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5 ALIVE
"Sciences of Running"
Diet-Hydration:
Carbonation:
The carbonation in all soft drinks causes calcium loss in the bones through a three-stage process:
- Carbonation irritates the stomach.
- The stomach neutralizes the irritation by adding the only antacid at its disposal: calcium. It gets this from the blood.
- The blood, which is now low on calcium, replenishes its supply from the bones. If it did not do this, muscular and brain function would be severely impaired.
- Sodas contain Phosphoric acid.
- Phosphoric acid reduces the calcium in the bones.
- The bones are softened and more likely to become injured.
Water generally has a pH of 7, or neutral. Carbonated drinks have a pH of 2.8. But the difference isn’t just 4.2! When the pH scale moves from 7 to 6, the difference is multiplied by 10. Beverages at 6 are 10 times more acidic than water (7). After the difference is multiplied exponentially, soft drinks are 100,000 times more acidic than water.
Other Soda Symptoms:
Daytime fatigue, leg and toe cramps, inability to mentally focus, hunger pangs, and dehydration of the body (2% drop in the amount of water retained in the body can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on printed or video text).
Importance of Water:
Even mild dehydration will slow down your metabolism, speed up aging, reduce resistance to disease, and reduce muscle recovery after exercise.
Drinking half of a gallon of water a day will ease back and joint pain 80% of the time.
Water aids in the digestion and absorption of food (energy); helps maintain proper muscle tone; lubricates the joints, supplies oxygen and nutrients to the cells rids the body of wastes (lactic/citric acid); and serves as a natural air conditioning system.
Health officials emphasize the importance of drinking at least eight glasses of clean
water each and every day.
Exercising in humid or hot conditions can lead to dehydration within 30 minutes (4-5 mi run). Drinking the proper amount of water before and after a workout is crucial to stopping dehydration. For every 15 minutes of exercise, 8-10 fl oz (1.00-1.24 cups) of water should be consumed. When running, the thirst mechanism can shut off, so it is important to drink on a schedule. Urine should be clear or a very light color of yellow.
While running your body temperature can be heated by 3 or 4 degrees or 102° F, which is an efficient lever for energy utilization. If the body reaches 104° F, the muscles will not perform well. Drinking water before, during, and after runs allow more sweat production and better temperature maintenance.
Drink water all day until about 1-1.5 hours before running. Otherwise, you’ll have to stop to go to the bathroom. Once you start running you can start to drink again. You will sweat this water off before it passes through your kidneys. Try to drink during recovery, and not explosive running. Once you stop running drink water or Gatorade (See food) and continue to drink throughout the day.
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Diet-Food:
For distance runners energy needs increase 10 to 20 times the energy needs of non- runners. Most calories should be gained in the form of carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are the best, and include fruits, vegetables, pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, and beans.
20-25 miles a week: 2,500 calories are needed daily in order to maintain muscle glycogen stores. As your mileage increases more and more calories arc needed.
Excess carbohydrates are required the night before a race or even a long run. Drinks including caffeine and alcohol should NOT be consumed before a race. A runner should NEVER consume alcohol.
On race day, waking up early in order to eat some toast or a bagel is essential to a pre-race routine. During school, diet should not be neglected. Pack your own lunch the night before to be sure you get all of the nutrients you need.
It is a good idea to test out your pre-race routine on the day of a long workout to make
sure you do not get stomach cramps.
Things to Avoid Prior to Races:
Acids:
Lactic acid is what makes your muscles feel tired. When you are running, your muscles don’t have enough oxygen in your blood for your muscles. As a result Lactic acid starts to form in your muscles causing a burning sensation. After runs it is a good idea to drain lactic acid by doing a 10-minute Wall Sit or use a lactic stick (See: “Training’).
Citric Acids:
These are very beneficial to the body. However, adding more acids to your muscles only tires them. Drinks such as Gatorade contain citric acid and should be avoided the day of and night before a race.
Salad Dressing:
Salad is great for you, but adding an acidic dressing will harm your performance.
Dairy:
Dairy is essential in order to strengthen your bones and muscles. Prior to a race, dairy products will make you nauseous. When eating pasta, it is okay to have marinara or a meat sauce as long as you do not add cheese. NEVER eat an alfredo sauce before a race.
See A-List for Runners: Reference Handout (or PDF)
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Sleep:
By choosing to be physically active you are increasing your chances of having a good night’s sleep. When many calories are consumed, but not burned off, you have unused energy keeping you awake. When calories are burned you will fall asleep faster and longer.
Lack of sleep can impair your performance by creating an irregular heartbeat.
Sleep increases mental awareness and focus, which are critical to workouts and races.
Most of your muscle reproduction takes place during sleep.
8-8.5 hours is the optimal amount of sleep.
Lack of sleep impairs speech, memory, reaction time, recovery and flexible thinking.
For athletes, lack of sleep means lack of recovery between training sessions, which results in sore muscles and stiffness as well as changes in moods. In extreme cases, a continuous training overload added to severe lack of sleep can result in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME -chronic fatigue syndrome), which some athletes never properly recover from. ME decreases oxygen consumption, lowers the hearts ability to recover from stress, and a weakened immune system against viral infections.
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Training:
See the Basic PAAVO Progressions: Grid Handout Page (or PDF).
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Attitude:
The mind & brain relationship is the KEY component in running. This approach will be focused on by the coaches, captains, and TEAM DAILY!
Check out some articles about runners with the right attitude!