Upcoming Issues

Check out what to look for in the next issues.

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January/February 2010

RT Runners of the Year
RT’s exclusive rankings looks at how top runners fared against each other in head-to-head competition, sorting out the top 10 male and female racers of the year in the world and in the U.S. We also will calculate the top 5 countries using cross-country type scoring, compare the accolades of Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele to fuel the who’s-the-greatest-of-all-time fire, and discuss where and how all the ranked runners raced their way to the top. Check out last year's rankings here.

Boaz Between Two Worlds
Boaz Cheboiywo has long straddled two worlds. He was born in Kenya but calls Ypsilanti, Mich., home. He won NCAA titles while at Eastern Michigan but always longed to represent Kenya at the Olympics. He grew up shoeless until age 13 but now lounges in Lebron James gear. He's a 3:52 miler looking to make his mark in the marathon. In June, the affable Cheboiywo will become a U.S. citizen. Is the next great American distance runner a 5-foot-3 barrel-chested social studies teacher? Editor Scott Douglas followed Cheboiywo from Colorado to Maine to find out. Read about another Kenyan-turned-American citizen, Bernard Lagat here.

The Big Change
Even runners who are doing well sometimes feel the need to try a dramatic change in their running life to reach a new level, break out of a rut, or just add some spice. We look at why you may want to change your running this year and how you might go about it, with advice from top coaches and examples from top athletes in the open, college and masters ranks. Learn about changing up your marathon training program here.

Larry Olsen: Throwback Runner
Larry Olsen, the 2007 USATF 60-64 Runner of the Year is a legend on the New England running scene. Not only is Olsen one of the top senior competitors in the country, he is also a dedicated high school coach who works odd jobs to make ends meet and relies on race winnings as one of his main sources of income. Carless since his vehicle broke down last year, running often serves as Olsen's main means of commuting, and despite his own financial struggles he will purchase shoes, gear and equipment for his athletes before he replaces his own running shoes that have well over 1,000 miles on them. We visit with Olsen to find what makes him tick. Check out the rest of our masters running articles here.

Owner’s Manual
We’ve all heard how important hill repeats are for top performance. But what exactly does this mean? Long hills? Short hills? Steep hills? Gradual hills? We break down the four basic types of hill workouts to explain how and when to do each, depending on your target race and where you are in your training cycle. Plus, science-based details on how several common prescription medications affect endurance performance, and a better way to recover from races.

McMillan’s Performance Page
Coach McMillan shares lessons he learned in 2009 and how to incorporate them into your training, including the importance of leg-speed workouts throughout the year, the benefits of long tempo runs for marathon training, and how to most effectively and safely build mileage. Find all of McMillan's Performance Page articles here.

Masters
Mike Tymn explores the training philosophy and regimen of Cathy Merra, one of the top 50-year-old runners in the country after throwing caution (and her doctor’s recommendations) to the wind and increasing her mileage significantly last year despite having arthritis. Plus a story about the surprising change a heart attack had on the running life of a long-time solitary runner.

Shorts
We’ll have an exclusive story from the USATF Distance Running Development meetings at ZAP Fitness, a condensed state of the sport in the U.S. for our readers. We’ll offer up a brief look at the rebirth of running in Rwanda,15 years after a deadly genocide that wiped out millions and obliterated its economy. Also: a quick overview of night-running apparel from Brooks, Pearl Izumi and Saucony, plus Roger Robinson’s history column, and more.

College section
Writer John Kissane profiles the NCAA Division III program at Wisconsin-Oskosh. Under the direction of coaches John Zupanc and Deb Vercauteren, the school has had one of the top cross country and track programs in the country for more than 20 years. Kissane examines the challenges of developing distance runners at the Division III level, as well as some of the reasons Zupanc and Vercauteren have been so successful.

Trails
A Q&A with Charles Corfield, a masters-aged runner and successful businessman who has hit his stride as a trail ultra runner after turning 50. Plus, a short essay from veteran ultrarunner Krissy Moehl on how trail running has shaped her life.

High School
Our winter off-season special includes insights from a top coach on successfully hitting the weight room, how to keep your running fitness while participating in another sport, and a training plan for those totally focused on the upcoming spring track season.

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March 2010

RT Masters of the Year
Our annual rankings of the best performers in each age group 40 and up reveals another year of record-breaking performances from both young (like open 20K national champion Coleen DeReuck at 45) and old (witness 93-year-old Evelyn Tripp who ran an age-graded 13:19 for 5K). Check out our master's rankings from last year >>
PLUS: We present an listing of all-time best American age-graded performances, and catch up with four of the all-time greats to get memories of their best years and find out what they are doing today.

No Vacancy
Want to run a marathon in 2010? Hope you’ve already signed up. Increasingly, races are filling early, and not just the big ones, like New York, that has had a lottery for more than a decade; mid-level, mid-American marathons now often cap the field well before race day. When Boston started turning runners away in November even if they had qualified, we decided to take a look at the situation, and assess what methods races are using to limit the size of their fields and what it means for the long-time, serious runner.

The Master and the Wunderkind
They are 6 decades and worlds apart, yet they share this: domination. Ed Whitlock has made headlines since he became the first man over 70 to break 3:00 in the marathon (he’s since lowered that to 2:54, at age 73). Lukas Verzbicas, at nearly 1/5 of Whitlock’s age, drew national attention by taking down the national high school record in the 5,000m as a freshman, while not considering distance running his primary sport (he’s a triathlete). We take a closer look at these two bookends of excellence in our sport.

Real Answers to Real World Questions
Training advice abounds that paints big-picture plans or detail specific workouts down to the meters and seconds, and we lap them up. But many questions seem to fall between the cracks, especially when it comes to apply these workouts and plans to our specific situations; how do we deal with timing issues, running with a group, weather concerns, difficulty finding hills, or making it to a track? Scott Douglas asked top coaches and runners to provide real-world answers that you can apply to your training this year.

Meet the World Champions
(no, they aren’t Ethiopians)
It’s been more than a decade since anyone but an Ethiopian woman has stood on top of the podium in the 10,000m at a world championship, and nearly as long in the 5,000m. This year, however, two young Kenyans bettered the Ethiopians to take gold. That can happen on any give day, you may argue, but a closer look at these two Kenyans — Linet Masai and Vivian Cheriuyot, who live and train together in London during the track season — reveals that they aren’t flash in the pan, but have demonstrated excellence in the junior ranks for years, and are coming of age to take their place on top of the world.

Owner’s Manual
Coach and masters star Pete Magill describes how to overcome the ten most common types of pre-race jitters. Plus, the best medicine ball exercises for runners, a better way to include recovery bouts during hard workouts and a simple do-at-home way to speed recovery after a hard workout.

McMillan’s Performance Page
Coach McMillan shares part 2 of the lessons he learned in 2009 and how to incorporate them into your training, including building a “no fear” attitude, and how to use hills and mileage to manage your peak.

Masters
Pete Magill describes the surprisingly competitive (but no less friendly) culture of top masters today through the window of the 2009 Syracuse Festival of Races.

College
This issue we’ll look at the Stony Brook University distance running program coached by former elite Irish marathoner Andy Ronan. After being bumped up to Division I a decade ago, Ronan now has the program on the cusp of competitiveness, partially building on Irish, Swedish and Kiwi runners. We’ll highlight emerging twin sensations Lucy and Holly Van Dalen, who hail from New Zealand. A sidebar will discuss on the re-emergence of Stanford as a men’s distance power under new coach Jason Dunn.

Shorts
We’ll present 10 things to look forward to in 2010, including hot races, emerging athletes to watch and other trends. Our Gear section will highlight four new running watches; We’ll catch up with American distance legend Craig Virgin, who is working as a consultant coach for schools in Colorado and Florida. A short Q&A will feature Micah True, the American who started the trail running race that was popularized in the book “Born to Run;” and Roger Robinson’s Footsteps column will take a historical look at the Milrose Games.

Trails
We’ll profile Tim Parr, a former Western State University runner who has run sub-2:20 on the roads but has since changed his focus to ultrarunning. Training with the Gunnison Distance Project, Parr won the 2009 Leadville Trail 100.

High School
Marc Bloom, editor of The Harrier, presents impressions and lessons from the 2009 Nike Cross Nationals, plus training advice from Coach Roy Benson.