Yoga for Runners

The key to being any athlete is flexibility. I have started taking yoga classes because I have not flexible at all. I could see how all the other girls on the team were able to touch their toes and hold stretching positions for at least 20 seconds. I was jealous and needed to figure out what I could do to become more flexible.

I talked to head track coach at Florida Atlantic University, Alex Smolka, who told me that "yoga is a great way to relax the mind and truly focus on your body. Flexibility is important for sprinters because you need to get the full range of motion out of your body. You can't do that if you are tight."

The website, http://www.yogaforrunners.com/, promotes a video of yoga made for a runner by a runner. According to the website, Christine Felstead's Yoga for Runners is an easy, empathic method of improving flexibility for all athletes, regardless of body type. The four-part format allows you to focus on any individual segment or run through the program in its entirety.
-Fundamentals - as a runner, how to integrate yoga into daily life to improve sitting, standing and running postural alignment.
-Lower Back
-Hamstrings
-Hips

After only taking yoga for four month, I can already see a difference in my flexibility. I am able to hold stretches longer and reach past my foot when I am sitting down doing stretches. It is amazing to me because I always thought I was semi flexible, but once I was done with my first few classes of yoga and could stretch further, I realized I wasn't flexible at all.

Yoga will also help keep you keep your balance. As a sprinter, you need to be able to balance yourself when you are coming out of the starting blocks. If you have ever competed before, you know that there are chances that a starter can hold you in the blocks a lot longer than he really should. If you have strong arms you can hold yourself up, but if you don't then it's over. Yoga can help strengthen your arms and help you keep your balance for those times in the starting blocks.

Yoga classes are available at most gyms and also at specific locations. To find a location just look it up online or in a phonebook!

Inspirational Movie

A lot of times athletes get discouraged and want to give up since it is hard work and takes a lot of dedication.

I recently saw a movie called, The Express which was really inspirational and made me really realize that what I am doing is a gift. I hear sometimes people feel that they want to give up and that there is so much more they could do with their time instead of training hard.

This movie is about the first african-american, Ernie Davis, to win the Heisman Trophy. He was blessed with a gift of talent, but never used that as an excuse to not train hard.

I really recommend that you see this movie. There are times when he is hurt and still runs. There are times when he has struggles in his life, but he still trains. Playing the game is all that matters to him.

Ernie Davis grew up in a life of poverty, but that never brought him down. Through the tough times he focused on his goal of being the best player he could be.

Try to see this movie if you get the chance. It really helped me realize that all the hard work that I am putting in on the track is going to pay off. So hang in there, season is right around the corner!

Sprint training week five

Week five is here and is getting harder, but it will be worth it. That is me in the picture in the second lane, running at a meet at University of Florida.

It may be hard to keep doing these workouts week after week, but trust me, in the end it is worth it. Crossing that finish line in the lead is one of the best feelings a sprinter can have.

Whether or not you did a time trial is up to you, but if you did it I want to congratulate you on at least attempting to do one! It is hard to get yourself out there and run at a race pace only racing against yourself. Week five is going to test your endurance your strength. If you feel sore or tight, take extra time to stretch and prepare yourself for the workouts.

Monday:
Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. Make sure you do the two new drills I added in a recent blog. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run 500 meters, walk a 400 for recovery. Run 300 meters, walk a 200 for recovery. Run a 200 meters, walk a 100 for recovery. Run a 100 meters, walk a 400 for recovery. Stetch yourself out and get ready to run 400 meters as fast as you can. Stretch and jog two laps for a cooldown.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, walk a 200, run 200 meters, walk a 100, run 100 meters, rest for five minutes, then do it two more times.

Tuesday:
Both jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. Make sure you do the two new drills that I mentioned in a recent blog. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run ten 100 meters as fast as you can. Walk 100 meters inbetween.

Short sprinters: run 12 times 100 meters. Walk a 100 inbetween.

Wednesday:
Both long and short sprinters warm up and do drills. You do not have to do the two new drills that I have recently mentioned in a new blog. Stretch out and then head to the weight room to do a lower body workout.

Thursday:
Go to a hill somewhere that is safe and mark off 200 meters. Both long and short sprinters run 10 times up a 200 meter hill. If you can not find a hill, go to a gym and put a treadmill on an incline of at least five. Try to make it up the hill in under 35 seconds.

Friday:
Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills, including the two new drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run 500 meters, rest for 2 minutes, run 300 meters and walk a 400. Do this three times.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, walk a 200, run 200 meters, walk a 100, run 100 meters, rest for five minutes, then do it two more times.

Make sure you rest this weekend. Week six is going to include weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Make sure you get a lot of water and have an active rest. If you feel sore or tight, get up and go for a light jog and stretch yourself out.

Running in the cold

Okay, I know that most people don't live in 80 degree weather for most months out of the year, but when it gets down in the 50's, I am freezing! This morning was the hardest workout I have done, it was 54 degrees and I had to do sprints.

I decided to do some research because I could not run as fast as I normally could. My nose was running and my legs were tight. I wear long tights everyday (even when it is 90 degrees outside) because they are a good way for you to keep your legs warm while you are warming up. I don't mean warm as in hot.

The term warm in track means to keep them ready and fresh. If you get cold you seem to tighten up which isn't good because you can easily pull something.

After doing some research I found out that one of the most important ways to stay warm is to protect your hands and feet. As much as 30% of your body heat escapes through your hands and feet. If I would have known this I would have ran in thicker socks and mittens!

Also, I found out to stay away from cotton clothing because the cotton keeps the moisture in your clothes which will make you colder. I had on three cotton t-shirts today, so I was extremely cold.

There are many different types of cold weather and for many people they are different from what I consider cold. Growing up in Florida hasn't really taught me the meaning of cold weather.

Dr. Stephen Pribut has this great website which he classifies the different types of cold weather and what he suggests you wear. Check out his website in order to stay warm while you are going to workout!

Stay warm!

Sprint Weight Training

I have mentioned that it would be good to go to the gym and do upper and lower body workouts on Wednesdays. According to track coach Owen McGregor, after the first several weeks it would be good to up the amount of times that you lift.

If you are not comfortable going right to three days a week, you can start lifting two days a week. Lifting on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays would be a good way to spread out the amount of weight lifting that you do.

I have spoken to weight trainer, Brian Remington who works with the Florida Atlantic University track and field team about what a sprinters workout should be. When the workouts are given, for example, the first one says Side Lying, Glute Med 2x20. The 2x20 means that you have two sets of 20.

This is the following workout that he provided for the first Monday:

Side Lying, Glute Med 2x20
BAND GM’s 2x15
TKE’s 2x20

Box Squat 5x5
(work up to a little heavier weight)

(Circuit x3)
Bodyweight Reverse Hypers 3x20
GB Pull-ups 3x12
DB Shrugs 3x 12-15

I know that probably does not make a lot of sense the first time you look at this, but I will explain every part of the workout.

Side Lying Glut Med, 2x20- What you will need is to get a small band that will go around your legs. You could probably ask the front desk of a gym and they should have one. Lie on your side with your hips and knees bent, and your feet together. From here, make sure you keep your elbows on the ground and then slowly rotate your top leg away from the bottom. Rotate as far as you can without moving the lower back, and then return to the starting position. Do this 20 times on both your right and left sides. When you finished the first set, do it again for a total of two times.

Band GM's, 2x15- You will need to get a a larger band, one that you can place under your feet and put up around your shoulders. Spread your feet shoulder width apart and step on the band. Bend down and and the band around your neck, so when you come up there is resistance on the band. Lean forward and then come straight up and that is one. Do this for two sets of 15 repititions.

TKE's, 2x20-For this exercise you will need the same band you used for your band GM's. Tkae the band and put it around a piece of equipment, or if you have a partner put it around the back of their knee. Put it around the back of your knee and keep your foot on the ground. Make sure there is resistance and lift your heel up and then put your foot back down on the ground, that is one. Do this for two sets of 20 repititions.

Box Squat, 5x5- A box squat needs to be done on a rack and should be done with a person spotting you. Since box squats are very important to do correctly, I want you to go to this site and make sure to do it at a weight that is not as heavy for you at first. You should build up your weight so you can add some every set.

The next set of exercises are part of what is called a circuit. A circuit means that each excersise needs to be completed before you can start another set. There are three sets of each, so make sure you complete the three exercises before you start over.

Bodyweight Reverse Hypers- are imporant and need to be done on this machine at the gym. This exercise is important to build up muscles in your lower back and hamstrings. Do three sets of these and 20 repititions.

GB Pull-ups 3x12- can be done on a pullup bar and needs to be your own bodyweight for three sets of 12.

DB Shrugs 3x 12-15- can be done with any dumbbell weight. Try to start off with at least 25 pounds. Grab both dumbbells and hold them down by your side. Shrug your shoulders up to your ears and then release and bring them back down to where they started. Do this for 12-15 reps.

Well this is the first workout for Monday. There will be different workouts for Wednesdays and Fridays. Good luck trying this and if you have any problems at all, you should always feel comfortable to ask for help when you are in the gym.

Speed Time Trial

I have given you the workouts for four weeks and if you are ready for a bit of a test to see how you are doing you could try to give yourself a time trial.

A lot of people like to see how their workouts are going for them and if they are getting faster. We haven't done a time trial yet, so it would be hard to really judge how the workouts are going for you.

A time trial is a way for people to know where they are at in their workouts. This is our first one, so this will be a beginning point. In another five weeks, I recommend that you do another time trial to see how you compare to the one that we do this week.

A time trial is an all out intense run to see how far you can get. You can do time trials in distance or in time. For a distance time trial, you would decide how far you really want to test yourself. A lot of athletes will run a 400 all out to see how fast they can do it in. You can do this in any distance that you like.

What I recommend, and what I did for my time trial was to run 45 seconds all out and see how far you can get. This is what I call a timed time trial. Choose a time you want to run. Maybe you are training for the 200 meters and your goal is to run a 24 seconds. You could run for 20 seconds and see how far you could get. 45 seconds is a good amount to run if you are training for any type of sprinting event.

It would be more benefitial for you if you had someone come out with you to time you. It is hard to start and stop your watch while you are sprinting. Sometimes a lot of people who wear their watches while sprinting focus more on their time rather than their form and the actual race. If you can not get someone to come out and time you, it is not a problem. Just make sure you mentally prepare yourself to focus on how far you can get in the quickest time possible.

If you do have someone out there to help time you, what would also be benefitial is to have the person time your first 100 and 200 meters. Do not have them stop the clock as you go through the 100 and 200 meter mark, but just have them clock down how many seconds it took you to get through that mark.

Good luck and remember to stretch and do the complete warm-up before you attempt this. It would be horrible if you did not warm up and you ended up pulling something. If you do this, make sure to comment and let me know how you did!

Here is one of my favorite quotes to end this entry. It was said by famous runner, Steve Prefontaine and helps me get through the tough times in this sport...

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

Sprinting Drills

I have already talked in previous blogs about the drills we use to warm up. We do the same warmup every day, but we recently just added two new drills that I am going to start including in the workout. They are accelerations and hurdle walkovers.

Accelerations are to be done right after the drills. They are quick thirty meter sprints that are supposed to work on your fast twitch muscles.

There are two different types; fast and slow twitch muscles. Fast twitch muscles are much better at generating short burts of strength and speed. By doing acceleration drills, it is good to get the thirty meter bursts of energy.

Although they fatigue more quickly, it is good to do them everyday so you can build up the stamina that you will need during competition. Fast twitch fibers generally produce the same amount of force per contraction as slow muscles, but they get their name because they are able to fire more rapidly. Having more fast twitch fibers can be an asset to a sprinter since they need to quickly generate a lot of force.

There are so many things to learn about fast and slow twitched muscles. This is one of my favorite sites to visit. Athletequickness.com has many ways for athletes to work on becoming faster. In most sports, being fast is a key element in order to be successful. I hope you find the site as helpful and enjoy it as much as I do.

The second drill we do are hurdle walkovers. Hurdle walkovers are done over a set of ten-fifteen hurdles. They are designed to strengthen your hip flexors and also increase balance. In order to get a good idea of what a good hurdle walkover should look like, take a look at this video.

I know it could be hard to do hurdle walkovers if you do not workout at a track or have access to the hurdles. If you don't have access to hurdles, one could watch the video and get the motions down so you wouldn't need to use a hurdle. If you can get your hips high and stay on your toes, you may be able to get the same exercise done without a hurdle. You could also use something about the same height as a hurdle, or at least a little higher than past your knees. Make sure to stay on your toes in order to work the calves and try not to touch the hurdle with your hands.

More sprint training

Weeks three and four workouts are the same in the amount of distance that you are running. The only difference between them is that week four should be a bit faster than week three. Sounds easy right? As the days pass you get closer to the ultimate goal, competition.

Right now it is October, but according to track coach Owen McGregor, "it is already November." In order to think like a runner you need to look at what you are training for. What you are training for in October is how you are going to run in November. If you don't train in October, November is going to be tough for you. You must put in the work and dedication to the track now.

Like I said, week three and four workouts are the same. Just make sure you push yourself to try and get the most out of the workouts. The faster you run, the quicker you will get. If you slack off, you won't see the results when track season comes along.

Monday:

Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run 500 meters, rest for 2 minutes, run 300 meters and walk a 400. Do this three times.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, walk a 200, run 200 meters, walk a 100, run 100 meters, rest for five minutes, then do it two more times.

Tuesday:

Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run ten 200's at your own pace.

Short sprinters: run 12 times 100 meters. Walk a 100 inbetween.

Wednesday:

Both long and short sprinters warm up and then head to the weight room to do an lower body workout.

Thursday:

Go to a hill somewhere that is safe and mark off 200 meters. Both long and short sprinters run 10 times up a 200 meter hill. If you can not find a hill, go to a gym and put a treadmill on an incline of at least five.

Friday:

Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: the workout is 3x300x3. Let me clarify, run 300 meters, rest for 2 minutes and then run 300 meters again. That is one, we have it times three. After the first set, make sure to rest for a 400 meter walk and then do it again.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, rest a 100 walk and do that four times.

I hope you find this workout helpful. I can not wait until season starts and I can see how this training has improved my running from last year. If you struggle at all, remember that we are running because we love the sport. Don't let anyone, including yourself, tell you you can't do anything. We can all do whatever we put our mind to!

Benefits of massages

Soreness happens to athletes in every sport. A way to reduce the amount of soreness you have is by getting a massage.

Massages are good for the body and also for the mind. There are physiological and psychological effects of a good sports massage.

The physiological effects are pain reduction in the area. The tension and waste products in muscles can often cause pain and soreness. A massage helps reduce this in many ways including releasing the bodies endorphins. Massage also allows the the body and mind to have complete relaxation. The muscles relax through heat generated, circulation and stretching.

One of the main psychological effects is the reduction of anxiety in the muscles. Muscles carry a lot of tension in them, especially during and after a workout. It is very important to relax these muscles through a sports massage.

There are many places to go to get massages, but you need to find the right place to go. There are specific places that specialize in sports massaging, which would be more benefitial for you.

Florida Atlantic University sports uses Dr. Bruce Fischer for all our our massage and chiropractic needs.

The main difference between sports massage and other massage techniques is that it directly targets and reduces tension in muscles that are affected from the sport you are doing.

When weather doesn't always cooperate

When you say the word track, we normally think of the outdoor track and field. There is such a season as indoor track, but there are not many of them in Florida. If you are training near a university that does have an indoor track, it is easy to train inside which could be good for when the weather turns bad.

Down here in Florida, it is hard to always run your workouts around the rain. Storms can pop up right when you are about to start your workout. If that does happen, don't get discouraged because you can still get a good workout indoors.

You can go to a gym such as Golds Gym, Worlds Gym, LA Fitness or any gym that is close to your house. Most gyms have a one day pass if you do not want to pay for a membership.

If you have to miss a workout outdoors, make sure to find a gym and get a good cardio workout. If there is a treadmill available you can do sprints on the treadmill. You can turn it up to the speed of 8.0 and run on that for 30seconds, then back off for another 30 seconds and repeat for eight times. This will work yourself as if you were doing sprints outside.

If you are not comfortable having the treadmill at such a high speed, get on a stationary bike and do the 30 second sprints on a bike, peddling as fast as you can and then resting by slowly peddling. You never want to stop peddling because that could slow down your heart rate extremely fast and that would not be good because you could find yourself feeling faint and dizzy.

A good way to warm-up and cool-down would be do ride a stationary bike for twenty minutes each time. Make sure you remember to stretch so you will not injure yourself. Even though you are not outside and putting all the pounding preasure on your legs, you are still very vulnerable in the gym because a lot of people do not warm-up as much as they should.

Is it getting easier yet?

As the weeks progress, your workouts should feel a bit easier. The first two weeks are tough because you are probably not used to the strains you put on your body. The workouts are tough and the body has endured a lot more than it is used to.

As week three begins, your body should feel a bit lighter when you run and not as heavy. Here is the workout for week three:

Monday:
Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run 600 meters, walk a 400, run 400 meters, walk a 200, run 200 meters, rest for five minutes, then do it again.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, walk a 200, run 200 meters, walk a 100, run 100 meters, rest for five minutes, then do it two more times.

Tuesday:
Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters and short sprinters: both run 12 times 100 meters. Walk a 100 inbetween.

Wednesday:
Both long and short sprinters warm up and then head to the weight room to do an upper body workout.

Thursday:
Go to a hill somewhere that is safe and mark off 200 meters. Both long and short sprinters run 10 times up a 200 meter hill. If you can not find a hill, go to a gym and put a treadmill on an incline of at least five.

Friday:
Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run six 300 meters. Walk 200 meters in between each one.

Short sprinters: run 10 times 110 meters, walking 100 meters in between each one.

If this is not getting easier for you, take your time and don't worry about your speed. If this is getting easier for you, feel free to pick up the pace and challenge yourself during these workouts.

Icing your injury

Sometimes injuries do happen, whether you want them to or not. I wrote in a recent blog about pulling and straining your hamstring, but I did not write about what to do if that does happen to you.

Right now I have a hamstring injury. I have a minor hamstring strain, which if taken care of properly I should be back to training in a few days.

Those few days that I have to recover from my injury are crucial and to not be taken off. There are many things one can do while injured in order to help your body heal faster.

It is important to make sure you ice your injury. When icing, you want to wrap or sit on a bag of ice for 20 minutes. When an injury occurs anywhere on your body the ice slows down the inflammation and swelling . Ice helps to relieve pain by numbing sore tissues. It slows down the nerve impulses in the area, which interrupts the pain-spasm reaction between the nerves.

Ice should be applied soon after the injury occurs. The coldness makes the veins in the tissue contract, which reduces circulation in the area. After the ice is removed from the injury, the veins in the body dilate. Once that happens, the blood rushes into the area bringing nutrients necessary to heal the injured area.

By icing, you are helping yourself heal faster and allowing yourself to get back on the track faster.

In sports, there is a very important mnemonic divice one should remember. It is R.I.C.E.

Injuries should not be taken lightly, they are a serious part of being an athlete and if not properly treated it could mess up your entire competitive career.

Time to work on those abs!

It is very important to have a strong core of your body. It is very important to work on your abdominals after every workout that you do.

According to Florida Atlantic University trainer, Brian Remington, a runner needs to do a minimum of 4,000 abs a week.

There are many different ab workouts one can do, but I will introduce you to the twomain ab workouts that the sprinters at FAU use.

The first one is called crunches.

To do a cruch, you need to lay on your back and put your knees up in the air. Position your legs hip length apart. Place your hands behind your head so that your thumbs are tucked behind your ears. Hold your elbows slightly out to the sides and keep your chin pointing upward. Curl up forward and make your head and shoulder blades lift off of the floor. Make sure that you are not pulling your head with your hands, as that would not be working your ab muscles. Pause for a moment and hold as you squeeze your abs. Release and continue until you do 100 of them.

The second one is called V-Ups.

To do a v-up, you need to lay on your back with your arms stretched above your head and your legs flat. Raise your straight legs up in the air and reach to touch your toes with your hands at the same time. Once you touch your toes with your hands, flatten back out to the starting position. Continue to do these until you reach 100 repititions.

Benefits of protein powders and shakes

After a workout it is very important to get proper nutrition. According to Frederike Feil, whose father is the nutritionist for the German National Track and Field Team, it is very important to fuel your body within 45 minutes of an intense workout.

One of the main ingredients in shakes and powders is protein, a compound known as a building block for muscle, bone, skin, and other tissues. Meal replacement drinks are a great way to lose weight, increase protein intake, and increase muscle. In track, it is imperitive to increase the protein intake in order to increase the muscle in your body.

There are many different opinions about shakes and drinks, but it is really up to the athlete as to what you would like to drink or eat after a workout. For information on powders and shakes, please refer to this site.

Shakes and powders can be expensive, so if you are trying to cut back and save money there are also some homemade ways to support and build muscles in your body. The only thing you should buy is whey protein, which can be bought at your local grocery store.

You can try one of these homemade recipes:
1 Banana

8 ounces of skim milk

1 tablespoon peanut butter

2 scoops of whey protein powder

Mix it all up in a blender and you have yourself a tasty power protein drink!

If you prefer a fruitier taste, try this recipe:

1 cup of frozen strawberries

1 cup of low fat vanilla yogurt

2 scoops of whey protein powder

1 tablespoon of honey

1 ½ cups of skim milk

½ cup of orange juice

Mix it all up in a blender and blend until the mixture is nice and smooth.

Injuries Happen

Injuries occur whether one wants them to or not. The most common injuries in track happen to some part of the the leg, thigh and knee. The muscles in the leg need to really be loosened up before any type of activity or else you could risk the chance of pulling something.

The most common running injury to people who run a lot is called runner’s knee. The injury has pain behind the knee cap during running and especially when you press your knee cap against the bone behind it. You can keep the knee cap from rubbing by wearing special inserts in your shoes and strengthening exercises so that the muscle pulls your knee cap inwards.

I talked in another post about the importance of running on the grass to avoid shin splints. That is another common injury that sprinters need to look out for. Shin splints can be anything from tendonitis to stress fractures in the shin area. If you have a dull ache in both or just one of the legs which becomes worse when you are running, you would want to go see a doctor.

When talking to a lot of sprinters, the most dreaded injury is an injury to the hamstring. Of course no one wants to become injured but a hamstring injury is difficult to recover from quickly.

It is very important to understand the muscles of your body. If you are having any type of pain in your hamstring, you could have either or a pull or a strain. please go see a doctor and get it looked at before you injure yourself even more.