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Running adaptations
Let's talk some more about how the body changes and what you can expect and be aware of as your new physicality in this sport begins to develop. Bear in mind that this is what you will be observing over 20 weeks – not next week.
A quick review of running anatomy; Cardiac muscle will adapt first, respiratory systems next, and then body musculature, your foot strength, and then connective tissue. This order of business cannot be put into fast forward nor can the order be changed for most folks. Patience is very important. If the body feels ready in one department it may not be ready in all departments without the requisite mileage. Remember our mantra of “train, don’t strain” that comes from Arthur Lydiard.
Cardiac capability – You heart is quite possibly the hardest working muscle in the body and will adapt very quickly if you gradually increase the training loads. One of the best ways to measure this adaptation is to know your resting pulse and then check your pulse right after finishing a run. Continue to check it every 30 seconds or so following the run to see how quickly it returns to normal resting rate. While you may not always run faster each day – if you see your pulse drop to normal more quickly – you have a great reassurance that your body is working more efficiently. This means you can run more easily and farther without duress. Endurance of this type allows you to have muscles contracting consistently for longer periods of time and this is a benefit for any activity you choose to participate in; Arthur Lydiard trained all types of Olympic athletes for their respective sports by increasing their stamina.
Dr. Philip Maffetone discusses the idea of being able to run the same distance, over each successive month, at a slightly faster or more efficient pace as your cardiac capacity improves. Even if your speed never significantly increases – you ease into performing at this effort will improve gradually improve. How well you cover ground at a given heart rate, as well as how fast you return to your baseline heart rate – are good indicators of adaptation.
Proprioception - You ability to “body sense” and kinetically know where you feet are; where they are in relationship to your legs or ankles, what you arms are doing while you run are some basic examples of proprioception. How many of us can stand on one leg with our eyes closed? If you practice this skill over time your body becomes more tuned into where you are in time and space. This skill is developed daily in running as we are falling down & catching ourselves with the next stride. Two attributes to refine in our body awareness while running are; making sure we are projecting most of our energy into moving forward, making sure we are landing on the ground with quiet feet. We have discussed running form in other classes and this kind of gradual awareness of how you are running will greatly enhance how well you run and keep you running farther over successive weeks. Don’t tune out your body – listen to it and focus on what you are experiencing.
Pacing – Can you start slow? Can you run a 13:00 mile, a 12:00 mile and an 11:00 mile? These are skills that take time to develop and are essential to the runner for best tactics while racing and training. After you develop the ability to hold yourself back, and adjust your expectation of running pace - then after eight week or more we’ll begin to develop the ability to slowly speed up over the course of a run. You should manage the tendency to start much faster than you can sustain as a running pace. You can experiment with running different paces and different perceived effort rates to better understand your own body and stride. Later in our program we’ll introduce the ideas of having you train with speed work and hills. For hills we generally run more slowly and for speed work we seek to sustain a sharper pace over a given range/distance to boost cardiac and respiratory function. Tuning into your PE (perceived effort) and comparing that to a stopwatch and or a heart monitor is the fastest way to develop this skill. How many of us can tell how fast the car is moving without looking at the speedometer? You will develop this as a runner over time, the ability to sense how fast you are moving by how much effort you are putting out.
Lung capacity – The body will develop the ability to process more oxygen to your muscles and feed them faster. This happens in both the short and long term. While many folks say that they breathe easier and more effectively in just 4 weeks it has been proven that there is not a known limit to how much aerobic fitness you may develop. Stretching your torso and practicing diaphragmatic breathing may further enhance this ability to move air and process oxygen. The muscles of the diaphragm and the intercostals that expand and contract the ribcage must be exercised and stretched for optimum results.
What is VO2 max? How many liters of oxygen you can process in a minute is a measure of how much work your muscles can perform before oxygen deficit. You can and will see gradual and continual increases in this capacity. To increase VO2 max capacity takes a long time and is best accomplished with some of the advance concepts of speed and hill work mentioned earlier (that we save for further on in your program). This has lasting repercussions for your everyday health and levels of concentration.
Lower leg muscles – Gastrocnemius (calf), Anterior Tibialis (front of tibia/shinbone), and Soleus (deep calf) are muscles that we are working a great deal with strength training and preparing them for distance running. You’ll see differences in muscle composition in these areas.
Stride enhancing muscles - muscles such as the hip flexors, lower abdominals, glutes are used to raise the leg for the next step and to stabilize the hips during the stride and keep us upright and aligned while headed down the road. Strength training and running are changing these muscles too and adapting them to running.
Foot strength – Feet grow throughout our life and then get tougher and stronger (and larger) as we use them. Think of the farmer who is 85 and now his body is smaller than his work wear but he has the large muscular hands of a much bigger man. Your feet will become conditioned to running and all of the smaller muscles associated with balance, ankle strength and supporting the foot grow stronger over many months of running. As long as you spend a great deal of time in the shoes and socks you will use, running and walking the conditions you will see, and traveling the distances you will race – your feet will condition themselves for your chosen event all by themselves. You’ll just need to treat them gently and stretch them occasionally – we’ll talk more about feet in a few weeks.
Fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscle fibers – fast twitch fibers run mostly off of sugars and are designed for speed. We are born with a certain number of them and while you can wake up what you have been given, to be employed in speed work – you cannot make any more fast-twitch fibers. Those without an abundance of fast twitch fibers will never be Olympic sprinters. Slow twitch fibers burn fat and fire slowly and steadily to easily resist fatigue – they are largely a predetermined quantity too but fast runners can train their fast twitch cells to burn fat and condition them for endurance.
Dr. Maffetone states that the slow twitch or aerobic fibers are the ones that are most resistant to injury, and associated with supporting the joints and that these fibers “contain a significant proportion of the body’s antioxidant activity,” so developing our capacities here is a great investment.
Capillary bed development – Both Jeff Galloway and Arthur Lydiard talk about the body’s ability to increase circulation to the capillary beds as a result of sustained exercise – having great ramification for both muscle endurance and recovery. When you exercise for long periods your body increases blood production and blood volume increases subtly. The cellular need for perfusion during these long runs forces capillary growth into new and developing muscle tissues. This allows greater transport of Oxygen and CO2 throughout the body and has beneficial lasting effects.
In Arthur Lydiard’s book he discusses a study by Swedish researcher Bengt Saltin which compared seven Swedish runners with students from Kenya’s St. Patrick’s High School – a school which has produced six, world cross country champions, many Olympic athletes and four sub 2:10 marathon runners. The research showed that there was a slight advantage among the Kenyans (over the Swedish athletes) for anaerobic capacity of about 3% and each group had equal ratios of slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers. The primary difference that Saltin found was that the Kenyans had more mitochondria per muscle cell and more capillary development in their muscle fibers – nearly twice as many capillaries. Lydiard points to this study and teases out what many coaches, anthropologists and physiologists have said since. That these kids run to school every day, and everywhere they care to go, not at a fast pace but in an aerobic way – often for 100’s of miles a year. Without creating an oxygen deficit and without stressful training programs they simply ambulate naturally so many more miles than other folks that when it does come time to train for competition - their bodies have developed great vascular depth and energy generating capacity due to adaptations any runner might produce.
Mental stamina - while the endorphins come from the brain and are often associated with the “runner’s high” sensation this is only one component of mental process in the runner. Many folks may claim to never see the runner’s high phenomena and yet they reference the seasoned knowledge that all runs have high and low points. They have a large “aches and pains database” that they can reference to understand what will pass and what is something that will cancel their run. They use mental tricks, disassociate from low intensity pain, and compare their current toil to previous challenges. The longer a person runs the more tools that have to motivate themselves further and the higher their tolerance becomes to high intensity exercise. Please do not misunderstand here that - I continue to stress that when it hurts, smile, and if it hurts too much to smile, slow down or stop. Yet over time you do get to know that “hurts so good” feeling and that type of achievement translates well to the rest of your life also. We’ll have an entire class in mental process in later weeks.
Changes in metabolism – While running should never be used as a diet program - over the long term you will see body mass changes and BMI will be smaller. You burn a large number of calories over the course a week’s running and often this will cause your base metabolic rate to rise. Muscle mass consumes more calories at rest than fat cells do and thus as you develop lower leg and stride enhancing muscle mass you also shift that resting metabolic rate. Running requires 1.7ml of oxygen per meter for every kilogram of body weight. So for example; a man weighing 160lbs (72.5kg) would use 123cc of oxygen for every 3.28 feet he travels. A 120lb woman will only use 92.5cc of oxygen over the same distance – almost a 25% increase in efficiency. When running you start the run on simple sugars (glucose & then glycogen) but as soon as you have begun a regular aerobic rate for running the body begins to synthesize fats and carbohydrates together for muscle fuel. Galloway’s book cites that after 30 minutes of running the body is using fuel that is comprised of more than 50% free fats (free fatty acids and triglycerides). Along with your light strength training routine this aerobic training will leave you with greater definition and changes that most folks see as a positive benefit of an activity they really enjoy.
How long can I expect to develop these adaptations and how long can I keep these adaptations?
Lydiard commented that he continued to see cardiac and respiratory function increase in athletes for years and felt that the greatest gains were often seen in the third year of consistent training. I mention this to emphasize that while you will experience great gains early in your program – you are just getting started on you potential as a runner. Other coaches have taken this gradual progress even further – Joe Vigil coaches Dena Kastor, one of America’s fastest women in history. Vigil worked with Dena over the course of nearly six years and they increased her lung capacity from 72 mls to a VO2 MAX of 81.3 mls, one of the highest ever recorded in an American athlete.
In the book Born to Run, author Christopher McDougall cites analysis done by Dr. Dennis Bramble, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Utah. Dr. Bramble examined finishing times by age division for 2004 New York marathon participants. He found that runners begin to peak after 19 years of age and reach full physical potential at 27 years of age but take heart – yes, they do begin to decline in capacity after age 27 but how long does it take for them to reach the same level of ability that they had at age 19? Sixty-four years of age. Go ahead and read that again slowly because the spell checker is on, I said you would have to be age sixty-four, before a nineteen year old could beat you – provided you were both still training. The statistics on master’s athletes and ultra running confirms this idea and dispels the previous notion that runners only improve for seven years. They may enjoy great capacity and be able to run well for much longer than we previously thought possible. The Tarahumara Indians of Mexico and the Kenyans and Kalahari people run their entire lives, existing without grocery stores ( you have to run for food) and without other means of transport.
Galloway states that muscles can perform the amount of work that they have been accustomed to during the previous 14 days. There is very little loss of adaptations over the short term. If your running is a regular habit you should be able to handle intervals of rest and inactivity without detriment. Loss of some of these running specific attributes occurs slowing over a curve of time. When you are getting back to your program after a long lapse expect to have a short dip in running comfort followed by you feeling more yourself. Folks that have a regular mileage program find that they can sharpen their speed and endurance for a particular race in just 5-8 weeks depending on their physical state. Most runners plan to take a break from running one or two times a year to stay fresh and let the body rest & see no adverse affects from doing so.
What can I do to add depth to these running specific attributes?
We'll continue to talk about this in coming weeks but for now here is some food for thought.
Vary your route by distance, by elevation gain and loss, by surface, by purpose. These all can test and challenge your adaptations and thus enhance your adaptations. Design a four week session for any one attribute and develop it in this mini training period. This tactic called periodization, is a regular technique for elite athletes. They pick apart the challenges of their particular race and design a 4 week interval where they develop the needed skills for that challenge. These periods of specific training can follow each other consecutively without substantial loss of ability and allows them to have a manageable training load while sharpening for a particular event.
Add drills that support balance, movement in a different plane, and activate different muscle fibers.
Sports or activities that translate well to running and enhancing your current adaptations: Tai Chi, Yoga, dance, weight training, rowing, Pilates, plyometric exercise and drills, wobble or rocker boards.
Run year round – these skills develop over time and cannot be rushed without facing injury. So apply patience and mileage while keeping in mind that runners see the biggest gains in the third year or more and that many improve over the course of the their lives.
Run with someone. A little competitiveness, watching someone else’s strengths, having external inspiration to push, can all aid in getting to new and higher places with your running.
Barefooting or de-structuring your shoe program is another way to mix it up and we’ll talk about this in greater detail in another class. In the meantime I’ll just tell you that we start not by running but by walking around the house barefoot. This is advanced territory and merits further investigation and discussion before giving it a try.
Monday, June 13, 2011
What makes us faster?
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Pace and Running Form
Train your self, not by yourself. You deserve company and the shared effort makes the time pass, as well as enriching your run. But your training has no competitors, it’s your training. Besides, you’ll quickly discover that we all respond differently to this type of training and each person needs their own pace/space to do that. While we are striving to run a race at the end of this training cycle, you should remember that it is a training cycle. What do I mean by that? I mean that you should set up your training so that you love training for training’s sake or running for running sake (I know you do not love racing yet, and maybe you will or will not love racing). We are going to make running a practice for you and to define this I quote Danny Dryer, “If you see running as only as sport, you’re limiting yourself to getting only the physical benefits. Making an activity a practice is a process of self mastery. You are no longer simply practicing that activity; you use it to learn about, understand, and master yourself as well as the activity.” That idea will make you better at nearly anything and it is the way people benefit from meditation, learn a new vocation, or tackle the largest of personal goals. While learning to run will be far from the largest accomplishment you ever achieve – I’d argue along with Mr. Dryer that you stand to lean more than how to keep yourself fit and get ready for a race - if you make your running a practice.
So if we are going to tackle some understanding of pacing and running technique we need to begin with what adapts first in our bodies to running.
Cardio system – in charge of keeping you going it is very versatile and will keep rising to the challenge if you apply changes at an appropriate pace so that it can keep up.
What next? Muscle systems: all of those supporting and accessory muscles will be adapting and with your strengthening and stretching program this happens even faster - just lift two days a week and stretch at least as many days as you run.
What next? Tendons, ligaments and connective tissue adapt the slowest. Keep in mind that this tissue does not get the same blood supply as other parts of your body and while tendons and ligaments are very strong, some of us have firsthand knowledge of how long they take to heal. These tissues need the longest to adapt to any sport, including running, so take your time.
Pace is relative from one runner to the next but pace can tell us a lot about your individual achievements and adaptations as time goes by. It can also tell us a lot about over training, fatigue, or where and when that injury began. Hey, sometimes we learn via hindsight but I hope that you and I can use your training notes to put together a picture of how you are progressing rather than looking back to identify your injury. We want to be proactive.
For all the work you are doing you deserve good notes.
· Writing down a few things about what went well and what didn’t allows you to learn over time what works best for you.
· This same record is a confidence building tool that verifies you are in fact improving and putting in the work.
· Keeping your times and distances as you progress in your training allows you to evaluate progress quantitatively and keeps you from going too fast or over training.
· If you can justify the cost (they are now in the range of $70-$200) a heart monitor is also a great gift/tool for self evaluation that will keep you from running yourself too hard.
If you vary your routes from a list of good ones you can avoid boredom and see new places. Varying routes makes you a stronger runner by varying terrain also. Over time this will make you faster too. You may always ask runners for new routes and good ones to add to your list. Some of our class has already started using a map program online to chart and share routes; allowing you to find new places to run. I am adding additional routes to a website called walkjogrun which is listed on the site as a smartphone compatible product but it also works on your desktop or other device and you can make routes without using your car (the old school method is to drive or bike the route, just to get the distance.) New routes can be motivating and will help you vary your training and pace over time.
Warm up – even if it is only a minute you need to allow the joints and muscles to get moving slowly. Walk 3-5 minutes before your workout or if you cannot do this at least run very slowly for the first 3-5 minutes of you workout and get the groove going. I like my route to start a few blocks from the house and this makes me walk a few minutes before I start running. You also can begin thinking about the pace, goal, technique you’ll use to get it all accomplished.
Your pace should be at a rate which allows you to relax. If you are not relaxed it will be difficult to run with clean, efficient form. Exercise is tough enough, right? So make sure that you travel slowly enough that you can think about technique and begin to relax into that technique. People often think that they need to travel at a particular speed in order to call it running and you will see that we are more concerned about your heart rate and level of perceived effort than your actual ground speed. Of course, heart rate and level of perceived effort are very personalized and that is where you come into the training plan process to really make it work. I can help you plan workouts but you are the speedometer for them and the final say (refer to – “you are an experiment of one”.)
Here are a few things to think about that save energy for each run.
You are headed in a particular direction and we want as many of your body parts as possible headed in that same direction you are traveling. Sounds simple but many of us have varying alignments. So from the top:
Your head should be upright and you can easily see out to the horizon. Think about a long spine and the back of your neck being long as well so that when you take a breath, it goes straight into your lungs. Relax your neck and shoulders by breathing rhymic-ly & deeply.
Please take not of this rhythm and tune into it because over time you will notice that it changes and this breathing rhythm will alter as soon as your pace does. Every engine needs air. Keep your eyes on the horizon and imagine the back of your neck being long and straight. This relaxes shoulders and opens the airway giving all the air a straight route to where it is needed.
Arms should swing naturally and swing straight ahead and back. Do not cross your body with your arms. Smile occasionally to relax neck and shoulders (folks will wonder what you’re up to.) Hands are loose and relaxed, form “O’s” if you need to.
When we get to your hips, think about your pelvis being level and parallel with the ground. What I mean by this is that your standing posture may show a tendency to tilt your hips either forward or back but if you stand up straight and tall you can align the pelvis so that the top of its “bowl” is not tipped fore or aft. In order for this to happen your knees will be very slightly bent and your ankles will be very slightly flexed. You want to ease any strain on your back and allow for easy breathing, again – relax.
Stand up for a minute and while standing straight and tall, close your eyes, now jump up in the air with a little hop and as you land on the ground – freeze. This frozen posture that you land in, is a balanced position (if you fell over just now, you were not balanced and will need to repeat the experiment, sorry) this is a very good basic stance for running.
Another thought on posture. If you are standing still in a balance way as we have discussed above, can you see the tops of your feet? If not you may have your hips too far forward, or ankles flexed too much. Try to have that body all centered over your feet and yet a little flexed. We will demonstrate some of this posture in seminar.
Seek to not land on a straightened leg when you travel down to road, have this flexed knee that you experienced a minute ago. Flex the ankles as well so that you are flowing a bit.
Are you using all of your energy to move forward? Look at the horizon and see if it bounces – it should not. Keep feet low and smoothly moving forward to stop upward travel or change it to forward travel. Arms, feet, knees and other body parts should all be moving forward as best as you are able, so practice this and have a friend look at your running form. Moving economically is all about technique, moving slowly enough to practice and to stay relaxed and it gets easier the more you try it.
We use our lower legs to catch us from falling forward. DO NOT push off the ground with calves and toes while running as this will cause injuries to shins, calves, Achilles tendons and possibly elsewhere. No running on your tip-toes – even when going uphill keep feet are landing smoothly and flat. Think about picking up your heels, peeling them up from off the road starting at the back and finishing towards the toe.
Most of us land on our heels and knees should be bent. Do not take a large or unnaturally big step but think about your feet landing right underneath you or just slightly in front of you. Stand up straight or with a very slight forward lean. Your feet should land on the ground quietly and as you listen for your breathing see if you can hear you feet as well. The elite runners run faster because their “turn-over” is 2-3x what ours is. They do not have a longer stride necessarily but their feet strike the ground 3x more often in a minute than ours. When you hear them go by at that pace it sounds like typing, pitter pat, pitter pat, very quiet.
Now for the effort part – we want to get you a workout and start the cardio system on adapting but we balance that with moving slowly enough to practice technique and to stay relaxed.
Heart rate: You can take your pulse in the morning before getting out of bed to determine your resting heart rate in beats per minute. Use the artery in your wrist or neck (just beside your windpipe) and quietly count for 30 seconds and multiply by 2.
The traditional formula from your book: Your maximum heart rate (MHR) will be 220 minus your age = MHR seeks to never exceed this number.
Your MHR X .60 gives you your training level for 60% effort.
Your MHR x .95 gives you the 95% effort number; the highest heart rate you would reach in race conditions.
Most of our training builds endurance to get us to race distance and so we train at 65-85% of our MHR. This is aerobic training and is the type that offers infinite improvement physiologically.
Your text refers to another way to calculate your heart rate that is slightly different than the old standard which will give you a little higher overall allowable rate see page 112 for the Karvonen formula – there are many ways to calculate but what if you do not have a monitor to track your heart rate? Believe it or not – most pro athletes start the season with a monitor and once the tune into where they are at for the season they leave it at home because they are so good at sensing “perceived effort”.
Perceived effort (PE) is the feeling of “how much of my total energy is being spent running right now?” or how close is this to the fastest I can go (100% effort)
Easy pace= 65-70% PE you can have a complete conversation, feels like a 3-4 on a 10 scale of effort, you may run 3 strides per inhale, 3 strides per exhale
Aerobic pace=75-85% PE you can still speak in sentences, feels like a 5-6 effort on a 10 scale, 2 inhale or 2 inhale-1 exhale per 3 strides. Some call this tempo pace.
Threshold pace= 88-92% PE you - speak a –few-words-at a- time, feels like a 7-8 hard effort, breathing in & out on every stride. Some call this interval pace – you cannot hold this one for very long.
If you feel the need to run faster during a workout save it for the second half of your run. Running the second 50% slightly faster is know as a negative split or a progression run and trains the body for race day by building endurance. If you start out faster in the first half of your run and then tire…you teach the body to slow down instead. Better still, for 90% of your workouts (we’ll talk about speed workouts in a few months) start at the pace you plan to finish at, which means keep a slow steady rhythm that reflects that PE 3-4 or 65-70% or your target heart rate. You’ll not only enjoy the run more but you’ll feel more like you could run the next day.
Most programs wait 8 weeks before adding any hill repeats or speed work on the track – it is better and OK to seek to run negative splits during runs as an easy endurance builder. First you develop a running form that feels natural to you – speed work will later cause your body to subtly improve upon that form.
Aerobic training – the athlete can infinitely develop their potential in this area – it is not yet known what a human’s maximum oxygen handling capacity is… and a number of coaching experts agree that this is the zone where you should spend the majority of your time. The only trouble is that is can be easy to creep out of this zone and into the anaerobic zone without knowing it. Pay attention to your pace, your breathing rhythm and what it “feels like” in terms of perceived effort so that you do not wear yourself down prematurely.
Anaerobic training – the ability to perform work under oxygen deficit - this ability is finite and can only be developed to a point. Training at your near maximum heart rate, at or above threshold pace is anaerobic training. “running—so fast—that—you can—hardly—speak—might—vomit…” is an anaerobic pace and will leave you feeling wasted for your next run.
Here is another great tool that you should consider as a conservative means to keep yourself in the aerobic zone & you’ll need to be A) serious enough to really want to improve – as it requires restraint B) you’ll need a heart monitor and the ability to use grade school math.
from philmaffetone.com
The 180 Formula
To find your maximum aerobic heart rate:
1. Subtract your age from 180 (180 - age).
2. Modify this number by selecting one of the following categories:
1. If you have or are recovering from a major illness (heart disease, any operation, any hospital stay) or on any regular medication, subtract 10.
2. If you have not exercised before, you have exercised but have been injured or are regressing in your running, subtract 5.
3. If you have been exercising for up to two years with no real problems and have not had colds or flu more than once or twice a year, subtract 0.
4. If you have been exercising for more than two years without any problems, making progress in competition without injury, add 5.
For example, if you are 30 years old and reasonably fit you would fall into category 2c: 180 - 30 = 150.This is your maximum aerobic heart rate for base training. For efficient base building, you should train at or below this level throughout your base period. [In this example 150 would be the runners 3-4 pace and the bulk of all their running.]
Why does Dr. Maffetone say this, and why is his number so low - even lower than the traditional method? Less is more. You need to feel motivated to run on the day that you do and over training by going too far, too fast, running somebody else’s pace, running too many days can really leave you unprepared for a good effort on your training day. Dr. Maffetone argues that many of us inadvertently train some in the anaerobic zone, feel stronger or faster than we really are and then fade due to aerobic deficiency syndrome. Dr. Maffetone gives a great analogy for steady progress in your cardio development in his book The Maffetone Method. [If you are] “jogging one mile at a heart rate of 140 bpm, initially in 12 minutes…a month later the same one mile jog at the same rate takes 11.5 minutes; two months later, 10.5 minutes; and three months later, 10 minutes. This would indicate good progress and also implies increased fat burning.” This allows development of your aerobic system and avoids the tendency to go out and try to overdevelop the anaerobic system. Many great coaches have suggested similar strategies but Dr. Maffetone has a great formula to keep you honest and measure the results. I like that for a lot of reasons, our culture thinks that if you’re not out dusting the competition you’re not running fast enough. This is slow, steady, phenomenal progress in cardiac capability and efficiency and will make your daily running seem effortless in the long run.
From another great coach – sometime called the father of jogging, and guide to more Olympic athletes than any other in history, “A distance runner employing a moderate work rate, can get enough oxygen to economically burn fat & glycogen. This enables ATP (adenosine triphosphate) to be rebuilt as fast as it is being used and the trained runner, working aerobically, can continue for several hours – in the case of the elite ultra runner, for day after day of steady aerobic output.
What happens when the runner sprints or shifts his work-rate into the anaerobic phase is that oxygen is no longer absorbed fast enough for the fat & glycogen breakdown. The body will then cheat & break down glycogen without oxygen.” Arthur Lydiard
By using a reasonable pace to develop aerobic capacity and refine good running form you will see gains faster. It is not a fast process, but it is faster in the sense that you will remain uninjured and have the capacity to maintain steady progress. Your running economy is as important as good fitness toward making you a faster more effortless runner. That said, we try to go farther before faster and the father of running states “why” best.
“Most people never realize what their potential is or understand the simple truth that it is based upon their ability to assimilate, transport and use oxygen. If we can appreciate that and then improve that ability, we lay a better foundation on which to build the technical skills and reach a tireless physical & mental state in which we can employ those skills & techniques much better and much longer” Arthur Lydiard
"Try to run each day in such a way that you would want to run again the next day…"
Nutrition and hydration part one
Nutrition and hydration for running 2011
Groceries in, garbage out, blood goes round and round…
Performance is directly related to the type and quality of fuel that goes into the runner and when. You are an experiment of one; however there are some useful guidelines that will increase performance.
We are not on a diet when training – weight loss should not be a goal while taking on a new challenge like this. Listen to your body and be good to it. You may choose to modify some of your fueling habits to assist your running and this will help you in developing a fitness program.
Your doctor will suggest that 8 glasses (64oz) of water daily is a suggested healthy amount - I would use this as a starting point. What is the top end for water needs? Well, the armor divisions in Israeli (IDF forces) are allocated 2.5 gallons daily (10L+) in order to fight inside tanks in the desert. You are not up against this kind of challenge, and would clearly slosh a bit on your run – if you could run. Again listen to your body and be smart about things, slowly building up the amount of fluid you can ingest along with a balanced diet and you may find that you do well with 3,000 – 4,000 mL, or 4 quarts each day which is twice what the old standard is and your sweat test homework may adjust this number also.
Coffee – contains additional antioxidants but caffeine in particular stimulates early breakdown of body fats into free fatty acids and triglycerides which are substances that are used as fuel. It may also have a small effect in bronchodilation and stimulates respiration for some runners. USA Track and Field calls caffeine a legal performance enhancing substance, but you can get too much of this as well. Limit caffeine use, as more than 500mg daily is a diuretic and will dehydrate you and more than 200mg daily can affect cardiac function. The key words are small to moderate doses…You can get a table of how much caffeine is in your beverage, and further explanation of the chemistry here: http://runningdoctor.runnersworld.com/2010/01/
Your body will need 3 cups of fruit and 3 cups of veggies daily to get all of the nutrients you need for training. This type of nutrient supply is vastly better than a vitamin.
Liz Applegate PHD and Runners World nutritionist says “eat (smaller meals) every three to four hours to keep your energy level up and your brain thinking clearly. Start with a decent breakfast, even if it is in your car” she is referring to the fact that this is the meal many of us will run on that day and it is proven that this meal regulates the days hunger and metabolism. Plan ahead so that you can take in very small meals that contain good carbs, protein, good fats and nutrients for sustained energy. People ask me, “How do I do that, and fit in 6-7 servings of fruit and so much whole grain in a day?”
Two key things to think about here: First is an understanding of portion size. If we are eating 4-6 micro meals a day the portions are really small. They also have to be pretty balanced to get the good stuff to fit. So a recovery snack might have several good food groups involved and is less than half of what I would eat at lunch, in terms of quantity. Second is that old Steven Covey analogy about time management. He would pour sand into the jar as a representation of what is urgent in our lives - all the stuff we feel like we need to do, and then he would try to get the big stones to fit in that jar. We all know what happened, those stones did not fit. Not until he placed the stones in the jar first, did the sand all fit around the stones, and everything did get into his jar. He was showing us how to manage our time with what was important vs. what was urgent. Well our running diet is that way too and if the “stones” are your food pyramid items you can still get the “sand” or those other things into the diet too – and the more miles you run the more sand you can eat also!
I have also included resources on the site for “green” or “earth friendly” menu planning and vegetarian menu planning and you should know where I am going with this so that you are not filled with anxiety and continue to learn. I am not going to suggest that while you are learning to run that you also learn an entirely new way to eat. I know that will not work. I also know that I can learn from nearly anybody and that I have learned a great deal about how to incorporate more “stones” - more really nutritiously dense calories into my diet by learning from folks who teach us to eat more simply, and cook with more plants. It happens to be cheaper too (which is great, because with my mileage as it is now, I eat a lot) and I have found a few new family favorites this way.
One thing we’ll do in order to expand your experience with good healthy and fulfilling recipes is to ask you to bring in one of your own that feeds you well and feels good to run on, and then we’ll all exchange them to increase your recipe box. If you are unsure about what to try as a running recipe and do not ordinarily cook – then you can pick out a new thing to try with the runners world recipe finder listed in the links area.
The power of real foods cannot be duplicated. One example is Strawberries; the fruit gets its bright red color from antioxidant compounds called anthocyanins, which are found in other red and blue fruits and help reduce inflammation and counteract muscle damage from exercise. One cup of strawberry halves contains just 49 calories and nearly 150 percent of your Daily Value for vitamin C—don’t forget that they contain water – the base of any solid food pyramid.
Energy bars are OK for a quick fix but many contain lots of unneeded sugar too – limit the bars and do not replace real food your body needs now. Try eating ½ the bar as a rule and if you are still hungry go for whole grains (steamed in advance) or fruit/veggies.
Calcium is taken for granted and it should not be, due to the fact that your feet are hitting the ground harder and so many times each week now. Milk, yogurt, cottage cheese and the like all come in fat free varieties and this is something you use for bone density and support as well as muscle contraction. Please make sure you are not neglecting calcium intake.
Many runners add Omega 3 fatty acids to their diet and 1200mg of DHA & EPA omega 3’s are recommended. This is most easily obtained with a fish oil supplement or consuming salmon/tuna daily.
Just as water is needed to process all these good calories, oil and “good fats” are needed to process these colorful nutrients in your food. Antioxidants and enzymes that come from bright vegetables are soluble in these plant based, unsaturated or polyunsaturated oils. For oil - think plant based oils and these are fats you cannot do without, you just need a small amount.
Occasional treats are OK and a treat day is part of my training plan – it motivates me to run more. Enjoy life, not just your running! Just avoid treats as recovery food or pre-run food because many of these do not sit well (cause GI distress) or a sugar spike that will knock a runner flat or put them to sleep.
Before running you will need to have fuel on board. 200-500 Kal would be a minimum needed to avoid BONK on a long run. Eat a good meal two hours before a run and if you cannot do that get 200-500 kal as a snack - try to eat 30-45min. before your run.
Allow 30 minutes minimum for it to settle (you’ll have to experiment with your own stomach on this one, and be sure to document what works)
Document what does not agree with you and when is too soon to start running post meal. Think of the stomach wall as a sponge (if it is wet it can work well, otherwise you’re waiting for it to saturate before digestion gets going) Your stomach needs to be hydrated before it can move food out – so drink with your food and it’ll be digesting faster/more smoothly for running.
Within 30 minutes of running your cells need to be replenished with glycogen acquired from quality calories. If you do this appropriately it has been shown that much of this energy is actually stored at/in the muscle itself. The body converts energy to glycogen and stores it where it will be needed for your next workout which is much more efficient than your liver trying to supply all the energy for your next run.
Your pre-run body weight divided by 2 equals the number of grams of carbohydrates you’ll need to replenish yourself for recovery. There are 4 Kal/Gram of carbohydrates. While many of you have heard of low carb diets and KFC wants you to double down, clean carbohydrates is the largest percentage of what propels a runner. Ideal recovery foods contain some protein for muscle recovery and faster nutrient uptake & the research shows a 4:1 Carb:Protein ratio works best.
Examples:
Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter carrots and hummus
Apple with peanut butter, almond butter cheerios and milk
½ of a Powerbar or similar vegetable juice (V8 or like, but read for sodium level)
Low fat cottage cheese with fruit coconut water (new & trendy as it contains sugar. Potassium & no fat)
Low fat chocolate milk, 8oz glass
rice and bean burrito w/ salsa
salmon and brown rice
tuna fish and veggies wrap
hummus and veggie pita sandwich
fruit and yogurt smoothie (freeze @ night, thaw morning of run)
foods high in water are great after a run, satisfying hunger and offering hydration along with reduced calories.
Individual metabolism varies but recreational runners will burn anywhere from 600Kal/hour to 100Kal/mile traveled.
Water loss depends upon many factors but for best recovery you will need to replenish water stores right after running and in some cases (longer runs, over an hour) try drinking during your run. Heat and rising temps may cause you to need water sooner.
This bears repeating, perform a water loss calculation as part of your homework about yourself. Pre-run, weigh yourself naked. Post-run weigh yourself again and compare the values. Any pound of weight change multiplied by 16oz equals the amount of water lost during your run and you should drink the corresponding amount of water to replace your loss. On future long runs you can seek to drink some of this fluid as you are loosing it by sipping every 15minutes. During hot days and heavy sweating most folks need 16-32oz per hour of exercise or 3-6oz every 15-20 minutes. (If you gain weight during your run, you are drinking too much water – this is tough to do and somewhat self-limiting due to sloshing or GI distress)
During longer runs you may want to think about eating simple foods to keep calories on board and avoid bonk. Runs over one hour fit into this “long run” category. Runners traveling over an hour need 240Kal/hour to avoid bonk. If you try to eat – use simple, low fiber, no dairy foods and document what agrees with you. The maximum you’ll be able to use is 240-280Kal/hr so you are not replacing everything – just trying to maintain homeostasis.
Examples
Energy gels, Bananas, Fruit chews, PBJ sandwich on wheat, Gatorade, Pretzels, Chia seeds etc. and you’ll notice that I use a lot of real foods because of price and nutrient density
Many running nutritionists say 15-20% of the calories should be protein. This leaves 20% fat and 60% carbohydrates. Fruits & veggies, legumes and whole grains are “clean carbs” and you’ll eat a lot of these to improve performance. All of the above examples are pretty high in fiber and as you increase the level of fiber in your diet – you feel full longer and you body has more time to wring the nutrients from the food. You also become very regular and this is helpful for your running schedule as well.
Some elite ultra runners use 30% protein, 30% fat, & 40% carbs and are running more than 100 miles/week
Try to eat “5 colors” of food everyday – real colors from nature to give you all of the vitamins you need to keep running
Processed foods generally mean fewer vitamins, less fiber, more sugars and less beneficial fats. Few real foods are the color white.
Fiber is very important to the runner as it helps quality foods stay of board long enough for you to wring the quality calories out of them. Additionally theses foods contain complex sugars and carbohydrates that burn longer without a blood sugar “spike” or “drop” that hurts you mid-run or mid-meeting. Stay away from high fiber right before or during runs but try to change the daily amount of fiber to give you more & you’ll see sustained energy.
The food pyramid was revised five years ago and a model has been adapted for runners too. Note that the base is fluids – very critical to body function and digestion of every calorie.
Runners need 800ml (27oz) of additional fluid for each hour of sustained exercise. Two liters is considered a minimum staring point
Five servings of fruits and vegetables daily and at least one of these should be “raw”. 200ml of unsweetened juice may replace one serving
Three servings of whole grains & legumes daily – runners add one extra serving for each hour of exercise. Sport food (60-90g serving) may replace one serving
Four servings of Milk/Dairy/Meat/Fish/Eggs daily (100-120g raw weight) – same as regular pyramid
Three Servings of oil/fats/nuts daily (2-3 teaspoon) daily- Runners add ½ a serving for each additional hour of exercise, may be from any type
Only in moderation Sweets/salty snacks/sweetened drinks (includes alcohol) – Runners should consume with a meal & need to consider that these items may slow recovery
How many calories do you need each day? This is the basic formula:
1. Multiply your weight by 10 to determine the number of calories needed to exist – resting metabolic rate.
2. Add half that number to #1 for general daily activity like working shopping, and add/subtract 100 calories for sedentary folks or folks who chase toddlers.
3. Add calories for purposeful exercise. One hour of exercise may burn 400-600 calories depending upon activity and intensity.
4. Example: 120# person needs 1,200 in line 1, add 600 for activity in line 2, add 400 for their run in line 3. Total for daily intake equals 2,200 calories.
Plan your own meals by “stones” at www.mypyramid.gov and the number of free resource there is astounding.
A good calorie counter formula for running is available at http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html
A tool for how many calories/proper portion size is at http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304--11628-0,00.html
A recipe database for quality runner’s dishes is at http://recipes.runnersworld.com/homepage.aspx
A site with good food tools (calorie counter by food, nutrient facts, food journal) is at http://www.thedailyplate.com/ and this site has been further enhanced at livestrong.com
You will see Mark Bitman’s link and a vegan kick start link on the website as well and these offer recipe tools as well.
Read 15 foods for the runners shopping cart homework by Liz Applegate at Runnersworld.com, the link is also on the YMCA group site
Stretching and Strength training part one
A few thoughts about stretching and strength training
All of our bodies have imbalances – this is normal. Most of the time you never notice what is commonly a very slight asymmetry in the body or your posture. Starting a new sport, any new sport, will often bring the asymmetry to your attention. Stretching and strengthening is an opportunity to isolate and modify our natural imbalances that could bring about a long term strain or injury. Many of us run on one side of the road for miles and miles and never notice an imbalance that might result from the slope of the road crown or shoulder.
I have a different story that is a more extreme example. As a raft guide I sat in the back right corner of the boat and spent days paddling six guests down the river. One side of my lower back is much stronger as a result and that was very clear to me when I started running further. My buddy has a lesser example, his chiropractor told him he needed to take his wallet out of his back pocket, because the 4” of credit cards and dinner receipts and whatever else was in there was giving him an asymmetry. Sometimes we know what causes these slight changes and sometimes we do not. They can be subtle or extreme but I’ll bet we all have one, and I’ll bet again that a few of us will have our running bring it to our attention. You’ll hear me say it often that you need to listen carefully to your body and this type of issue need not alarm you if you are a careful monitor. My back had a talk with me slowly and in a “tap, tap” you on the shoulder kind of way. That is when I went to strength training and gently corrected the problem. Before you go out to take the chainsaw safety course they sharpen the chainsaw for you, they know you’ll have a much better experience with a sharp saw.
Stretching and strength training are a quick way to get under your own hood and make sure everything is shored up and aligned a bit before starting this big journey. And when I go on a long drive for summer vacation I do not take the whole car apart to make sure it works! I just check a bit, kick the tires and noodle with the simple stuff and that is what we are doing here too.
Here are a number of the key stretches that you will want to perform after a run, while muscles are still warm. Your text has a number of stretches and you can experiment with a number of them and others to get better results. We will practice one of these after every group run so that you can see them in action. Which stretches should I choose or which ones should you do? I think that keeping a short list, that works for your level of flexibility, and that you’ll actually complete are the best ones to do. We’ll show you a short list of favorites that are a good gentle start and work both flexion and extension related to key areas of your running movements. I realize that all of us are busy but I need you to make time to stretch. If it came down to you needing to shorten your run by 8 minutes in order to find time to stretch – then do that. But often you can read, watch TV or see you kid play while you use ten minutes to mitigate injury in your training day and longer looser muscles recover more quickly. You’ll feel better and recover faster with just these and can always expand your routine as you progress.
| Some tips: |
| Tension should subside as you hold a stretch, feel the muscle relax |
| Breathe deeply and naturally while stretching, from your diaphragm (belly) |
| Many stretches can be enhanced by trying them in an expanded range or movement, try it gently and think about taking the calf stretch and then moving your knee to the right or left slightly to stretch a different part of the muscle gently |
| Think about the area being stretched, this is a nourishing activity |
| Stretch warm muscles, and only after activity – if you are already warm form a walk or another type of workout you can even stretch on days that you do not run |
| Stretching enhances recovery, oxygen and glycogen uptake and leaves you ready to run again |
| try to visualize a good race and what went well mid-run while you stretch – this bears repeating… |
Additionally, I will recommend a few key drills to strengthen your key muscles used in running. Again, I realize that you are busy and some will say that they cannot find the time, while others will say they do not want to be a body builder. We will not add any mass to your frame with these drills, only muscle definition. The most important thing is that we support your running by giving you structural support and exercising tissue that does not see activity any other way. This type of weight lifting is quick and intended to be injury prevention for what we ask your body to do. By including a non-impact form of exercise in your conditioning we also stimulate a recovery response for your body and continue to build your metabolic rate without increased mileage or wear on your legs.
So that I do not make any assumptions; a set is a group of repetitions with weights and a repetition (rep) is a single lift of the weight. You will be doing just a single set and we’ll start with a small number of reps and slowly build to a number of 15 or less. The key to making this work is that you will use a weight that is heavy enough that the last few reps will be difficult to complete. But the weight should not be so heavy that you cannot correctly perform the exercise, because form is most important. Use the pictures in your book and a mirror at the fitness center to help you learn clean form for each exercise. You will notice that most of these do not require a weight room either so you can do them at home and save time for other things (like stretching). Several great drills for strength in your core include drills such as plank and superman which are isometric exercises and so you’ll hold them until failure, record your time and then add 5 seconds to that time each week as a goal. I would tell you that for best results strength training would be done 3 times weekly, however those three day a week folks only saw 5-10% improvement over those who strength train 2 days a week. Since you are already busy with running and stretching, I feel two days is sufficient and achieve our goal of a balanced body that is buffered from injury.
Remember: use enough weight that last few reps are challenging but you maintain form
every strength session makes your run miles more fluidly and easily
lean muscle mass deflects impact from joint structures which are less regenerative
an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure
