Runner's Web Digest - August 13, 2004

The Original Runner's and Triathlete's Web was founded in January of 1997 as a
not-for-profit resource site. RunnersWeb.com Inc. is
now a small business venture which sponsors the OAC Racing Team, a women's road
racing and triathlon club, and the OAC Gatineau
Triathlon and OAC Corporate Relay. The site is not in any way associated with
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This issue is brought to you by Road Runner Sports, the world's largest running
store at:
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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:
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How To Run And Enjoy The Marathon By James Raia:
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New This Week:

Check out our Olympics page for coverage links at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/olympics.html

Our latest column from Carmichael Training Systems
Training: Threshold Training for Improved Lactate Tolerance By Edmund R. Burke,
Ph.D.
is available at: http://www.runnersweb.com/runing/cts_columns.html.


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


This Week's Digest Article Index:

1. NISMAT Exercise Physiology Corner: A Primer on Maximum Oxygen Consumption
2. Tiredness mostly in the mind, scientists say
3. Genetic doping: 30 per cent more muscle power
4. Be Summer Smart:
Temperatures are sizzling!
5. Excess carbs may raise risk of breast cancer, study finds
6. Common Drug for Knee Pain No Better Than Placebo
7. Even Father Time can't catch him
8. Myths about the Olympic Games "Ancient Olympics Guide"
9. Muscle Cramp & Spasm - Causes, Prevention and Treatment
10. Getting Over It
Joe Henderson's Running Commentary
11. Stretching is always in season
12. The secret formula for feeding Olympians
13. Athletes need carbs
14. Armstrong's coach: Eliminating waste boosts performance
15. Stretch toward healing
As a way to treat illness, yoga's role in U.S. medicine is growing
16. From Runner's World
17. The Heat Is On
Coping with the high temperatures in Athens
18. How to eat like an Olympian
Athletes at all competitive levels can improve their results by getting the
right foods in the right amounts
19. Why Joggers Labor and Olympians Fly
20. Finding the right level by Dr Lindsay Weight
21. Eating Well - It's Better to Be Whole Than Refined
22. Marathon runners vying for the Olympics vary greatly in training
23. Climbing the ladder of fitness
24. Are carbs no longer 'good choices'?
25. News Scan


Runner's Web Weekly Poll:
This week's poll is: "Should countries use the IOC standards for athlete
selection for the Olympics or create their own tougher
criteria?"

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: "Which is/are your favourite event group(s) within
athletics at the Olympic Games?."
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Sprints/hurdles 12 8%
2. Middle distance 55 36%
3. Long distance 65 43%
4. Steeplechase 15 10%
5. Jumps (high, long, triple jump) 1 1%
6. Throws (shot, discus, javelin) 0 0%
7. Pole vault 3 2%

Total Votes: 151

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 King Of The Mile
From the site:
"Kingofthemile.com is dedicated to Hicham El Guerrouj, the Moroccan world record
holder in the mile. He is the greatest track and
field athlete in the world and has achieved much in the way of athletics. He is
an inspiration to many athletes in showing that if
you work hard and never give up you can achieve monumental feats. I want to
interest people in him and document his life story. I
will also give you current news on him and his goals for the future. This site
will show you why he is the true King Of The Mile."
Visit the site at:
http://www.kingofthemile.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.


If you feel you have something to say that is worthy of a Guest Column on the
Runner's Web, email us at
mailto:webmaster@... or leave your comments in one of our Forums at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/forum.html or from our FrontPage.

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

Book of the Week: The Olympic Marathon.
By David Martin, Roger Gynn.
No Olympic event can rival the rich history and grand spectacle of the marathon.
Created for the first modern Olympic Games in
Athens in 1896 as a commemoration of the legendary run by the Greek messenger
Philippides, the race has endured like no other,
producing a century of awe-inspiring competition and unforgettable stories.
The Olympic Marathon brings the high drama and rich details of the past 24
Olympic marathon races to life in a way no other book
ever has. This definitive resource, written by world-renowned Olympic marathon
experts David Martin and Roger Gynn, goes beyond
statistics to offer readers a vivid chronicle of the athletes and their
memorable marathon performances.
Buy the book at:
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showproduct.cfm?associate=880&isbn=0880119\
691

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. NISMAT Exercise Physiology Corner: A Primer on Maximum Oxygen Consumption:
Maximum oxygen consumption, also referred to as VO2Max is one of the oldest
fitness indices established for the measure of human
performance. The ability to consume oxygen ultimately determines any human's or
animal's ability for maximal work output over
periods lasting greater than one minute. The higher the number, the greater the
potential work rate.
Determinants of Maximal Oxygen Consumption
In essence there are three major factors determining maximal oxygen consumption:
- Cardiac output (the volume of blood pumped by the heart in one minute)
- The oxygen carrying capacity of the blood (determined by hemoglobin in red
blood cells)
- The amount of exercising skeletal muscle and the ability of muscle to utilize
supplied oxygen.
More...from NISMAT at:
http://www.nismat.org/physcor/max_o2.html


2. Tiredness mostly in the mind, scientists say:
Cape Town - Fatigue is largely in the mind, not the muscles, research by South
African scientists has discovered.
The brain steps in and makes the body feel weary to stop it being overworked,
thanks to a signalling molecule that seems to tell the
brain when it is time to slow the pace of the body.
Research showed that blood levels of the molecule, interleukin-6 (IL-6), were 60
to 100 times higher than normal after prolonged
exercise, according to Paula Robson-Ansley, from the University of Cape Town.
Countering IL-6 might have a similar effect to performance enhancing drugs,
enabling cyclists and marathon runners to last that
extra mile.
Robson-Ansley injected seven club-standard runners with either IL- 6 or a dummy
drug and recorded their times over 10 kilometres. A
week later, the experiment was reversed.
On average the athletes ran nearly a minute faster after receiving the
non-active placebo, New Scientist magazine reported. Most of
the group had finishing times around 41 minutes, so this would have been the
difference between winning and losing.
More...from IOL at:
http://iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1092064862671B225


3. Genetic doping: 30 per cent more muscle power:
A paper published in the March 2004 issue of Journal of Applied Physiology
indicates the far reach of genetic doping. The experiment
cited in the paper reported an increase of about 30 per cent in muscle size of
rats.
Where the difference in timing between a world record holder and someone who
fails to even make it to the Olympics could be less
than a second, a 30 per cent addition to muscle strength and size is the stuff
of dreams.
Genetic doping is not just a far cry from primitive performance enhancers like
cocaine or artificial stimulants like nikethamide, it
is a big step up even from designer hormones and EPO (erythropoietin), which
were thus far the cutting edge of sports doping
methods.
EPO enhances performance by increasing the body's production of red blood
corpuscles. Since RBCs are what carry oxygen, an increased
RBC count means the muscles get more oxygen and hence can perform better.
More...from Times of India at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/812760.cms


4. Be Summer Smart:
Temperatures are sizzling! Follow these tips for protecting yourself against sun
damage and heat illness during the hottest month of
the year.
By Christina Gandolfo
For most, summer is the most active season of the year. But long days that serve
up increased sun exposure and sweltering heat can
wreak havoc on an athlete’s workout regimen and lead to greater risk for sun
damage, heat exhaustion and dehydration.
With the dog days of summer upon us, follow these tips to keep cool and stay
protected:
Outsmarting the Sun
Go for the block. When you need immediate sun protection, reach for sunblock
before sunscreen. While sunscreen must be applied 30
minutes prior to sun exposure for maximum effectiveness, sunblock begins working
immediately, acting as a physical wall against UV
rays. Ideally, you should experiment with the type of sun protection that works
best with your skin and plan accordingly, but if you
need immediate protection, sunblock is your best bet.
More...from Her Sports at:
http://hersports.com/eNewsletter/newsLtr10/news10Article3.html


5. Excess carbs may raise risk of breast cancer, study finds:
A new study being published Friday raises concerns about high-carb diets beyond
how they affect weight.
Breast cancer was more than twice as common in women in Mexico who ate a lot of
carbohydrates as it was in those who limited carbs
to roughly half of all calories they consumed, the research found.
The typical American diet is half carbohydrates, and the study was launched in
1995, when people were being urged to eat carbs and
avoid fats. Now, many are following low-carb, Atkins-style diets, which have
generated argument about how they affect cholesterol
and heart disease.
This is one of the few studies to look at how sugar and starch intake might
affect the risk of cancer.
More...from the Globe and Mail at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040806.wcanc0806/BNStory/sp\
ecialScienceandHealth/


6. Common Drug for Knee Pain No Better Than Placebo:
Painkillers containing acetaminophen are recommended for treating osteoarthritis
of the knee, but French investigators report that a
sugar pill is just as effective.
Acetaminophen, known in many parts of the world as paracetamol, is the active
ingredient in Tylenol and many other brands of
medicine.
Clinical trials have shown that acetaminophen reduces knee pain, but Dr. Maxime
Dougados, of Rene Descartes University, Paris, and
colleagues say these trials "have been relatively small, and variable daily
doses of paracetamol have been used."
The team conducted their own trial, reported in the Annals of the Rheumatic
Diseases. They examined the efficacy of paracetamol for
treating osteoarthritis of the knee in 779 patients who had knee pain of at
least 30 on a 100-point visual scale during physical
activity.
The participants were randomly assigned to treatment with 4 grams per day of
paracetamol or an inactive placebo, for six weeks. The
main outcome target was a 30 percent decrease in pain intensity of the knee.
The proportion of participants who achieved this level of pain relief was almost
the same in the paracetamol and placebo groups, at
52.6 percent and 51.9 percent, respectively.
Twenty-six percent of the patients in the paracetamol group and 30 percent of
those in the placebo group withdrew from the study.
"Withdrawals due to treatment failure were noted in 14 percent and 18 percent in
the paracetamol and placebo groups, respectively,"
the authors write.
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=2NXZGMLEY4QZICRBAEZSFFA?type\
=healthNews&storyID=5900103
[Long URL]


7. Even Father Time can't catch him:
Norm Green Jr. has made the transition from record breaker to record keeper. As
both an athlete and an administrator, he is
unwavering in his attention to detail and his determination.
At age 72, the resident of West Brandywine, Chester County, is still running -
and running well. The man who ran the marathon in an
astonishing 2 hours, 27 minutes, 42 seconds at age 55 still logs three to 10
miles a day at a pace of 7:40 to 8:00 per mile. And 49
of his U.S. single age-group records still stand.
These days, more of his time is spent tracking and transcribing the
accomplishments of others. He holds seven administrative
positions, spending two to 18 hours each day sifting and shuffling, and making
sense of various statistics.
When he takes a break, it's likely to eat, run, or spend time with his wife,
Dolores, four children and eight grandchildren. The
couple celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary in June.
More...from the Philadelphia Inquirer at:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/9352491.htm?ERIGHTS=-10872345396433318\
48philly::e1-q7t9-13qp-qm79@emailias.com&KRD_RM=1ihn
ikpkiqiohhhhhhhhhqpjkl|Never|Y
[Multi-line URL]


8. Myths about the Olympic Games "Ancient Olympics Guide":
Many aspects of our Olympic Games have been justified by specious ancient
antecedents. Until recently we believed competitors had to
be amateurs because we believed ancient Greek Olympians were amateurs. Nonsense.
The ancient Olympics had no such rule, and the
Greeks did not even have a word for amateur. Ancient Olympic athletes were
professionals. The Olympic Truce, while guaranteeing safe
passage to athletes and spectators on their way to the Games, did not, contrary
to popular belief, stop all wars in Greece: Sparta
was fined for attacking Elean territory in 420 B.C., and Arcadians invaded the
sanctuary at Olympia in 364. Modern Olympic
officials, citing an ancient inscription from Delphi that had been translated
"Wine cannot be taken into the stadium," have assumed
that ancient athletes abstained from strong drink, setting an example for
today's competitors. It now seems the correct translation
is "Wine cannot be taken out of the stadium."
More...from Archaeology at:
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/olympics/games.html
The Ancient Olympic Games from HickokSports.com at:
http://www.hickoksports.com/history/olancien.shtml


9. Muscle Cramp & Spasm:
Causes, Prevention and Treatment
Muscle cramp and spasm are an annoying condition that involves a sudden,
involuntary contraction and tightening of a muscle that
will not immediately relax.
Muscle cramps and spasms can involve part or all of a muscle, or a number of
muscles within a muscle group and although a spasm or
cramp can occur in just about any muscle, the most common muscle groups affected
are:
The lower leg and calf muscles.
The upper leg, including both the hamstrings and quadriceps.
The feet and hands.
Muscle cramps and spasms can range in intensity from a slight twitch to a
severe, agonizing contraction. They can last anywhere from
a few seconds to over 15 minutes and can usually be seen visibly by the way the
muscle twitches and moves under the skin.
People who are at the greatest risk of muscle cramps and spasms are those who
ill, overweight or unfit. Those who take drugs or
certain medication, and those who live or work in excessive heat and humidity
are also prone to cramping. Muscle cramps are also
common among endurance athletes and people over 65 years of age who perform
strenuous physical activity.
More...from the Stretching Handbook at:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/archives/muscle-cramp.htm


10. Getting Over It:
Joe Henderson's Running Commentary
(rerun from August 1995 RW)
We hate what we fear. Runners who talk of "hating hills" have lost prior uphill
battles and come to fear the force that conquered
them.
You never beat the hills, which shrink for no runner. The harder you fight them,
the more they strike back. The best you can do is
make peace with the hills.
I'm a reformed hill-hater (-fearer). My history is dotted with marathons the
likes of Ocean-to-Bay and Summit in Northern
California, and Deseret News in Utah.
These races all cross mountain passes. Before seeking them out, I had to get
over my hill-phobia.
I first got to know them as a cross-country runner in the Midwest. We were
taught to "work the hills," which meant "fight your way
to the top."
This approach might have worked on the speed-bumps that we called hills back
there on the plains. But it didn't work on the imposing
slopes, rising hundreds or thousands of feet, that I encountered on the West
Coast.
Those hills shrugged off my feeble attempts to fight them. The harder I worked,
the sooner they humbled me.
A veteran of those hills, whose name I wish I'd written down then, turned my
thinking around. "You're making the fundamental mistake
that all rookies do on steep hills," he said.
Curiosity overcame my irritation at being labeled a neophyte. I asked for his
advice.
"you can't fight the hill," he said. "It always wins if you do. You have to work
WITH it, not against it."
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/456.html


11. Stretching is always in season:
Everywhere you turn, fitness professionals are proclaiming that flexibility is
just as important as cardiovascular and strength
training. As a recreational athlete, regular exerciser, and weight trainer, my
own body has begun to tell me that these people are
right on the money.
I'm not a professional athlete or even a competitive one (O.K., maybe I'm
competitive, but I'm not involved in any serious training
for competition or events). Between basketball, running, weightlifting, cycling,
football, and soccer, I'm working nearly every
muscle in my body (or so it seems). And I'm starting to have some pain and
tightness that I just don't like. It probably doesn't
help that I sit at a computer all day, researching and writing.
"Most Americans who exercise don't stretch," says Avery Faigenbaum, Ph.D.,
professor of exercise physiology at the University of
Massachusetts in Boston. Another truth about stretching habits is that many of
us who do stretch, don't stretch enough. This is
likely because we don't know exactly what stretches we should be doing, our time
for exercise is limited, and we have not yet
learned to appreciate the benefits of stretching as we have the benefits of
cardiovascular exercise.
"Many people see time spent stretching as unproductive," says Ronenn Roubenoff,
M.D., Chief of the Nutrition, Exercise Physiology,
and Sarcopenia Laboratory at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts
University in Boston. If burning calories or weight
loss is your goal, it's hard to take time to stretch when you could be running
and burning off some more calories. However, "the
time you lose from an injury that could have been prevented by stretching is
much greater," reminds Dr. Roubenoff.
More...from UWHealth at:
http://www.uwhealth.org/servlet/Satellite?cid=1058560105908&pagename=UWH%2FHI%2F\
HealthInformationDetail&articleID=1060879678039
[Multi-line URL]


12. The secret formula for feeding Olympians:
Philadelphia - When it comes to feeding the world's top athletes at the Summer
Olympics in Athens, almost everything comes
supersized.
There's a 3 900-square-metre kitchen, hundreds of tons of meat and produce,
millions of litres of bottled water and thousands of
voracious swimmers, runners, weightlifters and others who want tasty cuisine -
and lots of it - all the time.
"They'll normally double up and triple up their portions, so we're talking about
two or three pounds of food per meal, and three or
four meals per day, for each athlete," Michael R Crane, senior executive chef of
Aramark, said in a telephone interview from Athens.
The Philadelphia-based food service company estimates it will serve more than
two million meals to athletes, coaches and officials
in Athens for two months, including the 17 days of competition.
'They'll normally double up and triple up their portions'
The company has had to contend with construction delays, concerns over security
arrangements to stop terrorists and a blackout that
hit Athens on July 12, but Aramark officials said things will be running
smoothly by the time the games open August 13.
More...from IOL at:
http://iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=qw1091866322304B241


13. Athletes need carbs:
Editor's note: Reporter Laura Florez is preparing for an Aug. 22 swim from
Alcatraz to the mainland -- a 1.5 mile journey through
cold, shark-inhabited waters. All this month she'll keep Health & Fitness
readers up to date on her preparations ... and her fears.
Some people eat to live. My philosophy: exercise to eat.
There are a lot of us out there -- people who will grab an extra slice of
chocolate cake, then spend some quality time at the track
or on the treadmill trying to work it off.
It doesn't usually work the other way around, at least not for me.
When I started training to swim Alcatraz, I was pretty excited about what I
figured would be the added bonus -- the eating benefits.
With all of those extra laps in the pool, why shouldn't an extra slice of pizza
or two fall onto my plate and into my mouth?
But those who've conquered the Alcatraz swim failed to credit piping hot slices
of cheese pizza with helping them cross the finish
line. All they ever talk about are bagels, energy drinks and bars and lots of
water.
But is there anything wrong with a little pizza before or after a tough workout
in the pool?
Olympic Swimmer Michael Phelps eats something like 6,000 calories per meal to
fuel his workouts. In one sitting, he once downed an
order of French toast, three pancakes, an omelet, a bowl of grits and three
breakfast sandwiches.
His goal: sustain a high level of energy.
To do that for workouts, athletes need to bulk up on glycogen, said Alana Unger,
a registered dietitian at the Lifestyle Center, a
division of the Kaweah Delta Health Care District.
"Carbohydrates give your muscles glycogen," she said. "If your muscles don't
have glycogen, you don't have energy."
Bottom line: Kiss the low-carb craze goodbye
More...from the Advance-Register at:
http://www.tulareadvanceregister.com/news/stories/20040809/localnews/1012053.htm\
l


14. Armstrong's coach: Eliminating waste boosts performance:
Chris Carmichael has been Lance Armstrong's coach since 1990, guiding him to six
straight Tour de France titles. He wrote columns
for The Associated Press during the race.
A famous sculptor was once asked how he managed to create a beautiful woman from
a block of coarse stone, and he replied that the
woman was already in the stone and he just had to remove the debris from around
her.
The sculpting of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France fitness follows a similar
story.
Armstrong's reign at the top of the Tour de France podium began when George W.
Bush was still the governor of Texas, and the Y2K bug
was our biggest worry. In the summer of 1999, and in every summer since, Lance
arrived at the Tour better prepared than anyone else
and left three weeks later with the yellow jersey.
For six years, the goal has remained the same, but the methods for reaching it
have changed.
Progression is one of the principles of training. To provide the stimulus for
continued improvement, your training workload has to
progressively increase over time. At the elite level of professional sports,
however, you start to run out of hours in the day.
Increases in workload have to alternate with longer periods of quality recovery,
and eventually you reach a point when there's not
enough time in the week to complete the training and obtain the rest necessary
to do it well.
In the process of designing Lance's training for the Tour de France, I couldn't
just add hours or intensity to his schedule. We had
reached the limit of available training time before the 2003 Tour de France, and
he struggled to win the race that year. For 2004,
the potential to reach the necessary fitness level was within Armstrong; I just
had to remove the debris to allow his full power to
emerge.
More...from Yahoo at:
http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=ap-tour-armstrongcoach&prov=ap&type=lgns


15. Stretch toward healing:
As a way to treat illness, yoga's role in U.S. medicine is growing.
Meeting Eric Small, shaking his hand and looking into his eyes, one would never
know he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about
50 years ago. Photographs in his yoga studio show him in complex poses, the kind
that take years of study to perfect.
Small's almost lifelong dedication to yoga has given him the stamina, strength
and confidence, he says, to live medication-free. Now
in his early 70s, he has symptoms of relapsing-remitting MS, including loss of
vision, fatigue and occasional numbness. But he's
also able to sustain a daily two-hour practice in addition to teaching — most
notably others with MS, even some who must use
wheelchairs.
This yoga niche, called therapeutic yoga, is not limited to people with MS. Such
therapy incorporates poses (asanas), breathing
(pranayama) and meditation techniques to improve quality of life and manage
symptoms of various diseases, chronic conditions and
illnesses — including asthma, back pain, fibromyalgia, depression and cancer.
Although conventional exercise — walking, bicycling — is recommended for many
people with health problems, yoga goes a step further,
say its proponents. The mind-body connection that yoga can create serves to heal
the mind and spirit as well as the body, they say.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-yogatherapy9aug09,1,7926784.story?c\
oll=la-headlines-health


16. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
"Consuming gels and bars during the long runs speeds recovery. You need to keep
your glycogen stores continuously high if you want
to maintain training effectiveness."
-Joe Henderson

* Injury Prevention
Breathe Easier: Runners and other athletes who suffer from asthma can find
health information online, courtesy of the Asthma
Initiative of Michigan and the American Lung Association. Up-to-date asthmas
statistics, research, treatments, and more can be found
at www.getasthmahelp.org

* Performance Nutrition
To help you stay cool, eat your vegetables cold. Munch on them raw with a light
dip of plain yogurt mixed with fresh herbs. Or cook
beans, snap peas, bok choy, squash, and other veggies al dente (by steaming or
micro waving), and then chill them. Toss lightly with
vinegar and olive oil, and serve as a side dish, in a sandwich, or as a main
meal with chilled cooked chicken, beef, shrimp, or
tofu.

* Words That Inspire:
"Pain is temporary, pride is forever." -Anonymous

* Editor's Advice:
Don't rush! "If you cram a run into your schedule, you'll probably skip the
warmup and worry about finishing the run before the next
obligation. Schedule runs when you have a comfortable cushion of time." -Lindsay
Stehman, RW online intern

*Training Talk:
"Running, of course, teaches us to move on. There is always another day, another
workout, another mile, another race. But more
important, it teaches us to listen to ourselves and believe in ourselves." -From
The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life, by Amby
Burfoot



17. The Heat Is On:
Coping with the high temperatures in Athens
THAT HOARY joke about the weather -- everyone talks about it, nobody does
anything -- doesn't apply in Gordon Sleivert's case. As
director of sport science and medicine at the PacificSport national training
centre in Victoria, he's done plenty to help athletes
cope with what could be the hottest Olympic Games ever. As for talking about it,
well, only to a point. Many Canadian team members
left for Athens with elaborate vests Sleivert developed to mitigate the effects
of the heat, but he isn't about to tip the
competition to all of Canada's cool ideas.
In Athens in August, temperatures could hit a performance-sapping 40ˇ C. "We
don't need to use that as an excuse," says Sleivert, an
exercise physiologist and an expert on temperature and performance. "We can be
better prepared than many other countries." Sleivert
cites three key elements: acclimatizing to the heat in advance; developing
individualized "fluid and fuel" plans for athletes; and
"pre-cooling," dropping skin temperature before events. "If you're starting
cooler," he says, "you have more room to heat up before
the body starts to run into trouble." Even the swim team is vulnerable. In the
organizers' rush to ready the Games, there was no
time to put a roof on the aquatic centre, leaving swimmers to bake at poolside.
To prepare, the team trained in the Australian
summer, in Spain and Italy this spring, and on a Greek island for the final 10
days before the Games.
More...from MacLean's at:
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/sports/article.jsp?content=20040816_86152_8615\
2


18. How to eat like an Olympian:
Athletes at all competitive levels can improve their results by getting the
right foods in the right amounts
When Olympic athletes are going for gold, everything they eat counts. Calories,
carbohydrate, protein, fat and fluids are precisely
measured and timed to give athletes a competitive edge.
Researchers have clearly documented that what an athlete eats and drinks affects
body composition, fuel availability during
exercise, and recovery time.
You don't have to be an elite or Olympic athlete to reap the beneficial effect
of nutrition on exercise performance. Whether you're
a recreational athlete or a competitive marathoner, eating the right foods in
the right amounts can optimize your performance.
If you're serious about exercise, you're probably no stranger to protein.
Protein-rich foods, protein bars and protein shakes are
often recommended by trainers to help bulk up and recover from exercise.
More...from the Globe and Mail at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040811/HBECK11/\
TPHealth/


19. Why Joggers Labor and Olympians Fly:
The marathon at the Olympics in Athens this month is fearsome, so grueling that
even an elite athlete is liable to feel at least a
moment of trepidation. The 26-mile, 385-yard course includes, among other
body-bashing stretches, a 13-mile hill so steep it has
been described as the equivalent of running up a five-story building every mile.
Your everyday, normal sort of runner, like me, will be breathless just watching.
But many of the Olympic runners will make it look
easy.
I can run up that mountain only in my dreams, no matter how hard I work. The
difference between me and them is so great that I find
myself consumed with curiosity over exactly how much of running fast and far is
innate, and how much can be attributed to training,
motivation and technique.
I wonder how those remarkable athletes got to be who they are. And I wonder what
they know, and what, if anything, people like me
can learn to be more accomplished.
I have learned a thing or two close to home. I watched as my son took off like a
gazelle when he was in middle school, uncoached and
untrained, and went on to be a high school track and cross country star, and
then to run on the varsity teams at a Division I
university. He gave me tips - relax your upper body, run on your mid-foot, raise
your knees - and they helped. But I always knew
that there was a fundamental difference between him and me when it came to
running far and fast. We still run together, but all that
means is that we start out at the same place and end up at the same place. In
between, he loses me.
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/10/health/nutrition/10runn.html


20. Finding the right level by Dr Lindsay Weight:
In trying to figure why some athletes in there 40s are still performing at world
class level, I am left with more questions than
answers. As I see it, there are two contradictory processes going on: one is the
inevitability of ageing that is well quantified
through numerous scientific studies. And on the other hand is the evidence, from
anecdotal race results to statistical analysis of
large numbers of runners, that shows that the decline in performance is not
perhaps as dramatic as would be assumed from the lab
studies. Then there is a third element to the puzzle, which is why only some
people remain capable of performing at a high level,
many muddle along and slowly get worse and another group deteriorate at a much
greater rate than would be predicted by age alone.
I think it comes down, like everything else in sport, to inherent ability and
mental attitude. Unlike the elite 20 year old whose
perfect physique, optimal biochemistry and youth provide a low cost advantage,
the older elite athlete has to work hard to maintain
those benefits. They also have to hope that the good genes they inherited also
include those for longevity, or at least some
protective effect against biological ageing. And they have to be non-fanatical
people who, right from the start of their careers
have trained sensibly and rested after long races in order to recover enough to
carry on doing the same for years and years.
More...from SuperAthletics at:
http://www.superathletics.co.za/default.asp?id=3131&des=sportstalk


21. Eating Well - It's Better to Be Whole Than Refined:
In just a couple of years, low-carbohydrate diets have accomplished what the
government has failed to do in decades of trying:
convince the public that refined grains are bad actors and whole grains are
good.
"Low-carb diets have steered people toward whole grains," said Bonnie Liebman,
the director of nutrition for the Washington-based
Center for Science in the Public Interest, "and made millions of people cut back
on things made with white flour, like white bread,
hamburger buns, megamuffins, 400-calorie bagels, pizza crusts, cakes, cookies,
doughnuts and other sweets, even pasta and white
rice.
"If you were asked to compare the impact of the South Beach diet with dietary
guidelines, there would be no contest."
Now if only consumers could distinguish between grains that are refined and
grains that are whole. Just because bread is brown and
has specks of something in it, does not mean it is whole grain.
Whole grains (and foods made from them) consist of the entire grain seed,
usually referred to as the kernel. The kernel is made of
three components: the bran, the germ and the endosperm.
More...form the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/dining/11WELL.html


22. Marathon runners vying for the Olympics vary greatly in training:
Indiana University survey probes training characteristics
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A survey of athletes training for the U.S. Olympic Marathon
Trials found little consensus about the best way to
train, and as many as 46 percent of the men and 29 percent of the women trained
alone and without a coach. The survey was conducted
by kinesiologists in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at
Indiana University Bloomington.
IU doctoral student Jason Karp and Professor Joel Stager also found that 62
percent of the men and 57 percent of the women who
qualified for the trials last spring had full-time jobs while they trained.
This month during the Olympic Games in Athens, three men and three women will
compete for the United States in the marathon, a
26.2-mile race created for the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 as a
commemoration of the legendary run by the Greek
messenger Phidippides after the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.
The marathon has been one of the weaker Olympic sports for U.S. athletes for the
past several decades, despite around 300 marathons
held in the United States each year and a large population base from which to
draw. "We have a large national population and around
300,000 people running marathons each year, but we still don't fare well," Karp
said. "If it's not the size of the population or a
participation issue, then it's the training."
Thirty-seven men and 56 women answered survey questions about physical
characteristics such as age, height and weight, and also
about training history, such as use of a coach, years in training and use of
altitude. The survey also included questions about high
school and college performances, and it asked about detailed training
characteristics such as average and peak weekly mileage,
weekly distance at specific intensities, and frequency of training. All
training-related questions referred to the entire year
preceding the U.S. Olympic Trials held last February and April.
More...from Indiana University at:
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/1602.html


23. Climbing the ladder of fitness:
As we get into the "meat of the season" in the summer, most of us are well on
our way up the ladder of fitness. Climbing a ladder is
not easy. It requires caution and effort -- and sometimes gets a bit scary.
Start from a firm foundation
To safely use a ladder, you must place it on a firm foundation, having built a
solid aerobic base earlier in the winter. If you did
not plant your ladder on firm ground, you won't climb very high, at least not
without risking injury. If you're halfway up and
realize the base is a bit shaky, better go back down and reset it before heading
for the top.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11133&sidebar=26&category=triathlon


24. Are carbs no longer 'good choices'?
Good choice!"
Or in certain extraordinary culinary circumstances: "Excellent!"
So bespoke waiters in trendy restaurants when my wife and I dined out on
weekends. "Good choice" usually echoed my selection from
the menu of fettuccini with a fresh basil sauce.
"Excellent" came in response to my adding a Shiraz wine from Australia's Yarra
Valley that contained empty calories, but who was
counting?
Were these paeans of praise sincere, or only to produce tips above the customary
15 percent? Were they true acknowledgments of my
mastery of menus or crudely calculated by the management to insure our return?
Perhaps some judgment was involved, because it seems months since a server
praised my choice of any carb-dominated meal. Lips curl.
Eyes roll. Tip be damned. Nothing I eat lately elicits praise in this era where
the ghost of Dr. Atkins haunts our culinary choices.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11132&sidebar=13&category=running


25. News Scan:
* Late-Night Exercise Does Not Disturb Sleep (Dr.Mirkin's E-zine)
Many fitness instructors give bad advice when they tell you not to exercise
within three hours before going to sleep. Several
studies show that exercising vigorously before going to bed does not interfere
with sleep. One study from the University of
California at San Diego showed that three hours of vigorous pedaling at 70
percent of maximum oxygen uptake in very bright lights
did not stop fit men from falling or staying asleep. The old argument was that
vigorous exercise causes your body to produce large
amounts of its own stimulants, adrenalin and nor adrenalin, that make your heart
beat rapidly, raise body temperature and prevent
you from feeling tired. Newer studies show that doesn't happen. We also know
that exercise helps to prevent disease, prolong life
and make you feel good. So it is better to exercise whenever it's convenient for
you, even if it's just before you go to bed.

*Dear Dr. Mirkin: I'm shopping for a treadmill. How important is the feature
that lets you adjust the slope? (Dr.Mirkin's E-zine)
Good treadmills have a lever that raises the front end to simulate running up
hills, because running on level ground does not do
much to strengthen your upper leg muscles. Running strengthens primarily your
lower leg muscles. You stress your upper leg muscles
significantly only when you run up hills. Each one percent increase in the
elevation angle on your treadmill requires four percent
more energy.
Serious runners train by running intervals. They run a short distance very
fast, rest and then run very fast again. A typical
workout could be to run four half-mile repeats, averaging two minutes each, with
a slow one-eighth mile jog between each run. If you
run a half mile on level ground in three minutes, you will run three minutes and
eight seconds on a one percent incline, or eight
seconds slower. Runners can expect slower times when they run up hills, but
they will strengthen their upper legs.

* The Road to Victory
Elite athletes have a new performance enhancer, and it's not a designer steroid
- it's a mechanized running track. The
20-feet-in-diameter portable structure slopes up to 60 degrees. To stay on the
incline, a runner must move fast enough to create
centrifugal force, which at full tilt effectively doubles the athlete's weight.
This strengthens the body in much the same way as
training with a parachute or tow weights would, but better targets the muscles
used for running. Track star Ashraf Saber (shown),
who holds the 400-meter record in Italy, says the contraption has helped him
prepare for this summer's Olympics. The top-ranked
Italian men's soccer team also incorporates it into its workouts. Scientists at
the University of Rome did an analysis of the
track's benefits. The verdict? It works.
- Joshua Davis, from Wired.com

* Health Tip: Fighting Athlete's Foot
(HealthDayNews) -- You don't have to be preparing for a triathlon to get
athlete's foot. The skin disease is caused by a fungus that
commonly attacks the feet, because shoes create a warm, dark and humid
environment that fungus thrives in.
The American Podiatric Medical Association offers these suggestions to help
prevent the condition:
Wash your feet daily with soap and water and dry carefully, especially between
the toes.
Change your shoes and socks regularly to decrease moisture.
Use a foot powder daily.
In a public shower, avoid walking barefoot; use shower shoes.
Wear light and airy shoes.
If an apparent fungus condition does not respond to proper foot hygiene and self
care, and there is no improvement within two weeks,
consult a podiatrist.

* Medical Advice - Preventing Ilio-tibial band injury
I believe that this very common injury is produced most often by continuing to
run when the leg muscles are too tired to allow you
to go through the normal motion of the legs.
1. If you have struggled at the end of long runs, or experienced a slowdown at
the end, take walk breaks more often: if you have
been doing 5-1, drop to 3-1, for example.
2. Slow down your long run training pace from the beginning: if you have been
running at 12 min pace, and struggling, slow down to
13 or 14 min pace from the beginning.
3. If the I-T band on the outside of the leg (especially outside of the knee)
tightens up, stretch this outside leg area before,
during and after long runs, or whenever it tightens up.
4. Avoid over striding at the end of tiring runs—just shuffle with baby steps
5. Don’t push through pain! If any area hurts, stop and treat the injury.
From JeffGalloway.com


Ongoing Events:

August 13-29, 2004:
2004 Olympics - Athens, Greece
http://www.athens.olympic.org/athens2004/page/home?lang=en
Runner's Web Olympic Links:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/olympics.html
Check TV Coverage Links Below


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


August 14, 2004:
Paavo Nurmi Marathon - Hurley, WI
http://www.hurleywi.com/what_to_do/pg-marathon.asp

August 15, 2004:
AFC Half-Marathon - San Diego, CA
http://www.afchalf.com

August 21-22, 2004:
Canadian National Triathlon Championships - Kelowna, BC
http://www.appletriathlon.com

August 22, 2004:
Brockville Downtown 5K - Brockville, ON
http://www.somersault.ca/3aug22.html

Gatorade Half-Ironman UK - Sherborne Castle, Dorset
http://www.ironmanuk.com

Thousand Island Triathlon & Duathlon - Brockville, ON
http://www.somersault.ca/2aug22.html

August 26, 2004:
Television:
Television - NBC 4 AM EDT
Olympic Men's Triathlon LIVE

August 28, 2004:
Crim Festival of Races - Flint, MI
http://www.crim.org


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 FrontPage and our Runner's Web Television Links page at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_television.html

Also visit Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/special/04olyguide.htm,

NBCOlympics.com at:
http://nbcolympics.zap2it.com/grid.jsp?state=0&from=1092232800000&stations=11705\
_16300_10139_11207_10057_10239_20459_&zone=-5_1&genr
e=
[Multi-line URL]

Runner's World at:
http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/daily_news/0,,s6-0-0-0-0,00.html#vcr

the BBC at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics_2004/3919855.stm

and the Fresno Bee at:
http://www.fresnobee.com/24hour/olympics/story/1548077p-9101959c.html

For Triathlon Coverage check out The Sports Network at:
http://www2.sportsnet.ca/tvschedule/tvsked_sport.php?region=ONTARIO&schedule_id=\
25


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