How to Change Your Pace, Stride, Or Hill Training To Reduce Injuries
All running is not the same. For example, you’ve got fast running and slow running. You’ve got uphill running and downhill running. You’ve got short strides and long strides.
And all of these make a difference, particularly in terms of tissue-loading forces across three main parts of the leg: the knee, the shin (tibia), and the Achilles tendon. If you knew how to change damaging forces at these key areas, you could minimize injuries, or enhance recovery.
And now, thanks to this new study, you do know. For the past year, I’ve been impressed by the research efforts of a young Dutch sports scientist named Bas van Hooren. He’s a top 10K runner himself. As a result, he thinks like a runner, and organizes studies designed to resolve important runner-related issues.
In this case, he investigated what he calls “cumulative damage” (tissue-loading forces) at three common runner injury locations--the knee, shin, and Achilles. And he assessed this damage according to speed, incline/decline, and stride frequency.
Van Hooren did this with 19 runners who were tested on a lab treadmill at 5 different running speeds (9:40 pace/mile to 5:20), four gradients (-6 to + 6 degrees), and three different stride frequencies (normal, and plus or minus 10 percent). The standard damage condition was set at 8:00 pace on a level treadmill.
Result: 1) A high stride frequency reduced damage at all three locations. 2) A faster pace increased damage at the knee primarily, and also to a lesser degree at the shin and Achilles. 3) Uphill running increased shin and Achilles damage, but decreased knee damage. 4) Downhill running increased knee damage, but decreased shin and Achilles damage.
Conclusion: It seems smart to maintain a relatively short stride at all times to keep cumulative damage low. If you have shin or Achilles pain, avoid uphill running. If you have knee pain, avoid downhill running and speedwork. More at Scandinavian J of Medicine & Science in Sports with free full text.
Caffeine Gum Improves 5K Performance
Humans have long consumed caffeine through coffee and other beverages. At modern drug stores, we can now purchase more precise quantities of caffeine in pill form. Caffeine is both a legal and effective way to improve endurance performance.
Recently, caffeine-containing gums have reached the marketplace. They’re convenient, and enter the bloodstream rapidly, due to absorption through mouth tissues. But do they help you run faster?
To find out, British researchers conducted a randomized, cross-over trial with participants in a weekend 5K Park Run. They called it “the first study to investigate the effect of caffeine on the performance of recreational runners completing mass participation running events.”
Result: The caffeinated gum, which claimed to release 300 kg of caffeine per use, helped the runners finish 17 seconds faster (a 1.3% improvement) than a placebo gum. Subjects also reported a lower relative perceived exertion with the caffeine gum.
Conclusion: “This is comparable with the 1.0–2.0% improvements observed in field studies and race simulations after supplementation with 3 to 5 mg·kg−1 of caffeine.” More at European J of Nutrition with free full text.
So You’ve Gotten In Good Shape. Now What?
Here’s a paper that digs into a question every runner faces at one point or another. You’ve been training consistently for a while. Things are going well, and you feel pretty fit. Now what? What should I do next?
Specifically, you’re probably asking yourself this question: Should I continue with the same steady, continuous training, or is it time to add speedwork?
Good question. And here’s the answer according to the latest research: Do the speedwork.
Researchers arrived at this conclusion after first placing a large number of “young healthy participants” (ie, not serious runners) into one of 6 training groups. The 6 groups: a control group (non training); a continuous moderate training group; a continuous low-heavy intensity group; a continuous high-heavy group; a group that did HIT intervals for 4 minutes; and a sprint interval group. Subjects did 3 sessions per week for 6 weeks.
Which group improved the most? The HIT-4 minutes group was a clear winner, both for increases in vo2 max, and for running economy. The high-heavy continuous group ranked second for improvement in vo2 max. The control and moderate-continuous training produced the worst results for vo2 max.
In an email, senior author Juan M. Murias said these results shouldn’t necessarily be applied to serious runners training more than 3 times a week. “We would rarely compartmentalize training in the way we do it here. However, it served the purpose of showing approaches to maximize successful cardiovascular adaptations for short-term training programs.” More at Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
5 Workouts That Can Boost Your VO2 Max
A modest number of top Runner’s World stories are available for free at MSN if you don’t have a Runner’s World online subscription. Here’s a good one, given the results of the above study.
Using mainly an interview with top coach and former Olympic runner, Juli Benson, the RW article explains “all about vo2 max,” and then presents 5 workouts you can use to boost your vo2 max. One is an interval workout built around 1000-meter repeats. These are likely to take you 4 to 5 minutes each, depending on your fitness.
In other words, you’ll be doing HIT-4 minute training similar to the “winning” group in the above research trial. Other studies have also found that hard 4-minute interval sessions are among the best ways to boost vo2 max. More at MSN.
No More Bonking: Plan Your Fuels For Maximal Endurance
Experienced runners and endurance athletes know they need to hydrate sufficiently and consume high-carb drinks and/or gels during long races like the marathon and beyond. However, it seems that knowing and doing are not the same thing. Not by a long shot.
At least that’s what Spanish researchers concluded after questioning triathletes and mountain runners about their drinking and fueling during events that lasted from 6 to 8 hours. Competitors were asked about their intake of fluids, carbs, sodium, and caffeine.
Results (on average, per hour): 421 ml, 43.7 grams, 267 mg, and 15.5 mg. These amounts were generally lower than recommendations made by the International Olympic Committee and other endurance experts. Such recommendations vary by the individual athlete’s genetics, body weight, speed, and the weather conditions.
The authors were most concerned by the low carb intakes, since newer recommendation papers have been proposing 60 to 80 grams/hour, and sometimes even more. “Our data suggest the need to instruct endurance athletes to plan competitions at a dietary–nutritional level so they can implement appropriate nutritional strategies.”
In other words, if you have a plan, you might hit the recommended targets for mid race fueling. Without a plan, you probably won’t.
However, these recommendations include the large and important BUT statement. This is necessary because “it was observed that the participants presented gastrointestinal discomfort in 61.9% of the cases.” So practice extensively in your training, and proceed with caution in events. More at Nutrients with free full text.
Bizarre Blood Issue Forces Ultra Star To Do OPPOSITE Of Blood Doping
I knew that men could suffer from too much iron (hemochromatosis). But before a recent Instagram post from ultra running world record holder Camille Herron, I didn’t realize that women could suffer from the same condition. This usually happens for hereditary reasons, and after menopause, when the women are no longer losing iron through their menstrual periods.
It’s a rare condition. Men suffer from hemochromatosis at a rate of less than 0.5% of the total male population, and women far less frequently than that.
Herron’s situation, which she only learned about in the last several years, is noteworthy for a reason. In a week or so, she’s going to take part in a unique ultra race organized by Lululemon. While full details aren’t available yet, the race, titled “Further”, will begin on International Women’s Day, March 8.
It’s designed to promote women’s endurance abilities in a 6-day race for females only. A key goal: For one of the women to set a new world record. (In that regard, it reminds me of Eliud Kipchoge’s two exhibition efforts to break 2 hours in the marathon, the second of which succeeded.)
It appears that the current record, 549 miles, was set in 1990. That’s according to Wikipedia.
A year ago, Herron covered 270.5 miles in 48 hours to set the women’s world record for that event. I would guess she’s hoping for 600+ miles in 6 days in the Lululemon event. Because, you know, it’s a nice round number.
Due to her condition, Herron now has to get regular blood-draws every couple of months, especially before a major competition like the one coming her way. More at Instagram/Camille Herron.
Does Running With A Hangover Reduce Your Symptoms?
This is a new running-related question, so intriguing to consider. When writer Martin Fritz Huber asked a recognized sports medicine expert and a former record holder in the Beer Mile if there might be benefits to running off a hangover, both agreed that the practice made sense.
Their general logic: Vigorous exercise could help you burn off and sweat out alcohol toxins.
However, an actual expert in the subject dismissed this line of thinking. “You can’t speed up the removal of alcohol by sweating. That’s a huge misconception,” he said. He noted that most hangover symptoms are probably caused by dehydration, so drinking fluids the morning after is probably a smart approach.
But then, go ahead with your run plans. “There’s a positive chemical effect on the brain through exercise, whereas alcohol has a depressant effect,” the expert continued. “Exercise may well have a positive effect that may help overcome the negative effects of drinking.” More at Run Outside Online.
And The Last Shall Be First
Serious coverage of running has nearly disappeared from former media mainstays like the New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, etc. That’s arguably a good thing for many internet running companies with their quick posts and podcasts, but it’s bad for those who used to enjoy long, balanced, journalistic stories about top runners, events, and controversies in the sport.
Then along came an amazing story at Defector. It's a site I don’t even know, because I don’t closely follow other sports. But I heard about this story because so many runners were discussing it. Also, it’s long, it’s journalistic, it interviews dozens of almost-well known runners, and it’s about one of our most cherished events--the Olympic Marathon Trials.
Indeed, it’s about runners who finished “Dead F___ing Last” in an Olympic Marathon Trials. Which is a fantastic angle for an emotional tale, because no one gets into the Trials unless they’re in the upper one-tenth of 1 percent of the running population. And yet someone in the super-elite pack has to finish DFL in every Trials competition every four years. This is their story.
It’s tethered by two concurrent themes. First, the Trials “is a quadrennial massacre,” to use author Dennis Young’s cut-to-the-core-phrase. A big percent of the field drops out every time. Yet deep in the fields over the last 4 decades have been a handful of individuals who “all found the idea of quitting abhorrent. They all chose to DFL.”
Thank you Dennis Young for taking the time to dig into this one. You hit it out of the park. More at Defector.
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GREAT QUOTES Make Great Training Partners
“A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”
--B.F. Skinner, American psychologist.