Two weeks left to enter our Hood to Coast Relay contest!

That’s right, we’re still accepting entries into our “win a spot on our Hood to Coast Relay team” contest.
Get your entry in before February 15th 2008 to be considered for a spot on our team.
All you need is to have to a great reason. Be creative. Be funny. Be useful to our team [...]

Training: What makes a fast distance runner?

In reading through the discussions about VO2 Max offered by my colleague Coach Dean, I started thinking about the factors that make a fast runner. See, there’s no one thing that turns a person into a great runner. It takes a bunch of things mixed together in just the right way.
Think of this example: if [...]

Training: Improving running economy at short distances (part II)

In yesterday’s post Coach Dean began answering a question from a high-school student about increasing his VO2 Max. Yesterday’s discussion came to the conculsion that it isn’t VO2 Max, but rather running economy that’s really the issue. Below is part II of his answer in which he gives some suggestions on the types of workouts [...]

Training: How can I improve my VO2 Max? (part I)

We received the following question from a reader over on MySpace. The question didn’t provide a lot of detail, but Coach Dean tackles it in a two-part post.
First the question:
I’m currently a HS student that specializes in running the 800 and mile. I was wondering if you know any workouts that I can do to [...]

Training: why do I get side-aches when I run?

Boy we get this question a lot: why do I get a side-ache or pain in the right side of the abdomen when running?
I’ll start by noting that this is a very common issue and it can be a real downer. Side aches almost always occur on the right side, just below the point where [...]

Motivation: Alright time to get back to work!

It’s that time of year again.
Sure, it may have snowed here in Portland the night before last and it is still colder than we’d like it to be, but when you look at the calendar it is time to get back to work.
It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that I was writing [...]

Interview: Frank Shorter on drug use in running

Recently I had a chance to talk with running legend Frank Shorter. Shorter’s running career included gold and silver medals in the marathon at the Olympic Games (1972 and 1976 respectively). He also won the US National Cross-country championships four times and was the US 10,000 meter champion four times.

Photo: Joe English, Running Advice and [...]

Training: does walking count toward my runs?

I received a great question today from one of my new runners who happens to have a job in which she walks a lot. Here is the question in part:
“I am a letter carrier and I stand for up to 3 hours and walk up to 6 hours per day. Does this off-set any of [...]