Innovative Endurance

Winter Running

2010-01-26T20:18:00.001-08:00

Winter running can be hard on the body, especially the legs. With the snow and ice it is really easy to roll an ankle, slip and fall, or worse yet pull a muscle. The easiest way to get around all these things is to just run on the treadmill. That solution means you have to sell your soul to the "endless boredom" god. If this doesn't sound good to you then some other solutions are as follows.
First, bundle up. Keeping warm not only makes you more comfortable in the cold, but it also keeps your muscles warm. Keeping the muscles warm is important so as to not pull muscles but to also keep your joints feeling not as stiff. The best way to dress warm is to layer up. By layering up you can put or take off clothes as the temperature dictates.
Second, choose your course wisely. Finding the right places to run in the city can be difficult. The key to success is going to the places that have high traffic. Colleges and universities are good places because they typically have designated people to clear the roads and sidewalks. If this is not an option then look for the city snow routes. These streets are usually some of the first plowed.
Lastly, keeping on top of your nutrition. While this is a mainstay throughout the year, winter is an important time to stay healthy. Your immune system is more vulnerable when you're cold, tired, and malnourished. Eating right is a big focus but one can't over look the importance of sleep. Sleeping is when your body recovers the most and thus making it the most important focus.
While there are plenty of things that go into winter training these are some of the big issues that most runners deal with. If you can tackle the issues discussed in this article then you should be one step closer to that first step out the door.

Run Drills

2009-05-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

Run drills are often forgotten about but are much needed. It's easy to step out your door and go for a run and think that is all you need to become the stud runner you've always wanted to be. The bad news is, is that in order to become a better (faster) runner you have to work the little things.
Everyone has to teach there body how to perform an action (running) before they can efficiently do the action. Most of us can run without having to do a great deal of thinking about it but that doesn't mean that your running is a very efficient action, and efficiency is the key to running fast! If your running form is efficient then it costs your body less energy to go from point A to point B, which means you can use more energy on going faster and not on trying to hold yourself together during the run.
Run drills will help teach your body proper form and efficiency. With very little time and cost to your body, you can see great gains in your running just from doing a few drills a couple of times a week. Small investment with big gains!

A few drills:

High Knees - Start off with a slow jog, then begin the drill by bringing one knee up in front of you as high as you can. You should be pushing off the front of your foot with the opposite leg. Alternate legs. You should be moving forward during the drill but the focus is not on forward motion rather then quick foot strikes and high knee drive.

Butt Kickers - This drill is very similar to the high knee drill but with more of a focus on bringing your heel up to the underside of your butt. It is common for athletes to flick their heels behind them and actually kick their butt. While that is not entirely bad, it is not the proper action for the drill. Bring the leg up as if your were doing the high knee drill but emphasize more on bringing your heel to the underside of your butt. Your knee should be at a 90 degree angle with your hips if you're doing this correctly.

Circles or Paw Backs - This drill should be done standing still. For the drill you will steady yourself with an object so that you can stand on one leg steadily. Have one leg on the ground with your body weight on the forefoot. With the free leg you want to perform running like motions. You'll bring your knee up, extend your leg, bring it down to make small ground contact, then pull the leg through behind you, and then back up to the knee drive phase. You're basically doing the running motion but with one leg.

You will come to notice any inefficiencies within your form once you start these drills. You might even be surprised with what you might find out about yourself. It is common to see some coordination issues for most people at the beginning of doing these drills. If this is the case, don't worry! It's like I said before, you have to teach your body how to be efficient!

On your marks.....get set...SLOW!

2009-02-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

Well the start of a new season is rapidly approaching and with that comes lots of training and lots of stress. Combined with the change of weather, this is a perfect time for people to get sick! Making sure you get proper amounts of sleep, good food, and training are all key things to look at. It is common for most of us to have a great deal of energy this early in the season and, in turn, want to do a lot hard training. Before you make this mistake and do too much too early, just remember that there is plenty of time to put in some quality work. Being injured or burnt out are two things that can easily creep in with little to no sign to the athlete.
Keep the focus and dedication and remember why we all do this sport........FUN!!

Feedback

2008-01-09T06:42:00.000-08:00

Hello Athletes!
Do you have some awesome race photos just sitting around collecting dust? Maybe you had a great performance this year that you can't wait to tell someone about. With the IE website you can post all of these!
Just send your race photos and athlete bio to ghoward82@yahoo.com and you can have your own athlete gallery. We will post your bio in the "athletes" section along with your photo. All other action pictures will be put into the "photo gallery" section. This is just another way IE is trying to give back to the athlete so be sure to send those pics!

New Blog Spot

2007-12-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

IE athletes! This is a new blog where all can post and discuss any issues or topics. Please be sure to use discretion when posting. Hopefully this will open up all lines of communication with the coaches and athletes.