Endurance Breakthrough: Sodium Bicarbonate Proven Successful
(Here’s a long item, because we’ve reached a new breakthrough point.)
If you asked the world’s best sports scientists for a list of proven and legal endurance-boosters, you’d get back a very short list. In fact, it might contain only two substances: caffeine and sodium bicarbonate.
Caffeine is used by almost all endurance athletes. But sodium bicarb has two big negatives that have limited its acceptance. First it has been shown effective only in events that last 10 minutes or less. Second, it tends to produce bloating, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
But we live in a new world now--one with super shoes, super carb-loading, and new gel formulations. A new hydrogel product from Maurten, the Swedish sports supplement company, seems to eliminate sodium bicarb’s horrid gastrointestinal issues. Other companies are quickly developing similar hydrogels.
However, that still leaves the endurance question. Does NaHCO3 improve performance in events lasting longer than 10 minutes? The answer is “Yes,” according to a just-published randomized, controlled trial.
The new paper evaluated 14 trained cyclists over a 40km time trial. The subjects had an average age of 43 and an average vo2 max of about 52.0. This would give them an expected half-marathon time of about 1:29:00 if they were running. However, in the 40 km bike trial, they cycled only about 40 minutes.
All subjects completed the 40km bike trial once while consuming a Maurten hydrogel with sodium bicarbonate, and once with the same hydrogel without sodium bicarb. They did not know which gel they were getting.
They rode almost a minute faster while taking the sodium bicarb. This worked out to an improvement of about 1.42%, according to the research team. Twelve of 14 subjects were faster with sodium bicarb.
Same measures remained the same in both trials: heart rate, cycling cadence, and relative perceived exertion. Importantly, there was no difference in gastrointestinal distress.
Researchers reported: “The performance enhancement in 40 km TT cycling performance following NaHCO3 ingestion is likely due to an increased blood buffering capacity, with reduced relative oxygen cost suggesting improved gross efficiency.”
They concluded: “Athletes, sports nutritionists, and practitioners should therefore consider the potential for this method of NaHCO3 ingestion to be ergogenic for prolonged high-intensity exercise.”
More at European J of Applied Physiology with free full text.
A few additional notes: Since the cycling time trial only lasted about 40 minutes, it was more equivalent to a 10K running race than a half marathon or marathon. This won’t prevent runners from trying sodium bicarbonate in longer races.
If you add the potential benefits of super shoes and sodium bicarbonate, you get roughly 4 percent in total (2.5% from the shoes, and 1.5% from the sodium bicarbonate.) This would make a 4-minute miler from 10 years ago a 3:50.5 miler today. It would turn a 2:10 marathon runner into a 2:04:50 runner.
There’s no doubt we’re living in a new world with many endurance athletes performing at levels that were unattainable a decade ago. The big jumps in performance are not a result of human evolution, and are unlikely from better training methods (though some will argue about this). Rather, the equipment and supplements have changed.
Tracks change, too. At each Olympics, the tracks get faster, too. Here’s an article about the “audacious” purple track we’ll soon be seeing in Paris. The track’s manufacturer claims it is 2% faster than the track used at the Tokyo Olympics. Now that 3:50.5 miler can run 3:47.5.
Roger Bannister might be rolling over in his grave, but I think he’s got a knowing smile on his face. Bannister, a neuroscientist, understood better than most that there’s no limit to human ingenuity and quest. “The human spirit is indomitable,” he wrote. “No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that.”
Find Your “Flow:” 4 Steps To Almost Effortless Peak Performance
“Flow states are magical moments that enable us to reach our true potential almost effortlessly,” says Dr Greg Wells, a performance physiologist. Sounds impossible, and yet we’ve all experienced something like this once or twice. And we’ve read a great deal about it.
“Flow” was first described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who identified it as a highly focused state conducive to peak performance and productivity. Being in “the zone” or a “flow” state is characterized by complete absorption in an activity and being entirely in the present (no sense of past or future).
When we get there, we feel energized, motivated, focused, happy, and free to perform at our best. Who wouldn’t want more of this?
Greg Wells has 4 steps to steer you in the right direction. The first: “Identify your best zone moment.” Hold the moment in your mind. Describe it. Often a one-word summary is the best, clearest way to do this.
Wells closes with step 4: “Let go of the fear of failure.” He observes that there is no way to achieve your potential without putting yourself in situations where you will sometimes fail.
The key: Learn not to feel embarrassment or shame or weakness. “We must reframe failure,” Wells says. “By perceiving it as a challenge rather than a threat, we can enter the zone.” More at Dr. Greg Wells.
This Simple Workout Delivers A Big Bang For Your Buck
I’ve been a huge fan of Jens Bangsbo’s 10-20-30 training since I first learned about it a decade or so ago. Also, I like his name and its onomatopoetic link to his workout. You get a lot of bang for your buck with Bangsbo’s 10-20-30 training.
It’s good enough that I use it regularly in my own run training.
Basically, this is one of those HIT (high intensity interval) workouts that many exercise scientists have been proposing for years now. Here’s their rationale for HIT training.
Far too few people exercise. Many claim they don’t have the time, and that exercise is boring. HIT workouts are short and snappy, but also produce big results. You change pace frequently, and get a big return on your investment of exercise minutes.
Bangsbo offers many study references to claim that his workout improves fitness and performance, lowers body fat and blood pressure, improves blood glucose values, and even works for patients with asthma. Moreover, he claims that adherence levels exceed 80%. That is, people like the workout enough to stick with it.
Now, let’s dig into the actual workout. The 10-20-30 refer to “seconds.” You run 10 seconds hard, 20 seconds at a moderate pace, and 30 seconds easy. That gives you 60 seconds--1 minute. You can’t get much simpler than a workout that’s built on 60 second intervals. (You can do bike intervals this way, also.)
Bangsbo says you only have to do his workout for 10 to 20 minutes to get significant benefits.
The only thing I don’t like is the way he orders the 10-20-30. I much prefer the reverse: 30-20-10. I like to run 30 seconds easy, 20 moderate, and 10 fast.
To tell the truth, I usually take a 60-second walking recovery after the 10 seconds of fast running. Then I launch into my next repeat of 30-20-10.
A good workout only gets better when you tailor it to your personal needs and preferences. More at European J of Sport Science with free full text.
The Elusive Search For Perfect Running Form
I’ve never met a runner who didn’t want to improve her/his running form. It’s a universal. We think and/or hope that a changed form will help us run faster or farther, or avoid injuries, or score more points when running is turned into a aesthetic-judgment event like gymnastics or figure skating. (Just kidding about that last one. Nobody wants that.)
When I first began running the Boston Marathon in the mid-1960s, I quickly learned that everyone ran to the right side of the road in Framingham. There we checked our form in the long, reflective windows of a plate-glass storefront. Unfortunately, this meant that we missed out on the national historic landmark Framingham Train Station across the street.
In this article, Alex Hutchinson reviews several attempts to figure out the perfect running form. He concludes that no one has yet pieced together this jigsaw puzzle.
A slightly shorter, quicker stride might help. On the other hand, bouncing (“vertical oscillation”) is wasteful. Certain exercises--plyometrics, or hopping and skipping--could help you develop stiffer springs in your legs. This is also related to improved running economy.
Surprisingly, there’s pretty good evidence that you can’t judge running form by looking at it. So you can ignore all those form gurus with rulers, protractors, slow-motion video, and the like.
“I don’t think there will be an identifiable ‘good form’ that fits everyone,” says one expert running biomechanist. “Teasing apart the links between running economy and biomechanics is a very difficult enigma,” notes another. More at Outside Online.
Here’s a simple infographic where running physiotherapist Tom Goom lists 3 evidence-based reasons not to expect any miracles from forefoot running.
One Leg At A Time: The Key To Runner Strength
Two new articles emphasize one of the most important aspects of running form: We run with one leg at a time. Therefore, the best, most-specific exercises for building leg strength and stability are those we perform on one-leg. .
Top coach Greg McMillan proposes 5 exercises that he believes all runners should use as part of a “pre-hab” routine. He notes that these exercises won’t necessarily make you faster, but will help you withstand the inevitable pounding that comes with run training. Therefore, he tells his athletes: “This is the training that allows you to do the training.” That makes a lot of sense.
Over at Canadian Running, they believe much the same, and provide links to YouTube videos that demonstrate 4 great, one-leg exercises. The point: “Adding single-leg strength training to your routine can lead to more powerful strides, better endurance, and fewer overuse injuries.”
There’s some similarity and/or duplication of recommended one-leg moves. That’s a good sign that both have picked top exercises. More at Canadian Running.
Best Marathon Strategy--More Runs, Or More Mileage?
Every runner aiming to improve his/her marathon time faces the same question at some point: Should I focus on running more miles per week, or more often per week? Here, it comes from a guy preparing for his first marathon while still strength training 3 to 4 times a week. What should he do?
The Reddit responders had plenty of advice on this topic. Many started with an obvious one: Drop a couple of those strength sessions, and replace them with modest running workouts.
A simple one: “Cut your strength training in half, and double your running days.” Many comments also recommended a focus on long runs, as you’d expect.
There was some common ground on the subject of a minimal weekly mileage: Aim for about 25 to 30 miles a week. One good conclusion: “It’s important to have the consistency of 4 runs per week, and make sure the long run is actually long.” More at Reddit/Running.
Also, this discussion led me to a new-to-me Reddit group called “Hybrid Athlete” for those interested in combining strength training and distance running. Since that’s a great combo, this is a valuable resource.
Who’s Going To Win The 2024 Paris Olympic Marathons?
The men’s and women’s Olympic Marathons take place in a little more than a week, on August 10th and 11th. As always, they will be among the most anticipated events of the entire Olympics.
In the men’s race, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge takes aim at an historic third-straight Olympic Marathon victory. No one has done that before. Two have won back to back: Abebe Bikila (1960 & 1964) and Waldemar Cierpinski (1976 & 1980), with Cierpinski no doubt assisted by the East Germany doping system
Bikila won barefoot in Rome 1960 and wearing Puma shoes in Tokyo 1964. He also started in Mexico City 1968, but with injuries that forced him to drop out. Before doing so, he instructed teammate Mamo Wolde to go for the gold, which Wolde did successfully. That made Ethiopia the only country to have 3 successive winners.
Kipchoge has the best competitive marathon record of all time. However, he’s 39 now, and has run subpar in 2 of his last 3 marathons in the last 16 months. His odds went up last week when the top Ethiopian marathoner, Sisay Lemma, dropped out with an injury.
Jon Gault from LetsRun.com has written all you need to know about the men’s marathon at the below link, including an exhaustive analysis of how tough the course is. As in really tough. Some observers say they have never seen anything like it. Between 10 and 20 miles it offers hills and especially downhills that make the Boston Marathon course look almost flat by comparison.
Normally, the men’s marathon is the last event of the Olympics, harking back to its pivotal role in Greek and Olympic history. This year the women’s marathon will be last. It also has a handful of Ethiopian and Kenyan runners who are expected to sweep the top positions, including world record holder Tigist Assefa, Ethiopia, who ran 2:11:53 last September in Berlin.
U.S. marathon runners would do well to finish in the second-5, but tough courses have always helped Americans. This was especially true in Athens 2004 where Deena Kastor (bronze) and Meb Keflezighi (silver) both won medals. More at Let's Run.
SHORT STUFF You Don’t Want To Miss
>>> Super shoes explained: Curved carbon plates in running shoes improve ankle efficiency
GREAT QUOTES Make Great Training Partners
“You wonder at times what you’re doing out there. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.”
--Steve Prefontaine
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby