New Frontier In Training: Boost Your Endurance “Durability”
Endurance durability is becoming a key training target of marathon runners and other endurance athletes. Think of durability this way: It’s not your 5K time; it’s your 5K time after you have already run 20 miles.
If you can increase your pace in the final miles of a marathon--or lose as little as possible--your finish time is certain to improve. This doesn’t come easy. Not when your muscle glycogen supply is slipping toward “empty,” your heart rate keeps increasing (known as “cardiac drift”), and your neuro motivation is fading.
So what can you do? Here triathlon racer-researcher-coach Dan Plews offers a deep dive into his thinking on muscle durability. He believes, of course, that you need to do long training runs. There’s no way around that primary ingredient.
Plews then adds another intriguing wrinkle. He thinks: There’s a good chance that working at steady intensities off-the-back of high-intensity intervals improves durability – as you are training your body to maintain work while also fatigued.”
He does a workout of this type himself. Here it is: “8 repeats of 1 minute of hard work, followed by 4 minutes right around the first threshold.” This should be roughly equivalent to 1 minute intervals at your 5K pace, followed by 4 minutes at your tempo pace (around half marathon) pace.
Plews expects that he and others will learn more about muscle durability quite soon. This will include studies that reveal the “best methods to improve durability.” Stay tuned.
In the meantime, remember that muscle durability is the new kid on the block--after vo2 max, running economy, and lactate threshold--and deserves your attention. It also deserves your respect. Like other physiological systems, it can’t be pursued too hard, or it will backfire. More at Endure IQ.
Just before clicking on “Publish,” I found another in depth piece on durability (here called “resilience”) by another performance PhD, John Davis. At the end of his article, Davis offers a multi-part section on “Training To Improve Resilience.” It will add to your understanding of this important element. More at Running Writings.
Sweat Away Your Stress--How Exercise Calms Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health issues in the U.S., affecting more than 40 million adults a year. They are commonly treated with psychotherapy and prescription drugs, but exercise can also prove effective.
A recent review examined the evidence. It found that both aerobic and strength activities “generally result in reductions in state anxiety,” and more exercise results in “fewer anxiety symptoms.” More at Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences.
Another paper in the same journal reviewed “relationships between regular physical activity and sleep.” Result: “The overall weight of evidence supports that regular physical activity is associated with better sleep quality among healthy adults.”
Moreover, this association can have profound health effects. Epidemiological studies indicate that improved sleep contributes to “well-established associations between physical activity and reduced risk of mortality, cardiovascular diseases, and dementia.” More at Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences.
A new systematic review and meta-analysis wondered if exercise has beneficial effects on anxiety among “older adults.” It concluded, based on an examination of high-quality randomized, controlled trials, that there is “compelling evidence on the significant impact of physical activity on reducing anxiety symptoms in the elderly population.” More at BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation with free full text.
When The Going Gets Tough, Every Second Counts
This newsletter reports on ways you can improve your fitness and endurance performance according to the newest, most relevant evidence.
And, wow, has there been a lot of that in the last 6 or 7 years. Much has centered on super shoes, and how they can contribute to faster running.
But there have been plenty of other topics as well. Consider: Caffeine, sodium bicarbonate, nitric oxide (beets), high-carb consumption during events, heat training, electrolytes, foam rolling, nasal strips, body cooling, and so on. At the high end, this stuff sometimes offers improvements of 2.5% (super shoes).
Everything else ranks lower, perhaps around 1.0% or less. But it still stirs the imagination and hopes of qualifying for the Olympics, the Boston Marathon, an Ironman, a Western States, or whatever other big goals you might have.
Are these seemingly small improvements actually significant? Can all the glimmering promises amount to something tangible like an Olympic medal?
Well, if we analyze the percentage differences between a gold-medal effort and a fourth-place, the answer is a long, echoing YESSSSS!
Look at the men’s 10,000 meters. The time gap between gold and fourth (no medal) was .0003, or three-one hundredths of 1 percent. Definitely worth an extra cup of espresso.
Switching over to the women’s marathon, we find that the gap between gold and fourth place is .002, or two-tenths of 1 percent. “I’ll take another beet-root shot, thank you.”
This is why top athletes will continue to pursue every small advantage they can find, and the rest of us will eventually follow suit. It’s not that we think we can win an Olympic Marathon. It’s more: Why shouldn’t we mimic Sifan Hassan if we have a chance?
Here’s the “heat-sink” Omius headband she wore in the Paris Marathon. I have no idea if it’s effective, but I suspect we’ll be seeing more of them soon. Here’s a first-hand report from a Reddit user-fan who says the headband is not a magic bullet, but does lower your body temp feel by about 5 degrees in hot weather.
On a related/unrelated note: Two of my favorite endurance winners in Paris were last minute substitutions, because they hadn’t qualified for the event until a higher placed teammate dropped out. You know about Tamirat Tola, Ethiopian gold medalist in the men’s marathon.
But maybe you missed Kristen Faulkner in the women’s road race (cycling). She was super impressive, and has a great back story about her relatively recent switch from rowing to cycling.
Olympic competition is so intense these days that you can fail to make the Olympic team in your country, and then win your event outright on the Big Stage. These unexpected results are one of the reasons we love watching the Olympics. Who doesn’t root for the surprising underdog?
SHORT STUFF You Don’t Want To Miss
HERE’S WHAT ELSE YOU WOULD HAVE RECEIVED this week if you were a subscriber to the complete, full-text edition of “Run Long, Run Healthy.” SUBSCRIBE HERE.
# Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) wins an Olympic gold medal
# More training paces = more fitness
# Whey protein is a game changer for well trained runners
# 9 ways to prevent knee injuries (because you can never have enough knee-health routines)
# The sad truth about compression pants
# At the Olympics (and beyond), every second counts
# You’ve just had a breakthrough race or workout. Now, what?
# Beet it! Recent study finds new use for beet juice
# What Henry David Thoreau understood about finding success
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby