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: Save US From Us

Parkrun Could Save America From Itself 
Martin Fritz Huber/Outside Online, Mar 20, 2019
A free weekly 5K? What’s not to love.

When it comes to techno-utopianism, it’s hard to top Facebook’s mission statement. Apparently, the company is dedicated to “bringing the world closer together.” Personally, I find the dystopian counter-narrative—that “Big Tech” has us hopelessly atomized—more persuasive, but I’m trying to remain optimistic that the Internet isn’t irredeemably at odds with (non-virtual) community building. One of the more encouraging examples in recent years is an initiative called Parkrun...
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Outside: The Marathoner's Achilles Heel

How to Strengthen Your Ankles and Run Faster 
Alex Hutchinson/Outside Online, Sep 13, 2018

New research zeroes in on an unlikely culprit for why running gets less efficient as you fatigue.

Anyone who has scrolled through their own marathon race photos knows that the keen-eyed high-stepper who shows up in the early photos bears little resemblance to the pathetic hobbler of the final miles. Fatigue changes your running form, and yet the vast majority of biomechanics studies involve a few minutes on a treadmill at a comfortable pace. There are some exceptions (like this recent field study of marathoners at the World Championships), but much of our knowledge about running form assumes that we never get tired...

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Outside: On Your Left?

Runners, Stick to This Side of the Road
Martin Fritz Huber/Outside, Mar 30 2015

If you keep tabs on aging rockers and their brushes with the law, chances are you read about a recent incident involving David Crosby and an ill-fated roadside runner in California. Crosby was driving about 50 miles per hour in a black Tesla when he slammed the runner from behind. The runner suffered several fractures and lacerations after impact, and needed to be airlifted to a Santa Barbara hospital. Crosby, 73, who was driving the speed limit at the time, maintained that he was blinded by the sun and didn’t see the runner, who is expected to make a full recovery.

It all seems like an unfortunate accident, but there’s a catch: The runner, it appears, was running with traffic, not against it. Though not illegal on a national level, that move goes against common sense...

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Runner's World: From Sickness to Grand Slam

Once Drained by Multiple Sclerosis, She Is Now Headed for the Grand Slam of Ultras

Melissa Ossanna’s doctors told her exercise could help. So she started with a marathon—and has never looked back.

Taylor Dutch/Runner's World, Feb 17, 2019

Melissa Ossanna has a nickname among her community in Bar Harbor. To her friends on the island off the coast of Maine, the ultrarunner is affectionately known as “Smiley,” because when she logs miles around the town, she smiles from ear to ear.

Even at the finish line of a grueling 100-mile race, she can always be counted on to smile through the pain.

Ossanna has a lot to smile about...

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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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Outside: She's In My Rear View

Are Women Closing in on Men at the Boston Marathon?
Alex Hutchinson/Outside, Jan 28, 2019

A detailed analysis of historical Boston results wades into the long-running debate on sex differences in endurance

Back in 1992, scientists at UCLA made a surprising prediction in Nature. Since women’s marathon times were improving more quickly than men’s, they forecast that women would surpass men in 1998. While that didn’t come to pass, the idea that women might be closing the gap in endurance races persists, thanks to the feats of athletes like Jasmin Paris, the ultrarunner who shattered the overall course record in the 168-mile Montane Spine Race in Britain earlier this month, and Camille Herron, who beat the entire field while setting a women’s 24-hour running record in December.

But you can only learn so much from individual stories, no matter how remarkable. That’s where a new analysis in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research comes in...

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