Book Review – Good to Go

Book Review – Good to Go

by | May 10, 2022 | Article, Book Review, Science

Written by Christie Aschwanden
Reviewed by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

I heard of Christie Aschwanden a few months ago when she was as a guest on a running podcast that I follow. She was talking about recovery and she seemed very well versed in the subject. Not only that, but her experience in high-performance athletics as well as her background as an award-winning science journalist at The Washington Post and The New York Times, made me feel she was legit. The host also mentioned she had written a book on recovery, so I immediately ordered it.

Good to Go

A good book worth the money and time investment for anyone wanting to know more about athletic recovery.

As weekend warriors we tend to forget that our hard workouts, our weightlifting sessions, or our long runs will do nothing for us unless we allow our bodies to recover and adapt to what we just put them through. There will be no adaptation if we don’t rest and fuel ourselves properly. “Good to Go. What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery” will help you gauge the different elements of recovery and put them in the right perspective.

The book is a tour through the many aspects of athletic recovery. It covers the things “everybody knows” through the ones that seem kind of way out there in the “snake oil” category. You can discern her journalistic and scientific background in her writing as she explored the many angles of each aspect of the science of recovery. I am not going to say that I read the papers she quotes to make up my mind on any aspect of what she presents, but if you start from the premise she is a solid researcher, as she seems to be, and an honest journalist, you will be impressed with what she presents in her book.

“Good to Go” is divided into 11 chapters. Each one goes in depth about an aspect of recovery. Nutrition, hydration, rest, compression, ice therapy, sleep, etc. They are individually treated and from several angles. With pros and cons, science research to back everything up, and the author’s personal experience trying many of the techniques and fads. Because the book was published in 2019, the author had access to the latest science and updates available, so you can learn a lot of new things.

The hydration chapter is fascinating. It goes through the history of the development of hydration as a science and how the sports drinks industry has taken over to popularize many myths that have become gospel in the endurance sports world. It is not that Gatorade doesn’t work, but it is not what it is marketed out to be either. You need to adapt your body to use its fluid resources wisely and then assist it with hydration while it works. A certain level of dehydration is perfectly normal. You don’t need to replenish every drop you sweat.

Good to Go

The author is an award-winning science journalist at The Washington Post and The New York Times.

As for fueling, I found was very interested in her debunking of the myth that there is a window of opportunity to feed your body after you wrap up your training. We’ve all heard that the magic window is the first hour, or even 30 minutes. She explains the science behind this and concludes that there is no “window of opportunity” but a “barn door of opportunity”. Your body is not going to reject the nutrient it needs just because they were offered too late for them to be absorbed. She concludes that unless you are to work out or compete again in a short period of time, there is no necessity to start refueling right away.

When it comes to sleep, there is one paragraph that blew my mind: “The benefits of sleep cannot be overstated. It is hands-down the most powerful recovery tool known to science. Nothing else comes close to sleep’s enhancing-recovery powers. You could add together every other recovery aid ever discovered, and they wouldn’t stack up. Going to sleep is like taking your body to the repair shop. While you doze, your body’s recovery processes ramp up to fix the damage you did during the day and get you ready to perform again”. Do you need to know anything else?

Of course I am synopsizing in one paragraph what I liked the most about entire chapters of about 20+ pages, with scientific quotations, personal experiences and field studies. What I am stating here is by no means the entire book, just a few comments to whet your appetite if you would like to learn more about these subjects.

The author also goes into detail on issues such as nutritional supplements, overtraining syndrome, and the placebo effect, providing you with scientific based information from several angles. These subjects, in conjunction with the other ones, will make you question some pre-conceived concepts you may have, and make you wonder if you’ve been approaching your recovery all wrong.

By the way, the book’s conclusion is that good sleep trumps every other aspect of recovery, so focus on that first. The rest is just icing on the cake.

“Good to Go. What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery” is not only a good book, worth the money and time invested in it. It is also well written, very entertaining, and will leave you with valuable lessons that will make you a better athlete.

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Avoiding Bathroom Issues While Running

Avoiding Bathroom Issues While Running

by | Nov 30, 2021 | Article, List, Science

 By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

 Not to be super graphic, but we runners behave like little kids when it comes to bathroom issues and bodily functions related jokes. A fundamental truth of our sport is that if you haven’t pooped your shorts while running, you just haven’t run enough. Keep running and you will.

We even have a term coined to describe that inescapable moment when we will inevitably have to face nature: “Code Brown”. Descriptive enough.

Bathroom Issues

Make sure you know where is the best place for a pit stop, before you may need it (Photo: Pexels)

I do believe that gastrointestinal issues in runners are as unavoidable as falling. Still, we must do our best, prepare as thoroughly as we can, pray for the best and eventually both fall down and poop our pants, anyway. But for that part that we can control, the key is to get intimate with your gastrointestinal system’s nuances. To build a relationship with it, so you can learn to listen to each other start working together.

But, as with any best friend, a spat here and there are part of the package. So, here are a few things you can work on to avoid unpleasant, running GI issues for as long as you can hold them at bay:

1 – Befriend the trial-and-error method: Make sure you take notes, mental or written, of what works on your behalf, and what doesn’t. This will allow you to know what is best to eat, when to eat it and, how much of it to eat. At the same time, it will let you know what to avoid and how far in advance to avoid it.

2 – Plan ahead: Even though GI issues may happen at any time, the most dreaded time is in the middle of the long run, when most likely you’ll be farther from home but hopefully, close to a stinky port-a-potty. Most of us have a solid idea on when we will be hitting the road, so we should time our food intake based on the best practices we have developed through time.

3 – Map out the bathrooms along your route: Hopefully, you won’t need them, but it is always good to know where they are, just in case. Gas stations, drug stores, supermarkets or isolated bushes will do the trick, but only if you know where they are.

4 – Time your pre long-run/race dinners: Some runners swear by the night-before pasta, others go for a burrito or a pizza. Regardless of the nutritious value of your meal, the key is to make sure it has been digested by the time you go to bed and/or start running. The timing of such meal, as well as pre-run snacks, is key to avoid unscheduled and unpleasant stops.

Bathroom Issues

You need to get intimate with your GI system so you can manage unpleasant stops as much as possible

5 – Try various fueling products until you find “the one”: There are hundreds of in-run fueling options in the market. Gels, powders, chewables, drinks, you name it. They also come in unnumerable flavors, concentrations and with added stimulants. After awful experiences with a certain brand of sugary gel, I found my favorite and I know what works for me. The time to figure out you can’t stomach a fifth gel should not be in the 22nd mile of your marathon.

6- Figure out how fiber, sugar and caffeine affect you: While all these substances are useful when consumed in the right quantities and times, each runner has its own level of tolerance for them. A bowl of oatmeal may be good for someone’s pre-run breakfast while it will have others running to the bushes. Same with caffeine. Sugar can hit your stomach hard if you consume too much of it during your run, especially as an ingredient of energy gels. Know what is best for you.

7 – Stay hydrated: This doesn’t mean only during your run, but in general, throughout your day. Dehydration can lead to GI issues such as constipation, bloating, nausea, ulcers, and acid reflux, among others. Remember that consuming alcohol sucks the moisture out of you, so avoid it, especially on hot days.

Any tips or horror stories you would like to share with my readership?

 

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The Hydration Urine Test

The Hydration Urine Test

by | Sep 29, 2020 | Article, Coaching

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

We’ve heard about the pee test to figure out how well hydrated we are or not. If the pee it is clear, or pale yellow, then you are hydrated and ready to run; if it is yellow or darker, then you are dehydrated. Sure, this is a quick, easy and free test, but it does have some limits.

Hydration Urine Test

The need for sodium for us, long-distance runners, goes beyond the recommended guidelines

According to Andy Blow, a British Sports Scientist, the pee test is a good tool to gauge the general state of your hydration, but it is not the end-all word on the issue. “The time to look at your pee is when you wake up in the morning—Says Blow, who served as hydration specialist for two Formula 1 teams—because the color of the urine you first produce is a good indication if you are hydrated or not that day. By then, your body had all night to recalibrate itself, move fluids around and get into equilibrium. If you wake up and you feel a little bit thirsty, it is a good indication you are dehydrated.”

The problem of looking at your pee during the day is that you eat, you drink, you do things and the results become skewed. If you had a bottle of water, or two; if you drank a coffee, or two; or a sports drink, your body may be discarding a lot of the fluid it took in, which doesn’t mean you are fully hydrated. Even if your urine is clear as water.

Remember that dehydration doesn’t get solved chugging a gallon of water. If you are in a dehydration state, it may take your body 24-48 hours to recover. You can gulp all the Gatorade you want, yet this will not restore you. The body can’t absorb it all and most of that excess water will be peed out.

Hydration Urine Test

Dehydration doesn’t get solved by chugging a gallon of water (or five)

In a recent interview I heard, Mr. Blow explained that we see with a lot of overhydrated athletes at the starting line of races. They take a lot of water before starting and that has nothing to do with their state of hydration. A recent study showed that a significant percentage of athletes are in an early state of hyponatremia when they start long races on hot days, most likely because they prepare by drinking a lot of water to confront the weather conditions. They end up peeing the excess water, and valuable sodium with it, which eventually leads to trouble.

The best way to address this, according to Blow, is to ingest a much smaller amount of a high-sodium drink. This sodium will make it into the bloodstream and will hold water there as a reservoir so that you have something extra when you start. “This is a lot better than drinking loads and loads of water”, he affirms.

Sprinkling salt in a glass of water will do the trick. The right amount is about 1.5 grams of salt per liter of water consumed. But since it is hard to drink “ocean water”, Andy Blow recommends sodium citrate, which is more palatable. Sodium citrate can be purchased at a nutrition store or via internet. This is about three times stronger that any commercial sports drink.

Understand that a higher consumption of sodium is important for athletes that train a lot AND sweat a lot, like us as long-distance runners. Consuming all this sodium for sedentary people is not recommended. Our salt requirements can be up to three or four times more than those of sedentary people. That is why we crave salty stuff, such a pretzels or potato chips, after a hard training session.

Also, understand that you don’t need to replace 100% of what you are losing. You are supposed to sweat and lose electrolytes. Nothing wrong with that.  You need to find the sweet spot between what you are losing and going hyponatremic; and from there, test what works better for you. Then, go check your morning pee.

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Hydration Basics for Runners

Hydration Basics for Runners

by | Aug 19, 2020 | Article, Coaching

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

The basic concepts on hydration have moved like a pendulum through the last century of athletics in general but running in particular. While the earlier runners of the Boston Marathon took it as a matter of pride not to consume water, in later years the thesis of never been able to consume too much came en vogue and was disproven. Now days, we are in the “drink to thirst” phase. The truth is that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to the matter. What worked for Bill Rodgers in the 1970s, does not work for Eliud Kipchoge, setting the world record and does not necessarily work for you, right now.

Hydration BasicsWhen it comes to hydration, extremes do not work. Not taking any liquids during a marathon is a recipe for disaster that doesn’t require much explanation. The “more is better” can lead to the life-threatening condition known as hyponatremia, whose explanation is beyond the scope of this blogpost.

It is important to understand that if you are running 3-6 miles, 3-4 times a week, your body may have everything it needs to cope with your hydration needs. There should be no need for a hydration strategy per se unless you are running in an oppressively hot and humid environment. A quick 5K around my block is not the same as 5K in the Sahara at noon. But once you are getting up on mileage, or start training for a longer effort, then it becomes imperative that you do something about your hydration needs.

“Hydration is a balancing act—says Andy Blow, British Sports Scientist and founder of Precision Hydration—One thing we can all agree is that once you hit a level of under-hydration, where you lose enough fluids and electrolytes, at some point you will reach serious problems, such as reduced cardiovascular function because your blood gets thicker and thicker as you get more and more dehydrated. Then you dissipate heat less well, you overheat and from there you get into a downward spiral.”

Finding out where in the spectrum you fit; how much you need to drink, how often and what electrolytes you need to replace is your responsibility as a runner. Sure, a coach can and will assist you, but only if you feed him the right data, which is your duty.

Hydration Basics

Hydration Specialist and Sports Scientist Andy Blow

An easy home test to figure out how much you sweat on a specific setting, let’s say on a summer long run; is to weigh yourself naked right before you leave. Run for an hour without consuming anything. As soon as you get home, get naked, wipe yourself off and weigh yourself, again. The difference in weight is how much sweat you lost in an hour. Each gram lost is equivalent to about 1 milliliter of water, as there are other contents in your sweat (in the Imperial measure system, each tenth of a pound is equivalent to 1.6 Fl Oz). This is your sweat rate and the approximate amount of water you need to replace as you run in similar conditions. Yes, it is that simple.

As personal as the sweat rate is, the contents of your sweat are equally individual. You need to know what is in your sweat so you can replace it. If you are caked in salt once the sweat evaporates, then you are losing a lot of salt, 40% of which is sodium, a key electrolyte. So, if this is you, you need to go above the set guidelines for salt intake, as these are not for athletes but for normal, inactive people.

According to Blow, the best approach for hydration on shorter runs (90 minutes or less) is not to have a plan but to drink to thirst. For longer runs, like a 20-miler on a hot summer day, you need to consume not only water but also sodium to compensate what is being secreted and keep your stores as topped off as possible.

There is so much more about hydration. Not all of it can be addressed in just one post. Tim Noakes, the world renowned South African sports physiologist, wrote “Waterlogged”, a book about the topic which is 448 pages long. If you want to dig deeper into the subject, this is my recommended source.

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