AUGUST 15, 2024 xx
New Frontier In Training: Boost Your Endurance “Durability”
Endurance durability is becoming a key training target of marathon runners and other endurance athletes. Think of durability this way: It’s not your 5K time; it’s your 5K time after you have already run 20 miles.
If you can increase your pace in the final miles of a marathon--or lose as little as possible--your finish time is certain to improve. This doesn’t come easy. Not when your muscle glycogen supply is slipping toward “empty,” your heart rate keeps increasing (known as “cardiac drift”), and your neuro motivation is fading.
So what can you do? Here triathlon racer-researcher-coach Dan Plews offers a deep dive into his thinking on muscle durability. He believes, of course, that you need to do long training runs. There’s no way around that primary ingredient.
Plews then adds another intriguing wrinkle. He thinks: There’s a good chance that working at steady intensities off-the-back of high-intensity intervals improves durability – as you are training your body to maintain work while also fatigued.”
He does a workout of this type himself. Here it is: “8 repeats of 1 minute of hard work, followed by 4 minutes right around the first threshold.” This should be roughly equivalent to 1 minute intervals at your 5K pace, followed by 4 minutes at your tempo pace (around half marathon) pace.
Plews expects that he and others will learn more about muscle durability quite soon. This will include studies that reveal the “best methods to improve durability.” Stay tuned.
In the meantime, remember that muscle durability is the new kid on the block--after vo2 max, running economy, and lactate threshold--and deserves your attention. It also deserves your respect. Like other physiological systems, it can’t be pursued too hard, or it will backfire. More at Endure IQ.
Just before clicking on “Publish,” I found another in depth piece on durability (here called “resilience”) by another performance PhD, John Davis. At the end of his article, Davis offers a multi-part section on “Training To Improve Resilience.” It will add to your understanding of this important element. More at Running Writings.
Sodium Bicarbonate Wins Olympic Gold Medal
I keep telling you about recent interest in sodium bicarbonate, because it’s climbing up the list of supplements top runners are using. I suspect caffeine will remain number 1 for a long time, but sodium bicarb has plenty of momentum right now.
Also, it’s not on any list of illegal doping agents, so athletes are free to experiment.
Here are two new links of interest. The first, at Chemistry World, explains the rise in sodium-bicarb interest among middle distance and longer-distance runners. Apparently, Keely Hodgkinson is an endorsee for Maurten’s product, and she just won the Olympic 800-meter gold medal.
On her Maurten promotion page, Hodgkinson says: “I'd always heard horror stories about bicarb, but I think that Maurten have got it figured out. I've never had a problem with it. I've run some of my best races this year using it.”
Also, mountain running legend Kilian Jornet talks about trying the Maurten “soup” in the famous Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, which he has won 4 times. More at X/Twitter.
More Training Paces = More Fitness
It would be easy to argue that you should focus your training on one key pace. After all, once you start your mile-5k-half marathon-marathon race, you’re going to aim for just one optimal (even) pace the whole way.
Dozens of solid research papers--no, probably 100s of such papers--have shown that even-pace running is the most efficient way to cover distances from 800 meters to the marathon. If you’re going for the gold, it’s also nice to have a fast “kick” at the end. Like Cole Hocker, who just sprinted his ways to the 1500-meter gold medal in Paris.
So, always practice the pace you’re going to need in your peak race effort. Train to become very efficient at that pace.
But there’s also an argument for practicing varied paces in training. Even if 80 percent of total training might be relatively slow/easy, there’s plenty of room for variation in the remaining 20%, as this 2022 article points out.
Some paces do a little more for your mitochondria, some for your vo2 max, some for your lactate threshold, and so on. That’s why I like this Brad Hudson “multiple pace” workout.
It’s simple, and it forces you to mix things up. How? By asking you to do a series of pickups that follow this by-the-minute pattern: 1-2-3-2-1.
It also opens the door to some individual training creativity. Maybe you’re pointing toward a half-marathon or longer race. In that case, you might want to practice longer pickups. How about 2-5-10-5-2? It’s always fun to borrow a good idea, and tailor it to your own needs and preferences. More at Outside Online.
Whey Protein: A Game Changer For Well Trained Runners
I’m guessing you’ve read plenty of articles about whey protein for muscle and fitness gains. I certainly have. With the result that I’ve turned into … a highly irregular whey protein consumer.
I just don’t like it enough to be consistent. However, this new report may bolster my resolve, particularly for a month or two before an upcoming marathon.
This is a simple study that produced a number of positive results. It included 2 groups of “well trained endurance athletes” who continued their normal training during the 2-month study period. One group consumed 30 grams/day of whey protein within 30 minutes of completed training sessions. The other group did not.
Result: The whey group gained weight (3.8%) and leg muscle, while losing body fat. The whey group also improved several power measures, and maximal aerobic speed, while reporting less fatigue. The control group registered no changes.
Conclusion: “Whey protein supplementation provided within 30-min post-training for a 2-month period could reduce plasma concentrations of muscle enzymes, and increase high intensity exercise performance in well-trained endurance athletes.” More at Science & Sports.
9 Ways To Prevent Knee Injuries
There’s no sure-fire way to prevent injuries. They happen, often for inexplicable reasons. I have two friends right now on the injury list who can’t figure out what they did wrong.
Knee injuries are so common that they deserve extra attention. Also, you don’t want to mess with a knee injury. Or it could deteriorate to the point where it knocks you out of running.
So pay attention to your knees. If you develop some pain, take several days off, perhaps with icing and anti-inflammatories. This is a good time to remember the folk wisdom: A stitch in time saves nine.
Here’s a solid article with 9 simple tips to avoid knee pain. Hip and knee strengthening have the most evidence. I’ve found that knee wraps and braces can be helpful for short periods. Others believe in kinesio tape.
Many biomechanists and physical therapists suggest that running with a short, quick stride puts less strain on the knees, as does a forefoot-midfoot landing. Take a look at these knee tips, to see if several can help you stay knee-healthy. More at Run Outside.
Sweat Away Your Stress--How Exercise Calms Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health issues in the U.S., affecting more than 40 million adults a year. They are commonly treated with psychotherapy and prescription drugs, but exercise can also prove effective.
A recent review examined the evidence. It found that both aerobic and strength activities “generally result in reductions in state anxiety,” and more exercise results in “fewer anxiety symptoms.” More at Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences.
Another paper in the same journal reviewed “relationships between regular physical activity and sleep.” Result: “The overall weight of evidence supports that regular physical activity is associated with better sleep quality among healthy adults.”
Moreover, this association can have profound health effects. Epidemiological studies indicate that improved sleep contributes to “well-established associations between physical activity and reduced risk of mortality, cardiovascular diseases, and dementia.” More at Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences.
A new systematic review and meta-analysis wondered if exercise has beneficial effects on anxiety among “older adults.” It concluded, based on an examination of high-quality randomized, controlled trials, that there is “compelling evidence on the significant impact of physical activity on reducing anxiety symptoms in the elderly population.” More at BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation with free full text.
The Sad Truth About Compression Pants
Compression pants or tights seem to make sense for runners. They might stabilize the leg muscles, improving efficiency. They might increase blood circulation, bringing both performance and recovery benefits. And so on.
No wonder a recent market study reported that compression/shapewear pants are a $5.63 billion business, with even more growth ahead.
Here comes the BUT. But past studies have uncovered little proof for a performance benefit. A recent systematic review and meta analysis concluded: “We identified no evidence for a beneficial or detrimental effect of lower leg CGs on the occurrence of lower extremity sports injuries, subjective ratings of fatigue, or biomechanical variables in athletes at any level of running performance.”
Now a new paper has investigated several performance metrics important to runners. In particular, it looked at oxygen consumption, heart rate, and perceived exertion of runners in compression pants vs others who wore a “loose fitting control garment.”
Result: There were no differences in vo2 max, cardiac drift, heart rate, or relative perceived exertion between trials.
Conclusion: “Measured performance variables were not aided using compression pants.” Nor were they any worse in compression pants, so wear them if you enjoy them. More at Biomechanics with free full text.
When The Going Gets Tough, Every Second Counts
This newsletter reports on ways you can improve your fitness and endurance performance according to the newest, most relevant evidence.
And, wow, has there been a lot of that in the last 6 or 7 years. Much has centered on super shoes, and how they can contribute to faster running.
But there have been plenty of other topics as well. Consider: Caffeine, sodium bicarbonate, nitric oxide (beets), high-carb consumption during events, heat training, electrolytes, foam rolling, nasal strips, body cooling, and so on. At the high end, this stuff sometimes offers improvements of 2.5% (super shoes).
Everything else ranks lower, perhaps around 1.0% or less. But it still stirs the imagination and hopes of qualifying for the Olympics, the Boston Marathon, an Ironman, a Western States, or whatever other big goals you might have.
Are these seemingly small improvements actually significant? Can all the glimmering promises amount to something tangible like an Olympic medal?
Well, if we analyze the percentage differences between a gold-medal effort and a fourth-place, the answer is a long, echoing YESSSSS!
Look at the men’s 10,000 meters. The time gap between gold and fourth (no medal) was .0003, or three-one hundredths of 1 percent. Definitely worth an extra cup of espresso.
Switching over to the women’s marathon, we find that the gap between gold and fourth place is .002, or two-tenths of 1 percent. “I’ll take another beet-root shot, thank you.”
This is why top athletes will continue to pursue every small advantage they can find, and the rest of us will eventually follow suit. It’s not that we think we can win an Olympic Marathon. It’s more: Why shouldn’t we mimic Sifan Hassan if we have a chance?
Here’s the “heat-sink” Omius headband she wore in the Paris Marathon. I have no idea if it’s effective, but I suspect we’ll be seeing more of them soon. Here’s a first-hand report from a Reddit user-fan who says the headband is not a magic bullet, but does lower your body temp feel by about 5 degrees in hot weather.
On a related/unrelated note: Two of my favorite endurance winners in Paris were last minute substitutions, because they hadn’t qualified for the event until a higher placed teammate dropped out. You know about Tamirat Tola, Ethiopian gold medalist in the men’s marathon.
But maybe you missed Kristen Faulkner in the women’s road race (cycling). She was super impressive, and has a great back story about her relatively recent switch from rowing to cycling.
Olympic competition is so intense these days that you can fail to make the Olympic team in your country, and then win your event outright on the Big Stage. These unexpected results are one of the reasons we love watching the Olympics. Who doesn’t root for the surprising underdog?
SHORT STUFF You Don’t Want To Miss
GREAT QUOTES Make Great Training Partners
"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."
– Henry David Thoreau
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby