Lauren Bendiksen wrote: 

I just finished reading your fantastic book, Smart Marathon Training.
I can’t wait to train with your plans; I’m coming off of 2 spring
marathons while battling anterior tibia tendonitis in both feet. I got
an entry to the NYC Marathon (yea!) so am about to start training
again, but this time with your plan! I have been going to physical
therapy for my tendonitis, and your book follows EVERYTHING that
they’ve been telling me, and more. I am SO EXCITED to have your book!

Let me say it again, I LOVE THIS BOOK!

Refresh Your Bike with New Handle Bar Tape

Of all the bike maintenance I find myself doing, whether at the shop or at home, wrapping bars is by far my favorite. It’s the nice finishing touch to make your bike look awesome, and you can go with any color you want, from classic black to lime green.

 

New bar tape is refreshing. It’s like buying a new pair of shoes after riding your old pair relentlessly through the sun, snow, and rain.  Old tape can get pretty gross because nothing protects it from the elements and sweaty palms. And if the tape is anything other than black, the grossness is even more visible. I love the feeling of stripping away miles of dirt, sweat, and sometimes tears – leaving bare aluminum, steel, or carbon exposed and waiting to be wrapped.

 

I’ve used a lot of bar tape, but I keep going back to Fizik. Unlike natural cork (which can be a good choice) you can pull the Fizik microtex tape HARD without any risk of tearing – to get a nice, tight wrap. Fizik bar tape is a bit thinner than natural or synthetic cork tapes, but it’s nothing a pair of  gel gloves won’t remedy. If you want something a bit more plush under your hands, Fizik also makes a gel underwrap. The microtex (a sort of synthetic leather feeling material) is also super easy to clean. The tape comes in a large array of colors to fit your – and your bike’s – personality. The perforated look also adds a classy touch.

     -Simon

 

The Bike Rack is a full service independent bicycle dealer located at 1412 Q street NW in Washington, DC.

An interesting article in the New York Times told the story of the turns in the life of Micah True, who was propelled to fame by the popular running book Born To Run, and who died recently while running solo on a trail run. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/sports/caballo-blancos-last-run-the-micah-true-story.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=sports

Check out this site for an interesting interview with all three members of the U.S. men’s Olympic marathon team, Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall, and Abdi Abdirahman, and read about their race strategies and concerns for this summer’s race in London.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/trackandfield/story/_/id/7942176/2012-london-olympics-team-usa-marathon-men-get-ready-games

• when the drive to the race is longer than the race itself.
• when your idea of sightseeing involves visiting the local running store and trails.
• when you’ve run, showered, and eaten breakfast before your family wakes up.
• when you forget birthdays and anniversaries, but never the date of your next race or your PRs.
• when you plan your family vacations around your next marathon.
• when you call four miles an easy day.
• when you try to convince people to run a 5k because it’s “only” three miles.
• when every T-shirt you own has a race name and sponsors list on it.
• when you have dozens of safety pins, all linked in groups of four.
• when you don’t think there’s anything funny about the workd “fartlek” and you know what it means.

Race directors often praise their courses for being flat, and runners try to avoid any races that include big climbs.  When you’re going for a fast race time, that’s fine, but in training, you should be sure to include hills in your routine.  Here’s why:

1.  Hills Make you fast.  As marathon champion and Olympic Gold medalist Frank Shorter has said, “Hills are speedwork in disguise.”  They build strength and work the fast-twitch fibers in much the same way as do running intervals on the track.

2.  Hills improve form.  There is no such thing as overstriding when running uphill.  Doubt me?  Then try it.  Running uphill also encourages runners to make better use of their arm swing, which is a feature of proper running.

3.  Running hills is low-impact training.  Concerned about putting too much stress on your body?  Running uphill is hard on your muscles, but easy on your joints. That’s because each step is higher than the last, which minimizes the distance that each foot falls.  The result is lower impact stress.

4.  Running Hills increases confidence.  Most long distance races include at least one hill; some famously so.  There’s Heartbreak Hill in Boston, and Hurricane Point at Big Sur, among hundreds of others.  The only way to be sure that you’ve got what it takes to conquer them is to practice climbing in training.  As the saying goes, race the way you’ve trained, and train the way you’ll race.

“I’m not controlling.  I just want things done the right way, and I know what the right way is.”

Even as those words were coming out of my mouth, I knew they were the wrong thing to say.  My wife just stared at me, letting the words hang in the air for inspection.  I don’t remember what we were arguing about, but I’m pretty sure I lost that one.  But I knew what I was trying to say. 

We all develop strategies for getting through life, from big decisions to the many very small daily decisions.  Many of these small choices are too mundane to share with anyone – who could possibly care where you like to put rubber bands and paper clips? – but taken together, they are our guidebook for making it through the day, every day.  I call them micro-strategies.  Each one of them represents a solution to a minor but persistent problem.

Here’s an example: I bike commute, and on my route , as I negotiate through and around traffic, pedestrians, and various permanent and transient obstacles, there is a right-hand-turn-only lane.  I don’t want to take that turn.  While it’s safest for me to be on the right while cycling, if I stay on the right as I approach that turn-lane, I’ll be cut off by turning cars, and might get hit by a driver who doesn’t notice me.  I could avoid this by riding in the middle of the street, in a center lane, but then I’d be in the thick of traffic, annoying drivers who want to get around me, and who might accidentally hit me.

Te solution is all in the timing; I’ve learned exactly when I can safely shift from the right lane to the center lane and back again while minimizing my exposure to faster moving cars.

But that’s not all that I think about on that stretch of road.  I know that there’s one small spot in the road about 20 yards from the corner where the asphalt has buckled.  To get past that obstacle without veering wildly about – an absolute no-no in morning traffic – I need to do a very quick, slight, left-right maneuver.  If I fail to do that, I could end up hitting that bump hard and losing control of my bike.  Also not a good idea in morning traffic.

So my commuting strategy for this one spot is stay to the right, watch the flow of cars and the traffic light pattern, do my quick little zig-zag, then shift left and back to the right as I clear the intersection.

It works like a charm.  And until now, I’ve never bothered to tell anyone about it, or about the other hundreds of little cycling micro-strategies I’ve developed for getting around my home-town.  And no other cyclist has shared their micro-strategies with me.  Generally, we all keep our many micro-strategies to ourselves.

This is especially true in long-distance running.  Every runner is a collection of superstitions, knowledge, and habits.  The superstitions are often similar, like not wearing a shirt from a race until you’ve finished that race.  The knowledge is gained from experience, from running friends, and through articles and books (including Smart Marathon Running).  The habits form over the years, and are the framework for each season’s training and racing routine.

But there’s more to running than just that.  There are the many running micro-strategies that we follow on a weekly and even daily basis.  In coming posts, you’ll find my solutions for a wide range of little problems that all runners have to deal with. Incorporating even a few of them into your regular training and racing routine could make the difference between a good running day and a great running day, or even between being healthy and getting injured.  And if you have some that have worked well for you, please share them!