Runner's Web Digest - August 20, 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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Runner's Web Book Store in the USA.

This issue is brought to you by Road Runner Sports, the world's largest running
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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:
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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
Multisport: Maintaining Momentum in the 2nd Half of the Season by Lance Watson,
is available at: http://www.runnersweb.com/runing/cts_columns.html.


We have ONE 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. 25 Dynamic Rules for distance running
2. Is a workout in a pill possible?
Drug may simulate effects of exercise
3. Running dry
A desert oven like the Grand Canyon can quickly turn hikers and runners into
'heat zombies.' Hydration mistakes can kill.
4. Exercise -- the Real Fountain of Youth
5. New vitamins tailored to genetic blueprints
6. Exercise Spurts May Improve Blood Fats
7. Fuelling sport's two different engines
8. Stress Response and Running Performance
9. 1 in 4 U.S. Adults Could Develop Irregular Heartbeat
10. Dieting's next generation might be very long-lived
11. Low-carb is a no-go for athletes
To fuel them for victory, many top jocks eat plenty of pasta and potatoes.
12. Stumbling athletes can blame their brains
13. Vitamin E Wards Off Colds in Elderly, Study Says
14. Neuromuscular versus aerobic fatigue
15. From Runner's World
16. Good Old New Balance
Joe Henderson's Running Commentary
17. Cycling: Warm-ups can make or break your racing
18. The Value of Strength Training in the Off-Season
19. Nutrition: Minimizing muscle damage during training
20. An Aspirin a Day -- Good Medicine For Many
21. Going the Distance -- Two Times Over
22. Tired muscles? Don't blame lactate
23. Low-carb invades supplements market
24. Cycling: Going uphill fast with power
25. News Scan



Runner's Web Weekly Poll:
This week's poll is: "Which sport(s) should be dropped from the Olympics?"

Cast your vote at: http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
Post your views in our Forum at:
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The previous poll was: "Should countries use the IOC standards for athlete
selection for the Olympics or create their own tougher
criteria?"
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
IOC standards 40 58%
2. Create their own 27 39%
3. No opinion, don't care 2 3%
Total Votes: 69

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Five Star Site of the Week: JulieDibens.com.
"I am a professional British triathlete living and training in Bath. Born and
raised in Salisbury, I went to University in the U.S.
at Louisiana State University where I competed on the swim team.
This site is designed to keep you updated on my triathlon training and races.
You can also take a look at my sponsors, coaches, race
photos, and find a lot of great triathlon links here. I hope you enjoy!"
Check out Julie's site at:
http://www.juliedibens.com/


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

Book of the Week: Running Injury-Free : How to Prevent, Treat and Recover from
Dozens of Painful Problems
by Joe Ellis, Joe Henderson
Thousands begin running programs as a means to fitness, but many abandon them,
not because of lack of discipline but because of
injury. Ellis, a podiatrist, and Henderson, an editor at Runner's World
magazine, first describe symptoms to help identify a running
injury before it happens and then offer preventative measures and cures.
Whenever possible, they suggest home remedies, which range
from rest to stretching to mass-produced inserts for shoes. But they also
caution readers to consult a professional if at all in
doubt. The importance of the ankles and feet is stressed, since a large
percentage of injuries and discomfort can be traced to worn,
cheap, or improperly fitted shoes. The authors also caution against overtraining
and advocate that if an injury does occur, the
runner should consider making an adjustment in mileage, frequency, or prerun
stretching routines. A very useful, well-organized
guide for runners at all fitness levels, from marathoners to chubby morning
joggers.
Buy the book at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0875962211/runnersweb/102-5869040-2532103\
?v=glance&s=books
[Long URL]

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. 25 Dynamic Rules for distance running:
To the person who has had no exposure to serious competitive distance running,
the sport may appear very simple-nothing more than
putting one foot in front of the other for an extended period of time.
To the committed competitor, however, running is a complex activity involving a
myriad of dynamic and interrelated mental, physical,
emotional and spiritual challenges.
After more than 25 years of coaching I have categorised the responses they evoke
into what I call the 25 Dynamic Ds. These create a
path to success that I believe every runner must follow, in some manner, in
order to reach his or her potential in the sport.
1. Desire
It should go without saying that you must want to be a distance runner if you
are going to succeed. A child who is pushed into it by
his parents, no matter how physically gifted, will probably not go far if there
is no desire to do well. The fitness jogger will not
achieve competitive success if he/she has no interest in pushing beyond basic
conditioning.
More...from World of Endurance at:
http://worldofendurance.com/runnersguide/beginners_column.asp?a_id=1132470&st_na\
me=BackToBasics


