Monday, May 13, 2013

Pregnant and want to keep training, but not sure if you should?

Generally speaking, the answer is YES, you should – but likely with some modifications to intensity and duration over the course of the pregnancy!

The following benefits of exercise during pregnancy are directly from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the following website: http://www.acog.org/~/media/For%20Patients/faq119.pdf?dmc=1&ts=20130513T1112323222

Benefits of exercise during pregnancy:

1.     Reduce backaches, constipation, bloating and swelling

2.     Increase energy levels

3.     Improve mood

4.     Improve posture

5.     Promote muscle tone, strength and endurance

6.     Improve sleep

7.     Increase ability to cope with labor and return to pre-pregnancy fitness

For uncomplicated pregnancies, the ACOG recommends 30’ of moderate exercise on most, or all, days of the week.  Types of exercise that are most appropriate for pregnancy include: walking, cycling and swimming.  Of course, before continuing to train or starting to train during pregnancy, you always need to be cleared by your OB first, as there are some cases where exercise during pregnancy is contraindicated.

Assuming you’re cleared to exercise, most aerobic activity that is non-impact and non-contact (sorry, no roller derby!) works well.  For those of us runners out there, typically, it is safe and appropriate to keep running as your body allows (though your runs will become shorter and slower over the course of the pregnancy and extra care should be taken to keep hydrated and cool).  In addition to aerobic exercise, it may also be beneficial to complete moderate strength training and flexibility exercises during pregnancy.  Typically lower weights and higher reps (so blood pressure doesn’t rise too much as it would with heavy lifting) works well for strengthening.  Flexibility exercises can help you feel more comfortable (especially stretching the back and hamstrings!) however, they should be done with the awareness that ligaments are more relaxed during pregnancy (due to the hormone relaxin) and, thus, overstretching/deep stretching should be avoided.

Also, important during pregnancy are the infamous kegal exercises (squeezing then releasing the muscles that stop your flow of urine) and transverse abdominal squeezes with pelvic tilts.  These can be done on your back during the first trimester, but after that are more appropriately done in a “cat-cow” quadruped (on hands and knees) type position.  There are multiple benefits of completing these exercises including better tone in the “laboring muscles” for delivery and better chances of keeping the urine from leaking out while sneezing or coughing, or.... running (ohhh, the joys of pregnancy!)  These exercises are widely recommended for pregnant women and the suggested repetitions range from 30-100/day.  I would suggest doing as many as you can in that range daily. 

For the non-pregnant women (and men!) out there, these exercises are for you as well!  Kegals and pelvic tilts are awesome core exercises that will benefit virtually anyone and can be especially helpful for athletes with back pain or who are looking to improve overall functional strength and performance.

As my little one continues to grow, I hope to see all of you out on the trails, or in the pool, or on the bike...   J

Monday, April 29, 2013

Making the Case for the Shorter Race

By Coach Steve Gibson

I’m guilty. 

Yes, for several years I was one of those distance snobs so easy to find in Boulder.  If it didn’t involve the possibility of a BQ time, or end in the word “man,” I just didn’t really have much interest in shorter, faster races.  And let’s forget about half-anythings.  I mean, really, what was the point? 

A fortuitous congruence of “real-world” events—new baby, wife in pursuit of her own 26.2-mile running dreams, etc—however have brought with them a new, and I believe better, perspective.  As Goose told Maverick, he too felt the need, “the need for SPEED.”

So permit me, if you will, to make the case for the shorter running or triathlon race.  The rewards are numerous but, as we’ll conclude, ultimately take us back to where we started. In Greece. Around 490 BC.

Let’s start, then, with the spiritual. As endurance athletes—be that road, run, tri, trail or any combination of our sweet suffering sports—we are enriched by our time outdoors, pushing the limits of our bodies and enjoying the fruits of our labor. While the solitary workout has its place, there’s something important about connecting with our tribe. And our tribe likes to race. 

Shorter races, by their very nature, give us more frequent opportunities to be part of our community and to experience, as a friend of mine puts it, “suffering with meaning.”  Humans have been racing since well before we were humans. 

Less esoteric, there are clear and wonderfully beneficial mental benefits to shorter races as well. They provide focus to our training, for one. Training cycles, as you might recall, are an overlay of long cycles and shorter cycles, some that last a season, some that last a few weeks, and even down the weekly schedules Scott crafts for F4. Racing helps provide that mental discipline to get out, train and race consistently. Consistency, as Bobby McGee repeats, beats intensity.

More important, to me, is the mental skills training. Each race is different, to be sure, but they all have a pre-race routine that can and should be dialed in. They each require race management and the inevitable need to say, as hardman cyclist extraordinaire Jens Voigt puts it, “Shut up legs!” And they teach us both how much control we have over our success and, even better, that our athletic careers don’t end because of one perceived “failure.” 

And, of course, there are clear physical benefits.  Tautological or not, you have to run faster in order to run faster. Indeed, some of the Kenyan camps now train their athletes to run a certain pace then slowly extend the distance at which the athlete runs that pace as they grow older and gain experience. 

For me, this is where the resonance of shorter races is both immediate and personal. As some of you know, I’m planning to make a hard run at a Boston Marathon time—which is a big stretch for me—next spring.  To do so, I know I need to increase my capacity for speed.  Scott laid out the technical case quite well a few months back — http://new.fastforwardsports.net/index.php/blog/praise_be_the_5k/ — and I won’t repeat that here.

The bottom line, though, is this: The path to a faster marathon time goes directly through the 5K Forest, the fields of Sprint and Olympic, and climbs the cliff that Folsom Street becomes as you approach the stadium on Memorial Day.

I’ll see ya there.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Running Cadence

By Coach Carmen Kitts

How often do you pay attention to your running cadence? Running cadence is the number of times your feet touch the ground in one minute of running.

You can measure your own stride rate by counting the number of times your right or left foot touches the ground in one minute, then multiply this number by two. Do this check about three times to determine your average stride rate. A good goal is about 180 foot strikes per minute.

Many runners are able to maintain the same cadence regardless of the pace or distance of an event. The stride adjustments they make result in the same quick turnover with a slightly longer stride resulting in a faster pace.

Improving your cadence will make you a more efficient and smoother runner, which means you'll be able to run faster and longer during a race or workout. However, consciously trying to change your stride rate can lead to injuries. This is because a common mistake many runners make is to over-stride. This is when your foot falls too far in front of your center of gravity, which can decrease your momentum and cause injury. 

Stride adjustments in order to run faster seem to be automatic but can be improved

by running hills. Hills increase the muscle strength in our legs and improve our running technique. 

Additionally, the strides we do after our warm-ups and always before a race are an excellent way to improve running form and cadence.

Finally, you can improve your cadence by practicing landing softly on your feet and taking smaller "baby" steps. Keep running hills and strides and you'll soon be running more efficiently and faster.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Christy Boutell

I'm 68 years young.  I feel about 35. I'm a Mom, a Grand Mom and would not ever have considered myself as having an athletic background at all growing up.

But now that I have lived in Colorado for the past 10 years and am lucky enough to be in F4;  I guess one could say I am an athlete - albeit in earnest a somewhat slow steady one.

2. How did you discover FastForward?

Tim Leddy  (another Fast Forward member and former colleague at Level 3)  nudged a group of us recent transferees to CO to train for the Bolder Boulder one Spring about 9 years ago.  He would leave notes on our desks and kept asking us if we had signed up yet.  So I went to an orientation - and got to listen to Scott Fliegelman address a room packed with interested runners. I was so intimidated by the fitness level of all those around me that I was in the process of sneaking out,  but in the hallway I got to meet Scott and listen to him encouraging some other attendees about the spring session ahead.  I was impressed by his approach and genuine enthusiasm to beginning folks like me.  After that BB season  I heard that Scott was starting Fast Forward and I immediately asked to join and participate in their first running training season.  The rest as they say  is serendipity.  I think I have signed up and run every F4 season since.

In a nutshell - The year I turned 59 I had never even run a 10K.  During the 1st year after joining F4 - I completed my 1st half marathon and was hooked on slow and steady running as my way of trying to stay young, in my case a relative term... 

3. What are some of your favorite things about training with F4?

One favorite would definitely be the Winter program culminating with the Canyonlands 1/2 Marathon in Moab in March.  I just completed my 9th Canyonlands 1/2 this past month.

A special advantage to being part of the F4 extended family is that Scott has in the past selected and managed logistics for F4’s participation in multiple events. So along with other F4 athletes he made it possible for me to run my 1st marathon in Chicago, followed by F4 participation the following years in Portland,  DC’s Marine Corp. and Denver Marathons among others.  I have now completed more than 25 Halfs, and 6 Fulls.  And as long as F4 runs I will be there somewhere in the pack (not nearly up front but somewhere in there for sure).

The third and probably the MOST IMPORTANT thing I like about F4 is that all I have to do is just show up.   Scott with the help and guidance of his Coaches make the rest kind of take care of itself.  So if I just get there - I'll be better for it.

4. What events are you training for this year?

I'm training mostly to do Halfs again this year and maybe one Full in the fall at (hopefully at sea level and close to my kids).  I ‘m also training to do the Mount Evan's Ascent again this June.

Here is a picture of one of the super best highlight days of my life in F4 and as a Mom!  It was taken at the Marine Corp Marathon which I ran with F4 and that year also included my daughter Heather from Wisconsin (an F4 remote program runner)  and my daughter Sarah from Connecticut who ran the 10 mile and then took photos of F4 folks at the finish.   It was a totally amazing day - to be sharing that  accomplishment with both my daughters together. Without Fast Forward  that day would never  have happened.

Coach Toni Taddonio Gives Back in Many Ways

Coach Toni has a heart of gold. She is always looking for ways to give back to great causes. And that’s how she originally connected with FastForward Sports.

“I began coaching with F4 after meeting with the Denver group to try to raise money for Denver CASA, which provides help for victims of child abuse,” says Toni. “I loved FastForward so much that, after a while, I asked Brian Klink, the head coach of the Denver group at that time, what it takes to coach. He said he thought I already had it and I joined the coaching team.” Toni became an F4 coach in 2007.

An avid runner over the years, Toni has finished numerous 5Ks and 10Ks, 15 half-marathons and five full marathons. She discovered the sport of triathlon in 2006 and since then has competed in numerous sprint- and Olympic-distance races, along with four half-Ironmans and one full Ironman. In June, Toni and her husband, Chad, had to Kona for a half-Ironman, Chad’s first!

This season, Toni is excited to be heading up the partnership between the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Denver and FastForward Sports. Team RMHC is F4’s official charity and helps families of seriously ill or injured children when they must be away from home to seek medical treatment for their children. Their upcoming events are The Cherry Creek Sneak and the Bolder Boulder.

When it comes to coaching, Toni’s philosophy is this: You should always have fun. “When you stop enjoying what you are doing, it’s time to re-set the plan,” she says. “You can always do more than you think you can. Believe in yourself and your ability and remember to smile!” Wise words to live by.