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Last-minute scrambling led to the mistake, which many runners complained about after the race.

Organizers of last weekend’s Colfax Half-Marathon have conceded what many runners already knew: the course was too short.

Race director Creigh Kelley said Tuesday that the 13.1-mile route in Denver was actually 13 miles, 176 yards short of the proper distance.

The blame, it seems, goes to the company that was supposed to set up the barriers along the course. Highway Technologies, a Houston-based firm, unexpectedly shut down all of its 33 locations last Friday, two days before the race. That left Kelley scrambling for a backup plan.

With the help of volunteers, law enforcement and four new barricade companies, barriers were set up along the course in time for Sunday’s event.

But somewhere along the line there was a mixup and the course was shortened.

Runners complained on Sunday about the course length, but Kelley turned defensive and said there were no problems with the setup.

“This is a non-issue and is clearly meant to harm an otherwise important civic and community event,” he told the Denver Post. “If [the questioning runners] had been courteous enough to inquire about this while on site, it would have been a conversation with immediate review on the ground of course settings to satisfy [their] curiosity.

On Tuesday, Kelley changed his tune and acknowledged there was a mistake.

“Due to the last-minute closure of Highway Technologies barricade company, the Colfax Marathon placed the safety of 39 miles of course on city roadways as a first priority, resulting in a 176-yard inconsistency in the half-marathon course in City Park,” Kelley said. “Race staff apologize for the oversight, and commend the four new barricade companies, three municipalities, law enforcement and volunteers on ensuring that the race took place safely.”

As for all those “13.1” stickers and magnets that were purchased at the pre-race expo, perhaps runners should change them to “13.0.”

The post Denver Half-Marathon Course Was Too Short, Says Race Director appeared first on Competitor.com.

Break free from the monotony of the one-lap interval.

Four-hundred-meter intervals, or “quarters” as they are known colloquially, are a staple of training for many high school and college runners, and for many adult road racers, too. It’s easy to understand why. Four hundred meters is exactly one lap around a standard outdoor track. Nice and tidy.

Of course, the neatness of the 400m distance is not the only reason it has become a training staple. Running intervals of this distance is also a great way to get in race shape. A fit runner can complete a dozen such intervals in a session at roughly his or her one-mile race pace, with equal-distance jogging recoveries between intervals. This type of workout does a nice job of increasing fatigue resistance and comfort at relatively high speeds.

If the simplicity of the one-lap interval has a downside it’s that it leads runners away from less neat-and-tidy interval lengths that may also be beneficial to them. For example, 300m intervals, or three quarters of one lap of the track.

The legendary runner-turned-coach Alberto Salazar is a big fan of 300’s—so much so that all of his runners do them, while 400m intervals appear sparingly in his training programs. Obviously, 300m intervals can be run a little faster than 400m intervals, yet they do not administer quite the same endurance challenge. Salazar prefers them for long-distance runners especially for precisely this reason: they provide a little more of what’s missing in the other types of workouts that fill these athletes’ training logs: long intervals, tempo runs, long runs, and easy runs.

RELATED: 5 Lessons Learned From Alberto Salazar

For example, many of Salazar’s star runners do a set of 300’s about once every other week, whether they’re training for track races or a marathon. Because this type of workout is not super-specific to either type of racing (meaning Salazar’s runners run the 300’s at a pace faster than they do in a 5K, 10K or marathon events), it is not approached progressively in the context of the training cycle. In other words, the workout does not become increasingly challenging with the addition of intervals each time an athlete does it. Rather, they do the same session almost every time to first develop–and then maintain–speed. Salazar saves the progressive approach for more race-specific types of workouts.

Specifically, many of Alberto’s athletes typically run 7 x 300m fast with 300m jogging recoveries between intervals. This is a good, solid workout but hardly a killer. Any runner can do it, although not every runner can complete his or her 300’s as fast as the runners in the Oregon Project!

If you’ve never done 300’s before, it will take a session or two to get used to them. You’re likely to run them too fast the first time, resulting in inflating interval times as the workout progresses, and you’re almost certain to become more comfortable running 300’s as time passes (initially, that last 100 meters of each interval seems excruciating). A perfectly executed set of 300s is one in which the interval times are consistent from start to finish and the last interval is more or less an all-out effort, meaning you’d be unable to match that time if you ran another 300.

I’ve seen coaches prescribe as many as ten 300’s in a session. There’s nothing to be gained by doing more, whereas you can start with as few as five and get something out of them. Seven 300’s appears to be the magic number for many of Alberto’s athletes, and if it’s good enough for them it ought to be enough for the rest of us!

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About The Author:

Matt Fitzgerald is the author of RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel (VeloPress, 2010) and an expert training content developer for PEAR Sports. Learn more at mattfitzgerald.org.

The post Workout Of The Week: Alberto’s 300’s appeared first on Competitor.com.

Don’t let the whimpers of discomfort culminate in a big bang of full-blown injury.

It was T.S. Eliot who famously wrote “this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” Even though he didn’t have running in mind when he set pen to paper, he might as well have.

When something goes bang in your leg in the middle of a run, it’s likely that rest and possibly some treatment is needed for the injury to heal. More often than not, your racing season or training cycle will go out on a whimper and only with the benefit of hindsight will you be able to see where it might’ve been saved.

Running is hard on the body and feelings of discomfort are inevitable if you train and race year round. The key to dealing with discomfort when it arises is knowing when to run through it and when to back off. That little tight spot in your knee that loosens up after a mile gradually gets tighter and takes longer to loosen up — until it never really loosens up and you’re forced to stop running. The little whimpers you ignored for so long finally culminated in a big bang.

It can be very hard to ease up and give your body some much-needed rest when you get into a really good training groove. Finding the proper balance between intensity and rest is very tricky for any runner, regardless of ability level. Admitting you have a problem is the first step toward finding a solution, which can often be found in the form of rest and cross-training.

RELATED: Recover To Run Faster

“There needs to be at least one super low intensity day with little to no impact or full rest,” said Angelo Gala, a certified personal trainer and yoga instructor who competes in marathons and triathlons. “A long swim is great because it keeps the heart rate down and provides excellent zero impact stretching and strengthening.”

Cross-training doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of traditional endurance exercise such as swimming or cycling. Hockey (yes, on ice, with skates) can be a great way to get in a workout while escaping the grind of running. Justin Deeg is a 2:28 marathoner and soon-to-be physical therapist who has been playing hockey for 20 years

“I do my best to get my scheduled runs in, but sometimes I just have to tell myself that I will get my workout in at hockey that night,” Deeg said. “Does that count as a rest day because it’s not running? Not in my book. That counts as cross-training with a very healthy dose of speedwork.”

While preferred modes of cross-training can vary depending on the athlete, coach or trainer you’re talking to, you don’t need a professional background or experience to know when to back off, take complete rest and seek professional assistance if necessary. “Sharp pain has always been a big red flag to get help ASAP, along with any discomfort when sleeping,” Angelo said. “But pain is part of endurance so I always look for visual aids and sounds. Any time I see something funny with my form I head over to the physical therapist.”

RELATED: Six Signs You Need Physical Therapy

The physical therapist is usually the last person any athlete wants to spend time with because it usually means something went wrong, but it can help when that physical therapist is a runner who understands the demands of training and racing.

Deeg’s approach with patients is to “give them the tools to help themselves and I tend to do it from a runner’s perspective with a healthy dose of physical therapy behind it because I know myself and if another runner is anything like me, they need to hear it from a running perspective.”

Even an expanded knowledge base can still make it difficult to put the brakes on at times, however.

“There is an inner masochistic demon in every runner that tells us to overtrain,” said Eric Greenspan, a competitive runner and chiropractor-in-training. “The smart, experienced runner knows how to humble himself and respect the warning signs of injury and burnout.”

That’s where the real battle lies: hearing the whimpers early enough to keep them from turning into an ugly bang. Win this battle and you’ll spend more time pounding the pavement and less time seeking professional help.

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About The Author:

Eric Narcisi is a freelance writer and runner based in Boston, Massachusetts.

The post Injury Prevention And The Big Bang Theory appeared first on Competitor.com.

Lactic acid itself isn’t responsible for the muscle fatigue that causes you to do the skeleton dance at the end of a race.

Despite what you might be tempted to believe after scanning the headlines of your favorite running magazines, there’s no one secret workout that will guarantee you set a new personal best at your next race. As experienced runners know, it’s the right mix of workouts and consistency over time that brings long-term and steady results. With a seemingly endless variety of workouts to choose from, picking the most effective workout to accomplish your racing goals takes a little research.

Luckily, coaches and exercise scientists alike understand the specific metabolic demands placed on the body during long distance events. As such, they know what type of workouts will be the most effective for success at each particular race distance. Specifically, coaches and exercise scientists realize the important role of lactate during long distance running — how the body produces it, how the body utilizes it as a source of energy, and how lactate contributes to slowing down.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that most training schedules include a steady diet of threshold runs, particularly in the form of tempo runs or tempo intervals. However, when we take the time to examine exactly how lactate works, both as a fuel source as well as how the body clears it, many coaches have come to realize that straight tempo runs might not be the best way to improve your body’s use of lactate.

RELATED: Six Lies You Were Taught About Lactic Acid

Instead, many coaches and exercise scientists are beginning to understand that the goal of threshold training isn’t to produce less lactate — as has been traditionally thought — but to improve the body’s ability to clear lactate from the blood. In essence, you should be training to improve your lactate clearance rate.

In this article, we’re going to debunk some of the faulty science about lactate that still permeates training theory today so you can better understand how to train more efficiently. More importantly, we’re going to look at how adding lactate clearance workouts into your training schedule can help you improve as a runner, Lastly, we’ll show you some specific lactate clearance workouts you can implement right away.

The post Run Faster By Improving Your Lactate Clearance Rate appeared first on Competitor.com.

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The 17-year-old is having a phenomenal season thus far.

(c) 2013 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

The most captivating athlete currently competing in the United States hasn’t made any Olympic teams. She doesn’t get paid, can’t accept prize money, and isn’t affiliated with any shoe company at the moment. She can’t even take a sip of champagne to celebrate all the records she’s breaking.

Mary Cain, the 17-year-old high school junior from Bronxville, N.Y., is ready to continue her sensational season at two of the top American track meets remaining in the 2013 outdoor season: the Prefontaine Classic on June 1, and the Portland Track Festival on June 8. The Prefontaine Classic is the fourth stop on the IAAF Diamond League circuit, and the second in the United States.

On Tuesday, organizers for both meetings announced Cain’s participation, who is coached by Alberto Salazar. At the Prefontaine Classic, Cain will take on some of the world’s best 800m athletes at historic Hayward Field, then a week later will race the 5000m roughly 100 miles north in Portland.

Cain, who was born on May 3, 1996, isn’t old enough to purchase a lottery ticket quite yet. But she’s hit the jackpot in training and racing this calendar year.

Indoors, Cain set high school records at one mile (4:28.25) and two miles (9:38.68), the former being a national junior record. To cap off her indoor campaign, the gangly Cain earned her first national open title, defeating a field of professionals over one mile at high altitude in Albuquerque, N.M. Her time of 5:05.68 may not have been the fastest of her career, but the final 440-yard split of 59.1 was baffling to professionals and fans alike, so much so that the hashtag #MaryCain began trending on Twitter.

Transitioning to the outdoor oval, Cain and Salazar haven’t missed a beat. Opening at the Drake Relays, Cain timed 4:10.77 for 1500m, another high school record. Not only was her time fast, but she took down a pair of Olympians in Emma Coburn and Morgan Uceny.

Cain’s recent travels have taken her across America to California, where she’s set personal bests for 800m (2:01.68) and 1500m again (4:04.62). The latter came just last week at the USATF High Performance Meet at Occidental College in Los Angeles. There, Cain again broke national junior and youth records while achieving the IAAF World Championships “A” standard.

Traveling to Oregon for the Prefontaine Classic will be familiar for Cain. Last year, she raced the 800m at the U.S. Olympic Trials on the very same Hayward Field track, timing 2:04.11 and finishing fifth in her heat.

This time around, she’ll be facing an accomplished field which includes 2012 Olympic 800m champion Mariya Savinova, 2008 Olympic gold medalist Pamela Jelimo, current world leader Francine Niyonsaba, American Olympian Alysia Montano, and 2007 World Champion Janeth Jepkosgei. Rounding out the field will be Kenyan Winny Chebet, Russian Yekaterina Poistogova, and American Brenda Martinez, who ran 1:59.59 earlier this year in San Diego, defeating Cain by just over two seconds.

At the Prefontaine Classic 800m, Cain has a chance to eclipse the High School and American Junior record of 2:00.07, run by Kim Gallagher in 1982.

A week later in Portland, Cain will run the Team Athena 5000m, a distance she hasn’t raced on the track yet in her young career.

“The question of who could be the most exciting athlete addition to the Portland Track Festival came up at a recent planning meeting. Mary Cain was definitely a pick in this fantasy track draft. Starting back during indoor, discussion of Cain’s most recent race often served as an opening to actual planning at these meetings,” Team Athena President Laura Devine said in a statement. “It only seemed fitting that word of Cain’s plan to compete in the Team Athena 5K came just days after her 4:04 Oxy 1500. As a race organizer I am honored to have Mary Cain compete. As a track fan, I really can’t wait to be track-side while she does.”

The longest track distance Cain has run this year was two miles, where she ran 9:38.68 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in February.

Both Cain and Salazar are confident heading into both races in Oregon.

“I told her she was capable of running under 4:05 this year, even down to 4:02,” Salazar told Flotrack.org shortly after the Occidental High Performance race. “Her races are way beyond her workouts.

“She does workouts you wouldn’t think could produce a 4:05, they’re not quite that good yet. But for her, they are. I think she’s got a shot at making the [world championships] team.”

Cain, as bubbly as usual and sporting the trademark ribbons in her hair, said she was happy with how her races have gone thus far.

“Mentally I thought I could run this fast,” Cain said in a post-race interview. “Maybe I can run even faster, I don’t know!”

Salazar told Flotrack.org that Cain’s racing schedule will include stops in Des Moines, Iowa, for the U.S. National Championships and on the European circuit.

The post Cain Continues Season In Oregon Meets appeared first on Competitor.com.

Thanks to an elliptical machine, he was able to exercise again.

According to a profile in the Wall Street Journal, Royal Carribbean Cruise Line CEO Adam Goldstein is on a real mission.

This one in particular isn’t to maximize profit and drive down costs; rather, it’s to cover the 1500m distance in under five minutes.

He’s come close.

Two years ago at the U.S. Masters Championships, the 53-year-old clocked 5:00.62 for the distance.

While at Princeton Goldstein was on the crew team, but in 1981 doctors found a spinal canal tumor. He had surgery to remove it but suffered chronic back pain after that.

Until 2005 he was unable to exercise, but eventually discovered the elliptical workout machine.

“I was on board Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas and found our head of sales in the gym [on an elliptical],” Goldstein says. “She told me I should try it because it would be gentle on my back.”

After that experience, Goldstein increased the time he spent on the machine and in 2007, he ran his first 5K, covering the distance in 24 minutes.

The post CEO’s Goal: Cruise Through 1,500m In Under 5:00 appeared first on Competitor.com.

One AARP blogger says it comes down to non-strenuous workouts.

According to a blog post by the AARP, the best workout for all people is …

Running.

That’s right, a recent study that followed participants for a 30-year period found that those who ran regularly in moderation as opposed to people who ran at a faster pace.

The “sweet spot” for runners was three to four times a week at a slower pace.

Author Barbara Hannah Grufferman contends that this is news to her ears in that she didn’t start running until the time that she turned 50.

“I decided to try running, against my better judgment,” she writes. “Even my husband and daughters raised their eyebrows (one actually rolled her eyes, but I’m not naming names).”

In the article, she gives props to Olympic runner-turned-coach Jeff Galloway for coming up with his Run-Walk-Run program.

“Like many people over 50, I was worried because I thought running, or even strenuous walking, can hurt our joints,” she says. “Research shows, however, that it won’t if done right.”

The post Tips For Running Over 50 appeared first on Competitor.com.

Dennis Lee completes Fargo Marathon after quite a warmup.

A runner at the Fargo Marathon over the weekend ran a bit more than 26.2 miles.

He ran 32.4

That’s because Dennis Lee mistakenly ran the 10K before tackling the marathon Saturday morning.

Saying he could not hear event organizers on the loudspeaker because he was fiddling with his MP3 player, the 47-year-old lined up at what he thought was the starting line for the 10K, half-marathon and marathons.

Forty-four minutes and 28 seconds later, Lee crossed the finish line of what ended up being quite a long marathon warmup ahead of the 8:15 start to his race.

“I saw people going to the starting line, and once I heard the gun, I took off,” Lee told the Grand Forks Herald. “I ran pretty hard to catch the pacers, but there were no pacers. And when I returned to the dome, I thought I made a wrong turn.”

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa resident then went out and completed the marathon in 3:25 — a mere five minutes shy of the Boston Marathon qualifying mark.

“I clearly would’ve qualified had I not run the 10K,” said Lee, who did not know the races had different start times.

But there was a bonus: Lee earned two finisher medals.

The post Whoops: Iowa Man Runs 10K Before Marathon appeared first on Competitor.com.

Science proves we’re hard-wired to push harder in competition.

Competitive runners often talk about “running their own race.” What they mean is that they intend to rely on their own perception of effort to pace themselves through an upcoming race instead of allowing other runners to dictate their pace, for example by hanging with the leader as long as possible.

Every runner needs to run his or her own race to a certain extent. In experienced runners, perception of effort is the single best guide to the optimal pace for any given race. However, perception of effort should not be relied on to the exclusion of an outward-looking competitive focus. That’s because awareness of other runners in a race actually increases one’s tolerance for suffering, enabling one to cover the race distance faster.

Suppose I brought you to a track and asked you to warm up and then run a 10K solo time trial (25 laps) around it without wearing a watch or receiving split times. In this scenario, you would be forced to rely on your feel for appropriate pacing to complete those 25 laps in the minimum possible time. More specifically, you would find a rhythm at a steady pace that would cause your perceived effort to start at a moderate level and increase gradually until you reached the maximum level of suffering you felt you could tolerate just as you crossed the finish line.

RELATED: Is Your Goal Pace Too Easy?

Now suppose I brought you back to the same track a few days later and asked you to repeat the time trial, again without time information. However, on this occasion, you would race against five other runners of roughly equal ability. It is almost certain that you would run a faster time than you had a few days earlier. Why? Because the presence of the other runners would activate social instincts that would increase your maximum suffering tolerance.

Even though you would still be running primarily by feel, those other runners would push and pull you so that, after only 20 laps, perhaps, you would be suffering as much as you had been in the last lap of your solo time trial — because you would be running faster. But, whereas you were certain that this amount of suffering was the most you could bear when running alone, in the group race you would shoot right past that suffering level over the final five laps and hit the finish line at a significantly higher level of perceived effort — and with a significantly faster time.

Don’t believe it? Too bad! It’s a proven fact. In 1968, a researcher at the University of California-Berkeley had a bunch of college students individually complete high-intensity stationary bike rides to exhaustion. In other words, they were required to sustain a fixed power output level for as long as possible, quitting only when they felt they could not complete a single additional pedal stroke at that wattage. Then the researcher used the results to match up these students in pairs of roughly equal ability. The test was repeated exactly as it had been done the first time, except each subject was in the presence of another. Even though the students were not explicitly told to compete against their partner to see who could last the longest at the same power level, the students did just that and lasted a full 20 percent longer, on average, than when they had done exactly the same test alone.

RELATED: The Art Of Pacing Yourself

There are those runners who believe they can run as hard alone as they can against others. These runners are fooling themselves. Those social instincts that hard-wire us to tolerate more suffering in competition than alone cannot be fooled. It is impossible to run as hard solo as you would in a race by merely pretending you’re in a race. By the same token, you don’t want to go into any race with a mindset of pretending it’s not a race — that is, a mindset of completely “running your own race.”

Let those other runners influence you. Let them push you and pull you. Go ahead and unleash your competitive instincts so that you’re able to tolerate greater suffering and reach the finish line faster.

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About The Author:

Matt Fitzgerald is the author of numerous books, including Racing Weight: How To Get Lean For Peak Performance (VeloPress, 2012). He is also a Training Intelligence Specialist for PEAR Sports. To learn more about Matt visit www.mattfitzgerald.org.

The post ‘Running Your Own Race’ Is A Myth appeared first on Competitor.com.

Click here or e-mail us at editorspix@competitorgroup.com to send us a photo of your latest Rad Run – YOU may show up in Editors’ Pix!

Check out more Rad Run submissions here!

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A grassroots movement is hoping to rekindle excitement for America’s favorite distance.

Ryan Lamppa lives and breathes the mile. It’s a classic American distance — just over four laps on a 400-meter track — that evokes grainy, black-and-white images of track and field legends like Roger Bannister and Peter Snell hurling their tired legs down a cinder track. And for Lamppa, the founder of the grassroots movement known as Bring Back The Mile (BBTM), it’s nothing short of sacred.

Lamppa got the idea to found the organization when he was running around Santa Barbara City College’s track that overlooks the Pacific Ocean a few years ago.

While growing up in the late 1960s, Lamppa had become enamored by the likes of Jim Ryun, who became the first American high school runner to break 4 minutes in the classic four-lap race. But in the late 1970s after the passing of the Metric Conversion Act, high schools began to phase out the mile in favor of the 1600m race — a distance that doesn’t hold the same historical, cultural and media significance as the mile.

RELATED: Roger Bannister Reflects On Mile Record

And so for the past year, Lamppa has been trying to rekindle the excitement for the distance.

“The mile is a four-lap race,” said Lamppa, who works as the media director of the Running USA trade organization. “And so we are on a four-year master plan.”

Bring Back The Mile’s first lap was all about launching, creating a buzz, and establishing what Lamppa refers to as a “beachhead.” The organization’s website broadcast numerous YouTube videos of elites and non-elites alike holding up makeshift signs that read, “I AM THE MILE.” Lamppa’s story got national press in publications like The Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated.

But as that initial buzz subsides, Lamppa is now embarking on the organization’s second lap, which is to launch a BBTM Tour around the country. Stopping at 14 locations, the Tour’s purpose is to “elevate” and “celebrate” the mile from coast to coast.

By the penultimate lap, Lamppa says he hopes to stage a nationwide points-based grand prix tour comprised of sponsored mile races throughout the country. BBTM will award prize money that concludes with an ultimate grand finale to determine the overall winner.

RELATED: One-Mile Training Plan

Lamppa’s final lap is something that gets him talking faster with excitement: BBTM-hosted Main Street Mile races all across the country. “Nothing is more American than the mile,” he said, “and so we envision them happening on July 4.” But to pull that off, he admits he needs the underwriting of a major sponsor.

But as with most things on a grassroots level, money is the fertilizer and Lamppa admits lining up sponsors has been a bit of a challenge. After the fourth year, Lamppa expects to reap the fruits of his labor. His long-term vision is to convert state high school federations all across the country to give up the 1500m and 1600m distance in favor of the mile (currently, only Massachusetts hosts it).

“Still, we’re getting there,” Lamppa said. “We’re coming along, but we need to get to a point where everything is paying for itself. Yeah, some things have taken longer to come together, but I’m a distance runner and so I’m patient. This is all base work.”

The post Campaign To ‘Bring Back The Mile’ Hits Its Second Lap appeared first on Competitor.com.

Fuel up for your next run with this tasty treat!

When Dr. Allen Lim left the lab to work with pro cyclists, he found athletes weary of processed bars and gels and the same old pasta. So Lim joined professional chef Biju Thomas to make eating delicious and practical. When the menu changed, no one could argue with the race results. Their groundbreaking Feed Zone Cookbook brought the favorite recipes of the pros to everyday athletes.

In their new cookbook Feed Zone Portables, Chef Biju and Dr. Lim offer 75 all-new portable food recipes for cyclists, runners, triathletes, mountain bikers, climbers, hikers, and backpackers.

MORE: Feed Zone recipes on Competitor.com

While preparing the Feed Zone approach for his athletes, Dr. Lim discovered an important clue about why so many pro cyclists have been abandoning highly processed nutrition products. Pro athletes have been leaving these products at home because of bloating and digestive distress that often occurs when highly concentrated carb solutions enter the gut. These unnatural concentrations can temporarily dehydrate athletes and cause negative side effects. Real foods, with much higher water content and natural sugar concentrations, digest more easily, more quickly, and with less likelihood of dehydration, bloating, and GI distress.

Feed Zone Portables features real food recipes that are simple, delicious during exercise, easy to make, and ready to go.

Here is a sample recipe from Portables to try on your next ride or run.

SERVINGS: 8

TIME: 20 minutes

1 cup coarse gluten-free bread crumbs

½ cup white rice flour

¼ cup ground almonds

pinch of ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

¼ cup almond milk

1 large ripe banana

Heat the waffle iron.

Place the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse quickly to combine.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the eggs and almond milk and stir briskly. Pour this into the food processor, add the banana, and pulse. Batter should be smooth and somewhat dense.

Pour enough batter into each waffle form to nearly fill all the squares (the batter will expand when pressed). Cook until the outside of the waffle feels crisp. Repeat, using the remaining batter.

Makes 4 large waffles. Cut each waffle into quarters and top with your favorite spread(s) to make 8 mini waffle sandwiches. Let cool before wrapping.

In a recipe like this one, Gluten-free bread shortcuts some of the extra flours and makes for a unique texture. The water content of bread is somewhat lower than other carbs, though 43 percent is still well above pre-packaged foods.

PER SERVING› Energy 112 cal, Fat 3 g, Sodium 60 mg, Carbs 17 g, Fiber 1 g, Protein 4 g, Water 43%

Reprinted from the new cookbook Feed Zone Portables with permission of VeloPress. Find Feed Zone Portables in your local bookstore or bike shop and online. Learn more at feedzonecookbook.com. 

The post Feed Zone Recipe: Banana Waffles appeared first on Competitor.com.

She’ll definitely run the Boston Marathon again, but her heart will forever be with the bombing victims.

A month ago, Kara Goucher capped a comeback from a late fall injury with a very credible sixth-place, 2:28:11 effort at the Boston Marathon. But, as with everyone else who was in Boston, her race was completely overshadowed by the terrorist bombings that occurred later in the day. Goucher is planning to run her next marathon this fall — either Chicago or New York City — but in the meantime has been rebuilding her speed for the upcoming track season.

PHOTOS: Kara Goucher Career Highlights

We caught up with her at the Rock ’n’ Roll Portland Half Marathon race expo over the weekend while trying to keep son Colt, now 2-1/2, contained as husband, Adam, gave a presentation about training.

When are you racing again and what are your plans for the summer and fall?

My next race will be the 10,000m at the U.S. track championships [June 19-23 in Des Moines, Iowa]. I was thinking about running a race at the Portland Track Festival [June 7-8 at Lewis and Clark College] but I think I’m just going to go for it at USAs with one big race. I absolutely want to make the U.S. team for the world championships (in Moscow). If I make it, I’ll focus the rest of the summer on getting my speed back. If I don’t make it, then I’ll find some fun road races to run and start thinking about a fall marathon.

Do you prefer racing the 10,000 or the marathon?

They’re so different, but I love them both. I love the 10K because of the speed of the race. I love how much the bell lap means. I love kicking the final 400 meters and I miss that when I’m in the marathon because it’s a different intensity. You’re so tired at the end of a marathon you hope you can sprint. But I love the art of the marathon. I love how much planning goes into it. I love how meticulous you have to be.

What has your training been like since the Boston Marathon?

I took a down period after Boston where I didn’t run as much and now I feel really good. I took a couple days completely off and then I spent about three weeks just easy jogging, then a couple of weeks of really easy workouts. Now I’m kind of back into the swing of things. I’ve been running 30 miles a week less than I normally do — right about 90 miles a week — and I feel a lot better and a lot fresher on my legs. I’m not going to race before the U.S. championships. For me, it’s just about getting my speed back. So for now, twice a week, it’s about hitting the speed, feeling sore and slow, but eventually it’s going to click in.

Are you ever amazed about your celebrity as a runner?

It’s always odd for me, because at the core I’m just this nerdy girl from Minnesota that’s not really that athletic or cool or anything like that. It’s always weird for me to hear people say they follow me or they’re inspired by me. I don’t know that any of that will be ever be normal. But I love it and I very much appreciate all the people who follow me, but I always have to laugh because I’m really suck a dork.

It’s been a month since the Boston Marathon. What kind of reflections do you have about your race and the horrible acts that followed?

Honestly, the racing details of that day are all lost for me because of what happened. I look at my medal and think about it and all of the people who were hurt every single day. We were a block and a half from the finish line at the athlete hotel when the bombs went off, but we get to go on with our lives like nothing happened and yet there are people who lost family members, people who lost limbs … and their lives will never be the same. So for me, I don’t really remember the race. For me, 2013 will be a reminder to live my life more righteously and being more appreciative and thinking about the people who really suffered that day and will continue to suffer.

I love the Boston Marathon and I absolutely will go back and race it again. What happened does not deter me from that whatsoever. For this year, it’s a bigger-picture thing and when I look back I’m always going to remember the people were affected and not really my race at all.

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She will square off against rival Sheri Piers.

On June 1, the 35th anniversary of the Freihofer’s Run for Women kicks off in Albany, N.Y. Headlining the field is defending champion Dorota Gruca, who hails from Las Cruces, N.M.

A 43-year-old Polish runner who ran the Olympic marathon in 2008, Gruca has enjoyed a fantastic start to her 2013 racing season.

She won the female Masters division at the Carlsbad 5000 and shaved two minutes off her time on the Phoenix Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon course.

“This is definitely going to be her race to lose,” Freihofer race director George Regan said. “These recent wins, including her masters victory at the 2013 Lilac Bloomsday Run, will give her a tremendous confidence boost coming in.”

Sheri Piers will be one of Gruca’s main rivals. Piers, from Falmouth, Maine, is coached by former Freihofer’s champion and three-time Olympian Benita Willis.

Piers gave Gruca a run for her money in last year’s race, but it was Gruca who ultimately prevailed with a late-race surge that proved decisive.

For More: Running USA

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He dusted the field of 20 runners in the men’s 5000m.

British double-Olympic gold medalist continues to shine on the roads and tracks. The recent proof of his fine form came last weekend in California at the Oxy Track and Field meeting in Los Angeles.

True to his past performances, Farah sat back in the pack of 20 runners and didn’t win the race until the final lap, when he opened up with a monster kick.

Farah clocked a relatively pedestrian time of 13:15.68.

American Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein was second in 13:17.38. Australian-record holder Ben St. Lawrence was third in 13:18.81.

The Somali-born Farah is currently coached by American distance-running champion Alberto Salazar. He lives and trains in Portland, Ore. alongside Nike teammate Galen Rupp.

The highlight of the meet didn’t come from Farah, however. In the women’s 1500m, Mary Cain, just 17, came in second. Her time of 4:04.62 shattered the U.S. junior record, which had been 4:09.10. Suzy Favor Hamilton set it back in 1987.

For More: The Courier

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She has never been beaten on the storied Hayward Field.

On June 1, some of the fastest distance runners in the world will line up at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore. One of these runners is arguably one of the best female distance runners of all time: Tirunesh Dibaba.

The 27-year-old Ethiopian, who owns the 5000m world record, will race in her signature event.

She also owns a gold medal from the London Olympics in the 10,000m and a double gold (5000m, 10,000m) from the Beijing Games in 2008.

On the famed Hayward Field track, Dibaba has not been defeated. She has also set meet records there on two occasions. Interestingly enough, her younger sister Genzebe just ran the fastest 5000m time in the world this year last weekend.

Up against the older Dibaba sister in Eugene will be four very capable Kenyans: Sylvia Kibet, Veronica Nyaruai, Viola Kibiwott and Mercy Cherono.

Americans Shannon Rowbury, Lisa Uhl, Kim Conley, and Neely Spence are also entered. Uhl has the fastest 5000m of the Americans (14:55.74).

The Prefontaine Classic is now entering its 39th year.

For More: IAAF

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