|
1. Beat the Heat:
Working with your physiology to keep your cool is more important than ever as temperatures reach new heights.
Though the temps are cool and cloudy here in the Southern Hemisphere where I live, active women working out in the Northern Hemisphere are facing scorching temps, with many places hitting triple digits (F). Those heading to the grand stage of world-wide competition right now have been preparing for months to perform their best in stifling heat and humidity that can be in the 90s F (30 to 35C) with 90 percent humidity.
It won’t surprise anyone reading this that women have different needs than men when it comes to training and competing in the heat. For one, research suggests that though both sexes see their core body temperature rise when they get dehydrated during exercise, women’s cores may get hotter at a lower level of dehydration because they start out with a lower volume of body water than men do.
More...from Dr. Stacy Sims
2. HOKA ONE ONE Bondi X Performance Review:
What You Need To Know
Weighs 10.6 oz. (300 g) for US M9.0 / 9.2 oz. (261 g) for US W7.5
HOKA’s most max cushion shoe, now with a carbon fiber plate
Swallowtail heel design for zonal energy disbursement and more fluid transitions
Releases October 1 for… $200
MEAGHAN: The HOKA Bondi has always been a favorite of mine. It’s the cushiest of cushy HOKAs and is the best recovery day shoe. Let’s start out by saying the original Bondi line isn’t going anywhere, Consider the Bondi X an elevated offshoot of the original line. Like other shoes in HOKA’s lineup (Carbon X, Rocket X), the ‘X’ in the name designates the use of a carbon plate in the midsole. A carbon plate in a beach cruiser? That’s like dropping a nitrous oxide booster into a Cadillac. Is this something we needed? Maybe, maybe not.
But the folks over at HOKA specifically said that this shoe was targeted towards runners who love the high stack comfort shoes but were scared away from the racers that typically employ the carbon tech. So why not make one for the people? Commence the Bondi X – carbon for the rest of us.
More...from Belive in the Run.
3. Science of recovery: the importance of food, hydration and sleep:
Recovery these days is something that athletes simply do. In the past, recovery might have consisted of taking a day off from training, but it's now something that's actively undertaken.
In today’s day and age, there’s a recovery tool for every aspect of recovery - all delivered with guarantees of decreasing muscle soreness, aiding repair and facilitating a quicker bounce-back.
But we're taking a step back from the recovery gadgets and gizmos for this blog and focusing on the ‘core’ recovery practices of eating, drinking and sleeping.
More...from Precision Hydration.
4. This is how an elite marathoner compares with an amateur on Strava:
How does your time compare with the world’s best?
How does your marathon PB compare with the times set by the likes of Eliud Kipchoge and Ruth Chepngetich? How about Chris Thompson and Steph Davis?
The Tokyo Olympics are upon us, and so it’s inevitable that some runners will find themselves wondering how their times compare with the best athletes in the world. New data from fitness app Strava shows that the gap is even wider in reality than it is in our heads.
The Olympic qualifying time for the men’s marathon is 2:11:30, an average pace of 5:01 per mile – so that’s the minimum you should expect from a top athlete. But the average male marathon time on Strava is 3:35:10, a much slower average pace of 8:15 per mile.
More...from Runner's World UK.
5. Marathon Training:
Regardless of your age and ability, successful marathon training takes careful planning and preparation.
How much preparation?
Whether your goal is to run sub 3 hours or ‘just’ to finish, ideally you need to give yourself at least 18 weeks prior to the event…
And that assumes you have a solid running base to start with – currently averaging 20 plus miles per week.
But even for experienced marathon runners, allowing enough time and putting in the miles isn’t enough. Unless you follow some key principles of training there’s a good chance you’ll hit that wall – or at the very least log a time that doesn’t inspire you.
Below you’ll find several half-marathon and full marathon training schedules – classed as beginner, intermediate and advanced…
More...fromhttps://tinyurl.com/5h6sdw36" target="_news">Sport Fitness Advisor.
6. Workout of the Week: The In-n-Out Tempo Run:
Let’s face it: Training for a marathon or half-marathon can get monotonous. Both programs involve lots of sustained running at or around goal race pace. This is part of the deal, of course, and an important component for developing fitness, dialing in pacing, practicing fueling, and more. That said, it gets repetitive, if not boring, and a lot of people tend to lock in to a set pace and then zone out until it’s time to stop. Racing, however, requires you to pay attention, listen to your body, and make adjustments on the fly, which is why I love to assign the In-n-Out Tempo Run from time to time. Not to mention, it’s much more interesting than its classically constructed cousin! Here are the details:
What: A continuous 4-12 mile tempo run alternating one mile at your marathon pace with one mile at your half marathon pace (~roughly 15-20 sec/mi faster than your marathon pace). E.g., a 3-hour marathoner would alternate miles at 6:50/6:30/6:50/6:30 for up to 12 total miles. Note: Adjust the paces and length of the tempo run to match your fitness and experience level.
Why: There are three reasons I like to use this workout: 1. It’s more interesting—and effective, I’d argue—than doing tempo runs at half-marathon or marathon race pace all the way through. 2. It helps simulate some of the pace changes that are likely to occur in a race situation. 3. It’s a good lactate clearance session, i.e., the faster miles flood your muscles with lactate and the slower miles teach your body how to reconvert that lactate into usable energy.
More...from (The Monring Shakeout.
7. A Hot Fitness Trend Among Olympians: Blood Flow Restriction:
Some athletes in Tokyo are indulging in a trendy technique to enhance the effects of training and stimulate recovery. Credit a Japanese former power lifter.
Every four years, the Summer Olympics shows the world the latest training or recovery method the greatest athletes have taken up.
In 2016, many swimmers had red circular marks on their skin from “cupping,” an ancient Chinese practice involving suction on sore muscles and tendons.
This year, the hot thing appears to be tourniquets.
No, there is no outbreak of cuts. But the American swimmer Michael Andrew is wearing tourniquet-like bands in the practice pool. Galen Rupp, the defending bronze medalist in the marathon, sometimes straps similar bands to his legs while training.
More...from the New York Times.
8. A Self-Professed Sweater Explores the Science Behind Stink:
In her new book, ‘The Joy of Sweat,’ Sarah Everts answers all of our writer’s questions about perspiration
I am a sweater. I don’t mean a tepid schvitzer or a gentle glistener. I mean that when I’m in a gym, on a treadmill, running at a decent clip, I am shedding buckets. I coat the machine in a corrosive, salty slather; my perspiration pools beneath me. Woe betide anyone working out next to me, sharing my dank microclimate. Once, in New Delhi during monsoon season, while out for a quick walk, my pants soaked through—to the mild amusement and concern of suspiciously dry passersby.
So I was particularly excited by a new book, The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration, by Canadian science journalist Sarah Everts. Here was the chance to deeply understand this particularly human cooling mechanism (compared to other animals, we are champion sweaters), to grapple with my own moistness—to pore over my pores—and to answer a nagging question: Was it good for me to sweat so much, or somehow bad?
More...from Outside Online.
9. Inside the Decision-Making of a Tour de France Team:
Israel Start-Up Nation’s physiologist Paulo Saldhana explains the data—and the feelings—that determine who attacks when in a cycling race.
The most gripping moments of this year’s Tour de France, for me, came during the rain-soaked final climb of the eighth stage, on the first day in the Alps. Mike Woods, the injury-prone Canadian sub-four-minute miler who took up cycling as a form of cross-training in his 20s (and whose running exploits I covered for his hometown newspaper, the Ottawa Citizen, nearly two decades ago), had launched an all-out bid for a stage win.
Woods crossed the penultimate Cat 1 climb, the Col de Romme, more than a minute ahead of his rivals. But the final ascent, the Col de la Colombière, involved nearly five miles of climbing at an average grade of 8.5 percent—and little by little, Woods’s margin began to melt away. If he made it to the top with a lead, there was a good chance he’d hold on to the stage win. But it soon became clear that it would be a matter of seconds either way. Had he attacked too soon, or not soon enough? Too hard, or not hard enough? Or had he, as I desperately hoped, gotten it just right?
More...from Sweat Science on Outside Online.
10. Are all track lanes created equal when it comes to winning gold?
Data from past Olympics show that lane advantages aren't definite.
As a short-distance track and field runner in high school and college, I often found myself wondering which of the eight or sometimes nine lanes on the track was the fastest. It was conventional wisdom that the middle lanes—lanes three through six—were the best.
This idea in a way, is baked into the rules of track and field. In events with multiple heats—from the college level all the way to the Olympics—the people who run faster times in earlier heats are assigned to middle lanes in later heats. In other words, the fastest runners are rewarded with what are, supposedly, better lane assignments.
My short-lived track career is long behind me, but in my professional life as an economist, I think a great deal about using statistics to extract meaning from data. With the Olympics on my mind, I decided to examine the validity of lane assignment folklore from my days as a sprinter.
More from Popular Science.
|
Know someone else who's interested in running and triathlon?
