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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: Does Stretching Cut Your Risk Of Getting Hurt - Or Extend
It?
2. Science of Sport: Quick test shows if speed is in genes
3. Sportsmedicine: Patellar Tendonitis - Jumper's Knee
4. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
5. Hidden danger: DVT in endurance athletes
Have you heard of DVT? Well, if you haven't you are not alone. As a bike rider,
you should be aware of DVT.
6. Healthy, Wealthy and Wise?
7. Green Tea a Performance-enhancing Drug
Equivalent of four cups a day improves swimming endurance up to 24% in mice
while stimulating the use of fat as energy.
8. Positive Drug Tests from Supplements:
9. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Shoe Safety
10. Born to run? Capacity for aerobic exercise linked to risk of heart disease
Low exercise capacity in rats associated with high levels of many CV disease
risk factors.
11. Science of Sport: Quick test shows if speed is in genes
12. Transitioning to Intensity Training
13. From Runner's World
14. Correlations Between Annual Training Patterns And Race Performance In Male,
Non-Elite, Ironman-Distance Triathletes
15. Unnaturally Large - Food for Thought
16. Last Call - Knowing when to drink alcohol and how much can mean the
difference between victory and defeat. Here's how to enjoy
yourself without going overboard.
17. What Does 'Periodization' Mean and How Does It Work?
18. Health issues heart of red dress-up day
19. Fueling for cold weather running
20. Sunlight Fights Some Cancers
More exposure linked with greater survival from melanoma and lower risk of
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
21. Recovery Day For Runners - Take Advantage of the Benefits of Light Days and
Rest Days
22. The Infection Connection
Running Can Boost or Dampen Your Immune System.
23. Triathletes Guide to Surviving-and Thriving in Winter
24. Sports bra: why wear one?
25. News Scan
A collection of news items.


Runner's Web Weekly Poll:
This week's poll is: ??????????????????????????????????

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 of the following major marathons have you run?
Chicago
Honolulu
London
Los Angeles
New York
Ottawa
Paris
Toronto
Quebec City
Vancouver"
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Chicago 19 16%
2. Honolulu 16 14%
3. London 4 3%
4. Los Angeles 5 4%
5. New York 15 13%
6. Ottawa 28 24%
7. Paris 2 2%
8. Toronto 20 17%
9. Quebec City 5 4%
10. Vancouver 4 3%
Total Votes: 118

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: OnTri.com.
ontri.com is a community of triathlon and fitness enthusiasts; we cater to
individuals, triathlon clubs or just groups of friends
who train together in any combination of swimming, cycling and running.
ontri.com provides training groups with an easy to use
web-based application to share training calendars, find races, share photos,
manage contact lists and easily exchange thoughts,
information and post updates. The flagship application of ontri.com is a unique
personal training application which allows athletes
of all levels to manage their training programs online. You can select from any
of our training programs that were developed
specifically for ontri.com by USAT coach, Katherine Schwab. There are programs
for sprint triathlons, Olympic distance events, half
ironman events, half marathon, marathon and century bike rides. Once you select
your training program and the date of the event a
recommended program with specific workouts is created automatically and mapped
into your personal training calendar. After any
workout you simply log your workout session on the ontri.com web site and then
can view your fitness achievements in a number of
ways:
-Planned versus actual against your training program
-Compare your workout for the week with your club members
-Compare your workout with others in your age group across the entire ontri.com
community
Imagine logging in and seeing that your friend or training partner had already
run 5 more miles that you this week – what better
motivation to get you out of work early to do a 6 mile run and bump yourself up
on the chart! It has been shown that keeping a log
of your workouts improves motivation to stay on track but with ontri.com, users
are motivated with a virtual competition with
thousands of other athletes of their level. You can view your workout history
by week, month, year or by program and review total
miles, total times and calories burned by swims, bikes, runs or in total.
Wouldn’t you like to know how many calories you burned
last month working out?
In addition, ontri.com provides you with a wealth of content focused on
triathlon enthusiasts; secrets on how to survive your first
swim, training methods to improve your swim efficiency, tips on tuning your bike
or how to run effectively after the bike stage.
There is a wealth of content available for triathletes but most of it is geared
towards the elites. ontri.com caters its content
and programs to the “mortals” who are participating in triathlon for fun and
fitness. Our goal is to help make triathlon even more
accessible and more fun for anyone interested in getting involved in
multi-sport. ontri.com users can search our database of races
and events by location, date and distance or purchase gear from one of our
select partners!
Start or join an ontri.com club today and be a part of the fastest growing
endurance sport in the world.
Visit the site at:
http://www.ontri.com/news.html


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

Book of the Week: Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes.
Training for and participating in endurance events presents unique nutritional
challenges. Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes
equips you with cutting-edge nutrition advice to help improve your athletic
performance. Sport specific guidelines provide nutrition
recommendations for endurance athletes who participate in triathlon, cycling,
mountain biking, cyclo-cross, swimming, distance
running, cross-country skiing, and adventure racing. In-depth information is
presented in an easy-to-read and accessible style, with
individual chapters dedicated to these specific endurance sports.
Monique Ryan designs a sports diet that is a foundation for the endurance
athlete's good health and combines it with a fuller
understanding of the building blocks of a balanced diet: carbohydrates,
proteins, and fats, along with fluid, vitamin, and mineral
requirements. Nutrition guidelines for both training and competition are
included, as well as detailed information on recovery
nutrition. Learn how to assess body composition and find healthy approaches to
losing body fat and building muscle. A review of
popular ergogenic aids and a section on meal planning tips, including shopping
lists, will give you practical pointers. Appendixes
include: glycemic index of foods, facts about vitamins and minerals, a
comparison of sports nutrition products, and sample menus. 6"
x 9". 352 pp. 12 black-and-white photos.
Buy the book from VeloPress at:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?velogear+srVvHn+spornutforen.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:

1. Science of Sport: Does Stretching Cut Your Risk Of Getting Hurt - Or Extend
It?
"Warming up" before workouts and competitions is an almost universal practice,
and athletes and coaches generally believe that good
warm-ups decrease the risk of injury and increase the ability to perform at a
high level.
The warm-ups performed by many athletes contain three key components:
(A) Continuous, relatively low-intensity activity designed to increase muscle
temperature and activate the cardiovascular system,
(B) "Rehearsal" of the activity which is about to be performed, including
high-intensity actions, in order to prepare the
neuromuscular system for the challenges it is about to face, and
(C) "Stretching" exercises, especially for the muscles which will play a key
role in the ensuing activity. It is often believed that
such stretching increases range-of-motion at joints, relaxes muscles, and
decreases stiffness in muscles and tendons, thereby
reducing the risk of injury during the subsequent workout or competition (1).
As you can see, stretching activities are thought to represent the key portion
of a warm-up which limits the possibility of getting
injured. But does stretching during a warm-up really cut an athlete's chances of
getting hurt? To find out, researchers from the
Kapooka Health Centre, the University of Sydney, and Charles Sturt University in
Australia recently examined the effects of
pre-exercise stretching on lower-limb injury over 11 weeks of training in 1538
(!) subjects ranging in age from 17 to 35 (2). This
study was carried out with a particularly apt study group: Army recruits
undergoing basic training (contact the lead researcher -
Rodney Peter Pope - at Rodney.Pope.69210450@...). Although army
recruits are not necessarily elite athletes, they do
undertake a rigidly controlled and strenuous program of exercise during basic
training, and they also sustain a high frequency of
lower-limb injury (3). Thus, if stretching is really beneficial as an
injury-preventer, one would expect to see its effects in a
large group of military-service signees.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050204_RRN_Stretching.html


2. Science of Sport: Quick test shows if speed is in genes:
If you could find out whether your children have the speed to sprint like
Donovan Bailey or the endurance to row like Silken
Laumann, would you? An Australian biotechnology company marketing its new
“Sports Gene Test” claims it can help people decide in
which sports they should specialize.
The test can be ordered over the Internet and involves a simple mouth swab that
clients then mail back to the lab. Results indicate
who has more “fast twitch” muscle fibres — needed for sprint/power events such
as the 100-metre dash — or “slow twitch” muscle
fibres, better for endurance sports such as rowing.
“This test will be of major interest to elite athletes, serious competitors and
teenagers already involved in sport and wanting to
progress to the next level,” says Deon Venter, a company director of Genetic
Technologies. “It indicates in which sport, or which
event within a sport, an athlete is more likely to excel.” It used to be that
the only way to find out whether you had more fast- or
slow-twitch fibres was through an invasive muscle biopsy: inserting a needle
into the muscle, plucking out a few fibres and
examining them under a microscope. Not the kind of thing you’d do through mail
order.
Now this easy, painless, $100 test could change the rules of the game for
coaches, parents and athletes. Who wouldn’t want to know
how to best use “your genetic advantage,” as the company calls it?
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050204_GeneTest.html


3. Sportsmedicine: Patellar Tendonitis - Jumper's Knee:
The Stretching & Sports Injury Newsletter
Causes, Prevention and Treatment
Anatomy of the Knee
Before we discuss what patellar tendonitis is, it is important to have a general
understanding of the structures that make up the
knee joint.
The picture to the right is a front-on view of the bones, tendons and ligaments
that make up the knee joint. In the very center of
the picture is the patella, or kneecap. The blue structure that runs downward
from the patella to the tibia (shinbone) is the
patella ligament.
On occasion you may hear of this structure being referred to as the patellar
tendon, but for the purposes of anatomy and physiology
this structure is a ligament, as it attaches the patella (knee cap) to the tibia
(shin bone). Ligaments attach bone to bone, while
tendons attach muscle to bone.
What is Patellar Tendonitis?
As with all cases of tendonitis, patella tendonitis is simply the inflammation,
degeneration or rupture of the patellar ligament and
the tissue that surround it, leading to pain and discomfort in the area just
below the knee cap
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050203_TSH_PatellarTendonitis.h\
tml


4. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* Hypothermia and Frostbite
In 1812, Napoleon attacked Russia with 450,000 men, but after he withdrew from
Moscow, the harsh cold winter reduced his army to
fewer than 10,000 fighting men. The vast majority of Napoleon's soldiers were
not killed by the Russians. They died of hypothermia,
a severe drop in body temperature.
Napoleon's surgeon general didn't help matters when he recommended that the
soldiers rub snow on their frostbitten hands. Rubbing
snow on frostbite removes skin.
If you dress properly and exercise vigorously enough, frostbite or hypothermia
should never happen to you. Your body sends you
signals as your temperature starts to drop. With a one degree drop in
temperature, your speech becomes slurred. This, in itself, is
not dangerous, and occurs when people stay out in temperatures below 35 degrees,
but it serves as a warning that you are losing more
heat than your body is producing. To protect yourself, you can produce more heat
by exercising harder or you can conserve heat by
adding more layers of clothes. With a drop of three degrees, you'll find it
difficult to coordinate your fingers. Seek shelter
immediately. When your temperature drops five
degrees, you won't be able to walk and you'll stumble and fall and not be able
to get up. Then you may not be able to get out of the
cold and your body temperature can continue to drop rapidly and you can die. If
your clothes are wet, your temperature will drop
even faster. Take the warning signals seriously; if you have slurred speech or
difficulty using your hands, take action or you may
not get another chance.
Frostbite means that your skin is frozen. You have plenty of warning before that
happens. Your normal skin temperature is around 90
degrees. As your skin temperature starts to drop, blood vessels close and your
skin turns white. When the temperature reaches 59
degrees, your body attempts to re-warm your skin by opening the blood vessels,
causing your skin to tingle, itch, burn and turn red.
When this happens, get out of the cold. If you don't, the blood vessels in your
skin will close down again and your skin temperature
can drop below 30 degrees and start to freeze.
* Dear Dr. Mirkin: I have varicose veins. Should I wear elastic stockings while
I ride my bike?
You may benefit from wearing support hose when you stand around, but it is
unlikely that you will need them when you exercise. Veins
in your legs carry blood up toward your heart. When you stand up, gravity pulls
blood down to your feet. Your leg veins are supposed
to have valves in them that keep the blood from backing up, but some people have
veins that are too wide apart and cannot close
properly, or they may have been born without any valves. These people have
varicose veins that widen with blood and look like
snakes. Support hose squeeze the
legs and help to prevent blood from pooling in veins and distending them.
When you exercise, the force of your contracting muscles keeps blood from
pooling. When your leg muscles relax, the veins near them
fill up with blood. When your leg muscles contract, they squeeze the veins near
them and pump blood up toward your heart. The
pumping action of your leg muscles exerts such a strong force to empty your
veins that you don't need support hose. In hot weather,
the support hose can act as a
barrier to prevent heat loss. Your body temperature may rise and you may tire
earlier.

* Dear Dr. Mirkin: I had to stop playing basketball last season because of
overtraining. How can I set up a sensible training
program?
Competitive athletes prevent overtraining injuries by following a few weeks of
hard training with a few weeks of easy workouts.
Training for competitive sports is done by stressing your body with a hard
workout which makes your muscles feel sore afterward. If
you try to take a hard workout when your muscles still feel sore from a previous
workout, you can expect to be injured. So, for a
day or two after a hard workout, competitive athletes take easy workouts until
the soreness goes away. Then they take another hard
workout. Runners run very fast interval
workouts, for example, a quarter mile at near maximum speed, rest, and then
repeat these very fast runs 12 to 16 times. On their
next workouts, they run slowly until the soreness is gone. So a competitive
runner runs fast only two or three times a week.
However, after a few weeks of running very fast, their muscles start to feel
tight and heavy for more than two days after a hard
workout. That's a signal that their muscles are frayed and running out of their
stored sugar supply. Most high-level athletes cycle
their workouts. They run very fast twice a week for two or three consecutive
weeks and when their legs start to feel heavy, they run
more slowly for a week or two. You should do the same. Try to exercise more
intensely once or twice a week, never on consecutive
days; and then when you muscles start to feel heavy, stop working so hard for a
week or two until they feel fresh again.


5. Hidden danger: DVT in endurance athletes:
Have you heard of DVT? Well, if you haven't you are not alone. As a bike rider,
you should be aware of DVT.
A survey released at the American Public Health Association conference in
Washington, D.C. showed that 74% of Americans have never
heard of DVT. [Clinical Advisor, June 2004, page 53]
It is an acronym for Deep Venous Thrombosis. It is sometimes referred to as
"deep vein thrombosis" and occurs when a blood clot
forms in the veins of the extremities, usually in the lower leg or thigh.
Some people are familiar with the potential for DVT to occur during or after a
long airplane flight. This has been referred to
"Economy Class Syndrome."
Did you know that 85% of air travel thrombosis victims are athletic, usually
endurance athletes? [www.airhealth.org/athletes.html,
July 11, 2004]
DVT can kill you.
If not treated, DVT can lead to pulmonary embolism or stroke caused by blood
clots moving from the legs to the heart or the brain.
Both conditions can lead to death.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11424&sidebar=17&category=activeusahome\
page


6. Healthy, Wealthy and Wise?
Deep in the secret chamber, Count Rugen has invited Prince Humperdinck to watch
Westley being tortured. Prince Humperdinck explains
"Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work. But I've got my country's
500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my
wife to
murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I'm swamped." To which Count Rugen replies,
"Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, you
haven't got anything." We all laugh, because we see the truth in the joke.
Truly, all the money in the world won't mean a thing if
you're too sick to enjoy it.
Staying healthy doesn't take a lot of work. You don't have to spend all your
time in a gym or only eat certain foods. There are
simple things you can do that will increase your overall health. When you're
healthy, you also feel and look better. Health in this
instance doesn't refer to having a
cold or the flu. Rather, it means an overall state where your weight, blood
cholesterol, and other semi-constant factors are in a
healthy range. A pleasant side effect, though, is that you will get fewer colds
and other viii because a healthy body is more able
to fight them.
Well let's talk of something, which is doable - and in just two steps! For the
first step, just add a serving of fruit or vegetables
per day each week. You'll be surprised when you realize you've already reached 5
servings a day. Hold on, its not that difficult to
do. An apple included in your
lunch each day, and you are started! Continue this for one week and munch some
carrots in addition to the humble apple. Just one
week more and add vegetables to your dinner menu. Even before you notice, you
are up to recommended 5 servings a day. The logic here
being that it is easier for your body to access vitamins in fruit and vegetables
than from multivitamin tablets. Most of these
vitamins find their way to down the toilet without ever being used.
Well, now we come to second step to keeping healthy. You need to add a little
exercise to your daily routine. This doesn't imply
that you need to rush to a gym and pay their membership fees. But yes, try some
of these few tips - Don't park your car near the
entrance you're heading for.
Rather, walk from the farther end of the parking lot. Take the stairs instead of
using the elevator. During lunch breaks, try going
for some window shopping through a mall; it won't cost you a penny. Keep walking
in your work place for small picks and drops. You
won't even know that you have been exercising and the miles will add up in small
increments.
As every journey begins with a small step, so does being healthy. Small efforts
will surely return greater rewards. When you are
healthy, you also feel better. Look around, because when you do feel better,
everyone else around will notice the difference.
~ Beny Starr is the webmaster of DD Health - a Health Information Portal which
is a premier resource for people looking for
information about healthier living, fitness, and general well-being, etc, on the
Internet. Be sure to visit his articles library at:
http://www.ddhealth.com/healthletters/


7. Green Tea a Performance-enhancing Drug:
Equivalent of four cups a day improves swimming endurance up to 24% in mice
while stimulating the use of fat as energy.
Green tea may soon show up in locker rooms and doping tests after being found to
boost exercise endurance in mice up to 24% while
spurring the use of fat as energy.
While the finding is based on green tea extract (GTE) and is difficult to
extrapolate to human athletes, Japanese researcher
Takatoshi Murase estimates that to match the effects athletes weighing 75
kilograms (165 pounds) would need to drink about four cups
of green tea a day—and over several weeks.
"One of our important findings," says Murase, "was that a single high-dose of
GTE or its active ingredients didn't affect
performance. So it's the long-term ingestion of GTE that is beneficial."
Exercise boost
The study was conducted by Murase and colleagues at the Biological Sciences
Laboratories of Kao Corp. in Tochigi, Japan—a company
that makes green tea beverages and has been investigating the tea's anti-obesity
effects.
The researchers say their findings show that green tea extract can boost
exercise capacity and support the hypothesis that
stimulating the use of fatty acids can improve endurance.
While acknowledging that the impact of dietary interventions on performance is
controversial, the researchers note that compounds in
green tea called catechins have already been found to have various physiological
effects.
More...from Better Humans at:
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2005-01-27-4


8. Positive Drug Tests from Supplements:
There is a small but real risk that athletes will test positive to a banned
substance as a result of ingesting supplements and
sports foods. Lack of regulation of quality control and labeling of products in
the supplement industry makes it impossible to
identify supplements and sports foods that are risk free. Incentives or
punishments for the supplement industry to improve
manufacturing processes are therefore needed. Meanwhile sports authorities place
the responsibility for a positive test with the
athlete, necessitating better education of athletes, coaches and support staff.
In many sports, athletes compete under a code of conduct that prohibits the use
of specified drugs and related compounds. These
sports use a system of drug testing to monitor compliance with the code.
Recently, there has been speculation that some of the
positive drug tests recorded by certain athletes have resulted from the use of
supplements and special sports foods rather than
deliberate use of banned products. This speculation has been particularly strong
in the case of positive tests for the steroid,
Nandrolone. Experts are divided over whether there has been a recent increase in
the rate of Nandrolone positives among athletes, or
whether there is simply more publicity about these tests. What is striking is
that these positive tests appear to have occurred in
clusters–for example, among British athletes–and they have often involved
well-known athletes who should know better (or be smarter
about being caught). Some athletes have claimed that these doping outcomes have
occurred inadvertently, through the use of dietary
supplements or sports foods. Is this claim true, or will supplement use become
the "dog ate my homework" routine for drug users? The
short answer is that supplement use is a possible cause of a doping positive,
but the extent of the problem is not known.
One of the good things that may come out of the confusion surrounding this issue
is the chance to warn athletes about the trust they
put in supplements and sports foods. The regulation of these products varies
between countries, and in this article I will compare
the situation in two countries: Australia and the US. But first I will consider
how an athlete might ingest a banned substance
through the use of supplements, and what type of substances could be contained
in supplements and sports foods.
More...from Sports Science at:
http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0003/lmb.html


9. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Shoe Safety:
A story out of Canada is getting lots of ink and airplay on both sides of the
border. I first heard it on National Public Radio,
then received a Toronto Globe & Mail story from Canadian friend John McGee.
The newspaper article's provocative headline: "Pricey Shoes Overrated, Report
Says." Its subhead reads, "Cheap footwear offers just
as much protection to runners as the expensive kind."
Reporter Beverley Smith's story begins, "People are being duped by claims that
expensive athletic footwear is safer than cheap
shoes, according to a Canadian report published in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine. Advertising claims of superior cushioning
and protection create a false sense of security in the user and actually
increase the chance of injury." These were the findings in
a study by Steven Robbins and Edward Waked of McGill University in Montreal.
I'd like to see the actual report of this research. Reading only a newspaper
summary of it is risky, since reporters tend to
misunderstand certain aspects of scientific reports and to sensationalize
others.
John McGee wanted my views on the subject. The response:
It's as much an oversimplification to say that shoes "cause injuries" as to
claim that they "prevent injuries." In both cases the
shoes are probably minor players.
The research I've read indicates that the main causes of injuries have always
been, probably still are and may always be mistakes in
the way we run. Meaning: too much, too fast, too often.
That said, I can tell you that the percentage of runners getting hurt has
dropped steadily since the 1970s. Back then Runner's World
surveys indicated that about two-thirds of runners were injured (an injury being
defined as anything serious enough to disrupt the
routine). The figure has since dropped to about 50 percent, which is still too
high.
We could take two different readings on our improving health:
1. Runners have grown smarter, or at least more conservative, in their training
over the years.
2. Shoes have gotten better in their protective qualities in this time.
The answer is probably some of both. But my guess is the first factor is the
more important of the two.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/487.html


10. Born to run? Capacity for aerobic exercise linked to risk of heart disease:
Low exercise capacity in rats associated with high levels of many CV disease
risk factors
ANN ARBOR, MI - If your New Year’s resolution to exercise is now just a distant
memory, there are some rats at the University of
Michigan Medical School that may convince you to climb back on the treadmill.
A new research study, to be published in the Jan. 21 issue of Science, found
that rats selected and bred for low aerobic exercise
capacity had more cardiovascular disease risk factors than rats bred for high
exercise capacity. The study was conducted by
scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Medical
College of Ohio, Williams College and the U-M
Medical School.
The rats in the study are the product of 11 generations of artificial selection
for exercise capacity conducted by U-M scientists
Steven Britton, Ph.D., and Lauren Gerard Koch, Ph.D. Although they are all
descended from the same founder population of genetically
mixed lab rats, the experimental rats now differ substantially in their ability
to use oxygen efficiently and generate the energy it
takes to run for long periods of time.
For example, the high-capacity runners in generation 11 can exercise
continuously on a treadmill for 42 minutes on average before
exhaustion forces them to stop, while the low-capacity runners average only 14
minutes. The overall difference in running capacity
between the two groups of rats in the Science study was 347 percent.
The most clinically useful finding reported in the paper was the close
association in the experimental rats between low aerobic
exercise capacity and high scores for risk factors linked to metabolic syndrome
– physical changes often seen in people who later
develop cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
More...from the University of Michigan at:
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/borntorun.htm


11. Science of Sport: Quick test shows if speed is in genes:
If you could find out whether your children have the speed to sprint like
Donovan Bailey or the endurance to row like Silken
Laumann, would you? An Australian biotechnology company marketing its new
“Sports Gene Test” claims it can help people decide in
which sports they should specialize.
The test can be ordered over the Internet and involves a simple mouth swab that
clients then mail back to the lab. Results indicate
who has more “fast twitch” muscle fibres — needed for sprint/power events such
as the 100-metre dash — or “slow twitch” muscle
fibres, better for endurance sports such as rowing.
“This test will be of major interest to elite athletes, serious competitors and
teenagers already involved in sport and wanting to
progress to the next level,” says Deon Venter, a company director of Genetic
Technologies. “It indicates in which sport, or which
event within a sport, an athlete is more likely to excel.” It used to be that
the only way to find out whether you had more fast- or
slow-twitch fibres was through an invasive muscle biopsy: inserting a needle
into the muscle, plucking out a few fibres and
examining them under a microscope. Not the kind of thing you’d do through mail
order.
Now this easy, painless, $100 test could change the rules of the game for
coaches, parents and athletes. Who wouldn’t want to know
how to best use “your genetic advantage,” as the company calls it?
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050204_GeneTest.html


12. Transitioning to Intensity Training:
So, you’ve spent the last 12 to 16 weeks logging base miles. You’ve diligently
monitored your heart rate to make sure that you didn’
t exceed your prescribed limit. You’ve resisted every temptation to show-off
your fitness at the Saturday morning trail run or at
Sunday’s group ride. You’ve been dreaming about this day for the last 8 weeks,
and it’s finally arrived. It’s time to open it up -
to put the hammer down. It’s time to start injecting intensity into your
training schedule.
Every true competitor looks forward to the point in their schedule where they
are finally allowed to begin intensity training. We
all know that workouts at or around our Lactate Threshold are what will propel
us to the next level of fitness. It is, however,
crucial that these workouts be well thought out and fit in with a solid overall
plan. Jumping full force into intensity training can
be a shortcut to burnout, injury or sub-peak performance. Here are some ideas
that will help you plan this year’s spring training in
order to reach your highest peak without injury or burnout:
More...from XTri.com at:
http://xtri.com/article.asp?id=1380


13. Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
"Think of a hill workout as a running-specific weight workout. The exaggerated
knee lift, driving arms, and pronounced toe-off
necessary to run up hills strengthens you every bit as much as hitting the
weight room. Hill running also works the cardiovascular
system as your heart tries to keep pace with the increased energy required to
fight gravity. Consequently, hill workouts are very
taxing and should be done only once or twice a week." -Ed Eyestone
* Injury Prevention
Winter chafing: Right up there with blisters are those painful little patches of
raw skin that appear after a few miles of running
(and rubbing). Rub on some ointment, either old-fashioned petroleum jelly or one
of the new, non-staining runner products (even lip
balm will work in a pinch). Then re-apply every hour or so. And be sure you're
running in soft, broken-in, breathable clothing
without any scratchy or uneven seams.
* Performance Nutrition
If you want to get the most lycopene out of your ketchup, go organic.
Researchers with the Agricultural Research Service in Albany,
California tested the lycopene levels in 13 brands of ketchup: six regular
brands, three organic brands, two store brands, and two
from fast-food chains. They found that organic brands had the most lycopene, up
to 183 micrograms per gram of ketchup. Non-organic
brands averaged 100 micrograms per gram, and one of the fast-food ketchups only
had 60 micrograms per gram. As a rule of thumb, lead
author Betty Ishida suggests that if you want the highest lycopene content use
the darkest red ketchup you can find.
* Editor's Advice
"Tuning in to your body during races isn't enough. Learn to listen to your body
in training, too, particularly during speed
sessions. Keep a log to record your successes. As you pay attention to small
details, such as how much your arms move when you hit a
particular pace, you'll be able to re-create that exact pace during a race."
-Amy Rushlow, RW editorial intern
* Words That Inspire
"When you experience the run, you regress back to the mandrill on the savannah
eluding the enclosing pride of lions that is planning
to take your very existence away. Not only that, but you relive the hunt.
Running is about 30 miles of chasing prey that can outrun
you in a sprint, and tracking it down and bringing life back to your village.
It's a beautiful thing." -Shawn Found, American
distance runner


14. Correlations Between Annual Training Patterns And Race Performance In Male,
Non-Elite, Ironman-Distance Triathletes:
Male, English-speaking non-elite, ironman-distance triathletes were surveyed
using an on-line questionnaire for descriptive
characteristics, race history, and training history.
Useable results were then sorted into high, mid, or low success groups by their
race time or their race place by age-group (n=39,
age 35.0±5.9 y).
Training patterns for a 12-month period, based on training distance or training
hours in swimming, bicycling, and running, were
generated for each group.
There were statistically significant differences (p<.05) in several data sets.
The most notable difference was a positive relationship between higher bike
training distances and race success, particularly during
the final months leading up to an ironman-distance race.
There were observed differences between group patterns, the most outstanding
being the high success group showing greater distances
of bike training, which is consistent with other study's findings.
A suggested annual training volume pattern for ironman-distance triathletes was
proposed based on the common training volume pattern
elements used by the high success group triathletes sampled in this study.
Note that the proposed training pattern is based on results from a small sample
size and may not be valid for all athletes.
Read the survey results at:
http://trisurvey.net/


15. Unnaturally Large - Food for Thought:
As a female college student, I feel that it is my responsibility to discuss all
of the ways in which society has wronged me. I like
to rant about the double standards that my sex is held to, such as how cool it
is for a girl to drink beer from a can and stuff her
face with cheesy curly fries, yet not for her to carry the excess weight that is
often associated with these habits. In addition,
it's attractive for a girl to feel comfortable in her own skin and to appreciate
her body just the way it is, yet we are constantly
bombarded by images of starved and surgically altered models and celebrities. I
have already come to the conclusion that we girls
have it rough, and that perhaps it is truly impossible to have your cake and eat
it too (especially if you want to fit into your
tight jeans). But what about the other gender? Do the guys really have it so
easy?
Until recently, I thought that guys had the upper hand when it came to societal
pressures involving their bodies. However, I have
recently become aware of the pressure for males to conform to a specific
stereotypical shape, size and athletic ability (an
"alpha-male" if you will). The use of illegal substances in the world of elite
sports is particularly troubling. When professional
and Olympic athletes, to whom younger participants look with both admiration and
respect, use illegal performance enhancing drugs to
enhance their bodies and abilities it is nearly impossible to enforce the
message that such greatness is achieved solely through
hard work and practice. When young athletes, with years of both sports and work
ahead of them, use steroids, they risk ending their
careers before they even start.
More...from The Cornell Daily Sun at:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/02/420048355caa1


16. Last Call:
Knowing when to drink alcohol and how much can mean the difference between
victory and defeat. Here's how to enjoy yourself without
going overboard.
Think a bottle of wine with dinner calms pre-race jitters, helping you do your
best the next day? Think that carb-packed, post-race
beer helps speed recovery? Think again. Alcohol is not only a poor energy
source, drinking too much too soon before (or after) the
race can impair performance in plenty of ways.
We're not saying that as an athlete you have to teetotal your way through life.
There's no harm in moderate drinking. In fact,
moderate alcohol consumption--about a drink a day for women--has been linked to
reduced risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
But if you're going for peak performance, a beer buzz should not be part of your
race nutrition strategy. Here's why:
Dehydration. Alcohol is a strong diuretic. It makes your kidneys produce more
urine, so you lose more fluid. Adequate hydration is
key to optimal athletic performance. Studies show that as little as 2 percent
dehydration can decrease performance by as much as 7
percent.
Less speed and endurance. Alcohol is a poor source for carbohydrates, your
body's premium fuel. The carbs in alcohol are burned
slowly and inefficiently because they're metabolized in the liver, not in the
muscles. Alcohol produces practically no muscle
energy. And it cuts into your aerobic performance by making your heart work
harder to pump oxygen-rich blood to the rest of your
body.
More...from HerSports at:
http://hersports.com/eNewsletter/newsLtr16/news16Article1.html


17. What Does 'Periodization' Mean and How Does It Work?
Source: Mike Ricci
If you have ever wondered how the Russians were kicking our butts for three
decades in sports, here is the answer. Yes, there were
some Eastern Block women that looked like they could play for the Pittsburgh
Steelers, ‘Steel Curtain’, and maybe that wasn’t
natural, but the answer is something called 'periodization’. Tudor Bompa, who is
considered the ‘Father of Periodization’ refined
the ideas of Russian sports scientists in the early 1960s. During the 1940s the
Russian scientists tried dividing the training year
into different training periods. Previously, the training was to maintain the
same constant stresses year round. Could you imagine
doing the same workouts week in and week out? The new method was to create some
periods of training that were easier then the others
to promote rest and to let the body grow stronger. Most training programs today
are rooted off of Bompa’s theory, and its how the
successful athletes of today train. Periodization involves many variables
including frequency (how ‘often’ you train), duration
(how ‘long’ you train for one session), volume (how ‘much’ you train in a given
week or cycle) and intensity (how ‘hard’ you train
at any given time). From these variables a recipe is created that will hopefully
help you reach your peak for the key race(s) you
are targeting. There are four to five phases in a given annual training plan,
with the variables changing within each phase.
More...from TriFuel at:
http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/triathlon-training/what-does-periodization-mean\
-and-how-does-it-work-000625.php


18. Health issues heart of red dress-up day:
Gloria Bartek considers herself lucky. On May 6, 2002, the Homer City native had
a heart attack and lived to tell about it.
Like many women, this 53-year-old business systems analyst had no idea she was
at risk for heart problems and didn't realize that
she'd had a heart attack until doctors later diagnosed it.
"I didn't have any pain at any time," Bartek said. "We think of people having
intense chest pain with a heart attack, but that's not
true with women. You can have a 'silent' heart attack"--no recognizable
symptoms.
"Some women have pain in the upper back and in the jaw," noted Marjorie Thom-as,
director of corporate events for the American Heart
Association in Westmoreland and Indiana counties.
Compared to the chest and arm pain often associated with a heart attack in men,
Thomas said, "The symptoms for women are different
and sometimes go unnoticed not only by women themselves, but by (doctors) as
well."
More...from Pittsburgh Live at:
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/newssummary/s_300160.html


19. Fueling for cold weather running:
Some athletes embrace winter's chill as a welcome change from running in
summer's heat. But others complain about hating cold
weather. If that is your stance, remember that exercising with proper nutrition
(and layers of dry clothing) offers the opportunity
to chase away the chills. After all, an aerobic workout can increase your
metabolism by 7 to 10 times above the resting level. This
means, if you were to exercise hard for an hour and dissipate no heat, you could
raise your body temperature from 98.6 to 140
degrees °F. (You'd cook yourself in the process!). In the summer, your body
sweats heavily to dissipate this heat, but in the
winter, the warmth helps you survive in a cold environment. Runners can enjoy a
tropical environment in their running suit within
minutes of starting exercise.
Because food provides the fuel needed to generate this heat, the right sports
diet is particularly important for runners and other
athletes who are exposed to extreme cold, such as skiers and skaters. Here we
address some common questions and concerns about
winter and nutrition and offer tips to help you enjoy the season. For safety
sake, winter athletes should always carry with them
some source of fuel in case of an unexpected slip on the ice or other incident
that leaves them static in a frigid environment.
Winter campers, for example, commonly keep a supply of dried fruit, chocolate or
cookies near by for fuel if they wake up cold in
the middle of the night. You want to have an emergency energy bar tucked in your
pocket, just in case...
More...from Run the Planet at:
http://www.runtheplanet.com/pages/refer/articles/fuelforcold.php


20. Sunlight Fights Some Cancers:
More exposure linked with greater survival from melanoma and lower risk of
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma .
The relationship between sunlight and cancer appears more complicated than
thought, with exposure found to increase survival from
one type of cancer and reduce the risk of another.
In one new study, researchers found an association between increased sun
exposure and increased survival from melanoma, a
potentially deadly form of skin cancer for which sun exposure is a risk factor.
While the incidence of melanoma has been increasing over the past 50 years in
all developed countries with large Caucasian
populations, so has survival from the disease. This suggests that increased sun
exposure might contribute to increased survival from
melanoma as well as increased disease incidence.
Investigating the relationship in 500 melanoma sufferers enrolled in the
Connecticut Tumor Registry, Marianne Berwick of the
University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and colleagues found that three measures
of sun exposure—sunburn, high intermittent sun
exposure and an indicator of skin damage called solar elastosis—and a personal
history of skin awareness were all inversely
associated with death from melanoma.
The researchers conclude that sun exposure is linked with increased survival
from melanoma.
More...from Better Humans at:
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2005-02-01-4


21. Recovery Day For Runners - Take Advantage of the Benefits of Light Days and
Rest Days:
There are as many different types of runners as there are people who run. But
one misconception that many runners hold in common is
a work ethic that too often precludes rest.
Some runners have to be held down in order to get the rest the body requires.
Sooner or later that will come by way of injury or
overtraining syndrome. For those runners, understanding that rest and recovery
does not mean doing nothing, can break through the
mile-aholic's misconceptions and change training habits for the better.
For starters, we need to differentiate between rest and recovery days and light
workout days. They are two different things.
Rest and recovery days are just that. They are days primarily designed to rest
and recover. Healthy runners need rest maybe once per
week, or even just once or twice a month. Obviously injuries, illness, aging,
staleness, increases in distance or intensity, and
overtraining can create demands for more rest.
Although rest is needed, it is still important to remain active on those days.
The body, just like the mind, needs stimulation every
day. Even after a grueling marathon, many people find it's a good idea to move
around, maybe take a walk, as early as the day after
to avoid stiffening up.
Even people who suffer heart attacks are encouraged to get out of bed and move
around as soon as possible. On rest and recovery days
it is important to avoid doing the worst thing you can do for your body ...
nothing.
Examples of rest and recovery activities are walking, static stretch exercises
(after a warm-up and loosening-up period), swimming,
water running, and riding a bike.
More...from How To Be Fit at:
http://www.howtobefit.com/recovery-day-runners.htm


22. The Infection Connection
Running Can Boost or Dampen Your Immune System.
Most runners I know have a better-than-average understanding of the human
musculoskeletal system, tossing terms such as IT band
syndrome, piriformus syndrome, and iliopsoas tendinitis into casual conversation
with other runners as though they were confetti at
a New Year’s Eve party. Knowledge of the immune system—especially as it relates
to exercise—tends to be less encyclopedic, for the
layperson at any rate. NK cells, macrophages, salivary IgA . . . ho-hum, when’s
your next race?
That is a shame, considering the importance of the immune system. Most of us
take for granted that the immune system protects us
from disease-causing organisms, but as runners we tend to sit up and take notice
only when a whopper cold settles into our heads the
day before a marathon or we find ourselves plagued by recurrent sinus infections
following races. Running can boost the immune
system—but too much can also dampen it.
The immune system’s first lines of defense against invading organisms are
barriers: physical barriers, such as the skin and mucous
membranes, and chemical barriers, including stomach acids and proteins in tears,
saliva, and skin oils. If some intrepid organism
manages to penetrate these barriers, specialized cells called phagocytes
(including macrophages) engulf, kill, and chew up foreign
invaders as well as cancer cells. The aptly named natural killer (NK) cells also
destroy infected and cancerous cells. This first
line of defense is called the innate immune system.
Then there’s the acquired immune system, the T and B cells (lymphocytes) that
respond to specific proteins, or antigens, on invading
organisms. Prodded into action by macrophages and other components of the innate
immune system, the T and B cells produce chemicals
(cytokines and antibodies) that regulate the immune response and help kill the
offending organism. It’s the lymphocytes that
remember past infections (and immunizations), allowing the immune system to
respond faster and more efficiently the next time the
same antigen comes along.
More...from Marathon and Beyond at:
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/latta.html


23. Triathletes Guide to Surviving-and Thriving in Winter:
It's January in Chicago. The weather is cold, the holidays have ended and
triathlon season is months away. Hopefully, you've taken
some time off from your usual training routines. Now . . . what would Lance do?
Chris Carmichael, Lance Armstrong's coach, has said
that for Lance to win at the Tour de France in July, he needs to be committed to
a training program in November, December and
January. Winter training is important to have a successful racing season. For
Chicago triathletes, winter is the time to build a
training base. It's also a good time to work on specific skills that need
improvement in each of the triathlon disciplines.
Swim For early swim training, focus on drills. Swimming is all about balance and
good technique. Have a coach or knowledgeable
friend watch you in the pool to detect any flaws with your swimming form. Do
your legs drag through the water? Do your arms cross
over the center line of your body as you reach forward? Does your body roll
while you swim? Do you "catch" water with your hand and
arm as you stroke downward? Pick one or two aspects of your technique to work
on. If you try to correct everything at once, chances
are you won't be able to focus on any one flaw, and focus is a key to improving
technique. If your legs drag, spend time on balance.
If you have poor body roll, practice drills involving rolling your body from one
side to the other. If your arms cross over, spend
some time swimming with your hands at the 10 and 2 positions on a watch face.
Work with paddles to improve your "feel" for the
water.
More...from Chicago AA at:
http://www.chicagoaa.com/features/SurvivingAndThrivingJan03.html


24. Sports bra: why wear one?
You would not run in just any old shoes, so do not run in any old bra. A good
sports bra is as an essential a piece of kit as a good
pair of trainers. The breasts need to be held firmly in position to minimise
bouncing around which is uncomfortable, but more
importantly, causes stretching of the Coopers ligament which is the only
ligament that stops the breast from sagging (once stretched
it is irreversible, sagging breasts forever!). A bra should fit snugly without
the rib band restricting breathing, it should give a
smooth outline without unsightly bulges over the cups or around your back, and
the straps need to be wide enough to support the
breast without causing ridges on your shoulders. There is an excellent choice of
styles available, traditional style bras that are
designed for different levels of sporting activity, crop tops designed to be
worn as outer or under garments and vests with
concealed support. Quality sports bras are manufactured from high performance
fabrics such as fabrics designed to wick moisture away
from the body and minimise the effects of perspiration whilst exercising, or
special fibres incorporated into many of the bras for
anti-bacterial and anti-odour protection, or also superb high-tech fabrics which
are quick drying, crease and abrasion resistant yet
with a soft smooth feel against the skin. A good sports bra will be so
comfortable you will forget you are wearing it, leaving you
to concentrate on your sport.
From http://boobydoo.co.uk


25. News Scan:
* Alluring scents
A splash of perfume -- containing a bit of sweat from a younger woman -- could
spice up the sex life of an older one, U.S.
scientists claim.
They say they have identified a chemical compound, or pheromone, which acts as a
sexual lure. It was originally isolated from a
woman's armpit sweat.
Pheromones are airborne chemicals secreted by the body and believed to transmit
subconscious messages.
The researchers added the pheromone to a perfume and then tested it on a group
of 44 post-menopausal women, reports New Scientist
magazine. Half the women were given the spiked perfume, while the rest got the
regular scent. Both kept diaries of their romantic
encounters for six weeks. About 41 per cent of those who wore the
pheromones-laden perfume reported more petting, kissing and
affection with partners compared to 14 per cent who got the placebo.
Overall, 68 per cent of the pheromone users reported increases in at least one
of four "intimate socio-sexual behaviours" such as
formal dates and sex, compared with 41 per cent in the other group.
From the Globe and Mail

* Skeletal muscle adaptation: training twice every second day versus training
once daily.
Hansen AK, Fischer C, Plomgaard P, Andersen JL, Saltin B, Pedersen BK.
Department of Infectious Diseases, The Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre,
Rigshospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
J Appl Physiol 2004 Sep: 10 [Epub ahead of print] Low muscle glycogen content
has been demonstrated to enhance transcription of a
number of genes involved in training adaptation. These results made us speculate
that training at a low muscle glycogen content
would enhance training adaptation. We therefore performed a study in which seven
healthy untrained males performed one-knee legged
exercise training at a low glycogen (Low) protocol, whereas the other leg was
trained at a high glycogen (High) protocol. Both legs
were trained equally regarding workload and training amount. Day one: Both legs
(Low+High) were trained for 1 h followed by 2 h of
rest at a fasting state, where after one leg (Low) was trained for one more
hour. Day 2: Only one leg (High) trained for 1 h. Days 1
and 2 were repeated for 10 weeks. As an effect of training, the increase in
maximal workload was identical for the two legs.
However, time till exhaustion at 90% was markedly more increased in the Low leg
compared with the High leg. Resting muscle glycogen
and the activity of the mitochondrial enzyme hydroxyacyl CoA dehydrogenase (HAD)
increased with training, but only significantly so
in LOW, whereas citrate synthase (CS) activity increased in both low and high.
There was a more pronounced increase in CS activity
when Low was compared with High. In conclusion, the present study suggests that
training twice every second day may be superior to
daily training.
PMID: 15679575 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

*End of Articles*



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

January 28 - February 6, 2005:
Tour de Langkawi - Malaysia
http://www.tdl.com.my

February 3-6, 2005:
Running USA Conference 2005 - San Diego, CA
http://www.runningusa.org/conference.shtml

February 4-6, 2005:
Knights of Columbus Saskatchewan Indoor Games - Saskatoon, SASK
http://www.kofcgames.com/

February 5, 2005:
Gasparilla Distance Classic 15K - Tampa Bay, FLA
http://www.tampabayrun.com

Super Run 10K/5K - San Diego, CA
http://www.kathyloperevents.com/superrun

Winterlude Triathlon - Ottawa, ON
http://www.zone3sports.com

Television: NBC - Millrose Games 2:00 p.m.
Taped coverage from this 98th annual NYC event

February 6, 2005:
Bank of America Marathon & Half Marathon - Tampa Bay, FLA
http://www.tampabayrun.com

Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon/5K - San Francisco, CA
http://www.pamakids.org

Pacific Shoreline Marathon - Huntington Beach CA
http://www.marathonrun.com

Television - CBS:
Nissan XTERRA World Championship 12 Noon EST (9 a.m. PST)


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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Have a good week of training and/or racing.

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Runner's Web
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END...OF DIGEST...