Posts
Most embarrassing moments
“The only cure for vanity is laughter and the only fault deserving of laughter is vanity…”
Like it or not – stuff happens. Runners see more of it than many folks because we are getting out there and doing stuff. This subjects us to a larger than average number of foibles and comedic moments. So I asked for questiona and I got a few, which I'll cover here, and address a few more funny ones that could crash your day or your race - so pay attention. BTW many of these funny stories are second hand/first hand, while a rash of others come right out of Runners World, where you find a lot of good material - they used a forum/poll technique to gather some doozies!
For example: I was out on a run and running a trail for the first time. Working hard to keep from falling after recent rains I was focused on my footwork and never saw the dead tree limb hanging dangerously low to the trail. My hat shielded the view until after it was too late and looking skyward from my supine position I knew I had been foolish – now my head hurt too.
Ins and outs
#1The statistics say that 24% of women ages 25-44 y.o. experience some symptoms of stress incontinence. A leaky bladder while running is a more common problem for women who have given birth. Once the muscles of the pelvic floor become weakened anything from a cough to a fast run can cause a problem. Kegel exercises can help rehabilitate and strengthen pelvic floor muscles and effectively cure most incontinence. To find the muscles, stop your urine stream while going to the bathroom. Practice contracting and relaxing the muscles for 10 second repetitions as often each day as you can. Some runners say a tampon can help prevent leakage and help maintain muscle tone.
#2 Adding fiber in your diet can make you more regular and then able to schedule your movements to occur before a run. Caffeine can speed the movement of waste through your system and thus aid your scheduling issues. Running jostles your system and diverts blood from the digestive tract to legs and muscles elsewhere and this can cause cramping and/or an emergency pit stop if you have not already taken care of business. On race day many folks have eaten two hours or more before the gun and then had something small (that they know will sit well) 30 minutes before race time. On long runs in the countryside do not forget to carry a few sheets of paper in a zip-lock bag!
Worst case scenario preparedness: Country roads afford a lot of privacy oftentimes and you learn which spots on your route have more cover. I carry a kit that works well on race day - and doubles as a country roads emergency kit.
I use a big zip-lock bag style "kit" and in it I place:
Some TP,
A freezer zip-lock
One really tough garbage bag
Hand gel.
This kind of kit easily fits in a fanny pack or cargo pocket and is discrete. TP and the zip lock and gel can handle any spontaneous need to urinate for a female and allows me to pack out my TP easily to pitch later.
The garbage bag works the same way I might clean up after my dog in the city. BM goes on the ground and TP accompanies the stool. Then with a hand inside the bag as a glove, I scoop the whole thing into the garbage bag and then seal it into the zip-lock for disposal later, anywhere I'd pitch a diaper. I have found that in several national parks the rangers actually teach this technique as a means to "pack it in pack it out" and if the site chosen is softer ground or snow this works just fine with no evident trace. Things do happen out there and this kit has saved me and comrades on numerous occasions.
Sweat – it can stain clothes and moisture makes some colors transparent…
From a runner – “I purchased 3 pairs of running shorts. Identical except in color. They had a very light mesh liner that made them great for summer workouts in the Georgia heat. I bought black, blue and yellow. I loved these shorts and in fact I still use them from time to time. One day I set out wearing the yellow shorts on a run from my house to a well used local park. Along the way I noticed a few interesting glances and some folks staring directly at my crotch. I didn't really think much about it until I got home and realized that these awesome yellow shorts had become increasingly see- through as I sweat during my run. I hope the folks I encountered enjoyed a good show. I still have those yellow shorts but I never wear them. They serve as a reminder to stick with dark colors”
Besides giving the public a good show you may find excessive sweating can cause blistering. Body glide, Vaseline, Aquaphor, or even anti-perspirant applied to the trouble areas can help – this includes feet.
Chafing and “number 11” syndrome
Salt in sweat can cause chafing too and on long runs this is something to look out for – I know folks who use a bandanna to brush off and wipe down troublesome areas ahead of time.
Runs over a certain distance (varies by runner) will always cause chafing. The most common for men is thighs and nipples. The “number 11” comes from the blood stains on the jersey of an unprotected guy who was not told to tape, apply body glide or even breathe right strips to nipples to avoid this problem.
Blood in your urine - haematuria – is a condition that 20% of the (Runner’s World) poll reported having suffered after a long run. Runners World says that “Sometimes on a long run cells in the kidneys may leak or bleed or the bladder can suffer injury as well from all the jostling. While not normal – some folks are prone to this and the condition resolves within 48 hours. If it does not – seek medical attention.” My learning from nursing school tells me that this might be rhabdomyolysis which more specifically is myoglobin in the urine and this is coming from the extreme tearing down of muscle tissue. This muscle tissue contains myoglobin – similar to the oxygen carrying, hemoglobin in your blood and it would leave urine a rust or dark, red- brown color. If you are losing large amounts of potassium rhabdomyolysis could be a consequence as well. This too would not be a normal occurrence and can lead to complications, thus it warrants a visit to the doctor.
Knowing the route - From a runner, “I have very bad night vision. In order to avoid running into some pedestrians, I ran towards the edge of the sidewalk, in between two poles. Turns out, there was a sign in between the two poles that I didn't see and I ran right into it. I hit my head pretty hard and stumbled backwards before trying to keep running.” There are lots of good lighting systems and tools available and I run with a light on my head and one in my hand. The one in my hand is for making sure others see me. The one on my head keeps track of the ground, but honestly when you run a route a lot you learn where the mean dog is, who is always late to work and driving fast, and which guy will never miss a puddle. Know the hazards in advance if you can.
Tying your shoes - The racers are in the chute and the gun fires. The runner who bends over to tie their shoe at the start of the race is knocked over by the wave of racers flooding on to the course. This story has been related to me more than once and the runner had not learned to tie correctly or did not double knot and certainly did not move to the side of the course to re-tie or else I would not be re-telling the sad tale. The other big one is shoes tied with an unmovable bow and the loop catching on something – sending the runner horizontal. You can tuck the loops in and single tie them correctly to keep them done up. See our facebook site for a link on how to tie a proper bow (I laughed too, but it works).
Gear check - From a runner “I was running my first marathon in 1997. I was about at the 18 to 19 mile mark, when another runner caught up to me only to inform me of a gaping hole in my black running tights that were showing my white undergarments. I learned to do pre-checks on gear before I wear it.” I have heard of racers showing up at the race without their bib or timing chip. Check your stuff the night before and pre-pack so that you can be confident of an easy day.
Know thy schedule: From a runner “My boyfriend and I had registered ahead of time for the race which was advertised as beginning at 9:30. I was pretty nervous and was definitely in pre-race solitary mode while stretching at my car. At around 9:10 a crowd was gathering around the start and my boyfriend - honoring my pre-race alone time - told me he was going to make his way to the start. I stayed at my car stretching until I heard a gun and the pack of runners come streaming by me. The race had started at 9:15!”
Plan ahead – and nothing new on race day: From a runner “I ran my first marathon (Philly) and INHALED my jelly beans in front of the crowds. I couldn't breathe! I was doubled over, choking, and someone had to smack me in the back. The beans came flying out - everyone cheered.”
Animal encounters
Dogs: find out what is the dogs territory and always have a heads up attitude about his fence, tie up or lack there of. Never run from a dog – you’ll loose in the speed interval and then you’re too tired to look threatening. Stand your ground, pick up something to wave around if you have to and look that dog in the eye and tell him to “GO HOME!” Always thank dog owners who restrain their dogs – and I have found that if you wave and look upstanding to the owner that is reflected in the dog’s attitude. Sometimes that dog is even tied up the next day!
Other wild things – from a runner, “After a couple of miles of plodding along the sidewalk, I approached a flock of 8-12 Canadian Geese in my path. I remember thinking, "They'll move." Well, when I got within about 10 feet, they sprang their multiple pinching beak assault. They didn't so much attack me individually as much as they assailed me as one formidable presence.” From yet another runner “running on the Main Street of the town I live near on a really foggy Saturday morning, I couldn't see 2 feet around me. The next thing I knew this huge deer charges from the alley and plows right into me. WHAM! I flew into the street, scraped my knees, bit my tongue and the deer just kept going.”
Do try to find routes that minimize wildlife disturbance and sometimes just asking about the local fauna helps. Bear bells for trail runs, pepper spray for downtown Philly, find out what you need to not miss your run.
Automobile vs. runner - You know you are never going to win this one – so no bullfighting please. You should face traffic and take off your headphones but also keep these great ideas from Jeff Galloway in mind.
Watch and prepare to make fast adjustments, many runners have had to dive for the ditch or leap the hedgerow as the motorist dropped their cell phone and reached to catch it.
Plan ahead where you might jump to or which side of the turn offers best visibility
Wear reflective gear, not just at night. Think “can I be seen easily, from a mile away?”
Understand that you cannot understand the driver’s mentality. Drunk, late for church, maybe they’re texting, or unable to run and resentful of you for getting out and having such a good time. People act like they are anonymous in their cars oftentimes. So WAVE, let them know that you see them and let them see you better, be neighborly and BE the change you wish to see in the world…(you’ll be amazed how many wave back – esp. in WV) the post about traffic survival talks a lot more about this idea because it is so important.
I am just out here doing my thing - “I have run past a drug deal, an underage beer party and two lovers in the backseat of the car – not on the same run. I keep quiet feet and I nod but keep moving. Some of those folks appreciated that I ‘kept my head down’ and just looked non-threatening - I think the folks in the car never even noticed me.”
Maybe a new outfit? From a runner, “On race day I went in to use the porta-potty and forgot to lock the door. I had to pull my outfit down to go. I was just starting to pull it up when someone just opened the door on me. All 30 or so people standing in line got a good show of me in my birthday suit. I thought the rule when waiting in a porta-potty line was to wait till you see someone come out before you try to go in - or at the very least knock first.”
Friday, September 3, 2010
Mental Training part 2
Why we suffer – More on mental training –
“Poetry, music, forests, oceans, solitude- they were what developed enormous spiritual strength. I came to realize that spirit, as much or more than physical conditioning, had to be stored up before a race.” Herb Elliott, Olympic champion and world record holder in the mile.
The mental aspects of training are of great importance and can be trained for in the same fashion that you prepare to run longer distances. First let’s start with some inspiring stories of how folks “pull it off” with mental power.
One runner told the story of her third race of the Pikes Peak half Marathon. She was in a downward spiral of pain and suffering as the altitude took its toll and her legs began to cramp – she found herself talking herself out of the run and having an “I just can’t do this” discussion. That’s when she passed a spectator on the trail who shouted “you look great! You’re in 8th place!” suddenly she not only looked great she felt great and was able to push herself harder than she thought. She went on to run a 3:08 finishing in 6th place and that moment when she was encouraged by a fan was the last time she really thought about it hurting badly. Pretty amazing considering that this is a race of 13.3 miles with 7,815 feet of vertical gain. She recounts her race day, “it was not the pain I recall the most vividly but I remember my capacity to endure it.”
Many folks have heard of the famous hill in Boston called Heartbreak Hill. This gained the moniker during a great duel between John A. Kelly and Ellison “Tarzan” Brown in 1936. John Kelly was the defending champion and was good at hills but Tarzan was in the lead and John put in his best effort to reel in his opponent atop the last hill before headed into town. Kelly came around Tarzan and tapped him on the shoulder at the top of this last hill. This so incensed Tarzan that he doubled down and despite fatigue he dropped John Kelly on the downhill and John never had the energy to come back – Loosing there “broke John Kelly’s heart”, said the press. The mental energy to win can be found by happenstance but it is better to do the planning ahead of time.
Getting used to some difficulty and some challenge is part of any good training program. In a culture today that too commonly will concede that we can medicate, avoid, or otherwise ignore life’s difficulties’ - running by its very nature gently pushes aside these themes. Sweat and toil is part of any good day – whether you are running or not, but especially when running. The best part of that is we get better at it and the rewards – while hard won are palpable. Dena Kastor says, “Runners are never comfortable, slightly before our body adapts to a 5:30 mile, we are running a 5:26” and needless to say that is hardly comfortable. But as we train to run faster by pushing the envelope a bit we can also achieve more mental toughness by some of the same methods.
In race day preparations I ask folks to use all five senses to create a mental image or daydream about how the finish of their race will look. Use sight, sounds, touch, taste and smell to create images of how it will go well and what it will be like, and feel like, to you in those final moments of accomplishment. If you practice this daily or as you finish each run, you will be conditioning the same nerve fibers that you use to communicate with your body daily and on race day. Because you are using the same nerve pathways – research has shown that your body may not be able to discern the difference over time. You are pre-loading a positive outcome on your hard drive and may gain some teleoanticipation of a positive outcome.
This will only be one part of a larger picture though – our sport is a thinking sport and the landscape is vast. So while I give you great anecdotes about individual perception and tools to teleoanticipate your big day, we’ll look at a few other ideas about how to prepare to do your best work – the stuff you will have trained five months to do.
Think of Perceived effort (PE) as your check engine light. How many of us have driven to the gas station even though the light was on? Depends on what it was that instigated the light, right?! Your brain and its central governor are using the distance, fuel level, fitness level, heat index and course information all at once in a complicated algorithm to determine how it should “make you feel” and this response is adapted by four primary factors.
Fitness Level Training influence Pain Threshold Mental focus (how you move through adversity)
Fitness level: Your understanding of your fitness level and taking care of yourself during the run does two things. It gives you the confidence to know you have the chops to succeed at the challenge and it keeps you free of distractions to do what you set out to achieve. While your PE is governed by the brains algorithm you can give it additional cues about how well off you are “I have run at this pace already and felt fine” or “I am on target for what I have trained for already” are good mental notes. Do some runs 5, and 3 weeks before your race as time trails for your pacing strategy and see how you do. A phenomenon that trainers call teleoanticipation suggests that your brain can recall the previous performance and gauge efforts by that prior intensity benchmark. So if you are fit and you teach the body something about going fast - it will remember that fast was OK. Set yourself up well by making sure that you are not dehydrated, that you have a steady stream of clean carbohydrates (30grams/hour after the first hour of running) and that you stop to stretch as needed. Staying fueled, hydrated and relaxed will remove mental distraction that can otherwise compromise you and it has been shown that it may blunt pain perception in athletes.
Training influence: Your track work, speed work and hills are not easy workouts and that should be reassuring come race day - as the course is rarely a cakewalk. Training hard allows you to push back your PE scores for a given task and adds to the “aches and pains” database about what is survivable. When your brain learns how to approach the limit on something and keep going - it remembers that, and you can find it a useful tool on race day. We are crippled by what we fear and so getting out on the course, and in small doses running things that are more difficult than the course, you not only train your body but you train your mind to overcome these challenges. Folks who were measured during track workouts over a 12 week study were found to be running faster than their physical adaptations should have allowed. They were not developing faster physically than a typical runner but they were also developing mentally and the body learns to push and what amount of push feels OK.
Pain Threshold: You may recall the example that “when the hot water begins to burn you in the shower is a fixed capacity for each individual but how you feel about it when it does start to burn is a learned response.” This seems to be agreed upon but it is also a fine line as to whether the pain threshold can be moved for those who find their meter set very low. One trainer talks about the benefit of a “pain community” otherwise known as a running club, triathlon club or climbing club. All of these peer groups are able to encourage, support and consequently push each other further than many individuals willingly go. To have camaraderie is a good way to embrace that something is in fact difficult and thus sweeter because it is tough to attain. Spending time with higher pain threshold individuals can show you what is really possible for yourself as well. Yet this trainer argues that folks actually learn to embrace pain as well and take some pleasure in it as a release.
Elite runners comment that there seems to be some separation in the competition by what suffering a person can process as a steady state and that this can be a learned skill. Peak performers often hit a “sweet spot” where it does not hurt more and more but rather it becomes uncomfortable, they move past it, and then spend the time in the exhilaration of a great performance which transcends the discomfort. One coach restated “I relaxed, stayed focused, I stayed calm”.
Mental focus (how you move through adversity) So most of you already know if you are a person who perseveres and will endure - you need to take that confidence to bed with you on race night. But more than that there are several additional thoughts to take forward in gearing up for race day and you’ll sort through what works for you.
Remember that on race day we cannot control the weather, the traffic, the competition – a lot of things are left to chance. A winning attitude recognizes we must control the things that we can. Your thoughts, emotions, training form, pacing strategy, fueling schedule… This is what you can control and the best news is that this is what matters the most.
Pre-visualize as much as you can in the weeks leading up to the race. The old saying that you can always imagine far worse things than can actually happen is a resource if you let it be. Take a mental list of concerns and then work out ways to eliminate them. Imagine pain too – if you have an idea of what hurts and how badly – and what you’ll do about it – then you are all set when it arrives somewhere in the last few miles, because it will.
Break the race or goal up into smaller pieces because the brain’s PE score will always allow a bigger effort before the endpoint. Remember that supercomputer of a brain and all of its algorithm data – distance being a chief element - so if you have several endpoints with goals for each – you can rally multiple times. Studies have shown that the greater the effort required – the smaller segments we have to break the goal down into (this is intuitive for most adults).
Always use positive dialogue tactics to change the channel on a dark discussion with yourself and remember in your visualizing that there will be folks in town that are cheering you on and telling you “you look great!” You can buddy up during the race by pacing with a total stranger, meeting a new friend or running with a trusted member of your “pain community”. Misery loves company and if you can’t talk nicely to yourself maybe they can.
List your strengths/list your reasons to run/repeat your mantra/list the payoffs/people watch/count all the pairs of Nikes - whatever works – sometimes I sing (yeah, I know…)
Kara Goucher is a world class runner who has represented America in the Olympics and yet has had her own continued bouts with self confidence. Her work at the Oregon Training Center has included extensive sessions with sports psychologist Darren Treasure. They have worked together to develop key words or mantras for Kara based upon her values and motivators. The bury these key words into very difficult workouts and then employ them to encourage Kara to seek out more of herself, push past the central governor, and run what she is capable of running. By testing these countless times before her race they are then able to get results with these key words on the big day. They also work on key concepts that affect the esteem of the runner over the training period.
You can easily come up with an empowering statement that you read yourself daily in the shower or before bed. Repetition will actually ingrain this in your system and may cause you to believe that you can and should reach your race goals.
Worst case scenario you give up your time goal and your B and C goals to …Just get to the next phone pole, or just get off the pavement or just keep going…
Just like speed work or downhill running - think about all of the things that you CAN relax while running. Your forehead muscles need not be tight, you can smile, you can loosen your hands and arms – maybe you can relax your legs or loosen your stride. When push comes to run – save the energy that you can, efficient form will carry everything. That includes worry – clear your mind and go with the thoughts that work. When the going gets truly tough it is the process and the rhythm of how you do things and do them well – that will carry the day. Why do firefighters, and police, and soldiers, train and train and train? So that you can fall back on process and what you do well in the heat of trouble - go with what you know and stay in the process - not the overwhelming thought of the end or what bothers you.
Steve “Pre” Prefontaine was possibly the best American man to ever run. He developed a desire to run from an early age and despite obstacles (one leg shorter than the other) he went on to break records in every competitive distance from 2,000 – 10,000 meters. No American has done this since. Yet Pre had down days too and after a loss in Munich he thought about quitting the sport. His coach said simply “If you’re gonna run, be at the track and I’ll give you the workouts; or if you’re gonna stop running then do that. You decide. I can’t coach desire.” Needless to say Pre came back; he possibly had more desire than anyone once he looked inside himself.
Yet another great Pre story speaks of his mental ability to embrace difficulty. He was famous for telling his opponents “today is a good day to die” and threatening, “I’ll take you to some places that you really don’t want to go”, suggesting that to follow him at the race pace would be a trip into physical difficulty for the opponent. He was all about, all out, on race day and that “race day magic” will carry you as well if you have adequately prepared in advance.
Here are a few more strategies from the professionals:
Gloria Balague (sports psychologist, University of Illinois) says, “Athletes sometimes think anxiety has a protective value, that it motivates them to avert disaster, but you want to prepare for adversity well in advance. Identify your worries and train to overcome them.”
Jeff Troesch (mental trainer) says, “My goal for every athlete is to help them get one day better every day. I look for ways to get the athletes into the now, to strive for day-to-day victories” Which is great advice, because if I rated every race by what my “A goal” was – I would have stopped racing long ago, some of them don’t go well and they are still really great days (beats the office, hands down)
More on mental attitude from someone who make the big bucks to consult and coach…
JoAnn Dahlkoetter PHD
Epilogue: I seek to be honest about my bias in class, and I’ll tell you that this aspect of sport is very intriguing to me. It offers possibilities and explains some of the great depth in human potential we have seen in both sport and history. It offers tools for athletes to get the most out of their hard won training, and it offers even greater challenges and rewards to us as athletes. But “self-help” as a subject in this country is both popular and reviled by different groups. There are folks who may read this post and feel as though they are being asked to repeat the phrase “I am good enough, I am smart enough, and dog-gone-it people like me” and that this idea will not get them anywhere (I thought that skit was so great) or they may be skeptical of the power of the mind to improve performance. To that skeptic, I offer fuel for a healthy debate from the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology.
Psychoneuroimmunology is a “new field” based on the science that the nervous system and the immune system are interconnected. This discipline has discovered a number of ways that the two systems actually have two way communications with each other and direct impacts on both systems. Closely controlled studies have also shown that “a person’s aggressive determination to conquer a disease can increase one’s lifespan” (p619 Alcamo’s Fundamentals of Microbiology, 2007) The same studies have shown that behavioral therapies can amplify the body’s response to disease and speed the immune systems response.
This field has also generated interesting research in 2003 that Tai Chi boosts shingles immunity in the elderly. In a 60 person study over 15 weeks the study group did have reduced levels of stress related to their Tai Chi program and were measured as having 50% higher immune memory functions against Shingles. The group did not see improvement in physical movement with this low impact form of exercise and the researchers concluded that the anti-stress elements of the activity gave seniors the significant boost in immunity. You can read more about the tip of this iceberg here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoneuroimmunology
“Poetry, music, forests, oceans, solitude- they were what developed enormous spiritual strength. I came to realize that spirit, as much or more than physical conditioning, had to be stored up before a race.” Herb Elliott, Olympic champion and world record holder in the mile.
The mental aspects of training are of great importance and can be trained for in the same fashion that you prepare to run longer distances. First let’s start with some inspiring stories of how folks “pull it off” with mental power.
One runner told the story of her third race of the Pikes Peak half Marathon. She was in a downward spiral of pain and suffering as the altitude took its toll and her legs began to cramp – she found herself talking herself out of the run and having an “I just can’t do this” discussion. That’s when she passed a spectator on the trail who shouted “you look great! You’re in 8th place!” suddenly she not only looked great she felt great and was able to push herself harder than she thought. She went on to run a 3:08 finishing in 6th place and that moment when she was encouraged by a fan was the last time she really thought about it hurting badly. Pretty amazing considering that this is a race of 13.3 miles with 7,815 feet of vertical gain. She recounts her race day, “it was not the pain I recall the most vividly but I remember my capacity to endure it.”
Many folks have heard of the famous hill in Boston called Heartbreak Hill. This gained the moniker during a great duel between John A. Kelly and Ellison “Tarzan” Brown in 1936. John Kelly was the defending champion and was good at hills but Tarzan was in the lead and John put in his best effort to reel in his opponent atop the last hill before headed into town. Kelly came around Tarzan and tapped him on the shoulder at the top of this last hill. This so incensed Tarzan that he doubled down and despite fatigue he dropped John Kelly on the downhill and John never had the energy to come back – Loosing there “broke John Kelly’s heart”, said the press. The mental energy to win can be found by happenstance but it is better to do the planning ahead of time.
Getting used to some difficulty and some challenge is part of any good training program. In a culture today that too commonly will concede that we can medicate, avoid, or otherwise ignore life’s difficulties’ - running by its very nature gently pushes aside these themes. Sweat and toil is part of any good day – whether you are running or not, but especially when running. The best part of that is we get better at it and the rewards – while hard won are palpable. Dena Kastor says, “Runners are never comfortable, slightly before our body adapts to a 5:30 mile, we are running a 5:26” and needless to say that is hardly comfortable. But as we train to run faster by pushing the envelope a bit we can also achieve more mental toughness by some of the same methods.
In race day preparations I ask folks to use all five senses to create a mental image or daydream about how the finish of their race will look. Use sight, sounds, touch, taste and smell to create images of how it will go well and what it will be like, and feel like, to you in those final moments of accomplishment. If you practice this daily or as you finish each run, you will be conditioning the same nerve fibers that you use to communicate with your body daily and on race day. Because you are using the same nerve pathways – research has shown that your body may not be able to discern the difference over time. You are pre-loading a positive outcome on your hard drive and may gain some teleoanticipation of a positive outcome.
This will only be one part of a larger picture though – our sport is a thinking sport and the landscape is vast. So while I give you great anecdotes about individual perception and tools to teleoanticipate your big day, we’ll look at a few other ideas about how to prepare to do your best work – the stuff you will have trained five months to do.
Think of Perceived effort (PE) as your check engine light. How many of us have driven to the gas station even though the light was on? Depends on what it was that instigated the light, right?! Your brain and its central governor are using the distance, fuel level, fitness level, heat index and course information all at once in a complicated algorithm to determine how it should “make you feel” and this response is adapted by four primary factors.
Fitness Level Training influence Pain Threshold Mental focus (how you move through adversity)
Fitness level: Your understanding of your fitness level and taking care of yourself during the run does two things. It gives you the confidence to know you have the chops to succeed at the challenge and it keeps you free of distractions to do what you set out to achieve. While your PE is governed by the brains algorithm you can give it additional cues about how well off you are “I have run at this pace already and felt fine” or “I am on target for what I have trained for already” are good mental notes. Do some runs 5, and 3 weeks before your race as time trails for your pacing strategy and see how you do. A phenomenon that trainers call teleoanticipation suggests that your brain can recall the previous performance and gauge efforts by that prior intensity benchmark. So if you are fit and you teach the body something about going fast - it will remember that fast was OK. Set yourself up well by making sure that you are not dehydrated, that you have a steady stream of clean carbohydrates (30grams/hour after the first hour of running) and that you stop to stretch as needed. Staying fueled, hydrated and relaxed will remove mental distraction that can otherwise compromise you and it has been shown that it may blunt pain perception in athletes.
Training influence: Your track work, speed work and hills are not easy workouts and that should be reassuring come race day - as the course is rarely a cakewalk. Training hard allows you to push back your PE scores for a given task and adds to the “aches and pains” database about what is survivable. When your brain learns how to approach the limit on something and keep going - it remembers that, and you can find it a useful tool on race day. We are crippled by what we fear and so getting out on the course, and in small doses running things that are more difficult than the course, you not only train your body but you train your mind to overcome these challenges. Folks who were measured during track workouts over a 12 week study were found to be running faster than their physical adaptations should have allowed. They were not developing faster physically than a typical runner but they were also developing mentally and the body learns to push and what amount of push feels OK.
Pain Threshold: You may recall the example that “when the hot water begins to burn you in the shower is a fixed capacity for each individual but how you feel about it when it does start to burn is a learned response.” This seems to be agreed upon but it is also a fine line as to whether the pain threshold can be moved for those who find their meter set very low. One trainer talks about the benefit of a “pain community” otherwise known as a running club, triathlon club or climbing club. All of these peer groups are able to encourage, support and consequently push each other further than many individuals willingly go. To have camaraderie is a good way to embrace that something is in fact difficult and thus sweeter because it is tough to attain. Spending time with higher pain threshold individuals can show you what is really possible for yourself as well. Yet this trainer argues that folks actually learn to embrace pain as well and take some pleasure in it as a release.
Elite runners comment that there seems to be some separation in the competition by what suffering a person can process as a steady state and that this can be a learned skill. Peak performers often hit a “sweet spot” where it does not hurt more and more but rather it becomes uncomfortable, they move past it, and then spend the time in the exhilaration of a great performance which transcends the discomfort. One coach restated “I relaxed, stayed focused, I stayed calm”.
Mental focus (how you move through adversity) So most of you already know if you are a person who perseveres and will endure - you need to take that confidence to bed with you on race night. But more than that there are several additional thoughts to take forward in gearing up for race day and you’ll sort through what works for you.
Remember that on race day we cannot control the weather, the traffic, the competition – a lot of things are left to chance. A winning attitude recognizes we must control the things that we can. Your thoughts, emotions, training form, pacing strategy, fueling schedule… This is what you can control and the best news is that this is what matters the most.
Pre-visualize as much as you can in the weeks leading up to the race. The old saying that you can always imagine far worse things than can actually happen is a resource if you let it be. Take a mental list of concerns and then work out ways to eliminate them. Imagine pain too – if you have an idea of what hurts and how badly – and what you’ll do about it – then you are all set when it arrives somewhere in the last few miles, because it will.
Break the race or goal up into smaller pieces because the brain’s PE score will always allow a bigger effort before the endpoint. Remember that supercomputer of a brain and all of its algorithm data – distance being a chief element - so if you have several endpoints with goals for each – you can rally multiple times. Studies have shown that the greater the effort required – the smaller segments we have to break the goal down into (this is intuitive for most adults).
Always use positive dialogue tactics to change the channel on a dark discussion with yourself and remember in your visualizing that there will be folks in town that are cheering you on and telling you “you look great!” You can buddy up during the race by pacing with a total stranger, meeting a new friend or running with a trusted member of your “pain community”. Misery loves company and if you can’t talk nicely to yourself maybe they can.
List your strengths/list your reasons to run/repeat your mantra/list the payoffs/people watch/count all the pairs of Nikes - whatever works – sometimes I sing (yeah, I know…)
Kara Goucher is a world class runner who has represented America in the Olympics and yet has had her own continued bouts with self confidence. Her work at the Oregon Training Center has included extensive sessions with sports psychologist Darren Treasure. They have worked together to develop key words or mantras for Kara based upon her values and motivators. The bury these key words into very difficult workouts and then employ them to encourage Kara to seek out more of herself, push past the central governor, and run what she is capable of running. By testing these countless times before her race they are then able to get results with these key words on the big day. They also work on key concepts that affect the esteem of the runner over the training period.
You can easily come up with an empowering statement that you read yourself daily in the shower or before bed. Repetition will actually ingrain this in your system and may cause you to believe that you can and should reach your race goals.
Worst case scenario you give up your time goal and your B and C goals to …Just get to the next phone pole, or just get off the pavement or just keep going…
Just like speed work or downhill running - think about all of the things that you CAN relax while running. Your forehead muscles need not be tight, you can smile, you can loosen your hands and arms – maybe you can relax your legs or loosen your stride. When push comes to run – save the energy that you can, efficient form will carry everything. That includes worry – clear your mind and go with the thoughts that work. When the going gets truly tough it is the process and the rhythm of how you do things and do them well – that will carry the day. Why do firefighters, and police, and soldiers, train and train and train? So that you can fall back on process and what you do well in the heat of trouble - go with what you know and stay in the process - not the overwhelming thought of the end or what bothers you.
Steve “Pre” Prefontaine was possibly the best American man to ever run. He developed a desire to run from an early age and despite obstacles (one leg shorter than the other) he went on to break records in every competitive distance from 2,000 – 10,000 meters. No American has done this since. Yet Pre had down days too and after a loss in Munich he thought about quitting the sport. His coach said simply “If you’re gonna run, be at the track and I’ll give you the workouts; or if you’re gonna stop running then do that. You decide. I can’t coach desire.” Needless to say Pre came back; he possibly had more desire than anyone once he looked inside himself.
Yet another great Pre story speaks of his mental ability to embrace difficulty. He was famous for telling his opponents “today is a good day to die” and threatening, “I’ll take you to some places that you really don’t want to go”, suggesting that to follow him at the race pace would be a trip into physical difficulty for the opponent. He was all about, all out, on race day and that “race day magic” will carry you as well if you have adequately prepared in advance.
Here are a few more strategies from the professionals:
Gloria Balague (sports psychologist, University of Illinois) says, “Athletes sometimes think anxiety has a protective value, that it motivates them to avert disaster, but you want to prepare for adversity well in advance. Identify your worries and train to overcome them.”
Jeff Troesch (mental trainer) says, “My goal for every athlete is to help them get one day better every day. I look for ways to get the athletes into the now, to strive for day-to-day victories” Which is great advice, because if I rated every race by what my “A goal” was – I would have stopped racing long ago, some of them don’t go well and they are still really great days (beats the office, hands down)
More on mental attitude from someone who make the big bucks to consult and coach…
JoAnn Dahlkoetter PHD
Epilogue: I seek to be honest about my bias in class, and I’ll tell you that this aspect of sport is very intriguing to me. It offers possibilities and explains some of the great depth in human potential we have seen in both sport and history. It offers tools for athletes to get the most out of their hard won training, and it offers even greater challenges and rewards to us as athletes. But “self-help” as a subject in this country is both popular and reviled by different groups. There are folks who may read this post and feel as though they are being asked to repeat the phrase “I am good enough, I am smart enough, and dog-gone-it people like me” and that this idea will not get them anywhere (I thought that skit was so great) or they may be skeptical of the power of the mind to improve performance. To that skeptic, I offer fuel for a healthy debate from the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology.
Psychoneuroimmunology is a “new field” based on the science that the nervous system and the immune system are interconnected. This discipline has discovered a number of ways that the two systems actually have two way communications with each other and direct impacts on both systems. Closely controlled studies have also shown that “a person’s aggressive determination to conquer a disease can increase one’s lifespan” (p619 Alcamo’s Fundamentals of Microbiology, 2007) The same studies have shown that behavioral therapies can amplify the body’s response to disease and speed the immune systems response.
This field has also generated interesting research in 2003 that Tai Chi boosts shingles immunity in the elderly. In a 60 person study over 15 weeks the study group did have reduced levels of stress related to their Tai Chi program and were measured as having 50% higher immune memory functions against Shingles. The group did not see improvement in physical movement with this low impact form of exercise and the researchers concluded that the anti-stress elements of the activity gave seniors the significant boost in immunity. You can read more about the tip of this iceberg here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoneuroimmunology
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Running Hills
Hills – Mountaineers are better runners.
“Going to the mountains is going home” – John Muir
Runners from Ohio complain about them and the Boston Marathon has the notorious “Heartbreak Hill” as part of it mythology but runners who know the benefits of running up and down hill know something – they have both the competitive and mental advantage on their competition.
This part of your running can easily comprise 35% of you total mileage & will develop your stride and physical capacity to run more easily. You’ll also never fear a racecourse - something flatlanders get chills about regularly. Again, Danny Dryer’s book CHI Running is a great resource here in dealing with hills because technique can help your newly acquired powers to get up any hill efficiently.
Flow and glide – is the earth flat? Easy question - but think about the last time you enjoyed a roller coaster, surfed a wave, rode a mountain bike or snowboard over that very non-flat planet of ours. That slowing and accelerating feeling you enjoyed can be learned and integrated into your running and while it will not be easy, you already have many of the tools to do this well. Concentrate on an easy and efficient pace going up and learn to love that fast gliding down and you’ll start to reap the physical advantage of hill running.
Physical developments – no matter how fast (or slow) you go uphill you’ll be working at a higher PE than you typically do on a training run. You will be gently adjusting your workload and this gives you better cardio capacity while building powerful hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Towards the end of a race as fatigue sets in runners may shorten their stride and lack muscle endurance to raise their knees and ankles into the next stride. Hill running build stamina in these key areas and prevents fatigue. You’ll have more power to keep running.
Hill repeats – In the same way that we are able to start running or do speed work in small doses – you can also run uphill in short bursts so as to not tire of it completely and still get most of the benefits. Folks who do not enjoy hills or feel intimidated by a hilly course will find a hill that takes one minute to run and run it at a “regular pace” (PE 4) multiple times. At the top you turn around and gently glide back down, resting as needed at the base before heading up again.
Proper form – we have discussed before that if your form suffers while doing this running then you’re not doing yourself any favors and need to slow down. You get some of the benefits from walking the hills too – find a pace you can handle – progress gradually.
Uphill - You will use your upper body more when traveling uphill. A slight lean forward would come from leaning at the ankle. Your focused breathing to power your body upward, and your arm swing – all play an important role. Think about the little engine that could. Small lean and small strides as well as a relaxed state governed by our breathing rate. You do not want to overwork your hamstrings and calves with long strides and pulling yourself up the hill. Small strides, never stepping past your hips, shoulders slightly ahead of your hips, keeps you pushing yourself up the hill in a controlled way. Take it easy and let your breathing determine your pace. Relax your legs and make sure feet are flat on the ground, heels down, and you’re not asking smaller muscles to do bigger jobs. Conserve energy and know that going uphill is always a bit slower. Pump your arms, thinking about elbows moving back, coordinated with your stride to give you extra momentum moving uphill. Your eyes look up – to the top of the hill and your long straight spine allows more air into the runner for hard work. Think about a positive mental image and know that every up has a downhill too.
Downhill – Done poorly, you’ll pound your legs, feet and lower back with 6-10x your body weight with each footfall, hammering your legs and possibly your ability to run later in the week! While not all hills are runnable, many are and you’ll get better at the “glide” skills with practice & enjoy the down without the pounding. Relaxing both physically and mentally allows you to loosen up your knees and quadriceps, give in to the speed a bit and enjoy the movement which can be much faster than you ever run on the flats. Stride, cadence, and orientation to the ground help smooth out the ride you’ve earned.
Think about your hips, shoulders and upper body. You want your hips and pelvis level while you run. Your shoulders and upper body should stay centered over your hips. Leaning away from the hill and bracing will shift your legs forward and as they act like the brakes - you’ll transfer impact to heels, quadriceps, and your lower back. This is a time that you want to stay light and footfalls/strides will be much faster than usual.
Your cadence (number of strides per minute) will increase and those smaller steps will keep your feet under your hips and landing quickly and lightly on the ground. If you need to take longer strides as your speed increases, think about the stride getting longer in the back, or behind you, so your feet do not come past your hips and you are recruiting muscles from the posterior of the body. One item to focus on is peeling your feet off the ground from the heel. This tends to make the mid-foot land first for your next step and keeps your footsteps closer to the pelvis – reducing impact forces to your body. Another way to look at it is to lead with the toe – plantar flex the foot – toes point down as you descend and your mid-foot will hit first and quickly transition to the next step.
Safety – while accidents a few, if you start running 35% of your mileage as hills you may want to take an hour one afternoon (on a grassy slope) to think about falling properly. Cyclists do this annually and skiers do too as their falling season starts. If you practice a tuck and roll, drop a shoulder style of falling you are much more likely to avoid road rash and to stop sooner, post contact with the ground. You want to tuck things in and not splay them out – do not make tender and breakable appendages responsible for stopping your trajectory. If this practice drill sounds scary, remember to walk the steepest descents so that you are in control.
“Going to the mountains is going home” – John Muir
Runners from Ohio complain about them and the Boston Marathon has the notorious “Heartbreak Hill” as part of it mythology but runners who know the benefits of running up and down hill know something – they have both the competitive and mental advantage on their competition.
This part of your running can easily comprise 35% of you total mileage & will develop your stride and physical capacity to run more easily. You’ll also never fear a racecourse - something flatlanders get chills about regularly. Again, Danny Dryer’s book CHI Running is a great resource here in dealing with hills because technique can help your newly acquired powers to get up any hill efficiently.
Flow and glide – is the earth flat? Easy question - but think about the last time you enjoyed a roller coaster, surfed a wave, rode a mountain bike or snowboard over that very non-flat planet of ours. That slowing and accelerating feeling you enjoyed can be learned and integrated into your running and while it will not be easy, you already have many of the tools to do this well. Concentrate on an easy and efficient pace going up and learn to love that fast gliding down and you’ll start to reap the physical advantage of hill running.
Physical developments – no matter how fast (or slow) you go uphill you’ll be working at a higher PE than you typically do on a training run. You will be gently adjusting your workload and this gives you better cardio capacity while building powerful hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Towards the end of a race as fatigue sets in runners may shorten their stride and lack muscle endurance to raise their knees and ankles into the next stride. Hill running build stamina in these key areas and prevents fatigue. You’ll have more power to keep running.
Hill repeats – In the same way that we are able to start running or do speed work in small doses – you can also run uphill in short bursts so as to not tire of it completely and still get most of the benefits. Folks who do not enjoy hills or feel intimidated by a hilly course will find a hill that takes one minute to run and run it at a “regular pace” (PE 4) multiple times. At the top you turn around and gently glide back down, resting as needed at the base before heading up again.
Proper form – we have discussed before that if your form suffers while doing this running then you’re not doing yourself any favors and need to slow down. You get some of the benefits from walking the hills too – find a pace you can handle – progress gradually.
Uphill - You will use your upper body more when traveling uphill. A slight lean forward would come from leaning at the ankle. Your focused breathing to power your body upward, and your arm swing – all play an important role. Think about the little engine that could. Small lean and small strides as well as a relaxed state governed by our breathing rate. You do not want to overwork your hamstrings and calves with long strides and pulling yourself up the hill. Small strides, never stepping past your hips, shoulders slightly ahead of your hips, keeps you pushing yourself up the hill in a controlled way. Take it easy and let your breathing determine your pace. Relax your legs and make sure feet are flat on the ground, heels down, and you’re not asking smaller muscles to do bigger jobs. Conserve energy and know that going uphill is always a bit slower. Pump your arms, thinking about elbows moving back, coordinated with your stride to give you extra momentum moving uphill. Your eyes look up – to the top of the hill and your long straight spine allows more air into the runner for hard work. Think about a positive mental image and know that every up has a downhill too.
Downhill – Done poorly, you’ll pound your legs, feet and lower back with 6-10x your body weight with each footfall, hammering your legs and possibly your ability to run later in the week! While not all hills are runnable, many are and you’ll get better at the “glide” skills with practice & enjoy the down without the pounding. Relaxing both physically and mentally allows you to loosen up your knees and quadriceps, give in to the speed a bit and enjoy the movement which can be much faster than you ever run on the flats. Stride, cadence, and orientation to the ground help smooth out the ride you’ve earned.
Think about your hips, shoulders and upper body. You want your hips and pelvis level while you run. Your shoulders and upper body should stay centered over your hips. Leaning away from the hill and bracing will shift your legs forward and as they act like the brakes - you’ll transfer impact to heels, quadriceps, and your lower back. This is a time that you want to stay light and footfalls/strides will be much faster than usual.
Your cadence (number of strides per minute) will increase and those smaller steps will keep your feet under your hips and landing quickly and lightly on the ground. If you need to take longer strides as your speed increases, think about the stride getting longer in the back, or behind you, so your feet do not come past your hips and you are recruiting muscles from the posterior of the body. One item to focus on is peeling your feet off the ground from the heel. This tends to make the mid-foot land first for your next step and keeps your footsteps closer to the pelvis – reducing impact forces to your body. Another way to look at it is to lead with the toe – plantar flex the foot – toes point down as you descend and your mid-foot will hit first and quickly transition to the next step.
Safety – while accidents a few, if you start running 35% of your mileage as hills you may want to take an hour one afternoon (on a grassy slope) to think about falling properly. Cyclists do this annually and skiers do too as their falling season starts. If you practice a tuck and roll, drop a shoulder style of falling you are much more likely to avoid road rash and to stop sooner, post contact with the ground. You want to tuck things in and not splay them out – do not make tender and breakable appendages responsible for stopping your trajectory. If this practice drill sounds scary, remember to walk the steepest descents so that you are in control.
Breathing right
A music professor explained that one in seven people are breathing efficiently and this makes a difference – in everything…
Many take running for granted because we already know how to walk and we might assume that this running thing is nearly an unconscious action just like walking. Many of those same folks might also take breathing for granted, for the same reasons. It just happens and it must be happening just right, because I am still here – “why think about it?” they might ask.
Miles Davis was quoted as saying “Everything matters – Everything” and since most of us cannot sit for two minutes without needing another breath – Mr. Davis might have argued that this matters even more than some things despite it being an autonomic function. In fact, because it is an autonomic function for our bodies we may be running on less than full capacity. Think about what deliberate technique could do for breathing and you’re bound to consider gains in the same way that engineers think about how to turbo charge cars by giving the engine more air. Three easy ways for runners to enhance performance; develop supporting muscles, stretch and make supporting muscles more flexible, develop posture & breathing techniques that we can integrate into autonomic function. Working in these areas will allows us to relearn and strengthen the normal breathing mechanism.
Exercises for enhancing breathing ability are on video from Runner’s World
Bob Anderson’s book on stretching includes some good moves to enhance thoracic flexibility and I have his book if you would like to look at some additional stretches for thoracic flexibility. His site is full of good resources for stretching and includes some of the same kind of tools that you might find at Perform Better.com
Working to stretch and strengthen the muscles that aid and support good posture gives us a strong core and stabilizing muscles that will allow us to hold our good running form longer. Theses are the same muscles that allow us to breathe a bit better. No “beach muscles” required but basic maintenance of the abdominals, obliques, lower back and upper back and shoulders give you an upright posture that allows enhanced airflow.
Belly breathing or diaphragmatic breathing is something easy to practice while lying down and once you feel this you can practice anywhere. Seek to achieve the sensation of filling your body with air from the bottom up. First the back and belly expand, then you feel some chest expansion and lastly you “top off” the lungs. While this seems slow and cumbersome at first – so did running – and now you are more fluid. Do you think that better breath support would make you more fluid and comfortable too?
Where are your head and your spine while you’re running? Think about C7 and up in particular as this will affect the rest of the body too. [Cervical Spine 7 is the vertebrae that you can feel as a bump sticking out on your lower neck when you look down at the sidewalk.]Water flows better through a straight pipe than a kinked one.
Roll your shoulders and use arm raises along your route to loosen up and allow the chest to have a relaxed and open carriage while you run relaxed, down the road. Do not arch your back but keep your spine up right and relaxed.
At the paces we run science describes us as “obligate mouth breathers” which is to say - if your mouth is not open for gas exchange, you’ll fall over from inadequate perfusion. Your nose helps the process and some folks swear by Breathe Right Strips (applied across the bridge of the nose) to further enhance air exchange.
Side cramps (side stitch) can be caused by short quick breathing or made worse by it. Try holding pressure into the cramp and breathe deeply, slowing your pace and allowing your body to relax and oxygenate. Think about stretching away from the cramp site to make those muscles longer. Diaphragmatic breathing will help side cramps as well, by giving the diaphragm full range of motion.
Find your breathing rhythm or cadence that coincides with a particular pace. You’ll find that the regular weekly pace might a breathing pattern something like this: be one in – one out, with three strides in that pattern. While the tempo pace might be two in – one out, with just two strides in that pattern. Your threshold pace might be breathing one in – one out, with each stride you take. Find that breathing rhythm that works for you and seek to stay there and learn to enhance that rhythm. The pattern for your own breathing can be nice to listen to. It is also a great feedback tool about how hard you are working and what pace you are running.
Find an easy breathing rhythm and let that govern your pace – not the other way around. Your legs will never outrun your lungs – which is to say that if you are in control of your respiration the body will pace itself according to how much air you’re giving it. You should plan to run longer at this pace (or slower) and run 3 or more days a week in order to keep and increase your new respiratory adaptations.
To be clear, you do not seek to control your rate of breathing itself, because your brain knows a lot more about internal regulation than you do and if you go down the road trying to govern air exchange without heed to pace - the central governor will make you fall over! Instead you use breathing rate to help you measure effort and choose a pace that gives you that rate of respiration and rhythm that you recognize as your PE number.
How well are you doing with your respiratory capacity?
There are several techniques that Dr. Maffetone recommends in his book, The Maffetone Method which help you determine your capacity and may improve it. He asks athletes to assess their diaphragm muscle by breathing through a straw for a few seconds, working your way up to a minute or more over the ensuing weeks – then adding several sets, of one minute each, for three sessions total each week. Your initial success with this will tell you about how powerfully your diaphragm is working for you now and give you a milepost for how it improves over time. The Bob Anderson stretching website used to sell a device called the breathbuilder and this simple device is still available on websites catering to musicians, especially wind and brass players. This device is a simple tool that is not unlike the straw Dr. Maffetone is using but provides greater resistance and a visual aid in your progress.
The next exercise he recommends is a measure of vital capacity of the lungs and the use of your diaphragm. Dr. Maffetone states that any athlete should be able to hold their breath for 50-60 seconds without a problem. This could also be something to work up to as the diaphragm develops power to help you take in more air to sit for 50 seconds. Building this skill has great effect for your running as you will breathe more slowly and with greater tidal volume in each breath - just don’t run while holding your breath!
The third assessment, a Snider’s test, involves playing with fire. If your mouth is completely open – can you blow out a match that is six inches away from your mouth? Six inches is the length of a $1 bill. You should be able to without a problem. I though this one was tough but rather than be discouraged - we can use these tools to track respiratory progress in training as you keep track of all your other metrics for progress – without air in your system you’re going nowhere.
Many take running for granted because we already know how to walk and we might assume that this running thing is nearly an unconscious action just like walking. Many of those same folks might also take breathing for granted, for the same reasons. It just happens and it must be happening just right, because I am still here – “why think about it?” they might ask.
Miles Davis was quoted as saying “Everything matters – Everything” and since most of us cannot sit for two minutes without needing another breath – Mr. Davis might have argued that this matters even more than some things despite it being an autonomic function. In fact, because it is an autonomic function for our bodies we may be running on less than full capacity. Think about what deliberate technique could do for breathing and you’re bound to consider gains in the same way that engineers think about how to turbo charge cars by giving the engine more air. Three easy ways for runners to enhance performance; develop supporting muscles, stretch and make supporting muscles more flexible, develop posture & breathing techniques that we can integrate into autonomic function. Working in these areas will allows us to relearn and strengthen the normal breathing mechanism.
Exercises for enhancing breathing ability are on video from Runner’s World
Bob Anderson’s book on stretching includes some good moves to enhance thoracic flexibility and I have his book if you would like to look at some additional stretches for thoracic flexibility. His site is full of good resources for stretching and includes some of the same kind of tools that you might find at Perform Better.com
Working to stretch and strengthen the muscles that aid and support good posture gives us a strong core and stabilizing muscles that will allow us to hold our good running form longer. Theses are the same muscles that allow us to breathe a bit better. No “beach muscles” required but basic maintenance of the abdominals, obliques, lower back and upper back and shoulders give you an upright posture that allows enhanced airflow.
Belly breathing or diaphragmatic breathing is something easy to practice while lying down and once you feel this you can practice anywhere. Seek to achieve the sensation of filling your body with air from the bottom up. First the back and belly expand, then you feel some chest expansion and lastly you “top off” the lungs. While this seems slow and cumbersome at first – so did running – and now you are more fluid. Do you think that better breath support would make you more fluid and comfortable too?
Where are your head and your spine while you’re running? Think about C7 and up in particular as this will affect the rest of the body too. [Cervical Spine 7 is the vertebrae that you can feel as a bump sticking out on your lower neck when you look down at the sidewalk.]Water flows better through a straight pipe than a kinked one.
Roll your shoulders and use arm raises along your route to loosen up and allow the chest to have a relaxed and open carriage while you run relaxed, down the road. Do not arch your back but keep your spine up right and relaxed.
At the paces we run science describes us as “obligate mouth breathers” which is to say - if your mouth is not open for gas exchange, you’ll fall over from inadequate perfusion. Your nose helps the process and some folks swear by Breathe Right Strips (applied across the bridge of the nose) to further enhance air exchange.
Side cramps (side stitch) can be caused by short quick breathing or made worse by it. Try holding pressure into the cramp and breathe deeply, slowing your pace and allowing your body to relax and oxygenate. Think about stretching away from the cramp site to make those muscles longer. Diaphragmatic breathing will help side cramps as well, by giving the diaphragm full range of motion.
Find your breathing rhythm or cadence that coincides with a particular pace. You’ll find that the regular weekly pace might a breathing pattern something like this: be one in – one out, with three strides in that pattern. While the tempo pace might be two in – one out, with just two strides in that pattern. Your threshold pace might be breathing one in – one out, with each stride you take. Find that breathing rhythm that works for you and seek to stay there and learn to enhance that rhythm. The pattern for your own breathing can be nice to listen to. It is also a great feedback tool about how hard you are working and what pace you are running.
Find an easy breathing rhythm and let that govern your pace – not the other way around. Your legs will never outrun your lungs – which is to say that if you are in control of your respiration the body will pace itself according to how much air you’re giving it. You should plan to run longer at this pace (or slower) and run 3 or more days a week in order to keep and increase your new respiratory adaptations.
To be clear, you do not seek to control your rate of breathing itself, because your brain knows a lot more about internal regulation than you do and if you go down the road trying to govern air exchange without heed to pace - the central governor will make you fall over! Instead you use breathing rate to help you measure effort and choose a pace that gives you that rate of respiration and rhythm that you recognize as your PE number.
How well are you doing with your respiratory capacity?
There are several techniques that Dr. Maffetone recommends in his book, The Maffetone Method which help you determine your capacity and may improve it. He asks athletes to assess their diaphragm muscle by breathing through a straw for a few seconds, working your way up to a minute or more over the ensuing weeks – then adding several sets, of one minute each, for three sessions total each week. Your initial success with this will tell you about how powerfully your diaphragm is working for you now and give you a milepost for how it improves over time. The Bob Anderson stretching website used to sell a device called the breathbuilder and this simple device is still available on websites catering to musicians, especially wind and brass players. This device is a simple tool that is not unlike the straw Dr. Maffetone is using but provides greater resistance and a visual aid in your progress.
The next exercise he recommends is a measure of vital capacity of the lungs and the use of your diaphragm. Dr. Maffetone states that any athlete should be able to hold their breath for 50-60 seconds without a problem. This could also be something to work up to as the diaphragm develops power to help you take in more air to sit for 50 seconds. Building this skill has great effect for your running as you will breathe more slowly and with greater tidal volume in each breath - just don’t run while holding your breath!
The third assessment, a Snider’s test, involves playing with fire. If your mouth is completely open – can you blow out a match that is six inches away from your mouth? Six inches is the length of a $1 bill. You should be able to without a problem. I though this one was tough but rather than be discouraged - we can use these tools to track respiratory progress in training as you keep track of all your other metrics for progress – without air in your system you’re going nowhere.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Nutrition part two
Groceries in, garbage out, blood goes round and round…
"Endurance events are eating and drinking contests with some exercise thrown in too" Sunny Blende
We have already had a primer on running nutrition and via handouts you had recently, we looked at race day and race week meals to try in preparation. So now let’s talk about the food pyramid a bit, new resource ideas for meals to help your running, salt, iron and regulation of “in’s and out’s” a bit. Your everyday training depends on knowing a bit more about fueling - especially as long runs get longer.
Let’s look at the food pyramid in greater detail and see what you’ll be fueling yourself with in the coming months as you seek to keep yourself well fueled and injury free in training and attain ideal body type for your event. Running hard and all this training is not a diet program – I have said this many times. Yet you will find that over time your metabolic capacity increases and you are burning a lot of fat on your long runs, when they are done at aerobic pace. Therefore, body composition may actually subtly change even while you are eating a balanced and nutritious diet that feeds your energy level. Pretty cool stuff.
Three primary fuel types and all food from the new food pyramid fits into these neat slots as far as the body is concerned, yet not all foods are created equal. Carbohydrates, Lipids (or fats), and protein are the three types.
Fat: Sometimes a dirty word and thought of as something to avoid and yet, this is the most efficient fuel the body can have at 9Kal/gram, and it does not require the storage of water to be used in the body. We store most foods as glycogen and use it all over the body. Fat during aerobic exercise is converted to fuel and used for any endurance activity because it works but also because you cannot store all of the fuel you need to burn without using this fat. Unsaturated fat from plant products is ideal and not refined or hydrogenated fat is most healthy and burns in the body with fewer bi-products like free radicals.
Protein: Nearly everything of value in the body is built from proteins and this makes them simply too valuable to use a fuel. Skeletal muscle is built from a number of key proteins but even elements for your cell membranes and body hormones are made of protein. Daily intake is required and can be attained from animal and or vegetable sources. These proteins are made of amino acids and your body disassembles proteins it consumes and rebuilds good stuff from these amino acid chains. Several key amino acids are important to attain if we are on any kind of vegetarian or alternative diet. The most important of these amino acid chains is Omega 3.
Carbohydrates: Nearly everything else that is not made of protein or fat or a man made substance is a carbohydrate. Even sugar is a carbohydrate. While many people have profited from special diets that eschew “carbs” they are the body’s essential and most easily used fuel. The average American eats far more of the wrong kinds of carbs than they should, however the body will metabolize carbs the best and with fewer byproducts than any other energy synthesis. The trouble is that we cannot store all of the energy we need this way and so we start the running machine on carbs and efficiently transition mid run to fat metabolism as a fuel source.
What is bonk? You’ll see unprepared runners face bonk or “the wall” during a big event. It can be physically excruciating and mentally dehabilitating. Preparation can prevent this and you just need some understanding of physiology and prior practice to fend it off. Two experts define what this is pretty simply.
Sunny Blende, sports nutritionists writes, “The brain also does not store any glucose – as glycogen, as the muscles do – and is totally dependent on blood glucose for its energy supply. In order to function normally, the brain requires a relatively normal blood glucose level. So what happens to an ultrarunner when he or she is running hours and hours with an increasing demand for glucose? If our ultrarunner does not ingest adequate amounts of carbohydrate (glucose) along the way, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) sets in. And with prolonged hypoglycemia comes central nervous system fatigue – the progressive shutdown of the part of the brain that drives the muscles. Bad news for attitude and bad news for performance.”
In one of Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, he found that two percent of marathoners, six percent of those who ran 50 kms and 11 percent of those who ran 100 kms were hypoglycemic. He cites the symptoms as a “reduced ability to concentrate, a sudden feeling of weakness, and the intense desire to stop running. Typically, the athlete senses the impossibility of completing the race”. Sound familiar? Obviously foods containing glucose would have helped these athletes perform better, but an explanation of the mechanism of action might make this concept easier to understand. Again, Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, “The main supplier of glucose into the blood is the liver. This happens directly from its own store of glycogen or indirectly by a process known as gluconeogenesis (the production of glucose by the liver from substances other than carbohydrates, for example, proteins). Training also helps the liver’s ability to produce glucose from circulating blood lactate. However, because the liver is so small compared to the body’s muscle mass and only stores about 250 - 500 calories of glucose, it could never keep up with the muscles’ demand for glucose when exercising hard or long. In a trained athlete, this amounts to three or four hours of running at a moderate pace. And the muscles are prevented from using too much circulating blood glucose in order to protect the brain. Fortunately our body has provided the muscles with other ways of obtaining glucose; namely a good supply stored in its own tissues and the ability to use fat as a source of energy. And remember, the supply stored in the muscles can be doubled if post-exercise carbs were consumed within thirty minutes or so. But even this generous supply will only last about five to six hours. The rate that the liver releases glucose and the muscles take it up during exercise is increased six-fold from a resting state. When tissues increase their rate of usage faster than the liver can produce it, blood levels fall and body function is impaired. In order to prevent brain drain and preserve our mind’s ability to think and strategize effectively in an ultra event, it becomes crucial to ingest carbohydrates during the race. If the muscles become fatigued, the brain will reduce the number of muscle fibers activated and in order to continue running, the ultrarunner will have to slow down. This is the body’s way of surviving. It may limit the runner’s physiological capabilities, but preserve the neurological function of the brain. Exhaustion, in this case, may be defined as a decrease in signals from the brain to the muscles, not a direct change in glycogen levels in the muscles - in other words, central fatigue.”
So the central governor steps in again to save the day and we learn that this phenomenon is preventable if we keep energy reserves up to meet the exertion demands. That requires you to test what kind of carbohydrates will digest easily for you while running. Gatorade, gel packets, bananas, chia seed, PB&J, fruit roll-ups and others have all been tried and many work well as long as they contain some water of their own and you keep your stomach lining wet w. a bit of fluids. Sunny Blende and others suggest that you might be able to train your body to utilize as much as 240 calories per hour while running (you’ll use more than this often, but that’s the breaks). The average gel packet is 100-150 calories each and 12oz of Gatorade is about 90 calories. So you can calculate what you’ll need and try to eat is small amounts spaced along the duration of your run.
Here is a link for some breakfasts with protein (a good time to get it as you metabolism is firing up and you’ll run on this later in the day) I love protein at breakfast because I am less hungry before lunch.
Here is a video with ideas about eating a snack an hour before a run and 3 ideas that each includes a healthy protein.
Here is an article by Mark Bittman and I like the guy for his simple style, ideas that involve less meat, and yet he is still eating right. He includes about 8 recipes in his article and beans given some attention as the powerhouse food they really are.
There are also links to some Mark Bittner food ideas on our face book site and as someone pointed out - he has started blogging for Runners World. Thanks Lori!
This link allows you to build menus by type and fulfill all the key nutrients in the process – it is free, but you have to register
This link lists what is in the meat and beans group and why you need it – along with a list of foods that will hold off anemia, or the low red cell count that gives rise to lethargy, low oxygenation and poor running performance.
Runners and athletes would want as many red blood cells (RBCs) as possible for best oxygen transport to your muscles. Recall that from a previous lesson that Coach Joe Vigil feels that many athletes, especially female athletes, need to monitor their bodies for signs of low iron or possible anemia. A normal range score of 37-43% RBC for hemocrit scores should be what you are expecting and a runner would be interested in being on the high end of this score for better oxygen carrying capacity. You can have your doctor test this blood value and including lean meat and beans in your diet helps fend off iron deficiency.
The Average American consumes approximately 3.6 grams of salt daily and current federal guidelines for sodium intake is 2.3 grams per day. The American Heart Association recommends 2 grams. What many folks miss at the cellular level is that both sodium and potassium are the two ions that your body uses every second of the day. While it is relatively simple to get your daily supply of sodium some folks do not get enough Potassium and you need 4.7 grams daily in order to function optimally. Having the optimum ratio of these elements lowers the incidence of cardiovascular disease and allows optimal membrane potential at the cellular level. Bananas, peaches, prunes, apricots, honeydew melon or cantaloupe, and OJ all contain good sources of potassium as well as whole grains, beans and many fresh meats.
Blood sodium must be maintained at a level of 135mmol/L and this value is typically easy to maintain without any dietary changes. For runners, the complication comes when someone would be running or walking slowly for a long time, while consuming a lot of water. This can create a condition called hyponatremia. While the article Responsible Drinking on the Trail (Dr. M Hoffman, Ultrarunning, March 2010) states that this condition has been responsible for five fatalities in the US and UK they also write that 30% of the runners at 2009 Western States 100 mile run, who participated in the author’s research, were positive for signs of hyponatremia.
For runners, hyponatremia means low salt. We lose salt in sweating and we can (with great effort) dilute the amount of salt that we have in our bodies by consuming large amounts of water. When you have a lot of water and not enough salt in the body, fluids begin to shift in your system and the results can be catastrophic and life threatening. You need not have a complete class in physiology to get a handle on how this works though. If you are sweating a lot, out for a long time, and throwing in the water as you go – then you need to keep your eye open for crucial signs of what is sometimes call ‘water intoxication”.
Dr. Hoffman list a number of Danger signs: [additions mine] “Your body would not lose the 2% of its weight you would expect on your longest run but would stay the same weight or gain weight during the run. Your body’s water is changing location and you’ll see swelling, [all over], but especially hands, feet, face – [rings and shoes may be tight.] You would see mental status changes as fluid causes brain cells to swell too. [This would look like stumble; mumble, fumble and you would have to look at their other symptoms to ensure you did not think - dehydration. Recall that people call this condition water intoxication because of the mental status changes you see in people.] This person may also feel sick, [feel nausea and be sloshing from all the water they are hauling in their stomach. Urine output would be beyond the “clear, constant and copious” realm that we expect in hydrated folks as the kidney are now doing all they can to solve a fluid overload condition.] This is an emergency medical condition that requires immediate attention and complications can include kidney failure.” [They need medical intervention and you take them off of water while you get them help.]
On a slight tangent but related to your groceries in garbage out theme, comes a question from a runner to the sports nutritionist at Runners World – you can view this online but I included the copy here as it relates to nutrition and is such a good question.
“Over the past couple of months, I've been having to go "number 2" during most of my morning runs. I used to be able to go before my runs without much of an issue. Now I try to go but nothing happens. I eat a healthy diet, for the most part, with fruits and veggies, and get about 30 grams of fiber each day; drink 60 to 70 ounces of water; and seem to get the right amounts of calories (2,500), carbs (60 to 70%) and proteins (100 grams per day). I run about 35 miles a week and I am 5'10" and 155 pounds. Am I just eating too much? Any suggestions? – Joseph”
Joseph, a few observations:
“You say you eat lots of fruits and vegetables and 30 grams of fiber per day. Certain fibers are more helpful with laxation, such as bran-type cereals. In addition, consider swapping one of your fresh fruit choices for four or five dried plums, especially at night before bed.
The recommended fluid intake for adult men is 125 ounces per day, at rest, and more for exercise, so if you are consuming 30 grams of fiber and not enough fluid, that may also be part of the problem; consider increasing your liquids intake.
And based on your diet breakdown (60 to 70% carbs, or 375 to 437 grams per day, and protein at 100 grams per day) your diet may be too low in fat. Fat is important as a lubricant. So you may want to cut the carbs slightly and increase the fat, through nuts and nut butter, or olive oil on those vegetables, or guacamole.
Last but not least: Before bedtime, try a small bowl of All-Bran, Bran Buds, or Fiber One with a few dried plums and 2 tablespoons of nuts. Make sure you have a large glass of water (about 16 ounces) with this.
Hopefully this will get you back to running your route, and not to the bathroom!”
Leslie
Have a question for Leslie? E-mail her. (Please write "Ask the Sports Dietitian" in the subject line.) NOTE: Due to the volume of mail, we regret that Leslie cannot answer every e-mail.
And check out Leslie's newest book, Sports Nutrition for Coaches, on sale now.
The item that I would say Leslie neglected to mention is something called the gastrocolic reflex. We all have this, but many choose to not tune into it. Once our runner, Joseph tries Leslie’s suggestions he will not be able to ignore it! Each day your gastrointestinal system sort of “wakes up” and contracts in a mechanical wave that we call peristalsis and this reflex occurs when food or fluid (often warm coffee or tea) first comes into the stomach. When you listen to your body, you’ll feel this occur and you can sit down to have a bowel movement right away, because your body has this preparatory reflex for a purpose. Following this hint from your gut will train your bowel to go before your run (or your race) and save you a great deal of anxiety along with improving your quality of life. Laugh, because it is good to do so – but then try it because it works.
I’ll have a few handout ideas for you regarding micro meal scheduling and training meals. Additionally, I will be reading a new book this year on nutrition and I encourage you to as well – it sounds great. Matt Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight – How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. There is very little on this subject currently and this work has already seen high acclaim from coaches in our sport, check it out.
"Endurance events are eating and drinking contests with some exercise thrown in too" Sunny Blende
We have already had a primer on running nutrition and via handouts you had recently, we looked at race day and race week meals to try in preparation. So now let’s talk about the food pyramid a bit, new resource ideas for meals to help your running, salt, iron and regulation of “in’s and out’s” a bit. Your everyday training depends on knowing a bit more about fueling - especially as long runs get longer.
Let’s look at the food pyramid in greater detail and see what you’ll be fueling yourself with in the coming months as you seek to keep yourself well fueled and injury free in training and attain ideal body type for your event. Running hard and all this training is not a diet program – I have said this many times. Yet you will find that over time your metabolic capacity increases and you are burning a lot of fat on your long runs, when they are done at aerobic pace. Therefore, body composition may actually subtly change even while you are eating a balanced and nutritious diet that feeds your energy level. Pretty cool stuff.
Three primary fuel types and all food from the new food pyramid fits into these neat slots as far as the body is concerned, yet not all foods are created equal. Carbohydrates, Lipids (or fats), and protein are the three types.
Fat: Sometimes a dirty word and thought of as something to avoid and yet, this is the most efficient fuel the body can have at 9Kal/gram, and it does not require the storage of water to be used in the body. We store most foods as glycogen and use it all over the body. Fat during aerobic exercise is converted to fuel and used for any endurance activity because it works but also because you cannot store all of the fuel you need to burn without using this fat. Unsaturated fat from plant products is ideal and not refined or hydrogenated fat is most healthy and burns in the body with fewer bi-products like free radicals.
Protein: Nearly everything of value in the body is built from proteins and this makes them simply too valuable to use a fuel. Skeletal muscle is built from a number of key proteins but even elements for your cell membranes and body hormones are made of protein. Daily intake is required and can be attained from animal and or vegetable sources. These proteins are made of amino acids and your body disassembles proteins it consumes and rebuilds good stuff from these amino acid chains. Several key amino acids are important to attain if we are on any kind of vegetarian or alternative diet. The most important of these amino acid chains is Omega 3.
Carbohydrates: Nearly everything else that is not made of protein or fat or a man made substance is a carbohydrate. Even sugar is a carbohydrate. While many people have profited from special diets that eschew “carbs” they are the body’s essential and most easily used fuel. The average American eats far more of the wrong kinds of carbs than they should, however the body will metabolize carbs the best and with fewer byproducts than any other energy synthesis. The trouble is that we cannot store all of the energy we need this way and so we start the running machine on carbs and efficiently transition mid run to fat metabolism as a fuel source.
What is bonk? You’ll see unprepared runners face bonk or “the wall” during a big event. It can be physically excruciating and mentally dehabilitating. Preparation can prevent this and you just need some understanding of physiology and prior practice to fend it off. Two experts define what this is pretty simply.
Sunny Blende, sports nutritionists writes, “The brain also does not store any glucose – as glycogen, as the muscles do – and is totally dependent on blood glucose for its energy supply. In order to function normally, the brain requires a relatively normal blood glucose level. So what happens to an ultrarunner when he or she is running hours and hours with an increasing demand for glucose? If our ultrarunner does not ingest adequate amounts of carbohydrate (glucose) along the way, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) sets in. And with prolonged hypoglycemia comes central nervous system fatigue – the progressive shutdown of the part of the brain that drives the muscles. Bad news for attitude and bad news for performance.”
In one of Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, he found that two percent of marathoners, six percent of those who ran 50 kms and 11 percent of those who ran 100 kms were hypoglycemic. He cites the symptoms as a “reduced ability to concentrate, a sudden feeling of weakness, and the intense desire to stop running. Typically, the athlete senses the impossibility of completing the race”. Sound familiar? Obviously foods containing glucose would have helped these athletes perform better, but an explanation of the mechanism of action might make this concept easier to understand. Again, Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, “The main supplier of glucose into the blood is the liver. This happens directly from its own store of glycogen or indirectly by a process known as gluconeogenesis (the production of glucose by the liver from substances other than carbohydrates, for example, proteins). Training also helps the liver’s ability to produce glucose from circulating blood lactate. However, because the liver is so small compared to the body’s muscle mass and only stores about 250 - 500 calories of glucose, it could never keep up with the muscles’ demand for glucose when exercising hard or long. In a trained athlete, this amounts to three or four hours of running at a moderate pace. And the muscles are prevented from using too much circulating blood glucose in order to protect the brain. Fortunately our body has provided the muscles with other ways of obtaining glucose; namely a good supply stored in its own tissues and the ability to use fat as a source of energy. And remember, the supply stored in the muscles can be doubled if post-exercise carbs were consumed within thirty minutes or so. But even this generous supply will only last about five to six hours. The rate that the liver releases glucose and the muscles take it up during exercise is increased six-fold from a resting state. When tissues increase their rate of usage faster than the liver can produce it, blood levels fall and body function is impaired. In order to prevent brain drain and preserve our mind’s ability to think and strategize effectively in an ultra event, it becomes crucial to ingest carbohydrates during the race. If the muscles become fatigued, the brain will reduce the number of muscle fibers activated and in order to continue running, the ultrarunner will have to slow down. This is the body’s way of surviving. It may limit the runner’s physiological capabilities, but preserve the neurological function of the brain. Exhaustion, in this case, may be defined as a decrease in signals from the brain to the muscles, not a direct change in glycogen levels in the muscles - in other words, central fatigue.”
So the central governor steps in again to save the day and we learn that this phenomenon is preventable if we keep energy reserves up to meet the exertion demands. That requires you to test what kind of carbohydrates will digest easily for you while running. Gatorade, gel packets, bananas, chia seed, PB&J, fruit roll-ups and others have all been tried and many work well as long as they contain some water of their own and you keep your stomach lining wet w. a bit of fluids. Sunny Blende and others suggest that you might be able to train your body to utilize as much as 240 calories per hour while running (you’ll use more than this often, but that’s the breaks). The average gel packet is 100-150 calories each and 12oz of Gatorade is about 90 calories. So you can calculate what you’ll need and try to eat is small amounts spaced along the duration of your run.
Here is a link for some breakfasts with protein (a good time to get it as you metabolism is firing up and you’ll run on this later in the day) I love protein at breakfast because I am less hungry before lunch.
Here is a video with ideas about eating a snack an hour before a run and 3 ideas that each includes a healthy protein.
Here is an article by Mark Bittman and I like the guy for his simple style, ideas that involve less meat, and yet he is still eating right. He includes about 8 recipes in his article and beans given some attention as the powerhouse food they really are.
There are also links to some Mark Bittner food ideas on our face book site and as someone pointed out - he has started blogging for Runners World. Thanks Lori!
This link allows you to build menus by type and fulfill all the key nutrients in the process – it is free, but you have to register
This link lists what is in the meat and beans group and why you need it – along with a list of foods that will hold off anemia, or the low red cell count that gives rise to lethargy, low oxygenation and poor running performance.
Runners and athletes would want as many red blood cells (RBCs) as possible for best oxygen transport to your muscles. Recall that from a previous lesson that Coach Joe Vigil feels that many athletes, especially female athletes, need to monitor their bodies for signs of low iron or possible anemia. A normal range score of 37-43% RBC for hemocrit scores should be what you are expecting and a runner would be interested in being on the high end of this score for better oxygen carrying capacity. You can have your doctor test this blood value and including lean meat and beans in your diet helps fend off iron deficiency.
The Average American consumes approximately 3.6 grams of salt daily and current federal guidelines for sodium intake is 2.3 grams per day. The American Heart Association recommends 2 grams. What many folks miss at the cellular level is that both sodium and potassium are the two ions that your body uses every second of the day. While it is relatively simple to get your daily supply of sodium some folks do not get enough Potassium and you need 4.7 grams daily in order to function optimally. Having the optimum ratio of these elements lowers the incidence of cardiovascular disease and allows optimal membrane potential at the cellular level. Bananas, peaches, prunes, apricots, honeydew melon or cantaloupe, and OJ all contain good sources of potassium as well as whole grains, beans and many fresh meats.
Blood sodium must be maintained at a level of 135mmol/L and this value is typically easy to maintain without any dietary changes. For runners, the complication comes when someone would be running or walking slowly for a long time, while consuming a lot of water. This can create a condition called hyponatremia. While the article Responsible Drinking on the Trail (Dr. M Hoffman, Ultrarunning, March 2010) states that this condition has been responsible for five fatalities in the US and UK they also write that 30% of the runners at 2009 Western States 100 mile run, who participated in the author’s research, were positive for signs of hyponatremia.
For runners, hyponatremia means low salt. We lose salt in sweating and we can (with great effort) dilute the amount of salt that we have in our bodies by consuming large amounts of water. When you have a lot of water and not enough salt in the body, fluids begin to shift in your system and the results can be catastrophic and life threatening. You need not have a complete class in physiology to get a handle on how this works though. If you are sweating a lot, out for a long time, and throwing in the water as you go – then you need to keep your eye open for crucial signs of what is sometimes call ‘water intoxication”.
Dr. Hoffman list a number of Danger signs: [additions mine] “Your body would not lose the 2% of its weight you would expect on your longest run but would stay the same weight or gain weight during the run. Your body’s water is changing location and you’ll see swelling, [all over], but especially hands, feet, face – [rings and shoes may be tight.] You would see mental status changes as fluid causes brain cells to swell too. [This would look like stumble; mumble, fumble and you would have to look at their other symptoms to ensure you did not think - dehydration. Recall that people call this condition water intoxication because of the mental status changes you see in people.] This person may also feel sick, [feel nausea and be sloshing from all the water they are hauling in their stomach. Urine output would be beyond the “clear, constant and copious” realm that we expect in hydrated folks as the kidney are now doing all they can to solve a fluid overload condition.] This is an emergency medical condition that requires immediate attention and complications can include kidney failure.” [They need medical intervention and you take them off of water while you get them help.]
On a slight tangent but related to your groceries in garbage out theme, comes a question from a runner to the sports nutritionist at Runners World – you can view this online but I included the copy here as it relates to nutrition and is such a good question.
“Over the past couple of months, I've been having to go "number 2" during most of my morning runs. I used to be able to go before my runs without much of an issue. Now I try to go but nothing happens. I eat a healthy diet, for the most part, with fruits and veggies, and get about 30 grams of fiber each day; drink 60 to 70 ounces of water; and seem to get the right amounts of calories (2,500), carbs (60 to 70%) and proteins (100 grams per day). I run about 35 miles a week and I am 5'10" and 155 pounds. Am I just eating too much? Any suggestions? – Joseph”
Joseph, a few observations:
“You say you eat lots of fruits and vegetables and 30 grams of fiber per day. Certain fibers are more helpful with laxation, such as bran-type cereals. In addition, consider swapping one of your fresh fruit choices for four or five dried plums, especially at night before bed.
The recommended fluid intake for adult men is 125 ounces per day, at rest, and more for exercise, so if you are consuming 30 grams of fiber and not enough fluid, that may also be part of the problem; consider increasing your liquids intake.
And based on your diet breakdown (60 to 70% carbs, or 375 to 437 grams per day, and protein at 100 grams per day) your diet may be too low in fat. Fat is important as a lubricant. So you may want to cut the carbs slightly and increase the fat, through nuts and nut butter, or olive oil on those vegetables, or guacamole.
Last but not least: Before bedtime, try a small bowl of All-Bran, Bran Buds, or Fiber One with a few dried plums and 2 tablespoons of nuts. Make sure you have a large glass of water (about 16 ounces) with this.
Hopefully this will get you back to running your route, and not to the bathroom!”
Leslie
Have a question for Leslie? E-mail her. (Please write "Ask the Sports Dietitian" in the subject line.) NOTE: Due to the volume of mail, we regret that Leslie cannot answer every e-mail.
And check out Leslie's newest book, Sports Nutrition for Coaches, on sale now.
The item that I would say Leslie neglected to mention is something called the gastrocolic reflex. We all have this, but many choose to not tune into it. Once our runner, Joseph tries Leslie’s suggestions he will not be able to ignore it! Each day your gastrointestinal system sort of “wakes up” and contracts in a mechanical wave that we call peristalsis and this reflex occurs when food or fluid (often warm coffee or tea) first comes into the stomach. When you listen to your body, you’ll feel this occur and you can sit down to have a bowel movement right away, because your body has this preparatory reflex for a purpose. Following this hint from your gut will train your bowel to go before your run (or your race) and save you a great deal of anxiety along with improving your quality of life. Laugh, because it is good to do so – but then try it because it works.
I’ll have a few handout ideas for you regarding micro meal scheduling and training meals. Additionally, I will be reading a new book this year on nutrition and I encourage you to as well – it sounds great. Matt Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight – How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. There is very little on this subject currently and this work has already seen high acclaim from coaches in our sport, check it out.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Track Workouts
Time Trials and Track Workouts
Track work can be fun & even a bit addicting if you are a sports fan that enjoys data or statistics. Remember that this type of workout is 15% or less of your total program and yet you will often see results in the data in just 3-4 week of work. These workouts are seldom easy and because it is not easy – and it pushes the body to a new place in your running, the rest of the work will feel more effortless. Track work develops both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. You’ll get more efficient moving lactate (metabolic waste) out of your system and you’ll enhance your running form. All these benefits from only 15% of the work sounds like an infomercial – too good to be true. Well remember I said it was hard and it is also demanding on the body, so it is not for folks who do not already have four to five months of regular running under their shoes. Some of the folks in our group are already there on this which is great because speed work will tune you up for any race goal. First timers will be ready for some speed work as the program concludes and because of this I introduce track workouts. This is not intended to be a comprehensive workout description but a way to sell you on the basics and guide you through what you need to know to get started. You’ll find these workouts everywhere in magazines and online so you’ll have some tools when you’re ready.
This lesson is a chance to explain some terminology and serve as a primer to track work. You’ll need a stopwatch (or stopwatch function on your watch), maybe a buddy for motivation and to help keep count, and a paper and pencil plan about how to progress before you start the process.
How fast do I run these? Short question - big answer. Most folks will use a recent race that went well to estimate what their fast pace. Those without a race will calculate running paces based on a “miracle mile”, so what is this all about? You head to the track or a pre-marked distance on the bike trail, and run your fastest pace that you feel you can sustain for a mile and clock the time. This uses your “central governor” that we have talked about before – your own very well trained, race computer in your brain that will not let you blow up and will adjust performance by how much is in your individual tank. Once you have a race time or your own one-mile time trial you have a reference point or baseline. This is a starting point for you to calculate from & you can have a professional trainer calculate for you - for free.
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
This tool is great because you will get a full spectrum of running paces for the types of runs you’d like to do in a given week. These times were designed with the idea that you’ll not be over-training or stressing yourself anaerobically too often but allowing adaptations to develop gradually. You’ll still need to fine tune these with your own heart rate or level of perceived effort to make sure that they work for you.
Remember that we have already covered lessons regarding the 4 types of workouts. These are LSD runs, everyday runs, tempo work, & threshold or track work (see “the Mix” lesson). Any running above your goal pace - for a planned length of time falls into Speed/track work. We have already talked about Perceived Effort (PE) & how it relates to your heart rate & pacing (see Pacing lesson) – so you know a bit about how to not overdo it & you can estimate where you’ll want your PE to be for these workouts. You want to warm up and cool down MORE for this workout –a mile of easy running beforehand & walking a mile or more afterwards. Low level aerobic activity after the speed work helps to clear lactate from muscles faster due to increased circulation. You’ll be asking your body to run into the 8-9 range (anaerobic work) for SOME these runs/repeats but you will be careful to never go all out. You can only drive the car as fast as it was designed for – if your form is suffering, simply slow down and work up to that pace later as you progress gradually.
So here are a few terms and ideas to get you started:
These concepts you’ll see over and over – so they are the best place to begin and with just these building blocks you can begin to construct your own track progressions.
Miracle mile – you head out and run the best mile that you can run (four laps on a standard track, 440 yards /lap or 5280 feet total) and the key here is that the pace must be steady. So go out and finish at the same pace, no heroics. This is a good measure for shorter races and a decent way to start any endurance program. You’ll know what your best possible race pace is right now – a snapshot.
Time trials – several kinds of time trials you can do. One type would be to start a long endurance program and you go out and see how long you can run without stopping, running by time. You hope to have a steady pace throughout and you simply stop when you have had enough. This time/distance trial is the starting place for your long runs (LSD runs) that are the cornerstone of any endurance program. Many who start a half-marathon or longer program do not know how long their first long run should be and this is a good measure of where to set the initial distance.
Another type of time trial is a more of dress rehearsal for race day. The Hanson distance project is famous for this type of run and they will choose a route that is 60-70% of the distance of the intended race course. Runners go out and run this trial 6 weeks prior and 3 weeks prior to the event. Running at race pace and seeking to maintain that goal pace the entire distance. Hanson distance project has found that the runners in training who can maintain that goal pace during their program will easily maintain the race pace for the entire race distance after tapering and resting properly. Giving them most of the race at this speed is a great confidence builder as well without breaking them down beyond what they can recover from.
Track repeats - a run length that mimics the endurance level required for your race which is repeated several times and includes a rest or jog between repeats. Endurance is increased by adding repeats gradually over the weeks and by reducing the rest or jog interval in between runs. 5K runners might use 440 or quarter mile repeats, 10K runners might use 440 or 880 repeats, 13.1 mile racers and 26.2 racers would use half mile or mile repeats. Think about these like the granddaddy of a walk run program – instead of running a minute and then walking one, you are running a quarter mile and then letting the body catch up by walking/jogging a lap. This gears you up for speed without the strain of running the entire distance at speed (more than we can recover from). Just like your running - you slowly add repeats and then lower the rest intervals as race day approaches and you hone the runner to race. These should not be intimidating as the system is familiar and the results are the same – you gradually become more comfortable running faster in small doses so as to not wear you down. Research has shown that this work pushes back your lactate threshold. Because the work generates lactate faster in the body, you become more adept at clearing it and thus more efficient at lower intensity running as well, making you faster.
Ladders - many programs will choose a distance that matches your race length well and select repeats of these distances which move the runner from warm up to tempo through threshold pacing and back down through tempo and cool down modes. Ladders might look like this:
1 mile warm-up, 800 meters, 600 meters, 400 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 600 meters, 800 meters and 1 mile cool-down. Ladders typically add challenge with progressively shorter and faster runs at the ladder top and repeats of the difficult repetitions. After ladders there is usually a long slow run which allows lactate flushing and teaches the body what the “end of the race” feels like in competition.
Rest interval - most folks start speed work with walking the rest interval which is a good thing. Later they jog the rest interval. As repeats get easier they shorten the rest interval and push the body to better adapt to race pace running because on race day most of us do not plan on stopping to jog a lap. This is where track work differs significantly from Arthur Lydiard’s training philosophy. He felt that you should not train the body to rest but go slower to avoid damaging the runner and instead ask him to keep running. He used track work to adjust the runner to race pace and anaerobically condition the runner in the final stages of a program.
Yasso 800’s – Bart Yasso used the half mile repeat regularly as part of his training program for dozens of marathons. What he found over time in his running logbooks has proven true for many other runners and when he released his findings with the help of Amby Burfoot they coined the term Yasso 800’s. Bart starts speed work training with maybe two half mile repeats and runs them once each week. Every one to three weeks he adds an additional repeat. He tries to run all of them at race pace – what he expects to run on race day. Three weeks before the race day he hope to run 10 or more of these repeats at race pace or faster and if he is successful, then he knows he will run his race in the goal time. He also uses a slick conversion factor to gauge his speed work. If Bart wants to run a 3:00 hour marathon he runs his repeats in 3:00 minutes each. While this pace per mile is a bit faster than a 3:00 hour marathon and is very nearly threshold pace for distance runners, his estimates for this distance have proven nearly foolproof for many marathoners.
When getting into track work – remember a few key concepts that bear repeating
· Long warm ups and cool downs
· Very gradually add repeats first, then reduce rest intervals
· Check your training paces carefully, have a plan, and never sprint all out
· Speed work on the track is clearly a once a week, maximum, activity (15% of weekly miles, max)
· Lots of good track interval suggestions at Runner World, McMillian Running, & coaching sites
· Not for beginners, you need 5 months under your shoes before trying track work
Track work can be fun & even a bit addicting if you are a sports fan that enjoys data or statistics. Remember that this type of workout is 15% or less of your total program and yet you will often see results in the data in just 3-4 week of work. These workouts are seldom easy and because it is not easy – and it pushes the body to a new place in your running, the rest of the work will feel more effortless. Track work develops both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. You’ll get more efficient moving lactate (metabolic waste) out of your system and you’ll enhance your running form. All these benefits from only 15% of the work sounds like an infomercial – too good to be true. Well remember I said it was hard and it is also demanding on the body, so it is not for folks who do not already have four to five months of regular running under their shoes. Some of the folks in our group are already there on this which is great because speed work will tune you up for any race goal. First timers will be ready for some speed work as the program concludes and because of this I introduce track workouts. This is not intended to be a comprehensive workout description but a way to sell you on the basics and guide you through what you need to know to get started. You’ll find these workouts everywhere in magazines and online so you’ll have some tools when you’re ready.
This lesson is a chance to explain some terminology and serve as a primer to track work. You’ll need a stopwatch (or stopwatch function on your watch), maybe a buddy for motivation and to help keep count, and a paper and pencil plan about how to progress before you start the process.
How fast do I run these? Short question - big answer. Most folks will use a recent race that went well to estimate what their fast pace. Those without a race will calculate running paces based on a “miracle mile”, so what is this all about? You head to the track or a pre-marked distance on the bike trail, and run your fastest pace that you feel you can sustain for a mile and clock the time. This uses your “central governor” that we have talked about before – your own very well trained, race computer in your brain that will not let you blow up and will adjust performance by how much is in your individual tank. Once you have a race time or your own one-mile time trial you have a reference point or baseline. This is a starting point for you to calculate from & you can have a professional trainer calculate for you - for free.
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
This tool is great because you will get a full spectrum of running paces for the types of runs you’d like to do in a given week. These times were designed with the idea that you’ll not be over-training or stressing yourself anaerobically too often but allowing adaptations to develop gradually. You’ll still need to fine tune these with your own heart rate or level of perceived effort to make sure that they work for you.
Remember that we have already covered lessons regarding the 4 types of workouts. These are LSD runs, everyday runs, tempo work, & threshold or track work (see “the Mix” lesson). Any running above your goal pace - for a planned length of time falls into Speed/track work. We have already talked about Perceived Effort (PE) & how it relates to your heart rate & pacing (see Pacing lesson) – so you know a bit about how to not overdo it & you can estimate where you’ll want your PE to be for these workouts. You want to warm up and cool down MORE for this workout –a mile of easy running beforehand & walking a mile or more afterwards. Low level aerobic activity after the speed work helps to clear lactate from muscles faster due to increased circulation. You’ll be asking your body to run into the 8-9 range (anaerobic work) for SOME these runs/repeats but you will be careful to never go all out. You can only drive the car as fast as it was designed for – if your form is suffering, simply slow down and work up to that pace later as you progress gradually.
So here are a few terms and ideas to get you started:
These concepts you’ll see over and over – so they are the best place to begin and with just these building blocks you can begin to construct your own track progressions.
Miracle mile – you head out and run the best mile that you can run (four laps on a standard track, 440 yards /lap or 5280 feet total) and the key here is that the pace must be steady. So go out and finish at the same pace, no heroics. This is a good measure for shorter races and a decent way to start any endurance program. You’ll know what your best possible race pace is right now – a snapshot.
Time trials – several kinds of time trials you can do. One type would be to start a long endurance program and you go out and see how long you can run without stopping, running by time. You hope to have a steady pace throughout and you simply stop when you have had enough. This time/distance trial is the starting place for your long runs (LSD runs) that are the cornerstone of any endurance program. Many who start a half-marathon or longer program do not know how long their first long run should be and this is a good measure of where to set the initial distance.
Another type of time trial is a more of dress rehearsal for race day. The Hanson distance project is famous for this type of run and they will choose a route that is 60-70% of the distance of the intended race course. Runners go out and run this trial 6 weeks prior and 3 weeks prior to the event. Running at race pace and seeking to maintain that goal pace the entire distance. Hanson distance project has found that the runners in training who can maintain that goal pace during their program will easily maintain the race pace for the entire race distance after tapering and resting properly. Giving them most of the race at this speed is a great confidence builder as well without breaking them down beyond what they can recover from.
Track repeats - a run length that mimics the endurance level required for your race which is repeated several times and includes a rest or jog between repeats. Endurance is increased by adding repeats gradually over the weeks and by reducing the rest or jog interval in between runs. 5K runners might use 440 or quarter mile repeats, 10K runners might use 440 or 880 repeats, 13.1 mile racers and 26.2 racers would use half mile or mile repeats. Think about these like the granddaddy of a walk run program – instead of running a minute and then walking one, you are running a quarter mile and then letting the body catch up by walking/jogging a lap. This gears you up for speed without the strain of running the entire distance at speed (more than we can recover from). Just like your running - you slowly add repeats and then lower the rest intervals as race day approaches and you hone the runner to race. These should not be intimidating as the system is familiar and the results are the same – you gradually become more comfortable running faster in small doses so as to not wear you down. Research has shown that this work pushes back your lactate threshold. Because the work generates lactate faster in the body, you become more adept at clearing it and thus more efficient at lower intensity running as well, making you faster.
Ladders - many programs will choose a distance that matches your race length well and select repeats of these distances which move the runner from warm up to tempo through threshold pacing and back down through tempo and cool down modes. Ladders might look like this:
1 mile warm-up, 800 meters, 600 meters, 400 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 600 meters, 800 meters and 1 mile cool-down. Ladders typically add challenge with progressively shorter and faster runs at the ladder top and repeats of the difficult repetitions. After ladders there is usually a long slow run which allows lactate flushing and teaches the body what the “end of the race” feels like in competition.
Rest interval - most folks start speed work with walking the rest interval which is a good thing. Later they jog the rest interval. As repeats get easier they shorten the rest interval and push the body to better adapt to race pace running because on race day most of us do not plan on stopping to jog a lap. This is where track work differs significantly from Arthur Lydiard’s training philosophy. He felt that you should not train the body to rest but go slower to avoid damaging the runner and instead ask him to keep running. He used track work to adjust the runner to race pace and anaerobically condition the runner in the final stages of a program.
Yasso 800’s – Bart Yasso used the half mile repeat regularly as part of his training program for dozens of marathons. What he found over time in his running logbooks has proven true for many other runners and when he released his findings with the help of Amby Burfoot they coined the term Yasso 800’s. Bart starts speed work training with maybe two half mile repeats and runs them once each week. Every one to three weeks he adds an additional repeat. He tries to run all of them at race pace – what he expects to run on race day. Three weeks before the race day he hope to run 10 or more of these repeats at race pace or faster and if he is successful, then he knows he will run his race in the goal time. He also uses a slick conversion factor to gauge his speed work. If Bart wants to run a 3:00 hour marathon he runs his repeats in 3:00 minutes each. While this pace per mile is a bit faster than a 3:00 hour marathon and is very nearly threshold pace for distance runners, his estimates for this distance have proven nearly foolproof for many marathoners.
When getting into track work – remember a few key concepts that bear repeating
· Long warm ups and cool downs
· Very gradually add repeats first, then reduce rest intervals
· Check your training paces carefully, have a plan, and never sprint all out
· Speed work on the track is clearly a once a week, maximum, activity (15% of weekly miles, max)
· Lots of good track interval suggestions at Runner World, McMillian Running, & coaching sites
· Not for beginners, you need 5 months under your shoes before trying track work
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Runners foot care
“Your feet are your friends” unknown, but this sage wisdom has been handed down for a long time...
You need to start looking at your feet each day to better understand their needs and how they are taking care of you. Understanding the way your feet work will keep you running many happy miles. Dr. Tim Noakes states “Treat the cause, not the effect. Because each running injury has a cause, it follows that the injury can never be cured until the causative factors are eliminated.” Would you ever think of treating your hands with the casual disrespect we give our feet? Probably not, because you and everyone else takes notice of them – yet we often forget our most prized running instrument. The tool that contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 12 tendons, and 18 muscles is a wonder and something DaVinci called a wonder of engineering.
I should say upfront that most of what I know about foot care has come from years as a distance hiker and leading groups afield. But what I know (and share today) about running foot care comes from the 300+ page, definitive tome of foot care called Fixing Your Feet by John Vonhof. He has a blog as well but this book is so well thought out that it is in its 4th edition with Wilderness Press and I highly recommend this book.
So here is the nice thing about reading a blog – nobody will see what you do next.
Take off your shoes and we’ll have a brief foot tutorial and review - with you “kicking the tires” to see how these things work and if you are properly caring for them. Go ahead, your privacy is assured – but your running future is at risk if you do not take a look at these things…
Look for changes:
Redness, cracks in the skin, nails are OK, any itching or scaling? Blisters or sore spots, callus buildup, plantar warts or corns etc – should be things you are looking out for & aware of in the developing health of your feet. Our noses, ears and feet with continue to change over the course of our lives and this program and your new pastime will impact your feet - so get a baseline look now and watch what happen over time.
Keep them smooth and clean.
Brush off the feet before going into socks and ensure nothing is in your shoes that should not be there. Use of lotion on your feet helps skin remain soft and then that skin is less likely to thicken – think about applying before bedtime and sleeping in clean socks to keep moisturizer close to the skin. Callus is generally accepted in the medical community to be a sign of abnormality, high friction, biomechanical issues or poor fitting foot gear. These should be sanded down, smoothed and reduced by gradual filing as often as possible. Failure to take care of this may cause the callus to dry and crack (producing a painful, tender injury to skin below) or deep blisters beneath the callus material which heals much more slowly than regular blisters. Soak feet in warm water or shower prior to filing/sanding with a pumice stone for best results.
Stop “hot spots” or blister right away.
If you feel friction inside the shoe stop and immediately examine the problem. Carry tape or mole foam when you anticipate trouble and apply as needed to stop friction. Even duct tape will work; trim edges to prevent “rolling” while you run as tape peeling up will make blisters worse. I love the Engo patches and have shown these to classes before – they are a Teflon type sticker that you can adhere anywhere inside the shoe as needed.
Trim your toenails before you need to – straight across to prevent ingrown nails. The failure to trim nails flush with the toe causes snagging on socks or shoes and can lift the nail off the nail bed. Long nails can cause “black toe” bruising and bleeding in the shoe! Yuck. During exertion feet will swell. Feet are largest in the afternoon, which is why it is the best time of day to buy shoes. Feet, running at days end will be very large, and so it is critical that nails be kept at the proper length to avoid impact injury.
Feet age – like we do they change over time. 1) They continue to enlarge and change in size. 2) The toenails often thicken. 3) The padding on the bottom of your feet thins and we lose some of the spring in our step as a result. 4) Feet stiffen and some range of motion is lost over time. 5) Balance sensitivity changes over time with some losses expected. 6) Arches flatten slightly
Proper shoe sizing, foot pedicures, new insoles and arch support in your shoes, stretching and strengthening exercises can offset these changes to your feet and keep you happily running.
Troublesome toes: Many folks have a condition called Morton’s toe (named for the doctor who discovered the condition). The second metatarsal bone being longer than the first, the second toe is the longest one on the foot and shoe sizing must accommodate this difference. Estimates range from 15-60% of the population having this condition. The second toe length can affect gait and contribute to over-pronation as well as callus formation where the toe bears additional weight. Simply being aware of the condition can allow for accommodations such as sizing, orthotics or additional padding.
Little toes can develop what Vonhof calls the little toe triangle. Check your little toes (or nested toes) to see if they are round and smooth on the bottom or if they have a small hardened triangle of skin developing. This triangle is very vulnerable to blisters and even tearing and so it should be soaked, reduced and moisturized to remain trouble free for long runs.
Feet can produce a pint of fluid in perspiration each day! This has to me managed for the runner.
Blisters and foot pain are most often caused by a triad of elements; friction, moisture and heat. Eliminate or effectively manage at least one of the triad and you’ll run with comfortable feet. Complex foot issues can be mitigated using socks, powders, and lubricants in your primary care plan. Additional preventive support can be found with; taping, skin conditioners, antiperspirants, orthotics, specialized lacing, shoe and sock changes, nutrition and hydration, and gaiters.
Socks are as important as your shoes and they need to match up with your shoes well. Your socks assist in injury prevention if they provide cushioning, protection and temperature management. Some of the best socks for running are now made as Right and Left in each pair. Socks do not have a break in period but you should test your socks for 3+ miles or more in your shoes prior to race day to ensure; they feel great, will do what they are supposed to, and do not give you blisters. Synthetic fibers are best and keep feet dry. Feet that are too wet or dry and grabbing something in the shoe/sock are the ones that blister.
Women’s fitted socks, toe socks, anatomically fitted (right & left) socks, anti microbial fibers, seamless socks, double layer socks, compression socks, Teflon enhanced socks to reduce friction are all currently available. There are even waterproof socks called Sealskinz but my experience has shown that these get so sweaty inside that they may be unmanageable for many runners.
Pay attention to the size of the socks as the number on the package may be “sock size” which fits a range of shoe sizes and may not numerically correspond to your foot size. Remember you are buying socks to fit your feet and not the shoe size, which may be larger to accommodate your foot swelling while you run.
Popular fabrics that review well include; Coolmax, polyester, acrylic, olefin, merino wool, bamboo, drymax, x-static, blister guard, are all great fibers currently being used in running socks.
Many running shoe companies make a sock that works well. Other names include: Balega, Bridgedale, Thorlo, Drymax, Under Armour, Injinji, Wigwam, Teko, Wrightsock, Defeet, Fox River, Goldtoe, InGenius, and Smartwool. These are available at Zombierunner.com, Zappos.com, Roadrunnersports.com, REI.com and other retailers.
Lacing can change the fit of your shoe and take pressure off of trouble areas in many cases – refer to the book “fixing your feet” by John Vonhof or Runnersworld.com, or Ian’s link, posted here on the blog, for lacing suggestions and diagrams. There are products that offer micro tensioning for laces; stretch laces that look like springs, lock laces with tension adjustments, and sausage style laces that offer tension adjustments. These may help you micro fit the shoe and unlike the “garden weasel” seen on TV many of these lacing gizmos work.
Footbeds are available for a number of foot types and gaits. Over the counter insole products are shapeable and trim to fit for your shoes. When sizing these tools at home follow directions closely! Many of these products are expected to last about a year under normal use and are often superior to the insoles that come with your shoes. SOLE, Spenco, Superfeet, Hapad, and Sorbothane all make a reputable footbed product. These are not orthotics as a podiatrist would make for you and cannot correct gait issues. They may provide additional support, prevent injury and reduce chafing in footwear. If I reveal my bias here though – many PT’s who are in the running expert-type-zone feel that using a footbed or advanced support works at the pain or problem but not the source of the issue - which may be feet in need of balancing (in terms of strengthening and flexibility) - therefore footbeds may only be the shortcut. I’ve used them and they feel good…
Self massage devices, floor rollers or tennis balls can be used to massage and rejuvenate feet with great results. Many ultra runners swear by the monthly pedicure which includes some foot massage and foot maintenance.
A foot soak you can do at home which will deodorize, soothe and soften feet (while being antibacterial/antifungal) is Pedifix FungaSoap. Contains tea-tree oil, Epsom salt, & peppermint, costs about $11.00 at pedifix.com. I have had good success with this product as a way to prep my feet for nail trimming and sanding off callus material. It smells great and leaves feet very clean and soft. Let me know if you have another trick and I’ll post it here.
Ankle strengthening and balance exercises to increase proprioception aid in having stronger healthier feet and serve to offset aging and prevent injury. These need not be complicated – as John showed us last week - standing on one leg and remaining balanced, for progressively longer intervals, is one simple method and there are many others. Walking barefoot around the house a bit is another.
A great web resource - from the man who wrote 350 pages on footcare is http://fixingyourfeet.com/blog/
Read up, incorporate a few tips each week for your amazing feet, and remember that “Your feet are your friends”
You need to start looking at your feet each day to better understand their needs and how they are taking care of you. Understanding the way your feet work will keep you running many happy miles. Dr. Tim Noakes states “Treat the cause, not the effect. Because each running injury has a cause, it follows that the injury can never be cured until the causative factors are eliminated.” Would you ever think of treating your hands with the casual disrespect we give our feet? Probably not, because you and everyone else takes notice of them – yet we often forget our most prized running instrument. The tool that contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 12 tendons, and 18 muscles is a wonder and something DaVinci called a wonder of engineering.
I should say upfront that most of what I know about foot care has come from years as a distance hiker and leading groups afield. But what I know (and share today) about running foot care comes from the 300+ page, definitive tome of foot care called Fixing Your Feet by John Vonhof. He has a blog as well but this book is so well thought out that it is in its 4th edition with Wilderness Press and I highly recommend this book.
So here is the nice thing about reading a blog – nobody will see what you do next.
Take off your shoes and we’ll have a brief foot tutorial and review - with you “kicking the tires” to see how these things work and if you are properly caring for them. Go ahead, your privacy is assured – but your running future is at risk if you do not take a look at these things…
Look for changes:
Redness, cracks in the skin, nails are OK, any itching or scaling? Blisters or sore spots, callus buildup, plantar warts or corns etc – should be things you are looking out for & aware of in the developing health of your feet. Our noses, ears and feet with continue to change over the course of our lives and this program and your new pastime will impact your feet - so get a baseline look now and watch what happen over time.
Keep them smooth and clean.
Brush off the feet before going into socks and ensure nothing is in your shoes that should not be there. Use of lotion on your feet helps skin remain soft and then that skin is less likely to thicken – think about applying before bedtime and sleeping in clean socks to keep moisturizer close to the skin. Callus is generally accepted in the medical community to be a sign of abnormality, high friction, biomechanical issues or poor fitting foot gear. These should be sanded down, smoothed and reduced by gradual filing as often as possible. Failure to take care of this may cause the callus to dry and crack (producing a painful, tender injury to skin below) or deep blisters beneath the callus material which heals much more slowly than regular blisters. Soak feet in warm water or shower prior to filing/sanding with a pumice stone for best results.
Stop “hot spots” or blister right away.
If you feel friction inside the shoe stop and immediately examine the problem. Carry tape or mole foam when you anticipate trouble and apply as needed to stop friction. Even duct tape will work; trim edges to prevent “rolling” while you run as tape peeling up will make blisters worse. I love the Engo patches and have shown these to classes before – they are a Teflon type sticker that you can adhere anywhere inside the shoe as needed.
Trim your toenails before you need to – straight across to prevent ingrown nails. The failure to trim nails flush with the toe causes snagging on socks or shoes and can lift the nail off the nail bed. Long nails can cause “black toe” bruising and bleeding in the shoe! Yuck. During exertion feet will swell. Feet are largest in the afternoon, which is why it is the best time of day to buy shoes. Feet, running at days end will be very large, and so it is critical that nails be kept at the proper length to avoid impact injury.
Feet age – like we do they change over time. 1) They continue to enlarge and change in size. 2) The toenails often thicken. 3) The padding on the bottom of your feet thins and we lose some of the spring in our step as a result. 4) Feet stiffen and some range of motion is lost over time. 5) Balance sensitivity changes over time with some losses expected. 6) Arches flatten slightly
Proper shoe sizing, foot pedicures, new insoles and arch support in your shoes, stretching and strengthening exercises can offset these changes to your feet and keep you happily running.
Troublesome toes: Many folks have a condition called Morton’s toe (named for the doctor who discovered the condition). The second metatarsal bone being longer than the first, the second toe is the longest one on the foot and shoe sizing must accommodate this difference. Estimates range from 15-60% of the population having this condition. The second toe length can affect gait and contribute to over-pronation as well as callus formation where the toe bears additional weight. Simply being aware of the condition can allow for accommodations such as sizing, orthotics or additional padding.
Little toes can develop what Vonhof calls the little toe triangle. Check your little toes (or nested toes) to see if they are round and smooth on the bottom or if they have a small hardened triangle of skin developing. This triangle is very vulnerable to blisters and even tearing and so it should be soaked, reduced and moisturized to remain trouble free for long runs.
Feet can produce a pint of fluid in perspiration each day! This has to me managed for the runner.
Blisters and foot pain are most often caused by a triad of elements; friction, moisture and heat. Eliminate or effectively manage at least one of the triad and you’ll run with comfortable feet. Complex foot issues can be mitigated using socks, powders, and lubricants in your primary care plan. Additional preventive support can be found with; taping, skin conditioners, antiperspirants, orthotics, specialized lacing, shoe and sock changes, nutrition and hydration, and gaiters.
Socks are as important as your shoes and they need to match up with your shoes well. Your socks assist in injury prevention if they provide cushioning, protection and temperature management. Some of the best socks for running are now made as Right and Left in each pair. Socks do not have a break in period but you should test your socks for 3+ miles or more in your shoes prior to race day to ensure; they feel great, will do what they are supposed to, and do not give you blisters. Synthetic fibers are best and keep feet dry. Feet that are too wet or dry and grabbing something in the shoe/sock are the ones that blister.
Women’s fitted socks, toe socks, anatomically fitted (right & left) socks, anti microbial fibers, seamless socks, double layer socks, compression socks, Teflon enhanced socks to reduce friction are all currently available. There are even waterproof socks called Sealskinz but my experience has shown that these get so sweaty inside that they may be unmanageable for many runners.
Pay attention to the size of the socks as the number on the package may be “sock size” which fits a range of shoe sizes and may not numerically correspond to your foot size. Remember you are buying socks to fit your feet and not the shoe size, which may be larger to accommodate your foot swelling while you run.
Popular fabrics that review well include; Coolmax, polyester, acrylic, olefin, merino wool, bamboo, drymax, x-static, blister guard, are all great fibers currently being used in running socks.
Many running shoe companies make a sock that works well. Other names include: Balega, Bridgedale, Thorlo, Drymax, Under Armour, Injinji, Wigwam, Teko, Wrightsock, Defeet, Fox River, Goldtoe, InGenius, and Smartwool. These are available at Zombierunner.com, Zappos.com, Roadrunnersports.com, REI.com and other retailers.
Lacing can change the fit of your shoe and take pressure off of trouble areas in many cases – refer to the book “fixing your feet” by John Vonhof or Runnersworld.com, or Ian’s link, posted here on the blog, for lacing suggestions and diagrams. There are products that offer micro tensioning for laces; stretch laces that look like springs, lock laces with tension adjustments, and sausage style laces that offer tension adjustments. These may help you micro fit the shoe and unlike the “garden weasel” seen on TV many of these lacing gizmos work.
Footbeds are available for a number of foot types and gaits. Over the counter insole products are shapeable and trim to fit for your shoes. When sizing these tools at home follow directions closely! Many of these products are expected to last about a year under normal use and are often superior to the insoles that come with your shoes. SOLE, Spenco, Superfeet, Hapad, and Sorbothane all make a reputable footbed product. These are not orthotics as a podiatrist would make for you and cannot correct gait issues. They may provide additional support, prevent injury and reduce chafing in footwear. If I reveal my bias here though – many PT’s who are in the running expert-type-zone feel that using a footbed or advanced support works at the pain or problem but not the source of the issue - which may be feet in need of balancing (in terms of strengthening and flexibility) - therefore footbeds may only be the shortcut. I’ve used them and they feel good…
Self massage devices, floor rollers or tennis balls can be used to massage and rejuvenate feet with great results. Many ultra runners swear by the monthly pedicure which includes some foot massage and foot maintenance.
A foot soak you can do at home which will deodorize, soothe and soften feet (while being antibacterial/antifungal) is Pedifix FungaSoap. Contains tea-tree oil, Epsom salt, & peppermint, costs about $11.00 at pedifix.com. I have had good success with this product as a way to prep my feet for nail trimming and sanding off callus material. It smells great and leaves feet very clean and soft. Let me know if you have another trick and I’ll post it here.
Ankle strengthening and balance exercises to increase proprioception aid in having stronger healthier feet and serve to offset aging and prevent injury. These need not be complicated – as John showed us last week - standing on one leg and remaining balanced, for progressively longer intervals, is one simple method and there are many others. Walking barefoot around the house a bit is another.
A great web resource - from the man who wrote 350 pages on footcare is http://fixingyourfeet.com/blog/
Read up, incorporate a few tips each week for your amazing feet, and remember that “Your feet are your friends”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
