A Tale of Five Electrolytes

Here is an interesting read pertinent to Ultrarunning-

If you are reading this you are probably an endurance athlete looking to improve your training and performance.  You may recall from high school science class that electrolytes are dissolved mineral salts contained in our body fluid–both inside and outside our cells.  It is not our focus here to review in depth all of the cellular biology related to electrolyte homeostasis.  The enlightened athlete needs to know where electrolytes go when they are lost, what the symptoms are when electrolytes are deficient, and how to maintain electrolyte levels to achieve optimum performance.  The five key electrolytes for endurance athletes areSodium (Na+), Potassium (K+), Chloride (Cl-), Calcium (Ca++), and Magnesium (Mg++)

Continue reading at:

http://blog.firstendurance.com/2010/01/a-tale-of-five-electrolytes/

How much do you LOVE Running?

How much do you LOVE Running?

CONTEST TIME!!

Are you guilty of cutting out of work early to get a good run in on a splitter day?  As part of the 2010 contest series we want to hear from you! Tell us how much you love trail running and what you have done to squeak in a long day on the trails!  What are you guilty of… late to a dinner party you were hosting, late to the payoff game because you were about to set a PR?

The rules are simple. Leave a comment on this post and let us know what your guilty of! That’s it. It’s that easy.

If you have the best entry you win a pair of La Sportiva Mountain Running® shoes, First Endurance OptygenHP, a pair of Defeet Socks, Petzl E+Lite, and a mystery Green-Layer apparel item!

Pretty sweet? What are you waiting for- tell us today!

Snowy Mountain Running in Virginia!

We’re head up into the mountains tomorrow to hit the trails before the next winter blast on Saturday.

Charlottesville is an ideal year round running town. You have access to some of the best single track in the country and still get to enjoy the change of seasons. A few weeks back, Charlottesville experienced one of its largest 24 hours snow falls in decades with over 30 inches! This made trail running above 3000 feet a challenge to say the least.

So, off to the Shenandoah tomorrow with Francesca to hit the single track before we need the Yaktraks!

Have a great weekend,
Gill

Trail Streaking

I have been running and competing year round since 1982. I can still remember clearly the day of December 25, 1989. I was frustrated at myself following a period of inconsistent training, so I decided that I was going to see how many days I could run in a row without taking a day off. Well, Christmas Day this past week marked the 20^th year of my running streak.

I’ve had a number of people ask me about my streak of daily running and some of the things that have been toughest about it. Aside from everyday time management issues, some of the toughest days physically included…

• Pneumonia (temp of 104F)
• Stevens Johnsons Syndrome (a number of severe attacks)
• Food poisoning
• Achilles tendonitis (was at the point I thought I would have to take time off, but a last ditch effort with acupuncture cured it)
• The next day after my first 100 miler (I could hardly walk let alone try to run!)
• Bad fall during a trail run and a deep cut on my knee that probably should have had stitches
• Some bad hangovers (when I was young and foolish)
• After completing a particularly exhausting 50 mile dogsled race
• Recent knee injury that was very stubborn
• Broken leg (fibula, 2 inches above my ankle)

 The broken leg was probably the toughest. I really thought the streak was over. Partway through dealing with the first day of fumbling around on crutches I decided that I needed a run. Inspired by Canadian legend Terry Fox, I figured that I could double-hop on my good leg and use the crutch instead of my broken leg. I was happy and this helped me get through some very difficult periods of doubt. I also believe that it helped me to heal quicker too as I was in a much more positive frame of mind. I ended up having some awesome ‘tempo crutch runs’ and had my HR above 160bpm a number of times. I even completed a ‘one mile snowshoe crutch run time trial’ where I ran under 15mins in tough snow conditions.

I’m not sure how long I’ll keep the streak going for, but one thing for sure is that I enjoy each and every run and am in a better place when I return from my daily jaunt.

I had another great run today and look forward to getting out again tomorrow, and the next day…

Tis the Season contest- Out with The Old and In With the New!

Big plans for 2010?  NEW for 2010, every other month we will host a themed contest!

New Year, New You?  Tell us your running New Years Resolutions…what habit are you going to break, what races are you registered for, etc…The rules are simple. Leave a comment on this post and let us know what your goals are! That’s it. It’s that easy.

If you have the best entry you win a pair of La Sportiva Mountain Running® shoes, First Endurance OptygenHP, a pair of Defeet Socks, Petzl E+Lite, and a mystery Green-Layer apparel item!

Pretty sweet? What are you waiting for- tell us today…we will pick a winner at the end of January!

Xterra World Championships By: John Tribbia

It was zero degrees Fahrenheit on my early morning shakeout run in
Boulder before getting on an airplane to travel a total of 14 hours to
my race destination – Honolulu, Hawaii. I like running in the cold.
But, this run and the months of preparation leading up to the XTERRA
World Trail Championships were less than ideal in preparing me for the
80 degree heat and humidity that I encountered running in the lush
forests of Kualoa Ranch on the island of Oahu. Needless to say, I was
prepared physically and mentally to race hard and mix it up with a
very solid field of competition.

Kepler Challenge – New Zealand

Mountain running … or “trail running” as we call it in the States … is big all over the world, even if us Americans sometimes seem unaware outside our borders. New adventures and perspectives are particularly found in New Zealand, a tiny but sporting country with a huge impact on athletics (Edmund Hillary, Arthur Lydiard, Peter Snell, and of course, Jonathan Wyatt).

The Kepler Challenge is New Zealand’s premier mountain running event. It is 60 km long, entirely on single track thru a national park in the spectacular mountains of the South Island. One of the “Eight Great Walks” of New Zealand, the Kepler Track is an excellent backpack trip, and once a year becomes one of the more unknown (to us) but premier mountain races in the world.

I raced it 13 years ago. Had some hopes going into it, thinking maybe being so far from what I thought to be trail running-central (the US), the local competition wouldn’t be very good.

Wrong!

Trail Championship races for 2010

The Mountain/Ultra/Trail committee of the USATF has announced the Championships for 2010 – - -

US TRAIL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• June 12: Half Marathon – Bend, OR
• July 31: 50 Mile – White River, WA; 100 Mile – Burning River, OH; 15km – Spoane, WA
• August 28: 10km – Laurel Springs, NC
• September 25: 50km – Bend, OR
• November 6: Marathon – Bend, OR.

US MOUNTAIN RUNNING CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19: Mount Washington Road Race – Gorham, NH

USA MOUNTAIN RUNNING TEAM SELECTION RACE

Mount Washington will be the Selection Race for 2010. The top 6 USA men’s finishers and top 4 USA women’s finishers (must Be USATF Members), will be named to the 2010 US National Mountain Running Team, which will compete in Kamnick, Slovenia on September 6. This is an uphill year.

COMMENTARY

Having the Team selected at only one race is a major change; it’s always been multiple events. While arguments are valid either way – having Selection Races in different parts of the county makes travel easier for example – one Selection Race eliminates debates about “at-large” subjective selections by the committee. It’s pure head-head competition – whoever crosses the finish line first wins. The runners prefer this, and with most travel by air anyway, going a little farther to an event isn’t a detriment. Lastly, instituting this policy now is excellent timing, as Mt Wash is a great event, with unquestioned respect and regard by the athletes.

Blister Management for Runners

Last month, Jeremy Rodgers, DC, wrote a great piece on this Blog on the best way to deal with blisters.  The key point was to not get them in the first place, and that post went on to list eight ways to prevent them.

This week, Jeremy discusses the best management options if a hotspot or blister does form in spite of your best prevention strategies.  Here is advice from an expert:

USATF Mountain and Ultra Runners of the Year

Nancy Hobbs has announced the Runners of the Year.  Some are clear winners and maybe some are surprises.  YOUR comments welcome!

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For Release: November 22, 2009
USATF Mountain Ultra Trail Council Announces Runners of the Year

The Mountain/Ultra/Trail Running (MUT) Council of long distance running has named the 2009 USATF Mountain Runners of the year, Ultra Runners of the Year, and Contributor of the Year. The following individuals will be recognized at the USATF National Convention in Indianapolis, on Saturday, December 5, at an awards breakfast.

Mountain men open: Joseph Gray, 25, Lakewood, WA, wins his second consecutive USATF Mountain Runner of the Year title. He started out the mountain season in Vail, CO, on the weekend of June 6 running an uphill half marathon (Saturday) and a 10km trail race (Sunday) finishing in third and second respectively. Later that month he finished third at Mount Washington Road Race and won the USA Mountain Running Championships at Cranmore earning a spot on his second Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team.  He was the second U.S. finisher at the World Mountain Championships in Madesimo-Campodolcino, Italy, finishing in 16th place. Gray spent much of the summer in Europe racing and was fifteenth overall in the WMRA Grand Prix standings with only two WMRA Grand Prix race finishes (out of seven) to his credit.