In my preperation for Rotterdam this April I was looking back at my Dutch blog and came across this overview with the top ten marathon cities. This overview is a bit out of date so I started to look for a new overview. Unable to find one I took the top 100 marathon times from the IAAF site. It resulted in these tabels. First of all I looked at how many times a city is present in the list. This contest is won by London (sorry the tables are in Dutch but I think it is still celar what they show):
Then lets have a look at the track records of the city. Then Rotterdam comes second behind Berlin with its World Record: Than looking at the top times ever you wonder why other cities still organize marathons as only four realy seam to matter: Anyhow it is obivous. Rotterdam has a fast track so if I don't succeed in running a personal best I can't blaim the track(c;
No, the title is not refering to all the attention Darwin got last year. It has to do with scientific research from the States. Carry on reading.
Early January I posted an article (and youtube clip) on forefoot or heellanding. This previous article also refered to other scientific research on the effect of the straing on the lower body due to heellandings. This article on BBC News roughly has the same findings but refers to other research. However this research also suggest that wearing cushioned running shoes may have changed the way in which many of us run. A kind of evolution and hence the title!
Forefoot The researchers used high speedcameras. I cannot embed the footage so please visit the BBC site. The footage shows the impact of a heel strike, the effect of the cushioned landing with shoes and the forefoot strike of barefoot runners.
Hammer The heel strike is compared with the blow of a hammer with htree times your body weight. Thankfully this is softened by the modern runningshoe.
Efficient Besides absorbing the impact, it seems that forefoot strike also makes better use of the engery stored in ankle and the arch of the foot. So a more efficient style of running. Is it al positive? No! The straing on calf muscle and achilles tendon is higher. Swithing to a new runningstyle comes with the risc of injuries.
Last summer every body watched Usain Bolt set two amazing worldrecords. His 9.58 on the 100 meters and his record on the 200 a few days later. His topspeed is around 28 miles per hour. But according to research this is not the limit!
The research from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and the University of Wyoming shows that the limiting factor for the top speed in running is the speed of contraction. The research found that the limbs are capable of applying much greater ground forces than those present during top-speed forward running. So the amount of force that can be applied during the short contact between foot and ground is limited by the speed of contraction of a muscle. From these finding teh researchers conclude that the theoratical topspeed for humans is 35 to 40 miles per hour en possibly even faster.
Published in: Bundle, M.W., (2009). Mechanical limits to human running speed. Paper to be presented at Symposium on Training Running Speed: A Critical Consideration of Contemporary Practice, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. and on dailycalaxy
In the Polish Magazine Bieganie (translated: Running) was a nice historic fact. The 1908 Olympic Marathon winner Johnny Hayes trained as follows:
every day a 3 mile run
a longer run was followed by resting the first day en just a walk the second day and a 3 mile run on the third
this was completed with long marches
As an example of one of these marches....during the Games in London they were bored waiting for the day of teh marathon. The team went on a 30 mile march. An extreme example of a LSD ( Long Slow Distance) run.
He won the marathon in 2:55. Not realy a time for medals nowadays but I would be very proud with a time near the three hours.
If you want to learn more on the history of teh 1908 marathon and the tale behind the marathon distance of 42 kilometer and 195 meters I refer to a nice article on Times online. For example: Hayes wasn't the first to finish but got the gold medall anyway. Why? read on....
Objective: To determine the effect of modern-day running shoes on lower extremity joint torques during running.
Results: Increased joint torques at the hip, knee, and ankle were observed with running shoes compared with running barefoot. Disproportionately large increases were observed in the hip internal rotation torque and in the knee flexion and knee varus torques. An average 54% increase in the hip internal rotation torque, a 36% increase in knee flexion torque, and a 38% increase in knee varus torque were measured when running in running shoes compared with barefoot.
Conclusions: The findings at the knee suggest relatively greater pressures at anatomical sites that are typically more prone to knee osteoarthritis, the medial and patellofemoral compartments. It is important to note the limitations of these findings and of current 3-dimensional gait analysis in general, that only resultant joint torques were assessed. It is unknown to what extent actual joint contact forces could be affected by compliance that a shoe might provide, a potentially valuable design characteristic that may offset the observed increases in joint torques.
I am almost sorry it is to cold outside a the moment to go running barefoot (there is snow and a freezing wind with a chillfactor bringing down the temp to minus 12 dergrees centigrade)
Get an early start and run right away on the first day of the new year. The first training of the year down the pocket! ...or not? Did you have a few drinks to many last night? Do you suffer from a hangover from all the bubbles? You might think of skipping a training. Your hangover headache is one of the results from the dehydrating effect from alcohol. Kind of the same effect as a exertion headache. Anyway, if you do have a hangover, consider skipping the training as starting a training while dehydrated is not very sensible. Actually, getting a hangover is not so sensbile to start with. So start being sensible. 1) Skipp the training today, 2) drink plenty fluids without alcohol, 3) do your training tomorrow and 4) If you realy are a runner: stay away from to many alcohol next time so it won't interfere with you running;-)
And...lets hope that compare to 2009 I am more productive on my english blog in 2010. But that shouldn't be to hard;-)
People who want to exercise their brain can choose the game "Brain Academy" on the Nintendo Game Console. On the other hand you could consider to go out for a run! You not only train your body but make your brain fitter as well.
Researcher at the University of Pittsburgh made two groups of rhesus monkeys workout each day for three months. One group just jogged and one group ran. A third group of monkey was allowed to relax.
After these three months they were treated with an injection killing the cells that produce dopamine. The same cells that die in patients with Parkinson's disease. Official title of this research: "Impact of exercise on caudate and putamen in a non-human primate model of Parkinson's disease"
But now the results: The monkeys that had to run for three months were "resistant" to this injection. The lazy monkeys were no longer able to use the arm related to the half of the brain that was injected. The running monkeys still had control over their arm.
So here you are: Just another great reason to start running! Asics new it already many years ago: "Anima Sana in Corpore Sano”, a sound mind in a sound body.
I am a recreational runner. Sixteen marathons, and counting. This blog is the English version of the more elaborative Dutch one. It contains some stories about my own experiences as a runner or relavant information I have found on the web. Hope you like it....
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Then lets have a look at the track records of the city. Then Rotterdam comes second behind Berlin with its World Record:
Than looking at the top times ever you wonder why other cities still organize marathons as only four realy seam to matter:
Anyhow it is obivous. Rotterdam has a fast track so if I don't succeed in running a personal best I can't blaim the track(c;