2. Is a workout in a pill possible?
Drug may simulate effects of exercise.
Ever wished you could wash down that pizza, cheesecake and beer with a magic
pill to make it all vanish from your waistline?
The prospect may be only a few years away, say Australian scientists doing
research on a drug to simulate the effect of exercise, a
move sure to excite couch potatoes the world over.
“I’ve loosely called it the vanity drug,” said Bruce Kemp, senior research
fellow at St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research in
Melbourne.
“A lot of pharmaceutical companies are now working on this very actively,” he
said.
St. Vincent’s and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization have identified and unlocked the structure of an
enzyme -- a protein that kicks off chemical reactions -- that turns off the
synthesis of fat and cholesterol.
‘You have to do some work. There are no miracles.’
“This enzyme is activated during exercise and it accelerates your metabolism to
make up for the energy deficit in your muscle that’s
been created by exercise,” Kemp said.
More...from MSNBC at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5451436/


3. Running dry:
A desert oven like the Grand Canyon can quickly turn hikers and runners into
'heat zombies.' Hydration mistakes can kill.
It's nearly noon, and the morning's hikers scramble out of the baking inner
canyon, wheezing and dripping. In a room a few hundred
yards from the South Rim, supervising ranger Marc Yeston touches a green pen to
a wall map and traces a long, wriggling path. Then
he makes a triangle.
Here, he says, is the spot where they found Margaret Bradley, a 24-year-old
University of Chicago medical student and marathoner.
Just three months before, the 115-pound Bradley had finished the Boston Marathon
in a few ticks over three hours, a solid
performance in temperatures well over 80.
"I focused on keeping myself hydrated," she told the magazine Chicago Athlete
afterward, "and not letting the adrenaline from the
crowd make me do something stupid."
But last month, when she and a companion decided to try a 27-mile trail run in a
single day, that caution was missing. A cascading
series of miscalculations, say rangers, turned this scholar-athlete into the
Grand Canyon's first dehydration fatality in four
years.
Telling her story, rangers look to their feet, grope for words, trail off in
midsentence. She was younger than most of them, and
probably fitter. And now all that was left was an excruciating lesson in
miscommunication and biochemistry.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/outdoors/la-os-canyondeath17aug17.story


4. Exercise -- the Real Fountain of Youth:
SUNDAY, Aug. 15 (HealthDayNews) -- Want to age gracefully? Keep moving.
Regular exercise can reduce the risk of chronic disease -- such as heart
trouble, diabetes, even cancer -- and keep you feeling and
looking younger as you age.
While the message is clear, it's not getting through to the majority of older
Americans. Only 11 percent of people aged 65 or older
responding to a government survey earlier this year said they engaged in
strength training two or more days each week, the
recommended level to improve overall health and fitness.
And only about 6 percent of the respondents met the national objectives for
engaging in both physical activity and strength
training, according to the survey, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
But minimal efforts at getting more physical activity offer big payoffs, experts
say.
"Many of the chronic health conditions we experience as we age come from disuse
rather than aging, and exercise can retard the onset
of many of those conditions," says Colin Milner, head of the International
Council on Active Aging, a trade association of more than
3,500 organizations that specializes in senior fitness.
Need proof? Consider this: Starting at age 50, people begin to lose 12 percent
of their muscle strength and 6 percent of their
muscle mass every decade. But weight training can reverse these effects in a big
way. Two to three months of weight training three
times a week can increase muscle strength and mass by one-third, making up for
three decades of loss of muscle strength and muscle
mass, said University of Maryland kinesiologist Ben Hurley.
And it's never too late to start, said Julie McNeney, vice president of
education for the International Council on Active Aging.
More... from Forbes at:
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/08/15/hscout520047.html


5. New vitamins tailored to genetic blueprints:
Personalised vitamin pills could be the next dietary accessory for New
Zealanders - but a "desperate" shortage of geneticists may
make it impossible to find out who would benefit from them.
Nutrilite, the world's biggest producer of nutritional supplements, is
developing new vitamin pills that will be tailored to each
individual's genetic makeup.
The company's research head, Dr Sam Rehnborg, says the first products, to reduce
inflammation in people with a genetic risk of heart
attacks, will be on the market in the United States next year and in New Zealand
two or three years later.
But Auckland's Northern Regional Genetic Service, which carries out genetic
tests, has still not been able to replace its former
clinical director Dr Ingrid Winship, who moved to Melbourne last year.
"We are desperately trying to replace her," said the service's manager, Julie
Arnold. "But there is a complete worldwide shortage of
geneticists. We only have one clinical geneticist, Dr Komudi Siriwardena."
More...from the New Zealand Herald at:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3584416&thesection=news&thesu\
bsection=general


6. Exercise Spurts May Improve Blood Fats:
Short bursts of exercise may help reduce the potentially dangerous spikes in
blood fats that occur after fatty meals.
The findings of a new study highlight a way for people who are too pressed for
time for a full workout to squeeze in heart-healthy
exercise, researchers say.
"Multiple sessions of 10-minute exercise bouts, if repeated throughout a day,
accumulate uniquely to lower fats in the blood
compared to no exercise or a single long bout of equal duration, intensity and
caloric expenditure," Dr. Thomas S. Altena of
Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield told Reuters Health.
"Because many people claim lack of time as a reason that prevents participation
in a regular exercise program, our results indicate
that cardiovascular disease can be prevented through accumulated short bouts
that burn approximately 250 calories," Altena said.
Altena noted that short bouts of exercise are easy for most people to do. But it
is important to get a total of at least 30 minutes
of exercise each day, he said.
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=HSPRRQ5OBOPUECRBAE0CFFA?type\
=healthNews&storyID=5987714
[Long URL]


7. Fuelling sport's two different engines:
An endurance athlete and a sprinter are two incredibly different sporting
animals.
Their nutritional requirements for a big race and recovery are explained by EIS
Sports Dietician Karen Reid.
Loading up on fuel before any event is vital for success.
And this will cover everything from carbohydrates, to fat, protein and fluids.
CARBOHYDRATES
This is the body's most important source of fuel and endurance runners need lots
of them.
Two to three days before a race they'll eat pasta, rice, potatoes, noodles,
bread, cereals, to build up their reserves.
Sprinters need some carbs, but won't overload because they won't feel the
benefit running over a short distance.
More...from the BBC at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/athletics/features/newsid_3526000/35260\
24.stm


8. Stress Response and Running Performance:
Note: This article was originally published in the September/October 2001 Issue
of Fitness Runner.
Stress, in relation to health, is any stimulus that affects the body’s normal
set point. This set point is called homeostasis and is
the process of maintaining a constant internal environment through a complex
integration of biochemical processes. Thanks to
endocrinologist Hans Seyle, we know that our bodies tackle stress with one
general response (1).
When encountering a new or changed stressor (lack of sleep or a new exercise)
our bodies experience a form of shock. During this
time the body reacts with a predictable chain of events (I.e., soreness,
fatigue) that attempts to stimulate rest and rejuvenation
based actions.
If the new stress is removed, we are able to adapt to the stressor through
regeneration resulting in supercompensation. In training
super compensation is often called the training affect. An example of this
phenomenon could be the recovery from muscle soreness
felt after a long run. You rest for a few days, the soreness disappears and you
try a long run again. This time you don’t become
sore – your body used the rest time to “supercompensate” by improving the
metabolic, and biomechanical pathways required for running
long. If the new stress is not removed allowing supercompensation, then a
process called maladaption occurs. In life maladaption may
be the gradual clogging of coronary arteries in response to a diet high in
refined grains and a high psychological stress lifestyle,
or it may be what athletes know as the overtraining syndrome.
If the symptoms of maladaption (fatigue, frequent colds/infections, frequent or
chronic injury, high blood lipids, high levels of
the biochemical markers of inflammation, poor glucose tolerance, high blood
pressure, etc.) are not noted, and fixed, they
ultimately lead to tremendous injury (I.e. Destroyed cartilage in the joint of a
over achieving runner) or eventually to death.
More...from Transition Times at:
http://www.transitiontimes.com/viewstory.cfm?ID=5514


