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Show 6 Tuesday, September 2,2008 OUTDOORS www.dailyutahchronicle.com Getting your marathon on Tony Pizza SPORTS EDITOR If you go by the book, training for a marathon should ideally begin one year before the race date. That's enough time to fully engage your body into a process that is potentially bad for your knees, hips, shins and feet if your body hasn't been given enough time to properly acclimate itself to running all those miles. With enough dedication and an average starting place fitness-wise, seven to eight months is enough time to extend one's limits to 26.2 continuous miles. The first thing to consider when training for a marathon is losing weight. Whether thinking about miles-per-gallon or distance running ability, weight factored in with engine size is a good way to estimate fuel economy. Simply put, you're going to get better miles per gallon in an empty streamlined Camero than a fullyloaded truck. Same goes for people. With all things being equal, if someone's body «» mass ^ — index is at 28 (considered overweight) as opposed to 21 or 22 (normal), he or she is going to run slower and less efficiently. This reasoning suggests that losing weight won't just help you look better in a swimsuit, but help your muscles and heart be happier with you throughout the process. L_ Setting the goal of losing one to two pounds per week is considered safe by both the American Diabetic Association and American Obesity Association. If you were starting to train for the Salt Lake City marathon April 18, you'd have 33 weeks to safely and realistically lose 20 to 40 pounds by race day. Losing that kind of weight can have dramatic effects on run times and distances. It also lowers the risk for cardiac problems and stress on joints in the lower torso and legs. To safely lose one pound of fat per week, dieticians recommend cutting 3500 calories per week or 500 per day—that's without exercising. If you'd rather die than give up Big Macs, cardiovascular exercise that keeps your heart rate at about 70 percent of your maximum heart beat threshold (your age subtracted from 220 beats per minute) puts you in ideal fat burning mode. Thirty minutes of cardio at that pace each day, or less if supplemented by a good diet, is literally all it takes to lose a pound of fat a week. If you're training for a marathon, 3 0 m 1n utes or more of running can easily allow a collegeage person to hit 140 beats per minute three or four times per week. Starting to adapt to the rigors of a marathon at least 33 weeks out allows a person to increase his or her distances at a rapid, but obtainable pace. It also allows one to hit and pass through ...... the inevitable ' • progress walls '" without getting off track, even if starting out with one mile. The best way to set up a running plan is to plan on typical wall distances. Think of these as little plateaus that one must conquer in order to press his or her body on. Three- andfive-miledistances seem to be natural early walls for beginning runners. Planning a schedule that allows for a few more weeks of feeling comfortable at this distance is not only smart but effective. Even if you have to sacrifice extending your mile intervals beyond a one-mile-perweek increase, anticipating walls will keep your body from stressing out and allow your muscles to catch up with your goals. runner in ideal condition. As one last tip, if you want any chance of running for the next three days after a leg workout, then stretching for at least 20 minutes after each leg session will help decrease recovery time. But plan on having your legs tell you "no" while your mind tells you "yes" when it's time to hit the pavement for at least the first two weeks. t.pizza@ chronicle. utah.edu Perhaps the most crucial component of the early part of marathon training is to lift weights with your legs. Building strong hamstrings and quadriceps is key to preventing knee, foot and leg injuries that are caused by the stresses of running. A workout plan that includes five basic leg exercises is a smart way to decrease the risk of injury. Squats and leg presses on a weighted sled are both great ways to hit the larger muscle groups in one exercise. Leg extentions and leg curls on machines are a good way for focused muscle group work and can be combined in tandem, better known as a superset, for added benefit. Mixing in any variety of the lunge exercise group with some sort of calf exercise is all one needs to get the moving parts of a distance Start out on the right foot Tony Pizza SPORTS EDITOR When training for a marathon, everything is literally riding on your legs and feet. Barring a step in a pothole or rolling an ankle on an uneven curb, the feet are the easiest way to prevent tendinitis and other overuse injuries. Finding the right shoe to match your foot is critical. Like fingerprints, foot size and contour vary from person to person. These variances determine a person's walking and running style. Basically, the area that foot experts look at is the arch, which determines foot pronation. Pronation is the rolling motion of the foot from heel to toe when walking or running. Variances in pronation Ah ideal running shoe is going to cost you upwards of $150. But who are we kidding? We're college students and who can afford to spend oh that on a shoe? But if you're serious about running correctly, you can't make too many concessions. Here's a shoe in that price range from each of the companies that specialize specifically In running shoes. dictate different weight distributions, which can lead to injury if they stray too far from normal. Underpronation is when the majority of the body weight of each step is absorbed by the outside of the foot as opposed to being distributed equally between the outside of the heel and the center of the ball of the foot. Overpronation is exactly the opposite and happens when the weight is more on the inside of the foot. With either variance from neutral pronation, the knee will tend to try to balance things out, causing stress and even kneecap slippage in one way or the other. Someone with a low arch will tend to overpronate his feet, which can cause the kneecap to slant inward and roll over the thigh. This leads to tendinitis, overstretching ligaments, miniscus tears or even complete knee cap dislocation. Someone with a high arch can be susceptible to underpronation, but that isn't always the case. Finding out what foot type you are is simple, and you've probably already done it without even realizing it. Step into a wet puddle barefoot and let the foot dry so it's no longer dripping water. Next, take a step on dry cement. If the entire foot is imprinted on the sidewalk, you're a low arch overpronator. If there is a very thin strip connecting your heal to the ball of your foot then you have ahigharch and are likely a underpronator. Anywhere in between and you fall closer to the neutral foot type. So how is this helpful when training for a marathon? When selecting a quality training shoe—which you should if you're serious about training without injury—you should know what kind of shoe will counterbalance your foot type. If you overpronate when you walk, you're going ;! to want a straighter "'X'' shoe from toe to the '..