(A companion piece for last week’s article)
Conventional wisdom among runners is that dehydration is to be avoided at all costs. After all, doesn’t dehydration cause overheating? Doesn’t dehydration often result in heat distress? Doesn’t dehydration severely impair performance? Aren’t runners who collapse near or at the end of a race severely dehydrated and should be treated with rapid hydration?
Most of the running community will answer these questions with a resounding “yes”. This all seems very logical and commonsense……….but it is not true!
Over the past several years, the “dehydration is evil” theory has been disproved by Dr. Tim Noakes, one of the most eminent exercise physiologists. (Incidentally, Dr. Noakes is probably the only researcher in his field to have his own Wikipedia entry).
Dr. Noakes tested South African marathon and Ironman finishers in a series of studies over the course of several years. He determined that:
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The Athlete’s Kitchen
Copyright: Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD April 2013
We’ve all heard the stories about marathoners and soldiers who have died due to consuming too much water. Clearly, overhydration can be as dangerous to your health as underhydration. So what does a sweaty endurance runner need to know about staying adequately hydrated without stomach sloshing? Dr. Timothy Noakes’ book Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports is an interesting yet controversial resource that addresses that question.
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In a recent NY Times article Barefoot Running Can Cause Injuries Too, author Gretchen Reynolds reported on a research study – where more than half of the subjects who gradually switched from traditional to minimalist shoes developed or showed signs of developing foot injuries!
Dr. Sarah Ridge, professor of exercise science at Brigham Young University, had half of her subjects gradually start running in Vibram Five Fingers barefoot style shoes, adding just one mile a week for the first 3 weeks.
At the end of 10 weeks, more than half the runners in the minimalist group developed foot injuries or showed signs of developing a foot injury (as viewed on an MRI). Almost all of the runners in the minimalist group were running fewer miles at the end of the study period than they were at the beginning.
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Bennett just finished reading the recent New York Times article “No Consensus on a Common Cause of Foot Pain by Gretchen Reynolds. Although plantar fasciitis has afflicted runners for decades and sidelines up to 10% of runners, there is a surprising lack of agreement in the sportsmedicine community regarding the injury and its treatment.
Reynolds provides a new insight as to the origin and progression of plantar fasciitis. Conventional understanding was that the injury was an acute inflammation of the plantar fascia.
However, something did not fit. Acute inflammations usually subside after a few days of rest and then disappear.
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I was once asked to write a scientific article on overtraining.
My response was that’s the simplest article ever. It’s two words long: “Avoid it.”
Jack Daniels
Legendary running coach
Author of “Daniels’ Running Formula”
Sylvia Cashmore (Peterborough, Ontario) was training for the 2012 Boston Marathon. She was running 6 days per week. Being an avid triathlete (often placing first in her age group), Sylvia was also cross-training 2-3 times weekly. Unfortunately, all of her hard work resulted overtraining and developing a severe nasty cold which jeopardized her training and racing plans.
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Injury-Free Running For Women Over 40 was named Book of the Month by the running megasite www.runnersweb.com (the announcement is halfway down the right-hand column).
At the introductory price of $19.97, it makes a great last minute gift for the runner on your list. You’ll receive the ebook and bonus reports just minutes after ordering. Click on Stay Free of Injury for details.
Wishing everyone Happy Holidays and all the best in the New Year.
Another gift idea:
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The Critical Importance of Strategic Rest and Recovery
One of our favourite quotes is applicable to many areas in life.
Take time to recharge your battery. You won’t get the Golden Egg without first taking care of the Goose.
Frank McKinney
We don’t know if Frank is a runner, but his words are very relevant to running and racing — staying free of injury and illness and racing to your fullest potential.
Daphne Lovegrove (North Bay, Ontario) was running 5 days per week. In addition, she hit the gym for two strengthening sessions and a spin class every week. She did yoga too. Her dream was to qualify for Boston. Daphne needed to reduce her marathon time by 23 minutes to qualify.
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Sprained ankles differ markedly from practically every other injury sustained while running. Most running injuries are often classified as overuse injuries. They result from your body not being strong enough to withstand a certain repetitive stress or action which often occurs thousands of times during a run. In contrast, sprained ankles result from a single trauma. Often, a runner who sprains their ankle has suffered a previous non-running ankle sprain.
Why does spraining an ankle once increase the likelihood of a future sprain? Depending upon the severity, an ankle sprain can damage muscles, ligaments and proprioceptors (PRO-pri-o-CEP-tors) – specialized nerves that control your balance and sense of position. Proprioceptors are present in muscles and tendons. Proprioceptors in a properly functioning ankle sense when your ankle is about to roll and instruct your tendons and muscles to fire and take corrective action, i.e. prevent rolling over. When these nerves are damaged during the initial sprain, they often do not regain their full functionality. Their ability to control the necessary firing of muscles and tendons is compromised. It is this phenomenon that is the major contributor to chronic ankle sprains.
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Why does running a half or full marathon increase susceptibility to colds?
There is a large body of research that shows that moderate exercise reduces the incidence and severity of a cold or flu but intense or prolonged exercise increases the risk and severity of infection.
The research we found most relevant to runners and endurance athletes was conducted by noted exercise immunologist, Dr. David Nieman, Director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University. (Lance Armstrong has worked with Dr. Neiman and has been tested in his lab). Dr. Neiman found that running or cross-training 30 to 90 minutes a day several times a week strengthened the immune system. However, exercise longer than 90 minutes increased risk of infection.
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How to Prevent and Treat Blisters
By Dr. Cathy Fieseler
Blisters are a common skin injury in active people, especially runners; although they are not life threatening, blisters can significantly affect one’s ability to continue an activity.
The skin is comprised of three layers: the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutaneous tissue. The epidermis is the outermost tissue and is comprised of five layers. The dermis contains specialized structures, such as hair follicles and sweat glands. The subcutaneous tissue is comprised of fat and connective tissue and plays an important role in temperature regulation.
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