Runner's Web Digest - May 28, 2004

The Original Runner's and Triathlete's Web was founded in January of 1997 as a
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The TRACK PROFILE Reader 2004, an in-depth review of the 2003 season by Bob
Ramsak, is now available. Selected from hundreds of
reports filed by the Track Profile News Service last year, The TRACK PROFILE
READER provides a unique look back at the
personalities, stories and events that defined track and field in 2003. With in
depth profiles of the sport's biggest stars and
comprehensive on-site reports from major competitions, this annual review takes
the reader beyond the results, providing a perfect
companion for casual and
diehard fans alike. Check out the book at:
http://www.booksurge.com/author.php3?accountID=GPUB00341&affiliateID=A000497

The Stretching Handbook:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/cgi-bin/at.pl?a=286905

Buy all your sporting goods at Fogdog Sports, your anytime, anywhere sports
store.
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The Runner's Web Digest is a weekly e-zine dealing with the sports of running
and triathlon and general fitness and health issues.
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New This Week:

We have added a "Classified" section to the Runner's Web. Buy, sell, swap FREE.
Check it out at:
http://pub19.bravenet.com/classified/show.php?usernum=1547833400&cpv=2

Check out our Community at:
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How To Run and Enjoy the Marathon - (A Practical Guide To The 26.2- Mile
Journey) By James Raia
The last chapter in this series on this book:
Chapter 15. Reference Guide: Where to Find Out More About The Marathon is
available at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20040528_Raia_Marathon15.html

We have NO personal postings this week.
Personal Postings, when available, are located after the Upcoming Section
towards the bottom of the newsletter.

Our latest column from Carmichael Training Systems:
Bigger bang for your bucks - Saving for a Sunny Day, is available at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/cts_columns.html


The Tour Within the Tour de France by James Raia:
The Tour de France is the world's greatest cycling event. As the bicyclists
climb into the mountains and quickly pass through the
rolling countryside, many other postcards of life occur away from the
competition - the ambience, the restaurants, the uniqueness of
the villages and the people who live and work among fields of sunflowers, near
ancient castles and among fields of expansive
vineyards. The Tour Within The Tour de France includes 24 essays about the
author's first six years of attending the race. This
ebook cost $7.95. Order now with your check or credit card at:
http://www.clickbank.net/order/0.cgi?ii=343039393832373631303837353131372e302e65\
6c746f6d616a612e3030312e30&&c=6bkjfzp7&t=tourbook&
[Multi-line URL]


Digest Article Index:

1. Vigorous Exercise May Slow Women's Bone Loss
2. Injured Runner
I’ve had just about every overuse injury in the book. If I haven’t had it, I’ve
read about it in my search to understand my
injuries.
3. Know your water limits
Drinking too much may be harmful to runners, athletes.
4. Growing old actively
5. Painful sports lessons
Off the field pressures to play hard and to win at all costs are contributing to
young athletes' injuries, experts say.
6. Depression and Cycling
7. Get Your Bounce Back
Feeling a bit run down? We've got seven ways to boost your energy
8. New Training Picks Up Speed for Athletes
9. Tips and Training - A Perfect Balance
10. Iron Heart
11. Interview with Jamie Whitmore - Princess of XTERRA
12. From Runner's World
13. 'Mrs Muscle' moves science world:
14. Get Your Bounce Back
Feeling a bit run down? We've got seven ways to boost your energy.
15. Sports science update: Protein and performance
16. Hyperbaric Therapy
17. Why Stop Now?
Joe Henderson's Running Commentary
18. Athletics: The Truth about stretching
19. Getting to Know Yourself and Your Training Needs
From Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels
20. Man sues Atkins over heart problems
21. Go Vertical for Running Power
The Secrets to Strength and Power Training for Running .
22. East meets West in the running world
23. Can Nutritional Supplements Enhance Athletic Performance?
24. Pool-Bound Plyometrics Help You Get Stronger With Less Pain
25. News Scan



Runner's Web Weekly Poll:

This week's poll is: The women's world record for the mile is 4.12.56 set by
Svetlana Masterkova of Russia in 1996. Will a women
ever break 4 minutes for the mile?

Cast your vote at: http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
Post your views in our Forum at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/runnersweb_forum.html
[Free Registration Required]

The previous poll was: "Should Transgender Athletes Be Eligible for the
Olympics?"
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. No 94 93%
2. Yes 3 3%
3. No opinion 4 4%
Total Votes: 101

You can access the poll from our FrontPage as well as voting on and/or checking
the results of previous polls.

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Five Star Site of the Week: The Official Steve Prefontaine Site.
During his brief 24-year life-span, Steve Prefontaine grew from hometown hero,
to record-setting college phenomenon, to
internationally acclaimed track star. In a similar span of years since his death
in 1975, Pre has become the stuff of enduring
legend.
His rare combination of talent, discipline, determination, and star-quality with
a human touch made Pre the idol of those he called
"his people" -- the devoted fans who came to watch him run and entered into the
performance with roars of encouragement, "Go Pre!"
At no place is the celebration of Steve Prefontaine and his story more personal
than in Coos Bay, Oregon, where he was born in 1951
and discovered his gift for running fast and far as a student at Marshfield High
School. Here, he developed his hunger to be the
best in the field, and more, to do it with style -- to create beauty when he
ran, to show people something they had never seen
before.
Check out the site at:
http://www.prefontainerun.com/

Send us your suggestions for our Five Star site. Please check our list of
previous Five Star Sites available from the Five Star
Window under
the link "Previous Five Star Sites" as we do not wish to repeat a site unless it
has undergone a major redesign.


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Our Photo Slideshow is updated on a random basis. Check it out from our
FrontPage.

Book of the Week: Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance.
by William D. McArdle, Frank I. Katch, Victor L. Katch .
The first part addresses nutrition, energy, and systems of energy delivery and
use. The second part, focusing on applications,
covers enhancement of energy capacity; exercise performance and environmental
stress; and body composition, energy balance, and the
health-related aspects of exercise. Amply illustrated in color, this edition
(previous, 1991) includes a new chapter on exercise for
cancer, cardiovascular, and pulmonary rehabilitation and a new appendix
containing 1995 ACSM Position Stands. Annotation c. by Book
News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Buy the book at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0683057316/runnersweb/102-0182896-9006569\
?v=glance&s=books

More books from Amazon at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/amazon.html
and Human Kinetics at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/human_kinetics.html

This Weeks News:

Articles:

1. Vigorous Exercise May Slow Women's Bone Loss:
Women who run, jump and pump iron after menopause may ward off bone loss, back
pain and high cholesterol, a study released Monday
suggests.
Researchers in Germany found that a supervised exercise program that included
running, aerobics, jumping and strength training
helped prevent bone loss among postmenopausal women over a two-year period.
Compared with non-exercisers, women in the program reported less back pain and
had lower cholesterol levels, according to findings
published in the May 24th issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study's lead author, Dr. Wolfgang Kemmler of the University of Erlangen,
pointed out that the study focused on women who had
recently gone through menopause, a time when bone loss accelerates and heart
disease risk rises due to declining estrogen levels.
Experts know exercise can cut the risk of both cardiovascular disease and the
brittle-bone disease osteoporosis, but different types
and intensities of activity may be necessary. While moderate exercise like
walking can be enough to improve fitness and general
health, it may take higher-impact activity that puts some stress on the bones to
make a difference in bone density.
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=J5UQAAYQKGECOCRBAE0CFEY?type\
=healthNews&storyID=5240359
[Long URL]


2. Injured Runner:
I’ve had just about every overuse injury in the book. If I haven’t had it, I’ve
read about it in my search to understand my
injuries.
I jokingly call the problems I have “pain gremlins” because they seem to move
about: Just when I think I’m injury-free, the pain
pops up in another place. Sometimes the pain is manageable: the type I can run
through. However, other times the pain forces me out
of the game for a while. My hip flexors are my biggest challenge, always
fighting me in one way or another and often forcing me to
rest. I’ve come to accept the rest periods as an important part of training, and
each bout with injury has taught me valuable
lessons.
While striving to improve our fitness and our race times, we are very prone to
injury. We must accept the fact that injuries are
“diseases of excellence,” and are a part of the training process. We can take
precautions to reduce the risk of becoming injured,
but sometimes even the most comprehensive “anti injury” plans fail.
Losing the ability to run – even for a short time – can be devastating. We
depend on running for many things: to free our minds
(even if only for an hour or so), to give us a sense of well-being and fitness,
to challenge ourselves, and to bring us together
with other runners who share our love of the roads and trails. When injury
strikes, these benefits are lost (albeit temporarily),
and coping with this loss can be difficult.
More...from CoolRunning.com at:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/6/6_1/injured-runner.shtml


3. Know your water limits:
Drinking too much may be harmful to runners, athletes.
Someone recently asked me an intriguing question: Is it possible to drink too
much water?
Though your kidneys usually get rid of the excess water you drink, there is
indeed a condition known as water intoxication,
overhydration or hyponatremia.
This condition is most common in marathoners and triathletes. These people
consume large amounts of water during the course of a
race, which increases blood plasma and dilutes the salt content of the blood.
While this is happening, the athlete also is losing
salt by sweating. Consequently, the amount of salt available to the body tissues
decreases, and, over time, the loss interferes with
brain, heart and muscle function.
Symptoms of hyponatremia generally mirror those of dehydration (apathy,
confusion, nausea and fatigue), although some individuals
show no symptoms at all. If untreated, hyponatremia can lead to coma and even
death.
In a recent University of Florida study, water intoxication was reported in 18
percent of marathon runners and in 29 percent of the
finishers in a Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon.
It's important to remember, though, that if you're in good health, water
generally is not bad for you. Healthy adults need about
three quarts of fluid each day, so drinking 8 to 12 glasses a day should be
sufficient, and exceeding that amount very likely won't
hurt.
For athletes and other active people, even more water is needed to replenish
water lost through perspiration. It is possible to
sweat out more than two quarts of fluid per hour. It is generally recommended
for every pound of water lost during exercise as
sweat, an additional two cups of water be taken in.
Eat foods that will help you replenish the salt and electrolyte depletion from
exercise, and not just plain water. This is where
sports drinks might be a better option for you.
All of these statistics are warnings for triathletes or marathon runners.
Chances are, if you are a seasoned runner or at the
marathon level, you already are aware of this condition and know the proper way
to prevent it.
With obesity now at epidemic proportions, I really don't think the average
American has to worry about suffering from overhydration.
However, if you think you have the symptoms, please contact your physician or
dietician to find out what to do.
Wendy Large, 35, is manager of MedCentral Health and Fitness Center. If you
would like a specific Gen X health and fitness topic
tackled, drop her an e-mail at wlarge@... and look for the subject in
an upcoming column.
From the Mansfield News Journal



4. Growing old actively:
The phone calls come often to Eugenia Zacny's Creve Coeur home. Her three
children are scattered across the country, and they
constantly beg her to come and visit.
Zacny appreciates the offers, but she usually declines them. Smiling, she said,
"I just can't always make it."
That's because this 86-year-old woman volunteers at five nursing homes each
month, playing the piano for one-hour sing-alongs for
the residents. She cooks. Entertains. She even acts as a caregiver for her
sister-in-law, only three months older but far more
frail, requiring an hour's drive a couple of times a week.
Equally important - if not crucial - to Zacny's busy schedule is the time she
spends on the tennis court. A competitive tennis
player for nearly 70 years, Zacny just finished the indoor season, during which
she played twice a week with women decades younger
than she is.
More...from STLToday at:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/Sports/Other+Sports/EBE7F7F2\
4D3262E986256E9C00378C71?OpenDocument&Headline=Growi
ng+old+actively
{Multi-line URL]


5. Painful sports lessons:
Off the field pressures to play hard and to win at all costs are contributing to
young athletes' injuries, experts say.
Play through the pain. Get back in the game. Be a winner. These are the anthems
of many professional athletes, but all too often
they are being repeated by young athletes as well.
The values, often promoted by overzealous parents and coaches, take a toll on
the estimated 30 million children who participate in
organized sports in the United States each year. Overly aggressive play fueled
by a win-at-all-costs mentality are increasingly
being recognized as contributing factors in the injuries sustained by young
players.
About one in three children, ages 5 to 14, who play organized sports will be
injured at some point while participating in individual
and team competition, according to a survey released this month by the National
Safe Kids Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based
nonprofit group dedicated to preventing childhood injury.
"Professional athletes are in a business and are making money. They're old
enough to understand the consequences of what they're
doing," said Charlie Maher, a psychology professor at Rutgers University who is
also team psychologist for the Cleveland Indians
baseball team and the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team. "But a kid isn't.
'Play through the pain' shouldn't even be part of the
vocabulary of youth sports. The primary focus should be health and safety."
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/fitness/la-he-youngathletes24may24,1,2648\
295.story?coll=la-health-fitness-news


6. Depression and Cycling:
It’s Giro time again, which summons memories of the late Marco Pantani on an
epic climb in the Dolomites. Marco, however, suffered
an untimely death secondary to a cocaine overdose earlier this year in a
possible suicide. It is known that Pantani had been
battling depression and other mental health problems. He'd checked into a clinic
for depression last year after his surprising
return to form in the Giro d'Italia, where we again saw glimpses of Pantani’s
greatness as he battled fiercely on multiple climbs.
Cyclists are not immune to mental illness, particularly depression. Several
notable cyclists have suffered from depression including
Luis Ocana, Graeme Obree, and more recently Jose Maria Jimenez.
Depression is very common. 20-30 percent of women and about 10-15 percent of
men will experience depression at some time in their
lives. Sources indicate that 19 million people in the US are depressed at any
one time. Depression is a mental illness defined as
two weeks of either decreased mood (blue, down in the dumps, sad) or
substantially decreased interests or pleasure (no longer
wanting to pursue hobbies or pleasurable activities; diminished pleasure when
those activities are attempted). In addition to these
symptoms, people will experience changes in their sleep, feelings of guilt and
self-blame, decreased energy, decreased
concentration, change in appetite, changes in speed of cognitive and physical
movement, and most seriously thoughts of death or
suicide
More...from RoadCycling.com at:
http://www.roadcycling.com/news/article559.shtml


7. Get Your Bounce Back:
Feeling a bit run down? We've got seven ways to boost your energy.
Last fall a runner called me for some advice. His problem? Despite several
months of great training, he was racing poorly. He didn't
have mono, yet he constantly felt tired. His training had begun to suffer as
well. In a nutshell, he was feeling "flat." Flat is the
perfect description for this running ailment. Like a ball that has gone flat,
you simply have no bounce. So what's the cause of the
"running flats," and how can you get pumped back up? Here are the seven
questions I asked my young caller. Ask yourself these same
questions the next time your training leaves you feeling deflated:
1. How many miles are you running per week? High mileage alone will not
necessarily make you flat. Elite marathoners often run 120
miles or more per week and feel fine. However, if you dramatically increase your
mileage over a short period of time, you may let
the air out of your tires. Cut back your weekly mileage by 25 percent for a
couple of weeks, and see if some of the bounce returns.
More...from Reebok Runner at:
http://www.reebokrunner.com/features/bounce.html


8. New Training Picks Up Speed for Athletes:
RICHMOND, Va. - George Dintiman can remember when he trained athletes to hold a
rope strapped to a motor scooter and run behind the
moving bike. Keeping up with the bike was supposed to make them faster. It was
pretty out there for the time, he admits, but it
worked.
"We were doing crazy things," said Dintiman, professor emeritus at Virginia
Commonwealth University and author of 40 books on speed
improvement. People "thought we were nuts."
Thirty years later, speed training is more sophisticated, involving explosive
power movements and proper running mechanics. Once the
domain of college and professional athletes, it's now gaining favor with weekend
and recreational runners and others playing team
sports like soccer or volleyball.
"It takes a certain individual who's looking for sport-specific training," said
Shawn Stewart, a sports psychologist and owner of
Velocity Sports Performance in Richmond. "That individual has a different agenda
than the guy who goes to the gym."
Randy Puryear, 46, turned to speed training this spring to reach his goal of
qualifying for the Boston Marathon. He needs to shave
about 15 minutes off his time to meet the qualifying time of 3 1/2 hours.
"I'm looking for that little edge that at my age helps me get over the hump,"
said Puryear, a social worker in suburban Richmond.
"Adding more miles is not the solution."
More...from FortWayne.com at:
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/8748366.htm


9. Tips and Training - A Perfect Balance:
By Matt Fitzgerald
Muscular imbalances contribute to the majority of form flaws. Each muscle in the
body has what’s called a length-force curvature,
which refers to the amount of force a muscle is able to produce at various
degrees of contraction. An imbalance is said to exist
when one or more muscles on one side of a joint become lengthened and one or
more muscles on the other side become shortened
(tightened), causing their length-force curvatures to fall out of balance.
Particular activities tend to cause particular imbalances
to develop. Swimming, cycling and running are no exceptions. The classic
imbalances in triathletes are known as lower cross syndrome
(tight hip flexors and low back muscles and loose glutes and lower abdominal
muscles), and upper cross syndrome (tight chest and
rear neck and loose shoulder rotators and scapular stabilizers), plus tight
hamstrings and calves from running. Visible signs of
lower cross are a forward tilt of the pelvis, “pooching” of the lower abdominal
area, and swayback (concave shape of the lower
spine). Visible signs of upper cross are forward neck tilt, rounded shoulders,
and exaggerated curvature of the upper and mid-spine.
Preventing, halting and undoing imbalances is accomplished primarily through
exercises that stretch tight muscles and strengthen
loose ones. The following corrective exercise routine for triathletes was
designed by Paul Chek, an internationally renowned expert
in functional training and founder of the C.H.E.K. Institute in Encinitas,
Calif. (www.chekinstitute.com). The routine comprises
five strengthening exercises and five stretches. You can do them all together as
a workout (this will take 20 to 40 minutes,
depending on the number of repetitions and sets you perform) or in any
combination. If you choose to do all exercises, try the order
we have provided. At a minimum, you should do the stretches three times a week
and the exercises twice a week, year-round. I myself
do the stretches following each run workout (four to six times per week) and do
the strengtheners in the evening at home. A Swiss
ball is required for four of the five strengthening exercises.
More...from Triathlete Magazine at:
http://www.triathletemag.com/story.cfm?story_id=2428&pageID=1732


10. Iron Heart:
For the past 16 years Sarah Reinertsen has been a competitive athlete. First as
a Paralympic track star, and then as an endurance
runner, racing in 6 marathons and dozens of half-marathons, road races, and
trail runs. With a strong background in running, Sarah
began racing in triathlon in 2003 and had a wildly successful season. Winning
the 2003 ITU world championship title in Queenstown,
New Zealand. She has now earned a spot in the very elite 2004 Ironman World
Championship in Kona, HI, where she will make history as
the first woman on an artificial leg to do Ironman! On her road to Kona, Sarah
will be running her 7th marathon in Boston this
April, followed by the Buffalo Springs ½ Ironman in June.
Sarah's left leg was amputated above the knee when she was 7 years old. She was
born with a limb deficiency and opted for amputation
so that she could use better prosthetic technology. Sarah didn't discover sports
though until she was 11 years old. She chose the
sport of running, in large part because it was the one thing people didn't
expect her to do. She was a young girl with a fake leg,
and going through those teen years with a disability was difficult, but she
poured her heart into running-training everyday after
school. She first broke the 100-meter world record for women above-the-knee
amputees when she was 13 years old-and still holds the
100m world record (17.99 seconds) today at the age of 28. She became the
youngest member of the US Disabled Track Team and began to
compete nationally and internationally.
More...from Triathlete Magazine at:
http://www.tritravel.com.au/amtriathlete/2004-5-25iron.htm


11. Interview with Jamie Whitmore - Princess of XTERRA:
Interview with Jamie Whitmore from California / USA.
Winner of the XTERRA European Tour 2003, Winner of the XTERRA US Tour 2003
Vice World Champion Nissan XTERRA Maui / Hawaii 2003.
Jamie Whitmore is one of the top female contenders for a win in the inaugural
XTERRA Austria race in Achensee, on June 19th , the
opening race of the XTERRA European Tour 2004, consisting of a total of 5 XTERRA
races in Austria, Czech, Italy, the Netherlands and
the final in Germany.
Alexander Lang, race director XTERRA Austria & Germany, asked Jamie some
questions.
Name: Jamie Whitmore
Age: 28
Residence: Elk Grove, California, USA
Height: 165cm (5'5")
Weight: 45kg (118lbs)
Sponsors: Reebok, Felt, First Endurance, Clif, Bell, Zeal, FSA, Sram, Rock Shox,
Crank Brothers, Carnac, Defeet
Athletic background: Started as a swimmer (5 years old) then became a runner in
High School (14 years old) ran in college
Favourite dish: Chicken Burrito
Greatest success: That is still to be determined!
Alex: Jamie, last year you won almost every race you entered, including the
inaugural
XTERRA European Tour. How did you like the XTERRA races over in Europe ?
Jamie: I loved them. I had so much fun. The races are very different from the
ones in the US and even different from each other. I
think I enjoyed the people and the atmosphere the most! I have a bunch of
friends I can't wait to see this year!
Alex: Going into the Nissan XTERRA World Championships on Maui, everybody,
including yourself, expected you to win the Maui race.
You did a really great race and you finished second.
What happened that day ?
Jamie: It just wasn't my day! I don't like to make excuses for my performance in
any race. I gave a 100% that day and that is all
that matters.
More...from Transition Times at:
http://www.transitiontimes.com/viewstory.cfm?ID=4737


12. From Runner's World:
*Get Inspired With Quotes: "Keep a file of inspirational quotes or a shelf of
motivational books, and pull one out on those days
when you're not fired up for training. I find that a thoughtful article also
works well. Most mornings, I run for 45 minutes after
reading several features in the Wall Street Journal. During my run, I "debate"
with the journalists who wrote the stories. The best
part is, I always win!" -Jeff Galloway

*Gradually increase mileage to avoid injury: The best way to improve is to
gradually increase the length of your long run by 1 to 2
miles every 2 to 3 week, and do race specific speed training. With sufficient
rest between these two components, you may even be
able to decrease your total mileage and still improve times and endurance.

*Peanut butter is super-high in vitamin E, the most potent antioxidant vitamin
in foods. For prerace energy, spread 2 tablespoons of
peanut butter on half a bagel, and eat it 2 hours before race time. The good
fats (monounsaturated) in peanut butter will "stick to
your ribs" and help you feel full. Plus, you'll be energized with slow-release
carbohydrates.

*Positive Reinforcement: "Remember how good you felt on one of your best runs.
Harness those memories and feelings to get yourself
out the door next time. Remind yourself that a run will always make you feel
better mentally and emotionally." -Cindy Bogert, RW
photo assistant

*"By starting out slowly with a proper warmup, you ensure that your muscles are
well-oxygenated before you call on them to do
strenuous work. Because oxygen is an ingredient necessary for your body to
produce energy, the more that is present, the more
effectively and powerfully your muscles function." -From Triathlon Training by
Eric Harr


13. 'Mrs Muscle' moves science world:
As the world gears up for this summer's Olympics, scientists are celebrating the
work of a British woman whose research contributed
to a better understanding of how muscles function.
It is the 50th anniversary of the internationally-renowned "sliding filament"
theory, developed by Professor Jean Hanson and her
colleague Professor Hugh Huxley.
The ground-breaking discovery uncovered the finer processes involved in muscle
contraction and is regarded as "revolutionary" by her
followers.
Her theory was a "milestone in muscle research", according to biophysicist Dr
Pauline Bennett from King's College, London, where
Professor Hanson was based for most of her working life.
"We are still looking at how these filaments slide past each other and still
looking at the details 50 years on," said Dr Bennett.
More...from the BBC at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3735165.stm


14. Get Your Bounce Back:
Feeling a bit run down? We've got seven ways to boost your energy.
Last fall a runner called me for some advice. His problem? Despite several
months of great training, he was racing poorly. He didn't
have mono, yet he constantly felt tired. His training had begun to suffer as
well. In a nutshell, he was feeling "flat." Flat is the
perfect description for this running ailment. Like a ball that has gone flat,
you simply have no bounce. So what's the cause of the
"running flats," and how can you get pumped back up? Here are the seven
questions I asked my young caller. Ask yourself these same
questions the next time your training leaves you feeling deflated:
1. How many miles are you running per week? High mileage alone will not
necessarily make you flat. Elite marathoners often run 120
miles or more per week and feel fine. However, if you dramatically increase your
mileage over a short period of time, you may let
the air out of your tires. Cut back your weekly mileage by 25 percent for a
couple of weeks, and see if some of the bounce returns.
2. Have you had your iron level checked lately? Everyone needs iron, but this
mineral is especially important to runners. If your
iron stores are low, your body can't manufacture hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying
component of blood. Low iron also means that your
myoglobin, the oxygen-storage component of blood, won't function as well as it
should. Bottom line: Energy production is
compromised. Or, in plain English, you feel tired all the time.
Up to 25 percent of female runners and 10 percent of male runners may be iron
deficient. A simple blood test that checks your serum
ferritin level can quickly tell if there's a problem. To beef up the iron in
your diet, you can't do better than lean red meat. Try
for at least two servings a week. Other good sources of iron include green leafy
vegetables, beans, fortified cereals, and whole
grains.
More...from Reebok Runner at:
http://www.reebokrunner.com/features/bounce.html


15. Sports science update: Protein and performance:
A remarkable new study could change the way athletes fuel their bodies during
training and competition.
In the forthcoming July issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise,
researchers at James Madison University report
powerful evidence that consuming a modest amount of protein in a sports drink
during exercise can increase endurance, reduce muscle
damage, and enhance recovery.
Fifteen male cyclists completed a stationary ride to exhaustion while drinking
either a conventional sports drink containing 7.3%
carbohydrate (Gatorade) or a sports drink containing an equal amount of
carbohydrate plus 1.8% protein (Accelerade).
The following day, the cyclists completed a second ride to exhaustion at a
higher intensity, this time without drinking anything.
Before they began the second ride, a blood sample was taken and its
concentration of creatine phosphokinase (CPK) was measured. CPK
is a biomarker of muscle damage.
Two weeks later, this whole procedure was repeated with one change. The cyclists
who had been randomly assigned to drink the
carbohydrate sports drink in the first trial received the carbohydrate-protein
drink in the second trial, and those who received the
combined drink in the first trial received the carbohydrate drink in the second.
More...from Active com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=10752&sidebar=575&category=keep_fit




16. Hyperbaric Therapy:
If you're an injured runner, should you breathe in pure oxygen to hasten the
healing process? That's what some sports scientists are
recommending, as the inhalation of oxygen under high pressure (also called
hyperbaric oxygen therapy) becomes an increasingly
popular form of treatment for hurting athletes.
Several English football teams used hyperbaric oxygen (HBO3 therapy to treat
their players this year, apparently with excellent
results. In one case, an athlete with ligament damage reduced recovery time by
33 per cent with HBO therapy, and a second player
receiving HBO recovered in only four days even though doctors had predicted a
three-week lay-off.
Why would HBO therapy be helpful? First of all, HBO boosts white blood cell
activity in damaged parts of the body, controlling
infections. HBO also tends to constrict blood vessels and decrease the amount of
blood pumped by the heart. Although this sounds
like a negative effect, it actually diminishes blood flow to an injured region,
helping to reduce pressure and swelling. Even though
blood supply is curtailed, the amount of oxygen actually reaching damaged
tissues rises with HBO because of the surplus oxygen
inhaled.
Over the past 20 years or so, HBO therapy has been used fairly successfully to
treat a wide variety of medical conditions, including
gangrene, carbon-monoxide poisoning, and the decompression sickness sometimes
experienced by deep-sea divers. HBO has occasionally
worked well for patients whose tissues have been damaged by radiation, and
there's some indication that HBO could be a useful
treatment for bone infections, cyanide poisoning, smoke inhalation, recurrent
infections, bums, and traumatic 'crush injuries' in
which body parts are mechanically squashed as a result of a car accident or a
hard physical blow to the body.
More...from Peak Performance Online at:
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0405.htm



17. Why Stop Now?
Joe Henderson's Running Commentary
(The Road Runners Club of America honored me in May with its Journalistic
Excellence Award. Here's what I said while accepting it --
or would like to have said, given a chance to edit. I print it here without the
pauses needed to compose myself.)
This is going to get too personal and emotional. But that's how my writing has
always been, so why stop now?
I can only begin in these few minutes to tell you how much the RRCA and this
award mean to me. The reasons are ancient and recent.
Your group and my running were born the same year, 1958. An RRCA founder,
Browning Ross, taught me how to read about running through
his Long Distance Log magazine. Another founder, Hal Higdon, taught me how to
write about running.
Twice before, in two different decades, I've stood up here to accept this award.
Never has it meant more than this time.
Life itself has been an endurance test recently. We all face these trials, just
not usually all at once.
Mine began with a certain magazine retiring my column after 33 years there.
Later events shrunk that loss to insignificance.
Early this year my wife Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer. She will get
through this. But she has months of treatment to
endure and is doing it like a good distance runner, crossing the "workouts" off
her calendar one by one.
Barb insisted that I be here tonight. She came with me, even though her doctors
warned against taking long trips or mixing with big
crowds.
In the last few weeks I've endured the last days of my mother's life and the
first days without her. Her funeral was two weeks ago
today, back in Iowa.
More...from JoeHenderson.com at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/445.html


18. Athletics: The Truth about stretching:
A three year old study about stretching is getting cited in many articles today.
And the conclusions reached by some writers may be
harmful to the health of your hamstrings…and other needed equipment!
Is stretching before exercise harmful?
Some recent articles have made stretching before general fitness improvement
exercise out to be a time-waster, not needed, and even
harmful. This is not true. In fact, there's a recent 2003 study that evaluates
all of the research on stretching. Researchers
conclude:
"Due to the paucity, heterogeneity and poor quality of the available studies no
definitive conclusions can be drawn as to the value
of stretching for reducing the risk of exercise-related injury."
(The efficacy of stretching for prevention of exercise-related injury: a
systematic review of the literature, 2003, Weldon)
Study in question
The study generating all the hoopla was performed by the Kapooka Health Centre,
New South Wales, Australia on 1,538 army recruits.
It's a creditable study to show the occurrence lower limb injury on a group of
young army recruits. Here is what the researchers
actually concluded:
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20040528_RSGF.html


19. Getting to Know Yourself and Your Training Needs:
From Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels
The one question that needs to be answered on a regular basis regarding training
is, "What is the purpose of this training session?"
I wonder how many athletes can answer that question. I think I can answer just
about any question that you may have regarding your
training and racing (if racing is part of your plan). I am not, however, naive
enough to believe that anyone has all the answers for
every individual who takes up a running career. In fact, what works for one
individual may not do so well for another. There are,
however, some sound scientific principles that apply to everyone and some ways
of doing things that certainly work better than
others.
TRAINING PRINCIPLE #1 - The Body Reacts to Stress
There are two types of reaction to the stress of exercise. The first is an acute
reaction, such as you would experience if you got
up from your seat, went outside, and ran to the corner. Heart rate speeds up,
stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped with each
beat of the heart) increases, ventilation rate and depth of breathing increase,
blood pressure rises, and your muscles feel some
fatigue. If you perform this ritual on a regular basis, then you will continue
to get regular reactions to this activity. The second
type of reaction to the stress of exercise is the training effect, which results
from repeated, chronic exercise.
Training produces changes throughout your body that allow you to perform the
daily run to the corner with less discomfort (and
probably in less time, as well). The muscles that are stressed become stronger
and blood flow to them becomes more generous. Changes
inside the muscle cells provide more energy for the muscles, and less lactic
acid accumulates during the bout of exercise. Your
resting heart rate undoubtedly becomes slower (due to a stronger heart being
able to pump more blood per beat and, therefore,
needing fewer beats to deliver the needed blood). Also, you probably develop a
lighter, springier step (due to fitter leg muscles),
lower resting blood pressure, lower body weight, and less fat under the skin.
What Works for Others May Not Be Right for You
Runners who train together often forget that they may not all be keying on the
same event. Further, even if they are shooting for
the same goal and same event, they may react differently to the same training.
Tom Von Ruden, my friend and a great middle-distance
runner, was in the final weeks of preparation for the 1968 Olympic Trials, to be
held at altitude in South Lake Tahoe, California.
He and the other finalists for the trials had been training together for several
weeks in Tahoe and Tom was feeling a bit down about
his chances, possibly as a result of watching the others seeming to float
through various workouts. Tom asked me what I thought
might be the best thing to do for his final preparation, and I suggested that he
fly out to Leadville, Colorado, for a week or so
and have some time to himself at an altitude that was a fair bit higher than
what he would be facing at Tahoe in his Olympic Trials
race. Out of trust in my scientific knowledge of the effects of altitude, or
simply out of desperation for something different to
do, Tom made the trip. Upon his return, he not only made the U.S. team, but also
was a finalist in the 1500 meters at the Mexico
City Olympics, where he finished ninth.
I believed in what I was advising, based on sound scientific knowledge about
training. I also had spent time with Tom at altitude
research camps and felt I understood his psyche to some degree. In any case, at
that time, for that athlete, it was the right thing
to do. Would it have been the right thing for all of the finalists training in
Tahoe? Probably not. Certainly it would not have been
right for the other finalists who made the U.S. team by staying in Tahoe.
TRAINING PRINCIPLE #2 - Specificity of Training
The system that is stressed is the one that stands to benefit from the stress.
Although training for one particular sport usually
has little or no beneficial effect on your ability to perform a second sport, in
some cases there may actually be a detrimental
effect. An example of this is the negative effect that long-distance running has
on explosive leg activities, such as sprinting and
jumping. The same thing is true for bodybuilding and distance running: the extra
muscle mass developed through bodybuilding can act
as dead weight and interfere with distance-running capabilities.
To become accomplished at something, you must practice doing that thing, not
some other activity. Another activity takes time away
from your primary interest, and can also produce results that limit performance
in the main sport. You must give considerable
thought to every aspect of training, and you must know what everything you do is
doing for you or to you.
Reprinted with permission from Human Kinetics at:
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showproduct.cfm?associate=880


20. Man sues Atkins over heart problems:
Diet company stands by plan.
businessman sued the promoters of the Atkins Diet and the estate of founder Dr.
Robert Atkins, alleging that the low-carb, high-fat
meal plan clogged his arteries and threatened his health.
The suit by Jody Gorran, filed Wednesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court,
seeks $15,000.
Gorran, 53, said Thursday he started the diet in May 2001 because his weight had
risen from 140 to 148 pounds. In two months, he
said, his cholesterol rose from a normal 146 to an unhealthy 230, and by October
2003, he needed heart angioplasty to clear his
arteries.
"I came very close to dying, and this is from a diet I thought was marvelous,"
said Gorran.
Atkins Nutritionals said in a statement that it stands by the science that has
"repeatedly reaffirmed the safety and health benefits
of the Atkins Nutritional Approach."
More...from CNN at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/27/atkins.suit.ap/index.html


21. Go Vertical for Running Power:
The Secrets to Strength and Power Training for Running .
By Coach Brendon
Ever marveled at the sheer power that some runners can produce? Being a strong
powerful runner requires more than huge mileage and a
lean frame.
Arthur Lydiard discovered a great method for developing strong fast runners in
the 1950s and 1960s. Lydiard discovered that lots of
running made you fast, he then discovered that lots of hill running made you
faster and finally he discovered that hard hill running
and intervals on the track made you faster still. This basic strategy has not
been improved markedly since. Coaches have refined the
amounts and the timing of these types of training but the basic principle is
still the same. Muscular Strength and Muscular
Endurance are more important for ½ Marathons and Marathons due to the muscle
fatiguing nature of the distance, and compared to
shorter events, they do not max out oxygen transport.
Why do hills work?
Hills work in two ways, firstly they work by increasing the cardiovascular load
on the body. That is, you are forced to transport
more oxygen than you would normally. When running uphill you don't jar your body
as much so the risk of impact injury is less. The
second way that hills work is through improving muscular strength and muscular
endurance. Hills allow you to overload your running
muscles in a very specific manner. Steeper hills or higher speeds are like
heavier weights in the gym, just very specific. Thus you
make your legs bullet proof for running.
· The shorter the event the more important steeper and shorter harder hill
efforts become
· The longer the event the more important longer steady hill efforts become
Outlined below are run options you can add into your programme during your
training leading up to ½ Marathon and Marathons. The
suggestions assume that you have built a good base of running and are aimed at
the 2:50-3:50 Marathoner or the 1:20-1:30 ½
Marathoner
More...from Endurance Coach at:
http://www.endurancecoach.com/Go_Vertical_For_Running_Power.htm


22. East meets West in the running world:
T'ai Chi is considered the Mother of martial arts. Many serious practitioners
even hold it to be the single source from which all
martial arts were born. It dates back over 2500 years and is practiced by
millions of people in China every day. T'ai Chi is
interesting in that it has two faces. It is practiced both as a martial art and
as a system for health and longevity. It is built on
a system of movements that help to increase one's chi energy through correct
body alignment and relaxed muscles and joints.
Here are some of the correlations between T'ai Chi and running:
In T'ai Chi, one must learn to move the body seamlessly between one move and the
next without holding tension in the muscles and
joints.
It is the same with learning to run better. If you want to improve your
efficiency, you must first work on correcting your
biomechanics... which means moving your entire body while running, not just your
legs.
More...from Run the Planet at:
http://www.runtheplanet.com/pages/refer/articles/taichirun.php


23. Can Nutritional Supplements Enhance Athletic Performance?
Performance-enhancing dietary supplements are regularly used by competitive
athletes and daily exercisers. Surveys indicate that 75
percent of college athletes and almost 100 percent of body builders use at least
one product that allegedly boosts performance.
Supplemental “ergogenic aids” is the general term for ingested substances that
improve efficient use of energy, increase energy
production, or shorten recovery time. The growth in the ergogenic supplement
industry has been astounding, with new products
entering the market weekly. But there is little evidence that the billions of
dollars spent on performance enhancers provide the
advertised results.
Unlike medications that need to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, dietary supplements can be sold without such
preapproval. The FDA has used its limited authority to enhance product safety
and to pressure manufacturers to accurately label
ingredients. The FDA has also been more aggressive stopping promotions and
advertisements claiming false benefits. But the agency
has a daunting task, because there are so many products, and it has to prove
that the products are unsafe or that the promotions are
untruthful.
The most popular ingredients in supplements promoted as performance enhancers
are vitamins and minerals, amino acids and proteins,
and carbohydrates.
More...from InteliHealth at:
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/35320/35322/382130.html?d=dmtHMSCo\
ntent&k=wellx7165x35322


24. Pool-Bound Plyometrics Help You Get Stronger With Less Pain:
COLUMBUS, Ohio – If you want to turn your workout routine up a notch with the
explosive, muscle-building exercises called
plyometrics, take your regimen to a swimming pool, researchers at Ohio State
University suggest.
But do so cautiously.
During plyometric exercise, a muscle lengthens while it is contracting and
producing force. This type of exercise program – a
mainstay of many athletic team weight-training programs during the off-season –
can increase muscle strength in less time than
traditional resistance training.
Yet plyometrics can also cause severe muscle soreness and even damage, said
Steven Devor, a study co-author and an assistant
professor of sport and exercise sciences at Ohio State University. Devor and his
colleagues found that doing plyometric exercise in
a swimming pool significantly decreased the level of muscle soreness athletes
felt two to three days after a workout.
More...from Research News at:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/plyomet.htm


25. News Scan:
*Duration of Rest in Interval Training
To become stronger and faster, athletes use a technique called interval
training, in which they exercise very intensely, rest and
then alternate intense bursts of exercise and rest until their muscles start to
feel heavy. You can apply this principle to your
own exercise program, but the rest period between intervals is not the same for
every sport.
Rest periods are different for runners and weightlifters. Runners run intervals
as fast as they can and recover enough to run the
same fast pace several times. Research shows that runners need very short
recoveries between intervals, usually only about 30
seconds. So a runner may run a quarter mile 12 times, averaging 1 minute, with a
110-yard slow jog between each. However, weight
lifters need much longer recoveries between hard sets, at least two and a half
minutes.
Runners become short of breath and feel a burning in their muscles when lactic
acid starts to accumulate in muscles. It takes only a
few seconds for a trained athlete to recover from hard running and clear lactic
acid, so runners usually need short 30 second
recoveries between each hard run. On the other hand, weight lifters feel a
burning caused by a tearing of the muscle fibers and it
can take a much longer time for their pain to disappear so they can lift very
heavy weights again.

*Breath training enhances performance
Cyclists who are already in great shape may be able to go even faster with a new
kind of training regimen — one for their breathing.
University of Arizona physiology researchers conducted a four-week experiment
with 20 competitive cyclists to test the effectiveness
of endurance training on the muscles used to control breathing. Half the
cyclists underwent 20 sessions that included deep breathing
while researchers monitored carbon dioxide levels in their lungs and
supplemented it to keep them from fainting. Using a metronome
to pace their breaths, the cyclists gradually increased the speed and depth of
their breaths during the 30-minute sessions. Six
cyclists received 20 sham training sessions, each 5 minutes long, while four
cyclists received no training. Those in the endurance
training group posted a 12 percent improvement in the endurance capacity of
their breathing muscles. Nine of the 10 cyclists dropped
their times in time trials from an average of 47.1 minutes before training to
44.9 minutes afterward; the others didn’t improve. The
research was released May 6 in the online journal BMC Physiology.



This Weeks Featured Events:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites*

Coming Up:

May 28 - 31, 2004:
ITU Duathlon World Championships - Geel, Belgium
http://www.wkduathlon2004.be/
ITU Site
http://www.triathlon.org/duathlon/dua-2004/geel-world-champs/index.htm

May 29, 2004:
Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon - Nepal
http://www.100k.org/

Television
CBC Sports Saturday interviews gold-medal triathlete Simon Whitfield
2 PM EDT
Submit Your Questions
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/saturday/calling/index.html

May 29-30, 2004:
Cabot Trail Relay - Baddeck, NS
http://www.cabottrailrelay.com/

National Capital Race Weekend - Ottawa, ON
http://www.ncm.ca/

May 30, 2004:
Adidas Saskatchewan Marathon - Saskatoon, SK
http://www.saskatoonroadrunners.ca/marathon.htm

Keauhou Kona Triathlon - Hawaii
http://www.keauhoutriathlon.com/

Lily Run for Research - Toronto, ON
http://www.lillyrunforresearch.com/

Nissan Buffalo Marathon - NY
http://www.buffalomarathon.com/

May 30-31, 2004:
Saddleback Memorial Half-Marathon/5K - Laguna Hills, CA
http://www.kinaneevents.com/

May 31, 2004:
Bolder Boulder 10K - Boulder, CO
http://www.bolderboulder.com/

Thales FBK Games - NED
http://www.fbk-games.nl/

Lakeshore Marathon - Chicago, IL
http://www.lakeshoremarathon.com/


For more complete race listings check out our Upcoming Races Check the Runner's
Web on Sunday and Monday for race
reports on these events at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html

This Weeks Personal Postings/Releases:

We have NO personal postings this week.

Television and Online Coverage:
[Check local listings as event times are subject to change]

Check out our new Runner's Web Television Links page at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_television.html

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Have a good week of training and/or racing.

Ken Parker
Runner's Web
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