Can't touch your toes either??

Researchers have found a correlation between lack of flexibility and performance, all due to a gene that some possess.  The idea is that tight muscles, which are more prevalent in individuals with this gene (COL5A1), have an effect on speed and performance because of the physics of energy return.  Tight muscles equal improved performance through improved running economy...

Not sure we can call this high quality scientific evidence (small sample size, one population, no repetition of the study, etc)...but I'll say I dislike my tight legs a little less today!

Check it out here...
http://running.competitor.com/2013/11/training/study-better-runners-are-inflexible_38726

Oh hi big Kinvaras.  I love you.

My friends are faster than your friends :)

Loving Tuesday mornings!  The Dukes Track Club is a collection of post-collegiate distance runners.  We train for races ranging from 5k to 100milers.  Tuesdays have been early morning track workouts up at Academy, the only place in town with trees, grass, and sprinklers.  The turnout is bigger and bigger each week, and it truly is amazing to have a group to train with and inspire me.  The greatest thing is that everyone supports each other, and is thrilled when the other is doing well or has a good workout.  Support is everything!  There are a bunch of races coming up for us all, Seawheeze half marathon, US Marathon Champs at Twin Cities, St. George and Skagit marathons, and Western States 100miler to name a few.

TWA crash site in the Sandia Mountains

The Dukes Track Club had a fantastic adventure on Saturday heading up to the site of a plane crash from 1955 in the Sandia Mountains.  Twenty-three of us met early and headed up the hill for an eleven mile, 3K feet, trek that included a couple of wrong turns, some bumps, bruises, and scrapes, and good memories.  

This excerpt is from Wikipedia with some history of the plane crash.

On February 19, 1955 at 7:03 am, TWA flight 260 en route from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Santa Fe, New Mexico received an IFR clearance from the Albuquerque tower ("ATC clears TWA 260 for approach at the Santa Fe Airport via Victor 19 climb northbound on the back course of the ILS localizer"). There were no further communications after the aircraft took off at 7:05. It was last seen in a high speed shallow climb toward the cloud-shrouded Sandia Ridge at an estimated altitude of 3,000 feet above ground level.

At 7:13 the flight crashed into the Sandia Mountains killing all 13 passengers and three crew members on board instantly. Due to the complex mountainous terrain, a day after the crash several members of the New Mexico Mountain Club, along with other volunteers assisted the New Mexico State Police in the recovery efforts leading to the formation of the Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council, a voluntary organization still active today.

Kinvara Trail...full o' rocks