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6. Total Immersion
The TAO of TI: What makes Total Immersion different.
We're convinced there's a great swimmer inside of everyone! If you've never
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Though swimming is an essential life skill, traditional teaching and coaching
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Only TI teaches the qualities of beautiful swimming as well as the mechanics.
Swimmers come to us with the goal of swimming faster.
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Only TI teaches you to master swimming as an art. TI teachers emphasize the same
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Check out the TI program at:
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THIS WEEK:


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* Sports Nutrition by Sheila Kealey.
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* WatsonLifeSport
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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: Antioxidant vitamins - can they do athletes more harm than
good?
2. Multisport: Road Cycling Safety and Etiquette
How to peacefully coexist with much larger moving objects.
3. Science of Sport: Caffeine effects - Now caffeine’s legal, is it worth
taking?
4. Too Hot and Humid to Exercise?
Weather Can Have a Chilling Affect on Workouts, Say Experts.
5. Running ragged:
Baby boomers are taking up marathon running, but the health risks outweigh the
benefits when unfit bodies go from couch to street.
6. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Long Run Selection
7. America's Revolutionary Athletes:
Sports Illustrated Online has a current feature on The 25 most revolutionary
U.S. athletes.
8. Wounded vets find new athletic challenges
Sports gives injured vets something to belong to, therapist says.
9. For many gym goers, energy comes in a can
Caffeine-laden energy drinks are popular, but experts disagree on their possible
benefits.
10. Make Sure Your Next Bike Meets Your Needs
11. Plotting to Save the Structure of Those Aging Bones
12. Five tips for becoming a lean mean athletic machine
13. Banana Nation - Nature's Perfect Running Fuel
14. From Runner's World
15. Cycling: How Much Suspension Do I Need?
17. Scientists study older athletes
Senior Olympics opportunity to examine aging and exercise.
18. Science of training
19. Dehydration: The worst-case scenario
Heat-related muscle damage can lead to kidney problems.
20. Test yourself on eight popular nutrition myths

Runner's Web Weekly Poll:
"Do you support the selection as London for the site of the 2012 Olympic Games?"

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: "Which of the following magazines do you read on a regular
basis?
Competitor Magazine
InsideTri
Runner's World
Running Times
Sports Illustrated
Triathlete Magazine?""
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
Competitor Magazine 1 1%
2. InsideTri 18 14%
3. Runner's World 48 37%
4. Running Times 28 21%
5. Sports Illustrated 12 9%
6. Triathlete Magazine 24 18%
Total Votes: 131

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Five Star Site of the Week: AnnieEmerson.com.
"Personal data
Place of Birth: London
Current home: Surrey
Age: 30 something
Weight: 54Kg
Marital status: Single
Education: Diploma in Marketing. I have also just completed a Diploma in
professional sports massage and I am currently sitting
exams for a Diploma in Spanish translation.
Best results
4 National titles, 7 European Triathlon Cup wins, 3 Olympic points races wins,
Bronze medal European Triathlon Championships, Bronze
medals at both World Duathlon long and short course championships, Silver medal
at World Duathlon short course championships, 2001
British team member for World half marathon championships, twice winner Powerman
duathlon.
Most emotional performance
2005 World long course duathlon championships bronze medal four weeks after my
dad George passed away. He was due to come on the
trip with me! He would have loved the place and been so proud of me, he wasn't
there in person but he was very much there in memory.
Favourite music
Braveheart and anything by Ru di silva"
Visit Annie's website at:
http://www.annieemmerson.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
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Our Photo Slideshow is updated on a random basis. Check it out from our
FrontPage.


Book of the Week: Enhancing Recovery.
Preventing Underperformance in Athletes is the first book to address the
multifaceted aspects and significance of recovery in
maintaining high-level athletic performance. In this text, 21 contributors take
an interdisciplinary approach to assist you in
preventing overtraining and underperformance in athletes you work with.
Enhancing Recovery focuses on recovery as a required
component of training and the devastating effects of under recovery, giving you
new insights into treating and preventing
overtraining and underperformance.
Buy the book from Human Kinetics at:
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showproduct.cfm?associate=880&isbn=0736034\
005

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: Antioxidant vitamins - can they do athletes more harm than
good?
Oxygen is amazing stuff. Thanks to its special chemical reactivity, it provides
us with the energy required to sustain life,
including the ability to power movements and muscular contraction. This explains
why oxygen – and the ability to absorb, transport
and use it – is so important to endurance athletes, who need lots of the stuff
to sustain maximum power and work outputs.
However, the oxygen molecule is a double-edged sword. For this same chemical
reactivity can also wreak cellular havoc by means of
the transient, highly reactive and potentially extremely destructive molecular
species called free radicals, which are produced
unavoidably as a consequence of harnessing the chemical energy of oxygen within
the body.
Without getting into the chemical fine detail, a free radical is simply a
molecule that contains an unpaired electron. Why is that
important? Well, the laws of physics dictate that electrons are only really
‘happy’ and stable when paired up with a partner, which
explains why stable, or nonreactive, chemical molecules nearly always have
chemical bonds containing a pair of shared electrons.
An atom or molecule containing a single, or unpaired, electron is distinctly
‘unhappy’; it has a lot of energy, is very unstable and
is highly reactive, eager to snatch an electron from somewhere else in order to
form a stable electron pair. This is what free
radicals are: molecules or molecule fragments containing unpaired electrons,
desperate to snatch electrons from other chemical bonds
in order to form a stable electron pair.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050708_PPO_Antioxidants.html


2. Multisport: Road Cycling Safety and Etiquette:
How to peacefully coexist with much larger moving objects.
I live in Atlanta, arguably the worst city in the country to ride a bicycle.
Planning (or lack of) Atlanta’s explosive growth has
rarely considered the cyclist. Roadside bike paths are for the most part
non-existent, as is adequate road shoulder space. The bike
paths that do exist are multi-use. This means cyclists, roller bladers, runners,
and walkers all vie for use of this limited
resource. Traffic is terrible even in the suburbs and tempers are short.
Motorists have little patience for anything that will
impede their already slow progress; especially a cyclist. This does not exactly
paint a rosy picture now does it?
The lack of patience with cyclists has lead some motorists to resort to
terrorist like tactics such as putting tacks in the roadway
in popular cycling areas. They view cyclists as arrogant, rude, and mainly in
their way, and in some cases they are correct. This
bad blood creates a dangerous situation for cyclists and motorists alike. There
are some things cyclists can do to diffuse this
situation though, most of which are just plain common sense.
You do have a right to ride your bicycle on the right side of the road; period.
This right is protected in the law (check your local
ordinances or go to http://bicyclegeorgia.com/galaw.html in Georgia. Where or
when you ride is up to your individual prudence. I
personally value my life so I try to choose routes and times that have lower
traffic flow. This may not be practical for everyone
but riding on a Sunday morning versus a Saturday makes a big difference in these
parts. For safety’s sake I recommend riding with a
partner.
First of all, never ride your bike against traffic. Way too often, I see novice
cyclists of all ages riding in the left lane as they
would as if they were walking or running. Often times they're not even wearing a
helmet (this is illegal if they're under the age of
16 and a very bad idea if they're not). They must feel safer seeing the
on-coming traffic, but the fact is that 20% of all car-bike
collisions result from cyclists riding the wrong way in traffic. Motorists just
aren't used to looking for vehicles coming at them
in their lane.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050708_TSF_Cycling_Etiquette.ht\
ml


3. Science of Sport: Caffeine effects - Now caffeine’s legal, is it worth
taking?
The ergogenic potential of caffeine is not exactly a recent phenomenon. Indeed,
there is documentation to suggest that it has been
used to enhance performance for more than 30 years. However, with caffeine
having been removed from the banned list of the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) earlier this year, now
may be a good time to revisit the topic.
Caffeine is found naturally in coffee beans, tea leaves, chocolate, cocoa beans
and cola nuts, and is often added to carbonated
drinks. This makes it one of the most widely consumed behaviourally-active
substances in the world. For most of us, caffeine
provides a stimulus for concentration or waking up. For athletes, however, it
can be used to prolong endurance exercise and enhance
power production.
Initial studies examining the effect of caffeine supplementation on endurance
performance reported a 21-minute improvement in time
to exhaustion while cycling at 80% of VO2max(1). Similarly, elite distance
runners who consumed 10mg of caffeine per kg of body mass
immediately before a treadmill run to exhaustion significantly improved their
performance by 1.9% compared with controls(2).
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050707_PPO_Caffeine.html


4. Too Hot and Humid to Exercise?
Weather Can Have a Chilling Affect on Workouts, Say Experts.
The weather in your area may be a plus or a minus when it comes to exercise.
Sure, you can exercise year-round inside. And many people brave hot, cold,
rainy, or snowy conditions to be active. But the weather
can still make a difference, new research shows.
The CDC advises getting at least half an hour of moderate intensity physical
activity five or more days per week. According to the
CDC, moderate-intensity physical activity includes walking at a brisk pace,
biking on a level terrain, using a stationary bicycle,
aerobic dancing, or water aerobics.
Ray Merrill, PhD, MPH, and colleagues aren't offering new excuses to slack on
fitness. Instead, they looked at the weather's effects
on workout habits.
Merrill is an associate health sciences professor at Brigham Young University.
His report appears in the American Journal of Health
Behavior.
More...from WebMD at:
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/108/108756?src=RSS_PUBLIC


5. Running ragged:
Baby boomers are taking up marathon running, but the health risks outweigh the
benefits when unfit bodies go from couch to street.
Elaine Dembe ran 17 marathons before she gave it up after the 100th Boston
Marathon in 1996 "because my feet wouldn't let me
anymore."
Now she settles for eight or 10-kilometre runs and her goal is to be strong and
fit. "You don't have to run marathons to do that,"
says the 56-year-old Toronto chiropractor and motivational speaker.
All over town, marathon clinics are sprinting into high gear for the summer,
training hundreds of people for the traditional fall
marathon season when Toronto alone will hold two 42-kilometre races.
Many of these "newbies" are middle-aged men and women who have suddenly decided
to get off the couch and train flat out.
"They've done nothing in terms of fitness for the first 50 years of their life
and now they've found their physical part," Dembe
says.
Often they find aches, pains and sprains as well. Dembe opened the first Toronto
clinic for injured runners in 1980 and has been
treating these well-intentioned new runners ever since.
More...from the Toronto Star at:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_T\
ype1&c=Article&cid=1120126731693&call_pageid=9705991
19419
[Multi-line URL]


6. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Long Run Selection:
Long Run Solution, my 1976 book, was a sprinter. Title aside, it started fast
and finished early.
The book sold well its first two years, as all running books did in the Jim
Fixx-inspired sales boom of the late 1970s. Then it
stopped selling, as all running books did in the Fixx-inspired glut of the early
'80s.
Today hardly anyone remembers LRS, now long out of print. One exception is Rich
Benyo.
Rich recalls Long Run Solution from his early days as editor (and my successor)
at Runner's World. Now the editor of Marathon &
Beyond, he asked in 2003 if the magazine could reprint the book in four
installments. He called it "your best."
That might be too strong a word. In topic and tone, none of mine matches Did I
Win?, the tribute to and biography of George Sheehan.
But that really was George's story, which I transcribed for him as he looked
over my shoulder from his next life. Of the books that
tell what I myself know and love about running, LRS is my favorite for these
reasons:
-- LRS was my first real book. The earlier four were all booklets, none longer
than 96 pages. They were training for the book that
runs at least twice the length of any before it -- which gave it that much more
depth.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/516.html


7. America's Revolutionary Athletes:
Sports Illustrated Online has a current feature on The 25 most revolutionary
U.S. athletes.
No. 25
Lance Armstrong
Armstrong has dominated men's cycling like none other, winning the Tour de
France six consecutive times between 1999 and 2004. But
his biggest challenge was overcoming testicular cancer, which doctors told him
he only had a 50 percent chance of beating when it
was diagnosed in 1996. He survived and started the Lance Armstrong Foundation,
which has raised nearly $85 million to help improve
the quality of life for those living with cancer.
No. 18
John Carlos/ Tommie Smith
The image of Smith and Carlos raising their first on the medal stand at the 1968
Olympics in Mexico City still resonates as a
powerful symbol of protest. The gold and bronze medal winners in the 200-meter
run wore black gloves to bring attention to the civil
rights movement, which they felt hadn't gone far enough at the time. While this
simple gesture might seem tame today, it sent shock
waves through the Olympic committee and redefined an athlete's ability to take a
social stand.
More...from Sports Illustrated at:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/07/01/revolutiona\
ry/content.1.html?cnn=yes


8. Wounded vets find new athletic challenges:
Sports gives injured vets something to belong to, therapist says.
Eight months ago, Ramon Guitard lay in an Army hospital bed, his legs nearly
blown off by roadside bombs in Baghdad. He thought his
life was as good as over.
But not long after, at the urging of his therapists, Guitard watched a doctor
demonstrate wheelchair slalom and was intrigued enough
to try another activity: hand cycling, a bicycle powered with the arms.
This past week, Guitard joined hundreds of other veterans competing here at the
National Veterans Wheelchair Games. Guitard, a high
school athlete in football and track while in high school, took on what he calls
his new athletic challenges: bowling and 9-ball
pool.
"The more active you are, the less you dwell on your injuries," said Guitard,
22, who lost one leg and had to have the other fused
after the October attack. "You're putting your life together again."
More...from CNN at:
http://us.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/07/04/veterans.games.ap/index.html


9. For many gym goers, energy comes in a can:
Caffeine-laden energy drinks are popular, but experts disagree on their possible
benefits.
Sara Vieira's workout schedule is more than most humans care to endure, a
punishing combination of Spinning classes, boot camp and
training for an upcoming triathlon. Exercising intensely up to two hours a day,
Vieira admits she can endure the workouts a little
easier when she has help from a friend — a can of Red Bull.
The 27-year-old flash designer from West Hollywood is hardly alone. Many twenty-
and thirtysomethings regularly chug energy drinks
or coffee before their workouts.
"It gives me so much energy," says Vieira, whose fondness for the beverage
earned her the nickname Red Bull. She got her first taste
of the stuff five years ago, after suffering from jet lag and incorporated it
into her workouts a year later. "You feel like you can
go that extra mile. I'm more focused as well."
She may be right. Despite previous warnings about the possible diuretic effects
and dehydration risks of caffeine — the key
ingredient in energy drinks — the stimulant can have a positive effect on
athletic performance, research has shown. One study showed
that among approximately 10 well-trained elite athletes, ingesting caffeine
increased the length of time they could sustain an
intense workout by 20%.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/fitness/la-he-energy4jul04,1,2824115.stor\
y?coll=la-health-fitness-news
Concerns raised over caffeine-fuelled beer
A BEER made with a caffeine additive is to be launched in the UK - amid fears
that it might fuel binge drinking.
Each bottle of the drink, BE, contains 5 per cent alcohol and 60.4mg of
caffeine. The drink's maker, Anheuser-Busch, which also
brews Budweiser, said BE - Beer with Extra - contains guarana, ginseng and
flavouring to give it a sweet, fruity taste.
It will be marketed at people aged 18 to 34 "who like drinking in bars and
nightclubs". The alcohol content is in line with the
firm's other premium-strength beers sold in the UK, it said
More...from the Scotsman at:
http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=733152005


10. Make Sure Your Next Bike Meets Your Needs:
Buying a bicycle can be a daunting process, especially for the uninitiated.
These days, there are numerous choices to be made about
frame material, geometry, and components. Each manufacturer claims their
combination is best. To make things even more complicated,
we see our favorite professional riders on the lightest, most expensive machines
available, and we begin to believe it’s necessary
to drain our bank accounts on a bike in order to go fast. There’s no question
that an overly-heavy bike with components that work
poorly puts you at a disadvantage, and while it’s true the engine is more
important than the bike, choosing the right bike can make
riding more enjoyable while also enhancing your performance.
The combination of frame materials and components (shifters, wheels, drivetrain,
etc.) featured on a particular bike determine its
price. Just because a titanium or carbon-fiber framed bicycle usually demands a
high price doesn’t mean you can’t get a quality
machine, that meets your needs, for less. To make things a little easier, we’ve
grouped bicycles into three popular pricepoints:
Under $1000, $1000-$3000, and $3000+.
More...from Outside Online at:
http://www.trainright.com/outside/default.asp?article=1&newest=1&sortBy=137&arti\
cleID=1389


11. Plotting to Save the Structure of Those Aging Bones:
Osteoporosis is a serious and costly disease. Nearly 30 million women and 14
million men in the United States already have it or are
heading toward it. The numbers continue to rise as the population ages,
especially now that far fewer women are taking estrogen,
which protects against postmenopausal bone loss.
More Columns: Personal Health Osteoporosis is also a silent disease, silent,
that is, until a bone breaks in response to a
relatively minor stress, like tripping on a step.
Several drugs in the bisphosphonate class - Fosamax and Actonel taken weekly and
Boniva taken monthly - have been shown to stem
further bone loss, increase bone density and cut fracture rates in half in women
with established osteoporosis. The same effect has
been seen in women with somewhat less bone loss who, for other reasons, are at
high risk for a fracture.
But what about the many postmenopausal women with a lesser degree of bone loss
called osteopenia? Should they, too, take a
bisphosphonate to protect their bones after menopause? Is this cost-effective,
and is it likely to help the women more than it harms
them?
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/health/05brod.html?


12. Five tips for becoming a lean mean athletic machine:
Laila Ali and Lori Bowden sure look different. Ali, the reigning IBA light
heavyweight boxing champion, stands 5 foot 10 inches and
weighs 168 pounds. Bowden, two-time Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Champion, is
5 foot 6 inches and tips the scale at 115 pounds.
Yet despite their contrasting appearances, these two women have very similar
body compositions -- probably in the range of 10 to 14
percent body fat.
Elite athletes across all sports are usually very lean. Whether tall or short,
broad or narrow, brawny or lithe, they tend to be
made of mostly muscle and little fat. This is because muscle is the only tissue
capable of performing work, whereas body fat is
(from an athletic perspective) merely dead weight.
Few elite athletes spend much time worrying about their body composition. For
them, the ideal body composition is simply a byproduct
of world-class training and proper diet acting on a one-in-a-million genetic
makeup.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11946


13. Banana Nation - Nature's Perfect Running Fuel:
It's an odd sight to see: a middle-aged woman running down the street, pulling
bananas out of her pants. Yet that’s exactly what I
found myself doing at the Mount Rushmore International Marathon in the Black
Hills of South Dakota. Before the race, I had
researched the best source of energy replacement to sustain me during my
four-plus hours of running in the cool October weather,
where sodium loss through sweat would be negligible. It was bananas. These
easy-to-open comestibles are a fountain of mixed
carbohydrates and, at 75 percent water, would help to keep me hydrated. I jammed
a load of bananas in the waistband of my long pants
and began my first marathon. It soon became clear that gravity is not just a
good idea—it’s the law. Within minutes, the bananas
were bunched around my knees, traveling to all points south and onward to
freedom.
As always, we are here to guide you through your social and nutritional
concerns. Take my word for it, bananas are best transported
during long runs in the form of Gu.
To Peel or Not to Peel
Bananas are popular worldwide, harvested every day of the year, and available
year-round. Most commercial crops are grown in lands
near the equatorial belt, but can be coaxed to grow in suitable microclimates in
some very unexpected places, such as the geyser
regions of Iceland.
Bananas grow on towering, grasslike plants that can reach heights of 40 feet and
live for 30 years. To reproduce, the plant needs
neither seed nor blossom. It propagates by sending out "pups"—sprouting roots,
much like the "eyes" on potatoes.
In the United States, 94 percent of us have bought bananas in the past month,
and the per capita consumption of 26 pounds exceeds
that of apples and oranges, making the mellow yellow our nation’s most popular
fruit. In East Africa, the consumption of bananas,
and its starchy relative the plantain, is seven times that amount. Do bananas,
then, account for the speed and world domination of
our brethren from Africa?
"Doubtful," says John Manners, journalist and an authority on Kenyan runners,
particularly those of the Kalenjin tribe, whose
membership includes some of the world’s best runners. "Bananas in Africa are a
traditional staple of many societies, including a few
in Kenya—but not the Kalenjin." If diet plays a role in the astonishing records
of these men and women, it is because, unlike the
disaster areas of Africa, "they simply have enough to eat."
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/04dec/bananas.htm


14. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
Ditch the Stitch: "If you get a side stitch, tighten your abdominal muscles. Act
as if someone were about to punch you in the
stomach. Also, breathe out through pursed lips. This will also contract your
abdominals." - Ed Eyestone

* Injury Prevention
Ouch, That Hurts: A groin pull is a notoriously painful injury that occurs when
the upper inner thigh muscles (hip adductors) are
strained, making even walking difficult. It usually occurs when you slip, trip,
or wobble and your hip adductors strain to help you
regain balance. Keeping these muscles flexible with this "butterfly stretch"
will help them do their job without injury.
After a run, sit on the floor with your back up against a wall. Bend your legs,
and put the soles of your feet together. Bring your
heels as close to your groin as comfortably possible. Wrap your hands around
your feet and press your arms against your inner
thighs. Push your knees toward the floor, and hold for 60 seconds. If you don't
feel a good stretch, try bending forward, with your
chest as close to the floor as possible.

* Performance Nutrition
Fat Talk: "Saturated fats are found in all animal products and act similarly to
trans fats. Keep in mind, all fats provide an energy
source for running. But unsaturated fats such as olive oil or canola oil are
best for you." -Kristine Clark, Ph.D., R.D.

* Words That Inspire
"With victory in hand, running at maximum effort becomes very difficult. Without
some company in the difficult miles, the body's
mission becomes lonely and dark." -Frank Shorter

* Editor's Advice
"Look for environmental distraction. Run a woodsy trail, a quiet urban street,
an interesting neighborhood, or any place where
there's a lot to see for a interesting run that goes by quickly." -Warren
Greene, RW gear editor

* Training Talk
Running offensively means that you must be the one to make the first move to
avoid trouble, rather than relying on a driver's
judgment and reacting to the driver's dangerous moves. From Runner's World
Complete Book of Women's Running by Dagny Scott.



15. Cycling: How Much Suspension Do I Need?
Mountain bikes have come a long way since Gary Fisher and his buddies flew down
the hills in California. One of the biggest
improvements for mountain bikes came in the form of suspension. Initially, front
suspension was developed for off-road use and was
based mainly on moto cycle technology. Once the front end was dialed in, the
cycling industry began working on rear suspension.
While there are still many views on what is the most effective rear suspension
design, one thing is for certain: full suspension
bikes will allow a rider to go up or downhill faster.
There are, in general, 3 classes of suspension bike currently available. They
range from full downhill, trail or free ride, and
cross country designs. Each type has a specific intention and use for the travel
that it has. Typically downhill bikes will have
upwards of 9 inches or front and rear travel. This type of suspension design has
one purpose: going downhill fast! Because of the
increased suspension travel and the extra strength in the components and frame,
these bikes are usually on the heavier side and
generally are not the best bikes for climbing on. This style of bike is much
more common to hitch a ride up the mountain on the
chair lift or in the bed of a truck and then bomb back down.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_CTS_20050707_Suspension.html


16. Overtraining Syndrome
Getting the most out of your training is a fine line between training enough and
resting enough to improve but not over doing it and
becoming overtrained. Coach Julian Piotto looks at overtraining and some
suggestions to help avoid it.
Overtraining occurs when athletes try too hard to improve performance and train
beyond the body's ability to recover. Recently I
became one of the victims of overtraining. During my build up to one of the most
important races in the season I started training
too hard too early in the season (hey I wanted to be fast!) and that led to a
complete burn out, and suddenly I was not interested
in the race anymore. Race day came sooner than I thought. I struggled to achieve
speeds that would be achieved with ease in
training. My resting heart rate was 90 when normally is around 30! Something was
definitely wrong with me. I was OVERTRAINED!
The common warning signs of overtraining include the following
· Mild leg soreness, general achenes
· Pain in muscles & joints
· Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy
· Sudden drop in ability to run 'normal' distance or times
· Insomnia
· Headaches
· Inability to relax, twitchy, fidgety
· Insatiable thirst, dehydration
· Lowered resistance to common illnesses; colds, sore throat, etc…
· Increased Resting Heart Rate
More...from Endurance Coach at:
http://www.endurancecoach.com/Overtraining.htm



17. Scientists study older athletes:
Senior Olympics opportunity to examine aging and exercise.
Plenty of research has been done on young athletes, but little is known about
marathoners, swimmers and softball players over age
50. That's about to change.
Over the next several days at the Senior Olympics here, researchers plan to
learn a lot from these aged physical specimens, perhaps
gaining new insights into aging and exercise.
Previous data from these older athletes has produced one dramatic finding: Most
athletes decline slowly during the years past 50,
but once they hit 75, the decline is sizable.
For example, the speed of one-mile runners fell about 2 percent each year from
ages 50 to 75. Then from 75 to 85, their speeds
dropped by about 7 percent a year, said Dr. Vonda Wright, of the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine's department of
orthopedic surgery and a research coordinator at the senior games.
That finding from the 2,599 athletes in the 2001 senior games is compatible with
other studies that suggest that both athletic and
sedentary people seem to hit some sort of wall when they reach the
three-quarters-of-a-century mark
More...from CNN at:
http://us.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/06/09/senior.fitness.ap/index.html


18. Science of training:
There are three key physiological areas that contribute greatly to endurance
performance and aerobic capacity. These areas are:
VO2max1
Running economy
Lactate threshold
Improvement in any of these areas will result in an improvement in running
performance.
However, it has been shown that emphasising training on running economy and
lactate threshold will result in better improvement in
performance than concentrating on improving VO2max.
1. VO2max
Definition
VO2max means the maximum amount of oxygen a person can utilize.
The amount of energy used during exercise is directly related to the amount of
oxygen consumed because the breakdown of glycogen and
fat for energy requires oxygen.
Oxygen consumption increases in a linear relationship to running speed. During
rest, our body only requires around 0.2-0.3 litres of
oxygen per minute - this is expressed as VO2. (Volume per minute: V and oxygen:
O2) During maximal exercise, this term becomes
VO2max.
Maximum oxygen uptake is measured in either litres/minute or scaled to body
weight and expressed in millilitres per kilogram per
minute (ml/kg/min or ml.kg-1.min-1 ).
More...from Time Outdoors at:
http://running.timeoutdoors.com/subscriber/4RUNMRS01030702E.htm


19. Dehydration: The worst-case scenario:
Heat-related muscle damage can lead to kidney problems.
A couple of years back a great deal of media attention was focused on a local
Aussie runner who raced a 10k fun run during the
height of the summer heat. The night before the race, he and a few mates had had
a big night out on the drink, then he fronted up
the next morning at the 10k to sweat it out.
His pace became slower and slower over the course of the event, but still he
pushed on until at 9km he started weaving. With 400
meters left to go he collapsed and lapsed into a coma and was rushed to the
hospital.
They managed to revive him, but unfortunately efforts to save one of his legs
failed. His body temperature had soared so high and he
was so badly dehydrated that doctors described his leg and buttock muscles as
"having the consistency of cooked meat." Additionally,
he had to be placed on dialysis for four weeks, suffering from an ailment known
as exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis and resultant
acute renal failure.
Overloading the system
Rhabdomyolysis (the incidence of which has been linked to dehydration and heat
stress, which, as the above scenario indicates, can
produce muscle damage) is defined as a degeneration of muscle cells and is
characterized by muscle pain, tenderness, weakness and
swelling plus myoglobinuria, the presence of myoglobin -- a protein found in
muscle tissue -- in the urine.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11966&sidebar=26&category=triathlon


20. Test yourself on eight popular nutrition myths:
Like office rumors passed from cubicle to cubicle, a lot of what you hear "out
there" about nutrition is distortion, exaggeration or
half-truth, and some of it just plain wrong. You try to stay on top of the
latest nutrition news to help separate the whole wheat
from the chaff. But with so many conflicting messages it's hard to know where to
turn.
So, listen up! We're setting the record straight on some commonly overheard
misconceptions about what, when and how you should eat.
Don't eat after 8 p.m.
Sure, if you're mindlessly popping chips in your mouth while propped up in front
of the tube, by all means, late-night junk food
binges aren't smart. But for busy active women, skipping dinner after returning
from an evening workout will do more harm than good.
If you allow more than two hours to pass before eating after exercise you'll
store 50 percent less glycogen in your muscles. That
means less energy for the next day and your next workout.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11947



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

July 8, 2005:
Golden Gala - Rome, ITA
http://www.iaaf.org/GLE05/results/eventCode=3342/index.html

July 8 - 10, 2005:
Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships - Montreal, PQ
http://www.athleticscanada.com/article.asp?id=4681

July 9, 2005:
Grandfather Mountain Marathon - Boone, NC
http://www.hopeformarrow.org/gmminfo.htm

OAC Gatineau Triathlon - Gatineau Park, PQ
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/oac_triathlon.html

Spirit of Gettysburg 5K - Gettysburg, PA
http://www.ywcagettysburg.org

July 10, 2005:
Burnco Calgary Marathon - Calgary, AB
http://www.calgarymarathon.com

Run to the Lake 10K - Castro Valley, CA
http://www.edenmedcenter.org

Squamish Triathlon - Squamish, BC
http://www.squamishtriathlon.org

Virginia Mason Team Medicine Marathon - Bellevue, WA
http://www.seafairmarathon.com


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

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:
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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
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Have a good week of training and/or racing.

Ken Parker
Runner's Web
mailto:webmaster@...
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
A running and triathlon resource portal


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**END...OF DIGEST...**