TURKEY TROT -- A THANKSGIVING TRADITION

The Hole 'N Run Turkey Trot 5K in Wheeling, WV has become a tradition for many people in the Ohio Valley. I have run the race for about eight years straight now, and the numbers increase every year. I'm not sure of the final tally, but someone said there were over 600 pre-registered runners.

What surprised me was the number of people that showed up on such a cold morning. Driving over to Wheeling, I noticed the outside temperature indicator on my dashboard fluctuated from 12 degrees to 18 degrees. I saw a dog frozen to a fire hydrant.  It was so cold Richard Simmons showed up wearing tights.

 I consider myself a tough guy, but I broke down and wore tights this morning too. I coach cross country at a high school whose colors are purple and white. Naturally, I have purple tights. I don't wear these purple tights often, but when I do, people tend to question my sexual orientation. Years ago Wheeling hosted a winter race called the Jingle Bell Run. When I came home in purple tights and jingle bells on my shoes, my wife began asking questions.

The Turkey Trot course travels through the Wheeling Jesuit College campus and out onto Washington Avenue for a couple of loops and then finishes on the track. I ran a 19:07 today, one of my best times of the year. Most people with GPS watches say the course is short. I don't believe in GPS watches. I have an odometer in my head. My kids got me a GPS watch for Christmas last year. I quit using it when it measured my regular five-mile training course at 4.87. I like my head odometer better. It tells me today's course was 3.1.

The awards ceremony was great with lots of give-a-ways-- t-shirts, gift certificates, and ten frozen turkeys. In the last eight years I've won two turkeys. Not today, though, not even a month's membership to a local fitness center (which I would probably never use anyway). However, I did get to pick up three awards, mine and two gal runners I know who had to leave early. Everyone gets a kick out of seeing an old guy come forward to pick up a woman's medal. When you do it twice, they really laugh. Then again, maybe it was my purple tights.

That's me on the left and Neff's most famous citizen, Allen Olexa.

 



BOSTON BOUND RACING TEAM

I have created a new Facebook page for those of you are hoping to qualify for the Boston Marathon or have already qualified. It is called the BOSTON BOUND RACING TEAM page. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/bostonboundracingteam

If you have already ran Boston, this would be a great page for you to contribute information that would help others get there: Training tips, dealing with injuries and injury prevention, where to stay in B-town, etc.

If you haven't qualified yet, this would be a great page to share your goals, what marathon you are training for to qualify, the struggles you are having, etc.

There are also BOSTON BOUND RACING TEAM T-shirts and racing tops available from Zazzle.com. The logo is posted below.

I'm hoping this will be a great page for people united by the same goals and dreams. Hopefully, the connections made there will carry through to Boston.



TO RACE OR NOT TO RACE?

To race, or not to race: that is the question:

Whether 'tis wiser in the mind to suffer

Through a local 5K, the Turkey Trot perhaps,

Or to rest these tired and strained legs,

And by resting heal them? To take time off: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end training

The pounding and the thousand natural shocks

These legs are heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To rest, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream of the marathon: ay--there's the rub;

For in that sleep of rest what dreams may come:

Dreams of shuffling for more than 26 miles at record pace,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes a challenge of so long a race.

My apologies to Shakespeare. I'm trying to decide whether or not to run the Hole and Run Turkey Trot 5K next week in Wheeling, West Virginia. I've been nursing a calf injury since the Columbus Half in mid October. I finally made it through a good run on Monday with just slight pain.

The wise decision would be not to race, to rest, and to dream about running the Glass City Marathon in Toledo in April and hopefully qualify for the Boston. I should make sure I am fully recovered before I start the arduous training in January.

Thus conscience and common sense does make cowards of us all.

But yet I hear the call . . . to race, to compete, to stand at the line, and not lose the name of action.

And besides. How much damage can a 5K do me?

BOSTON STRONG -- A THANKSGIVING REFLECTION

Terrorists who believe that violence and fear are effective means to assault the ramparts of American liberty are greatly mistaken. As we approach Thanksgiving, my thoughts return to April 15, 2013 when two pressure cooker bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon killing three people and injuring 264 others. I had just returned home from teaching that Monday when I saw the first video clips on the national news. They kept replaying the explosion over and over, and I was particularly dismayed by the image of seventy-eight-year old Bill Iffrig who crumpled onto the ground due to the shock of the blast. I prayed that my friends who had run the race were safe.

Although I felt incredulous, wondering how this could happen at an event that celebrates life, and fearful, thinking perhaps this was only the beginning of a new wave of attacks on Americans, there was something deeper inside that steadied me. I had witnessed this same deep anchor in my father when he told me his stories of the valiant First Marine Division as they fought their way across the Pacific during World War II. I'm sure it served as a bedrock of truth for  our Founding Fathers when they declared their independence from England and made great sacrifices to win that freedom.

These truths upon which our country was founded are not debatable. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are self-evident to people who have tasted freedom and valued equality. These are the eternal principles  that inspire integrity, compassion, and courage rather than the deception, hatred, and cowardice that corrupt the character of those who resort to acts of terrorism.

The day after the bombings I ran into Ed L., a fellow teacher and runner. We had gone on many training runs in the past and had both qualified for Boston years ago but never followed through and entered the race. "Now, more than ever," Ed said, "I want to want to qualify for Boston and go run the race. We need to let the world know that these cowards can't scare us away."

I agreed. Clearly, Ed had built the foundation of his life on those same principles. Terrorists just don't get it. You can not tear them from us, erase them from our hearts, or even blow them up with home-made bombs or weapons of mass destruction. They are eternal, unchanging, immutable. I live in a nation where these truths have been taught to me since my childhood. For that I am truly thankful. Hopefully, one day both Ed and I will line up at the Boston starting line. If so, we will run not to accomplish some longstanding personal goal, but rather . . . for freedom.

Thanks for sharing this post,

Joe C. Ellis

If you would like a free download of my latest novel, The Old Man and the Marathon click on the link below:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/351449
or go to Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Man-Marathon-ebook/dp/B00ESVLMOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382654213&sr=8-1&keywords=the+old+man+and+the+marathon
or go to barnesandnoble.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-old-man-and-the-marathon-joe-ellis/1116763619?ean=2940148767169&itm=1&usri=the+old+man+and+the+marathon

AGE-GRADED CALCULATOR: TAKE THAT YOU YOUNG STUDS!

Don't you just hate those young whippersnappers who win all the local 5Ks? All right, maybe hate is too strong of word. Envy? Resent? Covet? I guess none of those words quite hit the mark.Anyway, don't you wish there was a way to once again compete with these young studs and studdettes who bask in the glory of their multitudinous victories? But time and decreasing testosterone has taken its toll.

A few years back I coached a high school kid by the name of . . . let's just call him Robert Cedricson. I enjoyed taking Cedric, I mean, Robert, out on a ten-mile run and leaving him in my dust. By his junior year, though, he could keep up with me. By his senior year, not only could he beat me, but he reveled in beating me. When I finished the run, he let me know just how much time had elapsed between us--two, three, four minutes. Now in his early twenties, he has developed into one of the area's top distance runners, winning most of the races in the Upper Ohio Valley.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for Robert Cedricson and his success, and I try to take credit for it whenever anyone will listen. I'm glad that his experience as a high school runner has carried over into his adult life, and his passion for running hasn't diminished. I just wish I could go head to head with him again and not finish three or four minutes behind him in a 5K.

Wait a minute! There is a way for the aged to compete with youth again. It's called the age-graded calculator. It can be found online at the Runner's World website: http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/age-graded-calculator

All you do is enter the information from your race into the calculator--distance, age, sex, time, etc, and the calculator will spit out your time as if you were 22 again. According to Runner's World, "Your age-graded score is the ratio of the approximate world-record time for your age and gender divided by your actual time."

Let me give you an actual example. Robert Cedricson and I ran head to head in a race this past summer called the Debbie Green 5K . The race is quite an extravaganza drawing great runners from the east central region of the country. Robert ran 16:19. Because he is 22 years old, he does not gain any time with the age-graded calculator. I ran 19:39. Entering my information--sex: male, age: 57, distance: 5K, time: 19:39, my calculated time is:  16:13. Yes!!!. Allright!!! Fistpump!!! I win!!!

Funny, it just doesn't feel the same as when you actually cross the finish line ahead of the person you want to beat. Runner's World needs to come up with and age-graded accelerator.

Questions or comments can be posted below or sent to joecellis@comcast.net .
If you enjoyed this post, please post it on Facebook or Twitter by clicking the button below.

 

If you would like a free download of my latest novel, The Old Man and the Marathon click on the link below:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/351449
or go to Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Man-Marathon-ebook/dp/B00ESVLMOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382654213&sr=8-1&keywords=the+old+man+and+the+marathon
or go to barnesandnoble.com
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WILL RUNNERS SURVIVE THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE?

When considering the coming zombie apocalypse, one must take into account the laws of natural selection.If a horde of zombies suddenly emerge from the local morgue onto a city street, who has the best chance of surviving? Long distance runners, of course. As the crowd flees, those with lesser aerobic ability will be the first to falter. Even though zombies are dead on their feet, they do possess the determination and persistence to pursue people for surprising distances. Most people can't run for more than a mile. Zombies instinctively know this. Unfortunately, this does not bode well for the human population in general. However, distance runners, especially marathoners, gain a great advantage because of society's lack of conditioning.

Imagine you are training for the Boston Marathon and running through a local park. You pass crowds of revelers guzzling beers, eating burgers, and listening to country music.A couple of them laugh and shout, "Run, Forest, run!" Around the next turn you spy a horde of zombies coming your way. You realize the zombie apocalypse has begun. What's your next move? You must go back and warn the cookout crowd. As you near the picnic-ers You shout, "The zombies are coming!" One of them yells, "Look y'all, here comes Forest again." Then he shakes up a of can beer and pops it open in your direction. You run through the spray and everyone laughs. Very funny. You wonder if redneck comedians taste funny to zombies.

When the zombies round the corner, the party breaks up. The guy with the beer, an ex-running back, sprints by you. However, he can only maintain that pace for another thirty yards. When you pass him, he's bent over gasping for air like a beached tuna. Twenty-six miles later you arrive at your Uncle John's cabin deep in the woods. Five other marathoners have found their way there. Together you prepare for a new world, one in which distance runners because of natural selection will repopulate the earth.

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WHY RUNNERS GET INJURED -- PART 3

The third major cause of running injuries is the most preventable. Yet because runners are psychologically unstable without their daily run, it is the most common cause of injury.

3. OVERUSE

Why are most dedicated runners crazy and push themselves into overuse injuries? I believe it is because they have crossed over to the psycho side of running. Most people regard running as something painful. If they must do it to lose weight or improve their cardiovascular system, they will grudgingly do it, but they definitely won't like it. To most people running is uncomfortable. It requires precious time, time when one could be sleeping, reading, or watching TV. And then there's the hassle of putting on the proper running clothes and shoes and the discomfort of stretching to get the muscles ready for that shock of activity. The worst part is the running itself--mentally it is challenging to keep going mile after mile; physically with each mile one runs, the pain intensifies.  Most people view dedicated runners as psychos.

And we are. How did we become psychos? We kept running despite the hassles and discomforts. Day after day we kept at it despite the time, energy and effort it demanded from us. We kept going until we reached the psycho side of running. Once a runner crosses over, he or she becomes like one of them--one of the crazy ones. They have changed. Normal people often wonder if their running friends were abducted by aliens and replaced with cyborgs.

The truth is what once was painful has become pleasurable. The exercise that once repulsed us, we now crave. We have become addicted to the runner's high, the endorphins that stream through our blood system as we get out there day after day. We get this mental sense that we have become Super People-- faster than most high school kids in a 5K race, able to run ten miles in a single workout, more powerful than all the stresses that build up during our work day. Look, up on the road! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's just my neighbor Joe out for his daily run.

Once you have crossed over, your biggest enemy isn't Kryptonite. It's overuse. Because you crave the joy of running, because you want to get faster or at least maintain your fitness level, because you want to eat that piece of pumpkin pie loaded with whip cream, because you want to set a PR in your next race, you push yourself into an unnecessary overuse injury. The knee hurts, the hip hurts, the Achilles tendon feels strained, but you're sure once you get out there the pain will go away.

Here's my advice to avoiding overuse injuries. Stay off the psycho path. If something is hurting more than a couple of days in a row, take time off. Try biking, deep water running, or the elliptical machine. Incorporate cross training as a regular part of your workout schedule, perhaps even two to four days a week. You may discover that your times improve with cross training. I guarantee you will have less overuse problems which result in fewer injury disruptions in your training schedule. Keep in mind that this advice is coming from one who doesn't always follow his own advice. Why? Because I'm a running psycho. I'm crazy. I want to get out there on the road. I want to set a PR at the next race. I want to qualify for Boston next spring. Somebody help Meeeeeeeee!!!!!

Questions or comments can be posted below or sent to joecellis@comcast.net .
If you enjoyed this post, please repost it on Facebook or Twitter by clicking on the buttons below.

 

If you would like a free download of my latest novel, The Old Man and the Marathon click on the link below:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/351449
or go to Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Man-Marathon-ebook/dp/B00ESVLMOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382654213&sr=8-1&keywords=the+old+man+and+the+marathon
or go to barnesandnoble.com
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WHY RUNNERS GET INJURED -- Part 2

Nobody's perfect. Very few runners have perfect form. Most either pronate or supinate or carry their arms too high  or wag their heads or overstride or have muscle imbalances between their quads and hams or calves and shins. Even many great runners have imperfect form. For example, Bill Rodgers has an uneven arm swing. That brings us to our number 2 reason why runners get injured:

2. POOR BIOMECHANICS
However, we should not jump to conclusions. A lot of runners with unorthodox running form rarely get injured. For example, an uneven arm swing may be compensating for a leg length discrepancy. If you try to fix the arm swing, then the shorter leg won't be compensated for, which will result, of course, in injury. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. In other words, don't try to tell Bill Rodgers he needs to correct his form.

When should you try to fix poor biomechanics? When the same injury keeps popping up. If a runner hasn't done too much too soon and has slowly but surely built up his or her mileage but regularly must deal with a reoccurring injury, then the problem is probably biomechanical.

 It's possible that adjustments can be made to the runner's form to fix the problem. The ideal stride disperses the stress of pushing off and landing equally along the leg. Any variation from the ideal will focus that stress unevenly with one spot in particular receiving more stress. It may be a shin, a knee, a hip, the Achilles tendon, quad, calf, or hamstring. If the runner is awkward or ungainly as they run, practicing good form would help them.

Check out Grant Robinson's Youtube intro to good running form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Igc2cCuZI
Then click on his videos emphasizing the four points of good running form: Posture, Midfoot, Cadence, and Lean
Posture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LfiAgQTFeU
Midfoot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=humkZAtZVW0
Cadence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isx-wE1Z0lU
Lean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmneqHyorXo

If you've done everything to correct your form but the injuries still reoccur, then it is time to visit a physical therapist or sports medicine doctor, one who has a good reputation with treating runners. They can recommend the proper shoe or insoles to correct pronation or supination. If the  problem is severe enough, you may need to have orthotics made for your feet. They can check to see if you have a leg length discrepancy or an imbalance in your muscles. A good physical therapist or sports med doc is worth his or her weight in high-end running shoes.

Once the biomechanical problems are solved, the injuries should go away . . . unless . . unless . . . you run into the third common reason for running injuries. But I'll save that one for another day.

Questions or comments can be posted below or sent to joecellis@comcast.net .
If you enjoyed this post, please repost it on Facebook or Twitter by clicking on the buttons below.

 

If you would like a free download of my latest novel, The Old Man and the Marathon click on the link below:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/351449
or go to Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Man-Marathon-ebook/dp/B00ESVLMOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382654213&sr=8-1&keywords=the+old+man+and+the+marathon
or go to barnesandnoble.com
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WHY RUNNERS GET INJURED. -- Part 1

There is a cause and effect for everything. After 43 years of distance running and over 30 years of coaching, I've seen a wide variety of injuries, but they all stem from a few basic causes. If you discover the cause, most of the time you can solve the injury problem.

When I was a freshman in high school back in 1971, I went out for the track team. After two weeks of practice everything hurt from my arches up through my knees. Granted, the running shoes back then were less effective at supporting your feet than bedroom slippers. When the pain got to the point where I could no longer run, Coach McKim said, "Ellis boy, go see the trainer." Coach McKim called everybody "boy" including the girls.

Our trainer was an old teacher by the name of Mr. Art Simpson. Mr. Simpson was big, bald, and gruff, the kind of guy who would send a get well card to a hypochondriac. When I told him my symptoms, he applied the one tape job he had done a million times--the arch and ankle mummy wrap. By the time I left the training room, I was walking like Frankenstein. Running was impossible.  To make a long story short, after taking two weeks off I was able to start practicing again.

That intro leads to the first cause of running injuries:

1. TOO MUCH TOO SOON

 I grew up in a blue collar football town where accepting pain was a part of life, and good coaches made their athletes suffer. As a young distance coach back in the 80s, I pushed my runners hard. Unfortunately, I pushed many of them into injury. With more experience I grew wiser. I learned that new runners or runners who were starting again after a long break needed to build gradually. I had to completely deprogram the old-school philosophy of no pain no gain.

 

I discovered there is good pain and bad pain. Good pain occurred when a healthy runner pushed himself or herself hard in a workout, fighting against lactic acid build up and oxygen debt. Bad pain occurred when muscles were not ready for the stress applied to them. As a coach I was responsible for determining the limits of that stress.

 

New runners need to build slowly, gradually over several months. The right amount of stress needs to be applied to their bodies so that only slight damage occurs to  their muscles. Did I say damage? Yes. Muscles grow stronger because they become damaged by exercise but then repair themselves stronger than they were before. A good coach understands just how much stress needs to be applied.

 

Soreness is a part of everyday running. It's a sign that the muscles are being stressed. But soreness that increases over several days is a sign to STOP! REST! CROSS TRAIN! Let the muscles recover before more serious problems result. No two runners are the same. Training yourself or coaching someone else is an art as well as a science. A good coach knows when to let up, when to pull back, when to stop and let a new runner recover and then build themselves up at their own rate.

 

Questions or comments can be posted below or sent to joecellis@comcast.net .

 

If you would like a free download of my latest novel, The Old Man and the Marathon click on the link below:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/351449
or go to Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Man-Marathon-ebook/dp/B00ESVLMOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382654213&sr=8-1&keywords=the+old+man+and+the+marathon
or go to barnesandnoble.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-old-man-and-the-marathon-joe-ellis/1116763619?ean=2940148767169&itm=1&usri=the+old+man+and+the+marathon 

REVIEW -- THE MARATHON STICK

What a wonderful feeling it is to finish an eight-mile run and not be in pain. I truly didn't think my calf would heal up this quickly. Last week at this time I could barely walk without feeling jolts of pain shoot up through it. Have I found a miracle cure?

I'm not sure. My Marathon Stick by www.intracell.net arrived last Thursday, and I immediately began to use it. It's basically a flexible, plastic stick with rubber handles about 21 inches long with ten rollers between the handles. I bought it from Amazon.com for $31.95. It appears to be a very simple instrument, but perhaps that is why it works so well.

 

 

As you can see, pressure can be applied to the muscle as you roll the stick up and down providing great myofacial release and trigger point therapy. The amount of pressure is determined by the user. The instructions recommend about 20 passes of the stick to warm the muscle up. you definitely experience pain when the spindles encounter knots or tender spots.

 

I used it on both legs, warming the calves, quads, and hams, then I went back again and really dug in the second time round. How do you describe something that is painful, yet in an odd way, feels good? I knew as I worked out the knots and bumps in my muscles, I was bringing blood flow to areas that needed healing.

 

I've been using the Marathon Stick twice a day for four days now. After taking a week off of running, I ran a six miler on Friday with only a few jolts of pain coming up into the calf. I cross trained on my stationary bike on Saturday (I usually only run four days a week and cross train the other days). Today I made it through an 8 miler at about 8 minutes a mile with no pain. I'm ecstatic!

 

Did the Marathon Stick increase the rapidity of the healing process? I think it did. I'm definitely a believer. I plan on using it a couple times a day as I prepare to qualify for Boston. The Stick's slogan is : A Toothbrush for Muscles. Makes sense to me. Anyway, I've gotta be on my way. It's time to brush my muscles.

My wife said I'm showing too much leg in this picture. Did I just hear someone whistle?

 

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