Science Archives - Page 5 of 7

The Value of the Cooldown

by Adolfo Salgueiro | Sep 14, 2021 | Article, Exercises, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

In last week’s post we talked about the value and benefits of a proper warmup. This week we are going to delve into its first cousin: The Cooldown. The benefits of taking some time to regroup, especially after a hard workout, can’t be underestimated. Getting into your car and driving home right after your run should be minimized, if not extricated completely from your training routine.

The cooldown is the portion of your training that comes right after the hard work. Not only slowing down the last few minutes or miles but also mobility and stretching routines, breathing exercises and debriefings that occur once the hard part of your training program for the day has been performed. This will allow blood to return from the muscles to your heart, the excess lactate to be flushed out of your system, and start the process of getting you heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure back to their baselines.

The cooldown is the proper time for static stretching excises that should not be performed during warmup (Photo by Marcus Aurelius, Pexels.com)

According to Penn State’s Extension website, “Completing a cool-down is not only beneficial immediately after the completion of exercises but also helps prepare your body for future workouts. By stretching out those muscles and properly cooling down, you will be more prepared to exercise sooner rather than later. If your body does not cool down properly, it will take longer for you to feel up to exercising again.”

Steve Magness, former coach at the University of Houston and in my opinion, one of the brightest scientific minds in running, stated that the cooldown has two main goals: A – Returning your body and mind to a baseline, normal state. B – Assist in your body’s adaptation to the stress of the workout you just performed.

“You are shifting your body away from this breakdown-and-consume mode to a repair, rebuild, recover mode – explains Magness – You are trying to decrease the amount of stress hormones, which are great to prepare your body to do crazy things, and you are trying to get recovery hormones, such as testosterone, back.”

The cooldown is especially important after a hard race or a hard workout where you have almost depleted your body’s resources. For long-distance runners, a speed workout or a long run with a progression or pace intervals is a perfect example of when not to skip a cooldown, so you can reap all the benefits of what you just did.

“Even if you go for a 3-mile easy run –continues Magness— you are doing it in a state where your lactate is probably elevated, your glycogen levels are depleted, especially in certain muscle fibers; fatigue is lingering, etc. And you are still doing some work, so, because of that, you will be getting some kind of training adaptation.”

In a June 2021 article from Runner’s World, Ally Mazzerole, a breath work teacher at a mindfulness studio, recommends breathing exercises once your workout is over. And it doesn’t have to become an additional time-consuming element of your routine.

Simple breathing exercises can help you cool down without adding too much time to your workout (Photo: Monstera, Pexels.com)

“Breathwork can easily be incorporated during your cooldown stretching”, says Mazerolle. “It can be as simple as taking 10 to 15 slow inhales through your nose followed by slow exhales through your mouth, or something more intentional like box breathing, where you inhale for four counts, hold your breath for four counts, exhale for four counts, and hold there for four counts, then repeat.”

“This kind of practice is so important for runners because if running puts your body in a stress (or fight or flight) response. Breathwork stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system, relaxing the heart rate and signaling the body that it’s time to rest and digest and recover,” says Mazerolle. And that recovery period is when your body rebuilds and repairs itself from the stress of exercise.

When it comes to a longer cool down after a particularly hard race or workout, Jonathan Marcus, Head Coach at High Performance West, insists that it shouldn’t be perceived like additional mileage: “As we are coming back of a workout or a race, where we go in crescendo from low to high, now we are going from high to low, so the flush is an in-between bridge. It can be a very easy running, jogging, or walking. It is this ingenious workaround to get more of a training effect in a low intensity state. Sometimes it is the most difficult part of the workout because you are tired and fatigued.”

Of course, if you are not coming from a grueling training session, then a 10–15-minute jog, plus mobility and flexibility drills should suffice.

So, just as the warmup last week, make sure you make time for the cooldown. The benefits and the science back them up.

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The Value of the Warmup

by Adolfo Salgueiro | Sep 7, 2021 | Exercises, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

As runners who always want to perform at our best, it is normal to have more fun running at race pace than going through all the peripheral stuff that gets us there. Stretching, cooldown, mobility drills, reps, days off and very often, warming up properly. Unfortunately, many runners see the warmup not as an element that to enhance your workout, but a waste your time or something to screw your average pace.

Reasons to skip your warmup abound. You may want to keep up with the buddy that runs faster than you, or you may be afraid of what your friends will say when they see you in Strava. Maybe you’re on a rush to get to that runner’s high. Whatever your reason is, you are not helping yourself in becoming neither a better athlete nor a healthier runner.

Ethiopian runners go out of their way to force themselves to run super slow while warming up.

In the book “Out of Thin Air”, anthropologist Michael Crawley, went to Ethiopia to learn about its running culture. He explains how locals start running painfully slow. They go to the forest to warm up zigzagging around trees, assuring that pace can’t be picked up; and in a single file, to guarantee that nobody will be surging ahead of time.

You don’t have to be an Ethiopian, Kenyan, or Ugandan to apply the slow warmup concept. Western elite runners apply it all the time. In his book “Run for Your Life”, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, tells how he sometimes runs 13, or 14-minute miles and still feel happy to be out there running. This is a guy who has won marathons, and into his 50s, can still run sub-3.

The Purpose and Value of Warming Up

Steve Magness, former coach at the University of Houston (in my opinion one of the most knowledgeable coaches on the scientific side of our sport), reassures that the warmup sets up your run. It helps you get the body revved up and prepared for whatever we want it to accomplish with it.

“Physiologically -he explains- we get our core temperature, body temperature and muscle temperature up a little bit. We get our metabolism going, we get our VO2 up, and we are priming the body’s systems. If I didn’t do a warmup and just went out the door and start running as hard as I can, my energetic system wouldn’t be ramped up and ready to go. Then, my body will try to cover all the energetic demands with the anaerobic system before the aerobic system is ready.”

Coach Steve Magness explains the physiological and psychological benefits of warming up properly.

“From a physiological side, you are priming your motor system so when it comes time to flip the switch to work hard, your body can recruit the muscle fibers to do the job”, assures Magness.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or a doctor to understand the multiple benefits of what was said in the last two paragraphs. The more you work on your warmup and the more you make it part of your daily routine, the more you will realize its benefits during the hard part of your workouts. And soon enough, without noticing, it will become part of your ritual.

“The warmup also gets you in the best psychological state -continues Magness- so you can see your training or your race as a challenge instead of a threat. Something you can take on instead of confronting. It can give you a semblance of control in a situation where you often lack it.”

Keys to the Warmup

The warmup is a personal aspect of your training. You need to find out what it works for you, not what works for your friend or for Eliud Kipchoge.

When we talk about warming up it is not exclusively about running. Dynamic stretching and mobility drills should be part of it, too. This includes easy lunges, hip and ankles rotations, etc. Remember that arms are a key element of your running, so include range of motion of arms, and arm swings as part of your ritual.

The key to the warmup, I insist, is to go slow. Very slow. You can’t be worried on what that it will do to your Strava averages. But, if you can’t control yourself and you must brag to your friends, stop the watch after warmup and then start another session with the work portion of your workout. This should suit your ego just fine.

How long should you warm up? You don’t want to be burning more glycogen than necessary. For a long-distance runner (5k and over), 10 to 15 minutes is usually sufficient.

“Glycogen is a limited resource in the muscle tissue and organs – explains Jonathan Marcus, Head Coach at High Performance West- so, if you start warming up too fast, the body has to cover the gap burning a high-efficient energy source that you should be using during your hard workout, or race, before you even get started. This is why the warmup needs to be taken super slow.”

If you are not warming up properly, today is the perfect time to adjust, make it part of your ritual and start reaping its benefits.

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9 Marathon Training Mistakes

by Adolfo Salgueiro | Aug 24, 2021 | Article, Coaching, List, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

Tapering time approaches for those about to run the Abbott World Marathon Majors this year. Training time approaches for those eyeing their marathon towards the end of 2021 or start of 2022. So, seems like a good time to review some basic mistakes that runners, from beginners to experts, should avoid. This way they can reap the most benefits out of their efforts.

Training for a marathon is a process that involves multiple moving parts that need to work in sync. It needs to reach a point where the body can be stressed enough to compensate its deficiencies and adjust to the workload-thus improving- but not to a point where it becomes too much, and it can’t recover to do it again. This means overtraining and, most likely, an injury if intend to tough it out and train through it.

No need to overstress yourself if you avoid these basic mistakes in your training (Photo by Pexels.com)

The following are nine of the most common mistakes runners incur into during a marathon training cycle:

1 Running the long runs too fast: There is a time to go fast and there is a time to go slow. The long run has that name because it is designed for you to go long. It is not called the “fast run” for a reason. They are intended to build up your aerobic system, which, for a marathon, it is used 99% of the time, even if you are the world-record holder.

2 Focusing too much on the long run: The long run is an important part of your training, sure, but it is just one element, not the bulk of it. The success in your race will depend on the accumulated effect of all the elements in your training, not just one.

3 Doing the same workouts all the time: Because about 80% of the training needs to be done at a slower speed, there is a small number of hard sessions available, usually no more than two per week, so distance, speed, intensity, and other parameters, need to be worked so the body can benefit and adapt.

4 Poor fueling and hydration plans: if you don’t test strategies during training, you won’t know what works for you. The time to find that out is during training, long runs, especially. The time to realize a certain gel upsets your stomach, is not during the race. Same applies to hydration. What to drink and when needs to be part of race plan, shouldn’t be improvised on race day.

5 Skipping rest days: Not running on a specific day is part of your training. These days should be written into your schedule and followed to the tee. No amount of ice baths, compression socks or protein shakes will do you any good if you don’t give your body a break to recover so it can run again.

Rest is as part of your training as your work. Don’t skip it!

6 Not scheduling cutback weeks: During training you build up endurance, aerobic capacity, Vo2Max, and multiple additional parameters. But you can’t build up forever. Your body has a limit and needs time to actively rest so it can adapt to the benefits provided by your workouts. Programming a week to cut back on your training provides your body with time to adjust and recover, is key.

7 Cutting sleep: Remember you don’t improve when you work out, you improve while you sleep. The long run the tempo, the weightlifting, or the speed session damage your body. It is when you sleep that your body gets repaired. If you skip on sleep, you won’t realize all the benefits of the training, but you will keep the muscle damage.

8 Screwing up the tapering: Physiological adaptations after exercise, take between two and three weeks to adapt. So, there is no benefit on one last long run in the last couple of weeks. You need to actively rest and recover your body so it will be in its best shape for race day. During tapering there is nothing to gain, yet a lot to lose.

9 Following someone else’s training plan: There is nothing wrong with talking to your buddies about what they are doing, but they may not have the same goals as you and you do not have the same physiology as them. Set up YOUR PLAN, adjust as needed, and stick to it. Trust your coach. Trust your plan. Trust yourself.

Of course, there are more than nine mistakes you can incur during a marathon training cycle. These are just some of the most common and they mostly apply to any distance. As you finish your training for your Abbott Marathon Major or get ready for your upcoming goal race, make sure you are on the lookout for the aforementioned mistakes, so you won’t screw up your hard work.

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What Motivates Runners

by Adolfo Salgueiro | Jun 22, 2021 | Reflection, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

I was recently having a conversation with a group of friends regarding the reasons we lace up our shoes three, four, or five times a week. It became obvious that even though most of us may have the same basic reasons, if we dig deeper and list the top five things that motivate us to engage in this sport, the lists will be as unique as the uniqueness of each runner.

When it comes to running, we all have a main reason why we do it. The answers can fit into a wide spectrum ranging from “because I like it” through “I just can’t stop”, with infinite shades in between.

As I was recently re-reading “The Science of Running” (a book by Steve Magness, which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to delve very deep into the subject of the title), I was surprised to see a section with an array of scientific studies that classify runners according to their motivations.

Three of them caught my attention, and thus, I share them with you here, so you can find where you fit based on each one of them.

According to a paper titled “Motives for Participation in Recreational Running”, published in The Journal of Leisure Research by Peter Clough, John Shepherd and Ronald Maughan, back in 1989, runners’ motivations could be divided into six groups:

a.    Well-Being
b.    Social
c.    Challenge
d.    Status
e.    Fitness/Health
f.     Addiction

According to this study, while most leisure activities include one or many aspects of the first four aforementioned reasons, the last two separate running from other activities. Interesting to me is the last one. I am sure we all know someone we consider “addicted to running”, but to realize there are scholarly studies that actually classify addiction as a real motivation for the sport, puts such compulsion in a new light. At least for me.

In his latest book, “A Runner’s High”, Dean Karnazes states: “If running is a drug that threatens my life, let me have it”.

Magness also cites a study titled “Motivations for running and eating attitudes in obligatory versus nonobligatory runners” by Heather Slay, Jumi Hayaki, Melissa A. Napolitano and Kelly D. Brownell, published in 1998 in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

As the title suggests, runners were separated in two groups based on the reasons they participate in our sport. This study separated those who run because they want from the ones who run because they must. The “Obligator” group is motivated by negative or external factors. These are the runners that if they take a week off will start thinking they are letting themselves down or the pounds will start creeping in by tomorrow. On the opposite side are the ones who just run because they want to. That is where I fit in, and I just prefer it this way.

The third study that caught my attention is a paper titled “A typology of marathon runners based on cluster analysis of motivations”, published in 2003 in the Journal of Sports Behavior by B.M. Ogles and K.S. Masters. In this one, marathoners are separated into five categories based on their motivation:

a.    Running Enthusiasts
b.    Lifestyle Managers
c.    Personal Goal Achievers
d.    Personal Accomplishers
e.    Competitive Achievers

Runners train in Ngong, Kenya, in 2012. The country has produced the world’s best distance runners for decades, and most belong to the Kalenjin people.

Of course, there are many more motivations for running. According to a study by Professor Vincent Onywera in 2006, the main motivator for Kenyan Elite Runners is financial gain. Lower in their list are talent and national tradition.

If you read the recently published book “Out of Thin Air”, by anthropologist Michael Crawley, you will realize that Ethiopian runners have the same financial motivation, even those who are still far of the “elite” label but working towards it.

Financial is not a motivation for 99.9% of the readers of this blogpost. If anyone fits into the 0.1% remaining, please identify yourself.

This blogpost ended up a bit denser on science than I what I originally intended, but I found this subject fascinating. Somehow, I am sure we can all find ourselves in each one of these studies and understand a bit more why we do this. Because if you are a runner, it doesn’t matter what motivates you, as long as it keeps you moving forward.

Any thoughts? Leave me a comment, below.

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Heat Exhaustion Vs. Heatstroke

by Adolfo Salgueiro | Jun 8, 2021 | Article, Reflection, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

Once again, the usual disclaimer: I am not a doctor, so please do not take medical advice from me. If you have any questions on what you are about to read, please consult a professional, which, yet once again, it is not the author of this blogpost. Now, let’s proceed.

Running in the summer heat requires a certain level of preparation to avoid heat related issues, including death (Jonas Ferlin, pexels.com)

As we enter the Summer months in the Northern Hemisphere and the coolness of the spring weather turns into a combination of heat and humidity that can make even the most motivated runner miserable, the time has come to refresh our knowledge on two important concepts. It is extremely important to understand and differentiate the signs and symptoms of heat related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke. They are both serious conditions, but one can lead to death.

According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, there are three heat-related syndromes that may affect your body depending on your exposure to extreme heat conditions. In order of severity, they are: heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

Heat Exhaustion is caused by exposure to high temperatures, particularly when combined with high humidity and strenuous physical activity. Without prompt treatment, it can turn into a heatstroke, a life-threatening condition that can be prevented by avoiding entering in the heat exhaustion zone in the first place.

Heatstroke is a condition caused by your body overheating, usually as result of prolonged exposure to physical exertion in high temperatures. This most serious form of heat injury, it can occur if your body temperature rises to 104 F (40 C) or higher.

Certain conditions and medicines can enhance your risk of a heat-related illness. Ask your doctor if any of your medical history or current prescriptions can make you more susceptible to these diseases considering your level of physical activity during the warmer months.

I can’t state enough how important to know and understand the symptoms of each one of these syndromes. Not only it could help you prevent them, but it can avert a tragedy.

Heat Exhaustion

The evaporation of your sweat regulates your body temperature. However, when you exercise strenuously or otherwise overexert yourself in hot, humid weather, your core temperature (body\’s heat combined with environmental heat) fails to regulate, preventing your body to cool itself. A normal core temperature is around 98.6 F (37 C).

If you don’t deal with this situation immediately, it may develop into a dreaded heatstroke.

The symptoms of Heat Exhaustion are:

Cool, moist skin with goose bumps
Heavy sweating
Faintness
Dizziness
Fatigue
Weak, rapid pulse
Low blood pressure upon standing
Muscle cramps
Nausea
Headache

Should you feel these symptoms, stop your activity immediately, move to a cooler place, drink cool water and/or sports drinks and rest. If these symptoms don’t get better within in an hour, contact your doctor. Remember you are avoiding at all costs to have this escalate into a heatstroke.

Heatstroke

Heatstroke not only requires immediate treatment, but it can quickly injure the brain, heart, kidneys, and muscles. Damage can get worse the longer treatment is delayed and lead to serious complications and, once again, even death.

The symptoms of Heatstroke are:

High body temperature (over 104 F or 40 C),
Altered mental state or behavior (Confusion, agitation, slurred speech, irritability, delirium, seizures),
Alteration in sweating (skin feels hot and dry to the touch),
Nausea and vomiting,
Flushed skin. (Skin may turn red as the body temperature increases),
Rapid breathing (rapid and shallow),
Racing heart rate (Pulse may significantly increase),
Headache (Throbbing).

Prevention

It is imperative to be proactive, both for ourselves and on behalf of our running mates, in the avoidance of situations that may trigger heat exhaustion during the hot summer months. The Mayo Clinic recommends the following:
Wear loose-fitting, lightweight clothing,
Protect against sunburn,
Drink plenty of fluids,
Take extra precautions with certain medications (ask your doctor),
Take it easy during the hottest parts of the day,
Get acclimated to the new weather conditions.

Last year we wrote a blog post on Training Adjustments for the Summer Months, which may be worth revisiting as we prepare for the upcoming weather conditions.

Let’s take a little bit of time and learn about heat exhaustion and heatstroke so we can prevent a tragedy.

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2 Breathing Techniques to Improve Your Running

by Adolfo Salgueiro | Jun 1, 2021 | Article, Coaching, Reflection, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

A few months ago I bumped into a challenge with one of my coached runners. As soon as she reached mile 3 or 4, she got a side stitch. It didn’t matter what we tried with the timing on her nutrition or her fluid intake. Come that point, boom! Stitch! We needed to attack this problem and fast. Before it became a psychological issue.

I consulted with a few coaches I know, and they gave me their suggestions and home remedies. While we found a couple of things to temporarily remedy the nagging stitch, they were not the permanent solution we were looking for.

While researching the issue I came across a book from 2013 called “Running on Air: The revolutionary Way to Run Better by Breathing Smarter”, by Bud Coats and Claire Kowalchik. This was a publication of Runner’s World Magazine, published by Rodale.

The book goes into details about many things that are not necessarily related to breathing. So, since this is not a book review, I am skipping them. But it does go into detail on the science and mechanics of breathing and breathing while running in layman terms. To my trainee, there were two specific aspects that not only made the difference, but solved the problem:

Breathing from the belly and doing in in an add-number pattern may help you improve you running. Worth giving it a try (image from pexels.com)

1- DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING

Known colloquially as “belly breathing”, involves engaging the stomach, abdominal muscles, and diaphragm, which means actively pulling the diaphragm down with each inward breath. Compared with coastal breathing, it helps the lungs fill more efficiently.

I cannot teach you diaphragmatic breathing in a few paragraphs, but I can tell you that I’ve been doing it for over 20 years, and it has worked for me beautifully. It also helps you strengthen the diaphragm, located beneath your lungs, which is the major muscle of the respiration process. It contracts and flattens when you inhale, creating a a vacuum effect that pulls air into the lungs. A stronger diaphragm means more air, more air means more oxygen for your body to burn, and less side stitches.

Regardless of your preferred type of breathing, a strong diaphragm will help you breath better, relax, meditate, improve digestion, and provide you the obvious running benefits that more oxygen in your system can offer.

If you want to learn more about diaphragmatic breathing, its benefits and strengthening exercises, click here for a YouTube video from the UCLA Integrative Digestive and Health Wellness Program, which can help you get started.

2 – RHYTHMIC BREATHING

I have been breathing on a 3/2 count (inhale for 3 steps and exhale for 2) for about 5 years, and the benefits have been tangible. I don’t even think about it anymore, it just happens. In my personal experience, it works better than the 2/2 I did for years. Once I got my hands on this book, I understood why, and it made sense.

It is because “the greatest impact stress of running occurs when the foot strikes the ground at the beginning of exhalation and also that core stability is at its lowest during exhalation”.

Based on this, it is easy to understand that by breathing on an odd count, you will be alternating sides each time you are at your weakest while hitting the ground. Think of it this way: In one mile, you will be hitting about 750 times on each side instead of 1500 on the same one. Multiply this by the number of miles you run in a week, a month, or a year, and if you are not breathing on an odd number count, my suggestion is you better start thinking about it, today.

How do you do it? Just do it. Three in, two out. It will be weird at first, but with time, it will feel more natural and within a couple of weeks you won’t even notice it anymore.

As for rhythmic breathing, there is plenty more to learn than what four paragraphs can tell you. So, if you are interested, this is a good book where to get started.

As for my trainee, she read the book, she started strengthening her diaphragm, breathing in a 3/2 pattern, and finished not one but two half marathons with a time beyond our wildest expectations. Oh! And no more side stitches.

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