Autumn 2007 - British Milers Club

Although the book is primarily about road running withnumerous pocket histories about great distance runners, thephysiological date is vast with a very revealing section onalleged legal aids to performance, which appear to be awaste of money in the main.Finally, there are some books of a biographical andautobiographical nature, which coaches should acquire ofnecessity and athletes are advised to read and these include:THE LEGEND OF LOVELOCK, THE LIZ COLGAN STORY, andTHE STORY OF ZATOPEK published in his county in English,THE 4-MINUTE SMILER, THE KELLY HOLMES STORY.The BMC NEWS is published twice a year and since 1963eighty-eight editions have been issued. These invariablycontain at least two instructional articles per issue and thequizzes are greatly appreciated. It says much for the contentof the journal that twenty-one articles have been reproducedin the Track and Field News manuals LONG DISTANCERUNNING and MIDDLE DISTANCE RUNNING. Bothmanuals are made up from contributions from around theworld. Early editions contain very informative articles fromSoviet coaches.MODERN ATHLETE AND COACH published in Australia hasalso published articles that first appeared in the BMC NEWS.One quiz published in the BMC NEWS 15 years agoconsisting of twenty questions was so comprehensive that aCommonwealth country decided to adopt it wholesale as thetest for what was called the Master Coach Award!So, we can say that to be well read in middle distanceknowledge your bookcase should contain from thirty to fortybooks if a novice and forty to fifty books if experienced and ifa fanatic thirsting for the ultimate answer you will probablyhave over a hundred books allied to the subject of runningfaster.Hippocratic opinionQuestion – Is L-Carnitine taken as a supplement of use toendurance runners?Theoretically it is. It’s synthesized in the body from theamino acids lysine and methionine. Its natural source isfound in avocados, dairy products, lamb, beef and tempeh.The theory is that when glycogen runs out more fat ispushed into the mitochondria by l-carnitine for use as fuel.Research reveals that it only works with athletes who havevery poor blood circulation of the legs. However, Dr. MichaelColgan in OPTIMUM SPORTS NUTRITION asserts that twograms a day significantly increased the use of fat in one trialwith athletes. It also aids loss of weight in the obese. Sinceeven moderate exercise depletes l-carnitine reserves,endurance runners need to have an adequate daily intake.Muscle fatigue and cramps are said to be symptoms of adeficiency.L-carnitine is expensive and in theory might be useful tomarathoners and ultra-marathoners.8 BMC News : Autumn 2007