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The Runner's Web Digest is a FREE weekly digest of information on running, triathlons and multisport activities.
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Runner's Web Digest INDEX
1. Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite Review: Faster, Indeed
2. What to Do If You Notice a Sustained Increased Resting Heart Rate
3. A New Program Aims to Close the Gender Gap in Sports Science Research
4. British Olympians call for IOC to shelve ‘unfair’ transgender guidelines
5. Researched in Mice Before Men, Biotech Company Ludi Therapeutics is Developing a Possible Antidote to Muscle Reinjury
6. How can declining physical capacity be slowed, or even reversed as we age?
7. When Will We Finally Stop Commenting on Women Athlete’s Bodies?
8. Female Representation in Sports Science Research
9. Did Women’s Sports Foundation try to silence a leading voice fighting sexual abuse in sports?
10. The female athlete: Considerations for fuel storage and utilization
11. How to move: exercising with chronic fatigue syndrome
12. In the debate on transgender athletes, activists resort to gaslighting
13. How to Nail Your Marathon Recovery With Nutrition, Rest, and Mobility
14. Can athletes consume MORE than 90g of carb per hour?
15. Organs have their own pace of aging, a Chinese study finds
THIS WEEK'S POLL:
What is your all-time personal best marathon time?
* Never run one
* Sub 2:20
* 2:20 to 2:30
* 2:30 to 2:40
* 2:40 to 2:50
* 2:50 to 3:00
* 3:00 to 3:20
* 3:20 to 3:40
* 3:40 to 4:00
* 4:00 Plus
Vote here
PREVIOUS POLL RESULTS:
These marathons were rated as best in category by Runner's World. Which of them belong in your top ten?
1 Best Views: Big Sur 230 (9%)
2 Best Urban: Los Angeles 248 (10%)
3 Most Underrated: Baystate 277 (11%)
4 For Running History Nerds: Eugene 254 (10%)
5 Best Vibe: Kauai 231 (9%)
6 London 254 (10%)
7 The Major We Want to Run Right Now: Berlin 260 (11%)
8 Greenest: Banff 239 (10%)
9 Best for PR-Seekers: California International Marathon 236 (10%)
10 Best Party: Médoc 230 (9%)
Total Votes: 2459
FIVE STAR SITE OF THE MONTH MARCH 2022: UNION ATHLETICS CLUB.
Integrity, excellence, and diversity are values that drive us to be leaders on and off the track.
Together we stand. Together we thrive. Together we win.
Visit the website at: UnionAthleticsClub.com.
BOOK/VIDEO/MOVIE OF THE MONTH FOR MARCH 2022: .THE VILLANOVA TRACK STORY: 1966-1981: TOUCHING GREATNESS, FOREVER TOGETHER
By Jerry Bouma (Author), Jaclyn Draker (Contributor), & 2 more
Touching Greatness, Forever Together - The Villanova Track Story: 1966-1981 is an inside account of how a small private university in eastern USA became the greatest middle-distance track & field power in the world. For 16 consecutive years, the Villanova Track Team won the Championship of America Distance Medley Relay at the Penn Relays – a winning streak that is unrivalled in the world of amateur and professional sports. Astonishingly, during this same period, Villanova won a total of 52 Championship of America relay races including the One Mile, Two Mile, Sprint Medley and Four Mile at the Penn Relays as well as producing numerous IC4A and NCAA Champions, World Records and World Bests. Written by Jerry Bouma, a former Villanova track athlete (1970-74) and Co-Captain with John Hartnett in his senior year, the book provides front line insights of the philosophy and approach of the great Coach Jumbo Elliott. He describes in detail the ascendency of such national and international stars as Dave Patrick, Charlie Messenger, Frank Murphy, Tom Donnelly, Dick Buerkle, Marty Liquori, Chris Mason, Donal Walsh, Davey Wright, Wilson Smith, John Hartnett, Ken Schappert, Brian McElroy, Eamonn Coghlan, Tom Gregan, Ed Takacs, Phil Kane, Mark Belger, Don Paige, Tony Tufariello, Sydney Maree, Dean Childs, John Burns, John Hunter, Mike England and Marcus O’Sullivan and describes in detail the leaders who emerged from this accomplished group to inspire the team year after year, each in their own unique way. All supported and guided by another key contributing factor - Coach Jack ‘Mother’ Pyrah who played a critical role in the success of the team. Bouma addresses the fundamental questions of how and why the Villanova University Track Team sustained such a successful program for such a long period of time. He identifies and analyses several critical factors that encompasses coaching, training, the unique characters, leadership, team culture, and the uniqueness of the location of Villanova University itself including the training environment. Touching Greatness, Forever Together - The Villanova Track Story: 1966-1981 is a must read for any coach, aspiring runner or athlete from all sports. Additionally, the principles that generated success for Villanova Track year after year, can also be applied to any individual or business.
Buy the book from Amazon.
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For more books on Running and Triathlon visit:
HumanKinectics.com,
Amazon.com,
VeloPress.com, and
SkyHorse.com
THIS WEEK'S FEATURES:
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1. Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite Review: Faster, Indeed::
What You Need To Know
Weighs 7 oz. (206 g.) for a US M9 / 6.5 oz. (185 g.) for a US W8
This funky design is loaded with Big Cat Energy
The decoupled midsole combined with a full-length carbon plate shines at race pace
Possibly the best fitting upper of any race day shoe
Wide release late summer/early fall 2022 for $250
MEAGHAN: Puma is in the driver’s seat right now. The American women’s marathon segment is on fire at the moment, and Puma is stoking the flames with its recent signings of elite runners. Every week it seems like a new elite is joining the Puma ranks, and so far they’ve racked up an impressive roster between Molly Seidel, Sara Vaughn, Dakotah Lindwurm, and Annie Frisbie. Capitalizing on Seidel’s successes in 2021, Puma has initiated the launch sequence for an exciting future in distance running. Of course, every distance runner needs an elite race shoe, and no company wants its athletes in a pair of blacked-out Alphafly on the start line. So it was only appropriate that Puma developed a shoe to complement these amazing women. Enter the Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite.
More...from Believe in the RUN.
2. What to Do If You Notice a Sustained Increased Resting Heart Rate:
Even if it still falls within the normal range, a change in this number may be signaling trouble.
Men with resting heart rates on the low end of the normal range are less likely to die early than those with heart rates on the higher end of the normal range, according to new research published in BMJ Open Heart.
But a change in resting heart rate matters, too: For every additional beat increase in resting heart rate over the course of the study, the participants’ risk of early death rose by 3 percent.
If you notice a sustained increase in your resting heart rate, even if it still falls within the normal range, you should talk with your doctor.
You might regularly check your heart rate when you’re on a run or working out, but research suggests you may want to keep track of your resting heart rate, too: An increase in your normal beats per minute may be signaling something’s amiss, according to research out of Sweden published in the journal Open Heart in 2019
More...from Runner's World.
3. A New Program Aims to Close the Gender Gap in Sports Science Research:
Most studies on sports performance don’t include women. The team behind Stanford’s FASTR program is creating a new approach—and building a healthier culture for female athletes.
During her intern year of medical residency in 2013, while working at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Nebraska, Dr. Emily Kraus found herself unable to climb a flight of stairs. She was training for a marathon, and her running performance had also declined in recent weeks. She mostly attributed her fatigue to the realities of the intern year—the long shifts, sleepless nights, and nutrient-poor hospital meals. But on that day, her symptoms became hard to ignore. She paused, leaned over the banister, and took a few moments to catch her breath.
When she followed up with her doctor to get blood work done, she was diagnosed with an iron deficiency. After searching for information on supplements and training protocols, Kraus quickly realized there was little information on how to safely return to training as an anemic female runner. In fact, there was little information on female runners’ physiology, period. “I felt silly, because I was interested in sports medicine, so I thought I had a good understanding and knowledge base,” she says. “But I was caught without adequate resources to navigate this.” Kraus eventually found the right supplementation and nutrition regimen to increase her iron levels and return to her previous level of training, but only after a frustrating process.
More...from Ouside ONline.
4. British Olympians call for IOC to shelve ‘unfair’ transgender guidelines:
[An older article but still very relevant]
Survey of 15 female athletes finds frustration over current policy - group in favour of suspension of rules pending further research
The International Olympic Committee’s guidelines for transgender athletes are unfair on female athletes and should be suspended while more research is carried out, according to a group of former and current Team GB athletes surveyed by an academic.
In the survey of 15 female British Olympians, most of them answering anonymously, 11 also agreed with the view that “it can never be fair for transgender athletes who have been through male puberty to compete in female sport”, with another declining to answer.
Cathy Devine, who conducted the research and will present her findings at a conference at St Mary’s University in southwest London on Wednesday, says it is the first of its kind in this contentious area of sports policy.
More...from The Guardian.
5. Researched in Mice Before Men, Biotech Company Ludi Therapeutics is Developing a Possible Antidote to Muscle Reinjury:
Ask just about any athletic trainer, sports physician or performance coach, and the refrain is the same: the No. 1 indicator of injury risk is a prior injury.
One explanation is that the athlete’s movement pattern and playing style that led to the initial injury isn’t easy to change and thus prone to repeating. But, more importantly, is the physiological change in the muscle. Fibrosis, also known as scar tissue, “interferes with muscle regeneration, causes a loss in muscle function and alters the tissue environment causing increased susceptibility to reinjury,” according to a 2015 research paper.
Ludi Therapeutics is seeking to address this issue “from the point of view of a biotech company,” says Cindy Benod, the company’s CEO and co-founder who has spent her academic and professional career studying and applying regenerative medicine, mostly in oncology. Ludi has identified a mechanism of action that, in mice, has been shown to accelerate muscle repair while reducing fibrosis.
More...from SportTechie.
6. How can declining physical capacity be slowed, or even reversed as we age?
Lifespans around the world are increasing, but we are spending our additional years in poor health. Researchers are developing meaningful interventions.
In 2020, the number of persons aged 65 years or older was more than 9% of the world’s population at 727 million, with that number projected to more than double by 20501.
This is driven by factors such as increased life expectancy, decreasing fertility and changes to other social patterns. The greatest changes in population ageing are occurring in low- to middle-income countries.
Physiologically, ageing leads to decreased physical capacity and a growing risk of disease, with common conditions of older age including musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular impairment and diabetes. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the proportion of our lives spent in good health has remained generally constant despite our ageing populations, the implication of this being that our additional years are spent in poor health2.
More...from the University of Birmingham.
7. When Will We Finally Stop Commenting on Women Athlete’s Bodies?
Critiques about body size and type can not only cause physical and mental harm but also reinforce implicit gatekeeping in sports.
Three weeks ago, a New York Times newsletter landed in my inbox. It was the morning after Jessie Diggins won a bronze medal in the women’s freestyle sprint at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, and I was excited to read more about her historic feat. Not only was Diggins the first American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in cross-country skiing, but she also became the first American to win multiple Olympic medals in the sport. (She added a third medal to her tally later in the Games.)
“In a sport that has so many women with massive shoulders and thighs, Diggins looks like a sprite in her racing suit,” wrote sports journalist Matthew Futterman. “And it’s not clear exactly where she gets her power.”
Wait, what? In one sentence, the writer managed to undermine Diggins’s achievement and insult a large swath of women, both those who have “massive shoulders and thighs” and those who don’t. The commentary about Diggins’s body was especially eyebrow raising because she has been outspoken about disordered eating in sport and her own experience with an eating disorder. The article sparked immediate backlash. Readers were quick to categorize this as the latest example of an insidious double standard in which media outlets reporting on sports focus on the athletic achievements of men, yet persistently objectify the bodies of women. Others found the commentary simply boring—could he not come up with a more interesting analysis of the race?
More...from Outside Online.
8. Female Representation in Sports Science Research:
March is Women’s History Month and March 8 is International Women’s Day. In sport, the continued increase in female sports’ popularity highlights the progress society has made, but also further underscores the need for more advancement – this is specifically true in sport science research.
Female-specific sports science research is lacking. In the past, most research was conducted on young, white, college males. Often studies were designed to exclude women based on sex- or gender-specific differences (perceived and/or real). As a result, data including women are underrepresented in the literature – writ large – and current “best practices” for practitioners are not informed by research that includes women. The problem of underrepresentation in research studies can have tremendous impacts on health and safety in sport.
There are several targeted interventions that may help improve this imbalance. However, a recently published tool can help those involved in sport-science research identify underrepresentation of female athletes – via an audit – and thus highlight the needs for additional work in a specific area.
In the February issue of the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, Dr. Ella S. Smith et al. published the review that provides a quality framework entitled, Methodology Review: A Protocol to Audit the Representation of Female Athletes in Sports Science and Sports Medicine Research. Of note, the tool/process allows future research to be informed by identifying gaps in the current research.
More...from the Sport Digest.
9. Did Women’s Sports Foundation try to silence a leading voice fighting sexual abuse in sports?
Nancy Hogshead-Makar was offered a $10,000 per month contract extension in 2014, but a condition was that she would not talk about sexual abuse
Decades before the Larry Nassar case rocked the Olympic movement, before USA Swimming, USA Water Polo and USA Volleyball became mired in a series of systemic sex abuse scandals, former Olympic swimming champion Nancy Hogshead-Makar pushed the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the nearly 50 national governing bodies under its umbrella to adopt and implement safeguards to protect athletes from sexual and physical abuse.
Hogshead-Makar’s persistent advocacy for athlete safety as well as gender equity issues in sports caught the attention of Capitol Hill, the media and academia.
It also made her unpopular with top executives and board members at the USOPC and Olympic sport NGBs and created discomfort with officials with the Women’s Sports Foundation, a non-profit founded by Billie Jean King that for five decades has been the self-proclaimed leading organization in advocating for girls and women in sports.
More...from the OC Register.
10. The female athlete: Considerations for fuel storage and utilization:
In a previous blog post, Dr. Kirsty Elliot-Sale nicely highlighted that differences in anatomy, physiology and psychology between males and females make it unclear whether females need different exercise and nutrition advice than their male counterparts. In this blog we will highlight the metabolic differences in fuel storage and utilization between males and females and what these differences may mean for female athletes.
Females store and use more fat in skeletal muscle
Looking at males and females it is clear that fat storage differs between the sexes with males storing more fat around their mid-section and females storing more fat around the hips and thighs. However, storage of fat within tissues also differs between the sexes with females storing more fat within skeletal muscle.
Within the muscle we find fat cells (adipocytes) in between muscle fibres. This fat is usually linked to lower quality muscle, inflammation and insulin resistance. This is called intermuscular fat. There is also fat inside the muscle cells. This fat, known as intramucular triglycerides (IMTG) or intramyocellular lipids (IMCL; the abbreviation we will use here), serves as an important fuel source to support energy needs during exercise. It is actually higher in athletes and the fat is stored immediately next to the mitochondria where it can be used for energy. Not only do women store more IMCL within their muscles, but their muscles are also primed to use fat as a fuel source during exercise.
More...from MySportScience.
11. How to move: exercising with chronic fatigue syndrome:
Exercise is not appropriate for everyone living with CFS but if it works for you, here is a beginner’s guide to doing so safely
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disorder characterised by extreme fatigue that can’t be fully explained by any other medical condition.
Research suggests exercise may have a positive effect on fatigue in people with CFS but the evidence is limited, and even small amounts of exertion can lead to post-exertional malaise. Sarah Comensoli, an exercise physiologist, says it’s counterintuitive to start exercising if you know there’s a risk it will lead to malaise.
Exercise isn’t a cure, Comensoli says, but it can help build function and strength, and improve sleep and energy levels. “We don’t focus on taking all the pain away, but we keep the focus on function,” she says. “Exercise can help people do more.”
More...from The Guardian.
12. In the debate on transgender athletes, activists resort to gaslighting:
Last week, Sports Illustrated ran a cover story praising transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. Dubbed "the most controversial athlete in America," Thomas will be competing at the NCAA Women’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championships in Atlanta beginning on March 16 and has the chance to break records previously set by female Olympians Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky. In the interview, Thomas voiced aspirations of swimming in the 2024 Olympic trials in Paris.
You may recall that the NCAA has taken a sport-by-sport approach regarding transgender athletes. USA Swimming released its transgender eligibility guidelines last month , requiring transgender people who seek participation in women’s sports to offer evidence that they do not have a competitive advantage over female athletes and that their testosterone levels have been lower than 5 nanomoles per liter for at least 36 months.
The NCAA has since announced that it will not be adopting this new policy for the upcoming winter championships because making changes at this point in time could have "unfair ... impacts on schools and student-athletes." As a result, Thomas will be allowed to compete.
The Sports Illustrated profile states, "Science allegedly showed" transgender women are physically different from women and refers to the fact that Thomas’s "puberty gave her an advantage over ... female competitors" as one of several "arguments."
More...from the Training Peaks.
14. Can athletes consume MORE than 90g of carb per hour?
t’s often claimed that the maximum hourly carbohydrate intake that can be tolerated during exercise without causing stomach upset is ~90 grams per hour, but there's been a growing trend for athletes to report consuming more than this supposed 90g ceiling.
We take a look at whether more than 90g per hour can be tolerated and whether it's beneficial to your performance...
How athletes consume 90g of carbs per hour
Athletes generally achieve this 90g of carbs per hour by ingesting glucose and fructose in a 2:1 ratio.
Glucose - a carbohydrate absorbed and used rapidly - uses a different transporter protein (SGLT1) to pass into the bloodstream to fructose (a slower absorbed carb). Whereas the SGLT1 transporters don’t become saturated until a consumption of roughly 60 grams per hour, the fructose GLUT5 transporters’ capacity caps out at ~30g/h (or so it’s believed, but more on this later).
The 2:1 concept made headlines in 2004 and raised many athletes' perceived ‘ceiling’ of carbohydrate absorption from the previous theoretical limit of ~60g/hr (when just taking glucose into account).
In the wake of this finding, it wasn’t long until the performance benefits were also reported in the scientific literature and the upper tolerable limit of exercise carb ingestion was reset to 90g per hour.
More...from Precision Hydration.
15. Organs have their own pace of aging, a Chinese study finds:
People are aging constantly, but individual organs have their own pace. The study published on Wednesday in the journal Cell Reports reported multiple "clocks" within the human body.
An international team led by Chinese scientists measured the varying biological ages of his or her organ systems.
They found that the biological ages of different organs and systems are not always in synchro, although healthy weight and physical fitness are expected to have a positive impact.
Having a more diverse gut microbiota indicates a younger gut, the study finds. However, it means a negative impact on the aging of the kidneys, which the investigators supposed that the diversity of species causes the kidneys to do more work.
More...from Xinhua.
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FEATURED EVENTS:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites available from our FrontPage.
Upcoming Races, Marathons, Races, and Triathlons
March 11-12, 2022::
NCAA® Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships - Birmingham. AL Featured Upcoming Events
March 13, 2022::
Comox Valley Half-Marathon - Comox, BC
Nagoya Women's Marathon - Japan
March 18 - 20, 2022::
World Athletics Indoor Championships - Belgrade, Serbia
March 20, 2022::
Shamrock Shuffle - Chicago, IL
March 22, 2022::
Los Angeles Marathon, Los Angles, CA
March 26-27, 2022::
Canadian Indoor Championships - St. John, NB
March 27, 2022::
Around the Bay Road Race - Hamilton, ON
For more complete race listings check out our Upcoming Races, and Calendars.
Have a good week of training and/or racing.
Ken
Email: webmaster@runnersweb.com
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