A Free Weekly E-zine of Multisport Related Articles.
The Original Runner's and Triathlete's Web was founded in January of 1997 as a
not-for-profit resource site. RunnersWeb.com Inc. is
now a small business venture which sponsors the OAC Racing Team, a women's road
racing and triathlon club, and the OAC Gatineau
Triathlon and Corporate Relay and the Canadian Iron Distance Triathlon. The
site is not in any way associated with the two UK
"Runner's Web" copycat sites or the Runner's Web Book Store in the USA.
Support our advertisers:
1. Road Runner Sports, the world's largest running store at:
http://www.roadrunnersports.com/cgi-bin/rrs/rrs/rrHome.jsp?sc=CBM-00105&prfc=1
2. Toronto Waterfront Marathon. September 25, 2005:
http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/
3. Sof Sole Offer:
A free pair of our technical socks ($9.99 value) with the purchase of any Sof
Sole insole.
http://www.sofsole.com/pages/promo/rwebsockoffer.html
Shopping on the internet? Check out our list of affiliate programs at the bottom
of the email.
The Runner's and Triathlete's Web Digest is a weekly e-zine dealing with the
sports of running and triathlon and general fitness and
health issues. The opinions expressed in the articles referenced by the Digest
are the opinions of the writers and not necessarily
those of the Runner's Web. To comment on any stories in the Digest visit our
Forum at:
http://excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=4655
This newsletter has been composed using Outlook set to "Plain Text" format. The
Digest is sent via an email list at
http://groups.yahoo.com.
If you experience any delays in receiving your copy of the Digest, please advise
us at:
mailto:
webmaster@...
Webmasters:
Get our Syndicated headlines for you site.
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_getRSS.html
Visit the Runner's Web at
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html The site is
updated multiple times daily. Check out our daily news,
features, polls, trivia, bulletin boards and more. General questions should be
posted to one of our forums available from our
FrontPage.
For new subscribers:
If you have any questions regarding the options available for receiving this
digest, please do NOT email the list, rather email me
directly at mailto:
Webmaster@...
You can receive the digest in three ways:
1. Immediately, via email,
2. Daily, in an email summary, and
3. By accessing the YahooGroups.com web site on demand.
The mail list has been set to not allow attachments out of concerns for viruses.
Also, all messages must be approved by the monitor
(me) prior to being released to the group.
NOTE
**[ Some e-mail clients may split the URL address into two lines. If you have
trouble connecting to a link, be sure that you
paste the entire address into your browser, so that it ends in ".html" or
another appropriate suffix ].
References/URLs:
Most references in the digest which do not have a specific URL listed here are
available from the Runner's Web FrontPage (or
Archives) at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
Also, if have email software that does not read HTML, all links contained in the
Digest are available from the Runner's Web. All
URLs listed here have been verified as of the Digest publication date. It is
possible that the site may have archived or deleted the
page after publication. If you are unable to reach a URL listed here, ensure
that you are using the entire URL (see above). If you
still cannot reach the site, please email me at:
mailto:
webmaster@... and I will try to track it down.
Note: An increasing number of media sites require free registration. If you wish
to sign up for free access to sources for our
articles without using your main email address we suggest the use of a mail
alias program such as
http://www.emailias.com.
New This Week:
If anyone is looking for a web mail provider, you might wish to consider
Google's GMail. Currently you can get GMail by invitation
only from a current user. My stock of "invites" has been replenished. I will
give invitations to the first 40 Digest
subscribers to respond (by email timestamp). Contact me at:
mailto:
kparker@....
The Runner's and Triathlete's Web Digest is now available through an RSS feed
for myYahoo at:
http://e.my.yahoo.com/config/cstore?.opt=content&.url=http%3a//rss.groups.yahoo.\
com/group/RunnersWeb/rss
The Digest is also available through other RSS Readers on request.
Microsoft® Alerts on RunnersWeb.com Inc.
RunnersWeb.com Inc. now offers Microsoft® Alerts! This service lets you receive
important messages through your MSN® Messenger or
Windows® Messenger, your e-mail, or your mobile device. You can choose how and
when you receive these messages by specifying your
preferences during the easy setup process.
Sign up at:
http://www.messagecast.net/alerts/login.do?PINID=2598&returnURL=http://www.runne\
rsweb.com
We are currently at 936 subscribers as of publication time. Forward the Runner's
Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they
subscribe. Help us reach the 1000 mark.
at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join.
Race Directors:
Advertise your event on the Runner's Web. Over 1.8 MILLION visits in 2004!
For more information:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_advertising.html
For text ads check out our AdBrite partnership at:
http://www.adbrite.com/mb/commerce/purchase_form.php?opid=15182&afsid=1
You can also list your events for free in our Interactive Calendars and on our
Marathons, Races and Triathlons pages.
To comment on any stories in the Digest visit our Forum at:
http://excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=4655
Runner's and Triathlete's Web Content Partners:
* Sports Nutrition by Sheila Kealey.
Sheila is one of Ottawa's top multisport athletes and a member of the OAC Racing
Team and X-C Ottawa. She has a Masters in Public
Health and works in the field of nutritional epidemiology as a Research
Associate with the University of California, San Diego. Her
column index is available at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/SK_index.html
* Carmichael Training Systems
Carmichael Training Systems was founded in 1999 by Chris Carmichael. From the
beginning, the mission of the company has been to
improve the lives of individuals we work with through the application of proper
and effective fitness and competitive training
techniques. Whether your focus is recreational, advanced, or you are a
professional racer, the coaching methodology employed by CTS
will make you a better athlete. Check the latest column from CTS at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/cts_columns.html.
* Running Research News
Running Research News is a monthly newsletter which keeps sports-active people
up-to-date on the latest information about training,
sports nutrition, and sports medicine. RRN publishes practical, timely new
material which improves workouts, prevents injuries, and
heightens overall fitness. Check our latest column from Running Research News
at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RRN_index.html
On January 7th we started a new feature on the website - A Question and Answer
with Owen Anderson from Running Research News.
Send in your training related questions for Owen to answer to
mailto:
webmaster@...?subject=Owen_Anderson
Check out the questions and answers from the Q and A Index page at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RRN_AskOwen_index.html
* Peak Performance Online
Peak Performance is a subscription-only newsletter for athletes, featuring the
latest research from the sports science world. We
cover the whole range of sports, from running and rowing to cycling and
swimming, and each issue is packed full of exclusive
information for anyone who's serious about sport. It's published 16 times a
year, including four special reports, by Electric Word
plc. Peak Performance is not available in the shops - only our subscribers are
able to access the valuable information we publish
Check out our latest article from Peak Performance Online at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/PPO_index.html
* Peak Running Performance
Peak Running Performance Is The Number 1 Technical Running Newsletter In
America! Check out their article index at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/PRP_index.html.
* WatsonLifeSport
Lance Watson is "Just The Winningest Coach in Triathlon". He has been coaching
triathlon and distance running since 1987. Over the
years, Lance has coached some of the most successful athletes in the sport of
triathlon and duathlon.
Check out the Lance Watson Online Article Index at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/LW_index.html
This Weeks Personal Postings/Releases:
We have ONE personal postings this week.
ONE:
Several months back I was doing a research study of the non-physical changes
experienced by first time marathoners. That research is
nearing completion and has raised a number of questions. In an attempt to answer
some of those questions I need participants for a
new study.
This study is open to all runners and walkers - still looking at the
non-physical elements associated with running and walking. To
participate go to
http://www.bke-associates.com and select the "Survey" button.
(Within a month the results from the marathoner
research will be posted under the "Research" button - those that participate
will receive the results via email.) For this study the
survey is completed online. If you would like a copy of the results please be
sure to include your email address.
Please forward this message to others that you think might be interested in
assisting with this research.
Any questions, contact Bea at mailto:
bea@... or call
410-353-4722.
Thanks
Bea
This Week's Digest Article Index:
1. Science of Sport: Studies - Vitamin E, protein especially valuable to runners
2. Science of Sport: Taking A Break - Without Breaking Up Your Hard-Earned
Fitness
3. Science of Sport: Ergogenic Aids - Nasal Strips
4. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Code of the Road
5. Stretch for Health and Performance
6. From Runner's World
7. Hitting "The Wall":
If You Understand the Scientific Reasons Behind “The Wall,” You Should Be Able
to Avoid It.
8. At 90, Exercise Is 'An Investment' in Life
9. When less is more
Have you ever participated in races when you finished in a disappointing
position considering how you much you prepared for the
event?
10. Why Fast Pedaling Makes Sense
11. Progressive, Gradual, and Quantifiable- The Training Process
12. Young Blood Rejuvenates Old Muscles
Compounds within now targeted for boosting regeneration in various tissues
affected by aging.
13. Don’t Let the Cold Slow You Down: Tips For Cold Weather Workouts
Eight Great Ways to Jump Start Your Fitness Routine for the New Year.
14. Pioneers in the Peloton: The unknown American
Illinois' Joseph Magnani challenged Coppi and Bartali in Giro.
15. Different Types of Chiropractic Care
16. Strength Training is the Core of Top Triathlete Barb Lindquist's Training
17. Run Your Best Marathon. Really.
A put-all-your eggs-in-one-basket program that works if you let it.
18. An integrated approach to increasing flexibility
19. Sarah Reinertsen - Don’t Give Up… Not Once…Not Ever
20. How Functional Coffee Can Help You Attain Fitness and Weight Loss
21. Science of Sport: Pre-Cooling Techniques Increase Performance In The Heat
22. Sports Nutrition: Beating the Bonk!
23. Yoga, Pilates or both
The exercise world's current darlings are both slow, intense and therapeutic.
But they achieve their fitness goals in distinctive
ways.
24. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
25. News Scan
A collection of news items.
Runner's Web Weekly Poll:
This week's poll is: "Should marathons restrict entry to serious runners by
imposing time standards similar to those at the Boston
Marathon?"
You can access the poll from our FrontPage as well as voting on and/or checking
the results of previous polls.
Post your views in our Forum at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/runnersweb_forum.html
[Free Registration Required]
Last week's poll was "Are you male or female and do you support women-only
races?"
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Female - Yes 12 15%
2. Female - No 11 14%
3. Male - Yes 35 43%
4. Male - No 23 28%
Total Votes: 81
Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join
Five Star Site of the Week: Official Website of Triathlete David Harju.
"Canada's Dave Harju is one of the top long distance triathletes in the world.
His two consecutive victories at Ironman Wisconsin
have placed him near the top of his sport as the 2005 season approaches.
All you need to know about Dave is here on his official site. If you would like
to know more visit our Ask Dave page and submit a
question."
Profile:
First Ever Triathlon: Greater Toronto Triathlon (1k/30k/8k), June 1989
Year Turned Pro: 1996-7
First Pro Race: Reebok World Triathlon 1998 (King City)
Favourite aspect of race day: The finish line; Leading the race on the bike
Favourite element of my training: Up-hill biking; trail running and lake
swimming "beach to beach"
Greatest Triathlon Memory: First Ironman Win in Wisconsin [2003]
Visit the website at:
http://www.daveharju.com
Send us your suggestions for our Five Star site. Please check our
list of previous Five Star Sites available from the Five Star
Window under the link "Previous Five Star Sites" as we do not wish to
repeat a site unless it has undergone a major redesign.
If you feel you have something to say that is worthy of a Guest Column on the
Runner's Web, email us at
mailto:
webmaster@... or leave your comments in one of our Forums at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/forum.html or from our FrontPage.
Our Photo Slideshow is updated on a random basis. Check it out from our
FrontPage.
Book of the Week: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner
by Dean Karnazes
Many would see running a marathon as the pinnacle of their athletic career;
thrill-seeker Karnazes didn't just run a marathon, he
ran the first marathon held at the South Pole. The conditions were
extreme—"breathing the superchilled air directly [without a mask]
could freeze your trachea"—yet he craved more. Also on his résumé: completing
the Western States 100-mile endurance run and the
Badwater 135-mile ultramarathon through Death Valley (which he won), as well as
a 199-mile relay race... with only himself on his
team. This running memoir (written without a coauthor) paints the picture of an
insanely dedicated—some may say just plain
insane—athlete. In high school, Karnazes ran cross-country track, but when his
favorite coach retired, he quit the sport. Fifteen
years later, on his 30th birthday (in 1992), on the verge of an early midlife
crisis, he threw on his old shoes and ran 30 miles on
a whim. The invigorating feeling compelled him to pursue the world of
ultramarathons (any run longer than 26.2 miles). "Never,"
Karnazes writes, "are my senses more engaged than when the pain sets in." Yet
his masochism is a reader's pleasure, and Karnazes's
book is intriguing. Casual runners will find inspiration in Karnazes's
determination; non-athletes will have the evidence once and
for all that runners are indeed a strange breed.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
Buy the book at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585422789/runnersweb/102-0182896-9006569\
?v=glance&s=books
[Long URL]
More books from Amazon at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/amazon.html
and Human Kinetics at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/human_kinetics.html
This Weeks News:
1. Science of Sport: Studies - Vitamin E, protein especially valuable to
runners"
While veteran runners and ambitious joggers toil through the winter months as
they prepare for the spring marathon season, two
recent studies suggest that vitamin E and protein can bolster the body's health
during times of demanding exercise.
Researchers in Oregon examined the benefits of vitamin E supplements for runners
in a 50-kilometer (31 mile) ultramarathon in
Corvallis. Their study found that runners taking vitamin E did not experience
the usual increase in lipid oxidation _ a kind of
damage that can weaken cells and cause long-term cardiovascular problems _ that
results from extreme exercise.
"We looked at a marker of oxidative damage," said Dr. Maret Traber, principal
investigator at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon
State University. Traber helped conduct the study, published in May in the
medical journal Free Radical Biology.
"It's called isoprostane, and isoprostanes are important because they're
associated with an increased risk of heart disease. So we
were really interested. Could we protect the runners?" she asked.
The answer was yes.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050213_VitaminE.html
2. Science of Sport: Taking A Break - Without Breaking Up Your Hard-Earned
Fitness:
You need a break. You can't expect your body and mind to stand up to 12 months
of nearly constant training - and then immediately
embark on another year of hard work. Each year of your training life should
feature at least one major break designed to enhance
mental and physical recovery. Without such a peaceful pause from strenuous
training, the risks of injury and overtraining in a
subsequent year are likely to increase.
However, it is unclear how long this substantial break should be. Some runners
(including many of the top Kenyans) favor a three- to
four-week respite from training, but research suggests that such lay-offs are
associated with significant drops in fitness. For
example, one scientific study detected a 7-percent drop in maximal aerobic
capacity in athletes who did not train for three weeks
(1). For a 10-K runner averaging about 40 minutes for the race, this drop-off
would add about two to three minutes to finishing
time.
There is also evidence that even-shorter breaks can harm exercise capacity. The
classic work in this area was carried out in the
late 1970s by Michael Houston, Henning Bentzen, and Henrik Larsen at the revered
August Krogh Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark (2).
The '70s were an extremely interesting period in the overall history of exercise
physiology; researchers were just beginning to
understand the array of physiological changes which took place in response to
strenuous endurance training, and it was natural for
them to ask whether these adaptations persisted for very long when training
stopped. In the Copenhagen study, six highly trained
runners (average age 33, marathon time range 2:35-3:10, weekly training distance
60 miles or more) simply ceased training for 15
days. To make matters worse (for the runners), a walking plaster cast was placed
on each runner's right leg for the first seven days
of detraining, immobilizing the calf muscles.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050218_RRN_Breaks.html
3. Science of Sport: Ergogenic Aids - Nasal Strips:
Do Breathe Right nasal strips offer real performance benefits – or are they just
a psychological prop? These sticking-plaster
look-alikes were originally developed to help people with health problems like
obstructive sleep apnea or excessive snoring, but
have now found their way into sports bags. When placed over the bridge of the
nose, the strip works by holding open the nostrils, so
reducing resistance to nasal airflow and increasing nasal-route breathing.
Because of its effects on nasal airway resistance, the
device has gained a great deal of support among sportsmen and women and is now
an extremely popular non-pharmacological ergogenic
aid to exercise performance in a wide variety of sporting events. High-profile
athletes are often seen wearing nasal strips during
televised events: many athletes at the recent Commonwealth Games and European
Championships, could clearly be seen sporting that
little pink strip. What is it about the nasal strip that leads so many
performers to believe that it will in some way enhance their
performance? Having used nasal strips during competition myself, and experienced
at first-hand how well they improve your ability to
breathe through the nose, it is easy to understand how so many athletes buy into
the idea that they can also boost performance. But
are they fooling themselves? When you strip away all the hype, do nasal strips
offer any real physiological benefits to the athlete?
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050215_PPO_NasalStrips.html
4. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Code of the Road:
My, how you've grown, Bix and Portland! These were my two most recent races, and
the first time in too long that I'd run each one.
Since my last visits, the Bix Seven had tripled in size and Portland Marathon
had doubled.
Please don't misread what I'm about to say. I love seeing races fill to
overflowing with runners, runner-walkers and even pure
walkers. I'm not about to say that only the fast few should race and everyone
else should step aside and watch, because that would
make a spectator of me too.
What must be said, though, is that crowds create problems. Running in peak
midpack traffic at Bix and Portland, I saw too many
infractions of race rules and violations of common courtesy. Minor wrongs grew
into major disruptions when hundreds or thousands of
people committed them.
In these crowds, too many runners acted like drivers veering to an exit ramp
without looking or signaling. Running became a contact
sport, leaving me with bruises to prove it.
This wasn't the fault of race organizers, since Bix and Portland run as smoothly
as any races in the country. Officials can only do
so much crowd controlling. The crowds must largely control themselves by
following a code of the road written into the traditions of
the sport.
The problem is, newbie and once-a-year runners haven't spent enough time in the
sport to memorize this code. Most displays of bad
running etiquette come from innocence or ignorance of these customs, not
malicious intent.
So widespread is the problem that the Road Runners Club of America appointed
Freddi Carlip to serve as "Ms. Road Manners." She makes
appearances to address these issues.
"The lack of manners seems to stem from ignorance and not using common sense,"
says Carlip. "Many people entering road races don't
understand the mechanics of being part of a road race. I don't know why we
old-time runners were able to figure things out without
being told, but it's not the case today."
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/494.html
5. Stretch for Health and Performance:
Staying flexible helps to keep your muscles healthy, and stretching well can
make all the difference in how you feel the day after a
hard run or race. It's so important for injury prevention and performance that
Marc Davis—the founder of Team Lap 2Go and coach to
countless competitive runners—advises his athletes to stretch for 30-60 minutes
every day, in addition to their warmup and cooldown
routines.
Chances are you can't devote that kind of time, but it's important to make time
for stretching the muscle groups before and after
every run. And make sure to use proper technique: A common error is to "bounce,"
but such rapid movement can cause you to pull
something. Always ease into your stretching positions slowly and gently.
"Stretch the muscle until you feel a slight tightness, then hold for 20-30
seconds," Coach Marc advises. "When you repeat, you can
stretch the muscle a little more. Ideally you should spend 60-90 seconds per
stretch."
Take a look at Coach Marc's top five exercises for the lower body:
More...from Nike at:
http://www.nike.com/nikerunning/usa/home.jhtml?loc1=tools_training&loc2=runners_\
library&loc3=98&promoID=em#runners_library
[Long URL]
6. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
Practice, practice, practice: "You don't get to test yourself at the marathon
distance as often as you do at, say, the 5-K. But you
can do plenty of homework. Make sure you log five or six 2 1/2- to 3-hour runs
(one every other weekend, at most) in the three or
four months before your race. And schedule your last long run at least two weeks
before the big day." -Steve Plasencia, head coach
of men's cross-country, University of Minnesota
* Injury Prevention
Incorporate rest days. Take at least 1 day a week off from running. This is when
your body says thank you and heals all those little
aches and pains, preventing them from becoming big aches and pains. Also, a good
rule of thumb is to alternate hard weeks (i.e. more
mileage) with easy weeks (less mileage). Or run 2 hard weeks, and then back off
for an easy week.
* Performance Nutrition
Beans, such as Kidney, Pinto, Navy and Black, are naturally low in total fat,
contain no saturated fat or cholesterol, and provide
important nutrients such as fiber, protein, calcium, iron, folic acid and
potassium. In addition to a new U.S. Dietary Guidance
Message stating that diets including beans may reduce risk of heart disease and
certain cancers, studies also suggest eating beans
as part of a healthy diet may help to manage diabetes and help cut the risk of
high blood pressure and stroke.
* Words That Inspire
"Don't take anyone else's definition of success as your own." -Jacqueline
Briskin, author
* Editor's Advice
"Get stronger and more flexible. Winter is the perfect time to add some strength
work to your training program. Or put more emphasis
on a good flexibility program. Both can help you avoid injuries." -Michele
Ervin, RW photo assistant
* Training Talk
"Max VO2 is the technical term for the maximum volume of oxygen that your body
can transport to your muscles. The higher your max,
the more oxygen your muscles receive, the greater your endurance." From Amby
Burfoot, Runner's World Complete Book of Running
7. Hitting "The Wall":
If You Understand the Scientific Reasons Behind “The Wall,” You Should Be Able
to Avoid It.
It felt like an elephant had jumped out of a tree onto my shoulders and was
making me carry it the rest of the way in.”—Dick
Beardsley, speaking of hitting "The Wall" at the second marathon of his career,
the 1977 City of Lakes Marathon.
“I wasn’t wanting to talk much. And when I’m not talking, you know I’m
hurting.”—Don Frichtl, a runner who encountered "The Wall"
somewhere after mile 21 of the 2002 Chicago Marathon.
“At around mile 23, I was beginning to feel like the anchor was out.”—George
Ringler, speaking of his 1991 Lake County Marathon.
“The Wall.” It evades easy definition, but to borrow from Supreme Court Justice
Potter Stewart’s famous definition of obscenity, you
know it when you see it—or rather, hit it. It usually happens around mile 20,
give or take a couple of miles. Your pace slows,
sometimes considerably. Some runners say that it feels as though their legs had
been filled with lead quail shot, like the stomach
of Mark Twain’s unfortunate jumping frog of Calaveras County. Others can’t feel
their feet at all. Thought processes become a little
fuzzy. (“Mile 22, again? I thought I just passed mile 22!”) Muscle coordination
goes out the window, and self-doubt casts a deep
shadow over the soul.
The bad news is that more than half of all nonelite marathon runners report
having hit The Wall at least once. The good news is that
more than 40 percent of all nonelite marathon runners have never hit The Wall.
In other words, while it certainly doesn’t hurt to be
prepared for the possibility of hitting The Wall, doing so is far from
inevitable.
More...from Marathon and Beyond at:
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/latta.htm
8. At 90, Exercise Is 'An Investment' in Life:
At exercise class, 90-year-old Terry Drucker lifted her slim legs higher than
her decades-younger classmates. Afterward, they all
shared a champagne toast in honor of Drucker's recent birthday.
"I wouldn't be in this shape if it weren't for this class," Drucker said Tuesday
at her post-exercise surprise party at Back in
Shape studio off Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.
"Feel the difference between tension that makes you stronger -- and just
tension!" instructor Marjorie Jaffe urged her seven
students, many of them urban professionals half Drucker's age.
Drucker first started exercising seriously in the 1970s after a back injury,
taking a class Jaffe taught at the YWCA.
"She did wonders," Drucker said.
"I really believe that working out at 50 is an investment (for) when you're 90,"
said the retired Time Inc. researcher and reporter,
who had contributed to a book series titled "This Fabulous Century."
Drucker's 59-year-old fitness expert is a published author -- "The Muscle Memory
Method" -- who has taken her spa regimen on the
road everywhere from Italy and the Caribbean to the Hamptons on Long Island. She
bills the regimen as an exercise program that works
every muscle while training the mind to operate the body correctly.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/ats-ap_health18feb16,1,27528\
85.story?coll=sns-ap-tophealth
[Long URL]
9. When less is more:
Have you ever participated in races when you finished in a disappointing
position considering how you much you prepared for the
event?
This disappointment strengthens the resolve of many of us. We go out and prepare
just that little bit extra for the next race only
to encounter a similar experience. After a time, we begin to doubt our abilities
or even lose interest.
Are big miles the answer for long races like Ironman?
My answer is there is great value in putting in miles for these ultra distance
events. However, your race preparation must fit into
your lifestyle and time constraints.
This means that you may do fewer miles than the pros but if you use your time
well, you can get to race day in excellent shape.
How can “less be more” work in an Ironman?
Ironman racing is a lot about what the pros like to call ‘steady state racing’.
This means, staying in a HR zone that is below
anaerobic for long periods of time.
How can you achieve this type of conditioning on limited hours of training? You
may only be able to ride four days/week and not more
than two hours on weekdays. My advice is to use those week rides for more
intense sessions.
Depending on your fitness level, the gold medal suite of training alternatives
is to do two short anaerobic sessions in the week, 1
steady state ride and 1 recovery ride.
What I have learnt from LD racing is that Long rides should not be too slow.
There needs to be a steady temp to the ride.
Riding six hours in an easy gear helps prepare you get through the race but it
does not help you achieve steady state riding too
well. Break up your long ride into sections of easy riding and sections of
steady riding for the duration of the time.
More...from World of Endurance at:
http://worldofendurance.com/triathlon/beginners_column.asp?a_id=1369015&st_name=\
BackToBasics
10. Why Fast Pedaling Makes Sense:
Source: Coach Al Lyman, CSCS
Lance has revolutionized cycling in several ways. He’s shown you CAN come back
from a serious illness like cancer and return to top
form. And, unlike other top European racers, he’s shown the value of focusing
intently on ONE race, the one that matters the most to
him – Le Tour de France.
Perhaps his most important contribution to modern cycling is his ability to
generate great power at pedaling speeds 15 to 20 rpms
higher than most of his contemporaries. When Lance pedals, it appears he’s
turning the cranks almost TOO fast. Watching him on TV,
it’s hard to resist the urge to yell “Shift! Shift!” as he spins his legs into a
blur. It looks like he could go faster by using a
bigger gear, doesn’t it?
High RPM riding has long been a tenant of Lance’s coach, Chris Carmichael. I’ve
spoken with Chris a few times, and he reminded me
once that when he was the national team coach in the early 1990s, he preached
the merits of high cadence and passed this along to
the general public via magazine articles and the like.
But, so he told me, high cadence riding really didn’t “catch on” then. Lance
wasn’t even sold on its merits and hadn’t trained
himself to spin fast. Then cancer interrupted his career. When he returned, he
displayed both greater pedaling speed and lighter
body weight. The result was an increased power to weight ratio. The muscular
classics rider was transformed into a LEAN, AGILE
climber who could still time trial as well as anyone. He’s shown that’s the
formula for Tour success!
More...from TriFuel at:
http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/bike/why-fast-pedaling-makes-sense-000660.php
11. Progressive, Gradual, and Quantifiable- The Training Process:
Source: Matt Russ
Random training produces random results. You may get faster, you may get slower,
or you may make no progress at all. In order to
increase your fitness level a few basic and key elements need to be in place.
These elements are crucial to your athletic success
and should be considered in designing your plan.
The first element is progression. Your body reacts to a stressor (work out),
recovers and adapts to that stressor in the form of
increased strength, speed, endurance, or power. If you apply the same stress
load week after week you will not progress. This is
intuitive in regards to endurance; you have to increase mileage or duration each
week in order to get to your race goal. Strength,
power, and speed work require a similar progression. You must add greater stress
loads each week, and recover, in order to move
forward.
If you add too much stress too quickly, or with inadequate recovery, you will
overload your system and degrade your performance
rather than increase it. A gradual progression in stress load is the next key
element. In considering weekly increase of total
stress load or volume, try not to increase more than 10% with a goal of roughly
6-8%. Weekly volume includes intensity and duration.
It is also important to note that an increase in intensity will require greater
recovery time even if duration stays the same. As
intensity comes up, volume should come down. This progression may seem slow, but
even a 1% increase in fitness per week is enormous
progress through a season.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050216_TSF_TrainingProcess.html
12. Young Blood Rejuvenates Old Muscles :
Compounds within now targeted for boosting regeneration in various tissues
affected by aging
A single genetic defect can lead to complex brain disorders, a finding that may
help explain the origins of schizophrenia and
related conditions.
In conditions such as schizophrenia, disease appears to result from a
combination of such things as genes, prenatal trauma, viral
infection and early life experience.
But in experiments with rats, researchers led by Gerard Martens of the Nijmegen
Center for Molecular Life Sciences in The
Netherlands have shown that a diverse array of symptoms can arise from a subtle
imbalance in the activity of a single gene that
encodes a key brain development protein.
Susceptible rats
Martens and colleagues examined the genetic differences between rats bred to be
either resistant or susceptible to the drug
apomorphine, a morphine derivative. Apomorphine-susceptible rats have behavioral
and biochemical differences from normal rats and
their susceptibility depends on exposure to stress in early life.
Using DNA microarrays to analyze gene activity in the rats' brains, the
researchers discovered just a single genetic difference
between the two groups of rats. In susceptible rats, the activity of a gene
called Aph-1b tended to be lower.
More...from Better Humans at:
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2005-02-16-3
13. Don’t Let the Cold Slow You Down: Tips For Cold Weather Workouts:
Eight Great Ways to Jump Start Your Fitness Routine for the New Year.
Kathrine Switzer is the author of Running and Walking for Women Over 40 (St.
Martin’s Press), an Emmy-award winning TV commentator
and a former winner of the New York City Marathon This is part of a series of
her proven tips to encourage women to Take Fitness to
Heart.
Running and walking are excellent ways to stay fit year-round – even during cold
winter months. However, it is important to make
some changes to your exercise routine to ensure your well-being and safety
during the colder seasons. Kathrine Switzer offers the
following tips to help you maintain your fitness level and achieve maximum
enjoyment of your winter workout.
Wear less, but layer your clothing: During cold weather, you’ll need less heavy
clothing as long as you are moving briskly. Wear
several light layers, and wear a jacket or windbreaker to keep you warm during
the early part of your run or walk, then take it off
and tie it around your waist after you are warmed up. Runners will need much
less clothing than walkers, and both would be advised
in very cold weather to have an outer jacket that covers the hips.
More...from Cool Running at:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_1/dont-let-the-cold-slow-yo.shtml
14. Pioneers in the Peloton: The unknown American:
Illinois' Joseph Magnani challenged Coppi and Bartali in Giro.
From the era of snub-nosed cars and dirt roads, of cyclists wearing goggles over
their eyes to keep out the ubiquitous dust from the
roads and racers wrapping spare tires over their shoulders and across their
backs in a figure-eight, a lone U.S. rider enjoyed
success as a professional on the roads of Europe.
Joseph Magnani of Illinois raced professionally from 1935 to 1948 on French and
Italian teams. He was so ahead of his time that few
in his homeland knew of him. In the 1947 world championship professional road
race in Reims, northeast of Paris and famed for its
champagne vineyards, Magnani finished seventh. He raced 171 miles through torrid
heat that forced most of the starters, including
legendary Fausto Coppi, to abandon.
When results reached the United States where his performance should have been
celebrated, however, Magnani's name only piqued
confusion.
"If anyone knows who he is or where he came from to represent America, we would
like to hear about it," wrote Otto Eisele, secretary
of the Amateur Bicycle League of America (predecessor to the U.S. Cycling
Federation and USA Cycling, Inc.), in American Bicyclist,
then the only national cycling publication.
More...from VeloNews at:
http://velonews.com/news/fea/7566.0.html
15. Different Types of Chiropractic Care:
There are different types of chiropractic care for different ailments, for
example chiropractic care for back and neck problems or
care for general health. Just like going to a specialist doctor for an ailment,
there are specialist chiropractors for different
conditions. Chiropractors are concerned not just with the spine but your whole
body.
Subluxation is a condition when the vertebrae of the spine get misaligned,
thereby causing nerve irritation. This misalignment can
be anywhere along the whole spine and not just in the lower back. Chiropractic
care is all about setting right the subluxations.
This misalignment of the
vertebrae puts pressure on nerves leading to and from the brain. A chiropractor
helps to put the misaligned vertebrae back in their
place by using highly skilled adjustments, gently.
Some chiropractors believe in removal of subluxations, of a particular location
along the spine, only, and they are called
~straight~ chiropractors. The logic they work on is that once subluxations are
removed the body will naturally revitalize itself.
Other category of chiropractors is called ~mixers~ because they mix their
practice with other forms of health care like physical
therapy, exercise programs and nutrition. They do this to give holistic care for
the body.
You will have to undergo a full medical examination by the chiropractor
initially and then a complete analysis of your condition.
After which the chiropractor will take in the full case history, information
about any other disease that you have and then only
will he decide on your line of
treatment. Chiropractic care has three basic forms:
Relief Chiropractic Care
This chiropractic care method is followed to give immediate relief when the
patient is in lot of pain and discomfort. The number and
frequency of visits may depend on the extent of damage that needs to be
corrected.
Chiropractic Care- Corrective
As compared to Relief Chiropractic Care the Corrective Chiropractic Care is more
of a long term treatment in which the results
appear only after a period of time. This kind of treatment is mainly taken for
those patients who are suffering from spinal problems
that have taken place over a long time. Very often, the patient going for long
time without medical attention.
Maintenance Chiropractic Care
Many patients due to permanent spinal weakness from old injuries once they have
relief from the problem and the pain, still need to
have regular checkups with the chiropractor to ensure that you remain healthy.
Usually these treatments are once every 2 to 6 weeks.
Chiropractic care means the health of the whole body. Spinal problems are
treated by the internal healing system in the body.
Chiropractic treatments are a way of ensuring that every part of body is
functioning as it should.
Chiropractic care is the most recommended form of alternative medicine. It is
based on the belief that certain conditions are caused
by impairment of your nervous system due to problems in your joints, muscles,
ligaments, tendons and bones. While chiropractors do
not use drugs or surgery, they sometimes do refer patients for medical care when
they believe it is necessary.
Chiropractic care is safe and natural helping the body to draw upon its own
restorative capabilities to heal. It teaches patients
how to take control of their own health and avoid chronic pain. It also can help
prevent problems before they start or get worse.
Greg C. Molis has been a Chiropractor since 1979. He keeps up on all of the
latest techniques. He even adjusts kids; babies too. For
questions or comments about this article, please visit
http://www.saltlakechiropractor.com
16. Strength Training is the Core of Top Triathlete Barb Lindquist's Training:
Why has pro triathlete Barb Lindquist been a consistent podium finisher over the
years? How does she race year round in as many as
20 events a year and still come out on top?
It is a given that smart training, good nutrition, and a lot of hard work are
the foundation to her success. So let’s take a look at
a key element to the formula that keeps Barb at the top of her game.
One essential element to her success has been strength training. This ingredient
has helped to keep her injury-free — a key to
consistency. In the past seven years Barb has never been sidelined do to
strains, tears, overuse, and other chronic symptoms that
many athletes experience.
Barb races year round so her strength training is not structured in the
traditional cyclical pattern of weight training. We have a
year-round schedule. After years of conditioning, muscle memory builds so the
pattern in which she trains puts her into a
maintenance level with her program.
Year to year there are slight variations to mentally freshen the workouts;
however, the program has continued in a consistent vein
over the years, inserting variations to the existing routine occasionally.
Key races will slightly alter the timing of the training in order to prepare for
a specific event, similar to a taper concept. For
the most part, though, there are no major changes in the routine throughout the
year. Pretty boring, eh?
More...from How To Be Fit at:
http://www.howtobefit.com/strengthfortriathlon.htm
17. Run Your Best Marathon. Really:
A put-all-your eggs-in-one-basket program that works if you let it.
Oh no, not another marathon-training article!
If you are a runner whose only real goal in the sport is to run your very best
marathon—even if that goal obligates you to abandon
every other reason for lacing up your shoes—you’ve no doubt been exposed to your
share of advice. If your years of training and
reading about how to improve your marathon PR (or at least not finish at
death-march pace) have resulted in frustration and
persistent self-doubt—“what am I doing wrong?”—and if, above all, you have an
open mind, then keep reading. The next few pages may
provide you with what you’ve been looking for.
This article is geared primarily to athletes with several years of consistent,
focused training under their belts and the desire to
improve competitively. It’s not designed for first-time marathoners unless they
have an excellent record at shorter distances, and
it’s not targeted to those whose goal is simply to finish the race.
The Rationale
Preparation for the marathon, along with every other physiological stressor that
comprises “training,” is governed by the principle
of specificity: That is, in order to improve at a given activity, you must
duplicate, or at least approach the parameters of, that
activity as often as possible.
Runners are familiar with this concept. We run intervals at or faster than 10K
pace so we can run that speed in a 10K race. We run
26 miles (or close to it) in training so we can accomplish the same feat in a
marathon. And so on. Mysteriously enough, however,
this principle all but evaporates when it comes to one aspect of marathon
training, even among the most ambitious and dedicated.
Conventional training wisdom places due emphasis on the need to approximate the
marathon distance and pile on the mileage in
general. We’re also encouraged to keep up our speedwork while training for
marathons, so that our legs don’t become lazy. But most
typical schemes blithely ignore the essential need in training for your best
marathon—the requirement that training conditions mimic
racing conditions.
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/99julaug/artmar.htm
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 Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11507&sidebar=17&category=activeusahome\
page
19. Sarah Reinertsen - Don’t Give Up… Not Once…Not Ever:
Millions of people tuned in to watch last year’s Kona telecast a couple of
months ago. The coverage of this race is always epic and
the quality production has many awards over the years. I, like many others, find
myself riveted to the TV as I become fully
enthralled in the many personal trials and tribulations that play out over the
coveted Kona race course. In fact, these stories are
ultimately what drove me to the ironman as an athlete.
This year was a little different for some reason. One of this year’s stories
stood out above the rest for me. Sure, they were all
motivating. And if I could choose who I would want to be stuck in a crisis with,
give me Christian Sadowski, the guy who got hit by
a motorcycle, carried his bike for 7 miles in socks and then ran the marathon. I
want that guy in my foxhole. But one story grabbed
my attention to the point where I had to do some investigative work and find out
more about a determined fountain of abundant hope
and possibility known as Sarah Reinertsen. I’m not sure if it was the heartbreak
of missing the bike cut off forcing her to end her
race. Or the pure courage that it took to just get to the start. There was
something about Sarah.
Sarah was born with a deformed leg resulting from a condition known as proximal
femoral focal deficiency, or PFFD. She was forced to
wear a brace to even her legs out from the age of 11 months until she was 7
years old. At that point, the decision was made to
amputate the leg above the knee.
More...from Transition Times at:
http://www.transitiontimes.com/viewstory.cfm?ID=6626
20. How Functional Coffee Can Help You Attain Fitness and Weight Loss:
What’s the first thing over 100 million Americans do when they wake up? If
you’re one of the many java-addicted consumers, you
probably make a beeline for the coffee brewer and with your eyes half open, brew
up a fresh cup of the aromatic brown elixir. Now
despite the rumors that have circulated from Boston to Beijing, coffee is
actually a healthy beverage that is consumed by billions
around the world. Certainly, if you take a common sense approach to whether
coffee is safe (or not), it would be perverse to
withhold the provisional assent that it is indeed safe considering that billions
of individuals drink it every day.
Furthermore, the key ingredient in coffee, caffeine is actually an amazing
substance that has a wide variety of functions. For
instance, caffeine improves performance and endurance during prolonged,
exhaustive exercise. But it also promotes gains in
short-term, high-intensity athletic performance. Caffeine decreases your
perception of pain during exercise. This might explain why
fitness competitors routinely down a cup of java right before exercise! Caffeine
also improves mental alertness and reduces your
perception of fatigue. Moreover, habitual intake does decrease caffeine's
ergogenic properties.
Coffee – the amazing elixir
And you might be surprised to hear that coffee itself may be a health food (see
Side Bar COFFEE – The Newest of Functional
Beverages). For instance, we know that regular consumption of coffee decreases
the risk of type II diabetes. A recent study examined
the long-term relationship between coffee consumption and other caffeinated
beverages and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus: The
Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals' Follow-up Study.
More...from Deep Fitness at:
http://www.deepfitness.com/05/weightloss/
21. Science of Sport: Pre-Cooling Techniques Increase Performance In The Heat:
As winter begins to take hold, you’re probably more concerned with staying warm
over the coming months than with devising strategies
to cool your body even further. It is true that research has tended to focus on
how body cooling can aid the performance of
endurance athletes competing in hot, humid environments. But there is growing
evidence that pre-cooling can offer performance
advantages in a range of temperatures, during training as well as competition,
and in non-continuous sports.
Exercise causes your body temperature to rise, and the harder you work the more
rapid this rise will be. This rise in core
temperature (Tc) can be modified by increased fitness but is exacerbated in hot
and humid conditions. However, regardless of
training state or climate, it is apparent that there is a critical limiting Tc,
at which point athletes are forced to either reduce
exercise intensity or risk heat-related illness.
Because the amount of heat stored in the body will limit the duration of
exercise at a given intensity, it obviously makes sense to
start exercising with as cool a body temperature as possible – ie by
pre-cooling. In essence, the purpose of body cooling techniques
is to increase the margin between your starting Tc and the Tc that will force
you to reduce your pace.
Numerous studies have shown that pre cooling is advisable before prolonged
exercise in hot temperatures, with evidence that it helps
to sustain intensity and speed. In one study requiring subjects to run at 82% of
max VO2 in a heat chamber – 24°C and 51% relative
humidity (RH) – pre-cooling by cold air exposure (5°C) was shown to boost
performance by a massive 16%(1). In another study,
following a 20-minute cold water bath (23-24°C) the distance achieved during a
30-minute self-paced running test in hot humid
conditions (32°C, 62%RH) increased by an average of 4%(2).
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050218_PPO_PreCooling.html
22. Sports Nutrition: Beating the Bonk!
"A man jumped out of the woods and hit me on the head with a frying pan!" my
friend Marc exclaimed when I asked him how his
Keskinada 50k ski race went. He sounded serious. He had bonked . . . and badly!
While his vivid description is unique, it's always
the picture that comes to mind when I think of bonking.
"Hitting the wall" or "running out of gas" is how other endurance athletes
describe the overly fatigued muscles and disoriented
sensation that leads to a dramatic drop in performance. A cross-country skier's
dynamic glide turns into a sorry shuffle, and fast
snow now feels like molasses; a runner's stride becomes a walk; and any blip of
a hill looks like Mount Everest. What exactly is
going on when your muscles and brain scream "no more"? Is this a situation you
can avoid?
WHAT'S GOING ON?
Extreme fatigue that severely impairs performance is likely a result of
depleting muscle glycogen stores, liver glycogen stores,
dehydration, or a combination of these. Muscle glycogen is the primary fuel for
endurance athletes. Although you also burn small
amounts of fatty acids and amino acids, glycogen is the major player.
What makes glycogen? Your body breaks down carbohydrates from the foods that you
eat into glucose. Your liver extracts a small
amount of this blood glucose and stores it as glycogen, while a larger amount of
glucose is carried into your muscle cells and
stored as glycogen.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050216_SK_Bonking.html
23. Yoga, Pilates or both:
The exercise world's current darlings are both slow, intense and therapeutic.
But they achieve their fitness goals in distinctive
ways.
Yoga and Pilates may be the fitness world's most popular couple. Men and women
looking for a less frenetic workout are flocking to
both disciplines as copious classes, studios, books and DVDs appear; there's
even a hybrid called Yogalates that blends the best of
both worlds.
Those who have at least a vague familiarity with each know that yoga is a
practice dating back thousands of years that has a strong
spiritual component and a holistic approach, while Pilates is a strength and
conditioning system done with mat work and apparatus.
And while many consider taking the plunge into one or the other, they often find
that choosing between the two can be confusing —
which better suits one's fitness needs, body, lifestyle and wallet? Both are
considered mind-body exercises, meaning that one should
be mentally engaged while doing the physical work. Both employ breathing
techniques. Both incorporate resistance for toning muscles.
Both are used therapeutically. Both are slow, intense routines that can be done
through classes or one-on-one training. And both can
produce lean, toned bodies.
More. from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/fitness/la-he-yogapilates14feb14,1,796239\
8.story?coll=la-health-fitness-news
[Long URL]
24. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
*Background and Peaking
Knowledgeable competitive athletes plan their training programs months in
advance, using a technique called background and peaking.
First they spend many months in background training, in which they work out for
long hours, mostly at low intensity, followed by a
shorter period of peaking training in which they do far less work, but at a much
greater intensity. A distance runner may run 100
miles a week during her winter background training. A few months before her most
important racing season, she reduces her workload
to about 40 miles a week, but she runs almost as fast as she can two or three
times a week.
In his background period, a weightlifter lifts many tons of lighter weights. As
he gets closer to his main competitive season, he
takes workouts in which he lifts very heavy weights, but does far fewer
repetitions. In his background period, a shot putter lifts
tons of lighter weights each week and throws mostly for form, not distance. Then
as he gets into his season, he does far less
lifting, but with heavier weights. He also spends one day a week throwing as far
as he can.
You can apply these principles to any sport or fitness program. Start your
exercise program at low intensity and low volume.
Gradually increase your workload for several months before you try to run fast,
lift heavy or exercise intensely. If you are just
beginning a new exercise program, start out at a relaxed pace until your muscles
feel heavy and then stop. For the first several
days or weeks you may be able to exercise only for a few minutes. If your
muscles feel sore the next day, take the day off. Increase
the amount of time gradually until you can exercise 30 minutes a day at a
relaxed pace and not feel sore. You may progress rapidly
to the 30-minute goal, or it may take you two, four, six weeks or more. No
matter how long it takes, don't get discouraged.
Exercising too much or too hard, too soon will set you up for injuries.
* Dear Dr. Mirkin: My daughter refuses to wear a bra when she runs. Won't this
cause sagging?
Women can wear bras when they exercise if they want to, but there is no medical
evidence that exercising braless will harm them or
cause breasts to sag. A breast is made up of skin on the outside, fat
underneath and muscles under that. Breasts are held in place
by skin and small ligaments that go from the skin to muscles underneath the
breasts. The intermittent stretching that occurs during
exercise does not
stretch out the skin or ligaments. A breast is composed mostly of fat, so when a
woman starts to exercise, she loses fat from her
breast as well as the rest of her body and they become smaller and may appear to
sag. Sagging is determined to some degree by
heredity. All women develop some sagging as they age and those with the largest
breasts are the ones who are most likely to develop
sagging.
Many women with small breasts prefer not to wear bras when they exercise.
However, women with large breasts may need them to feel
comfortable. If a woman wants to wear a bra, she should choose one that is lose
enough to let her breathe comfortably, and tight
enough to keep the breasts from bouncing and the bra from riding up or twisting
during exercise. The bra should not have bones or
wires that dig into the body, or rough seams or hooks that rub against the skin.
25. News Scan:
* Fishing for a Solution to Exercise-Induced Asthma (Dr. Roc Byrd)
Proper breathing is a vital component of effective exercise, whether you're
running, swimming or lifting weights. Breathe in,
breathe out; inhale on the way up, exhale on the way down. Sounds easy, right?
Not if you suffer from exercise-induced asthma. It's
been estimated that nine out of 10 chronic asthma sufferers, and four of 10
individuals with allergic rhinitis or atopic dermatitis,
will feel the effects of exercise-induced asthma. Symptoms can include chest
tightness, coughing, shortness of breath, and fatigue.
There is hope for sufferers of this condition, however: Researchers at the
University of Indiana have found that fish oil may reduce
the severity of exercise-induced asthma in athletes. Subjects who consumed fish
oil capsules daily for three weeks (approximately
5.4 grams of fish oil per day) showed improved post-exercise pulmonary function
and reduced symptoms of exercise-induced asthma
compared to control subjects who received no fish oil supplementation.
Good dietary sources of fish oil include herring, albacore tuna, salmon,
mackerel, sardines and anchovies. And if you don't have the
time (or palate) to fit fish into your regular diet, you can always get the
benefits of fish oil from a regular supplement. Ask your
chiropractor about the benefits of fish oil, particularly if you suffer from
asthma.
For more information on vitamins, minerals and supplements, go to
http://www.chiroweb.com/find/tellmeabout/nutrients.html
From the Wes Hobson performance Newsletter (www.weshobsonperformance.com)
* Nutritional considerations in triathlon.
Jeukendrup AE, Jentjens RL, Moseley L.
School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston,
Birmingham, UK.
Triathlon combines three disciplines (swimming, cycling and running) and
competitions last between 1 hour 50 minutes (Olympic
distance) and 14 hours (Ironman distance). Independent of the distance,
dehydration and carbohydrate (CHO) depletion are the most
likely causes of fatigue in triathlon, whereas gastrointestinal (GI) problems,
hyperthermia and hyponatraemia are potentially health
threatening, especially in longer events. Although glycogen supercompensation
may be beneficial for triathlon performance (even
Olympic distance), this does not necessarily have to be achieved by the
traditional supercompensation protocol. More recently,
studies have revealed ways to increase muscle glycogen concentrations to very
high levels with minimal modifications in diet and
training. During competition, cycling provides the best opportunity to ingest
fluids. The optimum CHO concentration seems to be in
the range of 5-8% and triathletes should aim to achieve a CHO intake of 60-70
g/hour. Triathletes should attempt to limit body mass
losses to 1% of body mass. In all cases, a drink should contain sodium (30-50
mmol/L) for optimal absorption and prevention of
hyponatraemia. Post-exercise rehydration is best achieved by consuming beverages
that have a high sodium content (>60 mmol/L) in a
volume equivalent to 150% of body mass loss. GI problems occur frequently,
especially in long-distance triathlon. Problems seem
related to the intake of highly concentrated carbohydrate solutions, or
hyperosmotic drinks, and the intake of fibre, fat and
protein. Endotoxaemia has been suggested as an explanation for some of the GI
problems, but this has not been confirmed by recent
research. Although mild endotoxaemia may occur after an Ironman-distance
triathlon, this does not seem to be related to the
incidence of GI problems. Hyponatraemia has occasionally been reported,
especially among slow competitors in triathlons and probably
arises due to loss of sodium in sweat coupled with very high intakes (8-10L) of
water or other low-sodium drinks.
PMID: 15707379 [PubMed - in process]
* Young Blood Rejuvenates Old Muscles
Young blood can help revive damaged older muscles, according to a study that
found the blood of aged mice somehow hinders muscle's
ability to repair itself.
In the study, researchers from Stanford University focused on specialized cells
called satellite cells, which are stem cells
sprinkled throughout muscle tissue. These satellite cells are normally dormant
but spring into action whenever muscles in young mice
are damaged. However, in older mice, satellite cells don't appear to respond to
muscle damage.
The Stanford researchers hooked up a group of older mice with a group of younger
mice in a way that allowed both groups to share the
same blood supply. The researchers then induced muscle damage in the older mice.
When these older mice were hooked up to a blood
supply from older mice, their muscles healed slowly. But when the older mice
received blood from younger mice, their muscles healed
much more quickly.
The researchers also studied the livers of older mice who received blood from
younger mice. They found that cells that help liver
tissue regenerate were more active in older mice when they received younger
blood.
The study appears in the Feb. 17 issue of Nature.
The findings indicate that something in younger blood revives regenerative cells
in muscle and the liver, the researchers said.
Lead researcher Dr. Thomas Rando, associate professor of neurology and
neurological services, suggested that age-related problems in
chemicals surrounding the satellite cells, not the cells themselves, might be at
fault.
"We need to consider the possibility that the niche in which stem cells sit is
as important in terms of stem cell aging as the cells
themselves," he said in a prepared statement.
* In The Next Issue of Running Research News
THE SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT TRAINING MODEL
Many scientific investigations have shown that training at intensities which are
close to lactate threshold produces sizable gains
in fitness. Elite athletes seem to ignore this research as they pile up training
far away from threshold at the two "poles" of
intensity - high and low. The elites' characteristic pattern of training
provides a key lesson for runners of all ability levels.
CALF COMPLAINTS MIGHT CREATE FRIGHTENING FOOT FORCES
Runners are susceptible to a variety of foot injuries, including metatarsal
stress fractures. Scientific research has indicated that
several different factors may be responsible, including high arches, excessive
pronation, and rapid increases in training volume.
However, new research from Germany suggests that calf-muscle fatigue during
quality running may put undue pressure on the feet in
the metatarsal areas, potentially leading to injury. Exercises to strengthen
your calves and feet are provided.
PREGNANT - AND FIT!
Pregnant runners often lose aerobic capacity during their pregnancies and have
trouble recovering fitness following childbirth, but
new research from Norway reveals that a safe, appropriate exercise program can
perfectly preserve VO2max and provide a
"spring-board" for gains in aerobic fitness post-partum. The Norwegian regime is
described in detail.
Subscribe to RRN at:
https://rrnews.microform.com/order_add_edit.php
*End of Articles*
This Weeks Featured Events:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites*
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
February 14-22, 2005:
Yukon Arctic Ultra - Whitehorse, Canada
http://www.arcticultra.de
February 19, 2005:
Myrtle Beach Marathon - Myrtle Beach, NC
http://www.mbmarathon.com
February 20, 2005:
Desert Classic Marathon - Scottsdale, AZ
http://www.arizonaroadracers.com/dclassicmar.htm
Hobart ITU Continental Cup Triathlon - Australia
http://www.triathlon.org/international/int-2005/hobart-2005/index.htm
Tallahassee Marathon - Tallahassee, FL
http://www.gulfwinds.org/marathon
February 25-27, 2005:
USA Indoor Track and Field Championships - Boston MA
http://bostontrackandfield.usatfne.org
February 27, 2005:
Cowtown Marathon - Dallas, TX
http://www.cowtownmarathon.org
Hong Kong Marathon
http://www.hkmarathon.com
February 27, 2005:
Malta Marathon and Half-Marathon
http://www.maltamarathon.com
World's Greatest 10K - San Juan, Puerto Rico
http://www.wb10k.com/new/
Check out our FrontPage and our Runner's Web Television Links page at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_television.html
For Triathlon Coverage check out The Sports Network at:
http://www2.sportsnet.ca/tvschedule/tvsked_sport.php?region=ONTARIO&schedule_id=\
25
Send this to a Friend:
Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join
Your Feedback and Comments:
Comments, contributions and feedback are always welcome via this list at:
mailto:
runnersweb@yahoogroups.com and in our Runner's Web
Forum, available off our FrontPage. If you post to the mailing list and get your
email returned, please contact the Runner's Web at
mailto:
webmaster@... to notify us of the problem. To update your
Runner's Web eGroups subscriber's profile,
go to the web site at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join, sign in
and update your changes.
Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunnersWeb/join
Have a good week of training and/or racing.
Ken Parker
Runner's Web
mailto:
webmaster@...
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
Runner's Web Affiliate Programs:
***********************************
Our newest affiliate is LX Sport - Leading Edge Sports Products for Women.
"We strive hard to bring you the best fitness and sports products on the market
that we can find. Our product range is constantly
evolving"
http://www.lxsport.com/products.php?PARTNER=runnersweb. Use the promotion code
"RWEB".
This application was recently featured on National TV – please see the following
link:
http://easylink.playstream.com/networknewssource/hdo/onlinetrainer.wvx
TrainingPeaks.com by Wes Hobson.
Find the training program that fits you at:
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/rw
HDO Sports - Leading Edge Sports Products
http://www.modularmerchant.com/clients/hdo/?aid=12
Puma
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000006585654
Fitsense Speed, Distance & Heart Rate Monitoring System for Runners and Walkers
http://buy.fitsense.com/processing2.asp?ID=28&Ad=101
Peak Performance Online
Free Copy of Peak Performance!
High-quality training newsletter worth £4 ($6) delivered straight to your door
http://www.pponline.co.uk/sendme/free.php?aff=runnersweb&sub=run
HDO Sport for Timex Body Link products
http://www.modularmerchant.com/clients/hdo/?aid=13
ITUtv.com
Live webcasts of triathlons and multi-sport events.
http://www.itutv.com/
Use promo code "RUNNERSWEB" to get a $5.00 discount.
Blockbuster
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005675551
Fairmont Hotels
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005674720
Triathlon Meetup
http://triathlon.meetup.com/r/d5n6/d5n6/0/http://triathlon.meetup.com/?a=d5n6/
721 are signed up for local Triathlon Meetups! Happening THIS month, find out
when .
The Finish Line
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005637857
Patagonia
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005568199
Motorola
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005463364
AOL Broadband
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005348025
Get the GM Card, get 5% Earnings from every credit card purchase, and
start charging toward a new GM car, truck or SUV.
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000005347188
ING DIRECT makes $aving money simple! Open your account online today
and start earning 2.10% variable APY. No Fees and No Minimums!
http://www.qksrv.net/click-1452277-10124087
TriSwim Coach - The Complete Guide to Triathlon Swimming
http://hop.clickbank.net/?rhianyth/triswim1
adidas' running apparel at 15% off! All running shorts, pants, and
shirts at reduced prices .
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=20812557&siteid=39999062&bfpage=15745\
37
If you have an accident while running or cycling, do you want your
family to be contacted? Do you want to receive immediate and
proper medical treatment? If so, make this cool item part of your
gear -- for safety and peace of mind. Road ID has created 4
awesome ways for athletes to wear ID: the SHOE, the WRIST, the ANKLE,
and the NECK.
Get your RoadID at:
http://www.roadid.com/?referrer=50
The TRACK PROFILE Reader 2004, an in-depth review of the 2003 season
by Bob Ramsak, is now available. Selected from hundreds of
reports filed by the Track Profile News Service last year, The TRACK
PROFILE READER provides a unique look back at the
personalities, stories and events that defined track and field in
2003. With in depth profiles of the sport's biggest stars and
comprehensive on-site reports from major competitions, this annual
review takes the reader beyond the results, providing a perfect
companion for casual and
diehard fans alike. Check out the book at:
http://www.booksurge.com/author.php3?accountID=GPUB00341&affiliateID=A000497
The Stretching Handbook:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/cgi-bin/at.pl?a=286905
The Stretching Video in a DVD version. With the DVD version you're
able to use the convenient menu facility to:
* Go directly to a specific stretch;
* View only stretches for a specific muscle group;
* Pause each stretch to get a good look at how it is performed;
* View only the introduction and rules for safe stretching; or
* Play the entire video from start to finish.
Buy the DVD at:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/cgi-bin/at.pl?a=286905&e=products/video-dvd\
.htm
Buy all your sporting goods at Fogdog Sports, your anytime, anywhere
sports store.
Click here:
http://www.fogdog.com/cgi-bin/affiliate?siteid=40054907
How To Run And Enjoy The Marathon By James Raia:
Price: $7.95
As a practical guide to the 26.2-mile journey, How To Run And Enjoy
The Marathon is a series of 15 self-help and service-oriented
articles about running marathons - the proper shoes to running
etiquette - is written by James Raia, a journalist and veteran
middle-of-the-pack marathon and ultramarathon runner in Sacramento,
Calif.
Buy the book at:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?rhianyth/eltomaja
END...OF DIGEST...