Route for Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 7am at Memorial Park Sugar Land

Hey everyone! I am going to be super brief because I am out on vacation in Puerto Rico!!! Well, Annette Rewa is going to bring water and Gatorade to this Saturday's practice since I am out. So we need to fit in 5 miles this week. We are going to to 2 Lake Loops + 1 Connector Trail back and forth + 2 Lake Loops. That should be 5.4 miles. Hope you are doing great and for those of you with kids going to school, hope you are ready for a new school year!

Let's beatSMA for Alejandro!!!

Route for Aug. 15, 2009 at Sugar Land Memorial Park

Hello Team!!! Hope your are doing great out there and that you enjoyed some of the "cooler" weather. This week it has been a tough for me, not enough sleep. But, we can't expect everyday to be perfect. And we can't expect that every run will be a perfect run too. Nevertheless, as I tell Alejandro all the time, practice makes perfect... it will get better if you keep persevering at it!

This coming Saturday we need to do 4 miles for those of you that are doing the half marathon. So the route will be the same as last Saturday. Unless, the South Meadow Loop Trail is still under construction. If it is so, then we will run 4.4 miles by running the Connector Trail back and forth plus the Lake Loop twice (1.85 miles x 2 = 3.70 miles) and adding just the Connector Trail back and forth (0.70 miles) once more with no Lake Loop.

Reminders and Announcements:

• Write down in your calendars that Sat. September 12th we will have our Stretch and Injury Prevention Clinic by Dr. Nadeau. Please, plan to attend to this practice.
• This Saturday there will be an event at Texas Running Company, take advantage of it if you can...15% Asics apparel. Call store for details, it might be just in certain hours. For store hours and telephone click here.
  

Want to feel great when running? There is more to running than you think.

As I have promised many of you. I am going to post some tips on how to gain speed and endurance so you can feel great after a run.

There is soooo much more to running than just the "run". To become a good runner you need to consider:

• Nutrition
• Stretching
• Cross Training
• Strength Training
• Endurance Training
• Quality Training
• Rest
  

Let's see these one by one briefly...

Nutrition
I am not going to talk much about this right now because it can get long. But just try to keep a balance diet with wholesome grains and carbohydrates. Stay away from fatty foods that will slow you down. You need energy that is easily assimilated by the body. And if you are going to run for more than an hour you need to supplement while you run, after an hour of running you have depleted your reserves.

Stretching
Stretching is important to prevent injuries and stay flexible to have longer strides. The longer strides will increase your speed without wearing you out as much as trying to move your legs faster. We have talked about this topic prevously, go to my post on Stretching Tips and Basics for the basics and some useful links.

Cross Training
This is a great way to increase endurance without the impact of the road. Incorporate bicycling, swimming, elliptical machine at the gym or any other low impact cardio workout. The amount depends on your level, but one day a week, 20 to 50 minutes is good enough. The objective is to train your body to endure long periods of workout. And in this way you won't feel "dead" at the end of your run.

Strength Training
An overall weight training program to supplement your runs will help your body support itself for long distances. Strong legs will mantain long strides for more distance, a strong core will support your upper body well so your lungs can hold as much air as possible and strong arms will give you momentum. An overall workout 2 days per week is good enough. Don't over do it, you want to lift weights to be an agile runner not a body builder. Some great exercises are:

• Dumbell lunges
• Dumbell step ups and step downs (great for shins and calves)
• Leg curls with weights
• Toe raises
• Bench press
• Push ups
• All abs workout
• Lower back exercises with exercise ball

Endurance Training, Quality Training and Rest
No matter if you are a biginner runnner or experience runner you need to mix in your training different types of runs. For a seven day week, you need one long run to build endurance. One medium run that includes some quality training like intervals, tempo run, sprints or hills. This type of run will involve more effort than the other runs and you will be pushing your body to it's limits.

• Intervals are runs that alternate hard running and easy running; the time should be about the same or you can take the time of the easy interval down to half of the time of the hard interval.
• Tempo runs are runs that you keep a strong steady pace all through the run, where you need each breath to keep up with the demand.
• For the hill workout go up hill sprinting and come down hill jogging at an easy pace.

Then, have 2-3 shorter runs at a moderate pace. And finally, have 2-3 nonconsecutive days of rest to let your body regain energy and build up strength.


Try different types of combinations of runs, workouts, cardio, gym classes to incorporate some strength training, endurance training, quality training and rest. Listen to your body and work those areas that are tight or weak. And finally, don't over do it... if your long run is 6 miles that week, don't do 6 miles for a short run, if you have never done hills, don't do hills everyday of the week... you will just injure yourself instead of getting stronger.

In overall a week could look like this:
Monday - Short run at moderate pace (2 to 4 miles) and Strength Training
Tuesday - Medium run with Quality Training (3 to 6 miles)
Wedenesday - Short run at moderate or easy pace (2 to 4 miles) or Cross Training
Thursday - Short run at moderate pace (2 to 4 miles) and Strength Training
Friday - Rest, get ready for your long run
Saturday - Long run (6 to 12 miles)
Friday - Rest, get ready for the new week

Some useful links are:
Men's Health: Run for... - General advice for different type of trainings
Men's Helath: Run: Half Marathon Training - General advice for those trying to finish strong in a half
Men's Health: Run for Endurance - Tips to gain speed and endurance
Runner's World: Boost Your Endurance - Great article with many quality workout options
Runner's World: Endurance Cross-Training - Cross Training highlights

I think this is a nice overview, hope you can gain more than knowledge from it. And that you can tell me that you are running your miles faster and feeling great at the end. Peacefule run everyone!

Route for Aug. 8, 2009 at 7am, Sugar Land Memorial Park

Hey gang, this is our run for Saturday August 8, 2009. Practice starts at 7am with warm up and stretching. Our route will be starting at the Start/Finish on the map, do a Connector Trail and a South Meadow Loop and back through the Connector Trail (1.45 miles). Then do a Lake Loop (1.15 miles). And finally, do the Connector, South Meadow Loop and Connector again (1.45 miles). That's a total of 4.05 miles. See you then!

SMA Research News

This article from MDA's Quest Magazine talks about one of the research projects that they are funding. As I have mentioned, SMA research is very promising and it is likely that a cure will be found soon enough to see Alejandro walk.

It is a very short article, take a look: Masking Unwanted Instructions

We can beatSMA!

Stretching Tips and Basics

You need to stretch, you need to stretch, don't forget to stretch! It seems that we hear this all the time, but do we really listen and do it? I just saw a video where stretching is compared to the dentist and flossing. The dentist tells you to do it, you know you need to do it, but most of the time you don't do it. Until you get cavities and say... I should have flossed!

Why do we need to stretch? It is very simple. If our muscles are tight our movements are going to be straining our muscles every time we push them to their limits. This can lead to an injury. And after a muscle is injured it takes a long time for the tissue to heal. So we don't want to get to that point and say... I should have stretched!

Now, how do we stretch? While there are many types of stretching (active, static, yoga, etc.), I have found that there are some basic principles that can give you a start to a healthy stretch:

• Always warm up your body first: jumping jacks, 4-5 minutes jog, cycling, etc.
• Take your muscle to the point where you can feel it and hold it. If it is painful you are taking it too far.
• You can hold the stretch for 10-15 seconds and take the stretch a little further for another 10-15 seconds. You can also hold it for 10-30 seconds, release the muscle and contract it; and immediately repeat the stretch for another 10-30 seconds taking it a little further. This will help to gain flexibility.
• There are many stretches, try different ones along your training. But always try to incorporate stretches for all the muscle groups: toes, ankles, calves and shins, hamstring and quadriceps, gluts, abs, chest and back, shoulders, neck...
• Listen to your body and pay attention to the tight areas, give these areas priority and more quality time
• If you are running short in time: warm up, stretch your tight muscles, go for your run and at the end stretch all your body paying attention again to your tight spots.
• Make time for stretching. It is like investing for your run... you will feel better, will breathe better, will move your legs better and with longer strides. All these will improve your pace and endurance.
• If you start feeling pain: stretch, massage and put cold/hot compresses in the area. Also give your body some rest from high impact activities and try to cross train with low impact activities like cycling, swimming, yoga, pilates, etc.

For stretching exercises you can go to Runner's World or Google and search for stretching. There is ton of information and videos out there. Try as many as you like and find what works for you. Remember to pay attention to tight muscles. Here are some links I found that can get you started:

Runner's World: Stretching
Runner's World: Flexibility Training
Run the Planet: Stretching for Runners
Running Advice and News: Coach Joe English: Stretching Routine for Runners

Our Stretching and Injury Prevention Clinic will be on September 12th during our practice. Please, plan to attend this day as Dr. Ivette Nadeau from Total Chiropractic Care will talk about these and will be available for answering questions. She is Alejandro's chiropractor for 3 years now and has volunteered at Fort Bend Fit as well.

I hope this can get you started. Blessings to all and a peaceful run!

Awesome First Practice! Great Job Team!

I am soooo proud of our Team! We went out there in the hot summer weather Texas style and finished our run... some of us went face to face with a Coral Snake!

Picture License click here

Thanks to all of you who showed up in person or in spirit. The run was awesome, everyone did a great job! Our final count was 4 adults and 2 kids. For a new team, this is not good, this is great!

Next Saturday we will be out there again at Sugar Land Memorial Park at 7am. Meanwhile, remember to go and get active from Monday to Thursday, leave Friday as a rest day so you can have a nice long run on Saturday.

Also, I will be posting this week about Stretching and add the schedules for the 5k and other races on our beatSMA Calendar. I will always post the Saturday Route on Thursdays so people can go over it on Friday if they like to.

Finally, if you are not a blog reader, you can subscribe to this blog and get email updates on new posts. So you can always know what's new at beatSMA for Alejandro. Just add your email in the box indicated at the right side of this blog.

That's it for now. Let me know how are you feeling about your running and your health, post some comments... let the world know you run to be healthy, to be strong, to spend time with friends and family and to beatSMA!