Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Extra Mile, now with extra Galloway
The Extra Mile podcast has joined up with Jeff Galloway on a new venture to spread the word about JG's Run-Walk-Run methodology for distance running. Since his visit to Gainesville, I have incorporated RWR into my long runs and I feel like it has helped me greatly by reducing recovery time, making long runs more enjoyable, and helping me to keep the overall pace nice and slow on long runs. The intent with the new podcast appears to be to give runners some help and coaching through a 30 week program to prepare to run a fall marathon for 2011.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Dog attacks, can happen to anyone
This report is a couple of weeks old, but I thought it was still worth pointing out for a public safety reminder. While I have been lucky enough to not be attacked by dogs at any point when I am out running, it really can happen to anyone, anytime. On Jan 8 of this year, Paula Radcliffe, the current women's world record holder for the marathon at 2:15:25, was reported to have been bitten by a dog while out on a training run. Reportedly the dog was being walked by an older man who lost control of the leash, permitting the dog to chase and attack Radcliffe.
Thankfully, the injury was described as being minor and Radcliffe said she has no need or desire to change her training plan, which includes targeting a fall marathon to qualify for the British Olympic team and the 2012 London Games.
Dog bites are all too common. The CDC reports 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs annually. Their website unfortunately does not really provide any significant advice on prevention or what to do if you are attacked other than to "remain still". The American Veterinary Medical Association sells a pamphlet on the subject, but it is not freely available. The AVMA does, however, offer an extensive paper on community based programs for dealing with dog attacks. One of the more extensive resources I found on the subject is over at WikiHow.com. The source material that they reference is pretty thin, so I am not sure if it is effective or recommended, but it seems like reasonable advice.
Some tips:
If you are bitten, definitely seek medical attention! Dog bites can be very dangerous if they become infected so make sure to see a doctor right away.
Thankfully, the injury was described as being minor and Radcliffe said she has no need or desire to change her training plan, which includes targeting a fall marathon to qualify for the British Olympic team and the 2012 London Games.
Dog bites are all too common. The CDC reports 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs annually. Their website unfortunately does not really provide any significant advice on prevention or what to do if you are attacked other than to "remain still". The American Veterinary Medical Association sells a pamphlet on the subject, but it is not freely available. The AVMA does, however, offer an extensive paper on community based programs for dealing with dog attacks. One of the more extensive resources I found on the subject is over at WikiHow.com. The source material that they reference is pretty thin, so I am not sure if it is effective or recommended, but it seems like reasonable advice.
Some tips:
- While I have never been bitten, I have been chased. Just slowing to a walk and quietly moving on is usually very effective until owners can gain the dog's attention.
- Wikihow suggests a variety of methods to assert dominance without being threatening. Such as, forcefully say "no" or "go home" but do not look the dog in the eye.
- Use whatever is nearby to help shield you, sticks, your bike if you are cycling, or even just a thick sweatshirt over your arm if you are lucky enough to have one.
- If you must strike the dog, Wikihow suggests that hitting the skull is usually not effective since they are often very thick bones, but the base of the skull (ie: the back of the neck) is most likely to get their attention and scare the dog off.
If you are bitten, definitely seek medical attention! Dog bites can be very dangerous if they become infected so make sure to see a doctor right away.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The value of stretching?
Ask any 10 runners about their stretching habits and you are likley to get 10 different answers. This press release is a little old, but, the USATF released the results of a study they sponsored looking at the effect of stretching prior to running. The full dataset has yet to be published, but the USATF website does have a PDF up with some more data than just is what is in the press release.
In general, follow-through was low (only 51% of runners stuck to their assigned stretch vs. no stretch routines). The authors try to make some distinctions about serious vs nonserious, injuries diagnosed by a medical professional vs. not. etc.
Bottom line appears to be that stretching does not significantly reduce or increase your risk of injury, but there is a signal of harm from the people who were forced to switch (ie: used to stretch and were assigned to no stretching). So do what you do and stay tuned for more science!
------------------
To stretch or not to stretch? That's a question millions of runners ask themselves daily, but results from a USA Track & Field-sponsored clinical trial involving close to 3,000 runners confirm there is no difference in the risk of injury for those who stretched before running and those who did not.
