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January 22, 2012
There’s nothing like a buddy to share the pleasures and “half” the pains of training – and to reach your best. It’s so powerful that I thought I’d write a few blogs on the topic. First I want to point out why a buddy system is so powerful. Next week, I’ll outline how you can implement one for yourself – and your buddy.
In 20 years of coaching, I’ve found that a buddy is as important as a coach to achieving running goals (I write in detail about the buddy system my athletes use in MOVE! How Women Can Achieve Athletic Goals At Any Age). A buddy adds to the accountability and commitment to stick with the training process….and provides a second opinion, support, and makes training week-to-week more fun. A buddy also helps make your training more real….Even more than a coach, a buddy is likely to get to know you well enough to challenge you on your weaknesses and cheer you on in your incremental successes.
Research in the field of social and health science has focused on the value of social support – the kind of weekly support and accountability which buddies offer each other. One 2007 study conducted by Stanford University Professor of Health Research and Policy Abby King (Abby C. King, Robert Friedman, Bess Marcus, Cynthia Castro, Melissa Napolitano, David Ahn, & Lawrence Baker, “Ongoing Physical Activity Advice by Humans Versus Computers: The Community Health Advice by Telephone (CHAT) Trial,” Journal of Health Psychology 26:6) found that social support in the form of a phone call plays a huge role in exercise. Two hundred and eighteen people were divided into three groups and asked to walk half an hour most days of the week. (Government recommendations call for 150 minutes of walking in a week.) One group received a call every three weeks from a Stanford health educator who cheered them on and asked about their compliance. A second group received similar calls from a computer. A third group received no call at all. After 12 months, those who received a call from a live person increased their exercise from 100 to 178 minutes a week, a 78% jump. Those who received computerized calls doubled to 157 minutes a week. The third group that received no calls exercised 118 minutes a week, up 28% from the start of the study.
You don’t have to be a beginner to benefit from the accountability that another person provides. Elite athletes – even world champions – have found a buddy just as valuable as have beginners. Said one world champion, “being held accountable is something that is underrated. The thing that I found is when you have somebody to check in with, even if you go off track for a couple of days, knowing that someone is depending on you gets you back on track. I don’t want to let myself down or let my buddy down and say ‘I didn’t do anything this week’.”
So, yes, personal support is important but why a buddy if you already have support from a husband, partner, or others at home? Entrepreneur Leslie Kagan explains. “I didn’t want to ask my husband for committed, sustained support for training,” she said. “You don’t want to overburden a relationship with too many expectations. At home you look to your partner/spouse for emotional support in a lot of domains. Your relationship goes through cycles of intimacy and availability and when you are taking on a major athletic event you don’t want your support to be subject to that conditionality. I am a big believer that no one person should be expected to meet all of our emotional requirements. Having external support frees up your partner at home to be spontaneously enthusiastic without having to provide sustained emotional support.”
January 15, 2012
We saw yesterday at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trails in Houston that women’s marathon is in its best shape ever. Competition and performance was unprecedented yesterday, with Shalane Flanagan, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in the 10,000 meters, winning the Trials in an event-record time of 2 hours and 25 minutes and 38 seconds, a 5:32 per mile pace – shaving off more than three minutes off her previous personal best set in New York in 2010.
The state of the U.S. women’s marathon at the very top level is evident upon comparing results since the women’s Olympic Marathon Trials started in 1984. There have been eight Trials held since then. In yesterdays Trials, the most competitive ever, as many as five women ran under 2:30:00 – Flanagan, Desiree Davilla (2nd), Kara Goucher (3rd), Amy Hastings (4th, and Janet Cherobon-Bawcon (5th). In three previous trials (1984, 1992, and 2000) no one ran under that. In 1988, 1996, and 2008, one woman ran under 2:30:00, and in 2004 three ran under 2:30.
Masters and seniors women showed their superlative strength as well, with Linda Somers Smith, 50, running a 2:37:36 (a 6:00 per mile pace!) – just 11 minutes and 28 seconds after Flanagan. Somers Smith finished the marathon just 28 seconds behind the first-place masters finisher, Sheri Piers, 40.
With Flanagan, Davilla, and Goucher representing us this summer in London at the 2012 Olympic women’s marathon, we can look forward to a very competitive event on August 5th!
January 8, 2012
Thinking again about the age group American Record for the 4 X 1600 meter relay among women 60 to 69 set last week-end, I was reminded that when writing my book (MOVE! How Women Can Achieve Goals At Any Age) I was struck repeatedly by the fact that we are now witnessing a revolution in running for women – and particularly among women in their fifties, sixties, and seventies, women who did not enjoy the benefits of Title IX when young.
As we read more often today in the media, increasing numbers of women in their forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, and even eighties are participating in challenging athletic endeavors. Not only are women beginning to outnumber men in many running races. Also, statistics for one of the most daunting athletic undertakings, the Boston Marathon, reflect the increasing participation of women over 40 – even if you look at the trend in the numbers of female entrants between 2001 and 2011 for women 40-49, 50-59, and 60-69.
According to the Boston Athletic Association, the number of female entrants age 40-49 more than doubled (1490 to 3866 entrants) from 2001 to 2011. The number of female entrants age 50-59 increased by more than four times (319 to 1416 entrants) and the number of female entrants age 60-69 increased by almost seven times (37 to 250 entrants).
Doubtless the number of female entrants in the 70 to 79 and 80 to 89 age categories increased as well, although by how much, I don’t know.
It’s never too late to try something new, and we’re lucky to have more and more older role models setting such high standards. (Our club, The Liberty Athletic Club, feels very lucky that our president, Mary Harada, is one of these women. I can’t tell you how many times the twenty year olds say her performances inspire them.)
January 1, 2012
There’s at least one story behind every race, and there were many stories behind the last race at yesterday’s Boston University Mini-Meet. It was one of the busiest days there ever in terms of entrants (more than 400 runners from age 3 to 70 plus).
The last race was the 4 X 1600 Meter Relay. Liberty Athletic Club 60s members , 65, Regina Wright, 69, Leni Webber, 64, and Jan Holmquist, 67, drove from the north, south, and west of Boston to challenge the American Record of 29:32 for women 60 to 69. They waited almost two hours longer than expected, with this relay last on the docket. We weren’t sure they could break the record, but there was a chance and the fun of going for it.
And they did it! They secured the American Record, with Jan anchoring and passing the finish line in 28:57 – despite the fact that their ages add up to 25 years over 60…..
All four runners met or surpassed her goal, with Regina surpassing hers by more than a minute. But no relay is about individual victory. Like all relays, it was about a team. Sue, Regina, Leni, and Jan were invested in each other’s success. Liberty Athletic Club members on the sidelines were inspired – whether they were cheering at the event, like Joan Miller and Cathy Gibson — or at home sending positive vibes and waiting to hear the results.
There are many positive thoughts their success inspires, including these few….
• The race brought out their best.
• It’s never too late.
• Why pass up an event, even on a busy holiday?
• It’s worth the wait. They stood around for two hours waiting for the delayed start of their race.
• What’s better than individual and team success? There are all kinds of relays from sprints to distance events – why not check out relays for your teams?
December 25, 2011
There’s no doubt that GPS devices are cool. Who doesn’t want to know, after a run – particularly if you are training – exactly how far and how fast you’ve run, your average, and your instantaneous pace? And the ability to download all your data afterwards is enticing for those who want to see running trends over time. My husband, a recreational runner, loves his GPS – and he loves his runs even more than he would otherwise, often looking forward to jumping on the computer immediately afterwards.
The question of the value of GPS devices became a current media topic this week. Members of the Liberty Athletic Club have been sharing perspectives on them – since reading Gina Kolata’s December 16th Personal Best Column in The New York Times (the link is http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/health/nutrition/gps-watches-may-not-track-runs-accurately.html?_r=1&ref=personalbest). It touches on questions about their accuracy. Kolata points out that many of the watches are accurate, they can be frustrating to those racers who rely on them for races.
Makers of GPS devices – Garmin, Polar, Timex, Nike, etc – say people expect too much. Kolate quotes Corey Cornaccio, director of marketing at Polar as saying that all the makers “all use pretty much the same technology” and that many don’t understand that the technology is improving despite some remaining inaccuracy.
