Some New Year’s lists of best/worst practices are still trickling in. These usually don’t contain much original material. On the other hand, they can remind us of key principles that are always worth reviewing. Also, you’ll often spot an idea that you’ve ignored in the past, but are ready to tackle this year. It’s never too late. Here are three recent articles I found helpful, plus the usual RLRH assortment of studies and training advice.
12 Inescapable 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.
And 8 Fitness Myths You Should Totally Ignore
While Stephen Seiler makes excellent points about training, the New York Times wants you to ignore 8 fitness myths that could sidetrack your efforts. Several of these are mainstay subjects at RLRH, especially the myth that “Running destroys your knees.” Thank you, NYT, for setting the record straight to your massive audience.
Also, you shouldn’t believe that just because you’re a runner, you don’t need to strengthen your legs. Sure, your legs are already road-proven. But leg-strengthening work “can improve bone density and lower your risk of injury — and make you a stronger runner or cyclist, too.”
You probably know that stretching has not been shown to reduce injuries or improve performance, but you might not realize that recent research indicates “lifting relatively light weights for, say, 30 repetitions is just as effective at building muscle and strength as lifting weights that feel heavier for five to 12 reps.” In fact, it might be better at building muscular endurance.
My favorite myth: “Modifications are for beginners.” I’ve learned that I need to modify almost every exercise I see in pictures or videos for my own strength level (or lack thereof), and for my own tightness. I thought I was cheating by doing this. Now I’m happy to learn I’m a smart modifier. You should learn to be accepting of your own training modifications. More at NY Times.
Here’s A “Snack” You Should Have Several Times A Day
The American College of Sports Medicine publishes a regular “Health & Fitness Journal” that doesn’t introduce new studies but rather tips, advice, and health-fitness wisdom from sports medicine professionals. The January issue includes “24 Fit Tips For 2024” and “10 New Things To Try In 2024.”
The below links don’t give you access to the full text of these articles, but do allow you to peruse significant portions. Here are two ideas that I particularly liked.
From Fit Tips: “Schedule, Schedule, Schedule: Anchor at least three times per week that are non negotiable events for your exercise routine.” If you don’t put workouts on your calendar, it’s far too easy to watch them evaporate and disappear as life intervenes with its myriad demands.
From New Things: “I resolve to take more snacks.” This is not nutrition advice. Rather it refers to “exercise snacks,” a new term that refers to short [several minutes] cardio and strength routines that you do regularly throughout the day. You can also call it VILPA for “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity.”
The key idea: You want to break up those long periods of sitting at your desk or on the sofa. Even if you do a 60-minute workout at some point, you should avoid long sitting the rest of the day. A 2023 study showed that increasing your VILPA sessions to 3 to 4 minutes (rather than just 1-2 minutes) “was associated with a decreased cancer incidence in a dose-response manner.” That is, the longer the VILPA, the greater the cancer reduction.
More at ACSM Health & Fitness J. here (Fit Tips) and here (New Things).
For Optimal Performance, Adopt A Flexible Midrace Mental Strategy
Noel Brick is a leader in the development of effective mental strategies for runners. He got there because he’s a runner himself (how else?). Brick teaches at Ulster University in Northern Ireland, with specialties in psychology and exercise science. He’s also the author, with Scott Douglas, of the book The Genius of Athletes.
And now he’s back with an important new paper exploring how you should think about your next big race, both beforehand and especially during the race. That second part represents a breakthrough.
You’ve probably heard that it’s a good idea to have several goals for your race. A top-end “A” goal, a secondary “B” goal, and maybe even a “C” goal. These are expectations that you set and rehearse before your race.
But few mental strategies tell you how to re-evaluate these goals within the race itself. After all, at some point, things are going to get a bit … nasty, right? That’s the nature of hard racing. What are you supposed to do when the doubts bubble up?
According to Brick, when the going gets tough, too many runners “indulge” or “dwell.” To indulge means sticking with a plan that’s obviously not going as hoped. When you do this in a long event, you’ll likely “hit the wall” and/or suffer other major consequences.
To dwell is to think too negatively about your race during a rough patch, and as a result to perform worse than you could.
Brick has a better midrace strategy for you. It’s called “mental contrasting with implementation intentions,” or MCII. This is an approach that Brick honed by interviewing 21 veteran runners (including a few Olympic and World Champs competitors).
Here’s how MCII works. You make your pre-race plan, as you always have, with its A-B-C goals. But that’s not the end of the process.
In addition, you rehearse how to revise your strategy en route. This is often framed as “If …then” planning. For example: “If the temperature rises into the 70s, then I will slow my pace by 15 seconds per mile.”
MCII doesn’t apply only to deteriorating situations. You can plan for happier alternatives as well. For example, the weather could improve in the second half of your race. (This doesn’t happen often, but it’s possible, and so are other good changes.)
In his interviews, Brick found 4 runners who “disengaged” with their expectations, and “re-engaged” at a higher level. They ran faster than they had expected. One half-marathon racer hit the 10 mile mark and realized: “I can still go a bit harder here.” As a result, he finished faster than his “A” goal.
In conclusion, Brick states: “This is the first study to offer empirical insights into runners’ experiences implementing this strategy [MCII] during long distance running.” He adds that MCII can help runners “reach for alternative, desirable, and feasible end states.”
Given all the time you spend with on-the-road training, a bit of mental-flexibility rehearsal seems well worth the effort. More at Psychology of Sport & Exercise with free full text that’s well worth the reading.
Surprises Galore! HIT Training Beats Normal Rehab For Muscles & Is Good For The Heart Too.
