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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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: Not Just The Cave

The Best Conditioning Exercises You Can Do to Stay Fit in the Off-Season 
Combine alternative cardio workouts with a strategic strength circuit so you’ll be firing on all cylinders when you get back into the swing of full-on training.
Ashley Mateo/Runners' World.com, Dec 17, 2019

You might be logging tons of miles a week during warmer weather, but when the temperature drops and the amount of daylight gets shorter, it’s not as feasible to keep that up.

That doesn’t mean you’re sentenced to a season of running on the treadmill in your basement. The off-season is a great time to build your foundation not just with conditioning exercises, but also with cross-training modalities that will keep you rolling strong right into your peak running season, says Zack Allison, a senior coach with Source Endurance and racer for Team Clif Bar... 

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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).

 
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Outside: How To Turn Dreadmill To Treadmill?

The Science Behind Your Favorite Workout Playlist 
Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato/Outside, Jan 31, 2019

...For years, scientists have studied the link between music and heart rate. In 2005, a team of researchers found that listening to music with a fast tempo could speed up heart rates, while a leisurely tempo could slow them down. Furthermore, crescendos—where the volume of a song gradually rises—can increase heart rates, while decrescendos have the opposite effect, according to a small study from 2009 published in the journal Circulation. Although scientists aren’t certain why and how these interactions happen physiologically, relaxing music could be used to maintain a level of serenity for lower-intensity activities like yoga. “I always set my metronome at 60 [bpm] because it’s lower than the normal heart rate, and it helps me relax,” says Rodney Garnett, an ethnomusicologist at the University of Wyoming. “Something that has a slower beat gets a different response than something that has a fast beat..."

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Active: Dead Leg Day No More

9 Ways to Help Your Legs Recover in 24 Hours
Jennifer Fox/Active.com


If you've been a runner long enough, you've inevitably encountered a workout or run that's left your legs (and body) totally drained. Think: yesterday's hilly tempo or Saturday's 12-miler.


Part of success in running is consistency--the ability to get out there day after day and put in the work. When your legs are so trashed that you have to take unplanned days off, it can impede your progress.


But here's the good news. You can take steps to mitigate post-run soreness, so you can get back to training ASAP...


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MapMyRun: Core Work For Runners

The Five-Move Core Workout for Runners
Molly Hurford/MapMyRun, March 22, 2017


A stable core can greatly benefit your running. Building stability in your core helps to improve your running posture so you can navigate trails more easily and build muscle along the way — plus, core stability is a huge factor in injury prevention for runners. One review showed core weakness led to “less efficient movements, compensatory movement patterns, strain, overuse and injury."


Core work doesn’t have to mean long hours in the gym, either: the best core work tends to be done with bodyweight, and you can get a full workout in just a few minutes wherever you are. The key to this training is that, unlike crunches, you’ll target your entire body by actively engaging the muscles. You need to focus on strengthening your core from the inside out. In a recent study on muscular balance, core stability and injury prevention for mid-to-long-distance runners, noted that internal work can help keep your core stable.


Check out these simple, easy-to-master moves and add them to your routine...


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Outside: Ten From Alberto

Alberto Salazar's Ten Golden Running Rules
Justin Nyberg/Outside, October 15 2013


Alberto Salazar knows a thing or two about his sport. A former world-record holder in the marathon, and three-time winner of the New York City event, Salazar was the face of American distance running's last golden age, which peaked during the Reagan administration. Salazar also learned his lessons the hard way: The famously competitive runner's body broke down at age 27, as a result of years of superhuman,150-mile training weeks. Now fully recovered, the 55-year-old coach of Nike's Oregon Project, which includes 2012 gold medalist Mo Farah and silver medalist Galen Rupp, has paired cutting-edge technology with meticulous workouts to shape some of the most successful American runners in a generation. This is a man who has almost given his life to the sport on multiple occasions—he was once read his last rites after crossing a finish line with a 108-degree fever—and he's lived to share a few pieces of essential wisdom...


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Outside: Joy In The Workout

How to Find Joy in Every Workout
Kathrine Switzer on the lessons she's learned after a lifetime of running. Nonrunners, take note.
Molly Mirhashem/Outside, August 1 2017
Kathrine Switzer started running almost 60 years ago. In 1967, she became the first woman to enter and run the Boston Marathon when it was open only to men. This past April, 50 years after that historic race, Switzer returned to Boston and ran it again at age 70. In between those milestones, she’s run dozens of marathons, winning the New York City Marathon in 1974 and clocking a personal best of 2:51 at Boston in 1975...
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Outside: Five, No Four, Sir

4 Signs That You're Not Training Enough
Matt Fitzgerald/Outside, July 12 2017


All endurance athletes—from the champion ultrarunner to the first-time triathlete—have specific goals. And these goals are met by training. For most of us, training simply consists of following numbers on a page—three miles today, an hour run tomorrow, rest the next day. So how do you know if you’re training enough? How can you really ensure that you’ll be dialed come race day?


Here are general signs that it’s time to step up your workouts. While none of these alone is a definitive indicator of undertraining, if a few of them occur simultaneously, it may be time to spend more time on the trails...


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MapMyRun: ...Or Just A Wuss

How to Tell If You're Overtraining Or Just Sore
Ashley Lauretta/MapMyRun.com, January 12 2017

You’ve likely heard the saying, “no pain, no gain.” If you’ve gotten the impression that some soreness while working out is normal, you would be correct. But it can be a fine line between when that soreness becomes classified as pain. Walking this line correctly is the difference between pushing just the right amount and overusing your muscles. Even though everyone’s threshold for pain is different, there is an answer that’s universal...


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CTS: I'm Only (Not) Sleeping

Why Can't I Sleep After A Hard Workout or Race?
Chris Carmichael/CTS, June 8 2017


Here’s a scenario a ton of athletes experience, but few talk about: The night after finishing a big endurance competition or a long and strenuous workout, you lie awake in bed or toss and turn despite being thoroughly exhausted. Your sleeplessness may be compounded by feeling like you are radiating heat or you can feel/hear your heartbeat. And even if you are able to get to sleep initially, you struggle to stay asleep and fail to have a restful night. What gives? How can an exhausting event leave you sleepless?


There isn’t one simple cause for post-exercise insomnia, but there are definitely factors that contribute to it...


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Outside: Nooner!

How to Nail the Lunch Workout
There's nothing quite like breaking up the workday with a run, but logistics can make it tough to pull off. Here's how to execute flawlessly.
By: Wes Judd/Outside, May 26, 2017

We get it: Not everyone has time for a lunch workout. When new hires move out to our Santa Fe headquarters, they can’t believe they’re allowed to ride, run, or climb for an hour in the middle of the day. That’s too bad, because even a 30-minute workout can be the ultimate fitness and productivity hack. In fact, a 2011 study in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that employees get more done when they take a break to exercise.

Learning how to properly execute the midday workout is tough—especially in an office that doesn’t have lenient lunch policies—but get it right and it’ll change the tone of your day entirely...

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Outside: And I Get Grouchy

The Five Things That Happen to Your Body When You Quit Working Out
The good news? They're all pretty simple to reverse—or prevent entirely.
Dan Roe/Outside May 1, 2017

When a planned rest day turns into a rest week or a nagging injury keeps you out of the game for longer than anticipated, you expect a little guilt over dropping your exercise habit. But we consulted the experts to break down what happens when workouts grind to a halt and what they have to say may surprise you. It's okay to take time off, but there are physiological changes that you should be aware of. The good news: while some gains do vanish overnight, most are reversible or don't take much effort to maintain...

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Training Peaks: Functional Training

Functional Training For The Run
Allie Burdick/Training Peaks, April 28 2017

Running was once thought to only be performed in the sagittal plane (forward motion). However, we now know there is a frontal plane movement due to weight shifting from one side to the other, as well as transverse movement through the torso when your shoulder and opposite hip link up. Since strength and stability through all three planes of motion are clearly present, it makes sense to train them equally. This will help your body endure the stress of weekly workouts, create efficient and strong movement patterns, and lessen any imbalances that may lead to injury...

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Trisutto.com: You Start. You Finish

You Start. You Finish - Don't Let Numbers Determine the Success of Your Workout
Brett Sutton/Trisutto.com

What is an awful workout?

How do we categorise a good or bad workout? Is it a great workout when we hit certain times after we have had 3 days of rest to get ready? Is it awful when we are training hard, start a workout tired, and by the end are going just above a walk? How important is hitting ‘the numbers’?

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CTS: Make Certain It's Not Summer!

Three Tips for Worry-Free Marathon Training
Carmichael Training Systems

A good training program is an essential part of preparing for a marathon, and fortunately there are a plethora of sound and effective programs available to runners of all ability levels. But preparing for a successful 26.2-mile run takes more than a schedule of workouts, and the coaches at CTS got together to provide three tips to help you have a great experience at your next marathon...

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