A FREE WEEKLY E-ZINE OF MULTISPORT RELATED ARTICLES.
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
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THIS WEEK:
Check out our new RunnersWebCoach Interactive Training site at:
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The Runner's Web Store (www.store.runnersweb.com) updated with a number of new
products (Adidas eyewear, Bolle eyewear, Nike
watches, etc…) as well as the addition of the new Holiday Guide ’05. You can
check out the new holiday guide at the following URL:
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Runner's Web returns as the title sponsor of Ottawa's Dave Scott Clinic.
Triathlon Ottawa announced today the opening of online registration for the 2006
Dave Scott Iron Distance Triathlon Training Clinic
in Ottawa, Canada. From Jan. 20-22, the Ironman legend will be working with a
group of 25 local and visiting triathletes. The clinic
will focus on using the off-season to build a better foundation for the 2006
race season. Dave will work closely with the athletes
through a series of discussions and active sessions, covering a range of the
most critical topics for the iron-distance athlete.
For the second year running the Ottawa event has been made possible in part by
title sponsor RunnersWeb.com, a top-rated,
Ottawa-based website which provides worldwide running and triathlon news updated
daily.
Full clinic details are available at www.TriathlonOttawa.com.


Buy Paula Radcliffe's book, My Story - So Far, from Amazon UK at:
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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 monthly column from
CTS at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/cts_columns.html.

* Running Research News
Note: Owen Anderson has had to discontinue his weekly column on the Runner's Web
die to his increases commitments on his web site
which has recently been re-launched. He has agreed to carry on with his Question
and Answer feature and to allow us to publish his
weekly column from his Newsletter.

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 archive columns from Running Research News
at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RRN_index.html
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 Is The Nation's Most Advanced Running Newsletter. Rated as the #1
Running Publication by Road Runner Sports (Worlds
Largest Running Store) , Peak Running caters to the serious / dedicated runner.
Delivering world class running advice are some of
running's most recognizable athletes including Dr. Joe Vigil (US Olympic Coach),
Scott Tinley (2 Time Ironman Champ) Steve Scott (3
Time Olympian) and many more. This bi-monthly newsletter has been around for
over 13 years, and in the past two it has been awarded
the "Golden Shoe Award" in recognition of it's outstanding achievements.
http://www.clixGalore.com/EmailSale.aspx?BID=37234&AfID=103794&AdID=5075&LP=www.\
peakrunningperformance.com
Check out the Peak Running 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 WEEK'S PERSONAL POSTINGS/RELEASES:
We have NO personal postings this week:

THIS WEEK'S DIGEST ARTICLE INDEX:

1. Science of Sport: Macro Periodization - Part 1
2. Sheila's Nutrition Digest Vol 10 - Tips For Fighting Colds And Flu
3. Training: Basic Sport Physiology - An Overview
4. Natural Pain Relief
Clinically proven to help promote joint health, this new Natural product offers
improved joint flexibility and comfort, with no
known side effects.
5. Europe's Turn to Wrestle With Obesity
6. Time to bone up on skeletal health
7. Mediterranean diet good for the heart
8. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Beyond Running
9. Four steps that can help stop laziness from sucking the fun out of your
relationship
10. Top Ten Newbie Mistakes
11. From Runner's World
12. Female athletes often miss nutritional needs
Healthy eating habits can improve performance, increase energy levels.
13. Fewer Carbs Boost DASH Diet's Heart Benefits
Replacing carbohydrates with protein or monosaturated fats checked blood
pressure.
14. ASU to study nutrient's kick to sustain tired troops
15. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
Get the Most From Your Warm-Up.
16. Back to basics: Building aerobic fitness
17. No Excuse for a Pregnant Pause
18. From low-carbs to slow carbs
Glycemic index diets may be next on nutritional frontier.
19. Could Lance Armstrong win the Ironman?
20. Calf Heart Attacks
Dealing with a Weird but Serious Injury.
21. A Simple Blueprint for Effective Training
22. Fats can be your friend ... Honest.
More than a third of your calories can come from fat provided you chose the
right kind of fat.
23. The Dangers of Chronic Distress
Are you worried, irritable and socially inhibited? A simple test may help
predict the health effects.
24. Exercise may not slow seniors' mental decline
25. Digest Briefs


RUNNER'S WEB WEEKLY POLL:
"Could Lance Armstrong win the Ironman?"
Read the story at:
http://ironmanexplorer.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=21
Comment at:
http://excoboard.com/exco/thread.php?forumid=23013&threadid=397333

You can access the poll from our FrontPage as well as 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 RESULTS:
"What is/are your favourite medium(s) for getting the latest news on athletics
and multisport?"

The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent
1. Internet 49 56%
2. Television 8 9%
3. Radio 6 7%
4. Newspapers 7 8%
5. Magazines 17 20%
6. Other 0 0%
Total Votes: 87

FIVE STAR SITE OF THE WEEK: Somersault Promotions - Ottawa.
"Events for everyone...from start to finish"
Somersault Promotions is Eastern Ontario's premier multisport event organizer
with events from 5K to the marathon, and sprint to
Iron Distance duathlons and triathlons.
Check out their 2006 race calendar at:
http://www.somersault.ca

Send us your suggestions for our Five Star site. Please check our list of
previous Five Star Sites available from the Five Star
Window under the link "Previous Five Star Sites" as we do not wish to repeat a
site unless it has undergone a major redesign.

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


BOOK OF THE WEEK: The 2005 Tour de France - Armstrong's Farewell
by John Wilcockson and Andrew Hood
The greatest story of the 2005 Tour de France stars Lance Armstrong, riding to
his history-making seventh-straight victory. But this
plot encompasses 21 teams and 188 other riders battling for stage victories and
hoping to unseat the American champion.
VeloNews reporters John Wilcockson and Andrew Hood provide a detailed account of
the action in each stage, capturing the color and
character of the race and analyzing how each stage unfolded.
The text also features 20 detailed profiles of the most prominent riders in the
peloton, including David Zabriskie, Floyd Landis,
Alexander Vinokourov, Chris Horner, George Hincapie, and Ivan Basso.
Ultimately, this monumental Tour reflected the ambition, power and determination
of Armstrong. Appropriately, the book closes with a
retrospective of the illustrious career of America’s most accomplished athlete.
Buy the book from VeloPress at:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?velogear+je6bVF+20todefrbo.html

Previous Books of the Week:
From Human Kinetics,
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/human_kinetics.html
From Amazon
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/amazon.html
More running and triathlon books from Associates Shop
http://associatesshop.filzhut.de/shop/index.php?ID=90c9f271c1a519abc4a69299be707\
5a9



THIS WEEK'S NEWS:

