The Weekly Pep Talk April 14 - 20

Sponsored by Ask About Running, Volume 2, Issue #21
This week is dedicated to Hilary A (A determined athlete)
Monday, April 14 - 20, 2008, Week 16 in 2008

Dear Running and Walking Buddies:

Congratulations to runners Noel P and Sandra O who put in great efforts at the Brickyard Run in Martinez last Sunday. This was Noel’s comeback after ankle surgery. Go girl! She looked terrific. Sandra O completed the hilly 8 mile course with a sprint uphill to the finish. This was only her 4th race ever. She has really accomplished a lot in her short running career. You both deserve a lot of credit. Let’s do it again.

The Martinez Brickyard Race will get added to next year’s roster. It was fun, well organized, and gorgeous. Also, all three of us who entered won prizes in the post race drawing. Noel and Sandra won $20 gift certificates to Sports Basement and I won a book about running! Yeah for all of us!

First Things First - Calling all SF Women!
Join us at 6AM on Tuesday mornings for track workouts. We are training for the SF Marathon and Half Marathon but all running women are welcome. Meet at the northeast bleachers at Kezar at 6. We’ll be done by 7:00 or earlier and will follow the track workouts listed in our training guide at the Ask About Running Blog. This starts tomorrow, April 15. Does that date mean anything to you? If you haven’t already filed your taxes a little running in the early AM could get you revved for a major effort to get things done by midnight. Then, for some of us there’s always filing for an Extension…thank goodness!

Next – our East Bay Sunday Run
Will be at Point Isabel. Directions are listed at http://www.altbgo.blogspot.com/. We’ll be doing a 3 miler and a 5 miler officially. You can always run any distance you like. And, if you contact people through the blog, it’s an opportunity to get partners to run all kinds of distances. Meet 9 AM. Be prepared for warm temperatures. Wear sunscreen, a hat, and bring water. Clothes are optional…

Balance
As I was running the race yesterday my mind went back and forth between listening to my breathing and wandering. I love running as a time to process things. It’s done wonders for me in helping clarify “stuff” in my life. But yesterday the mind was geared to racing and so, when I wasn’t thinking pace I wandered to BALANCE. I mean the kind of balance that we use to run well. I was thinking about running uphill (we had plenty of them) and how you shorten your stride to maintain a forward balance. And, when you run downhill you lengthen your stride to balance out the effects of gravity pushing you ahead.

The downhill seems to stymie a lot of people. I think it’s important to take advantage of that huge opportunity that gravity provides and trust in your balance. Your body will land properly without “putting on the breaks” if you let your feet take you forward as much as they want to go, as extensions of your legs. When you try to stay upright (instead of moving forward with the slope of the hill) you lose all that wonderful opportunity that comes from not having to lift your foot up to produce the next step. Instead, when running downhill you only need to push off with the ball of your foot and the slope takes care of the elevation part by “sloping away from you”. I’ve come to realize that it takes strong, well balanced knees to allow runners to run hills the way I’ve described because you MUST be landing with shock absorption in the right places or your lower body suffers.

So, the next time you’re running hills, think about letting yourself go on those down hills. Let natural balance and rhythm be your guides. You might surprise yourself at how easy it is and how well you do.

I checked on fees for the SF Marathon. My! It’s a bit pricey. Registration deadline for Mail in is July 1st, assuming the event is not sold out prior to that time. It will be best if you register individually, if you are going to run it.

Full Marathon: $115
1st Half Marathon: $80
2nd Half Marathon: $80
5K Run/ Walk: $35
Progressive Marathon: $40 – I don’t know about this. Anybody else know the details? I’ll be checking…


Club News and Views
Happy Birthday Dena G
Gini H are you back from Paris yet?

10% Discount at Transports for Ask About Running Members
For more information and directions to the stores in Albany/Berkeley and College Avenue go to their website. “TRANSPORTS is the East Bay's premier Running and Swimming specialty store and has been serving the Bay Area's running and swimming community since 1982.” as taken from their website http://www.transportsrunswim.com/

See Jane Run practice on May 4. Any volunteers to help?
Remember to come out to run a 12 mile course (or our good old standard 3 miler) on May 4. We’ll mark it as best we can and follow the general course for the upcoming half marathon

UPCOMING RACES – Let me know if you are training for any of these
The Boston Marathon April 21, 2008 http://www.bostonmarathon.org/
See Training Schedule in http://www.altbgo.blogspot.com/

The Eugene Marathon May 4, 2008
Sarah T is training for this

The Bay to Breakers/San Francisco May 18, 2008
http://www.ingbaytobreakers.com/main.html
See Training Schedule in http://www.altbgo.blogspot.com/
Participants: Dena G, Jeanetta M, Sarah K, Gini H, Danielle A., Rachel Lai, Sharmaine Moody

See Jane Run Women’s Half Marathon & 5K May 31, 2008 http://www.seejanerun.com/t-See-Jane-Run-Half-Marathon-and-5K.aspx
See Training Schedule in http://www.altbgo.blogspot.com/
Participants: Sandra O, Jeanetta M,

Freedom Road 5K and Jefferson Mile Runs & Walks for the San Francisco Food Banks July 4, 2008
http://www.peopleevents.org/

The San Francisco Half & Full Marathon & 5K August 3, 2008 http://www.runsfm.com/home.html

The Disneyland Half Marathon & 5K August 30/31, 2008 http://www.disneylandhalfmarathon.com/

The Chicago Marathon October 12, 2008 http://www.chicagomarathon.com/

The Nike Women’s Half & Full Marathon October 19, 2008
http://www.nike.com/
Got in! Leticia Duenas

The New York City Marathon November 2, 2008
http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=marathonmailer@nyrr.org
Registration opens January 28, 2008
Participants: Dena G,

Carpooling & Willing drivers
Stephanie Atwood, Coach (San Francisco) Stephanie@askaboutrunning.com
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Ask About Running is a women's running and walking club that encourages all women to participate either walking or running. The Weekly Pep Talk is your weekly connection to the world of women's individual sports and specifically, the events planned for the week.

Go for it!

Stephanie@AskAboutRunning.com and http://www.altbgo.blogspot.com/
Have a great week. Get out there and enjoy!
See you Sunday!
Stephanie

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