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1. Asics Has a Worthy Vaporfly Alternative in the MetaSpeed Sky+University of Colorado Conducts Investigation Into Running Program
Former student athletes allege a fixation on weight and medical privacy violations, among other complaints.
The University of Colorado is conducting what it calls an “independent, comprehensive fact-finding inquiry” into practices at its legendary cross-country program.
The investigation into the Boulder-based program—which has produced multiple NCAA champions and eventual Olympians—comes following allegations by former athletes pertaining to body composition analysis, training methods, and overall culture.
The accusations center around CU’s two highly decorated coaches and the head dietitian on its athletic department staff. Head coach Mark Wetmore is currently in his 29th year at the university and his 27th at the helm of the program; associate head coach Heather Burroughs, a three-time cross-country All-American at CU who ran under Wetmore, is now in her 17th season on staff. Laura Anderson is a registered dietitian who has worked for the university since 2014 and was promoted to associate athletic director for performance nutrition in 2018.
More...from Runner's World.
2. Eilish McColgan wants more research into how periods affect athletic performance:
Commonwealth champion Eilish McColgan does not believe sufficient research is being done into women’s health to support female athletes in reaching their peak physical fitness.
The 31-year-old Dundee athlete won 10,000 metres gold and 5,000m silver in Birmingham in August before going on to win two more medals at the European Championships in Munich.
McColgan also mentors young female athletes, whom she hopes will have a better and stigma-free understanding of their bodies, particularly when it comes to how menstruation affects performance.
“I still don’t really have the answers as to how to calm my symptoms down every month, or what’s a healthy way to do it, rather than a lot of athletes just go on the pill and it stops their cycle entirely.
“We’re sort of realising that is not the healthiest way for a female to operate. I definitely think there’s still a lot of question marks regarding the solutions we have. There’s no doubt it’s getting better for sure, we have options now with different coils and patches and IUDs (intrauterine devices) and instruments.
More...from Yahoo Sports.
3. Maybe Running Isn’t Harder on Your Gut than Cycling After All:
New research finds that, all else being equal, runners don’t have more gastrointestinal problems than cyclists.
There’s a reason they call it “runner’s trots” and not “cyclist’s trots.” Running is notorious for triggering gastrointestinal distress—just ask Paula Radcliffe, whose live-on-TV pitstop at the 2005 London Marathon is the most famous example of a phenomenon that plays out every weekend at races and training runs around the world.
It’s usually blamed on the bouncing and jostling of your guts with each stride. But is that really what’s going on? After all, other endurance sports with less impact certainly aren’t immune: pro cyclist Tom Dumoulin lost more than two minutes to an unscheduled unloading during Stage 16 of the 2017 Giro d’Italia, whose overall title he somehow still managed to win. A new study in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport directly compares the GI impact of running and cycling under matched conditions, and finds the differences aren’t as big as you’d expect—which, in turn, sheds light on what the real triggers are.
More...from Sweat Science on Outside Online.
4. Think your kid could be an elite athlete? Read this first:
Back in 2011, the Dutch soccer team VVV-Venlo signed a prospect named Baerke van der Meij to a 10-year contract after he rose to viral fame thanks to an online video of him kicking plush toys into his toybox. At the time, van der Meij was just 18 months old, but his pedigree – his grandfather had played for the same club – along with his ability to shout “ball” won over the scouts.
The whole episode was intended as a lighthearted joke, but it’s one of those jokes that works because it’s only a slight exaggeration. Parents these days face a seemingly endless series of decisions about their kids’ involvement in sports, starting at ever-younger ages, with long-lasting implications for their leisure time and family finances, their children’s social and emotional development – and, of course, their hopes and dreams of raising a future superstar.
The complexity of these decisions is highlighted in The Tyranny of Talent, a new book by York University professor Joe Baker, a leading expert on talent identification and development. Is athletic stardom a matter of picking the right genes, or accumulating 10,000 hours of practice? Should you specialize early in one sport, or sample as many as possible until your teens? How much expert supervision do you need, and how much unstructured free play?
More...from the Globe and Maila.
5. Morning Physical Activity Is Associated With the Lowest Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke:
Summary: Those who exercise either early or late in the morning were 11% and 16% respectively at a lower risk of coronary artery disease. Those who exercise later in the morning were 17% less likely to have a stroke than those in the control group.
Source: European Society of Cardiology
Morning physical activity is associated with the lowest risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a study in more than 85,000 individuals published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
The findings were consistent regardless of the total amount of daily activity.
“It is well established that exercise is good for heart health, and our study now indicates that morning activity seems to be most beneficial,” said study author Ms. Gali Albalak of Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands. “The findings were particularly pronounced in women, and applied to both early birds and night owls.”
More...from Neuroscience.
6. The BMI Is Junk Science:
This diagnostic tool promotes fatphobia, which can cause more health problems than extra weight, and is rooted in racism. It's time to throw it away.
I showed up to my last doctor’s appointment with trepidation. I’m 46 years old and generally healthy. I don’t have diabetes or high-blood pressure; my cholesterol is fine, and I’m active. But I am overweight—obese, actually, according to the Body Mass Index (BMI), a mathematical formula that divides a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in square meters.
Doctors have been relying on the BMI to judge individual health for more than a century. At my recent appointment, which was with a doctor I’d never seen before, my BMI was front and center in our consultation. My physician told me I was obese, and then zeroed in on my risk of becoming pre-diabetic. Doctors have been telling me I’m essentially pre-pre-diabetic for the past 15 years, but I have yet to experience any complications from this nebulous diagnosis. Next the doctor noted that my cholesterol has increased slightly, neglecting to mention—perhaps neglecting to even think—that this likely has more to do with my age and family history than my current weight.
She didn’t ask me about my activity levels. I walk over 10,000 steps a day, I work out at OrangeTheory twice a week, and I ski at least 20 days each winter. Thanks to my BMI, she wasn’t interested in that information. I left the office feeling ashamed and disheartened, like so many times before: this one number had eclipsed everything else about me that a healthcare provider should be looking at.
More...from Outside Online.
7. Running, Coaching, and Living with an Autoimmune Disease :
fter her diagnosis halted her physical activity for two years, runner Mireille Siné returned to the sport with a new outlook
One day while waiting for the bus, Mireille Siné noticed her hands were freezing. This was strange because she happened to be holding a thermos of hot coffee, and it was a warm summer day in Southern California. Siné, who at the time was 21, shrugged it off—a weird one-off occurrence. But this incident was just the beginning. Throughout that summer, Siné’s hands felt cold more often, and sometimes they even got so cold they looked blue. Other symptoms began to appear: her hair shed more than usual, her joints hurt, and three fingers turned black. Siné took to wearing gloves so as not to freak people out. Her hands were so sensitive that running cold water over them caused pain. Sometimes, the pain got so intense she went to the ER, but doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her.
inally, a year and countless tests later, a diagnosis: lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that affects a person’s joints, skin, and organs, including the kidney and heart. Siné took a semester off from her studies at Cal State Long Beach and endured six months of chemotherapy (used for severe cases of lupus to suppress the immune system and help manage the condition). She was sidelined from physical activity for two years as she underwent a slew of medications and dietary adjustments to get her condition under control. For the exercise science major who had always loved movement—ballet as a child, track in high school, and short-distance running and the gym in college—losing access to physical activity was difficult.
More...from Outside Online.
8. ASICS expands race registration offering with njuko acquisition:
ASICS has confirmed the acquisition of race registration platform njuko, adding to the Race Roster registration business that it acquired in 2019.
With the acquisition of njuko, ASICS notes that it now offers race registration services worldwide, with capabilities in Japan, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and now Europe.
Established in 2012, the njuko platform claims to lead the European market in race registration… ‘helping thousands of endurance events capture and manage athlete registration data.’
Following the acquisition, ASICS adds that njuko will continue to serve its existing clients with leading registration technology.
“We are thrilled to welcome the njuko team into our ASICS family,” said Alex Vander Hoeven, CEO at ASICS Runner App.
“Europe is an important market for ASICS, and the njuko platform has proven to be the technology with the best fit for this market. With the addition of Pierre Duvelleroy, Benoit Rousseau, and their team, we believe we have added another group of stars to our already incredibly talented team of technology and road race industry experts.”
More...from EnduranceBiz.
9. Quarter of former Olympians suffer from osteoarthritis, study says:
One in four retired Olympians reported a diagnosis of osteoarthritis, the form of arthritis that causes changes in the joint and can lead to discomfort, pain and disability, the research found.
Elite retired sportspeople who had experienced a sports-related injury had a higher chance of knee and hip osteoarthritis when compared with the general population.
The athletes – who had competed at an Olympic level in 57 sports including athletics, rowing and skiing – also had an increased risk of lower back pain overall, and shoulder osteoarthritis after a shoulder injury.
Researchers hope the findings will help develop new approaches in injury prevention for the benefit of athletes now and in retirement.
The study – led by a University of Edinburgh based researcher – is the largest international survey of its kind, and the first to observe the consequences of osteoarthritis and pain in different joints from retired elite athletes across different summer and winter Olympic sports.
Researchers quizzed 3,357 retired Olympians aged around 45 on injuries and the health of their bones, joints, muscles and spine. They were also asked if they were currently experiencing joint pain, and if they had an osteoarthritis diagnosis.
More...from ScienceBlog.
10. In Her Debut Marathon, Lauren Goss Will Race For Herself:
In her marathon debut at the California International Marathon, Lauren Goss aims to unlock her potential as she races for herself.
Former professional triathlete Lauren Goss’s transition to elite running has been anything but conventional. Goss retired from competing professionally in 2019, after accepting a six-month suspension for an anti-doping violation after testing positive for THC (the psychoactive component found in marijuana, which she claimed was due to a cannabidiol, or CBD, salve she was using to treat an injury before competing). The next three years were somewhat of a whirlwind, with Goss, now 34, getting married, giving birth to her first child (son Wilder, now two) and dipping her toe into competitive running after qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in the 10,000 meters, where she finished 18th in a time of 32:52.
Goss recently celebrated a win in a time of 1:09:46 at her debut half marathon at the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon on Nov. 5, which was no easy feat considering it was an unseasonably warm and humid day, complete with strong winds and rain. Goss, who is based in Boulder, Colorado, is now gearing up for her first professional marathon at the California International Marathon, which is also playing host to the USATF Marathon Championships, on Dec. 4.
More...from Women's Running.
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