Strength Training for Runners: Galen Rupp Style

Check out this video on Flotrack if you are looking for new ideas for strength training exercises designed specifially for runners!

Respibelt- Dumbell for the Breathing Muscles

Yet another training tool used by Alberto Salazar trained runners has surfaced called the Respibelt, a gadget reportedly successful in enhancing the strength of breathing muscles. "The innovative device fits around the lower chest and ribcage to provide a training load to the breathing muscles as the chest expands during breathing"

Steve Magness Hired by NIKE

Steve Magness, who ran 4:01 for the mile as a high school senior, probably dreamed of getting a NIKE contract one day. But never in his wildest dreams did he expect to get one as an employee, and not a runner.

Magness, who has a degree in Exercise Science, maintains a Science of Running blog and occasionally publishes in Running Times, received an unexpected phone call from Alberto Salazar, who just happened to need an assistant and liked what he'd seen from Magness. “I’ll tell (Magness) this is what I’m doing, and he can look at it and give me the scientific basis for it,” Salazar said.

Magness will also be assigned with tracking the daily data from the runners in Salazar’s group and analyzing every aspect of training, diet, sleep, etc.

And he can also be where Salazar isn’t, so that when athletes fly in different directions for races fewer of those trips will be made alone.

So before he knew it, Magness was on a plane accompanying NIKE runner Galen Rupp to Germany. -trackfocus.com


MY COMMENT: I think this is a good investment by NIKE, and probably cheaper than the Cyrotherapy Space Cabin they purchased last fall. In case you didn't know, Salazar has cardiac disease, high blood pressure, and who knows what else going on, so Magness can take some of the pressure off during peak racing season.

Salazar is Good for the Sport

Alberto Salazar, coach of the Nike Oregon Project, has raised a few eyebrows lately with his much publicized tweeking of Dathan Ritzenhein's running form. Now, even National Public Radio is getting into the act- airing this facinating discussion on the subject featuring viewpoints from Jennifer Kahn (who wrote New Yorker piece The Perfect Stride), Scott Douglas, and Bill Rodgers. Hey, the more national exposure for runners, the better. Maybe one day when an American track and field athlete or distance runner sets a record or wins a major race they will make ESPNs Sports Center!

Listen to the discussion: onpointradio.org

Distance Running Tip- Workouts Faster than Race Pace

I always say, it's very simple, if you want to run this pace in the marathon or the 10k or the 5k, you can't just come from the top down where you just try to do stronger stuff. It's like trying to say, I want to run 26 miles at 5-minute pace, so I'm just going to keep running 30 miles a day at 6-minute pace, then 5:50, then 5:40, 5:30, you know, from the top down. I'm just going to get so strong doing all these pace runs closer and closer to marathon pace, or maybe a little faster than marathon pace or 5k pace. The key is sometimes you've got to attack from the bottom, and do stuff so much frickin' faster that that pace is a jog, and so it costs you less energy. -sportsillustrated.com interview with Alberto Salazar

MY COMMENT: The key of course, how often, how fast, and how long. Just my opinion, but once you've got the endurance, one workout a week should be dedicated to running intervals or tempo faster than your planned race pace. For the marathon, this probably means 800 meter repeats or longer. And for me, the upper limit is 5 miles.

How to Run Fast

This article is a MUST READ! The Perfect Stride, published in the New Yorker, has me thinking.

The fastest finishers had a higher thigh drive, for one thing; at its apex, their femur bone was almost parallel to the ground, like the front legs of a bounding deer. They also slapped the ground so quickly with their forefoot that the contact seemed almost incidental

Salazar believes that a runner striking even slightly in front of his body will experience a momentary hesitation while the hamstring labors to pull his torso forward over the grounded foot. “It’s like having a square wheel on your car,” Salazar said. “Each time it comes around, there’s a moment where the car will lurch.”