Monday, September 27, 2010

RRT 100 - Run your own WWFOR!

Steve Chopper (host of the amilewith.me podcast) talks with Petra (www.petraruns.blogspot.com) and her husband Adam who are inviting UK runners to run together on their farm in Lincolnshire in 1.4mi loops.
Kris (host of the Geek Girl Runner podcast) and Jim "JayDub" (host of the B-HAG podcast) talk about their plans to run their own WWFOR in Sydney Australia!
From the chatroom, Iain (www.devoniain.blogspot.com) will be running (and more) at Ironman Hawaii in Kona for his race, and Craig McFarlane will be running the Chicago Marathon.

Its not too late to sign up for the Worldwide Festival of Races!       www.worldwidefestivalofraces.com 


In the UK we hope to join together with Steve Chopper, Adam and Petra, Mark Wheeton, Harry, Toni (www.drusy.blogspot.com), Shelia, Gary Wall (www.kinverkid.blogspot.com) and Paul (The Run Yank Run podcast). Photo is some of us running the Swift Half in May. email if you want to join the Lincolnshire Lollop this year (runnersroundtable@gmail.com)


[Click Here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 100]

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

RRT 99: Trail Running for the Urbanite

On September 22nd we discussed all things trail running for the city-dweller, including how to find urban trails, what shoes to use, trail races, when to drive to a trail and the all important, philosophical question: what is your position about running on golf courses?

Representing Los Angeles, we had Stuart from the Quadrathon blog and podcast. Amanda in Austin hosted the show, and hailing from Houston was Mark, author of the Run in America blog. Mike, host of the Westy's Running blog joined us from Minneapolis, and Chris from the RunRunLive podcast represented Boston, and many other cities that he visits. Amanda hosted, discussing Austin and Boston, and is the author of the ChemERunner Blog.

[Click Here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 99]

Friday, September 10, 2010

RRT98: Running Form (and some stuff on shoes too)

An interesting time, at least, was had by all as a panel discussed Running Form. Is there a take-away? It's not for us to say. We will say it's worth a listen.

Among the things we discussed:
  • Pete has some super slo-mo videos from Boston (the below stills are from them).
  • A study of Marine recruits on whether the type of shoes matter.
  • Mark had nice things to say about Evolution Running's video.
  • Mark also said using a techno-beat of 180 a minute helps increase the cadence; you can get it at PodRunner.com.
  • Brandon Wood had good information on Jason's site on the transition to a forefoot stride (if that's something you want to do).
On the issue of stride frequency, Steve followed up with this:

Also, I wanted to give some concrete numbers to Mark's question last night. I'm pretty sure it was Mark who asked me about the East African runner's stride frequencies. I wanted to give some concrete numbers. A runner, and now scientist, who I competed against in college sent me these results a year or so ago. He took 6 Kenyan's who ran at UTEP and measured a variety of biomechanical things at various speeds. These guys were top runners who grew up in Kenya then came over to the US for college to run, so it gives us an interesting glimpse into Kenyan running. The interesting thing with cadence measurments is that they measured it at a variety of speeds from pretty slow for them to relatively fast. When looking at the paces keep in mind that these guys are all 14min or faster 5k runners. Just to give you an idea on relative pace, the 7:40 would be a really slow jog. The 6:43= easy distance run pace, 5:58=normal distance run pace 5:22=steady, uptempo, marathon pace kind of effort. And 4:58 pace is probably right around threshold pace.
Pace per mile Avg. Cadence
7:40 175
6:43 181
5:58 185
5:22 191
4:58 196

"Distance runners and coaches seem to hate the topic of running form. Most subscribe to the idea that a runner will naturally find his best stride and that stride should not be changed." Steve Magness continues, "It’s my belief that the wide range of 'correct' ways to run has led to this apathetic attitude towards running form changes by most athletes and coaches. The argument that running is a natural movement that should not be corrected is easy to dispel."

Taking a look at Steve's series, Pete Larson put up on of his own, On Running Form. Pete took a look at some high-speed/slow-motion videos he had taken at Boston (those are the leaders in the photo) and drilled down to the $64,000 Question: What about heel-strike?

Meanwhile Jason Kehl's blog Geeks in Running Shoes (with Raymond King) got into the act, linking to Pete's blog and, in a separate entry, referred to Jeff Kline's posts about "the" proper form.

Mark U. wrote into his blog Run In America concerning the mid-foot/minimalist cause, his efforts to change his form and his improvement.

Hosted by Joe Garland. Give it a listen:

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

RRT 97: Yelling & Williams from Marathon Talk

On Episode 97, Steve Chopper and the team were joined by Martin Yelling and Tom Williams from the MarathonTalk podcast.

Martin (right), husband of 2x Olympic Marathon runner Liz, is a former British duathlon champ and is now a leading running and tri coach. Tom (below) is a an experienced marathoner and 7x ironman finisher.

Together they produce the fantastic "Marathon Talk" podcast.

The guys have also been helping the London 2012 organizers in utilizing the power of social media, blogs and podcasts in the lead-up to the Olympics, so know a thing or two about the power of podcasts when linked to athletics.

They had some interesting insights to share with the live panel of Toni, Mark U from RunInAmerica, Joe from RunWestchester, Craig, and AMileWithMe's Steve.

Joining us in the chatroom, in addition to the panelists, were Matt the DumpRunner, Danny Norman, Steve Runner, The Curio, Nigel Runner (possibly related to Steve!), Catarcher and MedScholarAdam.

There were also over 20 "guest" participants in the live chatroom as the team discussed the power of interactive new-media in creating a global running community.

[Click Here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 97]