Run Long, Run Healthy — November 9, 2023

Design Your Perfect Training Plan. Go the Distance with Nasal Breathing. Super Shoes Only Worth 1%

PLUS: Why Boston Marathoners develop GI problems. Must-have functions of your next heart monitor. Acupuncture & dry needling for pain relief

How to design your perfect training program

Ever since top fitness writer Matt Fitzgerald popularized the research of sports scientist Steven Seiler and others with his 2014 book 80/20 Running, the topic of training intensity distribution (TID) has been one of the hottest, most important in the endurance performance world. We keep learning more, though none of it strays very far from the basic model. In other words, if you don’t want to dive any deeper than 80/20, that’s okay. Just don’t stray too far from that ratio.

On the other hand, if you want more, here’s an important update. A veteran research team investigated what is known about TID in world-class athletes from different endurance sports, and also at different times of the year. They used the simple 3 Zone model — basically easy effort (1), tempo-like easy effort (2), and faster interval-like training (3).

Their findings: First and most important, the principle that Zone 1, easy-effort training predominates is a truism that extends across all endurance sports. Second, cyclists and swimmers can do more hard training than runners, no doubt because their sports don’t involve pounding against gravity. They tended to spend 72% of their training time in Zone 1, and 16% in Zone 2.

Third, most athletes do more hard training during their peak competitive season than during their training-buildup period. Another way of saying this: Training is more pyramidal early in the season, and more polarized later in the season.

Inexperienced athletes often have trouble following the logic of “train slow to get fast.” Here the authors present two nice sentences to explain. The two key concepts to remember: glycogen re-supply, and muscle fibers.

“One reason for training primarily in Z1 is that glycogen stores can be replenished during sessions of low-intensity endurance exercise performed between more intense workouts. Another reason, although not as well investigated, might be that extensive volumes of low-intensity endurance training are required for additional “aerobic” adaptations in the highly oxidative Type I fibers.”

This free and important paper adds new information to our understanding of TID, but the authors caution strongly against oversimplification. To really figure things out, you need to stick closely to the demands of your own sport, and to the timing of your peak efforts.

Conclusions: “The analysis presented here does not allow identification of an optimal TID for any individual sport.” Also: “Reliable comparisons between different sports or the phases of a season [are] impossible.” More at Frontiers in Sports & Active Living with free full text.

Why Boston Marathon runners develop stomach/gut problems

Runners often experience GI (gastrointestinal) issues — especially marathoners and ultra runners. So researchers are always looking for new evidence, and new approaches. Recently a team studied GI reactions among a modest number (40) of Boston Marathon finishers. (It probably wasn’t easy to get many runners to show up Tuesday morning for a blood and urine test.)

They collected a lot of data, but weren’t able to draw many specific conclusions. “Although general recommendations are a starting point, they may not work for everyone.” Fortunately, there wasn’t much bad news to convey.

Most runners reported the nastiest issues immediately post-marathon, and lesser problems 24 hours later. The issues were of the “not fit for polite conversation” type, but this isn’t polite conversation, so here’s what was reported. Prerace: “loose stool” and “urge to defecate.” Post race: “nausea, stomach pain/cramps, and belching.” The next day: “loose stool.”

Dehydration and underfueling was a common problem: “Hypohydration exacerbates GI disturbances” as it increases “the GI tissue susceptibility to damage and associated symptoms.” So you need to drink sufficiently both for performance and for stomach comfort. Also: “Avoiding food or beverage intake to prevent GI disturbances is not recommended.”

The authors also believe that marathoners should pay more attention to the effects of travel and (lost) sleep. Although, strangely, runners from Boston had fewer problems than runners who traveled to Boston. A hypothesis? The locals were “more relaxed with their habits” while the travelers “may have made it a priority to fuel adequately or arrive early enough” to adjust to the time zone.

The number of subjects taking prescription meds or NSAIDs was small, and the paper uncovered no link between the meds and intestinal cell injury. Also, the research found no GI harm from post-marathon alcohol consumption or lost sleep. Party on! More at Frontiers in Physiology with free full text.

Every breath you take: Going the distance with nasal breathing

Nasal breathing is a hot topic across the Internet of fitness devotees, rivaling or even surpassing cold-water showers and plunges. It’s easy to see why. We all want to breathe as efficiently as we can. Also, healthy sleeping without snoring (sleep apnea) is a big health subject.

For runners, nose breathing has lacked a superhero to lead the charge. Now one has emerged — a Ukraine-born ultra runner currently living in Canada. Ihor Verys recently finished second (to Harvey Lewis) in the infamous Big’s Backyard Ultra, covering 448 miles in 107 hours (just under 4.5 days).

Thanks to his birth country, Verys was able to read one of the foundational nasal breathing tomes in its original Russian. The book made him a true believer, who now says, “Our nose is the only organ that should be used for breathing.” More at Canadian Running.

In his Substack newsletter, exercise physiologist Brady Holmer notes that when we breathe through our nose, we use our diaphragm (our primary breathing muscle). This lowers the metabolic cost of breathing, and could possibly improve exercise economy. At the same time, he admits that “there’s not a lot of research” comparing nose vs mouth breathing in endurance sports.

Holmer did locate a study on breathing and heart health. It concluded that nasal breathing lowered blood pressure and had other positive effects regarding heart health. “While some of the benefits may be overstated, there seems to be some promise for sealing your lips and breathing only through your nose.” More at Substack/Brady Holmer.

Expert Panel: “What to look for in your next heart rate monitor”

I’m guessing you didn’t know that the first heart rate monitors (HRM) were invented more than 300 years ago. In fact, the first has been traced to 1701. Of course, they didn’t become popular and affordable for athletes until the 1970s.

Now the race is intensifying. Everyone wants to introduce the first HRM that is lightweight, accurate, and capable of delivering important heart-health information in addition to your basic heart-beats-per-minute. The perfect watch would provide useful feedback to Olympic marathoners and triathletes as well as to cardiac-rehab patients.

Here a group of 92 experts, cyclists, coaches, and physicians participated in a “consensus panel” to arrive at a description of what they would like to see in the perfect HRM. You could use their consensus to guide your search for a device. More at Sports Medicine with free full text.

For a quick overview, skip directly to Table 2, which includes a list of 23 “optimal” specifications that the HRM should deliver. These include: one-piece design, capable of making a phone call, GPS, “round shape,” able to hold a 7-day charge, and a number of heart-health functions. Also my favorite: “Automatically sends an alarm signal in the event of a fall.” Table 2.

The truth about the super-shoe marathon advantage

The first super-shoes were named the Nike Vaporfly 4%, and of course the 4% stuck. But that never meant you could run 4% faster in super shoes. The Vaporflys helped runners improve their running economy by about 4%, which translates to an actual performance increase of between 2 and 3%.

Since then we’ve learned that some runners — the lucky ones — actually get a bigger boost than that from super shoes because they are “super responders.” Others get less, or even run slower. But these were still laboratory results.

In the real world of real performances, the performance-improvement results have mostly been in the range of 1 to 2 percent. A new paper reviewed the results of 99 world-class male marathon runners between 2012 and 2021. The runners completed 971 marathons — 672 in traditional shoes, and 299 in super shoes.

In super shoes, the runners ran exactly 1% faster on average than in traditional shoes. This amounted to 79 seconds.

While you might think that the fast marathoning of 2022 and 2023 would push these results above the 1% mark, that’s probably not the case. Many of today’s fastest runners never ran prior marathons without supershoes, so they wouldn’t be eligible for a “before” and “after” study.

Nonetheless, it is possible that the super shoes of 2023 are faster than super shoes from just a year or two ago. But I’m not aware that anyone has made that comparison yet. More at European J of Applied Physiology.

Only a pin prick away: Use acupuncture and dry needling for injury relief

Acupuncture and a physical therapy technique called “dry needling” are both claimed to resolve some running injuries. Of course, it’s hard to rule out a placebo effect after someone has stuck you with needles.

But many runners also report success from these treatments. In fact, I had a fairly miraculous return to running health earlier this year after just one go-around (with a bit of “Ouch!” involved) of dry needling to my ailing upper leg.

A recent article from Outside Online reports that acupuncture can reduce pain, decrease inflammation, and correct muscle imbalances. Several published journal papers support acupuncture and dry needling for sports injuries.

One states that “acupuncture can help relieve short-term pain and recovery from dysfunction.” A second systematic review of case studies “suggests that dry needling is effective in reducing pain associated with lower quarter trigger points in the short-term.” Medical reports have noted only minor risks associated with the two procedures, mostly skin infection if the needles are not clean.

Keep learning, keep improving: Strategies for long-term success

However we do it, learning is a key lifelong practice. We all want to run long and healthy. Hence this newsletter. And the only way to do so is to keep learning.

Some of us have been lucky enough to encounter great coaches/mentors in our careers. Alex Hutchinson had a coach who made him take off his watch during interval training, because Alex was checking his splits too obsessively. Link here.

I had a mentor constitutionally averse to spelling out any rules of long distance running. He taught me and his many other disciples by personal example. We ran in his footsteps, and observed that he: started all runs slow, and finished harder; veered off-road onto trails at every possible opportunity; ignored the weather to maintain training consistency; and so on.

Simple stuff. Important stuff. Another term for learning is “acquisition skills.”

Here several experts in performance “acquisition skills” provide a narrative review of what coaches often do wrong, and what they could do better. In fact, they provide 5 important guidelines from both sides of the coin. It doesn’t take much to turn these into lessons we can adopt for ourselves.

We learn about coaching “myths” that are not backed by solid evidence — like “Demonstrations are always effective,” and feedback should be “frequent, detailed, and provided as soon as possible.”

Other principles of “skill acquisition framework for excellence (SAFE)” may be more helpful. These include: “Find a balance between long-term learning and short-term performance;” and “Facilitate learning rather than dictate or abdicate.”

I appreciate that the authors believe “hands off” instruction may prove more powerful than “hands on.” They also believe in “optimizing challenge.” More at J of Sports Sciences with free full text.

Exercise as medicine: When more is better

You’re probably aware of the raucous arguments the last decade or so about the “healthiest” amount of exercise. Some believe extreme exercisers who might do several hours a day are pushing into an “excessive exercise” realm in terms of their health and mortality. Others contend that the evidence to this effect is limited.

A Japanese group recently looked at this question from the perspective of those most affected by it — people over 60. That’s when health problems and you-know-what loom larger. The researchers performed an “umbrella review” — a review of the best existing systematic reviews and meta analyses.

Result: They found that those doing about 150 minutes a week of physical activity (the amount recommended by many guidelines) reduced their all-cause mortality as older adults by a robust 19 to 30% vs those who did less than 75 minutes/week. Greater amounts of exercise led to even lower risks. Those who logged roughly 300 minutes/week lowered their mortality by 35 to 37%. Furthermore: “No apparent deleterious increase in mortality at extremely high volumes of MVPA was detected.”

Conclusion: “Our findings suggest that recommending higher PA levels beyond the current guidelines may benefit older adults.” More at J of the American Medical Directors Association with free full text.

A miraculous (but totally natural) combo: Marathons and breastfeeding

Here’s a running article and photo feature like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Through the years, there have been plenty of stories about women running stronger after childbirth than before. And also this 2022 journal article that concluded: “Mid-career maternity does not have a significant impact on overall progression in high level runners, who return to official races.”

But before Molly Huddle, 39, and Kellyn Taylor, 37, I’ve never seen two elite nursing mothers allow a camera up close and truly personal as they continued breastfeeding during marathon week. Runners are reputed to be (and often are) obsessive about their training and final preparations.

Here’s a different view: Humans have been birthing, breastfeeding, and staying active for millennia. It’s a totally natural lifestyle. Though the timing and paraphernalia can get a bit complex if you need to take Sunday morning off to run 26.2 miles through the pulsing streets of New York City.

Taylor and Huddle didn’t let the distractions bother them. They were the top two Americans to reach the Central Park finish line. More at NY Times. (See also the great Kellyn Taylor quote, just below.)

SHORT STUFF you don’t want to miss

>>> This whey for better rehydration: Including whey protein in a carb-electrolyte drink improves rehydration and subsequent endurance.

>>> How to win the Olympic 1500: Pacing strategies have evolved “across several eras.”

>>> Brainy marathoners: New research indicates that marathon runners gain a modest amount of fuel from myelin — a fatty tissue surrounding nerve fibers.

GREAT QUOTES make great training partners

“We birthed humans. We were still running. It’s not like we’ve been sitting on the couch eating Cheetos for a year.”

— Kellyn Taylor, first American woman finisher in last Sunday’s NYC Marathon

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby