In Memoriam - Pat Ryan

Pat Ryan
Handicap Coordinator
May 7, 1964 - June 23, 2006
 
Pat Ryan, our club handicap coordinator, was killed in a car accident on Sandia Peak Friday at 4:00 pm.  Pat leaves behind his wife of four years, Kadine, and their two sons, Nicholas (2) and Samuel (1).  Both Pat and Kadine were actively involved in both Women in Training and the monthly handicaps.  Pat was a research physicist and an accomplished runner with a 5K PR of 16:27.  Although, a quiet person, Pat was very sociable and always eager to help.  He was a most devoted husband and Daddy and thoroughly enjoyed his new family.  It was always a pleasure to see the four of them together.  Pat will be dearly missed by all who knew him. 
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Funeral Service:  Since their families are so spread out across the country, it may be a few weeks.  But I will let everyone know as soon as I find out.
 
What can you do to help?   Kadine has been staying with friends, but her sister will be in town this weekend and she will be going back to her house on Sunday.  She would like for someone to bring dinner on Sunday around 6:00 pm for two adults and two children.  For the next two weeks, she will have family in town.  But after that, she will definitely be needing help.  Kadine is receiving radiation treatment for cancer and must receive the treatment every week day until mid-August.  So in a couple weeks, she will be needing help with babysitting during the afternoon. 
 
Kathy MacDonald has offered to coordinate the volunteers who can babysit or bring food so that Kadine doesn't have to field a large number of phone calls on top of everything else.  If you will be able to help, please call Kathy.
 
What has the club already done?  The handicap this morning was turned into a memorial run for Pat and a mass card was available members to sign at the handicap and at WIT.  I will have a card at the monthly meeting also.

Plyometric Exercises

Plyometric exercises are something you should consider doing if you want to improve your speed and overall fitness. Not only can they make you faster, you can also work on some areas that running doesn’t develop. Because of the impact, I don’t recommend that beginning runners do plyometrics until they have 3 or 4 months of conditioning under their belt. I started with 10 or 15 minutes of plyos and am now up to 45 minutes. I usually do them 1x/week.

Plyometrics should be done on a level, soft surface. I do them on grass. There’s a lot of impact and you don’t want a hard surface making it worse. For most of my plyometric workouts, I have been warming up by running 3.5 miles. This is way more than necessary, but you should do 10 – 15 minutes of easy running in any case. Don’t start cold.

I usually start off with “butt-kickers” and high knee strides to get my heart pumping. A “butt-kicker” is a quick little step where you raise your heel all the way up until it touches your butt. You move forward slowly as you do this. A high-knee stride is just what it says. Here you focus on raising your knee and getting some vertical lift as you stride forward. About 60 – 75 yards of each of these is enough for me to get going. I usually spend about 45 minutes on plyometrics.

Following are some of the exercises I do, in no particular order. Runners World has some more exercises on their site.

• Quadrant jumps: jump forward, like a little standing broad jump, to the left, backwards, and then to the right, as if you are trying to land on the corners of a square. I may repeat the sequence up to 10x.


• Lunges (high): about 50 yds 2X


• Jumping lunges: done in place


• Squats (without weight)


• Just plain jumping: Arms straight overhead, I just jump as high as I can off my toes, up to 20x.


• Saggital jacks: just like a jumping jack, but your legs go forward and backward, instead of out to the side.


• Karaoke: A funny kind of sideways run where you alternate putting the lead foot in front of the trailing foot, then behind it. Swing your arms as you go The idea is to get your hips moving. Again, I go about 50 or 60 yards 2x per set on this one, sometimes I do multiple sets in a workout.


• Hops: just hop forward as far as you can. You can also try it one-footed.Here is some interesting advice from a British track coach on gaining speed that includes one-footed hops as part of the program: http://www.serpentine.org.uk/advice/coach/fh62.php


• Sprints: Sometimes I will just throw in a 120-150 yard hard sprint or two into the middle of the workout.


• Skaters: and exaggerated side to side jump where you squat low and kick your trailing leg back as you jump. Good training for us runners who have problems with IT bands and adductors.


• Mountain climbers: start in a push-up position, but raise your butt up high. Then start “running” in place. These are exhausting when done right. An alternate version is to spread your feet wide after every left-right combo. I do these up to 20x.


• Jumping butt-kicks: Same as just plain jumping, but try to touch your butt with your heels while in the air.


• Skipping: I’m not so good at this.

Recovery from a plyometric workout is similar to that of a speed workout. That is, to your body it is more like running 200s on a track than it is like doing a hard tempo run, longer intervals or distance running. If you do it hard, you will get sore in the same way.

Run the Caldera Info

Following is an email with race info. If you have questions, comments or anything to add, make a comment here. Note the extreme fire conditions.


Thank you for entering the first Run the Caldera! We hope you enjoy the run Saturday. This email is to give you some information about the run and what to expect.
We're very pleased with the turn out. Currently there are 35 running the marathon, 70 running the 10-mi run, and 60 in the 5-mi run. See you Saturday!Kristen Kern
 
Start times are:Marathon 9 AM10-mi 9:30 AM5-mi 10 AMCourses:The marathon follows a series of dirt roads. The first 6 miles are hilly and in heavily wooded areas. Expect the first few miles to be very rough roads with a steep downhill before mile 2, which is at Redondo Meadows.  There is a long climb from mile 2 to mile 6, to reach the course high point of 9600 ft. From mile 6 to 12, there is a long downhill to the Valle Grande. This section has fewer trees, but better roads. Mile 12- 19 are fairly flat and in the open. This section passes the Headquarters you may have seen from State Route 4 in the Valles Grande. From mile 19 to the finish, the course is back in wooded areas and the roads are a little rougher. There is one short, steep hill about mile 20. The final 3-4 miles are downhill.
The 10-mi course follows the Duke trail, a map of which can be found on the equestrian page at www.vallescaldera.gov. The first 2 miles are shared with the marathon course, and are rough roads with a steep downhill before mile 2. At Redondo Meadows, the course turns east and does a long climb to El Cajete. The last 3-4 miles are downhill.
 
The 5-mi course follows the Weekend Rider trail, a map of which can be found on the equestrian page at www.vallescaldera.gov. This is a loop with moderate elevation change.
 
Aid Stations:For the marathon course, there are 9 aid stations at roughly 3 mi  intervals. Early in the race they are slightly farther apart and toward the end they are slightly closer. The longest stretch between aid stations is approximately 3.7 mi. Aid stations will have water and gatoraide. We will  have some limited food at aid stations in the second half of the run. If you need additional supplies, please be prepared to carry them.The 10-mi run has 3 aid stations at 2 mi, 6.2 mi, and 8 mi with water and gatoraid.The 5-mi run has one aid station with water and gatoraid at the half-way point.First aidWe will have first aid for minor cuts at each aid station. There will be communications at each aid station with vehicles at (minimum) every other aid station. We expect to have volunteers on mountain bikes patrolling the course as well.Please wear sunscreen!Finish area and awardsWe have unique finisher awards for all finishers of the 10-mi and marathon events. Finisher awards will also be awarded to 5-mi finishers if we have enough. Special awards will be given to the top male and female in each event.We also have many donations that will be given away as raffle prizes.We will provide some refreshments at the finish area including soft drinks  and fruit. Please feel welcome to bring a more substantial picnic and enjoy the area as your friends finish their runs.Restrooms (porta-potties) are available in the start-finish area.Directions to the start;All events start and finish at the Blanco Bonito Staging area. This is at  Mile Marker 30 of State Route 4. If coming from Albuquerque, this is closer to the Jemez Springs side of the mountains.Reminders!Please - no dogs are allowed on the Valles Caldera Preserve!Also note the extreme fire conditions! No smoking or any other fire is allowed! Make sure any spectator you may bring with you is aware of this as well!

Triathalon Advice Wanted

I am considering my first triathalon and could use some tips. It will consist of a 20K bike, 5k run, and 800m swim. I have never done this nor have a watched someone do this. Could you please send this note along to see if anyone would be willing to answer some questions I have. I am also very open to any tips people could pass along.

How do the transitions work?

Can you swim any stroke?

Can you change strokes?

Since swimming is first, do you stay in your suit or just throw clothes on over?

During training, when would you start doing two or all three events consecutively?

Watching and Waiting

Here is a site that all of us who like to run in the mountains should bookmark. I'll be watching it. And waiting impatiently.

The latest: "Cibola National Forest closed May 12th all areas except those noted above under "What's Open." The popular La Luz and Embudito trails out of Albuquerque are closed. Except as noted above, the Manzano Mountains are closed." What a bummer, but I remember the big bosque fire a couple of years ago. They've got to do what is necessary.

Personal Training Experience

I started using a personal trainer when I got back into exercise after taking about 12 years off. I can’t say that it was my idea. My wife made me do it. She was afraid I was going to hurt myself. Indeed, I fit the profile of a guy who would do just that - an over 40 former athlete who was way out of shape. I thought I knew what I was doing. Listening to my wife has always served me well, plus my employer subsidizes my membership at New Mexico Sports and Wellness so I said fine, a few sessions won’t hurt, and I started there. This has been a good thing. The trainer assessed where I was at physically, showed me around the weight room and got me started on some general purpose training. I started on a simple program and I didn’t get hurt.

I continued with that for awhile, but my training didn’t really take off until I got some diet advice from a doctor. Then I was able to make real progress by focusing on what needed doing the most – improving my diet. Once that was started, I developed my exercise program a little further to help me with weight loss.

I have continued to use a personal trainer to help me improve. I want to see how fast I can run again and I know that life is short and I’m not getting any younger. I want to do whatever I can to improve. Between last fall and today, my trainer and I have chopped a minute and a half off of my 5K time and I’m likely good for another 30 seconds pretty soon. I also ran a half-marathon in March in what I would have considered to be an improbably fast time 6 months earlier. So the results are there and I am happy. Right now, we are doing a weekly plyometric session outdoors. Other times, we might be in a gym. My workouts are geared towards running faster, but they vary a lot, which is one thing you need to do both to challenge your body and to stay interested. There’s no way I would do these exercises with as much intensity by myself. The training gives me accountability as well as variety.

Personal training can do a lot for you – help you workout safely, try new exercises, set up appropriate goals, break out of a training rut, rehab from an injury (work with a doctor on this and make sure you get a trainer that knows what they are doing), or just get some accountability into your workouts. People spend thousands of dollars on bicycles, treadmills and other exercise equipment. In my opinion, a little knowledge can be better than all of these things.

I’m keeping my training log online. Feel free to browse it if you would like to see some more info on how I have been training over the last year.