1. Consuming anything for your pre-race breakfast you haven’t consumed before a long run.

2. Trusting that the marathon’s pace group leaders will run the appropriate pace. (Keep track of your actual splits and know your pace for your goal time).

3. Wearing any clothing in the race that you have not run over 13 miles in.

4. Starting without double knotting your shoe laces.

5. Slowing down or stopping with a running partner. Despite the fact that you may have trained with them and you would like to accompany and aid them, if they drop out of the race your event will be compromised.

6. Not making reservations for your pre race dinner. If traveling to a marathon, find a safe dinning option close to your accommodations that you can make a reservation for. If you are waiting to eat at 9pm the night before your race you will regret it the next day.

7. Engaging in your tourism of the marathon city in the day’s before the marathon. Put your feet up, read, rest and fuel up for your big day. Leave the sightseeing to the days after the marathon, even if this means doing so on a couple of well used wheels.

8. Not having an exit strategy. Eventually you may need to drop out of a marathon. Be prepared and take money for cab fare and have the numbers of those you will need to contact.

9. Taking your sweatpants off more than 5 minutes before the start of your race. Rarely is a marathon started in conditions warm enough to allow leg muscles to be properly activated without some warm up and insulation.
10. Driving your self to the start. Who wants another issue to contend with on race day? Find some means of easily arriving at the starting line 1 hour before your race without having to drive yourself.

Do you know how fast you should run each time you head out the door? Make sure your getting the most out of each run by using Complete Running Programs 8 Custom Training Paces. Receive your complimentary training paces from our website. Click here to get your training paces.

How to take resting heart rate: To take a resting heart rate count your pulse on your wrist or neck for 15 seconds, beginning by counting zero first, and multiple by 4. Do this before rising at the same time each morning. If unfeasible to do before rising in the morning lie down at the same time each day and relax for 20 minutes. At the end of this rest period take the pulse rate on a 15 second count. Document this value in your training log each day.

Why is this useful: In addition to enjoying the reinforcement that your fitness is improving by observing a lower resting heart rate from your regular running the consistent record keeping of your resting heart rate is important for your training and your coach in 2 ways.
1. A resting heart rate 5 or more beats above normal is an early indication of overtraining, stress or impending illness. By catching the symptoms early you or your coach can modify training as needed to alleviate larger problems resulting in more time away from running.
2. Along with an accurate maximum heart rate, resting heart rate can be utilized to develop heart rate training zones specific for your current level of fitness. To use your resting heart rate to accurately hit a goal heart rate zone follow these steps
a. Maximum heart rate – Resting heart rate = Heart rate reserve
b. Heart rate reserve x Goal exercise intensity (%) =% of heart rate reserve
c. % of heart rate reserve + resting heart rate= Goal heart rate for workout

Employing heart rate training zones that utilize a known resting heart rate along with an accurate maximum heart rate will ensure you are training at the proper intensities for your current level of fitness. Training intensities that do not take into account your resting heart rate will be significantly less accurate.

If you do not know your maximum heart rate I recommend the following equation. HR max = 205.8 - (0.685 * age).

Although no equation will accurately predict your maximum heart rate, this equation was shown to have the lowest range of error (+/- 6.4 beats per minute) when evaluated against 43 other calculations for maximum heart rate.

Using heart rate to monitor exercise intensity is most useful at the lower running intensities and should be used in conjunction with your corresponding training paces.

Regularly monitoring resting heart rate is a simple and effective way to prevent overtraining. By ensuring enough recovery between workouts you will be less likely to become injured or chronically fatigued because of your training load and life stresses.

To get started using your heart rate data to train more efficiently visit
https://www.completerunningprograms.com/v/pacecalc2.htm
to receive your 8 Custom Training Paces and the corresponding heart rate training zones.

Long may you run,

Sean Coster
Head Coach
Founder-Complete Running Programs

Since breathing is the means we use to transfer oxygen to all of our body’s systems, saying it’s “important” is quite an understatement. Improving your breathing mechanics while running is a skill that should be valued by beginners and experienced runners alike. The concept of proper breathing while running is straightforward, but requires practice on a daily basis to become second nature. The best breathing technique during running is to breath from the diaphragm. Some call this yoga breathing or belly breathing. By breathing from the diaphragm, a runner will take deeper breaths, preventing the shallow breathing in the chest that can lead to side stitches (see “Side Stitches and Running” for details on the suspected causes and solutions for this).
In addition to preventing side stitches, breathing from the diaphragm is likely to improve performance through a variety of factors. The most obvious advantage to this breathing strategy is the greater volume of oxygen taken in with each respiration, in comparison to shallow chest breathing. Other benefits may include the postural advantages gained by breathing from the belly that will likely improve the stabilization of the spine by engaging its support muscles. To practice the proper breathing technique in running, begin with an exercise at home. Lie on your back and place a large book on your stomach, centered over your belly button. Attempt to raise and lower the book in a consistently gradual manner through fluid breathing. Try to push the book up with each inhale and gradually lower it on the exhale. During training runs, work on spending a portion of the run using this technique in the most natural manner possible. Tim Noakes, in his book “Lore of Running,” explains that this may take up to two months to perfect. Breathing is seldom considered a trainable factor in your running, but I challenge you to work on developing breathing from the diaphragm. In future articles, we will discuss other forms of respiratory training.
Long may you run,
Sean Coster

Less than a month to go until the start of the Olympics, yet in many fans’ minds the issue of doping is still front and center. Who takes steroids and other performance-enhancers? How do they work? How do athletes get away with using them? Should they be banned in the first place?

All these issues are addressed in the widely praised and meticulously researched documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster: The Side Effects of Being American” — and now the film’s star and director, Christopher Bell, and its producer and writer, Alex Buono, have agreed to answer your questions on performance-enhancing drugs, their manufacture and use, and what it all means in a culture where getting huge and fast is both condemned and admired.

Continued at the NY Times

Referred to in research as Exercise related Transient Abdominal Pain (ETAP) the side stitches occurrence has been reviewed in research on large samples of athletes via questionnaires. Interviews with athletes from various disciplines, including running, has shown us that ETAP appears to be a single condition manifested in the right or left lumbar regions of the abdomen. The sensation was described by these athletes as cramping, aching, pulling or even with greater severity in sharp stabbing pains . Yep that’s it. The research questionnaires have also illustrated that with these athletes that have more frequent training, ETAP is less often experienced. Additionally it was revealed that the groups most frequently afflicted with this condition were runners and horse back riders! Unfortunately all current research has been able to provide is hypotheses as to what it may be by what ETAP is not. It is hypothesized that the Parietal Peritoneum (surrounds the abdomen just inside of the abdominal wall) and the innervations of this with branches of the phrenic nerve may play a significant role in the onset of the side stitch. Simply stated the theory is that the irritation of a nerve stemming from the facet joints on the spine (the joints made by the little ‘arms’ coming off each section of vertebra) may receive friction from an unknown source triggering the pain we know as ETAP or a side stitch. This hypothesis was developed out of the coincidence with shoulder tip pain in many suffers of the side stitch . So what do we do with this knowledge?

What to do
Given this investigative research yielding no hard conclusions to the cause of the side stitch, what are we to do to prevent its onset? Before you consider voodoo or other supernatural solutions, consider the recommendations of researchers and other doctors in the field of sports medicine. The relationship with the spine has been associated with the possible explanation of the aggravation of the phrenic nerve. Researchers found that people with kyphosis (a curvature of the spine) and certain palpations of the facet joints of the spine would reproduce ETAP. Morton, a leading researching in the causes of ETAP, concluded by suggesting that: “These findings may indicate that efforts to optimize spinal integrity may be important in the management of ETAP.
There we have it; Morton has provided a new insight into a potential relief from the side stitch.

From this I have accumulated the current and comprehensive strategies for avoiding ETAP.
a. diet before run
b. diaphragm breathing
c. abdominal exercises prior to running
d. pressure when you exhale
e. adjusting the foot that falls on exhale
f. lying down elevate hips

Diet before the run: Long it has been thought that the pre-run diet is the culprit of the side stitch and this may be a contributing factor. Recent research on the association of fluids with ETAP saw an increased occurrence of ETAP with the ingestion of a variety of hypertonic fluids (concentrated solution: energy drinks, soda, etc.) directly before intense bouts of running . Therefore we can conclude one would be wise to avoid concentrated drinks and foods 2-4 hours prior to running .

Diaphragm breathing: Yoga or belly breathing is a technique that all runners should learn. In the ‘Lore of Running’ by Tim Noakes, MD he describes this as ‘breathing with predominately the diaphragm, rather than with the chest muscles. With belly breathing the chest hardly moves at all. Instead, the abdomen (stomach) appears to be doing all the work, for as you breathe in, the stomach goes up, and when you exhale, the stomach retracts .” A simple exercise for practicing belly breathing is to lie on the back and place a heavy book on your stomach. Inhale such that the book will rise then exhale allowing the book to come back down in a gradual manner. This takes the movement of the upper chest out of the breathing cycle and creates long fluid cycles of breathing like those practiced in yoga. If we are to embrace the possibility that the aggravation of nerves in the thorax play a role in the side stitch, I feel this breathing technique is instrumental in avoiding ETAP.
Engaging the abdominal and back muscles prior to running: If we accept that the position and movement of the spine may play a role in the occurrence of ETAP, then it is logical that ETAP may be avoided by development of the abdominal and back muscles. To maintain tone in these muscles and engage them prior to running, one can incorporate both pelvic stability and circuit training routines in to the training program before running.

What to do when ETAP appears:

If, despite our best efforts, ETAP rears its ugly head during a run there are three strategies for managing it.

Forced exhale: When the location of the stitch is identified, exhale so as to produce pressure in the area of the stitch. With some practice this can be performed while running. This is an effective strategy when ETAP is first felt.

Switch the foot fall when you exhale: Whether you realize it or not, you likely have a series of breathing patterns that you engage while running. These breathing patterns may have you exhaling on the same foot fall with each breathing cycle. On your next run observe how many breaths you take for each footfall and on which foot you exhale. If find yourself exhaling on the same foot each time, then attempt to adjust the foot that lands on the ground during your exhale the next time ETAP appears. This may shift the jarring motion of your contact with the ground, adjusting pressure in the spine enough to squelch ETAP.
If all else fails, stop running: But not forever. If the above techniques prove ineffective at minimizing the effects of ETAP to allow you to run.. Lie with your back on the ground and elevate your hips. This technique suggested by Noakes allows for rapid relief of the side stitch and for differentiation of the stitch from other ailments such as chest pain from heart disease.

Literally a pain in the side, the side stitch can seriously compromise your running. Although the exact origins of this trouble are still a mystery to researchers, armed with a regular routine of yoga style breathing, core stability training, and avoidance techniques to offset ETAP on the run, all runners should be able to keep ETAP at bay.

Long may you run,

Sean Coster

U.S. shot-putter Adam Nelson, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, is willing to try anything — legal — to win gold at this summer’s games in Beijing.

Even the occasional “deep and profound sensory comprehensive subconscious power experience.” At least, that’s how sports hypnotherapist Pete Siegel described a session he had with Nelson earlier this month in Southern California.

Siegel hypnotized Nelson as the 6-foot, 265-pound athlete stretched out on a bed at the Westin hotel in Long Beach on the day before his first big competition of the outdoor season. The session got more and more intense, with Siegel leading Nelson through a powerful, imaginary throw.

Continued on NPR

The goal: Find a very steep hill. It need not be long, as you will only use 50m of it. A grade of 10% of greater is appropriate. You are striving to spend 8-10 seconds (50m) running at top speed up the hill. This means as fast and powerful as you can go. For many this is an effort seldom requested by their training and they may be reluctant to really run as fast as they can. You will need to do a warm up similar to a race or workout to activate the muscle groups involved in fast running. 4-6 repetitions of the hill are to be done. A long (2-3 minute) rest is essential for the proper benefits to be achieved.

The benefits: Hill repeats like these are a wonderful way for runners to develop greater power in their running stride. This new found power translates to greater running economy at key race paces. Think strength training with running on this workout. It needs to be short to use the alactic or CP energy system and not become a ‘cardiovascular’ workout. The rest is also ESSENTIAL for making sure that each repetition is of the highest quality and the greatest benefit.
Notes: runners coming off of a recent injury or novice runners inexperienced with running at this intensity should begin by doing these hills at 90-95% of top speed until they are comfortably challenging themselves.
This workout can be added after a recovery run and done 2 times a week. It is an excellent addition to a base phase of training to introduce new muscle groups into the endurance running being done at this time.

The goal: To take a ’short’ long run (90 minutes) and enhance the benefit it has for transporting oxygen to tissues in your body.
Begin this run with the first 20 - 30 minutes at truly a conversational pace. This should be 65-70% of you maximum heart rate if you are inclined to use a monitor. The next 30-40 minutes should become a honest effort still within in an aerobic or conversational effort range. This would be a pace that is similar to your marathon race pace in the case of recreational and intermediate runners. The final 20-30 minutes cap the run with the effort rising to just below lactate threshold pace/effort. This should present a deep but controlled and rhythmic breathing. Resist the tendency to turn the last 30 minutes into a tempo run and set back recovery for future training sessions.

The benefits: This is a run that offers a deep aerobic stimulus challenging the heart to serve a decent amount of blood to the peripheral tissues in the body for a prolonged time. Yet with the lack of stress above the lactate threshold (here defined as 4.0 mmol/l for most athletes) there is going to be less residual fatigue from this run that the athletes must work through in the training session in the next 24-72 hours. There will still be lactate management benefits to the runner derived from this workout in that would be translate well to marathon and half marathon running for recreational or intermediate level runners.

20- 30 min - conversational (HR- 65-70% MHR)
30 - 40 min- ‘moderate’ aerobic (HR-70-75% MHR for most runners; pace for bLa of 1.5-2.0 mmol/l for most runners)
20-30 min- ‘high’ aerobic (HR-75-80% of MHR or 2.0-3.0 mmol/l for most runners)

Former world record holder in the 5,000m, Dave Moorcroft, tests a ‘heelless’ running shoes design by a Dutch PT.

It’s now common knowledge that running with a pronounced heel strike not only creates breaking forces that need to be overcome by the runner with each step, thus increasing the work involved in running, but these forces are also the likely causes of common running injuries to the lower legs.

Even runners with the best intentions for their form may struggle to overcome a heel striking foot placement due to shoe construction with a 2:1 height ratio from heel to forefoot, a common practice of shoe manufacturers. This video provides one solution to the challenge presented with such a shoe construction.

The modification of the running shoe seen here seems to allow the runner to have a mid to forefoot ground contact while maintaining proper cushioning via a supplemental midsole sans heel.

My thought is that this may very well be a viable option for runners struggling to find a footstrike oriented towards the mid to forefoot. It should be noted the the body as a system has many other contributing factors to how the where the foot touches the ground. Specifically control and stability of the gleuteal and abdominal area plays a major role in how the leg is ultimately positioned when touching down on the ground.

Runners interested in modifying their footwear to promote a more forward foot strike may want to begin with a racing flat that inheriently has a lower heel and thus reduces the need to hit heel first. Keep in mind changes to running form should be gradual and should be accompanied by appropriate strengthening and stretching exercises to compliment the changes.

Sean Coster

No molecule in the human body gets as bad a wrap as lactate. Better known to athletes incorrectly as lactic acid, the molecule L-lactate is constantly produced from pyruvate in the body as it attempts to extract all the potential energy stored in glucose. A byproduct of the utilization of the derived ATP from this process is what creates the acidic environment in the exercising body due to the accumulation of hydrogen ions. The lactate molecule and hydrogen ions are two of the many biochemical reactions that take place in the body unnoticed, until it’s in an endurance athletes body and they are working at a steady state of exercise. Then byproducts of energy production, lactate and hydrogen ions, can accumulate in the blood stream as they diffuses from muscles. This will lower the blood’s pH and increase the amount of lactate in the blood. Lactate then hitches a ride with red blood cells and may visit the liver or heart, where assuming oxygen is present in sufficient quantity, it can actually be created into usable energy for the working body. The higher the rate of work, the more the system can be backed up and lactate and hydrogen ions will remain in the blood stream in greater quantities. Knowledge of this process allows us to test the working levels of blood lactate at various training paces as described in part I of this article. We can then use these levels and corresponding intensities to train the body to work more efficiently at ever greater workloads. This allows us to produce greater aerobic power and perform to our best capabilities.

Training to specifically improve our lactate recycling capabilities can come in the form or two types of training.
Lactate threshold training
The first type of training is best described as ‘Lactate threshold training’. Lactate threshold training aims to increase the level of blood lactate above resting or moderate exercise levels (1.5-4.0 mmol/l in most athletes) and keep the work level or in ’steady state’ so the body can develop it’s ability to recycle lactate through the blood stream and offset the potential for acidosis by the accumulation of hydrogen ions. This type of work can be done in various workout formats. I have developed a list of workout ideas below entitled ‘Lactate threshold workouts’.

