How To Train (And Eat) For World-Record Endurance Performance
It’s always fun and informative to read case studies of athletes who attempt endurance feats most of us admire but would never consider. Here are two. One describes what it’s like for a recreational cyclist to ride the Tour de France course, and compares his physiology to that of an actual elite Tour competitor. The other tells us about the training of a runner who broke several ultra-distance world records in recent years.
The two cyclists (one recreational, age 58, weight 212 pounds; the other elite, age 28, weight 148 pounds) both covered just over 2000 miles in 21 stages). The rec rider burned 8,580 calories/day en route--an astounding amount. The elite rider burned 7,098 calories/day.
Amazingly, both ate almost as many calories/day as they burned. We know this because “both individuals lost minimal body mass during the event.” The elite rider was able to spend more time at higher intensities. But, hey, give him a round of applause, our 212-pounder got the job done.
Conclusion: “Not only professional cyclists but also recreational athletes can reach currently known ceilings of total daily energy expenditure for humans.” This could be one reason explaining the big growth of ultra-endurance racing. Yes, the event distances can be staggering. But, also yes, recreational athletes can train to complete the distance (and eat enough on a daily basis to sustain themselves.) More at J of Applied Physiology and Outside Online.
If you’d like to run 198 miles in 24 hours, you’d better be prepared to average well over 100 miles/week in training with occasional weeks up around 230 miles. Your peak training will come 4 weeks before your big race. Regular training will include both cross-training and interval sessions with repeats from 1000 meters to 6 miles.
You’ll do most of your daily training at about 7:15 min/mile, and also complete your 24-hour race at that pace. Conclusion: You should train with “high-volume running at varied paces and intensity with cross-training to avoid injuries.” More at International J Of Sports Physiology & Performance.
Is Plyometrics The Secret To Better Endurance & Stronger Bones?
You can do strength training to boost your running … and probably should--especially for distances from 800 meters on down. Or you can do plyometric exercises (jumping and skipping) with the hope that they will improve your endurance performance. (Prior evidence has been modestly positive but mixed.)
Now a trio of new articles have found varied benefits for plyometric training. In one, plyometrics were particularly successful for those who usually race at a pace slower than 8 minutes per mile. If your strength training includes a combination of heavy lifting and plyometrics, you might also become more efficient at faster paces. On the other hand, lighter lifting and isometric exercise were not helpful. More at Sports Medicine with free full text.
Triathlete has an article illustrating a pre-workout plyometric routine that should take just 5 to 10 minutes to complete.
Another new scientific report has conducted a systematic review of exercises that can improve the bone health of adolescent female athletes, a threatened group. Result? The paper found that “plyometric training increases lumbar spine bone mass in adolescent girls.” More at J Of Clinical Densitometry.
The Best, Most Effective, Safest Strategies For Optimal Sleep
As far as I can tell, the best way to make money these days is to sell a sleep-related product: pills, pillows, mattresses, weighted blankets, sound devices, and many more. Just about everyone seems obsessed by their sleep habits and problems.
Endurance athletes are leading the pack. These days, some count their nightly sleep hours as carefully as their daily running miles. And for good reason. A week doesn’t pass without another article emphasizing the importance of sleep for adaptation to and recovery from your workout sessions.
However, few of these articles have reviewed possible solutions. Indeed a number of exercise and sleep experts were disappointed that a recent Sleep Concensus statement failed to discuss “the use of pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies to optimize sleep in athletes.” So they dove in to fill the gap.
A key series of questions: How can you fall asleep faster, sleep better, and perform at your best the next day? All the while making sure that you don’t become addicted to a particular substance.
The top pick: Cognitive Behavior Therapy, recommended by major sleep-science organizations. The problem is that CBT “is not an effective short-term treatment and is not a practical solution in high pressure situations that occur in sport.” No kidding. When you big race is just 3 days ahead, there’s little time to master CBT
Let’s face it: Most of us want a simple pill for such situations. And plenty of pills are available, with different risks and benefits. These range from melatonin, to Ambien (zolpidem), to antidepressants and antihistamines.
The sleep experts who wrote this paper believe that “judicious use of sleeping pills appears to be sensible.” But they want you to track your use carefully to make sure you don’t become over-reliant on sleep aids.
For a great summary that includes Performance Effects, Side Effects, and Other Considerations regarding various sleep strategies, you’ll want to carefully review Table 1 at Open Research St. Mary’s University with free full text.
Positive Self-Talk Improved Mid-Distance Performance
A Greek researcher wondered if middle distance runners would benefit from learning positive self-talk cues and strategies. In other studies with endurance athletes, the process seemed to work. What about 1500 meter runners?
To find out, he gave an experimental group of adult runners 5 weeks of lessons in the use of positive cues. The idea: “While practicing strategic self-talk as a part of an intervention, athletes become able to internalize the use of the predetermined cue words and finally they choose them unintentionally as part of their organic self-talk during the moment they perform.”
Another group of matched runners did the same physical training for the next 5 weeks, but received no instruction on self-talk cues. Both groups were tested in a “field setting” (ie, not in the lab) before and after the 5 week period.
Results: Both groups improved their performance significantly, and about the same. “Nevertheless, participants of the strategic self-talk improved more.” Conclusion: “This study supports the effectiveness of self-talk training in running performance in a realistic field setting. More at University of Thessaly with free full text.
Three Cheers! Running Is Healthy For Your Vertebral Discs--Just Like Your Knees
Thanks to an increasing number of medical journal articles, and more accurate reporting of those articles by the mainstream media, runners now understand that running does not cause excessive knee injuries and arthritis. In fact, there are good reasons to believe that running strengthens the knee joint, and reduces serious problems.
Runners used to believe in the knee injury hypothesis, because it made a certain amount of sense. Running does increase impact forces all up and down the body. And it seemed logical that these forces could injure bones, joints, muscles, and associated tissues.
After all, that’s what happens to the support structures of your car with increased driving mileage.
But there’s a difference. Our human structures are biological, not mechanical, and they often get stronger with use--not weaker.
Many have said in the past: “Use it, or lose it.” I think we need to make this phrase even more positive and powerful. Something like: “Use it to maintain and strengthen.” I know--not so catchy. Let me know if you come up with something better.
So, what about the back and the intervertebral discs? Does running harm the discs? A lot of people have thought that the answer must be “Yes” because so many suffer from back pain. Just like knee pain.
But again the evidence seems to point in the opposite direction. The discs are biological joints a little like the knee, and they appear to prosper when modestly stressed.
A new systematic review looked at the effect of “running exercise on intervertebral discs.” It found that the disc space looks damaged “for a short period of time after running,” probably because water is squeezed out of the space.
However, the water returns soon enough. Result: “Long term running exerts a mild positive effect on intervertebral discs.”
Running doesn’t damage your knees and it doesn’t damage your discs. Indeed, running might have a positive influence on both. More at Sports Health.
Running 60 Minutes/Day Defeats Ills Of Too Much Sitting
High exercise more than 6-75 mins a day does beat sitting sedentary inactivity ft
When the science of inactivity physiology (sitting) burst onto the scene a decade or so ago, we runners were mildly perturbed. It seemed that our vigorous daily/weekly running activity wasn’t enough, alone, to overcome the heart risks related to prolonged sitting.
In other words, we had to be vigilant about taking short “exercise snacks” multiple times during the day in addition to our running workouts. These 3-4 minute snacks were necessary to battle prolonged sitting (at the office, watching TV, perusing social media).
Now a couple of unexpected studies are giving a bit of a boost to serious exercisers like marathon runners.The first found that high daily levels of exercise (about 60 to 75 minutes/day) “seem to eliminate the increased risk of death associated with high sitting time.”
Strangely this was a bit less true of TV time vs other sitting time. That is, TV time is more dangerous than other sitting. I suspect that’s because TV time often comes at the end of the day--a time more fraught with health risks. Such as the risk of consuming large, high-calorie meals late in the day with no movement activity after the meals and before sleep. .
We should be particularly mindful of our late-day behaviors. More at The Lancet/Norwegian School of Sports Sciences with free full text.
A separate study of sedentary behaviors of recreational marathon runners reached a similar conclusion. This suggested that “endurance exercise might offset the negative effects of sedentary behavior.” Furthermore, the authors argued that individuals who must spend many hours sitting at work “should be advised to be involved in regular high-volume exercise training of low-to-moderate intensity..”
I don’t think these reports give serious runners a “get out of jail free card.” We should still aim to move throughout the day, and add strength work to our cardio. But the research is reassuring for those who tend to get in one long workout at a time. More at Open Access J of Sports Medicine with free full text.
Advice From The Experts: How To Return To Running Post Childbirth
We see lots of anecdotal stories and even research papers about elite women runners who achieve remarkable performances after childbirth, and sometimes multiple children. These stories are always inspirational but not necessarily helpful for recreational mother-runners who don’t aspire to a sub-2:30 marathon.
Fortunately, there are sports med experts focused on more typical women, and how they should plan their return to running after child birth. Here’s advice from a group that included more than 100 medical professionals with experience in the field.They engaged in a “three-round Delphi approach to gain international consensus from clinicians and exercise professionals on run-readiness postpartum.”
The quick summary: First, take a “minimum 3-week period of rest and recovery.” Also, be sure your approach is individualized to your personal fitness and situation. This should include “screening for medical and psychological concerns, current physical capacity, and prior training history.
Finally, your comeback should include a progressive and “gradual return to running.” More at British J of Sports Medicine.
Your Body Can Absorb More Protein. But Then What?
Protein-loving fans, perhaps mostly body builders, are excited about a revolutionary new study result. The paper seems to show that we’re capable of utilizing much more dietary protein from a meal than was previously believed.
Old school: Your body can only absorb about 20 to 30 grams of protein at a time. Therefore, to maximize protein intake over the course of a day, you should consume that much at every meal.
New school: You can absorb up to 100 grams of protein (and possibly more) at a time. This seems reasonable from an evolutionary perspective, since early humans didn’t have credit cards or a nearby Whole Foods supermarket. They had to cope with periods of “feast or famine,” so it wouldn’t make much sense for a feast to have a protein ceiling, given protein’s importance to so many body processes.
Brady Holmer explains the study’s methods and findings in his Physiologically Speaking newsletter, and protein/strength expert Stu Phillips has written “Great study! Best evidence yet that meal distribution doesn’t matter that much.”
But we should note a few things first. There’s little evidence that most of us are lacking protein. There’s consistent evidence showing a link between higher (meat) protein intake and shorter lifespan, though this may not be true for those over age 65. More at National Institutes of Health.
Finally this is one of those trials that measures a measure--”muscle protein synthesis”--and not the sort of outcome we’re really interested in such as strength, endurance, or health. As Phillips himself observes: “ We don’t know if all this protein “translates into gainz.”
Also, before boosting your protein intake, take a look at studies showing a link between higher (meat) protein intakes and shorter lifespan, except in those over age 65.
SHORT STUFF You Don’t Want To Miss
>>> Run Right: 9 ways to improve your running form
GREAT QUOTES Make Great Training Partners
“Running is just you. You can’t cheat yourself. You get out exactly what you put in.”
--Des Linden, 2-time U.S. Olympic marathoner; 2018 Boston Marathon winner
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby