Runner's Web Digest - October 29, 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
the two UK "Runner's Web" copycat sites or the
Runner's Web Book Store in the USA.

This issue is brought to you by Road Runner Sports, the world's largest running
store at:
http://www.roadrunnersports.com/cgi-bin/rrs/rrs/rrHome.jsp?sc=CBM-00105&prfc=1


Runner's Web Affiliate Programs:

HDO Sports - Leading Edge Sports Products
http://www.modularmerchant.com/clients/hdo/?aid=12

Puma
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000006585654

Fitsense Speed, Distance & Heart Rate Monitoring System for Runners and Walkers
http://buy.fitsense.com/processing2.asp?ID=28&Ad=101

Peak Performance Online
Free Copy of Peak Performance!
High-quality training newsletter worth £4 ($6) delivered straight to your door
http://www.pponline.co.uk/sendme/free.php?aff=runnersweb&sub=run

HDO Sport for Timex Body Link products
http://www.modularmerchant.com/clients/hdo/?aid=13

ITUtv.com
Live webcasts of triathlons and multi-sport events.
http://www.itutv.com/
Use promo code "RUNNERSWEB" to get a $5.00 discount.

Blockbuster
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005675551

Fairmont Hotels
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005674720

Triathlon Meetup
http://triathlon.meetup.com/r/d5n6/d5n6/0/http://triathlon.meetup.com/?a=d5n6/">
593 are signed up for local Triathlon Meetups! Happening THIS month, find out
when .

The Finish Line
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005637857

Patagonia
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005568199

Motorola
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005463364

AOL Broadband
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005348025

Get the GM Card, get 5% Earnings from every credit card purchase, and start
charging toward a new GM car, truck or SUV.
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005347188

ING DIRECT makes $aving money simple! Open your account online today and start
earning 2.10% variable APY. No Fees and No Minimums!
http://www.qksrv.net/click-1452277-10124087

TriSwim Coach - The Complete Guide to Triathlon Swimming
http://hop.clickbank.net/?rhianyth/triswim1

Sof Sole Offer:
A free pair of our technical socks ($9.99 value) with the purchase of
any Sof Sole insole.
http://www.sofsole.com/pages/promo/rwebsockoffer.html

Get Fit Running: If you are 150 pounds, sleeping burns 61 calories an hour, race
walking burns 442 calories and running 5mph burns
544 calories an hour! To reach your personal, health, fitness, and performance
goals, subscribe to RUNNER'S WORLD today!
(Get fit with Runner's World)
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=pgaZgw/VDU4&offerid=58447.10000229&\
type=3&subid=0

adidas' running apparel at 15% off! All running shorts, pants, and
shirts at reduced prices .
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=20812557&siteid=39999062&bfpage=15745\
37

If you have an accident while running or cycling, do you want your family to be
contacted? Do you want to receive immediate and
proper medical treatment? If so, make this cool item part of your gear -- for
safety and peace of mind. Road ID has created 4
awesome ways for athletes to wear ID: the SHOE, the WRIST, the ANKLE, and the
NECK.
Get your RoadID at:
http://www.roadid.com/?referrer=50

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
The Stretching Video in a DVD version. With the DVD version you're able to use
the convenient menu facility to:
* Go directly to a specific stretch;
* View only stretches for a specific muscle group;
* Pause each stretch to get a good look at how it is performed;
* View only the introduction and rules for safe stretching; or
* Play the entire video from start to finish.
Buy the DVD at:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/cgi-bin/at.pl?a=286905&e=products/video-dvd\
.htm

Buy all your sporting goods at Fogdog Sports, your anytime, anywhere sports
store.
Click here: http://www.fogdog.com/cgi-bin/affiliate?siteid=40054907

How To Run And Enjoy The Marathon By James Raia:
Price: $7.95
As a practical guide to the 26.2-mile journey, How To Run And Enjoy The Marathon
is a series of 15 self-help and service-oriented
articles about running marathons - the proper shoes to running etiquette - is
written by James Raia, a journalist and veteran
middle-of-the-pack marathon and ultramarathon runner in Sacramento, Calif.
Buy the book at:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?rhianyth/eltomaja


The Runner's Web Digest is a weekly e-zine dealing with the sports of running
and triathlon and general fitness and health issues.
The opinions expressed in the articles referenced by the Digest are the opinions
of the writers and not the Runner's Web. To
comment on any stories in the Digest visit our Forum at:
http://excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=4655

This newsletter has been composed using Outlook set to HTML format. The Digest
is sent via an email list at
http://groups.yahoo.com.
If you experience any delays in receiving your copy of the Digest, please advise
us at:
mailto:webmaster@...

Webmasters:
Get our Syndicated headlines for you site.
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_getRSS.html


Visit the Runner's Web at http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html The site is
updated multiple times daily. Check out our daily news
features, polls, trivia, bulletin boards and more. General questions should be
posted to one of our forums available from our
FrontPage.

For new subscribers:
If you have any questions regarding the options available for receiving this
digest, please do NOT email the list, rather email me
directly at mailto:Webmaster@...


You can receive the digest in three ways:
1. Immediately, via email,
2. Daily, in an email summary, and
3. By accessing the YahooGroups.com web site on demand.

The mail list has been set to not allow attachments out of concerns for viruses.
Also, all messages must be approved by the monitor
(me) prior to being released to the group.

NOTE
**[ Some e-mail clients may split the URL address into two lines. If you have
trouble connecting to a link, be sure that you
paste the entire address into your browser, so that it ends in ".html" or
another appropriate suffix ].

References/URLs:
Most references in the digest which do not have a specific URL listed here are
available from the Runner's Web FrontPage (or
Archives) at: http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
Also, if have email software that does not read HTML, all links contained in the
Digest are available from the Runner's Web. All
URLs listed here have been verified as of the Digest publication date. It is
possible that the site may have archived or deleted the
page after publication. If you are unable to reach a URL listed here, ensure
that you are using the entire URL (see above). If you
still cannot reach the site, please email me at: mailto:webmaster@...
and I will try to track it down.

Note: Some sites require free registration. If you wish to sign up for free
access to sources for our articles without using your
main email address we suggest the use of a mail alias program such as
www.emailias.com.


New This Week:

We have added a weekly feature by Owen Anderson of Running Research News.
His articles will be indexed at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RRN_index.html

We are currently at 867 members as of publication time. Forward the Runner's Web
Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe
at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join

Athletes - Interested in getting sponsored?
Amateur endurance athletes can win a GNC sponsorship (just like the Pro's) to
help them achieve their endurance goal. Check out the
site and enter to win:
http://www.gncproperformance.com/sponsorship/Default.aspx?lang=en

Race Directors:
Advertise your event on the Runner's Web. Over one million pageviews in August!
For more information:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_advertising.html

To comment on any stories in the Digest visit our Forum at:
http://excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=4655

Our latest column from Carmichael Training Systems
is available at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/cts_columns.html.

Check out our latest article from Peak Performance online:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/PPO_index.html

We have downloaded and are trying Google's Desktop search which is in beta mode.
More information is available from Google at:
http://desktop.google.com/

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. Multisport: Fat burning zone - Why athletes, fitness enthusiasts and slimmers
should steer clear of the fat burning zone
2. The slippery problem of taking in sustenance when you're on the move
3. "Secrets of Post-Workout Nutrition"
4. Our National Eating Disorder
6. What shape are you in?
7. British women must stand up, then go for a run
8. Tired all the time?
Tiredness seems to be a modern plague. Should we all be getting more sleep? Or
are the causes more complex than that?
9. Couple practices what they preach
10. A Yearning for YOGA
The ancient practice of physical postures is more popular than ever in U.S.
11. Depression Interferes with Exercise Stress Testing
12. From Runner's World
13. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Young at Heart
14. Case for cross-training, Part 3: Stretching
15. High-fat diet could harm the brain
16. Nutrition: Bad Breath but Good Health
17. Eating on the Road: Where Are the Carbohydrates?
18. Stretching is always in season
19. Time Management - We Don't Have to be Defeated by Time: Five Strategies
20. In the zone: Training your mind as well as your body
21. Infections Linked to Training and Racing
22. Sports Medicine Center Weighs In On Body Fat
23. Transitioning to a new season
24. Canadian Study Says Glucosamine No Arthritis Help
25. News Scan


Runner's Web Weekly Poll:
This week's poll is: "Will Paula Radcliffe win the women's race at the New York
City Marathon on November 7th?"

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: "The U.S. Olympic Committee has filed an appeal with the
Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to
block a decision that would strip Michael Johnson and the rest of the U.S. men's
4x400 relay team members of their 2000 Olympic gold
medals because of a positive drug test by relay team member Jerome Young
Should the entire team lose their medals?"
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Yes 61 77%
2. No, only Jerome Young 17 22%
3. No opinion, don't care 1 1%
Total Votes: 79

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

Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join


Five Star Site of the Week: AnneAudain.com.
Adopted at birth, she overcame reconstructive surgery on both feet as a teenager
and left home to become a champion athlete and a
pioneer in women's sports where heart counts as much as strength
In 1981, Anne Audain was temporarily barred from international competitive
running because she accepted prize money. She rallied
support and changed the rules so that female athletes could test themselves as
professional competitors.
Because of her dedication to the sport, Anne Audain achieved many credits to her
name and to running. She was the first professional
distance runner and the first woman to sign with Nike, a precedent which opened
the doors for many female athletes to follow. She
held the world record in the 5K, qualified six times for the Olympics, won Gold
and Silver medals in the Commonwealth Games, and
claimed more road race victories than any other woman during the 1980s
Visit her site at:
http://www.anneaudain.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 2004 Tour de France Armstrong Rewrites History.
by Andrew Hood with rider diaries by Tyler Hamilton and others.
NEW from the European Correspondent of VeloNews! This timely annual recounts
every aspect of the 91st Tour de France. The opening
week was full of speed, drama, and heartbreak for contenders with the rain,
cobbles, and crashes changing the field of competition.
The slopes of the Pyrénées and Alps gave rise to the aspirations of cycling’s
next generation of riders such as Basso, Voeckler, and
Rasmussen, while confirming the talents of Armstrong and the dominant U.S.
Postal Team. Follow the race into the Alps and relive the
excitement of Alpe d’Huez time trial and the battles all the way to Paris. This
volume also includes full-color photo sections
featuring the work of Graham Watson. Paperback. Black-and-white and color
photos, stage maps and elevation charts. 1-931382-47-6
Paperback. 7" x 10". 264 pp.
Buy the book from VeloPress at:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?velogear+PT9KcZ+20todefr1.html

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. Multisport: Fat burning zone - Why athletes, fitness enthusiasts and slimmers
should steer clear of the fat burning zone:
Gary O'Donovan explains why high-intensity exercise is the best bet for training
and weight loss The concept of the fat burning zone
is highly attractive to the exercise enthusiasts of today, many of whom are more
interested in weight loss than the pursuit of
fitness. Training zone charts adorn the walls of fitness centres up and down the
country, and body-conscious exercisers religiously
adhere to the recommended limits for exercising heart rates.
However, while moderate-intensity exercise may be appropriate for beginners,
athletes and serious fitness enthusiasts should avoid
the fat burning zone like the plague, except on light days or recovery runs -
unless they want to see a decline in energy
expenditure and fitness.
What is the fat burning zone?
Although the origin of the fat burning zone (FBZ) concept is unknown, the
fitness industry probably seized on the following key
facts:
1. low- to moderate-intensity exercise is fuelled predominantly by fat;
2. an optimum fat burning rate has been identified (Figure 1) at 65% of maximal
oxygen consumption (VO2 max) - the body's ability to
take on board and use oxygen during exhaustive exercise.
Because fitness centres don't usually own the gas analysers that measure VO2 max
directly, the FBZ is instead located indirectly,
with a heart rate monitor, at 60-70% of age-predicted maximum heart rate (1).
Age-predicted maximum heart rate is derived from the
formula 220 - age, giving a 25-year-old, for example, a FBZ of 117-136
beats/min. The use of this formula involves two considerable
assumptions:
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20041028_PPO_FatBurning.html


2. The slippery problem of taking in sustenance when you're on the move:
'Energy gels' - concentrated, syrupy carbohydrate in a tube - are becoming
increasingly popular with endurance athletes, many of
whom believe that the gels can provide a surge of energy during prolonged races
difficult workouts. Can energy gels really enhance
performance?
In past issues of Peak Performance, we've said some pretty harsh things about
the gels, mainly because athletes have been slipping
them into their digestive systems without paying much attention to how much
water is also going into their gullets.
As a result, they often end up with their bellies filled with either a thick
gelatinous syrup (if they're stingy with the water) or
a too-thin broth (if they're liberal with it). The former can actually drag
intracellular water into the stomach, in effect
increasing the risk of dehydration; the latter - a stomach mixture with too much
water and too little carbohydrate - can lower the
rate at which carbos are delivered to the muscles. It seems safer to simply use
sports drinks, which are specially formulated to
have the right balance of H2O and carbs. So, why write about gels again?
Well, there is no escaping the fact that using sports drinks during a
competitive event is not always a trouble-free process,
either. For one thing, sports drinks are not always available when you need them
(the sports-drink 'stations' may be too far apart).
For another, the volunteers who mix sports-drink powder with water on the day of
the race sometimes experience problems with basic
mathematics - and make their concoctions too rich or too weak.
Unfortunately, there's no way to get around these difficulties by carrying your
own sports drink along with you: The stuff is just
too heavy! A mere pint of the stuff tucked into a waist belt can harm economy by
almost 1 per cent in an average female runner,
adding about two minutes to average marathon finishing time, for example.
More...from Crucible Fitness at:
http://www.cruciblefitness.com/library/research-papers/running/0166.htm


3. "Secrets of Post-Workout Nutrition":
For athletes, high-carbohydrate diets optimize muscle-glycogen levels, and lofty
muscle-glycogen concentrations improve
endurance-exercise performance (1). Achieving magnificent glycogen levels is not
just a matter of eating plenty of carbs, however;
the timing of carbohydrate intake is important. For example, consumption of
carbohydrate immediately after either endurance or
resistance exercise may enhance total daily muscle-glycogen re-synthesis,
compared with consuming the same amount of carbs earlier
in the day or postponing the carb consumption until a few hours after exercise
(2 & 3).
Interestingly enough, taking in carbohydrate right after an exertion is over
also seems to have a pronounced effect on protein
metabolism. For example, post-workout carbs can decrease the rate of protein
degradation in muscles (4) and increase whole-body
protein synthesis (5). These twin effects are of course highly desirable for
athletes, whose performances will generally fall if
significant quantities of protein are lost (remember that proteins are the
building blocks of muscles and that certain proteins can
also serve as energy-releasing enzymes within muscle cells).
Why do carbs save - and even boost - the production of proteins? For years,
exercise scientists have reckoned that the basic
mechanism underlying carbohydrate's protein-helping attributes is simply that
ample carbs give muscles enough energy to stimulate
protein production. However, proteins are made of subunits called amino acids,
and the breakdown of a very important group of amino
acids called the branched-chain amino acids is regulated by the activity of an
enzyme called BCOAD. As you might expect, a diet
which is very rich in protein leads to an increase in BCOAD activity in the
liver. On the other hand, when athletes step up their
carb intakes, BCOAD activity drops (6). Thus, luxuriant carbohydrate ingestion
seems to spare protein by calming down BCOAD.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20041028_RRN_PWN.html


4. Our National Eating Disorder:
Carbophobia, the most recent in the centurylong series of food fads to wash over
the American table, seems to have finally crested,
though not before sweeping away entire bakeries and pasta companies in its path,
panicking potato breeders into redesigning the
spud, crumbling whole doughnut empires and, at least to my way of thinking,
ruining an untold number of meals. America's food
industry, more than happy to get behind any new diet as long as it doesn't
actually involve eating less food, is still gung-ho on
Low Carb, it's true, but in the last few weeks, I can report some modest success
securing a crust of bread, and even the occasional
noodle, at tables from which such staples were banned only a few months ago.
Surveying the wreckage of this latest dietary storm makes you wonder if we won't
someday talk about a food fad that demonized bread,
of all things, in the same breath we talk about the all-grape diet that Dr. John
Harvey Kellogg used to administer to patients at
his legendarily nutty sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich., or the contemporaneous
vogue for ''Fletcherizing'' -- chewing each bite of
food as many as 100 times -- introduced by Horace Fletcher (also known as the
Great Masticator) at the turn of the last century.
That period marked the first golden age of American food faddism, though of
course its exponents spoke not in terms of fashion but
of ''scientific eating,'' much as we do now. Back then, the best nutritional
science maintained that carnivory promoted the growth
of toxic bacteria in the colon; to battle these critters, Kellogg vilified meat
and mounted a two-fronted assault on his patients'
alimentary canals, introducing quantities of Bulgarian yogurt at both ends. It
remains to be seen whether the Atkins-school theory
of ketosis, the metabolic process by which the body resorts to burning its own
fat when starved of carbohydrates, will someday seem
as quaintly quackish as Kellogg's theory of colonic autointoxication.
What is striking is just how little it takes to set off one of these
applecart-toppling nutritional swings in America; a scientific
study, a new government guideline, a lone crackpot with a medical degree can
alter this nation's diet overnight. As it happened, it
was an article in this magazine two years ago that almost singlehandedly ushered
in today's carbophobia, which itself supplanted an
era of lipophobia dating back to 1977, when a controversial set of federal
nutritional guidelines (''Dietary Goals for the United
States,'' drafted by a Senate committee led by George McGovern) persuaded
beef-loving Americans to lay off the red meat. But the
basic pattern was fixed decades earlier: new scientific research comes along to
challenge the prevailing nutritional orthodoxy; some
nutrient that Americans have been happily chomping for years is suddenly found
to be lethal; another nutrient is elevated to the
status of health food; the industry throws its marketing weight behind it; and
the American way of dietary life undergoes yet
another revolution.
More...from the NY Times
at:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17EATING.html?oref=login


5. Flextime at 84 ; Weight-Lifting Octogenarian Brings Age-Defying Secrets to
Knoxville Friday:
Delmonteque meditates with yoga expert Denise Duberry. He believes the mind
plays a key role in achieving fitness. When it comes to
aging, Dr. Bob Delmonteque has its number.
"You are what you think you are," said the 84-year-old Malibu resident. "You
should grow younger as you get older. If I didn't think
that way, I would be in a rocking chair."
Delmonteque, the self-proclaimed fittest octogenarian on the planet, will be in
Knoxville this week to help celebrate the grand
opening of The Rush Fitness Complex in Farragut. His grandson, Larry Gurney,
owns The Rush, which has four locations in the
Knoxville area.
On Friday, Oct. 22, at the new health club, Delmonteque will present the seminar
"Lifelong Fitness," which is based on his book of
the same title. The book, first published a few years ago, has been updated for
2004 to include insight into his daily routine and
the mental and spiritual aspects of fitness.
In "Lifelong Fitness," Delmonteque looks at how diet and exercise can turn back
or even halt the effects of time on the body. He is
proof it can be done.
A champion bodybuilder and fitness buff, Delmonteque got into what he called the
best shape of his life at age 78.
"That was the best age of my life," he said. " I was so built. My cuts were
bulging all over the place. I looked better than any
teenager. I could run a six-minute mile. I won the Senior Olympics in my age
bracket. I was just in great shape."
More...from RedNova at:
http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=96557


6. What shape are you in?
Fit? Trim? Congratulations. But it's no longer enough to watch your waistline.
Scientists now say your height, proportions and body
outline can help to predict future illness, and offer vital clues on how to keep
well. As the NHS prepares to give us all free body
MOTs, Joanna Moorhead discovers why it is healthier to be a pear than an apple -
and finds that even being a string bean brings its
own hazards.
Are you an apple or a pear? A carrot or a bean? In the fruit bowl or on the
vegetable rack? Shape obsession is common enough - the
hips-heavy traditional pear-shaped figure is the bane of thousands of women's
lives - but the new message is that our outline
doesn't only matter for reasons of vanity, it matters to our health. Resemblance
to garden produce gives a very strong indication of
the afflictions you may suffer in future - and important clues about how to beat
them.
Concern about the changing British body shape is behind today's front-page news,
that every British citizen is to be given the
chance of a personal health consultation: a body MOT. This is likely to include
a look at weight and fat distribution and advice on
weight loss and exercise regimes.
A study of 38,000 adults in Britain last week found that we're getting fruitier,
with more and more of us turning into apples:
people whose body shape indicates they store their fat mostly around the waist.
The survey revealed that the most apple-shaped men
in the country are to be found in north-west England (the average male waistband
there is 37in) but there are far more of them
everywhere than before.
Women have traditionally been pear-shaped, with most of their fat stored on
their hips and thighs, but the survey found a growing
number of women are apples - which is a matter for concern since a pear is the
healthier shape. Women, like men, are now eating too
much, exercising too little, and spilling out in the middle.
More...from the Independent at:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=575459


7. British women must stand up, then go for a run:
Why the female half of the British population persistently resists the
temptation to get knackered and sweaty playing sport is a
topic that resurfaces with tiresome regularity. There cannot be a woman out
there who is not bored of hearing yet another statistic
that declares she is contributing to the expanding girth of her generation
through her slothfulness. And to what end? To date no
scheme to buck the trend appears to have worked. Perhaps, though, they have
simply been pressing the wrong buttons.
That, at least, is the view of experts and opinion leaders working with the
Women's Sports Foundation. A major initiative being
launched by the WSF at the House of Commons next week aims to switch the focus
from investigating not the physical but the
psychological barriers that prevent many girls and women from raising themselves
off their sofas more often.
The SPA (Sport and Physical Activity) campaign differs from previous attempts to
tackle this problem in seeking to influence not the
circumference of a woman's hips or her reading on the scales but her attitude.
Olympic successes and other high-profile achievements by sportswomen in the past
12 months have had little effect on the amount of
female involvement in sport, which seems stuck at an all- time low. Countless
reports illustrate this rejection of physical
activity.
More...from the Guardian at:
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,10488,1335381,00.html


8. Tired all the time?
Tiredness seems to be a modern plague. Should we all be getting more sleep? Or
are the causes more complex than that?
Pooped, shattered, knackered, buggered. Being fatigued is an everyday experience
that for most of us is the trigger to put on your
PJs and get a good night's sleep. But what about when you just can't seem to get
going in the morning? When you run out of puff half
way through the day? When you're zonked all the time?
Tiredness seems to be on the rise. No official data exists on the rate of people
reporting to their doctors with persistent and
unexplained lethargy. But Sydney GP Alf Liebhold says: 'It is a very common
presentation. Very common.'
Invigoration products are also on the increase. Sales of 'energy' drinks -
caffeine and sugar-loaded soft drinks - have grown by 23
per cent over the last year. Vitamin manufacturer Blackmores sells $22 million
worth of energising supplements annually. And
guarana, a herbal stimulant, exploded onto the Australian market around four
years ago and can now be found in everything from
chocolate bars to tea bags. Clearly Australians feel as though they need an
extra boost to get them through the day.
So what is it that is making us so tired? Liebhold's theory is that the rat race
is sapping our vim. 'I think that much more is
expected from some people than used to be,' he says. 'There's an epidemic of
people who are financially on a treadmill. I see people
who haven't had a holiday in three years. I see people who don't want to take
time off when they've got the 'flu. They're afraid of
losing their jobs.'
He says the constant pressure means we are not relaxing properly and are always
running on half-charged batteries: 'The sort of
thing that people used to do in order to regain their energy - which was have a
bit of fun, have a holiday - they're even too tired
to do that!'
More...from ABC Online at:
http://www.abc.net.au/health/regions/features/tired/


9. Couple practices what they preach:
Most people don't want to hear that they need to exercise from someone who looks
like the only activity they've mastered is the
12-ounce curls.
And sometimes they don't want to hear it from someone who is already fit.
"They say, 'That's easy for you to say; you're in shape,'" said Dr. Perry
Willette.
However, he added, "It wasn't always so. You gotta start somewhere."
Willette and his wife, Dr. Susan Krizek, emphasize the importance of exercise in
a healthy lifestyle to their patients. They are
also committed to following doctor's orders themselves.
Krizek, an internist at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, and Willett, a family
physician there, have made physical activity part of
their lifestyles and their marriage. They work out together four to five times a
week (as often as a schedule that includes frequent
12-hour days will allow) and enter competitive events about twice a month.
"It's part of our commitment to health, to not just being a health provider in
the Navy," said Willette, who admits he was daunted
by the prospect of running when Krizek first encouraged him to pound the
pavement.
Krizek had been a competitive runner in both college and high school. But by the
time she met her future husband, while both were
attending the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, she ran as a
stress reliever.
"I just like the pleasure of running," said Krizek, who encouraged Willette, who
competed in team sports, to join her.
More...from the Daily News at:
http://www.jdnews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&St\
oryID=26725&Section=Liberty
[Long URL]


