Weekly Lesson
Weekly Lesson
Breakfast For Running Kids
Having a good breakfast is the best way to jump start your day. Putting fuel in your body first thing in the morning helps you to be ready to play and learn all day. Research shows that eating a balanced breakfast prevents you from overeating later in the day.
What is the best thing to eat? A great breakfast might start with whole-grain cereal or bread with low-fat or no-fat milk. Read the labels to make sure what you’re eating contains whole grain. If it says 100% whole wheat or whole grains, then it is…..just because it looks brown does not mean it has whole wheat in it. Reduce the amount of bread products that you eat that are made with bleached flour. Whole wheat products have more fiber and that fiber helps you to feel full and gives you extra energy to do things you want to do in the morning. Another great thing in the morning is fruit. It is better to get your fruits and vegetables from the whole fruit/vegetable versus fruit/vegetable juice. Again, you get extra fiber to feel full and it contains less sugar/calories.
Do you have a difficult time finding the time for breakfast? One idea may be to have a Ziploc bag with whole grain cereal ready to go to eat in the car or on the bus. Have a piece of fruit and a small water bottle with milk ready to go along with your cereal and you have a great start to your day. Another easy to eat alternative are low-fat cheese sticks and toast. If you’re in a super hurry grab a handful of nuts and some milk. All of these are better alternatives then the cereal bar that contains sugar and extra calories. If you have more time in the morning you might ask your mom to fix you some old fashioned oatmeal, cream of wheat, or malt-a meal. All these hot cereals contain whole grains that are needed to fuel our bodies.
Remember breakfast is fuel for champion runners. Breakfast helps you focus and fuels your day. Just remember to keep the breakfast low in sugar and low in fat.The purpose of this lesson is to improve an athlete’s speed potential and energy conservation by correcting flaws in running form. We talked a little about this at running club but I thought it was better to follow up in a lesson.
Head Tilt: Look ahead naturally, not down at your feet. Do not allow your chin to jut out.
Arm/shoulder/torso Movement: Arms swing with elbows positioned as close to the body as possible, moving in a straight line forward and back. Athletes should try and feel like they are shooting a target with their elbow directly behind them. Arms move straight forward finishing no higher then the nose. Arms should never cross in front of the body. Keep hands gently cupped and relaxed. Try and keep shoulders low and loose and this will help translate to the rest of the body to stay relaxed. As athletes are running try to keep upper torso as still as possible with shoulders back and not hunched forward. Try to” run tall” this will help promote optimal lung capacity.
Leg/hip Movement: To help drive your body forward, especially when you are tired, you need to slightly lift your knees up. With this you are trying to generate power from your hip flexors (the upper and outer muscles of the hips). While lifting the knees think about pointing the toes up. This allows the legs to explode into the next stride. With each stride attempt to land on your heel to midfoot and push off with your toe using your calf muscle to propel you forward. One other thing to remember is not to stomp while running, think about running on clouds. Imagine in your mind you are light and springy.
Preparing for the race (weekly lesson 5)
If you have participated in running club you are ready for a 5-K. A 5-k is 3.1 miles,
which is a longer distance for our club. The main question a runner needs to ask
out at a fast pace. Now, that’s not to say you can’t walk some of the time or you may
want to sprint towards the finish line for 200 yards or so. Just try to be consistent with
If this is your first race your goal may be just to finish the race. If you have
participated in runs before go ahead and set a time for yourself. You may want a 10
minute mile pace or better. You be the judge on what goal you want to set for yourself.
TIPS: Try to eat no earlier than two hours before your race, include protein and
carbohydrates in your meal. Some food choices might be fruit and peanut butter, pasta
with meat, or maybe a small amount of pizza. Don’t be too nervous. Tell yourself what a
great job you are going to do. Be confident and have fun. Get a good night’s sleep before
the race.
Weekly Lesson 4
The Three Phases of Exercise
Warm-up is one of the most important elements of an exercise program. It is particularly important to prevent injury. Warm-up is a low level activity, such as a brisk walk or a slow jog, which should be done prior to stretching and more vigorous activity. The main goal of the warm-up is to raise the total body temperature and muscle temperature to prepare the entire body. Let’s look at the similarities between modeling clay and your muscles. If we put modeling clay in the freezer and then stretch it, how would it bend? It would probably snap, right. Now think about putting modeling clay in the microwave and then stretching it. The clay would probably be able to stretch for a long time before breaking. When you warm-up slowly the blood flow goes to your muscles and helps ease the elongation of the muscle fibers. If one stretches the muscles without prior warm-up, the muscles are cold and are more prone to injury such as a tear or strain.
Exercise Routine or Cardio Time- This is the period of time when we increase our heart rate and burn the majority of our calories.
Cool down is a critical step and usually overlooked. Cooling down involves returning the heart rate back to a normal resting rate. Some an idea for a cool down might be to walk around for a few minutes before starting your stretching. This is a optimal time to do static stretching, (hold a stretch for a short period of time). After a workout your muscles are the most pliable and you can get the maximum stretch. This cool down helps prevent soreness and increasing your overall flexibility. See attached sheets for stretches.
WEEKLY LESSON #3
be inconvenient. Therefore, another way to measure your intensity is by the Perceived
Exertion Scale. There are several scales, but I feel this one is easy to follow.
- Level 1: I’m watching TV and eating bon bons
- Level 2: I’m comfortable and could maintain this pace all day long
- Level 3: I’m still comfortable, but am breathing a bit harder
- Level 4: I’m sweating a little, but feel good and can carry on a conversation effortlessly
- Level 5: I’m just above comfortable, am sweating more and can still talk easily
- Level 6: I can still talk, but am slightly breathless
- Level 7: I can still talk, but I don’t really want to. I’m sweating like a pig
- Level 8: I can grunt in response to your questions and can only keep this pace for a short time period
- Level 9: I am probably going to die
- Level 10: I have got to stop
WEEKLY LESSON #2
CARDIO VOCABULARY
Cardio- exercise that makes the heart beat faster. Some of the best cardio exercises are RUNNING, cycling, walking, and swimming.
Cardio workouts help keep our heart, lungs, and muscles in great shape. Some other benefits include increased endurance, burn extra calories to help us maintain a healthy weight, and have better positive images of ourselves.
Over time your body adapts to the exercise and your heart and lungs become stronger, thus making it easier to exercise. What once seemed hard is not as hard. That is why with running club we start out slow and build up miles as we go.
In training for running you will need to have a good mix of cardio training for your heart and lungs and strength training for your leg muscles. Hence the reason for our lunges and other strengthening drills we do.