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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Should I Run Through Pain?

Should I Run Through Pain?

by | Feb 8, 2022 | Article, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

 This is a broad question that all runners have asked themselves at one point or another. Running and pain have a complex relationship. It is a rare occasion when there’s not a little pain here or a kink there that worries us after a hard workout, or as a race approaches. Most of these come with the territory of being a runner. Comedian Dana Carvey wisely said: “If I only ran when nothing hurts, I would never run”.

By the way: I am stating here that I am not a medical doctor, nor a physical therapist, nor a practitioner of any of the medical sciences. These are just suggestions based on 40+ years of experience as a runner. Consult your physician before making any health decision. Don’t base them on what you read here. With that out of the way, I continue.

Running through pain

Be smart when dealing with pain and you will avoid injuries (Photo Pexels: Kindel Media)

Most of our daily aches and pains are usually a product of the normal wear and tear from practicing our sport, and many times it is OK to run through them. But beware. The era of the “no pain, no gain” approach to running is long gone. The “nothing can stop me” macho attitude is not conducive to a long or a healthy running career. It is not the same to finish a marathon when you started limping at mile 25, than running through that same limp since mile 7. Aches and pains can be red flags and we must be able to identify them on the fly.

Most running injuries happen from a combination of repetitive movement and/or not enough recovery. When we approach this place in our training, our body usually provides us with warning signs. The more in tune we are with our bodies, the clearer we receive such communications. And the only way to be in tune with your body’s signals is to acquire more experience by running more.

 When can we run through pain?

1 – When your pain is a product of basic muscle soreness: By running we put an extraordinary amount of stress into our musculoskeletal structure. Muscle soreness is a natural byproduct of it. The more experience you gain as a runner, the more you will be able to discern on the source and type of your pains. Some muscle soreness if normal. If you don’t have to compensate and/or change your form, you should be ok by running through minor discomfort.

2 – If pain subsides or decreases as you warm up: It is normal to feel some pain and discomfort as you initiate your run. If you just woke up or spent an extended period sitting down, this is normal. Muscles, tendons and ligaments need to get back into shape to carry you through. Resetting your range of motion with exercises such as the lunge matrix, and/or warming up properly should help you accomplish this, and allow you to have a good session.

If you have determined that you will run through the pain and discomfort, don’t be afraid to adjust your training session to the current situation. Don’t be afraid to go slower, cut the run short, or dial back the intensity if needed. Always have in mind that no one training session will make you or break you. It is the small, consistent gains what’s will make you better. And you won’t be able to compile them if you are out of commission with a preventable injury.

When should we not run through pain?

1 – If there is excessive fatigue: It is normal to be tired from training, especially when you are increasing your mileage, add weight training, or you approach the peak portion of your race program. What is not normal is to wake up so beat up that you are not sure if you can complete your session for the day. This is a clear sign that it is time to dial back and recover before you get overtrained or injured.

Running through pain2 – When it forces you to alter your form: Minor aches or discomfort is one thing, altering and adjusting your form because pain is too severe is a red flag and you should stop immediately. If you keep going, you could damage something else by moving in a way your body wasn’t designed for or by adding stress to structures unprepared to sustain it at the time.

3 – If it gets worse as you run: If whatever you feel increases as you go through your training session, stop immediately. It is not going to get better by running further. Assess the situation and figure out if it needs professional consultation.

4 – Through intense pain: Regardless of how seasoned you are as a runner, you should be able to discern what intense pain is. You know what a normal nuisance is. Use common sense to identify the types and levels of pain you are not supposed to run through. If it hurts that bad, something must be wrong. Stop. Assess. Consult a professional.

Have in mind that running is an impact sport. You are hitting the ground with about 300% of your body weight about 800 times per leg, per mile. This causse muscle and soft tissue damage. So, something is usually going to ache or be sore. It is when the body repairs itself from that stress that you become fitter and stronger.

Be smart. Make sure you live to run another day.

 
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The Lore and Facts of Carbo Loading

The Lore and Facts of Carbo Loading

by | Sep 28, 2021 | Article, Reflection, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

 When I started running marathons in the early-1980s, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, guzzling carbs indiscriminately was the way of life. The more carbs you ate, the more energy you would have stored for your long run the next day. It didn’t matter if they came from a pizza, your sixth bowl of pasta or a handful of cookies. The point was to ingest in as much as you could.

Carbo Loading

Regardless of how much pasta you eat the night before, your body can’t store beyond its capabilities (Photo by Anna Tis, from Pexels)

The thought process was that if carbs were good for endurance, more carbs would be better. And many, many more carbs would the way better. I recently heard an interview with Dr. Tim Noakes, the influential South African sports scientist and author of several books on exercise and diet, where he regretted his role in the popularization of the carbo-loading myth. He said that if you had an earlier edition of his groundbreaking book The Lore of Running, published in 1985, you should rip off the entire chapter on nutrition, where he champs this topic. He now preaches a low carb, high fat diet.

Now that there is money to be made, running has gone through tons of research in the last couple of decades. Nutrition is one of the subjects with most studies and scientific papers. Therefore hydration and gel options have grown exponentially in the last few years. Same with pre and post-workout powders and supplements. None of this was available way-back-when. We still call “water stations” by this name because when they started, that is all they offered. Gatorade came later. Earlier runs didn’t even have water. But I digress.

The science on glycogen is a bit complex to get into it in this post, plus, this is not a peer-reviewed paper for publication. There are plenty of resources available to explain what glycogen is and how it is metabolized to produce the energy that will push you forward. What is important to know is the new, science-based approach, about how to practice the proverbial carbo-loading.

Most runners are well familiarized with the term glycogen, the most immediate source of energy while we run. Anecdotally, I must have heard that word for the first time about 15 years ago, even though glycogen was discovered in 1857, four years before Abraham Lincoln became President.

In the early eighties there was this theory that if you depleted your body from carbohydrates the week of the marathon and about 3 days prior you started consuming carbs indiscriminately, your body would absorb more and thus have a bigger reserve. Despite the fact this silly theory has been disproven, it is still practiced by some marathoners today, to atrocious results. The amount your body can store is finite. So, regardless of how much pasta you swallow the night before, you won’t be able to collect more than what your body’s capacity allows.

Carbs are very important for a runner, thus the carbo-load. We do so to restore the glycogen stores in our muscles and liver. Just by being alive, our body burns through its glycogen. They deplete faster with activity. We need to replenish them to provide our body with quick fuel to burn during our runs. You could train your body to burn fat instead of glycogen as its primary source of fuel but that is beyond the scope of this post.

Carbo Loading

It is not just about carbs. They have to be the right carbs (Photo by Dana Tentis, from Pexels)

Assuming you are well hydrated, appropriately fed and in good health, your body has all the resources it may need to run from a 5K to a half marathon. There’s no need to overthink those aspects of your race unless it is an extremely hot or humid (or both) day. Beyond that, each mile is pushing your body closer to its reserve limits. And when the reserves get depleted, you hit the no-longer-so-mythical wall. Therefore, for longer races a hydration and fueling strategy is imperative.

Now, the other important point to consider is that not all carbs are created equal. Stuffing yourself with Oreos, Doritos and donuts is not carbo-loading. Those are simple carbohydrates that are broken down immediately and enter the bloodstream as sugars. They do not get stored for later use in your muscles or liver, thus, contributing nothing to what you should be trying to accomplish. This is the reason most sports drinks and gels are packed with sugars and simple carbs. So they can be tapped immediately by your system to produce energy. You wouldn’t carbo load with those.

What you’d rather be doing is consuming complex carbohydrates, such as brown rice, quinoa, oats, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and whole grain pastas. They take longer to break down and get stored in your muscles so they can be used later, like when you are running/racing. All this works better if you prepare your system, so these products become a compliment to your body resources and not the only source of energy production for long distance running.

Time has come to change our view on the old science. Time has come to adopt what the new research has shown to work. Let’s move forward, then.

 
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The Value of the Cooldown

The Value of the Cooldown

by | 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.

Cooldown

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.

Cooldown

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

The Value of the Warmup

by | 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.

Warmup

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.”

Warmup

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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