Here’s a nice piece in the Fashion & Style section of Thursday’s (4/17/08) New York Times.  The article details the training regimen of  Sara Hall and the evolution of her preferred race from the 5K to the 1500 meter.  She hopes to compete in this summer’s Olympic games in China.

Money quote:  “The most common mistake” that recreational runners make, (her coach Terrence) Mahon said, “is running the same pace all the time.” Occasionally making yourself run fast, he said, “is the only way to make yourself a fast runner.”’

Interval training is crucial to improving your performance in most sports.  Read the whole article here.

This article from Gina Kolata of the New York Times discusses the measurement of heart rates while training and “maximum heart rate.”

I’ve always been a strong supporter of wearing a heart monitor, particularly when you first start working out and when you are doing interval training.  The monitor can provide a significant aid to your workout since it gives you an immediate and unbiased view of how hard you are working.  I’ve also always thought that the monitor is extremely useful in gauging recovery, which measures your overall  fitness.  For example, if your exercise regime brings your heart rate near your maximum and then you stop and rest, it’s important to see how long it takes your heart to return to more normal levels.  If, after a minute of rest, your heart rate is still severely elevated and has only dropped a few beats that is definitely not a good sign for your fitness level.  Use of a monitor is particularly necessary in interval training, which many experts feel is the most effective type of conditioning.  It allows you to precisely track the cycle of your heart rate and lets you know if you need to push harder or less hard during an interval.  The monitor is also extremely useful as it provides your resting heart rate, a measure of fitness worth knowing.

While I’m happy to see an article that discusses heart rate monitoring during exercise the article loses some of its focus by worrying too much about one’s absolute maximum heart rate—after all, it can vary significantly from person to person and may not be a great indicator of fitness, per se.  The article  also throws in an anecdote of a person with a maximum heart rate of 400 which no doubt just serves to confuse readers.

Some of the key points from Ms. Kolata’s article:

The maximum heart rate reached may vary by sport.  For example, swimming tends to produce a lower maximum heart rate than sprinting.

Nerves can affect heart rates.

The heart monitor allows you to keep track of exercise intensity to meet performance goals or improve.

Ms. Kolata’s article drew a wide range of animated comments from her readers:  Many of the comments that  readers posted on the NYT site were excellent.  Some excerpts:

Resting heart rates may be more important than maximum heart rates, with lower being better.  (Normally, “a trained athlete” has a resting heart rate of 40-60.)

“I’m a personal trainer and I’ve been using a heart rate monitor for at least twenty years. I won’t train a client without one. When I design a workout regime for a client, one of the most important ways for the client to comply is to understand what’s going on with their body. I want the client to push themselves within boundaries and the heart rate monitor allows this. I also teach people to see how long it takes the heart rate to return to lower levels. What I have found fascinating is that perceived exertion is not necessarily a good gage of true exertion.  Most people at the gym on the equipment are working at such low rates that they might as well be taking a walk in the park. They don’t know this since they have no idea what heart rate training really is.”

“Think of an HR monitor as a tachometer which allows you to understand your own “power” usage and help endurance by keeping a pace slightly below your anaerobic threshold.”

“The correct Maximum HR can best be obtained in a sports med lab or in a real world sprint/ride, but for the recreational rider/runner/exerciser, the 220 minus age formula is a good start.”

“Notably, endurance athletes alternate intense workouts with lighter “recovery” days; HR monitors are at least as useful for exercising control on those days, keeping HR below a certain point, as they are for making sure intensity level is high enough during intense workouts.”

“Likewise, they are useful for pacing “long slow distance” runs and monitoring recovery during interval workouts.”

“Also, note that max HR is personal, and yes, it’s generally not an indication of ultimate cardiovascular capacity, and further, it’s testable! It’s probably a good idea for anyone who pays attention to HR in the health club to learn what his or her max HR is. See any of the good HR training books for advice on how this is done.”

“By basing my speed off of heart rate, I noticed that I covered more ground on each long run over the same time period, and have gotten all-around faster.  I agree that heart rate may not be the most important for everyone, but it certainly has helped my aerobic fitness and keeps me from overtraining on days when I don’t need to push myself to exhaustion.”

“Recovery time is not something that the general public should ignore. I am neither a pro or competitive athlete. But I do cycle a lot. If you are older or you do a lot of intensity and/or volume, you should pay attention to recovery time.”

“By simply cycling your intensity up and down (interval training) so that your heart rate repeatedly approaches, crosses and then drops below your anaerobic threshold, you can achieve dramatic fat-burning results, both during exercise and while you’re going about your daily business.”

“Before beginning to use a heart rate device 10 years ago, my exercise sessions and recovery were inconsistent. Knowing the zones, the heart rate, and following a program that works for me, I feel better, sleep better and am more confident that my exercise plan works.”

It’s a typical of the power of the internet that many of the comments on the original article provided more depth of understanding and detail than the article itself.  Be sure to read them all here.

  This NYT article by the well known health and fitness writer, Tara Parker-Pope, dissects the standard push-up.  Here are some highlights from the article.  Read the article in full here:

1. The push-up is a good barometer of overall fitness engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs.
2.  The obesity epidemic has made push-ups more difficult to perform for the average American—pushing up all that extra weight is not easy.
3. The aerobics revolution has shifted emphasis away from maintaining upper body strength, which is not a good thing.
4. Lots of people can’t do push-ups, including for the reasons listed above.  Kids are failing push-up tests at an alarming frequency rate.
5. Being able to do push-ups is particularly important as we age as push-ups can provide the strength and muscle memory to reach out and break a fall, and it’s well known that falls can be debilitating for seniors.
6. People lose strength as they age but regular exercise enlarges muscle fibers and can mitigate the decline.
7.  A 40 year old man should be able to do 27 push-ups.  At age 60, the number is 17.

While the article focuses on the time honored push-up, it is really another wake up call regarding the importance of exercise in life and particularly as we age.  Let’s face, how many 60 year old men can hit the deck and crack out 17 push-ups?  Staying in shape confers huge health and lifestyle benefits as we age.  Push-ups are a good barometer of your overall fitness and should be part of any training program. 

Try and read this article on Vitamin D by the dean of health and fitness writers, Jane E. Brody from The New York Times.  She recaps the current thinking about the benefits and proper doses of Vitamin D.

Here are some of the key points from her article:

Many Doctors and researchers now believe that the current recommended daily allowances (RDA’s) of Vitamin D are too low. 

You can get your Vitamin D through sunlight, eating certain foods rich in D or through supplements.

Skin exposure to the sun’s UV rays (the same ones that cause sunburn) forms Vitamin D. 

Other sources of Vitamin D are fortified milk, juices and certain foods such as the oily fishes.  Some vitamins contain D, but not all.  Check your labels.

It takes a quart of fortified mild a day to reach the current RDA of 400 international units (IUs).

Researchers now believe that 700-800 IUs per day will significantly reduce risk of bone fractures

Animal studies show that Vitamin D reduces tumors.

Observational studies in people show that low levels of Vitamin D are linked to the increased occurrence of many types of cancer including breast, stomach, bladder, pancreas and uterus as well as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and multiple myeloma.  A recent double blind study showed that those taking 1000 IUs of D had 80% less chance of cancer than those that did not.  Diabetes and MS have also been linked to low levels of D.

It is unclear what the maximum safe dose of Vitamin D is as reliable studies are rare.

Check your vitamin D intake today and read the Ms. Brody’s important article in full. 

This Med Headlines article describes a recent study involving lab animals who gained more weight when they were exposed to artificial sweeteners than to plain old sugar.

The study was performed by the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue University and compared weight gain in rodents who ate artificially sweetened yogurt to those who consumed sugar sweetened yogurt.  The sugar fed rodents gained less.  “The study surmised that by breaking the connection between a sweet sensation and high-calorie food, the use of saccharin changes the body’s ability to regulate intake.”

As the article points out, the obesity epidemic has continued in full force during the introduction of artificially sweetened foods into the food chain.

“The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to body weight gain that would not occur if a person consumed the very same food sweetened with higher calorie sugar, the authors wrote.”

We previously reported on the possible link between diet drinks and heart disease here.

Some studies produce counter-intuitive results, like this study that showed a link between low levels of LDL (the “bad” one) cholesterol and Parkinson’s and this one that showed a link between diet colas and heart problems.  Low levels of LDL help prevent heart disease so why should a study show them to be a negative for combating Parkinson’s? And diet colas presumably help you lose weight and a low BMI helps protect you against heart disease, not the other way around.  Anyway, both studies were counter intuitive.  See the links above for more detail on the results.

However, a recent study described in this eFlux media report by Anna Boyd is anything but counter intuitive.  The study results generally just ratify common sense.  Laurel Yates, a doctor of internal medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has produced this very intuitive study published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine which tracked 2,357 men from age 72 to age 90 or more. Here are some of the key findings:  1.  Not smoking, regular exercise, maintaining normal weight, and avoiding diabetes and high blood pressure seem to be the secrets of living to age ninety.    2.  Exercising and not smoking can have great payoff not only in terms of adding years to your life, but making those years be of good function and less disease.   3.  Being in a good shape could add as much as 10 years to a man’s lifespan.    4.  The studies did not find any connection between moderate alcohol consumption and a longer life

However, one common misconception corrected by the study results is as follows:   genes determine only about 25 percent of the variation in lifespan. Therefore, 75 percent can be determined by lifestyle.  Many people falsely believe that their genes are their destiny.

Read the entire excellent article by Ms. Boyd here.

This eFlux Media article by Anna Boyd summarizes the situation with a bill proposed by a Mississippi legislator that would prevent restaurants in Mississippi from serving those that are obese.  Apparently the legislator realized that the bill had no chance of becoming law but submitted the bill simply to draw attention to the huge problem that Mississippi has with obesity which the legislator contends is the state’s number one problem.  Over 30% of the state’s citizens are obese.

Understandably, pretty much everyone, particularly the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, whose website says, “We come in all sizes, understand it, support it, accept it,” was against the bill.  

The bill has no chance of being seriously considered by the Mississippi legislature.

So this latest attempt at Nanny Statism, extreme version, has been defeated.  No doubt we’ll see other similar attempts in the future as the obesity epidemic continues unabated in the US.

Here is a link to a story in the LAT concerning the growing interest in Triathlons.  And the article contains further links to other related LAT info on Triathlons.

These swim/bike/run treks confer the ultimate in bragging rights on athletes.  The current Olympic standard for Triathlons is a 1.5 kilometer swim, a 40 kilometer bike ride and a 10 kilometer run.  Some of the “ironman” triathlons have much longer distances in each category.  See a complete write up on the history and details of triathlons here in Wikpedia.

The LAT article suggests the following if you are interested in competing in your first triathlon:

            Watch a full triathlon first to cut the intimidation factor and to evaluate your mental and physical fitness for the event.

            The training schedule is rigorous so let your family and friend know what is entailed.

            Sign up.  This will motivate you to start training.

            Try an intermediate target such as 10K run to determine your fitness level and build your confidence.

            Learn everything you can about the race before competing including the specific physical features of your particular course.

This article called, “Cue the Gluttony” by LAT staff writer Shari Roan gives us an extensive treatment of the controversy surrounding environmental triggers for (over)eating.  There are those who argue that we are hapless victims of an environment that coaxes us into over-indulging, or in the words of the author: “What if the fault could be laid squarely at the feet of food manufacturers and marketers, grocery store managers, restaurant operators, food vendors — the people who make food so visible, available and mouth-watering?” The theory here is that eating is an automatic behavior triggered by all of these subtle and not so subtle environmental factors.  Rather than try to impose personal responsibility on the individual, the food environmentalists argue that the environment needs to be changed, and regulated through downsizing portions, limiting access to ready-to-eat foods and curbing food advertising. The argument goes that people are essentially incapable of restraining themselves from overeating and such state control is the only way to defeat obesity.   There is no doubt that environmental factors play a huge role in overeating.  But are we talking about a cure that is worse than the disease? In my view, any environmental changes that you yourself can make of  your own free will, such as ridding your house of tempting fatty foods, putting veggies front and center, using smaller dishes, et cetera are great and welcome.  But when we invite the state into our lives to regulate what and where we can eat, we’ve gone way too far.  Food environmentalists who compare restricting food choice to the successful anti-smoking campaigns are missing the point.  The primary basis for restricting public smoking is the damage that second hand smoke inflicts on others.  If smoking only hurt smokers, and didn’t damage and inconvenience the rest of us, most of the anti-smoking laws and restrictions would not exist. Obesity is a huge problem.  In the words of the article: “In the last 25 years, the number of obese Americans has increased from 14.5% to 32.2%. Two out of three adults are overweight, as are 19% of children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”  But the path forward to fight obesity is not through a system where we create a gigantic nanny state that tells us what we can eat, where we can eat it and how much of it we can eat.

I rolled out of bed at 7am on Monday ready for some exercise.  Although I had a pass for a local gym, I opted  for a good old fashioned run.  Suitably attired with my heart monitor and IPOD and carrying a large bottle of water, I planned to do my normal running routine, which is to walk, jog, sprint, repeat, gradually increasing my heart rate with each evolution until it hits close to my maximum heart rate while sprinting, which for me is around 170 beats per minute.  About 12 evolutions of this routine normally takes 45 minutes to an hour and covers around 4 miles.  I find that this routine works better for me than just straight jogging because it is more varied, easier on my joints, and provides the interval training I need.

Studying the map before leaving my hotel in Wellington, I charted a course for the local Botanical Gardens which overlook Wellington Harbor.  Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, located at the very southeastern tip of the North Island.  Mountains descend directly down to the sea giving the area natural beauty but making for a tough climb up.  As I started out running uphill on Terrace Street, I mulled the details of my trip to New Zealand over in my mind.

Leaving Houston Sunday, I overnighted in LA and then caught a Monday evening flight non-stop from LAX to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, which is located in the northern part of the North Island.  Auckland is 21 hours ahead of Los Angeles, so with a 13 hour flight, arrival was Wednesday morning.  Tuesday had disappeared into the ether.  Incidentally the comedian and actor Tim Meadows was on the same flight from LAX to Auckland.  He was a perfect gentleman, gracious to the fans that approached him but otherwise low key.  It seems he is in New Zealand to film a new picture.

After arrival in Auckland, I connected directly through to Queenstown in the southerly part of the South Island, an hour and a half flight from Auckland.  Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable Mountain Range (featured in all three episodes of “Lord of the Rings”) circumscribe and define Queenstown.   It is the Queenstown area that personifies the raw natural beauty of New Zealand that tourists travel for days to experience.  Pristine, underdeveloped and unspoiled, the natural beauty of the mountains, alpine lakes, vast sheep and cattle farms are unparalleled.   The Milford Sound, one the most awesome fjords in the Southern Hemisphere is do-able as a long day trip from Queenstown.  Here one sees New Zealand as Captain James Cook must have seen it from the deck of the HM Bark Endeavor in the eighteenth century: rock cliffs vertically rising out of the South Pacific Ocean giving way to vast rain forests in the distance, with waterfalls cascading off the cliffs into the ocean and with seals sunning themselves on rocks near sea level.  The rare and awe-inspiring terrain is the product of glaciers receding thousands of years ago.

I’d left the sparsely populated beauty of Queenstown region for the large city of Wellington on Saturday and then my thoughts returned to the task at hand, finishing up my run.  As I threaded my way up Salamanca Road, I saw Kelburn Park below me and the entrance to Wellington Botanic Garden above me, so I was on target.  I paused to glance at the outdoor map at the entrance to the Garden and plotted a course through the various walking and running trails in the gardens to take me through the Australian Gardens, and the Threatened Species Garden, among others.  I found that the steep nature of the terrain in Wellington allowed me to reach targeted heart rate rapidly.  But I had to slow to a near crawl to descend safely, allowing an equally rapid heart rate decline. 

I circled up to the Wellington Cable Car terminus passing by the award winning Wellington Cable Car Museum, pausing for a second to enviously view the passengers enjoying a pleasant ride down mountain in the funicular before returning to my run.  I exited the Garden back on Salamanca Road, and then followed a steep pedestrian only stair case that cut under the motor way and brought me back close to the foot of Terrace Road.  It was only a few more evolutions of walk, jog sprint and I was back at the hotel.  I felt fortunate to enjoy a fun exercise routine in this beautiful and historic city.