Runners' World: Ticker Taping?

How Exactly Does a Fitness Tracker Monitor Your Heart Health? 

We tapped an expert to break down how a heart rate monitor works—and who should invest in one. JORDAN SMITH/Runners' World.com/Sep 18, 2020 

Tracking your heart rate during workouts isn’t new, but heart rate tracking technology is rapidly advancing. Gone are the days of merely monitoring your beats per minute; the latest trackers can now alert you to an irregular heart rhythm, and some are even rolling out low-range VO2 max tracking. 

With more younger people suffering from strokes, and more reports of cardiac arrests happening during exercise, it might be a good time to consider upgrading your tracker. We tapped experts to find out just how much you should rely on your new tracker’s heart-monitoring software...

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PodiumRunner: A Short Marathon Build-Up?

The Case for a Shorter Marathon Buildup

The uncertainty of racing makes it hard to plan 4–6 months out. Take heart, 8–10 weeks might be a better marathon buildup. 

Sep 4, 2020/RICHARD A. LOVETT/PodiumRunner 

If you’re looking for candidates for the type of runners who’ve been most severely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, marathoners are probably top of the list. After all, it’s fairly easy to do a virtual 5K or 10K — or give the mile or the 800 a go on a track or measured road. 

But a virtual marathon? With no aid stations and no other runners to keep you focused during those long, later miles? That’s a different beast, entirely. 

Which means that once COVID-19 restrictions on road racing start to ease, there’s going to be a big clamor for marathons. But, when a marathon finally becomes possible, that will raise another question: how far in advance do you need to start training for it?

(Link to article)

PodiumRunner: Embrace The Alternative

How to Embrace Cross Training

3 Keys to finding enjoyment and satisfaction in alternative activities. 

August 25, 2020/Jonathan Beverly/PodiumRunner.com 

 ...I’m usually not much of a cross-trainer. I’m a runner. I run. It’s been who I am and what I do since 1977. I don’t foresee that I’m going to overthrow that identity and become primarily a hiker, biker or tree-climber anytime soon. And, I confess that my new-found enthusiasm for cross-training is due to my doctor suggesting I give my knee a chance to repair some damage that running is inflaming. But I am enjoying what I’m learning, even if it is forced: namely, that running gives me the mental skills and physical endurance to cross-train effectively — be that traditional modes or decidedly unconventional ones — and that cross-training can provide not only physical benefits but much-needed mental ones. 

The physical ones are rather obvious and well documented. But I’m discovering a few keys to making cross training more mentally satisfying... (Link to article)

Runners' World: Screen Time Is Hurting Us

How Increased Screen Time During Coronavirus Outbreak Is Affecting Your Mental Health
Less exercise and more screens may lead to higher depressive symptoms, a preliminary study finds.
JORDAN SMITH/Runners World.com//AUG 21, 2020

As the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) continues to recommend physical distancing measures across the county to slow the spread of COVID-19, it’s taking a toll on everyone’s mental health. But how exactly does a change in exercise levels and increased screen and sedentary time affect you...?

(Link to Article)

Podium Runner: Training Partners?

Running Free with the Pack
My dogs love every run, with no goals, measurements or expectations. I need that right now.
JONATHAN BEVERLY, PodiumRunner.com/AUGUST 18, 2020

For the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of running with a pack nearly every day. A pack of dogs, that is: three rescue pups with whom we’ve shared our rural home. They may be the luckiest dogs in the world, free to run leash-free with me over the trails and dirt roads of the high plains. When they’re not chasing rabbits or pheasants, they usually fall into a pattern: one out front scouting, one a bit behind herding, and one so close I can reach down and touch his head...

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Runner's World: Connecting Black Runners and Allies

In the Wake of the George Floyd Protests, This Run Club Connects Black Runners and Allies
By uniting the community through running, Dyani Cox hopes to empower them to make lasting change.
BY TAYLOR DUTCH JUL 31, 2020

Dyani Cox sees running as a gift that keeps on giving. In addition to empowering the 37-year-old Chicago resident to overcome personal challenges in her own life, running has inspired Cox to encourage more people in the Black community and beyond to develop a sense of agency in the fight against systemic racism...

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Runners World: Stay (Running) In Place

All of the Ways to Run While Sheltering in Place, Ranked from Best to Worst
From backyards to balconies, creative running courses have been resurrected in wild places during the coronavirus pandemic.

By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK APR 23, 2020/Runners World On-line

With races cancelled and lockdown orders in place across the globe because of the coronavirus, some runners have turned to creative measures to get in their miles. Ultrarunners have measured out 50-plus mile courses in their small neighborhoods. Others have logged serious mileage on the treadmill. And some have completed marathons on the track, on a rooftop, inside a building, and even on a balcony. Here, we’ve ranked the weirdest places we’ve seen people running during the pandemic, ranked from best (the most approachable option) to worst (the one most likely to make us say, “I’ll pass”).

(Link to article)

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.

RUNSAFE: The "Wrong" Shoe?

A new publication from the RUNSAFE group that has surfaced March 2020 in the journal Footwear Science. Here, we highlight that the cause underpinning running-related injury occurrence is the relation between exposure to training load, internal tissue loads, and tissue capacity - with tissue load exceeding its capacity being the key biological mechanism in the development of injury.

On this basis, we examined the beliefs of running shoe salespersons and physiotherapy students regarding the influence of running shoes and foot pronation on running injury occurrence. Unfortunately, both populations hold beliefs that do not align well with current understanding of causes underpinning running injury occurrence. 

In the article, it reads “…the use of the terms “wrong shoes” or “adequate shoes” is likely inaccurate terminology. Viewed from a causal perspective, “wrong shoes” effectively do not exist as you are able to run a shorter or greater distance depending on the choice of running shoe… Despite this evidence, it remains common practice to recommend running shoes based on foot morphology and foot pronation”. If you find the topic appealing, you are able to read the abstract of the article here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19424280.2020.1734869

Runners' World - Bring On The (Un-)Funk

The Best Sprays, Pods, and Pouches for Getting the Stink Out of Your Shoes 
Smelly kicks don’t stand a chance against these odor-fighting, bacteria-killing products.
 Amy Schlinger and Morgan Petruny/Runners' World, Jan 16, 2020

When you get home and kick off your shoes after a hard workout, there’s a good chance they reek. After all, when your feet start to sweat, that moisture is trapped in your socks, which is then stuck inside your shoe harboring funk.

A simple fix is using odor-reducing and germ-killing sprays or inserts regularly. Take a look...at info on the top five from our testing...
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Runners' World - Working Harder In The Room

Unreal Treadmill Sessions Push College Coach to Olympic Trials
Tyler Pence also trains with his distance runners, who inspire him to give his best effort.
Cindy Kuzma/Runners' World/Jan 14, 2020

Runners at the University of Illinois-Springfield abide by two rules: Be a good person, and work harder than anyone else in the room...
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