $8.95 incl. GST NZ $9.70 PP 349181 / 00853

runnersworldmag.com.au

august 2014 Volume 17 Number 02 Photographed exclusively for RUNNER’S WORLD

For enhanced content and more, download the iPad edition of the August issue in the iTunes Newsstand.

26/06/14 8:56 AM

RW Digital WE’RE ALWAYS RUNNING AT RUNNERSWORLDMAG.COM.AU

rave run Photography by Celesta Fong The Location Kingdom of Mustang, Nepal ➔ THE EXPERIENCE The landlocked country of Nepal is a small mountain nation wedged between the northern border of India and the Himalaya. In the rain shadow of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges, the Mustang District is a semi-arid landscape defined by deep ravines and rock shelves, bisected by the Kali Gandaki River, which forms the deepest gorge in the world. The Mustang Trail Race is a multi-stage event staged in the former Kingdom of Lo in Upper Mustang. During eight days, 25 runners cover nearly 200km at altitudes between 2900-4300 metres, with 8200 metres of elevation change. Participants race along ancient trading routes on the Tibetan border following the Kali Gandaki and ancient Tethys seabed, where the remains of fossilised sea creatures are seen. “Running through deep gorges and remote lunar landscapes under the shadow of Himalayan giants Dhaulagiri [8167m] and Annapurna [8091m], you are humbled by the immensity and scale of your surrounds,” says 44-year-old participant Celesta Fong of Melbourne, Victoria.

– mustangtrailrace.com

sleep, he didn’t panic. Instead, he went for a run. “A long, slow aerobic run would always correct me,” says Dixon. “And this was in the middle of my European track season! I’d go out for a two-hour, maybe two-hour and 20-minute run. Later, when I would go through the same symptoms, I’d do the same thing.”

If one slow, long-ish run doesn’t fix your dead legs, then try two. If not two, then three. Eventually, your legs will feel refreshed, and you won’t have sacrificed months of training.

SLOW & STEADY: Run more, not less, to combat heavy legs.

Leaps Of Faith

Five counterintuitive training strategies for when you need to get your running back on track

By Pete Magill & Greg McMillan

M

any runners live in fear as race day approaches. The long months of distance have been logged, tempo runs endured and lead-in races completed. All that’s left is for something to go wrong. It’s a runner’s nightmare. With race day in the headlights, we get zapped by injury, illness or the symptoms of overtraining. Luckily, strategies exist to combat many causes of pre-race breakdown. It’s just that some of these strategies are a little out of the ordinary. But for runners willing to take a leap of faith, these counterintuitive approaches can make the difference between a wasted training cycle and a great race.

DIAGNOSIS Ú Heavy Legs PRESCRIPTION Ú Long, easy distance Arthur Lydiard, the legendary New Zealand coach, devised the perfect remedy for heavy-legged syndrome: go long.

“While I was training, always in the Lydiard way, if there was a training issue the remedy was always easy aerobic running until you “came right”,” says Lorraine Moller, four-time Olympic marathoner and bronze medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Games. “Problems nearly always stemmed from overtraining, [and]

the remedy was to oxygenate the body with long-ish runs.”

Lydiard’s answer to dead legs was more running, not less. It was just that the running had to be slow and aerobic.

“The long aerobic run is your home,” says Rod Dixon, one of a long line of New Zealand distance runners to embrace Lydiard’s training methods. “Home is where you find comfort. It’s where you go to sleep, to rest. Your long aerobic run is your home base. It’s where you go to feel comfortable.”

When Dixon awakened to discover himself as fatigued as when he’d gone to

DIAGNOSIS Ú Quadriceps pain PRESCRIPTION Ú Brisk downhill running Six years ago, I developed severe quadriceps pain. In the space of three weeks, my 5K time slowed by two minutes and my long run dropped from 24 kilometres to eight.

Desperate, I resorted to a “cure” I’d read about on the internet. But it sounded so incredibly counterintuitive, I held little hope for success.

This is what I did: I jogged three kilometres up a trail in nearby hills, and then turned around and raced back down at tempo pace. At the bottom, I hobbled to my car, certain that I’d done irreparable damage. But three days later, my quads were as good as new. No, that’s a lie. They were better than new.

“Running downhill can cure quad pain once a runner’s legs adapt to the eccentric overload caused by the activity,” says coach and exercise scientist Tom Schwartz. Eccentric loading occurs when muscles lengthen and shorten at the same time. When we run, our quadriceps contracts when our foot touches the ground. This stabilises our knee. But even stabilised, our knee bends slightly, stretching our quadriceps as it shortens.

This eccentric tug-of-war creates enormous tension in our quads.

Brisk downhill running increases the eccentric load on our quads, causing more muscle damage. The good news is that once our body repairs this damage, we’re left with quads that are stronger and protected from further injury.

Schwartz recommends running 20- to 30-second repetitions down a 3 per cent

training

grade at between tempo and 5K speed.

He suggests four repetitions for the first session, six reps a week later, and an additional two reps each week until reaching a maximum of 12. It’s important to note that easy downhill running will not provide the same effect.

DIAGNOSIS Ú Calf pain and Achilles tendinosis PRESCRIPTION Ú Heel dips As race day nears, many runners insert sessions of shorter, intense intervals into their training. Not surprisingly, these same runners frequently experience a sudden onset of calf pain or Achilles tendinosis. Once again, the treatment is eccentric loading.

“Typically, eccentric exercise produces quite a strong training stimulus,” says Jonathan Dugas, co-author of The Runner’s Body. “We know that during those contractions we activate less muscle, although moving the same amount of weight. This is thought to cause the muscle damage since fewer fibres are doing the same work and therefore fatigue more quickly.”

Dugas recommends heel dips for treating Achilles tendinosis. This cure doubles as a strategy for strengthening our calves. With heel dips, we balance one foot on a sturdy platform or step, resting on the ball of our foot with our heel hanging over the back of the platform. Using our hands for support (e.g., fingertips against a wall), we lower our heel until we feel the stretch in our calf, and then we use both legs to return to our starting position. Dugas suggests eight to 16 reps.

arrives. Whether this occurs because of an immune system letdown in response to the taper, a loss of normal training rhythm or some other reason, the result can be a poor performance on race day.

For these runners, a reduced taper to 75 to 80 per cent of normal volume can provide better results. Depending on whether we’re running a marathon, 5K or some other distance, the taper should begin anywhere from a couple weeks out to a couple days.

“Before my next race at Boston,” says Gilmore, “I cut back a lot less than I’d normally cut back and PBed by two minutes, running 2:12:45. I never looked back. The biggest thing is that you feel better. If you taper less, you’re more in your normal mode. You let your body rest without letting it know that it’s resting.”

DIAGNOSIS Ú Post-long run stiffness PRESCRIPTION Ú Long run day double session We know that gentle exercise aids recovery more effectively than complete rest. This is because the increased blood flow generated from exercise delivers nutrients to those aching muscles and removes waste products at a faster rate.

So, no matter how much you may be longing for nothing more active than adhesion to the couch and epic pizza consumption, it makes sense that muscles that are stiff after a long run could benefit from a gentle second run later on the same day. Or, if you really can’t face a run, you can reap gains from any other gentle exercise that will boost blood flow, such as walking or cycling.

It’s vital to go slow, though. These runs DIAGNOSIS Ú Colds, allergies and should be for time rather than mileage so race-day sluggishness you aren’t forcing your body to run further PRESCRIPTION Ú A reduced taper than you should. Plus, any runner who’s “I always got colds about a week to 10 injury-prone or recovering from an injury days before the marathon,” says Peter should not do this.

Gilmore, the top American finisher at One thing is for sure – your body will not the 2006 New York City and 2007 like the first few minutes of this second Boston marathons. run. You’ll be stiff and sluggish. But stick Gilmore isn’t alone. Many runners with it. After five to 10 minutes, your discover that a traditional taper of 40 to body will loosen up. Because you’re only 60 per cent of their standard volume leaves running 20 to 30 minutes, it will be over them susceptible to colds, allergy attacks quickly and you can continue your recovery and a feeling of staleness when race day program of resting and refuelling.

Follow the Leader

Advice from the world's best runners

JOSH RALPH, 22, of Epping, New South Wales, won the 800m National Title at the Australian Championships in April 1 EAT RIGHT “For breakfast I eat 8 Weet-Bix, topped with banana, strawberries, grapes or whatever else is in the fridge, accompanied by a cup of coffee. Breakfast is my most important meal of the day. I believe that if I don’t start with a good meal, I play catch-up for the rest of the day.”

2 TRAIN RIGHT “One of my favourite training sessions is 12x200m. I train on a grass track, and the goal is to try and average about 25.5s per rep across the session. I start hurting around reps 7 or 8, and have to really push through the lactic, particularly in the last 2 reps.”

3 RECOVER RIGHT “I always do a full warm-down jog and a stretch, followed by something to eat. For me this is often 2 “Up ’n‘ Go’s” and a banana. After this, I get a massage and an ice bath. I like to switch between hot and cold baths over a 10min period. It stimulates bloodflow, which removes lactate and helps repair micro-tears in muscles.”

runnersworldmag.com.au

29

64

august 2014

IT’S ALL IN THE

HIPS

By Jonathan Beverly

Foot strike, the darling of minimalism, is overrated, say the experts. Good form starts with the pelvis and the glutes

W

ATCH A VIDEO OF KENENISA Bekele winning a 5000m or 10,000m, and it is quickly apparent that he and the rest of the world-class pack with him are doing something different from what most of us do every day. They float around the track, hardly seeming to touch it. They accelerate smoothly and effortlessly. Their legs seem to spin beneath weightless bodies.

We want to run like them, but too often we feel like we’re muscling our bodies along, pounding the ground and working for each forward push. What element of their stride creates the difference? Where should we look?

For the past several years, we’ve been told to focus on our feet. Elite runners are different, form experts have said, because they land on their midfoot or forefoot, and we should do the same to run more smoothly, faster and with less injury.

Where your foot makes contact with the ground became a litmus test of running prowess. Among some runners, the label “heel-striker” attained the stigma of “learning impaired.”

And yet, many of those who adopted a forefoot strike and the minimalist shoes that accompanied the movement didn’t see an improvement in times and continued to get injured. So much so that the movement has all but disappeared.

A wide range of experts – from kinesiologists to physical therapists, orthopedists to coaches – agree that the extreme emphasis the running world has put on foot strike is misplaced. Daniel Lieberman, the Harvard scientist who gave scientific credence to minimalism with his seminal 2010 article in Nature, says, “Frankly, when we published that paper, I never expected everyone to obsess about it as much as they did. Had I realised that, I would have added a sentence to the effect that while foot strike is important, there

runnersworldmag.com.au

65

Fa st

Ve ge ta ria n

Re co ve ry

ru n Pr e-

The Runner’s

t Fa s

Ve ge ta ria n

Re co ve ry

Pr e-

ru

n

Delicious, nutritionally balanced recipes to keep your body in perfect running order

Power-up polenta Nutritionist Dr Liz Applegate cooks up a nutritionally balanced, quick-to-make breakfast kickstarter. Ideal for when you return ravenous from a pre-breakfast run, it’s loaded with carbohydrates to restock energy stores and protein for muscle repair. Plus, the dried blueberries and almonds provide a health-boosting antioxidant punch. It’s also versatile enough to serve as a pre-run fueller if you don’t want to attack your morning session on an empty stomach.

72

august 2014

SERVES 2 PREP TIME 10 mins INGREDIENTS n 600mL skim milk n 80g instant polenta n 40g dried blueberries n 40g chopped almonds n 2 tbsp honey n Ground cinnamon to taste 1 Pour 450mL of the milk into a medium-size saucepan and bring to

the boil. Whisk in the polenta, stirring for five minutes, or until thick.

2 Stir in the blueberries, almonds, and honey. Sprinkle with cinnamon to taste. Divide the polenta between two bowls and top each with the remaining milk.

PER SERVING 2209kJ, 100g carbs, 6g fibre, 18g protein, 7g fat (1g sat fat)

runnersworldmag.com.au

73