Stiff Big Toe (Hallux Rigidus) in active people - runners and other athletes

The most common site of arthritis in the foot is at the base of the big toe. This joint is called the metatarsophalangeal, or MTP joint. It's important because it has to bend every time you take a step. If the joint starts to stiffen, walking can become painful and difficult.

In the MTP joint, as in any joint, the ends of the bones are covered by a smooth articular cartilage. If wear-and-tear or injury damage the articular cartilage, the raw bone ends can rub together. A bone spur, or overgrowth, may develop on the top of the bone. This overgrowth can prevent the toe from bending as much as it needs to when you walk. The result is a stiff big toe, or hallux rigidus.

Hallux rigidus usually develops in adults between the ages of 30 and 60 years. No one knows why it appears in some people and not others. It may result from an injury to the toe that damages the articular cartilage or from differences in foot anatomy that increase stress on the joint.

Signs and symptoms

* Pain in the joint when you are active, especially as you push-off on the toes when you walk
* Swelling around the joint
* A bump, like a bunion or callus, that develops on the top of the foot
* Stiffness in the great toe and an inability to bend it up or down

Diagnosing the problem
If you find it difficult to bend your toe up and down or find that you are walking on the outside of your foot because of pain in the toe, see your doctor right away. Hallux rigidus is easier to treat when the condition is caught early. If you wait until you see a bony bump on the top of your foot, the bone spurs will have already developed and the condition will be more difficult to treat.

Your physician will examine your foot and look for evidence of bone spurs. He or she may move the toe around to see how much motion is possible without pain. X-rays will show the location and size of any bone spurs, as well as the degree of degeneration in the joint space and cartilage.

Nonoperative treatment options
Pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen may help reduce the swelling and ease the pain. Applying ice packs or taking contrast baths (described below) may also help reduce inflammation and control symptoms for a short period of time. But they aren't enough to stop the condition from progressing. Wearing a shoe with a large toe box will reduce the pressure on the toe, and you will probably have to give up wearing high heels. Your doctor may recommend that you get a stiff-soled shoe with a rocker or roller bottom design and possibly even a steel shank or metal brace in the sole. This type of shoe supports the foot when you walk and reduces the amount of bend in the big toe.

A contrast bath uses alternating cold and hot water to reduce inflammation. You'll need two buckets, one with water as cold as you can tolerate and the other with water as warm as you can tolerate. Immerse your foot in the cold water for 30 seconds, then immediately place it in the hot water for 30 seconds. Continue to alternate between cold and hot for five minutes, ending in the cold water. You can do contrast baths up to three times a day. However, be careful to avoid extreme temperatures in the water, especially if your feet aren't very sensitive to heat or cold.
Source: American Academy of Orthopaedics
(This article then goes on to describe the surgical options)
_____________________________
Gary Moller comments:
This article is pretty typical of the advice given for arthritic toe conditions. For the athlete, the advice is inadequate, does not get to the heart of the cause and does not offer lasting solutions.

Sore toe joints is a common complaint in active people. It can come about as the result of a joint sprain or dislocation, such as happens when kicking or when the foot is trampled by a sprigged boot. It can also happen as the result of excessive repetitive repetitive stepping back and forth such as when doing Tae-Bo fitness classes. Accidentally stubbing the toe on a piece of furniture is another painful cause.

Joints require movement to be healthy. Without movement, the joint tissues are poorly nourished and they may consequently degenerate, causing a painful arthritic condition. If there has been damage to joint ligaments, such from a dislocation, the scar repair that binds the healing joint shrinks over time. If this is not stretched and mobilised during the healing process, the joint may be bound painfully together. Scar tissue shrinks over time and must be stretched and softened to ensure there is the restoration of normal function.

Wearing shoes all the time can contribute to the development of a painful rigid toe by restricting the natural movements of the feet. Feet, including the toes, are designed to be flexed and extended all the time to be strong and healthy. Shoes are no good for the feet if worn all the time. Lack of natural movement lays the feet open to the development of arthritis.

If you hurt a toe
So long as it is not broken, immobilise it for no longer than about 2 days. Using the healthy toe on the other foot as your guide, gradually work within pain limits to restore normal movement over several days. This should include careful traction to gap the joints.

If you have developed a rigid arthritic toe
This is where the fun begins and where I come into action! Forget about the injections, ultrasound, ice and surgery: By far the most effective way to fix an arthritic toe in an athlete is manipulation without anaesthesia. This can be extremely painful for the affected person. One woman described the pain as being more intense than child birth!

The purpose of the manipulation is to gap the joint that is bound tightly together by scar and unhealthy fibrous tissue, to break up any restrictive adhesions and calcification and to get some circulation back into the joint tissues.

There is no need for pain relief or anti-inflammatories. It may be a good idea to take some glucosamine and chondroitin and MSM to aid the healing.

While this procedure is agonising, the result after just 3-4 sessions is dramatic pain relief and full resumption of normal activity. Over the years, the results have been 100%

Ongoing maintenance of recovery includes getting about daily barefoot. Running and walking on sand is best for keeping the feet strong and healthy.

If you have a problem with a stiff and painful toe, contact me directly.

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Here are articles by Gary Moller about endurance training

Here are articles on this website by Gary Moller about endurance training for events like the Oxfam Trailwalker 24 hour Charity Walk or Run. This newsfeeder updates every time Gary writes a new article. To keep up to date click on the subscription tab at the bottom of this newsfeeder page.

For additional information about health, fitness, nutrition and medical matters, try doing a Google Search using the key words "gary moller" + "key words". For example: "gary moller calf muscle cramp", or "gary moller pronating feet". Alternatively, you can use the search boxes to the right of this article using key words.

If your query has not been answered, you may write to me here (fees may apply in some cases)

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TFS's Audio Interview w/ LORRAINE MOLLER (Part 1 of 2) - Female running pioneer and passionate Lydiard protégé

Dear Colleagues,
Episode 65 of The Final Sprint Podcast features the first installment in a two-part series of interviews with the legendary female running pioneer and Lydiard protégé LORRAINE MOLLER. (Note: The second and final part of the interview will be published tomorrow in Episode 66).I encourage you to listen to the podcast and to please share it with your readers and other contacts. Here is the direct link to play/download the interview and/or subscribe to our podcast feed http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2007/07/podcast-65-female-running-pioneer-and-lydiard-protege-lorraine-moller-part-12/

In today's portion of the interview, Lorraine talks about the link between her development as a runner and as a person, the stages of her career, being driven by that "pioneering kiwi spirit" , the metamorphosis of female athletics, her bond with iconic running coach Arthur Lydiard, misconceptions about his training philosophies, and why her basic training so seamlessly prepared her for the marathon. She also discusses the special meaning of her induction to the Colorado Running Hall of Fame, and her belief that running is a personal and spiritual journey has enabled her to develop the often under-appreciated, but yet crucial element to success in both running and in life: self-understanding and the mental framework of a champion.

The audio interview is also available at no charge in the iTunes Store.
Any and all feedback from you and/or your readers is greatly appreciated. Thanks again and please feel free to call and/or email me if there is anyway that I can assist you, your publication or organization.
Sincerely,
Adam Jacobs

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A brief chat with Lorraine Moller

By Peter Gambaccini

"Few runners enjoyed the range of success or career longevity that Lorraine Moller attained during her career. When she started running barefoot as a teenager in New Zealand in the early 1970s, women were only allowed to run races up to ... "

Please click on the linked title to go to the Runner's World article.

Photo: Please take note of Mum's vegetable garden in the background

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Link

Video demonstration about how to strengthen weak and pronating feet

This video demonstration shows how to strengthen the tibialis muscles to give you a strong and arches of the feet that are up to the punishement of running sports. This video should be viewed along with careful study of the e-publication: "Correcting Weak and Pronating Feet".

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Barking up the wrong tree seeking a cure for cyclist Sarah Ulmer's back injury

Opinion
Here is a TV3 news video about Sarah Ulmer who is still struggling with a painful back injury suffered a year ago:

I wrote about Sarah's injury woes several months ago, noting that I had predicted about this time last year that Sarah would come unstuck. My reasons why are explained in this article here. Again, my predictions appear to have proven to be true. I am convinced that seeking a medical or physical therapy solution is proving fruitless. These will not repair her weakest link.

Before I go on; let me state that this is not an "I told you so" story. This article is written out of concern that we are far too good at burning out our sporting talent, forcing them into early retirement well before their due date - just look at our rugby players - retired before they are 30 when we know that the strongest and fastest athletes on the planet are historically much older. Al Oerter, Lynford Christie and Carl Lewis, for example. How was it that Lorraine Moller was able to extend her international career for an astonishing 28 years? Sara Ulmer is just maturing as a cyclist, yet she is on the verge of being forced into early retirement through injury. This need not every happen.

We fail to learn from history - from the experience of others who have gone before. In this article, I make observations and relate them to my experience as both and athlete and as an actively involved bystander in the careers of many great sports men and women, including my sister, Lorraine. In their experiences lie the solutions to Sara's ongoing injury woes. Read on and please comment on the article, thanks.

I attended a bike coach conference when Sarah Ulmer was on top of her world. She was the guest presenter. She promotes healthy MacDonald's meals like their salads. What really struck me was Sarah's almost religious conviction that nutrition supplements were bad, to the extent I was left with the impression she had them in the same category as illegal ergogenic drugs. She expressed the view that an athlete could get all she needs from a good diet. I am assuming this includes a MacDonald's salad (Commercially grown salad plants are poor sources of minerals and other nutrients).

I do not have confidence in the modern diet. While a young athlete can get away for several years on a "normal" healthy diet, the sad fact is that our modern diet will inevitably come up short nutritionally; especially for an athlete like a marathon runner or cyclist. The body will have progressivley developed serious mineral and other nutrient imbalances due to losses from stress, heavy sweating and tissue damage. I have also found that competitive cyclists can be seriously vitamin D deficient which has all manner of ill effects, including muscle and joint pain.

Sarah would benefit from talking to somebody who has been there- done that! Like Allison Roe, or my sister Lorraine who managed to hammer her body, sometimes running marathons in less than 2:30 in the worst conditions of heat and humidity and dirty air imaginable. Yet she managed to extend her career for 28 years in an event where few come back for a 2nd Olympics. I believe this is a world best for longevity as an internationally ranked distance runner.

Lessons can be learned from runners like Kevin who has discovered how to become injury free through training and nutrition; running close to three hours at Rotorua Marathon at 50+ years old (Rotorua is a tough course, so take 5-10 minutes off your time Kevin!). Refer to this article.

It is worth noting Lorraine's advice about recovery in this video series. The rule about rebuilding for so many days for each mile raced also applies to cycling and is the basis for my prediction last year that Sarah would break down. The laws of recovery cannot be defied for long.

Following Lorraine's remarkably long running career was a huge education for me and it was fascinating to see why and how equally talented athletes fell by the way from injury and burnout. This happened time and again with disturbing regularity. An athlete would win a big event and become an overnight celebrity - they would be on the speaking circuits, doing film shoots for adverts and all kinds of interviews. These are exhausting things to do. Big sponsporships are signed and with those come the obligations to perform and to Glad-Hand. These are equally as exhausting as an ad film shoot - emotionally and physically. Whenever I give a talk I want to have a snooze afterwards - not to train. Sleep is disturbed, training is disrupted and the wrong foods are consumed. Too much time is spent sitting in cars and planes when one should be soaking in the bath, lounging about on the living room couch, or on the floor having a good stretch. Being in crowds of enthusiastic admirers and reporters is very stressful and one is exposed to all kinds of bugs and stressed athletes are highly vulnerable to the lot.

The nervous and glandular systems of any athlete, epspecially the highly strung ones are highly susceptible to chronic burnout and disruption.

Exhausted, disrupted and under-done, the athlete then attempts to emulate past performances as anxious fans, sponsors and officials look expectantly on. Injury and illness beckon, as does failure to heal.

When I carefully view the TV3 news video here I see a noticeably thinner Sarah Ulmer (Excess catabolism at work?) and she looks tired and stressed during the event, despite the smiley public persona. The body language and her voice tone are revealing. Where on Earth is the physical and emotional energy going to come from for her next quality training session? It is so easy for a gifted athlete to lose control and to lose sight of what really matters most when it comes to being a consistent performer at the highest level. Sometimes the best thing an athlete can do is disappear for an extended period of time, recharge and do nothing else later other than to gradually get back into training over the next year or so.

Lorraine shunned the spotlight. She never had a management company selling her as a product and she had very few sponsors and all of those were directly related to her performing on the road or track (eg: running shoe companies). She did very little in the way of public speaking, photo shoots and so on while she was in training and competing. She did not chase the dollars. She was an athlete proudly representing NZ and not being packaged and sold a product. She trained and trained and trained. She rested up in between, she raced and then she concentrated on recovery. She learned that even the most wholesome diet was not quite enough to sustain the punishment of elite sport. She worked on a four year cycle with the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics carefully tucked in where she ran her heart out.

Of course she made lots of mistakes and so did plenty of other very good sports people I know; but she thought about what was happening, bounced back and she learned from these mistakes that could easily have been career ending. These are the lessons they do not teach in exercise science and defintely not in medical school.

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How one long distance runner found his way

Kevin writes:
Went for a 3hr easy run today, and I feel good.

I began running seven years ago, with a history of hunting, tramping, and working out doors, I thought I would be fit enough to adjust. I remember watching runners doing the Kepler Challenge, and I felt I was getting to old to start at the bottom, so I set my sites high, and decided to do the Kepler the following year. Six months out from race day, I put on my old sneakers, and at a steady pace went for my first run, I arrived back home with blisters on my feet, and for the next week I could hardly walk. After I recovered I bought myself a pair of running shoes, and set off again with my own training programme, throughout that six months, I had lots of injuries, groin, shin splints, twisted ankles, sore muscles, you name it. On race day I made it around, but only just, and I kept saying repeatedly, I would never do this again. But after I learned to walk again, and my body got back to normal, and being a slow learner, I thought I would have another go.

Looking on the net for some sort of training program, I decided on a seven-day on, and two days off, which I ended up with more injuries, frustration, and stress. I did four more Keplers, and then I took a year off, to let my body heal completely. While looking up the Rotorua marathon on the net, I came across Gary’s training programme, and this is where things started to change for me. I rang Gary, and he put me on to some supplements, and we talked about a training program, which involved three long runs and one short fast run per week, it has made a big difference, I used to think recovery was a good nights sleep, now I only run every other day, I feel so much fresher, and I haven't had any injuries. It is much more enjoyable.

I would say to anyone who is thinking of taking up any sport, or just wants to feel better, give Gary a call, don’t be like me, and do it the hard way, start off right. Thank you so much Lorraine, for taking the time to answer my questions, you have been a big help, I shall change my ways and heed your advise, It has been so neat to have two professionals to work with. Thank you.

Here are our video presentations to Kevin's most recent queries.

