RUNSAFE: "Too Much, Too Soon"

In the British Journal of Sports Medicine March 2020, we discuss the “too much, too soon” theory. 

In running, it is widely accepted that athletes sustain sports injury if they train ‘too much, too soon’. However, not all runners are built the same; some can tolerate more running than others. It is for this reason that prescribing the same training program to all runners to reduce injury risk is not optimal from a coaching perspective. Rather, runners require individualized training plans. 

In acknowledgement of athlete diversity, it is therefore essential that researchers, assisted by runners, coaches and others, ask the right causal research question in studies examining sports injury etiology. In the article, we conclude “In the light of the limitations of population-based prevention that intends to provide all athletes with the same advice, we argue that a stronger emphasis on research questions targeting subgroups of athletes is needed. In doing so, researchers may assist athletes, clinicians and coaches to understand what training advice/program works best, for whom and under what circumstances”. 

In this light, participants in the Garmin-RUNSAFE Running Health Study, are a part of one of the first research studies that, based on a priori defined criteria, seeks to understand what running advice works for certain runners.

Read more about causal questions and the “too much, too soon” theory here:
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2020/03/05/bjsports-2018-100245 
Note that the publisher owns the copyright for these publications so only the abstracts are available for free.

RW: 'Cause It Bores Me?

Is Running on a Treadmill Harder or Easier Than Running Outside? 
New research debunks some persistent ’mill myths.
Hailey Middlebrook/Runners' World Online, Mar 22, 2019

 - A new meta-analysis published in Sports Medicine analyzes 34 studies that compare the physiological, perceptual, and performance differences between running outside and running on a treadmill.
- The research concludes that when runners speed up on a treadmill, they have higher heart rates and report feeling more fatigued than when they run the same speed on land.
- Runners display more endurance running outside than on a treadmill.

In a new research published in Sports Medicine, scientists from Australia sought to answer these questions by investigating the differences in running performance on a treadmill versus real ground. To gather this data, they analyzed 34 studies that compared treadmill runs to “overground” (outdoor) runs. Twelve of the studies asked participants run on a 1 percent grade on the treadmill, while the others used higher or lower inclines.

The researchers were focused on three key measures of comparison: physiological (how hard the runners’ bodies were working to maintain pace and finish their workouts, measured by heart rate, blood lactate levels, and VO2 max), perceptual (how hard the workout felt for the runners), and performance (how the runners performed in time trials).

 
(Link to article)

Outside - Trots and Beer

What Strava Tells Us About the State of Running in 2018
Martin Fritz Huber, Outside/November 29, 2018

This week, Strava, the activity-sharing network favored by endurance athletes and those who stalk them, released its annual “Year in Sport” report, which offers insights on data collected from over 36 million users in 195 countries. Even though Strava is looking to broaden its reach—for better or worse, roller skiers and kitesurfers can now upload their activities on the app—runners and cyclists continue to dominate...

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CTS: So Hush, Already

To Improve Your Training Stop Saying These Four Things
Syd Schulz, CTS Sponsored Athlete/


We all know negative self talk is bad, but how many of us are actually successful at stopping it? I know I often succumb to being my own worst critic, and just telling myself to “cut it out“ and “be positive” is rarely helpful. Ultimately, wrestling with your mind is just not productive — but there are some things you can do to set yourself up for success BEFORE you get bummed out. And they’re pretty darn simple. Even when it seems impossible to control the thoughts running through your brain, you CAN control what you do with them and what comes out of your mouth, and that’s a good start.


Here are four decisions I learned to make that have immeasurably improved my training and approach to sport. I’ve also included the things we say that keep us focused on the negative, and some examples of how you can reframe those responses. I’m leading with mountain biking lingo because that’s my sport, but the ideas apply to ultrarunning, road cycling, triathlon, and pretty much all endurance sports...


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Runners' World: Thinking Upgrade?

Gear Check: Is The Apple Watch Series 3 Good For Runners?
Betty Wong Ortiz/Runners' World, Sep 20


As soon as I heard about the new Apple Watch Series 3, I couldn’t wait to put it through its paces. Not only did its sleek gold aluminum case and multitude of band choices—from sporty to sophisticated—make it the best-looking sports watch I’ve ever worn, but the built-in cellular connection would let me finally leave the iPhone at home. (No more Facebook tempting me at stoplights!) But with the Chicago Marathon coming up on my race calendar, I had one big question: Would this $399 watch last me through four-plus hours of running with enough battery left to call my loved ones at the finish line?


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Two-To-Three of Six, Huh?

The Five Worst Habits of Runners
Mackenzie Lobby/MapMyRun blog, July 25 2017


Research suggests that 37–56% of runners end up with an injury each year. If you’re a runner, this statistic probably doesn’t surprise you because you’ve probably been hurt before.
But running and injury don’t have to go hand in hand.
Many sport-specific ailments are avoidable with a careful and calculated training routine. The first rule of thumb: The plan you follow should be tailored to your individual needs as a runner. What works for your running buddy may not work for you.
But beyond picking the right race-prep plan, you can increase your risk for injury if you neglect certain preventative measures. Here are the top-five worst habits the majority of runners are guilty of, and the research-backed reasons you should stop doing these things if you want to run injury-free for months and years to come...
(Link to Article)

Three Is The (Un-)Magic Number

The Three Most Common Running Injuries
Adam Elder/Outside, July 12 2017




Every year, as many as 80 percent of runners get injured. Most suffer from a handful of common injuries. These are not good odds.


But here’s the good news: You can avoid them. In fact, these injuries are often easier to prevent than to cure. For advice, we turned to Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician in New York City who’s run 35 marathons and finished 14 Ironman triathlons.


Here are the three most common running injuries, according to Metzl, and his advice on how to prevent them...


(Link to Article)

CTS: Cramp Causes and Fixes

Causes, Prevention and Treatment of Cramping
Chris Carmichael, CTS/July 20, 2017


Endurance sports are all about pushing yourself and testing your limits. Sometimes your brain has to step in and protect you from yourself, like when you bonk and your brain conjures up nausea in an effort to get you to slow down and address the problem. Other times your body skips protection and moves straight to kicking the crap out of you in a creative and painful way, otherwise known as cramping.


Muscle cramping is something athletes deal with at all levels of the sport, yet they’re often talked about with a sense of mysticism, like there’s a cramp fairy who magically appears and zaps your hamstring just as you get up to sprint. Science offers a number of theories for the cause of cramps, two of which are particularly interesting...


(Link to Article)

CTS: Sleep Before You Die

5 Ways Endurance Athletes Can Get More (and Better) Sleep
Jason Koop, CTS/July 11, 2017


In some ways, our glorification of entrepreneurial culture has sold you a bill of goods. “Be the first to arrive and the last to leave.” “Live for the grind.” “You can sleep when you’re dead.” “While you were sleeping, this guy was winning.” You know what successful people do? They sleep. They sleep soundly, and well, and they are protective of their sleep hours. Why? Sleep is the foundation of productivity, both in business and in sport. If you want to perform at your best this summer, don’t just focus on your training and nutrition. Focus on sleep, and here’s how...


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Outside: Democratizing Sport

Meet The People Making Running More Inclusive
The sport still has a long way to go, but these leaders are pushing for more diversity
Martin Fritz Huber/Outside, May 19 2017

In the lead-up to last summer’s Olympics in Rio, mega-event critic and Olympic historian Jules Boykoff had a suggestion for reducing the cost of future Games while bringing a greater number of countries into the five-ring fold. In a nutshell: more runners, fewer horses. “People from around the world can run and you don’t need tons of equipment like, say, dressage,” Boykoff said at the time. “So a real positive thing the Olympics can do is to try to bring in more sports that more people can play—in other words, democratize sports.”

It’s easy to see where he’s coming from. After all, running doesn’t pose the obvious economic or geographic barriers that make more extravagant forms of recreation—like skiing, golf, or, indeed, horseback riding—the purview of the privileged few. But even as recent years have seen record numbers of road race participants in the United States, work still needs to be done to broaden the reach of the sport—particularly by challenging market and media-driven ideas about what a typical runner looks like.

These individuals are on the front lines of that fight.

(Link to Article)

CTS: Heart Rate? Good. Now Ignore It.

Why Heart Rate Is Not a Good Training Tool for Ultrarunning
Jason Koop/CTS, May 18 2017

If you are going to use interval training to accumulate time at intensity and target specific areas of your fitness, you need a way to figure out how hard you are working. In some sports this is simple. As mentioned earlier, a cyclist with a power meter can directly measure workload in watts, determine how many watts he or she can produce at lactate threshold, and then create intensity ranges based on percentages of lactate threshold power. Ultrarunners don’t have it so easy. For a long time, runners have tried to use heart rate to gauge intensity, intensity ranges based on percentages of lactate threshold heart rate or the average heart rate recorded during a 5K time trial. Others have used pace ranges based on time trials or goal race paces, or a combination of heart rate and pace ranges. Prescribing intensity based on either heart rate or pace is notoriously difficult in ultrarunning, and after trying all manner of methods, I found the greatest success in a remarkably simple, nontechnical, yet scientifically accurate method: rating of perceived exertion...

(Link to Article)

Outside: Hitchhiker's Guide to Race Day

The Anxious Competitor's Guide to Staying Calm 
We've got you covered from the start of your training to the moment the gun goes off 
Rachael Schultz/Outside/Apr 21, 2017

Similar to how you meticulously plan your increase in miles or speed, it’s critical that you develop a routine to help your mind productively transition into race mode. Doing so gradually lets your mind adjust to the fact that a competition is on the horizon and fight off the inevitable anxiety that’s headed your way. “When it comes to the mental component of a competition, it’s very rare for an athlete to be able to switch it on like a light switch,” says Joel Fish, director of the Center for Sport Psychology in Philadelphia. “Most athletes need a pattern of routine that helps the body and the mind signal that it’s getting time to compete, habits that note the countdown is getting closer to actual race day.” 

Here’s what that pattern should look like...

(Link to Article)

Carmichael Training Systems: Taking Science In

Inside Sports Drinks (Just the Science) 

Carmichael Training Systems

A sports drink is essentially water with stuff dissolved in it. Some drinks have lots of different kinds of stuff dissolved in them, some of which just waste space. There is only so much room to dissolve solutes in a drink, and drinks with fewer ingredients can use more of that room for important things such as carbohydrate and sodium. The simplest drinks are the best because they are easiest on the gut and facilitate the transport of sugar and electrolyte across the semipermeable membrane of the intestinal wall better and faster...

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Outside Online: Pain and Getting Chicked

The Longer the Race, the Stronger We Get 
Meaghen Brown//Outside Online, Apr 11, 2017

 At the outer edges of endurance sports, something interesting is happening: women are beating men. 

Among the world’s most celebrated long-distance footraces, the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc is known for being particularly brutal.

The 106-mile course through the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps climbs more than 33,000 feet as it loops around its namesake peak. The weather can be savage—heavy rain, frigid nights, hot and humid days. In August 2013, Rory Bosio took off from the start line without grand expectations, having never won a major event. She trailed well behind the leaders for the first six hours. But as the race stretched into the evening and most competitors slowed, ­Bosio held her pace. When the lanky, brown-haired American runner in pink shoes and a blue running skirt crossed the finish line in 22 hours 37 minutes, she’d destroyed the women’s record by two and a half hours. Bosio took seventh place overall, becoming the first woman to crack the top ten at the event and beating dozens of elite pro men...

(Link to Article)

Outside Online: Two Stretches to the Dark Side

3 Stretches Every Outdoor Athlete Should Do Daily 
This three-minute routine will make you faster and stronger and help keep you injury-free 
Michael Easter //Outside Onliine, Apr 11, 2017 

Whether you’re attempting a new PR, training to bag an FKT, or just trying to keep up with the young guns, you may think the key to improvement is more: more training, more exercise, more of your sport. But James Wilson, a personal trainer based in Grand Junction, Colorado, says what you really need is balance...

 (Link to Article)

Active.com: Nothing to Fear But...

7 Common Running Fears (and How to Conquer Them)
By Monica Olivas/Active.com

Let’s get something out of the way: Running isn’t easy. The inherent difficulty of the sport is what attracts competitors, makes their miniature triumphs so rewarding and keeps all of us coming back. But it’s also those reasonably founded—but easily dispelled—fears that keep non-runners from ever lacing ‘em up.

We’ve addressed each of the most common running fears and attached a recipe for conquering them. So don’t fret. You’ll be running (and loving it) in no time.

(Link to article)

Outside Online: Work Hurts Badly Enough

The 5-Minute Warm-Up for Any Sport
Just a few quick moves will set up your body to perform at its best in any sport and keep you injury-free while you work
By: Michael Easter//Mar 20, 2017

We can’t blame you for wanting to skip the fitness foreplay and go straight into your sport, especially when time is limited. But the hurried approach does more than just slow your first few miles or stiffen your reps. When you drop the hammer before your body is ready, at best you’re limiting your performance potential; at worst, you’re putting yourself at much greater risk for injury, according to researchers at the University of Alabama.

Many people skip the warm-up because they assume an effective routine must also be a long one. But science tells us that’s just not the case. The right set of moves can prep and prime your body in just five minutes, says Doug Kechijian, co-founder of Resilient Performance Physical Therapy, in New York City. “An ideal warm-up elevates your heart rate and body temperature, allows you to move better during your activity, and gets your system ready to fire,” he explains.

Kechijian has worked with every type of athlete in the book, from Special Forces soldiers and NBA stars to professional outdoorspeople and amateur gym-goers. He says the majority of people dream up and then abandon complicated warm-ups. In reality, he says, most of us have the same tight areas and benefit from the same drills, so a one-size-fits-all routine is more feasible than you might think. Kechijian pulled the six most-powerful moves from his arsenal and bundled them into your new no-excuses warm-up routine. Move through the set continuously before jumping into your workout.

(Link to Article)

Outside Magazine/Here's Why We Live Where We Live...Right?

Comebacks to Your Best Winter Running Excuses
Nice try. We've heard it all before.
By: Martin Fritz Huber Feb 22, 2017

Ah, winter! The season for hot chocolate, pond hockey, and excuses for skipping your run. Granted, even when the weather is mild, it’s not hard to convince yourself that staying in bed an extra hour is a better idea than that sunrise eight-miler, but the cold season is what separates the runners from the wannabes.

Of course, you already know this. But everyone has that friend and sometimes running partner who wants to go into hibernation from December until March. To help you persuade (or shame) your reluctant running companion to get out the door, here are a few suggested responses to some of the most common seasonal excuses for staying on the couch.

“It’s too cold to run.”
Sorry, but in an age when people go surfing among icebergs, that excuse just doesn’t fly. Put on a damn hat and some gloves (and if we may make a few suggestions).

“I don’t want to get hit by a car that skids off the road.”
Me neither. That’s why I’m happy we live in the age of reflective gear. And remember: run against oncoming traffic.

“Running in tights makes me self-conscious.”
Embrace the shorts-over-tights look, if you must. If anyone asks, the shorts are for “extra warmth.”

“There’s snow and ice everywhere.”

Lucky you! Rather than a regular, dull old run, you’re getting a makeshift obstacle course race—complete with snowbank hurdles and ice hazards—as part of the deal. You may not be able to sue an international event company if you hurt or kill yourself, but the kind old lady down the street who forgot to salt her sidewalk is fair game. Or just invest in shoes with better traction.

“I don’t want to get sick.”
Then drink kefir, dress appropriately, and get plenty of sleep. Also exercise—that is, go running.

“The days are so short, and I don’t like running in the dark.”
Unless Nosferatu is your next-door neighbor, there’s no reason you can’t just buy a headlamp.

“What if I get hypothermia?”
Unlikely. But if it happens—and you survive­—you’ll have excellent story material.

“Winter is a time for indoor sports!”
The way things are going, we might all be living underground soon anyway, so you better get outside every chance you get.