Liberty Athletic Club President Mary Harada (thank you, Mary, for pointing out the article) is one of several runners who had a recent experience with a GPS inaccuracy. (Trees, clouds, or tall buildings can interfere with the satellite signals that GPS devises rely on to track distances). She was walking from Nob Hill to Union Square in San Francisco with her GPS. “It did not get a signal until we were two blocks from Union Square,” she said, adding that she was walking in the shadow of tall buildings. “It even asked me if I were indoors!”.
Other “curve balls” for GPS systems are routes with turns. I’ve experienced times when I lost a signal running around a curve so the distance wasn’t counted (no fair).
Pam Linov, another Liberty Athletic Club member, added that her husband – a meterologist – notes that “the increase in the use of wireless devices is wrecking havoc on many atmospheric tools such as radar that are used for weather forecasting and military applications.” Conflicting data, she continues, is a challenge for our information-filled culture.
Pam added a “retro” note: “Maybe we need to go back to those days when we got in the car and drove the roads of a running route to see how far it is?”
But my husband, like many techno-inspired runners, will still be using his GPS. It makes his runs more fun in the moment, and afterwards – and much of the time, it’s accurate enough for him……
December 18, 2011
Two-time First Team All-American Boston College runner Caroline King is an example of grit – a state of mind that psychologist Dr. Peter Doskoch equates with tenacity and perseverance. Doskoch distinguishes grit from self-discipline, however, arguing that self-discipline implies the ability to refrain from doing something (to stop drinking, overeating, etc.) while grit refers to the ability to keep doing something. (“The Winning Edge”, Psychology Today, Nov/Dec 2005).
Caroline, whose main events are the 800, 1500, and mile, experienced success during all four years competing for BC. As a senior, she was named All-American in cross country and All-American in the mile. She was Honorable Mention outdoor 800 meter All American. Her personal records are 2:04.79 for the 800 meter, 4:17.48 for the 1500, 4:37.04 for the mile, and 17:14 for the 5k. She improved every year, from freshman to senior year.
This year she got injured. She incurred a partial tear in her patella tendon (patella tendinopathy/tendonitis) and also experienced “tracking issues” in her knee, where the kneecap shifts out of place as the leg bends or straightens.
“I haven’t run in almost four months. When this initially started I never thought in a million years I would be out for this long,” she said.
“In the beginning I was aqua jogging every day for an hour but I was told that I had to stop aqua jogging because they were nervous it was preventing any healing. So from there I started the arm bike for an hour each day or I swam laps with a pull buoy.”
The arm bike?
Try it – it’s ex-treme-ly challenging for a runner or any athlete.
“It was the most frustrating thing when I was told I couldn’t use my legs to cross train,” said Caroline. “I’ve slowly introduced the elliptical but I’ve been on it every other day for over a week and I’ve only gotten up to 25 minutes so I mix that with swimming laps or the arm bike. I cross train six days a week and take off Saturday or Sunday.”
Her improving trend from freshman to senior year indicate the obvious: her times can still improve. She has grit – not just physically, but also mentally.
“I stay positive by thinking about past accomplishments and how I had to work through adversity to reach those too (stress fractures, sickness, etc.) This is by far the most frustrating thing I have had to deal om but I think it’s taught me to truly appreciate running.
“I know I won’t take it for granted. I try not to dwell on the fact that I haven’t run in almost four months and try to focus on getting the best workout I can on that given day whether it be in the pool or on the arm bike. If I can be back fully training for outdoor track my goal is to make it to NCAAs again.
“After college I would like to continue running because I have set goals for myself in this sport that I have yet to reach. This year has put things into perspective and has showed me how much I truly enjoy the sport. If my knee can heal properly I would like pursue my goals next year.”
Knowing that Caroline King has spent an hour on the arm bike may motivate you to cross train during your injuries. Any cross training – aqua running, swimming, biking, rowing – is easier for a runner (or anyone?) than the arm bike.
December 17, 2011
My club, Team Red Lizard, had a banner day at the 2011 Club National Cross Country Championships last weekend and I’d love to tell you about it.
I have belonged to the same running club for almost 15 years now and there are a lot of things that I love about it. However, one thing that has bothered me is the inability of our members to commit to traveling to out of town championship races.
Sure we get plenty of people going to run the Boston marathon each year, but we can never get much of a showing at any USATF events, even though we have several runners who can compete at that level. Finally, this year we managed to get six teams to run at club nationals. But it wasn’t always easy.
It was my job to lead our contingent of master’s women. I knew that it was important to start early and to be persistent, but not annoying, if I was going to ensure that we got the best teams possible to the starting line. One of the most important momentum builders was to establish success during the fall, and we did so at the Oregon Association meet in October. http://blog.women-running-together.com/?p=3362
In the end we wound up with eight master’s women on two teams. Our W40 team consisted of Kate Mactavish, Wendy Terris, Christy Runde, and Julie (Julz) Thomas. The W50 team would be Jenny Teppo, Betsy Seth, Jeanette (Jeannie) Groesz and me.
As the race drew close and other teams had entered, I did my best to determine where our teams stood in relation to the competition. I had our W40 team finishing in 2nd place and our W50 team in 5th, but with a real shot of finishing as high as third. In my mind, I had placed our cross town rivals, the Bowerman Athletic Club (BAC) 4th, but I knew the two teams were close. It looked like it was going to be a very interesting and competitive race
Jenny, Betsy and I drove up to Seattle together Friday along with Susan Barth who was running in the open race for a team called Run Portland. When we got to town, we jogged the course, and I got to say hi to several other women that I knew as we completed our tour and a few strides. We then drove to the race hotel in downtown Seattle.
As we were checking into our rooms, I heard a voice at the front of the line to my right say “checking in for Thane”. I looked over and sure enough Mary Thane was at the head of the line. I remember Mary very well from the 2008 Master’s track meet in Spokane, where I watched her outkick Carmen Troncoso and Nancy Tinari to win the W45 1500 meter race, while I warmed down from my earlier heat. Mary runs for the Mountain West Track Club and they figured to be one of the teams challenging our W40 team.
I asked innocently enough “are you gals from Missoula?”, even though I knew the answer. After replying in the affirmative, Mary asked where we were from and which team we were with. When I told her our club name, her team mate Jenny Newton, who was standing right behind Mary, replied “oh you guys are fast”. Jenny is a standout 5K runner and I figured she would be their team leader at this race.
She is also an engineer, and like me, an analytical thinker. Both of us had taken the time to check out our competition online and it was nice to be recognized by the opposition. My retort of “well so are you” let them know, that I knew too, who we were racing.
After check in, we all wound up in the same elevator. I turned to them and said, “Mary, Jenny” and looking at the third member of team said “and ….” Jennifer was the reply from Jennifer Burke. They then asked our names. We talked briefly and said goodbye at their floor. It would not be the last time we spoke.
We dropped our bags in our room and then went down to registration. I was standing beside Rich Castro of the Boulder road runners, and we chatted for a bit. While at registration, I also got a chance to talk to two of the three members of the BAC W50 team. I had wanted to speak to Liz McCullough for quite some time and I finally did. Deeann Dougherty was with Liz, and she and I have known each other for 20 years. Liz said that she had picked us to beat them, and I responded that I thought they would finish in front, but we agreed that it was going to be close.
Our master’s men were also at registration and they had been having issues all week. Guys were dropping off of the teams due to injuries and they were working on replacements. It wasn’t until 4:55 that they finally got their team roster settled, but it did appear that they would manage to get both M40 and M50 teams to the starting line.
We had dinner with some of our master’s men. Kate and her dad Cameron joined us. Kate had obviously told her dad that I was a physicist. Cameron lives in New Mexico which is home to the famous physics community of Los Alamos. Cameron was clearly well read, and he peppered me with lots of physics questions.
After dinner, we decided to attend the technical meeting and I had a chance to speak to Linda Barnhart and Will Lundgren of Team Nebraska. By this time my team mates were probably getting tired of me spending time with every other runner on the planet, but the chance to socialize with all these other great runners doesn’t happen very often.
I got back to my room shortly before my roommates Julz and Christy showed up. They had worked Friday and drove up afterwards with Jeannie. We talked for a while and then hit the hay early. The next morning I drove with Julz, Christy and Jeannie to the race and helped get their numbers, since they hadn’t done so the night before.
During our warm up, I spent time running with Mo Bartley of the Impalas and Lynne O’Donnell of BAC and got caught up with them. Mo’s Impala W50 team looked impressive on paper and she commented that there was no pressure on her to perform, since her team mates were just so darn fast. Once again it struck me that it was pretty cool that many of us were taking the opportunity to include our rivals in our routines.
All too soon, we were standing at the starting line. It was wonderful to see so many runners at the start, and I knew that this race was going to be incredibly competitive.
The Tamalpa 50 team was just two boxes to our left and I had figured them for third. But little did I know that their star, Christine Kennedy, would not be running, leaving us to fight for third place with BAC.
The gun went off and we all started out on the three lap trek around Jefferson Golf course. The course was pretty flat and two weeks of dry weather had left the ground as solid and mud free as one could possibly expect in December in the northwest. At about the one kilometer mark I caught Deeann, who was the third runner for the BAC 50 women. I figured that I needed to beat her since I knew that Betsy, our 2nd place runner, would finish behind their 2nd runner Audrey O’Brien and that Jenny Teppo and Liz McCullough would be pretty close.
So after I passed Deeann, I did my best to put some distance between the two of us. However, she had other ideas. She stuck close to me the whole race. Although I never turned around to look, I could hear her BAC teammates cheering for her the whole time. In the end she finished 7 seconds behind me and there was only one fifty year old between us. Deeann and I walked away from the finish and compared our races. I didn’t think I had done enough for the team, but I couldn’t help it now.
We jogged back to the starting line to get our warm ups on and our spikes off. Kathy Martin had placed her gear in our team pile and I joked to her that this meant she needed to officially join our club next year. Jenny had run a superb race beating all of the top fifty year old women save Carmen, and this gave me some hope.
Once we got warm clothes on, we started to jog back to the spot where they were posting the results. As we did so, the announcer called out the W40 medal winning teams. We had finished a well beaten second to Club Northwest (CNW) but also well up on the Mountain West gals in third. A couple of minutes later they announced the W50 medalists, and amazingly enough we were third. Betsey, Jenny and I screamed and jumped up and down, hugging each other, and acting like teenage girls. In the end, we had beaten BAC 45 to 54. The Impalas had won yet another W50 crown and CNW was second.
We spent the rest of the day jogging the course and cheering for our club mates and other friends in the races which would follow. Somewhere in the course of the day, Christy was adopted by the Atlanta Track Club. We showered and changed and got ready for the awards and the evening.
For me at least, the highlight of the awards ceremony was the rousing reception given to Libby James. She had run 29:11 at age 75, a time which was truly hard to fathom.
I thought it was great that, with all of the big stars in the room, this “little old lady” had become the biggest star of all, at least for one night. In addition to our team medals, Jenny and Jeannie had both won individual medals, making 10 medals for our 8 women.
It was also great to see Mo win the W55 title as I am very fond of her.
As we were leaving the awards, we spotted the Mountain West gals once again. Betsy, Jenny and I were going out to dinner and we asked them to join us. Susan Barth and two of her teammates came along too. When we walked into the restaurant, the hostess looked at us and declared “you gals must be in town for the cross country races”. I was impressed that she even knew about the meet and that she had spotted us as runners.
We got a large table in a private alcove and it was heart warming how well 9 women from three different teams and three different decades hit it off. We talked of running and life and found a lot of common ground. There were at least two unlikely coincidences. Incredibly enough, Jennifer Burke and Jenny Teppo both have children who have survived pediatric cancer. The Mountain West club also has an openly transgender member. Other than the race itself, the dinner was the highlight of my weekend.
Hopefully, we will be seeing more of the women from Missoula.
When I got back to the hotel, I checked out the dance that was still going strong. Julz and Christy were in the middle of an evening that would last until 2 AM and were happy to have me join them for while. I danced and flirted a little but perhaps the best part was getting to talk to Christine Reaser for the first time. When I told her my name, she said “oh yeah you’re the gal who puts on that 3000 meter, race, right.” It’s nice that people remember me for stuff like that.
The next morning Betsy, Susan, Jenny and I went for an easy run and had brunch with Jenny’s daughter Annika, who is a student at the University of Washington. Jenny then drove home while I napped in the back, dreaming no doubt, of future cross country outings.
