Tag Archives: endurance

Brain Camps and Tri-camp: education for you and yours this new year

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Happy NY! and with a new year, hopefully comes new stuff to put in your brain. Some of the knowledge below will help with your patients (talking to you MD’s and PT’s) , some will help your clients (hey coach!), and some is for you the athlete ( yup – come spoil yourself in a complete winter triathlon immersion camp here in Bend, OR). Together, we’ll discuss research and concepts that guide our thought process and training, do hands on assessments, drills, and interventions to help us all do what we do better.

Jan 16-17th
I’m headed back home to New Orleans to teach at the USA Triathlon Certification Course. If you are seeking to get certified as a Level 1 coach, or if you are a current USAT LEvel 1 coach and looking to get your Youth Coaching certification, follow this link for details. As a bonus, I’ll be offering a course on thursday the 16th on “Bike Fit for Performance” – of note, you can register for the Bike Fit talk even if you aren’t planning on going to the full Triathlon certification course. Click here for registration info on both.

Jan 25-26
Calling all Physicians, Therapists, and Athletic Trainers: Join us for the Health Running Course in beautiful and sunny Laguna Niguel, CA. Check out the link for an action packed weekend of peer-reviewed clinical knowledge and hands-on sessions designed to help you help your patients. At the end of the day, run along the cliffs and go for a surf. Not a bad place to be in January!

Jan 31st – Feb 2
Athletes, this one is for you. the REP Lab is hosting its first annual Winter Triathlon Skills Camp. We’ll talk shop, you’ll talk to professional triathletes, you’ll outline off-season conditioning plans and strength routines, do swimming form clinics, performance bike fits, and a 3D instrumented runing gait analysis. That’s right – a complete soup-to-nuts guided plan. Bring your 2014 goals, your gear, and a notepad, because we designed this camp to build a better you and a better season. NOW is the time of the year to make things better  – don’t wait until 2 weeks before your first race! More info in the link.

March 7th -8th
Clinicians, this is not to be missed. Join us at the longest running, running-speciifc CME course out there: UVA Running Medicine. This 11th annual event will be a dual focus on foot and ankle mechanics as well as strength and power development for endurance runners, field athletes, and sprinters. We are very excited to have Dr. Brad DeWeese as our keynote presenter this year. As of today- there are a few spots left for the Saturday hands-on lab, so register soon if you’d like to join us (the lab will sell out). Note: this isn’t a simple link – click here, then click on “live conferences” and then scroll down until you see “UVA Running Medicine” – you can download the brochure and register from there.

A lot of time and energy goes into each of these events to ensure that you have the best experience possible –  Hope to see you soon!

 

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NPR asked: do smarter shoes make smarter runners?

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Brace yourself. You thought heart rate and GPS was cool? The tech revolution is coming to running in a major way. Sure, it’s got some hurdles, but its likely going to be easier than signing up for health care insurance online.

So what if your shoe could tell you about your foot strike ? would it matter? what if you had gear that could tell you about more than foot strike?  What can Tech do for you as an athlete?

Check out this link to listen to the NPR interview for some answers.
And if the merging of tech and athletics intrigues you, check out this article I wrote for Spark/Qualcomm.

Cool technology + smart people to make sense of it = some pretty cool times for you as an athlete.

 

Running around from USATF Nationals to USATF Nationals

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Last week, I had the privilege of jumping on a plane and traveling to speak at the USA Track and Field National Conference in Indianapolis. It was a great melding of the minds, with the focus on “rebuilding” the athlete pool. I was asked to speak about injury and trying to reduce injury. My talk was titled: “Solving the mystery of running: practices for sustaining an injury free career.” Given that over half of runners get hurt every year, its a pretty important concept to take a step back and try to STOP this madness. In this presentation we talked about how and why mobility, stability, strength, and power are all unique traits that runners must have, and how these attributes directly transfer to gait. And most importantly, how to improve deficits you’ll find in your runners. So after a day of great discussion, meetings, and networking,  I jumped on a plane back home to Bend, OR.

USATF Nationals to NationalsAnd nationals followed me back home!- This weekend is the USATF National Cross Country Club Championships.  About a thousand runners are converging here in Bend to see which XC Club can take the cake. Local stud, Max King, has organized a challenging course for Saturday. On Friday, I’ll be hosting an all-star athlete panel Q&A featuring: Lauren Fleshman, Besty Flood, Mario Mendosa, Stephanie Howe, and Max King. If anyone wants to ask the best what makes them the best, and gain some scientific insight as to why and how these concepts may make sense for you, come on by – we’ll see you at 4 PM PST at the event expo.  And on Saturday (raceday!), we’ll see you starting at 9 AM for the community run. The REP Lab tents  will have fire pits, hot chocolate, a propane heater, and most importantly – we’ll be hosting a holiday cookie swap!  -that’s right – bake some cookies, trade em out, and eat up. And yes, yours truly will be awarding bragging rights for the best cookie at nationals. Sugar cookies are cute, but don’t stand a chance. To all the potential bakers out there, I’ll give you a hint – don’t bother bringing an entry without chocolate if you really do want to win. And while you are munching, you’ll be cheering as MC’s Jesse Thomas and Matt Lieto calling the races from 10 until 2. And rumor has it there are some after-parties happening ’round town……come see us at the tent and we’ll give you the scoop.

And if you can’t make it to Bend this weekend, Make sure to check out the Runner’s World Google Hangout with Oiselle’s Project Little Wing. The REP Lab is proud that these elite women  call our clinic home for their performance and injury prevention needs.

So this weekend: listen to the experts, eat cookies, and run…..that about sums it up!

Treadmill Running: What’s different? What’s the same?

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Well, its that time of year again. The sun sinks below the horizon early, and with that my phone rings with reporters wanting to know what tips they should give to their readers about running successfully on a treadmill. Rather than risking this info getting watered down, I figured I’d give you the straight scoop.

  • Fact vs Fiction: A lot of coaches preach the message “you push yourself over the ground outside, and your pull yourself overground on a treadmill”…..this is 100% false. If you look at the fancy stuff we measure called “ground reactions forces” you’ll see very very similar patterns when running on either surface. The overall mechanics are very much the same.
  • Think about it as a different surface, not a different way to run: despite the fact that the treadmill is very similar to running over ground, there are some differences, and some are actually what qualify as “statistically significant.” But if you look at the clinical impact this has, and if you deal with this type of data every day like I do, the differences are really small. There is a difference in body mechanics running on grass, trail, asphalt, and concrete. But again, these differences are small. As long as you slowly adapt your mileage to treadmill, you’ll be OK. No one runs 100% of their miles on trail and then jumps 100% onto the road. This goes for transitioning miles to the treadmill. Allow a few weeks to transition your mileage over, and your body will adapt to these slight changes.
  • Run correctly on your treadmill: Here’s the most important one. Everyone has a friend who ran on their treadmill and then got hurt. Or maybe it was you. They “blame it on the treadmill” – what happened? First, you need time to acclimate (re-read previous paragraph).  But most importantly, its not running on the treadmill that’s typically the issue. More often than not its running differently on the treadmill. Example. If running outside, you are free to make small fluctuations in speed. On the treadmill, the belt speed is held constant. So if you decide to try to slow down 1%, you can’t. As you get tired, your speed changes, but your cadence slows, which forces a longer stride than you are used to. Your body’s soft tissues are in a completely different position (longer) than you’ve trained them in your previous miles. This longer position can create strains on soft tissues and increase the lever arm on your joints and cause pain. But this really isn’t a treadmill issue – its a running form issue.
  • To incline or not to incline? We often hear to increase the incline on the treadmill to 1-2% to make up for the lack of wind resistance. Here’s the deal. Raising the incline slightly increases the physiological stress level compared to flat, and it doesn’t really change the loads much on the body. In fact, running with a slight incline is actually a bit “safer” for the body since it makes it tougher to over-stride. So no harm here.

What’s a safe way to run on the treadmill?

  1. gradually increase the % of miles you are doing on the treadmill
  2. run the same. Be honest with youself. Are you really running 6:45’s on the road? or are you really running 7:15’s? Aim to keep paces realistic. And aim to keep your stride pretty close to what you typically do. An easy way to do this is by counting your cadence (number of foot contacts per minute). Next time you are running 7 min pace, count your strides. If you are consistently hitting 88 per minute (single side), then aim to maintain the same cadence on the treadmill at 7 min pace. This way you avoid overstriding and the stresses it can place on your body.
  3. Novices: don’t go crazy on speed work. Doing intervals makes you tired. Running faster than 800 meter pace on the treadmill can make it much more likely that you’ll run with compensated form.  In general, I recommend tempo intervals on the treadmill, but speedwork is best done outside. If you must do speedwork on the treadmill, make sure your cadence is similar to what you’d maintain outside.

For those of you who like the fine print, feel free to read more below. And of note, all the information in this article pertains to steady state distance running. Sprint training on treadmills is a different concept entirely. My UVA lab group wrote one, and Irene Davis’ team wrote another. No matter on treadmill or outside – enjoy your run!

References:

Riley PO, Dicharry J, Franz J, Della Croce U, Wilder RP, Kerrigan DC. A kinematics and kinetic comparison of overground and treadmill running.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Jun;40(6):1093-100

Fellin, R.E.,  Manal, K, Davis, I. Comparison of Lower Extremity Kinematic Curves During Overground and Treadmill Running. J Appl Biomech. 2010 November; 26(4): 407–414.

 

Island Power: a case study in athlete development for Ironman World Championships

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“Hello- this is Jay can I help you?” After a short sigh, I get a panicked summary of the past several months. A constant battle with shin splints and stress fractures. Not able to run. Rest isn’t helping. Oh and their biggest race of the season – IM Kona- is in 7 weeks. I wasn’t startled. I asked her what her goals were for race day and she said top 10 and a PR in the run. Fast forward through 7 weeks of targeted rehab,strength, and form work. Longest run up to Kona was only 9 miles. Results? She ran a 3:04 and got 10th.

How? It’s actually really simple. For years the triathlete mindset has been that strength and cross training is “something else” to fit in on top of your swim, bike, and run volume. Well, research and successful splits on race day are blowing this myth wide open. The truth? To perform at your limit, its essential to benchmark, and target, your mobility, stability, strength, and power. Instead of just improving your fitness, you can improve you. We didn’t just think outside the box, we threw the box away and re-engineered Linsey’s training in new way to meet her goal. A better you is a faster you.

100% focus during the race, 100% smiles after

100% focus during the race, 100% smiles after

When I saw Linsey 1:40 down with 1.5 miles to go, I knew she could pull through and make a move from 11th to 10th. She had strength and form nailed down solid. Not only did she make the pass, but she made it with over 20 seconds to spare. And I should note that she also maxed out on several of her strength exercises the same week as Ironman. Strong runners = fast (and happy) runners!

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beautiful form, beautiful race course!

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here’s how you start the day in Kona

20131015-032221.jpgMy first, and likely only pic, in Triathlete. Doesn’t this pic look a bit like the “which one of these is not like the other one” song from Sesame Street? Yours truly hasn’t seen 6% body fat in a while…..From left to right: me, Linsey Corbin, Matt Lieto, Chris Lieto, and Elliot Bassett.

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flower power

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Linsey has beer, and it needs transport 1 mile down the road to Bike check on friday…..these are the type of circumstances at which I’m best. Taking resistance training to a whole new level. Ice cold Corbin’s! Get your Ice cold Corbins here!

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some folks will be happiest after IM is over!

The Tipping Point: how does aerodynamics impact cycling?

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Cycling is a balance act – you want to produce as much power as possible to make your bike move forward, while maintaining comfort, aerodynamics, handling, and safety. But quite often, we loose sight of the big picture in search of the “fastest looking position.” The most common question I get from time trialists and triathletes is, “Can you make me more aero?” Let’s tackle this issue head on using an example, and some science.

TippingPointPicSeveral years ago, I did a fit on a medical resident; we’ll call him Bill. He was three years into his cycling career and was doing quite well at the district and state level. He came and saw me for a bike fit on his time trial bike. His goals were to podium at state and place top 10 at nationals, and also to eliminate his low back pain on the bike. I’ll spare you the details, but after his fitting, his back pain was 100% gone, he won state, and placed 4th at nationals in the 40K time trial. The next year, he stood on the podium at nationals. Bill was very happy.

Right after nationals, Bill graduated and began making more income and sought out the advice of a wind tunnel to squeak out a performance advantage. The folks in the wind tunnel were able to produce a 28% improvement in his drag coefficiency. This is a very, very large improvement in aerodynamics! Bill left and was excited to see how this new position would play out over the season.

Well, things didn’t play out so well. Bill called after several months of riding in his new position. His back pain returned. He hadn’t made the podium in a single time trial all season. And he wasn’t able to hit the same power output on his new time trial position that he could easily hit on his road bike. Guess what we did? We adjusted his fit exactly back to where it was when we last worked together. Bill made the podium in his next race, and the next, and the next, and won nationals. Bill was happy again.

What happened? Bill hit the tipping point. Sure, he was more aerodynamic, but aerodynamics don’t make you ride fast; producing power does. Let’s back this up with some data:

  • The chief obstacle you have below 11 mph is the rolling resistance of your tires. At slow speeds, nothing matters more than tires and pressure.
  • When your average speed is above 25 mph we should begin to have talks on aerodynamics, and when your average speed is above 27 mph we really need to address aerodynamics. But for most riders, you’ll gain more speed by producing more power over your entire race distance rather than aiming to adopt a sleek, aerodynamic position.
  • Comfort matters. For most competitive cyclists, it’s likely you’re signing up events that 40K or longer. Those of you doing Ironman distance events are spending 5+ hours on the bike. Don’t try to replicate the overly aggressive position of a Tour de France time trailer (whose TT is quite short) just because you think it looks cool. You’ll end up so uncomfortable in your aerobars that you won’t be able to stay in them for long.
  • Power comes from your hips, not your knees. If I told you that you had a muscle in your body that had the best leverage of any other muscle, and was more resistant to fatigue, wouldn’t you want to tap into that muscle? You do have that muscle; it’s called your gluteus maximus. Strong quads are nice, but a proper position on the bike optimizes your glut to drive the pedals.

To get aerodynamic, most riders opt for a low, forward position to get their trunk down and out of the wind. This creates two issues. First, it compromises power by shifting emphasis from muscles in your hips (very fatigue resistant) to your knees (fatigue quicker). Poor compromise. Second, I’ve personally been in the wind tunnel with athletes and it is possible to get excellent drag numbers while maintaining a very powerful pedal stroke. This gets complex and very individualized, but good bike fitters can not only help you look better to the wind, but look better to the clock

 

 

My new book: bedtime story for the new royal baby?

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It seems the Brits have been busy. A few weeks ago, a new Royal baby greeted the world, and it seems my collection of bedtime stories to Prince George was released just in time!

photo-14Anatomy for Runners has made quite an impact. Since its release almost one year ago, its been one of the top selling running books, and achieved significant accolades with runners, coaches, clinicians, and the industry. In fact the book has done so well, that it was picked up by a UK-based Lotus Publishing Group. The overseas edition, re-titled “Run Like an Athlete” is available now to anyone on the other side of the pond. I’m quite happy with this title – its actually hat I wanted to call the US book in the first place. It features all the same excellent content, although its been translated from English to well, English……

Yes…..The Queen’s prose is quite different from our countrymen’s linguistics. Going through the editing process with the publisher, I’m shocked at how much it was altered for the european audience: “Soccer mom = football mum” are among thousands of edits.

Note: this version of the book is best utilized with hot tea, crumpets, ascots, and a Hugh Grant movie playing in the background. 

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my copy arrives by none other than the Royal Mail

Brain Power: Athletes, Coaches, and Clinicians – Join us for a great event in Bend, or beyond

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Today, we’ve got a smattering of amazing educational opportunities to announce:

This Thursday in Bend, OR @ 7:30 at the Westside Clinic: Athletes – Please join Jay Dicharry PT (REP Biomechanics Lab Director) Matt Lieto (Pro Triathlete) and Keats McDougal (Ironman Canada & Tahoe Director) for a night of Mobility and Multi-sport discussion. Jay will provide the latest research on mobility and best practices for multisport athletes. We’ll answer the most common questions: What does stretching do for the body? When should you stretch? How long? What’s the difference between dynamic warm-up and stretching? And how does soft tissue work play into this whole discussion? Next,  Matt will discuss his training plans and and upcoming race prep considerations. Matt will show you how the lessons he’s learned along the way can help you prepare better for your next event. Finally, Matt will lead a Q and A with Keats. They’ll provide an overview and considerations of these two challenging courses. It will help you prep for this year’s race, or feed your stoke for next year!  Stick around after for a question and answer session with our panel. And yes, we’ll have beer. Cost: free. No brainer!

This weekend in Boulder Colorado (7/13-7/14): Calling all healthcare professionals – are you tired of getting your information on running mechanics from the mainstream media? Would you be interested in a immersive weekend of education that is based around hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, hands on clinical assessment, and gait cues? We’ll construct a framework of what we know about running mechanics and their effect on performance and economy. And more importantly, we’ll show you how this information applies not just to the masses, but to your individual patients. In short, this is all the stuff you wish they had told you in Med school, PT program, or ATC curriculum. There are still a few spots left. See here for details.

August 23-24th in San Jose: Tri-athletes and would-be coaches– are you looking to get your Level 1 certification? Then join us for the USA Triathlon coaching clinic. Two days packed full of essential knowledge to help you and your athletes succeed.

Sept 21st and 22nd in Bay Area: Running Coaches – this one is all for you. We are going to delve into the truth behind running mechanics, screening strategies for your team, the impact of strength training to improve performance,  discuss the role of footwear, and more. Andrew Allden chairs this event – he’s brought in a knock out panel each and every time –  Learn to think outside the box to take your team to the next level @ this USATF Level 3 Coaching Seminar. More info here

Yea, I know – blogging and tweeting is supposed to make us all smarter. But you know what really makes us smarter? talking face to face. See you soon!

The running shoe industry has been taken by storm: TP Striders

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Revolution, not evolution.  The latest innovation for your feet is not from the behemoth with swoosh. Its not from the company who brought you “those funny toe shoes.” Instead, this latest venture was announced last night on prime time television.

Its innovative “dual-purpose outsole” has a unique feature to help you out of a certain situation that always seems to come on about 1 mile into your run. Run prepared! If you’d like learn more, check out the video below.