The Ben Moore Memorial Half Marathon and 10k will be on Saturday 1 August this year, same course as last year – you know the one with Three Bears.  Save the date to run or volunteer :-0  You can register from the Bluepointtiming.com website or at:

http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1723171

Tom Nelson, Myles report PR’s at Cherry Blossom 10 Mile, and Ted Morgan and Kim Couranz report PR’s at the Paris Marathon.  Hey, this training thing might actually work, huh??!!   Anyone else?

Wednesday Track Session -   This week we will do 3 x 800 + 3 x 400 at Up Tempo pace with 1 minute rest.  I am giving a lecture on running at Evolutions  so I will not be there L

Saturday Run –  This will be a recovery run for some, a maintenance run for others, and the start of Taper for other.  The base mileage is 10 miles.  Tom N., and Cris are going long.  If you are planning on doing longer mileage, let me know so we can arrange for support.  I will be scoring a race in Chestertown Saturday morning.  I will try to get the shirts to someone to have available for those who have not gotten theirs yet.

Sunday Trail Run –This should NOT be a tempo run.  You ran long on Saturday and do not want to overdo it Sunday, even if it is on the trails. If you are up for some cool down laps, join us with the New Year Beginning Runners on the AHS Track at 10:30 am.  I know they would love to hear encouragement from others who have “been there, done that” trying to get started running.

The debate on coffee/caffeine being “good” for runners has been going for as long as I hve been running – a llllong time. Gina Kolata's column in today's New York *Times *"It’s Time to Make a Coffee Run" –shows there is some new information on the topic:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/health/nutrition/26best.html including:

Dr. Tarnopolsky and others report that caffeine increases the power output of muscles by releasing calcium that is stored in muscle.  The effect can enable athletes to keep going longer or to go faster in the same length of time. Caffeine also affects the brain’s sensation of exhaustion, that feeling that it’s time to stop, you can’t go on any more. That may be one way it improves endurance, Dr. Tarnopolsky said.  The performance improvement in controlled laboratory settings can be  20 to  25 percent, Dr. Tarnopolsky said. But in the real world, including all  comers, the improvement may average about 5 percent, still significant  if you want to get your best time or even win a race.  For years, researchers believed that you needed about 5 to 6  milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. An 80-kilogram, or 176-pound man, for example, would need about 400 milligrams of caffeine, or 20 ounces of coffee.

Now, Louise M. Burke, the head of sports nutrition http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/food-guide-pyramid/overview.html?online=nyt-classifier

department of the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, reports that athletes get the full caffeine effect with as little as 1 milligram of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. Instead of 20 ounces of coffee, a 176-pound man could drink 4 ounces of coffee, or about two 12-ounce cans of Coke.

Now if they can just figure out how to keep it from going through you before the run is over :-)

Stay Healthy;

Ron

Ron Bowman
BLUEPOINTTIMING.com
410-573-1929
c: 410-570-0003

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Posted by Steve Carton on April 8, 2009 at 9:41:00 AM EDT #