Weekly News Update

Coming soon PA-USATF Grand Prix Events:

September 24, 2006 - Paso Robles 10k

October 15, 2006 - Humboldt Redwoods Half and Full Marathon (Beautiful courses)

Report on Jamba Juice 5k, PA-USATF Grand Prix …(From Linda Hall)

The first chip finisher was Joel Contreras at 22:35 (Age group place=7) with Barbara Miller close behind at 22:37 (2).

Next came Monty Schacht at 24:01 (17th) with Doug Braasch at 24:43 (6th) which was a valiant effort since Doug has been suffering with plantar....

Lindsay Pears-Dickson had a PR for the 5k distance with a 26:08 (20) which was about 1.5 minutes faster than last year (a tribute to her dedication and hard work at the Tuesday night workouts!

Linda Hall finished in 28:25 (4). Apologies to anyone missed.

The next USATF race will be next Sunday. The Heritage Oaks 10 in Paso Robles. Linda Hall still has a room available for that if you want to drive or carpool to PR on Sat. She also clarified the situation with USATF about >40 year olds running in the open race (where one might get $50 random prize). If you are 40 or older you must run in the later masters Championship 10 (no $50) in order to qualify for individual and team points. (Of course, you must also be a USATF member with Buffalo Chips club 104 as your affiliation).

Also, Linda still has rooms available for the Humboldt half marathon on Oct 15th. (the rooms are for the night of Sat Oct 14th). Please let her know ASAP if you would like to reserve a room.

Other PA/USATF news for older chips:

Starting next year 2007 the PAUSATF association is leading the way by creating a new category "Super Veterans" for folks older than 80. Although at this time, there will not be monetary awards in this category, the male and female individual point leaders at the end of the year, will receive complementary entries into all of the PAUSATF grand prix series the following year. So there is a value to growing old.

And it gets even better. Beginning in 2008, for each grand prix road race will offer $25 prize money to the first male and female finisher in the Veterans division (>70). At this time, these folks get recognition, but no prize money. So folks it pays to get old!

Finally, for the Christmas Relays, teams that won first place in 2005 will get a complementary entry for 2006. This means that for 2006 the Chips Super Senior women (>60) will get a free entry. Hurrah.



Training Tip…Want to improve your running speed? One of the best workouts is the LONGER tempo run.



Try starting with about a 3 mile effort run at the pace you would or could do for a 10k race. As you become somewhat comfortable doing this workout twice a week, then graduate to a 5 mile tempo effort done at the pace of a half-marathon race. Do about 2 weeks of this challenge, twice a week, then graduate to a 8 mile tempo run paced at about 30 seconds FASTER than goal marathon speed. Do about 2 weeks of these efforts and then graduate to 10 miles done at about 20 seconds faster than goal marathon pace.

NOTE: Runners who are simply “larger framed” individuals must do longer endurance workouts than smaller framed athletes. There is a reason that Kenyans and other East Africans are such efficient runners and it does NOT come from “training at altitude,” but rather because they tend to have the somatotype ideal for longer running efficiency. Running longer distances is all about having enough FUEL in your tank to energize your metabolism for that demanded distance. It is simply physics, it takes MORE FUEL to move more “mass.” A larger athlete must move more mass, and hence demands more internal fuel. You must simulate your metabolic demands in your workouts and learn how to respond accordingly.

The larger athlete should generally extend their long runs and tempo runs about 20% to 25% longer than that which would be required by the lighter bodied athlete….or suffer ….running out of fuel in those last 3-5 miles on “race day.”