I had the chance to hear Dr. David Myers speak the other month about what makes people happy. His research demonstrates that we cannot tell a person’s happiness from their gender, age, race, nationality, and wealth. Myers stated that humans are resilient creatures. People who have an accident and become severely disabled are initially devastated but eventually adapt and report happiness. Conversely, people who win the lottery are euphoric at first but adapt and then no longer report being happier than others.
Myers explained that happy people share some of the following traits; high self-esteem, personal control, optimistic outlook, extraversion, have social support, and are religious. Myers also offered the following advice to feel better, exercise more, get adequate rest, make your close relationships a priority, and try not to ruminate.
December 13, 2011
The 2011 Club National Cross country race was held on Saturday 10th December at Jefferson park golf course in Seattle Washington and the women’s master’s race was a major breakthrough both for the country and for my club. Would you care to read about it?
I first ran in the master’s women’s section of the Club National cross country meet in 2007 and while I enjoyed personal success, I was somewhat disappointed in the level of competition. Only 51 old ladies finished that year, and the race was a poor second cousin to the three races that followed, i.e. master’s men and open women and men.
Since then the race has steadily grown in both size and stature and this year 152 women finished the race, up from the previous record of 106 in 2010. In 2007 there were two teams in the 50 plus (W50) team competition, while this year there was 12 teams. The W60 category had a record three teams and there was one W70 team. And with increasing numbers, came higher levels of competition.
As an example the Atlanta track club and the Greater Lowell Road Runners finished first and second in the W50 category last year and were 8th and 7th this year. The Impala women had never been beaten in the W60 competition until this year when they finished third and last.
However some things remained the same. The Club northwest women (CNW) won the W40 team competition for the 4th straight year and their utter domination of that category shows no signs of abatement. Similarly, the Impala women won their 4th W50 title in 5 years (they didn’t go to the meet last year) and looked equally formidable.
There were also some very strong individual performances. Chris Kimbrough was the overall winner as she broke late from a pack of the four that included runner up Gwen Lapham of CNW, Tania Fischer of The Jane’s Elite and Tamalpa runner Valerie Young. Sixty year old Kathy Martin was her usual dominant self beating most of the forty year old women, while Carmen Troncoso finished fifth overall at age 52.
But the breakout rock star award had to go to 75 year Libby James of the Boulder Road runners. She ran an astounding time of 29:11 which age graded to 100.4 % and relegated Kathy and Carmen to also ran status in the age graded division. Libby was part of a wave of older runners from her club who dominated their peers. Boulder Road runners easily won the W60 team award and had the only W70 team.
However, the best performance of the day by an older woman actually came later in the day when 50 year old Linda Summers Smith finished 8th in the open women’s race with a jaw dropping 20:27 which would have won the master’s race by almost two minutes.
The old ladies race was also a breakthrough for my club Team Red lizard. Although we have some strong runners among our master’s women and finished third in the W50 competition in 2008, we are not a household name. In fact the announcer called us Team Red until the race was over. However, I hope we gained some respect this year.
Our W40 team finished 2nd to the mighty CNW squad and our W50 women were 3rd. We had standout individual performances from Jenny Teppo who was 2nd to Carmen in the W50 group, Jeannie Groesz in third place in the W60 and Kate MacTavish who was our first runner to finish, fourth in the W45 category and 9th overall.
I will be writing more about our team and my weekend soon but this report will have to do for now.
December 10, 2011
Who We Are
The 2011 National Runners Survey and Running USA have just released some interesting statistics on who we women runners are: our motivations, our running habits, and the race distances we prefer…..
According to the survey, what motivates us?
22.4% began for exercise
13.6% began for weight reasons
9.3% began just for a challenge
11.3% competed in school and stuck with it
78.8% run to stay in shape
74.2% run to maintain health
64.4% run for stress relief
62% run for fun
And how much do we run?
Most of us run 4 days a week
70.4% run 4 plus hours a week
We run an average of 21.9 miles a week
We race in an average of 7.2 events each year
77.7% of us run every month
Most of us have been running for 9.9 years.
And what race events do we choose?
.9% prefer to run less than 3 miles
21.2% prefer 5ks
15.4% prefer 10ks
39% prefer half-marathons
10.2% percent marathons
Any thoughts on why the half marathon is still the favorite race distance?
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