How to bust through that rut, and run faster than ever
Training for increased fitness and better performance requires stress, and recovery. Stress, and recovery. If you don’t stress enough, you can’t expect improvement. If you stress too much, without the required recovery, you run smack into overtraining--now often called over-reaching.
Is there a middle ground? Sure. But it’s also possible that the middle ground represents a level where you don’t improve as much as you’d like to. In that case, what’s your next move?
This article proposes a training adjustment called “overloading.” Translation: You train significantly harder, while making sure that you a stagger into over-reaching territory.
To do this, you must limit the length of time that you overload--usually from 3 days to 3 weeks. For most recreational runners, I like a 4-day approach where day 3 is a recovery day. For example, if you’re training for a marathon, you might run significantly longer than usual on days 1, 2, and 4, with an easy day or rest day on day 3.
Those 4 days would represent your overload period. Then you’d take several more easy days before sliding back into your normal routine.
However, in this study with free full text, triathletes followed a 3-week overload training routine. The ones who did about 30% more training than normal, improved performance by 5% after a taper. Another group that completed an additional 20% more training, clearly did too much. Their performance decreased, and several became ill.
There’s no proven recipe for organizing your own overload training. But the approach makes sense, and might be worth trying if you’re frustrated by your lack of improvement. More at Outside Online.
Beat the hills. (Really!) Just follow this simple trick
All runners who enter races on hilly courses notice when we perform well--on the flats, uphills, or downhills--relative to other runners around us. And we gnash our teeth when others pull away from us.
Naturally, we would like to increase our efficiency where we are weak. Many notice this effect most on uphills or downhills. The present study has a solution for you--at least when it comes to the uphills.
Researchers asked a group of 19 runners to perform in a lab while running 10K per hour pace on a level treadmill, inclined (uphill) treadmill, and declined (downhill) treadmill. In all cases, they measured subjects’ “cost of running”--ie, their efficiency--while also looking at variables like time on the ground, stride length, and ground forces.
There were essentially no links between the measured variables and efficiency during level or downhill running. The latter is a bit surprising, as other studies have shown a superiority of short contact time in downhill running.
On the uphills, those runners who used longer contact times and longer strides exhibited better efficiency. This occurs because you are fighting gravity when running uphill, and gravity wins any time you are floating through the air between footfalls. When you’re on the ground pushing forward, at least you have a leg (literally) in the game. Keep the knees low--no bounding. In fact, effective hill running looks like walking taken to the next gear. More at Scientific Reports with free full text.
Is sodium bicarbonate the next big endurance hack?
Many observers have noted a lot of great performances on the track and in the Tour de France this year, and wondered if athletes are using sodium bicarbonate to improve their races. This study doesn’t answer that question, but adds to our knowledge about sodium bicarbonate boosting to improve time to exhaustion (TTE), a frequent metric in endurance experiments.
It also adds quite a bit more, especially about the role that a placebo effect could have. Here, researchers used a--get ready for a mouthful--”randomised, crossover, counterbalanced, double-blind, placebo-controlled design” to tease out the results.
Basically, they gave sodium bicarbonate to recreational cyclists before the cyclists completed a TTE trial that lasted 8 to 12 minutes. For runners, you could think of this as something close to a 2-mile time trial. The subjects also did a placebo trial for comparison purposes. And of course all subjects completed the test once before the experimental period began.
Each cyclist completed two sodium bicarbonate trials--one where the sodium bicarb was mixed in a drink, and one delivered by capsule. Cyclists improved their TTE test by an average of 27 seconds on the drinks, and 23 seconds with the capsules. Both results amounted to a significant difference from the pre-experimental test.
Why the difference? Here’s what the researchers think: Because there was a strong “taste” component to the drink, but not with the capsule, the riders knew something was going on, and may have assumed it was a beneficial boost. This “expectancy” caused them to ride harder when they received the drink vs the no-taste capsule.
Conclusion: “Participants higher expectancy” with the drink resulted in them “exerting themselves harder … which subsequently leads to a greater decline in blood bicarbonate and larger improvements in performance.”
Important note: “All participants reported GI discomfort” from both the drinks and the capsules, with no difference between the two approaches. More at Sports Medicine-Open with free full text.
All gain, no pain: The right way to “break in” super shoes
Super shoes are at least 7 years old now, if you date them from Nike’s secretive introduction in the Olympic year of 2016. You’d think maybe our obsession with them would slow down. But, no, all those super fast times being run this summer, plus a continuation of research papers, keeps the fire burning. Here are two more of those recent reports.
The first found that both slower runners and a faster group improved their running economy similarly when wearing a shoe with a stiff plate. Some had speculated that only faster runners benefit from stiff plates because you have to put a lot of force (speed) into them to get the bend-and-reflex reaction. There was some hint of that here, but the differences seemed small.
The researchers also noted that the improvements in running economy were “accompanied by small modifications in running kinematics.” That’s good, because larger changes would have increased injury worries. More at Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Those concerns are still being voiced by an international team of running-injury physicians, including Adam Tenforde and Amol Saxena, recognized U.S. experts. They’ve written a new editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The editorial discusses TARS (“technically advanced running shoes”) and urges sportsmed docs to adopt a balanced and “scientific process to determine how best to ensure safety for our athletes.”
They note that TARS are linked to “decreased cadence, longer flight times, higher peak vertical ground reaction forces, and altered foot kinetics and kinematics compared with habitual footwear.”
While admitting “current knowledge gaps,” the authors advise particular super shoe caution for runners who have had “prior bone stress injury of the foot, lower extremity tendinopathy or plantar fasciopathy.”
If you do decide to buy and wear super shoes, the authors suggest this strategy: First, do your easy runs in super shoes to get your body accustomed to any changes. If things go well, begin using super shoes for tempo runs and faster training, and in your races. From this point, continue wearing your older, more familiar shoes on easy and typical-day runs, and super shoes for race-pace training. More at British J of Sports Medicine.
Warning: You can eat all day, and still be lacking carbs
It’s possible to be eating all the time, or at least to appear that way, without consuming enough calories to fuel a strong training plan. This is particularly true if you’re always eating salads, and perhaps skipping the salad oils.
Here sports nutritionist Anne Guzman describes in great detail how such a scenario can “backfire” with a hard-training athlete named Gillian (not her real name). Gillian knows she’s supposed to pack in plenty of carbohydrates, so she does. She consumes “real foods” that are mostly carb--kale, broccoli, cantaloupe, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, and other unprocessed fruits and vegetables.
She often combines these foods in several large daily salads. These make her feel full, and also feel good about consuming a high-carb diet. Only … she’s not getting that many carbohydrates.
In actuality, she’s eating a high-volume, “low energy density” diet that might be terrific for an obese individual trying to lose weight. But not for someone training several hours a day, as Gillian is.
As a result, “Gillian is often tired, bloated, and lacking stamina. She’s inconsistent in her performances and seems to be getting sick more often.”
Things change, and Gillian begins feeling better and performing better, after she begins adding the following foods to her daily meals and snacks: brown rice, bananas, dates, maple syrup, and bagels with honey. She also consumes more fuel during workouts--sugary drinks and/or gels/blocs.
Outcome: Gillian notices a big increase in her “stamina, top-end repeatability, as well as her energy for everyday life.” More at Ann Guzman Nutrition Solutions.
Carbohydrates work well for endurance athletes because hard-exercising muscles are most efficient when burning carbs. But there are other reasons as well. The brain really appreciates carbs (and you don’t want to go out for a long run without bringing your brain along). Researchers examined how mouth rinsing with a carb solution differed from mouth rinsing with a non-nutritive, no carb sugar substitute. They did this by measuring electrical activity in a specific area of the brain, and found that “controlled visuospatial attention was increased after carbohydrate rinsing.”
This result “may suggest a central mechanism underlying the ergogenic effects of carbohydrate mouth rinsing on endurance performance.” More at Nutrients with free full text.
Don’t drain your brain. (You need all the friends you can get)
The above item reminded me of this one. Before I ran my first Comrades Marathon 3 decades ago, I read every book I could find about the famous South African ultramarathon. I remember one photo page in particular: It showed historic 5-time winner Arthur Newton sitting in a camp chair while listening to classical music on one of those huge, old Victrola record players from the 1920s. This is what he did to recover from long, hard training days.
I can’t believe that the Internet doesn’t include a copy of this photo, but I can’t find it. Here’s an early Victrola to refresh your memory.
Newton might have been an ultra athlete well ahead of his times. According to this article on recovery techniques, we should focus more on the brain, and less on pills and gizmos. One quoted expert says: “You always have some degree of neural-physiologic fatigue. Your brain just doesn’t control your muscles as well when you’re fatigued.”
Some good strategies to boost your brain recovery: “Seeing a movie, hanging out with friends, or lying down and listening to music.” More at Fast Talk Labs.
Surprise! 75 yr old female runners have super endurance
At last month’s Western States 100 mile, Courtney Dauwalter broke the female course record by an incredible 78 minutes, and finished just 5.5% behind male winner, Tom Evans. The usual male-female difference in distance racing is 10 to 11%, so Dauwalter’s performance fueled the old question: Are women relatively better than men in ultra-distance competitions?
A new report dove into that question with the help of 1.1 million Swiss race competitors over the last 20 years. It found a striking result in the 75+ age groups, where the women appeared to be closing in fast on the guys. “Elderly female ultra-marathoners (75 years and older) displayed a performance difference of less than 4% compared to male ultra-marathoners.”
However, this could have been an artifact produced by the very few female ultra-runners over age 75. If the only women left competing at this age were the very-best women, that would skew the results. Or maybe there’s a bio-physiological reason why 75-yr old Jeannie Rice beat the Boston Marathon men in her division by more than 20 minutes last April. More at Scientific Reports with free full text.
Keep your cool--Foods and drinks that help you handle the heat
Runners have long been advised about methods to avoid heat illness and dangerous heat stroke by paying attention to weather conditions, clothing choices, their fitness, and appropriate pace adjustments. Much less attention has been paid to nutritional approaches. But now a big new paper has tackled the subject. Here’s a brief summary of the key findings.
Carbohydrates are good, though a bit double-edged, because they might increase your energy and motivation in the heat, which could potentially push you over the edge. “Prior alcohol consumption should be avoided.”
Dehydration is not as strongly linked to heat illness as many presume, and it’s always important to avoid overhydration that could lead to hyponatremia. Nevertheless, “individuals should ensure they begin exercise in a hydrated state.”
Glutamine has been shown to reduce heat-stroke mortality in animal studies, but not in humans though there are some positive indications. Also, bovine colostrum supplementation may reduce small intestine permeability--a good thing.
There’s little data and/or inconsistent data regarding antioxidants and probiotics. Sodium bicarbonate’s tendency to cause GI distress could cause dehydration and heat risk. Menthol mouth rinsing might lower your perception of the heat’s impact, thereby increasing danger.
Creatine doesn’t appear to be a problem, but low energy intake could increase heat risk by lowering immunity and raising susceptibility to illness. More at Experimental Physiology with free full text.
SHORT STUFF you don’t want to miss
>>> I double dare you: Can you handle 5 minutes of core exercises for runners? Great video instruction.
>>> Running to, or running from? “Mental health issues are common” among ultra runners.
GREAT QUOTES make great training partners
“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”
--Buddha
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby