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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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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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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Today’s Featured Article is not about nutrition, injury prevention or how to run faster. It concerns a more serious matter – personal safety. Many runners consider headphones a mandatory article of clothing. You can’t run without tunes. However………
Safety (a.k.a. proving a point to your teenager)
Running with headphones results in a reduced awareness of your physical surroundings. If you are treadmill running, by all means, hit the playlist. Outdoors, being less than totally conscious of your physical surroundings compromises your personal safety. Like it or not – all runners (especially women) must run defensively at times. Headphone wearers range from being less attentive to totally oblivious of other people, cars and dogs – all of which are potential attackers that can pose real threat to a runner’s physical safety.
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by Ginny Megin
I’ve been a runner since about 1972 or ’73, when “jogging” (as it was called back then) was considered a fad. I’ve run about a dozen marathons. I ran my 3:27 PB in Vancouver in the early 1980′s, thanks to altitude training in a small town outside of Prince George (British Columbia), way up north in the mountains. But that’s another story.
This one’s about my birthday, August 6, the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. In the early 1990′s, I thought a lot about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the bombing. On my birthday, I ran for just over 2 hours. As I ran, I decided to dedicate each footstep to someone who was killed during the bombing. My decision and action that day had a very deep emotional and spiritual impact on me.
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The Athlete’s Kitchen
Copyright: Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD June 2011
Nutrition for Injury Recovery: Update from ACSM
Each year, more than 5,000 health professionals gather at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM; www.acsm.org). At this year’s meeting (Denver, June 1-4, 2011), exercise physiologists, sports medicine doctors, and sports nutritionists shared their research and offered updates. One of the updates will be of utmost interest to women runners.
Nutrition for Injuries
Unfortunately, part of being a runner seems to entail being injured; no fun. Runners with injuries should pay attention to their diet. If they are petrified of gaining weight (yes, petrified is a strong word, but it seems fitting to many injured athletes who seek my counsel), they may severely restrict their food intake. One marathoner hobbled into my office saying, “I haven’t eaten in two days because I can’t run…”
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"Pre-Race Tips for Race Day Success" Report - Download Your FREE Copy Here!
