Never Too Old to Run

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

Happily, I seem to have emerged as a “go to” guy for Canada’s National Post when it comes to questions submitted by older readers to the paper’s weekly Each Coach running column – probably because there are relatively few marathon runners older than yours truly. Here are a couple of questions that were forwarded to me from 50+ athletes in the last few weeks (paired with my answers):

Q.  I’m 62 years old and I like to run four to five times weekly.  I cover approximately 30K in those runs.  I run with a heart monitor and I’m worried at my age that my heart rate is too high.  Average H/R 142, with a peak at 165.  I don’t feel winded or sore after my runs.  Am I spending too much time worrying about my heart beat?

A.  The short answer is yes – for two reasons.  First, monitors tend to spike erratically in the early stages of a hard run as the heart responds to the abrupt stress of a start that’s too fast.  Avoid that by warming up sufficiently before settling into your pace.  And secondly, all standard formulas used to estimate Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) rely primarily on age and become notoriously inaccurate when applied to older, physically-fit runners.  Thus, a measured Average Heart Rate that is perfectly appropriate can seem too high because it is compared with a formula-based maximum rate that, for 60+ runners, is invariably too low.  (Case in point: the formula used by most monitor and treadmill makers is 220, minus one’s age – which would put your MHR at 158, a totally absurd figure since your actual heart rate regularly exceeds that level.)

Q.  I finished my first 5k running clinic in June 2009, followed by my first 10k running clinic in the fall 2009. I ran my first half marathon in the spring 2010. Then deterioration. Knee surgery Jan 2011. Started over again in August 2011. I am 56 years old. I am not fast. I have arthritis. My goal in 2013 was to run one race / month, which I did. Smile. I participated in track in the summer months and achieved personal best times in all my races (5k, 8k, 10k, 15k and half marathon). So, before I get any older, any slower, or (heaven forbid) ill, I want to run a marathon. I am thinking I need six months of training so looking at fall of this year, considering Niagara Falls International Marathon. Masters program for beginners?

A.  Here are some hopefully helpful thoughts from a twice-a-year marathon runner who’s old enough to be your father.  Your challenge is not so much to complete your first marathon as it is to follow a training program that will get you to Race Day without injury.  Group clinics or pre-packaged programs are out.  Forget running 5 or 6X a week for as many as 60 or 70K, and trying to do that on a steady basis for as long as six months.  Instead, think 3 or 4X/week, a 50K maximum, and 18 weeks at most.  Take up the slack with cross-training (cardio- and strength-based).  It’s the salvation for older runners like us.

Coach Stephen

Carbs on the Run = Performance Gains

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

Let’s first address the elephant in the room as far as nutrition and running are concerned.  No one talks or writes about it, but the fact of the matter is that a runner’s diet doesn’t quite fit a professional nutritionist’s definition of healthy eating.  Some purists might say it doesn’t even come close.  That’s because runners and other endurance athletes need carbohydrates and plenty of them.

Most nutritionists tell us that carbohydrates should represent no more than 35 or 40% of the macronutrients we consume (with protein and fats making up the balance).  But a serious runner needs to increase that percentage to about 50% during most of a training cycle and then, in the last two weeks before a race, to 55 or 60%.

Carbs enter our body’s bloodstream as glucose and are stored in our liver and muscles as glycogen.  Their major reason for existence is to serve as an energy source.  And unlike our body fat, the only other fuel for running, they are always in short supply during long training sessions and distance races. 

Despite their obvious benefits, however, carbohydrates are often given short shrift in treatises on weight control and proper nutrition.  Sugar is a carbohydrate, for one thing, and sport-engineered products such as energy drinks and gels depend on sugar for their effectiveness.  As well, carb-rich foods like the three P’s of pancakes, potatoes and pasta rarely head anyone’s list of healthy food choices.  But at the end of the day you can take the following statement to the bank:

Carbohydrates are, without a doubt, the most important fuel for an endurance athlete.  To deny that is to deny science.  They are the single most powerful nutrient for replenishing glycogen stores, extending time to exhaustion, increasing immunity during and after exercise, and improving performance.  Period.  End of story.

That’s why, if you want to perform well in any distance race from a half-marathon to an ultra-marathon, you must get into the habit of consuming carbohydrates on the run.  At least 40 to 60 grams of the nutrient are what you need per hour to maintain a strong and consistent pace while engaged in a race or training run of more than 75 minutes in duration.

Here’s how the cause-and-effect link between carbohydrate intake and enhanced performance was described in a recent issue of 220 Triathlon, a British magazine:

“The reason for the benefits of carbohydrate use during exercise is straightforward; muscle carbohydrate (more commonly called glycogen) is your body’s ‘premium grade’ fuel, especially when those muscles are working hard, such as during a race.

“However, your muscles can only store around two hours’ worth of glycogen.  And because even mild glycogen depletion is known to impair performance, using carbohydrate drinks or gels to replenish your carbs on the move....helps to delay the onset of fatigue and thus improves performance.”

The magazine gets very specific on the nature of that improvement.  It states, by way of example, that runners able to complete a half marathon in two hours (120 minutes) while consuming only water or nothing at all could better their finishing times to the following extent by ingesting carbohydrates:

Grams per Hour          % Improvement          Performance Gain

20                                2.0%                            2.40 minutes

40                                3.5%                            4.20      “

60                                4.3%                            5.16      “

After 60 grams, further carbohydrate consumption leads to little additional improvement, and after 80 grams the percentage improvement actually declines (apparently because too many carbs in too short a time tends to cause stomach distress.)

Reaching the recommended allotment of 40 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour while running could be as simple as combining 8-ounce Fuel Belt bottles of a sports drink (about 10 grams per bottle) and packets of energy gel or beans (27 grams each).   Or you could include in the mix everyday food items like a medium-sized banana, granola bar, quarter-cup of dates, small box of raisins or four Fig Newton’s – each of which provides about 30 grams of carbs. 

Determining an effective nutrition strategy for an endurance race is a matter of testing and practice.  The objective is to consume the needed carbs conveniently, quickly, and with no accompanying stomach distress.  Test yourself and find out what works for you in terms of food, gels, sports drink, etc. (as well as water).  Practice with different combinations on your weekly long-distance runs until you’re satisfied that you’ve found the one that suits you best.  And remember, a successful approach to carbohydrate consumption during a race of two hours or more is an absolute necessity if you hope to do your best.

Coach Stephen

Runner, Protect Thyself!

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

Did you know that the annual injury rate among runners is an astounding 80% or thereabouts, more than in any other sport?  That means you could pick 100 runners completely at random and feel reasonably certain that over the course of a year they would suffer roughly 80 mishaps of greater or lesser severity. 

Perhaps as disturbing is the fact that the prevalence of injuries in our sport has remained a relative constant over at least the past decade.  This has been true despite significant advances in the design and construction of running’s most important piece of equipment – the running shoe – and despite comparable improvements in other products such as orthotic inserts, knee straps and braces, self-massage tools, and sports tape.  Conclusion #1, therefore, is that the “right” shoes and equipment are simply not enough to keep us out of harm’s way.

As well, an increasing percentage of injuries occur or get worse after medical intervention.  The reason is that doctors, chiropractors and therapists frequently focus on the symptoms of an injury rather than the cause -- or they misdiagnose the problem in the first place.  Conclusion #2, therefore, is that the specialist we visit can potentially do more harm than good.  

Underlying this depressing scenario is what I’d call the “law of unintended consequences.”  The shoe manufacturers spend millions to incorporate motion control, stability or additional cushioning features into their products.  They do it all with the best of motives.  But in the end what they seem to accomplish, more than anything else, is to shield us from our own shortcomings.

If our basic problem is poor biomechanics, for instance, and that problem is not addressed, it will sooner or later manifest itself in an injury.  The progression over time can often take on a certain inevitability if and as we become increasingly serious about our running and demand more from our bodies.  We start with the best shoes we can find for our feet, then later we add orthotics, then we resort to physical therapy, and, finally, in a worst case, we undergo surgery.   And the progression is speeded up along the way if a well-meaning medical professional masks the root of the problem by prescribing an anti-inflammatory and rest – or by telling us we have a pulled muscle when in fact we have a stress fracture.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that I’ve had two serious injuries over the past several years, both of which were originally misdiagnosed by medical professionals.  I  was told in the first instance that I had a groin strain and, as a result, underwent physical therapy and exercise in the weeks leading up to the 2007 Niagara Falls International Marathon.  As it turned out, I actually had a hernia condition and wound up crossing the finish line of that race in excruciating pain, while holding my swollen stomach in my right hand.  I underwent surgery two weeks later.

In the second instance, I went to a doctor with pain in my left foot.  The diagnosis was a stretched tendon in the foot and, once again, physical therapy and exercise were prescribed. Unfortunately, the tendon was not stretched; it was ruptured – which meant that the therapy and exercise were only worsening the condition.  Here again I required surgery and, as a consequence, missed an opportunity to participate in the 2009 World Masters Games in Sydney, Australia and to run in the Boston Marathon the following year.    

Timothy Noakes, author of the seminal book on our sport, called “Lore of Running,” states simply and succinctly that we should never seek treatment for a running-related injury from a medical professional who himself is not a runner.  And Runner’s World magazine has offered a “runner’s checklist” for determining whether a particular specialist is the best person to solve our running problem.  Here are some of the questions that the magazine suggests we ask him or her:  Do you have a specialty in Sports Medicine?  Do you run?  What should we bring to the appointment?  (The “correct” answer would include our training log and running shoes.)  And, finally, how much time will you spend with me?  (Expect it to be at least 30 minutes.)

Let’s cut to the quick here.  We must recognize, first and foremost, that we and no one else are the first line of defence against injury.  And this means, among other things, that we should appreciate that stress and recovery are the yin and yang principles of effective training, ensure that our running form is as good as it can be, engage in strength training on a regular basis, and respond promptly to any unusual aches or pain that might signal the onset of injury. If, despite such precautions, we still wind up a part of an 80% injury statistic, then at least we won’t have to second-guess ourselves.

Coach Stephen

Goal Setting Done Right

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

In running as in life, success is often nothing more or less than an ongoing process of setting and achieving ever more challenging goals.  And the key to making that process as effective as it can be lies in how we structure in our mind’s eye the aims and aspirations that are important to us.  We should think of the acronym SMART and thereby increase significantly our chances of achieving objectives by making them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based.

How about this as an example of a Specific goal:  I will qualify for Boston 2015 when I run the Goodlife Toronto Marathon on May 4^, 2014.  We should appreciate that a goal like that is more powerful and will provide more motivation and direction than something as amorphous as merely telling ourself that someday, God willing, we will make it to Boston.  Count on it, whenever we refer to a goal with one or another variation of the words, “One of these days, I’m going to....” we can be pretty sure that it will remain permanently out of reach.  The fact is, unless a goal comes packaged in a plan and a heavy layer of commitment, it remains just an unrealized dream.

Measurable – After we’ve set a specific goal with a precise end date, we must begin tracking our progress toward achieving it.  John L. Parker Jr., who wrote a 30-year-old book called Once a Runner – a book that’s become a cult classic and sold recently on eBay for $300 --has made the following observation:  “When you‘re a runner in training – and you’re doing it right --you are constantly in the process of ascending; you are better today than you were yesterday, and you will be better still tomorrow, next week and the weeks after that.”   Recording that progress on our computer or Day-Timer means that we can actually see how our body is improving in endurance and speed over time.  That knowledge and the satisfaction it brings are supreme motivators, and when there’s enough motivation to run, there will always be enough time to run.  Equally significant, measuring our progress gives us the confidence we need to succeed.  Once we begin closing in on whatever goal we’ve set for ourself, a hope will gradually transform itself into an expectation.  Then our race will become simply a celebration of our training.

Achievable -- We must believe in our ability to reach the summit of whatever mountain we’re trying to climb -- which is just another way of saying we must believe in ourself.  Here it’s important to note that becoming a steadily better runner is rarely, if ever, a matter of DNA, natural talent or innate ability.   Rather, it’s simply a case of how much time we’re willing to devote to a form of training called “deliberate practice.”  This is a term coined by psychologists to describe a goal-oriented, results-driven approach that involves a constant monitoring of progress over weeks, months and years, coupled with appropriate adjustments.  So perhaps for one of the few times in our life, we should focus on our potential rather than our limitations.  Then the only questions we have to ask ourself are: How badly do I want this, and how long and hard am I prepared to work to achieve it?  And if an 82-year-old runner named Ed Whitlock, from Milton, Ontario, is still able to run a 3:41 marathon, who’s to say what our limitations are?     

Relevant -- Now we come to the matter of establishing priorities, of putting first things first.  How important is running to us?  Is it important enough to cut seriously into our couch-sitting time, or get us up a half-hour earlier than usual on some mornings, or otherwise persuade us to consistently carve out the time necessary to log the weekly mileage that our training demands?  If the answers to such questions are yes, yes and yes, then nothing’s impossible and the impossible’s nothing as far as we and running are concerned.  Always when we’re running on a regular basis, and especially when we’re preparing for a specific race, we find ourself making choices.  At one extreme, we may simply opt to put running on the back shelf of our mind – at least temporarily -- and allow our target race to stand as a symbol for another of the countless objectives we’ve set over the years and failed to achieve.  At the other extreme, we’ll run that race, finish it in a time that makes us proud, and experience one of the most memorable days of our sporting life.  And if those special moments in time aren’t enough to convince you to stick with running as a permanent part of an active lifestyle, consider the growing body of research establishing that runners live longer than non-runners, enjoy a better quality of life, and do a more effective job of fending off Alzheimer’s.  Now there’s a triple-win that’s hard to beat.  Appreciate that and you’ll understand why it’s been said that we don’t stop running because we get old; rather, we get old because we stop running.

Time-based – We should always put a deadline on the achievement of whatever significant goal we may have set for ourself.  If we make that date sacrosanct in our mind, it will keep us moving in the right direction at a speed that spells progress and avoids injury.

That’s all for now, people.  Stay well and, above all, keep moving. 

Coach Stephen

Running a Gamut of Subjects

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been writing a series of short pieces on running for one of Canada’s daily newspapers, The National Post.  These pieces were done for inclusion in a weekly column called Each Coach, which is devoted to answering questions submitted by runners on whatever topics are of interest to them.

Here are some samples of the questions asked and the answers I provided, covering the following topics (in alphabetical order): Biomechanics, Foot Pain, Motivation and Nutrition.....

Question:  I completed the 15K Midsummer’s Night Run on Saturday in a 1:26:41 Personal Best and also coach running clinics.  I am primarily interested in better running technique, both for performance and injury prevention.  What do you recommend?

Answer:  Like most recreational runners, you’re probably extending your stride beyond your body’s center of gravity and striking the ground heel-first when you pick up speed.  This creates a braking effect and thus slows you down.  It also increases the force felt by your legs and knees, thereby putting you in harm’s way.  To maintain a midsole foot strike as you ratchet up your pace, focus on keeping your stride length short and generating speed from a more rapid leg turnover.  Right now, in all likelihood, your feet are striking the ground less than 170 times per minute.  The optimum number for elite runners is about 180 times. Match that and most of your concerns about biomechanics will disappear.

 Q: On my last run, the ball of my right foot started to hurt.  Any ideas on what would cause this?  I currently run about 90K a week.

A: The pain you describe is not uncommon among serious runners like yourself.  Its cause is repetitive stress on the affected area, often but not always following a sudden increase in training intensity.  Proper footwear can make all the difference.  You don’t necessarily have to change shoes so long as the ones you have provide sufficient room in the toe box to accommodate the swelling in your feet that’s caused by running.  But if your shoes are relatively light-weight with a minimum amount of cushioning in the forefoot area, you should consider store-bought insoles that provide extra cushioning just below the balls of the feet.  A last resort (because of their expense) would be custom orthotics.

Q:  How can I motivate myself to run in the mornings? I find it very difficult to get out of bed an hour earlier than my normal wake-up time for a run, but once I'm up and at it, I love it!  Any suggestions on how to avoid hitting the snooze button?

A: Use your imagination, and appreciate that self-motivation is all about winning the mind game. The night before your morning run, get your thoughts in order the same way you might lay out your running gear.  Don’t think about how you’ll feel when the alarm goes off.  Instead, imagine how you'll feel after completing your run, achieving your training objectives for the day, and moving a step closer to a Personal Best in your next race.  As you yourself have written, once you’re “up and at it,” you love it.  Focus on that single emotion as you drift off to sleep, and recapture it as soon as your feet hit the bedroom floor the next morning.  Who knows?  You may even wonder whether you should have gotten up a little earlier so you could have run a little longer.  

Q:  I ran a PB marathon (3:13:59), but it was really tough.  Basically I bonked right around 30-32K due to what my guess is a lack of nutrition (could only stomach 2 gels, had really bad stitches and eventually nausea).  I want to run a sub 3:10 marathon in New York, but am worried I might encounter the same problems.  How do you eat enough without getting GI distress during a race?

A: Determining an effective nutrition strategy for a marathon is a matter of testing and practice.  The objective is to be able to consume 40 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour – conveniently, quickly, and without the stomach distress you describe.  You can do that with a combination of energy bars or gels, sports drinks and, of course, everyday food items.  Here are some examples, each of which provides about 30 grams of the nutrient: a single packet of Power Bar gel, 500mL of Gatorade, a medium-sized banana, a granola bar, four Fig Newton’s, a quarter-cup of dates, and a handful of raisins.   Test yourself to find the mix of carb sources (as well as water) that works for you.   Specifically, make it your business to practice with different combinations on your long distance training runs until you’re satisfied that you’ve found the one that suits you best.

That’s all for now, people.  Stay well and keep moving.

Coach Stephen

Hill-Bent on Improvement

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

Hill Repeats are an integral part of most run-related training programs – and with good reason.  When done right and at least once a week for several consecutive weeks, they help improve all three components of effective running: endurance, stamina and speed. 

Like speedwork, a basic objective in doing Repeats is to increase VO2 max – that is, the amount of oxygen your body is capable of absorbing when under severe stress.  They are also designed to convince your brain that you can run through pain and maintain pace even when you’re in serious oxygen debt and your heart is pounding away at extremely high levels.   

Here is what’s involved:

Find a decent site – Look for a hill that ideally is 400 to 600 meters long, with a grade of 6 to 8%.  The shorter the distance within that range, the steeper the grade should be – and vice-versa.

Start with a proper warm up – Always run at a comfortable, conversational pace for one or two kilometres prior to your first Hill Repeat.  The purpose is to get your body ready for the unaccustomed strain of what’s to come, and, more specifically, to raise your heart rate to approximately 120 beats per minute – which, for most runners, is around 70% of Maximum Heart Rate (MHR).

Keep Effort Strong and Consistent – Do all your hill ascents as fast as you can and try to maintain the same pace with each repeat.  Allow yourself, however, to slow down as the hill steepens and speed up as it flattens out, all the while maintaining the same expenditure of effort.  En route you should be reaching levels of exertion that make it impossible to converse (at least a “9” on a perceived exertion scale of one to 10).   In terms of heart rate, this means that you’re in an anaerobic training zone of 90 to 100% of MHR.  This sharp elevation in heart rate, in fact, is the main purpose of the entire exercise.

Don’t Stop – Continue moving until you finish at least a complete circuit of each Hill Repeat.  When you reach the crest of the hill, immediately turn around and start jogging back down.  Your aim, on reaching the bottom of the hill, is to have your heart rate return to the aforementioned level of 120 bpm or thereabouts – which, as noted, is where it was (or should have been) when you completed your initial warm-up and began your first uphill run.  Rest only if you feel your heart rate has not yet dropped back to that level.  For those without a monitor, start back up the hill when you feel sufficiently rested to complete the run to the top at the same speed as your previous climb.

Compete Only with Yourself – Do the warm-up and cool-down runs to and from the hill site with any running partners you may have, but never forget that the Hill Repeats themselves are not a race.  Rather, they are a quality individual workout.  Attack and conquer the hill at your own speed; forget about trying to keep up with (or slowing down for) someone else.  But know that if along the way you’re not feeling some degree of lactic burn in your lungs and legs, then you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough to achieve the increase in VO2 max that is the desired end result of the training effort.

And Also...

Less important than the foregoing points, but nevertheless worth remembering, are the following:

Take Note of your Stride – As you make your way up the hill, you will naturally assume a shorter stride length that will have the mid-soles of your feet striking the ground directly beneath your body.  This, of course, is precisely the stride action that you should try to replicate on flat terrain.

Maintain Correct Form – Lean forward as far as you can without falling on your face.  But don’t bend at the waist.  Keep your body aligned from heel to head, with back straight, chest up, and hips in.  Bear in mind, as well, that your arms are always in rhythm with your legs; so when your leg turnover starts to slow down near the hill’s crest (as it invariably will), you should pump your arms faster to maintain turnover speed.  This latter point can make the difference between continuing to run and stopping.

Visualize a Flat Plane – The conventional wisdom is to gaze upward as you run, parallel to the surface of the hill.  This helps psychologically because it makes the grade appear less steep than it actually is.  However, if you’re near exhaustion, it also helps to look down every now and then, just to convince your brain that you’re still able to put one foot in front of the other.

Coach Stephen

The Need for Speedwork in Distance Running

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

To understand why speedwork – consisting of short, intense runs measured in meters -- should become an integral part of a training program for a race as long as a  marathon, you have to wrap your mind around an almost counter-intuitive thought.  Sure, they will help you run faster in your goal race, but that’s arguably not their primary purpose.  Perhaps more importantly, interval workouts will also serve to increase your VO2 max and improve your running economy,

With regard to the first of these benefits, U.S. coach Joe Rubio has written: “Short, high quality intervals significantly improve the heart’s ability to move energy-sustaining oxygen via the blood stream throughout the body, resulting in greater potential for improvement, and that’s the main reason you should do them, regardless of your target race distance.” 

And Greg McMillan, another American coach, highlighted the second key benefit of speedwork when he wrote that it helps you master the smooth, fluid motion of front-of-the-pack runners as they seemingly glide over a road’s surface. “As a result,” he said, “intervals effectively improve your running economy (the amount of oxygen consumed at a given pace), and improved running economy is very important in an endurance race.”  He then explained further:  “Think of it as getting better gas mileage – you can go longer before running out of gas.” 

In essence, then, speedwork provides physical gains that converge from two different directions.  It both increases the amount of oxygen that your body can absorb and at the same time reduces your body’s need for that oxygen.  The result is a win-win situation across the board.

Still another purpose of speed intervals is to duplicate your actual race experience by making you feel the same level of discomfort that you will feel in the final stages of the marathon or half-marathon that you plan to run.  The rationale behind this seemingly masochistic effort to court pain has to do with teaching your brain that you can run anaerobically for extended periods without putting yourself in harm’s way – and that you can recruit your fast-twitch muscle fibres in doing do.  In this latter sense, intervals parallel the work that long distance runs do in recruiting your slow-twitch muscle fibres. 

Like all aspects of training, however, speed intervals must be done right if they’re to have maximum impact.  To begin with, you must run each interval much faster than whatever your projected pace may be in your goal race – about 60 to 90 seconds per kilometer faster, in fact.  And under no circumstances (short of injury) should you slow down until you’ve completed the interval and are into a recovery phase.  Then you can simply jog easily or even walk in order to be able to take on the next interval at the same pace as the one before.

It’s essential that you maintain proper form and accelerate leg turnover, rather than over-stride, during the workout.  And, finally, use the intervals to practice techniques of concentration that will prove invaluable in the later stages of your goal race (repeating a favourite mantra, figuratively tying yourself to a runner in front of you, focusing on reaching a landmark up ahead, cadence counting your steps, etc.).

That’s all for now, people.  Stay well and keep moving.

Coach Stephen