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
are the opinions of the writers and not necessarily
those of the Runner's Web. Visit the Runner's Web at http://www.runnersweb.com
The site is updated multiple times daily. Check out
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1. Scotiabank Bay Street Rat Race for United Way - 5k Run - Toronto, ON June 15,
2006
Join us for a 5km run through the streets of downtown Toronto. Fantastic
entertainment, food and prizes in celebration of United Way
of Greater Toronto's 50th anniversary
http://www.unitedwaytoronto.com/volunteer/uw_events_calendar.html#Ratrace

2. Challenger World.
Using our unique Intelligent Sport™ concept, Challenger World has developed the
most advanced, fun and diverse corporate team
building challenges in the world with one aim in mind - to create great teams
for your business
http://www.challengerworld.com/
What is Intelligent Sport:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060518_Challenger_World.html

3. RunnersWeb5K.com Race for Women
Women's only racing returns to Ottawa June 24th with a 5K race along the
Rockcliffe Parkway from the Aviation Museum.
More....
http://www.runnersweb5k.com

4. Runner's Web Online Store:
Through a partnership with HDO Sports, the Runner's and Triathlete's Web has
opened an online store. Check it out for your shopping
requirements.
http://store.runnersweb.com

5. RunnersWebCoach
Through a partnership with HDO Training, the Runner's And Triathlete's Web now
offers Interactive Training.
http://www.runnerswebcoach.com

6. Road Runner Sports, the world's largest running store at:
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000009525499

7. Toronto Waterfront Marathon. September 24, 2006.
http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/

9. The Toronto Marathon, October 15, 2006
http://www.torontomarathon.com

10. LifeSport by Lance Watson - Professional Coaching
Lance Watson 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. A Human Kinetics
graduate (sport psychology minor), Lance has had the
opportunity to work with and be mentored by numerous world-class swim, bike, run
and triathlon coaches and liaise with many top
sport professionals (scientists, psychologists, nutritionists, therapists, etc.)
Lance has coached at the 2000 Olympics, 2002 Commonwealth Games and 2003 Pan
American Games. He has been head coach at several
national-team events and coached at various Ironman, ITU World Cup and world
championship events. As well, he was an award recipient
as "Triathlon Canada Elite Coach Of The Year" four consecutive years from
2000-2003. He was the 2004 Olympic Team Head Coach
(Triathlon).
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/LifeSport.html


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If anyone is looking for a web mail provider, you might wish to consider
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only from a current user. My stock of "invites" has been replenished. If you are
interested in getting FREE GMail account, contact
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Microsoft(r) Alerts on RunnersWeb.com Inc.
RunnersWeb.com Inc. now offers Microsoft(r) Alerts! This service lets you
receive important messages through your MSN(r) Messenger
or Windows(r) Messenger, your e-mail, or your mobile device. You can choose how
and when you receive these messages by specifying
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Race Directors:
Advertise your event on the Runner's Web.
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THIS WEEK:
Get the Runner's Web News Feed via email. Sign up at:
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Beginning April 30th and lasting through Mother's Day (5/11), adidas is offering
15% off women's products! Choose from a wide range
of both apparel and footwear for performance, plus adidas Originals for style!
Customers should use AFFILMD06 at check out.
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=20812557&siteid=39999062&bfpage=17782\
49

The Ottawa Race Weekend, Canada's largest running event, announced its first
national charity partnership in 32 years with the
Canadian Athletes Now Fund.
The Canadian Athletes Now Fund is a not for profit organization that raises
direct financial support for Canadian athletes so they
can compete on the world stage. Since 1997, the Fund has raised over 4 million
dollars and supported over 500 able bodied and
paralympic athletes.
This is a fabulous opportunity to support our Canadian athletes when they need
the support the most. It takes tremendous dedication
and training to be the best in the world and it also takes financial support.
The Canadian Athletes Now Fund provides direct financial support to our Canadian
athletes. Athletes allocate the funds they receive
for equipment needs, coaching, training opportunities and proper nutrition.
The Canadian Athletes Now Fund is looking for 2008 passionate and proud
Canadians to run, walk or skate for our Canadian athletes
during the Ottawa Race Weekend. When you join the Canadian Athletes Now Fund
team you will find out which athlete your efforts will
be supporting plus donations of $25 or more will receive a tax receipt.
FREE Technical Running Shirt for all Canadian Athletes Now Fund Team members!
START TODAY! JOIN OUR TEAM: CLICK ON LINK BELOW:
https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/startup.aspx?eventid=5828
To Donate or for more information visit: www.canadianathletesnow.ca
or Call us at: 1-866-YES-2008 .

WIN a Trip for 2 to Scotiabank TORONTO WATERFRONT MARATHON
Flat, fast and festive!
Exciting, cosmopolitan, international, but right next door! "Experience middle
earth and marathon heaven all in one trip to
Toronto!" Join RW Hero Ed Whitlock, John "The Penguin" Bingham, and 10,000+
runners from 30 countries and 40+ states.
More...
http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/en/rwcontest_us.htm

Get the Runner's Web button for the Google Toolbar 4 for Internet Explorer at:
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We are running a weekly quiz - starting Monday, March 20th - with the weekly
winner getting FREE entry into the RunnersWeb5K.com
Race for Women which will be held in Ottawa on June 24, 2006. Check it out at:
http://www.runnersweb5K.com.
Sub 18:00 5K women runners should contact me for FREE entry into the race.

If you feel you have something to say (related to triathlon or running) that is
worthy of a Guest Column on the Runner's Web, email
us at:
mailto:webmaster@... or leave your comments in one of our Forums at:
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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.

* 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 article archive 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/Sale.aspx?BID=37234&AfID=103794&AdID=5075&LP=www.peakr\
unningperformance.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

Running Research News:
RRN's free, weekly, training update provides subscribers with the most-current,
practical, scientifically based information about
training, sports nutrition, injury prevention, and injury rehabilitation. The
purpose of this weekly e-zine is to improve
subscribers' training quality and to help them train in an injury-free manner.
Running Research News also publishes a complete, 12-page, electronic newsletter
10 times a year (one-year subscriptions are $35); to
learn more about Running Research News, please see the Online Article Index and
"About Running Research News" sections below or go
to RRNews.com.
Check out the article index at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RRN_index.html


THIS WEEK'S PERSONAL POSTINGS/RELEASES:
We have ONE personal posting this week.
ONE:
Hey everyone,
The folks at Bob Gear have been kind supporters of my event for the past three
years. This year, they donated an Ironman Edition
BOB Sports Utility Stroller to help me raise money for the Challenged Athletes'
Foundation; a not-for-profit organization that
provides funding for adaptive sports equipment to people with physical
disabilities.
On July 28th, I will be raffling off the BOB Stroller. I have owned one myself
since my son was born in 2000 and can honestly say
there isn't a better jogging stroller on the market today!
1 ticket is $1,
7 tickets are $5,
15 tickets are $10,
40 tickets are $20, and
150 tickets are $50.
For details, please visit my website at: www.ponyexpressrun.com and click on
the BOB Stroller GiveAway icon for more information.
I have been a tireless supporter of the Challenged Athletes' Foundation for over
8 years now and would truly appreciate any support
you can give.
Please visit my website (www.ponyexpressrun.com) and check out some of the other
exciting events surrounding the 7th installment of
the Pony Express Run.
Thanks everyone!
Bobby


THIS WEEK'S DIGEST ARTICLE INDEX:

1. Multisport: Event-Based Volume
2. Multisport: Explaining the Importance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids in
the Training Diet
3. Multisport: Swimmer’s Shoulder
4. ACE Fit Facts: Exercise and Pregnancy
5. Running As Armor, By Dr. Walter Bortz
A Fit Lifestyle Serves to Modulate the Aging Process.
6. Muscle Soreness and What You Can Do About It
7. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Stretching a Point
8. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
9. Win with asthma
10. What is the best way to fuel for a 2 hour race?
11. ITU Athlete Routines, Rituals, & Performance Strategies
12. The Role of Cortisol in Concurrent Training
13. Multisport: Getting the Most from Your Training
14. Overtraining: making a difficult diagnosis and implementing targeted
treatment
15. Experts are made and practice matters, but birthdays do too
16. From Runner's World
17. Mitochondria Functions - More mitochondria mean more PBs, but what do you
have to do to get them?
18. Flying does not cause blood clots, say experts
19. The Feed Zone with Monique Ryan: Real food and recovery
20. Living bugs for athletes in action
21. Exercise sun safety: Wear sunscreen
22. Don't work out -- train!
23. Get Ready to Race
Everything you need to do in the final 24 hours before a race.
24. The Infection Connection By Sara Latta
Running Can Boost or Dampen Your Immune System.
25. Digest Briefs



RUNNER'S WEB WEEKLY POLL:
"What should the cut-off time be for marathons?"

You can access the poll from our FrontPage ( http://www.runnersweb.com) 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:
"Should the use of altitude tents - which are used to boost an athlete's red
blood cell count - be banned?"
Answers Percent
1. No 35%
2. Yes 61%
3. No opinion 4%


FIVE STAR SITE OF THE WEEK: TRACKSHARK.COM
Trackshark.com is the internet home for college track & field coverage.
Trackshark is the only service of its kind dedicated to
serving the sport on a daily basis.
Trackshark has the latest collegiate results, interviews, rankings, journals,
photos, insight and much more available to you right
at your fingertips.
Trackshark digs deep into the world of the collegiate student-athlete and
provides the most detailed coverage available. From our
exclusive on-site coverage of major collegiate meets around the country to our
journals which give you an inside view from some of
the top student-athletes, no other services goes above and beyond support for
collegiate track & field.
Trackshark will give the fans what they want to see. With the help from many
journalists and photographers around the country,
Trackshark will be there when it counts. With much of the focus on original
content, you can always find the best collegiate track &
field information right here.
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.
Check out the site at:
http://www.trackshark.com/about/


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


BOOK OF THE WEEK: Boston Marathon and Beyond
Boston Marathon & Beyond, commemorates this year's 110th running of the Boston
Marathon.
The book, edited by noted running author and Marathon & Beyond editor Richard
Benyo, contains articles by Hal Higdon, Roger
Robinson, Kathrine Switzer, Tom Derderian, John J. Kelley, and others. The book
also features a painting by acclaimed sports artist
Andy Yelenak, reproduced across a unique double gatefold cover. “The rich,
long-running history of the Boston Marathon provides a
deep well from which all runners can draw inspiration. This project allowed us
to work at the well and gain a deeper appreciation of
the many runners who contributed to the sport’s continuation through three
different centuries,” says Benyo.
For more information and to buy the book visit Marathon and Beyond at:
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/boston2006/contents.htm


THIS WEEK'S NEWS:


1. Multisport: Event-Based Volume:
By Rich Strauss
For most athletes, training time during the week is relatively finite, while the
weekends are more flexible. Most athletes can fit
an hour a day during the week, but things get very hairy at two to three hours.
Because of this simple fact, your training schedule should be based completely
on the hours you have available to train, not
necessarily on the number of hours you "need" to train. Question: "How many
hours a week should I train to finish an Ironman?"
Answer: "How many hours do you have available to train?"
I use three tools to manage the training schedules of my athletes...
Focus on "Training Events" rather than on "Training Hours"
Most experts agree that to finish an Ironman, you need to have accomplished the
following at least ONCE before race day: 4km swim, 6
hour bike, 2.5 to 3 hour run and 6+ hour brick. Therefore, rather than focusing
on weekly hours, focus on a sensible progression of
smaller "events" that lead to the successful completion of these larger EVENTS
at least one time before race day. I call these
larger training events "Training Milestones," or events that we must accomplish
in route to a successful race.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060515_RS_Event_Based.html


2. Multisport: Explaining the Importance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids in
the Training Diet:
Essential fatty acids (EFA) are necessary in proper brain and nervous system
function and for building new cells. Although they are
essential for good health, these fatty acids cannot be made by the body. We must
obtain EFA from dietary sources. The two primary
EFAs are the omega-3 and omega-6. Plant derived omega-3 fatty acid is called
alpha-linolenic acids, marine derived omega-3 is also
know as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Omega-6 fatty
acids are also called linoleic acid.
The role of EFAs in human nutrition has long been recognized. Research links EFA
intake with reduced risk for coronary heart disease
(CHD), improving blood cholesterol levels and regulating the inflammation. This
is beneficial for all individuals, regardless of
physical activity level. However there is recent evidence, of great interest to
triathletes, demonstrating a link between intake of
EFA and improved fatty acid metabolism with increased fat oxidation and reduced
fat synthesis. This could be good news for
triathletes, so let’s take a closer look at the research and the benefits of
EFAs.
Omega 3 and Cardiovascular Disease
Physical activity has been shown to be beneficial to cardiovascular health by
promoting desirable blood lipids and lowering
cholesterol and blood pressure. However, the heart is a muscle, and long-term
endurance training puts a great deal of strain on the
heart itself. Maintaining a proper diet and including EFA will help protect the
endurance athlete’s heart.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060508_NYTCS_Omega.html


3. Multisport: Swimmer’s Shoulder:
By Jenn Turner, BPHE (hon), DC, ART®, CPTN- CPT, CCSS(C) (resident)
Introduction
If you are a swimmer or triathlete that has ever put some serious time in the
pool or lake, chances are you have had some sort of
shoulder injury. Statistics reveal that 80 % of competitive swimmers have had a
shoulder injury at some point in their career (1).
Shoulder injuries are more common in swimmers than any other overhand athletes
as swimmers shoulder muscles aren’t given any rest
before they are required to perform the next repetition. Some swimmers and
triathletes may complete up to 2500 shoulder revolutions
a day (4). When 90% of the propulsive force of swimming comes from the upper
body, it is easily understood why the shoulder is very
susceptible to overuse or cumulative trauma disorders (1).
Cumulative Trauma Disorder Cycle
Continuous motion on the shoulder can lead to a cycle of muscle fatigue,
inefficient and faulty stroke mechanics, injury to soft
tissues due to microtrauma and muscle imbalance due to compensation. This cycle
is very difficult for the athlete to break. This is
especially challenging for a competitive swimmer or triathlete who can’t afford
to take time off of their sport to allow the
shoulder to heal. It is these athletes who have the most problem recovering and
continuing on in their sport(1).
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060514_JT_Swimmers_Shoulder.htm\
l


4. ACE Fit Facts: Exercise and Pregnancy :
Before you get started on a pregnancy fitness program, talk to your doctor. Your
physician will want to evaluate your fitness status
in relation to your pregnancy, and your fitness instructor will most likely want
your physician's approval or consent-to-exercise
form before you begin an exercise program. Plenty of benefits
Exercise during pregnancy offers many physical and emotional benefits. For
example, a good exercise program may help relieve some of
the common problems associated with pregnancy, such as excessive weight gain,
swelling of your hands and feet, leg cramps, varicose
veins, insomnia, fatigue and constipation.
You also can look forward to improved posture and circulation, reduced
backaches, pelvic and rectal pressure and increased energy
levels if you follow a well-designed exercise program while you're pregnant. And
you'll feel better knowing you're doing something
good for yourself, which is, of course, good for your baby.
Keep moving every other day
Pregnant women can participate in low-impact aerobic activity three times per
week, or as often as every other day, if your
physician agrees. But don't push it; if you're feeling exhausted, don't try to
exercise.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060513_ACE_Pregnancy.html


5. Running As Armor:
By Dr. Walter Bortz
A Fit Lifestyle Serves to Modulate the Aging Process.
Among all those self-images you have developed over your years on the roads and
trails, I am sure that you have never once
identified yourself as enclosed in a sturdy suit of armor. Not once have you
seen yourself cresting a rise or on a long straightaway
wearing an impregnable coat of boilerplate with helmet and visor securely fixed.
You have never seen yourself in this costume, but
the image is not fantasy, it is real. You, the runner, put in your miles within
an invisible protective casing that serves to shield
you from all manner of life's assaults. You move in your own fortress with
secure defenses on all sides. Life's slings and arrows
fall harmlessly. At the end of the day you, the runner, are likely to be the
last warrior standing.
All of us running enthusiasts seek new metaphors to explain why we are so
committed to our active lifestyle. As a physician and
geriatrician proud of my running habit-a marathon a year for 35 years-I propose
to you the suggestion that the image of "running as
armor" is not so far-fetched as it might at first appear. Running builds your
mettle; it girds your whole being in a battlement that
displays your grit. It provides protective layers of the right stuff.
Two years ago, an old 50-foot oak limb in our yard broke off. A neighbor alerted
me to this event. There it was on its new perch
jammed among lower branches 15 feet off the ground. Firewood!
THE TREE FIGHTS BACK
I enthusiastically began pruning reachable lower shoots. Deeply immersed in my
creative effort, above I heard a tremendous crunching
groan and this oak girder somehow dislodged from what I had presumed was its
secure wedge.
I was immediately engulfed in leafy branches, dust, noise, and pain. I crouched
reflexively, a thud hit beneath my right shoulder
blade, and I knew immediately that I had busted ribs and punctured a lung as
breathing came hard.
My emergency supply of endorphins kicked in. I did let out some unholy bellows,
ugly shouts like a stricken cow. My wife ran from
the house and retrieved her wounded husband. Within minutes the paramedics were
there, IV morphine was started, and I was whisked to
the Stanford Hospital ER, where clusters of anxious friends materialized
immediately.
An X-ray confirmed my internist-generated diagnosis of broken ribs (four) and a
pneumothorax. Part of the experience of being a
patient in a teaching hospital is the likely encounter with a fourth-year
medical student-I was one 50 years ago-who, with gentle
instruction, clumsily learns how to insert a plastic tube into a person's chest
(mine), thereby providing a means to apply suction
to reexpand my lung from its collapsed state.
More...from Marathon and Beyond at:
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/bortz.htm
Subscribe to Marathon and Beyond at:
https://secure.marathonguide.com/MAndB/subscribe.cfm


6. Muscle Soreness and What You Can Do About It:
Priscilla M. Clarkson, Ph.D. , University of Massachusetts
Muscle soreness can be produced by many types of muscular activities. It is most
frequently caused by:
Movements that resist gravity or forward momentum, such as downhill running,
lowering heavy barbells, and the downward phase of
push-ups or sit-ups; and
Movements that resist forces exerted by stronger opponents, such as a pin or
hold in wrestling and a block in football.
These movements produce tension as the involved muscles are forced to lengthen.
The muscle actions needed for these movements are
known as "eccentric" or "negative" actions. While all activities involve some
eccentric actions, such actions are most prominent in
the aforementioned sports movements.
WHAT CAUSES SORENESS?
Popular explanations for muscle soreness include lactic acid accumulation,
muscle spasms, or muscle damage. Lactic acid and muscle
spasms have been largely discredited as reasons, but the muscle damage
explanation has a sound scientific basis.
Movements that cause muscle soreness have been shown to produce localized damage
to the muscle fiber membranes and contractile
elements. Chemical irritants such as histamine are released from damaged muscles
and can irritate pain receptors in the muscle.
Muscle damage often causes a swelling of the muscle tissue, which creates enough
pressure to stimulate pain receptors. How- ever, it
has been shown that severe swelling often persists long after the muscle
soreness has disappeared. Thus, the pain receptors either
gradually adapt to the swelling or to some other factors present.
Whatever the precise mechanisms, current scientific thought points toward muscle
damage as the culprit in muscle soreness.
More...from Gatorade at:
http://www.gssiweb.com/reflib/refs/94/d0000000200000032.cfm?pid=59&CFID=3768376&\
CFTOKEN=12848495


7. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Stretching a Point:
I came into running at a time when the only stretches that distance runners did
were the backstretch and homestretch of a track.
Stretching of the standing-still variety? I never did any; never thought a
runner needed any.
This all changed in the 1970s, for me and for the sport. A doctor giving
treatment for a stubborn injury asked me to bend over and
touch my toes. I strained to graze my shins just below the knees. I've stretched
ever since, with varying degrees of commitment and
success.
Also in the 1970s, the decade that changed running more than any other, a new
body of information declared that runners were too
tight and needed to add flexibility exercises to our routine. We were told that
the best corrective stretches aren't the "ballistic"
type -- the quick, bouncy, repeated calisthenics we'd known from high school
sports -- but the "static" stretches that hold a
position at the high edge of the comfort zone.
Static stretching became the standard in running. It remains so.
Thirty years later, this practice is having its worth questioned. A study in a
British medical journal stated that stretching does
little if any good in preventing injury, easing soreness or improving
performance. Those are the very reasons we've stretched all
this time.
Runners asked me, "Should I stop stretching?" (or said, "I was right all along
not to stretch"). I noted that the practice would
have faded away long ago if it had been identified as worthless or harmful. Yet
these exercises have been a mainstay of training for
the past 30 years.
Runners won't suddenly stop stretching now, any more than we'd stop running on
hearing one negative report of its effects. But the
questioning of stretching does lead us to take a close look at how and when we
stretch, and what it might and might not do for us.
I still stretch, regularly if minimally. Each run ends with a few minutes of
bending and reaching because I perceive benefits that
are subtle but real.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/home.php?article=2056


8. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* Muscle Fatigue in Endurance Events Is Caused by Muscle Damage
When you exercise for a long time, your muscles start to burn and feel sore,
which forces you to slow down. You call this fatigue
and tiredness, but a recent study from Japan shows that muscle fatigue is caused
by damage to the muscle itself (Medicine & Science
in Sports & Exercise, July 2005). This also explains why exercising long and
hard enough to feel the burn for an extended period
leaves your muscles sore for one or more days afterwards. Athletes call this
Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and they learn
that they have to have this next-day soreness to improve for competition.
Running is much more fatiguing than cycling. When you run, your heel hits the
ground and stops your leg from moving. This sudden
stopping with each foot strike stretches your contracting muscles and tears them
to cause a lot of muscle damage. It's called
eccentric contractions of muscle and occurs with far less force in cycling. You
pedal with a smooth rotary motion and do not stop
suddenly. The eccentric contractions during running cause a high degree of
muscle injuries, limit how far person can run fast, and
require far more rest days or easy days than cyclists use in their training
programs.
Since muscle fatigue during endurance competitions is caused by muscle damage,
anything that strengthens muscles will improve
performance in endurance events. The only way to make a muscle stronger is to
damage the muscle with hard exercise, feel sore on
the next day, exercise more easily on as many days as it takes for the soreness
to go away, and then exercise vigorously again.
Athletes in competitive sports must exercise at a reduced intensity on the days
that their muscles feel sore. This makes muscles
more fibrous and resistant to injury so that muscles can withstand greater
forces when athletes exercise on their hard days.
* Older People Must Exercise Every Day
Can you explain why a study from The University of Sherbrooke in Canada showed
that exercising three times a week improved insulin
sensitivity in younger women but not in
older women? (European Journal of Applied Physiology, October 2005) Insulin
sensitivity measures the ability of your cells to
respond to insulin. When cells fail to respond adequately to insulin, blood
sugar levels rise too high, and you are more likely to
suffer diabetes, obesity particularly in the abdomen, high blood pressure, heart
attacks, strokes and nerve damage. Inability to
respond to insulin is the most common cause of diabetes in North America.
Exercise helps your cells respond to insulin because
exercise empties muscles of their stored sugar. Empty muscles can absorb sugar
from the bloodstream whenever you eat and prevent
blood sugar levels from rising too high.
Thirty-five percent of adults in North America will become diabetic because they
eat too much and exercise too little, because being
fat fills your fat cells with fat, which blocks insulin
receptors and prevents your body from responding to insulin. Insulin prevents
your blood sugar from rising too high, particularly
after you eat. So when your cells do not respond adequately to insulin, your
pancreas produces very large amounts of insulin,
which constricts coronary arteries to increase your chances of suffering a heart
attack, stimulates your brain to make you hungry
and causes fat to be deposited in your belly.
The only places that you can store extra sugar in your body are in your liver
and muscles. When you eat, sugar passes from your
intestines, into your bloodstream, and then into your muscles and liver. When
your muscles are full of sugar, sugar can only enter
your liver, and your blood levels rise too high. This causes sugar to stick to
cells. Once stuck on a cell, sugar is converted to
sorbitol which damages the cells to cause blindness, heart attacks, strokes,
kidney damage and all the other side effects of
diabetes. This study showed that younger women could exercise intensely enough
to empty their muscles on a regimen of three times a
week, but older women could not. So most older people need to exercise every
day to deplete their muscles of stored sugar. Younger
people can exercise less frequently and to get the same results, as long as they
exercise very vigorously during their three
sessions per week.
From Dr. Gabe Mirkin at:
http://www.drmirkin.com


9. Win with asthma:
Back in our mums’ and dads’ days a child diagnosed with asthma could not even
think about a sporting career, professional or
amateur. He or she was destined to be the life-long spectator and never the
player. This is because, as most of us know, strenuous
exercise can induce an asthma attack.
Nowadays, however, medicine has advanced to the point where asthma is manageable
and controllable, and asthmatics can and do compete
in athletic sports up to the highest levels.
There are still the occasional tragedies however, as when like a Northwestern
University football player collapsed and died of an
asthma attack after running sprints during a practice session in the US.
Naturally this was a frightening episode, particularly for
the other 10 asthmatics on the same team.
Such tragedies are, however, preventable, according Christopher Randolph, MD,
chair of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and
Immunology Sports Medicine Committee. The key is proper diagnosis and
management. For asthmatic athletes to remain healthy and
competitive all they have to do is follow doctor’s orders.
An estimated seven percent of the population suffer from asthma. Strenuous
physical exercise brings on asthma symptoms in these
people, but it can also induce asthma in non-asthmatic patients, generally those
who have allergies or a family history of
allergies.
More...from health.iafrica.com at:
http://health.iafrica.com/fitness/medical/700560.htm


10. What is the best way to fuel for a 2 hour race?
By Shawn Dolan, PhD, RD
The two primary concerns for an event lasting 2 hours include replacing fluid
and electrolytes and consuming carbohydrate. However,
a 2 hour race can be a unique challenge for many athletes. A 2 hour race for one
person might be winning an Olympic distance
triathlon while for another it might be completing a ˝ marathon and still
another athlete might be competing in a mountain bike
race. Most athletes who participate in these events attempt to maintain a
relatively high intensity for a relatively long period of
time (considering the intensity). This can lead to fatigue towards the end of
the event. So the burning question is "how can I
prevent that fatigue while still performing my best"?
It is clear that an adequate supply of carbohydrate in the working muscle
(glycogen) and bloodstream (blood glucose) are essential
to an athlete's ability to sustain an intense effort over time. Therefore,
performance can be limited by the amount of carbohydrate
that is stored in the working muscles. As the temperature increases (as is the
case in many races during the summer), the larger
concern for performance is hydration status and the body's ability to cool
itself. Exercise capacity can be improved when outside
sources of carbohydrate and fluid are provided; this seems to be especially true
during the last portion of the race when fatigue
tends to set in and body temperature increases. Does this mean you can wait
until the last 30 minutes of the race to refuel or
drink? Probably not! To prevent fatigue, it is more beneficial to drink fluid
that contains carbohydrate and electrolytes early in
the race and continue drinking regularly throughout (every 15-30 minutes),
rather than waiting until the later stages of the race
when it may be too late. Electrolytes like sodium and potassium are important
nutrients to replace during. Those athletes, who are
salty sweaters, should consider a sport drink that is specifically designed for
endurance events that provide a greater amount of
electrolytes. This is particularly important in hot and/or humid climates even
for those athletes who are not salty sweaters!
More...from First Endurance at:
http://www.firstendurance.com/coaches_fuel_race.html


11. ITU Athlete Routines, Rituals, & Performance Strategies :
By Alan Ley - USA Triathlon Coaching Education 2005
The Olympic Triathlete trains and the coach plans for four disciplines: the
swim, bike, run, and transitions. The 1.5 kilometer
swim, 40 kilometer bike, and 10 kilometer run are rarely done in ideal
conditions or courses, adding to the complex formula that the
athlete must compete against in order to win. At the Olympic level of
competition every advantage and possible race situation needs
to be planned in advance. In a sport that takes less than two hours to complete,
often seconds is what separates the Gold from
second place.
Neuroscientist Paul Whelan in the February 28, 2004 issue of US News and World
Reports said: “Most of what we do every minute of
every day is unconscious. Your unconscious is making your everyday decisions.” I
suggest that if the elite triathlete practices the
psychological strategies and mental preparation techniques to build routines and
rituals until they become automatic responses so
that on race day the athlete will have the decisive advantage over their
competitors. The coach must plan this training into the
macro, meso, and microcycles of periodization for the athletes as he does the
other four disciplines. The high performance
triathlete is like a finely tuned race car. The more horsepower/watts the
car/athlete develops the more finely tuned and highly
sensitive the engine is. No area can be overlooked or under trained.
This article will discuss mental strategies and psychological preparation for
designing pre-race and race routines for the elite
triathlete. Pre-race strategies will put you at the starting line in control,
focused and in the ready to race mode. When the
triathlete steps up to an ocean swim pontoon start or a beach run and the only
thing that can improve their performance after the
first splash is the power of their mind, race routines need to be automatic like
an “auto pilot!”
More...from the Sport Journal at:
http://www.thesportjournal.org/2006Journal/Vol9-No2/Ley.asp


12. The Role of Cortisol in Concurrent Training:
Rob Robergs, Ph.D. and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.
Introduction
Many exercise enthusiasts and personal training clients strive to optimize
muscular fitness gains with their fitness program.
However, a number of clients refrain from doing cardiorespiratory training
because they have been informed that the increases in
blood cortisol during aerobic exercise will increase protein catabolism,
resulting in the break down, or loss, of muscle. At fitness
conferences, this very topic is regularly discussed and debated by fitness
professionals and personal trainers.
This evidence-based article will aim to resolve many of the confusing issues
with cortisol and muscular growth by discussing the
newest concepts on how hormones work, the many functions of cortisol, the
association of cortisol with aerobic exercise, and the
possible catabolic affect of cortisol on muscle mass and muscular strength. From
this review, practical applications for the fitness
professional will be imparted to share with students and clients.
How do Hormones Work In the Body?
There are two main types of hormones; amine and peptide versus steroid. The
biological differences between these hormone types are
caused by a combination of their chemical structure and cellular mechanism of
action.
Amine and peptide hormones are comprised of one or more amino acids (building
blocks of proteins). As many amino acids have small
electrical charges on some of their atoms, the molecules interact well with the
small charges found on water molecules, and as such,
can be dissolved in water. However, since cell membranes are mainly comprised of
lipids, the amine and peptide hormones cannot cross
cell membranes to get inside cells. Consequently, amine and peptide hormones
bind to specialized protein receptors on the outside of
cell membranes. Such binding causes changes in structure and/or charge
distribution within the receptor, leading to the production
of specific molecules that alter cell metabolism. For example, insulin released
from the pancreas binds to an insulin receptor on
target cells to increase the movement of glucose transport proteins to the cell
membrane, thereby increasing glucose uptake into
cells.
More...from Len Kravitz and Colleagues at:
http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/cortisol.html


13. Multisport: Getting the Most from Your Training:
By USAT Level II Coach, Mike Ricci
In the summer of 2002, I had an athlete contact me right before Vineman Full
Distance who was looking for some help. His coach had
moved and wanted to talk with me. He mentioned qualifying for Ironman Hawaii
since one of his work buddies had and he thought that
he had a chance. Since he was three weeks out from his first full distance
triathlon, I brushed aside the Hawaii talk and told him
there wasn’t anything I could do for him so close to this race, but I gave him
some pacing and nutrition advice and sent him on his
way. It turns out that he raced to 13:xx hours at Vineman, but he was hooked. He
thought triathlon was a great sport and wanted to
do another. He hired me to coach him for IM CdA for 2003 – and off we went.
He trained hard leading up to the race in 2003, but IM CdA was terribly hot that
year and the drop out rate was one of the largest
ever. The race was so hot that for this athlete his legs began cramping on the
bike, and eventually he fell over, both his legs
locked up as if they were in a vice grip. He managed to start the run, but
pulled out within two miles, his race over and a year of
training down the tubes. He called me and we talked about the race, the training
leading up to it and I left it up to him to
continue with me as I knew this was a decision from the heart and soul, not just
a snap decision like we most every day. I gave him
the honest truth and no rah-rah BS – Ironman racing is hard work and if you work
hard (and smart) you’ll see the results. I was
pretty sure I wouldn’t hear from him again but I was wrong about this guy, in
more ways than one.
I got a call a few weeks later and he told me he had signed up for IM CdA for
2004. Once again we were off and training. That
off-season he came out to Boulder, got a bike fit and worked on his
uncomfortable bike position. The Boulder Center checked out
everything and sent the athlete off to find a special seat as his comfort level
was pretty low. It turns out that he decided against
the special seat and he went for a more conventional approach; more riding. He
didn’t question the workouts or why we weren’t
working too much on his strength; the run. We worked on the bike mostly: four,
five and even six days a week. He rode in the wind,
rain, heat, cold. He rode and rode. He learned to spin up big hills in small
gears and he learned how to mash up big hills in big
gears. We covered all the ranges and he was dedicated. He did everything I asked
and never questioned the plan. Week in and week
out, he followed the schedule putting his faith in my plan. To be honest, if it
were me; and I had a DNF with the same coach, I am
not sure I could have been as trusting.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060517_Training.html


14. Overtraining: making a difficult diagnosis and implementing targeted
treatment:
Overtraining has for decades been one of the most popular topics in meetings and
journals dealing with top-level sports. The problem
has been well known for 70 years, but many specifics concerning overtraining are
still very unclear. Researchers have tried to
determine what happens to athletes when they begin to overtrain. How does the
pathologic condition of the whole body progress? If
the pathology and physiology of overtraining were better understood, we could
have uniform criteria for the early recognition of
impending overtraining and should be able to diagnose and cure the overtraining
state with greater efficiency. Prevention is still
the best cure, and athletes, coaches, and physicians need to recognize the early
warning signs.
I. What is Overtraining?
In medical literature, the word "overtraining" has had many meanings. It has
been used to mean overload training, overreaching, and
overtraining syndrome. Overload training, a few days of hard training followed
by short-term fatigue, is an essential part of all
athletes' training. The physiologic homeostasis of the body needs to be
displaced by intensive training stimuli so that performance
capacity can be improved, a process called reaching or supercompensation.
Several days of intentionally heavy training are followed
by some days of less intense training and rest to achieve supercompensation and
peak performance.
The time needed for supercompensation is essential to recognize. If an athlete
is not allowed to adapt before a new stimulus is
given, a greater and progressive imbalance in homeostasis will occur. Reaching
becomes overreaching when tapering the activity does
not yield the desired supercompensation and fatigue is unintentional, resulting
in performance decrement with or without other
typical stress-related psychological, psychosomatic, and physiologic symptoms
and signs. If the intensity and duration of the
training are not reduced, overreaching leads to overtraining and overtraining
syndrome, due mainly to long-term imbalance of
physical training and recovery (see Figure 1). Overreaching differs from
overtraining in its short recovery time. Recovery from
overreaching can take 2 to 3 weeks, a safe time for tapering without a decrease
in performance capacity. The recovery period in
overtraining syndrome can take from many months to years.
More...from the Fast Lane at:
http://users.compaqnet.be/cn000760/training-over-dete-1a.html


15. Experts are made and practice matters, but birthdays do too:
If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in next
month's World Cup tournament, you would most likely
find a noteworthy quirk: Elite soccer players are more likely to have been born
in the first six months of the year than in the
later months.
If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup
and professional ranks, you would find this quirk to
be even more pronounced.
On recent English teams, for instance, half of the elite teenage soccer players
were born in January, February or March, with the
other half spread out over the remaining nine months. In Germany, 52 elite youth
players were born in the first three months of the
year, with just four players born in the last three.
What might account for this? Here are a few guesses: a) certain astrological
signs confer superior soccer skills; b) babies born in
winter tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina; c)
soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive
children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania; d) none of the
above.
Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University,
says he believes strongly in ''none of the above."
He is the ringleader of what might be called the Expert Performance Movement, a
loose coalition of scholars trying to answer an
important and seemingly primordial question: When someone is very good at a
given thing, what is it that makes him good?
More...from the Boston Globe at:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/05/07/experts_are_made_and_practice\
_matters_but_birthdays_do_too/


16. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
"I have to race. I'm like a Ferrari. You can't keep it in the garage."
-three-time 1500-meter Olympian Regina Jacobs
* Injury Prevention
Many runners either hold their arms too high (which can be tiring) or make an
exaggerated bouncing or swinging arm motion (which
wastes energy). Try to relax and lower your arms, keeping them close to your
body. For best efficiency, try to swing your arms
mostly forward and back, rather than crossing them over the front of your torso.
* Performance Nutrition
Red Raspberries
One-cup packs more fiber (5.8 g) than an equal amount of bran flakes or five
dried prunes. This same amount also delivers five times
the vitamin C (31 mg) of a peach and serves up 22 mg of magnesium-with only 60
fat-free calories. Select bright, dry, firm fruit
with excellent form, hollow centers, uniform coloring, and no hulls (they're
tart).
* Editor's Advice
"Switch your training partners. Close friends and family members don't always
make the best training buddies because they may allow
you to slack off or cancel workouts. To keep this from happening, find a new,
less forgiving workout partner every few months."
-Warren Greene, RW special projects editor
* Training Talk
"A surprising number of pregnant women run on treadmills, which can be good for
joints--but hazardous to clumsy people. Run slowly
and cautiously if you use a treadmill. The safest kind to use during pregnancy
is the kind equipped with a magnetic key safety
device."
-From Running & Pregnancy by Chris Lundgren



17. Mitochondria Functions - More mitochondria mean more PBs, but what do you
have to do to get them?
Deep inside your muscles lurk a multitude of microscopic structures called
mitochondria. Although infinitesimally small (they can't
be seen with an ordinary microscope), the mitochondria are of major importance
to your athletic efforts; as you increase their
density, your performance capacity rises concomitantly.
That's because the mitochondria are the only places inside your muscle cells
where carbohydrate, fat, and protein can be broken down
in the presence of oxygen to create the energy you need to exercise. To put it
simply, the more mitochondria you have, the more
energy you can generate during exercise, and the faster and longer you can run,
cycle or swim.
Intense scientific interest into the function of mitochondria during exercise
dates back to the early 1950s, when physiologists
noticed that the breast and wing muscles of chickens had few mitochondria, while
those of pigeons and mallards contained high
densities of the little structures. Of course, chickens can't fly, while
mallards and pigeons are the endurance athletes of the bird
world, leading researchers to believe that mitochondrial concentrations were
closely related to exercise capacity.
Scientists were somewhat surprised to learn that mitochondria contain their own
genetic material - and that all the mitochondria in
an individual's body are inherited from one's mother, not father (this is
because the egg contains mitochondria, while sperm cells
are mitochondria-free). This may seem strange, since the egg is rather immobile
and the sperm are distance swimmers, but the bottom
line is that sperm are so tiny that mitochondria would weigh them down
excessively on their harrowing passage toward the egg. The
consequence of this, of course, is that you tend to inherit your exercise
capacity from your mother, not your dad. If mum is a great
endurance athlete, you tend to be one, too, while if dad is a sluggard, it
doesn't matter too much.
More...from Peak Performance Online at:
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0129.htm


18. Flying does not cause blood clots, say experts:
CONDITIONS particular to travelling on a long-haul flight, such as low air
pressure and reduced oxygen, do not increase the risk of
potentially lethal blood clots, research indicates.
A study into the causes of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which kills thousands of
Britons every year, suggests that the clotting is
not a result of circumstances unique to flying but is chiefly caused by sitting
down for too long in a confined space.
The research highlights the danger of any travel that involves long periods of
inactivity, including by rail and road.
A team of British scientists simulated cabin conditions, including low air
pressure and reduced oxygen, on an eight-hour flight.
They found no increase in blood clotting among healthy people.
Sitting for hours in seats with poor leg room reduces circulation, which may
increase the chances of clots forming. But it has been
suggested that other factors unique to air travel may also be important.
DVT, sometimes referred to as “economy-class syndrome”, is a condition in which
a small, potentially fatal blood clot forms, often
in the deep veins of the legs. It can become deadly if a part of the clot breaks
off and blocks a blood vessel in the lungs.
About one in 2,000 long-distance passengers will suffer a blood clot. A recent
Australian study put the risk of a dangerous incident
at one in 40,000.
William Toff, of the University of Leicester, and colleagues, including Mike
Greaves, of the University of Aberdeen, monitored the
blood of 73 healthy people after they had spent eight hours seated in a
hypobaric chamber that simulated the conditions of an air
cabin.
More...from the Times Online at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2183617,00.html


19. The Feed Zone with Monique Ryan: Real food and recovery:
You may have heard about a study recently published in the International Journal
of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism that
brought that old childhood favorite drink of chocolate milk into the headlines.
This attention getting study did bring up a lot of
practical questions regarding your best food and fluid recovery nutrition
choices, and a good opportunity to clarify the proper use
of various sports nutrition supplements.
Let's take a quick look at the study. Researchers provided subjects with either
chocolate milk, a sports drink, or a commercially
available recovery drink (there was no disguised placebo test), immediately
after, and then again two hours after a cycling bout to
exhaustion. A second cycling bout followed the first by four hours. Performance
during the second cycling bout was measured to
determine which drink was best for recovery. The results were interesting, and a
bit surprising. What was not surprising, was that
the chocolate milk appeared to be a good recovery food (yes, real food works,
but more on that farther down this column). What was
surprising was that the sports drink, a product designed for consumption during
exercise, did just as well as the chocolate milk in
promoting nutritional recovery. In another interesting twist, the designer
recovery drink did not seem to aid in recovery as well as
the chocolate milk.
So is it time to toss away your favorite recovery drink? After all, it is
convenient and tasty, and provides a nice mix of fluid,
carbohydrate, sodium, and even some protein that can all jumpstart your muscles
in making back the glycogen fuel burned off during
training. Well don't put it away just yet (especially if you really like it and
it fits into your budget), and please don't used
your favorite sports drink as a recovery drink (that's not what it made for).
But if you are interested in using some real food and
fluid ideas for your recovery nutrition, welcome back....
Let's lay down some ground rules. Now that you have returned to the fold of real
food for the hours after exercise, what exactly are
you looking for? In the thirty minutes after hard training aim for half a gram
of carbohydrate (or slightly more) for every pound
that you weigh. If you weigh 150 lb., have 75 grams, if you weigh 180 lb. have
90 g of carbohydrate, if you weigh 125 lb. have 65 g.

More...from Velo News at:
http://www.velonews.com/train/articles/9885.0.html


20. Living bugs for athletes in action:
For many athletes, fatigue that is associated with recurrent infections and a
decline in performance is synonymous with hard
training. There might be a good explanation for this, as well as a possible
solution.
High-intensity exercise is associated with changes in many scientific measures
of the immune function. Stress experienced by the
body of the "over-trained" athlete can cause the suppression of the immune
system, which may lead to the reactivation of Epstein
Barr Virus (EBV) infections.
EBV is a recognised cause of fatigue and occurs in 70-90% of the population. The
reactivation of the EBV infection may lead to
inflammation. Due to inflammation, the well-trained athlete will be more
sensitive to recurrent sore throats and upper respiratory
tract infections, which may impair performance.
A study of elite swimmers over a 30-day period of intense training showed that
two thirds had symptoms of a viral infection or sore
throats.
More...from Health24 at:
http://www.health24.com/dietnfood/Probiotics/15-1940,35359.asp


21. Exercise sun safety: Wear sunscreen:
With summer right around the corner, everyone should be thinking about sun
protection. In fact, those of us who spend many hours
outside during the early spring should already be ahead of the curve.
Still, many people misunderstand both the dangers and the necessary steps to
protect their skin from sun damage, which includes skin
cancer and acute damage like sunburn and sun poisoning.
There's no 'safe' tan
Probably the biggest misconception people have about sun care is that suntans
are healthy. The fact is, a suntan is the body's
response to damage. When the sun's rays are absorbed by the skin, cells called
melanocytes produce melanin, a pigment that gives the
skin color. The added melanin offers increased protection for future exposure.
However, it's important to emphasize that if skin tans, damage has already
occurred. Moreover, sunburn is a severe response to
excessive sun exposure, which exceeds the skin's melanin production response.
What harm is a little burn?
I often hear, "I got a little sunburn, but it's no big deal." Unfortunately,
while tans and burns are signs of damage, each time we
burn we greatly increase our risk for skin cancer -- one blistering sunburn
doubles your risk for malignant melanoma, the most
dangerous and ever-increasing form of skin cancer.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=13076


22. Don't work out -- train!
There's a big difference between working out and training. To work out is to
exercise without any long-term performance goals in
mind. You do more or less the same thing every time you work up a sweat, because
your main objective is to maintain your current
fitness level.
To train, on the other hand, is to exercise in a way that lifts you step by step
towards a performance goal such as finishing a
triathlon or running a personal best 10K time. Workouts are carefully formatted
and sequenced to move you from point A -- your
current fitness level -- to point B: peak fitness.
All too many runners, swimmers, cyclists and triathletes work out when they
should be training. Even though they set and pursue
performance goals, they continue to exercise in ways that are better suited to
maintaining fitness than to improving performance.
To make the leap from working out to training, follow these three simple
guidelines.
Plan ahead
The need to move from working out to training arises the moment you sign up for
a particular event on a certain date in the future.
When you commit to participate in an event such as a mountain bike race or a
marathon you automatically establish a goal of
achieving the highest level of event-specific fitness you can reach between now
and the date of that event. The art of training to
achieve maximum fitness at just the right time is called peaking.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=13074


23. Get Ready to Race:
Everything you need to do in the final 24 hours before a race.
As any veteran runner will attest, lots can go wrong before a race. And believe
us, a last-minute goof is the last thing you need
after weeks or months of training. The following guide will ensure that the
nightmare scenario--missing clothes, no timing chip,
stuck in traffic--will never happen to you, and that you'll arrive on the
starting line ready to roll. Most of the advice applies to
any race distance, but it's especially important before a longer race such as
marathon, which requires more preparation.
DAY BEFORE
Logistics: Double-check directions to the start on a street map, or print a map
and directions from mapquest.com. Gas up the car.
Read the entire entry form, which may contain crucial information about checking
in, parking, or some other race detail that affects
what time you need to arrive. Finally, pack your race bag (see "Race-Day
Checklist") after checking the weather forecast.
Do all this early enough on the day before your race. This way, you'll have
ample time to hunt down any missing information or items
you'll need on race morning. If you procrastinate too long, you'll have to deal
with the stress of prerace preparations at the worst
possible time--bedtime.
Physical preparation: A walk, walk/jog, or easy run the day before a race will
keep your muscles limber. Don't do too much, however,
or you'll fatigue those muscles. Twenty or 30 minutes is plenty.
Other than the easy run, try not to do much else: no tiring yard work if you're
home; and no spending hours on your feet at a theme
park, museum, or the race expo if you traveled to the race. This is a day to go
to a matinee or catch up on reading. An exhausting
schedule will rob you of the energy you need for the race.
More...from Runner's World at:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-51-0-0-5059,00.html?trafficsource=\
NL_RW_TrainingExtra_2006_05_16



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


25. Digest Briefs:
* Do sports drinks have enough sodium to prevent muscle cramps in my legs?
The link between muscle cramps and loss of salt from the body has been made for
extreme sweat losses in industrial environments, but
the association is less clear between moderate losses of sodium in sweat and the
onset of muscle cramps in athletes. Sports drinks
contain enough sodium to help prevent low blood sodium (hyponatremia) in
prolonged exercise, and are more effective than plain water
or other electrolyte-free beverages for maintaining hydration status. Adequate
hydration helps minimize risk of cramps.
-- Ron Maughan, PhD, Professor, University of Aberdeen, from Gatorade at:
http://www.gssiweb.com

* FEMALES USE FAT TO FUEL EXERCISE MORE THAN DO MEN
Yasuda, N., Ruby, B. C., & Gaskill, S. E. (2002). Gender differences in
substrate utilization during arm and leg exercise relative
to ventilatory threshold. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 34(5),
Supplement abstract 1596.
This study determined the variations in substrate utilization between men and
women during incremental arm cranking and leg cycling
at 70, 85, 100, and 115% of mode specific ventilatory threshold. Men (N = 12)
and women (N = 10) with similar values for %VO2peak at
ventilatory threshold served as Ss. Ss performed five minutes of exercise at
each intensity in both arm and leg exercises
Carbohydrate utilization was significantly higher in men for both arm and leg
work than for women. It was also significantly higher
at each level of percent ventilatory threshold. Women displayed larger fat
utilization during arm work than during leg work.
Implication. Women use fat more to fuel aerobic exercise than do men. This might
be one reason why women do not respond to
carbohydrate loading as much as men do.

* SPORT DRINK EFFECTS ARE SIMILAR FOR BOTH GENDERS
Wingo, J. E., Cureton, K. J., Millard-Stafford, M. L., & Stueck, M. G. (2003).
Effects of sport drink ingestion in male and female
cyclists. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(5), Supplement
abstract 1724.
Cyclists (M = 6; F = 6) cycled for 115 minutes at 27°C. Intensity alternated
between 60% and 75% VO2max every 15 minutes. A 6%
carbohydrate beverage was consumed immediately before starting (6 ml/kg) and
every 15 minutes in the exercise (3 ml/kg). Immediately
following that submaximal exercise a 5-minute performance ride was completed.
In the submaximal ride, no gender differences were found for heart rate, blood
lactate, blood glucose, carbohydrate oxidation, fluid
uptake, plasma volume change, or rectal temperature. Respiratory quotient was
significantly higher, but rating of perceived exertion
significantly lower, in women than men. In the performance ride there were no
differences in sustained %VO2max or relative work.
Implication. Effects of sport drink ingestion are similar for both genders.

* POST-EXERCISE MASSAGE REDUCES DOMS AND IMPROVES PERFORMANCE IN FEMALE
ATHLETES
Mancilelli, C. A., Brady, M., Hendershot, A., Smith, C., & Stuchell, A. (2004).
Effects of massage on delayed onset muscle soreness
and physical performance in female collegiate athletes. Medicine and Science in
Sports and Exercise, 36(5), Supplement abstract
1144.
"Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can affect training and hinder performance
in the professional and amateur athletes. DOMS is
characterized by pain in the affected muscle especially with active movement,
passive stretching, or direct palpation, along with
swelling and muscle stiffness that can last up to six days" (p. S168). This
study determined if post-exercise massage had an effect
on DOMS and physical performance in female collegiate athletes. Female
basketball (N = 11) and volleyball (N = 11) players
participated in a control (N = 11) or treatment (N = 11) group. Baseline
measures were taken on Day 1 of preseason training for
vertical jump height, a 10-yd shuttle run, quadriceps flexibility, and tolerance
to deep muscle pressure. Ss then carried out their
usual preseason training routine. On the day of peak soreness, as predicted by
the strength and conditioning coach, the treatment
group received a massage to each thigh while the control group rested. Each
baseline test was repeated both pre- and post-massage
treatment for both groups. Ss gave a subjective report of pain using a 10-point
scale.
There was a significant increase in vertical jump displacement, perceived
soreness, and muscle soreness tolerance on the left side
in the massage group from pre- to post-treatment. The control group recorded
slower shuttle run times.
Implication. Vertical Jump height and perceived muscle soreness improved
following massage after accumulated hard workouts. Massage
reduced the effects of DOMS and improved some aspects of physical performance in
female collegiate athletes.

* Free-form Training
Fartlek: This is a Swedish term for “speed play” & entails changing speeds &
paces at random points in the run. These pace changes
can be regulated or not & are designed to mix up your pacing clock. Why? There
are two reasons for this. First, by changing speeds
at unexpected times you force your body to listen to YOUR directions, rather
than vice versa. Secondly, you begin to get a better
idea of your race or comfort pace. Your comfort pace is the pace that you will
be comfortable holding for the duration of the 10K.
We are trying to train your internal clock to run at YOUR effort.
The next question is: How? You will run as fast as you want for as long as you
want & then rest & repeat. You should change up the
speed & length on each fast section & you should change the amount of rest as
well. This is a very free form workout that requires
strength & discipline. Initially, many runners dislike fartlek workouts for that
exact reason, but as they become more experienced
with their ability to determine pace & effort they find the format fun &
challenging.
From Rogue Running at:
http://www.roguerunning.com


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

May 20, 2006:
Fargo Marathon - Fargo, ND
http://www.fargomarathon.com

Ironman Lanzarote - Islas Canarias, Spain
http://www.ironmanlanzarote.com

Palos Verdes Marathon / Half Marathon - San Pedro, CA
http://www.w2promotions.com/public/start.php

May 21, 2006:
adidas Track Classic - Carson, CA
http://www.adidastrackclassic.com

Bay to Breakers 12K, San Francisco, CA
www.baytobreakers.com

Blue Nose International Marathon & Chronicle Herald 10K - Halifax, NS
http://www.bluenosemarathon.com/EN/index.cfm

Cellcom Green Bay Marathon - Green Bay, WI
http://www.cellcomgreenbaymarathon.com

Post-News Colorado Colfax Marathon - Denver, CO
http://www.coloradocolfaxmarathon.org

Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon & 10K - OH
http://www.clevelandmarathon.com

Sydney Morning Herald Half-Marathon - AUS
http://halfmarathon.smh.com.au/


June 24, 2006:
RunnersWeb5K.com Race for Women - Ottawa, ON
http://www.runnersweb5k.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/

For Triathlon Coverage check out The Sports Network at:
http://www2.sportsnet.ca/tvschedule/tvsked_sport.php?region=ONTARIO&schedule_id=\
25

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YOUR FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS:
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our FrontPage. If you post to the mailing list and
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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
Runner's Web Online Store
http://store.runnersweb.com
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http://www.runnerswebcoach.com


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RUNNER'S WEB AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
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TrainingPeaks.com by Wes Hobson.
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Triathlon Meetup
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**END OF RUNNER'S AND TRIATHLETE'S WEB DIGEST...**