When high-intensity interval training (HIT) reached the tipping point a decade or so ago, I figured: Fine. It seems to work well (in modest doses) for serious, performance-focused athletes.
I also figured: It probably isn’t such a good approach for typical recreational athletes more interested in general health/fitness than in personal bests. For them, there’s likely too much injury risk and perhaps an increased heart concern as well.
Wrong. At least that’s what I gather from a trio of recent papers. One produced the most counter-intuitive result I could possibly imagine from an exercise study: HIT was superior to traditional rehabilitation programs “for accelerated recovery from musculoskeletal injuries.”
Come again? Yes, you read that right. A total of 80 injured subjects were randomly assigned to either 6 weeks of a HIT program or a more typical (conservative) rehab program. After 6 weeks, the HIT subjects reported greater pain reduction as well as better performance on several objective tests of muscle function.
Conclusion: “HIT showed superior effectiveness over traditional rehabilitation in accelerating recovery from musculoskeletal injuries, with greater pain reduction and improved functional outcomes.” More at J Of Back & Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation.
Two other papers concluded that HIT training could improve the heart health of individuals with known heart disease. The first was a RCT conducted as part of a “community based exercise program” in 69 patients with diagnosed coronary artery disease. One group performed moderate exercise at 70 to 75% of max heart rate while a HIT group exercised at 85 to 95% of max.
The HIT group “won” the comparison by virtue of improved results on “waist circumference, body fat mass, VO2peak, and sedentary behavior.” More at Cardiovascular Therapy.
I happen to have a high level of calcium in my coronary arteries, so I watch results in this arena quite closely. And I never imagined there were ways to decrease artery calcium.
However a recent randomized trial reported in the European J of Preventive Cardiology found that HIT training led to a “a regression of atheroma volume [artery-blocking plaque] in those undergoing 6 months of supervised HIT compared with patients following contemporary preventive guidelines.” Brady Holmer reviewed this paper in depth at Physiologically Speaking. Calcium, be gone!
Why Do Running Shoes Have Heel Counters?
Many years ago, some running shoe companies spent part of their marketing dollars promoting the shoe’s heel counters. A stiff heel counter was supposed to increase stability, thus decreasing injuries.
These days shoe companies apparently have better things to yak about. And/or their lawyers have told them to avoid injury claims. At any rate, you don’t hear much about heel counters any longer.
Except from the inquisitive folks at Run Repeat. In this lengthy article, they review the history, purpose, and current state of heel counters in running shoes.
Some shoes don’t even have heel counters. These are often racing shoes, where stripping away extra weight is the name of the game. Other shoes, such as trail shoes, might have substantial collars designed to help you navigate uneven, knotty surfaces.
As usual, it’s up to you to decide what shoes and what degree of heel counter support is most appropriate for your needs. Conclusion: “The heel counter plays a vital role, yet there's no gold standard. While it might not be as easy to understand as midsole softness or shoe weight, this guide empowers you to select the most suitable heel counter for each running scenario.” More at Run Repeat.
New Study Result: Hard-Training Runners Need More Magnesium
Inside Tracker is a blood testing company that allows you (for a fee) to obtain a much broader analysis of your blood chemistry than your annual, physician-prescribed test.
The company advertises that it will help you “turn your blood, DNA and wearable data into actionable and personalized insights for a healthier, longer life.”
IT pulled back the curtains on its blood marker analysis of 23,000 runners, several thousand sedentary folks, and nearly 100 pro runners.
The numbers are impressive, but the results are difficult to decipher in a clearcut manner. The basic problem: Averages can’t tell you anything about your own personal blood results, health, performance, etc. Still, Alex Hutchinson does his usual great job at the link below.
In general, the runners seemed to have good blood cholesterol profiles, healthy glucose levels, and low inflammation. Some of these results might have resulted from the lower BMIs of runners rather than from their exercise amounts. This stuff isn’t easy to tease out.
The paper produced only one “Aha!” result. The pro runners had low blood magnesium levels. Hence: “These observations suggest that elite endurance runners may need to pay particular attention to their magnesium status.”
Similar findings have been reported previously among endurance athletes. So you might want to think about your consumption of magnesium-rich foods. These include: Nuts and seeds, spinach and other leafy greens, and whole grains.
More at Outside Online. The scientific paper is available at PLOS ONE with free full text.
Dunkin’ Runs--And Now Helps Recovery--At The Boston Marathon
We all know that “America runs on Dunkin’ ”--the coffee maker’s long-standing promotional slogan. Now it appears that America is poised to begin strength training on Dunkin’ as well.
The international coffee and donut company, formerly known as Dunkin’ Donuts, has launched a whey protein powder in partnership with Dymatize, a large supplement company. The protein powder will have a “glazed donut flavor.”
So now you can have a Dunkin’ coffee pre-race for its endurance-enhancing caffeine boost, and another Dunkin’ post-race to assist with the leg-muscle recovery process. If you want, you can also refuel midrace in the Boston Marathon at one of 10 Dunkin’ outlets that apparently line the course from Hopkinton to downtown Boston.
I have no idea if this is a good trend, or not. But Dunkin’ has been a Boston Marathon sponsor since 2007, and, I gotta admit, the glazed-donut whey protein flavor has its appeal. Overall, there’s some kind of weird, attractive match (at least for me) about Dunkin’ as an endurance sports sponsor. More at Nutrition Insight.
SHORT STUFF You Don’t Want To Miss
>>> Boost your daily energy: 3 simple tips to help you feel more focused and energized every day.
GREAT QUOTES Make Great Training Partners
--Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian Olympic champion and marathon great
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby