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This Weeks Personal Postings/Releases:
We have NO personal postings this week.


This Week's Digest Article Index:

1. Science of Sport: How To Become A More-Powerful "Kicker"
2. Multisport: Proper Running Form
3. Triathlon: Going long
Unlock the secrets of a successful season.
4. Researcher finds sports that fit each personality
5. Fly Spit Speeds Healing
Protein in black flies' saliva helps close wounds.
6. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Lydiard on LSD
7. Pumping Elbow to Elbow? Must Be January
8. Carving a New Path
Adaptive Skiing Helps Disabled Vets, Others Move On.
9. From Runner's World
10. The government says that 60 to 90 minutes of daily activity is needed to
prevent weight gain
11. Sunburn-proof Mice Engineered
Feat provides researchers with insight into the development and prevention of
sunlight-induced skin cancer.
12. Training Methods
There are three major methods of training. Heart rate training, training by
recent race times and training by your rate of perceived
exertion. Each has advantages in certain situations. Here are the basics of each
type of training and some recommendations.
13. A Key to Aging with Strength
Muscle-blocker myostatin linked with age-related weakness.
14. Sleep can be a vital part of training
15. Vitamins: More May Be Too Many
"People are looking for the magic bullet. It does not exist."
16. Young Again:
We have the technology. This new program actually rolls back your body's clock
by a decade, making you stronger, faster -- and
younger -- than you have been in years.
17. When you take your training too seriously:
An incident whilst riding the other day prompted this look at our competitive
nature as athletes, and why some athletes "race to
train", when we should be "training to race".
18. An integrated approach to increasing flexibility
19. Moderate exercisers feel best
20. New GPS devices can help sharpen your training
21. Eating for Endurance: Strategies for Extraordinary Athletes
22. Simple workouts that can help you run faster
23. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
24. Better than french fries, but...
A multi-million dollar-industry, energy bars are giving fast food a run for your
snacking dollar. So why aren't nutritionists all
that impressed?
25 News Scan
A collection of news items.


Runner's Web Weekly Poll:
This week's poll is: "Which of the following major marathons have you run?
Chicago
Honolulu
London
Los Angeles
New York
Ottawa
Paris
Toronto
Quebec City
Vancouver"

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

The previous poll was: "Which type of running shoe(s) do you wear?"
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Cushioned 28 24%
2. Motion Control 33 28%
3. Neutral 14 12%
4. Performance 9 8%
5. Racing 7 6%
6. Stability 17 15%
7. Trail 9 8%
Total Votes: 117

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

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Five Star Site of the Week: Canadian Marathoning.
"Welcome to the Canadian Marathoning Ltd. web site. The goal of this site is to
promote Canadian marathon running"
Web Site Founder: Alex Coffin (CIAU Champion UVic Vike)
Original Web Site Designer: Craig Odermatt (CIAU Champion UVic Vike)
The marathon distance has a mystique about it that has attracted many runners
(both elite and recreational) across Canada. The
World Wide Web includes many sites devoted to running, running clubs, and even
marathon races themselves, but there didn't seem to
be a site serving the needs of Canadian marathoners. Seeing an opportunity to
fill a void, Alex Coffin came up with the idea of
Canadian Marathoning Ltd. Canadian Marathoning is a web site devoted to
promoting marathon running in Canada. The goal is to create
a web site that can serve as the definitive source of information on marathon
running in Canada.
Visit the site at:
http://www.canadianmarathoning.bc.ca/


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: Treadmill Training for Runners.
About the Author
Rick Morris is a professional running coach and certified personal trainer. He
is the president of Running Planet, Inc., a firm that
specialized in the training of endurance athletes.
Product Description:
The popularity of the treadmill is exploding. More and more runners are using
the treadmill to train for all distances and for all
reasons.
This is the definitive book on treadmill training. Treadmill Training for
Runners will show you how to use the treadmill to reach
your goals. You will learn how to shop for a treadmill, lose weight, increase
your fitness level, incorporate the treadmill into
your training program, learn to run and solve common treadmill training
problems.
Buy the book from Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931088055/qid=1105041823/sr=8-1/r\
ef=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl200/103-0734750-5745411?v=glance
&s=sporting-goods&n=507846/ref=ase_runnersweb/
[Multi-line 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. Science of Sport: How To Become A More-Powerful "Kicker:
Being able to produce powerful, extended kicks at the ends of your races is one
of the most difficult tasks you are faced with as a
runner. Basically, when you attempt to accelerate over the last 200 to 1200
meters of a race, you are asking your muscles to work at
close-to-their-highest level - at precisely the time when they are most
fatigued.
Not surprisingly, many runners don't know how to maximize their kicking power.
In fact, a large number of athletes believe that a
powerful kick is a God-given talent, impervious to the training process;
naturally, these individuals spend little of their training
time working on kick development. However, the belief that kicking prowess is
locked in the genes is far from the truth. In fact,
even if your current performance over the last 200 to 1200 meters of your races
is more like a holding-on-for-dear-life stagger than
a formidable surge, you can boost your kicking power dramatically in just six
weeks. To do so, you have to enhance your muscles'
abilities to work powerfully when they are close to exhaustion.
Of course, kicking ability is, to some extent, a direct function of fitness.
That is, an athlete's ability to kick is directly
related to the loftiness of his/her VO2Max and lactate-threshold speed, as well
as the miserliness of his/her economy of movement.
Kicking is also related to running-specific strength and power - and the degree
to which an athlete has prepared in a specific way
for a particular race distance. Runners who have come close to optimizing these
variables will tend to have more speed and energy
available for kicking and less fatigue during the closing stages of their races
- and thus will usually be able to out-kick
less-well-trained individuals.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050127_RRN_Kick.html


2. Multisport: Proper Running Form:
Many people believe that you are born with either good or bad running form, and
that there is little that you can do to change it.
We have all seen "natural runners," and envy their fluidity and grace. But by
knowing a little bit about the physics of running and
trying to adopt some of the common traits of all "good" runners, it is possible
to improve on what you're stuck with.
Physics: Your body's center of gravity is in your midsection. Any force that is
applied to the ground in front of this center
gravity acts as a braking force to your forward movement. Picture a runner with
an exaggerated running stride. Every time he plants
his heel forward of his body, he applies a braking force, slowing himself down.
In addition, before he is able to apply force to the
ground and move his body forward for the next stride, he must wait until his
body has moved directly over his foot. If you look at
the form of most good runners, you will see that their feet strike the ground
directly beneath their body. Running with this
shortened stride is also characterized by a "mid-foot" strike (not on the heel,
not on the toes, but at about the ball of the foot)
and a high cadence, or "quick feet."
System Checklist
Now, having said all of this, don't watch me run. My wife Sue says that rather
than run, I "lumber." But she also says I've gotten
much better. This is my "System Checklist" that I use to critique my running
form as I run. I start with my head and work down my
body.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050127_CF_PRF.html


3. Triathlon: Going long:
Unlock the secrets of a successful season.
The long workout is a staple of most successful athletes' training regimes. Some
have groups they join for this weekly ritual, like
the famous Sunday forest run in San Diego, while others prefer solitude as they
log long hours on the road. No matter how it is
accomplished, the long workout is an important part of the training process for
anyone doing Olympic distance races or longer.
Long rides and runs are important because training slowly and for longer periods
of time allows for your body to develop in two key
ways. The relatively long duration of the activity, coupled with the lower
intensity, allows the body to build specific strength as
well as general aerobic endurance. It stimulates your heart, lungs, muscles and
circulatory system to adapt and become efficient
absorbers and transporters of the oxygen and sugar which fuels your movement -
long workouts actually improve your collateral
circulation, so that you grow more capillaries. Secondly, you are also building
muscle memory and developing neuromuscular pathways
that will come in handy when you are fatigued and nearing the end of a race.
Long workouts can make or, if done improperly, break your race season. So with
that in mind, there are several basic concepts that
should be considered in planning these training sessions.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050127_LW_GoingLong.html


4. Researcher finds sports that fit each personality:
Exercise staying power: Unfocused or driven: Research model helps find best fit
Kristian Peltonen, National Post
A Montreal researcher has created a model to help those who can't stick to an
exercise routine find physical activities that match
their personalities.
Someone who has trouble focusing on one task, for example, should probably put
the squash racquet away and stick to something with
fewer distractions -- jogging or swimming.
And someone who enjoys being around other people will be more likely to keep
exercising if they choose team sports over, for
example, yoga.
Dr. James Gavin, 62, of the Centre of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia
University, created the model by finding seven "personal
styles" from studies on personality in sports: sociability, spontaneity,
self-motivation, aggressiveness, competitiveness, mental
focus, and risk-taking. These, he says, are the dimensions of personality most
relevant to choosing one's ideal physical activity.
He then discovered the "personality" of physical activities by finding through
surveys how thousands of participants in different
activities measured on these parameters.
"If you think of a person having a personality, you can also regard physical
activity as having a personality, or more accurately,
it demands a certain personality characteristic in order to participate," he
explained.
Basketball, for example, requires social interaction and competitive energy,
whereas running on a treadmill does not, he said.
"All physical activities have different psychological demands of participants,"
he said. "These demands may match or mismatch an
individual's personal style."
Dr. Gavin's research, outlined in December's issue of The Physician and
Sportsmedicine, found a "significant trend" between the
amount someone exercises and the degree to which their activities match their
personalities.
He now trains lifestyle fitness coaches to use the model to help people find
what activities suit their personalities best.
The model can also be used through self-administered tests, such as one he
developed that uses a computer questionnaire, much like
vocational guidance tools.
But some people "will benefit from a dialogue with a professional," he said.
More dedicated individuals can take the model further, said Dr. Gavin. By
choosing activities that run against the grain of their
personalities, people can make their own personality more like that of the
activity they choose.
Taking up running, for example, can help bring out your competitive side, he
said. Switching from a sport like racquetball to
tai-chi can help curb aggression.
But others in sports psychology take a more cautious stance toward such
findings.
"I think people recognize that personality will be a factor which plays a role
in whatever we do," said Dr. Peter Crocker, professor
of Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of British Columbia.
"But will it really be a strong predictor of exercise? Probably not."
He says that more research is necessary to come up with a fully scientific model
of the connection between personality and exercise.
Dr. Gavin hopes by being exposed to the tools, people will think beyond the
stereotypes of fitness activities and take an interest
in new ones.
He says he wants people to see how physical activity is as relevant to the mind
as it is to the body.
"The goal of all this is to get people to be more active and to find more of the
benefits of physical activity," he said, heading
off to an Aikido class -- a sport he chose to help him "stand my ground amidst
very strong conflict."
© National Post 2005


5. Fly Spit Speeds Healing:
Protein in black flies' saliva helps close wounds.
American researchers have patented the use of fly spit to speed healing.
The researchers, from Auburn University in Alabama, were conducting research on
black flies when they discovered a protein in their
saliva that speeds the healing of surgical incisions.
Black flies inject the protein, named Simulium vittatum erythema protein, into
their prey to increase blood flow in the skin.
Researcher Mary Cupp and small-animal surgery professor Steven Swaim have shown
that surgical incisions treated with solutions
combining a recombinant form of the protein with antibiotics heal faster and
stronger than incisions treated with antibiotics alone.
The researchers also say their findings suggest that the protein could work in a
similar way to speed healing of chronic wounds such
as skin ulcers and diabetic lesions.
Auburn University's Office of Technology Transfer is now looking for companies
or entrepreneurs to commercialize the technology.
The research is reported in the journal Wounds.
From BetterHumans.com.


6. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Lydiard on LSD:
Somewhere Arthur Lydiard is shouting: "No, no, NO! You got it all wrong!" He
always spoke in italics and exclamation points.
Published tributes labeled as "the father of LSD." He would say they LIBELED him
by linking his name to long slow distance training.
I adopted parts of the Lydiard system soon after learning his name in 1960. Even
these half-measures led to the best racing of my
life, but they had little in common with what came to be known as LSD in my
booklet by that title.
When first I met Lydiard, he had heard about the booklet, didn't like it and
said so. He had spent the first half of his life
perfecting a system. He would spend the second half protecting it against
revisionists and explaining it to skeptics.
As far back as 1970 he saw me as a revisionist. He said without prompting as our
first interview began, "Aren't you the one who
wrote about L-S-D." He spit out those letters, one at a time, as if they left a
bad taste in his mouth.
"Slow running is better than no running," he told me, "and it works fine for
joggers. But my athletes do NOT run slow. They go as
fast as they can without going into oxygen debt.
"And they do NOT run long all the time, but only during the endurance-building
phase that lasts less than three months. They follow
this with period of hill bounding, then sharpening with time trials and
sprints."
In the LSD booklet I'd taken pains not to pass off what I was doing and
recommending as Lydiard-light. I gave him just four
paragraphs of praise. (These came after I'd named another Arthur -- Newton --
"the father of LSD.")
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/486.html


7. Pumping Elbow to Elbow? Must Be January:
Last week Vicki Holland, an occupational therapist from Riverdale, raced to one
of her regular Pilates classes at the New York
Sports Club on 44th Street. Ms. Holland takes her fitness very seriously - she
attends classes at least three times a week - so what
came next was a rude surprise: for the first time in months, the class was full,
and Ms. Holland was shut out. She said she knew
what that meant: the winter gym blitz was on.
"It's really annoying," she said. "The instructor has to scale down the
difficulty of the class for the beginners. Having to wait
for a shower is annoying. I think all of you who are taking up space should just
go away."
January is the month many Americans dedicate - or rededicate, or re-rededicate -
to getting healthy. While in the heartland that
might entail jogging around an indoor track or playing tennis at a roomy indoor
racquet club, to many city dwellers it means crowded
locker rooms, towel shortages, fighting for treadmill time and going elbow to
furiously pumping elbow with strangers in dank rooms
crammed with StairMasters. For New Yorkers the January gym blitz is the inverse
of those first warm weeks of spring, when Central
Park overflows with joggers and bikers, and the flowers are in bloom. And for
the health club industry, it's a make or break time.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/fashion/23gyms.html?oref=login


8. Carving a New Path:
Adaptive Skiing Helps Disabled Vets, Others Move On.
Former marathon runner Eric Alva assumed his sports career was over after a land
mine severed his right leg on his first day of duty
in Iraq in early 2003. But a Washington area group that teaches physically
challenging sports to people with disabilities convinced
him otherwise.

Today Alva, 34, swooshes down snowy slopes on one leg. Two poles, each equipped
with a short outrigger ski, assist him with balance
and controlling his speed. When he's in the mood for a more challenging workout,
Alva straps himself into a "sit-ski" -- a seat
perched above two skinny, fixed-position skis. A user propels the device,
designed for climbing up hills as well as skiing down, by
arm power.
Learning "adaptive skiing," he said, taught him he could push along in life as
well.
"I look at it as the beginning of my walk back up the mountain," said the
ex-Marine, now working on a degree in physical therapy in
San Antonio.
Disabled Sports USA (DS/USA), the Rockville-based nonprofit that put Alva back
on the slopes, has helped thousands of others see
their disabilities as less limiting than they imagined. For many people with a
disability, adaptive sports programs provide more
than just a diversion, rehabilitation experts say.
According to Lt. Col. Paul Pasquina, chief of physical medicine and
rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the
District, sports therapy can help stave off conditions linked to a sedentary
lifestyle, including obesity, diabetes and heart
disease. In addition, it complements traditional vocational therapy by helping
to reduce stress.
More...from the Washington Post at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33518-2005Jan24.html


9. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
"Wear racing shoes for 5-Ks and 10-Ks, then switch to trainers for longer
races. The theory here is that you can't do much damage
in shorter races. So, if you like having a pair of racing shoes in your closet,
fine. Take them out for the short races. Leave them
behind when you race a half-marathon or marathon." - RW Magazine
* Injury Prevention
Watch wet surfaces: Slick asphalt and slippery mud are an invitation to fall, so
slow down as you approach these surfaces. And don't
run on trails or grass after a steady rain. These may be too soft and mushy,
which can put extra strain on your feet, Achilles, and
calves.
* Performance Nutrition
Bake some Bread: "Select breads that offer lots of muscle-fueling carbohydrates
along with a dose of fiber, and avoid those, such as
croissants, that come with unwanted fat. Whole-grain breads such as seven-grain,
100-percent whole wheat, and whole-wheat sourdough
make excellent choices. One slice of whole-grain bread usually supplies about 15
to 20 grams of carbohydrates and 3 to 4 grams of
fiber. Bread also supplies a decent amount of B vitamins--thiamin, riboflavin,
niacin, and folic acid--which all help your body
produce energy." -Liz Applegate, Ph.D.
* Editor's Advice
Stay healthy. "A stuffy, runny nose will inhibit your sense of smell, which, in
turn, hampers your ability to taste food. Since 80
percent of a food's taste is actually determined by its smell, the average cold
can deaden your eating experience, making you eat
more. Keep yourself healthy this season by washing your hands often and getting
plenty of sleep."
-Carol Goodrow, RW kids running editor
* Training Talk
"Relaxing won't make the pain go away, but it will keep you from crumbling."
-From Amby Burfoot's Runner's World Complete Book of
Running
* Words That Inspire:
"Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one
becomes rich." -Sarah Bernhardt, actress


10. The government says that 60 to 90 minutes of daily activity is needed to
prevent weight gain:
Take it from Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who in his
press conference two weeks ago announcing the release of
the government's new dietary and activity guidelines insisted that getting the
amounts of physical activity prescribed in the new
recommendations is not hard at all.
Tonight," he said, "go out and walk around the block, and if you're going to
watch television, get down and do 10 pushups and five
sit-ups. And that's all it takes."
Actually, it takes a great deal more; especially if one wishes to adhere to the
new, more demanding activity guidelines, which for
some individuals double the recommended amount of daily exercise. While most
people should aim for 30 minutes of activity per day,
the government says, 60 minutes most days of the week may be necessary to
prevent gradual weight gain. And those who have lost
significant amounts of weight already may need to go up to 90 minutes a day to
keep it off.
More...from Newsday at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-dscover4123894jan25,0,2346621.story?coll=n\
y-health-headlines


11. Sunburn-proof Mice Engineered:
Feat provides researchers with insight into the development and prevention of
sunlight-induced skin cancer.
Researchers have engineered mice to be highly resistant to sunburn using enzymes
that could protect against sunlight-induced skin
cancer in humans.
The enzymes, lacking in most mammals, repair DNA damage that can result from
exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light.
Insufficient repair, which can occur after unprotected sunbathing, can lead to
cellular death—visible as sunburn—and permanent DNA
mutations that result in skin cancer.
Humans and many other mammals can remove DNA damage using a mechanism called
nucleotide excision repair.
More...from Better Humans at:
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2005-01-25-6


