Tips for Long Distance Runners

By R. A Wani

Long distance events are great for those athletes who enjoy running and have a desire to maintain dedicated training throughout the week on a long-term basis. Success in the distance events comes from planning. Training must be consistent and progressive. The training sessions are designed to physiologically and psychologically enhance an athlete's potential to maximize his/her competition experiences.
However there is risk involved with demanding too much from the body too soon. If a runner wants to reach the point where long distances become very manageable and less physically stressful, then it's essential to build up running distances very slowly over time. Running is considered a "high impact" exercise because of the jarring effect it has on the body with every single foot-fall. Although the knees bear much of the burden, the impact that results when each foot meets the ground effects the entire skeletal frame. Over time the body will adapt to the constant demands as muscles, ligaments and tendons eventually strengthen as the runner's conditioning improves.
The physical and mental challenges which face the long distance runner are huge. The long distance run is the ultimate test of stamina and mental concentration combined. There are no quick fixes to making long runs easy, it is often down to hard work, grit and determination, but there are a few tips which can maybe make the task just a little easier.
• Pacing: There is no such thing as too slow when you set out on a long distance run. If you are aiming for a specific time then for the first 10% of the distance consider going at 85-90% of the pace needed. Do not go over 100%, any time gained in the early stages is normally exponentially lost in the latter stages.
• Stay Loose: Some runners get tense in their shoulders and arms when they start to get fatigued, leading to neck and back pain. You can prevent tensing-up and slouching by shaking out your arms and shoulders regularly. Also, make sure you don't ball your hands up in a tight fist as that tightness will radiate up your arms, to your shoulders and neck.
• Rethink the Mileage: Mentally break your course into smaller sections. Your 20 km run will feel much more doable if you break it into four five-kilometer segments. Once you get to the 15 kilometer mark of an 20 kilometer run, think to yourself, "OK, just under 5K from here".
• Stride: This is another technique that will help your legs feel less tired. When running, you have a stride length. That is how far you go with each step. Sprinters have large strides to go fast (you will notice your stride to automatically get larger as you increase speed) while long-distance runners should have a smaller step. Smaller steps will conserve energy. So the next time you run, you should decrease your stride to a little lower than your normal jog stride.
• Choose Your Ideal Path: The best place to run is a smooth dirt path. Concrete sidewalks can jar your joints as you run. Indoor and outdoor tracks offer a great surface but can get pretty boring pretty fast. If you choose to run on grass, make sure you stay aware throughout your run for obstacles or uneven patches.
• Breathing: Here is a technique that will help your cardiovascular system to conserve energy. When you breathe, you probably breathe mostly from the chest. Then, when you finish, you have a heaving chest. Instead of breathing entirely from your chest, you should breathe from your stomach too (belly breathing). That way, you will take in more oxygen because it fills up the whole lung. It also splits the work that the muscles have to do to get you right amount of air. Your chest will still be heaving after a long run but it should be much better than before.
• Take a Walking Break: Don't feel guilty if you stop or walk to get the fluids down during your long run. Many people walk through water stops in marathons. And taking a short walking break gives your running muscles a quick rest, so you'll feel more energized and refreshed when you start running again.
• Hydrate: Dehydration can make you weak and dizzy and can leave you with chills even on the warmest day. Drinking plenty of fluids during your long run is probably the most important thing you can do to keep healthy throughout your run.
• Proper Fuel: Running out of energy at the end of a long run is known as 'hitting the wall.' Properly fueling during your long run can help you avoid becoming overly tired (which is when you become prone to injury). Sports gels, bagels, bananas, raisins, and candy are all good choices for food to eat on the run. Sports drinks are a good energy alternative if eating while running causes nausea. If training for a marathon, long runs are a good opportunity to learn what type of fuel works best for you before the big race.
• Listen to Music: Adding tunes to your next long run can help pass the time by taking your mind off of the seemingly endless journey ahead. A well timed beat can help to get the blood going or start it up again midway through the run. Also, consider multiple playlists for different runs to keep the music fresh. Either way, music can really be a difference maker during a long distance trek, so don't leave home without it.
• Know Your Goals: This is probably the most important tip of all. Though the previous ones can help you, you are the one who decides if you really want to finish the run or not. If you have the motivation, you can do it. Assess why you started running and think why it is important to you. And that is the biggest motivation booster you can get. As people say, "When there's a will, there's a way".
Find some buddies to run with. Running with other people can be a great way to keep your mind off the distance you are trying to cover. If you don't have any friends that enjoy running there are usually a lot of running groups around any city that are welcoming to new comers. Make sure you run with people who are at about your pace so you don't have to push yourself beyond what you can do.

Diet

Fitness, Diet Fitness Man and Woman

Many people nowadays are very much conscious about their own health and fitness. In addition to that, these people, and many others as well, are now having that desire to sculpt their bodies to ahieve that magazine-cover look. As a result, gyms, health spas and other fitness centers have proliferated all over to cater to the needs of the fitness buffs and afficionados.

Even on television exercise machines, weight loss products, and other paraphernalia to improve fitness have more or less gained control over the airwaves and made their way into the households. But exerise is not the only way to build that body beautiful. It also entails certain amount of responsibility on the foods one chooses to eat. Being healthy and fit requires one to observe diet fitness.

Diet Fitness is as Essential as Exercise Itself

Diet for fitness provides the essential nutrition one needs to restore worn-out muscles and for healthy growth. Diet fitness should never be taken for granted. With the popularity of keeping fit, many different views, methods, programs and dieting strategies have been formulated by many professionals. Among these are high carb diets and high fat diets. Whih one is more effective and which one should one choose to follow?

First thing to know would be the fundamental differences between these two diet approaches. As the name implies, high carb diets concentrates on taking in carbohydrate-rich foods while high fat diets endorses fat-rich foods. High carb diets are utilized to glycogen stored in the liver and muscles. Glycogen is a glucose complex that provides large amounts of energy ready for use in anaerobic exercises.

Fats, on the other hand, is well-nown for being the richest source of calories. It actually contains 2.5 times more calories than carbohydrates and proteins alike. Studies also show that it takes the body 24 calories to metabolize carbohydrates while it only takes 3 to burn down fat. So which one to follow? A person can follow a high carb and low fat fitness diet or the other way around. It is absolutely not recommended to follow both at the same time; unless of course if you want to gain body fat.

But then diet fitness is not all about losing fat, one must also consider his diet in order to keep fat away. Research shows that sustainable loss of weight can only be achieved on a diet which suits the individual food preferences, lifestyle, medical profile and satiety signals.

Diet programs all over can help you shed off excess pounds, but only one diet can help you stay sexy, and it is the one that satisfies you most. Other important aspects of having a fit diet are moderation, balance and variation. One must be careful not to leave out important nutrients and other substances necessary for healthy body functioning. health organizations are clear about the amounts of nutrients an individual should have in the body.

Low fat high carbs, high carbs low fat; the question is not which diet program will work out but which is it that will work for you. Striving for a sexy and healthy body does not have to burden an individual, diet fitness does not have to mean sticking to the same kind of food for life. One may even try to be adventurous and try out new foods out there. Who knows? one may even discover spinach interesting.

Fitness

Physical Fitness

We're constantly bombarded by magazines screaming at us about physical fitness. The television industry has plenty of shows on how to stay fit and keep in shape. We know being healthy is a big part of today's society, but how many of us really think about the importance of our physical fitness? The real message why we should think more about what shape our bodies are in often gets lost in the media hype.

Why is Our Fitness Important?

Physical fitness is more than just keeping our weight in check. There are tons of reasons why we should get off our chairs and be active in the world. The real answer to why we need to be conscious of our physical fitness can be found by asking a set of different questions: How long do we want to live, and what type of life do we want to have when we become old?

What do the Studies Say?

Studies have shown that the more active you are, the better you feel in general. More importantly, our activity levels and mood have long-term effects. People who maintain a healthy level of physical fitness are more capable in their old age, and they can accomplish more than someone who's never paid attention to staying in shape. Two people of the same age can end up with very different lifestyles. One might spend their days sitting in a chair and watching television, because their bodies have become run down and weary, while the other person might be out having a brisk walk, or even a bicycle ride.

Physical fitness keeps us mobile, much longer as we age. Maintaining muscle tone and keeping tendons and ligaments flexible allows people to move more, with less effort. Tasks like grocery shopping or lifting things won't seem so monumental, and the dependence on other people to take care of us will be set aside for years. People who get regular exercise every day laugh more often, and have a better outlook on their lives. When your mood is up, your heart rate lowers and your brain is stimulated by the world around you.

Keeping active doesn't take much. A simple walk every day can leave you feeling refreshed, and maintains your physical fitness without much effort. Every time someone leaves their house, they're exposed to different stimuli that keep their minds healthy and thinking well, and they're getting the boost of staying healthy. Those who have a better physical fitness than others stay in their own environments longer and take care of themselves as opposed to needing to look for nursing homes. Postponing aging has got to be the best reason to think of our physical fitness, so that everyone can be a part of life, not sitting back and watching it pass us by.

History of Sports & Games

The History of Sports

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5-Pin Bowling History - Thomas F. Ryan
5-pin Bowling dates back to 1909 when it was officially recognized as being developed by Thomas F. Ryan.

The History of Baseball - Alexander Cartwright

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The Maine Baseball Club 1898

Americans began playing baseball on informal teams, using local rules, in the early 1800s. By the 1860s, the sport, unrivaled in popularity, was being described as America's "national pastime."

Alexander Joy Cartwright (1820-1892) of New York invented the modern baseball field in 1845. Alexander Cartwright and the members of his New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, devised the first rules and regulations for the modern game of baseball.

Baseball was based on the English game of rounders. Rounders become popular in the United States in the early 19th century, where the game was called "townball", "base", or "baseball". Cartwright formalized the modern rules of baseball.

The first recorded baseball game in 1846 when Alexander Cartwright's Knickerbockers lost to the New York Baseball Club. The game was held at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1858, the National Association of Base Ball Players, the first organized baseball league was formed.

Basketball - James Naismith (1861-1939)

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Photo: Y.M.C.A. training school [Springfield College], Springfield, Mass. - home of basketball.

By Mary Bellis

James Naismith was the Canadian physical education instructor who invented basketball in 1891. James Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario and educated at McGill University and Presbyterian Cllege in Montreal. He was the physical education teacher at McGill University (1887 to 1890) and at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts (1890 to 1895). At Springfield College (which was then the Y.M.C.A. training school), James Naismith, under the direction of American phys-ed specialist Luther Halsey Gulick, invented the indoor sport of basketball.

olympia

Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic Games, is in the western part of the Peloponnese which, according to Greek mythology, is the island of "Pelops", the founder of the Olympic Games. Imposing temples, votive buildings, elaborate shrines and ancient sporting facilities were combined in a site of unique natural and mystical beauty.

Olympia functioned as a meeting place for worship and other religious and political practices as early as the 10th century B.C. The central part of Olympia was dominated by the majestic temple of Zeus, with the temple of Hera parallel to it. The ancient stadium in Olympia could accommodate more than 40,000 spectators, while in the surrounding area there were auxiliary buildings which developed gradually up until the 4th century B.C. and were used as training sites for the athletes or to house the judges of the Games.

Running

Running contests included :

• - the stade race, which was the pre-eminent test of speed, covering the Olympia track from one end to the other (200m foot race),
• - the diaulos (two stades - 400m foot race),
• - dolichos (ranging between 7 and 24 stades).

Jumping

Athletes used stone or lead weights called halteres to increase the distance of a jump. They held onto the weights until the end of their flight, and then jettisoned them backwards.

Discus throw

The discus was originally made of stone and later of iron, lead or bronze. The technique was very similar to today's freestyle discus throw.