Recovery

Ibuprofen... ice bath... compression... foam roller... the stick... icy hot... heat... ok, I can get up off the couch now, whew! Ok ok, I might be exaggerating my recovery routine just a bit, but we've all done stuff to make the aftermath of a hard run less painful so that we can do it all again tomorrow. Turns out, we might be shooting ourselves in the foot. What? Isn't the whole point to train longer, harder, faster? How can we do that if we can barely move?!  

Starting with the first of those, Ibuprofen inhibits protein synthesis after exercise, so even though your legs might not feel as sore, the micro-tears created aren't being repaired. Not only does this delay recovery, but prevents your muscles from becoming stronger because there's nothing there to build with!  Moving on to ice baths, athletes who skipped them had greater strength gains, better circulation, more endurance, and better VO2-max scores. This lead scientists to conclude that ice baths actually retarded strength and endurance gains.

So, what gives? Well, as it turns out, we've failed to recognize the role that inflammation plays in our body's signaling pathways. Physiologists have long recognized that intense exercise produce micro-damage to muscles. The body naturally wants to repair itself, so it does, leaving the muscles stronger than they were before. What hadn't been recognized until recently was that inflammation is the body's way of signaling what needs to be repaired. If you reduce inflammation, your body doesn't recognize the severity of the damage, and therefore the need for repairing and rebuilding is reduced. Basically, if you trick yourself into believing your fine for long enough, your body will never learn to naturally adapt. Furthermore, muscle fibers require a finite amount of time to repair and adjust.

That doesn't mean that you should never use some type of "recovery aid". I mean, if your plantar fascia is inflamed, by all means take some ibuprofen and ice your foot! Or, after a marathon, which is basically like sudden trauma... or if you need to recovery really quickly between races. Just use recovery aids sparingly if you want to see the most gains... so probably not after an easy Monday run! 

BQing

Your odds of BQing are getting better, at least according to this post! Why? I have no idea the true cause of the drop in the number of people qualifying, but here are a few of my guesses:

• People needed a new challenge... enter obstacle course runs!
• After qualifying once, people lose motivation to qualify again. Plus, marathons are expensive!
• People considered the new standards unattainable and stopped trying.
• All of the super speedy runners got hurt. (just kidding)

Weekend Outlook

Blue Ridge Relay is this weekend! However, if you don't feel like jumping in a van and running for 208-miles over the course of a day(ish) in the mountains, there are some other local options:

• Tunnels to Towers Run (Wake Forest, 8AM Sat.)
• North Hills 5k (Raleigh, 9AM Sat.)
• Gail Parkins Memorial Ovarian Cancer Walk and 5k Run (Raleigh, 8AM Sat.)
• Cleft Palate Gallop (Chapel Hill, 9AM Sat.)
• Zombie Escape Run (Youngsville, Sat.)

Matt is really upset we're missing that last run... I mean, I have no idea what it would be like to be chased by zombies through a muddy obstacle course, and now I might never know!

10% Rule

You should NEVER increase your weekly mileage by more than 10 percent over the previous week.

Show of hands, who has blatantly ignored this rule? Both of my hands are in the air... I mean, that would take forever! Say you're coming off of injury and are maybe up to 10-miles a week (and that would actually be pretty good). So next week you run 11, and then 12.1, and then its 2 months before you get to 20-miles and 4 months before you're back to a 40-mile week?! Jeesh...

Turns out, I'm not really a risk-taker, or completely crazy. In fact, recent studies have debunked the 10% rule. Depending upon your experience, propensity for injury, etc. you can deviate from this hard and fast rule. Initially, starting off conservative is probably a good idea if you're coming off of injury... but you may be able to add more than a mile a week! Additionally, if you've been holding steady at a certain weekly mileage for a while (say low 40's), you might be able to jump by 15-20% (say to upper 40's) and be fine. However, when increasing mileage, you also have to keep intensity in mind. For example, making up the miles in an easy run will do a lot less damage than trying to add it in an extra interval workout.

This brings up my question... is there are rule for increasing intensity? Turns out, the 10% rule is meant to apply to more than just miles... the intensity at which you do them also needs to be considered. Now the rule makes a bit more sense to me. I don't know about y'all, but when I put in too many "quality" workouts in a row, I wind up exhausted and hurting. However, if I add the same, if not more miles in easy runs, I can actually feel better on harder workouts. So, in conclusion, I think the rule needs to be re-written (or the original form re-emphasized). So running friends, I offer you this suggestion:

Increasing the intensity of your weekly workout regimen by more than 10% might not be so much of a good idea.

Paralympics

So, the Paralympics are almost over, and although they received more press than usual, I still have yet to see any of the events on TV. I kind of wanted to see them. I mean, I really want to see sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball because that's crazy amazing! There were even some sports that I hadn't heard of before, like boccia and goalball. Anyways, I wish they were on TV!

B Double E Doube R U N

Labor Day

Laborday Comments - Glitter Graphics