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“Your feet are your friends” unknown, but this sage wisdom has been handed down for a long time...
You need to start looking at your feet each day to better understand their needs and how they are taking care of you. Understanding the way your feet work will keep you running many happy miles. Dr. Tim Noakes states “Treat the cause, not the effect. Because each running injury has a cause, it follows that the injury can never be cured until the causative factors are eliminated.” Would you ever think of treating your hands with the casual disrespect we give our feet? Probably not, because you and everyone else takes notice of them – yet we often forget our most prized running instrument. The tool that contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 12 tendons, and 18 muscles is a terrific and something DaVinci called a wonder of engineering.
I should say upfront that most of what I know about foot care has come from years as a distance hiker and leading groups afield. But what I know (and share today) about running foot care comes from the 300+ page, definitive tome of foot care called Fixing Your Feet by John Vonhof. He has a blog as well but this book is so well thought out that it is in its 4th edition with Wilderness Press and I highly recommend this book.
So here is the nice thing about reading a blog – nobody will see what you do next.
Take off your shoes and we’ll have a brief foot tutorial and review - with you “kicking the tires” to see how these things work and if you are properly caring for them. Go ahead, your privacy is assured – but your running future is at risk if you do not take a look at these things…
Look for changes:
Redness, cracks in the skin, nails are OK, any itching or scaling? Blisters or sore spots, callus buildup, plantar warts or corns etc – should be things you are looking out for & aware of in the developing health of your feet. Our noses, ears and feet with continue to change over the course of our lives and this program, and your new pastime will impact your feet - so get a baseline look now and watch what happen over time.
Keep them smooth and clean.
Brush off the feet before going into socks and ensure nothing is in your shoes that should not be there. Use of lotion on your feet helps skin remain soft and then that skin is less likely to thicken – think about applying before bedtime and sleeping in clean socks to keep moisturizer close to the skin. Callus is generally accepted in the medical community to be a sign of abnormality, high friction, biomechanical issues or poor fitting foot gear. These should be sanded down, smoothed and reduced by gradual filing as often as possible. Failure to take care of this may cause the callus to dry and crack (producing a painful, tender injury to skin below) or deep blisters beneath the callus material which heals much more slowly than regular blisters. Soak feet in warm water or shower prior to filing/sanding with a pumice stone for best results.
Stop “hot spots” or blister right away.
If you feel friction inside the shoe stop and immediately examine the problem. Carry tape or mole foam when you anticipate trouble and apply as needed to stop friction. Even duct tape will work; trim edges to prevent “rolling” while you run as tape peeling up will make blisters worse. I love the Engo patches and have shown these to classes before – they are a Teflon type sticker that you can adhere anywhere inside the shoe as needed.
I will tell you that many of the above issues; dry skin, cracking, callus, even athlete's foot - can be reduced or eliminated by having your home and yard be a barefoot zone. Where your skin can breathe and both heat and friction that can come from shoes is reduced. I never teach anything I have not tried myself, and besides having stronger feet - many of these issues went away for me. I can honestly say that my occasional blister heals faster as well, when I leave my shoes off at home.
Trim your toenails before you need to – straight across to prevent ingrown nails. The failure to trim nails flush with the toe causes snagging on socks or shoes and can lift the nail off the nail bed. Long nails can cause “black toe” bruising and bleeding in the shoe! Yuck. During exertion feet will swell. Feet are largest in the afternoon, which is why it is the best time of day to buy shoes. Feet, running at days end will be very large, and so it is critical that nails be kept at the proper length to avoid impact injury.
Feet age – like we do they change over time. 1) They continue to enlarge and change in size. 2) The toenails often thicken. 3) The padding on the bottom of your feet thins and we lose some of the spring in our step as a result. 4) Feet stiffen and some range of motion is lost over time. 5) Balance sensitivity changes over time with some losses expected. 6) Arches flatten slightly. Again, I should tell you that research by Dr. Dan Lieberman and Dr. Daniel Howell show that cultures that live without modern footwear, do not see these changes over time, with the possible exception of increase in foot size. In other words; five of the 6 changes listed above (by Vonhof) do not occur in cultures that do not wear modern shoes. Take your shoes off at home first and enjoy the health benefits of doing so.
Proper shoe sizing, foot pedicures, stretching and strengthening exercises can also offset these changes to your feet and keep you happily running.
Troublesome toes: Many folks have a condition called Morton’s toe (named for the doctor who discovered the condition). The second metatarsal bone being longer than the first, the second toe is the longest one on the foot and shoe sizing must accommodate this difference. Estimates range from 15-60% of the population having this condition. The second toe length can affect gait and shoe fit. Poor fitting shoes can cause callus formation where the toe bears additional weight. Simply being aware of the condition can allow for accommodations such as sizing, or additional padding.
Little toes can develop what Vonhof calls the little toe triangle. Check your little toes (or nested toes) to see if they are round and smooth on the bottom or if they have a small hardened triangle of skin developing. This triangle is very vulnerable to blisters and even tearing and so it should be soaked, reduced and moisturized to remain trouble free for long runs.
Feet can produce a pint of fluid in perspiration each day! This has to me managed for the runner.
Blisters and foot pain are most often caused by a triad of elements; friction, moisture and heat. Eliminate or effectively manage at least one of the triad and you’ll run with comfortable feet. Complex foot issues can be mitigated using socks, powders, and lubricants in your primary care plan. Additional preventive support can be found with; taping, skin conditioners, antiperspirants, orthotics, specialized lacing, shoe and sock changes, nutrition and hydration, and gaiters.
Socks are as important as your shoes and they need to match up with your shoes well. Your socks assist in injury prevention if they provide cushioning, protection and temperature management. Some of the best socks for running are now made as Right and Left in each pair. Socks do not have a break in period but you should test your socks for 3+ miles or more in your shoes prior to race day to ensure; they feel great, will do what they are supposed to, and do not give you blisters. Synthetic fibers are best and keep feet dry. Feet that are too wet or dry and grabbing something in the shoe/sock are the ones that blister.
Women’s fitted socks, toe socks, anatomically fitted (right & left) socks, anti microbial fibers, seamless socks, double layer socks, compression socks, Teflon enhanced socks to reduce friction are all currently available. There are even waterproof socks called Sealskinz but my experience has shown that these get so sweaty inside that they may be unmanageable for many runners.
Pay attention to the size of the socks as the number on the package may be “sock size” which fits a range of shoe sizes and may not numerically correspond to your foot size. Remember you are buying socks to fit your feet and not the shoe size, which may be larger to accommodate your foot swelling while you run.
Popular fabrics that review well include; Coolmax, polyester, acrylic, olefin, merino wool, bamboo, drymax, x-static, blister guard, are all great fibers currently being used in running socks.
Many running shoe companies make a sock that works well. Other names include: Balega, Bridgedale, Thorlo, Drymax, Under Armour, Injinji, Wigwam, Teko, Wrightsock, Defeet, Fox River, Goldtoe, InGenius, and Smartwool. These are available at Zombierunner.com, Zappos.com, Roadrunnersports.com, REI.com and other retailers.
Lacing can change the fit of your shoe and take pressure off of trouble areas in many cases – refer to the book “fixing your feet” by John Vonhof or Runnersworld.com, or Ian’s link, posted here on the blog, for lacing suggestions and diagrams. There are products that offer micro tensioning for laces; stretch laces that look like springs, lock laces with tension adjustments, and sausage style laces that offer tension adjustments. These may help you micro fit the shoe and unlike the “garden weasel” seen on TV many of these lacing gizmos work.
Footbeds are available for a number of foot types and gaits. Over the counter insole products are shapeable and trim to fit for your shoes. When sizing these tools at home follow directions closely! Many of these products are expected to last about a year under normal use and are often superior to the insoles that come with your shoes. SOLE, Spenco, Superfeet, Hapad, and Sorbothane all make a reputable footbed product. These are not orthotics as a podiatrist would make for you and cannot correct gait issues. They may provide additional support, prevent injury and reduce chafing in footwear. If I reveal my bias here though – many PT’s who are running experts, feel that using a footbed or advanced support works at the pain or problem but not the source of the issue - which may be feet in need of balancing (in terms of strengthening and flexibility) - therefore footbeds may only treat a symptom. I mention these tools because they can enhance the fit of a pair of shoes that are working well for you. But I do not recommend them - rather I suggest that you use them sparingly if need to enhance shoe fit and as we started off with - treat the cause of the problem
Self massage devices, floor rollers or tennis balls can be used to massage and rejuvenate feet with great results. Many ultra runners swear by the monthly pedicure which includes some foot massage and foot maintenance.
A foot soak you can do at home which will deodorize, soothe and soften feet (while being antibacterial/antifungal) is Pedifix FungaSoap. Contains tea-tree oil, Epsom salt, & peppermint, costs about $11.00 at pedifix.com. I have had good success with this product as a way to prep my feet for nail trimming and sanding off callus material. It smells great and leaves feet very clean and soft. Let me know if you have another trick and I’ll post it here.
Ankle strengthening and balance exercises to increase proprioception aid in having stronger healthier feet and serve to offset aging and prevent injury. These need not be complicated – standing on one leg and remaining balanced, for progressively longer intervals, is one simple method and there are many others. Walking barefoot around the house a bit is another.
A great web resource - from the man who wrote 350 pages on footcare is http://fixingyourfeet.com/blog/
Read up, incorporate a few tips each week for your amazing feet, and remember that “Your feet are your friends”
Showing posts with label Tim Noakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Noakes. Show all posts
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Another chapter in nutrition
Groceries in, garbage out, blood goes round and round…
"Endurance events are eating and drinking contests with some exercise thrown in too" Sunny Blende
We have already had a primer on running nutrition and via handouts you had recently, we looked at race day and race week meals to try in preparation. So now let’s talk about the food pyramid (now known as "my plate", new resource ideas for meals to help your running, salt, iron and regulation of “in’s and out’s” a bit. Your everyday training depends on knowing a bit more about fueling - especially as long runs get longer.
Let’s look at the macro nutrients in greater detail and see what you’ll be fueling yourself with in the coming months as you seek to keep yourself well fueled and injury free in training and attain ideal body type for your event. Running hard and all this training is not a diet program – I have said this many times. Yet you will find that over time your metabolic capacity increases and you are burning a lot of fat on your long runs, when they are done at aerobic pace. Therefore, body composition may actually subtly change even while you are eating a balanced and nutritious diet that feeds your energy level. Pretty cool stuff.
Three primary fuel types and all food from the new food pyramid fits into these neat slots as far as the body is concerned, yet not all foods are created equal. Carbohydrates, Lipids (or fats), and protein are the three types.
Fat: Sometimes a dirty word and thought of as something to avoid and yet, this is the most efficient fuel the body can have at 9Kal/gram, and it does not require the storage of water to be used in the body. We store most foods as glycogen and use it all over the body. Fat during aerobic exercise is converted to fuel and used for any endurance activity because it works but also because you cannot store all of the fuel you need to burn without using this fat. Unsaturated fat from plant products is ideal and not refined or hydrogenated fat is most healthy and burns in the body with fewer bi-products like free radicals.
Protein: Nearly everything of value in the body is built from proteins and this makes them simply too valuable to use a fuel. Skeletal muscle is built from a number of key proteins but even elements for your cell membranes and body hormones are made of protein. Daily intake is required and can be attained from animal and or vegetable sources. These proteins are made of amino acids and your body disassembles proteins it consumes and rebuilds good stuff from these amino acid chains. Several key amino acids are important to attain if we are on any kind of vegetarian or alternative diet. The most important of these amino acid chains is Omega 3.
Carbohydrates: Nearly everything else that is not made of protein or fat or a man made substance is a carbohydrate. Even sugar is a carbohydrate. While many people have profited from special diets that eschew “carbs” they are the body’s essential and most easily used fuel. The average American eats far more of the wrong kinds of carbs than they should, however the body will metabolize carbs the best and with fewer byproducts than any other energy synthesis. The trouble is that we cannot store all of the energy we need this way and so we start the running machine on carbs and efficiently transition mid run to fat metabolism as a fuel source.
What is bonk? You’ll see unprepared runners face bonk or “the wall” during a big event. It can be physically excruciating and mentally dehabilitating. Preparation can prevent this and you just need some understanding of physiology and prior practice to fend it off. Two experts define what this is pretty simply.
Sunny Blende, sports nutritionists writes, “The brain also does not store any glucose – as glycogen, as the muscles do – and is totally dependent on blood glucose for its energy supply. In order to function normally, the brain requires a relatively normal blood glucose level. So what happens to an ultrarunner when he or she is running hours and hours with an increasing demand for glucose? If our ultrarunner does not ingest adequate amounts of carbohydrate (glucose) along the way, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) sets in. And with prolonged hypoglycemia comes central nervous system fatigue – the progressive shutdown of the part of the brain that drives the muscles. Bad news for attitude and bad news for performance.”
In one of Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, he found that two percent of marathoners, six percent of those who ran 50 kms and 11 percent of those who ran 100 kms were hypoglycemic. He cites the symptoms as a “reduced ability to concentrate, a sudden feeling of weakness, and the intense desire to stop running. Typically, the athlete senses the impossibility of completing the race”. Sound familiar? Obviously foods containing glucose would have helped these athletes perform better, but an explanation of the mechanism of action might make this concept easier to understand. Again, Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, “The main supplier of glucose into the blood is the liver. This happens directly from its own store of glycogen or indirectly by a process known as gluconeogenesis (the production of glucose by the liver from substances other than carbohydrates, for example, proteins). Training also helps the liver’s ability to produce glucose from circulating blood lactate. However, because the liver is so small compared to the body’s muscle mass and only stores about 250 - 500 calories of glucose, it could never keep up with the muscles’ demand for glucose when exercising hard or long. In a trained athlete, this amounts to three or four hours of running at a moderate pace. And the muscles are prevented from using too much circulating blood glucose in order to protect the brain. Fortunately our body has provided the muscles with other ways of obtaining glucose; namely a good supply stored in its own tissues and the ability to use fat as a source of energy. And remember, the supply stored in the muscles can be doubled if post-exercise carbs were consumed within thirty minutes or so. But even this generous supply will only last about five to six hours. The rate that the liver releases glucose and the muscles take it up during exercise is increased six-fold from a resting state. When tissues increase their rate of usage faster than the liver can produce it, blood levels fall and body function is impaired. In order to prevent brain drain and preserve our mind’s ability to think and strategize effectively in an ultra event, it becomes crucial to ingest carbohydrates during the race. If the muscles become fatigued, the brain will reduce the number of muscle fibers activated and in order to continue running, the ultrarunner will have to slow down. This is the body’s way of surviving. It may limit the runner’s physiological capabilities, but preserve the neurological function of the brain. Exhaustion, in this case, may be defined as a decrease in signals from the brain to the muscles, not a direct change in glycogen levels in the muscles - in other words, central fatigue.”
So the central governor steps in again to save the day and we learn that this phenomenon is preventable if we keep energy reserves up to meet the exertion demands. That requires you to test what kind of carbohydrates will digest easily for you while running. Gatorade, gel packets, bananas, chia seed, PB&J, fruit roll-ups and others have all been tried and many work well as long as they contain some water of their own and you keep your stomach lining wet w. a bit of fluids. Sunny Blende and others suggest that you might be able to train your body to utilize as much as 240 calories per hour while running (you’ll use more than this often, but that’s the breaks). The average gel packet is 100-150 calories each and 12oz of Gatorade is about 90 calories. So you can calculate what you’ll need and try to eat is small amounts spaced along the duration of your run.
Here is a link for some breakfasts with protein (a good time to get it as you metabolism is firing up and you’ll run on this later in the day) I love protein at breakfast because I am less hungry before lunch.
Here is a video with ideas about eating a snack an hour before a run and 3 ideas that each includes a healthy protein.
Here is an article by Mark Bittman and I like the guy for his simple style, ideas that involve less meat, and yet he is still eating right. He includes about 8 recipes in his article and beans given some attention as the powerhouse food they really are.
There are also links to some Mark Bittner food ideas on our face book site and as someone pointed out - he has started blogging for Runners World. Thanks Lori!
This link allows you to build menus by type and fulfill all the key nutrients in the process – it is free, but you have to register
This link lists what is in the meat and beans group and why you need it – along with a list of foods that will hold off anemia, or the low red cell count that gives rise to lethargy, low oxygenation and poor running performance.
Runners and athletes would want as many red blood cells (RBCs) as possible for best oxygen transport to your muscles. Recall that from a previous lesson that Coach Joe Vigil feels that many athletes, especially female athletes, need to monitor their bodies for signs of low iron or possible anemia. A normal range score of 37-43% RBC for hemocrit scores should be what you are expecting and a runner would be interested in being on the high end of this score for better oxygen carrying capacity. You can have your doctor test this blood value and including lean meat and beans in your diet helps fend off iron deficiency.
The Average American consumes approximately 3.6 grams of salt daily and current federal guidelines for sodium intake is 2.3 grams per day. The American Heart Association recommends 2 grams. What many folks miss at the cellular level is that both sodium and potassium are the two ions that your body uses every second of the day. While it is relatively simple to get your daily supply of sodium some folks do not get enough Potassium and you need 4.7 grams daily in order to function optimally. Having the optimum ratio of these elements lowers the incidence of cardiovascular disease and allows optimal membrane potential at the cellular level. Bananas, peaches, prunes, apricots, honeydew melon or cantaloupe, and OJ all contain good sources of potassium as well as whole grains, beans and many fresh meats.
Blood sodium must be maintained at a level of 135mmol/L and this value is typically easy to maintain without any dietary changes. For runners, the complication comes when someone would be running or walking slowly for a long time, while consuming a lot of water. This can create a condition called hyponatremia. While the article Responsible Drinking on the Trail (Dr. M Hoffman, Ultrarunning, March 2010) states that this condition has been responsible for five fatalities in the US and UK they also write that 30% of the runners at 2009 Western States 100 mile run, who participated in the author’s research, were positive for signs of hyponatremia.
For runners, hyponatremia means low salt. We lose salt in sweating and we can (with great effort) dilute the amount of salt that we have in our bodies by consuming large amounts of water. When you have a lot of water and not enough salt in the body, fluids begin to shift in your system and the results can be catastrophic and life threatening. You need not have a complete class in physiology to get a handle on how this works though. If you are sweating a lot, out for a long time, and throwing in the water as you go – then you need to keep your eye open for crucial signs of what is sometimes call ‘water intoxication”.
Dr. Hoffman list a number of Danger signs: [additions mine] “Your body would not lose the 2% of its weight you would expect on your longest run but would stay the same weight or gain weight during the run. Your body’s water is changing location and you’ll see swelling, [all over], but especially hands, feet, face – [rings and shoes may be tight.] You would see mental status changes as fluid causes brain cells to swell too. [This would look like stumble; mumble, fumble and you would have to look at their other symptoms to ensure you did not think - dehydration. Recall that people call this condition water intoxication because of the mental status changes you see in people.] This person may also feel sick, [feel nausea and be sloshing from all the water they are hauling in their stomach. Urine output would be beyond the “clear, constant and copious” realm that we expect in hydrated folks as the kidney are now doing all they can to solve a fluid overload condition.] This is an emergency medical condition that requires immediate attention and complications can include kidney failure.” [They need medical intervention and you take them off of water while you get them help.]
On a slight tangent but related to your groceries in garbage out theme, comes a question from a runner to the sports nutritionist at Runners World – you can view this online but I included the copy here as it relates to nutrition and is such a good question.
“Over the past couple of months, I've been having to go "number 2" during most of my morning runs. I used to be able to go before my runs without much of an issue. Now I try to go but nothing happens. I eat a healthy diet, for the most part, with fruits and veggies, and get about 30 grams of fiber each day; drink 60 to 70 ounces of water; and seem to get the right amounts of calories (2,500), carbs (60 to 70%) and proteins (100 grams per day). I run about 35 miles a week and I am 5'10" and 155 pounds. Am I just eating too much? Any suggestions? – Joseph”
Joseph, a few observations:
“You say you eat lots of fruits and vegetables and 30 grams of fiber per day. Certain fibers are more helpful with laxation, such as bran-type cereals. In addition, consider swapping one of your fresh fruit choices for four or five dried plums, especially at night before bed.
The recommended fluid intake for adult men is 125 ounces per day, at rest, and more for exercise, so if you are consuming 30 grams of fiber and not enough fluid, that may also be part of the problem; consider increasing your liquids intake.
And based on your diet breakdown (60 to 70% carbs, or 375 to 437 grams per day, and protein at 100 grams per day) your diet may be too low in fat. Fat is important as a lubricant. So you may want to cut the carbs slightly and increase the fat, through nuts and nut butter, or olive oil on those vegetables, or guacamole.
Last but not least: Before bedtime, try a small bowl of All-Bran, Bran Buds, or Fiber One with a few dried plums and 2 tablespoons of nuts. Make sure you have a large glass of water (about 16 ounces) with this.
Hopefully this will get you back to running your route, and not to the bathroom!”
Leslie
Have a question for Leslie? E-mail her. (Please write "Ask the Sports Dietitian" in the subject line.) NOTE: Due to the volume of mail, we regret that Leslie cannot answer every e-mail.
And check out Leslie's newest book, Sports Nutrition for Coaches, on sale now.
The item that I would say Leslie neglected to mention is something called the gastrocolic reflex. We all have this, but many choose to not tune into it. Once our runner, Joseph tries Leslie’s suggestions he will not be able to ignore it! Each day your gastrointestinal system sort of “wakes up” and contracts in a mechanical wave that we call peristalsis and this reflex occurs when food or fluid (often warm coffee or tea) first comes into the stomach. When you listen to your body, you’ll feel this occur and you can sit down to have a bowel movement right away, because your body has this preparatory reflex for a purpose. Following this hint from your gut will train your bowel to go before your run (or your race) and save you a great deal of anxiety along with improving your quality of life. Laugh, because it is good to do so – but then try it because it works.
I’ll have a few handout ideas for you regarding micro meal scheduling and training meals. Additionally, I will be reading a new book this year on nutrition and I encourage you to as well – it sounds great. Matt Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight – How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. There is very little on this subject currently and this work has already seen high acclaim from coaches in our sport, check it out.
"Endurance events are eating and drinking contests with some exercise thrown in too" Sunny Blende
We have already had a primer on running nutrition and via handouts you had recently, we looked at race day and race week meals to try in preparation. So now let’s talk about the food pyramid (now known as "my plate", new resource ideas for meals to help your running, salt, iron and regulation of “in’s and out’s” a bit. Your everyday training depends on knowing a bit more about fueling - especially as long runs get longer.
Let’s look at the macro nutrients in greater detail and see what you’ll be fueling yourself with in the coming months as you seek to keep yourself well fueled and injury free in training and attain ideal body type for your event. Running hard and all this training is not a diet program – I have said this many times. Yet you will find that over time your metabolic capacity increases and you are burning a lot of fat on your long runs, when they are done at aerobic pace. Therefore, body composition may actually subtly change even while you are eating a balanced and nutritious diet that feeds your energy level. Pretty cool stuff.
Three primary fuel types and all food from the new food pyramid fits into these neat slots as far as the body is concerned, yet not all foods are created equal. Carbohydrates, Lipids (or fats), and protein are the three types.
Fat: Sometimes a dirty word and thought of as something to avoid and yet, this is the most efficient fuel the body can have at 9Kal/gram, and it does not require the storage of water to be used in the body. We store most foods as glycogen and use it all over the body. Fat during aerobic exercise is converted to fuel and used for any endurance activity because it works but also because you cannot store all of the fuel you need to burn without using this fat. Unsaturated fat from plant products is ideal and not refined or hydrogenated fat is most healthy and burns in the body with fewer bi-products like free radicals.
Protein: Nearly everything of value in the body is built from proteins and this makes them simply too valuable to use a fuel. Skeletal muscle is built from a number of key proteins but even elements for your cell membranes and body hormones are made of protein. Daily intake is required and can be attained from animal and or vegetable sources. These proteins are made of amino acids and your body disassembles proteins it consumes and rebuilds good stuff from these amino acid chains. Several key amino acids are important to attain if we are on any kind of vegetarian or alternative diet. The most important of these amino acid chains is Omega 3.
Carbohydrates: Nearly everything else that is not made of protein or fat or a man made substance is a carbohydrate. Even sugar is a carbohydrate. While many people have profited from special diets that eschew “carbs” they are the body’s essential and most easily used fuel. The average American eats far more of the wrong kinds of carbs than they should, however the body will metabolize carbs the best and with fewer byproducts than any other energy synthesis. The trouble is that we cannot store all of the energy we need this way and so we start the running machine on carbs and efficiently transition mid run to fat metabolism as a fuel source.
What is bonk? You’ll see unprepared runners face bonk or “the wall” during a big event. It can be physically excruciating and mentally dehabilitating. Preparation can prevent this and you just need some understanding of physiology and prior practice to fend it off. Two experts define what this is pretty simply.
Sunny Blende, sports nutritionists writes, “The brain also does not store any glucose – as glycogen, as the muscles do – and is totally dependent on blood glucose for its energy supply. In order to function normally, the brain requires a relatively normal blood glucose level. So what happens to an ultrarunner when he or she is running hours and hours with an increasing demand for glucose? If our ultrarunner does not ingest adequate amounts of carbohydrate (glucose) along the way, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) sets in. And with prolonged hypoglycemia comes central nervous system fatigue – the progressive shutdown of the part of the brain that drives the muscles. Bad news for attitude and bad news for performance.”
In one of Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, he found that two percent of marathoners, six percent of those who ran 50 kms and 11 percent of those who ran 100 kms were hypoglycemic. He cites the symptoms as a “reduced ability to concentrate, a sudden feeling of weakness, and the intense desire to stop running. Typically, the athlete senses the impossibility of completing the race”. Sound familiar? Obviously foods containing glucose would have helped these athletes perform better, but an explanation of the mechanism of action might make this concept easier to understand. Again, Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, “The main supplier of glucose into the blood is the liver. This happens directly from its own store of glycogen or indirectly by a process known as gluconeogenesis (the production of glucose by the liver from substances other than carbohydrates, for example, proteins). Training also helps the liver’s ability to produce glucose from circulating blood lactate. However, because the liver is so small compared to the body’s muscle mass and only stores about 250 - 500 calories of glucose, it could never keep up with the muscles’ demand for glucose when exercising hard or long. In a trained athlete, this amounts to three or four hours of running at a moderate pace. And the muscles are prevented from using too much circulating blood glucose in order to protect the brain. Fortunately our body has provided the muscles with other ways of obtaining glucose; namely a good supply stored in its own tissues and the ability to use fat as a source of energy. And remember, the supply stored in the muscles can be doubled if post-exercise carbs were consumed within thirty minutes or so. But even this generous supply will only last about five to six hours. The rate that the liver releases glucose and the muscles take it up during exercise is increased six-fold from a resting state. When tissues increase their rate of usage faster than the liver can produce it, blood levels fall and body function is impaired. In order to prevent brain drain and preserve our mind’s ability to think and strategize effectively in an ultra event, it becomes crucial to ingest carbohydrates during the race. If the muscles become fatigued, the brain will reduce the number of muscle fibers activated and in order to continue running, the ultrarunner will have to slow down. This is the body’s way of surviving. It may limit the runner’s physiological capabilities, but preserve the neurological function of the brain. Exhaustion, in this case, may be defined as a decrease in signals from the brain to the muscles, not a direct change in glycogen levels in the muscles - in other words, central fatigue.”
So the central governor steps in again to save the day and we learn that this phenomenon is preventable if we keep energy reserves up to meet the exertion demands. That requires you to test what kind of carbohydrates will digest easily for you while running. Gatorade, gel packets, bananas, chia seed, PB&J, fruit roll-ups and others have all been tried and many work well as long as they contain some water of their own and you keep your stomach lining wet w. a bit of fluids. Sunny Blende and others suggest that you might be able to train your body to utilize as much as 240 calories per hour while running (you’ll use more than this often, but that’s the breaks). The average gel packet is 100-150 calories each and 12oz of Gatorade is about 90 calories. So you can calculate what you’ll need and try to eat is small amounts spaced along the duration of your run.
Here is a link for some breakfasts with protein (a good time to get it as you metabolism is firing up and you’ll run on this later in the day) I love protein at breakfast because I am less hungry before lunch.
Here is a video with ideas about eating a snack an hour before a run and 3 ideas that each includes a healthy protein.
Here is an article by Mark Bittman and I like the guy for his simple style, ideas that involve less meat, and yet he is still eating right. He includes about 8 recipes in his article and beans given some attention as the powerhouse food they really are.
There are also links to some Mark Bittner food ideas on our face book site and as someone pointed out - he has started blogging for Runners World. Thanks Lori!
This link allows you to build menus by type and fulfill all the key nutrients in the process – it is free, but you have to register
This link lists what is in the meat and beans group and why you need it – along with a list of foods that will hold off anemia, or the low red cell count that gives rise to lethargy, low oxygenation and poor running performance.
Runners and athletes would want as many red blood cells (RBCs) as possible for best oxygen transport to your muscles. Recall that from a previous lesson that Coach Joe Vigil feels that many athletes, especially female athletes, need to monitor their bodies for signs of low iron or possible anemia. A normal range score of 37-43% RBC for hemocrit scores should be what you are expecting and a runner would be interested in being on the high end of this score for better oxygen carrying capacity. You can have your doctor test this blood value and including lean meat and beans in your diet helps fend off iron deficiency.
The Average American consumes approximately 3.6 grams of salt daily and current federal guidelines for sodium intake is 2.3 grams per day. The American Heart Association recommends 2 grams. What many folks miss at the cellular level is that both sodium and potassium are the two ions that your body uses every second of the day. While it is relatively simple to get your daily supply of sodium some folks do not get enough Potassium and you need 4.7 grams daily in order to function optimally. Having the optimum ratio of these elements lowers the incidence of cardiovascular disease and allows optimal membrane potential at the cellular level. Bananas, peaches, prunes, apricots, honeydew melon or cantaloupe, and OJ all contain good sources of potassium as well as whole grains, beans and many fresh meats.
Blood sodium must be maintained at a level of 135mmol/L and this value is typically easy to maintain without any dietary changes. For runners, the complication comes when someone would be running or walking slowly for a long time, while consuming a lot of water. This can create a condition called hyponatremia. While the article Responsible Drinking on the Trail (Dr. M Hoffman, Ultrarunning, March 2010) states that this condition has been responsible for five fatalities in the US and UK they also write that 30% of the runners at 2009 Western States 100 mile run, who participated in the author’s research, were positive for signs of hyponatremia.
For runners, hyponatremia means low salt. We lose salt in sweating and we can (with great effort) dilute the amount of salt that we have in our bodies by consuming large amounts of water. When you have a lot of water and not enough salt in the body, fluids begin to shift in your system and the results can be catastrophic and life threatening. You need not have a complete class in physiology to get a handle on how this works though. If you are sweating a lot, out for a long time, and throwing in the water as you go – then you need to keep your eye open for crucial signs of what is sometimes call ‘water intoxication”.
Dr. Hoffman list a number of Danger signs: [additions mine] “Your body would not lose the 2% of its weight you would expect on your longest run but would stay the same weight or gain weight during the run. Your body’s water is changing location and you’ll see swelling, [all over], but especially hands, feet, face – [rings and shoes may be tight.] You would see mental status changes as fluid causes brain cells to swell too. [This would look like stumble; mumble, fumble and you would have to look at their other symptoms to ensure you did not think - dehydration. Recall that people call this condition water intoxication because of the mental status changes you see in people.] This person may also feel sick, [feel nausea and be sloshing from all the water they are hauling in their stomach. Urine output would be beyond the “clear, constant and copious” realm that we expect in hydrated folks as the kidney are now doing all they can to solve a fluid overload condition.] This is an emergency medical condition that requires immediate attention and complications can include kidney failure.” [They need medical intervention and you take them off of water while you get them help.]
On a slight tangent but related to your groceries in garbage out theme, comes a question from a runner to the sports nutritionist at Runners World – you can view this online but I included the copy here as it relates to nutrition and is such a good question.
“Over the past couple of months, I've been having to go "number 2" during most of my morning runs. I used to be able to go before my runs without much of an issue. Now I try to go but nothing happens. I eat a healthy diet, for the most part, with fruits and veggies, and get about 30 grams of fiber each day; drink 60 to 70 ounces of water; and seem to get the right amounts of calories (2,500), carbs (60 to 70%) and proteins (100 grams per day). I run about 35 miles a week and I am 5'10" and 155 pounds. Am I just eating too much? Any suggestions? – Joseph”
Joseph, a few observations:
“You say you eat lots of fruits and vegetables and 30 grams of fiber per day. Certain fibers are more helpful with laxation, such as bran-type cereals. In addition, consider swapping one of your fresh fruit choices for four or five dried plums, especially at night before bed.
The recommended fluid intake for adult men is 125 ounces per day, at rest, and more for exercise, so if you are consuming 30 grams of fiber and not enough fluid, that may also be part of the problem; consider increasing your liquids intake.
And based on your diet breakdown (60 to 70% carbs, or 375 to 437 grams per day, and protein at 100 grams per day) your diet may be too low in fat. Fat is important as a lubricant. So you may want to cut the carbs slightly and increase the fat, through nuts and nut butter, or olive oil on those vegetables, or guacamole.
Last but not least: Before bedtime, try a small bowl of All-Bran, Bran Buds, or Fiber One with a few dried plums and 2 tablespoons of nuts. Make sure you have a large glass of water (about 16 ounces) with this.
Hopefully this will get you back to running your route, and not to the bathroom!”
Leslie
Have a question for Leslie? E-mail her. (Please write "Ask the Sports Dietitian" in the subject line.) NOTE: Due to the volume of mail, we regret that Leslie cannot answer every e-mail.
And check out Leslie's newest book, Sports Nutrition for Coaches, on sale now.
The item that I would say Leslie neglected to mention is something called the gastrocolic reflex. We all have this, but many choose to not tune into it. Once our runner, Joseph tries Leslie’s suggestions he will not be able to ignore it! Each day your gastrointestinal system sort of “wakes up” and contracts in a mechanical wave that we call peristalsis and this reflex occurs when food or fluid (often warm coffee or tea) first comes into the stomach. When you listen to your body, you’ll feel this occur and you can sit down to have a bowel movement right away, because your body has this preparatory reflex for a purpose. Following this hint from your gut will train your bowel to go before your run (or your race) and save you a great deal of anxiety along with improving your quality of life. Laugh, because it is good to do so – but then try it because it works.
I’ll have a few handout ideas for you regarding micro meal scheduling and training meals. Additionally, I will be reading a new book this year on nutrition and I encourage you to as well – it sounds great. Matt Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight – How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. There is very little on this subject currently and this work has already seen high acclaim from coaches in our sport, check it out.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Rest and Why you Need It
Our bodies need rest in order to function properly. Does your car engine get stronger if you never turn it off? We get stronger, not during the workout, but when we rest and recover…
Growth hormone is produced when we sleep deeply and at no other time. So being horizontal is when you get to rebuild everything that training is working hard to stress and “tear down”
Bill Bowerman took a technique from Arthur Lydiard and coined the term “tough-easy” for every day that you work hard you need an easy workout to follow-up with. Easy is PE 3-4 and hard is a very long run or anything in the PE 5 & above category. Recall the post on pace and running form talks about PE, perceived effort and where your tachometer should be most of the time.
Masters runners & folks who are no longer acting like they are 20 years old often find they need a day off between workouts. This allows a more full recovery between workouts & thus you get quality workouts every time you go big. Once you are older than 20 you realize it is mostly about quality, isn’t it?
I’ll be referring you to a copy of a great article by Bridget Clark, titled Training Error – Overuse or Under-recovery? from the April 2010 issue of Ultrarunning. Her graphs are worth a thousand words as she explains the body’s response to training stimulus and how many of us will induce another stimulus (running) before we can rebuild, leading to overwhelming our systems and inching closer to the “injury threshold” in the process.
She goes a step further and talks about the idea that cross training, especially strength training, provides a stimulus that is different than running and is also non-load bearing so that the tissues build capacity and recovers better without undue stress.
Does it sound confusing that I would encourage you to exercise and then ask you to take it easy while doing it? Reframe the idea in terms of the law of diminishing returns you already know from the office. When you do not get a vacation from work or a weekend off, you become dull and less fun. Further, if you do not have adequate time to process the challenges at work (rebuild) then you begin to see diminishing returns as well – we push the pace and things begin to get dropped on your plate. Let me quote Bridget Clark, from her Training Error article, “we now have a wealth of research in sports science covering the past 30 years. With the rate of running injuries so prevalent, potential causes have been studied up and down.” She summarizes this body of research by saying, “training error is the only factor that consistently displays a direct cause and effect relationship with running injuries”. She has the doctorate in Physical Therapy, and her argument makes sense intuitively. Sometimes we will suffer what she refers to as a traumatic injury – one example would be me hitting my head on a low limb during a run and causing a goose-egg style welt to appear. The second and much more common injury is overuse, with two studies cited, ten years apart, each showing 70% of runners see these overuse injuries. We simply do not allow enough time for the body to recover and rebuild as stronger before we load it up again. Slow or abrupt degenerative damage results as we spiral toward what Bridget Clark calls injury threshold.
Remember how we talked about the injury cycle? There are 4 distinct phases - all easy to remember and each gets worse.
One: I sprain/tweak my ankle and so it hurts a bit after the run.
Two: I run on it for two weeks as I normally would, without slowing down or doing any “rehab” of the injury and now it hurts during and after the run.
Three: A week after that it hurts before, during and after the run.
Four: Finally it hurts too much to run, and hurts all the time – is this my ankles fault? Am I now meant to run? If you are in my class I think you can answer this question pretty well…
The good news is that you can apply this sports injury model to your overall sense of well being and thus guard against over training. The FIRST program, Dr. Maffetone, and Dr. Tim Noakes in his book all talk about a runner getting progressively more tired, feeling that performance plateaus and then drops, notices that immune system function begins to decline and may even see mood changes or swings in much the same way that extreme stress has been shown to affect people. We should be alert for trends over time and look out for a common acronym in prehospital care called DIC head syndrome. Disoriented, Irritable and Combative. A number of things can cause this and some could be acute problems such as; you could have low blood sugar, could be suffering from the heat, or maybe something more chronic could be overtraining syndrome. Everybody has different physiological set point for this (you are an experiment of one) and it varies depending upon what else is going on in your life as well. It is a fine line for some and gets easier to discern as your “aches and pains” database expands and as you learn more about your training process as journey of minor stressors and growing stronger from each stressor. Tired is natural, while tired with lingering effects and inability to refresh may need intervention. As you might guess, this is much easier to spot in others, outside yourself. Your training log will help you here as well as your running buddies.
Remember when we talked at the beginning about your running log? How you should examine your workouts and they will tell you a great deal about where you and how far you have come? This document can become an important window into how you are doing if you are without a coach or a regular running buddy who can spot your holistic well being. Author Tim Noakes gives a number of suggestions that you may wish to record in your running logbook that extend beyond the idea of mileage, route, shoes worn and time elapsed.
1) How did the run go? We all have a growing “aches and pains database” and this plays a role but on the trend side you want things to get gradually better.
2) What was your effort rating (or PE, perceived effort): If easy workouts feel hard this week, I ask the question “what has changed?”
3) Did you enjoy it – or any part of it? Nearly every run has both good a bad spots and if they do not pass easily out of the bad, I ask the same question as above, or if things clicked – what helped is good information too.
4) You waking pulse rate: I asked you to take a baseline pulse as homework because we want to see improvements and look for spikes in this rate, or a new creep upward, as a sign we must heed.
5) Early morning body weight: This is the best time to get a reading (after the gastrocolic reflex occurs) and this number will fluctuate but we hope that there is not a continued drop over time – a loss of appetite or persistent loss is considered an overtraining sign.
6) Number of hours slept: You know where this is going – get to bed!
7) Heart rate during the workout: This can also tell us about what you are feeling, are you pushing too hard or is it taking more effort to do what was easier to execute two weeks ago? Over time the same route should get a bit faster or easier without increasing heart rate above your regular workout numbers. See the previous lesson about pace to get a Dr. Maffetone recommended pulse rate for your steady state runs.
This kind of data will allow insight toward overtraining trends or on the bright side – when you can bump things up a notch. Many starting out will say “I do not want to bump anything, right now – I am stressed enough!” and that may be true, however 3-4 weeks without changes toward the positive side of the ledger, and no deleterious effects either means that you have hit your plateau at this exertion level and it is time to vary the workload or increase intensity for a new phase. This gradually makes you better at what you are pursuing.
If something hurts for two or more days then take 2 or more days off – simple. During that time stretch, RICE and examine what has changed that would cause the injury – but don’t assume running through it as normal, will be the cure. You will have to use active rest and modify your expectations while learning about the root cause of injury. Here is a great thought, “healing, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature." - W.H. Auden
If you are sick from the neck up – go ahead and run (it may even help) If you are sick from the neck down – consider sitting this one out.
Expect that you’ll need to take better care of yourself and wash your hands more frequently when your mileage drops. Your immune system is cranking at peak capacity when you are running & when mileage drops sometimes the immune system takes a vacation too.
When you are getting strong running performances each week, you can gain 90% of all possible fitness developments with 4 days/week of running. You may get that extra 10% with 5 or more days each week but what you’ll find is that the number of injuries you see in the runner is appreciably higher.
Trouble signs of overtraining
Injury – muscles not allowed to recover well between workouts suffer from stress injury. Failing running form in the tired athlete leads to excessive pounding, favoring something compounds imbalances. Do not become a sport limper or it will get worse somewhere else on your machine!
Sickness – While running stimulates the immune system, too much too soon - or inadequate rest – allows the body to be susceptible to illness or infection – once you are ground down to nothing, illness sets up shop.
Slump – remember that loss or impairment of higher brain function is one way that the body shows early sign of problems. Irritability, restlessness, trouble sleeping, depression and malaise indicate that you need a rest week (decrease in training volume, additional rest days, 8+ hours of sleep nightly)
How much rest? For starters we stay within the 10% rule, so that we rarely increase training load by more than 10% in any week. We also seek to vary the training cycle and get you some rest every four weeks as a means for you to absorb your training. Within that parameter you’ll also need at least one extra minute per night for each mile you train that week. EG: If you run 15 miles in a week, you’ll need 15 extra minutes each night that week. Closer to race time - seek to allow an extra hour of sleep each evening. Olympic Marathoner Ryan Hall is in bed at 9:30pm every night. You do not spend 12 hours a day there, but you get what you need to charge up for your event.
One last resting tip is feet up - allowing time for fluid exchange (assisted by gravity) not only feels great but really speeds recovery. Racers are now using pressure stockings to gain the same benefit while sitting at their desks. Blood return and elevation are great things for tired feet and lower legs.
Growth hormone is produced when we sleep deeply and at no other time. So being horizontal is when you get to rebuild everything that training is working hard to stress and “tear down”
Bill Bowerman took a technique from Arthur Lydiard and coined the term “tough-easy” for every day that you work hard you need an easy workout to follow-up with. Easy is PE 3-4 and hard is a very long run or anything in the PE 5 & above category. Recall the post on pace and running form talks about PE, perceived effort and where your tachometer should be most of the time.
Masters runners & folks who are no longer acting like they are 20 years old often find they need a day off between workouts. This allows a more full recovery between workouts & thus you get quality workouts every time you go big. Once you are older than 20 you realize it is mostly about quality, isn’t it?
I’ll be referring you to a copy of a great article by Bridget Clark, titled Training Error – Overuse or Under-recovery? from the April 2010 issue of Ultrarunning. Her graphs are worth a thousand words as she explains the body’s response to training stimulus and how many of us will induce another stimulus (running) before we can rebuild, leading to overwhelming our systems and inching closer to the “injury threshold” in the process.
She goes a step further and talks about the idea that cross training, especially strength training, provides a stimulus that is different than running and is also non-load bearing so that the tissues build capacity and recovers better without undue stress.
Does it sound confusing that I would encourage you to exercise and then ask you to take it easy while doing it? Reframe the idea in terms of the law of diminishing returns you already know from the office. When you do not get a vacation from work or a weekend off, you become dull and less fun. Further, if you do not have adequate time to process the challenges at work (rebuild) then you begin to see diminishing returns as well – we push the pace and things begin to get dropped on your plate. Let me quote Bridget Clark, from her Training Error article, “we now have a wealth of research in sports science covering the past 30 years. With the rate of running injuries so prevalent, potential causes have been studied up and down.” She summarizes this body of research by saying, “training error is the only factor that consistently displays a direct cause and effect relationship with running injuries”. She has the doctorate in Physical Therapy, and her argument makes sense intuitively. Sometimes we will suffer what she refers to as a traumatic injury – one example would be me hitting my head on a low limb during a run and causing a goose-egg style welt to appear. The second and much more common injury is overuse, with two studies cited, ten years apart, each showing 70% of runners see these overuse injuries. We simply do not allow enough time for the body to recover and rebuild as stronger before we load it up again. Slow or abrupt degenerative damage results as we spiral toward what Bridget Clark calls injury threshold.
Remember how we talked about the injury cycle? There are 4 distinct phases - all easy to remember and each gets worse.
One: I sprain/tweak my ankle and so it hurts a bit after the run.
Two: I run on it for two weeks as I normally would, without slowing down or doing any “rehab” of the injury and now it hurts during and after the run.
Three: A week after that it hurts before, during and after the run.
Four: Finally it hurts too much to run, and hurts all the time – is this my ankles fault? Am I now meant to run? If you are in my class I think you can answer this question pretty well…
The good news is that you can apply this sports injury model to your overall sense of well being and thus guard against over training. The FIRST program, Dr. Maffetone, and Dr. Tim Noakes in his book all talk about a runner getting progressively more tired, feeling that performance plateaus and then drops, notices that immune system function begins to decline and may even see mood changes or swings in much the same way that extreme stress has been shown to affect people. We should be alert for trends over time and look out for a common acronym in prehospital care called DIC head syndrome. Disoriented, Irritable and Combative. A number of things can cause this and some could be acute problems such as; you could have low blood sugar, could be suffering from the heat, or maybe something more chronic could be overtraining syndrome. Everybody has different physiological set point for this (you are an experiment of one) and it varies depending upon what else is going on in your life as well. It is a fine line for some and gets easier to discern as your “aches and pains” database expands and as you learn more about your training process as journey of minor stressors and growing stronger from each stressor. Tired is natural, while tired with lingering effects and inability to refresh may need intervention. As you might guess, this is much easier to spot in others, outside yourself. Your training log will help you here as well as your running buddies.
Remember when we talked at the beginning about your running log? How you should examine your workouts and they will tell you a great deal about where you and how far you have come? This document can become an important window into how you are doing if you are without a coach or a regular running buddy who can spot your holistic well being. Author Tim Noakes gives a number of suggestions that you may wish to record in your running logbook that extend beyond the idea of mileage, route, shoes worn and time elapsed.
1) How did the run go? We all have a growing “aches and pains database” and this plays a role but on the trend side you want things to get gradually better.
2) What was your effort rating (or PE, perceived effort): If easy workouts feel hard this week, I ask the question “what has changed?”
3) Did you enjoy it – or any part of it? Nearly every run has both good a bad spots and if they do not pass easily out of the bad, I ask the same question as above, or if things clicked – what helped is good information too.
4) You waking pulse rate: I asked you to take a baseline pulse as homework because we want to see improvements and look for spikes in this rate, or a new creep upward, as a sign we must heed.
5) Early morning body weight: This is the best time to get a reading (after the gastrocolic reflex occurs) and this number will fluctuate but we hope that there is not a continued drop over time – a loss of appetite or persistent loss is considered an overtraining sign.
6) Number of hours slept: You know where this is going – get to bed!
7) Heart rate during the workout: This can also tell us about what you are feeling, are you pushing too hard or is it taking more effort to do what was easier to execute two weeks ago? Over time the same route should get a bit faster or easier without increasing heart rate above your regular workout numbers. See the previous lesson about pace to get a Dr. Maffetone recommended pulse rate for your steady state runs.
This kind of data will allow insight toward overtraining trends or on the bright side – when you can bump things up a notch. Many starting out will say “I do not want to bump anything, right now – I am stressed enough!” and that may be true, however 3-4 weeks without changes toward the positive side of the ledger, and no deleterious effects either means that you have hit your plateau at this exertion level and it is time to vary the workload or increase intensity for a new phase. This gradually makes you better at what you are pursuing.
If something hurts for two or more days then take 2 or more days off – simple. During that time stretch, RICE and examine what has changed that would cause the injury – but don’t assume running through it as normal, will be the cure. You will have to use active rest and modify your expectations while learning about the root cause of injury. Here is a great thought, “healing, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature." - W.H. Auden
If you are sick from the neck up – go ahead and run (it may even help) If you are sick from the neck down – consider sitting this one out.
Expect that you’ll need to take better care of yourself and wash your hands more frequently when your mileage drops. Your immune system is cranking at peak capacity when you are running & when mileage drops sometimes the immune system takes a vacation too.
When you are getting strong running performances each week, you can gain 90% of all possible fitness developments with 4 days/week of running. You may get that extra 10% with 5 or more days each week but what you’ll find is that the number of injuries you see in the runner is appreciably higher.
Trouble signs of overtraining
Injury – muscles not allowed to recover well between workouts suffer from stress injury. Failing running form in the tired athlete leads to excessive pounding, favoring something compounds imbalances. Do not become a sport limper or it will get worse somewhere else on your machine!
Sickness – While running stimulates the immune system, too much too soon - or inadequate rest – allows the body to be susceptible to illness or infection – once you are ground down to nothing, illness sets up shop.
Slump – remember that loss or impairment of higher brain function is one way that the body shows early sign of problems. Irritability, restlessness, trouble sleeping, depression and malaise indicate that you need a rest week (decrease in training volume, additional rest days, 8+ hours of sleep nightly)
How much rest? For starters we stay within the 10% rule, so that we rarely increase training load by more than 10% in any week. We also seek to vary the training cycle and get you some rest every four weeks as a means for you to absorb your training. Within that parameter you’ll also need at least one extra minute per night for each mile you train that week. EG: If you run 15 miles in a week, you’ll need 15 extra minutes each night that week. Closer to race time - seek to allow an extra hour of sleep each evening. Olympic Marathoner Ryan Hall is in bed at 9:30pm every night. You do not spend 12 hours a day there, but you get what you need to charge up for your event.
One last resting tip is feet up - allowing time for fluid exchange (assisted by gravity) not only feels great but really speeds recovery. Racers are now using pressure stockings to gain the same benefit while sitting at their desks. Blood return and elevation are great things for tired feet and lower legs.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Nutrition part two
Groceries in, garbage out, blood goes round and round…
"Endurance events are eating and drinking contests with some exercise thrown in too" Sunny Blende
We have already had a primer on running nutrition and via handouts you had recently, we looked at race day and race week meals to try in preparation. So now let’s talk about the food pyramid a bit, new resource ideas for meals to help your running, salt, iron and regulation of “in’s and out’s” a bit. Your everyday training depends on knowing a bit more about fueling - especially as long runs get longer.
Let’s look at the food pyramid in greater detail and see what you’ll be fueling yourself with in the coming months as you seek to keep yourself well fueled and injury free in training and attain ideal body type for your event. Running hard and all this training is not a diet program – I have said this many times. Yet you will find that over time your metabolic capacity increases and you are burning a lot of fat on your long runs, when they are done at aerobic pace. Therefore, body composition may actually subtly change even while you are eating a balanced and nutritious diet that feeds your energy level. Pretty cool stuff.
Three primary fuel types and all food from the new food pyramid fits into these neat slots as far as the body is concerned, yet not all foods are created equal. Carbohydrates, Lipids (or fats), and protein are the three types.
Fat: Sometimes a dirty word and thought of as something to avoid and yet, this is the most efficient fuel the body can have at 9Kal/gram, and it does not require the storage of water to be used in the body. We store most foods as glycogen and use it all over the body. Fat during aerobic exercise is converted to fuel and used for any endurance activity because it works but also because you cannot store all of the fuel you need to burn without using this fat. Unsaturated fat from plant products is ideal and not refined or hydrogenated fat is most healthy and burns in the body with fewer bi-products like free radicals.
Protein: Nearly everything of value in the body is built from proteins and this makes them simply too valuable to use a fuel. Skeletal muscle is built from a number of key proteins but even elements for your cell membranes and body hormones are made of protein. Daily intake is required and can be attained from animal and or vegetable sources. These proteins are made of amino acids and your body disassembles proteins it consumes and rebuilds good stuff from these amino acid chains. Several key amino acids are important to attain if we are on any kind of vegetarian or alternative diet. The most important of these amino acid chains is Omega 3.
Carbohydrates: Nearly everything else that is not made of protein or fat or a man made substance is a carbohydrate. Even sugar is a carbohydrate. While many people have profited from special diets that eschew “carbs” they are the body’s essential and most easily used fuel. The average American eats far more of the wrong kinds of carbs than they should, however the body will metabolize carbs the best and with fewer byproducts than any other energy synthesis. The trouble is that we cannot store all of the energy we need this way and so we start the running machine on carbs and efficiently transition mid run to fat metabolism as a fuel source.
What is bonk? You’ll see unprepared runners face bonk or “the wall” during a big event. It can be physically excruciating and mentally dehabilitating. Preparation can prevent this and you just need some understanding of physiology and prior practice to fend it off. Two experts define what this is pretty simply.
Sunny Blende, sports nutritionists writes, “The brain also does not store any glucose – as glycogen, as the muscles do – and is totally dependent on blood glucose for its energy supply. In order to function normally, the brain requires a relatively normal blood glucose level. So what happens to an ultrarunner when he or she is running hours and hours with an increasing demand for glucose? If our ultrarunner does not ingest adequate amounts of carbohydrate (glucose) along the way, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) sets in. And with prolonged hypoglycemia comes central nervous system fatigue – the progressive shutdown of the part of the brain that drives the muscles. Bad news for attitude and bad news for performance.”
In one of Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, he found that two percent of marathoners, six percent of those who ran 50 kms and 11 percent of those who ran 100 kms were hypoglycemic. He cites the symptoms as a “reduced ability to concentrate, a sudden feeling of weakness, and the intense desire to stop running. Typically, the athlete senses the impossibility of completing the race”. Sound familiar? Obviously foods containing glucose would have helped these athletes perform better, but an explanation of the mechanism of action might make this concept easier to understand. Again, Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, “The main supplier of glucose into the blood is the liver. This happens directly from its own store of glycogen or indirectly by a process known as gluconeogenesis (the production of glucose by the liver from substances other than carbohydrates, for example, proteins). Training also helps the liver’s ability to produce glucose from circulating blood lactate. However, because the liver is so small compared to the body’s muscle mass and only stores about 250 - 500 calories of glucose, it could never keep up with the muscles’ demand for glucose when exercising hard or long. In a trained athlete, this amounts to three or four hours of running at a moderate pace. And the muscles are prevented from using too much circulating blood glucose in order to protect the brain. Fortunately our body has provided the muscles with other ways of obtaining glucose; namely a good supply stored in its own tissues and the ability to use fat as a source of energy. And remember, the supply stored in the muscles can be doubled if post-exercise carbs were consumed within thirty minutes or so. But even this generous supply will only last about five to six hours. The rate that the liver releases glucose and the muscles take it up during exercise is increased six-fold from a resting state. When tissues increase their rate of usage faster than the liver can produce it, blood levels fall and body function is impaired. In order to prevent brain drain and preserve our mind’s ability to think and strategize effectively in an ultra event, it becomes crucial to ingest carbohydrates during the race. If the muscles become fatigued, the brain will reduce the number of muscle fibers activated and in order to continue running, the ultrarunner will have to slow down. This is the body’s way of surviving. It may limit the runner’s physiological capabilities, but preserve the neurological function of the brain. Exhaustion, in this case, may be defined as a decrease in signals from the brain to the muscles, not a direct change in glycogen levels in the muscles - in other words, central fatigue.”
So the central governor steps in again to save the day and we learn that this phenomenon is preventable if we keep energy reserves up to meet the exertion demands. That requires you to test what kind of carbohydrates will digest easily for you while running. Gatorade, gel packets, bananas, chia seed, PB&J, fruit roll-ups and others have all been tried and many work well as long as they contain some water of their own and you keep your stomach lining wet w. a bit of fluids. Sunny Blende and others suggest that you might be able to train your body to utilize as much as 240 calories per hour while running (you’ll use more than this often, but that’s the breaks). The average gel packet is 100-150 calories each and 12oz of Gatorade is about 90 calories. So you can calculate what you’ll need and try to eat is small amounts spaced along the duration of your run.
Here is a link for some breakfasts with protein (a good time to get it as you metabolism is firing up and you’ll run on this later in the day) I love protein at breakfast because I am less hungry before lunch.
Here is a video with ideas about eating a snack an hour before a run and 3 ideas that each includes a healthy protein.
Here is an article by Mark Bittman and I like the guy for his simple style, ideas that involve less meat, and yet he is still eating right. He includes about 8 recipes in his article and beans given some attention as the powerhouse food they really are.
There are also links to some Mark Bittner food ideas on our face book site and as someone pointed out - he has started blogging for Runners World. Thanks Lori!
This link allows you to build menus by type and fulfill all the key nutrients in the process – it is free, but you have to register
This link lists what is in the meat and beans group and why you need it – along with a list of foods that will hold off anemia, or the low red cell count that gives rise to lethargy, low oxygenation and poor running performance.
Runners and athletes would want as many red blood cells (RBCs) as possible for best oxygen transport to your muscles. Recall that from a previous lesson that Coach Joe Vigil feels that many athletes, especially female athletes, need to monitor their bodies for signs of low iron or possible anemia. A normal range score of 37-43% RBC for hemocrit scores should be what you are expecting and a runner would be interested in being on the high end of this score for better oxygen carrying capacity. You can have your doctor test this blood value and including lean meat and beans in your diet helps fend off iron deficiency.
The Average American consumes approximately 3.6 grams of salt daily and current federal guidelines for sodium intake is 2.3 grams per day. The American Heart Association recommends 2 grams. What many folks miss at the cellular level is that both sodium and potassium are the two ions that your body uses every second of the day. While it is relatively simple to get your daily supply of sodium some folks do not get enough Potassium and you need 4.7 grams daily in order to function optimally. Having the optimum ratio of these elements lowers the incidence of cardiovascular disease and allows optimal membrane potential at the cellular level. Bananas, peaches, prunes, apricots, honeydew melon or cantaloupe, and OJ all contain good sources of potassium as well as whole grains, beans and many fresh meats.
Blood sodium must be maintained at a level of 135mmol/L and this value is typically easy to maintain without any dietary changes. For runners, the complication comes when someone would be running or walking slowly for a long time, while consuming a lot of water. This can create a condition called hyponatremia. While the article Responsible Drinking on the Trail (Dr. M Hoffman, Ultrarunning, March 2010) states that this condition has been responsible for five fatalities in the US and UK they also write that 30% of the runners at 2009 Western States 100 mile run, who participated in the author’s research, were positive for signs of hyponatremia.
For runners, hyponatremia means low salt. We lose salt in sweating and we can (with great effort) dilute the amount of salt that we have in our bodies by consuming large amounts of water. When you have a lot of water and not enough salt in the body, fluids begin to shift in your system and the results can be catastrophic and life threatening. You need not have a complete class in physiology to get a handle on how this works though. If you are sweating a lot, out for a long time, and throwing in the water as you go – then you need to keep your eye open for crucial signs of what is sometimes call ‘water intoxication”.
Dr. Hoffman list a number of Danger signs: [additions mine] “Your body would not lose the 2% of its weight you would expect on your longest run but would stay the same weight or gain weight during the run. Your body’s water is changing location and you’ll see swelling, [all over], but especially hands, feet, face – [rings and shoes may be tight.] You would see mental status changes as fluid causes brain cells to swell too. [This would look like stumble; mumble, fumble and you would have to look at their other symptoms to ensure you did not think - dehydration. Recall that people call this condition water intoxication because of the mental status changes you see in people.] This person may also feel sick, [feel nausea and be sloshing from all the water they are hauling in their stomach. Urine output would be beyond the “clear, constant and copious” realm that we expect in hydrated folks as the kidney are now doing all they can to solve a fluid overload condition.] This is an emergency medical condition that requires immediate attention and complications can include kidney failure.” [They need medical intervention and you take them off of water while you get them help.]
On a slight tangent but related to your groceries in garbage out theme, comes a question from a runner to the sports nutritionist at Runners World – you can view this online but I included the copy here as it relates to nutrition and is such a good question.
“Over the past couple of months, I've been having to go "number 2" during most of my morning runs. I used to be able to go before my runs without much of an issue. Now I try to go but nothing happens. I eat a healthy diet, for the most part, with fruits and veggies, and get about 30 grams of fiber each day; drink 60 to 70 ounces of water; and seem to get the right amounts of calories (2,500), carbs (60 to 70%) and proteins (100 grams per day). I run about 35 miles a week and I am 5'10" and 155 pounds. Am I just eating too much? Any suggestions? – Joseph”
Joseph, a few observations:
“You say you eat lots of fruits and vegetables and 30 grams of fiber per day. Certain fibers are more helpful with laxation, such as bran-type cereals. In addition, consider swapping one of your fresh fruit choices for four or five dried plums, especially at night before bed.
The recommended fluid intake for adult men is 125 ounces per day, at rest, and more for exercise, so if you are consuming 30 grams of fiber and not enough fluid, that may also be part of the problem; consider increasing your liquids intake.
And based on your diet breakdown (60 to 70% carbs, or 375 to 437 grams per day, and protein at 100 grams per day) your diet may be too low in fat. Fat is important as a lubricant. So you may want to cut the carbs slightly and increase the fat, through nuts and nut butter, or olive oil on those vegetables, or guacamole.
Last but not least: Before bedtime, try a small bowl of All-Bran, Bran Buds, or Fiber One with a few dried plums and 2 tablespoons of nuts. Make sure you have a large glass of water (about 16 ounces) with this.
Hopefully this will get you back to running your route, and not to the bathroom!”
Leslie
Have a question for Leslie? E-mail her. (Please write "Ask the Sports Dietitian" in the subject line.) NOTE: Due to the volume of mail, we regret that Leslie cannot answer every e-mail.
And check out Leslie's newest book, Sports Nutrition for Coaches, on sale now.
The item that I would say Leslie neglected to mention is something called the gastrocolic reflex. We all have this, but many choose to not tune into it. Once our runner, Joseph tries Leslie’s suggestions he will not be able to ignore it! Each day your gastrointestinal system sort of “wakes up” and contracts in a mechanical wave that we call peristalsis and this reflex occurs when food or fluid (often warm coffee or tea) first comes into the stomach. When you listen to your body, you’ll feel this occur and you can sit down to have a bowel movement right away, because your body has this preparatory reflex for a purpose. Following this hint from your gut will train your bowel to go before your run (or your race) and save you a great deal of anxiety along with improving your quality of life. Laugh, because it is good to do so – but then try it because it works.
I’ll have a few handout ideas for you regarding micro meal scheduling and training meals. Additionally, I will be reading a new book this year on nutrition and I encourage you to as well – it sounds great. Matt Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight – How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. There is very little on this subject currently and this work has already seen high acclaim from coaches in our sport, check it out.
"Endurance events are eating and drinking contests with some exercise thrown in too" Sunny Blende
We have already had a primer on running nutrition and via handouts you had recently, we looked at race day and race week meals to try in preparation. So now let’s talk about the food pyramid a bit, new resource ideas for meals to help your running, salt, iron and regulation of “in’s and out’s” a bit. Your everyday training depends on knowing a bit more about fueling - especially as long runs get longer.
Let’s look at the food pyramid in greater detail and see what you’ll be fueling yourself with in the coming months as you seek to keep yourself well fueled and injury free in training and attain ideal body type for your event. Running hard and all this training is not a diet program – I have said this many times. Yet you will find that over time your metabolic capacity increases and you are burning a lot of fat on your long runs, when they are done at aerobic pace. Therefore, body composition may actually subtly change even while you are eating a balanced and nutritious diet that feeds your energy level. Pretty cool stuff.
Three primary fuel types and all food from the new food pyramid fits into these neat slots as far as the body is concerned, yet not all foods are created equal. Carbohydrates, Lipids (or fats), and protein are the three types.
Fat: Sometimes a dirty word and thought of as something to avoid and yet, this is the most efficient fuel the body can have at 9Kal/gram, and it does not require the storage of water to be used in the body. We store most foods as glycogen and use it all over the body. Fat during aerobic exercise is converted to fuel and used for any endurance activity because it works but also because you cannot store all of the fuel you need to burn without using this fat. Unsaturated fat from plant products is ideal and not refined or hydrogenated fat is most healthy and burns in the body with fewer bi-products like free radicals.
Protein: Nearly everything of value in the body is built from proteins and this makes them simply too valuable to use a fuel. Skeletal muscle is built from a number of key proteins but even elements for your cell membranes and body hormones are made of protein. Daily intake is required and can be attained from animal and or vegetable sources. These proteins are made of amino acids and your body disassembles proteins it consumes and rebuilds good stuff from these amino acid chains. Several key amino acids are important to attain if we are on any kind of vegetarian or alternative diet. The most important of these amino acid chains is Omega 3.
Carbohydrates: Nearly everything else that is not made of protein or fat or a man made substance is a carbohydrate. Even sugar is a carbohydrate. While many people have profited from special diets that eschew “carbs” they are the body’s essential and most easily used fuel. The average American eats far more of the wrong kinds of carbs than they should, however the body will metabolize carbs the best and with fewer byproducts than any other energy synthesis. The trouble is that we cannot store all of the energy we need this way and so we start the running machine on carbs and efficiently transition mid run to fat metabolism as a fuel source.
What is bonk? You’ll see unprepared runners face bonk or “the wall” during a big event. It can be physically excruciating and mentally dehabilitating. Preparation can prevent this and you just need some understanding of physiology and prior practice to fend it off. Two experts define what this is pretty simply.
Sunny Blende, sports nutritionists writes, “The brain also does not store any glucose – as glycogen, as the muscles do – and is totally dependent on blood glucose for its energy supply. In order to function normally, the brain requires a relatively normal blood glucose level. So what happens to an ultrarunner when he or she is running hours and hours with an increasing demand for glucose? If our ultrarunner does not ingest adequate amounts of carbohydrate (glucose) along the way, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) sets in. And with prolonged hypoglycemia comes central nervous system fatigue – the progressive shutdown of the part of the brain that drives the muscles. Bad news for attitude and bad news for performance.”
In one of Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, he found that two percent of marathoners, six percent of those who ran 50 kms and 11 percent of those who ran 100 kms were hypoglycemic. He cites the symptoms as a “reduced ability to concentrate, a sudden feeling of weakness, and the intense desire to stop running. Typically, the athlete senses the impossibility of completing the race”. Sound familiar? Obviously foods containing glucose would have helped these athletes perform better, but an explanation of the mechanism of action might make this concept easier to understand. Again, Tim Noakes’s studies from The Lore of Running, “The main supplier of glucose into the blood is the liver. This happens directly from its own store of glycogen or indirectly by a process known as gluconeogenesis (the production of glucose by the liver from substances other than carbohydrates, for example, proteins). Training also helps the liver’s ability to produce glucose from circulating blood lactate. However, because the liver is so small compared to the body’s muscle mass and only stores about 250 - 500 calories of glucose, it could never keep up with the muscles’ demand for glucose when exercising hard or long. In a trained athlete, this amounts to three or four hours of running at a moderate pace. And the muscles are prevented from using too much circulating blood glucose in order to protect the brain. Fortunately our body has provided the muscles with other ways of obtaining glucose; namely a good supply stored in its own tissues and the ability to use fat as a source of energy. And remember, the supply stored in the muscles can be doubled if post-exercise carbs were consumed within thirty minutes or so. But even this generous supply will only last about five to six hours. The rate that the liver releases glucose and the muscles take it up during exercise is increased six-fold from a resting state. When tissues increase their rate of usage faster than the liver can produce it, blood levels fall and body function is impaired. In order to prevent brain drain and preserve our mind’s ability to think and strategize effectively in an ultra event, it becomes crucial to ingest carbohydrates during the race. If the muscles become fatigued, the brain will reduce the number of muscle fibers activated and in order to continue running, the ultrarunner will have to slow down. This is the body’s way of surviving. It may limit the runner’s physiological capabilities, but preserve the neurological function of the brain. Exhaustion, in this case, may be defined as a decrease in signals from the brain to the muscles, not a direct change in glycogen levels in the muscles - in other words, central fatigue.”
So the central governor steps in again to save the day and we learn that this phenomenon is preventable if we keep energy reserves up to meet the exertion demands. That requires you to test what kind of carbohydrates will digest easily for you while running. Gatorade, gel packets, bananas, chia seed, PB&J, fruit roll-ups and others have all been tried and many work well as long as they contain some water of their own and you keep your stomach lining wet w. a bit of fluids. Sunny Blende and others suggest that you might be able to train your body to utilize as much as 240 calories per hour while running (you’ll use more than this often, but that’s the breaks). The average gel packet is 100-150 calories each and 12oz of Gatorade is about 90 calories. So you can calculate what you’ll need and try to eat is small amounts spaced along the duration of your run.
Here is a link for some breakfasts with protein (a good time to get it as you metabolism is firing up and you’ll run on this later in the day) I love protein at breakfast because I am less hungry before lunch.
Here is a video with ideas about eating a snack an hour before a run and 3 ideas that each includes a healthy protein.
Here is an article by Mark Bittman and I like the guy for his simple style, ideas that involve less meat, and yet he is still eating right. He includes about 8 recipes in his article and beans given some attention as the powerhouse food they really are.
There are also links to some Mark Bittner food ideas on our face book site and as someone pointed out - he has started blogging for Runners World. Thanks Lori!
This link allows you to build menus by type and fulfill all the key nutrients in the process – it is free, but you have to register
This link lists what is in the meat and beans group and why you need it – along with a list of foods that will hold off anemia, or the low red cell count that gives rise to lethargy, low oxygenation and poor running performance.
Runners and athletes would want as many red blood cells (RBCs) as possible for best oxygen transport to your muscles. Recall that from a previous lesson that Coach Joe Vigil feels that many athletes, especially female athletes, need to monitor their bodies for signs of low iron or possible anemia. A normal range score of 37-43% RBC for hemocrit scores should be what you are expecting and a runner would be interested in being on the high end of this score for better oxygen carrying capacity. You can have your doctor test this blood value and including lean meat and beans in your diet helps fend off iron deficiency.
The Average American consumes approximately 3.6 grams of salt daily and current federal guidelines for sodium intake is 2.3 grams per day. The American Heart Association recommends 2 grams. What many folks miss at the cellular level is that both sodium and potassium are the two ions that your body uses every second of the day. While it is relatively simple to get your daily supply of sodium some folks do not get enough Potassium and you need 4.7 grams daily in order to function optimally. Having the optimum ratio of these elements lowers the incidence of cardiovascular disease and allows optimal membrane potential at the cellular level. Bananas, peaches, prunes, apricots, honeydew melon or cantaloupe, and OJ all contain good sources of potassium as well as whole grains, beans and many fresh meats.
Blood sodium must be maintained at a level of 135mmol/L and this value is typically easy to maintain without any dietary changes. For runners, the complication comes when someone would be running or walking slowly for a long time, while consuming a lot of water. This can create a condition called hyponatremia. While the article Responsible Drinking on the Trail (Dr. M Hoffman, Ultrarunning, March 2010) states that this condition has been responsible for five fatalities in the US and UK they also write that 30% of the runners at 2009 Western States 100 mile run, who participated in the author’s research, were positive for signs of hyponatremia.
For runners, hyponatremia means low salt. We lose salt in sweating and we can (with great effort) dilute the amount of salt that we have in our bodies by consuming large amounts of water. When you have a lot of water and not enough salt in the body, fluids begin to shift in your system and the results can be catastrophic and life threatening. You need not have a complete class in physiology to get a handle on how this works though. If you are sweating a lot, out for a long time, and throwing in the water as you go – then you need to keep your eye open for crucial signs of what is sometimes call ‘water intoxication”.
Dr. Hoffman list a number of Danger signs: [additions mine] “Your body would not lose the 2% of its weight you would expect on your longest run but would stay the same weight or gain weight during the run. Your body’s water is changing location and you’ll see swelling, [all over], but especially hands, feet, face – [rings and shoes may be tight.] You would see mental status changes as fluid causes brain cells to swell too. [This would look like stumble; mumble, fumble and you would have to look at their other symptoms to ensure you did not think - dehydration. Recall that people call this condition water intoxication because of the mental status changes you see in people.] This person may also feel sick, [feel nausea and be sloshing from all the water they are hauling in their stomach. Urine output would be beyond the “clear, constant and copious” realm that we expect in hydrated folks as the kidney are now doing all they can to solve a fluid overload condition.] This is an emergency medical condition that requires immediate attention and complications can include kidney failure.” [They need medical intervention and you take them off of water while you get them help.]
On a slight tangent but related to your groceries in garbage out theme, comes a question from a runner to the sports nutritionist at Runners World – you can view this online but I included the copy here as it relates to nutrition and is such a good question.
“Over the past couple of months, I've been having to go "number 2" during most of my morning runs. I used to be able to go before my runs without much of an issue. Now I try to go but nothing happens. I eat a healthy diet, for the most part, with fruits and veggies, and get about 30 grams of fiber each day; drink 60 to 70 ounces of water; and seem to get the right amounts of calories (2,500), carbs (60 to 70%) and proteins (100 grams per day). I run about 35 miles a week and I am 5'10" and 155 pounds. Am I just eating too much? Any suggestions? – Joseph”
Joseph, a few observations:
“You say you eat lots of fruits and vegetables and 30 grams of fiber per day. Certain fibers are more helpful with laxation, such as bran-type cereals. In addition, consider swapping one of your fresh fruit choices for four or five dried plums, especially at night before bed.
The recommended fluid intake for adult men is 125 ounces per day, at rest, and more for exercise, so if you are consuming 30 grams of fiber and not enough fluid, that may also be part of the problem; consider increasing your liquids intake.
And based on your diet breakdown (60 to 70% carbs, or 375 to 437 grams per day, and protein at 100 grams per day) your diet may be too low in fat. Fat is important as a lubricant. So you may want to cut the carbs slightly and increase the fat, through nuts and nut butter, or olive oil on those vegetables, or guacamole.
Last but not least: Before bedtime, try a small bowl of All-Bran, Bran Buds, or Fiber One with a few dried plums and 2 tablespoons of nuts. Make sure you have a large glass of water (about 16 ounces) with this.
Hopefully this will get you back to running your route, and not to the bathroom!”
Leslie
Have a question for Leslie? E-mail her. (Please write "Ask the Sports Dietitian" in the subject line.) NOTE: Due to the volume of mail, we regret that Leslie cannot answer every e-mail.
And check out Leslie's newest book, Sports Nutrition for Coaches, on sale now.
The item that I would say Leslie neglected to mention is something called the gastrocolic reflex. We all have this, but many choose to not tune into it. Once our runner, Joseph tries Leslie’s suggestions he will not be able to ignore it! Each day your gastrointestinal system sort of “wakes up” and contracts in a mechanical wave that we call peristalsis and this reflex occurs when food or fluid (often warm coffee or tea) first comes into the stomach. When you listen to your body, you’ll feel this occur and you can sit down to have a bowel movement right away, because your body has this preparatory reflex for a purpose. Following this hint from your gut will train your bowel to go before your run (or your race) and save you a great deal of anxiety along with improving your quality of life. Laugh, because it is good to do so – but then try it because it works.
I’ll have a few handout ideas for you regarding micro meal scheduling and training meals. Additionally, I will be reading a new book this year on nutrition and I encourage you to as well – it sounds great. Matt Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight – How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. There is very little on this subject currently and this work has already seen high acclaim from coaches in our sport, check it out.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Runners foot care
“Your feet are your friends” unknown, but this sage wisdom has been handed down for a long time...
You need to start looking at your feet each day to better understand their needs and how they are taking care of you. Understanding the way your feet work will keep you running many happy miles. Dr. Tim Noakes states “Treat the cause, not the effect. Because each running injury has a cause, it follows that the injury can never be cured until the causative factors are eliminated.” Would you ever think of treating your hands with the casual disrespect we give our feet? Probably not, because you and everyone else takes notice of them – yet we often forget our most prized running instrument. The tool that contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 12 tendons, and 18 muscles is a wonder and something DaVinci called a wonder of engineering.
I should say upfront that most of what I know about foot care has come from years as a distance hiker and leading groups afield. But what I know (and share today) about running foot care comes from the 300+ page, definitive tome of foot care called Fixing Your Feet by John Vonhof. He has a blog as well but this book is so well thought out that it is in its 4th edition with Wilderness Press and I highly recommend this book.
So here is the nice thing about reading a blog – nobody will see what you do next.
Take off your shoes and we’ll have a brief foot tutorial and review - with you “kicking the tires” to see how these things work and if you are properly caring for them. Go ahead, your privacy is assured – but your running future is at risk if you do not take a look at these things…
Look for changes:
Redness, cracks in the skin, nails are OK, any itching or scaling? Blisters or sore spots, callus buildup, plantar warts or corns etc – should be things you are looking out for & aware of in the developing health of your feet. Our noses, ears and feet with continue to change over the course of our lives and this program and your new pastime will impact your feet - so get a baseline look now and watch what happen over time.
Keep them smooth and clean.
Brush off the feet before going into socks and ensure nothing is in your shoes that should not be there. Use of lotion on your feet helps skin remain soft and then that skin is less likely to thicken – think about applying before bedtime and sleeping in clean socks to keep moisturizer close to the skin. Callus is generally accepted in the medical community to be a sign of abnormality, high friction, biomechanical issues or poor fitting foot gear. These should be sanded down, smoothed and reduced by gradual filing as often as possible. Failure to take care of this may cause the callus to dry and crack (producing a painful, tender injury to skin below) or deep blisters beneath the callus material which heals much more slowly than regular blisters. Soak feet in warm water or shower prior to filing/sanding with a pumice stone for best results.
Stop “hot spots” or blister right away.
If you feel friction inside the shoe stop and immediately examine the problem. Carry tape or mole foam when you anticipate trouble and apply as needed to stop friction. Even duct tape will work; trim edges to prevent “rolling” while you run as tape peeling up will make blisters worse. I love the Engo patches and have shown these to classes before – they are a Teflon type sticker that you can adhere anywhere inside the shoe as needed.
Trim your toenails before you need to – straight across to prevent ingrown nails. The failure to trim nails flush with the toe causes snagging on socks or shoes and can lift the nail off the nail bed. Long nails can cause “black toe” bruising and bleeding in the shoe! Yuck. During exertion feet will swell. Feet are largest in the afternoon, which is why it is the best time of day to buy shoes. Feet, running at days end will be very large, and so it is critical that nails be kept at the proper length to avoid impact injury.
Feet age – like we do they change over time. 1) They continue to enlarge and change in size. 2) The toenails often thicken. 3) The padding on the bottom of your feet thins and we lose some of the spring in our step as a result. 4) Feet stiffen and some range of motion is lost over time. 5) Balance sensitivity changes over time with some losses expected. 6) Arches flatten slightly
Proper shoe sizing, foot pedicures, new insoles and arch support in your shoes, stretching and strengthening exercises can offset these changes to your feet and keep you happily running.
Troublesome toes: Many folks have a condition called Morton’s toe (named for the doctor who discovered the condition). The second metatarsal bone being longer than the first, the second toe is the longest one on the foot and shoe sizing must accommodate this difference. Estimates range from 15-60% of the population having this condition. The second toe length can affect gait and contribute to over-pronation as well as callus formation where the toe bears additional weight. Simply being aware of the condition can allow for accommodations such as sizing, orthotics or additional padding.
Little toes can develop what Vonhof calls the little toe triangle. Check your little toes (or nested toes) to see if they are round and smooth on the bottom or if they have a small hardened triangle of skin developing. This triangle is very vulnerable to blisters and even tearing and so it should be soaked, reduced and moisturized to remain trouble free for long runs.
Feet can produce a pint of fluid in perspiration each day! This has to me managed for the runner.
Blisters and foot pain are most often caused by a triad of elements; friction, moisture and heat. Eliminate or effectively manage at least one of the triad and you’ll run with comfortable feet. Complex foot issues can be mitigated using socks, powders, and lubricants in your primary care plan. Additional preventive support can be found with; taping, skin conditioners, antiperspirants, orthotics, specialized lacing, shoe and sock changes, nutrition and hydration, and gaiters.
Socks are as important as your shoes and they need to match up with your shoes well. Your socks assist in injury prevention if they provide cushioning, protection and temperature management. Some of the best socks for running are now made as Right and Left in each pair. Socks do not have a break in period but you should test your socks for 3+ miles or more in your shoes prior to race day to ensure; they feel great, will do what they are supposed to, and do not give you blisters. Synthetic fibers are best and keep feet dry. Feet that are too wet or dry and grabbing something in the shoe/sock are the ones that blister.
Women’s fitted socks, toe socks, anatomically fitted (right & left) socks, anti microbial fibers, seamless socks, double layer socks, compression socks, Teflon enhanced socks to reduce friction are all currently available. There are even waterproof socks called Sealskinz but my experience has shown that these get so sweaty inside that they may be unmanageable for many runners.
Pay attention to the size of the socks as the number on the package may be “sock size” which fits a range of shoe sizes and may not numerically correspond to your foot size. Remember you are buying socks to fit your feet and not the shoe size, which may be larger to accommodate your foot swelling while you run.
Popular fabrics that review well include; Coolmax, polyester, acrylic, olefin, merino wool, bamboo, drymax, x-static, blister guard, are all great fibers currently being used in running socks.
Many running shoe companies make a sock that works well. Other names include: Balega, Bridgedale, Thorlo, Drymax, Under Armour, Injinji, Wigwam, Teko, Wrightsock, Defeet, Fox River, Goldtoe, InGenius, and Smartwool. These are available at Zombierunner.com, Zappos.com, Roadrunnersports.com, REI.com and other retailers.
Lacing can change the fit of your shoe and take pressure off of trouble areas in many cases – refer to the book “fixing your feet” by John Vonhof or Runnersworld.com, or Ian’s link, posted here on the blog, for lacing suggestions and diagrams. There are products that offer micro tensioning for laces; stretch laces that look like springs, lock laces with tension adjustments, and sausage style laces that offer tension adjustments. These may help you micro fit the shoe and unlike the “garden weasel” seen on TV many of these lacing gizmos work.
Footbeds are available for a number of foot types and gaits. Over the counter insole products are shapeable and trim to fit for your shoes. When sizing these tools at home follow directions closely! Many of these products are expected to last about a year under normal use and are often superior to the insoles that come with your shoes. SOLE, Spenco, Superfeet, Hapad, and Sorbothane all make a reputable footbed product. These are not orthotics as a podiatrist would make for you and cannot correct gait issues. They may provide additional support, prevent injury and reduce chafing in footwear. If I reveal my bias here though – many PT’s who are in the running expert-type-zone feel that using a footbed or advanced support works at the pain or problem but not the source of the issue - which may be feet in need of balancing (in terms of strengthening and flexibility) - therefore footbeds may only be the shortcut. I’ve used them and they feel good…
Self massage devices, floor rollers or tennis balls can be used to massage and rejuvenate feet with great results. Many ultra runners swear by the monthly pedicure which includes some foot massage and foot maintenance.
A foot soak you can do at home which will deodorize, soothe and soften feet (while being antibacterial/antifungal) is Pedifix FungaSoap. Contains tea-tree oil, Epsom salt, & peppermint, costs about $11.00 at pedifix.com. I have had good success with this product as a way to prep my feet for nail trimming and sanding off callus material. It smells great and leaves feet very clean and soft. Let me know if you have another trick and I’ll post it here.
Ankle strengthening and balance exercises to increase proprioception aid in having stronger healthier feet and serve to offset aging and prevent injury. These need not be complicated – as John showed us last week - standing on one leg and remaining balanced, for progressively longer intervals, is one simple method and there are many others. Walking barefoot around the house a bit is another.
A great web resource - from the man who wrote 350 pages on footcare is http://fixingyourfeet.com/blog/
Read up, incorporate a few tips each week for your amazing feet, and remember that “Your feet are your friends”
You need to start looking at your feet each day to better understand their needs and how they are taking care of you. Understanding the way your feet work will keep you running many happy miles. Dr. Tim Noakes states “Treat the cause, not the effect. Because each running injury has a cause, it follows that the injury can never be cured until the causative factors are eliminated.” Would you ever think of treating your hands with the casual disrespect we give our feet? Probably not, because you and everyone else takes notice of them – yet we often forget our most prized running instrument. The tool that contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 12 tendons, and 18 muscles is a wonder and something DaVinci called a wonder of engineering.
I should say upfront that most of what I know about foot care has come from years as a distance hiker and leading groups afield. But what I know (and share today) about running foot care comes from the 300+ page, definitive tome of foot care called Fixing Your Feet by John Vonhof. He has a blog as well but this book is so well thought out that it is in its 4th edition with Wilderness Press and I highly recommend this book.
So here is the nice thing about reading a blog – nobody will see what you do next.
Take off your shoes and we’ll have a brief foot tutorial and review - with you “kicking the tires” to see how these things work and if you are properly caring for them. Go ahead, your privacy is assured – but your running future is at risk if you do not take a look at these things…
Look for changes:
Redness, cracks in the skin, nails are OK, any itching or scaling? Blisters or sore spots, callus buildup, plantar warts or corns etc – should be things you are looking out for & aware of in the developing health of your feet. Our noses, ears and feet with continue to change over the course of our lives and this program and your new pastime will impact your feet - so get a baseline look now and watch what happen over time.
Keep them smooth and clean.
Brush off the feet before going into socks and ensure nothing is in your shoes that should not be there. Use of lotion on your feet helps skin remain soft and then that skin is less likely to thicken – think about applying before bedtime and sleeping in clean socks to keep moisturizer close to the skin. Callus is generally accepted in the medical community to be a sign of abnormality, high friction, biomechanical issues or poor fitting foot gear. These should be sanded down, smoothed and reduced by gradual filing as often as possible. Failure to take care of this may cause the callus to dry and crack (producing a painful, tender injury to skin below) or deep blisters beneath the callus material which heals much more slowly than regular blisters. Soak feet in warm water or shower prior to filing/sanding with a pumice stone for best results.
Stop “hot spots” or blister right away.
If you feel friction inside the shoe stop and immediately examine the problem. Carry tape or mole foam when you anticipate trouble and apply as needed to stop friction. Even duct tape will work; trim edges to prevent “rolling” while you run as tape peeling up will make blisters worse. I love the Engo patches and have shown these to classes before – they are a Teflon type sticker that you can adhere anywhere inside the shoe as needed.
Trim your toenails before you need to – straight across to prevent ingrown nails. The failure to trim nails flush with the toe causes snagging on socks or shoes and can lift the nail off the nail bed. Long nails can cause “black toe” bruising and bleeding in the shoe! Yuck. During exertion feet will swell. Feet are largest in the afternoon, which is why it is the best time of day to buy shoes. Feet, running at days end will be very large, and so it is critical that nails be kept at the proper length to avoid impact injury.
Feet age – like we do they change over time. 1) They continue to enlarge and change in size. 2) The toenails often thicken. 3) The padding on the bottom of your feet thins and we lose some of the spring in our step as a result. 4) Feet stiffen and some range of motion is lost over time. 5) Balance sensitivity changes over time with some losses expected. 6) Arches flatten slightly
Proper shoe sizing, foot pedicures, new insoles and arch support in your shoes, stretching and strengthening exercises can offset these changes to your feet and keep you happily running.
Troublesome toes: Many folks have a condition called Morton’s toe (named for the doctor who discovered the condition). The second metatarsal bone being longer than the first, the second toe is the longest one on the foot and shoe sizing must accommodate this difference. Estimates range from 15-60% of the population having this condition. The second toe length can affect gait and contribute to over-pronation as well as callus formation where the toe bears additional weight. Simply being aware of the condition can allow for accommodations such as sizing, orthotics or additional padding.
Little toes can develop what Vonhof calls the little toe triangle. Check your little toes (or nested toes) to see if they are round and smooth on the bottom or if they have a small hardened triangle of skin developing. This triangle is very vulnerable to blisters and even tearing and so it should be soaked, reduced and moisturized to remain trouble free for long runs.
Feet can produce a pint of fluid in perspiration each day! This has to me managed for the runner.
Blisters and foot pain are most often caused by a triad of elements; friction, moisture and heat. Eliminate or effectively manage at least one of the triad and you’ll run with comfortable feet. Complex foot issues can be mitigated using socks, powders, and lubricants in your primary care plan. Additional preventive support can be found with; taping, skin conditioners, antiperspirants, orthotics, specialized lacing, shoe and sock changes, nutrition and hydration, and gaiters.
Socks are as important as your shoes and they need to match up with your shoes well. Your socks assist in injury prevention if they provide cushioning, protection and temperature management. Some of the best socks for running are now made as Right and Left in each pair. Socks do not have a break in period but you should test your socks for 3+ miles or more in your shoes prior to race day to ensure; they feel great, will do what they are supposed to, and do not give you blisters. Synthetic fibers are best and keep feet dry. Feet that are too wet or dry and grabbing something in the shoe/sock are the ones that blister.
Women’s fitted socks, toe socks, anatomically fitted (right & left) socks, anti microbial fibers, seamless socks, double layer socks, compression socks, Teflon enhanced socks to reduce friction are all currently available. There are even waterproof socks called Sealskinz but my experience has shown that these get so sweaty inside that they may be unmanageable for many runners.
Pay attention to the size of the socks as the number on the package may be “sock size” which fits a range of shoe sizes and may not numerically correspond to your foot size. Remember you are buying socks to fit your feet and not the shoe size, which may be larger to accommodate your foot swelling while you run.
Popular fabrics that review well include; Coolmax, polyester, acrylic, olefin, merino wool, bamboo, drymax, x-static, blister guard, are all great fibers currently being used in running socks.
Many running shoe companies make a sock that works well. Other names include: Balega, Bridgedale, Thorlo, Drymax, Under Armour, Injinji, Wigwam, Teko, Wrightsock, Defeet, Fox River, Goldtoe, InGenius, and Smartwool. These are available at Zombierunner.com, Zappos.com, Roadrunnersports.com, REI.com and other retailers.
Lacing can change the fit of your shoe and take pressure off of trouble areas in many cases – refer to the book “fixing your feet” by John Vonhof or Runnersworld.com, or Ian’s link, posted here on the blog, for lacing suggestions and diagrams. There are products that offer micro tensioning for laces; stretch laces that look like springs, lock laces with tension adjustments, and sausage style laces that offer tension adjustments. These may help you micro fit the shoe and unlike the “garden weasel” seen on TV many of these lacing gizmos work.
Footbeds are available for a number of foot types and gaits. Over the counter insole products are shapeable and trim to fit for your shoes. When sizing these tools at home follow directions closely! Many of these products are expected to last about a year under normal use and are often superior to the insoles that come with your shoes. SOLE, Spenco, Superfeet, Hapad, and Sorbothane all make a reputable footbed product. These are not orthotics as a podiatrist would make for you and cannot correct gait issues. They may provide additional support, prevent injury and reduce chafing in footwear. If I reveal my bias here though – many PT’s who are in the running expert-type-zone feel that using a footbed or advanced support works at the pain or problem but not the source of the issue - which may be feet in need of balancing (in terms of strengthening and flexibility) - therefore footbeds may only be the shortcut. I’ve used them and they feel good…
Self massage devices, floor rollers or tennis balls can be used to massage and rejuvenate feet with great results. Many ultra runners swear by the monthly pedicure which includes some foot massage and foot maintenance.
A foot soak you can do at home which will deodorize, soothe and soften feet (while being antibacterial/antifungal) is Pedifix FungaSoap. Contains tea-tree oil, Epsom salt, & peppermint, costs about $11.00 at pedifix.com. I have had good success with this product as a way to prep my feet for nail trimming and sanding off callus material. It smells great and leaves feet very clean and soft. Let me know if you have another trick and I’ll post it here.
Ankle strengthening and balance exercises to increase proprioception aid in having stronger healthier feet and serve to offset aging and prevent injury. These need not be complicated – as John showed us last week - standing on one leg and remaining balanced, for progressively longer intervals, is one simple method and there are many others. Walking barefoot around the house a bit is another.
A great web resource - from the man who wrote 350 pages on footcare is http://fixingyourfeet.com/blog/
Read up, incorporate a few tips each week for your amazing feet, and remember that “Your feet are your friends”
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Rest - why you need it
Our bodies need rest in order to function properly. Does your car engine get stronger if you never turn it off? We get stronger, not during the workout, but when we rest and recover…
Growth hormone is produced when we sleep deeply and at no other time. So being horizontal is when you get to rebuild everything that training is working hard to stress and “tear down”
Bill Bowerman took a technique from Arthur Lydiard and coined the term “tough-easy” for every day that you work hard you need an easy workout to follow-up with. Easy is PE 3-4 and hard is a very long run or anything in the PE 5 & above category. Recall the post on pace and running form talks about PE, perceived effort and where your tachometer should be most of the time.
Masters runners & folks who are no longer acting like they are 20 years old often find they need a day off between workouts. This allows a more full recovery between workouts & thus you get quality workouts every time you go big. Once you are older than 20 you realize it is mostly about quality, isn’t it?
I’ll be referring you to a copy of a great article by Bridget Clark, titled Training Error – Overuse or Under-recovery? from the April 2010 issue of Ultrarunning. Her graphs are worth a thousand words as she explains the body’s response to training stimulus and how many of us will induce another stimulus (running) before we can rebuild, leading to overwhelming our systems and inching closer to the “injury threshold” in the process.
She goes a step further and talks about the idea that cross training, especially strength training, provides a stimulus that is different than running and is also non-load bearing so that the tissues build capacity and recovers better without undue stress.
Does it sound confusing that I would encourage you to exercise and then ask you to take it easy while doing it? Reframe the idea in terms of the law of diminishing returns you already know from the office. When you do not get a vacation from work or a weekend off, you become dull and less fun. Further, if you do not have adequate time to process the challenges at work (rebuild) then you begin to see diminishing returns as well – we push the pace and things begin to get dropped on your plate. Let me quote Bridget Clark, from her Training Error article, “we now have a wealth of research in sports science covering the past 30 years. With the rate of running injuries so prevalent, potential causes have been studied up and down.” She summarizes this body of research by saying, “training error is the only factor that consistently displays a direct cause and effect relationship with running injuries”. She has the doctorate in Physical Therapy, and her argument makes sense intuitively. Sometimes we will suffer what she refers to as a traumatic injury – one example would be me hitting my head on a low limb during a run and causing a goose-egg style welt to appear. The second and much more common injury is overuse, with two studies cited, ten years apart, each showing 70% of runners see these overuse injuries. We simply do not allow enough time for the body to recover and rebuild as stronger before we load it up again. Slow or abrupt degenerative damage results as we spiral toward what Bridget Clark calls injury threshold.
Remember how we talked about the injury cycle? There are 4 distinct phases - all easy to remember and each gets worse.
One: I sprain/tweak my ankle and so it hurts a bit after the run.
Two: I run on it for two weeks as I normally would, without slowing down or doing any “rehab” of the injury and now it hurts during and after the run.
Three: A week after that it hurts before, during and after the run.
Four: Finally it hurts too much to run, and hurts all the time – is this my ankles fault? Am I now meant to run? If you are in my class I think you can answer this question pretty well…
The good news is that you can apply this sports injury model to your overall sense of well being and thus guard against over training. The FIRST program, Dr. Maffetone, and Dr. Tim Noakes in his book all talk about a runner getting progressively more tired, feeling that performance plateaus and then drops, notices that immune system function begins to decline and may even see mood changes or swings in much the same way that extreme stress has been shown to affect people. We should be alert for trends over time and look out for a common acronym in prehospital care called DIC head syndrome. Disoriented, Irritable and Combative. A number of things can cause this and some could be acute problems such as; you could have low blood sugar, could be suffering from the heat, or maybe something more chronic could be overtraining syndrome. Everybody has different physiological set point for this (you are an experiment of one) and it varies depending upon what else is going on in your life as well. It is a fine line for some and gets easier to discern as your “aches and pains” database expands and as you learn more about your training process as journey of minor stressors and growing stronger from each stressor. Tired is natural, while tired with lingering effects and inability to refresh may need intervention. As you might guess, this is much easier to spot in others, outside yourself. Your training log will help you here as well as your running buddies.
Remember when we talked at the beginning about your running log? How you should examine your workouts and they will tell you a great deal about where you and how far you have come? This document can become an important window into how you are doing if you are without a coach or a regular running buddy who can spot your holistic well being. Author Tim Noakes gives a number of suggestions that you may wish to record in your running logbook that extend beyond the idea of mileage, route, shoes worn and time elapsed.
1) How did the run go? We all have a growing “aches and pains database” and this plays a role but on the trend side you want things to get gradually better.
2) What was your effort rating (or PE, perceived effort): If easy workouts feel hard this week, I ask the question “what has changed?”
3) Did you enjoy it – or any part of it? Nearly every run has both good a bad spots and if they do not pass easily out of the bad, I ask the same question as above, or if things clicked – what helped is good information too.
4) You waking pulse rate: I asked you to take a baseline pulse as homework because we want to see improvements and look for spikes in this rate, or a new creep upward, as a sign we must heed.
5) Early morning body weight: This is the best time to get a reading (after the gastrocolic reflex occurs) and this number will fluctuate but we hope that there is not a continued drop over time – a loss of appetite or persistent loss is considered an overtraining sign.
6) Number of hours slept: You know where this is going – get to bed!
7) Heart rate during the workout: This can also tell us about what you are feeling, are you pushing too hard or is it taking more effort to do what was easier to execute two weeks ago? Over time the same route should get a bit faster or easier without increasing heart rate above your regular workout numbers. See the previous lesson about pace to get a Dr. Maffetone recommended pulse rate for your steady state runs.
This kind of data will allow insight toward overtraining trends or on the bright side – when you can bump things up a notch. Many starting out will say “I do not want to bump anything, right now – I am stressed enough!” and that may be true, however 3-4 weeks without changes toward the positive side of the ledger, and no deleterious effects either means that you have hit your plateau at this exertion level and it is time to vary the workload or increase intensity for a new phase. This gradually makes you better at what you are pursuing.
If something hurts for two or more days then take 2 or more days off – simple. During that time stretch, RICE and examine what has changed that would cause the injury – but don’t assume running through it as normal, will be the cure. You will have to use active rest and modify your expectations while learning about the root cause of injury. Here is a great thought, “healing, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature." - W.H. Auden
If you are sick from the neck up – go ahead and run (it may even help) If you are sick from the neck down – consider sitting this one out.
Expect that you’ll need to take better care of yourself and wash your hands more frequently when your mileage drops. Your immune system is cranking at peak capacity when you are running & when mileage drops sometimes the immune system takes a vacation too.
When you are getting strong running performances each week, you can gain 90% of all possible fitness developments with 4 days/week of running. You may get that extra 10% with 5 or more days each week but what you’ll find is that the number of injuries you see in the runner is appreciably higher.
Trouble signs of overtraining
Injury – muscles not allowed to recover well between workouts suffer from stress injury. Failing running form in the tired athlete leads to excessive pounding, favoring something compounds imbalances. Do not become a sport limper or it will get worse somewhere else on your machine!
Sickness – While running stimulates the immune system, too much too soon - or inadequate rest – allows the body to be susceptible to illness or infection – once you are ground down to nothing, illness sets up shop.
Slump – remember that loss or impairment of higher brain function is one way that the body shows early sign of problems. Irritability, restlessness, trouble sleeping, depression and malaise indicate that you need a rest week (decrease in training volume, additional rest days, 8+ hours of sleep nightly)
How much rest? For starters we stay within the 10% rule, so that we rarely increase training load by more than 10% in any week. We also seek to vary the training cycle and get you some rest every four weeks as a means for you to absorb your training. Within that parameter you’ll also need at least one extra minute per night for each mile you train that week. EG: If you run 15 miles in a week, you’ll need 15 extra minutes each night that week. Closer to race time - seek to allow an extra hour of sleep each evening. Olympic Marathoner Ryan Hall is in bed at 9:30pm every night. You do not spend 12 hours a day there, but you get what you need to charge up for your event.
One last resting tip is feet up - allowing time for fluid exchange (assisted by gravity) not only feels great but really speeds recovery. Racers are now using pressure stockings to gain the same benefit while sitting at their desks. Blood return and elevation are great things for tired feet and lower legs.
Growth hormone is produced when we sleep deeply and at no other time. So being horizontal is when you get to rebuild everything that training is working hard to stress and “tear down”
Bill Bowerman took a technique from Arthur Lydiard and coined the term “tough-easy” for every day that you work hard you need an easy workout to follow-up with. Easy is PE 3-4 and hard is a very long run or anything in the PE 5 & above category. Recall the post on pace and running form talks about PE, perceived effort and where your tachometer should be most of the time.
Masters runners & folks who are no longer acting like they are 20 years old often find they need a day off between workouts. This allows a more full recovery between workouts & thus you get quality workouts every time you go big. Once you are older than 20 you realize it is mostly about quality, isn’t it?
I’ll be referring you to a copy of a great article by Bridget Clark, titled Training Error – Overuse or Under-recovery? from the April 2010 issue of Ultrarunning. Her graphs are worth a thousand words as she explains the body’s response to training stimulus and how many of us will induce another stimulus (running) before we can rebuild, leading to overwhelming our systems and inching closer to the “injury threshold” in the process.
She goes a step further and talks about the idea that cross training, especially strength training, provides a stimulus that is different than running and is also non-load bearing so that the tissues build capacity and recovers better without undue stress.
Does it sound confusing that I would encourage you to exercise and then ask you to take it easy while doing it? Reframe the idea in terms of the law of diminishing returns you already know from the office. When you do not get a vacation from work or a weekend off, you become dull and less fun. Further, if you do not have adequate time to process the challenges at work (rebuild) then you begin to see diminishing returns as well – we push the pace and things begin to get dropped on your plate. Let me quote Bridget Clark, from her Training Error article, “we now have a wealth of research in sports science covering the past 30 years. With the rate of running injuries so prevalent, potential causes have been studied up and down.” She summarizes this body of research by saying, “training error is the only factor that consistently displays a direct cause and effect relationship with running injuries”. She has the doctorate in Physical Therapy, and her argument makes sense intuitively. Sometimes we will suffer what she refers to as a traumatic injury – one example would be me hitting my head on a low limb during a run and causing a goose-egg style welt to appear. The second and much more common injury is overuse, with two studies cited, ten years apart, each showing 70% of runners see these overuse injuries. We simply do not allow enough time for the body to recover and rebuild as stronger before we load it up again. Slow or abrupt degenerative damage results as we spiral toward what Bridget Clark calls injury threshold.
Remember how we talked about the injury cycle? There are 4 distinct phases - all easy to remember and each gets worse.
One: I sprain/tweak my ankle and so it hurts a bit after the run.
Two: I run on it for two weeks as I normally would, without slowing down or doing any “rehab” of the injury and now it hurts during and after the run.
Three: A week after that it hurts before, during and after the run.
Four: Finally it hurts too much to run, and hurts all the time – is this my ankles fault? Am I now meant to run? If you are in my class I think you can answer this question pretty well…
The good news is that you can apply this sports injury model to your overall sense of well being and thus guard against over training. The FIRST program, Dr. Maffetone, and Dr. Tim Noakes in his book all talk about a runner getting progressively more tired, feeling that performance plateaus and then drops, notices that immune system function begins to decline and may even see mood changes or swings in much the same way that extreme stress has been shown to affect people. We should be alert for trends over time and look out for a common acronym in prehospital care called DIC head syndrome. Disoriented, Irritable and Combative. A number of things can cause this and some could be acute problems such as; you could have low blood sugar, could be suffering from the heat, or maybe something more chronic could be overtraining syndrome. Everybody has different physiological set point for this (you are an experiment of one) and it varies depending upon what else is going on in your life as well. It is a fine line for some and gets easier to discern as your “aches and pains” database expands and as you learn more about your training process as journey of minor stressors and growing stronger from each stressor. Tired is natural, while tired with lingering effects and inability to refresh may need intervention. As you might guess, this is much easier to spot in others, outside yourself. Your training log will help you here as well as your running buddies.
Remember when we talked at the beginning about your running log? How you should examine your workouts and they will tell you a great deal about where you and how far you have come? This document can become an important window into how you are doing if you are without a coach or a regular running buddy who can spot your holistic well being. Author Tim Noakes gives a number of suggestions that you may wish to record in your running logbook that extend beyond the idea of mileage, route, shoes worn and time elapsed.
1) How did the run go? We all have a growing “aches and pains database” and this plays a role but on the trend side you want things to get gradually better.
2) What was your effort rating (or PE, perceived effort): If easy workouts feel hard this week, I ask the question “what has changed?”
3) Did you enjoy it – or any part of it? Nearly every run has both good a bad spots and if they do not pass easily out of the bad, I ask the same question as above, or if things clicked – what helped is good information too.
4) You waking pulse rate: I asked you to take a baseline pulse as homework because we want to see improvements and look for spikes in this rate, or a new creep upward, as a sign we must heed.
5) Early morning body weight: This is the best time to get a reading (after the gastrocolic reflex occurs) and this number will fluctuate but we hope that there is not a continued drop over time – a loss of appetite or persistent loss is considered an overtraining sign.
6) Number of hours slept: You know where this is going – get to bed!
7) Heart rate during the workout: This can also tell us about what you are feeling, are you pushing too hard or is it taking more effort to do what was easier to execute two weeks ago? Over time the same route should get a bit faster or easier without increasing heart rate above your regular workout numbers. See the previous lesson about pace to get a Dr. Maffetone recommended pulse rate for your steady state runs.
This kind of data will allow insight toward overtraining trends or on the bright side – when you can bump things up a notch. Many starting out will say “I do not want to bump anything, right now – I am stressed enough!” and that may be true, however 3-4 weeks without changes toward the positive side of the ledger, and no deleterious effects either means that you have hit your plateau at this exertion level and it is time to vary the workload or increase intensity for a new phase. This gradually makes you better at what you are pursuing.
If something hurts for two or more days then take 2 or more days off – simple. During that time stretch, RICE and examine what has changed that would cause the injury – but don’t assume running through it as normal, will be the cure. You will have to use active rest and modify your expectations while learning about the root cause of injury. Here is a great thought, “healing, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature." - W.H. Auden
If you are sick from the neck up – go ahead and run (it may even help) If you are sick from the neck down – consider sitting this one out.
Expect that you’ll need to take better care of yourself and wash your hands more frequently when your mileage drops. Your immune system is cranking at peak capacity when you are running & when mileage drops sometimes the immune system takes a vacation too.
When you are getting strong running performances each week, you can gain 90% of all possible fitness developments with 4 days/week of running. You may get that extra 10% with 5 or more days each week but what you’ll find is that the number of injuries you see in the runner is appreciably higher.
Trouble signs of overtraining
Injury – muscles not allowed to recover well between workouts suffer from stress injury. Failing running form in the tired athlete leads to excessive pounding, favoring something compounds imbalances. Do not become a sport limper or it will get worse somewhere else on your machine!
Sickness – While running stimulates the immune system, too much too soon - or inadequate rest – allows the body to be susceptible to illness or infection – once you are ground down to nothing, illness sets up shop.
Slump – remember that loss or impairment of higher brain function is one way that the body shows early sign of problems. Irritability, restlessness, trouble sleeping, depression and malaise indicate that you need a rest week (decrease in training volume, additional rest days, 8+ hours of sleep nightly)
How much rest? For starters we stay within the 10% rule, so that we rarely increase training load by more than 10% in any week. We also seek to vary the training cycle and get you some rest every four weeks as a means for you to absorb your training. Within that parameter you’ll also need at least one extra minute per night for each mile you train that week. EG: If you run 15 miles in a week, you’ll need 15 extra minutes each night that week. Closer to race time - seek to allow an extra hour of sleep each evening. Olympic Marathoner Ryan Hall is in bed at 9:30pm every night. You do not spend 12 hours a day there, but you get what you need to charge up for your event.
One last resting tip is feet up - allowing time for fluid exchange (assisted by gravity) not only feels great but really speeds recovery. Racers are now using pressure stockings to gain the same benefit while sitting at their desks. Blood return and elevation are great things for tired feet and lower legs.
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