Dathan Ritzenhein graduated high school with six National Championship titles. He left the University of Colorado with four All-America titles, a national title at cross country, and the school record in the 10,000m in 27:38.50. Since turning pro, Dathan’s competed in the marathon at the 2008 Olympics, the 10k at the 2004 Olympics, set the [...]
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Core strength is vital to being a consistent, healthy runner. I’ve covered this in great detail here, here, and here. If you think your “core” is just your abs – you’re very wrong. It includes everything from your hips and glutes to your lower back and hamstrings. A good core routine will work all of [...]
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Are you a creature of habit? I definitely am. My training is predictable even though I know the serious benefits of variety in any program. I run the same trails, do similar workouts from training cycle to training cycle, and always stick to the same core routines. This needs to change if I want to [...]
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Would you like to run more and train harder with fewer running injuries? If you have a time goal for your next race or want to run in less pain, of course you want to train more consistently! Last week I spoke with coach Jay Johnson about his DVD series Building a Better Runner. Both [...]
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I love this analogy: Don’t let your engine outpace your chassis. It’s a simple analogy that refers to your metabolic or aerobic fitness (endurance) vs. your structural fitness (bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles). I like to tell my runners that you never want a Ferrari engine in the frame of a Geo Prizm. That engine is going to tear [...]
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“Hills are speed work in disguise.” – Frank Shorter With a good hill, you can train almost perfectly. Hills build leg strength, increase your running economy (efficiency), prevent injuries, reduce impact forces on your legs, increase stride power, and improve the neuromuscular communication pathway. Excited to run more hills yet? If there was one training [...]
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The last major injury I had was a severe illiotibial band (IT Band) injury after the New York City Marathon in 2008. I took 9 days off from running after the race and then started to slowly run a little bit, only to have sharp pain on the outside of my left knee. I couldn’t run [...]
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Runners can be in great shape, but most of them aren’t very athletic. Two of the worst basketball players I’ve ever seen were three-season runners. Ask most runners to hurdle, dribble a soccer ball, or cut back and forth on a football field and you will see some of the most laughable movements. This is [...]
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Lose 20 pounds in 30 days. Engineer the perfect night’s sleep. Triple your testosterone. Reverse injuries. Go from 5k to 50k in 12 Weeks. Is it possible? These are the claims by Timothy Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Body, a New York Times #1 bestseller. He’s also written The Four Hour Workweek which is [...]
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In the normal training cycle, there will be workouts that are longer and more intense than others. Your long run or interval workout are examples that may cause more soreness than a standard distance or tempo run. Soreness is part of running and not something that you should try to completely avoid. As Steve Magness [...]
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I'm Jason Fitzgerald, a 2:39 marathoner and running coach. I want to help you get faster.
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