Top Indoor Workouts To Improve Your Running This Winter

Written by: Matt Fitzgerald and Brad Culp

January 27, 2010

Over the past few days we’ve presented a series of indoor workouts aimed at improving your swim, bike and run during the winter months. In the final article we’ll focus on three key workouts to improve your run.

Sprinkle these three workouts throughout your indoor training program this winter to become a better runner come spring:

There’s nothing wrong with doing steady, moderate-intensity base runs on a treadmill, and in fact if you run indoors frequently over the winter, most of those runs should take this form. But you’ll also want to mix in some more interesting workouts, such as these three.

Read full article: 'Top Indoor Workouts To Improve Your Running This Winter' (2580 bytes more)

Spirulina Increases Exercise Performance

By: Natural Products Insider

Posted on: 02 Feb 2010

Spirulina supplementation induced a significant increase in exercise performance, fat oxidation and glutathione (GSH) concentration, and attenuated the exercise-induced increase in lipid peroxidation, according to an article published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2010;42(1):142-151). Nine moderately trained males took part in a double blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced crossover study. Each subject received either 6 g/d of spirulina or placebo for four weeks. Each subject ran on a treadmill at an intensity corresponding to 70 percent to75 percent of their VO2max for two hours0 and then at 95 percent VO2max to exhaustion.

Read full article: 'Spirulina Increases Exercise Performance' (861 bytes more)

Busy Bodies: Give your running routine some power

By KELLY GONZALEZ

Published 01/17/10

Remember the glory days when you first started running?

It was exciting and challenging. You adorned yourself in new gear, Googled running tips, programs and races, achieved a new personal record at every race, and best of all, the excess pounds just melted away.

Well, time has trickled by, the peace you once achieved during long weekend runs has become more of a chore than meditative movement, new gear has worn your wallet thin, those personal records are at a standstill, and no matter how many miles you run those last 5 pounds seem to have applied for permanent residency.

When you feel powerless in your training, stuck in the same old routine year after year, at a dead end with nowhere to go, what do you do?

Read full article: 'Busy Bodies: Give your running routine some power' (4883 bytes more)

Tips for Boosting Your Memory: Running, Blueberries?

By KI MAE HEUSSNER

Jan. 22, 2010

Could you run your way to a better memory?

Maybe so.

Earlier this week, scientists published a study adding more fuel to the growing belief that exercise boosts brain health.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and conducted by the U.S. National Institute on Aging in Maryland, found that running led to the growth of new brain cells and improved performance.

Read full article: 'Tips for Boosting Your Memory: Running, Blueberries?' (4172 bytes more)

Less running, more recovery as you taper for marathon

by Brom Hoban

Monday, Jan. 25, 2010

The Austin Marathon is less than three weeks away now, and prospective marathoners are thinking about how to handle final preparations.

In recent years, the value of the traditional three-to-four week "taper" has been questioned. Runners who cut back sharply on running and avoid fast workouts often find themselves getting sluggish and irritable.

Today the traditional pre-marathon taper has been replaced by the concept of "peaking" for the marathon.

Read full article: 'Less running, more recovery as you taper for marathon' (2780 bytes more)

A Best Friend, Yes. Best Runner, Maybe Not.

Brandon Thibodeaux

January 20, 2010

A MAN’S friend is not always his best choice of a running partner. The same can be said of man’s best friend. Some Dogs Are Bred to Go the Distance and Some Aren’t

It’s a lesson that Michelle Powe, an English teacher in Midlothian, Tex., learned last summer when trying to run with Mookie, her 90-pound Catahoula.

“He kept trying to herd me,” she recalled. For the entire three-mile run, Mookie displayed the kind of herding behavior that is typical for the breed, throwing his weight against Ms. Powe and nipping at her legs.

“By the end of it, my knees were sore from having 90 pounds constantly bumping into me,” she said. “It was fun for other people to watch, but not so much for me.”

Read full article: 'A Best Friend, Yes. Best Runner, Maybe Not' (5775 bytes more)

The Lactic Acid Myths

by Matt Fitzgerald

January 26, 2010

Everything you’ve been taught about lactic acid is wrong.

There are many myths about lactic acid.  Perhaps the greatest of all is the notion that there is lactic acid in the human body.  There is not.  The body actually produces lactate, which is lactic acid minus one proton.

The difference between lactic acid and lactate is, for all practical purposes, semantic.  But other popular beliefs about lactic acid (or, as I will properly call it from this point forward, lactate) are about as wrong as wrong can be.  Most triathletes believe that lactate is an end product of anaerobic muscle metabolism that causes local muscle fatigue by increasing the acidity of the tissues to the point where they no longer can function effectively.  In fact, we now know that lactate is an intermediate link between anaerobic and aerobic muscle metabolism that serves as both a direct and indirect fuel for muscle contraction and delays fatigue in a couple of different ways.

Our new understanding of the nature and function of lactate is interesting to all athletes who are curious about how the human body works.  But does it make any practical difference?  Does the new science of lactate suggest a different approach to training than the old science did?  I would suggest that it does call for a subtle tweaking of the standard approach to endurance training, but no major overhaul.  Before we get to that, however, let’s take a closer look at how the classic beliefs about lactate were exposed as myths and replaced by an almost opposite explanation.

Read full article: 'The Lactic Acid Myth' (13940 bytes more)

Tai Chi + Running = A whole new level of training

By BRYAN ANGELO GARCIA

January 23, 2010, 2:54pm

From the moment a child gains wits and develops balance, his or her natural instinct is to break out and run. It’s natural, liberating, and fun.  This habit is carried on later in life.  Thus running, apart from a staple practice in exercises and conditioning,  has become a family event.

However, as years pass, the tolls of running manifests itself in many different ways. As regular runners would testify, the body gradually breaks down due to wear and tear. Injuries are common from the waist down.

Recently, there has been a movement geared towards educating the running public of the proper way to run. This practice is called “Chi Running,” a combination of the flow and balance of Tai Chi and the power and endurance of running.

Read full article: 'Tai Chi + Running = A whole new level of training' (5603 bytes more)

Relying on the buddy system

By Joanne Kempinger Demski

Jan. 26, 2009 

Exercise partner can help keep workouts on track

For some exercisers, the hardest part of the workout is just getting to the gym. They must ignore that chocolate cake in the fridge or step away from the television and its new batch of "American Idol" contestants.

For others, the problem may be finding the motivation to do more than chat near the gym's water fountain once they get there.

Fortunately, there is a cure for these ailments: Hook up with a workout partner.

Read full article: 'Relying on the buddy system' (6103 bytes more)

The ABCs of strength training

By Amy O'Brian

January 25, 2009

Grace and endurance are likely the first things that come to mind when thinking about the feather-light runners who are first to sprint across the Sun Run finish line every year.

The elite runners glide across the pavement seemingly without effort, their slender legs reaching easily for every next step. Their heads barely moving and their torsos remaining upright, they betray little sign of exhaustion.

But their sinew and style has not come without effort. Strength training is key to the performance of any elite runner. And it is a smart addition to the workout routine of a new runner, too.

Read full article: 'The ABCs of strength training' (4144 bytes more)