Roundups

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

What’s really going on when you’re stretching?

What does stretching really do?

Well, it apparently may not loosen your muscles and tendons. Did we ever think it did loosen tendons? Anyway, it appears according to this that it may just change the threshold at which we perceive the muscle being elongated too far.

Related to the above and going further, we have some more on stretching not doing what we may think it does. Also some good advice, though I don’t quite agree with everything. I agree that elongating our muscles in everyday life is a good idea, as are not worrying about hypermobility and not stretching to the point of pain. However, I would still argue that some stretching is beneficial. No, 10 seconds or 1 minute of stretching won’t undo 10 hours, give or take, worth of poor posture. That said, it can be part of an overall routine that can improve your posture and counter for those periods where we don’t do our best.

Self-regulation slows you down

You’re at the start line of a race and you see something that you find disturbing or you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation. What do you do? Do you let your emotions show or do you put on a good face?

What happens if you have to put on a "public face" shortly before the start of a race? Maybe you’re meeting someone new and need to impress. Maybe, if you’re at a race where you’re the star (hey, even I get that if I find small enough of a race) you have to put on a good show as people come up before the start to say hi or ask you how you’re going to do or how things are going in general.

Well, suppressing emotion right before a race makes you slower.

This likely has to do with mental fatigue and self control. The old saying that running is 90% physical and the other half is mental is more true than we think (besides the bad math that this guy with a degree in Applied Mathematics cringes at). Just as we try to conserve physical energy before a race, we should also focus on conserving mental energy before a race.

What does this mean practically? Well, you have to decide where you want to draw the line but I’ve always kind of closed myself off before a race. I’ll wish people well at the start line but, personally, that doesn’t require putting on a good face. I do try to avoid conversations, especially ones where I might have to put on a good face. I’ve always thought of it as focusing in on the task at hand but there’s surely some saving mental energy going on also. So don’t be surprised if you see me at a race and I seem a little anti-social at the start. Just catch me at the finish and I promise I’ll be more open.

So I give you permission to be a little anti-social at the start line. It will help you race better. Just try to make up for it by being more friendly at the finish line. Your faster performance should help with that.

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

This week, I’d like to focus on two topics. One that has been around for years and is dying down and another that has been around for decades and is still going strong.

Is running barefoot/minimalists good or bad?

First, the topic that in recent years has spurred some heated, emotional debate. It has long been my contention that a runner should find the least amount of shoe that specific runner can wear without problems. For some, that means minimalist shoes. For a very select few, that may mean running barefoot. For most, it likely means something more than minimalist shoes but where on the spectrum is different for everyone, based on countless variables.

Well, one blogger I greatly respect reviews a recent study and finds pretty much that:

Which is evidence that barefoot/minimalism is different to shod. None of that says its better, it just says its different. For some runners that may help and for other runners that may hurt – ie its subject specific.

Is carb loading good or bad?

So what about carb loading? We’ve been doing it for years. However, I’ve been looking at recent research, as well as modern day in race fueling practices, and been questioning the benefit of carb loading. It’s not that you don’t want to have plenty of high octane fuel to burn. It’s just that, when you can take so much during the race, do you really need to risk digestive tract issues and carry around the additional weight, which could be as much as 8 pounds, to get that benefit? With all the sports drinks, gels and various other options you can get during a race, I’ve been questioning the benefit of traditional carb loading.

It looks like I’m not the only one. Sports scientist Ross Tucker, another blogger I greatly respect, laid out a pretty good case against carb loading in this interview.

Is it going to stop me from my traditional spaghetti dinner before races? No because I know that’s a meal that works for me. Even when I know I’m not going to be burning through my glycogen stores, I’m going to keep doing that as dinner the evening before a race. However, I’ll continue to not make a big deal of pushing a high carb diet for days before a race and I’ll encourage others to not get too caught up with doing that. In my opinion, it’s better to continue eating a healthy, well balanced diet in the days before a race.

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

Believe it or not, I didn’t feel like I had a ton of great material that demanded a Monday post last week. I have a couple interesting things this week, though.

Ice Baths: We all hear about the benefits of ice baths. It is generally accepted that they are good for you. College teams gather in the training room after practice for team ice baths. The elites regularly do it. I remember when I was in school gathering outside the fieldhouse when the weather was nice to take my turn in the ice barrels that the trainers would have ready for us. When the weather wasn’t as good, the whirlpools would be waiting for us at the end of practice and we’d gather in the back room of the training room to take our turns. This still goes on today at probably almost every college and many high schools.

Ice baths suck but they are good so we do them. But are they really good?

A recovery placebo administered after an acute high-intensity interval training session is superior in the recovery of muscle strength over 48 h as compared with TWI and is as effective as CWI.

CWI is cold water immersion. In other words, this suggests the benefits of ice baths are at least partly, maybe completely, the result of the placebo effect.

Pollution

Do you run in a densely populated area with a lot of vehicle traffic and/or other sources of pollution?

Well, good news and bad news.

The good news: Running is better for you than the pollution is bad for you. So, even if you’re running in the pollution, you’re doing more good than bad.

The bad news: While you’re doing more good than bad, there is bad.

Keep doing what you can, even if it means running in pollution. However, try to change what you can to reduce the amount of pollution you have to breathe. Consider running before the morning rush hour, running away from streets and on motor vehicle free trails if possible. On particularly bad days, consider running inside where climate control systems will filter out some of that pollution. Probably nothing new but a good reminder.

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

This week, I read several interesting things but I think two topics works well for these posts. If you disagree with me, feel free to say so in the comments or contact me via the contact form or any other place you can find me.

For this week, I’d like to focus on two things: recovery and interpreting research. I think recovery is especially an important topic right now as many of us are finishing up our racing seasons and looking toward 2015. As for interpreting research, it’s always difficult. Conflicting studies, our own personal biases, confusing technical language. There are many barriers. Personally, I’m always trying to guard against these mistakes but I’m not perfect. We all fall into these traps from time to time, no matter how careful we are, and it’s always good to get a reminder to be on guard.

How to recover

The people I’m coaching are finding out or soon will find out how seriously I’m taking recovery this year. It’s going to be a bigger focus than I’ve made it in prior years because I think that post-season recovery is the first key to success going into the next season. I’ve been a little lax in the past about it but not this year. I’m going to be as serious about this as I am about peak training. You need to recover completely or you’re not going to be successful next year.

What does this mean, though? A lot of people can’t imagine taking time off of running completely. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m the poster boy of this. To me, what it means is don’t run if you don’t want to. If you do want to, purposely limit your volume and intensity for a while and treat it as recreation, not training. Enjoy yourself and don’t worry about your next race or season.

Most important, even if you’re going to do absolutely no running, don’t do nothing. Remain active. This also goes for when you need some extra recovery during a training season. Whether via running or some form of cross training, you’ll recover more rapidly and completely if you keep active.

Here’s a discussion of this point. It also has some good points about icing and anti-inflammatories. There are always cases where any or all of these things are warranted but, for general recovery or in many cases for recovery even from specific injuries, it’s very possible you’ll recover more quickly and completely without the ice and anti-inflammatories and with some level of activity.

Interpreting research

I read a lot of research. Every week, I’m reading several papers, articles and various other pieces on research. Sometimes straight from the source, sometimes someone else’s analysis, often both straight from the source and an outsider’s analysis.

I have to say, it’s not easy reading research. Studies seem to contradict each other often. Especially if reading straight from the source, the language is often tough to get through. Most importantly in my opinion, we always bring in our preconceived notions and biases. It’s hard for me to read an article on HIIT training without looking for where the study that says it’s the next great thing had flaws or a research paper on a study that found aerobic exercise improves our cognitive abilities without wanting to gloss over any flaws in the study.

However, if we want to get the most out of what we’re reading, we must guard against these things. We’re humans and we’re not perfect but, the more we can watch for these things and guard against them, the better we can do in making the most of what we’re reading.

On that note, here are some things you can watch for in your own reading and in the analysis of others. If you ever see me falling into these traps, please let me know. Again, I’m not perfect and I will never claim to be. I try to guard against these pitfalls and I hope that’s clear in my writing but I suffer from these shortcomings just like everyone else.

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

A couple things that greatly interested me popped up over the weekend. Here are some quick thoughts on them:

Hill training

We hear all the time about the benefits of hill training. While there are reasons going beyond hill training for it, the name of this site should tell you something about what I think of it. It just works. Runners and coaches around the world know this.

This is a case where the coaches and runners are ahead of the science, though. How many studies have we seen that show hill training works and why? Well, now we have this:

Running on a 10 percent incline can improve the overall performance of long distance runners, according to a study completed by Derek Ferley, education and research coordinator at Avera Sports Institution. He conducted the research as part of his doctoral work in health and nutritional sciences at South Dakota State University.

I have some problems with this. First, the workouts don’t appear to be apples to apples. The hill repeats group was doing 30 second repeats and the flat intervals group was doing repeats of 2:16 in duration. Second, it was all or nothing. The three groups consisted of no workouts, twice a week hill workouts and twice a week flat interval workouts. I’d love to see a fourth group that did hills once a week and flat intervals once a week. Finally, as pointed out, the fitness test at the end was performed on a level grade. If you’re training to race on a track, this may hold meaning. Anywhere else, we’re not likely 100% level in nearly any race.

So it’s the beginning of some answers to the questions that could be asked but I see some flaws in this that warrant further study. I also see the ability for nearly anyone with a motive to twist this to say something they like.

Sleep

I’m a big proponent of sleep. There are numerous studies that show the benefits of more sleep, even up to 10 hours a night, have real benefits for athletic performance, recovering from workouts and various other factors that matter to athletes. However, I’ve always wondered whether we should be able to expect to sleep straight through the night or whether that kind of sleep is really beneficial for everyone. I don’t remember the last time I’ve slept through the night without waking at some point, at least for a short period of time. I know others who simply can’t or won’t sleep for more than 4 or 6 hours a night. Are we hopeless cases who will never fulfill our potential?

Maybe not:

Our modern society, with its many stimuli, and an environment full of light, has partially created this hysteria about sleep, and combined with the myth that an 8-hour block of continuous sleep is essential, does all of us a disservice. Don’t forget about the well-documented benefits of incorporating naps into your day.

I have no doubt that 8 or even more hours is beneficial for many people, especially athletes who are pushing physical limits and need plenty of recovery. However, there are exceptions and we could be doing more harm than good stressing over sleep if we are the exceptions.

Also, naps are good.