Running Shoes

Alternate your running shoes. The EVA midsole in running shoes tends to compact quickly with twice-daily pounding. Many twice-a-day runners alternate three or four pairs of running shoes. One ultrarunner I know rotates several pairs of running shoes daily on a coat rack that she calls a “shoe tree.”

Weight-Loss Benefits of Running Twice Daily

Running (or exercising in general) twice a day may have significant benefits to people trying to lose weight. Even adding an extra five miles per week burns about 500 extra calories per week. That is 26,000 calories or the equivalent of a 7-pound weight loss over one year if your diet remains constant.

Additionally, it is theorized that your metabolic rate will be higher throughout the day with twice-daily workouts. This is because your body continues to burn calories at a faster rate for an hour or more after each workout. Thus, two-a-day workouts double this effect.

SUMMARY

This article is a summary of the research and beliefs that the cognoscenti hold about running twice daily. Although the practice of running twice a day is clearly not warranted by the research, elite and rank-and-file runners persist with it. We have looked at why coaches recommend this practice and why runners crank out two-a-days, despite the paucity of evidence. So why would a runner start running twice a day?

If you love to run, you might want to consider running twice a day to boost your mileage volume. But if you struggle just to get out the door once a day and regard running as more of a chore, stay with your single daily-running sessions.

Above all else, ensure that you get in at least one long run each week, preferably two or three if you are a marathoner or ultrarunner. This is vital for your extended events. Your cardiovascular and respiratory systems need to adapt to the rigors of prolonged running, and long runs of over 90 minutes get you those benefits more efficiently in terms of muscle-mitochondrial development, muscleglycogen storage, more efficient fat utilization, and the myriad other adaptations that take place with extended workouts.

Despite the lack of clear scientific evidence favoring running twice a day, most elite and many subelite runners, marathoners, and ultrarunners persist with the habit. For most of them, it “works” by boosting their mileage, easing their sore legs, warming them up for a later run, or doing whatever else they believe it will help them with. i

The End of a Streak, but the Start of Something New!

irst of all, I kneed to say that I am neither an orthopedic surgeon nor a physical

therapist, although in the past I used to pretend that I was to myself and some of my running buddies. I learned the hard way, though, that he who serves as his own doctor has a fool for a patient. The medical diagnosis for this is osteocranium or, in laymen’s terms: bonehead. If I had known then what I’ve since learned the hard way about knees, I could have saved myself a lot of grief. Perhaps I can provide some insight for you.

At work, I always run at lunchtime regardless of whether it’s sunny, it’s raining, it’s snowing, or the apocalypse is under way. Throughout the years, my colleagues would ask whether I ran every day. I would pause to reflect for a moment and then respond that I had run every day so far this year, and every day last year, and every day the year before that, and every day the year before that, but I missed a few days over five years ago, so no, I don’t run every day. Though the listener didn’t necessarily appreciate the humor, the speaker sure did. You see, until April 6, 2006, I had been a runner for about 30 years without ever suffering a running-related injury that was serious enough to prevent me from going for at least a one-mile run. Oh, I had experienced sciatica, sore knees, mild plantar fasciitis, and slight shin-splint pain periodically, but nothing really serious. I was very proud of my no-excuses-for-not-running attitude. I had a five-year consecutive running streak in which I had run at least a mile every single day. The United States Running Streak Association (USRSA at www.runeveryday.com) registry listed me as one of the “Proficient” (those with five-year-plus streaks). In my subconscious mind, I remained 45 (my chronological age when the streak started) as long as I continued my daily running habit. I realized that I wasn’t invincible, but it took a lot for me to feel otherwise. I knew that my hair was graying and my skin was—aah, umm, losing elasticity—but I felt that my heart, lungs, and vascular systems were as strong as ever.

NOTHING BUT RUNNING

Then reality slapped me upside the head, or put more appropriately, it Tonya Hardinged my left knee. The day after the 2005 Richmond Marathon, my knee

swelled to the size of Barry Bonds’s head. It was a series of unfortunate events. A few years before getting hurt, I had stopped playing basketball, tennis, and other cross-training activities and instead focused exclusively on running. This led to sciatic pain, which caused my gait to change, which resulted in knee stress, which ultimately precipitated a traumatic meniscus tear while I was running the Richmond Marathon.

As Ihave done my entire life, I gave my body plenty of time to heal itself. (I do this to my old car, too; you would be surprised how often it works.) My knee didn’t get much better over time. After four months of impaired running and witnessing old men, preteens, Rubenesque women, and novice runners pass me during races, I knew it was time to see a doctor. I realized that my “leave it alone and it will get better by itself” strategy was not working this time. Moreover, my medical problem wasn’t something of secondary importance like my heart, my brain, or my prostate. This was my knee!

As it turned out, I lost a big part of me on April 5, 2006, the day my orthopedic surgeon removed 25 percent of my left medial meniscus. It was torn and it had to go. Actually, the amount of tissue removed was not all that much. I still have 100 percent of my lateral meniscus and 75 percent of my medial. What I lost, though, was my swagger, my bravado, and the spring (both physically and metaphorically) in my step. The end of my streak implied that I might be getting older—slowing down. The doctor had taken a piece of cartilage from my knee, which in effect had knocked the chip off my shoulder.

There is a rumor within my running club that, in a futile attempt to maintain my streak, I ran right after surgery. This is simply not true. After the operation was over and the anesthesia wore off, it’s not as though I woke up and said, “Where in the heck am I? Who are these people? Why does this stupid hospital gown leave my backside flapping in the cold breeze? Where are my jogging shoes? What’s that you say, nurse? That I’m in no condition to drive? Well, that’s all right, I plan on running the 15 miles home, anyway.” This scenario did not happen. Besides, Thad already run the morning of the surgery, anyway. I did the sensible thing: I went home, ate some comfort food, and retired for the evening. It wasn’t until the following day that I decided to go for a run.

DESPERATE TO KEEP IT ALIVE

Oh, I gave it the proverbial old college try by testing the knee the day after surgery, despite the guidance of my doctor and the threats of my friends to strap me in a straight jacket to prevent me from running. I thought to myself that those two little arthroscopic holes in my knee weren’t going to stop me. Later I realized just how much trauma could be caused by those two little holes. I managed a decent mile

and a half in 18 minutes that morning, but the following day I temporarily lost the ability to walk. And as much as I like to run, I like being able to walk even more. Consequently, I didn’t run for six days in April, 22 days in May, and three days in June in 2006. This two-month period dragged on for what seemed like two years because I was in a rush to begin another streak despite the discomfort. My doctor advised me that my knee wouldn’t hurt when I walked if I wasn’t running 40 miles a week on it.

Trust me—you don’t want to have to worry about the intricate parts of the knee as I have. I used to think that the leg was simply comprised of a really thick bone under the quad, a thinner bone in front of the calf that went to the foot, and a knee bone in between. I never dreamed that I would be so concerned over details like the thickness and width of my left posterior medial meniscus. For runners, there is much at stake. One of my stubborn friends has seen an orthopedic surgeon so many times that I suspect he gets frequent-customer discounts. I imagine that after five operations, he gets one for free. His approach to fitness has always been as follows: crawl, walk, run—knee surgery; crawl, walk, run—knee surgery.

Just as truck drivers should know something about tires, runners should know something about knees since so much is riding on them. Out of 300 million Americans, 21 million of us suffer from osteoarthritis, and 2.1 million suffer from rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune illness that affects the joints on both sides of the body). Four million Americans seek medical help for their knees each year, 1.7 million of them have meniscal surgery, and 200,000 have kneereplacement surgery.

Most of the meniscus is devoid of nerve endings, so if it is being damaged, a runner is not aware of it until surrounding tissue becomes involved. There are two types of meniscal tears: traumatic and degenerative. Traumatic tears are generally related to a sports injury; physical contact is not necessarily involved. Degenerative tears usually involve arthritis or some other chronic problem. The outer portion of the meniscus is vascular (meaning that it has blood flow), while the inner portion is avascular (without blood flow.) As we age, the percentage of meniscus that becomes avascular increases. Since blood flow is important for healing, if the vascular portion of the meniscus is damaged, it might heal on its own. Surgeons normally try to repair, not remove, a torn vascular portion. On the other hand, if the injured portion involves an avascular tear and it affects mobility, a doctor will typically remove the torn part. The width and thickness of each meniscus is not uniform; they vary. So the results of knee operations depend on the amount and location of meniscus removed and the amount of arthritis present. Consequently, the results of knee surgery vary widely. Simply put, the more functioning meniscus a runner has, the better.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

Partly because of my surgeon’s skill and partly because of the absence of arthritis in my knee, I’m on the road to recovery. I now have a two-year streak, and I plan on writing John and Dawn Strumsky, the editors of the Streak Registry, to let them know about it. But then I’ll be listed as a “Neophyte” (one with less than five years of streaking). Unfortunately, despite all of my 30-plus years of running experience, I’m now a rookie and starting all over again.

However, to assuage my wounded pride, I’ve begun focusing on a new metric; it is meant for those who run nearly every day. It measures running consistency and is expressed as a percentage. Simply divide the number of days run (in accorJohn Doe’s Running Consistency Analysis

A B Cc D Total Days Running Runs Possible Days Run % Yearly over

Year Days Missed (Col A-B) (Col C + A) Mileage 2 hours

1985 365 27 338 92.6 2,402 12 1986 365 0 365 100 3,014 25 1987 365 1 364 99,72 2,321 0 1988 366 15 351 95.90 2,237 0 1989 365 37 328 89.86 1,789 4 1990 365 36 329 90.13 2,025 18 1991 365 16 349 95.61 2,369 28 1992 366 3 363 99.18 2,145 5 1993 365 7 358 98.08 2,205 13 1994 365 2 363 99.45 2,795 39 1995 365 25 340 93.15 3,476 72 1996 366 23 343 93.71 2,233 in 1997 365 0 365 100 3,624 59 1998 365 19 346 94.79 3,022 35 1999 365 15 350 95.89 2,982 4 2000 366 7 359 98.08 3,201 44 2001 365 0 365 100 3,259 55 2002 365 0 365 100 3,500 69 2003 365 0 365 100 3,387 58 2004 366 0 366 100 3,573 58 2005 365 0 365 100 3,347 67 2006 365 32 333 91.23 2,067 37 2007 365 0 365 100 3,962 104 Total 8,400 265 8,135 96.84 64,935 854

dance with the USRSA guidelines on what qualifies as a legitimate streak-related run) over a period of time by the number of days that occurred over that same period of time. It can be done on a one-, five-, 10-, 15-, or 20-year basis, and so on. In accordance with the guidelines of the USRSA, a qualified “day run” is one in which a runner completed at least one continuous mile within a calendar day under his own power, without using any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices.

The Running Consistency Analysis chart on page 44 illustrates the metric. For example, in 2006, John Doe did not run on 32 days. To compute running consistency, subtract 32 from 365 (use 366 if a leap year), then use this number as the numerator and divide it by the number of days in that year (365-32 = 333 days; then 333/365 = 91.23 percent). Similar to the length of a streak, the Running Consistency Analysis chart provides an excellent indication of the seriousness of a runner’s commitment. For the five-year period from 2003 to 2007, this runner had arunning-consistency percentage of 98.2 percent. For the most recent 10-year period, the percentage is 98 percent, and for the past 20 years, it is 96.7 percent. During the last 23 years, John Doe had a running consistency rating of 96.8 percent. Using the same type of standards as age-adjusted rankings, scores above 70 percent are considered regional class, those above 80 percent are national class, and scores above 90 percent are world class. If yearly mileage and the number of runs over two hours are included as well, then this information demonstrates how determined a runner really is. Those runners who experience the despair of the end of their streaks (especially those with mitigating circumstances like being injured or kidnapped) can at least take comfort in adopting this additional method of measuring commitment. After all, one of the primary motivations of serious runners is to do whatever it takes to run for as many years as possible in order to maintain health and delay the aging process. For consistent runners, their et 70s could turn out to be the very best years of their lives.

Back Issues of M&B

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