About the author:

Medur is our go-to person for many of the essential tasks involved in putting on our races: race setup, our lap counting system and our website. An enthusiastic runner himself, he has participated in many editions of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run in Canada and the US.

Webb named Athlete of the Week

INDIANAPOLIS - Alan Webb has been named USA Track & Field's Athlete of the Week after running the fastest time ever in the men's mile by an American on U.S. soil Saturday at the Nike Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.

Webb's winning time of 3 minutes, 50.85 seconds again took Jim Ryun off the record books and is the fastest time in the world this year. Ryun had held the U.S. all-comers record by an American for 37 years with his time of 3:51.1, on June 23, 1967 in Bakersfield, Calif.

In 2001, as a senior in high school, Webb made history at Prefontaine when he ran 3:53.43 to break Jim Ryun's 36-year-old U.S. high school record. Earlier this year, Webb ran a world-leading 3:32.73 in the 1,500m June 8, in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

World-leading performers from last week include 2004 world indoor 60m silver medalist, Shawn Crawford, who won in 9.88 seconds to become the first person ever to break 10 seconds in the 100 at Prefontaine. Crawford broke Maurice Greene's track record of 9.90, set at the U.S. championships in 2001.

Now in its fourth year, USATF's Athlete of the Week program is designed to recognize outstanding performers at all levels of the sport. USATF names a new honoree each week and features the athlete on the USATF website. Selections are based on top performances and results from the previous week.

2004 USATF Athlete of the Week Winners: January 13, Dan Taylor; January 20, Jen Toomey; January 27, Erin Gilreath; February 3, Jearl Miles-Clark; February 10, Alan Culpepper; February 17, Curt Clausen; February 24, Jen Toomey; March 2, Gail Devers; March 9, Allen Johnson; March 16, Sanya Richards; March 23, Phillip Dunn; March 30, Max Springer; April 6, Colleen De Reuck; April 13, Erin Gilreath; April 20, Maurice Greene; May 4, Tonette Dyer; May 11, Toby Stevenson; May 18, Sheena Johnson; May 25, Tim Seaman; June 1, Maurice Greene; June 8, Christian Cantwell; June 15, Stacy Dragila; June 22, Alan Webb.

BEST MARKS WEEK ENDING JUNE 20

MEN

100 - 9.88 Shawn Crawford (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19 World leader
400 - 45.38 Lashawn Merritt (Virginia HS) - Raleigh, NC 6/19
800 - 1:47.78 Trent Riter (Minnesota) - Stanford, CA 6/20
1500 - 3:34.42er Alan Webb (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
Mile - 3:50.85 Alan Webb (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19 World leader
3000SC - 8:36.30 Tom Brooks (Unattached) - Stanford, CA 6/20
5000 - 13:30.68 Dan Browne (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
110H - 13.14 Larry Wade (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
400H - 48.79 Bershawn Jackson (St. Augustine's) - Eugene, OR 6/19
HJ - 2.30/7-6.5 Jamie Nieto (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
PV - 5.80/19-0.25 Jeff Hartwig (Nike) & Brad Walker (Unattached) & Toby Stevenson (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
SP - 21.74/71-4 Christian Cantwell (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
and 22.25/73-0 exhibition at Atlanta, GA 6/18
HT - 77.78/255-2 James Parker (US Air Force) - Eugene, OR 6/19 U.S.leader
JT - 78.06/256-1 Leigh Smith (Tennessee) - Athens, GA 6/19
Decathlon - 7730 Kip Janvrin (WGADC) - Fargo, ND 6/16

WOMEN

100 - 11.05 Inger Miller (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
400 - 50.02 Michelle Collins (Nike) - Raleigh, NC 6/19 U.S.leader
800 - 1:59.09 Nicole Teter (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
1500 - 4:06.37 Marla Runyan (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
5000 - 15:44.27 Blake Russell (New Balance) - Stanford, CA 6/20
100H - 12.56 Danielle Carruthers (Doyle Mgmt) - Eugene, OR 6/19
400H - 54.24 Sandra Glover (Unattached) - Houston, TX 6/18
PV - 4.70/15-5 Stacy Dragila (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19
LJ - 6.93/22-9 Marion Jones (Nike) - Eugene, OR 6/19 U.S.leader
TJ - 13.38/43-10.75 Stacey Bowers-Smith (Unattached) - Houston, TX 6/18
SP - 17.85/58-6.75 Kristin Heaston (Nike) - Athens, GA 6/19
DT - 57.88/189-11 Deshaya Williams (Unattached) - Athens, GA 6/19
HT - 65.29/214-2 Jamine Moton (Springco) - Athens, GA 6/19
JT - 55.70/182-9 Dee O'Connell (Unattached) - Athens, GA 6/19

Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team articles - more articles

When getting started, it is best to put both your long term and short term goals on paper. I suggest a weekly calendar book with space for each day to record your goals and your workouts, either generally or in detail. The top of each page should have the mileage or time goals you plan to reach for that week with perhaps one or two descriptions about the kinds of runs you plan to do. You can get this information as you read further about the schedule. You can also jot down any cross training activities you would like to do that week, such as weight training, biking or swimming. Having these notes written in your schedule book will remind you and motivate each day to reach these smaller weekly goals on the way to the larger or long range goal.

Stress and Tiredness

The body gradually has to adapt to more and more stress in order to get naturally stronger. This happens to each person at their own unique and individual rate, so it is up to you to gauge your own progress and avoid injury. As you are training, try to always be aware of your level of energy and your physical condition. Consulting another experienced marathoner or coach would help if you are not sure of your recovery rate and level of stress.

"Who is my coach?
He who inspires me
Before I run.

Who is my coach?
He who aspires in the through me
During my run.

Who is my coach?
He who corrects and perfects me
For a better future run."

- Sri Chinmoy

While following this or any other training program, if you feel that by increasing your mileage you are hurting or are exhausted, then take an easy week or a few days off. You should always be aware of your own energy levels and your own body's ability to adapt to stress and recover properly. The following question may thus be appropriate:

Question: Should we run even when we are extremely tired?'

Sri Chinmoy: "As a rule, when we are extremely tired it is not advisable to run, for it will not help us in any way. At that time, running will be nothing but fatigue and self-destruction, and it will leave in our mind a bitter taste. But sometimes, even when we are not extremely tired, we feel that we are. At that time we are not actually physically tired. We are only mentally tired or emotionally tired, but the mind convinces us that we are physically tired. Our human lethargy is so clever! It acts like a rogue, a perfect rogue, and we get tremendous joy by offering compassion to our body. We make all kinds of justifications for the body's lethargy and make ourselves feel that the body deserves rest.

So we have to be sincere to ourselves. If we really feel extremely tired, then we should not run. But we have to make sure that it is not our lethargic vital or our lethargic physical consciousness that is making us feel that we are extremely tired.This kind of tricky cleverness we have to conquer.

With our imagination-power we can challenge the tricky mind and win. We weaken ourselves by imagining that we are weak. Again, we can strengthen ourselves by imagining that we are strong. Our imagination often compels us to think we cannot do something or cannot say something. We often use imagination in a wrong direction. So instead of letting imagination take us backwards, we should use it to take us forward toward our goal."

In your weekly plan book, besides having recorded just what the weekly or short term plans are at the top of each page, it is important to record what you actually did each day in your training. You can include the time you spent training or how far you ran or walked, the type of training you did, how you felt, and anything else which you think will help to remind you of your experience or inspire you in the future. It is an effective method of self-motivation as well as a tool to analyze your training and any problems you may encounter in the future.

Another important feature of recording each workout is that it can help you determine the speed at which you will be able to run the marathon. If you know the speed at which you are training and racing shorter distances, you will be able to determine realistic goals for your marathon time. This is important so that you can plan the long term goals with confidence and enthusiasm. For example, if you have run a half-marathon in 1 hour 20 minutes, you should be confident that with regular distance training you have the capacity to run under 3 hours for the marathon. If you cannot run the half-marathon under a sub-3 hour marathon pace, then you cannot expect to run a marathon at a sub 3 hour pace.

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To determine where to start our training program, we should consider four categories of marathoning. You can decide which one you belong to at the moment, and begin or continue your training from there. The four categories are: Walking, slogging (slow jogging or walk-running), running and fast racing.

If you are in the walking or slow jogging category, you should start to (if you have not already) run or walk five days a week for 20 to 40 minutes each day. This is assuming that your heart is strong and you know you are fit enough to begin a regular training program. If you have a trusted doctor or physiotherapist, make sure they feel that you are fit enough to start a training program.

This basic training period is the time we are building an endurance base and should last for at least two to three months with a slight increase in time or mileage each week if you feel strong. If you increase your mileage each week, the increase should be only 5% to 10% more than the previous week's mileage. It is more important to have the regularity from week to week than to worry about increasing the weekly mileage too much, which could lead to injury or exhaustion. See the upcoming section on schedule to get more information.

To gauge the intensity of the workout, you should take your pulse occasionally, which should be about 70 to 75% of your maximum heart rate during a basic run or walk not involving anaerobic activity such as speedwork. Depending on your age and fitness level, 70% should be around 120 to 140 beats per minute. Your maximum heart rate is approximately 220 minus your age. So if you are 50 years old, your maximum heart rate will be around 170 (beats per minute), or a bit more if you are really fit. 70 to 75% of that is about 120-130 beats per minute which is normal for aerobic training, or jogging at a pace below the anaerobic threshold, as opposed to anaerobic training, or speedwork.

To determine your heart rate during a session of jogging or walking, stop for ten seconds and count the pulse either on the wrist or the neck for only a ten second interval by your watch. If you multiply that by six, you will get your beats per minute(b.p.m.). For example, if you count 20 beats in 10 seconds, then your heart rate is 120 b.p.m. This is more accurate than counting the pulse for a whole minute which lets the pulse slow down quite a bit as you recover during that minute.

"Just start your inner race, without waiting to see
Who else is ready to run with you.
When others see you have reached your goal,
They will also be inspired to run."

- Sri Chinmoy

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