<--' ball of your foot. The -"- -••• ' more your foot underpronates, the more you want your shoe to assist in that category—so a more curved shoe is the way to go. If you'd like to take all the guesswork out of things and have an expert help you with the right type of shoe, Runner's Advantage in Foothill Plaza is a nearby spot to have your foot type evaluated. t.pizza@ chronicle.utah.edu Find the right shoe for your budget EtonicJepara2 Cost: $100 Upside: New model has increased snuggnessonthetopof the foot . Downside: Wider and some reviewers said it had a clunky feel. Brooks Adrenaline New Balance 768 , ,v : f. v GST 8 <4>*; Cost: $95 Cost: $95 <V-S Upside: Increased Upside: Desigriea1 flexibility and stabilto better distribute ity with new design. Downside: Cushionweight, light. Bonus: Can double ing was a problem for as a suitable cross- some wearers. trainer. / Asks Gel-3000 Cost: $115 $ ^ Upside: Wide aricT foam-fit feel. Downside: On the heavier side at 13oz. Surpassing the 1-month hump Finding my inspiration I've been told it more than ioo times. Whether its been a coach or my own mind, TONY I'm well aware PIZZA that, "The first month is always the hardest." I'm nearly to the one-month mark and I'm a little disappointed with the distance progress that I've made thus far. After living on a diet that consisted of mostly fast food and junk food for the past year, I've made some strides in that department. I rarely eat fast food anymore and I can hardly remember what most candy, chips or pastries taste like. Being a college student that averages five hours of sleep, I haven*t been able to ditch soda completely, but I keep it to about one per day for survival. I've lost almost eight pounds in a month because of my efforts, which is encouraging. But if the goal to run the Salt Lake City Marathon on April 19, 2009 was just about losing weight, I'd be less concerned. I have every intention of running this thing in under four hours and the time I have left to get serious about putting miles in the training log is rapidly coming to an end. Just 33 weeks stand between me and a date with the circumference of Utah's capital city. Starting school definitely hasn't been workout conducive, nor has a job that requires more of my time than a newborn baby. As my former drill instructor would say, "Pizza, excuses are like a*******, everyone's got one and they all stink." I now agree. A better excuse that I've been trying on for size is my pending marriage resolution, which is just a fancy way of saying the big D-word. Some days I'm cool. Some days I feel like crying. Some days I feel like moving to Australia and kissing my old life goodbye. It hasn't been easy all the time, but the times I find myself making it to the gym and getting out some aggression have been better than the days I don't. Strangely enough, running has been my ultimate nemesis because frankly, all there is to do is think. I hate to sound typical, but I've had to draw upon inspirational cliches to motivate me. I recently read about a guy who does the swimming leg of a three-person triathlon without having the luxury of arms or legs from birth. His name is Craig Dietz and he motivates me. 'Then there is local snowboarding and wakeboarding extraordinaire, Nicole Roundy. This girl had her knee amputated at age eight after being diagnosed with Osteogenic Sarcoma. Ever since, she's been trying, with impressive success, to revolutionize ampu- -*-• tee extreme sports. When I wrote a story on her for The Salt Lake Tribune last year, it inspired me. When I found the story in the bottom of a box, I posted it on my bulletin board and I often think back to it. The Olympics were another huge source of inspiration. Watching a man run a marathon at a 5-minute-mile pace was amazing. Watching some of the best athletes in the world perform under extreme pressure still gets me excited. Watching some of the best athletes in the world fail under those same situations keeps me grounded in the fact that nobody is perfect—not even Michael Phelps—and having two bad weeks of training just means you have to have two good weeks to make up for it. I also have recently come to this realization: While shooting for the moon can help you . land on a star, shooting for the next galaxy .'•. • •••'• '• •'.,-. can be dejecting when you're not even in ;V f ' ' the same ballpark. Essentially, trying to A'"-,1.-' •- V'i*'. train for a marathon and become Jean-"*£ I; rV^', ,; -\ • Claude Van Damme in seven months .'/'., ',••: ty-'• isn't going to happen and I need to •'--rtake things one goal at a time. Running a marathon is my physical goal right now. If I can manage to get in decent marathon shape, then I will have provided myself with a great base for some of the other fitness goals that I have down the road. By trying to do too much, I'm mentally wearing myself out before the game gets started. Hitting the point where training no longer becomes a chore, but a necessity to release the proper endorphines is my most immediate goal. Most people don't ever intentionally strive to become an addict. I do. I've been a workout addict before and I've never felt so naturally happy in all my life. It's something that takes work, though. It takes making it a priority above almost anything else and that's what is key to remember when the day after a workout comes. It's when you're body is yelling at you and cursing you for what you did to it yesterday, and your mind is telling the body, "Just a few more weeks and everything will come together." My favorite Marine Corps slogan was "Pain is weakness leaving the body." Pain is leaving my body in many forms right now, but I'm happy to be on a path that will at least take me somewhere. No matter if that somewhere is along the lines of a soul search or simply around the outskirts of my hometown. t.pizza@chronicle.utah.edu Editor's Note—Tony Pizza has been training for the 2009 Salt Lake City Marathon since Aug. 8,2008. His columns tracking his progress regularly appear in the Outdoor and Sports sections. You can track Tony's frequently updated marathon blog at www.pizzasdeliveries.com. CONTACTT.PIZZA@CHRONICLE.UTAH.EDU TO WRITE FOR OUTDOORS. M |
