Adam’s training journal

With less than two weeks remaining, it looks as if — knock on wood — I will make good on my New Year’s resolution to run every day in 2009.

I originally defined a “run” as a minimum of four miles. But when I banged up my ribs and forearm in an ill-fated snowboarding experiment, I cut that number down to three miles for a week in March. It was, I confess, a compromise. But given that I spent that week at 10,000-foot altitude, was running on mountain roads that didn’t possess a single foot of flat terrain and could not take a deep breath without excruciating pain, I think I did pretty well to keep running at all during that time.

As 2010 prepares to make its entrance, I don’t know whether I’ll try to keep the streak intact. But I do know that I’d like to maintain my general level of fitness.

The biggest potential obstacle I see is a ski vacation I’ve planned in January. Other than the obvious joke at my expense — no, I won’t be snowboarding again — any words of wisdom?

Dr. Prescott prescribes

I’m glad to hear you’re finally coming to terms with your middle-agedness. As a 41-year-old, you’re wise to leave snowboarding to those who cannot remember life before there was an X Games.

In that same vein, a recent study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that acting one’s age may be the best way to avoid injuries while skiing.

Researchers in a mountainous region of Switzerland gave questionnaires to 782 skiers who’d been treated at local trauma centers and 496 comparable skiers who hadn’t. What, they wanted to know, distinguished the one group from the other?

The injured skiers, it turns out, were largely men. And their average age was 40.

Chances of injury increased when, as the study authors put it, skiers had a high “readiness for risk.” In other words, if they opted for moguls and jumps instead of groomed blue slopes, watch out.

The study also found that risk increased significantly with new ski equipment (which could lead to overconfidence and increased risk-taking) and old snow (think crust and ice). Interestingly, the uninjured skiers admitted to a higher rate of drinking on the slopes. But please do not take this as an endorsement for mixing Jell-O shots with powder shots.

Improved equipment has helped cut the number of injuries to about 2 per every 1,000 skier visits. Quick-release bindings and easier-to-control parabolic skis have been key advances. And there’s simply no excuse not to wear a helmet.

As long as you ski like the responsible father of two that you are, you should be able to avoid last spring’s misadventures. But I’ll keep my cell phone on just in case.

Adam’s journal

It was a long football season for my son, Will. As the quarterback on a fifth-grade team with a leaky offensive line, he spent more than his fair share of time underneath large piles of 10-year-olds.

Given the studies that are emerging about the long-term injuries, particularly to the brain, that football can cause, it would not break my heart if Will decided to hang up his shoulder pads.

He’s shown an interest in running, so following a recent 5-kilometer race that I ran, he and his younger brother — age 8 — ran the 1-mile kids’ “fun run.”

They both enjoyed it so much that they asked me whether they could run a full 5-kilometer race.

I said yes, and a few weeks ago, they both successfully completed the Putnam City Cancer Classic (which, I must note, benefited cancer research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation).

Both Will and Theo were proud of themselves for covering more than three miles.

Will ran the whole way, while Theo threw in some walking breaks.

They both seemed to feel great afterward and have repeatedly asked me whether they can run another 5K.

Is it safe to let them follow in my footsteps at this young age?

Dr. Prescott prescribes

Running is a great way for Will and Theo to start down the road to lifetime fitness. Physiologically, there is no reason healthy elementary school children shouldn’t try a 5K.

But like every athletic activity for children, it must be done in moderation. Overtraining is one of the most common causes of injury in young athletes. Overuse injuries have seen a surge in recent years, largely attributable to the increased numbers of children who specialize in a single sport at an early age.

It is not uncommon for a preteen to practice and play a single sport many hours each week, year-round. This can cause repetitive microtrauma to particular areas of the body, such as the knees of a soccer player or wrists of a gymnast. Studies have found that such persistent microtrauma leads to overuse injuries such as tendonitis, ligament damage and stress fractures.

Excessive training and competition at an early age can cause psychological stress that leads to anxiety and burnout. So whether it’s running or any sport, be sure your kids are participating because they want to, not because you want them to.

Even when a child experiences success at a sport, it is important to curb the impulse to focus on that activity to the exclusion of others.

A balance of activities — as well as a lack of parental pressure — is the surest path to promoting your children’s physical and psychological health.

Adam’s training  journal

Well, the good news is that my summer and early fall spent training for the Chicago Marathon paid off nicely. I ran my fastest time in a half-dozen years. At the risk of excessive back-patting, I thought that wasn’t bad for a 41-year-old.

The bad news? I’m pretty sure I could’ve done better.

You see, the morning before the race, I woke up with a sore throat and a throbbing head. The headache dissipated, but the throat issues did not. By race time, a stuffy head had joined my burning throat.

I managed to run through my cold. But I might have lopped a few minutes off my time (and felt a whole lot better during the race and afterward) had my body not been forced to devote significant energies to fighting off whatever pathogen was causing me grief.

Despite my best efforts to remain germ-free, I had picked up one of the many bugs floating around this season. Perhaps coincidentally, it happened on the heels of a too-late night spent packing and re-packing my suitcase for every imaginable weather scenario on race day.

Do you think my lack of sleep caused this cold?

Dr. Prescott prescribes

I doubt that a single night spent burning the midnight oil brought on this illness. But studies have shown that poor sleep habits and susceptibility to colds go together.

In a recent study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, scientists exposed two groups to cold viruses. In the otherwise identical groups, the scientists found that those who had gotten less than seven hours of sleep a night over the previous two weeks were three times as likely to get sick as those who’d averaged at least eight hours.

In other studies, researchers have found that species that sleep more have a greater resistance to viruses and bacteria. These findings appear to go hand-in-hand with findings that mammals needing the most sleep produce higher levels of disease-fighting white blood cells.

Species that require longer sleep durations appear to be better protected against illness-causing pathogens. So when we don’t give our pillows enough quality time, we also shortchange our immune systems.

Will getting eight hours of sleep immunize you from colds? Absolutely not. But if you consistently hit the hay before the late-night TV shows come on, maybe you won’t have to ask “what if?” next time.

Adam’s training  journal

At long last, my summer of marathon training is poised to pay dividends. In early October, I will toe the starting line of the Chicago Marathon and, hopefully, notch my fastest 26.2-mile time in at least a half-dozen years.

That is, unless H1N1 flu or some other bug intervenes.

With influenza sweeping the country, I’ve become increasingly fearful that the virus will lay me low, scuttling my hopes for a peak performance. And because my mileage levels are near my all-time highs, I suspect that my immune system is particularly prone to infection.

I’m most concerned about the week leading up to the race, in which I’ll be taking three plane flights (including one to the marathon itself).

What can I do to minimize my chances of picking up a bug while on a plane?

Dr. Prescott prescribes

Well, for starters you might have thought about running a marathon closer to home.

My sources tell me that the Spirit of Survival Marathon in October offers a great tour of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

Tulsa’s Route 66 Marathon is a perfect way to spend the weekend before Thanksgiving (if you’re a masochist).

But I digress.

Although there’s a widespread perception that air travel significantly increases your risk of contracting a communicable illness such as the flu, the risks may not be as large as most believe. Air circulation patterns aboard standard commercial aircraft are side-to-side, with air entering the cabin from overhead, circulating across the aircraft and exiting the cabin near the floor. This means there is little or no front-to-back airflow, and that air circulation is compartmentalized into sections within the cabin.

In other words — and studies have confirmed this — the spread of airborne particles throughout the passenger cabin is limited. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that you’re still sharing a confined space and air with people who may be carrying illnesses transmissible by tiny, airborne droplets.

Your best defense against infection is to keep your hands clean by washing them often and effectively. A hand sanitizer with at least 50 percent alcohol will do nicely (and avoid irritating the guy sitting on the aisle next to you who has to keep getting up when you go to the lavatory to wash your hands).

Also, be sure to keep your hands away from your nose, eyes and mouth.

All are among your mucous membranes, and touching them can lead to infection.

In case you’re wondering, there’s no need to don a mask. Studies during Mexico’s recent H1N1 outbreak showed them to be ineffective in preventing the spread of the virus. Plus, they freak people out.

Finally, if someone seated nearby on a plane appears sick, do your best to get moved.

And if you figure out how to make that happen, please let me know; I have a couple of flights coming up.

Submit your own questions to Dr. Prescott

Adam’s training  journal

I can’t recall the first time I heard the term “runner’s high.” But I’m pretty sure I’ve never experienced it in the quarter-century since I ran my first 5-kilometer race in Stan Smiths (shoes) and a pair of too-short shorts.

It’s not that running doesn’t bring me pleasure. I certainly enjoy its effects: aerobic and cardiovascular fitness, not to mention free rein to indulge in that extra cookie. And almost palpable feelings of accomplishment and relief follow the completion of a workout, particularly a grueling one.

But euphoria during a run? No way. At best, I feel neutral. At worst, I feel like I’m about to lose my lunch (actually, at worst, I have).

I’ve spoken to other runners who say that they have experienced this mythical runner’s high. Are they full of it? Or am I just missing the endorphin boat?

Dr. Prescott prescribes

If there is such a thing as runner’s high, I’ve never made it far enough to experience it. My distance running “career” consisted solely of high school football training runs in the dead of the Texas summer, and I doubt that such miserable activities are even capable of producing endorphins.

But I guess that’s really not an answer.

Once upon a time — not long ago — science lacked the ability to answer your question. To test whether the body was releasing opiates during exercise, we would’ve had to perform a spinal tap before and after a workout to search for a flood of endorphins from the brain. And who’d volunteer to participate in a research project like that?

Today, thanks to advanced imaging technology, researchers can look at runners’ brains before and after a run. Pairing this technique with recently available chemicals that reveal endorphins in the brain, German researchers tried to ascertain whether runner’s high exists.

The study, published last year, found that in the distance runners who served as study subjects, endorphins were produced during two-hour runs. Those endorphins were attaching themselves to the limbic and prefrontal areas of the brain, regions associated with emotions.

These findings complement previous research, which has found that runners have increased pain tolerance.

This research certainly supports what you — and I — have heard from so many: that the runner’s high is real.

So why haven’t you felt it? Perhaps it’s helped buffer you from pain you might otherwise have experienced during a tough workout. It also may be the biochemical explanation for the feeling of accomplishment and relief you described following runs.

As you’ll recall, you’re trying to make good on a pledge to run every day this year. To me, that sounds a bit like addictive behavior. And what fuels addictive behavior?

That’s right — endorphins. So maybe, just maybe, you’ve experienced runner’s high after all.

Submit your own questions to Dr. Prescott

Adam’s training  journal
When I decided to give snowboarding a try this spring, the results were, not surprisingly, painful.

It requires less space to talk about the parts of my body that weren’t banged up — eyeballs, inner ears, belly button — than those that were. Because after a day and a half on the slopes, I pretty much ached everywhere.

Still, I like to think I might have become the next Shaun “the Flying Tomato” White had I not taken a fall so epic that it must have registered on the Richter scale. As I stared at the lift overhead (why do these sorts of falls always happen directly under lifts?), I determined that I’d most likely cracked a rib. And thus ended the great snowboard experiment of ’09.

Thankfully, I am now recovered. But it was a month before I could take a deep breath without flinching, let alone wrestle with my kids again.

If you accept my self-diagnosis (I never did get an x-ray), this represents the third time since I began distance running that I’ve cracked a bone in a fall. Yet I’d never broken anything prior to taking up the sport.

Is it possible that pounding the pavement is weakening my bones?

Dr. Prescott prescribes
Let me get this straight. As a 41-year-old, you decide to embark on a sport with a bone-shattering reputation even among those half your age. Then, when you have a high-speed man-meets-slope moment, you wonder whether your daily run is actually the culprit behind your rattled ribs?
Puh-leese.

In fact, doctors have long recommended weight-bearing endurance activities to help preserve bone density. A March study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that among such activities, high-impact exercises like running were most effective at strengthening bone.

Studies (including one from the University of Oklahoma ) have shown that cyclists do not experience similar benefits.

In fact, researchers have found that competitive cyclists began with slightly lower bone density than average, then lost bone mass as the season progressed.

While the reasons for this are not readily apparent, researchers suspect that factors such as the absence of weight-bearing impact and loss of calcium through excessive sweating may play a role.

The studies have looked primarily at competitive racers who spend many hours a day on their bikes. Nevertheless, to be safe, recreational cyclists might want to use calcium-enriched sports drinks on long rides and occasionally hit the weight room or jogging path for some cross-training.

As for you, I’d bet a season pass at Alta that running is actually helping to keep your bones strong. If you want to keep them intact, too, leave the snowboarding to your kids.

Submit your own questions to Dr. Prescott

Adam’s Training Journal

I went for a jog the other day with my friend David. As so often happens, we began chatting about running-geek things.

You see, David is about the best-informed runner I know. In addition to his full-time job, he has taken on the considerable task of knowing absolutely everything there is to know about long-distance running.

For David, no part of the running experience goes unexamined. Is it more efficient to initiate your foot strike with the heel or toe? How many minutes before a race is it optimal to begin a warm-up? To minimize your chances of injury, is it better to run in the morning or evening?

As you’d imagine, in searching out the answers to such questions, David acquires a lot of interesting information. As we clipped along in north Norman on a recent morning, he shared a tidbit that left me scratching my head.

According to David, a recent study found that sports drinks infused with carbohydrates enhanced the performance of endurance athletes. And that they did so even when the athletes did not swallow the drinks. Could this possibly be true?

Dr. Prescott Prescribes

Yes, David is spot-on.

In a study that appeared this spring in the Journal of Physiology, researchers gave one set of endurance athletes a sports drink containing glucose (a sugar) while giving another set of athletes a drink that tasted identical but was flavored with artificial sweeteners. They then asked the athletes to complete a challenging time trial during which they swished with — but didn’t swallow — the two drinks.

The researchers found that the study subjects who rinsed with the sugary drinks outperformed their counterparts who received the artificially sweetened drinks by 2 percent to 3 percent. They also sustained a higher average power output and pulse rate, even though they didn’t perceive that they were working any harder.

Even more confounding, the researchers also tested a third group of athletes by having them swish with a drink laced with a tasteless carbohydrate. This group performed just as well as their counterparts who rinsed with the sugary drinks.

What does it all mean?

When you consume a sports drink during a workout, you’re receiving the obvious benefit of hydration. Your muscles are getting a boost from the easy-to-burn carbohydrates the drinks provide, and you’re restoring electrolytes you lose in perspiration. Still, this study shows there’s even more at work.

It appears that your mouth harbors receptors that respond to carbohydrates (rather than to sweetness). These receptors seem to send signals to areas of the brain associated with reward or pleasure, reducing athletes’ perception of their exertion and, thus, increasing output.

The findings suggest that if you’re looking to optimize performance, traditional sports drinks — as opposed to the newer low- or no-calorie options — are superior. They also suggest that when it comes to the skinny on exercise physiology, you’d do well to listen to your friend David.

Submit your own questions to Dr. Prescott

Adam’s Training Journal

The other day, after a long run, I felt some tightness and pain in the back of my right knee. After a bit of internet sleuthing, I determined that the culprit was the iliotibial band (ITB), a common injury site for pavement pounders like me.

Dr. Wikipedia prescribed RICE—rest, ice, compression and elevation. I chose my own variation, which involved ice, stretching, running on soft surfaces and otherwise keeping time on my feet to a minimum. Fortunately for me, the treatment regimen seems to have worked, as I’m once again running pain-free.

But in the good, old days, when I was younger and faster, my treatment regimen undoubtedly would have consisted of another element: Bengay.

Like many young athletes, I imagined the surest way to loosen up was a healthy dose of this cream (or its cousin Icy Hot). So before every track meet, you could find me—and dozens of my teammates—anointing our legs with the stuff. Even today I cannot set foot in a locker room without it immediately conjuring the medicinal smell of days gone by.

I’ve long since left this pre-run ritual behind. I mean, who wants to smell like a medicine cabinet? But as my muscles have grown older and tighter, I’ve begun to wonder whether this aromatic practice might be worth reviving.

Dr. Prescott Prescribes

Last year, Americans spent more than $200 million on topical analgesics, or pain creams. Indeed, it’s a market that has existed in the U.S. since before the 20^th century. So you’d think that there might be some good evidence that they work.

You, however, would be wrong.

From a physiological standpoint, there’s little benefit that occurs in the tissue when you apply a topical cream. And research on the subject has been minimal and inconclusive.

Although many swear by these creams, they are most likely benefiting from the placebo effect, which can cause people to feel therapeutic effects from an inert medication simply because they have been told it works.

Also, these products contain chemicals that cause a warming or cooling effect on the skin, a sensation that can temporarily “crowd out” pain signals sent by injured or sore muscles. Yet this does nothing to alleviate the underlying cause of the pain.

Submit your own questions to Dr. Prescott

Dr. Prescott’s Journal

I have a friend—let’s call him Steve—who’s suffered a running injury. Only problem is, Steve isn’t a runner.

In fact, he’s assiduously avoided running since those wind sprints he detested during his Vietnam-era high school football practices. But now it seems even the relatively minor bouncing of Pilates and some overly ambitious stretching has proven too much for my—I mean his—Achilles tendon.

Okay, you found me out. Apparently, two-plus years of dispensing medical wisdom in this column hasn’t rendered me immune to training injuries.

My Achilles, the tendon that connects my calf to my heel, is killing me. In fact, not long ago, the pain was so great that I had to resort to using a cane.

Unlike some people, I don’t have any aspirations to run a marathon. Or, frankly, ever to run again. But I would like to be able to walk and do Pilates again without pain.

What do you recommend?

Adam Prescribes

I may not be a doctor, but I am a runner. And like so many other runners, I’ve had to battle an Achilles injury.

The Achilles (named for the sole point of vulnerability on the otherwise immortal Greek hero) is the largest and strongest tendon in the body. But because activities like running—and Pilates—involve repeatedly applying large amounts of force to the tendon, members of the sweat set commonly suffer Achilles injuries.

So, dear patient, for openers, I prescribe rest. That means as little weight-bearing activity as possible. No Pilates. Keep walking to a minimum. And while that cane may not make you look young and spry, it will help your heal your Achilles heel (sorry).

You’ll also want to ice the tendon as often as possible to reduce swelling. If non-steroid anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen agree with you, those are also a great way to reduce tendon pain and inflammation.

If this course of treatment doesn’t prove effective, see a physician. (Not yourself, of course.) In particularly severe cases, the injury might require a steroid injection.

You know, I’ve enjoyed this rare opportunity to play doctor to your patient. But with the Oklahoma City Marathon coming up Sunday, I suspect I’ll be back on the examining table in no time.