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Link

Training Advice for running the Kepler Challenge

Hi Gary,
Did the Rotorua Marathon in 3hr 4min 20s just missing out on a sub 3hr, maybe next year. Have a couple of questions for you, if thats ok thanks.



1. My next race will be the Kepler Challenge in early december, which is 60km, how long should I rest before starting trainning?

2. If I do one long run a week, would that maintain my fitness level?

3. Is there anything else I should do for this longer distance, compeard to a marathon?

4.How much fitness would I lose if I took a month off, and how long would it take to regain, at my age 52.

Thanks for any information you can supply. Regards Kevin.

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An interview with Olympian, Lorraine Moller, about her autobiography

An interview with multiple Olympian and marathon bronze medal winner, Lorraine Moller, about her autobiography which is being published in October 2007

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Buttock pain caused while training for and running a marathon

XXXX told me to send you an email to ask if you could possibly let me know any stretches etc that I can do to remedy an area that is sore. The position of it is on the right side of the body below the hip bone and a hand width towards the buttock. I have recently completed the Rotorua Marathon and it hasnt stopped hurting yet. It doesnt hurt all the time, just in certain positions or twists of the body. I read your "Training for a Marathon" guide and I think it came on when I was training in the country and running on the side of the road (bad camber). I do have a weak core (ie because of 3 births), use orthotics and have tight butt muscles (prev unstretched). I think my diet is ok. I would really appreciate your advise.
Many thanks, Caroline
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Gary Moller comments:
Caroline, the pain you describe is most likely due to spam of muscles deep in the buttock. It is probably the piriformis that is most affected (But let's not get carried away with the fancy names - it is still just a pain in the butt!). This is probably the most common chronic injury issue that runners ask me about.

Fixing the problem is a three-pronged approach of stretching, nutrition and massage. While working on your core strength is worth doing, it is unlikely to be of direct benefit (As an aside, I think core strength is an over-rated thing that serves mostly to keep a lot of fitness instructors employed teaching and supervising an ever-increasing array of complex exercises).

Exercises
Caroline, you need to get my book on Back Pain (www.myotec.co.nz ) and to do the hip and low back exercises with emphasis on the exercises that you will find on pages 59, 65, 70, 72, 95 and 96. Exercise 72 is the most important and you may find that this really hits the painful spot of the butt muscle. Hold each stretch for several seconds at about the point of mild discomfort, relaxing the body. Release the stretch a little for a second or two and then reapply the stretch and repeat the cycle several times, swapping now and then between legs. One good set of stretching per day is more than sufficient.



Nutrition
You can just about guarantee that you are low in various essential minerals, including calcium and magnesium. It does no harm and probably does much good to do a course of mineral supplementation because one of the symptoms of mineral depletion is muscle pain and spasm. I recommend either a course of Nutra-Lifer Calcium Complete or, better still, a course of Floradix Calcium-Magnesium formula. While Floradix is more expensive, its quality and bioavailability is unsurpassed. You should also take a vitamin D supplement, like Red SEal Cod Liver oil, or Thompson's Vitamin D capsules, through winter because low vitamin D prevents proper use of minerals by your cells.(All available through www.myotec.co.nz ).

Massage
I strongly recommend a course of massage of the affected muscles. A good massage therapist will locate the tender and knotted parts and progressively massage them and the surrounding areas to break the spasm, soften up the knotts and encourage circulation through the affected areas. This can be quite painful and takes about an hour per session and must be repeated several times every fourth day. The first few sessions may leave you sore and tired over the next few days. Done right, along with the nutrition and stretching, you should notice a steady improvement by way of less pain and better function from about the third session onwards. By about 21 days, you should be back to striding freely. I provide this massage service here in Wellington.

Let us know how you get on Caroline.

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How to train for three half marathons and one marathon per year

Dear Gary
I have just completed my 7th Rotorua Marathon and would like some training suggestions.

I am 65 years old and run 3 ½ marathons and 1 marathon each year – the ½ ‘s to keep me fit for the Rotorua Marathon.

I have heard people say that they only do 1 long run per week but my training schedule says 2 long runs per week (I have attached my marathon and ½ marathon training schedules). Do you think that I may be over-training? You will see from the schedules that I run in km’s not “time” as I usually run between 7 and 7 ½ min km and if I run by time I do not run enough km.

I would also like some advice on the time between my runs. I run the Cathay Pacific ½ in February each year, then the Rotorua full in April/May, the Taupo ½ in August (training starts now) and the Auckland ½ in October/November. Most of these training schedules overlap each other and I was wondering if after finishing 1 race, I should go right back to the beginning of the training for the next race? If not, what do I do until it is time to start full training again?I have heard that after one race you should start where you finished off the last – is that correct? I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards Carol
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Gary Moller comments:
Carol, I think you are right to be doing one long run per week and one shorter long run as well. Just one long run per week increases the possibility that this single run will be too long and exhausting and compromise your final potential fitness.

I do not like rigid schedules. Have a basic structure to your week, month and year and run according to how you feel. Every run should be different over varying terrain and courses. Run by time and how you feel rather than rigid distance. So, this Sunday you might run for about 2 hours over trails. Next week you might do 2.5hrs around the flat coastal road. If you find yourself in a running rut - get out of it. Run free!

You could even add a 3rd long run during the endurance buildup of each training phase. Other than one fast short run of about 5km, you could cut out all the other runs to ensure that you recover sufficiently between training sessions. With age your need for longer recovery between workouts and exhausting races increases, so ensure there is adequate recovery for your stage in life.

Following an exhausting marathon, it pays to have a complete rest with only gentle exercise and stretches and concentrate on a full recovery before resuming a futher buildup over the best part of 3 months to another peak, starting at a level well below where you finished the previous buildup. If the half marathon is not too physically wasting, you do not have to go right back to scratch, instead starting back a little below where you peaked with a further 8 week buildup to your next event.

As you get older, speed training is more important - not less. Rather than just doing 1/2 and full marathons which are a grind on joints and muscles and slow you down, why not go run cross country and 5km road races most weekends? Do them for fun - run some hard and others easy depending on how you feel on the day. Enter Masters Games that are held around the country in places like Hamilton, Wanganui and Dunedin and world-wide and do the 400m and 800m. these are great social occasions and the short events exhilarate without causing excessive wear and tear on the body. These short races will give you the pace and strength to run your longer marathons and half marathons faster and more efficiently and with less distress.

Take a look at my Super Smoothie Recipe and have these daily to aid recovery. You would also be advised to take daily glucosamine and chondroitin to ensure that your joints can handle the daily wear and tear of the running that you are doing. You can get this from www.myotec.co.nz

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Shin pain and only a week to go before the marathon!

Hi Gary
I have been training to do the Rotorua marathon and trying to stay with a
basic programme ie not an advanced runner.
Last Sunday I ran 26 Km and experienced pain in the shin area (both front
and rear) of my right leg. I have not run since but have had a leg massage
which eased the stiffness and reduced the pain.
I have done a fair amount of training and wish to do Rotorua, is there
anything you can suggest I do at this late stage to overcome this setback ?
Thanks for your help,
"A"
_______________________________________
Gary Moller comments:
No need to panic: Your body is telling you it is in need of a rest. You have done your training and it is time to freshen up for the marathon.

First of all, take as many days off running as is necessary to be able to run freely again. All runs from now must be close to home so that you can cut any short if there is an increase in calf pain. Be careful of long out and back courses because the law of nature dictates that you will seize up at the furthest and most remote point!

While the initial couple of jogs may be on grass, you should continue to run on pavement since the marathon is on pavement. All runs must be easy, not exhausting and cause no residual strain on the legs. The work has been done - ok!

Do an easy jog early in the am partly because you need to be used to being up and active in the morning in preparation for running the marathon. The early jog is also your opportunity to carefully test the leg before doing anything substantial later on in the day. If the leg is niggling, then rest up.

Always run tall. As one tires, the knees and hips bend and the body gets lower and lower to the ground. This is an enormous strain on the legs, including the calf and ankle areas.

Stretch the calves, thighs, hips and hammys. Do so once daily. Best in the evening after a log hot bath when you can take your time and be really thorough. Strong flexible hips allow better use of the big butt muscles when running, thus taking stress off the smaller calf muscles that are further from the heart and therefore less well supplied with blood.

Read these guides here:
Mobility Exercises
Running Stretches
Do not over stretch the calf muscles before the marathon start! Just do a few quick and gentle stretches and then use the first 10km to warm into the race.

Have another person thoroughly massage both legs once daily, concentrating on any tender spots. Use a quality massage cream, such as is available from the selection at www.myotec.co.nz. Any massage within 3 days of the marathon should be gentle.



Begin a course of magnesium and B vitamin supplementation and continue up to the day of the marathon. Magnesium and B vitamins help relax muscles and promote circulation through them and improves strength (If you are deficient). I would also add a glutamine supplement to your daily regime, including on race day. Glutamine is the muscle amino acid that is most damaged and depleted during extreme exercise like happened during your past big training run. Adequate glutamine intake may reduce muscle soreness, speed recovery and improve endurance. Fish oil with vitamin E may improve circulation. These are available from www.myotec.co.nz

When you are running Rotorua, bear in mind that it is a 42km circle and you could end up running the whole way on a shoulder camber which is a huge strain on the legs and even the lower back. Vary which side of the road you are on during the sections where the roadd is closed. The best place to run may be the middle of the road. When you are running on the side, pick the flattest spots, including the gravel edging, but be carefull of large stones and pot holes!

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Running a marathon: How to prevent chafing callouses and blisters

Chafing callouses and blisters are synonymous with the word “marathon”. Areas most affected are the soles of the feet, the sides and insides of the toes, back of the heel, inner thigh, groin, armpits and the nipples.

Any material that slides and rubs be it shoes, socks, shorts or a singlet will eventually rub the skin raw, as will any skin that rubs on skin. Wet skin or material; be that caused from sweating, plashing water on the body or from rain will accelerate the rate of damage.

Thickened hard skin, in the form of callouses is the body’s protective mechanism against repetitive rubbing and pressure and is typically seen on the side of the feet toes and back of the heels. Unfortunately, callouses are prone to further rubbing and consequent irritation because of their prominence relative to surrounding healthy skin.

Prevention of damage to skin consists of several measures, depending on the problem. These centre mainly about reducing rubbing and irritation by careful selection of clothing, socks and shoes, ensuring proper fitting of shoes and protecting vulnerable areas like the groin and the nipples.

• The first thing to do is to ensure that your running shoes are the correct size, both in length and width. Get your shoes properly fitted by the shoe store. Be aware that one foot may be larger than the other. Wear the type of sports socks that you intend to run in when you are selecting a new pair of shoes.
  
• Socks should be a good quality sports sock that wicks away excess moisture, provides some cushioning, is the right size and is resistant to bunching up and crinkling.
  
• Ensure that running shoes are flexible at the mid sole. If they are not, rubbing pressure will be placed on the heel regions of the feet.
  
• Do your main runs in your old shoes while you take a week or two to run in your new pair. Always have two or three different pairs of running shoes that you alternate now and then.
• Keep your old shoes that should still in good condition, in the car boot on race day just in case you misplace your new ones.
  
• Fit a pair of Formthotics Active inner soles (Available from www.myotec.co.nz). Formthotics Active soles are heat moulded to the shape of your foot. This can be one of the most effective measures you can take to prevent callouses and blisters because your foot is held snugly in the shoe, reducing slipping and sliding about.
  
• If you have weak feet, the feet will tend to collapse and spread inside the shoe as muscles tire. If you think this is happening, fit Formthotics Active inner soles and you must do the foot exercises described earlier in this book.
  
• If you have thick calloused skin, sand paper or very carefully cut off the excess thick dead skin. If you are going to do this, do so a month before the marathon and not the day before!
  
• Properly lace the shoes. The most important part of lacing is to ensure that the upper laces by the ankle are pulled firm, otherwise the foot may slide forwards when running downhill, slamming the toes into the front of the shoe. Furthermore, the shoe may lift at the heel when running uphill, rubbing the back of the heel. This can be a real problem if you purchased shoes that are of limited forefoot flexibility.
  
• If the forefoot is laced too tight, you may suffer numbness and burning of the sole of the foot, especially if you have thick sports socks, so take care with your lacing.
  
• When you run, consciously think of relaxing the toes as you push off. Some people have a bad habit of aggressively clawing the toes hard into the sole of the shoe.
  
• Use liberal petroleum jelly for underarms, groin and any other areas that may rub.
  
  
  
• I recommend Chafe-Ease which is more effective and much more pleasant than petroleum jelly. Chafe-Ease contains various beneficial ingredients including antiseptic tea tree oil (Chafe-Ease is available from www.myotec.co.nz).
  
• I would advise caution about applying any kind of lubricant to the feet that may inadvertently cause slippage within the shoes while running.
  
• If your inner thighs rub, experiment with thigh length lycra underwear that fits snugly against your groin and thigh with your usual running shorts on top. This causes fabric to rub on fabric, rather than fabric on skin or skin on skin.
  
• Wear a quality sports bra and make sure that you have put it to the test in training, especially to see if it chafes when damp.
  
• Tops and singlets should be of a soft fabric without pronounced seams. Tags and labels may be removed to prevent irritating rubbing.
  
• Avoid tops that are tight across the back of the neck. The armpit area should be low cut.
  
• For those wearing only singlets or shirts, band-aids placed over the nipples will save a lot of pain and even some blood!
  
• Trim your toenails regularly with the last trimming being no less than a week before the race.

Happy running folks!

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I get an upset stomach when running on sports energy gels

Hi gary
I am training for the rotorua marathon, my first one.
About a month ago I started using leppin squezzy sachets during training. I definitely benefit from this product with noticeable energy increase, the problem I have is that about half the runs that I use leppins on I end up with a nasty upset stomach during and after running, resulting in an extended period of time on the toilet at the end of a run.
I have followed your advice by not eating within 2 hours of training and also followed the leppin products directions accurately when taking them.
Have you heard of anybody else with a similar problem, or do you have any suggestions for me.
Thanks in advance
By the way I really have enjoyed using your e-book training for a marathon document. Thanks heaps.

"N"

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Gary Moller comments:

I have been aware of this problem for quite some time with the first instances that came to my attention being among 24 hour enduro athletes. Any form of the runs when doing these kinds of activities can be disastrous to say the least - and inconvenient and embarrassing.

I am not personally a fan of the squeezie gels because they are essentially concentrated corn syrup with no nutritional value other than a quick shot of carbohydrate and little else. If you had time to follow my training and dietary guidelines about how to become more efficient at using your fat stores while conserving your precious internal carhohydrate stores, then your need to rely on external sources, including squeezies would be less. You will find this advice in the Training for a Marathon and Training for a Mountain Bike Race e-pubs.

If you are going to use squeezies, I recommend that you either take lots of water with them (Never straight!), or simply disslove the contents in a bottle of water and drink the flavoured result. I have tried them this way and there has been no problem.

Whatever drinking and energy augmentation strategy you decide to employ, please ensure that you have practiced it thoroughly during training!

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Caffeine Helps in Sprints and Endurance Events

It has been established for more than 50 years that caffeine helps you exercise longer in events that require endurance. Recently researchers at Christ Church University in Canterbury, UK, showed that caffeine also helps you in much shorter events. Trained cyclists raced one kilometer (0.6 mile) on three times, in random order, after taking 5 mg of caffeine, taking a placebo, or taking nothing. Their speed, mean power and peak power were more than three percent higher after taking caffeine (Journal of Sports Sciences, November 2006).
Most athletes know that caffeine improves their performance. A recent study from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia shows that 90 percent of triathletes used a caffeinated substance immediately prior to or throughout a competition (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, October 2006). They used cola drinks (78 percent), caffeinated gels (42 percent), coffee (37 percent), energy drinks (13 percent), and caffeine tablets (9 percent).
Caffeine increases endurance by preserving muscle sugar, causing your muscles to burn far more fat. When your muscles run out of their stored sugar (glycogen), they hurt and are difficult to coordinate. Caffeine causes your body to produce more adrenalin that moves fat from your fat stores into your bloodstream and causes your muscles to burn more of these fats. Caffeine also helps you move faster in shorter races because adrenalin makes you more alert and more aggressive. Source: Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine April 1, 2007
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Gary Moller comments:
Dr Mirkin, like most medical and physical conditioning experts has been sucked in by the over supply of caffeine industry-driven research to believe that caffeine is not just OK but good for athletes. What this "favourable" research fails to tell us is that the majority of test subjects are already caffeine addicts and all that the caffeine shots are doing is restoring a sense of "normality" to the subjects and their performance. Already feeling low due to the addiction, the subjects and the researchers perceive the consequent lift as a performance gain. Without the constant topping up with caffeine during the testing the subjects would feel like shit and perform accordingly, as one would of course expect when dealing with addiction.

One only needs to be an observer in the back offices of a typical law firm first thing in the morning to understand how important a few cups of brewed coffee are to get the legal wheels turning for the day! The same applies to the addicted athlete.



Caffeine addicts its users within days of use, causing a let-down in energy and mood if not used daily in increasing strength. For these people, the majority, the purpose of a shot of coffee is to restore normality, let alone give the user a more than normal boost to performance.

When I was in the 2006 Commonwealth Games village, I was struck by the gallons of strong coffee, including straight caffeine shots, being consumed by the athletes from the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada as compared to the black African and Caribbean athletes who consumed little if any other than tea. The lack of consumption of caffeine by the African athletes did not seem to disadvantage them in any way as they generally kicked the butts of all-comers in the sprint and endurance contests!

A caffeine free athlete who has trained properly over many years, like a Kenyan has, for example, will outperform the caffeinated athlete in terms of consistency and overall performance. Please read my article here about how to determine if you are addicted to caffeine and how to wean yourself off it.

Train your ability to efficiently metabolise fat. Read the chapter beginning page seven here to get the idea of how to do this.

Above all else, have faith your your training and your own ability. You have no need for artificial stimulants to get you through.

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Why does running ruin flexibility so much more than does cycling?

If you do a lot of distance running you may be aware that there is a progressive loss of flexibility of the running muscles. This is a progressive process that slowly reduces the long flowing stride of adolescent years to a painful looking middle-aged hobble that looks more akin to a tip-toe through the tulips than an awesome display of sustained athletic prowess. No matter how diligent one is with stretching, the battle to maintain flexibility seems to be a lost cause.

Although cycling is a highly repetitive and restrictive action, there is little consequent loss of flexibility (Mind you, some of the worst sporting posture one will ever see are found in cycling; but this is mostly due to muscle imbalances and sloppy habits).

The differences are due to the differing effects of concentric versus concentric exercise on the body.

All exercise is a combination of concentric and eccentric exercise. What varies is the content.

Concentric = shortening muscle by its own contraction

• Muscle relaxes while lengthening
• No tearing of muscle tissue – no muscle soreness
• Blood flow through the muscle is enhanced
• Risk of muscle and tendon injury is very low
• Recovery is 24-36 hours

Eccentric = contracted muscle is forcefully lengthened

• Blood flow is occluded
• Contracting muscle is forcefully lengthened
• Causes delayed onset muscle soreness
• Risk of muscle and tendon injury is high
• Recovery is 3-5 days

When the tissue that was damaged from eccentric exercise is repairing, fresh collagen is being laid down. The tendency is for this to cause the muscle to lose elasticity and length.

Cycling is close to 100% concentric exercise, as are sports like rowing and swimming. Running, on the other hand, is probably 50% eccentric and this rises to almost 100% when running downhill. Walking is much less eccentric in nature than running, so it is much safer to do.

Eccentric versus concentric explains why a cyclist can ride hard day after day without apparent ill effects and why swimmers can train for hours every day of the week. Because running is highly eccentric in nature the damage to tendons and muscles is high necessitating great care with ensuring adequate recovery between training sessions. This is why a good running programme seldom has you running hard or long on consecutive days.

How do we prevent this progressive loss of flexibility and painful knots (trigger points) in muscles and tendons?

How to maintain flexibility when running a lot

• Do not run hard on consecutive days - do other activities in between that take the muscles and joints through their full range of movement. This can be Yoga, dancing, gym work or simple calisthenics, for example
• Do not run hard out downhills, especially on hard pavements - this is just too damaging to the muscles and tendons
• Do running drills at least once a week in running training that take the muscles and joints through their full range of motion (Running goach, Arthur Lydiard, made good use of hill bounding and other drills to produce athletes with awesome strength and power)
• Stretch daily, preferably after a long hot bath and do so Yoga-style. Refer to these exercises. And these ones.
• Ensure your body has plenty of antioxidants, including vitamin C inside to soak up damaging free radicals that are produced by damaging eccentric exercise. Additional omega oil in the form of flax seed and fish oil may assist with prevention and repair, as will joint food formulas which are beneficial for all connective tissue of the body
• Take supplementary magnesium and B vitamins to assist with relaxing the muscles and nerves.
• Have a deep tissue massage of the running muscles up to three times per week, concentrating on softening any hard and painful knots

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Exercise and cancer - is too much exercise bad for you?

"She won the New York City Marathon from 1978-80, 1982-86 and 1988, the London Marathon twice (1983, 1986), was world marathon champion in 1983, a five-time world cross-country champion and won silver in the marathon at the 1984 Olympics.
So now Waitz has been diagnosed with cancer. Not too different than Lance Armstrong, one of the most talented endurance athletes of all time who came down with testicular cancer.
Exercise is absolutely necessary for high-level wellness, but if you exercise too much it is clearly harmful and cancer seems to be a possible adverse outcome. My guess is that one's antioxidant threshold is exceeded or micronutrients are consumed at a level that cannot be easily replaced. Either way, they both add up to a major problem."

Quoted from an article by Dr J Mercola in response to the news that runner, Grete Waitz, is undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer.
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Gary Moller comments:
While much disease is still "luck of the draw", there is still a lot that we can do to reduce controllable risk factors so that the odds of the draw are more in our favour. Too much exercise is not good for us. Having spent most of my life in sporting circles I have been well aware that exercise does not necessarily make one healthier.

Longterm studies such as the Framingham Study, show that moderate exercise improves life expectancy; whereas excessive exercise reduces it. Excessive, exhaustive exercise can deplete immune function and increase the risk of colds (This can be countered to some extent by taking additional antioxidants, principally vitamin C) Please refer to my earlier article about this.

The first defense against disease, including cancer, is a strong immune system that is bolstered by dietary antioxidants derived from foods such as berries and brightly coloured fruit and vegetables. Adequate vitamin D derived mostly from sunlight is essential for a robust immune system.

We need to reduce exposure to toxins such as environmental pollutants and numerous chemicals in products like cleaners; burned, stale and rancid foods, food additives and even excess alcohol and various medications. As sports people we should not ignore the cancer risks of anabolic steroid abuse which is popularised by high profile athletes and celebrities (Refer my article about Arnold Schwarzeneggar).

One of the best predictors of future ill-health is stress and that includes events like getting married, divorced, changing jobs, a promotion/demotion, travel and running a marathon. We sure can do a lot about exercise; but what about the people who overdo it and do so year after year?

As many doctors know, an obsessive-compulsive addiction to exercise is one of the most difficult sports medicine problems to deal with. There are numerous examples of compulsive exercisers who continue to exercise to excess, despite badly worn joints. A doctor's advice to "rest up" is seldom heeded. Refer to my earlier article about excessive exercise here. In such cases, a combination of referral to counselling services and being placed under the caring wing of a knowledgeable sports coach may be the best course of action.

While exercise is good for you, too much of a good thing is not. Maintaining good health is all about balance in life and moderation of all things good while minimising all things bad.

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Simple solutions to injury and training problems

"Hi Gary, just a quick note to let you know how I have got on with the formthotics I got from you. Myself and a friend had planned a 3.5hour run for last night. I was a bit sceptical before the run about how I would go with blisters etc. However with new shoes a full size smaller than previous pairs, the formthotics from you and new thin running socks my feet were great, no problems at all which is amazing and a first - I am so relieved. Having come through that run with nothing other than tired legs I am going to commit myself to the Rotorua marathon. Thanks for you advice, I might have spent a small fortune lately but to run for over 3 hours and not even a hint of sore feet is well worth the $$ for me."

Gary Moller comments:
This keen female runner and cyclist in training for a marathon was suffering badly from a number of foot problems for which there seemed to be no easy solutions. Her prospects of making the start line for the Rotorua Marathon in good condition were diminishing by the day. As you can gather she is now a very satisfied customer.

As is often the case with most injuries of non-violent causation, the solutions can be remarkably simple and almost always of the "self-help" kind. Seldom, if ever, does a drug, injection, scalpel or expensive orthotic resolve the problem. Most often the solutions lie in a person's training structure, their coach, doing corrective exercises, small adjustments to their equipment and even just changing one's shoes, socks and inner soles!

If you have injury or training issues that bother you, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to assist with finding a lasting solution.

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How do I determine how much and what to drink while training for a marathon?

Hi Gary, i"m a first timer doing the marathon (Rotorua) having trouble with the fluids, how much is too much, how much is too little? On my longer training days would a camel back be the answer as I run in the country, nowhere to get water on the way, my last long run [2hrs] came back feeling sick, light headed , not great, obviously not enough fluid, water or sports drink? your advice would be grateful.
Cheers Anon.
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Gary Moller comments:
The first thing to do is to have a method of feedback to determine if, in fact you are getting dehydrated and to determine your needs.

Weigh yourself immediately before you run and immediately after. What you have lost in weight is water. So, if you lost a Kg then that equates to 1 liter of water. Drink 1 1/2 liters over the next hour or so to make it up. Weighing regularly before and after runs gives you an idea of how much you are losing on a typical run (depending on factors like, temperature, humidity and pace, of course!) and therefore how much to drink during a run.

Learn to listen to your body signals. The weighing will help you to become sensitive to your body. Thirst is very useful - as long as you know how to listen carefully and respond early. Most people have no idea how to listen and therefore must resort to rote formulas for fluid consumption which I detest.

If you are suffering nausea and light-headedness after a long run, it could be worthwhile to purchase a blood pressure and heart rate monitor and take regular readings to determine what is happening to heart rate and blood pressure before and after a run. If you do so, then write to me with the reults to assist interpretation. Read these giudelines here for a good explanation about blood pressure.

When we lived in Putaruru all of our long Sunday runs with our Dad were in the forests of Tokoroa and the Mamaku. It was 2-3 hours before breakfast with no fluids. While this was tough I can assure you that I am still alive and in excellent health! My kidneys are fine. It seems the body does adapt if given the right nudging and time. In my sister Lorraine's case, being able to run very fast for 2.5 hours in heat and humidity with little more than a cup of water along the way was essential for winning an Olympic marathon medal in stinking hot Barcelona.

However, getting deathly dehydrated is probably not necessary in training for most and drinking a liter or so of water along the way is a good idea especially if the runner is a heavy sweater and the conditions warm.

I am not keen on carrying water when running. The risk of leg injury is high enough as it is and adding a Kg or two more onto the legs is adding to that risk. It is better to plan the course so that there is a drink station, like a tap or bottle along the way. This could be done by doing a couple of laps of a course from where the car is parked, or planting a bottle of water at the 1/2 way mark before you commence the run.

I do not recommend using a sports drink or similar when training. Water is best. You are using your long runs to stress your body's energy reserves and swigging sweet liquid is not going to allow this to happen. The sports drinks should be reserved for the actual race - not in training. However; if you are going to be running at pace, then you must ensure that you can tolerate sweet electrolyte drinks. Practice drinking your sports drink during some of your short, fast runs and see if it stays down. I have found that water is best when running; whereas sports drinks are fine for sports like cycling where there is less problems with jiggling and jostling of the gut. I prefer to make my own using Balance Elite but any of the commercial powders are fine. I have even taken to adding a teaspoon of Balance Glutamine to the mix to assist stamina and recovery and it seems to work. Read my e-book about training for a marathon which has plenty of training information.

When mixing your drinks, err on the dilute side. If the weather is hot and humid, then you need more liquid and less of the sugary stuff. If it is cold and wet, then you need less water and more of the sugars. If you are running very fast, then you may only tolerate a little fluid in your gut which is why having a good tolerance of dehydration is important for elite runners; whereas when running very slow, or walking, you should have no trouble drinking and your main risk might be death from drinking too much.

During the marathon, there are more than enough drink stations by the organisers so there is no need to carry your own. Run light. Drink early and listen to your body signals and respond accordingly.

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Sunlight makes athletes stronger, faster and more precise

"If you are vitamin D deficient, the medical literature indicates that the right amount of vitamin D will make you faster, stronger, improve your balance and timing, etc. How much it will improve your athletic ability depends on how deficient you are to begin with. How good an athlete you will be depends on your innate ability, training, and dedication. However, peak athletic performance also depends upon the neuromuscular cells in your body and brain having unfettered access to the steroid hormone, activated vitamin D. In addition, how much activated vitamin D is available to your brain, muscle, and nerves depends on having ideal levels of vitamin D in your blood - about 50 ng/ml, to be precise". Quote from Dr John Cannell.

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Gary Moller comments:
To relate Dr Cannell's recommended levels to the usual NZ blood tests, here is the information you need.We have known for years that vitamin D deficiency in the elderly leads to muscle and bone weakness and poor cognitive performance that results in poor balance and stumbling, dementia and so on. It is therefore little surprise that boosting an athlete's vitamin D levels to optimum will bring about an imtprovement in strength, speed, agility, concentration and stamina. It also stands to reason that such athletes are more resistant to injury by having stronger bones and muscles.

To date, not a single sports person (Or anybody else for that matter) who has consulted me about a chronic health or injury problem has returned a blood test for vitamin D that is anywhere near optimum.

If you are in serious training and if you want to produce your best and most consistent performances then it makes such good sense to boost your vitamin D levels to optimum and then to keep it there year round. Here is one of the most important nutritional supplements and it is completely free!

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How much vitamin C should an athlete take to avoid colds?

It is the common experience of many athletes to finish an exhausting event like a marathon or iron man triathlon and feel surprisingly good; only to crash several days later going down with a virus an injury like tendonitis or feeling very depressed and tired or all of the latter. This may be fully or partially due to the delayed effects of the extreme oxidative stress suffered during the exhausting exercise (This can be either from competition or heavy training). In many cases, such as multiday events there is the added stress of sleep deprivation which hammers one's immune system.

"A practical way to reason is that, if a person carrying out heavy exercise feels that he or she has colds too often, he or she could (should?) try vitamin C.

The doses have been about 0.5 to 2 grams per day in the controlled trials and that kind of doses are safe for ordinary people (and cheap). In the US nutritional recommendations they consider that safe range goes to some 2 g/day. That is a conservative limit in my opinion, but with the current knowledge, I do not think it makes much sense to use substantially larger doses even though I consider them safe.

If we assume that the oxidative stress caused by the marathon would b protected against by higher vitamin C levels in the body, I think that the time scale would be initiation a few days before and continuing a few days after the marathon (one or two times per day I would think)". Harri

(Excerpt from correspondence between Gary Moller and Harri Hemilä, MD, PhD,Department of Public Health,University of Helsinki, Finland. Dr Hemilä is one of the world's leading researchers into the benefits or otherwide of substances like vitamin C and vitamin E).

Dr Hemilä's impressive work in this area makes fascinating reading. Here is an E-pub that summarises some of his work and contains links to substantive work by him and others on this matter.

With what we know about free radicals and how they are generated during exhasting or intense exercise, it would make good sense to anticipate excessive oxidative stress to your body and take preventive measures, if you are doing heavy training or have an exhausting competition coming up. This migh also apply to work and personal situations that may be emotionally as well as physically exhausting.

Using Dr Hemilä's advice as our guide, here is my guidance:

• If you are doing exhausting training take 1-2,000mg of vitamin C per day
• If you have a history of frequent colds, take towards the upper level (2,000mg)
• Take 2,000mg per day over the 2 days before an exhausting competition and for 2 days afterwards
• If you are taking Wagner Ester C, then you could reduce these guidelines to 50% and you will probably get the same protection or still better.
• Regardless of vitamin C supplementation, take a daily Super Smoothie that has red berries and whey protein added and eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Go to sleep before 11pm every night and be out of bed by 7am
• Get plenty of sunlight on your body to boost your vitamin D levels. Get a blood test of your levels.
• An athlete requires more minerals and B group vitamins than most
• Other antioxidant food extracts like high potency garlic extracts could be added to the diet
  
• Have recovery days within your training schedule and take 3-5 days rest after an exhausting competition like a marathon.

I will be posting some guidelines about use of vitamin E which is currently a confused and controversial matter.
Your vitamin C needs can be met by purchasing from http://www.myotec.co.nz/

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Please help - I want to run a marathon!

"Dear Gary,
I am a 27 year old male who is currently living in XXX. I am desperate to run a marathon and have never done any excessive long distance running before. I find it hard to motivate myself to run, even though I am a keen sportsman. Last year I trained for a half marathon in XXX, however I got shin splints and could not attend. I was running around 12km a day when this happened. I am in a state of unrest as my fitness is poor and I am putting on weight. I eat rather healthy but tend to drink with mates on the weekend.

I was wondering if you could give me some motivational goals and techniques to encourage me to achieve my ultimate goal of a marathon. Would the Rotorua Marathon be out of the question and would I need to set a target for a future date?"
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Gary Moller responds:
First of all, it is far too late to prepare for this year's Rotorua Marathon but not too late to start focusing on 2008. Make that your long term goal.

I find that the best way to get really fit and hardened for running an event like a marathon is to commit to a whole variety of lesser events that are no more than about a month or two away. Right now New Zealand is awash with mountain runs, 5 and 10km fun and charity runs and even events like the Oxfam 24 hour 100km wlk/run. There are also duathlons that anybody can do and these are often held in exotic places. For example, I am doing the 10 km run section of the Mt Holdsworth mountain duathlon this weekend while a mate does the cycle sections.

Events that grab my imagination are now getting promoted on this website and in various e-pubs, so keep an eye out for these. You can also find events by going to the various sports websites that are listed to the left of this article.

Frequently entering these events keeps you focused and motivates like nothing nothing else. They are not so punishing as to leave you injured and otherwise overly wasted.

You do not need to train hard daily. I would never run 10km every day nowadays because the fatigue and injury risk are excessive. It is much better to do three longer, steady runs per week with relative rest in between and to do an extra session preferably in the form of a shortish race that does not completely waste you. Please read this training guide which has just been substantially updated.

Shin splints hint that you have been doing too much running too soon and probably without sufficient in the way of recovery days. You probably have pronating feet. Please read this e-pub and do the exercises diligently.

If you start doing this right now you will find that your fitness steadily improves and you will be excited and motivated by each event as it looms on the horizon

Perhaps you can interest your drinking buddies in entering a few adventure races!

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Here's a mountain duathlon worth doing

If you are training up for an event like a marathon or just wanting to get really fit, a good strategy is to do a variety of challenging events that:

• Makes training varied and interesting,
• Gives you a really good incentive to get out and do the training,
• Makes life an exciting challenge,
• Gets you into the great outdoors and:
• If you get injured or fall ill the day before the big event of the season, all is not lost - you had a damn good time getting there!

Wairarapa Multisports Club in conjunction with the Masterton Tramping Club presents the 20th Annual Wairarapa Mountain Duathlon Sunday 4th March, 2007 10.00am Start from Clareville Showgrounds.



The race consists of a bike to the base of the mountain and then a steady 10km out and back run and then cycle to the finish. There is a short course option. Although I am pretty good on a bike, I am teaming up with a mate who is doing the cycling and I will concentrate on the run. Great fun, great training and great country-side!

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E-Publications Updated

I have been flat out over the last week doing updates to the following E-Publications:

Accreditation of health professionals who prescribe exercise as therapy

Blood pressure and heart rate monitor guidelines

Cardiovascular disease

Core strength and posture

Mobility exercises for runners

Stretching exercises for runners

Teach your child to ride a bike

Mountain bike training

Training guidelines for running or walking a marathon

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How to prevent muscle cramp during an event like the Oxfam trailwalker 100km

"Dear Gary,
I have entered with a team into the Oxfam 100km trailwalker this April. I have suffered really bad muscle cramps in the past when doing long runs. Do you have any advice about diet and supplements during training to prevent this happening again?
Thanks"
Anon.
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Gary Moller comments:
I have had several enquiries like this one for advice from walkers and runners who have entered the Oxfam Trailwalker 100km April 14-15, 2007). The challenge of the Trailwalker is to complete 100kms in 36 hours as a team of four and raise funds to help some of the world's poorest people.

Whether you intend to walk or run the Oxfam Trailwalker 100km, it’s a gruelling challenge and the odds are that you and your team mates are going to suffer cramping of some kind. So, let’s concentrate this article on what you can do with diet and training to avoid being hampered by cramp during the event. Train your ability to use fat stores When doing an event like the Oxfam Trailwalker, you have near limitless supplies of body fat for energy; but very limited internal supplies of your other source of energy: glycogen. When your glycogen runs low, as it will no matter how you get from A to B with 100km between, you must rely increasingly upon your fat stores for the energy to keep going. However; this is not easy if you are a typical Kiwi who is never further than several metres from a food source. Not being used to digging deep into your fat stores during intense physical exercise will result in only one thing: dead in the water exhaustion and muscle cramps. You need to train your body to operate efficiently using its fat stores.

This means having your last meal about two hours before exercise and doing your longest training runs/walks of the week on water only. You should be steadily building up to being able to trot comfortably for about three hours once a week, or to walk at a steady clip for about four hours.

It is important to cut the junk carbohydrates out of your daily diet - sugar, white flour, corn syrup and so on and replace these with whole food sources like wholemeal bread, oats, Kumara, taro, yams and spuds. Whole foods sourced carbohydrates are digested more slowly, they contain more nutrients and cause less stress on metabolic regulators like the pancreas.
Consuming sweets, gels and sugary drinks while you are exercising will not allow your body to learn how to burn fat efficiently. My free e-book "Training for a Marathon" has more information about training endurance capacity (download from http://www.healthandlifestyle.co.nz/).

You may initially get intense carbohydrate cravings during your long training sessions. However, if you stick at it you will be delighted with the results: The cravings will diminish and you can maintain a steady clip for much longer. I have found that this takes at least three months to really kick in, so start now. Build your body's mineral stores while you still have time Barely a single modern person's diet is adequate in minerals. Our depleted agricultural soils and limited range of cultivated crops sees to that, as does our general aversion to eating organs like the liver and making mineral rich broths from beef bones. Magnesium and calcium are critical for health, including muscle function. It can take several months, if not a year or so of supplementation to build a depleted body's stores in muscles, bones and organs like the liver. Rich body stores of minerals are your defence against muscle cramps during events like the Oxfam Trailwalker. During the remaining weeks of your preparation I recommend that you take two tablets of Calcium Complete and two capsules of Magnesium Complete per day, spread over the day and with food.

Eat organ meats like liver and kidney and make beef bone soups that have the bones well and truly simmered to release the bone minerals. Eat your leafy vegetables. Take extra B vitamins, extra antioxidants and glutamine and boost vitamin D

Minerals and the B group of vitamins work together to keep muscles, nerves (and brain) working, so you need extra B vitamins on a daily basis when doing all of the training you must do in preparation for walking or trotting 100km. Take two Super B tablets per day with food.

Vitamin D is like a mineral magnet and without high levels in your body, your ability to uptake and use minerals like magnesium and calcium is seriously compromised (This is why sunlight deprivation causes disease like rickets, osteoporosis and muscles weakness). Its importance for health is frequently overlooked possibly because vitamin D is free and does not require a prescription.

You can also take additional antioxidants into your body to keep muscles resistant to damage by taking a daily antioxidant supplement. However, your main source of antioxidants is bright coloured fruit and veggies including berries. Dark berries like blueberries and black currant also provide some protection from sunburn which is important at this time of year. The amino acid Glutamine aids muscle repair and recovery. It is best taken before and after exercise.

Note: You can order the supplements referred to in this article from http://www.myotec.co.nz/ or you can find similar products from your local natural health store.

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Here's a couple of running events to challenge you!

If you have been following my advice about training for events like the Rotorua Marathon or the Karapoti Classic, you will know that I encourage you to enter various buildup events that keep you focussed on training and also to help develop that high-end performance that can only come through competition. Whether you are out to win, or just to finish, you will benefit enormously by entering other events that challenge mind and stamina during your preparations.

What better to enter than events that get you into really spectacular parts of New Zealand!

Well here are two events that are just ideal for the fitness fanatic and the timing could not be better: the Mt Lowry and Mt Lyford mountain runs. Go here right now to learn more, otherwise read on....

Mt Lowry overlooks Eastbourne and is 12.5km of scenic hills that will have you blowing. Mind you, you don't have to race these events: Plenty of people enter just to participate, walking the distance and soaking up the views and the atmosphere. The Mt Lowrie event is on 25th February, giving you just enough time to prepare. Here is the link to the Mt Lowry page

The Mt Lyford race, overlooking the Kaikouras, is a scenic and stamina blowout for sure. The main event is 17.5km with a 1282m climb; but there is the option of a 5km version and even one for th kids. That's on 11th March which means you have plenty of time to train up for it. Here is the link to the Mt Lyford race

I have just entered the Mt Lowry race and so has my partner, Alofa; although she does not know this yet. Hmmm - just a couple of weeks to get running fit - now that is a challenge!

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Link

Is it iliotibial band syndrome - or is it Wobbly wheels syndrome?

"Hi Gary
I did my first marathon in July last year and had very tight ITB bands afterwards. I had a few weeks off then starting running again. When I did my first few runs I developed a shooting pain around my knee. I have been for physio treatment on and off and had a big break from running but I’ve just tried starting back again and the knee pain has come back. It is where my ITB band joins my knee on the outside of my left leg. Do you have any suggestions/advice on how to overcome this injury so I can get back to running again.

Photo: Here is an example of useless therapy in action - Get the cart after the horse please: This patient needs to improve nutritional status first before any kind of physical therapy can be expected to give lasting benefit.

_____________________________________
Gary Moller comments:
Further discussion with this 30'ish very active woman revealed that this injury is just one of a whole succession of injuries over the last few years, all of which have been pushed, prodded, massaged, manipulated or exercised in various way, including the near mandatory fitting of the dreaded orthotics. I have concluded that she is suffering "Wobbly Wheels Syndrome" (WWS). "

I clicked to WWS several years ago because I kept getting inquiries like this: "Gary, I get a week into exercising in the gym and my knee flares up. I rest for a couple of weeks, and go see the physio several times and then my hip goes and then its the knee again. Then its my back and and then my doctor tells me I have blood pressure! I feel as if my body is falling apart. Am I just getting old? Should I just give up and go buy a rocking chair?"

No, it is not really about getting old and this person does not need the rocking chair - But his wheels and other part are getting loose and worn. Time to put the body into the Body Workshop for some major tender loving care.

WWS has little to do with getting old. I think it is a case of the body getting exhausted and depleted. The body needs to recharge its batteries. This means a physical and emotional rest from the rush of modern life and a diet with some supplements to restore depleted stocks.

The therapy that I usually recommend for conditions like recurrent iliotibial band pain, glandular fever or high blood pressure is a combination of corrective exercises, rest, sun and nutrition. This may include advising the person to take a lenghty holiday in the sun in a place like the peaceful and isolated Cook Islands and living on the locally grown fruits and vegetables. This advice works without fail. Their injury and health problems resolve within a few weeks and the person is able to resume exercise later on with energy and enthusiasm and without recurrence of health or injury issues.

I have thought often about setting up a health resort in a place like the Cooks as an alternative to the costly, wasteful and mostly ineffective medical treatment that goes on for conditions like cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression and anxiety, chronic fatigue and arthritis (to name a few). Unfortunately, all the health money has been sucked up by these wasteful therapies, leaving little over for the therapies that actually work.

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How much training should a marathon runner do in the gym?

I get many variations on this question and the answer is this: "Very little". About 15-20 minutes, including the warm up and no more than three times a week.

Running a marathon is an extreme activity and the only way to prepare is to get out on the road and the trails and grind out the miles day after day, month after month. The specificity principle of athletic conditioning dictates that the closer you replicate the activity or event that you are aiming for the better prepared you will be. So, if you are going to be running on pavement, then most of your running should be on pavement and certainly not on a stepper, cross-trainer or even a treadmill. If there are hills on the course, then you must train on hills. If there is soft or uneven ground then you should be running on similar surfaces a good deal of the time.

Photocourtesy of: Nobby Hashizume

It is often argued that the gym is used for "core conditioning". Well, you don't neeed a gym and again the specificity principle says that a runner would be better off doing exercises and drills that condition the body's core specifically for running. This can be done by doing running drills like bounding up slopes (refer photo), stride-outs, accelerations and various agility drills. Done right, these drills superbly condition the body without adding unnecessary muscle bulk.

All that you need to add to the training mix is the following in the order given:

• Chinups off a tree or bar - about 5 reps will do
• Press-ups - about 10-20 is fine
• Hanging from a bar and pulling both knees to your chest (for the hips and abdominals) - about 10 will do
• Lifting a modest weight from the gound to above your head - 10-20 is fine

Move quickly from one to the other and, if you feel enthusiastic, do up to three sets and do this 2-3 times a week. If you feel like doing a fourth set, my advice is to go for a run around the block. You are training to be a marathon runner - not a weight lifter. Believe me, Arnold was never a good runner - it was all special effects.

If you have a gym membership, this is your 10 minute workout. If you worry about all that money you are paying on gym fees and not making much use of the gym then do your runs from the gym and use the showers. Better still, run to the gym and back.

By far the most important thing is you must get outside and run if you want to finish a marathon in reasonable shape.

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Mobility and toning exercises for runners

A distance runner needs to have good total body tone and mobility while not building excessive muscle bulk which is energy sapping weight when running.

Hot off the press is my latest work-out fro runners. It is a simple weight-free routine that covers the essential bases of a distance runner’s toning and mobility requirements. These can be incorporated into your pre-run/race warm up and cooling down routine. Make this routine a training session for easy exercise in the evenings and during rest days.

You can easily incorporate some of the other runner’s stretching exercises into this routine to make it even more comprehensive. Further exercises can be found in my book on Back Pain which is available from my online store here.

Here is the direct link to download this E-Publication

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Link

How do I overcome the "stitch" when running?

ia

"Hi Gary

I have decided Im going to do my first half marathon this year in October - I have an average fitness level playing netball twice weekly, swimming once a week and biking 11km each way to work at least 3 times a week.

I have dutifully set my alarm clock 20 minutes earlier than the norm and have pre-set out a kilometre circuit I can run from my door (using my cars km clicker).

After 3 weeks of training I am up to a comfortable 2km run in around 8 - 10 minutes but havent been able to bust past this distance due to stitch pains under my rib cage, right hand side.

Ive researched extensively into "the stitch" and have tried the thumb pressure for a few minutes technique, relaxing my gut, walking for a bit til it subsides and I run on an empty stomach (no food or water) in the morning (around 6.20am).

I know this is beginners stuff and I REALLY want to overcome my 2km brick wall so I can have a go at the Akld Round the Bays in March."
"Frances"
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Gary Moller comments:
The stitch as described here by Frances is most likely caused by either jostling stress on the ligaments that support the stomach, poorly conditioned transverse abdominals or from spasm of the diaphragm muscle. Because she is suffering stitch early in the morning before eating or drinking, it is reasonable to initially preclude the stomach ligament theory and to concentrate on the diaphragm. We will deal with the transverse abdominal muscles possibility in another posting if the following recommendations do not work.

The diaphragm is a broad, thin muscle that inflates and deflates the lower lobes of the lungs. It naturally works hard when running. Because of its broad expanse blood supply to it can easily become inadequate during exercise and it only takes a few of its fibres to cramp up to cause disabling pain.

Although Frances is quite fit relative to most women, she is still a novice when it comes to running. This kind of cramp is most common in beginner runners who breathe quite hard despite the relatively slow pace. As endurance training continues it becomes less of an issue because breathing becomes less intense and the proliferation of capillaries in the diaphragm means a much better blood supply to the areas that were prone to cramping.

It is possible that Frances might be low in magnesium (most people are) and a course of maganesium over three months would be interesting to trial and highly recommended.

Here is what I advise Frances to do in training:

• Commence her morning runs with five minutes of power walking before breaking out into a steady trot. This will give time for her circulation to wake up and be fully pumping before revving the engine.
• Run steady on the flat sections of her running course, power walk up and down hills.
• Power walk 2-3 minutes at the slightest hint of the stitch coming on.
• Do one long run/walk per week of from 2-3 hours right away, such as on a Sunday morning. The idea is to get the time on the feet right away even if it is 90% walking to start with. This could even be a weekly hike with a light back pack through the Hunua or Waitakere Ranges (Frances is in Auckland) with all of the running during the week.
  

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Should an endurance athlete take creatine?

"Gary,

Do you have much experience on the use of creatine? perhaps you could make a post of that, I heard of an aquaintance who was taking it, his body bloated up as a result! I understand it only helps anaerobic performance as its used in the energy pathway for glycolytic independant energy pathway, since anaerobic is actually a misused phrase, anaerobic energy is what is used in throwing and jumping, for a maximal quick surge of power, more sustained maximal output is the glycolytic independant pathway that is commonly referred to as anaerobic"
Wayne
_____________________________
Gary Moller comments:
Good question Wayne. There are no easy answers. All the energy pathways contribute to a greater or lesser degree whether sprinting or exercising steady state. It is just a question of degree. So, even during steady state our "anaerobic" processes are still at work. And they sure are whenever there is a surge of pace

Cycling is a good case in point: during a 100km race, there may a thousand micro-surges and a hundred longer ones. Seldom is it steady state. Surge-gasp for air-surge-gasp- surge and on and on and if you are lucky you still have enough left in the tank for a final sprint! Having optimum creatine stores for such events makes good sense. Low creatine levels will reduce muscle power and slow recovery from these bursts.

I have always been reasonably good on a bike and there are few mountain bikers my age who can beat me up a long hill. This is partly because I weigh just a little over 60kg. Now, I have good lungs but it is lack of leg strength that limits me. I have no sprint and I have to work very hard to hold onto a surge. I can chug along with my partner Alofa for a good three hours or so; but she always kills me on that last sharp hill when those strong Samoan thighs get pumping. My chicken thighs are no match.

I have been experimenting with adding about 5 grams of creatine to my recovery Super Smoothies because it is strength and power that are my limitations. I might have put on a Kg of body weight but this may be attributed more to my eating more and doing less overall activity. What I can report is I am riding just about the best in memory with no problems with failure of the thighs so far this season. The test will be this coming weekend when we do the 80km bone rattling Gentle Annie through the Central Nth Island.

Although I am running hard right now I would be concerned, as a runner, about possible weight gain from creatine supplementing and would probably take less than 5 grams per day. However; I have the impression that significant weight gain may be offset by the natural leaning effect from endurance training of 2-4 hrs depending on it being running or cycling.

There is also the factor of body type. If you are a heavily muscled mesomorph, just thinking about lifting weights will see muscle growth! If you are like me - a lighlty muscled ectomorph - then no matter how heavy the weights you lift and the supplements you take, you will be lucky to put on a kilo or two. Especially if you do endurance work as well. If an athlete has any tendency to gain excess muscle in a sport that favours light weight, I would be cautious about anything more than creatine supplementation of up to 5gm per day - no more. Whereas a "skinny" might benefit from a little more - up to 10 grams.

Athletes need to identify their strengths and weaknesses. A runner like Peter Snell needed to work on his endurance because he had strength to burn. Alofa is like that - her weakness is her lungs and not her legs. My weakness is my leg muscles - or the lack of them.

If you are taking creatine, it is advisable to spell the body by having a month or so off it every three or so months. For leg strength, endurance and recovery other nutritional factors such as optimum supplies of magnesium and calcium may be of greater importance.

Oh - and despite the current creatine experiment, Alofa continues to thrash my arse on that last hill!

Creatine can be purchased from here

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How do I run with my wife when marathon training?

"Hi Gary
Thanks for the training tips for the Rotorua marathon. My wife and I are going to run it. I have run 2 before... around 3:15-3:20 finishing time. My wife has run a couple of halves around 2:15. We obviousily run at different race sppeds but do a bit of training together on the long runs. I would like to get closer to the 3 hour mark if possible. She wants to complete the marathon.

My question is....

is it ok to continue to run together for the long runs up to 3 hours? The pace we run at is slower than my race pace but good for her.... Is this a good idea or will it hinder my training as I would be running faster on race day."
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Gary Moller comments:
Three hours on your feet is your training goal. I do not see any point in running longer than that. The risk of injury and excess fatigue cancels out any added benefit if there is any.

Work out your respective aerobic thresholds (AeT) this way:

• Wear a sports heart rate rate monitor each
• Run as fast as you can for 20-40 minutes preferably in a race and get your average pulse during the mid sections of the run (After the first five minutes and before the last 5)
• This average heart rate is your anaerobic threshold (AT)
• Your aerobic threshold is about 10-20 beats per minute below this.

So, if your AT is 160 beats, then your AeT is about 140. You can not run a marathon above your AT heart rate. Your AeT is probably the fastest you can run a marathon. If you exceed your estimated AeT you will surely hit the wall during a marathon.

When training with your wife, you must not have her trying to keep up with you by exceeding her AeT. Do not worry if the long Sunday run is easy since it is time on your feet drinking water only that is important. Run at her AeT or slower.

On the shorter Tuesday and Thursday runs is when you try to run for 1-2 hours nudging your AT here and there. On the Saturday is when you do much shorter, faster runs that exceed your AT for several minutes. You would do all these runs at your pace and your wife at her's. If you are doing these runs together, have your wife send you the long way round now and then or have you drive harder up a hill or run ahead and then run back.

Be sure to gradually build up the training volume and intensity to a peak prior to the marathon and make sure you have "rest weeks" as outlined in the training guide.

Follow these suggestions and the rest of the advice that is on this website and in the marathon training guide and both of you will be assured of personal bests.

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Heart Attack – One runner’s story

“Hi Gary,
I had a 'health challenge' over 11 years ago' at 43. I was lucky to survive the initial episode. Had my wife not decided to have an extra few minutes sleep-in one Saturday morning, she would have been in the shower and I most probably would not have survived it. Some CPR, (not perfect - but just enough before the ambulance guys arrived) helped and a helicopter lift off the flat roof of our house and I was in hospital within the golden 1hr.
I never had any warning symptoms. I had run everyday for 5 & 1/2 years. Was 5th in my club's xc champs masters grade the weekend before when club was strong with masters. The anaesthetist said I had the best set of lungs he had seen. Probably the fitness was also a factor in me surviving.
Of course there have been other runners who did not have my luck in similar circumstances, a number come to mind.”
____________________________
Comment by Gary:
Heart attack can strike the unwary without warning - sometimes while still quite young. The very fit are far from immune and the fitness itself may lull the person into a false sense of security.

Often, there is prior warning that may go on for as long as several days; however, this can be so subtle to be ignored, or easily mistaken for something else, like a touch of the flu or a pulled chest muscle, a strained shoulder, or just a feeling of being a “little under the weather”.

One of your best tools for assessing the health of your heart and circulation is using a digital blood pressure and heart rate monitor. A set of unusual readings of blood pressure and/or heart rate, as compared to your regular norms may be your first and best warning that not all is well - that it is time to seek medical assistance. This could be as simple as a quick phone call made to your doctor.

See your doctor while you are healthy: Have regular health checks, including blood profiles. The fit person who thinks they have a heart like a sturdy Diesel engine and a “good diet” is liable to neglect these with the result that an underlying disorder like excessive cholesterol levels or heart defect may go undetected for many years. Men are the worst when it comes to these matters, including ignoring the obvious hints of a poor family history.

Arrange for you, your family and friends to undertake training in basic CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation). The one thing for sure is this life-saving skill will be called upon when least expected.

As is nicely illustrated in this letter modern emergency medicine is a wonderful life saver.

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When can I run my next marathon?

This is a question that I am asked often. Here is my best effort to provide some guidance:

It is best not to run more than 4 marathons per year, preferably fewer. Two is about right as you will gather as you read on.

Look after your body; especially the joints, which can only take so much wear and tear – look after body and it will give a lifetime of faithful service. Abuse it and your running days will be over before you know it. And let’s face it – running a marathon is tough on the body no matter how you do it!

Each marathon should be followed by a period of three to four weeks of recovery after which you start a fresh graduated build-up to the next performance peak.

After this initial period of recovery – and only after you are able to one again run freely and with energy - it is time to commence another build up to your next big event. Review your previous training schedule: Begin at about half way through where you started and where you peaked during your most recent build up of distance and speed. Gradually add a little more each week just like before, faithfully adding in your recovery weeks and do not get too far ahead of yourself by piling in too much extra training even if you happen to feel great. No big jumps please – keep progress incremental. The idea is to finish this new build up with the peak just a little higher than the previous one.

Here is what you are aiming for:

• 12 weeks of steady increases in distance runs each week, breaking these up with some short, fast runs, including 3-10km races (no further please!)
• 4-8 weeks if you have time of maintaining a steady mileage and competing in short distance races.
• 6-8 weeks of gradually cutting back on total training volume while quickening the pace.
  • Keep one long relaxed run per week going of 2-3 hrs (No longer please).
  • Do one ½ marathon about the 1st week of this phase, recover for about 7-10 days with relaxed running and then get back into the training.
  • Put all of this stamina to the test by running approximately weekly 3-12km races. Do these even if you regard yourself as being a bit of a plodder. These will get you up on your toes and used to running at pace and they will toughen your body and mind. Join a club and participate actively in their training and racing programmes.
• With 2 weeks to go to the marathon, do not any more races.
  • It is time to enter your freshening phase to peak for the big day.

So, to train properly and consistently, you need about 24 weeks, or almost 6 months of undisrupted training between each marathon. Keep this consistent and progressive training and competition pattern going for as long as you feel the inclination to do so.

As a general rule of thumb, run no more than 2 marathons per year hard out. Any extras may be taking the edge off you and you may find that you will never beat whatever time you are going for; be that a sub-4hr, sub-3.30 or under the magical time of 3hrs.

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Stretching Exercises for Runners and Cyclists

I have created a simple little E-Publication that contains what I think are the most important stretches for a runners and cyclists to do. These are suitable for incorporation into a pre-competition warm up routine; but mainly for doing daily, such as in the evening when you are warm and relaxed.

Here is the direct link.

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Link

New Page added: Training advice for running, including walking or running a half marathon or marathon

If you are planning to run or walk a marathon or half marathon; or just wanting to get outside and get fit, this new page on my website is a good place to start. What I have done is create a feeder that searches out all of the artilces that I have written that have anything to do about running and aggregated them all onto a single page.

Why not go there now and have a read?

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Link

The ten most important rules for training for running or walking a marathon

Give yourself time and be consistent. You need at least three months of training to have the stamina to complete a marathon. So, whether you have three months or six months to go before the big day, get your shoes on and start your training now! Be consistent. Have a training plan that progressively increases the mileage covered and stick to it week after week, month after month.

Get time on your feet. It’s not so much the mileage or speed; but time spent running and walking that prepares you for completing the marathon. Very gradually build up to doing one weekly run that is up to three hours duration; or, if you are walking, your goal is four hours on your feet. This is your goal about 4-6 weeks out from the marathon, after which you ever so gradually reduce so that you are fresh and raring to go on race day!

Make your journey to the marathon interesting and fun. Try making every training session different from the last one. Explore new places. Organise mystery runs with your mates. Get lost and get very fit. Play “chase” now and then. Do the occasional day-long or multi-day hike (Even if you are a runner, a long hike in the bush is wonderful physical conditioning).

Do not over-train and ensure you recover. You only need to do three long runs or walks per week (Plus one short, faster one, if you are really serious). While you should be active on the day in-between, you must ensure that you are as close to fully recovered before the next long training session. Make every fourth week a relatively easy “recovery” week. Have your regular training partners; but do the majority of your training on your own so that you go at your pace and distance and do not risk being constantly dragged along too far and hard too often by others. The risk of injury and illness is too high.

Run or walk mostly on trails. Training on roads and pavements is especially hard on the legs; especially if there is an unrelenting off-camber. Train on trails that vastly reduce the impact shock and which vary the stresses on the legs with every stride. You will find you can go longer and faster and still recover in time for the next session.

Eat a nutrient rich diet. Your body cannot recover properly or build strong, healthy tissue if your diet is lacking in essential nutrients. Have a home made Super Smoothie that contains proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, essential oils and antioxidants within an hour of finishing each training session.

Keep hydrated. Weigh yourself before and after a training session: If you lose 1kg then you must replace this by drinking 1kg of fresh water (1 liter), plus an extra ½ liter for good measure over the hour of finishing. You will later be able to dispense with the weighing because you will have learned to listen to your body signals. Got the idea?

Get plenty of rest and quality sleep. Ideally, you want to have a sit-down job, rather than one that has you on your feet all day. It is during deep sleep that your body produces its daily peak of growth hormone that stimulates repair and growth. Be in bed and asleep by 11pm every night and get 7-8 hours of sleep.

Treat injuries before they incapacitate. Unless you fall over, or are run over by a bus, running and walking injuries happen slowly. Cut your training short and take a compulsory four day rest the moment there is a hint of an injury and then gradually work your way back into training. The same rule applies to illnesses like colds. Follow this rule, and others, and you will never have to visit a health professional about a training related ailment.

Listen to your Inner Voice. The most important rule has been saved for last. You are a living being – not a mindless automaton. Learn to listen to your Inner Voice. If it is telling you to stop, then stop; if it is telling you that you can go further or faster, then do it; if it is telling you that you need more water or food, then give yourself some; if it is telling you that you need a few days break, then do it. Ignore your Inner Voice at your peril – illness, injury and mental staleness are the inevitable consequences. Listen carefully to your Inner Voice and you will thoroughly enjoy your training and you will complete the marathon with a personal best.

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Running - Being good racers in training and losing the plot

I don't think a lot of NZ coaches have really grasped the finer points of Lydiard’s coaching, I’m seeing young runners grinding out over the Waitakeres most weekends going flat out, I'm not hearing the message train don't strain, I'm hearing a message of mileage instead of time spent training.

A group of young adults goes out over the Waitakeres whether they are bent on competing I’m not sure, they go out together but come back down at one hang of a pace spread-eagled possibly racing each other back down. Their best is being given on the Waitakeres.
Our best results are coming from athletes trained by overseas coaches.

It’s the problem when a few coaches have all the talent under their wing, if they don't do a good job all the talent isn't developed properly.

There needs to be a message of balance, knowing when to ease off and listening to your own body rather than religiously following a coach.

Wayne

Photo: 1970's Canterbury, New Zealand Korean training camp when NZ was the Mecca for runners: the long sunday pack runs were part of a carefully managed buildup plan. There were no heroics.

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Gary Moller comments:
Wayne, These observations and comments are right on the mark and get to the heart of one of the reasons why New Zealand has lost the running plot after having been consistently at the top of the running world.

If you read my articles about Kenyan running, you will realise that Kenyans commence their running from a very early age, with brief bursts of intensity when playing games like soccer. This very much describes my own upbringing in rural New Zealand of the 1950's. It is only after a decade and a half later that the Kenyans, as young adults, are subjected to big running miles at pace and gut-heaving anaerobic work.

Lydiard alway worked on the basis that it took 8-10 years to build a champion. How right he was and how right he still is.

To take teenage boys and girls with the best of just a few years of running behind them and have them racing the lenght of the Waitakeres is really dumb. It is a recipe for disaster. End of story!

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Commute your way to fitness

If you want to get really fit and time is against you, commuting to work under your own steam is the solution.

My partner, Alofa, is very fit. By commuting to and from work, she has reduced her resting pulse from 80 beats per minute to 40 beats per minute. That’s an extra 40 beats to play with when running, meaning she can run with ease a lot faster and longer. She either rides her mountain bike to and from work or she runs with a small back pack. At the beginning of each week, she takes her clothing and her breakfast (muesli) to work where her employer has supplied a wardrobe and shower. This is good time management.

She gets to work early, faster than driving or taking the bus, has a quick shower and breakfast and then she is down to work. No need to waste time with makeup due to the healthy start to the day!

If you live too far to commute and you think you can get out of it, think again; use public transport to travel only part of the distance, then run the remainder of the journey. Extend the distance run as fitness improves. There should be no whimping out when the weather is foul. There is no such thing as bad weather – just bad choices of clothing.

Commuting disciplines you into a twice daily workout that quickly builds enduring fitness. It makes very good use of time that is otherwise wasted on mindless and stressful commuting. It can save you thousands of dollars per year and is good for the environment. When building fitness by commuting, all you need do further in training is a long run on Sundays with the occasional race thrown in here and there.

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Training advice for running Rotorua Marathon

Gary,
I've done quite a few Rotoruas & intend doing the 2007 also.
BUT from 12 Feb to 9 Mar I'll be away on extended overseas trip (skiing).Great fun but lttle opportunity for safe running - from previous experience won't manage more than 1 to 2 hours per week - weather and underfoot snow limited.
I should be up to the 3 hour ++ runs by beginning of Feb.What should I try immediately on my return?
Some background :age 65 in March,Last year did 4.35 with not much training.Expect a bit under 4:30 this time if I don't bend myself skiing!Skiing in Colorado so some beneficial altitude effects anticipated - staying & skiing @ 9000ft & above.
Regards "Peter"
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Gary Moller comments:

Peter, with your years of running behind you, and with a few months to go upon your return, you should have no problems with being ready to run Rotorua.

The altitude will help with keeping the heart and circulation going. Why not try x-country skiing every 2nd and 3rd day? There is good x-country skiing where you are going. This will really work the legs and the lungs.

If possible, you should still try to do a regular jog, even if it is very short at the end of the day. While skiing is very good conditioning, it still is not running.

Upon your return, restrain the tempatation to launch right into the running. Give yourself time to adapt to the new time zone and for the leg muscles to get used to running again. Run trails to start with and bear in mind that your cardiovascular fitness from all that time at altitude may be a tad ahead of the legs. So take care not to injure the legs during the first few weeks.

Finally, you do not need to run longer than 3 hours in training. If you can run 3 hrs nice and steady - don't go longer or faster - concentrate on the shorter runs during the week and do one or two of them faster and enter a few 5-10km races.

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How do Kenyan runners train?

This is an interesting website page about how Kenyan runners train, including what is done with older school children.

The general gist of it is this: If you want to be as fast as a Kenyan then you have to train at about the lactate threshold (Don't worry about what this means, other than that you need to hike along most of the time!).

If you carefully read my earlier article about Kenyan Training Secrets, you will see I have a different angle on their training. It is what they (Kenyans) do from birth that produces the adult champions. As we can see from the current state of affairs of athletics in soft countrys like NZ and the US, our trying to copy them by following what is published by the "experts" is a disaster. We could learn a few lessons by reviewing Arthur Lydiard's pioneering work. When viewed macroscopically Kenyan training is very similar to Lydiard's structure that steadily builds an athlete to peak performance over 8-10 years .

If we want to beat the Kenyans then we need to start by toughening up our kids from birth by making them run and walk everywhere, preferably barefoot, doing chores about the yard and lifting heavy weights in between (This is low intensity endurance and strength work). When they have time off, they can play typical kids games like soccer and scampering away from adults with big sticks! (Speed and agility training).



After 15 or so years of hard labour they are then ready for all the fancy speed work - and who cares in what form that is because it is the early years that is the foundation of Kenyan running performance.

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Link

Starting running for the first time

Before you run out the door, let’s get real about running:

• Running is a high impact activity:
  
• it has high injury rates as compared to low impact activities like swimming and bicyclingNot everyone is suited for running
• Just as there are “horses for courses” the same can be said of people.
  
• The person best suited for running is a lightly muscled, light boned person with little body weight.
  
• Most durable runners are less than 75kg body weight
• Get fit before you take up running
• That means ensuring that you have a strong heart and circulation
• That you have strong, flexible foot and leg musclesThat you are not carrying too much excess body fat
• Start injury free
• If you have any injuries affecting your lower back or lower, then deal with them before you take up running

How to get fit to run

• Do at least three months of a mix of the following:
• Walk before you run
• Brisk power walking for 30 minutes 3 times a week (this is your most important exercise)
• As fitness improves, jog a few minutes, gradually increasing the jog in relation to the walking.
• Swimming 2-3 times a week
• Aqua jogging using the combination of Kermitts and Aquafins
• Bicycling
• Gym workouts, including weights and cardio equipment – go for a hydraulics circuit workout if you can find a gym with it
• Stretch yoga style each evening

Seek professional advice about any injury or health issues (You may contact Gary Moller to discuss any injury or health issues)

Footwear and clothing

• As a general rule of thumb, if you have good feet and weigh less than 75kg, you can go for a lighter shoe that has less shock absorption
• A heavier person needs a shoe that has more shock absorption
• Ensure that the shoe has a flexible forefoot and not an inflexible board (the most common fault in running shoes), otherwise the Achilles tendon and calf will be under enormous strain
• Seek a firm heel counter that cups the heel bone securely and does not slowly collapse as the weeks and months pass
• Wear a soft fabric against the skin on very long runs to reduce chafing of sensitive part like the nipples and armpitsIf chafing of the inner thigh and crutch are a problem, try wearing a pair of bike pant style lycra underwear against the skin

Nutrition on the run
Start early with good nutrition to build up your body's reserves before the big distances and high intensity training kinck in.

• Read the pages on this website about nutrition and the various training guides and E-publications
• Consider taking a quality sports multi such as Nutra-Life Sports Multi
• Contact Gary Moller for more specific advice, if need be.
  

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Are you looking for a great marathon to run?

The Rotorua Marathon has to be the iconic New Zealand marathon. Lake Rotorua is almost exactly 42 km in circumference with some nicely undulating hills midway to add some extra challenge.

I have run it a few times myself and my father, Gordon, ran it almost every year without fail for what seemed about 20 years. Each time he ran, it was an obsessional gallop to break the magical 3 hour barrier, which he managed several times.

If you are thinking about running it, now is the perfect time to make that decision and the commitment that goes with that decision. If you go to the training pages on the marathon's website, you will find some basic advice that I have written and you should refresh your training plans by reading our Guide to Running a Marathon.

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Lorraine Moller still feeling the force

"It is almost impossible to tell the Lorraine Moller life story without mention of her legendary coach and mentor Arthur Lydiard - and now Moller is bringing Lydiard's techniques to colleges across the United States.

Now 50, Moller, like many of Lydiard's devoted students, attributes her lifetime of running success to his innovative coaching. Moller was a secondary student when she met Lydiard through middle-distance runner John Davies. When she was introduced to his now legendary methods as a 15-year-old she never looked back. "
(Click on the linked title above for the whole story.)

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Derek Turnbull dies aged 79

"Derek Turnbull, QSM, athlete, farmer. Died aged 79

Derek Turnbull, a Southland farmer was the subject of a book called The Fastest Old Man in the World. This veteran of veteran athletics held age group world records for the 800m, 1500m, 10,000m, cross-country and the marathon.

But running was always "just a hobby" for Turnbull, who started athletics at Southland Boys High School. He was in his own words "well down the track" in New Zealand open athletics."
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Gary Moller comments:

I first met Derek when I travelled with the first New Zealand team to compete at a world veteran's athletics championships. That was in 1977 and the Games were in Gothenberg, Sweden. I was the team's first aider and trainer. That was an amazing experience with three athletic stadia in full use for a week. It was a big event and I got to meet many of my childhood sporting heros, like the mighty Al Oerter, who were still going great.

Derek was the young boy of the team and I don't think many of us quite knew how good he was. My main recollection was the look of shock (or was it disbelief) on the faces of the entire team, including Derek, after he cleaned up just about every event he contested. Derek was a sensation!

When you look at him, he is the perfect athlete - a cross between a greyhound and a hare. The perfect body type for running.

A lesson we can all take from Derek is the fact that most of his training was intuitive: No rigid training schedules; Derek ran according to how he felt and this was mostly over farmland, thus sparing his muscles and joints. This is at the heart of his longevity as a runner.

I last met Derek earlier this year while I was running a workshop in Invercargill about Lydiard training methods. He had suffered a devastating stroke. While he was looking quite good considering what he had just been through, he was nevertheless clearly unwell. His passing is most premature, given his immense athletic talent, which should have carried him along for many more years.

Derek, we miss you.
(I am presently reading Derek's book "The fastest old man in the world". It is autographed by Derek with the advice "Never give up"). Order the book here; Turnbull website here

technorati tags: derek+turnbull, new+zealand, invercargill, running

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Marathon: "hardest physical thing I have ever done" - Lance Armstong

Armstrong, 35, stepped over the finish line in Central Park just under his goal in 2:59:36. His dark green shirt soaked in sweat, the superstar cyclist admitted that the last few miles of the race were a struggle. “Even after experiencing one of the hardest days of the Tour nothing has ever left me feeling this bad,” he said at a post-race news conference. “[My shins] started to hurt in the second half, but the bigger problem the last 7 or 8 miles was the tightness in my calves and thighs. My calves really knotted up. I can barely walk right now.”
Armstrong called the race “the hardest physical thing I have ever done.” While he competed in triathlons as a teenager, Armstrong had never attempted a marathon.
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Gary Moller Comments:
Cycling is almost 100% concentric exercise; whereas running is highly eccentric in nature. While they have an aerobic commonality, concentric exercise does not prepare the muscles and tendons for eccentric exercise as Lance Armstrong found out.

This also explains why the lifespan of a runner at the elite level is usually so short as compared to that of a pro cyclist.

If you would like to learn more about this, go to my E-Book on training for a marathon and read the sections that explain concentric and eccentric exercise and their implications for training, competition and recovery.

technorati tags: lance+armstrong, new+york+marathon, marathon, running, eccentric+exercise, concentric+exercise

concentric exercise

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Exclusive: Kenya's Training Secrets Revealed!

Two weeks spent mixing with the African powerhouses of international sport, including the Kenyans was a coach's dream come true! That was my experience as the cycling coach in charge of the Cook Islands cycling team (1 cyclist) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

What astonished me was the modesty of these world beaters. On one occasion, the head of the Kenyan running team asked me for advice about what he could do to be a better coach. Fortunately, I was sitting down at the time, otherwise I would have fallen over! My advice to him was to keep doing the basics well and to never lose sight of them. So, what are the Kenyan basics? Here they are - revealed for the very first time:

• Be born at altitude and into poverty
• Be raised on a low calorie whole foods diet
• Have no shoes
• Run or walk several miles to and from school
• Carry heavy water containers several miles a day
• Till the fields by hand
• Round up the goats and cattle
• At 18yrs, win a scholarship to train with a running squad in the city where you are mentored by current and past world champions
• Do a few months of hard interval training then;

Race for your life!

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New York Marathon results

Nina Rillstone of Auckland finished a creditable seventh in the New York marathon on Sunday in a time of 2h 31m 19s.
Rillstone was 11th at half way in 1h 15m 11s.
Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia won in 2h 25m 5s.
Rillstone debuted over the marathon distance in April recording 2h 29m 46s in Nagano, Japan.

Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil broke away at the 30km mark and held off late challenges from Stephen Kiogora and Paul Tergat of Kenya to win the event
in 2h 9m 58s.
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Gary Moller comments:
As a matter of interest, Nina worked for me about 8-10 years ago when she graduated from university. Her talent as a runner was obvious back then. I don't think she ever fully clicked to my connection with Lorraine Moller, the runner. More recently, Nina has been receiving guidance and inspiration from Lorraine, including staying at her home in Boulder Colorado. Go here for details.

Nina helps reinforce my view that talented runners should take their time to mature and strengthen before tackling events like marathon racing. To do these gruelling events too early risks shortening their running career. They should concentrate on short races that hone speed and stamina while sparing the muscles, tendons and joints from lasting damage until ready to handle the punishment of the marathon run at pace.

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Ankle pain in older runners

Gary
I have been running since I was a boy; I won my first school title when I was 10, and since then I have run ever since. In April this year I turned 40, so have been running for 30 years, reasonably consistently.
Whilst I've had my share of reasonably serious injuries (many self-inflicted, but a number being managed as I get older), my biggest concern is after a 1 hour plus run on hard surfaces, my feet and/or ankles just hate it, and I spend the whole run, waiting until it's over. I did a easy 75 min flat run with my mates yesterday, and I just couldn't wait until it was over. In terms of shoes, I wear Asics 2110 at home and work, so a reasonable shoe.
I am actually worried for the first time ever about how this might affect my running. Any suggestions of what I can do? Likely treatment or supplements?
Regards
"B"

Photo: sometimes, foot and ankle problems are easy to spot; more often, the trouble is not so obvious and, unfortunately, there are no single, quick-fix solutions.
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Gary Moller comments:
Thanks, "B", for consenting for this going onto the web: The problem you describe is one of the most pressing faced by "ageing" runners. If not resolved, the runner may be forced into giving running away and we can't have that happening, can we?

The best approach to dealing with foot and ankle pain is to tackle the problem from several different angles and hope that one, or a combination of the following suggestions have a beneficial effect:

• Run, step and bound barefeet weekly in sand. This is what the great coaches of old, like Percy Cerutty, always had their athletes do as part of their training. When Otago athletes of the 1970's were at their height of national prominence, coaches like Alastair McMurran had regular bounding sessions up the massive sand dunes of the Otago Peninsula (I had the dubious pleasure of doing a couple). This type of training helped develop and maintain strong, flexible feet and ankles. This type of training is all but forgotten nowadays and much to the detriment of runners. This type of training is all the more important as we get into our 40's and older. Joints, muscles and tendons thrive on being flexed and extended through their full range of movement. On the other hand, repetitive and restrictive movement, such as running on pavement is not good for feet and ankle joints.
• Try different shoes and fit semi-orthotic inner soles. Although I prefer Asics myself, an obvious measure is to try a few different makes and models. The change can be remarkable when it comes to ankle pain. I have 4 different pairs that I rotate, including a pair of Asics designed for off-road running. The semi-orthotics I recommend are Formthotics Active which can be purchased here. A measure as simple as an inner sole change can give relief.
• Do your ankle and foot exercises. If your feet tire as a long run progresses, the arches begin to drop, shock absorption diminishes and the outer borders of the ankle joints may be bruised which you may really feel upon getting out of bed the next morning! Here is the link to the E-Pub on the subject. Of course, these do not replace sand dune running!
• Get your leg pulled! Yes, get a strong massage therapist to get stuck into your feet and ankles, working on mobilising all of those tight sinews and joints, including the main ankle joint. Manipulate a child's supple feet and the contrast with a typical runner's feet will shock you. So get into it and don't neglect the sand running which flexes the feet better than any masseur.
• Take Glucosamine, Chondroitin and magnesium daily. Joint food preparations help guard against arthritis and may even help reverse the process. If the feet and calf muscles are tiring prematurely and cramping, this may be partly due to magnesium depletion which is a near universal problem with older runners. If the muscles tire, then the feet cease doing their stability and shock-absorbing work, thus throwing abnormal strain on the structures of the ankles and feet.
• Run off-road. Buy a pair of shoes designed for trail running and do all of the long runs on trails. The soft surface and constant adjusting of foot and ankle placement is what those feet were designed for and they love it! Take care at first: your lack of flexibility and dulled reflexes from all that road running means you need to take care initially not to stumble or trip. The foot and ankle pain may be stirred up initially; but should diminish and disappear as the feet and ankles strengthen and regain flexibility with regular trail running.
• Do cross training. Aqua-Jogging done properly and cycling are my favourites. These enable the ageing runner to continue to develop a huge cardiovascular reserve while sparing muscles and joints that have already given more than a lifetime of faithful service!

(For more about this topic, type "ankle" into the search box to the upper left of this page and search this blog.)

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Aquafins for effective cross training

“Aquafins are addictive! Besides providing an excellent strengthening workout they feel so naturally good in the water that pool running takes on a whole new dimension.
I have always been an advocate of pool running for athletes as a low impact, full-body resistance cross-training exercise. Aquafins enhance every aspect of deepwater workouts and shallow water exercising. They are a valuable aid not only as cross-training for serious athletes but also to those looking to increase their fitness, strengthen, tone, lose weight or who are recovering from injury or surgery. I recommend Aquafin water workouts as an essential inclusion into any fitness programme.”

Lorraine Moller, Running Coach, Boulder, Colorado (Four-time Olympic Marathoner representing New Zealand; Bronze Medallist, Women’s Marathon, Olympic Games, Barcelona 1992; Three Time Avon Women’s World Marathon Champion; Boston Marathon Winner)

For more information:
Gill Gray and Don Christe, Aquafins New Zealand, 50 Glen Road
Wellington aquafinsnz@xtra.co.nz
04 479 7474 or 04 970 1188
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Gary Moller comments:
Lorraine and I don't have any financial ties with the people who sell these training aids, nor are we being paid to say this: We simply think these are great for cross-training for sports like running and for general fitness, including weight loss and muscle toning without the usual wear and tear.

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The zen of running

GRASSHOPPER, BE YOUR SELF. AND NEVER FEAR THUS TO BE NAKED TO THE EYES OF OTHERS. YET, KNOW THAT MAN SO OFTEN MASKS HIMSELF. THAT WHAT IS SIMPLE IS RARELY UNDERSTOOD. THE DUST OF TRUTH SWIRLS, AND SEEKS ITS OWN CRACKS OF ENTRY. AND A TREE FALLING IN THE FOREST, WITHOUT EARS TO HEAR, MAKES NO SOUND. YET IT FALLS - Master Po from the original Kung Fu TV series.

I get a nasty headache whenever I hear some expert advising athletes that they must eat so many grams of this and that per hour and drink xyz Mls of water with various ingredients added to make it completely indigestible.

Sure there are some basic rules of thumb for how much to eat and drink on a run or ride and in certain conditions; but this this is almost as bad as trying to paint a masterpiece by numbers. Training and competing are as much an art as it is a science. Gosh! Why don't we just turn off our senses and hook oursleves up to intravenous drips, open the tap, turn up the iPod and run mindloessly until we drop!

Even though I have worked my way through the academics of sports nutrition (An excruciating experience) I have never gotten off on measuring how many grams of this and so many mls of that - I have always gone by the philosophy of learning to listen to my body and this is what I teach athletes to do. This is something I learned early on from my sister, Lorraine, who applied the concept with artful precision to have lasting success when running marathons very fast in extremes of weather.

Would you know it! - Humans have two little known sensory feedback systems that outperform the best of modern rechnology hands down - one is called thirst and the other is called hunger. "Now, little Grasshopper, listen to your body". This is something the modern urbanised human has long forgotten and since replaced with fancy machines, mathematical formula and white-coated experts. Thirst and hunger are extremely sensitive mechanisms that tell us what to do well before there is a decline in performance - if only we would sensitise our minds and listen and respond early enough to the subtle signals.

Listening to our very own in-built feedback systems has served us well since time began, enabling man to survive and even fluorish on next to nothing in the harshest environments. Our problem today is that we are forgetting how to use them.

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Training for a marathon has been updated!

This free e-book is now up to 88 pages with more to come shortly. The latest version has a new-look table of contents that is easier on the eye. There is more information about designing training schedules and we have added a whole lot of content about the "walk-run" option for completing a marathon or 1/2 marathon. There is more advice about injury and health issues and a few more pictures and illustrations.

Would you like to advertise your products and services in this publication which gets distributed world-wide? If so, please contact me.

These updates are guided in part by reader feedback, including inquiries about training and injury issues, so keep it coming!

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Pushing the limits - Too far

"The most important of the neurotransmitters from a sports performance perspective are Dopamine, Epinephrine and norepinephrine and acetylcholine. As Dr John Berardi explains “Some evidence exists showing that when neurotransmitters like acetylcholine, dopamine, and norepinephrine get depleted, physical and cognitive performance suffers. Since these neurotransmitters can be depleted from intense repeated bouts of strenuous exercise, this is bad news. " Read the whole article by clicking on the title link above.
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Gary Moller Comments:
This is an interesting article that is put out by the people of IRule. While I can see where they are coming from and while I do not have a problem with the science, I do worry that many multisports atheltes rely too much on various performance supplements, ranging from energy drinks, to caffeine to ephidrine-type chemicals. This especially so for ultra endurance events that sometimes go for days on end.

Why, oh why does the good doctor believe the depeletion of neurotransmitters is "bad news"? I think it is good news.

The need for sleep and the tiring of nerves so that muscles begin to fail is natural and there for a purpose: without periodic breaks for repair and replenishment, the body breaks down. The consequences of ignoring Nature, or trying to circumvent her can be catastrophic. Muscles and tendons like ropes eventually fray and break; joints like bearings will seize if not resurfaced and lubricated; and the brain becomes hopelessly muddled if not rebooted now and then. This is not rocket science. The body's parts all interact perfectly. To fiddle with one part of the body or its physiology in order to get an artificial performance gain risks acute and lasting damage.

What I am beginning to see nowadays is "mature" multisports athletes who are suffering early onset of arthritis and permanent muscle and tendon damage. Without question, this is the result of overdoing events that go on and on and on, well past the point where one would normally call it a day. I would like to see a shift back to events that last just 3-5 hours. Like old elephants whose time has come, the multisporters who have worn themselves to a standstill, quietly slip away unnoticed into the shadows. I would like to see some research of the musculoskeletal health of multisports veterans.

I competed in the very first multisports races back in 1977. They lasted 3-5 hours and the courses were determined by the rugged terrain in which they were typically held. Many of those who embraced this new sport did so partly because they were sick and tired of over-regulated sports like athletics and cycling and the cheating that was going on with performance enhancing drugs. It was a sport that was one with nature and almost without rules. Has it lost the plot?

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Runner's Knee

"Hi Gary
I was hoping you could help me. I did the XYZ Half Marathon last year and I finished it feeling great however I thought I would then go on and help a friend of mine finish the marathon (just the last km) however I suddenly got a bad pain in my left knee – since then I have had physio, acupuncture, pediatrician, I even had my leg measured and found my left leg was 4mm longer than my right leg so I had orthodics put in. I did rest for awhile (about a month) however it seems that when Im running I can get to the 10k mark then the pain starts and gets worse as I go along – going up hill seems to help it but its going down hill or on the straight that it is really bad. The physio said that it was runners knee however not sure what that problem is. The pain seems to start on the outside of my knee then goes further under my kneecap and sometimes above my knee. Im usually sore for the rest of the day and depending how far Ive run it may even be a bit sore the next day. I am trying to strengthen it up at the gym by using weights and sometimes even swimming or cycling to help.

I am at my wits end and I love my running and Im sick of this problem, do you have any other idea as to what my problem could be or what I should try next.
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Gary Moller comments:
You can now see why marathons and 1/2 marathons are a huge windfall for therapists of all persuasions - even pediatricians! The aftermath can be both financially and emotionally expensive.

If the injury is what you have described and what your physiotherapist says, then you have damaged the very delicate under surface of the knee cap. This is not good; but the good news is you will recover – eventually.

First of all, I think you can throw away the orthotics and replace them with a good quality innersole like Formthotics. I have never in 28 years seen an athlete benefit, other than briefly, from these and you are unlikely to be the exception. Your feet are shock absorbers; if they are not allowed to do their job properly, the energy gets transferred further up the legs to structures like the knees. They can actually cause worse problems down the track by accentuating weaknesses and imbalances. You need strong feet - not weak ones. Read the relevant sections about shoes and foot care in here. And do the exercises that you see in the last few pages of the Guide – the ones that stretch and open up the runner’s hips. Do these every time before and after a run. Tight hips throw huge strain on the knees, especially when running downhill. If you have a short leg (most of us do), (or is it a long leg??) the cause is most often in the pelvis and not the leg itself. The attention of a chiropractor might be beneficial along with regular practicing of the hip stretches recommended here. Consider purchasing a new pair of running shoes if the ones you have are worn, or are in any way uncomfortable.

When you go for a run
When you go running, keep the knees warm before, during and after. A long hot bath and a self massage about the knee caps is wonderful and will help healing.

• Stay off hard pavement, especially during winter. Run on trails, that twist and undulate, thus eliminating the relentless pounding monotony of running on pavement.
• Keep close to home by running in circles rather than out and back. Murphy's Law dictates that you will seize at the most remote point far away from Home!
• STOP running before your knee hurts and gradually build minute by minute, run by run no matter how long it takes to fully recover.
• Do not run every day. Have a rest day between runs (rest days can be active - go and swim or lift weights).
• Do fartlek and intervals that stretch, strengthen and get the run over and done with quickly; rather than your runs being a sucession of bland drawn out plods.
• Before you do your next marathon, or anything over 15 km, do a proper buildup of at least 12 weeks, as outlined in our marathon training guide along with plenty of races over short distances no longer than 10km. Join a running club, so you can do their race programme, even if you consider yourself a completly social runner (You will not be alone).

Doing strength work in the gym might help; but you must be very careful with the weights exercises not to stir the injury up. Make sure that you get instruction from an experienced instructor who has the appropriate qualifications. The key is to eliminate ongoing harm and to assist your body’s healing processes - not to stir it up.

You need to do the exercises in here whether you have weak feet or not and take a good, long look at your posture – how you place your feet, how you stand and how you walk and run and sit. If necessary, go do a few sessions with a posture expert like a person qualified in the Alexander Technique.

Go and see a sprint running coach who you can find via your local running club and get some lessons at the running track on doing running drills including bounding. Learn how to run tall, lightly and strong. Even if you consider yourself a social runner, this is one of the best actions any runner can take to have a long, enjoyable and injury-free time running life.

Nutrition to assist the body with healing itself

• Purchase some joint food here and take 6 teaspoons per day until finished.
• Also take 3 teaspoons of this daily until finished.
• And take 2 per day of these until finished.

These will help your body get its healing processes ahead of the ongoing damage that is happening. Take all of these with food and spread throughout the day, rather than all at once.

• Take a course of magnesium – one daily until finished.

Low magnesium may cause the muscles to be slow in relaxing, causing the thighs to pull on the knee cap when they should be relaxed. This is one reason for the painful seizing up towards the end of long, hard runs. Read this latest article on the subject.

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Why do I keep going on about magnesium?

Magnesium deficiency is widespread in all populations, including athletes. I first twigged to the importance of magnesium years ago when some researchers began administering it to heart attack victims upon entering emergency departments to see if it helped survival.

Magnesium deficiency contributes to high or erratic blood pressure, heart disease, poor circulation and muscle cramps. It calms the nerves.

When is magnesium deficiency suspected?
Magnesium deficiency should be suspected if any person has developed cardiovascular problems, muscle cramps, tendon problems, back and neck pain, fibromyalgia, stress, anxiety and nervous twitches. Incidentally, it is often associated with vitamin D (sunlight) deficiency. Many of the ailments I come across are cardiovascular and muscular in nature. Magnesium deficiency is suspected in many cases as a significant contributing factor. Sometimes the improvement from a few simple measures, including magnesium (and other mineral) supplementation is spectacular.

Is it more common nowadays?
We don't really know; however, we know much more about the importance of magnesium and there is good reason to think it is more common nowadays. For a start, we are living longer and older people don't eat as much or absorb nutrients quite as well as they did when young.

Magnesium deficiency is more likely nowadays because of our refined foods diet and the fact our vegetables are gown on intensively cultivated lands that have about 70% less trace minerals in them than 50 years ago (This is a good reason for growing your own veggies and feeding them with composted seaweed). Mineral water is often a good source of magnesium, but not so in most filtered water and zero in distilled water. Sea salt contains trace minerals, including magnesium. Processed salt (sodium chloride) has no trace minerals worth considering.

Sweat increases magnesium loss, so a person working or exercising for long periods in hot conditions has larger than usual needs for dietary magnesium. Topping up an athlete’s depleted magnesium stores will give a significant gain in both power and endurance and is the principal way to prevent muscle cramping.

How much magnesium do you need to keep healthy?
If deficiency is suspected, I recommend taking up to 800mg supplementary magnesium per day for three months. This is combined with other minerals, including calcium. After three months this can drop to less than 400mg.

Magnesium is stored in the organs, including the muscle and bones. While it is easy to boost blood levels in a day or so, it can take many months to build body stores. This is why I recommend a period of deliberate supplementation before backing off and then relying principally on diet.

Why don’t we hear more about the importance of magnesium?
The answer is simple, as well as disturbing: magnesium is dirt cheap and does not require a medical prescription. It is just like sunlight (vitamin D) which gets little or no promotion. This is despite the overwhelming evidence of the health benefits of magnesium for conditions like heart disease and ragged nerves.

There is no money to be made out of magnesium; whereas there is billions to be made out of all manner of heart drugs for example. You get it in your water, cheap sea salt and in your veggies. A course of magnesium supplementation costs just $10-15.

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My Heroine

Here is a photo of my sister, Lorraine, celebrating winning the 1984 Boston Marathon.

Wayne Clarke, kindly scanned a copy from his athletic club's photos and sent it to me - Thanks Wayne.

It has always fascinated me how Lorraine managed to have so much success as a runner over a breath-taking 28 years and at a time when women's distance running had so much depth and talent - Ingrid Kristiansen, Grete Waitz, Rosa Mota, Joan Benoit, Lisa Martin, the Japanese, all the other Kiwi women and more and more...

Lorraine never showed any athletic ability as a child, as far as I can recall. Her childhood was hardly remarkable other than the fact that it was physically robust. That could be said for almost every child in Putaruru. In fact, Lorraine was a rather sickly child who spent a lot of time in hospital and at the doctors. I vaguely recollect, at one stage the Drs ended up running out of options and Mum and Dad as good as brought her home to die or get better of her own accord (I am sure that she does not mind me saying this and Mum will eventually read this and get me to correct things, if I have got anything wrong). Mum resorted to alternative therapies. The one therapy I remember most vividly is "colour therapy". To state the obvious; Lorraine survived.

Her athletic ability began to show during her early adolescent years when she pretty much rewrote the regional and national age group record books for every running event in the country from about 220 yards and longer, including cross-country and road. As her brother, her physical ability never really registered with me during our teens, possibly because I could still dump her to the ground and force her into submission with a neck hold.

What I think set her out from the crowd was her dogged determination: She had the ability to push herself harder than anybody else. Did this ability come about as a result of her years of ongoing battles with serious illness as a child? It helped that she happened to be a real bright spark, leaping a couple of years in primary school to land in her big brother's class (Lorraine and I went through school together and even ended up doing nearly identical studies at Otago University). It certainly helped that she was coached from about 16yrs by the late John Davies using the Lydiard Method and she spent her three years at Otago University doing the long Sunday runs with the boys, including Richard Tayler. This time at Otago gave her the grounding for a long and successful career, as well the education for a life after running.

Lorraine is writing a book (No ghost writers for this athlete!) that will deal with these matters and by all accounts it is going to be a good read. I am not sure when it is coming out but it should not be too far off. Top triathlon caoch, Chris Pilone, who stayed with Lorraine this month got to read a draft of her book. This is what he had to say in his recent newsletter:

"To say I was glued to it would be an understatement. Would have to be the best I have read for many years and probably be in my top three of all time. Its probably a little way from the book shelves but when it gets there a must to buy".

When it comes out I will make sure that all my readers know about it.

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What makes a champion athlete?

Here are some interesting comments by Wayne about Lorraine Moller's career:

Its what you do with what you've got, perseverance, common sense a little intelligence goes a long way!, she hit on the right recipe, and persisted with it, but the most gifted can make anything look easy, at the end of the day she was the head of the pack and one of the best in the world at what she did for quite a while and had a career at the top to rival anyone else's, she learnt the secret to top level performance and survival at the top level, don't over do it, pace yourself, push your limits at the right time and come off the accelerator at the right time,, listen to your body, take advantage of the cycle of tearing down and rebuilding the body to a higher level, its a science and an art combined and one of the hardest to master, too much ego, or too little soul and you blow yourself to pieces, most people fail at it few practice it to perfection.

she wasn't out there blowing her own trumpet and if anything under rated herself leading to her missing out on a better placing at Barcelona, as a result she has ended up as under rated as one of NZ's finest ever athletes and is now probably one of NZ"s finest coaches lost to overseas, her understanding of Joseph Campbell's power of dreams shows her lateral thinking and holistic approach, she can piece together how people tick beyond just what training they have to be doing and has abetter chance to getting the best out of people to perform better.

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Was it the barley sugar?

"How much sugar wud switch your body from running on body fat to runnning on sugar. for example would a single barley suger during a marathon switch ones body to suger as fuel???? the reason that I asked is because I was given a barley sugar just before the 20km hill I was going fine until then just over that hill I crashed and burned, the barley sugar was great to suck going up the hill but was it my undoing??"
- Anon
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World class runners go at a pace so fast that it is
next toimpossible to take in carbohydrates and
only a few cups of water, so they train for this.

Dear Anon,
Sorry, Mate; but you can't blame the barley sugar for the crash and burn act. It was probably the 8 week build-up to the marathon that was your undoing.

Your inquiry raises a few interesting points that I will try to cover:

1. Do at least 12 weeks training before a marathon, preferably the best part of a year. Each week, at least one run should be long and slow and completed without sustenance other than water. Follow the guidelines in the "Training for a Marathon" e-pub. Have a diet that is low in refined carbohydrates (whole grains and unprocessed carbos are essential). It will take at least 12 weeks of this kind of training to adapt; and you will notice with delight that you can go longer and faster during these long runs without getting irresistible carbo-cravings.
2. Doing what is recommended in (1) will help your body conserve its internal carbohydrate stores during a race like a marathon, enabling you to run longer and faster before hitting the wall. While there is no "switch" between fat and carbohydrate metabolism (Useage is in terms of ratio, rather than just one or the other), there does come a critical point in body carbohydrate store depletion where the body and brain appear to do a sudden drop in performance - the wall. this can feel a bit like throwing a switch.
3. When you are running really hard, it is almost impossible to take in anything other than the smallest quanity carbohydrate without suffering disabling stomach upsets. This is why the training as outlined above (1) is so important. The only other way to avoid hitting the wall is to run much slower and to eat and drink as you go. But, the more you take in, the slower you must go and that means a long time out on the road, which can be just as hard as trying to go fast.
4. Trying to eat and drink, including sucking a barley sugar, when going at anything other than a slow pace also causes interference with breathing and running rhythm. This can force the runner ever so slightly into oxygen debt. This hastens the hitting the wall.

So Anon, when you felt yourself seizing up, the best thing you could have done was to slow right down and take on a dozen or so barley sugars, wait for the sugar to infuse the body and hope. However; with the lack of training, other metabolic problems compound the seizing up, such as the nervous system itself running out of gas (the muscles go into a kind of rigor mortis).

With regards to the barley sugars, there is an additional issue:
If you are breathing heavily, jostling and being distracted there is a serious risk of inhaling the barley sugar and chocking to death. This is why responsible coaches ban chewing gum and sweets during training and competition. Barley sugars are fine if only walking slowly; but not if the pace is brisk and definitely not if running. The better choice is a sugary drink and soft caramel bars.

However, Anon, if you start training now (you are allowed 10 days rest) you will find that everything is so much less complicated when you run your next marathon.

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Running the perfect marathon

Here is a letter from Andy who ran the Rotorua Marathon over the weekend (Reprinted with his permission):

"Hi Gary,
Thanks for your advice and help over the past 12 weeks, the guide is excellent and I constantly referred to it during my training and post marathon. I’m trying to think of suggestions but to be honest I can’t really think of anything substantial!
For the record I ran the second half slightly faster than the first and managed to make up a couple of minutes over the last 10kms.
10 km 53mins
21 km – can’t remember exactly but was over 1.45min
42km 3.29mins
Thanks
Andy"
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Gary Moller Comments:
Andy had what can be considered close to the perfect marathon, something that an estimated 90% of participants in a marathon fail to achieve on the day (For the record; out of over a dozen or so marathons, I can say only two went perfectly). So many things can go wrong during a marathon and even the slightest upset or oversight can cost much time and cause unbearable suffering. 3hrs 29min over the tough Rotorua Marathon course is a good time. While I have not yet seen the overall results, this would easily place Andy well up in the top half of the field.

The publication referred to: "Training for a Marathon" can be downloaded for free. It is best used with a broadband internet connection. Updates are guided by feedback and questions from readers. It started off as a 50 page e-book at the beginning of the year and has now blown out to about 100 pages and growing. A further update will be posted soon. If you have a product or service that you would like to advertise in the Guide, please contact me.

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A few final tips for running a marathon

With the Rotorua Marathon just a few days away, here are some last minute tips for all of you who have been following my training guidelines, either on the Rotorua Marathon website, or via the FreeRangers website:

• Run tall - Even the best of marathon runners tend to lose form as fatigue sets in. The most common faults are collapsing of the arches of the feet and buckling of the knees. This progressive buckling is demonstrated by the world class runner in this picture that I took at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. As the tiring runner gets lower and lower, the muscles and joints are placed under enormous pressure. Post-race injuries to the knees and feet have the physio clinics working overtime. The best thing you can do at this late stage of preparation is to concentrate on running tall. When you are running the marathon and fatigue is setting in, remind yourself to keep tall. This includes sticking your chest out, pulling you tummy in and looking ahead, rather than down at your feet and be conscious of not allowing the knees to buckle. Do this and you will spare your legs that little bit of extra pressure. This might make the difference between success and failure - and injury.

• Run light- Be light. That means discarding everything before the race, including clothing and accessories, that are not absolutely necessary. One liter of water weighs 1 kilogram! If you raise and lower that 1kg weight 5-10cm with each stride, not including hills, that is a lot of kilograms you are lifting over 20,000+ steps! Runnning a marathon is hard enough work without doing extra weight lifting along the way! My advice is to make liberal use of the drinks stations that are dotted along the way and not carry water. Light shoes are essential; however it is too late to do anything about these, if you haven't already - this time.
• Dose up on vitamins and anti-oxidants - Like it or not, you are going to be doing a lot of damage to your body. Your first defence is having full body stores of vitamins and anti-oxidants that soak up and neutralise free radicals before they can do damage to healthy tissues. So, for the last few days, including the morning of the race, take additional nutrients. Nutra-Life Sports Multi is my favourite because it covers most bases in a single tablet. I also like the effervescent Red Seal products as a cheap and refreshing source of Vitamin C and other nutrients. Athletes who have tried this strategy, report less muscle soreness and quicker recovery following punishing exercise.
• Hold back at the beginning - 90% of marathon runners make the mistake of going out too fast over the first 1/3 of the race and they pay the penalty by hitting the wall prematurly, losing huge amounts of time and hurting terribly. Hold back, save your energy for later and drink early. Even if you feel great and even if Granny has just whizzed past you, followed by the big guy in the long rugby socks! You will pass them later. If you manage to run the 2nd half slightly faster than the first, then you have run the perfect marathon
• Enjoy the view and the occasion - No comment necessary.

I will be there on the day, on my MT bike, watching and encouraging you all as you make your way around the lake. I will be catching up with as many of you as I can after the race.

I wish you all the best on the day.

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