Anaerobic capacity training
A second way to improve the bodies ability to utilize lactate most efficiently is to perform training best described as ‘Anaerobic capacity training’. This type of training is deemed ‘anaerobic’ because it primarily utilizes anaerobic metabolism which can produce energy independent of the presence of vast amounts of oxygen. This is valuable training for endurance athletes for a variety of reasons. For one this anaerobic capacity training can be thought of as running strength training. This is because its intensity (100-120% of VO2 max or 400m-800m race pace) is so high that it requires the runner to use new motor units (small groups of muscle fibers within a larger muscle group). Activating new motor units and building new neural pathways is the way you develop the strength you gain when in the gym lifting free weights to muscular failure. For runners the strength ‘gain’ received from the fast bouts of running done in anaerobic capacity training translates into better running efficiency at a variety of paces. That is to say that it takes less muscular energy to run at the speed the anaerobic capacity training is done at and paces slower than it because more power is now generated with each stride. The second benefit is in the adaptations the muscles undergo in the environment flooded with lactate. Because the energy is being derived from the complete catabolism of glucose to lactate the working muscles are flooded with lactate for a short period of time resulting in a greater ability of the muscles lactate receptors to respond to this high lactate environment while working. See my suggestions for anaerobic capacity workouts below.

Keep in mind that neither of these types of training are advisable nor fully beneficial to the athlete if a proper base of training has been set to develop the aerobic energy system and oxygen transport throughout the body. 6 or more weeks of comfortable paced running is needed to develop the infrastructure in the body to make the workouts below useful to you.

Lactate threshold workouts for runners

Workout I- 2-4 x 2000m with 90 seconds rest in between. Each of these runs should be done at your established lactate threshold pace. Strict adherence to the 90 seconds rest is a must for a full benefit to the workout. If it takes you 9 minutes or less for each 2000m run you can do 3 or 4. sets If longer than 9 minutes begin with 2 sets.
Ex: A runner with a lactate threshold pace of 6:30 min/mile would run 3 x 2000m at 6:30 pace with 90 seconds rest (8:07 for 2000m).

Workout II- 3-5 miles at steady state pace. This is a continuous run done after a proper warm up. This should be done at an intensity slightly below the estimated lactate threshold pace due to its continuous nature. Reducing the lactate threshold pace by 3-5% is appropriate. Select the distance you will run based on your estimated time run. Do not run for more than 25 minutes. Therefore: a runner who has been tested as having a lactate threshold pace of 5:30 would run 4 miles at 5:46 (5% slower).

Workout III- a 45 minute continuous run performed in a progressive manner. This means the athlete would begin the workout at a pace corresponding to the first rise in blood lactate from there test. This is often marathon race pace for runners or a bit slower. They will hold this pace for 20 minutes. The pace is then increased about 5% for 15 minutes. Finally the last 10 minutes of the run are done near the lactate threshold pace (another 5% increase in pace). There is no rest taken during this run, therefore it is quite challenging and is recommended for experienced racers. Runner can also use race that will take 45-60 minutes to complete to obtain the same training benefit.

Anaerobic capacity workouts for runners
If beginning anaerobic capacity training it is advised to focus on the quality of each run by performing shorter intervals to begin with and taking as much recovery as needed to perform an equal effort on each.

Workout I- 6-10 x 200m with 2 - 3 minutes rest. Each of these runs should be done quite fast. The pace should be akin to one you would use if you where to race a 400-800m run. Since many runners have never explored racing those distances, it can also be described as very fast, but not ‘top speed’.

Workout II- 8-12 x 100m hill (8-10% grade) with 3 minutes rest. Find a moderately steep hill and run up the hill fast with good form. Make sure to take a full recovery (up to 3 minutes and no less than 2 is recommended) so your performance is equally high on each repetition of the hill

Workout III- 4-8 x 400m with 3 minutes rest. The intensity is equal to workout I and therefore this is more challenging due to is length. This is recommended for experienced runners.

Training the body to utilize its ‘diamond in the rough’ of energy sources is a straightforward process once you have accurately established your OWN lactate threshold. It can lead to an improvement in aerobic power which is the functional element most predictive to success in endurance competitions.

Knowledge of your lactate threshold pace allows your training to become focused and the benefits of your training to be realized more quickly. Furthermore an educated coach can use your lactate profile to develop a periodized training program that improves your areas of weakness and improves your aerobic capacity for your goal event.

If you are interested in having a lactate test done mail me at sean@crpusa.com to receive details on the test and make an appointment.

I encourage you to find out the specific intensities you should be training at even if you don’t have the ability to take part in one of my lactate tests. My race performance calculator will provide you with recommended training paces based on a recent race performance and estimate heart rate from age and resting heart rate. You can find this valuable calculator: Performance prediction and pace calculator.

Long may you run,

Sean Coster