Can you really get fitter in 10 seconds?
A couple of months ago, I wrote about a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology that purported to have found the secret sauce for training.
You could, the authors say, knock some serious time off your races by reducing your mileage and running some short, but crazy-fast intervals.
While interesting, I wondered, really, was there something new under the sun? How different was this from normal interval training?
Radcliffe at the 2008 New York City Marathon
There have been rumors swirling that Paula Radcliffe’s Olympic hopes were fading due to a painful foot injury.
I have long been a fan of Radcliffe, and I must admit, I’ve been clinging to the hope that this lioness of the sport would finally get her chance for Olympic glory.
Alas, this was not to be. Announcing her withdrawal from the games, Radcliffe released a statement on Monday that was as classy as the woman herself.
This mouse will live longer and better than her lazy cousin!
In the press recently, there have been a number of stories about the possible dangers of too much running.
I generally ignore these because a casual observation yields plenty of data indicating we, as a nation, are suffering tremendously from a lack of exercise.
Fortunately for us, Paul Williams is around to reinforce our world view. He hasn’t seen a downside to lots of running, and he’s looked at a lot of runners.
Williams is a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is in charge of the worlds largest and longest study of runners.
Ranger Ollie sez: “Be careful!”
If you are planning to run on the American River Parkway this weekend, don’t forget that Saturday (July 21st) is Eppies Great Race.
This means the trail will be closed from the Guy West Bridge to Sunrise (figure miles 7.5 to 20) from 6:00 AM until noon.
One option is to run somewhere else and then head over to River Bend Park and watch the finish. Count how many athletes get out of their kayaks and fall down to the ground because their legs cramp 50 feet from the finish line.
Plan accordingly!
Lea Wallace at the 2011 Big Sky Conference Championships
We at the SRN were sad to see that Sac State standout Lea Wallace didn’t quite make the Olympic team this time around.
It turns out there was a lot going on in Wallace’s life in the time leading up to the finals.
Taylor Dutch at Flotrack informs us that: (more…)
Expect to be hearing a lot about Tim Noakes‘ latest book on the subject of hydration and sports. In it, Noakes tears apart much of the dogma surrounding hydration and human performance in athletics.
Joe Uhan, at Irunfar, writes a terrific review of Noakes book, Waterlogged, that is well worth reading. In his review, Uhan writes:
A new book by renowned sport medicine expert, Tim Noakes, MD, aims to change our beliefs– many of them longstanding, many of them inaccurate – on what it means to fuel optimally in endurance sports:
- Drink only to thirst, not on a schedule.
- Drinking does not prevent heat illness.
- Ingesting salt is unnecessary in ultras.
- Urine frequency or color has nothing to do with hydration or kidney function.
Maybe it’s because Le Tour is underway or the Summer Olympics are on the horizon, but it seems that the news is filled with stories about doping in sports.
The first that caught my attention was a story about three top-rated Russian runners, including two European champions, who were busted via the biological passport program. These were middle distance runners Yevgeniya Zinurova and Svetlana Klyuka, and marathoner Nailya Yulamanova.
My favorite aspect of the story was that Nailya Yulamanova had won the gold medal in the European Championship marathon only after the original winner, Zivile Balciunaite of Lithuania, had been stripped of her medal due to a doping violation.
I suppose this means that the original third-place finisher, Anna Incerti of Italy, will now–two years after the fact–be awarded the 2010 European Championship. You need an abacus to keep this straight!
If you’ve ever been involved with measuring and certifying a course for a race, you’ll appreciate this article about the men responsible for measuring out the Olympic Marathon course.
The London course, specifically designed for the Olympics, is already gaining notoriety for having more than 90 turns, which include several hairpins. The longest straightaway is less than half a mile long. All of which makes it a nightmare to measure while trying to ride a bicycle precisely 12 inches from the inside curb.
Great stuff!
Can a vegan diet help you run faster?
Gretchen Reynolds, writing at the New York Times Well blog, explores the issue of whether athletes can perform well on a vegan diet.
Her piece was sparked by the release of Scott Jurek’s new book Eat & Run, which we all are no doubt going to run off and purchase.
I enjoy Reynold’s writing on running and health, but was a little frustrated by the lack of distinction here between vegetarian (no meat) and vegan (no animal products).
David Stipp, writing at Slate.com, makes a compelling argument that “every sport other than long-distance running is fundamentally absurd.”
I’ve known that for a while, but why does Stipp think this?
In his article All Men Can’t Jump, he argues that despite the fact “we crowd into arenas and stadiums to marvel at our pathetic physical abilities as if they were something special,” among the animals, man is pretty pathetic at everything except long-distance running. (more…)
