Monday, March 30, 2009

Perfect running pace

I came across an article that has discovered the perfect running pace for males and females. What the article doesn't say is how far this pace is good for. Anyone have the actual article and how far the runners went?

Perfect Running Pace Revealed
LiveScience.com


Most regular runners can tell you when they reach that perfect equilibrium of speed and comfort. The legs are loose, the heart is pumping and it feels like you could run at this pace forever.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison now have an explanation for this state of running nirvana, and we can thank our ancestors and some evolutionary biology for it.

For years, it has been thought that humans have a constant metabolic energy rate. It was assumed that you would require the same total energy to run one mile, no matter if you ran it in 5 minutes or 10 minutes. Even though your energy burn rate would be higher at faster speeds, you would get there in half the time.

Turns out, however, that each person has an optimal running pace that uses the least amount of oxygen to cover a given distance. The findings, by Karen Steudel, a zoology professor at Wisconsin, and Cara Wall-Scheffler of Seattle Pacific University, are detailed in latest online edition of the Journal of Human Evolution.

Steudel's team tested both male and female runners at six different speeds on a treadmill while measuring their oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output. As expected, each runner had different levels of fitness and oxygen use but there were ideal speeds for each runner that required the least amount of energy.

Overall, the optimal speeds for the group were about 8.3 mph (about a 7:13 minutes per mile) for males and 6.5 mph (9:08 min/mile) for females.

The most interesting finding: At slower speeds, about 4.5 mph (13 min/mile), the metabolic efficiency was at its lowest. Steudel explains that at this speed, halfway between a walk and a jog, the runner's gait can be awkward and unnatural.

"What that means is that there is an optimal speed that will get you there the cheapest," Steudel says.

So, why is a zoology professor studying running efficiency? Steudel's previous work has tried to build a theory of why our early ancestors evolved from moving on four limbs to two limbs, also known as bipedalism. She has found that human walking is a more efficient method of getting from point A to point B than on all fours. It might also have been an advantage for hunting.

This latest research could offer some more clues of how we moved on to running. Steudel explains, "This is a piece in the question of whether walking or running was more important in the evolution of the body form of the genus Homo."



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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Deutscher Rundfunk interview with Jesse Owens during Olympic Games 1936

Here is a pretty cool look at Jesse Owens as he got ready to trounce the German Machine during the 1936 Olympics.



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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Getting Better

Now that I have been able to put together a few good long runs, get my volume up slightly, and most importantly did 3 miles of quarter mile repeats last night, I am finally starting to feel good about my running again. I feel as if I am becoming a runner again, almost to where I was a year ago and those repeats had a lot to do with it. I probably didn’t run them at the fastest pace I could have, but I did run them hard and was tired after. It was a good accomplishment for me at this point in my training.

Now with a weekend of 8 miles on Saturday and 15 miles on Sunday, check back then to see how much a “real runner” I feel like then. Mix in my son’s t-ball game, church, and a nephew’s birthday party I have a feeling this weekend will be tiring. At least the furlough days have some benefit as I have Monday off.

My last chiropractor appointment was today and I am glad to be done with all of my therapy. I like seeing and talking to Dr Seifkin, but I need to focus on the positive. I am sure that just like when I was discharged from physical therapy I will have some psycho-somatic pains for the first few days, but that will be good.


I received an email from Elite racing with a $15 off registration for the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon. It also said that this is the last year for this course and the last time the race will ever end at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot. I hope that the Competitor Group who bought Elite does not try to turn every race they do into a huge carnival where there is more focus on the peripheral events than the race itself. For years the San Diego RNR prided itself on having 20,000+ runners who all did the full, no half marathon available. Now there is a 4 person marathon relay and rumors of adding a half marathon next year. Why cant something that isn’t broken be left alone?



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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Get Involved

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upcoming Arizona running races

I haven't been updating the races in a while so here are a few quick hits. One of the cooler events coming up is the Chasing the Sun 10K. It is part of a huge Pow Wow taking place at the University of Phoenix Stadium. Be warned however, the race starts at 5:30 AM.
Should be a cool time.

The 5th annual Flagstaff Summer Running Series is set. The dates and events are:

May 16:Run for the Mountain School 5K/10K
June 6:NACA Sacred Mountain Prayer 5K/10K
June 20:Gaspin in the Aspen 5K/15K
June 27:Northland Hospice Run/Walk 5K/10K
August 1:Machine Solutions Soldiers Trail 5/10K
August 8:Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flagstaff 5K/Half Marathon Run/Walk.

Register on Active.com and go to the Northern Arizona Trail Runners Association site for more info. www.NATRA.org

I was going to mention the Valley of the Sun half marathon, but their website says that the race has been postponed until next year. It is a very scenic route that is fairly fast, but I do think that some retooling may be needed after several years of problems, new management (Brian Collins -1st Marathon) should cure the issues.

The Havasu half marathon is April 4th, and the ever popular Pat's Run (4.2 miles) is on April 18th.

The Prescott YMCA Whiskey Row Marathon is May 2nd. This is a race I have wanted to do for a few years but have never gotten up there. Perhaps this will be my year.

May 23rd the 2009 Arizona Road Racers (ARR) Summer Series starts up again at Papago Park.

Anyone catch that lame Biggest Loser half marathon? Way to cheat by cutting the track chick who thought she had won got what you deserved!

Well that's about it for now, hopefully I can keep up with my training, keeping the intensity low but keep the miles increasing.




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Jack Daniels news...

I came across an article that referenced Dr. Daniels and the demise of the High Altitude Training Center in Flagstaff.

Read the article here...

The article atates: "Daniels’ credentials range from his assistance in Jim Ryun’s preparation for the high altitude of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City to last year’s Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials, when an unheralded Magdelena Lewy Boulet earned a place on the podium. He worked with dozens of national-class runners over the course of his 40-plus year coaching career. Yet despite these credentials that have elevated Daniels to an almost legendary status, economic downturns have recently put Dr. Daniels out of work."

I am really sad that the center could not keep operating, if no reason other than to allow Dr. Daniels and his family to remain in Flagstaff where they want to be. Pretty sad and harsh reality we all live in these days.

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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Jay Cutler...

I think this article will sum up everything that is going wrong with my Denver Broncos and Jay Cutler.
http://www.milehighreport.com/2009/3/11/794217/jay-cutler-bus-cook-and-th

Agents are killing sport.

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Saturday, March 7, 2009

Congratulations!

I want to take a quick second to give congratulations to my daughters soccer team for winning their division championship today. My daughter plays on the Cheetahs who are in the CCV Stars girls under 10 division. Their season was difficult due to many factors including moving up in age bracket, losing a few good players, being one of the youngest and physically smallest teams in the division, and the expectations (from players, coach ,and PARENTS) of being the overall under 8 champions last year. . based on the difficult season they went into the Bronze division while the biggest teams were in the Gold/Silver division. Rylees team lost their first game to a pretty good team, but bounced back to win the next two. The last game they came back from being down 2-1 with less than 5 minutes to play to win 3-2 and clinch the bronze division championship. So good job girls and coach Jordan, you all deserved it!






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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

My humor is unappreciated...

I am slowly starting to realize that to most of society, my sense of humor may as well be spoken in a foreign language that disappeared from the earth 2000 years ago. The first example of that was a few months ago at work. I finished up the work newsletter, formatted it into an Adobe PDF file (as I do every month), and emailed it to the two offices I do community partnerships for. In the e-mail I stated that I would be looking to hire someone to be a paperboy and deliver the newsletter in the future. That went over about as well as a ban on glow sticks at a rave. In fact several people were seriously confused over the matter.

So, fast-forward to today. I was at Home Depot to get a new aerator for my kitchen sink as I poked a hole in the one currently sitting in the faucet. While wandering through the store a very helpful gentleman asked if he could assist me (on a side note, I have never been in a store where every single employee I was within 15 feet of said “good morning” and/or “how can I help you?” It was almost scary). I told the dude what I needed and he walked me right over to where they were hanging on the wall. We found the one I needed and I made a comment about the packaging saying that it was a 1.5 gallon per minute aerator. The sales guy said that it was a water wise Eco friendly unit. I asked if there was an aerator that put out more than 1.5 gallons per minute. This seemed to perplex him, and he obviously was not ready for my next question. He told me that 1.5 GPM was the industry standard. I then asked him if there is a place to find black-market faucet replacement parts, because if there is a 3 gallon per minute version I could really go for something like that. The only response I received was a blank stare. No verbal response, nothing. I don’t know if I came across as an eco terrorist or what, but this guy did not find my Seinfeldesque attempt at humor as being witty. My guess is that security tracked me on camera all the way to my Suburban (It has flex-fuel. It can be Eco friendly).
It was then that reality dawned on me and I realized that my humor escapes the masses. It’s a shame because there is a real party going on in my head.


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