Run to Win

This week last year, I looked back at both my training, my health, and my writing. I think that this has helped me improve all three areas this year.

• I looked at the final numbers for 2006. Last year, I ran less than 1400 miles, held a pretty steady weight and wrote 560 articles. This year, I ran over 1800 miles and my weight had even less swing than last year. I wrote more this year, and I’ll talk about this year’s final numbers a little more in a couple of days.
• The first snow run finally came by this week last year. This year, the first snow run was weeks ago. Snow is great for building strength; this year, rather than dealing with traffic I have been seeking out the snow and taking to the trails.
• I finished the workout locations series of articles by explaining how planning workouts around vacations can be accomplished.
• One of the Coast to Coast runners, Chris Schauerman, made news thanks to his undergraduate research in nanotechnology and physics at RIT.
• I continued my animated series by showinghow to do a crooked arm lateral raise. I also suggested that you loosen your watch band when lifting weights to prevent cutting off your circulation.

Photo by knox_triA recent issue of Running Research News (Volume 23 Issue 5) has an article about overuse muscle damage in runners and it’s effects on performance. The article analyzes the results of research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports and concludes that aerobic performance is not negatively impacted by sore muscles. The relatively poor performance is actually caused by the brain due to an increase in the perceived effort of running.

The testing involved 24 men and 6 women who ran two 30 minute time trials. Between the two time trials, the test group did 10 sets of 10 drop jumps. The second time trial was 48 hours after the drop jumps.
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I did not write every day this week last year, but I did write quite a bit. Local running news mixed with weight lifting tips and hob-nobbed with research on running and the brain. There was even a diet note for folks out in Illinois who like concept of hamburgers but would prefer to eat a donut.

• I continued the animated lifting series with a demonstration of how to do a triceps extension using a pulley. I also offered a great tip when doing this exercise, which is to flex at the lowest point of your pull. This will intensify the exercise and work your muscles harder.
• In local racing, Ethan Hemphill won the Kerryman Pub 5k. I much preferred the race when it was a four miler. On a sadder note, the local shoe store Running Dog Sports closed their doors for good. The location was probably what killed it.
• The Gateway Grizzlies decided to start offering their fans donut burgers, no doubt in an effort to improve their health.
• There was some research that pointed to the lack of brain benefits when running by yourself. Apparently, the absense of social interaction has a negative influence on us runners. I don’t really agree with the research and I think that their conclusions are flawed. A comment on this article spurred another one, this time about whether the time of day affects the clarity of your mind while running.
• The weekly series about the New Rules of Lifting continued, this time exploring the second rule (use more than 1 muscle at a time) and third rule (strength before size.)

Steve Pavlina believes that health studies are worthless. He believes that no matter how altruistic somebody is, all health research is biased at some point by somebody with an agenda.

He think that the real truth is not just hidden, but that in most cases it really is not relevant. Everybody is different, and even a broad statement will not work for everybody. He believes that you should try different things for 30 days at a time to find out what works best for your body.

In a lot of ways, I agree with him. Everybody’s body is different, and the best way to find out what works for you is to experiment. That being said, I still follow the health research as it is published, and I try new ideas based on what I read. I am not one to rush out and try a supplement, but I will adjust my training or introduce a new recipe into my kitchen if I think that it will help me. If it does not work, then I abandon the idea after giving it a fair run.

Check out Steve’s article; it is quite humorous and each point is accompanied by an appropriate Mark Twain quote. How can you go wrong?

Chris Schauerman, one of the Coast to Coast runners, recently made his way into the news because of the undergraduate research that he has been doing. The experience of running across the country with the team really brought home to Chris how important teamwork is in accomplishing a goal.

“How hard do you want to work, and how much do you want to put into it? That will really determine what you get out of it.”

Other applications for this philosophy are not lost on Schauerman, and it very much drives his academic pursuits. The fifth-year physics major in the College of Science commits a lot of his “energy” to projects within RIT’s NanoPower Research Laboratories. Much of his focus centers on incorporating nanomaterials into the development of hydrogen fuel cells and lithium ion batteries.

“One of the things I find really cool is two of the most prominent areas of research going on in the country and in the world right now are renewable energy and nanotechnology.” Adds Schauerman, “To be at the forefront of that - trying new things and exploring new things - is something that is very exciting to me.”

It is very important to find the right school and the right educational opportunity for kids. I am glad that Chris is making the most of his experiences at RIT in both the college of science and on the cross country/track teams.

Thanks to Todd Spivak for bringing the article to my attention.

In a recent comment by Scott, he asked if I found much difference in my clarity of mind depending upon the time of day that I run.

Time of day does not seem to have a big impact for me. How tired or stressed I am seems to have a bigger impact, as well as what kind of workout I am doing.
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According to some research out of Princeton University, running by yourself has few brain benefits. According to Dr. Elizabeth Gould,

In the absence of social interaction, a normally beneficial experience can exert a potentially deleterious influence on the brain.

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