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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(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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Any active adult over the age of 40 can attest to requiring more recovery time from training and injury.
Progressive training causes muscles to break down (on a microscopic level), repair and grow stronger. As we age, muscle fibres decrease in number and shrink in size. New muscle fibres are generated at a slower rate than in a younger person, resulting in a slower buildup and strengthening of muscle in response to the demands of training or the incidence of an injury.
I know this fact of life from personal experience. When I was 44 years old and my daughter was 12, we both suffered mild ankle sprains…………on the very same day. As our sprains were of similar severity, we both underwent identical treatment programs, consisting of physiotherapy and strengthening and balance exercises. Ten days after spraining our ankles, she was hopping and I was hobbling! Nothing beats experiential learning for driving home a fact of life.
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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. If he’s good enough for Lance, he’s good enough for us). 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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Today’s Featured Article, “Twelve Tips For Better Sleep”, is the second article in a two part series on how sleep affects running (and vice versa), how much sleep is enough and how to improve the duration and quality of your sleep. The first article appeared in last week’s issue Run More Sleep Better or Sleep More Run Better?
How much sleep do we need?
James Maas, Cornell University psychology professor and sleep expert states: “Most adults function best on 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep, but runners – especially those training intensely – can benefit from more.
Yet, many North Americans are sleep-deprived. Recent American research indicates that 71% of Americans get less than the 7.5 hours nightly, with one third sleeping less than 6 hours on average.
Are we runners better than the general population at getting adequate sleep? Unfortunately, no. A poll published in the September 2009 issue of Runner’s World showed that 68% of 6,212 respondents got 7 hours of sleep or less.
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Today’s Feature Article is the first of a two part series on the relationship between sleep and running performance. Next week’s article will examine how much sleep you really need, as well as how to improve both the duration and quality of your sleep.
Getting adequate sleep is not just “a good idea”. It is critical in giving body the opportunity to regenerate, repair itself and to adapt to the stresses of training. More importantly, research shows that adequate sleep enhances immune system and reduces probability of contracting serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes or experiencing a heart attack.
Yet, sleep is an often neglected aspect of running’s training and recovery cycles. Many training programs pay no more than lip service to this topic.
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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!
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by Dr. Cathy Fieseler
For years, distance runners have been told to drink as much as possible. Lately, I’ve heard about runners dying from drinking too much water during marathons. I’m a bit confused; if I don’t drink enough, isn’t dehydration a problem? Do sports drinks protect me from the danger of too much fluid?
For years, the medical community has been concerned about dehydration associated with prolonged running, such as marathons, especially in warm weather. This concern has led to the plentiful aid stations in races and the development of sports drinks. It was felt that consumption of fluids while running would decrease the degree of dehydration.
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