The 3,400 square foot Golf Performance Center at Canyon Ranch in Tucson features state-of-the-art training aids and technology for golf enthusiasts. Beginners to advance players will benefit from individual consults with the resident PGA professionals as well as lessons, clinics and related fitness training.

Golf Performance Center

Your personal services allowance can be used for a la carte golf appointments and plus play. Golf packages are also available that include private sessions plus rounds of golf at nearby Ventana Canyon (10 minutes away). Transfers, golf cart, driving range and greens fees are all included. Imagine playing against the backdrop of the Santa Catalina Mountains with newfound friends you met at the Golf Center.

Very serious golfers can elect to participate in the intense, individualized Peak Performance Program as it is applied to the specifics of this sport. (See previous posts Days 6-15 on the Peak Performance Program for runners).

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

My peak performance training program at Canyon Ranch concluded with meetings with nutritionist Hana Feeney. I described my diet to her in great detail, from typical off-season meals to what I eat before, during and after long runs and speedwork.

I stay away from junk food, rarely drink alcohol, and pasta addiction is in my DNA. I always eat before a run, always use PowerBar Gels during long runs, and always have a Naked Juice fruit smoothie when I’m done, followed by a full breakfast. I’ve never had stomach problems while running and I thought my diet was the least of my problems.

But, as usual, I was wrong.

While my diet was perfectly adequate for a healthy middle-aged male, it was far short of what was necessary to fuel the number of miles I was running. Hana computed my average daily intake at 2,300 calories. My proportions were good, with carbohydrates making up about two-thirds of my diet. But for a training schedule with a lot of hour-long runs, plus several multi-hour runs, Hana figured I needed about 3,000 calories – an increase of about 30 percent.

I doubt there are very many people who hear the words “you need to eat more” from their nutritionist. I was licking my chops at my unexpected good luck. But, of course, there was a catch.

This wasn’t an invitation to load up on ice cream and cheeseburgers. The list of foods included apples, bananas, berries, low fat yogurt, natural peanut butter, almonds, brown rice, sweet potatoes, beans, and a huge raft of whole grain foods – including some dense, but tasty, breakfast cereals.

Hana also instructed me to reduce the time between gels during long runs, drink the Naked Juice Protein Zone for muscle repair, and added recommendations for vitamin supplements. I now take daily an antioxidant packet of Vitamins C and E, natural beta-carotene, CoEnzyme Q10, and glutathione, along with an omega-3 fatty acid supplement.

It was a lot to swallow, so to speak, but your engine won’t run well on beer and hot dogs. Food is more than fuel, but let’s face it: we’ll try almost anything to improve our running, but a revolutionary change in diet is probably the last thing we’ll consider.

So, with a folder full of papers, charts, graphs, and the hearty best wishes of the good folks at Canyon Ranch who examined every aspect of my physical well-being, I headed for home. Injuries kept me from reaping the full benefit of the program, but the lessons learned will serve me well for the rest of my running life.

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

I avoided it for as long as I could, but I still ended up in the weight room. If I’m skeptical about the benefits of weight training for distance runners, at least I’m not alone. There are a lot of articles online about runners and weights, and they range from the skeptical to the hostile. Not to mention weights can be downright dangerous.

But no one was suggesting that weight training would directly improve my running. My body scan indicated I could use less fat and more lean. A little time in the weight room should improve my overall body composition. Five pounds of muscle would be more beneficial than five pounds of fat.

Exercise physiologist Mike Siemens went easy on me because no one will ever mistake me for Charles Atlas. Old ladies were pumping more iron than I was.

Mike walked me through a strength program that I could continue at home: bench press, lateral pull-down, overhead press, leg press, biceps curl, triceps rope and ball, and leg curl. Interspersed between sets were a series of flexibility exercises utilizing the Burdenko method.

Although Burdenko is best known for aquatic physical therapy, his land exercises are designed to improve coordination, endurance and balance. The catch and pull was tough. Think of it as your standard runner quad stretch, but you grab your foot with your opposite hand while walking and stretching toward the ceiling. It looked like something that would get you hooted off Dancing with the Stars.

I was much better at the pull and kick (pictured) and the crunches. I knew all those sit-ups I did in the military would eventually come in handy.

Mike put the whole sequence on a grid for me, advising me to start it up during my “off-season” (December through February) on my two non-running days per week.

Physical limitations aside, cross-training is contrary to my normal way of thinking, which is, you get better at running by running, better at writing by writing, and off-days are days off. But I’m a middle-of-the-pack runner, not Hal Higdon, so I’ll give it a try.

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

If you have been following my trek through the peak performance program at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, you know I have had to fast for 12 hours, play video games using my legs, give blood, scan my bones and body fat, run a 4-degree grade at 8.5 mph with an oxygen mask over my face, do speedwork in 90 degree heat and I still had the specter of the weight room hanging over me.

But none of this filled me with as much dread as my next appointment: 100 minutes with a behavioral therapist.

“What’s this for?” I asked the Lovely Mrs. A.

“She’s going to find out what you’re running from,” she replied, smiling at me.

Great. Was I going to have to tell her about the duck dreams?

I was worried for nothing. Ann Pardo, Canyon Ranch’s director of behavioral health, immediately made me feel comfortable and it was no chore at all talking about me, me, me.

I won’t bore you, dear reader, with the maze of my psyche, but Ann’s open-ended questions are designed not just to elicit information about your running, motivation, or performance, but to lend free rein to your discussion of those things, and see where it leads. In my case, it was very much like a standard counseling session – without any mention of griffins and disembowelment.

Then, in the midst of what had been merely a pleasant conversation with a very nice woman, Ann led me to an epiphany about my running – much to my astonishment. As hard as it is for me to write it here, I got very emotional. Yes, tears were involved.

I was pretty embarrassed, but invigorated at the same time. All the tests, drills and advice I received at Canyon Ranch will certainly improve my running. But nothing will help me more through those last few miles of a marathon than what I learned in my therapy session with Ann.

Afterwards, the Lovely Mrs. A. asked me how it went. “It was wonderful,” I said. “After all those miles and all that training, I actually discovered for the first time why I run.”

“And why is that?” she asked.

“For the best reason of all,” I replied, smiling at her.

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

After a long deep sleep and a substantial breakfast I headed out for a morning run with exercise physiologist Mike Siemens. He’s an experienced triathlete and in 2006 he ran Boston, which is my ultimate goal. His plan is to observe my gait and give me an interval workout to improve the efficiency of my stride.

But as it turned out, I had a few problems with this plan: It was 9 a.m. In Tucson. In August.

The temperature was already 90 degrees F (I checked) and we set out on a trail that runs along the property. There’s a photo of it accompanying this column.

OK, I added the cattle skull.

Something I wasn’t immediately aware of was the elevation. Canyon Ranch sits about 3,000 feet above sea level. I live in Sacramento, California, which is – believe me – a hot weather town, but only 25 feet above sea level. So my two-mile “warmup” was more like the last 300 meters of a grueling 10K.

Mike was patient and took me through each of the drills in turn. We began with a few sets of walking lunges. We followed with some high knees, then some butt kicks, and finished off with some strides.

As you can see from the videos, these drills are not designed to make you look particularly cool, but should help put some more boost in my stride. Mike advised me to add these drills to my weekly speedwork, for which he also provided some suggestions.

Now that we knew my max heart rate was 185, he suggested an interval workout that would gradually increase sets of 2-minute runs at around 85 percent max. I would start with five repeats and work my way up to 12.

After 45 minutes I was melting, but I was still able to jog… slowly… back to the facility. Having had my body examined from all different angles, inside and out, it was time to have my head examined.

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

Having recovered sufficiently from my VO2 max test to understand spoken English, I sat down with exercise physiologist Mike Siemens to examine the results.

Mike explained the uses of the test: to measure work potential, general health and wellness, performance, and efficiency of exercise. He went over a number of ways to increase VO2 max, most of which involved various physiological mutations such as enlarging my left ventricle or increasing my capillary density. I figured if I could do these things, I might as well get the red bodysuit and yellow boots.

But Mike was just setting me up. A practical way to increase VO2 max is to reduce body fat. Clearly I was going to be walking that “last mile” to the weight room, probably with a priest performing last rites for company.

So I was prepared for the worst when Mike showed me the multi-column printout with my results. My heart rate maxed at 185. I burned a max of 3.9 liters of oxygen per minute. But what was the magic number? My VO2 max was 56.

Is that good?

Mike pulled out a table from the American College of Sports Medicine’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription that utilized data from a Cooper Institute longitudinal study. My VO2 max put me in the top 10 percent of my age group, and probably the top 5 percent. In fact, I would be in the top 10 percent of males in their 20s.

Mike had another table that estimated potential 10K time based solely on VO2 max. He told me the table suggested I currently had the aerobic potential to run about a 42:30 10K.

I turned around quickly to see who was laughing so loudly, but it was me.

My 10K PR is 47:09. Mike emphasized that running is more than processing oxygen, and many factors affect speed. But obviously there was some room for improvement.

The printout provided one more crucial bit of information. It showed that at marathon pace I was burning 1,100 calories per hour. This led us into a long discussion about glycogen and anaerobic threshold, but the practical application of this knowledge would have to wait for my meeting with the nutritionist.

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

Leg strength tests and body scans are all to the good, but now I was going to get a chance to take a running test. Even those who are relatively new to running have probably heard of an aerobic capacity test – or VO₂ max test. It measures your ability to transport and burn oxygen. If you are able to do this well, your distance running is steady and sure. Do it poorly, and you end up like Pheidippides.

I had a hearty lunch and headed to the small room where exercise physiologist Mike Siemens awaited me, along with a standard treadmill. Many VO₂ max tests involve having sensors pasted to your body and an unwieldy contraption attached to your face. But we had a portable wireless gadget that utilizes a normal heart rate monitor and a standard oxygen mask, sending the data directly to the computer through telemetry – much like a guided missile. Although, in my case, it was more like a Nerf dart thrown by a 4-year-old.

It all hangs on a harness that makes the entire get-up very unobtrusive, enabling you to concentrate on running. Mike explained how the test would work: I would start with a moderate walk, and he would gradually speed things up until I was running at near-top speed, after which he would add incline until I killed myself.

OK, I added that last part, but Mike wanted to make sure I would actually reach my max, but at the same time avoid any macho self-destruction. He mentioned a team of high school track stars who goaded one of their members into exceeding his max and reaching his next physical threshold – barfing.

Off I went. I must have been a little overexcited because my starting heart rate was 86. Walk. Walk fast. Jog slow. Jog. Run slow. Run faster. By minute 12 I was cruising along at my marathon pace, which is 8:30. At minute 13 we accelerated to 8:00 pace. No big deal.

Minute 14 – 7:30, slower than 5K pace for me. Still feel good.

Minute 15 – 7:00. Now I’m cooking. This is like the last 200 yards in a 5K, except I know it’s not going to end.

Minute 16 – My mile best in my old age is 6:36. Mike asks if I want more speed or more incline. I think about it for a second, and picture myself shooting off the back of the treadmill into the wall. “Slope! Slope!” I gasp. Mike adds two degrees of incline.

Minute 17 – “Are you OK?” Mike asks. I summon enough energy to nod my head, but can’t spare the breath to speak. Mike bumps me up to four degrees of incline.

Oh. Dear. God.

Not only am I running for my life, but up an endless sand dune. My mind departs my body, unwilling to share in the breathless agony. It hovers above me, staring at the treadmill timer—exhorting it, willing it to reach the magic number 18:00.

I make it! And fortunately Mike can see that if he adds two more degrees of incline I’m more likely to vault over the handrail and grab him by the throat. He slows the treadmill gradually while I focus on avoiding a facer into the control panel.

I soon experience a “runner’s high,” otherwise known as “stopping.” It feels so sweet.

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

My next stop for Canyon Ranch’s peak performance program was to the dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan machine. As I understood it, the machine would pepper me with gamma rays and turn me into a superhero.

Dr. Brewer punctured my balloon by explaining the machine would simply measure my bone density and, as a side benefit, my body fat. Oh joy.

“This generally doesn’t hurt,” said Dr. Brewer, which of course is the money quote they’ll print in the newspaper story describing my grisly death and charred corpse. Fortunately my fears were groundless and the scan only took a few minutes. Soon we were looking at the enchanting picture you see here. Control yourselves, ladies, but that’s me with nothing on—not even skin, fat, muscles or internal organs.

The readout showed I had 20,945 grams of fat on me—about the same amount as a porterhouse at your local Sizzler. My body was 30.7 percent fat.

I was freaking out for the better part of the day until exercise physiologist Mike Siemens explained that the DEXA scan measures all the fat in my body, including the thin threads throughout the lean, or, as I unappetizingly called it, my marbling.

To demonstrate the difference from a normal body composition test, he used the calipers on me and measured out 23 percent fat. Still not good, but at least I had a better reference.

Mike explained that even though I’m a thin guy (5′11″, 154 lbs.), I’m lacking in lean mass, or, in layman’s terms, muscle. Mike had to throw a net over me as I tried to lam out of there. I knew where this was heading: the weight room.

But I got a short reprieve. I had to take one final test before the remedies began: an aerobic capacity test, better known by runners the world over as a VO2 max test.

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

I can’t say my second day in Canyon Ranch’s peak performance program started the way I like. After a 12-hour fast I had a 7:30 a.m. appointment for a blood draw.

Dr. Stephen Brewer, Canyon Ranch’s medical director, kindly invited me to attend the peak performance staff meeting at 8 a.m. I readily agreed, but wondered whether I would be tested while in a state of keen hunger.

I was introduced around, but names and faces began to blur as I spied the bagels and cream cheese (obviously contraband) on the conference room table. No doubt fearing the ravenous look in my eyes, I was told to help myself. I’m not proud to confess the meeting commenced amidst a blizzard of bagel crumbs.

The topic of discussion was shin splints, in honor of my presence and my recent bout with same. Dr. Richard Gerhauser, like most of the peak performance staff, is an impressive athlete in his own right, and explained the fundamentals of medial tibial stress syndrome.

I explained how I had treated my shins with ice and ibuprofen when Dr. Gerhauser suggested that reducing inflammation was not always the best approach to take.

Heresy! I thought. Thou shalt treat shin splints with rest, ice and Advil, sayeth the Mayo Clinic and every other shin splint advice column on the Internet.

But Dr. Gerhauser explained the role of inflammation in healing. Reducing inflammation brings relief, but it can also extend recovery time. Assuming you have no immune system complications, this makes some sense and may help explain the findings of the British Journal of Sports Medicine about ice baths. Participants who soaked in ice baths after activity reported more pain than those who did not.

I can’t say I’m entirely convinced, but a little research did determine that inflammation is a lot more complicated medical topic than I had imagined. My brilliant plan is to simply avoid it whenever possible.

Next up was my dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scan. Find out next week how much I charge to haunt a house!

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm

by guest blogger, Michael Antonucci, author of www.RunningIsFunny.com

My peak performance package at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona, began almost immediately after arrival with a trip to the nurse to check my blood pressure (116/64) and resting pulse rate (64). Then a program specialist went through my action-packed schedule with me.

My first stop was a small room where exercise physiologist Mike Siemens greeted me. After providing him with my vital statistics, I boarded a leg press machine that was hooked up to a computer and monitor.

Normally you wouldn’t need a computer to see how well you can lift, but it would be difficult if your physiologist were directing you to lift 63 percent of the way, then down to 30 percent, then back up to 85 percent, and so on. So the computer converts the exercise into a series of video games for your legs.

For someone like me who never lifts weights, this was good news. The games kept me entertained so I didn’t notice that I was absolutely torturing my quads, glutes and other muscles I didn’t know I had.

One of the first games resembled Breakout!, a Pong-like game that involves keeping three balls in play by moving a paddle back and forth across the bottom of the screen. The twist is that you don’t move the paddle by turning a knob with your wrists, but by pushing the weight up and down with one leg.

I was pretty good at this but Mike wouldn’t let me go for the high score.

The next one was like Frogger, requiring sharp movements to keep from smashing into the obstacles. I was mostly roadkill.

After about 30 minutes, I was ready to try Asteroids or Super Mario, but Mike decided to show me what it all meant instead.

Using a series of color-coded printouts, Mike first explained that my left leg was 11 percent stronger than my right leg. They should be within 3 to 10 percent of each other, so it confirmed my theory that I’m slightly unbalanced.

The coordination, endurance capacity and proprioceptive results all indicated that my eccentric contractions were much more efficient than my concentric contractions. OK, so I’m unbalanced and extra eccentric. Tell me something I don’t know.

Mike patiently explained that pushing the weight up was concentric and letting it down was eccentric. Translating this to running, it meant that my transition from footfall to push-off was not as efficient as it could be. In short, I’m not getting the maximum propulsion from each stride.

This information enabled Mike to develop a plan for our upcoming running session. I was pretty jazzed to begin, but I needed to rest my eccentric legs because the next day promised to be extremely taxing.

The Peak Performance Program is also available for cycling, golf, swimming, tennis and triathalon training. This specialized health and fitness package can be added onto any group date.

For a complete list of upcoming 2010 retreats, go to
http://www.IslandGetawaysTravel.com/Wellness%20Retreats.htm