I was busy on a range of work and family projects this week. Rather than skipping a RLRH, I decided to review my 7 Favorite Articles from the first half of 2024. You will have seen some of these before. That’s okay. The best stuff is always worth reviewing. And maybe it will sink in deeper this time. Amby
12 Essential Truths About Endurance Training
Physiologist Stephen Seiler is U.S.-born but has been living and working in Norway for a long time. He’s generally credited as the father of the 80/20 training program. Below he “distills” what he has learned from 30 years of engaging in, studying, and teaching endurance physiology. It’s as good a list of training truths as you’ll find.
Among them, a couple of my favorites: “Training is an optimization challenge, not a maximization challenge.” And: “Great coaches and athletes are not afraid of ‘intelligent failures.’ ” Also: “Physiology is COMPLEX but training prescriptions should NOT be.”
Finally, don’t miss number 12. It tells you how to put the training pieces together. Which is of course the crux of the entire process. More at X/Stephen Seiler.
The Best Tempo Run Ever
The tempo run is a central training component of almost all endurance runners. It teaches you--physically and mentally--to run “hard but controlled.” Those two words are the key to all successful endurance training and racing.
But many things can go awry when overeager coaches and athletes get their hands on the tempo run. In particular, many do tempos that are too long and/or too hard. The “terrible toos” lead to unsuccessful endurance training and racing.
Another tempo-run problem? Relying too much on a strict formula. You think you must do 20 continuous minutes. Or 40 minutes. Or whatever.
Endurance running coach Steve Magness has a better way. He calls it “the split as you feel” threshold run. I’m tempted to call it the “flexible tempo run” or even the “fartlek tempo run.”
Here’s how to do it. First, pick how many minutes of tempo running you want to complete on a particular day. Say, 25 minutes. Second, warm up, and then start your run. Third, evaluate how the run is going.
If you find that you’re working too hard (not “controlled”) or maybe feeling too muscle-sore, stop your tempo run after X minutes. Jog very slowly for several minutes to recover. Then start up again until X + your second effort = 25 minutes, your goal for the day.
Don’t get upset at yourself for the two-pronged effort. Instead, congratulate yourself for being smart about completing this workout just as it was meant to be--hard but controlled.
Magness notes: “This takes some pressure off the workout, makes it more manageable, teaches you how to listen to your body...while still getting the stimulus for the workout!” Some days you’ll run 20 minutes + 5 minutes, others 15 + 10. You might even end up with a 10 + 7 + 5 + 3. It’s all good. More at X/Steve Magness.
Here’s Injury Prevention Advice That’s Smart, Simple, And Successful
You want to avoid injuries? Of course you do. We all do.
A new research paper offers a nice, simple prescription: Follow a training plan.
Almost any old plan. Because a high percentage of training plans, even those offered free from little-known websites and those cobbled together by Artificial Intelligence bots are likely to follow certain important principles. These include gradual progression in weekly distance, hard/easy days, and a relative paucity of hard days (only 1 or 2 per week).
A recent study of 143 runners found that those “following a running schedule” had a 76% lower injury risk than those not using a schedule.
In agreement with virtually all other running injury studies, any prior injury increased likelihood of a future injury. Increased weekly running distance had a relatively small association with injury. The same was true of “obsessive passion,” which increased injuries by 11%, and “perfectionistic concerns” (+22%.) Supinated and pronated foot type increased injury risk from 3.5 to 4.5, respectively, vs normal foot type.
Conclusion: “Following a running schedule was a protective factor.” More at Sports Health.
Boost Your Running Economy With This Running Form Breakthrough
Running economy is arguably the most important physiological measure for runners. Yes, you need a sky high vo2 max to win the Olympic 1500-meter race. But once you move into the longer distances, RE often proves more important.
Also, it’s something that you can improve by years of consistent training, as has been shown in several famous papers. This isn’t necessarily the case for vo2 max.
Because RE is so important, it has been studied in hundreds of scientific papers. Beyond that, countless coaches and Internet gurus are happy to dispense workouts and running-form changes that they claim will improve your RE--a measure of how much oxygen you use at a given speed. When your RE improves, your oxygen consumption goes down, and you can run farther at a given pace.
This is important turf. It’s an arena where you’d like to know as much as possible both for your own running and for advising others.
Now we’ve got more answers than ever. They come from a new systematic review and meta-analysis by several well known running experts. The review, titled “The Relationship Between Running Biomechanics and Running Economy,” looked into 51 studies with a total of 1115 runners. The paper is available in free, full text, and I strongly encourage you to take a look
Here’s a quick summary of what seems most important (and not so important) when it comes to the biomechanics of RE.
1--How/where your foot first contacts the ground--ie, forefoot vs rearfoot, a favorite topic of many coaches and Internet gurus--had no effect on RE.
2--Many other measures also had no effect on RE. These included: contact time, stride length, and various ankle/knee/hip angles.
3--A smaller bounce (vertical oscillation) “showed significant moderate associations” with better RE.
4--A higher leg stiffness also showed “significant moderate associations” with better RE. Leg stiffness is the quality of the legs that resists deformation or compression as the leg supports your body weight. A stiff leg is like a strong, tightly coiled spring rather than a weaker, less tightly coiled spring.
5--A higher stride rate “showed a small significant association” with better RE.
In general, Running Economy improves when you use as little muscle as possible, and as much elastic recoil as possible (both from your own body, and from the new, more energy-returning Super Shoes. That’s because muscles require oxygen, while elastic elements like tendons and ligaments don’t. (Of course, muscle is still important.)
More at Sports Medicine with free full text. And here, on this thread at Twitter/X, where one of the authors (Bas Van Hooren) discusses the paper, and provides a key infographic.
Fuel Your Performance: A New Carbo-Loading Formula
Meghann Featherstun’s marathon reports--especially the precise steps she follows to carbo load sufficiently--are always detailed, informative, and just a little bit funny. It’s a good combination.
In April, she flew to London to complete her 6-Star journey of the Abbott World Marathon Majors. London worried her. How was she going to carbo load for 3 days (her preferred time frame) in a city not known for its bagels?
The long flight from her West Coast home to England didn’t help. She snacked on pretzels, granola bars, and peanut butter M&Ms.
The next morning she tried to run a couple of miles, but felt so awful she turned around after a mile, and walked back. She began eating more granola bars, crumpets and jam, and sourdough pizza. Featherstone always keeps graham crackers close at hand pre-marathon, and she also snacked on these.
On marathon morning, she “set an alarm for 6 am, ordered coffee, and started eating my graham crackers in bed.”
It turns out she’s got a simple, useful formula for carbs on marathon morning. She advises consuming enough grams of carbs to equal one-half your body weight (in pounds). If you weigh 150 lbs, you should aim for 75 grams of carbs (300 calories).
During the 2024 London Marathon, Featherstone consumed: “70 gm carbs/hour + 325 mg sodium/hour + 10 oz fluid/hour.” She also took a caffeine gel 10 minutes before the start, and after 50 minutes of running.
She finished in a strong 2:53:43--her 4th fastest marathon. That time was 65 minutes faster than her first marathon in 2009. She must be eating something right. More at Featherstone Nutrition.
You’re Already Fit--Here’s How To Get Even Faster
How can you keep improving, even after you are already in very good shape? It’s not easy. After all, the “law of diminishing returns” sets in at some point.
Some believe you need to apply a little “shock therapy” at this juncture. A dash of sprint training could be just what you need.
That proved to be an excellent decision in this experiment with 19 college runners. As varsity athletes, they were already in top shape.
Researchers put roughly half of them in a “sprint training” group. They did sprint sessions twice a week for six weeks. The control group continued their normal training.
Result: The control-group runners didn’t improve during the 6 week period. But the sprint-trained runners got faster at distances from 100 meters to 3000 meters.
Conclusion: “A 6-week sprint training improved both sprint and long-distance running performance.” How? “The enhancement of long-distance running performance could be attributable to improved anaerobic capacity.” More at International J of Sports Physiology & Performance.
Good News: Super Shoes Could Lower Injury Rates
Super Shoes first hit the sports science headlines in 2017/2018 when it was shown that they could improve performance of elite marathon runners. Almost immediately, the shoes began appearing on the feet of top athletes at all major marathons.
Why? Because they were provided for free to these elites, who then had a better chance of winning prize money in their big races. A no brainer.
But midpack recreational runners who finish in 3, 4, or 5 hours don’t get their shoes for free, and don’t collect big checks at the finish line. They have been more cautious in their purchase selections, though it does seem that many runners are wearing the AFT shoes (Advanced Footwear Technology) these days.
Newer research has expanded to investigate if AFT shoes can reduce injury--a benefit, if proven, that would make the shoes more cost-effective for everyone.
The latest paper offers a cautious Yes to the big, important injury question. It’s a tentative first step because the report didn’t actually measure injury incidence. Rather, it looked at “cumulative tibial damage” of 19 recreational runners (8 female) who ran in both TARS (Technologically Advance Running Shoes) vs CRS (Conventional Running Shoes).
Subjects ran on a force-measuring treadmill in the lab at their previously determined lactate threshold pace--ie, reasonably close to their half-marathon running pace.
Result: Total cumulative tibial damage per kilometer was 12% lower in TARS compared to CRS. Some previous studies have shown that high tibial loading is linked to injuries like tibial stress fractures.
In addition, subjects used 3% less oxygen in TARS vs CRS. This improvement in running economy was slightly less than seen in trials with faster runners. Subjects also had lower heart rate and Relative Perceived Exertion in the TARS.
Conclusion: “Our results suggest that running with TARS reduces oxygen cost in recreational female and male runners, which may partly be explained by differences in lower limb joint mechanics. The lower cumulative tibial bone load with TARS may allow runners to run longer distances in this type of shoe compared to CRS.” More at Nature Scientific Reports with free full text.