The International Association of Women Runners provides women runners the opportunity to participate in a unique worldwide organization linking women runners to an international women’s running community.
The International Association of Women Runners provides a valuable resource of information on training, nutrition, injury prevention and issues particular to women runners. Our articles and practical tips will help you achieve your objectives for running, racing and a healthy lifestyle – regardless of your age, experience and ability.
Did you know that in 2011, the majority of runners are women? There are women’s running magazines, women’s races and women’s running groups. Don’t you think that an International Association of Woman Runners is long overdue?
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The Athlete’s Kitchen
Copyright: Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD January 2012
What’s best to eat for recovery after a hard workout?
That’s what runners, triathletes, and body builders alike repeatedly ask. They read ads for commercial recovery foods that demand a 3 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein, tout the benefits of a proprietary formula, or emphasize immediate consumption the minute you stop exercising. While these ads offer an element of truth, consumers beware: engineered recovery foods are not more effective than standard foods. The purpose of this article is to educate you, a hungry runner, about how to choose an optimal recovery diet.
Which runners need to worry about a recovery diet?
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In last week’s Feature Article How Many Weeks Before Your Marathon Should You Run Your Last Long Run?, we concluded that it is best to conduct your last long run four weeks prior to your marathon.
Without a long run during the last four weeks, won’t you lose fitness, compromising your ability to run the marathon at your true potential?
Don’t worry! These four weeks provide the opportunity to continue high quality training. As you recover from your last long run, incorporate a variety of speed workouts (assuming they were part of your training program) that will result in improving other factors that will affect marathon performance, e.g. running economy, speed and VO2max (maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport and use oxygen during exercise).
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Many marathoners run their last long training run two or three weeks before race day. Doesn’t it make sense to run your last “biggie” reasonably close to your race to derive maximum benefit and bolster your endurance? After all, you recover during your taper.
Running your last long run this close to race day is a crucial training error. During a long run, leg muscles sustain considerable damage. Contractile fibres get damaged or destroyed. Until the muscle tissue has repaired itself, the propulsive force that your leg muscles can exert is decreased, hindering your ability to maintain running at race pace over long distance.
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Good news for older runners who aim to improve their running and racing! It was commonly believed that running economy (one’s ability to utilize oxygen at a given pace) decreases with age. The higher your running economy, the less oxygen you require to run at a given pace. Therefore, an “economical” runner can continue running at a given speed for a longer period of time than her less economical counterpart. Running economy is reliable indicator of distance race performance.
An article written by Gretchen Reynolds (that appeared in Tara Parker Pope’s December 21st New York Times Well Blog) reported on recent research conducted at the University of New Hampshire (published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research) that lays this myth to rest. Dr. Timothy Quinn, the study’s lead author: “Contrary to our beliefs, economy did not decline with age”. Being able to utilize oxygen efficiently, middle aged and older runners are capable of fast running and race times.
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We were recently interviewed by the New York Times for an article on women’s running. The article will be published in the lead up to the 2012 Summer Olympics and will examine women’s participation in running from the ground level up to elite athletes.
We may not be Olympic calibre athletes, but we all have accomplishments for 2011 that we can be proud of. Many of us tend to focus on the times when we fell short of our objective and forget our achievements.
List your top ten accomplishments for 2011. Read them out loud. Recall how you felt at those points in time. Take pride in them.
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During the holiday season, many runners are strapped for time but not for calories. How can you keep your hard-earned fitness and not gain weight under these conditions?
The answer is to substitute the CESW (Convenient Efficient Speed Workout) for one or more your regular runs.
Why? This workout really cranks up your metabolism so that you burn calories long after finishing.
Convenient? You can perform the CESW right out your front door, without having to travel to a track or gym. You can also run the CESW indoors on a treadmill.
Efficient? The entire workout including warmup and cooldown takes only 30-40 minutes.
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One area where women runners differ from their male counterparts is caloric requirement. When running the same distance, men burn more calories than women due to their higher muscle mass and lower body fat.
A man training 40-45 kms (25-30 miles) per week requires 19-21 calories per pound of body weight. A 180 lb man training at this level should consume approximately 3600 calories daily. A woman running the same weekly mileage requires 17-19 calories per pound of body weight. Therefore, a 140 lb woman needs about 2500 calories daily to fuel her activity.
Carbohydrate requirement is another area of nutrition where women runners’ requirements differ from those of their male counterparts. Why? In addition to burning more calories when running, men utilize more carbs as fuel than women, even when running the same distance. Therefore, women runners need fewer carbs than men.
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THE ATHLETE’S KITCHEN
Copyright: Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD December 2011
If you are a winter runner, you want to pay careful attention to your sports diet. Otherwise, lack of food and fluids can take the fun out of your outdoor activities. These tips can to help you fuel wisely for cold weather workouts.
Winter hydration
Cold blunts the thirst mechanism; you’ll feel less thirsty despite significant sweat loss and may not “think to drink.”
Winter runners (especially those at high altitude) need to consciously consume fluids to replace the water vapor that gets exhaled via breathing. When you breathe in cold dry air, your body warms and humidifies that air. As you exhale, you lose significant amounts of water. You can see this vapor (“steam”) when you breathe.
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(Central Governor Theory)
Conventional wisdom holds that during running and racing, muscular fatigue is caused by the buildup of toxic bi-products and/or muscles becoming depleted of glycogen (running out of fuel). It becomes impossible for muscles to exert the force necessary to sustain the desired speed. Therefore, the runner must slow down or even cease running.
The problem with this theory is that it doesn’t explain what many of us commonly experience:
- An ability to sprint to the finish at the end of a distance race
- Running the last repeat of a tough track workout faster than the two preceding ones.
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Consider the following scenario: Your training schedule includes a weekly track or hill workout. One week, you hit your workout targets right on. You are brimming with confidence. The following week, the identical workout is awful with no apparent reason why. You feel bewildered and discouraged.
Knowing where you are in your menstrual cycle can provide valuable insight into your performance. Let’s examine why and how to use this knowledge to your training and racing advantage.
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