Remember...What Goes Up, Comes Down!

If you are running Beach To Beacon this year, or have run it in the past, you are (or will be) fully aware of the final hill in the last 3/4 of a mile after you enter Fort Williams Park. For our training group, we specifically map out the program to include hill workouts geared towards preparation for this challenge! We use Baxter Woods, which features a 1,000 meter loop. The loop starts down hill for 400 meters then switches back up for 400 meters.

We do this because hill training improves leg-muscle strength, quickens your stride, expands stride length, develops your cardiovascular system, enhances your running economy and can even protect your leg muscles against soreness. Hill running makes you stronger, faster and healthier. Why? Because on uphill sections muscles contract more powerfully than usual because they are forced to overcome gravity to move you up the hill. The result is more power, which in turn leads to longer, faster running strides.

When running uphill shorten your stride. You are aiming for equal effort going up as well as down, not equal pace. Your posture should be upright, don't lean forward or back. Your head, shoulders and back should form a straight line over the feet. Keep your feet low to the ground. Also, run through the top of the hill. Don't crest the hill and immediately slow down or pull back on your effort.

Going downhill runners make one or twp obvious mistakes, they either sprint, which causes severe muscle soreness later on, or they're so hesitant they begin braking, which fatigues the quadriceps muscles. The optimum pace is somewhere in between while letting the hill do the work. Try to keep an upright body posture and your torso perpendicular to the horizontal. This makes the hill do the work saving energy. And finally, remember, what goes up, must come down!

Maine Running Company was just named "Best Running Store, New England" by Runner's World. We are proud of this acheivement and want to personally thank the Maine Running Community for supporting us over the past 3 years. The award is based on Customer Service, Broad product selection (We are the exclusive Running Specialty Dealers for New Balance, Nike, Newton and the only Asics "Gold Dealer" in the state of Maine) and community involvement.

The Weekly Back Cove continues to grow this summer. 145 runners participated last night and we continue to see folks passionate about making sure we get their times, names, etc.... correct. Folks can track their progress through the summer by visiting Blaine Moore's Website http://backcove.runtowin.com/. Also, we are making sure the crowd stays to the side this year, prior to racing to keep the Path Clear. As always, we hope folks are patient for 45 minutes every weds, as we currently are tracking well ahead of the donations we had last year, with all proceeds going to Portland Trails.

That's it folks....and remember....Run Happy!