1. Science of Sport: Macro Periodization - Part 1:
By Neil Cook, BS, MS, MEd
The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare. - Juma Ikangas,
winner 1989 NYC Marathon – 2:08:01
The first step in racing preparation involves setting goals and designing a
training plan. Your top priority should be to get the
most physiological benefits from your training sessions while avoiding injury.
My plans are an amalgamation of Arthur Lydiard's
approach to training, incorporating Tudor Bompa's ideas, with Jack Daniels and
Vernique Billet's research. Training is not just
running miles. In spite of what popular magazines, books and articles propose
(mostly anecdotal and unsupported by research) there
is a science to training. Coaching is the art – molding the science to the
athlete. I plan all my athlete's training programs using
two "cycles" - Training Phases (Macro Periodization: the overall phases of your
training plan) and a Four Week Training Cycle (Micro
Periodization: the variations in your training plan from day to day and week to
week). Before I begin to dive into the specifics of
Macro/Micro Periodization, there are 6 principles of Exercise Philosophy you
must follow to prepare your body for optimal
performance.
• Stress - In order to build endurance, strength and speed, you need to stress
each of these physiological systems. The response to
physical stress is growth in each of these areas.
• Adaptation – An athlete’s body will adapt to the physiological stresses
presented it. That is how we get fitter, stronger and
faster. Adaptation is the response to physical stress.
• Progression – In order to continue to improve, you must increase the stresses.
Working with the same weights will not cause an
increase in strength.
• Specificity – Training is specific. The best way to improve your running is to
run! You need to consider the distance and terrain
of your goal race. There is no substitute for specific training.
• Individualization – Each of us responds differently to training. Learn how you
respond to each aspect of training and pay
attention to what you learn. Adapt your training to your specific needs and
responses.
• Reversibility – All the gains from training will begin to disappear when
training stops. This should not dissuade you from time
off. Rest is critical to successful training.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20051129_PRP_Periodization.html


2. Sheila's Nutrition Digest Vol 10 - Tips For Fighting Colds And Flu:
Sheila's Nutrition Digest
In this new series, XC Ottawa (and OAC Racing Team) member Sheila Kealey will
help athletes choose the best foods for performance
and overall health. Sheila 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.
Cold and flu season is upon us. While no one likes getting sick, illness can
have far reaching effects among athletes if it strikes
during an important competition or compromises an extended period of training.
Athletes may be more vulnerable to infection, according to some research.
Although in the long term, exercise will strengthen your
immune system, intense or prolonged exercise can depress immune function
temporarily. After hard training, researchers have observed
decreased blood concentration of glutamine, increased cortisol levels, a drop in
lymphocyte production, and decreased T-cell
activity, changes that indicate an immune system that is more susceptible to
infection.
But all sickness isn’t inevitable: you can take precautions that will greatly
reduce your chances of getting sick. Since I’m writing
a nutrition column, I’ll focus on dietary measures, but feel obliged to
highlight the following, since their impact on illness is
likely much greater than diet:
• Get a flu shot. It’s the most effective way to prevent the flu.
• Wash your hands often with plain soap and hot water. Cold and flu viruses are
spread by direct contact. Germs can live for hours
on phones, keyboards, doorknobs, etc, ready to be picked up by unsuspecting
hands. If you’re not near a sink, rubbing your hands
together quickly for about a minute can help break up cold germs.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth since they are the route that most
cold and flu viruses enter your body.
• Limit exposure to infected people.
• Get enough sleep
DIET HABITS THAT STRENGTHEN THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
A well-balanced diet that is nutrient rich can help boost your immune system.
Including the following foods in your daily diet will
keep your body’s defenses primed to fight off incoming viruses.
Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables contain natural compounds like phytochemicals,
antioxidants, and vitamins, which enhance your immune system.
Here are some examples:
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20051201_SK_Fighting_Colds.html


3. Training: Basic Sport Physiology - An Overview :
These pages are meant for cyclists that want to test themselves physically
through competition with others. These pages try to help
you understand the sports physiology that lies behind training. Once you
understand the basic physiology, you will more easily see
why training needs to be structured for good race performances.
Distinguishing between the aerobic and anaerobic system
There are two fundamental systems called upon for exercise within the human
body. The first is the aerobic system. This aerobic
system runs with oxygen, i.e. from the air we breathe. We can categorise sports
as aerobic if they last for more than 2 minutes. An
example of this would be going for a long bike ride, swim, walk, or
cross-country ski, mountain bike, even sitting around, studying,
ironing etc. This system fundamentally takes in oxygen at the same rate as it is
used, almost like ‘paying as you go'.
The anaerobic system runs without oxygen. In general it is needed for sports
that last for less than 2 minutes. An example could be
the 100m sprint, or a 25-meter swim sprint, or a cycle-track sprint.
It is also used if you are cycling easily along the road and you then sprint
very hard for 30 seconds or more. As you do these high
accelerations, your heart and lungs (cardiovascular system) does not have time
to supply your muscles with oxygen. If you continue
for about a minute like this, you start to feel lactic acid kicking in as the
oxygen system starts to play ‘catch up'. Up to two
minutes and your legs are full of lactic acid and you have to stop with
exhaustion, or slow down to recover from oxygen debt. So the
anaerobic system is a ‘buy now, pay later' system, independent of the aerobic
system.
The aerobic system and development
A fundamental index of physical fitness is called ‘VO2 max', which is the
maximum rate at which your body can take up oxygen and
burn it in the muscles. A cyclist with a higher VO2 max than his rival should in
theory have a bigger ‘engine', allowing him in
principle to readily beat his less fortunate opponent. A simple theoretical
approach to this says that the larger your capacity to
carry oxygen to the muscles, i.e. the larger your ‘VO2 max engine', the faster
you should go. But is it that simple?
No. It requires years of dedicated, short and long-term structured training to
increase your physical fitness levels to the ‘elite'
level. It is also important to realise that VO2 max development is primarily
based on your core cardiovascular system, i.e. your
heart and lungs, and is dependent on your muscle adaptations to specific
exercise.
This means that it will take years to actually race at your real potential. The
largest gains in fitness are usually made in the
first two weeks of training! It then seems to tail off quickly after a few
months and may take another 6-8 years to race very near
your VO2 max potential. It would seem as though we have our ‘pre-determined'
engine already, and that by training year by year we're
able to use a higher and higher percentage of it.
But there is another process in the body that will help you win races, other
than a high VO2 max, even if it does go along way
towards good cycle results. As I explain soon, there is the “lactate threshold”
which is based more on your ‘peripheral' muscles
rather than your heart and lungs. This development is slower to plateau than the
VO2 max, so the improvements are more noticeable
over a very long time period. This means that you could beat a cyclist with a
higher VO2 max than yourself, if you have worked
carefully on your lactate threshold!
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20051201_EC_Physiology.html


4. Natural Pain Relief:
Clinically proven to help promote joint health, this new Natural product offers
improved joint flexibility and comfort, with no
known side effects.
(PRWEB) November 25, 2005 -- Solgar, the multi-award winning provider of a
comprehensive range of nutritional supplements, announces
the launch of a new natural joint-care supplement- for Natural Pain Relief,
available for the first time in the UK. Celadrin is a
patented blend of esterified fatty acids which have been stabilised to ensure
they don’t react with oxygen. Clinically proven to
help promote joint health, Celadrin offers improved joint flexibility and
comfort, with no known side effects.
It works by helping to maintain joint integrity and performance and, lubricating
cell membranes and restoring the fluids that
cushion bones and joints to promote flexibility and mobility.
“This is the first time that Celadrin has been made available to the British
public and Solgar, which has a strong history in
nutritional innovation and a reputation for researching and manufacturing
products of the highest quality, is proud to be at the
forefront of this key development,” said Paul Chamberlain, technical director of
Solgar. “The UK launch of Celadrin will offer
additional support for those who are looking to promote good joint health.”
Joint care is an issue that affects many sectors of the population, from
athletes and sports enthusiasts to members of the booming
grey population, who are keen to maintain flexibility and movement.
Celadrin is being marketed in the UK by Solgar and distributed online by Boots
Herbal Stores from www.solgar.co.uk
About Solgar
Founded in 1947, Solgar Vitamin and Herb is a leading authority in nutritional
science, technology and education, operating in 45
different countries.
From its state-of-the-art research and manufacturing facility in Leonia, New
Jersey, Solgar’s team of R & D specialists and research
partners adhere to the highest global standards in the research and manufacture
of quality nutritional supplements.
About Boots Herbal Stores
Established in the UK around 1939, Boots Herbal Stores distributes Solgar
products on the Web under licence from the website
www.solgar.co.uk


5. Europe's Turn to Wrestle With Obesity:
Europe's food industry and consumer groups are to submit ideas to the European
Union on Thursday on how to confront obesity, urging
clear labeling of nutritional hazards and warning against aggressive marketing
to children, but also allowing food producers to
regulate themselves.
Food companies, supermarket chains and consumer groups are expected to present
their ideas on handling a health problem that,
according to all involved, is becoming as serious in Europe as it is in the
United States.
The confederation of food and drink industries of the European Union, known by
its French acronym CIAA, said it would recommend
improving the labeling of foods; setting clear standards for advertising food,
especially to children; and working closely with
public authorities and consumer groups on nutritional education.
"In a number of countries, including France, there is no such education," Jean
Martin, president of the confederation and an
executive at the British-Dutch conglomerate Unilever, said. "Equipping
consumers, and especially parents, with proper information
about nutrition will make a powerful contribution" to reducing obesity, he said.
The confederation, which includes some of the world's largest food and beverage
companies, like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Kraft Foods and
Danone, is to propose donating money to scientific research on obesity.
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/business/worldbusiness/24food.html


6. Time to bone up on skeletal health:
Taking care of your body's bones is a little like maintaining a vehicle. While
it's imperative to keep the engine tuned and running
smoothly, if the fenders are rusted out and the chassis is shot, you might as
well just park it. Without a sturdy frame - your
body's or your car's - you're probably not going anywhere very far or very fast.
"Osteoporosis and thinning bones is a major but underappreciated public health
problem," says Miriam Nelson, professor of nutrition
at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science at Boston's Tufts University and
author of "Strong Women, Strong Bones." "One in two
women and one in five men will be affected by osteoporosis as they go into old
age. We need to take this seriously because bones
crumble, people fall apart."
According to the U.S. surgeon general's osteoporosis report last year, our
skeletons begin to deteriorate long before they break.
Some 34 million Americans are living with a condition called osteopenia, or
thinning bones, as calcium slowly but steadily drains
from their bones. It's short of osteoporosis, but it still puts bones at risk of
fracture.
An additional 10 million Americans over 50 progress to full blown osteoporosis,
in which bones not only dangerously demineralize but
also deform as the spongy bone matrix collapses. The skeleton becomes delicate
and fragile, unable to bear weight. Spines shrink and
backs round. Hips shatter. Wrists snap.
"Most people don't realize that osteoporosis and thinning bones are
preventable," Nelson says. "And, the good news is that no matter
what the condition of your bones, there are things you can do to make them
stronger and help reverse the condition."
More...from Mercedsearch.com at:
http://www.mercedsearch.com/news/463.html


7. Mediterranean diet good for the heart:
Eating a Mediterranean-style diet for three months can reduce the risk of heart
disease by 15 percent, a new study shows.
The heart-healthy effects of the Mediterranean diet -- rich in whole grains,
fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish and olive oil and
light on red meat -- are well documented, Dr. Denis Lairon of the Faculty of
Medicine Timone in Marseille, France and colleagues
note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. But just one other study has
looked at what happens when healthy people are
actually put on a Mediterranean-style diet.
To investigate, the researchers assigned 212 men and women at moderate risk for
heart disease to eat a Mediterranean diet or a
standard low-fat diet for three months. Participants on the Mediterranean diet
were instructed to eat fish four times a week and red
meat only once a week. Men were allowed two glasses of red wine daily, while
women were limited to one.
Recommendations for people on the low-fat diet were to eat poultry rather than
beef, pork and other mammal meats; eat fish two or
three times a week; stay away from animal products rich in saturated fat; and
eat fruit and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and
vegetable oils.
More...from Reuters at:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-11-2\
5T185537Z_01_MOL559047_RTRUKOC_0_US-DIET-MEDITERRANE
AN.xml
[Long URL]


8. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Beyond Running:
Ted Corbitt was runner ahead of his time, and for a long time. One of first
African-Americans to excel on the roads, he made the
1952 Olympic marathon team. He graduated to even longer distances and is now
known as the father of U.S. ultrarunning.
Even in his glory years as a runner, Ted walked a lot. He said recently that
mixing the two goes back to his training as a college
runner in Cincinnati more than 60 years ago.
"I walked 14 miles two or three times, a week apart, then 28 miles once or twice
to get ready for the cross-country season," he
recalled. "Then I switched to running only. Walking toughens the body and adds
endurance to the legs."
He had a more practical reason for walking. "My mother repeatedly urged me to
walk to tracks and parks for training," he said, "to
avoid the possibility of getting shot by a policeman on the streets."
He wasn't joking. Anyone who ran the streets back then, and especially one
looking like young Ted, was suspected of having done
wrong.
Ted has spent his adult life in New York City. There he lost his fear of the
streets, regularly running to work and back, and often
taking a lap or two around Manhattan Island.
Suddenly, in 1974, a runner's worst fear came true for him. He couldn't run
anymore. Asthma stopped him.
Instead of retiring into living on what-used-to-be's, he turned to what he could
still do: walk. This wasn't just strolling in
Central Park or down Fifth Avenue.
Ted told me for a 2001 article, "Since I stopped running, I sometimes walk
around Manhattan Island, which is 31-plus miles by the
route I take. In fact I had planned to walk it the day of the [September 11th]
terrorist attacks -- and would have passed the site
of the World Trade Center after its collapse."
That summer he had walked better than 50 miles daily in a six-day race named for
him. This had come in his 83rd year.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/542.html


9. Four steps that can help stop laziness from sucking the fun out of your
relationship:
Author: Scott Winter
Website: www.MarathonFamily.com
Email: Mailto:info@...
Point blank, some men are just plan lazy. However, laziness is a perception that
can be created in your own mind about the one you
love. Has this happened to you? Read on to understand how to recognize if it is
you or if it is truly laziness.
Life happens and as husband and wife you travel through ups and downs and not
necessarily at the same exact time. Of course overall
you’re traveling together on a path of marriage, but on a personal level things
maybe different. When and why does this happen?
Well, it usually occurs when one of the spouses takes up an exercise routine.
Things don't magically go south because one of the
partners does not start exercising right away, it occurs gradually over a period
of about 6-7 months.
Exercise directly affects your mental state and physical demeanor. This positive
effect will start to change the way you look and
how you perceive people. Unintentionally, it may make it seem like your spouse
is lazy or uninterested in exercise. Even though, at
one time, you shared the exact same interests and activities prior to beginning
your exercise routine. Here is the point where
conflict begins… internal and external. Communication between you and your
partner needs to occur and usually out of that
conversation expectations are
set for the next 2-3 months. (Based on personal experience it may be a year
before your partner is ready to take action.)
Here is an example of what typically occurs: The person that exercises starts to
make new friends and expand their network of
friends with similar activities and interests. It is fun and exciting to meet
new people and begin to expand the social network. In
contrast the non exercising partner keeps the same schedule or routine. This
schedule is usually dictated by making a living.
Depending on the job, stress and number of hours, sometimes the last thing that
the non exercising partner wants is to exercise.
Insert here: the point about different mental states mentioned above.
Here are 4 steps you can take to help fix this situation. The first and foremost
thing is to recognize it. The hardest part is to
recognize a situation that you live everyday; it is very difficult sometimes to
take a step out to recognize an opportunity within.
Number two, talk about it with your partner more than one time. There are a
number of ways to tell your spouse that you’re concerned
for their health and want them to start incorporating a more active lifestyle.
The third thing is to take action. Agree on how and
what would be an acceptable first step and then do it. Last, but not least,
learn to adjust. If something is not working, try
something else until you’re able to get your spouse on the same mental wave
length about health and exercise.
Scott Winter
www.WinterRanch.com
www.MarathonFamily.com


10. Top Ten Newbie Mistakes:
They say the best way to learn is to make mistakes. As a newbie and Clydesdale,
in my first year of competing I've made my share of
mistakes Here is my Top ten list of Newbie mistakes:
10) Wearing a black swim cap. On the face of it this one might seem a bit silly
but true. "You are not gonna wear that black swim
cap," the guy standing in the water next to me at the start solemnly said. "I
was planning on it" I replied a bit confused. "You
don't want to do that," he added with a knowing nod. "Why" I said a bit wide
eyed? "Because they won't see go down when you drown,"
he added and swam away. I looked into the dark murky water where he had been
standing and considers this, removed the cap, and threw
it to the shore. Only after the race, I realize that I have dark hair.
9) Butt Burn...otherwise know as the Lack-O-Glide factor. It took me about a
year to discover the joys of lubrication. The leg pain
after a marathon is nothing compared to the searing pain of taking a shower with
raw nipples. However, nothing identifies a Newbie
triathlete like the Charlie Chaplin butt-burn wobble walk after an especially
long session on the bike.
8) The Clydesdale Category. I'm a big guy 6'2 and well over 200 pounds. I've
always considered myself big in a gladiator sort of
way. But according to the official rules I'm big in a huge, wide-butted, beer
wagon-pulling sort of way.
7) MAX, ADE, OX, GU, BOOM, GEL. There is a bewildering amount of performance
enhancing drinks and supplements on the market. They
have one thing in common: a fluorescent Day-Glo color. I tend to judge them by
the stickiness factor. The more they make my hands
stick to the handlebars of my bike, the better they must be.
6) Transitions are NOT free time. For all of the pros out there they may be free
time, but for newbies they are a time of profound
confusion and terror. Mistakes happen all the time. "Why am I wearing my swim
goggles?" I think as I power out of the transition
area on my bike?
5) A wet suit will kill. Try to remember to Valero the wet suit zipper pull
leash to your wet suit. The first time I wore my wet
suit didn’t know to attach the leash to the wet suit. About five minutes into
the swim the leash wrapped itself around my neck like
a viscous python bent on my death. The more I struggled to disengage myself from
its death-like grip, the tighter it got. My
flailing only seemed to encourage it. I finally did manage to free my throat and
continue the swim. Five minutes latter, it was
back.
4) Big girls on mountain bikes. Big girls on mountain bikes are surpassingly
fast. Do not take it for granted that just because you
are on a big ring, carbon fiber, aero bar out-fitted, race-tuned tri-bike that
you'll easily pass that big girl up ahead. Make this
mistake at your own peril and your self-esteem will suffer.
3) Du vs. Tri. Don't confuse a Du with a Tri when racing or checking the
results. My first Olympic distance Tri was almost my last.
I watched the awards ceremony with a mixture of terror and awe as the results
and blazingly fast times were read out. I was amazed
at the speedy results. Needless to say I was not the slowest triathlete in the
world....just the only one at the DU awards ceremony.
2) Twelve year-old-lap counters. When competing in a pool, avoid the 12-year-old
lap counters. I wondered out loud to the
twelve-year-old "why do I have to swim two more laps when the other two racers
in my lane are done." This seemed especially odd
since "I had lapped both of them." The twelve-year-old was not moved by my
logic. Math must not have been his best subject in
school.
1) Beer. Avoid all triathlons that are not sponsored by a brewery. Not only does
a post race beer greatly help in the recovery
process, but it also helps one forget all the mistakes. Plus as a added benefit
after enough beers, that big girl on the mountain
bike don't seem so big anymore.
From...Roman Mica at:
http://www.everymantriathlon.com/


11. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
A Shoe Fit: "Finding a shoe that fits your foot right is more important than
opting for a particular brand. Visit the shoe store in
the late afternoon or evening, since your feet swell during the day (and also
while you run). Be sure to get your foot size measured
on a Brannock device. Also, bring socks if you wear socks while running. Buy
shoes that are about a half-inch longer than your
feet." - Runner's World magazine
* Injury Prevention
If you're rebounding from an injury, slowly return to running or the injury
might come back to visit like an unwelcome in-law. Half
of all injuries are recurring ones, and runners could avoid a large percentage
of them by being more cautious when beginning to run
again.
* Performance Nutrition
Old Spice: A California study found that curcumin--a compound found in the
Indian spice turmeric--may slow down or prevent the
progression of Alzheimer's. "Curcumin is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent,"
says Greg Cole, M.D., the study author. The spice is
so powerful, in fact, that Dr. Cole believes it may be responsible for the low
incidence of Alzheimer's in India. Don't like food
that burns? Curcumin is also available as a supplement.
* Words That Inspire:
"You learn you can do your best even when it's hard, even when you're tired and
maybe hurting a little bit. It feels good to show
some courage." -Joe Namath
* Editor's Advice:
"If you're worried about keeping up with your running during the holidays make
sure you store a bag of emergency workout gear in
your car. When you can sneak in a run, make a quick change and head for the
nearest track or park. Don't go home because chances are
you'll never get out the door again." -Lindsay Shafer, RW copy editor
* Training Talk:
"In many cases, the advent of a serious knee problem is slow in coming, with
many signs along the way, and there is much that can be
done to strengthen the structures that supports this essential joint." From The
Knee Crisis Handbook by Brian Halpern, M.D.


12. Female athletes often miss nutritional needs:
Healthy eating habits can improve performance, increase energy levels.
After collapsing at the end of two marathons and struggling to swim just a
single length of the pool, Olympic hopeful Jacqueline
Mariash knew she needed some help. She got it from an unexpected source: a
registered dietitian.
The 25-year-old Mariash has been a runner for nearly as long as she can
remember, and began competing in triathlons in 1998. Like
many female athletes, she strictly limited her food — dipping as low as 800
calories a day — to improve her performance by losing
weight.
But her results were just the opposite.
“I used to wake up really tired,” she said. “I used to take a lot of time off
training because I was so exhausted.”
Last summer, Mariash tried nutritional counseling. After about a month of
sessions with dietitian Nancy Pudwill, the athlete said
her energy levels soared and her performance improved. Weight loss was no longer
her primary goal.
“In high school track, we all starved. That’s not how you get to the Olympics,”
she said. “Now I can train harder, farther. Things I
was afraid of, like a four-hour bike ride, are easy now.”
If discipline is required for training, she says, why not for nutrition too?
More...from MSNBC at:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10254823/


13. Fewer Carbs Boost DASH Diet's Heart Benefits:
Replacing carbohydrates with protein or monosaturated fats checked blood
pressure.
Two carbohydrate-reduced versions of the government's Dietary Approaches to Stop
Hypertension (DASH) diet have a beneficial effect
on blood pressure, cholesterol levels and long-term cardiovascular risk,
researchers report.
The new diet shifts about 10 percent of calories from carbohydrates to either
protein-rich foods or to monounsaturated fats such as
olive or canola oil.
"This diet should be a frontrunner," said Dr. Frank Sacks, one of the authors of
the study and a professor of medicine and nutrition
at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard in Boston. "It improved the whole
cardiovascular risk spectrum. A lot of patients are
tough to control with the medications we have. Patients might not even need
drugs if they go on the diet."
"This is a modified version of the old diet," Sacks explained. "The DASH diet
was a real breakthrough for lowering blood pressure
and we changed it. We reduced the carbohydrate content and replaced it with
unsaturated fat or protein, and it lowered blood
pressure more and improved lipids, and overall cardiovascular risk goes down."
He called the new regimens "an improvement over something that's already good."
Another expert agreed that the two new versions of the DASH diet, as well as the
original DASH, which was developed by the National
Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, should work.
More...from HealthScout at:
http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/529113/main.html


14. ASU to study nutrient's kick to sustain tired troops:
The largest research award in Appalachian State University's history will be
used to examine whether a substance found in red grapes
and red onions can help troops deprived of sleep or food.
Researchers were awarded $1.1 million by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, for a two-year study of
the effects of quercetin in helping maintain the immune systems of troops under
intense stress, the school said Monday.
Quercetin (pronounced CURE'-see-tin) is a nutrient found in red grapes, red
onions and other fruits and vegetables. The average
American ingests about 25 milligrams of the substance a day in a normal diet,
said David Nieman, a professor in the university's
Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science.
More...from the Charlotte Observer at:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/13288830.htm


15. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
Get the Most From Your Warm-Up.
Warming up before you exercise helps to prevent injuries and lets you jump
higher, run faster, lift heavier or throw further. Your
warm-up should involve the same muscles and motions you plan to use in your
sport. For example, before you start to run very fast,
do a series of runs of gradually-increasing intensity to increase the
circulation of blood to the muscles you will be using.
Muscles are made up of millions of individual fibers, just like a rope made from
many threads. When you start to exercise at a very
slow pace, you increase the blood flow to muscle fibers, increase their
temperature, and bring in more oxygen, so the muscles are
more pliable and resistant to injury. When you contract a muscle for the first
time, you use less than one percent of your muscle
fibers. The second time you bring in more fibers, and you keep on increasing the
number of muscle fibers used in each contraction
for several minutes of using that muscle. It’s called recruitment. When you are
able to contract more muscle fibers, there is less
force on each individual fiber to help protect them from injury. Usually you are
warmed up when you start to sweat.
The same principle applies to your heart. Angina is a condition in which the
blood vessels leading to the heart are partially
blocked so the person has no pain at rest, but during exercise, the blocked
arteries don't permit enough blood to get through to the
heart muscles, causing pain. If people with angina exercise very slowly before
they pick up the pace, they are able to exercise
longer and more intensely before they felt heart pain. Always check with your
doctor if you feel any heart pain during exercise.
Competitive athletes in sports requiring speed and endurance perform better
after they warm up with increasing intensity. Warming up
slowly does not increase the maximum amount of oxygen that you can bring to
muscles that you need during competition. If you are a
runner, skier, cyclist, or an athlete in any sport that requires endurance, warm
up at a gradually increasing pace. Use a series of
increasingly intense repetitions of 10 to 30 seconds duration, with short
recoveries, until you are near your maximum pace. This
type of warm-up increases endurance because intensity increases the maximum
amount of oxygen that you can bring to your muscles, as
you continue to compete, and lets your muscles contract with greater force as
you begin to fatigue. You will then be able to bring
in more oxygen to your muscles than you could have done without the intense
warm-up.
From Dr. Mirkin at:
http://www.drmirkin.com
Subscribe to DrMirkin's E-Zine at: mailto:subscribe@...


16. Back to basics: Building aerobic fitness:
At this point in the season most cyclists are finishing their Preparation
training phase and heading into Base 1. This is a good
time to revisit some of the concepts and importance of these early training
phases that will set the foundation of your fitness for
the upcoming competitive season.
The training abilities to focus on during early base are endurance and aerobic
fitness, pedaling skills (economy) and strength.
Early-season goals
The primary goal of the early base phases is to build aerobic fitness. This is
generally accomplished by doing increasingly longer
"endurance" rides. However, not all endurance rides are created equal. Most
cyclists tend to ride either too easy or too hard during
these workouts.
Getting in the zone
The best way to make the most out of your endurance training time is to spend as
much of the ride time as possible in Heart Rate
Zone 2, which should be approximately 82 to 88 percent of your Lactate Threshold
Heart Rate
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=12503&sidebar=21&category=cycling


17. No Excuse for a Pregnant Pause:
The bird flu hasn't gotten us yet, but our nation is clearly suffering from the
Great Sedentariness Pandemic of 2005 -- a virulent
condition whose symptoms include watching television, working at a computer,
commuting by car and growing out of a favorite pair of
jeans. This week we bring the sobering news that the illness is passing to the
next generation in utero.
Only 16 to 19 percent of healthy pregnant women get the recommended levels of
exercise, according to a study published in the
October issue of Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise. This is even worse than
the lousy exercise compliance rate for all women in
the study, 27 percent.
Healthy women with no unusual risk factors and an uncomplicated pregnancy should
get the same level of activity as the rest of us:
30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week, according to the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
Sedentary pregnant women may face a higher risk of gestational diabetes and
excess weight gain than those who are active. They may
suffer more aches and pains, including backache. Exercise can help control
depression, including the post-partum variety; it can
also strengthen bones, joints and muscles to prepare for the Ironwoman event
they call delivery.
More...from the Washington Post at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112600058.\
html


18. From low-carbs to slow carbs:
Glycemic index diets may be next on nutritional frontier.
Move over Atkins. In the coming years, those looking to prevent disease, up
their sports performance, or lose weight may be looking
not toward low-carb diets, but toward "slow-carb" diets.
That's the prediction of a growing array of physicians, researchers and authors
advocating diets based on a low Glycemic Index (GI).
The index, developed 25 years ago by Canadian diabetes researchers, ranks
carbohydrates on how quickly they are digested and
absorbed, boosting blood sugar levels. Those that deliver a quick spike in
blood-sugar, like Russet potatoes, are given a high
number; those that are processed more gradually, like beans and vegetables, get
a low number. In essence, low-glycemic index carbs
are considered good for you; those with a high GI are to be minimized.
Since the index was first devised in 1981, a slew of diet books and programs
have popped up across Europe and Australia, including
the best-selling series, "The Low GI Diet Revolution" (Avalon) by Australian
nutritionist Jennie Brand-Miller. But only in recent
years, as American researchers have begun to suggest that such a diet may be
able to not only suppress appetite, but also reduce the
risk of diabetes, heart disease and certain forms of cancer, has it begun to
take hold in the United States.
More...from the Daily Camera at:
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/health_and_fitness/article/0,1713,BDC_2431_426669\
0,00.html


19. Could Lance Armstrong win the Ironman?
The consensus of triathlon experts and fans is 'yes,' but would the cycling
legend ever return to a sport he once competed in?
After watching former triathlete Lance Armstrong establish a legendary record of
seven straight Tour de France victories,
daydreaming aficionados of his original sport have been salivating at the
prospect that the Texan might take on the Ford Ironman
World Championship in his retirement from cycling.
Armstrong competed in triathlon as a teenager, racing elbow-to-elbow with some
of the sport’s legends in sprint-distance events. His
swim and run were on par with the best, and we all know his attributes on two
wheels. Triathlon fans dream of what might have been,
but because it was such a small, emerging sport with comparatively tiny payoffs,
triathlete Armstrong would certainly not be the
legend and multimillionaire he is today.
Still, the daydreams begat fantasy estimations of what Armstrong could
accomplish swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running
26.2 more. Armstrong was a great swimmer as a teen, so hanging with the leaders
in about 50 minutes for the Ironman seems
reasonable. Even if the weather were not perfect, Armstrong could be penciled in
for a 4-hour, 15-minute mark on the bike, then
cruise to a 3-hour marathon and add to his Superman legacy in, say, 8 hours, 10
minutes including transitions.
How cool would it be to see Armstrong take on Peter Reid, Tim DeBoom, Normann
Stadler, Faris Al-Sultan, Simon Lessing and the rest
of the gang?
More...from Ironman Explorer at:
http://ironmanexplorer.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=21


20. Calf Heart Attacks:
Dealing with a Weird but Serious Injury.
It's possible to diddle around with micro-tears for months. One miscalculation
and you might be back to square one.
About ten years ago, I started having a lower-leg problem that I assumed was a
pulled calf muscle. The calf would get tender,
sometimes knotty, after hard training (usually intervals); then a few days
later, while out on a run, I’d feel a sharp pain very
deep in the gastroc, and bingo, I’d be out of business.
The injury would respond to massage and rest, and after a few days, it would
seem to be fine. Here’s the tricky part, when I’d start
back running after a few days off, things would go well for a mile or so, and
then, yikes! The sharp pain would be back!
So I’d take a few more days off, more massage, and then start back. Deja vu all
over again. And I found I could repeat the cycle as
many times as I wanted, and the injury would just keep popping back up. It was
the most frustrating injury I had ever dealt with.
I finally mentioned it to my old mentor, Roy Benson, and he set me straight.
"It’s probably not a calf pull at all", he said. "More likely, it’s a microtear
deep in the muscle. A spasm forms around the torn
muscle, that's the knot you feel in there. It starts to heal; that’s when you
think you’re OK. But the process takes longer than we
usually think – several weeks at least. When you start back too soon, you’re
simply re-injuring yourself".
Roy was right. I found that I had to say off the injury for several weeks, and
even then, I had to take it easy when I started back.
One miscalculation, and I was back to square one. It was possible, I soon
discovered, to diddle around with this injury, literally,
for months. (Ironically, I did pull my calf muscle in a skiing accident a couple
of years ago, and though it seemed to be a fairly
serious injury at the time, I was back to running much sooner afterward than
with this pseudo-pull).
Since that initial injury, I’ve had this problem, in both legs, many times. It
was always extremely frustrating because it always
seemed to happen just as I was getting into halfway decent shape. But each time
it happened, I learned a little more and cut my
downtime by a few days. I now consider myself one of the world’s experts on this
injury, which my buddy Tom Raynor calls a "calf
heart attack", and I’ve managed to avoid it altogether for several years now.
The root cause of this injury, according to my orthopedic friends, is
compartment syndrome, which means that the sheath around the
calf muscle isn’t flexible enough, and when the muscle swells up during
exercise, it can’t expand enough to accommodate the
necessary blood flow. The muscle becomes constricted, and eventually some fibers
tear. Even after it heals, scar tissue often
remains, which makes the site a prime candidate for reinjury, thus the cyclical
nature of this problem.
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/96may/calf.htm


21. A Simple Blueprint for Effective Training:
The Four Rules of Running
You've probably figured out by now that running isn't like other sports. For one
thing there aren't a lot of rules to follow. There
are no "out-of-bounds" or "offsides" or "celebrating too much after finishing."
But since it's human nature to want at least a few
rules, runners have made some up! These "Four Rules of Running" should become
the foundation of your running program. They will
ensure your continued enjoyment and improvement as a runner and help keep things
fun and interesting as well.
Rule #1: Stress and Rest Your training program should consist of a combination
of training stresses followed by recovery. In other
words, "hard" one day, then "easy" for a day or two. Then hard again. This
"hard/easy" approach allows you to continually improve
your fitness level-and stay motivated. "Hard" doesn't mean that you're sucking
wind at the end of your run. Maybe it's just a run
where you increase the distance or speed slightly. "Easy" can mean a day off or
a shorter, slower run that allows your body to
refresh itself. Using this method from workout-to-workout, week-to-week and even
month-to-month, will help you avoid the beginning
runner's #1 Mistake: Doing too much too soon. It'll be easier to get out the
door when you're not sore or tired all the time.
Rule #2: Repetition - To improve their free throw shooting, basketball players
practice shooting free throws, not jumpers from the
top of the key. The same principle goes for runners. Your body improves at what
it practices. If you wanna be a better runner, you
gotta run. Adding other workouts like cycling or swimming is a great way to
maintain or improve your overall fitness level, but
putting one foot in front of the other is the only way to continually get better
at running.
Rule #3: Variety - The body adapts pretty quickly to a consistent routine.
Without stress, there's no stimulus. When that happens,
your fitness level plateaus, your motivation weakens and you stop improving. To
avoid this, you should vary your training from
day-to-day. Use different types of workouts. Vary the amount of training.
Emphasize different types of runs for a period of time
such as a month.
Rule #4: Gradual progress - Sure, you'd like to be fit and fast tomorrow. But it
just doesn't work that way. Doing too much too soon
is the highway to burn-out or injury. Instead, think like the tortoise, not the
hare. Take it slow. Increase your training
gradually. What's the rush, anyway? Be in it for the long haul.
More...from Road Runner Sports at:
http://www.roadrunnersports.com/cgi-bin/rrs/rrs/sduTraining.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@\
@0706975711.1133447946@@@@&BV_EngineID=caddffcdjhheb
ekgcgecfeedg.0
[Multi-line URL]


22. Fats can be your friend ... Honest:
More than a third of your calories can come from fat provided you chose the
right kind of fat.
Over the past two decades, high-fat diets have been blamed for obesity, heart
disease and cancer. Until recently, health agencies
advocated the "30-per-cent rule" -- limit fat intake to no more than 30 per cent
of your daily calories. We were told to eat less
fat to help lose weight, lower cholesterol levels, and possibly ward of certain
cancers.
But if eating less fat is so good for us, why do recent studies suggest that
olive oil lowers blood pressure, fatty nuts reduce the
risk of Type 2 diabetes, and oil-based salad dressings guard against heart
disease? It seems the simple recommendation to follow a
low-fat diet is largely out of date.
The latest recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (an expert panel of
Canadian and American scientists) have eased up on
dietary fat. Today, a healthy diet can contain as much as 35 per cent of its
calories from fat -- provided, of course, you choose
the right fats. What matters most is the type of fat you eat. Some fats increase
the risk of health problems, whereas other fats can
lower the risk.
More...from the Globe and Mail at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051130/HBECK30/\
TPHealth/?query=leslie+beck


23. The Dangers of Chronic Distress:
Are you worried, irritable and socially inhibited? A simple test may help
predict the health effects.
Years ago, when the psychologist Johan Denollet was first working with cardiac
patients at a university hospital in Antwerp,
Belgium, he noticed a paradox. Some heart-attack survivors remained cheerful and
optimistic despite extensive cardiac damage. They
joined eagerly in rehabilitation programs and adhered to them. Others grew
discouraged. They resisted rehab, even after milder heart
attacks, and spent most of their energy complaining. Denollet, now a professor
of medical psychology at Tilburg University in the
Netherlands, suspected there was something fundamentally different about these
two groups of patients. So he set out to find a way
of measuring it. The tool he developed—a simple, 14-question personality test
known as the DS14—is now opening a new frontier in
cardiology.
The test, which accompanies this article, defines overall distress in terms of
two emotional states: "negative affectivity" (worry,
irritability, gloom) and "social inhibition" (reticence and a lack of
self-assurance). It may sound more like a parlor game than a
medical instrument—but in the research to date, it has been a surprisingly
powerful predictor of cardiovascular health. High
distress scores are strongly associated with both hypertension and coronary
heart disease. And among people who already have heart
conditions, those with the highest distress scores—the so-called Type D
personalities—are less responsive to treatment and have a
poorer quality of life. They are also more likely to die prematurely.
More...from Newsweek at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9466930/site/newsweek/


24. Exercise may not slow seniors' mental decline:
Staying physically active can help keep adults fit as they grow older, but,
contrary to what some may think, it may not protect
against mental decline, according to a new study.
"While participation in physical activity has been shown to have many health
benefits for older adults, this study does not provide
strong support that it protects against cognitive decline," study author Dr.
Maureen T. Sturman, of Rush University Medical Center
in Chicago, Illinois and the John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County, told
Reuters Health.
Previous researchers have reported that physical activity may help guard against
stroke and coronary heart disease, both of which
may be associated with the development of dementia. Other studies have looked at
the influence of physical activity on mental status
and mental decline in old age, but such studies were either limited in their
scope or had short follow-up times.
In the current study, Sturman and her team analyzed 1993 to 2003 data from the
Chicago Health and Aging Project, a large ongoing
study of risk factors for chronic disease among elderly adults. The 4,055 study
participants, aged 73.5 years, on average, were
black and white seniors who lived in the community. They were followed-up for
about six years, during which they participated in
periodic assessments of their mental health.
More...from Reuters at:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-11-2\
5T182424Z_01_MOL559106_RTRUKOC_0_US-HEALTH-EXERCISE.
xml
[Long URL]


25. Digest Briefs:
* Orthotics – Do You Need Them?
Although working on running and cycling technique can aid in improving a
person’s economy, for some athletes, I also recommend
getting orthotics. I have seen remarkable improvements in athletes’ performances
when they do use orthotics. One of the main reasons
for improvements is that they have less injuries or else their injuries heal
after using orthotics; thus, they can fully concentrate
on training. Midway through my career, I began using orthotics for both the bike
and run. While running, I was able to spend less
time on the ground during my foot strike and my toe off was quicker. When
biking, I found a greater transfer of energy from my foot
to pedal. Not everyone needs orthotics. In addition, many designers of orthotics
don’t know a diddley about sport orthotics. Stay
away from the hard and stiff kind and ideally get a mold of your feet for a
perfect fit.
What are "orthotics"?
Orthotics are specially prepared foot supports. These anatomically molded
devices are worn under the heel and arch of your foot to
correct skeletal anomalies. They actually realign them to a natural, "neutral"
position to relieve foot and back stress, increase
endurance, restore critical balance and improve sports performance.
What causes foot problems?
The primary cause of foot problems and related conditions is skeletal imbalance.
Most people have some degree of hyperpronation
(flat feet) or hypersupination (high arches). These structural imperfections
cause a certain amount of instability during foot
function, subjecting the foot to excessive stress and strain that can eventually
cause pain and deformities.
How can orthotics improve sports performance?
Athletics make demands on the feet not encountered in normal daily activity.
Slight imbalances in the foot not dangerous or
detectable under every day circumstances may render you vulnerable to injury
with the extra stress of sports activity. By
eliminating the need for your muscles to compensate for these "hidden"
imbalances, orthotics reduce fatigue and promote the kind of
efficient "muscle memory" that's crucial to outstanding performance. By aiding
your control of foot movement, custom-fitted
orthotics also maximizes the biomechanical function not only of your feet but
also your legs and torso.
Do orthotics help people with high arches?
Yes. If you have a "cavus" foot (on with high arches), a functional orthotic
will provide a greater contact area for you foot and
spread the weight-bearing surface more evenly. This can contribute to the
healing of calluses in the foot (hypersupination),
improving control and lateral stability.
From www.WesHobsonPerformance.com

* Bigger needles -- bummer
Doctors may have to start using longer needles because many patients' bottoms
are getting just too big.
Irish researchers have found that medications injected into a large buttock are
not reaching the underlying muscle. Simply put,
standard needles are too short to penetrate the extra layers of fat on some rear
ends -- an increasingly common problem as more
people pack on additional pounds. This means the medicine remains lodged in the
fat tissue and is not circulated throughout the
body.
"There is no question that obesity is the underlying cause," lead researcher
Victoria Chan said in a statement released with the
study presented in Chicago this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological
Society of North America.
Dr. Chan, of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin, noted that an increasing
number of medications are administered though
buttock injections, including certain vaccines, painkillers, psychiatric
medications and even anti-cancer drugs.
The buttocks have become a prime site for "intramuscular" injections because
they have relatively few major blood vessels, nerves
and bones that might be accidentally injured by a needle jab. At the same time,
the rear is rich in microscopic blood vessels that
normally speed delivery of a drug to the rest of the body.
But in her study of 50 volunteers, 68 per cent of the injections did not reach
the buttock muscles, with the problem most evident in
female patients, who tend to have more rear padding than men.
Fat tissue has significantly fewer blood vessels than muscle, so less of the
medication is absorbed into the bloodstream. "This
results in the patient either not receiving the maximum benefit of the drug or
receiving no benefit at all," said Dr. Chan. Other
than losing weight, the solution is longer needles, she said. The pointy bits of
the needles used in her study were three
centimetres long, the conventional size.
From the Globe and Mail at:
www.GlobeandMail.com



THIS WEEK'S FEATURED EVENTS:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites*

December 3, 2005:

Iron Girl 5K, 5M & 10-Miler Run/Walk - Tempe, AZ
http://www.irongirl.com/tempe/index-tempe.html

Nike Team Nationals - Portland, OR
http://www.nike.com/nikerunning/usa/home.jhtml?ref=global_home#nike_team_nationa\
ls

OUC Orlando Half Marathon - Orlando, FL
http://www.orlandohalf.com/

Reggae Marathon - Negril, JAM
http://www.reggaemarathon.com

St. Jude Memphis Marathon & Half-Marathon - Memphis, Tennessee
http://www.stjudemarathon.org

Thunder Road Marathon, Charlotte, NC
http://www.runcharlotte.com

Winter Sun 10K - Moab, UT
http://www.moabhalfmarathon.org/winter/winter.html"

December 4, 2005:

Brian's Run - West Chester, PA
http://www.briansrun.org

California International Marathon - Sacramento, CA
http://www.runcim.org

Laguna Phuket Triathlon - Thailand
http://www.lagunaphuket.com/triathlon

Las Vegas Marathon - NEV
http://lvmarathon.com

Marathon of the Palm Beaches - West Palm Beach, FL
http://www.marathonofthepalmbeaches.org

Standard Chartered Marathon - Singapore
http://www.singaporemarathon.com/2005/nl/october/index.html


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/

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
A running and triathlon resource portal
Runner's Web Online Store
http://store.runnersweb.com
RunnersWebCoach
http://www.runnerswebcoach.com


********************************************
RUNNER'S WEB AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
*********************************************

Axill
Sony vs Panasonic:
'http://www.axill.com/trackingcode.aspx?affid=8001&pid=1762&bid=4677&c=8001'

Buy Paula Radcliffe's book, My Story - So Far, from Amazon UK at:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/074325242X/runnersweb-21

Endurance Films
Triathlon Training DVDs
https://endurancefilms.hivelocity.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_C\
ode=EF&Affiliate=runnersweb

Instant Stretching Routines
Design unlimited stretching routines today, starting from scratch, in under 60
seconds!
http://www.instantstretchingroutines.com/cgi-bin/a.cgi?a=runnersweb

ShoeWallet.com has set out on a mission to enable people to easily carry ID and
medical information at all times. Basically, anyone
who is out on the roads or trails needs a convenient place to carry this vital
information.
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?joggerscompanion+pXgxpm+index.html+

SportsShoes in the UK
http://www.sportsshoes.com/index.php?id=149

Visit on AssociatesShop.com Online Bookstore for running and triathlon books:
http://associatesshop.filzhut.de/shop/index.php?ID=90c9f271c1a519abc4a69299be707\
\5a9

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

Triathlon Meetup
http://triathlon.meetup.com/r/d5n6/d5n6/0/http://triathlon.meetup.com/?a=d5n6/
Triathlon Meetups! Happening THIS month, find out when .

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 Stretching Handbook:
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/cmd.php?af=245575
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

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