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.

Runner Question Answered

I received a question the other day that was a really good one and thus I wanted to take the opportunity to answer this one as an additional post. Perhaps others have this same question and may be able to gain insight about training. The question was something like this; “If I can run 27 minutes now, but it still takes me a few minutes to run a big hill – where should I put by emphasis in training? Should I be running hills or focused on my progress toward thirty minutes and worry about the hill later? I feel like, when I am on the flat I can run non-stop and do well, yet I still need to slow down and even walk a hill sometimes. Is this OK and what should I be doing about it?

Here is the big picture answer: for now, you need to be OK with walking the hill and continuing to slowly enhance your endurance. Now here is the why to that answer, because I would not be teaching a running class if I did not think that the runner needs to know and understand why we train the way we do.

Training on hills is it’s own class content. They are tough and require a few new form techniques and a lot of patience. The whole idea with hills is to adapt to them slowly, just like you do running long distances. We started walking before we ran and we’ll start hills by walking them or by proceeding up them with equal effort NOT equal speed. That is to say that if your run is a (perceived effort rating) of 4-5, so that you can talk and sing while running, the run is about half of your total output. Remember that these runs are 70-80% of your total running volume or training. Your heart rate (easy to measure if you have a watch or a heart monitor) would be at about 60% of your output with these workouts. If you use the Maffetone method to calculate this heart rate number, I want to run at 180, minus my age (42) = 138 beats/minute.

So when I run along I want to stay at around 138 bpm, and that should be about a perceived effort of 4-5. When the hill comes, I want to head up the hill at that same effort, which means that for now, speed will change. I will slow down to keep a 138 heart rate and a PE of 4-5. Over time I will adapt – just like I adapted to being able to run farther – so that I can run the hill, or head uphill faster using the same amount of effort.

For great coaches like Arthur Lydiard, hills were considered to be the athlete’s weight room. Alberto Salazar and Jeff Galloway will tell you that running hills is equal in effort to doing speed work. Which means, don’t overdo it. All these coaches will agree that hills will make you faster, for several reasons. You develop new muscle definition in your legs for hill work, your body adapts to higher workloads, and you gain confidence that you can crush any terrain you train to conquer.

There are a ton of great reasons to train on hills but we have to be smart about it as well. To run up the hill early on is no different that seeking to run too fast initially in your program. You risk too high a heart rate, not having the where-with-all to continue running once your reach the top, being injured from the effort or being a bore from “overtraining syndrome”. Will all of this happen to you the first time you run up a hill? No. But you do need to consider that if it feels like a huge effort, than it probably is, and that our program is based around gradual attainment of limitless endurance in a near tireless state. While that seems a lofty goal, recall how far you have come so far, by proceeding gradually. If you are not injured or discouraged, then you’ll continue to develop and push yourself and we have time for that a bit later.

Know that I have participants who run to church – 7 miles each way, and some of it up hill. My personal distance record is 42 miles from Elkins to Buckhannon and back, but I still walked once in awhile. Yes, I enjoyed nearly every minute of it. Everyone who has ever run an ultramarathon (any distance over 26.2 miles) will tell you that no matter how much you train, walking remains part of your event sometimes – especially to eat, drink, or when the terrain becomes too steep, as to steal your energy for the rest of your event.

Running well is about pacing yourself and knowing when to push and when to hold the pace. After many weeks of running hills, and after you can run 30 minutes continuously, you’ll know when you can push up the hill a bit without overdoing it, and your body will tell you also; in respiration rate and heart rate. Listen to what it tells you and ease into hill just as you do your running. So start some hills now – sooner rather than later – and walk what you need to. Even at a walk you are building adaptations for this type of terrain, but remain a smart and thinking runner when you tackle these challenges and we’ll talk more about hill (up and down) in an upcoming class.

Keep at it, Carl

Breathing Right

A music professor explained that one in seven people are breathing efficiently and this makes a difference – in everything…

Many take running for granted because we already know how to walk and we might assume that this running thing is nearly an unconscious action just like walking. Many of those same folks might also take breathing for granted, for the same reasons. It just happens and it must be happening just right, because I am still here – “why think about it?” they might ask.
Miles Davis was quoted as saying “Everything matters – Everything” and since most of us cannot sit for two minutes without needing another breath – Mr. Davis might have argued that this matters even more than some things despite it being an autonomic function. In fact, because it is an autonomic function for our bodies we may be running on less than full capacity. Think about what deliberate technique could do for breathing and you’re bound to consider gains in the same way that engineers think about how to turbo charge cars by giving the engine more air. Three easy ways for runners to enhance performance; develop supporting muscles, stretch and make supporting muscles more flexible, develop posture & breathing techniques that we can integrate into autonomic function. Working in these areas will allows us to relearn and strengthen the normal breathing mechanism.

Exercises for enhancing breathing ability are on video from Runner’s World

Bob Anderson’s book on stretching includes some good moves to enhance thoracic flexibility and I have his book if you would like to look at some additional stretches for thoracic flexibility. His site is full of good resources for stretching and includes some of the same kind of tools that you might find at Perform Better.com

Working to stretch and strengthen the muscles that aid and support good posture gives us a strong core and stabilizing muscles that will allow us to hold our good running form longer. Theses are the same muscles that allow us to breathe a bit better. No “beach muscles” required but basic maintenance of the abdominals, obliques, lower back and upper back and shoulders give you an upright posture that allows enhanced airflow.

Belly breathing or diaphragmatic breathing is something easy to practice while lying down and once you feel this you can practice anywhere. Seek to achieve the sensation of filling your body with air from the bottom up. First the back and belly expand, then you feel some chest expansion and lastly you “top off” the lungs. While this seems slow and cumbersome at first – so did running – and now you are more fluid. Do you think that better breath support would make you more fluid and comfortable too?

Where are your head and your spine while you’re running? Think about C7 and up in particular as this will affect the rest of the body too. [Cervical Spine 7 is the vertebrae that you can feel as a bump sticking out on your lower neck when you look down at the sidewalk.]Water flows better through a straight pipe than a kinked one.

Roll your shoulders and use arm raises along your route to loosen up and allow the chest to have a relaxed and open carriage while you run relaxed, down the road. Do not arch your back but keep your spine up right and relaxed.

At the paces we run science describes us as “obligate mouth breathers” which is to say - if your mouth is not open for gas exchange, you’ll fall over from inadequate perfusion. Your nose helps the process and some folks swear by Breathe Right Strips (applied across the bridge of the nose) to further enhance air exchange. Galen Rupp is one professional runner who helped make a name for these in distance running.

Side cramps (side stitch) can be caused by short quick breaths or made worse by it. Try holding pressure into the cramp and breathe deeply, slowing your pace and allowing your body to relax and oxygenate. Think about stretching away from the cramp site to make those muscles longer. Diaphragmatic breathing will help side cramps as well, by giving the diaphragm full range of motion.

Find your breathing rhythm or cadence that coincides with a particular pace. You’ll find that the regular weekly pace might be a breathing pattern something like this: one in – one out, with three strides in that pattern. While the tempo pace might be two in – one out, with just two strides in that pattern. Your threshold pace might be breathing one in – one out, with each stride you take. Find that breathing rhythm that works for you and seek to stay there and learn to enhance that rhythm. The pattern for your own breathing can be nice to listen to. It is also a great feedback tool about how hard you are working and what pace you are running.

Find an easy breathing rhythm and let that govern your pace – not the other way around. Your legs will never outrun your lungs – which is to say that if you are in control of your respiration the body will pace itself according to how much air you’re giving it. You should plan to run longer at this pace (or slower) and run 3 or more days a week in order to keep and increase your new respiratory adaptations.
To be clear, you do not seek to control your rate of breathing itself, because your brain knows a lot more about internal regulation than you do and if you go down the road trying to govern air exchange without heed to pace - the central governor (your brain) will make you fall over! Instead you use your breathing rate to help you measure effort and choose a pace that gives you that rate of respiration and rhythm that you recognize as your PE number.

How well are you doing with your respiratory capacity?
There are several techniques that Dr. Maffetone recommends in his book, The Maffetone Method which help you determine your capacity and may improve it. He asks athletes to assess their diaphragm muscle by breathing through a straw for a few seconds, working your way up to a minute or more over the ensuing weeks – then adding several sets, of one minute each, for three sessions total each week. Your initial success with this will tell you about how powerfully your diaphragm is working for you now and give you a milepost for how it improves over time. The Bob Anderson stretching website used to sell a device called the breathbuilder and this simple device is still available on websites catering to musicians, especially wind and brass players. This device is a simple tool that is not unlike the straw Dr. Maffetone is using but provides greater resistance and a visual aid in your progress.

The next exercise he recommends is a measure of vital capacity of the lungs and the use of your diaphragm. Dr. Maffetone states that any athlete should be able to hold their breath for 50-60 seconds without a problem. This could also be something to work up to as the diaphragm develops power to help you take in more air to sit for 50 seconds. Building this skill has great effect for your running as you will breathe more slowly and with greater tidal volume in each breath - just don’t run while holding your breath!

The third assessment, a Snider’s test, involves playing with fire. If your mouth is completely open – can you blow out a match that is six inches away from your mouth? Six inches is the length of a $1 bill. You should be able to do this without a problem. I though this one was tough but rather than be discouraged - we can use these tools to track respiratory progress in training as you keep track of all your other metrics for progress – without air in your system you’re going nowhere.

Pelvic and abdominal power

Why talk about all of these drills that seem to build supporting muscles without actually running? Well, awhile back I spoke about the idea that we are making running a habit and a Practice and this means that we are trying to shape it into a process oriented thing rather than a goal oriented thing. Further you have heard my bias that we are all made to run and yet when we enter into something new, it will often show us an asymmetry, an imbalance or weakness somewhere in our body as we develop into the new activity – be it gardening or golf. This is why we train the supporting musculature.

Why talk about all of this now? Recall that I said that we could easily overwhelm you with good information that could seem insurmountable to a newcomer. Some people will not need to do core work as they come to a program with developed anatomy from another sport or genetic gifts. Others will find that seven to ten weeks into their program they are coming into a few minor glitches and wondering how to hop over them. That is why we take the time now to talk about posture and core strength and balance – because for some it will be the next key and you have to present information as folks are ready to absorb it. The pelvis is an area that we are talking with many folks about when looking at gait and best running form as well.

So in a potpourri of topics related to core strength I will begin with a summary of a great article by Dimity McDowell, Runnersworld 3/09 titled Never Get Hurt.

Many common injuries are associated with pelvic instability or lack of strength in this region according to the Center for Endurance Sport at the University of Virginia.

Injuries such as shinsplints, iliotibial (IT) band syndrome, and lower back pain are some injuries that can be addressed at the cause and possibly “pre-habilitated” by doing an abdominal and pelvic workout.

If you develop a stable pelvis that supports the legs below and the torso above; the legs will spin almost effortlessly beneath you while the upper body remains quiet and solid. Think about the Roadrunner in the cartoons as he buzzes away from his attacker.

Many of these exercises will positively affect posture and ease the chance of injury from the road. The core work that some folks may already doing for strength training nicely augments this routine.

Drills are about 20 minutes three times a week and can be done before a run
Video of each exercise is available at
http://www.runnersworld.com/video/0,8052,s6-1-0-5,00.html

Besides your abs many muscles help make up the runners core
Transverse Abdominals – cough or laugh and you’ll feel these muscles which stabilize the spine and pelvis, right above your pelvic bones.
Gluteus medius – this muscle on the side of your glutes minimizes side to side rotation.
Your lower back also plays a key role and you need to think about being as strong as is practical – all the way around your core as a protective cumber-bund and to build posture that promotes more structural running.

Some of my favorite stability drills come from Danny Dryer: in one example he ask you to lean forward against a table edge so that the table touches your leg at mid-thigh and you maintain a slight – whole body- lean forward as if you are a 2x4 from ankle to head. Hold this position for as long as you can and slowly increase your time. This is working the lower abdominals in a way that is similar to the way they support you going down the road.

Working these muscles is done with body weight resistance and can be done w/o equipment. Clean form is a must and you only do what you can muster comfortably, and slowly you increase the repetitions or interval weekly.

Some posture guidelines for thinking about a stable pelvis.
Heavy heel strikers typically see lower back pain down the road. Do not overstride and seek to have feet fall nearly beneath you while maintaining a long and neutral spine. Practice good posture daily and translate this to your running. While it may be hard to think about your stride all the time – you take five minutes to think about it, twice during each run, and from there we build muscle memory for best form that will follow you later in your runs.

Danny Dryer in his book ChiRunning, takes this a step further and talks about where we generate power from. “Efficient movement comes from your core muscles, not the muscles in your legs. We are so used to being told that strong legs are the answer to efficient running that when we are told to relax our legs, it is a huge mind body shift away from how we normally move.” So you ask, “Relax my what?” and my simple answer is that you are asking a very big question – but I know that this is not a sufficient answer. You generate the most power from your core and if you have ever hit a baseball, drove a golf ball, skied bumps in spring, practiced martial arts or rowed a boat then you know what I am talking about. These are core sports and activities that require what the literature calls “upper/lower body separation”. In short that means that sometimes your entire body is moving together and other times you isolate the motion of one half from the other half or top from bottom. So while you do need legs to best achieve maximum performance in these sports you will often isolate the movement of the legs from the core and have each doing different tasks or workloads. The core is where a great deal of Danny’s award winning speed and grace comes from and this allows him to not power through on his legs which are not as efficient.

He goes on to say later in the book that the true test of mastery is in how long you can maintain correct technique – quality reigns supreme over quantity. This should sound familiar to you as well. By working these core muscles we allow you to support yourself structurally for longer stretches of time and this will not just benefit your running but your daily posture, air exchange, and daily well being.

On page 72 of ChiRunning, Dryer presents an example of a great drill that you can do anytime to tune into your own posture habits and work on better form. He calls it the vertical crunch and we practiced the idea of this in running seminar in June. If you place your hands at your own waist line (one on your navel and one on your lower back, each just above the bony prominence, or iliac crest) you should get a sense of their relationship to each other. If you are seeking to use your hands to reference the top of your pelvis; is one hand higher than the other? Are they at the same elevation, front and back? Dryer states that this relationship will offer insight into whether you are using more of your lower back, and compressing discs in the process or bowed forward and tipping your pelvis to the rear. If there is an imbalance here - between your two hands “elevations” there may be less room in between vertebrae and a chance of low back stress. You may struggle to breathe from the diaphragm as we have discussed earlier. He points out that when you bring these hands into alignment, front to rear, that you should only be using abdominal muscles to do this and these are lower abdominals that seldom get used so it may take some time and focus to make it all come together.

Other posture tidbits that I find help runners. Another one from Danny Dryer: to begin each step, think about lifting your feet off the ground from the heel – this helps recruit muscles from the back of the body in your running stride.

More training guidelines to prevent injury
Your longest run should not be more than half of your weekly total mileage.
The “10% rule” states that total mileage does not increase by more than 10% each week.

If you are limping you have no business running. If the pain is sufficient to cause a limp your stride will create alignment issues that will tear something else loose before the end of your run. You would not drive with one wheel rubbing the wheel-well because you know that the misalignment of the car would throw you into the ditch or give you a flat. In the same way that you would not drive the car with the rubbing tire, do not run when you have pain to the point that you are compensating somewhere, even subtly.

Here is another great running drill that gives you the strong feel of what solid running posture would be like and points to any current weakness you can work on. This comes from the Chi running instructors.

Leveling Your Pelvis
A Killer Exercise to Develop Coordination and Strength
By Scott Smith, ChiRunning Certified Instructor of the Month
(articles about Chi techniques, and a subscription to the newsletter can be found at chirunning.com)

As a ChiRunning Instructor, one of the most important services I can provide is educating a student on coordinating and strengthening the muscles that that are used to level the pelvis. This movement is essential for optimal posture and efficient movement. Whether I am skiing, cycling, running or kayaking, I always draw my strength, balance, and endurance from my pelvic floor/lower abdominal region. Low back pain and tightness can be reduced greatly by recruiting the muscles that level the pelvis, thus signaling the opposing back muscles to release (reciprocal inhibition).

The following rope exercise teaches you how to level your pelvis while moving your legs (engaging your hip flexors), simulating walking or running.

Step 1: Lay on your back with knees bent, heels close to buttocks, toes up and slide a 3/8" to 1/2" rope underneath your low back where the largest gap exists.
Step 2: Flatten your lower back against the rope by pulling your navel to your spine, pinching the rope against the ground. Try to pull the rope out with one hand. Make sure your head, shoulders and tailbone all stay on the floor.
Step 3: Test your starting point: If the rope slips, then do 3 x 30-second holds, 4-5 days per week. When this is mastered with no rope slippage, add movement of the knees up and down while slowly walking your heels away, half an inch at a time until the rope begins slipping. Now back up half an inch and use this as your starting point, doing 3 x 30 knee lifts for 4-5 days per week. Keep advancing heels away from the butt over the next couple months until you can do straight leg raises, with your core engaged, back flat, and no rope slippage.

With practice, this is an excellent way to engage and strengthen your lower abdominals. Notice that we are not doing crunches but trying to build core strength in a balanced way Good Luck!

On Coaching

Words from some great coaches
If you are going to spend any time thinking about how to motivate runners, with something other than your own passion for the sport, it is far better to study the past and present history than it is to reinvent the wheel. My love of running ties nicely into my habit of reading nearly everything, and to this end I’d like to share with you some tidbits of what I have learned from two great running coaches. I think that there two individuals offer applicable tidbits for every runner and you can learn more about these folks at their web sites, or a quick Google search. Phedippidations (one of my favorite running podcasts) has an episode about Arthur Lydiard that is also very well done.

Joe I. Vigil, Ph.D.
As a physiologist and scientist Joe Vigil has risen to the top of his profession and been named coach of the year 14 times. He has coached international athletes and the US Olympic team. He has guided athletes through a number of regimens and set the path for what have become many of the “standards” in coaching runners today.
He has argued that most distance runners have an iron deficiency and that especially goes for women.
He has tailored training stimuli for the individual athlete being training (an advanced method of periodization).
He has advocated run more miles (his athletes run about 140 per week) just as Arthur Lydiard did, so that athletes achieve a tireless state for their chosen race. [remember that how you run them is very important]
He has advocated for more speed workouts in order to boost cardiovascular reserve and respiratory reserve in his athletes.

What might be most interesting however is that despite all of the intensive, specific and well researched science that Dr. Vigil has put into his athletes he has found that the final polish in getting them to a higher state lies in the Zen of personal improvement and that he insists upon this as part of an athlete’s progression to excellence.

As with all members of Team Running USA, we required that all athletes strive to:
1. Improve Personal Relationships
2. Improve Achievement Motivation
3. Improve the Quality of Their Mini and Macro Environments
4. Improve Their Athletic Maturity
5. Show Integrity to Their Value System
6. Display a Commitment to Their Mission
7. Practice Abundance by Giving Back to Their Sport and Team
This is great news for the adult runner because of the fact that even though we can all personally improve, many adults are already quite good at the above seven core ideas of Coach Vigil.

Joe Vigil currently coach for Team USA in California and one of the most impressive athletes in this great team is Olympian Dena Kastor. Vigil describes Dena Kastor, “If I were to operationally define the qualities an athlete must possess to be successful, Deena would epitomize those qualities. She is a great example of mind/body autonomy working in harmony to reach set goals. She truly believes and adheres to the principle of unending improvement and the setting and achieving of even higher goals.”

In interviews and articles his wisdom continues to shine through on how to motivate the inner athlete for performance. Some of his adages, paraphrased, follow here.

Friendship is the thing to cherish and respect the most from the sport you are involved with.

Challenge: you have to make a difference in your team, finding your gift or element of leadership that you can give to those around you. Be an impact person.

The journey: every day you need to accomplish something, incrementally in the process, you have to think and plan how you will incrementally get better.

Courage: you have to have the courage to not do, what you should not do, when the current leads you astray. Be considerate of your teammates and fellow runners and look for chances to pick them up.

Goddess of wisdom vs. the goddess of wealth -
"We all have two goddesses that complete for our hearts in life. You cannot chase the money – if you give all your attention to the goddess of wisdom and cherish her most, the goddess of wealth will become jealous and follow you." I think that I like this one the best and anyone who has been caught dancing like no-one is watching is onto this idea. You should be doing the important stuff first, the rest comes along if it will.

Arthur Lydiard
From his beginnings as a cobbler who began running as a means to rid himself of a few pounds, Lydiard’s name became synonymous with great coaches. He began a coaching philosophy in the 1950’s that was tested in his neighborhood in Auckland, New Zealand, with non-athletes and even bypass patients. As Garth Gilmore writes in the preface to Lydiard’s book Running to the Top, (reprinted in numerous languages) “So ingrained is the Lydiard philosophy now, we almost have to force ourselves to recall that before him, the coaching was 180 degrees the other direction. Lydiard was the beginning of a magic era; jogging became acceptable if not godlike…Lydiard was the keystone and he never lets us forget that, as an unschooled layman, he did what physiologists, theorists, and professional coaches were not able to do. He was unsophisticated but he was smart.”
Lydiard enjoyed an equally long list of mentored champions. He has too many keen insights about running to list in a single essay and his imprint on coaching is clearly still felt today. I’ll share a few of those insights here, from his book that which are relevant to your program.

“Athletes need to enjoy their training… You have to hurt yourself a little but at the same time you must enjoy it” he is also the person who gave us the adage “train, don’t strain”. While Lydiard never said it would all be easy for athletes, he emphasized that one should “try to run each day in such a way that (you) would want to run again the next day”

Our sport is largely a solitary one and thus there is a very large mental aspect, where the athlete is driven internally to flourish and move forward in their journey. On this matter Lydiard states, “athletes need to be told why specific aspects of training are being used, both physiologically and mechanically. This is the best form of psychology and motivation to use…The coach should appeal to an athlete’s intelligence, explain clearly what every training session means & what they are trying to achieve. ”

“One of the remarkable aspects of jogging has been the discovery by so many who have taken up running, even late in life, of potential they didn’t know they had to be quite successful athletes”. He follows this through with, “when it comes to endurance, we can develop that in anyone” and if you have not caught my bias yet – I believe him on this one.

I like the change in perspective these guys have and offer it to you so that you can A) understand where I am coming from when I offer you advise about your program B) So that you can begin to explore further some of the great minds in the sport that have a lot of sound advice to offer. See if you can find the influence of these folks in the modern viewpoint of Tom Holland and his book. I feel that in terms of running’s history we are all standing on the shoulders of giants.

Collision course article

Here is the full article link to a good story on runner safety, from Runners World

Road Runner Survival

This discussion will have a handout that you can obtain by attending class discussion.
Our sport is pretty darn safe. We get stronger the longer we run and we develop in a number of positive ways. Barring an overtraining injury or using NSAIDs on race day, or suffering heat stroke in August you stand to run for a long, long time in good health. That said there is this crazy thing called a car on your roads and it can mess up your whole running career. When I refer you to the article (titled Collision Course) in Runners World about road safety I purposefully omit the story of terror that befalls the runner in the article’s prologue as my purpose is not to scare you and you can clearly imagine far worse than I’d ever care to write. But with two months of running under your belt, and now you are exploring new routes as well, we need to pull over and talk about those cars a bit.

To elaborate on what I have said previously and the article does not fully cover, you should have a basic kit with you on the road to take care of emergencies. This kit includes durable ID, money for a phone call, maybe a whistle, and especially as the days begin to shorten again, a way to be seen (reflector, flashlight, blaze) for road runs. While night runs do pose some additional risk you must always consider visibility for your safety and this variable is easily controlled without a shopping spree. You should begin to think about your route and say to yourself when buying running clothes, “can he see me from a half mile away” because that is kind of the minimum distance when he is hurtling towards you at a rate of 88 feet per second (about 60MPH). When you first got behind the wheel, someone spoke to you about being defensive, and that is what we are going to revisit in this lesson from the other side of the windshield.

Automobile vs. runner - You know you are never going to win this one – so no bullfighting please. You should face traffic and take off your headphones but also keep these great ideas from Jeff Galloway in mind.

Watch and prepare to make fast adjustments, many runners have had to dive for the ditch or leap the hedgerow as the motorist dropped their cell phone and reached down to catch it – losing sight of the runner and veering too close.
Plan ahead where you might jump to or which side of the turn offers best visibility
Wear reflective gear, not just at night. Think “can I be seen easily from a half mile away?”
Understand that you cannot understand the driver’s mentality. Drunk, late for church, overtired, maybe they’re texting, or unable to run and resentful of you for getting out and having such a good time. People act like they are anonymous in their cars oftentimes. So WAVE, let them know that you see them and let them see you better, be neighborly and BE the change you wish to see in the world…(you’ll be amazed how many wave back – esp. in WV)

On a separate and related note – never start something. I know it would sometimes seem glorious to jump onto the hood of the car that pulls out in front of you without looking, but this is just another form of road rage. It will not get you anywhere productive and further it may cause your friend to get clipped in a grudge match some weeks later now that the driver does not like runners. Do not even gesture, we have enough trouble getting the respect we deserve out there and so you want to kill them with kindness, not invoke animosity. The flip side of this is to reinforce positive behavior. I stopped to make a special gesture to a woman driver who waited at the edge of a huge puddle, rather than risk splashing me. I said hello and thank you to a couple who re-leashed their dog as I approached. Giving them reinforcement for what we’d like to see helps all my running friends as they repeat these behaviors and teach others to do the same. I do not know much about tennis players because I am seldom around them but many folks know something about runners because they come into contact with you all the time - be an ambassador for our sport and teach them what you want them to learn.

Eye contact – I know that you might be tired after running up a long grade and trying to regain your rhythm but I do seek to make eye contact with every vehicle coming at me (recall I am facing oncoming traffic) to be friendly, but to also understand what they are doing in the car. The article states that one fifth of drivers text and I find this figure to be low, especially with younger operators. GPS or music players are also something that is fiddled with and takes their eyes from the road. I am also regularly experimenting with how long it actually takes for them to acknowledge or see me, and many do not wave until they are mere feet away. We are sharing a space and everyone is more likely to be on their best behavior if we acknowledge each other.

Be an example – what gadgets are you using while running and do they cancel your ability to remain aware of danger? I run with headphones on occasion but I have switched to a type that does not fit into my ear and seal out other noises. I can hear a car behind me and I will raise a hand in friendship as they approach so that they see movement, and they understand that I am aware of them (and predictable). I try not to check my splits on busy roads and I will often assume the motorist wants to go first and stop to wave them on – as if I was a fellow car in another situation. When running with a flashlight I do not shine it in the drivers eyes but let the beam bounce a bit so they know it is a runner. Take charge and set the tone out there and people will treat you as larger than you are.

Know your route – Not just to be aware of dogs or where the shoulder is widest, but on your slow days, assess where there are blind turns, hill crests that will obscure you from a driver’s view, driveways that are tough to see or places where motorists often crowd each other. I run on many roads that are a lane and a half wide and thus I am always looking for the place to jump to and how to pre-plan being more visible. I have pulled off the road and raised my arm overhead when climbing a steep hill crest to ensure the oncoming driver could see I was there. I have stopped and peaked around a corner to listen for cars before proceeding. Caution pays.

Tools
In 2007, nearly 700 cyclists were killed in the Unites States – their sport is significantly more dangerous than ours. This means that in any bike shop or bike supply catalog you’ll find really neat visibility toys that work equally well for running. They need not be expensive either. I have carried a Glow stick as an emergency backup light. Many types of mini headlamps, Maglites or LED flashlights from the auto parts store sell for under $20. Retailers now offer scotchlite adhesive strips for your running gear and these can be applied to any durable item – including your flashlight, and hunting shops offer blaze orange hats or accessories. Road workers and safety official rely on a vest w/ reflectors and these can be purchased for less than $20. They even make clip on reflectors, glowing armbands and handheld flashers. Do not forget that area drivers are always looking to avoid deer, possum and the like so they are already trained to spot movement (your wave) and the more the better. A smile and or recognition will help as well, if you are a friend and neighbor on your route folks will start to look out for you a bit. If you always have something with you to signal with you’ll feel better, even if you never need it.