Running science and advice – Page 2

What’s the difference between a placebo and an ergogenic aid?

Whether it’s EPO, caffeine or compression socks, what we believe affects our performance probably does…

Oh sorry, were you expecting a punchline? I’m afraid it’s my reflections on the blurry line between something that science says improves performance (an ergogenic aid) and a placebo (something that shouldn’t, but does).

I’m one of those people who considers the fruits of scientific research to be the bedrock of improving athletic performance, so studies like this recent offering from the University of Sao Paulo University are a useful but disconcerting reminder that that how the body responds to any stimulus cannot be separated from how the mind responds.

The Brazilian study looked at the effects of caffeine ingestion on performance in two cycling tests, compared to a control condition without caffeine. But here’s the thing: unbeknown to the subjects, the caffeine in the second trial was bogus and therefore could not exert any ergogenic (performance-enhancing) effect. So what happened in the three trials? Time to exhaustion and rate of perceived exertion (how hard the cyclists felt they worked) in both the real caffeine trial and the sham caffeine trial were better than in the control trial and barely different from each other. In other words, just thinking they’d had caffeine enabled the subjects to cycle harder, whether they had or not.

It was only a small study, admittedly, but it did remind me of an evening when I drank a cup of coffee shortly before bedtime, having been assured it was decaf, and went on to sleep soundly – only to be told by my host the next morning that I’d been Java-powered. A sort of reverse placebo effect… And that, in turn, reminded me of the time I got rather tipsy at a party, only to discover that I had been supping non-alcoholic beer all evening.

It demonstrates how powerfully our beliefs effect our reality – and, when it comes to running, performance. In 2015, researchers at the University of Glasgow recruited a group of runners to test a new drug purporting to mimic the endurance-boosting effects of the banned drug EPO. The runners took part in a 3km race and then injected the substance daily for seven days before repeating the 3km race. Not only did their performance improve by 1.2 per cent – 9.7 seconds (the equivalent of around two minutes off a marathon time), their perception of effort was lower and they recovered faster. Impressive stuff: especially when you learn that the ‘drug’ was actually a harmless saline solution.

In other research, exercisers bounced back from an intense workout after bathing for 15 minutes in lukewarm water containing a special ‘recovery oil.’ Their recovery – gauged by pain levels, leg strength and readiness to exercise again – was significantly faster than a control group who bathed in plain warm water.

The fact that the mind can exert such a strong influence over the body through the courage of its convictions throws into question how much sway scientific research should hold over what we do, or don’t do, in our efforts to run and recover faster. It certainly suggests there is a Tinker Bell element to it – you have to believe in the pills, potions and practices you invest in to run better and consider ditching the ones that, deep down, you don’t think play any role in aiding performance.

And that brings me to one final study to share, regarding the thorny issue of whether stretching is important or not for runners. The researchers found that when half a group of committed stretchers were instructed not to stretch before their runs for 16 weeks, they suffered more injuries than their peers who continued to stretch. Conversely, half of a group of non-stretchers were asked to stretch pre-run for the same period while their fellow stretch shirkers carried on as usual. Once again, it was those who were asked to act in a way that did not fit with their beliefs that got the most injuries.

What was on trial in this study wasn’t stretching at all, but what we believe about it. And that leads me to conclude that perhaps the biggest ergogenic aid of all is the one we already have – sitting between our ears.

3 ways to run a faster 5K – tomorrow!

OK, so there’s no way you can improve your running fitness in the next 24 hours. But that doesn’t mean you can’t upgrade your performance. Here are just three ideas – and they’re all legal!

Grin and bear it

Kipchoge was on to something when he flashed the odd smile on his way around the Monza race track during his sub-two-hour marathon attempt last year. A recent study at Ulster University found that smiling during hard exercise improves running economy (a measure of efficiency). Runners were instructed to either smile or frown while they performed four hard six-minute runs on a treadmill. The results showed that smiling improved their running economy by 2.8 per cent compared to frowning, and by 2.2 per cent compared to a ‘control’ condition, in which facial expression was neutral. Get that happy face ready…

Full of beans

You’ve heard it before (and there is research to suggest that not everyone benefits) but a study at the University of Ballarat in Australia found that a pre-run caffeine dose (5mg per kg of each athlete’s body weight) elicited a small but significant improvement in 5km run time while a review from the University of Georgia reported that the average improvement in ‘time to completion’ trials (which mimic real-life racing better than ‘time to exhaustion’ trials) was 3.1%, with doses ranging from ranging from 3-8mg/kg.

Unlike with nitrates (aka beetroot juice), the effect was seen in both recreational and well-trained runners. For best results, studies suggest that your caffeine hit needs to be taken around an hour before your workout (which, conveniently, means you’ll have time to visit the loo after the caffeine has exerted its effect on your bowels!).

Energy gels and caffeine pills – or coffee? It doesn’t much matter, though the former allow you to keep tabs on exactly how much caffeine you are consuming.

bulletproof coffee

Lighten up

Leave those trusty cushioned trainers at home and step into a lightweight racing flat. Shoe weight really does make a difference. In a clever study at the University of Colorado, subjects performed three 3000m trials wearing Nike racing flats; but unbeknownst to them, the 200g shoes had tiny lead beads sewn into them for two of the trials, adding 100g and 300g respectively. The results showed that each 100g of additional weight slowed the runners down by 0.78%. What does that mean in real terms? Well, for someone running the 3000m in 11 minutes 23 seconds (the time predicted for a runner who can do 5K in 20 minutes flat) this would equate to slowing by 5.3 seconds for each 100g of additional weight. This is an instance where less really is more…

How slow running can reveal form flaws

When I am devising running programmes for my clients, I give them a pace ‘guideline’ for each of the different types of run they do. Most will have recovery runs in their schedules, where the object is to keep the pace and effort level really low. The run needs to be low-intensity enough to not require any further recovery – so going faster than the guideline pace is not necessary and may well be counter-productive. And yet, over and over again I hear the cries ‘I can’t run that slow!’ ‘It’s more tiring to run slowly’ and most of all ‘Sorry, I tried to run slow but I inadvertently speeded up.’

Autumn

I’ve mulled over this a lot – worried about it, even – because personally, I have no problem whatsoever running slow. But it doesn’t mean I can’t, or don’t, run fast when I need to. It’s often observed – with amazement – how slow Kenyan runners go in their easy runs, given how fast they could be going.

I’m starting to wonder whether running technique has something to do with people finding it ‘hard’ to run slow. If you run with good form, then that form should hold true whatever pace you are maintaining. Running slower shouldn’t mean a slow ‘sticky’ cadence, a shuffling gait or a minimal leg lift. I suspect that people who find it very hard to run slow are doing the following: overstriding – most likely with a heel strike – running with too slow a cadence or too much tension. One of the drills that running coach and Alexander Technique teacher Malcolm Balk suggests in his book Master the Art of Running is to run very slow whilst maintaining perfect form. I highly recommend giving it a try.

The other reason runners can’t slow down is probably mental. It’s an issue of bravado – ‘hell, I can’t run THAT slow!’ – with the tacit suggestion being either ‘I’m too good,’ or ‘someone might see me and think I’m slow…’ But I’d say it takes focus and commitment to reap the benefits of any training session – and recovery runs are not excepted. Try a go-slow on your next run and you might just find that less is more.

Plantar fasciitis – a fresh approach

Despite its complex name, many runners can pronounce plantar fasciitis because they’ve had the misfortune of personal experience. I’ve heard it called the ME of sports injuries because it’s so hard to pin down what triggers it and equally hard to find a way to get rid of it. It’s not uncommon for the condition to last six months or more. Part of the problem with defining the cause and solution is the fact that there’s little agreement on what PF actually is. The ‘itis’ in the name suggests it is a condition that involves inflammation but this has been challenged in recent years and some podiatrists and sports medicine experts have called for it to be known as plantar fasciosis instead. An ‘osis’ is degeneration of tissue, rather than inflammation – and as such, requires a different approach when it comes to treatment. (That might explain why the ‘usual suspect’ remedies, such as rest, ice and anti-inflammatories – or even corticosteroid injections provide little more than passing relief.)

In one study, tissue biopsies were taken from people suffering from severe PF and then assessed. There was no evidence of inflammation in the plantar fascia, but there were numerous microscopic tears and signs of degeneration (necrosis) both in the plantar fascia itself and within the intrinsic flexor muscles of the foot.

Caused by what? Well, you may not need to look further than your own footwear. A lot of running shoes (in fact, a lot of shoes in general) don’t have enough space – or the correct shape – in the toe box, causing the big toe to be drawn towards the other toes (adducted). Then there’s the common shoe feature called ‘toe spring,’ which pulls your toes into extension because the front end of the sole curves upwards (shown below). Add this to the fact that in most shoes your heel is raised higher than your toes, and you end up with the toes – most notably the big toe – being forced into both extension and adduction. As a result, blood flow (via the posterior tibial artery) to the PF and surrounding structures is compromised, allowing degeneration to take place.

To get a sense of the position in which the foot is held in most footwear, push your toes together, raise your heel off the floor and pull your toes into extension. If you now press your fingers along the medial side of the heel, you may well find you can recreate your pain symptoms. This position will greatly increase tension in the flexor muscles on the bottom of the foot as well as the PF – an effect magnified by the forces of running.

So please, if you have PF, DON’T STRETCH YOUR PLANTAR FASCIA EVEN FURTHER! Besides this exacerbating the problem, you are also stretching what is an essential part of your elastic energy return system, which helps to propel you through your running stride without using up precious energy.

So what’s to be done? First, you need to allow the toes to sit properly. That means a shoe with enough space in the toe box but more specifically, space for the big toe to sit straight, not curving in towards the other toes. I highly recommend Altra, Vivobarefoot and some Inov-8 models (those described as standard fit, not precision fit). You can check out my shoe reviews to see which brands and models fit the bill.

I also recommend Correct Toes toe spacers, which are designed to be worn inside footwear (or barefoot, of course) to help realign your toes back to their correct anatomical position. They were created by a running podiatrist in the United States, and I found them invaluable in getting over my long-standing PF (and that’s why, unashamedly, I’m now involved in selling them in the UK online).

The other important shoe-related thing to avoid if you’re suffering PF is excessive toe spring (ie. when the shoe curves upwards at the toes, court jester style) or an overly stiff midsole. Check whether your running shoe allows the foot to bend where it’s designed to bend – across the ball of the foot.

PF sufferers also need to get those feet supple and mobile again. Stretching the tight toe extensors is the best starting point.

toe extensor stretch — Toe extensor stretch

This position stretches the toes at the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint – the ‘knuckle’ of the foot. You can do this sitting or standing (sitting is easier to get to grips with). Extend one leg a little way back behind the body and place the upper surface of the toes on the floor. Exert a little pressure. This should bend the toes at the MTP joint.

You’ll feel the stretch across the top of the foot and perhaps across the front of the ankle. As the muscles become more flexible, bring the foot further forward, relative to the body, to increase the stretch.

Deep tissue massage is also helpful in mobilising the feet and improving blood flow when rehabbing from PF. A golf ball underneath the ball of the foot can help get that MTP joint moving, as shown below.

I also regularly use a pedi roller to stretch and ‘iron’ out the connective tissue on the soles of my feet, and get my fingers in between the big toe and second toe to massage between them, both from above and below.

There will undoubtedly be physios, podiatrists and the like who will dismiss outright the notion that modern footwear and its effect on foot structure/alignment causes plantar pain. Indeed, people suffering from PF are often given MORE cushioning and MORE support in their shoes when they actually need less. But the huge number of runners with ongoing, stubborn plantar pain that doesn’t respond to the usual bag of tricks might be more open to suggestion. That’s how I felt after I’d had a corticosteroid injection, two different pairs of orthotics, done copious stretching, icing and resting and was still on the bench nigh on a year later. Why not free your feet and see what happens? And please report back!

Callum Hawkins: a lesson in elite suffering

The harrowing sight of Callum Hawkins collapsing at the Commonwealth Games marathon on Sunday has got the media shining its spotlight onto the issue of how safe marathon running is. I was interviewed yesterday on BBC 5Live about what might have led to Hawkins’ collapse and whether it could have been prevented.

The answer to the first question is simple – heat exhaustion. Ambient temperature on race day was 28 degrees – six other runners out of the 24 who started did not complete the race. The answer to the second question is more complex. Heat exhaustion occurs when the body is unable to dissipate the extra heat being produced by exercise. Given that the harder you are working, the more heat you produce, the obvious solution would be to slow down – but try telling that to an athlete on their way to a gold medal.

Like all elite athletes, Hawkins’ years of intense training have enabled him to reach a stage where he can hear his body’s alarm systems screeching that he’s reaching his limits without really listening to them. I say ‘body’s alarm systems’, but really it’s the brain that imposes such limits. At least, that’s where the most recent theories are heading. For Professor Tim Noakes, the brain acts as a ‘central governor,’ which regulates muscle recruitment based on the feedback it receives from the body. If that feedback says heart rate is way too high, breathing is laboured and body temperature dangerously high, it responds protectively by forcing you to slow down or stop (which – eventually – it did in Hawkins’ case). In Professor Samuele Marcora’s Psychobiological Model, the brain regulates endurance performance consciously, rather than subconsciously, and bases its willingness to suffer discomfort and pain on your level of motivation. ‘People will engage in a task until the effort required reaches the maximum level they are willing to invest in order to succeed,’ Marcora told me in an interview. It makes perfect sense, when you consider Hawkins’ position on the cusp of winning a gold medal, that he’d be willing to endure increasingly high levels of suffering to reach his goal.

Essentially, the physical and mental toughness that Hawkins has built up over the course of his athletics career is the very thing that led to him continuing to run when every fibre of his being must have been telling him to stop. Couple that with ridiculously high levels of motivation and you could argue that Sunday’s traumatic events could not have been prevented (although what happened afterwards – in terms of how long it took for medical assistance to arrive – certainly could). It’s great to hear that Hawkins is now feeling better, but are there any lessons we lesser mortals can learn about running hard in the heat? Frankly, most of us aren’t highly trained – or motivated – enough to override our ‘central governors’ and would likely find ourselves slowing down or perhaps even bowing out in such conditions, but here are some useful hot-race day tips:

Start cool – keep out of the sun before the race starts to keep body temperature in check. You could try draping a cold wet towel around your head and shoulders, or drinking an icy cold drink.
Wear little, and opt for light colours.
Keep to the shady parts of the course where possible.
Stay well hydrated, of course, but save some of that water for pouring over your head or seek out sprinklers on the course. In a study last year, a group of runners endured 33-degree heat while they ran 5km time trials. Spraying cold water on their faces lowered their forehead temperature and ‘thermal sensation’ (how hot they felt).