Roundups

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

Coming to you a day early so we can all enjoy our Thanksgiving.

Sugary fruit can lower blood sugar?

Even though most Americans get way more sugar than we should, we all know the importance of reducing sugar intake to lower our blood sugar and reduce our risk of chronic diseases.

What if some sugary foods actually lowered our blood sugar levels, though? That doesn’t make much sense, does it? Well, it might actually be true:

Fruits such as blueberry and mango may help with blood sugar regulation, even though they contain sugar. They may not have very strong effects like medications do, at least in isolation, but a diet rich in different plants may compound the benefits of any one single plant food.

It seems crazy on the face of things but, in a way, it makes sense. We evolved to eat natural foods like fruits. It makes sense that the sugar in fruits would not be harmful to us like the sugar in unnaturally processed food is.

So now we have another reason to enjoy fruits as a great snack or dessert.

When to take ice baths?

We have known for decades now that ice baths are good for recovery. However, as with many other methods to speed recovery, we now know that they may actually be detrimental during training because they will reduce the training response. In other words, you recover more quickly but you don’t gain as much fitness.

However, there are still some cases, such as shortly before a race, where ice baths can still be beneficial. Shortly before a race, you’re not trying to get additional training benefit. Your primary focus is on max recovery.

So when to take the ice bath and when to skip it? Here’s a handy cheat sheet.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. As always, I’m incredibly thankful for your support.

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

Running is good for a lot of things. We already know that, right? Well, here’s a little on the positive aspects of running.

How exercise may help us fight colds

Have you ever noticed that fit people are sick less often? You’re not imagining things.

Working out could help us fight off colds and other infections, according to a timely new study. The study, which found that regular exercise strengthens the body’s immune system in part by repeatedly stressing it, was conducted in animals. But the results most likely apply to people, the researchers say, and could offer further incentive for us to remain physically active this winter.

Is running good for your knees?

I’m sure we’ve all experienced people telling us that we’re ruining our knees. The interesting thing I’ve noticed recently is that, lately, people who are younger than me will say this while complaining how their knees ache. What’s up?

There has been some research suggesting that, much like stressing our immune systems to build them up stronger and stressing our muscles to build them up stronger, running can do the same for various structures of our joints.

Well, here’s another study that attempted to address a possible reason running might be good for the knees. Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive. There were some interesting results but there simply wasn’t enough data to say anything conclusively.

That said, we already know that, regardless of what your non-running friends tell you, running is definitely good for your knees. So keep it up.

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

Once again, some of the best things I’ve read this month have come from Alex Hutchinson’s excellent Sweat Science blog. The two I’ll share this month are one on Curcumin as a recovery aid and how the weight of your shoes affects your performance.

The Curcumin Cure for Muscle Soreness?

I used to take antioxidants nearly daily to aid in recovery. My belief, supported by the best knowledge at the time, was that enhanced recovery would allow me to train harder. That would allow me to get more training benefit. Then a number of studies came out showing that antioxidants actually affect the training benefit. So you recover faster to train harder but there is less benefit you’re getting from the training.

Every time we hear about a new recovery aid, it seems like the same dilemma comes up. The issue as we see it now is that the damage caused by workouts is actually what triggers our bodies to build back stronger, which is the whole point of working out to be more fit. If you take a recovery aid, you’re lessening that damage and, as a result, lessening the training benefit.

Well, here’s another recovery aid that leads to the same dilemma. Curcumin, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory found in turmeric, is the latest.

In this case, scientists tested runners doing a demanding downhill run to inflict muscle damage. Typically, after one workout like this, our muscles adapt and a second one is much less painful. This is why it’s a good idea to include some downhill training before running a downhill race like the Boston Marathon. However, those who took curcumin after the first run were actually more sore after the second run a week later.

Once again, when looking to maximize the benefit of training, it seems like it’s best to stay away from the recovery aids. Save them for when you have a race coming in the near term future and your goal is to be as recovered as possible when you are stepping up to the start line.

How Much Do Heavy Shoes Slow You Down?

As many of us are in or soon will be heading into our fall racing seasons, this is a topic that may be on our minds. What should I wear on race day? How much of a difference does shoe weight really make?

Well, the answer is even a few ounces can make a difference. This has been theorized for some time. I recall in the 1990s talk of around 1% reduction in performance for a 3.5 ounce increase in shoe weight. However, this hasn’t been well tested until now.

It appears that the real world results are pretty close, coming in at roughly 0.8% per 3.5 ounces at 5:30 per mile and possibly higher amounts at slower paces.

There is one important catch, though. Cushioning increases efficiency. If you decrease your shoe weight too significantly, it’s very possible that you actually negatively affect your performances.

So where does that leave us? Largely, trial and error. Don’t be afraid to try lighter shoes but don’t jump right into the lightest you can find because that might not be as good as it may seem.

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

This post will be all about the muscles. I have an interesting article on some muscle research I’ve been holding on to and another one just popped up yesterday that I think has some interesting results for those of you who might deal with seasonal allergies.

How much protein do you need?

First, how much protein do you need as a runner? Many runners underestimate what we need. After all, we’re runners, not bodybuilders.

The problem with that is that, while we’re not be bodybuilders, running causes a lot of muscle damage and the damaged muscles need to be repaired. In addition, we burn some protein while running, especially when our glycogen levels get depleted such as late in long runs or longer races.

How much protein do we need? Well, the good news is that, if you eat a typical American diet but a little more because you’re burning more calories, you’re probably fine overall.

However, you may want to think about when you’re getting your protein. As pointed out, your body can only absorb and put to use a certain amount of protein at one time. The rest gets converted to fat and stored in that form. So try to spread out your intake more. For most Americans, this means more protein at breakfast and lunch, some in snacks, and less at dinner.

Antihistamines and our muscles

What do we know about how antihistamines and our muscles? It turns out not much.

What we do know is taking antihistamines appears to reduce muscle soreness.

Sounds good, right? Well, there’s a catch. It appears less soreness come with the side effect of more muscle damage. It seems that the same system that blocks the feeling of soreness may also block the signals to the body that the muscle is damaged and needs to be repaired.

So, in the short term, you gain the advantage of less sore muscles but the tradeoff is more muscle damage in the long term.

As a side note, a few years ago I attempted to take some Claritin when spring allergies were hitting me fairly hard. Within a day or two, the allergy symptoms cleared. However, within a week, my running took a complete dive. I stopped taking the Claritin and was back to normal within a few days. I don’t think the what I felt was due to the effects noted in this study but just beware, if you consider taking antihistamines during allergy season, make sure you give yourself time before any important race to ensure they won’t negatively affect you.

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

Because I’m busy watching the Olympics and writing Seattle Marathon training plans this week and because I have a backlog of interesting research I’ve wanted to write about, I’m going to do a recap post this week. There will still be another one on the usual schedule next week.

I have two related topics for this post. Often, people talk about increasing cadence as a method to reduce overstriding. So I have a topic on each. First, what is overstriding? Second, what is the relationship between cadence and injury risk?

What is overstriding?

We all know overstriding is bad, right? We all know what overstriding is, right?

Are you sure?

What if we don’t?

I always looked for a runner’s lower leg angle as a way to spot overstriding. Roughly speaking, if your heel is in front of your knee as your foot comes in contact with the ground, that’s not a good thing. The more your heel is in front of your knee, the worse.

Well, here’s a study that found another method worked better. Essentially, the "favorite" method of the researcher was a measure of the proportion of the overall step that was in front of the center of mass.

That’s hard to measure in the real world, though. Hopefully, more research can be done to find whether other methods are reasonably effective.

Does cadence predict injury?

Another thing we all know, your cadence (or stride rate) affects your injury risk. We hear it all the time. 180 strides per minute is the number universally offered as ideal.

Personally, I hate "universal ideals" as we are all different. The concept of a "universal ideal" instantly has my BS monitor spiking. That said, I have been known to tell people increasing your stride rate might help in some scenarios.

Does it really, though? Two recent studies offer conflicting results.

So what should we make of these studies?

First, we simply don’t know. It’s possible increasing your stride rate does lower your risk of injury. However, it’s not a sure thing.

Second, I’d point out how nobody was talking about a stride rate of 180. Most of the runners involved were in the 160s, even the low 160s. 180 sounds nice but, in the real world, it is much more likely to happen at 5:00 per mile than the paces most of us are running most of the time. If you want to work to increase your stride rate, great, give it a try. However, don’t think you have to aim for some arbitrary number just because some self-proclaimed experts say that’s the "universal ideal".