400's and Good Books

So Coach Tommy sent me out yesterday with my first truly "hard" track set - which included some nasty 800's, 1200's and 1600's.
I could have run outside, as it is a little less boring, but, as you know (unless you live in a cave in the South Pacific) our weather here in the Big Smoke has been a wee bit challenging for runner's the past week - although that sounds pretty lame when you consider over 300,000 didn't have heat or power while my biggest complaint was how the roads sucked to run on...), so, here was my choice:

Warm

                                                                       or

Not Warm

kids actually skating down the road - just the road I want to run on. Not.

I chose warm.
And while I was in the Dome, running solo and feeling sorry for myself - especially as for some reason the track was, judging by my 400 splits, quite long (as it couldn't be that I am simply wayyyy slower - hahaa), I got to thinking about 400's (ya, pretty random but what else do you think about when running than, well, running? I do also think a lot about food, especially desserts; I often drift off thinking about how I would rather be swimming that running intervals - which is ironic, as when I swam yesterday morning all I could think about was running intervals on the track (this must be some undiagnosed medical condition); sometimes I even think about all the unfinished house chores I have been tasked by AM, but surprisingly, those thoughts are extremely fleeting. So, ya, I tend to think about running when I am running [note how there is absolutely no intention to intrude on any copyright issues herein: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running [this is a really great book by the way - while I personally don't think it rises quite to the literary status of the your humble author's pedestrian (pun intended) writings herein, it has been a NY Times bestseller for quite some time: NY Times Book review- well worth adding to your quiver of running books, although I would personally start with John L Parker's classic, Once A Runner, one of my favourite books out there (64 x 400m's? really? WTF??); or, if you just want pure a "endurance", switch it up and read what is likely my single favourite, "the one book I would bring to the desert island": The Road by Cormac McCarthy - epic and sparse and beautiful and haunting).
Anyway - I digress: on the track yesterday while thinking of running and having each 400 split called out by the George Brown track coach (I had jumped into their varsity workout) - I wondered if there was any 400's harder than the ones I was doing...
turns out there are:

And now I fear what could be harder than next week's 800's...

see ya on the roads,
Mellow Johnny

As Fonzi said, "sit on this and rotate (your running shoes)"

Can Rotating Running Shoes Reduce Injury Risk? Seems so...

Shoe geeks rejoice! If you’ve been looking for a good reason to convince your spouse or significant other that you need a new pair of running shoes, look no further than a new study that suggests that runners who rotate among more than one pair of running shoes are significantly less likely to get injured than those who wear the same model of shoe on every run.

The abstract of the study arrived in my inbox a few days ago, and I do not yet have access to the full text, but Craig Payne at Running Research Junkie and Scott Douglas at Runner’s World have both covered it in some depth.

Here’s the abstract:

Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2013 Nov 28. [Epub ahead of print]

Can parallel use of different running shoes decrease running-related injury risk?

Malisoux L, Ramesh J, Mann R, Seil R, Urhausen A, Theisen D.

Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine if runners who use concomitantly different pairs of running shoes are at a lower risk of running-related injury (RRI). Recreational runners (n = 264) participated in this 22-week prospective follow-up and reported all information about their running session characteristics, other sport participation and injuries on a dedicated Internet platform. A RRI was defined as a physical pain or complaint located at the lower limbs or lower back region, sustained during or as a result of running practice and impeding planned running activity for at least 1 day. One-third of the participants (n = 87) experienced at least one RRI during the observation period. The adjusted Cox regression analysis revealed that the parallel use of more than one pair of running shoes was a protective factor [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.614; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.389-0.969], while previous injury was a risk factor (HR = 1.722; 95%CI = 1.114-2.661). Additionally, increased mean session distance (km; HR = 0.795; 95%CI = 0.725-0.872) and increased weekly volume of other sports (h/week; HR = 0.848; 95%CI = 0.732-0.982) were associated with lower RRI risk. Multiple shoe use and participation in other sports are strategies potentially leading to a variation of the load applied to the musculoskeletal system. They could be advised to recreational runners to prevent RRI.

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

I’ve long felt positively about rotating running shoes since I think that one of the major causes of repetitive overuse injury in runners is that many of us run on the same type of uniform surface (road/sidewalk) in the same model of shoe on every single run. In other words, we hammer ourselves in the same way every time we head out the door (trail runners like my friend Maureen excluded!!).

I believe that wearing shoes that vary in sole geometry and the amount of cushioning and support provided results in forces being applied to the body in different ways and thus reduces the overall repetitive load to individual tissues. This, in turn, reduces injury risk. I’ve employed a shoe rotation myself for several years now, though mine may be a bit larger than necessary given that I seem to have a running shoe obsession (what with over 15 pairs in the training room - and counting!). But, heretofore (I am inclined to use one "lawyer" phrase per blog posting) my thoughts on the benefits of rotating shoes were just a hunch based on my (rather limited) knowledge of how footwear can alter mechanics and force application; but the study reported above seems to lend some scientific support to the practice.

In his article on the study, Scott Douglas reports the following regarding the researcher’s explanation for the mechanism behind the benefits of a shoe rotation:

“The researchers wrote that this could well be because different shoes distribute the impact forces of running differently, thereby lessening the strain on any given tissue. Previous research has shown, and runners have long intuitively felt, that factors such as midsole height and midsole firmness create differences in gait components such as stride length and ground reaction time.

As the researchers put it, ‘the concomitant use of different pairs of running shoes will provide alternation in the running pattern and vary external and active forces on the lower legs during running activity. Whether the reduced [injury] risk can be ascribed to alternation of different shoe characteristics, such as midsole densities, structures or geometries cannot be determined from these results and warrants future research.’”

This hypothesis is thus right in line with my own belief that mixing up force application is a plausible explanation for why a shoe rotation might reduce injury risk. However, we can’t confirm the mechanism for certain yet.

In any event, it’s nice when science supports a practice that I and many people I know have long advocated. It’s OK to experiment with footwear, and in fact it may be a good thing. And this also lends further support when we need to explain why need a pair of different shoes for our long run; our intervals; our tempos; our marathons; our trail runs; track work; speed work; rainy days; etc..and don't even het me started on the need for racing flats and spikes!!

see ya on the roads

Mellow Johnny

Active Recovery is the Key

Aerobic Accelerator: Proper Recovery Between Intervals Is Key

                     (if you start puking in between sets - you be goin' tooo hard!)

It doesn’t take a research experiment to prove that aerobic fitness is important. Without input from scientists, coaches (and self-coached athletes) frequently recommend training right between the barrier of hard breathing and uncontrollable gasping — the spot where the body’s aerobic fitness is working at near full capacity — to boost aerobic fitness. But researchers at Rennes 2 University in France have found that the type of recovery taken between intervals is also important.

They trained two groups of new runners with interval workouts made up of the same hard sections, but with different recovery.

Science-Speak Translated

VO2 is shorthand for volume of oxygen. VO2 max is the most oxygen a person can consume and is a common (although imperfect) way to measure aerobic fitness.

For short-course triathletes who don’t fit into the “elite” wave, VO2 max is a strong indicator of performance, according to a study performed at the University of Tennessee. The right kind of training can boost this all-important number.

The Study

Group 1: Standing Recovery
30×30 seconds hard, 30 seconds standing
Result: No change to VO2 max

Group 2: Running Recovery
20×30 seconds hard, 30 seconds slow jog
Result: Improved VO2 max baseline

Despite running fewer intervals, the athletes who ran between repeats upped their aerobic fitness more than those who stood for recovery. If interval workouts with short repeats are part of your training plan, jog between repeats for a meaningful fitness boost.