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Runner's Web Digest - May 20, 2022 - Posted: May 20, 2022

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. Brooks ELMN8 v6 Review: Go, Go, Goldilocks
2. The Science Says a Sub-Seven-Hour Ironman Is (Sort of) Possible 
3. 5 Signs You Need to Adjust Your Training Load
4. Untangling Running’s Shoe Cushioning Paradox 
5. Runners: what to consider before donating blood
6. Race Participation Trends
7. How Should Runners Train for Muscular Endurance?
8. Are there sex based difference in athletic performance before puberty?
9. Adidas Ad Featuring Bare Breasts Banned in the UK
10. For Runners, Fertility Often Has a Complicated Relationship with the Sport They Love
11. Why Running at Night Feels Harder 
12. How to Master the Push-Up
13. Are water stations useless for 5Ks and 10Ks?
14. Running USA's 2022 Global Runner Survey - North America
15. How much exercise does it take to avoid heart problems in your 70s? 
THIS WEEK'S POLL:
Which category of athlete are you?
*	Elite
*	Fitness
*	Recreational
*	Recreational - competitive
*	Other? 

Vote here

PREVIOUS POLL RESULTS:
The women's world record for the mile is 4.12.33 set on July 12th, 2019 by Sifan Hassan. Will a woman ever break 4 minutes for the mile?
1	Never 	181  (22%)
2	50 years 	207  (25%)
3	25 years 	151  (18%)
4	10 years 	124  (15%)
5	5 years 	84  (10%)
6	1-4 years 	93  (11%)
Total Votes: 840

FIVE STAR SITE OF THE MONTH MAY 2022: BELIEVE IN THE RUN:
We’re here to bring hope to a running world full of stale reviews and cardboard character.
For over ten years, from barefoot running to HOKA cushioning, we’ve provided our readers with straightforward reviews that spell out the nerdy specs, while breaking it all down to the basics.
We don’t care if you’re a running shoe geek or first-time 5k runner; our mission is simple- we strive to provide honest reviews that runners can trust when making their gear choices. We don’t pull any punches when it comes to getting you the real details about running gear. Unlike some reviewers, we put in between 20-80 miles in every shoe we test. Because, shockingly, running shoes should be run in. With reviewers across the U.S., we’re able to test our shoes in a variety of conditions and terrains. It’s that kind of authenticity that our readers have come to expect.
So come join us, subscribe, and become a Believer in the church of the run.
Visit Believe in the Run.

BOOK/VIDEO/MOVIE OF THE MONTH FOR MAY 2022:GOOD FOR A GIRL: A WOMAN RUNNING IN A MAN'S WORLD
By Lauren Fleshman (Author)
Fueled by her years as an elite runner and advocate for women in sports, Lauren Fleshman offers her inspiring personal story and a rallying cry for reform of a sports landscape that is failing young female athletes
Lauren Fleshman has grown up in the world of running: one of the most decorated collegiate athletes of all time and a national champion as a pro, she was a major face of women’s running for Nike before leaving to shake up the industry with feminist running brand Oiselle and now coaches elite young female runners. Every step of the way, she has seen the way that our sports systems—originally designed by men, for men and boys—fail young women and girls as much as empower them. Girls drop out of sports at alarming rates once they hit puberty, and female collegiate athletes routinely fall victim to injury, eating disorders, or mental health struggles as they try to force their way past a natural dip in performance for women of their age.
Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl is Fleshman’s story of falling in love with running as a girl, being pushed to her limits and succumbing to devastating injuries, and daring to fight for a better way for female athletes. Long gone are the days when women and girls felt lucky just to participate; Fleshman and women everywhere are waking up to the reality that they’re running, playing, and competing in a world that wasn’t made for them. Drawing on not only her own story but also emerging research on the physiology and psychology of young athletes, both male and female, Fleshman gives voice to the often-silent experience of the female athlete and argues that the time has come to rebuild our systems of competitive sport with women at their center.
Written with heart and verve, Good for a Girl is a joyful love letter to the running life, a raw personal narrative of growth and change, and a vital call to reimagine sports for you
Buy the book from Amazon.

For more books on Running and Triathlon visit:
HumanKinectics.com,
Amazon.com,
VeloPress.com, and
SkyHorse.com

1. Brooks ELMN8 v6 Review: Go, Go, Goldilocks:
What You Need To Know
Weighs 5.4 oz. (153 g.) for a US M9/US W10.5 (Unisex sizing)
Speed and style for up to a mile
BioMoGo and a Pebax plate for the go-go
Maybe we wish it was a little louder?
Available now for $130
RUBY: Out the box, Brooks hits you with a classy black and Nightlife colorway, with fluorescent yellow accents spicing up the stealthy upper and spike plate. Interestingly, Brooks came out with a white cross country spike, the Draft XC, yet stuck with black for the track. I’m no designer, but that feels a little back to front.
The overall familiarity was a little underwhelming — nothing about the spikes’ look screamed new, fresh, or exciting. That said, the sleek and breathable engineered mesh upper is built to last and keeps the feet ventilated well for those smoking hot summer track days.
More...from Believe in the Run.

2. The Science Says a Sub-Seven-Hour Ironman Is (Sort of) Possible:
Like the two-hour marathon chase, next month’s assault on the seven- and eight-hour Ironman barriers will require some rule-bending.
On June 5, four of the world’s greatest long-distance triathletes will take aim at a couple of those round-number barriers we love to obsess about. There’s the four-minute mile, the two-hour marathon… and now, the seven-hour (for men) and eight-hour (for women) Ironman-distance triathlons.
The catchily named Pho3nix Sub7 and Sub8 Powered by Zwift races are explicitly modeled on Eliud Kipchoge’s two-hour marathon events. Like Kipchoge’s races, they’re funded by an enthusiastic billionaire (in this case the Polish businessman Sebastian Kulczyk, through his foundation promoting kids’ fitness). They’ll take place on a specially designed course with tweaked race rules allowing a bunch of pacemakers. And like the original Breaking2 race, the initial reaction from knowledgeable observers was that the goal is probably out of reach.
More...from Sweat Science on Outside Online.

3. 5 Signs You Need to Adjust Your Training Load:
Are you one to push through workouts no matter what’s going on in your life? Here are five signs that you might be overdoing it.
How do you know if you are training too hard or not recovering adequately? This is one of the hardest things to get right as an athlete, but doing so will help improve your performance and decrease your risk of overuse injuries. Sometimes an adjustment to training is needed, but other times improved sleep and nutrition, for example, could be the ticket to achieving balance. Here are five signs you need to adjust your training load and recovery balance.
1. Impaired Feeling & Increased Perceived Exertion
TrainingPeaks allows you to rate each workout by feel and perceived exertion. Feel is measured with a range of smiley to frowny faces, and perceived exertion (RPE) is rated on a scale of one to ten. Comparing sessions is easy when looking at the calendar view on TrainingPeaks. For example, let’s say every Tuesday and Thursday you complete a 6- or 7-mile run in Zone 2 at the same pace and on the same route. For three weeks you rank these sessions with a feeling of a smiley face and a perceived exertion of a three. But during the fourth week, you rank these sessions with a frowny face and a perceived exertion of four. This is a red flag and would require further investigation about why you did not feel good on those workouts.
More...from Traing Peaks.

4. Untangling Running’s Shoe Cushioning Paradox:
Runners smack the ground harder—but get injured less—in more cushioned shoes. New research explains why.
Over the past four years, a new breed of heavily cushioned running shoes modeled on Nike’s Vaporfly line have rewritten the road-running record books. Soft-bottomed shoes, it turns out, can be exceptionally fast. But the hot new debate about the Vaporfly’s performance advantages has managed to push aside an older conundrum that should be of greater interest to 99.9 percent of runners: Does the cushioning in your trainers protect you from shin splints, stress fractures, and other impact-linked running injuries? Or, as barefoot runners insisted during their brief ascendency a decade ago, is it the cause of such injuries?
In the period following the 2009 publication of Christopher McDougall’s bestseller Born to Run, one of the key claims made by the barefoot and minimalist running movement was that the design of conventional running shoes was not evidence based. Elements like raised heels, pronation control, and thick midsoles might make intuitive sense, barefooters argued, but no one had ever tested their injury-prevention benefits in properly administered randomized trials.
More...from Sweat Science on Outside Online.

5. Runners: what to consider before donating blood:
How runners can safely give blood without compromising their training.
As Canada continues to face a blood shortage, runners might find themselves wondering if they should donate. However, if you’ve found yourself questioning if giving blood could disrupt your training, your hunch is correct. Donating blood is a great thing to do, and should by no means be discouraged, but there are a few additional considerations for runners. Here are some tips to ensure you’re donating at a time that makes sense for you and your goals.
Blood donation affects performance
After blood loss, an individual’s blood volume (and red blood cell count) decreases, which by extension, reduces your body’s oxygen-carrying capacity. This is significant for runners as oxygen delivery is a key factor in aerobic performance. When your muscles are low on oxygen, their performance is inhibited.
More...from Canadian Running Magazine.

6. Race Participation Trends:
We did our Market Analysis in mid March, and our Q1 Report, which were both pretty optimistic. However, we have done a bit of further analysis and are detecting some COVID impacts still. We are suspecting a general lack of energy by some race organizers, and a disconnect that has grown between events and their participants with the 3 years of separation between the Spring of 2019 (the last time Spring was normal) and Spring 2022.
One of the key pieces of data we reported in each was totals that showed growth in our overall data. For example, we shared this:
More...from RunSignUp.

7. How Should Runners Train for Muscular Endurance?
You might be a seasoned runner or an amateur one, but it is essential that you know the importance of muscular endurance in running. Let us compare the muscular requirements for running a marathon versus a sprint to understand the significance of muscular endurance in your running endeavors.
The sprint requires explosiveness and speed over a short distance for which you need muscular strength and power. It would be impossible to sustain that level of performance over the course of a marathon, which demands more cardiorespiratory and muscular endurance.
Long-distance running is a form of muscular endurance training, so every time you run for longer distances and durations, you improve that element of your physical fitness. However, specifically training for muscular endurance between training sessions and events will enhance your overall performance.
More...from FitPage.

8. Are there sex based difference in athletic performance before puberty?
n the past few years most state legislatures have considered laws stating that only members of the female sex can participate in girl’s and women’s sports (37 states in 2021 alone), and as of April 20, 2022 fifteen states have adopted such legislation (1). There have also been several well publicized instances of transwomen competing for championships in women’s sports (for example see 2, 3, 4). The International Olympic Committee, the NCAA, and other sports governing bodies have also recently revised their policies regarding the inclusion of transwomen in women’s sports (5, 6). All of this has resulted in students in my exercise physiology classes commonly asking questions about sex-based differences in sports performance and the inclusion of transwomen in women’s sports.
In a previous PECOP Blog (7) I briefly summarized the sex-based advantages men have in athletic performance in adults, and the research evaluating the effects of testosterone suppression and cross sex hormone use on factors that influence athletic performance. In this PECOP Blog, I will briefly summarize the sex based prepubertal differences in athletic performance and touch on puberty blockers.
More...from PECOP Blog.

9. Adidas Ad Featuring Bare Breasts Banned in the UK:
Adidas went controversial when it decided to display the bare breasts of 25 women in a recent advertising campaign for its sports bras.
Now, an independent advertising regulator in the UK has banned the campaign.
The advertising campaign, which launched in February, featured 25 images of bare breasts in an unedited, grid-format, with faces and lower bodies cropped out. Adidas shared the image on Twitter on February 9 with the caption “We believe women’s breasts in all shapes and sizes deserve support and comfort. Which is why our new sports bra range contains 43 styles, so everyone can find the right fit for them.” Adidas also shared a similar photo in a poster format with the nipples blurred out.
More...from Footwear News.

10. For Runners, Fertility Often Has a Complicated Relationship with the Sport They Love:
ixed research and mixed messages can leave athletes confused about how much to move when trying to conceive or during a pregnancy journey.
In the fall of 2019, Kiera C. was training for the New York City Marathon and finally felt like she was ready to start trying to conceive. “Part of me was always afraid of the pregnancy journey,” says Kiera, now a mom to a 15-month-old, “but it was on a 15-mile run that I realized I actually had all of the tools I needed to get through it.”
Marathons, she says, are the ultimate metaphor. Kiera liked standing at a start line, staring down a challenge, knowing she had the grit to tackle what was ahead. “That’s what pregnancy was in my mind: a long, unknown journey with good parts and uncomfortable parts, a lot like marathons. Running made me feel ready for this next step in my life,” she says.
More...from Women's Running.

11. Why Running at Night Feels Harder:
How well you can see your surroundings matters, but subtle gait changes also burn more energy.
In the quiet pre-dawn hours, as I glide along the empty running path with shadows flitting past under the feeble light of the moon, I feel fast. My watch, however, tells a different story. My splits during these runs are usually slower than I’d expect based on my effort. It’s not just that I’m up earlier than usual, or running on an empty stomach. Running in the dark, it turns out, really is harder.
At least, that’s the message I take from an interesting new study by researchers at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, working with the Swedish military and colleagues in Slovenia. They’d noticed that soldiers on night marches seemed to burn more energy than would be expected from the physical demands of the mission, especially when wearing night-vision goggles that restrict peripheral vision. They wondered whether not being able to see forced the soldiers to alter their strides, sacrificing efficiency for stability, so they decided to test this theory.
More...from Sweat Science on Outside Online.

12. How to Master the Push-Up:
With proper technique, you can get the most out of this simple, yet powerful exercise.
Simple, strenuous and possible to do almost anywhere, push-ups are an almost universally known exercise and a mainstay of military, sport and fitness training regimens. Push-ups are a “basic, foundational movement,” said James Whitener III, a strength and conditioning coach at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida.
Because it requires a cognizance of the body’s position from head to toe, the exercise helps to develop something called kinesthetic awareness — an understanding of how one’s body moves through space. This awareness, in turn, can help exercisers develop a sense of their body’s ability and prepare them for “bigger, more complex movements,” like dead lifts or squats, he said.
More...from the New York Times.

13. Are water stations useless for 5Ks and 10Ks?
Studies suggest water intake isn't necessary for races lasting under an hour, so you may want to skip the water station at your next race.
unners are always being reminded of the importance of hydration in warm weather, but how important is it during a five or 10K race?
After participating in Toronto’s Sporting Life 10K a couple of weeks ago, I was curious to know how many of the top 50 runners grabbed water at 8 km. My friend who was working the water station told me zero–no takers. Obviously, races are required to have water stations, but if the faster runners are not stopping to grab water in a short race, is there any benefit?
Many runners do use water or sports drinks during their workout or race, but it’s only really necessary if you go into it completely dehydrated, or if your race lasts more than an hour.
If you are hydrating on the day before and the morning of your race, you likely won’t need any water to get you through your 30 to 45-minute run or race. According to a study in the Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, runners on average will sweat out 46 per cent of their total fluid intake during a 10K; this means they’re still benefiting from 54 per cent of their fluid intake. Experienced runners keep themselves hydrated heading into the race, and most will skip the water station to save time.
More...from Canadian Running magazine.

14. Running USA's 2022 Global Runner Survey - North America:
Take a survey for your chance to win a $50 gift card. The Global Runner Survey from @RunningUSA is now accepting responses. Share your thoughts and help make races and #running better for all.
Take the survey at: Running USA.

15. How much exercise does it take to avoid heart problems in your 70s?
Any amount of exercise is better than none. But at least 20 minutes of daily physical activity could be the sweet spot for avoiding cardiovascular problems in your 70s, according to an observational study from Italy, published online Feb. 14, 2022, by the journal Heart. The study included almost 2,800 people ages 65 or older who were followed for more than 20 years. People who got between 20 and 40 minutes per day of moderate-intensity activity (such as brisk walking) or vigorous-intensity activity (such as gardening, working out in a gym, biking, dancing, or swimming) had fewer heart attacks and cardiovascular problems and a lower risk of premature death, compared with people who weren’t physically active. And among men, at least 20 minutes of daily exercise was associated with a 52% lower risk of cardiovascular problems, compared with people who didn’t exercise. The greatest benefits were seen among men ages 70 to 75. Because the study is observational, it doesn’t prove conclusively that exercise prevents heart disease. However, many studies have shown that moderate- or vigorous-intensity exercise helps protect your heart and brain; helps prevent diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases; and reduces the risk for premature death.
More...from Harvard Health.

FEATURED EVENTS:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites available from our FrontPage.

Upcoming Races, Marathons, Races, and Triathlons May 21, 2022:: RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon - Brooklyn, NY Diamond League Birmingham - London, UK May 22, 2022:: Marine Corps Historic Half - Washington, DC Toronto Women Runs Half Marathon/10K/5K - Toronto, ON May 24, 2022:: “Urging Sport Governance to Develop New Structures for Transgender Athletes, While Prioritizing Competitive Fairness and Safety for Females May 27-28, 2022:: Prefontaine Classic - Eugene, OR May 28, 2022:: Diamond League Eugene - Eugene, OR May 28-29, 2022:: Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend - Ottawa, ON May 29, 2022:: Servus Calgary Marathon - Calgary, AB 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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