Here’s your free but abridged version of this week’s “Run Long, Run Healthy” newsletter. Subscribe below to receive the complete, full-text edition with the newest and most authoritative scientific articles on training, nutrition, shoes, injury prevention, and motivation.
Biology Of Training: Do You Need More Miles Or More Speed?
Most runners like daily workout plans. They tell us what we’re supposed to do today.
We also appreciate the importance of tomorrow, the rest of the week, and next month. They help us see where we are headed and the path to get there.
But sometimes, it’s helpful to zoom up to 10,000 feet to see the larger forces at work—the biological forces.
For example, two primary aims of endurance training are to increase muscle mitochondria and blood vessel capillaries. It would be nice to know the “Effects of Exercise Training on Mitochondrial and Capillary Growth in Human Skeletal Muscle: A Systematic Review and Meta‑Regression.” Hence, this mind-boggling paper.
Let’s simplify a bit. More mitochondria lead to greater and more efficient energy production. More capillaries lead to greater oxygen delivery. Put them together, and you can run farther and faster.
Next, we ask the ultimate training question: What kinds of workouts boost mitochondria and capillaries? This paper investigates this question.
Let’s look at capillaries first, as we will abandon this pathway quickly. Why? Because: “Gains in capillarization occurred primarily in the early stages of training (the first four weeks) and were only observed in untrained to moderately trained participants.”
If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re probably not a beginner runner. So, you should narrow your training focus to mitochondrial gains.
However, if you’re advising someone on how to increase capillarization in their beginning running efforts, tell them to take it slow and steady. That sort of effort “is more effective in increasing capillary density” than hard intervals.
Now, let’s move to your own quest for mitochondrial gains. Should you increase your weekly mileage or put more emphasis on speed work?
The answer, essentially, is both. In any given 60 minutes, the more speedwork you do, the greater the payoff in “mitochondrial content.”
However, the same can be said about more training. Higher training frequencies were also “associated with larger increases in mitochondrial content.” Six training sessions a week were superior to four, which were superior to two.
Where does this leave us in putting together a training program rather than a biology lesson? Bottom line: “Training load (intensity × volume)” is the “most suitable predictor” of a successful approach. This means “that higher exercise intensities can compensate for lower training volumes, and vice versa.”
The more you run and the faster you run, the greater your chances for improvement. But you can’t run long and fast all the time, so you have to find the balance that’s most effective in your own life and training. More at Sports Medicine with free full text.
RELATED ARTICLE: How Many Miles Should I Run A Week? Find your Optimal Mileage
Planks Are Great For Core Strength, But Variety Is Better
It’s hard to argue against planks as a great core-strength exercise. They’re simple, safe, and effective, which is why I do them every day.
Now, I’m thinking I should add more variety to my routine. As this article points out, planks don’t do much for the dynamic stability you need when running over uneven surfaces or perhaps getting thrown off balance.
To increase dynamic stability, you need to move while maintaining a strong, balanced position. Extra points if you can do this while standing on one leg, as in exercise number seven, the “Kettlebell Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift.”
Here are nine exercises, with clear illustrations, that can help you build your dynamic core stability. More at Outside Online.
RELATED ARTICLE: 20 Awesome Plank Variations To Shred Your Core
RIP: Barrier-Breaking 108-Yr Old Julia Hawkins
We all have a few age-group heroes—runners in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond—who inspire us. When we reach the same landmark decades, we hope to be as energetic, youthful, and joyful.
But Julia Hawkins stood alone. In recent years, when she entered the USATF Masters Track Championships, she forced the organization to recognize a new age group: 105+.
Hawkins died last week at 108, receiving a full-fledged obituary in the NY Times and articles in many other media. One listed her 5 “longevity tips.”
I particularly appreciated the last two: 1) Find the “magic moments” in life 2) Marry the right partner.
Older individuals need to have “magic moments and passions to look forward to, something to be ready for, something to care about,” she said.
Julia and her husband, Murray Hawkins, were married for seven decades. She met him on her first day in college and later said, “As soon as I saw him, I knew that was the person I wanted to spend my life with.” More at Business Insider.
You can learn more about Julia Hawkins from her memoir, It’s Been Wondrous.
RELATED ARTICLE: Do Runners Live Longer? Up To 12 Years, According to New Research
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.
- Run hard to reduce hangover effects
- Build stride strength for more stamina and fewer injuries
- 11 rules of marathon recovery
- Women face fear & violence. Some safety strategies can help
- Are veggie burgers good for your health? What about planetary health?
- 5 strategies, one quite surprising, to boost your endurance
- A post-lunch nap increases performance & cognitive function
- A great Albert Einstein quote about moving onward
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby
