October 2022 Newsletter

September was a busy month for UVRC, and October will be even busier!

In non-series news, the CHaD half marathon is up in October, featuring a challenging new course. This local Hanover race does a good job putting on a running event, and also raises a lot of money for the local children's hospital.

Upper Valley Running Series

In September, a bunch of us made the trek out to Sharon VT for the Sprouty 5K/10K. You can check the UVRS site for the latest standings after race #5, along with links to race results and other information.

Two races coming up in October!

• October 15, from Enfield to Lebanon NH is the Downriver Rail Run 10K, a fast gentle downhill 10K.
• October 30, also in Enfield NH, it's the Tiger Run 12K, which I believe is the only current 12K in NH.

Visit this website for links to series races, as well as overall information on the series.

Western New Hampshire Trail Running Series

The WNHTRS is done for 2022! See results on their website.

See everyone in 2023 for another installment.

The NH Grand Prix

The NH Grand Prix is almost over for the season but there is a last race to run.  The Grand Prix is team-based points competition so anyone who runs will earn UVRC lots of points (being faster may score more points but everyone will score plenty of points as scoring is participation-based and turnout is less for half marathons).   It is the Delta Dental New England Half Marathon, a point-to-point race from Hopkinton (NH) to Concord.  It is October 23rd starting at a brisk 8 a.m. (sure you have to get up early but you can be home early as well).  The signup and details are here:  

The UVRC has a van going so you can sign up for that as well.  The van is leaving at 6 a.m. but you are asked to arrive at 5:45 a.m.  This a great service on a point-to-point course as it will be dropping us off at the start line and picking us up in Concord.  You need to register for the van--here is the vanpool registration link. 

The only other NH Grand Prix news is that we had another great turnout for the Virtual (Track) 5k.  Anyone who wants to run can still do it--you just need to submit your time here.

When it comes to health and wellness we are actually quite fortunate in the Upper Valley to be surrounded by many great resources! Many of which you probably already know but I thought I provide a brief list to raise awareness of what is available. Most of these are related to physical wellness as we need our bodies in order to be able to run, but it bears mentioning that mental wellness is just as critical so I have included some mental health resources as well. I want to note that these businesses, advocacy groups, and community organizations are run by members of our community who are committed to making the Upper Valley more healthy.

I had a chance to talk to quite a few of these health and wellness leaders at the Lyme Health and Wellness Fair a few weeks ago! So huge thanks to the Community Care of Lyme for putting on that event!

What follows is of course not an exhaustive list so no deliberate exclusion is intended and please let me know if there are other resources that should be added as I would be happy to add them! 

RESOURCES

• BE Fit Physical Therapy: Physical therapy, sports-related injury
• Ciofreddi and Associates: Physical therapy and wellness
• Good Neighbor Health Clinic: Equitable healthcare including LGBTQIA+ health clinic
• Integrity Yoga: Integrative therapy
• National Alliance on Mental Illness: Mental health support, education, and advocacy
• Nutrient Dense Nourishment: Nutritional therapy
• Precision Osteopractic Physical Therapy: Osteopractic physical therapy

*Listed alphabetically

Our friends over at Cioffredi and Associates were kind enough to provide a write up on common running injuries of different severity. Some can be prevented with good stretching and a reasonable training regime. Others however should be assessed and diagnosed by a healthcare professional. You can find the whole article from their website here: https://cioffredi.com/common-running-injuries/ But here is a summary of the common injuries. Each title includes a hyperlink to a webpage with more information on the injury and what can be done!

Plantar Fasciitis:

Plantar fasciitis often begins as pain under the heel or in the arch of the foot and is often worse first thing in the morning. Proper shoe wear and stretching routines can alleviate this pain.

Achilles Tendonitis:

Achilles tendonitis is often felt as a stabbing pain or soreness in the back of the ankle and into the calf. Proper stretching of all of the muscles that insert into the Achilles tendon is important in rehabilitating this injury, as is proper strength training.

Shin Splints:

Dull aching pain can occur either on the medial (inside) aspect of the shin (Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome) or the lateral (outside) aspect of the shin (Lateral Tibial Stress Syndrome) depending on the structures involved. While pain from shin splints tends to ease over the course of a run, this does not necessarily mean that the problem has gone away and after a short rest, the pain may come back even more intensely.  Shin splints  can often be mistaken for other, more serious conditions such as stress fractures or compartment syndrome, so it is important to have this injury checked by a health care professional.

PFPS:  Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

is often felt as pain under the kneecap or around the knee. PFPS is a term used to describe dysfunction that occurs at the kneecap as a result of imbalances in the strength and flexibility of the structures that hold the kneecap in the proper alignment. Any imbalance in these structures can lead to wear and tear on the joint surface of the kneecap and irritation of the tendons at the base of the kneecap. It’s important to discover the cause of PFPS and not just treat the symptoms of this condition to prevent reoccurrence.

ITB Syndrome:

The illiotibial band is a long tissue that runs from your hip into your knee and can cause pain both in the lateral (outside) region of the knee and in the hip, often in the form of hip bursitis. ITB Syndrome usually worsens with running and can be debilitating if not properly treated.

Summary:

While identifying your injury is important, it is not sufficient to merely treat the symptoms, as many running injuries re-occur if not rehabilitated correctly. Instead, discovering the factors that lead to the injury in the first place are the keys to effective recovery. Running injuries are often multi-factorial and are a result of both intrinsic factors (your body mechanics) as well as extrinsic factors such as your running shoes or training regime.

Check out this great video on the basics for reducing your injury risk when distance running: Distance Running Basics: Running Your Race Injury Free

2) Respect the easy days  

The intensity of most of your runs should be conversational.  Training with HR zones, or with pace calculators, is really crucial to avoiding pushing too hard.  There are a lot of in-depth resources for exactly how much to train how hard depending on your goals, but I can tell you that most recreational runners spend way too much time in the higher/more difficult zones.  You should really only be doing pace work 1-2x/week for most people.  Don’t feel guilty for “going easy” - it’s what builds your base, conditions your joints and ligaments, and allows you to push hard when needed. 

4) Cross training

No matter how much you like to run, it’s important to mix in some other cardiovascular exercise.  Our bodies suffer if they always move in the same patterns, day after day, month after month.  Most running injuries are repetitive stress, so one of the best ways to reduce this is to vary your activity some throughout the week, and throughout the year.  Add in some cycling, rowing, swimming, skiing, multidirectional sports - anything to break up those patterns.  

5) Reduce impact forces

This one gets a little more complicated, but many studies show that reducing impact forces at initial contact/ landing is also correlated with reduced injury risk.  Exactly how to reduce this is more controversial, and less clear in the research.  Generally speaking however, at any given running speed: a slightly higher cadence, slightly shorter stride, landing with your foot a bit closer to you, all reduce the impact forces that translate up through the leg.  Don’t go out tomorrow and run three miles on your toes with a high cadence (unless you want a calf/ achilles injury), but gradually changing some of these variables can reduce your risks.  

6) If your body hurts, listen to it!

Most importantly, make sure you are listening to your body.  Take a rest day when you are sore.  If the same body part has been hurting for more than a week or two, take some time off (more cross training!), or call a physical therapist to get evaluated.  

Strength Exercises

Generally, one-leg support strengthening is very important for runners (vs two-leg support with standard squat, lunge, etc).  Again, everyone is different, but key areas that we commonly find people lacking in strength are the gluteus medius (side of the butt, keeps your hips level and your knee from caving in when on one leg) and the calves (important for propulsion, shock absorption, hills, trails… everything!).  Therefore here are a few of my favorites for runners:

Hip and Core Controle: RDL/Hip Hinge

Lateral Hip Strength: Side Plank From Knee

Calf strength: Single Limb Heel Lift

**Using fingertip support for balance, perform one-leg heel raises until fatigued. Slow up & down.**  PERFORM  SETS WITH KNEE STRAIGHT, AND AGAIN WITH KNEE BENT.
Goal: More than 20 reps (30 reps for distance runners) through full height, able to perform off 1-2” step.    Easier: use other foot or hands for slight assist.

Harder: Add weight to achieve fatigue at 8-12 reps

A Couple of Tidbits on Stretching

This one really depends on the person even more than strength work - different people are tight in different areas.  Key areas for all runners to maintain flexibility are the hip flexors (to be able to get a good stride behind you and avoid back pain) and the calves (avoiding sprains and calf strains).  Another note - if your hamstrings are always tight after a run, it’s more likely to be a weakness issue than a tightness issue.  Minimal hamstring flexibility is required for a normal running gait, but your hamstrings will definitely feel tight post-run if you lack strength or endurance in them.  

In general, dynamic warmups / quick stretches are great as warmups.  Save the longer hold static stretches for after a run and other times, to work on the areas where you need to improve mobility.  

Thanks for sticking with me!  It’s hard to stay brief on a topic where I have so much to say.  =)

Remember: From the literature, almost 50% of runners experience some type of injury each year - you are not alone!  Have patience with your body, and seek out help if things are not getting better.  

Happy running - 

Eric Ellingson
BE Fit Physical Therapy

Hello UVRC and welcome to the second installment of UVRC Labs where we dive into the science, myths, and facts of running. There is a lot of information out there about best running practices, some of it is good, some of it seems to be just flat out wrong, and a decent amount of it is told with an ulterior motive. But here we strive to dig into the actual validity of this information and bring you at least a somewhat more informed opinion. Please note that whatever is provided here is the opinion of a non-medical professional and should not be treated as medical advice.

When it comes to the running world you wouldn’t have to search too hard to smack into a “*insert number* of weird habits of runners” listicle (gosh I hate that word). Without getting on a soap box about what constitutes “weird”, one can see the point that is trying to be made which is that we as a running community have habits based on experience that make sense to us, but might not to a person outside of that community. One of the perhaps more eyebrow-raising habits is the tendency to down that sweet nectar of the Gods, pickle juice, right after a tough run. When questioned about this, and you don’t have to explain yourself really, most people would say that they do this because it is better or as good as Gatorade without all that sugar and it has electrolytes to help prevent or ease cramping.

But of course, we over at UVRC Labs (not a real lab, but hey maybe one day) wondered if it actually was true that pickle juice was as good or better than Gatorade at least in regards to electrolyte recovery and cramping. Not to make this about me (RJ) but I was recently at a scientific conference where we talked about our tendency as scientists to bury the lead when it comes to revealing results for the sake of storytelling so I’m just going to tell you upfront we have another one of those running folk remedies that has a shrug as a result. There is not much to suggest that pickle juice (PJ) is particularly good at replacing electrolytes or preventing cramping. There is also some decent evidence saying that Gatorade and similar sugar-heavy sports drinks are also not great at replacing electrolytes, or rather the amount you’d actually need to drink is WAY more than you actually would comfortably consume. But we’re not here to bash Gatorade….today. Let’s talk about PJ!

Without going into the super nitty gritty, it is generally accepted that running, even while properly hydrated, causes you to lose both water and electrolytes as you sweat. This causes most runners to finish workouts slightly to severely hypohydrated aka dehydrated. You also run the risk of cramps which I found out we actually don’t have a concrete understanding of what causes exercise-associated muscle cramps or EAMC but that is another article. One of the believed reasons is an imbalance of electrolytes (specifically salt) and water in your body which, as we mentioned, gets wonky after a run. In comes PJ! Having plenty of salt and even some potassium and other nutrients to get you back on your feet. You don’t want to drink pure water after a run because that only solves half the problem and you run the risk of becoming hyperhydrated (too much water, not enough electrolytes). And eating straight-up salt would just desiccate you like a mummy. So PJ is a happy medium, with salt, water, and misc other electrolytes that in theory should only take a small volume to equal what other sports drinks provide.

Except maybe not really. I read a few papers (ref:1-4) and number 1and 4 are referred to in other studies, but 4 didn’t actually have the participants exercise, so #1 is what I will primarily be discussing here. Note that these papers are looking to specifically address whether the electrolytes have been sufficiently been replaced which is primarily done by measuring their concentrations in plasma. In this study they refreshingly took a mixture of males and females (7 and 6 respectively) however those numbers dropped to 7 and 2 in the end. So still not robust or diverse, but to be fair, doing human studies with a certain amount of invasiveness (you’ll see how invasive in a second) is very challenging to set up and find participants. The participants underwent vigorous exercise (77-87% maximal heart rate) for 2 hours with all sorts of fun (not actually fun) monitoring equipment attached to them, like a rectal thermometer (yesh), and were sufficiently dehydrated by the end. After the exercise they ingested a volume of pickle juice, and also mustard in a separate trial but we don’t have time for that, and they collected blood samples after 5,15,30, and 60 minutes.

Good news is that you don’t have to worry about the salt in pickle juice making things worse as they found that it did not drive your salt levels up super high. Bad news is that they didn’t find that PJ did anything to your salt levels (or any other electrolyte) either in regards to replacement. That being said many athletes have reported that they have experienced dehydration and cramping relief pretty quickly from PJ, so what’s up? Well, the reason for that might actually be just the impact PJ and other salty sour things have on our oropharyngeal (middle throat). It is theorized that PJ causes a reflex response that essentially halts, or delays, the cramping process, kind of like how drinking coffee triggers a reflex response that makes you want to go #2.

Don’t worry, Gatorade and other sports drinks aren’t shown to do much better. In fact, one article (2) did some maths and found out the theoretical amount of a sports drink you’d have to drink to replace what you’ve lost, spoilers: for sodium it can be in the gallons range.

That all being said, there is nothing saying you *should not* drink PJ after a run. And if historically you have felt fine doing so and have had effective recoveries, there isn’t anything saying you should not keep doing that. As I have said and will say again, these studies are very limited in scope and every human is different so these results are by no means conclusive for everyone. Just enough to cast doubt, as is the wont of science.

Also, I wanted to share what I thought was a pretty cool article and that was one that examined different intervention strategies for females during menstruation cycles to aid in athletic performance, recovery, and injury prevention (3). Something I would warrant is an unfortunately understudied aspect of female athlete health. They also found that PJ did not do much for restoring electrolyte levels BUT there is a lot of cool information in there that I think some of you might find useful!

Anyway, in conclusion, there is not much to suggest that pickle juice will efficiently restore lost electrolytes, at least in your plasma and at least not within 60 minutes after ingestion (as most studies use as a timeframe). It should be noted that it could be just as simple as drinking more PJ but eventually, you DO run the risk of getting too much salt. And when it comes to EAMC, your best solution really is to stretch. Anything you can consume will take at least 10-15 minutes to have a chance at being absorbed under normal conditions and in that time you could have been stretching anyway.

Let us know what you think though, has PJ been your savior after a race! Does anyone eat mustard after a run? I sincerely wish to know about that because I have yet to see a person at the post-race with a bottle of Dijon.

References

1. Miller, Kevin C. "Electrolyte and plasma responses after pickle juice, mustard, and deionized water ingestion in dehydrated humans." Journal of athletic training 49, no. 3 (2014): 360-367.
2. Miller, Kevin C., Brendon P. McDermott, Susan W. Yeargin, Aidan Fiol, and Martin P. Schwellnus. "An Evidence-Based Review of the Pathophysiology, Treatment, and Prevention of Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramps." Journal of Athletic Training 57, no. 1 (2022): 5-15.
3. Helm, Macy M., Graham R. McGinnis, and Arpita Basu. "Impact of nutrition-based interventions on athletic performance during menstrual cycle phases: a review." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 12 (2021): 6294.
4. Miller, Kevin C., Gary Mack, and Kenneth L. Knight. "Electrolyte and plasma changes after ingestion of pickle juice, water, and a common carbohydrate-electrolyte solution." Journal of athletic training 44, no. 5 (2009): 454-461.

It was interspecies love at first sight for the inflatable DartMOOSE and the bouncy T-REX. Vermont 50K runners almost screamed with Jurassic fear. OMG. Fortunately, smiling UVRC volunteers were there to calm the almost panicked elite athletes with electrolytes, watermelon, potato chips, M&Ms, and selfies with the Wild Things. What danger awaited them 3.9 miles down the Vermont country roads at Margaritaville?

Mike Silverman, UVRC member and Vermont 50 Race Director runs a great operation that supports Vermont Adaptive Sports. Thank you to UVRC volunteers and friends: Todd and Andy MacKenzie, Rachel Stanfield, Hillary Wheeler, Robin Insky, Janita and Bonni Jo Radio Operators and Leader Faith T-Rex Strafach and her partner. What a team.

Congratulations to the 2022 UVRC competitors. You rocked the race.