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1. Kara Goucher’s Advice to Her Younger Self: “Believe in Your Power”:
World championships silver medalist Kara Goucher recounts how silencing her intuition didn't serve her well. Now she gives the advice she wishes she received as a young runner.
When I started running it was all about joy. I only ran a few times a year. Whether it was running a quarter mile at the Mother’s Day Run against the boys and trying so hard to get a special medal, or running here and there with my grandpa. And maybe a race or two that were around town. I was really into dancing and soccer; running was just a fun thing I did every once in a while.
After running for my middle school cross-country team, the high school coach asked me if I wanted to join the high school track team in the spring. There were already a few girls doing this, walking down to the high school after the school day and participating in high school sports. I said yes—I was excited to run and compete more.
More...from Women's Running
2. Saucony Ride 15 Review: Ticket to Ride:
What You Need To Know
Weighs 8.8 oz. (249 g.) for a US M9 / 7.8 oz. (221 g.) for a US W8
Yes, Saucony, this is what we’ve been asking for
That PWRRUN midsole/insole is just right
Lightweight mesh upper is breathable and accommodating
Available now for $140
THOMAS: At a certain point in your life, you start to appreciate the simpler pleasures — a well made PB&J, lounging at the pool with an umbrella, the perfect moody song on a rainy day, and one of my favorites, a hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning. As much as I like all the tech that goes into the modern running shoe, sometimes a simple design without much to get excited about turns out to be a pleasurable experience. The Saucony Ride 15 falls into that category.
On paper, the Ride 15 is thoroughly basic, with a mesh upper, EVA foam midsole, and a small amount of rubber on the outsole. There’s nothing revolutionary about the design, either. Even the royal blue color Saucony sent is a yawn. Yet, despite all of this, the shoe is one of the best daily trainers of 2022.
More...from Belive in the Run.
3. Fight Dead Butt Syndrome with These 6 Moves to Wake Up Glutes and Hamstrings:
If you’re prone to running injury, “gluteal amnesia” may be the cause. Here are a few moves to switch on those important muscles.
You’ve heard of selective amnesia—but did you know that could apply to your legs? Thanks to a culture of sitting, which causes tight hip flexors, it’s common for runners to overuse our quad muscles and underuse our posterior chain when we stride. Physical therapists and trainers refer to this as “gluteal amnesia” (or, more charmingly, “dead butt”), because what’s happening is our brain forgets to tell our glutes to switch on.
The result? The natural push-pull equilibrium of your body in motion (quads pushing your legs forward, while glutes and hamstrings pull them back) is thrown off. The body overcompensates with long, pounding strides and heel striking. In short: By turning off our glutes, we put ourselves at a higher risk of injury. If you’ve experienced shin splints or runner’s knee, the culprit might be right behind you. In order to counteract this, we need to be doing glute activation exercises.
More...from Women's Running.
4. All You Need to Know About LT and VO2 Max:
he terms “LT” and “VO2 max” are used liberally in the endurance sports realm — but what are they, really, and why do they matter to you?
Out of the many metrics that influence athletic performance, it’s arguable that lactate threshold (LT) and VO2 max are among the most important. Defining your LT and VO2 max numbers will help you train more efficiently, and developing these metrics is a surefire way to get across the finish line faster and stronger. Here’s what you need to know.
Understanding Your Lactate Threshold
During exercise, lactate naturally spills into your bloodstream as your body attempts to increase the breakdown of glucose for energy production. As intensity increases and energy demands can no longer be met entirely with aerobic energy systems, blood lactate levels begin to rise, and other biochemical and neurological processes prevent that intensity from being sustained for very long. If you train your body to better withstand more intense exercise, you’ll therefore be able to perform longer and harder.
This is why your lactate threshold is so important. Usually defined by an athlete’s ability to endure 40-60 minutes of maximum steady-state effort, LT is more precisely measured by your heart rate, power, or pace when the lactate volume in your blood (generally) reaches 4 mmol/L. When you accurately define your LT, you can base your training off of that number which will help you tailor your program to your current fitness level while you work towards increasing your LT. Doing so will increase efficiency and reduce the risk of injury and illness, effectively making you a higher-performing athlete.
More...from Training Peaks.
5. Why So Many Athletes Fall Into the Trap of “Overtraining Syndrome”:
Taking pride in being the "hardest worker" is all well and good — but it can lead to underperformance, fatigue and mental burnout.
The one time I met Coach K — I was a kid, waiting for him to sign a mini basketball — I asked him who was the hardest worker on the Olympic team. Without taking a second to think he replied “Kobe Bryant. Kobe is always the first guy in the gym.”
That didn’t come as a surprise to me at the time, and it probably wouldn’t to you now. Kobe’s name, along with those of a half-dozen other maniacally prepared pros, has long been synonymous with work. First to practice, last to leave: Mamba mentality. There is no such thing as extra credit in this doctrine; there are only more opportunities to put in more work. If you fail to cash in on those hours, you shouldn’t be confused when you lose.
In fact, right after a loss is the exact time you should be getting back to work. Because clearly, something was lacking. You needed more technique here, or a quicker burst of speed there. Sportswriters love the “he got right back in the cage” narrative. When Odell Beckham Jr. first burst onto the scene, back in 2015, ESPN The Magazine shared a mythical account of how the wide receiver processed his LSU Tigers’ BCS title defeat to Alabama, which was played in the Superdome. He was a freshman at the time, and after the game he reportedly ran sprints up the nearby levees until 2 a.m.
More...from InsideHook.
6. Should your hydration strategy change as you get older?
The question of whether your hydration strategy should change as you get older is a particularly pertinent one as we're seeing average life expectancies increase and more and more 'senior' athletes complete endurance events.
Sport & Exercise Scientist, Andy Blow, takes a look at the hydration needs of older athletes and provides guidance on how they can avoid dehydration...
Life expectancy and increased sporting participation
Human life expectancy is increasing rapidly, with some current predictions suggesting that women will pass the 90 year mark relatively soon (well, those lucky enough to be born in South Korea in 2030 anyway).
More...from Precision Hydration.
7. The Jooy Workput:
It’s no secret that exercise, even in small doses, can improve your mood. Researchers even have a name for it: the feel-better effect.
And while any physical activity — a walk, a swim, a bit of yoga — can give you an emotional boost, we wanted to create a short workout video specifically designed to make people happy. What would a “joy workout” look like?
I’m a psychologist fascinated by the science of emotion. I’ve also taught group exercise classes for more than 20 years. To design a happiness workout, I turned to the research I leverage in those classes, to maximize the joy people get from moving their bodies.
Imagine fans erupting when their team clinches a playoff spot. They jump up and down like these school kids in a clip that went viral last year on Instagram.
More...from the New York Times.
8. Can Exercise Help Make Therapy More Effective? A Pair of Studies Suggests It Might:
A pair of recent studies from Iowa State University found that even just a half hour of exercise may boost the effects of therapy over time.
For many people, exercise is a whole lot more than just a way to make physical progress. And if you’ve been running for awhile, you’ve probably read about (or experienced) the many ways exercise can benefit your mental health. It doesn’t take all day to reap the benefits of a workout: A pair of recent studies from Iowa State University found that even just a half hour of exercise might immediately alleviate the symptoms of depression and could potentially add to the benefits of therapy.
In one study, 30 adults with major depressive episodes were recruited to either exercise at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes or to simply sit. Before, throughout and after the session, they filled out electronic surveys with standard questions and scales to measure depression severity and other symptoms, including difficulty thinking and a lack of pleasure from things that they previously loved to do, also known as anhedonia. A week later, participants returned for a second session and switched tasks. They sat if they exercised the previous time and vice versa.
More...from Women's Running.
9. How to Be Healthy in a Dopamine-Seeking Culture:
Our basic biology can steer us toward bad habits and compulsive behavior. Overcoming these pitfalls requires effort and discipline.
Let’s start with a simple question: If you are hungry, distracted, and rushed, and someone places two bowls in front of you, one of brown rice and baked potatoes, the other of peanut M&Ms and Swedish fish, which would you choose? If you’re like most people, you’d probably pick the candy.
This is by no fault of your own. The candy is engineered—from the flavor to the texture to the bright colors—to appeal to your brain far more than the brown rice and potatoes. For over 99 percent of our species’ history, we lived amid scarcity. Thus you, dear reader, like me and everyone else, evolved to seek out high-reward, low-energy-needed-to-acquire goods. This strategy worked well for hundreds of thousands of years. But now, in modern times of abundance, it’s backfiring. Like so many things, what works, works—until it gets in your way.
More...from Outside Online.
10. What science tells us about transgender women athletes:
Transgender participation in elite sports has critical dimensions of fairness (including safety) and inclusion which inevitably conflict. Science informs the first and should guide communal attitudes and values for the second.
Ultimately, the community must arrive at solutions that account for the conflict between fairness and inclusion, especially within elite sports.
Our aim here is to outline the scientific facts of this area.
The science of testosterone and exercise performance in men and women is extensive and clear on the magnitude, impact and likely irreversibility of male physical advantages in elite sports. Any quest for more or better data, the perfect being the enemy of the good, will only produce lengthy pointless delays when sufficient is already understood for key decision-making. Such decision-making should not stall on the perception of imperfect knowledge.
Men are, on average, bigger, faster, stronger and have greater endurance than women. While there is overlap between men and women, at the elite sporting levels the differences are stark. These physical advantages are caused by the dramatic surge in testosterone — a rapid 20-30-fold rise over unchanged female levels — during male puberty.
More...from Archive Today.
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