October 19, 2023

How to run strong past 40 (like Des Linden)

When the overall marathon winner runs 2:00:35, and the first female 2:13, and a couple of American guys finish at 2:08 and under, you don’t get much credit for being a smooth, fast 40-year-old female. But Des Linden also set a record in the Chicago Marathon. She ran 2:27:35 to slice 12 seconds off the previous American masters best of 2:27:47 set by Deena Kastor at Chicago in 2015. 

“Kastor is an icon, so it was fun to feel like I was chasing someone who I admire,” Linden said afterwards. In a podcast, she admitted that she didn’t think she could beat Kastor’s half-marathon best for American masters, 1:09:39.

Of course, masters runners are getting faster at every age and distance, especially the women, it seems. Witness Chicago’s world record performances by Jenny Hitchings (60, 2:49:43) and Jeannie Rice (75, 3:34:32).

How do they do it? The mental aspect is obviously key, including the occasional need for more laughter. Also, there’s no time like the present to adapt your training to your current needs. Linden didn’t appreciate the back tightness she felt late in the marathon. Or even the fact that she was talking about back tightness, just like every other aging individual.

But she’s got a plan for it. “I’m going to have to implement a weightlifting strategy,” she said. In fact, “It’s on the way.” More at Outside Online.

Is running during pregnancy “selfish,” “psychopathic” and “disgusting?”

Stephanie Bruce has been a top American distance runner for more than 15 years, and ran a 2:30:34 marathon last November on New York City’s difficult course. That makes her a pretty tough mujer. 

Shortly thereafter, the 39-year-old mother of two announced that she was pregnant. And that, with her doctor’s approval, she was going to continue running as long as she felt good. Bruce was subsequently surprised by some of the reactions she heard while running pregnant. She heard words like: “selfish,” “psychopathic,” and “disgusting.”

A NY Times video briefly summarizes Bruce’s journey. It closes by noting that her third child, Sophia, was born on September 17, 2023, at a healthy 8 lbs, 5 ounces. 

There’s plenty of evidence that modest exercise, including running, during pregnancy is healthy for mother and child. Yes, there are precautions, but they are easy to follow with common sense, listening to your body, and regular physician care. There’s no reason why female exercise rates should drop from 45- to 55% pre-pregnancy to below 30% during pregnancy (British J of Sports Medicine, 2023).

Indeed, the most recent paper on the topic indicates that women who exercise during pregnancy give birth to infants “with increased cardiac function” one month after being born. (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise). The mother runs, and her on-board baby gains better heart health. Nice.

A 2020 “Committee Opinion” from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advised: “In the absence of obstetric or medical complications or contraindications, physical activity in pregnancy is safe and desirable, and pregnant women should be encouraged to continue or to initiate safe physical activities.” More at 

ACOG.org with free full text.

Miracles and wonder: Running a marathon in 2:00:35 or 2:11:53

How do you do it? That’s the big question of the last month. And, truth is, nobody knows the answer.

Of course, super shoes continue to attract the most attention, with experts like Geoff Burns and Ross Tucker noting the huge range of subject responsiveness to the shoes. If you’re lucky, or if a shoe company produces shoes “tuned” to your individual running, you might get an 11% boost rather than the 4% hyped by Nike’s first-generation super shoes. 

That would go a long way toward explaining Kelvin Kitum’s world record 2:00:35 at Chicago in a new, secret version of Nike shoes. And Tigst Assefa’s world record 2:11:53 at Berlin in new, highly publicized $500 Adidas shoes.

Also, when I dug into World Athletics’ shoe regulations, I was surprised not to find a rule concerning “available at retail.” The first iteration of super shoe regulations included such phrasing and a required 4-month timeframe. This was supposed to make sure no runner was getting shoes that were unfairly unavailable to other runners. (Which is exactly what happened with the new Nike shoes at the 2016 Olympic Games.)

Instead, there’s only a requirement that World Athletics be informed about new “Development Shoes” (prototypes) that athletes can test for a year before companies are required to begin larger-scale manufacturing. Nike only informed WA of its new Development Shoes a month before Chicago. Development Shoes are totally legal in all competitions except the World Championships and Olympics. 

After Kiptum ran Chicago, he told one reporter that he has never felt pain in any of his marathons. This immediately caused some to speculate that he had a neurological condition that set him apart. Possible, but unlikely. I’d bet more on the nuances of language and culture between Kenyan runners and Western journalists.

Kiptum’s coach reported that he had done at least 3 training weeks of 180 miles. Does this make you faster? Not usually. But it’s a good way to increase fatigue.  

In explaining Assefa’s 2:11:53, many referenced her background as a 1:59 800-meter runner, and concluded that the marathon is now a speed event. No doubt. But that doesn’t mean the fastest 800 runner will also run the fastest marathon.There’s still a substantial physiologic difference between the two events. Plus, Chicago winner Sifan Hassan has run 1:56 for 800 meters, and has a much deeper resume than Assefa. All of which netted her a marathon time (2:13:44) two minutes slower than Assefa.

How about Kiptum’s speed? In the past we could refer to greats like Haile Gebrselassie, Paul Tergat, and Eliud Kipchoge by checking their 5000-meter and 10,000-meter track bests. With Kiptum, no dice. He apparently sprang from the womb as a fully fledged marathon runner. 

Well, not quite. But World Athletics lists no PRs for him at any distance under 10,000 meters. He ran a 28:27 for 10,000 meters in 2021. That’s roughly equivalent to a 2:13:30 marathon, so it gives no hint at Kiptum’s ability over 26.2 miles. 

For me, recent marathon times seem either a big mystery or a simple example of super-enhanced shoe technology. 

Alex Hutchinson believes it could be nothing more than the onward march of history. When he graphed the drop in world-record marathons since 1980, the result was a fairly steady line. 

Hutchinson knows all about super-shoes as well as recent doping cases in East Africa.  Still, he writes, “I do think we should keep the scale of these changes in perspective.”More at Outside Online.

(This week, little known but super fast Kenyan marathon runner Titus Ekiru (2:02:57, tied for the sixth fastest performer all time) received a 10-year doping ban for conspiring twice with an unnamed Kenyan physician to use banned substances.)

Master your marathon training: Stay strong and fit ’til race day

The NY Times seems to think that everyone’s training for the November 5 New York City Marathon. That’s not true, of course, especially not for readership of a global newspaper. Still, there will be more than 50,000 runners on the Verrazano Narrows bridge start lines come Nov. 5, and that’s a crowd.

For them, the Times has solid advice on how to “finish marathon training strong.” I like the title and approach, as I always tell marathon trainers that the most important part of their preparation is “whatever leaves you feeling strong and healthy on marathon morning.” It’s also key to remember that if you manage to finish 80% of your planned training, you’ll be 95% ready on race day. 

Nobody hits 100%, and some of those “misses” actually amount to benefits--like more rest/recovery--as long as you don’t let them get you down mentally. The Times advocates a final “dress rehearsal” long run 3 weeks from race day, and then a progressive taper. Smart.

Also, running nutrition expert Nancy Clark advises carb loading without stuffing your face unnecessarily. And Deena Kastor says you should expect that the going will eventually get tough. That’s the time when you want your toughness to get going. Or, in Kastor’s words: “Your character matters. When things get tough, be prepared to not give in.” More at New York Times. 

Strava secrets: How to qualify for the Boston Marathon

Outside Online has some kind of “partnership” with Strava, meaning that money is changing hands. Strava commits to a certain amount of /sponsorship dollars, but also allows OO to peak inside the training metrics it has gathered from marathon runners.  These are all based on “averages” obtained from looking at thousands of runners. There are no individual privacy violations, and we don’t get to see exactly how new marathon world-record-setters like Kelvin Kiptum and Tigst Assefa organized their training.

Still, we get some great (and rare) data, because it’s not widely available without digging through online training logs like Strava and others. In this column, for example, we see how Boston Marathon qualifiers trained for several big 2022 marathons: Berlin, Chicago, Marine Corps, New York City, Cal International (Sacramento), and Valencia. 

You won’t be shocked to learn that some marathon courses are faster than others, with Marine Corps and New York City on the slower end of the scale. Or that runners who train more and faster record the best finish times. Or that proper pacing--even pace or negative splits--is crucial. However, some will be surprised that the distance of your longest long run might not be as important as your average weekly mileage.

If there’s a big new “reveal” here, it’s in the relationship of “easy run pace” to goal marathon pace. Those who ran their easy days 30% slower than marathon goal pace were 42% more likely to hit their goal than those with easy days only 10% slower than goal pace.

Translation: If you’re aiming to run a 2:37 marathon (roughly 6:00/mile), you should run easy days closer to 7:50 pace (a 30% differential) than to 6:40 pace (10%). If you’re aiming for a 4:20 marathon (10:00/mile), your easy days should be closer to 13:00/mile than 11:00/mile). [To be honest, I find this slower-zone math a bit fishy, as I don’t know many 4:20 marathoners who train at 13:00 pace. I’d like to see more precise data.]

But I do subscribe to the basic tenet here: Your easy days should be easy, so that the occasional harder days can be harder. Or, as Outside puts it: “To go fast, you have to learn to run slow.” More at Outside Online. 

Telomeres tell all: Running boosts lifespan by 12 years

When we read about telomeres or telomerase, the first or second sentence often refers to the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine, which was awarded to 3 early telomere researchers. The clear implication: Telomeres, the structures at the end of chromosomes, are super important.

From there, things get a little foggier. Longer telomeres and more abundant telomerase are generally linked to good cellular health, and we tend to lose both with increased age. But predicting health or longevity from telomere length is no simple task. One recent study found that “estimating disease risks from phenotypically measured telomere length at any given time point is challenging and imprecise.”

Against this, we have emerging data that regular, lifelong exercise increases telomere length. The latest study in this field estimated that 75 minutes a jogging/running per week vs not j/r resulted in “a biological age difference of approximately 12 years in favor of the runners.” I’ll take it!

The authors randomly selected over 4400 subjects from a well known U.S. federal survey tool called NHANES, for National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They then compared those who ran less than 10 minutes/week with those who ran more than 75 minutes/week--the amount recommended (or 150 minutes walking) by U.S. activity guidelines.

Conclusion: The more active runners had longer telomeres that conferred “roughly a 12-year cellular aging advantage associated with jogging/running.” (Note: The paper didn’t measure actual mortality, just “cellular aging.”) The authors state nonetheless that “reduced telomere length has been shown to correlate with increased mortality and the risk of various chronic diseases.” More at International J of Environmental Research & Public Health with free full text.

Can you pass the test: How do you perform on your darkest days?

Bad things happen to good people. I don’t know why. I just know that nasty stuff happens. 

And the greatest test of who we are isn’t the way we perform on our best days. It’s how we perform when we have to struggle back.  

Dave McGillivray, the now-69-year-old, long time race director at the Boston Marathon, recently hit the 5-year mark in his return from triple bypass heart surgery. From the beginning, he has been open about his disease, the need for surgery, and his comeback. This attitude helped inform others about their heart health. It also inspired all of us to be as determined and disciplined as Dave in returning from our own individual challenges, whatever they might be. 

“I’ve run 11 marathons since surgery, and I’m still not perfect,” he says. No, perfect isn’t the goal. Showing up is the goal, and then finishing. Next April, McGillivray hopes to finish his 52nd consecutive Boston. More at Twitter/X DMSE.

Body composition testing rarely essential for those under 18

The term RED-S  (“Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports”) was first introduced by an International Olympic Committee Consensus group in 2014, and was updated in 2018. Since then there have been roughly 180 original research papers published in the field. The papers are based on 24,000 participants, about 80% female. In other words, it’s time for another update, one that’s termed “more robust.”

“Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports” refers to a situation where athletes are overtraining, underfueling, or often both. If prolonged, it leads to performance and health problems. Now it’s also got a new acronym: RED-S has become REDs “for improved comprehension and dissemination.”

This updated 2023 Consensus paper from an International Olympic Committee group summarizes the best available information. You can read it all at the free full-text link below. A few things caught my eye.

Perhaps the biggest is a discussion of body-composition testing. This is the topic you’re most likely to encounter in news articles about problems among certain teams, particularly high-school and college cross-country teams. The consensus: “Body composition assessment is recommended only for medical purposes” for athletes under age 18 except for “exceptional circumstances.” Even those require “careful consideration among the athletes’ health and performance team, and require guardian consent.”

The Consensus also deals with: low-carb problems, low energy availability, overtraining syndrome, mental health issues, male athletes, and para athletes. It includes an important section on prevention and treatment.

I appreciated a nod to “Adaptable Low Energy Availability,” which in some cases “might be associated with acute health or performance benefits.” Such Adaptable LEA must be “monitored and mindful.” That’s because what’s good today can turn south too quickly if continued.

More at British J of Sports Medicine with free full text. Also, the same expert Consensus group released a new statement on “best practice recommendations” with regard to body-composition questions only, also at BJSM and also with free full text. These are important documents for coaches, sports medicine physicians, and parents of youth runners.

SHORT STUFF you don’t want to miss

>>> The injury-recovery diet: Maintain calories, consume more protein

>>> Less is more: 12 weeks of running in minimalist shoes “could exert a beneficial effect on your Achilles tendon.”

>>> Down with foot pain: 11 causes of foot pain, and how to alleviate them

GREAT QUOTES make great training partners

“In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that."

--Fred Lebow, founder, New York City Marathon

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby

October 5, 2023

Is Arthur Lydiard’s training system the best ever?

Recently I stumbled upon a 33-page Arthur Lydiard training guide that’s apparently based on talks Lydiard gave during a 1999 lecture tour of the U.S. If you’re not familiar with Lydiard, he coached a number of great New Zealand distance runners during the 1950s and 1960s. The best  known was Peter Snell, but there were many others as well.

Lydiard also introduced famous University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman to “jogging” as a healthful activity for average midlife individuals. Bowerman then brought this practice to the American public in his book, Jogging, co written with W.E. Harris, M.D.

You can read the full 33-page Lydiard manual at the below link. Here are a few highlights: Lydiard says his system is “based on a balanced combination of conditioning, strength, and speed. The end result is stamina, or the ability to maintain speed over the whole distance.”

Lydiard recommends “running at a good effort and finishing each run feeling pleasantly tired.” He doesn’t advocate Long Slow Distance, but admits that LSD will produce the same end results; you’ll just spend more time on your feet.

He also recognized the need for faster training. “You should do three hard workouts a week.” It doesn’t matter what distance and speed you use, according to Lydiard, as “No coach can tell exactly how many repetitions you can do or what your recovery intervals should be on any particular day.” So don’t worry about that stuff. “Trust your instincts and responses.”

Before you begin speedwork, Lydiard advocates for a transitional training period that “is accomplished by bringing resistance to the leg muscles.” How? “By springing uphill with a series of short and sharp bounding steps.”

You can achieve “sharpening” ( peaking) by running “sharp sprints of 50-100 meters once a week with an equal distance of ‘floating’ in between.”

And here’s Lydiard’s number one Golden Rule. “Never try to run too fast during the initial training period. You can never run too slowly to help bring about some cardiac development, but you can run too fast, causing undue strain, sore muscles, and slower recovery. This inevitably affects the following day’s training.” More at Champions Everywhere, a lengthy PDF that includes many full blown training plans.

Run stronger and faster with more emotional intelligence

Let’s say you’re aiming to hit a specific split time at the 5K mark of a race you’re running.. You get there, and … damn, you miss the mark. This is not good. You’re all too likely to blame yourself for one reason or another--not pushing hard enough in the race, not training hard enough before the race. We all know how easy it is to slip into these negative, self-critical patterns.

The problem is, such negative talk will likely make things worse. You can’t run well when you’re thinking badly.

That’s the topic of the current paper, which explores negative talk, emotional intelligence, and perceived stress in runners. It finds that runners fall into two main traps: imagining that other runners around them are feeling better than they are; and failing to use emotional intelligence to reinterpret “the association between stress perception and negative thinking.”

Avoiding these traps are skills that can be practiced and learned. The result can be “the evaluation of one's own emotions as a readjustment mechanism … and effective ways to reduce negative self talk.” From that point, runners “would be able to identify their current emotional state and change what is necessary to achieve their goals.”

