By the numbers

Chantal Petitclerc and her former coach Peter Erickson show off their accreditation

She’s one of her generation’s greatest athletes, and she recently completed one of the biggest turns in her career. Chantal Petitclerc was coaching the British team at the 2012 Paralympics, and success was once again her middle name. The coaching stint comes after being a star competitor at the Games over two decades.

She’s kind enough here to share “My Games by the Numbers” with Good4sports.

Mes jeux en chiffres!

 

20 : Number of events by the 4 athletes I was working with, including rounds and finals. My job was to surpervise and coordinate times for transport, warm up, be there from start to finish, including coffees before, and talks after!  This also explains the number of coffees.

 

11 : Gold Medal count for the track & Field GB team.  They only had 2 golds in at the last games.  Back from Beijing UKA hired my former coach Peter Erickson as the paralympic head coach. 4 years later the team has its best performance ever. Coincidence? Don’t think so!!

 

6 : Medals won by the group I was supervising. 5 of them gold. More than some countries

 

59 : Lattes I drank during the games. First one at 7 with Team Leader Peter Erickson, just before leaving for the stadium with the athletes. We were never really back to our rooms until 11h00. Starting with day 5, the lattes also included and extra shot of espresso.

 

3 : Moments brought tears to my eyes, but will keep them for me!

 

4 : blisters covering Shelly Woods’ hands after her silver medal marathon performance. After a tough week struggling on the track in spite of being in great shape, she gave everything and made it to the podium for the last event. Brilliant!

 

5h30 : average dayly sleep I got during the games. Still recovering.

 

81 000 : Spectators in the stadium. Passionate and loud. A full stadium for morning semi-final sessions at the paralympics, thats something I had never seen before!

 

1889 : number of texts I send and received on my iphone during the games..

 

128 : Number of time I had to show my acreditation to security control.

 

15;82 : new world record in the 100m for Liu Wong, who beat my world record of 15;91 from Bejing.  A little pinch, sure, but thats what sport is all about, pushing limits.

 

Stopped counting : number of times I was asked :  «  so, you miss it? » My answer; not a single bit. A clear sign that it is indeed a privilege to retire when having acomplished all my goals.

 

Stopped counting : number of times I was asked : «  is it weird, wearing the GB uniform? » My answer : Not a single bit! They are an amazing, positive team who trusted me, and allowed me to live one of the most amazing experiences. I will never forget the generosity of all coaches who gave me time, good advice, shared their knowledge, or just gave me a smile when we passed on the way back and to the stadium.  Thank you all!

 

 

Moderate exercise in mid-life helps

More evidence that we need to get active in mid-life if we want to protect the old ticker.

The BBC is reporting on a study published in the journal Circulation that looked at inflammatory markers in the blood of participants over a ten-year period. You can read the full story here.

This is how it closes:

Dr Mark Hamer, of University College London, who led the research, said: “We should be encouraging more people to get active – for example, walking instead of taking the bus. You can gain health benefits from moderate activity at any time in your life.”

Maureen Talbot of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the work, said: “Donning your gardening gloves or picking up a paint brush can still go a long way to help look after your heart health, as exercise can have a big impact on how well your heart ages.

“This research highlights the positive impact changing your exercise habits can have on the future of your heart health – and that it’s never too late to re-energise your life.

“However it’s important not to wait until you retire to get off the couch, as being active for life is a great way to keep your heart healthy.”

A Mini Olympic Celebration

Gotta hand it to the Brits after London 2012. And, as I am a big fan of the Mini, I feel it’s OK to post something, that for the first time on this blog, is an actual advertisement!

Trail Running with Real Gold at Stake!

Re-connected today with Mihira Lakshman, editor-in-chief at Canadian Running magazine, and was delighted to read his feature on trail runners staking claims for prospectors in Northern Ontario. I didn’t realize the practice existed, but the tradition goes back a while. Talk about taking running to a whole new level. You can read the whole story here.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Gosselin remembers one incident when a rival prospector stole his final post. “When I came in to write my finishing time down [on the final post], my post wasn’t there anymore. It was on camera that I came in first, but since I didn’t record it on a post, it wasn’t really official,” he says. The camera didn’t show the post being stolen, but the company that hired Gosselin for that run later fought and won the case in court.

It’s a high-stakes game. Although the prospectors are sometimes shelling out hundreds of dollars to hire claim runners – even more for vehicle help – if they successfully earn the claim, mining companies could offer millions for the rights. “If you stake a gold mine, I can’t even put a price on it,” says Compass Exploration’s Norm Collins, who hires Gosselin to run for him a few times each year. “It’s a dirty game for sure. There’s a lot of backstabbing and a lot of illegal moves that happen out there,” Collins adds.

The process is steeped in tradition. The claim-stakers must “blaze the trail” between their corner posts to officially mark their territory. Runners carry hatchets as they sprint down the 400m stretches between posts, putting marks in trees every 50m. Usually the prospectors that hire the runners will mark the path with tape on the trees, but sometimes orienteering and bushwhacking are necessary. The main skill, however, is speed. Gosselin says cross-country athletes make the best claim runners since they are strong enough to handle the hills and treacherous footing. “I usually wear an aggressive trail shoe, and duct tape my shoe to my ankles, so it doesn’t come off. And you can build [the tape] up around your ankles to protect them.” Every few steps, he expects to fall. “You bite the dust, big time.

Although prospecting has been around in the area for a century, hiring runners to stake the claims is a relatively recent phenomenon. “It used to be just prospectors who would normally do this,” says Collins, who has been in the business for 20 years. His father, also a prospector, came up with the idea of using cross-country runners. Collins and his younger brother were both competitive high school runners, and they found the competition in claim-staking somewhat pedestrian in the late 80s and early 90s. “We used to kick butt,” he recalls. “Eventually a bunch of our friends from the local high school (Theriault High School in Timmins, Ont.) – a good running school – started doing it for my dad and other companies around town.”

Just let her run!

It seems that the world can’t stop talking about Caster Semenya….and casting dispersions.  After her 2nd place finish in the 800m final at the London Olympics, commentator Colin Jackson suggested she wasn’t trying (so she could avoid renewed controversy). I understand that her story is at once complex and fascinating, but it’s high time we just let her run and let the results speak for themselves. Here’s how the Buenos Aires Herald reported on Semenya’s return to South Africa:

Olympic silver medalist Caster Semenya has defended herself against allegations that she did not try to win the 800 meters at the London Games.

The South African who was forced to undergo gender testing after her 2009 world championships triumph, started poorly in the final, sitting at the back of the field until she produced a late burst to finish second to Mariya Savinova, 1.04 seconds behind the Russian.

Her performance led to speculation by television pundit Colin Jackson, three times the 110m hurdles world champion, that Semenya had deliberately avoided winning so as not to stir up fresh controversy like that in 2009.

“I tried my best, whatever people say. There is always talk but these people know nothing about athletics,” Semenya said at Johannesburg airport on Tuesday, where she received a heroine’s welcome.

South Africa’s sports minister Fikile Mbalula praised Semenya, a shy 21-year-old from an obscure rural village in South Africa’s northernmost province of Limpopo, as an inspiration to all those coming from similarly modest upbringings.

“I don’t know about her strategy in the race but she has made us very proud. Nobody gave her a chance but she showed the greatest guts of a young African woman,” Mbalula said while choking back tears.

“She has toiled out of difficulty to become a symbol of greatness and has shown that it doesn’t matter where you come from. From her small village in Limpopo, where the people are full of poverty, she has become the symbol of a courageous young woman.”

Semenya, who clocked one minute 57.23 seconds in the final, said she was satisfied with a silver medal but would be looking to go one better in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“I am happy with silver but it was hard work. I said to myself that I must get something from the race and I saw that the other ladies were tired. I had to pull out my turbo-boost,” she smiled.

“I’m concentrating now on next year, the world championships in Moscow, that is my main focus. The Olympics are still four years away and we learn by mistakes so hopefully I can do better next time and win the Olympics.”

Breaking the 9 second barrier?

Don’t bet on Prince Harry ever breaking the 9 second barrier. But how about Usain Bolt?

With the 2012 London Olympics set to go, many are wondering just how fast Usain Bolt and the sprinters will be able to go in the 100 metres. That showcase event is easily the most watched at the Games. It wasn’t that long ago that people asked whether humans could break the 10 second barrier (unaided by performance enhancing drugs)

At the BBC’s Future webpage, Ed Yong is asking whether it’s possible to predict whether the 9 second barrier will ever be broken:

That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer, and ploughing through the record books is of little help. “People have played with the statistical data so much and made so many predictions. I don’t think people who work on mechanics take them very seriously,” says John Hutchinson, who studies how animals move at the Royal Veterinary College in London, UK.

The problem is that the progression of sprinting records is characterised by tortoise-like lulls and hare-like… well… sprints. People are getting faster, but in an unpredictable way. From 1991 to 2007, eight athletes chipped 0.16 seconds off the record. Bolt did the same in just over one year. Before 2008, mathematician Reza Noubary calculated that “the ultimate time for [the] 100 meter dash is 9.44 seconds.” Following Bolt’s Beijing performance, he told Wired that the prediction “would probably go down a little bit”.

John Barrow from the University of Cambridge – another mathematician – has identified three ways in which Bolt could improve his speed: being quicker off the mark; running with a stronger tailwind; and running at higher altitudes where thinner air would exert less drag upon him. These tricks may work, but they’re also somewhat unsatisfying. We really want to know whether flexing muscles and bending joints could send a sprinter over the finish line in 9 seconds, without relying on environmental providence.

To answer that, we have to look at the physics of a sprinting leg. And that means running headfirst into a wall of ignorance. “It’s tougher to get a handle on sprinting mechanics than on feats of strength or endurance,” says Peter Weyand from Southern Methodist University, who has been studying the science of running for decades. By comparison, Weyand says that we can tweak a cyclist’s weight, position and aerodynamic shape, and predict how that will affect their performance in the Tour de France. “We know down to 1%, or maybe even smaller, what sort of performance bumps you’ll get,” he says. “In sprinting, it’s a black hole. You don’t have those sorts of predictive relationships.”

Yong concludes that people placing ceilings on human performance  are ill-informed.  For now, I’m waiting for someone to break the 9.5 barrier.

Teenage fitness level and adult depression linked

A recently released study suggests better cardiovascular fitness at age 18 is associated with lower depression rates in adulthood.  Dr. Maria  Åberg, MD, PhD, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, in Sweden, said the correlation can be seen for up to the next 40 years of a person’s life.

This is how Medscape Today reports on the study:

“A proposed mechanism is that physical exercise could reverse the reduced neuronal plasticity that is observed in both depression and bipolar disorders. Previous human studies have shown that a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of depression, but most of these have been based on interviews with adults and the results have been inconclusive, and we felt that there was a real need for a large study with long follow-up times and objective measures of physical performance,” Dr. Åberg explained.

The researchers carried out a prospective cohort study of all Swedish men born between 1950 and 1987 with no history of mental illness who were enlisted for mandatory military service at the age of 18 years.

When enlisting, all 1,117,292 men were given extensive physical and psychological examinations, including tests of their cardiovascular and muscle fitness.

The men were followed between 1969 and 2008. The researchers used data from the Swedish National Hospital Discharge Register to see how may had received inpatient treatment for depression.

The study showed that the men who performed poorly on the cardiovascular fitness tests at age 18 years were at greater risk of being hospitalized with depression in later life.

After controlling for factors that included body mass index, conscription test center, and familial factors, the hazard ratio (HR) associated with lower cardiovascular fitness at age 18 for serious depression in adulthood was 1.96 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.71 – 2.23).

There was no such association found for bipolar disorder (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 0.84 – 1.47).

“Doctors can tell their teenage patients and their parents that the brain needs two types of training, both cognitive challenges and physical exercise,” Dr. Åberg said.

Olympian Poetry

The Parnassus poetry festival in London, one of the arts and culture events organized for the 2012 Olympics, recently brought together poets from around the world.

One of them is Senegal’s Didier Awadi. This is a video of his work called “Dans Mon Revê”

Poetry used to be an essential part of the Olympic Games, going back to ancient Greece, as Tony Perrottet describes in his Sunday New York Times essay.

“In ancient Greece, literary events were an indispensable part of athletic festivals, where fully clothed writers could be as popular with the crowd as the buff athletes who strutted about in the nude, gleaming with olive oil. Spectators packing the sanctuary of Zeus sought perfection in both body and mind. Champion athletes commissioned great poets like Pindar to compose their victory odes, which were sung at lavish banquets by choruses of boys. (The refined cultural ambience could put contemporary opening ceremonies, with their parade of pop stars, to shame.) Philosophers and historians introduced cutting-edge work, while lesser-known poets set up stalls or orated from soapboxes.

Criticism could be meted out brutally: when the Sicilian dictator Dionysius presented subpar poems in 384 B.C., disgusted sports fans beat him up and trashed his tent. At other Greek athletic festivals, like those at Delphi, dedicated to Apollo, the god of poetry and music, verse recital was featured as a competitive event, along with contests for the lyre and choral dancing.”

Poetry was actually part of the Olympic competition in the first half of the 20th century with medals being given to poems inspired by sport, Perrottet writes. But the validity of the competition and its ability to attract the top poets was discredited by 1948, and the competition was dropped.

Gatherings like the Olympics  are on such a massive scale that they will always inspire people from all walks of life, so re-inventing ways to showcase other forms of human accomplishment like poetry is a worthwhile endeavor.

I particularly like Perrottet ‘s closing.

“Of course, the ephemeral nature of worldly glory has long been a ripe subject for poets. For this year’s games, a panel of literary experts decided to adorn London’s Olympic Village with a line from Tennyson’s “Ulysses” to sum up the gritty determination of the ancient wanderer: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Perhaps more nuanced are the words of Achilles pondering the vagaries of celebrity in Homer’s “Iliad”: “I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.” Or as Emily Dickinson more cheerily put it: “Fame is a bee. / It has a song — / It has a sting — / Ah, too, it has a wing.”

Go jogging-and eat carrots – to boost longevity once you hit 70!

Another study has found that exercise – like jogging, walking, or swimming- and consuming vegetables could increase your lifespan once you hit 70. The study, published by Emily J. Nicklett, et al, in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, followed more than 700 women in their 70’s in the Pittsburgh area, over a 5-year period.

“The present study found that physical activity and total serum carotenoids are strong and independent predictors of survival in older women living in the community. This offers preliminary support for the hypothesis that a diet high in fruit and vegetables, as reflected by high total serum carotenoid concentrations, combined with high physical activity would each demonstrate a protective association with 5-year mortality independent of one another. Therefore, exercise and nutrition should both be analyzed when assessing the health and projected life span of older women. Programs and policies to promote longevity should include interventions to improve nutrition and physical activity in older adults.”

The most physically active study participants -in other words, the ones who exercised the most – were nearly twice as likely to survive over the 5-year period as were the sedentary ones.

The authors conclude that even though they’ve shown that exercise and carotenoid intake will prolong life,

“…further work is required to validate and extend these findings in other populations so that appropriate groups can be targeted for interventions that incorporate diet and physical activity. The implications of this work are that interventions should combine improvements in diet and physical activity—rather than examine changes in isolation—to improve survival in older populations.”

Swim around the world

Rare is the time when I post simply to promote another website, but this one is consistent with the very purpose of my blog! I’ve discovered the Swimmers Guide, a site for lap swimmers who want to find a decent public pool wherever they travel in the world. This is how they explain their existence:

“In our many years of traveling, we were never able to find a single, half-decent, half-way reliable resource for finding swimming pools away from home. (Or near home, either, for that matter.) So we’ve set out to be something of a Google for swimming pools. In our spare time, we search the ‘Net for information about places to swim around the world, catalog what we find, add it to the database, and share it with the world.

Taking whatever we can find on the ‘Net, together with what other swimmers have sent us, we’ve compiled the most comprehensive swimming pool-finding resource ever created. Does that sound boastful? In a word: “Yes”; but it’s also absolutely true!”

So far, they’ve built a list of more than 20-thousand pools in 10-thousand plus cities — in 68 countries. What a fantastic way to use the evolving information highway.

Born a champion? Or can you build one?

A recent study out of Britain suggests that genetics are an important factor in determining who will be champ. Designing the ultimate training program is not enough. This is from the abstract of the study by Ross Tucker and Malcolm Collins, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine:

“The authors conclude that although deliberate training and other environmental factors are critical for elite performance, they cannot by themselves produce an elite athlete. Rather, individual performance thresholds are determined by our genetic make-up, and training can be defined as the process by which genetic potential is realised. Although the specific details are currently unknown, the current scientific literature clearly indicates that both nurture and nature are involved in determining elite athletic performance. In conclusion, elite sporting performance is the result of the interaction between genetic and training factors, with the result that both talent identification and management systems to facilitate optimal training are crucial to sporting success.”

The authors also seem to be suggesting that training practices and volumes might have to be tailored to one’s genetic make-up and potential — which challenges many existing practices featuring standardized training regimens across elite groups.

This is from their conclusion:

“However, future work is required to elucidate the biological processes that may be associated with these potential differences. In conclusion, elite sporting performance is the result of the interaction between genetic and training factors, with the result that both talent identification and management systems to facilitate optimal training are crucial to sporting success. The traditional methods used by coaches for talent identification should be used before any genetic testing, because performance is multifactorial and therefore there is always the possibility that the genetic profile, no matter how detailed, may miss a crucial DNA variant or non-genetic factor that enhances performance.”

Exercise-not just about the weight loss

How many people do you know who’ve given up an exercise program when the weight doesn’t come off immediately? Too many, I’m sure.

Now, there’s yet another study showing that there are benefits to exercise, even when the stones aren’t dropping.

The Journal of the American Medical association (JAMA) published a piece this week extolling the benefits of exercise for diabetes patients. The opinion,  released to coincide with the 72nd annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association,  suggests that even moderate exercise can help treat diabetes caused by obesity. Here’s a portion of that report:

“There’s long-standing evidence that physical fitness can help people live longer, even those who carry too many pounds. Seminal research by Steven Blair, PED (then at the CooperInstitute of Aerobics Research in Dallas, Texas) and colleagues found that cardiovascular fitness is strongly associated with improved survival and is independent of body weight (Blair SN et al. JAMA. 1989;262[17]:2395-2401). Further studies have extended these findings, showing that physical fitness is closely associated with diabetes, also independent of body fatness.

There is a dramatic, steep increase in mortality among patients with very low fitness scores. “Actually, it is not fitness we are concerned about but rather low fitness,” said Carl Lavie, MD, of the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, who spoke at a symposium on the importance of fitness on the pathophysiology and treatment of diabetes. Although both fitness and fatness are important, cardiorespiratory fitness greatly modifies the association of obesity with death due to cardiovascular disease, he said.

The underlying mechanism, explained John Thyfault, PhD, an exercise physiologist at the University of Missouri, appears to be the key role that that muscle plays in how the body processes glucose. The best indicator for the risk of developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease is the glucose response when food is consumed. The release of insulin following food ingestion facilitates glucose transport into muscle and fat and inhibits a mechanism the body uses to keep blood glucose levels from dropping too low, hepatic gluconeogenesis (the generation of glucose in the liver from substances other than carbohydrates, such as lactate). About 80% of circulating glucose is transported into muscle, making it the most important organ in maintaining proper glucose levels.”

The researchers conclude that some of the benefit of exercise in patients with diabetes comes from NOT being sedentary, and not necessarily from being superfit. They also suggest that resistance and strength training are also important in improving the health of diabetics.

Exercise in coping with cancer

GUEST POST

David Haas is a contributing writer to the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance Blog. In this Guest Post, he writes about how important exercise can be for people who are living with cancer:

By David Haas

Successful Cancer Intervention Includes Exercise

When going through cancer, finding the motivation to make the right choices about health and nutrition can be rough. Feeling exhausted and depressed can drain the energy you need to integrate exercise and a healthy diet into your life. Studies show that regular physical activity can improve energy levels, reduce the side effects of treatment, and give you more independence. When your well-being is sagging, it’s difficult to focus on what’s best.

Fighting cancer takes strong will and determination. It requires you to take a hard look at your daily habits and current lifestyle and then to make changes that will improve your chances to survive. That isn’t easy; nothing about cancer is easy. Although your body might feel weakened, exercise increases both stamina and strength.

In a study carried out by the Stanford Prevention Research Center, 400 cancer patients participated in an exercise tracking process that measured physical improvement. The computerized tracking device called FitLinxx allowed researchers to receive instant feedback on a variety of factors such as the number of reps involved and the participant’s position.

In addition to the positive physical changes of improved strength and flexibility, study participants reported improvements in their stress level, mood, vitality and fatigue. Exercise literally made them feel better. The majority of the participants had breast cancer, but those going through colon, prostate, ovarian, lymphoma, lung and other cancers were also included. That points to exercise as being a beneficial component of a successful fight against cancer including aggressive conditions such as pancreas and mesothelioma cancer.

Increase Activity Level Early

An active lifestyle is important for everyone. It helps to reduce the risk factors that lead to cancer, improves the quality of life for those going through therapy programs, and helps to increase the chances that cancer won’t return. Exercise improves the body’s immune system function and can help decrease body fat through improving insulin resistance and lowering inflammation markers. It can smooth out unbalanced hormone levels and improve musculoskeletal weakness.

Early intervention is a key factor in preventing the problems that can result as muscles weaken. It’s easier to maintain endurance, strength and range of motion than it is to regain it. Even so, it’s never too late to begin increasing your activity level. In fact, it’s recommended that you begin upping your exercise as soon as you receive your cancer diagnosis to physically prepare you for treatment.

Exercise works to improve your metabolism, normalize appetite, and helps your body to detox from drug by-products. It relieves the tension that therapy places on the body and gives you an emotional boost to help cope with treatment side effects. Overall, increased activity and exercise encourages healing, and healing is what it takes to survive.

Overcoming Fatigue

When it comes to gaining motivation, the fatigue that comes from cancer treatments can work against you. The ups and downs affect your psychological well-being and provide excuses to remain inactive. The degree and consistency of these exhaustion patterns depends on the type of treatment you’re going through, but overcoming the problem is universal.

Although reaching for a handful of supplements that promise to boost your energy might be your first instinct, exercise is best. It gives your body cells more energy and helps to circulate oxygen. Exercise also encourages the brain to release stress hormones that can leave you feeling energized. Also, don’t forget to drink plenty of water. If your body isn’t adequately hydrated, the major symptom of dehydration is fatigue.

Exercise is Something You Can Control

Cancer is not a lonely disease. Research indicates that about 40 percent of the world’s population will develop cancer at some point in their life. That makes it an important topic to learn about and discuss. Knowledge brings power. That power can change your life for the better and have a very real effect on the outcome of your prevention, diagnosis, and survival. According to Murray University, a greater majority of cancer deaths are related to negative lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet, and inactivity. These negative factors play a heavy role in producing fatigue. While fatigue can quickly interfere with your motivation to exercise, unlike cancer itself, diet and exercise are things you can control.

David Haas is a cancer support group and awareness program advocate at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. In addition to researching the many valuable programs available to the people who visit the MCA’s website, David often blogs about programs and campaigns underway at the MCA, as well as creative fitness ideas for those dealing with cancer, while creating relationships with similar organizations.

Jogging with your best drone friend – the joggobot

The joggobot is a drone designed to run in front of runners. Why exactly? Im not sure.

I’m a runner who enjoys my time alone on long outings. So I’m perplexed by researchers who’ve developed a flying robot to keep runners company when they can’t find a partner to hit the road with. Here’s how Forbes is reporting on it:

Runners, you no longer have to convince your reluctant partner to put on sneaks and hit the streets with you, thanks to my new favorite drone: the Joggobot, a companion robot for runners. Using a built-in camera, the autonomous drone hones in on sensors in a custom shirt and exhorts you to keep up with it.

“People might feel chased if the Joggobot was behind them,” says researcher Eberhard Grather in a video.  So instead your little drone friend  flies in front of you.

Floyd Mueller and Grather, researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, tricked out the Parrot AR Drone, which is usually operated with a smartphone, to fly autonomously. You can set it for companion mode — in which the drone flies at a steady pace — or coach mode, “which sets a slightly more challenging speed,” reports WiredUK. (Coach mode sounds suspiciously like the fake rabbit used on dog race tracks.)”

In case you’re wondering, the batteries only last 20 minutes. So you won’t get too far with your best drone friend. The biggest problem I see with this is the number of people out in front of me on a run who will get nailed in the back of the head by the drone. Also, are that many runners out there looking for a flying friend? Why, why, why?

This isn’t my bag baby, but I must say that I enjoyed watching the promotional video for the product, because the flying robot thing looks pretty cool for someone born in the 60’s and raised on shows like the Jetsons.

Pain killer epidemic in FIFA action?

The Independent in the UK is suggesting that many professional athletes are risking their  careers by dosing up on pain killers to stay in the game. The piece comes after the medical head of FIFA, Dr. Jiri Dvorak, revealed that nearly half the footballers at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa were using anti-inflammatory painkillers. The article suggests that the problem goes well beyond football, and that it’s time for people to take notice.

FIFA’s Jiri Dvorak

Here’s part of that story:

“Unfortunately, there is the trend to increase the intake of medication. It is something that we have to really take seriously,” Dr Dvorak told the BBC. He cited the pressure on team doctors to get players back on the field as quickly as possible.

“Most of them, they are under pressure between the diagnosis and appropriate treatment, and between the pressure to bring the player back on the pitch. If they take them out for too long they might be out of a job,” he said.

Several players have described the damage done to themselves after they agreed to accept painkilling injections, normally of steroids into painful joints, before matches. Although the injections can be helpful in the short term, they are not recommended long term because of the risk of damage to tissues. Steroids weaken the immune system and can thin cartilage and there is a risk of infection from the injection.

Garry Monk, the Swansea City defender, described last year how he had had “one too many injections” in his back to help him to play, which had damaged a nerve, leaving him without feeling in his right foot.

Dr Dvorak’s views were echoed by Hans Geyer, the deputy director of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Dr Geyer said anti-inflammatories qualified as a “doping substance”, which allowed endurance athletes in particular to complete feats of running or walking that would not otherwise have been possible.

He warned footballers were trying to make themselves “insensitive” to pain.

“If you switch off alarm systems that protect your tissues, you can have irreversible destruction of tissue.”

There are a number of issues related to the over use of anti-inflammatory medications. First, masking pain can permit activity that will cause further injruy.  Second, the side-effects of the drugs can be serious, both short and long term.

Dvorak’s comments were made public as Euro 2012 is set to kick-off in Poland and the Ukraine later in the week. More than 50 players have already bowed out of the tournament because of injury, and some people are blaming the ever-increasing demands of the international football calendar.

Another warning about endurance training

It’s not clear what defines “vigorous” when it comes to endurance training, but another team of researchers is putting the brakes to working out more than 60 minutes at a time.

On its website, the CBC reports on a scientific review published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, which suggests that benefits of vigorous exercise diminish after an hour, and may even cause cardiovascular events. The piece, which quotes author Dr. James O’Keefe from Missouri,  suggests that some endurance athletes could be doing damage to their hearts:

“When people come to me as a cardiologist and say they want to run a marathon I say, ‘OK, do one and cross it off your bucket list and then let’s focus on an exercise pattern that’s more ideal to producing long-term health benefits and improving your longevity,'” O’Keefe said.

People who exercise regularly have lower rates of disability and a life expectancy seven years longer on average than couch potatoes, the researchers noted.

O’Keefe wants people to understand that the lion’s share of benefits come at a relatively modest level. No further benefits are obtained beyond 30 to 60 minutes a day of vigorous activity.

The researchers said elite-level athletes commonly develop abnormal electrocardiograms and their hearts adapt in ways that traditionally weren’t thought to be harmful. Now it seems the cardiac remodelling from excessive exercise can increase their risk of heart rhythm problems like atrial fibrillation.

After people reach their mid-40s, long and intense exercise can cause scarring and fibrosis in the heart, O’Keefe said.”

The ultra running world took notice this winter when Micah True died while running a 12-miler.  The author of Born to Run , known as the Caballo Blanco, died when the rhythm of his heart went of control. He would sometimes run a 100-miles a day,  and some people blame running for his death at age 58.

His is an extreme case, but combined with the perception of increasing number of deaths at marathons, people want to know more about what could be “excessive” when it comes to endurance training and the heart.

Could exercise be bad for you?

A bit of a disturbing study – and it’s just one study- from the States, suggesting that for some healthy people exercise could be bad for the heart.  Gina Kolata writes about it on the NY Times Health blog. Here’s a portion:

“Could exercise actually be bad for some healthy people? A well-known group of researchers, including one who helped write the scientific paper justifying national guidelines that promote exercise for all, say the answer may be a qualified yes.

By analyzing data from six rigorous exercise studies involving 1,687 people, the group found that about 10 percent actually got worse on at least one of the measures related to heart disease:blood pressure and levels of insulin, HDL cholesterol or triglycerides. About 7 percent got worse on at least two measures. And the researchers say they do not know why.”

The study suggests that an equal percentage of people showed very good changes to those key measures.  One of the mysteries is that there doesn’t seem to be a significant correlate to age, gender, race, or previous level of fitness.  The study was not long-term, so failed to measure the actual impact on heart disease and mortality.

In contrast to this study, shows like the Biggest Loser are showing that exercise is a significant part of the treatment for unhealthy people with conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. See this Medscape article.

So what is a jogger to do? Or a swimmer? Or cyclist? I would never suggest anyone ignore the results of good science, but in this case there is so much data supporting regular exercise — from weight loss to improved psychological outlook – that I would file this study under “lets check again about this later, when more research backs it up and spells out the significance.”

My suspicion is that many who start a new exercise program do so too vigorously, and that might have a negative impact on parts of the body.

Ponytail joggers at risk!

Some runners along the Rideau Canal in Ottawa may be considering protective headgear. Once again this spring, redwing blackbirds are targeting female runners. Women with ponytails seem to be especially at risk, according to people who live nearby. Here’s CBC Ottawa’s Cory O’Kelly reporting on the bizarre phenomenon.

This isn’t the first year the angry birds have made a scene, as you can see in this report by the Ottawa Sun from spring 2011. The reality of birds attacking runners isn’t limited to the Rideau Canal either. Nesting birds of prey can be particularly dangerous. And in the UK, this local news story suggests that the crow is especially fond of blonde joggers. A local wildlife specialist even suggests that some runners might consider wearing hard hats!

From losing weight to one of the world’s fittest

Rich Roll is considered one of the world’s fittest people.

Rich Roll says he “unlocked a more authentic version of” himself by training for and competing in endurance events. It started with trying to get in shape by paying attention to his diet and his weight, and morphed into a love of the endurance world. He’s a top ironman triathlete, competes in ultraman events, and is the author of several books, including Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age. You can hear a brief interview he did with NPR’s Weekend Edition by clicking here.

He describes his journey as a spiritual one, but are the incredibly long hours of training the best way to achieve internal transformation? Critics of endurance events and training claim that the activities are self-centered and potentially damaging. It’s not uncommon for ultra endurance athletes to be told by some friends and families that they’ve lost their  minds. Yet, the athletes themselves feel fulfilled in a way that they never have before.

I’ve competed in some endurance events (not ultras) and spoken to many, many athletes who are totally committed to the endeavor. There’s not a single, unifying reason why they do it. However, increasingly, people are looking for ways to distinguish themselves from the “average” person – as Roll says in his interview, to line-up next to some of the top elite athletes in the world.

The Metric Mile – a contact sport?

Jim Ryun falls in 1972 Munich Olympics 1500 metres race

Great piece from the Wall Street Journal, as part of the lead-up to the London Olympics. The story looks at the riddle of running middle distances, and dealing with inevitable contact:

“For a sport that divides seconds into thousandths, physical contact is poorly measured. The incidence of touches, trips and tumbles is anybody’s guess. Even the rate of disqualifications for physical contact isn’t readily available. But it’s an open secret that track is a contact sport.

In sprinting, violations are easier to police, for each competitor is required to stay within his lane. And in distance running, slower paces offer the fallen a second chance, as when Finland’s Lasse Viren got up from the ground to claim the lead and gold medal in the 10,000-meter race in Munich.

But in middle distance running, physical contact is frequent, hard to police and not always accidental. A runner near the front can wreak havoc behind her by suddenly slowing down. Or “a runner gets behind you and tactically shoves you into the lead,” throwing you off pace, says Joan Hansen, a former U.S. Olympian who took a fall during the 3,000-meter run at the 1984 Olympics.”

The piece by Sara Germano and Kevin Helliker notes the 40th anniversary of American Jim Ryun’s disqualification in the preliminaries at the Munich Olympics. He was the world record holder in the 1500 metres at the time, but was hit from behind and fell with a third of the race to go. He claimed the hit was deliberate, but his appeal to be re-instated for the semi-final heats fell on deaf ears.

The contact element is even more interesting because running with the pack, and not out front alone, is a common strategy in the middle distances.