Hometown rocket

After nearly a year of being dormant, it is high time to kick start the DGST blog. What better way to get rolling than to speak of Matthew Centrowitz Jr, and the ever growing CentroNation. If you were under a rock during the recent track and field world championships, you missed some spectacular racing by the US team. Of note was a bronze medal by Matthew in the men's 1500m. He performance was inspiring for many, and seemed to be a shock to the racing community given Jr is only 21 years old. However, given Centro won the NCAA title this spring, and outkicked Lagat to win Nationals, the kid has some serious chops. He raced a smart race, and really hung it out there. What I love is that he hung in there over the last 300m. He held steady and reeled in enough competitors to place himself on the podium. Digging deep! Gotta love that. So, kudos to Matthew Jr. for making us all proud. Well done!

Fall marathon season

The fall marathon season is finally under way. All that summer mileage is starting to show its worth as many DC runners taper for MCM, as well as the assortment of nearby races. Steamtown, Wineglass, New York are on the schedule for marathoners in the mid-Atlantic region. There seems to be a bit more buzz about this fall season as people try to avoid getting boxed out at Boston like last year. Registration opens October 18th so get your mouse clicking fingers stretched out and ready to go. My fall marathon season is over before it even started. A summer calf injury forced me to take off most of July so I am just now starting to train with some purpose. It might be a blessing in disguise as I am coming back with a bit more focus and motivation. Time off is actually a good thing. Many people try to train with purpose all year round which ultimately just creates stagnation. I have signed up for a couple half marathons, Richmond and Kiawah. My hope is that racing the shorter stuff will help me be more comfortable racing at a faster pace. And its all about being fast, right? well, it is really all about having fun. My days of being fast are not over cuz they never actually really started. Fast is Sammy at Chicago, as seen above. If you want some inspiration to kick off your Boston training program, go to flotrack and watch the finish of the men's marathon in Chicago. These guys are literally duking it out over the final mile, back and forth, til Wanjiru finally pulls away. What a great photo above: the crowd, the fading Lel with the yellow lights in the back, the 26 mile mark, and of course Sammy in full stride. Here's to a finish strong for us all in your next race, clink.

What I did on my summer break.....

I am excited to have the opportunity to speak to some high school runner at a local running store this summer. My experience as a long time PT, and a 25+time marathoner, gives me a relatively unique perspective of running. I admit my outlook is biased, based on working with many injured runners and seeing consistent trends of imbalances and weakness. One thing I love to share with fellow runnersis the concept of doing more than just running. In fact, that is my favorite questions for an injured runner I am seeing in the clinic : what do you do besides just run?

A well rounded runner, one who is going to be less vulnerable to injury, and better able to handle to stress of intense training, needs to consistently do form drills, stretch, cross train, and work on strength training. This post will focus on the last component, strength training.
When you read the research on run related injuries you see that the knee is the most commonly injured area. Anterior knee pain is the most common injury, followed closely by lateral knee pain, or IT band syndrome. Hip weakness is a consistent finding with these injured runners. As a result, a good introduction to strength training for runners would start with hip/glute strengthening. I like to focus on strengthening the glute max, the glute medius, deep hip rotators, and the core muscles. I also like to incorporate functional movements into the warm-up before I reach for exercises which isolate specific muscle groups.

The following is a brief list of helpful exercises which can be done 2-3 times per week in the off season as cross country preparations continue. Try to focus on good form in the first month, controlling the speed and form of the movemnts, with light resistance and high repetitions.

For the young athletes tonight we will do :

Forward lunge walking x 1 minute
Backward lunges x 1 minute
Side lunges x 1 minute
Skier squats with theraband at knees x 1 minute
Heel raises x 1 minute
Sidestepping with band times 1 minute
clam with band x 1 minute each side
plank x 1 minute
deadbug times one minute

Short and sweet, but it targets muscles that when weak typically lead to injury. Many of these exercises are in video format in my older posts on this blog. Enjoy, and train smart!

Sports and Spinal Physical Therapy

Doctor G has landed at Sports and Spinal Physical Therapy (www.ssptdc.com), located in the Foggy Bottom area of Washington DC. It has been a great move for me for a variety of different reasons. One reason is strength in numbers- there are six other therapists on staff at SSPT. Each therapist has different talents to use. Sonja does dry needling, Steve is a skilled manual therapist, Jen is savy with real-time ultrasound, and so on. The reality is this experienced staff offers a many different skill sets which ultimately benefits the clients the most. Another reason I am to be at Sports and Spinal is the experience of the staff outside of the clinic . Most of the other therapist are passionate about being active. We have runners, triathletes, crew athletes, swimmers, paddlers, and cyclists on staff. I firmly believe it is ideal for an athlete to see another like minded athlete when doing their rehab. I could go on and on about SSPT but humor me and hear about a couple other things. One is that the clinic is very active in the community. We recently assisted athletes at the DC tri. Another exciting community event will come in the form of helping the cast of Mary Poppins while in town performing at the Kennedy Center. And finally, another benny of being at Sports and Spinal is having access to the dartfish software. This powerful video analysis tool is a great help to clients, particularly runners, when explaining their injury. I find I can tell an athlete they are weak, but if i show them how their form is breaking down on dartfish video analysis, it makes much more sense and they are usually(!) more compliant with their exercises. Stop by the clinic at 2175 K St for a quick visit, or if you need a check-up, call 202-463-7611 for a complementary screening.

Boston marathon 2010- the three F's.

The Boston marathon was another classic for me. As I have previously mentioned, I view this race a bit differently. It is a way to celebrate the past year of training, while competing with some of the best marathon runners out there. For me, it is also a way to get together with family and friends to celebrate life. Julie and I have gone to Boston for three consecutive years. Each year has a different story to tell but it all come back to the 3 F's: family , friends, and fun.

This year for the race we stayed with Julie's brother David and his family. We were right in Newton so being close to the race course was a bit of a thrill. David was nice enough to take us on a scouting mission over the Newton hills which was great. not matter how many times you have run a course, it helps to see it up close and personal right before you race it. It certainly helped me when I got to the hills to have a good visual about what as around the corner because I had seen it the day before.

Also new for this year was the fact that my college friend Rupert was staying with us. His Scottish charm was a welcomed addition to the house. We talked strategy leading up to the race as we had done many training runs leading up to race day. It was also fun being able to see Bill Potts and Angela doing their first Boston, and Nick lighting up the course as usual.

The race is one that requires strategy. Though most runners do tons of running leading up to race day, most don't have a firm race strategy. I had experienced going out too fast on the course so Rupert and I had a conservative start. We hit half way right on schedule in 1:26 high. In fact, we kept hovering at least a minute ahead of schedule. I tried to ease back knowing the hills were coming. We hit the Newton firehouse right on time. The only problem was that I essentially lost 60-90 seconds on each hill. I managed not to explode but I was not able to maintain the pace I wanted to run a 2:55. I fought hard through the end and came in at 2:59:09, a PR. I was happy to go sub 3 for the first time, but disappointed to not finish stronger.

Each marathon is a learning experience. Though I felt I had trained to a higher level of speed fitness, looking back I suspect I skimped on the endurance work. This is an area I took for granted and it made my finish a bit soft. Most sports psychologists talk about the importance of having a short memory with races. Rather than dwell on the few minutes I left in the hills, I will try to lock in on the new speed, as I dial the endurance back in. Thanks to all for a great race weekend.

10 minute core routine

I attended a Triathlon expo recently which had the usual assortment of vendors and tchochokes. They had a speaker series which had experts discussing topics related to triathlon. I was able to catch Kerri Kramer talking about core strengthening for the multi-sport athlete. Kerri and I worked together for years "back in the day". We had lots of laughs in the clinic and the clients benefitted from having two eperienced and passionate clinicians guiding them. Kerri is now running her PT business, Fast Track Physical Therapy, http://www.fasttracktherapy.com/, where she focuses on treating endurance athletes. During her talk she presented a 10 minute core workout. She essentially highlighted the fact that this type of training does not need to complicated, or elaborate. It needs to be focused, and present! What I mean by this is that core work HAS to be a part of all serious athletes' regular routine. This is particularly true for endurance athletes. The research tells us that as a runner fatigues, their movements patterns change. We instinctively know this. We feel our knees clanking together in the third hour of a marathon. We see our finishline photos which show out posture gone to pot. We know this. So, the question is what to do about it. When I see runners in the clinic, one things I want to know is what do they do besides run. For most, this is not a whole lot. Maybe yoga, maybe pilates, or bike. Rarely is a specific and focused core and hip strengthening routine described. Odd. Strange because this is what the research tells us is what a runner or endurance athlete need to avoid many common injuries. This was the point Kerri was trying to make at the expo- do something! Even if it is only 10 minutes, do something.

The 10 minute routine sounds good, and it is. Basically look at it as targeting the top 5 exercises, doing them each twice for nearly a minute each time, and then moving on. Common exercises to reach for would include the forward plank, the side plank, the bridge, the clam, and sidestepping with resistance bands(pictured above). Ok, so you ask why these exercises? Quite simply, these represent a start to building a foundation of strength in the areas of greatest importance. For example, most research on running injuries describe weakness in the hip external rotators and abductors. That is why we do the sidestepping and the clam exercises. There is a method to the madness! the research also says that a strong core helps create a strong foundation to perform upon. That is why we add the planks. Starting to make sense? Good. Many of these exercises have been presented in video format on this blog so be sure to go back into the older posts to review.

Less thanTwo weeks to Boston

Get your parade wave ready. This is basically my approach to running the Boston marathon. It is a victory lap for the marathon runners out there. Though the qualifying standards have been eased a bit over the years, the reality is still that you can't just sign up for the Boston marathon. You have to earn it. For most people, myself included, this fact makes the trip to the Hopkinton start line that much sweeter.
The first time I qualified for Boston, it was a real chore getting there. I raced the Shamrock marathon in VA Beach to drop 20 plus minutes off my previous marathon PR. The only bummer was that I qualified in March and had to wait 13 months to race the marathon. When I finally got to race day, I was so psyched I could hardly stand it. The race weekend was a blur. You tell yourself to rest and stay off your feet but it is amazing how hard that can be. The expo is huge, as is the buzz leading up to Patriot's day.
Back to the parade wave. My feeling in '08 still holds true today- this is a celebration of a race to toast all the work I put in to get to that place. I worked so hard to prepare that I felt I should celebrate that fact. The race was the perfect venue since the vast majority of the other people there had done the exact same thing. When you are racing, it is easy to put your head down and just focus on your pace/nutrition/strategy etc such that you do not really experience the surroundings. I made the point in my first Boston to take it all in. Again, my mindset was that this was something I had earned so I was going to enjoy it! Not to say that I was high-five'n all the Wellsley girls but if you can't at least smile and wink at a few then what the hell! It is a great race with much history. The feeling of starting with a corral of 1,000 similarly paced runners is pretty cool. Cool, that is until you blow through the first mile under six minutes. Ouch.
So, to Angela, to Bill, to Roo, to Nick, to Timmy, to maybe Chris, to maybe Isabelle, to Elyse, Naoko and all the other runners, let's take a moment to celebrate while in Boston. We have put in the work to get to Boston. We deserve a victory lap. Be a warrior out there, especially up to that left turn on Boyleston St......