You know you’re going to have a few bad moments in every big race. But you don’t have to let these bad moments roll into an insurmountable tidal wave. You can prepare for them in advance, develop alternative thought patterns, and deploy these thoughts as necessary on race day.  More at Psychology of Sport & Exercise with free full text.

How Clarence DeMar changed running forever

Clarence DeMar was one of the all time great marathon runners, with 7 Boston Marathon wins and a long running career. Then, in death, he made a bigger contribution to health/fitness science than any other runner.

His family allowed his body to be autopsied by a small team of expert cardiologists (including one who was President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s consulting cardiologist). They found that DeMar’s many years of marathon training had increased the size of his coronary arteries and produced additional small arterioles.

The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1961, and gave the first objective indication that regular (even hard) aerobic exercise improved heart health. Prior to DeMar, it was widely believed that such regimens weakened the heart. DeMar had died from cancer at age 70 in 1958.

"It was one of those first studies that taught us that the human body can really handle, very healthfully, lots and lots of exercise," said Dr. Aaron Baggish, a professor at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and the former medical director of the Boston Marathon.

This wonderful article about DeMar’s running and the research surrounding his autopsy was produced by New Hampshire public radio at the time of the annual Clarence DeMar Marathon in his hometown, Keene, NH. It’s a terrific piece of journalism, complete with the audio version and classic photos of DeMar running the Boston Marathon. Don’t miss it. More at NPR. (Also, see “Great Quotes” below.)

 [ Check out the podcast, “Running: State of the Sport,” with Amby Burfoot and George Hirsch. 

Recent episodes feature Deena Kastor, Mark Milde, and Jack Fleming. ]

Strength training fails to prevent injuries. (But is still recommended.)

Many runners do regular lower body strength training in hopes of improving their performance and limiting injuries. The following report casts a bit of a shadow over those hopes. 

It finds no evidence that leg strength training reduces injuries. In fact, strengthening the hips (a frequent suggestion to runners) is linked with a slight uptick in injuries. At the same time, ignoring upper body resistance work also correlates with injury risk. 

Of course, like most injury research, this one paper can’t prove cause-and-effect. Only associations. 

The findings were  based on questionnaire data from 616 runners  who had been running an average of 13 years, and generally logged 4 running workouts a week. Those who covered more than 19 miles/week had more injuries than lower-mileage runners. Also, those with a strong “performance orientation" were more likely to be injured. 

That’s possibly because they didn’t listen to their body when they should have. They continued to push hard in training when they should have backed off and recovered.

Conclusion: “Completely eradicating RRIs is unrealistic.” Also, despite their findings, the authors retained their belief in strength training. They state that it can improve “capacity to tolerate training load and, thus, should be recommended.” More at J of Functional Morphology & Kinesiology with free full text.

The benefits of training with a weight vest

Runners generally want to carry a low but healthy body weight, since more weight could increase injury risks and decrease performance. However, a new study indicates that there may be a  time and place for additional weight, particularly in the form of a weighted vest that you wear in training.

Researchers tested this idea by having volunteers run on a treadmill while wearing three different vests that added anywhere from 10 pounds to almost 30 pounds to their body weight. They also ran at two different speeds. 

Result: The weighted vests “increased muscle force amplitudes and variability”--a good thing. On the other hand, running faster “decreased this variability.” I received these comments in an email from senior author, Guillaume Rao. He added: “This is a very interesting finding in the way that after an injury or a rest period, it might be helpful to add this kind of workout before running faster.”

Translation: Rao believes that weighted-vest training could build a stronger musculoskeletal system, always important to healthy running. Then, speed training can be added later.  “These findings may help improve the design of military or trail running training programs and injury rehabilitation by progressively increasing the mechanical load on anatomical structures,” says the paper’s conclusion.  More at J of Biomechanics with abstract and snippets.

Some caffeine abstinence may be required to boost endurance

It was almost 50 years ago when a Runner’s World cover story first revealed that coffee/caffeine was performance-enhancing for endurance runners. At the time, we were told the program worked best if we refrained from coffee/caffeine for several days or longer before taking it on race-day morning. Later a number of studies seemed to indicate that such “withdrawal” was not necessary. 

This implied you could drink your coffee regularly, and still get a nice boost on marathon morning. Whew! Many addicted coffee fans regarded this as sensational news.

Now the newest paper on the subject has retested the whole “withdrawal or no withdrawal” protocol, and concluded that, yup, you gotta take at 8 hours off to get the full benefit.

The experiment included 10 regular coffee-drinking recreational cyclists. In a randomized order, they received either a caffeine pill or a placebo pill 8 hours before a laboratory cycling test. Then, one hour before the test, they again received either a caffeine pill or a placebo pill before beginning a 10K time trial that also measured power output. Caffeine use was administered with a dose of 6 mg per kg of athlete body weight.

Result: Cyclists’ time-trial performance and power output was improved only if they had consumed no caffeine 8 hours prior to the 10K time trial. The authors believe this finding means that “previous work may have overstated the value of caffeine supplementation for habitual users.” 

Of course, most road races begin in the early morning when you haven’t had any caffeine during your 8 hours of nighttime sleep. So you pass that hurdle. How about abstaining for the full day (or more) before your race? That’s one of those personal experiments you’ll have to try on your own. Also, the researchers say that “Future work should examine higher doses of caffeine for habitual users.” More at International J. of Sport Physiology & Performance.

Do runners need to “insure” their health with multivitamins?

As runners and proponents of optimal health-fitness, we naturally gravitate toward multivitamins. Who hasn’t been won over by the argument that they provide relatively “low-cost insurance?” Still, we often read that vitamins and supplements are unproven health-enhancers, and sometimes even linked to increased risk of certain conditions. Not to mention possible contaminants.

So it’s always good to check the latest research and expert opinion on multi-vitamins. That’s what you get here in this solid  review of the topic. 

Bottom line: You probably don’t need a multi, and you’d be much smarter to get all the nutrients you need with a varied diet. Food “is always the gold standard,” notes one nutritionist.

That said, a recent Columbia-Harvard analysis of a randomized trial found that those over age 60 experienced a significant improvement in their memory after beginning to take a multivitamin. The effect persisted over the 3-year term of the investigation. “It’s certainly not a panacea for cognitive aging,” said one of the study authors, “but it is a reliable effect.”

If you’re tempted, most experts recommend taking a name-brand multi-tablet (rather than a single supplement pill). And, of course, eating as healthfully as you can. More at Outside Online.

Camille Herron’s weird (but record-setting) ultramarathon training

If this isn’t the year of women’s running, I don’t know what is. Faith Kipyegon, Tigst Assefa, Jeannie Rice, Courtney Dauwalter, Camille Herron, and others have produced stunning performances.

Kipyegon burned up the track all summer, while Tigst Assefa ran a mind-boggling 2:11:53 in the Berlin Marathon. Jeannie Rice is aiming for a female 75-79 world record at the Chicago Marathon  this weekend to add to others she has already set in 2023. Dauwalter won three major 100-mile trail races, and Herron last weekend took two hours off the course record in the famed 153-mile Spartathlon race in Greece. That put her on the overall podium, as only two men ran faster.  

Herron’s Spartathlon record followed on the heels of her 48-hour record set last March--270.5 miles. In this article she explains how she keeps running so fast over super-endurance distances. I find her long-run strategy most interesting, especially for an  ultra-runner. She doesn’t like long runs. Instead she believes iit makes more sense to do two shorter runs a day because there’s less wear and tear on the body.

Herron also acknowledges the social-cultural changes that are helping women make such great strides in this historical epoch. “My generation is the first to see pro women athletes continuing into their 40s and beyond. There’s greater visibility, support, and open talk now about menstrual health, perimenopause, menopause, and what we’re experiencing as athletes.” More at Canadian Running.

SHORT STUFF you don’t want to miss

>>> Feet don’t fail me now: A systematic review shows that both orthotics and taping can reduce plantar fasciitis pain

>>> Step up to the challenge: The higher your daily step count, the longer your likely lifespan

>>> Protect the future of running: How to become a more sustainable runner (Hint: Start at breakfast)

GREAT QUOTES make great training partners

“Since I was forty and definitely slipping, I have won seven full marathons, got second six times, and third four times.... I'm wondering what I can do after I'm fifty.”

--Clarence DeMar

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby