Posts
Words from some great coaches
If you are going to spend any time thinking about how to motivate runners, with something other than your own passion for the sport, it is far better to study the past and present history than it is to reinvent the wheel. My love of running ties nicely into my habit of reading nearly everything, and to this end I’d like to share with you some tidbits of what I have learned from two great running coaches. I think that there two individuals offer applicable tidbits for every runner and you can learn more about these folks at their web sites, or a quick Google search. Phedippidations (one of my favorite running podcasts) has an episode about Arthur Lydiard that is also very well done.
Joe I. Vigil, Ph.D.
As a physiologist and scientist Joe Vigil has risen to the top of his profession and been named coach of the year 14 times. He has coached international athletes and the US Olympic team. He has guided athletes through a number of regimens and set the path for what have become many of the “standards” in coaching runners today.
He has argued that most distance runners have an iron deficiency and that especially goes for women.
He has tailored training stimuli for the individual athlete being training (an advanced method of periodization).
He has advocated run more miles (his athletes run about 140 per week) just as Arthur Lydiard did, so that athletes achieve a tireless state for their chosen race. [remember that how you run them is very important]
He has advocated for more speed workouts in order to boost cardiovascular reserve and respiratory reserve in his athletes.
What might be most interesting however is that despite all of the intensive, specific and well researched science that Dr. Vigil has put into his athletes he has found that the final polish in getting them to a higher state lies in the Zen of personal improvement and that he insists upon this as part of an athlete’s progression to excellence.
As with all members of Team Running USA, we required that all athletes strive to:
1. Improve Personal Relationships
2. Improve Achievement Motivation
3. Improve the Quality of Their Mini and Macro Environments
4. Improve Their Athletic Maturity
5. Show Integrity to Their Value System
6. Display a Commitment to Their Mission
7. Practice Abundance by Giving Back to Their Sport and Team
This is great news for the adult runner because of the fact that even though we can all personally improve, many adults are already quite good at the above seven core ideas of Coach Vigil.
Joe Vigil currently coach for Team USA in California and one of the most impressive athletes in this great team is Olympian Dena Kastor. Vigil describes Dena Kastor, “If I were to operationally define the qualities an athlete must possess to be successful, Deena would epitomize those qualities. She is a great example of mind/body autonomy working in harmony to reach set goals. She truly believes and adheres to the principle of unending improvement and the setting and achieving of even higher goals.”
In interviews and articles his wisdom continues to shine through on how to motivate the inner athlete for performance. Some of his adages, paraphrased, follow here.
Friendship is the thing to cherish and respect the most from the sport you are involved with.
Challenge: you have to make a difference in your team, finding your gift or element of leadership that you can give to those around you. Be an impact person.
The journey: every day you need to accomplish something, incrementally in the process, you have to think and plan how you will incrementally get better.
Courage: you have to have the courage to not do, what you should not do, when the current leads you astray. Be considerate of your teammates and fellow runners and look for chances to pick them up.
Goddess of wisdom vs. the goddess of wealth -
We all have two goddesses that complete for our hearts in life. You cannot chase the money – if you give all your attention to the goddess of wisdom and cherish her most, the goddess of wealth will become jealous and follow you. I think that I like this one the best and anyone who has been caught dancing like no-one is watching is onto this idea. You should be doing the important stuff first, the rest comes along if it will.
Arthur Lydiard
From his beginnings as a cobbler who began running as a means to rid himself of a few pounds, Lydiard’s name became synonymous with great coaches. He began a coaching philosophy in the 1950’s that was tested in his neighborhood in Auckland, New Zealand, with non-athletes and even bypass patients. As Garth Gilmore writes in the preface to Lydiard’s book Running to the Top, (reprinted in numerous languages) “So ingrained is the Lydiard philosophy now, we almost have to force ourselves to recall that before him, the coaching was 180 degrees the other direction. Lydiard was the beginning of a magic era; jogging became acceptable if not godlike…Lydiard was the keystone and he never lets us forget that, as an unschooled layman, he did what physiologists, theorists, and professional coaches were not able to do. He was unsophisticated but he was smart.”
Lydiard enjoyed an equally long list of mentored champions. He has too many keen insights about running to list in a single essay and his imprint on coaching is clearly still felt today. I’ll share a few of those insights here, from his book that which are relevant to your program.
“Athletes need to enjoy their training… You have to hurt yourself a little but at the same time you must enjoy it” he is also the person who gave us the adage “train, don’t strain”. While Lydiard never said it would all be easy for athletes, he emphasized that one should “try to run each day in such a way that (you) would want to run again the next day”
Our sport is largely a solitary one and thus there is a very large mental aspect, where the athlete is driven internally to flourish and move forward in their journey. On this matter Lydiard states, “athletes need to be told why specific aspects of training are being used, both physiologically and mechanically. This is the best form of psychology and motivation to use…The coach should appeal to an athlete’s intelligence, explain clearly what every training session means & what they are trying to achieve. ”
“One of the remarkable aspects of jogging has been the discovery by so many who have taken up running, even late in life, of potential they didn’t know they had to be quite successful athletes”. He follows this through with, “when it comes to endurance, when can develop that in anyone” and if you have not caught my bias yet – I believe him on this one.
I like the change in perspective these guys have and offer it to you so that you can A) understand where I am coming from when I offer you advise about your program B) So that you can begin to explore further some of the great minds in the sport that have a lot of sound advice to offer. See if you can find the influence of these folks in the modern viewpoint of Tom Holland and his book. I feel that in terms of running’s history we are all standing on the shoulders of giants.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Running adaptations
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.
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 that I posted last week 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 in performing this effort will improve and this, 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 very well. 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 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.
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.
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 that I posted last week 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 in performing this effort will improve and this, 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 very well. 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 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.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Good read on nutrition
As a followup to nutrition I thought that I would post a link to an article discussing Chris Carmichael's coaching of Lance Armstrong. While many have their own opinions about this cyclist it is difficult to argue that he has received world class coaching over the years and his buddy Chris makes a great living doling out sound advice.
That said he is promoting a new book on nutrition and this author reviews some key concepts from this new work. Note the periodization is employed, just as we use this technique for training load and to build a runner toward a peak of training. Also note that the article sites several mini meals that are nutrient dense. Many of these suggestions will even stay down during a run (although I doubt I could eat a bowl of cereal while running, I have enjoyed a bagel and banana on the fly). Take this article as a good supplement and insight toward new nutrition/training tools.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-301--6686-0,00.html?cm_mmc=nutrition-_-2010_06_10-_-nutrition-_-DIET%3a%20Performance%20Fuel
That said he is promoting a new book on nutrition and this author reviews some key concepts from this new work. Note the periodization is employed, just as we use this technique for training load and to build a runner toward a peak of training. Also note that the article sites several mini meals that are nutrient dense. Many of these suggestions will even stay down during a run (although I doubt I could eat a bowl of cereal while running, I have enjoyed a bagel and banana on the fly). Take this article as a good supplement and insight toward new nutrition/training tools.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-301--6686-0,00.html?cm_mmc=nutrition-_-2010_06_10-_-nutrition-_-DIET%3a%20Performance%20Fuel
Monday, June 7, 2010
Pace & 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…"
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…"
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A note to sore & discouraged runner
Here is something I wanted to talk about because I got a student question on injury that gave me the feeling something else was under the surface - their motivation had been shaken too. I used the Dear Abby format to keep everything anonymous - I advise a lot of folks - not just in Elkins. Because we only meet on Saturdays it is possible that you do not have your sails lifted as often as you need in getting started and if that is the case, or your injured, or you need help - let me know. I feel like running is the best thing going and I want it to work for you if at all possible. I hope another person's question is a learning experience for others. Let me know.
Dear Carl: I wanted to touch base with you about my knees. After our run the other day, I drove twenty minutes to get home, and it was all I could do to climb 5 steps to get in the house. The next two days were better...and I could go up and down the stairs without hurting. I went for a run today and started off by walking, my knees bothered me and after the first walk run interval I could feel it just wasn't right, so I took a rest. I am I cut out for running?
Dear runner: here are several suggestion to your very big question.
You’re hurt. Maybe not bad, but you need to walk for now and here is why. We rarely get better standing still and when you see an “injury” in the real world (say a bird flies into your window) they get up right away because they know they are cat bait if they do not. Simple. Oftentimes some gentle movement will tell you more about the condition without making it worse and help you loosen up. Remember that stairs are easier walking backwards if your knees and quads are sore. Hold onto the rail! Never-the-less you have heard the prescription before of, activity as tolerated. This is what you need to do along with things like Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation (RICE) and being good to yourself while staying confident that you can do this if you choose.
Whatever is bothering you is difficult to diagnose over the phone (or email) w/o a lot of trial and error but there could be several possibilities to consider right out of the gate that I see a lot (sort of FAQ’s from class) so without making light of your predicament – I’ll use the opportunity to teach a bit and toss around several of the possibilities that may be working on your knees.
You simply ran too far and are suffering Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. We did run a 30 minute workout instead of the prescribed 20 minutes and while ten minutes of TV does not seem like a lot, we added 30% to your workout on a nice day of talking and running slowly. Honestly, maybe we should not have – I apologize for talking more than I was looking at the watch. When I run too long I am sore afterwards too – sometime for many days. I take responsibility for running too far on Saturday and I am sorry, you have my word that I will not do that again.
Your knees, shoes, or gait are bothering you. While I do not know your prior history with the knee ( your doc should always ask you “has this ever bothered you before?”) You may have a historical imbalance that we can work out slowly over time. We would do this with a gentler plan, once you are not sore. Stretching daily, and strengthening the muscles that support the running, including your knees. If your shoes are not new or brand new, they can tweak you the wrong way. When I have a runner in front of me I ask “what has changed since the problem began?”, and begin there. Think about that one and we can get back to it because small changes can have profound effects - good and bad.
I am always sore when I drive after running and this never changes for me. I have to stretch to get my muscle relaxed after a run and driving forces me into a long term, unnatural position, that often makes it tough to rise from the car. Perhaps you have seen me stretching between class breaks in nursing? I just cannot sit for very long anymore – I guess my lower body was made for nursing now. You may have to incorporate a 10 minute cool down and snack time before you drive home. When I ran the Tucson marathon my Dad read the paper for an hour while I stretched, ate, stretched, walked and then I could finally get in his car to head to the hotel.
Anything that hurts for two or more days needs a 2 day break before returning to running. You can always walk your miles, as this uses different muscles and you can self regulate easily. Wear you running shoes while walking to see if they are part of the issue (scientists control as many variable as possible) and to pad your feet/body. If after two days of self-rehab (which would be walking, stretching, using RICE on your affected area) you do not feel better let’s talk again with greater specifics about what is going on and in the meantime schedule with your Health Care Provider (HCP).
Remember that your homework assignment was to let your doctor know what you are doing and why you wish to take on this project. This last part is as important as the first, because I have heard doctors tell people they just cannot run and in my opinion this is hogwash. Most people can “ambulate for exercise” if they choose to – we need to modify our expectations of what running and realize that less is more. We start slow and many of us stay that way, only to just have the fitness experience simply get easier and maybe a little quicker. We do not go out and try to force change on our bodies but let it happen gradually. I would tell you to have the attitude that you can do it if you do it gently and that you advocate for this when you visit you’re HCP.
Of course, there are folks who develop stress fractures, have injuries they have never known about and other conditions that I have no business to diagnose - and you know that is why I am sending you to your HCP. But I know you signed up for class for a reason, and a very good one is that you are making an investment in yourself. Lobby for that and I will too. In the meantime walk, eat right and get back to me with more about your condition after two days rest.
There are several good links on the website and one of them is injured runner where they’ll ask you what hurts, then tell you what it might be, and try to sell you a book. While you may not need the book you gain some more insight about typical running related injury. Please understand that 90% of running related injuries are the result of overuse/overtraining. We’ll spend the next five months talking about all of the ways to over train and again I apologize for showing you one of them on Saturday- running too long. Also read the website entry on stretching and strength. I can tell you first hand that these two components greatly helped my running. I learned about the parts of me that were not adequately trained and works holistically to fix these areas to improve my running. In addition to these two key techniques that were covered this week many folks use other tools as well such as yoga (see Sage Roundtree on the site) and massage to again, open up, relax the body and strive for better symmetry.
We are seeking a new path and while I did say that you can do it, I will never say that it will be entirely easy. I was sincere when I said that I honor and admire the courage it requires to take up something new and challenging. I do try to make it a seamless transition for people and we should ease into it, know that everybody will adapt slowly at their own pace and can choose to triumph in the end. The most unlikely folks have come to fall in love with running over the years and one reason for this; I believe, is that we were built to run. Nobody said how fast or how far- you choose those variables with some guidance.
Misery loves company and if you really want to read a “crash and burn” story while you rest and RICE, try Tom Holland’s tale of his first marathon attempt (pages 9-16) which will cover at least a dozen things you do not want to do. In spite of his debacle, Tom not only went on to write a great book but holistically corrected his problems to run well. His story is one of many and I have heard countless others from people who were not runners (before they started) and are still not going to tell you that they are athletes, even today, when they are wonderful examples of a healthy lifestyle. Why did Tom Holland become a runner after that dismal race day? Because he wanted to, and that is the 1% inspiration that somehow weighs in as almost heavily as the 99% perspiration that he applied afterwards to surmount his goal. Please understand that I will never tell you to “gut it out” like the high school football coach did, because I do not think it is responsible guidance – it is not congruent with an injury free fitness program. But I do wish that you maintain your hopes to be a runner. I do hope you understand that there are a lot more possible solutions than there are reasons to quit. I hope I have begun to illustrate that when your body is new at something you approach the solution to success as a puzzle to solve and that we well may be able to do that together.
Dear Carl: I wanted to touch base with you about my knees. After our run the other day, I drove twenty minutes to get home, and it was all I could do to climb 5 steps to get in the house. The next two days were better...and I could go up and down the stairs without hurting. I went for a run today and started off by walking, my knees bothered me and after the first walk run interval I could feel it just wasn't right, so I took a rest. I am I cut out for running?
Dear runner: here are several suggestion to your very big question.
You’re hurt. Maybe not bad, but you need to walk for now and here is why. We rarely get better standing still and when you see an “injury” in the real world (say a bird flies into your window) they get up right away because they know they are cat bait if they do not. Simple. Oftentimes some gentle movement will tell you more about the condition without making it worse and help you loosen up. Remember that stairs are easier walking backwards if your knees and quads are sore. Hold onto the rail! Never-the-less you have heard the prescription before of, activity as tolerated. This is what you need to do along with things like Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation (RICE) and being good to yourself while staying confident that you can do this if you choose.
Whatever is bothering you is difficult to diagnose over the phone (or email) w/o a lot of trial and error but there could be several possibilities to consider right out of the gate that I see a lot (sort of FAQ’s from class) so without making light of your predicament – I’ll use the opportunity to teach a bit and toss around several of the possibilities that may be working on your knees.
You simply ran too far and are suffering Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. We did run a 30 minute workout instead of the prescribed 20 minutes and while ten minutes of TV does not seem like a lot, we added 30% to your workout on a nice day of talking and running slowly. Honestly, maybe we should not have – I apologize for talking more than I was looking at the watch. When I run too long I am sore afterwards too – sometime for many days. I take responsibility for running too far on Saturday and I am sorry, you have my word that I will not do that again.
Your knees, shoes, or gait are bothering you. While I do not know your prior history with the knee ( your doc should always ask you “has this ever bothered you before?”) You may have a historical imbalance that we can work out slowly over time. We would do this with a gentler plan, once you are not sore. Stretching daily, and strengthening the muscles that support the running, including your knees. If your shoes are not new or brand new, they can tweak you the wrong way. When I have a runner in front of me I ask “what has changed since the problem began?”, and begin there. Think about that one and we can get back to it because small changes can have profound effects - good and bad.
I am always sore when I drive after running and this never changes for me. I have to stretch to get my muscle relaxed after a run and driving forces me into a long term, unnatural position, that often makes it tough to rise from the car. Perhaps you have seen me stretching between class breaks in nursing? I just cannot sit for very long anymore – I guess my lower body was made for nursing now. You may have to incorporate a 10 minute cool down and snack time before you drive home. When I ran the Tucson marathon my Dad read the paper for an hour while I stretched, ate, stretched, walked and then I could finally get in his car to head to the hotel.
Anything that hurts for two or more days needs a 2 day break before returning to running. You can always walk your miles, as this uses different muscles and you can self regulate easily. Wear you running shoes while walking to see if they are part of the issue (scientists control as many variable as possible) and to pad your feet/body. If after two days of self-rehab (which would be walking, stretching, using RICE on your affected area) you do not feel better let’s talk again with greater specifics about what is going on and in the meantime schedule with your Health Care Provider (HCP).
Remember that your homework assignment was to let your doctor know what you are doing and why you wish to take on this project. This last part is as important as the first, because I have heard doctors tell people they just cannot run and in my opinion this is hogwash. Most people can “ambulate for exercise” if they choose to – we need to modify our expectations of what running and realize that less is more. We start slow and many of us stay that way, only to just have the fitness experience simply get easier and maybe a little quicker. We do not go out and try to force change on our bodies but let it happen gradually. I would tell you to have the attitude that you can do it if you do it gently and that you advocate for this when you visit you’re HCP.
Of course, there are folks who develop stress fractures, have injuries they have never known about and other conditions that I have no business to diagnose - and you know that is why I am sending you to your HCP. But I know you signed up for class for a reason, and a very good one is that you are making an investment in yourself. Lobby for that and I will too. In the meantime walk, eat right and get back to me with more about your condition after two days rest.
There are several good links on the website and one of them is injured runner where they’ll ask you what hurts, then tell you what it might be, and try to sell you a book. While you may not need the book you gain some more insight about typical running related injury. Please understand that 90% of running related injuries are the result of overuse/overtraining. We’ll spend the next five months talking about all of the ways to over train and again I apologize for showing you one of them on Saturday- running too long. Also read the website entry on stretching and strength. I can tell you first hand that these two components greatly helped my running. I learned about the parts of me that were not adequately trained and works holistically to fix these areas to improve my running. In addition to these two key techniques that were covered this week many folks use other tools as well such as yoga (see Sage Roundtree on the site) and massage to again, open up, relax the body and strive for better symmetry.
We are seeking a new path and while I did say that you can do it, I will never say that it will be entirely easy. I was sincere when I said that I honor and admire the courage it requires to take up something new and challenging. I do try to make it a seamless transition for people and we should ease into it, know that everybody will adapt slowly at their own pace and can choose to triumph in the end. The most unlikely folks have come to fall in love with running over the years and one reason for this; I believe, is that we were built to run. Nobody said how fast or how far- you choose those variables with some guidance.
Misery loves company and if you really want to read a “crash and burn” story while you rest and RICE, try Tom Holland’s tale of his first marathon attempt (pages 9-16) which will cover at least a dozen things you do not want to do. In spite of his debacle, Tom not only went on to write a great book but holistically corrected his problems to run well. His story is one of many and I have heard countless others from people who were not runners (before they started) and are still not going to tell you that they are athletes, even today, when they are wonderful examples of a healthy lifestyle. Why did Tom Holland become a runner after that dismal race day? Because he wanted to, and that is the 1% inspiration that somehow weighs in as almost heavily as the 99% perspiration that he applied afterwards to surmount his goal. Please understand that I will never tell you to “gut it out” like the high school football coach did, because I do not think it is responsible guidance – it is not congruent with an injury free fitness program. But I do wish that you maintain your hopes to be a runner. I do hope you understand that there are a lot more possible solutions than there are reasons to quit. I hope I have begun to illustrate that when your body is new at something you approach the solution to success as a puzzle to solve and that we well may be able to do that together.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Heat and its affects on the runner
It is beginning to get hot and sticky and while you had an excuse before that it was too cool – you are now beginning to develop another one – that it may be too warm. Fear not because we discussed last week that there is no bad weather, only poor clothing choices and we’ll cover some tricks for all climates to get you through this. You should also know that our bodies have some truly unique adaptations which allow us to run, slowly, better than just about any other animal on the planet. Don’t take my word for it – read Dr. Dan Lieberman’s studies on the subject as they are very educational. [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~skeleton/danlhome.html]
One of these amazing adaptations is that we can dump heat, fast and effectively if we are smart about it and keep up with our bodies’ adaptations. Your body will begin adapting and acclimatizing to the hot weather in only a few days but it will take several weeks to fully be able to thrive in higher temps. Ease into this w/ a slower pace as you adapt. While you are adapting lets think about heat and how you are going to control this variable.
When two objects of different temperature are placed in contact with each other heat moves from the warmer object to the cooler object. You need to know this – because it will work to your advantage, like when you run early in the morning and you are hotter than the air around you. The larger the temperature gradient, the faster heat will move into the air and away from you. Have you ever seen your coffee steam in the morning? This is a micro example of a temperature gradient. Do you know how Gore-Tex rainwear works? On a temperature/moisture gradient also – so if the weather is humid and hot – your Gore-Tex jacket accumulates perspiration and you do not feel as dry. So remember this above law and think about gradients as energy or fluid or material moving from high concentration to low concentration. Here are the primary ways heat moves or terms to define how heat is lost into the environment:
Conduction – immersion in water, tongue on a lamp post, lying on the ground – heat goes into the cooler object
Convection – wind pulling the warm air away from your body, a breeze of a fan help with this and the winter wind does this when you do want it to…
Radiation – heat moving into space, rising from your attic, your head or elsewhere – watch the heat radiate from the road sometime in shimmering waves seen from a distance
Evaporation – high evaporation = high cooling, like wet burlap on the cooler or wet fabric on skin, sweat leaving the skin – carries heat w/ it.
So you want to understand this basic terms and properties because they present real world opportunities for you to avoid overheating. At the cellular level half of the energy you burn is heat production, you’re warm and you can’t help it, but as I said you can work with it.
Do not stress about the heat. We are among the most well developed mammals on the planet for running in this weather. How does the body cool itself? Radiation, Convection and evaporative cooling are the primary means – respiration a secondary means and we have a large skin surface area to vasodilate blood vessels and dump heat. We are able to sweat and provide a large area for convection & evaporative cooling. The faster you have heat carried away the better, as high core temps equate to difficult running. Quick cooling; via evaporation, a breeze, skin in contact with open air to draw off heat these processes all accelerate the cooling process.
You must be hydrated and stay that way in order to run in the heat. Drink plenty of fluid on the days you run & sip water during your runs (16-32oz per hour of exercise or 3-6oz every 15-20 minutes.) How much to drink varies by your weight, metabolism, adaptation, climate and other factors. Until you know your fluid loss/sweat rate just remember what a bag of IV fluids does – steadily drips… You will need a steady drip of fluid replacement in order to perform at your best. We just read that evaporative loss has profound results in cooling you, and if you are not drinking almost as fast as you are sweating, you need not be an accountant to see deficits ahead.
So how fast am I sweating at a given temperature? The SWEAT TEST: You can weigh yourself nude before going out on the run. Weigh yourself nude after the run (sounds obvious but those clothes are full of water, so you do not weigh them.) Convert the number of ounces lost on your scale into ounces of fluid lost. If you had a drink on your run add that number to the total amount lost. You can then estimate, for those conditions, how much fluid you need on a run. So I start the run at 155 pounds and return weighing 153 pounds, meaning I lost two pounds. I had 16 ounces to drink and yet I still lost two pounds so I add that 16oz (one pound) to the total lost = 3 pounds. That means I need about 42 ounces (16oz X 3 pounds) of fluid to replace what I lost out there and get back to my regular weight. I was not sweating fat – I have to replace that lost water. Lost water is lost blood volume and that blood volume keeps me from getting dizzy, delivers oxygen and groceries to my recovering muscles, and takes out the garbage or lactic acid and metabolic waste from muscle efforts. I must know what I generally loose and I need to put it back in order to recover well – dehydrate athletes do not recover well, in fact they do not even digest food very well.
I use a calculator I found at Runners World as a comparison to my
weigh-in calculations for fluid needs. http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-302--10084-2-1-2,00.html
Based on the above calculator a 180lb person would need the following quantity of fluid (in ounces) ea. hour as a minimum for the temperature 50F=5.4oz, 60F=5.7oz, 70F=5.9oz, 80F=6.5oz, 90F=7.3oz, 100F=8.4oz and for temperature I would use the “feels like” temperature the weather man uses – rather than your window thermometer - as this “feels like” includes the heat index calculations.
Research and the medical community seem to mostly agree that you do not want to lose more than 2% of your mass during a run. For example: a 130-pound woman can lose no more than 2.6 pounds. After that your brain does not thermoregulate as efficiently, low blood volume affects perfusion, and you do not generally work as well. Many folks experience mental status changes at this stage of fluid volume loss or may not pass the “tilt test”. This refers to the idea that they get dizzy when they change positions quickly; there is not adequate blood volume to keep up with all your efforts. Drugs can also affect your body’s response to heat and thermoregulation. If you are using amphetamines, thyroid medication, antipsychotics, excessive caffeine (above 500mg daily) or alcohol, you may respond differently to heat stress.
Listen to your body while running. Nausea and light headedness, cramping, irritability, dry & flushed/red skin, low urine output &/or dark urine, or a body that stops sweating is showing critical signs of stress. STOP running and cool off in the shade while getting help. Your body knows more than you do & heatstroke can kill you. Body Temps of 102-104 are survivable with emergency assistance while 107 will be critical but do not pull out a thermometer and read it. Instead remember that the longer someone is at a high temperature the more severe the long term effects. Chill immediately.
Remember that heat injuries affect the “level of consciousness” first. If your running partner seems unaware, confused or more combative than usual it may be the first sign of a problem.
Remember the “chill vest” you saw in the Beijing Olympics? Think about a run that includes a spin through the sprinkler, dip in the stream, or a shower every other lap. Try to keep your shoes dry to prevent blisters but keep your core temperature low so that the blood used to power your legs is not reallocated to cooling your body.
This low core temp concept is another strong argument for going out slow. You need to do your fast running, if any, closer to the end of your workout so that you can then cool down properly. Fast running early will leave you hotter and more sluggish throughout the workout.
Running very early or very late in the day is a big help. Consider night runs with reflectors and a flashlight as one way to beat the heat. Our area has several parks and a bike trail where you can run cool and not be concerned with traffic. While mornings may see the highest humidity levels, temperatures are lower and so the heat index is tolerable for many. Notice that many desert cultures cover themselves completely with light colors and loose clothing that allows air circulation. If you choose to bare the skin to speed cooling, wear your sunscreen.
Conduction cooling: many folks freeze a hat or bandanna and wear it to provide additional cooling. Some even stash a cooler out on the route for a second frozen hat or ice water. Dumping one cup of cold water over your head while drinking the other at aid stations may help. Choose shady routes and plan to slow down; one study has shown that 54 degrees is perfect for running and that we can expect each 7 degree increase above this temperature to slow runners one minute/mile.
HEAT INDEX the NWS provides these numbers for reference – when temperature & humidity meet or exceed these combinations you need to find a treadmill in the AC. Again our area has several great facilities for air-conditioned running and both enjoy brand new treadmills.
Temp Humidity
86 90
88 80
90 70
92 60
94 55
96 45
98 40
Research has shown that you can absorb as much as one liter/hour of fluid. Your minimum daily allowance of fluids is 8-10 glasses a day (64oz) but 128oz is even better for runners or folks who engage in an hour or more of exercise daily. You can “pre-hydrate” yourself on days you know you are running in the heat which is preventative because you can, after adapting to the heat, easily sweat 2 liters/hour during heavy exertion. You will benefit from the additional fluid volume for cooling the body as long as you do not drink more than you can absorb right before a run, which may lead to sloshing while you run. As long as you are eating a normal diet you will not need additional salt or electrolytes to adapt to heat and added salt may prove to be a stressor. Keep it simple with water and it’s cheaper – as well as always available. Sugars generally slow the absorption of fluids so while some may need sweeteners/drink mix to make water appealing to drink – be careful not to create a problem with gastric emptying pre-run.
Think about a water bottle, hydration pack, fanny pack or fuel belt that you can use to carry fluids during these very hot months. I do not target a lot of gear recommendations because every one likes their own style on this kind of thing, but something to keep you hydrated will make your runs safer and more enjoyable.
One of these amazing adaptations is that we can dump heat, fast and effectively if we are smart about it and keep up with our bodies’ adaptations. Your body will begin adapting and acclimatizing to the hot weather in only a few days but it will take several weeks to fully be able to thrive in higher temps. Ease into this w/ a slower pace as you adapt. While you are adapting lets think about heat and how you are going to control this variable.
When two objects of different temperature are placed in contact with each other heat moves from the warmer object to the cooler object. You need to know this – because it will work to your advantage, like when you run early in the morning and you are hotter than the air around you. The larger the temperature gradient, the faster heat will move into the air and away from you. Have you ever seen your coffee steam in the morning? This is a micro example of a temperature gradient. Do you know how Gore-Tex rainwear works? On a temperature/moisture gradient also – so if the weather is humid and hot – your Gore-Tex jacket accumulates perspiration and you do not feel as dry. So remember this above law and think about gradients as energy or fluid or material moving from high concentration to low concentration. Here are the primary ways heat moves or terms to define how heat is lost into the environment:
Conduction – immersion in water, tongue on a lamp post, lying on the ground – heat goes into the cooler object
Convection – wind pulling the warm air away from your body, a breeze of a fan help with this and the winter wind does this when you do want it to…
Radiation – heat moving into space, rising from your attic, your head or elsewhere – watch the heat radiate from the road sometime in shimmering waves seen from a distance
Evaporation – high evaporation = high cooling, like wet burlap on the cooler or wet fabric on skin, sweat leaving the skin – carries heat w/ it.
So you want to understand this basic terms and properties because they present real world opportunities for you to avoid overheating. At the cellular level half of the energy you burn is heat production, you’re warm and you can’t help it, but as I said you can work with it.
Do not stress about the heat. We are among the most well developed mammals on the planet for running in this weather. How does the body cool itself? Radiation, Convection and evaporative cooling are the primary means – respiration a secondary means and we have a large skin surface area to vasodilate blood vessels and dump heat. We are able to sweat and provide a large area for convection & evaporative cooling. The faster you have heat carried away the better, as high core temps equate to difficult running. Quick cooling; via evaporation, a breeze, skin in contact with open air to draw off heat these processes all accelerate the cooling process.
You must be hydrated and stay that way in order to run in the heat. Drink plenty of fluid on the days you run & sip water during your runs (16-32oz per hour of exercise or 3-6oz every 15-20 minutes.) How much to drink varies by your weight, metabolism, adaptation, climate and other factors. Until you know your fluid loss/sweat rate just remember what a bag of IV fluids does – steadily drips… You will need a steady drip of fluid replacement in order to perform at your best. We just read that evaporative loss has profound results in cooling you, and if you are not drinking almost as fast as you are sweating, you need not be an accountant to see deficits ahead.
So how fast am I sweating at a given temperature? The SWEAT TEST: You can weigh yourself nude before going out on the run. Weigh yourself nude after the run (sounds obvious but those clothes are full of water, so you do not weigh them.) Convert the number of ounces lost on your scale into ounces of fluid lost. If you had a drink on your run add that number to the total amount lost. You can then estimate, for those conditions, how much fluid you need on a run. So I start the run at 155 pounds and return weighing 153 pounds, meaning I lost two pounds. I had 16 ounces to drink and yet I still lost two pounds so I add that 16oz (one pound) to the total lost = 3 pounds. That means I need about 42 ounces (16oz X 3 pounds) of fluid to replace what I lost out there and get back to my regular weight. I was not sweating fat – I have to replace that lost water. Lost water is lost blood volume and that blood volume keeps me from getting dizzy, delivers oxygen and groceries to my recovering muscles, and takes out the garbage or lactic acid and metabolic waste from muscle efforts. I must know what I generally loose and I need to put it back in order to recover well – dehydrate athletes do not recover well, in fact they do not even digest food very well.
I use a calculator I found at Runners World as a comparison to my
weigh-in calculations for fluid needs. http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-302--10084-2-1-2,00.html
Based on the above calculator a 180lb person would need the following quantity of fluid (in ounces) ea. hour as a minimum for the temperature 50F=5.4oz, 60F=5.7oz, 70F=5.9oz, 80F=6.5oz, 90F=7.3oz, 100F=8.4oz and for temperature I would use the “feels like” temperature the weather man uses – rather than your window thermometer - as this “feels like” includes the heat index calculations.
Research and the medical community seem to mostly agree that you do not want to lose more than 2% of your mass during a run. For example: a 130-pound woman can lose no more than 2.6 pounds. After that your brain does not thermoregulate as efficiently, low blood volume affects perfusion, and you do not generally work as well. Many folks experience mental status changes at this stage of fluid volume loss or may not pass the “tilt test”. This refers to the idea that they get dizzy when they change positions quickly; there is not adequate blood volume to keep up with all your efforts. Drugs can also affect your body’s response to heat and thermoregulation. If you are using amphetamines, thyroid medication, antipsychotics, excessive caffeine (above 500mg daily) or alcohol, you may respond differently to heat stress.
Listen to your body while running. Nausea and light headedness, cramping, irritability, dry & flushed/red skin, low urine output &/or dark urine, or a body that stops sweating is showing critical signs of stress. STOP running and cool off in the shade while getting help. Your body knows more than you do & heatstroke can kill you. Body Temps of 102-104 are survivable with emergency assistance while 107 will be critical but do not pull out a thermometer and read it. Instead remember that the longer someone is at a high temperature the more severe the long term effects. Chill immediately.
Remember that heat injuries affect the “level of consciousness” first. If your running partner seems unaware, confused or more combative than usual it may be the first sign of a problem.
Remember the “chill vest” you saw in the Beijing Olympics? Think about a run that includes a spin through the sprinkler, dip in the stream, or a shower every other lap. Try to keep your shoes dry to prevent blisters but keep your core temperature low so that the blood used to power your legs is not reallocated to cooling your body.
This low core temp concept is another strong argument for going out slow. You need to do your fast running, if any, closer to the end of your workout so that you can then cool down properly. Fast running early will leave you hotter and more sluggish throughout the workout.
Running very early or very late in the day is a big help. Consider night runs with reflectors and a flashlight as one way to beat the heat. Our area has several parks and a bike trail where you can run cool and not be concerned with traffic. While mornings may see the highest humidity levels, temperatures are lower and so the heat index is tolerable for many. Notice that many desert cultures cover themselves completely with light colors and loose clothing that allows air circulation. If you choose to bare the skin to speed cooling, wear your sunscreen.
Conduction cooling: many folks freeze a hat or bandanna and wear it to provide additional cooling. Some even stash a cooler out on the route for a second frozen hat or ice water. Dumping one cup of cold water over your head while drinking the other at aid stations may help. Choose shady routes and plan to slow down; one study has shown that 54 degrees is perfect for running and that we can expect each 7 degree increase above this temperature to slow runners one minute/mile.
HEAT INDEX the NWS provides these numbers for reference – when temperature & humidity meet or exceed these combinations you need to find a treadmill in the AC. Again our area has several great facilities for air-conditioned running and both enjoy brand new treadmills.
Temp Humidity
86 90
88 80
90 70
92 60
94 55
96 45
98 40
Research has shown that you can absorb as much as one liter/hour of fluid. Your minimum daily allowance of fluids is 8-10 glasses a day (64oz) but 128oz is even better for runners or folks who engage in an hour or more of exercise daily. You can “pre-hydrate” yourself on days you know you are running in the heat which is preventative because you can, after adapting to the heat, easily sweat 2 liters/hour during heavy exertion. You will benefit from the additional fluid volume for cooling the body as long as you do not drink more than you can absorb right before a run, which may lead to sloshing while you run. As long as you are eating a normal diet you will not need additional salt or electrolytes to adapt to heat and added salt may prove to be a stressor. Keep it simple with water and it’s cheaper – as well as always available. Sugars generally slow the absorption of fluids so while some may need sweeteners/drink mix to make water appealing to drink – be careful not to create a problem with gastric emptying pre-run.
Think about a water bottle, hydration pack, fanny pack or fuel belt that you can use to carry fluids during these very hot months. I do not target a lot of gear recommendations because every one likes their own style on this kind of thing, but something to keep you hydrated will make your runs safer and more enjoyable.
Nutrition & Hydration for Running
Nutrition and hydration for running
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.
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 analog 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.
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 your self 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
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.
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 analog 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.
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 your self 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
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