9. 1 in 4 U.S. Adults Could Develop Irregular Heartbeat:
One in four Americans over 40 are at risk for developing the irregular heartbeat
called atrial fibrillation, a major cause of
stroke, and many of them are unaware of it, a new study finds.
Data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has followed thousands of residents
of a Massachusetts community for decades, show that,
the average lifetime risk after age 40 was 26 percent for men and 23 percent for
women.
The findings appear in the Aug. 17 issue of the journal Circulation.
The atria are the two upper chambers of the heart that pump blood throughout the
body. Fibrillation means the atria quiver instead
of beating effectively. Blood isn't pumped completely out of them, so it may
pool and lead to clots.
"When the upper chambers start fibrillating, they are not pumping effectively,
and blood can pool in them, so that clots can form,"
said Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, the lead author of the report and an assistant
professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the
Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. "Those clots
can go into arteries of the brain and cause strokes."
More...from Forbes at:
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/08/16/hscout520671.html



10. Dieting's next generation might be very long-lived:
So strong is the lure of immortality that hundreds of Americans are nearly
starving themselves in the hope of gaining a few extra
healthy decades. Although there is no proof that cutting calories 40 percent
will extend life for humans, the lack of certitude
hasn't stopped people from experimenting on themselves.
About 2,000 enthusiasts are members of the Calorie Restriction Society, a group
based in California that promotes the Spartan diet
as offering immediate health benefits and supports those who try it. Its
president, Brian Delaney of Stockholm, estimates that about
200 to 300 members have cut their consumption by at least 30 percent while
others are restricting food to a lesser degree.
More...from IHT at:
http://www.iht.com/articles/534207.html


11. Low-carb is a no-go for athletes:
To fuel them for victory, many top jocks eat plenty of pasta and potatoes.
As triumphant Olympic medalists wave from the victory podium, you may imagine
the years of training and sacrifice, of singular focus
and determination, of selfless family support.
But let's not forget the food: the true stuff of legends.
Behind every Michael Phelps and Marion Jones, there's a long history of
energy-rich meals that help the world's fastest and
strongest to be so fleet and so powerful.
Although every world-class athlete follows an individualized diet,
carbohydrate-rich foods such as pasta and potatoes pave the road
to world records, many sports nutritionists and trainers say. The protein and
fats so crucial to popular weight-loss diets including
Atkins and South Beach play much lesser roles in endurance athletics.
More...from Oregon Live at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/living/1092398169126\
70.xml


12. Stumbling athletes can blame their brains:
Exercise-induced fatigue alters athletes' perception of where their limbs are
(Image: iStockphoto)
Marathon runners stumbling across the finishing line at the Athens Olympics will
be experiencing a mental process similar to
astronauts coping with weightlessness in space, new research reveals.
The small Australian study into exercise-induced fatigue shows for the first
time how the brain's ability to judge the position of
limbs is distorted when muscles are fatigued.
Professor Uwe Proske of Melbourne's Monash University published his team's
research in the July issue of the Journal of Physiology.
Before this research, scientists believed athletes' "clumsiness" after a
strenuous performance was caused by damage to sense organs
in the muscles.
"Initially we thought that the damage within the fatigued muscles themselves
causes the clumsiness," Proske said.
More...from ABC at:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1178352.htm


13. Vitamin E Wards Off Colds in Elderly, Study Says:
Vitamin E supplements ward off colds in the elderly and may help some seniors
avoid upper respiratory tract infections that can
prove deadly, researchers said on Tuesday.
In the study of 617 nursing home patients aged 65 or older, those who swallowed
a vitamin E supplement daily had significantly fewer
common colds and had a 20 percent overall lower risk of acquiring a cold,
compared to participants given a harmless placebo.
More patients taking the vitamin avoided upper respiratory tract infections than
in the placebo group during the one-year study
period. However, the vitamin did not reduce lower respiratory tract infections.
Respiratory illnesses in the elderly can be debilitating and lead to
complications and death, study author Simin Meydani of Tufts
University in Boston wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5999386



14. Neuromuscular versus aerobic fatigue:
by Dan Empfield 8.9.02
(www.slowtwitch.com)
Most power measuring devices that mount on bicycles feature both a power meter
and a heart rate monitor. This is very useful
information, but it can also lead one to false conclusions.
It would be easy to adopt the view that the power meter on, say, a Computrainer,
Power-tap, SRM or Polar S710 with power option
measures the work you do, and the heart rate monitor measures the “cost” of that
work. If this was the end of it, you could conduct
your own personal scientific studies. I have. I’ve raised and lowered my seat,
placed the seat fore and aft, raised and lowered my
handlebars, thus altering my frontal profile. Know what I found? Almost none of
these changes altered my heart rate to a point where
I could say with any certainty that there was an aerobic cost or benefit to a
particular change in rider position.
The easy conclusion—to which many have jumped, including (a few) scientists in
their published studies and tech writers in their
published columns—is that there is no real cost associated with varying one's
seat angle, cadence, crank length, and so on. Where
this view goes awry, in my opinion, is in the assumption that one’s heart
rate—or even more precise measures like oxygen consumption
and blood lactate—are the only arbiters of fatigue. This just isn’t so.
More...from SlowTwitch at:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/coachcorn/neuro.html


15. From Runner's World:
* Coaches Corner
"Strike a Balance: Alternate between a comfortable, relaxed pace for distance
runs. Try running at least 1 minute per mile faster
once or twice a week. The occasional hard efforts will improve your fitness and
make your runs feel easier."
-Joe Henderson

* Injury Prevention
A Shoe Thing: "Don't let your shoes get worn down. Beat up shoes increase
injury. Alternate between two pairs of shoes and buy new
ones every 500 miles." -Jeff Galloway

* Performance Nutrition
Stock up on Bs. Three essential B vitamins--folate, B6, and B12--may help your
body recycle the blood chemical homocysteine,
preventing it from damaging artery walls. Most people consume only half as much
folate as they need. And after age 50, your body
doesn't absorb B12 as efficiently. To consume enough of all of these vitamins,
make fortified breakfast cereal a daily staple.

* Editor's Advice
"Vacations and business trips are excellent occasions for finding new and scenic
running routes. Call ahead to locate the best areas
for running. Keep a bag with running gear in your car in case you want to stop
for a workout whenever you come upon a scenic running
spot." -Ian Brown, RW assistant art director



16. Good Old New Balance:
Joe Henderson's Running Commentary
We runners have a special bond with our shoes. This comes from spending so much
time and effort together.
Recently I read about a runner from Omaha named Gary Julin. He owns an almost
20-year-old Jeep and takes pride in putting fewer
miles on it (55,000 miles) than on himself (almost 59,000, in an extra 10
years).
"A couple times the odometer caught up with me," says the 57-year-old Julin in
an Omaha World Herald interview. "So I parked it and
didn't drive it until I got back ahead."
Running shoes wear away much faster than tires. Julin's Jeep has gone through
two, maybe three, sets of rubber in its lifetime.
The runner has worn through that many pairs of shoes each year. That's the rub.
These old friends don't last long.
The more you run in them, the shorter their life. Then comes the disturbing
prospect of replacement.
Buy the exact same model again? You might do that once or twice. But as surely
as shoes wear out within 500 miles, your favorite
shoe will Either go off the market or undergo improvements-that-often-aren't by
the next model year.
Then comes that jarring time of giving up a proven shoe for an untested one.
Recently I passed through this dreaded switch.
More... From Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/457.html


17. Cycling: Warm-ups can make or break your racing:
Cyclists train hard, go to bed early and get up even earlier on weekends and
weekdays alike. We even sacrifice our social lives in
order to achieve levels of fitness we never thought possible.
We train relentlessly, even in the off-season, foregoing many of the pleasures
our more "sane" friends enjoy. We go to great lengths
to enjoy our personal obsession with our sport, and yet after all of that work,
when we start to achieve a peak of fitness just in
the nick of time, we often start to forgo many of the simple things that got us
here to begin with.
Warm-ups are often the first to go, and unfortunately for those who do not know
any better, warming up can make or break your
performance in an event.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11134&sidebar=21&category=cycling


18. The Value of Strength Training in the Off-Season:
We’ve all heard it before: strength training in the off-season will make you a
better cyclist. Well I don’t know about better, but
it will definitely make you stronger. Strength training is beneficial for more
than just having strong quads to be able to have a
big sprint finish or being able to climb better. Strength training is also very
beneficial to promote thicker and stronger bones, a
higher metabolism, and better overall functional strength. Off-season strength
training can be explosive if a cyclist is looking for
more power (as in sprinting), or it can be gradual and a little slower for more
endurance (as in climbing). But no matter what the
goal may be, it’s definitely essential.
So now the question may be, “How do I go about doing this?” Well the off-season
is long, but not that long. And strength training
for stronger cycling is different from strength training for (let’s say)
bodybuilding. The periodization is very similar, but the
exercises and weight values are very different. I personally don’t now of too
many competitive cyclists that squat 450lbs. In order
to become a stronger cyclist, one would need to train specifically with
exercises that are functional to cycling. Bench press is
good, but trying to max-out with three times the body weight isn’t going to help
a cyclist climb better. As a coach, I recommend
longer sets of higher repetitions as opposed to super heavy sets at low
repetition. Use of a Swiss ball for abdominal, lower back,
and leg training is highly valued, as well as use of tubing with handles and
bands for more resistance. I recommend doing strength
training at least two to three times per week, but no more. You’ll need time for
cross training and cycling as well.
More...from Transition Times at:
http://www.transitiontimes.com/viewstory.cfm?ID=5460


19. Nutrition: Minimizing muscle damage during training:
As you fight for survival on your last interval or final mile of long training
bout, you may wonder if your body will ever fully
recover from the beating of the workout.
Muscular fatigue and soreness are inevitable after intense workouts -- thus the
emphasized importance on recovery days by coaches.
Cutting-edge scientific research also has shown that use of certain nutritional
strategies during training can minimize muscle
damage and aid quick muscle recovery, ultimately helping to rejuvenate your
muscles for peak performance at your next workout.
Here's the latest scoop ...
While it would be nice if we all had an unlimited supply of glycogen to rely on
during prolonged training bouts, the truth is that
well-nourished athletes only have the capacity to store 1,500 - 2,000 calories
of glycogen, which is enough to support approximately
2 - 3 hours of training.
Therefore the goal is to spare muscle glycogen and protein while soaking up the
ever-so-abundant supply of energy available from fat
(~100,000 calories). Training does enhance our body's ability to utilize fat as
a fuel; yet nutrition becomes of paramount
importance during runs extending beyond 25 kilometers or workouts lasting
greater than 2 hours.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11175&sidebar=17&category=activeusahome\
page


20. An Aspirin a Day -- Good Medicine For Many:
Most people have heard that taking a small dose of aspirin a day is good for the
heart.
Doctors routinely recommend it for patients who've had a heart attack or stroke,
and studies show its blood-thinning affects can
help prevent a repeat of such potentially deadly cardiovascular events.
The drug may also help people with a family history of heart disease or
individuals at high risk of heart attack or stroke, such as
smokers or those with high blood pressure or high cholesterol, doctors say.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force agrees. There's good evidence that
aspirin decreases the incidence of coronary heart disease
in high-risk adults, it concluded in a statement issued in January 2002.
It's estimated that more than 26 million Americans are taking aspirin for their
hearts. Yet many good candidates for aspirin
therapy -- people with a 10 percent or greater risk of having a heart attack in
10 years -- aren't getting the message.
"Those are the same patients that are probably not getting their other risk
factors taken care of," said Dr. Arlene Brown, a family
physician in Ruidoso, N.M., and a member of the American Academy of Family
Physicians' board of directors.
More...from Yahoo at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=97&e=1&u=/hsn/20040818/hl_hsn/an\
aspirinadaygoodmedicineformany
[Long URL]


21. Going the Distance -- Two Times Over:
Dan Browne, 29, will run both the 10,000m and the marathon at the Athens
Olympics and then run New York on November 7. Browne's
10,000m final (there is no semi) is on August 20 and the Olympic marathon in
August 29.
Brown is part of the Nike Oregon Project coached by Alberto Salazar, a
three-time marathon champion in New York. Browne won the 2002
USA Marathon Championship at Twin Cities in 2:11.35 in his first venture at 26.2
miles and added the 2003 USA 25K title in 1:16.13
and the 2004 championship in 1:16:21. A 1997 West Point graduate who is a
Captain in the Oregon National Guard, Browne was 19th in
the 10,000 at the 2003 World Championships in Paris in 29:01.60 and 24th in the
LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 2:19:37. He bounced
back in January with a close second at the Halliburton Half-Marathon in Houston
in 1:03:09.
More...from Nike at:
http://www.nike.com/nikerunning/usa/home.jhtml?loc1=tools_training&loc2=runners_\
library&loc3=83&promoID=em
[Long URL]


22. Tired muscles? Don't blame lactate:
Lactic acid, produced in the muscles from intense exercise, enhances performance
rather than reduces it as commonly believed,
according to a new study.
A team of Australian and Danish researchers publish their findings in today's
issue of the journal Science.
Lactic acid has long been associated with muscle fatigue, the loss of force and
power with repeated muscle contractions.
"Everybody thinks lactic acid is a bad thing and that it's deleterious to
performance but what we're showing is that it's a help,"
said researcher Professor Graham Lamb of Melbourne's La Trobe University. "It
actually reduces fatigue."
Lactic acid is produced when a muscle works so hard it is forced to convert
glucose to energy without enough oxygen. Less energy is
produced per molecule of glucose but it's a way of the body squeezing the last
ounces of energy out of glucose despite there being
enough oxygen.
Lamb said that sports commentators and trainers often said athletes needed to
"warm down" after intense exercise to wash out lactic
acid.
More...from ABC Australia at:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1180597.htm


23. Low-carb invades supplements market:
Stroll down any pharmacy aisle these days and you'll find that the low-carb
craze has invaded the $20 billion dietary supplement
industry.
From multivitamins to starch blocker pills, loosely regulated supplements are
popping up in the burgeoning low-carb market dominated
by food companies.
For vitamin makers, their biggest marketing tool is exploiting the pitfall of
high-protein diets, namely that you lose some
nutrients when you cut back on carbohydrates.
Low-carb followers may lack key B vitamins found in grain-based foods like bread
and pasta. Skimping on fruits and vegetables may
cause deficiencies in antioxidants like Vitamin C and beta-carotone.
About 44 million Americans are either on a low-carb diet or watching their carb
intake. Of those, about 5 million are taking
supplements, according to the Natural Marketing Institute.
While U.S. retail sales of brand-name, all-purpose multivitamins have declined,
specialty vitamins targeted at dieters are growing
dramatically.
More...from CNN at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/08/19/low.carb.vitamins.ap/index.htm\
l


24. Cycling: Going uphill fast with power:
Climbing and time trialing are the two most difficult aspects of road cycling.
When the road turns seriously up, drafting plays a
very minimal role, as each individual's true ability is exposed.
The first mountain stage of any Tour de France illustrates this, as riders are
spread out all over the mountains while each rider
climbs to the best of his ability. The best climbers make going uphill look
effortless, even though their bodies are in terrible
pain.
What makes a great climber, especially in the mountains, is an excellent power
to weight ratio.
Power to weight ratio has two components: first, the ability to ride for long
periods of time at a Maximum Sustainable (MS) power.
Typically a top climber can ride at 10% or more above threshold power (or
threshold heart rate) for 30-60 minutes.
Second, top climbers have a low enough body weight so that the MS power
translates into an advantage going uphill. Having a high
maximum sustainable power output will make an excellent time-trialist on flat
roads where the main obstacle is wind drag.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11139&sidebar=21&category=cycling


25. News Scan:
* Dr. Gabe Mirkin's E-Zine
Rotator Cuff Injuries
The rotator cuff muscles hold the head of the long bone of your upper arm
tightly in the socket of your shoulder. Sports that
require moving the arm over the head repeatedly can cause tearing and swelling
of the tendons of these muscles. Baseball pitchers,
swimmers, weight lifters and tennis players often suffer this injury. Chronic
irritation can cause pain, swelling and tearing of the
rotator cuff. If you continue to exercise in spite of the pain, you will tear
the tendons from their attachments. Initially, pain
occurs only when you hold your arm over your head and bring it down or forward
forcibly. Later, it will hurt when the arm is moved
forward for any reason, such as to shake hands. Usually, it hurts when you push
things away and does not hurt when you pull objects
toward you. A torn rotator cuff will cause tenderness over the tendons,
especially when the elbow is raised above the shoulder. It
will hurt when you pull your arm across your chest, and you will have difficulty
raising your elbow over your shoulder. An
arthrogram is often not sensitive enough to diagnose a partial tear of the
rotator cuff but can show a complete tear.
The treatment is to avoid any motion that hurts and strengthen the uninjured
shoulder muscles. Do weight-lifting exercises that
bring the weights toward the body and do not hurt, such as upright rows and
downward "lat pulls". You may need surgery if the
rotator cuff tendons are torn completely, or if the tendons do not heal within
one year.

* Lifting Weights Won't Make You Musclebound
In 1937, Dr. Peter Karpovich of Springfield College in Massachusetts published a
ground-breaking paper showing that lifting weights
helped men improve their coordination. At the time, his paper was ridiculed by
most athletes, particularly professional baseball
players. They were afraid that lifting weights would cause them to develop such
large muscles that they would lose the fine
coordination necessary to hit and throw a baseball. Today we know there is no
such condition as 'muscle bound'. Baseball players all
lift weights and they are so much better as athletes that the best baseball
players in the world before 1940 probably would not even
make today's professional teams.
Training for strength improves coordination. Your brain is a master switchboard
that coordinates your muscles. Lifting weights does
not interfere with brain function; it improves coordination in activities that
require strength, such as playing sports, working as
a carpenter or opening a stuck door. Strength training also makes you faster.
Muscles are made up of slow and fast twitch fibers.
The slow-twitch, red fibers are used primarily for endurance such as running
long distances or performing continuous work. The fast
twitch, white fibers are used primarily for strength and speed. The same
fast-twitch fibers that are strengthened by weight-lifting
are used for speed, so the stronger your muscle is, the faster you can move it.
Lifting weights will improve your performance in
every sport, since they virtually all require power.




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

Helsinki City Marathon - Finland
http://www.helsinkicitymarathon.com/

Pikes Peak Ascent - Manitou Springs, CO
http://www.pikespeakmarathon.org/

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

Muddy Buddy Ride & Run 7K - Denver, CO
http://www.muddybuddy.com/

Silver State Marathon - Reno, NV
http://www.silverstatestriders.com/

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

August 26, 2004:
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 ONE personal posting this week.
Hello,
My name is Adam Wallace, I used to run for the University of Wisconsin. I am
now teaching and coaching at Hine Junior High School,
an inner city public school in Washington, DC. Our school has no budget for
textbooks let alone high jump pits, starting blocks, or
even uniforms. I’m looking for sponsors to help support our team. It costs
over $20,000 to buy all the equipment necessary for a
track and field team; however, at this point I’d be happy if all my kids were
wearing running shoes instead of worn out high-tops.
Would it be possible for runnersweb.com to put a link on its website to get the
word out? I’m looking for running shoe stores to
donate 1 pair of shoes, or even just a pair of socks, and for individuals to
donate a few dollars. These kids are growing up in
very difficult conditions. As we all know running can have a profound influence
on a person’s life. Running gives us a sense of
accomplishment and a goal-oriented perspective. It teaches us responsibility,
discipline, and the value of hard work. These
lessons are indispensable for children from urban neighborhoods who lack
structure and consistency in their lives outside of school.
Thank you very much for any help you can give our team, and I would appreciate
any suggestions or contacts you could provide me
with.

Adam Wallace
Hine Junior High School
335 8th St., SE
Washington, DC
20003
Phone: (202) 332-4947


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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Have a good week of training and/or racing.

Ken Parker
Runner's Web
webmaster@... <mailto:webmaster@...>
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html