Do running supplements actually do anything?

I mentioned in Saturdays post about visiting a health fair and sampling some food made with Chia seeds. Yesterday I was at Fairway and bought three types of coconut water to use for post-run hydration because it's been highly touted for that purpose. I have tried various foods and drinks that supposedly aid recovery from workouts or provide foundational nutrients that we may lack in our daily diets. I don't experiment with herbal remedies or energy drinks that contain dangerous ingredients like taurine or kava. I want to believe that fish oil and CoQ-10 really do provide a benefit but I really don't know how to tell. The cost for a bottle of these supplements can reach $50 or more and it may be worth it. Or maybe not.

Unlike medicines - like Ibuprofen or Sudafed - that quickly and consistently demonstrate their effectiveness, I really can't tell whether the green tea I drink is actively hunting down oxidants. I take a daily multivitamin and I don't get sick too often (save for when I get so sick that I'm hospitalized). Do my daily Centrum tabs give me the tools to fend off insidious colds and viruses? After 20 years of daily use I'd say they do help. Then again, I eat much better than I did in 1990 so I might now be getting everything I need from my food and the vitamins are superfluous. I experimented with FRS, a well-reviewed energy drink that is supposedly effective against free radicals. I used it as a recovery drink and it tasted fine but I wondered if the benefits of FRS at $2.00 a can was giving me anything more than an equivalent $0.30 mixture of water and pomegranate juice.

The price of the Chia-based food products I tried at the health fair was surprisingly high. A box of energy bars was close to $40. The Chia in these products is whole-seed which apparently does not provide any Omega-3 benefits. For $40 I expect to get everything. A small bottle of Chia capsules at Fairway was $36.99. Why? Are Chia seeds so rare that the market price is that high? If I bought that bottle and took the capsules daily would I feel better or more energized? Would my LDL and Triglycerides go down and my HDL go up? Would I be able to run longer and recover faster? I wish it was as clear as the cause-and-effect of taking an Advil at the first sign of a headache. It may not be especially good for you but it's sure worth the money.

Will I be ready to tackle The Stillwell XTERRA race?

I debated taking a rest day today after realizing I've run or elliptical-ed every day since last Wednesday. The workouts themselves have not been especially difficult but I am still rebuilding my strength and endurance daily. The process of recovery draws a fragile line between making modest gains and undermining progress through pushing just a little too hard. I'm happy with my progress and I'm okay with my relatively slow paces because I'm seeing that this program is working. I can definitely see myself returning to pre-January performance levels within the next month or two. This morning I made a decision that will test my recovery plan and I am happy for the challenge.

I was reading TrailRunner magazine and saw, in a letter to the editor, a mention of the website Eastern Trail Racing. It's a website devoted to east coast trail racing and I looked through the listings and discovered an upcoming race at Stillwell Woods. The information was on a website called triandduit.com that has lots of information about the LI XTERRA trail run series. I signed up immediately and looked at the course map that covers a good part of Stillwell Woods. 4.75 miles over some of the toughest technical trails on Long Island. I sure hope I'm ready.

If the race was held today I would be staying home, my conditioning has a ways to go before I can tackle that distance under those conditions. My wife encouraged me to do today's run at Stillwell and I initially planned to run four loops around the field that would total about 3.4 miles. I took off feeling good, the 27 degree weather was no match for my layers of running clothes. The trail was a mix of frozen mud, icy snow and soft packed dirt. My Helly Hansen Trail Lizards gobbled up the terrain without complaint and the conditions were good until the loop cut north and wind hit head on. I felt fine running but I was aware of some increasing fatigue and while I could have pushed it I resisted the temptation and kept it to a couple of loops plus a short detour into the wooded paths to remind myself of what Stillwell is really all about. In all I only covered 2.25 miles in around 23 minutes. It wasn't what I'd wanted but it was exactly what I needed.

A good run despite the cold

The temperature has been holding steady below 20 degrees despite the prediction on weather.com that it would warm to 25 degrees by early afternoon. It was closer to 10 than 20 when I got up at 5:30 AM so I decided to wait until later to run. Our local high school had a Wellness Fair this morning and we headed over there. I was impressed by the number of companies and exhibits, most of them focusing on nutrition, safety,  medical care and mind-body activities. There were lots of yoga places, acupuncturists, orthodontists and karate schools but only one place - a local athletic shoe store - that had anything related to running. I did spend time talking with a person who sold chia-based energy products such as energy bars and snack mixes. I tried a couple of samples of chia energy bars which tasted okay. Chia was mentioned in "Born to Run" as a staple of the diet of the Tarahumara people who ascribed great benefits to the seed included heightened strength and energy. Before all this the only use we had for chia seeds was to grow vegetation on Chia Pets.

After lunch we stopped in at TJ Max, a great place for finding good sports apparel at bargain prices. I bought a Layer 8 thermal wicking zip top for less than $14, a New Balance long sleeved technical shirt for $7.99, a warm wicking winter hat for $8.00 and three pair of Keen Merino wool socks for $3.00 a pair. I also bought a pair of over-the-shoe traction devices (like YakTrax) for almost nothing. I couldn't wait to try it all out.

By 3:00 it was obvious that it wasn't getting any warmer so I set out into the cold with most of my new gear. Despite the cold I was doing well with three layers of tech shirts plus the thermal zip. Below I had a pair of compression shorts (a previous Layer 8 bargain from TJ Max) and over that my long Champion compression pants. I decided to run about 30 minutes, slowly, so I mapped out a route in my head and followed that path. The wind was blowing hard and I was grateful to reach a point where I could change direction. I had no problems running and I tried to focus on front foot landing. I did start to cramp up at the 5 minute mark but I promised myself that I'd eat a banana when I got back to restore my potassium levels. Eventually the cramping passed and I wound my way through the neighborhood, covering a total of 2.88 at 10:11/mile. When I checked my Garmin I saw that the footpod battery must have died midway through the run so I Gmaped my distance to calculate my pace against elapsed time.

Overall I was happy with the run. I wished I'd covered more ground in the time I ran but I did want to keep it slow to aid my recovery. I purposely avoided some side streets that would have added time because I knew pushing too hard would be trouble. My stamina seems to be pretty good overall. Tomorrow I'll go out again. I'd love to see it warm up so I can hit the trails once again.

Indoor running occasionally makes sense

So far, the toughest part of my morning was not from running on the treadmill but from standing on the platform at the train station. The super-chilled wind buffeted me and made me seriously consider going back to using contact lenses in the winter. The winds were hitting me straight on so the contact between my glasses and my face became pure torture. I was wishing I had my balaclava that I occasionally wear on the coldest and windiest running days. With this weather there's a big difference in tolerance depending on if you are stationary or in motion where your body can become a mini-furnace. I was looking at my posts from a year ago where I mentioned more than once about going out freezing and coming back hot, even when temperatures and wind-chills were in the low teens.

Running indoors is much warmer and I'm glad I followed through with another treadmill run this morning. In keeping with my recovery plan I took it fairly easy and covered about 2.25 miles at a moderate pace. So much of what I'm reading in ChiRunning and in online articles debate the "No pain, no gain" point of view. I far prefer the view that you can build endurance and improve performance by pushing to, and not past, your limits. My return to the treadmill has been fairly positive because I've taken the approach that time spent running (and not increasing my speed) is my primary goal. The trick is getting to the point where an 8:30 pace feels as easy as a 10:30 pace. I think it can be done but I have a ways to go in my recovery.

I'm hoping to hit the trails and report on that experience over the weekend. As long as I'm only dealing with cold and not snow I should be good to go.

A nice change of pace

I decided to partake in some elliptical training this morning rather than repeat yesterday's treadmill run. My legs need a little more time to strengthen and I thought a lower impact workout would be the right choice. Although I much prefer running to any other athletic activity I appreciate my sessions on the elliptical as a good change of pace. Unlike the treadmill, the elliptical is quiet enough to allow me to watch the television at a normal volume so I can enjoy the mindless junk that they show at 4:00 AM including oft-repeated graphically disturbing PSA's about the dangers of smoking and commercials for anti-depressants that spend half their duration warning you about their dangerous side effects.

Like my current program for running I took it easy on the elliptical and programed modestly low resistance. My goal is to rebuild my endurance, not my speed, as speed will come in time. About ten minutes into my workout I began to sweat and that always makes me happy because I know I'm doing some work. I was somewhat surprised and pleased to see that I was striding on my forefoot without even thinking about it. Perhaps the fact that I am trying to reinforce that style in my running and walking spilled over naturally to the elliptical. It's been a good transition so far and I have not experienced soreness in my calf muscles from the change.

Tomorrow I'll return to the treadmill and this weekend I hope to hit the trails again. That will be a great moment for me and I'm excited that it could happen so soon.