The Blog and Website (Already!) Have a New Look: Blog #2
After spending some time today brainstorming ideas with my wife, Hannah, today about how to have both the blog and website work better stylistically there are some new changes! Basically the biggest change on the website is that there are now multiple pages, since before most information was just in the "Coaching" tab. The biggest change (so far) with the blog is that instead of one post containing all the running content I want to share, I'll now be creating individual posts. That way the title of each entry will allow you readers to decide if the information is relevant to you or not quickly, instead of having to scroll through an entire blog post. There is definitely more I would like to do with the blog stylistically, but those changes will have to wait for another day.
Training Update
Today I drove up and through the mountains west of Boulder to meet the guys (Matt Daniels, Adam Merry, and Drew Holmen) for an awesome trail run at Walker Ranch Trail. I hadn't run on technical trails for about 2 or 3 weeks, running a lot on dirt roads in Northern Boulder, but getting back to it was great. Even better was the camaraderie since most of my runs lately have been solo! Sometimes I like to think I'm fit, and then I go and hit the trails with some real strong pro runners and realize maybe not as fit as I thought. Oh well, they're pros for a reason, right?
Quotes from What I'm Reading
"[The Central Governor Theorem] holds that the increasing feeling of fatigue in a progressive reduction in the capacity of exercising muscles to maintain a constant work output during prolonged exercise results from currently unrecognized processes in the brain, which presumably act to prevent bodily harm during such exercise.
This model theorizes that performance during exercise determined by two separate phenomena:
1. The pacing strategy that is pre-programmed into the athlete's subconscious brain as a result of previous training and racing experiences.
2. Cute alterations to the pre-programmed strategy resulting from sensory input from a variety of organs--heart, muscle, brain, blood, and lungs, among others-- to the exercise controller or governor in the brain. Output from the controller to the motor cortex then determines the mass of skeletal muscle that can be activated and for how long, thereby determining the pacing strategy that the subconscious brain adopts during exercise.
At the same time information is sent from the controller to the emotional and other centers in the brain. These influence the level of discomfort that is felt, the emotional response, and the self-talk and self-doubt that are additional but poorly understood features of the fatigue that develops during exercise."
"These researchers have also shown that the ability to produce force rapidly when the foot is on the ground, thereby maintaining a short ground contact time, is a factor predicting 5-km running time (Paavolainen, A.T. Nummela, et al. 1999). Furthermore, exhaustion during a 10-km running trial was associated with a sig significant impairment in all these variables-ground contact time increased and muscle activation decreased. Hence, explosive-type strength training may improve running performance as a result of neuromuscular adaptations that ensure that
muscle activation remains high during the full duration of a race. This will ensure rapid force production when the foot is on the ground, reducing the ground con takt time, thereby ensuring that a high running speed is maintained. In contrast to these positive effects, the gains in strength that result from weight training appear to be impaired by concurrent endurance training (Hickson 1980; GA Dudley and Djamil 1 1985: Kraemer et al, 1995: GL et al 2000 Bell it would seem that although strength training may Indeed enhance some as aspects of running performance, running training impairs the muscles' ability to adapt to strength training. Thus, those who wish to develop strength only would be un wise to run as well. In contrast, there seems to be proven benefit in adding strength training if a runner wishes to improve running performance over distances from 5 to 90 km. There is no evidence, however, that cycling performance at any distance Is improved by weight training. In chapter 6 we discuss the experiences of Yiannis Kouros, whose ultra distance running performances are unmatched. It appears that the stronger he became the better he performed in races lasting from 24 hours to six days. This anecdotal experience should alert us to the possibility that strength training may become progressively more beneficial as the racing distance increases."
About Lore of Running, 4th Edition, by Tim Noakes: Noakes is a leading researcher in the field of exercise science, perhaps most famous for his theorem of a "central governor" in each of our brains that limits us from reaching our true, maximum athletic output to protect us from going too far and hurting ourselves. Lore of Running has been touted as a must read by any serious runner or coach, and I came across it at the AirBnB that Hannah and I are staying at for 5 weeks in Boulder, Colorado.
Thank you
Thank you for reading today's blog! If it's provided you with anything useful at all, it would mean a lot to me if you would consider supporting me financially through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/caroluskhan
Sharing goes a long way, too!
Lastly, if you or someone you know is looking to up your training and are looking for a coach to help, look no further! Shoot me a message, and I'll get you set up with a personalized training plan in as little as a day. Thanks and keep grinding! 💪
