EARNED RUNS WEEKEND

Pretty in dawn-pink dunes. Taken by PKSenagore December 2019. All rights reserved.

ATTENTION GRABBING TOPICS THAT SURFACED DURING THE WEEK, WHICH YOU MAY WISH TO INVESTIGATE:

1. SLEEP AS PERFORMANCE ENHANCER; THE SCANDI METHOD  A Runner’s World email featured an article on why sleeping hard might beat training more for those seeking a better race time. The Scandinavian practice of shared-bed sleeping, with each person having their own separate bedding, might help some situations in which couples' slumber is not restful. (FYI: I could not find the special UK Ikea TOG-ether duvet offer that was mentioned online).
 
“I Swapped Training Sessions for Sleep and Never Ran Faster” by Kiera Carter
https://www.runnersworld.com/training/a30680541/swapped-training-for-sleep/?source=nl
 
“One Bed, Two Duvets -Does the Scandi Method of Sleeping Work?” by Sadhbh O’Sullivan
https://medium.com/refinery29/one-bed-two-duvets-does-the-scandi-sleeping-method-work-4b3114076d3
 
https://mashable.com/2018/01/23/ikea-duvet-together/

2. CAN ONLY FOUR DAYS OF EATING ‘HEALTHY’ IMPROVE PERFORMANCE? When I think of instituting eating habit changes to improve my nutritional intake and ultimately boost health, I think of the activity as a process.  A long process, in which results can be realized, not after days, but weeks and probably months of adherence.  If I were to follow a new diet for only 4 days, not even a full week, the effort would be graded as a failure.  Until now.
 
Check out the abstract that reports 11 young male and female athletes (avg. age ~28 years, avg BMI ~24.6) showed improved running performance in a 5K after eating a Mediterranean diet compared with eating a typical Western diet. This is a very small study but made me consider that even my intermittent bouts of healthy eating might be worthy of a pat on the back.  It’s an uplifting thought.
 
“Short-term Mediterranean Diet Improves Endurance Exercise Performance: A Randomized-Sequence Crossover Trial” in the Journal of American College of Nutrition
 
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07315724.2019.1568322

3. EXTREME CROSS TRAINING DELIVERED OLYMPIC TRIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS.  Maybe those of us who must decrease miles spent pounding the pavement because of health limitations can improve performance with other intense aerobic and mobility training sessions.
 
A Runner’s world article highlighted the unusual training method of Ann Mazur, who achieved an Olympic Trials Qualifying Time at the California International Marathon his past December.  Mazur swims miles in the pool each week and practices yoga (she’s an instructor) to save her legs, running much less than the usual 100+ miles per week of elite marathoners and skipping speedwork. Clearly, she is a talented and hardworking athlete who enjoys sharing how she’s learned to prevent and manage injuries with rigorous cross training.  A word to the wise.

“How Rigorous Swimming and Yoga Helped Ann mazur Get Into OTQ Shape” by Hailey Middlebrook
https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a30459353/ann-mazur-2020-olympic-trials-qualifier/

​Enjoy the weekend TGIF!

RUN & MOVE HAPPY!