12. Training Methods:
There are three major methods of training. Heart rate training, training by
recent race times and training by your rate of perceived
exertion. Each has advantages in certain situations. Here are the basics of each
type of training and some recommendations.
Heart rate training
Training by heart rate has become very popular over the past several years. When
training by heart rate, you wear a belt around you
lower chest that has a sensor built into it. The sensor sends heart rate data to
a receiver that you wear on your wrist, similar to
a watch. You monitor your heart rate by checking the wrist receiver.
Heart rate training is based upon two heart rates - your maximum heart rate and
your target heart rate.
Your maximum heart rate is the maximum rate at which your heart will beat. This
can be determined by a monitored treadmill test or
can be estimated with the formula of 220 minus your age. If you are 40 years
old, your estimated maximum heart rate would be 220 -
40 = 180 beat per minute.
Your target heart rate is a range of rates that your training program will
specify for each workout. You will run at a pace that
elicits the desired heart rate. You will either slow down or speed up in order
to keep you heart rate at the desired level. The
theory is that each of the different types of workouts - easy runs, speed
workouts, lactate threshold runs, hill workouts; are best
performed at a specific heart rate level.
Target heart rate is calculated using one of several formulas. The two most
commonly used are the percentage of maximal heart rate
and the Karvonen formula.
More...from Running Planet at:
http://www.runningplanet.com/articles/article_detail.asp?article_id=460


13. A Key to Aging with Strength:
Muscle-blocker myostatin linked with age-related weakness.
A new discovery about a protein's role in blocking muscle growth could lead to
the prevention of age-related strength decline, with
potential treatments already in development.
A study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has shown that
older women, aged 60 to 75, have difficulty
building muscle mass despite weight training because they are unable to
effectively reduce expression of the protein, myostatin.
Myostatin is a protein made by muscle cells to block muscle growth. Scientists
believe it plays a role in our early life, regulating
muscle growth and ensuring normal development. But in adults, its role isn't so
clear.
More...from Better Humans at:
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2005-01-26-4


14. Sleep can be a vital part of training:
There are many benefits to working out, such as being fit, weight control, lower
cholesterol and so on down the line.
But there's another benefit that is no less important: napping.
I know in the midst of many a grueling ride or long run, the thought of that
post-workout shower or meal was overshadowed only by
the thought of just how good that post-workout nap was going to feel.
Believe me, once you have showered and replenished, the sensations of drifting
off to sleep on your favorite couch or recliner,
sheltered from the heat or the cold or wind that wore you to your core and
eventually re-emerging from your well-earned slumber are
priceless.
That's because as lovely as those naps can be, they also are vital to an
athlete's recovery.
A check of athletic coaching and performance sites on the Web showed agreement:
rest -- be it naps or otherwise -- is crucial to an
athlete's physical and mental well being. And while napping at your desk at work
is not advisable, there's nothing wrong with
crashing after a strenuous weekend workout. In fact, some experts encourage
athletes to make naps a regular part of their training
regimens.
While Indialantic's Suzanne Coullias is not a nap person, the triathlete,
triathlon coach and personal trainer is a firm believer in
proper rest.
"Definitely, your body actually goes through hormone releases as you sleep," she
said. "Without your body releasing that, and you
sleeping the proper number of hours, you won't recover. Proper rest is vital to
athlete's ability to perform."
[From Florida Today]


15. Vitamins: More May Be Too Many:
"People are looking for the magic bullet. It does not exist."
A growing number of medical experts are concerned that Americans are overdoing
their vitamin consumption. As many as 70 percent of
the population is taking supplements, mostly vitamins, convinced that the pills
will make them healthier.
But researchers say that vitamin supplements cannot correct for a poor diet,
that multivitamins have not been shown to prevent any
disease and that it is easy to reach high enough doses of certain vitamins and
minerals to actually increase the risk of disease.
No longer, the experts say, are they concerned about vitamin deficits. Those are
almost unheard of today, even with the population
eating less than ideal diets and skimping on fruits and vegetables. Instead, the
concern is with the dangers of vitamin excess.
"There has been a transition from focusing on minimum needs to the reality that
today our problem is excess - excess calories and,
yes, excesses of vitamins and minerals as well," said Dr. Benjamin Caballero, a
member of the Food and Nutrition Board at the
National Academy of Sciences and the director of the Center for Human Nutrition
at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Caballero said that for some supplements, including vitamin A, the
difference between the recommended dose and a dose that could
lead to bad outcomes like osteoporosis was not large. Popular multivitamins, he
added, often contain what could be risky doses.
"Certainly," he said, "by consuming supplements, people can reach that level."
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050127_NYT_Vitamins.html


16. Young Again:
We have the technology. This new program actually rolls back your body's clock
by a decade, making you stronger, faster -- and
younger -- than you have been in years.
Even before you step inside the brand new "E" studio at Manhattan's Equinox
Fitness Club, you can tell it's state-of-the-art. In
order to pass through the front door, members must present an eye to one of
those iris scanners you've seen in the movies. If it's
your first time, a staffer soon ushers you across the gleaming gym floor (Wait,
was that Naomi Campbell on the StairMaster?) into
the back room, where the E studio's fanciest piece of equipment is found, the
gizmo that might justify E's $23,500-a-year membership
fee all by itself.
Called the Polar Body Age System, the machine looks like a computer you might
pick up at Circuit City, except that instead of USB
cables it has weight pulleys sticking out of it. But it's the brain and guts of
the thing that can change your life. Yank the
pulleys like so, rap out a bunch of push-ups, leg presses, and other standard
exercises nearby, watch the trainers plug in your
vital stats, and the machine will spit out a number corresponding to your real,
or "biological," age. For a 34-year-old who hasn't
hit the gym enough lately, it can be a harrowing, ghost-of-fitness-future
experience to find out that you actually have the body of
a 47-year-old. It can also be a powerful form of positive reinforcement to lower
that 47, with the help of E's staff, down under 30.
More...from Men's Journal at:
http://www.mensjournal.com/healthFitness/0502/workout_ageQuiz.html



17. When you take your training too seriously:
An incident whilst riding the other day prompted this look at our competitive
nature as athletes, and why some athletes "race to
train", when we should be "training to race".
Just over a week ago, I was returning home from a long training ride when I
passed a fellow cyclist. He was not riding that fast at
all, and it appeared he was having a social ride. In true cycling fashion, he
jumped onto my back wheel. I turned a corner onto a
downhill and he came flying past me as if he suddenly was in race mode.
Nevertheless, I did not follow him as I was out training, and not racing. The
traffic light caught him and I maintained my pace. The
light turned as I got there, so I passed him a second time. He again caught up
to me and slipped my wheel. I simply held my pace. I
certainly had no point to prove.
I noticed after a short while that he dropped off my wheel. A few minutes later
I was caught at the traffic lights of a major
intersection. There was a four-way traffic light, and it was very busy.
Suddenly, from out of the blue, the same cyclist came flying
past me; did not even look at the traffic and just went straight over the
intersection on the red light.
Miraculously, no vehicles hit him. He turned around to see if I am following
him, and obviously I was not! Why? Because there are
cars coming!
I was astounded to witness this act of what I would unashamedly call, stupidity!
Clearly, the guy has ego issues. Since when is a
training ride the time to prove to the world you are prepared to risk life and
limb to showcase your ability? My mind whizzed the
whole way home on why this cyclist saw it as necessary to take such a chance
simply to show me his talent. To risk going through
that set of lights at that time of day was really taking your life in your own
hands.
I came to the conclusion this rider clearly had a death wish and his amateur
training career was way more important than either
racing or even (dare I say), his family.
Competitiveness in training: Good or bad?
This experience made me ask myself when is competitiveness necessary, and when
is it harmful?
More...from World of Endurance at:
http://worldofendurance.com/triathlon/beginners_column.asp?a_id=1056599&st_name=\
BackToBasics


18. An integrated approach to increasing flexibility:
When we think of movement and strength, we usually think of muscles. While this
thought is not wrong it does oversimplify things a
little. In fact, it might be better to work our way into the body from the
outside.
As much as the muscles are crucial to swimming, cycling and running, fascial
tissues are an often-overlooked part of human
anatomy -- yet they are a fundamental part of what keeps us upright and moving.
Fascia is a fibrous structural tissue that envelops
the muscles, bones and joints, supporting the body and helping to give shape to
the human form. Some anatomists contend that if you
removed the skeleton from a human body, the body would still be able to stand
based on the integrity of the fascial system. Along
with this structural role, fascia also provide leverage for the muscles to work
against.
The superficial fascia consists of subcutaneous fat and loose connective tissue,
which protects and supports blood vessels and
nerves. Your superficial fascia can be distinguished by simply grabbing the skin
on your arm, for example, and lifting it away from
the underlying muscle. The deep fascia is a little more complex. Deep fascia can
be compared to the insulating outer layer found on
electrical cords. Each muscle has this type of fibrous sheath containing it,
which is why we can see distinct muscle groups when we
look at an anatomy diagram. And within each muscle, every muscle fiber has its
own fascial covering down to a microscopic level. The
collection of these fibers forms tendons at the ends of the muscle, which allows
it to attach to a continuation of the fascia that
covers the bone, called the periosteum.
More...from Triathlete Magazine at:
http://triathletemag.com/story.cfm?story_id=9378&publicationID=92&pageID=1705


19. Moderate exercisers feel best:
Dear Jock Doc: I have an ongoing disagreement with a friend. My theory about a
body's resistance to infectious disease organisms is
that by exercising, you raise your internal temperature above the normal 98.6
degrees. Most invasive organisms can colonize and
replicate in this environment. If you strenuously exercise and raise this body
temperature one or two degrees for a period of time,
will the temperature rise actually kill or inhibit their invasion for long
enough that the white blood cells and other defense
mechanisms will "squash" them? - Who is correct?
Dear Who is correct?: There is quite a bit of research being done to determine
the effects of exercise on the immune system. People
who exercise regularly and in moderate amounts - 30 to 60 minutes for three to
six days a week - tend to get fewer viral illnesses
than people who do not exercise. And, when moderate exercisers do get sick, they
tend to be ill for fewer days.
More...from Cleveland.com at:
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/1106822144306\
091.xml


20. New GPS devices can help sharpen your training:
Back in my days as a high school runner I used to wish that there were
speedometers for runners, so I could know exactly how fast I
was running at any given time.
I got my hands on a Timex Speed + Distance as soon as it hit the market, and
recently upgraded to a Garmin Forerunner 301, which has
some amazing advanced mapping and analysis features, plus a built-in heart rate
monitor.
Most recently, I teamed up with Training Peaks to develop new ways to use GPS
technology that could well revolutionize how runners
train.
Now, more than 15 years later, these devices exist in the form of wearable GPS
devices for runners, manufactured by companies
including Timex and Garmin.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11467&sidebar=17&category=activeusahome\
page


21. Eating for Endurance: Strategies for Extraordinary Athletes:
From The Athlete's Kitchen (by Nancy Clark, MS, RD Copyright: January 2005)
Some of us are just ordinary mortals. We enjoy a daily 3 mile run, workout at
the gym for 45 minutes, play volleyball once a week at
the Y. Others of us are extraordinary athletes—cyclists preparing for a double
century ride (200 miles), tri athletes in training
for an Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run), mountain
marathoners spending hours running up and down hills in
preparation for a race.
As a sports nutritionist, I marvel at the number of people who push themselves
to the limit. But I am dismayed at how many fail to
make nutrition an integral part of their training program. They get their
training down pat but miss an important link—fueling well.
My job is to help these athletes optimize their eating despite their busy
lifestyle. If you have high expectations from your body,
this article can help you fuel at your best, so you can train at your best, so
you can compete at your best. The information can
also help ordinary exercisers who struggle to find energy to simply survive this
marathon called life.
Tip #1. Make eating an integral part of your training program not an
afterthought. By practicing fueling your body during exercise
(as you will be doing during your endurance event), your intestinal tract will
learn to manage food while you exercise. This means
less diarrhea, fewer pit stops, more comfort, better performance. Experiment
with different foods and fluids to determine what ones
settle best: Gatorade or iced tea with honey? Energy bars or peanut butter and
raisins wrapped in a tortilla? Bananas or gels?
Consuming 200 to 300 carbohydrate-calories per hour of exercise enhances stamina
and endurance. Learn how to do it! Some athletes
believe commercial sports foods are better than natural foods. They are better
only if they taste better and digest better. But
sometimes, they cause intestinal problems. (Many athletes complain gels cause
diarrhea...) During training, develop a menu of
tried-and-true foods that digest well and taste good. This food may be the most
pleasant part of your exercise experience; choose it
wisely! Also think about the “taste bud burn out” factor. That is, how many gels
per hour can you endure in a triathlon? When
hiking, how many days in a row will you enjoy peanut butter? Will you get
“sugared-out” on sports drink during the century bike
ride? Think about v-a-r-i-e-t-y.
Tip #2. Schedule time to food shop, so you can optimize your daily food intake.
All too often, in the midst of juggling work,
family, friends, sleep and training, endurance athletes find no time to plan
meals and shop for (or otherwise obtain) a well
balanced sports diet. The result: yet-another donut for breakfast, cookie for
lunch, vending machine snack, and fast ‘n fatty meal
that fills the stomach but leaves muscles poorly fueled.
Muscles need carbohydrates for fuel: Grape Nuts, oatmeal, granola, bagels,
fruit, juice, hearty breads, bean burritos, spaghetti.
Your job is to eat carbs evenly throughout the day (as opposed to skimping on
meals by day, then gorging on treats at night). By
having breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack, you’ll
have steady energy all day, without lags.
Make time to develop an eating strategy that fits your training schedule. For
example, one triathlete devised this routine: he drank
a tall glass of juice (i.e., carbs) before his morning swim, refueled afterwards
with breakfast in his car while commuting to work
(big bagel with peanut butter, milk in a travel mug, banana); ate a hot dinner
at noon (from the cafeteria at work). At noon, he
also bought his afternoon snack (muffin, juice) and his evening meal (turkey
sub, yogurt); he kept these in the office refrigerator.
This program prevented the evening “junk eating” that happened when no healthful
food was conveniently waiting for him once he
finished his second workout of the day and was too ravenous to cook.
Tip #3. Erase the thought I’m lazy if I take a day off. Taking a rest day is
being smart, not lazy! Rest days are essential to not
only reduce the risk of injury and provide muscles with time to refuel, but rest
days also allow time for you to food shop (and even
cook a big pot of chili-for-the-week, if so inclined). Performance improves when
you do quality exercise, not excessive quantity of
exercise. Yet, too many ultra-distance athletes, feeling overwhelmed by their
impending tasks, fill every possible minute with
(sometimes poor quality) exercise. They become exhausted, if not sick. Take
note: You have a better chance of beating your
competitors if you enter the event well rested, not overtrained. Don’t be one to
lament I wish I had rested more before my event...
Tip #4. Consult with a sports dietitian who can tell you: how many calories you
need to fuel-up, fuel during and refuel after your
workouts, how many grams of protein you need to build and repair muscles, how
many protein bars (if any) you need... This “food
coach” will create a personal fueling plan that prevents (or delays) fatigue and
optimizes recovery. To find a sports dietitian, put
your zip code into the referral network at www.eatright.org.
Tip #5. Monitor your urine to be sure you are drinking enough fluids on a daily
basis. You should be urinating frequently (every 2
to 4 hours); the urine should be light colored, like lemonade. Smelly, dark
urine signals dehydration. Bad. To help you drink more,
keep a quart of ice water on your desk or juice boxes in your car. During
training, learn your sweat rate: weigh yourself naked
before and after an hour-long workout during which you consume no fluid. For
each one pound of sweat lost, you need to rehydrate
with at least 16 ounces of fluid. For example, if you lose two pounds (32 oz.)
during an hour of training in weather similar to that
anticipated on race day, your target race day fluid intake should be at least 32
ounces per hour (8 ounces every 15 minutes).
Tip #6. Be flexible. Tastes change during exhausting exercise. Tired athletes
commonly resort to sweets and “junk” but that can be
OK as long as the fuel settles well. Even lackluster treats can delay fatigue
and provide comfort when you need it the most!
Nancy Clark, MS, RD offers personal consultations to endurance athletes and
ordinary mortals at Healthworks (617-383-6100), the
premier fitness center in Chestnut Hill MA. Her Sports Nutrition Guidebook (
$23) and Food Guide for Marathoners ($20) are available
here.
www.nancyclarkrd.com
www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com
1300 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill MA 02467
Phone: (617) 795-1875 Fax: (617) 795-1876
“Helping active people win with good nutrition.”


22. Simple workouts that can help you run faster:
On each of these, walk for 5 min and jog for 5-10 min as a warm up. Reverse this
for the warm down.
*Strength workout - run for 5-10 minutes easily to a hill, overpass or other
incline. Count off 50-300 steps (50 for beginners and
more if you have done speedwork before). Run up the hill faster than you usually
run, but not all out, and walk back to your start.
First workout, run 2-3 of these, and add 1-2 more on this weekly hill workout.
The incline of the hill should be gradual, not steep.
* Better form-during a short run, after your 5-10 min warm up, take out your
watch and time yourself for 30 seconds. Don't change
anything about the way you run during this half minute, but count the number of
times your left foot touches and remember the count.
After jogging for another minute or so, count your cadence for 30 seconds again
and try to increase the count by 1 or 2. Repeat this
2-6 more times, attempting to increase the count of each one by 1 or 2. If you
do this once a week,
your body will find ways of touching lighter, aligning more efficiently, and
moving with less effort.
* Speed workout - once a week run to a measured segment: A standard high school
track or a segment of road or trail that you have
measured at a quarter of a mile. Run each of these quarter-miles at a pace that
is 5-7 seconds faster than you want to run the same
distance in your goal 5K or 10K. For half marathons, use half mile segments, and
for marathons, use the mile. Start with 2-3
segments and increase by 1-2 each week until you reach 12-20 for the 5K or 10K
program. Half marathon or marathon speedwork should
be done on non-long-run weekends every second or third
weekend, starting with 2-3 and increasing to 11-14 repetitions. Walk for one
third to one half of the distance of the repetition as
recovery.
[Note: Jeff Galloway will be conducting a weekend speed retreat March 4-6 with
individual instruction in form and these drills.
Also, for the details on hill, form and speed workouts, see Jeff's books
MARATHON & GALLOWAY'S BOOK ON RUNNING 2ND ED.


23. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* Exercise and Fever
Heat stroke is a concern all year long, not just in summertime. Weight lifters
often have temperatures of 101 degrees F during
workouts in a warm gym. In the relatively cool environmental temperature of 50
F, healthy marathon runners can have body
temperatures as high as 103.8 F. One runner developed a temperature of 107.8 F
after finishing a marathon and was still conscious,
but most people cannot tolerate temperatures that high.
When you exercise, your temperature usually rises and if it rises too high, you
can develop heat stroke and pass out. Since more
than 78 percent of the energy that you use to drive your muscles is lost as
heat, the harder you exercise, the higher your
temperature will rise. Your chances of developing heat stroke increase when the
air temperature and humidity are high, you are not
in shape, you take certain edications, or you are sick or dehydrated. Aspirin
does not keep your temperature from rising during
exercise because aspirin lowers fever by making you
sweat; it does not increase sweating when you exercise.
To prevent heat stroke when you exercise, take it easy in a hot gym or on hot
days outdoors; don't wait for thirst, drink plenty of
fluid; and stop exercising when you feel the symptoms of a rising body
temperature. Heed the warning signs: when your temperature
rises above 102, your muscles start to burn. When it rises to 104 you will
usually become short of breath and when your temperature
rises above 105, you will often have signs of brain distress, such as a
headache, blurred vision, ringing in your ears, dizziness,
nausea or passing out.

*Dear Dr. Mirkin: I've been running on a treadmill for several months. Why am I
still having a hard time climbing stairs?
If you have a hard time walking up stairs or getting out of a chair without
using your hands, your thighs are weak. You strengthen
your thigh muscles by pedaling, skating, or skiing, not by walking or running.
The easiest exercise for strengthening thigh muscles
is pedaling a stationary bicycle. Pedal every other day until your legs feel
heavy or hurt or you feel tired. You should be able
to gradually work up to the point where you can ride for thirty minutes, three
times a week. When you can do that, start to
increase the resistance.
If you find a standard exercise bicycle uncomfortable, try a recumbent bike
instead. When you ride a conventional stationary
bicycle, you sit on a narrow bicycle seat because your legs have to reach around
the seat down to the pedals. When you sit on a
recumbent bicycle that has the pedals at the same height as your pelvis, your
legs don't need to be separated so you don't need a
narrow bicycle seat. You sit on a seat shaped like a regular chair that is
contoured to fit your back and is very comfortable.
Anyone who can sit in a chair should be able to use
a recumbent stationary bicycle.

*Dear Dr. Mirkin: Many recipes tell you to drain and rinse canned beans. Are
nutrients lost if you do this? Does rinsing them help
to
reduce flatulence?
The liquid in the can has no particular nutritional value; you remove a little
salt when you discard it, but not much else. Rinsing
will not affect the gas-causing properties of the beans one way or the other.
(However, if you cook dried beans from scratch, the
liquid that's left after several hours of soaking does contain non-digestible
sugars that cause gas; it should be discarded.)
Diana's rule is: if canned beans are going into a salad or any recipe where you
don't want extra liquid, drain and rinse the beans.
If they're going into soup or stew, just open the can and pour them in. On gas
problems, see:
http://www.drmirkin.com/morehealth/8630.html and
http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/degas.html

*Dear Dr. Mirkin: How hard do I need to exercise to become fit?
Fitness refers to your heart; you become fit by exercising vigorously enough to
make your heart stronger. Intensity is measured by
how fast your heart beats. To strengthen your heart, you need to exercise
vigorously enough to increase your pulse rate at least 20
beats per minute above resting, but that's only the minimum intensity. If you
want to achieve a reasonable level of fitness, you
have to exercise more intensely than that.
The harder you exercise, the stronger your heart becomes. You become more fit by
running fast for 10 minutes than by running more
slowly for 20 minutes. However, intense exercise increases your chances of
injuring yourself and can make you so sore that it may
take several days before you can recover enough to attempt your next intense
workout.
If you're happy with your present levels of fitness, keep on doing what you have
been doing. If you want to increase your level of
fitness and endurance, try to exercise more intensely two or three times a week.
To protect yourself from injury, stop exercising
when you feel more than the usual generalized burning in your muscles or
shortness of breath, and do not try to exercise intensely
more often than every other day.


24. Better than french fries, but...
A multi-million dollar-industry, energy bars are giving fast food a run for your
snacking dollar. So why aren't nutritionists all
that impressed?
Vanessa Croy periodically tops up what she calls the "energy bar drawer" in her
Toronto kitchen with Atkins Zone bars in fudge
graham and Kashi Go Lean bars in sublime lemon-lime.
"You can't go wrong," says the 25-year-old vegetarian. "They're quick, easy and
they don't go bad. Plus, they're a good protein
source."
Croy is a charter member of the mass-market energy-bar revolution. She's been
eating them for six years, ever since the shiny
packages of energy boosters began taking over entire supermarket shelves. She
consumes one two hours before every workout, and often
uses them as meal replacements when she's stretched for time.
Grocery and drug store shelves are filled with rows of the vibrantly packaged
bars, available in such flavours as chocolate mint,
vanilla crisp and caramel nut brownie.
This is a multi-million-dollar industry in Canada, and it's growing quickly,
selling products that promise to provide just the
energy boost you need. The era of the energy bar began in the mid-'80s with the
advent of PowerBar's Performance Bar. The original
63 gram, high-carb (45 gram) energy bar, created for endurance athletes, has
evolved into a mass-market item.
There are power bars that are high in carbohydrates but low in fat (about 50g of
carbs and 3g of fat), low in carbs but high in
protein (usually less than 5g of net carbs -- carbs that increase blood sugar
levels -- and more than 20g of protein) or ones with
balanced amounts of carbs, protein and fat (about 35g, 10g and 5g). Most bars
contain about 250 calories.
About four years ago, PowerBar developed Protein Plus, a 78g bar that is high in
protein (24g), middling in carbs (39g) and low in
fat (5g). Last year it came out with an even lower-carb option (2g of net carbs
and 22g of protein), and it recently developed
PowerBar Pria, a low-cal bar (about 100 calories) targeted at women, containing
nutrients like calcium and folic acid.
But many nutritionists aren't impressed. "Studies are showing that some energy
bars increase blood-sugar levels and make insulin
high, resulting in a short energy boost," says Vladimir Vuksan, associate
director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor
Modification Centre at St. Michael's hospital in Toronto. "But then insulin
levels drop ... they can go below what is needed for
regular functioning, causing extreme hunger and dizziness." This reaction, he
says, is typical of high-sugar, low-fibre foods.
He believes nutritional requirements can be met more safely with healthy foods.
"Energy refers simply to calories," he says. "Energy
bars do not contain any magic ingredients."
Matthew Kadey, a Toronto dietician, echoes Vuksan's concerns, citing three
reasons he doesn't recommend them: They contain too much
sugar, they are calorie-dense but not filling (because they're low in fibre) and
they contain unhealthy hydrogenated oil (so the
coating on some bars won't melt).
"It's not good for your heart but it's good for the product," he says.
Most energy bars are fortified with vitamins and minerals, but Kadey says they
don't provide the nutrients of healthy food and
shouldn't be used as an alternative to regular meals.
That said, they're better than an unhealthy diet of fast food. "They aren't as
good for you as a plate of vegetables, but they are a
lot better than a burger, fries and a shake," says Dr. David Jenkins, Canada
research chair in nutrition and metabolism at the
University of Toronto.
Which is good enough for Ian Lavender, a landscaper based in Markham, Ont.
"I figure it's better to eat something with some nutritional value rather than
junk food," he says.
Lavender, 23, keeps Bio Protein bars (in double chocolate, chocolate/peanut
butter and cookies-and-cream) handy at work and at home.
He says they are an easy way to get a mid-day energy boost without eating
unhealthy foods between meals.
Susan Mah, registered dietician and sports nutritionist in Toronto, says healthy
snacks are the better choice.
"Energy bars aren't harmful, but there are much better and more tasteful ways to
get the energy and nutrients you need," she says,
mentioning a piece of fruit and low-fat crackers or a glass of soy milk and some
popcorn as comparable but more healthful
alternatives.
"Once in a while energy bars aren't too bad," says Mah, "but on a regular basis,
it's better to be eating real food."
[From the National Post]


25. News Scan:
* Hamstring injuries - what are the contributing factors?
An Australian study aimed to identify factors for hamstring injury at the
community level of Australian football.
A total of 126 community level Australian football players participated in the
study. They completed a questionnaire and had a
musculoskeletal screen during the 2000 preseason. All were monitored over the
season. Survival analysis was used to identify
independent predictors of hamstring injury.
Results showed a hamstring injury was the first injury of the season in 16% of
players. After adjustment for exposure, increasing
age and decreased quadriceps flexibility were identified as significant
independent predictors of the time to sustaining a hamstring
injury. Over 23's were associated with an increased risk of hamstring injury.
Players with increased quadriceps flexibility were
less likely to sustain a hamstring injury.
* Anterior cruciate ligament injury - does it run in the family?
A Canadian study of 171 surgical cases and 171 matched controls was conducted to
investigate whether a familial predisposition
toward tearing the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee exists.
Results showed participants with an anterior cruciate ligament tear were twice
as likely to have a relative (first, second, or third
degree) with an anterior cruciate ligament tear compared to participants without
an anterior cruciate ligament tear.
When the analysis was limited to include only first-degree relatives,
participants with an anterior cruciate ligament tear were
slightly greater than twice as likely to have a first-degree relative with an
anterior cruciate ligament tear compared to
participants without an anterior cruciate ligament tear.
From SportsInjuryClinic.net

* Kim Goff Has Most Same-Marathon Wins For A Woman: According to The Analytical
Distance Runner, Kim Goff's win at the Dec. 5, 2004
Run Barbados Marathon was her 11th in that event, a record for women in the same
race. The men's record is held by Bill McDermott,
who won the Catalina Marathon 13 times between 1978 and 1997. Goff's victory was
also her 27th career marathon win.

* Peanuts are healthier snacks than fruits
LONDON: A new study conducted by scientists at the University of Florida
suggests that peanuts, long considered high in fat and best
avoided, can rival fruit as a healthy snack.
According to the Daily Mail, researchers led by Steve Talcott tested the
antioxidant content of a dozen different varieties. "When
it comes to antioxidant content, peanuts are right up there with strawberries.
We expected a fairly high antioxidant content in
peanuts, but we were a bit shocked to find that they're as rich in antioxidants
as many kinds of fruit," Talcott said.
"Compared to foods long-considered rich in antioxidants, mostly fruits and
berries, peanuts come out somewhere in the middle.
They're no match for the foods at the top of the scale, such as pomegranate, but
they do rival other foods that people eat just for
their antioxidant content," he added.
He said roasted peanuts are about as rich in antioxidants as blackberries or
strawberries, and are far richer in the chemicals than
fruits such as apples, carrots or beets.

* Food and macronutrient intake of elite Kenyan distance runners.
Onywera VO, Kiplamai FK, Boit MK, Pitsiladis YP.
Dept of Exercise and Sports Science, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.
The food and macronutrient intake of elite Kenyan runners was compared to
recommendations for endurance athletes. Estimated energy
intake (EI: 2987 +/- 293 kcal; mean +/- standard deviation) was lower than
energy expenditure (EE: 3605 +/- 119 kcal; P < 0.001) and
body mass (BM: 58.9 +/- 2.7 kg vs. 58.3 +/- 2.6 kg; P < 0.001) was reduced over
the 7-d intense training period. Diet was high in
carbohydrate (76.5%, 0.4 g/kg BM per day) and low in fat (13.4 %). Protein
intake (10.1 %; 1.3 g/kg BM per day) matched
recommendations for protein intake. Fluid intake was modest and mainly in the
form of water (1113 +/- 269 mL; 0.34 +/- 0.16 mL/kcal)
and tea (1243 +/- 348 mL). Although the diet met most recommendations for
endurance athletes for macronutrient intake, it remains to
be determined if modifying energy balance and fluid intake will enhance the
performance of elite Kenyan runners.

* Exercise Nearly Halves Depression Symptoms
Thirty minutes of daily exercise can cut depression symptoms as much as some
antidepressants and psychotherapy.
"The effect you find using aerobic exercise alone in treating clinical
depression is similar to what you find with antidepressant
medications," says Madhukar Trivedi of the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center, coauthor of a new study on the mental
benefits of physical activity. "The key is the intensity of the exercise and
continuing it for 30 to 35 minutes per day. It's not
for the faint of heart."
The study, which also involved researchers from the Cooper Institute in Dallas
and the Alberta Children's Hospital in Canada,
involved 80 people aged 20 to 45 who had mild to moderate depression.
Between July 1998 and October 2001, participants were randomly placed into the
following five groups:
Moderately intense aerobics three days a week.
Moderately intense aerobics five days a week.
Lower-intensity aerobics three days a week.
Lower-intensity aerobics five days a week.
Stretching flexibility exercises 15 to 20 minutes three days per week.
Participants in both moderately intense aerobics groups, who did such things as
exercise on a treadmill, had an average 47% decline
in depressive symptoms after 12 weeks. Those in the low-intensity exercise
groups had a 30% reduction. Those in the stretching group
had a 29% decline.
The results, says Trivedi, are comparable to those from studies in which people
with mild to moderate depression were treated with
antidepressants or cognitive therapy.
The researchers are planning a follow-up study combining aerobic exercise and
antidepressant treatment.
The research is reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
From BetterHumans.com




*End of Articles*

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

January 29, 2005:
Frostbite Half-Marathon - Starkville, MS
http://www.ece.msstate.edu/~harden/frostbite

Mardi Gras Beach Run - Galveston, TX
http://www.mardigrasbeachrun.com

Reebok Boston Indoor Games - MA
http://www.bostonindoorgames.com

January 30, 2005:
Las Vegas Marathon - NV
http://www.lvmarathon.com

Ocala Marathon - FLA
http://www.ocalamarathon.com

Oceania Under 23 Triathlon Championships - Sydney, Australia
http://www.triathlon.org/regional/reg-2005/oceania/u23-oceania-championships-200\
5/index.htm

Sun Hung Kai Properties China Coast Marathon & Half Marathon, 10k Corporate
Challenge - Hong Kong, China
http://www.chinacoastmarathon.com

Toyota Prius Miami Tropical Marathon - FLA
http://www.miamitropicalmarathon.com

Television: ESPN 5 - 6:30 PM
Reebok Boston Indoor Games. Taped coverage of this January 29 event featuring
Kenenisa Bekele in his U.S. race debut /


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


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

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END...OF DIGEST...