The study randomly assigned people to perform a specified pre-run stretching routine or to perform no pre-run stretching for a period of three months. Those people who completed the study and complied with their group had the same risk of injury (16%) regardless of which group they were in. Overall, stretching did not provide protection against injury.
The study manager, Alan Roth, Ph.D., said, "For the study's specified pre-run stretching routine that millions of runners commonly use, the study puts to rest claims for and against it, but the devil is in the details. Using scientific method, we have arrived at some overall conclusions and learned some important details. If you've been doing pre-run stretching, it is best to keep doing it. A surprise finding was that many variables that we thought would strongly influence injury rates, didn't."
"For example, injury rates among women and men were similar while mileage, flexibility or level of competition also did not appear relevant. In general, younger runners fared no better than the older runners."
The study's principal investigator, Dr. Daniel Pereles, a Maryland-based orthopedist, said that participants provided information on many relevant variables when they enrolled in the study, permitting a thorough analysis of potential risk factors for injury. Participants provided information on such things as age, gender, usual stretching regimen, miles run per week, years running, warm-up activities, measurements of flexibility, concurrent diseases and medications, level of competition and so on.
Two of the variables recorded were found to strongly influence injury rates; people with a higher body-mass-index were more likely to be injured as were people with a recent or chronic injury prior to participating in the study. Participation was limited to runners who had no injuries for the six weeks prior to the study.
One additional risk factor was identified for people who informed us they normally stretch before they run. If they were assigned to stretch, they had a low risk of injury but if they were assigned not to stretch, the injury risk was double those who kept stretching. It's this result that most startlingly exhibits why people consider stretching to prevent injury.
This study shows that those who are comfortable with their pre-run stretching routine should maintain it. They risk injury if they discontinue their pre-run stretching. For runners comfortable without pre-run stretching, they don't necessarily improve their injury protection by starting a pre-run stretching routine.
Darby Thompson, the study statistician, commented, "With the number of runners who contributed to this study, we have shown that the difference in injury rates between those performing pre-run stretching and those who did not is negligible. Although we identified other very important risk factors (weight, prior injury, stopping a stretching routine), because this study was specifically investigating the effect of pre-run stretching, other risk factors may influence injury rates but were not identified. More studies like this one should be conducted to confirm or refute the importance of other risk factors."
For more details or to read the clinical findings, visit usatf.org.
August 22, 2010
In general, follow-through was low (only 51% of runners stuck to their assigned stretch vs. no stretch routines). The authors try to make some distinctions about serious vs nonserious, injuries diagnosed by a medical professional vs. not. etc.
Bottom line appears to be that stretching does not significantly reduce or increase your risk of injury, but there is a signal of harm from the people who were forced to switch (ie: used to stretch and were assigned to no stretching). So do what you do and stay tuned for more science!
------------------
To stretch or not to stretch? That's a question millions of runners ask themselves daily, but results from a USA Track & Field-sponsored clinical trial involving close to 3,000 runners confirm there is no difference in the risk of injury for those who stretched before running and those who did not.
The study randomly assigned people to perform a specified pre-run stretching routine or to perform no pre-run stretching for a period of three months. Those people who completed the study and complied with their group had the same risk of injury (16%) regardless of which group they were in. Overall, stretching did not provide protection against injury.
The study manager, Alan Roth, Ph.D., said, "For the study's specified pre-run stretching routine that millions of runners commonly use, the study puts to rest claims for and against it, but the devil is in the details. Using scientific method, we have arrived at some overall conclusions and learned some important details. If you've been doing pre-run stretching, it is best to keep doing it. A surprise finding was that many variables that we thought would strongly influence injury rates, didn't."
"For example, injury rates among women and men were similar while mileage, flexibility or level of competition also did not appear relevant. In general, younger runners fared no better than the older runners."
The study's principal investigator, Dr. Daniel Pereles, a Maryland-based orthopedist, said that participants provided information on many relevant variables when they enrolled in the study, permitting a thorough analysis of potential risk factors for injury. Participants provided information on such things as age, gender, usual stretching regimen, miles run per week, years running, warm-up activities, measurements of flexibility, concurrent diseases and medications, level of competition and so on.
Two of the variables recorded were found to strongly influence injury rates; people with a higher body-mass-index were more likely to be injured as were people with a recent or chronic injury prior to participating in the study. Participation was limited to runners who had no injuries for the six weeks prior to the study.
One additional risk factor was identified for people who informed us they normally stretch before they run. If they were assigned to stretch, they had a low risk of injury but if they were assigned not to stretch, the injury risk was double those who kept stretching. It's this result that most startlingly exhibits why people consider stretching to prevent injury.
This study shows that those who are comfortable with their pre-run stretching routine should maintain it. They risk injury if they discontinue their pre-run stretching. For runners comfortable without pre-run stretching, they don't necessarily improve their injury protection by starting a pre-run stretching routine.
Darby Thompson, the study statistician, commented, "With the number of runners who contributed to this study, we have shown that the difference in injury rates between those performing pre-run stretching and those who did not is negligible. Although we identified other very important risk factors (weight, prior injury, stopping a stretching routine), because this study was specifically investigating the effect of pre-run stretching, other risk factors may influence injury rates but were not identified. More studies like this one should be conducted to confirm or refute the importance of other risk factors."
For more details or to read the clinical findings, visit usatf.org.
August 22, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Lab tests are not all the same
TIME Healthland posted an article on Oct 25 regurgitating the results of yet another study which "discovered" that after marathons, the same lab test that goes up in a heart attack (troponin) goes up after running 26.2. While I am sure the scientists reporting the study results did a fine job, the reporting could use some work. First, there are literally dozens of studies that have already shown this. Second, no one that I am aware of has shown that the increased troponin in marathon runners means a damn thing. For example, if your troponin goes up after a marathon, are you going to die sooner? Have a heart attack or suddenly die during a race? Those are the important things, not that your lab test is abnormal.
Lots of things can make your troponin go up, like getting in a car wreck and crushing your chest against the steering wheel. Or getting an infection on your heart valves. Or having a viral infection. Why aren't we comparing marathon running to these things? There is a lab test called the GGT. It is a marker of liver function. If you go out on a bender and have a half a bottle of tequila, your GGT will go up. Your GGT will also go up if you catch hepatitis, or have liver flukes, or eat magic mushrooms, or OD on acetaminophen. Now, is anyone out there saying that drinking tequila is the same as all these things?
It is certainly possible that endurance sports are doing something unsavory to the cardiovascular system, but at the present time, I am not aware of any such evidence and until you have something convincing, I wish the media would stop trying to scare people away from running, when all the available evidence points to it being healthy!
Lots of things can make your troponin go up, like getting in a car wreck and crushing your chest against the steering wheel. Or getting an infection on your heart valves. Or having a viral infection. Why aren't we comparing marathon running to these things? There is a lab test called the GGT. It is a marker of liver function. If you go out on a bender and have a half a bottle of tequila, your GGT will go up. Your GGT will also go up if you catch hepatitis, or have liver flukes, or eat magic mushrooms, or OD on acetaminophen. Now, is anyone out there saying that drinking tequila is the same as all these things?
It is certainly possible that endurance sports are doing something unsavory to the cardiovascular system, but at the present time, I am not aware of any such evidence and until you have something convincing, I wish the media would stop trying to scare people away from running, when all the available evidence points to it being healthy!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Running news: are runners an insurance liability?
Published in the NY Times on 10/25, apparently marathon runners are not that great of an investment for health insurance companies because while our healthy lifestyle improves longevity and decreases disability, our propensity to injure ourselves is notable. The numbers being quoted sounded a little funny to me, and I wanted to know more.
The Times references two scientific articles, and I found the first published free online (Link 1) (Link 2) This article was a summary of other articles on injuries and suggested that 79% of long distance runners suffer injuries. What the Times forgot to mention (but the scientific authors did state) is that this is the upper limit of a range that spread from 20% to 79%. Furthermore, if you look at the type of injuries that were used to come up with these numbers, they included skin lesions (8-28%), cramps (3-20%), "not reported" (2-33%), "non-running injuries" (13-25%), and the dreaded pain and stiffness (44-80%). Oh no! Not pain and stiffness! The agony! Ankle sprains were 5% and "joint problems" were 1-22%. While this article did a good job of summarizing all the published data out there about injuries, the picture is far from clear as to how severe things are.
Anyway, I didn't much get the point of the Times article anyway. Perhaps it was just meant as a conversation piece about risks and benefits of long-distance running, but I think it overstates the risks, and despite the title, they didn't really interview any insurers who suggested they were changing how they insure runners based on the risk of injury.
The Times references two scientific articles, and I found the first published free online (Link 1) (Link 2) This article was a summary of other articles on injuries and suggested that 79% of long distance runners suffer injuries. What the Times forgot to mention (but the scientific authors did state) is that this is the upper limit of a range that spread from 20% to 79%. Furthermore, if you look at the type of injuries that were used to come up with these numbers, they included skin lesions (8-28%), cramps (3-20%), "not reported" (2-33%), "non-running injuries" (13-25%), and the dreaded pain and stiffness (44-80%). Oh no! Not pain and stiffness! The agony! Ankle sprains were 5% and "joint problems" were 1-22%. While this article did a good job of summarizing all the published data out there about injuries, the picture is far from clear as to how severe things are.
Anyway, I didn't much get the point of the Times article anyway. Perhaps it was just meant as a conversation piece about risks and benefits of long-distance running, but I think it overstates the risks, and despite the title, they didn't really interview any insurers who suggested they were changing how they insure runners based on the risk of injury.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
NEWS: Boston registration closed for 2010
After merely two months of open registration, the field is full for the 2010 race. My race is still another 3 1/2 weeks away, and I am already going to have to settle for running the 2011 race, even assuming I make the 3:10:59 cutoff. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to even be in a position to potentially qualify on my own, but part of the plan for this year was to have the time off to run and train well, which I am not sure I will have as a regular clinical fellow during my third year. Well, not much I can do about it, so I'd better just keep my head down keep on running.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Running Science on SciFri
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
NYTimes: Children of the Marathon
Interesting article in the NY Times about children running marathons at ages as young as 8. Aren't you just a little jealous to read about kids that run 26.2 in 3:26 at age 9 or 2:38 at age 15. Especially running under 50 miles a week in training. Incredible.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Kenyan Marathon Industry featured on NPR's Marketplace
For regular listeners of NPR, you may have caught Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal from Thursday 7/16. It featured an interview with Salina Kosgei women's winner of the 2009 Boston Marathon (one of the closest in the race's history). They visited her in Kenya where she trains every day (no surprise) either 2 or 3 training sessions a day. Interestingly, she, like most Kenyan runners apparently, still has a government job with the prison system, where she staffs a desk when she is not out training. Average per capita income in Kenya, according to the podcast I listened to today during a quick 3 miler, is about $400. Kosgei was paid tens of thousands to appear at Boston, tens of thousands for wearing Adidas, and tens of thousands more for winning. It was interesting to describe how, in Kenya, the path to upward social (read: financial) mobility was through running. The country was characterized as a place where all the biggest houses are owned by runners (and their moms) and packs of elite runners, medal winners, and record holders can been seen training together on the rusty dirt roads. Kosgei also said that running a marathon is not something you do for fun. It causes pain, is difficult and is something you do for money. Of course, I'd imagine that there are plenty of pro athletes in America who would say the same of their sport. It's nice to be an amateur and be able to enjoy the sport without having to worry about it putting food on the table when I get back from a long run.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Congrats to everyone in Boston!
Monday was the Boston Marathon and a couple of people I know ran the race. Steve (Walker) Runner ran the race in just over 5 hours. He has run the race several times being the lucky recipient of one of the charity waivers. Caught off guard this year, he had only five weeks to train up, so congrats Steve! The other person is Dr. Wymer, one of the Radiology attendings here, who was fortunate enough to get a BQ recently and decided that given that achievement, he could not pass up the opportunity and finished the race in just under 4 hours. His race report sounds quite similar to those that I have heard from other runners about the sheer size and awe of running in such a popular and storied race. He confirmed that the girls of Wellesley are, in fact, very loud and very supportive of the runners.
Not much to report for my running this week. My right knee continues to feel a little funnny, but it is not hurting, I am just more aware of it than my left, so I am gonna keep going for now.
4/16 and 4/17: 2 miles before work daily.
4/18: 4.2 out and back from home
4/19: 4 miles in a loop around Goodwood in Tallahassee
4/20-4/22: 2 miles before work daily
Not much to report for my running this week. My right knee continues to feel a little funnny, but it is not hurting, I am just more aware of it than my left, so I am gonna keep going for now.
4/16 and 4/17: 2 miles before work daily.
4/18: 4.2 out and back from home
4/19: 4 miles in a loop around Goodwood in Tallahassee
4/20-4/22: 2 miles before work daily
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