Since this blog is called running and rehab, I want to give you all two very cool websites (one related to running and the other related to rehab) that I ran into this weekend. I can't take one ounce of credit for finding these sites. Both of these sites were brought to my attention from a current and former patient of mine. So, here they are:
This website is perfect for those of us that suffer from RSI (Repetitive Strain Injuries). Most of my neck and back patients suffer from ligament based injuries that lead to bulging/herniated discs in the spine region. Most of these injuries arise from improper posture and prolonged sitting. Most of us are at a computer for a good part of the day, and one of the biggest ways we can combat RSI is to take frequent rest breaks. The website shown above downloads software into your computer station at work that basically reminds you to take breaks every ..... minutes. You tell the software how often and how long you need your breaks to stretch and get up from the prolonged sitting posture that you assume throughout the day. No more excuses for forgetting to get out of your chair......
The second website deals more with running. Here it is
This site allows you to map a run anywhere you want...whether it is around your neighborhood, or at work.... doesn't matter...wherever google maps, you can map it. It will tell you the actual distance, elevation, etc... It will also allow you to find runs that other people have mapped in your area. So you can try new routes that you are not used to doing. This is extremely important, because you want to always try to break up the monotony of running the same route all the time. That's why I like the Garmin watch so much. It gives me the freedom to run wherever I want, and I know exactly how far I am going. Speaking of Garmin, on the website, if you find a route that you would like to try, you are able to download into your Garmin watch....Garmin has a compass feature that directs you on running the route accurately.... how cool is that????? I tried it today and it works... can't wait to actually do the route my patient sent to me.... hopefully sometime this week.
Well, hope you get to look around these sites, and hopefully, you find one of them, if not both, beneficial to you in some way.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
It's time to ramp up....
Luckily for me, I was able to get in a good run this morning, before the rain started. I started out at about 6:30 am, and ran from my house to the Suncoast Trail, which took me about 2.5 miles and ran about 5 miles north on the Suncoast Trail. I turned around, headed back home, and the run was a little over 14 miles.
This has been my longest run since the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon, and my body felt pretty good overall. My knees were a little achy during the run, but like all long runs, you feel something and then it goes away, then you feel something else, and that goes away... and the process continues throughout most of the run. It is so interesting that it was around this time last year that I was conquering my 1st 10 miler, 12 miler, 14 mile run, and it was so daunting and almost frightful every time I went out.... just not knowing whether or not I would survive the runs. And it seemed as though every time Chris and I ran together when we did one of these long runs, something bad happened to one of us. It was just so hard to complete these runs. Now, the 14 miler felt like a walk in the park.... how times have changed.... I mean don't get me wrong, you are fatigued at the end, but last year, if I would do a 10-14 mile run, I would crawl into the shower and then curl up in my bed for like 2-3 hours after the run, and I would limp all day... I remember going to church and people would ask, "are you ok?"....seriously... just brutal.... As I am writing this blog, I have very little to no soreness in any part of my body.....and I say these things not to brag in any way...it's just that I think it is always important to look back on where you were and how far you have come, so you can focus on the positive improvements that you have made. A lot of times I have to do that with patients. They might come to the office and be in agonizing pain, and then like 3 weeks later they have a couple twinges here and there, and get down on themselves that there is still discomfort at times. I have to remind them of where they started, and it helps them to realize that even though the goal has yet to be achieved, they are getting closer and closer.... There is hope for all of us.
Ok, so enough of that... now it's time to ramp it up with my running. I have been around the 30 mile/week mark for the last few weeks and my body feels pretty good. I will now do two hard workouts (or quality workouts) every week for the next month. That means workouts where I will work mostly on my speed. These workouts take a lot out of you, and they never get easy. But I think I'm ready to get back into it full speed ahead...no pun intended. Once I do this for about 4-6 weeks, I will take it easy for 1-2 weeks, and that should take me to the beginning of my 18 week training schedule for the Chicago marathon. My main focus, as always, is to stay injury-free...second objective is to get fast!!!!! So let's see what happens.
This has been my longest run since the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon, and my body felt pretty good overall. My knees were a little achy during the run, but like all long runs, you feel something and then it goes away, then you feel something else, and that goes away... and the process continues throughout most of the run. It is so interesting that it was around this time last year that I was conquering my 1st 10 miler, 12 miler, 14 mile run, and it was so daunting and almost frightful every time I went out.... just not knowing whether or not I would survive the runs. And it seemed as though every time Chris and I ran together when we did one of these long runs, something bad happened to one of us. It was just so hard to complete these runs. Now, the 14 miler felt like a walk in the park.... how times have changed.... I mean don't get me wrong, you are fatigued at the end, but last year, if I would do a 10-14 mile run, I would crawl into the shower and then curl up in my bed for like 2-3 hours after the run, and I would limp all day... I remember going to church and people would ask, "are you ok?"....seriously... just brutal.... As I am writing this blog, I have very little to no soreness in any part of my body.....and I say these things not to brag in any way...it's just that I think it is always important to look back on where you were and how far you have come, so you can focus on the positive improvements that you have made. A lot of times I have to do that with patients. They might come to the office and be in agonizing pain, and then like 3 weeks later they have a couple twinges here and there, and get down on themselves that there is still discomfort at times. I have to remind them of where they started, and it helps them to realize that even though the goal has yet to be achieved, they are getting closer and closer.... There is hope for all of us.
Ok, so enough of that... now it's time to ramp it up with my running. I have been around the 30 mile/week mark for the last few weeks and my body feels pretty good. I will now do two hard workouts (or quality workouts) every week for the next month. That means workouts where I will work mostly on my speed. These workouts take a lot out of you, and they never get easy. But I think I'm ready to get back into it full speed ahead...no pun intended. Once I do this for about 4-6 weeks, I will take it easy for 1-2 weeks, and that should take me to the beginning of my 18 week training schedule for the Chicago marathon. My main focus, as always, is to stay injury-free...second objective is to get fast!!!!! So let's see what happens.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Perks of the job....
A few hours ago, I went on cnn.com and started to browse the website, like I usually do daily and saw a poll question... re: Do you like your job? I was able to pick from the following:
1. Hate it
2. Don't really care for it... but it's a paycheck
3. I'm living my dream
I would say for me it is usually #3, but I think we all have days that 1 or 2 sometimes pop up for various reasons. For me, my primary job of treating people with different orthopedic ailments never gets old, and it is always so cool, when you can get someone to feel better and get back to the things that they love to do. People are usually so appreciative of that. On Thursday, I worked at our South Tampa clinic and got to run 8 miles on Bayshore Run before I started my day, saw a lot of my former patients, and got to work with my co-workers who are good friends of mine....we always trip out when I work down there.... fun times....
Last night, I was able to run with a former patient of mine and help with her running form as she has been recovering from a nagging injury. It's nice when you have the same passion as someone else, and you are able to help them with your training. On Wednesday, I saw a new patient that came in for a few ailments that developed while running. Before I could even say anything to him about my running, he said to me, "Even though my MD told me that I should come to this facility, I wasn't completely convinced until I went on your website and saw your blog... I then knew that you had the same passion about this as I do" I felt as though he realized that I could relate to him, and I just thought that was great!!!
The days that I hate my job, is when I don't have the ability to treat someone the way I want to because of insurance. Some people come in our doors and have some serious ailments, and you know from experience that they can get better, but it will take time. Unfortunately most insurance companies don't care, and the patient might have insurance benefits (we shouldn't even call it benefits anymore) that allow them to come for 2 or 3 weeks, even though the MD and myself feel as though they need to come for therapy for a few months. So, sometimes we are slaves to the insurance industry, and they try to take away your expertise and force you to treat patients the way they want to pay you... it's just so frustrating....ugh!!!! The health care industry is so unstable because at any time, an insurance company can drop your reimbursement by as much as they want, and there is virtually nothing you can do about it.
If you really think about it, how crazy is this concept???
If I owned a pizza shop, and the price of cheese and meat and bread went up by 50%, what would I do? You got it.... raise my prices for the pizza.... but in health care, we continue to get paid less every year for doing the same treatment on patients... but patients have to pay more for their insurance...so obviously 2 of the 3 people in this equation aren't happy (the health care provider and the patient), but the insurance industry is laughing all the way to the bank. It is extremely frustrating to even talk about it, but when a frustrating situation comes up for a patient that needs care, I feel like I hate what I do....at sometimes I wish we didn't have insurance, and that people would just save the money that they use to pay their premiums to insurance companies in health savings account. When they got hurt, they would pay health care providers from that stash of money... when they aren't hurt, keep the money in the stash... I think it would give people more incentive to try to live healthier lifestyles... but that's just my opinion...whatever....
For me #2 answer doesn't come into play. It's either I love it or hate it... it has never just been a paycheck for me.... I'm dealing with people here!!!!
All in all, I realize we all got problems at our respective work places... whether its my issue, or having jobs shipped overseas, or greedy corporations trying to lowball their employees... it just stinks sometimes... but it's all good... I'll just continue to have fun and keep running!!!!!
1. Hate it
2. Don't really care for it... but it's a paycheck
3. I'm living my dream
I would say for me it is usually #3, but I think we all have days that 1 or 2 sometimes pop up for various reasons. For me, my primary job of treating people with different orthopedic ailments never gets old, and it is always so cool, when you can get someone to feel better and get back to the things that they love to do. People are usually so appreciative of that. On Thursday, I worked at our South Tampa clinic and got to run 8 miles on Bayshore Run before I started my day, saw a lot of my former patients, and got to work with my co-workers who are good friends of mine....we always trip out when I work down there.... fun times....
Last night, I was able to run with a former patient of mine and help with her running form as she has been recovering from a nagging injury. It's nice when you have the same passion as someone else, and you are able to help them with your training. On Wednesday, I saw a new patient that came in for a few ailments that developed while running. Before I could even say anything to him about my running, he said to me, "Even though my MD told me that I should come to this facility, I wasn't completely convinced until I went on your website and saw your blog... I then knew that you had the same passion about this as I do" I felt as though he realized that I could relate to him, and I just thought that was great!!!
The days that I hate my job, is when I don't have the ability to treat someone the way I want to because of insurance. Some people come in our doors and have some serious ailments, and you know from experience that they can get better, but it will take time. Unfortunately most insurance companies don't care, and the patient might have insurance benefits (we shouldn't even call it benefits anymore) that allow them to come for 2 or 3 weeks, even though the MD and myself feel as though they need to come for therapy for a few months. So, sometimes we are slaves to the insurance industry, and they try to take away your expertise and force you to treat patients the way they want to pay you... it's just so frustrating....ugh!!!! The health care industry is so unstable because at any time, an insurance company can drop your reimbursement by as much as they want, and there is virtually nothing you can do about it.
If you really think about it, how crazy is this concept???
If I owned a pizza shop, and the price of cheese and meat and bread went up by 50%, what would I do? You got it.... raise my prices for the pizza.... but in health care, we continue to get paid less every year for doing the same treatment on patients... but patients have to pay more for their insurance...so obviously 2 of the 3 people in this equation aren't happy (the health care provider and the patient), but the insurance industry is laughing all the way to the bank. It is extremely frustrating to even talk about it, but when a frustrating situation comes up for a patient that needs care, I feel like I hate what I do....at sometimes I wish we didn't have insurance, and that people would just save the money that they use to pay their premiums to insurance companies in health savings account. When they got hurt, they would pay health care providers from that stash of money... when they aren't hurt, keep the money in the stash... I think it would give people more incentive to try to live healthier lifestyles... but that's just my opinion...whatever....
For me #2 answer doesn't come into play. It's either I love it or hate it... it has never just been a paycheck for me.... I'm dealing with people here!!!!
All in all, I realize we all got problems at our respective work places... whether its my issue, or having jobs shipped overseas, or greedy corporations trying to lowball their employees... it just stinks sometimes... but it's all good... I'll just continue to have fun and keep running!!!!!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
I love that girl....
Since I have done this blog, I have tried to keep everything running related...but not this entry. I had the most incredible day yesterday....
Yesterday marked my Anniversary to my best friend for 7 years.... it honestly felt like we just had our wedding .... I can still remember my wedding day, which was the first time I actually cried for joy... will never forget that...I didn't even realize I had that emotion in me.
So luckily for me, I usually work a 7-7:30 shift on Monday, but this week, I was able to have someone work for me in the morning, because I have to help out at our other clinic this Thursday. That allowed Kerry, myself and Arjay to go out for breakfast (Adryana was at school). It was just so nice for us to be together and talk/reminisce on everything. At breakfast, we exchanged cards, and as always, my wife wrote the most touching, beautiful things, which makes me feel like a million bucks... she never fails to boost my confidence and make me feel so needed...
Yesterday also happened to be our busiest day ever at our Wesley Chapel clinic... it was steady and it wasn't overwhelming, but at the end of the day, I realized that a lot of people came in for the day. So needless to say, even though it was a shorter day than usual for me, I was pretty tired, and I didn't finish any of my notes. I hate to not finish my notes before I leave work, because it tends to bother me all night... because I feel like I left things not completed for the day. I usually don't sleep too well when that happens. Something told me to go home, and not finish my notes... at that point it was already past 8:00 pm, so if I stayed and finished my notes it would have been close to 8:45 pm before I left the office. So on my way home, I usually talk to my wife, but I had to take care of some work stuff on the phone. When I got home, opened the garage, it was to my surprise that my kids weren't running out to come and greet me. Usually by that time, they have had their bath and are waiting for me to get home. Even better, Kerry was waiting for me, dressed up stunning as usual, and brought me into the kitchen... the lights were dimmed, candles were lit, and she had my Ipod playing with some of our favorite songs. She basically made a special dinner for the both of us and made me my favorite foods, which are chicken parmesan, garlic bread and garlic mash potatoes. It was awesome... we also played the song that we danced to at our wedding and we danced together in our kitchen... incredible!!! Just like our wedding...except we know each other even more, love each other even more, and have 2 beautiful kids that are a part of our lives. God is good...and I thank him so much for my wife, who is my backbone, my biggest supporter, and my personal comedian (makes me laugh at least 2x/day). I am so thankful that God allowed me to meet her, and put her in my life.
I also want to say that she didn't pull this off by herself... her best friend, Keveta, took the kids out while we had our dinner, and treated them to McDonalds and had a little field trip to Target at 9:30 at night!!!! It almost felt like we were at a restaurant by ourselves, and then we didn't even have to drive home!!!Thanks Keveta!!! I almost forgot to mention that my daughter made both of us personalized cards that was at our table when we ate... just a fantastic day for me.... Kerry, I love you so much... thank you for a beautiful day yesterday and I hope, God willing, we will be able to celebrate many more of these days together.
Yesterday marked my Anniversary to my best friend for 7 years.... it honestly felt like we just had our wedding .... I can still remember my wedding day, which was the first time I actually cried for joy... will never forget that...I didn't even realize I had that emotion in me.
So luckily for me, I usually work a 7-7:30 shift on Monday, but this week, I was able to have someone work for me in the morning, because I have to help out at our other clinic this Thursday. That allowed Kerry, myself and Arjay to go out for breakfast (Adryana was at school). It was just so nice for us to be together and talk/reminisce on everything. At breakfast, we exchanged cards, and as always, my wife wrote the most touching, beautiful things, which makes me feel like a million bucks... she never fails to boost my confidence and make me feel so needed...
Yesterday also happened to be our busiest day ever at our Wesley Chapel clinic... it was steady and it wasn't overwhelming, but at the end of the day, I realized that a lot of people came in for the day. So needless to say, even though it was a shorter day than usual for me, I was pretty tired, and I didn't finish any of my notes. I hate to not finish my notes before I leave work, because it tends to bother me all night... because I feel like I left things not completed for the day. I usually don't sleep too well when that happens. Something told me to go home, and not finish my notes... at that point it was already past 8:00 pm, so if I stayed and finished my notes it would have been close to 8:45 pm before I left the office. So on my way home, I usually talk to my wife, but I had to take care of some work stuff on the phone. When I got home, opened the garage, it was to my surprise that my kids weren't running out to come and greet me. Usually by that time, they have had their bath and are waiting for me to get home. Even better, Kerry was waiting for me, dressed up stunning as usual, and brought me into the kitchen... the lights were dimmed, candles were lit, and she had my Ipod playing with some of our favorite songs. She basically made a special dinner for the both of us and made me my favorite foods, which are chicken parmesan, garlic bread and garlic mash potatoes. It was awesome... we also played the song that we danced to at our wedding and we danced together in our kitchen... incredible!!! Just like our wedding...except we know each other even more, love each other even more, and have 2 beautiful kids that are a part of our lives. God is good...and I thank him so much for my wife, who is my backbone, my biggest supporter, and my personal comedian (makes me laugh at least 2x/day). I am so thankful that God allowed me to meet her, and put her in my life.
I also want to say that she didn't pull this off by herself... her best friend, Keveta, took the kids out while we had our dinner, and treated them to McDonalds and had a little field trip to Target at 9:30 at night!!!! It almost felt like we were at a restaurant by ourselves, and then we didn't even have to drive home!!!Thanks Keveta!!! I almost forgot to mention that my daughter made both of us personalized cards that was at our table when we ate... just a fantastic day for me.... Kerry, I love you so much... thank you for a beautiful day yesterday and I hope, God willing, we will be able to celebrate many more of these days together.
Getting back to race form....
Great Run this weekend for me!!!! It capped of my highest mileage week ever at just under 38 miles. The good news is that my body feels great. I feel as though I can get my body to do close to 50 miles per week, if I gradually build myself up to that level... slowly and carefully. I was able to put in 4 miles on Saturday Ivy Lake Easy Run and 12 miles on Sunday before church (Ivy Lake Long Run). I have never attempted to run back to back days with so much mileage, but I believe the key is that I was running fairly slow and controlled. It's amazing how your body bounces back so quickly when you put in low intensity with mileage.
Today, I ran a little less than 8 miles, with approx. 3 of those miles really fast. It is the first time I have done speedwork in over 2 months... and it showed... it was a struggle for me to keep the times that I used to keep when I was training for Disney. Did I say it was hard? It was good to get a gauge on where I am at, and what I should shoot for when I do the Draft Day Dash at the end of this month. I think my goal should be to get under 21:00, which would be about 6:45/mile. I initially thought I might be able to do 20:30, but after today I realized that there is no way I would be able to come close to pulling that off. If everything goes great....I could do under 21 minutes, which would be 2 minutes faster than what I did last year.... that would be awesome!!! So here is the run from this morning.
Today, I ran a little less than 8 miles, with approx. 3 of those miles really fast. It is the first time I have done speedwork in over 2 months... and it showed... it was a struggle for me to keep the times that I used to keep when I was training for Disney. Did I say it was hard? It was good to get a gauge on where I am at, and what I should shoot for when I do the Draft Day Dash at the end of this month. I think my goal should be to get under 21:00, which would be about 6:45/mile. I initially thought I might be able to do 20:30, but after today I realized that there is no way I would be able to come close to pulling that off. If everything goes great....I could do under 21 minutes, which would be 2 minutes faster than what I did last year.... that would be awesome!!! So here is the run from this morning.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Mental Therapy?
Finally, some concrete scientific evidence to how I feel after my runs....I guess I might not be crazy after all....well...
Interesting NY Times article:
By GINA KOLATA
THE runner’s high: Every athlete has heard of it, most seem to believe in it and many say they have experienced it. But for years scientists have reserved judgment because no rigorous test confirmed its existence.
Yes, some people reported that they felt so good when they exercised that it was as if they had taken mood-altering drugs. But was that feeling real or just a delusion? And even if it was real, what was the feeling supposed to be, and what caused it?
Some who said they had experienced a runner’s high said it was uncommon. They might feel relaxed or at peace after exercising, but only occasionally did they feel euphoric. Was the calmness itself a runner’s high?
Often, those who said they experienced an intense euphoria reported that it came after an endurance event.
My friend Marian Westley said her runner’s high came at the end of a marathon, and it was paired with such volatile emotions that the sight of a puppy had the power to make her weep.
Others said they experienced a high when pushing themselves almost to the point of collapse in a short, intense effort, such as running a five-kilometer race.
But then there are those like my friend Annie Hiniker, who says that when she finishes a 5-k race, the last thing she feels is euphoric. “I feel like I want to throw up,” she said.
The runner’s-high hypothesis proposed that there were real biochemical effects of exercise on the brain. Chemicals were released that could change an athlete’s mood, and those chemicals were endorphins, the brain’s naturally occurring opiates. Running was not the only way to get the feeling; it could also occur with most intense or endurance exercise.
The problem with the hypothesis was that it was not feasible to do a spinal tap before and after someone exercised to look for a flood of endorphins in the brain. Researchers could detect endorphins in people’s blood after a run, but those endorphins were part of the body’s stress response and could not travel from the blood to the brain. They were not responsible for elevating one’s mood. So for more than 30 years, the runner’s high remained an unproved hypothesis.
But now medical technology has caught up with exercise lore. Researchers in Germany, using advances in neuroscience, report in the current issue of the journal Cerebral Cortex that the folk belief is true: Running does elicit a flood of endorphins in the brain. The endorphins are associated with mood changes, and the more endorphins a runner’s body pumps out, the greater the effect.
Leading endorphin researchers not associated with the study said they accepted its findings.
“Impressive,” said Dr. Solomon Snyder, a neuroscience professor at Johns Hopkins and a discoverer of endorphins in the 1970’s.
“I like it,” said Huda Akil, a professor of neurosciences at the University of Michigan. “This is the first time someone took this head on. It wasn’t that the idea was not the right idea. It was that the evidence was not there.”
For athletes, the study offers a sort of vindication that runner’s high is not just a New Agey excuse for their claims of feeling good after a hard workout.
For athletes and nonathletes alike, the results are opening a new chapter in exercise science. They show that it is possible to define and measure the runner’s high and that it should be possible to figure out what brings it on. They even offer hope for those who do not enjoy exercise but do it anyway. These exercisers might learn techniques to elicit a feeling that makes working out positively addictive.
The lead researcher for the new study, Dr. Henning Boecker of the University of Bonn, said he got the idea of testing the endorphin hypothesis when he realized that methods he and others were using to study pain were directly applicable.
The idea was to use PET scans combined with recently available chemicals that reveal endorphins in the brain, to compare runners’ brains before and after a long run. If the scans showed that endorphins were being produced and were attaching themselves to areas of the brain involved with mood, that would be direct evidence for the endorphin hypothesis. And if the runners, who were not told what the study was looking for, also reported mood changes whose intensity correlated with the amount of endorphins produced, that would be another clincher for the argument.
Dr. Boecker and colleagues recruited 10 distance runners and told them they were studying opioid receptors in the brain. But the runners did not realize that the investigators were studying the release of endorphins and the runner’s high. The athletes had a PET scan before and after a two-hour run. They also took a standard psychological test that indicated their mood before and after running.
The data showed that, indeed, endorphins were produced during running and were attaching themselves to areas of the brain associated with emotions, in particular the limbic and prefrontal areas.
The limbic and prefrontal areas, Dr. Boecker said, are activated when people are involved in romantic love affairs or, he said, “when you hear music that gives you a chill of euphoria, like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.” The greater the euphoria the runners reported, the more endorphins in their brain.
“Some people have these really extreme experiences with very long or intensive training,” said Dr. Boecker, a casual runner and cyclist, who said he feels completely relaxed and his head is clearer after a run.
That was also what happened to the study subjects, he said: “You could really see the difference after two hours of running. You could see it in their faces.”
In a follow-up study, Dr. Boecker is investigating if running affects pain perception. “There are studies that showed enhanced pain tolerance in runners,” he said. “You have to give higher pain stimuli before they say, ‘O.K., this hurts.’ ”
And, he said, there are stories of runners who had stress fractures, even heart attacks, and kept on running.
Dr. Boecker and his colleagues have recruited 20 marathon runners and a similar number of nonathletes and are studying the perception of pain after a run, and whether there are related changes in brain scans. He is also having the subjects walk to see whether the effects, if any, are because of the intensity of the exercise.
The nonathletes can help investigators assess whether untrained people experience the same effects. Maybe one reason some people love intense exercise and others do not is that some respond with a runner’s high or changed pain perception.
Annie might question that. She loves to run, but wonders why. But her husband tells her that the look on her face when she is running is just blissful. So maybe even she gets a runner’s high.
Interesting NY Times article:
By GINA KOLATA
THE runner’s high: Every athlete has heard of it, most seem to believe in it and many say they have experienced it. But for years scientists have reserved judgment because no rigorous test confirmed its existence.
Yes, some people reported that they felt so good when they exercised that it was as if they had taken mood-altering drugs. But was that feeling real or just a delusion? And even if it was real, what was the feeling supposed to be, and what caused it?
Some who said they had experienced a runner’s high said it was uncommon. They might feel relaxed or at peace after exercising, but only occasionally did they feel euphoric. Was the calmness itself a runner’s high?
Often, those who said they experienced an intense euphoria reported that it came after an endurance event.
My friend Marian Westley said her runner’s high came at the end of a marathon, and it was paired with such volatile emotions that the sight of a puppy had the power to make her weep.
Others said they experienced a high when pushing themselves almost to the point of collapse in a short, intense effort, such as running a five-kilometer race.
But then there are those like my friend Annie Hiniker, who says that when she finishes a 5-k race, the last thing she feels is euphoric. “I feel like I want to throw up,” she said.
The runner’s-high hypothesis proposed that there were real biochemical effects of exercise on the brain. Chemicals were released that could change an athlete’s mood, and those chemicals were endorphins, the brain’s naturally occurring opiates. Running was not the only way to get the feeling; it could also occur with most intense or endurance exercise.
The problem with the hypothesis was that it was not feasible to do a spinal tap before and after someone exercised to look for a flood of endorphins in the brain. Researchers could detect endorphins in people’s blood after a run, but those endorphins were part of the body’s stress response and could not travel from the blood to the brain. They were not responsible for elevating one’s mood. So for more than 30 years, the runner’s high remained an unproved hypothesis.
But now medical technology has caught up with exercise lore. Researchers in Germany, using advances in neuroscience, report in the current issue of the journal Cerebral Cortex that the folk belief is true: Running does elicit a flood of endorphins in the brain. The endorphins are associated with mood changes, and the more endorphins a runner’s body pumps out, the greater the effect.
Leading endorphin researchers not associated with the study said they accepted its findings.
“Impressive,” said Dr. Solomon Snyder, a neuroscience professor at Johns Hopkins and a discoverer of endorphins in the 1970’s.
“I like it,” said Huda Akil, a professor of neurosciences at the University of Michigan. “This is the first time someone took this head on. It wasn’t that the idea was not the right idea. It was that the evidence was not there.”
For athletes, the study offers a sort of vindication that runner’s high is not just a New Agey excuse for their claims of feeling good after a hard workout.
For athletes and nonathletes alike, the results are opening a new chapter in exercise science. They show that it is possible to define and measure the runner’s high and that it should be possible to figure out what brings it on. They even offer hope for those who do not enjoy exercise but do it anyway. These exercisers might learn techniques to elicit a feeling that makes working out positively addictive.
The lead researcher for the new study, Dr. Henning Boecker of the University of Bonn, said he got the idea of testing the endorphin hypothesis when he realized that methods he and others were using to study pain were directly applicable.
The idea was to use PET scans combined with recently available chemicals that reveal endorphins in the brain, to compare runners’ brains before and after a long run. If the scans showed that endorphins were being produced and were attaching themselves to areas of the brain involved with mood, that would be direct evidence for the endorphin hypothesis. And if the runners, who were not told what the study was looking for, also reported mood changes whose intensity correlated with the amount of endorphins produced, that would be another clincher for the argument.
Dr. Boecker and colleagues recruited 10 distance runners and told them they were studying opioid receptors in the brain. But the runners did not realize that the investigators were studying the release of endorphins and the runner’s high. The athletes had a PET scan before and after a two-hour run. They also took a standard psychological test that indicated their mood before and after running.
The data showed that, indeed, endorphins were produced during running and were attaching themselves to areas of the brain associated with emotions, in particular the limbic and prefrontal areas.
The limbic and prefrontal areas, Dr. Boecker said, are activated when people are involved in romantic love affairs or, he said, “when you hear music that gives you a chill of euphoria, like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.” The greater the euphoria the runners reported, the more endorphins in their brain.
“Some people have these really extreme experiences with very long or intensive training,” said Dr. Boecker, a casual runner and cyclist, who said he feels completely relaxed and his head is clearer after a run.
That was also what happened to the study subjects, he said: “You could really see the difference after two hours of running. You could see it in their faces.”
In a follow-up study, Dr. Boecker is investigating if running affects pain perception. “There are studies that showed enhanced pain tolerance in runners,” he said. “You have to give higher pain stimuli before they say, ‘O.K., this hurts.’ ”
And, he said, there are stories of runners who had stress fractures, even heart attacks, and kept on running.
Dr. Boecker and his colleagues have recruited 20 marathon runners and a similar number of nonathletes and are studying the perception of pain after a run, and whether there are related changes in brain scans. He is also having the subjects walk to see whether the effects, if any, are because of the intensity of the exercise.
The nonathletes can help investigators assess whether untrained people experience the same effects. Maybe one reason some people love intense exercise and others do not is that some respond with a runner’s high or changed pain perception.
Annie might question that. She loves to run, but wonders why. But her husband tells her that the look on her face when she is running is just blissful. So maybe even she gets a runner’s high.
Tempo Time!!!
Over the 6 weeks, I have not done a "quality" run of any sorts. By quality, I mean a run in which I push myself pretty hard to improve my speed and endurance. After the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon, I think my body was kinda beat up, so I wasn't planning on running hard anyway for at least 4 weeks. The knee discomfort turned that into a 6week hiatus from hard running... but now I am back!!! The two types of runs that allow for this to happen are tempo runs and intervals. Next week I will explain intervals, because I plan to do an interval workout next Tuesday... but for now we will go over what a tempo run is.
The whole idea of a tempo run is to improve your lactate threshold. What the heck is that? Well, at all times of the day our bodies produce lactic acid and remove lactic acid at a fairly even rate. When you push your body really hard, like running, doing aerobics... anything for a fairly long period of time (over an hour) your body usually produces so much lactic acid, but it can't get rid of it fast enough, so you start to slow down, because your body has had enough...this happens to most people in marathons, and this is the single most important aspect of successful marathon running.... run at a pace that doesn't build up to much lactic acid in your system that it builds up and your body can't get rid of it quick enough... good news??? That can be improved upon with proper training, and the tempo run is the best way to do it.
So basically what I did today was warm up for 2 miles, run at a tempo pace (which is a pretty hard effort) for 4 miles, and then cool down for 2 miles. I'm not going to lie... it's challenging, but when you finish, you are tired enough where you are glad its over, but in the back of your head you think "I probably could have done another mile or so...."
So all in all... it was an 8 mile run today. The weather was very nice this morning... in the high 50's, and I felt really strong. I was concerned with not having done one of these runs in almost 8 weeks, and I thought I might not be able to hold a strong pace for long, but it went quite well. Here is the run... if you click on the map below, you can see my splits throughout the run. At some point this weekend, I plan on running around 11-12 miles at a fairly easy pace. Just not sure if I want to do this on Saturday or Sunday... it just usually depends on how I feel after a long day at work tomorrow.
The whole idea of a tempo run is to improve your lactate threshold. What the heck is that? Well, at all times of the day our bodies produce lactic acid and remove lactic acid at a fairly even rate. When you push your body really hard, like running, doing aerobics... anything for a fairly long period of time (over an hour) your body usually produces so much lactic acid, but it can't get rid of it fast enough, so you start to slow down, because your body has had enough...this happens to most people in marathons, and this is the single most important aspect of successful marathon running.... run at a pace that doesn't build up to much lactic acid in your system that it builds up and your body can't get rid of it quick enough... good news??? That can be improved upon with proper training, and the tempo run is the best way to do it.
So basically what I did today was warm up for 2 miles, run at a tempo pace (which is a pretty hard effort) for 4 miles, and then cool down for 2 miles. I'm not going to lie... it's challenging, but when you finish, you are tired enough where you are glad its over, but in the back of your head you think "I probably could have done another mile or so...."
So all in all... it was an 8 mile run today. The weather was very nice this morning... in the high 50's, and I felt really strong. I was concerned with not having done one of these runs in almost 8 weeks, and I thought I might not be able to hold a strong pace for long, but it went quite well. Here is the run... if you click on the map below, you can see my splits throughout the run. At some point this weekend, I plan on running around 11-12 miles at a fairly easy pace. Just not sure if I want to do this on Saturday or Sunday... it just usually depends on how I feel after a long day at work tomorrow.
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