WELCOME AND ORIENTATION MESSAGE

Welcome everyone to RunVentura’s inaugural gathering to kick off the Spring Marathon Training Program. For the next 26 weeks, with several exceptions that will be announced at the appropriate times, we will meet here next to the Inside Track running store at 7:30 AM, rain or shine. I thank everyone for joining RunVentura and Inside Track Running Club. We will strive to become, if we are not already, the happiest and smiliest running/walking club in all of Ventura County and beyond.

Our spring marathon target races are the Los Angeles Marathon and the Napa Valley Marathon, both occurring on March 1, 2009. In addition to these target races, we will also participate in 5K, 10K and half marathon races, as appropriate, to obtain valuable racing experience.

We have a web site, www.RunVentura.com, where you will be able to download our spring marathon training schedule and other important information and post messages.

OUR RUNNING ROUTINE

If you examine the training schedule, you will see that our training days, in addition to Saturdays, include Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The first seven weeks will basically consist of all “easy run” days where we slowly build up our mileage to develop our base endurance. However, as our training progresses beyond the 7th week, Sundays and Wednesdays will be treated as recovery days and Tuesdays and Thursdays will be hard workout days. The Monday and Friday rest days are important to allow the body to recover and become stronger in order to run the “tomorrows” that will follow.

We have two courses that we will run on Saturdays: the Coastal Bike Path starts at the foot of the Main Street bridge over the Ventura River and continues North (actually West) to Hobson Beach Park and beyond; the Ojai Bike path starts at Olive Street across from Mission Plaza and continues North to Foster park and beyond. Both courses are marked every mile with orange “smilie” symbols.

SATURDAY RUNS. Saturday runs are designed to develop endurance and will be performed as “Long, Slow, Distance,” or LSD, runs. This is an adoption of the Lydiard (Coach Arthur Lydiard) Method of marathon training.

To avoid or minimize injury, we will start with short distances and progress to longer distances, very conservatively, over our 26 week training period. Your Saturday training pace will be held to 15 to 30 seconds slower than your desired marathon racing pace, with some exceptions such as on certain Saturdays when we perform tempo and marathon pace training runs.

TUESDAY SPEED AND HILL WORKOUTS. After several weeks of building Base Endurance with the Saturday long runs, we will begin Speed and Hill Workouts on alternating Tuesdays. Speed Workouts include Interval Training, which are often performed on a track but can be run on a flat road with minimum traffic, and Fartleks, which are usually run on roads. Hill Workouts, as the name implies, requires one or more hills, thus are run on hilly roads or in parks. Speed workouts train you to increase your leg turnover and speed, while hill workouts help to develop leg strength. Hill workouts are essential if the course of your target race includes hills.

Both types of workouts are strenuous so I suggest that you don’t perform both on the same week but that you perform them on alternating Tuesdays.

NET RESULT. After performing the Long runs for endurance, the Speed workouts for speed and the Hill workouts for strength, you will combine the three factors at your target marathon race to run the 26.2 miles at a stronger and faster pace than you did in training.

HYDRATION AND NUTRITION PRIOR TO TRAINING. You should make it a self required habit that you eat a light breakfast (a slice of toast or a bagel with coffee or tea) and drink sufficient liquids (16 oz of water or Gatorade) at least an hour before running. You should also make it a point to eat soon (within an hour) after returning from your run to replace your depleted glycogen supply. This will become especially important as we increase our Saturday mileage. We will have a limited supply of post-run water, Gatorade, bananas and bagels available for our members so you can begin the replenishment process immediately after the run.

ADAPTATIONS OF EXERCISE

One of the major factors that forces hopeful marathoners to drop out of a marathon training program and to cancel or postpone their marathon racing plans is injury. The word “INJURY” is a dreaded word for all athletes. One of my goals as Director of RunVentura is to reduce and minimize over-training injuries, many of which result from running too long, too fast, too soon.

As you run, with every foot strike your heel is subjected to a force of 2 to 3 times your body weight. And this pounding is continued for over 900 times per mile. This weighty torment is shared by your entire body as the force travels up your ankle, foot bones and joints, hips and to the rest of your body. And you wonder why marathoners feel so “beat-up” after running 26.2 miles!

All of your body’s systems need to work together to make you a successful long distance runner or walker, and developing your body’s systems to make you that successful runner or walker is a long, slow process. It takes weeks of slowly and progressively increasing the workload to enable your body to become capable of carrying your body over 26.2 miles without breaking down.

These are some of the adaptive changes that you will develop over the next several months:

BONES: Your bones will increase its density to withstand the increased heavy pounding with every foot fall and increased pulling forces by the tendons and muscles.

MUSCLES: Your muscles will increase its capacity to do work by increasing the number of fibers and the efficiency of each fiber, and by increasing the sizes and number of mitochondria, which provide the energy by which the muscles work.

TENDONS & LIGAMENTS: These will increase their strength to hold muscles to bones and bones to bones at joints.

LUNGS: Your lungs will increase their capacity and efficiency in performing gas exchange.

HEART: Your heart will improve its capacity to pump more blood with every heartbeat. This will result in a lowered resting heartbeat rate from 72 (average non-athlete) to the low 50s.

BLOOD: Your hemoglobin and Red Blood Cell count will increase, enabling your blood to transport more oxygen to your body, including your working muscles.

BLOOD VESSELS: The number of capillaries servicing your muscles will increase to deliver more blood with its oxygen, water and food supply to your working muscles and to remove wastes that the muscles produce. Also your subcutaneous blood vessels and capillaries will increase to deliver more blood, more efficiently to your skin. This will enable heat to be dissipated from your body via your skin faster and more efficiently. You will notice your skin, especially on your hands and face, turning warm and red as soon as you begin activity.

SWEAT GLANDS: Your sweat glands will increase in number and efficiency to produce sweat quickly and profusely as soon as your body temperature increases with activity. To enable your sweat glands to function properly, you must have adequate water in your body, therefore proper hydration is important. Also I highly recommend against using antiperspirants before running. Perfumes and colognes are ok, so long as they are not too offensive to your fellow participants.

RECOMMENDED PERSONAL GEAR

We highly recommend that each member wear or carry the following personal gear during every Saturday outing:
Comfortable, non-cotton running shorts, top, undergarment and socks.
Quality running shoes or walking shoes.
Sunglasses and sunscreen
Cap or visor.
Chrono-watch.
ID tag or card with medical and emergency information.
Hydration pack (waist or backpack types) or water bottle with waist belt.
Appropriate outer wear for protection against inclement weather.

FINAL WORDS

In keeping with our club’s philosophy of “Running Green,” we will not provide disposable cups at the water stations. Water and Gatorade will be available in gallon containers so you will be able to refill your own water bottles or hydration packs.


Finally, at the meeting site where the post-run goodies are provided, I will have three containers: one for banana peels and other fruit and vegetable matter that I will deposit in my home compost pile; a second for recyclable plastic cups and jugs and aluminum foil that I will deposit in my recycle bin; and a third for (ugh!) trash-trash that I will place in my trash bin and will eventually clog our land fill. These containers will be properly identified. I ask that you do your part for our California, USA and World by supporting my tiny effort in this regard.

George S. Arita
Director
RunVentura