Runners World: What's That Green Stuff?

Getting Outside in City Green Spaces May Help You Live Longer
Boost the benefits by adding in some exercise, too.
Elizabeth Millard/Runners' World/December 20, 2019

Finding time to enjoy a city park isn’t just a pleasant lunchtime excursion—recent research suggests those outings could help you live longer.

Published in the journal Lancet Public Health, a World Health Organization review of nine major studies from seven countries—representing over 8 million people—on green spaces and all-cause mortality found that there’s a significant association between exposure to green spaces in urban areas and better public health.

Researchers found that for every 0.1 increase in green space within a third of a mile of a person’s home, there was a 4 percent reduction in premature death. This was consistent across every country, including the U.S., China, Spain, Australia, Canada, Italy, and Switzerland...

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Runners' World: These Boots Were Made For...?

Why Runners Might Want to Try Walking in Minimalist Shoes
Alison Goldstein/Runners' World, 21 Dec 2018

As runners, we are encouraged to do a whole load of “prehab” activities: core work, strength sessions, stretching, and foam rolling, among others.

Sometimes, though, life gets in the way. Our other commitments—jobs, family, friends, even other hobbies—can encroach on that time, and we inevitably end up taking the gamble: We skip some of those injury prevention tasks, cross our fingers, and hope for the best as we set out for our runs.

So wouldn’t it be nice if something we already do as part of our daily lives—say, for example, simply walking—could double as an injury prevention tactic?

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CTS: In Time Out 'til Race Day

Tapering for Ultrarunning - How to Prevent Taper Tantrums!
By Jason Koop, CTS Coaching Director, Author of “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning”

For many athletes, tapering before a major goal event is a double-edged sword. On the one hand they are happy about the lightened training load, but on the other they are sometimes anxious or distressed by the reduction in training volume. Athletes have two primary fears during the taper process: detraining and missing out on time they could be using for additional training. These fears sometimes lead to a phenomenon we humorously refer to as “Taper Tantrums”. To avoid taper tantrums and get to the start line of your event in the best possible condition, he are some things you need to know about tapering...

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CTS: Only Four Things. Cool,

4 Things Cyclists, Runners, and Triathletes Do Poorly
Carmichael Training Systems/June 15, 2017


You’re a smart person and endurance training isn’t rocket science. To be perfectly frank, you could probably figure out most subjects if you had the time and motivation to do so. So we understand if you’re looking at a bunch of training manuals, websites, and magazines and figuring you can handle this training thing on your own. But as good as you are on your own, here are 4 important things most athletes are not very good at...


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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...

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Active.com: To Be, Not Seem To Be

Running One Hour Adds Seven Hours to Your Life 
By Elizabeth Grimsley/Active/com

Boy, do we have great news for runners! According to a new study based off research done by the Cooper Institute in Dallas, runners tend to live about three years longer than non-runners--that's about seven additional hours for every one hour of running.

Whether you're fast or slow, on a trail or a treadmill, training or simply taking some time out for a leisurely jog, it all counts toward your ultimate pursuit of immortality.

But that begs the question: What should you do with all this extra time on your hands?

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