RUNNERS AND DOGS

I wanted to comment on Ellen McCurtin’s great column in your July/August issue about the dog versus runner issue. Like Ellen, I too was fortunate to grow up surrounded by dogs as well as horses, cats, rabbits—you name it. When I was a child, my parents taught me to have the utmost respect for animals. We were shown what a giant responsibility and privilege it is to be a pet owner. Now, at the age of 32, I am the proud owner of my own giant breed dog, a 10-year-old Great Dane named Scarlet. I will never forget the day my husband and I picked up Scarlet, all eight weeks and 12 pounds of her. Nothing but legs and feet! Scarlet has logged an unbelievable number of miles with me. True and loyal to the end.

She has always been more than social toward every human and animal we have encountered. Most Great Dane owners will tell you that the biggest and only problem they have with their dog is that it is oblivious to its size. That said, I have never lost sight of the fact that just because I find animals, large or small, to be wonderful, does not mean that the remainder of the population shares my opinion.

As a pet owner, it is my responsibility to watch out for my animal. Whether I am expecting a visitor or not, I should always be aware of my dog’s presence. Where is she? She’s awfully quiet, what has her so preoccupied? Is she putting anyone in danger? Is she putting herself in danger? She is always on a leash, which helps eliminate risk. This is how I function on a day-to-day basis with all of my pets. It’s done with kids, why not pets? It is not a nuisance or a hassle to function this way. It is simply my responsibility and I do it with a smile. It was my choice to have a dog.

It is crushing to lose a pet because of something that could have been prevented. I’m still beating myself up over the loss of my cat two years ago. I let him outside and he was hit by a car. As much as that hurt my heart, I cannot even begin to fathom the irreparable damage of being responsible for the loss of a human life because I was not watching my dog. So much can happen in an instant. If you never allow your dog to be in such a place initially, the opportunity for disaster is eliminated. It is as simple as that. Animals act on their natural instincts as animals. It is in a dog’s instinct to protect. Loyal to the end. Isn’t that part of the reason we have dogs anyway? If your dog is off his leash and roaming around your yard, aren’t you already aware that in his mind he is “on duty”? He is doing his job to serve and protect.

I hope I am not the only dog owner touched by Ellen’s energy. What’s that saying? “Runners, yeah, we’re different.” This mantra has never hit home more for anything than it did for Ellen’s article. These days, Scarlet no longer runs with me. A 10-year-old Great Dane is practically Guinness Book of World Records kind of info! She is restricted to long walks—long, fast walks if she gets her way. Most days are spent asking her to get off the leather sofa and to please stop barking at the mailman. My thanks to Ellen and her effort in writing such a heartfelt article.

Kelly Bailey
Williamsburg, VA

I don’t think being “breed specific” is wrong. The dogs I have personally had the most problems with have always been Rottweilers. There is something wrong with the breed and many owners are not prepared to own that breed of dog. Personally, I think there is a lot of breeding of unstable Rottweilers going on.

Here is a suggestion that I was given by a professional dog trainer. If you sense trouble, get something ready in your hands. For example, hold a jacket, sweatshirt, or large stick and be ready. If the dog should lunge and try to bite at you, offer up whatever you are holding. Let the dog bite that. This can buy you some time or prevent another bite.

Runners, especially women, need to be prepared for attacks from animals and from people, too. Everyone needs to plan how to protect oneself from animals and people. This is something that you should be prepared for, and not just figure that you’ll just deal with it when and if the time comes.

As for dogs that are just annoying, that’s just part of being in the real world—life happens. It’s up to us whether we decide to have these little things ruin our day and our mood. We can hardly expect the world to stop turning on its axis because we’ve decided to go for a run.

Ann Dahlin
Via e-mail

MORE INFO, PLEASE!

I enjoyed the September/October issue of M&B, as usual. My style of reading is not from front to back, so I jump around a lot and haven’t yet completed the entire issue but won’t let that stop me from commenting. I enjoyed the 1978 reprint about Walt Stack, a real runner’s runner. It would be interesting to read a more recent account of Walt, especially given his take on mortality and running (last page of the article).

On another note, my running circle has generated a good bit of discussion on the fat-burning phenomenon (see Deborah Schulman’s article in the September/October issue). What an appropriate article for this time of year, when everyone is training for a target marathon. It sounds like I need to put the heart rate monitor on and hit 70 percent of maximum as often as possible to learn to use fat as an energy source. Is this true? It would be interesting to get a more applied treatment of the data in Schulman’s article, for us everyday runners trying to tweak the machine.

Keep up the good work. I love the content of the magazine.

Gary Spilman
Lake in the Hills, IL

Rich Benyo responds:
Thanks for your nice comments on our latest issue of M&B. Regarding Walt Stack, unfortunately, he died in 1995. You might be able to get more recent info on Walt by contacting Kevin Lee at dse.pekingduck@juno.com. Kevin is involved in the Dolphin South End Running Club, the club Walt started many moons ago. He may have some Walt clippings lying around that he could photocopy and send to you. I remember attending Walt’s 75th birthday party back in the early 1980s. It was held on the Liberty ship Jeremiah O’Brien, which is docked in San Francisco Harbor. They put on a special 10K race, and Walt was accompanied throughout the race by a dozen women wearing togas and fanning him with palm fronds. Walt had lured all of these women into running over the years, and they were all very professional, feminist-type women; but where Walt was concerned, nothing was ever allowed to approach politically correct. At the party on the boat, Walt made a speech in which he cited what a great country this was. He pointed to Alcatraz, told the story of how he’d been imprisoned there, and now here he was, the mayor of San Francisco had declared this Walt Stack Day. He was a real character.

Deborah Schulman responds:
Here are my thoughts in response to Gary’s query about applying enhanced fat metabolism techniques. I do recommend training with a heart rate monitor. Remember to use it as a tool and not as an absolute guide. Observe and learn to correlate effort level with your heart rate. Take mental notes about how you feel, your perceived exertion, your cadence, and how hard you are breathing. During your base phase of training, which should be a minimum of 12 weeks, most of your training should be in the 65 to 70 percent effort range. Frequency and consistency are very important. Run five to six days per week. Weekly target workouts should include two moderate distance runs lasting between 75 and 90 minutes and one long run of two or more hours. One fartlek workout will keep your leg turnover high. By the end of the base phase, experienced athletes should be putting in 8 to 10 hours of running each week. Remember, each workout should have a defined purpose—be it endurance, speed, power, leg turnover, or recovery.

CHICAGO MARATHON ADDENDUMS

After we went to press with Hal Higdon’s terrific article on the Chicago Marathon in our September/October 2002 issue, Hal learned the following information that he wanted to tell our readers: “During a casual conversation the other day, Carey Pinkowski mentioned that he placed second in the race in 1987, the year we ran the half-marathon. I didn’t realize this! And, I suspect, a lot of others also don’t know it. Why are we hiding Carey’s light under a barrel? I was printing out the race history from our Web site while doing a T-shirt design today and no mention is made of Carey. Only of Steve Jones winning.”

Hal Higdon
Via e-mail

Greetings. I enjoyed reading “Chicago Turns 25” in the recent issue of Marathon & Beyond. Note the following, however. On page 22, including the caption, it reads that Joan Benoit set the women’s world record (2:21:21) at Chicago in 1985. Joan set the still-standing U.S. record, not the world record. In April 1985 at London, Ingrid Kristiansen ran 2:21:06 (verified) to set the world record. Also note the spelling of Ingrid’s “married” last name (interestingly, her maiden name was Christensen). Also, on page 26, Catherine Ndereba’s world record time is listed as 2:18:54 when it should be 2:18:47.

Ryan Lamppa
USATF Road Running Information Center

M&B MISSES THE MARK

I recently received my first issue of Marathon & Beyond (July/August 2002) and am sorry to say that I was very disappointed.

It was full of personal reminiscences that were of little practical value and of dubious insight. Not a single article provided “practical advice on running” or “easy-to-apply, cutting-edge scientific information.” If I want to read a memoir, I’ll buy an autobiography, thank you. On the positive side, I found the column “On the Mark” to be of interest; however, it was not enough to prevent me from putting the issue in File 13. I sincerely hope the July/August issue isn’t a harbinger of what I can expect in subsequent issues.

Mary Olsen
Palmer, AK

MARATHON TRAINING PLANS

I’m an M&B subscriber, and I’m writing to you following your three excellent articles regarding training programs for the marathon.

A few biographical details. I’m a 40-year-old male runner from Israel. I started running in the summer of 1999, three years ago. I ran my first marathon in Tiberias, Israel, in January 2001 at 3:44:40. I ran my second marathon in Portland, Oregon, in October 2001 at 3:32:43, and I will be running Chicago this year.

Two and a half years ago I bet a friend that I would run a sub-3-hour marathon by December 31, 2003. Had I known then how difficult it would be, perhaps I would not have made that bet, but as I made it I want to win it! Should that happen, I promise you a good article for M&B.

I read your article “Basic Training for a 3:00 Marathon” in the May/June issue of M&B and realized there was no way I could handle the training for Chicago (I got married on May 23, 2002, and my training in May and June suffered as a result). Anyway, I joined a team trained by Israel’s former 10K to marathon female record holder, and she has forced me to increase my mileage to an extent I’ve never run before. So I did 58 miles this week and 57 miles the week before (this week included a 22-mile long run at 8:48 per mile, a 10-mile tempo run at 7:26 per mile, interval training consisting of 6 x 1K at 3:48 with three to

four minutes in between, and three easy runs). I’m finding that as my mileage increases I have more strength for the latter part of the long run, where I actually increase my speed. I forgot to mention that in the long run I walk one minute after each nine minutes of running.

My questions to you are as follows:

1. Is it necessary to run your long runs at marathon pace? Why is it wrong to run the long runs at a pace that is slower than marathon pace and do the tempo runs at marathon pace?
2. Is it realistic of me to expect to run a marathon in seven weeks in 3:15?
3. What do I need to do regarding training in order to bring myself to the base level of your 3:00 program by January, if I want to use it for the London Marathon next April?

Jan Teutsch
Tel Aviv, Israel

Rich Benyo responds:

Your new coach seems to be doing a good job with you, especially in increasing your weekly mileage, which typically serves to make a runner stronger in the latter stages of a long run. I will attempt to answer your questions.

1. It is necessary to run long runs at or near race pace if you are to go into the marathon confident that you can run the race at the necessary pace. My program is set up to be somewhat more difficult than the typical program because I want the runner who has trained with it to line up at the starting line with everything going for him. Other programs will attempt to bring speed from shorter/faster training runs together with long training runs on race day. I would rather get rid of as many iffy factors as possible in advance and have the runner line up with complete confidence. And one of the things he has going for him is that—several weeks before—he has been running at the pace he will need on race day.
2. Is it realistic to expect to run a 3:15 in seven weeks? I dunno. I don’t know how your workouts have been going. What is your best 10K time in the past eight weeks? You would certainly need to be breaking 40 minutes with ease. (For the sub-3:00 you should be doing 10Ks in about 37:20.)
3. What you need to do to bring yourself to the base training by January is to back off for a month after Chicago, then rebuild to the base week level with 16 weeks to go to London. I think your new coach is pushing you in the right direction. Add more mileage and run more 10K and 15K and 20K races at faster speeds. And be patient. It may take another year to get ready to break 3:00. Remember that there is a law of diminishing returns when it comes to running marathons faster. The faster you go, the more work you need to put in to go a little faster.

Good luck at Chicago. You certainly picked a flat, fast course to shoot for your 3:15.