Saturday, June 30, 2007
Words of Inspiration
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
- Mark Twain
- Mark Twain
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Run Club Day 1 Pics
Anais, Cathy, Christina, Christy, and Amy stretch their muscles and chat a bout how they did on the run.
The group munching on granola bars and listening as Joel shared about the 30-minute "Golden Window" period to restore nutrients to the body after a workout.
Hanging out at Corner Bakery after the run.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Trainer's Corner, Week 2
“Training When Not Training: Warm-up, Cool-Down, Recovery, and Rest”
By Joel Kim
Warm-up, cool-down, recovery, and rest are all often overlooked in some training programs. In fact, it is often neglected completely often not because people don’t want to do it, but is more because people are often not educated in this subject matter. Despite our busy schedules, our bodies were not designed for a difficult speed workout without a proper warm-up and recovery. In fact, we often expect to perform at the same level on a regular basis without a proper warm-up, cool-down, recovery, and rest. Unless you are a naturally gifted athlete—who will be considered a mutant by any biologist—you will most likely need time to build up to the main set in your warm-up and have a steady transition from your workout into your daily routine, your cool-down, recovery, and rest. Although a broken clock is always correct twice a day, in my opinion, I believe a paradigm shift will serve us in the long run in preparing for the race in October.
Warm-Up
Although I do not consider myself an expert, I want to provide some pointers on warm-up, cool-down, recovery, and rest. We’ll begin with a common topic: stretching. I will begin by stating that stretching is important for all the right reasons. Your skeletal muscles were meant to relax and to contract. Of the 4 pinnacles of fitness—strength, endurance, flexibility, and speed—regular stretching will increase your flexibility. Stretching will also reduce your chances for chronic or acute pain in your joints, reduce your chances of injury to your body, aid in your recovery, and improve your overall functional strength.
There are two different types of stretches, static and dynamic. The static stretch is when you hold a stretching position for a number of counts, and the dynamic stretch is the mimicking of the movement that is about to be performed in the day’s workout. How long to hold a static stretch? In the big picture, you want to hold the stretch longer AFTER the workout than when you stretched BEFORE the workout. There is not really a formula set in stone that works for everyone, because everyone’s biology, genetics, and running experience are different from each other. But if there is a standard, it is safe to say that a 10-second count is good enough before the workout and more than the 10-seconds after the workout. If someone was to ask if he/she can stretch TOO much, I will say yes. This is especially true BEFORE the workout. It’s because too much stretching will make you weaker. It will make your muscle contractions weaker and can even limit its capacity to contract powerfully. This is why the 10-second count is a good rule of thumb before the workout. After the workout, you can hold it longer. All in all, the best way to figure out what is too much or too little for you is to learn your body and to figure it out for yourself. Experience is the best teacher in this case.
Dynamic stretching is another method of stretching that I highly recommend for any athlete before his/her run workout. It is basically a motion that mimics the training that will take place during the training session. In the case of running, this includes swinging the leg forwards and backwards. You can also incorporate skipping, high knees, and grapevines for the lower body, as well as trunk rotations and arm swings for the mid and upper body, respectively. Dynamic stretching is not designed to be a workout in itself but to activate your body for action. This is also a great way to increase your heart-rate and to get the blood flowing. This can be done before or after your pre-workout static stretch.
While on the topic of pre-workout, you also want to have been hydrating regularly throughout the day before the hour of training, as well as eat in advance as common sense requires.
Cool-Down
After the workout, you need to have a cool-down. A cool-down is basically a steady slowing-down of your cardiovascular functions; you are trying to achieve a steady decrease in heart rate, breathing, and blood flow. In extreme cases, there are a very few stories of marathoners and ironman triathletes keeling over in a heart attack shortly after completing a race. Although this is due to BOTH a lack of a cool-down and dehydration, what happened in this rare case is that the heart-rate of the athlete quickly slowed down, the thicker flow of the dehydrated blood slowed down enough for a small blood clot to form, and the blood clot slowly traveled to the heart, causing a heart attack. Yes, this is an EXTREME example, but I hope to prove a point that a proper cool-down and dehydration can mean the difference between life and death, sometimes quite literally.
Toward the end of your cool-down is the time to revisit the static stretching. Hold the stretch for longer periods of time. Stretch your calves, quads, and hamstrings. But be especially sure to also stretch your hip flexors, glutes, lower back, arms, and shoulders. Although running seems like mostly leg work, these skeletal muscles were also actively involved to hold your running form and to give you strong running throughout your run workout. We will cover running form in a later time. A general pattern that I recommend for a cool-down static stretching session is to perform the stretches that require you to stand first and then work your way down to sitting and then lying down on the ground. This is a great time to rehydrate your body. We will also cover hydration at a later time.
Recovery
After the workout, you will have what’s called the Golden Window. This will aid in your recovery. The Golden Window is a window of opportunity to eat/drink something that is of nutritional value within 30 minutes after your workout and then 2 hours thereafter. This includes a sports drink, a protien shake, a piece of fruit, a sports bar, a goo, and even a half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But whatever you choose to eat, the most important thing is that it is something that you like to eat and that you like the taste. It is a useless habit if your Golden Window is always an experience of anguish. In some cases, if it will take a Snickers Bar to hold you to that promise, than so be it. But candy is highly discouraged for all the right reasons. You must consume SOMETHING, and preferably something HEALTHY. Anything consumed BETWEEN the 30-minute and 2-hour windows or AFTER these windows, your body will not use any of its athletic benefits until 36 hours later.
With the issue of the Golden Window, although we are covering an aspect of sports nutrition, this is an invaluable tool to the runner/walker/cyclist in recovery from the day’s training. And unlike modern technology like emails, cell phones, and chat rooms, your biology will not make an exception for you. This is why people who start to train or workout everyday tend to feel physically and mentally weaker than when they first began their training program earlier in the week. You want to feel strong and mentally alert for the next day’s workout, if not for the next training session. And the Golden Window is a critical piece of that puzzle. If in the case that you cannot meet this Golden Window, I believe that it is better late than never. If you miss the 30-minute window, try to go for the 2-hour window. You must eat a post-workout snack!
Rest
Last but not least, you want to get plenty of rest. Rest is your positive well-being, an overall wellness of your physical health and energy, mental alertness, and your motivation to continue to train and achieve your goal. It’s a good idea to set enough time to do ALL the things that you enjoy and that make you feel good, whether it’s another sport or having coffee with a friend. It’s also a good idea to have good relationships with the people around you and maybe even make a new friend or two. Although we will cover basic nutrition and sports nutrition at a later time, you also want to make sure that you’re eating well and eating right, AND THIS INCLUDES BREAKFAST! Here’s a tip: have breakfast within an hour of waking up. Also, make an honest effort to get your 8-hours of sleep every night. In short, all of these things provide for you physical, mental, and spiritual rest that you will need so that you can take on the next training session. All in all, your rest should be fun and enjoyable. It should not feel labored or scheduled. Take the time to learn your body. In the end, when you are preparing for your race, whether it’s a practice race or THE race of the season, when you get the rest that you need, your running will improve and you will feel good while training.
Wrapping It Up
All in all, the training tip this week is to properly warm-up, cool-down, recover, and rest. On a side note, a good work ethic is an intangible type of character that is hard to teach to an athlete. However, teaching someone the skill set to train smart and to build up and down before and after a training session is much easier to teach. Training smarter is the path of least resistance, the lesser of the two evils, if you will. But it will be naïve and foolish to neglect one over the other, and the truly smart athlete will incorporate both the hard training and the smart training together to achieve the maximum result possible. The training tip this week will give you a set of tools for your growing toolbox in order to race your best in October. Please remember to warm-up your body properly before your scheduled workout. And after your workout, gradually slow down your cardiovascular system, exercise full recovery, and, most importantly, rest your body, mind, and soul. Live to fight another day!
By Joel Kim
Warm-up, cool-down, recovery, and rest are all often overlooked in some training programs. In fact, it is often neglected completely often not because people don’t want to do it, but is more because people are often not educated in this subject matter. Despite our busy schedules, our bodies were not designed for a difficult speed workout without a proper warm-up and recovery. In fact, we often expect to perform at the same level on a regular basis without a proper warm-up, cool-down, recovery, and rest. Unless you are a naturally gifted athlete—who will be considered a mutant by any biologist—you will most likely need time to build up to the main set in your warm-up and have a steady transition from your workout into your daily routine, your cool-down, recovery, and rest. Although a broken clock is always correct twice a day, in my opinion, I believe a paradigm shift will serve us in the long run in preparing for the race in October.
Warm-Up
Although I do not consider myself an expert, I want to provide some pointers on warm-up, cool-down, recovery, and rest. We’ll begin with a common topic: stretching. I will begin by stating that stretching is important for all the right reasons. Your skeletal muscles were meant to relax and to contract. Of the 4 pinnacles of fitness—strength, endurance, flexibility, and speed—regular stretching will increase your flexibility. Stretching will also reduce your chances for chronic or acute pain in your joints, reduce your chances of injury to your body, aid in your recovery, and improve your overall functional strength.
There are two different types of stretches, static and dynamic. The static stretch is when you hold a stretching position for a number of counts, and the dynamic stretch is the mimicking of the movement that is about to be performed in the day’s workout. How long to hold a static stretch? In the big picture, you want to hold the stretch longer AFTER the workout than when you stretched BEFORE the workout. There is not really a formula set in stone that works for everyone, because everyone’s biology, genetics, and running experience are different from each other. But if there is a standard, it is safe to say that a 10-second count is good enough before the workout and more than the 10-seconds after the workout. If someone was to ask if he/she can stretch TOO much, I will say yes. This is especially true BEFORE the workout. It’s because too much stretching will make you weaker. It will make your muscle contractions weaker and can even limit its capacity to contract powerfully. This is why the 10-second count is a good rule of thumb before the workout. After the workout, you can hold it longer. All in all, the best way to figure out what is too much or too little for you is to learn your body and to figure it out for yourself. Experience is the best teacher in this case.
Dynamic stretching is another method of stretching that I highly recommend for any athlete before his/her run workout. It is basically a motion that mimics the training that will take place during the training session. In the case of running, this includes swinging the leg forwards and backwards. You can also incorporate skipping, high knees, and grapevines for the lower body, as well as trunk rotations and arm swings for the mid and upper body, respectively. Dynamic stretching is not designed to be a workout in itself but to activate your body for action. This is also a great way to increase your heart-rate and to get the blood flowing. This can be done before or after your pre-workout static stretch.
While on the topic of pre-workout, you also want to have been hydrating regularly throughout the day before the hour of training, as well as eat in advance as common sense requires.
Cool-Down
After the workout, you need to have a cool-down. A cool-down is basically a steady slowing-down of your cardiovascular functions; you are trying to achieve a steady decrease in heart rate, breathing, and blood flow. In extreme cases, there are a very few stories of marathoners and ironman triathletes keeling over in a heart attack shortly after completing a race. Although this is due to BOTH a lack of a cool-down and dehydration, what happened in this rare case is that the heart-rate of the athlete quickly slowed down, the thicker flow of the dehydrated blood slowed down enough for a small blood clot to form, and the blood clot slowly traveled to the heart, causing a heart attack. Yes, this is an EXTREME example, but I hope to prove a point that a proper cool-down and dehydration can mean the difference between life and death, sometimes quite literally.
Toward the end of your cool-down is the time to revisit the static stretching. Hold the stretch for longer periods of time. Stretch your calves, quads, and hamstrings. But be especially sure to also stretch your hip flexors, glutes, lower back, arms, and shoulders. Although running seems like mostly leg work, these skeletal muscles were also actively involved to hold your running form and to give you strong running throughout your run workout. We will cover running form in a later time. A general pattern that I recommend for a cool-down static stretching session is to perform the stretches that require you to stand first and then work your way down to sitting and then lying down on the ground. This is a great time to rehydrate your body. We will also cover hydration at a later time.
Recovery
After the workout, you will have what’s called the Golden Window. This will aid in your recovery. The Golden Window is a window of opportunity to eat/drink something that is of nutritional value within 30 minutes after your workout and then 2 hours thereafter. This includes a sports drink, a protien shake, a piece of fruit, a sports bar, a goo, and even a half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But whatever you choose to eat, the most important thing is that it is something that you like to eat and that you like the taste. It is a useless habit if your Golden Window is always an experience of anguish. In some cases, if it will take a Snickers Bar to hold you to that promise, than so be it. But candy is highly discouraged for all the right reasons. You must consume SOMETHING, and preferably something HEALTHY. Anything consumed BETWEEN the 30-minute and 2-hour windows or AFTER these windows, your body will not use any of its athletic benefits until 36 hours later.
With the issue of the Golden Window, although we are covering an aspect of sports nutrition, this is an invaluable tool to the runner/walker/cyclist in recovery from the day’s training. And unlike modern technology like emails, cell phones, and chat rooms, your biology will not make an exception for you. This is why people who start to train or workout everyday tend to feel physically and mentally weaker than when they first began their training program earlier in the week. You want to feel strong and mentally alert for the next day’s workout, if not for the next training session. And the Golden Window is a critical piece of that puzzle. If in the case that you cannot meet this Golden Window, I believe that it is better late than never. If you miss the 30-minute window, try to go for the 2-hour window. You must eat a post-workout snack!
Rest
Last but not least, you want to get plenty of rest. Rest is your positive well-being, an overall wellness of your physical health and energy, mental alertness, and your motivation to continue to train and achieve your goal. It’s a good idea to set enough time to do ALL the things that you enjoy and that make you feel good, whether it’s another sport or having coffee with a friend. It’s also a good idea to have good relationships with the people around you and maybe even make a new friend or two. Although we will cover basic nutrition and sports nutrition at a later time, you also want to make sure that you’re eating well and eating right, AND THIS INCLUDES BREAKFAST! Here’s a tip: have breakfast within an hour of waking up. Also, make an honest effort to get your 8-hours of sleep every night. In short, all of these things provide for you physical, mental, and spiritual rest that you will need so that you can take on the next training session. All in all, your rest should be fun and enjoyable. It should not feel labored or scheduled. Take the time to learn your body. In the end, when you are preparing for your race, whether it’s a practice race or THE race of the season, when you get the rest that you need, your running will improve and you will feel good while training.
Wrapping It Up
All in all, the training tip this week is to properly warm-up, cool-down, recover, and rest. On a side note, a good work ethic is an intangible type of character that is hard to teach to an athlete. However, teaching someone the skill set to train smart and to build up and down before and after a training session is much easier to teach. Training smarter is the path of least resistance, the lesser of the two evils, if you will. But it will be naïve and foolish to neglect one over the other, and the truly smart athlete will incorporate both the hard training and the smart training together to achieve the maximum result possible. The training tip this week will give you a set of tools for your growing toolbox in order to race your best in October. Please remember to warm-up your body properly before your scheduled workout. And after your workout, gradually slow down your cardiovascular system, exercise full recovery, and, most importantly, rest your body, mind, and soul. Live to fight another day!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
What Any Successful Training Program Should Have
I had the impression that most people had a great time today. Thanks to everyone who came out. So that you know who your staff is and what they are all about, in this post I want to outline 3 things that make a successful training program:
1. Autonomy--the choice was made by you and not by somebody else.
2. Competence--you know what you are doing, or are at least becoming better at it.
3. Relatedness--the activity connects you in some way to other people.
The first one is on you. We've also scheduled a class on MOTIVATION and MENTAL PREPARATION, which we expect to provide to you closer to race day. For the second item, the trainers will provide the tools to you within the context of this run club. We will set you up for success. And the third is something that we all hope to accomplish with our weekly training, and even perhaps throughout the week, which is building a social club of running enthusiasts, if you will. Your staff hopes to provide ALL these three things for you in order to help achieve your personal running goals for this 2007 Long Beach Half-Marathon.
Often the problem with any training program is that workouts mimic not play but work. For example, we hoist heavy things like suffering shoreman, we row imaginary boats like slaves in a ship's steerage, and we walk endless steps to nowhere. Is it any wonder we're not having a good time? The bottom line is that you really need to understand why you want to do this. And if you don't really want to exercise at all, latch onto an outcome you DO want, such as more energy, better health, or a faster 5k. But beyond understanding your motives, I believe the most important key is just to reconnect with your own natural instinct to play! :)
See you next week!
1. Autonomy--the choice was made by you and not by somebody else.
2. Competence--you know what you are doing, or are at least becoming better at it.
3. Relatedness--the activity connects you in some way to other people.
The first one is on you. We've also scheduled a class on MOTIVATION and MENTAL PREPARATION, which we expect to provide to you closer to race day. For the second item, the trainers will provide the tools to you within the context of this run club. We will set you up for success. And the third is something that we all hope to accomplish with our weekly training, and even perhaps throughout the week, which is building a social club of running enthusiasts, if you will. Your staff hopes to provide ALL these three things for you in order to help achieve your personal running goals for this 2007 Long Beach Half-Marathon.
Often the problem with any training program is that workouts mimic not play but work. For example, we hoist heavy things like suffering shoreman, we row imaginary boats like slaves in a ship's steerage, and we walk endless steps to nowhere. Is it any wonder we're not having a good time? The bottom line is that you really need to understand why you want to do this. And if you don't really want to exercise at all, latch onto an outcome you DO want, such as more energy, better health, or a faster 5k. But beyond understanding your motives, I believe the most important key is just to reconnect with your own natural instinct to play! :)
See you next week!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Directions to Rose Bowl, Pasadena
Please click here for directions to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, Pasadena.
Address: 360 North Arroyo Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91103
![[ Yahoo! Maps ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uJ5-olUSqfeAuVtTGxSr7QmxPgDCS8oPKYkeNK5GElWfkDjIqU8-gvco5jD2VA05IBIguI4k9YCeyDeZ8_dc7A4TIqbPZKerRsDboRneI2NFQrXoAeLfIyDA=s0-d)
Map of
360 N Arroyo Blvd, 91103
Address: 360 North Arroyo Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91103
Map of
360 N Arroyo Blvd, 91103
Monday, June 11, 2007
Half Marathon / 10k Training Schedules
Meet The Trainers
Christina Fu has been attending YNEM since 2003. She has been involved in Love Ministry, Life Group, @Touch, and various other ministries. Christina currently works as an architectural and interior designer, is 28 years old, and resides in Alhambra.
Christina has always enjoyed the out doors, but did not start taking exercising seriously until she started running regularly in college. She would occasionally bike, swim and indoor rock climb, although she never had formal training in any of these areas. She is passionate about learning and seeking improvement in areas of physical health and activity. Christina has run in a few 5Ks and 10Ks events in Los Angeles and in the Bay Area, and is looking forward to setting a mile-stone in her life by running the Long Beach Half-Marathon. She recently placed 3rd in her age group in the Fiesta Days 10k run race.
Christina is a 2nd degree black in Taekwondo and has competed and refereed for several competitions. She is also an instructor at a studio in Temple City.
Joel Kim, Training Director, has been a member of the Young Nak Presbyterian Church since 1990. He is actively involved in the community with LifeGroup, Health Professionals Ministry, and Alpha Skid Row, just to name a few. He is currently a captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, and is seeking civilian employment. He hopes to one day align his professional experience and his passion for athletes in order to accomplish a successful career transition into healthcare, perhaps even going into sports medicine with a rehabilitation center or the VA Hospital. He is 30 years old and currently resides in La Crescenta.
Although he enjoys running, he actually considers himself a triathlete, and has since competed in numerous triathlon races, going on his 2 years and 8 month period. Some of his triathlon races include the L.A. Triathlon, the Accenture’s Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in San Francisco, and the Big Kahuna Half Ironman in Santa Cruz just to name a few. He’s also raced in numerous 5k & 10k races as well as the annual L.A. Bike Tour. In fact, he recently completed the World Famous Camp Pendleton Mud Run with Darren Wong and placed third in his race class. He has also dedicated his time and effort in fundraising $3,500 for cancer as a triathlete for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Team in Training. He is currently a member of the Young Nak Bike Club and is a member of USA Triathlon.
Joel believes that racing not only promotes physical wellness but also mental and spiritual well-being. Joel hopes to help YNEM members who are of different fitness levels, body types, and gender achieve their goals, whether it is training for the 5K Run/Walk, Bike Tour, Half Marathon or Full Marathon. For those first timers, he hopes to abate your fears and to build camaraderie in training for this event. And for those veterans, he hopes to not disappoint your expectations and to not inhibit the growth of your personal aspirations.
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Darren Wong, has been a member of YNEM for the past 4 years. He currently serves as director of YNEM's Alpha course and is also part of the host team. Darren works as an assistant trader / content editor for The Connors Group. He is 28 years old and currently lives in Hollywood.
Darren's passion for sports started with swimming at an early age. He later moved on to water polo in high school where he helped his team win a CIF championship. In college, he was heavily into weight lifting and began training for a marathon. In 2004, Darren completed the LA marathon (along with his fiancé to whom he proposed to during the race) and in 2006 he finished the LA Triathlon in the top quarter out of 1400 participants.
Darren has also run in various 5k and 10k races, with his favorite being the annual Camp Pendleton Mud Run. He looks forward to meeting all of you and helping to build a community of running enthusiasts.
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