Running Up That Hill – Sprinting Salvation For Tall People

Jan 26th, 2012
by MAS.
16 comments

There was a time when I really loved running. Well I loved it during those rare times when my body wasn’t in pain, which was not as often as I would have liked. By the middle of 1995, I gave up running. It was just too hard on my 6 foot 2.5 inch body.

My first clue that I probably shouldn’t be doing distance running came in 1992. The USA Olympic trials for the Men’s Marathon came to my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. I clearly remember flipping through the program which highlighted the 125 runners that were invited. Only one runner was over 6 foot tall and he didn’t place in the top 3. If 14.5% of all men in America are over 6 foot tall, why were less than 1% of our elite distance runners that tall? Some of us gravitate towards other sports that reward height, but the rest of us just experience too much pain when we run.

Sprinting is Superior

The past few years I’ve been a regular reader of Conditioning Research, which has had numerous articles on the benefits of sprinting and high intensity interval training. Here are a few examples.

A few months ago I got fired up to start sprinting. Right from the beginning I was having pain issues. I adjusted my warm-up and tried to improve my stride. It helped, but whenever I tried to dial up the intensity, something would happen and I’d be sidelined.

I understood why distance running was hell on my tall physique, but why was sprinting a problem? Thankfully, the search engines were able to answer this question for me. From the article Taking Sprinting to New Heights by Edward McClelland:

Traditionally, height has been seen as a detriment to sprinting. The formula for speed is stride length times stride rate. If the longest legs always won the race, then Yao Ming would have the world record in the 100, and lions wouldn’t eat giraffes.

And:

Big guys have physics working against them. According to the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, “[T]he acceleration of the body is proportional to the force produced but inversely proportional to the body mass, according to Newton’s second law. … This implies an inverse relationship between height and performance in disciplines such as sprint running.” In other words, it’s hard to produce enough power to overcome the drag of a big body.

The article discusses how 6-foot-5 Usain Bolt became an amazing sprinter only after he shortened his stride. But I have no interest in working on my technique or becoming a great sprinter. I just want the health benefits without feeling pain.

Running Up That Hill

The problem with running for tall people is the long stride. One way to shorten the stride is to wear minimalist shoes. That is a good start, but the best way I discovered is to just run uphill. Unlike my first two hometowns of Columbus, OH and St. Petersburg, FL, which were were flat as a pancake, Seattle has some amazing hills inside the city. One of those hills just happens to be less than 100 meters from my front door.

My uphill running course.

I’m not the first to figure this out. Conditioning Research also did a post on hill sprints titled The single best exercise. For the past month or so, I’ve been experimenting with just running uphill. My body loves it. My stride is shorter, the intensity is much greater than flat ground sprinting and my body doesn’t take a pounding when my foot lands. And it is time efficient.

I’m using Phil Campbell’s Peak 8 protocol as a template. Go all out for 30 seconds and then rest for 90 seconds. Repeat this 8 times. For me this means sprinting uphill and then slowly walking back downhill to ready myself for the next sprint. I’m easing into this program and expect to be at 8 sets within two weeks.

I’m running again. Only this time I feel great.

Posted in: Fitness.
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16 comments

Making Lau Lau

Jan 25th, 2012
by MAS.
6 comments

On my recent trip to Los Angeles, I met up with a friend that grew up on Oahu. She taught me about the traditional Hawaiian dish of Lau Lau. It is very simple to make provided you don’t mind waiting 3 hours for it to steam cook.

Recipe: Lau Lau

Summary: The traditional Hawaiian dish.

lau lau

Ingredients

  • pork butt
  • steak
  • sweet potato
  • fish pieces (cod or salmon)
  • collard greens (or taro leaf)
  • sea salt

Instructions

  1. Chop up meat, fish and sweet potatoes into cube sized pieces.
  2. Salt the meat.
  3. Place a collard green leaf on top of a piece of foil large enough to wrap it (think burrito).
  4. Add pieces of pork, beef, fish and sweet potatoes.
  5. Wrap up leaf into foil.
  6. Finish wrapping all leafs.
  7. Place wrapped lau lau into stock pot with steamer.
  8. Steam for 3 hours.
  9. Unwrap and eat!

Preparation time: 30 minute(s)

Cooking time: 3 hour(s)

Culinary tradition: Hawaiian

My rating 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)

Note: I have made this dish 3 times now. I prefer to have twice as many pieces of pork butt and sweet potatoes as beef. Personal preference is best.

Posted in: Recipes.
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6 comments

Outdoor HIT – Too Cold?

Jan 23rd, 2012
by MAS.
10 comments

I just got back from a very cold day at my gym. My gym is a neighborhood playground where I do a workout that I describe in the post Escaping the Glitter: Taking High Intensity Training Outdoors. It was 41 degrees today with a 10 mile an hour wind, which made it “feel like 35 degrees”. I’m thinking that I found the lower boundary for my outdoor workouts. It was too cold today.

shiver

Photo by Ben

One of the reasons I left the Glitter Gym was that they kept the temperature in the gym too warm. From the post No Longer a Gym Germaphobe:

People continually confuse sweat with intensity. If you are sweating it is because your body is trying to cool you down. The resources and energy that could have been used for deeper muscle recruitment have been shifted to temperature regulation and now are a limiting factor in generating more intensity.

Today I think I found the flip side to this rule. If you are too cold, the body will devote resources to staying warm that could be used for deeper muscle recruitment. Those resources might just be mental, but I discovered that even after an extended warm up period, I was too cold to completely focus on the exercises. My time under load was decreased. My hands were frozen and my feet were cold as well. I should have brought gloves. Maybe I should milk another free week pass at a new Glitter Gym until spring comes? :)

Posted in: Fitness.
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Creating a Search Engine Without Google’s Help

Jan 23rd, 2012
by MAS.
4 comments

I forgot to mention in December that I added a new article over on my coding site DigitalColony.com.

Writing Your Own Search Engine Using SQL Server

This details how I rewrote the search engine on INeedCoffee. Most websites these days use content management systems that already have their own built-in search functionality. This solution is for websites that run on IIS and have their content inside a SQL Server database. Like INeedCoffee.

It was surprisingly easy to create a smoking fast search engine that delivered relevant results. I can’t help but think of cooking analogies. That great meal at the restaurant often isn’t that difficult to replicate at home. Google is an amazing chef, but my home cooking is pretty awesome too!

hey!

Hey graffiti photo taken near the University of Washington

Posted in: Web.
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4 comments

Destroying 3 Fitness Myths With a Single Example

Jan 19th, 2012
by MAS.
22 comments

Yesterday I went for a 20 mile urban hike through Seattle. The city was covered with snow and the winds got pretty intense at a few points. But I made it and I still had enough energy to spend an hour cooking my dinner once I got home. How I accomplished this hike with relative ease flies in the face of conventional wisdom in the fitness field. In this post, I’m going to take on 3 different fitness myths.

Myth #1 – Eat Breakfast Before Engaging in Endurance Events

On the majority of my urban hikes, I consume zero calories before I take my first step. I fast. The body is fully capable of using stored body fat for fuel. Intermittent Fasting will not “eat up” your muscle, nor will eating breakfast jack your metabolism more than the calories consumed. From the post Intermittent Fasting – Fears and Motivation:

When you fast your insulin levels drop big time. Your Growth Hormone (GH) levels increase. Exercise, especially interval and weight training, also elevate GH levels. GH is protein/muscle sparing and GH helps the body mobilize fat for fuel. Not eating for long periods of time (starvation) is catabolic, short periods of fasting aren’t.

When I wake up in the morning my body is in a fat burning mode. Why would I want to interrupt that process with a smoothie or Cliff Bar? I can eat when I get back home. My energy levels are much more constant in a fasted state than when I used to ride the carbohydrate roller coaster. Yesterday, my “breakfast” consisted of a few ounces of kimchi and one tablespoon of coconut oil. If that seems odd, read the post Intermittent Fasting – The No Hunger Method. It describes a wonderful hack that I tested from The Perfect Health Diet.

Perfect Health Diet: Four Steps to Renewed Health, Youthful Vitality, and Long Life

Perfect Health Diet: Four Steps to Renewed Health, Youthful Vitality, and Long Life by Paul Jaminet

Myth #2 – Endurance Events Require Endurance Training

Back in 2008 and 2009, I used to do a lot of urban hiking throughout the hills of Seattle. However, in the last few years it has really slowed down. In fact, the last long hike I did prior to yesterday’s 20 miler was in June 2010. I consider a long hike to be more than 10 miles and without multi-hour breaks. The only exercise I do these days, other than neighborhood walks, is a 7-10 minute High Intensity Training workout that happens just once a week. How is this possible?

How did I perform an endurance event, not only without doing any endurance training, but without doing any cardio? Most fitness professionals fail to understand exactly what creates endurance. Renaissance Exercise has an FAQ written by Greg Anderson called Why Not Aerobics? (PDF) that explains that the three components of endurance are genetics, skill and muscular strength. Genetics we can’t do much about. I could train “the skill” of endurance, which the article says are things like stride length and efficiency. A better plan is to just work on getting a lot stronger and then letting those benefits spill over to other activities.

Muscular strength is the single most trainable factor in endurance performance. It is the muscles that actually perform work. When strength increases, the relative intensity of any given task decreases.

I’m someone that has done it both ways. When I was in college, I ran two marathons and didn’t work on muscular strength. I focused on the skill components of endurance. These days, I just focus on muscular strength. Let me say that life is much sweeter now. My energy levels are higher, I no longer get aches and pains from over use injuries and my immune system is much stronger. When I trained as a marathon runner, my “skill” didn’t carry over into cycling or other endurance activities. It was localized.

Earlier this week I reviewed HillFit by Chris Highcock. His message is the same as mine. The most efficient and safest way to get to the top of mountain or whatever your endurance goal happens to be, is to increase your strength.

Myth #3 – Make Sure You Get the Right Gear For Your Event

Seattle is the home to REI (Recreation Equipment Incorporated). They sell any piece of outdoor fitness equipment you could possibly imagine. Hiking shoes and socks for every season. They offer a jacket or coat for every possible micro-climate condition. Bring your credit card, because this stuff isn’t cheap. And in my opinion, it isn’t necessary. Most of the customers that go these sporting gear stores are not climbing K2. They might be doing a 2 hour hike. That shouldn’t require hundreds of dollars in gear. Don’t fall for the “must get gear” mentality. The best gear you can bring with you to any event are stronger muscles.

For my 20 mile hike through the snowstorm, I wore a sweatshirt with a rain jacket. I didn’t have water proof pants, gloves or hat. Oh well. I didn’t run out to REI to save me from the elements. Yes I was cold, but my body adapted and I made it home OK.

sledding downtown

The sledder on the left is using a piece of cardboard for a sled. No trip to REI for her!

You’ll Be Fine

You don’t need breakfast, skills and special gear to take on the world. Focus on getting stronger and you’ll be fine.

Posted in: Fitness.
Tagged: · · ·
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