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Your Best Long-Run Distance & Pace
We’re smack-dab in the middle of the fall marathon-training season now, so of course runners everywhere are asking those eternal questions: How long should I run on my long runs? And how fast?
There’s no universally intelligent answer to that question except for “It depends.” (Sorry.) It depends on many key factors relating to your current training, your fitness, your prior marathon experience, your goals, and so on.
This article delves into these questions, and adds an important reminder: Hey, it’s not only about long runs. Other factors are also important, particularly your total weekly mileage and number of runs per week.
But back to long runs. There’s general agreement among top marathon coaches like Jack Daniels that you should run no more than 2.5 to 3 hours on a long run. Beyond that, the fatigue mounts, and your form and muscle strength disintegrate. Result: The potential risk of injury is greater than your potential endurance improvement.
What about the pace question? Many runners go long at a relaxed, comfortable pace, and save faster running for tempo and speedwork days. However, marathon-pace training seems to be getting more popular all the time.
To do that correctly, you have to make sure you are training and not racing your long runs. Here’s a practical approach: Do one several modest sections of your long run at marathon pace while keeping the other miles slower. More at Marathon Handbook.
That Olympic Marathon Cooling Band Fails Research Test
If you were looking closely at the Paris Olympic Marathons a month ago, you couldn’t help but notice some strange head wraps. In particular, Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan appeared to be wearing radiator-like headbands from Omius.
Sifan won the women’s marathon, but Kipchoge dropped out, so we don’t have much proof of concept between the two of them. Also, a new research paper gives the Omius device a “thumbs down.”
On its website, Omius claims: “Using thermally conductive and porous graphite, and a patented coating, the Omius technology increases the evaporative surface area of the skin by as much as 7x. This amplifies the body's natural cooling mechanism and dramatically increases comfort and performance in hot conditions and during strenuous exercise.”
The research trial put 10 “trained runners” through a rigorous protocol to see if the Omius headband boosted their performance. After a 70 minute easy run in a hot, humid lab, the runners completed a 5K time trial going as hard as they could.
They ran one time with the Omius headband, and another time with a sham headband. They didn’t know and couldn’t tell the difference between the two.
Result: “Time trial performance did not significantly differ” between the Omius band and the sham band.
Conclusion: “In conclusion, Omius improves forehead thermal comfort and reduces forehead temperature but not rectal temperature, heart rate and perceived exertion during, nor 5-km time trial performance after 70 minutes of easy running in the heat.” More at J of Thermal Biology.
Don’t Underestimate The Severity Of Ankle Sprains
Every runner sprains an ankle at one time or another. These sprain don’t always occur while you’re running--it’s easy to sprain an ankle on the stairs at home or work, or while walking on an uneven sidewalk--but they present an obstacle to your continued training.
Too often the problem is compounded, because we tend to underestimate the severity and longer-term issues relating to ankle sprains.This is a mistake, according to a new systematic review and meta-analysis of ankle sprains in runners.
It notes that “a substantial proportion of people who undergo an ankle sprain experience injury recurrence and long-lasting symptoms that form chronic ankle instability, and may lead to ankle osteoarthritis.”
You can’t easily prevent accidental ankle sprains, but you can be more aware of when and how they occur. The new paper looked at the percent of runners who sprained an ankle during various kinds of running.
The percentages ranged from a low of 8.5% in distance runners to 27.07% in cross-country to 67.42 % in track. (I don’t fully understand this last figure, but suspect it relates to sprinters and hurdlers.)
Conclusion: “Running practice results in a significant proportion-rate of ankle sprains. Recreational runners exhibit a higher proportion than elites.” More at Physical Therapy in Sport.
Additional material: Here’s the Position Stand of the National Athletic Trainers Association on managing and preventing ankle sprains. (With free full text.)
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
# Surprising secret to choosing the best super shoe for you
# The genius of Percy Cerutty’s “Stotan” training system
# The enduring mystery of optimal recovery
# Astounding! Another paper supports carbon monoxide to boost endurance
# The miracle of exercise vs breast cancer
# A high-tech insole can help you change your running form
# Forget about BMI. There’s a better body composition measure--Body Roundness
# Keira D’Amato explains how she became America’s second-fastest female marathon runner
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby