Ryan – Page 114 – HillRunner.com

Cross training

June 19, 2014 / Training / 5 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I had a couple conversations recently that made me realize that some of my past statements about cross training may have given a false impression of my current opinion on it. I’d like to take a few moments to clear up any misconceptions and to explain where I believe there is value in cross training and where there isn’t.

First, though, a little on the history of my views on cross training. I think maybe my history will shed some light on how I’ve come to my current viewpoint and maybe how these misconceptions about my current viewpoint happened.

I’ve always been a very resilient runner. In my 24+ years as a runner, I’ve suffered one injury of note, a relatively minor pulled hamstring. My body has always held up to anything I could throw at it, from 150+ mile weeks to track workouts that many runners would consider insane to ski hill repeats. Not only did my body hold up to this level of training but I never lost motivation. I was always ready for the next run or the next workout. For a long time, when I was almost solely focused on my own running and how to maximize my own abilities, I questioned the need of cross training. If you can run more, why not run more? Why take away from your running to do something else? The specificity of training principle, which I always have and always will strongly believe in, says this is a mistake.

Then, as I started to focus more on training theory and helping others, I noticed a different world than my own. I recognized runners around me who just couldn’t do what I was doing. For whatever reason, their bodies just didn’t hold up to the running the way mine did. Or their motivation would lag whenever their training climbed. I also noticed runners with a host of priorities. From triathletes to runners who also participated in other sports, they weren’t solely focused on running the way I was. It’s at this point that I realized there were three very good reasons for cross training.

1) Physical Limitations

While my body could take anything I threw at it, not everyone out there was that way. I may not have recognized it at some points but, all my running life, I was surrounded by people whose bodies would just break down if they tried to do too much. So their running was limited by injury risk to a greater extent than it was by time and energy. It made perfect sense for these people to supplement their running with additional exercises.

2) Motivational Limitations

Another thing that was never a problem for me was keeping my motivation up. I simply love running so I’ve never had serious motivational issues. Sure, we all have those days that we’d rather not be out running but, when they are short term issues, you can just plow through them. However, once I looked closely again, I could see runners around me for whom trying to carry a big training load just wore on them mentally. They could not keep their motivation up to carry the big training load through running only. For them, cross training would keep things fresh and they could increase their overall training load through it.

3) Other Priorities

Finally, I’ve always been a runner. Not just first and foremost. I’ve only been a runner. Since taking up running in 1990, I’ve never had any interest in cycling, swimming or any other sport. I’m all in. That’s not the case for many runners, though. Whether they compete in sports like triathlon where running is only one of multiple disciplines they will be using or sports like swimming or cycling where running will have some tangential benefits but doesn’t play a direct role, they do have other things to think about. They have to prepare for those other disciplines they want to compete in. What may look like cross training to the runner may, for them, be primary discipline training in another discipline they want to be good at.

What to do?

So what do we do from here? Well, it depends on who you are and what your situation is.

If your goals revolve around running, then you want to run the most you can while remaining healthy and motivated. If you’ve hit that upper limit of your running capacity and you still have time and energy, find something else you can do to supplement your running while still remaining healthy and motivated. The most important thing, though, is to make sure that those extra exercises are supplementing, not replacing, your running. If your goals revolve around running, then you have to make running your top priority and prioritize that.

If you have goals outside of running, then it’s a little more difficult to draw the line. You have to decide how important running is to you compared to the other sports in your life. Then you have to structure your training accordingly. Do what you can to have running supplement your other sports and to have your other sports supplement your running but you’ll have to draw the line at some point. When that happens, you’ll have to decide where your priorities are.

Final Word

If you can run more, why not run more? If your goals are focused on running, I still believe this. If you can’t run more, though, because you will get hurt or lose your motivation, why not use any extra available energy to supplement your running with other exercises? Of course, if your goals go beyond running, it makes perfect sense that you have to train for those other goals.

The Washington Post is catching up

June 11, 2014 / Miscellaneous / 1 minute of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Last year, I blogged twice about the latest trends in running shoes. Essentially, that the minimal shoe market was reverting back to the mean and the pendulum was beginning to swing toward the "maximal" end.

Well, now the Washington Post is up on this latest development.

Not pretending to be holier than thou. Just interesting how trends that we could see a year ago are now making it into the mainstream media as if they are fresh, breaking news.

Race Report: Walleye Run 5 mile

June 10, 2014 / Race Reports / 5 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Ever since my last race, things haven’t gone quite to plan. In that race, I had to make a last second maneuver to make a left turn as the lead bike nearly led me off the course. To make that turn, I had to plant my right foot hard. Two days later, I got chased by a kamikaze goose that actually took flight and was aiming right at my head. Once again, I planted my right foot hard to turn around. The next day, my upper ankle/lower shin were hurting. Based on everything I heard of high ankle sprains, this fit the description. This was very frustrating because it was something essentially out of my control, not due to some training mistake I made or anything like that. I wouldn’t even call it a running injury really but it messed with my training for weeks. I only took one day off but my training wasn’t quite normal for about 2-3 weeks.

Upon returning to my training, I never really got back into the flow I had going on before. Things weren’t going badly but they also just felt a little off compared to how I was feeling through March and most of April. Still, I plowed through, got myself back into the best rhythm I could and took the trip to Fond du Lac for the Walleye Run.

On the warmup, I felt much like I did during training. Not bad but not quite right. I continued through the warmup, though, and felt better as it went on. I felt pretty ready to go by the race start.

As the air horn sounded, a good group of runners took off pretty hard. I took some quick steps, then settled into pace. After a couple hundred yards, we make the first turn and I counted runners to get an idea of my position at the turn. 14th place. Pretty quickly after that turn, I passed 5 guys and found myself in the top 10. Over the next 1/4 mile or so, I passed another 5 guys and was now in 4th, with the lead group of 3 already well ahead. I told myself I should stay as close as possible to that group, not because I was going to reel them all back in but because I figured if anyone fell off the back, maybe I could clean up the roadkill. I continued pushing with that idea in mind through the mile mark and most of the way through mile 2. Early in mile 2, I did notice one guy was falling off, which gave me hope that he would fall back toward me. Pretty quickly, though, I realized he was still pulling away from me.

At that point, I realized my race wasn’t with the guys in front of me. It was with the guy who was still just a couple steps behind me. I had a decision to make. Do I push the pace and try to break this open early or do I save something for near the end? I was feeling very warm at this point and I knew I had a return trip with the wind. This was going to create dead air and make for a very warm return trip. I decided to ease off just a bit and save something for near the end. I didn’t want to turn myself into roadkill in that heat. I’d rather make sure I had something left to respond to any moves he might make later on. So I kept pushing but not quite redlining it. Through the middle of the race, I kept an eye on third place just in case he would fade but my real focus was on showing no signs of weakness to the guy right behind me. It was getting very warm out there during mile 3 and I didn’t want this guy to know I was feeling the heat.

As we cruised into mile 4, it was clear that I wasn’t going to finish in the top 3. The battle was to remain in 4th. This guy was hanging tough and, while he was a few steps back, would not let me drop him. I grabbed a cup of water and dumped it on my head but the water wasn’t that cold. It helped some but not a ton. I kept the pace honest but not all out. As we rolled through the 4 mile mark, nothing really changed.

Around a right turn with a little less than a mile to go, I decided it was time to go. At that point, I knew I could make it the rest of the way in and I didn’t want to leave it up to a kick. I started pushing really hard but couldn’t tell for sure if I was building up the gap. Then I noticed that people cheering were starting to leave a bit of a gap of silence after I passed before cheering for the next guy. First, maybe a second. Then 2 or 3 seconds. The gap was growing but I still didn’t feel safe. What if he has a kick? So I kept pushing. Around a hairpin turn with about 200-300 yards left, I knew I had a clear path the rest of the way in so I gave it all I had. I actually ran the next 100 yards so hard it may have been faster than my last 100 yards, just because I ran out of gas a bit down the final straight. But it didn’t matter. I managed to blow the race for 4th open in that last mile just like the race for the top 3 was blown open in the first half mile.

In the end, I finished 4th in 29:05. Hardly the time I was hoping for but the heat and race strategy played a big role in that. I was 43 seconds slower than I was at this race last year but I moved up from 7th place last year. The guy who finished behind me commented on the heat and, in the local newspaper race story, I saw that all the race winners were commenting on the heat. I’m far from the only one it affected out there. I’m not going to complain about my time in this race. I thought top 5 would be a stretch and I did that.

Next up: I don’t know. Taking some down time to recoup and refocus for the fall season.

Have fun, static stretching and a miracle hamstring exercise?

June 9, 2014 / Roundups / 6 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

It appears I’m borrowing heavily from the New York Times Well blog this week. No conspiracy, it just happened to have a couple very interesting things in it that I’d like to share and, for the first, expand on.

Have Fun!

First, some comments on Losing Weight May Require Some Serious Fun:

In that pursuit, the researchers first recruited 56 healthy, adult women, the majority of them overweight. The women were given maps detailing the same one-mile outdoor course and told that they would spend the next half-hour walking there, with lunch to follow.
Half of the women were told that their walk was meant to be exercise, and they were encouraged to view it as such, monitoring their exertion throughout. The other women were told that their 30-minute outing would be a walk purely for pleasure; they would be listening to music through headphones and rating the sound quality, but mostly the researchers wanted them to enjoy themselves.
…
Those women who’d been formally exercising reported feeling more fatigued and grumpy than the other women, although the two groups’ estimates of mileage and calories burned were almost identical. More telling, when the women sat down to a pasta lunch, with water or sugary soda to drink, and applesauce or chocolate pudding for dessert, the women in the exercise group loaded up on the soda and pudding, consuming significantly more calories from these sweets than the women who’d thought that they were walking for pleasure.

In other words, if you’re doing a chore, you are more tired, grumpy and likely to "reward" yourself by eating unhealthy "treats". If you’re out for a pleasure walk, the exact opposite.

This goes along with something I’ve said for a long time. We’re all better off if we do something we enjoy. Personally, I love running. It’s a release for me. It’s a joy to be out running. Can you believe, though, that I’ve actually encouraged some people to quit running and try something else? It’s true. I’ve had several instances where people have told me they dread running, they hate it but they want to keep running to stay healthy. Then they ask me how to keep at it. My answer is, if you don’t love running, don’t do it. Try bicycling, rollerblading, hiking, pick-up basketball, volleyball, touch football. Find something to do but make it something you enjoy.

Why do I tell people to quit running? Because it just makes intuitive sense. If you don’t like something, if you consider it a chore, two things are likely to happen.

First, you need to reward yourself for doing the chore. For those of us who love running, the run itself is the reward. For others, it’s very likely that bad habits like eating junk food will be the reward.

Second, you’re much less likely to keep doing it. Running is such a pleasure for me that I’ve never had trouble continuing to do it. Sure, I sometimes have trouble keeping the hard training going but my day isn’t right if I don’t at least get out the door for something. I have more trouble taking time away from running, even if it’s a single day, than I do getting out because my run is one of the best parts of my day. If running isn’t that for you, though, you’re not going to keep at it. I’d rather see you quit running right now and find something else you like to do instead than try to keep running and end up quitting in frustration and not picking up something else you might like more.

So keep running…if it’s what you like to do. If not, find something you do like to do and keep doing that.

Static stretching

Static stretching has been a hot topic of debate for some time now. Does it reduce or increase injury risk (answer: depends)? Does pre-run static stretching reduce running economy (answer: not likely unless you’re holding the stretches for unusually long periods of time)?

Well, this study takes a look at how it affects pacing in a 3K time trial. The results?

The overall running time did not change with condition (SS 11:35+/-00:31 s; control 11:28+/-00:41 s, p = 0.304), but the first 100 m was completed at a significantly lower velocity after SS. Surprisingly, SS did not modify the running economy, but the iEMG for the BF (+22.6%, p = 0.031), stride duration (+2.1%, p = 0.053) and range of motion (+11.1%, p = 0.0001) were significantly modified. Drop jump height decreased following SS (9.2%, p = 0.001).

I found it a little disturbing that they so soundly bought into the theory that static stretching affects running economy but I’m glad they pointed out that they didn’t find that in their study. The evidence is out there. This isn’t the first study to find these results.

That said, the results are interesting. You start slower over the first 100 meters after static stretching but there is no statistically significant difference in finish time. What does this tell us? I’m not sure. But it is another piece of evidence that pre-run static stretching does not in fact affect running economy. The evidence now suggests you’d have to hold your stretches for well over 30 seconds to do that. As I mentioned, the evidence is there. We need to get people paying attention to it.

A miracle hamstring exercise?

A hamstring exercise that can result in 70% fewer hamstring injuries?

In a 2011 study, 942 Danish soccer players were randomly assigned to either an off-season program of the Nordic exercise or normal training. In the subsequent season, those following the Nordic exercise program experienced 70 percent fewer injuries than the control-group athletes. Players who had previously suffered hamstring damage saw 85 percent fewer injuries.

The article notes that, according to "at least" a half dozen studies, injury rates may decrease by almost two-thirds with the use of this exercise.

This almost seems too good to be true but a half dozen studies suggests there is more here than just random chance. I’m still not completely sure what to do with this but, if I had a history of hamstring injuries, I think I’d be trying this exercise right now. I actually did pass this along to a runner I coach with a history of hamstring problems as soon as I finished reading it and I hope she considers trying this.

More coming Thursday. I started writing a post sharing a couple links and I realized it quickly was turning into too much to combine with my "have fun" comments into one single post.

Ask me anything

June 5, 2014 / HillRunner.com Admin / 1 minute of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I’ve decided to open the discussion up a little every once in a while. I’d like to do this at least twice a year, possibly more frequently if it becomes popular. So here it is, your chance to ask me anything.

If you have a simple, quick question, I can answer in the comments. If you have a question that needs a more comprehensive answer, I’ll probably spin it off into a separate blog post for the near future.

Currently, only registered members can post comments*. I’d encourage registered members to post questions in the comments. However, if you’d prefer to ask anonymously or you’re not registered and you don’t want to, you can use the contact form to ask your questions.

Within reason, nothing is off limits. Ask about training, racing, my thoughts on any news in the sport. Ask about the site, the coaching service, the new podcast.

So, please let me know, what have you been thinking about and wanting to ask?

* To answer one question before it’s asked, I do plan to allow guests to post comments. It’s one of my top priorities now that I’ve gotten a few other things finished.