Amby’s Top Picks From 2024

Published: Dec 13, 2024 1:07 pm

Amby Burfoot

Amby Burfoot

Boston Marathon Winner, Veteran Running Journalist

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I was busy with a range of work and family projects this week. Rather than skipping an RLRH, I decided to review my favorite articles from the first half of 2024. You will have seen some of these before. That’s okay. The best stuff is always worth reviewing. And maybe it will sink in deeper this time. Amby

12 Essential Truths About Endurance Training

Physiologist Stephen Seiler is U.S.-born but has been living and working in Norway for a long time. He’s generally credited as the father of the 80/20 training program. Below, he “distills” what he has learned from 30 years of engaging in, studying, and teaching endurance physiology. It’s as good a list of training truths as you’ll find.

Among them are a couple of my favorites: “Training is an optimization challenge, not a maximization challenge.” And: “Great coaches and athletes are not afraid of ‘intelligent failures.’ ” Also: “Physiology is COMPLEX, but training prescriptions should NOT be.”

Finally, don’t miss number 12. It tells you how to put the training pieces together. Which is, of course, the crux of the entire process. More at X/Stephen Seiler.

Fuel Your Performance: A New Carbo-Loading Formula

Meghann Featherstun’s marathon reports, especially the precise steps she follows to carbo load sufficiently, are always detailed, informative, and just a little bit funny. It’s a good combination.

In April, she flew to London to complete her 6-star journey of the Abbott World Marathon Majors. London worried her. How was she going to carbo load for 3 days (her preferred time frame) in a city not known for its bagels?

The long flight from her West Coast home to England didn’t help. She snacked on pretzels, granola bars, and peanut butter M&Ms.

The next morning, she tried to run a couple of miles but felt so awful she turned around after a mile and walked back. She began eating more granola bars, crumpets and jam, and sourdough pizza. Featherstone always keeps graham crackers close at hand pre-marathon, and she also snacked on these.

On marathon morning, she “set an alarm for 6 am, ordered coffee, and started eating my graham crackers in bed.”

It turns out she’s got a simple, useful formula for carbs on marathon morning. She advises consuming enough grams of carbs to equal one-half your body weight (in pounds). If you weigh 150 lbs, you should aim for 75 grams of carbs (300 calories).

During the 2024 London Marathon, Featherstone consumed: “70 gm carbs/hour + 325 mg sodium/hour + 10 oz fluid/hour.” She also took a caffeine gel 10 minutes before the start and after 50 minutes of running.

She finished in a strong 2:53:43, her 4th fastest marathon. That time was 65 minutes faster than her first marathon in 2009. She must be eating something right. More at Featherstone Nutrition.

You’re Already Fit, Here’s How To Get Even Faster

How can you keep improving, even after being in very good shape? It’s not easy. After all, the “law of diminishing returns” sets in at some point.

Some believe you need to apply a little “shock therapy” at this juncture. A dash of sprint training could be just what you need.

That proved to be an excellent decision in this experiment with 19 college runners. As varsity athletes, they were already in top shape.

Researchers put roughly half of them in a “sprint training” group. They did sprint sessions twice a week for six weeks. The control group continued their normal training.

Result: The control-group runners didn’t improve during the 6-week period. However, the sprint-trained runners got faster at distances from 100 meters to 3,000 meters.

Conclusion: “A 6-week sprint training improved both sprint and long-distance running performance.” How? “The enhancement of long-distance running performance could be attributable to improved anaerobic capacity.” More at International J of Sports Physiology & Performance.

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