Max King's Running Tip of the Month

The following article was written by Max King and originally printed in The Footzone Bend's April e-mail newsletter.  Reprinted with permission from The Footzone Bend and Max King.

The Footzone is a locally owned full service running store in Bend, Oregon

It's time to get racing, or at least put one on the schedule for motivation to get into training mode. If you're not there yet, don't worry about it, you can save this tip for when you're there, it doesn't expire.

As you start training harder and you're thinking about taking that jump to interval training where you're asking a lot of your legs, don't forget to pamper them with a very good warm up routine to get them ready to go.

A warm up routine should consist of a light jog of 10-20 minutes to get the muscles warmed up, blood flowing, and all the muscles firing. After that, don't just get right into running fast, go through a series of active/isolated stretching for each of the main muscle groups; quads, hammies, calves, and glutes. This series of stretches moves muscles through their range of motion to stretch them but will not weaken them like static (stretch and hold) stretching will. This can take between 5-15 minutes depending on how much you feel like you need and how intense the workout will be. After this, a series of more dynamic stretches can further get muscles stretched, activated, and ready for big powerful movements such as a speed workout. Then, a few strides (50-100m sprints), and you're ready to go. A good warm-up should last anywhere from 20-45 minutes depending on the workout intensity (longer for more intense) and time available. A good warm-up will decrease injury risk and help you get more quality out of your workouts.

Active Isolated Stretches for Warm-Up:
Standing toe touch (hamstrings) - one leg slightly in front of the other, bend down with front leg straight, back leg bent, touch your toe (if possible), hold for 1-2sec, come up, switch legs and repeat about 7-10 times on each leg.

Standing quad stretch - same idea on stretching, grab one foot and pull it up behind you to your glute, hold for 1-2sec and release, switch legs, repeat 7-10 times

Glute stretch - while standing, lift your knee toward your chest, grab it with both hands and pull it further toward your chest, hold for 1-2sec, release and switch legs, repeat 7-10 times.

Calf stretch - standing against a wall or tree, stretch calves using the same technique holding 1-2 sec, bend knees to get the soleus, straighten knees to get the gastroc.

Max King is a Bend, Oregon based elite trail runner

Training 201 Clinic with Max King - Thursday, May 9th at 7pm - Bend, OR
Join FootZone for Training 201 with Max King, a follow up to the popular Training 101. Max will lead a discussion answering questions such as:

• How the body adapts to different training stresses and environmental stress?
• Do you respond better to speed or endurance training?

Attendance to Training 101 is not necessary to attend Training 201, but you may find attending both helpful.

Let Footzone Bend know you're coming, please RSVP!

ATRA Notes - April 2013

ATRA Notes is a monthly email newsletter for race directors, trail runners and members. You can now find ATRA Notes reprinted on this blog! If you are not already an ATRA member, simply visit this link to join today.  

New! ATRA Socks:

If you are interested in having your own pair of ATRA socks...send a check for $15 (includes  shipping) to: ATRA, PO Box 9454, Colorado Springs, CO 80932 - we'll ship a pair out to you -- they are Core-Spun CoolMax socks proudly made in Colorado and in lovely packaging from the manufacturer (Save Our Soles by Colorado Knitting Company). On the instep they have American Trail Running Association imprinted. They are super comfy and black for those of us who love to run on trails and hate to wash whites! We're hoping to use this as an ATRA fundraiser! If you want to buy two pairs -- send another $10 for the second pair since we only have to pay once for shipping. Just let us know which size you'd like and we'll ship them out and...included with your order, a free ATRA bumper sticker!

Trail Race Calendar:

While on our website, be sure to browse our schedule of races both in the U.S. and abroad. We update our calendar weekly. Please enter your event at www.trailrunner.com, if you don't see it listed.  

Writers Wanted:

We welcome your trail run, or trail race reports that can be included in a future edition of our quarterly newsletter Trail Times. Our spring '13 issue is in production and we're also planning our summer '13 edition which will e-publish in June. All members of ATRA receive a copy and the issues are also posted on our website.

Movie Night:

In addition to presenting Haulin' Ass on April 4, ATRA is also presenting a special night of running films in Colorado Springs, onWednesday, April 24, at 7:00 p.m. at Stargazers Theatre and Events Center. Featured will be, There is No Finish Line: The Joan Benoit-Samuelson Story; A Runner's Life, by Alex Nichols about Colorado College XC & Track Coach Ted Castaneda; and Running the Rockpile, about the legendary Mount Washington Road Race. Advance tickets are $11 at imathlete.com/events/tinfl, or $15 night of the show.

Upcoming RRCA Convention:

Join ATRA in Albuquerque, NM, May 2-5 at the RRCA Convention. We'll be enjoying the many activities planned by the host club, the Albuquerque Road Runners, and ATRA has a seat on a panel discussion - Putting on your first ultra - on Friday, May 3.

Join this session to learn about the ins and outs of putting on your first ultra race.  Seasoned race directors will discuss lessons learned from their ultra races.  You will also learn about the American Trail Running Association's Labeling Program, which outlines standards for trail races.  

Upcoming 2013 USA Track & Field Trail Championships:

USA 10km Trail - June 29, Beech Mountain, NC-Beech Mountain 10km

USA Mountain - July 21, North Conway, NH - Cranmore Mountain Race

USA 100 Mile Trail - July 27, Cleveland, OH-Burning River 100 Mile

USA Marathon Trail - August 18, Manitou Springs, CO - Pikes Peak Marathon  

USA Half Marathon Trail - November 2, Moab, UT-Moab Trail Half Marathon

USA 50km Trail - November 9, Boulder City, NV-Bootlegger 50km

The 2013 USATF Trail Championship Sub-Ultra Series will include the 10km, Mountain, Marathon, and Half Marathon with points awarded at each event. The best three of four times will considered for final scoring, but runners will be scored whether they participate in one, two, three, or all four events. The top male and female point getters will receive an award at year end.

Trail running for a cause - Run d’Haiti

Story by IV Whitman - originally published in ATRA's Trail Times Newsletter- Volume 18, Number 63 - Spring 2013

We run to get fit, to win, to help, to remember and to say we’ve done “it.” But most of us run each day for the simple pleasure of getting outside and breathing to the determined rhythm of our footsteps. To run and to breathe is to feel alive. And for thirty people this past January 19, the Run d’Haiti was a 20-kilometer experiment in everything we all love about the sport. 

The Run d’Haiti has become an annual trail run held each January, about fifteen miles east of Port-au-Prince in the countryside of Croix des Bouquets (pronounced “kwa-dayboo-kay”). Hosted by GO Adventures, a supporting branch of the Global Orphan Project, the Run d’Haiti raises awareness about the needs of orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti. As you can imagine, there are many. Bookended by a day trip on Friday to a children’s village in Leogane, the epicenter of the 2010 earthquake, and church with a local pastor in Croix des Bouquets on Sunday, the Run d’Haiti allowed participants to experience something few “outsiders” ever get to see—the real people and countryside of Haiti.

The course was positioned several miles off the main road that leads traffic from Port-au-Prince to the sketchy border of the Dominican Republic. Under the guidance of Ben Holmes, founder of the Trail Nerds Association, and Joe Fox, owner of Cycle City and Running Company, both out of Kansas City, Missouri, the Run d’Haiti was scouted and marked carefully to ensure each runner stayed safely on course. Spray paint, ribbons, mobile aid stations and spotters all made the experience seem effortless to the runners. As one might imagine, the course ran through the middle of everything we tend to interpret as wrong in the world. Mango trees and palms with beautiful 4,000-foot-high mountains in the distance juxtaposed to scores of children sitting on community watering holes that produce bacteria-tainted water. Rural voodoo priests doing more harm than good by prescribing dangerous “medicines” that harm and maim their innocent patients. Running in the countryside is to experience Haiti’s profound poverty.

For any visitor, it is a struggle to imagine how anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, much less somewhere just a 90-minute flight from Miami, could become this impoverished. But reading about the history of Haiti, from the Spanish, French and U.S. occupations to the slave trade and subsequent slave rebellion that established Haiti as an “independent state” in 1804, it’s easy to connect the dots.

Running through this history created a contradiction in each stride. It made each us think and feel and wonder what, if anything, should or could we do. And for many of us, the solution, if there is one, is not a laptop for every child or solar paneled roof tops. We realized the first order of business is friendship. It starts with something as simple as a handshake, a hug, a smile or just asking “kouman ou rélé?” (“what’s your name?). As they say, the best things in life are free. And it works for both sides.

If you want to experience running in Haiti with GO Adventures, join us May 2-6, 2013, for the Fort Jacques 70K. This is a challenging, three-day scouting run in the countryside of Croix des Bouquets and up to the mountains above Port-au-Prince. We are also hosting the second annual Run d’Haiti January 9-13, 2014. This is a 20K trail run 15 miles east of Port-au-Prince in the foothills of Croix des Bouquets. 

Learn more about GO Adventures and our tax deductible events at www.goadventures.org.