Sacramento Running News

As previously noted here, there may not be very much in the way of actual scientific evidence to support the technology of high-tech running shoes.

Now, similar questions are being asked about orthotics regarding both their value and the science behind how they are designed.

In other words, if a given runner were to go to several different practitioners and have a custom made orthotic built to correct their particular mechanical “issues,” will the practitioners build similar orthotics? (Spoiler: Probably not.)

Their may be some science to back up the use of orthotics to treat certain transient injuries, but not so much for your personal, fundamental, biomechanical oddities.

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Glassy water on Lake Natoma

For all my rowing friends!

The Pacific Association of the USA Track and Field has posted a reminder of the new requirement for teams competing in their Grand Prix events.

As of March 1, 2011 PA/USATF clubs are required to have a minimum number of certified USATF officials (with an LDR/XC specialty) on their club roster to score team points on the PA Road and Cross Country Grand Prix circuits.

This only applies to teams with 25 or more athletes competing, which is pretty much all the big local clubs.

Clubs fielding 25 to 49 runners need one official. Clubs fielding 50 to 99 need two, and 100 or more need three. Details of the requirement are posted here (PDF).

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John is sad because he waited too long to register for AR50.

If, like me, you’ve been pondering whether or not to sign up for the American River 50, well then you may want to make other plans.

It’s just a few days into the new year and already the race is filled to capacity.

There is a handy wait list you can get on–where I now sit at #7, only two back from Anton Krupicka.

Rock pile on the AR50 trail

Most of us spend so much time on the river below Folsom that it is easy to forget there is a beautiful world just upstream from the Folsom Dam.

This photo was taken this afternoon, just a couple of miles from the end of the paved bike path at Beals Point. You should check it out some time.

Don't call me a jogger!

On only his second day as “California Governor 2.0,” Jerry Brown does what many of you do: he went for a run. The Bee has the photos to prove it.

The writer (Hector Amezcua, I believe) does seem geographically challenged, since this appears to be near Old Sacramento along the Sacramento River but the photo caption says:

Gov. Jerry Brown jogs along the American River bike trail near the I Street Bridge

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As we say goodbye to 2010 it’s time for those of us who care to look back and see which local runners ended up on top of the heap.

There is probably a way that some industrious person could analyze all the results of races run by local runners and come up with a ranking that no one could understand, kind of like NCAA football. Unfortunately for you, I am not this industrious. Fortunately for all of us, there are actual races with results and a few really competitive race series that you can test yourself in.

The big daddy of regional competition for  amateur athletes is the Pacific Association USA Track and Field Grand Prix. The PAUSATF region is much more than Sacramento–running north to the Oregon border down to San Luis Obispo, and from the coast to just beyond Reno, Nevada. There is a lot of talent in that pool (including Kevin). There are team and individual results and you can look up your favorite runners’ results here.

I am not going to break out the individual results because there are too darn many due to all the age, distance, and gender divisions. There are many local runners, from the big local teams, landing in the top-ten of their respective divisions.

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Now that your December marathon is done and the baked goods are piling up around the office, are you worried about packing on the pounds over the holidays?

To investigate the impact of when you exercise , a team of sadistic, Belgian researchers put a group of athletes on a horrible, high-fat diet (probably not much different than the standard American holiday diet) and had them not workout, workout before breakfast, or workout after breakfast.

Naturally, the non-exercising group packed on the pounds (those lazy bastards!). But there was a significant difference in the weight gain between the other two groups.

The after-breakfast exercise group, of course, put on less weight than the non-exercise group, but they still gained. However, the pre-breakfast exercisers hardly gained any weight at all.  Their blood chemistry was better too, showing better insulin response.

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You promised yourself you’d get at least eight hours sleep tonight, but you just downloaded the latest Stieg Larson novel to your iPad and now you can’t wait to see what comes next.

You remember you’ve got that hard track workout scheduled for the morning but figure your target marathon is still months away and while you may not be at your peak tomorrow, you can catch up later.

We all know, after all, that sleep is important for top athletic performance and that extra sleep can improve performance and even that lack of sleep makes you fat.

If that isn’t enough to shut your eyes and dream about Lisbet Salander then maybe an appeal to your vanity will do the trick. It turns out that not only does lack of sleep make you fat and slow, we now know it makes you ugly, too.

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Last weekend, Dylan Wykes came down from Kingston, Ontario and won CIM, leading wire-to-wire. I know you are all wondering: “Who is that guy?”

Flotrack has a lengthy interview with Wykes.

It’s an interesting read, covering the race and what it takes to train for something like that. Turns out, Wykes is a Montreal Canadiens fan.