Older People who Diet w/o Exercise Lose Muscle Mass

From http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/results.php?storyarticle=6102

"A group of sedentary and overweight older people placed on a four-month exercise program not only became more fit, but burned off more fat, compared to older sedentary people who were placed on a diet but did not exercise.
The new study also showed that when older people diet without exercising, they lose more lean muscle compared to those who exercise, said senior researcher Bret H. Goodpaster. When they combined weight loss with exercise, it nearly completely prevented the loss of lean muscle mass. The results are important because older people tend to lose muscle mass as they age and too much muscle loss may interfere with activities of daily living.
The researchers wanted to know the best way to get better (more efficient) at completing a defined exercise task. In particular, they wanted to know if greater fitness could be achieved through exercise training, weight loss (through dieting), or both. In addition, they wanted to know which fuel source the body would draw upon, carbohydrates or fats, under these different conditions.
The 64 participants were 60-75 years of age and were either overweight or obese. All of the participants were sedentary at the outset of the study. The researchers divided the participants into three groups:
? exercise only ? diet only? exercise plus diet
Those who exercised could either walk on a treadmill or ride a stationary bicycle, although most chose to walk. The dieters reduced their caloric intake to achieve a 10% weight loss by the end of the four-month study period. The final group combined both the daily exercise and the diet.
The researchers measured how many calories the participants expended during a set work load on a stationary bicycle at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. They found that the:
? Exercise group expended fewer calories (became more efficient) on the exercise task at the end of the study compared to the beginning.? Exercise group drew more on fat stores as the source of their body?s fuel. ? Diet-only group did not gain efficiency in performing the exercise task, even though they weighed less at the end of the experiment.? Diet-only group?s weight loss resulted from a loss of both muscle and fat.? Exercise plus diet group was the most efficient at the exercise task at the end of the experiment. This shows an additive effect of both dieting and exercise, but most of that benefit was due to exercise.? Exercise plus diet group, like the exercise-only group, drew more on fat stores as an energy source.
?The take-home message is that, even among older people and during a fairly short period of time, exercise produces metabolic changes that require the expenditure of fewer calories during physical activity,? Goodpaster said. Exercise also allowed older people to more preferentially burn fat, which may be healthier metabolically.?
The study, ?Separate and combined effects of exercise training and weight loss on exercise efficiency and substrate oxidation,? appears in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, published by The American Physiological Society."

A Pill for Fitness!

http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/results.php?storyarticle=5978

Oh my! What next?

Text:

Is this the magic pill we have all been waiting for? Can you enjoy the benefits of exercise without the pain of exertion? Forget treadmills and spin classes? The answer may one day be yes ? just take a pill that tricks the muscles into thinking they have been working out furiously.
Researchers at the Salk Institute report they have found two drugs that do wonders for the athletic endurance of couch potato mice. One drug, known as Aicar, increased the mice's endurance on a treadmill by 44 percent after just four weeks of treatment.
A second drug, GW1516, supercharged the mice to a 75 percent increase in endurance, but had to be combined with exercise to have any effect.
"It's a little bit like a free lunch without the calories," said Dr. Ronald Evans, leader of the Salk group.
The results, Evans said, seem reasonably likely to apply to people, who control muscle tone with the same underlying genes as do mice. And if the drugs work and prove to be safe, they could be useful in a wide range of settings. They should help people who are too frail to exercise and those with health problems such as diabetes that are improved with exercise, he said.
Previous work with genetically engineered mice in the Evans lab had revealed that permanently activating a genetic switch known as PPAR delta turned mice into indefatigable marathon runners. In addition to their super-endurance, the altered mice were resistant to weight gain, even when fed a high-fat diet that caused obesity in ordinary mice. On top of their lean and mean physique, their response to insulin improved, lowering levels of circulating glucose.
But such muscle-enhancing drugs would also have obvious appeal to athletes seeking to gain an edge in performance. With funds from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Evans has devised test to detect whether an athlete has taken the drugs, and has made it available to the World Anti-Doping Agency, which prepares a list of forbidden substances for the International Olympic Committee.
Experts not involved in the study agreed that the drugs held promise for treating disease. Dr. Johan Auwerx, a specialist in metabolic diseases at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, said the result with the Aicar drug "looks pretty good' and could be very helpful in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. "The fact you can mimic exercise is a big advantage because diet and exercise are the pillars of diabetes treatment," he said.
Dr. Richard Bergman, an expert on obesity and diabetes at the University of Southern California, said the drugs could become widely used if they prove safe. "It is possible that the couch potato segment of the population might find this to be a good regimen, and of course that is a large number of people," he said.
The idea of a workout in a pill seems almost too good to be true, but Evans has impressive research credentials, including winning the Lasker award, which often presages a Nobel prize. He is an expert on how hormones work in cells, and on a powerful gene-controlling protein called PPAR-delta which instructs fat cells to burn off fat.
Four years ago he found that PPAR-delta played a different role in muscle. Muscle fibers exist in two main forms. Type 1 fibers have copious numbers of mitochondria, the organelles that generate the cell's energy, and are therefore resistant to fatigue. Type 2 fibers have fewer mitochondria and tire easily. Athletes have lots of Type 1 fibers, and people with obesity and diabetes have far fewer Type 1 and more Type 2 fibers.
Evans and his team found that PPAR-delta remodels the muscle, producing more of the high endurance type of fiber. They genetically engineered a strain of mice whose muscles produced extra amounts of PPAR-delta. These mice grew more Type 1 fibers and could run twice as far as on a treadmill as ordinary mice before collapsing.
Given that people cannot be improved in this way, Evans wondered if levels of the gene-controlling protein could be raised by drugs. Pharmaceutical companies have long tried to manipulate the protein because of its role in fat metabolism, and Evans found several drugs were already available, although they had been tested for different purposes.
In a report published in Cell, he describes the two drugs that successfully activate the muscle-remodeling system in mice. One, GW1516, activates PPAR-delta but the mice must also have exercise training to show increased endurance. It seems that PPAR-delta switches on one set of genes, and exercise another, and both sets are needed for great endurance.
The second drug, called Aicar, improves endurance without any training. Evans believes it both mimics the effects of exercise and activates PPAR-delta, thus being able to switch on both sets of genes needed for the endurance signal.
Aicar works by mimicking a by-product of energy metabolism, signaling the cell that it has burned off energy and needs to generate more. The drug is "pretty much pharmacological exercise," Evans said.
He said the drugs work off a person's own genetics, pushing the body to an improved set-point that is otherwise gained only by strenuous training. "This is not just a free lunch, it's pushing your genome toward a more enhanced genetic tone that impacts metabolism and muscle function. So instead of inheriting a great set-point you are using a drug to move your own genetics to a more activated metabolic state."
Aicar is a well known chemical that has been tested for various diseases since 1994. But neither Aicar nor GW1516 has been tested in people for muscle endurance so the health effects of the drugs, particularly over the long term, are not precisely known.
This may change if pharmaceutical companies pursue Evans's findings. "The drugs' effect on muscle opens a window to a world of medical problems," Evans said. "This paper will alert the medical community that muscle can be a therapeutic target."
The new drugs activate at least one of the pathways triggered by resveratrol, a substance found in red wine though in amounts probably too low to significantly affect muscle.
In 2006 Auwerx and colleagues showed that large doses of resveratrol would make mice run twice as far as usual on a treadmill before collapsing. It is unclear just how resveratrol works, but one of its effects may be to bind with a protein that helps activate PPAR-delta. Auwerx's resveratrol-treated mice remodeled their muscle fibers into a type that contains larger numbers of the energy-producing mitochondria.
This is the same result that Evans has found can be obtained with Aicar.
The study was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Hillblom Foundation and the National Institute of Health.? Journal Cell July 31th, 2008

Physiotherapy and Sports Massage

Finally bit the bullet and made an appointment at the Physiotherapy Centre (PTC) at Harbourfront (Harbourfront Tower 2, #04-01, T: 62717303). Had been having very bad upper back tightness for a number of months, which threatened to cramp up during the Sundown marathon. The region around the upper back, scapula and shoulders basically felt like a mass of knotted muscle. The physiotherapist was Chay Ling. We got into a conversation about whether I needed physiotherapy or a sports massage. It was an interesting exchange sort of just sussing out the difference. In any case, settled for a quick physio assessment followed by upper body sports massage where relevant.

She started by palpating and applying gentle pressure on the cervical vertebral spines, moving down one at a time. That felt very relaxing and began to relieve some tension in the shoulders. She then moved on to doing deep tissue massage on my upper back. Boy! Was the back a real mess! I had been feeling tight for a while but hadn't realised what a knotted mess it had become. It took here a long while to work through the individual muscle groups, slowly kneading out the stubborn knots. There was a particularly large and mean one on the left side just medial and inferior to the scapula. Took a long while (an a painful one) to get that out. At the end of it, set me back by $xx, well worth it.

This morning, took a fast run. Back and shoulders had not felt this good for a looonnnggg time! This will become part of my regular 'maintenance' checks, alongside my chiropractic visits.

Further to VO2 max, LT and RE

More information on the topic --> http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=13397

Physiology lesson 1.0Lactate threshold and running economy are more important than VO2 max. What It Means For You: Threshold training (tempo runs), high mileage, and power workouts are more important than long intervals, especially once your VO2 max has plateaued.While VO2 max (the maximum volume of oxygen your muscles can consume per minute) has received most of the attention among runners and coaches, a high VO2 max alone is not enough to attain elite-level performances; it simply gains one access into the club, since a runner cannot attain a high level of performance without a high VO2 max. But, while you can improve your VO2 max, it is largely genetically determined. The other two major physiological players of distance running performance -- lactate threshold (LT) and running economy (RE) -- exert a greater influence on your performance and are more responsive to training. I have tested many athletes with an elite-level VO2 max in the laboratory but few of them were capable of running at the elite or even sub-elite level because they did not have a high LT or were not very economical. From the time of the classic study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in 1979 by some of the most prominent names in exercise physiology (Farrell, Wilmore, Coyle, Billing, and Costill), research has shown that the LT is the best physiological predictor of distance running performance. This threshold demarcates the transition between running that is almost purely aerobic and running that includes significant oxygen-independent (anaerobic) metabolism. It represents the fastest speed you can sustain aerobically. (All running speeds have an anaerobic component, although at speeds slower than the LT, that contribution is negligible.) Since the LT represents your fastest sustainable pace, the longer the race, the more important your LT.Running Economy (RE) is the volume of oxygen consumed at submaximal speeds. In 1930, David Dill and his colleagues were among the first physiologists to suggest that there are marked differences in the amount of oxygen different athletes use when running at the same speeds, and that these differences in "economy" of oxygen use are a major factor explaining differences in running performance of athletes with similar VO2 max values. For example, research has shown that, while Kenyan runners have VO2 max and LT values similar to their American/European counterparts, the Kenyans are more economical, possibly due to their light, non-muscular legs that interestingly resemble those of thoroughbred race horses. The heavier your legs, the more oxygen it takes to move them.RE is probably even more important than the LT in determining distance running performance because it indicates how hard you're working in relation to your maximum ability to use oxygen. For example, if two runners have a VO2 max of 70 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute and an LT pace of 7 minutes per mile, but Jack uses 50 and Martin uses 60 milliliters of oxygen while running at 7:30 pace, the pace feels easier for Jack because he is more economical. Therefore, Jack can run faster before using the same amount of oxygen and feeling the same amount of fatigue as Martin. I have yet to see a runner who has superior RE who does not also have a high VO2 max and LT.1.1 Raise Your ThresholdSample workouts to raise your lactate threshold (LT):1. Continuous runs at LT pace, starting at about 3 miles and increasing up to 7 to 8 miles (or about 45 min.) for marathoners. 2. Intervals @ LT pace with short rest periods, such as 4 to 6 x 1 mile @ LT pace with 1 min. rest. 3. Shorter intervals at slightly faster than LT pace with very short rest periods, such as 2 sets of 4 x 1,000 meters @ 5 to 10 seconds per mile faster than LT pace with 45 seconds rest and two min. rest between sets.4. Long, slow distance runs with segments run at LT pace (for marathoners), such as 12 to 16 miles with last 2 to 4 miles @ LT pace or 2 miles + 3 miles @ LT pace + 6 miles + 3 miles @ LT pace.1.1a What's your LT Pace?LT pace is about 10 to 15 seconds per mile slower than 5K race pace (or about 10K race pace) for slower runners (slower than about 40 minutes for 10K). If using a heart rate (HR) monitor, the pace is about 75 to 80 percent of maximum HR. For highly trained and elite runners, LT pace is about 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than 5K race pace (or about 15 to 20 seconds per mile slower than 10K race pace) and corresponds to about 85 to 90 percent max HR. For many, it corresponds closely to the race pace they can sustain for one hour. The pace should feel "comfortably hard."

1.2 Improve your economyDespite its importance, running economy (RE) seems to be the most difficult of the three physiological players (LT, VO2 max and RE) to train. While many runners and coaches think that RE is a reflection of running form, it is more influenced by those microscopic structures that influence oxygen delivery to and use by the muscles -- capillaries and mitochondria, the densities of which are both enhanced with high mileage. Research has shown that runners who run high mileage (more than 70 miles per week) tend to be more economical, which leads one to believe that running high mileage improves RE. In addition to increasing mitochondrial and capillary density, the greater repetition of running movements may result in better biomechanics and muscle fiber recruitment patterns and a synchronization of breathing and stride rate, which may reduce the oxygen cost of breathing. RE may also be improved by the weight loss that often accompanies high mileage, which lowers the oxygen cost. Since VO2 max plateaus with about 70 to 75 miles per week, improved RE may be the most significant attribute gained from running high mileage. However, it's hard to prove cause and effect, since it is not entirely clear whether high mileage runners become more economical by running more miles or are innately more economical and can therefore handle higher mileage.Other forms of training, like intervals and tempo runs, can also improve RE since, as VO2 max and LT improve, the oxygen cost of any submaximal speed is also likely to improve. However, it is possible to become more economical without improving VO2 max or LT, as research on power training with very heavy weights and plyometrics has shown. Power training focuses on the neural, rather than the metabolic, component of muscle force development to improve RE.1.3 Boost Your VO2 maxWhile LT and RE are more important than VO2 max, you don't want to ignore your VO2 max, which is important to reach your running potential and is largely dictated by your stroke volume (the amount of blood your heart pumps with each contraction of its left ventricle) and cardiac output (the amount of blood pumped by your heart each minute). Long intervals provide the heaviest load on the cardiovascular system because of the repeated attainment of the heart's maximum stroke volume and cardiac output (and, by definition, your VO2 max). In lieu of a laboratory test to tell you the velocity at which VO2 max is achieved (vVO2 max), you can use current race performances or heart rate. vVO2 max is close to 1-mile race pace for recreational runners and close to 2-mile race pace (10 to 15 seconds per mile faster than 5K race pace) for highly trained runners. You should be within a few beats of your maximum heart rate by the end of each interval. Sample workouts to boost your VO2 max: 1. 3 x 1,200 meters (or 4-5 min.) @ vVO2 max with 3 to 4 min. recovery2. 4 x 1,000 meters (or 3-4 min.) @ vVO2 max with 2 to 3 min. recovery3. 6 x 800 meters (or 3 min.) @ vVO2 max with 2 to 3 min. recovery.Physiology lesson 2.0Runners with different muscle fibers have different strengths. What It Means For You: Tailor your training to match your muscle fiber composition.There are two types of runners -- those who have superior speed, whose performance gets better as the race gets shorter, and those who have superior endurance, whose performance gets better as the race gets longer. Despite this, most runners, unless they are individually coached, follow some generic training program. However, those programs don't acknowledge differences in runners' muscle fiber types and their associated metabolic profiles. The types of fibers that make up individual muscles greatly influence your performance.Humans have three different types of muscle fibers, with gradations between them (see Characteristics of the 3 Muscle Fiber Types). Slow-twitch (ST) fibers are recruited for all of your aerobic runs, while fast-twitch B (FT-B) fibers are only recruited for short anaerobic, high-force production activities, such as sprinting, hurdling, and jumping. Fast-twitch A (FT-A) fibers, which represent a transition between the two extremes of ST and FT-B fibers, are recruited for prolonged anaerobic activities with a relatively high-force output, such as racing 400 meters. It's a given that you have more ST fibers than FT fibers, otherwise you would be a sprinter rather than a distance runner. However, even within a group of distance runners, there is still a disparity in the amount of ST fibers. Some runners may have 90 percent ST and 10 percent FT fibers (marathoners), while others may have 60 percent ST and 40 percent FT fibers (milers).Understanding your fiber type can help you train smarter. While most runners do the same workouts to focus on a specific race, your training and racing should reflect your physiology. For example, if you have 90 percent ST and 10 percent FT fibers, your best race will likely be the marathon and your training should focus on mileage and tempo runs. If you have 60 percent ST and 40 percent FT fibers, your best race will likely be the 800m or mile, and your training should focus less on mileage and more on interval training. If both runners want to race a 5K or 10K, the former runner should initially do longer intervals, trying to get faster with training, such as 1,200m repeats at 5K race pace, increasing the speed to 3K race pace or decreasing the recovery as training progresses. The latter runner should do shorter intervals, trying to hold the pace for longer with training, such as 800m repeats at 3K race pace, increasing the distance to 1,200 meters or increasing the number of repeats as training progresses. Thus, there can be two paths to meet at the same point.2.1 What's Your (Muscle) Type?In lieu of a muscle biopsy to determine your exact muscle fiber type composition, ask yourself the following questions: 1. When you race, a) are you able to hang with your competitors during the middle stages, but get out-kicked in the last quarter to half-mile, or b) do you have a hard time maintaining the pace during the middle stages, but can finish fast and out-kick others? If you answered (a), you probably have more ST fibers. If you answered (b), you have more FT fibers.2. Which type of workouts feel easier and more natural -- a) long intervals (800m to mile repeats), long runs, and tempo runs, or b) short, fast intervals (200s and 400s)? If you answered (a), you have more ST fibers. If you answered (b), you have more FT fibers.3. Which workouts do you look forward to more -- a) long intervals and tempo runs, or b) short, fast intervals? If you answered (a), you have more ST fibers. If you answered (b), you have more FT fibers. (People tend to get excited about tasks at which they excel, while being more anxious about tasks that are difficult.)

Physiology lesson 3.0Metabolism is tightly regulated by enzymes and oxygen. What It Means For You: Develop your aerobic base and do sprint training to enhance enzyme activity that maximizes your running.Enzymes function as biological catalysts that speed up chemical reactions. In the absence of enzymes, chemical reactions would not occur quickly enough to generate the energy needed to run. The amount of an enzyme also controls which metabolic pathway is used. For example, having more aerobic enzymes will steer the metabolism toward a greater reliance on aerobic metabolism at a given submaximal speed. Enzymes are also activated or inhibited (e.g., their effectiveness in speeding up chemical reactions can be either increased or decreased), determining which metabolic pathways are functional during certain cellular conditions. Thus, enzymes essentially control metabolism and therefore control the pace at which you fatigue. A number of studies have documented an increase in enzyme activity in response to aerobic training. One of the first among these was published in 1967 in Journal of Biological Chemistry, in which aerobically trained rats increased mitochondrial enzyme activity, increasing the mitochondria's capacity to consume oxygen. More recently, a study published in Journal of Applied Physiology in 2006 found that citrate synthase (a key aerobic enzyme) activity significantly increased by 37 percent in novice runners after 13 weeks of training during which weekly mileage increased from 15 to 36.Similarly, sprint training induces changes in the anaerobic enzyme profile of muscles and also increases aerobic enzyme activity, particularly when long sprints or short recovery between short sprints are used. For example, a study published in Journal of Applied Physiology in 1998 found that sprint cycle training three times per week for seven weeks using 30-second maximum-effort intervals significantly increased both anaerobic and aerobic enzyme activity. Research on changes in enzyme activity with sprint running is currently lacking.Metabolism is also regulated by its patriarch -- oxygen. The availability of oxygen determines which metabolic pathway predominates. For example, at the end of the metabolic pathway that breaks down carbohydrates (glycolysis), there is a fork in the road. When there is adequate oxygen to meet the muscle's needs, the final product of glycolysis -- pyruvate -- is converted into an important metabolic intermediate that enters the Krebs cycle for oxidation. This irreversible conversion of pyruvate inside your muscles' mitochondria is a decisive reaction in metabolism since it commits the carbohydrates broken down through glycolysis to be oxidized by the Krebs cycle. However, when there is not adequate oxygen to meet the muscle's needs, pyruvate is converted into lactate. An associated consequence of this latter fate is the accumulation of metabolites and the development of acidosis, causing your muscles to fatigue and you to slow down. The more aerobically developed you are, by focusing on increasing your mileage and doing LT runs, the more you'll steer pyruvate toward the Krebs cycle and away from lactate production at a given pace. That's a good thing, because the amount of energy you get from pyruvate entering the Krebs cycle is 19 times greater than what you get from pyruvate being converted into lactate. While pyruvate will always be converted into lactate given a fast enough speed, the goal of training is to increase the speed at which that occurs.

Physiology lesson 4.0Carbohydrates are extremely important. What It Means For You: Don't neglect carbohydrates in your diet, particularly during recovery.The many proponents of diets like Atkins and South Beach would have the public believe that carbohydrates are some kind of poison. Don't listen to them. Carbohydrates are a runner's best friend. Carbohydrates are stored in our skeletal muscles and liver as glycogen, and are also found as sugar (glucose) in the blood. When we run, our bodies use a combination of blood glucose and glycogen as fuel to regenerate the high-energy chemical compound ATP through a process called glycolysis. Endurance performance is strongly influenced by the amount of pre-exercise muscle glycogen, with intense endurance exercise decreasing muscle glycogen content. Carbohydrates are so important that ingesting them during prolonged exercise can even delay fatigue. With the well-documented decrease in muscle glycogen content that accompanies endurance exercise, an empty-refill cycle becomes evident. Since your muscles prefer carbohydrates as fuel, a metabolic priority of recovering muscle is to replenish muscle glycogen stores. And the more your glycogen tank is emptied, the greater it's refilled. Empty a full glass, and you get a refilled larger glass in its place. It's a lot like college fraternity parties.Glycogen synthesis is controlled by the hormone insulin and the availability and uptake of glucose from the circulation. Insulin, which is secreted from the pancreas, is the primary signal for glycogen synthesis. Through its effect on proteins that transport glucose, insulin draws glucose from the blood into muscle cells. Glucose is then used to make new glycogen, which is simply a branched chain of glucose molecules. The higher the blood insulin concentration and the greater the availability of glucose, the faster glycogen is synthesized and stored. How do you increase insulin concentration and make glucose available? Consume carbohydrates.4.1 Got carbs?Research has shown that the synthesis of glycogen between training sessions occurs most rapidly if carbohydrates are consumed immediately after exercise. Indeed, delaying carbohydrate ingestion for just two hours after a workout significantly reduces the rate at which muscle glycogen is resynthesized and stored. While research suggests that you should consume 0.7 gram of simple carbohydrates (preferably glucose) per pound of body weight (which equals about 7.5 eight-ounce glasses of Gatorade or 3.5 glasses of chocolate milk for a 150-pound runner) within 30 minutes after you run and every two hours for four to six hours to maximize the rate of glycogen synthesis, you don't have to get it all back right away since glycogen will continue to be resynthesized over the 24 hours between workouts. Despite the many highly advertised commercial sports drinks, any drink that contains a large amount of glucose is great for recovery. For example, my research published in International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism in 2006 showed that chocolate milk is just as good or better than other recovery drinks after exhausting exercise. While some studies have found that consuming carbohydrates and protein together also speeds muscle glycogen storage, others have not found this to be the case. The total amount of calories consumed seems to be more important for recovery than the carbohydrate-protein mix. While immediate post-workout carbohydrate ingestion is the best strategy for optimal performance, it may not be the best strategy for runners specifically preparing for the marathon, a race which requires the largest glycogen storage capacity possible, a very efficient capacity to make new glucose, and a very effective system of fat use. Molecular evidence suggests that the opposite strategy -- holding out on the muscles by delaying the consumption of carbohydrates -- may be even more beneficial. By "starving" the muscles of carbohydrates, they are forced to use fat more effectively and even more glycogen may be synthesized when carbohydrates are finally introduced. Low muscle glycogen content has been shown to enhance the transcription of genes involved in protein synthesis. Think of this strategy as creating a threat to the muscles' survival: When you threaten the survival of muscles by depriving them of their preferred fuel, a strong signal is sent to make more of that fuel to combat the threat and to use other sources of fuel more effectively. The downside to training in a low-glycogen state, however, is that it's hard to maintain a high intensity since such high-intensity running is dependent on carbohydrates for fuel. A lot more research needs to be done in this area, but if you're going to try training with low muscle glycogen, make sure you consume lots of carbs before your marathon, so you "train low, race high."

Storm in a Sponsorship teacup?

Link here --> http://www.sgrunners.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8396&st=0

Looks to me that Adidas is acting ungraciously here. Oh well, probably some central corporate policy that the local office can't get around.

Postscript: Can't understand why some people are so quick to judge others and then pull the trigger and post. I mean, did either of those guys even know Jeanette or her motivations? Speaking in a vacuum of ignorance, the scourge of modern anonymous internet posting.

Compression Garments

Whoever said running was cheap?? Take a popular activity and you can be sure some corporation will find some way to make money out of it. In my previous life, shoes were 'permanent', i.e. you threw them away when you wore a hole where your toes were and when the sole split from the upper. Throw away after 500k?? That borders on being disposable, how ridiculous.

Anyhow, we stand helpless against the march of consumerism. That HRM cum GPS device looks really space age and cool, maybe the next gen will have teleportation technology. That new shoe with xyz compound that returns 99.9% of the impact energy, how can I not improve my PB by 20 minutes? Oh yeah, you hear about that new protein/electrolyte mix that not only corrects all imbalances but actually builds muscle as you run!

I digress........

So, this new fangled (maybe not so new) compression garment stuff. $140 a pop, that's more expensive than any single piece of clothing I have ever bought in my life (ok call me a cheapo). But does it work?

So I get a pair of Skins long tights from a guy over the net, and put it on for the first time at the SgRunners 30k fam run. For one thing, it looks really cool! Score one for drool factor. When I show up, whoa.....Skins parade! Everyone and everyone's uncle was in compression tights. I must say, no matter what body shape you are, the compression garments do a flattering job, and some of the ladies looked......errr........delicious

Run wise, the Skins wore comfortably over the 30k, but I can't really say for sure if there were any performance improvements. However, there did not appear to be much of the delayed muscle soreness that accompanies such runs for me.

Not convinced, I ask DO to get me a pair of 2XU compression tights. So, 2 days later, I run out to SAFRA MF and pick it up from him, then run back home (7k) at sub-10k pace. Put on the 2XU immediately after a shower and wear it around for most of the day and through the night. So all in all, had run about 55k in 4 days, about a third of it at sub-10k pace, a training volume that would typically leave me significantly achy. Had worn compression tights for one of the long runs, and again following the last hard run for ca. 18 hours. Post run recovery seemed to be significantly enhanced.

Conclusions: In my personal experience, I cannot say for certain that the compression clothing confers any kind of performance enhancement DURING a run, but I certainly do feel that post-race recovery is enhanced. This will help with increasing training frequency and intensity, at the very least.

So, is it worth it? .... ;)

Training for Higher Performance (Guy Oden)

This was a seminar organised by a few of the SgRunners gang (thanks PS!), for the evening of the 28th of May. The speaker was Guy Oden, an accomplished runner in his own right, and now a running coach to a number of high level local runners. Overall, I thought it was an excellent presentation which put together in a logical and easily digestible format, training priorities to gain a runner precious minutes in a long distance race. As such, there was not much that was particularly novel, but having it laid out logically and having some main points reinforced was, to me at least, well worth the 90 minutes of time and $7.50 fee. With due respect to the speaker, I won't pliagiarise his material here, so I'll hit some of the highlights, and if want to know more, I guess you are free to sign up with him!

His opening slides basically spoke two 2 key elements for improved performance: 1) Running Economy and 2) Lactate Threshold


1) Running Economy

The key to improved running economy, in his opinion, is core stability, shorter contact time, and longer stride length (not overstriding!).

He proceeded to show a video clip of a Kenyan 1500m race. What was evident was the ramrod straight running posture of the upper bodies with very little side-to-side and up-and-down excursion, and mind you, these guys were running fast! So, no stray movements to detract from the primary aim of running, which is the propulsion of the body in the forward direction with the minimal expenditure of energy.

He proceeded to show clips on how to build core stability, including planks, plyometrics, weight work etc. Check with Guy or his trainees if you'd like more details!

Going into shorter contact time (meaning footstrike, I believe), and longer stride length, he spoke about the need for improved elastic recoil (bounce). Some of the techniques he then demonstrated and showed via video were the use of dynamic stretching, skipping and hill reps.



Next, he went into the second key element, 2) Lactate Threshold.

Training the right energy systems was the key. He started off by saying that in his opinion, VO2 max training was not the right energy system for long distance perfromance, and training for fast 400s is irrelevant for long distance runner. He also said that the occasions whereby a photo-finish occurred for a long race like a marathon were extremely rare. Given the recent furore in the forum about 'finishing fast', to me it just banged the nail on the head! More on that later.

The best bang for the buck, for Guy, was to train to improve one's 5K and 10K times. And with some additional long distance specific 'bridging' training, it would translate to a meaningful improvement in marathon race times. He went into specifics about interval training, different types of long runs, race pace conditioning etc.

In summary, 4 elements to be applied in training;

1) Long run (changing from easy aerobic type early in training cycle to race pace conditioning later on)
2) Race specific track sessions
3) Lactate Threshold training (5k/10k type)
4) Strength, Plyometrics

He ended by saying that marathoners are like cats, with a limited number of lives (or races, as the case may be). He advised that if we desired to have meaningfully fast runs, that we be selective about the races we partake. The bodies can only absorb so many marathon distance races run hard.

So, a very nice session overall, and good to see some familiar faces.

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Editorial:

I have managed to ruffle a few feathers recently with my posts on the forum, so if you think you might be likely to disagree with what I write and are the easily-ruffled type, read no further!

I had a few takeaways from this session. Number 1) I am a really lousy runner! Number 2) I really need a coach (see No.1). Guy was basically using 4min/k as his reference point. I think the last time I did 4min/k was for a 2.4k run, not 42.2k.

Seriously, core training is something most of us ignore. I used to do some of it when I was practising a little more seriously for badminton, but having gone into running a lot more, have given up my gym ball and doing things like planks, lunges. That is something I will pen down to do in my next training cycle.

3 Other little Nuggets:

'Finishing fast': Hah! As Guy puts it, if you come into the end of the race and the guy is 200m ahead of you with 400m to go, even a world record 400m run won't save you. As it were, close finishes even at the highest elite level of marathoning are rare. That being the case, if you were interested in improving your marathon times, you were far better off investing your energy in LT type training than fast 400s. If I may add my personal note, if you had enough energy for a fast finish at the end of the long race, you probably haven't been very smart in pacing in the first place. Personally I am convinced that training for a fast finish has little relevance for any level of marathoner if the only consideration is a fast marathon time, and of limited relevance even if placement were the priority. It is but one tool in the kit, and not a very useful one at that for that distance.

'Cramps': A participant asked about cramps in his calves. Guy's response was that if it were localised muscle cramps, it was likely due to a biomechanical issue leading to fatigue. No mention of electrolyte issues. As per my previous posts on the issue, by and large muscular cramps of this nature are due to fatigue of the muscles and nothing to do with electrolyte imbalance. As such, my personal opinion is that for distances of marathon and below, salt supplementation in the form of tablets is pretty useless.

'Races': Guy says we should 'pace' ourselves as far as race participation. Well, there was a stampede to sign up for the 84k when it opened wasn't it? I think some of the less experienced and less strong runners are setting themselves up for serious injury, perhaps to the extent that they will disavow from running in the future. I mean, proposing to be on your feet overnight for 9-12 hours is not kids stuff and the risk of significant physiological/musculoskeletal insult is not trivial. No regrets bailing on the longer distance.

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Edit 30th May;

I am adding additional info from Philip posted from the SgRunners forum, presenting a different point of view on VO2 max and LT. I guess the last word on this has yet to be written.

Not being at the talk, it is very difficult to comment on the points Guy Oden brought across unless I hear it personally but base on your summary, there are quite a fair bit of points which I do not agree on base on what papers had more or less laid down and a common point that I wish to draw out is: how would an individual know that he has reached his highest limit in improving VO2max? Let us dissect it part by part and understand what literature has shown us:1) It is well accepted in mine field that several years of consistent endurance training at sub-maximal intensity is needed before an active endurance athlete (vo2max of 45 - 55) can attain values of about 60 or more (Ekblom, 1969). Such is achieved through high mileage work of low intensity. We are looking at about 100 to 130km per week.2) After reaching about 60ml/kg/min, endurance performance is no longer improved by further increase in submaximal training volume (Londeree, 1997). From here, it is pretty clear that a) the cap to Vo2max in an ordinary individual is not reached fairly rapidly, a reasonably well value (60ml/kg/min) can be attain through CONSISTENT submax yet high volume training. Important point athlete should ask yourself now "Do I have a mileage base of 100km a week? Otherwise, how can I be sure I have reached the max potential of mine aerobic capacity?"3) After which from this stage, to further improve, high intensity work in the form of high intensity interval training (HIIT) can start coming. Even among well-trained endurance athletes (Vo2max >65), HIIT has been shown to be able to continue improve their VO2max by an average of 5%. Those interested can go read up works by Dr Paul Laursen; pple in this field and seasoned-cyclist would know this legend of HIIT research. 4) Even (though I have yet to seen) if you are an athlete who has fulfiled point 2 and 3, the next question coming in would be "how often do you conduct your HIIT?". If you merely did 12 weeks of 10x800m once a week and you declare that you have hit your highest limit of your Vo2max improvement, well its time for you to go back to the drawing table. Even for elites to elicit improvements through HIIT after attaining a good VO2max values, they have to attempt on the average 3 times per week of HIIT training. Point to note till this point: If once a week dont work, then do it twice a week, its fine.5) Till now we are still trying to understand what is the optimal intensity, duration, recovery to work ratio that HIIT should be performed for HIIT program optimisation. Billat, Plechet and Petit (1999) reckons 50% of Tmax (time to exhaustion at the minimum velocity to elicit a stage of VO2max) is optimal while Laursen (2001) felt it should be 60% Tmax. And playing around with these different components of HIIT does result in different level of adaptations in VO2max. Point to note: Are you even manipulating your intervals variables before declaring your Vo2max is plateaued? Hence VO2max training through HIIT is still one of the or if not the most valuable component an endurance athlete can invest his/her mileage in. It is true that training your lactate threshold improves your fractional utilization or the ability to use a greater proportion of your VO2max before the accumulation of blood lactate. But I believe the question to be asked here is "If I dont have a good VO2max, no matter how much lactate threshold training I do, there's only to so much % of Vo2max I can utilize". Let's understand that from the analogy of the Car engine and the Driver. VO2max is likened to the engine of a car. The greater the engine, the stronger the car. Lactate threshold is likened to the Driver of the car. A runner with a poor lactate threshold is like a 20 year old NS-boi who just got his license and drives with a P-plate while a runner with a good lactate threshold is a professional F1-Driver. If both drivers are given a damm solid car (insert watever model you like) of say 2.5 liters engine, due to lack of skills and experience (read:low threshold), the Ns-boi boi can never fully utilize the car to its max speed it can handle b4 wear and tear starts setting in. But the professional driver with all that years of racing and drifting (read: high threshold) would be able to confidently ramp the speed up to 160km per hr n take it for a spin. BUT. What if in the scenario whereby a 2nd hand 1.5 liter engine family car (read:low VO2max) is given to the professional driver? No matter how zhai his skills are, the max speed a 1.5liter car can generate b4 wear and tear stills settling in can never outdo that of a 2.5 liters car. Personally, if you ask me what I think of lactate threshold training, I would think it looks good in theory, but its not what you see in reality. Quoting the words of mine role model, Exercise Physiologist Frankie Tan, "The lactate threshold is nothing but a mere blackhole which sucks the athlete in"... these words 4ever echoing in mine mind. oops better stop here b4 pple think this not-a-runner but just a scientist talks too much.


ReferencesBillat, V.L., Flechet, B., & Petit, B. (1999). Interval training at Vo2max: effects on aerobic performance and overtraining markers. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31, 156 - 163.Ekblom, B. (1969).

Effect of physical training on oxygen transport system in man. Acta Physiol Scand, 328, 1045.Laursen, P.B. & Jenkins, D.G. (2001). The scientific basis of high intensity interval training. Sports Medicine, 32, 1 - 22.Londeree, B.R. (1997).

Effects of training on lactate/ventilatory threshold: a meta-analysis. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29, 837 - 843.