Ultra Marathon Training Tips

Ultra Marathon Training Tips pic
Ultra Marathon Training Tips
Image: worldrunning.com

A Columbia University professor, Sharyn O’Halloran, PhD, teaches political economics. A dedicated runner in her spare time, Sharyn O’Halloran has completed an ultra-marathon.

An ultra-marathon is considered anything longer than 26.2 miles. If you intend to run one, consider these tips.

Keep drop bags organized. An ultra-marathon allows racers to have one or two bags filled with personal items along the route. Two-time national 50-mile trail champion Michele Yates recommends breaking nutritional bars into bite-sized pieces in advance and placing them in bags to ease accessibility. Using bags with clear pockets also helps identify gear and food quickly.

Run two long days in a row. Running back to back long days prepares the mind. Specifically, it gives you a chance to prepare a plan of action for running on tired and sore legs. When planning these training days, determine how long you expect to take to complete a race and divide the hours between the two days. You can vary the hours as well. For example, if you think you can finish a race in six hours, run three hours one day and the same time another day. The next week, complete four- and two-hour runs on back-to-back days.

Try out equipment before a race. An ultra-marathon requires additional gear, such as headlamps that aid in visibility when starting and ending a race. It is important to get comfortable with these items before a race. You may find you will need other essentials, like a bandana to keep your headlamps from becoming uncomfortable.

Avoiding Injuries While Training for a Marathon

Sharyn O’Halloran serves as the George Blumenthal professor of political economy and a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. An avid runner in her free time, Sharyn O’Halloran has participated in several half-marathons and marathons.

Requiring more than just building up distance, training for long-distance races also involves avoiding and preventing injuries. Instead of increasing mileage rapidly over a short period, spread your training over a longer span and build up mileage gradually. On average, a 10 percent weekly increase is a safe guide. Additionally, focus on races of reasonable length. Although some individuals can go from never running to completing a marathon, they often emerge injured or burnt out from the experience.

Challenging workouts involving speed work and long runs are a necessary part of any marathon training plan, but doing them back-to-back increases your risk of injury. Interspersing hard workouts with easy ones reduces the risk of fatigue and injury. Although following a training plan is important, listening to your body and altering the plan as needed is significantly more important. Your body needs time to adapt to running regularly, and there is nothing wrong with taking a break for a week if you’re just too tired. Let your body recuperate during that time and be prepared to start training again.

Community Impact’s Emergency Services Programs

The George Blumenthal professor of political economy and a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, Sharyn O’Halloran teaches various undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses. In addition to teaching, Sharyn O’Halloran serves on the Board of Directors of Community Impact at Columbia University.

Committed to helping individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, Community Impact maintains several programs with the assistance of students, faculty, and staff at Columbia University. Four of the organization’s programs, which are discussed below, focus on emergency services:

Community Lunch. Located at the Broadway Presbyterian Church, Community Lunch provides home-cooked meals for up to 100 individuals with low-income backgrounds. Food is served family-style, and volunteers often organize holiday parties and fundraising events.

Project for the Homeless. Responsible for maintaining two homeless shelters, Project for the Homeless consists of students from Barnard College and Columbia University. Student volunteers work as nightly supervisors at the shelters and ensure that they stay open for 120 nights.

SHOUT. Dedicated to providing families and individuals without a home with fresh food and dry goods, SHOUT volunteers and coordinators run a weekly food pantry at Ford Hall. Open on Mondays and Thursdays, the pantry provides clients with warm clothes.

Habitat for Humanity. Volunteers with the organization’s Habitat for Humanity branch work once or twice a month to renovate and construct affordable housing. The program has previously helped restore homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy and is currently exploring youth initiatives.

Charities Supported by the NYC Marathon

Sharyn O’Halloran serves Columbia University as the George Blumenthal Professor of Political Economics. Beyond her work as an educator, Sharyn O’Halloran pursues ways of giving back to the New York City community and staying in shape, ultimately combining the two by training for and running the New York City Marathon.

Individuals running in the TCS New York City Marathon have an opportunity to compete on behalf of numerous charities, including several philanthropic organizations with close community ties. Some of these community groups include area schools, the New York City Ballet, and local chapters of national charities like the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Boy Scouts of America.

Team for Kids is one of three Gold Charities supported by the NYC Marathon. Runners who contribute to Team for Kids not only enjoy automatic entry into the marathon, but also play an important role in raising funds for various New York Road Runners (NYRR) youth programs. Additional Gold Charities include NYRR Community Champions, which constitutes a near-$2,700 donation to NYRR community projects by each runner, and Fred’s Team, a group benefiting cancer research programs.

Does Competition Policy Promote Market Performance?

–Sharyn O’Halloran 

Faced with growing skepticism about the benefits of policies design to promote competition and efficient markets, many governments have begun to reevaluate their approach.  In this presentation Anu Bradford, Adam Chilton and Sharyn O’Halloran introduce an innovated antitrust data set and correlations with economic growth.

Click here to view the presentation and find out what’s new!

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Does Competition Policy Promote Market Performance?

 

Supermoon Lunar Eclipse: Why So Rare?

-Morgan O’Halloran 

On Sunday, September 27, 2015 at 10:10 am EDT, there is going to be the first supermoon lunar eclipse since 1982! And it’s going to be the last supermoon lunar eclipse until 2033!  Why?

A supermoon is when a full moon happens at the same time that the moon reaches its closest point on its orbit around the earth. This occurs because, as some of you might know, the moon’s orbit is not perfectly round; it is an ellipse.

What does this mean?  Well, it means that on Sunday the moon is going to appear 14% bigger than usual!  And yes, I know that 14% doesn’t sound like a lot but trust me, it is.

The reason that supermoon lunar eclipses are so rare is because supermoons on their own are very rare but the fact that a supermoon is happening during a lunar eclipse is amazing! A lunar eclipse is when the sun, earth and moon align.  In fact, there is less that a 1/100 chance a supermoon lunar eclipse happens!  A rare event indeed!

So grab your binoculars, telescopes and extra-large magnifying glasses, and say “Hi” to the supermoon!

Permanent link: http://wp.me/p1Tsjm-1J

 

2016 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference Heads to Portland, Oregon

Teaching at Columbia University for more than two decades, Sharyn O’Halloran focuses on political economics. As a professor, Sharyn O’Halloran actively educates herself on the topic by participating in events hosted by the American Political Science Association (APSA).

February 12 marks the first day of the 2016 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference in Portland, Oregon. For three days, attendees will hear presentations and discuss trends related to the theme of “Rethinking the Way We Teach: High-Impact Methods in the Classroom” at the Marriott Portland Downtown Waterfront.

APSA aims to coordinate sessions on online education, simulations, civic engagement, and the inclusive classroom. In addition, courses on integrating technology into hybrid courses and teaching democratic theory in modern society may be included. To create an interactive experience, the association plans to host hands-on workshops as well, one of which will cover the 2016 elections.

For more information, interested parties can visit http://www.apsanet.org, where the official agenda will be made public in the future.

Preparing for an Ultramarathon

The George Blumenthal professor of political economics and a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, Dr. Sharyn O’Halloran has worked in the political science field for more than a quarter of a century. Outside of academia, Dr. Sharyn O’Halloran is an avid runner. She has completed several half and full marathons and recently ran a 60K ultramarathon.

Preparing for an ultramarathon takes time and dedication, especially if the race will be a runner’s first ultramarathon. Increasing running distance is an important part of training for an ultramarathon. While experienced marathoners may already be familiar with longer runs, new runners will need to gradually work their way up. Completing the full race length three to four times before the actual race is also important. Instead of doing the full length in a single day, however, it is best to complete two back-to-back long runs that add up to the total time. This gives runners a basic idea of where they need to improve without fully exhausting the body and mind.

Since ultramarathons are so long, runners must learn to keep themselves comfortable and hydrated during the run. Although there are aid stations set up along ultramarathon courses, they may not be interspersed enough throughout the course for runners to stay strong. Bringing a hydration pack can be extremely helpful for this. Further, runners may place drop bags along the race that contain food and other nutrition items, and they should practice going through these packs quickly and efficiently to ensure valuable time is not wasted. Additionally, certain clothing items may not be as comfortable during the longer run, so testing out different garments while training can be helpful.

MPSA Promotes Political Science Advancement through AJPS

A political science thought leader, Sharyn O’Halloran, PhD, has written a number of publications and won several awards throughout her nearly three-decade-long career. Currently serving as the George Blumenthal professor of political economics at Columbia University, Sharyn O’Halloran, PhD, belongs to such professional organizations as the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA).

Since its founding in 1939, MPSA has been committed to advancing all areas of political science. To this end, the organization hosts one of the field’s largest annual conferences and offers a variety of scholarships. Additionally, MPSA publishes the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS). The journal is a general-interest publication available to all members and all disciplines of political science.

Supported by the Michigan State University (MSU) College of Social Science and the MSU Department of Political Science, the AJPS is a quarterly journal that is published every January, April, July, and October. The journal includes the newest research from all political science areas, including international relations, comparative politics, and political theory. Its mission is dedicated to advancing knowledge of politics and citizenship and sharing the value of field research.

How Runners Can Prevent Blisters

Sharyn O’Halloran, PhD, is a well-known political scientist and economist currently serving as the George Blumenthal Professor of Political Economics at Columbia University. In her free time, Dr. Sharyn O’Halloran is an avid runner. She has run several marathons and half marathons and also completed a 60K ultra marathon.

Runners face a wide variety of injuries, but blisters are one of the most common and, arguably, most annoying problems. Friction is the primary cause of blisters, but wearing shoes that fit properly can greatly decrease the risk of blisters. Running shoes are meant to have some space between the end of the shoe and the longest toe, but should not be too loose. Loose shoes increase friction, as do shoes that are too small. If a shoe fits in some areas but not others, insole or padding may be required to fill in the empty areas and reduce friction.

Socks can also play a role in preventing blisters. Not only do they help decrease moisture, another cause of blisters, they also decrease friction between the shoes and feet. Nylon and polypropylene socks are typically best because they get rid of moisture and stay breathable unlike wool and cotton, which soak up moisture. Doubling up on socks may also provide extra support and keep the skin farther away from the shoe. In addition, there are several waterproof seals and friction powders that may help prevent blisters.