A beer at the finish line is something of a running tradition. Move it to the starting line, and you have a pretty good research question. If you give the same runner half an hour to cover as much ground as possible, how much difference does the alcohol actually make? Sixteen physically active men each … Read more

Imagine doing ten 300-meter intervals today, then coming back to do them again tomorrow. That’s the kind of week when I’d be most tempted by an ice bath. It’s also a good time to ask what those 15 cold minutes buy you. Seventeen recreational male runners completed two five-day training blocks with one rest day … Read more

Suppose you gave a lab a vial of blood from each of two runners and told them one had a faster 3K. Could they spot a difference? If so, would that give the slower runner anything worth changing? Researchers took fasting blood samples from 141 men aged 28–40 living in a cold region and measured … Read more

You know the feeling when the pace on your watch looks fine, but your stride feels different from what it was at the start? Twelve trained trail runners—six women and six men—spent more than three and a half hours on a treadmill helping researchers put a number on that feeling.1Cartón-Llorente, A., García-Pinillos, F., & Jaén-Carrillo, … Read more

Can an easy run really tell you how efficient you are at race pace? New research on elite collegiate female runners suggests that testing running economy at faster speeds may give a more accurate picture of what happens at 5K race intensity. Thirteen NCAA Division I women’s cross-country runners completed five-minute treadmill bouts at 70%, … Read more