SSPLITPLIT TIME TIMESS OfficialOfficial Publication of the State of Franklin Track Club July-Sept.July-Sept. 20062006 Vol.Vol. 29,29, NumberNumber 33 In This Issue… Tennessee 4 Miler State Championships SFTC SummerSummer TrackTrack MeetMeet Results Off andand RunningRunning withwith OscarOscar Wagner’s TrainingTraining Program!Program! New Trail RaceRace at Bays Mountain!Mountain! Dancing withwith DirtDirt -- Favorite Favorite Running Trails in the Tri-cities. The Back Streets - Chasing Chasing thethe 5K5K PRPR Part 2 – Wooly WormsWorms and Vampires! www.runtricities.orgwww.runtricities.org Split Times, page 1 SFTC Board President……………………David Fox THOUGHTS From The 423-247-5491(H) President – Elect…………..Steve Pastorek EDITOR 423-753-6181(H) Treasurer…………………...Eric Fields 423-247-2101(W) Secretary……………………Brenda Fox 423-247-5491(H) Past President……………...Rob Schoborg Burnout. One of the most dreaded words in any 423-926-1265 (H) runner’s vocabulary. Anyone who has run more than a year has likely encountered this phenomenon. This time Dist. 1 (J. City area) Rep….David Sullivan of year is particularly bad for me – I don’t like running in (Exp. 12-08) 423-737-2046 (H) the heat so by the end of the summer, I am usually at a Dist. 2 (Bristol area) Rep….Matt Studholme physical and motivational low. Three or four months of (Exp. 12-07) 276-623-1209 (H) 80 degree + temperatures and high humidity just sucks Dist. 3 (K’port area) Rep…Mark Skelton the life out of me. So, what do you do about it? (Exp. 12-08) 423-345-2335 (H) Race Walk Rep……………Bobby Baker In my experience, the number one cause of 423-349-6406 (H) burnout is overtraining. Often runners don’t acknowledge that the amount of training their body can handle Important Contacts changes according to age, fitness level, environmental conditions, nutrition and amount/quality of rest. Another King & Queen……………. Matt Studholme important factor is emotional status – problems at work 276-623-1209 Membership……………… Nicole Goodman or in one’s personal life increase production of stress 423-753-3017 hormones and hamper recovery from hard physical Webmaster……………….. David Fox effort. Runners often compound the effects of these 423-247-5491 various factors by ignoring them. If you want to avoid Equipment………………… Tandy Fleming overtraining and burnout, it is important to objectively 423-361-3049 evaluate your physical and mental condition without Volunteers…………………. Bob Townsend comparison to “what you did last year” or to “what so- 423-257-6188 and-so is able to do now”. Split Times Staff How do you tell that you are overtraining? Well, Editor: Rob Schoborg the signs are different for different people. For me, the 623 W. Maple St. first sign is a lack of ability to sleep. Resting pulse rate is Johnson City, TN 37604 another good indicator. If your resting pulse (taken 423-926-1265 (H) before you get out of bed in the morning) is elevated for 423-439-6295 (W) several days in a row, you need a rest day. Another E-mail: [email protected] easily recognizable sign is poor mental attitude. If you don’t feel like running for several days in a row, maybe Split Times is published quarterly in January, April, July and your body is trying to tell you that it needs some rest. October. The deadline for contributions is the 10th of the preceding month. If you are on the verge of burnout, what do you CLUB WEBSITE ADDRESS do? The answer is easy - take a break from running. Do something else - go hiking, biking, play basketball, or WWW.RUNTRICITIES.ORG maybe do nothing at all. This is pretty difficult for most runners, after all, to quote Oscar Wagner, “running is Cover Photo: Tommy Antenucci on his about not quitting”. However, running is also about fun and stress reduction. Taking a few days (or weeks) off way to victory in the Firecracker 4 can give your body and mind much needed rest, miler/Tennessee State 4 Mile Road increasing your enjoyment of the sport and making it Championship. more likely you will be able to train at a higher level later (and get that PR you have been striving for). See you all out on the road! Rob Split Times, page 2 . From the President’s Pen SFTC President – David Fox I promised to teach you a little about the club this year, so here's a few notes. Did you know...? • SFTC earns most of its revenue by being hired by local races or renting equipment to them. • In 2006, SFTC will be involved in almost 50 events. On average, that's almost 1 event every weekend! o 24 equipment rentals o 13 races that hire SFTC to time and tabulate results o 8 races owned by SFTC (plus a few track meets) • The races owned by SFTC are: o War Party 10K o VA Creeper Marathon o Run The Tunnel o Roan Mtn 10K o New Years Wake Up 5K o Duck Island Mile (Spring, Summer, and Fall) • All other races are owned and directed by other organizations or individuals. Many people don't realize this and assume that SFTC has control over most races in the area. Not so. One of the overall missions of the club is to promote running and fitness in our area. As mentioned above, the club is involved in almost 50 races. Plus there are several other races beyond that. But if you went back a few years ago you'd probably only find 15 races or so. SFTC has played a huge role in growing that base. How? Well, besides being hired and offering equipment rentals, we offer: • Empowerment: The SFTC online race calendar is a free tool that helps races select a date and then promote their race to runners in our area. It even has a printable entry-form feature at no charge. • Expertise: Some SFTC members are often asked to guide new race directors with advice on planning, costs, equipment, and other race info. • Technical Knowledge: SFTC has 2 course certifiers who devote many hours to accurately measure and certify courses in the area. As you've probably heard, it's been difficult for the club to find volunteers and liaisons for our hired races. There have even been events where SFTC has had to withdraw... because we couldn't find a liaison and/or volunteers. For example, this year SFTC will not be working the Apple Festival 4 Miler. After years of searching for a liaison replacement, we had to drop that engagement from our work list. That was a very tough and emotional decision. When a new race requests to hire SFTC, we discuss it at our board meeting and attempt to locate a liaison to coordinate the job. If we cannot find a liaison, we notify the race that we cannot accept their request for hire. But we still try to coach them in any way we can. With this abundance of races, the club is in the best financial position it's ever been in almost 30 years of existence. This has come through careful planning and operation of our hired events. But now the board is seeking ways to put some money back into our area. Scholarship programs, grants, rebates, volunteer credits... these are all ways that the board is trying to reinvest in our running community. If you want to learn more or make suggestions, come join us at our monthly board meetings. You'll find the dates and times on the web calendar. David Split Times, page 3 A Game of Backsies By Oscar Wagner About six years ago I was running some pretty good times in an East Tennessee kind of way. Not like Zaf Ahmed, Richard Weeks can do or even like Bob Barber is doing now. Almost all training for those performances was done in Lane 7 at Liberty Bell Track. Let’s be clear that the workouts used were not the major factor in going from a decent good local runner in 1996 to first place Masters at Crazy 8’s in 1999. Conquering gravity had way more to do with this than anything else. I never paid much attention to my weight till our current Split Times editor suggested losing 5 pounds instead of plunge routing the EVA foam out of a pair of perfectly non-militant Nike Ancilles. Incidentally, if you try that, wear a face shield because it slings hot rubber all over. Stinks too. The sign at Liberty Bell says for casual runners and walkers to use Lanes 7 – 9 to save 1 – 6 for competition. Most of my training runs were originally set up in Lane 9 because it had the most gentle curves. However, walkers kind of took over the place and would get three abreast without noticing that some nut in gym shorts already had Lane 9. Furthermore that nut was bearing down on them (and maybe a PR) at about three times their velocity. It was a strong temptation to tell them that if they wanted a real thrill, they should try pulling out in front of a semi on Interstate 81 without looking. The solution was to grudgingly move everything to Lane 7 so I could dodge around into unoccupied Lane 6 to pass. If you’re interested in performance, you have to measure it and all its suspected components. What do you suspect? Stuff you hear about like shoe weight and style, body weight and fat percent, split control, speed work, hydration, rest and training regimen. My training log is composed of about 1700 DATA statements in IBM Basic.