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ARTICLES Tennessee Running is the only running website in the state that regularly provides Happy reading.
MAR 07: EVERYONE POOPS by Dave Milner | Everyone poops. It’s just that most people make it to an appropriate receptacle first. Usually, when nature calls while I am running, my digestive system gives some kind of polite 10-minute warning. If that is not heeded quickly, it then sounds a more serious 5-minute warning, perhaps with a warning shot being fired off, before going to DEFCON 3, at which point there had better be a toilet within a quarter-mile, because an explosion is imminent. [more] JAN 07: iPLOD: MY ULTIMATE MARATHON PLAYLIST by Mike Sicard | You can run a marathon with no training as long as you have the right music! Science fact or fiction? Oh, I so hope fact. I recently toed the line to complete my 60th marathon. I’d completed the 50 states and DC a while back, and when I achieved that goal I’ll admit I lost a bit of motivation and fitness. If I was to get through #60, I needed a lift. So, I drew on my past experiences and constructed the ultimate marathon playlist. My plan? Music-induced adrenaline would carry me through the day. [more] JAN 07: KISS KISS, RUN RUN by Dallas Smith | The ramp curved off the four-lane in the west Tennessee countryside. Not much around—a truck stop on one side, a motel on the other. I pulled up to the motel. As near as I could tell, it was as handy as any other place to spend the night before the 5-mile park race know as the Race on the Trace, at Natchez Trace State Park. Then I saw a large dark building sitting next to the motel that advertised topless dancers and catfish platters. Catfish? Topless dancers excite a craving for catfish? Looked like the place had closed though; maybe the combination of sex and fish didn’t work out. Something about the ambiance, I guess. I noticed the party girls had moved a couple hundred yards further down the road, to another establishment that was lit up, one that didn’t traffic in catfish. [more] NOV 06: CATCHING UP WITH JIM SPIVEY: LEGENDARY MILER LEAVES MARK ON TENNESSEE by Dave Milner | I am riding shotgun in Jim Spivey’s car, a white Volkswagen Passat in whose back window one of this three son’s has fingered the message ‘Clean Me.’ The rear seat is chock-full of Asics uniforms bound for local high school cross-country runners. Attached to the rear view mirror is a stopwatch. Spivey uses it to take splits. Not his running splits, or anyone else’s for that matter. He uses it to note his driving splits. This is a man who is, by all accounts, obsessed with times, positions, and statistics; a man so meticuluous in nature that he is rumored to time himself mowing the lawn. Ask him how long it takes to drive from, say, Nashville to Chattanooga, and, rather than give you a guesstimate, Jim will give you his PR to the minute, and if you exhibit enough interest, you might get his intermediate splits at the Murfreesboro and Monteagle exits too! [more] NOV 06: FINDING YOUR ZONE by Guy Avery | Anyone can improve their current marathon performances and times – regardless of age or ability – and have fun doing it. Unfortunately, all too often, runners train very hard for long periods for marathons only to experience frustrating results. This does not have to be the case – especially when all it takes is a little knowledge and some wise coaching guidance about some basic training and racing principles. Training can be stimulating, manageable and fun – while still producing gradual and sustainable progress. You just need to do it correctly.... The first step is to find your own ideal marathon training and racing “zone” for any given marathon training period. [more] NOV 06: SHIN SPLINTS 101 by Dave Milner | Shin and calf pain is extremely common in runners and can be quite a challenge to treat. Such injuries can often plague a runner for several months and cause a great deal of frustration as they can be slow to heal. It is advisable to seek expert help early so a correct diagnosis can be made and treatment can start, but what follows below is intended to help you avoid injury or, at least, have you more informed as you tackle the problem. [more] SEPT 06: WHY YASSO 800s ARE OVERRATED by Dave Milner | Distance running, on the surface, seems like a simple sport. One puts one foot in front of the other in quick succession for a specific, often pre-determined, distance, and one usually does this, when a piece of waxed, waterproof paper with a number on it is pinned to our chest, as fast as we possibly can. With some training under our belt, we can usually predict how long it will take to cover those pre-determined distances. Run a 5K, and you can probably get a fairly good handle on how long it might take you to cover 10K. Run a 10K and you can probably figure out how long it will take to cover 10 miles. [more] SEPT 06: CAFFEINE: FRIEND OR FOE by Dave Milner | Cheating sprinters are a dime a dozen, it seems, but high profile distance runnersrarely test positive for banned performance-enhancing substances. I remember Elana Mayer, the South Africa-born women’s world record holder for the half-marathon - before Paula Radcliffe came along, that is - tested positive a few years back. The substance? Not steroids, EPO, or growth hormones, but caffeine. So as I sit here in Bongo Java coffeehouse in Nashville, slugging back my fourth coffee of the day, and contemplating the track workout that is just a few hours away, I pose the rhetorical question: Am I gaining an unfair advantage on my training partners? I certainly hope so! [more] SEPT 06: STRIKE A POSE by Mick Larrabee, PT | Runners are definitely a different breed, in many ways, but one thing I cannot understand is why most runners think that their performance will improve simply by running longer &/or harder. This is just not the case – especially if the running technique is laden with inherent faults. With poor technique, increasing repetitions does nothing more than reinforce bad movement patterns setting yourself up for compensation and eventual tissue overload and guess what - INJURY! In most sports, enthusiasts expect to devote months and even years to working on movement technique; whereas most runners feel they were born with a natural pattern and that they are stuck with that pattern forever. It is my humble opinion that improving technique may allow you to improve running performance more than any other factor. [more] MAR 06: FROM CIGARETTE DELIVERY BOY TO RUNNING ADDICT by Dave Milner | Like most things in life that come to consume you, define you even, it started with a challenge. "I'll time you," he'd say. My dad would thrust a couple of pound notes in my hand and sent me off to the corner shop to get him a packet of twenty Benson & Hedges. They came in gold packets and looked fancy. Sometimes, depending on his mood, or level of nicotine withdrawal, I would get to keep the change, but he would always offer to time me. [more] JAN 06: RUNNING AIN'T EASY: DON'T MAKE THINGS HARDER THAN THEY HAVE TO BE by Dave Milner | I freely admit that I'm a fan of humorous bumper stickers and slogan t-shirts. If my wife would still allow herself to be seen in public with me, I wuld wear slogan t-shirts almost every day. Anything to give folks a laugh, or at least make them stop and think for a while. I once saw a t-shirt that read 'If running was easy, it would be your mom.' It's the kind of tenth grade humor that has, as a by-product of coaching high schoolers, grown on me! Whilst I don't know your mom, and I'm sure she is (or was) a fine upstanding woman with sound morals, I can say, with some authority and assuredness, that running is not easy. [more] JAN 06: LONG RUNS: HOW TO DO THEM THE RIGHT WAY by Guy Avery | The long run has been a staple of American distance running since Bill Bowerman first brought the concept back from his conversations with legendary New Zealand distance coach and pioneer, Arthur Lydiard. Although popularized by popular running author, Joe Henderson in his early books, the "long run" remains an oft-confused concept by many coaches and runners. When performed properly, regular long distance runs will pay huge dividends in your training progress and racing performance. The physiologcal benefits of a consistemt period of weekly or bi-weekly (every other week) long, easy run are significant indeed. When runners (and their coaches) are reminded or made aware of the considerable benefits acquired from longer, aerobic endurance runs, they are apt to re-consider exactly how to perform them for optimal short- and long-term benefits. [more] JAN 06: HIP, HIP, HOORAY! AMY IS BACK by Dave Milner | On New Year’s Day of 2006, 48-year-old Amy Barrow was the first woman home at the Resolution Run 5K in Nashville, beating accomplished runners half her age. The Nashvillian clocked 19 minutes and 40 seconds over a tough course that incorporates two bridges over the Cumberland River. Not too shabby, huh? A great way to start the New Year. But it is not that speedy little trip around downtown Music City that is remarkable, but, rather, the four-year-long emotional odyssey that led to the starting line. [more] MAY 05: WHAT WOULD PRE DO? by Dave Milner | Exactly thirty years ago today, our sport lost one of it's most promising runners. OnMay 30th, 1975 Steve Prefontaine's died, crushed under the weight of hisoverturned MGB convertible on Skyline Drive in the hills above Eugene, Oregon. Pre, as he was known to all his fans and track lovers, had run his last race, drawn his last breath. To this day, young high school and college runners make pilgrimages to the spot where Pre died, slipping race numbers between rocks, leaving flowers, even their track spikes as a mark of respect. [more] OCT 04: LOSING MY VIRGINITY AT BIG SOUTH FORK by Dave Milner | "Until this morning, I was a virgin. A trail racing virgin. I lost my cherry near the Tennessee/Kentucky State line, and let me tell you - having your cherry popped on the rugged, rocky trails of Big South Fork is no picnic. My dear friend Kibby Clayton (who passed away in 2003) and other running friends had raved about what fun The Big South Fork 17.5-mile Trail Run is. After not getting my entry in early enough last year, I vowed to run the race this year. I had never attempted a trail race before, but didn't think it would be dramatically different from perhaps running the yellow horse trail in Percy Warner Park a couple of times." [more] JULY 04: TRAIL BOSS by Dave Milner | If you've ever found yourself cursing the hills while running the challenging 11.2-mile loop in Nashville's Percy Warner Park, consider running the loop eight times, with the hills dramatically increased in size, all in the same day. Oh, and you'll be starting out at an elevation of over 6,000 feet. Daytime temperatures will climb into the high 90s, and a third of the time you'll be running in pitch-black darkness. The Western States Endurance Run is one of the oldest ultra-trail events in the world and certainly one of the most challenging. Last month, Nashville runner and triathlete Tom Holland completed it. [more] JUNE 04: FLAGS OF CONVENIENCE by Dave Milner | "Like many terms that epitomize shiftiness, -- 'piracy,' 'slush fund', 'broad-sided', and 'any port in a storm' spring to mind -- a 'flag of convenience is' a term that has nautical origins. It may only be a piece of bunting lashed to an ensign staff, but the flag which a vessel flies has always been judged as important. Ships, just like individuals, are required by international law to have a nationality, and to have their port of registration inscribed upon the stern. But ship-owners have, for many years, flown flags which happened, for certain reasons - mostly financial or political, to suit their needs.Now, the adoption of a flag of convenience is an increasing and worrying trend that has spilled over into sports. Into my sport." [more] |
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