Fish oil is a useful supplement for endurance athletes to take. Here’s why.

One subject that continues to come up in conversations about recovery and injury prevention is fish oil — absorbing the omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil will help a runner ward off the damaging effects of inflammation. It has become a required staple of my transition into CrossFit Endurance.

Fish oil is a topic in the CrossFit world that is relentlessly brought up. If you aren’t supplementing with fish oil, the thinking goes, you’re not maximizing what the benefits of all the hard work you’re putting in. Overall health is another area where fish oil is said to be a huge factor.

When I used to think of fish oil, I couldn’t help but think of the encapsulated version that has the rather unfortunate quality of tasting like … fish oil. One small burp is enough to remind you of what you ingested.

Brian Mackenzie and Kelly Starrett both recommended the Stronger Faster Healthier brand — it’s manufactured for athletes and comes in flavors like vanilla, mint, lemon, tangerine, and chocolate. “You’ll use it every day,” Starrett said. “My kids love the mint. They can’t wait to get their spoonful of mint fish oil.”

He was right. And the mint is particularly good.

I sent a few questions to Stronger Faster Healthier (a division of Maine Natural Health that is specific to sports nutrition) to find out more about their position of why fish oil should be a supplement not just for health, but also for athletes.

RELATED: The Importance Of Fish Oil (Video)

The responses come from Dr. Jeff Leigton, the Chief Scientist for Stronger Faster Healthier. According to the company’s website, Dr. Leigton is “a professional pharmacologist, applying biochemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology, and functional genomics to the design of products that improve health. Jeff has discovered and developed many drugs for the pharmaceutical industry, where he served as Principal Scientist or V.P. of Pharmacology. He has also founded and served as CEO, CSO or Board member of numerous biotechnology companies.”

Competitor: Your website states, “Omega-3 is a natural anti-inflammatory agent. Chronic inflammation is connected to an array of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, heart failure, cancer, etc.” Is there a body of peer-reviewed research supporting this claim that any athlete can study?

Dr. Leigton: The lay and academic literature have many references to omega 3 oil use and the control of inflammation. When I reviewed this literature, I was left unsatisfied. The reason for this feeling is that every study was done differently. For example, different dose strengths were used, different formulations (gel caps and liquids) and the time in days for dosing and measurement varied. Further, the diets of the patients varied as well. For these reasons, only trends could be analyzed and all of these trends indicated benefit.

Thus, we at Maine Natural Health, over the course of a year, completed a systematic 3-month study on the role of liquid omega 3 oil containing 4.0 grams of omega 3 oils given day on inflammation. A patent on these studies has been submitted as well. Bottom line was that pain and inflammation was decreased from 25 to 45% depending on the starting pain assessment value. In the near future, I will present these findings in Tables and Figures and also publish on our web site.

Competitor: Aside from protection from disease, what are the specific benefits that the anti-inflammatory effects of fish oil provide for athletes?

Dr. Leigton: Our studies were completed in the general population — not high-end endurance athletes. Crossfit athletes have experienced excellent benefits from our omega-3 oils. Pain and inflammation associated with work outs or injuries has diminished and recovery time between workouts has been reduced.

What might we expect in the endurance athletic community? Endurance sports induces inflammation and adrenal stress. Inflammation factors such as CRP, IL-6, TNF-aplha all go up dramatically. These factors actually degrade muscle mass and affect the health of organs and tissues. High dose omega 3 oils decrease these inflammatory factors, and enhance protein utilization and affect recovery times. In the future, we plan to use a finger prick blood test to actually measure the inflammatory markers before and after an endurance event and relate to our supplementation guidelines.

RELATED: The Great Fish Oil Experiment

Competitor: What would be a protocol of supplementation you’d recommend for endurance athletes?

Dr. Leigton: We believe that there are 5 important times to supplement for an endurance athlete:

1. Normal training and rest days

2. Pre-workout on game day

3. During the event

4. Immediately after the event

5. 2 hours and then 24 hours after the event

Currently, we have developed an endurance product for use on the day of an event. This product emphasizes building non-glycogen potential energy. It is designed to stimulate our internal power plant (our mitochrondria, who make ATP). ATP is the major energy molecule in the body. ATP drives all activities in our cells from protein synthesis to cell electrolyte balance.

We have also designed an immediate post-workout product. Again this product is focused on replenishing ATP levels in our tired cells and organs after a work out. We do not believe that a high-carb diet either before or after a race makes any sense because high impact carbs (high glycemic carbs) push insulin excessively leading to chronic inflammation and other chronic diseases. Thus it is possible to be “fit” and not healthy. We want you to be fit and healthy and the key to this is ATP, controlling inflammation and reducing the magnitude of insulin spikes.

During the event, our bodies will benefit from combination of low- and high-glycemic products, many with a mid-molecular weight size of 250,000 to 500,000 Daltons. We are developing this type of product and want to do field testing in the near future.

Competitor: Ingredients in your product include “EPA” and “DHA.” What are these and what do they do?

Dr. Leigton: EPA and DHA are omega-3 fatty acids. These are the only two active fatty acids. Do not confuse with the omega-3 fatty acid called ALA. This one is essentially inactive. How much omega 3 oil should I take??? Depends on one’s diet. If your diet is low in omega-6 fatty acids then a little as 4.0 grams/day for an average person is acceptable.

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One lifelong runner talks about hitting the magic mileage number.

On Oct. 29, 1970, Mike Fanelli — then a 15-year-old freshman on his high school cross country team in Philadelphia — registered his initial entry to his very first running logbook. “Calisthenics,” the heading reads, laying out the day’s plan of training that included jumping jacks and touching the toes.

“I was just rolling with laughter when I found this recently,” Fanelli said. “Here’s an entry that reads, ‘Didn’t run because the weather was bad.’” Another note he jotted down reads, “Ran too soon after eating.”

Fanelli, who is now 56, is a successful real estate agent living in San Anselmo, Calif. He found his original log when reflecting on what had become a benchmark goal reflective of his lifelong obsession for running. At the Philadelphia Marathon last November, Fanelli logged his 100,000th mile.

The 100,000-mile goal took shape a decade ago, when Fanelli’s calculations showed his proximity to the six-figure number. “I had 30 years of being a runner and realized, ‘Holy s#*%, I’m at 86,000 miles!’”

When he got within 200 miles of the goal, Fanelli says he felt a spring in his step. He planned his running so that his 100,000th mile would coincide between the 13- and 14-mile markers of last fall’s Philadelphia Marathon — the same place his road racing career began.

“It was at the Philadelphia Art Museum, past Boathouse Row,” Fanelli said. “All Philly road races used to start and finish there. I’ve spent a lot of time there reflecting back and appreciating all the joy and memories that being a runner has brought me.”

Fanelli’s journey as a runner and former coach of the San Francisco Impalas, an all-women’s running team, has been vast. He ran his first marathon at the age of 16 in 3:36, and recorded his PR of 2:25 in 1980. He raced on the cross country and track & field teams at San Francisco State University (where he still holds the school record in the 10,000 meters), and in 1990 he threw himself into the ultrarunning world at the Lake Tahoe 72-mile “around the lake” ultra, an experience he considers one of the most difficult — and profound — of his life.

RELATED: Run Your First Ultramarathon

Going out at a three-hour marathon pace, things began to get ugly when the course neared the casinos on the Nevada border at the 30-mile marker. “I hit the wall so hard,” he said. “Totally blew up. And there I was, with 40 more miles to go.”

Through a combination of willpower and talking himself through each step, Fanelli managed to finish in 10:42, an effort still good enough for second place.

“I’ve never hurt more in my life,” he said. “But I came through it all with a deep perspective: I felt like there was nothing I couldn’t do.”

Later, Fanelli’s ability to handle discomfort would be tested in a way that almost killed him. In June of 1996, he was in a truck accident. The steering wheel of the truck he was driving smashed into his nose. In the ensuing months, he became plagued with severe headaches that doctors couldn’t cure. On New Year’s Eve that same year, Fanelli was in so much pain that a longtime friend, San Francisco chiropractor and triathlete Peter Lewandowski, had to carry him into a local hospital.

Doctors determined Fanelli had sustained a lumbar puncture and was suffering from fungal meningitis, a potentially fatal condition. Determined that wasn’t going to be his fate, as soon as he was released from the hospital he went back to his home in the Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco where he lived at the time and re-opened the log to scribble in an entry. “My third day home I ran around the block,” he says. “The next day, I ran around the block twice.”

Fanelli’s passion for the sport continues, although in a full-circle sort of way. He’s training for the 800m and 1500m at the national masters track and field championships in Olathe, Kan.

“It’s just great to get back on the track,” Fanelli says, no doubt foreshadowing an upcoming post to a logbook that never ends.

This piece first appeared in the March 2013 issue of Competitor magazine.

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The 39-year-old from Austin tackled an ultra-ambitious racing season in 2012.

“If you want something you’ve never had, then you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.”

This was the quote, from an HBO documentary, bouncing around in Paul Terranova’s mind as he made his first strides, during an early-morning run in the Crestview neighborhood of his hometown of Austin, Texas, last March. It was day one of the 39-year-old management consultant’s new training program, designed to prepare him to tackle the audacious task of the Grand Slam of ultra running—finishing four classic 100-mile running races in the same calendar year. To up the ante, Terranova decided to add a unique multisport twist to his checklist: the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, the flagship ultra-distance race of the triathlon world.

Terranova tore into his ambitious goal with a 20-miler, mixing in half-marathon race pace intervals. After the run he got in his car, pounded some coffee, and drove to the Barton Creek Wilderness park for another two hours of trail running. Not bad for a first day.

The idea for Terranova’s “Grand Slam Plus Kona” took shape in late 2011 when he simultaneously received a lottery slot for the Western States 100 and also earned an entry to the Hawaii Ironman. Aware of the existence of the Grand Slam through crewing and cheering on his ultra-running wife, Meredith Terranova, he considered the possible landscape for the entire 2012 season.

“I figured if I was going to take a crack at Western States this year, I might as well go for it all,” Terranova recalled

Sure, why not? Well, for starters, Terranova had never run a 100-miler before.

RELATED: Training In The Hills

The Grand Slam of Ultrarunning is achieved by running four grueling big daddies: Western States 100, Vermont 100-mile Endurance Run, Leadville Trail 100-mile run and Wasatch Front 100-mile run—all within the same year. As a three-time qualifier for the Hawaii Ironman, the triathlon aspect of his gambit was the one race in his plan that would provide familiar territory.

His training plan worked. Opening up the attempt at Western States in late June, Terranova finished in 47th place in a time of 20:12:15, a strong performance for an ultra rookie, one good enough to earn him a silver belt buckle. At the Vermont 100 in July, he finished in fourth in 16:19:30. The following month on the famously challenging Leadville 100 course in the oxygen-drained, high altitude air of Leadville, Colo., he clocked a 21:04:45 for 17th place. Then he polished off the running-only part of his endeavor with a 23:17:25 to snag an eighth-place finish in the Kaysville-to-Midway Utah event. And on the Big Island of Hawaii on Oct. 13, Terranova posted a 10:24:39 at the Ironman World Championship.

Even without the Ironman tacked on, Terranova’s Grand Slam performance in 2012 has secured his status in the ultra world. He covered 400.2 miles in 80 hours and 53 minutes total time, good enough for eighth fastest time in the runners started doing the Grand Slam in 1986.

Looking back on the trail runs, Terranova says he was thankful to have three 100s under his belt before he took on Wasatch and its knee-and-heart grinding 26,882 feet of climbing and 26,131 feet of descent.

“In the final 25 miles you go straight up to one of the highest points on the course,” Terranova says. “Then it’s just these fierce uphills and downhills. And you’re running this all at night, through shoots and gullies — a course a sane person wouldn’t run in daylight.”

And for the future of “Grand Slam Plus Kona”? “Well, I hope it catches on!” Terranova says cheerfully.

Sane people need not apply.

This piece first appeared in the February 2013 issue of Competitor magazine.

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MobilityWod.com’s fitness star, Kelly Starrett, is on a mission to prove that mobility work is a gateway to high-performance.

Kelly Starrett’s physical therapy office is not a mauve-carpeted affair, equipped with humming electro-therapy computers and XM radio streaming soft rock through Bose speakers. Instead, his office is a mobile container unit in a parking lot behind a sporting goods store, surrounded by Paleolithic training equipment,like tractor tires, squat racks and beer kegs.

“I like things gritty,” he says.

When required he will invite you inside—into the metal container that has an 800 number stickered next to the door should you want to rent or buy your own storage container. If Starrett decides to work on your injury-induced scar tissue, rather than reaching for an ultrasound machine or muscle stimulator, he will snatch a multi-colored chunk of rubber and, before digging in, address the curious look on your face by identifying the mysterious gadget in hand as a “premium dog toy.”

If you’re not confused enough, he will then launch into the following allegory punctuated by his flair for action-packed sound effects:

“I went to Mexico once and rented a car and abused it, playing ‘Gas-o, Brake-o.’ To play Gas-o, Brake-o I keep the gas pedal pegged to the floor and accelerate and decelerate with the brake. WHAM! I’m redlining. WHAAAAAH! until the car is about to blow up. So I swing into my hotel and park the car and a guy comes running up to me and says, ‘Señor!,’ pointing at the rear tire because it’s erupted into flames.”

Why is he telling you this?

“If you’re a runner with really tight hips and poor sliding surfaces in your joints, you’re running around revving your engine with the brakes on. Your playing Gas-o, Brake-o. And now your knee is on fire.”

And now you start to get it.

This is what Kelly Starrett needs you to know: With a few simple rules—a few basic ideas—you, the athlete, can be empowered and take responsibility for your body and health by using 10 minutes a day for mobility work, dousing the flame-erupting friction with “motion-is-lotion” movement.

“You cut your finger and you know what to do—you clean it up and put on the Band-Aid,” Starrett said. “Why not be able to work with your muscle tissue?” He emphatically adds you can learn to take care of your body in a way that will minimize injury risk, unleash untouched powers of performance and boost your quality of life until you’re “110 years old. BAM! World domination.”

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Scroll through the carousel at the left for a glimpse into the exploding number of minimalist choices.

Let’s get something straight—minimalist shoes have been around for a long time. Racing flats, cross-country racers and track spikes have long been major players in the super-light shoe domain. And almost any runner who has made the jump to a track spike can tell you that common sense is required during the transition. Track spikes, which enable you to run at a speed so fun it produces giddiness, can also leave your calf muscles feeling like exploded grenades.

VIDEO: Shoe Talk on Competitor.com

But racing flats and spikes are meant for two things—speed work and racing. And along with the running booms that have transpired since the 1970s, the mainstream category of shoes meant for logging daily miles on the roads, sidewalks and trails have evolved into a many-layered beast of categories and sub-categories. Terms such as “neutral,” “motion control,” “stability,” “lightweight trainer,” “cushioned” and “trail”—mixed in with podiatry vernacular such as “overpronation” and “oversupination”—have made for an increasingly confusing decision making process for consumers.

With Christopher McDougall’s “Born to Run” best seller giving thrust to the backlash against the belief that the overstuffed, overbuilt running shoe is the “best” shoe, and the emotionally charged barefoot running movement drawing in all-comers, the running shoe companies (and the $2.5 billion in sales they generate annually, according to the National Sporting Goods Association) have responded. This year’s shoe collections are robust with minimalist models that promise a barefoot running experience—better form, less injury, more fun—that is realistic only for some. There are deeper ranks of runners who want the benefits but need at least some protection from the asphalt.

This user-friendly guide is intended to shed some light on the design and thought behind the new models populating today’s minimalist shoe category. These shoes vary in purpose, materials and construction of lasts, but the key components that gauge the severity of the shoe are the light weights, amount of “drop” from the heel to the forefoot, and thin (or non-existent) midsoles. Traditional running shoes typically measure a 12mm to 16mm difference in heel-to-forefoot height. Some minimalist shoes have moved down to the “zero drop” level with little or no midsole, meant to offer a simulation of running through the jungle without the fear of cutting your feet.

We have also sought advice on the mechanics of making the transition to a minimalist running shoe. There is one key point here uttered many times over, and that is in regard to patience and gradual adaptation. This especially applies to individuals who have been running in heavy-duty shoes and have tender feet and weak tendons and ligaments. Just as it takes someone new to running to adapt to the stress of pounding the pavement, going to a minimalist shoe almost always requires a cautious approach of progressive exposure. Otherwise, the very injury you may be hoping to avoid could strike with alarming speed.

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America’s specialty running shoe retailers continue to survive, and in many cases thrive, despite the rise of online commerce, big-box store discounts and a tough economy. How are they doing it?

On Nov. 5, the day before the 2011 ING New York City Marathon, I visited the New Balance Experience Store, which opened in August, on 5th Avenue and 20th Street. It’s a swanky establishment with theater acoustics, bleached hardwood floors, brick walls and full-spectrum lighting setting off Lifesaver-colored displays of apparel and shoes. Near the back of the store is the New Balance Testing Center, which houses a treadmill for gait analysis and a lane of synthetic track that extends through a corridor and into a crash pad.

The coolest thing: At the front of the store in what looks like an elaborate DJ booth is an operating shoe-building lab, which showcases that New Balance continues to make some of its shoes in the U.S. During my visit, a young man named Carl was making NB 880s. He would wrap fabric around a last and center it on a foam midsole, checking featherpoints to ensure the alignment was exact. From there, the shoe-in-the-making went through several machines, including one called a sole press, exposing Carl’s creation to 126 degrees F and 45 PSI. He then used a “delaster” to pop the shoe off the last and showed me the completed product. My inner shoe geek emerged; watching Carl glue the shoe together was a highlight of my day.

The New Balance Experience store is a corner running shoe store on designer steroids.

More from Competitor.com: Once A Running Shoe Salesman

I recall how the dynamics of business in the early aughts applied plenty of pounds per square inch to specialty running shoe stores. The discounts offered by big-box retailers were one thing, but the rise of discounts on shoes sold through the Web was another. As a former specialty running shoe sales guy, I will tell you that it’s a depressing feeling to spend a half hour or more playing matchmaker with a customer and their perfect shoe only to hear them ask, “Can you write down the name of that shoe for me? And the size?” It happened to me plenty of times—at my feet would be four or five pairs of shoes that needed to be re-boxed and returned to the stock shelves. I watched customers walk out knowing they were going home to order the shoes online for a $5 discount.

There were big-box stores, mail order and then the new potential enemy: the concept store. Some time ago, when I worked at Hoy’s Sports, a running shoe store in San Francisco, Niketown came to the city. It resembled a theme park more than a shoe store. I recall the first time I stood in the running department. There was a glass case that contained six-time Ironman champion Mark Allen’s open logbook. The apparel hung sensationally in lighting that was surely done by Steven Spielberg. If you asked to try on a pair of shoes, a space-age elevator machine delivered them from the depths below the store. I descended down to the first floor on escalators, awash with music and imagery, and thought about the good old running shoe store in which I worked, where it just so happened we sold our share of Nikes. I remember thinking, “How are we going to compete with this?”

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Are you an early-morning or a late-night runner? Be seen on the roads this winter.

Written by: T.J. Murphy

$30, www.newbalance.com

Picking up the Tri-Viz running hat, you’ll notice it’s heftier than most other water-resistant, sweat-wicking running caps, but this hat comes equipped with four ultra-bright LEDs to illuminate dark streets. Pinch the bill of the cap to activate a beam of bright light and feel more confident on early morning or night runs.

This piece first appeared in the December issue of Competitor Magazine.

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Competitor magazine editorial director T.J. Murphy shares his experiences trying out a new approach to nutrition.

Written by: T.J. Murphy

Illustration: Hunter King

When Dr. Barry Sears’ book, “The Zone,” appeared on bookshelves across the nation in the mid 1990s, it climbed to best-seller status. Yet the medical community turned a liquid nitrogen-cold shoulder toward Sears and his hypothesis that the over consumption of processed carbohydrates was at the root of the growing obesity epidemic. At the time, the mainstream thinking was that the path to preventing heart disease and losing weight was staked in an ultra low-fat diet, advising macronutrient levels that delivered 15 percent or less caloric consumption from fat and most of it, around 70 percent, from carbohydrates.

In contrast, Sears suggested a ratio of calories from: 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat. He steadfastly advises that people following these ratios get their calories primarily from turkey, chicken and fish, egg whites, cottage cheese, vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables, fruits such as berries and apples, and monounsaturated fats from olive oil, nuts or avocados.

The Zone ratios, 40/30/30, are a critical starting point, Sears has written, to achieving the zone where the hormonal reaction to what you eat is optimized. Too much carbohydrate triggers too much insulin response, Sears says, which over time can lead to insulin resistance, a step toward Type-2 diabetes. An appropriate amount of protein in every meal, Sears says, can release enough of the hormone glucagon to balance out insulin stimulated by carbohydrates. Sears writes that fats are hormonally neutral but send the invaluable message to the brain that you’re full.

I followed the Zone Diet with a scientific zealousness over a six-week period between mid-August to the end of September. “Following the Zone diet can be hard work,” Sears told me over the phone. “What I’ve tried to do with my books is give people the tools to make it easier.”

The first few days were challenging. To find the prescription, I subtracted my body fat in pounds from my overall body weight to come up with my lean muscle mass. I also factored in my overall activity level every day, including the intensity, to identify how much protein I needed, in grams, every day. From this total number I extrapolated (using the formula in Sears’ books) the number of carbohydrate grams and fat grams to work in concert with the protein.

At the beginning of the six weeks, I weighed in and had my body fat percentage measured. At the end, my athletic performance improved in both a basic running time trial and a variety of strength moves. I lost four pounds of weight and my body fat percentage dropped three percent, or one full percentage point.

The challenge of pushing myself to follow the Zone doctrine also shifted my diet into an uptake of more raw vegetables than I have ever eaten. Although the 40 percent carb goal is lower than a 60 percent or higher goal as advised in weight loss programs like the Pritikin diet, if you strive to get those calories from vegetables and fruits rather than grains, you end up eating a lot more sheer volume of food than you might imagine. I never went away from a meal hungry during those six weeks and cravings for sweets and desserts were drowned away. To incorporate the Zone diet into my long-term lifestyle, I’d need to invest more time in learning recipes, for variety’s sake.

For more information on Barry Sears and the Zone Diet, visit www.zonediet.com.

This piece first appeared in the December 2011 issue of Competitor Magazine.

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On January 21 in Murrieta, Calif., the CrossFit Community will gather for the largest DHP Fundraiser yet.

In 2009, Brad McKee, a sniper serving in the U.S. Marine Corps with two tours of duty behind him, spent a week visiting comrades being treated at the Army Burn Unit of the Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, Texas. For McKee, it was a life-changing experience.

Matthew Wildes, died August August 27, 2009 in Afghanistan from an IED, "son of proud parents Mary and Clint Wildes."

“When you go to see these guys who are victims of burns to their face and their body, and some were guys I was serving with when they were hit, you’re exposed to a whole different dimension of rehab,” he says. “It was a very emotional experience for me. You have a total respect for what they’re going through.”

These words take on additional weight when you consider that McKee lost 20 friends to combat deaths while serving. He lost three others to suicide.

The patients at the BAMC are typically covered with third-degree burns and are in critical condition. Rehab can require dozens of operations, skin grafts and excruciating pain requiring years of recovery. Back in his hometown of Hammond, La., McKee, further inspired by a fellow Marine, Keith Zeier—who despite critical injuries suffered from a roadside bomb in Iraq recovered and ran a 100-mile ultramarathon to raise $50,000 for the Special Operations Warrior Fund—decided to run an ultramarathon to raise money to support returning soldiers and their families in April of 2010. The Disposable Heroes Project (DHP) was born, with the mission of bringing attention and support to those soldiers and veterans struggling to reset their lives.

McKee is also the owner and head trainer of CrossFit Hammond in Louisiana, and it’s been through the Crossfit world that DHP has held a series of events, often in concert with Crossfit certification seminars, where money is raised and veteran’s stories are told. In addition to preliminary fundraising orchestrated by the host CrossFit gym, funds are raised on the day of the event through the sale of t-shirts and donations. A group workout is also held.

For a $25 donation, you’ll receive this T-shirt. All proceeds to service veterans and families in need.

McKee works with Sam Macaluso and Kyle Clements to operate the project, all three contributing on a volunteer basis. McKee will visit veterans and their families to indentify a need that the fund can help satisfy. “We will fly a wounded vet out to our events and surprise them.” The DHP has helped veterans with a range of support, from paying rents, buying airline tickets and furnishing homes.

McKee’s military background has helped to open channels that might otherwise not be open. “They need the assistance but they won’t ask for help. They’re not going to speak up for themselves. There’s an instant connection when I’m in the house of one of the families. We’ve shared a similar experience and I think it helps put them at ease.”

This coming January 21st at CrossFit Overload in Murrieta, Calif., the DHP will be holding it’s largest event so far according to McKee. In attendance will several of the wounded veterans the DHP works with. Navy SEALs and members from CrossFit HQ will also be present.

For more on how to donate to the DHP, to buy a t-shirt or to attend the event, go to http://thedhproject.org or send an email to vol@theDHproject.org.

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Briana Drost: Police dispatcher, grad student, competitive Crossfitter. Photo: T.J. Murphy

How Briana Drost lost 30 pounds and went from desk potato to competitive CrossFit athlete.

PAIN IS TEMPORARY. QUITTING IS FOREVER.

Surely with a distressed look on my face and standing 20 yards south of CrossFit Ali’i, in Kona on Hawaii’s Big Island, a reasonable-sounding voice in my head was producing a variety of highly attractive justifications why I shouldn’t take forward steps. It was 5:15 in the afternoon, 15 minutes before the last workout at the gym—or “box” per CrossFit vernacular—on a sizzling, humidity-drenched day. CrossFit Ali’i is, like many CrossFit boxes, a warehouse space in an industrial zone that you enter through a vast roller door. I was off to the side, kind of hiding, where I could hear the 4:30 class emitting sounds that indicated they were in the throws of a metabolic conditioning workout, aka met-con, the CrossFit staple of constantly varying, high-intensity, lung-torching workouts relying on combinations of functional movements. Movements like burpees, box jumps and clean and jerks. Dick Meldrum was probably leading the class, an instructor who started with CrossFit during a deployment to Iraq when he was a member of the 82^nd Airborne. I had been in his class the previous day, where I learned how to flip a tractor tire and had my clock cleaned in a wall ball throws and pull-ups met-con.

I didn’t want to go in. Alibis gamely marched through my head. I recalled how many years ago at the first practice of high school track season at Kennedy High School, in the  miserable month of Iowa February weather, Coach Al Stiers told us how it was never too cold for a Cougar to run. He then handed us a “Handy Alibi Sheet” that listed about 100 of the most frequent excuses he’d heard from various whining Cougars over the years (my favorite being, “I drank too much pop yesterday.”)

Related–Burning Runner: Inside The CrossFit Culture

I could have used that sheet in Kona. A solid alibi would support me trumping my way down Palani Hill and into the Kona village, where I would find a good beach bar, order a mai tai and watch the sunset.

I was snapped out of my mai tai daydream when a ripped-fit Crossfitter, 6-foot-4 or 5, apparently just having finished the met-con, stumbled out the door and into the parking lot, hands on knees and heaving for air, where he announced, “That sucked!”

This was my future if I jumped in the 5:30. I knew one thing that wouldn’t suck: A mai tai. Now almost 100% about to bolt, I thought about Briana Drost. If I wimped out on this workout, how could I ever face Briana Drost, a fellow member of my home box, Crossfit Elysium? Or face any of the other CrossFit Elysium faithful?

If I wimped out, what would Briana think?

I went in and got clobbered. I was glad and relieved I did it, recalling a Navy SEAL motto: “Pain is temporary. Quitting is forever.”

The post Inside The CrossFit Culture, Part II: The Overhaul appeared first on Competitor.com.

"It’s allowed me to feel like an athlete again," the author says of CrossFit.

One old-school runner shares his experience trying out a new approach.

A quick recap of why I got into CrossFit in the first place.

On paper, I felt like I should have been a beacon of super health. For nearly a year I’d been logging 40 to 50 miles per week, punctuated with tempo runs, long runs and interval workouts. I was practicing a vegan diet—fruits, vegetables, rice, beans, nuts, soy and tofu. Twice a week I was performing a set of core body strength exercises, on top of a basic stretching routine.

It was in October of last year that I crossed the finish line of the Rock and Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon that it started: a complete physical breakdown of my body. I’d walked 200 yards past the finish and I sat on a curb, gritting my teeth at how much my knees felt like they were on fire. I couldn’t put a stop to it. Two weeks after the race I developed a limp, a painful one, where every other step it felt like a knife had been jammed underneath my kneecap. For six weeks I couldn’t shake the limp. I was worried cartilage surgery was waiting for me on the horizon.

More from Competitor.com: Burning Runner: An Inside Look Into CrossFit Culture

These frustrations were underscored by the fact that through the entire year preceding the half marathon my progress had been so meager—50 miles a week with speed training should have been yielding more results.

Not long after this I paid a visit to Nutrilite headquarters in Orange County where they gave me a battery of health and fitness tests. The blood workout showed that I had developed a high-level of insulin resistance, or hyperglycemia, a state that can also be described as being pre-diabetic.

Whatever I’d been doing had not been working out for me. This is when I tuned into the promise of CrossFit.

Anyone who watched the “CrossFit Games” coverage that was broadcast last week on ESPN 2 could see the all-around fitness—strength, stamina, power, speed and endurance¬—being displayed by elite CrossFitters. I’m sure most of these folks got into CrossFit blazing with enthusiasm and a desire to be super fit. When I decided to throw myself into CrossFit, I just wanted to be able to run again.

That was last November. Reading about CrossFit, talking to CrossFitters and followers of CrossFit Endurance, I knew it would be a slow and painful process. When I started I couldn’t perform five consecutive burpees—a CrossFit staple—or more than 3 pull-ups—another staple. My right thigh was atrophied, my left Achilles tendon was strained and my knees felt like I spent 10 minutes a day beating them with a hammer. Atrophied is a good word—mentally and physically I was a puddle.

Photo Gallery: 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games

It’s been 10 months since I started CrossFit. At the beginning it was a bit like opening up the hood on a Ford that’s been rusting on the driveway for years, the odometer reading 300,000 miles. I had no idea what the experience was going to be like. It’s been surprising. It took an adaptation to high-intensity work. It required humbling. But there’s no doubt about the working results—I turned 48 years old on Sunday. I can say that in many ways I am stronger and fitter than I have been since I was a teenager. My body fat percentage has dropped from around 20% to 13%. At the beginning I could not execute a single overhead squat with even a PVC pipe. Now, with knees that never required surgery, I can do them with 100 pounds, squatting to a 90-degree level, and sometimes even a bit below that. I’ve become a student of Brian MacKenzie (Endurance), Kelly Starrett (Mobility), Mike Burgener (Olympic Lifting), Carl Paoli (Gymnastics) and Dr. Barry Sears (the Zone diet). The coolest thing has been the coaching at my gym, CrossFit Elysium in San Diego, where I learn daily from coaches Paul Estrada, Leon Chang and Stacie Beal. Here’s something I never imagined would happen at a gym: at Elysium I’ve developed friendships with a bunch of terrific people and I enjoy one of the bonds that I believe is a core reason why CrossFit is booming in the country and around the world: a tightly knit, mutually supportive community of coaches and athletes from all walks of life.

When I’ve traveled I’ve dropped into other CrossFit boxes and have also found this quality of comradeship. CrossFit San Francisco, CrossFit Southie in Boston, Crossfit Marina in Orange County and Hoosier CrossFit in Bloomington, Indiana. I can’t imagine every using a hotel gym again.

With the rusted automobile image in mind, I still have months of work ahead of me before I believe I’ll be able to enjoy racing the way I’d like to. But since ESPN 2 is showing the CrossFit Games in September, I thought I’d share a bit about what I’ve experienced so that anyone who might be interested in trying CrossFit might have a better idea of what it’s all about, what’s it’s like and how to get the most out of it.

The post Burning Runner’s Advice For Would-Be CrossFitters appeared first on Competitor.com.

Written by: T.J. Murphy

Myoropes range from $15 to $25. Pictured here is the “Sixer” at $24.99.

Lacrosse balls have become the rage in the world of self-massage and recovery and are serving as an especially potent weapon when it comes to tight calf muscles and tight iliotibial bands.

The intent of the Myorope is to elevate the specific dig-in power of the lacrosse ball into a form that produces a foam-roller-like rake effect.

“Myorope works well in places that other rollers typically don’t, including hips, arms and backs,” says Myorope’s Neil Fischbein. “Some folks also like to roll laterally on their legs and IT band, something that is often more difficult with bulky rollers.”

More from Competitor.com: Relieve Those Athletic Aches

First Impression: In my first session with the new massage tool, I especially liked using it on the glutes and IT band. And I found it far more effective and easier to use on the calf muscle than a single lacrosse ball—the rolling pin design of the Myorope gives you an even scrawl through the muscle tissue. If you want to deliver some deep work into the back muscles, you will not be disappointed. Not for the feint of heart when it comes to self-massaging the back muscles—I could barely take it.

Definitely a nice addition to your box of massage and mobility tools and tricks.

More from Competitor.com: Stay Injury-Free With Self-Massage

[sig:TJMurphy]

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CrossFit San Francisco’s Kelly Starrett tells you how to stay fast, supple and injury-free.

One year ago Kelly Starrett, DPT and co-owner of CrossFit San Francisco, set out to record a year’s worth of near daily video blogs. Starrett (probably the strongest, most supple finisher ever in the history of the Quad Dipsea trail ultra), in developing an immeasurable bank vault of mobility exercises valuable for runners, not only provides the how but the why. A runner committing 10 minutes a day to Starrett’s “Mobility Workout of the Day,” or MWOD, is destined to bound away with some impressive understanding of mobility, tissue health and how it all ties into unleashing great performance.

Related: Hate To Stretch? BAM! Not anymore.

It was nine months ago when I was introduced to Starrett’s approach to maintenance. Six weeks before I was struggling with a knee pain and limp that I thought for sure was going to require surgery. In my particular case, the limp disappeared immediately after beginning the daily ritual of dedicated 10 or 15 to just one of Starrett’s gems. Over the following pages is a “Best Ten” arsenal of exercises that if practiced with dedication—Starrett says there are no days off when it comes to recovery—has the potential to prevent injury and increase performance in any runner, regardless of background, age or talent.

Photo Gallery: CrossFit Endurance Exercise Demonstrations

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A new partnership with Reebok, combined with a strong sense of community and competitive environments, will keep momentum going.

Chris Spealler is the owner of CrossFit Park City in Utah where he also coaches. He’s competed in every CrossFit Games since its inception and picked up three top-five finishes.

It’s just killing Kelly Starrett. He shakes his head slowly, eyes fixed on the fault, a profound hurt registering in eyes. It’s bright and warm, late on a Saturday afternoon, day 2 of 3 at the Reebok Crossfit Games at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. He’s watching a young woman perform a set of seven front squats with 155 pounds, and in her drive to complete the movement her butt sticks out as she overextends her lower back.

Over-extension: Starrett agonizes when he sees it—an athlete sacrificing the physics power that midline stability and mechanics are begging to serve up. The break in posture opens the athlete to potential injury and, as Starrett puts it, “leaves performance on the table,” laying there like a pile of gold coins. Starrett, a physical therapist and owner of CrossFit San Francisco with his wife, Juliet (who competed in the Games last year), has logged tens of thousands of hours coaching athletes, watching them move and obsessively coaxing them into better mechanics. Obsession is the right word: Problems of movement simmer in his thinking despite the busiest of days, his working solutions being posted daily, for almost a year now, in videos on mobilitywod.com.

“Crossfit is the perfect tool to expose holes in our movement,” he says. “A Crossfit gym is a lab: it’s a safe place to press boundaries, experiment, test and re-test, see what works and what doesn’t work, and become better athletes.” Starrett’s out to make the case that increasing performance is not limited to how much we can train or how hard we can train, but peak genetic performance becomes achievable only when posture, mechanics and movement are developed like skills, freeing up more power and becoming more efficient. When another athlete allows her knees to buckle inward as she thrusts the weight from a deep-knee bend to a standing position, Starrett slowly shakes his head again. “She’s so broken,” he says. Starrett knows he could help her if he just had the chance. This is how he’s hardwired and why most everyone in the stadium knows his name.

CrossFit is not just about becoming the athlete of the future, he’ll tell you. It’s about becoming a better human being. It’s about self-actualization. It’s about creative thinking, it’s about not being OK with imagined limitations, it’s about maximum effort. It’s about living your life hard and well and with joy.

Welcome to CrossFit.

Photo Gallery: 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games

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For 50 years, the world’s best runners have adhered to the Arthur Lydiard doctrine: the importance of a high-mileage base. Now, a skateboarding powerlifter turned endurance athlete is trashing tradition, claiming high-intensity, low-volume training is better. Runners have called Brian MacKenzie the antichrist. But could he be right?

This piece first appeared in the June 2011 issue of Competitor Magazine.

The headquarters for Crossfit Endurance is a two-bedroom house, just a few blocks off Interstate 405, in an Orange County suburb. Brian MacKenzie, the founder of Crossfit Endurance, lives and works here. There are whiteboards throughout his home and garage, and MacKenzie even uses the glass of his dining room table to scrawl notes, workouts and diagrams. A bike is set up on a stationary trainer in the family room, a treadmill resides in the living room, and his “office” is a broad desk piled with books, magazines and a desktop Macintosh. It is through this computer that he does the bulk of his communicating with what has become a loose-knit network of coaches and endurance athletes around the world.

The heart of MacKenzie’s laboratory is in the garage. The cardio gear includes a Versaclimber, a rowing machine, a watt-based bicycle ergometer and another treadmill. Against the rear wall is a squat rack with piles of barbell weights on either side. Kettlebells—including one in the shape of a skull—are scattered throughout. A pull-up bar hangs from the ceiling, as does a climbing rope.

When I visit MacKenzie, he is wearing board shorts, a black T-shirt and black leather Chuck Taylor high-tops. Built like an MMA fighter, the sinewy 190-pound MacKenzie is not your average ultrarunner. He stands in the center of the garage over a heavily plated barbell preparing to deadlift the weight from the floor to waist-level. He’s doing seven rounds of two repetitions, and to increase the resistance at the top phase of the lift, two green stretch bands are hooked to clips bolted into the cement floor. They are taut across the barbell at each end. MacKenzie’s posture is taut as well, like a fist. He reaches down with tattooed arms and hands, and the weights explode upward as he launches the lift.

Dynamic powerlifts like this are one of the core elements of his creation, a regimen that seems to have divided the runners and triathletes familiar with it into two camps: reverent followers on one side and on the other side, CFE skeptics, some of whom post on forums such as Letsrun.com and Slowtwitch.com, calling him a “tattooed snake-oil salesman” and “the antichrist.” So far, the dissenters haven’t been able to bring him down.

Click here to check out Brian MacKenzie’s 12-Week Advanced Training Program

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It’s all about small meals and balance.

During my reporting for the stories this in this month’s issue of Competitor Magazine on Brian MacKenzie and Crossfit Endurance, I dug deep into the Crossfit Journal archives and came away with a strong introduction to the Zone Diet, the original 40/30/30 diet created by Dr. Barry Sears some two decades ago.

The central premise of the Zone Diet is that by choosing the right balance of foods and eating small meals spaced throughout the day, we can guide our hormonal responses to food intake into a Zone where energy, mood, mental clarity and physical performance are maintained at a high level.  According to Dr. Sears, weight gain and weight loss is far from being a simple matter of calories in/calories burned. Rather whether we pack on fat or burn it is largely regulated by the all-powerful hormone system.

There’s quite a bit to be said about the Zone Diet. During the month of June I’ll refer to the common terms that you’ll find in the books by Dr. Sears (like “Enter the Zone,” originally published in 1995) that will help detail key points of the approach. Subjects like hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, inflammation, insulin, glucose and the brain, and many others are within the spectrum of Dr. Sears’ discussion on diet.

A quick description of the Zone Diet from www.drsears.com:

“The Zone is not some mystical place or some clever marketing term. It is a real physiological state in your body where the hormones that control silent inflammation are maintained in a zone that is not too high, but not too low. This requires treating food as if it were a drug to be taken at the right dose and at the right time. However, saying food is a drug is actually derogatory to food since your diet affects hormones that are hundreds of times more powerful than any drug. In many respects, food will be the most powerful drug you will ever take because you are using this drug at least three times a day for the rest of your life. Thus your diet can be your greatest ally or worst enemy because the hormonal rules for humans haven’t changed in the past 150,000 years, and they probably won’t change tomorrow.”

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Formerly the home of Hoy's Sports, 1632 Haight Street in San Francisco. Photo: T.J. Murphy

A longtime runner reflects on the motivation and madness behind the endurance lifestyle, and how once you start living it, there’s no turning back.

I am not an elite athlete; I never have been and never will be. Yet every day I obsess about running. I psych myself up for training. I think about freeing myself from injuries. I dream about races I want to do and study ways to rev up speed and stamina, a search I’ve conducted since the 1980s. It was then that I went mad for running and, recently while reminiscing over the days when I worked at a running shoe store, I wondered why, after so many years of obsession, I haven’t become completely sick of it all.

I’ve raced everything from 800 meters to the mile to marathons and Ironman triathlons, and spent years selling running shoes; after that, I spent years as an editor for endurance magazines. It’s 21 years and counting and I’m still possessed by a sport I stumbled into because I wanted to exact revenge on a childhood nemesis who (sort of, but not really) stole my girlfriend.

I was managing an espresso bar in San Francisco on Kearny Street when I first met Kelly. It was 1989. She had strawberry-blonde hair and green eyes and a great laugh, and she swirled into the bar at 1:30 every afternoon to buy a latte and to chat. It would have been lovely to conclude she dropped in daily because she had a crush on me, but our coffee was ridiculously good. So, rather than simply asking her out, I decided to throw a party, invite her to the party, and then—per my plan—during the party gain more information as to my chances of her saying yes to being asked out. And only then, if this information was of the encouraging variety, would momentum push me over the cliff of white terror and into the adrenalized state of action. To me it was an artful plan, and it turned out I would indeed gain more information. The results would also radically change the direction of my life.

Kelly happily accepted my invitation—an outstanding sign. On the Friday evening of the event, she was the first to show up. But minutes into getting her a drink and an exchange of small talk, she mentioned her boyfriend was on his way. “Is that okay?” she asked. My response was, “Well sure. Yeah. Wow.”

He arrived. Within a few minutes the situation darkened from bleak to disturbingly weird. Through an introduction I quickly learned that not only did the boyfriend and I hail from the same state, Iowa, but we also grew up in the same town, Cedar Rapids. We went to rival high schools, where we both played football. He played defense for Washington and I was a running back at Kennedy. How astronomical were the odds of this? While this was the first time we had been introduced, there was little doubt that on at least one occasion, we smashed into each other’s skulls.

Near San Francisco's Cole and Oak Streets, the starting point for the author's first marathon training run.

And here he was and I was handing him a beer.

Within the next five minutes of painful discussion, he mentioned he was racing the Donner Lake triathlon. Without thinking, I replied: “No kidding? So am I.” I had no such plan of course, and the next day I found an entry form and started training.

To cut to the chase of the story, I didn’t get the girl. But at the triathlon, I did beat the guy. And the final weirdness was that through this suspicious chain of events, I fell hard for the world of running and haven’t looked back.

After experiencing the decadent joy of winning a duel over a lost woman, I started eyeing a marathon. I lived on Cole Street in San Francisco, near the Panhandle, and less than three blocks away was Hoy’s Sports. Originally a general sporting goods store named after the owner’s father, Hoy’s had evolved into a specialty running retail store.

Like many runners, buying a new pair of running shoes is a symbolic act of commitment to a new goal. I went to Hoy’s and was sold a pair of Nike Skylons by the manager, Mike Fanelli, who in time I would learn was a running legend in the Bay Area, with strong credentials from the 10,000m to the ultra. He was also the enigmatic coach of the Impala Racing Team, a powerhouse all-women’s team that continues to thrive today.

Fanelli was fantastic at selling running shoes. There I was, just a guy wanting to see if I could finish a marathon, and Fanelli had me feeling like I was destined for an Olympic training center.

In fact, Fanelli not only sold me a pair of running shoes that day, but he also sold me on the idea of selling running shoes. About half a year later, after I had finished the Big Sur Marathon, I applied for a job at Hoy’s and got it. For the next four years I lived a dream life of the not-completely-untalented-runner: My entire existence revolved completely around distance running; I was as close to being a pro as I could have become.

I was mad for the marathon at the time, and throwing myself so deeply into the sport had its benefits. In my first marathon I ran 3:20. A year later I was in the low 2:50s. With one more year of training I recorded a 2:38. Thinking back I’m sure my time dropped so fast because I was rarely distracted from the task.

I lived in a room in the Victorian flat above Hoy’s, a bare existence, with a futon and a small television and a tattered copy of John L. Parker Jr.’s “Once a Runner,” the cult classic novel. I couldn’t afford a car and didn’t own a bike. I ate $3 monster burritos every day.

A running friend from England once dropped into town, and when I told him about how I lived and worked at a running shoe store making maybe $8 an hour, trained all the time and lived on rice, beef and beans, he looked at me with earnest jealousy and said: “You’re living the dream life.”

Only another running geek would have said something like that, and I agreed with him. I was embracing the secret every distance runner uncovers—that having a level of discipline and sacrifice is infinitely more enjoyable than suffocating in pure comfort.

Mike Fanelli, Jose Lizarraga, Jim Tracy, Mike McManus, John Murtagh, Frank Noto, Kevin Cruikshank, Mary Gleason—these were my fellow co-workers, running partners and friends. McManus, Lizarraga, Noto and I joined up on Sunday mornings for three-hour-plus runs that went across a fogged Golden Gate Bridge and into the sweeping landscape of the Marin Headlands.

We also shared in the surreal experience of selling running shoes in “the Haight,” the otherworldly neighborhood of Haight Street, the spiritual epicenter of the 1967 Summer of Love, the Grateful Dead, hippies, punks, red necks and drug addicts. While Fanelli was determined to shape Hoy’s into a high-performance running and track and field store, we “paid the rent,” as he used to put it, by selling truckloads of Converse hi- and low-tops. Literally truckloads. Whenever the Converse truck pulled up, those of us on the sales floor groaned with self-pity because the dozens of large cardboard boxes, containing hundreds, seemingly thousands of pairs of canvas shoes, all required organizing, stacking, moving and shelving and that didn’t set us up well for a 10-mile after-work run. More than twice I developed a case of sciatica from being on my hands and knees and dealing with Converse. German tourists would come in and buy a dozen boxes alone, and once every month or so a teenage Deadhead would dig into a satchel and out came the gold credit card bestowed upon him by a presumably wealthy parent, and he would buy Converse for all of his friends.

We sold shoes in the spiritual epicenter of the 1967 Summer of Love, the Grateful Dead, hippies, punks, red necks and drug addicts.

We had no shortage of fascinating running shoe customers. Once a year the angriest woman I ever met would come in to buy a new pair of javelin spikes. Forget trying to get a smile out of her—it was all about trying to keep her calm, as she appeared to want to drive a car over me if she got the chance. We who served her kept our distance and obeyed her requests, bringing out the various models of javelin shoes we had in her size. I’d lace them and hand them over. She’d slip them on, spike-less and on the carpet, and with teeth clenched, she’d start simulating a javelin throw in the store, ripping back and forth with explosive strides, perhaps imagining she was throwing the spear through my head. When she finally decided on a pair, she wrote a check. On the check was something about San Quentin—she was a prison guard I assumed. I didn’t ask to confirm.

Another incident with a javelin shoe occurred during one of the common lulls of a weekday morning. I was alone on the sales floor, sipping coffee, when in walked one of San Francisco’s MIAs, one of the many mad street people that frequented the Haight. He had long, wizard-like hair and eyes that spun like pinwheels. He stepped into the store with grave uncertainty, and the storm of color from the shoe wall seemed to suck him in. Then he zeroed in on the top shelf, near where I stood, on a blue Diadora javelin shoe. The shoe perched on one-inch long spikes that looked like fangs. He took three long, shaky steps, bloodshot eyes growing wider. He shot a look at me, sheer panic, and then went for the shoe, picking it off the shelf and turning it upside down as he moved in. With the metal spikes shooting upward he held the shoe close to my face and asked desperately, “What are these for?” My javelin answer must have satisfied him as he put the shoe back, turned around and lurched out to the street.

We had several characters from the distance running world who also kept us entertained. Two that stood out were a pair of 20-somethings famous for cheating in the local Dolphin-South End races. Like the javelin spike wizard, they had pinwheeling eyes and were accurately dubbed, “Team Cannabis.” DSE races have long been the ultimate grassroots race series, resembling low-key club runs, and back then cost a dollar or two to enter. Whatever glory one might obtain after cutting a course to try to beat a bunch of happy joggers, some in their 70s, was a big story for those of us at Hoy’s. In addition to being caught cheating, one of the members of Team Cannabis, Allen I think his name was, dropped out of a Golden Gate Park DSE race when the course veered seductively too close to a concession stand near Stow Lake. Rather than stay in the race and fight his way to a win—or cheat his way to a win—Allen stopped running and went and got a hot dog.

Once, when Allen was in the store buying a pair of shoes, I asked him what he did for a living and he told me he was in law school at the University of San Francisco. How the heck, I considered with alarm, did this guy get into law school? When I rang up the sale he told me not to forget the 10 percent discount his membership in a local running club provided him.

“So how much are the shoes again?” he asked me.

“They’re $100, Allen,” I said.

“So how much off with my 10 percent discount?”

I paused to answer because I thought maybe, just maybe, he was joking, but from the glazed look in his eyes I realized he wasn’t.

“That would be $10 off, Allen.”

“Oh!” he said with cheer.

At least Allen paid for the shoes. One day Jose Lizarraga was working alone at Hoy’s and dealing with several customers at once, ducking in and out of the stock area to fetch different models and sizes for customers to try. Hoy’s was not in a mall but on a street with a lot of foot traffic, tempting shoplifters. And on this day a teenage boy decided to make off with a pair of Nikes, sprinting west on Haight Street toward an entry to Golden Gate Park. While he might not have known exactly what mix of speed and stamina a 31-minute 10K runner possessed, he found out in about three blocks. Lizarraga, after doing a couple of toe touches in the doorway, got in a nice jolt of interval training, caught up with a panting kid and said, “Hand them over.”

Not that the good guys didn’t get in trouble as well. Kezar Stadium was located at the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park and at the time was locked up—the original stadium, built in 1922, was formerly the home of the San Francisco 49ers and was used in the Clint Eastwood film “Dirty Harry.” In my first year working at Hoy’s, the stadium had been demolished so they could rebuild it into the new Kezar Stadium, a much smaller-capacity venue with a rubberized track surface that is open for public use. For San Francisco track, triathlon and running clubs, it’s a home for year-round, weekly team interval workouts. When it was being built, we were an excited lot, but one of us, Sean Scott, a running shoe tech rep, got impatient and jumped the fence to go and check out the freshly laid track surface. After some wind sprints he ran upstairs to use a bathroom. While in the bathroom, he heard a rather unfortunate sound of a key turning the tumblers of the door bolt. He was locked in the stadium bathroom that had only a small window, not unlike a high-security prison cell. Scott had no alternative but to begin repeating cries for help until he was eventually discovered and saved.

The collision between a running shoe store and Haight Street was rarely boring.

A good running shoe sales guy knows not to overstep boundaries, particularly when a customer asks questions they should be asking someone who attended medical school. It was surprising to get questions like, “My knee is screaming. What is it?” or “Do you think I have a stress fracture?” or “My arches feel like they have knives stuck in them. Sell me a shoe that will fix me.” I would usually remind them what should have been apparent: A guy making eight bucks an hour is likely not qualified to answer such a question. I recall trying to learn from Fanelli how to look at a foot strike and gauge biomechanics, pronation, supination and such, but this is how I usually sold running shoes: I would insist the customer try out a variety of brands and models and wait for a love connection—a pair of shoes that brought them joy because of how they felt. Over the years I was aware that for one runner a Saucony felt sublime, but the next runner would only light up with a New Balance, a Mizuno or an Avia. People would form bonds with their favorite shoes, be it Asics or Nike or Brooks, and throw tantrums when the shoe companies altered or discontinued a model. One thing Hoy’s had was just about every shoe you could find, so it was rare when we didn’t find the magic pair for someone. But to be honest, despite having studied the shoes, I probably couldn’t have told you why you liked a certain shoe and hated another. What I was good at was bringing out lots and lots of shoes and essentially just wearing you down until lightning struck.

The best part of the job was working with people new to running and seeing their enthusiasm at the idea of entering a race. They reminded me of myself the first time Fanelli sold me shoes. It was almost a religious act—the day I first put them on I went on the first run of a six-month marathon plan. I started my run on the sidewalk that enters the Panhandle, near the intersection of Cole and Oak streets. The sidewalk curls westward toward the park, and I recall running a simple four miles, a half-hour run that re-launched my life.

In late March this year, I went to San Francisco and took a few moments to visit the spot from which I started my first training run in 1989. That was the day I went from thinking of myself as an occasional jogger to becoming a competitive runner. A chill went through my spine. I found it startling to look at the area of blacktop and consider how much time had gone by, and how I’m still mad for it all as much today as I was then. I walked up Cole Street to Haight Street, turned left and stopped in front of what used to be Hoy’s—it closed about five years ago and now it’s a snowboard shop. The sign said it was open, but a woman came to the door and told me they’d be closed for another hour. Through the window I could see where the shoes used to be—not to mention the weapon-like Diadora javelin shoes. Now, it was a rack of snowboards. To me it was a great loss, but I am glad to know that in the age of Web stores and Wal-Mart, true running shoe stores continue to flourish around the country, with shoe geeks like me living the dream life and creating new generations of endurance junkies.

This story first appeared in the May 2011 issue of Competitor magazine.

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Typically in Crossfit Endurance we have triathletes work up to a weekly schedule that includes the following: 4 days of Crossfit training, 3 strength-training days and 2 days each of sport-specific training for swimming, biking and running.

The following program is scaled down to more of a starter program. Each week will include the following: 3 days of strength, 3 days of Crossfit and 3 days of sport-specific training.

Click here to view the 12-Week CrossFit Endurance Advanced Training Program.

Runners, Cyclists & Swimmers

This is also a starter schedule. Ideally my athletes will work up toward an additional 1 to 3 more days of Crossfit workouts per week. This is where we see the greatest gains in performance.

Technique is critical to all the exercises listed! I highly recommend finding a Crossfit gym (Crossfit.com) and/or Crossfit Endurance program (Crossfitendurance.com) and look into coaching and classes to help you nail down technique and midline stability. Technique and sound fundamentals are key to preventing injury and gaining all the performance potential out of the Crossfit Endurance program.

LEGEND

Endurance
1. 8 x 200m with 2 min rest = 8 rounds of 200m repeats with 2 minutes rest between each 200m. The repeats are to be held as tightly as possible, meaning as little deviation as possible or on the prescribed times.
2. TT = Time Trial
3. 85% = 85% effort/time of distance asked. So if it is a 5K and your best time is 20 minutes, 85% of that effort would be 23 min (20 x .15 = 23, .15 being 15% of 100 or 85%). Coming as close to 23 min would be the goal.

CrossFit
1. < 10 min WOD = less than 10 minute Workout of the Day
2. > 10 min WOD = greater than 10 min Workout of the Day
3. M = mono-structural metabolic conditioning or “cardio”
4. G = gymnastics, bodyweight exercises
5. W = weightlifting, powerlifting and Olympic lifts

Strength
1. ME: Max Effort, from warm up to 2-3 rep max effort should take between 10-15 sets total
2. DE: Dynamic Effort, after warm up reaching 50-60% of Max Effort weight, 1-3 reps at desired weight on specific recovery or time basis. Effort is to remain under .75 second for contraction phase. If you cannot maintain speed of the bar, weight should drop until proper speed is achieved or workout is over.

Click here to see photos of the exercises described below.

How CrossFit Works
There are 3 buckets of CrossFit content as listed below. Mix these in as many different ways as possible. Keeping in mind that routine is the enemy, and if you are following this program you will need to keep in mind that if there are two ME days for strength then there will be < 10 min WODs that are M/W specific.

Click here to see photos of the exercises described below.

1. Metabolic Conditioning (M)
   1. Running
   2. Bike
   3. Row
   4. Jump

1. Gymnastics (G)
   1. Bodyweight Movements (become proficient here before lifting weights!)
      1. Air Squat
      2. Pull-up
      3. Push-up
      4. Dip
      5. Handstand Push-up
      6. Rope Climb
      7. Muscle-Up
      8. Press to Handstand
      9. Back Extension
      10. Sit-up
      11. Jumps
      12. Lunge

1. Weightlifting (W)
   1. Deadlifts
   2. Cleans
   3. Presses
   4. Snatch
   5. Clean and Jerk
   6. Kettlebell Swing
   7. Stones
   8. Tire Flips

The post Brian MacKenzie’s 12-Week CrossFit Endurance Advanced Training Program appeared first on Competitor.com.

Is LSD, Arthur Lydiard-style training the only way to train as a distance runner?

A bit of a snippet from some of the reporting I’ve been doing for stories on Crossfit Endurance that will appear in the June issue. One of the things I’m looking into–both for myself as a runner and also as a journalist–is digging into the question, ‘Is LSD, Arthur Lydiard-style training the only way to train as a distance runner?’

As someone who has tried to follow Lydiard-style programs for 20 years now–and I say ‘tried’ becaue injuries have derailed me more than I care to think about–there comes a point when you have to ask, ‘Is there another way?’ Because I’ve the traditional approach has been a productive one for me.

Crossfit Endurance–loved by many who follow it, and dismissed by others as ‘snake oil’ (to quote a forum post on the subject) is without a doubt not based on the Lydiard model of training. CFE does away with the idea of periodization and strips the running program down to 2 to 3 running workouts per week, intervals, time trials and tempo runs.

In the past month I’ve been talking to a lot of people about CFE, and recently I’ve been reaching out to ask for feedback from runners and triathletes who have tried it, wanting to know if it worked for them or not. In the coming six weeks, as I prepare for the Rock n’ Roll Seattle race in late June using CFE, I’ll share some of that feedback with you.

Below is a quick bit of reporting from one of my interviews looking into one of the problems that arises from high-mileage training: “Breaking down” or “over-training” types of fatigue. Below are a few notes.

A possible advantage of dumping high-mileage for low-volume, high-intensity training might be overall health and wellness. Dr. Jeff Leighton is a pharmacologist and biochemist with deep roots in the biotechnology industry, and corresponds regularly with CFE’s Brian MacKenzie in developing sports nutrition products like recover protein and fish oil for Stronger Faster Healthier. He says that the deep fatigue produced by high-mileage training is a warning sign of unchecked levels of inflammation, free radicals and muscle loss.

“There’s a spectrum involved with muscle acidosis,” he says. “On the most severe end you have cancer. Why does a cancer patient waste away? It’s because the inflammation is so high the muscle degrades. It’s the same at a milder portion of the spectrum, like when you get a cold, or an infection, and you lose weight. It’s because of these high levels of inflammation.” Leighton explains that the common symptoms that arise from high-mileage training, muscle loss, fatigue and sickness, are cellular inflammation effects caused by high levels of training stress. In Parker’s novel, “Once a Runner,” it’s called “breaking down” and is portrayed as a necessary steppingstone in the runner’s life.

“While there’s so much good being done from exercise, the athlete induces a lot of damage to their bodies by performing well,” Leighton says. He also says diets high in processed carbohydrates—like the infamous 12,000 calories that Michael Phelps eats that includes literally pounds of pasta—might replenish calories from high-volume training but come at a great cost because his insulin system is taxed so heavily. “I fear that by the time Phelps is 50, he’ll be overweight, with damage to his vascular health, and a Type II diabetic because of the stress he’s putting on his insulin system. There’s so much good to being an athlete, but this is why a couch potato can live longer than an athlete.”

The post Burning Runner: Replacing High-Mileage With Crossfit Endurance appeared first on Competitor.com.

Competitor Magazine editorial director T. J. Murphy went to Hermosa Beach, Calif., last weekend to attend a training seminar on Crossfit Endurance. The weekend started off with a free seminar at Crossfit Southbay, where CFE founder  Brian MacKenzie took questions and explained his approach to training for endurance sports: a focus on high-intensity sport-specific work with all the junk miles taken out and a reliance on CrossFit-style conditioning to build the following: strength, balance, power, metabolic conditioning and mobility. Click here to read T.J.’s recap of the event, and check out some photos from the seminar in the gallery below!

The post Photo Gallery: CrossFit Endurance Seminar–Hermosa Beach, California appeared first on Competitor.com.