Running Is So Much More Than Running

A recent article in the New York Times, says running may even be socially contagious! The article is about recently published research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management on how runners are affected by other runners on running data collection sites. The article didn't disclose which data collection site was used, but I'm assuming it was one like Strava, Nike, or MapMyRun. Over a 5 year period, researches gathered data from about 1.1 million runners from all over the world. Collectively runners in that time period had run about 225 million miles.

The research showed that similar runners tended to cluster as friends on the data collection site. Also, if one friend ran more than the others, then a spike in the others' running was observed. 

Basically, members in these unofficial circles would work to keep up with each other. Weather conditions didn't seem to matter either. If a runner ran more in one part of the country, a runner in another part of the country would run more (not necessarily more than the other runner, but more than he/she had previously run) even if there were adverse weather conditions.

Men seemed to be affected by this more than women. Males were definitely influenced by what their male counterparts were doing. Males were also influenced by their female counterparts but not to the same extent. Females, however, didn't seem to be influenced by their male counterparts, but they were influenced by their female counterparts. 

Personally, I use Strava to upload and keep track of my running data. It's been fun making friends around the country on Strava, keeping track of what others are doing. Strava (and I'm sure the other sites do it too) also provides challenges for runners to strive for such as running a certain race distance, running a certain number of miles in a month, etc. It's all healthy competition whether it's with yourself or with others. But, nothing, in my opinion, beats the camaraderie of a real "in-person" running group. While the online sites provide some incentive to run harder to keep up with your buddies, a real-life running group provides life-long friendships, support, motivation, and inspiration that cannot be matched in any other forum. Running is so much more than Running.   

A Run A Day Keeps the Doctor Away!

If you're a runner, especially one who's been running a while, you've undoubtedly heard, "Why do you do that to your body? Doesn't it hurt your joints or knees?" This often comes from someone eating a double-bacon cheese burger, fries, and a Coke. It's hard not to reply back with a similar set of questions, but replacing "knees" with "heart."

I guess it's not too bizarre of an assumption that running could be bad for your joints, after all your knees do absorb about 8 times your body weight with each stride when running. For me that's 1,104lbs, and I'm a little dude. That sounds like a lot of force/weight, and it is, but you know what, the body is an amazing machine. The human body was actually designed to run and Mother Nature crafted some pretty amazing shock-absorbing mechanisms to handle that force.

It's been fairly common thought that regular running during adolescence as well as involvement in other sports that impact the joints at an early age may lead to osteoarthritis in adulthood. One research study back in the 90s seemed to support this thought. Basically is showed that of the 5000 women involved in the study, the ones who were involved in heavy physical sports as teens or were involved in weight-bearing exercise in middle age had a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis of the hip. Well, that was one study.

Today's research is showing the opposite, especially in respects to running. A long-term study out of Standford shows that there's no connection between running and arthritis. Actually the study shoes that running and other "regular vigorous exercise" may even protect the joints in later life. The study followed a group comprised of 1,000 people (runners and non-runners). None of the participants had arthritis at the beginning of the study. Many of them had arthritis by the end of the study. Interesting finding was that the runners' joints were no more or less healthy than the non-runners in the group. This was true for even the really high-mileage runners in the group (averaging over 2,000 miles a year). Another great finding from the research was that the runners tended to be in better health and they had a 39% lower rate of mortality than the non-runners.

There's other research coming in with similar findings. Together all the research seems to be saying that osteoarthritis is mainly determined by genes and other things like obesity. Research shows that obese individuals are four times more likely to to get arthritis than leaner individuals.
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Going back that what I said about Mother Nature.... James Fries (the leader of the Standford research) says, "Normally functioning joints can withstand and actually flourish under a lot of wear," In a recent Time article, he explains that healthy joints depend on movement because cartilage depends on the "pumping action generated by movement to get its regular dose of oxygen and nutrients. When you bear weight, [the joint] squishes out fluid, and when you release weight, it sucks in fluid." This is why daily exercise (including running) is good for keeping that cartilage healthy. Obese individuals may have an increased risk of arthritis because the added weight they're carrying is putting constant stress on their joints while at the same time, they're probably not very active so their joint cartilage isn't benefiting from that"squish factor."

The key is to avoid overuse injuries. Even though your joints like the exercise, you still need to incorporate rest into your running/exercise program. Your body needs time to regenerate and repair which in return builds up your body making it stronger. Another way to avoid overuse injuries such as stress fractures is to increase muscular strength. "Increasing muscular strength" is a phrase that often scares runners because they think it means adding bulk. However, you can increase muscular strength as well as muscular endurance without bulking up. If you focus on lighter weights and more reps, you're not going to end up with the "Arnold look."

Think about it. If you strengthen the muscles not only is this going to protect/support your bones, it's also going to help protect those joints. Your calve muscles are natural shock absorbers for your lower body. You don't need "boulder calves", but if you increase your calf strength, you'll increase their shock-absorbing capabilities at the same time. (Side Note: once during a marathon, my calves blew out. As a result, I ended up with a stress fracture in my heel. I now add calf-strengthening exercises to my weekly routine.) A simple way to to this is by doing body-weight calf-raises or standing calf-raises holding light dumbbells.


Your glutes and hamstrings are also great running muscles not only for power and speed, but for shock absorption as well. The ball-bridge-burnout and dead lifts (using moderate weights) are great ways to strengthen those muscles.

Hamstring Exercises with a Stability Ball -- powered by eHow.com

So the next time, someone says, "You know, running's bad for your joints." Be sure to reply, "Nope, actually it's exactly what the doctor ordered!"

Older Doesn't Mean Slower!

The big 45 is looming around the corner (about 3 months to be exact). I've always been the youngest in many of the landmark events of my life. I was really young when I got married. Were were young when we had our first child. When I got my first teaching job, I was the youngest on the staff. When I moved into educational publishing, I was one of youngest editor/writers on staff. When I joined my running group, I was one of the youngest.

Guess what?! In a blink of an eye, I'm no longer the youngest. Quite a twist of fate. I'm one of the oldest students in my personal trainer/nutrition consultant certification class. My young whipper-snapper of a workout partner the other day, asked me when I started running. I had to tell him, "Before you were born." That hurt.

It's funny hearing the 18-, 19-, and 20-something-year-olds in the class talk as if when you reach your 40s you're basically washed up. I and the students older than me in the class (in their 50s) quickly correct this thinking. But, it is funny how so many young folk and even some seniors think you're doomed after 40, 50, or 60. These doomsdayers need to meet a group of senior ladies from my church that are some serious walkers. These ladies can book! I dare say they could teach those youngsters a few things.

Well, one thing I've noticed as a runner, is that the competition doesn't get easier as you age. Matter of fact it intensifies! In my 30s, I often placed in my age group. Now that I'm in my 40s it's getting harder and harder to place. And, not because I'm getting slower. Oh contraire...my competition is getting faster! 50+ year-olds running sub 20-minute 5Ks! I'm having to find more and more small-town races with fewer people in order to place. Ha!

My original thinking was that, if you're still running in your 40s and 50s, the fair-weather runners have been weeded out and the ones left are hard-core. That may be a factor, but I ran across some interesting research that says older runners actually pick up speed quicker than younger runners. So, instead of getting slower, in many cases, they're getting faster!

Peter Jokl, M.D., professor of orthopedics, and his co-authors, Paul Sethi, M.D., and Andrew Cooper, all of Yale School of Medicine did a study that showed marathon runners 50 and older, and female athletes in particular, are showing greater improvement in running times than younger runners.

Jokl and his colleagues looked at the running time, age, and gender of all of the runners in the New York City Marathon (415,000 runners total) from 1983 through 1999. In addition they evaluated the performances of the top 50 male and top 50 female finishers by age categories. They classified Master Athletes as those 50 and older.

The study showed that women marathon runners ages 50-59 improved their average race time by 2.08 minutes per year. This was a lot greater than male runners of the same age whose running time improved on average about eight seconds per year. However, older male runners increased their running time at a much greater rate than younger male runners (ages 20-30). The younger runners (male and female) did not significantly improve their running times.

Who had the most significant trends in improved running times? Surprisingly enough, the study showed that the most significant time improvement occurred in the male category age 60-69 and 70-79, and for women ages 50-59 and 60-69. Grandma and Grandpa, you rock!

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[Click here] to check out a post from my blogger friend, Thomas, about how masters ultra runners are getting better with age too!