For those of you in the midst of heavy training sometimes its easy to overlook the symptoms of over training. For some guidance on this Mark Sisson of the Mark’s Daily Apple blog has just posted an excellent article explaining these symptoms which range from losing leanness despite increased exercise to suddenly falling ill a lot more often.
His post can be read here.
Courtesy of Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple:
By now you know I have a biased point of view that rigorous endurance training is antithetical to health. Yes, I competed and loved it for 20 years, so I get the appeal it has for so many, but these days my personal focus is on maintaining the highest level of fitness and health on the least amount of work and sacrifice. I want to play and have fun.
Still, I get asked a lot by endurance athletes whether there’s any chance they can continue to compete at a high level while eating andtraining Primally. I used to think it probably wasn’t feasible if you wanted to be world class, assuming as I did (erroneously) that you just couldn’t overcome the need for copious amounts of carbs on a daily basis without crashing and burning. However, recent research into the concept of “train low-race high” (vis a vis glycogen) and modified approaches to low level aerobic training that focus largely on reprogramming genes to more preferentially burn fat AS WELL AS the use of techniques like HIIT and barefoot training now all seem to show that training and eating Primalcould not only maximize performance, but extend your career.
The following book review is courtesy of Christopher Kelsall and originally published on the Flotrack website. Reproduced here with permission.
======================
We’ve all read John L. Parker Junior’s contribution to running culture, the quasi-fictional parable, Once a Runner – or inevitably you will. As far as running novels go, Parker set the benchmark with this story, so-much-so that the very long-awaited sequel, Again to Carthage, as good as it is, will forever exist in the shadow of the former Parker touchstone. Think in terms of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatle career, much longer and arguably more successful artistically-speaking than his career as one of the fab four, but the giant shadow looms and will forever cast its influence. Once a Runner is as significant to running culture as Sgt. Pepper is to popular music culture.
This article was written by Christie Hurrell and originally published in the UBC Report –
Worried that getting around the city could be the toughest event of the 2010 Winter Games? Thousands of athletes and visitors, along with road and parking restrictions, will all contribute to increased congestion in Metro Vancouver. A UBC research team is encouraging people to use their bikes to get around, and they’ve designed a special web-based tool to help cyclists plan hassle-free trips.
The route planner, located at www.cyclevancouver.ubc.ca, was first launched in spring 2008 and has become popular with local cyclists (and pedestrians, who find it useful for planning walking routes). Now, it is being updated to reflect all known Olympics-related road restrictions, so that cyclists can find efficient ways to get to their destination. The Olympics edition of the route planner launches this month, and will be available throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
A recent article in the New York Times outlines recent research which makes that case that flexibility should not be considered a cornerstone of health and fitness.
In fact, the latest science suggests that “extremely loose muscles and tendons are generally unnecessary (unless you aspire to join a gymnastics squad), may be undesirable and are, for the most part, unachievable, anyway.”
Do you agree or disagree? The full article can be read here.
The following, written by Christopher Kelsall, was originally published in Flotrack and re-produced here with permission ->
November 1, 2009 – There is a stirring of athletes and involved personalities, gently rustling the jib of the Canadian cross-country scene. This is happening right now at a well-known Canadian running forum. The parties appear to be organizing, in their attempts to sway Athletics Canada (AC) brass to hand over management of the national cross-country team to them, at least for one year. The proposal? Well it is in the works as they say, swirling in virtual dialogue.
The athletes, coaches and interested parties appear to be developing their mission schematics in ad-hoc discussions; the ideology is mired in the early stages of development. This public discussion may cause AC to simply dig in their heels. They hold the purse strings and the policy to boot; it’s called being in the position of power.
Written by Hayley Mick and originally published in the October 29, 2009 edition of the Globe and Mail;
Competitive distance runners, unlike hockey or rugby players, are better known as boy scouts than party boys, but some say that’s just a stereotype.
Jim Finlayson, one of Canada’s elite distance runners, gathered with 75 racers on the track, feeling confident after his normal pre-race routine: a nice sleep, oatmeal for breakfast, plenty of water.
When the start gun blasted, however, he did something he never would have attempted in international competition: He chugged a bottle of Granville Island Winter Ale. Then he bolted.
They call it the Beer Mile. Four laps of the track. One beer per lap. No puking, on pain of a penalty lap. Hundreds of people around the world have posted their times, and beer of choice, on www.beermile.com.
Mark from the Mark’s Daily Apple Blog has recently written a great post on how to save money on feed. 99 ways to be exact. A selection of our favorite ones are listed below:
And our favorite?
For the full list click here…
As athletes we’ve all gotten bad advice before. So it seems fitting that endurance sports writer Gina Kolata of the New York Times has written about this phenomena in her most recent article…
=================
THE talk, at the Expo Center at the Boston Marathon this year, had an intriguing title: Using Biomechanics to Predict Running Injuries. And the lecturer, Dr. Thomas W. Vorderer, a podiatrist at the division of sports medicine at Children’s Hospital, one of the Harvard hospitals, spoke with great conviction.
You can prevent injuries, Dr. Vorderer said, or, if you get them, can make them heal if you learn the right way to stretch and if you stretch regularly. And you should also learn the right way to run; in general, he said, runners should strike the ground with their heels first. If they strike with their midfoot or forefoot, he said, they are just asking for injuries.
CBC’s Scott Russell discusses on his blog the immunity of the running industry during the recession. An excerpt has been included below, to read his post in full please visit his blog.
======
The guy in the store where running shoes are sold had a simple message.
“People run even when they’re stressed,” he said. Then he punched the cash register and rang up $169 for a new pair of Mizunos while gleefully handing over a box full of hope.
Business is good.
“Maybe people run because they’re stressed,” replied the customer. “In times like these, maybe it’s a way to get by.”
Running events are myriad in this country and even in a period of recession they seem to be flourishing. The Vancouver Sun 10-kilometre race boasted 55,000 entrants in April. Early this month, 12,000 folks ran or shuffled in Sporting Life’s annual dash down one of the busiest streets in Canada’s largest city. From the Bridge City Boogie in Saskatoon, to the Blue Nose International Marathon in Halifax, people are still running, in literally thousands of races spanning the country and in record numbers.
A great article from New York Times writer Gina Kolata:
================
IF anyone ever wondered whether it was talent or sustained systematic training that makes athletes so good, they need only look at Joshua Gordon, a professional mediator in Boston.
Mr. Gordon ran cross-country in college before stopping completely to take up baseball. Six years later, in 1999, he decided, almost as a lark, to run the Boston Marathon. He joined a program to learn how to run longer distances, a process that involved gradually increasing the length of his runs and focusing only on distance, not speed.
He finished the marathon in a little over four hours, not especially fast for a man of 24, but he did meet his goal. “I was thrilled,” he said.
And so he found himself edging back into running, entering shorter races, 5 and 10 kilometers. He tried to train on his own, but he never did particularly well until he decided to start serious, rigorous marathon training with the Boston Athletic Association. He received coached track workouts once a week, four to six coached runs of 18 to 23 miles along the marathon course, and he had a group of skilled and talented athletes to run with.
Following is an excerpt from Mark Sisson’s blog (The Daily Apple) where he argues, contrary to the recent emerging popular belief, that humans have NOT evolved to be long distance runners…
================
Thanks to the several readers who have pointed out this recent article in SEED Magazine which once again dredges up the tired argument that humans evolved to be long-distance runners. Most of you know by now that I totally disagree with that theory. I say humans evolved to be excellent slow movers (walk, jog, migrate, forage, crawl, scramble, etc) burning mostly fat. We also developed into pretty decent short sprinters, but we did NOT evolve to run long distances. Sure, early humans were all-around fit enough and capable of the occasional long easy jaunt after an animal, but to think that natural selection redesigned our simian shapes to run the Boston Marathon is, in my opinion, ludicrous.
Continue reading on Mark’s blog…
Are you ready for Vancouver Islands premier trail running series?
The GutBuster website can be found at www.gutbustertrailrun.com
GB001::Mt Tzouhalem (May 17th, 2009)
GB002::Colliery Dam (May 31st, 2009)
GB003::Royal Roads (July 12th, 2009)
GB004::Mt Doug (July 26th, 2009)
GB005:Mt Washington (August 8th, 2009)
The FRONTRUNNERS GutBuster Trail Running Series is Vancouver Island’s Premiere Trail Running Series that takes runners off the road and onto the some of the most amazing trail networks in Western Canada. We are offering five exciting races for the 2009 season. Each race offers a short course (5-8km) and Long Course (10-21km) option and the last race of the season at Mt Washington is and ascent race which climbs 505m to the top of Mt Washington Ski Resort.
A new study shows that manual-resistance exercises work just as well as weight-based exercises. Written by Matt Allyn and published on Active.com.
=========
Building muscle and strength doesn’t require a gym membership, or even weights, according to a new study from the University of Texas-El Paso. In a new test of manual resistance exercises, where a training partner provided the resistance, researchers found the strength training to be just as effective as using weights.
During a 14-week period, the scientists monitored 84 college students who were assigned to either a traditional program of weights-based exercises, or manual resistance workouts. Both groups were given six exercises and performed eight to 12-rep sets two to four times. By the end of the study, the two groups showed no significant differences in strength development.
If you’re an ultra runner or have at least ocasionally dabbled in the sport be sure to check out Rob Mackay’s lastest posting on his blog titled: An ultra classification system. In it he attempts to classify the different types of ultra runners one might see at your average ultra race. Here’s an excerpt:
===========
Being an evil marketer I am constantly segmenting people by demo/socio/value-graphic methods. I may get in trouble for this for not including people in various categories but I’m going to attempt to create a classification system for ultrarunners. (I have been in the bottom 3 categories, myself) Anyway, here goes:
The National Geographic Adventure blog has just published their list of the Top 10 Toughest Races in the world. The races include a number of disciplines, here’s a summary (in reverse order):
Written by Gina Kolata and published in the New York Times, March 25, 2009
===============
WELDON JOHNSON first tried caffeine as a performance enhancer in 1998. He was not a coffee drinker but had heard that caffeine could make him run faster. So he went to a convenience store before a race and drank a cup of coffee.
For the first time in his life, he ran 10 kilometers in less than 30 minutes.
“I remember being really wired before the race,” he said in an e-mail message. “My body was shaking.”
From then on, he was a convert.
Mr. Johnson, a founder of LetsRun.com, would avoid caffeine, even in soft drinks, for a few weeks before he competed in a race, wanting to have the full stimulant effect.
“It may have been a huge placebo effect, but I swore by it,” Mr. Johnson said. “Having a cup of coffee exactly one hour before the race was part of my routine.”
Or maybe it was not a placebo effect.
Caffeine, it turns out, actually works. And it is legal, one of the few performance enhancers that is not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
From the Vancouver Sun:
VICTORIA – Brent Fougner, race manager for the inaugural Times Colonist 10K, recalls thinking how impressive it was that 1,700 runners showed up in 1990.
On April 26, a throbbing ribbon of humanity comprising more than 12,000 participants is expected to snake its way through city streets for the 20th annual Times Colonist 10K.
It is the second largest 10-kilometre race in Canada after the Vancouver Sun Run.
“It boggles my mind . . . per capita, it’s the largest running event in Canada,” said Fougner, of the event’s growth over two decades.
Backpacker.com has recently put together an excellent list of ten undiscovered treks. They include the following:
Follow these tips for happy trails wherever you run.
1. Run tall. Running, especially uphill, can be exhausting, but if you bend under the effort it’s more difficult for the lungs to do their thing. On the uphill, keep an eye at the crest or a few yards ahead, not at your feet. If you’re gasping, slow down and pump your arms a little, or if you need to, walk, while keeping your posture tall. Even elite runners will walk a steep hill.
2. Shorten your stride on the way up. And plant your entire foot; climbing on your toes kills your calf muscles. Jump over obstacles. Stepping up on unsteady rocks and roots is not only tiring, it can be hazardous.
3. Be loose on the downhill. Stop braking and allow yourself to fly a little, throwing your arms to the side. But don’t flail. If you lose control, slalom from side to side like a skier. Don’t lean back or dig in your heels to brake (a guaranteed butt slide). Instead, land quickly and lightly.
4. Plot your moves. View the trail like a chessboard. Plan your steps around bumps, dips, soft sand and fallen trees yards before you reach them.
5. Focus on time, not distance. Don’t expect to match your road PR.
6. Diminish your risks. Run in pairs or let someone know where you’re going and when you’ll be back. Take plenty of fuel and fluid, a lightweight jacket and a cell phone, which won’t always get a signal in the mountains, but might. Uphill runners yield to downhill runners. Yell “trail” well in advance of passing another runner or hiker.
7. Find your balance. Slippery downhills let you know what your legs are made of. Build them up between trail runs with weighted squats and lunges, and build your balance using wobble boards.
8. Keep your bearings. Things look different coming back than going. Pause to look around when two or more paths diverge from the one you’re on. Look at trail signs and identify rocks, trees or landmarks on the horizon.
9. Leave no trace. Even in races, trail runners stow empty wrappers and wouldn’t dream of dropping cups like road racers. Stay on marked trails, don’t cut switchbacks and go through, not around, puddles to prevent erosion.
10. Feel like a kid again. Crank it on the downhill, hoot and holler, jump into a stream.
Have FUN!
Trainharder.com | Contact | Entries (RSS)| Comments (RSS) | © Copyright 2007 - 2009