10. A Yearning for YOGA:
The ancient practice of physical postures is more popular than ever in U.S.
Who says you can't be all things to all people? For millions of Americans, yoga
is proving the old saying wrong.
Yoga -- a practice of physical postures dating back to ancient religious
scripture in India -- is appealing to more and more
Americans ... and people are staying with it.
They come to the discipline for all kinds of reasons that range from seeking
solace to wanting to improve sports performance or find
relief from pain.
Dave Fuller, for instance, wasn't even able to stand comfortably five years ago.
He had debilitating back injuries from a motorcycle
accident and from his years as a firefighter.
"All I could stand to do was go to work, sit at the computer, come home and lay
on the floor," says Fuller, who now works as a
wireless engineer for Qwest.
But today, at age 43, Fuller is a white-water kayaker. "I'd say I'm a solid
Class IV boater," he says proudly, "occasionally
stepping up to the Class V stuff." He just returned from a 4,000- mile road trip
to the Ottawa River in Canada for five days of
white- water play-boating. With no pain.
What happened? In his word, "Yoga."
More...from RedNova at:
http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=97646


11. Depression Interferes with Exercise Stress Testing:
People with depression who have suspected heart disease don't do well on
exercise tests, Canadian investigators report.
Symptoms of major depression include lack of energy and fatigue. These may
impair exercise performance during treadmill stress
testing, and thus interfere with the detection of heart problems, according to a
report in the American Heart Journal.
Dr. Kim L. Lavoie, at Hopital du Sacre Coeur in Montreal, and associates
examined the differences in exercise testing between
individuals with depression and those without. Among the 1367 patients tested,
183 (13 percent) were classified as having major
depressive disorder.
Patients with depression performed worse in terms of the maximum heart rate they
achieved and total duration of exercise, even after
factoring in their age, gender, family history of coronary artery disease,
smoking status, and use of beta-blockers.
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3UYYG0X1BLBPYCRBAELCFFA?type\
=healthNews&storyID=6630618
[Long URL]


12. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
Goon Tunes. Many runners psych themselves up for workouts by listening to their
favorite music. Take your pick: rap, rock,
classical, or any other genre that engages your mind and body. -Jeff Galloway

* Injury Prevention
The hills are alive. If you plan to add hills to your training, introduce them
gradually. Running hills strain the muscles, tendons,
and ligaments of your feet, particularly the bottoms of your feet, because when
running up an incline you push off from the balls of
your feet. This can strain the plantar fascia. By moving slowly into hill
training, you will decrease your risk of injury.

* Performance Nutrition
Give your heart a Halloween treat: Dig the raisin boxes out of your kids'
trick-or-treat bags, and help yourself to lower
cholesterol levels. Raisins' fiber binds up cholesterol-based digestive acids.
As fiber carries more cholesterol out of your
digestive system, there's less cholesterol available to enter your bloodstream,
where it can lead to heart disease.

* Editor's Advice
No Bones About It: "If you're feeling tired and unmotivated, slow down. Burnout
can be wicked. It often plagues runners who run
daily at a pace that is too fast. Be a creepy crawler and try running 1 to 2
minutes slower per mile, particularly during the first
mile or two of every run."
-Amby Burfoot, RW executive editor

* Training Talk
"The moment you start exercising, your body begins losing water through sweat,
and this fluid loss quickly compromises performance.
Your exercising muscles generate heat that your body must get rid of—or
overheat. But as you sweat in an effort to stay cool, your
cardiovascular system gets stressed because of the dropping water levels in your
body."
-From Eat Smart Play Hard by Liz Applegate

* Words That Inspire:
"Running has given me more energy than I've ever had before...It's always my
hope that I'll inspire someone to walk or run around
the block the next day." -Annabel Marsh, 76, ambassador for the Fifty-Plus
Fitness Association


13. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Young at Heart:
On Johnny Kelley's last day, I was writing about him without yet knowing the sad
news. This story (in RC 540) told about one of his
guiding philosophies, that "I don't judge success by what I once did, but by
what I keep doing."
By that measure and almost any other, John Adelbert Kelley was immensely
successful. His final success was living to be the youngest
97-year-old I've ever known.
Walter Bortz, MD, an expert in aging actively, said the ideal life is "to die
young as late as possible." Kelley lived up to that
model beautifully. He ran the Boston Marathon into his 80s and serving as the
race's honorary leader as recently as last April.
On television this fall Kenneth Cooper, MD, drew two graphs on aging, the normal
versus the ideal. The "Aerobics" doctor said
Americans normally peak early in fitness and then follow a steady downhill slope
to the ultimate finish line.
Ideally, said Cooper, the fitness line stays high and fairly flat into the
advanced years, with a quick plunge at the end. Johnny
Kelley took this high road.
A month past his 97th birthday Kelley finally wore out. His end came just three
hours after admission to a nursing home. I think he
decided this wasn't a place he wanted to live.
Another doctor, the late George Sheehan, would have described this as "a
beautiful death." That's to go late, quickly and on his own
terms.
I'll always thank Johnny Kelley for leading me into the marathon. He didn't know
this at the time, but heroes seldom recognize the
reach of their influence.
The best marathoners of the mid-1960s intimidated me with their speed. But
Kelley, who was slowing by then but still running at
Boston each spring, inspired me.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/468.html


14. Case for cross-training, Part 3: Stretching:
This series is adapted from Matt Fitzgerald's forthcoming book, "Runner's World
Guide to Cross-Training." Part 1 begins here:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11265&sidebar=17&category=activeusahome\
page
The primary perceived benefit of stretching for runners is injury prevention.
But in the best recent controlled studies, stretching has not reduced the
incidence of injuries to the lower extremities to a
statistically significant degree. On the basis of such studies, many exercise
physiologists advise runners not to stretch.
The main problem with this advice and the studies upon which it is based is that
they come at stretching from the wrong side of
injury. Targeted stretching of abnormally tight muscles and tendons has proven
to be an extremely effective means of rehabilitating
and preventing the recurrence of specific injuries in runners.
This is because abnormal tightness in specific muscles and tendons is without
question a contributing cause of particular running
injuries, and stretching can increase the elasticity of muscles and tendons.
Every day, physical therapists prescribe targeted stretching exercises to
rehabilitate and prevent recurrence of five different
injuries that are frequently associated with tightness in muscles and tendons.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11298&sidebar=13&category=running


15. High-fat diet could harm the brain:
A high-fat diet could harm the brain. And trans-fats, such as those found in
margarine, and which are often used to increase the
shelf-life of foods, are the worst culprits, suggests a new study.
Ann-Charlotte Granholm of the Medical University of South Carolina in
Charleston, US, says she became concerned about trans-fats
after seeing how they are made. Hydrogen is bubbled through an oil, and metals
such as zinc and copper are added to made it solid at
room temperature. The resulting greyish fat is then bleached and coloured to
make it look more appealing, she says.
Zinc and copper are known to build up in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s
disease, she says, and there are signs that high fat
diets could contribute to the risk of this disease. “I became concerned about
what these fats were doing to our children, who are
given French fries at school every day.”
Granholm presented the results of the study, which showed that trans-fats
adversely affected rats’ learning ability, at the Society
for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, US, on Monday.
More...from New Scientist at:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996590


16. Nutrition: Bad Breath but Good Health:
The stronger an onion tastes, the more likely it is to help fight cancer and
other diseases, scientists at Cornell have found.
The researchers, who looked at 10 kinds of onions as well as shallots, found
broad differences in the concentrations of phenolics
and flavonoids, compounds that can help reduce the risk of medical problems like
heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Their report appears in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. There is
a wrinkle, however. The more powerful the
concentration of the compounds in onions, the more powerful the flavor - and the
smell. So there could be some social fallout. "It's
not good for your friends, but it is good for your health," said the lead
researcher, Dr. Rui Hai Liu, a chemist in the university's
department of food science.
Unfortunately, the study said, "consumer buying trends have increasingly been
toward less pungent, milder onion varieties."
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/health/26nutr.html?oref=login


17. Eating on the Road: Where Are the Carbohydrates?
Obtaining a nutritious high-carbohydrate meal while traveling can be a challenge
for athletes. For many teams, meal stops are often
made at fast-food restaurants because they are convenient, relatively
inexpensive, and appealing to athletes. Although the athletes’
hunger may be satisfied, what about their nutritional status? Did they eat
enough carbohydrates to replenish their glycogen stores?
Did they consume too much fat? What about vitamins and minerals? Did they drink
enough to restore normal hydration? No matter where
athletes are traveling to compete, it is important that they choose the proper
fuel for optimal performance. In this article,
choosing meals that provide ample amounts of carbohydrates is the primary
challenge.
The availability of carbohydrate stores (muscle and liver glycogen and blood
glucose) plays a critical role in athletic performance
(Coleman, 1998; Coleman and Steen, 1996). Strenuous physical activity requires
rapid production of ATP at rates that can only be met
by carbohydrate metabolism. Neither fat nor protein can be oxidized rapidly
enough to meet the demands of high-intensity exercise.
Adequate dietary carbohydrate must be consumed on a daily basis to restore
glycogen levels.
Endurance athletes who train exhaustively on successive days must consume
adequate carbohydrate and energy to minimize the threat of
fatigue associated with the cumulative effects of muscle glycogen depletion.
Costill et al (1981) evaluated glycogen synthesis on a
45%-carbohydrate diet during three successive days of running 16.1 K at 80%
VO2max. Initial muscle glycogen levels were 110 mmol /
kg and fell to 88 mmol / kg on day two and 66 mmol / kg on day three. When
runners were provided with additional dietary
carbohydrate (525 to 648 g per day), glycogen synthesis was promoted, and
resulted in near maximal repletion of muscle glycogen
within 24 hours.
More...from GSSI at:
http://www.gssiweb.com/reflib/refs/44/d000000020000023c.cfm?pid=87&CFID=820175&C\
FTOKEN=30716101


18. 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 UW Health at:
http://www.uwhealth.org/servlet/Satellite?cid=1058560105908&pagename=UWH%2FHI%2F\
HealthInformationDetail&articleID=1060879678039
[Multi-line URL]


19. Time Management - We Don't Have to be Defeated by Time: Five Strategies:
I don't have enough time!" "I have to work late tonight." "I have to pick up
the kids from practice." "I have to go grocery
shopping." "I'm too tired to get out of bed that early!" "I'm too exhausted
after work." "I think I need another rest day." "I
don't have time to take a lunch break."
We've all made these excuses at one time or another in our athletic careers. We
can all make these excuses today. But, as
committed enthusiasts and competitors, we have to find a way to overcome what
can become an overwhelming hurdle in what we've been
working so hard to achieve.
As athletes, we all face challenges: The challenges of learning a new technique
or sport, the challenges of training through
fatigue, injury, and nasty weather, the challenges of pushing our bodies to the
absolute limit while racing. Most of these are
physical challenges (some are also mental) that we are accustomed to facing as
competitors. We know how to push ourselves beyond
what would be considered "normal" by our non-triathlete/non-competitive
compatriots. However, one challenge that we are not all so
apt at facing head on, is something that we all must deal with, no matter who we
are and at what level we are training. It catches
up to every one of us. It's the challenge of time management.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_CTS_20041029_Kipp.html


20. In the zone: Training your mind as well as your body:
By Mayo Clinic staff
Not playing up to your ability? Choking under the pressure? Maybe you aren't in
"the zone."
What is the zone?
Being in the zone generally means being in a state in which your mind and body
are working in harmony. You're calm yet energized,
challenged yet confident, focused yet instinctive.
"The zone really refers to when you're performing automatically," says Aynsley
Smith, Ph.D., a sports psychology consultant at the
Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center, Rochester, Minn. "It's when you're
absolutely free of worries, free of inhibitions and so
confident and relaxed that your best performance just kind of comes out
automatically."
Getting in the zone combines physical and mental training. When your body is
conditioned and your skills are well-practiced or
"programmed," your mental conditioning then comes into play, making a zone
experience possible.
To better understand the concept, think of it this way:
When people have well-honed skills, they stop concentrating on them all the
time. For instance, you probably brush your teeth every
morning. But have you ever then been on your way to work or school and not been
able to remember whether you brushed them or not?
Chances are you brushed your teeth, but because you've done it regularly since
you were a tot, you didn't have to think about it.
While tooth brushing can be automatic, athletics and skilled activities require
more to reach the zone. Physical and mental training
are key.
More...from The Mayo Clinic at:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=SM00001


21. Infections Linked to Training and Racing :
We possess a limited number of anti-stress factors. The word "stress" includes
anything which reduces the body’s ability to function
efficiently, eg stress fracture, colds, coughs and fevers.
Let us suppose that we are all allocated 12 anti-stress factors. Travel to and
from work, and work itself, may use up four
anti-stress factors. Training daily may also use up four anti-stress factors.
We may have a difficult partner which causes us to use up another two
anti-stress factors. The battle to pay off bills could use up
two more factors. We have used up all our resistance factors and providing
things stay as they are we may say that we are in a state
of equilibrium or coping with stress.
But, supposing we are given a more responsible and better paid task at work.
What then? The stress syndrome follows a known pattern:
Alarm.
Resistance.
Compensation.
In running, the pattern is increased pulse-rate, resistance and better tolerance
of running in due course (hopefully). Now, if the
stress is too great, the body fails to compensate and gradually sinks into
exhaustion. The tell-tale symptoms are:
Insomnia.
Swelling of glands in the throat, arm-pits, and groin.
Frequent colds.
Increased skin trouble.
Steady loss of weight
Inexplicable aches and pains.
More...from World of Endurance at:
http://worldofendurance.com/runnersguide/focus_column.asp


22. Sports Medicine Center Weighs In On Body Fat:
How low can you go….safely?
Thanks to a landmark study involving the UW Health Sports Medicine Center,
physicians and coaches can evaluate the effectiveness of
methods widely used to measure body composition and predict the minimum weight
an athlete should maintain.
Using a four-component model that included independent assessment of bone, body
fat, muscle and total body water, 53 Division-I
collegiate athletes were measured, yielding a precise reading that allowed for
the accurate prediction of a minimum weight.
The study was conducted in response to a call by the National Federation of
State High School Associations (NFSHA) mandating that
all states develop a minimum-weight certification program modeled after the one
established by the Wisconsin Interscholastic
Athletic Association (WIAA) in 1993. The findings appear in a recent edition of
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal
of the American College of Sports Medicine.
More than just a topic for exercise scientists, the issue of minimum weight
prediction closely affects high school and college
athletes, particularly wrestlers. In recent years, several athletes have died -
including three wrestlers in a span of 33 days in
2003 - after using unsafe weight loss practices in order to compete in a lower
weight class.
More...from UW Health at:
http://www.uwhealth.org/servlet/Satellite?cid=1051054541069&pagename=UWH%2FNews%\
2FNewsDetail&newsId=1087860252434


23. Transitioning to a new season:
With the end of the race season and the approach of winter, it's time to shift
your training emphasis to Base period objectives.
In the last few months you've been singularly focused on race-specific training
with workouts that simulate the conditions of your
most important races. As the season closes down, I find that it's very difficult
for athletes to make the switch from the Build to
Base period.
For one thing, athletes don't want to give up their hard-won race fitness. For
another, they find it difficult to make the
changeover.
I witnessed a good example of this phenomenon this morning on my long, easy
ride. I was passed by a dozen roadies who were flying
with a few women and a junior in tow. All were huffing and puffing, some more
than others. This was your typical Sunday morning
hammer session.
Most of the riders in this group are well on their ways to ruining their 2005
season and it's only November 2004! It's a shame, but
I see athletes do this every year.
Let's start with the first issue: Can you maintain your race fitness from the
2004 season until the first A-priority race in the
spring of 2005? No, you can't. It's impossible.
Fitness is transient. The finer elements of race fitness, such as anaerobic
endurance and sprint power, take just a few weeks to
fully develop -- maybe six to eight. Once you bring these elements to a peak
they begin to fade no matter how hard you try to hold
onto them indefinitely.
Those elements that take the longest to initially build stay with you the
longest after the race season ends. Endurance is a good
example of this, but even it fades after a while.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11299&sidebar=26&category=triathlon


24. Canadian Study Says Glucosamine No Arthritis Help:
Glucosamine, a popular food supplement used by arthritis sufferers to prevent
painful flare-ups, has no long-term benefit, Canadian
researchers said on Wednesday.
The University of British Columbia researchers found that 45 percent of
glucosamine users still suffered arthritis attacks during a
six-month period, compared with only 42 percent who were given a placebo.
"Our study shows that even if the supplement was initially perceived by study
participants to be helpful, it has no benefit for
maintenance, and continued use is not effective to control flare-ups," said lead
researcher Jolanda Cibere.
The researchers studied 137 patients in four Canadian cities who had been using
glucosamine for an average of two years and had
credited it for at least a moderate improvement in their condition.
Glucosamine is derived from shellfish and is sold under several brand names as a
health food supplement. The study looked just at
glucosamine, and not at glucosamine in combination with chondroitin, another
popular supplement.
More...from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3UYYG0X1BLBPYCRBAELCFFA?type\
=healthNews&storyID=6633660


25. News Scan:
* Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold.
Douglas R, Hemila H, D'Souza R, Chalker E, Treacy B.
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National
University, 34 Nungara Place, Aranda, ACT,
AUSTRALIA, 2614.
BACKGROUND: The role of oral vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in the prevention and
treatment of the common cold has been a subject of
controversy for at least sixty years. Public interest in the topic continues to
be high and vitamin C continues to be widely sold
and used as a preventive and therapeutic agent for this common ailment.
OBJECTIVES: To discover whether oral vitamin C in doses of
200 mg or more daily, reduces the incidence, duration or severity of the common
cold when used either as continuous prophylaxis or
after the onset of cold symptoms. SEARCH STRATEGY: This updated review added to
earlier searches, a full search of the following
electronic databases: the Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The
Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2004); MEDLINE (January
1966 to June 2004); and EMBASE (1990 to June 2004). SELECTION CRITERIA: Papers
were excluded if a dose less than 200 mg daily of
vitamin C was used; if there was no placebo comparison; if methods of outcome
assessment were inadequately described; and if the
report did not record any of the three study outcomes (incidence, duration or
severity) in sufficient detail to enter into the
meta-analysis. Three criteria of study quality were assessed: Jadad scores,
placebo distinguish-ability, and allocation concealment.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two reviewers independently extracted data and
assessed trial quality. 'Incidence' of colds during
prophylaxis was assessed as the proportion of participants experiencing one or
more colds during the study period. 'Duration' was
the mean days of illness of cold episodes and 'severity' of these episodes was
assessed by days confined indoors, off work or
school. or by symptom severity scores. MAIN RESULTS: Twenty-nine trial
comparisons involving 11,077 study participants contributed
to the meta-analysis on the relative risk (RR) of developing a cold while taking
prophylaxis. The pooled RR was 0.96 (95% CI 0.92 to
1.00). A subgroup of six trials that involved a total of 642 marathon runners,
skiers, and soldiers on sub-arctic exercises reported
a pooled RR of 0.50 (95%CI 0.38 to 0.66).Thirty comparisons that involved 9,676
respiratory episodes contributed to the
meta-analysis on common cold duration during prophylaxis . A consistent benefit
was observed, representing a reduction in cold
duration of 8% (95% CI 3% to 13%) for adult participants and 13.5% (95% CI 5% to
21%) for child participants.Fifteen trial
comparisons that involved 7,045 respiratory episodes contributed to the
meta-analysis of severity of episodes experienced while on
prophylaxis. The pooled results revealed a difference favouring those on vitamin
C when days confined to home and off work or school
were taken as a measure of severity (p = 0.02), and when restricting to studies
which used symptom severity scores (p = 0.16), and
for the both measures of severity combined (p = 0.004).Seven trial comparisons
that involved 3,294 respiratory episodes contributed
to the meta-analysis of cold duration during therapy with vitamin C that was
initiated after the onset of cold symptoms, and no
significant difference from placebo was seen.Four trial comparisons that
involved 2,753 respiratory episodes, contributed to the
meta-analysis of cold severity during therapy and no significant difference from
placebo was seen. In laboratory studies, differing
methods of artificial transmission of virus to vitamin C or placebo treated
volunteers in residential experiments gave different
results. Volunteers infected by nasal installation showed small or no benefit
from vitamin C, whereas a group who were infected more
naturally, reported less severe symptom severity scores (p = 0.04). REVIEWERS'
CONCLUSIONS: The failure of vitamin C supplementation
to reduce the incidence of colds in the normal population indicates that routine
mega-dose prophylaxis is not rationally justified
for community use. But evidence shows that it could be justified in persons
exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise
and/or cold environments. Also, the consistent and statistically significant
small benefits on duration and severity for those using
regular vitamin C prophylaxis indicates that vitamin C plays some role in
respiratory defence mechanisms. The trials in which
vitamin C was introduced at the onset of colds as therapy did not show any
benefit in doses up to 4 grams daily, but one large trial
reported equivocal benefit from an 8 gram therapeutic dose at onset of symptoms.
PMID: 15495002 [PubMed - in process]

* Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
Faster Running Improves Performance in Many Sports
If you want to improve in baseball, football, basketball or hockey, learn to run
faster. To run fast in competitive sports, you
have to run fast in practice and lift heavy weights to become stronger. Run a
series of short fast sprints with a short rest
between each. Do resistance exercises because stronger muscles drive you forward
with more force.
No coach should ever require players to run sprints at the end of every practice
or lift heavy weights more often than twice a week.
Every time you run fast or lift heavy, your muscle fibers are damaged and feel
sore on the next morning, and take at least 48 hours
to heal. If you try to run fast or lift heavy when your muscles feel sore, you
are at increased risk for tearing them and not being
able to play at all. In the preseason,
knowledgeable coaches have their players scrimmage hard and run sprints on one
day, then practice plays and take it easy on the
next. During the season, they play so often that players should not be asked to
do much additional hard training.

* Dear Dr. Mirkin: My son's coach wants him to take creatine.
Does it really build larger muscles, as he claims?
Creatine can help to strengthen muscles, but athletes who take these supplements
need to know how much they can take safely before
they harm themselves. When you exercise and your muscles get as much oxygen as
they need, they burn carbohydrates, fats and protein
for energy. When you exercise so intensely that you cannot get all the oxygen
you need, your muscles use creatine and ATP. So when
you exercise so intensely that you can't get enough oxygen, you can delay
fatigue by taking creatine and it allows you to do more
work, which
makes you stronger.
The body of a 160 pound man contains 120 grams of creatine and he takes in and
uses about two grams a day. No good studies have
been done to show what amounts are safe to take beyond what your own body makes,
so let the buyer beware. Creatine may allow you to
lift more weights and make you stronger, but it may harm you. Taking too much
creatine can cause weight gain, increased insulin
production and possibly kidney damage. High levels of insulin constrict arteries
to cause heart attacks and affect the brain and
liver to make you fat. The
chemical process of extracting creatine in the laboratory forms toxic
contaminants called dicyandiamide and dihydrotriazines, that
have to be removed before humans can take them safely. The industry that
distributes creatine is unregulated and you have no way to
know what you are actually buying.


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

October 30, 2004:
Tulsa Run 15K - Tulsa, OK
http://www.tulsarun.com

October 31, 2004:
Auckland Marathon - New Zealand
http://www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz

Cancun ITU World Cup - MEX
http://www.triathlon.org/world-cup/wcup2004/cancun-2004/index.htm
ITUtv.com
http://www.itutv.com/zapp/controller.php?call=6

Jim Howe Memorial NCRA Cross-Country - Ottawa, ON
http://www.ncra-ottawa.com/hm/inside.php?id=195

Marine Corps Marathon - Washington, DC
http://www.marinemarathon.com

Silicon Valley Marathon - Sam Jose, CA
http://www.siliconvalleymarathon.com

November 7, 2004:
New York City Marathon - New York, NY
http://www.nyrrc.org/nyrrc/marathon
Runner's World Coverage
http://www.runnersworld.com/events/nycm04


For more complete race listings check out our Upcoming Races, and Calendars.
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.
BayAreaRun.com started in May 2004 and has gained considerable growth with now
close to 400 members who joined for
free. The site was started to help local runners find partners, races, have a
journal, get discounts from local stores, forums, and
other developing plans.
Check out the site at:
http://bayarearun.com/


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

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

Send this to a Friend:
Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join

Your Feedback and Comments:
Comments, contributions and feedback are always welcome via this list at:
mailto:runnersweb@yahoogroups.com and in our Runner's Web
Forum, available off our FrontPage. If you post to the mailing list and get your
email returned, please contact the Runner's Web at
mailto:webmaster@... to notify us of the problem. To update your
Runner's Web eGroups subscriber's profile,
go to the web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join, sign in
and update your changes.

Have a good week of training and/or racing.

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